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All right, it's 5:00. I'm going to call
our meeting to order. This is our city

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council special session for Wednesday,
December 17th, 2025.

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It is 5:00 p.m. And so being called to
order, we have a forum present

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on this time of year as we should every
day of the year. Thank you for Jesus

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Christ. That what Christmas is all
about. Thank you so much for Jesus

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coming into this world dying for our
sins. Hope you guys should be with us as

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the city council that you take care of
the business of the city should give us

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the wisdom we need to do that. I do want
to pray for each and every one of our

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know.

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That's my prayer in Jesus name. Amen.
I aliance to the flag of the United

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States of America and to the republic
for it stands one nation

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indivisible with liberty and justice for
all. Texas flag

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to the Texas. One state
one and indivisible.

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meeting special [clears throat] session
meeting. Uh we have one item on the

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agenda and that's discussion and
possible action on authorizing purchase

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a [clears throat] fire truck.
We have y'all have copies of the bid.

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» This is not really a bid because we
didn't go out for

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this.
>> It's a it's a quote. We don't have to go

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out for this on on this particular
>> Okay.

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last week,
>> Mr. H.

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» It's on HG.
>> I think that's what I said.

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Contract all everybody's on the same
contract.

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Instead, we had to go out for

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» on this truck
>> on

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it doesn't matter. It's on this truck.
We don't have to go out.

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» So, uh, is there any discussion question
from council?

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I'm going to stand up and I'm just going
to break it out.

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As a car chief, city of West Orange
wanted me to come in here and do this.

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This water truck that y'all want to
purchase is useless for the city of West

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Orange. The taxpayer, this is not what
we need. This is ridiculous. I'll be

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first up to you. If you buy this, we got
you want this truck. Y'all want to use

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this truck? They're pretty much going to
use this truck for whatever the road

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bridge or the road drainage cuz this is
not a fire truck. There's no place to

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put our equipment on it. We bought all
this equipment that we've been

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purchasing, jaws and airbags and all
this stuff that's going on both the

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truck. There's not even a spot to put
this stuff. Where are we going to carry

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our hose at? We have a th000 ft of 5 in
on that other truck that we want to

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replace. Where you going to put it on
this truck? There's no hill on it. This

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truck is useless. If I was a taxpayer of
West Orange, I'd be aggravated and

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pissed if y'all saw this truck because I
know as a fireman, as a fire chief, this

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is not what we need. If I not a police
car, I'm sure Mr. Kelly wouldn't want me

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to go back on his police car or police
only know they're even under the right

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deal. Are those
truths?

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» There's no standard.
>> There's no standard.

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» But this is not what we need. I'm not
going to get fight.

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Did y'all buy this truck to waste the
money? I think you ought to take the

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money. You don't want to buy a fire
truck and go buy him some play around

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with it, sir.
>> So, if you take that truck to a fire,

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you can't fire it.
>> Yeah. If you fight a fire halfway and

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that it's only got a 500 gpm pump. So,
buying the shrub for the rating is going

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to make our rating go up instead of back
down where we've been trying to get it

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to go down. As far as the ISO rating,
it's going to make go up because we're

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losing a th00p
of a pump. So, that's going to hurt us

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on that part.
>> What makes this different as far as the

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water
pump? Yeah, something. And you ain't got

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I don't have any place to put hoses.
>> Right. Right.

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» And I don't have any places to put hand
tools or ladders. It cannot be a direct

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replacement for engine one. engine one
goes down. This truck will not cover

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that truck.
So, you know, you only got a 750.

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There's actually a 750 GP on here. And
we need to be I mean, that's one of the

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hits we took on ISO anyway because we
didn't have pump for what we need

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inside.
You got Walmart, the old Walmart, got

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these apartments over here, you got some
industrial, you know, live industrials.

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I mean the big warehouses and there's a
couple warehouses

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they ain't going this truck won't build
do anything

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you know it's
barely do a single home

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and then you can't handle ho you have to
lay a line with you

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this truck more made for a rural fire
district if you live way out in the

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woods somewhere and you had to shut
water took off that's what this truck

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would be
This is like a third or fourth.

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» It's just built to carry water back and
forth where you ain't got to get hand

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tools and all that stuff off of it.
You're not laying line. It's just

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basically a water truck. So all carry
the water back and forth to a fire. We

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have fire pretty much everywhere. The
grant is for a tanker truck. So you got

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to put it as a tanker with a dump. So
pretty much buying the engine and

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putting a dump on the back of it to make
it qualify for what it is to be able to

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get the brand
out.

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That's what we got. We need to replace
an engine. We don't need I mean this is

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a
that's a way to get around it.

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Basically, we got to replace an engine.
This is not an engine. This is a

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tank. It is all strictly to shovel
water. It is not made to fight fire.

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Gral water. or water. That's right. But
you can

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upgrade it to a pumper.
You know, this truck had a hose on it

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and a bigger pump. It still be a
your your statement then was correct.

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You can upgrade it if you have the money
to upgrade.

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She doesn't have the money to upgrade.

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I mean, you might throw all the way to
GR and you'll never get enough.

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» You know, this is not

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for us by this.

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It's it won't fit the need that's
needed.

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Now, we was keeping the 10 was in better
shape.

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But I need to replace

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and
what you what you need and what the city

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can afford
are two different things.

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» The city can't afford
Well, we really can't afford to spend

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the extra $70,000. It's going to cost
this truck

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whatever.
We're I'm I'm sorry. I'm speaking for

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myself only, not the rest of the
council.

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This this is this is what the the city
really can't afford to spend that

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$7,000. Y'all don't understand. You seem
to keep pushing and saying that the that

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we can get something that we cannot. I
can't afford to pay the bills that we

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have coming in right now. And All we're
doing is spending money that we have

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another fund. By the time this by this
time next year, we will not have any

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money in the the fund that we're
spending all the money out of. It's it's

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a limited resource. We just don't have
the funds to buy a5 or $600,000 to spend

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another three or $400,000 on fire.
>> If this won't help you, that's your

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choice. Y'all decide whether you do or
do not want. This is what

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this is what we can get you.

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» Well, here's the thing. They don't want
you. They want you to order

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it so long. I mean, a year to safely say

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anybody Go ahead. Hang on.

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» The need for the city and for the fire
department in order to effectively fight

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fires in the city and and I don't
believe that that we need to spend the

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extra $70,000
if there are any other options.

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If this isn't going to give them what
they need

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in better shape

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is unreliable.

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We got electrical problem and ain't
nobody

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» want to make a motion to not

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motion.
>> We have a motion and a second. Is there

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any more discussion?

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We got 10.

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Somebody got
somebody.

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» I'll take that brand new truck out
there. We've been spending money on all

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of the equipment that you need.

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» But when we don't have money, what do
you want to do? What we do? What do you

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want to do?
>> I'm willing I'm willing to spend money.

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Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
>> I'm willing to spend money on repairing

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the truck that's out there, but I can't
afford the city can't afford to spend uh

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what what the fire chief and the
assistant fire chief are saying they

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have to have in order to uh purchase
fire trucks.

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» I I'm not going to do it. They do have
another option and it's up to y'all.

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That's all I could. Every other city and
county in the county of Orange County

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does this. They finance the fire truck
so they don't have to pay the full

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amount up front. You can take it all out
at one time. It takes over a year to get

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the truck. You can put that money up
into an account and make interest off of

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that account until the truck comes in.
Cypress just did it on their new engine

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and they just did it on their new tanker
that they're actually getting today. The

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same grant that we got, they're getting
their tanker today. This is something

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that does work and you can break the
payments into smaller amounts. In 2022,

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we spent $150,000 on police cars. On
2023, we spent $220,000.

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That's the same price you'd be paying a
year for a fire truck. Fire trucks 10

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times the size of police.
Everybody does it and it really does

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work. I think the board for the council
should look into that option. I know

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y'all don't like it. I think it's
definitely something that could benefit

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the city and help in the long term
purchase of

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» amen

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that motion.
So the motion has been

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amended and second's been amended.
Second follow up with the amended

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motion. Is there any other discussion?

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If not, I'll call for vote. All in favor
say I.

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All
>> oppos. Motion carries.

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Next item on the list is to this meeting
is a jar.