$State of Texas SCaldwell County SCity ofLuling THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LULING, MET IN SPECIAL SESSIONS ON WEDNESDAY, MAY21, 2025 AT 3:00 P.M. IN CITY HALL, 509 EAST CROCKETT STREET. The following members were present: CJ Watts Mayor Lee Rust Council Member Wesley Wells Council Member John Wells Council Member Council Member - Jackie Campbell And Council Member Marc Taylor were absent. Staff Members present: Mark McLaughlin City Manager Martha Velasquez City Secretary Marcus Kinnard Bing Police Chief Sonny Rougeou Finance Director Ryan DeCamp GIS/Mapping Dir. Ari Arias Grant Writer 1. Call Meeting to Order. Mayor Watts called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone. 2. Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance. (Texas Pledge: Honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible) Council Member John Wells led us invocation. Wesaid the pledge of allegiance to the American and Texas flag. 3. Citizen Comment Period with City Council. Any person with business before the City Council may speak to the Council at this time. Noformal action can be taken on these items at this meeting. Comments will be limited to three (3) to five (5) minutes per person. Stuart Carter stated that he had some concerns about the temporary mobile food establishment. Mr. Stuart Carter stated that he was here concerning the Food Truck operations and Trailers. Mr. Stuart stated that he owns Luling Food Court and he read the ordinance over and that he just got it today and he didn't know that it was going to come up today. He stated that he would like the City Council to table this agenda item. He stated that if this was passed today, it would put him out ofb business. Mr. Carter stated that he opened up the food court with the hope ofb bringing food trucks from Austin down to Luling with foods that you don't normally get here in town. He stated that food trucks are very regulated. He mentioned that when Mr, Robertson opened up his first food truck here in Luling that he had to be inspected 3 times, State, City and his insurance company all had to inspect it before he could serve his first meal. Mr. Robertson said that he was hoping that the City ofLuling could honor food inspections from other towns to operate here in Luling. Mr. Carter stated that we need a food ordinance but not one that prohibits them from coming into town. Loni Edwards, owner of KK Antiques spoke and said that she was also a certified food manager in the state of Texas and she also got a copy of the food ordinance. She stated that it was a great thing of what she has seen but there are some questions that she has because the way it reads, it would hinder some oft the school organizations from selling things on the sidewalks downtown. The health and safety part looks good we need that part but the other parts of the ordinance leaves her with a lot of questions. 4. Discussion and possible action on appointment of EDC Director. Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust approving Christina "Ari" Arias as EDC Director effective June 2nd . Roll call was taken and all Council Members present along with the Mayor approved the motion. The motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 5. Discussion and possible action dividing a 7.431-acre tract of land located by the Industrial Park and owned by the City into two tracts consisting of 2.895 and 4.536 acres. Agenda item #5 was postponed to a later date. 6. Discussion and possible action on an Ordinance amending Chapter 58 of the City's Code of Ordinances to adopt regulations for temporary mobile food establishments. City Manager, Mark McLaughlin, stated that the reason this came up is because about 2 months ago when they meet with the Watermelon Thump committee they had some concerns about the way people bring mobile food venues to the City to leverage the Thump efforts to bring people to town but they are not a part of the Thump. These mobile food venues are not following a lot of the established rules of the state ofTexas nor what rules the City ofLuling have in place which opens us to some extreme liability. For example open flames requires a number of things if there were an explosion or a fire or a death lawsuits will happen and people will ask why didn't the City stop this or do something about it. Our city attorney, Luke Cochran recommended that we have a mobile food truck ordinance to address the immediate needs for the main events that come to town. It does not cover everything, and it does not address food truck courts where you can set up a place where you can set up a place for food trailers to come and go, it does not address any of those areas. Mark McLaughlin stated that our city attorney did a good job in getting this ordinance together, he stated that he has written these for other cities and he put this one together for the City. He stated that this ordinance addresses other ordinances that the City has already adopted. Ryan DeCamp stated that the current food establishment ordinance is still in effective this just adds an additional piece to the ordinance. Mark McLaughlin stated that this addition would cover the liability that we are exposed to right now and has definitions on the Texas Food Established rules on what needs to be followed. It talks about a permit being required in the City ofLuling, which has not been happening regularly but we did talk about some ofthe changes this after noon, our permits never allow for food trucks to be established in the City's right a way but you can do it on private property. Mobile food trucks are not allowed in residential areas. Council Member John Wells stated that he has a lot of concerns . He agrees that we need something but in his mind this is basically being developed because of complaints from the Thump. The Thump is the only festival that has a fenced in area that are the event grounds and they are concerned that all these pop up vendors are around them and they are drawing traffic away from the inside. The problem there is that ify your pop up vendor you will need to get a permit and get a health inspection. Inside the thump to the best ofhis knowledge there are no health inspections of any of those vendors and a new vendor can not get into the grounds because they have a specified list of pre-approved vendors coming in, Council Member John Wells stated that its fair but unequal and he realizes that we need to control that. He stated that if health and safety are our main concerns why are we not requiring permits from vendors inside the fence. Mr. Wells also reminded them they have other events that are not fenced in like the BBQ Cookoff, Crawfish Festival and numerous festivals and there are food trucks there at most events. This would also apply to tents being set up, he asked if we are going to require permits and health inspections if they are serving prepared food? What are we going to do about Night in Old Luling there are a lot of booths that set up there? He stated that he thinks we are opening up a can of worms and he thinks Council needs to re-look this to make sure we are being fair and equable. Ifwe are going to ask someone from outside the grounds to get an health inspection and health permit we need to ask the vendors on the inside to get the health inspection and health permit too. City Manager stated that as he recalls in the meeting that they had with the Watermelon Thump board they related to us that they do the checking of their event. Code Enforcement Officer, Ryan DeCamp stated that the Thump feels they are covered underneath the insurance but Ryan did relate to them that our ordinance states that anybody for the purpose of selling food have to be inspected and have a permit by the City which has not been happening inside the Thump. Mr. Carter stated that the only people getting inspected are the vendors at his food court. Ryan stated that all food establishments do get inspected and permitted, their permits are good for a year. Ryan stated that in March when they had the meeting with the Thump he mentioned that he did not want to issue permits for a whole year and have people setting up tents all over for a year selling food, SO they are wanting a temporary food establishment for events but the regular food establishment permits would be for a year that will not change. We are only looking at permits for temporary use for events. Mr. DeCamp stated that he agrees that our ordinance states that if you are selling food to eat that you are required to get a food permit, the state says that if you fall under cottage laws you are exempted. Council Member Lee Rust stated that the Council was provided a copy of this ordinance on Friday and on Monday morning he started researching and looking back he along with others had worked with the previous administration done some research our size as far as food trucks unfortunately that information has not gotten passed over to the new administration. Lee stated that he has some serious concerns along with Mr. Wells he agrees 100% that in this current ordinance there is no enforcement clause. He would like to see who does what, who is responsible for the inspections. He does not agree on the hours listed on the proposed temporary ordinance and the definition of the mobile establishment. It concerns him about the bake sales downtown or hamburgers being cooked for school activities. Council Member Lee Rust stated that he would like to see an ordinance that states everything in it even though it may be duplicating it from a different area. Ryan stated that Ryan and his team are buckled under and do these inspections put a liability on our current code enforcement? What about on weekends, we only have PD available does this put Code Enforcement on call? Council Member Lee continued stating that this is a good start but we need to work on this some more. Ryan DeCamp stated that the reason this ordinance was put in on Friday was because of him. Ryan stated that he was told that we would be enforcing this ordinance this year. For the last two months he has been wrestling with this is because June is coming up and he doesn't want people to feel like we are short side them. He said that that with constant talks with the City Manager and City Attorney he didn't feel that the current food ordinance did not meet that and we have gone back and forth on this ordinance. Ryan stated that when he spoke to City Attorney last week he told him that he was supposed to be getting a PSA out and that he couldn't get a PSA out on the current food ordinance rules and he didn't want people thinking that they were hammering this in last minute even though he's sure that this is what people are already thinking. Ryan spoke to City Attorney and told him that he didn't want to be giving out permits for a whole year. Ryan stated that he agrees that it is very short notice to the City Council but that that he was trying to give as much notice to the public as he can, it obviously didn't get there. Ryan stated that when he goes out there to enforce it with his team he wants to know that he has teeth to do sO. Mayor Watts asked ifCity Manager or Code Enforcement Officer recalled if the Thump Association had told them that they do ask their food vendors to provide a food inspection. City Manager stated that in order to get into their fence line the Thump Association has a check list that has to be meet. City Manager said that ordinance says everyone has to have a permit and City Manager feels that if the Thump checks off on the permit that is good enough for him. There was a current and former Thump director present and they stated that there was an application that people filled out but no permits that they were aware of. Mayor Watts stated that Council Member John Wells is right in stating that if we want the vendors outside to get permitted that the vendors on the inside should be getting permitted. She stated that the ones on the outside should be getting permitted because that's on us but she agrees that everyone should be getting permitted. City Manager, Mark McLaughlin stated that he isn't trying to make it hard, what he is saying that he wants to protect our liability. He doesn't want something bad to happen because ofthe lack of our job. Ryan DeCamp stated that when he first got here, he was told that we would be doing food permits. He stated that he asked that he needed to go inside the Thump too and he was told that we do not do inspections inside or outside ofthe Thump. He didn't have the personnel or teeth to enforce. Ryan said that we are here today on with this ordinance because he was told in March that we would enforce it and he wants to make sure that he has the teeth to enforce it. Ryan stated that this is a 4 day temporary food permit. City Manager stated that our current food ordinance is for established restaurants and they are good for a whole year but we don't have one for temporary vendors. Currently there is a big loop hole which we are trying to fix. Following a lot of discussion, Council Member Wesley Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust to postpone this agenda item. Roll call was taken and all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 7. Discussion and possible action to replace Lilly Pierre with Jack Musick to the Luling Parks Advisory Board. Council Member Lee Rust made a motion seconded by Council Member John Wells to replace Lilly Pierre with Jack Musick to the Luling Parks Advisory Board. Roll call was taken and all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 8. Discussion and possible action on a budget amendment for Luling Sport Donation and allocation of donation to Police Department uniform. Chief Kinnard-Bing addressed the Council on behalf of the Police Department asking that the City formally accept donation in the amount of$41,221.89 from Luling Sport and to allocate them for uniforms, tactic gear and equipment for all sworn personnel. This would allow us to totally re-outfit all sworn personnel which would be impossible under our current budget. This is truly a blessing and a welcomed donation. Council Member Lee Rust made a motion seconded by Council Member Wesley Wells approving budget amendment for Luling Sport Donation and allocation of donations to Police Department uniforms. Roll call was taken and the motion passed with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 9. Discussion and possible action on a budget amendment to appropriate funding from Police Capital Assets (logic Investment Account) to Police Capital Assets General Fund. Chiefl Kinnard-Bing stated that this is a request to transfer $7,837.00 from Police Capital Assets (Logic Investment Account) to be distributed to among 3-line items under the Police General Fund, Uniform and Equipment Funds, Vehicle Maintenance and Building Maintenance. Chief stated that he reached out to the company that does refurbishing of the Police Badge and he was told that they could not be refurbished SO he purchased new badges. Chief Kinnard-Bing stated that there are 4 vehicles that need to be decommissioned and take out all the equipment and bring them back to the auction site north of town. Once we get the money from those 4 vehicles it will be put back in the Logic Investment Account. Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust approving a budget amendment to appropriate funding from Police Capital Assets (Logic Investment Account) to Police Capital Assets General Fund. Roll call was taken and the motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 10. Discussion and possible action on a budget amendment for air conditioner at Zedler House and Municipal Court. City Manager stated that we had problems with air conditioner. The upstairs split air conditioner at Zedler House and had an ongoing air conditioner at Municipal Court. These are protecting the equipment or get the house that we rent back on line as quick as possible. Council Member Lee Rust made a motion seconded by Council Member John Wells approving the budget amendment for air conditioner at Zedler House and Municipal Court. Roll call was taken and the motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 11. Discussion and possible action on a Resolution Designating Authorized Signatories for Contractual and Financial Documents pertaining to the GLO Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Method of Distribution (MOD) Program, Contract 24-065-153-F01Z. Ari Arias, Grant Writer stated that this is for the Evacuation Shelter and these are forms that need to proceed. The authorized signatories are City Manager Mark Mayo, Finance Director Sonny Rougeou and Mayor CJ Watts. Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Wesley Wells approving a Resolution Designating Authorized Signatories for Contractual and Financial Documents pertaining to the GLO Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Method of Distributions (MOD) Program, Contract 24-065-153- F012. Roll call was taken and the motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 12. Discussion and possible action on adopting a Local Financial Policy & Procedures pertaining to the GLO Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Method of Distribution (MOD) Program, Infrastructure Contract Number 24-065-153-F012. Ari Arias, Grant Writer stated that this is another document that is required for the GLO Community Development Grant, Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Lee Rust approving an Local Financial Policy and Procedures pertaining to the GLO Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG -MIT) Method of Distribution (MOD) Program, Infrastructure Contract Number 24-065-153-F102. Roll call was taken and the motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 13. Discussion and possible action on adopting a Local Procurement Policies & Procedures pertaining to the GLO Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Method of Distribution (MOD) Program, Infrastructure Contract Number 24-065-153-F012. Grant Writer, Ari Arias stated that this is another document showing that we had a policy and procedures in place. Council Member Lee Rust made a motion seconded by Council Member John Wells adopting a Local Procurement Policies and Procedures pertaining to the GLO Community Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Method of Distribution (MOD) Program, Infrastructure Contract Number 24-065-153-F012. Roll Call was taken and the motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 14. Discussion and possible action on adopting a Resolution Regarding the Civil Rights Policies for the GLO Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Method of Distribution (MOD) Program, Contract 24-065-153-F012. Grant Writer, Ari Arias, stated that this is a resolution that is required by the GLO for CDBG grants. Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Wesley Wells adopting a Resolution Regarding Civil Rights Policies for the GLO Community Development Block Grant - Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) Method ofDistribution (MOD) Program, Contract 24-065-153-F012. Roll call was taken and the motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor of the motion. 15. Adjourn. Council Member John Wells made a motion seconded by Council Member Wesley Wells to adjourn the Special Called meeting at 4:06 p.m. The motion carried with all members present voting unanimously in favor oft the motion. Approved: Martha C. Velasquez CJ Watts, Mayor City Secretary City ofLuling