The Brownfield City Council held a regularly scheduled and their first council meeting of the 2021 year on Thursday January 21, 2021. After the invocation, pledges, hearing public comments, and approving the minutes from the previous meeting in December 2020, the council went into all other items of business.
Item #3 the council approved the “Order of election for the City of Brownfield” set for May 1, 2021. The Brownfield City Council has four seats that are up for election. There are two At-Large positions, which are currently held by Isaiah Bautista and Chuck Nave. Councilman Bautista was recently appointed to the At-Large seat by the city council in November after Mayor Tom Hesse became mayor. Councilman Nave will not be able to run in this election cycle because he has termed out. The two other seats that are up for elections are District 4 and 5. District 4 is currently held by Councilwoman Michelle Cooper and currently has not filed to seek the District 4 seat. District 5 is currently held by Councilman Eric Horton and he has filed for re-election for District 5.
In addition of approving the order of city elections, the council would also approve the appointment of election workers which is recommended by the Terry County Joint Elections Director Krystal Valentine. The council approved the list of elections workers which are Election Day Judge: Kathey Granger , Election Day Alternate Judge: Cynthia Jacquez , Early Voting Ballot Board Judge: Valerie Castaneda , and Early Voting Ballot Board Alternate Judge: Dolly Moya .
The next item of business the council discussed and approved was to use funds from the Hotel Occupancy Tax Funds (HOT Funds) to buy advertisement in 2021 West Texas Travel Host Magazine which is published in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. According to City Manager Jeff Davis, the city has for several years placed advertisement in the West Texas Travel Host Magazine. The total cost will be $4,950.
The council came to the next item of business where they would go into a “general service agreement” with Jomal Electrical Contractors, Inc. This is due to the City of Brownfield not having the equipment or manpower to maintain the substation. Jomal will also act as a consultant.
Next the council would receive an update from Davis about the funding reimbursement from the coronavirus. The city has received around $100K, how ever there is an outstanding balance of about $460K. Davis said, “We expect this to begin rolling in soon.
Item #10 was to consider an ordinance change to type “E” signs. These signs are commonly referred to as billboards or poster boards which are designed to deliver a message of advertisement. These type E signs and electronic billboards, also defined as a type E sign will be required to be setback of minimum of 15 feet from any property line. Also these signs cannot exceed the height of any building upon which it is mounted for (40) feet, whichever is greater. The electronic billboards signs shall display static messages only that shall maintain a hold time of at least eight (8) seconds. When changing messages, there must only be 2 seconds for the messages to change.
The signs shall not consist of more than one (1) panel per side of each sign instillation, and the sign may not create a glare or brightness to a degree that it will cause interference with a persons ability to drive. All type E signs must be placed 950 feet apart from an existing type E sign.
The council would move on to extend the mayoral order of the Declaration of Local Disaster-Mayoral Order due to the public health emergency to slow and prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the City of Brownfield. The council did go into executives session to discuss “certain public power utilities: competitive matters that pertain to power supply .
After the council came out fo the closed door session, the motion was made to dismiss. All eight council members were in attendance.
