The City of Brownfield City Council made several decisions in its recent meeting that took place Thursday morning Feb. 15, 2024. The decisions deal with infrastructure issues and new analytical software to be used to help plan events. After the invocation, pledges, public comment (there were none.), and the approval of the minutes, the Council began to work the agenda.
The first two items of business the Council took up were to hear and consider the monthly financial reports and monthly investment reports. According to City Manager Jeff Davis, the city has had $7,957,283.86 in expenses and has had $8,168,113.56 in revenue. The fiscal year begins on October 1, 2023, and after four months 36.02% of the budget has been expended and 36.98% of the budgeted revenue has been brought in. In the investment report, Davis showed the Council the city has 66.50% of funds over the required amount. The City also earned $31,668.69 in interest.
The Council moved on to hear the quarterly update and report from the city inspector on building permits, inspections, complaints, nuisances, and building plans. According to City Inspector Israel Limon, there were a total of 50 building permits issued, 22 in October, 18 in November, and 10 in December 2023. There was a total of 59 electrical, mechanical, and plumbing permits issued in the last quarter of 2023. There were 27 in October, 19 in November, and 13 in December.
The Council would then hear from the new Parks & Recreation Director Gilbert Vasquez, who stated that he has been on the job for over a month, so gave a report of what he has done. According to Vasquez, he walk around all the parks checking for any damage to park equipment bathrooms, and the pool. Coleman Park also received a retro rocker for kids, the Kiddie Park received swings and fall zone material around the swing area, and Cactus Park also received a retro rocker. He reported he walked through the baseball complex to find out where equipment and cleaning supplies are stored and got familiar with the equipment for mowing and chalking. Vasquez also learned the procedures that needs to take place for games to start at the Brownfield Sports Complex.
Vasquez then told the Council, the team would begin spraying in March, pre-emerge would be applied and he would also get everybody trained to spray under his Applicator License. The pre-emerged equipment is ready and spray rigs are ready to go. His crew also did training on bucket trucks for tree trimming and finished tree trimming at Hamilton Park, the Fitness Park, and began on Gillham Park. They are hopeful to be opening bathrooms by spring break if the weather permits and are trying to clean up the edges of both ponds (trash and limbs).
The Council moved to discuss and approve two items of business that dealt with new water infrastructure. Last week, 7B Construction broke ground on the site of the new Tractor Supply. Although the site is in the city limits, it does not have access to water. Item #7 of the agenda which was to discuss and consider an economic develope performance agreement between Brownfield Industrial Developement Corporation (BIDCorp) and Via Real Estate LLC, for the creation of a new retail corridor through infrastructure improvements as recommended by the BIDCorp Board of Directors. The BIDCorp Board of Directors recommended an incentive of one half of the cost (up to $125,000) for a water main extension to help establish the new Highway 380 retail corridor and $30,000 for an onsite septic systems for Tractor Supply Corporation, and City of Brownfield would pay the other half of the cost up to $125,000. According to Davis, the main will be brought across US Highway 380 from Jill Street to the Tractor Supply property. Item #7 was approved.
After Item #7 was approved, the Council went on to Item #8, which is related to Item #7. Item #8 was to discuss and consider a Chapter 380 Economic Development Agreement (Chapter 380 is not named after US Hwy 380) between the City of Brownfield and Via Real Estate LLC for the extension of a water main and a three phase electric service to support commercial and retail business in the City of Brownfield. The Council directed staff and the city attorney to develop a Chapter 380 agreement for the water main extension to establish the Highway 380 retail corridor for one-half of the cost; up to $125,000, and this Chapter 380 agreement would establish plans of the funding. Davis told the Council about the bid for the project saying, “The bid for the project came back at $212,000… the anticipated cost was originally $252,000… so we saved $40,000 or $20,000 for each entity.”
Before the Council went to vote on each item, Councilman Jimmy Garza asked, “So instead of looking at the $125,000, we are looking at $106,000?”
Davis then said, “Right at $106,000.”
Garza then asked, “So the city is paying….?” Davis said, “$106,000”
Garza then directed his next statement to Gina Kelly, BIDCorp’s Executive Director, and said, “Ok… BIDCorp is paying the other $106,000?” Kelly said, “Yes sir”
There was a long pause before Mayor Tom Hesse asked if there were any more questions. Garza then said, “What I do like Gina, Council, and Mr. Wade (City Attorney) I think we’ll be getting our money back on this contract… you know, one or the other. So to me, it looks like a good contract, not that I have to be the one to approve it. I have been pretty stringent on some of the past contracts, but this one seems to cover pretty much Brownfield.”
Wade stated to the Council that the contract requires them to be in business for at least five years, and they are to show the Council the lease that they entered into with Tractor Supply because this is a development company (7B Construction). They will lease the property back to Tractor Supply. According to Wade, the lease agreement shows Tractor Supply will be in business for at least 15 years and will have a minimum of five full-time employees. The Council moved to approve each item.
Next, the Council approved the post-funding of $1,500 for the Lions & Rotary club which held the basketball tournament at Brownfield High School. According to Davis, this is the second half of funding for the $3000 that was asked for. This funding come from the Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund (HOT Funds)
The final item of the meeting was to consider funding from HOT Funds for an agreement with “Placer. AI” for analytical software to support planned activities, and assist in the supervision of activities and future facility improvements. Placer. AI is an artificial intelligence location analytical data company that uses apps and other content on mobile devices to show its clients the status of demographics, populations, and events. The data used is expected to help the City of Brownfield and BIDCorp for planning and future improvements and events, whether it is sporting events, retail businesses and industrial development.
A representative of Placer AI, Jeremy O’Neill who is Director of Sales was on hand to explain the software. O’Neill said, “Placer AI is a location analytics company that harnesses the power from mobile devices to give insights to any physical property in the United States. That can be things like shopping malls, parks, event buildings, arena, conference centers… you name it.” O’Neill continued to discuss how Placer AI receives its data, “We have a 97% removal rate. The information comes from our partnerships with 2000 mobile applications that feed us meta data on the back end that does not have any personal information on people that run the apps… just kinda where they come from and take statistical analysis of their centered block group.”
O”Neill went on to show the Council a graph that showed about 25,000 different people who had been to the Brownfield Sports Complex in the past year. It also showed a percentage of those who left the sports complex and went to certain hotels, restaurants, homes, and retail businesses. Councilman Marshall Martell asked O’Neill, “If I understood you corectly you mentioned that all this information Placewr gets is coming from… you said dozens of apps, and correct me if I’m wrong, so… I feel like there are thousands and thousands of apps and I feel like they come and go, please better define y’alls process making sure these apps and third parties that are sharing and feeding you information are still going to be in place years out?”
O’Neill said,”We do a real good job partnering with apps that first of location services are part of the core operating of the app. So if you plan to drive from two places you’ve never been before, that app you generally share your location services for convenience… there’s insurance apps that you use that show if drive 10 miles per hour over that your are supposed to… those apps have to stay on right. Then there is an application that your whole family gets on and you can use it to see if your son or daughter just went 60 mph through a school zone in a vehicle. Those are the partenerships we have. I guess its up to us to decide, of course I cant release any of the names, we’re under an NDA (nondisclosure agreement) with them… decide kinda the choices with them… they are pretty well known applications on the marketplace.”
Davis went on to say to the Council, “I’m gonna be honest with you… you can tell where they came from when they went to the tournament to the sports complex. Whenever they leave, where do they go… do they go to McDonald’s, Pizza Hut.”
Councilman Leon Pope said, “If I owned a hotel or motel in Brownfield Texas I would want something to be extrapolated… I don’t understand why we had six rooms for all the people who came to our basketball tournament, that one of the things I would ask. Six rooms for all the people who came… we had people who came from Stratford. The other thing is I would want to know if you could give any information… because when we sat down with the hotel people who own those, what do y’all want for the hotel occupancy tax… they want baseball tounaments. Thats where they get the most. I didnt see that on this. I didn’t see how many rooms. You got 90,000 people who came, how many rooms does that evolve into?”
Davis replied saying, “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to try to get the software so we can verify those rooms. Hotel funds money we are going to spend on this, like at Jimmy’s barbecue or whatever we have… how many people really were attracted from other communities to Brownfield?”
Garza asked, “Whats the cost on this?”
Davis said, “It’s gonna be $15,000… it’s $7,500 for the city and I think BIDCorp will do the other half.”
Garza then asked, “For one year Jeff?”, Davis answered yes. Pope then said, “I think that’s a good idea.” Davis went on to say, “I think if nothing else, it’s a one-year contract and we look at this data y’all, at least we have the date for one year.” The council then discussed what perceived to be the benefits of the software. All council members voted in favor to acquire the software. BIDCorp will discuss and consider buying the software next Monday, Feb. 18, 2024.
The Council then went into a closed session and did not take action on the closed-door session. Councilmen Celso Duran and JC Tejerina were absent. The next regular meeting is slated for Thursday, March 7, 2024 at 7:30 a.m. at City Hall in the Council Chambers
