[0:06] Good morning. Good morning. We are going to, uh, begin our meeting. It's
[0:10] 9:30 am good morning, and welcome to
[0:14] our city council meeting, our regularly scheduled meeting on tuesday,
[0:18] november 4th, 2025 at 9:30 am
[0:22] you may join our meeting by telephonic and or by video conference
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[1:00] do that by calling in 24 hours in advance to our city secretary's
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[1:09] at this time, we're going to have, first of all, I'm gonna ask that we
[1:13] all would mute our cell, uh, cell phones or any devices, mobile devices that
[1:17] we may have at this time, and then we're going to have our invocation,
[1:22] our pledge, and our roll call. I am going to ask a
[1:26] council member, frank, to lead us in prayer.
[1:33] good morning, let us bow all wise in eternal god, our
[1:37] father, how grateful we are for yet again, giving us a wonderful and beautiful day
[1:41] in the city of port arthur. How grateful we are, god, that you've awakened us
[1:45] and allowed us to come into this meeting where we can make, uh, decisions
[1:50] based upon your wise counsel and your gracious kindness and mercy.
[1:54] we pray blessings today upon all who are here and upon our city
[1:59] and upon our nation as well. Blessing keep us is our prayer and the
[2:03] powerful and precious name of jesus we pray. Amen. Amen.
[2:09] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america
[2:14] and to the republic from which it stands, one nation under
[2:18] god, indivisible, with liberty and justice. All
[2:28] city secretary, would you establish a quorum, please? Yes, ma'am.
[2:32] mayor moses. Here, mayor proti
[2:37] ett. Here. Council member lewis.
[2:42] council member hamilton, ever field council
[2:46] member beckham. Here. Council member ken law here.
[2:51] council member frank, present. You have a court mayor.
[2:56] awesome. Thank you so much, city secretary. This time, item two.
[3:00] we have no proclamations this morning. We're gonna move to item
[3:04] three, petitions and communications speakers. We have no
[3:08] speakers at this time. We have, um, presenters,
[3:13] uh, presentations, and we'd like for, uh, aranon
[3:17] baysmore of the us army corps of engineers to come forth
[3:22] and present what you have in your presentation. Thank
[3:26] you for being here this morning. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
[3:37] good morning, mayor moses, uh, distinguished members of the port arthur city council.
[3:41] my name is arne basmore and I am the sabine to project manager for
[3:45] the sabbe bay to galveston port arthur project. With
[3:49] me today are other members from the united states army corps engineers. Uh, ms.
[3:53] tony addison, a mega projects division chief, mr. Charles wheeler,
[3:59] mega, um, projects, division s two g project. Galveston,
[4:03] sabine to galveston, um, project manager.
[4:07] and we also have, um, whitney today as well. Mr. Bobby petty, our
[4:11] outreach specialist. We also have with us our non-federal sponsor,
[4:16] uh, jefferson county drainage district, and mr. Um, allen sims,
[4:20] the general manager
[4:30] today. Um, we'll be discussing a port arthur project and we'll follow the agenda as
[4:34] such. Um, we have a public house announcement that we'll go over
[4:39] a project overview, the project funding, the, um, the key
[4:43] features, the schedule overview, and the construction overview for the port arthur project.
[4:53] we like to take this time to announce the public opening, which, uh, public open
[4:58] house, which has been scheduled for thursday, november 20th from
[5:02] 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the st. Joseph's catholic church.
[5:06] um, the point of discussion will be the port arthur and the
[5:10] vicinity contract, pav oh four. We
[5:15] invite all to attend. That can,
[5:19] just a quick clarification. That is the project. You have to come up alan.
[5:23] sorry, excuse me. Honor, just quick clarification. For those of you who,
[5:27] uh, don't understand, port arthur, pa v oh four is a contract from, uh,
[5:32] rose hill acres to lakeview pump station. The end of proctor street north.
[5:36] the end of proctor street.
[5:40] thank you, allen. Okay.
[5:48] the sabine, the sabine passed. The galveston project is part, is
[5:52] we abbreviated as s two g is part of the upper texas coast, uh,
[5:56] regional approach. This bean, the
[6:00] bean that gotton bay project is comprised of two elements, the port arthur element
[6:05] and the orange element. In addition to
[6:09] the, uh, those two projects, the sa the te upper texas regional approach
[6:13] is comprised of eight additional projects
[6:21] shown in orange. In the upper right corner is the orange project, which will be a new protected levee
[6:25] system shown in blue. You have the port arthur project and highlighted
[6:29] enc circle. In red is the port arthur project that's followed by the sabina
[6:33] natures waterway,
[6:38] the jefferson county ecosystem restoration.
[6:43] the mcfadden sought by you do
[6:47] dune stabilization, the coast, the
[6:51] texas coastal project, which is the largest project authorized with the corps
[6:55] engineers to date at $34 billion. And then you also
[6:59] have the houston ship channel as well as the, the texas
[7:03] city hurricane protection system.
[7:08] the focus for today's presentation will be the port arthur project.
[7:13] excuse me. Allow me to, uh, reiterate as well. The overall
[7:17] objective for the upper texas coast is to reduce the risk of human life,
[7:22] of storm surge, reduce economic damages to,
[7:26] uh, residents and businesses structure, enhance
[7:30] the energy security by reducing the storm surge and providing protection
[7:35] around the petrochemical facilities and reduce the, uh,
[7:39] adverse physical impacts of waterways for commercial and, and, and our recreational
[7:43] use to collectively these projects on the upper texas
[7:48] regional approach provide that, uh, protection.
[7:56] the focus for today, the focus for today's discussion will be the port arthur project.
[8:04] the port arthur project is in existing, uh, levee system that was built
[8:09] from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s by
[8:13] the core of engineers. It has since been turned over to our now federal sponsor, dd seven,
[8:17] who operates and maintains it, uh, who's been operated and maintaining it ever since.
[8:23] our goal is to improve the resiliency of this system by
[8:27] providing a greater level of protection in what this system currently does.
[8:40] the focus of the polar arthur project, the key elements of that
[8:44] system are 14.3 miles of earth and levee raises
[8:48] of 14.3 miles of, of earth and levee improvements
[8:53] of which 10 will be 10 miles of earth and levee raises, and 4.3
[8:57] miles of new earth and levee construction. This project will also
[9:01] include 6.2 miles of concrete flood wall improvements.
[9:05] ie they will be likely replacing existing ie uh, eye walls with t
[9:10] walls, finding protection at the 11 existing
[9:14] pump stations in port arthur insulation of 20
[9:18] new road and railroad closure gates along the levee
[9:22] system. Insulation of erosion controls at the levee flood
[9:26] sides, as well as construction of a new pump
[9:30] station in a roll gully, uh, location.
[9:38] the port arthur project is comprised of three 11 contracts, 11 port
[9:42] arthur, and vicinity contracts. The focus of this presentation will be the discussion
[9:46] of three of those pav oh one, which is completed, pav
[9:51] oh three a, which is currently underway, and pav oh four, which
[9:55] was recently awarded
[10:05] to accomplish the delivery of the port arthur project. We've partnered with, uh, jefferson
[10:09] county drainage district seven, our non-federal sponsor partner. The project was
[10:14] appropriated appropriated in the bipartisan act of 20 20 20 18,
[10:18] excuse me, and it was fully funded. It was fully funded for $3.9 billion
[10:24] of which 863 million will have gone and been allocated
[10:28] to port arthur. Since 2018. We are seeing significant
[10:32] cost increases and we are working to obtain documentation and
[10:36] obtain an approval for additional, uh, costs.
[10:46] the army corps of engineers and and jefferson county journalist
[10:50] district seven have signed a project partnership agreement where
[10:54] you say army corps engineers fund 65% of the project costs
[10:58] with d dd seven on now federal sponsor funding the remaining 35%.
[11:10] the key features of this project include earth and levees
[11:15] and concrete flood walls.
[11:20] the scope of the earth and levees will be raising the existing earth and earth and levees
[11:24] provided metal protection, and then installing, um, new earth levees progress,
[11:28] installing new earth and levees at segments as well to provide that protection
[11:32] required. Here you'll see to the left is the existing
[11:36] eye wall, and to the right you see what's going to be replacing it. The t wall.
[11:41] we found out through lessons learned from prior weather events such
[11:45] as hurricane katrina, that over time the storm surge from
[11:49] storm events will allow for, uh, uh, will allow for
[11:53] over tapping and a rolling of, uh, eyebrow foundations. As
[11:58] such, the t wall concrete wall provides a better design
[12:02] with a more robust foundation as well as additional battery piles to provide
[12:06] for additional structural stability. That's the sense. What's the concrete replace?
[12:10] the concrete fo replacement will be
[12:16] another key feature of this project will be the fronting protection that will
[12:20] be installed in front of all the, um, existing pump stations.
[12:24] the fronting protection helps, helps mitigate storm surge impacts on the pump
[12:28] station itself.
[12:38] also with the pull arthur project installation of road
[12:42] railroad and roadway closure, gates were being stored walls and roadways
[12:46] intersect the levee system providing more, uh, protection
[12:51] from storm surge throughout the port arthur area.
[12:58] here is the project timeline for the port arthur project in 2017. The feasibility
[13:03] study for this project was completed
[13:07] 2018. We received, uh, srg received the authorization and funding from
[13:11] congress for this project, which allowed us to award the first contract in
[13:15] 2019 for a construction start in 2020.
[13:19] we anticipate final design being completed 2032, and we
[13:23] are also anticipating the project itself to be overall completed in 2036.
[13:35] the first contract in the port arthur project is pavo one.
[13:40] this project was completed. This project was awarded march 30th, 2020
[13:45] and was completed july 28th, 2022. The
[13:49] scope of this project, excuse me, for $25 million
[13:54] contract value, the scope of this project is a deep, deep soil mix to earth
[13:58] and levy raised.
[14:05] the next project, which is currently in construction, is contract pav oh three
[14:10] a. This contract was awarded september 8th, 2023
[14:15] for a contract value of $97 million. We anticipate the
[14:19] estimate duration for the contract to be 5.5 years.
[14:26] key elements for this project are foundation supports, concrete
[14:30] flood walls, front end protection, as well as, uh, erosion controls
[14:35] on on flood side of levees, which
[14:58] contract three will focus on three contract. Three a will focus on three zones,
[15:04] zone five alligator pump station improvements, zone six
[15:08] lakeside pump station improvements, and zone seven port acres pump
[15:12] station improvements.
[15:20] key elements for this contract include roughly in
[15:24] addition to the pumps, the the front end protection at the pump station's mentioned.
[15:28] in these three zones, we'll have concrete roughly 1200
[15:32] manual feet of concrete flood wall improvements, insulation
[15:36] of the t walls, taking out insulation of t walls, replacing the existing
[15:40] eyewall 320 miles of earth and levee raises,
[15:45] as well as insulation of the sheet pile, color walls and batter piles required for the
[15:49] installation of foundation for the concrete flood walls.
[15:57] the next series of photos will show the construction progression in the various zones,
[16:01] zones five, six, and seven. Basically, the work,
[16:05] the work is going concurrent and it's fairly similar in process where you have the
[16:09] installation of the batter piles, sheet pile cutoff walls in preparation
[16:14] for the concrete flat work for the foundations. The t wall foundations
[16:21] seen here is a picture of the alligator pump stations. You have
[16:25] the t wall work that is in progress and probably, uh, what's uh,
[16:29] critical is the, uh, foundation system, the battered piles, which are angle piles to
[16:33] provide a structural stability for the concrete t wall itself.
[16:41] zone six is the lakeside pump station site improvement work, which is fairly similar
[16:45] to what's going on at the alligator pump station.
[16:51] sheep, all cutoff walls and piles.
[16:58] zone seven is the lakeside pump station and site improve, uh, pump station improvement
[17:02] works as well. Similar scope foundation installation for
[17:06] t walls and front end protections.
[17:12] the last of the three con, the last of the three contracts discussed in the port arthur project is
[17:17] pv oh four.
[17:26] the pre oh four contract was recently awarded april of this year
[17:30] for a contract value of $404 million with an estimated
[17:35] contract, uh, completion, estimated contract duration
[17:39] of 4.5 years. The project is currently at
[17:43] 30 35% design stage and it is a design built contract,
[17:47] excuse me. Currently, field surveys and geotechnical
[17:52] investigations are underway for this project. We
[17:56] anticipate construction start for contract four to be
[18:00] late summer of 2026.
[18:07] major elements for the pa oh four contract include
[18:13] roughly 11,000 limit feet of new concrete flood wall shown
[18:18] in red. This will be where we are replacing the existing eyewall
[18:22] with the more robust t wall foundation t wall of flood wall
[18:26] foundation, concrete flood wall system. We'll also have roughly
[18:30] about 2200 lineal feet of earth and levee raise raises shown
[18:34] in green. And similar to what's going on in
[18:38] contract three a, we'll have fronting protection installed at the existing three pump stations.
[18:43] lakeview stadium road in delmar.
[18:49] of note construction activities will likely take place on the flood side on,
[18:53] uh, on this contract. So we understand that there'll be, um, critical care
[18:57] taken to preserving on what's out, what's out there, and providing the proper measures taking
[19:02] place, tfp, temporary flood protection and so forth.
[19:13] additional information can be found for not just the sg
[19:17] port arthur project, but also the orange project, the two elements
[19:22] that form this being the galveston bay projects by accessing
[19:26] these qr codes. And we'll take you into the storyboard and you can have,
[19:30] uh, additional information as to understanding of project history as well as any other announcements
[19:37] with this. Uh, this concludes the presentation, and I would like to, uh, leave
[19:41] time to open up the floor for any questions. Uh, city council mayor,
[19:45] thank you so much. Um, let's see if I have any questions.
[19:49] council members, I don't
[19:53] have any lights, but thank you for your presentation. Yes, ma'am. Um,
[19:58] last time I saw this, it was about 2019, or I mean 2020.
[20:03] and so you really progressed. Um, well in the project.
[20:07] I was just thinking, alan, the, he said 2036 up. My, my, I heard, I know
[20:11] the mic. You guys heard me in the mic. I was like, ooh, how old am I gonna be in 2036? That's
[20:15] been a common question. , everybody has kind of is, uh, like, you know, awakening.
[20:20] but thank you so much. Um, I have city manager has his light on
[20:24] mayor in terms of disseminating information, especially to the
[20:29] residents in the proctor street area for the public, um,
[20:33] hearing to be held. Um, if alan, you could share that
[20:37] information with us so that we could post it on our website as well. You
[20:41] know, we would be happy to do that. Mayor, yes. The, uh, yes we would, the public hearing
[20:45] or the public open house will be november 20th at, uh, the church. We were
[20:49] talking the catholic church down in proctor. I will, uh, we are planning to
[20:53] have that published in the newspaper. We'll put it on our website. We'll send it to you for your website.
[20:58] we'll also go out the week before and hang door hangers on all the doors in the neighborhood,
[21:03] uh, to make sure everybody knows. Uh, normally we've held our public meetings
[21:07] like this, like at bob bowers, right down here at the, uh, carl parker center. But
[21:11] we chose to do this one as close as we could. That was the largest venue we could find
[21:15] in the middle of that neighborhood. So that's where we went to, uh, talked with
[21:19] the, uh, catholic church in, uh, past and
[21:24] father mcright, I thinks the guy that's down there now, uh, I
[21:28] remember him when he was in winnie when I used to live there, uh, but went and met with him and uh,
[21:33] they were gonna give us the big hall they have there so we can get everybody. And like I said, I
[21:37] wanted to do something centralized for everybody to make it easier for people in that neighborhood.
[21:41] uh, it goes from rose hill to lakeview. I know there's
[21:45] gonna be a lot of concerns right now. The intended plan is we do not purchase
[21:49] any property from any private landowners. We'll build on what we have currently
[21:53] or out towards the navigation channel. There'll be some who will move about
[21:58] five feet out and towards navigation or so. It's not gonna be a whole lot. We're
[22:02] trying to do our best to do minimal impacts. I guarantee you there will be
[22:06] some. Okay. There's no way we can build this project without some traffic
[22:10] and some issues in there. And that's the reason we want ahead and go ahead and get this started right
[22:14] now. You're not gonna see a whole lot of impacts in that area for the next six months to
[22:18] nine months. I'd probably gonna do another open house
[22:23] and probably sometime mid-summer, late summer. Depends on when they start
[22:27] construction. When you start seeing trucks running on the streets, that's when we're gonna try to have another open house.
[22:32] probably. I'm gonna try to plan, set it to where, as you
[22:36] guys know, we did it the week before. They're not going. Nobody's gonna notice.
[22:40] we do it a month after they start seeing trucks and everybody's gonna show up to complaint and that's when we
[22:44] want to have it. Okay. Um, just be honest with you guys, we're going to try to keep everybody
[22:49] informed, you guys as well as the general public, uh, trying to be good
[22:53] neighbors. Thank you. If there's anything y'all need, if you just let us know. I have a couple of
[22:57] lights. I have council member doucette.
[23:01] yes. Allen. Yes, sir. The lakeside. I didn't have no
[23:05] questions about the presentation, but since you talk about the having meetings
[23:10] yes, sir. The lakeside project. You know, I stay on
[23:14] cambridge. Yes. All the trucks not only go up
[23:18] there, but they be parked right there in front of my house. I can't even get out
[23:23] without being careful 'cause they all lined up there. But that's not a problem because it's,
[23:27] it worked. Our contractors are parked near your house. No, I said in the, the street
[23:31] in front my home. Cambridge. Okay. Our contractors
[23:36] are parked over there? No, the people that are carrying the material. Alan. Oh,
[23:40] okay. Yes, sir. Yes. Okay. I'm sorry. People who are carrying that's 18 wheelers. Yes, sir. Like five
[23:44] or six of 'em along the road. And I don't have a problem with it,
[23:48] you know, the progress of them, the pounding. So
[23:52] basically it is, when is that project is going
[23:57] to be completed and how far we going with that? And if you're
[24:01] doing it, we're about a year, year and a half into a five year project
[24:05] there. Just in the, just for the lakeside pump
[24:09] station? Well, it's all three of 'em together. Uh, and I, they're
[24:14] probably 25% complete. They're about, so they're probably got another three years would be my guess
[24:18] on the lakeside. Oh, okay. Because that's what I was saying. When you
[24:22] start talking about a central location, st. Joseph.
[24:26] but then again, we doing that one out there, and when I tell you I could
[24:30] walk out, I could stand in my front yard and that's, that's no more than about three
[24:34] or 400. Yes, sir. Um, yards from my house. I,
[24:39] and I hear it. And they don't work at night, so that's not a problem. It's
[24:43] only during hours of operation, but it should be a good idea on
[24:47] knowing that thing going in. So really that's a long time. Tell you what, ,
[24:52] that's a mistake on my part. I'll take, I'll own that completely. My thoughts were those
[24:57] three projects were so far isolated. I didn't think they were going
[25:01] to impact the neighborhoods that much. I'll tell you what. We'll, we'll try to schedule something.
[25:05] it probably, it'll probably take us about two or three months to put something together. Mm-hmm. Maybe we do something
[25:09] there in the pa in the, what's it called? Palomar lakeside. Right. You know we have have community
[25:13] center there. Yes sir. But everything that comes in to go back there
[25:17] at counts down cambridge. Yes, sir. And for three years it's
[25:22] gonna be and 18 wheel carrying some heavy stuff.
[25:26] so that kind of, let me check on that also, because that was,
[25:30] they were supposed to be coming in and out of jade through the county
[25:35] yard. No, no, no. You're talking, you're talking, uh, the, the roll
[25:39] ga road air gully. You talking about all 365? No, I'm talking where
[25:43] the, uh, parks and wildlife office is and the county barn, the road that comes up
[25:47] on the left, they were supposed to be using that for access. They weren't to, to go to the lakeside.
[25:52] yeah. So, you know, between uh, parks and wildlife, there's a road right. That
[25:56] actually goes up, like where people go over, like they're gonna go to the, uh, boat launch at parks and
[26:00] wildlife. Right. They're supposed to be going up there and going down that I weren't supposed to be going to cambridge.
[26:04] what you talking about? Cambridge 18 willis care and all that stuff. Yeah. They were not supposed to be going through cambridge. Lemme
[26:08] tell you. They've been, they've been coming down cambridge. Okay, let me check on
[26:12] that. They've been coming down cambridge. That is not what I understood. The
[26:16] whole time. They be parked five or six 18 willers. Okay.
[26:21] this is news to me. Thank you very much. Deep, you know.
[26:25] okay. Thank you allen. And you guys know where I am. You're welcome to call me anytime. Alright.
[26:30] I'm available. Council member lewis. Yeah. I appreciate
[26:34] y'all's presentation. Uh, and also
[26:38] I'm glad that you're going to start holding meetings on the west side. The district one. That's all my,
[26:42] my area. I got from sabine pass stadium to state some paul stadium
[26:47] road from 19th street to 19th street to inter coastal con.
[26:51] I gotta have the city. Okay. Now, west side is very important. They're gonna
[26:55] be very concerned. And if you, and I'm glad you're gonna be putting out flyers
[26:59] and what have they. You got the community room over there where you can meet with 'em and explain to 'em
[27:03] ahead of time. You know, I would like for you to schedule something,
[27:07] uh, as soon as possible to get them softened up to and
[27:11] acceptable to as to what, you know, just so much that they can, uh,
[27:15] get out of this presentation, you know? Right. So
[27:20] let me know when you're going to do it. And uh, right now we're scheduled for november 20th.
[27:24] november the 20th. Yes, sir. For the community room on west side. Uh,
[27:29] that was st. Joseph. That's at st. Joseph's church. St. Joseph catholic church. It's catholic church. St. James.
[27:34] st. James. I'm sorry, my mistake. Are you on proctor? The one
[27:38] proctor? It's st. Joseph. It's st. Joseph's live, right next proctor
[27:43] st. Joseph. But I'm talking about west of houston avenue. Okay. That's community room
[27:47] over there. And I'd appreciate if y'all schedule something there. Okay. So keep on the west
[27:51] side to be up to. We're probably about two years out from starting construction in that area.
[27:55] yeah. So, uh, I was gonna wait till we got closer to construction,
[28:00] but if you think we need to do something sooner, we can do that. Yeah, we'll, I appreciate you do
[28:04] something sooner, okay? Okay. Yeah. I mean, around building
[28:08] around your schedule. Okay. And you're two years out, so yeah. Yeah. We're about two years out for
[28:12] being over in that area, doing construction. So I understand we can, we'll do something.
[28:16] do something. I appreciate it. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you all so much. We
[28:20] really appreciate the update. Thank you so very much, mayor. Council members. Appreciate y'all.
[28:24] okay. This time we have, uh, city manager staff reports.
[28:29] we have none. Employee recognition, we have none correspondence.
[28:34] we have none. We're gonna move to petitions and communications.
[28:38] um, f discussions number one, we'll have a discussion
[28:43] and take possible action regarding conduct of a forensic audit.
[28:47] and this is requested by mayor pro tem ett. Yes. Thank you, mayor.
[28:51] uh, I put out information. I've been talking about the forensic
[28:55] audit. Uh, some people have taken it as, uh, we
[28:59] don't need one because we had one almost a decade ago
[29:03] and stuff. And indu in calling for this. I also
[29:08] referred to, uh, codes and ordinances that we haven't been following
[29:12] it most of the time. I've talked about those at previous council meeting. In
[29:16] fact, I talked about 'em, I read 'em verbatim when
[29:20] the topic actually came before council and council take
[29:24] action. So, about four months ago, I talked with council and I let
[29:28] council know that, uh, these ordinance and codes
[29:32] and stuff, you know, we are the ones that's here to ensure that they, uh,
[29:37] are upheld. We take an oath for that. You know, we all
[29:41] different council members, and I don't take anything personal. We all think different.
[29:46] I have a, I'm by the book.
[29:50] I leave my opinion outside the dough, my thoughts outside the dough.
[29:55] I read what is written. And when we do not follow what's written,
[29:59] we have issues. If we recognize 'em, we can fix them.
[30:03] my theory is always, first of all, we need to police ourselves. And we don't need nobody to
[30:07] police us. But after two years, I've come to the conclusion that we
[30:11] actually need someone to come in, take a look at it and tell us
[30:16] what we are doing that we shouldn't be doing, and
[30:21] how we can do it better. Forensic audit, some people always
[30:25] talk about, uh, criminal, well forensic audit
[30:29] is one that you order. When you feel it is something, is wrongdoing.
[30:34] wrongdoing mean you're not doing what's right. It doesn't mean it's
[30:38] criminal. It can result into that. But the fact of the matter
[30:43] is, we need to do things as written.
[30:47] and after two years, us policing ourselves, I
[30:52] just don't feel, uh, is going that way because
[30:57] there are some issues that we should have resolved and we should have addressed.
[31:01] but instead, we, uh, don't do it. You know, it's
[31:05] like, okay, we gonna continue to operate in
[31:09] the way we operate and we can't continue to operate the way we operate. 'cause look at
[31:13] the city and some of the things that, uh, I feel we have now
[31:17] followed is a result of that. I'm not gonna discuss those. I've talked enough
[31:21] about 'em, but it's on the, uh, agenda here to let
[31:25] people understand what it's about. And whenever
[31:30] I say I would like to see one, I put
[31:35] examples. I write down the code, the ordinance,
[31:39] I feel that we are not following. Then I give example what we
[31:43] doing. And I let citizens decide. I don't try to tell
[31:48] citizens we need it. We don't need it. I think
[31:52] that we got more intelligent citizens than we have non-intelligent, so
[31:57] citizens decide. But we need to make sure that everything's transparent
[32:02] and that we're doing things right. And if we're doing things right, we'll
[32:06] spend money properly and we'll be transparent.
[32:11] and those are two things right now. There's a big issue with citizens.
[32:16] forensic audit will say, you're doing this wrong.
[32:21] this is what we recommend you do in order to fix this.
[32:26] it's better to fix it than to let it continue the way it is.
[32:31] and it also has the opportunity for someone to take a look at our
[32:35] books where we don't get to look at it . We get to see what they're
[32:40] giving. And, uh, when I say forensic audit and stuff, I want to
[32:44] make sure I throw this in at the end. Our finance director,
[32:48] uh, got here, I guess about a year now,
[32:52] but I've been working and talking with her. She is
[32:57] standing. She has really done
[33:01] things that are amazing. You know, our,
[33:06] uh, audits, annual audits, we are like two years behind. She came in
[33:10] in one year, she done those two plus hers. That's the kind of thing we
[33:14] need done, but we need to go back
[33:19] and fix this not following ordinance and local government
[33:23] codes. So after, if anybody else got any comments, I'll even comment.
[33:27] if not, I wanna make a motion.
[33:31] I have several lights. Uh, council member, frank.
[33:36] yes. Um, I've heard, um,
[33:41] I don't stand to talk or, um, have
[33:45] my light on to talk, uh, um, against, uh,
[33:49] an audit, um, a forensic audit. I'm simply,
[33:54] uh, raising, uh, some concerns about, um, how do
[33:58] we arrive at the issue of,
[34:02] uh, a forensic audit. I don't know. I don't know in any
[34:06] specificity exactly what, um,
[34:10] those concerns are that have driven us to
[34:15] this pointed place where we have,
[34:19] um, that type of concern, uh, from council or
[34:23] from our citizens. I have not heard, uh, from
[34:27] citizens. I am an at large, uh, councilman. I don't represent any
[34:31] districts, but I've not heard any council. I've not heard any
[34:36] citizens come to me, uh, and raise any concerns, uh, with
[34:40] me about the, uh, financial, uh, discharge
[34:44] of our duties here on council that would warrant,
[34:49] um, uh, a forensic audit. Um, councilman doucette
[34:53] has made the comment, um, used the word wrongdoings,
[34:58] um, uh, and has said that, uh, he is not
[35:03] specifically referring to malfeasance. That is the misappropriation of
[35:07] funds or embezzlement or any of those types of situations.
[35:12] our internal controls are audited, um, with
[35:16] our audit. And we have received, uh, great audits,
[35:20] uh, here, uh, to four. Um, they've
[35:24] looked at our internal controls. They've looked at the way in
[35:28] which we carry out our budgets, the way in which, uh, we pay our
[35:32] debts. Uh, we have a, a credit rating of a plus
[35:37] plus. Um, our finances are in order.
[35:41] uh, we've looked at situations and circumstances, uh, and
[35:45] I don't know exactly, again, as I said, with specificity,
[35:49] what is warranting, um, uh, the concern
[35:53] about a financial audit. Uh, one of the things that I do
[35:57] have a concern about is, is that the payment of the, uh,
[36:02] of this audit, we're talking about an expenditure of about,
[36:06] oh, anywhere from 200 to $400,000.
[36:10] we just concluded. If you're talking about a, a forensic
[36:15] audit, we're talking about $200,000
[36:19] plus. So we've not, we've not budgeted
[36:23] for that. So we're talking about making an amendment. And so,
[36:28] as the councilman's talking about making a motion, how are we
[36:32] going to fund this forensic audit if we've
[36:36] not budgeted for this forensic audit? And the councilman is always
[36:40] talking about budget, budget. We've just come out of our budget hearing. Uh,
[36:44] we've, we've, we've talked about expenditures. We went through the budget, and we all
[36:49] raised our concerns. So how are we going to fund
[36:53] this, uh, forensic audit? One of the things that we do is
[36:57] he, you know, we can say, well, we can, we've
[37:02] got money in the fund balance and all of those things when we amend the budget,
[37:06] uh, for something of an emergency, if you will.
[37:10] um, one of the things, it is about public health and safety.
[37:15] uh, and so, uh, this is not about public health and safety.
[37:19] uh, this is about, um, uh, a concern,
[37:24] uh, that the council or the councilman has, uh,
[37:28] concerning our internal controls, I believe, or whether or not,
[37:32] I don't know exactly. Again, I don't know what is covered
[37:36] by this word, wrong doings. Um,
[37:41] I, I did some research and I looked and found that when we talk about
[37:45] a forensic audit, there's some things that you look at, some things that
[37:49] you, uh, understand. You talk about, uh, a response
[37:53] to su suspected fraud, or you talk about resolving
[37:57] disputes. Uh, you talk about, uh, all of those types
[38:01] of things that can happen, uh, as we address
[38:06] some conflict or, or whatever. I think that we
[38:10] can try to talk about those things and try to address those concerns
[38:14] without making that type of expenditure at this particular time.
[38:19] if we want to have a, uh, if we want to have an, uh,
[38:23] a forensic audit, let's put it on the agenda for next year
[38:27] when we can budget for it. Uh, and that way we don't have
[38:31] to make that kind of a withdrawal. But I don't believe, and
[38:35] I'll, I'll yield to our attorney and to all of those who are in council,
[38:40] but I don't think that we are able to vote on this on today,
[38:45] um, uh, because of that fact, uh, that we don't have a method of
[38:49] funding it. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Council member frank, council
[38:53] member ken law. Thank you, mayor. Um, I'm, I'm kinda
[38:57] like in the gray area as well. Uh, if we are talking about, uh, and the councilman made
[39:02] some, uh, comments. Uh, councilman deuce made comments about, uh, fraud
[39:06] and abuse and also wrongful, uh, doing
[39:11] policing ourselves. Uh, you know, as council members, it's our job
[39:15] to ensure that we protect the citizens at all costs, especially
[39:19] with the financial aspect of it. Our financial director, uh, in
[39:23] the last year completed three audits that would kind
[39:27] of give us some better directions on our finances and how we,
[39:32] uh, we pay our bills and how we accept, uh, payments.
[39:36] so, um, I thought about this when he brought it up last meeting, two meetings
[39:40] ago, and, uh, made reference to policing
[39:45] ourselves. So I have no directions understanding of where he's going with, uh,
[39:49] with this, um, what department, uh, if we are talking about
[39:53] financial, uh, uh, abuse, of course that every
[39:57] council member that's up here would have some concerns about that. We don't want that to happen in
[40:01] our city. But, you know, without having, uh, uh,
[40:05] a clarity on what direction, uh, what department, uh,
[40:10] who's doing it, how much are they doing? I mean, he may have some information
[40:14] I may not be aware of that I'm surely, uh, is, uh, wanting
[40:18] to understand his point of view, but just to do that. And I've
[40:22] been, uh, privy to be on a forensic audit before, and
[40:26] it's, it's very tedious and it's very expensive. And they look at all
[40:30] the departments, all your financials, all your expenditures. Uh,
[40:34] they even look at, uh, the policy procedures that you have in place to sustain that.
[40:39] so it's, it is a stretch for me without having,
[40:44] uh, detail of where he wants to go or where the forensic audit wants to
[40:48] go, uh, in my opinion. But, you know,
[40:52] not having clarity on what department who's doing it, surely
[40:56] it's not council. Uh, I mean, but at the same time, the
[41:00] finances coming from, uh, city manager and the financial
[41:05] director and how we do our business. You know, I, I need more clarity
[41:09] on how, where, when, and how much. So before I can get on
[41:13] board with this, because, you know, at the end of the day, you know, if, if
[41:17] we have zero findings, the taxpayers coughed up anywhere between
[41:22] 200, $400,000 and is that fair to the tax citizens? No,
[41:26] that's not. But if you have some evidence, uh, councilman do said to sustain
[41:30] that, I would be more than willing to under the, to, you know,
[41:35] have an open eye, open ear to find out exactly, uh, what
[41:39] are those things are. But just to, you know, this just came outta the blue within
[41:43] the last month or so about having a forensic audit. So if
[41:47] you have more detail, I mean, please share what your cohorts and let me know personally,
[41:52] uh, some of the things that, because just to vote for that and have that on
[41:56] the agenda, uh, that's kind of a stretch for me. Thank you, mayor.
[42:00] uh, thank you. Um, councilman mcken, law council member doucette?
[42:05] yes. Okay. Uh, in reference to the
[42:09] comments made by councilman frank and councilman king, and
[42:14] both of them were good comments. I agree with some of what you both
[42:18] said in reference to funding for councilman
[42:22] frank's, uh, answer to his concerns.
[42:26] uh, if we were to decide we needed a forensic audit
[42:30] that would come under municipal purposes, which is
[42:34] one of the things allowed for amendment of a budget,
[42:39] okay? A lot of what I've said and what I'm saying count
[42:43] in now in respond to councilman kinlaw. I've been saying it for the
[42:47] last two years. I've been saying we are violating the streets
[42:51] program. I've been saying we're violating,
[42:55] uh, section two dash 31, which we do often,
[42:59] and which we put items on the agenda, and we do not have it funded
[43:04] in the budget, and
[43:08] we don't have an amendment at the meeting. I just threw out a
[43:12] few of those things and some posting I had on social media to answer citizens'
[43:16] questions. And I can sit here and
[43:20] start going through a whole, out a whole lot of specifics,
[43:25] but every specific I will name, if you go back
[43:29] to that council meeting, I read a ordinance
[43:34] or a local government code that says why we
[43:38] should not do it. And when I finished, the council voted
[43:43] anyway to approve it, and
[43:47] I talked about this, about four months with council, without this
[43:52] being just thrown out there. Today, when you do a
[43:56] forensic audit, you do not do all departments
[44:01] if you do not have to. A forensic audit
[44:05] is a audit that you have specific
[44:10] what they want to look at, where the area
[44:14] that you feel there's wrongdoings are there are issues.
[44:19] the cost of a forensic audit is determined
[44:24] by your scope, is
[44:28] how much you want them to look at, because they will determine
[44:34] how many people they will need, how long it will take them.
[44:38] that is where the cost of a forensic audit comes from. So really, you can't
[44:42] determine a cost until we de determine the scope. Uh,
[44:48] as far as citizens, not saying I'm to this
[44:52] point, because I hear citizens ask where the money is going.
[44:57] I hear citizens says, look at the streets, why we don't have this.
[45:01] and I look at what we are doing, and I've been doing this for two
[45:05] years and for two years when I said,
[45:11] it's nothing done. And like I said, it's not person. I'm not gonna question counsel.
[45:17] if counsel doesn't want to either consider what is said.
[45:23] I understand that. But the fact of the matter is,
[45:28] we have to at some point understand why we in these seats, we took
[45:32] a oath to be in these seats. And if it's something written,
[45:36] let's talk about what's written. Everybody say, I don't see anything.
[45:41] I've been reading it. I've been saying it for two years.
[45:45] if you don't want to listen or you don't, or you think is my way,
[45:50] go and check. If you read the code and
[45:54] you read the ordinance, be specific. There's
[45:59] so many things we doing, we could still do those things,
[46:04] but there's a certain way we need to do 'em. And
[46:08] it's written, we don't do it because we have
[46:12] votes. That's, that's the point I'm making. So,
[46:17] and no one can deny that I did not talk about this
[46:21] with counsel are my concerns about these ordinance
[46:26] and these codes of violations. This is not nothing new.
[46:31] and for two years, I've, I've worked with the council,
[46:36] I've learned to work with people, but
[46:41] for the two years I've heard doucette won't do it his way. Mm-hmm
[46:45] . Doucette knows everything. Doucette, but doucette
[46:49] reading in black and white. So it is not that it
[46:53] is me, I read it in black and white. If you don't
[46:59] understand what's read, didn't ask somebody who can explain to you, because I'm
[47:03] not going to do that because I'm reading citizens read the same thing.
[47:07] so, you know, I'm not here
[47:14] to fight and work against this council,
[47:19] but let's look in the mirror and understand
[47:24] what citizens want. We have an approval rating
[47:29] from the people we paid to do this plan that said,
[47:35] citizens got approval rating. That's 6% for this council of confidence.
[47:39] and the citizens are saying, what are you doing with our money? You putting it in your
[47:44] pocket, you putting the money on this and it, and it
[47:48] shouldn't go on that. If citizens are saying this and we are truly for
[47:52] citizens, then where
[47:56] do we get them to get the trust and confidence?
[48:00] we talking about $200,000, $300,000
[48:04] this council, and this is the last thing I'm gonna say, because
[48:08] this could go on all day. And I, and, and I've done this for two years, I'm not doing it,
[48:12] but this is the last thing I want to say. Someone's
[48:16] talking about $200,000. This council
[48:22] approved $395,000
[48:30] for a design and a study of an
[48:34] extension of a street,
[48:39] whereby the same council we
[48:44] setting up here disapprove
[48:48] that project. We disapproved it,
[48:52] it's in the records for $395,000
[48:57] and came right back and approved it. So we got
[49:02] the same resolution in the book,
[49:06] one approved and one disapproved.
[49:11] so that's an example of what we need to fix. And we could have fixed that
[49:15] by following the procedures. And the procedure says if we disapproved
[49:19] something, I don't care if it's five years later, we need to bring it back
[49:24] for reconsideration because we need to take the one, we disapproved off the records
[49:29] and now approve one. So you one example, I
[49:33] could be here all day. Don't, don't, don't go there with me. I've been doing that for two years.
[49:38] tell me why you think we should have now. Well, and y'all stated that and
[49:42] I respect it. Okay. Okay. So
[49:46] that's the way it is. Council members, let's be mindful
[49:50] we have two times to speak on a topic. You will have 10 minutes each time. 2, 2, 2
[49:55] minutes. I'm sorry. Two minutes to speak on each time you speak. So right
[50:00] now, I have lights that are tiffany, you have, uh, council member merrifield, you
[50:04] may speak now. Council member kinlaw, you'll be able to
[50:08] speak next and council member frank. But you guys will have two minutes to do that. Okay? Thank you.
[50:12] and no hope you've spoken twice. You cannot speak again. Thank you.
[50:17] thank you, mayor. Um, mr. Doucette,
[50:22] I recognize that you have over these last two years repeatedly
[50:26] mentioned things that you did not, um, agree with.
[50:31] and over those last two years, this information now is,
[50:35] I wanted to acknowledge that mr. Du said, but now this information is for the citizens.
[50:40] often when not just often. I can't say every time
[50:44] 'cause there is no such thing as the absolute. But most of the time
[50:49] a letter has been provided either from the texas municipal
[50:53] league, from the attorney general or from our city
[50:57] attorney, confirming what action we took
[51:03] was legal and the times that it
[51:07] was out of place, then those are the times that we had to make corrections.
[51:12] but there have never been a time that we just
[51:16] purposefully, purposefully went
[51:20] out of line according to the definition of a forensic audit.
[51:25] and so if there are specific times in a specific scope,
[51:30] I would ask, has a specific scope been
[51:35] proposed that is asking us
[51:40] to use a specialized in investigative
[51:44] techniques, investigative techniques to uncover fraud, embezzlement,
[51:49] corruption, or other financial irregular irregularities
[51:53] that our officer has, not our financial
[51:57] officer hasn't already helped us to correct.
[52:02] so I just wanna be clear that we have taken
[52:07] the opportunities to make sure that we are in order
[52:11] from our legal authorities.
[52:17] councilman mckinley? Thank you, mayor. Uh, uh, I asked a
[52:21] question, uh, for my colleague, uh, councilman doucette. Um, um,
[52:25] what are some of those allegations? He mentioned items on the agenda,
[52:29] not funded. He also mentioned streets. I was here when we started the street program,
[52:33] uh, a couple years ago. And, um, I was on a
[52:37] district three. And at the time that, uh, we did that, uh, we wanted
[52:42] to kind of take the politics out of the play.
[52:46] so we got a x-ray machine, went through the city, spent about $90,000
[52:51] on there, and, and they gave us the,
[52:55] the report that, um, how streets,
[53:00] uh, the capacity streets level of, uh, damage to those streets and
[53:04] council members at the time, the four district council members supposed to take that data
[53:08] and work with, uh, the city manager and the staff and come up with the solution and how we were gonna attack
[53:13] those streets. And then we started that because of the percentage of damaged,
[53:17] uh, streets as well as, uh, the capacity of the district. And councilman
[53:21] ett at the time, along with councilman, uh, district one, were the
[53:25] two largest areas that, uh, got the largest monies by percentages.
[53:30] now since then, councilman ett and district one, uh,
[53:35] uh, percentages of completion of streets have
[53:40] increased. Now he's, that district, district four is
[53:44] at the bottom. So I'm not understanding when we talk
[53:48] about, you know, fraud, abuse,
[53:52] taking money outta street program. At no time since I've been on
[53:56] this council, we've stopped working on streets
[54:01] in the history of port arthur. We've, this council, or the
[54:05] previous council has put more money into streets, into history.
[54:11] so I'm not understanding the question of if, you
[54:15] know, if fraud or abuse or negligence is happening
[54:19] because we continuously work on streets.
[54:23] and that's what we're supposed to do as council members, is to work on more than one thing.
[54:28] we could do more than one thing. However, he, you know, my councilman, my
[54:32] colleague, I respect his opinion, but I totally disagree with him.
[54:36] you know, he had more streets done in the last five,
[54:40] six years than any other district. So how has it been
[54:44] abuse? So my question, you know, now I'm at a, at
[54:48] large, so I look out, uh, for the entire city. Everyone has damaged
[54:53] streets. Everyone up here gets the phone calls about they need they street
[54:57] repair. So we have to come up with some type of
[55:01] auto merit, but at no time, don't be mis
[55:06] misguided that these streets programs are
[55:10] continuously. The one thing that we have an issue with is finding contractors
[55:15] to come and do these streets. Because again, it's
[55:19] hard for contractors because they got many jobs to come in port arthur and to work
[55:23] on the streets. But when we get these contractors here at city manager, we need to hold 'em down.
[55:28] we have, we need to make sure that we hold them down and continue doing the projects that port arthur
[55:32] has. So, you know, those two things that I asked, I asked it bluntly.
[55:36] I mean, what is your directions? What's clarification on the things that you're saying
[55:41] that this city is, uh, actually doing that would cause
[55:45] for a forensic audit? I need more clarity in just those things
[55:49] because streets program, that's at the will of the council to make those
[55:53] determination, just like we started it in the beginning. So if it's something more
[55:57] than just those two and those things that you said when I asked the question, you said street program.
[56:02] and then you also stated that items on the agendas on the agenda
[56:07] not funded. So if it's something more than that, and instead of the definition
[56:11] of a forensic audit, I'd be, you got my ears and my eyes open.
[56:15] thank you, mayor. Alright, thank you councilman. Uh, can, uh, councilman lewis?
[56:20] yes. Finance director. Got a minute.
[56:29] thank you, lynn. Good morning,
[56:33] mayor. Council members, what is our good morning? What is our
[56:37] total budget for this year? The total budget is, is over $400 million.
[56:43] okay, thank you. When I first
[56:47] came to council, we had a budget of $100 million.
[56:51] now we have a budget of $400 million. And every
[56:56] city manager I've been to conferences and everything, they always say I talk with a
[57:00] spend time with different city manager. They, you know what they say, watch
[57:04] the money. Watch your money, find out
[57:08] where your money is going. Watch your money. $400 million
[57:13] and y'all nitpicking about a brown bag sandwich or, or oh,
[57:18] 200 some thousand dollars and you got a $400 million,
[57:22] you got a $400 million budget. It's taxpayer's money. A 400
[57:27] tax bill's money of $400 million. That's not good money. Tax
[57:31] bill's money. Yeah, they want it. They've been talking to me.
[57:35] I don't know where you all been, but they'll, they'll accuse of, we get accused
[57:39] every day, every time I talk with I I go to the grocery store. What?
[57:44] and, and, and about violations.
[57:48] mouthfeel, if you violate a bond, covenant is malfeasance.
[57:53] look it up. He talking you, you violate those. That
[57:58] is malfeasance. We
[58:02] have to be mindful of the money that we'll spend
[58:06] $400 million and you are talking about not spending 200
[58:11] thou, uh, less than $300,000 to find out where the money is going. We
[58:15] are we doing around, we got a baseline, we have a baseline, we have a baseline.
[58:20] the previous, the previous, uh,
[58:24] forensic audit. Let's compare. That's a reference,
[58:28] that's a baseline. Let's find out how, how have we improved?
[58:33] what have we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing better?
[58:39] and we gonna have some more discussions on this. And I don't have a problem with budgeting the money,
[58:43] uh, for, for a forensic audit. I have no problem with that. But we need to
[58:48] take a look. We need to look and see where our money is
[58:52] going. And I've heard, and I've witnessed plenty of malfeasance,
[58:58] council member frank one who I follow
[59:02] and serve, said that there's a tendency we have to,
[59:07] uh, gag at a maggot and swallow a camel.
[59:12] um, simply said, I've seen this council
[59:16] argue over whether or not we ought to have a $15 lunch
[59:21] as a council. And so now we going. And so now wait,
[59:25] hold up, hold up, hold up. Wait, we are not gonna sleep at time. Lemme do it. Lemme do what I do.
[59:29] hold up, hold up. We're going argue. We argue over a $15 lunch right
[59:33] now, council member frank is speaking and we else, we, we,
[59:38] we have, we have argued over a fif whether we ought to have a $15 lunch.
[59:43] and we acquiesce to those wishes of councilmen who feel as though
[59:47] we should not have a $15 lunch. But then we come right back and
[59:51] say, it's okay to have $200,000 spent anyway,
[59:55] you know, $200,000 spent. And it's no big deal.
[1:00:00] I, I understand, I understand how important public trust
[1:00:05] is and as a, a public official, but when we get down
[1:00:09] to the point where, where these discussions are being held
[1:00:13] over ideology, where the, and and
[1:00:17] we are talking about whether or not, um, we see
[1:00:21] something a different way. And that's what we're really, that's what
[1:00:25] brought this about. What brought this about was whether or not
[1:00:30] we violated the bond covenant when we had
[1:00:34] the project on, um, on woodworth boulevard.
[1:00:39] let's just be, let's put it out there. Let's just talk about it and say it.
[1:00:44] we had our bond attorney come, we had people
[1:00:48] come, we got an opinion from the, uh, da,
[1:00:52] we got an opinion from texas municipal lead over whether
[1:00:56] or not we had done anything wrong as a council
[1:01:01] by utilizing those funds. We checked, we
[1:01:05] looked, we asked, we got, um, we got,
[1:01:10] uh, all of the things necessary to see whether or not
[1:01:14] we had violated. And whether or not there was malfeasance
[1:01:18] and there was not, but dogmatically,
[1:01:23] it won't be let go. That's where we are. That's why we
[1:01:27] are here. Because you won't let it go
[1:01:32] because you, because four individuals on the council
[1:01:37] voted and allowed it to happen and transpire because they
[1:01:41] believed that we could walk and chew gum at the same time. And the project is
[1:01:45] a beautiful project on the gateway to downtown port arthur.
[1:01:49] it's not finished yet. It's not completed, but it looks beautiful. And,
[1:01:54] and individuals on council dared to believe that port arthur ought
[1:01:58] to have something nice, a gateway to downtown. Okay? That's
[1:02:02] why we are here. That's what happened. That's what transpired.
[1:02:06] let it go. Let it go.
[1:02:11] thank, thank, let it go. Thank you council member frank. Council member lewis.
[1:02:15] and the,
[1:02:20] the bond covenant is in place. And I talked, and I, I called
[1:02:24] the bond, uh, agent from the city
[1:02:28] attorney's, the previous city attorney's office with the staff sitting in there
[1:02:33] and he called it a violation.
[1:02:37] oh wait, he, he said, councilman, I know where you're going with this.
[1:02:42] I know where you're going with this, but I'm willing to hold my
[1:02:46] nose. That's council member. No, no, no.
[1:02:50] that's, I'm I I I'm, I'm in the meeting. I called you and the city
[1:02:54] attorney was there. You was not there. I will get, I will determine you was not there. Who gets
[1:02:58] what time to talk now? We said two minutes. I've let everybody go over that and
[1:03:03] I'll let I talking. I'll determine that. Okay. Thank you. No,
[1:03:07] sir. You've already spoken. I got a motion to make if everybody spoken,
[1:03:11] if he's still speaking and you got people in the audience that's asking to speak as well, but
[1:03:15] anytime, so I'll call it up the meeting anytime and I'll say again, what I need to do. It can
[1:03:19] finish anytime. That bond issue was strictly for infrastructure,
[1:03:25] not $7 million for landscaping a boulevard. It was for
[1:03:29] you can, you can fix a, a water and sewer lines if it's,
[1:03:33] if it's a problem. That was not the issue. They went down there and
[1:03:37] moved $14 million to move $14 million.
[1:03:41] and then, and people complaining about what are y'all, I can leave my house
[1:03:45] and go in any direction and blow a tire, but y'all
[1:03:49] spending, I didn't have a problem with land doing what? But
[1:03:53] you had to budget for that, uh, the next time around. Okay. You don't just take it
[1:03:58] out of a $50 million budget. You don't just do
[1:04:02] that. It is malfeasance. When you're violated an ordinance,
[1:04:06] it is, look it up and also look
[1:04:10] up the definition of male feas and violating the city ordinance.
[1:04:14] it'll tell you. And all in addition to that.
[1:04:18] okay. Other. Thank you, mr. Thank you councilman lewis. Appreciate it. I have some people from
[1:04:22] the audience that would like to speak. You'll have a, um, three minutes to speak.
[1:04:27] sure. Thank you holland. Okay. Hello counsel. My name's holland hoffer. I live at
[1:04:31] 37 10. Dr. Martin luther king highway out on pleasure, highland.
[1:04:35] um, to me, I detect fear in this room right now. It's like we're discussing
[1:04:39] a forensic audit and everyone is shape-shifting, uh, trying to get away.
[1:04:43] doesn't wanna discuss it, is doing everything to avoid it. Um,
[1:04:48] council member, frank, you said that citizens aren't concerned and it's just,
[1:04:52] um, council member doucette that was really interested in this. I know that you're
[1:04:56] online and there are hundreds of citizens right now
[1:05:00] making comments about this. This has been the hot topic for the last several months.
[1:05:05] it was not even started by council member disette. It was brought up by several other
[1:05:09] people and it, it, the ball got rolling and people have tons of
[1:05:14] questions about all sorts of things going on. So to say that the city is not interested
[1:05:18] in this is really a false statement because okay,
[1:05:22] I'm sorry. I'm sorry to say that citizens are not fully interested. Those
[1:05:26] that is who is driving this issue right now? Um, there's hundreds of 'em.
[1:05:31] you know, we waste, I'm not sorry, we don't waste. We spend a lot of money
[1:05:35] on what I would consider frivol frivolous projects around the city. Um, I'm
[1:05:39] gonna refer back to the sign on port arthur. It was $264,000.
[1:05:44] this audit will cost around the same amount. And we're looking at
[1:05:48] taking a look at hundreds of millions of dollars that hopefully
[1:05:52] nothing happened to. But if someone's misappropriated, it's gonna certainly pay
[1:05:57] for that audit really quickly. Um, councilor hamilton,
[1:06:01] I understand that the last time there was a forensic audit, nothing was done. That
[1:06:05] is not to say that this time nothing will be done. Um, there's a lot of
[1:06:09] people pushing for it now. There's a lot of effort behind it. And for
[1:06:13] the cost it takes to do one, I think it would really benefit the city. And moving forward,
[1:06:17] I think the citizens I speak on behalf of, a lot of them that are probably not here right now. Some, some are.
[1:06:22] um, we'd like to do this. So thank you very much. Okay.
[1:06:26] um, I think I saw another hand, gloria's.
[1:06:31] okay, we have three minutes. Good morning,
[1:06:36] mayor and consul. Gloria sanchez, 6 6 2 5 jade avenue.
[1:06:41] uh, I have been watching meetings for over 18 years,
[1:06:46] all the time. I have been watching cons. I in the budget
[1:06:50] every time that they want to. Last year we amend
[1:06:54] the budget to do, um, bonus for the employees. They
[1:06:58] wasn't on the on, I'm sorry,
[1:07:03] it wasn't on, on budget.
[1:07:08] and we did it because you want to do it.
[1:07:12] you concerned about 200, $400, but I see you
[1:07:17] asking for $32 million week. We gonna spend over
[1:07:21] 30 million on interest. It's lost money,
[1:07:25] money that we paying for. And it's just interesting. We
[1:07:29] have to pay on the loan. But now you're concerned about
[1:07:33] 200 or $400. I think every single one of you need
[1:07:37] to be concerned and be sure that whatever the 2017
[1:07:43] for nz audit recommendations are followed and fix it.
[1:07:47] that we no have any more longer employees be sending like a vendors,
[1:07:52] the council are doing the things right. That every recommendation,
[1:07:57] because it was a recommendation. I was here when the forensic
[1:08:01] audit was, uh, reporting to council and
[1:08:05] they was very clear and said, we are nobody to do accusation.
[1:08:10] but you must follow the red flags.
[1:08:15] the explanation, the cons gave it to me was the employees who did this
[1:08:19] to the city are no longer here. Some of these employees are
[1:08:23] back, are back. And just to be sure
[1:08:27] that everything that happened 10 years ago is not happening now,
[1:08:31] I think it's worth to spend this money on it.
[1:08:36] and just to be sure that you have been no violated anything and you are doing
[1:08:40] the things right. I think it's worth to spend this kind of money.
[1:08:44] and like I said, you amend the budget three, four times, five times a
[1:08:48] year. And now this is the excuse. It's not
[1:08:52] on the budget. Really?
[1:08:58] give me something better than that, please. Thank you,
[1:09:02] ms. Joanne.
[1:09:08] ms. Jones. Joanne jones. I speak as
[1:09:12] a citizen, a port arthur. You all have some
[1:09:17] parents. I understand that, but I can't go along with
[1:09:21] it. Even in a team of four, when you all were voting,
[1:09:25] I just don't think it was right when you all were carrying on business.
[1:09:29] y'all had a team of four that was done and it wasn't legal.
[1:09:34] and it, you know, that you all the way you
[1:09:38] voted took to get what you all wanted. And here we, 75 million
[1:09:43] is missing, uh, unappropriate. And here we asked for two
[1:09:48] the citizens of port arthur, our own personal money.
[1:09:52] and you do not give us credit to use it,
[1:09:56] but you use it when you wanna use it, when it to benefit you, you're
[1:10:00] not supposed to be. I mean, it's not about you all being benefited. It's about us.
[1:10:04] and all we ask for is this little,
[1:10:09] few dollars, you know, compared to what we have and work to
[1:10:13] put it there and build our, uh, city. And you says, no,
[1:10:18] give us some credit, give us some lean, you know, that we have since enough
[1:10:22] too common sense, if not books says,
[1:10:26] you know, that we are able to use our money the way we see fit. Sometimes
[1:10:30] just sometime the traveling last year was, was real
[1:10:35] outta order. You know, some of the council members took advantage of a lot
[1:10:39] of traveling. And that's, it's, it's
[1:10:43] just time. Give us some benefit. Give us some benefit. It's not gonna hurt
[1:10:47] you. If it hurt anybody, it's gonna hurt us. Thank you.
[1:10:52] thank you. Council member josette, you call in for, we need to call for them and
[1:10:56] it, oh, I'm sorry. You'll
[1:11:00] come up. I'm sorry. And I should have had everybody state their name and address and I apologize. I missed that.
[1:11:05] okay. Mm-hmm. Hello, everyone. Linda baker. I live at
[1:11:09] 27 10 evergreen drive. Um, I would like to say
[1:11:13] on behalf of the citizens who are concerned and would agree to having a
[1:11:17] forensic audit, having been a former forensic auditor for the government,
[1:11:21] um, I think there's a lot of questions that need to be answered. I also believe that,
[1:11:26] um, having been an investor in a company called lift tech
[1:11:30] that some of you may be aware of, we were awarded before I moved here
[1:11:34] from central texas. We were actually awarded to be able to repay proctor.
[1:11:38] and then whenever they got approved by texdot to be able to utilize the formula
[1:11:42] that they came up with, they were told that the city didn't have the money.
[1:11:46] I just would like to know what happened. That's all. I would also like
[1:11:51] to know with many other questions that I have. Um, just
[1:11:55] maybe what, maybe there's no malfeasance. Maybe it's just the way in which the financials are written.
[1:11:59] maybe there's just not enough granular deri, uh, description
[1:12:04] for where the money has gone. But I say that we do this audit,
[1:12:08] and if nothing's going on, then fantastic. Thank you for your time.
[1:12:14] thank you. Council member hamilton. Ever feel. Thank you, mayor.
[1:12:18] is there an opportunity for, um,
[1:12:23] ms. Ms? Oh my god, ms. Lynn,
[1:12:28] our finance director to this would be a
[1:12:32] question to city manager, actually host a workshop on the audits that have already
[1:12:36] been done. Our audit is public information. It's readily
[1:12:40] available on this city website. So I understand that people have questions
[1:12:44] and they deserve to be answered, but a forensic audit is not the
[1:12:48] only way that these questions can be answered. So is there an opportunity
[1:12:53] that, and we, we had public hearings. Mayor added public
[1:12:57] hearings during our budget, and they were very
[1:13:01] extensive. We had some that were in the morning, some
[1:13:05] were that were in the evening for the public to be able to come and ask
[1:13:09] questions before we even approved our annual budget. So we have the opportunity
[1:13:14] to ask these questions, but maybe the, the
[1:13:18] methods that we previously used were not as effective that, that
[1:13:23] needs to be for citizens to know that they can actually ask those questions.
[1:13:29] okay. Uh, city manager, you had your light all. Yeah. Mayor. Mayor and council.
[1:13:33] um, with reference to council women's ever
[1:13:37] filled question, we do have all the audits posted on
[1:13:42] our website. All the current audits being posted on the website.
[1:13:46] um, I have asked staff to prepare a chronological
[1:13:52] report of the past forensic audits. Um, I do have it with
[1:13:56] me. Um, I'm prepared to post this on the website after
[1:14:01] it has been vetted by the city attorney to make sure that the information
[1:14:05] that we have compiled is very much accurate and it goes
[1:14:09] back as far as 2005. Oh, okay.
[1:14:13] you know, so with all the audits and all the resolutions and all the outcomes
[1:14:17] and all the discussions and all the dates, um,
[1:14:22] very detailed and I'll be very much prepared to put it on the website, um,
[1:14:27] for the edification of the public as well, um, with one
[1:14:31] of the, I think one of the learner gentlemen made the, the, the comment
[1:14:35] that we have used city money for signs. The money
[1:14:39] came from hot tax and council voted on several occasions,
[1:14:44] hotel tax of proving the hot tax for the city signs
[1:14:48] all over the city, mayor. So this money was appropriately,
[1:14:53] it was the it, this money was appropriately spent
[1:14:58] according to state and, um, state law and city ordinances,
[1:15:03] all the ordinances, all the signs who finance
[1:15:08] from hog tax. All the city of port arthur alpha signs.
[1:15:12] yeah. All the city of port arthur signs
[1:15:18] that was donated. That was money that was donated, um,
[1:15:23] from a company money. Okay. Wait, we're gonna have order
[1:15:27] in here. Okay. So we're not gonna speak from the audience, ma'am, right now, you've
[1:15:31] already spoken. City manager is speaking, and so, um, city manager
[1:15:35] will move forward with yes, I will move forward website. No one else is
[1:15:39] allowed to speak. I'll promise you I will have you removed.
[1:15:45] I will. So may, I will have the information vetted and posted on the website.
[1:15:49] thank you. I appreciate that. At this time, we're gonna entertain the motion
[1:15:54] and we'll take a roll call vote.
[1:16:01] I make a motion that we'll prove
[1:16:08] the conduct of a forensic audit.
[1:16:14] second, there's been a motion and a second.
[1:16:19] any discussions? I think they've all taken place. We're gonna do a
[1:16:23] roll call vote at this time. City secretary
[1:16:27] council member beckham. Yes.
[1:16:31] mayor pro. Tim ett. Yes. Council member frank?
[1:16:36] yes. Council member hamilton. Ever field?
[1:16:42] no. Council member. Ken long? Yes.
[1:16:48] council member lewis? Yes. Mayor moses.
[1:16:53] no. Motion passes, mayor.
[1:16:57] thank you. Thank you. Okay.
[1:17:02] put it on facebook. Put it on. At this time, we're going to move to
[1:17:06] public hearings. We have none at the number
[1:17:10] item number five, reports of, uh, uh, items of community interest.
[1:17:14] limited to a total of two minutes per council member. If there's
[1:17:19] anything council members you'd like to announce at this time, you may do so.
[1:17:23] uh, put on your lights. I have council member beckham. Yes. Thank you, mayor. Uh,
[1:17:27] I would like to announce that on thursday, november 13th,
[1:17:31] from nine to 12 at the port arthur public library, uh, there
[1:17:35] will be a workshop for citizens who need
[1:17:39] help in applying for the discount for the,
[1:17:44] uh, water bill. And I'm pulling up the flyer right now so that I can give specific information.
[1:17:50] um, water, utilities, and the library will host a senior water
[1:17:54] discount workshop. This has been posted online. Uh, it's on my council member
[1:17:58] page on social media, and it's also been posted by, uh, the library and
[1:18:02] also by the city. Uh, again, it will be at the port arthur public library. That's at
[1:18:06] 46 15 ninth avenue. That's in district three. That's my
[1:18:11] district. Um, thursday, november 13th from 9:00 am to 12.
[1:18:15] uh, citizens who are 65 years of age or older that reside within the port
[1:18:19] arthur city limits and a single family residence, uh,
[1:18:23] that holds the water service account in their own name and have a current
[1:18:28] homestead exemption or a lease agreement for the property also in your name.
[1:18:32] so you've gotta bring those things with you, uh, to show that you do qualify
[1:18:36] for this discount. There will be a presentation by the water department,
[1:18:40] uh, question and answer period and application help. Uh, and I will be
[1:18:44] there to assist also. So, uh, this is posted on social media. If you see it, please
[1:18:49] share it and share this information with your friends and family members that, uh, qualify
[1:18:53] for that senior citizen discount on the water bill. Thank you, mayor.
[1:18:57] council member, uh, everfi. Thank you, ma'am.
[1:19:02] the city of port arthur has a youth advisory council,
[1:19:07] a city of port arthur youth advisory council, and one of the annual
[1:19:11] projects that yak youth advisory council will host is
[1:19:15] providing supplies such as toiletries, um,
[1:19:20] socks, white towels, large towels, and small
[1:19:24] hand towels to port city's rescue mission to support
[1:19:28] the homeless in our community and surrounding areas. You'll
[1:19:32] see boxes in city buildings throughout the community
[1:19:36] and at some of these schools in order to place those items
[1:19:41] into these boxes. And the port arthur youth advisory council
[1:19:45] will deliver them, um, about a week before
[1:19:50] christmas. So, again, this will be the, um, the first time that we're
[1:19:54] doing this project, but it will be an annual project. And port city's rescue mission
[1:19:58] is very grateful. Um, as you know,
[1:20:03] homeless will be with us all the days of our life. And so I'm
[1:20:07] just asking for anyone that may want to offer, um, those donations.
[1:20:12] please feel free to add the items in the box. Thank you very much.
[1:20:17] all right, we're going to move now to, um,
[1:20:21] item six, unfinished business. We have none. Um,
[1:20:25] we're going to move to item seven, our consent agenda. Council
[1:20:29] members, if you have some items that you'd like to withhold, please put your light on and
[1:20:34] I'll acknowledge you so that we can hold those items. Council member everfi.
[1:20:38] sorry, mayor. Council member doucette?
[1:20:43] yes. Mayor. Item number three on page
[1:20:47] four. Okay,
[1:20:52] that's council member frank. Um, item number four
[1:20:57] on page four.
[1:21:03] council member doucette. Yes. Mayor, I, I need to correct that.
[1:21:07] I'm sorry. It's item number five on page four.
[1:21:12] okay. So not item three, right? Not three. It's five.
[1:21:16] okay. Alright.
[1:21:20] can I get a motion for approval for the consent agenda?
[1:21:25] second. It's been moved. And second, any discussions?
[1:21:30] oh, I'm sorry. Let me start over. Um, I
[1:21:35] want to move that we approve the consent agenda with the exceptions of item
[1:21:39] four and item five on page four. And I'd like to
[1:21:43] get a motion for approval for the consent agenda with those items being withheld,
[1:21:48] it's been moved and properly. Second. Any discussions? All in
[1:21:52] favor say aye. Aye. Any nos?
[1:21:56] the ayes have it. The consent agenda passes with the exception
[1:22:00] of item number four and number five on page four.
[1:22:04] we will now, um, go to number four on page four,
[1:22:10] pr number 2, 4 5 7 4. A resolution approving
[1:22:14] a technical assistance agreement between the port arthur economic development
[1:22:18] corporation and the national council, uh, for community development
[1:22:22] incorporated, dba, uh, grow america for the
[1:22:27] period of one year upon pr pa edcs, execution of
[1:22:31] the agreement in an amount not to exceed $75,000
[1:22:35] funds available in edc. Account number 1 2 0
[1:22:39] dash 8 6 2 5 dash 5 4 2 0 0 0
[1:22:48] professional services. Can I get a motion for approval? So moved. Second.
[1:22:52] it's been moved and properly. Second. Moved by council member frank and
[1:22:57] second by council member lewis, any
[1:23:01] questions? Yes. Okay. Council member, frank. Thank you. Mayor.
[1:23:05] propositions are, are on our minds. The edc is on our minds right
[1:23:09] now because we have a proposition that is, that has been on the ballot and is
[1:23:13] on the ballot right now. Uh, because we are asking as a council for
[1:23:17] the authority, uh, to do projects, uh, here in our city
[1:23:21] with a hybrid a and b, uh, edc.
[1:23:26] and so, uh, I want to be sure that individuals are,
[1:23:30] uh, taking an opportunity to have their voices heard, uh,
[1:23:34] on that proposition, if you have not already done so. Uh, so that we can help
[1:23:39] our city grow. We believe that it will help. But I want
[1:23:43] to ask a question concerning this because we have allowed
[1:23:47] you can come please. Uh, you, because we did
[1:23:51] approve this, because economic development is always on the forefront
[1:23:55] of our minds here in the city, uh, as we're watching projects,
[1:24:00] uh, come about. So I wanted to know exactly what,
[1:24:04] um, what has been going on with this company? What is,
[1:24:09] uh, what has been approved, what has been put in place? How
[1:24:13] is it progressing, and why do you believe that is
[1:24:17] necessary that we continue this contract? You know, what has been
[1:24:21] the fruit of our efforts with this contract? Yes, councilman?
[1:24:25] so, uh, grow america, formerly known as the national development
[1:24:29] council, has been our technical advisor for, uh, more than
[1:24:33] 10 years, I'd say annually. We come to you all to renew their contract,
[1:24:38] their technical services, um, include professional services such
[1:24:42] as, um, financial review and analysis of
[1:24:46] our projects, as well as incentive agreements or incentive recipients
[1:24:51] and applicants. They do all of that, those number running for us
[1:24:55] so that we can make good decisions on the projects that we invest in.
[1:24:59] um, uh, also they manage our grow port arthur fund, which is
[1:25:03] an sba backed small business loan for, um, small businesses
[1:25:07] in port arthur. So they are the, the, uh,
[1:25:12] entity that matches that fund and manages it for us
[1:25:16] amongst other technical advisory advising that they do for us. How many
[1:25:20] small businesses are, have been loaned money, say in the last
[1:25:24] year or, um, in the last year? In, in,
[1:25:28] in our city, we have not had any loans processed through groveport
[1:25:32] arthur fund. Um, in the last year, we do have one current applicant that
[1:25:36] is going through, uh, the application phase right now. How many have
[1:25:41] we seen over the, over, over the last five years, would you say?
[1:25:46] I believe we have two open loans. Two open loans
[1:25:50] over five years. Yes. So you believe that this,
[1:25:54] so you believe that this con I'm sorry. So you believe
[1:25:58] that this contract should continue and then we we're getting banged for the buck,
[1:26:03] um, out of this? Yes, sir. Because not only, um,
[1:26:07] do they manage that grove port arthur fund for us, they provide technical advising for
[1:26:11] us that, uh, we can't do in-house. So they, they are
[1:26:15] a, a very necessary resource for us. Okay. Alright.
[1:26:20] thank you so much. I have, uh, council member ettes light on.
[1:26:24] yes. A couple of things. Comments. First one being
[1:26:29] we don't have a hybrid. The state of texas does not have hybrid
[1:26:34] edcs. All edcs is gonna be a a or b,
[1:26:39] no hybrid. The second thing, ndc,
[1:26:44] I've served on e-e-d-c-n-d-c
[1:26:50] due the financials for them. If you apply for incentives
[1:26:54] for the edc, you apply for,
[1:26:58] uh, assistance. You have to submit
[1:27:03] your financials to the edc, who in turns
[1:27:08] pass it on to ndc. Ndc goes through it
[1:27:12] like banks do. Can't they let ddc know, hey,
[1:27:16] that's a risk. That's not a risk.
[1:27:20] that is why the a dc has so far
[1:27:25] been able to use money that was not wasted
[1:27:29] because they do not listen to what somebody say they have
[1:27:34] or what they bring to 'em. They actually send it to them and they
[1:27:38] do the same thing when they run a financial check. So it's been protected in the edc
[1:27:43] for years. And if you go back and look at that track record, you're not gonna find
[1:27:47] that they, uh, invested or they gave money to any clients
[1:27:52] where it was a waste or it was funded. You know, I think in the 11 years I've
[1:27:57] been involved in understanding edc and everything, I think, uh,
[1:28:01] there's only one project that I know folded under the whole thing.
[1:28:06] but when they ran the financials, it was good, but it folded. But
[1:28:10] whenever you do something of that magnitude, you are protecting
[1:28:14] citizens tax dollars. And it has nothing to do with anybody
[1:28:18] work there. So even if you talk to people, work there
[1:28:23] and they like you, and now it still goes to n-d-c-n-d-c is gonna look at it,
[1:28:27] they're gonna say, risk,
[1:28:31] high risk, no risk, or we think it's the good deal.
[1:28:36] now did I explain that exactly what happens over there? ?
[1:28:40] yes. I thought that. Thank you. Okay, thank you. That's what I just wanted to add.
[1:28:46] okay. Council member lewis. Yes. Appreciate your
[1:28:51] look. Ed's the economic development corporation
[1:28:55] when it was in place, put in place in
[1:28:59] 1996. Up until now, have there ever been any
[1:29:03] grants for small businesses?
[1:29:09] we provide incentives rather than grants. Um, and
[1:29:14] small business, it'll depend on, on how you, uh, classify small
[1:29:18] business. Some of the businesses that we do, we have provided incentives for which
[1:29:22] are industrial business can be classified as a small business. Oh, I'm saying have,
[1:29:26] have small, have have the edc board ever done any
[1:29:30] give they give away, they give away tons of money
[1:29:34] since 1996 okay.
[1:29:38] for infrastructure and whatever, helping, helping, uh, other businesses.
[1:29:43] but when it come down to now, I've sent 'em to the edc and hoping that board
[1:29:47] members would do something, put it on the ballot, and he, councilman
[1:29:51] deuce said, said he served twice down there, never done nothing. Small business
[1:29:55] grants. Once they had the, the a corporation set up,
[1:29:59] you never had to voted in place. They never had to go back. They just give
[1:30:04] away money. Give away money. Yes. You know, you qualifi the backgrounds and everything,
[1:30:08] but they have never took the time to help a
[1:30:12] small business with a grant to put a roof on, on the house, on,
[1:30:16] on, on their business. All of those small
[1:30:20] businesses I have sent to economic development corporation, they wanted to give 'em
[1:30:24] a loan. Small businesses do not need a loan.
[1:30:30] they need grants. Something that they don't have to pay back. All the other businesses,
[1:30:34] 1996 have been getting grants, never pay 'em back.
[1:30:39] but when it come down to small businesses, oh, well, they gotta pay the background check.
[1:30:43] and all this suppose a small grove, for example, small businesses
[1:30:47] that was reimbursed for putting a roof on the, on the building or
[1:30:51] for an adding extension. Okay. You know, I mean,
[1:30:55] they, they, the city, it is on the front page of port arthur news. They helped
[1:30:59] their small businesses, but port arthur has not. Now we got an opportunity
[1:31:04] to do something with the hybrid. And there is a hybrid program. The regulation talks
[1:31:08] about the hybrid 2023. It was the hybrid program
[1:31:12] passed. You could read the regulations. Okay. Uh,
[1:31:17] we need to continue to help small men. I'm urging everybody, when you go to oppose
[1:31:22] today, be sure to vote for the proposition eight.
[1:31:26] you can't do that council, lord, you can't do that. You,
[1:31:30] you know. Okay. Okay. Y'all, we already know. Let's
[1:31:34] stop this. Okay. We know, sir.
[1:31:38] sir, you cannot do that in here. We cannot endorse as public officials
[1:31:43] of a proposition. No, we cannot. Okay. I'm done with that city manager.
[1:31:48] yeah. Mayor crystal, I hope I
[1:31:52] did not miss it. Um, you explained that grow
[1:31:56] america was formally the ndc. You did, did you?
[1:32:00] yes, sir. They're formerly national development council. Yeah. And, and technically they still are
[1:32:04] the national right development council, but they're doing business now as grow america. Yes. Yeah.
[1:32:08] and the other thing that in response to, um, councilman frank's
[1:32:12] question, one of the most significant projects that they have undertaken in the last five
[1:32:17] years with the edc is the renaissance apartments. Mm-hmm. Correct.
[1:32:21] yes. So, and that was a significant achievement both for the ed
[1:32:25] c and for the city. Mm-hmm . You. Absolutely. So that's 30 odd million dollars
[1:32:30] at the time when we did it. Mm-hmm. Okay. So it has been a significant
[1:32:34] achievement. Yeah. Yes. Alright. All. Are we done?
[1:32:40] I have no more councilman you said? Yes. Yes. I just wanted to add that, uh,
[1:32:45] the reason you can't do grants and stuff for small b, it's a type
[1:32:49] a corporation. Type a corporation,
[1:32:53] all it. What we want to do and who we want to help
[1:32:58] is a type a corporation. There's things they can do. There's
[1:33:02] a way to do it. It's all written in the regulations. The
[1:33:06] local government codes. The local government code has two
[1:33:12] government code that identified types of corporations
[1:33:17] in the state of texas. 5 0 4. 5 0 3. Anything
[1:33:21] else you read is not written and
[1:33:25] approved by the legislature. 5 0 4 and not 5 0 5
[1:33:29] was approved by the texas legislature. And if there's any amendments or changes to
[1:33:33] them, that's who will do it. And that's what I'm talking about. We need to follow is
[1:33:37] written. Okay. Uh, council member frank,
[1:33:42] I just wanted to add in my second time of going around, councilman deuce
[1:33:46] is correct, but five years ago I came
[1:33:50] on this council and I began to ask questions. I'd gone to the edc,
[1:33:55] sat down with the director at that particular time and talked to them about the
[1:33:59] conversion from a type a to a type bedc.
[1:34:03] needling has a type b, uh, ed, c. Most of the,
[1:34:07] most of the cities with our demographics and in our state
[1:34:12] have a type b, ed, c, which affords them the opportunity to
[1:34:16] do type a and type b projects without going to the voters
[1:34:20] every time that they do it. And so there was a,
[1:34:25] um, there was, um, there was no will,
[1:34:30] there was no desire, uh, to change from a type a,
[1:34:34] edc to go to a type bedc that would help businesses
[1:34:39] because there was a concern, um, because of a type
[1:34:43] bedc that council members could sit on the, on
[1:34:47] the council or whatever. We weren't trying to take over the edc
[1:34:52] at that particular time. And that was, um, the whole,
[1:34:56] um, that was the whole, uh, scare
[1:35:00] tactic to us moving to a type bedc at that particular
[1:35:05] time that, that the council wanted to take over, uh, the edc.
[1:35:09] that was not it. We were simply trying to do what councilman lewis was saying
[1:35:13] to help small businesses to help, um, the engine,
[1:35:18] uh, drive small businesses in our community so that we could do
[1:35:23] downtown. And we have a tour zone and all of those things to help our city,
[1:35:27] uh, as well, uh, to be revitalized. But we need projects,
[1:35:32] um, like the waterpark. We need projects that bring
[1:35:37] a quality of life in our city. And that's what that proposition
[1:35:41] is all about. On the council today, city attorney's asking to speak
[1:35:45] city attorney, if we could redirect back to the agenda item. I think we're getting off scope.
[1:35:50] yes. We okay. We we're gonna be back on task. Okay. So
[1:35:54] at this point, we're going to, uh, move for our vote
[1:35:58] on the, uh, item that's here, which is approving a technical assistance agreement
[1:36:03] between the city of port arthur economic development corporation and national council of,
[1:36:07] uh, community development, known before as, um,
[1:36:12] ndc, but now doing business as grow america for the period of one year.
[1:36:16] can I, um, all in favor say aye. Aye.
[1:36:20] the ayes have it. Let me make sure we have no anyone against this
[1:36:25] nos. Any nos? No. So the ayes have it. The resolution passes.
[1:36:29] we're gonna go to pr number 2 4 5 8 1 a
[1:36:33] resolution authorizing the contract extension for the 25th
[1:36:38] street bridge repair project with wool pert incorporated
[1:36:42] of houston, texas. There is no funding intact for the contract extension.
[1:36:47] can I get a motion for approval? Motion for approval? Second. It's been motioned.
[1:36:51] and second motioned, uh, by council member lewis, and second by council member
[1:36:55] frank. Um, any questions? Council member ett? Yes.
[1:36:59] thank you, mayor. When looking at the background information
[1:37:04] for, for this particular item, it's something that caught my attention.
[1:37:09] it said that the delay was
[1:37:13] be from deliberating, you know,
[1:37:18] and, and I've always, that's something that, that I keep talking about is
[1:37:22] we do not moves. There
[1:37:27] are sometimes things can happen that will cause a delay
[1:37:31] that is unforeseen and you can't help. So, my question here,
[1:37:36] what was this delay that stopped us
[1:37:40] from moving when we first took action? Action. What
[1:37:44] was the delay there? There were several. The delay was,
[1:37:49] the delay was, there was a discussion where the city
[1:37:53] manager was seeking information from motiva at the time
[1:37:57] that was interested in 25th street. And, um, whether we
[1:38:01] were going to undertake the investment of repairing the bridge
[1:38:06] at that time. And, um, the monies at that time was not in
[1:38:10] the budget for us to repair the street. For the bri yes. Excuse me.
[1:38:14] for the bri yes. No money in the budget for the bridge. That's right. That's right. There was no
[1:38:18] money. It's only this year that we have placed the money and counselor approved the
[1:38:22] repairs of both 25th street and ninth avenue.
[1:38:27] in, in spite of that, we are going to get the report, which is a good thing,
[1:38:32] which is the delay is a good thing because the, the reports
[1:38:36] will indicate to us whether, as I've, in my discussion
[1:38:40] with my city engineer, the current city engineer, whether
[1:38:44] it would be much more valuable to undertake the repairs or to just replace the bridge.
[1:38:49] we will get an idea, a much more solid idea of that when we do, when
[1:38:53] we continue with this. Well that's good. 'cause basically what we're saying is really,
[1:38:58] we really wasn't moving into talking about
[1:39:02] design and replacement at the time. It just came to
[1:39:07] us and everything. Yes. But then
[1:39:11] instead of talking about bridge, we went into looking at it. If we going to give up the bridge,
[1:39:16] uh, if we gonna give up the street, so then that's what yes. Yes. So you went from here to
[1:39:20] here. That's right. And then now we decided to come back here. Yes. And then now, you know, one of
[1:39:24] the things that I took into consideration and in my discussion with the public
[1:39:28] works department at the time was if we were to do anything, I would've rather
[1:39:33] attempted the bridge on ninth avenue because we have the two high schools
[1:39:37] out there. Yeah. You know, and then close it during the summer season when
[1:39:41] it, you know, it is been less traverse, you know, that sort of thing. That's,
[1:39:46] that's good. I just needed to know because we, we, we say it in the background,
[1:39:50] it was deliberation, but it wasn't no explanation of why
[1:39:55] we deliberating. So thank you city man. That's a good, I'll accept that one.
[1:39:59] that's a good one. Mm-hmm . All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
[1:40:04] any nos? The eyes have it. The resolution passes. We're gonna move
[1:40:08] on to page number five. Well, um, item eight
[1:40:12] items require an individual action, non-consent.
[1:40:17] a number one, a p pr number 2 4 5 1 9.
[1:40:22] a resolution of appointing a member or members to the construction board
[1:40:26] of adjustments and appeals. Can I get a motion for approval? So moved. Second.
[1:40:30] it's been moved by council member kinlaw and second by council member. Ever
[1:40:34] feel, uh, any questions? All in
[1:40:39] favor say aye. Aye. Any nose?
[1:40:43] the eyes have it. The resolution passes
[1:40:48] pr number 2 4 5 4 7 a resolution
[1:40:52] authorizing the approval of the quarterly payments of solid waste permit fees for
[1:40:56] the landfill to the texas commission on environmental quality tceq
[1:41:01] with a projected budgetary impact amount of $148,000.
[1:41:05] funding is available in account number 4 0 3 5 0 3 2 0 5 4 7.
[1:41:16] can I get a motion for approval? Motion approval. Second. It's been motion
[1:41:20] for approval by council member lewis and second by council member doucette.
[1:41:25] any questions? All in favor say aye. Aye.
[1:41:30] any nos? The ayes have it. The resolution passes pr
[1:41:34] number 2 4 5 6 0 a resolution, appointing and or
[1:41:38] reappointing members to the zoning board of adjustment pursuant to appendix a
[1:41:42] zoning section 5.04 of the city of port arthur code of ordinances.
[1:41:47] can I get a motion for approval? There has been a motion
[1:41:51] by council member lewis, second by council member doucette, any questions?
[1:41:57] all in favor say I. Wait, wait. , I wanna make sure I'm not missing
[1:42:01] something here. And this is, this is number three. Councilman
[1:42:05] beckham, you can speak. Yes, it's number three. Okay. I have a
[1:42:09] name. Okay. Lemme make sure I'm
[1:42:13] on the right one. Zoning, board of adjustments.
[1:42:17] zoning. Board of adjustments? Yes.
[1:42:22] I would like to appoint for district three. Holland hoffer.
[1:42:28] okay. Council members. Any other appointments to this board
[1:42:32] or do you already have the names? Um, let me ask, have we given our
[1:42:37] city secretary the names by, by pam? By way of
[1:42:43] how many on that board? There are some names on in the resolution. That's
[1:42:47] my understanding. Yes. I wasn't given the
[1:42:51] names to call out. Okay. Um, assistant city
[1:42:55] manager. You take the podium for me please.
[1:43:02] good morning, mayor and council. Um, at one of the previous council members,
[1:43:06] mayor, you appointed kareem, nelson and councilwoman ever
[1:43:11] feel appointed, um, or reappointed? Chris lopez mm-hmm . Um,
[1:43:15] but I am still needing an appointment from the remainder of council for
[1:43:19] the zoning board. And so member beckham just made hers, which
[1:43:23] is holly hoffer howard. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So all other council members need
[1:43:27] to appoint someone, their terms expired or can you? They are expired.
[1:43:31] they're expired. Okay. How many do I have? Question. Okay, I have lights.
[1:43:36] council members, seven members. How many is on that board? Seven members an
[1:43:40] appointment from each, um, council seat. What's district one's appointment? Has
[1:43:45] it expired? It has all, um, appointments have expired. Okay. What's the name?
[1:43:49] let's see.
[1:44:05] previous appointment was langston adams. Who? Langston adams.
[1:44:09] langston adams. Yes sir. I'll check with him. Okay, mayor.
[1:44:14] okay. Council member doucette? Yes. I I need clarification, mayor.
[1:44:18] yes, sir. On, on these boards. Okay.
[1:44:22] which one are we talking about? We're talking about the zoning board of adjustments.
[1:44:27] that's number three. Yes sir. Okay. The zoning adjustment,
[1:44:32] the board of adjustment in the fields, right? Yes sir.
[1:44:36] is that one that we each have an appointee
[1:44:40] or is that one where we had the yes sir. The planning and zoning commission is
[1:44:45] the only five member board that we oversee. Um, but the
[1:44:49] zoning board and construction board have seven members. Um, that each
[1:44:53] council gets an appointment to that board, those boards. Okay. Then
[1:44:57] my next question is, uh, you have no names
[1:45:02] in that. Can't we, can't we
[1:45:06] get to a point whereby the city secretary
[1:45:11] keeps record, but whoever is in charge of
[1:45:15] these boards, right? Yes sir. We have a, a staff
[1:45:20] yes sir. That oversees all our boards. Okay. Yes sir.
[1:45:25] the staff that oversees all our boards. If council appoints
[1:45:29] a member and that member doesn't attend meetings or that member's,
[1:45:34] uh, counter
[1:45:38] obstructive of something, you know, why don't that
[1:45:42] person that's oversee this mm-hmm .
[1:45:47] give them information to the city secretary. The city secretary, work with the council
[1:45:51] member. Mm-hmm . Okay. If we need to replace somebody,
[1:45:56] whoever oversee the board, notify the city secretary. Mm-hmm
[1:46:01] . And the city secretary by secretary notify us
[1:46:05] individually mm-hmm . To seem like we keep talking these name,
[1:46:10] these names and stuff. Because once we give the
[1:46:14] name to the city secretary, then when we get these things on
[1:46:18] resolutions, we won't be asking for names. 'cause I noticed when
[1:46:22] we did it that way before, whenever we had this on the item
[1:46:27] on the agenda mm-hmm . She would say, well, the mayor read
[1:46:31] the thing, then the city secretary would say, we'd like to
[1:46:36] include this name. Yes sir. Instead of asking
[1:46:40] and going through this, who got names and all this, why don't we go back to doing that? That way
[1:46:44] it was pretty, there's definitely not an issue with that. Um, I do wanna note
[1:46:48] that communication was sent to council prior to today's meeting. So the information
[1:46:52] could be provided to the city secretary. I, I received the information,
[1:46:57] I received the information in the agenda when I read the background.
[1:47:02] yes, there were emails as well. I read all this thing. What I'm saying is
[1:47:07] sometimes we doing this and it's one mm-hmm
[1:47:12] . So that's why I said before it was simple. You
[1:47:16] know, we got notified individually that either
[1:47:21] somebody will point not attending meetings and needs to be removed.
[1:47:25] and that she asked us. Yes, sir. So then we provided that information
[1:47:29] back to her. Yes, sir. Then when it came to the resolution,
[1:47:33] instead of asking for names, we read the resolution.
[1:47:38] the mayor said, okay, do we have a name? See the secretary say yes, so and
[1:47:42] so, yes sir, we won't. And said, will the name, who's in it now?
[1:47:47] that's all I'm saying, why can't we go back to doing it that way? It was pretty simple. Not
[1:47:51] a problem. Let me, I'm sorry. Um, you
[1:47:55] said these terms expired, these are all, all of our person's
[1:47:59] terms expired? That is correct. Okay. Nope. Okay.
[1:48:03] okay. You see, mayor, but that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Because we should never be in this
[1:48:07] point in our old system. Because what would've happened was,
[1:48:12] I think that, go ahead counsel. What just said, let me go ahead.
[1:48:18] we would have known that
[1:48:22] they expired and I've never seen an incident where all of
[1:48:26] them expired the same time. That never,
[1:48:31] I ain't never seen this pro promote, I mean, put anybody on the board all at one time.
[1:48:35] so yes sir. Evidently, and when I looked at the years that they expired right.
[1:48:39] it was way back there right. In the background. So,
[1:48:44] so, so we really behind on that one. Yes. And that's why we at where
[1:48:48] we are. And that's the kinda I ask, you know, if the person in charge
[1:48:53] of overseeing these board and committee that we appoint people to
[1:48:58] will just get on it more and make sure that we as council
[1:49:02] members are aware of somebody who's
[1:49:06] coming up for an expiration or someone who's not attending the meetings
[1:49:10] and they should be replaced. Because I, for one, once I appoint
[1:49:15] somebody, I don't communicate with 'em. 'cause they have to work with that board of commissioner or
[1:49:19] whatever it is. And that's, I'll appoint them to work with them, not me. Yes, sir.
[1:49:23] but if they're not attending or they're not contributing,
[1:49:28] then if the sec secretary says, councilman de said you got
[1:49:32] this person, I call 'em up, say, hey, came a to vi
[1:49:36] put somebody else. Yes sir. Okay. But I think we can, I
[1:49:40] mean, that's the way it used to be. So we stayed on top of it rather
[1:49:44] than falling behind. Yes sir. Mayor, thank
[1:49:48] you. Um, thank you. I appreciate that. But I think the city secretary
[1:49:52] should be tracking all of our appointments. Thank you for being here
[1:49:56] as assistant city manager. Yes. That is not your job. Right.
[1:50:01] but we appreciate you. But I do believe that all of our appointees, 'cause I have
[1:50:05] lights, but I'm gonna speak yes ma'am. Um, should, um, should be
[1:50:09] followed through and given us updates when a, an available time. That's the duty of the
[1:50:13] city secretary. And I think that, um, we've made new appointments, we need
[1:50:17] updated sheets, um, from council on all of our boards as to who needs
[1:50:21] to be appointed because there are meetings that are trying to take place
[1:50:26] in different, uh, for instance, in the construction board of adjustments and appeals
[1:50:30] that my person wasn't really showing up and so I had to appoint someone
[1:50:34] else. But I, I asked for a list of who all I needed to appoint for
[1:50:38] the year and I got that. Now that needs to be updated so that the council
[1:50:42] as a whole in its entirety will know what positions need to be
[1:50:46] updated and who they need to reappoint and what's expiring. And I think
[1:50:51] that's contingent upon our, the office in which we, um, and that's the
[1:50:55] city secretary? Yes, ma'am. When you got an update, we, that
[1:50:59] was sent out to all the council, the update that I gave you. So you emailed it
[1:51:03] to everybody mm-hmm . Yes. I, okay. Alright. Thank you. Appreciate that. Council member lewis?
[1:51:08] yes. On your list, do you have we, we have a,
[1:51:12] a rule over the years, we just allows
[1:51:18] citizens to serve on individual boards, not multiple boards.
[1:51:22] is there, is there any duplications?
[1:51:26] would like this kind of spread? Spread, spread? I wouldn't have that information.
[1:51:31] I can only speak for the boards and commissions in which we oversee. Right? Yes. Uh,
[1:51:37] have the state law have anything changed far as, uh, adjustment
[1:51:41] boards in appeal? Um, that board still have
[1:51:45] the authority to overrule the council. Right. Um, well, items that go
[1:51:49] to the zoning board of adjustments because they're quasi judicial or
[1:51:54] challenged in district court, it's not an item that comes to counsel for approval
[1:51:58] or denial. So they have the final
[1:52:02] decision. Yeah. Right. That's, that's the point. They have, they have the final
[1:52:06] decision because I have sent, uh, people that wanted to have
[1:52:10] some, uh, health, health conditions want to move, uh, the parents
[1:52:15] in on their property temporarily until, and, uh,
[1:52:19] they, they had the authority to hoo it. That is correct. But there is specific
[1:52:24] criteria that they must follow that they must follow that's in accordance with state
[1:52:28] law. But we provide them with that criteria. Good. Councilor mcken law,
[1:52:32] uh, pam? Yes, sir. Did you also, maybe I missed this. Are you saying that you're not
[1:52:36] getting a quorum for the board? Because if my appointee, uh, um,
[1:52:41] mr. Abt, I mean is your, this is just a matter where the,
[1:52:45] um, terms for the board had expired. We actually have not met. Okay.
[1:52:49] alright. Um, in quite some time. Again, there's specific criteria when you bring an
[1:52:53] item to the zoning board of adjustments. Yes ma'am. So there have not been a need. Yes, ma'am.
[1:52:57] um, but to make sure that we were up in current, and it was based on the
[1:53:02] mayor's inquiry, we discovered that the board had their
[1:53:06] terms had expired. So we are just cleaning everything up. Cleaning it up. Yeah. Hey, well
[1:53:10] if you don't mind, uh, pam, uh, sherry, uh, anthony albert? Uh,
[1:53:14] yes, but he was, uh, I had him, that was when I was in district three. So now we're
[1:53:18] gonna have to move him to, uh, uh, position at large five. Absolutely. Thank you so
[1:53:22] much. Mm-hmm . Council member frank? Yes. I wanna submit
[1:53:27] the name of alice washington to the list.
[1:53:33] okay. Council member gisette? Yes.
[1:53:38] uh, uh, I'm gonna go back and look at this list
[1:53:42] and anybody that, uh, I do not have a name. Yes sir. I
[1:53:46] will submit it to the se secretary yes sir. This week and
[1:53:50] I'll get that done. Sure. Anybody that I have serving on any
[1:53:54] boards or commission that I've appointed? Yes, sir. If
[1:53:58] that term come up for reappointment
[1:54:03] or another appointment, I don't ever remove
[1:54:08] anybody. So if it's district four yes, sir. And you see that
[1:54:12] the term is about to expire? Yes sir. Whoever oversees it
[1:54:16] need to just let the person go and see the city secretary
[1:54:20] so that she can understand they're gonna be in it. I don't, I don't change. Yes,
[1:54:25] sir. Okay. And we'll coordinate with the city secretary's office. Right. I, I got
[1:54:29] pretty understanding of where it's going now. I think I can get her the names and do
[1:54:33] that. Yes, sir. Alright. Thank you pam. All in favor say aye. Aye.
[1:54:37] aye. Any nos? The ayes have it. The resolution passes. We're
[1:54:41] gonna move to page number six. Number four, a resolution appointing and
[1:54:46] reappointing members for the historical landmark commission. Can I get a motion for approval?
[1:54:50] so moved. So's been moved by councilman mcken law, second by council member
[1:54:54] beckham. Um, any discussions? Do we have na do we need
[1:54:58] names here maam? I do have names for those. You have names for those? Okay.
[1:55:02] yes. Awesome. All in favor say aye. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I have a, I have
[1:55:06] a question. Um, so my appointee
[1:55:10] term out in august of 2025, sherry, um, do you have
[1:55:14] her name as reappointed for district three? Pat holmes? Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you. I
[1:55:18] have the mayor zulema escobido. Mm-hmm for council member beckham
[1:55:23] pat holmes for council member hamilton ever field and twin freeman.
[1:55:28] that's the names that we were given in honor. Okay. All in
[1:55:32] favor say aye. Aye. I didn't get all in favor, say aye.
[1:55:37] aye. Can I, can I get y'all's? Aye. Yes ma'am. Aye.
[1:55:44] and he knows the ayes have it. The resolution passes
[1:55:48] pr number 2, 4, 5, 6 3 resolution authorized in the city
[1:55:53] manager to contract with scs engineers
[1:55:57] of houston, texas for groundwater, landfill gas and
[1:56:01] air quality monitoring at the landfill from november, 2025 to august, 2026
[1:56:06] for $171,500. Funds are available in
[1:56:10] public works department. Landfill division, professional services. Account number 4 0 3
[1:56:15] dash five zero dash 3 2 0 dash 5 4 0 0 0.
[1:56:23] no, that's 2 0 0 0 0 0. Can I get a motion for approval?
[1:56:27] so moved. Mary. It's been, uh, moved and second moved by councilman
[1:56:32] kinlaw and second by councilwoman. Ever feel, uh, any discussions?
[1:56:36] all in favor say aye. Aye. The ayes have
[1:56:40] it. The resolution passes pr number 2, 4 5, 6 4
[1:56:46] resolution granting consent to the assignment of the industrial district agreement
[1:56:50] ida between the city of port arthur and basf corporation
[1:56:55] 2018 to 2027 approved by resolution number
[1:56:59] one seven dash 3 51 to basf agricultural
[1:57:04] solutions u-s-l-l-c. Can I get a motion for approval? So
[1:57:08] moved. Second. It's been moved. My council member doucette and
[1:57:12] mayor pro tem ett. And second by council member beckham.
[1:57:17] any questions? All in favor? Yes. Say aye.
[1:57:21] okay. Oh, council member lewis, you have your light on? Yes. Sorry. Uh,
[1:57:25] city manager. Uh, this basf,
[1:57:30] how the employment, those kind of things.
[1:57:35] what, what standing are they? Are they supporting our
[1:57:39] port alto residents? Are
[1:57:43] they in compliance or outta compliance or what? I would have city manager. I would've
[1:57:47] to check the reports. They're still submitting reports, um, to us. They're
[1:57:51] still support submitting the reports based on the requirements?
[1:57:56] yes, they still do. I'll have to check with huey, our compliance guy.
[1:58:00] um, I could provide you with an update on that. Okay. Where is huey?
[1:58:04] our compliance office? Huh? Wait, I was hoping he'd be here when I saw that. Okay.
[1:58:09] did city manager, are you done? No, I'm done.
[1:58:13] could you get hug? Could we skip this and get hug up here? Okay.
[1:58:17] wait, I got a comment. Hold on. I have council member ett. Yes.
[1:58:22] this, this is a consent to just
[1:58:26] reassign it because it's going under another name. This contract
[1:58:30] is not okay. This contract is not being altered
[1:58:35] and is not up to agreement right now. It just, I understand being
[1:58:39] reassigned. I understand that. Okay, so I'm, but I want to find out if they in compliance
[1:58:43] it well we could do that later on since it's not right. That's what I said. Yeah. I wanna find out if
[1:58:47] they're in compliance. See the manager. That's what I said. Provide you with the information. Yeah,
[1:58:52] that's what I said. Said he said he could provide you with the information later. That's what he said.
[1:58:56] okay. Alright. Okay.
[1:59:00] all in favor say aye. Aye. Any nos?
[1:59:04] the ayes have it. The resolution passes. P number seven, pr
[1:59:08] number 2 4 5 8 4 resolution authorizing the purchase
[1:59:12] of 12 portable radios and 10 mobile radios with accessories
[1:59:17] for the fire department for motorola, solutions of houston, texas through
[1:59:21] hgac contract 1 7 7 2 4 dash hgac
[1:59:26] tx ra oh five dash 21 and the amount of 142,845.
[1:59:32] $845,000 and 24 cents. Funding is
[1:59:36] available in equipment account number 6 2 5 1 9 4 7
[1:59:41] dash 8 5 22 dash 0 0 0.
[1:59:47] so moved. Ms. Been moved. And second.
[1:59:51] any questions? All in favor say aye. Aye.
[1:59:56] any nos? The a's have it. The resolution passes
[2:00:00] pr number 2 4 5 85 a resolution authorizing
[2:00:04] the port arthur fire department to purchase 11 self-contained breathing
[2:00:09] apparatus, scba from casco industries
[2:00:13] of laporte, texas under by board contract number
[2:00:17] 6 9 8 dash two three with a projected capital budgetary impact
[2:00:21] of $106,095. Funding is available
[2:00:26] in account number 6 2 6 dash nine dash 0 4 7
[2:00:30] dash 8 5 2 2 dash 3 0 0.
[2:00:36] can I get a motion for approval? It's
[2:00:40] been moved by council member lewis and second by council member woman councilman. Ever
[2:00:44] feel any discussions? All in favor
[2:00:48] say aye. A aye. Any nos?
[2:00:52] the ayes have it. The resolution passes number nine, pr
[2:00:57] number 2 4 5 8 9 a resolution amending resolution number
[2:01:01] two four dash 4 55 and the response to the office of the
[2:01:05] governor's request for additional language affirming the city of port arthur's
[2:01:10] obligations under its acceptance of the fiscal year 2025
[2:01:14] body-worn camera grant from the office of the governor public safety
[2:01:18] division in the amount of $132,381
[2:01:22] and 60 cents. Can I get a motion for approval?
[2:01:27] it's been moved by council member beckham and council member beckham and
[2:01:31] second by councilwoman. Ever feel any questions? All in favor
[2:01:35] say aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes have
[2:01:39] it. The resolution passes pr, I'm sorry. Number page
[2:01:43] seven. Pr number two. 4 5 9 7.
[2:01:47] a resolution. A resolution casting votes for the board of directors for
[2:01:52] the jefferson central appraisal district for the 20 26 29
[2:01:56] term. Can I get a motion for approval? It's moved second. It's
[2:02:00] been moved in second. Any discussions
[2:02:05] at this time? We have to say, I think state where we're casting our votes
[2:02:09] and we have, um, our, uh, own council member, donald frank,
[2:02:14] who's on the ballot. So I'd like to know, I'm making sure that we are very
[2:02:18] clear that those votes will be cast, uh, uh, uh, the
[2:02:22] council's in agreement to cast those votes for our council member. Or do we have five
[2:02:27] names on the ballot? So,
[2:02:31] okay. Just wanna make sure I have to have to put it out there. So
[2:02:35] we are voting, um, our votes. Mm-hmm. It's already a motion in here. It's in here. His
[2:02:39] name has been selected. Donald frank. Um, as
[2:02:43] our, um, our votes will go, all of our votes will
[2:02:47] go toward council member frank for this jefferson county appraisal district.
[2:02:52] all in favor say aye. A any nos? The
[2:02:56] ayes have it and the resolution passes. Pr number
[2:03:00] 2 4 6 0 1 a resolution authorizing the city manager
[2:03:04] to purchase one. Alan allon, a dv 500
[2:03:09] compactor from al john by c and c manufacturing
[2:03:13] of ottaway, iowa to compact and spread waste in
[2:03:17] the landfill. In compliance with the state regulations through the houston galveston
[2:03:22] area council, hgac cooperative purchasing program.
[2:03:26] contract number pw 10 dash 25 with a projected amount
[2:03:30] of $950,000 funds are available in the capital improvement
[2:03:35] program. Account account number 4 0 3 dash 5 0 3 2 8 5 2 3
[2:03:43] dash 0 0 0 dash zero zero. Can I get
[2:03:47] a motion for approval? It's motion for approval. It's been moved. And second
[2:03:52] moved by council member frank and second by council member lewis.
[2:03:56] any discussions? All in favor say aye. Aye.
[2:04:00] any nos? The ayes have it. The resolution passes
[2:04:05] pr number 2 4 6 0 3. A resolution authorizing
[2:04:09] city manager to enter into a contract between the city of port arthur
[2:04:14] and freeze and nichols incorporated for the review, analysis and revision of
[2:04:18] chapter 98. Subdivision of the city of port arthur code of
[2:04:22] ordinances, and an amount not to exceed $164,800
[2:04:28] funding available in planning professional services. Account
[2:04:32] number 0 0 1 dash one three dash 0 3 1 dash
[2:04:36] 5 4 2 0 dash zero zero dash 0 0 0.
[2:04:41] can we get a motion for approval? It's so moved. Second. It got motion
[2:04:45] and a second. Any questions? Yes. Council member de
[2:04:49] said, yes. City manager.
[2:04:53] most of our code and ordinance here in the city are
[2:04:58] direct in compliance with state ordinance and stuff.
[2:05:04] and then we get into our uniqueness here in the city. Being a home rule,
[2:05:09] we have here $164,800
[2:05:13] for somebody to come in one review
[2:05:18] this chapter two analysis
[2:05:23] and three revision of the chapter. We've
[2:05:27] been getting, we've been getting these contracts for people to come in and do that.
[2:05:33] most of our codes and stuff we have to conform
[2:05:37] with the state of texas.
[2:05:43] do we have, we looked at chapter 98 and
[2:05:47] we cannot look at it and
[2:05:52] see what we need to revise for
[2:05:56] our city. I mean, let's look at the chapter.
[2:06:01] take a look at what we have in place. If it's not sufficient,
[2:06:07] should we know what we need to do to make it effective
[2:06:11] in our city instead of paying somebody $165,000?
[2:06:21] I just need to know why we gotta pay
[2:06:25] somebody for this. I mean, what does this this entail that we can't do this? Yes.
[2:06:33] is he through, uh, council member? I'm sorry. City manager.
[2:06:38] go ahead. Yeah. Um, council member, the
[2:06:42] subdivision regulation is a very, chapter
[2:06:46] 60 is a very technical document
[2:06:51] that has and, and, and I'm, I'm not questioning the
[2:06:55] ability of our city attorney here or any member of the,
[2:06:59] um, the, the legal department, but it's a highly technical
[2:07:03] document that needs input from both engineering
[2:07:08] and planning professionals in order to put the document together.
[2:07:13] the subdivision re regulation is also an
[2:07:17] arm of the comprehensive plan. Um, freezer nichols
[2:07:21] years ago provided us, um, um, after some 25
[2:07:26] years with the new comprehensive plan for the city of po arthur
[2:07:30] detect the, the subdivision regulation has to read
[2:07:34] arm in arm with the comprehensive plan. And so part of the
[2:07:38] subdivision regulation are highly designed sketches,
[2:07:43] which I'm sure the city attorney's officer, no member of staff has the ability
[2:07:47] to produce as well. The ab the, the, the technical expertise
[2:07:52] is just not in-house. What a hundred percent of cities
[2:07:56] that I've ever worked with as a planner has always worked
[2:08:01] with agencies that provide that professional
[2:08:06] services to them to make sure that it's
[2:08:10] accurate at all times. Because you provide that information
[2:08:15] to developers who come here and that information
[2:08:19] has to be very much accurate and
[2:08:23] concise both in its presentation and in and
[2:08:27] in its design. So we wanna make sure that the information
[2:08:32] we provide to our developers is very accurately done
[2:08:36] and very professionally done as well. That is why we
[2:08:40] have had the assistant to the manager and the planning staff
[2:08:45] to go out there and to see which organization
[2:08:49] or which vendor can provide us with the best tailored
[2:08:54] technical assistance that would work in compliance
[2:08:59] with our comprehensive plan and other development
[2:09:04] and other development policy documents
[2:09:08] that we have in place. That is why we are going out, um, um, for, um,
[2:09:12] a request for proposal and we have awarded a, the, the con we have worked with
[2:09:16] fries nichols and awarded that to them. In a nutshell. In a nutshell, well,
[2:09:20] you know, that's, that's, that's my concern too because seems, seems like every time I turn
[2:09:24] around we, during consulting contract for review and it's
[2:09:28] freezer, nichols or somebody else. And that's why you say technical, technical,
[2:09:33] technical. You keep saying to, I understand,
[2:09:37] I understand it should be done.
[2:09:42] but when you start saying, our
[2:09:47] engineer or our attorney ain't
[2:09:53] knowledgeable or not, that's why
[2:09:57] they have others places we could go to find out and ask
[2:10:01] questions to help us to do it. Right. You know,
[2:10:06] somewhere down the line, they got other type
[2:10:10] of subdivision plans in other
[2:10:14] cities, a lot of times they competent enough to get with
[2:10:18] other cities and look at their plan and see if their plan fit, our plan to fit
[2:10:22] into our ma uh, master plan
[2:10:26] or our plan. So they may not
[2:10:31] know, but you could reach out
[2:10:35] to cities who have one that probably could fit into yours.
[2:10:42] these contracts is my big
[2:10:47] question. Why aren't we doing it? And not that,
[2:10:51] but I think our staff will get knowledgeable and
[2:10:55] more knowledgeable, uh, uh, trying to go out with this. But at some point in
[2:10:59] time, just like you keep saying technical, technical, technical,
[2:11:04] when I look at this, I look at what I want, 165,000
[2:11:08] it says to review. I don't need them to review.
[2:11:13] our staff may not be technical, but they sure could look at it, analyze,
[2:11:20] they could see what we have
[2:11:25] revise. So really they're
[2:11:29] not getting it, they're not starting it for us. They just going to revise it.
[2:11:33] well, we could go out and seek information from other cities
[2:11:38] and stuff before we just give $165,000
[2:11:42] and stuff. And, and, and, and, and you hit the nail
[2:11:47] on the head when you said you have turned to them for I I have seen
[2:11:51] a number of contracts. I've seen us have them to redo
[2:11:56] a code, a code of ordinance. And when I looked at what was changed,
[2:12:00] very few things were changed. It just rewrote what we had.
[2:12:05] okay. Thank you though, manager. I got it. Yeah. Let, let me also share with you
[2:12:09] the, um, councilman, when I was director of development service, I did a diagnostic
[2:12:14] analysis of the subdivision regulations. They could, this could have been much
[2:12:18] more expensive, but I did it in house, remember? Remember that pam?
[2:12:23] and that was the basis for doing this right now, which is much, which came
[2:12:27] out much cheaper. So we, we gave them that document that they could work as
[2:12:31] a template from, you know, because the, the subdivision
[2:12:35] regulation haven't been re-reviewed in what, 30 years? Longer
[2:12:40] or longer than that. In what? In 30. In 30 years. And then
[2:12:44] in order to assist us to continue over the last few years. Well, well
[2:12:48] it had to be reviewed 'cause you said you reviewed it and you worked on it, so yeah. So
[2:12:52] you need to gimme that time from when you looked at it. Okay. Yes. , you know,
[2:12:56] uh, and everything. Yeah. Council member lewis,
[2:13:01] pam, what'll be the turnaround time on getting this done?
[2:13:05] the, um, consultant, um, has estimated
[2:13:09] a timeframe of 12 months. Um, however, due to the
[2:13:14] upcoming holidays with thanksgiving, christmas, um, we have, I believe,
[2:13:18] as part of the contract, extended it to insure. So what you, so what you are saying,
[2:13:22] if it was done in house, it would, along with your regular
[2:13:26] work. Oh, it would take much longer. Huh? It would take much longer. That's absolutely.
[2:13:30] so, so now you're shortening this span of time by getting
[2:13:35] the consultants in here. That is correct. That turnaround time so
[2:13:39] we can get this plan implemented. Council member frank, turnaround time is important to me. Oh,
[2:13:43] yes. I'm oh, you wanna call for question? Okay,
[2:13:47] well, we're gonna call for question. Ready to vote. Alright. At this time we
[2:13:52] have, um, we're gonna move on. All in favor say
[2:13:56] aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes have that the
[2:14:00] resolution passes. We're gonna move to item number, um, 13 pr number
[2:14:04] 2 4 6 1 5 a resolution appointed and are reappointed
[2:14:08] a member of members or members to the port arthur youth advisory council.
[2:14:13] yak requested by council member hamilton ever field.
[2:14:17] thank you mayor. I am adding, can
[2:14:21] I get a motion for approval? Motion? Second. I had a motion and a second. Any
[2:14:25] discussions? I'm sorry guys. Thank you. You can have a floor
[2:14:32] it. I already feel like it's a long day. Yeah, yeah. Um,
[2:14:36] for, I need to replace an appointment. Okay.
[2:14:40] uh, city secretary, I will email you that information.
[2:14:45] um, but for the record, it would be replacing
[2:14:49] ms. Estella torres. She has, uh, not participated,
[2:14:54] so I'm replacing her with kaylyn gardner jr.
[2:15:01] and I'm also asking for, um, mr. Lewis,
[2:15:05] for your appointment, can we please get updated contact information
[2:15:10] for them so we can reach out to reach out to them again to
[2:15:15] okay, we, okay. We need their, their contact information.
[2:15:19] um, for councilwoman beckham, may we please have
[2:15:23] the information for, um, cut birth asher cut birth.
[2:15:28] that the what information? Phone numbers
[2:15:33] for actually for all three phone numbers. For all three. But I was under the
[2:15:37] impression that you had provided it before, but they didn't, um, they hadn't responded.
[2:15:43] so if they are interested, we want to continue to, to reach out
[2:15:47] to them. And
[2:15:51] for, um,
[2:15:58] kinlaw, I did reach out to mickey about kennedy and she did say that
[2:16:02] she still wanted to participate. Okay. Um,
[2:16:07] that was it. Thank y'all. I will keep you updated on the, the
[2:16:11] activity of the appointments. Okay. Uh, council member lewis, have your light on. Yes,
[2:16:15] I'm trying to get the chief's attention, but anyway, I think my appointee's, uh,
[2:16:20] term have expired trainer and, uh, mrs. Jones. And
[2:16:24] I need to go ahead with train for the police. Where, where on for the police?
[2:16:28] oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we're on the youth advisory council.
[2:16:32] ,
[2:16:37] all in favor say aye. A any nos?
[2:16:41] the ayes have it. The resolution passes. Pr number 2 4 6 1 6
[2:16:47] a resolution appointing and a reappointing a member or members to the port arthur
[2:16:52] police chief advisory committee. This, um, can I get a motion for
[2:16:56] approval? So moved. Motion for, okay. Second has been moved. And second. Any
[2:17:00] discussions? This was requested by mayor moses. I wanted to reappoint
[2:17:05] my two people. Persons for, um, their terms
[2:17:09] will expire november 28th. So you have, uh, mrs. Sparks,
[2:17:13] mary sparks, and mr. Alfred cuomo jr. Okay. Um,
[2:17:17] I don't know. Council members, do you have any other names? Council member lewis?
[2:17:23] yes, I want, I got two appointments. I think they both have expired,
[2:17:27] uh, trainer and mrs. Jones, but I got the hold up on ms. Jones.
[2:17:31] she hasn't given me a, given me a, an answer yet because she was kind
[2:17:36] of hedging. She done disappeared when I need her. But go ahead with
[2:17:40] trainer for now. Okay.
[2:17:44] okay. Um, council member ken law. Thank you mayor. Uh, she, you have my
[2:17:48] names right? Uh, there's those gonna be reappointments adams in. Uh, yes sir. Thank
[2:17:52] you. Council member doucette? Yes,
[2:17:56] I'm, I'm ms. Same reappointment. My two individuals also. Sherry. Thank you mayor.
[2:18:01] okay, thank you. Okay. Alright.
[2:18:07] all in favor say aye. A aye. Any nos? The
[2:18:11] ayes have it. The resolution passes pr number 2 4 6 1 7
[2:18:17] a resolution casting votes for the board of directors for the orange county appraisal
[2:18:21] district for the 20 26 20 29 term. Can I get a
[2:18:25] motion for approval? Second, it's been moved. And second,
[2:18:30] um, any discussions in the discussions? I think, uh, uh, council member ever had
[2:18:34] presented a name to us a couple of months ago in september. And is
[2:18:38] that marqueta? Legette? Yes, ma'am. Okay. And so, uh, we,
[2:18:43] at this point, we can all vote with the name that she's given us
[2:18:47] as we did with council member, uh, frank, and move from there.
[2:18:51] so, all in favor of giving all of our votes toward marqueta ladette for
[2:18:55] the orange county appraisal district. We're gonna say aye aye. Aye.
[2:19:00] any nos the ayes have at the resolution passes, we're gonna go
[2:19:04] to number 16, a resolution,
[2:19:09] uh, pr number 2 4 6 2 0 a resolution authorizing
[2:19:13] city manager to negotiate and execute a contract, uh, contracts
[2:19:17] with the most qualified emergency medical service ems provider
[2:19:22] or providers identified through the city's request for qualifications
[2:19:27] rfq process to ensure continued provision of emergency medical
[2:19:31] and ambulance services upon expiration of the current agreement on november 30th, 2025.
[2:19:36] can I get a motion for approval? So moved. Second. It's been moved. And second.
[2:19:41] um, any discussion? Yes, ma'am. Council member, ken law. Mayor, I, I'm
[2:19:45] gonna ask my cohorts, uh, can we hold this until we go to executive and then bring it back up
[2:19:49] after, uh, a little brief discussion. Is that okay? Are we, are
[2:19:53] we good with that? Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. We're gonna, um, hold this. Do
[2:19:57] I need a motion to hold? No, no. Okay, we're good. We're gonna hold this until after executive
[2:20:01] session and then we will come back with, um, after executive
[2:20:06] session. Just to clarify, mayor, council member kimmel, are you asking for that
[2:20:10] in executive session to seek legal advice? Yes, ma'am. Alright, mayor, so
[2:20:14] when we go into executive session, if you can list that under 5 5 1 0.0 7 1 5 5 1
[2:20:19] 0.071. Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. Let me make sure
[2:20:24] that I don't forget that. Okay. It's already, we have
[2:20:28] something there already. Okay, perfect. Um,
[2:20:34] moving to number 17, pr number 2 4 6 2 1
[2:20:39] a resolution, appointing and or reappointed a member or members
[2:20:43] to the citizens pipeline advisory committee. We
[2:20:47] get a motion for approval. So move second. It's moved in second. This is requested
[2:20:51] by council member hamilton. Ever feel, um, at this time we have a motion and
[2:20:55] a second. Any discussion? The names or the names have
[2:21:00] already been submitted? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Names are submitted. All in favor
[2:21:04] say aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes haven't.
[2:21:08] the resolution passes. I'm gonna move to ordinance.
[2:21:12] I'm sorry.
[2:21:17] yes, council, it's going. It is going be downstairs. Mayor pro tim,
[2:21:21] it's going downstairs. What number? 16. We'll be going downstairs,
[2:21:25] okay? Mm-hmm . But we gonna go to ordinances. Okay. Ordinance
[2:21:30] non-consent number one, po number 7 3 7 1. An
[2:21:34] ordinance amending appendix. A zoning of the code of ordinances
[2:21:39] of the city of port arthur, texas by granting a zoning map amendment
[2:21:43] for approximately 0.4181 acre of land consisting
[2:21:47] of lot 15 dash 20 block 23 rosemont
[2:21:52] edition, jefferson county, texas from plan development
[2:21:56] district 30, pd 30 to medium density residential
[2:22:00] district mdr to allow residential development. Violation of
[2:22:04] any provision of this ordinance shall be guilt of a misdemeanor and shall be punished
[2:22:09] by a five, not exceeding $2,000 as
[2:22:13] provided in chapter one. Section one through one 13 of
[2:22:17] the code of ordinances in each day, which violations permitted to exist shall constitute
[2:22:22] a separate and distinct offense and providing for publication in the
[2:22:26] official newspaper of the city of port arthur and effective immediately after publication
[2:22:30] date z two five dash oh four dash code
[2:22:34] properties. Llc. Can I get a motion for approval? So moved, mayor, it's been moved.
[2:22:38] and second. Any discussions? All in favor say aye.
[2:22:43] aye. Any nos I need? All in favor say aye. Aye.
[2:22:47] any nos? The ayes have it. The ordinance passes at this
[2:22:51] time, we're going to go into a closed executive session. We will
[2:22:56] see the follow. Um, listen, have the following thing items. Section 5 5 1 0 7 1.
[2:23:02] brian johnson versus city of port arthur john do and calvin matthews.
[2:23:06] matthews in the individual capacity, civil action number one,
[2:23:11] uh, dash two five dash cv dash 0 0 4 2 1 in the
[2:23:15] us district court of eastern district of of texas beaumont division.
[2:23:20] um, section 5 5 1 0 7 1. Litigation, bon bon,
[2:23:24] uh, bonita brown versus city of port arthur. Calls number 8 2 1 1 1 4 9
[2:23:29] and 58. District court of jefferson county, texas. And number 3, 5 5 1 0 7 1.
[2:23:35] legal advice provisions authorizing deliberations and closed meeting
[2:23:39] requested by mayor moses. I'm gonna get a motion to go into
[2:23:43] executive session if you would also call under section five five one
[2:23:48] 0.071 pr number 2 4 6 2 0. I will, I will. Thank you.
[2:23:52] thank you mayor. I also, we will, um, get legal advice on pr
[2:23:56] number 2 4 6 2 0 a resolution authorizing the city manager
[2:24:00] to negotiate and execute a contract or contracts with the most qualified emergency
[2:24:05] medical service ems providers identified through the city's request
[2:24:09] for qualifications rfq process to ensure continued
[2:24:13] provision of emergency medical and ambulance services upon expiration of the current
[2:24:18] agreement on november 30th, 2025. I'm gonna ask for a motion for
[2:24:22] approval to go into executive session. Move second. Can I get a second? Any
[2:24:26] discussions? Is, is there anything that we're gonna have an executive
[2:24:30] session that you would not want to be held in executive session?
[2:24:35] okay. All of us are in agreement. I would like to have a vote. How
[2:24:39] all in favor say aye? Aye. The ayes have it. And
[2:24:43] any nos. Okay, we're gonna move now to go into our closed
[2:24:48] session at 11:55 am thank you.
[2:24:56] okay, so the secretary, would you establish a quorum please? Recording in
[2:25:00] progress. I'm sorry. Mayor moses? Here.
[2:25:05] mayor pro. Tem ett. Here. Council member
[2:25:10] lewis. Here. Council member hamilton. Ever
[2:25:14] field present. Council member
[2:25:18] beckham. Here. Council member kinlaw. Here. Council member
[2:25:22] frank on his way? Yeah. Quo. Mayor. Great,
[2:25:26] thank you. This time we are going to, uh, we're back in regular
[2:25:30] session and it is 1:39 pm I
[2:25:34] will, sorry, sorry. Okay,
[2:25:38] so we'll just close out the executive session first and then go back into open
[2:25:43] session. Uh, I can't close out. We have an item coming out of executive
[2:25:47] session. You're correct. Mayor I stand correct. I cannot close it out. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
[2:25:52] at this time we have an item coming out of executive session that we need to, um,
[2:25:57] consider. It's gonna, we're gonna go back to pr number 2 4 6 2 0
[2:26:01] a resolution authorizing a city manager to negotiate and execute a contract or
[2:26:06] contracts with the most qualified emergency medical services ems providers
[2:26:11] identified through the city's request for qualifications rfq process to
[2:26:15] ensure continued provision of emergency medical and ambulance services
[2:26:19] upon expiration of the current agreement on november 30th, 2025.
[2:26:23] can I get a motion for approval? So moved. So moved. It's been moved. And
[2:26:28] second by council member, uh, ever feel any discussion
[2:26:34] at this time? We're going, oh, council member hamilton? Mm-hmm . I do,
[2:26:38] um, my question, well not question, but comments
[2:26:42] about this, um, this proposed resolution
[2:26:47] is to our deputy chief, he was looking up some information
[2:26:51] for me regarding the council of governments.
[2:27:10] is it on
[2:27:15] ready? Okay. Yes, ma'am. Okay. So my, my
[2:27:19] cons, my question and a concern is for,
[2:27:24] um, any of the providers, it doesn't,
[2:27:28] um, I don't have a dog in the fight as to which one, but in one
[2:27:33] of, in some of the information we've been provided is that, um,
[2:27:38] that the, in our ordinance is that
[2:27:42] the provider we choose is required to be, um, to
[2:27:46] have the dispatch center in the city of, I mean, I'm sorry, the
[2:27:51] council of governments, the cog. So I want to confirm
[2:27:55] that if all of the providers that were that submitted,
[2:28:00] um, proposals are all of them in the
[2:28:04] cog. So if you're saying located in the cog yes, ma'am. Uh,
[2:28:08] for having a district, lemme be clear. Dispatch dispatch center within the call. Okay,
[2:28:12] hold on. Which is a part of our ordinance. Uh, yes ma'am, it is.
[2:28:17] um, that is part of our ordinance. Um, currently we, um,
[2:28:22] two of the providers do have dispatch centers in all call. And, um, far
[2:28:26] as I'm aware of only one does not. Okay. And the one that
[2:28:30] does not, why do they not? And
[2:28:34] will they, uh, that would be a question for them. Um, I don't mind
[2:28:38] 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.
[2:28:43] um, and if they're able to do that or come up to that standard, uh, that would also
[2:28:47] be a question for them as well. Okay. So, um, again,
[2:28:51] as, as I mentioned before to um, to my
[2:28:56] cohorts that in, for whatever
[2:29:00] company that we choose as a provider, we need to
[2:29:04] hold our providers accountable for following our
[2:29:08] ordinances. Or if we want some things to change and some things have to change, but
[2:29:12] we shouldn't be changing our ordinances to meet the need of a certain
[2:29:16] provider, our providers should be meeting the qualifications that we
[2:29:21] set in place for, for our ordinances. So again,
[2:29:25] city manager, how will we hold, what will we need to do
[2:29:30] to make sure that, again, majority rules. So whichever
[2:29:35] my cohorts choose, um, for or
[2:29:39] we choose for a provider, how in the world are
[2:29:43] we gonna choose a provider who already is not meeting the standards
[2:29:48] of the ordinances, the laws that we set in place? Um, uh,
[2:29:52] city manager, uh, you, she's asking that question. City manager, but I do have
[2:29:56] a couple of lights. Um, but she's, I speak to
[2:30:00] speaker before I ask. Okay. Council member ette.
[2:30:05] yes. Not we had got that any requirements we
[2:30:10] have is the responsibility of the fire
[2:30:14] department, whether that's the fire chief or the deputy,
[2:30:18] whoever given that responsibility to, uh, check
[2:30:22] compliance of our ordinance with any ems
[2:30:26] that have contracted for us. That's how we mantra
[2:30:31] it. That's how we get to ensure that it's being
[2:30:35] done. So if someone find out it is not done,
[2:30:39] then it should be brought to the attention of whoever is
[2:30:43] responsible and that person there will ensure that the people come in line.
[2:30:47] that's what anything that we do. So that's how we
[2:30:51] assure everything by having them to come to us and tell
[2:30:55] us when somebody's not in compliance. Councilman
[2:31:00] mcken law. Yeah. Thank you mayor. And, uh, you know, my thing is just, uh, you know,
[2:31:04] um, that may be a situation, but I look at response time and
[2:31:08] look at exactly what, uh, what was being offered to us in the previous,
[2:31:12] uh, uh, company. And
[2:31:16] now we at this decision. So, uh, I'll wait to make my
[2:31:20] motion or read my motion after all the, uh, council members of gi
[2:31:25] see we got lights over there, mayor. So, uh, I, I just read the motion
[2:31:29] after, uh, yeah, we, we, we, yeah, we got the motion on the table. Yeah.
[2:31:33] okay. So we're good. Council member lewis? Yes.
[2:31:37] are you, you the going to be the compliance officer or are you going to have someone else
[2:31:42] to monitor compliance? Um, I would be monitoring, but, um, how
[2:31:46] the city ordinance set up is just the fire chief. Okay. The fire chief is ultimately responsible
[2:31:50] for that, uh, action. But I will be against, uh, at the direction
[2:31:55] of the city manager. So when someone is out, when, when the company is outta compliance, you,
[2:31:59] you're not gonna wait until they come in and come comply. You're gonna notify us right away that you are notify
[2:32:03] them that they outta compliance. We don't want to wait and
[2:32:07] see if they're gonna comply. We need to know. I need to know.
[2:32:12] I I'll bring that to council's attention. Yes. Bring it to council. Okay. City
[2:32:16] manager. Yeah. So, um,
[2:32:21] my advice is that we follow the ordinance. Absolutely. If the ordinance clearly states that the,
[2:32:25] uh, the fire chief is the one that provides the direction, he's
[2:32:29] the compliance officer. Okay. And if we tend to defer from that or move
[2:32:33] away from that, then we need to amend the ordinance mm-hmm . So that we don't get into trouble. You know,
[2:32:38] let's, yeah, let's just stick with the ordinance. That's the safest thing to do.
[2:32:43] absolutely. Alright. Um, we are ready to go to a vote. Um,
[2:32:48] the recommendation from the, uh, council is to
[2:32:52] move to go with one ambulance service. Um, city ambulance
[2:32:56] at this time, we're gonna, uh, get a motion. Uh, need a vote. All in favor
[2:33:01] say aye. Aye. Any nos? No
[2:33:06] one? No. Let the record state we have one. No, the ayes
[2:33:10] have it. The resolution passes for city ambulance.
[2:33:18] oh, the ayes have it. You didn't vote, you didn't vote
[2:33:22] on the vendor. You voted on whether or not it was gonna be one provider.
[2:33:26] it's, well that's what you said. One provider. I read the ordinance that stated one
[2:33:31] provider. Okay. But in the motion language, did you say city ambulance?
[2:33:35] yes, I did. I'm sorry, I didn't hear that.
[2:33:40] wait a minute, what am I missing? It's saying one
[2:33:44] provider. Provider. That provider to be city or
[2:33:48] I mean city ambulance. That was and we, they all voted. I had one. No. Am
[2:33:52] I correct the record speak? I let the record speak. We have one. No. Yes ma'am. You did say city ambulance
[2:33:57] and I said city ambulance one. No. Yes. Okay, now we're gonna move because
[2:34:01] the, um, our council member frank, asked us to bring up something for
[2:34:05] reconsideration and that is the motion to have a forensic audit. Am I right? No.
[2:34:09] not doing that. Okay. Alright. We are going to move at,
[2:34:13] uh, 1 48 to close this meeting. All in favor
[2:34:17] say aye. Aye. Did I do that right? I need a motion, y'all.
[2:34:22] I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm sorry. I apologize. I'll a motion. I need a mo.
[2:34:27] I make a motion. A motion and a second. Any discussions? I make a motion that we adjourn the meeting at
[2:34:31] 1 47. Second. Any discussions? All in
[2:34:35] favor say aye. Aye. Any nos? The ayes have it. Our meeting is
[2:34:39] adjourned at 1:48 pm have a great day.