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[1:29] Next, on ECN, a regulatory scheduled meeting of the Edward City Council. On the council, Mayor
[1:35] Lamido Vazza Jr., council member Daniel Dan Diaz, council member Jason Velloni, council
[1:42] member Johnny Garcia, and mayor pro-temp David White. Sitting in as advisor, city manager
[1:50] Myra El Ayala and City Attorney Omar Ochoa and now live from Edinburgh City Hall
[1:56] the Edinburgh City Council.
[1:59] Edinburgh
[2:12] City Council it is 6 o'clock by my watch July 31 on Monday welcome to
[2:18] this evening's regular City Council meeting. I do see visibly that we have a
[2:22] quorum we're gonna go ahead and get started first today with our prayer. We have
[2:28] Rabbi Asher Hack if you can please step forward for today's prayer. Everybody
[2:32] please stand, please.
[2:46] Good evening. Friends, let us join together in prayer. Almighty God, we have
[2:54] assembled here today for the purpose of communal service on behalf of the residents of our beautiful
[3:00] city. And what makes this city even more beautiful is the very fact that its monthly meetings begin with
[3:08] you God in mind through this prayer. Bless our work here today. Bless the work of
[3:16] the Honorable Mayor, City Counselors, City Manager, City Officials, and all their
[3:21] staff along with all of our fellow citizens. Bless us that our efforts be our
[3:27] fruit, good fruit, that our thoughtful, honest and respectful dialogue lead to
[3:33] constructive results. Please guide our hand as we make important decisions for our community.
[3:42] In our civic service, we fulfill the mandate that you have bestowed upon us,
[3:46] instructed to Noah and his day, and conveyed through Moses at Mount Sinai, and reinspired by the
[3:53] Lebabah Chereba, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the seven universal ethics of Noah.
[3:59] 1. To worship you and you alone, 2. Never to curse your holy name, 3. Not to commit murder,
[4:06] 4. Not to commit adultery, incest, or any sexual misdeed, 6. Not to steal, lie, or cheat,
[4:13] 7. Not to be cruel to any living creature.
[4:17] All to make your garden our world, which you have given us to inhabit a safe moral and constructive
[4:24] place, a beautiful place, one filled with goodness and kindness that expresses the beauty of the
[4:31] divine intent. Almighty God in the merit of our sincere efforts bless us all with good health,
[4:38] success in all of our endeavors and positive results from our work. Bless our wonderful city
[4:45] and communities so that it continues to prosper and grow to be a model city within our great state
[4:52] in our beloved country. Almighty God bless us with clarity, bless us with strength.
[5:00] and bless us with peace and redemption, and let us say amen.
[5:08] Thank you. Please join us for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
[5:28] All right, thank you. We're going to move on to item two certification of public notice. Yes, sir mayor. The meeting was posted in accordance with the Texas Public Meeting Act on July 20th.
[5:37] 2823 at 4.45 p.m. sir.
[5:40] Thank you, ma'am.
[5:41] And item three is disclosure of conflict of interest?
[5:44] Yes, sir mayor, under state law,
[5:45] a conflict of interest exists if a council member
[5:48] or certain members of that person's family
[5:50] has a qualifying financial interest in an agenda item.
[5:53] If there is a conflict,
[5:54] the council member can't participate or vote on the item.
[5:56] Are there any conflicts of disclose?
[5:58] No, sir.
[5:59] Thank you.
[6:00] All right, thank you.
[6:00] We're going to move on to item four, city managers report.
[6:03] Yes, ma'am, I wanted to present an update
[6:05] to Mayor and Council in the public regarding the city audit as well as the budget update.
[6:10] At this time, the city and EDC's audit information has been provided to the auditors.
[6:15] The auditors have been provided all the supporting documentation for EDC in May.
[6:20] However, the audit is still ongoing and should be completed within the next few weeks.
[6:25] Auditors estimate the completion of the EDC audit to end in August.
[6:30] The auditors were also provided the supporting documentation for the city's audit at the end of June.
[6:35] However, the audit is still ongoing process, and the city's fixed assets information is still pending submission.
[6:41] But at this point, that information does not delay the auditors from continuing their work on the city's audit.
[6:47] Staff continuously provides any additional notes and information to the auditors during this process.
[6:52] And in addition to the daily conference calls and the meetings with the auditors on a weekly basis to discuss the process and
[7:00] the progress of the audit. Auditors estimate the date of completion to be September.
[7:06] Are there any questions at this time on the audit?
[7:09] What date is September, will they be?
[7:11] Probably towards the end.
[7:12] We're also communicating with them to see if they can expedite that date, so
[7:18] we're working with them on that information.
[7:21] Anybody else come up with any questions?
[7:23] Okay, on the budget, the budget process is still underway.
[7:27] way. As you know, we did hold two work sessions to discuss the city's goals, objectives as
[7:35] far and also their performance indicators for the different departments. And as you all
[7:40] know in July, early July, we did hire our director of finance, Mr. Essence-Hoonalonso, which has
[7:48] provided an updated budget calendar that I have sent to the mayor and council for your review
[7:54] and comments. So the budget is still underway. We're still working towards having another
[8:00] work session August the 29th. That's a tentative scheduled budget work session date.
[8:07] Of course, the city secretary will coordinate with the council, make sure everyone is available
[8:11] at that time. At the time of that work session, we'll discuss the city manager's proposed
[8:18] those detailed budget, a five-year capital improvement program, and we have received input.
[8:24] And the submission of outside agencies funding requests.
[8:30] So city management and staff are currently reviewing that information to see what the funding allocations will be for those outside agencies.
[8:43] And then finance is still reviewing the preliminary certified tax numbers that have been issued
[8:47] issued by the Hedago County appraisal district.
[8:49] They were just issued this Friday, so the Director of Finance, Mr. Alonso, is still currently
[8:54] reviewing those numbers to provide council that data and information.
[8:59] Does anyone have a question at this time regarding the budget?
[9:02] Anybody have any questions from council?
[9:04] I just have a couple, Ms. Ayala, so August 29th, it's getting real close September.
[9:10] Yes.
[9:10] Well, we have to approve our budget, so could we expedite that and have it on our regular
[9:15] meeting, let's say the 15th. That's where we meet today and then of course in two weeks
[9:23] because our next meeting September after the 15th is September 5th and then we have
[9:28] the 19th. We have to adopt our budget September so we just want enough time to get all the information
[9:35] and review everything that's been provided. I don't know Council will be all having a
[9:40] feedback but what happens is otherwise they're going to have to schedule special meetings
[9:43] and I'd like to avoid that if we can.
[9:46] Okay, so I spoke to the Director of Finance.
[9:47] We'll go ahead and work on that requested date.
[9:52] But I'll go ahead and discuss with Director of Finance
[9:55] and then contact the council,
[9:57] let them know and confirm that we will be having a budget work.
[10:00] On bad date. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anything else? No. At this time, I do not have any other comments. Okay. We're going to move on to proclamations. We have on item A. I know we have a lot of people here for this item. So we should have probably had this item first. So I apologize. But I'm going to bring up now our director of parks and recreation. We're going to recognize this evening, the City of Edinburgh Parks and Rec Department, literally softball and baseball champions for the 2023 spring season.
[10:30] for 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13, 14, age divisions.
[10:36] Yes, sir.
[10:37] Good evening.
[10:38] Have you guys the Director of Parks?
[10:40] I want to thank our City Council and our Mayor and our City Management as well.
[10:43] For all the support you give our programs so successful and without your help, it wouldn't be possible.
[10:49] I also want to thank our parents for trusting us with their children and with our programs.
[10:54] Without them, of course, it wouldn't be possible to have such a great baseball, softball leagues.
[11:00] Also, my staff, Eric Molina, Director of Parks, also present is Ronnie Rodriguez, our sports manager, and also our supervisors, Sonny Rodriguez, and Polly Vada, the tremendous job out there to help us get this lead going.
[11:14] With that being said, I'd like to bring up Ronnie Rodriguez to announce the kids and their coaches as well. Ronnie.
[11:21] So, what
[11:25] do you mean mayor, City Council, Ronnie Rodriguez, recreation manager, partial recreation department, tonight I have the honor, and the privilege to be able to announce our champions for this year, the 2023 little league baseball and softball this year was a great year, we had over 112 teams participate, so they're very excited.
[11:45] Thank you to the parents, like Mr. Garza said, thank you to the parents, we were having 18 to 20 games per night going on Monday through Thursday.
[11:52] So as a department, we're very excited.
[11:55] Without further ado, we're going to start with the Lady Bacchero's T-Bot team, coached by Leo Trevino.
[12:01] First up, Avery Trevino.
[12:04] Emma Montenegro.
[12:06] Sofia Elisondo.
[12:08] Melanie Castillo.
[12:10] Sofia Castillo.
[12:11] Joslyn Perez.
[12:13] Hazo Montalvo.
[12:14] Avery De Leon.
[12:16] Me Kayla Montalvo.
[12:17] Tennessee Martinez.
[12:18] Sofia Abrego.
[12:20] and Arya Fuentes. Again, this is our Lady Vakeros T-Ball Champions for the five and six-year-old division.
[12:27] Let's give a round of applause.
[12:31] Mayor and City Council, please take a picture.
[12:34] Thank you.
[14:06] Congratulations, Lady Vakeros.
[14:07] And now our five and six-year-old boys division in baseball, the Yankees T-Manager, Joe Michael Granados.
[14:16] The players consist of Jacobi Granados and Jeremiah De Los Santos.
[14:21] Josiah De Los Santos, Mateo Martinez, Omar Rodríguez, Danny Torres, Tristan Trevino,
[14:30] René Verdusco, Lucas Verdusco, Andrew Rubio, Elijah Salce, Noah Garza, and Liam
[14:38] Pimentel. Congratulations Yankee's five and six-year-old champions, T-Bot Division.
[15:55] Next up is our coach pitch division, the 78-year-old division. For our softball champions this year were the lady ratlers. Team manager was Rick Ramirez. The players consist of Daniela Cáceres, Julia Ware, Alessandra Ynojosa,
[16:13] Adriana Lianos Sabrina Ledesma, Olivia Reyes, Emily Nkastro, Ella Mills, Madison Gonzales,
[16:24] Mila Rodriguez, Jordan Philoteo, and Ella Vega. Congratulations, Lady Rattlers, 78-year-old
[16:30] division coach pitch champions.
[17:19] Congratulations, Lady Rattlers.
[17:25] And now our champions in the 78-year-old
[17:28] division, the Astros coach by Kevin Acosta, Noah de Martino, Julie in
[17:33] Iglesias, William Angulo, Ezra Rodriguez, Mark Islas, Kevin Acosta, Adán
[17:38] Hernández, David Davila, Esteban Salinas, Javier Barera, Marcos
[17:42] Ravera, Ramirez, and Abram Reese. Unfortunately, the Astros could not make it
[17:47] today, but we still want to make sure we acknowledge them, 78-year-old
[17:50] division league champions.
[17:54] And now in the nine and ten-year-old, Lady
[17:56] Cougars, also who were not able to attend, Emma Beltran,
[18:01] Kaley Ramirez, Laura Zuniga, Emma Cantu, the Laney Rivera,
[18:05] Eileen Piherina, Amelia Cortinas, Isabella Cantu,
[18:10] Alexandra Morales, Zahero MacArthur, Athena Navarro,
[18:14] and Leon Salis.
[18:14] Again, these were the Laney Cougars,
[18:16] 9 and 10-year-old Minor League Division Champions.
[18:21] Next up, the 9 and 10-year-old Minor League Division
[18:25] Adrian Champions are the Astros coach by Alberto Vasquez.
[18:30] The players consist of Matthew Vasquez, Adrian Garza, Ari Hernandez, Santiago Corona, Ascension
[18:36] Gonzales, Eastern Badillo, Diego Padron, Marco Vargas, Nicholas de la Vigna, Adrian Inohosa,
[18:44] Jaylen Rua Calva, and Gilbert Trevino.
[18:46] Again, congratulations to the Astros, 1910 Minor League Division Champions.
[18:50] Congratulations,
[19:22] Astros, 1910-year-old division.
[19:24] And now, in our 11-12 major division, the Lady Islanders, Champions of the Software
[19:31] Division.
[19:33] Coach Gloria Rocha, the players consist of Katherine Lee Estrada, Jalen De La Rosa, Julie,
[19:42] Juler Aguirre, Giana Olivares, Jocelyn Chavez, Jazeal Carrillo, Verónica Herrera, Mackenzie
[19:49] Canales, Trista Herrera, Kaleen Briones and Kimberley Morelos.
[19:54] Again, Lady Islanders, Major Division Champions.
[20:21] Congratulations, ladies, islanders. 11 and 12 reds consist of Julio Castro, Alexander Castro,
[20:31] Andrews Castro, Alejandro Cantu, Katie Deden, Vincent Rodriguez, Sergio Lopez, Max Levia,
[20:37] Riley Orozco, Zachary Solis, Ethan Fuentes, Jose Camacho, and Santiago Morales. Unfortunately,
[20:44] they could not be here tonight. We would like to recognize the reds in the major division
[20:48] in 11 and 12-year-old champions this year.
[20:52] In the 13th and 14-year division, coach by Arturo Martinez,
[20:57] we have the Lady J. Hawks as this year's champions.
[21:02] The players consist of Angela Vecera, Nicole Luna,
[21:05] Max Wilkinson, Alexis Rocha, Ariana Alviso,
[21:09] Josel Hernandez, Scarlett Diaz, Andromeda Reyes,
[21:14] Vivian Guerra, Kaelin Lerma, Bailey Cardona,
[21:17] and Victoria Martinez.
[21:19] Congratulations, Lady J. Hawkes.
[21:45] Congratulations, Lady J. Hawkes, 13 and 14-year-old division.
[21:50] In the district tournament, they ended up
[21:53] with second place in the valley.
[21:54] Congratulations, Lady J. Hawkes.
[21:58] And now for our 13, 14-year-old division champions
[22:01] in the junior division, the Padres.
[22:05] Coach by Mr. Gonzalez and Alberto Ponce,
[22:08] the team consist of Caleb Gonzalez, Joseph Almeida,
[22:11] Pablo Lopez, Evan de la Garza, Jaden Garcia, Damian Arevalo, Aaron Ponce, David Salazar,
[22:19] Lee Garnet, Alejandro Martinez, Chris Rodriguez, and Anthony Plena. Congratulations, boys.
[22:26] 13 and 14-year-old champions.
[22:59] Congratulations to the Padres. They also represented the City of
[23:02] Enberg in the All Stars, 13 new division, and they were second place in district. Congratulations.
[23:06] questions.
[23:16] Mayor City Council, thank you for all the support you do at the Parks and Recreation.
[23:20] I also want to acknowledge our coaches. This year, with the 112 teams, I'm happy to say that we had 100%
[23:28] volunteer coaches. Some of them are city councilmen, some of them you see work for the city.
[23:33] They're out here, they're doing what they can to support our programs, and we want to thank you for that.
[23:37] Have a good evening and God bless.
[23:38] Thank you, thank you.
[23:39] Thank you.
[23:42] Thank you.
[23:43] Ronnie.
[23:44] Sure.
[23:45] That's an all-parks and wrecks that.
[23:46] Thank you for all you all do.
[23:47] I know there's a lot of kids that sign up every year, so thank you for all the work you'll
[23:51] do.
[23:51] And all the volunteers.
[23:53] A lot of people don't realize all these coaches are all volunteering.
[23:55] So thank you, everybody, for making it a success was it is this year.
[23:59] Thank you.
[24:00] Thank you.
[24:00] All right.
[24:02] We're going to move on to item B. This is a proclamation recognizing City of Edinburgh
[24:08] Robert retiree Estilita Rodriguez, a human resource generalist, human resource department
[24:13] for 44 years of service.
[24:16] That deserves a hand.
[24:17] Thank you.
[24:19] Come on out.
[24:23] And she's here this evening to join us and it's a little bit shy.
[24:27] I saw her sitting over there towards the back and it seems like she wants to leave.
[24:31] Don't let her leave.
[24:32] We're about to recognize her.
[24:35] I'm going to read the proclamation for the record Salitaro de Regas,
[24:42] Human Resource Journalist, Human Resource Department.
[24:45] Whereas on October 16, 1978,
[24:49] Salitaro de Regas was hired as clerk one by the City of Edinburgh Community Development Housing Department.
[24:54] In on October 1, 1980, she was promoted to Secretary One and
[24:58] You
[25:00] Very second, 1981, Mr. Oedegas was reclassified as secretary. And whereas on April 9, 1984, Mr. Oedegas was promoted assigned to the housing assistance, supportive services, operation division. And on November 5, 1984, Mr. Oedegas was promoted to senior secretary. And whereas on October 1, 1985, Mr. Oedegas transferred to the utilities department as senior secretary. Whereas on December 3, 1987, Mr. Oedegas
[25:29] He is transferred to the personnel department at Senior Secretary, on October 2nd, 1989,
[25:35] Mr. Oeddeus was promoted from Senior Secretary to Personnel Assistant, and on October 2nd, 1992,
[25:41] Mr. Oeddeus was promoted from Personnel Assistant to Personnel Coordinator.
[25:45] On October 2nd, 2009, she was reclassified a Human Resources Coordinator.
[25:51] And on October 27th, 2014, Mr. Oeddeus was reclassified a Human Resources Generalist, and
[25:56] And on October 5th, 2020, due to reclassification and restructuring,
[26:01] Mr. Rodriguez title change, to Human Resource Journalist 2.
[26:05] And whereas during her use of service, Mr. Rodriguez received many, many certificates of attending completing numerous trainings.
[26:12] The certificates of training included the SJA Independent School District,
[26:16] Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Customer Service Techniques, City of Edinburgh Customer Service,
[26:20] Texas, Texas Municipal Retirement System,
[26:23] NTC Drug Testing, and City of Edinburgh,
[26:26] Stormwater Prevention Training, certificates of completion,
[26:30] with the Warm Springs Rehabilitation,
[26:33] Key Productivity Center, Texas Attorney General,
[26:36] Texas Chapter Public Risk Managers Association,
[26:39] Rockhurst University Continuing Education Center,
[26:43] FMLA National Seminar Training,
[26:46] South Texas College,
[26:47] and the International City Manager Association.
[26:50] Certificates appreciation for the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, and Texas Workforce Commission.
[26:57] Certificate accomplishment from Cook Data Solution, Certificate of Participation of the Texas Library,
[27:04] Certificates of Attendance, Text Municipal League, Intergovernmental Risk Pool, and Pride Prior Seminar,
[27:10] and Certificate of Participation of World Class Training Resources.
[27:13] And we're asked Mr. Oeddy is received the following certificates, Texas Notary Public
[27:18] Association, Certified Public Notary, Names 100, and FEMA, U.S. Department of Homeland
[27:24] Security.
[27:25] And we're asked Mr. Oeddy is received letters of commendation on June 18, 1981, May 21,
[27:31] 1990, April 6, 1992, June 2, 1992, and January 15, 1993.
[27:37] and appreciation letter on May 20, 1991, and employee of the month award in July 1996 in January of 2000.
[27:45] And we're asked Mr. Oeddy is an active member of the Edinburgh Crime Stoppers and an active member of the Holy Family Catholic Church.
[27:52] And we're asked on June 30, 2023 after 44 years of service as the Oeddy is retired from the City of Edinburgh.
[27:59] Now, therefore, I, Ramido Garza Jr., Mayor of the City of Edinburgh, Texas, by the power
[28:04] of SME by law.
[28:05] Do you hear by recognize, as the leader of the years, Human Resource Journalist 2, Human
[28:10] Resource Department, for her years of loyalty and dedicated service to the City of Edinburgh.
[28:16] The Edinburgh City Council would like to express our sincere gratitude and wish you as the
[28:20] leader a happy retirement.
[28:22] Congratulations.
[28:41] You are on the history books, officially the longest serving city employee for the city of Edinburgh. Congratulations.
[28:49] I thought Peter was a bit of an MP.
[28:54] Well, you're welcome to say any, I know you don't like these recognitions.
[28:58] Estellita, but I think it's more than deserving for us to take this time to recognize your years of service to our city.
[29:05] and we sincerely appreciate, you know, your loyalty, your dedication to our city and all
[29:12] the mentoring you did to a lot of employees, including myself, when I started working for
[29:17] the city, so.
[29:18] I know I call you different names, but I know you do.
[29:22] I was going to say, Mayor, there was a little griping in there too, but was he a boss at
[29:28] some time?
[29:29] Was he your boss at one point?
[29:31] No.
[29:31] Well, yes and no, but it's just that I call them different names instead of where I'm going to go there.
[29:39] I remember, yeah. I was here for you retirement luncheon.
[29:43] I think he already went through it already, though.
[29:48] Well, thank you for all the long list that only helped me not to mention it myself.
[29:56] but just working for the city for this.
[30:00] I did gain a lot of experience, a lot of tasks, and with that in mind, it helped me with the employees that, you know, came in, you know, with the city to help us. But I did work with different department directors, as you mentioned, with a listing of all the ones that I went through. But I learned from them also. With that in mind, all the employees that I helped with,
[30:29] Of course, they were all different and a lot of them did stay as my friends and after all those years, I did take a lot of memories with me and, of course, I felt coming here to work for the city for this long, that it was like my second home, my second family and then, of course, with HR it's a little bit different.
[30:56] So, that's where I gained more experience and I gained more employees' friendship because
[31:08] we were there like to assist employees on a first-come-for-faces per se.
[31:17] But, yes, it's going to be hard for me because I was used to coming in and out for these years
[31:23] But taking a lot of memories with me, experience and knowledge that I'd be able to say that it's something that I gained from.
[31:36] But I will miss it, and it is going to be hard, and it is hard.
[31:43] But I thank everybody that was patient with me for these years.
[31:49] and thank you and bless you all for still staying with the city as long as I
[31:58] did but I was very grateful and I thank God for being with me for all this time
[32:03] that I stayed with you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.
[32:13] You know at your
[32:14] remarks to reflect who you are as a person and I think for the city what our
[32:20] city staff and body and just for everybody for the record the name she would call me was another name
[32:26] It was Robert so well she's to call me Robert for whatever reason and and I would always I never corrected her
[32:33] I would say I would answer to Robert
[32:35] Because I didn't want to you know give her a hard time and so
[32:39] She's the first person I met when I got hired at the city because she was the one at HR
[32:44] You have to go through and you know and but she always made you feel home
[32:47] You know, she always made you feel like everything's gonna be okay, you know, you're and she made all the employees feel that way some of them that are here
[32:54] so
[32:55] You know, thank you on behalf myself and a lot of employees because you really did you know have an impact on them
[33:02] And just your remarks right now show, you know how
[33:05] Special you work to the city and we just want to let you know that we appreciate you know all your years of service and
[33:11] You know you are retiring, but you can always come back and volunteer or you know do whatever you like because
[33:17] You know everybody here and everybody knows you but thank you so much on behalf of myself
[33:23] And I'm sure the council and you know your service and yours that you spent here did not go notice and we really appreciate it
[33:47] I hang in there.
[33:50] Thank you.
[33:50] Well, congratulations.
[33:51] We're going to go down there and take pictures with you.
[33:54] All right.
[36:33] So we're going to move on to also with HR, we have an employee, the month, also award recipients for the month of April and May of 2023.
[37:08] a month of April Miss Adele Fuentes, she's a communications operator with the police department and she's been with us since July of 2021.
[37:18] I'll let Chief Ayala tell us a little bit about her.
[37:30] Good evening Mayor and Councilor Aymeala, police chief. I just want to share what a fabulous employee Miss Fuentes has been.
[37:37] In May, you know, we had a lot of disturbance with rain and thunder and a lot of damage.
[37:43] and she recognized that communications would be under pressure and she
[37:49] reached out to her supervisor and said, do you need help? Can I come in? And
[37:54] obviously we needed help and she came in and gave of her time because she knew
[37:59] they were going to be under pressure. They were limited with resources and in the
[38:03] field our officers were being pushed to the max to deal with all of the of the
[38:07] weather related events we had. So we really appreciate her service to the
[38:12] community and and watching out for the officer she is the calm voice on the
[38:16] other side of the radio as a as a first responder for the police department.
[38:21] Congratulations.
[38:27] Well thank you for your service and thank you for going
[38:30] above and beyond for our city of Edinburgh and to the residents in our community.
[38:33] We really appreciate it. Thank you. Can you say a few words because I think they
[38:38] want to match a face to that the work the voice on the other side of the phone.
[38:41] Of course, I've been working for PD for two years now, and well, I'm here because of my supervisors, especially Adiaz, and he's a manager, and he has a huge heart, and he's always taught us to take each call one time at a time.
[39:01] One, I'm nervous, I'm sorry.
[39:05] One call at a time.
[39:06] And there you go.
[39:07] And that's what we do, you know, and we try our best to give it our best.
[39:12] And that's it.
[39:13] Thank you.
[39:13] Thank you.
[39:14] Thank you for all the work you have done.
[39:16] We're
[39:19] going to go down there.
[40:37] Today is Ms. Vanessa Castillo. She's a human resource, one with the Human Resources Department. I will say for transparency reasons. We did not vote, HRG, and I participated in the vote of this selection, and she was selected by the Engagement Committee. Ms. Vanessa is a role model when it comes to excellent customer service, her critical thinking skills and positive attitude, leader to excel when presented with opportunities and challenges. Ms.
[41:07] the necessary creativity and persistence to produce maximum results is to be admired.
[41:13] When coordinating events for city employees she works very hard, creates a vision and takes
[41:19] the task to an extraordinary level. As you all can see by some of the events you've attended here
[41:26] for our employees. She's strategically plans events to maximize engagement with one goal to create
[41:34] positive work culture for all. And so I'd like to bring Ms. Minnesota.
[41:50] Well first of all I want to
[41:51] thank my department, my director, our managers, our assistant director. They're amazing women,
[41:59] not just in the work staff but as well as the mothers, they really motivated me to
[42:05] to do better and to acknowledge the training, the guidance works always fun but they always hold
[42:13] you accountable to make sure you're at your top percent. There's never a dumb
[42:19] moment in HR and I love it. It keeps you on your toes. I love what I do. I love
[42:24] being a public servant, not just to the community but to our fellow employees as
[42:30] well. And I'm really nervous.
[42:36] So yeah, so thank you so much. It's humbling.
[42:39] Thank you and thank you for your service and congratulations and we
[42:43] appreciate all that you do and going above and beyond and as Linda said they
[42:47] didn't even vote on it so that means it says a lot that all the other
[42:50] departments did so that are part of the committee. Congratulations again and
[42:54] and you know keep on doing the great job you'll do.
[42:57] Madam don't be nervous this is just an unrecorded for history for the history books
[43:01] for a hundred years.
[43:03] Our shaky voice.
[43:05] Move
[43:58] on to presentations.
[43:59] Item A is presentation by the Public Works Department regarding our
[44:04] street paving report.
[44:13] Good evening mayor council, a mental public
[44:16] works director. I just want to thank you for the opportunity to present the paving report
[44:21] for public works. The report covers in house paving performed by city crews under the capital
[44:26] improvement paving program. I'm trying not to spend all day talking about paving because I love
[44:31] paving. We'll hit the highlights and at the end of the presentation I'll be happy to answer any
[44:36] questions.
[44:41] I thought I was going to be able to read my notes here so forgive me but it's
[44:44] different setup. Street improvements to date include 41.5 lane miles. This
[44:51] equates to 52 streets we paved at 32 lane miles of paving. 20 streets were
[44:56] seal-coded at 9.5-lane miles.
[45:00] And a total of 72 streets at 41.5 lane miles were completed in total. We also did two city parking lots in 12 speed homes.
[45:19] Street improvements are identified using a combination of the C click fix work order system, in house requests, and then they're prioritized using a PCI street assessment.
[45:38] The PCI is a street assessment used to determine the types of distresses and severity such as rambling, longitudinal cracking,
[45:47] Packing, traverse alligator cracking, patching, and potholes.
[45:53] Once the street is assessed, it's assigned to score which is used to prioritize it on
[45:57] the paving list.
[46:08] The following list consists of street improvements that have been completed under the paving program.
[46:13] The list consists of streets and subdivisions such as stone crest subdivision, Wisconsin road,
[46:19] Mon Mac road, and South Doe little road.
[46:21] So,
[46:26] summary field subdivision off-ready and lemon tree also off of Dawson.
[46:33] The following is a street preservation list, the list of streets that have been completed
[46:38] under the preservation will also work, I'm sorry, this is also red but still part of the
[46:44] paving list.
[46:45] Red but is the one that we're actually currently working on since to date, it's been updated
[46:51] a little bit so we actually are only pending red but walnut was just recently completed.
[46:57] The
[47:04] streets in the following subdivision have received preservation, which is a seal coat,
[47:08] spray metal, castle heels, via a legbrae, west subdivision, as well as heritage oaks in
[47:15] theater when a subdivision.
[47:20] City Hall and the Ebony Golf Course also parking lot were also preserved.
[47:27] This is an example of some of the quality of the work that the city crews performed.
[47:32] the streets are prepped by making any necessary repairs of the street before the paving or preservation
[47:37] improvements are made. This here's a mill overlay on McIntyre. You can see the before and the after.
[47:48] This is lemon tree court. This was repaved, complete repave. If you notice on the left,
[47:54] the before all the asphalt was completely removed due to the severity of the condition of asphalt
[47:59] and the base was reworked before we paved.
[48:05] The next one is counting road.
[48:06] This was an overlay from Role, Angoria, going east.
[48:11] I'm sorry, from frontage, going east to Role, Angoria.
[48:14] On this one, the note of interest is that this was
[48:16] a two-lane road because of the existing width
[48:19] of the road we were able to reconfigure with
[48:21] through striping and create a four-lane road
[48:24] improving east to westbound traffic.
[48:27] The next one is Riverban, Heritage, Jokes,
[48:30] and via Legra, these were presentations, these were all completed as well under this CIP program.
[48:39] This is Shiver in 17 and a half. This is a full-duck reclamation, meaning that the base was
[48:44] bad as well as the payment. We did this actually through a demo. The city crews did the work,
[48:50] but we had a demo equipment and it's a full-duck reclamation, complete reconstruction.
[48:56] This is something that we hope to be able to do in the future in a lot of the intersections.
[49:02] These are the pending streets that we have under the CIP program. Redwood is
[49:08] actually complete in Baywood and Walnut are complete. They just finish those in
[49:12] the last few days. Redwood is still pending. After Redwood we'll be going to
[49:16] Seminary Road and I actually spray road and then Seminary Road last. Once we've
[49:22] finished these streets we'll have exhausted the CIP funding under the current
[49:27] budget. We do have our five-year list that we're submitting for your approval to request
[49:33] a future funding also to continue paving in house. At this point if you have any questions
[49:39] I'll be happy to. Anybody on council have any questions at this time regarding the presentation
[49:45] on street paving? I want to know why you like paving vents.
[49:50] I you know it's it's the accumulation of everything that we prep for so when we're paving
[49:55] And the guy said, yeah, we're paving today.
[49:57] It's like, it's like, finally it up.
[50:00] It came together. But, yeah, paving is, it's our high point. It's when we finally get something completed that. Right. And I say that for chuckles, but it's, there's a big difference between paving and covering potholes, right? Big, big, big difference. And just for the record, I want that stated. It's a big deal to do overlays. These overlays are good for how long? The overlays basically are good for at least 15 years. The preservation will add at least seven years. The preservation is just to extend it.
[50:29] And as long as we keep doing regular maintenance like preservation, we can keep extending that life of that road indefinitely.
[50:37] Yeah, because when we run into residents, a lot of people say, hey, we have issues and a quick fix is the, you know, fix the potholes, right?
[50:44] But the first good rain, and though that those potholes are evident again.
[50:48] So overlaying and paving is very important.
[50:51] I want to thank you for all the work you guys have done.
[50:53] On average every year, how many streets get overlaid in your experience?
[50:58] I did we do more than normal or double triple or along the same pace.
[51:04] We've been doing more than normal because of the bond, the CIP funding, but a lot of that
[51:09] just depends on the funding, but what we've been establishing benchmark since I've been
[51:13] here as far as what we can do, and what we can do is roughly, and I left more of the notes
[51:19] because they were on there, but roughly what we can do is about 1.6 million worth in
[51:26] Paving and then another probably 400,000 a year in preservation
[51:31] That would try and every street is different some of our streets are a thousand feet somewhere 300
[51:37] But that would translate like in this year
[51:40] I want to say it was something like oh, I read it earlier, but it was like 75 streets and all
[51:46] So it's quite a bit and so at the pace we're going because I know there's a lot of the streets in need
[51:52] You need, you know, some love and some touch, right?
[51:55] But at this pace at what point, so this is about a year, 41 miles a year, is that about right?
[52:03] No, no, those are streets.
[52:05] Those are 41 miles a year.
[52:06] So we, and if you're talking miles, let me go back.
[52:12] The question I was getting through is how long would it take at this pace to make sure we encompass the city entirely?
[52:19] And is this with only one paving machine?
[52:20] Yes, it's with one paving machine and we are limited, we have it only a certain amount of trouble.
[52:25] But did we approve a second paving machine?
[52:27] We did not, but we will.
[52:29] We don't have the resources to mount a second paving machine.
[52:32] It takes pretty much the whole street crew just to pay, I mean, you got drivers that are on hand.
[52:36] We don't have the resources to mount a second paving machine, okay.
[52:41] And so my original question at this rate, how long would it take to make sure that we cover all the areas of need?
[52:48] So in order to give you that answer, Councilman, we would need a full-blown street assessment
[52:52] in which would be where they come in and they assess every street, determine what is
[52:58] acceptable as far as our payment condition index or PCI score.
[53:02] If we said, you know what, we can live with a 75.
[53:05] They're going to evaluate every street, give it a rating.
[53:07] We're doing this all in-house with the same resources that pay.
[53:10] So they would come in and they have all the technology to give us a rating for each street,
[53:15] tell us what that street needs to bring it up to that level that we're asking for a 75 and then at that point
[53:22] They would give us the numbers that go with that in the number of years that it would take to correct and just just so people understand
[53:27] We the streets were done on as a need basis, right? The worst streets were done first
[53:32] So currently in the five-year plan we have over seven million dollars worth of streets
[53:37] We have 250 streets already identified that need work and those are pretty much the ones that need
[53:43] overlaid. So they're already in pretty bad condition. And we do have several
[53:47] also about maybe 75 that would work under preservation. They're not too far
[53:53] gone yet. We can go and do minor repairs and then preserve it. A lot of the
[53:57] streets that you saw there were in that condition where we might have one or two
[54:00] little bad spots. We would go in there, do the repair, do all the crack ceiling,
[54:04] fix any curbing gutter, and then do the preservation. And honestly, Councillor
[54:08] they came out really good. I mean everybody was pleased with it. And at the cost
[54:12] for preservation, we want to take advantage of that because that's a lot lower cost it would
[54:16] have cost to mill overlay. So we'll say that yeah we'll say a lot of this work it causes a lot of
[54:22] headaches and heartache for the residents will ask for their patients while we do this because
[54:26] the heartache is worth the product at the end right and I will ask staff to always just communicate
[54:31] with the residents I think that's key let them know what's happening let them know when you're going
[54:35] to move any items that belong to them or on their grass and when we talk to them then they understand
[54:41] and the end goal, and I thank everybody for all their hard work.
[54:45] Yes, sir. Thank you.
[54:46] Thank you. We had mayor for them.
[54:47] It Vince, yes.
[54:48] You know that one thing just let public know you're only one storm away from being behind
[54:51] on all your work, right?
[54:53] The real question, the question I have is like, some of these streets here, I see that are
[54:58] older subdivisions, and I'm not talking-
[55:00] We're talking about the main thoroughfare type streets because they definitely get a different wear and tear. We're talking more like the residential, like Laurel Oakway. We see some of here, self-piano, and stuff. Some of these are older streets, but I also notice that we have some of our newer streets that don't seem to be lasting as long. Is that a fairer? So it is hard to say why, but it could be the mixed design on the asphalt. It depends, you know, the testing, the density, the compaction, whenever it was constructed, it didn't have proper compaction.
[55:29] or if the mixed design on the asphalt was bad or it wasn't you know the right
[55:33] percentages it could be a lot of things it could be the load that's on the road
[55:39] some of these roads get yeah I was trying to get away from the load side that's
[55:42] why the busier loads is what kind of stuck to residential it's hard to
[55:46] judge a road that's getting a concrete truck down every day and against one
[55:49] else getting mom and pops yeah station wagon for us all folks that that's what I'm
[55:55] but do you work? I mean, from what you see on the roads and their condition is your department work with our PNZ and that stuff to make sure we have the conditions.
[56:08] Yes, we do it for the concrete that we're making or the concrete, the pay mean, the carbon gutter that's being poured in our city and the new subdivision stuff are up to the standards that we want or that you're seeing.
[56:22] because some of it I just one of them is yellow rolls yellow rolls was remember
[56:28] that street when it first came in I needed to be fixed but that street there
[56:32] was hardly any traffic on that street it's a dead end two curves nobody goes on
[56:37] it but it's surprising that I think had to be redone so to me there was always
[56:41] like something wrong with original construction that now that we are eating as
[56:46] the city when it's probably managed should have been the developer didn't do
[56:50] the quality at the time. Is that something we, or maybe it's not fair to ask you, maybe
[56:53] it's for the city manager or somebody else. Is that something we're missing in our
[56:57] design?
[56:59] No, there's a city spec that they have to follow, but it's really honestly the workmanship,
[57:06] the skill set. If they know how to pave, then you're going to get a good paving job. If
[57:10] they really don't, there's so many things that can happen. You can have good material,
[57:14] but if they take too long to get the material here and it cools off, it segregates, you're
[57:18] You're going to have you're going to have problems and there's tricks you can do if you know how to pay but if they don't know what they're doing
[57:23] Then they're going to get out there and they're going to have some issues. You may not see it up front
[57:27] If the road is not sealed right with proper compaction
[57:30] You're going to have infiltration with water and you're going to start getting potholes a lot sooner
[57:36] So there's a lot of there's a lot of variables that could contribute to that
[57:39] Guess what you say in that is that something we need to when we when we accept the subdivision or we
[57:44] Is that something we should be
[57:46] maybe Tom might be the one to answer that but I know a lot of the public would like to know
[57:51] answers to why. Good evening Tom right now assistant city manager. Good evening. Yes
[57:57] Councilman and to your to answer your question the engineering department does do all the inspections
[58:03] for any of the subdivisions that were out there we test compaction the payment design
[58:09] the ultimate product at the very end. I know this is going to sound cliche but what we have been
[58:14] notice it. And yes, we do look at those kind of things. With the heat now, the heat
[58:19] is extremely more now, so the oil is drying out. So that's what causes that mix to start
[58:26] losing up. It's just the oil is drying at a quicker rate. So that means we have to do
[58:30] a faster section of preservation, just like we did here, the picture that's on the screen
[58:36] now is try to re-introduce the oil back into that roadway. We're also looking at different
[58:43] and pavements designs for that way,
[58:44] we can catch some of this heat for that at this point.
[58:49] Appreciate it.
[58:50] Thank you, thank you.
[58:51] Got some of them?
[58:52] Sure, Vince, I just want to thank you and your team
[58:54] for the report on this preservation
[58:56] and of course also for paving.
[58:58] But I want to say thank you to on behalf of the residents
[59:00] because every time I call you,
[59:02] right away you're on these streets trying to pave them
[59:04] and get them prepared for the rains that are coming in.
[59:07] But I think we need to find a way to highlight
[59:09] your department a little bit more
[59:11] because one of the complaints that we get a lot
[59:12] That is, you know, we have particles here and there, and you guys are not doing anything about it, but we need to highlight your department so that the community can see that our taxpayer money is really being used, and, you know, we're seeing a lot more streets be paved now than behind, than behind what we used to be behind, but you're just being the past, but, you know, every time we see you guys, everybody's out there working at full force, you know, and that's what it's about us working for the community, and so that they can see the results of where their money is going, you know, because no another number of concerns that people have, like, well, where's my taxpayer money? If tax keeps on going up, but we don't see anything,
[59:42] That's what you all are doing, you know, you are helping pave the streets getting everything ready for this weather changes and we appreciate it
[59:47] Thank you, sir. Thank you. Anybody else?
[59:51] Just a couple comments on myself also just wanted to reiterate as council members pointing out
[59:55] Thank you and your staff for all the work that you do
[59:59] It's it's a lot of
[1:00:00] Our city's growing and we're talking about heat and how the impact is having, but it's also the growing pains we're having. We have so much more traffic on the road. So, you know, that's adding to our challenge. But I did have just one thing on the information. Is this available on our website on our dashboard by any chance or work at residence access, because I think the council member got a serious point. If we, like this map, you have here. And I think we have talked about showing the map.
[1:00:29] of streets that are not only have been paid, but more importantly, those that are on the schedule
[1:00:35] to be paid. I think that would be very, very helpful. If we can do that, add these lists to our
[1:00:42] website so that residents, you know, are up the date, you know, on what's coming up. I think that
[1:00:47] will go a long way. And then also just to confirm, so out of all these lists that have been done,
[1:00:53] is that represent the three million dollars that were set aside?
[1:00:56] Yes, sir. Okay, so that's from May of 2022 today, is that correct? It's a little bit from 2021
[1:01:03] We had stone crest. Okay, we had a few subdivisions that had to be done
[1:01:09] But we didn't really get full blow in with it until I believe April which was April 2022
[1:01:14] Yeah, and we had 50 streets if I remember correctly at that time have we done most of those from we were able to do
[1:01:22] Approximately 74 with the preservation.
[1:01:24] So we did more than what we just, okay great, excellent.
[1:01:28] And how much, I know that you say you're out of funding,
[1:01:31] but my question is, how much more funding is going to be needed
[1:01:33] so we can keep up with?
[1:01:35] And I know you're going to have the five year plan.
[1:01:37] And I'm mentioning this because we're going through budget right now.
[1:01:39] And I just, it'd be important for us to keep in mind
[1:01:42] as we work towards finalizing our budget.
[1:01:45] So the benchmark that we establish is what I'm requesting
[1:01:48] is approximately a little over two million per year because that's what we can do. I don't
[1:01:55] want to ask for more than what we can do per year, what we can utilize. But we would be using
[1:01:58] 1.6 million for repaving at approximately 400,000 for preservation. And that would be something
[1:02:06] that we could as long as mechanical equipment, everything holds up. We don't get too many hurricanes,
[1:02:11] we should get to keep that pace. You know, on piggybacking on the mayor's question and your comment
[1:02:17] and I don't mean to put you on the spot,
[1:02:19] but shooting up the hip, if we were to double the streets,
[1:02:22] and I know we don't have the manpower,
[1:02:23] so if we were to sub this,
[1:02:25] what would the cost be for that?
[1:02:27] You're saying three million would do all these streets,
[1:02:28] so we three times, we're doing three times.
[1:02:31] Yeah, because we're utilizing the manpower.
[1:02:32] Because of the manpower and city equipment.
[1:02:34] So basically all we have to pay for is material.
[1:02:37] So we're doing it for a third of what anybody would do.
[1:02:39] So to double the streets, it would be nine million.
[1:02:41] It would be three times, yeah, it would be nine million.
[1:02:44] Yeah, for what we did, it would have cost you
[1:02:46] about nine million or more. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[1:02:49] And the good thing about us doing it, sir, is we provide the customer service.
[1:02:52] If they call us, go right back down. Yeah. Yeah.
[1:02:55] I thought about that because if we get we have headaches and nightmares with our own staff, we can imagine.
[1:03:00] Yeah.
[1:03:02] Other staff.
[1:03:03] Thank you again. Thank you for all that y'all do.
[1:03:05] Mayor also have a second part of the presentation.
[1:03:08] We wanted to give you an update on the striping for the courthouse.
[1:03:12] Okay. That was also part of the agenda item.
[1:03:14] and we're also been working with Hidalgo County
[1:03:17] on determining a permanent temporary solution.
[1:03:21] I know that sounds contradictory,
[1:03:23] but what we're looking at is the 107 street improvements
[1:03:28] won't be in the courthouse until roughly maybe
[1:03:31] the end of 2025 beginning of 2026
[1:03:34] for the construction around the courthouse.
[1:03:36] So we're looking for a permanent solution,
[1:03:39] a temporary permanent solution, until then
[1:03:42] is due to the rise of accidents within the area that we really feel that we really need
[1:03:48] to do that myself Miss Ayala City Manager, we met with the county about a week and a
[1:03:54] half ago to discuss all these. A plan has already been in place which we've been reviewing.
[1:03:59] We've already reviewed it and sent it back for our comments. We did do a cost estimate
[1:04:05] as you can see on your agenda item, the cost estimate for all those repair we're looking
[1:04:09] in about 125,000, which we have not discussed with the county
[1:04:14] yet on if we're going to do a car share
[1:04:16] or if they're going to pay for that for the meantime.
[1:04:19] But we will have a plan in place ready to move forward
[1:04:23] to go that.
[1:04:24] I'm also looking at different options
[1:04:25] on different contractors to hopefully bring down
[1:04:28] that price.
[1:04:29] OK.
[1:04:32] Thank you, sir.
[1:04:33] I appreciate it.
[1:04:34] We're going to move on to item B presentation
[1:04:36] regarding your-to-date crime data
[1:04:38] by the city of Edinburgh Police Department.
[1:04:48] Good evening, Mayor and Council, I'm Ayala with the Police Department.
[1:04:51] I want to first start out by sharing and inviting everybody to National Night Out tomorrow
[1:04:55] night, August 1st.
[1:04:57] It's our 27th annual.
[1:05:01] And so please come out to municipal park, begins at 5.30. It's going to be a great night with lots of things to do, lots of food, backpack giveaway by our mayor and council. And then we will end up the night with a performance from several bands, but group of control will be there as our headliner. So. So chief, what time do we need to be there and what's the best access point to get there? Because I know we're going to have a lot of people. The way into the park is off.
[1:05:26] I will go to the office break.
[1:05:31] Sometimes we, okay.
[1:05:32] And that'd be the entrance and exit.
[1:05:34] Yes.
[1:05:35] Okay.
[1:05:35] Once we purge people at the end, we'll open other parts of the park to get people out.
[1:05:39] The park is going to be limited when overload parking at HB Park.
[1:05:45] And so there should be plenty of parking.
[1:05:47] We just have, might have some people have to walk a little bit to the event itself.
[1:05:50] Thank you.
[1:05:51] Appreciate your support and you all being there.
[1:05:53] as well to our night. I appreciate the opportunity to share some data coming off the end of
[1:05:58] report from last meeting. We've had some things happen and so I just want to be able to
[1:06:03] share some things that we are working on and working towards. So one of the things we do in
[1:06:09] policing is really look at data. Data is critical and important. I want to share with you that we
[1:06:13] have currently 83 patrol officers and two traffic enforcement officers. Those two traffic enforcement
[1:06:19] when officers are our motorcycle officers that work traffic details in school zones and
[1:06:24] throughout the cities and neighborhoods.
[1:06:26] As of today, we have nine vacancies.
[1:06:28] As of next week, we will have ten vacancies.
[1:06:31] Our next academy we expect to begin October and November in partnership with the low-rogram
[1:06:36] valley development corporation.
[1:06:38] We have four officers currently in training in the field, should be getting them out soon,
[1:06:43] and we have 15 officers that are in the academy undergoing training now and they'll come
[1:06:48] out after graduation at the end of September, and go into their field training modes.
[1:06:52] We should get them to us by the end of the year, early January.
[1:06:57] Our crime analyst is kind of the quarterback as to identifying crime trends, crash locations,
[1:07:03] data, looking where we need to deploy our officers.
[1:07:06] We currently have one crime analyst in the department.
[1:07:09] I'll share with you shortly in the next slide.
[1:07:12] We brought some training in, a department our size, they recommend that we have at least two
[1:07:16] crime analysts. Currently we have somebody from the Texas Army National Guard that is assigned
[1:07:21] to the police department here in Edinburgh. They're from the Joint Counter Drug Task Force and we
[1:07:27] are able to utilize Mr. Throvino to assist us with our crime analysis as long as there's a drug
[1:07:32] nexus from that aspect. We've brought this association in several times to do training on data
[1:07:42] driven approach is to crime and traffic safety. And basically what this is is you overlay
[1:07:47] crash data with crime data and then you deploy your resources to address traffic issues and
[1:07:53] crash issues because you're also going to be impacting crime. This visible presence by officers
[1:08:00] doing traffic enforcement is proven to reduce crime from occurring in those same areas where you're
[1:08:06] focusing your resources.
[1:08:08] It's called the DDAX model, data driven accountability
[1:08:11] to crime and traffic.
[1:08:13] We look at calls for service on a weekly basis.
[1:08:16] Actually, we get a report every morning
[1:08:17] as to where we're having our calls for service,
[1:08:19] how many calls for service we had during the day.
[1:08:21] We do this, we have identified locations,
[1:08:24] where we have concerns, high call volume,
[1:08:27] so that we can really focus our efforts into those areas.
[1:08:31] I have the diagram there on the right,
[1:08:33] and this is from the problem oriented policing website.
[1:08:38] If you can reduce one of the three, the offender,
[1:08:42] the location, or the target victim, you don't have a crime.
[1:08:46] And so we must focus our resources and our efforts on location,
[1:08:50] on our repeat offenders, and try to educate our community
[1:08:54] on how not to become a victim by making good choices
[1:08:57] of where you park, leaving things in your vehicle, and whatnot.
[1:09:00] And that is something that we're going to be doing
[1:09:02] at the end of August, we're going to be bringing in a consultant and every sworn officer
[1:09:07] will be going through training module on problem-oriented policing and the Sarah model for how
[1:09:12] to address problems and eliminate them as a problem in order to not have crimes occurring.
[1:09:20] This is just the face sheet of what we get weekly from our analyst.
[1:09:23] It is a very detailed map.
[1:09:25] It has repeat locations.
[1:09:26] It has high-call-bounding locations, and I just wanted to share at least the cover sheet
[1:09:31] with you because it is very detailed on the information that our analyst is
[1:09:34] putting in the hands of our officers. So when we look at performance what are
[1:09:40] we doing with our time? We've made some decisions as a recent to try to free up
[1:09:44] more officer time to do more proactive engagement activities with the community
[1:09:49] but also traffic enforcement and other types of enforcement to try to reduce
[1:09:54] crimes and crashes. This year, as of the end of June, we've
[1:10:01] All of last year, we made 19,303 traffic stops. You'll see the citations and the warnings. When I look at this, we're on pace to make over 28,000 traffic stops this year. That's a 45% increase for more we were last year. And I share that with you to let you know our officers are out there working. They're taking the time. They're doing enforcement. They're being visible, not necessarily to be punitive with citations, but to try to focus on correcting
[1:10:29] driving behavior so that we reduce the number of crashes that we have in our
[1:10:34] city. This is our motorcycle unit which I mentioned that the last meeting they're
[1:10:39] extremely active together. Over 5,500 traffic stops in 2022 this year already
[1:10:45] through June. They're over 3,000 so we expect them to be even higher than they
[1:10:50] were in their enforcement last year.
[1:10:54] Now DWIs we've talked about internally
[1:10:57] quite a bit. I've talked with our city leaders quite a bit about DWIs in our city and how DWI is a
[1:11:04] problem for us in the Edinburgh community. Last year we made 342 DWI arrests. July of 22 to July
[1:11:12] of 23 we've made over 404 DWI arrests. Currently as of July, middle of July we have made 225 DWI arrests
[1:11:23] which tells me we're on pace to break 400 for this year when we were at 342 last year.
[1:11:28] That's two things. Are more people driving impaired? Or are officers taking stronger action
[1:11:34] to identify those that are driving impaired and removing them from the street?
[1:11:38] We can never tell how many lives were saved by the arrest that was made,
[1:11:42] just like we can't tell with the crime reduction by visible patrols in the neighborhoods.
[1:11:48] Now, you can see June, a difference of two DWI arrests.
[1:11:53] But what's important to this is not just the enforcement, it's education.
[1:11:57] Since February of this year, we've done 29 DWI-related presentations in schools,
[1:12:03] even with law enforcement federal partners and our stakeholders to educate our community
[1:12:09] about how dangerous it is to get behind the will of a car if you are impaired.
[1:12:15] and sadly I bring it to this slide because last Monday night we had a very tragic accident in our city
[1:12:20] One that isn't an anomaly. It doesn't happen very often, but has happened in years past
[1:12:26] Of these six crashes resulting in nine deaths
[1:12:30] The the one the father's go down the list motorcycle crash solo vehicle a
[1:12:37] construction worker on
[1:12:39] North to 81 that was working with a crew
[1:12:42] another motorcycle at 25th and Wisconsin, a single vehicle. We don't have
[1:12:47] toxicology on those motorcycles back yet. 20th and university was somebody on a
[1:12:52] pedocycle and was struck by a vehicle. Then we had the pedestrian right here by the
[1:12:58] courthouse at 10th and Connell and then on last Monday night we had the head on
[1:13:03] collision that occurred on Jackson. Last year for the entire year we had three
[1:13:12] recognize this in June when they started.
[1:13:15] In fact, I had information, research, put information out.
[1:13:19] On Friday, a Friday night, we had a fatal
[1:13:21] on East University.
[1:13:23] I put something back out in Monday morning.
[1:13:26] Within an hour, we had the auto pedestrian
[1:13:28] by the courthouse.
[1:13:30] And so we're aware, our officers are aware.
[1:13:32] They're out there working.
[1:13:32] You can look until by the data that they're out there doing
[1:13:36] what they need to do to try to reduce this year-to-date.
[1:13:39] So far, we've had two homicides.
[1:13:40] one has been solved the other we are still pursuing the suspect as he's still at
[1:13:47] large. 1446 crashes till January to June and that does not include parking lot
[1:13:53] crashes. We have a lot of crashes in Edinburgh we need to do a lot more at
[1:13:58] trying to reduce those crashes but what do we do when we have a violent crime
[1:14:02] that happens in a neighborhood? We have implemented a community restoration effort
[1:14:07] We redeploy officers into that neighborhood.
[1:14:10] We have them do foot patrol, we have them drive through the neighborhood.
[1:14:13] We want them making contact with community members.
[1:14:15] The old days of officer, what is happening down the street?
[1:14:19] Go back in your house, it doesn't concern you.
[1:14:21] Those are old days.
[1:14:23] The answer should be, we're working a death investigation.
[1:14:26] There's no threat to your neighborhood.
[1:14:28] More information will come out as it's developed.
[1:14:31] Because we engage the community, we inform them, and we reduce any concerns.
[1:14:34] And so, that is an effort that we put in place last year to continue to make sure that we're engaging to community when bad things happen.
[1:14:42] I just want to talk briefly on our initiatives and resources.
[1:14:47] So, you know the number of programs that we have. I won't touch on them greatly, but we have our community watch groups.
[1:14:52] We've had 10 neighborhood meetings this year are upcoming. We just announced our business watch, which mirrors the community watch.
[1:15:00] We're going to try to get our businesses involved in being a part of the solution when we have vehicle burglaries and things in their parking lots. Our Coach 5-O mentoring program, we're going to start the second year. That's our officers with two pilot schools, Robert Bella and Edinburgh North, that go, they engage, they work out with them, they attend games and events to help be a mentor and let them know what to do on a traffic store. Let them have a resource other than school or family that they can reach out to if they have a question. And it's a really good program.
[1:15:30] Our clergy and police partnership I'll tell you that last Monday night we had three of our seven clergy members that are part of our volunteer program with the city show up to that event.
[1:15:42] We were on they were on site of the scene of the crash and they were in the hospital offering prayer and support for not only the victims but for our officers who responded.
[1:15:51] and then on Tuesday at briefing on evening shift we're the majority of the
[1:15:55] officers responded to that crash. Our clergy were there and actually did
[1:15:59] prayed with officers who wanted to be involved with prayer before they went on
[1:16:04] the truth of duty that day. And we have our Citizens Police Academy. This
[1:16:08] upcoming here soon we're going to have one but it's going to be in total Spanish
[1:16:12] for our Spanish speaking community because they matter too and a lot of
[1:16:17] sometimes we don't have the programs for them.
[1:16:20] So we're gonna put our officers to work
[1:16:21] as big as vanishing the classroom.
[1:16:24] Just to touch on it, these are three of the programs
[1:16:26] I mentioned, community or in policing,
[1:16:28] is a very strong one.
[1:16:31] And last year you remember we rolled out citizen connect
[1:16:35] for the transparency of what's happening in our city
[1:16:38] and in our neighborhoods.
[1:16:39] And our citizens have the ability to go online,
[1:16:42] researched by week, by day, by month,
[1:16:44] particular area we continue to utilize that we also continue to utilize the
[1:16:49] law for inside of that where our officers can go on there and look in the zone
[1:16:54] that they're working today and look what's happened in the last week in
[1:16:57] order to be knowledgeable and aware in support of what the intelligence
[1:17:01] analyst is doing they have the information at their fingertips as well some
[1:17:06] school initiatives that we do we do a lot of enforcement in school zones we do
[1:17:11] walkthroughs in the schools we're about to meet with the school district again
[1:17:14] And as we kick off this year's school year, and as well, last year, we did an operation
[1:17:20] because we have a lot of people that when the bus pulls over to pick up kids and the
[1:17:23] stop sign comes out, they continue to go.
[1:17:26] And so we put an officer on a school bus with video in order to find those violators and
[1:17:33] stop and cite them.
[1:17:34] And I anticipate we would be doing operations like that again this year if it's a problem
[1:17:39] in our school zones in order to keep our students as safe as possible.
[1:17:45] Drag race and enforcement we've heard about all over the state about takeovers and intersection
[1:17:49] takeovers in a lot of the major cities here we mostly have dealt with drag racing.
[1:17:54] So we partnered, we led the charge, we partnered with Texas DPS, the sheriff's office here in
[1:17:59] Adagio County and for PD.
[1:18:01] The majority of what was happening was happening in the municipal park.
[1:18:04] We gathered intelligence, we knew where they were going, we met them there, we were able
[1:18:08] to disrupt a lot of the gatherings and we're not seeing them come back to our city.
[1:18:12] As of recent, this year alone we've made 20 arrests for drag racing.
[1:18:19] And how do we share information with the public?
[1:18:22] Well, you've seen the digital boards that are out there.
[1:18:24] We have some information that we push out.
[1:18:27] A lot of it is acquired through grants and so it's very limited on where we can use it.
[1:18:32] But we have a message board in LPR at 69 and 2812 and 69 and 1925.
[1:18:38] And then we have Skywatch towers and speed trailers that we're able to deploy throughout
[1:18:42] the city.
[1:18:43] We just received two from the RGB tag as part of the anti-gain grant that we received
[1:18:50] and they're going to be ready to be deployed out into the community as well.
[1:18:55] How do we communicate internally?
[1:18:57] A year ago we signed on with the Evertail application and this affords us several rooms.
[1:19:04] We have a room that's just for patrol.
[1:19:06] I turn that one off at night because when they're sharing information at night
[1:19:09] I don't want the phone to go off right and less unless it's a command notification and we have a room for command notification
[1:19:15] We have a room for detectives. We have a room with other agencies around us that participate with Everettel like for PD and Westlaco in the Sheriff's Office
[1:19:24] It's military encrypted
[1:19:26] We are able to share information
[1:19:29] Instantaneously so you'll see it the right. This is in the patrol division room
[1:19:32] Here's an office that happens, somebody committing thefts, we got surveillance video, the officer took pictures at the scene,
[1:19:39] pushed it out on the EverTell app, everybody working on that night got it instantly, so what they're looking for,
[1:19:45] what the suspect vehicle looks like, and what the suspect looks like.
[1:19:48] The other thing we do internally is our analyst prepares a briefing scroll.
[1:19:53] It's a rolling power point that has most recent crime data, it has information from the department, things that are coming up.
[1:20:00] Just to keep them informed as they're sitting and briefing to get as much information as they can. Now, a lot of what we do is because you afford us to apply for and receive grants. And I won't go into all the grants. Two of the most important ones are the cops grants that we got in 21 and 22. That gave us 16 more officers. The last eight are the ones that are going to be graduating here in September. But we have Stone Garden, Border Star, our Project Safe Neighborhoods Grant. And then we have our Step Grants, which is speed enforcement.
[1:20:29] which is impaired driving enforcement and so we have a lot of opportunity to
[1:20:35] leverage the existing resources we have with visible enforcement which is what
[1:20:39] we want to decrease crimes from happening. And in all of that we ask ourselves
[1:20:44] what do we do to take care of our officers? There's a stigma in policing across the
[1:20:49] country about city programs that are offered to officers. They're going to
[1:20:54] report to my boss. They're going to tell him I reached out for help. We were able
[1:20:57] with the grants department to acquire a grant this past year for mental health for our officers.
[1:21:03] And just this week, we started issuing out this purple chip.
[1:21:09] And on this chip, there's a therapy dog and a phone number.
[1:21:12] And our officers can call this phone number, give the code word we've given them.
[1:21:16] They can make an appointment to see it as a psychologist.
[1:21:19] By law, they have to give their name, however, they don't give us the name.
[1:21:24] And they just send us the bill, and we currently were able to pay that bill with the grant that we currently have in place still.
[1:21:29] So there is an anonymous avenue for our officers to get help, and we know that some officers have already signed up to reach out to do that.
[1:21:37] And so in addition to what we offer as a city, we were able to get this grant, and it's been extremely effective.
[1:21:44] Now we can't do any of this without training, and we know the academy occurs, we know a lot of those in service trainings occur.
[1:21:51] But here in Edinburgh, we don't have consistent in service training.
[1:21:55] So this year, just a few weeks ago, we started our first module of 40 hours of annual in service training.
[1:22:01] Where officers refresh on tactics, they do their qualifications, they get legal updates.
[1:22:06] 40 hours a year, they're going to be able to receive training to keep them up to speed.
[1:22:11] We are creating 40 hours of annual supervisory in service to continue to work with our supervisors on leadership,
[1:22:18] on accountability, on the things that we want them to be focused on.
[1:22:23] But we can't forget our support staff, our professional staff.
[1:22:26] And so we're working on 24 to 48 hours of non-sworn annual
[1:22:30] in-service training to keep their skills up to date with technology,
[1:22:34] like Microsoft Office, and just different things that will enhance
[1:22:37] the police department's capabilities.
[1:22:39] And as I mentioned earlier, later in August, we do have this consultant coming in
[1:22:43] to specifically train on problem-oriented policing for our officers and
[1:22:47] our dispatchers, so that we give them tools to identify what a problem is, to utilize
[1:22:52] the Department of Justice Cops Office on resource material that allows us to research and make
[1:22:59] recommendations on a response to deal with a problem.
[1:23:03] And so that's a snapshot of the day-to-day of what we're doing in the police department
[1:23:08] using data and using our resources to deploy to the areas that they're needed.
[1:23:13] I'm extremely proud if you look at the numbers and the increase in the numbers, not only
[1:23:17] for DWI arrests, but for traffic stops, which when there's lights bouncing off of houses,
[1:23:23] bouncing off of buildings, the research will tell you, people are going to go somewhere
[1:23:27] else to commit crimes. So with that, I'll take any questions that you
[1:23:31] might have. Thank you, Chief, for your presentation.
[1:23:34] Anybody on council has any questions for Chief at this time?
[1:23:38] Chief, will you be doing a community outreach for, I know you did it in the past a few months
[1:23:43] to go about educating parents about keeping their children and car seats and all that and
[1:23:47] just keep throwing that message out. Will there be anything in that comment?
[1:23:50] Our COPSO, our COPSO continues to do public education if you will. I'd have to check
[1:23:56] with them to see if we have any schedule, but we will continue to do that. And we are focused
[1:24:00] I feel dimensioned next week. We will be doing a press conference to roll out a new
[1:24:05] initiative dealing with speed and impaired driving. But we will continue the training
[1:24:10] models that we currently have for public education like that to keep people in our car seat.
[1:24:14] I think it's very effective, which you all did in the past, but it doesn't even have to be,
[1:24:19] you have to host something, you know, just simply hosting it on your website just to remind people,
[1:24:23] you know, keep, you know, certain age, your kids in a car seat, things like that go a long way.
[1:24:27] Just a friend of mine, you're no different than your training that you're doing for your officers,
[1:24:30] you know, me? Absolutely.
[1:24:33] The chief, the question I have on the COP program,
[1:24:37] I know they go out to talk to neighborhoods, but do we have any numbers on actual neighborhood watch groups being formed in subdivisions?
[1:24:46] My area, they're real interested in doing it, and I just think it's a way to get the community involved with policing.
[1:24:53] Also, I know you once mentioned about residents who can sign up to have-
[1:25:00] Any of PD access to their camera and footage? Can you touch on that a little bit? So I don't have the number of groups that we currently have active. I can tell you we have a quarterly community watch meeting and there's at least a dozen folks that show up, but I know that we've added groups. We've added groups like Elena. We've added the one that's there north of Vela where you just put up the street signs because of parking here in school. And we continue to want to add those groups, and that is the next step that we're going to want to try to do is citizens on patrol.
[1:25:29] members of those groups actually logged their hours to patrol their own neighborhood
[1:25:33] and report things that are suspicious. And there's some other neighborhood-based programs
[1:25:38] that we'll look at over the next six to 12 months. The second part of it was cameras.
[1:25:44] So currently we don't have the ability to pipe in camera feeds. In fact, this year it's
[1:25:50] budgeted in our capital outlay. There was money to start trying to create our own camera
[1:25:54] system in and around the promenade, right? And we're still researching and working on
[1:25:58] that. But there is a real-time crime center software that we've looked at that we've
[1:26:02] demoed that allows those neighborhoods to give us access to their feed. And there's
[1:26:09] actual intelligence software that if we're looking for a particular suspect or vehicle,
[1:26:15] the software searches for it instead of an officer sitting there for 12 hours looking
[1:26:19] through the video, the software does it for you and pulls it up. So it's really, really,
[1:26:24] really high tech technology and we're asking for it in the budget this year to see if we can bring
[1:26:30] that to fruition so we can begin to partner not only with neighborhoods that have cameras but
[1:26:35] with mom and pop grocery stores or convenience stores or anyone who has a camera that we can
[1:26:41] access on the network and they give us permission to we would have that I can tell you that in less
[1:26:46] in a year the city of Atlanta added over 10,000 cameras that were piped in from businesses and
[1:26:53] communities in around Atlanta into their crime center where they were able to review it on software.
[1:26:59] They're called donor cameras.
[1:27:01] Thank you.
[1:27:03] All right.
[1:27:04] Chief, thank you so much for your presentation.
[1:27:06] I appreciate all the work that department does.
[1:27:08] As I mentioned earlier on the streets, paving presentation as their city grows.
[1:27:13] It affects all our departments, but I think police department also, given how much more traffic is in the road and all that.
[1:27:21] and you know it is very unfortunate these numbers that we've seen I know with what happened last
[1:27:27] Monday and I appreciate the department going to the service of the families you know stop by and I
[1:27:33] saw you all there it just goes a long way poor family that's poor family members and you know
[1:27:40] anything that we can do anything that we can come up with to help advocate and make people aware
[1:27:45] where it goes beyond, in my opinion, DWI-related incidents just distracted driving, just simple
[1:27:54] slowing down in areas that, you know, all those things contribute to accidents.
[1:27:59] And so, you know, let us know, if I know you have a press conference coming up, I don't
[1:28:04] know if you mentioned that, August 9th, right?
[1:28:08] But any events like that that we can come up and help advocate and just make our community
[1:28:13] do where, just let us know and we're happy to do it.
[1:28:16] I can truly appreciate your support because we wouldn't have the resources available to
[1:28:21] deal with the things we're dealing with without your support and without you all giving
[1:28:24] us the tools that we need.
[1:28:25] So thank you all very much.
[1:28:26] Yes sir.
[1:28:27] Thank you.
[1:28:28] Thank you.
[1:28:28] All right.
[1:28:31] We're going to move on to item 7 of public comments.
[1:28:36] Yes, Vermeer.
[1:28:37] The Animal City Council allows for a specific portion of the city council meeting to be dedicated
[1:28:41] to public comments.
[1:28:42] Public comments are limited to three minutes. I will be taking time. Please note, the public
[1:28:47] comment period is not interactive. The council may not respond to public comments.
[1:28:51] At this timer and council, there are two public comments. The first public comment is burn
[1:28:56] declarity. Reminder of the penalty interest and collection fee.
[1:29:04] Yes, I would like to tell the gentleman about potholes on McCall between McCall and 10th Street
[1:29:11] don't change it. I don't know what you're using, but if it even barely sprinkles, it's gone,
[1:29:16] it's been removed. So it's an older road, but there's a school over there, and we have
[1:29:21] a lot of traffic, so I'd like to see some over there. I gave you this form, it shows penalty
[1:29:28] interest and collection fee charges. This is what someone, if they don't pay their property
[1:29:34] taxes in January of the following year, the February, then all the penalty and interest
[1:29:40] starts each month it goes up 7% 9% 11% 13% on top of what you already owe and you
[1:29:48] couldn't pay in July the delinquent tax firm puts in 15% so by the time you
[1:29:55] go around as I'm always telling on the next January
[1:30:00] The taxes that you owed in the year before, the interest and penalty of the total fees is 39%. So that's why I'm always
[1:30:08] hauling and talking about your spending and things because there's a lot of people that are being stuck. We can so far
[1:30:15] are able to pay our taxes but there are a lot of people that can't. And today, I also have signed up for agenda items. And one of them is 8A, which I'm hoping
[1:30:26] hoping before you vote on it that you will answer the question.
[1:30:30] We're giving city property to the university and the ECISD.
[1:30:36] The market value is $63,360.
[1:30:40] And the justification is the university project seeks to bring new student housing and more vibrant
[1:30:47] on campus life in the downtown area of the city.
[1:30:51] both the ECISD and the City have signed an agreement to sell.
[1:30:56] I called our President School Board and she didn't know about it,
[1:30:59] so I'm trying to find out about that.
[1:31:02] But once again, each time we look up the University
[1:31:05] is constantly purchasing, buying, given whatever property
[1:31:09] that belong to the people.
[1:31:11] And they own, I believe, on Chapin and Sugar,
[1:31:14] a huge piece of property that they're not doing anything with.
[1:31:18] and then on 10C tonight you have imminent domain.
[1:31:22] I really don't like imminent domain.
[1:31:25] A public necessity for the welfare of the city of Edinburgh
[1:31:29] and the public or what I can't remember on writing
[1:31:32] at publication or whatever at large.
[1:31:35] Can you explain why you're taking so much property?
[1:31:39] I don't know who it is.
[1:31:40] I looked to try to find it on the website.
[1:31:43] You didn't give where it was at.
[1:31:45] I did talk, and I think I know where it is now, but can you explain where you're giving the university something and you're taking
[1:31:54] Eminent domain on a net the piece of property from an individual.
[1:31:59] Again, I hope that y'all will keep this penalty and interest and collection fee near your heart through the end of the year and keep it there.
[1:32:08] that this is what the people look at and what the people are having to do and they can't afford it.
[1:32:15] Thank you.
[1:32:16] Thank you, ma'am.
[1:32:19] Ms. McKery would also like to speak on items A, A, 9, A, 10, B, 10, C, 11, B, and 13, B.
[1:32:37] And the last public comment is Magdele Castle regarding the UFO Festival and Conference.
[1:32:51] Good evening, Mayor of Council.
[1:32:52] Thank you for your constant and continued support.
[1:32:54] My name is Magdele Castle, Assistant Director of Cultural Arts.
[1:32:56] This marks the 13th annual UFO Festival and Conference happening here in Edinburgh on August 11th and 12th.
[1:33:02] The festival takes place here in the courtyard on the 11th from 7 to 11.
[1:33:07] And the conference will be at the Region 1 Education Service Centre at 1900 West Shrine Street.
[1:33:15] The festival focuses on an event that happened here in Edinburgh in 1966, which aspires
[1:33:20] to the festival.
[1:33:21] Now in its 13th year, we invite the entire community to come out and put on their tinfoil
[1:33:28] hats and get their laser light show activities going.
[1:33:35] We have a DJ show at the end of the night and the conference will be a ticket event at the
[1:33:39] Edinburgh Region 1 conference center.
[1:33:41] Thank you.
[1:33:42] Great.
[1:33:43] Thank you.
[1:33:46] There are no other public comments, ma'am.
[1:33:48] All right.
[1:33:49] We're going to move on to ordinances.
[1:33:51] Item 8A.
[1:33:52] And I know we have a comment.
[1:33:53] But I got to ask for motion second first.
[1:33:55] This is to consider ordinance abandon vacating and convene.
[1:33:59] Portion public street known as North 6th Avenue from the South
[1:34:02] right away line of Peter Street and North right away line of
[1:34:05] Coon Street within the city of Edinburgh.
[1:34:07] To the abutting property owners, Edinburgh consolidated independent
[1:34:10] school district and the border regions of the University of
[1:34:13] the Texas system.
[1:34:22] Motion to approve. We have a motion. Is there a second?
[1:34:30] Second.
[1:34:30] There's no second. We have a second. We had a question before we proceed.
[1:34:36] And then I'll ask if there's any other discussion. Go ahead, men.
[1:34:38] Just, you know, explain why you're doing this and what it's for, if you would.
[1:34:42] Because I had a couple of calls and I know a little bit about it, but not enough.
[1:34:46] Sure. I'll have our city manager address that, man.
[1:34:52] Yes, or mayor. So this item is basically being brought before you for your consideration on a request that there is
[1:35:00] He's a property on the school district, excuse me, the school district owns. So there's a transaction that's being held, if I'm not mistaken, Omar. There's a transaction that's being held through the school district and the university. But in order for that transaction to clear, we need to be able to abandon this area. So it's an area that's not used. We're not utilizing it.
[1:35:29] this area and so in an effort to continue that project, this is being requested from the city.
[1:35:41] Okay, are we able to disclose what the plans are at this time?
[1:35:46] Just I think that was part of the other question and I'll ask our attorney firm because I'm not sure but.
[1:35:52] It's a utility easement I think that's on that property that the school district owns.
[1:35:57] But you're right, so the overall project, this relates to the Midtown development board.
[1:36:03] I mean, this has been ongoing for several years.
[1:36:07] UTRGV is looking to build student housing facilities and other related facilities in this area.
[1:36:14] They are purchasing property from the school district and from the city to make one contiguous
[1:36:19] tract where they can do this development.
[1:36:22] But right now, there's a road that buy sex.
[1:36:25] And so this is an abandonment of that road.
[1:36:26] that section. Exactly. So they can have that entire property to do the facilities.
[1:36:32] All part of the development. Yes correct. And this is on the north part on Peter Street.
[1:36:36] I'm referring to that section right there between what is it six street and seventh right that
[1:36:42] goes into the parking lot of the school district right. That's a section that we're talking about.
[1:36:46] Yes correct. And this will encompass all that area I guess. That's correct. Yes.
[1:36:51] I don't know that answers the question. Okay. Yeah, Miss Fern. So there was a piece of property there
[1:36:54] that the city owned, that we did sell you TRGV.
[1:36:57] This is just that abandoning that street that easement.
[1:37:01] All right, any other questions, discussion by Council?
[1:37:05] If not, I'll call for a vote.
[1:37:06] All those in favor of the motion, please, there is the right hand.
[1:37:09] I'll suppose same sign, motion carries, item nine, A,
[1:37:13] contractuals.
[1:37:14] This is a consider authorizing city manager
[1:37:16] to enter into task order, job task order number two,
[1:37:19] with Alvarado, architects and associates.
[1:37:21] This is part of RFQ 2022-06 for architectural services for the renovations of animal care facility for an amount not to exceed a $55,000.
[1:37:32] So motion and the second there was also a question on this item.
[1:37:38] But yes, I was just saying that I know that the county is looking to build their own and
[1:37:45] not use that utilize the one over their own Trenton.
[1:37:48] So how much have we been paying the taxpayers to do the humane society compared to what
[1:37:57] y'all are looking at now?
[1:37:59] What is there a big difference?
[1:38:01] Is there big savings?
[1:38:02] and hopefully we'll do a better quality.
[1:38:06] I know that the news showed the dogs were underwater
[1:38:09] and the county got a bill
[1:38:11] and then they were told the animals couldn't,
[1:38:13] they wouldn't take any animals.
[1:38:16] They take the money, so that's why I was asking.
[1:38:18] Sure.
[1:38:19] Yeah, I believe this is part of our efforts
[1:38:22] to supplement what we're trying to do.
[1:38:25] You know, as far as animal care and the facility,
[1:38:27] this is just to add to our facilities, that correct?
[1:38:30] That is correct.
[1:38:31] at our existing facility, but the relationship will continue.
[1:38:36] We have to work with Palm Valley at this time.
[1:38:39] This is not to go on our own.
[1:38:41] This is as I understand to just supplement what we're doing.
[1:38:44] Yeah, Mr. and so, so if I'm interject just like I asked about
[1:38:47] the paving $3 million investment with our own manpower,
[1:38:51] if we were to sub it out, it would cost three times the amount.
[1:38:56] It's on our site.
[1:38:57] I think we spend over a million dollars on pets, on cats and dogs, to make society.
[1:39:04] So we're trying to bring that in, rein it in, because every year it jumps, it jumps.
[1:39:10] I think chief was one of the advocates for this, because apparently PD did that way back in the day.
[1:39:15] And so we thought if we had our own system, we could at least pull back on that large number,
[1:39:21] have our own facility and use, not get rid of any existing relationships, but try and see if we can mitigate some of the cost on our own.
[1:39:30] So this will not be the humane society. This will be the cities.
[1:39:34] Yes, that's right.
[1:39:35] Thank you.
[1:39:37] And if I may add, this is, you know, obviously what we're doing here is just part of what we can do to address this challenge. It's a challenge throughout our city throughout the county.
[1:39:48] But we need to work together with Palm Valley with our residents.
[1:39:52] We need to do a lot more awareness and education of this issue.
[1:39:57] But this is just doing our part as Councilmember.
[1:40:00] I think we've met with Palm Valley on this issue. They actually welcome this improvement we're looking to do because it's going over our help. Not only our city, but the area. So anybody else have any questions from council? Can you add anything that we didn't say? It's just an expansion. This is only to start the design process. We currently have 15 canals. We're looking to go three, two, four times more.
[1:40:27] Thank you. All those in favor of the motion creators are at hand.
[1:40:30] I'll suppose, same sign, motion carries, item 10, A, this is resolution, this is to consider resolution, and approve fiscal year 2023-2027 consolidated plan and strategy, which includes the community development block grant, fiscal year 23-24, annual action plan for the proposed use of funds for the period beginning October 1st, 2023 through September 30th, 2024.
[1:40:57] for. So we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Any question? I just had a quick
[1:41:04] question. Ms. Gacha on the I noticed that there was a couple of projects. I say city projects
[1:41:11] are I just wanted to make sure that those departments that we include them in our budget. We're going
[1:41:17] to have to have a match. Is that correct? For those projects. So good evening, Marisa. I have
[1:41:24] some of the director of grants administration.
[1:41:28] The projects that were submitted for consideration
[1:41:31] was at a larger amount.
[1:41:34] However, we did work with the departments
[1:41:36] when we were strategizing on how we were going to move forward
[1:41:39] and fund them.
[1:41:41] And they are able to face these projects out.
[1:41:45] So it just depends on the proposals that come in at the time.
[1:41:50] If it does go over the allotted amount,
[1:41:53] And yes, you will have to at that time, then look at other sources of funding.
[1:42:00] And I know it's a Brennelline Cedar drainage project, right?
[1:42:04] And then there's a sidewalk improvement project in someone's field.
[1:42:07] So they're all able to be scaled back as well, and including the sidewalk project.
[1:42:13] We did meet with public works with Mr. Vince Romero and Mr.
[1:42:18] your, you know, whole summer of O'Kale to make sure that we were able to scale the project
[1:42:23] back and that it would still be, you know, completed and functioning, you know, would be
[1:42:28] able to function with the amount of money that we're going to provide.
[1:42:33] I don't know if you want to.
[1:42:34] I just wanted to ask city management to keep these projects in mind as we're going through
[1:42:38] budget process, what will happen is if they get funded and then we don't appropriate funds
[1:42:43] on the city side, you know, the residents are going to be asking, okay, where are we finishing
[1:42:48] So I just want to make sure as we accept this or these projects that we also commit to the city funding because
[1:42:55] We do have a bushes mayor with the director's department heads as far as making sure that they're budgeting any difference that they
[1:43:04] Yeah, and I and I would highlight these
[1:43:07] Missile on the on the budget when we're reviewing them
[1:43:10] That's for councils consideration because this will be tied to these are federal monies and so you know
[1:43:16] We'll make sure we comply so that is correct. Yes, thank you mayor
[1:43:20] All right, there's all the questions all those in favor. Please raise your right hand. I'll suppose same sign motion carries
[1:43:26] The next item be is consider resolution. Excuse me. No consider approval not a resolution of the American Rescue Plan Act
[1:43:33] Arpa coroner virus state and local fiscal recovery funds program budget amendment
[1:43:39] Council
[1:43:40] so move
[1:43:42] We have a motion and a second and I believe there was a
[1:43:46] Question on this one as well.
[1:43:50] Yeah, because it shows here the city has received a total of 27 million one hundred thirty two thousand five hundred thirty six dollars in
[1:43:59] Two separate allocations one was in September 21 and one was in August 22
[1:44:07] How much more of the COVID money is out there that seems to be always
[1:44:14] dwindling in, is it ever end? And I know that between the school district, the county
[1:44:20] and the city is easily spent. I mean, and I know these are tax dollars wherever they're
[1:44:26] coming from. And someone wanted me to ask, you know, how much more are we going to keep
[1:44:32] going? And I said, I didn't know.
[1:44:35] I have our city manager dressed up, Miss from, but I think this is the last amount that
[1:44:41] That is correct, Mayor.
[1:44:44] We did receive only two allocations, Ms. Earn, and we are currently trying to get the
[1:44:50] council's input as well as present some items that have come up for the projects and
[1:44:56] for the funding.
[1:44:57] So we're trying to leverage the monies that have-
[1:45:00] Time to expedite some of these projects and move forward to, I believe through 2026 if I'm not mistaken. So you might see these items come up from time to time as they come up. Again, like I mentioned, we want to try to leverage the funding that has been allocated to the city based on the needs of the community and the input from the council. And I believe online we have a listing of all the projects.
[1:45:30] Yes, sir.
[1:45:31] Yes, sir.
[1:45:32] Is it on our city side?
[1:45:33] Do you all know what link?
[1:45:35] Just so that the residents can go to it.
[1:45:37] I believe it might be under the Department of Finance, if it's not through the Department of Grants, because it's a resolution that his is approved.
[1:45:44] So I believe it's on there.
[1:45:46] As the as-a-projects get approved or the items get approved.
[1:45:50] So there's a link under fiscal transparency on our website.
[1:45:53] Under finance support.
[1:45:54] But that's under finance, that is correct.
[1:45:56] Yes.
[1:45:56] Okay, but I do want to say if I may add mayor that the ARPA funding just to further explain and clarify
[1:46:04] It has been allocated to the to the city and we've had this funding
[1:46:08] We do have projects that are undergoing that are underway and there there has been a
[1:46:14] surplus
[1:46:15] So we are able to then we want to maximize these funds so we're able as other projects come in city manager
[1:46:23] Manager will reach out to our office and will the departments and the city management team will meet and then they come to us to ensure compliance for these additional projects as we're adding them
[1:46:34] My compliance team will be reviewing everything. Yeah, and let me just see it through its life. Yeah, let me just answer it for Fern
[1:46:42] Just for clarification. Our our amounts was allocated from the county correct
[1:46:53] So the first allocation I believe you might be referring to is the CARES, this one's ARPA.
[1:46:59] Yeah, so yeah, there was a CARES misprint that was given to the county, they spread it out throughout the cities, and then this was ARPA.
[1:47:08] And this was all back in 2020, around that time funding was coming in, and there's been a plan on the two tranches that were coming in.
[1:47:16] So it's not new monies, just old monies that are finally, they gave us a few years to utilize.
[1:47:21] And I'd like to mention too, as Ms. Garza made comment that as the projects are being complete,
[1:47:30] believe it or not, sometimes we do have some money left over.
[1:47:33] So we need to reallocate those so that we can leverage them and at least put them towards
[1:47:37] another project that we foresee that is needed here in the city.
[1:47:41] So you will continue seeing these from time to time, but hopefully some of these projects
[1:47:47] can get completed sooner than later.
[1:47:48] And
[1:47:51] yes, thank you for that question just to answer the part of your question too is as far as I'm concerned
[1:47:56] The federal government and the state government wants to keep giving us money to do something with I'm going to take it
[1:48:01] Now it is tax dollars to you know in general, but I'm not going to sit here and say no and deprive my citizens of the benefit of that
[1:48:08] So any dollar they want to send down here be happy to take it if we've got a good use for it unless you've got some match to it
[1:48:14] That we can't afford is a different story, but if the feds or the state accounting wants to send some money over here
[1:48:20] here, I'll open my pocket and we'll take it.
[1:48:23] Power pocket for the scene, now mine, I'm not, yeah, that's going to cost me a voter
[1:48:27] too.
[1:48:29] Yeah, and for the record, part of this funds is what we used for tax relief last year just
[1:48:35] as a reminder, that was I think in the previous year, this current fiscal year.
[1:48:42] So there's still funds available, it's up to council, they want to do that again this year,
[1:48:47] this budget year.
[1:48:48] So just trying to put everybody on the spot here for this next budget, but anyway, so that's what we've used this last year.
[1:48:55] But it has been put to good use and I urge all the residents to really go into that fiscal transparency.
[1:49:01] So you have all the projects there, all of them are listed, whether or not and I appreciate all the work that staff's doing so.
[1:49:07] And in this latest budget that we included in your packet, it does have all the most current expenditures for all the projects.
[1:49:16] We updated that, we worked closely with Ms. Segura to do that.
[1:49:20] Great, thank you.
[1:49:22] All right, there's no other discussion.
[1:49:23] All those in favor of the motion, please raise your right hand.
[1:49:25] I'll suppose same sign, motion carries.
[1:49:27] Next item, see, this is to consider the use of eminent domain to condemn property.
[1:49:32] This is a .067 acre track of land out of lot 49 in Lehigh Plaza, Ithalo County, Texas.
[1:49:42] Out of saving accept, this is all the legal description of the property.
[1:49:45] The seven and a half acres line east of center line railroad describe a warrant to deed dated October 3rd, 1972 recording volume 1337, page 110, deed records in approving a resolution determining a public
[1:50:00] Necessity for acquiring property and authorizing the filing of eminent domain proceedings to acquire property. Motion to prove the resolution. We have motion, is there a second? If I may interrupt, I'm sorry. There's a specific motion that's required by state law. If you look at the cover sheet, it's on the last paragraph under part two.
[1:50:25] So the state law has a specific, you know, phrasey
[1:50:35] that you need to use when making the motion to approve this resolution?
[1:50:39] And so to the extent you want to approve the resolution, there's language included in there to use for the motion.
[1:50:46] Can you refer to this section again?
[1:50:48] I'm sorry, sure.
[1:50:49] So it's the cover page for this agenda item.
[1:50:53] And it's the last paragraph of section two, which is the description and scope.
[1:50:58] The paragraph begins if the City Council wishes to proceed with the authorization.
[1:51:07] So we have to have that part of it.
[1:51:08] Yeah, we have to read the rest of the year.
[1:51:11] Correct.
[1:51:12] Okay, we'll ask for the approval for the resolution for the state's I move that the city of Edinburgh authorizes the use of the power of a minute domain to acquire the property described in this agenda item for the public purpose of constructing and operating a hike and bike trail.
[1:51:23] Yes, is there a guns motion? We have a second and we had a question on this as well, I believe.
[1:51:34] This was taken property from a taxpayer for imminent domain and I can't find out.
[1:51:41] Here it is, that a public necessity for the welfare of the city of Edinburgh can you explain why it's a public necessity?
[1:51:50] I guess it's the person we're asking.
[1:51:52] and at large the public, so if you just kind of answer what that is.
[1:51:57] Sure, so that it's for public improvements.
[1:52:00] There's a high-convictor that's being built along this corridor,
[1:52:03] and this is a section of property that is still needed.
[1:52:06] Is this all with all the owners?
[1:52:08] No, with all the owners.
[1:52:11] Yeah, sure.
[1:52:13] There's a grant that we received from MPO back in 2019.
[1:52:16] By the time we got executed, it became 2020.
[1:52:19] and we received about $800,000 in funding plus $400,000 that we threw in, and my
[1:52:25] calendar also threw in another $400,000, and this is to build the hike and bike
[1:52:29] trail to connect both cities, us from Jackson, going to the city of
[1:52:34] McCallan, McCallan connecting on their second street side into their ditches.
[1:52:38] This particular project required two parcels on one of them we have been able to
[1:52:42] agree with one of the property owners which was a larger track. This is actually
[1:52:48] the southeast corner of the intersection of McCall Road and Wisconsin. This is the only
[1:52:53] pending parcel to be able to get the project into construction. Plants are at a hundred
[1:52:59] percent already. Okay, it was the, we're all the owners notified about us trying to do
[1:53:04] any money, were they all notified? They were notified. It's only one owner. This is no one
[1:53:10] owner for this parcel, one owner for the other parcel, the other parcel we agreed on this
[1:53:14] when we did not agree to terms based on what they knew about today's council meeting.
[1:53:18] I'm sorry. They knew about coming today at today's council meeting. They know that it was
[1:53:23] coming. We did send the final offer and that's how it looked.
[1:53:27] Yeah, for the record, what did we offer and what was the disparity? What were they asking?
[1:53:33] How were you able to discuss that?
[1:53:38] You can, you can't discuss it, but it is also subject
[1:53:41] to confidentiality as well. So it's up to the council if they want to retain that confidentiality or not.
[1:53:47] Okay, well I'll rephrase how long did we talk to the owner and try to offer him a fair settlement
[1:53:53] and what was the conversation back without mentioning numbers. Let's just say that we started the
[1:54:00] we appraised the property back in March and the offer was sent as soon as we got out the
[1:54:07] The appraisal value was the offer at the appraisal value and it was a significant amount to three times
[1:54:16] More like 35 to 40. 35 to 40 times of appraisal value is what the property owner wanted
[1:54:22] I just wanted that for the record
[1:54:25] And and after we we said we couldn't we can only by law we can only offer a
[1:54:31] appraisal for the most part
[1:54:32] For the most part, there's a little bit of room for negotiations but appraisal value, it's generally the market value, which is what's required.
[1:54:41] Definitely never at 35 to 40 times appraisal value.
[1:54:47] Anything else you want to add?
[1:54:48] No sir.
[1:54:49] That we need to let the public know is we don't take your land, it's kind of a forced sale at market value, that's fair.
[1:54:57] and so I'm going to go
[1:55:00] No, we still pay a market value. Is that what happens? We still pay for the land. We still have to pay for the product. We're not taking anyone's property. We were paying the market value when they wanted 35 to 40 times the value for the benefit of greater good. And we would have lost roughly a million dollars in improvement, other improvements if we wouldn't get this piece of land. Right. We lose there the rest of the hike and bike trail. That's correct. We can't complete our portion. Correct. And not only our part but the city of McAllens, the part that's willing to work.
[1:55:29] I can't worry about us. We lost ours.
[1:55:32] Well, we're together and we have an interlocal agreement with them.
[1:55:36] And most importantly, the safety, you know, the hike and bike trail.
[1:55:38] We need, you know, the sidewalks having to be safer for the people to ride their bikes.
[1:55:42] And I think it's just important for us to take that initiative and acquire that.
[1:55:47] Fern, I guess what they're really trying to tell you is we did everything.
[1:55:50] We did everything we could to negotiate with the property.
[1:55:53] And then finally, this is the last step where we as a council
[1:55:55] I also feel that this needed to go, so we don't lose another portion of what's best for our total community.
[1:56:02] I just know as a property owner, a lot of times we don't want to sell our property for what it, and like I say I don't know who owns this or anything, but when we don't want to sell, that's what hurts.
[1:56:14] Yeah, and I do want to say, and I understand that, and I do want to stay for the record, this is 0.0, and I know it's any property size 0.0670, which is about
[1:56:22] Well, 2,100 square feet.
[1:56:26] I just want to state that for the record.
[1:56:27] We're not talking about a five acre track,
[1:56:29] or this is a section of property on the north part
[1:56:33] of the problem.
[1:56:34] It's a parcel that's 22 feet in depth.
[1:56:36] Yeah.
[1:56:37] Well, I was just looking at one point,
[1:56:39] y'all mentioned, or something.
[1:56:40] I heard it's 7.5 acres.
[1:56:42] Yeah, we have to state for the record the legal description.
[1:56:45] It's out of that.
[1:56:46] But it's, as you know, also pointed out,
[1:56:50] was it 22 feet?
[1:56:53] And it's just a front section of that property, not anybody's home, not it's just a front section which actually is going to make improvements all through that area.
[1:57:02] And it is a right away piece. So it was always intended for improvement or expansion.
[1:57:10] All right, if there's no other discussion, I'll cough for a vote.
[1:57:14] All those in favor, please raise your right hand.
[1:57:15] I'll suppose same sign, a motion carries.
[1:57:17] We've been move on to item 11, economic development.
[1:57:20] We have item A, consider approval of sponsorship from the Edinburgh Economic Development Corporation to the City of Edinburgh Library and Cultural Arts Department to sponsor the South Texas International Film Festival in the amount of $10,000.
[1:57:34] second discussion motion the second go ahead Mayor just want to ask who's here just rather
[1:57:40] Is this the maximum that we're able to assist for the film festival or how did we come up with this amount?
[1:57:46] This amount was basically come up we came up with the amount because we had a budget
[1:57:52] That was about to be exceeded
[1:57:54] But it was also because we did an economic impact analysis and
[1:57:58] And based on that economic impact analysis, a $10,000 sponsorship is a good sponsorship
[1:58:05] for the amount of attendees and also for the amount of projected expenditures for that
[1:58:13] weekend.
[1:58:14] What do we, a system was last year?
[1:58:17] Do you know?
[1:58:18] Last year they didn't ask for anything because they did everything virtual.
[1:58:23] Was it virtual?
[1:58:24] Was it last year or no?
[1:58:25] No.
[1:58:26] Last year was $20,000.
[1:58:27] two years ago was was virtual. Yeah because I know last year we went to attend it so we're doing less this year than last year.
[1:58:34] We're doing less this year than last year. Correct. Is there any way that we can help with more or this is the max.
[1:58:39] I'm only saying because it gets bigger every year and we're decreasing.
[1:58:42] Last year was 750 attendees and before that it was a little bit less because it was virtual.
[1:58:51] But Council can override. I'm just asking. You're the one that leads the department.
[1:58:56] Yeah, no. Our recommendation was $10,000. The board agreed with it. It was a unanimous vote by the board.
[1:59:02] Right. All right. Thank you. Anybody else have any discussion?
[1:59:07] If not, I would just ask if there is additional funds needed.
[1:59:11] Can we use a hotel occupancy tax for this since it is bringing people to the city?
[1:59:17] Yes. The hot tax can be utilized for an event such as this.
[1:59:22] I know we have a lot of people coming so just right. I will add so this discussion go back and forth
[1:59:28] Katsumagarsia
[1:59:29] We asked the initial ask based on recommendations for the 10
[1:59:34] To give the other 10 we asked for an impact study
[1:59:38] EDC of course as you know has been separated from the city its own entity now
[1:59:41] We're trying to establish guidelines on on sponsorships on how much the that they want to give for each festival
[1:59:49] To be fair, the cultural arts didn't know about the economic study, but there's other festivals
[1:59:54] that has a much greater economic impact, and I'm sure now they'll know to come educated
[1:59:58] with guns loaded.
[2:00:00] Asking for the sponsorship. And before we agreed on that, we also reached out to City Manager to make sure that the hot tax could be utilized to cover the other 10, but of course, it comes to Council for approval so we can always change it if we think so. All right. Any other questions? If not, call for the vote. I'll pay for the motion to raise the right hand. I'll suppose same sign, motion carries. Item B,
[2:00:31] to consider approval of fiscal year 22-23,
[2:00:33] semi-annual report presented by the Edinburgh GDC Board
[2:00:37] to the City of Edinburgh City Council.
[2:00:41] So, let me introduce myself.
[2:00:44] I'll go outside with the Edinburgh Economic Development Corporation.
[2:00:47] One of the provisions and the bylaws of the corporation
[2:00:50] is to make a semi-annual report.
[2:00:53] That's the report that's in your packet
[2:00:54] for the first six months of the fiscal year.
[2:00:57] But I can do, just go through some of the highlights
[2:00:59] of the first six months. Number one was the hiring of the executive director which is myself
[2:01:05] and then that was in November of 2022 in March which is the first the month number six is when
[2:01:15] I first started hiring staff so between November and March it was basically myself and then the
[2:01:19] assistance of the city manager staff and then we were negotiating the sale of two EDC own buildings
[2:01:27] that closed at that time and we also have five transactions within the North Industrial
[2:01:32] Park that were being negotiated and some of those have already closed. Some of those
[2:01:37] are pending closing in the next couple of days. We were also considering various properties
[2:01:45] for EDC office space. We have implemented some guidelines for the incentive policies.
[2:01:56] We
[2:01:57] We've increased marketing and social media and print media.
[2:02:00] We've been upgrading the EDC website.
[2:02:03] We've participated in several conferences that have led into numerous leads and prospects that are increasing our networking opportunities as well.
[2:02:13] We've been exposing us the community to many retailers, developers, brokers, and of course lawmakers in the legislative session.
[2:02:25] We've put on the red light and new job fair earlier in the year.
[2:02:30] We put on an entrepreneurship bootcamp, which was in partnership with Workforce Solutions.
[2:02:36] We're going to continue to do those kind of job fairs and boot camps.
[2:02:40] And we've also started the Small Business Assistant Programs through Lift Fund and also with
[2:02:46] partnerships with the SBA.
[2:02:48] Those are some of the highlights.
[2:02:50] I can go into more detail, but the detail is outlined in the next six pages in your
[2:02:57] Thank you for providing the information beforehand. It's very helpful for our review. Does anybody
[2:03:05] on council have any questions or comments or anything? I only have one question. I know
[2:03:12] as was mentioned, the EDCs now you have your own office. It's not a city department anymore
[2:03:17] but is our finance going to continue handily and all finances for the corporation or a second
[2:03:23] work. So there's still an agreement between the city and the EEC in terms of
[2:03:27] services. So the oversight as far or the just handling of finance. Yeah finance
[2:03:32] will still handle the books if you will. Our engineering department can still
[2:03:36] help us in terms of some of the planning that we do. City manager staff is
[2:03:41] available to us for a lot of the different projects that we're working with.
[2:03:45] So we're still working closely with each other as a matter of fact even though
[2:03:48] we're not physically located within City Hall our phone system which was just
[2:03:52] established today is such that if you call City Hall, they just patches up into our
[2:03:57] offices.
[2:03:58] So nothing else has changed other than just a physical location.
[2:04:02] Great.
[2:04:04] I will add what I'm happy with Council is that we're trying to establish guidelines on incentives
[2:04:13] based on revenues, performance, a lot of jobs, wages, where before there was no real, somebody
[2:04:21] We would get somebody to get a little, somebody to get a lot, and it depended on who was
[2:04:27] on the board.
[2:04:28] This is not kind of standardizing, and so every time someone asks me, hey, will the EDC
[2:04:32] help?
[2:04:32] Now we refer them to the website.
[2:04:34] So, hey, look, there's incentive packages there, see if you qualify for something.
[2:04:39] Now, of course, if there's an item or a store or a business that the city of Edinburgh
[2:04:43] is demanding, we're going to do whatever it takes to make it happen, but overall it kind
[2:04:47] kind of standardizes what the EDC does and it's just trying to make it a more organized
[2:04:54] professional packet.
[2:05:00] I appreciate the initiative for the small business because we do need to, you know, help them as much as we can. I know you'll have partnered with Lift Fund. We're having an information session with Lift Fund coming up on Thursday. And then we also have some other programs that we're working on right now that will be coming up in front of you all for a final approval. And then we'll be implementing some of that, which is some grant programs for parking lot improvements landscaping and that type of thing.
[2:05:29] Yeah, thank you for mentioning that.
[2:05:31] So some of the ARPA monies we want to,
[2:05:33] that we're not used initially for the facade program.
[2:05:35] We want to reward some of the smaller mom and pop restaurants
[2:05:40] and businesses who have parking lot issues
[2:05:42] that would never get addressed.
[2:05:43] We want to see council will let us utilize those other funds
[2:05:47] for parking lot improvements among other things.
[2:05:53] All right, if anybody else, does that have any questions?
[2:05:56] So I'll call for a vote.
[2:05:57] All those in favor, please raise your right hand.
[2:05:59] I'll suppose same sign.
[2:06:00] Thank you for the other business. Council, is there any items that you would like to request?
[2:06:05] You made the motion. There was not a motion. Okay, I apologize for that.
[2:06:10] I thought there was. So thank you. All right, now I'll call for the vote.
[2:06:16] I'll make the motion. All's in favor of the motion to approve the report.
[2:06:21] Raise it right now. I'll suppose same sign. All right, now that carries.
[2:06:25] Thank you. All right. 12 other business. Council is there any items you would like to request city manager place on the next council meeting?
[2:06:33] Yes, Mayor. I'd like to have the sign ordinance put on the next
[2:06:40] Political sign order specifically because
[2:06:42] I mean the reason is this when the political signs were being put up or in violation of our ordinance
[2:06:48] I came and called the city hall to find out what's happening with that. Apparently that would be a discussion on whether we need to enforce that law or not
[2:06:55] So if we need to have a discussion whether we need a force that we need to discuss whether we need it
[2:07:00] All right, okay
[2:07:03] All right anything else we have an ordinance you'd like that ordinance
[2:07:07] But apparently before it could be enforced because signs were being put up illegally
[2:07:11] We had to have a discussion with with our legal counsel and everyone else whether we're gonna enforce the law
[2:07:16] So I mean the police department has to have a discussion with legal counsel before the enforce a law that's on the book
[2:07:22] So obviously you must have an issue with this ordinance and I'd like to have an address if there is an issue.
[2:07:27] Yeah. Well, I understood it was full in effect, but that's okay. We can't discuss it today.
[2:07:32] We can bring it at the next meeting. I actually was in full effect, but anyway.
[2:07:36] That's exactly what I understood.
[2:07:37] Yeah. Okay. Well, if we could just have that, do you want the actual ordinance?
[2:07:41] We need to address the ordinance if there's an issue with it on why they had to have a meeting.
[2:07:45] So we can put that back on.
[2:07:47] Okay.
[2:07:47] If anything else, council, any other items?
[2:07:51] If not, I move on to item 13 consent agenda.
[2:07:54] We have items A and B, is there a motion?
[2:07:59] So motion the second and I believe, unless I'm mistaken,
[2:08:03] for did you have a question, item B?
[2:08:13] Just got some of 11 B and you know, to go into a little bit because I did pull up the balance sheet and stuff on the other gentleman.
[2:08:24] Oh, I'm sorry.
[2:08:25] I moved on.
[2:08:26] Okay.
[2:08:26] But I.
[2:08:27] Okay.
[2:08:28] My thing was, I know I looked here at Santana again for me in 205,000 I think and then
[2:08:37] Santana.
[2:08:38] We just like a little explanation and I was hoping he'd do a little more than just the things
[2:08:44] that they've been doing for their office and stuff.
[2:08:47] And then the second one that you're on right now that you haven't voted for, I just wanted
[2:08:52] would you explain it a little bit or someone to explain what it is?
[2:09:02] Good evening, Mayor Marisa Garza, Director of Grand Administration.
[2:09:07] So we are bringing this item back.
[2:09:10] This is a substantial amendment to our 2019 annual action plan.
[2:09:14] We are reallocating a surplus of funding that came in through the Corona virus.
[2:09:21] There was a special location through the CityBG Corona virus funding from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
[2:09:30] We had funded several projects and there was also a surplus on the under end.
[2:09:37] And so we basically we captured the funding the last time it was before you, it was to do a public hearing.
[2:09:44] we went through our 30-day comment period and now we're back here to finalize and
[2:09:50] approve the the super-sip agreement with Amigos El Valle. So we did finalize our
[2:09:58] our 30-day common period.
[2:10:00] We have submitted our substantial amendment to HUD and they already reviewed it and have cleared this project. So now we want to do an amendment to the existing original contract as we were required to do by HUD. So this is. These are for 2019. I'm sorry. Yes, because when the funding came out, the guidance that we received was to either amend our 2019 annual action plan or the 2020.
[2:10:27] But when the funding was received the first allocation, it was during the 2019 fiscal year.
[2:10:35] So we have to stick with the 2019 annual action plan.
[2:10:39] We have to amend that one.
[2:10:41] And we have these funds in place.
[2:10:43] Yes, yes, it's just a surplus of funding from projects that did not use for funding.
[2:10:48] So amigos adviated express a need for the meals on wheels program.
[2:10:53] And that is why we feel confident that when they receive the funding,
[2:10:57] they'll be able to spend it on time and within the performance of period that we were given.
[2:11:03] Okay, I did that answer. Okay, sorry. And I'm sorry about the other item. I can't go back to
[2:11:08] but we can try to get you that answer for, I'm sure that you had on the budget. All right, I did call
[2:11:15] for a motion on this in a second. So all those in favor of the motion, please raise your right hand.
[2:11:19] Mayor, I need to abstain from the board for a meal divine. Okay, so we have one abstention.
[2:11:24] and all those, everybody else in favor?
[2:11:28] Can I see you have show hands?
[2:11:29] I'm sorry.
[2:11:30] All right, I'm sorry.
[2:11:31] This is the way I went up extension.
[2:11:32] We went up extension four, and then went up extension
[2:11:34] for item B, particularly correct.
[2:11:36] All right.
[2:11:37] And just to clarify, thank you for pointing that out
[2:11:39] as a board member of Migos de Valleja.
[2:11:41] This issue has come up before,
[2:11:42] so it's best to abstain, and I appreciate you doing that.
[2:11:45] Well, on that note, so anybody on the council's board member
[2:11:49] any entity that's funding for, we require to abstain?
[2:11:52] Not necessarily, but because this is the source of the funding is the community development
[2:11:59] block grant, HUD has given guidance on this specific question before.
[2:12:07] Okay.
[2:12:07] If it wasn't involving, you know, CDBG money, then it'd be a different outcome.
[2:12:12] Got it.
[2:12:13] Okay.
[2:12:14] Great.
[2:12:14] All right.
[2:12:15] So we're going to call for a vote.
[2:12:16] Moving on.
[2:12:17] We're going to move on to executive session.
[2:12:18] Council can add an emotion to move.
[2:12:20] Thank you.
[2:12:20] motion in a second. All's in favor, please raise the right hand.
[2:12:25] All's opposed, same sign. It is 8-10 and we are now going to convene to
[2:12:30] executive session, discuss items A, B, C, and D.
[5:00:29] So, session, can I get a motion to reconvene? To move. We have a motion and a second to reconvene. All those in favour, please raise your right hand. I'll suppose, same side. Motion carries. Just wanted to state that there was no action taken in the executive session. Councilor, I think we have an item. We need action. Yes, Mayor. Based on the discussion, I would recommend a motion on item B. The motion being to ratify the EDC's purchase agreement.
[5:00:59] for property with Nicheal Produce on the terms discussed in executive session.
[5:01:03] So move. We have a motion. Second. Any discussion? If not, all is in favor, please raise your right hand.
[5:01:10] I was opposed, same sign, motion carries. Any other action? No other action needed there.
[5:01:16] Okay. Got a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn.
[5:01:19] Second, all is in favor, please raise your right hand. I was opposed, same sign. We're adjourned.
[5:01:23] This
[5:01:31] concludes the regularly scheduled Edinburgh City Council meeting.
[5:01:35] The council meets every first and third Tuesday of each month.
[5:01:39] Meetings are held at 6 p.m. in the City Council chambers at Edinburgh City Hall.
[5:01:44] Special meetings are called at needed.
[5:01:47] You're watching the Edinburgh Cable Network.