[0:00] Okay, I'm going to look at the right page here.

[0:04] That's the next thing on the agenda. >> Okay, consent to the agenda items.

[0:08] Maybe approved by council member. Motion.

[0:12] » Second. >> All in favor.

[0:14] » Aye. >> Aye. Nice.

[0:20] » Yeah, that was included in the packet. And

[0:24] any detailed financial report will be provided by Andrew at that.

[0:28] » Okay. All right. Uh

[0:30] any uh community interest items anybody wants to talk about?

[0:35] Coming up. Want to know about.

[0:39] Thanks. All right. Uh-oh.

[0:42] Yes.

[0:48] » Why don't you do that at citizen participation in just a minute? Yeah,

[0:52] that's coming up right now. >> That's That's right now. So, we're going

[0:55] to be any uh community interest items to speak about, so we'll go straight to

[0:59] citizen participation. So, if you'd like to come up

[1:03] and >> Yeah, you do.

[1:06] » Yeah, you do. >> And then, please give your name.

[1:11] » My name's Jack Brooks. I'm the new

[1:14] Republican Party Chairman, Franklin County.

[1:17] And the 25th of August, we're going to have two state representatives

[1:21] and a lady named Krista Shields, who is a expert on this Islamic movement,

[1:26] coming to give a speech and give a program

[1:29] at 7:00 at the airport here in Franklin County.

[1:32] Would love to see some of y'all there. Good citizen participation.

[1:37] » [clears throat] >> Thank y'all.

[1:38] » Thanks, sir.

[1:41] Anyone else?

[1:44] All right. So, we'll move on to be

[1:47] items to be considered. Uh number four here is consider request

[1:53] for re-plat of property located at 811 Miller Street,

[1:57] Mount Vernon, Texas 0.465

[2:02] AC Gabriel Keith Survey A- 261 Mount Vernon

[2:09] City of Mount Vernon, Texas. >> Mr. Lester?

[2:12] » Mr. Lester, you want to talk about? >> Would you please come up?

[2:20] » Yeah, so My name is Alex Lester. So, basically I

[2:24] need to replat uh piece of property to two lots and

[2:27] we're going to build some single home families here

[2:30] um for starter homes.

[2:34] » Okay, on on this replat, the zoning will not need to be changed. It'll still

[2:40] remain um um R2 zoning and and it meets all the

[2:45] minimum uh setback requirements and meets the

[2:49] minimum square footage. He's taking a lot that is basically 19,000 square foot

[2:54] and cutting cutting it in half. And on R2, you have to have a minimum of

[2:59] 5,000 square foot to the lot. So, it

[3:03] you won't need to come back to change the zoning is what I'm telling you.

[3:06] » Okay. >> Okay.

[3:08] » Yeah. >> All right.

[3:10] » Um that's all. Is that about it?

[3:15] You know. >> Yeah, I need that or that for a motion

[3:17] on that. >> For motion.

[3:19] » Second. >> I'll second.

[3:21] » All right. Mayor seconds.

[3:25] On to the next. Uh number five, in accordance with Texas Tax Code.

[3:30] » Uh so, we've had new numbers which y'all have been provided and the new uh

[3:37] uh voter approved rate is 0.58

[3:42] um Help me there. 102,

[3:46] correct? Which is 0.000014

[3:53] um since less than what was originally published.

[4:00] The net effect of that is about $2,800. But given that this document has been

[4:08] put out there according to uh we need to go ahead and

[4:12] redo this next week. And and the council doesn't take any action

[4:17] on this. They will uh they will propose a rate

[4:21] next week after we have had this just out in the public again. Okay? So, I'm

[4:26] grateful for all the work that Melissa's done on this and Andrew's done on this.

[4:33] And folks, this is a very complicated calculation. It's very time-consuming.

[4:38] And um you know, I I wish everything could be perfect

[4:42] when when

[4:44] we put it out there, but sometimes it's just not. So, um Melissa gave us the new

[4:48] numbers or the correct numbers today at about 4:00. So, they're out there.

[4:53] The good news is is that they the tax rate has actually dropped.

[4:59] So, that's always that's always a good thing.

[5:03] Anybody have any questions on that?

[5:13] » We have a motion on that one there? >> No No action.

[5:16] » No action needed. Okay. I didn't hear it.

[5:19] I apologize. Uh

[5:22] Six from six. Yes. Uh number six, consider contract for the

[5:27] municipal judge uh I believe Mr. Sears. That's you.

[5:32] » That's me. >> Would you mind giving us a little

[5:33] background about yourself and kind of let us know

[5:38] » I know a lot of people My name is Stacy Sears. Uh

[5:41] I grew up here in Mount Vernon. Went to East Texas State University,

[5:46] graduated with a bachelor's degree there at Texas A&M

[5:49] Commerce now. I was working for the Sheriff's Office.

[5:53] I spent about 5 years working at the Sheriff's Office.

[5:57] Got employed by Texas Department of Public Safety. Was a state trooper there

[6:00] for about 25 years and then after retiring from there

[6:06] managed the Preifert Logistics safety department for them for about 10 years.

[6:12] Been retired for about 5 months now from that and of course we

[6:18] my wife and I own a real estate company here

[6:21] in Mount Vernon. They approached me about doing this and

[6:25] I thought it might be a good fit for me and be able to help

[6:29] the city of Mount Vernon also, so

[6:34] that's kind of where we are today. I'll answer any questions if anybody has

[6:37] any that I can answer. >> I I have a a couple things that I want

[6:43] to say. We searched for months to find somebody that we felt would be a good

[6:47] fit for this or was qualified for this and I'm just very grateful that Stacy

[6:53] stepped up with his experience as DPS trooper

[6:58] experience in law enforcement and his connection

[7:01] with the community. I just felt like he is a great great fit for us and we

[7:06] really look forward to working with him.

[7:10] We met with him, Christie has met with him and we're you know, got a plan ahead

[7:14] of us and we're looking forward to having you

[7:18] calling you your honor, okay? >> [laughter]

[7:24] » Leanne's going to do that now, too. >> Yeah, yeah.

[7:27] » You know how far that'll go. >> [laughter]

[7:30] » That ain't happening.

[7:34] So, yeah, so Council, do you have any questions on

[7:38] the agreement?

[7:41] » I'll make a motion to approve that. >> I'll do a motion to approve.

[7:46] » I'll second. >> Motion approved.

[7:49] All right, on to number seven. Consider suggested ordinance amendment. Ordinance

[7:54] number 2026-03

[7:58] regarding officers appointed by council. In order to make day-to-day operations

[8:02] more efficient, this amendment does not create any entitlement

[8:07] or take away from any existing roles.

[8:12] » Uh if you look at the proposed changes to

[8:16] the ordinance, you'll see that um the appointed officers of the city um

[8:23] will include a municipal judge, a city administrator, city attorney, chief of

[8:28] police, and other officers that the city council deem necessary.

[8:32] The big change here is that it has removed the city secretary from being

[8:37] appointed by the council uh and placed her uh

[8:41] uh in the organizational chart under the

[8:44] city administrator. And that is the only change on this on

[8:48] this ordinance.

[8:52] » Anybody got any questions about it? Motion to approve.

[8:57] Motion. >> I'll second.

[9:00] » That's two motions All right, number eight. Uh

[9:05] Consider the ordinance amendment amendments ordinance number

[9:09] 2026 -04 regard regarding defining and

[9:14] clarifying the role of city administrator.

[9:16] This role has been a job held in the city for at least 20 years. This

[9:20] ordinance serves to memorialize and codify those roles.

[9:27] So, it kind of goes to the same thing, right?

[9:28] » Right. The The city has budgeted and paid for a

[9:32] city administrator for at least 20 years, but it's never been in the

[9:36] ordinance to have a city administrator. This actually officially creates the

[9:41] position of city administrator. And as you saw by the ordinance that was just

[9:46] that y'all just passed, the council has the authority to appoint whoever they

[9:51] want to to that position. Uh if you've read through this, you'll you'll see

[9:56] that the city administrator serves at the will of the council. And uh the

[10:02] ordinance also describes the the duties and authority and responsibilities of

[10:08] the city administrator. So it it basically codifies the position. It

[10:12] makes it legit. So Um once this is done, I will actually be

[10:17] legitimate instead of being illegitimate. So

[10:22] » I should motion to approve that. >> I'll make a motion to approve that.

[10:25] » I'll second. >> Second. All right. Motion approved.

[10:28] » Thank you. I feel so much better. >> You're official.

[10:36] » That's it. Um yeah, I will bring up I'll I

[10:40] Council, I wanted to bring you up to speed on where we are with the Little

[10:43] Creek Park project. Um I want to get a little background out there in the

[10:48] public about this. Um just to kind of maybe clarify any any concerns or

[10:54] questions that that folks may have about this. Uh those of you that have been

[10:59] serving on the council for a while uh know that uh back in 2024

[11:05] uh we applied for a grant for what was phase one of the Little Creek Park uh

[11:10] project. And that basically was some straight shade structures, new

[11:14] playground equipment. And that was pretty much it uh on that. Um the grant

[11:20] was approved. Um we actually uh got notification of the uh approval of the

[11:26] grant. We had applied for this probably in September

[11:31] of 2024. That's when the application was

[11:34] submitted. It was we were notified that there would be a

[11:38] forthcoming award in January or February of 25. We got the award notification,

[11:44] the official award notification where we actually it said an award date of 9 15

[11:52] 25. That's when it was actually awarded to

[11:55] the city. The performance period for the phase one

[11:59] project began starts on 10 1 2025

[12:04] and runs through 9 30 2028. During that period around October of

[12:10] 2025, we were approached by the representative of the Texas Parks and

[12:16] Wildlife program and encouraged to apply for phase two of

[12:21] Little Creek Park project during the 2025

[12:25] consideration of applications. We submitted that. We

[12:31] were not awarded phase two. Our plans We didn't begin construction in 2025

[12:37] because we were told go ahead and apply and then you do construction at one

[12:40] time. Get better bids. Everything's done at

[12:43] once. Save on engineering costs and everything.

[12:46] We submitted that. We were notified in earlier this year that we were not

[12:51] awarded phase two. So, that kind of went out the window and

[12:58] so we got back with the grant and decided to go ahead and start

[13:03] planning just to do phase one. Good news is is that they have actually started on

[13:10] the design on phase one. They were here Saturday doing surveying at the park.

[13:15] Identifying where everything was going to be.

[13:18] The design period will be approximately four to six months. At which time once

[13:24] that's done, um, they will bring the preliminary design

[13:29] to council and we'll have a public meeting and everybody give their public

[13:33] comment about that. If y'all want anything changed, you can tell them,

[13:37] they'll change that. Um, they'll take that back. Two months later, they will

[13:42] start going out for bid on the actual, uh, construction of of the park project.

[13:50] Uh, I've got a map for y'all's purposes here to kind of take a look at what has

[13:55] actually been going to be done and what is actually going to be cut. Um,

[14:02] and as you can kind of see that that we've gone back basically just to some

[14:07] shade structures and to relocating the, um, playground equipment from, um,

[14:15] uh, down by the tennis courts to up by the splash pad, which makes a whole lot

[14:20] more sense. And, um,

[14:23] that will be, uh, um, you know, they kids can run from the

[14:27] playground to the splash pad. That just makes it a lot of sense.

[14:31] Um, and then they'll be adding a couple of shade structures, but that'll be all

[14:35] that's in phase one. Now, we've been encouraged to reapply possibly this next

[14:41] year for phase two. Phase two included the, uh, resurfacing of the basketball

[14:47] courts, resurfacing of the tennis courts, and also, um,

[14:53] um, the amphitheater. Um,

[14:57] we'll we'll see how that goes. We'll apply and see see how that goes out, but

[15:01] we're not going to slow down the construction on these,

[15:04] uh, and wait another, um, you know, period of time. Um, we're

[15:09] going to go ahead and get this playground built as rapidly as possible.

[15:14] So, that's kind of where we're at, um, with grants, I think it's important for

[15:18] the public to understand that it is not unusual to write a grant

[15:23] and uh, and then finally see the money 3 years

[15:28] later. Cartel and Arrington is a perfect

[15:31] example of that. We actually wrote the grant for car that

[15:35] was actually submitted in September of 2021.

[15:39] We finished the project, completed the project. Um

[15:45] and that's everything. All the finances going back in in March of 2026.

[15:51] So, that's the that's federal grant money and this is federal grant money

[15:56] and this is it just it doesn't happen fast. I'm sorry. I wish it yeah, I wish

[16:00] it did, but there's a whole lot of hoops to jump through and it just takes time.

[16:05] The the the thing to know here is that on the Little Creek Park, we have until

[16:10] 9:30 2028 to finish this project. This will be finished sometime in 2027.

[16:19] So, I want to bring everybody up to speed on

[16:22] that. Anybody have any questions on it?

[16:26] » Not on that. I got a I got a separate question. You probably answer this

[16:29] pretty quick. Um I got a the email from the TDA go about

[16:33] the Oscar. About that

[16:35] that What was that grant for? Did we get that

[16:39] or did we not get that? >> That that was a that was a C that was

[16:43] still working on that CDBG project. >> Well, it said something about how

[16:47] you had to fill out the Oscar in order to get the Oscar or something or

[16:51] » The Oscar close out documentation. That was about

[16:54] our audit. >> Okay.

[16:56] » And the Oscar has to do with if you receive more than $500,000 in 1 year

[17:02] uh of federal funds, it has to it has to be audited. We didn't receive more than

[17:07] $500,000, so we're exempt from that. But you you you

[17:11] » I didn't read into it. It just said something about it was going to be on

[17:13] hold. I I hardly we read through those, but that one just kind of struck down. I

[17:18] didn't know if >> And if your funding would be on hold.

[17:21] But I think we've received all the payments on that grant already.

[17:25] But future funding would be on hold, but that's been taken care of.

[17:28] » That's a perfect example though. The closeout was

[17:33] » March. Yeah.

[17:36] Yeah. And it's you're dealing

[17:39] with federal money, you're dealing not just with the feds, but you're also

[17:43] dealing with the state agency that handles the money for the feds. So, it's

[17:47] triple layer of bureaucracy. And it's just jumping through a whole

[17:51] lot of hoops. So, um

[17:54] and even on our criminal justice grants, it takes a while.

[17:59] And there's a lot of paperwork, Leah. Is that not correct?

[18:03] Even if it's a $10,000 grant.

[18:14] Can't think of anything.

[18:18] We'll call it in. >> Motion to adjourn.

[18:20] » Motion to adjourn? >> Second.

[18:24] » 6:21. Motion

[18:27] to adjourn.

[18:54] » Thanks, Mark. >> Okay.

[18:56] » We'll see you.

City Council Meeting, August 10, 2026

Transcript