001Call order this special meeting of the city of Navasota, February 9th, 4:30 p.m. City Hall. >> Roxisters. >> Yes, sir. >> Item three, discussion on a presentation regarding tax increment reinvestment zones or TUR and a proposed development agreement in the Navasota TUR. Mayor, excuse me. Do we need to make a note that Councilman Holt is not here? President. >> Oh, well, we do not. Well, let's see. We We do have a quorum, but we do, but Mr. Councilman Holt is >> not present. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um, as a result of the TURS board meeting that we had uh before our last council meeting uh when the TUR board approved the TUR agreement with uh for the Altamera development, a couple of the uh uh residents that were in the audience at the time
002asked me some questions and then later after that meeting a couple of you all asked me questions about the background of TURS and the history and uh and so we thought it would be um a good opportunity to just kind of take a step back and talk real quickly for those that may not remember or maybe have never heard of what a TUR is um before tonight's action item. uh just do a real quick basic overview of what a tax increment reinvestment zone is uh and what it's not and um offer any background um with regard to how that came to be in Navasota. Uh so I've got a a PowerPoint slide slideshow we'll go through uh real quickly uh to to talk about the elements. We also have representatives from Haw Hill who who
003is uh who are here tonight that is our uh TUR's administrator uh as well as um Mr. Dio Dostado which is our development services director and Carrie as our legal counsel that both were involved uh and were here when it was uh developed in case there are questions that predate my presence uh here uh with the city. So, we'll kind of go through a a recap of what a tax increment reinvestment zone is, how it is, how that increment is calculated, uh where those dollars go, what they can be used for, understanding the roles of the the city council and the TUR board, uh and if there are any other participating taxing units in our TUR, there are not, but uh we'll talk quickly about uh what could uh be uh in some TUR. Um
004we will talk about the eligible projects uh some some guard rails and transparency expectations and how our tur number one uh is set up with the project plan uh the costs and the boundaries. So with that said, just as a a simple definition, a a TUR is basically a geographic area in which a um an elected body, the city council in this case, wants to encourage development and growth. And so several years ago, the city of Navasota decided that much of the ETJ, extr territorial jurisdiction that is undeveloped currently, uh they wanted to try to incentivize growth in that area. And so they established a platform that said this is going to be our tur. and they said that going forward 50% of the tax increment, we'll define that in a second, um will get
005contributed into the TIFF, the tax increment fund, uh for eligible public infrastructure projects. Uh and so um that came to to be and it became an incentive for developers. And as you all know, recently we've had a developer that has entered into an agreement with the TUR board and will uh and that is um on the agenda for tonight for the city council to consider uh and will uh is proposing to to build a subdivision in there which will increase obviously the value uh of that land. And so it's important to understand that a tur doesn't create a new tax. It's not like a mud where you have a whole separate entity that's taxing residents uh separately. It is a portion of the participating taxing units already established tax rate. So whatever the tax rate
006is for Navasota because we are the participating uh local government unit. It is a portion of whatever you adopt for the next 30 years. Well, it's not quite 30 years anymore. It's been in existence for a couple years, but from the date of of starting for 30 years, it was a committed 50% of the adopted tax rate for the increased value will go into that fund to provide for eligible projects. Um, and as I said there, it is a uh it's a dedicated fund. The projects must meet the eligibility criteria. We're going to go into some of those things and it ends on a specific date 30 years from the date that you all uh created. So, um I think the next step so the so the way that gets calculated and I gave you
007all a print out um there to kind of go along with the way that gets calculated is the year that you created it established the base year. whatever the value was of that land that was in the geographic footprint uh of the TUR became the base value and then for the next 30 years however much that value increases becomes what is referred to as the increment or the TUR's increment. Um and so even without development, the likely scenario is there would be some increment because tax taxable values go up just because property values go up over the course of time. When you have development though, it goes up drastically because it goes from raw land, unimproved land, oftentimes with a uh a exemption uh that was on it and was holding the value relatively low
008to now a developed subdivision with homes that have a retail value on them. Uh and so there's substantial growth in there. So your increment becomes quite large and then 50% of the tax that's collected at the city level gets put into this tax increment fund or tiff uh for funding eligible projects. In our case, the the developer will go in now after these agreements are in place. They will install public infrastructure, water and sewer lines to serve these homes, streets and sidewalks to serve these homes and these residents and those become eligible projects that might be reimburseable under the TURS. Um in this particular um development, this developer is also going to have a public improvement district or a PID. So there is it's not just as straightforward as all of the infrastructure projects are
009going to be reimbursed by the TURS because as you all know there there were some off-site improvements there there were a lot more than just a standard go in build the the infrastructure and and it's ready to go. There was off-site improvements. there was an additional uh water plant that's going to be needed and there were some other uh extensions of service lines uh that are going to increase the cost to develop it. And so the this one is going to be a PID and a TUR combination. Uh, and the developer will work with our PIT administrator as well as our TUR administrator to separate those costs out, make sure that they only go into one bucket because they can only get reimbursed once obviously for them. Um, and to make sure that they they
010use the funds appropriately because some projects may or may not be eligible in all of them. We can't necessarily go into all the details and the minutia of how a project becomes eligible in one or the other. Um but that that will get navigated through the course of the next several years to make sure that the projects get divided into the PID or the TURS for reimbursement once value is placed on the ground. And and so you see there the little graph uh you you have a base year [clears throat] that uh sets your your base value. Uh and if that for instance was $50 million and later at some point down the road during the TURS the value of that land is $80 million well then your your difference is $30 million and that's
011your tax increment. Um, and then so it's the 50% of the tax that was generated on that $30 million of growth is eligible for reimbursing for those uh public projects. >> That 50% is arbitrary. >> That that is an arbitrary. It was established by you all when you created the TUR. Um I I have I have seen TUR smaller than that. I've seen tur all the way up to 100%. The last city that I was in had one turds that had a 100% um uh participation with a contracted negotiated uh cost of service which was a which was a percentage that kind of got kicked back. And so [clears throat] it was a there there's a lot of different ways to to set them up. You all chose to just do a flat 50% of
012the city's uh tax rate. You could have also approached the county, the school district. they might have chosen to kick in some um and have that. We did not do that here. Some places do, some do not. Um it it's pretty straightforward this way. It's the city um and the city is the one that's that's providing the incentive. It's not uncommon at all. And so you see some examples there of um eligible projects that can be funded by a a tax increment reinvestment zone, streets, sidewalks, trails, mobility, drainage, storm water detention, water, wastewater, public facilities, uh like libraries, fire stations, police stations, all of those types of things, park and recreation, uh facilities, anything that is serving the district or the zone, I'm sorry, um can is essentially be can become eligible through through a
013process. Um it's not for our general operating expenses. It's not to pay for personnel. It's not to pay for uh those kind of things. Um it it is for those infrastructure investments um and and capital projects that uh that are needed to serve uh the residents within the zone. Um and so then uh you all as the city council created this by ordinance. You set up what the board structure was going to look like and uh set up a a project plan which we're going to go into in a minute. Um you also at at that time the TUR's board has seven seats. uh the council appointed themselves to the first five seats and have two vacancies that um that we've had discussions about maybe uh appointing after the uh the upcoming city elections. Once
014those are resolved, then appoint those last two seats. Um and then that would give you your full complement of seven board members. Um, by law, if other taxing units had participated, they would each get one seat of appointment as well. And that's that's a good reason to leave those two, at least until you know for sure that the county or the school district or both aren't going to participate because they would get to fill those other seats uh by appointment. Um and then there's an annual report that once once we start moving on the uh the TUR's administrator will will help us with producing these uh these annual reports of what is the increased value, what did that generate as um an increment fund and um what are the reimbursements that are being made out
015of that if there are eligible projects that have already been uh submitted for uh for reimbursement. And so kind of the way that flows, you have your your finance plan, which which ours to date is really a cash flow uh finance plan. It means as money comes in because of the growth, we will reimburse eligible projects and uh operational expenses of the zone. Um we there are um opportunities for public input. You all had a public back when it was created before it was created. you you adopted an ordinance to create the zone. You seated the board by appointing uh the first members uh adopted officially that project plan uh and have now implemented it. Now we're down at that last step of implementing by having our first TUR agreement uh that will start generating
016um value growth and um and the requirement for those annual reports. And so just that little side note at the bottom. Um it's it's important that we have these processes that they're clearly spelled out because the public needs to understand what what we're doing with these tax dollars. why it was necessary to have this and and what's being funded. Um, and it it's keeping the ability for us not to increase our tax rate or increase our utility rates to fund this additional growth. It gives the opportunity for the developer to put it up front and to to re uh to capture a reimbursement uh through the uh through the increment uh the growth of the of the zone. And just as it says there, the common approach is for the developers to advance the the
017funds for these public improvement and then get reimburse reimburseed from future tax increment. Uh which is exactly what we have done. Uh I think you would find if you went through ours the the column on the left there the good agreement agreements contain a performance brace uh based um metrics. They are clear about what the eligible costs are. Um they are capped, they're phased, they align with the project plan. They're transparent. Uh and they're designed to protect the city and keep projects deliverable. And and I think uh with the one that we have before us, uh we would be able to put a check mark next to each one of those. we've gone through and the uh the the tourists administrator has done a good job of making sure that we've put together all of
018those things and protected the city's interest but also made that uh uh incentive available to to foster the development that that was desired and uh and it does include lists like what's on the right the the public improvements that are being built uh though they are in fact approved as a part of the project plan uh the the developer is the one who designs them. They convey them over to the city upon city inspection and acceptance. Uh they the city will accept them into a warranty period and then accept them for uh the life of the uh improvement whether that's a street or a water or sewer line. Uh whatever it is once it's built, city inspects it um assures that it was built to the proper standards and then we accept it as as
019a city asset. uh and then through the process we reimburse the developer uh once the value is created. Um so the reimbursement cap is basically the the maximum amount that is developed by that that developer or the that is uh created the growth that is created by the developer whatever that maximum value is that money sits there in the TUR and is available to reimburse for those eligible projects. uh if the [snorts] revenues arrive later than expected um then there's not a there's not a reimbursement to the developer until the value is put on the ground the tax revenue is realized and the funding is available. Um, and so that it it can get put off if the developer decided, you know, after signing all these agreements and going out there and building that infrastructure,
020for some reason they waited 5 years to start building houses, then they would wait 5 years until until they would start getting reimbursed. Um, that's it's just it's fairly simple. Until the money is there, we are not obligated to put any city dollars out except for what is put into the tiff by the incremental uh increased value. >> What about the [clears throat] u what about the funds that the city have already uh paid out there? Is it any way of getting that back or that's just >> So those uh that you're talking about the um the water well and things. >> Yes, >> those are also eligible projects. Um the the way we've structured it is we will allow the developer to go in they will get reimbursed for their projects and if there
021is funding um a after that then the city could also account uh could actually um submit those same project costs for reimbursement uh through through the tur as well that those those serve the zone they would be eligible infrastructure projects >> but that's the only money that the city would put up front on what what has already been put up. >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. >> Um so as as we mentioned at at the onset, the the benefits are it funds those infrastructure. It provides a mechanism to fund for infrastructure uh through private investment. It's pay as pay as you go options uh that reduce pressures on us. It doesn't provide just like the question you were just as asking councilman. Uh it doesn't require us to put the money up front. It allows developers
022to put the money and then we are offering an opportunity for them to re recover their uh investments over the course of time with the value that they're putting in our community. And it builds a long-term tax base because then those homes that are here in our community become long-term taxable value that is a part of contributing to the the community. Um so so the the considerations there on the right it it does talk about um making sure that your [clears throat] value that is redirected to the TUR fund is um not hindering your ability to provide city services. So I think doing a 50% tur is is a wise choice because if you get beyond that it gets very difficult for us to fund police protection, fire protection, other city services, um animal control,
023code enforce, all of those other city services that we employ personnel for. If we start growing our city uh and needing more of those services, but we've given all the tax revenue away for 30 years, it becomes really difficult for us to add city services. And so doing it as 50% makes sure that we've got some money coming in to fund those services, but we've got enough funding going out to help the developer get reimbursed as well. So I think I think that was a a wise choice. um and allows us to be in a good place to uh to provide these services. Um and the the reality is um when you get to the end of 20 30 years down the road after the growth is in you really start to see an increase
024in city services demand because that's when you start needing street maintenance. you know, the end of 20 years or 30 years, you start needing sidewalks to be replaced, streets to be replaced, and those kind of things. Well, that's about the time that your turds is ending, and you're getting 100% of the tax revenue instead of 50% of it going uh over to the to the TUR fund. So that that's a again a good opportunity for us to be able to do the immediate costs now and then in the future [laughter] couple decades down the road when the when the city service needs start uh in increasing because of maintenance and upkeep the tur ends and and you get 100% of the tax revenue. Um so it does uh talk there about governance uh making sure
025that you've got good governance and I think uh you all have been intimately involved in this from the beginning and are making sure that we've got clear pan clear plans sorry um we're we're we're making sure that the the tur administrator is going to be providing the reports for us. uh we're keeping them focused on that public benefit, making sure that the only thing that we're putting out there as eligible projects are those public infrastructure uh projects that are needed to foster the development and the growth. Uh and so I think we've put those uh those steps in in place. So getting specific to uh the Navasota TUR, it was created in September of 2023. The pro project plan and financing plan uh document were both prepared in January of that year. You went through
026the process. You authorized the project cost categories total about 22.5 million uh in infrastructure and and other projects. Uh your boundary is almost 3,000 acres of the city limits and extr territorial jurisdiction. Um it goes from uh through December of 202. So, it was a 30-year um plan with 203 being the final tax year. Um and just recently, as you all know, last month, you approved as the TUR board approved the first development agreement and tonight that is on your agenda um for for consideration for the council. Um and the the developer has signed it now. And so, it is ready for once you all approve it, that will be a finalized agreement. And that one is is um is exe fully executed. Uh so the boundary there is is on the right. Most of
027the area to the east of highway 6 in our predominantly in our ETJ that is undeveloped is the area that your TUR covers. Um and so this is the first um development that has come as a result of it. But um my full expectation is that more will follow that that you have set something up that allows for a developer to come in uh and fund uh the infrastructure needs for their uh for their developments and and I think we are in a position that uh that we will absolutely see those uh um those developers come and so uh we did did talk about availability of of documentation and transparency. So this um this slide shows that if you go to the city website, you navigate from go uh government to boards and commissions, the
028TUR board is listed there. You can find the final project plan, the financing plan, the boundary map that was just on the last slide, all meeting agendas uh and meeting packets that have been uh conducted by the TUR board. And that QR code there um actually will take you directly to that TUR board page. Um so any residents that are interested can um can navigate right to it. Um and then again we've got that TUR number one uh landing page there at that QR code. You can go directly to it. Um and it's got all of that information right there. No one has to do an open records request to get it. It's all posted there. It's available for the public uh to see um and to um and to decipher and use however they
029they would like. Um, and so, uh, that's really the end of that same QR code there in case anyone didn't get it at the previous slide. Um, and there's a link directly up there to the tours board page. Again, that goes directly. QR code and that link are the same. Um, and our development uh services director, Lupe Dest, is also here and he's available uh if if residents had questions or someone else or you all have a question or like I said, representatives from Haw Hill are here if you've got questions about their administrative services um and our legal counsel. So, I know I talked kind of fast. If any of you have any questions, I'm happy to happy to answer them or defer to the ones that were here when it was created if
030uh if there's something that that needs. >> So, um [clears throat] this terrible um is uh Odin's going to get 50% of the city taxes and the city I'm I'm sorry, the county and the school district is still going to be 100% paid to >> That is correct. They they they to my knowledge they were not approached. We I don't know that anyone went to them and said would you all be interested in participating in this TUR that the city of Navasota is is uh creating. I don't know if that occurred or not but the ending result is our TUR was created with only the city of Navasota as the only participating uh taxing entity. I do believe the county was approached. We we actually did um reserve two spots on the board uh in
031the event that the county decided to participate. But my understanding is, and I didn't speak directly with the county, but that they chose not to participate. So I do believe that contact was made. >> Okay. >> Um but I was not directly involved in those communications. But but when the documents were prepared, we did reserve two spots for the county to have representation on the board as well. Fair and Council, if y'all don't have any immediate questions, I was going to ask for the reps from Hos Hill just in case I missed anything or they have anything specific that they'd like to add to it just as background. So, Nina, if y'all want to >> just to echo that, that is correct. The county was approached at that time and they decided not to. Does
032not mean that they could not in the future. Um that is something that's an advantage of this tool that they can still go back to that same base year if they decide even five years down the road and that's happened in many other places and cities where they do decide to. The ISD does no longer does participate. You'll see them in Texas where they're grandfathered in or they were not grandfathered in but basically they were allowed to years ago. So you'll see them tapering off now. They get basically penalized for participating and so it is not to their advantage to do it anymore. So the ones that typically it's your county um you can have like if you've got a hospital district or an emergency service district or a college district they can participate as
033well and those can be done at a later um a later time. The only other thing that I was going to add is there wasn't um a first amendment that was in 2023 in which additional land was annexed into the zone and that was related to that development agreement that you're going to consider um later on today. it was annexing the remainder of their property into the zone so they could get the benefit of the full zone and y'all would get the tax revenue for that full zone. But otherwise, great job covering it all. >> Oh, thank you. >> But happy to answer any other questions. >> I do have one. Uh I forgot what Senate bill it was, but u this subdivision goes in five years down the line. We still have this Senate
034bill in effect. someone won't file to get out of the ETJ. What happens? >> Yeah. So that's that's um [clears throat] that's different than your TURs though. I mean so because Yes. that that's >> so they Well, I guess what my question is once you're in this turf, you can't get out. >> Yes. And on you're in the city limits now. So correct for the properties that are in the ETJ that are not in the city limits, it doesn't impact you though because you're not getting those tax revenues. But technically someone in the ETJ if they wanted to um but once they're in the city limits and you're getting those tax revenues they cannot. So if it's in the ETJ right now you're not getting those revenues anyways. It was a tool for annexation at
035that time to encourage them to come into the city limits but you're not getting those revenues right now until they come in. For example, the agreement that's coming in say annex. That was the only reason they got an agreement is because they chose to voluntarily annex. And because it's really hard to annex a city to go and do annexation, that was just a tool at that time that the city could use to incentivize um developers to come in and annex and get some some some form of reimbursement for infrastructure. But yes, a property that's in the ETJ um but it doesn't impact your tourist revenues because you're not getting anything from them right now. I think [clears throat] we should consider maybe approaching the county again. It's a little time has passed. You anytime we
036can get the the county to participate with us, I think it's a good thing unless it's a real costly venture to do it. But that's just my take. Okay. certain they're benefiting from it. >> Quite a bit. So, >> thank you, D. Welcome. [clears throat] All right. Go to item four. Discussion on how to interpret and understand monthly municipal court reports submitted for council approved. >> Mayor and city council. At the last council meeting, Councilman Harris requested a workshop on this particular item um to better understand how the report reads. Um, and our municipal court clerk is out today, so the judge has decided she would like to give that report to y'all. >> Yes. Honorable mayor and city council, Mr. Himeer. Pat Gruner, municipal judge, Navasota Municipal Court. As Susie said, I'm here today
037because the court clerk, Rochelle Jesse, was previously scheduled to be off today. Um, Mr. Hinger did clarify that the request was for assistance reading and understanding uh the Office of Court Administration monthly report submitted to the Texas Judiciary Council no later than 20 days following the end of the month reported. Um the court uh provides this information for transparency but also being very careful to avoid violation of the separation of powers. The OCA report is public information available online through the office of court administration. This form that you all have is used both for municipal and justice of the peace courts in the state of Texas. That's uh it is used for 2,650 courts. The um let's see after the identifying information at the top NASA municipal court, the month and the year that the
038report covers. The first section is the criminal section and you'll see number one that says total cases pending the first of the month. This number is both active and inactive cases. active cases. [music] These are cases that are awaiting a judgment uh that the court is able to move to disposition. [clears throat] They're they're not inactive. Uh inactive means the cases are awaiting final judgment. Uh for instance, it's cases maybe where uh a warrant was issued. Um cases reported to Omni uh to the collection agency MBVA. Um and and then you go down to number two. Number two says new cases filed during the month. Those new cases come from uh Navasota police citations. Uh Eric turns in code violations, other uh other things like that, but it's mostly from citations. Um number three says
039cases reactivated. uh that is a case that has become inactive and then let's just say 3 years later somebody goes to get their driver's license they can't get it because there's a hold on it from Omni uh come back over here to pay their warrant from 2 or 3 years ago to get that cleared up so that that release will be uh uh lifted from their that that hole will be lifted from their driver's license and they can get it renewed anyway it is if people come in and pay an old warrant Another way uh that it's reactivated is if they're stopped and arrested on an old warrant. Maybe they go to jail and they have to sit out their fine. Then that that uh inactive case gets reactivated. Um the next part says total
040of active cases, new cases filed and reactivated uh reactivated cases. That uh makes total cases on the docket number five. That's what it's just the sum of those different cases under dispositions. Number six, a uncontested dispositions. That's where the defendant does not contest the charge. Perhaps they mail in uh their ticket and their uh payment. Uh or they just make a a guilty plea at the window. Uh no contest, whatever they do, pay the fine. They never see me. They just want to get it taken care of. Those are called uncontested dispositions. The next part B dismissed by the prosecutor. There are different reasons. Uh he reviews uh the case and he reviews the evidence. Uh perhaps the officer is no longer uh available. But that's his call and he dismisses those. Then they come
041to me for review and I sign off. I also may recommend dismissals and in those cases the prosecutor reviews it and if he agrees with me then he signs off. That's that's what uh dismissals are. Um then you go down to number seven final dispositions in open court or at trial. Uh uh disposed cases are uh those that have reached final resolution or judgment or a conclusion. That means that the judge has signed the final order and once that judgment is signed, it is final. Eight, compliance dismissals. This is where she has to report during that that month when defendants are given the opportunity to resolve their ticket by taking a driving safety course. Maybe they haven't taken one in the last 365 days. They come before the judge. they have an opportunity if it's
042a lesser case uh to uh to comply by taking a driving safety course, turning in that certificate uh and and to have that not be um listed as a conviction on their driving record. Another compliance dismissal, deferred disposition. Um, or perhaps they provided uh or proved that their liability insurance was in effect the day of the citation. Maybe they didn't have have it in their car. Maybe it wasn't available on the phone. Maybe the officer ran it in the computer and it was inconclusive. Whatever. But they have to go in. If they can't get that, we make them go back to their insurance company and provide a statement uh showing that they actually were insured at that date and at the time that the ticket was issued. Um and then um there's others where they
043comply uh uh with state law, say by getting their registration renewed. Registration, they have a little time to go get it to pay the late fee over at the county. They come back here, they show us that sheet that has that sticker that you put on your car windshield. And if that sheet has that they paid the $10.15 late fee, then that's exactly what we're looking for, we dismiss it for a $20 dismissal fee. Um, cases placed on inactive status. These are cases again that went to warrant status to the collection agency or to Omni or DPS to suspend uh their driver's license. Number 12, total cases pending at the end of the month is just the total of the active and inactive cases. Um 14 cases appealed. I believe most of these are the
044defendants that pled not guilty either at the window or in my court or and they were referred. They have to go then to meet with the prosecutor uh on a morning uh when he's here. That's pre-trial. Uh and perhaps they appealed his decision of skipping the trial with our court. Normally, if they plead not guilty, we'll have a trial here. But if they choose to, they can just post a bond, go to uh uh uh appealed to county court, um civil section, that whole page. We do not deal with these. This is for the justices of the peace. That is their their uh section. The next section is mostly for juveniles. I see a few juveniles. um mostly for like tobacco and ecigarette cases. Um not a lot. Then if you'll drop down to number
04515, these are the cases. There are not very many of them, thank goodness, where I'm usually called out in the middle of the night to come down to city hall to magistrate juveniles. These are usually for more severe cases. And I meet uh the police have already or dispatches already called the juvenile probation officer who meets me here. uh they are trying to find a juvenile facility that will accept them accept them but before they're transported uh and released or are released uh they have to be magistrated by a judge and so that's what that number represents. Um arrest warrants issued uh warrants for class C misdemeanors uh is what that number is. Number three, uh, capius profines issued. A capius profile warrant is those defendants who came in and entered a plea of uh,
046guilty or no contest and then they defaulted on their agreement with the uh, court. or perhaps they struck a deal with the prosecutor at pre-trial and they did not live up to what they uh signed that they would they would complete or or do. Um and so [clears throat] those um when I see them at jail that's the nickname for those is payer stay you know because u that's but that's what a caps profile when I hear that that's what that means. they have already come in, they've made their plea, they just didn't they they defaulted on whatever their agreement was. Um the last page is the financials, the fines, the court cost, other amounts collected. Um and then what's retained by the city and what is remitted to the state. Um I believe you
047will be able to get that from Mr. Heminger um at at your at your choosing. Um, but I will tell you when you look at these reports, always keep in mind that one month of data does not tell the whole story. The last one that you got was for the month of December. Uh, and December and January or maybe it was January, but those two months are typically the lowest activity months of the year for courts all across the state. Holidays reduce the number of court days. defendants are struggling to provide for their families and often they prioritize uh Christmas over their payment of fines. Uh it's not right, but you have to have a little uh understanding. Uh thank you for the opportunity to try to help you better understand this report. I learned
048a little bit as well having to do this. So I'm grateful to Rochelle. Um she does a fantastic job for you for you all and for the court. Uh, and as always, it's my honor to serve as municipal judge for the city of Nasota. Any questions, >> judge? I do have one. Uh, [laughter] the uh on on the criminal section on uh and maybe this may be a question for for Carrie. uh new cases filed during the month is that um I think I heard you said that's the uh that's the tickets that the police officers write and then violations code violations. Um, every now and then the police will bring in a warrant for somebody that caused a disturbance somewhere in the city and they come back and they write a um uh they
049write all their evidence. I'm blank on the form right now. There's a name for probable cause statement. Thank you, Mike. Uh, a probable cause statement. It's a long detail of what happened and a warrant can be issued. Uh, I sign that. Rochelle does the warrant form and brings it back and I sign that. So there are different sources. These are the the majority of them come from tickets. Yes. Citations that are >> I guess this may be for you healthc care about the violation the code by violation. Is there any way that we can separate that? >> It it is separated. Council member Harris if you uh look at the top of the uh page where it's broken down into traffic versus non-tra at the very top. right there, sir. And and then those those
050cases are further broken down into, for example, the the city ordinance uh violations. Those those would be the code violations that you're referring to. And so those would fall under the non-traffic misdemeanors. Also included in that section would be penal code violations. That may be an assault. It may be a possession of drug paraphernalia, things like that. Um and then the traffic misdemeanors are broken down into parking, non-parking, and then u city ordinance. That would be something like a violation of the truck route uh ordinance where we where we prevent the 18 wheelers from coming through town on certain streets. They have to follow a certain path and if not, you know, uh they're subject to a citation. So that would be a city ordinance violation falling under the traffic misdemeanor section. So, um, when
051you see a report, there will be a breakdown of where the new cases fall within th those categories. >> Okay. So, here he just said something that I guess I need to get some good clarification on. Yes, >> sir. >> If the police officer stopped 18 Willer from coming through town, that ticket is not a traffic ticket. It's a violation ticket. >> It It is ordinance or not. >> It's an ordinance, but it's under state law. is considered a moving violation. It's considered the traffic offense. Um, for example, they're typically uh commercial driver's license holders and you you a prosecutor court cannot approve a deferred disposition with a commercial driver safety course. >> So, the state considers that to be a moving traffic violation, but it's also a city ordinance violation at the same time.
052So, but it would be a traffic offense. Yes, sir. >> Just want to know what I'm looking at. >> I know. >> So do I. Roelle's the only one that really knows. >> So, just to add to what Mr. Harris was saying, um, a city ordinance, for example, if we were just concerned about a code violation, we wouldn't necessarily know that a city ordinance would be issued by the code officer, even if it was non-traffic, because you could have a somebody could be issued a ticket for loud music that's at their house, which would be a city ordinance, but would not necessarily be a code enforcement citation. Correct. So, is there any way to break I don't know if this is what he's asking or not, but that's what where my head went. I see
053>> the state doesn't ask that. It doesn't distinguish between the two. It just I mean you all can always go back and ask if if you see that the number is significant, but if you see it's one or two in a year, it may not even be I mean it's up to you. That's your that's your call. >> I I agree with your point about there's no breakdown. It could be a building code violation, you know, it could be a witty lot violation. It could be a noise ordinance violation. So if that's something that you want to see, then you know uh we would need to maybe not necessarily on this form provide that information to you separately because obviously it's not broken down on here, but I'm sure that's information that we can provide
054to the council. You know what I what I would like to say is because budget time come and if we're saying that we need another code enforcer and I would like to know what the one that we have that's been doing to warrant that we need another one. >> Well, we do get code enforcement information on our Friday recap. you. That's true. Don't go into detail. >> No. >> And I don't see those. What What information? What level of information do you get when you get a report from the >> Yes. pictures of letters have been sent to correct the >> people that he's gone to visit with, people that he's left things on the door, things like that. Usually most of them haven't been turned over to court yet. But anyway, >> those would
055be more code violations, weedy lots, those kinds of things. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And just another question that I have for you, judge. This form that you've provided to us that you're showing all these things, this is not the form that we see in our >> It is the form. It's just a blank form that we got online to help you not be so confused. Uh, and maybe it confused it more, but I think if you'll take this information and go through the one you have, you should be able to match it up. If you made notes on that blank one, >> I understand. >> It has to do with the way the pages are turned. >> That's what I'm >> Because when I first saw that one, I went, "No, this is not
056what I see. What you all see? Mine's all written on, but you see the one because there's so many columns to make it legible for you large enough. She has to turn it in order to give it to you all that way. >> Okay. But she does fill out this form that you >> That is what she completes. In fact, she does it online. She doesn't even It's not like she types it up. What I always want to know is how does she keep up with all of this? Uh she's amazing a lot. >> Thank you, Judge. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you, Pat. >> [clears throat] >> Item five is executive session. City council shall meet in executive session as permitted by section 551.072 Texas government code. Deliberation
057regarding real property discussion regarding the purchase, exchange, lease, andor acquisition of real property for city purposes. Times 522. All right. Item seven, we're reconvening in open session. >> Yes. 6:06 p.m. >> Thank you. >> And with no further business, we will adjourn. the