Good evening and welcome to the December 3rd, 2024 City Council meeting. It is now 7 p.m. and I call the meeting to order. Miss Hollidge, please call the roll. Council Member Bethel. Here. Council Member p.m. and I call the meeting to order. Miss Hall would you please call the role. Council Member Bethel. Here. Council Member Moore. Here. Council Member Wilson. Here. Mayor Scuro. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Green. Here. And Council Member Obrich. Here. Mayor there is a quorum and the required charter officers are present to conduct them. Thank you. next item is our invocation and pledge of allegiance. I mean, that's Councilman Wilson to lead us in our invocation and Councilman Bethel to lead us in our pledges. Please stand and join me in prayer. Father God, we thank you for this name for the blessings you've stood upon this community in this city. Lord, as we move forward, please give us grateful hearts and generous spirits. Lord, we thank you for the privilege of public service and we thank you for all those who give so much to our community in our city. Be with us as we do the business of this city. Lead us, Madison Directors, and forgive us where we Thank you gentlemen. Item number four we don't have any formal announcements or recognitions tonight so we'll move on into council comments. Let's go first. Councilman O'Reck. Much tonight Mayor just hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving and is getting into the Christmas spirit. We have a lot of fun activities in the city and hopefully it doesn't drizzle too long. Not going? Mayor Pro Tem. I don't really have anything to add to you. Mayor, wish everybody a happy holiday, raise your upcommon season and save travels if you're traveling and a happy Thanksgiving if I didn't get to talk to you that to the second. Councilor Wilson? Yes. I don't have much to add to that. I hope everyone has a great holiday and it is safe as they prepare for the rest of the holidays. I have more. Nothing tonight, Mayor. That's one, Bethel. No comments, Mayor. Okay, I have a couple on to you. So it is with a very heavy heart that I announced the passing of Mr. John Buckner, who is the former executive director of the Coastal Bend Council of Governments from 1978 to 2003. Mr. Buck Butler died peacefully, surrounded by his family on November 25th, 2024. So visitation is Rosary funeral mass and the internment will actually be this Saturday. So councilor, anyone if you would like to have those, that information please let me know. He was a really good man and he'll be very, very missed. I also want to take this opportunity. I see Commissioner Yardley in our audience. I want to take a moment to congratulate Commissioner Yardley on being accepted to the prestigious leadership. 254, I guess, stands for 254 counties in Texas program for the 2025-2026 class. So leadership 254 is designated or designed by the Texas Association of Counties, so premier leadership development program created to help Texas county officials address the unique challenges of their role. This 14-month program aims to transform participants into leaders who make a lasting positive impact on their counties in the state of Texas. 2025, 2026 leadership class 254 will begin in February 2025 and is limited to no more than 30 county officials across the state representing diverse county offices. To date, only one other elected official from San Patricia County has graduated from this program. Heather Marks, San Patricia County District Clerk, and she was a 2022 graduate of the program. She describes her experience as profoundly impactful. She says, the insights, training, and experiences I gained through the program helped me grow professionally in personally in ways I didn't expect. Commissioner Yarlie will participate in four rigorous leadership development modules designed to challenge participants through skill assets, discussions, theory-building, self-reflection, and experimental learning. On behalf of the Portland City Council and staff, I want to extend our heartfelt congratulations to Commissioner Yardley on his significant achievement and commend him for also earning a scholarship from the Texas Association of Counties to cover his tuition. Congratulations, Tom. So when you graduate, we're going to have you come back and we're going to celebrate. Thank you for being here tonight. And then Blasphot not least, I'm looking forward to all the festivities and I was just asking about weather contingencies and I was told we're not going to let it rain and that's all been taken care of. So it is rain or shine and we are going forth on Saturday so I'm looking forward all of the stivities and being that this is our last council meeting before the end of the year I want to wish everyone very Merry Christmas and we are looking forward to a 20 20 ready oh yeah one more that's right we got one more. That's right. We have one more. But guess what? We can still have happy kisses. Happy New Year. I looked at your face and thought, okay, get that head on myself. All right. Mr. Wright, do you have anything tonight? I do have a few things, Mayor. I want to just kind of recap. We finished off our 2024 PAC to Patrick campaign with the help of our employees and the state council, and a lot of our citizens, we were able to gather over a ton of food and household necessities that went to the Portland Salvation Army Pantry that'll be distributed out to people to need here. And it's an opportunity really, I mean, it's a, to see our employees gather all of these food stuff, from kind of from their family to another family or families that need this, is heartwarming. And it just goes, show you just how, you know, our employees do so much day to day just in their normal jobs. But to do this on top of that really says a lot about the character of the group of folks that we have working for, so I'm very proud of them. Just that you mentioned, everything kind of starts on Saturday. We have Christmas on the Coast starts. We have the tree lighting ceremony at 6 p.m. And we will open the doors, or Kristen will open the doors and the floodgates and let the kids in after that our ice rink opens that evening as well. So everything kind of kicks off that night. The following Monday we have the parade of lights. I think right now, Kristen, we have 47 entries or so give or take. 64. Wow. Okay, 64 entries and I'll that deadline is what, Saturday? The deadline was your first day. Okay, deadline's passed. Okay, great, great. The final, final, final. Okay, good. So I also want to mention that the event on Saturday night and then again on Monday at the parade we are actually still we're collecting toys for kids in need. So we're encouraging people to bring a new unwrap toy. We have a city city truck here to kind of collect all those things and those will be distributed before Christmas And then the following weekend we got the illuminated tensile trot And then the concert Coming up with Kevin Fowler our annual Kevin Fowler event. So all that information is available to Portland TX.gov Slash Christmas Thex.gov slash Christmas. I also want to tell you that and you probably have gotten, you probably got emails about the combined chamber mixer tomorrow night at the community center. So that's a really combination. I think it's a rock port fullton, Portland, Ranges past, sent in an angle side chamber, has all come together for a holiday mixer. I know that the council's been invited to that. So if you're able to do that, that'd be great. That's at 5.30 p.m. here at the community center. And I also just wanted to kind of amplify what the mayor said about John Buckner. John was a good friend of mine, and I knew him since 1977 when he became the executive director and a lot of people don't realize that before 1977 and 1978 there was no three-digit number to dial for emergency. There was no 9-1-1. That's a new thing. And John was the person who represented this coastal bend area and ushered in that whole project the entire region and did a good job of it and John really had in his heart you know wanting to do things for this entire region he did so for over 50 years and as you said he is definitely gonna be missed. That's all I heard mayor. Thanks. We'll move on to public comment. Is there anyone here tonight that would like to make public comment? It's all that we receive anything online. Mayor, there were no comments received. We are going to move on into action items. Item number eight minutes of our previous meetings. The City Council will consider approval of the minutes of its November 19th, 2024 regular meeting. I'll entertain a motion. I make the motion approve the minutes from November 19th, 2024 regular meeting. I'll second. Motion made by Councilman Wilson, seconded by Councilman Bethel to approve the November 19th, 2024 regular meeting minutes. Is there any discussion on this motion? Hearing none, we'll begin the vote with Councilman Aubrey. 4. 4. 4. 4. Motion is approved. Item number 9, ordinance number 2304 which updates the TMS method of calculating the city's cost of living adjustments for retirees and their beneficiaries and the accrual of service credits. Can you hear me? Okay. I was like, oh, you're the system saying that? I've asked our Director of Administrative Services, Sarah Roy, to speak to you tonight on this. Hi, Sarah. Good evening, Mayor, City Council. In May of 2023, the Texas Legislature amended the TMRS Act to allow municipalities the option to recalculate the cost of living adjustments for their retirees. The new option allows a repeating non-retroactive cola for an annual adjustment based on the consumer price index or a CPI change over the previous year rather than the current retroactive cola option that allows a cumulative change since their retirement. The repeating non-retroactive adjustment is based only on the CPI change of the previous year, which simplifies the process and results in cost savings for the city with a very minimal impact to the retirees monthly benefits. One of the benefits that I like to highlight is a reduction in the city's unfunded liability by about $430,000. The other additional city benefit I see is the potential in savings for the next fiscal year's budget of about $65,000. So all repeating collas that utilize the non-retractive option must take effect on January 1st, either of January 1st of 2024, 2025 or 2026. This, to adopt the new option, the city has to pass an ordinance and provide it to TMRS by December 31st preceding the January 1st effective date. Additionally, per the TMRS statute and included in the ordinance when adopting the COLA, the city also has to adopt or re-adopt the updated service credit or the USC. So there are no changes to the city's current USC, but it does have to be included in the ordinance. So adoption of this new repeating non-retro active COLA would not only ensure consistent benefits for all the retirees but also generate cost savings for the city and improve the city's funded ratios. So these changes reflect our commitment to maintaining sustainable and equitable retirement benefits for our employees while managing our financial responsibilities effectively. So if you guys have any questions or need any further details please feel free. Questions? How does it reduce our cost and improve the benefit? I'm not understanding how that occurs. Sure, so what it does is it recalculates the COLA adjustment instead of using, it uses the CPI from the previous year instead of going to a cumulative complex formula from retirement date and how that benefits the city is, it reduces our percentage contribution, if I'm not mistaken, from 18 and a half to 18%, which gives us a $65,000 savings. So in other words, we're not having to accrue, correct? Or for a longer period of time, correct? Yes. Initially, it's not compounding interest on. Right. longer period of time. Correct. Yes. Initially it's not compounding interest on that. Right. And if I might add something that TMRS has repeatedly explained to us is that it's a much more effective and equitable way to explain the benefits to the retirees as well. So previously the calculation was very complex. They looked at the date of the retirees retirement and then they looked at the cumulative CPI over every single year up until this year. So every retiree's benefit was a little bit different. Each year the cola was a little bit different for each retiree. This year every retiree or under this method every retiree, or under this method, every retiree receives the exact same COLA. So for us, it's 70% of the CPI of the previous year because we had previously adopted 70% so cities can adopt 30%, 50% or 70%. Since we've already adopted 70%, we're not allowed to go back down from that. So we'll maintain that 70% of the previous years is CPI. So every retiree, we can now say, your COLA is going up based on 70% of last year CPI. It's not a different increment for every single individual. So it's a more equitable way of addressing inflation. And for our city, because we've maintained COLA's over time, and we've had that 70% year over year. We're not having to catch up. There's not a significant amount that's going to be a change for our city, but it is over year over year. A slight decrease for the amount that we will have to pay into the benefits as well as to our unfunded liability. So it is a benefit to our city for that reason. But for each individual retiree, they'll see a very slight difference in what they would have received for their COLA. They will still be receiving a COLA. Every retiree will still receive an increase from the a bit of an amount that they received last year. But it's a very slight different amount. So for them, they will likely not even notice the difference. It may be 50 cents for some of them. It may be less than $10 for those that have a higher payout amount. But it is a compounding savings for the city over time. Can we fund ourselves in a position to where it becomes upside down, if CPI ends up, the previous year CPI ends up being significantly higher for whatever reason versus the current setup. Like if we're looking at this over a 10 or 20 year period, what does that look like? Can we find ourselves on the opposite side of this? If there's negative inflation. Right. My understanding is we never reduce the retirees pay out amount. That they will always at least receive what they received the previous year. But I will absolutely, if there's any conflicting evidence to that, we will bring that back to you before second reading. We'll confirm. There's not going to be a negative impact to the retirees, right? Should not be. This is an actual aerial exercise, and it's very complex. From the very, we've been studying this for months and months. Y'all had a presentation on this few, you know. We'd be happy to have him come back. But it's interesting because as much effort has been put in to reestablishing how this is calculated Going back to some retirees 30 years from their retirement date The changes Miniscule But it does over time because of the value of time and money It does save us some money over time and that 65,000 is it's not not insignificant but it's it's helpful. I do agree that it's a lot easier for a retiree to understand I mean it's very simple so I like simple things. I just don't have to answer the question but it's very interesting the 30-50- 70% cities can really get in the trouble with that choice. And I support where we are in our decision. And we've always been very good at doing our actuaries and keeping up with us. So I know that we probably have quite a few employees that are eligible for retirement. So we just, you know, watch that year to year. And we trust you. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Any other questions? I'll motion to adopt the first reading board. And it's number 2304 adopting non-retractive repeating costs of living adjustments for retirees and their beneficiaries under TMRS Act 853.404F and F-1 authorizing annually accruing updated service credits. Second. Motion made by Councilman Moore, seconded by Councilman Albrecht to approve first reading of ordinance number 2304. Is there any discussion on this motion? Hearing none, we'll begin the vote. Councilman Bethel. Four. Four. Four. Four. Four. Ms. Hall would you please read the caption. Inornous regarding the City of Portland, Texas Municipal Retirement Benefits, adopting non-retroactive repeating colas for retirees and their beneficiaries under TMRS Act, section 853.404F and F1, authorizing annual accruing update service credits and transfer update service credits providing for the repeal of ordinances in conflict here with providing and establishing an effective date and providing for publication. Mr. Rada, soon we'll have a second reading in our December 17th meeting. That's correct. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to item number 10, water allocation and review committee appointments. City Council will consider appointing one chairperson and four regular members to the water allocation and review committee. Mr. Wright. Brown's going to present this to you, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor and City Council. In March of this year, the city entered into stage two drought restrictions and we were required to do that because we purchased our water from the San Patricia municipal water district who purchases its water from the city of Corpus Christi and so the city of Corpus Christi requires all of its customers both direct customers and indirect customers to follow its drought restrictions. Over the weekend, the current combined lake levels are sitting at 20.2%. And so we do believe without significant rain in the upcoming forecast, we will enter into stage three drought restrictions in the coming weeks. And we'll do that as Corpus Christi enters stage three drought restrictions. Those drought restrictions include a prohibition on the use of automatic sprinkler systems, watering of residential foundations, and the watering of vehicles among other things. During the stage three drought restrictions, it's important to have a water allocation review committee seated so that it can hear variance requests and appeals from both individual property owners and from the city at large to issue blanket variances for we were under those severe drought restrictions. At the time, those were stage four drought restrictions. Those have since been renumbered. And so the stage four, back in 2013, is now stage three in 2024. Since 2013, three of the five members of that committee have moved outside of the city limits. And so we do recommend seating a new slate of members to this board. The members of the board of adjustment have agreed to serve as members of the Water Allocation Review Committee. Those are Vanessa Giannamore, Amy Trailer, Clark Smith, Charles West, and Ramero Reinaana Jr. And so we do recommend the city council tonight a point five members to that committee in the city council will appoint one of those members as the chairperson. the summary says that this committee determines variance request by water users. Do they have full authority to make those variance request, to determine variance, or does that come forward to the councils of recommendation? No sir, this committee has full authority to make those variants request to approve or to deny those If there is a denial then at that point there's an appeals process But the full authority for approval lies with this committee They have the authority if I mean I assume there's some sort of appeals process if someone was turned down and would that appeal come before council? If there is a denial of a variance request there is a public hearing in front of the city council. There's no other questions. I'll entertain a motion. A motion to appoint these five members to the board. That would be Charles West as chair. Vanessa Gennimore as a vice chair. If we need a vice chair, Amy Trader, Clark Smith, and Romero Rangia Jr. Second. The motion made by Mayor Protson Green, seconded by Councilman Wilson, to appoint the five members from the Board of Adjustment to serve as members of the WARC and the Council recommends appointment of Charles West as Chair of Anessa, Giannamore as Vice Chair. Is there any discussion on this motion? Does anyone talk to Mr. West about being chair? No, we have not. But they all have agreed to serve. I have agreed to serve. In the event that he is able to fulfill his duties, I guess the vice chair will fill in. Who also does. That's what they get from showing up at this meeting. You know, and we expect this workload to be pretty heavy at the beginning. We actually have a number of blanket exemptions that we would we would present to them as we did in 2013. But after the initial kind of everyone kind of applying for exemptions, what they need to, that workload hopefully will drop off and they won't have as many meetings. And I think I've told them that, you know, one or two meetings a month for an hour or two should be all their time commitment. Hopefully, knock on wood. All right, so we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Erie, now we'll begin the vote with Councilman Bethel. Or. Or. Or. Or. Okay, motion is approved. Item number 11, executive session. The City Council will conduct an executive session according to government code is authorized by Texas government code sections 551.071 consultation with attorney 551.072 deliberation regarding real property 551.073 deliberation regarding perspective gift 551.074 personnel matters 551.076 deliberation regarding security devices and 551.087 deliberation regarding economic development negotiations. It is 7.26pm. We're going to recess the city council meeting. Go into executive session. I'm not anticipating any action. It will need to be taken as a result of the executive session, so we will not be coming back on the air on the TV, but we will close out the meeting in the minutes. Good night, everyone.