[0:04] I call this meeting of the richardson city council to order at 6:45 pm
[0:09] I would like to invite council member justice to give the invocation and lead the pledges.
[0:15] thank you. Uh, seeing as we are having our final meeting, uh, of the year
[0:19] and starting a new year soon, I am going to, uh, share with your
[0:23] words of dr. Martin luther king jr. About renewal. Join
[0:27] me as you're, uh, comfortable. Join with earth and each other
[0:32] to bring new life to the land, to restore the waters, to refresh the air,
[0:36] to renew the forest. To care for the plants, for the plants, to protect the
[0:41] creatures. Protect the creatures. To celebrate the seas, the sea, to rejoice in sunlight and sunlight.
[0:45] to sing the song of the stars, to recall our destiny, to
[0:49] renew our spirits, to invigorate our bodies, to recreate the
[0:53] human community, to promote justice and peace, to love our
[0:57] children, and to love one another. To join together as many and diverse
[1:01] expressions of one loving mystery for the healing of the earth in the renewal
[1:05] of all life. Amen. Amen. Amen. The us pledge,
[1:10] I pledge allegiance to the flag of united states america, america
[1:15] to the republic. For which, which it stands. Stands one nation, nation under god,
[1:19] indi indivisible. With liberty. Liberty and justices, the texas flag.
[1:23] honor the texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the texas
[1:27] one state under god. One. Indivisible, indivisible,
[1:33] all. I would be looking for a motion for the minutes
[1:37] of the december 8th, 2025, special called meeting. And the december 8th, 2025
[1:43] meeting. Council member han,
[1:48] I put a motion to approve the meeting minutes as written as stated.
[1:54] and council member corcoran. I second. Okay.
[1:58] we have a motion and a second. All those in favor, please signify anyone opposed?
[2:02] okay. That passes six to nothing with council member. Barrios out
[2:07] ill this evening. Thank you. Okay, we'll move into public
[2:11] comments on agenda items and visitors forum. Mr. Magner. Uh, thank you, mayor. We're
[2:15] not in receipt of any cards in advance of the 5:00 pm deadline, and I don't think we have
[2:19] anyone signed to speak. No cards. Thank you. Anyone wish
[2:23] to speak tonight? Okay. We'll move on then to
[2:27] item five, which is review and discuss the 2026 board program
[2:31] development. Mr. Magner, uh, thank you mayor council, uh, very excited to,
[2:36] uh, be bringing this, uh, presentation before you tonight. It's the culmination of, uh,
[2:40] as you know, five weeks of deep dives, uh, several, uh, introductory
[2:44] and kickoff briefings, uh, starting back to the budget re, uh, budget retreat and
[2:49] budget development process this summer. Um, as, uh, as we
[2:53] begin this process and really start to talk, talk about the particulars, uh,
[2:57] of our, uh, recommendation to you, we, we do wanna acknowledge, uh, a lot of important stakeholders,
[3:02] uh, that have been part of this process. Uh, very importantly, our, our boards
[3:06] and commissions, uh, our hoa presidents, uh, uh, many homeowners, neighborhood
[3:10] association medias meetings, um, our institutional partners, um,
[3:14] that, uh, uh, we've, uh, worked with, uh, particularly on the transportation and
[3:18] mobility, uh, our business and development community, uh, business and, uh, um,
[3:22] uh, development community. Then of course, many of the internal studies and
[3:27] assessments we've done, as well as, uh, some external assessments and studies, uh, that
[3:31] we've been, uh, fortunate to partner with, uh, with the likes of tech dot, for instance. Uh,
[3:35] as we, uh, uh, get to this important briefing tonight, uh, as I
[3:39] mentioned, uh, you've spent hours now, um, um, hearing the deep dives
[3:43] of transportation, mobility, parks and rec, including aquatic drainage, uh,
[3:47] streets, alleys, and sidewalks. And then last week, uh, facilities, uh, we do
[3:51] have several meetings reserved as we move forward, uh, if, uh, if they're needed,
[3:56] uh, to refine, uh, the, uh, propositions that'll be presented to you tonight.
[4:00] uh, before we get to that, I want to do, I do want to, uh, talk about our capacity and
[4:04] some of the modeling that, uh, kent and his team has have done. Um, as you, uh,
[4:08] recall from past briefings and, and really many years, um, we
[4:12] take a very conservative approach to our debt modeling. Um,
[4:17] as you see, the property tax value growth is, assumptions
[4:21] are that they'll remain flat for fy 27 and 28,
[4:25] a very modest 1% growth from fy 29 through 34, and then 0%
[4:30] growth thereafter. We continue to, uh, use interest rates, uh,
[4:34] between four and a half, uh, mean 4.75 and 5.25%, um,
[4:38] for future, future issuances when in reality, uh,
[4:42] even, uh, this last series, uh, kent, which I believe was the highest we've had, um, in
[4:46] many years, was, uh, was well below that a half point, uh, below the low end of that
[4:50] assumption. Um, as, uh, we, we, uh, considering factors,
[4:55] um, this conservative modeling, um, most of the capacity
[4:59] that we'll talk about tonight is actually being created through the good work of kent and
[5:03] his team as we, um, uh, pay off the old debt, uh, much,
[5:07] uh, sooner in a much more timely way than than, than it's sold. Um, this
[5:11] does, uh, this modeling does assume a five year serial sale, uh, for this
[5:16] geo bond program with one asterisk, and I'll come back to that. Of course, it is a no tax rate
[5:20] increase, uh, as, as the last two bond programs been, uh, and it does leave some room for
[5:24] supplemental issuance in the future. Um, while we say we have a
[5:28] capacity of $200 million for the next five years, uh, again, the asterisk will be
[5:33] the $23.5 million for the construction of fire station seven that
[5:37] we talk about in quote, year six, or potentially year one of,
[5:41] of our next bond program. Uh, not withstanding even the 23, uh, the
[5:45] $223 million number, uh, we still have about 25,
[5:49] uh, to $30 million of capacity, uh, for, um, other needs that
[5:53] might arise. Um, as we, uh, have shared with you previously and have drilled
[5:57] down on the refinement of the propositions, um, our guiding principles
[6:02] continue to be first and foremost as the project help achieve or further one of your goals.
[6:06] um, uh, very, very importantly as well, uh, min, that there
[6:10] needs to be minimal additional operating costs associated with the project. Uh, obviously,
[6:15] uh, you're gonna hear, um, uh, the second part of our next briefing is gonna talk
[6:19] about why that is so important. Um, of course, we wanna build on
[6:23] and execute, uh, on, um, uh, previous master planning efforts.
[6:27] uh, many of the discussions that you had in particularly the parts realm where about
[6:31] that. And, uh, and then we wanna continue to build on prior projects by,
[6:35] uh, further completing, uh, or, or, um, uh,
[6:40] um, adding to, uh, those plans, those planned improvements that have already taken place.
[6:44] and then we look for projects that are catalytic or transformational in nature. I have the potential to
[6:48] be, um, in terms of considerations, we're always mindful of what needs to
[6:52] be done, uh, immediately. Um, and, and, and this is kind of the worst first
[6:56] kind of mentality, uh, but we're also always trying to figure out if projects completely
[7:00] implemented in phases. This is particularly important in the realms of drainage.
[7:04] um, we've talked many times about some, how some of the drainage projects for some of the, uh,
[7:08] uh, basins, uh, often come to 35 to $40 million,
[7:13] and even through a bond program. Um, that's not, uh, that's not always possible.
[7:18] um, and then we look for, uh, ways, obviously to limit disruption to
[7:22] our operations and services to citizens. Um, and then, as I mentioned, importantly,
[7:27] uh, we we're always, um, mindful of, um, there are gonna be projects
[7:31] that are on the cutting room floor at the end of this in every proposition. So how do we go about,
[7:35] um, both in the immediate term, addressing those high priority projects, but, uh,
[7:39] over the long haul, uh, making sure that we're able to progress
[7:44] the, uh, prop, the recommendation I have for you tonight is, uh, is again about a, it's a
[7:48] $223.4 million recommendation. Um, I, I'm not gonna go through
[7:52] this, um, because we're gonna do a little bit of a deep dive into each one of the propositions.
[7:56] uh, you can see a little bit of difference in transportation, mobility, street sidewalk,
[8:00] drainage, uh, public buildings and, and parks, all a little bit different than what we initially
[8:05] proposed to you in the blocking exercise. And we'll talk a little bit about why.
[8:09] so, uh, first we'll go to transportation and mobility. Um, we're happy, um, to,
[8:13] to, uh, recommend, uh, all of the traffic signal rebuilds at $9.5 million.
[8:18] uh, in addition to, um, the two new traffic signal rebuilds of renter
[8:22] and sharp and beltline and weathered for $1.3 million. Um, importantly,
[8:27] I think replacing all school's own flashers and speed feedback signs, as
[8:31] well as completing all of the a da compliance upgrades
[8:35] that we had identified. And then for the active transportation plan, um, uh,
[8:39] the owens trail upgrades that we covered in the street crossing upgrades, again here,
[8:43] the, uh, $1.3 million of new traffic signals and the additional
[8:47] $1.3 million to complete all of the a da compliance upgrades, rather
[8:51] than the 50% that were initially discussed or the differences, um,
[8:56] that, uh, that we bring to you tonight in terms of streets and alleys, this is very exciting,
[9:00] uh, for, for me in anyway, $114 million
[9:04] in street projects and alley projects. Uh, you see the collectors of waterview
[9:08] drive from arapahoe to campbell, androse from australia to providence town, neighborhood collectors
[9:13] of mosa from melrose to arapo, south weather from downing to beltline, uh,
[9:17] commercial, the presidential drive from roundabout to 1220 presidential, um,
[9:21] many, many residential streets to the tune of $27 million, uh, 15
[9:25] alley segments that I'll show you on a map here. And then $25 million
[9:30] for, uh, the concrete replacement. Um, uh, uh, mayor hu,
[9:34] we took, uh, a lot of, uh, uh, thoughtful feedback, uh, from you that night and
[9:38] the rest of the council, and really contemplated our strategy. Um, and, and I feel
[9:42] confident in recommending, um, this would amount to two and a half
[9:46] times a full depth concrete replacement. Um, then
[9:50] we're averaging over the last, uh, five to six years, uh, through the
[9:54] pego program, um, uh, that's, uh, really going to excel,
[9:59] uh, the amount of work that we can do. And if we are able to maintain that in the pego,
[10:04] um, it's going to, uh, really allow us to start quote catching up
[10:08] if for some reason, and, and it is a possibility. Again, these two briefings that are on
[10:12] here tonight are not by coincidence, as we'll talk about if we needed to tweak the
[10:16] pego, uh, transfer out four streets, um, we know
[10:20] we still have here, um, essentially, uh, 4 million do, uh, I'm
[10:24] sorry, $5 million a a year. Again, two and a half times what we've
[10:28] averaged through the pego to handle these localized repairs. And you see here,
[10:32] um, a map that's been updated to include on the left hand side, all
[10:36] of the streets and alley segments. You see a nice distribution throughout the community, and
[10:40] then the concrete repair, uh, segments. Uh, and, um,
[10:45] I'm, I, I feel, uh, uh, confident that we could actually probably, uh,
[10:49] exceed this with the $25 million, as I believe, if I recall right, charles, the,
[10:53] the, uh, uh, the actual estimate was, uh, based around, uh, probably about
[10:57] a $4 million a year, uh, um, sale, particularly if we, if we continue to
[11:01] invest, um, through the pego. Now, the other option, rather than just
[11:05] reducing the pego, would be to use that $2 million for other purposes.
[11:10] uh, and recall, our recommendation to you is that as we get into early
[11:14] next year, and we have some, uh, briefings around things like, uh, the
[11:18] use of asphalt, uh, for overlay purposes, um, that
[11:22] pego, those paygo dollars being released because we now have these bond program dollars dedicated
[11:27] to that could very well be an important consideration, uh, for you
[11:31] on sidewalks here. Uh, the only difference is, uh, really listening to you and
[11:35] some of the public feedback, increasing the amount of funding to address the
[11:39] sidewalk gaps from, uh, what was originally four and a half million dollars now to $6 million.
[11:44] you can see on the left hand side, the two residential zones and, um,
[11:48] commercial zones for the sidewalk, uh, repair and replacement building on,
[11:52] uh, several bond programs worth of work now, uh, but allowing, uh, really for
[11:57] the, um, gaps, uh, in the sidewalk, uh, uh, the sidewalk
[12:01] gap, uh, um, program to be really elevated, uh, by, again,
[12:05] another million and a half dollars recall. My recommendation to you previously was not to be too
[12:09] prescriptive, uh, in, in this, uh, proposition. Um, we would bring
[12:13] you an annual work plan back for consideration as we sell
[12:17] these, uh, $6 million over the course of several series. Um, and
[12:21] so, uh, that would allow us to be flexible. Uh, hopefully some of these are taken care
[12:25] of through new development, through redevelopment, through grants, and so allow
[12:30] us for maximum flexibility on the drainage, uh, recommending to you
[12:34] a lowest branch, phase one and two. This is an important highland terrace project that,
[12:38] um, has, uh, been on the, um, discussion for, uh, several bond programs.
[12:42] now, um, you can see the phase one is from lowest from is
[12:47] the lowest branch channel improvements, essentially 600, uh, feet downstream
[12:51] of spring valley to about 200 downstream of pitman. Phase two would be a
[12:55] continuation of that from pitman to highland. You see the benefits here, and, and, and
[12:59] they might initially say, wow, that's, that, that maybe is a little bit a modest for an $11.5 million
[13:04] project, but recall this was phases one of two and three of three and four,
[13:08] really, we've got to get, we've got to launch on this project in some way, shape, or form,
[13:12] to eventually, um, have it, um, have it completed and really
[13:16] start to see the benefits come through in phases three and four. And so, um,
[13:20] this is an important project. Again, miss has missed several bond programs. Um,
[13:25] the other, the other, uh, note here is the addition of $1.5 million,
[13:30] uh, for, uh, potential gian, uh, wall or erosion projects.
[13:34] this allowing us to get a little bit deeper into that priority list, and probably starting,
[13:39] um, to get deep enough into that list that we may start addressing some of the more high
[13:43] profile, uh, situations that have been brought to the council's attention, attention
[13:48] recently, um, around, uh, for instance, the, uh, maybe the tam
[13:52] shanter area where, uh, that previously wasn't, um, wasn't probably gonna make
[13:56] it as a result of, uh, just the priority list, uh, facilities. Uh, you
[14:00] know this very well. It's the apparatus building for, uh, fire just north of fire
[14:04] station five for $8 million, $2.1 million to, uh, renovate, uh, fire
[14:08] station six, uh, and a small addition there. And then the design
[14:12] for fire station seven in the form of $2.4 million.
[14:16] and you see her fire station seven construction. So what this bond
[14:20] program would be doing is asking for the authorization to eventually issue the
[14:25] $23.5 million that would be needed, uh, for the construction. However, the
[14:29] actual sale of that debt would not be scheduled to fy 32, which again, would be this quote
[14:33] year six or year one of the next bond program. But I, I feel like
[14:37] the council's feedback was clear that you wanted to have the authorization to move
[14:41] on the construction of this project before we would invest two and a half million dollars,
[14:45] um, in, in its design. And so that's why it's, uh, it's situated that way.
[14:50] um, in terms of parks and, and recreation, uh, and let's start with the aquatics.
[14:54] there's $11.5 million set aside for the cottonwood pool removal. And in
[14:59] addition of a spray ground at 2.7 million, the canyon creek pool renovation project at 2.3 million.
[15:03] and then for breckenridge at the complex b spray, ground restroom, and parking lot
[15:07] at $5.6 million. Uh, I'm happy to, to report to
[15:11] you that we're recommending all of the playgrounds. I recall you had some curiosity
[15:15] around, um, I think there were four playgrounds that were kind of right on the border
[15:20] there in terms of the, uh, timeline. This, uh, takes away all that, um,
[15:24] um, kind of uncertainty and includes all of the, uh, the playground, uh, rebuilds,
[15:28] allowing us to keep on our, our rhythm, um, that we described for you previously.
[15:32] um, and then that is definitely not correct on part development.
[15:37] um, let me, uh, yeah, I apologize for that. Um, um, what
[15:41] we're recommending here is actually to, uh, further execute the breckenridge,
[15:45] uh, strategic improvement plan. Uh, this was a plan that was, uh, developed around
[15:49] 2020, and then ultimately finalized in 21 and includes seven, uh, projects,
[15:54] uh, loop trail completion of the pedestrian bridge, uh, playground league relocation,
[15:58] which was accomplished with the 21 bond program, uh, signage that we haven't executed
[16:02] on yet. Uh, the ballpark parking resurfacing, uh, a maintenance
[16:06] facility, um, upgrade. Uh, this is kind of in the pit, if you will, which
[16:10] you've probably heard previously. There has been significant work there completed, but not all.
[16:14] um, and then some erosion control at the existing bridge. And so what we're execute, what we're
[16:19] recommending here for the $5 million, and again, I apologize for this, uh, this is
[16:23] 100% on me, um, is, um, the loop trail and
[16:27] the pedestrian bridge that you see pictured here on the bottom right hand side, um, of
[16:31] the project. And again, uh, with, in the spirit of, uh, of, of one of our
[16:35] guiding principles, which, which was to build on projects and plans that have
[16:39] been launched. Um, that's, uh, that's my recommendation to you.
[16:43] um, so how does this recommended bond program, uh, compare, uh,
[16:47] to prior, uh, uh, pro programs in terms of the percentage you'll
[16:52] see here, again, uh, growing to the highest percentage ever, um, dedicated
[16:56] to streets? Now recall, when we actually take this to the public, both transportation,
[17:01] mobility and street projects will all be lumped into a street proposition that has been our
[17:05] practice. Uh, public buildings, again, a $36 million, but in the
[17:09] five year window, um, uh, just, uh, um, just a fraction
[17:13] of that because the $23.5 million, uh, will again, remain,
[17:18] uh, authorized but not executed into fy 32 parks
[17:22] is at 22.2 million sidewalks, 16.5 million, and then drainage at
[17:26] 16.5 million for a total of $223.4 million.
[17:31] now, you may ask, don, you presented an awful lot
[17:35] more need than that, and so how are we going to address the remaining projects, particularly
[17:39] those projects that were identified, um, as, uh, needing
[17:44] immediate attention? And I really want to harken back to the facilities discussion, because that's
[17:48] where you saw the most. Um, one thing I'll tell you is, is
[17:52] that, um, as we look out beyond, uh, year five here to
[17:56] year, uh, six and 10, uh, there remains, uh, um, uh,
[18:00] a lot of capacity that'll come back online. And so for some of the bigger projects like,
[18:04] uh, the lowest, uh, uh, lowest drainage projects, three and four, for
[18:08] instance, we have future capacity. Um, and so that's always,
[18:13] that's always an option, uh, our annual maintenance strategies. And so some of the smaller
[18:17] parks, some of the smaller, um, uh, facilities, projects can be wrapped into
[18:21] our annual maintenance strategies, uh, far and few between
[18:26] nowadays, uh, compared to latter, uh, years. But, uh, federal infrastructure
[18:30] programs and grants, as well as county grants for things like open space, uh,
[18:34] uh, mobility projects are still available. They're, they're just not as plentiful.
[18:39] uh, and then our special maintenance reserve, um, that, uh, you have helped, um,
[18:43] with your support build over the years, uh, is a, is an option.
[18:47] and then, of course, um, you know, the, the better we can do,
[18:51] uh, with favorable bids and project savings, the more we can turn their sa savings
[18:55] into, uh, additional projects. And so, um, what I've got for you here is
[19:00] a recommendation. Uh, again, you'll hear a little bit about how we have achieved
[19:04] this yearend savings, uh, for fy 25, but I wanna recommend to you that,
[19:08] uh, as, as bob presents in just a second, that we consider using $2 million
[19:12] of our, uh, f ffy 25 year end savings to facilitate
[19:17] the service center fuel island pro island project. Likewise, uh,
[19:21] h hvacs, uh, of, of high priority here at five, really important,
[19:25] um, uh, facilities. And I, I propose we use an, an additional $2 million,
[19:29] the yearend savings, uh, for those projects. I wanna go back to
[19:33] our special project initiative funding, which is existing funding, uh, available today,
[19:38] uh, with your approval. And I proposed to you that we address the roofs
[19:43] and the, uh, building envelope, um, um, at, uh,
[19:47] at the, uh, four locations you see here with $1.6 million of
[19:51] special project initiative funding, and then also facilitate the detention
[19:55] center, uh, cell renovation project. Um, as you're gonna see from bob
[19:59] here in just a second, we have about $700,000 in year end savings from
[20:03] in our solid waste fund. I wanna propose using, uh, 500 of those,
[20:08] uh, 500,000 of those dollars to, uh, facilitate the dump,
[20:12] re the dumpster location, uh, and site prep preparation,
[20:16] uh, work that would be needed to relocate the dumpsters from north of fire station five over
[20:20] to lookout by the transfer station, thereby freeing up, uh, that half a
[20:24] million dollars from the apparatus project in the bond program. Recall, the number was actually
[20:28] 8.5 that I shared with you previously. Uh, this number is eight,
[20:33] uh, as a result of this strategy, if that wouldn't be something that you would find, um,
[20:37] acceptable, then we would, we would need to increase the eight, the number, the eight, $8 million
[20:41] number to $8.5 million. Um, but I believe this is, this is an
[20:45] effective strategy. So as I wrap up here, I'm anxious to hear your feedback
[20:49] and, and any, um, questions that you may have. Um, we
[20:54] do, as I mentioned, we have a january 5th meeting, uh, available to us if, if necessary.
[20:59] um, one important step that we wanna mention to you here is, as, as you finalize
[21:03] the proposition, kent needs to get with our bond counsel and make sure,
[21:07] uh, confirm that the final propositions, uh, are gonna be acceptable and
[21:11] in the eyes of, um, of, of the attorney general and, and, and others. And
[21:15] so that's a step that we still need to build into the process. And then, of course, uh, you'll need to
[21:19] call this election and your charter amendment election by february the ninth. Uh,
[21:24] once you do that, we, uh, we exit the preparation, uh,
[21:28] mode and, and start the education, uh, effort, uh, through, uh, may 2nd,
[21:32] which is election day. Mr. Mayor, thank you for, uh, the time to present tonight,
[21:36] and I, uh, look forward to any feedback and discussion you'd like to have. Thank you, mr.
[21:40] magner, councilwoman justice. Thank you. Um, I think this is really
[21:45] responsive, uh, and balances well. Um,
[21:49] all of the feedback we gave you, , I know some people are not gonna get everything they want on here, but I think
[21:53] this really addresses some important needs. The drainage in particular, you
[21:57] know, it's not sort of the flashiest, but it's super, super important that we do it, and
[22:01] that we're really putting a lot of effort behind that. Um, thank you
[22:05] for, uh, the aquatics and the breckenridge, um, um, uh,
[22:09] enhancements. Uh, I appreciate that. A question on the, um,
[22:13] fire station, you said it's either year six or year one of the next bond program. Can we
[22:17] be clear about what that means? We are gonna send that out to the voters
[22:21] now, right? That would be the intention. The authorization will be provided
[22:26] via this bond program through the 26 bond program. But we, um, everything from our
[22:30] fire master plan that we presented to you, to just our own, um,
[22:34] uh, confidence and, and, and around and security around
[22:38] when we would wanna sell that additional $23 million, we're committing
[22:42] here publicly not to sell that before what we're calling year
[22:47] six, um, of, of which is the sixth year from the launch of this bond
[22:51] program. But the reason I said it could be a year one is if, if, again, for, if
[22:55] it's a no tax rate increase, kind of a bond program, and you continue on with
[22:59] the rhythm, it would actually be year one of the next bond program. Got, yeah. So,
[23:04] um, the authorization, and again, I was queuing off of what I think I heard from
[23:08] the council, which was, we're not interested in spending two and a half million dollars to design something
[23:12] that's not been yet authorized. And so, um, our plan moving
[23:16] forward through the education portion of this bond program would
[23:20] be to, to say that, you know, we're committing that the 23 5 would be,
[23:24] um, at the earliest, the sixth year from, uh, the bond program passing
[23:29] sixth year of this program. If you wanna think of like that first year of the next, whichever. Yeah, no, that, that's really
[23:34] helpful. I just wanna make, make clear that the voters would have, you know, we call this, the voters would be voting
[23:38] on this particular thing. But for year six, I think, you know, I know
[23:42] it's important to me, it's important to you. I think we, you know, that, that we make sure that
[23:47] we may not be on the council then. Um, so we wanna make sure that this is something that, that we,
[23:51] uh, get funded. It's, it's really needed. So, uh, thank you for clarifying that. Otherwise,
[23:55] I, I think it's really great, and I think you've done a good job of balancing. Thank you. Thank you.
[24:00] council member corcoran. Uh, thank you, mr. Mayor. So,
[24:05] I, uh, just due to the timing of the bond program presentations,
[24:10] we were actually presented the parks program before the parks commission
[24:14] was, and so I just wanted to relay, um, a lot of their
[24:18] feedback to the council from that commission. Just what, I
[24:22] mean, the, the proposal, there's some things in here that are very aligned with the feedback
[24:27] and some things that aren't. Uh, again, uh, council member justice,
[24:31] you made a great point. We're not all gonna get everything we want out of this.
[24:35] I certainly wanted tam o shanter done for drainage. It's not in this package.
[24:40] I know others probably had projects they wanted, the parks commission didn't get everything they wanted, but
[24:44] I think the feedback is still really important. So, you know, with
[24:48] that, I mean, some things that we're doing that the parks commission is very aligned with.
[24:52] um, you know, they said the gallatin fountain is not necessarily a priority over some
[24:56] of these other projects. Uh, they also were very aligned with keeping the canyon
[25:00] creek pool open instead of converting that to a spray ground and turning
[25:05] conwood into a spray ground. Um, they just said that the numbers, the numbers
[25:09] to the parks commission were very indisputable on the usage. Um,
[25:14] you know, some things that they, that
[25:18] were gonna be proposing in this package that they didn't necessarily agree with was the timing of
[25:22] the items in breckenridge park, um, you know, specifically with the bridge.
[25:27] but that said, um, you know, they did,
[25:31] they did understand that, uh, I think their, they thought was
[25:35] with the soccer fields, specifically with, you know, the apollo phase two.
[25:39] they really wanted to take some of the pressure off of that and felt that the
[25:43] difficult decision between breckenridge park and those, and with those, they would've
[25:47] preferred the soccer fields. Um, and then, you know, finally,
[25:52] just in the light and sort of the, the discussion at breckenridge park, uh,
[25:57] one member, greg k in particular said, you know, you made a good point. At some point,
[26:02] we do need to make a long-term decision on what is happening at breck breckenridge,
[26:06] vis-a-vis whether like a full blown aquatic center is gonna be there or in the south. And with every
[26:10] decision we make at breckenridge, we have to also consider that that is a
[26:15] huge decision we have to make for that park. And it's coming up, um, you know,
[26:19] in the next decade or so. And then just finally, uh, our chair,
[26:23] nancy crow was also, um, she had a very individual concern about not adding pickleball
[26:27] courts. And so, you know, there's, like I said, I mean, this
[26:31] is, this is a lot of money and there are a lot of projects that a lot of people wanted.
[26:36] and so, um, I just felt like I would need to relay those discussion
[26:40] points from the parks commission to the rest of the council.
[26:44] thank you. Council member shem schul. Thank you, mr. Mayor
[26:48] proam, and, and, uh, don for,
[26:53] you know, bringing these things with, uh, I think this is probably the
[26:57] best possible, definitely way to address the limited budget. Uh,
[27:02] you know, I hope that the missing thing that we have on the list,
[27:07] we can get it slowly, eventually. Uh, I'm also very happy that,
[27:11] uh, some of the street that was, that is on the list now.
[27:15] it did finally, it is finally made, made in the list, especially some
[27:19] of the road like martha manor. Uh, you know, you
[27:23] know, if I, if we had that budget, definitely, I'm sure that we would've addressed that many years ago.
[27:28] uh, I feel really bad going out there driving, but I'm glad
[27:32] that it's on the, it's on the list right now. Uh, and
[27:36] also the drainage project that you have for the louis branch, uh, project.
[27:40] I'm glad that finally we are doing it. Uh, we did not, it
[27:44] did not make the list previously, but again, if you know that,
[27:49] you know, the more you go forward, the odds are gonna be very high. Something
[27:53] happened. So we did not have that much, uh, flood issue
[27:57] so far, uh, in a sense that, you know, if we have that kind of rain and flood,
[28:02] this would get, uh, not only the property get flooded, but
[28:06] also it's danger to the public when they drive over those street.
[28:10] so I think, I think, you know, I feel really good that,
[28:15] you know, this is on the list. Uh, and, uh,
[28:19] and other than that, you know, I thought that we're gonna be looking at, I guess, uh, council member
[28:23] joe corker mentioned about the cotton note park, uh, pool that, uh, the park department
[28:28] agree with that. Um, uh, I had some feedback from the neighborhood
[28:32] also that saying that they would like to have the pool, but,
[28:36] uh, you know, removing versus, um,
[28:40] keeping it cost. Uh, I don't know if that, if the cost is not that
[28:44] much, I think keeping it probably the safest route still,
[28:48] I would say, because when you have a service and you take the service out, sometimes
[28:53] that's, uh, that's very discomforting.
[28:57] so, um, bless you. But otherwise, I think so far, I
[29:01] see that it's really good budget, uh, good program, bond program that we have.
[29:06] I think still we're gonna be needing bond program moving down the road, sometimes
[29:11] maybe four, five years. But I think we are addressing, um,
[29:15] our issue very fast, uh, compared to, you know,
[29:19] what we have done in the past. Uh, you know, um, finally, we're
[29:24] catching up. I think we're, we're in the right direction. Thank you. Mayor
[29:28] or moore? Uh, thank you, mayor. I just wanted to,
[29:32] uh, kind of second some of what I'm hearing. I think this is super responsive. I do appreciate,
[29:37] uh, don and the team, your work on this. Um, and I,
[29:41] I appreciate also kind of the focus on making sure that we're not adding too much on opex
[29:45] side, especially with so much unknown, uh, uh, that
[29:49] could be coming in the next year or so, uh, from, uh, from austin.
[29:53] so, um, and I think finally, the, the continued emphasis
[29:57] on infrastructure is really gonna give us our really best chance to
[30:01] finally make just big inroads. Um, I know it was a concern
[30:05] that was brought up, uh, uh, a few meetings ago, but, uh, seeing
[30:10] this level of, of focus on especially streets and alleys, I think is really
[30:14] gonna move the needle and, and the additional element that we added, uh,
[30:18] for concrete repairs, also gonna do a big, a big, make a big difference. So,
[30:23] thank you, uh, for, for everything you did here to be responsive to the requests, and,
[30:27] uh, I think it's a pretty good balance. Council
[30:31] member, doria, thank you. Um, thank you, mayor.
[30:36] I, um, wanted to also kind of reiterate the same thing. I, I wanna thank everyone for
[30:40] all their input. I know everyone's worked very hard to establish, you know, what
[30:44] is, uh, the most important items to, to, uh,
[30:49] work on over the next few years. And, you know, a lot of, a lot of
[30:53] feedback I got from our constituents and our residents is, you know, streets and
[30:57] alleys. I think streets and alleys are always the number one, uh, part of our infrastructure.
[31:02] and as I've always said in many other meetings prior, that we have to, we
[31:06] have to address our infrastructure first before we start building on top of that. So I really
[31:10] like the allocations here and the direction of how we're, uh, moving
[31:14] that needle. And, uh, also for the, uh, the lowest, uh, branch,
[31:19] uh, phase one and two, I think I've heard a lot of people, uh, you know, comment on
[31:23] that. I think that we're gonna make a lot of people happy, so real happy with the
[31:27] direction of this and, um, looking forward to implementation. Thank you.
[31:32] council member corcoran. Hey, thank you, mr. Mayor. I just had one, sorry. I saw
[31:36] one more note on here that I think is really important for context to the
[31:40] parks commission's, um, deliberations, and just, just the comment
[31:44] that, and I'll add my spin on this at the end. Um, the comment that with
[31:49] improving soccer fields, there's a citywide benefit versus, versus with breckenridge,
[31:54] there's always gonna be the narrow benefit in the panhandle as far as
[31:58] usage was their opinion. Now, my spin on that is
[32:02] I agree with that, but also I understand if we take that approach every single bond program in perpetuity,
[32:08] then the infrastructure projects at breckenridge will just never get done. Right? And
[32:12] I think that's the point, both council member justice and mr. Mayor you both made
[32:16] when we had that discussion. And so I think that's a very understandable position.
[32:21] um, that's, that's all I wanted to say. And then just, just a quick clarification, it's
[32:26] just for anyone who's maybe listening or taking, taking notes, I mean, it's
[32:31] ma um, council member samsel, you said parks department, it's parks commission, park parks, right? The
[32:35] department has been very, very neutral throughout this whole process. , thank, thanks
[32:39] for that. I, I was thinking, did I say commission or department? Yes. Um, uh, yes. I'm glad
[32:43] you clarified that. Thank you. Um,
[32:47] just to add on, um, one thing that I'll mention very quickly, because we talked a
[32:51] lot about it, um, coming up in the, um, consent
[32:56] agenda, we're going to be talking about the, um, gallatin fountain. So I
[33:00] won't steal your thunder, but I'll just say that is that discussion is coming up in that section.
[33:04] so if anyone's curious as to what's going to occur, you'll have an answer. Um,
[33:08] I just wanna add on my, my, my thoughts as well. I th I think that, um, this is extremely
[33:13] balanced. Um, feel like that we've, we've, um, everyone's voice
[33:17] has been heard, and you've done a great job, as usual, um, mr. Magner
[33:21] with putting this all together. So just wanna thank you and, and each of the departments,
[33:26] I know there was a lot of work from each of the departments to pull all of this together. And
[33:30] so, um, thank you so much for, for being responsive
[33:34] to our thoughts, taking aback, having departments work on it, putting it all together.
[33:38] it, um, sometimes sausage is a little messy, but it does
[33:42] ultimately come out in a very good way. And I think that's what we have here. So thank
[33:46] you very much. If no other comments, then we'll move on to, um,
[33:50] we will now review and discuss the year yearend financial financial report for fiscal year
[33:54] 20 20, 20 24, 20 25 operating budget.
[33:59] mr. Magnum, uh, thank you, mayor. Our, uh, budget officer bob kleier is here tonight to
[34:03] present this, uh, very important fourth quarter report. Uh, as we wrap up, uh, fy
[34:07] 25, um, you'll hear, uh, some of, uh, bob's comments will
[34:11] be responsive to, uh, what we just presented with respect to the year end savings in general
[34:15] foot and solid waste. Uh, and then mayor, uh, as, uh, as we conclude this
[34:19] briefing, uh, tonight, uh, bob's gonna hand it back over to me. And, um,
[34:24] I'd like to just, uh, at this point in time, take a little bit, um, of a preview
[34:28] of, um, some modeling work that we've done, um, and explain
[34:33] one, why we're doing it, uh, but two more importantly, um, I think how we
[34:37] need to go into the new year, being responsive to, uh, and, and just
[34:41] continuously aware of some of the dynamics, uh, uh, merril mar mentioned,
[34:45] uh, uh, the legislation, uh, that's, uh, been passed in recent
[34:49] years and, and, and the legislation that's, um, uh,
[34:53] on the, on the tip of the tongue of many of the, uh, highest elected officials in
[34:57] the state at this point in time. Uh, these things have real, uh, implications for
[35:02] municipal governments. And I'd like to conclude the presentation by sharing some of those thoughts
[35:06] with you, and, uh, really setting the tone for, um, uh, our city
[35:10] staff as we embark, uh, as we come back from the holiday. Quickly embark on
[35:14] the budget development process of our fly, uh, 27. So bob, thanks so much for
[35:18] putting all this, uh, good information together. I'll turn it over to you. Alright, uh, good evening, uh,
[35:22] counsel. Uh, as don mentioned, the purpose of tonight's, uh, briefing
[35:26] is to provide you with an update on the year end, uh, performance of our five main
[35:30] operating funds as of the end of fy 25. Uh, the first
[35:34] fund we'll discuss is the general fund, our largest fund, uh, total revenue
[35:39] of $183.6 million is $2.9 million
[35:43] above the original budget of 180.7. And you can see two of the variances
[35:47] there with, uh, two of our largest revenue sources, property taxes and sales
[35:51] tax, property tax, uh, end of the year, 3.2 million, um, below
[35:56] the original budget. Um, the largest subcategory of that is,
[36:00] uh, the, uh, current year taxes, which ended the year 3.5 million
[36:04] below the original budget. This is the, uh, category that, uh, was impacted by
[36:08] the two, uh, situations we discussed earlier this year. Um,
[36:13] the, uh, large abatement that was left off the certified role by, uh, ca
[36:18] as well as the change in the taxable status of the, uh, residential portion
[36:22] of the utd, uh, northside development. The prior year, taxes and penalty
[36:26] and interest make up the remainder of that, but to finish about 215,000 above the
[36:31] original budget sales tax, uh, three points, uh, sales and other business
[36:35] taxes, 3.7 million above the original budget of 53.2.
[36:39] the largest category is the traditional 1 cent sales tax. Everybody
[36:43] thinks about, uh, that finished 3.7 million above the original budget of, uh, 52.4 million.
[36:48] as a reminder going into the fy 25 budget, uh,
[36:53] we, we decided, or we were determined to stay conservative in our, uh, development
[36:57] of the, uh, budget for this category as a result of the, uh, decline
[37:02] we saw in fy 24. And I think that, uh, that actually, uh, helped
[37:06] out this year with the decline in in property taxes. Uh, license
[37:10] and permits finished the year eight, uh, 684,000 above the original budget.
[37:14] largest, uh, part of that is building permits, which finished at, uh, $2.4 million,
[37:19] uh, or, um, 582,000 above its original budget, roughly
[37:24] 350,000 of that as a result of the timing of a, a large multifamily
[37:28] permit that we anticipated receiving by the end of fy 24, but
[37:32] was received in the first quarter of fy 25. And then again, this was another area
[37:36] where we took a conservative approach to the development of the revenue, uh, estimate
[37:41] as a result of the high interest rates and with the uncertainty of what that was gonna do to, uh,
[37:45] construction activities. The remaining subcategories finished 101,000 above the
[37:49] original budget, stronger than anticipated revenues and construction inspection and other
[37:53] license and permits. And then, uh, the animal, uh, revenue from the animal
[37:58] shelter and, uh, animal licenses was down slightly and was impacted slightly by the,
[38:02] the remodel out at the, uh, animal shelter. Other revenues, uh,
[38:06] 1.1 million above the original budget of 5.8 million. Uh, the miscellaneous
[38:11] category is the largest of those, um, finished at 2.9
[38:15] or $2.2 million, or 1.4 million above the original budget. This is
[38:19] where we recorded about $1 million in a repayment of, uh, an
[38:23] economic development agreement related to that northside property. Uh, as a result
[38:27] of the change in taxable status, it also, uh, includes 359,000
[38:32] related to city, uh, damage to city property and insurance settlements. This is a
[38:36] category that we, we don't budget very high. We, you know, it's a very
[38:40] unreliable revenue source. We try to take into some historical levels on
[38:44] that, but 359,000 above our base level ambulance revenues
[38:49] finished, uh, 694 below a thousand below the original budget. And then intergovernmental
[38:53] revenues finished, uh, 492 at four nine 2000 or 391,000
[38:58] above the original budget. It was, again, another category that we budget on the low end. Uh,
[39:03] we only budget for things we know are gonna come, uh, this year, this past year,
[39:07] uh, we received state reimbursements for statewide assistance related to
[39:12] wildfires and flooding, uh, in south texas. Um, those
[39:16] kind of go to offset some of the equipment use and over time that our departments,
[39:20] uh, in, uh, incur because of those, uh, statewide deployments.
[39:25] total expenditures of five, uh, $5.7 million below the original budget of 180.3 million.
[39:31] um, one of the largest, uh, areas of savings is personnel
[39:35] 2.5 million below the original budget. This budget did include about 5%
[39:40] savings from non-public safety vacancies. Uh, on average
[39:44] we average about 11% vacancies, so about a little over twice the amount that
[39:48] we anticipated. That's also impacted by public safety vacancies that were not
[39:52] part of that. Um, initial assumption. Professional services finished 1 million
[39:56] below the original budget of 16.1 million. Uh, part of this, uh,
[40:01] is related to timing. 637,000 is related to, uh,
[40:05] an economic development agreement that was planned for and budgeted for an fy 24,
[40:09] but was paid an fy 24. It was planned for 25,
[40:13] but was recorded in fy 24, and then 349,000
[40:18] was related to the northside development. That was not paid due to the change
[40:22] in taxable status applies of miscellaneous, uh, finished the year $2.6 million
[40:27] below the original budget. The original budget for this category did include, uh,
[40:31] $1 million for mid-year restorations, but it was not reactivated due
[40:36] to some concerns about the, uh, property tax revenue. And I'll touch on that in, in, uh,
[40:40] in a second on, on that $1 million, uh, and does include 383,000
[40:45] from planned sales tax. Um, uh, based economic development agreements.
[40:49] these are tied directly to sales tax receipts that we receive, and
[40:53] we're adjusted to match that. Uh, as a result of some work done by,
[40:57] uh, the, our, uh, police department, we were able to get a federal grant that's covering our
[41:01] 9 1 1 service fees through january, uh, 2026. That
[41:05] saved, uh, the general fund about $206,000 electric, uh,
[41:10] expenses finished 159,000 159,000 below the original budget, mainly
[41:14] as a result of adjusting to this new space that we're in currently. And then fuel costs
[41:18] were overestimated by 524,000. All of the transfers
[41:22] out for our maintenance initiatives, street and alley rehab, parks, facility maintenance
[41:26] and economic development, uh, end of the year as budgeted. And then there was 779,000
[41:32] across the fund that's still encumbered and will roll into the new year. Uh, this will be
[41:36] covered by a reserve of fund balance, which is removed from the, the minimum,
[41:40] uh, fund balance calculation, uh, as a result of the same
[41:44] two, uh, property tax issues that the general fund faced. This, the general
[41:48] debt service fund faces the same, uh, issues. Roughly 99.7%
[41:53] of all revenue in that fund is sales tax or property tax related. Uh,
[41:57] so that was gonna require a $2.3 million infusion to
[42:01] meet the minimum fund balance in that, uh, fund. And then, uh, after meeting
[42:06] the 90 day requirements, that leaves roughly $6 million, uh, for,
[42:10] uh, special initiatives. Uh, part of that is $1 million being transferred
[42:14] to the insurance fund to help insulate, uh, that fund from increasing healthcare
[42:19] costs. Uh, that million dollar reserve we had in the su, uh,
[42:23] supplies of miscellaneous category, one of the first liens on that was this
[42:27] transfer. We were just waiting till the end of the year to do that. And then, uh, after meeting that
[42:31] fund bounce or, uh, after that, there's roughly 5 million, which don
[42:35] covered. Uh, the 4 million of that is going to, uh, cover,
[42:39] uh, facility improvements that most likely won't make the, the final, uh, bond program
[42:44] list. But a million dollars of that will be added to the, uh, reserve
[42:48] for the emergency response, uh, would bring the total reserve for emergency response,
[42:52] uh, to $2 million. With that, uh, the general fund finishes at
[42:56] 54.6 million or 90.99 days, which is above the minimum
[43:00] policy of 90 days. Uh, the water and sewer fund,
[43:04] uh, it's our, uh, largest utility fund. Uh, total revenue
[43:09] finished 2.8 million below the original budget of 113.5 million.
[43:13] and you see there, the, the almost entirely due to, uh,
[43:17] uh, decreased, uh, a decrease in water sales. Um, through
[43:21] the first, I guess, uh, nine months of the year, we were actually tracking slightly above
[43:26] our targeted sales with declines coming, uh, starting in july,
[43:30] august and september. Majority of that's related to, uh, irrigation,
[43:34] and it's not necessarily how much it rains, but the timing of that rain. And, uh,
[43:38] from the information we can see that majority of that decline is related to irrigation.
[43:42] there was some decline as well, though in, in some of the other categories, but mostly
[43:47] irrigation related. How does that relate to revenue? You'll
[43:51] see through june, we are actually up roughly about 900,000. And in the last
[43:55] three months of the year, uh, we missed our target by roughly 3.9 million.
[43:59] again, related to the actual water sales, uh, uh,
[44:04] sewer sales is a little bit, uh, more constant though. We did see a, a slight decline
[44:08] there in september, mostly on the commercial side. Uh, it's total revenue
[44:12] from, uh, sewer sales, about 181,000 above our target, um, which,
[44:17] uh, uh, helps a little bit there. Total, um, expenditures
[44:21] 3.9 million below the original budget of 111.2 million, uh,
[44:25] with savings pretty much across all categories. Personnel savings of 1.1 million.
[44:30] this fund was budgeted at full staffing. Average, uh, uh,
[44:34] vacancy rate was roughly 18% in this fund. Um, now some of that was
[44:38] used to cover overtime, but as you can see, we did have significant savings as a result.
[44:42] uh, professional services finished 1.2 million below the original budget of five or 4.7 million.
[44:47] uh, 1.5 is still encumbered at year end, so roughly,
[44:52] uh, even with budget. And then the capital category six, 9,000 is
[44:56] 611 below the original budget, but that, again, is a result of an encumbrance
[45:00] for a hydro excavating vehicle that is ordered, but just hasn't been received yet.
[45:05] um, contracts, this was a little bit of a, a mixed bag for
[45:09] us. Uh, total contracts finished 533 below the original budget of
[45:13] 71.5 million. Uh, you'll see there in the, um,
[45:18] uh, table there. Uh, we had about $2 million in savings from the water
[45:22] contract, uh, through our development process. In the summer, we receive a preliminary
[45:27] estimate from the, uh, uh, appra, uh, water district, and then
[45:31] we receive the final number, uh, later, which happened to be 1.7 below
[45:35] what they gave us that summer. That number's received after the budget's finalized,
[45:40] uh, and that's why you'll see that variance there. Now, we did have, uh, increased
[45:44] cost on the sewer side. A lot of that is a result of, um,
[45:48] north texas, um, underestimating the sewer flows
[45:52] specifically on the, uh, manufacturing side of things. Uh, but total with
[45:56] during those, uh, four or five items, $630,000 in savings,
[46:01] uh, with that, uh, total fund balance of 30.7 million, it's, uh,
[46:05] 104.39 days, which is above our target of 90.
[46:10] as we discussed this summer, we're planning on leaving that excess fund balance in the
[46:14] fund to help cover the rate increase or to help buffer
[46:18] the rate increase, uh, that was gonna be needed in fy 26.
[46:23] uh, this provides a kind of a two year approach to
[46:27] that, that rate need, uh, solid waste fund, 411,000
[46:31] above its original budget, uh, uh, revenue budget of 19.4 million.
[46:36] uh, most of that is due to the strength of our compactor, um, uh,
[46:40] category as well as, uh, from temporary open tops. Again, that's a category we don't try to
[46:44] overheat because it's, as it says, temporary. And we, we don't want to, uh,
[46:49] balance the budget on that. Other revenue categories I saw higher than anticipated
[46:53] revenues from the re the sale of retired containers. Uh, those containers are taken
[46:57] outta service we then sell, and that actually got us a lot more revenue than we anticipated.
[47:02] and then the trans or the, uh, transfer in from the water fund for, uh,
[47:06] for the baic program, uh, it is indexed to half of the total cost
[47:10] of the baic program, the solid waste fund. Uh, so we saw a reduction of 92,000
[47:15] with baic seeing, uh, savings from vacancies as well as lower than
[47:20] expected. Uh, composting costs, uh, total expenditures of savings, 121,000.
[47:25] uh, we saw savings in the personnel services about 50,000.
[47:29] this fund averaged about 12% vacancies. A lot of that, uh,
[47:33] savings was, uh, needed to, uh, cover contractual services,
[47:37] uh, contractual labor to, uh, help cover that minimum staffing on our vehicles.
[47:42] um, uh, so the total savings, there was $50,000. Professional
[47:46] services finished 68,000 below the original budget of, uh, 939,000.
[47:51] again, savings from, uh, insurance premiums and the cost of, uh, processing recyclable
[47:55] materials. And then 90 days, uh, was the target. And we achieved
[48:00] that and still allowed 706,000 to be transferred to our, uh,
[48:04] special projects fund or capital reserve fund. Uh, this is an increase of 453,000
[48:09] above the plan. 254,000. This is where don mentioned the
[48:13] $500,000 for the relocation of the salt waste container staging
[48:17] area. Uh, and it will be covered from this, the re remainder, that 254,000
[48:22] remainder or 206,000 remainder, uh, will just
[48:26] be reserved for, uh, the results of the, uh, salt waste master plan and support of
[48:30] the salt waste master plan. Uh, total, uh, fund balance, 90.99
[48:34] days or 4.8 million, again, exceeds our target of 90 days. Uh,
[48:39] so it's finishing in, in good shape there. Uh, golf fund,
[48:43] uh, 196,000 above, uh, in revenue above
[48:47] its target of 3.3 million. Uh, this fund, uh, did anticipate
[48:51] an earlier o reopening, of course two, but even with that, um,
[48:56] delayed reopening, we were able to exceed the targeted rounds by about 10,000,
[49:00] uh, each of the year, each of the months. That was, uh, with course two open, we
[49:05] exceeded significantly, as you can see there, with the blue bar above the target
[49:09] for those, uh, months. So ronnie's group is really killing it out
[49:13] there right now. That's cheryl park, uh, total expenditures, uh, 77,000
[49:18] above the original budget of roughly $3 million. A lot of that had to
[49:22] do with the reopening, of course, too, and some of the extra overtime required,
[49:26] uh, to, uh, support that. Um, but with that, we still were able to
[49:31] achieve our target of, um, 30 days building to 60. Uh,
[49:35] with that, we're still able to transfer out $550,000,
[49:39] uh, to the gulf capital reserve fund in support of equipment and, uh,
[49:43] facility improvement needs out there. Uh, hotel motel
[49:48] fund, $1.5 million in revenue below the target, uh, original
[49:52] budget of 9.8 million. You'll see there, uh, taxes finished, uh, 376,000,
[49:57] blow its original budget of 5.3 million. We did see kind of a
[50:01] slowdown across the board, as well as some closures for some remodel, as well
[50:05] as, um, some repairs. Uh, we did see the biggest part
[50:09] there is the eisman center revenue finish a million dollars off of our, um, target of $3.8 million.
[50:16] uh, here you'll see the, uh, the, the trend for our hotel, uh,
[50:20] occupancy taxes. This should tie off, I believe it's page 28
[50:24] of your fund summary packet that you received received, where you'll see the detail by
[50:28] hotel, uh, for the year in comparison to the budget, as well as the
[50:33] previous year. Uh, total eisman center operations revenue declined
[50:37] 388,000 from the original budget of 2.2 million. And then eisman center presents
[50:41] revenue, uh, missed its target by 612,000. Again,
[50:45] as we discussed this summer, uh, the, uh, the assumptions
[50:50] for fy 25 for the revenue in this fund was overtly optimistic
[50:54] and has been right sized for fy 26, uh, and will continue to monitor that
[50:58] as the year goes on. Uh, total expenditures, a reduction of 584,000
[51:04] eisman center operations finished 327,000 below the original budget, 4.6 million.
[51:09] again, the, as a result of the reduced revenue there, the eisman center did
[51:14] the best they could to, um, reign in their costs where they could. Uh, they
[51:18] kept a lot of positions open with the savings, about $211,000 to
[51:22] help offset that lower revenue eisen center presents finished, uh, at 2.1 million
[51:27] or 1.2 million 369,000 below the original budget.
[51:31] and then the, uh, capital expenditures of 276,000 was actually related to a prior year
[51:35] encumbrance, and was covered by a reserve of fund balance, uh, total fund
[51:39] balance in this fund, 4.5 million. There is not an official fund balance policy,
[51:44] uh, but it, it is continuing to, to maintain its strong position.
[51:48] uh, so before we throw it back to don for that additional discussion, uh,
[51:52] open it up for some questions. If anybody had anything.
[51:59] you did a great job budget, bob. I appreciate it. Thanks, sir.
[52:03] do we need to bring this back to you? Uh, yes, please. Thank you, bob.
[52:08] uh, well, uh, again, bob, thanks very much for that presentation. Um, I feel
[52:12] like, uh, it's, uh, very, uh, important context as we head into, I think you, sir,
[52:16] head into this, uh, next discussion. As I mentioned to you, uh, mayor and council, what we're really trying
[52:20] to do tonight, um, is uh, lay an important foundation,
[52:25] um, uh, for our, uh, fy uh, 27 budget
[52:29] discussion. Um, let me just provide a little bit of context. Uh, some of this is, is
[52:34] old news, but it's important context. Recall, sb two or senate bill
[52:38] two, officially known as the texas property tax reform and transparency act of 2019,
[52:42] uh, was enacted in june of, of, of 19, uh, sb two,
[52:46] uh, effectively reduced the maximum amount. Uh, a local government or local
[52:50] taxing unit could increase the property tax revenue by annually without a
[52:55] voter approval to 3.5, uh, percent. Prior to,
[52:59] um, um, sb two, that rate was 8%. Um,
[53:04] sb two mandates, uh, that if a city council wants to adopt, uh,
[53:08] a tax rate greater than three point a half percent, that, uh, it must go to voters,
[53:12] um, and be offered on, uh, the november uniform election date.
[53:17] uh, sb two also required things like, uh, property tax notices and rate information
[53:21] be posted online, expanded disclosure requirements, and also required
[53:26] appraisal districts to maintain databases, uh, of property tax information.
[53:30] um, and so other transparency related things. But the main thing I wanna focus on
[53:34] is the reduction of the property tax cap from effectively 8% to
[53:38] 3.5%. Um, the majority of sb twos provisions took
[53:42] effect in january of 2020. Therefore, the first year, um,
[53:47] that, uh, first budget year that, uh, we really saw the impact of that was fy 21.
[53:52] um, after six years of sb two, what we have
[53:56] seen across texas and what we are seeing here locally, um, is what
[54:00] I've called, uh, six years, six consecutive years of a compounding
[54:04] effect of this three and a half per this, uh, three and a half percent cap.
[54:09] um, that I think, without being too dramatic, has fundamentally changed municipal
[54:13] finance in texas, but here locally has fundamentally altered
[54:17] our long-term budget outlook. Um, and let me show you just a couple of
[54:21] examples why, um, if this is on the left hand side of the chart.
[54:25] uh, on of the slide is a chart. Uh, looking at the six years prior to
[54:30] sb two and the six years subsequent, uh, uh, to, uh, sb two being enacted,
[54:34] you can see on average, uh, the six years prior,
[54:38] on average, uh, the city was generating about $4.7 million of new
[54:42] tax revenue, of new property tax revenue each year. So, on average,
[54:47] since sb two's been enacted, that number has dropped to 2.35%.
[54:51] now, what's ironic about this is that inflation was at its lowest,
[54:55] uh, prior to covid. And at its highest subsequent, or subsequent to
[54:59] covid recall, we were experiencing inflation to the tune of 8%
[55:04] back in 22 and 23. Um, but what about the
[55:08] compounding effect that I mentioned? The chart on the right, uh, is a comparison
[55:13] of what the city, essentially, the revenue the city has lost since
[55:17] sb two is enacted, and the 3.5% cap became the new standard. So you
[55:21] see there in the first year, had we been able to maximize that under the old,
[55:25] uh, rollback rate of 8%, we would've generated $2.7 million more.
[55:30] but in six years, we have, uh, essentially lost $21 million
[55:35] of new revenue, uh, as a result of sb two.
[55:40] um, this compounding effect is impacting
[55:45] different cities at different times. There's a lot of factors that go into this compounding effect.
[55:49] um, but we are at a, I believe, richardson's at a crossroads,
[55:53] and I wanna demonstrate why, uh, the modeling you see here.
[55:57] um, and, and I'm gonna come back to this, why this modeling is so important, uh,
[56:01] not only to us, but I think potentially to, to, to maybe
[56:06] impacting sb two. Uh, but these assumptions in this model, um,
[56:10] on the revenue side, we've taken very aggressive assumptions. For instance,
[56:15] you see here, we have assumed year after year that we maximize
[56:19] the three and a half percent, um, property tax revenue.
[56:23] so it's not possible for us in that first column to
[56:27] generate more revenue year over year for six straight years. In this model. In
[56:31] the second or third column from the left, we've estimated that we
[56:35] would bring on $200 million of new construction, which we recall. New
[56:39] construction does not count against your cap. $200 million of new
[56:44] construction year over year is the assumption here. And then we've estimated
[56:48] 2% growth in sales tax year over year, not to be
[56:53] redundant, but these are gr these are gr uh, very aggressive revenue assumptions.
[56:58] on the flip side, on the expenditure side, we've, uh, estimated
[57:02] very conservative assumptions. We've only assumed
[57:06] a 2% increase, um, uh, across the board for
[57:10] employees year after year. We haven't done a 2% increase in probably seven
[57:15] or eight years because of how competitive this, this market is, plus public safety
[57:19] steps. So that would assume, for instance, compared to this year, general
[57:23] employees would've received a half percent less public safety would would've received
[57:27] 2.5% less. Just as an example, we have included the cost of indexing,
[57:32] uh, on the, um, transfer out. So that's your alleys, your streets, your,
[57:37] um, parks, maintenance facility maintenance, because we know infrastructure's important to you.
[57:41] and then for all other expenditures, all non staffing expenditures
[57:45] and the general fund, we've only assumed a 2% increase for
[57:49] inflationary pressures. Uh, again, inflationary pressures, even
[57:53] today when inflation is at its lowest since, uh, since covid
[57:57] is double that, it's actually four 4.2 to 4.3%. So again,
[58:01] we're assuming half the per percent, half the increase that we would really need in inflationary
[58:06] pressures. If you, and, and, and by the way, we're assuming no change in
[58:10] the property tax rate, and we're assuming that you don't increase the senior tax exemption
[58:15] year after year. If you do, if you, if you take those very basic assumptions,
[58:20] what the right hand column shows you is how much net new revenue
[58:24] the city would have to work with for things like new programs or new
[58:28] services. So you can see not even a million dollars all the way
[58:32] out to fy 23. Now, what we, what I wanna do for you is I wanna layer
[58:36] just one consideration, consideration, consideration.
[58:43] I said I wouldn't be dramatic. .
[58:48] I wanna layer one consideration for you, um, into this model. And
[58:52] that is just the fire master plan. Now, I'm not gonna go through this because
[58:56] we've been through this several times, but this is the fire master plan, and you see how we take
[59:00] it out through 2032. So in every year, at the
[59:04] bottom of this fire master plan, there's an operations impact. So what I've done is I've plugged
[59:08] that operation impact into this model. And so you can see the
[59:13] third column from the left is the net new revenue under three, the
[59:17] 3.5% cap. So that was your far right column on the prior chart,
[59:21] what you see is the cost of what I've called the first liens or the restoration
[59:25] year by year recall, we still have and have had now for two years,
[59:29] 26 frozen positions. So unless we're ready to eliminate the, eliminate
[59:33] those positions, which there are operation impacts to that, um,
[59:37] we eventually need to restore that. So the cost of that restoration right now is
[59:42] $1.1 million. So, for instance, if that was the only thing we added next year
[59:46] in fy 27, we would be at a deficit. We would, we would have a deficit
[59:50] budget of $300,000. The next year is the fire master
[59:54] plan. The year after that is permanently restoring the million dollars to the general fund.
[59:58] for that. We've, um, uh, used as a balancing tool each of the last
[1:00:03] three years, the million, million dollar transfer from core plan, and then three consecutive
[1:00:07] years of fire master plan. The main point here is this, between now
[1:00:11] and the end of fy or, but now in the end and fy 32,
[1:00:15] we will, we will have almost a $3 million deficit that we
[1:00:19] will be trying to work with. And that's, again, with adding no new programs or
[1:00:24] services, not one new dollar for a new program or service, uh, in this
[1:00:28] modeling. In light of that, there's several, several,
[1:00:32] several considerations I'd like to share with you. Um, one is
[1:00:36] that, um, it's incumbent upon us, internally staff,
[1:00:40] I believe, to, to conduct a comprehensive review of our current programs and
[1:00:45] policies and current, uh, programs and services, excuse me. Um, and have you confirm
[1:00:49] for us that the scope of those programs and services, uh, are aligned
[1:00:53] with your current priorities as well as the, the, the expenditures,
[1:00:58] um, that are currently assigned to, to that scope. And so this is everything
[1:01:03] from community events, um, to, uh, um,
[1:01:07] uh, recreation programs. Um, really it
[1:01:11] runs the gamut. And that's why if you go back to the
[1:01:15] tactics that I presented to you, um, back in, in, uh, early, mid,
[1:01:19] early to mid-september, every one of these are a tactics that will
[1:01:24] get to that goal that I just, that first bullet that I just described to you, every
[1:01:28] one of these tactics has some, will have some
[1:01:32] impact, uh, on the, um, on the, on that first consideration.
[1:01:37] the second consideration is, as, as the mayor mentioned it, uh, I think, uh, councilman corcoran
[1:01:41] mentioned it earlier, given the ongoing state level discussions about taxes,
[1:01:45] and all you have to do is turn it on your phone or look on online. Right now,
[1:01:49] there are the, the highest leaders in this state are talking about additional
[1:01:53] taxes. We need to prepare for the very probable effect
[1:01:57] that there are going to be new revenue and or new expenditure limits that
[1:02:02] are gonna be placed on us, as well as there could be new mandates as there
[1:02:06] have been both in the 88th and 89th and the 88th legislative sessions.
[1:02:11] um, so let me just take that modeling one step further. Let's just
[1:02:15] assume that the three and a 5% tax cap was reduced
[1:02:19] to two point a half percent. Now, recall on the 89th session, there was legislation to
[1:02:23] reduce it to 1%, but let's just assume we only reduce it by
[1:02:27] 1% to 2.5%. We will, if that goes into effect, and fy 29
[1:02:31] would be the first year, it would be, uh, possible coming outta the next legisl legislative session
[1:02:36] with these very robust revenue assumptions and these very modest
[1:02:40] expenditure assumptions, we will run a deficit, um,
[1:02:44] in, in fy 28. Now, it's not a huge deficit, but again, that's
[1:02:48] not assuming an awful lot of things, like not increasing, uh, the senior
[1:02:52] tax exemption, not changing the tax rate, uh, not adding any additional
[1:02:57] new programs or services between now and then. So any year we
[1:03:01] add, even if we add one program between now and then, that number increases
[1:03:05] and it increases and will continue to increase, um, all the way out through
[1:03:09] fy 32. So where are we at? Um,
[1:03:13] I believe this is a really important statement, not only for city staff and
[1:03:17] for the council, but also for the community to understand. If we believe that
[1:03:21] our core missions and responsibilities, uh, public safety infrastructure,
[1:03:26] for instance, are our, are our highest priority, then
[1:03:30] I strongly believe that proposals for expanded programs and new
[1:03:34] initiatives in the future are gonna have to be evaluated with a clear value
[1:03:38] proposition framework. And what I mean by that, we're gonna have to look at the benefits,
[1:03:42] the cost, but more importantly, we're gonna have to look at the trade-offs because
[1:03:47] in my opinion, the new sb two reality is this. To introduce a new program
[1:03:51] or service in the future with modeling we just described, uh, we
[1:03:55] will need to either identify new revenue sources or we're going to have to
[1:03:59] reduce funding for existing programs or services. And this
[1:04:03] is just simple math. That's, that's all it is. Now, you may say, so what are
[1:04:07] you doing about this? Um, I also wanna, I also wanna share just
[1:04:11] a little bit about how this modeling began and how we got to this point. Um, I've
[1:04:16] been, uh, been, been, uh, um, honored again, I, I
[1:04:20] guess you'd say , uh, I guess, I guess, um, and, and have been asked to, uh, uh,
[1:04:24] co-chair with, uh, uh, uh, dallas county judge clay jenkins, the north texas
[1:04:28] commission's, uh, local government policy task force. And this
[1:04:32] modeling, um, is, uh, one of the very first things that we did, uh,
[1:04:36] when we reconvened this task force in advance of the 90th legislative session.
[1:04:41] this modeling replicated across dozens, if
[1:04:45] not hopefully, hundreds of cities, will hopefully paint a picture
[1:04:50] for the state legislators that cannot be ignored. Um,
[1:04:54] because we believe one of the things that we haven't done a really, um,
[1:04:58] effective job on previously is showing, um, the
[1:05:02] real impact of these property tax, of the, of the property
[1:05:06] tax cap. Um, but more importantly, we've gotta show
[1:05:10] what would happen if they even take it farther, because that is, that is
[1:05:15] 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
[1:05:19] possibility in the 90th session. And if it is, those red numbers grow,
[1:05:24] um, and it becomes more and more difficult for you to set policy and for us
[1:05:28] as staff to implement that policy that's responsive to the unique needs of this
[1:05:32] community. And that's at the crux of what this is really about. It's
[1:05:36] about our local control being every session taken more and more away
[1:05:40] from us. And so I appreciate the, the chance to
[1:05:45] share this, um, this, this information with you. Um, I,
[1:05:49] I hope the community's paying attention, um, because this has,
[1:05:54] has the potential to have real impact on the way that we have to do
[1:05:58] business moving forward. And so, mayor, I again, appreciate the chance to share this with you as
[1:06:02] we wrap up our fourth quarter budget report. Um, I can promise you this,
[1:06:06] this message has been thoroughly communicated internally to our team. And
[1:06:10] as we come back from the holiday and we launch on the fy 20,
[1:06:15] um, seven budget process, this will be at the forefront of everything that we
[1:06:19] do. And I, I hope you can be at the forefront of, of every stakeholder
[1:06:23] in our community. Thank mayor. Thank you, council
[1:06:27] member justice. Thank you. Um, thank you for the presentation.
[1:06:32] I think it's really important for our community to hear. We've talked a lot about sb two since it
[1:06:36] passed. Uh, everybody wondered if it would be the sort of boogeyman that they, that
[1:06:40] we thought it would be, and it's turned out to be. Um, and I would like to
[1:06:44] just sort of reiterate for the community. This isn't a richardson issue. If you can pull up a lot of
[1:06:48] headlines, plano just had to increase their tax rate. 2 cents. Uh, arlington, I think, increased
[1:06:52] theirs 3 cents. Mesquite went out to its voters recently to increase theirs. Um,
[1:06:57] so, so this is a, a regionwide statewide, um, issue,
[1:07:01] uh, that is impacting municipalities. And we're finally seeing the trending of, of what that looks
[1:07:05] like. Um, as you recall, our budget this year was, you know, our general fund went
[1:07:09] up by 0.67%. That's, it's, we're really seeing the impact of what
[1:07:13] this is doing. Um, and, and again, this isn't, uh, a richardson
[1:07:18] issue. This is, this is the result of lazy governance. Quite frankly, our state legislators
[1:07:22] wanted to be able to check a box and tell you all that they gave you property tax relief.
[1:07:26] and that's not what really happened here. What they've done is they've got the cities that you choose
[1:07:31] to live in. Um, there are many ways that they could have passed better legislation
[1:07:35] here. They could have done a public safety carve out, they could have done an infrastructure carve out, they
[1:07:39] could have made this applicable to only commercial properties, but instead, they just passed something that
[1:07:43] had a flashy headline and a good title, um, to try and tell you that they gave you property
[1:07:47] tax relief. So I encourage everyone who's listening to go talk to their state legislators.
[1:07:51] if somebody is running for a state seat, go talk to them. It is important. It impacts
[1:07:55] you. Some of the programs that you love could be impacted, or we may have to make hard
[1:08:00] decisions to do away with them because of what your state legislators are doing.
[1:08:04] this is very, very important that, that you really focus on, uh, what's happening at
[1:08:08] the state level. Uh, 'cause as you just heard tonight, it's, it's not just three and half percent.
[1:08:12] now, it could be two and half percent or 1%, and we're just not gonna be able to
[1:08:16] be the richardson that you've all come to love. And again, it's not anything that your council
[1:08:20] or that your city management is doing. It is a result, uh, really of,
[1:08:25] of what your state legislators have done to be able to sort of, uh, give you a, a superficial
[1:08:29] win on property tax. It's lazy governance, and you should go tell 'em as much.
[1:08:35] thank you. Council member corcoran. Uh, thank you, mr. Mayor.
[1:08:40] you know, I think something that I was going through my mind on when we were
[1:08:44] going, you're going through these, these slides, was sort of, you
[1:08:48] know, when, 'cause I'm sure this is a question you'll be asked, is sort of, hey,
[1:08:52] well, when does it end? Right, richardson, when are you guys totally built out,
[1:08:56] not hiring new staff, not, um, you
[1:09:00] know, not doing anything else besides just maintaining roads and, and increasing comp, right?
[1:09:05] and I thought through some answers that if I were in your shoes, I would answer that
[1:09:10] question with looking at the net new revenue. So I just wanted to ask you a couple questions just
[1:09:14] to give more context, right? So for the upgrades on the status system
[1:09:18] after the water quality issue, we had, um, af you
[1:09:22] know, how much did those upgrades cost and the staff that we need to sort of
[1:09:26] beef up and keep that system under control. How much did all of that cost? Ballpark, it,
[1:09:31] it was about $650,000. So that would be almost everything. I
[1:09:35] mean, that's the, the lowest number on here for this net new revenue fy 20 27, 798.
[1:09:40] mm-hmm . That's almost all of that, right? Right. That's a, um, and what about moving
[1:09:44] ms. Bell's house from one place to another? That was a couple hundred, right? Yes.
[1:09:48] yes. Okay. Yes. So a couple of hundred times, maybe two and a half
[1:09:52] . Oh, I see. Okay. , well, proves my point even more, right?
[1:09:56] right. Absolutely. Sort of one issue can wipe out almost
[1:10:00] all of the new revenue in one year, right? Right. Accounting for essentially
[1:10:05] under market raises for our staff. I mean, quite frankly, right?
[1:10:09] and so, I don't know. I mean, I think from the audit committee perspective,
[1:10:13] the scariest part to me is if we lose very specific staff
[1:10:19] in our finance departments, right, who have very specialized skills because we
[1:10:23] continue to just give them the 2% raises, well then that just puts us more at
[1:10:27] risk of being behind on the audit, which then puts us at that sort of
[1:10:31] mandatory, no new revenue rate, right? If we don't get that done, as we've seen, the attorney general is
[1:10:35] being exceptionally proactive in enforcing that too. I mean, I think over a hundred cities
[1:10:40] now, he's tried to issue some sort of warning to, um, outside
[1:10:44] of just the original three. I mean, it's, it's pretty crazy. So, you know, just,
[1:10:48] I just wanted to go through that to kind of mention some of the, put
[1:10:52] some real life context in some of the situations that could happen. Yes. And
[1:10:56] then also, you know, you, you'd mentioned my name and I, I, I, you and I had said, maybe said something in
[1:11:00] like one of our one-on-ones about this. Um, you know, I, I
[1:11:04] don't know. I mean, I think that with 2027 kind
[1:11:09] of coming up quickly, I don't know. I mean,
[1:11:13] it may be we, we've had over a decade of no tax increase on the
[1:11:17] property tax side. Maybe it's something we consider just
[1:11:22] proactively doing, just in case. I don't know.
[1:11:26] I mean, I feel like we've played by the rules this whole time and it hasn't really gotten us anywhere.
[1:11:33] council member sho. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Proton.
[1:11:39] uh, now, you know,
[1:11:43] we all talk about this asb two and all this, uh, these are coming, you
[1:11:47] know, unfortunately, the reality is that this is there and, uh,
[1:11:51] it is very important that we do our homework and we do update
[1:11:55] our homework on constant basis. And I'm, I'm happy that, uh,
[1:11:59] you brought, uh, the first homework today, the model. And,
[1:12:04] uh, this is, this is important. Uh, and,
[1:12:08] you know, for multiple region, that when we have our own finance, personal finance,
[1:12:13] we do manage this thing, projecting the budget moving
[1:12:17] forward five years, 10 years. I don't know if everybody does that, but
[1:12:22] I do have to manage my ma money, you know, like in the past, even to the dollar.
[1:12:26] uh, so, and this is also important
[1:12:30] that so that we communicate with our residents business. This
[1:12:34] is what's coming. And, uh, we are doing our best. I think
[1:12:39] not only just show them that we are doing our best, we really do our best.
[1:12:43] and I believe that we are doing our best. You are doing your best, uh,
[1:12:47] managing the budget. We don't, uh, I don't see we are wasting money anywhere.
[1:12:52] so this is something that we need to keep up, uh, with
[1:12:57] everyone so that everyone know that where we are going,
[1:13:01] how we are going, and why these are happening, uh, I think
[1:13:05] that's important next, uh, until we see some other picture.
[1:13:10] but, uh, sometimes cutting text is very easy, way,
[1:13:15] quick, cheap way. Get some, uh, score, some political score.
[1:13:20] but, you know, just, uh, blindly taking out things
[1:13:24] from, you know, from the text is, is not responsible things.
[1:13:28] uh, but this is what's happening.
[1:13:33] so, uh, so I think this is, I think we have taken the first
[1:13:37] in important step today. I think we need to just keep it up moving forward. Thank you.
[1:13:41] thank you, mayor omar.
[1:13:46] yeah, thank you, mayor. I, I, I'll just kind of reiterate
[1:13:50] what everyone else is talking about. I mean, this really needs to be all hands on deck. And I,
[1:13:54] I, first and foremost wanna say, you know, thank you for don for his continued
[1:13:58] leadership from a regional perspective, and in this case, uh, a
[1:14:02] problem for all of texas as opposed to just a regional problem. Uh, so I'm
[1:14:06] thrilled, um, that, that you're taking the lead. I really like your approach,
[1:14:11] approach here in terms of the way you're showing real life examples, the way you're
[1:14:15] layering in, uh, you know, what happens with inflation and how that impacts
[1:14:19] things. Um, all all of that just really helps crystallize
[1:14:24] what an incredibly awful, uh, uh, policy
[1:14:28] this has been by, by the state. And, uh, I know as I get an opportunity
[1:14:33] to visit with other mayors, um, more and more, they're very,
[1:14:37] very focused on this as well. Um, this is not something,
[1:14:41] there are very few cities that this does not impact. Obviously, cities that
[1:14:45] have plenty of green space and continue to expand out those
[1:14:49] ones, I guess, uh, don't have the same problem. Uh, but there are not that
[1:14:53] many of those cities out there relative to the rest. So all that said,
[1:14:58] thank you, don. Uh, and, and for all of us, and I think, I think,
[1:15:02] uh, many of you already spoken. I think the best thing we can do is when
[1:15:06] we get opportunities to speak to residents, but also when we get opportunities
[1:15:11] to speak to our fellow cohorts in other, uh, cities
[1:15:15] around texas, we all need to be encouraging each other to fight the good fight,
[1:15:19] um, so that this voice is as loud as possible, uh, at the statewide
[1:15:24] level. So, again, thank you, don, for the presentation and, and for your continued
[1:15:28] leadership. Thank you, mayor
[1:15:32] mar. Um, I'd just like to tag onto that as well. I think number one, don,
[1:15:36] thank you for all of your great work, um, on this. I, I think
[1:15:41] my two thoughts are is number one, I'll, I'll make my request
[1:15:45] that I've made a couple of times, would love to get our state reps
[1:15:49] in this dais and, and show this, show them this information.
[1:15:53] um, hopefully we could do that early next year and show them what the effects
[1:15:58] that we are having. And, and I guess I would also ask, and I know this is, you know, 'cause
[1:16:02] we, we would all have thoughts as to what we would have to cut, but if you could just give us, you
[1:16:06] know, top 20 things that, you know,
[1:16:10] we would really have to take a really hard look at. I mean, I'm not, I'm not asking
[1:16:14] you to make a recommendation list. Just something that we could have, you know, from a meat
[1:16:18] perspective, that we could say to our constituents too when we talk
[1:16:23] to state reps. Um, you know, look, we're
[1:16:27] not, we're not talking about, you know, uh, real what
[1:16:31] I would consider, you know, or maybe someone else would consider very lightweight things. We,
[1:16:35] we start to get into really the, you know, we go past the fat,
[1:16:39] we get, we start to get into the muscle, if you will, of the city as we, we walk through
[1:16:43] these things from just some of the conversations that we've all had. And so I think it'd
[1:16:47] be very helpful if we could have, you know, a top, top 20 list things of
[1:16:51] not necessarily what we would you would propose, but just we'd have to look at these top
[1:16:56] 20 things. Something that we could, we could really put into their hands and say,
[1:17:00] is this really what you would want us to do from a state perspective at
[1:17:04] the city level? And, and be able to do that. So those are just my thoughts.
[1:17:09] any other thoughts on this? Okay, great.
[1:17:13] we'll now move into our consent agenda. Before I ask for a motion, I'm gonna ask, um,
[1:17:18] mr. Magner to, to talk just a moment about, um, its
[1:17:22] item b on the consent agenda. Uh, thank you, mayor. Well, um, as you may
[1:17:26] recall, when, uh, yvonne, uh, f fgo director of parks and recreation presented
[1:17:30] the deep dive for the bond program, there was some consideration around the gallatin
[1:17:35] fountain. And we were at that time waiting on an assessment. Um, um,
[1:17:39] there was a, uh, one path forward was going to be, um, to really
[1:17:43] need to completely replace all the mechanical equipment, essentially build the
[1:17:47] fountain anew. The other was going to be able to have a repair strategy. And, uh,
[1:17:51] what you see, uh, thankfully on the agenda is that repair strategy as well as
[1:17:55] a, uh, maintenance agreement that we believe will result in, uh, more
[1:18:00] frequent preventative maintenance. Um, it will, will help us get on a regular routine
[1:18:04] that, um, after we make the improvements, uh, to really, um, get the
[1:18:09] fountain back operating, uh, in a really efficient and effective way, we'll
[1:18:13] be able to maintain that. And so this is great news, uh, from the standpoint of not needing
[1:18:17] to burden the bond program with it. Um, and so that's your one action item tonight.
[1:18:24] great. Any questions on that? Okay, perfect. Then
[1:18:28] I'd ask for a motion for the consent agenda.
[1:18:32] and councilman dorian. Thank you, mayor. I'd like to make a motion
[1:18:37] to approve the consent agenda as noted. Thank you. And councilman
[1:18:41] justice. Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor say
[1:18:45] aye. All those opposed? Alright, that passes six to zero with councilman
[1:18:50] barrios out. Ill alright, we'll move into report on items of
[1:18:54] community interest. I didn't see whose light went on first, so did
[1:18:58] yours. Okay. I don't, I don't know, but I'm claiming it. Okay, go right ahead. Councilman
[1:19:02] justice. There was a very exciting citywide
[1:19:07] announcement that needs to be made. I, I agree a hundred percent ,
[1:19:12] our very own councilman corcoran got engaged on friday night,
[1:19:16] and it was just honestly the most beautiful celebration. It should have just been their wedding
[1:19:20] because it was stunning and she was surprised and lovely, and just
[1:19:24] the whole thing was wonderful. It was a surprise engagement for her all, you know, family, friends,
[1:19:28] sister in from france. I mean, he just did it up really right? And it
[1:19:32] was just so, so special to be invited and be a part of that moment in your life. Um, and she's
[1:19:37] lovely and I'm so excited for both of you. Yeah, thank you.
[1:19:46] councilman corland, would you like to ? Yeah, I mean, obviously,
[1:19:50] you know, it has been just so wonderful over the years introducing
[1:19:54] thelma, who's just so, so important to me, to all of y'all. Um,
[1:19:59] you guys don't know how much of an impact you've made in both of our lives and how really
[1:20:03] just important it is to me that y'all love her and get to know
[1:20:07] her. And, and you guys have all done that so much. And I think what's so special about
[1:20:12] this city government is just how, no matter what disagreements we
[1:20:16] have up here, we all show up for each other. And at the end of the day,
[1:20:20] like, we're all there for each other and y'all have just been there for us. And this friday
[1:20:24] night was no exception and it was very special to thelma. Very special to me.
[1:20:28] and I just can't tell you how much we both really appreciate all of y'all. Um,
[1:20:32] my colleagues are the best. So thank you guys.
[1:20:37] anything else that you wanted to? Yeah, the chamber had a, uh, grand opening on thursday
[1:20:41] night. It was really wonderful. Uh, the chamber looks awesome
[1:20:45] and it, it was a really special party there too. Um, you
[1:20:50] know, I think it, it is a huge upgrade and I know they put a lot of work into
[1:20:54] it and we're honored to be invited to support them. Yeah. Excellent. Um,
[1:20:58] council member a and . Thank you mr. We
[1:21:02] proam. Uh, well, I mean, councilman
[1:21:06] uh, jennifer justice, you know, she, she explained,
[1:21:11] she tells very clearly nicely, uh, I don't know if I can beat that, but
[1:21:15] I can't really stop saying congratulations to joe. This is,
[1:21:19] uh, council member joe . Um, you
[1:21:23] know, I was very, very excited seeing that not, you
[1:21:27] know, he was happy. Uh, thelma was happy, but also, uh,
[1:21:32] you know, their family was, were they, they're all genuinely happy.
[1:21:36] I saw the excitement everywhere. So, uh,
[1:21:40] it was, it was really, you know, wonderful experience and thank you for including me
[1:21:44] with that, uh, uh, with your special moment, memorable
[1:21:48] moment. And, um, definitely I'll be, I'll
[1:21:52] be praying for your, uh, next journey and it'll be
[1:21:56] exciting. Uh, you know, no matter what, it's going to be exciting
[1:22:01] the rest of your life. .
[1:22:07] alright. Uh, what's that? Leave that alone. I'm, I'm, I'm going to
[1:22:12] council member dorian. Thank you, mayor. Yeah, I, I just want, you
[1:22:16] know, I, I'm gonna just tag onto that as well. I think you said something
[1:22:21] that was important, joe, about our councilman, uh, corcoran. And that
[1:22:25] is that this is fine. It's, I think, uh, you're right when, when
[1:22:29] it's, when the council and has to come together and
[1:22:33] be, you know, standards one and support one another, I think we do a very
[1:22:38] good job doing that. All of us do, including staff and council and mayor.
[1:22:42] so I appreciate that, and I'm really happy for you, and I'm, I'm happy that you made
[1:22:46] us a part of this, uh, new commitment and your new journey. So thank you very much.
[1:22:51] I also want to say in addition to, uh, the,
[1:22:56] uh, chamber, which is a beautiful, um, I had the opportunity of,
[1:23:00] uh, sort of sharing some time with the dallas,
[1:23:04] uh, chinese community center on saturday morning. Um,
[1:23:09] this is an event. I actually, even before I was, uh, elected, um,
[1:23:13] uh, I went to this event and I was able to see the children.
[1:23:18] it's nice because they have, uh, they have this ages like,
[1:23:22] you know, from like eight all the way up to teenage years, but they have calli
[1:23:26] calligraphy courses and awards, and it's not just part
[1:23:30] of the chinese and asian community, but is part, it's a lot of different, uh, cultures
[1:23:35] there. So it's just really good to see them and how excited they are. So
[1:23:39] one of the girls came up to me as I was getting ready to hand her her
[1:23:43] certificate, and before we even shook can, she just came up and gave me a big hug. And
[1:23:47] I just thought, wow. And it kind of got, you know, kind of touches you in a certain way. But,
[1:23:52] um, they were very happy and, um, it was a very nice event. And of course, they always
[1:23:56] have a luncheon afterwards, which they, they prepare all this food. It's,
[1:24:00] it's enormous and it's always, uh, delicious. But I just wanna say, uh, that is
[1:24:04] a great community and, and I, and I love supporting it. Thank you. Thank you,
[1:24:09] merril. Mark, uh, gosh, I,
[1:24:13] I, I'll, I'll just for the sake of, of repeating, although I hate, uh, uh, doing
[1:24:17] too much, repeating on, on items, community interest, couldn't be more thrilled,
[1:24:21] uh, for councilman corcoran and, uh, thelma. Just, it was,
[1:24:26] uh, there, there's, I don't know that anyone else can beat, uh,
[1:24:30] what that presentation of a, uh, proposal and
[1:24:34] party afterwards that was just, uh, amazing and beautiful and, and
[1:24:38] job well done. Uh, uh, I, I've never seen it done that well before,
[1:24:42] and I don't think I ever will. Um, we had a really busy week
[1:24:47] last week. Um, so I just want to hit on a couple things. Um, uh,
[1:24:51] both, uh, city manager, uh, dom magner and I had an opportunity, uh,
[1:24:55] I guess twice last week to do some, uh, uh, double teaming
[1:25:00] one at hexa with a delegation out of the uk that
[1:25:04] had a bunch of small businesses, uh, that were here, um, uh,
[1:25:08] pitching, uh, uh, their stuff, uh, uh, pitching their, their,
[1:25:12] uh, innovations and what they're doing as a company. And we got to pitch our city
[1:25:17] back, which was, uh, really fantastic. Um, we
[1:25:21] also had an opportunity, uh, to, uh, do a,
[1:25:25] um, uh, uh, I believe it's called let's
[1:25:29] work inclusively, which was, um, the dallas disability
[1:25:34] chamber had a, uh, video podcast, uh, that we
[1:25:38] got a chance to record together, which was kind of a neat experience and, and we
[1:25:42] hope something that we can share or I can share in the next, uh, few days whenever
[1:25:46] they finally go to, uh, go public with that. Uh, we also had just
[1:25:50] an, a wonderful, um, annual, uh, christmas party that gets
[1:25:54] to, um, you know, celebrate a lot of the folks that work in our city,
[1:25:58] uh, as well as kind of other players that we don't recognize in other ways.
[1:26:02] uh, this last week, I, I was just, couldn't have been more impressed
[1:26:07] with what city staff did to, um, make the room that you guys are in
[1:26:11] right now. Uh, one of the most festive rooms I've seen in some time.
[1:26:15] uh, so for that, I just wanna say, uh, thank you very much, the entire team. And
[1:26:19] then finally, uh, although there were, gosh, so many different,
[1:26:24] uh, uh, christmas parties and gatherings, uh, I did want
[1:26:28] to, um, give a shout out to intellichoice. Um, they are
[1:26:32] an organization that really focuses on, uh, math training to the underprivileged.
[1:26:37] um, I got an opportunity to keynote, uh, for them yesterday evening,
[1:26:42] uh, there at the ut dallas campus. Um, they gave
[1:26:46] away something like 60 scholarships, $30,000, uh,
[1:26:50] to students, uh, hoping to encourage them to go to either two year or
[1:26:54] four year, uh, schools. Uh, but just amazing work done
[1:26:58] by a dr. Gil lee, who is a professor there, and, um,
[1:27:02] has been doing this now for 30 years. So, uh, just a, a, a wonderful
[1:27:06] honor and, and a and a great opportunity to be able to, to celebrate with them and
[1:27:11] to help them, uh, raise a little bit of money for, for that worthy cause. That's all I've got
[1:27:15] for that. Thank you, mayor. Well, I'll just wrap up.
[1:27:20] joe con, congratulations. There's, there's no other way to say
[1:27:24] it. Congratulations. So happy for you and thelma. Um,
[1:27:28] it's wonderful when two people, two people come together and,
[1:27:32] and like y'all have, and so just congratulations.
[1:27:37] um, on that note, I also had the opportunity on
[1:27:41] friday to be the keynote speaker at the graduation for colin college.
[1:27:45] and I just wanna say so many times, you know, we turn on the evening news or we, we
[1:27:49] come in this room and we talk about different things. And, you know,
[1:27:53] oftentimes, especially on the evening news, all we ever hear about
[1:27:58] is the, the bad and, you know, where, where are we headed, et cetera, et
[1:28:02] cetera. Said in the, it was the, in the allen field house where the, the hockey is.
[1:28:06] and it was completely, it was over 760 graduates, um, with all of their family's
[1:28:10] friends and everyone. And I'll tell you what, it, it, it
[1:28:14] gave me so much hope for the future of our, of
[1:28:18] our community, for our state, for our country, and for our world. Seeing
[1:28:23] all of those graduates come across the stage in many cases, first time,
[1:28:27] um, college graduates, first time, um,
[1:28:31] um, being, being a part of something like that,
[1:28:36] um, where they're able to graduate and, and move forward. And it was just, it was an
[1:28:40] incredibly moving, um, experience. So I just wanna say congratulations
[1:28:44] to everyone who graduated, um, from college
[1:28:48] colin college. It was agra, it was their largest baccalaureate graduation
[1:28:52] class so far. Um, and I'm gonna say so far, 'cause I think they'll
[1:28:57] thoroughly eclipse it, um, over the next several years. I also wanna,
[1:29:01] since this is the, the final, uh, meeting for the year, I wanna wish
[1:29:05] everyone very, very happy holidays. Happy hanukkah,
[1:29:09] merry christmas, um, and a happy new year. And
[1:29:14] my greatest wish for all of us is peace
[1:29:18] on earth and goodwill to all with
[1:29:22] that, if there's nothing else with no further business,
[1:29:26] this meeting is adjourned at eight 14. Thank you so much.
[1:29:32] okay.