The Brownfield City Council met Thursday morning Sept. 7, 2023, with much on the agenda. After the the invocation and the pledges, the Council moved to public comment where one Brownfield resident spoke. Nathan Tells spoke about Item 10 on the agenda which is “DISCUSS AND CONSIDER AMENDING CHAPTER 13 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BROWNFIELD, ENTITLED “UTILITIES” BY AMENDING ARTICLE 13.1100 ENTITLED “DISTRIBUTED GENERATION” ESTABLISHING THE REQUIREMENTS FOR INTERCONNECTION AND PARALLEL INTERCONNECTION AND/OR PARALLEL OPERATION OF DISTRIBUTED GENERATION BY BROWNFIELD POWER AND LIGHT.”
Over the past year, through a council work session and along with recommendations from Newgen Strategies the City of Brownfield’s rate consultants, the Council directed legal and staff to amend the current Distributed Generation ordinance to allow for a Net Metering Rate Structure. Tells said to the Council, “Thank you for allowing me to be here again today. Agenda item 10, which is over solar stuff… I know there are a lot of new faces up here since the last meeting we had with the solar stuff. This started about a year ago, there was a mix-up between the contract ordinance and everything like that, and miscommunications of how things are. I’m guessing today, y’all will be looking at taking away the two-metering rule. I know Jeff (Davis, City Manager) has done a lot of research for the past year… we’ve spoken many times. So hopefully that is what is going on today. If it is the two-metering deal… then it will make so many people in Brownfield happy if it is removed.”
The Council then moved to approve the previous meeting minutes, then went on to recognize the Employee of the Quarter which is Cat Gonzales. Mayor Tom Hesse said, “The employee of the quarter has been employed with the City Electric Department since 2010. He began as a service worker and he now leads the electric department as the Director of Electric Utilities. Cat leads an excellent crew and the City of Brownfield is fortunate to have him. Mr. Gonzales is a proud father to James and husband to Erica.”
Next the Council moved to consider the preliminary budget and call for a public hearing on the 2023-2024 budget for September 14, 2023. The preliminary budget is finalized, and the terms of the City charter require that the Council call a public hearing on the proposed budget. The public hearing on the City of Brownfield 2023-2024 Fiscal Year budget will be held on September 14, 2023, at 7:30 a.m. in the Council Chambers. All interested parties are encouraged to speak for or against the 2023-2024 FY budget at that time. According to City Manager Jeff Davis, the proposed 2023-2024 budget is $22,088,530.00. The budget includes revenue from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CLFR Funding) which the City of Brownfield has $1,159,530.00. The CLFR Funds must be utilized by 2024.
Moving on in the agenda, the Council had to propose the property tax rate for the City of Brownfield. In the proposed City of Brownfield 2023-2024 fiscal year budget, the proposed tax rate is the Voter Approved Rate. The Proposed Voter Approved Tax Rate will bring in $51,493 of additional Ad Valorem Tax Revenue as compared to the 2022 year, however, due to increased property valuations at the time of rendering, the 2023 Tax Rate will decrease from $0.530387 to $0.500952 or a decrease of $0.029435 per $100 valuation which is a decrease of $29.44 on a $100,000 home. Although this proposed tax rate did not trigger an election, it will however have to be brought forth for a hearing. The Council chose to go with this tax rate instead of the “No new revenue” tax rate which is $0.483148 per $100 valuation. The Council will hold a hearing on the 2023 proposed tax rate of $0.500952 on Thursday, September 21, 2023. Following the Council will adopt the 2023-2023 fiscal budget and the 2023 tax rate.
The Council then heard from the Water and Waste Water Department Director James Nix on the quarterly report. There were three major leaks in the second quarter from April 2023 to June 2023. Those leaks were located at 1300 East Cardwell, 500 block of West Main, and the fire hydrant behind the Guar plant. The department had 57 work orders completed during the quarter and 156 dig test requests in the quarter.
Next was the quarterly reports for the street and sanitation department given by Director Javier Duran.
According to Duran, the Dept has continued to work on maintaining streets by patching potholes. They also are continuing to work on the caliche roads and have finished most of the dirt hauling to the roads. They are currently working to get those roads finished bladed and packed and will continue to maintain those roads as needed until they are able to do the strip-paving projects on these roads. The materials for the paving process has been backed up since the end of 2020 and the City of Brownfield can not obtain those material yet. Also, the Street Dept has been spraying weeds along the curbs and any cracks in the pavement, plus the school zones were repainted in preparation for the new school year.
The Sanitation Department continues with the alley clean up running the sections as needed as well as taking care of work orders. According to Duran, the storm that took place about a month ago had taken down several trees and some small structures around town. Although there was damage citywide, the worst damage stayed to the northern side of town. At the landfill, it is business as usual and Duran has been working with Parkhill in preparations for the construction of a new cell in the type one lined pit as well as the expansion of the type four construction and demolition pit. Duran said, “We should begin to see the equipment brought in next week to begin the construction of the new cell and expansion of the C & D pit.”
After the quarterly reports, the Council approved a resolution authorizing the Council to send a “notice of intent” letter for the purchase and holding of a new rescue/pumper fire truck for the City of Brownfield. In the 2023-2024 proposed budget, the purchase of a new rescue/pumper is allowed. Lone Star Emergency Group has an in-stock E-One VM8 Pumper with an FC94 Chassis which will be available this winter. Lone Star Emergency Group has asked for a Letter of Intent to Purchase the unit and to hold the unit for the City of Brownfield. This resolution authorizes the Letter of Intent. The current rescue/pumper fire truck that is utilized is over 15 years old. The cost of the new rescue/pumper fire truck is about $596,000.00.
Finally, the Council ended with item 10, which was discussed by Nathan Tells during the public comment section of the meeting. The Council approved amending Chapter 13 of the code of ordinances, entitled “utilities” by amending Article 13.110 to allow the net metering rate structure. This ordinance amends the current ordinance to allow for the change to the net metering rate structure and will become effective 10-1-2023 along with the other rate changes in the proposed 2023-2024 FY budget.
