The Brownfield City Council met Thursday morning, July 25, 2024, for its only meeting in July. After the call to order, invocation, and pledges the Council would hear public comments from Steve Carter. Recently a local Marine Veteran passed away, and he did not have many family to help with being pallbearers. Carter called up Brownfield City Manager Jeff Davis to ask if he could find someone to help.
Carter told the Council, “I just want to bring some attention to some good things… I think sometimes they get overshadowed by the bad things. There was a circumstance that the funeral home had reached out to me. There was a veteran that needed some assistance of being put to rest. Do to circumstances… needed more than the normal contingency of pallbearers that the family couldn’t provide. So a call was made to get him into the funeral home… the Chief of Police, Fire Chief, and two firefighters came and helped to get him set up and then the family needed pallbearers to get him back out of the funeral home and into the hurse and to his final resting place.”
Carter made a call to Davis at City Hall to find out if there was something he could do to get more pallbearers.
Carter went to say, “Without a hesitation, He (Davis) said, “We got this.”. He brought five or six men over there… with shirts tucked in and very neat and helped the family with dignity to get their loved one carried to their final resting place. I wanted to make sure that we understand there are some people in this community that really care about this community and we need to hear more about the good, and I wanted to make sure you heard of what the city employees did.”
The Council moved on to approve the minutes from the previous two meetings and then jumped to the monthly financial and investments reports. Under the City Charter, the Director of Finance (City Manager) shall submit to the Council a monthly statement of all receipts and disbursements in sufficient detail to show the exact financial condition of the City.
Also, under the City of Brownfield’s Investment Policy, the Director of Finance (City Manager) shall cause a quarterly investment report to be prepared and presented to the City Council showing returns from the investment program. The reports shall comply with Section 2256.023 of the Public Funds Investment Act at a minimum.
Davis presented both reports. According to Davis, the city has expended 75.23% of the budget and 24.77% has not been expended. The expenses also include the purchase of the new rescue/pump fire truck. In the investment report, Davis shows the city is 145% in the black and accrued $28,589.01 in interest for June 2024.
The Brownfield Police Chief, Chris Kotzur presented the Council’s quarterly report for the police department. According to Kotzur, the PD received 3,222 calls from April 1 – June 30, 2024. There was one sexual assault, 17 assaults, five burglaries, 43 thefts, four stolen vehicles, 24 domestic calls, 69 civil standby, and 415 animal control calls. The animal control calls accounts for around 13% of the quarterly calls.
Under “incidents”, 137 citations were given, 145 charges and arrests were made, 43 city warrants served, 15 county warrants served, seven other departments warrants served. There were 42 accidents in the city, and 18 accidents with the TxDPS involved. Chief Kotzur also gave a second quarter “Narcotics Report” showing there was 1230 units of fentanyl seized with a street value of $12,300. There was 65.7 grams of cocaine seized with a street value of $2,628. Also, 1392.6 grams of methamphetamine (meth) seized with a street value of $55,680. Seven arrests were made, three firearms confiscated, and one federal indictment was made through the seizures of the drugs.
Next the Code Enforcement Officer, Rick Guerra gave his quarterly reports. According to Guerra, he 1,304 inspections from April 1 – June 30, 2024. He sent out 66 certified letters. Gave warnings for 18 junk vehicles, 28 public nuisances, 576 weed & grass violations, and eight obstructing the view. Guerra had 191 contacts with property owners, 346 door notices, 34 vehicles tagged, and eight complaints to the Municipal Court. There have been 572 complies in the second quarter.
The Council had previously approved the bid of $1,062,238.00 for the street paving project, which will begin with North Cedar Street. The Council had requested to discuss funding options for the project. According to Davis, there will be around $700K in surplus at the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30, 2024. Davis suggested the City use those funds for the project and budget the remaining balance of the street paving project in the 2024-2025 fiscal budget. The Council agreed to this plan.
Next the Council would need to appoint an officer to act as the local rabies control authority. As required by Chapter 826 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, also known as the Rabies Control Act of 1981, the governing body of each municipality and county shall appoint an officer to act as the Local Rabies Control Authority (LRCA) in situations involving exposures to suspected rabid animals. The officer designated may be the municipal health officer, animal control officer, peace officer, or any entity the governing body considers appropriate. Davis recommended the local veterinarian, Dr. Jim K. Ridenour DM., who has performed the duties in the past. The Council approved Ridenour as the officer of the local rabies authority.
The Council went into executive session. There was no action taken on executive session.
The Council would meet again a week later on Thursday August 1, 2024 at 7:30 a.m. After this meeting was called to order, there was one person who had public comments. Brit Shaw, Capitain of the Brownfield Fire & Rescue Dept. commented to the council.
Shaw said, “I’m here to show support to our police department. As you know, Cheif Kotzur is fairly new and as with any business change come with a little bit of growing pains. As someone who offten works closely with the police dept…. I’ve personally have seen some great changes that will impact and improve our city, and I want to give credit where credits’ due. Often it takes a while longer for the “good” to impact the general public. I just wanted to share my experience. I want to encourage you all to show your support and back all of our first responders while they all continue to serve our community and to acknowledge the great sacrifices.”
Brownfield Fire & Rescue Chief James Woolard presented the second quarterly updates for the BFRD. There was a total of 46 service calls. 31 in the City of Brownfield and 15 in the county. BFRD responded to 13 motor vehicle accidents, and 13 EMS assistance. There were three each of structure fires, grass fires, trash(dumpster) fires, and gas leaks. There were two vehicle fires, and one of each that BFRD responded to, well fire, generator fire and water rescue. Woolard also informed the Council, that the Texas Commission on Fire Protection conducted their biennial audit on June 11th and the department passed without issue.
Next Municipal Judge David Cox presented his quarterly reports. According to Cox, the City of Brownfield had a revenue of $31,189.00 which the city receives $19,784 and the state receives $11,405. From April 1 – June 30, 2024 there were 234 new cases files and 144 pleading guilty or no contest. The city issued 115 warrants, 48 capias pro-fines and 60 magistrate warnings. Eight juveniles were handled and Cox had six mental health hearings. There were 50 cases that received jail credit.
The Council then moved to approve HOT Funds for the Brownfield Chamber of Commerce for the events being held at the 77th Annual Terry County Harvest Festival. Davis gave an update on the paving projects on North Cedar. According to Davis, the contract comapany should begin work on North Cedar between August 5th to the 12th. Davis also gave an update on the clean-up days. Waste that was brought to the landfill between June 15th through the 22nd was 68,760 pounds(34.38 tons). According to Davis there was 96,140 pounds (48.07 tons) of waste brought to the “roll off” dumpsters from June 17th through July 18th. That was a total of 164,900 pounds (82.45 tons) of waste.
The meeting was adjourned and the next meeting will be the first budget work session on Monday Aug. 5, 2024 at 6:00 pm.
