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2023 06 22 WS Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN June 22, 2023 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas, met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, June 22, 2023, at 5:32 P.M. in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall at 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas, with the following in attendance: Laura Alvarado Council Member Sarah Graham • Council Member Kenrick Griffith Council Member Mike Lester Council Member Jacob Powell Mayor Pro Tem Jason Reynolds City Manager Scott Lemond City Attorney Angela Jackson City Clerk John Stringer Sergeant at Arms Mayor Pro Tem Powell convened the June 22, 2023, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:32 P.M. All members were present with the exception of the absences of Mayor Brandon Capetillo and Council Member Heather Betancourth. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Receive a Legislative Update upon the End of the State's 88th Legislative Session. Public Affairs Director Thomas Reeves opened the item by providing an outline of the discussion ahead. He would first give Council a broad overview of what happened in Austin, Texas, at the State's 88th Legislative Session. Next, Mr. Reeves would introduce the Schlueter Group who were the City of Baytown's advocates in Austin and would give more specificities. To conclude, the City Manager would discuss what would be their next steps now that the session was over. Overview Mr. Reeves shared that the one hundred and forty(140) day Regular Legislative Session wrapped up on May 29, 2023. The House was immediately called in to a Special Session after where they would tackle a series of issues. Mr. Reeves provided the following numbers for Council: • 8,344 bills and joint resolutions were filed in total; • 1,880 of that total were city-related; and • 1,258 of that total were pased. Mr.Reeves relayed the major city-related issues were water infrastructure,broadband access,local land use authority,preemption,and super preemption.Mr.Reeves did note that preemption seemed to be popular around the nation at that time. The good news for the City of Baytown, per Mr. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes June 22,2023 Page 2 of 4 Reeves,was that House Bill(HB)5 was passed which was the new Economic Development School District Incentive Program. He stated that program would replace the 313 Program which ended two (2) years prior. Also, Senate Bill (SB) 369, the "Automatic Disannexation Bill," died which Mr. Reeves stated would have been disastrous for the City of Baytown. He named a few others that failed to move forward, all of which were good news to the City of Baytown. However, Mr. Reeves stated there was plenty of bad news. HB 2127, the "Death Star Bill," preempted home-rule city regulations in nine (9) areas. A few of those areas included agriculture, finance, labor,local government,natural resources, and property. He relayed those were the things the City of Baytown would be looking at intently. Although that would likely be in litigation for a while, HB 2127 would affect Baytown and the City Manager would talk more about that. One (1) out of the four (4) bills up for consideration that were specific to Baytown's needs was signed by the Governor two (2) weeks ago. Mr. Reeves relayed that bill was HB 1381 which clarified State Law and required only one(1) Planning and Zoning hearing for preliminary zoning reports. He was excited to say that was a major win for all cities and that it originated in Baytown. As the legislature would be in Special Session for a while and would be in recess until January 2025, Baytown had some time to fine tune a new legislative program for the next session. They could also find other ways to make sure that the legislature still recognized the City of Baytown. In addition, they would prepare for the ramifications of the bills that were identified to be hurtful to the City. With that, Mr. Reeves introduced and turned the floor over to the Schlueter Group. Schlueter Group Schlueter Group Representative Scott Miller first confirmed that there were a record number of bills filed and that only fifteen percent (15%) of those passed. He noted there was a thirty-three billion dollar($33,000,000,000)surplus this past session.The bills Mr.Miller mentioned that were passed and what they would fund were presented as follows: • SB 28 and Senate Joint Resolution(SJR)75 would provide up to$1 billion in infrastructure and water funding; and • HB 9 and House Joint Resolution (HJR) 125 would provide $1.5 billion for broadband infrastructure funding. Mr. Miller noted there were no agreements between the House, Senate, and Governor on property tax cuts. He imagined they may call another Special Session if they could not resolve that issue in the current session. Mr. Miller proceeded to list other bills that did not make it, such as HB 1246. On a separate note,he discussed over HB 5 which passed and how it affected school districts. With regard to HB 2127, Mr. Miller touched on the controversy and anticipated that many cities would be filing lawsuits to contest. The bilI would bar cities and counties from creating local ordinances that went further than what was Olowed under State Law. Mr. Miller explained that the Governor and republicans pursued that because they argued it was necessary to untangle the growing local regulations that burdened business owners and hampered the State's economic growth. SB 2038 was also passed and would fragment some cities' Extraterritorial jurisdictions City Council Regular Work Session Minutes June 22,2023 Page 3 of 4 (ETJs). Mr. Miller stated it would restrict city growth and eliminate cities ability to manage development. Schlueter Group Representative Brad Schlueter then touched on the bills that were filed on behalf of the City of Baytown as well as the bills that the City was tracking. As mentioned, there were four(4)bills filed for the City of Baytown and one (1) of those passed. Two (2) out of those four (4)bills had a hearing in a committee and Mr. Reeves testified at both of those hearings. Planning and Development Director Martin Scribner was also noted to have testified on HB 1381. HB 1381, as mentioned, required only one (1) public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission if sufficient. The other bill that had gotten a hearing was HB 1439, the "Graffiti Abatement Bill." Mr. Schlueter informed Council that it was heard before the House Committee of County Affairs. The Committee gave negative feedback about private property rights, fairness and freedom issues, and the penalties of perpetrators. Mr. Schlueter stated that their message was somewhat lost because"when you are explaining, you are losing."They did try to bracket the bill to only Baytown in the Committee's substitute bill, but they were unable to get the votes. The third bill that was filed for Baytown was SB 367, the"Eminent Doman Relocation Bill." Mr. Schlueter relayed that was referred to the Senate State Affairs. As that Committee was jampacked with the biggest of State issues, it never got a hearing. HB 4806 dealt with the Baytown Area Water Authority's (BAWA) ability to asses impact fees. The bill was referred to the House of Natural Resources and there were concerns that it was a state-wide bill. So, they worked with an association of counties to bracket that just to Baytown,but it unfortunately never got a hearing. Mr. Schlueter then listed a few of the bills that would have affected the City of Baytown, but that either never received a hearing or just did not pass. He also listed and briefly mentioned the bills that the Schlueter Group submitted a submission card to show the City's position. • Toll Cessation Bills: HB 575, HB 9, and SB 2496 were mentioned which did not pass; • Online Public Notices Bills: SB 943 was mentioned which passed; • HB 2970 which did not pass; and • HB 1279 which did not pass. The other bills the City of Baytown was interested in which were almost universally opposed by all the other cities included: • HB 3639 and SB 2038 which passed and • SB 976 which did not pass; would be effective September 1, 2023; • HB 3135 which did not pass; • SB 977 which did not pass; • HB 2266 which did not pass; and • SB 978 which did not pass; • HB 1246 which did not pass. The bills that the City of Baytown supported were listed as follows: 1 • SB 224 passed and would be effective September 1, 2023; • HB 586 passed and went in to effect when the Governor signed it last month; • HB 3097 passed and went in to effect when the Governor signed it earlier that month; City Council Regular Work Session Minutes June 22,2023 Page 4 of 4 • HB 2416 passed and was ultimately vetoed by the Governor a week ago; and • HB 9 which, if passed, would create the Texas Broadband Infrastructure Fund. Mr. Miller then gave a few closing comments over the impact of Baytown's issues on the legislature. After, he gave a timeline up until the next session starting in January of 2025. In the fall of 2023, the House and Senate Chairmen would announce their interim committee issues. Thus, this summer, Mr. Miller wished to work with the City Council and Staff to figure out their legislative priorities for Baytown. If they needed to push any legislation for the next session, he wanted to get that drafted by the next summer of 2024 to get that filed by November or December 2024. City Manger City Manager Jason Reynolds discussed matters concerning HB 2127. As it was a super preemption bill,the City was taking the next step to get an attorney to see which of their ordinances would conflict with the State's regulations. As the bill would take effect September 1, 2023, they needed to adhere to those guidelines as best as they could understand it. They needed to be ready to amend their ordinances or stop certain practices, so Staff would be bringing those changes to Council. The best-case scenario was that a lawsuit would be underway and the courts "stay" the new law. With that, the City could continue to operate under their current conditions until that was figured out in the courts. However, Staff was not aware of the likelihood of that. Some of the legal advice they had already gotten was that if an ordinance "harmed" somebody, then they had the right to sue the City. Mr. Reynolds did not believe there was a funding piece where the City would be held liable unless they were actually harming someone. Yet, if someone felt as though they could be harmed, it would force them to change their ordinance and go through the litigation aspect. Before adjourning, Council Member Alvarado requested a document that outlined all the bills that were discussed. Mr. Reeves offered that he and the Schlueter Group could work on that. Mayor Pro Tem Powell thanked the speakers and concurred with their idea of starting everything early. 2. ADJOURN With there being n iness to discuss, Mayor Pro Tern Powell adjourned the June 22, 2023, City Cou ession at 6:06 P.M. 1°co.§ 1'R 9a�pa%Y tP 1( 9 'B Angela Ja kson; "cl$erk<4`" City of Barown fir. `