Notice of the regular meeting of the city of santo city commission. It's, uh, june
18, and, um, ruth, can we have roll call,
please? Yes, sir. Mayor ricardo gura. Present
mayor pro. Pedro garvan, present. Commissioner tom goodman,
present. Commissioner debra morales, present. Commissioner joe navarro
present. Thank you. Okay. I'd like to call this meeting to order. We do
have a quorum. The time is, uh, 5 31
and, uh, item two and three, we're gonna have the pledge of allegiance to us flag
and a texas flag. And please remain stand for the invocation.
I allegiance to the flag of the united states america and
to the republic for stands, one nation under god in
this israel liberty kingdom justice, all under
the texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the texas
one saint under god. One.
let us pray. Dear heavenly father, we
humbly come before you today asking for your divine intervention with our
weather. You're the creator of the heavens and the earth, and we trust in
your power to influence the elements. Please bless us with favorable weather
so that we may experience your goodness and grace. May your will
be done, and may our days be filled with the beauty of your creation.
in jesus' name we pray. Amen.
thank you, mr. Pao.
okay. Can make the announcements, mr. Sure.
do you wanna read them? Oh,
um, the national fitness campaign partnership?
yes. Okay. We
at, that's a presentation. Yes. Presentation.
yeah. There's, there's several other announcements. Just we'll get through those quickly. Do
you wanna do those? Yeah. Wednesday,
june 19th city offices will be closed in observance of, uh, juneteenth
bill. Another nice day off go, guys.
uh, another announce movies at the plaza will not take place this friday.
I wonder why june 21st, 2024. Do the rain
in the forecast this week. The city hopes to resume the event on friday,
january 28th. If the weather permits. Stay tuned for more information
details on our city, social media and website@santo.com,
city of santo.com. Okay. Commissioner, do you have any other,
any other announcements? No. Well, I do.
um, I know tomorrow the, uh, the city's, uh,
the city will be closed, uh, for the observance of june juneteenth. And, uh, but we
do have, due to the weather that's coming, uh, please, we
ask the public please if, um, we don't know what, what's to what
extent is coming to us. But, uh, I do hear that, uh, there's a lot of rain coming
in. Um, if you do not need to be on the roads, please stay
home. Okay. I hope that, that y'all prepared, you know, at
least for food, gas or anything, uh, for any emergencies. But, uh,
I do know that the, the, the city will have, uh, public works
will be have a skeleton crew for anything that, uh, you know, um,
down trees or anything that will, will try so we can help out the, the publics. So,
but please, if you don't need to be out there, please stay home and, uh, makes
our job a little bit more easier that, uh, you know, we don't have to be out there,
you know, trying to bring, but if we do, we will. But, uh, you
know, at least the emergencies, uh, just please be in the, uh,
be wise. Um, like the, the saying, the slogan
is, uh, turn around, don't drown. Uh, we do need to go through,
uh, low line areas. We do have floods, certain areas, and,
uh, please again. So just be mindful of what you're doing. Okay.
so, uh, as far as that, that's what I got. What's
that? National fitness campaign partnership. Okay. That's
gonna be for, that's presentation right now. Okay.
ms. Ms. Garza. Hi, good evening.
deanna garza. Um, I'm here on behalf of the national fitness
campaign. We're looking to hopefully partner with them. They're one of the largest,
uh, private public partnerships in the nation.
and, um, they actually have, uh,
given out over a million dollars in grants to more than 40 municipalities
throughout texas. And so their central theme is
outdoor fitness, and they provide this lovely outdoor fitness
facility, and, uh, we'd like to partner with them. So this video that y'all are
gonna see tonight is, um, kind of the kickoff to that.
and, um, all they currently need at the moment is leadership support.
so, yep,
we're changing the way america thinks about this. From college
campuses to city parks and trails. We're bringing free fitness everywhere, and we're
just getting started. Hi, I'm mitch, founder of the national
fitness campaign. National fitness campaign was founded in 1979
when we opened the first fitness, so redesigned for the 21st century,
but fitness court is the world's best outdoor gym. Our seven movement seven
minute system allows you to use your own body weight to get the perfect work in
easier, hard, it will work for you. Our goal is to build healthy
communities by making outdoor fitness and essential part of people's lives,
so that each day is better than the last. Now, more than ever before,
it is vital that we move fitness outdoors to remain safe and
healthy and strong. Michiganders, uh, we, as
soon as we can, we go outside, which is one of the reasons why the fitness world was section attraction
to us. What impressed us most was their basic philosophy
that they wanna provide world class fitness for freedom.
truly anyone can use, no matter what your age is, no matter what
your physical fitness level is, no matter what your skills are, it is very
adaptable. Thousands of certified ambassadors
will be trained to deliver classes and challenges and clinics. As part of
our national fitness campaign, new programs are bringing students outdoors
across america. The fitness court mobile app is your gateway to
enroll in these programs. Simply scan the new digital wall with your
phone to access a library of free workouts designed to optimize
your experience on the fitness court, learn the moves and take
challenges as we dig deep to create impact for our partners across
america. This year, we are thrilled to introduce fitness
court. Public arts cities have the opportunity to select
a local artist to design their fitness code using the power of the arts
and fitness outdoors. In iconic public spaces, we're
proud to have helped cities of all sizes raise millions of dollars from
respected sponsors to support free fitness. Wherever fitness
is a priority, you can find a fitness tool. We're partnering with
large cities using urban movement data to map the best
locations for healthy infrastructure. We're bringing fitness courts to within
10 minutes of population centers everywhere they provide these
wraparound services that from a city's perspective, that's what
you want. In a partner like this, you want it to come presented to you on a silver
platter with a bow tie around it. They're one of the best partners, I think, that
I personally have ever worked with. We serve, uh, almost 1.2 million members
across michigan. And this partnership really is an opportunity
for us to bring scalable free health and wellness
opportunities for our community. So I would actually invite cities and organizations
big and small to explore the opportunity to invest in fitness courts. To be very
honest with you, the feedback from different municipalities and different communities has been very positive.
we're committed to raise $150 million
to bring the campaign to 1000 cities and schools building the
largest fitness movement in the world. Join us, let's
make world class fitness group three.
so, like I said, this is beyond again, um, all they're asking right now
is, uh, leadership buy-in leadership support. And after that, they have,
uh, grant funding out there for, uh, they're a single unit
or multi-units throughout cities. So yeah, that's
national fitness campaign. Where do we sign up? ? I'll let them know. We have a
meeting, uh, believe later this week to discuss, uh,
y'all's reaction to the national fitness campaign and what
our next steps are, and they'll release the grant application to us. So
thank you naa. Um, a da,
is there any something that we could spawn off of this for a da
as well? I would like to see something like that implemented. Yes. This is actually a
da compliant, any, they can use any of the stations
on this.
thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Your
thank you commission. Any other comment on, uh, public
interest? None. Okay. Public comments,
ruth?
yes, sir. We have, uh, mr. Connor pace,
connor pace, um, representing a royal metal building components inc.
here in san benito. Um, good afternoon, honorable mayor
city commission. Thank you for letting me speak here today. My name is connor pace,
and as I said, on behalf of my family's company, world metal buildings,
uh, which has proudly operated in san benito for over 30 years,
it is with a sense of urgency and concern that I bring to your attention, the
severely neglected and deteriorating state of the roads surrounding our city's
industrial park, particularly amistad drive and falcon boulevard,
also known as uex drive. If you have not driven on
these roads recently, I urge you to go experience, experience these
deteriorating roads firsthand. These roads are riddled with hundreds of potholes,
posing significant hazards to vehicles, belonging to our employees,
customers, and the heavy duty tractor trailers. Essential for the business operations in
the area the effective businesses include, but are
not limited to. Royal metal lamar lamar, outdoor advertising,
mccoy's building supplies, gilman auto group, gulf coast sign
company, lawrence and manufacturing age box and reef industries.
the businesses I just mentioned provide a substantial amount of the overall tax revenue
for the city of san benito. Moreover, falcon boulevard, also
known as u tex drive, is also home to the san san benito isd
barn. So, which means our school buses are subjected to the same damaging
conditions on a daily basis. The deteriorating state of these roads has
persisted over 15 years, which during this time, only temporary
asphalt patches have have been applied, and these patches are in
insufficient lasting a few weeks due to the heavy traffic that's
taking a toll on the roads on a daily base basis due to the large and heavy
semi trucks and buses. So this issue does not,
not only causes repeated and costly vehicle damage, but also debtors po
potential customers from visiting our businesses. We receive
complaints on the, about the road conditions on a daily basis, and it's hard to do
business with somebody who walks in the door already in a bad mood.
given the critical nature of this situation, I strongly suggest
and recommend that omnia drive and falcon boulevard be repaved with concrete.
considering the volume and weight of the traffic in this area, a concrete repaving
is more durable and the long-term solution, the roads need
to be stripped down to the base and completely redone to ensure that they can withstand the
heavy usage without rapid deterioration, the
neglect of these roads has reached a point where minor repairs are no longer viable.
attached to my comments are pictures of a few of these potholes along amta drive.
I found one today that would measure three and a half feet wide. Imagine what that would do to your
car or truck. Our local businesses need your support
and fixing these roads for the long term to ensure that we can continue to
be the backbone of our city's economy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you, . Thank you,
ruth. Mr. Mike travis, mr. Travis,
good evening one and all the lord's blessings upon you. Um, as
always, we'll jump into it because we're limited on time.
um, first of all, a couple shout outs. A couple of shout outs
here. Uh, first for the library, thank you for the library, the san diego public
library. It is an oasis in
the heart of our fabulous aka city here. Uh,
I go there frequently and I just wanna thank you. Let's, uh, keep supporting
that and as always, for public works and, uh,
for, uh, keeping us neat and, uh, patched up
over there on russell lane and the other, the other, uh, cleaning out the drains.
uh, I've, I've noticed that around. Thank you very much. And also, always the
police department for keeping us safe and quiet
in our fabulous city of san benito and also
for parks department. I guess they're the ones responsible
for the outdoor exercise stations
that we have already. Uh, some of which
I use on a fairly regular basis when I drive by there on stinger street, I
wanna jump out and do, try to do a pull up. Maybe I'll get there one day,
but try it. Uh, so thank you for that. Um,
I agree with the previous comments on the indu industrial,
uh, amistad drive area over there. Um,
remodeling, city hall. New topic. I know I'm jumping around. Um,
mr. Mayor, mr. Mayor proam, uh, referencing back
to the previous meeting, I believe it was, there was some discussion about, uh, flooring
for the, the city hall, which is formerly the post office.
um, I just wanna say, mr. Mayor, I understand your concerns
and frustrations about making it inconvenient to do stuff. All remodeling
projects are that way. Mayor pro tem,
I thank you and appreciate you for saying we wanna
do a good job. I mean, I won't rehash everything, but I appreciate that we want
to use our, we wanna be good stewards of our funds, and we wanna do it
well, and that's a place that people are gonna see. I would like for it to look nice
also. So I don't know what happened on that, but I, I appreciate that, uh, at the
last meeting, uh, comprehensive plan. I don't know where that's going on there,
but I would respectfully submit that, uh, the city,
city governments have a lot of latitude and leeway about how growth
takes place. And so on our side of town over
there, uh, I would just appreciate that we do that, uh,
intentionally and, uh, respectfully and a orderly kinda way, and not
haphazardly as some areas in town seem to, uh, um,
have developed over the years. Um, thank you so much for
spending, uh, time to listen to me and have a bless ea blessed evening.
thank you. Thank you, mr. Charles. Thank you. Mike travis, 1695 russell lane.
I'm sorry, I think I forgot that. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
that's it, sir. Um,
okay. I do have some, uh, I got this one.
uh, we got the also for, uh, ms. Jessica gonzalez? No,
no, that's for c that's for the cpg
public hearing, not right now. Okay, hold on. But for the, um,
library agenda item, not yet.
so these, these public comments will be a little bit later when we do a-c-d-b-g hearing. Okay. Sorry
judge, this will
be later. Okay. So public comments, I'm sorry.
okay. That's it. That's it. Public comment,
right. Okay, ma'am. Uh, we have presentations,
uh, fiscal year 22, 20, 22, 23, city
of san benito to slu enta program report.
good evening. Good evening, everyone. My name is amanda ve. I am here on behalf of the
ut health houston school of public health in brownsville. Um, we
are here to present to you your 2023 annual report. Really just to
congratulate you for all the work that you've supported over the years. The city of san
benito has been a partner with the ut health houston school of public health for
about a decade now, over a decade. And, um, through the
work of let gomez and your leadership, you've really been able to accomplish
a huge part of, um, the successes
that we talk about throughout the valley. And so, I believe you've
received a digital copy of this. I just wanna go through this really quick with you.
san benito is one of 10 partner municipalities in county precincts
that we, um, subcontract to implement community health programming
throughout the valley. Um, through our program, elements of environmental infrastructure
change, mass media, social support, health screenings, education
and policy, you've been able to provide, um,
services that address increased fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity
in your community policy and environmental infrastructure change, chronic disease
prevention and control, as well as serving, um, populations that don't
normally get these kind of services. So thank you so much for your continued
support for that. Um, in fiscal year 2023,
the program produced over 52 television segments. So these are
segments that come on weekly on televisa, where, um,
role models from your community have been featured, as well as other people, um,
other, other communities throughout the region. There are healthy cooking segments
on these, um, on tv. And, um, we're just really
grateful that we can continue to highlight the, the great things that are happening in your city.
um, there have been over 187 total class series
initiated per week here in san benito, um,
468 social media posts. So that's another way to engage
the community that we know people pay attention to with positive, um, health
messaging and an average of 193 weekly classes.
so those are huge accomplishments for a city of your size. And, um, we
hear about all the great things that letti has been able to do with her participants
all the time. Um, some major percentage points I
wanna bring up with y'all that are, are really good points to be proud of. 59.4%
of participants who have enrolled in the que the program improved their fruit
and vegetable intake. Um, that's an average increase of 1.33 portions
per day of fruit and vegetables. And so when we talk about how do we prevent
a lot of the chronic diseases that we see in our peer population, we see
san bonita really committing to those improvements here, right? 63.8%
of people improved their physical activity with an average increase of 80.6
minutes per week. That's over an hour, more of moving
per week thanks to the program that you offer your community. Um, 72.6%
of people decrease their blood pressure and 25.5%
changed from hypertensive to normal. That is huge. We
know that blood pressure is a silent killer in people. We can't always see those
symptoms. And in our ability to monitor these participants and watch
their blood pressure decrease, um, that's an incredible win for your community.
so, thank you again. Um, if you look to the nature-based
programming, obviously you have the resource of the haven trail available to you and your community,
and we are really excited to continue to build upon, um, the progress
that you're, you, you have in your nature activities. I was really excited
to see that y'all are considering a fitness court. We do have fitness courts and other
communities that we work with that are activated consistently with people
attending boot camps and strength and conditioning classes, um, at those
locations. So excited to see that's a possibility here.
and towards the end, you can see our, um, various collaborations with
our, uh, healthy cooking classes, the collaborative action board,
the cara car trails network, as well as our diabetes prevention program. So,
again, I just wanna thank you. It's a privilege to continue working with y'all,
and please reach out to us if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you again in
the new fiscal year. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
going to, uh, public hearing mayor. Yes. That's our public hearing
to solicit public comments on the community development block grant, cdbg program.
yeah, why don't you intro? Okay.
good evening again, mayor commissioners. Um, so this public hearing
is for the 20 24, 20 25 cdbg,
uh, funding. And, uh, we are expected to receive approximately
$342,208. And
a portion of that will, uh, go to eligible activities, including public
facilities, infrastructure improvements, public services, code enforcement,
uh, accessibility enhancements, economic development, housing, and emergency
shelters, so things of that nature. Um, so the cdbg,
uh, department is accepting applications from both public and private nonprofit organizations
till four 30 on friday, july 1st. And I will be releasing
that after this meeting. So just, I was waiting, uh, had
approval and, um, he kicked it back to us. So now we're, we're
good to go. So I'll be sending that out. We have, uh, some
residents and citizens here that would like to voice where the cpg funds
should be going towards, so thank you.
okay. Open
up the public hearing. Mm-hmm, . Okay. The time is, uh,
5 55. We're opening it up.
anybody wants to come in for, um, on this cbg?
let's about what we have. Uh, lemme see. I
got the,
so we'll just take 'em at random here. Um,
we have forest walker with the santo food pantry.
I know some of 'em. Yeah. Ma we'll go with who registered first, and
then if there's any extras, we'll take yeah, five
registered. So we can only take one, one per
per organization or for per request. So if there's several speaking on the
two or three parties speaking about the food pantry, we'll take one. Consolidated comment.
I alright. Yes. Great. Good. They're just here
for support. Great. Ready? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much for having
me, mayor. Commissioners, I just wanna speak a little bit about the pantry because
it's such a important entity and for our community.
uh, the pantry is a 5 0 1 c3. We serve approximately
6,200 people a month.
we spend four to three to $4,000 of a month, which
equals to about, you know, $50,000 a year. And
that's very hard on us because we are all volunteers. We have
zero income. The pantry has been here 45 years
in this community, and never have we had an income
ever. We depend on people walking through the front door, giving us a dollar,
$5, $10. But we've made it.
um, we serve san benito, rio hondo, los fresnos,
brownsville, uh, all the little towns in between. It gets very,
very hard on the pantry this time of year. The winter texans
are very good supporters, but once they leave, we
suffer. And we are getting more and more clients
every month. And it's, it's just a good thing for this community
to keep going. Um, I've invited people before
I invite all of you, everyone in this room, come by and
see what we do. Uh, see the clients drive by on a wednesday, drive
by on a friday. Uh, it's, it's very crazy.
uh, so we're just kind of, uh, putting the word out and please
consider us. And I thank you all very much for having us.
thank you. Thank you. Thank you for
secondly, we'll take, um, ms. Jessica gonzalez speaking
on behalf of the friends of the santo public library,
miss judge jessica gonzalez. Yes, .
good evening mayor and commissioners. My name is jessica gonzalez and I am a member of the friends
of the santo public library. The friends have has been in existence
for over 20 years. We meet once a month. Uh, we have over 30
active members. We are a 5 0 1 c3 nonprofit
organization. The purpose of the friends of the public library is
to focus public attention on our library facilities and needs, and to
encourage donation, gifts, endowments and requests to the library,
and to raise funds for the enhancement of library resources and services, helping
to enrich the lives of our local community. The texas state library and archives
commission estimates that we serve as san benito and surrounding communities,
a population around 33,646 patrons.
we service as patrons of all ages. We have programs that include children and
adults, the children. We have easter egg extravaganza
event that I've seen some of you or most of you have attended. We
have a summer reading program for the entire month of june.
and I just passed out this little calendar here where we have had the
santo and the fire police department come and give presentations. Uh, we have local
authors that come over and read to the kids. We have
a low dance party. We've had, we, we had a carnival scheduled for
thursday, but we that got canceled. We've had jurassic park, the rgv,
um, dinosaur experience. The kids have a lot of fun. And so a lot of this,
you know, does cost money. So we, we assist the library with those, um,
expenses. We also have toddler story time every wednesday.
uh, it varies as far as how many kids we get on those days. Sometimes we
get two, sometimes we get seven, um, kids. We have a back to
school supply giveaway. We have school tours for children and
adults. We have arts and crafts every thursday. We have astronomy every
second tuesday of the month. We have free coffee and juices and pastries every friday.
it's open to the public. We also provide outreach giveaways
for the adults. We have ged classes, um, that's been going on for about
10 years. We also have, uh, one of our volunteers that does a one-to-one tutoring.
we have esl classes every wednesday. We have about 10 to 15 attendees.
we have a citizenship class every tuesday. We have about 12
attendees. We also have computer classes. We have about 10. And,
uh, those we have on tuesdays and thursdays. And we also
have donated the little friend, uh, the little li free libraries
where you leave a book and take a book. And those are located at the haven
park, along at the, um, the cultural arts
museum. As a nonprofit, we would like to be considered for the
cdbg funds. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, judge.
thank you. Last one is gonna be, uh, from the
junto of ms. Patricia avila, uh, texas
junto music hall of fame museum.
good evening. Patricia avila, executive director of the texas junto music
hall of fame in miss yo, located on 4 0 2 west robertson street here in
santo. As as the director, I am reaching out to
express some interest in the cbdg, uh, grant funding. Uh,
we have been in existence since 2017 with a 5 0 1 3
c uh, nonprofit status. Uh, we have had, uh,
we have been open, we open our doors at the new location back in february, 2023.
we were open thursday, fridays and salaries. And since then, uh, our
recording, uh, 2022 to 2023,
we had over 1,200 visitors come visit our museum.
and they're either, uh, coming to visit as a destination, uh,
visit, or they come to learn more about the regional music that started right here in
santo, texas at the, the birthplace of junta music here in santo.
uh, we are seeking the funds for possible enrichment of programming,
marketing efforts in-house projects, and potentially establishing
a music academy to encourage the youth and also
our assist of rito to continue the music of junta music, the
bajo players and the accordionist. We get a lot of visitors that are interested. Even
our winter texans are interested because they are very tied to the german,
um, the german culture. So they, they know what their accordance
sounds like. They wanna hear our music and they wanna learn our music that was established here
in the south texas. So I would appreciate it, um, if y'all consider
it for the cbg, uh, funding and also any workshops that are, would
be available. We are welcome to. We would love to join y'all.
he's my brother, joe. Thank you.
um, this is, uh, I'm not sure if this is a time to speak on, if this is for item number
five. Uh, we're, um, my name is joe avila with the junto
music hall of fame museum. And, uh, item number five relates to,
uh, a, a venue for music, I guess at the old airport.
uh, the junto music hall of fame museum fully endorses
the plans to build a permanent stage at the city of san diego fairgrounds. This construction
project has the potential to boost the city's economy by drawing bigger musical acts
and providing a venue for, for performances by the junto music
museum. Additionally, the stage could help meet the comal community's demand
for more family friendly events. We firmly believe that
the introduction of the stage could make a meaningful impact on the city and its
residents, and we wholeheartedly support this endeavor. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Thank you,
sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. I believe that's
it. I got one more. Salvation army. Salvation honor. Oh,
salvation army. Okay. Um, actually we were the first one that signed out. Oh, you
were? Okay. Uh, I missed that
one.
that's fine. Come on, come up. Welcome your organization and
who's gonna be speaking on behalf of the organization. Okay. Uh, the salvation army
and salvation army is located in arlington, but they are part of the
community. They're part of, um, cameron county and willesee county.
they're just located there. Uh, they've been in existence for many, many years. Uh, I am the president
of the salvation army board at this time. I've been on their board for
many years. Uh, we have jessica, I was gonna say there's three of us from san benito.
when I first got on that board, there was only one representative. I wanted to let you know
the things that we actually provide, uh, at large and also
for the city of san beto. But we've done here. We have a food pantry also.
and, uh, we do give food to all kinds of people. I, anna
yiannis works at the food pantry. She's retired, so she gets to do a lot more of that than some
of us. We assist with prescriptions. There's a lot of people that don't have insurance.
they have prescriptions that they need to get billed. And we also help them with monies for prescriptions.
uh, rental assistance if people are getting evicted, utilities, if they're struggling
with their utilities. And we get the, we have them apply twice a a
week. So where there available for that. We also have a thrift store that's
located on jackson street. That is, yes, it is a store, but it is also
is sourced for us. There was a fire in some apartments here in san benito,
I wanna say, about a month and a half ago. And somebody was talking to me about it and said, man, one of my employees
lost his everything. They have no clothes, they have nothing. I said, tell
'em to go to the salvation army. We, we've clothed all the, the family with
five sets of clothes. We got them beds, we have, uh, we got
them other furniture so that they could get started again. And we do this all the time. And a lot
of times people say, oh, that's harlingen. No, that was, that happened here in san benito.
and I just want y'all to know that it exists so that you can refer people to us.
um, more importantly, what we've done in san benito for the, um,
the, uh, housing authority that they have palmville for the elderly. We gave a hundred
fans to help with, to help the people with the heat. We've done that.
we've given some, uh, air conditioning units. Uh, let's see what else. We,
oh, we have another program that we work with the school district for socks, shoes,
mainly shoes. There's a lot of kids that don't wanna go to school 'cause their parents can't afford shoes
and they're embarrassed. And we gave over a hundred pairs of shoes in the city of
san benito to students. Uh, we, we work with the school district. They give us
referrals. We gave him socks, shoes, and a little towel. And so we just wanted
you to know that we would like to be considered, uh, maybe in a small way,
but include us because we do serve this community. And with three of us
on, on that board, we make sure that san benita was served. So we thank you for
your attention and your time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you for participating in the angel tree. The city,
I think did, did this year. Yes. Last year. This past year. Yes. So thank you. The school
district, the city of walmart. And I believe we, I think we're gonna
start with the police station this year. So thank you so very much. Thank you. I,
I'm sorry judge. How many of these organizations are you involved in? ?
I think it's easier to say which one. She's not not involved. Yeah. Okay.
make it quicker. Thank you for your great service. Thank you. Thank you, judge. Have
someone else. We have somebody else.
okay. Okay. Organization. And, uh, state your name,
organization please. Okay. Yes. My name's lacey amris and I'm with
casa of cameron and willesee counties. What was
your name again? I'm sorry? Lacey amris. Lacey.
oh, good evening, mayor and city commissioners. Um, thank you for the opportunity
to come before you this evening. Casa cameron and will county
is a nonprofit organization in your community. Casa has
applied for funding this current physical year, 2024, and was awarded
funding to provide services to children in the child welfare system.
we are currently waiting for grant documents to be sent so we can provide
all the required documents to the city of san benito. Our agency has a history
of being in compliance with all requests and timely submissions.
our hope is that the city of san benito will continue to support the service we provide
to the children of san benito. So far this year, we have served a
total of 47 children. Outcomes included three children
reunified with their parents. Seven children were granted custody
to a relative. Six were adopted and one youth aged out of foster
care. The funding provided from the city of san benito is
to fund a portion of the volunteer supervisor assigned to san
benito cases. This staff supports, guides all of the
work completed by community volunteers appointed to represent
children during this time in care. Thank you for the funding we have
received over the years. We hope to continue to work with the city of san benito
and serve the most vulnerable population. Thank you for your time and consideration.
thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Came a okay.
anybody else? Did we miss anybody? Anybody
else? None. No. Okay. I'll bring up
what's
mike. Travis, 1695 russell lane. Uh, I do not represent
anyone. I am a concerned citizen. Um, but I would just like
to comment here. Uh, I'm glad to see, uh, the
city administration is working on getting grants and,
um, of all the organizations
that I heard, uh, I would say I vote for
spreading it out, all of them. And also, I would just say, as, uh,
already said, the library is my oasis. So
I'm all about whatever supports the library. And casa
uh, my my deceased wife was very involved with that. So I have firsthand,
well secondhand, you know, experience and stuff dealing with that.
'cause she was very involved with that. So, again, uh,
repeating myself. I'm glad to see that the, um, city is,
uh, getting grants. Uh, I hope and pray that we can get more grants,
put my tax dollars at work and, uh, to just be good
stewards and use funds wisely. Thank you.
yes, thank you. Thank you.
nobody else? Okay, that
time is, uh, six 11. We're closing the hearing.
okay, mayor, commissioners, we go on to, um,
consent. All items from one to
14 to 14 are listed as consent. Um,
we can vote on all of 'em unless you'd like to remove some to discuss, like
pull item five. Okay. Okay. I got item five.
anything else be five, six and seven? Um,
five, six and seven. Okey doke. Pull eight 11.
okay. 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8.
and is it another one? Commissioner? 11. 11. Okay.
okay. So item 5, 6, 7, 11, 8, and
11. Okay. 8, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11. That
right? Okay. So I have a motion for that. Uh, then
I have a motion to approve the remaining items, which would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 12,
and 13. 14. I'm gonna pull nine out.
pull nine. All right. I'll amend my motion to pass co consent
items. 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 10, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, 12, 13,
and 14. Do I have a second? Second. Second by commissioner morales.
all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Motion passes to pass. Uh,
1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 12, 13, 14.
now I'll take it one at a time. Number five. Sure. Number five. Okay. Consideration,
possible action. Approve a proposal for professional services, carpi knock entertainment,
and, uh, associates for the san benito outdoor music venue feasibility study
in the amount of $15,000. Thank you. Uh,
fred, I tell you, this is a, a great, great idea and we've talked
about it a little bit and I think it's a terrific idea, uh, that we start looking
at this. Uh, I just was concerned about the,
uh, the bid here to produce kind of a, an interim feasibility.
I see that kind of what that is. And just wonder what their qualifications were for
doing that. Because I believe that the, uh,
I, I don't want to get started on this and, and kind of see that perhaps there's a lot more that
we could be doing with it. I, I just wanna make sure that we, we, we see
what we're doing completely when we go into this. Absolutely. Does that make sense? So I absolutely, I
just didn't know the qualifications of these people. Just wanted to look at maybe the scope of
the work a little bit more. Uh, and, and just kind of, I mean, I'm, I'm happy to go forward.
I think it's a great thing to do. Sure. I just want to be able to, uh,
make sure that we go at it the right way and look at it. 'cause I saw, you know, I saw,
you know, environmental impact. I didn't see any economic impact study kind of information in there as well, which
was always something else that becomes important to me. That's, that's part of the feasibility study.
I mean, we, we want to, we wanna look at, at, uh,
I mean, I think the economic development side of it is gonna take care of itself. I mean, it's
a little hard to predict, but I will tell you this, the team that, that that's,
that we're, that we're gonna work with here, uh, has a wealth of experience
not only actually doing promotions and concerts, but also has a,
a an engineering and and professional component. That's actually gonna
be the, the driving force behind the, the, the, the numbers behind this.
the actual structure, the actual, uh, feasibility of it. Not,
not just on what it's gonna take to make it successful, but
also to keep it viable. Make sure it doesn't flood, make sure we have the proper,
uh, electrical service, things like that. And then something that's gonna be, uh,
I just want to get halfway through there and start to see, okay, well the demand is way bigger
and so maybe we should start be doing a, a whole lot more, or we have too much to begin
with. I mean, I, I don't know what, what that is. And all of that's all expensive
feasibility stuff. I realize that. Sure. But I, I just, uh,
uh, I just wanna make sure we go in it with eyes wide open and we understand what the potential is as
well as that. 'cause you know, how many, how many times, how many weekends a year can we use this? Or how
many times during the year can we used, you know, and, and, and I, you know, I, I don't
know that kind of stuff, but let's, you know, what kind of assistance
is it gonna take from the city in order to support, to support the venue, to
make sure that it is booked up and done? I mean, there's just a lot of questions in my mind that
still, uh, I, I don't wanna jump too hard, too fast. And so,
but, but I, I do want to get into it. I think it's absolutely great. But we, there
are just a lot of other things. And, and I, again, my basic question was I didn't know the qualifications of
the individuals performing the, the analysis at the sure. I mean, uh, we've
got representatives here. I mean, if you have any questions, we can call 'em up.
uh, but a again, rest assured that this is a work in progress.
what we wanted to do was get started, uh, when we had our, when we had our,
um, our workshop on strategic planning and what
we wanted to go forward. I took the takeaway that I, that I got from that
meeting was, this was low hanging fruit. And it's something that
not only sits with our cultural heritage, our musical heritage, but it's just
a great opportunity on a lot of different levels. I've shared this with some of the
other folks that are interested in this type of, uh, venue.
for example, the junto museum. I shared it with those folks and, uh, I heard
their support. Well, and, and you know, and I appreciate that. But there's bigger and better
here. Uh, we just wanted to get started. Obviously we can do a workshop. There's
a lot of things that we can do to customize this to make it fit, uh,
and answer any questions you may have. Well, and, and I would like to be involved. I mean, I do have
some experience with, not with the event promotions by any means, but, but, uh,
I, I, I just want to see that we don't do this, that we do this the right
way. For sure. That's, that's my biggest concern. And I just, you know, we gotta start
spending money. That's great. I wanna make sure we're asking the right questions. I'm not the brightest light bulb in the back, but
that we're seeing the right things that we can potentially become. I
think this can be huge. I really do. I agree with it. Mm-hmm. . But I don't want to go starting
too soon too little for something that could actually be a lot bigger, a
lot faster in the long run. So, sure. So I, it's a
great thing. It's a great concept. I support you a hundred percent, fred. I just want to be careful in how we
go at this. No, we will. And I appreciate your comments and I think, uh,
from the staff standpoint, you know, just looking at this, we, I've done
this before. It was an indoor venue. Uh, we did it in my previous, my
previous post, and I'm gonna tell you right now, we were doing events, uh, pretty much
every month. Uh, it was a little, it was a smaller venue, uh,
but it, it hit a niche that a lot of, a lot of places in the upper valley
couldn't meet. And, uh, so I do have a little experience with this,
and I do know that the outdoor venue, the fact that we would be the
only ones that would have something like this, probably, you know, south of houston,
uh, would put us in a really, really great position,
uh, to not only attract other, other, other business, uh,
some of these ancillary secondary and tertiary type stuff that, that kind of goes
along with this. Uh, and it's just a, this is where that discussion goes. And finding
that niche and making sure we're in that niche is part of what that, you know, we're looking for, for that study
to produce. Because then it goes to the edc and we, we attract hotels, we attract other
things with what we're doing at the same time, because it needs to come along
together. And so it just all has to be properly
structured so that we can done it. I just didn't want to, you know, throw up against the wall and see what sticks.
'cause I think we can do a lot better than that. Sure. I,
I see some, I see the guys back there smiling. So I'm, I'm, do you guys have any comments about
that? Agree, . Okay.
thank you. Commissioners. I've kind of, yeah, I'm
with goodman, like, uh, commissioner goodman, you know, how do we start this process?
I don't, I don't think any of us are in the music venue business, but
I, the way I pictured the, the fairgrounds and I first started when we first started
out, you know, it didn't have the carnival, and now it does. And it had a two or three
day carnival, and then it turned in or a day carnival, and then it turned into a two week carnival.
so it is growing. And the way I see it is kind of like mercedes, when you would go to the mercedes
restock show and you'd get stuck in the mud. I don't want that to happen
out here. We're gonna catch a very bad weather event
for this type hog water event sooner or later. I don't want that to happen.
um, do we have the proper parking situation? Do we have the enhancements
as far as like permanent restrooms, a permanent
structure, renting out that stage is like 25 grand, 15 to
25 grand every time. If we're doing that three times a year, that 75 grand should we just
build our own stage? That's, that's part of the program. So, so
making more of a permanent venue and then allowing other people to rent it from us.
I think it's a, it's, I think it's viable. I mean, we've proven it already,
so I don't, to me it's like understanding feasibility.
it's been feasible for the past few years. So what else am I looking for?
well, you're looking for, you are looking for some of the things you mentioned,
uh, feasibility. We know it, we know that people will come. We've
already proven that you're absolutely correct. But I think the real,
the real, uh, the real
plus is how can we make it sustainable and viable? So
to your point, parking, uh, all weather parking, uh,
power source, a permanent stage, uh, the, uh,
actual superstructure of the, the stage to be, uh, built correctly,
windstorm rated, um, there, you know, the possibility
of permanent bathrooms, rv hookups, things like that. I mean, we've got
a great opportunity there. And what we'd like to do is phase it. I want to
get in as, as, as efficiently and cost effectively
as we can, and then grow it from there. Whether that includes some public private partnerships,
some sponsorships. Uh, I know we've got a, a more robust packet
that we can share with y'all. But what I would say is allow me
to get this, you know, approved tonight so we could put together, uh,
you know, a workshop session with you so we can brief you on what the vision is
and where this thing could go either, you know, short term, midterm, and long
term. Uh, but the key is to get these things started as soon as possible.
there's some stuff working with junto museum. Uh, I know they had some, some
really good dialogue with the state. Um, and they want to come
down. They want to, they want to do a big musical event that they held. They
hold somewhere else. They wanna do it here next year. Uh, so these are kind
of things that, uh, really, really prove up what we're doing here.
and this is before they even knew what we were actually up to. Uh, so
this just kind of really seals it for us. Uh, and again,
like I said, we've got the heritage, we've got the, the musical history.
uh, and we really need to play this up. I think, uh, the economic development
spinoff and multipliers on this are almost hard
to measure at this point, because again, you start talking about, you know,
what it can draw in retail, uh, hotel motel, things like that.
um, it's, it's, it's a, it's a lot
to gauge. It is. And that's why we need to be strategic about it. Absolutely.
yeah. What are the phases, I guess, workshop be important to see what phases we want
to see? Absolutely. I don't think mercedes livestock show is built and
one day it was every time you went there was a new structure, a new parking lot. Mm-hmm. . And
you just kind of kept growing. Yeah, no, we've got, we've got, uh, these guys have a good team and
I feel real confident that they could put something together for us that would make a lot of sense.
uh, not only, um, to mr. Travis's
point, you know, not only letting us or allowing us to be good stewards of our, of our
taxpayer money, but we have a limited amount of, of, of revenue available.
and this is a perfect opportunity to increase our return on our investment,
uh, that we don't usually get. This is not, this is not normal city
function. We can't, can't get a big roi on street paving or,
uh, you know, wastewater, plant expansions or things like that. Those
are kind of, even, even parks for example, that's just a cost center. This is an
opportunity to really, uh, multiply our return on our investment.
and, um, you know, I I would recommend that we move forward on it. And again,
I wanna be totally transparent with the council and, uh, and of course
some of the stakeholders like the junta museum and some of these other folks, we'd love to get
'em involved. Okay. Motion to approve. I
got a motion by commissioner equipment. Do I have a second? Second. Second. By commissioner morale.
all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Motion passes. Thank
you, mayor. Commissioners. Item number six, consideration of possible action of approve of contract
with ox entertainment to provide production services for the 2024
aka fest. Uh, mayor commissioners, this is the same company that
provided the stage and production for, uh, hog wattle. Uh,
we, uh, did go out for bids. I mean, we did get some bids, car's
stage, uh, and production is actually, um, a step above everything else
that we got. Nobody else included video screens and,
uh, as, as a, as an addition to the, uh, the actual production.
and it's, and it's, uh, and how it sits. So it is a
little bit more than the other folks, but they bring a lot more to the table. Um,
and that's, that's basically why we're recommending approval.
and we ran it through staff actually. Okay. Can answer any questions?
I have a question. Yes, sir. How did, um,
we've used them for hog wattle. Yes, sir. How did that help the staff?
um, is nikki's back here. So I'd like to ask,
how did the, how did this help the turnaround for staff
as far as like it's plug and play, was it less work for the staff?
did we, the staff still have to be involved? Was it beneficial?
your honor commission is nikki serrano, parks and recreation, special plastic honor planner for
the record. Um, staff doesn't, when we hire these
dance for these organizations for production, we don't
actually get involved. You know, like we don't do any of the actual, like, building of
it. So, you know, so it does take that off of, off of our hands.
okay. And as I see the three other quotes, in your opinion,
in your professional opinion, what is, what do you see the difference between these
three? Um, as far as, uh, there's
price, right? There's a price difference, right? Of course. Um, but I don't know anything about
amage and, mm-hmm. , whatever a yamaha is.
no, it's probably a bike or a speaker, a cord. I don't know what that is, but
you know, in your opinion, I mean, I could, I, I just want to know,
what would you think as far as quality and sound? Right? As mr. Sanaz did mention,
it is, um, a large or stage, and it does include
three screens. Um, as far as sound, I really wouldn't
be able to say, like you said, you know, amp one versus amp v, what exactly
is a little bit, uh, better than, than what it is? Unless you know, we are actually
out there and, um, I know I did see some of you guys out at hog waddle
and this last hog wallet, hog water, it is going to be that same production.
so that's the type of quality that we expect. Yeah, that was pretty big. Mm-hmm,
, the people next door are not gonna sleep , they know
what to expect. They're gonna wait for the fireworks. So it's okay. Everybody's gonna be up partying. Well,
hopefully our city manager will be a big kid again. So
I don't know any of stephanie oz's songs, but I'm learning them. Okay. Anyway. Are,
are you thinking about the same concept like we did last time, sitting down in front of the stage with tabled?
no, this is a different, uh, you want, right? Yeah. We won't be selling
any kind. Any vip, the vip areas that we do have. It is
our special access and it is reserved for sponsors and, um,
designated officials or any kind of dignitaries. So,
you know, if you'd like to get that front row, we do have sponsorship packages available
for any is the dance floor this time? Yes, we do a dance floor. Everybody's
asking, but last time nobody was dancing. There's no over the dance floor part, right? No,
no, no. Definitely. So we do have the stage out in the parking lot and it does provide us
that perfect opportunity to have a dance floor. And this event kind
of is a little bit of mix with different genres and of course, with every
event we do like to promote the cultural heritage here in san benito. So we do have like
a mix of the hanno and junto, and it's a perfect stage for that
perfect, you know, floor for that, that opportunity for them to come out,
enjoy the show, and, you know, have some space to dance.
I didn't see any issues with hog water. I think the sound quality was good.
I don't know how everyone else feels. I mean, there's a price difference, but
who are the groups anyway, that's, do we have the group or that
one different? The next, the next one, yeah. Yes. The next okay. Yeah. Cell phone.
I'm sorry. That's okay. I know everybody's anxiously waiting.
gimme the streets and, um, equipment. I'm okay with it.
is this gonna have a shade structure over the stage? It does come with a roof, yes. Yeah.
know it's been pretty hot previous years. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. Any other
questions? Commissioners? Mayor six. Motion. Motion. I
got a motion by commissioner navarro, second by commissioner morales. All in favor? Aye.
aye. Any nas? Motion passes. Item number six. Thank you, mayor commers.
item number seven is consideration possible action to ratify the live performance agreements
with jamming joe productions and alba for performances
at 2024, aka fest. Nikki mayor and commissioners.
thank serano again for the record. Thank you. The agreements before you were approved last week to allow
staff sus to secure the acts and deposits for the bands. Both
bands have roots in san benito and they have met the budget constraints as
well as the criteria that we look for in these events
that promote the music in san benito. Staff recommends approval and I'm
available to answer any questions. Okay. Commissioners, any questions
just before me? I think
this one is the, um, jamming joe and
no. Are these the headliners? No, they are the opening bands.
one of them is the supporting act, which comes on right before the, the main act.
and then, um, the, one of the openers,
we don't have a agreement yet with the headliner. Yes, sir. That was approved.
what are we it was, it was approved, um, a while back, a few weeks back. Yes, sir. That
was my confusion. So that was the production
manager, but we approved, we don't have a headliner name yet,
right? It is under the, um, it is under their
like company, but we do have the headliner secured.
okay. We haven't disclosed yet though. No. Oh, okay.
. Um, it's a big sick ring.
oh, nikki. Okay. Okay. So just legal reasons and whatnot. Oh,
okay. Okay. Enough set . Yeah. Okay. That's fine.
but we will, we should be able to provide that information. Um, once, you know,
we approve the others, we can get rolling with, you know, the promoting and the,
and announcing. Okay. Okay.
so far, adam, seven. Any other questions? None. Okay.
do I have a motion for item number seven? Motion? You have a motion by commissioner morales.
second. Second. Second by commissioner navarro. All in favor?
aye. Aye. Any nays? Motion passes. Thank you.
I wanna make just a comment. You know, I, for me personally,
I don't really care who plays, but I think the community really has a lot
to say about who they want to play. So I never seen this done, but
why don't we just like, throw it out there, you know, what do you all, what genre do
you wanna see? Mm-hmm. . And just throw it's an opinion, right. And people, you're gonna get some crazy
comments. No, absolutely. I don't care. People comment wrong all the time,
but just give 'em an opportunity to voice their opinion. Whether, whether it's good or bad.
I do. Mr. Faa can handle it. Bill. I, I do. You know, we do.
um, like we've mentioned before, we do have an information booth out at the events and do
have a survey. Yeah. But that does allow people to, you know, just like here we have public hearings.
people don't come, we have town halls. Some people come, but on facebook you're
gonna have a million people comment and you're gonna have someone from canada commenting. But we can do definitely
is link the survey to the facebook, to the facebook, you go
page and like, if you were at the event, there you go. You're coming to the event. Make it easier, more
accessible, I don't know. Put it on the water utility bill. Scan this qr code for,
to put your opinion. And we do have a qr code. We have made it a little bit easier for people to
take that survey. Mm-hmm. . We have staff that walks around with the
qr code encouraging people to take the survey. Um, it's in english,
it's in spanish. Okay. So, you know, we are working on that and that's definitely something that we can look
forward to, you know. Yeah. Maybe po posting it on our social media media because these, these events are really for
them. Yeah, absolutely. So it's what they, what they want to listen to. Mm-hmm.
maybe just collaborating with the conjunto museum. They have an elida
they maybe have a feel for. Actually I would like to connect, give, um, the texas
junto music hall of fame and museum a shout out because they are sponsoring
one of our bands. Oh, awesome. So we will be promoting them through, through that
sponsorship of the band. Good. Oh, very nice. I appreciate it. Great collaboration. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
any other questions? Okay. We did okay. I'm sorry. No
worries. You threw everything out. I had to say thank, thank you guys. Thank you, nikki, for
what you're doing. Go ahead. Okay. Item number eight, consideration
possible action to allow mayor to sign an agreement between the city of san manto
and smart comm for the san manto police department's internet service.
good evening, mayor. Mayor proam, commissioners for the record. Police chief monte perria.
this item, uh, this request is a change, uh, data service with internet service from,
uh, spectrum to, uh, smart com. Uh, looking at it, it's,
uh, it's a little, it's a lot cheaper. Save over $22,000 in five years.
um, before I came here, ran the speed tests on spectrum. What we have now,
our download speed is 41.63. Our upload speed is 49.05.
smart com is offering a hundred mega, uh, a hundred by a hundred.
so a hundred, uh, download, a hundred upload. Um, we had
done this in the, uh, I think last year. I was working with jason to kind of switch it over.
'cause our c just wanted us to have our own internet dedicated, uh, e ethernet
line to the pd. And we didn't have that. So we were working with them, but we just couldn't
figure out if spectrum was under contract or, uh, month to
month. And we found out they're month to month. So, uh, I'm just, uh, requesting to, uh,
change it over. I have joe avaz here from smart com. You guys have any question. Also have, uh, richie from it
who can answer anything, uh, you need as far as, uh, when it comes to the internet service
and stuff like that. Okay. What, uh, types of systems,
um, I mean, it's great. Uh, obviously it's less expensive, so I'm all for it already.
but the, um, what kind of systems are essential for you to have that kind of
better speed? As far as it is, uh, like our c system that runs our n-c-I-c-t-c-I-c,
our any, all of our internet connection, uh, we run our, our mobile data stuff
runs off of a t-mobile, uh, network. Uh, but as far as when we log in,
we log in through our vpn into the system. But everything in the internet there at, at the pd
is, uh, is pretty much, uh, essential that things
we need. Yeah. Reliability's not an issue with
them. Uh, they already have service. We already have service, actually phone services with them. So
what I'm being told is that all they gotta do is flip a switch and we're connected to internet with 'em. Uh,
he did provide me a list of cities that are already using them. I didn't include it in there. I apologize. I got that
a little bit after the agenda was, was you, um, but you have,
you have city of mcallen, they have telephone, internet, access service, city of paren,
telephone, internet data service in far brownsville, palmview. And so they have some type
of service with them. So, uh, they are pretty, they're a well-established, uh, company.
okay. This is just an internet plan. Recently
I've been seeing, um, gigabit fiber and vtx expanding,
especially, um, harlingen. I've seen cameron county
did a feasibility study, reliability study on
internet services. I'm just wondering
if there, the, if the, if there's other, there was other players here that could have taken
part, but have you already been working on it? It looks like you're saving money. Hunger a hundred megabytes
per second sounds pretty good. Uh, smart com, like I said, is
already in our building. So it's, they don't easier connect anything. They're already in a building. They're
providing our phone services. So it's just a switch. And they're on, we're up and running with them.
it's via cable.
it's actually, they're, they're fiber. Okay. Fiber from point
to point. And we actually been in business for over 30 years. Close,
close to the microphone please. We've been in business for 30 years now
in, based in macal. And we actually built our own fiber and we maintained
all the network ourselves. So, uh, yeah, you mentioned the
gigabit, these new, new people that are in town. We've been, actually been, been doing the
school districts here to 2021, I believe. So we
actually have, I launched a residential side now. It's called austin fiber optics.
and, uh, our, our commercial side is smart on telephone, internet.
but, uh, we actually started doing it because of digital divide. Everybody's talking about,
we actually started doing, uh, residential services now. We did, uh, services
that got handled, uh, progressive. Most of the little towns along the
military highway, nobody else was servicing. So we actually have done that. But now
you got, you got other companies coming in. They're all basically
after the same customer. I looked up your company and
it shows you closed on the weekend. No, actually we are closed on the weekends,
but we actually have 24 hour, uh, answering services. And
we actually, our commercial accounts are all monitored. We actually monitor all our, uh,
we have our own network monitoring, so we're actually proactive to any outages
as opposed to reactive. So a lot of times when we see an outage, we actually
try to find out are they doing maintenance. So we don't dispatch a tech for,
for no reason. We'll actually call the the local place first.
but, but we're open. They see monday through friday, eight to five.
but we do have a 24 hour . Okay.
thank you. Chief. Uh, do you have a backup plan? Um,
I mean, I know my office on the island, I rely heavily on internet as well. And I have a
backup systems in place. Do you have a backup system? We, we do not. As far as
the internet goes down, we have to contact them. But like I said, we could still run our stuff,
uh, our, our mobile stuff. 'cause we have the t-mobile. If everything goes down, well
then, I mean that's, you're on wireless, you're on, it's a bigger problem.
well, usually we actually have a, uh, our whole little data
center set up in, in, in mc. We actually have a, uh, what they call, uh,
cos in different cities. And then we actually have built our own ring. So in case
there's a fiber attack, we actually reroute the traffic. So you have minimal
outage. And we recommend, and I believe you do have a generator on site,
so there's a power outage. As long as they've got power, we, we have power. It should
go out. Try to cover that. Your
name for the record, please. Oh, joe var. Thank you.
well, chief, I remember last budget cycle. I asked you to
look into some of these services to make some budget cuts, sir. And here you came back
and said, if you want more money for your department, you're gonna have to find it, sir.
and you found a little bit of it. So I recommend the rest of the department start doing that as well.
'cause the mayor and our, I don't know if he was gonna let me cut the taxes, but
a tax rate, that's a different topic, different agenda item. But thank
you for finding the cost savings and thank you to the newly acquired it
department for finding those tax savings. So already paying for themselves.
so appreciate it. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Do
I have a motion? I have a motion. I got a motion by commissioner navarro. Second. Second.
second by commissioner morales. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Motion passes.
thank you. Don't worry chief, I'm gonna raise sales tax ,
nobody, nobody's accounting for that. Item number nine, consideration possible action
approved payment to gdj engineering for drainage water and sewer system
survey and gis dashboard development for $43,348
and 42 cents. I pulled this one out, I just wanted to make clear.
this is a, a payment of what we already approved, right? That is correct. Um,
I kind of just want an update from joanna or whoever can provide an update where they're at. Is
this for stanger? No, no. This, this is, no, this is for the gi is packet for
your gi is so they're about 60% complete with the map
on, I don't know if you can see it within in your packet. Uh, and
usually put their, uh, invoice in there and it's very
detailed. So it breaks down ev the amount that we initially
approved the previous payment, and then the completion
rate for the total project and the remaining balance. And then if you look on the
side, it tells you, um, each
I task and how much of that they've completed. So right now,
um, a lot of the tasks are not very complete, but it's because
they're working on actually being out there and serving and picking
up all the, on the location. So they're about to see exactly thing
of that. Are you comfortable with the quality of the work?
so, so, so far this company actually, um, we have no
issues with them ever. Um, I haven't, we haven't seen the
data yet 'cause they're still collecting it. So the next step would
be to actually see what they present to us. But honestly, we've never had an issue with
this. Okay. Excited to see what the end result looks
like. Yes. Okay. Any other
questions, commissioners? None. Do I have a motion? Motion?
mayor? I got a motion by mayor galvan. Second. Second. Second by commissioner
mor. Um, navarro, I'm sorry. Commissioner navarro. All in favor?
aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Item
levin. Consideration possible action to approve the purchase of road materials for the
ooky park parking lot repaving project in the amount of $175,631.
object. I'll talk you later. Good evening
again, deanna for the record. And, um, I'm requesting the approval
of the purchase road material necessary for a 50 be
lot caving project. The total amount needed for this purchase
is $175,631, which includes a 10%
contingency to accommodate for unperceived um, expenses.
these materials will be procured through our existing 12 month open
contact with materials incorporated, which is managed by
public works. And the funding for this project will be allocated
from bond 44, which is linked to the general obligation refunding
bond issued in 2012. Currently, the bond hold 44 holds
ba a balance of $244,118
and 56 cents. Uh, it's specifically designed for product improvements
and other public purposes. Um, but the student investment is crucial in
maintaining and enhancing student carts infrastructure to ensure, you know,
safe and accessible facilities for our community members, including the four eight
girls club. And it's in dire need of repair. And it's, right now it's
a lot cheaper to repair than to completely replace.
and so recommend because
questions? No, we talking, uh, we're talking only the parking lot. Every,
are we talking about all of all the road surrounding all parking lot, even the soccer,
several parking lot. Yeah. Yes. There's several parking lots. Mm-hmm. That are gonna be three.
okay. So, okay. I just wanna say this is a long time overdue. Yes.
um, miss deana, thank you so much for putting this together. This was probably the most complete procurement
packet I've ever seen. And they tell me I don't need all the information, but
there I see it and there's pages and pages of it. I like to know
how the process works. I mean, I even know who was there during the bid time opening.
this is just fantastic. Um, it's coming in cheaper than
I had anticipated because it's in house work, right? Correct. Yeah. Public
works has the machinery and the staff that are so gonna be helping us,
will be working for another month. He said for the record
to help out with the project. Um, I, I just can't say
thank you enough. I think everybody, this is way, way, way overdue.
yes. Um, I agree. It's fantastic. Can't wait to see
what it looks like. So many people are gonna benefit from this.
now we're gonna put some, uh, parking signs, you know, the, the
lines and everything and everything. Okay.
strobe lights and everything. . Maybe, maybe, maybe, uh, you know,
maybe, maybe some lights. Not strobe. Okay.
they already strobe on their own. Mayor . Yeah. Move. Okay,
well, we'll do some solar stuff out. Something. Any other questions? Could be reserves.
none. Do I have a motion? Motion? You got a motion by comm morale
second by the mayor . All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Motion
passes. Thank you. Your okay.
rick, any other thing? No, sir. That's it, mayor. Just everybody just
want to please be safe. Uh, we will be close tomorrow as the mayor said. Uh,
but we will have not only, uh, public work standby, but we will have park standby
crews available, uh, you know, in case something assist the police
and the fire department's, road closures, you know, down trees, things like that.
we're hoping we won't get there, but, uh, but we're ready. And, and just so everybody knows,
our mayor's on standby too. 'cause he's up early in the morning and he'll go and assess
the issues. Yep. So , we wanna keep our mayors safe, so let's stay all
home. . Yeah. Well, I love being out there. It's, I love being out there to
the public. So, uh, yeah, as soon as it hits, um, don't
come on me, just be near. But, uh, as soon as I can, there's a chance I'll be
out there. I'll be looking also in, uh, uh, assessing what's going on. So,
uh, I'll do my best to keep everybody, you know, at the, at
the park. But, uh, please public, if you don't need to be out there, please
stay home. And, uh, we shall all, you know, a safe, you
know, uh, night day that's coming. But, um,
again, I would just wanna take everybody that's, that's gonna be, you
know, helping out with the, with the city. Mm-hmm. , you know, just workers.
please be safe. Yeah, we need the rain, but we want everybody to be safe. Yes. We need
the rain. Honestly, we need it, uh, for reservoirs,
but it's gonna come with the cost. People don't know about the drought situation. Just go look at the
saka. I don't tell you. Yeah. So I went kayaking the
other day. It was six inches deep and that's where we get our water from. So
that's coming. Fred, come on, . Okay. Uh, as
far as I know, uh, 6 48 and we're adjourned.