Belton City Council May 13th, 2025, 530 PM right-room Harris Center Welcome to this edition of the City Council meeting It's use day May 13th. We're going to kick it off with pledge allegiance to the US flag by Council Member Craig Pearson followed by the Texas Pledge by Assistant City Manager Matt Bates, then I will lead the invocation if you would please rise Thanks. I'm going in theocation if you would please rise. Joe, I'm in the pledge to the U.S. flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation and a God, individual, with liberty and justice for all. No, you the Texas Pledge I did Texas pledge. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas. One state under God, one and individual. You bow with me. You know, we just thank you for the summer that you're providing us. Thank you for the reins that we've had this spring. We just pray for those that work the land as they start to do the harvest and work that this summer. Also pray for all the schools, UMHB, just releasing and having commencement this last week, all the other colleges and high schools that are wrapping up and as kids enter this summer, we just pray that everyone will remain safe. Thank you for all those that work in this fine city, those volunteers, the citizens and also those that lead. lead I just pray that we'll continue to guide and direct our steps and your name we pray amen We will now call this meeting to order at 531 Item one on the item two on the agenda is public comments if anyone wishes to address the council on any item that is not on the agenda now is the time that you can do so. Yes. I do want to make a couple remarks. This is going to be tough but I wanted to share just as a testament to the belt in community and the folks that we have even our council candidates and opponents. My opponent was the first one to give me a hug on election day, and I lost my father that morning on election day. And to each of you up here, Sam and Amy Luke, even Clinton and Luke tore down my tent on the day I found out that my dad wouldn't come at home and just a testament to the people we have in Belton just as long as I thank you to everybody for your support and encouragement and moving forward so thank you thank you Daniel we know that's tough we're gonna continue to pray for you and your families you continue to process that you know what else wish to address the council. All right. There being no others, we will close public comments and we will now do the presentation of council pay for May 2024 to May 2025. I know this is the day y'all been waiting for. It's on the calendar every year. Get away. Guess what day it is? Payday. It's your payday. Go ahead, Chris. That's right. That's right. And one more time. There it is. Okay. All right. So today's payday for the city council. They get a whole dollar a year. A whole more payday. So go ahead and open your envelope. to take to the city council, they get a whole dollar a year, or a whole more thing. So go ahead and open your envelope. So. Okay. All right. So today's payday for the city council. They hit a holdover here. Roll or thinking. So go ahead and open your envelope. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye model, not holding the actual line, but it represents something more recognizing. Just like a vineyard's first model, it symbolizes care, patience and the kind of hard work that starts long before anything is ready to pour. And honestly, that's a perfect way to honor the work our Bouton City Council members do. Your service isn't always visible, but is always valuable. You spend hours listening, planning, and making decisions that directly shape the future of our community. You navigate challenges, you weigh tough choices, and you work to make that built in better for all of us, quietly, consistency, and with real commitment. So today, this paper wine bottle is our little way of raising a toast to you. In my piece, it's symbolic that I, but the appreciation behind it is very real. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your service to Belton, and cheers to you. Cheers. Thank you. Thank you. Do you have to pay taxes on the dollar if you never spend it? But all mine are just sitting in the out. I think you have to pay taxes on the dollar if you never spend it? All mine are just sitting in the... I think you have to... Probably what's the term to the minimums? Yeah, the minimums. Yeah, just like our service. That's great. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Thank you. I was able to present to Miller Heights, not Miller Heights, Southwest Elementary about city. And so they asked a lot of questions. And they didn't ask how much I got paid, or the mayor got, or the city council. So I said, you need to ask how much the mayor gets paid. They're like, how much? It's like $1. And they're like, no! Like they were like in range that we only get a dollar. I said, yeah. But yeah. Anyway, thank you very much. All right. Next is consider ordinance canvassing the May 3rd General Special Election in returns. Miss Amy. All right. So tonight we are canvassing the returns of the general special elections that we held on May 3rd, 2025. For Councilmember Place 5, it was tie-taggered with 388 votes and Daniel Booker with 447 votes. For Councilmember Place 6, Luke Neil Potts received 543 votes. Clinton received 320. Stephanie, O'Vanion is in Councilmember Place 7, and it was a close one with her. She receives a televised vote. And then on the special election side, we had a charter amendment to make the municipal court, become municipal court of record by fixing the terms of the judges. So we had to amend our charter in order to be able to do that. So there were 700 votes in favor of that change and 130 votes against that change. In total, we had 603 voters in person, 10 by mail, 267 on election day. We had five provisional and basically what that means is either you're not signed up, you're not registered to be a voter or you filled it out too late or people think they live in Belton but they really live in Temple or Morgan's Point. So when we get provisional ballots, we send them to the county, the county goes through their registrar and determines whether they're valid or not, and then the early voting ballot board reviews them and makes a decision on whether to count them or not. So the three that were rejected, two of them didn't live in the city and the other one did a change of address less than 30 days from the election. So those three were not counted. And we had a total number of voters of 885. We have well over 12,000 registered voters. While this is a better turnout than we've had, and some years past, it's still pretty poor. And the more we can get the word out, I know there was a lot of word out this year because there were signs everywhere. But I don't know how to answer what it's gonna take to get people out of here. Yeah. So So yeah. So before you tonight, you have an ordinance that will canvas the election and make it legitimate, official. That's the part I'm looking for. So I'll be glad to answer any questions. Thank right, thank you, Amy. Thank you. Any comments? I just want to know what happened to the 200 that didn't understand. Well, you know, I can't win them all. I'm moved. We approved the ordinance canvassing the May 3rd, 2025 election. Second. We have a motion of second to approve the ordinance canvassing the May 3rd, 2025 election. Any other comments or questions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Passes 6-0. All right, next item is to administer the oath of office to the newly elected council members. Mr. Messer, it's your time. Do you want them to stand up here and come down on the floor? One down here, so it's losing. Okay, gotcha. I'll try to talk to that. It always must have the art of making this work. All the other members want to make all this work. Every year, you know, we do this and I just want to take it. So, they're going to pass and they'll be soon. They'll be almost... every year. Every year, you know, we do this. I just took a day in the plan. So, we have our own path. Some day, we get to the citizen. And then we'll bail this fly. Running collection and citizens are never bailed as fly. Not only ending, awesome people. And then I get the shit. And then we can do the regulation. That's our second two. Put their names out there and we have pretty much a meeting back in there. And I think that we have a meeting back in there. And I think that we have a meeting back in there. And I think that we have a meeting back in there. And I think that we have a meeting back in there. And I think that we have a meeting back in there. And I think that we have a meeting back in there. And I think that we have a meeting back in there. So, quick and bring one up. We're back on the path of the message to the city. And I think that we have pretty much anything back to that. We have no loose and seem to be more constant. And I've got to share this. I'm not going to go too far with this. Just a little bit more. You ran parents' footsteps. We'll be chillin' down. And I'm like, you know sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we have to be sure that we havefully attribute the unit. And I will help for the executed to be the office of city council member of the office of city council. And I will say the taxes of the state of Texas and the city of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of the state of best in my ability. And where else is the best of my ability to preserve, protect, and defend, preserve, protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protect, and protecting the fact that the Constitution laws of this state, the Constitution laws of this state, end of the United States, end of the United States. So, so, so, I'm glad to write you a nice brief. Alright, so we're doing something a little different this year. We're going to convene into executive session as we reorganize since we do not have direct election of the different offices within the council. We select the mayor and the mayor pro-tem. We also have to, we'll also, in part of this talk about the new court of record and appointing those. And so we will be taking action, and I know a lot of you are here for that action. And so I'm not sure how long we'll be convened, but we'll be recessed for a little bit and we'll come back. And so I'm going to read this into the record. And so you'll make yourself comfortable. Item 6 is executive session pursuant to the provision of the Open Meetings Law chapter 551, Government Code Vernon's's Code annotated in accordance with the authority contained in Section 551.074 personnel matters and item 7 Executive Session Personnel to the provision of the Open Meetings Law Chapter 551 Government Code, Texas Code annotated in accordance with the authority contained in Section 551.071 consultation with the attorney. All right, we will be back shortly. Y'all are still here. My wife just resigned from, she been on the belt of school board and so she's she's attended a reservation and so they had some sweet thing in the meeting and so she sent the the link to listen to or watch the school board maybe she said fast forward to hour four. It's like hour four. It's like she got home like 11, 30. Anyway, those meetings go really long. So sorry to keep you guys waiting. Had some business to take care of. We will then take care of that business here publicly. Everybody here. All right. Good? All right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So for the record, we are reconvening back into regular session at 6.18 p.m. Item 8 on the agenda is reorganizing the City Council. 8A is selecting the mayor for one year term and 8B is selecting the mayor pro-tem for one year term. The chair will entertain a motion to select the mayor for one year term. I'll nominate David Kaylee for another one year term. We have a motion of second to nominate myself and it's for one year term. Any comments? I would like to add a comment. I told you this, I think that you, service city will, I think that your you have from your time on council is invaluable to the position of mayor. I think that your the amount of knowledge you have from your time on council is invaluable to the position of mayor. I think that the mayor council relationship is good. I think the mayor staff relationship is good. I think that as I said that you don't seek out conflict, but you're also not afraid of it. I think that there's involvement in the community and investment in the community, personally and professionally. I think that all those things give you just the right set of skills and personality to continue to serve in this role. I also agree. I thought I heard it. Yeah. I could third the motion. Now, you guys have been meant so much to me and being able to sit here and be selected is, it's humbling. And I appreciate your support. I really do. It's something that I think in some levels, people aspire to do things. And a lot of times, the more you want to do a thing, the less people are willing to let you do the thing and so it's one of those if you love something you have to set it free and so I realize that this is a this is a privilege and I have a lot of responsibility to represent the staff you and the council and so I try to do that to represent us not to represent me so again I appreciate that. They feel like we're setting up the city for great opportunity ahead, and your leadership has been a big part of that. So really, really appreciate your service. Thank you, thank you all. That's a good one. All right, so we have motion in second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Passes unanimously. Item two, selecting the mayor from 10. Chair would entertain a nomination nomination for mayor pro tem. I'll make a motion to nominate John Holmes. That's mayor pro tem. Second. We have a motion to second to nominate John Holmes. That's mayor pro tem. Any comments or questions? I would have a comment in John too. I think his years on council and his years before that on planning and zoning have certainly contributed to his role as Mayor Pro Tem. I think that his appointment to the EDC has been helpful as we've tried to kind of be in step with those with the council in the EDC as far as vision goes and and and business of the EDC. I think John has done a fantastic job, who has less couple of years and now I would support him to continue doing that. Thank you so much. All right. I agree. Yeah, I'll add to it. I really appreciate John. He's, again, kind of the same thing. He's not afraid to conflict, but he doesn't seek it out. And it's really nice. So, you know, sometimes we'll have something on an agenda packet or something, and John will shoot me a text or give me a call or we'll have a meeting and talk about it. And he just brings a unique perspective. It's always good to have somebody who's sitting there trying to think outside of their box, sit in your shoes and ask you and ask me personal questions as well and so it's really somebody who's sitting there trying to think outside of their box, sitting your shoes and ask you, you know, and ask me personal questions as well. And so it's really it's really good. And I will say I've no John since like probably junior high to high school when they moved here from, was it Marlon or Marlon? Yeah. How are they doing over there? But one of the things I've always appreciated about John is if John wants to, John can capture the room. He's got a charisma and he's able to work the crowd. And it's great to have people on council that can do that. People of the B and the city that can do it. Because there's a lot of confidence in the city as citizens if the council members represent well. And all of you represent well. And and as mayor pro tem I really appreciate when you're able to stand in for me and work that crowd you do a great job runs a very efficient meeting too yeah it's very efficient yeah call the question right all favor for john for mayor pro tem say aye aye? Aye. Those opposed? Also passes unanimously. Again, thank you guys. Next item is hold a public hearing and consider an ordinance to the Mending Chapter 2 of the Code of Ordnances to establish a municipal court of record in the city of Belton. This is a follow-on to the election in the scene that we just did. Mr. Mike. Thank you, Mayor Council. I like my subtitle there, I'll write on myself there. It's a transformation to municipal court of record that we're doing tonight with the help of citizens, which is amazing. So what we're talking about tonight is chapter two of our court of ordinances. That code relates specifically to our municipal court. To become a court of record, we have to amend that code, which we'll talk about soon. And again, voters, we had to clear up a city charter conflict and voters approved that change at the last election. So why do we want to be a court or record? Well, first the court becomes kind of a bit more professional. I think Judge Lee himself will say he will have to bite his tongue a little harder. And I say that with all of the judge Lee. It also will also have a better recordings of our proceedings and the court. Those will be recorded through video equipment we'll talk about. And then kind of a big thing. It's even though I have a third here. The big thing is appeals and in a court of record can only be done based upon procedural issues. Not I didn't like the way the judge ruled, so I'm going to appeal to county. Which you could do under just our own court of record status. Now under municipal court of record, you can't do it that way. It has to be a procedural issue itself to appeal. So there are several sections of code that we need to change. The first one of that is section 246. This officially titles our new court to the municipal court of record in the city of Belton. That takes place immediately upon passage of this ordinance. 247 spells out all of the jurisdiction that the municipal court of record will have. Those are all listed in state code and we've agreed to take that into our court of record. And 248 does a few things. So first, it lists the duties of our presiding judge. The ordinance by law has to name the presiding judge in this ordinance and that is Steve Lee. He's been our municipal judge for many years and still wants to serve. The other thing we had to fix, the state law requires a municipal judge in a court of record to have a fixed term of either two years or four. Our previous charter said the term could not be fixed. Period, that's what it said in the city charter and that's what we needed. That was the conflict that we had with our charter. So now that that's been changed, we'll have fixed terms for the judges. It'll be a two year term, May 13 of 2025 to May 12 of 2027. Let me go back here. Judge Lee, wait, everybody in the ICU? Yes. So I think I know who you are. Yeah, we're reluctantly. Yeah. That's funny. Good one. Our associate judge is listed in section 249. That's Jasmine Rios, Harding Jasmine. She's our associate judge. Has been now for a year now, I believe. That's amazing. The new contract will also have a two-year term for the associate judge. Moving on to section 250. We have to also by ordinance name our court administrator. That's Lucrecia Venda-Plais. There she is there, works in my building, please come and say hello. And then this section also lists some of those things specifically related to a court reporter. So there's two options that are spelled out in this ordinance. One, the city manager can appoint a court reporter or must appoint a court reporter, but that does not necessarily mean that we have to have someone who is at, physically present, at all of the court proceedings and literally transcribing all of the words like you would see at, at county. The option that we are going with, and it's allowed by ordinance, is to make video recordings of all the court proceedings. And we have to keep those for 20 days beyond the last hearing thing, whatever is that kind of thing. And then if a case is appealed, then we would call the court reporter to actually make a, to just transcribe those proceedings. And that's the option that's obviously less expensive and it'll work well for our court. We don't expect that many appeals. So that's the avenue that we're going, but that's specifically listed in this ordinance. Section 251 is really just a renumbering of the code that referenced our special revenue fund for municipal court technology money. 32 is really again a just renumbering our building security fund reference. So our recommendation is that City Council approve these amendments to our code of ordinances to establish the municipal court of record in the city of Belton before I go. Carmen Garcia is our prosecutor. We're going to talk about them. You can wave, please. Thank you. So you need us. Could we're going to talk about her just a minute? She's not specifically listed in this ordinance. But I'd be happy to answer any questions. I do have one question with and this is not a shout out of our, our work, Chris Brown on the back. But I've, I know how video recordings sometimes don't record. Is there a fallback in these laws and ordinances that allow them to appeal to the county and just start over kind of like it is now or what happens in the situation? So Chris will make sure that that never happened. 100% of the time. I already said it right ago. But yes, what would happen? I would be, I would likely suppose that would be a procedural issue that they would appeal. Okay. And they didn't would go to count. If I'm not right there, Judge, please tell me. That's kind of the only thing I couldn't find in the, what happens if it doesn't work. Correct. Yeah. We're required to record. Anything else? Yeah, all the technology's already in place. Chris has it all set up. We're ready to go and upon adoption by the council of this ordinance. Okay. I'm over the approval of the sounds. I'm sorry. There's public hearing. So we'll look. All right, so. I think the lives are gone. All right, so this is where we get to pause and let you guys let us know what you think. If anyone wishes to speak in favor or in opposition of this ordinance, we are now opening the floor for public comments. If you have comments, you've got up to three minutes. You can bank those three minutes. All right so everybody's banking their three minutes no public comments we will now close the floor and reconvene and I think I started hearing the motion. I moved we approve ordinance of ending chapter two of ordinance to establish an initial court of record for the city of Elis. Second. So we have motion of second to approve the ordinance of ending chapter two of the code of ordinances. Any other comments or questions before we vote? They're being done all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Aye. Passes unanimously. Item 10, consider the approval of contracts and administration and administration of the oath of the office for the following. Drum roll, please. It's just what we just talked about. So first one is presiding judge of the municipal court of record to the city of Belton. The second one is the associate judge of the municipal court of record in the city of Belton. And C is assistant as city attorney municipal prosecutor of the municipal court of record in the city of Belton. And Mr. Rogers. Thank you, Mayor and Councilor. This is that final step. We took the opportunity to prepare these new contracts with just new terms, the new two year terms, for Judge Lee, Jasmine Neary O's Harding and our prosecutor, Carmen Garcia, they have all agreed to serve for another two year term, which is very exciting. I'm pleased to announce to you. I'd be happy to enter any question regarding the contracts. Any comments or questions? So this being a approval contract and then administration of the oath I would assume we need to prove these. And I think we can enact all three of these in one motion. I'm moving to approve the contracts listed and have number 10. Second. We have a motion a second to approve the contracts listed. Any other comments or questions? All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Thank you. As you know, Sleeve, now, the administration of the oath of office. So the degree of the oath of office is honored to administer the oath of office. If you'll raise your right hand and repeat after me where I say my name, you say your name. I am Amy Casey. I am Ms. Hasey. Do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of City Clerk, the State of Texas and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend, the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this state. So help. Congratulations. Thank you so much for serving the city and the citizens. We appreciate your service. Usually on game day You probably don't have a lot of fans in the room, but we appreciate the work that you do all right Item 11 presentation that you's advisory commission Indivier report. Thank you guys for patiently waiting. I thought about accelerating this one and doing the report first. But anyway, you got some civic experience. So thank you. Thank you. All right, big group. Thank you, Mary Council. Welcome, Mr. Ruth. Tonight, this is the last official duty of this year's Youth Advisory Commission. Most of them will be moving on to college, not all of them, but most of them will move on to college. They're going to share a little end-of-year recap for you. And at the end, there will be answering questions. And if you want to give them any piece of advice before they go off to college, you're welcome to do so with that. So, to our first speaker is the board chair, which is Ms. Care Woods. Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name's Carol Woods. I am a junior and I am the Youth Advisory Commission chair. So for our basic or for our capital trip, right, we have that on. So we were able to make a trip out to the capital, a couple of us from the Youth Advisory Commission. we were able to make a trip out to the Capitol, a couple of us from the U of the Advisory Commission. We were able to have a lunch with the State Representative Hugh Shine, and we got to tour the Capitol and meet a lot of different representatives and legislators at the Capitol. It was a really great experience and I was really grateful that we were able to take everybody out there and you know have that experience as youth and government. Very cool. Hi, my name is Veda. I'm a historian. At the beginning of the year we had a basic training, basic leadership training where we got to hear from city manager Sam Liste, assistant city manager Matt Bates and Parks Board member Diane Wrig. So they gave us some encouragement for leadership in the first part of the day. In the second part of the the day we planned out our yak year. We also got to attend the yak summit in Belmont, Texas. It was a week and full of training and workshops to better our leadership skills. Hi, my name is Van. I'm a senior at Belden High School. So, event staff will often ask for volunteers at some of the events like Christmas on the Chisholm Trail or the father daughter dance. There's multiple that are not listed but like hey. And we are just here to make sure that those events go along smoothly and we're always here to help. Hello, my name is Jacqueline Gantavari, I'm the vice chair of the Youth Advisor Commission. The first thing I'll be speaking about is our first team night. We're very excited to see a lot of students from Belton High School come out, Blake Belton and Academy and Mary. Many other schools coming out for our teen night was a lot of fun, a lot of singing, a lot of dancing and we're excited to do our next one next year. And then the second they'll be going over is our time with the seniors this year. This year we had our trivia night. There are trivia night with them, and I had the honor of winning two years in a row back to back with my team. And then we also did music bingo, which was later on in our year. And it was a lot of fun. So we're excited to have the same events next year. And we love spending time with our seniors. Yeah. Our senior citizens. Yeah. And the final event that we're speaking about is one community one day. This is by far my favorite event that we do at UDF Advisory Commission because we have so many people come out and visit and help out to clean up houses that sign up for yard work or service to be done. This year we had 15 successful projects over two weekends and we had over 160 volunteers that participated in total. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Quick comment and then a question. So the comment is former mayor, Mary and Grayson kind of brought this to the city. We really thank her for doing that and really love that you guys are plugging in. If you don't mind, just share it with us. What's your plan for next year? I mean, if you're going on to college or whatever, we'd like to know just a little bit. I think it's okay. I think it's okay. Hi, I'll be going to, even at Boston and I'll be majoring in our education. Awesome. How come Jack's is that right? That's an active Jack. So yeah, it's like, I will be going to even have Austin and I'll be majoring in our education. Awesome. How come Jack's is that right? That's an active Jack. So, yeah. I will be going to Noor's University on Army IOTC scholarship. That's awesome. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I'm glad to see you. My name is Madison. I serve as a secretary for the Youth Advisory Commission. And I'll be attending the University of Texas at Arlington and the transfer of the U.S. to study psychology. Awesome. My name is Ted Omer. I'll be attending Prairie Durey and I'm a university major in communication. Awesome. I plan on going to college and getting my education certification. I think the record class. Okay. Awesome. Very much. Yeah. Good luck in the next chapter. Yeah. All right. Items 12 through 14 are a consent agenda. These can be enacted by a single motion or that we can pull them off if any member of the council wishes to do so. I'll read them all and if you choose to make a motion for it or pull one of those off, we'll do that the end of my reading. Item 12 is adopting the minutes of the previous council meetings for April 22nd City Council and the April 29th Special Call City Council meetings. Item 13 is adopting resolution, authorizing the release of the City of Belton's ETA of approximately 2.7 acres owned by Jeff Poole and situated in abstract 554 of the F Madrigal Survey 24 located generally east of Tolbridge Road and north of Elmer King Road and item 14 is adopting an ordinance adding Tyler Ridge, Belton approximately 113.4 acres located generally east of Hubbard Branch Edition on FM 436 Holland Road to the city of Belton's ETJ. Chair with entertain a motion or if we need to remove. Move to the group, agenda items 12 through 14. Second. We have a motion of second to adopt items 12 through 14. Any comments before we vote? All in favor say aye. Aye. All is posed. Passes unanimously. That is the end. It's finished. It's finished. It's finished. Thank you guys. Good.