[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[5:40] Good evening everyone. Welcome to this meeting of the Jersey Village City Council. It is Monday, September 18, 2023. The time is now 7 o'clock PM.
[5:53] And I'm going to go ahead and call the meeting to order Madam Secretary. Do we have a quorum present? Yes. Great. Thank you very much.
[6:00] We will now have invocation and pledge of allegiance by Max and Aiden McCrain
[6:12] dear God
[6:13] Thank you so much for everything. I've done for us and I hope every
[6:18] The city comes so meeting will go well in everybody will respect other people's ideas and thoughts
[6:25] Please thank the fighter fighters and
[6:29] Please officers that have served us and are serving us amen
[6:34] pledge
[6:43] allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the public for
[6:49] what it stands, one nation under God, and a little with liberty and justice for all.
[7:00] Thank you guys.
[7:00] Really appreciate it.
[7:03] Next up we have several different presentations we're going to start with the presentation
[7:07] of Employee of the Month Award for September 2023 to Steve.
[7:11] Angela,
[7:24] Mayor Councillors are September 2023 employee the month is Steve Angelo, Steve is in charge of all the part-time cart and range staff and over the last year has instilled a very positive group that is many times the first person a customer sees.
[7:36] Also, Steve is a very accomplished player in golf and is looked up by looked up to you by many customers and employees for that reason.
[7:43] Steve is a great employee in the normal job descriptions, but recently Steve did an amazing job
[7:47] and identifying and helping get a person trying to steal a large amount of money from our pro shop.
[7:52] A couple of weeks prior to the suspect entering our shop, the Southern Texas PGA office sent out a bolo notice
[7:58] and the picture went out to all the clubs in the greater Houston area.
[8:02] About a person that had hit several pro shops in South Houston and stolen thousands of dollars with stolen credit cards.
[8:07] Sure enough, the person came in the Jersey Middle Pro shop and started his routine that was noted in the bolo.
[8:12] Steve immediately recognized the subject and got the entire staff on notice in a matter of a minute.
[8:18] Then the entire staff did a great job during a stressful 15 minutes with Steve leading the way.
[8:22] Steve previously was a police officer as well.
[8:25] Dispatchers on the phone, the whole time when they were waiting for the purchase to be made worth merchandise.
[8:30] They were shopping, trying to upsell and all that good stuff that Steve and his team does over there.
[8:35] Once the swipe of the credit card happened, Javi officers were on the scene and after a scuffle handcuffed and arrested the suspect.
[8:40] If Steve would not have been on top of that below notice, this person would have stolen a large amount of money from our pro-shab.
[8:46] Coming to find out the suspect had many, many warrants, out of besides his new gig, of hitting Gulf Coast pro-shabs.
[8:53] And we'll ask you, Steve is taking his golf career to another level, by entering the PGA Associate Program with a goal of becoming a Class A member.
[9:02] And attending and passing, the Caloif Master Club Fitting School in California, so Steve is now a certified Master Fitter.
[9:08] Congratulations, Steve. We're honored for you.
[9:43] All right. Congratulations, Steve. Next up, we have presentation of
[9:46] Lifeguard Valor Award for Pool Personnel. Robert Bassver,
[9:50] Assistant City Manager. He is ill today, so I'll step in and
[9:54] take that one for him.
[9:57] Mayor Cousers, today we have two awards that we're going to give out
[9:59] one person is unable to be here, but if Eastern is here, we'd like for
[10:03] Eastern to come on up.
[10:14] The City of Jersey Village Lifeguard Valor Award is born out of a
[10:18] dedication and immense courage displayed by our lifeguards during the summer pool season.
[10:23] These individuals hold lives in their hands and protect our community with a vigilance
[10:26] that is nothing short of remarkable.
[10:28] The purpose of this award is to celebrate and recognize the lifeguards who have gone above
[10:32] and beyond in the line of duty, saving lives when every second counts.
[10:36] It is reminder that their work is not just important, it's vital.
[10:39] The community commitment to safety ensures that families and friends can enjoy the simple
[10:43] pleasures of summer without fear, knowing that a lifeguard is always on watch.
[10:49] On May 30th, Easton, Critsfield, was on stand on the deep end during regular operating hours
[10:56] when he spotted a person in the distressed effort going down the water side.
[11:00] Easton quickly recognized the person in distress and responded to the victim.
[11:04] He performed an active front rescue and was able to rescue the victim from the water.
[11:09] The City Jersey Village Lifeguard Valor Award is a symbol of a profound gratitude and admiration
[11:13] for the left-guards who stand as a beacon of safety in our community.
[11:16] It is a token of our appreciation for the lives they saved, the smiles they protect, and the peace of mind that they offer.
[11:21] You think congratulations and thank you for waiting.
[11:51] Okay, and the last presentation is presentation of Public Service Excellence Award.
[11:56] Chief Riggs, you're up.
[12:10] Mayor Council, Citizens of Jersey Village.
[12:12] It's an honor privilege to get to present this award tonight.
[12:15] Austin mentioned Steve's, what started this whole thing with Steve, but also it was a joint effort.
[12:23] And what I'm going to do tonight is go ahead and give you a summary of the events that occurred back on August 15.
[12:28] On behalf of the City of Jersey Village and the Police Department, we'd like to commend Steve Agalo, Matt Jones, Kimberly Williams, Jennifer Johnson, Matthew Williamson,
[12:40] and Aryan Ramirez for their exceptional assistance during an attempt at theft at the Jersey
[12:48] Vids Village, Meadow Golf Club, on Tuesday, August 15th.
[12:54] Their swift actions, judicial observations, and effective coordination with other staff members,
[13:01] and the Jersey Village Police Department, Human Occasion Center, resulted in the successful
[13:05] apprehension of a wanted felon.
[13:08] The involvement of the city staff acts as an additional pair of eyes and ears for the
[13:13] police department.
[13:15] Together, they enhanced our efforts in fighting crime within our city.
[13:21] At approximately 135 PM, Steve relayed information to dispatch regarding an individual
[13:27] who matched the description of the someone involved in this series, an unauthorized credit
[13:31] car transaction at various golf courses throughout the Houston area. He was also known
[13:38] to be driving a U-haul van. After calling to Spanch, golf course staff did an outstanding job
[13:46] of providing essential information and distracting the suspect until officers could arrive.
[13:52] Once the officers arrived, they made contact with Mr. Cameron Marx.
[13:56] The officers found the U-Haul van over by the retention pond across from the clubhouse.
[14:03] When the officers looked inside, they saw several golf clubs and other golf merchandise.
[14:11] A criminal history check revealed that Mr. Marks had active extradition federal fraud warrants
[14:18] at a Washington DC and at Montgomery County, Texas.
[14:23] We are grateful for the quick thinking and actions
[14:25] of Steve, Kim, Matt, Jennifer, AJ, and Matthew.
[14:31] Their assistance was essential
[14:32] in apprehending this wanted felon.
[14:37] Please join me in congratulating these exceptional employees
[14:40] who are the recipients of the Jersey Village Police
[14:43] Department's Public Service Excellence Award.
[15:57] Congratulations to all of you. Obviously, it is a direct benefit to us, but I'm sure that there are communities in the area, all around, who are greatly appreciative of us.
[16:08] the fact that there's persons off the streets and y'all had a big role in doing that.
[16:14] So thank you so much.
[16:17] All right.
[16:17] We're going to move on to citizens' comments.
[16:19] Citizens who have signed a card and wish to speak to the City Council will be heard at
[16:22] this time in compliance with the Texas Overmeatings Act unless the subject matter of the
[16:26] comment is on the agenda, the City Staff and City Council members are prevented from discussing
[16:30] the subject and may only respond with statements of factual information or existing policy.
[16:35] Citizens are limited to five minutes for their comments to the City Council.
[16:37] The first comment card I have is from Bruce Dowd.
[16:51] Even in front.
[16:53] Bruce Dowd on Lewis Street.
[16:55] Just three items, maybe four, I don't know.
[16:58] The first item is I wasn't here last month, unfortunately.
[17:01] I had to go do some hard camping up in Wyoming, but that's beside the point.
[17:06] But I do would like to ask the council when the next charter committee comes in.
[17:12] It'd be much better for the bond issues if they were voted on individually, rather than as a group.
[17:19] I think everybody would get more out of it and we'd get it better direction of what the people
[17:23] actually think we should be putting the money towards or what we won't put money towards.
[17:28] And I'd like to just say that's two cents from my purse. The second thing is on this bond issue,
[17:37] you have for streets roughly $12.4 million worth.
[17:41] Well, my number is going to remember when you guys surplus 18 million last year, you picked up
[17:46] three last year for Ed, you're going to blow roughly ten after all costs on the golf course.
[17:53] You still have about eight million to ten million dollars left over.
[17:57] Why don't you use that money instead of asking for the bond issue?
[18:01] It's there.
[18:02] It's the money that's already been taxed and paid for.
[18:05] So, and by the time, if you got five projects, and it's, you can't do them all in one year.
[18:14] So you probably haven't paid off if they haven't even been going out for any money.
[18:18] So you're making enough money as this.
[18:20] And the third one is, I went through your website, and I pulled up your proposed tax that we would be paying in the years going forward.
[18:32] And you left out one really important thing.
[18:36] And that is, you assumed that our houses would never be inflated
[18:40] by the Harris County on evaluations.
[18:44] Now, in the last four years, they've gone up 10% per year.
[18:48] So if you go with what Harris County's doing,
[18:51] rather than using just a flat, what it is today.
[18:54] And this might interest you, man.
[18:57] $350,000 house, roughly mean for Jersey Village, would end up paying an additional $3,000
[19:06] in city taxes in the next 40 years to 2028.
[19:13] So, what I want to find out is who put the spreadsheet together or the table.
[19:20] And why would they use zero assumption for no cost of, you know, value of your house never going up for five years or 20 years?
[19:31] I don't know how far you guys went out with it. But that's part of the inspiration. That's just misleading.
[19:36] You guys need to check your bathroom, check whoever was doing it.
[19:41] And I don't want to say anything, but it's really speaks pretty bad if you use things that you can do all the citizens.
[19:48] And it's kind of like putting lipstick on a pig, if it's a bad deal, you know, it really doesn't help.
[19:55] But I would like for you guys to correct it.
[19:57] To promote by tomorrow, please.
[19:59] I'll check it.
[20:00] Make sure you guys use it.
[20:02] And the only other thing I can think of is, since when do we need a health officer?
[20:08] Here's county and does it for us.
[20:10] We don't have any more people, I mean restaurants.
[20:14] That's what you're trying to do.
[20:14] Shut that leaves down.
[20:17] They barely get by.
[20:19] So, that's it for me.
[20:20] But if you guys want to answer my question, I have to put that thread to your vehicle.
[20:23] I'll help them out with it.
[20:27] Bruce, I'll just say I've learned in my time up here not to try to do math on the fly when someone
[20:32] brings something up.
[20:33] So, I will, when I have time to double-check the math, I will double-check it myself.
[20:37] And I'll shoot you an email tomorrow and let you know what I find out.
[20:40] And you'll find out it's zero.
[20:42] As for the health officer, I believe that's required by state law, is that correct?
[20:46] Okay, required by state law, so you can certainly bring it to the legislature's attention
[20:50] if you feel it's unnecessary, but unfortunately we don't have much say in the matter.
[20:56] Okay, next part I have is from Judy Burner.
[21:12] Thank you all for the opportunity to speak.
[21:17] I have one question that I want all of you to answer silently and that goes to all the
[21:22] people behind me and all the people and find of me. Who are the most in part of people in the world to you?
[21:32] I think every one of us will say our children.
[21:38] Our citizens need to always put our children first and I think we do.
[21:43] And that's the reason I want to share my reason for why I do not want to build a bridge over Ecuador.
[21:50] We have only one large complex that is dedicated for children in the village.
[21:56] There is an elementary school, a high school, a city park, a city pool, and various
[22:01] areas for all kinds of sports to be played.
[22:05] The entire area needs as much protection as possibility.
[22:12] A bridge on Ecuador would make the elementary age children, the high schoolers, the teachers,
[22:17] the swimmers and the sports teams more vulnerable. This area needs to be protected from exposure
[22:23] to Bellway 8. School-aged children and bikers use the footbridge every day to get to school.
[22:31] High school students, joggers, mothers with strollers and young children walk across this
[22:36] bridge daily. We definitely need to have a footbridge for the citizens to manage to get to
[22:47] vehicles that will take the bridge and take a short cut to $2.90. There's enough
[22:52] rift draft coming through here now and our children do not need to be exposed.
[22:57] Exposure to Beltway 8 could be an invitation for quick kidnapping of bikers, walker,
[23:03] swimmers. There are plenty of vehicles setting on the school parking lots and streets
[23:08] near the high school that could be enticing to the wrong person. A quick exit is
[23:13] exactly what every criminal is looking for.
[23:17] Post-elimentary is a tad more than one block
[23:19] accessed about way out, and this is a short distance
[23:23] for our police, our police force to work.
[23:26] If we have an issue, the police may need
[23:28] to be given a chance to catch the perpetrator.
[23:32] I would like to request that no automobile built,
[23:36] but I would like to have maybe a new sturdy footbridge.
[23:40] because I think we do need to put our children first.
[23:47] If,
[23:53] when we, we don't need cars and teenagers going north,
[24:01] okay, over a bridge.
[24:04] Why don't we have the parents come in for the elementary school
[24:09] from the south and come to the elementary school
[24:13] and then leave and go back some way?
[24:15] We don't need all those people just coming out and it's not thin.
[24:19] It's the teenagers that are going to be coming in and out that will give us our problem.
[24:25] The parents are very, very sincere and careful.
[24:29] But we have a lot of teenage children driving.
[24:36] And one thing I'd like to think about, just for you all to think about West Gulf Bank,
[24:42] There might be some ideas there, and thank you.
[24:52] Great.
[24:52] Thank you, Judy.
[24:57] The next card I have is from Jim Fields.
[25:05] Mayor and Susie Council.
[25:07] Thank you for allowing me to participate.
[25:10] Our contribute to tonight's City Council meeting.
[25:13] Jim Fields will live in 1, 6, 4, 1, 3, St. Hillier.
[25:17] The first thing that bothers me is that we're more focused on this is a best place to work when I think the main city council should be focused on the best place to live and it's concerning to me.
[25:33] To brag about how we have the best place to work on how it benefits me or anybody else in the city.
[25:39] But moving on on the junk vehicles, I'm going to bring it up time and time again.
[25:44] It impacts the values over our homes, ultimately the revenue for the city, and we're not
[25:52] looking for the holy grail or needle and haystack, these are easy, found, and I'm sure you
[26:00] drive by, everybody on city council drives them out.
[26:04] And so we have the city manager also, we have the assistant city manager, we have city council,
[26:12] and we have the code enforcement that's nine people.
[26:16] So I have a recommendation for you guys.
[26:20] Each one of you guys, well first you should take pride in the city
[26:23] and go look yourself just like I did.
[26:27] But you have plenty of people to find these interactions.
[26:30] Another thing I bought up was on Seattle slew,
[26:36] the weeds are about three to four feet high now.
[26:38] You can't even walk on the sidewalk.
[26:40] Can we please get that taken care of?
[26:43] It's an ice war for the city.
[26:46] And you are explained to Health Officer,
[26:48] is that a state law is at a recent change in the statute?
[26:52] It's been at Wacense, I've been on council.
[26:53] OK, thank you, Mayor.
[26:54] Appreciate that.
[26:57] The other one, it's curious to me,
[26:59] is this employees incentive for buying homes in JV.
[27:02] Again, we're not focusing on the citizens
[27:05] that have to pay the taxes, we're more concerned
[27:07] about the people that work here.
[27:09] They should follow the same path that I did.
[27:12] We got plenty of apartments when they can live here,
[27:15] once they save up money, laying by house.
[27:19] Also going back to this on the bonds,
[27:23] and it was kind of disturbing there
[27:25] that we're not including the 10% of the appraisals increases.
[27:30] So I'm hoping Mayor not just email it,
[27:32] can you please also update it on the website?
[27:35] Can you do that for us if it's correct?
[27:37] I don't control the content of the website, but if you'd like to let people know that you believe the numbers should be different.
[27:43] You're welcome to do so.
[27:44] Who controls content on the website?
[27:46] The city staff does.
[27:49] I thought you were in control of the city staff.
[27:52] So they, I guess they dictate what goes on.
[27:56] One of the thing, the 2023 salaries, it was interesting.
[28:00] I totaled them all up just out of curiosity.
[28:02] I mean, include the retirement, and since over time, the whole bit, with the salary, it jumped
[28:11] up this year, almost 30 percent.
[28:14] That was incredible.
[28:15] And I was as curious why, I don't know if they were adding more people, yes, it is.
[28:19] I pulled it right off the pace, or yes, sir, I guarantee I'll send you it to you in the next
[28:23] year.
[28:24] I'd just see that.
[28:25] And then if you would do, put that on next agenda, meeting, saying that I was correct,
[28:31] And I'll show it to you.
[28:33] OK, also the $18 million in the surplus,
[28:38] I agree with the other citizen there.
[28:41] Why can't we apply that?
[28:42] I think it's really incredible to me
[28:44] that we're focusing more on golf course,
[28:46] Convention Center.
[28:47] When we have streets and stores that are collapsing,
[28:49] because I attended the January 2022 meeting.
[28:54] And I remember that you guys said that you had enough money
[28:58] for the the new city hall and the golf course, but not enough money for the streets.
[29:08] So, so there is more money out there and I wish you could publish that out there.
[29:11] So everybody would know exactly what the circle says.
[29:15] It says point somebody's finger go look in the budget.
[29:17] I appreciate that.
[29:19] And then what else?
[29:21] That'll do it.
[29:21] Thank you very much.
[29:23] Thank you, Jim.
[29:25] Next car I have is from Frank Mar.
[29:40] I would like to see Council invite representative from Harris County Flood Control District to our next meeting.
[29:49] I would like to see them either before the meeting or you could set a part where we could ask them questions.
[30:00] Because I know we can't conduct business back and forth here, but he's a pretty some way we get
[30:06] a representative here. Here they're update on work, on the flood control issues in the
[30:15] Jersey Village area, where we stand, where we're going, and how we're going to get there and give
[30:20] us a chance to ask them questions and get it on the record. What their answers are. Thank you.
[30:27] Thank you, Frank.
[30:30] Next card I have is from Rick Faircloth.
[30:49] Good afternoon.
[30:50] Good evening.
[30:51] Rick Faircloth, 1-6-0-1-0.
[30:54] I'm back again to talk about the upcoming November bond election as I said last month.
[31:03] I think this council needs to strongly consider the exempt of the over 65 folks from any tax
[31:13] implications that could come from this bond election, the same as the school district and
[31:18] Harris County best.
[31:20] Also, last month there was an item on the agenda where the started the process for the
[31:28] bond election and how those three proposals were going to be put together.
[31:34] There were a number of folks on this council that really wanted them split and for whatever
[31:43] technical reason they said, well, we couldn't do that because it'd be at the lay and
[31:48] extra cost and other things. Over the last month, I had probably voted with several groups
[32:01] and because they're not split, they're not happy about how this bond election and
[32:06] proposal is being put on the ballot and from the feedback I've got that they're not happy
[32:15] with it and even though there are certain things that are good would not surprise me that a
[32:22] large number of those people will vote against all issues even the ones that people talked
[32:27] about with the Ecuador facility and the ETJ water system.
[32:36] So just want to let you know that again, voice my issue
[32:40] about the over 65 exemption.
[32:43] I think you can do it.
[32:45] You just have to make a few mind to do it.
[32:47] Thank you.
[32:49] Thank you, Rick.
[32:50] The next card I have is from Eric A now.
[33:02] I'll go now, 1, 5, 6, 0, 1, and sing up our lane.
[33:07] I wanted to give a few thoughts on opinions on some things regarding JV.
[33:12] First off, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to serve on the planning and zoning commission.
[33:17] I've enjoyed working with the city employees and city residents.
[33:20] As I expand my knowledge of JV and how it works, we are not.
[33:24] I do enjoy the time I invest on the board and seeing how it all works.
[33:29] I hope that I'll be considered for reappointment.
[33:33] An eagle-eyed J.V. resident, announced on social media that the real deal between J.V. and K.H.J.R. had ended.
[33:43] While I do think that the ending of the deal was unfortunate, my faith and belief in the elected officials of J.V. is not shaken with that decision.
[33:53] While this is the second time a deal has ended, without being completed, the area of land that J.V. is looking to develop will take time.
[34:02] Whatever the area ends at being, I believe that the city will have done their due diligence
[34:07] to get the deal done in the best way for the city and its residents.
[34:13] Even with money spent on plans for the development, this city is pretty resourceful, and
[34:20] I expect them to find some way to either salvage, modify, or extend the plans made, or at
[34:27] informed and to be able to make better decisions for future plans.
[34:34] The adage, try, try, try again, comes to mind regarding the entire matter.
[34:39] I believe that those employed by the city are doing good work and working hard to make
[34:43] everything right.
[34:45] Kudos to all, and I look forward to the next exciting possibilities.
[34:50] The summer heat has seemingly stopped baking us all to death, so it means that cooler
[34:55] time activities in the neighborhood are right around the corner.
[34:59] National night out, Halloween and DDD on driveways again.
[35:05] One note, do make sure that the spelling on integrity images is corrected on the title
[35:12] of resolution 2023-48 on page 433 of the O9-18 regular agenda.
[35:20] It was misspelled.
[35:22] Have a great evening.
[35:23] Thank you. Thank you here. Next card I have is from Sonny Cossing.
[35:35] Good evening, how are y'all? I don't have a lot to say but I live on well-win-like
[35:41] Bobby does and we now have this beautiful apartment complex going up across the Beltway,
[35:50] totalized store, where we're used to have all these beautiful trees that y'all allowed
[35:54] Harris County to take down and another issue with the Harris County with the flag control
[36:00] is they've now dug that ditch right onto my property line so now I can see under my
[36:04] fence. They say they can't do anything my yard is draining into their ditch. Well people
[36:10] in that ditch wasn't there when I milled in that house in 1996.
[36:15] So one of the neighbors asked
[36:17] me to say something about trees being hanging over the sidewalks. It doesn't really
[36:24] me unless I can't walk up under it and I'm short so it's usually not an issue. One of the
[36:30] neighbors tried to call the city today four times you know when answers no one to return
[36:33] to her phone calls so that's pretty much it for me.
[36:43] It's not just to be clear that they leave
[36:44] a voicemail message. I think she did. Okay, what else? Can I ask who she called?
[36:55] You know honestly I don't
[36:56] I don't know if it was which who exactly she called so she just asked me to mention that
[37:00] she called for a different extension she got no one she left message and got no recalls
[37:04] back.
[37:05] Just anytime anyone calls city hall and they don't get if they can't reach somebody and they
[37:11] leave a voicemail message and they don't get a call back shortly thereafter tell them to send
[37:15] me an email.
[37:16] I will follow up on it.
[37:18] Okay, great.
[37:19] Thank you.
[37:22] And as far as the issues with the apartment complex, I wish we had jurisdiction over that
[37:27] Unfortunately, we don't.
[37:31] We can talk to the Flight Control District
[37:33] to see what they have planned for once or the finish
[37:35] with work there.
[37:36] Hopefully, they've got some plans for some foliage or something.
[37:45] Well, we'll follow up on that once we're there for other
[37:48] along.
[37:50] Next card, I have is from Joe Hewitt.
[37:59] Good evening.
[38:00] Mayor of City Council.
[38:02] My name is Joe Hewitt.
[38:04] I reside at 159-17 Lake U Drive.
[38:08] I'm coming to you this evening to voice my concern of opening Ecuador as a through street.
[38:16] We are so fortunate to live in a neighborhood where our elementary and our high school have controlled access.
[38:25] The majority of the schools in the Cypher school district are usually on busy thoroughfares.
[38:32] This makes us really unique.
[38:35] Our current setup affords us the luxury of our children to walk, ride bikes, or even be dropped off by golf carts, which I love seeing, it's really sweet.
[38:48] In a time when the news is heavily laden with crimes in and outside of the schools, I have peace of mind, knowing that our police and our fire departments can contain problems more efficiently.
[39:04] If there is no quick escape routes, actually, this may even deter problems in the first place.
[39:14] My second reason for concern regarding opening up Ecuador has to do with the amount of cut-through traffic we already experience in our city.
[39:24] Why are we creating another point of ingress and egress into our neighborhood for more non-residence to just use as a pass-through?
[39:36] Believe me, I know, I live on Lakeview, traffic starts at 5am.
[39:44] So looking at other incorporated cities such as Bunger Hill, Pliny Point, and even West University,
[39:50] They put a lot of effort into dissuading cut-through traffic in their neighborhoods by the use of one-way streets,
[39:59] speed bumps, and traffic circles.
[40:02] I hate for her to have to go that direction.
[40:05] In a time when interest rates are high and the economy is not looking very stable, do we really
[40:10] want to spend our money on something that may not need to be fixed?
[40:15] Thank you for your time.
[40:18] Thank you, Joe, since that was the last, that was the last kind of head that mentioned this particular subject.
[40:25] It seems like I guess there's been a lot of buzz over the last, and I'm going to keep this purely two statements of fact and statements of Paul Sack.
[40:31] I can already see our city attorney burning a hole in my head.
[40:36] I don't know what exactly has been discussed out there other than I got several emails of similar subject this afternoon.
[40:43] And then of course, obviously there's a noticeable number of people discussing it.
[40:47] there was a two-minute discussion, three-minute discussion, where this was
[40:55] bandied about as whether it's something that we would do. There was no
[41:00] decisions made, but there was a recognition that something would need to be done
[41:05] at some point regarding that pedestrian bridge, which is in bad condition. So we
[41:09] are talking about a, I'm just going to call it a five-minute conversation to be
[41:14] judicious, a five-minute conversation in which no commitments and no decisions whatsoever
[41:20] even come close to being made.
[41:22] So I say that only just to make sure that anyone out there who's thinking themselves
[41:25] because of what they've heard tonight, that City Council is headed directly towards putting
[41:33] a draft of vehicular bridge across Ecuador, we're not even close to that.
[41:39] So I'm not saying it would never happen because you never know what would happen.
[41:42] I'm saying, you can pick any other place in the city where there is no street right now.
[41:49] And there's just, at this point, just as much likelihood that we've built a street there as we've
[41:52] built a street going across that by you.
[41:56] So just want to make sure everyone knows that's where we stand currently.
[42:00] So there's no decisions that have been made whatsoever either way.
[42:06] So I would just, I would just say, this is a very good reason for the few people who did
[42:10] email me beforehand to talk about it.
[42:12] Thank you because it gave me an opportunity to kind of make sure that they understood where things are.
[42:17] So please, if you ever have a question about that, feel free to email me.
[42:20] The next card I have is from Jeff Capackie.
[42:34] Good evening.
[42:35] Mr. Jeff Copackie, 16, 125, delosure.
[42:39] I come here about communications.
[42:42] I walked out of my door for about a evening,
[42:45] and I got cones and barricades all in front of my house.
[42:49] I have not been notified by the city of what's going on.
[42:54] There's nobody been working there.
[42:56] It's blocked off.
[42:57] It's a dangerous curve coming around there.
[43:00] I guess it only affects three people, but it affects the whole block.
[43:04] Because of the way the traffic is flowing.
[43:07] But nobody from the city has notified me or anybody else in my neighbors about what's going on.
[43:15] We don't know what's happening, but they came over there and blocked it all off.
[43:20] It's all I got to speak about that, but I know last month, Bobby, you said that we need a bunch
[43:28] of eyes, you know, and so I got a councilman that lives on my street, and if he can't see
[43:34] the violations on my block, then there's an issue, okay? Because there is a lot of code that
[43:43] needs to be enforced on my block and if y'all would please check into it and let me know
[43:51] what y'all can do about it because it is getting bad and it's got a little better that
[43:57] did move one car that sat on the road for a whole year it left but we need to get something done
[44:03] and all you have to do is drive down my street and that's only one street in the village and
[44:09] if you want to entice people to move here,
[44:11] you've got to clean the city up.
[44:13] That's all I got to say.
[44:14] Thank you for your opportunity.
[44:16] I'm sorry.
[44:16] Can I get a clarification of what street he lives on
[44:19] and what this cone situation was?
[44:21] I'm sorry.
[44:21] I didn't understand where you told me what street you live on
[44:24] and I'm just trying to understand the color thing.
[44:25] I live on Delosier, 16, 125 Delosier.
[44:30] Thank you.
[44:35] We will, we will look into that stuff.
[44:36] I would just encourage y'all to,
[44:38] I have a very limited ability
[44:39] to do anything right here while I'm up here.
[44:43] I'm sure our city manager will look into that.
[44:46] Please, I do respond to emails, I try to respond to emails within about a day or so after
[44:51] I receive them.
[44:52] If you send me an email, it allows me to be able to collect the information, pass it along
[44:56] and city staff and make sure that we get answers as to what's going on.
[45:00] So, you're right. If I try as much as I can, if I see anything, I report it in the app, or I reach out to city staff and let them know what's going on.
[45:12] I would encourage everyone to do that, because there's nothing special about me or anyone on this day is that somehow makes all reports any better than anyone else's.
[45:21] So, we try what we can do what we can do, but we need everybody's help to pitch in on that.
[45:25] So last part I have is from one more thing I've been driving around the city, I've noticed
[45:34] barrels and areas were going to drought where there's a lot of public works issue.
[45:38] You don't have any intimate detail of the corner on delusier but I'm assuming it's all public works related.
[45:45] Yeah, I got a name of this afternoon on that one.
[45:48] There's some street panels there that seem like they're either coming apart or moving cars drive over it.
[45:53] So they deemed that unsafe.
[45:54] So we're working with contractors to get quotes to get that fixed.
[45:59] And as soon as we get good quotes, we'll take care of the problem.
[46:01] But that's the issue that I was informed of this afternoon.
[46:04] It's pretty standard trout condition issues.
[46:08] Yeah.
[46:09] But are we informing the people that live in front of these places is something like this
[46:12] happens?
[46:12] Is there something we're doing?
[46:14] Or is it just you're supposed to figure it out if there's a cone maybe there's a problem?
[46:18] I would hope the staff is informing people, but the late notice that I got in this one tends
[46:22] to lead me to believe that they didn't inform the residency
[46:26] other, which is frustrating to put it slightly mildly.
[46:32] So, that is something that we will work on.
[46:35] We'll make sure that that's done a little bit better.
[46:38] But do we know when that was put out?
[46:42] I wasn't informed this afternoon.
[46:44] I was from Ms. Cameron, so I would say it was Friday.
[46:46] But I don't know.
[46:47] Okay.
[46:52] Again, if ever there's a situation,
[46:54] you don't have to wait till a council meeting.
[46:56] My phone numbers out there everywhere.
[46:58] my email addresses on the city website. I check it often. Please do reach out to me. I'm
[47:03] more than happy to look into these issues and so they're not sitting there waiting for a
[47:08] council meeting to get resolved. We want to try to help and trust me we're not sitting here
[47:15] just saying well I didn't see it. We want to try to help as much as you can so just let us know
[47:22] and we'll do what we can, so.
[47:25] Hopefully that'll get straightened out quickly.
[47:30] Last card I have a strong Kimberly Annow.
[47:43] My name is Kimberly Annow,
[47:44] and I live at 15601 Singapore Lane.
[47:48] As my 24th installment on Jersey Village,
[47:52] the second half of 1994 continue to be quite busy
[47:55] with improvements, citizens, concerns,
[47:59] development opportunities,
[48:01] and a rather large dinosaur.
[48:03] The 27-foot width and serpentine-ish shape a village drive along with 10-foot set-back lines
[48:11] and house-side street parking continue to be a safety hazard as one of the residents requested
[48:19] a reduction of the speed limit from 30 to 20. The council advised a limited sight distance sign
[48:26] to be tested first for a few months. Some cars driving along the residential streets seem to
[48:32] have loud boombox radios.
[48:35] And if decibels sound meters could be used by the police,
[48:39] but the meters reliability was concerning.
[48:43] Loud sounds are in the general nuisance ordinance,
[48:45] but a citizen advised elsewhere,
[48:48] if sounds are heard more than 150 feet away,
[48:52] it is too loud.
[48:54] Even though the city pool membership is limited
[48:57] to citizens, public access to the park's features
[49:00] is unrestricted.
[49:03] Unanimous approval of Resolution 94-03 proclaimed August 2nd as National Night Out and Mayor
[49:10] Deskant encouraged residents to get outside to meet their neighbors.
[49:15] This year as National Night Out is Tuesday evening October 3rd.
[49:20] Psychiar ISD requested additional signage for the streets connecting to post elementary, such
[49:26] as flashing school zone signs.
[49:29] Since they are more expensive to install, there was discussion of the format showing the
[49:36] zones times of day and year around in addition to the current school zone signs.
[49:44] Solomon would also be added as a school zone street by City Ordnance 94-07 and the City
[49:51] will have crosswalk signs installed along Philippine.
[49:54] The state notified all the equals will be required to get a $23 emissions test for licensed
[50:01] renewals starting in January.
[50:04] A fundraiser to purchase picnic tables and equipment for Caralfox Park was requested by the
[50:10] Parks and Lands gifting committee by selling 75-4x4 foot cement sidewalk squares along the
[50:18] Parks Senate and Alcopoco.
[50:19] The high schools homecoming parade for October 20th was announced with Council invited to participate.
[50:28] This year's parade will be on Wednesday, October 11th at 330 starting at the Solomon Tennis Court Driveway.
[50:37] The newly built police building will have a dedicated 911 communication equipment room in FPA standards.
[50:46] The fire department was recognized for twice winning first place in the Deer Park in Decento City
[50:54] parade competitions with the oldest piece of equipment cleaned and shined up.
[51:00] The fire department's open house was announced for October 29th, while this year's police
[51:06] and fire combined open house is on Saturday, October 21st.
[51:11] A proclamation was given from the mayor for Eagle Scout Jason Stevens of Trip 1-8-3-0 for his construction and installation of the tire renaissance playscope at Clark Henry Park.
[51:28] The reality of the West golf bank road expansion was heavily discussed with representatives
[51:35] from land owners, the state, county, and citizens for requirements and expectations as the road would still be built.
[51:45] And now how to best manage the process.
[51:49] possibilities of the number of lanes, traffic signals, high school access,
[51:54] meetings, businesses, zoning, plus cells, and at the forum, taxes, as they still
[52:03] undeveloped 19.5 acres was in next to 1987. A grant application request to hire a
[52:11] Troll Officer, devoted to community policing,
[52:15] was a provide council for $75,000 over three years
[52:20] and federal funds by the COPSFAST program
[52:23] for city populations less than 50,000.
[52:27] And next week, it's our third anniversary
[52:30] since we closed on our house here in Jersey Village.
[52:33] Eric and I cannot be happier being here,
[52:36] supporting the city staff, volunteers,
[52:38] is the fire and police department and just try to make our contributions to the city.
[52:44] It's helpful.
[52:45] Great.
[52:45] Thank you very much.
[52:46] Thank you.
[52:53] That brings us to the city manager for it.
[52:55] Austin, please.
[52:56] Mayors and Councillors.
[52:58] The manager report is before you.
[52:59] Happy to answer.
[53:00] As the council might have.
[53:02] I also want to make sure.
[53:03] I mentioned that.
[53:04] Recently approved for two more home elevation grants.
[53:07] I don't know if we mentioned that last month or not.
[53:08] but so probably in about 18 to 25 months
[53:11] we should see about 28 more homes starting to be elevated as well.
[53:17] Yeah, actually that announcement was made
[53:20] after our last meeting, so we, the city was picked for,
[53:24] I think it was a little over $9 million worth
[53:25] of grant funding.
[53:28] Yeah, not little overnight.
[53:30] Yeah, for more elevations,
[53:33] so.
[53:34] Kim, I could say this for citizen comments
[53:36] or Councillor Comments, but all good.
[53:38] A national night out is October 3rd, who would citizens contact to understand how they can help participate.
[53:46] The Police Department handles that? Perfect. Thank you.
[53:51] Yes, sir. They can contact Kim Murphy. She's the one coordinating that. She does that. Yes, sir.
[53:58] Yeah, we'll make sure that there's a little more publicity about that as we get here in the next week or two.
[54:07] Any other questions for the city manager?
[54:11] Okay.
[54:12] That brings us to the consent agenda. Is there any member of Council that wishes to
[54:16] remove an item from the consent agenda for consideration during the regular agenda?
[54:22] F7 and F8, please.
[54:24] Okay, items F7 and F8 will be considered at the top of the regular agenda.
[54:32] I'm moved to approve the consent agenda.
[54:36] I'll second.
[54:37] We have a motion in a second. Any further discussion?
[54:40] Seeing none, all those in favor?
[54:42] All of those against any of the consent agenda.
[54:44] The Consent Agenda passes, so with that we will take up the first item that was
[54:49] removed from the Consent Agenda, item F7, consider a resolution of
[54:53] 2023-47, awarding the bid and authorizing the City Manager to enter into a
[54:58] contract with Pioneer Construction Services LLC for the Philippine
[55:01] Left Station Improvement Project, Austin Police City Manager.
[55:04] Mayor and Councillor's part of our capital improvement projects for this year, upcoming
[55:08] years, the Philippine Left Street Livestation, there's several reasons why this
[55:11] The project's necessary, the current one is reached the end of its lifespan, the pumps and other equipment are old worn out and that station is prone to flooding.
[55:19] The lift station is currently not meeting the safety and environmental standards.
[55:22] The pumps and other equipment are not energy efficient and the station is not properly handled properly equipped to handle the hazardous materials.
[55:29] The lift station is not as it is today as not able to keep up with the demands of the growing population.
[55:34] So this project is definitely a necessary one that's been on our radar for a little bit.
[55:39] Blyol Engineering is the engineers that helped us with this project.
[55:43] They are here tonight. The project went out for bid. We had estimated project cost a 2.1 million,
[55:48] we got one bid that came back and the total bid cost of that one is 1 million, 314,
[55:54] and 55 dollars. So that's well below the engineers estimates. The engineer has done their
[56:04] They recommend awarding the bid to them.
[56:07] The full bid tab and the letter of recommendation from the engineer is included in the packet.
[56:12] Any questions from Council on this item?
[56:15] I was just curious if somebody for people that are at home possibly listening or watching.
[56:20] It's a piece of explain exactly what a lift station does.
[56:24] It lifts wastewater from the pipes into the wastewater treatment plant.
[56:31] So that sounds like something we would like to be functioning at its full capacity, correct?
[56:37] When it doesn't function at its full capacity, the pipes do, and that's not a good thing.
[56:43] I just want to make sure, and I don't mean to just, but I'm just asking a lot of times people look at this stuff
[56:47] and have no concept of what is a listation.
[56:50] I don't know. This isn't stuff I do every day. You know, it's one of those, and I think it's important that we make sure everybody understands
[56:55] what all of the things that we're voting on or that we talk about are. So, thank you.
[57:02] And, once the last time this lift station was overhauled, if you will,
[57:10] if it has been.
[57:12] I believe the current one 40-ish years.
[57:20] This is the one that we're part owner and correct.
[57:23] We own the lift station wholly, but it is at the wastewater treatment plant there that we are the
[57:28] on.
[57:34] Yeah, basically the the easy way to think of a lift station is not every place is going to
[57:39] be uphill from where our wastewater treatment plan is and so since gravity only works
[57:45] downhill, sometimes it needs a little help and that's what lift station does. It pumps it.
[57:52] I move the we approve resolution 2023-47. Well, thanks second.
[57:59] We have a motion when we come up with a second from Mayor Protem, Mitcham, any further discussion
[58:06] on this item.
[58:08] By the way, did we mention it came in under budget?
[58:10] I just want to make sure to highlight that.
[58:13] We have a motion in a second, any further discussion?
[58:15] Seeing none, all those in favor?
[58:18] All of those against any abstinions?
[58:20] The resolution passes.
[58:26] That brings us to item F-8, I believe the one with the typo, consider resolution number
[58:31] 223-48 authorized and city manager to enter into a contract with integrity images for professional
[58:36] services related to professional photography and videography services, Misha Johnson Community
[58:41] Development Manager.
[58:42] Good evening, Mayor and council.
[58:46] The this is for the authorizing the city manager to enter a contract with integrity images.
[58:53] So, the city's comprehensive plan to 2020 update was approved by city council and February 2021, the plan and each of its subsequent progress supports has included the recommendation for the coordination of economic development activities including branding and marketing.
[59:12] The Community Development Department aims to meet this objective by using current fiscal year
[59:18] budget savings to conduct the city-wide branding and marketing campaign utilizing the professional
[59:23] photography services of integrity images.
[59:27] As noted in the Comprehensive Plan, a branding and marketing program is seen as essential in promoting
[59:33] this community and making sure that City of Jersey Village is recognized as one of the
[59:38] year first here suburbs of Houston. These images and videos will be used to promote the
[59:44] city's economic development and since it's a marketing. The city is also working towards
[59:49] a Texas film-friendly community designation. As a part of that, we need to submit photographs
[59:54] as some of the areas in the city for filmmakers, for filmmakers.
[1:00:00] So basically this I where they want to go. And the project will fit into our existing department budget for consultants and services and the city development department.
[1:00:12] And this will record this will not require any other allocation of funds. The item is to authorize a city manager to sign the contract with integrity images.
[1:00:23] Okay, great. Thank you.
[1:00:24] Discussion amongst council on this item.
[1:00:29] We'll be on the, like, all the proofs,
[1:00:31] or is it just what they, we end up selecting or something.
[1:00:35] And it just sounds like, it's a big, big deal.
[1:00:39] So I want to make sure what we end up with at the end.
[1:00:42] Yes.
[1:00:43] So we are going to pay for certain ones to actually be,
[1:00:50] for them to be like Photoshop,
[1:00:51] but we do get all the raw images and the same thing for our filming so we'll
[1:00:58] actually be able to take all those the big part of the film which would be
[1:01:02] about three minutes will be the largest one and we can cut it up until a smaller
[1:01:06] two minute, a smaller 30 seconds, 60 seconds to put on social media as well.
[1:01:11] So does that mean after we pay for the additional services, we will on that
[1:01:15] footage and we will be able to do that type of stuff within in-house or does that
[1:01:18] And every time we want to use it, we're going to have to go back out again.
[1:01:23] I don't know about getting all of the drone footage or anything like that, like all of the raw video footage.
[1:01:30] I know that we get raw pictures.
[1:01:32] And we give the three minute video that we'll be able to cut up ourselves.
[1:01:35] Thank you.
[1:01:40] Yeah, it's part of the comprehensive plan.
[1:01:43] I know that there was a lot of talk about touting Jersey Village.
[1:01:47] and get up from billboards to other things, right?
[1:01:50] And so this is certainly goes a long way.
[1:01:53] I think some of the images on our website
[1:01:55] probably could even stand to be updated.
[1:01:58] So I think this is a good move.
[1:02:04] So with that, I will move to approve resolution 2023-48.
[1:02:12] I'm
[1:02:18] going to interpret that as motion from a second
[1:02:24] from Council Member Shepard. Any further discussion? Seeing none all those in favor? All of
[1:02:30] those against any abstentions? The resolution passes.
[1:02:43] Now, it brings us to item G1, consider resolution number 2023-49, appointee members to the
[1:02:49] planning and zoning commission and the capital improvements advisory committee, the Board
[1:02:53] of Adjustment, the building board of adjustment and appeals, the parts of recreation advisory
[1:02:57] committee, the golf course advisory committee, and the Village Center Local Government Corporation
[1:03:01] board, Lori Cudy City Secretary. Thank you, Mayor. So yes, there are several positions on each of these
[1:03:08] boards that do need to be considered for appointment. Exhibit A to the resolution is kind of
[1:03:15] an outline of what we need to go by. Last year when the Council did consider appointments and
[1:03:20] reappointments to boards, they did kind of discuss each board and came to a consensus on what
[1:03:28] we're going to do for appointments and then at finally made a motion and a second for approving
[1:03:37] the resolution. And I didn't know if you want to me to go through Exhibit A or one of the council
[1:03:43] members wants to facilitate that.
[1:03:50] I believe that it's a council. How are you all going to approach it?
[1:03:54] Yeah, we can go in by one.
[1:03:57] Okay.
[1:03:58] So I think first up we have planning.
[1:04:01] Before we begin.
[1:04:03] I want to put on the record just before we go.
[1:04:06] There's been a lot of talk about when we talked about this last year,
[1:04:09] but then we didn't do anything.
[1:04:12] So one of these meetings were going to,
[1:04:15] I would like to formally discuss how we handle
[1:04:18] because we have about 10 applicants and only so many spaces.
[1:04:23] I think it's come time if we continue to have the citizen interest in looking at some sort
[1:04:29] of limits on certain term of service and not because the quality of the service but just
[1:04:35] to give everyone a fair chance and get some fresh views or term limited I don't think
[1:04:39] it's necessarily a bad thing for that. Not certainly not by the agenda for discussion now
[1:04:46] but I'd like to ask if staff can discuss that later. How do we handle that Bobby? Is that
[1:04:52] just my request right there?
[1:04:55] I mean, certainly, if we want to at a later point,
[1:04:59] take up, have an agenda item where we just generally
[1:05:02] discuss tenure and how it's managed on our boards
[1:05:06] and committees, we could certainly look at doing that.
[1:05:09] And of course, obviously, that can be a factor
[1:05:11] that Council can also consider when it's looking at these
[1:05:15] appointments.
[1:05:16] So either way, I mean, obviously, it doesn't mean we can't
[1:05:18] take it into consideration now.
[1:05:19] It's just if we want to enact a formal process, that's
[1:05:22] probably going to need to be a separate item later on down the
[1:05:25] degree.
[1:05:26] And it's my understanding that if someone has requested re-appointment, it is not an
[1:05:31] automatic appointment.
[1:05:33] It's going back into the pool with the current applicants or is there a preferential
[1:05:37] slot?
[1:05:39] There's no rules that are current.
[1:05:40] Like there's nothing concrete in place.
[1:05:42] It's just sort of practices and customs that council has developed over the years.
[1:05:48] I would say that, in order to expedite that conversation in the future, it would be better
[1:05:54] to bring an ordinance or a resolution or some basis to work off of.
[1:06:02] I agree.
[1:06:03] You mean versus just an open discussion kind of, I think, come up and come in with an idea
[1:06:07] of what you're interested in, or what you want, and then we discuss it based off of that.
[1:06:11] I understand.
[1:06:12] I think we discussed last time that it matched ours, which made sense to me.
[1:06:23] Do we need to go against somebody to clarify for me?
[1:06:25] Do we need to go in the orders that is listed of the boards in the order of the agenda?
[1:06:30] Are we allowed to go in any order we want?
[1:06:32] Council can do what they want in terms of how they want to handle it.
[1:06:36] Do you want to do that?
[1:06:36] I'm getting a side eye from Lori, so I was just wondering if we can get clarification
[1:06:39] in that before I say anything, I'm a little afraid.
[1:06:42] It's easier to go in order, but what were you?
[1:06:44] I know it's easier to go in order, but there's something I want to discuss, and I understand
[1:06:47] that this is most likely unpopular opinion number one.
[1:06:51] I serve as the liaison for the Board of Holden.
[1:06:55] It's a Board of Adjustment is what I really want to bring out.
[1:06:59] The Board of Adjustment meets not very often.
[1:07:03] However, they are a unique board, and the fact that what they end up saying ends up becoming
[1:07:08] laws that correct, it's law for us, right?
[1:07:11] I mean what it's it's a final decision that's appealable not to the council but to district court so it's if the board of what do they call it again adjustments
[1:07:19] Board of appeals sorry board of adjustments
[1:07:22] Makes a decision Council has no say Council does not get to discuss it Council doesn't get to impose any
[1:07:29] Decisions neither does the city it goes straight to like court
[1:07:36] Unfortunately, we had a situation recently, not so recently, six months ago or so, at a meeting
[1:07:42] where some time, what I'm going to say is maybe some instructions weren't followed properly,
[1:07:47] or misunderstood, and that came to an issue where there were multiple votes had to be taken,
[1:07:53] because stuff was procedure wasn't followed properly.
[1:07:56] That led to some misunderstanding.
[1:07:58] And because of some of this most understanding, the city ended up getting sued and I was the liaison sitting there and I have never been so frustrated in my life because it was just, there's a context to it where some of this stuff we do is confusing. There's a lot of weird rules we have to follow, but at the same time we still have to follow those rules and I don't like to sit there knowing that what we're doing isn't the way it should be and I think it's something that we need to discuss.
[1:08:27] So when it comes up for the board, I'm going to talk about I'm going to make a suggestion for some changes and if anybody ever wants to talk to me about any of that stuff, I'm happy to discuss it further.
[1:08:38] I think if you're going to lay that out there, we probably should discuss it now. Otherwise, it's going to be a little jarring to go back and forth. Let's just, I think we're talking about board of adjustment.
[1:08:47] We're talking about the board of adjustments. If we could just look at those and I'd like to make a suggestion for a change on that board.
[1:08:54] Okay. I have a think I know you're going to suggest have another suggestion if you're open.
[1:09:01] Go ahead make your suggestion.
[1:09:03] My suggestion is that we actually table this particular board come back next meeting
[1:09:09] and I'll work and get an ordinance proposed to change section to 1438
[1:09:15] where the city council selects the chairman.
[1:09:20] I think it's beyond that as well.
[1:09:22] Lori, just so that we understand kind of where we are, if Council were not to re-appoint
[1:09:29] any members of this board tonight, what would be the consequences?
[1:09:34] So, according to the Constitution of Texas, those people who are currently in office will hold
[1:09:40] over until the appointment, the next appointment is made.
[1:09:44] Okay, so we could hypothetically postpone the decisions on that until the next meeting.
[1:09:51] that's correct okay just wanted to be sure before we started down a path that we
[1:09:55] weren't sure what what happens. Jen did you have an idea of a slate that you
[1:09:59] wanted to put up?
[1:10:04] I think instead of at this point I would be okay to just
[1:10:08] talking like let's table it until next time. So I think what I'm hearing is if other
[1:10:14] council members are in agreement is that board of adjustment not the building
[1:10:18] board of adjustment and appeal, but board of adjustment, I know it's easy to confuse, yes.
[1:10:23] That we will not take any action on that part of this slate tonight with the anticipation
[1:10:31] that we would address that and other surrounding issues at our next regular meeting, correct?
[1:10:39] I think I'm seeing it in some format or you can do your slate, and we change the chairman
[1:10:45] next time.
[1:10:49] I don't think we would have any meeting of that board within the next month.
[1:10:54] I don't think we have anything on the horizon that we're aware of.
[1:10:56] So from that standpoint, I don't think it would matter too much.
[1:11:00] Just one technical thing that if you're going to look at changing your ordinance about the appointment on that board,
[1:11:05] that board has a specific rules for itself and so we may need to have some cleanup.
[1:11:11] Whether it's the new board or the existing board, they might need to meet and adjust the rules.
[1:11:15] I just haven't looked at them in a while to see if their appointment measures match what you have.
[1:11:20] So I think that only reinforces the wisdom of not taking any action on that board at all tonight,
[1:11:27] giving staff opportunity to make sure that we've got all of our ducks and aromas
[1:11:31] far as our requirements under state law, and then we can come back and have a more thorough discussion
[1:11:36] about the issues, the concerns the council has, and ways that those can be addressed.
[1:11:41] So, okay, I think we're, we've got that taken care of.
[1:11:48] So, was there, can we return back to the ordinary order of things,
[1:11:53] or we're going to go ahead and move back to planning and zoning,
[1:11:56] then?
[1:11:57] So my understanding is, Lori, that we have two current members of the planning and zoning commission
[1:12:04] who do not desire re-appointment.
[1:12:06] that's Courtney Stanley and Ashley Brown,
[1:12:10] the other two incumbents Charles Butler
[1:12:13] and Eric A. Now, both desire reappointment.
[1:12:16] And I believe we have one, two, three, four, five,
[1:12:19] six interested applicants.
[1:12:22] That's a good healthy slate of people to pick from.
[1:12:27] After looking at the applications,
[1:12:29] I was really interested in Drew Weaver.
[1:12:33] He is a registered PE professional engineer.
[1:12:36] I thought that was pretty relevant
[1:12:38] for a planning and zoning?
[1:12:42] I do know there are some requirements regarding the membership
[1:12:45] of planning and zoning.
[1:12:48] Lori remind me again, isn't it?
[1:12:49] We have to have one representative from the real estate
[1:12:52] industry, or maybe just, and if you can remind me,
[1:12:55] is there some, I thought there was some requirement regarding
[1:12:57] the composition of planning and zoning?
[1:13:01] Is it a different board?
[1:13:02] Unless your own, or Mrs. Charger,
[1:13:05] requires that the state will not doesn't.
[1:13:06] No, I thought it was state.
[1:13:07] Well, I may be on thinking of the building board
[1:13:09] of adjustments in appeals perhaps. Okay. I just wanted to be sure before we got to
[1:13:15] deepen that discussion. I will say just for I actually talk to Ben Nelson who really was
[1:13:26] very interested in serving on a board and seemed pretty sharp.
[1:13:33] So on Ben, I just wanted to let Council make a note that he is the only applicant that's interested in the village center, local government corporation boards, I don't know if.
[1:13:46] I was going to mention that.
[1:13:48] A lot of them cross over, and then there's somewhere there's going to be gaps, and it's like looking at one of those matrisy things.
[1:13:55] And his or his application was the most impressive list of acclades.
[1:14:03] So if we had to put him in charge of something that developed live,
[1:14:07] I would definitely be interested in the board of adjustments for him.
[1:14:12] Well, and also if council was interested in getting as many citizens involved as possible,
[1:14:16] it's also good to know because you can spread things out a little bit.
[1:14:23] So the two that I had for planning and zoning for position one and two is Drew Weaver and
[1:14:31] Dino Alvarado, and then reappointing Charles Butler and Eric, and I also had Drew and Daniel
[1:14:39] as my two.
[1:14:43] I felt completely going out of order.
[1:14:46] I had Cynthia Copponets in this one, and I had Daniel as Gulf, but that could be
[1:14:56] modified,
[1:14:59] not just.
[1:15:00] How long have you been strong in any of that?
[1:15:02] That degree, I'm the drew.
[1:15:06] Can you give me just a minute, I need to look up something.
[1:15:09] I think that Cynthia, Cynthia said something, I can't remember.
[1:15:15] Hold on, just give me a second.
[1:15:20] And while she's looking correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the golf only meet twice a year?
[1:15:27] Golf meets and believe once every other month.
[1:15:29] I'm sorry.
[1:15:30] Just kidding.
[1:15:31] What is that?
[1:15:31] I'm thinking of a different one.
[1:15:33] Oh, I'm sorry.
[1:15:34] It was Fitzgerald.
[1:15:35] Fitzgerald has her name on several boards, but she only wants to see it be appointed to one
[1:15:39] thing, not more than one.
[1:15:42] Yeah.
[1:15:42] That's also good to know.
[1:15:44] Yeah, much personally prefer to keep people to one board for separation of ideas.
[1:15:50] Unless it's if there has to be a problem.
[1:15:53] It's a combined one like that.
[1:15:55] That doesn't mean the ins, yeah.
[1:15:56] Syak.
[1:15:57] That's, that makes sense.
[1:15:58] agree but
[1:16:09] I do agree with Daniel for the golf because you know he was the I know
[1:16:13] are having our own salary but he was the Houston young professional energy
[1:16:18] Houston golf association president so he fills very if we're choosing I
[1:16:24] promise you were playing this up at the end this is like a jigsaw puzzle and it's a
[1:16:29] good problem to have I agree with y'all are we good with Daniel for golf his
[1:16:33] was just I mean his application was golf golf golf golf go to grew with that. But
[1:16:38] can we write his head can we just all vote at the end?
[1:16:43] We'll just make a note of it and we'll come back and we'll come back and we'll
[1:16:47] listen to it from James. So I don't know. Back to the top. Drew was Drew
[1:16:51] considered on anybody else's in another spot, Drew Reaver, the peeing, the
[1:16:56] professional engineer,
[1:16:59] just planning his own. I think that's the same one.
[1:17:05] Okay. We've
[1:17:05] So one of the second keeping Erica now and Charles Butler on that one.
[1:17:13] Agreed.
[1:17:16] Agreed.
[1:17:16] Saving Ben, that sounds like a movie.
[1:17:26] Did Cynthia say she wanted to be on another one?
[1:17:29] I don't have to remember the list.
[1:17:33] Oh, uh, golf course.
[1:17:46] I need an zoning.
[1:17:47] We still need one for planning and zoning.
[1:17:50] What was the name you suggested drew for planning and zoning?
[1:17:52] Cynthia Copnitz.
[1:18:04] Deb a little bit about Deb. She is President and Society of the Professional
[1:18:10] Women in Petroleum, a board member of the Greater Houston Air Stream Club. That sounds fun.
[1:18:16] She attempts to play golf. But she would rather just support her husband golf endeavors.
[1:18:23] And she's available. She lived in JD for 43 years.
[1:18:27] And what committee are we talking about for that one?
[1:18:30] This one for the planning zoning.
[1:18:33] This is Deb.
[1:18:36] Thunder.
[1:18:43] How much are we talking about Deb?
[1:18:47] So I've heard four different names on planning and zoning for two positions.
[1:18:51] So we kind of need to.
[1:18:52] So we have drew Riverwalk then on one.
[1:18:54] It sounds like we're going to put one in, right?
[1:19:01] That's the ABG deal, CC.
[1:19:05] Yeah, I haven't heard of for me.
[1:19:07] So it would be a Deb through Charles Eric.
[1:19:16] Yes, I agree.
[1:19:20] Thunder.
[1:19:21] So my understanding is we got Deb Thunder and Rue Weaver
[1:19:24] being proposed as filling the open seats
[1:19:27] and keeping the two incumbents who desire
[1:19:30] to agree appointment.
[1:19:31] Is that correct?
[1:19:32] Agreed, sounds good.
[1:19:34] I agree.
[1:19:35] I'm hearing consensus.
[1:19:36] OK, let's keep moving while we have a moment of clarity.
[1:19:41] I'm going to note while we're skipping over Board of Adjustment, Gary Vosser applied, is not on the,
[1:19:50] not on the list that we've been Nelson.
[1:19:53] He applied for which one, Board of Adjustment.
[1:19:56] Okay.
[1:19:57] On his application, he marked Board of Adjustment.
[1:20:02] Board of Adjustments, so when we're skipping to things,
[1:20:03] the only one that he listed.
[1:20:05] It's listed on the app, but it's not in the top sheet.
[1:20:09] but he's already appointed to the building board of adjustment.
[1:20:14] Maybe his application is included in error.
[1:20:18] Yeah, I think Lori listed the current members.
[1:20:23] That's why his application.
[1:20:25] Not every position, right?
[1:20:26] I get it.
[1:20:27] Somebody that's not, it's one of the applications in there.
[1:20:31] It's for one of the people that's not up for reappointment.
[1:20:33] Yeah, so I think we both may have misunderstood looking at it.
[1:20:38] So, in the packet, you have the current members and then you also have those who are interested.
[1:20:45] Those are in there.
[1:20:47] That makes sense.
[1:20:50] So, for building Board of Adjustment, all of the current positions are seeking re-appointment.
[1:20:56] I say we re-appoint those because the two that are interested, we've slated.
[1:21:01] We tabled that one.
[1:21:02] No, this is the other one.
[1:21:03] No, it's Board of Adjustments.
[1:21:05] This is building Board of Adjustments.
[1:21:07] Yes. I have no change in that one as well. I don't want to change on that vastly different. Okay, very similar. I have no change.
[1:21:16] Good. And just before we miss it, I just want to make sure.
[1:21:20] So capital improvements advisor committee, do you need us to take any separate action on that?
[1:21:25] Or do we do we do we just part of P&D, right? So it's kind of a combo deal? Okay, I just want to make sure we didn't need to list that out explicitly. Okay.
[1:21:33] So building Board of Adjustment, I have no change, reappointment all three, heart, okane and boss there, agree.
[1:21:42] That's what we just screwed up.
[1:21:45] Okay, and parsing, right?
[1:21:49] Parks and Rec, I have Karen Fitzgerald and Molly Slade, because the other ones I have go in other places.
[1:22:00] That's what I have to.
[1:22:03] We are waiting today.
[1:22:05] I had Karen and Jenny.
[1:22:12] But if I recall Molly applied quite a while back.
[1:22:16] She's been waiting on that.
[1:22:18] I think hers is there.
[1:22:19] Karen applied to June of 22.
[1:22:22] Karen's come to a few events and is introduced yourself.
[1:22:25] And Molly, I know, has expressed interest to me in the board.
[1:22:29] So let me just say this to all of the people who are listed in Exhibit A have been called and contacted to make sure that they still are interested.
[1:22:41] Thank you.
[1:22:42] Yeah, just to be clear, we've got two vacant positions and then the five incumbents all who desired reappointments.
[1:22:49] And so just to refresh Council's memory on this, this is the board that we have the alternate.
[1:22:56] And so when a position becomes available, position 1 through 7, the alternates move up.
[1:23:08] So we're always just going to be appointing alternates.
[1:23:15] That's different for each board, correct?
[1:23:17] This is the only board that's like that.
[1:23:25] I mean, there are a few that haven't entered, so it's not automatic.
[1:23:27] They all have like their own little rules, who's ideal with this?
[1:23:31] I'm looking at you in the board.
[1:23:33] multiple, multiple, countless of her multiple years.
[1:23:41] The pins on how much they need done. Parks and Rec has more and more events every year.
[1:23:47] So, are you saying Molly and Karen? That's one of those two open positions?
[1:23:53] Sure. Yes.
[1:23:54] And I would say since Karen applied first, she'd be alternate too, but um,
[1:24:01] not stuck in glue on that.
[1:24:06] Yeah, since the order actually matters in this case, we do need to name them specifically too.
[1:24:10] Who applied first on that? What was that order drew?
[1:24:14] Aaron and then Molly.
[1:24:17] I think I would go in the order of application, right?
[1:24:19] Y'all, is that what you're saying?
[1:24:22] Yeah, I think that's fine.
[1:24:23] So I'm here in Karen Fitzgerald for alternate 2 and Molly Slade is alternate 3, correct?
[1:24:31] Okay.
[1:24:33] And then I believe the suggestion on golf course was for Daniel Alvarado
[1:24:38] to be appointed to position one. They remaining positions have incumbents that desire
[1:24:46] reappointment. Okay, that's correct.
[1:24:51] And then village center local government corporation,
[1:24:54] there is one out of large position that is open and one applicant that has been Nelson.
[1:24:59] So it sounds like that one pretty much writes itself, right? Okay, let me go from the top and just
[1:25:07] sure that we've got all of this right. So for planning and zoning commission for the two open positions,
[1:25:14] we have, was it a drew weaver and Deb Funder by that correct. And for we're skipping board of
[1:25:23] adjustment for later discussion, building board of adjustments and appeals, we're retaining all
[1:25:27] of the incumbents, the desired reappointment. Parts of recreation committee, we have Karen Fitzgerald
[1:25:34] A2 and Molly Slade and A3, we have Daniel Ovarado and position one on golf course advisor committee and bin
[1:25:44] Nelson at large for the Village Center local government corporation unless there's any objections.
[1:25:53] I would entertain a motion appointing those people as described.
[1:26:00] I will motion to appoint the people as described by Mayor.
[1:26:06] And tapling the one Board of Adjustments.
[1:26:09] I'll second.
[1:26:11] We have a motion in a second.
[1:26:13] Any further discussion?
[1:26:15] Seeing none, all those in favor?
[1:26:18] All of those against any extensions.
[1:26:20] The resolution passes unanimously.
[1:26:24] Great job, guys.
[1:26:25] That was difficult.
[1:26:26] We did a good job there.
[1:26:29] We now move on to item G2, discuss and take appropriate action on the proposed employee housing
[1:26:33] incentive program that aims to assist our employees in finding suitable housing within
[1:26:36] the city of Jersey Village Texas, lower camps, human resources manager.
[1:26:48] Beating council and Mayor.
[1:26:51] So during the 2023-2024 budget meeting, City Council requested that staff looking to creating
[1:26:55] a program to help employees establish routes in our city.
[1:26:59] After researching other municipalities that offer such a program we found two cities.
[1:27:03] One program was offered in Chapel Hill Town, North Carolina, and the other one was offered by Grand Rapids Michigan.
[1:27:09] Our research did not lead to any responses from other local mythosalities.
[1:27:14] Chapel Hill Town, North Carolina, offered a program to employees with an area median income of 115% in below.
[1:27:20] Because we want to incentivize all income levels in Jersey Village, we decided not to include the median income criteria into our proposed program.
[1:27:28] It's important to note that based on the program, affordability is their greatest barrier.
[1:27:35] To review, the review of their programs can also be found at Chapel Hill Employee Homeowners Assistance Program,
[1:27:42] expense to aid more town staff at ChapelBoreau.com.
[1:27:46] Grand Rapids Michigan's program is offered to all employees.
[1:27:49] However, only two to three employees out of their 1,673 employees per year take advantage of their subsidies.
[1:27:55] Their average cost per home is a little more than $100,000 less than homes located in Jersey Village.
[1:28:02] The city of Jersey Village also has a volunteer firefighter home park to stipend that was previously implemented in 2007.
[1:28:10] The program gave first-time home buyer volunteer firefighters $3,000 for the first year and $750 per year for an additional years for a maximum of $9,000.
[1:28:20] We had one volunteer enrolled that was eligible for the program based on the program's requirements.
[1:28:27] The employee housing and center program, as contemplated by City Council,
[1:28:31] seeks to support our valued employees in their class for affordable housing within our community.
[1:28:36] Keeping within budget we're proposed to send an equivalent to 2% of the home purchase costs,
[1:28:42] which would help provide financial relief to eligible employees for down payments, closing costs, et cetera.
[1:28:48] Given that the home average home price of $404,500 within Jersey Village, we believe it is
[1:28:54] a crucial to address the housing challenge.
[1:28:57] If we offer to maximum of 2% that equals an estimated $8,000 for the average housing
[1:29:02] price, however the question arises whether $8,000 is that of quick enough to make a difference
[1:29:08] for an employee.
[1:29:10] Our proposed program would include this, which is included within this item.
[1:29:14] Because of current housing pricing average within the city, when it's a $400,500, making a
[1:29:20] two percent incentive schemes inadequate, Council may want to consider other options such
[1:29:25] as offering the incentive to those that take up residents within 5 miles of the city, or
[1:29:30] offering an incentive to those that rent within the city limits over the 5 mile area of the
[1:29:34] city.
[1:29:36] So, if it's looking for guidance from the Council, moving forward with this program, is there
[1:29:44] council would desire. We can also be interested in offering it to live within five
[1:29:48] mile radius of the city rather than the city limits.
[1:29:53] Okay, discussion amongst council
[1:29:54] on this item. First, Laura and staff, I don't know if there's many water.
[1:30:00] Our cooler talk about this, or informal polling, is this something that would appeal to staff?
[1:30:08] I haven't heard any feedback from staff, but we haven't really mentioned it too much to employees or anything, just looking at statistics as of right now.
[1:30:25] I recall one of the things we had this discussion during the retreat was
[1:30:35] is incentive to get more employees living in the area they serve, and no matter what their role
[1:30:43] was, right?
[1:30:43] We talked police and fire and we were like, well, this should be open to all.
[1:30:49] So I would not be in favor of something the five mile radius part, I'd want it to be within
[1:30:55] Jersey Village limits.
[1:30:57] I think in reading this and reading this over and over, I missed the part about rentals,
[1:31:01] which is something that I would be enticed because we're not necessarily saying we want
[1:31:08] people to take roots, but I think that being a part of the community is just as important
[1:31:15] in part of this.
[1:31:20] I'm going to hop in and say we had a comment during citizen comments about
[1:31:24] why do we invest in the people who work here, you know, we should be more concerned about
[1:31:29] that people who live here, which I felt, you know, those both can live at the same time.
[1:31:35] When I think about a school, I mean, you think about Harvard, Yale, and sort of
[1:31:39] school that you wish your kids went to, or you wish you went to, they invest in their teachers,
[1:31:46] like a lot, because that is who is shaping the students. That is who is teaching.
[1:31:52] That is what the city government is doing. If we do not invest in these people,
[1:31:55] I mean, they are the reason that everything around here is great, and if we're not investing in their roots,
[1:32:03] you know, we'll lose it.
[1:32:05] And this whole roots initiative was brought up because we have, you know, some turnover in the police department,
[1:32:13] fire department in less volunteers, as y'all have heard before.
[1:32:17] And if you've been a part of hiring or firing in your workplace, you know that good talent is hard to find.
[1:32:27] And typically when you're finding good talent, you're coaching them a little bit from an established, great position that's even better.
[1:32:36] Typically the ones who are unemployed for months not always, but there's a reason that they didn't work out at their last job.
[1:32:44] And so when you're trying to find the cream of the crop, you have to incentivize and unfortunately
[1:32:50] the housing market right now is just bananas.
[1:32:54] Someone who has a very, very decent job, you know, it's hard to scrape together a down payment
[1:33:00] for our house, and they have everything right.
[1:33:02] You know, they're doing everything correct.
[1:33:04] It's just the way it is.
[1:33:06] So if we could do something to invest in the roots and I'm talking about them living in
[1:33:12] maybe all of the citizens that I have talked to having a police officer or a firefighter
[1:33:19] or a city employee on their street that they have, you know, a personal relationship is
[1:33:24] gold.
[1:33:26] And I just feel like that is, you know, helping these young families develop roots in J.V.,
[1:33:32] the good ones we want to stay.
[1:33:35] I mean, return on investment, I can't even say what I feel, or I guess I just did.
[1:33:40] but
[1:33:43] I had mixed emotions about this one.
[1:33:50] I'm sure my thoughts are not going to be very popular,
[1:33:57] but the incentives that were established
[1:33:59] for the volunteer fire department was in order
[1:34:05] to incentivize those to stay close by,
[1:34:09] knowing that we weren't responding
[1:34:11] from the fire department the way that we do now.
[1:34:14] So having a firefighter in the city made a lot of sense.
[1:34:21] I feel like this incentive would be a solution to a problem
[1:34:29] that we don't have, which is finding and retaining employees today.
[1:34:36] I think we have a strong enough culture
[1:34:40] that people want to come work here
[1:34:43] And we have good enough department heads that are strong leaders that develop our people and I want to say.
[1:34:52] So I don't know that this is something that is necessary at this point in time in order for us to invest the kind of money that would need to be invested for the home prices that are here in the city today.
[1:35:10] I agree with you.
[1:35:11] I think it's like your day.
[1:35:12] I don't think it's a problem.
[1:35:13] We have at the moment.
[1:35:15] Because if you look at the origin of it,
[1:35:18] like you're saying,
[1:35:18] it was about keeping volunteer firefighters close.
[1:35:28] That city employee be a volunteer firefighter.
[1:35:33] I don't think so anymore, right?
[1:35:35] No.
[1:35:42] I was very happy to hear Drew say
[1:35:44] that he wanted to keep it inside the city limits
[1:35:46] because that's pretty much what I feel to
[1:35:50] as if we're going to offer a program like this
[1:35:52] just should be within the sea limits.
[1:36:01] I have it a lot more thought about now
[1:36:03] I'm the kind of deciding factor here is where we go.
[1:36:10] And I can't jump in again.
[1:36:13] I mean, I agree that it's not a,
[1:36:17] there's not necessarily a problem now
[1:36:19] and then with home prices.
[1:36:21] And if you're looking at the median
[1:36:22] or maybe it's not the average of 404,
[1:36:25] Probably it's gonna go for the under half of that but still $8,000 dollars a lot of money
[1:36:33] But pro-rated over the number four or five years that we'd want to pro-rated over in order to make this is it that big of an incentive
[1:36:42] To get someone to move
[1:36:44] Indigiers village to live and and at that point
[1:36:48] It kind of just washes itself out so I'm with I like the idea. I just don't think I think I might it
[1:36:57] I think it's an incentive enough, like you said, spread out over five years and we're securing, you know, those roots for at least five years.
[1:37:06] And if it sometimes $8,000 is the difference of someone buying a house or renting another two years.
[1:37:13] So I, I've been the middle of a cost sales contract on a house, and $8,000 is not going to make a difference to most buyers.
[1:37:22] I don't feel, and so my thought was, okay, we got to come up up higher, the city of Jersey village price per square foot is much higher than it is just outside of the city limits.
[1:37:40] There's really no explanation for why Winchester Country is so much less as square foot than JB other than our public services.
[1:37:49] fire department, police department being the two key public ones, but also public works in
[1:37:55] city staff and there's a lot of reasons it's good to live in JV and unfortunately that
[1:38:01] means that it costs more and I don't think you're going to be able, I don't think we're
[1:38:06] going to stomach the cost it would take to make that incentive worth it so what I'm hearing
[1:38:15] you say is that having good city employees actually does make the city more attractive for
[1:38:22] people to live in so it actually has a benefit for our citizens unlike what we heard
[1:38:25] somebody say oh yeah I'm not even going to give that any time because if you're if you're
[1:38:34] investing in your employees you make sure that your employees are happy at work and they feel valued
[1:38:40] They're going to provide excellent service.
[1:38:43] That excellent service is what you expect as a citizen
[1:38:47] when you look for issues you expect.
[1:38:50] May I answer your voice mail?
[1:38:52] It's reasonable for us to be upset about
[1:38:54] did somebody call the person back?
[1:38:57] Obviously we just found out about that tonight
[1:38:58] who knows what the true facts are there,
[1:39:01] but I'm sure you'll look into it
[1:39:03] because our employees care because we care about our employees.
[1:39:08] and it makes a direct impact on everybody they come in contact with and that makes a direct
[1:39:15] impact on our home values. It's a wise investment. I don't think this program has the future,
[1:39:22] because at the time we don't have that problem.
[1:39:26] At a curiosity, if any weather, Laura or Austin or anyone, do we know roughly what percentage
[1:39:32] of our staff lives in Jersey Village?
[1:39:38] I'm an obviously I'm not going to hold you to it,
[1:39:39] just a very rough ball part figure five or six and yeah I told out of
[1:39:46] everybody but now we've got probably another five that live within a couple
[1:39:52] of miles okay I thought it was gonna be more of it or maybe five it is valuable to
[1:39:58] have fire and police staff live inside of the city because they do provide a net
[1:40:09] positive you know, having them in the city if we were to have certain events.
[1:40:14] One of the few times that we had a shooting in the city, I know that several officers
[1:40:19] who lived in the city ran up to the PD, go on duty when the fire department while we're moving
[1:40:25] towards a more professional, not hello those bad word, man, I'll step in hold there.
[1:40:32] I've made that mistake before.
[1:40:33] when, as we're moving towards more paid staff,
[1:40:39] we still are relying on volunteers.
[1:40:41] We still have volunteers that are responding to
[1:40:45] call centers, value, and having them here in the city.
[1:40:48] And so that is one way what we could do
[1:40:52] is adjust the volunteer firefighter house
[1:40:56] per just type that did exist.
[1:40:58] It was made in 2007, bringing it up to today's numbers
[1:41:01] an expanded to the PD staff. But we really don't have any volunteers.
[1:41:10] So you're saying
[1:41:10] offering only the police and fire? What about public works? I like water.
[1:41:17] You do like water.
[1:41:20] And the left station. Public works doesn't have the same station.
[1:41:23] Public works doesn't have the same. So you have staff on and you have on call people,
[1:41:29] but they don't have the same manpower needs during emergencies.
[1:41:36] I will say this.
[1:41:38] I agree with the thinking here.
[1:41:40] I like generally the impetus behind this.
[1:41:45] Part of what concern, and obviously we do evaluate our compensation packages for our employees
[1:41:51] on a regular basis.
[1:41:52] I mean, we just heard from people who thought we went a little too far, but it is important
[1:41:58] that we always evaluate and make sure that we're being competitive.
[1:42:01] One of the things that concerned me was that, and I don't know to what degree we reached out or looked into
[1:42:08] local cities.
[1:42:09] I saw that we found one, we found the Chapel Hill in North Carolina and Grand Rapids of Michigan.
[1:42:16] I don't, did we find any cities in Texas that offered a similar program?
[1:42:20] So I said it.
[1:42:21] Frank, did you come up with this?
[1:42:23] Didn't you come up with this in 2007?
[1:42:25] This is your childhood, isn't
[1:42:28] it?
[1:42:29] The Firefighter stipend?
[1:42:34] But specifically, I'm talking about the proposal before us tonight.
[1:42:39] Did we find any other cities in Texas that offered us a more program like what's being proposed?
[1:42:44] So I sent it to my HR Regional Group, which is about 120 of the members, and I didn't give another response back to say they did this.
[1:42:51] Okay, I don't get any response from other city managers either.
[1:42:54] Yeah, I'm not saying that we, yeah, I'm not saying we shouldn't look at doing new and unique things.
[1:43:02] But I think that that raises to me kind of a big question mark.
[1:43:09] You know, we already have salaries set at above market rate.
[1:43:19] And we've also looked at other incentives to make the city attractive to work for.
[1:43:24] Above and beyond what others have already said about the culture, workplace culture,
[1:43:27] and just the the intangible benefits of working here. So I think this is something that we
[1:43:35] could we can kind of keep in our back pocket, something that we could look at either looking
[1:43:40] at targeted use of it if we see that there is a need for... Can I ask Chief and Chief a question?
[1:43:47] Chief and Chief, what is our turnover rate for new hires? How long are they staying?
[1:43:52] my
[1:44:01] newest is this thing working tonight my newest I got to get real close my
[1:44:07] newest firefighters are here a year now I see no not a single person ready to
[1:44:14] leave but they're extremely happy my oldest 33 years
[1:44:25] the last
[1:44:30] one we
[1:44:30] had leave went to I think precinct one which was probably a year ago we've had
[1:44:37] very little turnover. We're actually almost full at one position. We have several applications.
[1:44:45] So, I mean, I think we're really in a good place. And just to say this last survey
[1:44:49] you all did, and to see our benefits, stipends, salaries, 12-hour shifts. I mean, we have people.
[1:45:00] We had some tumble officers that already look and come here, which I hope that you're not listening.
[1:45:05] We did some, so to answer your question, you know, this is great, but I think that just what you're doing already is going to be fine and we'll continue to get good employees and we'll keep them here.
[1:45:18] And we need to take your staff to job fairs and they speak so highly of the city and the place that they work
[1:45:27] You know we're doing good job
[1:45:30] Because it's happening in both place and fire department when we take them to job fair
[1:45:36] So it sounds like we're on a grant it's a great plan but not one that we need it's something something to keep it
[1:45:42] I'll back pocket if we do need it or if we find a strategic
[1:45:46] purpose, like was discussed, you know, between fire, police, public works. If it becomes an issue,
[1:45:53] where we identify situations where things could have turned out very differently had. We had more
[1:45:59] personnel closer to the city, but so far, I don't know that that has ever come up as a particular issue
[1:46:07] in the past. So, I think it's, again, I think it's, it's something that is
[1:46:17] motivated for the right reasons and maybe something that could come in use one day, but
[1:46:22] maybe not necessarily today. So at least that's kind of what I'm hearing from the majority of
[1:46:27] council.
[1:46:30] Okay. Well, we'll keep an eye on it and hey, maybe other cities will start to do that
[1:46:37] And we'll just have to respond then, that's the way the market goes, I guess.
[1:46:42] So I think we're taking no action on this if I'm understanding everyone correctly.
[1:46:48] All right, that brings us to mayor and council comments.
[1:46:51] I am going to start down on this in with council member McCray.
[1:46:55] Did I do it last time?
[1:46:56] Okay.
[1:46:57] Okay.
[1:46:58] All right, fair enough.
[1:46:59] Fair enough.
[1:47:00] I'm just going to just start down here with Mayor Pro Tim Mitchell.
[1:47:04] It's almost October. We all know what that means. Candy Corn Lane is coming to town.
[1:47:11] We've already scheduled our barbecue and we've got our whatever those things are.
[1:47:17] Pitch thing is ready.
[1:47:19] Homecoming parade 330 on October 11. Bring a big bag.
[1:47:26] You will have enough candy leftover to pass out for Halloween incentives.
[1:47:33] October 3rd is national night out. Hopefully you get to meet some of your neighbors and then
[1:47:40] that's about it for me. I'm ready for some pumpkin spice lattes and colder, colder weather.
[1:47:47] Council Member Schubert.
[1:47:49] I'll take that pumpkin spice latte with you. I would like to ask staff to take a look at
[1:47:57] are landscaping. In the area I know we've had some emails floating around
[1:48:05] with some complaints about that. I know I've noticed it myself, especially since my
[1:48:11] front yard has weeds from having grown as planted but if you don't mind
[1:48:17] taking a look at that I'd appreciate it and that's really all I have.
[1:48:26] That's my
[1:48:27] Texas native varieties in rocks or rocks yes real quick in my left hand I
[1:48:36] hold a phone on in my phone I have an app city of Jersey Village but a lot
[1:48:41] of work into up in our technology game and there's a city app second from the
[1:48:49] top is a reporting issue so if you see a junk car somewhere or you see a house
[1:48:55] with overgrown weeds, you're not a Narc, or if you see something in a park that needs help,
[1:49:02] like something's not working, feel free to report it on the app.
[1:49:06] And if you don't have the app or in the midst of downloading it, feel free to email your
[1:49:10] counselors and or call the city, this has been very helpful and there's a lot of other useful
[1:49:16] tools on here.
[1:49:18] So I encourage downloading it regarding the bond page, it doesn't, the home values don't
[1:49:24] go up and you'd have to go to jerseyvillage.com slash page slash city.mon, 2023 to look at it.
[1:49:30] But the home values, if your house is 250, one year and moves up to 321, then the whole
[1:49:35] thing is somewhat accurate in that it just reports numbers what the exemption would be and
[1:49:41] what the tax rate would be for that. So I don't think it's out of line. We could do something,
[1:49:48] But you don't know with H-CAD ever what things are going to be and what they're going to do.
[1:49:56] You can think the worst, but hope for the best.
[1:49:59] And as far as bonds go, discuss this in several meetings,
[1:50:04] we're asking the city citizens to a prove three separate bond items,
[1:50:11] or it's up for them to decide whether they want it.
[1:50:14] That does not mean the city will have cart launch and spending all that money.
[1:50:17] They'll spend only the money necessary on that, so and maybe not all at once.
[1:50:26] So just everyone knows that not everything on there has been scheduled to be built and whatnot.
[1:50:35] So plans can change over time and have a great October and enjoy all that comes
[1:50:44] the fall, including lower temperatures one day?
[1:50:49] Council member Singleton.
[1:50:53] To do, uh,
[1:50:55] Drew's comments about the app.
[1:50:58] If you see a scene issue you want to fix.
[1:51:00] Report it in the app.
[1:51:04] Thursday is a really exciting opportunity.
[1:51:08] The DPS crime lab on West Road
[1:51:11] is offering their open house that they only do once a year and they just really cool stuff
[1:51:18] there. You can email them at Houston Crime Lab at dps.txt.gov but they're open 94 on Thursday.
[1:51:27] And that is just going to kick off the month of October which is full of open houses and all kinds
[1:51:33] events. I think our open house for the City Fire Department Police Department is going to be
[1:51:45] October 21st and I think that's 10 to 2 is normal. 10 to 2 is coming out and see all the
[1:51:53] exciting things that the Police Department and fire department.
[1:51:59] Oh, what October 3rd is National
[1:52:00] And I now, as we mentioned earlier, so get out and see your neighbors.
[1:52:06] Fortunately, I will be at a Chief Academy, so it won't be in town.
[1:52:12] Council member McCray.
[1:52:15] All right, I'll go now.
[1:52:18] I share everybody's sentiments of October, all that stuff.
[1:52:21] Make sure you make the homecoming parade.
[1:52:23] That one's really cool.
[1:52:24] Who my favorite every year?
[1:52:27] One thing I do would attach on is if we could, Austin, I know, Abram,
[1:52:30] would have the ability to pull reports of phone calls coming in and phone calls being answered,
[1:52:36] phone calls being missed. Those all of the phone situations that your phone systems offer that,
[1:52:43] and I think it's time to go ahead and pull reports. I know we had just one complaint tonight,
[1:52:47] but I would say that is probably one of the things I see most often on social media complaints.
[1:52:51] Is it, but phone calls aren't being answered here. So I think that's just something that
[1:52:56] Maybe we can pull that up and let's see because if it is an issue it needs to be taken care of and if it's not an issue, we need to make sure people are aware that it's not an issue.
[1:53:05] Other than that, I wanted to say a lot of thanks to JVPD for my situation at home has changed or are leaving very early in the morning.
[1:53:16] And I'm realizing, because I've never been up that early before, that it's seven
[1:53:21] name at 6.45 in the morning, my house, my driveway gets blocked from high school traffic
[1:53:27] in the morning.
[1:53:28] Not only is it my house, it's people choosing to not wait in line on Philippine, they like
[1:53:32] to race down Argentina, then race down Ashburton, then take a left on to Lakeview, and then
[1:53:37] back up the Lakeview stop sign, and it's annoying as all get out, and that is nothing to
[1:53:43] with the people that I know that live on the streets, like Congo and stuff, after school, what
[1:53:48] they deal with every single day. And so last week I noticed JV police officer seemed to be having
[1:53:54] a great time writing a lot of tickets right there at Philippine and like Vio and I really appreciate
[1:53:59] that and I'm glad that he was out there doing that because a lot of the people that are
[1:54:04] that are causing issues are not residents of Jersey Village, most of them are high school students
[1:54:09] or that they're parents that are clearly running late and don't seem to think that it matters
[1:54:12] But you know, we've got kids, we've got people walking, and it is important.
[1:54:16] And stuff, I wanted to say thank you and feel free any time you'd like to use my driveway to sit and catch people.
[1:54:21] More than happy. I'll provide whatever snacks you want.
[1:54:25] Other than that, uh, because your neighbors got me to say hi, help them out.
[1:54:30] I also wanted to say, uh, thank you to Council member Singleton over here.
[1:54:35] He and I don't always see eye to eye, but we had a situation in our house where a pipe broke on our water filter.
[1:54:42] and where it did have a shutoff revolve, it bypassed the filter.
[1:54:48] It was a Sunday morning, the day before school starts,
[1:54:51] and then my daughter makes the comment about our water filter.
[1:54:54] She goes, there's a fountain in her front yard.
[1:54:55] I don't know what she's got about fountain,
[1:54:57] and it is literally shooting under the roof,
[1:54:59] and I sat there going,
[1:55:01] oh, what are we going to do about this?
[1:55:03] Anyways, could not find the proper to save my life.
[1:55:07] James had a text message, text the group text,
[1:55:09] James had a comment about having a suggestion
[1:55:11] and he came over within 10 minutes if that.
[1:55:14] We got it plugged up enough to where we could get it fixed
[1:55:16] the next week, and we were able to have water
[1:55:18] because I was just going to burn the house down.
[1:55:21] I was about to burn it down and walk away.
[1:55:24] And so anyways, I just wanted to say thank you.
[1:55:26] See, even those of us that don't agree on things
[1:55:28] can still help each other out.
[1:55:30] So I just wanted to say thank you.
[1:55:33] I would imagine the water leak would have put out the fire,
[1:55:35] but you're welcome.
[1:55:38] I don't think the fire would have worked.
[1:55:40] Anyway, never let the truth get in the way of a good joke.
[1:55:43] So, yeah, I just wanted to emphasize to everyone that, as was mentioned up here, National
[1:55:50] Night Out is coming up.
[1:55:51] It is a fantastic opportunity to get out and meet your neighbors if you've never participated
[1:55:56] before.
[1:55:58] There will be, there's usually a good 20 or 30 parties easily.
[1:56:06] And for once I'm not on vacation, when this is happening, so I'll be out and about trying
[1:56:11] to make as many parties as I can that night and looking forward to it.
[1:56:18] Apart from that, I'm just going to re-emphasize what I've re-emphasized several times
[1:56:24] in the past, which is reaching out and communicating with Council and letting us know when
[1:56:33] an issue comes up as soon as it comes up really makes it easier for us to be able to address
[1:56:39] issue.
[1:56:42] You know, I assure you that when someone emails me and says, I've got this problem where,
[1:56:47] you know, I've got a neighbor across the street that's got a junk car or I'm having difficulty
[1:56:53] reaching somebody in public works to get a permit or whatever the case may be, trust me,
[1:56:58] we can help you get the situation resolved.
[1:57:03] But it takes you reaching out and letting us know
[1:57:06] and giving us an opportunity to actually fix it.
[1:57:10] As I said, the last meeting, government's not just something
[1:57:14] that you throw the keys to us and we just do it all.
[1:57:18] It is something that we all pitch in on some level to be able to do
[1:57:22] and to help out one another and make sure that we keep our community
[1:57:26] the great place that it is.
[1:57:29] I know COVID enforcement's out there doing their job because I have in my
[1:57:33] meeting packet, very, very tiny print at, I believe it's four and a half pages from one month's worth of reports.
[1:57:42] So it's not as if things aren't happening.
[1:57:46] And if there are people out there who get these notices and they don't act immediately,
[1:57:51] we can't magically sweep them away.
[1:57:53] There's a process.
[1:57:54] So just let us know, we will do what we can and, you know, it's sometimes it takes a long
[1:58:01] than we'd like, but we usually get it taken care of.
[1:58:06] So with that, we are going to move to Executive Session.
[1:58:11] City Council is now going to retire to a closed session at 853pm, pursuant to the Texas
[1:58:18] Open Meetings Act, Section 551.087, deliberation regarding economic development negotiations,
[1:58:23] Section 551.072, deliberations about real property, Section 551.071, consultations
[1:58:28] with attorney, and Section 551.074, a personnel matters in connection with the following
[1:58:33] item.
[1:58:35] 1% of the Texas 7 meeting, Section 551.087, deliberation regarding the Economic Development
[1:58:39] Negotiations, Section 551.072, deliberations about real property, and Section 554.071,
[1:58:45] in consultations with attorney, a close meeting to deliberate information from a business
[1:58:48] prospect that the city seeks to locate in Jersey Village, Tours, number two, and economic
[1:58:52] development negotiations, including the possible purchase, exchange, or value of real property
[1:58:57] related there too. Number two, pursuant to the Texas of a meeting at Section 5 at 1.072,
[1:59:02] deliberations about the property in Section 5151.071, consultations with attorney,
[1:59:07] and close meeting to deliberate the potential and possible purchase, exchange, sale,
[1:59:11] or value of real property located within TURS 3.
[1:59:14] Number three, pursuant to Texas of a meeting at Section 5151.074, personnel matters,
[1:59:19] conduct an executive session in order to deliberate the appointment, employment,
[1:59:22] evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of the city secretary.
[1:59:25] item 4, pursuant to the Texas Open Meetings Act, section 555-1.074, personnel matters,
[1:59:31] conduct an executive session in order to deliberate the appointment employment, evaluation,
[1:59:34] reassignment duties, discipline, or dismissal of the city manager.
[1:59:37] We will return to open session and continue with the remainder of tonight's agenda after
[1:59:40] the closed session deliberations are concluded.
[4:25:11] The closed session was adjourned at 1120 p.m. and no official action or vote was conducted during the closed session.
[4:25:21] That brings us to item L1. Consider resolution number 23-50, authorizing the city manager to finalize negotiations, enter into purchase agreements,
[4:25:33] and related documents regarding the acquisition of certain real property located within the boundaries of taxing,
[4:25:37] From that reinvestment zone number three, the TERS is recommended by the Board of Directors of the TERS to implement the project plans of the TERS or the Boston Police.
[4:25:46] The Resolutions before a council.
[4:25:50] Any discussion from council or a motion would certainly be in there?
[4:25:53] I'm no doubt for a Resolution 2023-50.
[4:25:58] I'll second.
[4:25:59] We have a motion in a second any further discussion.
[4:26:02] Seeing none all those in favor.
[4:26:04] All of those against any abstentions.
[4:26:06] The Resolution passes unanimously.
[4:26:07] That brings us to item L2, consider setting the city secretary's compensation for budget
[4:26:13] your 2023-2024.
[4:26:17] I'm moved to the city secretary's base salary compensation for budget your 2023-2024 at
[4:26:23] 150-200.
[4:26:25] I'll second.
[4:26:26] We have a motion in a second.
[4:26:27] Any further discussion?
[4:26:29] Seeing none all those in favor?
[4:26:31] All those against any extensions?
[4:26:33] Motion passes unanimously.
[4:26:34] that brings us to item L3, consider setting the city secretary's compensation for budget.
[4:26:39] Your 2022, 2022, 2023 and consider them.
[4:26:42] That's it.
[4:26:43] Consider setting the city manager's compensation for budget.
[4:26:46] Your 2022, 2023, and consider employment agreement amendments.
[4:26:51] And move to increase the city manager's basic salary compensation for budget.
[4:26:55] Your 2023 to 2024 to 210,000 and improve the employment to 210,000 period.
[4:27:04] because we're not making any adjustments to the contract.
[4:27:07] So what he said?
[4:27:08] That's what he said.
[4:27:09] He said it was a contractual adjustment.
[4:27:11] So just for clarity, the only adjustment you're going to make
[4:27:14] to the employment contract is going to be the base salary.
[4:27:20] Okay.
[4:27:20] That's what...
[4:27:20] I'll second it.
[4:27:24] It's what's written in the packet.
[4:27:28] Except the years are wrong in the packet.
[4:27:36] All right.
[4:27:36] So there's a motion.
[4:27:37] There's a second.
[4:27:38] Any further discussion?
[4:27:39] saying not all is in favor, all of those against any extensions, the motion passes unanimously,
[4:27:46] meeting adjourned.
[4:27:54] Do you, I'm going to do it on my mic, he told you it's an amendment to the contact.