I call this meeting of the richardson city council to order at 6:45 pm
I would like to invite council member justice to give the invocation and lead the pledges.
thank you. Uh, seeing as we are having our final meeting, uh, of the year
and starting a new year soon, I am going to, uh, share with your
words of dr. Martin luther king jr. About renewal. Join
me as you're, uh, comfortable. Join with earth and each other
to bring new life to the land, to restore the waters, to refresh the air,
to renew the forest. To care for the plants, for the plants, to protect the
creatures. Protect the creatures. To celebrate the seas, the sea, to rejoice in sunlight and sunlight.
to sing the song of the stars, to recall our destiny, to
renew our spirits, to invigorate our bodies, to recreate the
human community, to promote justice and peace, to love our
children, and to love one another. To join together as many and diverse
expressions of one loving mystery for the healing of the earth in the renewal
of all life. Amen. Amen. Amen. The us pledge,
I pledge allegiance to the flag of united states america, america
to the republic. For which, which it stands. Stands one nation, nation under god,
indi indivisible. With liberty. Liberty and justices, the texas flag.
honor the texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the texas
one state under god. One. Indivisible, indivisible,
all. I would be looking for a motion for the minutes
of the december 8th, 2025, special called meeting. And the december 8th, 2025
meeting. Council member han,
I put a motion to approve the meeting minutes as written as stated.
and council member corcoran. I second. Okay.
we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify anyone opposed?
okay. That passes six to nothing with council member. Barrios out
ill this evening. Thank you. Okay, we'll move into public
comments on agenda items and visitors forum. Mr. Magner. Uh, thank you, mayor. We're
not in receipt of any cards in advance of the 5:00 pm deadline, and I don't think we have
anyone signed to speak. No cards. Thank you. Anyone wish
to speak tonight? Okay. We'll move on then to
item five, which is review and discuss the 2026 board program
development. Mr. Magner, uh, thank you mayor council, uh, very excited to,
uh, be bringing this, uh, presentation before you tonight. It's the culmination of, uh,
as you know, five weeks of deep dives, uh, several, uh, introductory
and kickoff briefings, uh, starting back to the budget re, uh, budget retreat and
budget development process this summer. Um, as, uh, as we
begin this process and really start to talk, talk about the particulars, uh,
of our, uh, recommendation to you, we, we do wanna acknowledge, uh, a lot of important stakeholders,
uh, that have been part of this process. Uh, very importantly, our, our boards
and commissions, uh, our hoa presidents, uh, uh, many homeowners, neighborhood
association medias meetings, um, our institutional partners, um,
that, uh, uh, we've, uh, worked with, uh, particularly on the transportation and
mobility, uh, our business and development community, uh, business and, uh, um,
uh, development community. Then of course, many of the internal studies and
assessments we've done, as well as, uh, some external assessments and studies, uh, that
we've been, uh, fortunate to partner with, uh, with the likes of tech dot, for instance. Uh,
as we, uh, uh, get to this important briefing tonight, uh, as I
mentioned, uh, you've spent hours now, um, um, hearing the deep dives
of transportation, mobility, parks and rec, including aquatic drainage, uh,
streets, alleys, and sidewalks. And then last week, uh, facilities, uh, we do
have several meetings reserved as we move forward, uh, if, uh, if they're needed,
uh, to refine, uh, the, uh, propositions that'll be presented to you tonight.
uh, before we get to that, I want to do, I do want to, uh, talk about our capacity and
some of the modeling that, uh, kent and his team has have done. Um, as you, uh,
recall from past briefings and, and really many years, um, we
take a very conservative approach to our debt modeling. Um,
as you see, the property tax value growth is, assumptions
are that they'll remain flat for fy 27 and 28,
a very modest 1% growth from fy 29 through 34, and then 0%
growth thereafter. We continue to, uh, use interest rates, uh,
between four and a half, uh, mean 4.75 and 5.25%, um,
for future, future issuances when in reality, uh,
even, uh, this last series, uh, kent, which I believe was the highest we've had, um, in
many years, was, uh, was well below that a half point, uh, below the low end of that
assumption. Um, as, uh, we, we, uh, considering factors,
um, this conservative modeling, um, most of the capacity
that we'll talk about tonight is actually being created through the good work of kent and
his team as we, um, uh, pay off the old debt, uh, much,
uh, sooner in a much more timely way than than, than it's sold. Um, this
does, uh, this modeling does assume a five year serial sale, uh, for this
geo bond program with one asterisk, and I'll come back to that. Of course, it is a no tax rate
increase, uh, as, as the last two bond programs been, uh, and it does leave some room for
supplemental issuance in the future. Um, while we say we have a
capacity of $200 million for the next five years, uh, again, the asterisk will be
the $23.5 million for the construction of fire station seven that
we talk about in quote, year six, or potentially year one of,
of our next bond program. Uh, not withstanding even the 23, uh, the
$223 million number, uh, we still have about 25,
uh, to $30 million of capacity, uh, for, um, other needs that
might arise. Um, as we, uh, have shared with you previously and have drilled
down on the refinement of the propositions, um, our guiding principles
continue to be first and foremost as the project help achieve or further one of your goals.
um, uh, very, very importantly as well, uh, min, that there
needs to be minimal additional operating costs associated with the project. Uh, obviously,
uh, you're gonna hear, um, uh, the second part of our next briefing is gonna talk
about why that is so important. Um, of course, we wanna build on
and execute, uh, on, um, uh, previous master planning efforts.
uh, many of the discussions that you had in particularly the parts realm where about
that. And, uh, and then we wanna continue to build on prior projects by,
uh, further completing, uh, or, or, um, uh,
um, adding to, uh, those plans, those planned improvements that have already taken place.
and then we look for projects that are catalytic or transformational in nature. I have the potential to
be, um, in terms of considerations, we're always mindful of what needs to
be done, uh, immediately. Um, and, and, and this is kind of the worst first
kind of mentality, uh, but we're also always trying to figure out if projects completely
implemented in phases. This is particularly important in the realms of drainage.
um, we've talked many times about some, how some of the drainage projects for some of the, uh,
uh, basins, uh, often come to 35 to $40 million,
and even through a bond program. Um, that's not, uh, that's not always possible.
um, and then we look for, uh, ways, obviously to limit disruption to
our operations and services to citizens. Um, and then, as I mentioned, importantly,
uh, we we're always, um, mindful of, um, there are gonna be projects
that are on the cutting room floor at the end of this in every proposition. So how do we go about,
um, both in the immediate term, addressing those high priority projects, but, uh,
over the long haul, uh, making sure that we're able to progress
the, uh, prop, the recommendation I have for you tonight is, uh, is again about a, it's a
$223.4 million recommendation. Um, I, I'm not gonna go through
this, um, because we're gonna do a little bit of a deep dive into each one of the propositions.
uh, you can see a little bit of difference in transportation, mobility, street sidewalk,
drainage, uh, public buildings and, and parks, all a little bit different than what we initially
proposed to you in the blocking exercise. And we'll talk a little bit about why.
so, uh, first we'll go to transportation and mobility. Um, we're happy, um, to,
to, uh, recommend, uh, all of the traffic signal rebuilds at $9.5 million.
uh, in addition to, um, the two new traffic signal rebuilds of renter
and sharp and beltline and weathered for $1.3 million. Um, importantly,
I think replacing all school's own flashers and speed feedback signs, as
well as completing all of the a da compliance upgrades
that we had identified. And then for the active transportation plan, um, uh,
the owens trail upgrades that we covered in the street crossing upgrades, again here,
the, uh, $1.3 million of new traffic signals and the additional
$1.3 million to complete all of the a da compliance upgrades, rather
than the 50% that were initially discussed or the differences, um,
that, uh, that we bring to you tonight in terms of streets and alleys, this is very exciting,
uh, for, for me in anyway, $114 million
in street projects and alley projects. Uh, you see the collectors of waterview
drive from arapahoe to campbell, androse from australia to providence town, neighborhood collectors
of mosa from melrose to arapo, south weather from downing to beltline, uh,
commercial, the presidential drive from roundabout to 1220 presidential, um,
many, many residential streets to the tune of $27 million, uh, 15
alley segments that I'll show you on a map here. And then $25 million
for, uh, the concrete replacement. Um, uh, uh, mayor hu,
we took, uh, a lot of, uh, uh, thoughtful feedback, uh, from you that night and
the rest of the council, and really contemplated our strategy. Um, and, and I feel
confident in recommending, um, this would amount to two and a half
times a full depth concrete replacement. Um, then
we're averaging over the last, uh, five to six years, uh, through the
pego program, um, uh, that's, uh, really going to excel,
uh, the amount of work that we can do. And if we are able to maintain that in the pego,
um, it's going to, uh, really allow us to start quote catching up
if for some reason, and, and it is a possibility. Again, these two briefings that are on
here tonight are not by coincidence, as we'll talk about if we needed to tweak the
pego, uh, transfer out four streets, um, we know
we still have here, um, essentially, uh, 4 million do, uh, I'm
sorry, $5 million a a year. Again, two and a half times what we've
averaged through the pego to handle these localized repairs. And you see here,
um, a map that's been updated to include on the left hand side, all
of the streets and alley segments. You see a nice distribution throughout the community, and
then the concrete repair, uh, segments. Uh, and, um,
I'm, I, I feel, uh, uh, confident that we could actually probably, uh,
exceed this with the $25 million, as I believe, if I recall right, charles, the,
the, uh, uh, the actual estimate was, uh, based around, uh, probably about
a $4 million a year, uh, um, sale, particularly if we, if we continue to
invest, um, through the pego. Now, the other option, rather than just
reducing the pego, would be to use that $2 million for other purposes.
uh, and recall, our recommendation to you is that as we get into early
next year, and we have some, uh, briefings around things like, uh, the
use of asphalt, uh, for overlay purposes, um, that
pego, those paygo dollars being released because we now have these bond program dollars dedicated
to that could very well be an important consideration, uh, for you
on sidewalks here. Uh, the only difference is, uh, really listening to you and
some of the public feedback, increasing the amount of funding to address the
sidewalk gaps from, uh, what was originally four and a half million dollars now to $6 million.
you can see on the left hand side, the two residential zones and, um,
commercial zones for the sidewalk, uh, repair and replacement building on,
uh, several bond programs worth of work now, uh, but allowing, uh, really for
the, um, gaps, uh, in the sidewalk, uh, uh, the sidewalk
gap, uh, um, program to be really elevated, uh, by, again,
another million and a half dollars recall. My recommendation to you previously was not to be too
prescriptive, uh, in, in this, uh, proposition. Um, we would bring
you an annual work plan back for consideration as we sell
these, uh, $6 million over the course of several series. Um, and
so, uh, that would allow us to be flexible. Uh, hopefully some of these are taken care
of through new development, through redevelopment, through grants, and so allow
us for maximum flexibility on the drainage, uh, recommending to you
a lowest branch, phase one and two. This is an important highland terrace project that,
um, has, uh, been on the, um, discussion for, uh, several bond programs.
now, um, you can see the phase one is from lowest from is
the lowest branch channel improvements, essentially 600, uh, feet downstream
of spring valley to about 200 downstream of pitman. Phase two would be a
continuation of that from pitman to highland. You see the benefits here, and, and, and
they might initially say, wow, that's, that, that maybe is a little bit a modest for an $11.5 million
project, but recall this was phases one of two and three of three and four,
really, we've got to get, we've got to launch on this project in some way, shape, or form,
to eventually, um, have it, um, have it completed and really
start to see the benefits come through in phases three and four. And so, um,
this is an important project. Again, miss has missed several bond programs. Um,
the other, the other, uh, note here is the addition of $1.5 million,
uh, for, uh, potential gian, uh, wall or erosion projects.
this allowing us to get a little bit deeper into that priority list, and probably starting,
um, to get deep enough into that list that we may start addressing some of the more high
profile, uh, situations that have been brought to the council's attention, attention
recently, um, around, uh, for instance, the, uh, maybe the tam
shanter area where, uh, that previously wasn't, um, wasn't probably gonna make
it as a result of, uh, just the priority list, uh, facilities. Uh, you
know this very well. It's the apparatus building for, uh, fire just north of fire
station five for $8 million, $2.1 million to, uh, renovate, uh, fire
station six, uh, and a small addition there. And then the design
for fire station seven in the form of $2.4 million.
and you see her fire station seven construction. So what this bond
program would be doing is asking for the authorization to eventually issue the
$23.5 million that would be needed, uh, for the construction. However, the
actual sale of that debt would not be scheduled to fy 32, which again, would be this quote
year six or year one of the next bond program. But I, I feel like
the council's feedback was clear that you wanted to have the authorization to move
on the construction of this project before we would invest two and a half million dollars,
um, in, in its design. And so that's why it's, uh, it's situated that way.
um, in terms of parks and, and recreation, uh, and let's start with the aquatics.
there's $11.5 million set aside for the cottonwood pool removal. And in
addition of a spray ground at 2.7 million, the canyon creek pool renovation project at 2.3 million.
and then for breckenridge at the complex b spray, ground restroom, and parking lot
at $5.6 million. Uh, I'm happy to, to report to
you that we're recommending all of the playgrounds. I recall you had some curiosity
around, um, I think there were four playgrounds that were kind of right on the border
there in terms of the, uh, timeline. This, uh, takes away all that, um,
um, kind of uncertainty and includes all of the, uh, the playground, uh, rebuilds,
allowing us to keep on our, our rhythm, um, that we described for you previously.
um, and then that is definitely not correct on part development.
um, let me, uh, yeah, I apologize for that. Um, um, what
we're recommending here is actually to, uh, further execute the breckenridge,
uh, strategic improvement plan. Uh, this was a plan that was, uh, developed around
2020, and then ultimately finalized in 21 and includes seven, uh, projects,
uh, loop trail completion of the pedestrian bridge, uh, playground league relocation,
which was accomplished with the 21 bond program, uh, signage that we haven't executed
on yet. Uh, the ballpark parking resurfacing, uh, a maintenance
facility, um, upgrade. Uh, this is kind of in the pit, if you will, which
you've probably heard previously. There has been significant work there completed, but not all.
um, and then some erosion control at the existing bridge. And so what we're execute, what we're
recommending here for the $5 million, and again, I apologize for this, uh, this is
100% on me, um, is, um, the loop trail and
the pedestrian bridge that you see pictured here on the bottom right hand side, um, of
the project. And again, uh, with, in the spirit of, uh, of, of one of our
guiding principles, which, which was to build on projects and plans that have
been launched. Um, that's, uh, that's my recommendation to you.
um, so how does this recommended bond program, uh, compare, uh,
to prior, uh, uh, pro programs in terms of the percentage you'll
see here, again, uh, growing to the highest percentage ever, um, dedicated
to streets? Now recall, when we actually take this to the public, both transportation,
mobility and street projects will all be lumped into a street proposition that has been our
practice. Uh, public buildings, again, a $36 million, but in the
five year window, um, uh, just, uh, um, just a fraction
of that because the $23.5 million, uh, will again, remain,
uh, authorized but not executed into fy 32 parks
is at 22.2 million sidewalks, 16.5 million, and then drainage at
16.5 million for a total of $223.4 million.
now, you may ask, don, you presented an awful lot
more need than that, and so how are we going to address the remaining projects, particularly
those projects that were identified, um, as, uh, needing
immediate attention? And I really want to harken back to the facilities discussion, because that's
where you saw the most. Um, one thing I'll tell you is, is
that, um, as we look out beyond, uh, year five here to
year, uh, six and 10, uh, there remains, uh, um, uh,
a lot of capacity that'll come back online. And so for some of the bigger projects like,
uh, the lowest, uh, uh, lowest drainage projects, three and four, for
instance, we have future capacity. Um, and so that's always,
that's always an option, uh, our annual maintenance strategies. And so some of the smaller
parks, some of the smaller, um, uh, facilities, projects can be wrapped into
our annual maintenance strategies, uh, far and few between
nowadays, uh, compared to latter, uh, years. But, uh, federal infrastructure
programs and grants, as well as county grants for things like open space, uh,
uh, mobility projects are still available. They're, they're just not as plentiful.
uh, and then our special maintenance reserve, um, that, uh, you have helped, um,
with your support build over the years, uh, is a, is an option.
and then, of course, um, you know, the, the better we can do,
uh, with favorable bids and project savings, the more we can turn their sa savings
into, uh, additional projects. And so, um, what I've got for you here is
a recommendation. Uh, again, you'll hear a little bit about how we have achieved
this yearend savings, uh, for fy 25, but I wanna recommend to you that,
uh, as, as bob presents in just a second, that we consider using $2 million
of our, uh, f ffy 25 year end savings to facilitate
the service center fuel island pro island project. Likewise, uh,
h hvacs, uh, of, of high priority here at five, really important,
um, uh, facilities. And I, I propose we use an, an additional $2 million,
the yearend savings, uh, for those projects. I wanna go back to
our special project initiative funding, which is existing funding, uh, available today,
uh, with your approval. And I proposed to you that we address the roofs
and the, uh, building envelope, um, um, at, uh,
at the, uh, four locations you see here with $1.6 million of
special project initiative funding, and then also facilitate the detention
center, uh, cell renovation project. Um, as you're gonna see from bob
here in just a second, we have about $700,000 in year end savings from
in our solid waste fund. I wanna propose using, uh, 500 of those,
uh, 500,000 of those dollars to, uh, facilitate the dump,
re the dumpster location, uh, and site prep preparation,
uh, work that would be needed to relocate the dumpsters from north of fire station five over
to lookout by the transfer station, thereby freeing up, uh, that half a
million dollars from the apparatus project in the bond program. Recall, the number was actually
8.5 that I shared with you previously. Uh, this number is eight,
uh, as a result of this strategy, if that wouldn't be something that you would find, um,
acceptable, then we would, we would need to increase the eight, the number, the eight, $8 million
number to $8.5 million. Um, but I believe this is, this is an
effective strategy. So as I wrap up here, I'm anxious to hear your feedback
and, and any, um, questions that you may have. Um, we
do, as I mentioned, we have a january 5th meeting, uh, available to us if, if necessary.
um, one important step that we wanna mention to you here is, as, as you finalize
the proposition, kent needs to get with our bond counsel and make sure,
uh, confirm that the final propositions, uh, are gonna be acceptable and
in the eyes of, um, of, of the attorney general and, and, and others. And
so that's a step that we still need to build into the process. And then, of course, uh, you'll need to
call this election and your charter amendment election by february the ninth. Uh,
once you do that, we, uh, we exit the preparation, uh,
mode and, and start the education, uh, effort, uh, through, uh, may 2nd,
which is election day. Mr. Mayor, thank you for, uh, the time to present tonight,
and I, uh, look forward to any feedback and discussion you'd like to have. Thank you, mr.
magner, councilwoman justice. Thank you. Um, I think this is really
responsive, uh, and balances well. Um,
all of the feedback we gave you, , I know some people are not gonna get everything they want on here, but I think
this really addresses some important needs. The drainage in particular, you
know, it's not sort of the flashiest, but it's super, super important that we do it, and
that we're really putting a lot of effort behind that. Um, thank you
for, uh, the aquatics and the breckenridge, um, um, uh,
enhancements. Uh, I appreciate that. A question on the, um,
fire station, you said it's either year six or year one of the next bond program. Can we
be clear about what that means? We are gonna send that out to the voters
now, right? That would be the intention. The authorization will be provided
via this bond program through the 26 bond program. But we, um, everything from our
fire master plan that we presented to you, to just our own, um,
uh, confidence and, and, and around and security around
when we would wanna sell that additional $23 million, we're committing
here publicly not to sell that before what we're calling year
six, um, of, of which is the sixth year from the launch of this bond
program. But the reason I said it could be a year one is if, if, again, for, if
it's a no tax rate increase, kind of a bond program, and you continue on with
the rhythm, it would actually be year one of the next bond program. Got, yeah. So,
um, the authorization, and again, I was queuing off of what I think I heard from
the council, which was, we're not interested in spending two and a half million dollars to design something
that's not been yet authorized. And so, um, our plan moving
forward through the education portion of this bond program would
be to, to say that, you know, we're committing that the 23 5 would be,
um, at the earliest, the sixth year from, uh, the bond program passing
sixth year of this program. If you wanna think of like that first year of the next, whichever. Yeah, no, that, that's really
helpful. I just wanna make, make clear that the voters would have, you know, we call this, the voters would be voting
on this particular thing. But for year six, I think, you know, I know
it's important to me, it's important to you. I think we, you know, that, that we make sure that
we may not be on the council then. Um, so we wanna make sure that this is something that, that we,
uh, get funded. It's, it's really needed. So, uh, thank you for clarifying that. Otherwise,
I, I think it's really great, and I think you've done a good job of balancing. Thank you. Thank you.
council member corcoran. Uh, thank you, mr. Mayor. So,
I, uh, just due to the timing of the bond program presentations,
we were actually presented the parks program before the parks commission
was, and so I just wanted to relay, um, a lot of their
feedback to the council from that commission. Just what, I
mean, the, the proposal, there's some things in here that are very aligned with the feedback
and some things that aren't. Uh, again, uh, council member justice,
you made a great point. We're not all gonna get everything we want out of this.
I certainly wanted tam o shanter done for drainage. It's not in this package.
I know others probably had projects they wanted, the parks commission didn't get everything they wanted, but
I think the feedback is still really important. So, you know, with
that, I mean, some things that we're doing that the parks commission is very aligned with.
um, you know, they said the gallatin fountain is not necessarily a priority over some
of these other projects. Uh, they also were very aligned with keeping the canyon
creek pool open instead of converting that to a spray ground and turning
conwood into a spray ground. Um, they just said that the numbers, the numbers
to the parks commission were very indisputable on the usage. Um,
you know, some things that they, that
were gonna be proposing in this package that they didn't necessarily agree with was the timing of
the items in breckenridge park, um, you know, specifically with the bridge.
but that said, um, you know, they did,
they did understand that, uh, I think their, they thought was
with the soccer fields, specifically with, you know, the apollo phase two.
they really wanted to take some of the pressure off of that and felt that the
difficult decision between breckenridge park and those, and with those, they would've
preferred the soccer fields. Um, and then, you know, finally,
just in the light and sort of the, the discussion at breckenridge park, uh,
one member, greg k in particular said, you know, you made a good point. At some point,
we do need to make a long-term decision on what is happening at breck breckenridge,
vis-a-vis whether like a full blown aquatic center is gonna be there or in the south. And with every
decision we make at breckenridge, we have to also consider that that is a
huge decision we have to make for that park. And it's coming up, um, you know,
in the next decade or so. And then just finally, uh, our chair,
nancy crow was also, um, she had a very individual concern about not adding pickleball
courts. And so, you know, there's, like I said, I mean, this
is, this is a lot of money and there are a lot of projects that a lot of people wanted.
and so, um, I just felt like I would need to relay those discussion
points from the parks commission to the rest of the council.
thank you. Council member shem schul. Thank you, mr. Mayor
proam, and, and, uh, don for,
you know, bringing these things with, uh, I think this is probably the
best possible, definitely way to address the limited budget. Uh,
you know, I hope that the missing thing that we have on the list,
we can get it slowly, eventually. Uh, I'm also very happy that,
uh, some of the street that was, that is on the list now.
it did finally, it is finally made, made in the list, especially some
of the road like martha manor. Uh, you know, you
know, if I, if we had that budget, definitely, I'm sure that we would've addressed that many years ago.
uh, I feel really bad going out there driving, but I'm glad
that it's on the, it's on the list right now. Uh, and
also the drainage project that you have for the louis branch, uh, project.
I'm glad that finally we are doing it. Uh, we did not, it
did not make the list previously, but again, if you know that,
you know, the more you go forward, the odds are gonna be very high. Something
happened. So we did not have that much, uh, flood issue
so far, uh, in a sense that, you know, if we have that kind of rain and flood,
this would get, uh, not only the property get flooded, but
also it's danger to the public when they drive over those street.
so I think, I think, you know, I feel really good that,
you know, this is on the list. Uh, and, uh,
and other than that, you know, I thought that we're gonna be looking at, I guess, uh, council member
joe corker mentioned about the cotton note park, uh, pool that, uh, the park department
agree with that. Um, uh, I had some feedback from the neighborhood
also that saying that they would like to have the pool, but,
uh, you know, removing versus, um,
keeping it cost. Uh, I don't know if that, if the cost is not that
much, I think keeping it probably the safest route still,
I would say, because when you have a service and you take the service out, sometimes
that's, uh, that's very discomforting.
so, um, bless you. But otherwise, I think so far, I
see that it's really good budget, uh, good program, bond program that we have.
I think still we're gonna be needing bond program moving down the road, sometimes
maybe four, five years. But I think we are addressing, um,
our issue very fast, uh, compared to, you know,
what we have done in the past. Uh, you know, um, finally, we're
catching up. I think we're, we're in the right direction. Thank you. Mayor
or moore? Uh, thank you, mayor. I just wanted to,
uh, kind of second some of what I'm hearing. I think this is super responsive. I do appreciate,
uh, don and the team, your work on this. Um, and I,
I appreciate also kind of the focus on making sure that we're not adding too much on opex
side, especially with so much unknown, uh, uh, that
could be coming in the next year or so, uh, from, uh, from austin.
so, um, and I think finally, the, the continued emphasis
on infrastructure is really gonna give us our really best chance to
finally make just big inroads. Um, I know it was a concern
that was brought up, uh, uh, a few meetings ago, but, uh, seeing
this level of, of focus on especially streets and alleys, I think is really
gonna move the needle and, and the additional element that we added, uh,
for concrete repairs, also gonna do a big, a big, make a big difference. So,
thank you, uh, for, for everything you did here to be responsive to the requests, and,
uh, I think it's a pretty good balance. Council
member, doria, thank you. Um, thank you, mayor.
I, um, wanted to also kind of reiterate the same thing. I, I wanna thank everyone for
all their input. I know everyone's worked very hard to establish, you know, what
is, uh, the most important items to, to, uh,
work on over the next few years. And, you know, a lot of, a lot of
feedback I got from our constituents and our residents is, you know, streets and
alleys. I think streets and alleys are always the number one, uh, part of our infrastructure.
and as I've always said in many other meetings prior, that we have to, we
have to address our infrastructure first before we start building on top of that. So I really
like the allocations here and the direction of how we're, uh, moving
that needle. And, uh, also for the, uh, the lowest, uh, branch,
uh, phase one and two, I think I've heard a lot of people, uh, you know, comment on
that. I think that we're gonna make a lot of people happy, so real happy with the
direction of this and, um, looking forward to implementation. Thank you.
council member corcoran. Hey, thank you, mr. Mayor. I just had one, sorry. I saw
one more note on here that I think is really important for context to the
parks commission's, um, deliberations, and just, just the comment
that, and I'll add my spin on this at the end. Um, the comment that with
improving soccer fields, there's a citywide benefit versus, versus with breckenridge,
there's always gonna be the narrow benefit in the panhandle as far as
usage was their opinion. Now, my spin on that is
I agree with that, but also I understand if we take that approach every single bond program in perpetuity,
then the infrastructure projects at breckenridge will just never get done. Right? And
I think that's the point, both council member justice and mr. Mayor you both made
when we had that discussion. And so I think that's a very understandable position.
um, that's, that's all I wanted to say. And then just, just a quick clarification, it's
just for anyone who's maybe listening or taking, taking notes, I mean, it's
ma um, council member samsel, you said parks department, it's parks commission, park parks, right? The
department has been very, very neutral throughout this whole process. , thank, thanks
for that. I, I was thinking, did I say commission or department? Yes. Um, uh, yes. I'm glad
you clarified that. Thank you. Um,
just to add on, um, one thing that I'll mention very quickly, because we talked a
lot about it, um, coming up in the, um, consent
agenda, we're going to be talking about the, um, gallatin fountain. So I
won't steal your thunder, but I'll just say that is that discussion is coming up in that section.
so if anyone's curious as to what's going to occur, you'll have an answer. Um,
I just wanna add on my, my, my thoughts as well. I th I think that, um, this is extremely
balanced. Um, feel like that we've, we've, um, everyone's voice
has been heard, and you've done a great job, as usual, um, mr. Magner
with putting this all together. So just wanna thank you and, and each of the departments,
I know there was a lot of work from each of the departments to pull all of this together. And
so, um, thank you so much for, for being responsive
to our thoughts, taking aback, having departments work on it, putting it all together.
it, um, sometimes sausage is a little messy, but it does
ultimately come out in a very good way. And I think that's what we have here. So thank
you very much. If no other comments, then we'll move on to, um,
we will now review and discuss the year yearend financial financial report for fiscal year
20 20, 20 24, 20 25 operating budget.
mr. Magnum, uh, thank you, mayor. Our, uh, budget officer bob kleier is here tonight to
present this, uh, very important fourth quarter report. Uh, as we wrap up, uh, fy
25, um, you'll hear, uh, some of, uh, bob's comments will
be responsive to, uh, what we just presented with respect to the year end savings in general
foot and solid waste. Uh, and then mayor, uh, as, uh, as we conclude this
briefing, uh, tonight, uh, bob's gonna hand it back over to me. And, um,
I'd like to just, uh, at this point in time, take a little bit, um, of a preview
of, um, some modeling work that we've done, um, and explain
one, why we're doing it, uh, but two more importantly, um, I think how we
need to go into the new year, being responsive to, uh, and, and just
continuously aware of some of the dynamics, uh, uh, merril mar mentioned,
uh, uh, the legislation, uh, that's, uh, been passed in recent
years and, and, and the legislation that's, um, uh,
on the, on the tip of the tongue of many of the, uh, highest elected officials in
the state at this point in time. Uh, these things have real, uh, implications for
municipal governments. And I'd like to conclude the presentation by sharing some of those thoughts
with you, and, uh, really setting the tone for, um, uh, our city
staff as we embark, uh, as we come back from the holiday. Quickly embark on
the budget development process of our fly, uh, 27. So bob, thanks so much for
putting all this, uh, good information together. I'll turn it over to you. Alright, uh, good evening, uh,
counsel. Uh, as don mentioned, the purpose of tonight's, uh, briefing
is to provide you with an update on the year end, uh, performance of our five main
operating funds as of the end of fy 25. Uh, the first
fund we'll discuss is the general fund, our largest fund, uh, total revenue
of $183.6 million is $2.9 million
above the original budget of 180.7. And you can see two of the variances
there with, uh, two of our largest revenue sources, property taxes and sales
tax, property tax, uh, end of the year, 3.2 million, um, below
the original budget. Um, the largest subcategory of that is,
uh, the, uh, current year taxes, which ended the year 3.5 million
below the original budget. This is the, uh, category that, uh, was impacted by
the two, uh, situations we discussed earlier this year. Um,
the, uh, large abatement that was left off the certified role by, uh, ca
as well as the change in the taxable status of the, uh, residential portion
of the utd, uh, northside development. The prior year, taxes and penalty
and interest make up the remainder of that, but to finish about 215,000 above the
original budget sales tax, uh, three points, uh, sales and other business
taxes, 3.7 million above the original budget of 53.2.
the largest category is the traditional 1 cent sales tax. Everybody
thinks about, uh, that finished 3.7 million above the original budget of, uh, 52.4 million.
as a reminder going into the fy 25 budget, uh,
we, we decided, or we were determined to stay conservative in our, uh, development
of the, uh, budget for this category as a result of the, uh, decline
we saw in fy 24. And I think that, uh, that actually, uh, helped
out this year with the decline in in property taxes. Uh, license
and permits finished the year eight, uh, 684,000 above the original budget.
largest, uh, part of that is building permits, which finished at, uh, $2.4 million,
uh, or, um, 582,000 above its original budget, roughly
350,000 of that as a result of the timing of a, a large multifamily
permit that we anticipated receiving by the end of fy 24, but
was received in the first quarter of fy 25. And then again, this was another area
where we took a conservative approach to the development of the revenue, uh, estimate
as a result of the high interest rates and with the uncertainty of what that was gonna do to, uh,
construction activities. The remaining subcategories finished 101,000 above the
original budget, stronger than anticipated revenues and construction inspection and other
license and permits. And then, uh, the animal, uh, revenue from the animal
shelter and, uh, animal licenses was down slightly and was impacted slightly by the,
the remodel out at the, uh, animal shelter. Other revenues, uh,
1.1 million above the original budget of 5.8 million. Uh, the miscellaneous
category is the largest of those, um, finished at 2.9
or $2.2 million, or 1.4 million above the original budget. This is
where we recorded about $1 million in a repayment of, uh, an
economic development agreement related to that northside property. Uh, as a result
of the change in taxable status, it also, uh, includes 359,000
related to city, uh, damage to city property and insurance settlements. This is a
category that we, we don't budget very high. We, you know, it's a very
unreliable revenue source. We try to take into some historical levels on
that, but 359,000 above our base level ambulance revenues
finished, uh, 694 below a thousand below the original budget. And then intergovernmental
revenues finished, uh, 492 at four nine 2000 or 391,000
above the original budget. It was, again, another category that we budget on the low end. Uh,
we only budget for things we know are gonna come, uh, this year, this past year,
uh, we received state reimbursements for statewide assistance related to
wildfires and flooding, uh, in south texas. Um, those
kind of go to offset some of the equipment use and over time that our departments,
uh, in, uh, incur because of those, uh, statewide deployments.
total expenditures of five, uh, $5.7 million below the original budget of 180.3 million.
um, one of the largest, uh, areas of savings is personnel
2.5 million below the original budget. This budget did include about 5%
savings from non-public safety vacancies. Uh, on average
we average about 11% vacancies, so about a little over twice the amount that
we anticipated. That's also impacted by public safety vacancies that were not
part of that. Um, initial assumption. Professional services finished 1 million
below the original budget of 16.1 million. Uh, part of this, uh,
is related to timing. 637,000 is related to, uh,
an economic development agreement that was planned for and budgeted for an fy 24,
but was paid an fy 24. It was planned for 25,
but was recorded in fy 24, and then 349,000
was related to the northside development. That was not paid due to the change
in taxable status applies of miscellaneous, uh, finished the year $2.6 million
below the original budget. The original budget for this category did include, uh,
$1 million for mid-year restorations, but it was not reactivated due
to some concerns about the, uh, property tax revenue. And I'll touch on that in, in, uh,
in a second on, on that $1 million, uh, and does include 383,000
from planned sales tax. Um, uh, based economic development agreements.
these are tied directly to sales tax receipts that we receive, and
we're adjusted to match that. Uh, as a result of some work done by,
uh, the, our, uh, police department, we were able to get a federal grant that's covering our
9 1 1 service fees through january, uh, 2026. That
saved, uh, the general fund about $206,000 electric, uh,
expenses finished 159,000 159,000 below the original budget, mainly
as a result of adjusting to this new space that we're in currently. And then fuel costs
were overestimated by 524,000. All of the transfers
out for our maintenance initiatives, street and alley rehab, parks, facility maintenance
and economic development, uh, end of the year as budgeted. And then there was 779,000
across the fund that's still encumbered and will roll into the new year. Uh, this will be
covered by a reserve of fund balance, which is removed from the, the minimum,
uh, fund balance calculation, uh, as a result of the same
two, uh, property tax issues that the general fund faced. This, the general
debt service fund faces the same, uh, issues. Roughly 99.7%
of all revenue in that fund is sales tax or property tax related. Uh,
so that was gonna require a $2.3 million infusion to
meet the minimum fund balance in that, uh, fund. And then, uh, after meeting
the 90 day requirements, that leaves roughly $6 million, uh, for,
uh, special initiatives. Uh, part of that is $1 million being transferred
to the insurance fund to help insulate, uh, that fund from increasing healthcare
costs. Uh, that million dollar reserve we had in the su, uh,
supplies of miscellaneous category, one of the first liens on that was this
transfer. We were just waiting till the end of the year to do that. And then, uh, after meeting that
fund bounce or, uh, after that, there's roughly 5 million, which don
covered. Uh, the 4 million of that is going to, uh, cover,
uh, facility improvements that most likely won't make the, the final, uh, bond program
list. But a million dollars of that will be added to the, uh, reserve
for the emergency response, uh, would bring the total reserve for emergency response,
uh, to $2 million. With that, uh, the general fund finishes at
54.6 million or 90.99 days, which is above the minimum
policy of 90 days. Uh, the water and sewer fund,
uh, it's our, uh, largest utility fund. Uh, total revenue
finished 2.8 million below the original budget of 113.5 million.
and you see there, the, the almost entirely due to, uh,
uh, decreased, uh, a decrease in water sales. Um, through
the first, I guess, uh, nine months of the year, we were actually tracking slightly above
our targeted sales with declines coming, uh, starting in july,
august and september. Majority of that's related to, uh, irrigation,
and it's not necessarily how much it rains, but the timing of that rain. And, uh,
from the information we can see that majority of that decline is related to irrigation.
there was some decline as well, though in, in some of the other categories, but mostly
irrigation related. How does that relate to revenue? You'll
see through june, we are actually up roughly about 900,000. And in the last
three months of the year, uh, we missed our target by roughly 3.9 million.
again, related to the actual water sales, uh, uh,
sewer sales is a little bit, uh, more constant though. We did see a, a slight decline
there in september, mostly on the commercial side. Uh, it's total revenue
from, uh, sewer sales, about 181,000 above our target, um, which,
uh, uh, helps a little bit there. Total, um, expenditures
3.9 million below the original budget of 111.2 million, uh,
with savings pretty much across all categories. Personnel savings of 1.1 million.
this fund was budgeted at full staffing. Average, uh, uh,
vacancy rate was roughly 18% in this fund. Um, now some of that was
used to cover overtime, but as you can see, we did have significant savings as a result.
uh, professional services finished 1.2 million below the original budget of five or 4.7 million.
uh, 1.5 is still encumbered at year end, so roughly,
uh, even with budget. And then the capital category six, 9,000 is
611 below the original budget, but that, again, is a result of an encumbrance
for a hydro excavating vehicle that is ordered, but just hasn't been received yet.
um, contracts, this was a little bit of a, a mixed bag for
us. Uh, total contracts finished 533 below the original budget of
71.5 million. Uh, you'll see there in the, um,
uh, table there. Uh, we had about $2 million in savings from the water
contract, uh, through our development process. In the summer, we receive a preliminary
estimate from the, uh, uh, appra, uh, water district, and then
we receive the final number, uh, later, which happened to be 1.7 below
what they gave us that summer. That number's received after the budget's finalized,
uh, and that's why you'll see that variance there. Now, we did have, uh, increased
cost on the sewer side. A lot of that is a result of, um,
north texas, um, underestimating the sewer flows
specifically on the, uh, manufacturing side of things. Uh, but total with
during those, uh, four or five items, $630,000 in savings,
uh, with that, uh, total fund balance of 30.7 million, it's, uh,
104.39 days, which is above our target of 90.
as we discussed this summer, we're planning on leaving that excess fund balance in the
fund to help cover the rate increase or to help buffer
the rate increase, uh, that was gonna be needed in fy 26.
uh, this provides a kind of a two year approach to
that, that rate need, uh, solid waste fund, 411,000
above its original budget, uh, uh, revenue budget of 19.4 million.
uh, most of that is due to the strength of our compactor, um, uh,
category as well as, uh, from temporary open tops. Again, that's a category we don't try to
overheat because it's, as it says, temporary. And we, we don't want to, uh,
balance the budget on that. Other revenue categories I saw higher than anticipated
revenues from the re the sale of retired containers. Uh, those containers are taken
outta service we then sell, and that actually got us a lot more revenue than we anticipated.
and then the trans or the, uh, transfer in from the water fund for, uh,
for the baic program, uh, it is indexed to half of the total cost
of the baic program, the solid waste fund. Uh, so we saw a reduction of 92,000
with baic seeing, uh, savings from vacancies as well as lower than
expected. Uh, composting costs, uh, total expenditures of savings, 121,000.
uh, we saw savings in the personnel services about 50,000.
this fund averaged about 12% vacancies. A lot of that, uh,
savings was, uh, needed to, uh, cover contractual services,
uh, contractual labor to, uh, help cover that minimum staffing on our vehicles.
um, uh, so the total savings, there was $50,000. Professional
services finished 68,000 below the original budget of, uh, 939,000.
again, savings from, uh, insurance premiums and the cost of, uh, processing recyclable
materials. And then 90 days, uh, was the target. And we achieved
that and still allowed 706,000 to be transferred to our, uh,
special projects fund or capital reserve fund. Uh, this is an increase of 453,000
above the plan. 254,000. This is where don mentioned the
$500,000 for the relocation of the salt waste container staging
area. Uh, and it will be covered from this, the re remainder, that 254,000
remainder or 206,000 remainder, uh, will just
be reserved for, uh, the results of the, uh, salt waste master plan and support of
the salt waste master plan. Uh, total, uh, fund balance, 90.99
days or 4.8 million, again, exceeds our target of 90 days. Uh,
so it's finishing in, in good shape there. Uh, golf fund,
uh, 196,000 above, uh, in revenue above
its target of 3.3 million. Uh, this fund, uh, did anticipate
an earlier o reopening, of course two, but even with that, um,
delayed reopening, we were able to exceed the targeted rounds by about 10,000,
uh, each of the year, each of the months. That was, uh, with course two open, we
exceeded significantly, as you can see there, with the blue bar above the target
for those, uh, months. So ronnie's group is really killing it out
there right now. That's cheryl park, uh, total expenditures, uh, 77,000
above the original budget of roughly $3 million. A lot of that had to
do with the reopening, of course, too, and some of the extra overtime required,
uh, to, uh, support that. Um, but with that, we still were able to
achieve our target of, um, 30 days building to 60. Uh,
with that, we're still able to transfer out $550,000,
uh, to the gulf capital reserve fund in support of equipment and, uh,
facility improvement needs out there. Uh, hotel motel
fund, $1.5 million in revenue below the target, uh, original
budget of 9.8 million. You'll see there, uh, taxes finished, uh, 376,000,
blow its original budget of 5.3 million. We did see kind of a
slowdown across the board, as well as some closures for some remodel, as well
as, um, some repairs. Uh, we did see the biggest part
there is the eisman center revenue finish a million dollars off of our, um, target of $3.8 million.
uh, here you'll see the, uh, the, the trend for our hotel, uh,
occupancy taxes. This should tie off, I believe it's page 28
of your fund summary packet that you received received, where you'll see the detail by
hotel, uh, for the year in comparison to the budget, as well as the
previous year. Uh, total eisman center operations revenue declined
388,000 from the original budget of 2.2 million. And then eisman center presents
revenue, uh, missed its target by 612,000. Again,
as we discussed this summer, uh, the, uh, the assumptions
for fy 25 for the revenue in this fund was overtly optimistic
and has been right sized for fy 26, uh, and will continue to monitor that
as the year goes on. Uh, total expenditures, a reduction of 584,000
eisman center operations finished 327,000 below the original budget, 4.6 million.
again, the, as a result of the reduced revenue there, the eisman center did
the best they could to, um, reign in their costs where they could. Uh, they
kept a lot of positions open with the savings, about $211,000 to
help offset that lower revenue eisen center presents finished, uh, at 2.1 million
or 1.2 million 369,000 below the original budget.
and then the, uh, capital expenditures of 276,000 was actually related to a prior year
encumbrance, and was covered by a reserve of fund balance, uh, total fund
balance in this fund, 4.5 million. There is not an official fund balance policy,
uh, but it, it is continuing to, to maintain its strong position.
uh, so before we throw it back to don for that additional discussion, uh,
open it up for some questions. If anybody had anything.
you did a great job budget, bob. I appreciate it. Thanks, sir.
do we need to bring this back to you? Uh, yes, please. Thank you, bob.
uh, well, uh, again, bob, thanks very much for that presentation. Um, I feel
like, uh, it's, uh, very, uh, important context as we head into, I think you, sir,
head into this, uh, next discussion. As I mentioned to you, uh, mayor and council, what we're really trying
to do tonight, um, is uh, lay an important foundation,
um, uh, for our, uh, fy uh, 27 budget
discussion. Um, let me just provide a little bit of context. Uh, some of this is, is
old news, but it's important context. Recall, sb two or senate bill
two, officially known as the texas property tax reform and transparency act of 2019,
uh, was enacted in june of, of, of 19, uh, sb two,
uh, effectively reduced the maximum amount. Uh, a local government or local
taxing unit could increase the property tax revenue by annually without a
voter approval to 3.5, uh, percent. Prior to,
um, um, sb two, that rate was 8%. Um,
sb two mandates, uh, that if a city council wants to adopt, uh,
a tax rate greater than three point a half percent, that, uh, it must go to voters,
um, and be offered on, uh, the november uniform election date.
uh, sb two also required things like, uh, property tax notices and rate information
be posted online, expanded disclosure requirements, and also required
appraisal districts to maintain databases, uh, of property tax information.
um, and so other transparency related things. But the main thing I wanna focus on
is the reduction of the property tax cap from effectively 8% to
3.5%. Um, the majority of sb twos provisions took
effect in january of 2020. Therefore, the first year, um,
that, uh, first budget year that, uh, we really saw the impact of that was fy 21.
um, after six years of sb two, what we have
seen across texas and what we are seeing here locally, um, is what
I've called, uh, six years, six consecutive years of a compounding
effect of this three and a half per this, uh, three and a half percent cap.
um, that I think, without being too dramatic, has fundamentally changed municipal
finance in texas, but here locally has fundamentally altered
our long-term budget outlook. Um, and let me show you just a couple of
examples why, um, if this is on the left hand side of the chart.
uh, on of the slide is a chart. Uh, looking at the six years prior to
sb two and the six years subsequent, uh, uh, to, uh, sb two being enacted,
you can see on average, uh, the six years prior,
on average, uh, the city was generating about $4.7 million of new
tax revenue, of new property tax revenue each year. So, on average,
since sb two's been enacted, that number has dropped to 2.35%.
now, what's ironic about this is that inflation was at its lowest,
uh, prior to covid. And at its highest subsequent, or subsequent to
covid recall, we were experiencing inflation to the tune of 8%
back in 22 and 23. Um, but what about the
compounding effect that I mentioned? The chart on the right, uh, is a comparison
of what the city, essentially, the revenue the city has lost since
sb two is enacted, and the 3.5% cap became the new standard. So you
see there in the first year, had we been able to maximize that under the old,
uh, rollback rate of 8%, we would've generated $2.7 million more.
but in six years, we have, uh, essentially lost $21 million
of new revenue, uh, as a result of sb two.
um, this compounding effect is impacting
different cities at different times. There's a lot of factors that go into this compounding effect.
um, but we are at a, I believe, richardson's at a crossroads,
and I wanna demonstrate why, uh, the modeling you see here.
um, and, and I'm gonna come back to this, why this modeling is so important, uh,
not only to us, but I think potentially to, to, to maybe
impacting sb two. Uh, but these assumptions in this model, um,
on the revenue side, we've taken very aggressive assumptions. For instance,
you see here, we have assumed year after year that we maximize
the three and a half percent, um, property tax revenue.
so it's not possible for us in that first column to
generate more revenue year over year for six straight years. In this model. In
the second or third column from the left, we've estimated that we
would bring on $200 million of new construction, which we recall. New
construction does not count against your cap. $200 million of new
construction year over year is the assumption here. And then we've estimated
2% growth in sales tax year over year, not to be
redundant, but these are gr these are gr uh, very aggressive revenue assumptions.
on the flip side, on the expenditure side, we've, uh, estimated
very conservative assumptions. We've only assumed
a 2% increase, um, uh, across the board for
employees year after year. We haven't done a 2% increase in probably seven
or eight years because of how competitive this, this market is, plus public safety
steps. So that would assume, for instance, compared to this year, general
employees would've received a half percent less public safety would would've received
2.5% less. Just as an example, we have included the cost of indexing,
uh, on the, um, transfer out. So that's your alleys, your streets, your,
um, parks, maintenance facility maintenance, because we know infrastructure's important to you.
and then for all other expenditures, all non staffing expenditures
and the general fund, we've only assumed a 2% increase for
inflationary pressures. Uh, again, inflationary pressures, even
today when inflation is at its lowest since, uh, since covid
is double that, it's actually four 4.2 to 4.3%. So again,
we're assuming half the per percent, half the increase that we would really need in inflationary
pressures. If you, and, and, and by the way, we're assuming no change in
the property tax rate, and we're assuming that you don't increase the senior tax exemption
year after year. If you do, if you, if you take those very basic assumptions,
what the right hand column shows you is how much net new revenue
the city would have to work with for things like new programs or new
services. So you can see not even a million dollars all the way
out to fy 23. Now, what we, what I wanna do for you is I wanna layer
just one consideration, consideration, consideration.
I said I wouldn't be dramatic. .
I wanna layer one consideration for you, um, into this model. And
that is just the fire master plan. Now, I'm not gonna go through this because
we've been through this several times, but this is the fire master plan, and you see how we take
it out through 2032. So in every year, at the
bottom of this fire master plan, there's an operations impact. So what I've done is I've plugged
that operation impact into this model. And so you can see the
third column from the left is the net new revenue under three, the
3.5% cap. So that was your far right column on the prior chart,
what you see is the cost of what I've called the first liens or the restoration
year by year recall, we still have and have had now for two years,
26 frozen positions. So unless we're ready to eliminate the, eliminate
those positions, which there are operation impacts to that, um,
we eventually need to restore that. So the cost of that restoration right now is
$1.1 million. So, for instance, if that was the only thing we added next year
in fy 27, we would be at a deficit. We would, we would have a deficit
budget of $300,000. The next year is the fire master
plan. The year after that is permanently restoring the million dollars to the general fund.
for that. We've, um, uh, used as a balancing tool each of the last
three years, the million, million dollar transfer from core plan, and then three consecutive
years of fire master plan. The main point here is this, between now
and the end of fy or, but now in the end and fy 32,
we will, we will have almost a $3 million deficit that we
will be trying to work with. And that's, again, with adding no new programs or
services, not one new dollar for a new program or service, uh, in this
modeling. In light of that, there's several, several,
several considerations I'd like to share with you. Um, one is
that, um, it's incumbent upon us, internally staff,
I believe, to, to conduct a comprehensive review of our current programs and
policies and current, uh, programs and services, excuse me. Um, and have you confirm
for us that the scope of those programs and services, uh, are aligned
with your current priorities as well as the, the, the expenditures,
um, that are currently assigned to, to that scope. And so this is everything
from community events, um, to, uh, um,
uh, recreation programs. Um, really it
runs the gamut. And that's why if you go back to the
tactics that I presented to you, um, back in, in, uh, early, mid,
early to mid-september, every one of these are a tactics that will
get to that goal that I just, that first bullet that I just described to you, every
one of these tactics has some, will have some
impact, uh, on the, um, on the, on that first consideration.
the second consideration is, as, as the mayor mentioned it, uh, I think, uh, councilman corcoran
mentioned it earlier, given the ongoing state level discussions about taxes,
and all you have to do is turn it on your phone or look on online. Right now,
there are the, the highest leaders in this state are talking about additional
taxes. We need to prepare for the very probable effect
that there are going to be new revenue and or new expenditure limits that
are gonna be placed on us, as well as there could be new mandates as there
have been both in the 88th and 89th and the 88th legislative sessions.
um, so let me just take that modeling one step further. Let's just
assume that the three and a 5% tax cap was reduced
to two point a half percent. Now, recall on the 89th session, there was legislation to
reduce it to 1%, but let's just assume we only reduce it by
1% to 2.5%. We will, if that goes into effect, and fy 29
would be the first year, it would be, uh, possible coming outta the next legisl legislative session
with these very robust revenue assumptions and these very modest
expenditure assumptions, we will run a deficit, um,
in, in fy 28. Now, it's not a huge deficit, but again, that's
not assuming an awful lot of things, like not increasing, uh, the senior
tax exemption, not changing the tax rate, uh, not adding any additional
new programs or services between now and then. So any year we
add, even if we add one program between now and then, that number increases
and it increases and will continue to increase, um, all the way out through
fy 32. So where are we at? Um,
I believe this is a really important statement, not only for city staff and
for the council, but also for the community to understand. If we believe that
our core missions and responsibilities, uh, public safety infrastructure,
for instance, are our, are our highest priority, then
I strongly believe that proposals for expanded programs and new
initiatives in the future are gonna have to be evaluated with a clear value
proposition framework. And what I mean by that, we're gonna have to look at the benefits,
the cost, but more importantly, we're gonna have to look at the trade-offs because
in my opinion, the new sb two reality is this. To introduce a new program
or service in the future with modeling we just described, uh, we
will need to either identify new revenue sources or we're going to have to
reduce funding for existing programs or services. And this
is just simple math. That's, that's all it is. Now, you may say, so what are
you doing about this? Um, I also wanna, I also wanna share just
a little bit about how this modeling began and how we got to this point. Um, I've
been, uh, been, been, uh, um, honored again, I, I
guess you'd say , uh, I guess, I guess, um, and, and have been asked to, uh, uh,
co-chair with, uh, uh, uh, dallas county judge clay jenkins, the north texas
commission's, uh, local government policy task force. And this
modeling, um, is, uh, one of the very first things that we did, uh,
when we reconvened this task force in advance of the 90th legislative session.
this modeling replicated across dozens, if
not hopefully, hundreds of cities, will hopefully paint a picture
for the state legislators that cannot be ignored. Um,
because we believe one of the things that we haven't done a really, um,
effective job on previously is showing, um, the
real impact of these property tax, of the, of the property
tax cap. Um, but more importantly, we've gotta show
what would happen if they even take it farther, because that is, that is
on the mines. I mean, I don't know if there's anyone on this council that doesn't believe that that's a rea that's a real
possibility in the 90th session. And if it is, those red numbers grow,
um, and it becomes more and more difficult for you to set policy and for us
as staff to implement that policy that's responsive to the unique needs of this
community. And that's at the crux of what this is really about. It's
about our local control being every session taken more and more away
from us. And so I appreciate the, the chance to
share this, um, this, this information with you. Um, I,
I hope the community's paying attention, um, because this has,
has the potential to have real impact on the way that we have to do
business moving forward. And so, mayor, I again, appreciate the chance to share this with you as
we wrap up our fourth quarter budget report. Um, I can promise you this,
this message has been thoroughly communicated internally to our team. And
as we come back from the holiday and we launch on the fy 20,
um, seven budget process, this will be at the forefront of everything that we
do. And I, I hope you can be at the forefront of, of every stakeholder
in our community. Thank mayor. Thank you, council
member justice. Thank you. Um, thank you for the presentation.
I think it's really important for our community to hear. We've talked a lot about sb two since it
passed. Uh, everybody wondered if it would be the sort of boogeyman that they, that
we thought it would be, and it's turned out to be. Um, and I would like to
just sort of reiterate for the community. This isn't a richardson issue. If you can pull up a lot of
headlines, plano just had to increase their tax rate. 2 cents. Uh, arlington, I think, increased
theirs 3 cents. Mesquite went out to its voters recently to increase theirs. Um,
so, so this is a, a regionwide statewide, um, issue,
uh, that is impacting municipalities. And we're finally seeing the trending of, of what that looks
like. Um, as you recall, our budget this year was, you know, our general fund went
up by 0.67%. That's, it's, we're really seeing the impact of what
this is doing. Um, and, and again, this isn't, uh, a richardson
issue. This is, this is the result of lazy governance. Quite frankly, our state legislators
wanted to be able to check a box and tell you all that they gave you property tax relief.
and that's not what really happened here. What they've done is they've got the cities that you choose
to live in. Um, there are many ways that they could have passed better legislation
here. They could have done a public safety carve out, they could have done an infrastructure carve out, they
could have made this applicable to only commercial properties, but instead, they just passed something that
had a flashy headline and a good title, um, to try and tell you that they gave you property
tax relief. So I encourage everyone who's listening to go talk to their state legislators.
if somebody is running for a state seat, go talk to them. It is important. It impacts
you. Some of the programs that you love could be impacted, or we may have to make hard
decisions to do away with them because of what your state legislators are doing.
this is very, very important that, that you really focus on, uh, what's happening at
the state level. Uh, 'cause as you just heard tonight, it's, it's not just three and half percent.
now, it could be two and half percent or 1%, and we're just not gonna be able to
be the richardson that you've all come to love. And again, it's not anything that your council
or that your city management is doing. It is a result, uh, really of,
of what your state legislators have done to be able to sort of, uh, give you a, a superficial
win on property tax. It's lazy governance, and you should go tell 'em as much.
thank you. Council member corcoran. Uh, thank you, mr. Mayor.
you know, I think something that I was going through my mind on when we were
going, you're going through these, these slides, was sort of, you
know, when, 'cause I'm sure this is a question you'll be asked, is sort of, hey,
well, when does it end? Right, richardson, when are you guys totally built out,
not hiring new staff, not, um, you
know, not doing anything else besides just maintaining roads and, and increasing comp, right?
and I thought through some answers that if I were in your shoes, I would answer that
question with looking at the net new revenue. So I just wanted to ask you a couple questions just
to give more context, right? So for the upgrades on the status system
after the water quality issue, we had, um, af you
know, how much did those upgrades cost and the staff that we need to sort of
beef up and keep that system under control. How much did all of that cost? Ballpark, it,
it was about $650,000. So that would be almost everything. I
mean, that's the, the lowest number on here for this net new revenue fy 20 27, 798.
mm-hmm . That's almost all of that, right? Right. That's a, um, and what about moving
ms. Bell's house from one place to another? That was a couple hundred, right? Yes.
yes. Okay. Yes. So a couple of hundred times, maybe two and a half
. Oh, I see. Okay. , well, proves my point even more, right?
right. Absolutely. Sort of one issue can wipe out almost
all of the new revenue in one year, right? Right. Accounting for essentially
under market raises for our staff. I mean, quite frankly, right?
and so, I don't know. I mean, I think from the audit committee perspective,
the scariest part to me is if we lose very specific staff
in our finance departments, right, who have very specialized skills because we
continue to just give them the 2% raises, well then that just puts us more at
risk of being behind on the audit, which then puts us at that sort of
mandatory, no new revenue rate, right? If we don't get that done, as we've seen, the attorney general is
being exceptionally proactive in enforcing that too. I mean, I think over a hundred cities
now, he's tried to issue some sort of warning to, um, outside
of just the original three. I mean, it's, it's pretty crazy. So, you know, just,
I just wanted to go through that to kind of mention some of the, put
some real life context in some of the situations that could happen. Yes. And
then also, you know, you, you'd mentioned my name and I, I, I, you and I had said, maybe said something in
like one of our one-on-ones about this. Um, you know, I, I
don't know. I mean, I think that with 2027 kind
of coming up quickly, I don't know. I mean,
it may be we, we've had over a decade of no tax increase on the
property tax side. Maybe it's something we consider just
proactively doing, just in case. I don't know.
I mean, I feel like we've played by the rules this whole time and it hasn't really gotten us anywhere.
council member sho. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Proton.
uh, now, you know,
we all talk about this asb two and all this, uh, these are coming, you
know, unfortunately, the reality is that this is there and, uh,
it is very important that we do our homework and we do update
our homework on constant basis. And I'm, I'm happy that, uh,
you brought, uh, the first homework today, the model. And,
uh, this is, this is important. Uh, and,
you know, for multiple region, that when we have our own finance, personal finance,
we do manage this thing, projecting the budget moving
forward five years, 10 years. I don't know if everybody does that, but
I do have to manage my ma money, you know, like in the past, even to the dollar.
uh, so, and this is also important
that so that we communicate with our residents business. This
is what's coming. And, uh, we are doing our best. I think
not only just show them that we are doing our best, we really do our best.
and I believe that we are doing our best. You are doing your best, uh,
managing the budget. We don't, uh, I don't see we are wasting money anywhere.
so this is something that we need to keep up, uh, with
everyone so that everyone know that where we are going,
how we are going, and why these are happening, uh, I think
that's important next, uh, until we see some other picture.
but, uh, sometimes cutting text is very easy, way,
quick, cheap way. Get some, uh, score, some political score.
but, you know, just, uh, blindly taking out things
from, you know, from the text is, is not responsible things.
uh, but this is what's happening.
so, uh, so I think this is, I think we have taken the first
in important step today. I think we need to just keep it up moving forward. Thank you.
thank you, mayor omar.
yeah, thank you, mayor. I, I, I'll just kind of reiterate
what everyone else is talking about. I mean, this really needs to be all hands on deck. And I,
I, first and foremost wanna say, you know, thank you for don for his continued
leadership from a regional perspective, and in this case, uh, a
problem for all of texas as opposed to just a regional problem. Uh, so I'm
thrilled, um, that, that you're taking the lead. I really like your approach,
approach here in terms of the way you're showing real life examples, the way you're
layering in, uh, you know, what happens with inflation and how that impacts
things. Um, all all of that just really helps crystallize
what an incredibly awful, uh, uh, policy
this has been by, by the state. And, uh, I know as I get an opportunity
to visit with other mayors, um, more and more, they're very,
very focused on this as well. Um, this is not something,
there are very few cities that this does not impact. Obviously, cities that
have plenty of green space and continue to expand out those
ones, I guess, uh, don't have the same problem. Uh, but there are not that
many of those cities out there relative to the rest. So all that said,
thank you, don. Uh, and, and for all of us, and I think, I think,
uh, many of you already spoken. I think the best thing we can do is when
we get opportunities to speak to residents, but also when we get opportunities
to speak to our fellow cohorts in other, uh, cities
around texas, we all need to be encouraging each other to fight the good fight,
um, so that this voice is as loud as possible, uh, at the statewide
level. So, again, thank you, don, for the presentation and, and for your continued
leadership. Thank you, mayor
mar. Um, I'd just like to tag onto that as well. I think number one, don,
thank you for all of your great work, um, on this. I, I think
my two thoughts are is number one, I'll, I'll make my request
that I've made a couple of times, would love to get our state reps
in this dais and, and show this, show them this information.
um, hopefully we could do that early next year and show them what the effects
that we are having. And, and I guess I would also ask, and I know this is, you know, 'cause
we, we would all have thoughts as to what we would have to cut, but if you could just give us, you
know, top 20 things that, you know,
we would really have to take a really hard look at. I mean, I'm not, I'm not asking
you to make a recommendation list. Just something that we could have, you know, from a meat
perspective, that we could say to our constituents too when we talk
to state reps. Um, you know, look, we're
not, we're not talking about, you know, uh, real what
I would consider, you know, or maybe someone else would consider very lightweight things. We,
we start to get into really the, you know, we go past the fat,
we get, we start to get into the muscle, if you will, of the city as we, we walk through
these things from just some of the conversations that we've all had. And so I think it'd
be very helpful if we could have, you know, a top, top 20 list things of
not necessarily what we would you would propose, but just we'd have to look at these top
20 things. Something that we could, we could really put into their hands and say,
is this really what you would want us to do from a state perspective at
the city level? And, and be able to do that. So those are just my thoughts.
any other thoughts on this? Okay, great.
we'll now move into our consent agenda. Before I ask for a motion, I'm gonna ask, um,
mr. Magner to, to talk just a moment about, um, its
item b on the consent agenda. Uh, thank you, mayor. Well, um, as you may
recall, when, uh, yvonne, uh, f fgo director of parks and recreation presented
the deep dive for the bond program, there was some consideration around the gallatin
fountain. And we were at that time waiting on an assessment. Um, um,
there was a, uh, one path forward was going to be, um, to really
need to completely replace all the mechanical equipment, essentially build the
fountain anew. The other was going to be able to have a repair strategy. And, uh,
what you see, uh, thankfully on the agenda is that repair strategy as well as
a, uh, maintenance agreement that we believe will result in, uh, more
frequent preventative maintenance. Um, it will, will help us get on a regular routine
that, um, after we make the improvements, uh, to really, um, get the
fountain back operating, uh, in a really efficient and effective way, we'll
be able to maintain that. And so this is great news, uh, from the standpoint of not needing
to burden the bond program with it. Um, and so that's your one action item tonight.
great. Any questions on that? Okay, perfect. Then
I'd ask for a motion for the consent agenda.
and councilman dorian. Thank you, mayor. I'd like to make a motion
to approve the consent agenda as noted. Thank you. And councilman
justice. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say
aye. All those opposed? Alright, that passes six to zero with councilman
barrios out. Ill alright, we'll move into report on items of
community interest. I didn't see whose light went on first, so did
yours. Okay. I don't, I don't know, but I'm claiming it. Okay, go right ahead. Councilman
justice. There was a very exciting citywide
announcement that needs to be made. I, I agree a hundred percent ,
our very own councilman corcoran got engaged on friday night,
and it was just honestly the most beautiful celebration. It should have just been their wedding
because it was stunning and she was surprised and lovely, and just
the whole thing was wonderful. It was a surprise engagement for her all, you know, family, friends,
sister in from france. I mean, he just did it up really right? And it
was just so, so special to be invited and be a part of that moment in your life. Um, and she's
lovely and I'm so excited for both of you. Yeah, thank you.
councilman corland, would you like to ? Yeah, I mean, obviously,
you know, it has been just so wonderful over the years introducing
thelma, who's just so, so important to me, to all of y'all. Um,
you guys don't know how much of an impact you've made in both of our lives and how really
just important it is to me that y'all love her and get to know
her. And, and you guys have all done that so much. And I think what's so special about
this city government is just how, no matter what disagreements we
have up here, we all show up for each other. And at the end of the day,
like, we're all there for each other and y'all have just been there for us. And this friday
night was no exception and it was very special to thelma. Very special to me.
and I just can't tell you how much we both really appreciate all of y'all. Um,
my colleagues are the best. So thank you guys.
anything else that you wanted to? Yeah, the chamber had a, uh, grand opening on thursday
night. It was really wonderful. Uh, the chamber looks awesome
and it, it was a really special party there too. Um, you
know, I think it, it is a huge upgrade and I know they put a lot of work into
it and we're honored to be invited to support them. Yeah. Excellent. Um,
council member a and . Thank you mr. We
proam. Uh, well, I mean, councilman
uh, jennifer justice, you know, she, she explained,
she tells very clearly nicely, uh, I don't know if I can beat that, but
I can't really stop saying congratulations to joe. This is,
uh, council member joe . Um, you
know, I was very, very excited seeing that not, you
know, he was happy. Uh, thelma was happy, but also, uh,
you know, their family was, were they, they're all genuinely happy.
I saw the excitement everywhere. So, uh,
it was, it was really, you know, wonderful experience and thank you for including me
with that, uh, uh, with your special moment, memorable
moment. And, um, definitely I'll be, I'll
be praying for your, uh, next journey and it'll be
exciting. Uh, you know, no matter what, it's going to be exciting
the rest of your life. .
alright. Uh, what's that? Leave that alone. I'm, I'm, I'm going to
council member dorian. Thank you, mayor. Yeah, I, I just want, you
know, I, I'm gonna just tag onto that as well. I think you said something
that was important, joe, about our councilman, uh, corcoran. And that
is that this is fine. It's, I think, uh, you're right when, when
it's, when the council and has to come together and
be, you know, standards one and support one another, I think we do a very
good job doing that. All of us do, including staff and council and mayor.
so I appreciate that, and I'm really happy for you, and I'm, I'm happy that you made
us a part of this, uh, new commitment and your new journey. So thank you very much.
I also want to say in addition to, uh, the,
uh, chamber, which is a beautiful, um, I had the opportunity of,
uh, sort of sharing some time with the dallas,
uh, chinese community center on saturday morning. Um,
this is an event. I actually, even before I was, uh, elected, um,
uh, I went to this event and I was able to see the children.
it's nice because they have, uh, they have this ages like,
you know, from like eight all the way up to teenage years, but they have calli
calligraphy courses and awards, and it's not just part
of the chinese and asian community, but is part, it's a lot of different, uh, cultures
there. So it's just really good to see them and how excited they are. So
one of the girls came up to me as I was getting ready to hand her her
certificate, and before we even shook can, she just came up and gave me a big hug. And
I just thought, wow. And it kind of got, you know, kind of touches you in a certain way. But,
um, they were very happy and, um, it was a very nice event. And of course, they always
have a luncheon afterwards, which they, they prepare all this food. It's,
it's enormous and it's always, uh, delicious. But I just wanna say, uh, that is
a great community and, and I, and I love supporting it. Thank you. Thank you,
merril. Mark, uh, gosh, I,
I, I'll, I'll just for the sake of, of repeating, although I hate, uh, uh, doing
too much, repeating on, on items, community interest, couldn't be more thrilled,
uh, for councilman corcoran and, uh, thelma. Just, it was,
uh, there, there's, I don't know that anyone else can beat, uh,
what that presentation of a, uh, proposal and
party afterwards that was just, uh, amazing and beautiful and, and
job well done. Uh, uh, I, I've never seen it done that well before,
and I don't think I ever will. Um, we had a really busy week
last week. Um, so I just want to hit on a couple things. Um, uh,
both, uh, city manager, uh, dom magner and I had an opportunity, uh,
I guess twice last week to do some, uh, uh, double teaming
one at hexa with a delegation out of the uk that
had a bunch of small businesses, uh, that were here, um, uh,
pitching, uh, uh, their stuff, uh, uh, pitching their, their,
uh, innovations and what they're doing as a company. And we got to pitch our city
back, which was, uh, really fantastic. Um, we
also had an opportunity, uh, to, uh, do a,
um, uh, uh, I believe it's called let's
work inclusively, which was, um, the dallas disability
chamber had a, uh, video podcast, uh, that we
got a chance to record together, which was kind of a neat experience and, and we
hope something that we can share or I can share in the next, uh, few days whenever
they finally go to, uh, go public with that. Uh, we also had just
an, a wonderful, um, annual, uh, christmas party that gets
to, um, you know, celebrate a lot of the folks that work in our city,
uh, as well as kind of other players that we don't recognize in other ways.
uh, this last week, I, I was just, couldn't have been more impressed
with what city staff did to, um, make the room that you guys are in
right now. Uh, one of the most festive rooms I've seen in some time.
uh, so for that, I just wanna say, uh, thank you very much, the entire team. And
then finally, uh, although there were, gosh, so many different,
uh, uh, christmas parties and gatherings, uh, I did want
to, um, give a shout out to intellichoice. Um, they are
an organization that really focuses on, uh, math training to the underprivileged.
um, I got an opportunity to keynote, uh, for them yesterday evening,
uh, there at the ut dallas campus. Um, they gave
away something like 60 scholarships, $30,000, uh,
to students, uh, hoping to encourage them to go to either two year or
four year, uh, schools. Uh, but just amazing work done
by a dr. Gil lee, who is a professor there, and, um,
has been doing this now for 30 years. So, uh, just a, a, a wonderful
honor and, and a and a great opportunity to be able to, to celebrate with them and
to help them, uh, raise a little bit of money for, for that worthy cause. That's all I've got
for that. Thank you, mayor. Well, I'll just wrap up.
joe con, congratulations. There's, there's no other way to say
it. Congratulations. So happy for you and thelma. Um,
it's wonderful when two people, two people come together and,
and like y'all have, and so just congratulations.
um, on that note, I also had the opportunity on
friday to be the keynote speaker at the graduation for colin college.
and I just wanna say so many times, you know, we turn on the evening news or we, we
come in this room and we talk about different things. And, you know,
oftentimes, especially on the evening news, all we ever hear about
is the, the bad and, you know, where, where are we headed, et cetera, et
cetera. Said in the, it was the, in the allen field house where the, the hockey is.
and it was completely, it was over 760 graduates, um, with all of their family's
friends and everyone. And I'll tell you what, it, it, it
gave me so much hope for the future of our, of
our community, for our state, for our country, and for our world. Seeing
all of those graduates come across the stage in many cases, first time,
um, college graduates, first time, um,
um, being, being a part of something like that,
um, where they're able to graduate and, and move forward. And it was just, it was an
incredibly moving, um, experience. So I just wanna say congratulations
to everyone who graduated, um, from college
colin college. It was agra, it was their largest baccalaureate graduation
class so far. Um, and I'm gonna say so far, 'cause I think they'll
thoroughly eclipse it, um, over the next several years. I also wanna,
since this is the, the final, uh, meeting for the year, I wanna wish
everyone very, very happy holidays. Happy hanukkah,
merry christmas, um, and a happy new year. And
my greatest wish for all of us is peace
on earth and goodwill to all with
that, if there's nothing else with no further business,
this meeting is adjourned at eight 14. Thank you so much.
okay.