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2024 05 02 CC Minutes Special MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN May 02, 2024 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas,met in a Special Meeting on Thursday, May 02, 2024, at 2:30 P.M. in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall at 2401 Market Street, Baytown,Texas, with the following in attendance: Sarah Graham Council Member Kenrick Griffith Council Member James Franco Council Member Jacob Powell Council Member Mike Lester Council Member Brandon Capetillo Mayor Jason Reynolds City Manager Scott Lemond City Attorney Gabriella Gonzales Open Government Supervisor John Stringer Sergeant at Arms • Mayor Brandon Capetillo convened the May 02, 2024, City Council Special Meeting with a quorum present at 2:33 P.M. All members were present with the exception of Mayor Pro Tem Laura Alvarado. The Pledge of Allegiance, Texas Pledge, and Invocation were led by Council Member Jacob Powell. 1. CITIZEN COMMENTS Mayor Brandon Capetillo announced a citizen signed up to speak. Herbert Lorfing,2905 Parkland Drive,commented,"Before I get started I'd like to thank Mr. Pow- ell, we had a drainage issue in the neighborhood. He addressed it and during the recent storms it's been very nice. Also, I'd like to thank the City of Baytown Tree Removal Service, we had a large tree fall in the neighborhood and they had it picked up and cut up before daylight. It was impres- sive. The only thing I really wanted to say, I won't pretend to know everything about the situation with the golf course that is going on. I would like to say that I am against giving any more power, or authority to the City Manager to address anything that's not openly transparent with the public. I'm also against any more money going to that. We seem to have a lot of money that we spend that we don't actually have, and that somehow usually always translates to more taxes, which I pay enough of. That's all I have to say." • 2. EXECUTIVE SESSION a. Recess into and conduct an Executive Session pursuant to Section(s)551.071 and/or 551.087 of the Texas Government Code to seek the advice of the City's attorneys regarding City Council Special Meeting Minutes May 02,2024 Page 2 of 5 • pending or contemplated litigation and/or to deliberate regarding economic development negotiations. At 2:38 P.M., Mayor Brandon Capetillo recessed and convened in to an Executive Session pursu- ant to: 551.071 and/or 551.087 of the Texas Government Code. Mayor Brandon Capetillo left the meeting after Executive Session. At 4:17 P.M.,Mayor Pro Tem Mike Lester reconvened the meeting and announced that,in accord- ance with Section 551.102 of the Texas Government Code, no action was taken in the Executive Session. 3. PROPOSED ORDINANCES a. Consider an ordinance authorizing an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2024 budget authorizing a transfer from the General Fund to establish a new fund specifically desig- nated for the Golf Course and other Special Recreation Projects. Mayor Pro Tem Mike Lester announced citizens signed up to speak. Byron Schirmbeck,4727 Blackstone Street,and beautiful East Point subdivision,commented,"So, why are we here today? Trying to put duct tape on a broken deal? Looks like part of the Agenda is to divert general funds for a bail out of a golf course, that's too big to fail. Another reason, is that this is an election year and it's hard to run on a record of failures. A failed or failing hotel convention center,a stalled San Jacinto Marketplace Project and now a failed golf course deal that was pushed hard, despite all the warnings at the time. That doesn't look good on the record. We're also here because three sitting members of this body voted for the deal that is in default now. At that time, we were told this is a great deal and that we just had to trust the experts. Again, for the second meeting I don't see any of those experts here tonight. We're told that all losses for this project would be absorbed by the developer. Did that happen? We're also told that this deal was the fiscally conservative thing to do,because if the City had to run the golf course,it would cost a lot more than six million dollars, and we didn't have the money for that. Did we suddenly find the money? Yet, here we are. The six million dollars appears to be gone, at least some of it, and the same people that told us it was a terrible idea for the City to own a golf course, are now telling us this is the only way forward. If you voted for this deal back then, this is your chance to redeem yourself. If you vote yes again then you totally own this and everything that happens going for- ward. It's your baby. If you weren't on Council at the time,but you told voters when you're running for office that you would have voted against the deal back then; then you would have to vote against this deal now. It's in a lot of ways, much worse than the first one. Don't go back on that to protect somebody else's political ambitions. They may not be around later to protect you. There are too many questions that need to be answered about the last contract before a blank check for a new one is written. How much did the developer get from us? How much is left? How much can we get back through legal action? Did anyone at the City, now or in the past improperly use their influence to get this unusual one-sided deal with the developer done? We need to find all this out • before we move forward. There needs to be an outside independent investigation before you spend one more dime, and all similar projects including Project Vector, need to be put on hold until we get those answers. Do the right thing. Vote no on both Items 3.a. and 3.b. Thank you." City Council Special Meeting Minutes May 02,2024 Page 3 of 5 • David Isaacs, 2812 Landmark Drive, commented, "Good evening, Mayor and Council,it's been a while hasn't it? I'm going to try to make this quick. I got a campaign dinner to go to at El Toro's right after this,so I'll wrap it up. I would like to advocate to be against this measure today;moving money from the general fund to pay for this is what I would consider one of our boondoggles. As Mr. Schirmbeck stated,we've had multiple in the past some of which aren't a testament to some of your leadership behind this dais. I know two individuals who voted for it. A couple years ago, many members of the community,many esteemed members of the community even, were against this deal. They were weary of this deal. Mr. Don Aikey, who I probably wouldn't consider to be esteemed, but did his research and showed to me that this company from Tennessee was shady to begin with. So now, there's a big public sentiment of I told you so, moving through the town and it's not something we're happy to tell the Council. I consider myself to be a community advocate, but if you ask my family that's just the way of saying I don't have a job. I want to advocate for the community today to protect our general fund,not to go to this.We don't want to pay for something that we never really wanted in the first place. We don't want to pay for something that we don't think is going to be feasible. We don't want to pay for something when our MDD has been dis- solved to pay for a hotel convention center, that's not necessarily profitable at this moment. We don't want to pay for something when Parks and Recreation and other services are threatened by the already squeezed general fund. Our MDD was dissolved, all members of the general public were taken off of the MDD,and that's because of the hotel boondoggle.Now Parks and Recreation have to compete with the general fund instead of what our sales tax dollars is going through. This is the position that we are in right now. I just went to a Parks and Recreation meeting last night. I go to more meetings, more committee meetings, than anybody in this room, including yourselves • behind that dais. So, I've seen how important it is to have that general fund be contributed to Parks and Recreation and other departments. We heard from Victor Brownlees, who is no longer here. There's a big turnaround in the past couple years. I think you understand why. Say that 60%of the general fund goes to public service and safety's already. So now we have to compete the golf course with our public safety. Now it has to compete with our Parks and Recreation.Now it has to compete with everything else in the town. Now we have to make this a priority. I read a quote today at a friend's house before I came here that said, "Your lack of planning should not constitute an emergency for me." That's the statement that I want to make today. The lack of planning from the previous administration or whoever wants to take responsibility for this. We can clearly see nobody wants to take responsibility for this. It shouldn't be an emergency on the general public, that is all I have. Thank you very much." b. Consider an ordinance authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and enter into a golf facility management agreement with Troon Golf, LLC in accordance with discussions held in executive session. Byron Schirmbeck, 4727 Blackstone Street, commented, "The reason I signed up on this Agenda Item believe it or not, I actually try to believe the best in folks, I hold everybody to a very high standard and it's because I believe in people's intentions and until they do something that shows me what their real character and position is. I think almost everybody or maybe everybody had the best of intentions going into this first deal. So again, I say like I did last time; nobody is happy about this. We're not thrilled about being right. The problem is that there were warnings. We had • warnings that were not heeded. I'm hoping we're not going to repeat the same thing. I'm paraphras- ing you,Councilman Powell,but I think he said something like, 'we shouldn't want a deal so badly that we do the deal badly,' something like that and I 100% agree. I get the feeling that maybe this City Council Special Meeting Minutes May 02,2024 Page 4 of 5 • rushed emergency meeting,I don't know all the details,but maybe has something to do with trying to do that. It looks like there's going to be a proposed contract with Troon,the golf course manager. I hope we're not rushing into another bad contract like we did before,just in the hopes of having to do something to keep it here. I have concerns that if I was this company and I understand from what the City said and what's been out there that some contractors haven't gotten paid. I hope that it would be a logical assumption that maybe Troon is one of those guys that hasn't gotten paid. I'm hoping that there's not a deal or something negotiated to where we're also going to be responsible for any of the developer's bad debts. I hope whatever the contract is, we don't have that kind of issue where we're throwing extra good money after extra bad money. So, I would say I'm also a little concerned that it just seems like it gives a blank check to the City Manager to negotiate and enter into a contract. I think Council really needs to have a final say on that. I don't think we've done a contract like that before, but I would say vote both of these items down today; come back and get it right. Thank you." Calvin Mundinger, 411 N Burnett Street, commented, "Council,how are you all doing this even- ing? Good to be here and good to see you all. Kenrick, don't ever change. I'm here and I'm con- cerned about Items.Are we on 3.a.,orb.?Here's my concern,considering an ordinance authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and enter into a golf facility management agreement with Troon Golf LLC, according with the discussions held in Executive Session; that circumvents transpar- ency. I hope you all aren't going to authorize him to do that when that's your job. It's okay for Jason to go and negotiate with Troon then come back to Council with a recommendation. Council re- views and considers that recommendation and acts accordingly. If they approve it, then Jason can • execute it, but to send him out as one person in this entire system of government, to send one person who's not an elected official to negotiate behind closed doors without any supervision, without any input, and come up to execute that agreement is political malpractice. It is municipal management malpractice, it avoids transparency and that's not appropriate, its unacceptable. You guys need to ask him for a recommendation. You all review his recommendation, and then you either approve or don't approve it. Guess what else happens in that prospect? It's on the Agenda, and now citizens get to review and have input into this agreement. Please, I'm asking you all not to circumvent transparency and do the job as it has been done.This has never been done to ask the City Manager to go out and do this without guidance from Council. So please, I would urge any of you, if you want to solve this problem you can say, "We make a motion to authorize Jason to go negotiate the contract and then make a recommendation to Council for Council's consideration." That's how you solve that problem and that's how you will stay within the realm of transparency. Thank you very much." 4. MANAGER'S REPORT No report was presented. 5. RECESSED Mayor Pro Tem Mike Lester recessed the May 02, 2024, City Council Special Meeting at 4:32 P.M.,until May 03, 2024, at 9:00 A.M. in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall at • 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas. City Council Special Meeting Minutes May 02,2024 Page 5 of 5 • tlCe % � a a Angela Ja son, City Clerk City of Baytown • II/