Good evening. It is Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024. The time is 6 p.m.
I will call this regular meeting of the Dickinson City Council to order.
Item 1, call to order and certification of quorum.
Mayor Skippworth?
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Simpson, Jr.?
President.
Council Member Simpson?
Here.
Council Member Townsend?
Here.
Council Member Brantley?
Here.
Council Member Schick?
Here.
Council Member Linton?
Here.
We have a quorum.
Thank you.
We'll move on to item two, the invocation of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Mayor Protin, would you please lead us?
Let us pray.
Oh Lord our God, how excellent is your name,
from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same,
your name is great and greatly to be praised.
We thank you for every good and perfect gift that comes from above.
We ask your blessing upon this meeting,
upon the citizens of the city of Dickinson,
this county, this state, and this great nation.
Allow this to be an effective and efficient meeting and your name we pray
All
right. Next, we have proclamations and awards. This is the most proclamations that
we have had since I have been the mayor. We have four proclamations this evening, so
I'm going to take care of those now. I'll come up, and we're going to start. We're
going to go with the order listed on the agenda. So we'll begin with the Strawberry
Festival. So I'm going to head on up, and y'all are welcome to come up to the
front if you want while I read it or wait or whatever you'd like to do if
you'd
like to.
All right,
you're good. Okay, glad you're here. All right, a proclamation.
Whereas in the early 20th century the city of Dickinson with its fertile soils
considered the garden of Galveston County and known for growing figs and
strawberries became known as the strawberry capital of the world at the
time and whereas the Holy Trinity Strawberry Festival, a beloved tradition that commenced
in the year 1930, has flourished as a testament to the enduring spirit of community and celebration
and whereas the Holy Trinity 91st Strawberry Festival, which will begin on April 27, 2024,
is expected to be a vibrant renewal of the tradition and the spirit of innovation, offering
a delightful fusion of old world charm and contemporary taste with the iconic strawberry
shortcake serving as a delectable bridge between past and present.
Now therefore, the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Dickinson, Texas, do hereby
proclaim April 27, 2024 as Holy Trinity Strawberry Festival Day.
In the City of Dickinson, I encourage all citizens to join in on the festivities.
At witness thereof, I have herein too set my hand and caused the seal of Dickinson,
Texas to be affixed the 23rd day of April, 2024.
24. If you please join me in congratulating them for all the work that they're doing.
Who should I give this to? Okay. Thanks so much.
Alright. Thank you. Thank you.
Oh, if you want to do another bit, go for it.
Okay. Alright.
Appreciate it.
Thank you. Alright, next up we have the proclamation concerning
Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Do we have with some people
here for that? Okay. Yeah. For the yes. If you want to come up to the front or not, it's up to you.
Wherever you want to stand, sir. You're welcome. Okay. All right. A proclamation. Whereas sexual
assault is a growing concern for our community, state, and nation, and needs to be noted and
addressed. Sexual assault has no bias regarding gender, age, economic status, education,
education, achievement, religion, sexual orientation, or social status.
And whereas, during the month of April, the resource and crisis center of Galveston County
will be intensifying efforts to promote public understanding of sexual violence and along
with victims of sexual violence.
The resource and crisis center of Galveston County will be emphasizing the need for
citizen involvement in efforts to reduce sexual assault through public education and changing
public attitudes.
and whereas Dickinson's residents rely on the resource and crisis center of
Galveston County programs to provide a range of essential services to assist
victims of sexual assault and whereas Dickinson's residents join with all
Americans in supporting victims of sexual assault and believe that a month
long observance specifically focused on sexual assault in communities across the
nation helps to reinforce the loud and clear message to abusers that
sexual violence will not be tolerated now therefore now therefore we the
Mayor and the City Council of the City of Dickinson, Texas, do hereby proclaim April
as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the City of Dickinson and call on all Dickinson
citizens to support local efforts to prevent violence and assist victims of these crimes
and finding the help and healing they need.
And witness thereof, I have herein to set my hand and cause the seal of Dickinson,
Texas to be affixed this 23rd day of April 2024.
If you would please thank them for all of the work they're doing out in the
community.
All right.
Next, we have a proclamation for Crime Victims Week.
Do we have anyone here for that proclamation?
It does not look like it.
Okay.
If you want to, but okay.
All right.
Chief Michael Barrison is going to come up.
Okay.
All right.
A proclamation.
Whereas surviving a crime can have myriad lasting effects on victims, including physical,
psychological, social, and financial issues.
and, whereas, countless survivors never tell anyone about what happened to them, and whereas,
we must do everything we can to show survivors that hope, the belief that the future will
be better, is not just tangible, but within their reach, and whereas, one goal of National
Crime Victims' Rights Week encourages all people to ask themselves the question, how
would you help a victim of a crime?
Whereas, Resource and Crisis Center of Galveston County, Inc. is hereby dedicated to raising
awareness of the options services and hope for crime survivors. Now therefore we the mayor and
city council of the city of Dickinson Texas do hereby recognize the efforts of crime victims
programs and proclaim April 21st to April 27th 2024 as crime victims week in the city of Dickinson
and encourage all citizens to embrace compassion and support for all crime victims.
And witness thereof I've herein to set my hand and cause the seal of Dickinson Texas
is to be a fix this 23rd day of April, 2024.
If you please join me in congratulating these folks
for all the work that they're doing.
So people, are you going to, okay.
All right, thank you.
Yes.
Was that you as well?
Yes.
That's what I asked for, okay.
Yeah, all right, there they are.
I figured somebody was here for that.
Okay, all right.
You're welcome, you're welcome.
All right, and then lastly
for the National Library Week.
I know we have a number of our library staff here,
so yep, please come on up
And we'll do this one.
Okay.
All right.
Proclamation.
Whereas National Library Week was first sponsored
by the American Library Association in 1958
as a national observance of libraries across the country
and a time to celebrate the contributions
of our nation's libraries, librarians and library staff,
and to promote library use and support.
And whereas Dickinson Public Library librarians
and library staff are organizers and information experts
who guide people to the best information resources, Dickinson Public Library librarians and library staff provide the expertise, services and guidance for patrons to access credible sources of information, and whereas Dickinson Public Library librarians and library staff offer more than books, they're committed to a shared goal to improve life and learning opportunities for all Dickinson residents at all stages of their literacy and learning journey from birth and early childhood to school age, to graduates who are ready for college and careers.
year to civically engaged adults who are empowered by free access to information to make informed
decisions for the betterment of the Dickinson community.
And whereas Dickinson Public Library librarians and library staff play a critical role in
the economic vitality of communities by providing internet and technology access, literacy
skills and support for job seekers, small businesses and entrepreneurs.
And whereas Dickinson Public Library librarians and library staff strive to develop and
programs and collections that are as diverse as the community they serve and ensure equality
of access for all, and whereas Dickinson Public Library librarians and library staff create
a welcoming environment for all citizens of Dickinson to celebrate the joy of literacy,
learning, creating, communicating, and cultural exchange, now therefore be resolved that
I, Sean Skippworth, the Mayor of Dickinson, in celebration of the 66th year in National
Library Week, has been celebrated.
Do hereby recognize the Dickinson Public Library staff and their dedication to their
jobs in the community that they serve. I encourage all residents to visit your library
and honor the individuals who work in our library by engaging with your librarian and
the staff who make your library possible. A witness hereof, I have herein to set my
hand and cause the seal of Dickinson, Texas to be affixed this 23rd of April 2024.
If you would please give them a hand for all the work that they're doing.
Thank
you. There you are. Okay. Thank you. All
right. We'll move on to item four
or announcements and presentations.
Announcements concerning items of community interest.
No action will be taken or discussed.
Council member comments regarding items
of community interest in accordance
with Texas government code, section 551.0415.
Item 4A, council comments.
Mayor, would you allow me to go first?
I was actually just about to say
that we're not gonna have Fred go first
because he gave me grief last time
about always going first, so.
Yeah, please.
Tonight I'm gonna be using my council comments
to facilitate an award, so I want to go ahead and get it out of the way and go first.
Okay.
Here we go.
I can turn it around.
Okay.
Good evening, everybody.
Like I said, tonight I'm going to be using my council comments to facilitate a student
recognition.
My name is Jenna Simpson.
I'm the advisor to the Dickinson Youth Action Council.
I'd also like to bring up Ms. Judith Oppenheim.
She's a voter project chair for the League of Women Voters Bay Area.
Finally, I'd like to call up our DEAC representatives, these children right here, who are going
to help us hand out the awards.
So, together, the Dickinson Youth Action Council and the League of Women Voters work together to bring civic awareness to students at Dickinson High School.
The League of Women Voters works with Dickinson High School throughout the year to provide unbiased voting information to students who are curious about how to register to vote, what documents are needed, and what voting is actually like when you get there.
City of Dickinson's 10-member Youth Advisory Group at Dickinson Youth Action Council, or DIAC, strives to build a culture of active citizenship within our local community through pillars of service learning, action civics, and youth-led advising.
This year's DEAC participated in many projects to engage their peers and bring awareness.
Through our wonderful partnership with the League of Women Voters, our organizations formed
the very first I Voted sticker contest.
Students were invited to draw their own unique I Voted sticker design that reflected voting
patriotism Gator Nation or Dickinson.
We had some outstanding entries come out of this year's Dickinson High School art
classes.
Thank you to the party chairs and Galveston County elections for supporting this project
and thank you to all the artists who submitted an entry.
The stickers will arrive this week and you'll be able to get one of the three winning stickers
if you go to vote at one of the Dickinson voting locations, Dickinson Community Center
or Dickinson City Hall in the upcoming elections in 2024.
So you'll be able to get a special unique sticker that says I voted when you go to vote
drawn by some of our very own students.
I want to start off with this recognition by inviting our two high school art teachers
up here.
Without their help, we wouldn't have gotten this contest off the ground.
They stressed to their students how important this was and how outstanding it would
be to have their artwork featured in an election.
The first recognition I want to give is to Ms. Jennifer
Somerall of
our Dickinson High School, our teachers.
Thank you so much.
And then Ms. Laura Scully.
Thank you very much for getting your students involved in this.
We had a lot of wonderful entries.
And here's some of the entries right here.
If you want to take a look at these,
they work together in the art classes
to come up with these different things.
And then we took submissions.
And then we had a lot of voting
to determine who would be the winners.
So tonight we're going to announce the winners.
So, third place, third place winner was Isai De La Cruz, a sophomore from Dickinson High School.
And there's our artwork up there.
Second place was James Walker, a junior from Dickinson High School.
And then first place was Samantha Sausato, class of 2024 senior at Dickinson High School.
Thanks very much for participating. If you don't mind, we're going to take a couple of photos.
We're going to hit us with a little more, but OK. All right. And next up, Councilman Townsend.
Welcome everybody that's out tonight.
I see there's a lot of tree limbs out. I know you've got your updates. You can let us know on that.
But I also see that there's a bunch of green ones that's showing up. People need to know that we're trying to clean up the storm, not do your housekeeping today.
That's it.
OK. All right. Councilman Brantley.
Good evening. Thanks for everybody's here in person. Everybody attending online.
I don't have a lot of comments this morning this evening. Just wanted to thank everybody for being here. Thank you very much
I thought it was the morning. So you definitely definitely don't all right councilman shake
Thanks everybody for showing up just a brief overview two weeks ago. I attended a
fireworks informational
meeting and met with
city staff and I
Talked with councilwoman Simpson about it
That's going to come up later today
I also attended a basic weather radar Zoom call.
Now you would think that that would be the most boring thing in the world,
but I'm telling you an hour and a half later I was enthralled by this.
Everything you never thought you needed to know about weather radar.
Last Friday we attended the wine and roses gala.
Very well attended. It was at the KC Hall.
last Saturday we attended the citizens all patrol social media again very well
attended just a reminder even though they were already here the strawberry
festival is Saturday from 10 to 4 please come out there it is a great city event
reminder that on May 4th Saturday we'll have our fourth annual bucketers on the
bayou boat parade. Everybody come out and bring your little pirate with you.
One last thing
if we will keep our friends who emit in our prayers for a speedy recovery. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. I'm Councilman Linton.
Good evening everybody. I wanted to mention
the storm that came through. I took some time off from work to drive around town
just to view the damage and drove pretty much the entire city.
So thanks again to my manager for allowing me the time off to go do that after the storm
had hit.
Also related to the storm, kudos to Derek Hunt, EMS director, emergency management coordinator
for keeping us informed with the local weather and taking photos for national weather service
for their post storm analysis.
Also kudos to Public Works for all their hard work during and post storm.
and also to reiterate public works is only picking up storm-related debris,
specifically green debris, vegetative matter, not fences or appliances, building
materials. Also they they did rent another grapple truck and as of the 18th
they have collected 1,931 cubic yards of debris. Next the Hughes Road project
meeting. I apologize for missing that. I had a project at work which continues. I could
not make it. I went over the engineering documents. The only question that I really had was related
to the rectangular drainage and liths geometry and their flow rates from inlet to outlet.
I contacted Mr. Tarani and I'm supposed to talk with him probably next week when he
gets a chance just to give me some specifics. I don't see any major issues. I just wanted
to have a complete and full understanding of it.
Bayou Animal Services Update.
Nina Baker, director of Bayou Animal Services,
wanted me to mention that it is springtime.
Baby cats and wildlife, if you see anything,
do not touch it, do not feed it.
Contact the animal Bayou Animal Services and let them know
and they'll put you in touch with a wildlife support
specialist if necessary.
Also, I'd like to mention that the last dog that I saw
that I looked at last year when I was trying to adopt a dog and in fact the
one that I was going to pick and somebody adopted it and then brought him
back. Storm was adopted last week finally. So all the dogs I looked at are now
adopted and my residual guilt has ended. Thank you all very much for being
part of the solution and not the problem. I met with Yvonne Briscoe the
senior planner for planning and zoning. We discussed GIS data
specifically that is that which is available in the public domain. I've
We used some of that in Google Maps to kind of help me visualize the various aspects of
this job and with multiple public domain layers and they can be used in Google Earth.
So I'm trying to clean up the file and then I have one of the layers which basically
has notes about various projects going on in the city, drainage issues, crime stats,
what have you.
I think it will be a very useful tool for counsel in the future as soon as I clean that
up.
That is also on my wish list of AI to evaluate ordinances as well, Theo, so I've been a bit
busy with the job that pays my bills, but I'll get that to you as soon as possible.
Also I'm going to be meeting with Imai Lewis, with the Executive Director for Imai Lewis,
Angelica Hanley.
I'll be meeting with her tomorrow at lunch to discuss various issues, including some
of the poverty that the city experiences.
I'm also going to be meeting with TextDOT next week if everything stays to plan to discuss
several issues.
Market on the Bayou will be on the 27th of April from 9 to 2 at 2801 FM 517 Road East
right across the street in the parking lot and I did not forget this time.
So it is hosted the second and fourth Saturday of each month.
Starbury Festival has been mentioned. Also the 40th annual American Legion Post 554
Spring Barbecue Cook-Off fundraiser will take place this Saturday for 427 from 10
to 5 and it'll be there on Highway 3 at that Legion Post and the last thing I
wanted to mention was the conversation with Colin. Colin Coker, there he is in
the back, president of the Dickinson Economic Development Corporation. He
We had an open town hall over at Moray about two weeks ago.
I went up there and I saw a couple of people that I usually stay offline as far as social
media, but some of the people I know that have had issues in the past and haven't been
too happy with the city were in there.
When I saw them in there, I hesitated for a second, but then I just walked in.
I'm glad I did.
you know it's it was a very cathartic and healing moment for not just me but
those people there because they saw that I am just a guy that is trying to help
the city that's it I'm just Fred doing what I can actually I told them I was
wondering what I could do to make $75 a month and still upset people at the
same time I was on for city council that's what I'll do but they I had a
a very good conversation with a lot of them, and it seemed that most of the issues were
resolved with just accurate information. That's all these people need. They need to be listened
to and given accurate information. And so I hope that that can help because it's been
kind of contentious and volatile the last several months. I hope that things can improve
and once again to those people out there that are still upset and that weren't at
that meeting. My contact info was on the website, and so is the contact info of everybody up
here, and I'm sure they would be more than happy to answer your questions as much as
I would. That's all I had. And kudos to you, Collin.
All right. Thank you. Councilman Simpson.
Thank you, Mayor. Welcome, everybody. Glad
to see you all here. Since the last council meeting I've attended, of course, we have
the workshop on the Hughes Road project. Also conducted via committee with the
mayor and councilman Brantley of interviews for people desirous of being
on some of the city boards. Also attended the Wine and Roses celebration as well.
Like I said well attended always a great time. I need to find out who makes the
bacon-wrapped jalapeno poppers. That's a favorite of mine. Also spent a week in
Round Rock for the TML Leadership Academy training. I got to go back in May to
finish that training, but great information there. Also went to the
Houston Galveston Area Council for our regular meetings. I attended the plans
and projects committee meeting. I served on that committee and just a
The general reminder that going forward, if we want federal funding for projects, particularly
anything transportation related, the federal government has required that we get a letter
saying our plan is consistent with the regional transportation plan for 2045.
We had some spirit to discuss it around that at the board meeting.
meeting. Vice chair of finance and had to chair that meeting because the chair was absent
and then an board of directors meeting had to chair the finance portion of that meeting
as well. Those are all my comments right now.
Mayor. All right. Thank you. I'd like to welcome
everybody this evening as well. It's good to see so many people here. The big thing
I'd like to talk about really two things. One was of course the storm that we had
a couple weeks back. I want to thank all of the staff, especially public works,
the first responders, PD, EMS, the volunteer fire department for doing a really good job,
but really all of the staff plays some role in something like that happens, and everybody's
happened to help out and coordinate everything, so I really want to thank them for really dealing
with this. We're dealing with it that happened very suddenly, very severely, and I think we're
doing an admirable job out there. Please be patient. I know Theo will talk more about it
in a moment, but we're going around picking stuff up. They're working as hard as they
can as fast as they can, and they're going to get to you.
So please keep that in mind, and know that they're busting it
out there as best as they can.
But I also like to say I also attended the Wine and Roses,
and I had the honor of getting to cut the 200th anniversary
cake with a sword that Mary Dunbaugh gave me, which
was not what she told me when I got there.
But we got through it OK.
There were no injuries, no insurance claims were made.
So it all worked out OK.
Okay, but I appreciate everybody, the invite up to that event and getting to participate.
With that, we'll move on to item 4B, the city manager update.
So I will turn it over to our city manager, Theo Malonzo.
Mayor, council, thank you so much.
This is going to be a few minutes, but I wanted to start off, we have our audit firm here.
We have a representative, Louis Breedlove, if you would be gracious enough to come on up.
As you know, we are in the midst of our FY21 audit.
And as promised, he was going to come in April to give us the status update and kind of give
us the timeline as he sees it.
So, Lewis, thank you for being here.
Sorry.
I'll turn this back around.
Is that good?
Sorry.
Thank you for having me here, counsel.
Yes.
So last time I was here, I gave you all kind of a general outline for what our expectations
were timeline-wise.
I'm happy to say that we are on track for that timeline.
Sarah and the rest of the finance team have been working very diligently to get us everything we need.
We're very, very close at the moment at wrapping up the financial audit piece of the audit.
A few items that we're discussing today are getting wrapped up.
I anticipate those being wrapped up within the week.
And then we are at the beginning stages of starting the single audit as well,
getting all the data necessary for that piece of the audit.
So...
Lewis, can you explain a single audit, why we have to have one, and so forth, just for
counsel to understand?
Yes, sir.
So the single audit is, any time may, currently, any time may, anyone spends $750,000 or more
federal funds, it's not about when you receive it, it's all about when you spend
it.
When it's spent and meets that $750,000 mark, it triggers a single audit, which
which is a detailed audit over those grant funds specifically.
So there are specific federal guidelines on how those funds are supposed to be spent and
so it is our job then to test to ensure that those guidelines were met and so it's very
detailed audit over those funds specifically to ensure that all the proper, depending on
which one it is, but there's various requirements for who you use, how it, with the process
and spending those funds and all these various requirements on how you go about getting those
vendors, which a lot of that does get captured in just the normal operations of the city,
but there's additional requirements on top of that.
So it's testing.
Those specific funds and then those get the separate report that is included in the back
of your report or often a separate report as well, and that gets uploaded to the federal
audit clearinghouse, which is required once you meet that requirement of a single audit.
So there are extra specific requirements for that. This just entails more time than on
on top of the usual procedures performed on a general financial audit.
So we are, as I mentioned at the beginning stages of that part of the audit and wrapping
up that financial piece of the audit.
In terms of just general timeline, so I had mentioned previously, last time I was here,
the plan would be to have the 2021 audit to start at the end of March and get that
done by the end of spring.
We are on target for that.
I anticipate being able to get that wrapped up within the month of probably mid to late
May, which would probably be too late for the May meeting, but so that should be aligned.
I know I think we have an audit committee or a finance committee that we'll have to meet
with as well, so that would give us plenty of time to make that then June meeting.
And then the plan would be to start off that 22 audit in June, and the goal for
that one would be, and it would be a single audit associated with that as well, and the
plan would be to have that done by the end of July. So that would hopefully be able to
allow us to present in August and start in July, August for that 2023 fiscal year audit.
And assuming everything goes according to plan there, I know that 2023 fiscal year
is also that transition year from previous finance software. So there may be a slight
right delay compared to the 22 audit in comparison, but should be able to get that done ideally
by the end of, issued by the end of September and presented in October, which would then
put its right on target to be able to start planning and performing the 2024 fiscal year
audit. So we'll be right where we need to be for the current fiscal year we're in
right now. So that is the goal based on how diligently the team here has been working
for this audit, especially with it. We're asking a lot of questions. There's been a
lot of cleanup on a few accounts. Sarah and her team have done a lot of digging, some
accounts that have been sitting for a few years that have been cleaned up and dug
into and so this audit will be has been has received a deep scrub to get it
cleaned up and in good shape so so I want to assure council that you have a hard
working team that's making it happen and so we're we're we're seeing the light
at the end of the tunnel so thank
you Lewis council I didn't while we had
Lewis here if you had any questions or anything for him I want to open that
I know we'll have this as an item later, but yeah, if you do have any questions, go ahead, Councilman.
Yes, thanks for bringing this up.
I'll turn the mic back on.
I appreciate you doing this.
I'd ask to, you know, hopefully help some people in the city with concerns to have this update done at every council meeting.
Just give us a status on the audit.
So I appreciate that.
I'm glad we're still on schedule.
And correct me if I'm wrong.
But the process right now is related to the previous audit being inaccurate and so you have to have an accurate source
To allow you to you know perform the current audit
So is that correct? I mean that's a very high-level assessment. No, no
We did not have an inaccurate order audit from 2020. Just want to be very clear that is not what's going on
2020 was issued
21
was mid-audit, didn't get completed, we were engaged to come in, and we couldn't just pick
up mid-audit for 21, we had to start fresh, and so we do a full complete audit at 21,
but also because we were the new auditors, we did a lot of beginning balance procedures
for 22 to ensure that we were comfortable with the material accuracy of your starting
numbers for the fiscal year 2020 to 21.
So maybe I phrased that incorrectly, but essentially you're trying to ensure that
that the source information is accurate to allow you to perform the current audit and
have an accurate result.
Is that correct?
Well, in the audit, we would be sure that the source details behind everything that we're
testing is accurate.
So I'm not sure if I'm fully getting your question or not, but...
He's asking if you're having to, you know, some of your work was, since you hadn't
done the audit for 20, you know, that you had to kind of validate and ensure
that the ending balances of the FY20 audit were good so that you could begin the FY21 audit?
That would be correct. Yes, we did. I'm sorry. That's what you were sorry.
Yeah. Sorry. You said it was inaccurate. It may have been aware.
But yeah, so 2020, we were doing beginning balance. We've done beginning balance procedures
for 2020 to ensure we've all balance sheet items are accurately presented for 2020.
So although there were, there was an audit issued for 2020 to ensure that we knew that
the beginning balances were good and accurately going to be able to roll forward and set year
under audit, we made sure that those were true and some of the beginning balances did
require some adjustments, but not too, too many items.
That's all I had.
Mayor, have you had any trouble getting documentation from the staff?
Not at all.
There's definitely been some items requested that they've had to go into storage for and dig for,
and maybe didn't have the answer for right away.
With some of that, we are looking at 21, so there's some folks here that weren't here during that time period,
so they're having to do a little bit of extra digging to get the support necessary, but
everyone's been working as hard as possible to get it done, and so far we've not had an
issue with obtaining support.
Okay.
Next question.
And I know the report is not complete, but thus far have you seen any transactions
that would lead you to believe funds were misappropriated, or any transactions that
that would have led you to refer to a law enforcement agency thus far?
No, sir.
Okay.
What about solvency?
Is the city bankrupt or trending towards bankruptcy based on your findings thus far?
No, sir.
Okay.
That's all.
Great.
Thank you.
Are there any other questions at this point?
All right.
Theo, I'll turn it back over to you.
No.
Thank you very much, your Lewis.
Appreciate you very much.
I just want to take a moment and say that you guys have been great to work with.
Brooks Watson has done an excellent job in picking up where our prior audit firm had left off
of the FY21 audits. I do want to take a moment and thank you in front of council for the hard work
y'all are doing to try to hurry up and pick up where things kind of got left off.
We weren't supposed to be working together to FY22, but here we are in 21, so I got you.
We're going to get it done. Thank you very much.
Absolutely.
I think that's it, Louisa. Thank you, sir. I appreciate you. Anything else before I let
them go before I release them? All right. Your release, sir.
All right. You do have my contact info, so feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
I'm standing. Thank you, guys.
All right. Nina Baker, come on up. We have some Bayou Animal Service staff update as
as well as a certificate presentation as well.
So we'll have that up next.
Hello.
I am Nina, Bayou Animal Services Shelter Manager.
Good evening, everybody.
I'm a little nervous.
Sorry.
OK.
So in 2022, we were awarded this beautiful plaque
because we were able to keep our live release rate 90% or above,
and we were actually at 96% that year.
As you can see with hard work and dedication,
we held true to those numbers
and had a live release rate of 96% last year as well.
So this report of intakes and outcomes
and much more available on our website.
You just go to buyyouanimalservices.org.
You click on the about tab and we provide our monthly data reports.
So anytime you're curious as to how the shelter is doing, how many numbers we have, how many dogs we might have in the shelter at that time,
it's going to show you everything that you want to know.
So happy sales.
This is a part of the shelter that most people know.
You usually get to see the wonderful pictures along with short stories of animals being adopted,
but there's a whole other side to animal control.
and that's animal cruelty.
So the following pictures are a little graphic. I
didn't put the worst ones up trying to save everyone's soul but and these are
pretty bad and all of these pictures were taken here in Dickinson. So animals
being treated like trash, unloved, and malnourished. These are just a few of the
hundreds of animals that come to buy you a need of help. Sometimes we're
able to identify the owners and hold them responsible for not caring for
the animals that depend on them.
Because Dickinson Municipal Court has worked so hard to become a court of record and a
close relationship with Dickinson Police Department, justice is closer than ever for
these pets.
I thought you might enjoy an after-rescued photo.
This is Susan, Amina, and Kitty.
These girls found justice, care, and love in Dickinson, thanks to this city's commitment
to shine.
One of the stories that you probably heard recently is the story of Lakota and Bruno.
This father and son duo were found in a field staked out with no food, no water or shelter.
They were emaciated, full of worms and depressed.
Bruno also had an injured eye that hadn't been treated and it was infected.
This was our first seizure case for horses and we knew we were going to need help because
leaving them out there wasn't an option.
Sergeant Jeremy Kahn of the Galveston County Constables Office was ready to assist us by
helping us get a seizure warrant and to follow through with animal cruelty charges.
Dickinson Public Works quickly showed up with a horse trailer and built living quarters
for the horses on their property.
Dickinson Feed generously donated the food and supplies we needed to care for these
gentle boys.
We were able to find a rescue that would cover all the medical costs and get them
adopted, but they had no open fosters to take the boys in.
For a couple of months, BAS and Public Works shared the responsibility of the boys.
In January, we were expecting a hard freeze and were worried that the horses were still
too thin to withstand the cold winter temperatures.
We reached out to Dickinson Bayou Ranch for help.
They provided two stalls to keep Lakota and Bruno safe and warm, and Holly cared
for them every day.
Day from Dickinson feed and the Crowder family coordinated the transport to the
ranch.
Just a few weeks ago Lakota and Bruno were taken in by Blue Bonnet equine
rescue for training and adoption. This is a fantastic story of a community coming
together to help animals in need. None of these people have ever asked for
recognition or even a thank you. So tonight we would like to officially show
our appreciation to everyone involved in saving these horses and many other
animals that needed our help.
Sergeant Jeremy Kahn, would you come up from please?
Dickinson
Bayou Ranch, Ms. Holly.
Cameron. Cameron from Dickinson Feed and Supply.
Ms. Gina Vega
from Dickinson Municipal Court.
Mr. Phillip from Dickinson Public Works.
And last but
It definitely is not least.
Chief.
From Dickinson Police Department.
Thank you, everyone. Good night.
Next up, I just wanted to go over a little bit about the tree pickup issue. First, I just want to say
public works has done an outstanding job on their part, you know, really, you know, helping to clear
roadways, working with the police department to ensure that, you know, if people were calling
the administration line, that all of the calls were being handled, yes, we are kind of running
into an issue council of people deciding that spring cleaning and pruning would be a great
time of year to go ahead and get those trees trimmed.
And so what we're trying to do, and actually we're probably about a few days away from
public works that basically we're at a place where if we see that the, you know, the greenery
is actually still very green, fresh cut, that public works will be actually taking note
of that and letting the homeowner know that, you know, obviously it's been multiple weeks
since said storm that, you know, we can visibly see that this is, you know, the
leaves are fresh, they're not dried out by now and so we are going to be working on tightening
that up and ending the tree pickup process. We had a budget line item for equipment to
be rented in some events such as this, so we had ample funding in that line item to
go ahead and get a grapple truck for a four-week rental to help out so we could
We've run three crews simultaneously through the city.
We are well above 2,000 cubic yards at this point.
Do want to thank Novus Group as well who's been working with us in opening gates and
things of nature.
In fact, we're going to be working on some type of public-private agreement in the
event of storms for gate access and things of that nature, so that should be coming
into council in the coming months in preparation of hurricane season, just if, you know, it'd
be good to be able to have access and work with them in a partnership when we're in need.
So with that, I would turn it back over to you, Mayor.
All right.
Thank you.
Moving on to item five, public comments.
We don't have any general public comments for this evening.
We have some for specific agenda items.
So without moving on to the consent agenda.
And the following items are considered routine by the City Council and will be enacted by
one motion.
There will not be a separate discussion on these items unless the Council member requests
in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and discussed after the
consent agenda.
Okay.
I was going to pull 6D.
Anyway, the staff asked that we remove that one, but we'll pull all of them.
Okay.
So item 6A, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Dickinson, Texas, accepting
the actions of the City of Dickinson Employee Benefits Trust to accept the offer for employee
medical pharmacy dental and vision insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield authorizing funding
providing for the incorporation of preamble authorizing execution of the offer and renewals
by the City Manager and providing an effective date. So moved. Second. Motion approved by
Councilman Brantley. A second by Councilman Schick. Is there any discussion on this item?
Write None.
Well, take this to a vote.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye, opposed?
Motion carries.
All right, item 6B.
Consideration impossible action to approve the minutes
from City Council's regular meeting held on March 26, 2024.
So moved.
Move with one correction.
Two.
Two, vote.
OK, what?
What's your correction?
My correction is on, it
is a vote
on
item 9b the first vote listed it says it's failed at 4-2 but it was 3-3 okay and
Councilman Townsend he had a correction well he could if you say he could add it
to his motion yeah also under 6e it says that Linton made the first and the
second. I think Brantley made the second on that item. Okay. And your other
correction was what Councilor Simpson said? Or you said you had two?
The other one?
Was that the other one that you had? Yeah, that was one of them. Okay. All right, so my motion. Yeah, one he
brought up. Okay. It's supposed actually it's supposed to be on like the first
vote. Yeah, there'd be two votes. Instead of four it should be three and the two
You should agree with Townsend, Shig, and Brantley.
Correct.
Okay, so you make the motion with those corrections.
All right, there's a second.
Second?
All right, second by Councilman Brantley.
Any further discussion?
Hearing none, we'll take this to a vote.
All those in favor, say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Item 6C, a resolution of the city council
of the city of Dickinson, Texas
to select the proposal submitted by Utility Inc.
In response to RFP 2401 for body
slash in car slash interview camera systems as the best proposal and authorizing the city manager to execute any and all documents necessary
To secure an agreement for such services where they motion on that item
So lose there's a motion to prove by councilman schick. Is there a second?
Second right second by councilman Brantley
discussion
Maybe not if we don't okay. Are there any
We're going to present first but okay go ahead if you've got something that you want to basically
It's a resolution give the city manager the opportunity to determine if we want to move forward with the utility
And we'd like that to move to be the case
Utility is one of the two vendors that responded to our RFP
Our camera system that we're currently using watch guard is it end of life?
In fact some of the equipment we're buying we're having to buy off eBay because it's not made anymore
And we've had donations from another adjacent city of some of their equipment that they
had in storage.
It gave us to kind of keep us moving forward.
So we need a new system.
And this will cover the body cameras, the in-car systems, and two interview rooms.
Basically the infrastructure we currently have now, except this will be new technology.
The gentlemen officers are standing with me, almost all of them.
And one IT representative or part of the committee that reviewed the scoring matrix for the two
vendors that submitted proposals, and utility came out above the other vendor.
They were actually very close.
The median average was 95 for utility and 91 for axon, which is the other vendor.
So, also, utility has unlimited storage where Exxon doesn't.
So the long-range cost with utility is less than Exxon also, as well as the upfront cost
is lower.
So the initial year, as will be paid out over a five-year period, the initial year will
use narcotic seizure funds to the tune of about $88,000 or so to get us up and running.
that the subsequent years, the following four fiscal years, will make a budget
request to cover that. So that'll be roughly about $50,000 per year. So
$88,000 roughly to get us kicked off and then $50,000 for an additional four
years to pay off the system. Any questions? Do you have any questions or
comments on this item?
You said you had two RFPs. We did. That was my
question how many you had we had it out we had you know advertised for the length
of time it's required by law and had several people send inquiries as it was
posted but at the end we only received two oh
councilman shake I'm sorry what
are the other agencies in the area using which equipment are they use oh
it's a variety Galveston PD's using this utility system a lot of people are
using axon because axon used to be taser when the first body camera
a push came out, that was one of the companies that would provide you a bunch of cameras
for free and then of course the back end software, which that's all the expense, then you had
to pay for that.
So a lot of people went with that and stayed with it.
So both these companies, we wouldn't have lost either way with either one of these companies,
or both quality.
And we have officers here that have experience with the Taser axon, and I actually had
experience with the utility, but I actually stayed completely out of the committee part
part of it, let these guys look at it and evaluate themselves, including RIT people.
What do you think the lifespan of a camera is?
Well, these things I know for sure will last five years.
A lot of that has to do with the conditions in which they were used.
The utility system basically is just like your phone, your phone is a computer with
a phone app.
Utility looks just like a cellular phone, it's basically a computer with a camera
app that does a whole lot of other things with GPS and it's got an officer down warning system
so if the camera goes horizontal it starts a 10 second countdown and then if the officer
is still down, if that camera is still down, it will pinpoint within the size of a parking
space where the officer is.
So that's, I don't really want to use that ever, but that's certainly a nice part for
this camera system.
Okay, great.
Thank you.
Any other questions or comments?
Oh, yeah.
Councilman?
Will this system replace everything we have altogether?
Will there be any transition where we have two systems running at the same time?
Should not.
No, this is the entire total solution.
And everything that we keep like record of, for example, videos and whatnot,
how is the transition for that going to be held like a storage for all of that?
Does that come with this software as well?
It's unlimited storage with utility.
Where's Mina at?
I'm George.
My IT folks say,
Once you started talking to IT, that's why they were on the committee, but the one company
offered, I think 10 terabytes, was that correct, Mina or George?
And then you had to buy additional terabytes, so would you answer that?
Hello.
So yes, AXON, it was going to be five terabytes initially, and then we were going to have
to purchase terabytes in bulk.
So the next five would have been a couple of $18,000 and then if we were going to do an unlimited storage with them it would have been like close to $50,000 for only 33 body cameras.
So the more body cameras you would add the more expensive it was going to be for the storage.
Is that like a cloud storage or a hard storage?
So the initial costs would have been a la carte and then the after that the
unlimited after you hit a certain amount of storage it would have been for the
five-year duration of the contract. Hey George just to answer two questions one
One is, is this company going to, is this a cloud solution or is it going to be one
that we have to maintain servers?
So utilities?
Yes.
It's going to be cloud-based.
Okay, cloud-based.
Part two is to address the previous question.
What is going to be the transition and data retention for our current camera system
or do we have a transition plan for that?
What are we going to be doing to maintain that, at least for the short term, obviously
we have some things that will be active cases or even a certain data retention, are we going
to be keeping that locally or is that going to be transitioned over to utility?
No, so from what I understand, I think that we do have that storage separate.
It's going to be totally separate system that we will still have access to.
But we'll be saving that locally, correct?
We're going to be keeping it on servers or is that going to be in a cloud-based system?
The one we have now, that's a, I believe it's going to be, that's a question for my IT director.
It's going to have to be local, just to answer the question for you.
I was mostly trying to figure out what is going to happen to our existing records.
Are they going to be merged into the new system or are they going to remain on a separate system?
Oh, okay, yeah, it'll be separate.
Do you have an answer?
All right.
So the current flood guard system, it's on-prem system.
So I have no information if utility will move this information over, but we can keep the
records since it's on-prem server, just in case if needed for any information.
Yeah, it'll probably be a lot easier if we just keep them separate, usually whenever
you start merging systems and start asking them to communicate with each other.
That's usually how you get data loss.
So we'll probably have to really look at if we're going to bring it into the
utility system.
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Yeah, for clarity, the utility system is unlimited storage.
It's included with the system that George was talking about.
That's the other vendor.
They offered five terabytes up front,
but then you had to buy additional.
And we were running about 15 terabytes now.
Yeah, 17 terabytes.
17 now.
So that would have been an additional cost.
It wasn't part of the RFP that we had to.
The community actually dug into that a little deeper
and was able to discover that.
So the committee did a fantastic job, I think,
evaluating these these two vendors. Appreciate it, thank you. Any other
questions or comments? I have a question and it's more for you Theo, but
I'm looking at this thing and the resolution to approve the RFP response, all that's in the packet is the RFP itself.
There's no response, or it states in the resolution that city council, the evaluations attached here to this exhibit, having been reviewed by the city council city of Dickinson
I don't see any of that.
Are they attachments?
Are you saying it's the resolution or the RFP itself?
I'm going to it right now.
The only thing attached is the RFP.
There should be, like, six attachments.
No, he's saying the resolutions there,
but the stuff that the people submit it is not.
It's just a call for the RFP,
but not the actual responses to it.
I hate to do that but you can do what you want but there's you know there's
reason why we put an RFP committee together but yeah we'll get it back we'll
get it back next month you can or not it depends I don't understand the
problem you're asking us to approve something and that and what you're
asking us to approve is not in the agenda there's
a motion to table from
Councilman Brantley we got motion on the floor or is Brantley taking back his
second shit taking back his first so they get table will have precedence over
motion the table is no motion the table is is perfectly acceptable there's a
motion table of a councilor Brantley second my councilman shit all those
in favor say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
All right.
Item 6D was asked, staff asked.
I'm sorry?
Oh, item 6D was asked, was asked to pull that item because it is moot at this point.
I think they're working on resolving the issue.
The is poo?
Yeah.
And we don't need to take action on it.
The issue's being resolved.
You know, as if I can just real quick so this acreage here is just so you know is that this
is going to be coming up as a donation because a property owner has had their property reclassified
as a floodway which is going to severely restrict their ability to do anything with
the property.
And so this may be an opportunity for us to use that for future flood mitigation
and detention.
It's on the survey it has it's up on California so it's on the so there's a survey attached
that should be about 4.7 acres on there and it's on California kind of it's near a mobile
home park can we get a real good I guess we can just skip the item so there's no action
on this nobody makes a motion there's there something legal that they need to clear up
on the title.
All right, I'm going to move on to items, to number seven, public hearings and action
items from public hearings.
Item 7A, conduct a public hearing concerning a request for a specific use permit for a church
in a neighborhood commercial, neighborhood commercial zoning district for approximately
.33 acres located at 5818 East FM 517, excuse me, legally described as abstract 36, WG banks
We're as a block one replant, FKA Watts, 5-6-7, and eight block two tropical gardens.
We will begin this public hearing at 7.04 p.m.
Start with the staff presentation.
Council, you've actually seen this previously.
It actually came before you a couple of times before.
They were approved for a specific use permit about two years ago.
They were approved for a six-month extension about a year ago, and that has lapsed.
And so now they are seeking approval for the specific use permit for the church again.
They had site-a-plan approval through planning and zoning.
If this gets approved, they'll have to go through that process as well.
That's what staff has.
All right.
Thank you.
Does the applicant have...
Are they here?
They want to say anything?
Yeah.
I think we had one person signed up.
Is this...
It doesn't have a name.
It just says approval expiring.
Okay.
All right.
No applicant presentation.
no rebuttal so we will adjourn the public hearing at 7.05 p.m. and move on to item 7B.
Consideration and possible action to approve an ordinance on a specific use permit for a church in a
neighborhood commercial zoning district for approximately plus or minus .33 acres located at
5818 East FM 517. Legally described as abstract 36 W.G. Banks Rez 8 block 1 replant FKA lots 5-6-7
and eight block to tropical gardens approved by Councilman Brantley a
second by Councilman Simpson is there any discussion is sorry mayor is this one
of the ones where they got approval and then the hold up was them getting the
state stuff in yes they were they did not get their text on approval until
September and last year and that pushed everything back and these expired in
December. Okay. So they get text dots approval? They do have a text dot driveway approval now.
They don't have nothing in the way now other than they got to go through the process again.
That's correct. Thank you.
And the approval is for how long? The approval that you're
granting for the specific use permit is for them to obtain permits within one year.
Why do we need to do it a year? They've already done everything. Why can't we
We put a limit on that of six months.
You can if you want.
Our code does say that the initial approvals for a year and then extensions are for six
months.
But you can set it at whatever you want to.
Do they have a specific timeline?
Do they need a year to do what they're doing?
So no, right now they actually have permits in.
They need to do revisions on their plans.
They do not meet our current requirements, but they do have an application in and
we're going under review with that waiting for a resubmission and they're pending this
outcome for the resubmission currently.
So just to be clear, maybe Yvonne or Theo or both can answer this question.
So if I understand you correctly, you were telling Councilman Schick that the ordinance
has an extension of six months, but is this a new, this is a whole new application
so it would be a year, the default motion would be a year.
Yeah, because you already did one extension, another extension is not allowed.
I see.
So you were doing the whole.
I just bring that up just to understand what we what is on the table at present so the current motion would do it for a year
I just want to be sure works
We already approved this once
Now they're having to go through because it doesn't meet the code. So why not meet the code the first time
They're not going through it again because they did not meet the code
They're going through it because they let it expire understand that but then you said they have to make some changes
some because it doesn't meet her code their site plan so how did the site plan
get approved last time did it meet her plan and something changed that it
doesn't meet it now it was a general site plan that had two entrances that are
not quite wide enough to meet fire code and so they were given a
conditional approval on the site plan at that time okay thank you any other
questions or comments? Hearing none, I'll take this to vote. All those in favor say
aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. The staff has also asked that we pull item 7C. It is
not ready to be discussed as of yet. So unless someone is going to take some action, I'm
going to go past that one to item 7D. Item 7D, conduct a public hearing concerning
prescribing that the notice be given of the time and place of the public hearing
to be held for the future proposed adoption of the Unified Development Code in Associated
Citywide Resoning, shall be by publication of said notice in a newspaper as provided
by the Texas Local Government Code, Section 211.006A.
We will begin this public hearing at 7.08 p.m.
We'll start with the staff presentation.
We've been working on the Unified Development Code for, I would say, two, two-and-a-half
years now.
we're reaching the point where we have released a draft of the code and then
also a draft of the proposed zoning map. We're actually preparing to go ahead
and release that to the public, probably, you know, by next week most likely, and
we're basically looking at what it would take to do the rezoning of that
citywide rezoning and adoption of the unified development code.
All right, so we'll move on.
We do have one public comment on this item with Mr. Garland Copeland.
Okay, all right.
We have no other comments for this item, so I will adjourn to public hearing at 7.09 p.m.
We'll move on to item 7e, consideration and possible action concerning prescribing
that the notice to be given of the time and place of the public hearing to be held
for the future proposed adoption of the unified development code
and associated city-wide rezoning shall be by publication of said notice in a
newspaper as provided by Texas local government code section 211 point zero
zero six eight second by Councilman Simpson any discussion
I got a question so we're
just setting this up for the public comments and
everything for the new unified development code yeah to start the
process we have to announce the public hearing. So I thought somewhere in here I've seen where they were talking about taking away the, they were changing it on the SUPs.
Oh, you're talking about 7 and C, that was the item that they asked me to poll, yeah, to skip over. Yeah, this is just about the UDC.
I'm looking at the right one. Right. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
What kind of time frame are we looking at to do the public hearing?
We're actually looking at an open house and two public hearings in May and then adoption in June.
Okay.
Any other questions or comments?
Hearing none, we'll take this to a vote.
All those in favor, say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
Item 8, ordinances.
Item 8A, consideration and possible action to approve an ordinance of the city of Dickinson, Texas to amend Chapter 4,
four animals of the City of Dickinson Code of Ordinances by amending Section 4-3 entitled
definitions, repealing Section 4-14 entitled license and registration fees, retitling Division
2 of Article 2, amending Sections 4-41 entitled required and 4-42 entitled exceptions, repealing
Sections 4-43 entitled proof of vaccination, 4-44 entitled ballot period, 4-45 entitled
animals brought into the city and 4-4-6 entitled identification tags and a
many section 4-6-7 entitled vicious animal registration required
providing a repealer clause, a penalty clause and an effective date. Move to
approve. It's a motion approved by Councilman Simpson. Is there a second? Second by
Councilman Linton. Any discussion? If you didn't guess what this is, it's
about dangerous animal registration. So is it for dangerous animal only or for
For any animal, you've got to explain what you're doing, please.
So the only reason why we changed the dangerous animal portion is because it included the licensing and registration.
We're actually taking the licensing completely out of the ordinance because the licensing actually means when they would have to come to the shelter,
do some paperwork, get a physical tag that they would hang on their collar.
what we've changed is that we want it to be a mandatory microchip so one time
once in a lifetime implant for a microchip and so as long as that
microchip is registered then there are compliance. It's only for dangerous animals.
No, for every. Somebody moves into town tomorrow with a non-dangerous animal. They
don't have to have the microchip and all that stuff. They do and even a
dangerous animal would every animal would need to be microchipped. With
this change. Yes sir. So everybody in town has to get a microchip now? Yes sir.
One year to do it. Yeah so first we're gonna be offering a whole a lot of free
microchip events to kind of get everybody on board. The whole purpose for
this, so we did the numbers for the last two years because our record
keeping is outstanding these days and we were able to see that 40% of the
animals that were brought into Dickinson were actually from people that
don't live in Dickinson. Our current protocol requires us to take the animal in as long as
the animal was found in Dickinson. But because we're on no kill shelter, people shelter shop.
And so these dogs I'm sure are coming from all over the place to get to us. And so once
we change that protocol, if a citizen's dog is picked up by someone that might be
traveling through from Galveston or something, we're not going to take that dog in unless
that person that found the dog is from Dickinson and they have a Dickinson driver's license
or if that dog is microchipped and registered to a citizen of Dickinson.
So
let me ask a hypothetical question.
Okay.
All right.
What would happen if you discovered somebody didn't have their dog?
Like, their dog was lost and they were at the shelter and they end up seeing that
they're there and they show up and we see that it wasn't microchipped?
What would happen then?
So once we're we don't actually plan on taking action writing tickets and
things for about six months probably because I'd really like to we have a
plan to put out flyers and do a lot of events we have the option to have
completely free microchips right now because we have a good partnership with
Finano so every time we put a microchip in and we register it they
automatically send us a free microchip and so we'll be getting the word out
there for I'm assuming six months is gonna do it I think I need
I want to see the kind of turnout that we get from the events.
How common is this in other cities, do we know?
It's pretty common. I think the licensing portion of our ordinance is pretty outdated because even with a rabies tag, dogs lose those all the time.
Yeah, people often don't do that.
Cats don't even wear collars, so.
Right, okay. Just curious. And offhand, what is the fine schedule for this?
it's going to be the same as everything else and it's a $200 I think it's not
more than 2,000 okay yeah the normal the birds yeah all right yeah so
everybody's clear whether you move in the town or you already live here you got
one year to get a chip microchip put in your animal yes there yeah cuz people
lab-packed bags and horses. We've recently come into a lot of horse issues.
I understand you and I didn't come if they got the microchip.
Yes, sir. I ain't got no problem with that.
About the curiosity, I know we have this free program in place.
What does a microchip cost if it's not, if somebody had to pay for it?
It would cost the shelter probably like $3 and on a normal day we would charge $15
Just on a regular day, we've actually been giving free microchips this whole year so far just to try to get people on board and we've done a couple events, but if you guys approve tonight, we'll be hitting that hard and giving out a lot of them.
I'll refer to the city of Dickinson.
Go ahead.
It counts one.
I have a question about it.
You mentioned that if you found an animal and it wasn't chipped and it didn't belong to anybody here, where did those animals go if they're not turned over to the animal shelters?
They would go to the jurisdiction that the person's driver's license is in.
Whoever found them, so if you found them and you live in wherever you send them over there.
And so what if the person lives like kind of far away and how does the we absorb the cost for that
or what happens for that? If the person that found that is visiting they live in like
A. Lee for something like how are we going to get that animal over there?
They would take them. We wouldn't even take the animal in.
You have to take it with you. You can't leave it here.
right okay thank you
when you get an abandoned dog call or a dog loose so
you're gonna go out there and you're gonna check to see if it's got a
microchip in there yes sir we got to do that every single time and then what
happens if you run across this dog and it has no microchip then we're gonna
bring it to the shelter if it's animal control bringing a dog in animal
control can still bring dogs in because I know that they found them in our
jurisdiction. They most likely belong there. The problem that we're having is
that the people that are they're not citizens of Dickinson so they maybe
don't want to bring their animals to another shelter that is a high-kill
shelter and so they're coming all the way here to drop their animals off. So
this won't prevent people from dumping dogs in the city of Dickinson? No sir.
I don't know anything that would honestly. Our cats or whatever it is.
It's not going to stop it, but there's two numbers in our little reports that we do every
month that we can certainly change.
One of those numbers is intake, and that's about a 40% difference on intake would make
the shelter a whole different place, because literally 40% of people, they weren't citizens.
The other number that we can change is that return to owner number, and the microchip
is the way to do that.
After the year is up and you go through all of it, you find a stray dog and somebody comes in that says it's mine.
Are you all going to chip the dog and charge them or are you going to give a fine on them or what?
So this is going to, it's not only going to, we're not only going to be able to change the protocol of how we intake dogs,
but also what happens to the actual animal when they come in.
And so currently, we give them DHPP and Border Tele to protect them physically.
But with this ordinance, we can actually hit them with a microchip just as soon as they
go through the door.
And so that part's already done.
And then if no one comes to claim them, then we go through the whole process and get
them adopted.
Okay.
Thank you.
So could this potentially be a deal where, you know, I looked back to the scenario
I brought up earlier, right, where you kind of say, well, on the one hand, there's
a fine.
On the other hand, we could just tip your dog for $3 instead.
How does that sound?
So I guess what I'm getting at is you know, you don't necessarily want to start
I think there will be many good intentioned people who don't have their animal chip through no issue and
I just and I'm not saying that I think y'all would I but people are listening to this and they may be saying my god
We're gonna get fine $200 we don't ship our dog
And I just kind of want to have it laid out there that I mean I guess if you want to pay $200 or you could just say
Why don't we just ship your animal right right here exactly consider the matter close so for free. Yeah
We'll do it for free.
Got you.
Okay.
Good deal.
We would prefer that.
Yeah.
I kind of figured.
I just wanted to say it out loud and let you say it.
Appreciate that.
Any other questions or comments?
You may have answered this.
What is our cost to chip an animal?
Zero.
So our relationship with Finano makes it to where every time we put a microchip
in, whether that's a community's pet or a shelter pet, Finano automatically sends
This is a brand new microchip for free.
They make their money through the registration portion.
So when people adopt the pet or take their pet home,
you have to register that microchip.
And that's how they make their money,
mostly by ads for insurance and stuff like that.
Is there a cost to register the chip?
For some chips, there is.
For fine animals, there's not.
OK.
And what if you have an animal that's already chipped?
I
mean one that was found no just say you double-chipped it on accident yeah
so we scan when they when they get before they get in our vehicles we scan
when they come through the door we scan when we weigh them we scan when we
medicate them we scan when we spay neuter them it's a non-stop process
because we've actually had a few dogs that the microchip does migrate and
they would be down in the elbow and someone special happened to go along
that time and check them so anytime before their microchip they're
are always scanned thoroughly.
Questions or comments?
Yeah, it's basically an identification mechanism
to allow you to minimize the amount of animals
that you have to intake.
So we're not full all the time.
And so as far as the comment that was made earlier
about the time, the implementation
shall occur by the animal reaching six months of age
or within 30 days after the animal was acquired or brought
into the city which ever is later. The year that was mentioned that is when the
actual, if approved, that this takes effect. Correct. I really, I don't want to
change the rules in the middle of the game without letting every player know. So
we're going to be super conscious about just letting everyone know as many
people as we can get to listen.
Any other questions or comments? All right.
Hearing none, we'll take this to a vote and this is a one reading deal or is
those two readings all
right that's what I just wanted to clarify that okay it's
very well we'll take the vote all those in favor say aye aye opposed motion that
carries all right we'll move on to item 9a discussion and possible action to
appoint members to the zoning board of adjustments BOA billing standards
Commission BFC and planning and zoning Commission P&Z board of directors
before we get to this item I would like to make a couple notes so we did
use our we use the process of the committee process and so we had the kind of the subcommittee
did the initial interviews with all of the people that are up for potential nomination.
However, and we have asked them to be here tonight so I'm going to ask them to get up
and speak and say something. However, we want to be sure that council does have ample
time to go through everything look through the applications make sure. So it would
be my intention to perhaps not vote this evening unless that is the stringent desire
council that I would say let's let everybody speak do whatever and then
we'll we'll do the appointments at a later date the next week. I'll make a
motion to table it and then we can let them speak. Well before you tell I was going to say just let them speak and then we can we can do that if that
works out and we do have Mr. Garland Copeland signed up for this item as well we'll
give others the opportunity. In addition.
Council.
The agenda as written was very
unclear about exactly what was going to take place tonight. I'm one of the
members that has been on two of these the standards board and the standards
Commissioner and the adjustment board.
I've been listed as an alternate for the
Board of Adjustment. Were your intent tonight to wrap the slate clean and bring
in all new people or were you going to carry over past tonight some of the
existing members of these bodies?
I feel like that you would benefit from
having a few carryover with some experience on this so that's the way
the your agenda was written I didn't I couldn't tell what was gonna happen
tonight so I can address a little bit of that since it's on the item so I've in
a prior meeting we had we'd laid out our our position that we weren't going
to remove anybody who's currently on there so if this is to fulfill more
vacancies in the packet itself on the cover sheet it lists out more of
rationale and talks about their vacancies and that the goal was to fill those
vacancies. So no, that wasn't the intent, but I don't think we're going to take any
any action tonight in any event. Well, the last comment would be as an alternate, I've
got experience. I'd like to just be moved up to a voting member. Understood. All right.
Thank you. Okay, so kind of what I'd like to do is give the the applicants
against for the board's opportunity to get up and speak.
So I'll just go in order.
I know one had to leave.
I saw that she was here and she had to go.
But Alyssa Rodriguez, was she here or did she leave?
She left.
She left, okay, that's one of that.
Oh, you're there, okay.
I'm sorry, there's also another,
there's a Jennifer Rodriguez, is the one that line, okay.
Hello city council members.
All right, so I've lived and grew up in Dickinson.
And this would be a great opportunity to make Digginson liveable, as in when you were telling
me about those apartments that were not liveable,
this would be a great opportunity.
Which board is she going for?
Planning and zoning?
Yes.
And building standards?
And building standards, yes.
Yeah, several of them are for all, but a lot of people in the application checked multiple
boards.
Okay.
Next, Collin?
Collin?
Howdy, Council.
My name is Collin Haida.
My partner and I, back in October, purchased a home over on the west side of Dickinson.
I'm a two-time graduate of Texas A&M and aerospace engineering, and I've been here in the
Houston area, working in space flight for about three years now, a little over.
One of the reasons of why I decided to apply for boards and commissions is I think young
people need to provide their perspective to the cities.
And I think that what I would bring is really a passion to make the community better.
and I'm ready to jump right in and I appreciate y'all's consideration. All right, thank you very much.
And next we have David Floyd.
I mean, you don't have to.
But I will. I never pass up an opportunity. I'm David Floyd. I've been a resident of Dickinson for 30-something years now.
I was on the Building Standards Commission for two or three years. I was chairman for two years.
years. I think good people need to volunteer for these jobs. I noticed that you lost some
good people on there. I don't know why, I don't have any idea. I'm in favor of zoning.
I think it's a good thing. I'm in favor of the Building Standards Commission taking
out these old buildings and getting rid of them and making clean land that can be used
for something else. And I know the drill with it. I know the laws that go along
with it. I've been through all the training and I just volunteered my time. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Next, Denise King. Oh, yes, ma'am.
Oh, we're still going through.
It's not in any order or anything. It's just I have a random order of people on the page.
I will get to you. I will get to you. Hello, Mayor, City Manager, City Attorney,
Council. My name is Denise King. I wasn't born here in Texas, but I got here as fast
as I could as soon as I got out of the military. When I come from in Chicago, they don't tell
you that there's eight months of summer here. The only time we see y'all is when there's
a hurricane. So I think I would be good on the Building Standards Committee because
He says, I come from Chicago, I've seen what is considered normal living conditions and what is not.
All right, thank you very much. Next we have, Jennifer's not here, we have Kevin Lane.
Good evening. I'm Kevin Lane. I'm a retired Air Force veteran, currently on Air Force civilian working at NASA.
So I've been living in Dickinson for a couple, going on three years now, and so I'm volunteering my time
and what basically a little expertise I got in pretty much anything to help the city where I can.
And so you guys just please see where you want me
and see what happens.
Okay, thank you.
And Nifip Rashid Shakur.
Hello all.
So these days I'm not working
because I'm a stay home dad.
So I have a lot of free time.
I like to give back to the community
and help people as much as I can.
I recently did some volunteer work for IRS
the tax preparation centers. Unfortunately that work was ended April 15th so I was
looking for some more volunteer work around my house and I come across the
city of Dickinson website. I saw these board of adjustments, board of zoning
commission so I applied for these. My background I own a small business, own
and managed it for about 15, 16 years in Texas City.
So I have a lot of experience dealing with public.
And I did some construction work also.
So I thought I would be a good candidate for building
standards or zoning commissions.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And next, William Brown.
It's good to see you all face to face.
We just saw everybody electronically, so that goes for everybody, except David who showed up anyway.
Yeah, I don't know about you guys, that camera doesn't do any of the justice.
So I'm William Brown, so I've been lived in Dickinson roughly 10 years.
I've volunteered with youth services like baseball, football for several, many years because I have a couple kids.
And I want to give back to the community and have an input in that, in the community for them.
because they are our future, not us.
So I want to put something forward for them.
I have different walks of life.
I've had four different careers in my span of life.
So I want to be able to put that knowledge to use
and to be able to use my time to be able to,
like I said, make something better for them.
Thank you very much, sir.
And now we have Danielle Smith.
There you are.
See, I did not forget you.
Good
evening Council. My name is Danielle Smith. I've been a resident for Dickinson for five years
I'm deeply invested in the city's growth and improvement and I feel like I can offer a unique and diverse
perspective when it comes to the choices and the choices that will go before the committee
I
Bear in mind that I will all my decisions that I make and will benefit all residents of Dickinson
And I have a passion for enhancing our city in any way that I can.
Thank you.
Thank you very much ma'am.
And Nick, we have Sarah Simena.
Good to see you.
I'm probably one of your newest residents.
I actually closed escrow on my house at the end of 22.
So I've been here just over a year and I really am involved.
I was involved where I previously lived.
And I have to say, I am in agreement with just about everybody else that's come up here.
A passion to be part of the improvements, a passion to create an environment that grows
with the families that move here and make this a place where people not only want to
come and move, but want to stay and their kids want to come back to and improve and
build.
So, yeah, just to volunteer wherever you need me, I'm super happy.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you.
And we also have Stephanie Brown as our last one.
So if I missed anyone after Stephanie, please speak up.
Well, I'm prepared because I typed something up,
but I do have a little bit to add.
My name is Stephanie Brown and I reside on Casa Grande.
I know I've met with several of you before.
Tonight I did sign up to serve
on Planning and Zoting Committee
and so I'm asking for your consideration
to be on the committee.
I am a DeGreed Businesswoman
who can bring personal experience as well as able to use my professional skills when representing
the city have excellent communication skills which can bring an open dialogue. I have an
understanding of master plans and their importance when building the community and I'm able to
look at the difference of opinions and use decision making skills and the best interest
of the city of Dickinson, its business owners and residents. And I'm like everybody else,
I have a passion, I had a situation on my street, and it's kind of sparked me to want
to be able to serve in a capacity and try to help bridge together and move the city forward.
I know we have a new adoption that y'all are going to be making that y'all were talking
about the unified co-development, so I'm interested to see how that plays out.
But I hope you consider me, and I appreciate it.
All right.
Thank you very much, ma'am.
And I and I that should be everyone unless I miss someone Jennifer
Why not okay, I was gonna say you do not look like Jennifer
I was just texting her because I saw her world walk out. She said she had to go to work
My name is John O Valley. I'm a resident here in Galston
I've known judgment for about for about a year and a half, but I know she's been involved in this community
She grew up here. She's a volunteer firefighter with Dickinson Fire Department and she's also on the citizens on patrol.
That's where I met her. And she likes to stay involved and she comes out to a lot of functions and she makes fire calls.
But as I've known her, I've been trying to talk to her to get involved because she's 22, 23 years old.
She's a young lady and we need to get more young people involved and so she has applied I believe for the
Building Standards Commission
But anyway, you know, I think that's all she was gonna say that she really wants to serve and get involved in her community
Like all the young people in this town should be doing. Thank you
And I would like to know in her you know to her credit she was here and everything
You know these can just take a little bit longer some time
So she she was absolutely here. So I'm really pleased that everybody showed up for this as well. So that is that is awesome
So like I said, we want to be sure that everybody gets a chance to look over everything and so we're not gonna do anything tonight
but we will let everybody know and
It means a lot that y'all took the time to a to apply and then be to be here and speak and and all of that. So
Anyway, yes
Well, I would say we could just go past it. We don't have to take any action but
up to y'all. We don't have to do anything. So, yeah. It will die for lack of a motion.
So, okay. Now, items 9B through 9D should have been executive session items, so we'll
do those in executive session, then we'll come out and take any action. So we'll
go to item 9E, discussion regarding the prohibition of fireworks and possible options
to revise. Now, there's no action item listed here, even though it's under 9,
So, this is a discussion item, as I understand.
Yes, just to kind of preface some of the conversation about the fireworks was, you know,
Council Member Bill Schick has been, you know, kind of spearheading, kind of working on really trying to understand kind of what other municipalities are doing
and kind of wanted us to kind of sit down and kind of figure out what's the next steps forward, you know,
What's the pallet for eliminating the prohibition on fireworks and what would be, if so, what
would be the steps for us to take to make that happen?
So Bill, is there anything you want to add?
I just want to be able to kind of open the invitation.
We did have a meeting a couple of weeks ago and the committee members, we could
not find anything that we were breaking any laws that would increase insurance rates
and it's strictly a community decision and we have several ways to do it. We can
repeal the the existing ordinance or we could put it in front of the voters in a
referendum and let them decide how to do it. But we're just trying to get
community input into this thing as to which way you think it would be best
to go forward. Now I know as far as a vote I don't think we're allowed to do like a binding
referendum but I do know in the last charter amendment we did add because I'm the one that
brought it up but we added a non-binding so we could call a you could hypothetically
call a non-binding vote at that point. So they did Brexit. But yeah anyway. Mayor.
out of curiosity how many tickets do we write during the holidays that people
want to let off fireworks I think we've only I think this past year I think we're
maybe one and it was because the person when was when they were told to stop
lighting fireworks stood right in front of the fire motion went ahead and let
one right in her face yeah I did that ride along and that was the only one
that I was aware of that night.
Most of them were warnings.
If we don't do, we don't really issue
tickets unless it's that blatant.
And I believe the judge enforced that to a maximum penalty.
Councilman Townsend?
One of the problems is if they're popping them
and they see headlights, they're
in the house before the headlights get to the driveway.
There's none left but smoke and there's nobody out there.
My neighborhood sounds like a war zone.
My wife, she don't like it in me, I could care less.
Actually, it in me.
But the law passed because they were a hazard
and they burned things down.
Taught Timbers in 1978 burned down
because they had a wood roof on it
and a bottle rocket hit it.
Burnt that whole building down.
Fourth of July of 1978.
That's where your laws come from, of course.
Which Ingalls are outlawed now?
But that's what we're talking about.
And then just to kind of add on one of the biggest changes that makes it really hard
to enforce as well to go along with Councilmember Townsend's sentiment is that they, you know,
if you actually go on social media and you go to the different Facebook neighborhood pages,
there's a real-time tally of where the patrol and fire marshal is at all times,
depending on which. So if you actually have all the social media pages up of all the neighborhoods
in Dickinson, I don't even have to know where my officers in Fire Marshal are because they'll
tell me in a matter of in real time in minutes. So it's one of the big issues is once someone
enters into that neighborhood, they're posting it. And so everyone hurries up and waits
till they get the posting that that you know person has left, you know, the patrol.
So I mean, we're you know, there are some things that sound good in the way the
ordinance was written, but it's really hard to enforce because of, you know, changes in
technology with whether it's the shingles changing or on the other hand, you know, the instant
communication that exists now.
So oh, go ahead, Councilor.
It's been a real drain on our police department during these events.
We we've been very fortunate that we haven't had a major event because all of our officers
are chasing sound all over Dickinson. It's just practically unenforceable in this situation.
The only way you're going to stop it is, you gotta got the ticket, he had it coming. I'm sorry.
But they ask you to put it out and you light it in front of them, you deserve everything you get.
I'm sorry. If you're that stupid, I'm too bad.
But some of the sentiment I heard was if you write two or three $2,000 tickets,
I don't get on Facebook and they'll quit popping.
You may not stop at all, but if you write a few tickets and you make them pay the price.
So I guess some of the reasons why I kind of opened the forum up was to kind of understand kind of what does council have, you know, because there are multiple routes to take one would be the non-binding referendum.
them say for the November ballot. Another would be for us to engage our city attorney
to put together an ordinance if you would like depending on how y'all want to do it.
Just want to let you know there are multiple avenues to where to go from here or are you
happy with the way things are. Obviously that's an option too but we just want to kind of
understand what the pleasure of council is so that when we start engaging our resources
we know what direction we're trying to drive it in.
I would I'm somewhat dubious because there are a number of complaints about this that at least my sense and I could be wrong so maybe there would be a vote and I would be proven wrong that there's a large portion of the city population that does not want fireworks legalized within the city limits.
But even if I didn't have that view, I would still, for me, I would want to see just get
some like data together about, you know, I know we had that one ticket last year.
How has it been other years?
What was-
We see that night, like, to collate some kind of data about this, what other cities have
done, what has happened in these other cities. You know, that would be something I would want
to see before we were to do anything, even a non-binding reference. That's just me.
So I do have some call volume that we researched this year and last year. And within about
a three, three-and-a-half hour period, we had 40 calls within a three-and-a-half
hour period.
There was one ticket given out last year and I believe one ticket
given out the year before. Just out of curiosity so you know because obviously a
late person here is a number 40 over say three to three and a half hours. What
does what does 40 mean? Is that a high volume, low volume? So that's a pretty
high volume. That's the average of 12 to 13 calls an hour.
So you get 12 to
13 calls in one hour. You don't have enough people to address those calls.
I understand. Okay.
Are there any stats on the number of fires that were caused by the fireworks?
We do not have those, no.
I did reach out. I spoke to a councilman from Leek City and I know they are also,
I don't know how far they are within theirs.
They are discussing
doing something with their fireworks as well.
Did Santa Fe has, their farm marshal brought it up a few years ago?
I thought it was very recently they brought it up.
And they shot it down, but I did speak to some other farm marshals around our area and
they're in agreeance.
It's just, it's overwhelming and uncontrollable.
I see.
Okay.
So that's kind of what we're good at.
So from the staff level, at least from where you're sitting, you'd be more in
favor of repeal in the ordinance than not.
Yes sir.
Okay, I don't want to put you on a spot like that,
but you kind of said it, so I went ahead and did, okay.
And that would be some of the conversations
I'd like to be able to have,
and not necessarily put people on the spot in public either,
but maybe ask some staff myself,
like, what do you think about this and all that?
But I appreciate you saying that though,
and giving your view.
So, I mean, as far as where to go,
I mean, I'd say what I'd like to see,
but that doesn't mean that's what we have to do,
but sure.
If it's a non-binding referendum, I wouldn't do it in November, why waste the money?
Do it in May when you've got your regular elections, and why spend money on an election that doesn't mean anything?
Right, it's up to the pleasure of the council to do whatever it wants to do.
And we would have a lot of time to make that decision anyway, so sure.
And actually, the Charter provision that allows for that non-binding referendum does require that it be put on the same election as another city election.
Okay, so it would have to be during the regular, okay.
Yes, sir.
November.
No, it would have to be in May.
That would be with one of our elections.
If we'd be too late for May, would we not?
No, no next May.
No, it has to be next May.
Oh, we were definitely too late for May.
I was like, we're definitely too late for May.
You have to do it when you have a regular city election.
So it would have to be in May.
Next.
2025.
May after.
Definitely.
Maybe I'd say there's really not much to do with this exact moment given that timeline.
If I understood right, League City is discussing it tonight.
Yeah, that's what you said.
I'm not sure.
I don't know.
I didn't want to give false information.
I just spoke to a councilman in passing a couple of weeks ago and I told him that we were discussing it.
and he said they were as well.
I mean, we could pull an agenda and see what they're doing.
Is there anything else on this for the moment?
Like I said, I feel like we've got lots of time to.
And we'll do some homework.
We have some things we'll collate and get back to you guys.
OK.
All right.
With that, we'll move on to item 11, executive session.
Item 11A, consultation with attorney, section 551.071,
Texas government code.
Discussion with attorney regarding contemplated
slash pending litigation and regarding matters
protected by Attorney Client Privilege, we will adjourn into Executive Session at 7.49 p.m.
We will reconvene from Executive Session at 9.30 p.m.
And we'll move on to, so what we're going to do, Item 12A, are we just going to do the nine NEMs,
do you hear me right?
Yes, sir, go back to nine B, C, D.
So we don't have anything actually under 12A, it's all going to be nine B, C, D, D.
That's correct, yes sir.
Okay, so we'll move on to item 9B.
Consideration and possible action
to approve a professional services agreement
with Spencer and Fein LLP
to represent the city of Dickinson.
I move to approve the agreement
to engage Spencer Fein LLP
to represent the city of Dickinson
and litigation as recommended by the city attorney.
There's a motion by Councilman Simpson.
Is there a second?
All right, second by Councilwoman Simpson.
Any discussion?
Hearing none, we'll take this to vote.
All those in favor say aye.
opposed motion carries item 9c consideration and possible action to
approve a professional services agreement with Lewis first post this guard and
Smith LLP to represent the city of Dickinson the agreement to engage Lewis
Briss boys biz guard and Smith LLP to represent the city of Dickinson and
litigation as recommended by the city attorney motion made by councilman
Simpson is our second second second by councilman Linton any discussion
motion hearing none. We'll take this to a vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed.
Motion carries. Item 90 consideration and possible action to declare the memorandum
of understanding between the city of Dickinson and Creekside 2019 LLC terminated effective
May 4th, 2024. I move to declare the memorandum of understanding between the city of Dickinson
and Creekside 2019 LLC terminated effective May 24th.
Alright, so the motion is to make the termination effective May 24th and not May 4th is listed
in the agenda May 24th.
Is there a second?
Okay.
There's a second by Councilman Brantley.
Any discussion here?
Very not.
I take this to a vote.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Motion carries.
That'll move us to item 13, adjournments.
Oh, move.
Second.
Most adjourned by Councilman Townsend, second by Councilman Simpson.
All those in favor say aye.
Motion carries.
We are adjourned at 9.33 p.m.