It's 5.30 on this, the 25th day of 2022, 25th day of October 2022, at which time I'm going to call this meeting, the Big Spring City Council, to order.
If you would all please stand, and Dr. John Key will lead us in invocation.
Thank you, Mayor.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a Christian, and this is a Christian prayer.
Father,
Heavenly Father, we thank you for our blessing and thank you for our troubles.
For through our troubles, we learn to who and what you are.
Father, we humble ourselves before your throne of grace, and I ask you to grant to the leaders
of our city, the county, state, and nation, the wisdom to make correct decisions in accordance
with the Word of God. Father, we ask that you keep us safe here and when we depart and
go our separate ways. In the name of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings
and Lord of lords, I pray, amen.
Public for Richeson, one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Honor the Texas flag.
Thank you, Julie.
One day and one night.
Thank you, Dr. D.
Okay,
at this time I'm going to open the meeting up for public comment.
Members of the public are entitled to speak on any topic.
At this time, additionally, members of the public may comment on any action item before
or during its consideration.
Speakers are requested to stand at the podium and state their names and address.
Speakers should fill out the form at the podium and turn it into the city secretary.
Please do not exceed five minutes.
So at this time, is there any matter about which any member of the public wishes to address
this assembly?
You can address it, it doesn't have to be an action item at this time, it could be
any matter about which there is a concern from any member of the public who wishes to
address council.
Okay,
also, as we approach the various items on the agenda, if they are action items,
items, any member of the public will be entitled to speak prior to any action being taken on
any of the agenda items at that time.
Now next item on the agenda is number five, a proclamation on World Polio Day.
This will be read by Councilman Troy Tompkins.
October 24th is World Polio Day.
I'd like to read this proclamation.
Whereas Rotary is a global network of neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem solvers,
to unite and take action, create lasting change in communities across the globe.
And whereas the Rotary motto, service above self, inspires members to provide humanitarian
service, follow high ethical standards and promote goodwill and peace in the world.
And whereas Rotary in 1985 launched Polio Plus and in 1988 helped establish Global Polio
Eradication Initiative, which today includes the WHO, Centers for Disease Control, UNICEF,
the Gates Foundation, and Gavi the Alliance Foundation
to immunize children of the world against polio.
And whereas polio cases have dropped by 99.9%
since 1988, and the world stands on the threshold
of eradicating the disease.
Whereas to date, Rotary has contributed more than $2.4
billion and countless volunteer hours
to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries.
Whereas Rotary is working to raise
an additional $50 million per year,
which will be leveraged by a $100 billion annual matching grant from the Gates Foundation.
And whereas these efforts are providing much-needed operational support, medical staff, laboratory
equipment, and educational materials for health workers and parents.
And whereas, Rotary has played a major role in decisions by donor governments to contribute
more than $10 billion to this effort.
Whereas there are over 1.4 million Rotary members and 46,000 clubs throughout the world
to sponsor service projects to address such critical issues as poverty, disease, hunger,
literacy, and the environment in their local communities and abroad.
Therefore, on behalf of Mayor Robert Moore, the City of Big Spring, Texas, I do hereby
proclaim October 24, 2022 as World Polio Day in Big Screen, Howard County, Texas.
I encourage all citizens to join me in Rotary International in the fight for a polio-free
world.
Thank you, Councilman Tomkins.
And the next item on our agenda is item number six, a proclamation with regard to Red Ribbon
Week, Councilman Cody Hughes.
Proclamation of the City of Big Spring, City Council.
Whereas alcohol and other drug abuse in this nation has reached epidemic stages and whereas
it is imperative that visible unified prevention, education efforts by community members be
launched to eliminate the demand for drugs and whereas the national family
partnership is sponsoring the national red ribbon campaign offering citizens
the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to drug-free lifestyles no
use of illegal drugs no illegal use of legal drugs and whereas the national red
ribbon campaign will be celebrated in every community in America during the
red ribbon week October 23rd 31st and whereas business government parents
law enforcement, media, medical, religious institutions, schools, senior citizens,
service organizations, and youth will demonstrate their commitment to a healthy, drug-free lifestyle
by wearing and displaying red ribbons during this week-long campaign. And whereas the City of
Big Spring further commits its resources to ensure the success of the red ribbon campaign,
now therefore be it resolved on behalf of Robert H. Moore, Mayor of the City of Big
City of Big Spring, Texas, do hereby proclaim October 23rd to the 31st, 2022 as Red Ribbon
Week in the City of Big Spring and encourages its citizens to participate in drug prevention
education activities, making a visible statement that we are strongly committed to a drug-free
state.
Thank you, Councilman Hughes.
Okay, at this time, item number seven on the agenda, City Manager's Report, Mr.
Darden.
Thank you Mayor and Council. Just a few items. I did give you a handout. We've gone back through our
minutes and agendas. We did not find where I'd notified you about updates regarding GEO and
communications with the FATS on the ICE facility. That memo has been placed before you. Have any
questions on it, you can give me a call. We'll discuss those items. Large item pickup for
District 4. We received four tons in for District 4 on a large item pickup.
Hopefully, Ms. McDonald, we're getting your district cleaned up. The number went
down a little bit, so if anybody wants to participate in that, those occur monthly
by district, so District 5 is coming up for the month of November. Update on
the sports complex, waterline project. I've had several council members contact
me about this project. We'd just let you know we completed this project last week. We are now
receiving raw water with the help of the Water District providing us a tap out on Leatherwood
Road. We brought it in to our well-popped line system. Utility crews did it in-house with the
DNC group. We'll state thanks Steve Salinas and his crew and Shane and Haley's Parks crew as
well for helping out on that project. It was a joint effort and laid up almost three-quarters
of a mile of pipeline to get it to the wells, but it only took a day and a half to fill
up the tank. That's a million and a half gallons of water just to give you an idea
of what that represents. The steer tank on the north side is a million and a half gallons
of water. So we've struggled all summer long, all winter long trying to keep that
that pond full, and we barely could hold it in capacity to even pump water, much less
water the entire complex.
So that new supply will help us out.
We're going to use it hopefully as a backup and get our water scheduled back on along
with our chemical treatment as well.
So thanks to the crews for their help on that.
And then Bench Trail Festival of Lights, we began that process.
It starts usually in early October.
We've made a request to the FCI to get some inmates' support.
We have not received word as of yet, but our park crews are steadfast working on that.
And we anticipate having some lights up with our Thanksgiving on the dam
and the spring area probably.
Maybe some other areas, but we have started on that.
And if you want to volunteer for being a greeter on the booth,
you can contact Ms. Lewis at her office,
or you can email her.
And it's H. Lewis at MyBigSpring.com
to get on the list to be a greeter
during the begin this season with December 4th
through December 25th is when that run.
So we need folks to help out and greeting folks
from out of town and in town and and other countries even coming to see our
Festival of Lights. We're very proud of that. And again we're still needing boards
and committee members.
Tammy's provided you with a list of vacancies that we have
so if you have somebody in mind please let us know and we'll talk about some
other boards and committees later on in the agenda and I'll reserve any
comments for that later at that time. Does she have any questions? That's all
any council member have any questions Mr. Darden about any items on the his
report I have a request for you Todd is it possible that we can put it on the
next agenda for approval for next year because I want to start really early this
year probably in early November and start going out giving flyers to my
I know that in January, because I started it really late last year, I mean, the last
time, and I really want to start early this year.
Just for large-odd and pick-up?
Yes.
We've got those, you know, getting the template was what cost us in the beginning, but now
we have the template, so the costs are a little bit cheaper.
So yes, we'd be happy to do that for every district, if y'all want, so.
Yeah, because the young Marines are here and they graciously helped me many times throughout
the large-item pickup, Kerry Rodman, the Rodman's, Kerry and Roger and the young Marines.
Yes, sir.
We can use that.
You're talking about going ahead and scheduling now for next year, so you'll know well in
advance when it's going to be?
Yeah, it's the third Wednesday of every month, so that way I can already start letting
microstituents know in advance, so they're prepared and ready to go, not wait until the
last minute.
Okay.
Any further questions from Council to Mr. Gardner about his report?
Not to Mr. Gardner.
I need IT help.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay, going on to the consent items on the agenda, we have five items, number eight through 12.
We can pull any of those items from the consent agenda if any council member wishes to discuss them further.
If not, I would entertain a motion that we approve all five of those consent items.
Make a motion. We approve all five.
Motion made by Mr. Smith.
Seconded by Ms. Giannis.
All in favor indicate by saying yes.
yes yes we
yes minded okay
that basis 7 0 going into the next item on the agenda
item number 13 vouchers miss mcdonald
vouchers for October 13th 2022 and 1
And for the checks and graphs are $616,076.69 and I found no discrepancies and I make a motion
and we accept as read.
Is there a second to that motion?
Motion made by Ms. McDonnell, seconded by Ms. Giannis.
All in favor indicate by saying yes.
Yes.
And that passes unanimously.
Going then to item number 14 on the agenda,
bids, consideration and possible action
on awarding a bid for a 2022 John Deere backhoe
for the distribution and collections department.
Mr. Medina.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council.
Here's the budget process.
We allocated monies for four backhoes,
three of which will be in the Utilities Department,
what we call DNC.
We have gone out and started looking at quotes
to fill those orders.
We actually found a brand new 2022 model back home available to us.
We don't have to wait six months till the production is done or whatever that date is.
We found it through Sourcewell, which is a co-op, so we don't have to do a formal bid process.
It's already been done for us.
So our recommendation is to award this bid to Yellow House in the amount of $129,000.
We budgeted 120, however with our trade-in, the amount for that, the backhaul will be
under budget for a total of $99,000, so we budgeted 120 with the trade-in, it's $99,000.
Our recommendation is to award the bid for this ski track backhaul.
Any questions from Council or Mr. Medina about this item?
them.
Any questions from any member of the public about this?
I'll entertain a motion
in this regard. I'll make a motion to accept a bid. A second. A motion made by Councilman
Hughes, seconded by Ms. McDonald. Any further discussion? If not, I'll call the vote. All
in favor indicate by saying yes. Yes.
Somebody voted twice. Overwhelming approval. Mr.
Mr. Mayor,
clearly that's an invalid vote you may want to just take a voice
vote or a hand raised voters okay all in favor of the passage of mr. Medina's
request that we purchase the award the bid of the 2022 John Deere backhoe to
Yellow House indicate my saying yes yes all opposed by the same okay that
passes unanimously. Going into item number 15 on the agenda, consideration and
possible action on awarding a bid for a second backhoe for the distribution and
collections department. Again, Mr. Medina. Thank you, Mayor and Council.
Similar situation, we heard late last week that there was another backhoe
available. This model is a 2023. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to
bring this on because it will be on site. Both of these items will be at
our disposal shortly after we approve this. The amount for this particular backhoe is
$131,500. It is through Yellow House. It is through Sourcewell Coal. With the trade and
allowance, the amount will be $95,500. And again, the budget amount was $120,000, so we're
happy about that.
Any questions by Councilor Mr. Medina about this matter? From either Council or the
public question on the two back on the two caterpillar back those you're
trading in either either one of them work there is one that's on actually at the
on the fence line the motors shot in it they're allowing us $6,000 there's the
two others that we're trading in are operational however the maintenance on
that is so you know I that it doesn't make sense for us to keep your
here Sean has made a motion to approve this item your second I'll second
Seconded members to use all in favor indicate
Saying yes,
okay that passes unanimously
Going in to the item of new business item number 16
Knowledge received of the quarterly claims and litigation report for the third quarter of
2022 from the city attorney
sent on October the 11th
2022 mr. Hagan thank you mr. Mayor the report was emailed October 11th
And if you would like to enter into executive session
and discuss that, we could or you could call me
or email me about it at another time.
Thank you.
You want to have any questions?
Okay, we will acknowledge or say it.
I'm sorry, go ahead.
And this is the text pool, the investment report, right?
Sir, the investment report, the cash and the text pool.
The next item.
16, not 17.
Next item.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Council acknowledge receipt of your report, Mr. Hagan. Thank you. Going
into item number 17, acknowledge receipt of the investment report for the quarter ending
September the 30th, 2022. Ms. Smith. Thank you, Mayor, Council. This is our quarterly
report regarding investments in cash. We have 26,000 in checking as 26 million. Sorry.
a little bit broke. We'd be a little broke. $26,315,844 in checking. We just, to update
the council, we have almost completely moved our checking from PNC to Prosperity Bank. So
So the bulk of the funds now are in prosperity.
We have text pool funds, $8,440,466.92.
We have a CD at prosperity that's been there for a long time.
It was an RSVP CD, it now belongs to the Senior Center.
BBVA, we have $6,736,972.24. And in brokerage CDs, we have an agency bond, we have $7,186,427.
We are pretty cash flush in the checking account. We will be looking to invest some
of those funds so that we can – we do not receive interest on the pool checking, so
we will be moving some of those funds so that we can take advantage of some of the higher
interest rates.
And I'll be glad to answer any questions.
If this data is already in your system, it wouldn't require a bunch of data input.
When you generate this report, can we get maturity dates and interest rates, like
all of these brokered CDs?
That would be awesome.
Thank you.
Any further questions of Ms. Smith from either the council or from the public?
Okay, thank you, Ms. Smith.
Item number 18, Acknowledged receipt of the quarterly financial report.
Again, Ms. Smith.
This is just a review.
We have not closed 2021-2022 year yet.
But we still have some year-end adjustments and some accounting to do before the year
is closed, but as of 9.30, 2022, this is a synopsis, I know you all have looked at budgets
and reviewed budgets till you're budgeted out, but basically, obviously property taxes
are mostly collected. Tiffany Sales Office reported that she was 96.3391% of the current
years adjusted levy collected, which is better than last year. Sales tax collections are
up, but if you look at it with the inflation rate, which we're looking at a 10% basically
permeant wide. The sales tax kind of has a 6% loss, but we are up over the last prior
year, the COVID year, so sales taxes are better there. I've got, I don't know how detailed
you want me to go, Mayor. This is in front of you. I'll be glad to go through each
page if you want me to.
Mayor, I just might
add on the, if you look at the net increase or decrease at the bottom
of each page, that'll just pretty much tell you how we ended the year,
the fiscal year. Very proud of this crew up here.
The golf course again made money this year.
It's two years in a row now. We've made money out there at the golf course.
We're kind of lumped some of the revenues together, but we're $24 million and to be within $150,000
of being balanced, that's pretty good budgeting.
Thank the council and staff, everybody for making that happen.
And if you go through each fund, you'll find it pretty much the same.
And depreciation is listed, which tends to skew those numbers because we do not budget depreciation,
But I've noted that it'll be on the enterprise funds. So
When you guys did the budget, I know the city has some
Royalty income as does the airport
What number did you guys use in budgeting to?
You look on the revenues for property on the revenue side on the property side of it
That's where it's at. Well and not not not the total but like what was the line?
You based it on dollars per barrel, a target price,
do you know what that was?
We based it on a very conservative estimate.
You know, we didn't know what the market's gonna do,
but in essence, we made, was it four million, roughly?
The general fund?
The general fund was about seven million,
and Air Park is about 10.
Six, six, and change on the general fund,
close to 7 million. Thank you. We budgeted it by any
further questions about Council or any member of the public? Okay, thank you, Mr. Smith, for your report.
Going to item number 19 on the agenda. First reading of an ordinance of the City Council of the City of
Spring, Texas, amending Chapter 2 of the Big Spring City Code entitled Administration,
Article 7, Boards and Commissions, Division 4, Parks and Recreation Board, Section 2-295
by amending Subsection D and adding a new Subsection E and amending Division 10, Convention
Visitors Bureau Board.
forward.
Section 2, day 315 by adding a new section C in order to inactivate the said boards and
release the members of each board for potential consideration for service on other boards, providing
for severability and providing an effective day. Ms. Lewis.
Thank you, Mayor and Council. At past meetings, Mr. Smith has brought forth wanting to do
something about our boards and these were two of my boards that have not met
due to not having quorums. So at this time what we are doing as we are instead
of getting rid of the boards completely we're just going to make them
inactive and release those board members because we have it written in
ordinances right now where you cannot serve on more than one board. So the
Parks and Recreation Board and the Commission and Visitors Bureau board
will both be made inactive for the time being. Those members shall be released so that our
council members can put them on different boards if they are willing to serve and if in the future,
if the council wishes to reenact these boards, it's not so much of a process to get them going again.
Questions? Yes.
Ms. Lewis, these inactive members now and they serve other boards?
that's what the point of this is yes sir is so that we the this ordinance
specifically states that the members that are serving on these boards right
now once this passes will be released to serve on any other board thank you just
making that yes sir
so a question for you Haley who is gonna head these two
boards is it gonna be counsel well yes what as they're inactive if there's
It wasn't an item that would typically go to the CVB board.
Like I've been doing, it's just bringing it straight to the council.
And the parks and recreation, really the only thing we were doing was going through our
ordinances and updating those.
We kind of put that with pricing and everything.
We kind of put that on the back burner due to COVID.
We didn't want to raise prices on the different pavilions and facilities at the time.
When we are ready to start doing that again,
then we can either reactivate the board or I can just bring it straight to council and
it's a quicker process. So whichever is council's pleasure at the time.
Any further questions, Mr. Lewis?
Any member of the public? Okay, I would entertain a
motion as to whether or not we approve this request. I want to make sure I understand
we have these two boards. They're really not active at this time and there's no
present need for their involvement in anything. And as I understand in the past, we have disbanded
these boards entirely, passed an ordinance doing away with them, and then at some future
point decided we need them again and had to go back and re-enact the past new ordinance
or resolution enacting those boards. And this does not disband those boards. I mean,
they're still going to be in existence. It's just they're in kind of a state of
and we're going to allow the members of that board to be appointed to other boards.
Of course, if in the future we need one of these boards to be active,
probably we'll have to appoint new members of the board at that time
because their terms may very well have expired and they're now on other boards.
But it's simply not to do away with the boards and have to reenact them later on if they're needed.
Is that correct?
Yes, sir.
I make a motion that we approve item 19 most made by Mr. Analyst Secretary by
Mr. Hughes all in favor indicate by saying yes that
passes 61 okay six
in favor
one against okay
okay all right Adam number 20 on the agenda consideration
and possible action on an agreement with Air Med Care Network for payroll deduction
memberships and authorizing the city manager or his designee to execute any
necessary documents. Mr. Medina. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council.
Air MedVac or Air
MedCare approached us about providing a deduction for our employees. They did
It offered us a plan that we could work with and we thought it was a good plan, basically
a discounted amount for using the EVAC service from my understanding that it's a network
across the state, probably across the nation.
So we went ahead and said we'll go ahead and take this to the council.
I think it's a very good benefit for all the employees and what the membership fee
will be a six-month deduction period so that the city employees will be able to afford
maybe a better plan. So on page 41, it will show you the four options that they're providing
and we're going to sign up employees during open enrollment. This service covers the
entire household and it takes effect after the first payment is made to AREVAC. So
So our recommendation is to approve this agreement in order to start signing up some
of our employees to this added benefit.
Any questions made to Council or Mr. Medina about this plan are from the public for that
matter.
It is a pleasure.
Most have been made to approve this agreement by Ms. Yonis, Mr. Smith, all in favor indicate
by saying yes.
Yes.
This is unanimously.
Item number 21 on the agenda.
Consideration and possible action on a contract extension.
Amendment number seven with vector fleet management
for the annual pricing adjustment
and authorizing the city manager or his designee
to execute necessary documents.
Mr. Medina.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council.
So this is an agreement that we entered in 2013.
Previous to that, we had another company run it for about a year until we went out to bid.
We went out for our proposals.
Vector won the proposals.
We negotiated with that company, and the initial term was for three years.
Thereafter, we have extended the contract annually.
It's mutually beneficial for both.
They provide a good service and it's been very beneficial for all.
So this company has been around for 35 years.
They currently serve Eckerd County, Midland County, as part of the West Texas group that
they serve along with cities like Carrollton and Addison.
Again, they've been providing fleet services for nine years, going on nine years, and we
are happy to have them on board.
Our recommendation is to award the bid.
There is a cap on the CPI at 3%.
They're asking for a 3% increase.
I feel that it's more than fair in this market.
So if I have any questions, if you have any questions, let me know.
But a staff recommendation is to extend the contract another year
Any questions by council of mr. Modena are from the public
Motion to accept the
Contract to get action contract extension made by mr. Hughes. Is there a second second made by miss mcdonnell all in favor and I'm sorry
May I have a comment or question at this time sure?
when was the last time the city looked at the economics the viability of doing
this in the house we evaluated on an annual basis as far as our fleet is being
turned over by the vector and we started this process because I believe the last
budget that we had in 2012 when the city ran it was 1.9 million. This contracts
for 1.6 so you do the economics there you see that we are we're saving money
from nine years ago when we ran better than and cost wise and we were able to
do look at percentages break out on you know what we're they're farming
out and what they're fixing pretty even used to when we had the service center
and I ran it it was 85% of the things that were being repaired were outsourced so
we were not in a contract hourly rate we were at the mercy of whoever was working
on our fleet we've got a contracted amount that is very good for this
market and we couldn't keep mechanics with the amount of tools and software that's needed
for working on everything from a weed eater to a dozer.
I want to add, I mean, Mr. Darden's correct, we do evaluate this on an annual basis and
if you look on page 49 it'll kind of break that down for you.
The non-target labor rate, which means that it's not a fixed amount, that means
any other repair is at $48 an hour for that, using Chilton basically as a repair guides
of how many hours it will take to repair a certain item.
So if you try to go out in the private market just for that, it's almost impossible, I
would imagine, to get that type of rate.
And Mr. Darden's correct in the fact that prior to outsourcing this service for our department,
we were outsourcing 85 percent or better at un-contracted prices, which meant we would
pay for whatever it would cost, anywhere from, you know, 80 to $100 an hour for repairs.
So it wasn't very viable for us to continue, you know, doing business that way.
So that's when we started investigating, reviewing whatever the cities were doing,
travel to cities like Victoria and to see what they were doing.
And we found that most cities are running into the same situation
that we're running into is getting the proper staffing.
So these companies are designed solely to provide that service.
They're better at it than we are as far as staffing and things like that.
So we do review it on an annual basis, short answer.
They have other contracts in other areas of government.
And so if they run across a problem that's, you know,
maybe not conducive to our area, but they found it in Virginia
that they have these same problems, we get the benefit
of that knowledge from across the nation
because they are a national company.
You'll see in the report that sanitation uses
is the majority of the budget when it comes to fleet services.
And I think it's another reason those numbers are low
is because we've been more proactive as a body of government
in replacing our equipment, keeping that stock rotated
so that we're not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars
to replace a motor on a dozer or a compactor.
We've rotated our fleet out, and we
We do it at the recommendation, a lot of times, based on what vector sees in our equipment.
They keep that data fresh, they keep us up to speed on what fleet we need to look at
replacing for the upcoming year.
They've been a good partner for us.
We've even gotten some rebate checks from them, I think, for two years that I can
remember.
It was a couple thousand dollars, several thousand dollars on one.
So in the the parts and supplies or I guess on a cost plus contractual basis in the agreement is that right?
Yes, and they have a lot more buying power than we right so is there someone in the city that's performing some oversight maybe
Randomly auditing what they're doing to make sure they're I
Mean they're just our independent auditor to do it and where we can do it and we have done
Thank you
Any further discussions of questions from either mr. Medina or mrs. Darden?
Okay, I'll call the vote.
All in favor indicate by saying yes.
Yes.
Passes unanimously.
Okay, item number 22 on the agenda.
Consideration and possible action on a contract agreement
for the auditorium HVAC renovations
for $692,525 to be drawn from the Hotel Motel Tax Fund
and authorizing the city manager or his designee
to execute any necessary documents.
Ms. Lewis. Thank you, Mayor and Council. At this time, we are requesting to enter into
a contract with Veratech to complete our heating and cooling renovation project for the auditorium
so that we can hopefully get that open soon again. I do have John DeLong with Veratech
on Zoom call if anyone has any questions. Okay, first off, Mr. Boudin, excuse me, Mr.
What are we needing to do at the auditorium, and how did this come about?
The system that we currently have, mainly in the heating area, and the cooling area,
was put in in 1987.
It's been several years of some harsh weather.
As you remember, we've had two February's that caused some water leaks that flooded
that area.
and we patched and repaired and done a little bit of work
to keep it going.
And then, you know, this last flood pretty much did it in
as far as we had to replace all the electrical guts
on each panel that we had.
Thanks to Brunley, he was able to find some used parts
that were already made up and ready to go
and he bought those and we went and picked them up.
Otherwise we were looking at not having power
for City Hall entirely is complex for about six months based on having to build new panels
and switch gear. We run in the same thing on the heating and air conditioning. Chiller
is new. It's the newest part of the system we have. The coils that are in the basement
were flooded. They're the ones that were put in in 87. That's the bulk of this replacement
price is those coils in the basement, getting those out and new ones in and some of
The components that we were needing are pretty lengthy in time and getting them.
They're not a shelf item.
They'll be a custom-built job for that air handler that service the entire auditorium.
We do have a air handler that services the stage.
But what we were trying to do is we were looking at it from a patch standpoint of
just preparing what we had.
It was about 400,000.
So we started looking at it a little closer and said let's look at taking advantage of
replacing some of these units that are kind of an older design and replacing them where
we had some redundancy in our heating and cooling so if we lost a portion of it we wouldn't
lose the entire heating and cooling aspect of that building.
The other thing is our current system was either on or off and to get the building
to a comfortable level, whether it's heat or air conditioning.
You had to fire it up several days in advance and just let it run.
The system will be more economic in that we can keep it at controlled temperature all
the time.
So it has some better automation to it than what we currently have, which is again
on or off type situation.
So for another 200,000, Veratech is on the, I want to call it Byboard, but it's a program
like Byboard where their services are already bid out.
We hired an engineering firm.
They worked with Veratech to come up with a design that would meet those guidelines
and that's the price that they came up with based on those simple guidelines.
lines. We tried to take out all the fancy bells and whistles. It could have been a lot
more, but we wanted the convenience of having it automated and readily available and redundancy.
We wanted parts that you could get that were on the shelf that you didn't have to go have
them built when you ordered them. So those are kind of some of the parameters that
we put on the construction guidelines as we began this process, and then Veratech is
the company that got all the subs together that will be doing the work and orchestrating
getting that equipment replaced.
There is some lengthy timelines associated with that, and I'll let John address that.
Mr. Daylong, with Veratech, he can explain why there is a lengthy time in getting
some of that, but I don't think it's anything that they have control over.
But again, what we were trying to do was get a system that had redundancy that was more
simplified in usage and start-up, and if we ever have another freeze like we had, then
we could find parts for it.
We were looking at renting a boiler for somewhere in the neighborhood of about $100,000 just
to get a couple events, shows in there.
Lewis indicated this morning that there's not one time a month that the facility's not
used.
We hope to get it more used as time goes, when you have better heating and cooling
and we spent a lot of money on the lighting sound system to the tune of an ADA of about
a million dollars per blader, so when we put the system in I think it was in 1987, 450,000.
We had an alternate bid for what I'm asking for the council to consider tonight that we
couldn't afford in 87 because it was a grant that we received to put it in.
So the present system is 35 years old?
35 years old.
We're not, it'll be brand new, there won't be any of it is repaired.
No, we're replacing all the motors and pumps and coils in the basement.
We're going to listen to Mr. DeLong.
Mr. Darden, do we have any, like, standby power to pump that basement out if it does
flood again and it doesn't demolish everything like it did in the past.
It wasn't so much the pyre that caused it.
It was the pump that we had in the sump pit was not designed adequately.
It is bigger now.
But we do have that.
We have a pump that will keep up with the water leak if it occurs.
Yes, sir.
Okay.
Thank you.
At the auditorium, what is the next major system that will need an upgrade?
the next expensive is at a roof, or what's next?
I mean, we'd need to do some cosmetic work to it,
and that's in some upcoming planning that we have,
but paint and carpet and things like that,
re-glazing the windows.
But this is the most expensive component
that we have in the auditorium.
Besides the sound and lighting that we've already done.
Thank you.
Other questions?
I believe we have Mr. DeLong with Fair Attack on the Zoom call if you have any questions
for him or if you want to add anything, sir.
John, can you hear us?
Yes, sir.
I can hear you.
You want to add anything to what Ms. Lewis or myself said for this project?
lead times there unfortunately as everything is with COVID hitting the labor workforce we don't
have an idea on lead times yet as soon as this is approved we will get with our vendors as soon
as we receive a PO we'll start placing orders and we'll have an idea of lead times of how
things are looking from what I've been seeing recently is where they were out 45 to 60 weeks
for a boiler or an air handler, they are starting to come back down. Everything is starting
to slowly come back in the range where hopefully, you know, we won't be out near as long as
we're thinking. We will be a lot more efficient than we were in the past. As far as we were
talking to someone mentioned earlier about the flood, if I remember right, we had talked
about putting in a wet a couple wet sensors on the basement floor so if they
got if we had a water leak in there and it got on that sensor it would send an
email to I want to say probably Terry and Todd to let them know we have an
issue so someone would come up there and hopefully find it and figure out what
what we need to do before we have anything major like we had last time.
Any
questions, Mr. DeLong?
Okay, thank you, sir.
What?
What is your pleasure?
Most have been made by Mishonis that we approve the contract agreement.
Is there a second?
I'll second.
Question?
Most have been made and seconded.
We hope for discussion, Mr. Tompkins.
Is it safe to assume this will be funded from a loan from the general fund to CVB
and then pay back over time? Is that how this is going to work?
Utility fund is going to loan it.
Utility fund? What's the annual repayment? How much and how long?
Did it take five years?
We talked about a five-year payment.
She was able to repay another loan for the parking lot quicker than what we had anticipated.
It just depends on her revenue.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, any further discussion?
Will we vote?
Any questions from any member of the community?
Public.
Okay, I'll call the vote.
All in favor indicate by saying yes.
Yes.
Okay, it's six to one.
Going to item number 23 on the agenda,
discussion on requiring the timely repair
or boarding up of broken windows in the downtown area
between 6th Street and Gregg Street and 1st Street and 6th Street.
Mr. Ronales.
Thank you.
So I added, I asked Andrew to put this on the agenda because last week I was out picking
up trash in the downtown area and I noticed that there was many, many broken windows
and we have an ordinance so we need to look at the ordinance to either repeal it
or start enforcing the ordinance that we passed.
So it's just open for discussion.
So we can get our code enforcement
to start IDing these places and start notifying
the owners of the property and having them taken care of.
30 days.
30 days, okay, thank you, Nick.
Jordan, did you have anything?
Just asking Mr. Bulls if we were fully staffed yet,
we still have, how many positions open?
To code officer positions so anybody in the public needing a job as a code officer with good benefits
It was a call
Okay, that was simply a discussion item
No action need to be taken on that other than to bring it to the attention staff that we need to
Start enforcing that ordinance. Is that what you're saying? Yes, sir. All right either that or repeal it
whichever young
It doesn't matter to me, but we need it if we're passing ordinances. We need to
follow the ordinances that we're passing.
Okay.
Going into item number 24 on the agenda.
Discussion regarding the charter.
Possible issues with the charter.
It may require amendment and the Charter Review Committee.
Again, Mr. Ornallis.
Thank you.
This is another item that I had Andrew put on
the agenda.
We are coming up for our two years for the charter.
charter. So we need to think about appointing. I know that in the, it says that we shall
appoint into 2026, but we have the option to create the charter again. There, this last
charter that we had, there was a lot of problems that arose, and there was a lot of misspelled
words. There was the translation. Andrew, the translation didn't happen. The elections
office had to do the translation for us, correct? Yeah. And then I believe that there should
be a summary, should be attached to every measure. There was a lot of measures that
really people didn't really know what the measure was. And then also Andrew, how long
Did it take before when the boats were canvas and then it was the charter was updated it took quite a while didn't it?
Yeah, it it actually took effect about a month after but it took a while to get everything
Published yeah quite some time so
and
then we also need to
to appoint the City Charter at the beginning of the year.
We also have to give them time to discuss
and then they also give them the opportunity
to do a petition if there's any measures
that are not passed by council.
So, it's just a discussion.
Mr. Arnalis.
Yes, Mr. Schmid.
Okay, when does this come?
Can we come up at the fiscal year, beginning of the fiscal year?
Yes, in 2020.
Okay, so it's already, oh, in 2023.
Okay, thank you.
And then, so it'll go in for the voters in November.
So it can be updated every two years.
I thought the next charter review was in 2006.
But it's four years,
but we have the option to update anything within the two years.
Any further discussion about the discussion?
Okay.
Thank you, Mr. Hernandez.
Going to item number 25 on the agenda,
this is nominations to board vacancies.
I have nominated Terry McDaniel to fill a vacancy
on the Planning and Zoning Commission.
I have nominated Jeannie Kanoki to fill a vacancy
on the Zoning Board of Adjustments, and Councilman Hughes has nominated Kerry Rodman to fill a
vacancy on the Board of Adjustments, Zoning Board of Adjustments. I move that we approve
all three of those nominations.
Second.
Most have been made in second into any discussion.
All in favor of those indicate by voting
yes.
That is unanimously. Okay. Going to the matter of council input,
that we have following that and going into executive session,
may I suggest that we take a break here for a moment,
go into executive session, and after that,
come back for council input.
Is that satisfactory with everyone?
I have one request.
The young Marines are asking for a picture
with the whole council, so can we
do that before we go into executive students
so they can go home and get ready for school tomorrow?
I move first off that we take a break for this photograph and take a ten minute break
and then that we go into executive session for the purpose of taking up the items on
item number 27.
Is there a second?
I'll second.
All in favor indicate by saying yes.
Yes.
Any opposed?
Okay, we're going to take a ten-minute break after which we will reconvene an executive
session.
It is now 6.30.
855. We are back in open session. Is there a motion that we adjourn from executive session
and come back into motion? Motion made and seconded. All in favor indicate by saying yes.
Yes. Any opposed? Okay.
Okay. At this time, I will entertain a motion for action or that
no action be taken. What is your desire, council?
So
move that we proceed on taking action on the new judge's salary.
Excuse me.
So the City Council of Big Spring, Texas, establish the compensation for the judges of the municipal court as stated herein.
Compensation for the presiding judge appointed by City Council shall be $77,800 per year.
And presiding judge shall receive an automobile allowance of $600 per month unless the City provides a vehicle of presiding judge in which case presiding judge will not receive an automobile allowance.
The compensation shall be remitted through the standard payroll policy of the city.
Preciting judge shall be an attempt and exempt employee under the Federal Fair Labor Standards
Act.
Judicial education for the presiding judge shall be paid according to agreement between
city and presiding judge, presiding judge shall be an at-will employee of the
city of Big Spring. The presiding judge is a department head under
section 5
Article 4 of the Charter of the City of Big Spring.
Residing judge shall be subject to the personal policies except as agreed in
in writing. The presiding judge shall not be subject to the administrative directives
of the city manager except as agreed in writing as or as the presiding judge may.
Elect.
Upon completing all judicial education specified in the Texas Rules of Judicial Education,
rule five for a given year an associated judge appointed by city council shall certify the
city of big strength that such judicial education has been completed and the city shall pay
the Associated Judges' flat payment of $1,000 in compensation for the Associated Judges'
time.
For an Associated Judges' judicial education as state law requires, cities shall pay for
an Associated Judges' enrollment and hotel expenses to one conference in Texas annually
and for one new judge's conference, if applicable.
If an associated judge is an attorney,
the city shall pay continuing legal education, CLE fees associated with the required judicial education,
except as stated in subsection A and B,
The Associated Judge shall not receive further compensation for judicial education, nor shall
the Associated Judge receive reimbursement of other expenses related to judicial education.
Except as specified in sections A, B, and C above, compensation for an Associated Judge
shall be $1,250 per month for the months of November of 2022
and December of 2022.
Subsequentially compensate shall be $48 per hour.
An associated judge shall be in a new independent contractor
of the city of Big Spring.
An associated judge shall not be a city employee.
as an associate judge is not an employee of the city. The associate judge shall not be
subject to Section 5 Article 4 of the Charter of the City of Big Spring. The associate judge
shall not be subject to personal policies or administrative directives of the city
manager except as agreed in writing. This ordinance subsides all prior conflict, ordinances
and orders by motion of the City Council of Big Spring. This ordinance takes effect November
13, 2022, except Section 3D, which will take effect immediately. This ordinance will
will not be codified.
It passed and approved on the first reading
at the regular meeting of the city council
on the 25th day of October 2022
with all members of the council voting aye
for the passage of the same.
Pass.
Okay.
For a second to that motion.
Most been made and seconded.
All in favor indicate by saying yes.
Yes. Yes.
any opposed you
voted no okay all right that's a six to one mr. Mayor do there's
also the employment agreement with the presenting judge that
doesn't have
compensation on it but it sets the terms and conditions of employment do we
need a motion to approve the employment agreements that what you're saying yes
motion to approve the employment agreement?
Second.
I'll second.
All in favor indicate my CNF.
Aye.
All opposed?
Same sign.
Okay.
Passes unanimously.
Do we want to have some council input?
Does anybody?
Yeah.
Okay.
Early voting has started, so please do your research, get out and vote.
I also want to thank Big Spring Beautiful.
Today is their last Toasty Tuesday.
I was very fortunate and able to help out throughout the year.
And I want to thank them for their great job in organizing the Big Keep Big Spring Beautiful.
Mandy, I have no doubt in my mind that you're going to do great.
I, um, congratulations on your, um, being nominated as the, uh, appointed as the, um,
municipal judge.
I have no doubt in my mind that you're going to do great.
Again, I just want to reach out to all the staff.
I look at everybody here, and we have a good staff, and I appreciate everything that you
have done.
Mandy, congratulations now that you're working with you, and you're good.
Thank you.
I'll echo my colleagues in one and two.
Thank you.
Mandy, I think you're going to do an amazing job.
I look forward to working with you.
Staff, I appreciate all that you're doing.
We're blessed to have you.
Congratulations, Mandy.
I wish the young Marines were still here because I wanted to thank them
and really give them kudos because they turned out to clean up the Vietnam Memorial
after about three years of abandonment and neglect.
And it absolutely looks alive and beautiful.
If you haven't seen it, just drive through it.
You can't believe the difference that it makes.
And the young Marines were out there every second,
and they did a great job.
Well, I had a second thing, and I can't read it.
Congratulations, Mandy. I don't know what I wrote.
Large item pickup for District 5 will be on November 16th.
So if you have a large item, please contact the city
and make arrangements to have that picked up.
Mandy, I'm so pleased that you've applied for Judge and been selected.
I think you're doing a fantastic job.
I'm looking forward to being part of that for the remainder of my term.
Ditto.
Congratulations, Mandy.
Judge Green, thank you to 22 years of super service.
We do appreciate you, sir.
and the staff too. Y'all all keeping the budget looking really good and it's a lot
of hard work and it's appreciated. Thank you. Can I go back? I read it. Crime
Stomper's great award Chad. I read about that and that was a that was a super
award from the city of Big Spring.
Thank you all. Any further business for
the council does not wish to end adjourned.