$State of Texas SCaldwell County SCity of Luling THE CITY COUNCIL OFTHE CITY OF LULING, MET IN REGULAR SESSIONS ON THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2025 AT 6:00 P.M. IN CITY HALL, 509 EAST CROCKETT STREET. The following members were present: CJ Watts Mayor Lee Rust Council Member Marc Taylor Council Member Wesley Wells Council Member John Wells Council Member Council Member - Jackie Campbell was absent. Staff Members present: Mark McLaughlin City Manager Martha Velasquez City Secretary James Rougeou Finance Director Marcus Kinnard-Bing Police Chief Ryan DeCamp Director of GIS/Mapping Ari Arias Grant Writer 1. Call Meeting to Order. Mayor Watts called the meeting to order and welcomed all the visitors. 2. Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance. (Texas Pledge: Honor the Texas flag, Ipledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible) Pastor Curtis Marshall gave the invocation. We said the pledge of allegiance to the American and Texas flag. 3. Proclamation proclaiming May as Military Appreciation Month. Mattie Dawn sang the National Anthem and Mayor Watts asked all the Military people to come forward and each one present, stated their name, rank along with the branch that they served in or are serving in. Members of the American Legion invited everyone to come out on May 26th at 1la.m. To come out to the American Legion in remembrance of those that gave the ultimate sacrifice SO that we can stand here and talk about it today. 4. Proclamation proclaiming May as Municipal Clerks Week. Mayor Watts present Martha Velasquez and Jessica Tucker a proclamation for Municipal Clerks Week. Laundra Solanki presented Eva Angeles with a plaque on completing her Level 3. She stated that out of approximately 3,000 municipal clerks, the City ofLuling has 1 out ofthe 159 clerks. 5. Reports from Council & Staff. --"At this time, the City Council and Staff will report/update on all committee assignments which may include but is not limited to the following: Planning & Zoning Commission, Zoning Board of Adjustments, Historical Board, Housing Authority Board, Library Board, Health Board, Tourism, Chamber of Commerce, Caldwell County and Tèxas Municipal League. Staff reports include thej following: Code Enforcement, Accounting & Finance - Financial Services - Information Imvestment Report, Quarterly Budget Report, Monthly Financial Reports: Police & Fire Department - Grant Update, Police & Fire Reports; Street Updates; Public Works- Building Maintenance - Construction Updates; Park Services grant(s) update, miscellaneous park projects, Administration- Workshop Schedule, Interlocal Agreements, Public Information, Hotel Occupancy Report, Main Street Downtown, Water and Wastewater Reports. Noformal action can be taken on these items at this time. City Manager, Mark, stated that the newly created Parks Advisory Board will be holding its first meeting under its Park Director, Phyllis Hillhouse at Zedler Mill on May 20th. May 215t we will have a Special Council Meeting at 3 p.m. at Council Chambers hopefully to appoint our newly selected EDC director to replace Trey Bailey who is retiring at the end of June. We also have a couple of more clean up household items to do. Sonny Rougeou has done a great putting together an Investment Report that will be available to the public upon an Open records request, of what the City of Luling does with the funds. Remember this Sunday is a very special day it's Mother's Day. Mark wished all the Mothers a happy Mother's Day. 6. Consent Agenda = All consent agenda items listed are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion oft these items a Council member sO requests, in which event the item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. Information concerning consent agenda items is availablefor public view. a. Approval of Minutes ofthe. April 11, 2025 regular City Council meeting. b. Discussion and possible action on the City ofl Luling's Accounts Payable. Council Member Jackie Campbell made a motion seconded by Council Member John Wells approving the Consent Agenda. Roll call was called and all members voted unanimously in favor of the motion. 7. Citizen Comment Period with City Council. Any person with business before the City Council may speak to the Council at this time. No formal action can be taken on these items at this meeting. Comments will be limited to three (3) to five (5) minutes per. person. There were no comments. 8. Discussion and possible action on a resolution approving amended Bylaws for the Luling Economic Development Corporation. City Attorney, Luke Cochran stated that this had not been amended for a while and we are amending it and adding some language that is required by the state. Council Member Lee Rust made a motion seconded by Council Member Jackie Campbell approving the resolution amended Bylaws for the Luling Economic Development Corporation. Rollcall was taken and all wards along with the Mayor approved the motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 9. Public Hearing: City Council will hold a public hearing for the purpose of receiving public comments and testimony regarding annexation of 3.814 acres of land owned by Ranch Road Ladera, LLC. Amy Connor stated that she has a concern and she lives on FM 2984 on Bridal Path and Washburn. She would like to know if they are going to annex into the City limits, and asked who is going to police this area. She asked if someone was going to see that they plant trees to replace all the trees that were cut down. Luke Cochran, City Attorney stated that the vast majority of that property has already been annexed into the city ofLuling and is subject to a development agreement that the City Council approval awhile ago. In the agreement it does require certain landscape, and have some green space and other requirements. MS Connor stated that she just wants her and her neighbors to be heard, to have a voice. 10. Discussion and possible action regarding an ordinance approving annexation of 3.814 acres of land owned by Ranch Road Ladera, LLC. Council Member Jackie Campbell made a motion seconded by Council Member Wesley Wells approving an ordinance annexing of3.814 acres of land owned by Ranch Road Ladera, LLC. Roll call was taken and the motion was approved with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 11. Public Hearing: City Council will hold a public hearing for the purpose of receiving public comments and testimony regarding amending the Ladera Planned Development District zoning to include newly acquired land and monument signage. MS Connor stated that she would like to have another meeting SO that her neighbors could attend however Mr. Ryan DeCamp stated that there had already been a meeting that is why we are here today. 12. Discussion and possible action regarding an ordinance Planned Development District zoning to include newly acquired land and monument signage. Section 10-51 of our zoning does calls that we have a planning and zoning meeting, there was some land swap and they acquired some new land SO we are required to send out a notice to people within 500 feet anytime the land boundaries change. Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Jackie Campbell. Roll call was taken and the motion was approved with all members present voting unanimously in favor ofthe motion. 13. Discussion and possible action regarding a resolution consenting to the addition of land within ar municipal utility district located fully within the corporate limits of the City ofLuling, Texas. City Attorney Luke Cochran stated that this is dealing with the 3.814 acres that was swapped between the Ladera Group and their neighbor. He stated that the rest of property was already inside the city limits. This is adding the 3.814 acres into the already existing municipal utility district. They will take this resolution if Council chooses to approve back to the state to make those changes. Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust approving a resolution consenting to the addition of land within a municipal utility district located fully within the corporate limits of the City ofl Luling, Texas. Roll call was taken and the motion was approved with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 14. Discussion and possible action on Incode transition plan and transition cost. City Manager, Mark McLaughlin stated that Incode is the computer software that the City ofLuling uses in all the departments. He stated that we are currently using Incode version 9 which is like window's base and no longer supportive, SO we need to upgrade to Incode 10. Incode 10 is way more functionality in it. This is approval to get on a wait list ift the Council approves the transition plan. It is a 10-12 month waiting period. This will incur cost to the City, he is committing you to funding that may go into another fiscal year. The transition cost is about $60,000. Currently we pay about $60,000 to $65,000 to use Incode 9 SO it will be the same price for Incode 10. Council Member Lee Rust asked about hardware and Mark stated that we have looked at that and all is well. Blue Iron is still looking at the hardware we are needing to be able to livestream Council meeting. Council member Jackie Campbell made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust approving the Incode transition plan and transition cost. We had a roll-call vote with Ward 1, Ward 2, Ward 3, Ward 4, Ward 5 and Mayor all voting for in favor of the motion. 15. Discussion and possible action to reappoint the Luling Municipal Court Judge. City Secretary, Martha Velasquez gave the oath and statement of appointment to Bonnie Townsend, Municipal Judge. Council Member Jackie Campbell made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust to reappoint Bonnie Townsend as Municipal Court Judge. Roll call was taken and all council wards and mayor voted yes for approval. The motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 16. Discussion and possible action on a budget amendment for Fire Brush truck repair. Deputy Chief Lohse stated that the plastic tank under the silver thing is cracked and they are needing to repair it. Following discussion, Council Member Lee Rust made a motion seconded by Council Member John Wells approving the budget amendment for Fire Brush truck repair. Roll call was taken and all council wards and Mayor voted yes for approval. The motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 17. Discussion and possible action on seal coat bid from sole bidder Twisted Cx LLC. City Manager, Mark McLaughlin stated that we went out for seal coat bids. The City ofLuling does not currently have the capability to do hot mix or road reconstruction. We went out for bids and only receive one bid, the bid came in about $32,000 higher than what we had set aside. Mark stated that all 5 wards had at least 2 streets to get seal-coated in this bid. The street names will be listed on our website. Council Member Jackie Campbell asked if these were the streets that the Street Committee had put together last year, to which the Mayor stated "yes". Council Member Jackie Campbell made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust approving the seal coat bid from Twisted Cx LLC. Roll call was called and everyone voted yes. The motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 18. Discussion and possible action on the purchase of a Waste Water TP Press Skid system and Budget Amendment ofs $46,700.00. Mark stated that this a purchase of a equipment that will de-water the sludge from both wastewater treatment plants. The original cost ofthis equipment was $317,000 when they went through all the negotiations for our system we were short $46,700.00. Council Member Wesley Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Marc Taylor approving the budget amendment of $46,700.00 for the purchase ofa Waste Water TP Press Skid system. Roll call was taken and everyone voted yes. The motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 19. Adjourn. There was no other business and the meeting was adjourned. Approved: Martha C. Velasquez CJ Watts, Mayor City Secretary City ofLuling, Texas