>> okay, it is september 24th, 2024
and this is a meeting of the kerrville city council.
I am calling it to order at 6:00 p.m.
and if at this time councilmember will
lead us in the implication of the pledge.
>> if you'll pray with me.
dear heavenly father, we ask special prayers tonight
for our mayor who is having health issues.
be with him and bring him to a quick recovery
so he can come back and be our leader.
and be with all those in the hospital tonight
and that they would have answers to their questions
and a remedy to whatever's ailing them.
tonight, be with us as we gather and talk
about important things about our city
that we can have some resolve and folks will leave
with the things they need the answers
and the decision that pleases and is the best for kerville.
be with our first responders,
bless them everyday and keep them safe.
also keep those who protect this country
outside of our borders.
in your son's name we pray, amen.
[ pledge of allegiance ]
>> announcements?
>> we have a few.
welcome everybody tonight.
this is the big weeekend, the kerville triathlon.
we look forward to this every year.
got a lot in people in town, so we encourage everyone
to be patient.
we will have some traffic street closures.
we'll post those on the city website and facebook pages.
those start at
6:00 a.m. On saturday and sunday.
on saturday they are down by noon
and
sunday done by 2:00 p.m., so it will be
traffic may be snarled for a little
while but it does bring in a lot
of people. I hope everyone can get out
. It is a
lot of fun.
some of these things we will go over
again in the future meetings because
there's a lot going on in october.
first up,
art in
the park is a new event and I don't
know a lot about
it, if you have questions , we can
fill you in.
a haunted house
at the municipal pool
and scary tours
at 6:00 p.m. And we
also have two more events.
the mountain bike festival.
that is october 26th and 27.
some great trails.
if you want to get information
on how to get involved or participate
, you
could go to the parks and rec website. And
big event
will be october 31st. Family
fright night.
5:30 p.m. That begins and
I think there are still openings for sponsors
if you want to have a booth there.
I have one more.
you want to give blood
this weekend , the
fire department is having a blood
drive at the opposite end
of where the traffic will be. It's from
9:00 a.m. Until 3:00 p.m. Keep that
in mind .
and that is it for me.
>> any items
of community interest
? Thank you.
next we have
a kindness award
and if
lucy stebbins
will meet me up front.
>> [ captioner cannot get clear audio
]
how did you get started doing this?
>> [
inaudible ]
>> you are a shining example
of what young people should
be doing in the community.
thank you.
grandparents to make trips to the school
and your fellow students, thank
you. Congratulations.
>> [ applause ]
do we have any
school administrators in the room?
a proclamation
whereas
future strength depends on providing
a high quality education to all students
teacher quality matters
than any other school
related factor ;and, whereas
teachers spend countless hours preparing
lesson plans, supporting students
;and,
whereas where the community recognizes
and supports teachers in educating
the children
of this community ;and, whereas this
year's focus is on the theme valuing
teacher voices
toward a new social contract for education
[ inaudible ]
>> [ captioner cannot get clear audio
]
>> tell us who
you are and what your role is.
>> thank you for having us and recognizing
our educators.
professionally I could not be more
proud this community and
the support we receive from
stakeholders and parents and
for my own kids.
the work that they do
till they leave
the classrooms
and I will turn it over to you.
>>
I teach construction
and
I'm the soccer coach.
we are building a
tiny home in construction class and
we
got a new a lot of
new robotics things
>> how long you been with the district?>>
11 years.
>> 18 months.
>> I teach
sixth grade.
I have been there for
a while.
>> [ captioner cannot get clear audio
]
>> [ inaudible - low volume ]
>> thank you for making our
school district --
>> [ applause ]
>> okay.
we are at
the
visitors/citizens forum
>>
you will see me a few times tonight
about getting
truth
to what is being done.
the lawsuit
talking about soliciting
ordinances . The
perspective being put out by the two
different sized differ in the city
is putting out
most of the ordinances were left in play
. Solicitors in particular
ordinance from what
I can read from it
was gutted as it
was presented.
and the interesting part for me personally
is what you were
left with are two
main things. One the no soliciting sign
being put in front of someone's house
will this be upheld and
precisely what
I suggested that you do because it
solved
your problem without the extra
expense of a permitting process.
in the future
, maybe
take more consideration asked what's
being said and
putting up the proper perspective
on the
election one. Best I can tell , you're
able to tell people where to put a tent
but
you cannot keep them
from walking around in the parking lot
,
which ultimately you could've
known before hand and should have.
I guess the sign counts did not
get considered
at the end of the day
, when put out press releases,
if you could put out something that depicts
what is happening.
to say
that they were upheld
kind of misses what really happened
.
thank you.
>> moving on to the consent agenda.
is there anyone
who would like
to pull any items?
>> we have one citizen
who wishes to speak .
>> do
you need to read it in?
>> 4.a ordinance no. 2024-21,
second reading. An ordinance amending chapter 60 of the code
of ordinances, city of kerrville, texas; by changing
the zoning of an approximate
5.51 acre property known as 2029 junction highway (sh 27);
from a planned development
zoning district (pdd) to a
general commercial zoning district (c-3); and providing
other matters relating to the
subject. (d paxton, director of zoning and development) (passed
this was passed unanimously. Unanimously on 1st reading)
>> I would like to
go ahead and pull
4-d
, and then I will need a motion on
the others.
>> I make
a motion we approved the us
consent agenda -- second?
all in favor?
any opposed? It passes.
let's go ahead and
look at
4-d
.
do want to read that?
4.d resolution no. 41-2024. A resolution adopting the city of
kerrville's 2025 state legislative priorities for the
89th texas legislature. (m hayes, city attorney)
>>
I'm not here
to suggest that you do or do not
adopt this. I personally have problems
with
a few of them but, forgive me, I could
not go to your workshop.
to hear the presentation.
as I'm reading it you have
letters of things you are generally supporting
--I don't remember what it was.
b was talking about
home rule and finances
and it appears that it would
be you supporting
legislation that may or may not
remove the tax cap
. If the wording
in it --
in our name and
, I think, if you are going to
be doing something like that, it would
be nice
to tell the public what it is you
are supporting. If there is a way
when legislation
is being supported or opposed
, that we
actually find out publicly
which ones are
being spoken about . I'm never
really sure --
is there a specific organization
that we choose
as our proxy? Is that how it works?
we're just signing
some sort of group memo. No?
well if it's none of
that, then any time you're asked
to support something, it would be
nice if publicly we were being told
which ones you are supporting or opposing
as far
as legislation. I don't think the public
is behind removing that
, and the other --the hotel
where you want to use
funds for something other than what
it
is restricted to something
in particular. I would think you should tell
people
that is what you're doing to use
the money to go back into
putting more heads
in beds. And the unused part ,
being able to sell property outside
of that and selling
park land that you don't intend to
use, again ,
it would be nice to know
if you are supporting legislation
to do that. Thank you.
>> mr. Hayes, do want to clarify any that?>>
the one about
municipal revenue
, as I said in the presentation
is every time 10
or 20 bills filed for
more exemptions or property taxes
and we want
to get a handle on that and figure
out what the impact
--what else --the
hotel tax --
it's all about heads
in beds and we are appreciative of that
sometimes
we want to support that they
can remove restrictions and the third
one is we
have pocket parks
less than a quarter of an acre and
they may essentially be a lot between
two
other homes
and they were mistakenly planned it
that way
so instead of going to the time and
expense
of putting it up for an election ,
could we not avail ourselves
to exemptions that are already
built in lamont that apply to other
cities not our size
that allow them after public notice
to get rid of
those because dish other than
mowing the grass once or twice year
we are not doing anything.
>>
this list is as much about
optics that we have an interest
in ends neither pro nor, but it's
once we want to have a anger on
so we have to decide later
if we are in favor what
comes up.
>> with
the 6000 bills filed
--
[ inaudible ]
monitoring are just looking
at it.
>> remember,
8000 bills are filed.
so we are trying to get broad strokes
about what we will be looking for
to keep our eyes on.
>> okay. Can I get a
motion?
>> I move
that we approved that. All in
favor? Any opposed??
that is the end of the consent agenda.
we are on
to item
5a
>> 5.a ordinance no. 2024-24, second reading. An ordinance
adopting the annual budget for the city of kerrville, texas,
fiscal year 2025; providing appropriations for each city
department and fund; containing
a cumulative clause; and containing a savings and
severability clause.
and we do have one citizen
speaker signed up.
>>
I know we have seen his
but I have information
if there's anything you'd like to
see specifically. This is
the second reading in a
very specific motion.
one thing I wanted to point out is
a new item
that you've not seen in
the past so I will talk
about that and
we will talk about that after
the fact. It won't be included in
the
final budget [
inaudible ]
also on policies,
we are working on
them diligently and will bring back
specific policies
for review as we find changes
and bring them back one at a time
and we are working on how that
will look. You can see
the same requirement for 2 motions
for the adoption and [ inaudible ]
>>
any discussion?
>>
I end up coming up.
budget time and keep bringing up
these topics until somebody has the
courage
to address them. Basically streets
and
the water fund . Streets,
in particular
, the city knows that we have
a street expense and maintenance expense
that we accrue
every year. $5 million.
paid someone to give us that estimate.
you look in your budget
on whatever page it is
, I think
it's 110. And the street maintenance
amount that we
are budgeting to put that 5 million
is 2.3. Is
a shortfall. It is an unreported
shortfall because we are not actually
killing
the accrual of that expense in our budget.
we've been doing that and we've known
this amount
since we hired the consultant in 2019
and give us that assessment and yet
we still do not report it.
it's highlighting
a budget imbalance
and someone will get up and say that's
not true. This is just to inform the
public.
and then the water system
the reuse system
is a mutually exclusive system from
the potable and
sewer system . Yet the cost
of distributing reused water is
being allocated to customers
that do not receive reuse water.
you have one class of customer subsidizing
another, which is nothing more than
a tax on the water customers. It does
not
account --you cannot attribute
the cost of the reuse distribution system
to the service being provided to the
water customer. This year and for
the next five , I think
the next four after this, the reuse debt
is close to $2 million
per year. This year alone there
is debt service that the city is paying
of $2 million
or 1.8. And the
revenue being received
is budgeted as
less than 200,000. It's not that you
have to pay it
all in one year. But
you have to set up a
long-term plan by raising those rates,
and I understand they are contracts
,
but they cannot be enforced if they
are
forcing the city to give away something
of value
and that is what the reuse
system does right now. We are distributing
water to customers
that are receiving
free service. Please look
at that.
>>
we have
two motions. But I would
make a motion to approve ordinance
2024
[ inaudible ] on
the second reading.
it is the second
reading now.
>>
second reading .
>>
second reading.
>> all
in favor?
>> [
roll call ]
>> can I have a second motion.
>> I will ratify
to adopt the vote that will require raising
revenue from property taxes.
>> do we have
a second.
all in favor?
any opposed??
okay.
5.b ordinance no. 2024-23,
second reading. An ordinance
levying an ad valorem (property) tax for the use and
support of the municipal government for the city of
kerrville, texas, for fiscal year 2025; apportioning each
levy for specific purposes; and providing when taxes shall
become due and when same shall
become delinquent if not paid.
>>
I do have information if
you have questions.
this does require a roll call vote
in one motion.
>> any discussion?
then we will call for the vote.
the motion.
>> I motion
to approve
that the property tax rate
be increased by the adoption of a tax
rate of
.5595
, which is effectively a 2.77% increase
in
the tax rate.
>> [ roll call
]
>>
a public hearing .
>> we have
two citizen speakers signed up.
>>
this is a little bit of a new process.
you state law that requires us to
the public hearing on the city
building fees,
which are included within the fee schedule.
it was easier to bring it
at once and make it
more consistent. The fee schedule
included in the final budget document
so that we align and this will be
a
separate resolution. The
fee schedule attached to your packet
references
credit card fee is tbd
and we've since updated that to
be 3% and the reason it was
to be determined is were trying to get
the most historical data to see what
were actually paying
and this is designed as a cost recovery
and not
as a revenue that would benefit the fund.
the fee schedule and front
of you highlights everywhere
and surrounded by
boxed in red's you can see the change
and everything else is the same as
it was
originally presented. City pays
$25,000 a month and
service fees for
electronic processing
we expected to be 250,000
and you can see
160,000
. This is a cost
recovery fee.
it's used to offset fees associated
with costs that the city incurs
city has assumed this caused
so the expense budgeted
for this caused a share but everyone
contributes to
that fund not just
those who take it vantage of that
card service. This fee
continues to grow
. We worked with three different
service companies over the past couple
of months to make sure processes were lining
what is allowable and what is not
and make sure we
have [ inaudible ] talked
to the audit firm to make sure we
are compliant as far as accounting
. This will be reported
as a revenue and expense so we can
track how
much we are bringing in [ inaudible ]
if we are over collecting
we can address that.
it is a common practice
in I've spoken to them
we researched a dozen cities and
personally talked to six or eight
on their processes. Charges
are 3 to 4%
and some
of them charge for electronic payments
and happy to walk you through any questions
but we've done a lot of homework
>> [ captioner cannot clearly understand
speaker ]
>> I'm
going to go ahead and open the
public hearing
at 6:35.
>> [ inaudible - low volume
]
>> commercial utility
3 dollars. There is nothing in here
that says a resident should
be charged one dollar on a regular
bill into dollars on an irrigation bill.
it means we are paying 3 dollars for
storm water
,
but we are not using
anymore water then an
average household and I
went back to check my own those.
I'm not using anywhere close to the
average water bill of
5300 gallons a month.
when we built our house , we were
encouraged to
put in another meter because it
would not add to the stress
of the sewer
. So
we put in that meter and
I would like to see the
stormwater fee taken off
the irrigation meter on
the residents or see an
adjustment somehow
where the same as any other people
in
the city except we have 2 meters.
we use no
more and no less than other
residences,
and it's unfair to charge us . And
when there
is a drought and we go into
stage 4, we cannot even use it so then
we are charged 2
dollars for something we cannot use,
but we are still paying
on the residential , and
the reason for that was
the irrigation did not pay for the
sewer. But we are paying it on a regular
residential bill.
so
I would like to know what will be
done to
correct that. And, again,
we are getting awful close
to three --three quarters of
$1 million coming out of the water fund
and the water needs for future for
upgrading infrastructure are dramatic
. That money is not being
put aside. This account is
referred to as a more delicate compared
to the general fund , and if that is
the case , I
don't believe we should be taking
money out of the
water fund for street repair , and
on top of that there's no dedicated fun.
no one would know
how much was taken out of the water fund
for particular
street projects.
unless there is a dedicated fund or work
orders or something to
match up.
and the water study six
years ago was talking
about the dramatic needs for our area
with inflation those numbers are probably
going to be blown out of the water.
I
would like to see more attention and elimination
of the street used to be
and the storm use fee for residents
that we are already paying it. Thank you.
>> so
I'm a talk about
back to the water.
something you should be considering.
the more reliance we put on
base rates to adjust the water revenues,
the more directly
we are impacting in a negative way
the ones using less water. If we use
a base rate this year I think we are
adding
5 dollars a month or something like that
,
doing that
physically spreads the cost across
everyone irrespective of how much
water that they use.
that is not the
fairest way and it rewards the big
water users
and penalizes the lower
water users. The other one
I was surprised to see is there is
a
new fee
for someone trying to pull
out of the
--if you understand a lot about how
they go about doing that,
that you will never be collected because
the way it is
set up, the person will
petition the city not
asking permission to be removed but declaring
that they need to be removed.
the city says you have to pay us a
fee and
they say we don't want to, 45 days
go
by and they're automatically administratively removed.
that the has
no teeth. There's no real benefit
not
to mention it flies in
the face of the actual logic behind
the rule. The reason people can
pull out of it is its regulation
without representation.
they live outside the city limits
and cannot vote for anything but
the city are regulating them on
subdivisions and signs.
adding this to someone who
cannot vote as to whether this can
exist
or not is kind of perverted.
to be adding more regulation to a
population
that cannot speak for themselves in
this regard , and
like I said , if you do not
respond
to their position
, it will be administratively approved
anyway so
why bother. And it is $500.
I know a couple other cities have
done this but we can
do better.
I would urge you
to take that out before somebody ends
up
challenging that.
>> let me speak to that issue. And
he
brings up a good point. And if
we apply the fee and they do not pay
it in
45 days
the property will be removed.
landowners
want us to go through the process
of certifying the
information that they've provided
and they wanted put on the agenda
for you to take action and
we go through that process
it's 3 to 4 hours of staff time to go
through that so it's
one of these unfunded
mandates because when they submit
this application we have to
review it and we thought out of a
sense
of fairness
--
>> the practical side of what we
do not know is should
ever get reverted
were people realize that water
is a big thing and how do
I overcome this,
the city council can say we disagree
with this and it is an
administrative cost we are trying
to prepare what will happen.
>>
the base water fee
is inflation-adjusted.
>> any other discussions
?
>> I have a question.
I would not expect you spent time
doing this
but you know approximately how much
they are?
over the difference?
on all of them?
>>
I can speak to the
utility side
and on the utility side
what was the cost
that we were paying in the beginning
of
last year or even midyear
compared to what we are paying now
and what have
those increases been and if we
are doing meter sets,
there's not a lot of profit there
and we want to
make sure that
we are charging something
close to equal for that and making
sure we cover our labor. Anywhere
from 4 to 8% depending on which one
it is.
we did not do a budgeted increase
because we just don't
know. We may
have a year where we put in 50
such a budget and increase
, we
do make sure that the cost
[ inaudible ]
that we cover the cost of the labor
did that help you?
>>
some of them were a small increase.
>>
it
depends on what the part is
and sometimes
we did not catch an increase
we hope
we will see it level
and we seen them kind of
level out.
22 and 23 were rough.
>>
anymore speakers?
I will
close the public hearing at 6:46.
any other counsel discussion?
then I need a motion.
>> I am move
we
approve this. On favor?
any opposed?
>>
I want to start this off
and
introduce the new airport manager.
he comes
to us from
the rio grande valley was the assistant
city manager there in charge of the
airport. For quite some time. He was
going to be here a few weeks ago and
we were going
to introduce him
, but he's here tonight
to talk about eminent domain.
be nice to
him on his first meeting. He's been
here for 5 and half weeks just as
kind of
a refresher sitting the county
have appropriated these budgets for
the airport
$250,000 each
for the potential acquisition of 55 acres
to the southeast of the airport.
that property , as you know
is undergoing development at
this point
in the airport requires the authority
and approval
of the pre-owners and that's the city county
to exercise any
eminent domain proceedings along with
the state of texas.
he jumped into the fire here
as it
was a very busy time for the airport
and I will turn it over to him and
he could speak to where they are at.
>>
I'm the aviation director
for the kerrville county airport and
here to talk about the
resolution we are presenting tonight.
we went
through the txdot property acquisition
guidelines will notify the property
owner of the rights and property acquisition.
the bill of rights
and submitted to them and appraisal
as well
as a review appraisal for the acquisition
of those approximately
55 acres. We did get several offers
and
went through
negotiations for acquisition of the
property could not come to terms.
we submitted
a final offer letter and it went unanswered
. So by 14 days it is
a rejection letter.
we went to the airport board and had
two options. Number one was
petitioning the county and city of
the rights of
eminent domain condemnation to take
the lead
on behalf of the airport board
for the eminent domain for the acquisition
of those
55 acres and that will take about
three
years for us to recover our money.
that's about 90% that we would ask reimbursement.
typically the process will
take about 6 to 12 months for the
acquisition of the settlement of the
acquisition of
the property. We did not feel it was
the best
option for either party so we want
to go to the second option which is a
petition letter to the city and county,
for the
texas department of aviation to take
over and be the lead agency
in acquisition for eminent domain
on behalf of the city and airport
board
and the county
and they would then petition the attorney general's
office to be representing them in a
settlement offer or any court proceedings
that
may happen so that's what we will
present
tonight. If we do reach a settlement
in the next 12 months, we
get a check for 10%
and we have a in the budget. Were
asking for
your authorization to approve the
resolution tonight
so we can begin those proceedings.
>> I am ready to make a motion.
>> I got
a lot of my answers today.
basically starting from scratch
thinking about the proposal.
with there be anything
--almost 55 acres
--
>> it is vacant
as it is. Under the guidelines
were required to
protect the runway protection zones
where supposed to make them construction
free areas and substantiated
not under grant assurances but land
compatibility assurances that we have
to
abide by.
that's the
purpose for the acquisition of the
property to have the safe zone at
the end of that runway
on the east side of the airport.
>>
I will make a motion
that we have consideration and approved
this.
>> all in favor?
any opposed??
it passes.
it's nice to
meet you.
>>
onto appointments.
the first one is appointment of city of
kerrville delegate for the 2024
texas municipal league (tml) annual conference business
meeting
. In houston.
I would like to nominate
council member sigerman.
I'm asking for
a second.
>>
I second the nomination.
>> all in favor?
any opposed?
that passes.
we have some board appointments also.
the first is the
senior services advisory committee.
and who was the liaison for that?
>>
I had a chance
[ inaudible ] discussed it
and I want to reappoint
and appoint
--
>>
I will second
any opposed?
it passes. The second appointment
is to the zoning board of
adjustments. And mayor herring
and I will be the liaison for that.
I don't feel the need for an executive
session
on that item.
we
will nominate
amy chaukley
and she's happy to serve for another
term. I will make that motion that
she
be reappointed
to the zoning board of adjustment
.
all in favor? Any opposed?
it passes.
--can someone make a motion.
>> I make a motion we go into executive
session
under section
551.071.
>> all in favor
? We are adjourned into
executive session
.
>>
[ the council is in executive session. Captioner standing
>> okay. It is
7:58. I am
gambling
out of executive
session and back to regular session.
do we have anything else to discuss?
if not, I will entertain a motion
to adjourn.
>> I will make a motion to adjourn
the city
council meeting of september 24
at 7:59.
>>
a second?
>> a second.
>>
okay. We are adjourned.