Good morning. Good morning. We are going to, uh, begin our meeting. It's
9:30 am good morning, and welcome to
our city council meeting, our regularly scheduled meeting on tuesday,
november 4th, 2025 at 9:30 am
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at this time, we're going to have, first of all, I'm gonna ask that we
all would mute our cell, uh, cell phones or any devices, mobile devices that
we may have at this time, and then we're going to have our invocation,
our pledge, and our roll call. I am going to ask a
council member, frank, to lead us in prayer.
good morning, let us bow all wise in eternal god, our
father, how grateful we are for yet again, giving us a wonderful and beautiful day
in the city of port arthur. How grateful we are, god, that you've awakened us
and allowed us to come into this meeting where we can make, uh, decisions
based upon your wise counsel and your gracious kindness and mercy.
we pray blessings today upon all who are here and upon our city
and upon our nation as well. Blessing keep us is our prayer and the
powerful and precious name of jesus we pray. Amen. Amen.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america
and to the republic from which it stands, one nation under
god, indivisible, with liberty and justice. All
city secretary, would you establish a quorum, please? Yes, ma'am.
mayor moses. Here, mayor proti
ett. Here. Council member lewis.
council member hamilton, ever field council
member beckham. Here. Council member ken law here.
council member frank, present. You have a court mayor.
awesome. Thank you so much, city secretary. This time, item two.
we have no proclamations this morning. We're gonna move to item
three, petitions and communications speakers. We have no
speakers at this time. We have, um, presenters,
uh, presentations, and we'd like for, uh, aranon
baysmore of the us army corps of engineers to come forth
and present what you have in your presentation. Thank
you for being here this morning. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
good morning, mayor moses, uh, distinguished members of the port arthur city council.
my name is arne basmore and I am the sabine to project manager for
the sabbe bay to galveston port arthur project. With
me today are other members from the united states army corps engineers. Uh, ms.
tony addison, a mega projects division chief, mr. Charles wheeler,
mega, um, projects, division s two g project. Galveston,
sabine to galveston, um, project manager.
and we also have, um, whitney today as well. Mr. Bobby petty, our
outreach specialist. We also have with us our non-federal sponsor,
uh, jefferson county drainage district, and mr. Um, allen sims,
the general manager
today. Um, we'll be discussing a port arthur project and we'll follow the agenda as
such. Um, we have a public house announcement that we'll go over
a project overview, the project funding, the, um, the key
features, the schedule overview, and the construction overview for the port arthur project.
we like to take this time to announce the public opening, which, uh, public open
house, which has been scheduled for thursday, november 20th from
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the st. Joseph's catholic church.
um, the point of discussion will be the port arthur and the
vicinity contract, pav oh four. We
invite all to attend. That can,
just a quick clarification. That is the project. You have to come up alan.
sorry, excuse me. Honor, just quick clarification. For those of you who,
uh, don't understand, port arthur, pa v oh four is a contract from, uh,
rose hill acres to lakeview pump station. The end of proctor street north.
the end of proctor street.
thank you, allen. Okay.
the sabine, the sabine passed. The galveston project is part, is
we abbreviated as s two g is part of the upper texas coast, uh,
regional approach. This bean, the
bean that gotton bay project is comprised of two elements, the port arthur element
and the orange element. In addition to
the, uh, those two projects, the sa the te upper texas regional approach
is comprised of eight additional projects
shown in orange. In the upper right corner is the orange project, which will be a new protected levee
system shown in blue. You have the port arthur project and highlighted
enc circle. In red is the port arthur project that's followed by the sabina
natures waterway,
the jefferson county ecosystem restoration.
the mcfadden sought by you do
dune stabilization, the coast, the
texas coastal project, which is the largest project authorized with the corps
engineers to date at $34 billion. And then you also
have the houston ship channel as well as the, the texas
city hurricane protection system.
the focus for today's presentation will be the port arthur project.
excuse me. Allow me to, uh, reiterate as well. The overall
objective for the upper texas coast is to reduce the risk of human life,
of storm surge, reduce economic damages to,
uh, residents and businesses structure, enhance
the energy security by reducing the storm surge and providing protection
around the petrochemical facilities and reduce the, uh,
adverse physical impacts of waterways for commercial and, and, and our recreational
use to collectively these projects on the upper texas
regional approach provide that, uh, protection.
the focus for today, the focus for today's discussion will be the port arthur project.
the port arthur project is in existing, uh, levee system that was built
from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s by
the core of engineers. It has since been turned over to our now federal sponsor, dd seven,
who operates and maintains it, uh, who's been operated and maintaining it ever since.
our goal is to improve the resiliency of this system by
providing a greater level of protection in what this system currently does.
the focus of the polar arthur project, the key elements of that
system are 14.3 miles of earth and levee raises
of 14.3 miles of, of earth and levee improvements
of which 10 will be 10 miles of earth and levee raises, and 4.3
miles of new earth and levee construction. This project will also
include 6.2 miles of concrete flood wall improvements.
ie they will be likely replacing existing ie uh, eye walls with t
walls, finding protection at the 11 existing
pump stations in port arthur insulation of 20
new road and railroad closure gates along the levee
system. Insulation of erosion controls at the levee flood
sides, as well as construction of a new pump
station in a roll gully, uh, location.
the port arthur project is comprised of three 11 contracts, 11 port
arthur, and vicinity contracts. The focus of this presentation will be the discussion
of three of those pav oh one, which is completed, pav
oh three a, which is currently underway, and pav oh four, which
was recently awarded
to accomplish the delivery of the port arthur project. We've partnered with, uh, jefferson
county drainage district seven, our non-federal sponsor partner. The project was
appropriated appropriated in the bipartisan act of 20 20 20 18,
excuse me, and it was fully funded. It was fully funded for $3.9 billion
of which 863 million will have gone and been allocated
to port arthur. Since 2018. We are seeing significant
cost increases and we are working to obtain documentation and
obtain an approval for additional, uh, costs.
the army corps of engineers and and jefferson county journalist
district seven have signed a project partnership agreement where
you say army corps engineers fund 65% of the project costs
with d dd seven on now federal sponsor funding the remaining 35%.
the key features of this project include earth and levees
and concrete flood walls.
the scope of the earth and levees will be raising the existing earth and earth and levees
provided metal protection, and then installing, um, new earth levees progress,
installing new earth and levees at segments as well to provide that protection
required. Here you'll see to the left is the existing
eye wall, and to the right you see what's going to be replacing it. The t wall.
we found out through lessons learned from prior weather events such
as hurricane katrina, that over time the storm surge from
storm events will allow for, uh, uh, will allow for
over tapping and a rolling of, uh, eyebrow foundations. As
such, the t wall concrete wall provides a better design
with a more robust foundation as well as additional battery piles to provide
for additional structural stability. That's the sense. What's the concrete replace?
the concrete fo replacement will be
another key feature of this project will be the fronting protection that will
be installed in front of all the, um, existing pump stations.
the fronting protection helps, helps mitigate storm surge impacts on the pump
station itself.
also with the pull arthur project installation of road
railroad and roadway closure, gates were being stored walls and roadways
intersect the levee system providing more, uh, protection
from storm surge throughout the port arthur area.
here is the project timeline for the port arthur project in 2017. The feasibility
study for this project was completed
2018. We received, uh, srg received the authorization and funding from
congress for this project, which allowed us to award the first contract in
2019 for a construction start in 2020.
we anticipate final design being completed 2032, and we
are also anticipating the project itself to be overall completed in 2036.
the first contract in the port arthur project is pavo one.
this project was completed. This project was awarded march 30th, 2020
and was completed july 28th, 2022. The
scope of this project, excuse me, for $25 million
contract value, the scope of this project is a deep, deep soil mix to earth
and levy raised.
the next project, which is currently in construction, is contract pav oh three
a. This contract was awarded september 8th, 2023
for a contract value of $97 million. We anticipate the
estimate duration for the contract to be 5.5 years.
key elements for this project are foundation supports, concrete
flood walls, front end protection, as well as, uh, erosion controls
on on flood side of levees, which
contract three will focus on three contract. Three a will focus on three zones,
zone five alligator pump station improvements, zone six
lakeside pump station improvements, and zone seven port acres pump
station improvements.
key elements for this contract include roughly in
addition to the pumps, the the front end protection at the pump station's mentioned.
in these three zones, we'll have concrete roughly 1200
manual feet of concrete flood wall improvements, insulation
of the t walls, taking out insulation of t walls, replacing the existing
eyewall 320 miles of earth and levee raises,
as well as insulation of the sheet pile, color walls and batter piles required for the
installation of foundation for the concrete flood walls.
the next series of photos will show the construction progression in the various zones,
zones five, six, and seven. Basically, the work,
the work is going concurrent and it's fairly similar in process where you have the
installation of the batter piles, sheet pile cutoff walls in preparation
for the concrete flat work for the foundations. The t wall foundations
seen here is a picture of the alligator pump stations. You have
the t wall work that is in progress and probably, uh, what's uh,
critical is the, uh, foundation system, the battered piles, which are angle piles to
provide a structural stability for the concrete t wall itself.
zone six is the lakeside pump station site improvement work, which is fairly similar
to what's going on at the alligator pump station.
sheep, all cutoff walls and piles.
zone seven is the lakeside pump station and site improve, uh, pump station improvement
works as well. Similar scope foundation installation for
t walls and front end protections.
the last of the three con, the last of the three contracts discussed in the port arthur project is
pv oh four.
the pre oh four contract was recently awarded april of this year
for a contract value of $404 million with an estimated
contract, uh, completion, estimated contract duration
of 4.5 years. The project is currently at
30 35% design stage and it is a design built contract,
excuse me. Currently, field surveys and geotechnical
investigations are underway for this project. We
anticipate construction start for contract four to be
late summer of 2026.
major elements for the pa oh four contract include
roughly 11,000 limit feet of new concrete flood wall shown
in red. This will be where we are replacing the existing eyewall
with the more robust t wall foundation t wall of flood wall
foundation, concrete flood wall system. We'll also have roughly
about 2200 lineal feet of earth and levee raise raises shown
in green. And similar to what's going on in
contract three a, we'll have fronting protection installed at the existing three pump stations.
lakeview stadium road in delmar.
of note construction activities will likely take place on the flood side on,
uh, on this contract. So we understand that there'll be, um, critical care
taken to preserving on what's out, what's out there, and providing the proper measures taking
place, tfp, temporary flood protection and so forth.
additional information can be found for not just the sg
port arthur project, but also the orange project, the two elements
that form this being the galveston bay projects by accessing
these qr codes. And we'll take you into the storyboard and you can have,
uh, additional information as to understanding of project history as well as any other announcements
with this. Uh, this concludes the presentation, and I would like to, uh, leave
time to open up the floor for any questions. Uh, city council mayor,
thank you so much. Um, let's see if I have any questions.
council members, I don't
have any lights, but thank you for your presentation. Yes, ma'am. Um,
last time I saw this, it was about 2019, or I mean 2020.
and so you really progressed. Um, well in the project.
I was just thinking, alan, the, he said 2036 up. My, my, I heard, I know
the mic. You guys heard me in the mic. I was like, ooh, how old am I gonna be in 2036? That's
been a common question. , everybody has kind of is, uh, like, you know, awakening.
but thank you so much. Um, I have city manager has his light on
mayor in terms of disseminating information, especially to the
residents in the proctor street area for the public, um,
hearing to be held. Um, if alan, you could share that
information with us so that we could post it on our website as well. You
know, we would be happy to do that. Mayor, yes. The, uh, yes we would, the public hearing
or the public open house will be november 20th at, uh, the church. We were
talking the catholic church down in proctor. I will, uh, we are planning to
have that published in the newspaper. We'll put it on our website. We'll send it to you for your website.
we'll also go out the week before and hang door hangers on all the doors in the neighborhood,
uh, to make sure everybody knows. Uh, normally we've held our public meetings
like this, like at bob bowers, right down here at the, uh, carl parker center. But
we chose to do this one as close as we could. That was the largest venue we could find
in the middle of that neighborhood. So that's where we went to, uh, talked with
the, uh, catholic church in, uh, past and
father mcright, I thinks the guy that's down there now, uh, I
remember him when he was in winnie when I used to live there, uh, but went and met with him and uh,
they were gonna give us the big hall they have there so we can get everybody. And like I said, I
wanted to do something centralized for everybody to make it easier for people in that neighborhood.
uh, it goes from rose hill to lakeview. I know there's
gonna be a lot of concerns right now. The intended plan is we do not purchase
any property from any private landowners. We'll build on what we have currently
or out towards the navigation channel. There'll be some who will move about
five feet out and towards navigation or so. It's not gonna be a whole lot. We're
trying to do our best to do minimal impacts. I guarantee you there will be
some. Okay. There's no way we can build this project without some traffic
and some issues in there. And that's the reason we want ahead and go ahead and get this started right
now. You're not gonna see a whole lot of impacts in that area for the next six months to
nine months. I'd probably gonna do another open house
and probably sometime mid-summer, late summer. Depends on when they start
construction. When you start seeing trucks running on the streets, that's when we're gonna try to have another open house.
probably. I'm gonna try to plan, set it to where, as you
guys know, we did it the week before. They're not going. Nobody's gonna notice.
we do it a month after they start seeing trucks and everybody's gonna show up to complaint and that's when we
want to have it. Okay. Um, just be honest with you guys, we're going to try to keep everybody
informed, you guys as well as the general public, uh, trying to be good
neighbors. Thank you. If there's anything y'all need, if you just let us know. I have a couple of
lights. I have council member doucette.
yes. Allen. Yes, sir. The lakeside. I didn't have no
questions about the presentation, but since you talk about the having meetings
yes, sir. The lakeside project. You know, I stay on
cambridge. Yes. All the trucks not only go up
there, but they be parked right there in front of my house. I can't even get out
without being careful 'cause they all lined up there. But that's not a problem because it's,
it worked. Our contractors are parked near your house. No, I said in the, the street
in front my home. Cambridge. Okay. Our contractors
are parked over there? No, the people that are carrying the material. Alan. Oh,
okay. Yes, sir. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. People who are carrying that's 18 wheelers. Yes, sir. Like five
or six of 'em along the road. And I don't have a problem with it,
you know, the progress of them, the pounding. So
basically it is, when is that project is going
to be completed and how far we going with that? And if you're
doing it, we're about a year, year and a half into a five year project
there. Just in the, just for the lakeside pump
station? Well, it's all three of 'em together. Uh, and I, they're
probably 25% complete. They're about, so they're probably got another three years would be my guess
on the lakeside. Oh, okay. Because that's what I was saying. When you
start talking about a central location, st. Joseph.
but then again, we doing that one out there, and when I tell you I could
walk out, I could stand in my front yard and that's, that's no more than about three
or 400. Yes, sir. Um, yards from my house. I,
and I hear it. And they don't work at night, so that's not a problem. It's
only during hours of operation, but it should be a good idea on
knowing that thing going in. So really that's a long time. Tell you what, ,
that's a mistake on my part. I'll take, I'll own that completely. My thoughts were those
three projects were so far isolated. I didn't think they were going
to impact the neighborhoods that much. I'll tell you what. We'll, we'll try to schedule something.
it probably, it'll probably take us about two or three months to put something together. Mm-hmm. Maybe we do something
there in the pa in the, what's it called? Palomar lakeside. Right. You know we have have community
center there. Yes sir. But everything that comes in to go back there
at counts down cambridge. Yes, sir. And for three years it's
gonna be and 18 wheel carrying some heavy stuff.
so that kind of, let me check on that also, because that was,
they were supposed to be coming in and out of jade through the county
yard. No, no, no. You're talking, you're talking, uh, the, the roll
ga road air gully. You talking about all 365? No, I'm talking where
the, uh, parks and wildlife office is and the county barn, the road that comes up
on the left, they were supposed to be using that for access. They weren't to, to go to the lakeside.
yeah. So, you know, between uh, parks and wildlife, there's a road right. That
actually goes up, like where people go over, like they're gonna go to the, uh, boat launch at parks and
wildlife. Right. They're supposed to be going up there and going down that I weren't supposed to be going to cambridge.
what you talking about? Cambridge 18 willis care and all that stuff. Yeah. They were not supposed to be going through cambridge. Lemme
tell you. They've been, they've been coming down cambridge. Okay, let me check on
that. They've been coming down cambridge. That is not what I understood. The
whole time. They be parked five or six 18 willers. Okay.
this is news to me. Thank you very much. Deep, you know.
okay. Thank you allen. And you guys know where I am. You're welcome to call me anytime. Alright.
I'm available. Council member lewis. Yeah. I appreciate
y'all's presentation. Uh, and also
I'm glad that you're going to start holding meetings on the west side. The district one. That's all my,
my area. I got from sabine pass stadium to state some paul stadium
road from 19th street to 19th street to inter coastal con.
I gotta have the city. Okay. Now, west side is very important. They're gonna
be very concerned. And if you, and I'm glad you're gonna be putting out flyers
and what have they. You got the community room over there where you can meet with 'em and explain to 'em
ahead of time. You know, I would like for you to schedule something,
uh, as soon as possible to get them softened up to and
acceptable to as to what, you know, just so much that they can, uh,
get out of this presentation, you know? Right. So
let me know when you're going to do it. And uh, right now we're scheduled for november 20th.
november the 20th. Yes, sir. For the community room on west side. Uh,
that was st. Joseph. That's at st. Joseph's church. St. Joseph catholic church. It's catholic church. St. James.
st. James. I'm sorry, my mistake. Are you on proctor? The one
proctor? It's st. Joseph. It's st. Joseph's live, right next proctor
st. Joseph. But I'm talking about west of houston avenue. Okay. That's community room
over there. And I'd appreciate if y'all schedule something there. Okay. So keep on the west
side to be up to. We're probably about two years out from starting construction in that area.
yeah. So, uh, I was gonna wait till we got closer to construction,
but if you think we need to do something sooner, we can do that. Yeah, we'll, I appreciate you do
something sooner, okay? Okay. Yeah. I mean, around building
around your schedule. Okay. And you're two years out, so yeah. Yeah. We're about two years out for
being over in that area, doing construction. So I understand we can, we'll do something.
do something. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all so much. We
really appreciate the update. Thank you so very much, mayor. Council members. Appreciate y'all.
okay. This time we have, uh, city manager staff reports.
we have none. Employee recognition, we have none correspondence.
we have none. We're gonna move to petitions and communications.
um, f discussions number one, we'll have a discussion
and take possible action regarding conduct of a forensic audit.
and this is requested by mayor pro tem ett. Yes. Thank you, mayor.
uh, I put out information. I've been talking about the forensic
audit. Uh, some people have taken it as, uh, we
don't need one because we had one almost a decade ago
and stuff. And indu in calling for this. I also
referred to, uh, codes and ordinances that we haven't been following
it most of the time. I've talked about those at previous council meeting. In
fact, I talked about 'em, I read 'em verbatim when
the topic actually came before council and council take
action. So, about four months ago, I talked with council and I let
council know that, uh, these ordinance and codes
and stuff, you know, we are the ones that's here to ensure that they, uh,
are upheld. We take an oath for that. You know, we all
different council members, and I don't take anything personal. We all think different.
I have a, I'm by the book.
I leave my opinion outside the dough, my thoughts outside the dough.
I read what is written. And when we do not follow what's written,
we have issues. If we recognize 'em, we can fix them.
my theory is always, first of all, we need to police ourselves. And we don't need nobody to
police us. But after two years, I've come to the conclusion that we
actually need someone to come in, take a look at it and tell us
what we are doing that we shouldn't be doing, and
how we can do it better. Forensic audit, some people always
talk about, uh, criminal, well forensic audit
is one that you order. When you feel it is something, is wrongdoing.
wrongdoing mean you're not doing what's right. It doesn't mean it's
criminal. It can result into that. But the fact of the matter
is, we need to do things as written.
and after two years, us policing ourselves, I
just don't feel, uh, is going that way because
there are some issues that we should have resolved and we should have addressed.
but instead, we, uh, don't do it. You know, it's
like, okay, we gonna continue to operate in
the way we operate and we can't continue to operate the way we operate. 'cause look at
the city and some of the things that, uh, I feel we have now
followed is a result of that. I'm not gonna discuss those. I've talked enough
about 'em, but it's on the, uh, agenda here to let
people understand what it's about. And whenever
I say I would like to see one, I put
examples. I write down the code, the ordinance,
I feel that we are not following. Then I give example what we
doing. And I let citizens decide. I don't try to tell
citizens we need it. We don't need it. I think
that we got more intelligent citizens than we have non-intelligent, so
citizens decide. But we need to make sure that everything's transparent
and that we're doing things right. And if we're doing things right, we'll
spend money properly and we'll be transparent.
and those are two things right now. There's a big issue with citizens.
forensic audit will say, you're doing this wrong.
this is what we recommend you do in order to fix this.
it's better to fix it than to let it continue the way it is.
and it also has the opportunity for someone to take a look at our
books where we don't get to look at it . We get to see what they're
giving. And, uh, when I say forensic audit and stuff, I want to
make sure I throw this in at the end. Our finance director,
uh, got here, I guess about a year now,
but I've been working and talking with her. She is
standing. She has really done
things that are amazing. You know, our,
uh, audits, annual audits, we are like two years behind. She came in
in one year, she done those two plus hers. That's the kind of thing we
need done, but we need to go back
and fix this not following ordinance and local government
codes. So after, if anybody else got any comments, I'll even comment.
if not, I wanna make a motion.
I have several lights. Uh, council member, frank.
yes. Um, I've heard, um,
I don't stand to talk or, um, have
my light on to talk, uh, um, against, uh,
an audit, um, a forensic audit. I'm simply,
uh, raising, uh, some concerns about, um, how do
we arrive at the issue of,
uh, a forensic audit. I don't know. I don't know in any
specificity exactly what, um,
those concerns are that have driven us to
this pointed place where we have,
um, that type of concern, uh, from council or
from our citizens. I have not heard, uh, from
citizens. I am an at large, uh, councilman. I don't represent any
districts, but I've not heard any council. I've not heard any
citizens come to me, uh, and raise any concerns, uh, with
me about the, uh, financial, uh, discharge
of our duties here on council that would warrant,
um, uh, a forensic audit. Um, councilman doucette
has made the comment, um, used the word wrongdoings,
um, uh, and has said that, uh, he is not
specifically referring to malfeasance. That is the misappropriation of
funds or embezzlement or any of those types of situations.
our internal controls are audited, um, with
our audit. And we have received, uh, great audits,
uh, here, uh, to four. Um, they've
looked at our internal controls. They've looked at the way in
which we carry out our budgets, the way in which, uh, we pay our
debts. Uh, we have a, a credit rating of a plus
plus. Um, our finances are in order.
uh, we've looked at situations and circumstances, uh, and
I don't know exactly, again, as I said, with specificity,
what is warranting, um, uh, the concern
about a financial audit. Uh, one of the things that I do
have a concern about is, is that the payment of the, uh,
of this audit, we're talking about an expenditure of about,
oh, anywhere from 200 to $400,000.
we just concluded. If you're talking about a, a forensic
audit, we're talking about $200,000
plus. So we've not, we've not budgeted
for that. So we're talking about making an amendment. And so,
as the councilman's talking about making a motion, how are we
going to fund this forensic audit if we've
not budgeted for this forensic audit? And the councilman is always
talking about budget, budget. We've just come out of our budget hearing. Uh,
we've, we've, we've talked about expenditures. We went through the budget, and we all
raised our concerns. So how are we going to fund
this, uh, forensic audit? One of the things that we do is
he, you know, we can say, well, we can, we've
got money in the fund balance and all of those things when we amend the budget,
uh, for something of an emergency, if you will.
um, one of the things, it is about public health and safety.
uh, and so, uh, this is not about public health and safety.
uh, this is about, um, uh, a concern,
uh, that the council or the councilman has, uh,
concerning our internal controls, I believe, or whether or not,
I don't know exactly. Again, I don't know what is covered
by this word, wrong doings. Um,
I, I did some research and I looked and found that when we talk about
a forensic audit, there's some things that you look at, some things that
you, uh, understand. You talk about, uh, a response
to su suspected fraud, or you talk about resolving
disputes. Uh, you talk about, uh, all of those types
of things that can happen, uh, as we address
some conflict or, or whatever. I think that we
can try to talk about those things and try to address those concerns
without making that type of expenditure at this particular time.
if we want to have a, uh, if we want to have an, uh,
a forensic audit, let's put it on the agenda for next year
when we can budget for it. Uh, and that way we don't have
to make that kind of a withdrawal. But I don't believe, and
I'll, I'll yield to our attorney and to all of those who are in council,
but I don't think that we are able to vote on this on today,
um, uh, because of that fact, uh, that we don't have a method of
funding it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Council member frank, council
member ken law. Thank you, mayor. Um, I'm, I'm kinda
like in the gray area as well. Uh, if we are talking about, uh, and the councilman made
some, uh, comments. Uh, councilman deuce made comments about, uh, fraud
and abuse and also wrongful, uh, doing
policing ourselves. Uh, you know, as council members, it's our job
to ensure that we protect the citizens at all costs, especially
with the financial aspect of it. Our financial director, uh, in
the last year completed three audits that would kind
of give us some better directions on our finances and how we,
uh, we pay our bills and how we accept, uh, payments.
so, um, I thought about this when he brought it up last meeting, two meetings
ago, and, uh, made reference to policing
ourselves. So I have no directions understanding of where he's going with, uh,
with this, um, what department, uh, if we are talking about
financial, uh, uh, abuse, of course that every
council member that's up here would have some concerns about that. We don't want that to happen in
our city. But, you know, without having, uh, uh,
a clarity on what direction, uh, what department, uh,
who's doing it, how much are they doing? I mean, he may have some information
I may not be aware of that I'm surely, uh, is, uh, wanting
to understand his point of view, but just to do that. And I've
been, uh, privy to be on a forensic audit before, and
it's, it's very tedious and it's very expensive. And they look at all
the departments, all your financials, all your expenditures. Uh,
they even look at, uh, the policy procedures that you have in place to sustain that.
so it's, it is a stretch for me without having,
uh, detail of where he wants to go or where the forensic audit wants to
go, uh, in my opinion. But, you know,
not having clarity on what department who's doing it, surely
it's not council. Uh, I mean, but at the same time, the
finances coming from, uh, city manager and the financial
director and how we do our business. You know, I, I need more clarity
on how, where, when, and how much. So before I can get on
board with this, because, you know, at the end of the day, you know, if, if
we have zero findings, the taxpayers coughed up anywhere between
200, $400,000 and is that fair to the tax citizens? No,
that's not. But if you have some evidence, uh, councilman do said to sustain
that, I would be more than willing to under the, to, you know,
have an open eye, open ear to find out exactly, uh, what
are those things are. But just to, you know, this just came outta the blue within
the last month or so about having a forensic audit. So if
you have more detail, I mean, please share what your cohorts and let me know personally,
uh, some of the things that, because just to vote for that and have that on
the agenda, uh, that's kind of a stretch for me. Thank you, mayor.
uh, thank you. Um, councilman mcken, law council member doucette?
yes. Okay. Uh, in reference to the
comments made by councilman frank and councilman king, and
both of them were good comments. I agree with some of what you both
said in reference to funding for councilman
frank's, uh, answer to his concerns.
uh, if we were to decide we needed a forensic audit
that would come under municipal purposes, which is
one of the things allowed for amendment of a budget,
okay? A lot of what I've said and what I'm saying count
in now in respond to councilman kinlaw. I've been saying it for the
last two years. I've been saying we are violating the streets
program. I've been saying we're violating,
uh, section two dash 31, which we do often,
and which we put items on the agenda, and we do not have it funded
in the budget, and
we don't have an amendment at the meeting. I just threw out a
few of those things and some posting I had on social media to answer citizens'
questions. And I can sit here and
start going through a whole, out a whole lot of specifics,
but every specific I will name, if you go back
to that council meeting, I read a ordinance
or a local government code that says why we
should not do it. And when I finished, the council voted
anyway to approve it, and
I talked about this, about four months with council, without this
being just thrown out there. Today, when you do a
forensic audit, you do not do all departments
if you do not have to. A forensic audit
is a audit that you have specific
what they want to look at, where the area
that you feel there's wrongdoings are there are issues.
the cost of a forensic audit is determined
by your scope, is
how much you want them to look at, because they will determine
how many people they will need, how long it will take them.
that is where the cost of a forensic audit comes from. So really, you can't
determine a cost until we de determine the scope. Uh,
as far as citizens, not saying I'm to this
point, because I hear citizens ask where the money is going.
I hear citizens says, look at the streets, why we don't have this.
and I look at what we are doing, and I've been doing this for two
years and for two years when I said,
it's nothing done. And like I said, it's not person. I'm not gonna question counsel.
if counsel doesn't want to either consider what is said.
I understand that. But the fact of the matter is,
we have to at some point understand why we in these seats, we took
a oath to be in these seats. And if it's something written,
let's talk about what's written. Everybody say, I don't see anything.
I've been reading it. I've been saying it for two years.
if you don't want to listen or you don't, or you think is my way,
go and check. If you read the code and
you read the ordinance, be specific. There's
so many things we doing, we could still do those things,
but there's a certain way we need to do 'em. And
it's written, we don't do it because we have
votes. That's, that's the point I'm making. So,
and no one can deny that I did not talk about this
with counsel are my concerns about these ordinance
and these codes of violations. This is not nothing new.
and for two years, I've, I've worked with the council,
I've learned to work with people, but
for the two years I've heard doucette won't do it his way. Mm-hmm
. Doucette knows everything. Doucette, but doucette
reading in black and white. So it is not that it
is me, I read it in black and white. If you don't
understand what's read, didn't ask somebody who can explain to you, because I'm
not going to do that because I'm reading citizens read the same thing.
so, you know, I'm not here
to fight and work against this council,
but let's look in the mirror and understand
what citizens want. We have an approval rating
from the people we paid to do this plan that said,
citizens got approval rating. That's 6% for this council of confidence.
and the citizens are saying, what are you doing with our money? You putting it in your
pocket, you putting the money on this and it, and it
shouldn't go on that. If citizens are saying this and we are truly for
citizens, then where
do we get them to get the trust and confidence?
we talking about $200,000, $300,000
this council, and this is the last thing I'm gonna say, because
this could go on all day. And I, and, and I've done this for two years, I'm not doing it,
but this is the last thing I want to say. Someone's
talking about $200,000. This council
approved $395,000
for a design and a study of an
extension of a street,
whereby the same council we
setting up here disapprove
that project. We disapproved it,
it's in the records for $395,000
and came right back and approved it. So we got
the same resolution in the book,
one approved and one disapproved.
so that's an example of what we need to fix. And we could have fixed that
by following the procedures. And the procedure says if we disapproved
something, I don't care if it's five years later, we need to bring it back
for reconsideration because we need to take the one, we disapproved off the records
and now approve one. So you one example, I
could be here all day. Don't, don't, don't go there with me. I've been doing that for two years.
tell me why you think we should have now. Well, and y'all stated that and
I respect it. Okay. Okay. So
that's the way it is. Council members, let's be mindful
we have two times to speak on a topic. You will have 10 minutes each time. 2, 2, 2
minutes. I'm sorry. Two minutes to speak on each time you speak. So right
now, I have lights that are tiffany, you have, uh, council member merrifield, you
may speak now. Council member kinlaw, you'll be able to
speak next and council member frank. But you guys will have two minutes to do that. Okay? Thank you.
and no hope you've spoken twice. You cannot speak again. Thank you.
thank you, mayor. Um, mr. Doucette,
I recognize that you have over these last two years repeatedly
mentioned things that you did not, um, agree with.
and over those last two years, this information now is,
I wanted to acknowledge that mr. Du said, but now this information is for the citizens.
often when not just often. I can't say every time
'cause there is no such thing as the absolute. But most of the time
a letter has been provided either from the texas municipal
league, from the attorney general or from our city
attorney, confirming what action we took
was legal and the times that it
was out of place, then those are the times that we had to make corrections.
but there have never been a time that we just
purposefully, purposefully went
out of line according to the definition of a forensic audit.
and so if there are specific times in a specific scope,
I would ask, has a specific scope been
proposed that is asking us
to use a specialized in investigative
techniques, investigative techniques to uncover fraud, embezzlement,
corruption, or other financial irregular irregularities
that our officer has, not our financial
officer hasn't already helped us to correct.
so I just wanna be clear that we have taken
the opportunities to make sure that we are in order
from our legal authorities.
councilman mckinley? Thank you, mayor. Uh, uh, I asked a
question, uh, for my colleague, uh, councilman doucette. Um, um,
what are some of those allegations? He mentioned items on the agenda,
not funded. He also mentioned streets. I was here when we started the street program,
uh, a couple years ago. And, um, I was on a
district three. And at the time that, uh, we did that, uh, we wanted
to kind of take the politics out of the play.
so we got a x-ray machine, went through the city, spent about $90,000
on there, and, and they gave us the,
the report that, um, how streets,
uh, the capacity streets level of, uh, damage to those streets and
council members at the time, the four district council members supposed to take that data
and work with, uh, the city manager and the staff and come up with the solution and how we were gonna attack
those streets. And then we started that because of the percentage of damaged,
uh, streets as well as, uh, the capacity of the district. And councilman
ett at the time, along with councilman, uh, district one, were the
two largest areas that, uh, got the largest monies by percentages.
now since then, councilman ett and district one, uh,
uh, percentages of completion of streets have
increased. Now he's, that district, district four is
at the bottom. So I'm not understanding when we talk
about, you know, fraud, abuse,
taking money outta street program. At no time since I've been on
this council, we've stopped working on streets
in the history of port arthur. We've, this council, or the
previous council has put more money into streets, into history.
so I'm not understanding the question of if, you
know, if fraud or abuse or negligence is happening
because we continuously work on streets.
and that's what we're supposed to do as council members, is to work on more than one thing.
we could do more than one thing. However, he, you know, my councilman, my
colleague, I respect his opinion, but I totally disagree with him.
you know, he had more streets done in the last five,
six years than any other district. So how has it been
abuse? So my question, you know, now I'm at a, at
large, so I look out, uh, for the entire city. Everyone has damaged
streets. Everyone up here gets the phone calls about they need they street
repair. So we have to come up with some type of
auto merit, but at no time, don't be mis
misguided that these streets programs are
continuously. The one thing that we have an issue with is finding contractors
to come and do these streets. Because again, it's
hard for contractors because they got many jobs to come in port arthur and to work
on the streets. But when we get these contractors here at city manager, we need to hold 'em down.
we have, we need to make sure that we hold them down and continue doing the projects that port arthur
has. So, you know, those two things that I asked, I asked it bluntly.
I mean, what is your directions? What's clarification on the things that you're saying
that this city is, uh, actually doing that would cause
for a forensic audit? I need more clarity in just those things
because streets program, that's at the will of the council to make those
determination, just like we started it in the beginning. So if it's something more
than just those two and those things that you said when I asked the question, you said street program.
and then you also stated that items on the agendas on the agenda
not funded. So if it's something more than that, and instead of the definition
of a forensic audit, I'd be, you got my ears and my eyes open.
thank you, mayor. Alright, thank you councilman. Uh, can, uh, councilman lewis?
yes. Finance director. Got a minute.
thank you, lynn. Good morning,
mayor. Council members, what is our good morning? What is our
total budget for this year? The total budget is, is over $400 million.
okay, thank you. When I first
came to council, we had a budget of $100 million.
now we have a budget of $400 million. And every
city manager I've been to conferences and everything, they always say I talk with a
spend time with different city manager. They, you know what they say, watch
the money. Watch your money, find out
where your money is going. Watch your money. $400 million
and y'all nitpicking about a brown bag sandwich or, or oh,
200 some thousand dollars and you got a $400 million,
you got a $400 million budget. It's taxpayer's money. A 400
tax bill's money of $400 million. That's not good money. Tax
bill's money. Yeah, they want it. They've been talking to me.
I don't know where you all been, but they'll, they'll accuse of, we get accused
every day, every time I talk with I I go to the grocery store. What?
and, and, and about violations.
mouthfeel, if you violate a bond, covenant is malfeasance.
look it up. He talking you, you violate those. That
is malfeasance. We
have to be mindful of the money that we'll spend
$400 million and you are talking about not spending 200
thou, uh, less than $300,000 to find out where the money is going. We
are we doing around, we got a baseline, we have a baseline, we have a baseline.
the previous, the previous, uh,
forensic audit. Let's compare. That's a reference,
that's a baseline. Let's find out how, how have we improved?
what have we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing better?
and we gonna have some more discussions on this. And I don't have a problem with budgeting the money,
uh, for, for a forensic audit. I have no problem with that. But we need to
take a look. We need to look and see where our money is
going. And I've heard, and I've witnessed plenty of malfeasance,
council member frank one who I follow
and serve, said that there's a tendency we have to,
uh, gag at a maggot and swallow a camel.
um, simply said, I've seen this council
argue over whether or not we ought to have a $15 lunch
as a council. And so now we going. And so now wait,
hold up, hold up, hold up. Wait, we are not gonna sleep at time. Lemme do it. Lemme do what I do.
hold up, hold up. We're going argue. We argue over a $15 lunch right
now, council member frank is speaking and we else, we, we,
we have, we have argued over a fif whether we ought to have a $15 lunch.
and we acquiesce to those wishes of councilmen who feel as though
we should not have a $15 lunch. But then we come right back and
say, it's okay to have $200,000 spent anyway,
you know, $200,000 spent. And it's no big deal.
I, I understand, I understand how important public trust
is and as a, a public official, but when we get down
to the point where, where these discussions are being held
over ideology, where the, and and
we are talking about whether or not, um, we see
something a different way. And that's what we're really, that's what
brought this about. What brought this about was whether or not
we violated the bond covenant when we had
the project on, um, on woodworth boulevard.
let's just be, let's put it out there. Let's just talk about it and say it.
we had our bond attorney come, we had people
come, we got an opinion from the, uh, da,
we got an opinion from texas municipal lead over whether
or not we had done anything wrong as a council
by utilizing those funds. We checked, we
looked, we asked, we got, um, we got,
uh, all of the things necessary to see whether or not
we had violated. And whether or not there was malfeasance
and there was not, but dogmatically,
it won't be let go. That's where we are. That's why we
are here. Because you won't let it go
because you, because four individuals on the council
voted and allowed it to happen and transpire because they
believed that we could walk and chew gum at the same time. And the project is
a beautiful project on the gateway to downtown port arthur.
it's not finished yet. It's not completed, but it looks beautiful. And,
and individuals on council dared to believe that port arthur ought
to have something nice, a gateway to downtown. Okay? That's
why we are here. That's what happened. That's what transpired.
let it go. Let it go.
thank, thank, let it go. Thank you council member frank. Council member lewis.
and the,
the bond covenant is in place. And I talked, and I, I called
the bond, uh, agent from the city
attorney's, the previous city attorney's office with the staff sitting in there
and he called it a violation.
oh wait, he, he said, councilman, I know where you're going with this.
I know where you're going with this, but I'm willing to hold my
nose. That's council member. No, no, no.
that's, I'm I I I'm, I'm in the meeting. I called you and the city
attorney was there. You was not there. I will get, I will determine you was not there. Who gets
what time to talk now? We said two minutes. I've let everybody go over that and
I'll let I talking. I'll determine that. Okay. Thank you. No,
sir. You've already spoken. I got a motion to make if everybody spoken,
if he's still speaking and you got people in the audience that's asking to speak as well, but
anytime, so I'll call it up the meeting anytime and I'll say again, what I need to do. It can
finish anytime. That bond issue was strictly for infrastructure,
not $7 million for landscaping a boulevard. It was for
you can, you can fix a, a water and sewer lines if it's,
if it's a problem. That was not the issue. They went down there and
moved $14 million to move $14 million.
and then, and people complaining about what are y'all, I can leave my house
and go in any direction and blow a tire, but y'all
spending, I didn't have a problem with land doing what? But
you had to budget for that, uh, the next time around. Okay. You don't just take it
out of a $50 million budget. You don't just do
that. It is malfeasance. When you're violated an ordinance,
it is, look it up and also look
up the definition of male feas and violating the city ordinance.
it'll tell you. And all in addition to that.
okay. Other. Thank you, mr. Thank you councilman lewis. Appreciate it. I have some people from
the audience that would like to speak. You'll have a, um, three minutes to speak.
sure. Thank you holland. Okay. Hello counsel. My name's holland hoffer. I live at
37 10. Dr. Martin luther king highway out on pleasure, highland.
um, to me, I detect fear in this room right now. It's like we're discussing
a forensic audit and everyone is shape-shifting, uh, trying to get away.
doesn't wanna discuss it, is doing everything to avoid it. Um,
council member, frank, you said that citizens aren't concerned and it's just,
um, council member doucette that was really interested in this. I know that you're
online and there are hundreds of citizens right now
making comments about this. This has been the hot topic for the last several months.
it was not even started by council member disette. It was brought up by several other
people and it, it, the ball got rolling and people have tons of
questions about all sorts of things going on. So to say that the city is not interested
in this is really a false statement because okay,
I'm sorry. I'm sorry to say that citizens are not fully interested. Those
that is who is driving this issue right now? Um, there's hundreds of 'em.
you know, we waste, I'm not sorry, we don't waste. We spend a lot of money
on what I would consider frivol frivolous projects around the city. Um, I'm
gonna refer back to the sign on port arthur. It was $264,000.
this audit will cost around the same amount. And we're looking at
taking a look at hundreds of millions of dollars that hopefully
nothing happened to. But if someone's misappropriated, it's gonna certainly pay
for that audit really quickly. Um, councilor hamilton,
I understand that the last time there was a forensic audit, nothing was done. That
is not to say that this time nothing will be done. Um, there's a lot of
people pushing for it now. There's a lot of effort behind it. And for
the cost it takes to do one, I think it would really benefit the city. And moving forward,
I think the citizens I speak on behalf of, a lot of them that are probably not here right now. Some, some are.
um, we'd like to do this. So thank you very much. Okay.
um, I think I saw another hand, gloria's.
okay, we have three minutes. Good morning,
mayor and consul. Gloria sanchez, 6 6 2 5 jade avenue.
uh, I have been watching meetings for over 18 years,
all the time. I have been watching cons. I in the budget
every time that they want to. Last year we amend
the budget to do, um, bonus for the employees. They
wasn't on the on, I'm sorry,
it wasn't on, on budget.
and we did it because you want to do it.
you concerned about 200, $400, but I see you
asking for $32 million week. We gonna spend over
30 million on interest. It's lost money,
money that we paying for. And it's just interesting. We
have to pay on the loan. But now you're concerned about
200 or $400. I think every single one of you need
to be concerned and be sure that whatever the 2017
for nz audit recommendations are followed and fix it.
that we no have any more longer employees be sending like a vendors,
the council are doing the things right. That every recommendation,
because it was a recommendation. I was here when the forensic
audit was, uh, reporting to council and
they was very clear and said, we are nobody to do accusation.
but you must follow the red flags.
the explanation, the cons gave it to me was the employees who did this
to the city are no longer here. Some of these employees are
back, are back. And just to be sure
that everything that happened 10 years ago is not happening now,
I think it's worth to spend this money on it.
and just to be sure that you have been no violated anything and you are doing
the things right. I think it's worth to spend this kind of money.
and like I said, you amend the budget three, four times, five times a
year. And now this is the excuse. It's not
on the budget. Really?
give me something better than that, please. Thank you,
ms. Joanne.
ms. Jones. Joanne jones. I speak as
a citizen, a port arthur. You all have some
parents. I understand that, but I can't go along with
it. Even in a team of four, when you all were voting,
I just don't think it was right when you all were carrying on business.
y'all had a team of four that was done and it wasn't legal.
and it, you know, that you all the way you
voted took to get what you all wanted. And here we, 75 million
is missing, uh, unappropriate. And here we asked for two
the citizens of port arthur, our own personal money.
and you do not give us credit to use it,
but you use it when you wanna use it, when it to benefit you, you're
not supposed to be. I mean, it's not about you all being benefited. It's about us.
and all we ask for is this little,
few dollars, you know, compared to what we have and work to
put it there and build our, uh, city. And you says, no,
give us some credit, give us some lean, you know, that we have since enough
too common sense, if not books says,
you know, that we are able to use our money the way we see fit. Sometimes
just sometime the traveling last year was, was real
outta order. You know, some of the council members took advantage of a lot
of traveling. And that's, it's, it's
just time. Give us some benefit. Give us some benefit. It's not gonna hurt
you. If it hurt anybody, it's gonna hurt us. Thank you.
thank you. Council member josette, you call in for, we need to call for them and
it, oh, I'm sorry. You'll
come up. I'm sorry. And I should have had everybody state their name and address and I apologize. I missed that.
okay. Mm-hmm. Hello, everyone. Linda baker. I live at
27 10 evergreen drive. Um, I would like to say
on behalf of the citizens who are concerned and would agree to having a
forensic audit, having been a former forensic auditor for the government,
um, I think there's a lot of questions that need to be answered. I also believe that,
um, having been an investor in a company called lift tech
that some of you may be aware of, we were awarded before I moved here
from central texas. We were actually awarded to be able to repay proctor.
and then whenever they got approved by texdot to be able to utilize the formula
that they came up with, they were told that the city didn't have the money.
I just would like to know what happened. That's all. I would also like
to know with many other questions that I have. Um, just
maybe what, maybe there's no malfeasance. Maybe it's just the way in which the financials are written.
maybe there's just not enough granular deri, uh, description
for where the money has gone. But I say that we do this audit,
and if nothing's going on, then fantastic. Thank you for your time.
thank you. Council member hamilton. Ever feel. Thank you, mayor.
is there an opportunity for, um,
ms. Ms? Oh my god, ms. Lynn,
our finance director to this would be a
question to city manager, actually host a workshop on the audits that have already
been done. Our audit is public information. It's readily
available on this city website. So I understand that people have questions
and they deserve to be answered, but a forensic audit is not the
only way that these questions can be answered. So is there an opportunity
that, and we, we had public hearings. Mayor added public
hearings during our budget, and they were very
extensive. We had some that were in the morning, some
were that were in the evening for the public to be able to come and ask
questions before we even approved our annual budget. So we have the opportunity
to ask these questions, but maybe the, the
methods that we previously used were not as effective that, that
needs to be for citizens to know that they can actually ask those questions.
okay. Uh, city manager, you had your light all. Yeah. Mayor. Mayor and council.
um, with reference to council women's ever
filled question, we do have all the audits posted on
our website. All the current audits being posted on the website.
um, I have asked staff to prepare a chronological
report of the past forensic audits. Um, I do have it with
me. Um, I'm prepared to post this on the website after
it has been vetted by the city attorney to make sure that the information
that we have compiled is very much accurate and it goes
back as far as 2005. Oh, okay.
you know, so with all the audits and all the resolutions and all the outcomes
and all the discussions and all the dates, um,
very detailed and I'll be very much prepared to put it on the website, um,
for the edification of the public as well, um, with one
of the, I think one of the learner gentlemen made the, the, the comment
that we have used city money for signs. The money
came from hot tax and council voted on several occasions,
hotel tax of proving the hot tax for the city signs
all over the city, mayor. So this money was appropriately,
it was the it, this money was appropriately spent
according to state and, um, state law and city ordinances,
all the ordinances, all the signs who finance
from hog tax. All the city of port arthur alpha signs.
yeah. All the city of port arthur signs
that was donated. That was money that was donated, um,
from a company money. Okay. Wait, we're gonna have order
in here. Okay. So we're not gonna speak from the audience, ma'am, right now, you've
already spoken. City manager is speaking, and so, um, city manager
will move forward with yes, I will move forward website. No one else is
allowed to speak. I'll promise you I will have you removed.
I will. So may, I will have the information vetted and posted on the website.
thank you. I appreciate that. At this time, we're gonna entertain the motion
and we'll take a roll call vote.
I make a motion that we'll prove
the conduct of a forensic audit.
second, there's been a motion and a second.
any discussions? I think they've all taken place. We're gonna do a
roll call vote at this time. City secretary
council member beckham. Yes.
mayor pro. Tim ett. Yes. Council member frank?
yes. Council member hamilton. Ever field?
no. Council member. Ken long? Yes.
council member lewis? Yes. Mayor moses.
no. Motion passes, mayor.
thank you. Thank you. Okay.
put it on facebook. Put it on. At this time, we're going to move to
public hearings. We have none at the number
item number five, reports of, uh, uh, items of community interest.
limited to a total of two minutes per council member. If there's
anything council members you'd like to announce at this time, you may do so.
uh, put on your lights. I have council member beckham. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Uh,
I would like to announce that on thursday, november 13th,
from nine to 12 at the port arthur public library, uh, there
will be a workshop for citizens who need
help in applying for the discount for the,
uh, water bill. And I'm pulling up the flyer right now so that I can give specific information.
um, water, utilities, and the library will host a senior water
discount workshop. This has been posted online. Uh, it's on my council member
page on social media, and it's also been posted by, uh, the library and
also by the city. Uh, again, it will be at the port arthur public library. That's at
46 15 ninth avenue. That's in district three. That's my
district. Um, thursday, november 13th from 9:00 am to 12.
uh, citizens who are 65 years of age or older that reside within the port
arthur city limits and a single family residence, uh,
that holds the water service account in their own name and have a current
homestead exemption or a lease agreement for the property also in your name.
so you've gotta bring those things with you, uh, to show that you do qualify
for this discount. There will be a presentation by the water department,
uh, question and answer period and application help. Uh, and I will be
there to assist also. So, uh, this is posted on social media. If you see it, please
share it and share this information with your friends and family members that, uh, qualify
for that senior citizen discount on the water bill. Thank you, mayor.
council member, uh, everfi. Thank you, ma'am.
the city of port arthur has a youth advisory council,
a city of port arthur youth advisory council, and one of the annual
projects that yak youth advisory council will host is
providing supplies such as toiletries, um,
socks, white towels, large towels, and small
hand towels to port city's rescue mission to support
the homeless in our community and surrounding areas. You'll
see boxes in city buildings throughout the community
and at some of these schools in order to place those items
into these boxes. And the port arthur youth advisory council
will deliver them, um, about a week before
christmas. So, again, this will be the, um, the first time that we're
doing this project, but it will be an annual project. And port city's rescue mission
is very grateful. Um, as you know,
homeless will be with us all the days of our life. And so I'm
just asking for anyone that may want to offer, um, those donations.
please feel free to add the items in the box. Thank you very much.
all right, we're going to move now to, um,
item six, unfinished business. We have none. Um,
we're going to move to item seven, our consent agenda. Council
members, if you have some items that you'd like to withhold, please put your light on and
I'll acknowledge you so that we can hold those items. Council member everfi.
sorry, mayor. Council member doucette?
yes. Mayor. Item number three on page
four. Okay,
that's council member frank. Um, item number four
on page four.
council member doucette. Yes. Mayor, I, I need to correct that.
I'm sorry. It's item number five on page four.
okay. So not item three, right? Not three. It's five.
okay. Alright.
can I get a motion for approval for the consent agenda?
second. It's been moved. And second, any discussions?
oh, I'm sorry. Let me start over. Um, I
want to move that we approve the consent agenda with the exceptions of item
four and item five on page four. And I'd like to
get a motion for approval for the consent agenda with those items being withheld,
it's been moved and properly. Second. Any discussions? All in
favor say aye. Aye. Any nos?
the ayes have it. The consent agenda passes with the exception
of item number four and number five on page four.
we will now, um, go to number four on page four,
pr number 2, 4 5 7 4. A resolution approving
a technical assistance agreement between the port arthur economic development
corporation and the national council, uh, for community development
incorporated, dba, uh, grow america for the
period of one year upon pr pa edcs, execution of
the agreement in an amount not to exceed $75,000
funds available in edc. Account number 1 2 0
dash 8 6 2 5 dash 5 4 2 0 0 0
professional services. Can I get a motion for approval? So moved. Second.
it's been moved and properly. Second. Moved by council member frank and
second by council member lewis, any
questions? Yes. Okay. Council member, frank. Thank you. Mayor.
propositions are, are on our minds. The edc is on our minds right
now because we have a proposition that is, that has been on the ballot and is
on the ballot right now. Uh, because we are asking as a council for
the authority, uh, to do projects, uh, here in our city
with a hybrid a and b, uh, edc.
and so, uh, I want to be sure that individuals are,
uh, taking an opportunity to have their voices heard, uh,
on that proposition, if you have not already done so. Uh, so that we can help
our city grow. We believe that it will help. But I want
to ask a question concerning this because we have allowed
you can come please. Uh, you, because we did
approve this, because economic development is always on the forefront
of our minds here in the city, uh, as we're watching projects,
uh, come about. So I wanted to know exactly what,
um, what has been going on with this company? What is,
uh, what has been approved, what has been put in place? How
is it progressing, and why do you believe that is
necessary that we continue this contract? You know, what has been
the fruit of our efforts with this contract? Yes, councilman?
so, uh, grow america, formerly known as the national development
council, has been our technical advisor for, uh, more than
10 years, I'd say annually. We come to you all to renew their contract,
their technical services, um, include professional services such
as, um, financial review and analysis of
our projects, as well as incentive agreements or incentive recipients
and applicants. They do all of that, those number running for us
so that we can make good decisions on the projects that we invest in.
um, uh, also they manage our grow port arthur fund, which is
an sba backed small business loan for, um, small businesses
in port arthur. So they are the, the, uh,
entity that matches that fund and manages it for us
amongst other technical advisory advising that they do for us. How many
small businesses are, have been loaned money, say in the last
year or, um, in the last year? In, in,
in our city, we have not had any loans processed through groveport
arthur fund. Um, in the last year, we do have one current applicant that
is going through, uh, the application phase right now. How many have
we seen over the, over, over the last five years, would you say?
I believe we have two open loans. Two open loans
over five years. Yes. So you believe that this,
so you believe that this con I'm sorry. So you believe
that this contract should continue and then we we're getting banged for the buck,
um, out of this? Yes, sir. Because not only, um,
do they manage that grove port arthur fund for us, they provide technical advising for
us that, uh, we can't do in-house. So they, they are
a, a very necessary resource for us. Okay. Alright.
thank you so much. I have, uh, council member ettes light on.
yes. A couple of things. Comments. First one being
we don't have a hybrid. The state of texas does not have hybrid
edcs. All edcs is gonna be a a or b,
no hybrid. The second thing, ndc,
I've served on e-e-d-c-n-d-c
due the financials for them. If you apply for incentives
for the edc, you apply for,
uh, assistance. You have to submit
your financials to the edc, who in turns
pass it on to ndc. Ndc goes through it
like banks do. Can't they let ddc know, hey,
that's a risk. That's not a risk.
that is why the a dc has so far
been able to use money that was not wasted
because they do not listen to what somebody say they have
or what they bring to 'em. They actually send it to them and they
do the same thing when they run a financial check. So it's been protected in the edc
for years. And if you go back and look at that track record, you're not gonna find
that they, uh, invested or they gave money to any clients
where it was a waste or it was funded. You know, I think in the 11 years I've
been involved in understanding edc and everything, I think, uh,
there's only one project that I know folded under the whole thing.
but when they ran the financials, it was good, but it folded. But
whenever you do something of that magnitude, you are protecting
citizens tax dollars. And it has nothing to do with anybody
work there. So even if you talk to people, work there
and they like you, and now it still goes to n-d-c-n-d-c is gonna look at it,
they're gonna say, risk,
high risk, no risk, or we think it's the good deal.
now did I explain that exactly what happens over there? ?
yes. I thought that. Thank you. Okay, thank you. That's what I just wanted to add.
okay. Council member lewis. Yes. Appreciate your
look. Ed's the economic development corporation
when it was in place, put in place in
1996. Up until now, have there ever been any
grants for small businesses?
we provide incentives rather than grants. Um, and
small business, it'll depend on, on how you, uh, classify small
business. Some of the businesses that we do, we have provided incentives for which
are industrial business can be classified as a small business. Oh, I'm saying have,
have small, have have the edc board ever done any
give they give away, they give away tons of money
since 1996 okay.
for infrastructure and whatever, helping, helping, uh, other businesses.
but when it come down to now, I've sent 'em to the edc and hoping that board
members would do something, put it on the ballot, and he, councilman
deuce said, said he served twice down there, never done nothing. Small business
grants. Once they had the, the a corporation set up,
you never had to voted in place. They never had to go back. They just give
away money. Give away money. Yes. You know, you qualifi the backgrounds and everything,
but they have never took the time to help a
small business with a grant to put a roof on, on the house, on,
on, on their business. All of those small
businesses I have sent to economic development corporation, they wanted to give 'em
a loan. Small businesses do not need a loan.
they need grants. Something that they don't have to pay back. All the other businesses,
1996 have been getting grants, never pay 'em back.
but when it come down to small businesses, oh, well, they gotta pay the background check.
and all this suppose a small grove, for example, small businesses
that was reimbursed for putting a roof on the, on the building or
for an adding extension. Okay. You know, I mean,
they, they, the city, it is on the front page of port arthur news. They helped
their small businesses, but port arthur has not. Now we got an opportunity
to do something with the hybrid. And there is a hybrid program. The regulation talks
about the hybrid 2023. It was the hybrid program
passed. You could read the regulations. Okay. Uh,
we need to continue to help small men. I'm urging everybody, when you go to oppose
today, be sure to vote for the proposition eight.
you can't do that council, lord, you can't do that. You,
you know. Okay. Okay. Y'all, we already know. Let's
stop this. Okay. We know, sir.
sir, you cannot do that in here. We cannot endorse as public officials
of a proposition. No, we cannot. Okay. I'm done with that city manager.
yeah. Mayor crystal, I hope I
did not miss it. Um, you explained that grow
america was formally the ndc. You did, did you?
yes, sir. They're formerly national development council. Yeah. And, and technically they still are
the national right development council, but they're doing business now as grow america. Yes. Yeah.
and the other thing that in response to, um, councilman frank's
question, one of the most significant projects that they have undertaken in the last five
years with the edc is the renaissance apartments. Mm-hmm. Correct.
yes. So, and that was a significant achievement both for the ed
c and for the city. Mm-hmm . You. Absolutely. So that's 30 odd million dollars
at the time when we did it. Mm-hmm. Okay. So it has been a significant
achievement. Yeah. Yes. Alright. All. Are we done?
I have no more councilman you said? Yes. Yes. I just wanted to add that, uh,
the reason you can't do grants and stuff for small b, it's a type
a corporation. Type a corporation,
all it. What we want to do and who we want to help
is a type a corporation. There's things they can do. There's
a way to do it. It's all written in the regulations. The
local government codes. The local government code has two
government code that identified types of corporations
in the state of texas. 5 0 4. 5 0 3. Anything
else you read is not written and
approved by the legislature. 5 0 4 and not 5 0 5
was approved by the texas legislature. And if there's any amendments or changes to
them, that's who will do it. And that's what I'm talking about. We need to follow is
written. Okay. Uh, council member frank,
I just wanted to add in my second time of going around, councilman deuce
is correct, but five years ago I came
on this council and I began to ask questions. I'd gone to the edc,
sat down with the director at that particular time and talked to them about the
conversion from a type a to a type bedc.
needling has a type b, uh, ed, c. Most of the,
most of the cities with our demographics and in our state
have a type b, ed, c, which affords them the opportunity to
do type a and type b projects without going to the voters
every time that they do it. And so there was a,
um, there was, um, there was no will,
there was no desire, uh, to change from a type a,
edc to go to a type bedc that would help businesses
because there was a concern, um, because of a type
bedc that council members could sit on the, on
the council or whatever. We weren't trying to take over the edc
at that particular time. And that was, um, the whole,
um, that was the whole, uh, scare
tactic to us moving to a type bedc at that particular
time that, that the council wanted to take over, uh, the edc.
that was not it. We were simply trying to do what councilman lewis was saying
to help small businesses to help, um, the engine,
uh, drive small businesses in our community so that we could do
downtown. And we have a tour zone and all of those things to help our city,
uh, as well, uh, to be revitalized. But we need projects,
um, like the waterpark. We need projects that bring
a quality of life in our city. And that's what that proposition
is all about. On the council today, city attorney's asking to speak
city attorney, if we could redirect back to the agenda item. I think we're getting off scope.
yes. We okay. We we're gonna be back on task. Okay. So
at this point, we're going to, uh, move for our vote
on the, uh, item that's here, which is approving a technical assistance agreement
between the city of port arthur economic development corporation and national council of,
uh, community development, known before as, um,
ndc, but now doing business as grow america for the period of one year.
can I, um, all in favor say aye. Aye.
the ayes have it. Let me make sure we have no anyone against this
nos. Any nos? No. So the ayes have it. The resolution passes.
we're gonna go to pr number 2 4 5 8 1 a
resolution authorizing the contract extension for the 25th
street bridge repair project with wool pert incorporated
of houston, texas. There is no funding intact for the contract extension.
can I get a motion for approval? Motion for approval? Second. It's been motioned.
and second motioned, uh, by council member lewis, and second by council member
frank. Um, any questions? Council member ett? Yes.
thank you, mayor. When looking at the background information
for, for this particular item, it's something that caught my attention.
it said that the delay was
be from deliberating, you know,
and, and I've always, that's something that, that I keep talking about is
we do not moves. There
are sometimes things can happen that will cause a delay
that is unforeseen and you can't help. So, my question here,
what was this delay that stopped us
from moving when we first took action? Action. What
was the delay there? There were several. The delay was,
the delay was, there was a discussion where the city
manager was seeking information from motiva at the time
that was interested in 25th street. And, um, whether we
were going to undertake the investment of repairing the bridge
at that time. And, um, the monies at that time was not in
the budget for us to repair the street. For the bri yes. Excuse me.
for the bri yes. No money in the budget for the bridge. That's right. That's right. There was no
money. It's only this year that we have placed the money and counselor approved the
repairs of both 25th street and ninth avenue.
in, in spite of that, we are going to get the report, which is a good thing,
which is the delay is a good thing because the, the reports
will indicate to us whether, as I've, in my discussion
with my city engineer, the current city engineer, whether
it would be much more valuable to undertake the repairs or to just replace the bridge.
we will get an idea, a much more solid idea of that when we do, when
we continue with this. Well that's good. 'cause basically what we're saying is really,
we really wasn't moving into talking about
design and replacement at the time. It just came to
us and everything. Yes. But then
instead of talking about bridge, we went into looking at it. If we going to give up the bridge,
uh, if we gonna give up the street, so then that's what yes. Yes. So you went from here to
here. That's right. And then now we decided to come back here. Yes. And then now, you know, one of
the things that I took into consideration and in my discussion with the public
works department at the time was if we were to do anything, I would've rather
attempted the bridge on ninth avenue because we have the two high schools
out there. Yeah. You know, and then close it during the summer season when
it, you know, it is been less traverse, you know, that sort of thing. That's,
that's good. I just needed to know because we, we, we say it in the background,
it was deliberation, but it wasn't no explanation of why
we deliberating. So thank you city man. That's a good, I'll accept that one.
that's a good one. Mm-hmm . All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
any nos? The eyes have it. The resolution passes. We're gonna move
on to page number five. Well, um, item eight
items require an individual action, non-consent.
a number one, a p pr number 2 4 5 1 9.
a resolution of appointing a member or members to the construction board
of adjustments and appeals. Can I get a motion for approval? So moved. Second.
it's been moved by council member kinlaw and second by council member. Ever
feel, uh, any questions? All in
favor say aye. Aye. Any nose?
the eyes have it. The resolution passes
pr number 2 4 5 4 7 a resolution
authorizing the approval of the quarterly payments of solid waste permit fees for
the landfill to the texas commission on environmental quality tceq
with a projected budgetary impact amount of $148,000.
funding is available in account number 4 0 3 5 0 3 2 0 5 4 7.
can I get a motion for approval? Motion approval. Second. It's been motion
for approval by council member lewis and second by council member doucette.
any questions? All in favor say aye. Aye.
any nos? The ayes have it. The resolution passes pr
number 2 4 5 6 0 a resolution, appointing and or
reappointing members to the zoning board of adjustment pursuant to appendix a
zoning section 5.04 of the city of port arthur code of ordinances.
can I get a motion for approval? There has been a motion
by council member lewis, second by council member doucette, any questions?
all in favor say I. Wait, wait. , I wanna make sure I'm not missing
something here. And this is, this is number three. Councilman
beckham, you can speak. Yes, it's number three. Okay. I have a
name. Okay. Lemme make sure I'm
on the right one. Zoning, board of adjustments.
zoning. Board of adjustments? Yes.
I would like to appoint for district three. Holland hoffer.
okay. Council members. Any other appointments to this board
or do you already have the names? Um, let me ask, have we given our
city secretary the names by, by pam? By way of
how many on that board? There are some names on in the resolution. That's
my understanding. Yes. I wasn't given the
names to call out. Okay. Um, assistant city
manager. You take the podium for me please.
good morning, mayor and council. Um, at one of the previous council members,
mayor, you appointed kareem, nelson and councilwoman ever
feel appointed, um, or reappointed? Chris lopez mm-hmm . Um,
but I am still needing an appointment from the remainder of council for
the zoning board. And so member beckham just made hers, which
is holly hoffer howard. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So all other council members need
to appoint someone, their terms expired or can you? They are expired.
they're expired. Okay. How many do I have? Question. Okay, I have lights.
council members, seven members. How many is on that board? Seven members an
appointment from each, um, council seat. What's district one's appointment? Has
it expired? It has all, um, appointments have expired. Okay. What's the name?
let's see.
previous appointment was langston adams. Who? Langston adams.
langston adams. Yes sir. I'll check with him. Okay, mayor.
okay. Council member doucette? Yes. I I need clarification, mayor.
yes, sir. On, on these boards. Okay.
which one are we talking about? We're talking about the zoning board of adjustments.
that's number three. Yes sir. Okay. The zoning adjustment,
the board of adjustment in the fields, right? Yes sir.
is that one that we each have an appointee
or is that one where we had the yes sir. The planning and zoning commission is
the only five member board that we oversee. Um, but the
zoning board and construction board have seven members. Um, that each
council gets an appointment to that board, those boards. Okay. Then
my next question is, uh, you have no names
in that. Can't we, can't we
get to a point whereby the city secretary
keeps record, but whoever is in charge of
these boards, right? Yes sir. We have a, a staff
yes sir. That oversees all our boards. Okay. Yes sir.
the staff that oversees all our boards. If council appoints
a member and that member doesn't attend meetings or that member's,
uh, counter
obstructive of something, you know, why don't that
person that's oversee this mm-hmm .
give them information to the city secretary. The city secretary, work with the council
member. Mm-hmm . Okay. If we need to replace somebody,
whoever oversee the board, notify the city secretary. Mm-hmm
. And the city secretary by secretary notify us
individually mm-hmm . To seem like we keep talking these name,
these names and stuff. Because once we give the
name to the city secretary, then when we get these things on
resolutions, we won't be asking for names. 'cause I noticed when
we did it that way before, whenever we had this on the item
on the agenda mm-hmm . She would say, well, the mayor read
the thing, then the city secretary would say, we'd like to
include this name. Yes sir. Instead of asking
and going through this, who got names and all this, why don't we go back to doing that? That way
it was pretty, there's definitely not an issue with that. Um, I do wanna note
that communication was sent to council prior to today's meeting. So the information
could be provided to the city secretary. I, I received the information,
I received the information in the agenda when I read the background.
yes, there were emails as well. I read all this thing. What I'm saying is
sometimes we doing this and it's one mm-hmm
. So that's why I said before it was simple. You
know, we got notified individually that either
somebody will point not attending meetings and needs to be removed.
and that she asked us. Yes, sir. So then we provided that information
back to her. Yes, sir. Then when it came to the resolution,
instead of asking for names, we read the resolution.
the mayor said, okay, do we have a name? See the secretary say yes, so and
so, yes sir, we won't. And said, will the name, who's in it now?
that's all I'm saying, why can't we go back to doing it that way? It was pretty simple. Not
a problem. Let me, I'm sorry. Um, you
said these terms expired, these are all, all of our person's
terms expired? That is correct. Okay. Nope. Okay.
okay. You see, mayor, but that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Because we should never be in this
point in our old system. Because what would've happened was,
I think that, go ahead counsel. What just said, let me go ahead.
we would have known that
they expired and I've never seen an incident where all of
them expired the same time. That never,
I ain't never seen this pro promote, I mean, put anybody on the board all at one time.
so yes sir. Evidently, and when I looked at the years that they expired right.
it was way back there right. In the background. So,
so, so we really behind on that one. Yes. And that's why we at where
we are. And that's the kinda I ask, you know, if the person in charge
of overseeing these board and committee that we appoint people to
will just get on it more and make sure that we as council
members are aware of somebody who's
coming up for an expiration or someone who's not attending the meetings
and they should be replaced. Because I, for one, once I appoint
somebody, I don't communicate with 'em. 'cause they have to work with that board of commissioner or
whatever it is. And that's, I'll appoint them to work with them, not me. Yes, sir.
but if they're not attending or they're not contributing,
then if the sec secretary says, councilman de said you got
this person, I call 'em up, say, hey, came a to vi
put somebody else. Yes sir. Okay. But I think we can, I
mean, that's the way it used to be. So we stayed on top of it rather
than falling behind. Yes sir. Mayor, thank
you. Um, thank you. I appreciate that. But I think the city secretary
should be tracking all of our appointments. Thank you for being here
as assistant city manager. Yes. That is not your job. Right.
but we appreciate you. But I do believe that all of our appointees, 'cause I have
lights, but I'm gonna speak yes ma'am. Um, should, um, should be
followed through and given us updates when a, an available time. That's the duty of the
city secretary. And I think that, um, we've made new appointments, we need
updated sheets, um, from council on all of our boards as to who needs
to be appointed because there are meetings that are trying to take place
in different, uh, for instance, in the construction board of adjustments and appeals
that my person wasn't really showing up and so I had to appoint someone
else. But I, I asked for a list of who all I needed to appoint for
the year and I got that. Now that needs to be updated so that the council
as a whole in its entirety will know what positions need to be
updated and who they need to reappoint and what's expiring. And I think
that's contingent upon our, the office in which we, um, and that's the
city secretary? Yes, ma'am. When you got an update, we, that
was sent out to all the council, the update that I gave you. So you emailed it
to everybody mm-hmm . Yes. I, okay. Alright. Thank you. Appreciate that. Council member lewis?
yes. On your list, do you have we, we have a,
a rule over the years, we just allows
citizens to serve on individual boards, not multiple boards.
is there, is there any duplications?
would like this kind of spread? Spread, spread? I wouldn't have that information.
I can only speak for the boards and commissions in which we oversee. Right? Yes. Uh,
have the state law have anything changed far as, uh, adjustment
boards in appeal? Um, that board still have
the authority to overrule the council. Right. Um, well, items that go
to the zoning board of adjustments because they're quasi judicial or
challenged in district court, it's not an item that comes to counsel for approval
or denial. So they have the final
decision. Yeah. Right. That's, that's the point. They have, they have the final
decision because I have sent, uh, people that wanted to have
some, uh, health, health conditions want to move, uh, the parents
in on their property temporarily until, and, uh,
they, they had the authority to hoo it. That is correct. But there is specific
criteria that they must follow that they must follow that's in accordance with state
law. But we provide them with that criteria. Good. Councilor mcken law,
uh, pam? Yes, sir. Did you also, maybe I missed this. Are you saying that you're not
getting a quorum for the board? Because if my appointee, uh, um,
mr. Abt, I mean is your, this is just a matter where the,
um, terms for the board had expired. We actually have not met. Okay.
alright. Um, in quite some time. Again, there's specific criteria when you bring an
item to the zoning board of adjustments. Yes ma'am. So there have not been a need. Yes, ma'am.
um, but to make sure that we were up in current, and it was based on the
mayor's inquiry, we discovered that the board had their
terms had expired. So we are just cleaning everything up. Cleaning it up. Yeah. Hey, well
if you don't mind, uh, pam, uh, sherry, uh, anthony albert? Uh,
yes, but he was, uh, I had him, that was when I was in district three. So now we're
gonna have to move him to, uh, uh, position at large five. Absolutely. Thank you so
much. Mm-hmm . Council member frank? Yes. I wanna submit
the name of alice washington to the list.
okay. Council member gisette? Yes.
uh, uh, I'm gonna go back and look at this list
and anybody that, uh, I do not have a name. Yes sir. I
will submit it to the se secretary yes sir. This week and
I'll get that done. Sure. Anybody that I have serving on any
boards or commission that I've appointed? Yes, sir. If
that term come up for reappointment
or another appointment, I don't ever remove
anybody. So if it's district four yes, sir. And you see that
the term is about to expire? Yes sir. Whoever oversees it
need to just let the person go and see the city secretary
so that she can understand they're gonna be in it. I don't, I don't change. Yes,
sir. Okay. And we'll coordinate with the city secretary's office. Right. I, I got
pretty understanding of where it's going now. I think I can get her the names and do
that. Yes, sir. Alright. Thank you pam. All in favor say aye. Aye.
aye. Any nos? The ayes have it. The resolution passes. We're
gonna move to page number six. Number four, a resolution appointing and
reappointing members for the historical landmark commission. Can I get a motion for approval?
so moved. So's been moved by councilman mcken law, second by council member
beckham. Um, any discussions? Do we have na do we need
names here maam? I do have names for those. You have names for those? Okay.
yes. Awesome. All in favor say aye. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I have a, I have
a question. Um, so my appointee
term out in august of 2025, sherry, um, do you have
her name as reappointed for district three? Pat holmes? Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you. I
have the mayor zulema escobido. Mm-hmm for council member beckham
pat holmes for council member hamilton ever field and twin freeman.
that's the names that we were given in honor. Okay. All in
favor say aye. Aye. I didn't get all in favor, say aye.
aye. Can I, can I get y'all's? Aye. Yes ma'am. Aye.
and he knows the ayes have it. The resolution passes
pr number 2, 4, 5, 6 3 resolution authorized in the city
manager to contract with scs engineers
of houston, texas for groundwater, landfill gas and
air quality monitoring at the landfill from november, 2025 to august, 2026
for $171,500. Funds are available in
public works department. Landfill division, professional services. Account number 4 0 3
dash five zero dash 3 2 0 dash 5 4 0 0 0.
no, that's 2 0 0 0 0 0. Can I get a motion for approval?
so moved. Mary. It's been, uh, moved and second moved by councilman
kinlaw and second by councilwoman. Ever feel, uh, any discussions?
all in favor say aye. Aye. The ayes have
it. The resolution passes pr number 2, 4 5, 6 4
resolution granting consent to the assignment of the industrial district agreement
ida between the city of port arthur and basf corporation
2018 to 2027 approved by resolution number
one seven dash 3 51 to basf agricultural
solutions u-s-l-l-c. Can I get a motion for approval? So
moved. Second. It's been moved. My council member doucette and
mayor pro tem ett. And second by council member beckham.
any questions? All in favor? Yes. Say aye.
okay. Oh, council member lewis, you have your light on? Yes. Sorry. Uh,
city manager. Uh, this basf,
how the employment, those kind of things.
what, what standing are they? Are they supporting our
port alto residents? Are
they in compliance or outta compliance or what? I would have city manager. I would've
to check the reports. They're still submitting reports, um, to us. They're
still support submitting the reports based on the requirements?
yes, they still do. I'll have to check with huey, our compliance guy.
um, I could provide you with an update on that. Okay. Where is huey?
our compliance office? Huh? Wait, I was hoping he'd be here when I saw that. Okay.
did city manager, are you done? No, I'm done.
could you get hug? Could we skip this and get hug up here? Okay.
wait, I got a comment. Hold on. I have council member ett. Yes.
this, this is a consent to just
reassign it because it's going under another name. This contract
is not okay. This contract is not being altered
and is not up to agreement right now. It just, I understand being
reassigned. I understand that. Okay, so I'm, but I want to find out if they in compliance
it well we could do that later on since it's not right. That's what I said. Yeah. I wanna find out if
they're in compliance. See the manager. That's what I said. Provide you with the information. Yeah,
that's what I said. Said he said he could provide you with the information later. That's what he said.
okay. Alright. Okay.
all in favor say aye. Aye. Any nos?
the ayes have it. The resolution passes. P number seven, pr
number 2 4 5 8 4 resolution authorizing the purchase
of 12 portable radios and 10 mobile radios with accessories
for the fire department for motorola, solutions of houston, texas through
hgac contract 1 7 7 2 4 dash hgac
tx ra oh five dash 21 and the amount of 142,845.
$845,000 and 24 cents. Funding is
available in equipment account number 6 2 5 1 9 4 7
dash 8 5 22 dash 0 0 0.
so moved. Ms. Been moved. And second.
any questions? All in favor say aye. Aye.
any nos? The a's have it. The resolution passes
pr number 2 4 5 85 a resolution authorizing
the port arthur fire department to purchase 11 self-contained breathing
apparatus, scba from casco industries
of laporte, texas under by board contract number
6 9 8 dash two three with a projected capital budgetary impact
of $106,095. Funding is available
in account number 6 2 6 dash nine dash 0 4 7
dash 8 5 2 2 dash 3 0 0.
can I get a motion for approval? It's
been moved by council member lewis and second by council member woman councilman. Ever
feel any discussions? All in favor
say aye. A aye. Any nos?
the ayes have it. The resolution passes number nine, pr
number 2 4 5 8 9 a resolution amending resolution number
two four dash 4 55 and the response to the office of the
governor's request for additional language affirming the city of port arthur's
obligations under its acceptance of the fiscal year 2025
body-worn camera grant from the office of the governor public safety
division in the amount of $132,381
and 60 cents. Can I get a motion for approval?
it's been moved by council member beckham and council member beckham and
second by councilwoman. Ever feel any questions? All in favor
say aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes have
it. The resolution passes pr, I'm sorry. Number page
seven. Pr number two. 4 5 9 7.
a resolution. A resolution casting votes for the board of directors for
the jefferson central appraisal district for the 20 26 29
term. Can I get a motion for approval? It's moved second. It's
been moved in second. Any discussions
at this time? We have to say, I think state where we're casting our votes
and we have, um, our, uh, own council member, donald frank,
who's on the ballot. So I'd like to know, I'm making sure that we are very
clear that those votes will be cast, uh, uh, uh, the
council's in agreement to cast those votes for our council member. Or do we have five
names on the ballot? So,
okay. Just wanna make sure I have to have to put it out there. So
we are voting, um, our votes. Mm-hmm. It's already a motion in here. It's in here. His
name has been selected. Donald frank. Um, as
our, um, our votes will go, all of our votes will
go toward council member frank for this jefferson county appraisal district.
all in favor say aye. A any nos? The
ayes have it and the resolution passes. Pr number
2 4 6 0 1 a resolution authorizing the city manager
to purchase one. Alan allon, a dv 500
compactor from al john by c and c manufacturing
of ottaway, iowa to compact and spread waste in
the landfill. In compliance with the state regulations through the houston galveston
area council, hgac cooperative purchasing program.
contract number pw 10 dash 25 with a projected amount
of $950,000 funds are available in the capital improvement
program. Account account number 4 0 3 dash 5 0 3 2 8 5 2 3
dash 0 0 0 dash zero zero. Can I get
a motion for approval? It's motion for approval. It's been moved. And second
moved by council member frank and second by council member lewis.
any discussions? All in favor say aye. Aye.
any nos? The ayes have it. The resolution passes
pr number 2 4 6 0 3. A resolution authorizing
city manager to enter into a contract between the city of port arthur
and freeze and nichols incorporated for the review, analysis and revision of
chapter 98. Subdivision of the city of port arthur code of
ordinances, and an amount not to exceed $164,800
funding available in planning professional services. Account
number 0 0 1 dash one three dash 0 3 1 dash
5 4 2 0 dash zero zero dash 0 0 0.
can we get a motion for approval? It's so moved. Second. It got motion
and a second. Any questions? Yes. Council member de
said, yes. City manager.
most of our code and ordinance here in the city are
direct in compliance with state ordinance and stuff.
and then we get into our uniqueness here in the city. Being a home rule,
we have here $164,800
for somebody to come in one review
this chapter two analysis
and three revision of the chapter. We've
been getting, we've been getting these contracts for people to come in and do that.
most of our codes and stuff we have to conform
with the state of texas.
do we have, we looked at chapter 98 and
we cannot look at it and
see what we need to revise for
our city. I mean, let's look at the chapter.
take a look at what we have in place. If it's not sufficient,
should we know what we need to do to make it effective
in our city instead of paying somebody $165,000?
I just need to know why we gotta pay
somebody for this. I mean, what does this this entail that we can't do this? Yes.
is he through, uh, council member? I'm sorry. City manager.
go ahead. Yeah. Um, council member, the
subdivision regulation is a very, chapter
60 is a very technical document
that has and, and, and I'm, I'm not questioning the
ability of our city attorney here or any member of the,
um, the, the legal department, but it's a highly technical
document that needs input from both engineering
and planning professionals in order to put the document together.
the subdivision re regulation is also an
arm of the comprehensive plan. Um, freezer nichols
years ago provided us, um, um, after some 25
years with the new comprehensive plan for the city of po arthur
detect the, the subdivision regulation has to read
arm in arm with the comprehensive plan. And so part of the
subdivision regulation are highly designed sketches,
which I'm sure the city attorney's officer, no member of staff has the ability
to produce as well. The ab the, the, the technical expertise
is just not in-house. What a hundred percent of cities
that I've ever worked with as a planner has always worked
with agencies that provide that professional
services to them to make sure that it's
accurate at all times. Because you provide that information
to developers who come here and that information
has to be very much accurate and
concise both in its presentation and in and
in its design. So we wanna make sure that the information
we provide to our developers is very accurately done
and very professionally done as well. That is why we
have had the assistant to the manager and the planning staff
to go out there and to see which organization
or which vendor can provide us with the best tailored
technical assistance that would work in compliance
with our comprehensive plan and other development
and other development policy documents
that we have in place. That is why we are going out, um, um, for, um,
a request for proposal and we have awarded a, the, the con we have worked with
fries nichols and awarded that to them. In a nutshell. In a nutshell, well,
you know, that's, that's, that's my concern too because seems, seems like every time I turn
around we, during consulting contract for review and it's
freezer, nichols or somebody else. And that's why you say technical, technical,
technical. You keep saying to, I understand,
I understand it should be done.
but when you start saying, our
engineer or our attorney ain't
knowledgeable or not, that's why
they have others places we could go to find out and ask
questions to help us to do it. Right. You know,
somewhere down the line, they got other type
of subdivision plans in other
cities, a lot of times they competent enough to get with
other cities and look at their plan and see if their plan fit, our plan to fit
into our ma uh, master plan
or our plan. So they may not
know, but you could reach out
to cities who have one that probably could fit into yours.
these contracts is my big
question. Why aren't we doing it? And not that,
but I think our staff will get knowledgeable and
more knowledgeable, uh, uh, trying to go out with this. But at some point in
time, just like you keep saying technical, technical, technical,
when I look at this, I look at what I want, 165,000
it says to review. I don't need them to review.
our staff may not be technical, but they sure could look at it, analyze,
they could see what we have
revise. So really they're
not getting it, they're not starting it for us. They just going to revise it.
well, we could go out and seek information from other cities
and stuff before we just give $165,000
and stuff. And, and, and, and, and you hit the nail
on the head when you said you have turned to them for I I have seen
a number of contracts. I've seen us have them to redo
a code, a code of ordinance. And when I looked at what was changed,
very few things were changed. It just rewrote what we had.
okay. Thank you though, manager. I got it. Yeah. Let, let me also share with you
the, um, councilman, when I was director of development service, I did a diagnostic
analysis of the subdivision regulations. They could, this could have been much
more expensive, but I did it in house, remember? Remember that pam?
and that was the basis for doing this right now, which is much, which came
out much cheaper. So we, we gave them that document that they could work as
a template from, you know, because the, the subdivision
regulation haven't been re-reviewed in what, 30 years? Longer
or longer than that. In what? In 30. In 30 years. And then
in order to assist us to continue over the last few years. Well, well
it had to be reviewed 'cause you said you reviewed it and you worked on it, so yeah. So
you need to gimme that time from when you looked at it. Okay. Yes. , you know,
uh, and everything. Yeah. Council member lewis,
pam, what'll be the turnaround time on getting this done?
the, um, consultant, um, has estimated
a timeframe of 12 months. Um, however, due to the
upcoming holidays with thanksgiving, christmas, um, we have, I believe,
as part of the contract, extended it to insure. So what you, so what you are saying,
if it was done in house, it would, along with your regular
work. Oh, it would take much longer. Huh? It would take much longer. That's absolutely.
so, so now you're shortening this span of time by getting
the consultants in here. That is correct. That turnaround time so
we can get this plan implemented. Council member frank, turnaround time is important to me. Oh,
yes. I'm oh, you wanna call for question? Okay,
well, we're gonna call for question. Ready to vote. Alright. At this time we
have, um, we're gonna move on. All in favor say
aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes have that the
resolution passes. We're gonna move to item number, um, 13 pr number
2 4 6 1 5 a resolution appointed and are reappointed
a member of members or members to the port arthur youth advisory council.
yak requested by council member hamilton ever field.
thank you mayor. I am adding, can
I get a motion for approval? Motion? Second. I had a motion and a second. Any
discussions? I'm sorry guys. Thank you. You can have a floor
it. I already feel like it's a long day. Yeah, yeah. Um,
for, I need to replace an appointment. Okay.
uh, city secretary, I will email you that information.
um, but for the record, it would be replacing
ms. Estella torres. She has, uh, not participated,
so I'm replacing her with kaylyn gardner jr.
and I'm also asking for, um, mr. Lewis,
for your appointment, can we please get updated contact information
for them so we can reach out to reach out to them again to
okay, we, okay. We need their, their contact information.
um, for councilwoman beckham, may we please have
the information for, um, cut birth asher cut birth.
that the what information? Phone numbers
for actually for all three phone numbers. For all three. But I was under the
impression that you had provided it before, but they didn't, um, they hadn't responded.
so if they are interested, we want to continue to, to reach out
to them. And
for, um,
kinlaw, I did reach out to mickey about kennedy and she did say that
she still wanted to participate. Okay. Um,
that was it. Thank y'all. I will keep you updated on the, the
activity of the appointments. Okay. Uh, council member lewis, have your light on. Yes,
I'm trying to get the chief's attention, but anyway, I think my appointee's, uh,
term have expired trainer and, uh, mrs. Jones. And
I need to go ahead with train for the police. Where, where on for the police?
oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we're on the youth advisory council.
,
all in favor say aye. A any nos?
the ayes have it. The resolution passes. Pr number 2 4 6 1 6
a resolution appointing and a reappointing a member or members to the port arthur
police chief advisory committee. This, um, can I get a motion for
approval? So moved. Motion for, okay. Second has been moved. And second. Any
discussions? This was requested by mayor moses. I wanted to reappoint
my two people. Persons for, um, their terms
will expire november 28th. So you have, uh, mrs. Sparks,
mary sparks, and mr. Alfred cuomo jr. Okay. Um,
I don't know. Council members, do you have any other names? Council member lewis?
yes, I want, I got two appointments. I think they both have expired,
uh, trainer and mrs. Jones, but I got the hold up on ms. Jones.
she hasn't given me a, given me a, an answer yet because she was kind
of hedging. She done disappeared when I need her. But go ahead with
trainer for now. Okay.
okay. Um, council member ken law. Thank you mayor. Uh, she, you have my
names right? Uh, there's those gonna be reappointments adams in. Uh, yes sir. Thank
you. Council member doucette? Yes,
I'm, I'm ms. Same reappointment. My two individuals also. Sherry. Thank you mayor.
okay, thank you. Okay. Alright.
all in favor say aye. A aye. Any nos? The
ayes have it. The resolution passes pr number 2 4 6 1 7
a resolution casting votes for the board of directors for the orange county appraisal
district for the 20 26 20 29 term. Can I get a
motion for approval? Second, it's been moved. And second,
um, any discussions in the discussions? I think, uh, uh, council member ever had
presented a name to us a couple of months ago in september. And is
that marqueta? Legette? Yes, ma'am. Okay. And so, uh, we,
at this point, we can all vote with the name that she's given us
as we did with council member, uh, frank, and move from there.
so, all in favor of giving all of our votes toward marqueta ladette for
the orange county appraisal district. We're gonna say aye aye. Aye.
any nos the ayes have at the resolution passes, we're gonna go
to number 16, a resolution,
uh, pr number 2 4 6 2 0 a resolution authorizing
city manager to negotiate and execute a contract, uh, contracts
with the most qualified emergency medical service ems provider
or providers identified through the city's request for qualifications
rfq process to ensure continued provision of emergency medical
and ambulance services upon expiration of the current agreement on november 30th, 2025.
can I get a motion for approval? So moved. Second. It's been moved. And second.
um, any discussion? Yes, ma'am. Council member, ken law. Mayor, I, I'm
gonna ask my cohorts, uh, can we hold this until we go to executive and then bring it back up
after, uh, a little brief discussion. Is that okay? Are we, are
we good with that? Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. We're gonna, um, hold this. Do
I need a motion to hold? No, no. Okay, we're good. We're gonna hold this until after executive
session and then we will come back with, um, after executive
session. Just to clarify, mayor, council member kimmel, are you asking for that
in executive session to seek legal advice? Yes, ma'am. Alright, mayor, so
when we go into executive session, if you can list that under 5 5 1 0.0 7 1 5 5 1
0.071. Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. Let me make sure
that I don't forget that. Okay. It's already, we have
something there already. Okay, perfect. Um,
moving to number 17, pr number 2 4 6 2 1
a resolution, appointing and or reappointed a member or members
to the citizens pipeline advisory committee. We
get a motion for approval. So move second. It's moved in second. This is requested
by council member hamilton. Ever feel, um, at this time we have a motion and
a second. Any discussion? The names or the names have
already been submitted? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Names are submitted. All in favor
say aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes haven't.
the resolution passes. I'm gonna move to ordinance.
I'm sorry.
yes, council, it's going. It is going be downstairs. Mayor pro tim,
it's going downstairs. What number? 16. We'll be going downstairs,
okay? Mm-hmm . But we gonna go to ordinances. Okay. Ordinance
non-consent number one, po number 7 3 7 1. An
ordinance amending appendix. A zoning of the code of ordinances
of the city of port arthur, texas by granting a zoning map amendment
for approximately 0.4181 acre of land consisting
of lot 15 dash 20 block 23 rosemont
edition, jefferson county, texas from plan development
district 30, pd 30 to medium density residential
district mdr to allow residential development. Violation of
any provision of this ordinance shall be guilt of a misdemeanor and shall be punished
by a five, not exceeding $2,000 as
provided in chapter one. Section one through one 13 of
the code of ordinances in each day, which violations permitted to exist shall constitute
a separate and distinct offense and providing for publication in the
official newspaper of the city of port arthur and effective immediately after publication
date z two five dash oh four dash code
properties. Llc. Can I get a motion for approval? So moved, mayor, it's been moved.
and second. Any discussions? All in favor say aye.
aye. Any nos I need? All in favor say aye. Aye.
any nos? The ayes have it. The ordinance passes at this
time, we're going to go into a closed executive session. We will
see the follow. Um, listen, have the following thing items. Section 5 5 1 0 7 1.
brian johnson versus city of port arthur john do and calvin matthews.
matthews in the individual capacity, civil action number one,
uh, dash two five dash cv dash 0 0 4 2 1 in the
us district court of eastern district of of texas beaumont division.
um, section 5 5 1 0 7 1. Litigation, bon bon,
uh, bonita brown versus city of port arthur. Calls number 8 2 1 1 1 4 9
and 58. District court of jefferson county, texas. And number 3, 5 5 1 0 7 1.
legal advice provisions authorizing deliberations and closed meeting
requested by mayor moses. I'm gonna get a motion to go into
executive session if you would also call under section five five one
0.071 pr number 2 4 6 2 0. I will, I will. Thank you.
thank you mayor. I also, we will, um, get legal advice on pr
number 2 4 6 2 0 a resolution authorizing the city manager
to negotiate and execute a contract or contracts with the most qualified emergency
medical service ems providers identified through the city's request
for qualifications rfq process to ensure continued
provision of emergency medical and ambulance services upon expiration of the current
agreement on november 30th, 2025. I'm gonna ask for a motion for
approval to go into executive session. Move second. Can I get a second? Any
discussions? Is, is there anything that we're gonna have an executive
session that you would not want to be held in executive session?
okay. All of us are in agreement. I would like to have a vote. How
all in favor say aye? Aye. The ayes have it. And
any nos. Okay, we're gonna move now to go into our closed
session at 11:55 am thank you.
okay, so the secretary, would you establish a quorum please? Recording in
progress. I'm sorry. Mayor moses? Here.
mayor pro. Tem ett. Here. Council member
lewis. Here. Council member hamilton. Ever
field present. Council member
beckham. Here. Council member kinlaw. Here. Council member
frank on his way? Yeah. Quo. Mayor. Great,
thank you. This time we are going to, uh, we're back in regular
session and it is 1:39 pm I
will, sorry, sorry. Okay,
so we'll just close out the executive session first and then go back into open
session. Uh, I can't close out. We have an item coming out of executive
session. You're correct. Mayor I stand correct. I cannot close it out. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
at this time we have an item coming out of executive session that we need to, um,
consider. It's gonna, we're gonna go back to pr number 2 4 6 2 0
a resolution authorizing a city manager to negotiate and execute a contract or
contracts with the most qualified emergency medical services ems providers
identified through the city's request for qualifications rfq process to
ensure continued provision of emergency medical and ambulance services
upon expiration of the current agreement on november 30th, 2025.
can I get a motion for approval? So moved. So moved. It's been moved. And
second by council member, uh, ever feel any discussion
at this time? We're going, oh, council member hamilton? Mm-hmm . I do,
um, my question, well not question, but comments
about this, um, this proposed resolution
is to our deputy chief, he was looking up some information
for me regarding the council of governments.
is it on
ready? Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So my, my
cons, my question and a concern is for,
um, any of the providers, it doesn't,
um, I don't have a dog in the fight as to which one, but in one
of, in some of the information we've been provided is that, um,
that the, in our ordinance is that
the provider we choose is required to be, um, to
have the dispatch center in the city of, I mean, I'm sorry, the
council of governments, the cog. So I want to confirm
that if all of the providers that were that submitted,
um, proposals are all of them in the
cog. So if you're saying located in the cog yes, ma'am. Uh,
for having a district, lemme be clear. Dispatch dispatch center within the call. Okay,
hold on. Which is a part of our ordinance. Uh, yes ma'am, it is.
um, that is part of our ordinance. Um, currently we, um,
two of the providers do have dispatch centers in all call. And, um, far
as I'm aware of only one does not. Okay. And the one that
does not, why do they not? And
will they, uh, that would be a question for them. Um, I don't mind
reaching out to them asking 'em that question, but that would be more of a question for them on why they don't have one.
um, and if they're able to do that or come up to that standard, uh, that would also
be a question for them as well. Okay. So, um, again,
as, as I mentioned before to um, to my
cohorts that in, for whatever
company that we choose as a provider, we need to
hold our providers accountable for following our
ordinances. Or if we want some things to change and some things have to change, but
we shouldn't be changing our ordinances to meet the need of a certain
provider, our providers should be meeting the qualifications that we
set in place for, for our ordinances. So again,
city manager, how will we hold, what will we need to do
to make sure that, again, majority rules. So whichever
my cohorts choose, um, for or
we choose for a provider, how in the world are
we gonna choose a provider who already is not meeting the standards
of the ordinances, the laws that we set in place? Um, uh,
city manager, uh, you, she's asking that question. City manager, but I do have
a couple of lights. Um, but she's, I speak to
speaker before I ask. Okay. Council member ette.
yes. Not we had got that any requirements we
have is the responsibility of the fire
department, whether that's the fire chief or the deputy,
whoever given that responsibility to, uh, check
compliance of our ordinance with any ems
that have contracted for us. That's how we mantra
it. That's how we get to ensure that it's being
done. So if someone find out it is not done,
then it should be brought to the attention of whoever is
responsible and that person there will ensure that the people come in line.
that's what anything that we do. So that's how we
assure everything by having them to come to us and tell
us when somebody's not in compliance. Councilman
mcken law. Yeah. Thank you mayor. And, uh, you know, my thing is just, uh, you know,
um, that may be a situation, but I look at response time and
look at exactly what, uh, what was being offered to us in the previous,
uh, uh, company. And
now we at this decision. So, uh, I'll wait to make my
motion or read my motion after all the, uh, council members of gi
see we got lights over there, mayor. So, uh, I, I just read the motion
after, uh, yeah, we, we, we, yeah, we got the motion on the table. Yeah.
okay. So we're good. Council member lewis? Yes.
are you, you the going to be the compliance officer or are you going to have someone else
to monitor compliance? Um, I would be monitoring, but, um, how
the city ordinance set up is just the fire chief. Okay. The fire chief is ultimately responsible
for that, uh, action. But I will be against, uh, at the direction
of the city manager. So when someone is out, when, when the company is outta compliance, you,
you're not gonna wait until they come in and come comply. You're gonna notify us right away that you are notify
them that they outta compliance. We don't want to wait and
see if they're gonna comply. We need to know. I need to know.
I I'll bring that to council's attention. Yes. Bring it to council. Okay. City
manager. Yeah. So, um,
my advice is that we follow the ordinance. Absolutely. If the ordinance clearly states that the,
uh, the fire chief is the one that provides the direction, he's
the compliance officer. Okay. And if we tend to defer from that or move
away from that, then we need to amend the ordinance mm-hmm . So that we don't get into trouble. You know,
let's, yeah, let's just stick with the ordinance. That's the safest thing to do.
absolutely. Alright. Um, we are ready to go to a vote. Um,
the recommendation from the, uh, council is to
move to go with one ambulance service. Um, city ambulance
at this time, we're gonna, uh, get a motion. Uh, need a vote. All in favor
say aye. Aye. Any nos? No
one? No. Let the record state we have one. No, the ayes
have it. The resolution passes for city ambulance.
oh, the ayes have it. You didn't vote, you didn't vote
on the vendor. You voted on whether or not it was gonna be one provider.
it's, well that's what you said. One provider. I read the ordinance that stated one
provider. Okay. But in the motion language, did you say city ambulance?
yes, I did. I'm sorry, I didn't hear that.
wait a minute, what am I missing? It's saying one
provider. Provider. That provider to be city or
I mean city ambulance. That was and we, they all voted. I had one. No. Am
I correct the record speak? I let the record speak. We have one. No. Yes ma'am. You did say city ambulance
and I said city ambulance one. No. Yes. Okay, now we're gonna move because
the, um, our council member frank, asked us to bring up something for
reconsideration and that is the motion to have a forensic audit. Am I right? No.
not doing that. Okay. Alright. We are going to move at,
uh, 1 48 to close this meeting. All in favor
say aye. Aye. Did I do that right? I need a motion, y'all.
I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm sorry. I apologize. I'll a motion. I need a mo.
I make a motion. A motion and a second. Any discussions? I make a motion that we adjourn the meeting at
1 47. Second. Any discussions? All in
favor say aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes have it. Our meeting is
adjourned at 1:48 pm have a great day.