The City Of Brownfield had its regularly scheduled meeting this morning on Thursday, February 16th at 7:30. City Council kicked off the session by approving the minutes for the last meeting that was held on February 7th. Then they moved on to give some recognition to the employee of the month Austin Christenson.
Director of Water Utilities James Nix had this to say about Mr. Christenson, “Austin Christenson is a husband and father of 2, who enjoys outdoor activities in his free time. the city has employed him for 4 years. In his time, he has acquired his Class D Water Operator’s license and is working toward getting his Class D Wastewater License. Austin has a previous background in excavation and plumbing that has been instrumental in many of the water department’s successes. Mr. Christensen strives to be well-prepared at all times. He has taken the initiative to prepare the department as well bay advancing first aid awareness as well as excavation safety”.
The next item on the agenda was to look at and consider the monthly Financial Reports. City Manager Jeff Davis said,” We are 4 months into the year so we should be at 33% of the budget I think most of it is in line with that. BIDCorp is doing well and HOT funds have brought in a little more revenue than we expected at this time. Just looking through the fund’s nothing really sticks out. I saw in the general funds we have the Administration is over budget but we had an employee on the wrong account. That has been fixed and everything is looking good”. City Council motioned to approve the item and moved on to the next.
The 6th item on the agenda was to hear and discuss the quarterly updates and reports by the Brownfield Fire & Rescue Interim Chief on calls for service, Equipment, Fire Prevention and codes, Facilities inspections, and critical incidents. Departmental Operations, Plan reviews, staffing, and volunteers. Interim Fire Chief Brit Shaw presented the quarterly update. “Calls for service we had 18 wrecks, 70 EMS assist, 5 false calls, and 4 vehicle fires. 3 smoke scares 3 trash fires, 1 grass fire, and 1 house fire. That brings us to close to about 200 incidents for the year. The equipment we have in unit 54 is back in service. Unit 56 is out for service for the pump. For fire prevention we had Thursday school come into the fire department for a tour. in staffing, we are fully staffed with the exception of the fire chief position”. The Council approved the reports and moved on to the next item.
The next item on the agenda was to discuss and hear the quarterly update and report by the City Of Brownfield Municipal Court Judge David Cox on the number of cases, warrants filed, Magistrate, Court Operation, and revenue and expenses. Mr.Cox added,” for the last quarter I started in December so we got October, November, and December. the new cases filed during that time were 321, and our disposition of guilty or no contest 202. 71 warrants issued. Magistrate warning we did 21 of them handled 13 juveniles. or total case revenue was 43,083 the cities part of that was 24,756 and the revenue to the state was 18,327. We also have to give a shout-out to our City Attorney and the Police Department because with their help we managed to clear over 200 cases that were over 10 years old just sitting in the back. Now as of today as soon as he strikes his pen we will have another 220 that will be gone along with 176 warrants that were recalled from the PD(police department)”. The Council commended Mr.Cox and everyone that helped out clear out the 10-year-old cases.
The next item was to discuss and consider the proposal from 120 Water to provide lead and copper rule testing services, Data management, and compliance. Vice President of Sales for 120 Water Matt Bose hopped on a zoom call to explain why they are here and why they would like to help the City Of Brownfield, ” What the USEPA introduced as of December 2021 is the first revision to the Lead Copper Rule that was introduced in the 90s. What that rule requires of utilities is a full-service line inventory which means the City of Brownfield must identify the material that exists from the water main to the water meter and the portion from the water meter into the dwelling. that’s a big task and adjustment because the EPA and regulators are saying you must also know the service line material that actually runs into a customer’s home and must find out the material. On compliance, it states all of your unknown service lines become lead service lines under the rule and that has a lot of impacts both from a cost standpoint and PR standpoint from 2024 and so on. With lead service lines, you must inform your customers that they are being served from an unknown or lead line annually until it is verified”. 120 Water’s proposition is to help find and identify the service lines without having to dig up every line but instead to look back at the data with the help of the City as well.
The Council then had to hear and consider the annual report from the Brownfield Police Department for the 2022 calendar year. Interim Chief of Police Rene Siller presented the report. “Highlight of the report that I saw myself was the traffic accidents that happened in the city this year was 210 compared to 2020s 167 city traffic accidents. Just look at the numbers the ones that are slowly climbing up where the traffic contact where officers go out and make contact with drivers and it went up to 2,000. From 2020 we had 1,642 ACO( Animal Contol Officer) calls compared to these years which went up to 2,024 so an additional 400 calls that have been made”. Also the report, it showed a 31% decrease in suicides and attempted suicides.
The next item of the agenda was to discuss the authorization and regulations on the use of Golf Carts and alternative vehicles on the public streets and highways within the City of Brownfield. In 2019 the statutes changed and made driving a Golf cart legal to drive on the streets but it came with rules.
The Rules consist of:
• Golf carts and off-highway vehicles must display the appropriate license plate to legally operate on the roadway. the plate does not expire.
• Golf carts traveling at a speed of not more than 35 mph unless you are crossing the road.
• All traffic laws pertaining to the movement and operation of regular motor vehicles apply, and must be obeyed while operating a golf cart or off-highway vehicle in a public roadway.
• Possessing a valid driver’s license to operate a vehicle on a public roadway applies to the operation of golf carts and off-highway vehicles while on a public road.
The final item of business, the Council discussed and considered the future expansion of the City of Brownfield Sanitary Landfill cell presented by Tyler Krueger of Parkhill. “Right now where we sit is that we’re looking to expand Cell 2 and depending on what option the city wants to go then we might be starting on Cell 3. Right now the City is at Cell 2 middle, y’all have enough space to last you until September of 2023 and that’s based on our August 2022 survey. Back in the 2017-2018 time frame we built a similar-sized Cell and that Cell is filling up so based on that we expect this cell to last us 5 years. We are looking at 1.6 million for this 3.25-acre cell. Option 2 a lot of cities like to get this option and would last you 11 years but it doubled the pricing to 3 million for 6.5 acres”. The Council discussed and wasn’t required to make a motion.
The next meeting is slated for Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 7:30 am in the Council Chamber at City Hall. Mayor Pro-Tem Michelle Cooper, Councilwoman Kelli Mendez, Councilmen JC Tijerina, Eric Horton, and Michael Tackitt were present. Absent from the meeting were Mayor Tom Hesse, Councilmen Celso Duran, and Isaiah Bautista.
