Source: YouTube transcript file from James
Meeting: Crockett City Council, 2026-08-03
Identified from the tape: "This is all Monday, August the 3rd, 2026."
Status: verbatim auto-captions. Names are often wrong. Not reviewed. Not for the public site.


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Chapter 1: Opening and public comment
0:1414 secondsOh, I'm sorry. Just that time. Is [name] here to see.
0:1919 secondsGood evening, everyone. At this time, we're are opening our city council meeting. In case you This is all Monday, August the 3rd, 2026.
0:2929 secondsUh we're open with an invocation and a pledge.
0:3434 secondsHeavenly Father, we come to you this afternoon thanking you for this day.
0:3838 secondsLord, we just uh ask your blessing upon this meeting tonight and give us wisdom pertaining to all the subject matter tonight that uh we may get things done
0:4747 secondsthat [clears throat] bring glory to you and we thank you and give you all the praise in Christ Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
0:5353 secondsAmen. Pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and
1:001 minuteto the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
1:121 minute, 12 secondsAt this time, we said thank you so much for joining us today.
1:171 minute, 17 secondsOh, you're talking. Um, oh, at this time we don't have anyone
1:241 minute, 24 secondsthat sign of recognition of with the recognition of visit of visitors. Uh, we do appreciate you being here. We don't
1:331 minute, 33 secondshave any signups for public comments, but we we're still open for comments.
Chapter 2: Council opening comments
1:391 minute, 39 secondsWell, I have a comment. Does anyone else have a comment from council? Ma'am.
1:431 minute, 43 secondsOkay. I'd just like to say that this weekend was really a good representation of the city. We were invited to we had and well we had
1:521 minute, 52 secondsan unusual amount of funerals over the last two or three months and it has been it has been a pleasure that we were
2:012 minutes, 1 secondrepresented different members of the count uh council and myself were able to visit and add some support to the family
2:082 minutes, 8 secondsand I think that's very needed in in a community of this size. And also I'd like to give a shout out to [name] and the
2:162 minutes, 16 secondssecretary who I don't know if it's who actually wrote the proclamation. We have it was a group from the rural area that all their basically their family had
2:252 minutes, 25 secondskind of moved into the city. uh the Reese, the Williams, the they they did their celebration uh and they stopped by
2:332 minutes, 33 secondscity hall and they just wanted to meet and see where the city was at this point and I think missed it for five. They
2:402 minutes, 40 secondswanted four, one for each of the older generation and it was and I finally understood why they wanted four proclamation recognized because each it
2:492 minutes, 49 secondswas each was a family branch and they came as far as from New York all the way down and and they ended their event in
2:562 minutes, 56 secondsHouston where a lot of the people were there. But we're grateful that [name] got refreshments for them. They said, "Well, we y'all going to have any water and
3:043 minutes, 4 secondsstuff?" I said, "Well, let me see." And I saw I saw [name] [laughter] And so and it was like about 25 26 from
3:143 minutes, 14 secondsthe family and they came in individual cards but they were really appreciative and they they were just said they're going to keep kind of keep up with the city and I thought that was really good
3:223 minutes, 22 secondsthat they haven't forgotten where their roots were and we appreciated that. And so with that being said it brings us
3:303 minutes, 30 secondsdown to item number one approval minutes from the regular session July 2026.
Chapter 3: Approval of meeting minutes
3:383 minutes, 38 secondsGo ahead.
3:403 minutes, 40 secondsUm, I just have a point of information I'd like to ask uh the uh city attorney or whoever can answer. Um, there were
3:483 minutes, 48 secondssome um [clears throat] um statements, my understanding that uh the agenda should consist of statements and
3:553 minutes, 55 secondsactivities that happened during the meeting. So, if there were statements that were made at that time and they're
4:024 minutes, 2 secondsmissing from the agenda, do we need to go back and review and have those in
4:094 minutes, 9 secondsplaced in there or because there were statements that I had made that I needed to um clarify and so
4:174 minutes, 17 secondswhen I reviewed the agenda, those statements were not there.
4:234 minutes, 23 secondsAgenda typically word for word it's not is it? No, it is basically a summary summary
4:314 minutes, 31 secondsof what was what was deemed imper it's not necessarily word for word if it's an item that was we should probably maintain discussion
4:394 minutes, 39 secondsand questions after a vote and a second is made um well I'll make a motion that we approve
4:474 minutes, 47 secondsI minutes of July 20 okay it's been any question okay it's been moved and Yes sir.
4:574 minutes, 57 secondsNow question. Okay. So now can I continue with the question?
5:045 minutes, 4 secondsSo you want to add statements in uh yes ma'am. Uh review the review um
5:125 minutes, 12 secondsbecause there were statements made by council. So there was uh it was not added in the um it's not noted I needed to say in the minutes.
5:285 minutes, 28 secondsOkay. Okay.
5:345 minutes, 34 secondsOkay. I I thought that summary correct the way it is.
5:385 minutes, 38 secondsUh well, I mean being it is nothing stated. Nothing's noted in the minutes that was stated. So, um
5:485 minutes, 48 secondsa lot of those corrections can easily be made that we sent it out a week in advance. um these minutes and so if there's any corrections that need to be
5:565 minutes, 56 secondsmade, we can do some quick research and include those to have them ready for council. Um if those are correct requests, um we're always happy to, but
6:056 minutes, 5 secondsnot not we can't review them when they're only brought to our attention the day of or at the meeting.
6:126 minutes, 12 secondsOkay. Surely I was not well unless I was the only one that recognized it, but uh I I'll I'll bring this to his attention later and then we'll revisit it. Okay.
6:256 minutes, 25 secondsOkay. With the motions on on the floor, all in favor?
6:296 minutes, 29 secondsOkay. Minutes approved. We're on to item item number two, business. Is it
Chapter 4: Electrical contract approval
6:376 minutes, 37 secondsconsidering approving electrical contract for energy supply for all city facilities effected June 1st, 2027?
6:456 minutes, 45 secondsMayor and council, I brought this uh about six months ago and at that time it was uh council's decision to wait a little bit longer to see if rates
6:536 minutes, 53 secondsimprove. Um I am happy to say that the rates have improved. Um I do have a summary uh from
7:027 minutes, 2 secondsour energy broker uh that sent an update uh as a as just a quick refresher. Uh
7:107 minutes, 10 secondsthese are the options as of today. I highlighted the lowest offers in green.
7:147 minutes, 14 secondsAs a reminder, your current rate with TXU is 0335544
7:207 minutes, 20 secondscent. So we pay 3.3 cents essentially now per kilowatt hour, but the market has only continued to go up since 2018.
7:307 minutes, 30 secondsThat's when we're we're under a contract from 2018. Here recently, your strip particular has come way down. It's very smart to budget for the city and go with
7:387 minutes, 38 secondsa longer term while the market is at a current low point. This is u the the quotes as of today. They
7:477 minutes, 47 secondschange daily. Um these are the quotes um that she submitted today
7:547 minutes, 54 secondsusing months 12 through 96. A 12 month through a 90. So a one year to an 8year uh is highlighted there in green. And if
8:038 minutes, 3 secondswe wanted to go to a 9-year, uh TXU is the lowest. NG is the lowest one year through eight years um year-over-year.
8:128 minutes, 12 secondsUm we're currently with TXU as our provider. Encore is our distribution. Um
8:218 minutes, 21 secondsso obviously we stay with Encore as our distribution, but the energy is purchased through one of these companies. Our contract expires in June 2027.
8:318 minutes, 31 secondsHere's a graph I put in that your packet to show where the market is as of it's it's just now reached um a two-year low.
8:428 minutes, 42 secondsSo, it's it's shown a continuous and gradual increase. Uh we are in a
8:488 minutes, 48 secondsdip. UK themselves their um projections and forecasting do not predict us going down, you know, continuing a downward trend.
8:598 minutes, 59 secondsthey can they believe we're going to be in an upward trend. That being said, if we were to wait another week, month, two
9:069 minutes, 6 secondsmonths, it's it's kind of like, you know, investment in the stock market. We don't know. I can't I can't guarantee you whether we're going to be at the
9:159 minutes, 15 secondslowest and this is the best time to buy, but I do feel like the risk is much greater um than the reward if we don't
9:239 minutes, 23 secondstake advantage of locking in our electricity. Um there's some pretty big risks of not being able to lock in a long term. As it is with the best rate
9:319 minutes, 31 secondsthat they provided us today, our energy will be increasing by about 25% in total cost over the
9:399 minutes, 39 secondsyear-over-year. Um because our energy purchasing is going to double. Our distribution rate stays the same.
9:499 minutes, 49 secondsUm so the 50% portion that we pay into energy cost that will be doubling.
9:599 minutes, 59 secondsUm the question would be what the what's the data centers going to do this as well.
10:0810 minutes, 8 secondsIt's recently put out by OT that the demand on the grid will increase I believe four to fivefold
10:1610 minutes, 16 secondsum by 2030. And so there's also a push by legislators and and Governor Abbott
10:2210 minutes, 22 secondsand so forth to load the costs of the of the electricity that's going to be increased on the grid to have the data
10:3010 minutes, 30 secondscenters carry that cost. However, u I don't know how it's going to impact I I I can't see it being for the good.
10:4110 minutes, 41 secondsUm, so you're saying we have a we have a data center here in located in the city of Crockett or Houston.
10:5110 minutes, 51 secondsSo, um, we purchase a little over 2 million kilowatts a year. Um, that's with all city facilities and street lights and
11:0011 minutesand everything throughout the city. Um what um
11:0911 minutes, 9 secondsthis is the rates as I mentioned our rates being at 3.3
11:1611 minutes, 16 secondscents here the best rate for a 12 month is 5.8 8 cents if we stretched out to
11:2511 minutes, 25 seconds36 to 48 months. I would like to see us if we are going to go with the contract that we at least do to three to four years.
11:3311 minutes, 33 secondsWe're not taking a big risk of foregoing savings if we do continue a downtrend because we can do tagons to
11:4211 minutes, 42 secondsthat uh contract. that was going to be if the rates go further down, we can renew after the end of that contract and
11:4911 minutes, 49 secondswe can lock in some rates for the future contract.
11:5311 minutes, 53 secondsThat was going to be my question is like um just prior to uh our past contracts, have they normally been yearbyear?
12:0212 minutes, 2 secondsOur first contract was a five-year contract with TXU. Okay.
12:0612 minutes, 6 secondsAnd the rates dipped a little bit lower and I added a three-year contract to the end of the five-year. So we've been benefiting
12:1412 minutes, 14 secondssince 2018 under roughly under the three. So we're under we're currently under a three-year ter. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right.
12:2212 minutes, 22 secondsBut an 8year total. Yes.
12:2412 minutes, 24 secondsBut I added a we we added a three-year after that fiveyear term.
12:2812 minutes, 28 secondsSo four 48 months and 60 months uh with NG is a better the better rate.
12:3712 minutes, 37 secondsYes.
12:3812 minutes, 38 secondsSo the uh contract on uh the our previous company that we had TXU TXU. So, can we look at that contract?
12:4712 minutes, 47 secondsCan we see that contract? So, we could I have it.
12:5012 minutes, 50 secondsIt's just um the only difference would be the the rates which the current rates is three and a half 3.3 cents. But yeah, well, like I said, I can't show you
12:5912 minutes, 59 secondsanother contract to compare it with because we have not Okay.
13:0213 minutes, 2 secondsuh locked in any contracts with any other companies other than TXU. I I do have a current TXU contract, but then you would give an opportunity to look at the contract to see. Yeah.
13:1113 minutes, 11 secondsAnd so it to be sim so the contract that we're looking at possibly would be similar to the one that you're asking us. Yes.
13:1813 minutes, 18 secondsTerms the difference would be terms uh that council selects and or the rate. So those are going to be the main differences.
13:2713 minutes, 27 secondsIt'll be the same electricity depending on no matter who uh what supplier we choose.
13:3313 minutes, 33 secondsOkay. Do you have a um far as like the cost of uh usage like for our
13:4013 minutes, 40 secondsdepartments? Do you have something like that?
13:4213 minutes, 42 secondsYes. And it's in each each budget. Every budget has the cost um both in activity and in what council's approving for our subsequent budgets.
13:5313 minutes, 53 secondsOkay. That's for each each department.
13:5513 minutes, 55 secondsYes, ma'am. Each department is in y'all's budget. And I just handed y'all a y'all's latest uh draft budget. So, every department has a line item for electricity in there.
14:0514 minutes, 5 secondsOkay. Biggest one is the street department, I believe, um, which includes all of our street lights. And then the civic center is another higher consumer.
14:1514 minutes, 15 secondsSo, pretty years would put us at 30 31.
14:2514 minutes, 25 secondsI said five years will put us at 31.
14:4114 minutes, 41 secondsyou know, and so the ESID, those are the meters that we're serving servicing.
14:4714 minutes, 47 secondsSome of them are meters and some of them are accounts. So multiple large accounts all operate for street lights, they all
14:5414 minutes, 54 secondsoperate under one ESI. So, it's either multi multi-account meters or there's an ESID for the city hall and
15:0415 minutes, 4 secondspolice department. Every facility has an ESID.
15:0815 minutes, 8 secondsOkay. But the bottom line, the rate, but we have 64 accounts.
15:1215 minutes, 12 secondsYeah. We're basically using the same rate.
15:1415 minutes, 14 secondsYes. And so I mean it depending on what your the size of your department at the rate I mean that the amount is going to differ but the rate is what we're kind
15:2315 minutes, 23 secondsof deciding what we're going to balance of not so much monitor what they're doing but overall what the rate will be
15:3115 minutes, 31 secondsoffered to the city. I know in 2018 our electricity budget was close to 400,000 a year is what we spent in electricity
15:4015 minutes, 40 secondsand we currently spend about 140,000 a year. Wow.
15:4515 minutes, 45 secondsUm if we were to increase that by roughly 25% then you know that's going to be 10 be
15:5215 minutes, 52 secondsabout $35,000 increase across all departments within our that will impact our next budget.
15:5915 minutes, 59 secondsYes absolutely. That's if we lock in, you know, one of our better rates now. Later it may be more and it may be less.
16:0916 minutes, 9 secondsSo, um, also on the, um, the rates, they'll be using Encore's what do you call it? Transmission.
16:1716 minutes, 17 secondsOkay. So, with that being said, the Encore charges that entity. So, those costs will No, they charge us. They that's passed on on the electrical bill.
16:2916 minutes, 29 secondsSo regardless of who we go with the encore ch charges would be the same with each department with each of those companies.
16:3816 minutes, 38 secondsOkay.
16:4116 minutes, 41 secondsThey charge and so we pay we we we pass that fee on to to the consu other consumer.
16:5216 minutes, 52 secondsNo we pay I mean the city pays we're the consumer and the taxpayers the consumer. Okay. Gotcha.
16:5916 minutes, 59 seconds[name], where did the the layout that you have that that you got on the board? Where did you get that from? From the uh energy broker. Okay.
17:0617 minutes, 6 secondsThey go out and shop they go out and shop the market every day. It's they they they'll run our number based on 2.2
17:1317 minutes, 13 secondskilowatt or million kilowatts. um they put present us as a customer um into the market and they get quotes on them and
17:2217 minutes, 22 secondsthen each of these providers pay a fractional of a cent to that broker. U
17:2917 minutes, 29 secondswe looked it up um a couple um last six months ago council um uh we had three different brokers and all of the rates
17:3717 minutes, 37 secondscame the same and what what happens is a lot of these companies will only deal with one broker. we weren't a we weren't
17:4417 minutes, 44 secondsable and what we found out was the companies are the ones that pay the broker, not the city.
17:5017 minutes, 50 secondsSo, there was no way for us to go out and bid a broker. Um, this broker is the one that's worked with us since 2018.
17:5717 minutes, 57 secondsWhenever we have a concern or a problem or an outage or something that we need service on, we contact them and they take care of it.
18:0618 minutes, 6 secondsSo, do we have any history on this this uh engine? In other words, we know anything about them. The company,
18:1418 minutes, 14 secondsthey're they're a they're a big electrical provider. I I know that they're from where they end up.
18:2018 minutes, 20 secondsThey're they're nationwide.
18:2618 minutes, 26 secondsI I have the same concerns that Councilman [name] does with the data centers going in across Texas. That means that the energy grid is going to be taxed, which means they're going to
18:3418 minutes, 34 secondspass that on. I don't care what they say in the government. That's going to get passed on to the to the to the taxpayers in my opinion. Um,
18:4218 minutes, 42 secondsand that being said, you know, I kind of like the idea of having something locked in now before it gets up and running because if you've been out towards
18:5018 minutes, 50 secondsAustin lately, you can see the the the the growth of those facilities out there. And then that being said, I'd like to I'd make a motion that we we
18:5818 minutes, 58 secondslock in a 60-month rate with engine um at that 06566
19:0619 minutes, 6 secondsrate for the next five years so that we have something locked in. Yeah, that's it. I second his motion.
19:1819 minutes, 18 secondsOkay.
19:2219 minutes, 22 secondsI just um Okay. We have a motion on the floor.
19:2519 minutes, 25 secondsThey say it's just a fraction different, right? Yes. Few fractions. Yes.
19:2919 minutes, 29 secondsEach one of them is about a tenth of a cent apart from each other.
19:3519 minutes, 35 secondsThe shorter you go, the better the rate is because they're it's better market predictability. And the further out, the less they know. And so they hedge their bets the further out you go.
19:5919 minutes, 59 secondsYeah, I was just um just want to basically um because I I'm I'm trying to familiarize myself with this um
20:0720 minutes, 7 secondsprocedure here. So I would like to look at um the contract that we have for with TXU so I can understand better uh this
20:1620 minutes, 16 secondsprocess. Um I the contract we have with TXU is about to expire. I can show you that as far as
20:2320 minutes, 23 secondsthe impact on this decision. Um I can show you what our upcoming contract will look like as well and you can compare
20:3120 minutes, 31 secondsthose after we notify them and they send us a draft, you know, an agreement. But we do every day if we wait.
20:4020 minutes, 40 secondsSo I'm going to have to send them notice tonight of this one to be able to lock that cost in because next tomorrow the cost will may be different or will likely be different.
20:5120 minutes, 51 secondsWell, we have a motion and a second.
20:5320 minutes, 53 secondsWe have a motion and second. Um we had our discussion. All in ready for the vote.
21:0021 minutesAll in favor? Oppose. Motion carries.
21:0721 minutes, 7 secondsThank you, council.
21:1321 minutes, 13 secondsSo, that brings us to item number three, considering of approve of a
Chapter 5: Texas 21 participation
21:2021 minutes, 20 secondsparticipation in the text 21 program, including payments of membership dues and author bonds, travel expenses for
21:2721 minutes, 27 secondsdesignated delegates, and appoint city of Crockett representatives. Mayor and Council, I was asked to put this back on
21:3421 minutes, 34 secondsthe agenda in our last meeting. We did uh was able to reach out. Text 21 had a couple representatives and they they were asking for a couple minutes to
21:4321 minutes, 43 secondspresent to council from the the their their standpoints and the benefits of of our participation with uh
21:5121 minutes, 51 secondstext 21. Are y'all okay with us allowing them to present this afternoon? Yes, sir.
21:5921 minutes, 59 secondsYes.
22:0022 minutesAll right. Um, this was kind of last minute, so I wanted to.
22:2022 minutes, 20 secondsAll right, Gabriel, you able to hear us? Yes, sir, I can. Can you hear me?
22:2422 minutes, 24 secondsYes, I can. Um, sorry the uh speakers in the room are not going. But can y'all All right. Go ahead.
22:3922 minutes, 39 secondsAll ready. I'll go ahead and get started. Is my calling on the call? Do you need the mic? Let's see here.
22:4722 minutes, 47 secondsDo you need the mic?
22:4922 minutes, 49 secondsNo, Zach is not showing up in the lobby or here. Let me test real quick on my end.
22:5722 minutes, 57 secondsAre y'all able to hear that?
22:5822 minutes, 58 secondsI can somewhat.
23:0223 minutes, 2 secondsThat wouldn't help. That would help in the I can hear the room,
23:1023 minutes, 10 secondsbut we can definitely see you. Um, and we're in session, so if you have a just want us to hear it.
23:2023 minutes, 20 secondsYes, sir. about to sign on. He's signing in right now. Okay.
23:2423 minutes, 24 secondsBut I can go ahead and get started in the interest of time. I understand that there's a lot on the agenda. So, thank you so much for giving us some of that
23:3223 minutes, 32 secondstime. I know that all of us at 21 are incredibly appreciated.
23:3623 minutes, 36 secondsSo, that being said, my name is Gabe Cerna. I'm one of the consultants with text 21. And the reason I'm here is because we would like for you to approve participation in the text 21 program.
23:4823 minutes, 48 secondsAnd I understand I have a couple minutes. So, I'm just gonna go down like what 21 is, what we do, what we've done for Crockett in the past, and what we can do in the future.
23:5923 minutes, 59 secondsAll right. Thank you.
24:0224 minutes, 2 secondsAbsolutely. So, we're a coalition of cities and counties that are committed to bettering multi-level transportation.
24:1024 minutes, 10 secondsSo, the cities and counties are the owners of Texas 21. And in a bit if we have my screen shared with Zag in a second you'll notice that Crockett is
24:1824 minutes, 18 secondsone of our faithful members. We've we've worked with Crockett pretty closely in the past. We've worked with uh Crockett
24:2524 minutes, 25 secondsEDC Tom Lamberts. We've also worked with Houston County's judge Chris Vanderhoff and they've been close allies of Tech21.
24:3324 minutes, 33 secondsEven after Tom Lambert went to Decatur, he was still a close text. and we've been working alongside Mayor [name], city manager [name], and council
24:4224 minutes, 42 secondsmember [name]. And we're very grateful for y'all guiding us through with alongside listen to us talk about this.
24:5024 minutes, 50 secondsSo, as of right now, Mayor [name] is the current representative, but there's also two reserve spots. Is that something for y'all to discuss? Who y'all want to fill those spots? Uh, one
24:5824 minutes, 58 secondssecond. My here, looks like he's still trying to sign on.
25:0525 minutes, 5 secondsMy apologies about that. But I'll go and keep on going in the interest of time.
25:0925 minutes, 9 secondsBut yeah, like I said, Mayor [name] is a current representative. There's two reserve spots that y'all can fill. And the dues are pretty simple. It's just based on the 2020 census. There he is.
25:2025 minutes, 20 secondsThis is my colleague, Zach Turner.
25:2325 minutes, 23 secondsZach, if you're able to share your screen, can you put up the membership list
25:3525 minutes, 35 secondswhile he's getting that up, the dues for Crockett would be $2,500 a year, which is not a huge commitment. So, whenever
25:4325 minutes, 43 secondsit comes to that, we're pretty pretty easy. So, we don't just have the members of like the coalition itself, but we
25:5125 minutes, 51 secondsalso have a legislative caucus and a congressional caucus. There we go. So, that's the front of our info packets. The ne the next slide is our coalition.
26:0026 minutesI'll briefly point out Crockett on that next slide. See if you can hit the next one.
26:0826 minutes, 8 secondsNo one knows. So, no worries.
26:1426 minutes, 14 secondsBut yeah, Ken is a member right now and we're just asking for you to continue that membership. Like I said, we have a legislative caucus and a congressional caucus and y'all state representative
26:2326 minutes, 23 secondsAshby's a proud member of our legislative caucus. And Congressman Sessions is a member of our congressional caucus. In terms of a time
26:3126 minutes, 31 secondscommitment, it's not much. We have we have statewide meetings that y'all can attend. You all don't have to attend all of them, but we do ask for some
26:3826 minutes, 38 secondsparticipation there. There are some over Zoom that we have every few months. And then we have a quarterly statewide meeting. And actually in August from the
26:4726 minutes, 47 seconds20 the 20th through the 21st we have a statewide meeting down in Houston Texas not Houston County but a little bit south down in Harris County that y'all
26:5526 minutes, 55 secondscan attend. It's hosted by Houston Metro and we would love to see Crockett there.
27:0027 minutesSo that's just a bit about who we are and what we do and so by this point you're probably wondering what have we done for Crockett Texas specifically and the answer to that is something we've
27:0927 minutes, 9 secondsshared in a lot of our meetings with various people and that is 287. A while ago, the citizens of Crockett came to
27:1627 minutes, 16 secondstext 21 and they had a transportation concern and that was US 287. They had the idea to convert that into an
27:2427 minutes, 24 secondsinterstate highway and they asked us, "What can y'all do?" And we saw a lot of success.
27:3027 minutes, 30 secondsWe created a coalition along that corridor from down in Jefferson County, Texas with Judge Granic, who's a proud
27:3627 minutes, 36 secondsTech21 member. all the way up through Texas. We have members in Decar, in the Dallas Fort Worth area, and we've also
27:4427 minutes, 44 secondstalked with different congressmen in Oklahoma, in Colorado, and Wyoming. And not only do we have those connections,
27:5227 minutes, 52 secondsbut we also were able to, let's see, we were also able to prompt text to have a corridor study done of US287.
28:0028 minutesThis was a endto-end multi-million dollar study if you can go to the next slide real quick that was done by Texto
28:0728 minutes, 7 secondsand what it found was that there's a 161% return on investment whenever 287
28:1628 minutes, 16 secondsis turned into an interstate. That validates what Crockett wanted in the first place, which was that it's a good idea to turn 287 into an interstate
28:2428 minutes, 24 secondshighway. And not only that, so we got the information, we got the But then we had to go to the legisle to Congress and
28:3328 minutes, 33 secondswe saw a lot of success there. We had a Texas Senate resolution passed by our chair of the legislative caucus, Tan
28:4028 minutes, 40 secondsParker. He's a senator from up in the DFW area. And that resolution commended text 21 by name and talked about how the
28:4928 minutes, 49 secondsdifferent cities and counties ought to work with text 21 and text on this 287 project. But furthermore, Senator Cordon
28:5728 minutes, 57 secondsintroduced a bill in the Senate that would designate US 287 as a congressional high priority corridor, which is the first step for turn into an
29:0629 minutes, 6 secondsinterstate, and designated as Interstate 47, which is a huge success in and of itself. But over the past couple months,
29:1429 minutes, 14 secondswe've done even more with 287. We have talked to the congressman along the corridor from Brian Babin and Randy
29:2229 minutes, 22 secondsWeber, Pete Sessions, Roger Williams, Ronnie Jackson. We talked with Frank Lucas in Oklahoma. We talked with Colorado congressman, Wyoming
29:3129 minutes, 31 secondscongressman, and we've seen borderline unanimous support for Crockett's original idea. And we've gone a long way
29:3929 minutes, 39 secondswith it. We have helped Crockett in the past with what they've wanted to transportation, and we've proven to be effective. But we also have more things
29:4729 minutes, 47 secondsthat we can do and that's why we're asking to continue being members of text 21. For one, there's continued work on 287. We have we have gone a long way
29:5629 minutes, 56 secondswith it. We have a lot of momentum, but there's still more work to be done. And we would love your support as we're going through that to be part of our
30:0530 minutes, 5 secondscorridor coalition, but also we have several other projects that will benefit you guys. We have a project on I369
30:1230 minutes, 12 secondswhere we are taking the existing routes which is up on I US 59 and we're connecting it down all the way to
30:2030 minutes, 20 secondsBowmont and Port Arthur to create a north south corridor in East Texas which will create a FEMA evacuation routes.
30:2830 minutes, 28 secondsIt'll be a great economic opportunity for the east side of Texas including Crockett. But not only that, we have a third coast initiative where we are
30:3730 minutes, 37 secondslooking at trying to expand Texas ports to accommodate coast panamax container vessels. That'll give us a competitive
30:4530 minutes, 45 secondsedge with California's ports and the east coast ports that can currently accommodate these. The vessel that you see in front of you cannot land in Texas
30:5430 minutes, 54 secondsports because they're simply not equipped for it. But Texas 21 is currently working on getting those ports equipped to handle those, which will
31:0231 minutes, 2 secondshave huge economic benefits for not just the east part of Texas, but for all of it. The Crockett is in that economic
31:1031 minutes, 10 secondsimpact zone and is a huge reason for continued participation. We have a space corridor. We have a safety initiative.
31:1731 minutes, 17 secondsWe're expanding I14. We have so many other things that we had hours to talk about. We could spend possibly even days
31:2531 minutes, 25 secondsgoing over all the benefits that Crockett could get. But that's a bird's eye view as to where we are, what we've done in the past, and what we'll do in
31:3331 minutes, 33 secondsthe future. And if any of y'all have any questions about Tech 21, we would love to answer those for you. All right. Well, thank you so much.
31:4131 minutes, 41 secondsI have one question for Gabriel. [name], we got one question here. Just a second.
31:4531 minutes, 45 secondsGo ahead. Um would he be a would uh would he be aware to uh any representation
31:5231 minutes, 52 secondsuh for for the city of uh Crockett prior to Mayor [name] becoming the uh the voting uh representative?
32:0132 minutes, 1 secondSo, there's a question that's Yeah, there's a question about um before the mayor uh was uh just put on y'all's um
32:1032 minutes, 10 secondson y'all's uh list of voter uh member voting members of of whether there was an appointment for anyone else.
32:1932 minutes, 19 secondsI think Zach, you you've done some work with this and I think you can answer that one pretty well.
32:2532 minutes, 25 secondsYeah. Um, well, the appointment comes from y'all from any resolution that you pass. Um, I believe that the city
32:3132 minutes, 31 secondscouncil passed a resolution being the mayor as the as the representative. Um, I believe it lists
32:3832 minutes, 38 secondstwo others as well, Miss [name] and then another gentleman um as alternatives um or alternate people to
32:4632 minutes, 46 secondsdeal with text. Um, but Mayor [name] according to that
32:5232 minutes, 52 secondsresolution is the the representative Okay. That then that's how it's posted now. Okay. All right.
33:0033 minutesSo So did you not have So you don't have the You don't have any alternates listed?
33:0633 minutes, 6 secondsYeah. Well, we Yeah, I I'll get that to Yeah.
33:1033 minutes, 10 secondsYeah. But his question is who who was the who was representative voted for the mayor was was Mr. [name]'s question. Yeah.
33:1833 minutes, 18 secondsWe were just Yeah. So, it was just being asked of of who was named as the representative before the mayor was just put on there.
33:2633 minutes, 26 secondsUm, prior So, you know, prior to the city of Crockett re-engaging with text, the EDC was on the letterhead. Um, and
33:3533 minutes, 35 secondsso there there were EDC members that were on there as well. Um, but when we re-engaged the city of Crockett, it's been the mayor.
33:4333 minutes, 43 secondsOkay. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you so much.
33:5133 minutes, 51 secondsThank y'all for y'all presentation. Yes. Yes. Thank you. All right. Bye. Good meeting.
33:5833 minutes, 58 secondsOne one thing is one thing of is like you have realized that the EDC and the city are two separate entities. So
34:0834 minutes, 8 secondsI don't know what the what the question is.
34:1034 minutes, 10 secondsSo um thank thank you [name] Mayor Council. The reason the reason I had asked that question prior was uh it was
34:1934 minutes, 19 secondsmy due diligence to bring this uh agenda item back um in in enlightenment of of new
34:2734 minutes, 27 secondsinformation that I had received. Um upon searching the text 21's website, it shows here that um Crockett's
34:3534 minutes, 35 secondsrepresentative for 2026 voting members um is Miss [name] [name]. And um my
34:4334 minutes, 43 secondsmotion on November the 6 of 2026, November of July the 6 of 2026, this p
34:5234 minutes, 52 secondsuh two two prior meetings passed was that the mayor be um our representative and Miss [name] and Mr. [name] be
35:0135 minutes, 1 secondappointed as um alternates. um with that with this information being on their website that went against my motion or
35:1035 minutes, 10 secondsit went against the city's uh it went against the council's wishes at that time and um just asking Mr. Gabriel had
35:1835 minutes, 18 secondsthere been any prior if he was aware of any prior knowledges or any changes then if he wasn't aware of this it was listed
35:2635 minutes, 26 secondson their website. So with that being said it you know I can provide some clarification on that too.
35:3235 minutes, 32 secondsYes sir. Um after you had brought that we had gotten that to our attention um I did reach out uh based on our conversation to Mr.
35:4135 minutes, 41 secondsDavid Dean. Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Zach are not aware you know they're they're working for Mr. David. So Mr. David
35:4835 minutes, 48 secondswould would have been the one to ask uh the gentleman that we just asked. They didn't know. Um I did reach out to Mr.
35:5535 minutes, 55 secondsuh David and he said that um Miss [name] had told them to place her on the um as a representative for the city. After I
36:0436 minutes, 4 secondstalked to him and I said that was not council's motion. Um the direction was for the mayor to be appointed. He recently removed her and placed the
36:1236 minutes, 12 secondsmayor in herstead. Um and so that's why there was lack of knowledge on the behalf of
36:1936 minutes, 19 secondspeople that work for the company and not the director.
36:2236 minutes, 22 secondsThank you. Well, further to classify I mean further to clarify the reason that I wanted to bring this this item back
36:2936 minutes, 29 secondswas to clarify the motion that I had made. Um I was unclear in u the direction given to council to you [name]
36:3936 minutes, 39 secondsand um being that I just stated that representation being be made by mayor
36:4536 minutes, 45 secondsthe mayor uh Miss [name] and Mr. during um I wanted to clarify my motion, but um
36:5236 minutes, 52 secondsin light of this new information, I move that um um my motion be rescended. Well, second.
37:0137 minutes, 1 secondOkay. Now, discussion.
37:0437 minutes, 4 secondsOkay. Now, to let you know, uh Mr. [name] and the rest of the council, uh my name was actually placed on there before you
37:1137 minutes, 11 secondseven made the motion. So my name was placed on there actually when I went to [snorts] uh the uh convention in Dallas.
37:1837 minutes, 18 secondsUnder whose authority? Excuse me. Under whose authority?
37:2237 minutes, 22 secondsBasically he placed me there so that he would have a contact at that time. And he basically said until he get the resolution he would need a bas a contact person.
37:3137 minutes, 31 secondsThen [name] Anggerstein is our contact ma'am.
37:3437 minutes, 34 secondsHe's our city manager. If he if he needed a contact it needed to be him.
37:3837 minutes, 38 secondsnot a council member without council members not without the council's say so well he needed a contact person well I'm just telling you sir how how how
37:4737 minutes, 47 secondseverything happened and he needed a contact person I did give him permission to put my name there as a contact person uh until we did a resolution because I
37:5537 minutes, 55 secondshad been uh conversing with Mr. David Dean at that time. So, all of this happened prior to you making the motion to uh make the mayor the contact person.
38:0738 minutes, 7 secondsIt was it's not it's not a contact person. It's a voting board.
38:1138 minutes, 11 secondsA voting representative. So, uh to in order to make her a voting representative so it's it's fine.
38:1838 minutes, 18 secondsYes, ma'am.
38:2038 minutes, 20 secondsBut I would just appreciate that from now on just you know if you would have spoken with me to give a little bit more.
38:2638 minutes, 26 secondsWe all appreciate that when we're spoken to ahead of time. Yeah, my concern is that we just have a representative because we don't want to be left behind.
38:3238 minutes, 32 secondsWe don't be trying to catch up. We want to be a part of Texas 21.
38:3938 minutes, 39 secondsAnd I couldn't arty disagree. I I made my position known last time when Mr.
38:4438 minutes, 44 seconds[name] made his motion. It still stands today that we do not need to be a part of this right now. As you can see, it's a big big consortium of people from
38:5238 minutes, 52 secondsHouston and Dallas with their interests involved and not small town Crockett, Texas. They do not care about us. They don't care. And they all they want is our money.
39:0139 minutes, 1 secondWell, I can't say they don't care, but I know what I do know is I do know that check that 287 comes through Crockett.
39:0839 minutes, 8 secondsAnd I do know that uh in the near in the future that if it comes through Crockett that it also uh adds economic value to
39:1639 minutes, 16 secondsour city. Uh it allows for companies and businesses to come here. Uh we just dissolved our EDC. [snorts]
39:2439 minutes, 24 secondsuh just cut our our hand off uh for a second resource for our city. So what what do we do now? Um I mean how do we
39:3239 minutes, 32 secondsmove forward? Um holding holding um grudges from way back when or or just
39:4039 minutes, 40 secondsjust uh we we need to really look forward and u let all this but I would also say if we have Senator
39:4839 minutes, 48 secondsSessions and Representative Trent Ashby uh if they do the job that we voted them in to do that they would represent
39:5739 minutes, 57 secondsus uh on this project.
40:0240 minutes, 2 secondsI would still note that um I have I have uh moved to resend my motion and uh it's been second.
40:1240 minutes, 12 secondsOkay. Is it moved and second? All in favor? Motion carries.
40:2040 minutes, 20 secondsI'm opposed. Opposed. I'm sorry.
40:2640 minutes, 26 secondsSo where are we with that? But am I clear that we're still going to be a part of Texas 21? Is that correct?
40:3340 minutes, 33 secondsAt this time there's no they just voted against it.
40:3740 minutes, 37 secondsThey just he rescended his what he had suggested.
40:4140 minutes, 41 secondsYeah. He rescended the So right now so he took it back basically.
40:4740 minutes, 47 secondsSo at this point we're actually not his motion was so we
40:5540 minutes, 55 secondsI'm not sure is it what was in place doesn't stand or does it stand? It doesn't. No, ma'am. Until council gives me new direction at this point. Uh we
41:0441 minutes, 4 secondsdid pay for the one year worth of membership dues. Um due to y'all's previous action at this point by
41:1241 minutes, 12 secondsrescending it. Um we'll possibly have one year of membership. Um
41:2041 minutes, 20 secondsbut we just won't be participate participating in travelership. We should be utilizing it.
41:2541 minutes, 25 secondsI can I can see if they'll allow us to uh be reimbursed. Other than that, um they will be utilizing our funds.
41:3541 minutes, 35 secondsYeah. Will we have a representative?
41:3741 minutes, 37 secondsThat's what I'm asking. From this council, uh not currently. No, sir.
41:4741 minutes, 47 secondsOkay.
41:4941 minutes, 49 secondsSo, we move to the next item. All right.
Chapter 6: Swimming pool project
41:5341 minutes, 53 secondsOkay. That brings us to u item number four, discussion regarding uh city swimming pool.
42:0042 minutesMayor and council, this was requested to be brought back um on the agenda. I have a quick packet in y in your um handouts.
42:1342 minutes, 13 secondsJust to recapture um where we're at currently.
42:1942 minutes, 19 secondsUm in 2026, the spring of this year, uh council directed me to apply for a $ 1.5 million Texas Parks and Wildlife grant.
42:2842 minutes, 28 secondsUh the deadline, as I'd mentioned to council at that time was August the 1st.
42:3342 minutes, 33 secondsBased on um the direction from council at that time, we did apply for the grant. We did get noticed um this week
42:4042 minutes, 40 secondsthough that what was typically a 90-day turnaround on re uh sending us notice of
42:4942 minutes, 49 secondsaward whether we get the grant or we don't get the grant um and the placement of it um has been moved to a projection
42:5642 minutes, 56 secondsof spring 2027. So, it'll be, you know, six months to, you know, six to probably
43:0643 minutes, 6 secondseight months or so before we get uh notice of whether we get the grant or we don't get the grant. That's all the new
43:1343 minutes, 13 secondsinformation I have. The rest of the information we, you know, we discussed it um this spring on what council was asking, you know, and kind of what our
43:2243 minutes, 22 secondsoptions were. And um so I at this point I don't have any new any new information and it was just asked to be brought back.
43:3243 minutes, 32 secondsSo for clarity, we are in the process of being considered for the grant.
43:3543 minutes, 35 secondsThe grant has been submitted. Yes, submitted. Okay.
43:3843 minutes, 38 secondsAnd I I guess that said with in I guess I don't know where the article put in the paper came about about the swimming pool
43:4643 minutes, 46 secondsand the problem that Lufkin was having was in a client with that or whatever, but it was a reminder that the pool
43:5343 minutes, 53 secondsitself is an expensive. I'm fall pool. I want a pool. I love a food and I and I think it's something but I I think if we
44:0244 minutes, 2 secondscan get funding for it because it is it wasn't ever a cheap proposition. We found out when we jumped in the bottom of the pool and it was bouncable or you
44:1144 minutes, 11 secondscould bounce in a in a concrete pool. I knew there was a danger there. So I knew it wasn't feasible for us to try to fix it. But I think if we can nine six to
44:2044 minutes, 20 secondsnine months I mean seven months or whatever it was. I miss I I think it would it is a time limit that would be worth the cost if we were
44:2844 minutes, 28 secondsgoing to get something out of it. But either way, we're in the matter a matter of we're in the process of budget. We're
44:3544 minutes, 35 secondsnot going to really be able to address it fully in this budget because we're going to we run out of time and funding.
44:4244 minutes, 42 secondsSo I but I do I believe that we really need to have a vote and I think that it's it's a good
44:5044 minutes, 50 secondsthing that we're still pursuing options for it.
44:5344 minutes, 53 secondsUm I I would like to mayor I would like to ask um basically we how many times have we applied for grants? How many
45:0045 minutesgrants have we applied for? And then for this pool this is the sec um this is the second time that we've applied for it. Okay.
45:0745 minutes, 7 secondsFor this project. So, are we going to continue like if we don't we're moving forward if we don't get approved for this grant? So, what are we looking at
45:1545 minutes, 15 secondsmoving forward? Council in spring told me let's apply for it and then if once we receive notice of worst case we don't
45:2445 minutes, 24 secondsget a fun get get funded then we would discuss it then um what our options were. Um
45:3145 minutes, 31 secondsso options were so we are um being that the the funds are for the pool we are
45:3845 minutes, 38 secondsstill looking at uh once we um found out the results of the um grant we're still
45:4745 minutes, 47 secondslooking at because that that money is designated for the pool. Correct. So it was it was the money was set aside by
45:5445 minutes, 54 secondscouncil for the pool. Council can make decisions on that money. they can choose not to set it aside any longer, but that
46:0146 minutes, 1 secondwas what council has at our last discussion said to do to set those funds aside for the pool.
46:0846 minutes, 8 secondsAnd so, how much what was the amount of those funds?
46:1146 minutes, 11 seconds725,000 is what's um in the fund for the swimming pool.
46:1646 minutes, 16 secondsOkay. And um I had mentioned to you about the ARPA funds which is the American Rescue Act plan where we got
46:2546 minutes, 25 secondsfunds for from the CO um so we have how much left in that that U
46:3246 minutes, 32 secondsa little over two right at 200,000 we've had that awarded.
46:4146 minutes, 41 secondsYes. We have ARPA funds still remaining that have not been allocated towards other projects. And what are those funds available for?
46:5046 minutes, 50 secondsFor any governmental expense. Um they were um they were appropriated to all cities and counties throughout the state
46:5746 minutes, 57 secondsof Texas for programs for any governmental expense as council. the only un un
47:0647 minutes, 6 secondsuh purchased or funded item that council did initially appropriate and we're we finalize the bids on it now is the
47:1547 minutes, 15 secondsswimming I mean the um the fire station concrete uh the floor out in the bay where all the trucks are parked
47:2347 minutes, 23 secondsuh council um said that they they intended to use grant funds or ARPA funds for that and so that has is the
47:3047 minutes, 30 secondsonly remaining item that has not been followed up on completed what's have been approved by council.
47:3647 minutes, 36 secondsSo, did we use did we use any of those funds for like because we did we we use the funds for the animal shelter to re
47:4447 minutes, 44 secondsdo the animal shelter at all or what do we do?
47:4647 minutes, 46 secondsNo, we we purchased the animal shelter from uh the South P uh South Pine. We purchased the animal shelter when they
47:5447 minutes, 54 secondssold it using ARPA funds. That's what we that's what we bought that building with that we're currently using. So my so my uh that that's where I'm at with that is
48:0348 minutes, 3 secondsthat we uh value our ch value our animals u more than we value our our children. So because I'm I'm just asking
48:1248 minutes, 12 secondsbecause I mean you use offer funds to when you knew we had a a project a pool that already had funds available. All we
48:2148 minutes, 21 secondshad to do was add those add funds to that to make that was to make that pool a small portion for those children.
48:2748 minutes, 27 secondsA small portion was used for the animal shelter. We purchased police vehicles.
48:3048 minutes, 30 secondsWe purchased street equipment. We purchased lots of items that council approved.
48:3448 minutes, 34 secondsWhat was the total? What was the total amount of the ARP when they were allocated in 2021, I believe? How much was it? Was 1.5.
48:4348 minutes, 43 secondsI have a listing of it. I can bring that. I will be bringing it back to council pretty quickly due to the need to uh move on the fire station project.
48:5248 minutes, 52 secondsI want to get council's direction on that. So, I'll bring a listing of what funds have been expent.
48:5848 minutes, 58 secondsWell, and looking and and and building on what Miss [name] said, I I I believe we should invest in our children heavily and I and I get the need for a pool and
49:0649 minutes, 6 secondsyou know, and building on what she said as well, we don't have economic development, and I'm not going to even touch that one, but we want to bring money into Crockett. Well, instead of
49:1449 minutes, 14 secondsinvesting in a pool that's not going to do anything except be a drain on our budget, why don't we reinvest that in like the baseball fields or the soccer fields and start hosting like travel
49:2249 minutes, 22 secondsball tournaments? I know for a fact that, you know, if we host a couple travel ball tournaments or we redo the fields, maybe astroturf the inside or,
49:3049 minutes, 30 secondsyou know, the infield, you know, put some lights up and start hosting something. I mean, we could bring in 15, $20,000 on a weekend. You're talking six
49:3949 minutes, 39 secondsteams come in with 12 kids, you know, 12 kids plus their parents. I can promise you cuz I've had to travel doing that stuff. Um, it's expensive. And they're
49:4749 minutes, 47 secondsgoing to bring that here to Crockett, Texas. We don't know what kind of businesses that could get to us. So, we're investing in the kids. We're investing in I'm sorry, mayor. We're
49:5549 minutes, 55 secondsinvesting in the kids here because those fields will be around and available 365 days out of the year.
50:0150 minutes, 1 secondAlso, we can do tournaments cuz baseball, softball, soccer, they play year round. I don't care if it's hot, cold, or whatever. Um, we could also do
50:0950 minutes, 9 secondslike uh you know, like [name] was talking about or like in this thing like a grant match where we put money in there. So, if they want to put lights up, we do a
50:1650 minutes, 16 secondstwo for one. If they bring us $5,000, we'll match it and give them 10. Okay. Well, you know what I'm saying?
50:2150 minutes, 21 secondsright now kind of bring our back to our focus. We're we weren't trying to and just in for your we discussed the we
50:3150 minutes, 31 secondsweren't trying to go into the other funding source at tonight.
50:3450 minutes, 34 secondsCorrect. Basically what we were looking at was the the t timeline and then what
50:4150 minutes, 41 secondswe could appropriate but we weren't going into the details because we're still just projecting and I do understand it's a good like you said
50:5050 minutes, 50 secondswhere we uh invested is really good. So at this point I think all the discussion can really cover in terms of we're not doing another funding source tonight.
51:0151 minutes, 1 secondWe're asking for are we going to wait until we hear from the grant or we're not going to hear and then we'll start
51:0851 minutes, 8 secondswith the details of what happens next because we could project a lot of things. So just in terms of just the focus
51:1751 minutes, 17 secondswe we've already agreed that we want a swimming pool to the test and we especially want it if we get a grant but
51:2451 minutes, 24 secondswe still have to decide how we do it at a later date depending on whether we get it or not. So I, you know, I would propose at this point that
51:3351 minutes, 33 secondswe just kind of bring it to I believe in that motion also, I can't remember exactly when it was, but we' we
51:4251 minutes, 42 secondswould explore and do some research on surrounding uh cities and towns that had pools, but my understanding most of them
51:4951 minutes, 49 secondsthat surround us now have closed down because of operating cost.
51:5551 minutes, 55 secondsUh I think Russ closed down. Uh you said Lufkin right now.
51:5951 minutes, 59 secondsLufkin. Uh Palestine. Uh Palestine's closed this week because of because of the the the expensive operating cost.
52:0952 minutes, 9 secondsSo [name], is your s Oh, go ahead.
52:1352 minutes, 13 secondsWell, I'm just saying, you know, if we got the the money to do it, but then we we've got to we've got to operate it,
52:2152 minutes, 21 secondsyou know, and it's got to be maintained year round, not just three months while people are swimming. year round. And I
52:2952 minutes, 29 secondsunderstand, you know, I've had I've had several swimming pools uh in my lifetime, and I enjoyed being in the water, but I didn't enjoy the expense of them.
52:3952 minutes, 39 secondsBut the thing of it is is like it's just not it's for our children. It's for our communities. Uh basically, uh because we have do have families that come back uh
52:4852 minutes, 48 secondsto the city. Uh not just that though, uh mind it was a commitment that was made to the youth of this community. Uh it
52:5652 minutes, 56 secondswas also a commitment that was made to the community. So um I I think that we should hold up to our our commitments.
53:0453 minutes, 4 secondsIf we make that if we give that word and say that we're going to do something, we need to keep our word and make sure we do it. Well, where we are at that point,
53:1153 minutes, 11 secondsnobody has changed their word. All we're waiting on is what we're going to do next. Nobody has changed the premise of where they were. We're we were asked and
53:2053 minutes, 20 secondsand for some reason it came up. We're going to wait and see. I guess we needed the motion was that you know we're going to wait to see what the outcomes is and
53:2953 minutes, 29 secondsthen we'll go to our next step and it might be a different design or something or whatever we have to do but at this point all we can cover in this
53:3853 minutes, 38 secondsdiscussion really is are we we need a motion really of we prepared to uh
53:4653 minutes, 46 secondswell we were discuss I'm just thinking ahead three or four
53:5253 minutes, 52 secondsyears down the roadm and we run into the same problem that that that that Palestine Rusk and Luin, you know, uh
54:0254 minutes, 2 secondshas u what would what would we do? Yeah.
54:0654 minutes, 6 secondsWould we raise taxes to to uh maintain it?
54:1254 minutes, 12 secondsWell, I'm going say this and I'm an advocate for the kids.
54:1654 minutes, 16 secondsI'm going to we have I understand that, but we've got we've got a lot of things here for the kids. And we can build another splash. I feel like that we can
54:2554 minutes, 25 secondsdo both. If that's the case, if that if that's the case, we can give salaries.
54:2954 minutes, 29 secondsWe can also give our our children a a safe a safe place. Um we can give the if we give the the animals a safe space. We
54:3854 minutes, 38 secondsshould be able to give our children definitely our children a safe space. So I don't have a problem.
54:4254 minutes, 42 secondsHow is it going to be a safe place when we can't Lufkin, Texas can't afford uh um lifeguards? How's it going to be a safe place when we can't we have lifeguards here in the city?
54:5154 minutes, 51 secondsCan't fill them in Lufkin. How are we going to fill them here? You okay? Um I'm just checking. Okay. Every each one kind of talk it.
54:5954 minutes, 59 secondsOkay. We're at the point I think we had a stand still only discussion in terms of everybody has an
55:0755 minutes, 7 secondsopportunity to discuss what I mean to to state their concern.
55:1055 minutes, 10 secondsSo from this point where we so it wasn't any need to make a motion on anything.
55:1555 minutes, 15 secondsWell, I mean it's been brought up. So, I make a motion we don't go forward with the grant. We pull from it. We take the
55:2355 minutes, 23 secondsremainder $725,000 that we have, and we utilize it for our parks that we already have, improving baseball fields,
55:3055 minutes, 30 secondssoftball fields, tracks, um, soccer field, whatever the case may be. But it's my motion that we
55:3755 minutes, 37 secondswithdraw from the pool project because of of the the overall cost of it in the future that we're not going to be able to to to sustain.
55:4655 minutes, 46 secondsI second.
55:4855 minutes, 48 secondsOkay, it's been moved and second. All in favor? Opposed?
55:5755 minutes, 57 secondsMotion fails. So, at this time, um discussion.
56:0356 minutes, 3 secondsUm [name], could you um we developed a a pool board, correct?
56:1056 minutes, 10 secondsWe have a parks advisory.
56:1256 minutes, 12 secondsParks advisory currently. So out of that out of that board, we came up with a plan A and a plan B. Um
56:2256 minutes, 22 secondsare you still instructed to to you know follow functional?
56:2756 minutes, 27 secondsSo as as the direction that I've received from council so far is to apply for the grant. If we do not receive the
56:3456 minutes, 34 secondsgrant, then we will proceed to coming up with a plan B presentation to council.
56:4056 minutes, 40 secondsUm, if council changes that, it would need to be done by a motion. Otherwise, we're still I'm applying for the the grant has
56:4856 minutes, 48 secondsalready been applied for. Yes, that's plan A.
56:5056 minutes, 50 secondsAnd that's plan A. Yes, sir. That's what I initially was instructed to do.
56:5456 minutes, 54 secondsSo, in terms of the discussion, yeah, there is a we we're already covered what we should. Okay.
57:0357 minutes, 3 secondsAre we ready to move to the next item?
57:0557 minutes, 5 secondsCouncil is council. Okay. Item number five, consider an approved proposed tax rate.
Chapter 7: Proposed tax rate
57:1357 minutes, 13 secondsAll right, mayor and council.
57:2057 minutes, 20 secondsI have some I have our latest updates from the appraisal district. I also have um our draft budget. I have the some
57:2957 minutes, 29 secondshighlights that I'm going to mention real quick. Uh tonight's goal and need that I need from council uh in order for
57:3657 minutes, 36 secondsus to move forward with proposed tax rates. We need to approve a proposed tax rate tonight. We're not approving any
57:4457 minutes, 44 secondsfinal tax rates. You're giving me a tax rate and budget to be able to post and I will have draft budgets on our website,
57:5257 minutes, 52 secondsdraft tax rates on our website. Um we will have to begin posting in the newspaper. We will have a budget um
58:0158 minutes, 1 secondprinted and available in the foyer uh for comments. People can come in and look over the budget and see it in detail and make comments, pros and cons,
58:1058 minutes, 10 secondsprepare themselves uh for a public hearing. We'll have a public hearing and um and so that's tonight is what kicks
58:1858 minutes, 18 secondsoff that process. Um as previously discussed, um our property values came in lower than estimated. we
58:2658 minutes, 26 secondsgot hit by a significant amount of tax property value exemptions. Um
58:3458 minutes, 34 secondsour our propos our values were at 428 million and they're at 415 million currently.
58:4258 minutes, 42 secondsUm the proposed tax rate is 77 and that is a 13.5 above the no new
58:5058 minutes, 50 secondsrevenue rate for a homestead with 100,000 in taxable value. the annual city property tax would increase by $92
58:5858 minutes, 58 secondsa year or an equivalent of $7.70 a month. This increase is directed um
59:0659 minutes, 6 secondsentirely to maintenance and operations, an increase in our street department budget as well as a 10% cola.
59:1459 minutes, 14 secondsOur debt service portion of our budget decreases. It was at 16 cents and it has been lowered to 15 cents.
59:2459 minutes, 24 secondsUm the proposed rate remains three and 3.52 cents below the dimminimous rate.
59:3259 minutes, 32 secondsUm as I mentioned this 10% cola if it's shown as a fixed across the board rate
59:3959 minutes, 39 secondsit would represent a $2.50 hourly increase to all city employees excluding myself the city secretary and finance director. This average is 10% overall.
59:5159 minutes, 51 secondsUm, but it provides a greater percentage increase to lower paid employees. For example, a $15 an hour employee would see an increase of 16%.
59:5959 minutes, 59 secondsAnd a $30 an hour employee would see an 8% increase.
1:00:051 hour, 5 secondsIn comparison, if council was to go with the voter approval rate of 72.9
1:00:111 hour, 11 secondscents or 7290 per hundred value, we would only be able to fund a 5% cola.
1:00:231 hour, 23 secondsum based on the rates shown in y'all's attached PDFs um and I'll pull it up on the screen.
1:00:401 hour, 40 secondsUh the proposed budget includes the police rifle package, fire hose, and a street broom. Those will not come out of our tax rate.
1:00:471 hour, 47 secondsThose will be paid for out of reserves.
1:00:491 hour, 49 secondsCouncil's motion also did not address the purchase of a police vehicle.
1:00:551 hour, 55 secondsIf if it is purchased, it would also be funded from reserves and not affect the proposed tax rate.
1:01:011 hour, 1 minute, 1 secondFinally, the proposed water and sewer rate adjustment applies equally to all residential and commercial accounts and is not based on consumption. The monthly
1:01:101 hour, 1 minute, 10 secondsincrease for water service is $153 and $1.58 for sewer service. combined impact of $311 per month on the total utility bill.
1:01:201 hour, 1 minute, 20 secondsAs you recall, the city has already directed me to absorb the water rate increase from the uh Houston County Water District
1:01:281 hour, 1 minute, 28 secondsum for our wholesale water rates and we've absorbed that into the budget and not passed that on.
1:01:341 hour, 1 minute, 34 secondsThe last important item of this bill um of this bill of this budget
1:01:401 hour, 1 minute, 40 secondsuh proposed passing on the 3% uh garbage collection rate.
1:01:451 hour, 1 minute, 45 secondsUm that's an increase.
1:01:481 hour, 1 minute, 48 secondsYes, it's a garbage collection rate increase um imposed by our solid waste contractor and that equates to um 66
1:01:571 hour, 1 minute, 57 secondscents a month for each month uh residential bill.
1:02:021 hour, 2 minutes, 2 secondsUm, so you just received that information on the increase for the garbage?
1:02:101 hour, 2 minutes, 10 secondsNo, ma'am. That was gone over in our budget workshop earlier.
1:02:151 hour, 2 minutes, 15 secondsUm, this portion as it relates to our water water and sewer customers.
1:02:261 hour, 2 minutes, 26 secondsIf you see here, we have a total of 3186 customers.
1:02:341 hour, 2 minutes, 34 secondsWe have a base rate which addresses fixed cost and we have a consumption rate which addresses variable cost. Our fixed costs are primarily uh personnel.
1:02:451 hour, 2 minutes, 45 secondsThat's why you have that dollar amount.
1:02:471 hour, 2 minutes, 47 secondsIf we sell a gallon or if we sell a million gallons a day, that rate stays the same. We pay for the people that show up to work. Um it addresses a few
1:02:561 hour, 2 minutes, 56 secondsother uh fixed rate costs as well like permits and things of that nature. Everything
1:03:041 hour, 3 minutes, 4 secondselse is loaded into the consumption rate where when we sell more water, electricity goes up, water goes up, the
1:03:121 hour, 3 minutes, 12 secondsthe the um the chemicals go up and all the materials supplies associated.
1:03:181 hour, 3 minutes, 18 secondsThe reason it's loaded on the base rate side is because the primary cost or reason for this cost increase is for um
1:03:271 hour, 3 minutes, 27 secondsemployees. And so right now it's currently divided evenly
1:03:341 hour, 3 minutes, 34 secondsacross residential and commercial at $153. what council can do. Essentially,
1:03:411 hour, 3 minutes, 41 secondsif you see down here, if you see down here, I have the 50 um I
1:03:481 hour, 3 minutes, 48 secondshave a $58,000 need for the employee colas.
1:03:541 hour, 3 minutes, 54 secondsA $153 for both commercial and residential equates to a revenue increase of 58,494.
1:04:041 hour, 4 minutes, 4 secondsIf council was to load this differently, we can calculate it and bring in the revenue necessary.
1:04:151 hour, 4 minutes, 15 secondsUm, that's just my initial proposal to council as a starting point.
1:04:201 hour, 4 minutes, 20 secondsFor instance, if you put if you put a
1:04:291 hour, 4 minutes, 29 secondsWell, I can't I can't type there. There we go.
1:04:361 hour, 4 minutes, 36 secondslike what you don't so basic it's not it's not letting me type here
1:04:441 hour, 4 minutes, 44 secondsso basically I'm sorry so basically a person that's that's making uh just give a uh true numbers uh
1:04:531 hour, 4 minutes, 53 secondsinstead of percentage some people understand numbers true numbers instead of better than percentage so if a person making uh
1:05:021 hour, 5 minutes, 2 secondswhich which um our uh salaries are and I've mentioned this
1:05:091 hour, 5 minutes, 9 secondsbefore how our salaries take up majority of our budget. Sure.
1:05:141 hour, 5 minutes, 14 secondsSo um and I also talked to you about in the event that this does happen and we
1:05:201 hour, 5 minutes, 20 secondsalready have some departments that um o uh overtime they go over their
1:05:281 hour, 5 minutes, 28 secondsovertime rate budget. Um, so that would also include the overtime. So with that
1:05:351 hour, 5 minutes, 35 secondsbeing said, um, just give a general someone making $33 that would give them
1:05:421 hour, 5 minutes, 42 secondsbecause we because the salaries I don't think a lot of people realize what the salaries are here in the city. Uh, what
1:05:501 hour, 5 minutes, 50 secondswe actually pay. They're thinking that the the pay uh the salaries are very low. So if they would inquire about what
1:05:591 hour, 5 minutes, 59 secondssalaries would pay, then they'll understand better why I was uh against giving um increases uh at the current
1:06:081 hour, 6 minutes, 8 secondstime. Uh I did express about looking at increases at a later at a later time but just basically I was trying to get which
1:06:171 hour, 6 minutes, 17 secondsI talked with you or seen your letter in um trying to get real time figures on how much it would cost a household um
1:06:271 hour, 6 minutes, 27 secondswith water rates, property rates, you know, all of that involved. So, uh, just I guess
1:06:341 hour, 6 minutes, 34 secondsthat's a $153 a month is is the impact.
1:06:391 hour, 6 minutes, 39 secondsSo, well, let's see. Okay. Included with the $153 a month.
1:06:461 hour, 6 minutes, 46 secondsThat's for the water of the water plus the which is going to be like $3 added extra.
1:06:521 hour, 6 minutes, 52 secondsYes, ma'am. That's what I just went over. So, it's it's $311 for water and sewer. Yes, ma'am.
1:06:581 hour, 6 minutes, 58 secondsAnd then your garbage went up. Our contractor our contractor increased by three 3%.
1:07:061 hour, 7 minutes, 6 seconds3% and 3% of what of the existing of current cost. And how much is that?
1:07:121 hour, 7 minutes, 12 secondsYou have the you have the list. I it's it increased by 66 cents is the is the So it's going to cost consumer about 45
1:07:201 hour, 7 minutes, 20 secondsextra dollars per year somewhere about that.
1:07:241 hour, 7 minutes, 24 secondsUh for utility and uh for utility and garbage or what is that what you're talking about? water, sewage, garbage.
1:07:311 hour, 7 minutes, 31 secondsIt should be only It should be a little over about 37 $37 for water and sewer and 66 cents
1:07:401 hour, 7 minutes, 40 secondstimes 12. So that's $7. Yes, about 40 roughly $45.
1:07:451 hour, 7 minutes, 45 secondsOkay. And then property tax increase $2.50 I mean um I just presented that just a minute ago.
1:07:551 hour, 7 minutes, 55 secondsIt's a $7 an equivalent of $7.70 per month or $92 increase per year.
1:08:051 hour, 8 minutes, 5 secondsSo $92 plus that 47 45 45 45.
1:08:181 hour, 8 minutes, 18 secondsWow. That's a bunch.
1:08:241 hour, 8 minutes, 24 secondsThis this is the reason I say this because a lot of times um just looking at some people have more month than they
1:08:321 hour, 8 minutes, 32 secondsdo money. So I'm really having I'm really struggling with this because uh in real time I I I I um deal with this on a daily basis on a monthly basis.
1:08:431 hour, 8 minutes, 43 secondsSo I'm standing in for those people that have more month than they do money. So I I don't agree with the increases.
1:08:511 hour, 8 minutes, 51 secondsI think we can look at this at a later time because if we can't afford um all those extra avenues that we that's been
1:09:001 hour, 9 minutespresented, I don't think we should do it. We don't have any other resources coming in. Okay.
1:09:081 hour, 9 minutes, 8 secondsBut at the end of the day, you're still having to match what the cost is.
1:09:131 hour, 9 minutes, 13 secondsYou're still going to have to use the same facility whether your money is long or your money is charged. budget to
1:09:211 hour, 9 minutes, 21 secondspersonal budgeting. Like I said, I I have property got enough and I mean and it's not and it's not scary because
1:09:291 hour, 9 minutes, 29 secondsevery time I go to the store, they're increasing. So some I mean even if you eat, if you sleep, if you drive, the gas
1:09:371 hour, 9 minutes, 37 secondsgoes up. Everything has to reflect where we are in the community. And if our bills are going up as in the city and
1:09:461 hour, 9 minutes, 46 secondswe're not bringing in revenue, we're going to miss some. We're not gonna be able to meet what we need to meet.
1:09:511 hour, 9 minutes, 51 secondsBut some I mean, and but Miss [name], the thing and it's not a lot. I make I live on a fixed income. I went back to a little
1:09:591 hour, 9 minutes, 59 secondspart time and it's gone now. But you you you are where where you make but my budgeting.
1:10:061 hour, 10 minutes, 6 secondsBut those people are not getting a cost of living raise. And it's just like robbing Peter to pay Paul. You're taking money from someone that does not have to
1:10:141 hour, 10 minutes, 14 secondsgive to someone that's making a a a decent salary. You're not you're not really giving.
1:10:211 hour, 10 minutes, 21 secondsPeople are working and they are working and they're earning and most of them you're looking at what they've done over years. It didn't just start. People have worked to get five years of a salary.
1:10:321 hour, 10 minutes, 32 secondsThey didn't just get one initially.
1:10:341 hour, 10 minutes, 34 secondsYou got people. Mayor and Council, I'd like to make a motion that we move forward with a proposed rate. Like I said before, I don't want to have to
1:10:421 hour, 10 minutes, 42 secondsraise taxes. It's the last thing I want to do. But we got people in this city that are starving to death without a cost of living raise co uh yeah cost of
1:10:501 hour, 10 minutes, 50 secondsliving adjustment. And therefore, we it has to be done. Therefore, I make the motion we move forward with the proposed rate. I second.
1:10:571 hour, 10 minutes, 57 secondsOkay. It's been moved and second. Any discussion? We do with the discussion.
1:11:031 hour, 11 minutes, 3 secondsUm yeah, I think I Yeah, I just think that if we if we uh would not have and pay
1:11:101 hour, 11 minutes, 10 secondslike um excessive uh uh salary amounts and higher end with higher salary
1:11:181 hour, 11 minutes, 18 secondsincomes. Um, and I was even looking at the um Okay, I think you the part the overtime, the uh tax
1:11:271 hour, 11 minutes, 27 secondsabments that we give different businesses that could actually help um with the uh with our
1:11:361 hour, 11 minutes, 36 secondsincome or our revenue. So, yeah, I just I don't know if that's what you're talking Okay. Now, uh we've had a discussion on um ready for the vote on
1:11:441 hour, 11 minutes, 44 secondshow did we uh come up with the number of 10%. That's what the council told me to use.
1:11:501 hour, 11 minutes, 50 secondsI presented multiple We had requests from department heads of up to 25% trying to keep employees and and
1:12:001 hour, 12 minutescompete with other cities so we don't lose valuable employees. Um I presented the 10% because in 2022 we voted to
1:12:091 hour, 12 minutes, 9 secondsadopt a pay policy to provide our employees with a a certain amount and since 2022 we have not adjusted that at
1:12:161 hour, 12 minutes, 16 secondsall. And since 2022, uh, CPI and inflation has hit us by over
1:12:231 hour, 12 minutes, 23 seconds12 and a half%. And so I presented a 10% option. And like I mentioned to council
1:12:291 hour, 12 minutes, 29 secondsthen, if y'all can, it's easy. It, you know, if you wanted to go higher than that or lower than that, I can go. But council told me to use a 10% number.
1:12:411 hour, 12 minutes, 41 secondsOkay. Is there any Are you ready for the vote? All in favor?
1:12:491 hour, 12 minutes, 49 secondsOppose. Okay. Motion carries.
1:12:571 hour, 12 minutes, 57 secondsOkay. That brings us to lost my paper.
1:13:041 hour, 13 minutes, 4 secondsMy sheet of paper lo my agenda.
1:13:081 hour, 13 minutes, 8 secondsIt's between the budget. Um we don't have an executive session. Okay. It brings us to item number six.
Chapter 8: Personnel and adjournment
1:13:181 hour, 13 minutes, 18 secondsUh we have we're clo Well, we can exit for our for our executive session in the conference room. We do our executive session now.
1:13:261 hour, 13 minutes, 26 secondsOkay. Okay. We're going to executive session.
1:13:301 hour, 13 minutes, 30 secondsU [name], did you give us any information on executive session?
1:13:371 hour, 13 minutes, 37 secondsWell, why don't we receive it before?
1:13:411 hour, 13 minutes, 41 secondsI'm just asking. Why don't we receive it before There's nothing to present. We're talking about something right now.
1:14:061 hour, 14 minutes, 6 secondsHow are you doing?
1:14:221 hour, 14 minutes, 22 secondsAll right.
1:14:491 hour, 14 minutes, 49 secondsAll right.
1:14:571 hour, 14 minutes, 57 secondsIt's interesting for 17 and 12 years.
1:15:301 hour, 15 minutes, 30 secondsI have
1:15:511 hour, 15 minutes, 51 secondssome
1:16:211 hour, 16 minutes, 21 secondsHello. reason.
1:18:191 hour, 18 minutes, 19 secondsmessage.
1:18:561 hour, 18 minutes, 56 secondsthe situation. That's the city.
1:19:041 hour, 19 minutes, 4 secondsproof.
1:19:441 hour, 19 minutes, 44 secondsresponsibility.
1:20:021 hour, 20 minutes, 2 secondsThis is our plan to do what we need to do.
1:20:581 hour, 20 minutes, 58 secondsBut that's the city as well.
1:21:261 hour, 21 minutes, 26 secondsquestion.
1:21:431 hour, 21 minutes, 43 secondsWhy is it down?
1:21:581 hour, 21 minutes, 58 secondsYou go up to here.
1:22:031 hour, 22 minutes, 3 secondsSo there
1:22:301 hour, 22 minutes, 30 secondscircul.
1:22:331 hour, 22 minutes, 33 secondsprobably
1:22:591 hour, 22 minutes, 59 secondssitt We're going to have
1:23:141 hour, 23 minutes, 14 secondsa swimming pool.
1:23:481 hour, 23 minutes, 48 secondsI said to my Hallelujah.
1:24:231 hour, 24 minutes, 23 secondsWhy can't you leave me?
1:24:361 hour, 24 minutes, 36 secondsAre you and you tell everybody
1:24:451 hour, 24 minutes, 45 secondsthat's not
1:25:071 hour, 25 minutes, 7 secondssituation.
1:25:151 hour, 25 minutes, 15 secondsGive us
1:25:361 hour, 25 minutes, 36 secondsThat's
1:26:001 hour, 26 minutesWhat is
1:26:211 hour, 26 minutes, 21 secondsGod?
1:26:421 hour, 26 minutes, 42 secondsHow many times?
1:27:031 hour, 27 minutes, 3 secondsAnd so [snorts] water
1:27:201 hour, 27 minutes, 20 secondsExcuse me.
1:27:591 hour, 27 minutes, 59 secondsYou're about to
1:28:451 hour, 28 minutes, 45 secondsOkay, we're officially back in session.
1:28:501 hour, 28 minutes, 50 secondsMayor and council, as discussed during executive session, I would request that we take action on our current city secretary,
1:28:581 hour, 28 minutes, 58 secondsMinty Seth, uh, and her retirement notice.
1:29:021 hour, 29 minutes, 2 secondsI make a motion that we accept Mitch Stefica's letter of resignation effective September the 30th.
1:29:091 hour, 29 minutes, 9 secondsSecond picking it up.
1:29:121 hour, 29 minutes, 12 secondsOkay, it's been moved and second. All in favor? Motion carries.
1:29:191 hour, 29 minutes, 19 secondsUh next up item, mayor and council. Um I would like to nominate Miss [name] [name]
1:29:261 hour, 29 minutes, 26 secondsas the city secretary for the city of Crockett effective October 1.
1:29:321 hour, 29 minutes, 32 secondsI move that we accept Miss [name]'s u effective as October 1st.
1:29:411 hour, 29 minutes, 41 secondsOkay. Ready for the vote. All in favor? Got the second.
1:29:491 hour, 29 minutes, 49 secondsGot too fast for me. Okay. [laughter] Yes. I I did just want to make note for the record. I did uh address the um
1:29:581 hour, 29 minutes, 58 secondsposting of the um job to ensure that it was um legal for us to move forward and
1:30:061 hour, 30 minutes, 6 secondsmy understanding I got direction that it was legal for us to move forward without posting. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
1:30:131 hour, 30 minutes, 13 secondsThank you. Uh ready for the vote. All in favor. Motion carries. No. Thank you, council.
1:30:211 hour, 30 minutes, 21 secondsCongratulation. Motion to this.
1:30:251 hour, 30 minutes, 25 secondsMotion to adjurnn [laughter] second. All right.
1:30:361 hour, 30 minutes, 36 secondsFor military. Yeah.
1:30:401 hour, 30 minutes, 40 seconds[name] put them together. There's some leftover for something some something. I hate to say it. I tell my age.
1:30:451 hour, 30 minutes, 45 secondsOh, no. You I told you. I think I was teaching school now. Go on. You ain't that old. You always treat him. I was I was here.
1:30:541 hour, 30 minutes, 54 seconds30 years.
1:30:541 hour, 30 minutes, 54 secondsYou can

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