[1:12] In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, we ask, amen, amen, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice, sir.

[1:38] Well, good evening. Do we have any recognitions? Mayor, folks, I just want to recognize our animal shelter again. For the 94% no kill rate and there were awarded this test. We

[1:54] I know we recognize them on our Thursday meeting typically on Tuesday, but it was important for our mayor to be able to be present whenever we did recognize them.

[2:03] So I just want to give another recognition to them. Amen. I remember a few years ago.

[2:09] I don't remember who was in conversation with, but I was, I'd really like our shelter to be a no-kill.

[2:14] And it's really nice to see that we got there. So big shout out to the folks that work at the animal shelter.

[2:21] Absolutely. Okay, our consent calendars next.

[2:28] We have excused absences, Mayor Charles

[2:31] Starns and Council Member Rodriguez. We have the minutes, May 7th, May 12th, May 21st, June 9th,

[2:39] 18th, July 9th, and 10th. And then the financial reports

[2:45] and the quarterly investment reports.

[2:56] Ask for any public comment on our consent calendar.

[3:03] Seeing none, I'll ask for a motion.

[3:05] Mr. Chairman, I move that we adopt the consent calendar as presented by Council Member

[3:12] House.

[3:13] Second.

[3:14] By Council Member Rescone, are there any council comments?

[3:20] All in favor?

[3:23] Mr. Mayor, we have a vote of six.

[3:25] Okay, item four, our chief building official, Mr. Mines.

[3:42] There we go.

[3:44] Keep forgetting to check.

[3:46] All right, we have a request for special use permit at 808 west 5th.

[3:51] This is for ZZ amusement.

[3:55] All amusement game rooms do require a special use permit within the city limits planning.

[4:02] 808 is the black building that is right in the middle.

[4:05] This row of buildings is all owned by the same owner, and it goes 808 or excuse me, 866

[4:12] through 810th.

[4:16] This is the floor plan that the owners has provided for us.

[4:20] The building comes up with a little less than 1,000 square foot, around 9.50.

[4:28] It is in the general commercial zone, has required by ordinance.

[4:34] And it is more than 300 foot to the nearest church school daycare.

[4:40] So I mean, it's close, but it is over 300 feet.

[4:48] The required parking will be 10 spaces.

[4:50] They do have available parking on several sides of the building.

[4:56] After our last meeting, I went back and looked at the parking again.

[5:01] It isn't existing parking lot, and we will require that they strap the 10 parking spaces.

[5:10] And you can see it's the second building, so there is paved parking on most of it.

[5:18] That isn't a dedicated alley on the on the top side, the backside of the building.

[5:27] This case went for the Planning and Zoning Board on May 28th of this year.

[5:33] They did approve this for a recommendation to the council.

[5:38] And staff recommendation is to approve the special use permit.

[5:44] Thank you.

[5:46] Is there any public comment regarding the special use permit?

[5:53] I don't see any.

[5:54] So I will ask for a motion mayor

[6:01] protein. I move that we adopt resolution

[6:06] number

[6:08] I'm sorry ordinance number

[6:11] 26-37

[6:14] 88 on the second reading is there a second?

[6:21] Okay

[6:22] Motion by councilmember house

[6:25] Second by and I'm just going to say Mary Elizabeth because I don't know what your new last name is

[6:31] Are

[6:35] there any counsel comments?

[6:38] Yes, sir.

[6:42] First of all, I apologize for missing this on Thursday.

[6:46] I have a little difficulty with all these game rooms.

[6:49] I drive down Fifth Street and I see them one after the other.

[6:52] Now, for anybody out there that doesn't believe how these businesses operate,

[6:59] let me enlighten you a little bit.

[7:02] I go to a lot of houses and I talk to a lot of people.

[7:07] You have drinking going on in there.

[7:10] They're giving away gifts.

[7:12] It might be a stuff toy, it might be a gift card, it might be little tear cards who cares

[7:17] what they are.

[7:18] Now we're going out back and we're trading those items for cash.

[7:25] And we have so little enforcement here, we don't have enough staff to oversee all this

[7:33] stuff that's going on.

[7:35] But if anybody wants to talk to me after this meeting, I'll take exactly where to start.

[7:41] But I'm very opposed to this.

[7:43] I'm, to be honest with you, I like going to Vegas.

[7:46] I'm not taking people's games away.

[7:49] We're just crowding playing with you with it.

[7:51] And if it was such an

[7:56] industry that was advantageous

[7:58] to plain view, why did Lubbock outlaw them all in city limits?

[8:04] You can find them in the exterior out in the county.

[8:08] But they outlawed them in Lubbock

[8:09] because they got tired of having to fight them and enforce them.

[8:12] So what do we do?

[8:13] We invited them here.

[8:14] We're trying to grow this community.

[8:16] We're trying to give our citizens a clean, decent place to live.

[8:19] And I don't think this is the route we should be taking.

[8:22] Totally against this.

[8:24] But anybody wants to talk to me afterwards?

[8:27] I'll enlighten you on what's going on.

[8:28] And I know it to be true.

[8:30] Anyways, that's what I got to say.

[8:32] Thank you.

[8:33] Thank you very much.

[8:36] Mr. Mies, how many special use permits do we have right now for game rooms?

[8:42] Right now I have one active and I've got five pending.

[8:49] I've got two that are actually in construction.

[8:55] now so they can qualify for the special use permit. But I actually have five that are seeking them and we have how many in plain view right now.

[9:08] Legal one illegal. Now you have you have you have the one on I 27 and 70 with a big green sign.

[9:19] And you come down Fifth Street and you've got one or two more right there, the game rooms

[9:23] that have been approved.

[9:25] You've got the one right here on Fifth and Columbia, on that corner store that's been

[9:31] approved.

[9:32] So you've got three, four, five of them, I think, that's been approved.

[9:36] No, sir.

[9:36] They've got the game room written right on the front of them.

[9:38] I have one that is approved by this ordinance, and this ordinance says that any existing game

[9:47] room at the time of its ordinance is got six months to come into compliance. So that

[9:53] makes all of them save the one that has a current special use permit illegal. And that's

[10:00] every convenient store that has a game room. But you all passed. You all passed the happy

[10:06] stuff. That's the game room right there. They got passed through here. It was in the newspaper.

[10:11] I read it. And then you go down a little ways on Fist Street. There's another one that's

[10:16] game room that got passed because it was in the newspaper and this latest one was in the

[10:21] newspaper. So I mean I don't know if we're just skipping over something here but if the

[10:28] newspaper's posting that the council is voting on these I think the newspapers incorrect

[10:35] I've only ever voted on one. Just one. And that is the one if they're not coming into compliance

[10:43] and we're going to enforce this.

[10:45] Yes, we've already sent letters out

[10:47] to more than 15 different entities telling them

[10:51] that they are out of compliance

[10:53] because they're all over this time.

[10:55] What is the next step after the letter?

[10:58] The next letter is enforcement.

[11:00] They do not have a certificate of occupancy

[11:02] to operate the game rooms.

[11:04] And so we'll send them a letter of cease and desist.

[11:09] And after that, we can send fines.

[11:12] And then if that doesn't work, then we turn it over to our legal department.

[11:18] Yeah, because worst case scenario if we wanted to go there, you could actually pull their CEO and issue the business down.

[11:24] Well, mine is not opposed to anybody trying to feed their family.

[11:29] I'll never be opposed to that, but I'm opposed to how this is happening in our community.

[11:36] That's how I'm opposed to that we don't have the staff to enforce as many of these things

[11:41] that are popping up around town.

[11:43] That's my bigger thing.

[11:45] We don't have enough staff to enforce them properly.

[11:54] I have a question I think it's going to be for Matt, because I thought that we went through

[11:59] this when this first came up, when the first game room came in into town and applied, this

[12:04] This was the route we had to go and we changed our ordinance to fit it because there were

[12:10] several other cities that were sued and lost.

[12:13] These game room owners sued these cities and lost.

[12:16] So am I missing something is Lubbock right for a lawsuit then if they got an ordinance that

[12:20] bans it?

[12:21] Mayor Brotten, my understanding is that Lubbock County is currently in litigation over their

[12:26] game room regulations.

[12:28] My recommendation would be that we bring this back as an agenda item in a future council

[12:33] meeting.

[12:33] So that we can have a more complete discussion.

[12:39] Okay, so what do we do with this one?

[12:42] What's already been motioned and we're already there?

[12:45] Do we go along and finish what we're doing

[12:48] and either approve or not approve?

[12:50] Yes, sir.

[12:51] What is the legality if we vote no?

[12:58] The city's ability to regulate these game rooms,

[13:00] it is a gray area.

[13:02] It's something that I'm hopeful as a legislature

[13:04] will step in and fix during this next session.

[13:07] The city does have some authority, but the extent of that authority is at this point somewhat unknown, but I think that you could vote to either approve or deny the special use permit.

[13:21] Okay, so let's see if I can do this.

[13:24] So, I'm going to make a motion to amend the motion, I'm going to move that we not approve

[13:33] the special use permit at this time until we get further information.

[13:39] Okay.

[13:40] I have a second.

[13:41] It is.

[13:42] We have a motion and a second on the floor currently.

[13:45] Right.

[13:46] Correct.

[13:46] So, we need action on that motion first.

[13:49] So, we need to act and so we either need to go, yes or no on that motion.

[13:53] Right.

[13:53] Okay. All right, so were there are there any more council comments?

[14:01] Yes. How often are we checking our game rooms for compliance?

[14:06] Because I know we're short staff. We have talked about this at length.

[14:10] And I know right now the one I voted on, we only have one.

[14:13] Yes. But you said you have 15 letters that's a lot to keep up with.

[14:18] That is a lot to keep up with.

[14:19] So do we know how far like are we moving into a second letter?

[14:23] The game room that is in compliance several times.

[14:27] We've already addressed them on window 10 and some other things.

[14:32] And they've been forthcoming, but do I have the staff to constantly check game rooms?

[14:39] No, I do not.

[14:41] How are we following up on the letters?

[14:44] Is it, do you wait 30 days?

[14:46] I have to give them 30 days notice.

[14:48] in the next one of the last and then all these other game rooms are you are you talking

[14:55] about all the convenience stores they have all the games in them yes because

[15:00] More than one, our ordinance states two or more, you know, they have to meet the ordinance. So what is this letter basically saying that they need to go down to one or any at all? We don't, we don't tell them what decision they make. We tell them what the requirements are. And then we tell them where in the ordinance to find those statutes. And then they make their decision. And then at the bottom of the letter, we tell them they really need to get in touch with us. That way we can, we can talk about

[15:29] their particular situation because depending on the design of the building it may be impossible

[15:36] for them to meet the ordinance. They may have to, well like today, I had a lady come in

[15:41] and talk to me about redesigning the floor plan of their building. It is possible but they're

[15:47] going to take a large portion of their sales floor out of their convenience store because

[15:52] there's no one under the age of 18 can enter a game room.

[16:00] I can only give them the requirements.

[16:02] I can't tell them how to go about meeting them.

[16:07] And with this new game room that's here at SpinLocal,

[16:10] have you had any complaints or any issues,

[16:15] criminal activities that you know of?

[16:17] No, aware of.

[16:18] No, we've had complaints, but no legitimate complaints.

[16:21] And nothing that we as a code enforcement officer

[16:24] can address.

[16:25] Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yes. I'm not sure if this question needs to be directed to you or Chief Watson, but have we had any

[16:36] excessive calls to these game rooms?

[16:41] Chief Watson.

[16:43] Okay. Thank you.

[16:50] Any more council comments?

[16:54] Okay. All in favor.

[16:59] Here, pertain, we have vote of two four.

[17:02] And all against.

[17:03] Four against.

[17:10] Okay item number five. Our city manager.

[17:21] Mayor Proton council item number five we have is termination of line barter collections agreement.

[17:28] This is a agreement that has been we've had this since 2003 and items six and seven will pursue after this but just this one is the termination of line barter collection agreements.

[17:46] Okay, are there any, I'm sorry, I was zoned for a second thinking about the last item.

[17:53] Are there any public comments concerning, terminating agreement with the line barger, this law firm?

[18:03] Seeing none, I'll take a motion.

[18:05] Mr. Mayor Brotam, I move that we terminate the contract with on barger.

[18:12] moved by council member house. Seconded by council member Williams. Are there any

[18:21] council comments or questions?

[18:27] All in favor?

[18:32] Okay. Thank you. We'll move to item number six.

[18:38] Item number six is in line with Texas Code of Government's 22-54.1036, just

[18:46] stating that we as a city still need a contingent fee somebody to provide a legal collection

[18:53] service.

[18:56] The last one.

[18:57] Are there any public comments concerning our contingency fee findings?

[19:04] I'll ask for motion.

[19:07] Mr. Mayor Pro Tem, I make a motion that we approve section 2254.1036 of the government

[19:16] code.

[19:20] Second.

[19:20] All right, move it by Council Member Escon and seconded by Council Member Garcia. Any council comments?

[19:29] Basically, this is just a we no longer have one because we just terminated them. We need one correct

[19:35] So and then the next one in line is going to be here. We're going to get one

[19:38] All right

[19:41] I can see easy day all in favor. So said so done

[19:47] Thank you all right

[19:49] Okay. Item number seven.

[19:50] All right. Item number seven, we're making this easy.

[19:52] We're cruising through this.

[19:54] Item number seven is the approval

[19:55] of Purdue Brand and Collections Agreement.

[19:58] This is the contingency fee agreement

[20:00] to collect legal services.

[20:03] Currently, I think we stayed the last time.

[20:05] It's 2.5, a little north of 2.5 million

[20:07] in collection fees that we currently have since 1903.

[20:13] How much of that is actually collectible?

[20:21] And so we do have representation, they have been consistently here through this agreement.

[20:31] I have Jonathan.

[20:33] I can't, if any of you want to make a public comment or have anything to add to that.

[20:43] Okay, I'll take a public comment regarding Purdue, Brandon and Purdue,

[20:47] Pardue, Brandon, Fielder and Collins and Mont taking over our collections.

[20:56] Seeing none, I'll ask for a motion.

[20:59] Mayor Pro Tem, I would move that we approve a contingent fee contract with Pardue,

[21:03] Brandon, Fielder, Collins, and Mont, LLP.

[21:06] Second.

[21:07] Move by Council Member William, Seconded by Council Member House, are there any council comments?

[21:13] Yes, sir.

[21:16] 1903, are these ever written off?

[21:19] We do not, maybe for the gentleman in the audience, but is it legal to write them off

[21:26] at some point?

[21:32] Oh, I guess.

[21:33] Man, yeah.

[21:34] I'm certain there are some statute of limitations on these, and I think your odds of collecting

[21:38] a debt from 1903 are slimmed in that.

[21:40] I think it's less than zero, yes.

[21:45] Do we have any idea how much we get to collect, because I'm guaranteeing we're not collecting

[21:50] from 1903?

[21:51] Jackie, do you have any numbers that you want to provide?

[21:54] I don't

[22:08] think I'm back, do you plan to use it?

[22:13] Okay.

[22:14] With the duty and local, there have been access, like, the JP uses food.

[22:20] So if they have to bring the JP, they'll also be able to use it.

[22:25] Yeah.

[22:25] That's nice.

[22:26] Yeah.

[22:27] Jackie's been a very good, huge advocate for efficiency,

[22:30] and planning to give some of the innovative ways that she's brought to my attention,

[22:34] and this being one of them, she's been able to identify ways

[22:38] that we can collect and definitely appreciate that,

[22:40] just someone who appreciates efficiency.

[22:43] Well, to take us away from 1903, I just want to say,

[22:48] I appreciate your presence here as often as we have sat

[22:51] down to discuss this, you guys have been here,

[22:53] and that actually means a whole lot to me.

[22:55] It shows me how invested you are in our community

[22:58] and in our program here.

[23:00] Amen.

[23:01] I do have a question without going into very deep detail.

[23:06] What is the collection process that you guys go through?

[23:10] Is it like letters, phone calls, letters again, phone calls, and then write off?

[23:15] Or how, just give us a little synopsis of the collection program that you have in place.

[23:21] I

[23:36] can move up here.

[23:43] Once it gets churned over to us, then we start our process of collection at that point.

[23:48] and any time you're trying to collect anything,

[23:51] the most valuable thing you have is somebody's location.

[23:55] As you can imagine, a lot of these people move around a lot.

[23:58] We use the address that's initially turned over to us,

[24:01] the information that we have.

[24:02] If we discover that that address is no longer good,

[24:05] then we continue to try to find a new address,

[24:08] and we continue that process until we locate the defendant.

[24:11] And once we locate the defendant,

[24:13] we will continue to send letters,

[24:15] will make phone calls. We also have text messages as well. And so oddly enough, we all get those text messages all the time from various things, sometimes they look like they're from real entities or real companies and sometimes you can tell that they're not.

[24:32] And when we started the text messaging we thought, well, is everybody just going to look at and say this is spam?

[24:38] And the good thing about it is, is oftentimes the defendant will think, well, maybe it's

[24:45] spam, but maybe I shouldn't ignore it, too.

[24:48] And so they'll pick up the phone and call the court and say, hey, I got this text message.

[24:51] And is this real?

[24:53] And yeah, it's real.

[24:54] You owe that money.

[24:55] Okay.

[24:55] Well, how can I pay that?

[24:56] So the text messaging has been very effective.

[25:00] And we hope that it continues to be effective.

[25:03] But to answer your question, our address research is a big thing, you know, once we discover

[25:09] that we don't have a good address, if we send something out and it comes back, then

[25:14] we look for something else.

[25:16] Essentially, I guess putting it the simplest way I can is we continue to try to collect

[25:22] on it until the court tells us to stop.

[25:27] So yeah, I mean that helps and it sounds like you've got a skip tracing program in place.

[25:33] And I think that we appreciate y'all being local and we understand our staff likes it.

[25:40] You know that you're just a phone call and down the road from us and appreciate y'all's

[25:45] coming on board.

[25:47] Absolutely.

[25:47] And that's always been very important to our firm throughout the 15 main offices that

[25:52] that we have across the state and it's the same for our

[25:55] Emerald Office and our Lubbock Office.

[25:57] We can do a lot of things over the phone and through email,

[26:00] but the most important thing is for everyone to see us.

[26:04] So we'll come into the office and we'll make sure that we answer

[26:08] any questions that we can and the funny thing is it's sometimes

[26:12] people won't tell you everything you need to know until

[26:15] you're sitting down across from a desk and all of a sudden

[26:17] you realize, okay, I realize what we need to do now.

[26:20] Right.

[26:22] Thanks, sir.

[26:23] Thank you.

[26:24] Can I answer any other questions?

[26:26] I'll go.

[26:26] I've got one.

[26:27] I want to just say at the start, I appreciate you being local as well and having care and investment

[26:35] in our community.

[26:37] That means a lot to me, and I know it does the citizens are playing to you.

[26:41] My question is, I know that there's diminishing your return as you go through time.

[26:49] What kind of, without getting it to a whole lot of detail,

[26:51] I don't need a graph for anything.

[26:55] But what kind of collection rate do you have on something

[26:58] that's six months old versus a year old versus five years old,

[27:03] versus 10 years old, something like that?

[27:05] I don't have the exact figures on that.

[27:07] Roughly.

[27:08] I can tell council members today that the newer it is,

[27:14] the better the chance of collecting it.

[27:16] Yeah.

[27:17] However, at times, we are surprised when we have an old one that we've been trying to collect

[27:22] on for quite some time.

[27:23] All of a sudden, we were able to get a hold of that defendant in one way or the other

[27:27] and it gets collected.

[27:29] So the newer stuff, you know, you probably have a higher percentage of that, but that doesn't

[27:36] mean that some of the older stuff can be collected.

[27:38] Okay.

[27:39] Okay.

[27:39] Thank you very much.

[27:40] But if you'd like to percentage, I'd be happy to figure that out and bring it back to the

[27:45] council if you'd like. I just remember being in business myself years ago that that a 30-day

[27:52] old account is you know reasonably collectible 60-day account is less less likely and you go through

[28:00] time and it gets down to 20 or 30 percent pretty quick. So I just I was just curious I I appreciate

[28:08] the job and I'll leave that to you so I'd say that the 1904 account that we have I don't know

[28:15] that we have any likely to collect it probably not it's probably no longer with us but probably not

[28:22] thank you very much thank you any other questions that I can answer well thank you for having us

[28:29] and letting us come and speak to the council for the I guess third time we have come back anytime

[28:35] I mean, like a statement.

[28:36] Thank you.

[28:37] All right, all in favor.

[28:39] Mayor Pro Tem, we have a vote of 6-4.

[28:43] OK, item 8, Mr. Chancellor, presentation

[28:47] on our utility rates, study results, and the recommendations.

[28:52] All right.

[28:54] This one is just an introduction from me.

[28:57] Today we have with us Chris Eckert from Nugin Solutions,

[29:00] who will present in depth the City of Plenty

[29:04] of you rate study that we have done over this past year.

[29:07] And this covers a lot of the capital improvement

[29:10] that we have coming up.

[29:11] Kind of the 1,000-pound grill in the room

[29:16] is obviously a current wall that is covered in this as well,

[29:19] but it won't still too much of a slender, Chris.

[29:22] Sure.

[29:26] Well, thank you so much.

[29:27] Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem.

[29:28] Council, Chris Eckert with New Gen Strategies and Solutions.

[29:31] It is a pleasure to be with you tonight.

[29:33] I was fortunate to be with you virtually last Thursday,

[29:35] but it really is nice to be here in person with you this evening.

[29:39] I'm actually from the area. I grew up in Marlboro, so anytime I can get back to the panhandle I always enjoy that opportunity.

[29:46] So again, I appreciate the chance to be here tonight and talk you through the results and the process of the water, wastewater and solid waste rate study.

[29:57] As we start tonight, though, I do want to kind of frame

[30:00] And this out for you, set the table, if you will, anytime that we are talking about the utility system. We have to remember that utilities are tracked in what's called a proprietary or enterprise fund within governmental accounting. That fund type is reserved for business type activities of government. So while we are providing a service to our citizens, we are also running a business for a business to be successful. It has to do certain things.

[30:27] First and foremost, we have to be in what I refer to as a revenue sufficient position.

[30:33] Our revenues must match or exceed our expenses.

[30:36] So that's one of the things we look at in a rate study.

[30:39] The second thing we do is we look at your reserve position.

[30:42] We have to make sure that we don't run around with zero dollars in the bank account.

[30:48] Particularly when you look at the water business during the winter,

[30:51] our revenues are lower during the summer, our revenues are higher.

[30:54] So we have a variable revenue stream, but within the utility business we also are very

[30:59] fixed cost intensive.

[31:02] So we can generally have 70, 80% of our cost is fixed cost that's occurring year round.

[31:07] And so we need to make sure that we have adequate working capital and adequate reserves so

[31:13] that we can sustain our business.

[31:16] So we look at that reserve position as well.

[31:18] Third thing we have to do in the utility business is we have to think about reinvesting

[31:23] in our business, putting back into our business.

[31:26] We have pipes, plants, pumps, all of those things break down over time.

[31:31] And often these are big dollar items.

[31:33] You can't just run down to the hardware store and pull something off the shelf.

[31:37] We may have to special order these items.

[31:39] These are expensive items that we're talking about.

[31:42] So we have to plan for that capital investment,

[31:44] and we need to reinvest in our business.

[31:47] Utilities tend to be out of sight, out of mind, right?

[31:50] We don't think about it, we go, we turn the faucet on, we flush the toilet, we don't think about that until the water doesn't come out or the wastewater doesn't go away.

[32:00] So it's important we stay on top of this and that's one of the reasons I'm with you tonight is your capital plan going forward.

[32:06] You have significant reinvestment that you're ready to make into the utility system and we need to plan for that going forward.

[32:14] So, as we talk about the utilities tonight, I do want you to keep those elements in mind

[32:19] because we will be hitting on those as we go forward.

[32:23] On the water and wastewater side, just high level as we've looked out into the future.

[32:28] If you incur the cost increases that we anticipate you're going to incur, if you fund that capital

[32:33] plan, it is our projection right now that your current rates would be insufficient.

[32:39] At that point, your expenses would exceed your revenues.

[32:42] One of the things we also want to make sure that we monitor and watch is a metric that

[32:46] we call debt service coverage.

[32:48] What we're looking at here is once you pay your operating expenses, we look at the revenue

[32:53] left over and we compare that to your debt service payment.

[32:57] We want to make sure that we are slightly above what that debt service payment is.

[33:02] This is important to maintain an adequate debt service coverage because this affects your

[33:06] credit rating.

[33:07] If you have to go to the bond market to raise capital to invest in infrastructure, you need to make sure you have a good credit rating.

[33:17] That good credit rating will lead to a lower overall cost of borrowing.

[33:22] So we want to make sure that we monitor that debt service coverage going forward.

[33:26] As I said before, $22 million in capital improvements is what we have going forward.

[33:31] As we look at those capital improvements, those are plant improvements, those are lift station improvements.

[33:37] Again, these are not small dollar items that we're looking at.

[33:41] I believe the lift station alone, I want to say, I've got it at the end of the presentation here,

[33:46] but I believe that's about $5 million just in the lift station alone.

[33:50] So these are big dollar items that we're looking at going forward.

[33:54] In addition to your capital investment, I want to talk about your wholesale water purchases from

[34:00] and Canadian River Municipal Water Authority, Cremois.

[34:03] This is a great resource to the community.

[34:06] You have done a fantastic job planning

[34:09] for your water needs.

[34:12] Water's essential to life, we have to have it.

[34:14] And so the city's done a very good job relative

[34:17] to your water supply.

[34:18] Cremois is in the process right now of planning

[34:20] for its next unit of water supply.

[34:24] It's estimated that will come online sometime

[34:26] in the 2030 Decadal period.

[34:28] But again, when you're thinking about water supply, that's not something that we can go out in just in 12 months, we can create water.

[34:36] It doesn't work that way, it takes time to go through that process.

[34:40] And so we're planning for that now, just as we have expensive capital improvements, this next unit of water will also be expensive.

[34:48] So we are now, we are starting to plan for that now as we look into the future.

[34:53] And so at the bottom of the, but bottom of the screen here, what you see is a table that shows what that cost of water is from crem wall.

[35:00] We calculated what that cost of water is per thousand gallons.

[35:05] We want to make sure on our rate structure that we're not selling water for less than it cost us to buy that water.

[35:13] So that's one of the things we monitor within this plan.

[35:15] Again, looking at those year-over-year increases, you see those are fairly significant as

[35:20] Cremwell starts to plan for that next unit of supply, but I also want to look at that

[35:25] very bottom line, that percent of water budget.

[35:28] That's what Cremwell represents of your overall water budget.

[35:31] Right now, that's about 23%.

[35:34] We estimate that will continue to grow into the future.

[35:38] So again, the two drivers of our recommendations really are your capital improvement plan, as

[35:43] as well as the cost of water going forward.

[35:48] Coming back to that capital improvement plan again,

[35:50] you see that big spike there in 2027

[35:52] with the different projects,

[35:54] the plant projects, the list station projects,

[35:56] everything that we've got going on there in 27.

[36:00] That is one of the drivers as we look going forward.

[36:03] This is a hill that we have to climb.

[36:05] You'll notice in our plan,

[36:07] we've tried to spread this out as best we can.

[36:10] We want to practice what we call rate gradualism

[36:12] and prevent rate shock.

[36:14] But you're going to see there's a, you know, there's a mountain we've got to get through here in the first few years of the plan, all associated with those capital improvements.

[36:25] So looking at that anticipated financial performance, I want to start by looking at the bottom of the screen here, that revenue sufficiency chart.

[36:32] That gray bar, that's your projected expenses going forward for the water and wastewater utility combined.

[36:38] that line going across there, that is your projected revenue stream under your current rates.

[36:44] Anytime that bar goes above the line, we're in a revenue insufficient position.

[36:48] So we want to monitor that, we want to get back to revenue sufficiency with rate adjustments going forward.

[36:54] In the upper left hand corner there, you see fund balance. You're in a good reserve position right now.

[37:00] If we engaged in our capital plan, if we incurred those costs, those reserves would run out fairly quickly.

[37:08] So, again, you've done a great job planning for the financial stability of the utility.

[37:12] We want to continue that going forward by maintaining that reserve position.

[37:17] Upper right hand corner, that's the estimated debt service coverage if you engaged those

[37:22] cost, but did not adjust rates, obviously we would be in an insufficient debt service coverage

[37:28] position as well.

[37:29] So, all three of these elements point to, we need some adjustment to water and sewer rates

[37:34] going forward, and that leads into our plan.

[37:38] As we look at the actual design of your rates themselves, right now you charge a flat rate for all meter sizes, regardless of you have a 4-inch meter, 2-inch meter, 5-8-inch meter, 8-inch meter doesn't matter. You have the same fixed charge.

[37:53] What we see in the industry and what we recommend is that you charge more for larger meters. Why is that?

[37:59] But when you think about that meter, the size of that meter, that dictates the demand

[38:04] you can place on the system.

[38:06] If you can place more demand on the system, it causes the city to incur more cost because

[38:11] you have to install the infrastructure to meet that demand.

[38:15] So this comes back to basic cost causation.

[38:18] We're recommending that you adjust this structure going forward, charge those larger meters more

[38:23] to reflect the impact they have on the system.

[38:26] When we look at your volumetric rate blocks, we always recommend some level of standardization

[38:32] there.

[38:32] They're not standardized right now.

[38:34] We've built that into our plan going forward.

[38:37] We also want to standardize the differential between your inside city customers and outside

[38:41] city customers.

[38:42] You don't have a lot of outside city customers, but we do want to standardize that differential

[38:47] and you're going to see that in our plan.

[38:49] Finally, we do right now charge commercial and residential the same fixed charge.

[38:54] We're adjusting that within our plan, it is typical that there be different rates between residential and commercial and so that's what we captured going forward.

[39:03] Some of these same elements exist on the sewer side as well, just coming in and standardizing that inside, outside city limit differential,

[39:11] adjusting, making sure that all units pay the same rate, it's the same service, so we want to charge the same rate for that.

[39:18] And then again, creating that differential there between residential and commercial.

[39:22] So,

[39:25] as we look at those structural adjustments going forward, we do all of this over time.

[39:30] We phase into those larger meter sizes over five years.

[39:33] We standardize that differential over time both within the tiers as well as between

[39:38] in city and outside city customers.

[39:42] The same is also true for that residential and commercial charges.

[39:46] All of that still applies on the sewer side as well, and we want to be careful.

[39:50] We want to do this gradually.

[39:51] We want to practice rate gradualism, we want to prevent rate shock where we can.

[39:59] The chart that you see on the screen right now are the table.

[40:01] This is really looking at the fixed component of our revenue stream and the variable component

[40:06] of our revenue stream.

[40:07] Why do we look at this?

[40:08] Well, it's important that we monitor what we refer to as the stability of our revenue

[40:13] stream.

[40:14] We want to make sure that regardless of the water that is used, that we are maintaining

[40:19] a certain level of income.

[40:21] You see right now here in 2027 for water, it would be about 55% through the fixed charges on the

[40:27] sewer side, 51%. So overall, about 53%. We are increasing this slightly going forward over

[40:35] the course of the plan. Why is that? The reason that we're doing that is because of that capital

[40:40] plan. Those 22 million dollars in capital improvements, we have to make sure that we can pay for

[40:46] those improvements going forward. So we are slightly increasing those fixed charges as we go

[40:52] forward as a percent of the overall revenue stream. Again, it's not significant, it's not large,

[40:59] but we are increasing that. We do want to be upfront with you as we look at that revenue stability

[41:04] going forward.

[41:08] So looking at our rate plan in terms of that anticipated financial performance, we go

[41:13] back to those same three charts. Our plan does get you to revenue sufficiency there by 2029. That's

[41:19] really what we're focused on.

[41:21] We maintain your reserve position.

[41:23] We also maintain that debt service coverage

[41:25] always at one point two are higher

[41:28] because we do want to put you in a good financial position

[41:31] in the event you have to access the capital markets

[41:33] and issue some debt.

[41:35] So again, overall that's important

[41:37] to maintaining your long-term position.

[41:39] But within that plan,

[41:41] we'll talk here about what the impact is

[41:43] to some of your customer groups.

[41:45] And I'm starting here with a 2000 gallon customer.

[41:48] Why do we use 2,000 gallons?

[41:51] Well 2,000 gallons represents generally a single user in a dwelling by themselves.

[41:58] This can sometimes be a fixed income customer.

[42:02] Sometimes this is our senior citizens and so we look at that 2,000 gallon level.

[42:07] But let me caution you, just because we have low volume use, that does not necessarily equate

[42:13] to ability to pay because you may have a family that is on public assistance.

[42:17] you know, four or five people in that family on public assistance.

[42:22] They are in a position that they can't pay, but their water use is higher.

[42:26] So we do want to be careful, as we talk about low volume being fixed income, that is not

[42:32] always the case, but we do use that benchmark here for those purposes.

[42:37] Right now, a 2000 gallon water and sewer bill, $55.74 under our rate plan, we'd recommend

[42:44] When you take that next year to $61.59, that's a $3.76 monthly increase in the water bill, $2.9 on the sewer charge, $5.85 overall.

[42:58] You do see we have provided you a projection into the future, that type of rate increase basically holds through 2029 and then we get into more of a maintenance period there by 2030.

[43:09] That being said, while I've provided you a projection into the future,

[43:14] rate setting is not a once in done exercise.

[43:16] We recommend that you look at this every year associated with your budget.

[43:21] You might be able to perform better than what we're anticipating.

[43:25] And as you look at this every year, you can make necessary adjustments

[43:28] reflective of what the utility needs in each year.

[43:32] So again, while I've tried to capture what the future looks like,

[43:35] you will be looking at this again or you need to look at this again with your budget.

[43:39] next year. So that's the 2000 gallon customer. Let me take you to the average customer,

[43:45] the average customer 5,000 gallons. 5,000 gallons water, 5,000 gallons waste water. This is the

[43:50] benchmark that we use for an average single family home. This is a house that's probably not going

[43:56] to have a swimming pool or anything like that, probably doing a little bit of yard watering,

[44:00] and that 5,000 gallons represents the monthly use over the course of the year that bill may be

[44:06] higher in the summer, lower in the winter. So this is the average over the course of a year

[44:12] at 5,000 gallons. $69.12. For 5,000 gallons of service right now, we're recommending you take

[44:18] that to $76.20. That's a $7.08 overall increase as you go into next year. Same trend we saw before,

[44:29] we have those basically steady increases through 2029 until we get into more of a maintenance period

[44:34] there by 2030-2031.

[44:40] So every council I'm in front of wants to know how do we look

[44:44] compared to everybody else and so I provide this information but every council I'm in front of

[44:49] I tell them the same thing. You have to be careful when you look at information like this.

[44:54] This is not apples to apples. Communities are different. They have different water sources or different

[44:59] water from

[45:00] There are different places in terms of their growth, there are different places in terms of their capital plan. So what you're seeing here is a comparable 2000 gallon bill in the communities listed on this chart. Again, right now you're right at that average level. We have you going slightly above the city of canyon here. However, right now every other community is going through this very same exercise as they go through budget.

[45:26] I'm showing you your future bill compared to everybody else's bill today.

[45:31] So if I rerun this in October or January, it will look different because communities are making these decisions right now, so please keep that in mind.

[45:40] But this is that 2,000 gallon bill.

[45:42] The next chart I have for you is that average bill, that 5,000 gallon.

[45:46] 6912, you're slightly below the average right now, that 7620 takes you slightly above the average.

[45:53] but you see where you fall. Again, this will change as we go forward and as communities take action.

[46:04] Looking now at your commercial bill, 167 is the monthly bill for 24,000 gallons of service,

[46:12] where we picked the 24,000 gallons is taking your entire commercial class

[46:16] divided by all of those commercial customers. So that's how we calculated that monthly average.

[46:22] which 160, 70 for 24,000 gallons of service,

[46:25] going to 187, 61 under our plan going forward.

[46:29] You are gonna see some higher increases here

[46:31] as we get further out into 2030 and 2031.

[46:35] Why is that?

[46:36] Well, these customers are using more water

[46:38] and so they will pay more.

[46:40] You have what we call an inclining block

[46:42] or conservation based rate structure.

[46:44] We're maintaining that structure under this plan.

[46:47] So those that use more water will pay more for water as well.

[46:54] On that commercial comparison looking at that 24,000 gallon bill again you see you sit towards not at the bottom of the list here

[47:01] but towards the bottom at the 160-70 going just slightly above that average position the 187-61 going forward.

[47:11] And so that's what we have for you on the water and sewer side.

[47:16] Would you like me to stop at this point and answer questions on water and sewer,

[47:20] or would it be better for me to walk through solid waste and then answer all questions together?

[47:24] What's your pleasure?

[47:26] I don't see any action on this.

[47:29] So we're not confined to the rules of motion and comments.

[47:35] What do you guys have any questions regarding water?

[47:42] Yeah, I have a question.

[47:45] So this is going to be an inclining ed, basically the same type of percentage increase here

[47:51] year until 2031. That's our recommendation. Again, you'll have to look at this every year

[47:58] and see what is ultimately needed. But that is our recommendation right now, yes, sir.

[48:02] Okay. And if we follow this plan, then capital, our capital reserves that we have in currently

[48:10] place will not be diminished and we will be able to service dead if necessary. Should we

[48:18] Should we need to?

[48:19] That's the plan, absolutely.

[48:22] And we'll put us in talking in business terms,

[48:26] that'll put us in a profitable position

[48:27] in our utility or enterprise fund.

[48:30] That's correct, yes, correct.

[48:32] Thank you.

[48:34] I do have a question, if I may.

[48:37] Regarding the rate studies and recommendations

[48:41] that you're making, I know that we're looking at to,

[48:46] probably looking at yearly going forward,

[48:48] is does your recommendation include the cost of water to the city as we go down, you know,

[48:57] throughout from now, from 27 on to 31?

[49:01] Yes, sir.

[49:01] This includes the cost of water, it includes the cost of your capital plan, it includes your current

[49:06] operations adjusted for inflation going forward.

[49:09] So this is the whole enchilada, everything has been included within our projection.

[49:13] Okay.

[49:14] Thank you.

[49:18] So I have a question with all of these projections. Does this include the new water field tie-in,

[49:26] the new water field tie-in that we're getting up in the northeast panhandle?

[49:30] Because at the very long, that's where the water field gets tied in. So that's included

[49:35] in this. And so whether we like it or not, we're fixing to incur this debt. And I see this

[49:43] turned out to be a lot more reasonable than I thought it was going to be. I know we start

[49:48] looking at $20, $22 over a five-year period of month and that's $242,250 a year when

[49:57] we talk about low income and our senior citizens, but if we don't make those investments, we're

[50:04] all going to get real thirsty real quick. So just so that the community knows why this has

[50:09] have been why we're having to do this. It's not by choice. It's by need. Well, you

[50:16] are definitely not the only community either here in the area or within the

[50:20] state going through this same discussion right now. Agreed. We do a lot of

[50:24] work in the central Texas area as well. They're under drought just like

[50:29] everyone else and the next unit of water supply is vastly more expensive than the

[50:34] unit of water supply was even 30, 40, 50 years ago.

[50:40] So it's a reality that we have to deal with.

[50:43] I'm pleased to hear you say that this came in more

[50:45] reasonable that you anticipated.

[50:47] If you do recognize these are some size of a link.

[50:49] Some size of a link.

[50:51] Well, they are, but the cost of getting water here

[50:54] is horrendous.

[50:55] Yes, sir.

[50:57] But would you rather spend another $240 a year

[51:02] or do you want to move, you want to be thirsty?

[51:05] That's your two choices.

[51:07] That is true.

[51:08] That is absolutely true.

[51:09] I don't like it anybody else.

[51:11] I'm almost a senior citizen.

[51:16] Me too.

[51:19] I have one other.

[51:20] Larry stole my thunder on one of them, but that's okay.

[51:26] We recognize the fact that water's limited in West Texas,

[51:30] in Texas in general.

[51:31] and I think we are fortunate to have a source that is also forward thinking to plan for our needs, and that is Grimoire.

[51:44] That is expensive.

[51:47] The only ones that have a concern about, a deep concern about, is those 2,000-gallon customers.

[51:59] customers. The senior citizens are the single families, the single mom and and her kids.

[52:08] But I think these are necessary for the overall protection of our community to make sure that we

[52:16] have adequate drinking water to provide to our citizens. And I know this is not probably not

[52:24] But I would like for us to at least think about as a council, maybe setting aside a fund

[52:30] to help some of those that are having trouble paying their bills in the future.

[52:34] I think it's going to be far less than what we anticipate.

[52:39] But we can remedy some of those things, you know, to soften the blow on those that are

[52:44] hit the hardest.

[52:48] I worked for Tyler Technologies for, that was where my career was at, and we did utility

[52:54] billing all over the country.

[52:57] We have very inexpensive water here in Texas, compared to other parts of the country.

[53:05] And in places where you would think that they have water all around them, but their water

[53:10] rates are high.

[53:12] And so once again, we don't like increases, we don't like, we don't like to talk about them.

[53:19] But I've shared the same sentiment with Larry out there, they're much more reasonable

[53:24] than anticipated.

[53:26] I think they're well thought out, very well designed, my compliments to you and how your

[53:33] strategic approach to this has been.

[53:38] So whatever problems this does come up with in the process, implementing this, I think we can remedy.

[53:47] Thank you very much.

[53:48] No, and that's, again, appreciate the comments, relative to customer assistance programs, those are very common.

[53:54] Would love to have the opportunity, if you decide to do some kind of customer assistance program,

[53:59] would love to have the opportunity to discuss that with you.

[54:01] There are some best management practices that we could consider in something along that lines, but again, that is a great consideration as you look at some of these increases, the other element that I would encourage the council to consider, is when you're looking at a customer assistance program, it's not just about money, it's also about helping people control their water use.

[54:22] So don't limit customer assistance programs to just money look at water audits look at helping with low flow toilets low flow shower heads other things like that

[54:33] Be creative and we'd love to help you with that

[54:36] Good point good point but one thing I would point out just piggyback on all this is if you look at your water in your sewer rate against your satellite bill your cable bill

[54:49] your cell phone bill, those are wants, we don't need those, but we definitely need

[54:59] the water. Good point, Larry, because councilman Williams, Mr. Martinis is waving

[55:07] his hand.

[55:11] We do public comments as well, Matt. Absolutely.

[55:14] Absolutely.

[55:15] I do have a couple of questions on your percentage increase.

[55:19] Is it the same percentage for everyone or is it going to be staggered or already mocked?

[55:27] It's staggered according to the usage of water where maintaining the inclining block rate

[55:31] going forward.

[55:32] So it's not necessarily the same percentage increase across the board.

[55:36] Also because we're going and adjusting that fixed charge for the larger meters, they are

[55:41] going to have a larger percentage increase than somebody that stays on a residential meter.

[55:45] So it is it is not fixed across the board. Okay, and then I know we I know council has discussed about

[55:55] Inreasonable that I don't think anyone in here is doing two thousand gallons

[56:01] Not the ones that are in here

[56:03] a lot more

[56:06] There's more than two of us living here, and I have an irrigation meter also and I do have cable

[56:15] internet and those things that I think we get to enjoy but if we do look at the

[56:21] people that are not everyone but the majority of the people that are in

[56:26] number of the people that are in 2000 or less they're not doing those things

[56:31] and I've been an advocate that we really need to take care of those single

[56:35] income families in our community. We do have to think where maybe those of you that

[56:42] have internet or bus that have internet, we can report to go in a little bit higher percentage

[56:49] because we're okay than those that are not. And I think that's something we have to consider.

[56:55] As this is plain view and we do want, I don't want people not to be able not to be flushing their

[57:01] toilets and not to be bathing because it did go above their face income that either so security or

[57:13] federal federal government, they're not going to raise them, or how much they're going to

[57:17] make. It does blame people enough on the rate. So I think that's something council that you

[57:23] would consider as you move forward. Yes, we are going to hurt 22 million with Kremlin, and we do

[57:31] have to take care of everyone. But I think the people that are spending those 10,000 gallons of water

[57:39] or a month, or I irrigated my irrigation meter

[57:43] and I want to eat irrigating twice,

[57:48] 18,000 gallons.

[57:51] And I pay for it.

[57:53] That's a luxury that I get to have because I'm doing those things.

[57:57] I think that we can pay a little bit extra in order

[58:01] to allow those that are single income that are not as fortunate

[58:05] as we are to be able to have one income to incomes

[58:08] or a bigger income for one person.

[58:12] So anyway, just to keep that in mind,

[58:14] as you guys move forward to city council,

[58:18] we do want to take care of all the citizens

[58:21] by providing water to everyone,

[58:23] but not everyone's in the same place.

[58:25] And thank you for the warmth.

[58:26] You guys are doing, we still have a look at solid waste

[58:29] and it's already an increase of 240 for that first level.

[58:33] So then you're doing solid waste

[58:35] and you know, at the fair, sales tax, it will go up, it will be more.

[58:41] So anyway, I just, that's my two cents, I happened to look at the agenda

[58:45] and I saw that today was going to be a utility increase.

[58:49] I said, I have to be there for this meeting.

[58:51] That way, if anyone asks me, why didn't you go up?

[58:55] I can say, hey, I spoke to me else before you have.

[58:59] It's because it's exciting.

[59:01] Anyway, thank you for the job you all are doing

[59:03] and thank you so much for your job here.

[59:05] Thank you.

[59:06] Thank you, Steve.

[59:07] Thank you, Steve.

[59:08] Exactly.

[59:10] Thank you, Steve.

[59:10] At least I'm down on that.

[59:12] We always appreciate your comments.

[59:16] Anything else on water and sewer before we move through solid waste?

[59:20] This will hopefully be a little easier, a little quicker to move through.

[59:24] Here you see kind of that projected solid waste cost going forward.

[59:28] We've broken that down so you can see all of those elements there.

[59:31] but the key thing I want you to focus on on solid waste is really the equipment

[59:35] replacement schedule relative to the solid waste utility going forward.

[59:40] It's not $22 million but we do have about $5 million in equipment that we need to

[59:44] look at and I really want to point you to that landfill line.

[59:47] As you look at landfill going forward, landfill operations are going to get more expensive.

[59:52] There is equipment needed for that and so that does place directly into our

[59:57] recommendations as we look at how we

[1:00:00] Just not only for residential and commercial, but how we adjust our gate fees at the landfill.

[1:00:06] So again, anticipated financial performance. On the left hand side, this is that revenue

[1:00:12] sufficiency chart. Again, our revenues are below where our expenses are. So we're in a

[1:00:17] revenue insufficient position. But looking at the right hand side, you are sitting on very

[1:00:22] healthy reserves in your solid waste fund right now. So again, my compliments to you is

[1:00:28] the council for the planning you've done and everything you've done to maintain the financial

[1:00:32] stability of your utilities.

[1:00:34] But what this allows us to do, it puts us in a position that we can slowly draw down

[1:00:39] on some of those reserves for that equipment replacement while we slowly bring rates up

[1:00:44] going forward.

[1:00:45] And that's going to help mitigate some of that impact to customers going forward.

[1:00:50] So with that, we are recommending some rate increases just like water and sewer.

[1:00:54] or these are more moderate in terms of your residential customers.

[1:00:58] We reach that sufficiency by 2031, but we don't ever fall below that minimum days cash

[1:01:05] on hand that we want to maintain, you'll see that table down below.

[1:01:09] We are drawing down on some of those reserves to help with that equipment replacement while

[1:01:13] we bring those fees up.

[1:01:16] And so with that, looking forward again, we do get you to a revenue sufficient position

[1:01:21] by 2031, we do draw down slightly on reserves going forward, we don't fall below that position.

[1:01:28] But again, this allows us a little more time to get to where we want to be while we mitigate that impact to customers.

[1:01:34] What we're recommending for your residential customers, this is all your residential customers.

[1:01:39] One container here, 1946, is that current bill.

[1:01:43] We're recommending a dollar and four cent increase going into next year, taking that to $20 in 50 cents.

[1:01:50] So, that's the residential adjustment.

[1:01:52] You see, beyond that, the adjustments less than a dollar a month every year going forward.

[1:01:59] We want to do this slowly over time and we've been able to achieve that.

[1:02:04] On that residential side, looking at those same cities that we compared to earlier, this is

[1:02:10] an interesting chart to me, because it shows that you are one of the most cost-effective solid

[1:02:15] ways providers within this area.

[1:02:18] Right now, you are at the very bottom of this chart, even with the recommended adjustment

[1:02:23] going into next year.

[1:02:24] You still sit at the very bottom of this chart for residential customers.

[1:02:29] So basically, we would align you with where Lubbock is right now.

[1:02:33] We don't know what these cities are going to do going into next year.

[1:02:36] So again, your position is not going to change on this chart.

[1:02:40] You will see others change going forward.

[1:02:43] But again, a little more than a dollar a month for residential on solid waste side.

[1:02:47] On the commercial side, it's a little more aggressive on the commercial side, and this

[1:02:52] just represents the level of service that's being provided to those customers.

[1:02:58] What you're looking at here is a commercial customer.

[1:03:00] Two times a week pick up.

[1:03:02] This is a three to four cubic yard container, so that's the level of service being provided.

[1:03:07] 88.96 going to 97.42.

[1:03:10] This is an $8.46 increase here for those customers.

[1:03:15] But this reflects the level of service being provided, and what it costs you to provide that service.

[1:03:21] But even with that, as we look at that same comparison, right now you're basically in the average level of all the communities here on this list.

[1:03:30] We would bump you slightly up, you're not changing relative position, you're still staying basically right there at the average.

[1:03:37] One of the most significant changes, though, is on the landfill side.

[1:03:42] This is for non-scheduled service, one secured ton of waste right now, $46 for that load

[1:03:48] coming in.

[1:03:49] We'd recommend taking that to $50.86.

[1:03:52] That's about almost an 11% increase here, $4.86 increase.

[1:03:57] But again, our landfill operations are expensive, particularly as we look at that equipment replacement

[1:04:03] schedule going forward.

[1:04:05] And so, as you look at that same comparison, you do see a jump here.

[1:04:09] And that's why I wanted to really set this up for you what's driving that.

[1:04:13] It's the equipment in our cost in running that landfill.

[1:04:18] Additionally, when we think about landfills, we don't just have to think about today.

[1:04:21] We have to think about the future.

[1:04:23] We have to think about the post closure cost into the future and what we have to do to maintain

[1:04:28] that site in order to meet regulatory requirements.

[1:04:33] So, we are recommending a bump here, not all the way to the top, but you are going up

[1:04:38] to that $50 level. You'd sit right below canyon within this recommendation.

[1:04:44] So, again, with solid waste, key takeaway there, residential, just slightly more than a dollar a month, commercial,

[1:04:51] a little more than that, representing the level of service, and then we do increase that landfill fee as well.

[1:04:57] Are there questions I can answer on the solid waste side?

[1:05:00] So

[1:05:04] I have a question just because you go through this

[1:05:07] the fast you've got it all down and remember I so slow this

[1:05:11] down just a wee bit right here and I asked the question if

[1:05:15] we did nothing and we have such a nice one balance where

[1:05:22] would

[1:05:22] we be if we lifted the same in five years let's back up

[1:05:27] here so

[1:05:34] if you did that's under proposed rates hang on let me

[1:05:37] go back to our, let me go here. If you did nothing over the next five years, you'd be

[1:05:44] completely out of cash by 2031. There would be no fund balance. There would be no

[1:05:49] fund balance. That's what I wanted to hear. Yes sir. Thank you.

[1:05:55] Chris, the, you mentioned

[1:05:57] that $50 charge. Now is that for external customers coming into our landfill? That's external

[1:06:03] cost, the customer's coming in. That assumes a secured load. Now you may have, I don't

[1:06:09] I know this off top of my head, I'm gonna defer to staff.

[1:06:11] You may have different contracts out there,

[1:06:12] where you have people that are contract operators coming in,

[1:06:16] but this represents somebody bringing a ton of ways secured

[1:06:19] into the landfill, non-scheduled service.

[1:06:22] The Rupert.

[1:06:23] And that is-

[1:06:24] Rupert, after a hell storm.

[1:06:25] Exactly.

[1:06:26] And that is a flat charge of, we were proposing $50,

[1:06:30] or is that a tonnage?

[1:06:31] That's a flat charge per tonn.

[1:06:32] Oh, per tonn.

[1:06:33] That is a per tonn fee.

[1:06:35] I missed that.

[1:06:35] That's a key point.

[1:06:36] Okay, thank you.

[1:06:37] Now, I just want to, what one comment there, I don't want to overcharge, certainly, I don't want to undercharge, but with the tendency, if we undercharge, we could be attracting customers from outside of this area to come our dump in our landfill.

[1:07:01] I know we already are, but we don't want to overflow it with outside things.

[1:07:07] I know a couple of municipalities that have got into a problem because they didn't have

[1:07:15] the capacity and they were cheap on their garbage from contractors and so forth.

[1:07:21] And I think most people don't realize, and I'm sure it hasn't changed a lot since the

[1:07:29] last time I was here, but we have a fee that we must save every year for closing a sale.

[1:07:35] Oh, yes, a tremendous a huge dollar amount just to close it. Yes

[1:07:42] So under this opening is ridiculous in expense, but you were still paying even after we open it

[1:07:48] We're paying to close it. Right

[1:07:51] So so we we get it the jurisdiction gets it from both directions

[1:07:56] Just to clarify even if it's a resident of our city and they're doing some work on their home

[1:08:02] and they got a ton of stuff and they go.

[1:08:05] They're still paying that $50.

[1:08:06] It's just not outside.

[1:08:08] It's any debris that's used for renovations

[1:08:11] or things like that.

[1:08:12] Even if it's a resident of Plainview,

[1:08:14] it'll jump from 46 to 50 and continue on

[1:08:18] whatever the rate was through 2031.

[1:08:20] That's a good point.

[1:08:21] So yeah, then I would ask the question.

[1:08:23] So I go to the landfill.

[1:08:24] I don't know why, just an example here.

[1:08:27] I have trash bags of household waste, not construction and debris, but household waste

[1:08:35] that I can't put in the dumpster. That's not being charged for. Right. So just so

[1:08:44] everybody knows that what we're setting these rates for, if you're not throwing it

[1:08:49] in a ditch and you're carrying it to the landfill, it's not going to cost you

[1:08:52] anything. As long as it's not construction and debris. Or if you have lambs, lambs

[1:08:57] are not charged either.

[1:08:58] Lambs?

[1:08:59] Lems.

[1:09:00] Yeah, that's correct.

[1:09:01] Yeah.

[1:09:02] Yeah.

[1:09:07] I visit the landfill quite often with limbs.

[1:09:10] So do I.

[1:09:11] Yeah.

[1:09:11] I put an 8,000 pound tree down there earlier this year

[1:09:14] in small pieces.

[1:09:16] But Brock's not here so we can brag on him in safety here.

[1:09:20] He does a tremendous job out there.

[1:09:22] Yeah.

[1:09:22] He really does.

[1:09:23] Any

[1:09:26] other questions I can answer for you

[1:09:28] on the solid waste side?

[1:09:32] Thank you very much, Chris.

[1:09:33] We really appreciate the in-depth look

[1:09:36] We look at our city and what we need to do to make sure we maintain our funds.

[1:09:40] No, thank you so much.

[1:09:41] Appreciate the opportunity to work with you and again, if there are other questions that come up as you move towards adoption here, just let me know.

[1:09:48] We're happy to provide any additional information.

[1:09:50] Thank you, thank you so much.

[1:09:52] Appreciate it.

[1:09:56] Okay, item number nine, which is a resolution for COPS.

[1:10:04] Chief Watson,

[1:10:15] a good evening, honorable Mayor Pro Tem and Council.

[1:10:19] I appreciate the opportunity to come up here and request a resolution of support for the City of Plainview to pursue a community-oriented policing grant.

[1:10:29] The Department of Justice back in June opened up the grant process.

[1:10:35] They funded it with $750 million, half of which is going to large cities, and half of which is dedicated to smaller communities such as Plainview.

[1:10:48] We are requesting support in that resolution.

[1:10:51] The resolution actually is not required.

[1:10:53] It's me coming forward to get you all support before we do something that would have an

[1:10:57] economic impact upon the community.

[1:11:00] The two positions we're asking for.

[1:11:02] The first one is a community-oriented policing officer that we would like to station down

[1:11:08] in Fair Theater.

[1:11:09] And we've talked about this within staff, city staff, and to focus on the downtown community,

[1:11:16] the residents down there and the business owners down there, to fly the city flag a little

[1:11:21] bit, to establish quite literally a walking beat that would be expected that officer visit

[1:11:27] with community members, absolutely, get to know the people there, our visitors to downtown

[1:11:32] with friendly hello and see what they're doing and see if we can help them out.

[1:11:35] and to meet with business owners and get their concerns.

[1:11:39] I talked about this a little bit last week,

[1:11:41] but one of our number one calls or requests

[1:11:45] for criminal trespass at our local businesses.

[1:11:49] We have a substantial amount of nuisance theft

[1:11:51] in this community and a strong community trespassing program

[1:11:56] helps with that.

[1:11:57] The other thing we have, the intent is to get some

[1:12:01] of our known criminals to quit visiting our vendors

[1:12:04] and ripping them off.

[1:12:04] I mean, it's really as simple as that.

[1:12:07] But it's a multi-pronged approach.

[1:12:09] We'll be working with our business district up now

[1:12:13] fifth street and with our business district out

[1:12:15] on the west side or any, frankly, any business

[1:12:18] on our end town that's having problems.

[1:12:21] The other thing is crime prevention efforts.

[1:12:24] We've started really starting to beat the drum

[1:12:26] on crime prevention again.

[1:12:29] We have a pretty strong in partnership

[1:12:32] with PISD outreach twice a year with the community, so we become more forward

[1:12:37] facing with our community. Newson's abatement as part of it, traditionally when

[1:12:43] you're engaged in community or in police and we do this already but this is

[1:12:47] going to be a little bit more focused. We look at

[1:12:52] residences that are falling down and helping out code enforcement and working

[1:12:55] with code enforcement to do some newson's abatement and try to

[1:12:59] try to clean up so many more problematic areas we have in town.

[1:13:02] The second position as authorized and they call it

[1:13:07] common sense community oriented policing, I could call it

[1:13:11] what we used to call 30 years ago, professionally oriented policing, but

[1:13:14] it doesn't matter what the federal government says or

[1:13:17] what the current Department of Justice guidelines are

[1:13:20] is to start developing some violent crime reduction strategies.

[1:13:23] We have violent crime reduction strategies in place.

[1:13:26] but what we'd like to do is add an additional detective for felony assault of

[1:13:30] offenses. That person and specific to the grant would assist our narcotics

[1:13:36] officer. We have a solo narcotics officer right now. We do have complaints about

[1:13:42] residences or vacant residences and less reputable business locations in

[1:13:49] town where narcotics trafficking is taking place. It's hard to do that work by

[1:13:53] itself what we generally do is we hook them up with whoever's on duty and patrol and they go to work.

[1:13:58] Working as a team is a lot more effective having been a former narcotics officer myself, but we'll be

[1:14:05] using that investigator to also specialize in street level narcotics use. There's a direct

[1:14:11] nexus between violent crime and property crime and crime in general with street level narcotics use

[1:14:17] and street level narcotics dealing. We had a philosophy in Dallas. We can't always catch you

[1:14:22] robbing the store. We can't always catch you bonking someone in the head using polite language.

[1:14:29] But man, we can catch you with methamphetamine or crack cocaine, showing my age,

[1:14:35] and we can't put you in jail for those. So it's a tool. If we go after our known offenders,

[1:14:41] if we put our known offenders in Hale County, if we make good clean case reports and

[1:14:45] conjunction with this attorney's office in conjunction with our law enforcement partners,

[1:14:51] We can reduce crime. We have been reducing crime significantly over the past five years.

[1:14:55] This is a really great way for us to fulfill our strategy.

[1:15:00] We have been talking about adding additional officers. One of the things I could ask is, what are current racial officers? When we're fully staffed, it's about 1.68 per thousand, where I came from, the norm was 2.25 per thousand. It doesn't sound like a huge difference. But in plain view, when we get below our authorized staffing, that means we have about three officers on patrol on deep nights, it's just unacceptable. And we'd like to, this isn't a cure all,

[1:15:28] but it would get us a little bit further down the road, so I appreciate your consideration

[1:15:32] on this issue and your support, there we go one more, there are our course costs.

[1:15:42] So the federal government takes a look at what our baseline, our entry-level police officer

[1:15:47] is, that's what the willing to fund 75% of for three years.

[1:15:52] And then we have the commitment of making the other 25%, it's approximate.

[1:15:57] The important thing to understand is that when year 4 comes along we are committed to maintaining those positions.

[1:16:03] We literally change our organization and equipment chart.

[1:16:07] We show how many officers we have.

[1:16:09] We show those two additional positions and we're obligated to keep them for that fourth year.

[1:16:13] So the fourth year, what we're basically saying is we're buying an additional officer for the fourth year or two additional officers.

[1:16:20] If after that fourth year you don't want to sponsor those officers or maybe we can't financially do it,

[1:16:24] Well, you can shut the grant down, but the next question is, well, what happens if you don't do that?

[1:16:32] Well, the feds can come in and reclaim their money, and that would be expensive and a silly way for us.

[1:16:40] It was an opportunity to apply for grants in the future.

[1:16:46] I apologize.

[1:16:47] They always want me to say that we are supplementing our budget.

[1:16:52] We are not supplanting our budget.

[1:16:53] So, I'm not bringing money in and we're not going to reduce the police department budget by the same amount that we got from the federal government and we're not that kind of organization summary.

[1:17:08] I have some estimates, we're estimated cost foreign $44,082 for three years.

[1:17:14] The federal contribution will be $250,000 capped at $125,000 per officer.

[1:17:21] The estimated city contribution will be $195,482.

[1:17:27] And I appreciate y'all's consideration and be glad to answer any questions y'all might have right now.

[1:17:36] Thank you, Chief. Do we have any public comments regarding this resolution?

[1:17:43] If not, I'll ask for a motion.

[1:17:45] I'll make a motion to approve resolution R26-704.

[1:17:49] Second.

[1:17:50] Moved by Council Member Garcia and seconded by Council Member Rouse.

[1:17:54] Are there any council comments?

[1:17:58] Yes, sir.

[1:17:59] Oh, I thought you said we had a 25% matching this.

[1:18:03] Yeah, it's approximated.

[1:18:05] It doesn't work out that way because it pays for base salary.

[1:18:09] It doesn't pay for the, the, um, the, uh, fight, uh, and, um, got it, yeah, got it.

[1:18:16] Got it.

[1:18:16] That's, that's, that sticks out like a sort of, no, it is, it's not, it's, it's not, it's

[1:18:21] It's here.

[1:18:21] I apologize.

[1:18:22] I did say at the last meeting.

[1:18:24] No, that's fine.

[1:18:24] It's not a true 75.

[1:18:26] And that's all fine.

[1:18:27] I'm, I'm, I'm all for it.

[1:18:29] Uh, I would just wish I knew that we spent this kind of money on officers that would make

[1:18:34] I could career and blame you, I totally concur and we are almost at 100% staffing, wonderful, and we're heading the right direction, I will point out that over the past couple of years, we have been really leaning into hiring local people so they reflect our community, their members are a community, those are the kind of young people that are going to stick around, and they are.

[1:19:07] I'm sure that we all do when we have more officers out on the field, we feel more secured

[1:19:18] or should, anyway, that we're protected against the bad guys out there.

[1:19:25] And as we go forward into wanting to attract more businesses, more housing, and more things of that nature that contributes to our tax base, and so on, I think this is something that it's a good deal for playing you, it's a good deal, and I think that that would send a message to

[1:19:54] businesses, if you will, that would are looking into making their home in plain views,

[1:20:01] such as bringing in their business.

[1:20:04] That they see that we are proactive in keeping our community safe,

[1:20:09] and that we are willing to spend a little bit of money to invest in our community,

[1:20:17] our citizens, and their businesses, that we appreciate that that much for them.

[1:20:22] Yes sir, and I do want to be clear this is a request for a grant.

[1:20:28] There's no guarantee that we're going to get the grant.

[1:20:30] Sure.

[1:20:32] First shot at any grants, a lot of times you'll be at the top of the list next year.

[1:20:35] It's kind of what you hear.

[1:20:37] The second thing is the City Council and the community has been incredibly supportive of public

[1:20:42] safety here for the past couple of years.

[1:20:44] I appreciate all the work and support from the Council and I know what's paying dividends

[1:20:49] And I absolutely concur, it's good for the business environment if we can knock those crime numbers down, those index crimes down.

[1:20:57] Yes, sir.

[1:20:58] Thank you, Chief.

[1:20:59] Thank you, Chief.

[1:21:00] And I have just one little clarifying thing, that 19542, that's for the three years total.

[1:21:06] Yes, sir.

[1:21:07] That's not for a year, that's for the three years total.

[1:21:09] Yes, sir.

[1:21:09] And then the fourth year, we're up for the 148494.

[1:21:13] Yes, sir.

[1:21:14] For the two officers.

[1:21:15] I think that's a bargain.

[1:21:16] Thank you.

[1:21:17] Yes, sir.

[1:21:18] I appreciate it.

[1:21:21] Okay, any more questions?

[1:21:23] All in favor?

[1:21:27] Great.

[1:21:28] That passed.

[1:21:29] Thank you very much, Chief.

[1:21:30] I appreciate you.

[1:21:31] Thank you, Council.

[1:21:34] And now we will convene into executive session,

[1:21:37] pursuant to Texas government code 55-

[1:21:39] Number 10.

[1:21:41] Do we have one more?

[1:21:42] Yeah.

[1:21:42] Number 10.

[1:21:43] Oh.

[1:21:44] First.

[1:21:44] Forgive me.

[1:21:46] Number 10.

[1:21:47] Mr. Crossway.

[1:21:49] I didn't mean to ignore you.

[1:21:51] Sorry.

[1:21:51] All right. Good evening, Mayor Pro Tem and Council.

[1:21:56] This is for an attachment to the Parks Master Plan.

[1:22:01] We worked with Alan Phillips with Jacob and Martin.

[1:22:06] They gave a presentation last Thursday over the structure.

[1:22:11] And basically the reason we were wanting to do this.

[1:22:13] Our Parks Master Plan, it's great to have a plan going forward

[1:22:17] as far as when we replace things in our parks and where we replace things and

[1:22:23] then what order. And it works really well for our pocket parks like Thomas Park,

[1:22:29] Little Thunderbird and our neighborhood parks, the 16th Street and Hood and Wood

[1:22:33] Parks, Givens, those kind of things you have one-place structure, a few

[1:22:39] benches and things like that. So as long as you're keeping open space in your

[1:22:44] parks that parks master plan really develops that well. But our two regional parks which are the

[1:22:52] parks that people come in from outside and all our community events are in and things like that

[1:22:57] which is city park on Broadway and running water draw park which everybody calls regional.

[1:23:05] For those parks we have a lot of different structures and there are multiple play play structures

[1:23:10] and as we add things give you a good example of that when kidsville was put

[1:23:17] in 1990 where we had tennis court right next to them and it just didn't fit

[1:23:22] in well and so a good plan going forward on those two regional parks to make

[1:23:29] it flow well to make it safer for our kids. A great example of that in this plan

[1:23:34] and are for running water drop park is to move the purple playground that is

[1:23:41] up by the entrance and move it closer to kidsville. That way if a parent has kids

[1:23:49] at two locations you know they can watch their kids. So it really gives us a

[1:23:55] good guide going forward for those those those parks. Not only does it

[1:24:04] that Park's Master Plan was done in 2022.

[1:24:08] This will be out on typically.

[1:24:10] We update our Park's Master Plan anywhere from five to 10 years.

[1:24:14] It's been on average a look back about every seven years we're updating this.

[1:24:18] And the reason it's important to keep those updates is if we're applying for grants

[1:24:24] or those kind of things, we have to have an updated plan for those.

[1:24:31] And this is the presentation that he had kind of given over the course of it,

[1:24:35] But really, it's a layout of this is running water draw parks.

[1:24:42] It's got a new baseball fields and stuff over here.

[1:24:46] Adding some parking, adding some overflow parking

[1:24:49] and paving that over behind YMCA, adding some splash pads,

[1:24:57] relocating things as we replace them in a fashion that makes sense.

[1:25:03] and then a guide as far as through six years of phasing or not years, six phases, and kind of split that cost up.

[1:25:16] We did take this to Parks Master Plan of Parks, the Parks Group, advisory board.

[1:25:24] Yeah, Parks and advisory board, thank you.

[1:25:26] We did take it to the M and get their input as well, especially as far as when we do things

[1:25:33] and what they would like to add that we didn't have added already.

[1:25:37] And we took their recommendations and incorporated that into the plan as well.

[1:25:46] And then Broadway Park, we did add one new play structure that's ADA accessible and those

[1:25:54] kind of things and building off of that, adding some restrooms, the baseball additional

[1:25:59] parking that we received that from Park Advisory Board that that was real important to them,

[1:26:06] and really have a good layout closing some of the roads down to make it more safe, and

[1:26:13] again, a phased approach where it made most sense and kind of spread that cost out over time.

[1:26:21] and staff would recommend approval of the addition to the park's master plan.

[1:26:28] Thank you.

[1:26:30] Are there any public comments regarding this resolution adopting these appendices for our regional park and our Broadway park?

[1:26:42] Seeing none, I'll ask for a motion.

[1:26:44] Mayor Pro Tem, I move that we accept resolution number R26-705.

[1:26:52] Move by council member house and seconded by Mary Elizabeth.

[1:27:00] Are there any council comments?

[1:27:03] I have a minor one.

[1:27:04] You know I wasn't here Thursday and I apologize but I had to go this like three times.

[1:27:09] This is a great plan.

[1:27:10] Amen.

[1:27:11] It is.

[1:27:12] When I saw the splash pad in Broadway that really, I'm not a big parks person and I couldn't

[1:27:17] think in the realm that people do this job, but this was impressive and I look forward

[1:27:24] to seeing it grow.

[1:27:26] Absolutely.

[1:27:27] This one is, this plan is more of an implementation strategy of our larger parks that, you know,

[1:27:33] it's not just what gets replaced, but the overall flow of it, and that's important when you're

[1:27:40] considering children streets that they're crossing, streets that maybe shouldn't be there,

[1:27:45] That we're just there because they were there in the past rock structures that just existed in the past

[1:27:51] This is a implementation strategy of you know what if we did put

[1:27:56] You know a new pickleball court. Where would that go instead of just saying well, they've just replaced the tennis courts

[1:28:02] Yes, yeah, there was some thought put into it now to say it's very impressive and of course

[1:28:07] I know it's not going to start tomorrow, but it's it's a plan

[1:28:11] And it comes to fruition is going to be a beautiful plan

[1:28:15] some of the things that Tim didn't mention this time,

[1:28:19] but he mentioned on Thursday with area for food trucks.

[1:28:22] You know, I think that's great.

[1:28:24] The outdoor, the amphitheater.

[1:28:27] You know, we talked about having a place

[1:28:29] for outdoor music during our strategic meeting,

[1:28:31] and there it is, there's the amphitheater.

[1:28:33] So I think this is a fabulous project or plan,

[1:28:37] and I can't wait to see it come to fruition.

[1:28:40] And the safety of it, you know,

[1:28:42] So we'll talk about closing some streets and just combining some, making a combination up there to where mothers and kids don't have to cross busy streets like we currently doing down Broadway Park, you know, that's safety.

[1:29:00] I mean, I'm a firm believer on safety night. We've got to take care of our little ones. There are future and I think that that's a great thing that this plan is showing to be coming.

[1:29:12] I mean, in the future.

[1:29:17] Tim, I've seen some restrooms going up.

[1:29:20] Do you have any plans for 16th Street?

[1:29:23] Getting a restroom as well?

[1:29:25] We do have it in the CIP.

[1:29:28] Coming up, we've got two more restrooms scheduled to go in.

[1:29:32] And that's one of them.

[1:29:33] Okay, thank you.

[1:29:36] Seeing no more questions, all in favor.

[1:29:42] Great.

[1:29:43] How does your animus thank you?

[1:29:45] Thank you, Tim, very much.

[1:29:47] Now we can get to number 11, right?

[1:29:49] Maybe it's just wishful thinking before.

[1:29:52] Let's convene into executive session,

[1:29:54] pursuant to Texas government code, section 551-087,

[1:29:58] to discuss or deliver.

[1:30:00] Regarding an offer of a financial or other incentive to a business prospect that the city seeks to have locate, stay, or expand, internear, the territory of the city of plain view, and we will go into executive at 805.

[1:30:14] Hopefully

[1:30:27] you saw a picture of that.

[1:30:35] Oh god!

Jul 28, 2026 City Council 7/28/2026

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