Minutes for December 4,2 2018 Page 1of5  The] Board of Commissioners for the City of Alamo, Texas met for the second regular meeting on' Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:00 pm at the City of Alamo Municipal Building.  COMMISSION: PRESENT: Dianal Martinez, Mayor Pete Morales, Mayor Pro-Tem Trinol Medina, Commissioner Robert De La Garza, Commissioner Pilar Garza, Commissioner STAFF PRESENT: Luciano Ozuna, Jr., City Manager Rick Palacios, City Attorney Alexandra Rangel, City Secretary Bobby Salinas, CPD) Director Melissa Rodriguez, Purchasing Agent Ronnie Cruz, City Engineer Julio Villarreal, Public Works Director Roy Contreras, Fire Chief  Rosie Rodriguez, Accountant Baudelio Castillo, Police Chief Michael Torres, ITI Director Rafael Tapia, AEDC: Director Alex Oyoque, Museum Curator  I.  CALL MEETING TO ORDER  Mayor Diana Martinez called the first regular meeting held on Tuesday, December 4, 2018 to order at 7:00 pm at the City of Alamo Municipal Building. Mayor Diana Martinez led in the Bobby Salinas presented on in Celebration of Our 9th. Annual Lighted Christmas Parade and Lighting of the Downtown Tree on December 8,2018. Parade begins at 6:30pm at HEB to Central Park. Tree Lighting Ceremony at 7:00pm, entries to show up by 5:30pm for foat Commissioner Trino Medina sent out condolences from the City of Alamo to our 41* President Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales announced on the South Texas Health System ER Alamo D. Consideration and action to approve the minutes for the regular meeting of July 17, Luciano Ozuna, City Manager explained the lack of details on the minutes in due to minimal notes found within the previous administrator packet. Consultations between. Mr. Ozuna and Ms. Alexandra. Rangel, City Secretary occurred to gain as much details as possible since the original recording, the CD was not found. Commissioner Robert De La Garza motioned and Commissioner Pilar Garza seconded. to approve the minutes for the regular meeting of July 17, E.C Consideration and action to approve the minutes for the regular meeting of Nov. 20, 2018. Commissioner Robert De La Garza made a motion to approve and Commissioner Pilar Garza seconded to approve the minutes for the regular meeting of November 20, 2018 as F.Consideration: and action on a request by Safe Haven forl Kids, a non-Profit corporation, Luciano Ozuna, City Manager. stated based on the last meeting on November 20, 2018 Safe Heaven to be includedi within this week's agenda by the board. The money requested in not part ofther regular budget oft the city, therefore funding is not possible this years. With instruction to looki into the urban county, funding for next year, he checkedi with urban county to change the work plan and urban county confirmed the changes. Funding is possible for next year. Commissioner Trino Medina motioned: to approve, Mayor Diana Martinez. seconded. Motion  Pledge of Allegiance. Herb Moring led with) prayer. C.I Presentation and Announcements.  judging.  George H. W. Bush and prayers for Mark. Sandoval and Ms. Rosario Coplea. Community Open House on Saturday, December 15, from 2 pm-41 pm.  2018  2018 as presented. Motioned Carried.  presented. Motion carried. fora donation.  Carried.    Minutes for December 4, 2018 Page 2of5  G. Consideration and action regarding consultation to employ al Finance Director. Luciano Ozuna, City Manager introduced: the application of Orlando Lucio. Only two applicants during the two week opening, the application was published in the monitor and ini the advanced. Commissioner. Pilar Garza motioned to approve, Mayor Diana Martinez seconded. Motion Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales invites Mr. Orlando Lucio to introduce himself Mr. Orlando Lucio introduced himselfand his experience inj finance of8-10years. Luciano Ozuna, City. Manager announced the setting of the. salary of $60,000ay year. H. Consideration and action on Interlocal Cooperation Agreement between the City of Chief Roy Contreras presented on the Interlocal Cooperation Agreement between the City of Alamo with Hidalgo County for rural fire, and mentioned everything has been cleared by Hidalgo County. Luciano Ozuna, City Manager stated City attorneys have reviewed the agreements. The question of giving up the south end since the city of Pharr took over, Chief Contreras mentioned. since most calls are placed to the east and north it will not be feasible to Mayor Diana Martinez motioned to approve, Mayor Pro- tem Petei Morales seconded. Motion LConsideration and action on an update regarding the N. Alamo Road water and sewer Mr. Ronnie Cruz, City Engineer presented on update on the N. Alamo Road water and sewer lines relocation. Project and field change orders. As of today. December 4, 2018 all construction is done, all that needs to be done is clean up and paving. The motion to Proceed was on August 6", 60 calendar days. Not including rain days and additional construction. Mayor Diana Martinez motioned: to approve, Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales seconded. Motion Carried  Both applicants were interviewed, references were checked.  Carried.  Alamo with Hidalgo County for rural fire.  serve the. south area. Carried.  lines relocation Project and field change orders.  J.  Consideration and action on a request by the Alamo Police Department for a budget Trino Medina: Ihave something to read real quick before we start discussion on that, this is from the chief and Iasked. himj for permission. to give me some stats and information on what he Trino Medina: The purpose ofall oft this is because Ihad a question. Why as we as a commission specifically Mayor Diana Martinez and Commissioner Robert De La Garza are targeting a police officer, aj police chief an putting him on the agenda for minor things like a budget item. Which normally is approved by the city manager. Why are we targeting him, is it because they have arrested your. friends or what, we want to know, the community wants to know because 100% of us are with the police department and we want to know ifyou are with the criminals or with the Alamo Police department. But with you Mayor Diana Martinez and) you Commissioner Robert De La Garza, now Iknow a lot oft this targeting can lead to lawsuits, and so Iwarn you stop targeting Chief Castillo because it will lead to a lawsuit to the city, it will lead to a lawsuit to you personally. So please stop targeting him by putting him on the agenda every single Trino Medina: and I have only heard good things about you. I do not know why Mayor. Diana Martinez and Commissioner Robert De La Garza are targeting you and putting you on the agenda. When these are items that can easily be approved but the city manager. Ijust don't understand it. hope they can give us a reason; at this point I support Chief Castillo, Isupport the Alamo Police department and I move to remove, to approve this item the change the chief wants to do. It's not ani increase in money its change ini his budget that can easily be done by the city manager and Ihave talked to others city managers and other cities they do it themselves and does not come to city commission unless they are been targeted by a commissioner; which in this case is the case. So Iz move to approve and IA know commissioner Garza to my lef, I know her mom has thanked us to arrested drug dealers that where right behind) her house that was because of Chief Castillo here, that did that and several ofl her neighbors came out on TV and said "we thank chief Castillo, we thank the commission for having him on our city and attacking these  amendment toi increase the travel and training linei item. has done soj far. (The following statement int the attachment)  meeting. ChiefCastillo Iam proud to call our chief.. Mayor Diana Martinez: My7 respect    Minutes for December 4, 2018 Page 3of5  drug dealers who were controlling our city in the past." And commissioner to my left over here, Pilar can attest to that her mom was very happy and her family was very happy we were able to arrest these drug dealers that were dealing drugs right behind their house. So with that said, again Imove to approve to Iam) hoping this is the last time this kind ofi item comes to the agenda when the budget, his budget has already been approved these are things that can be taken care of by our City Manager not micromanaged by the commission. So Imove to approve. Mayor Diana Martinez: let me clarify something, as far of the budget. We have a budget, I remember asking the chief do) you need this much money, for maintenance, he said "yes". Isaid "Ok". In the past two months he has budget for training, in the past two months he has spent that money already. for training. Now ifi he needs money, for maintenance throughout the year, this is only the part of December. We still have the whole year to go, he 's going to come back to the city and ask for more money. Imean that money. should have been looked at very carefully in training and done the training like monthly or. six month you can see, you) have the listing of all Commissioner Trino Medina: he' 's not asking for ani increase he' 's only asking for a change in his Commissioner Robert De La Garza: she gave you the right to talk; please allow us the same Mayor Diana Martinez: and how can we approve something that has already been approved in the budget, Ic don't agree with that and once again I questioned you. Do you need this much money for maintenance, andj you said) yes. And nowj you are telling us, you don' 'tr need this money Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales: Chief, Chief, can Ij just say something to the respond to the Mayor. Sorry. Part ofr my challenge that Ihave for the chiefi is to look into the trainings ofa lot of our police officers. If you. really think, throughout the years that these gentlemen and ladies did not have the Proper trainings that they have since Chief Castillo came on board. So I challenged him to look at all of our training that all of our police officers have in our town. Yes; he has already, gone through a quiet bit of his money through training, but this is training that ff you look at the training that they need to do their job. The last thing. you want to do, iffor an officer who is not trained in certain field goes out and tempers with crime scene that does not know what to do, you) know especially when there is people are involved then you) have lawsuits that happen. That is my... when Id challenged the chief on this, not only also the training of the employee the police department but their involvement community wise. Ihave seen a lot of these police officers go on their own time, free time and donate their time to our community now. There are not charging the city to be out there been involved in the explorer. Pro-gram they are there because they are volunteering their time because they want to give back to the community and to also follow the chief You are talking about the monies that we have here, this is money that has been invested to our police officers that they need it's not something that they have not Commissioner Robert De La Garza: when the chief came in, at the beginning and he got interviewed. he also said, "He would bring free training to the officers at no cost to the city. ." Commissioner Robert De. La Garza: now the crime scene investigation course it was just ofered November the 131h -16" in Hidalgo Police Department. for free, yet we choose to spend about $3,000 for it. In Harlingen they offèred thes same course August the 6h -gh for free, they offered iti in October 22"d. 251h and Iremember the chiefs specially sqying he had friends in the FBI ini the County also in DPS and stuff that he could get the course. for his officers. for free. But yet right now: in a month in a half he has spent $28,000: so ifwe are looking in a year, we are looking ata year we are looking about at. S 224,000 in training. Ithink it'sa bit excessive, and I think ifhe wantedi to spend that muchi money he should have presented that figure when we didt the budget. Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales: With all due respect commissioner, if you think about the price we are talking about money and what our community is worth. Ithink the money we have spent right now on our officers are well invested to our community. Community that has been so happy with what) has been going on andIthink not moneyj just spent but its money invested to our  thet training ini the last two months.  budget. courtesy.  Commissioner Trino Medina: Go ahead tak for maintenance that) you) want it to training. ChiefCastillo:: Mayor let me respond, to) your comment...  hadi in the past, they have not have iti in the past. So they need this training.  Mayor. Diana Martinez: that is right  community and public. sqfety of our community.    Minutes for December 4, 2018 Page 4of5  Commissioner Robert De La Garza: I think the community has really elected us to be the care takers oft the money notj for us just to spend as we chose fit. We have too, basically ifyou want to Commissioner Trino Medina: First ofall Commissioner De La Garza, you did not have enough money to got to Vegas for a training and) you asked me for money from my travel account. Mayor Diana Martinez: that enough, that' 's already get away, from the item we are presenting Commissioner Trino. Medina: Iamj just saying, he' 's talking about, this relates from the item Mayor Diana. Martinez: Ifyou want to discuss this, then place in on the next agenda Commissioner Trino Medina: De la Garza also wanted more money. for training but he didn't have enough. Idon't know where it came from we will find out but he' 's only asking, for money to be changed not even increase in the budget like you did. You increased the budget that's misusing tax payer money he did not. Ok All he' 's asking is for us to change the budget to help these officers become better officers. Because you know what, we are getting the best officers Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales seconded Commissioner Trino Medina's motion and motion was Against: Mayor Diana Martinez, Commissioner Robert De La Garza and Commissioner Pilar Commissioner Trino Medina: Mayor this is very disappointing that the, you will do this for our K. Consideration and action on a variance request to allow for a 23' rear setback instead of the 30' rear setback required by plat, physically located at 1310 Deluxe St., legally described as Lot 48, Palazzo Vegas Ranches Subdivision for Saul Chavez. (Tabled Mayor Diana Martinez motioned to be removed from tabled. Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales Bobby Salinas presented on the variance request on the site located on Alamo Rd and EL Dora. Met with Valley Magic electric for the lines to be adjusted, spoke with Jason Lozano and will adjusting them however by the cost ofthe builder. Recommending approval for the relocation of utilities by) Valley Magic Electric and be paid for by builder and aj partial abandonment ofthe 15 fz utility easement. Met with the planning and zoning commission on November 141 variance was Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales motioned to approve, Mayor Diana Martinez seconded. Motion Consideration and action on: a variance request to allow for a 5' side corner setback instead of the 10' side corner setback required by code, physically located at 202 Laura Dr., legally described as Lot 20, Alamo Trails Subdivision for Edward Delgado. (Tabled on Mayor Diana Martinez motioned to be removed from tabled. Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales Bobby. Salinas presented on variance request on the lot located on Acacia and Laura. Staff was recommending denial based on the. future home can still be modified. to meet al the setbacks. Presence can have a negative impact on future variances. Met with the planning and zoning Mayor Diana Martinez motioned to approve. Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales seconded. Motion CITIZEN PARTICIPATION: Five minutes per person with no response from the City Ms. Mayra Benedetti requested on the addition of Christmas decoration throughout the city Mr. Edward. Delgado, thanked commissioners andi mayor and addressed his new residency to the  run the city to the ground when Iguess...  Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales. It's not that commissioner  now because of him and the training we are offering.  denied as follows: Garza Motion denied.  For: Mayor Pro- tem Pete Morales and Commissioner Trino Medina  communityjust: that Iwant that on record.  onl November 20, 2018 regular meeting). seconded. Motion carried.  approved. carried. L.  November 20, 2018 regular meeting). seconded. Motion carried.  commission on November 141 variance was approved. Motionedcried5l02  carried.  Commission. Residents must sign upi prior to the city meeting.  City of Alamo.    Minutes for December 4, 2018 Page! 5of5 LADJOURNMENT  Citizens are encouraged tos sign the attendance sheet.  There being noj further business, Mayor Diana Martinez adjourn the meeting at 7:43 pm.  ATTEST:  Amby  odwBonal Alexandral Rangel, City Secretary