Brownfield City Council met in a regular session on Thursday, November 7, in the Council Chambers. All members were present except for Lee Gamez and Jimmy Garza.
After addressing the routine agenda items, the Council moved on to new business. This included quarterly reports from Fire Chief James Woolard and Municipal Judge David Cox.
From July 1 to September 30, 2024, the Fire Department responded to a total of 60 calls, 42 of which were within the City of Brownfield and 18 in the county. The breakdown of the calls included 19 motor vehicle accidents, seven calls for smoke alarms, six structure fires, seven grass fires, six EMS calls, one gas leak, five alarm activations, three vehicle fires, five trash or dumpster fires, and one hay fire. The Fire Department is still awaiting the completion of a new fire truck.
Municipal Judge David Cox presented the quarterly report for the Municipal Court to the Council. According to Judge Cox, there were 292 new cases filed during this period, with 205 cases resolved. The report also indicated that 53 warrants were issued, 37 capias pro-fine orders were processed, 61 magistrate warnings (for setting bonds) were issued, 10 juveniles were handled, and 72 cases received “jail credit.”
The total revenue generated from these cases amounted to $30,324. Of this total, the city received $19,011, while the state received $11,313. Both revenue allocations were approved by the Council.
A resolution was approved to once again negotiate rates with Atmos Energy Company. The rates Atmos is currently recommending would increase by an average of $16 per month per household. Atmos negotiates this rate each year with other municipalities served by Atmos, including Brownfield.
Item 6 was to discuss and consider an agreement with the State of Texas Department of Transportation for maintenance, control, supervision, and regulation of certain state highways in the city limits, authorizing the Mayor to execute this agreement and declaring an emergency. There was some discussion about what would constitute an emergency and how this would impact Brownfield. City Attorney Slater Elza stated that this agreement has been in place since 2017. The wording was changed from an emergency to “the ordinance shall take effect in accordance with all applicable laws.” After the wording change, the ordinance was approved by a vote of 4-2.
Also on the agenda was “Discuss and consider Ordinance No. 2156, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Brownfield: Amending the Code of Ordinances, City of Brownfield, by adding Article 4.1200 titled “Short Term Rentals,” which creates a registration requirement for the operation of short-term rentals and requires short-term rentals to pay Hotel Occupancy Fees to the City.” The application fee would be an annual fee of $100. The City Attorney stated that this was being done in most cities in our area and around the state. “This is not a heavy-handed ordinance. It is not about the City trying to mess with them, but it does give the City an idea of who is operating in town, because these short-term rentals are considered a business,” stated Elza. He mentioned that this ordinance will likely be tweaked as time goes on, as the City and the short-term rental owners figure out together what works. This was approved and will not be enforced until after the first of the year.
Terry Duncan, representing Noon Lions, presented a request for HOT funds for the 2nd Annual Hoopin’ Classic Basketball Tournament, which will be held December 12-15. The request was for $3,000. This tournament is sponsored by the Noon Lions and the Rotary Club. There are 16 boys’ teams and 10 girls’ teams entered into the tournament so far. Duncan stated that four of these teams will be staying in local hotels for two nights. This will be a total of 20 rooms for two nights. The Council did approve this request.
The Council also heard from Brownfield Industrial Development Corporation Executive Director Gina Kelly. The annual Program of Work for BIDCorp was presented and approved. The next item on the agenda was a discussion of changing BIDCorp from a Type A Corporation to a Type B. The difference between these two is that a Type A can only engage in industrial and manufacturing-type businesses, for the most part. Type B opens up the option to do more retail work within the City. This would have to go before the voters at an election for approval. The Council did agree with BIDCorp that it was time to consider making this change. City Attorney Elza informed the Council about some of what this would entail. He agreed that he would work with Kelly and the BIDCorp board to try to get this ready to be on the ballot for the May election.
The Council went into Executive Session on three separate items.
“Executive Session in accordance with Section 551.071 consultation with attorney about pending or contemplated litigation or where the duties of the attorney under the Texas Disciplinary rules of Professional Conduct conflict with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code.”
“Executive Session in accordance with Section 551.072 to discuss and deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property.”
“Executive Session in accordance with the Section 551.086 certain Public Power Utilities: Competitive matters – Power Purchase Agreement.”
No action was taken on any of these items.
Following announcements, the meeting was adjourned.
