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2025 03 27 CC MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN March 27, 2025 The City Council of the City of Baytown met in a Meeting on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 6:30 P.M. in the Council Chamber of the Baytown City Hall at 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas, with the following in attendance: Jacob Powell Mayor Pro Tem Laura Alvarado Council Member Sarah Graham Council Member Kenrick Griffith Council Member James Franco Council Member Mike Lester Council Member Charles Johnson Mayor Jason Reynolds City Manager Scott Lemond City Attorney Angela Jackson City Clerk John Stringer Chief of Police Mayor Charles Johnson convened the March 27, 2025 Regular City Council Meeting with a quorum present at 6:35 P.M. All members were present with the exception Council Member James Franco. The Pledge of Allegiance, Texas Pledge, and Invocation were led by Council Member Sarah Graham. 2. CITIZEN COMMENTS Mayor Charles Johnson announced citizens signed up to speak and provided the rules and procedures regarding citizen comments. Robert Espinoza, 4727 Indian Trail, stated, "I have lived at this address for the past 24 years. I am 1 of 3 directors for the Shady Hill Villa Homeowners Association. I have been involved with the association since 2018. At this time, I would like to bring your attention a matter pertaining to the streets within the Shady Hill Villa community. In an email sent on March 6, 2025 to the Mayor, City Manager and City Attorney, I requested clarification about the confusion concerning the streets being either private or public. In the email and in part I wrote about the interaction I had with District 4 Council Member Mr. James Franco. I stated that on March 8, 2024, City Councilman for District 4, Mr. James Franco appeared at my front door to deliver a message from the City, as mentioned, Mr. Lemond stating the streets north of Shady Hill Drive are going to be deemed as public and the streets south of Shady Hill Drive and Indian Trail were going to remain private. Since that day, Mr. Franco was contacted numerous times by phone, text City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 2 of 36 message, email and in person. We asked him to explain in greater detail to the directors and the other members of our association as to how the City's street reclassification came about. To date, Mr. Franco has not made any effort to come and sit with us for any discussion, nor send out an email explanation to help bring clarity to the matter. Fast forward to 2025 a year later, void of any further updated information from any City official. We've been left with the impression that the streets, as mentioned by Mr. Franco, north of Shady Hill Drive to be public roadways maintained by the City of Baytown. Now in the past recent months after submitting work requests to the City to repair so-called public streets et cetera, we are now being informed by Mr. Kevin Hilliard of the streets and drainage department that the City isn't responsible for repairing much of any infrastructure such as drainage, gutters or any other streets within the subdivision since they are now all being deemed as private streets. The sole responsibility for maintenance falls upon the Shady Hill Villa community. If this is the stance the City is now taking, the association is requesting a detailed written statement from the City Manager's office and or the City Legal department stating exactly why and how the City has come to this final decision versus what was conveyed to me last year by Mr. Franco. If indeed the streets within the subdivision are private and not public, how can we as a community achieve annexation by the City to receive services such as repairs to our existing infrastructure? I'll leave it at that." Mercedes Renteria, 1317 Cypress Street, stated, "Mayor, Council, City Manager, Police Chief and Angela, how do you do? Happy opening day. I got dressed up. I didn't expect to be here. I was at the Astros watching the Astros play, but I'm here because of a single issue, which is the Ethics Commission. I live in District 1. Laura is my representative. I watched the District 1 video that they had with the City Manager saying that they would not create an Ethics Commission. Here we are, in my opinion, because of a single issue we're creating an Ethics Commission. My first question would be, why did we ever dissolve the Ethics Commission? When I was on Council, we had it and it was a good thing. The perception that it gives when we don't have one is not a good perception. I'm in favor of a commission, but this one was not well thought out. It's a single issue, in my opinion and it's a political issue. If we're going to do it, let's do it right." John Issacs, 5410 Bayou Boulevard, stated, "We've been dealing with stuff on Texas Avenue. Most of you all have heard me complain about stuff and gotten emails. I got looking we've had glass problems, trash and stuff. We only have l trash can in the 100 block. We could actually use multiple trash cans. You can't expect somebody to walk half a block, well you can. They're just going to throw it on the ground. We've had broken beer bottles. I'm not going to say that whoever is doing it is not going to throw them again, but at least it removes the deal. Also, why were we not able to complete the restaurant at the golf course? As a public, we need to know what was going on. We were told $700,000. What comes to mind? I feel like we were lied to or there was incompetence on somebody's part. We don't have the knowledge of what happened. Thank you." Harvey Ponder, 6403 Crosby Cedar Bayou, stated, "I was given a list of benefits and services from the City that I would receive when the City annexed my property dated November 17. That's what's on here. The City estimated infrastructure cost at 10 and a half million dollars back in 2017. Again, I asked, due to the City's financial problems, where is that money going to come from? It's been 7 years now you want voters to pass a new bond proposal to upgrade current City infrastructure with no mention of the annexation promises, none. You built and own a hotel. You City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 3 of 35 built and own a golf course, both of which were passed by Council when the voters voted against it. Part of the future bond is to maintain the real property that voters did not want. The City gave me a list of things that I had to do so the City might de -annex my property. I was told it must be followed to the letter. I was told the City could not change the City charter. I was told that there were numerous hurdles the City had to go through to change that charter and it all had to be done with voter approval. Might I remind Council that just last month you voted to suspend rules as far as the election of a Mayor Pro Tern. Now you want to amend the charter to name yourselves and the City Managers to the Commission Ethics Committee, just like that. All of that makes me wonder why you require me to follow the letter of the law when I need action from you, but you can and are willing to change, suspend, or amend laws as you deem necessary when it suits you. I spent $1,500 last year on taxes for a total over $8,500 since 2017 on taxes. If someone was to steal this $20 bill out of my pocket right now, after I got through with him Chief would arrest him and put him in jail, and rightly so. Why is it you can take $1,500 a year out of my pocket and I get nothing but a stack of paperwork saying, "Hey, you got to do all of this stuff to get out of the City." That's all I got, Mr. Mayor." 3. MINUTES a. Consider approving the minutes of the City Council Work Session held on February 13, 2025. A motion was made by Council Member Kenrick Griffith and second by Council Member Sarah Graham to approve the minutes of the City Council Work Session held on February 13, 2025, as submitted. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None Other: Council Member James Franco (Absent) Approved 4. RECOGNITIONS AND CITIZEN COMMUNICATIONS a. Recognize City of Baytown Employees for their Years of Service. Human Resources Director Joey Lopez presented the item and provided a video presentation of individuals that received the Years of Service award for the month of March. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 4 of 36 25 YEAR David Oyler - Public Works & Engineering, Superintendent Eldon "Ray" Derrington - Public Works & Engineering, Wastewater Operator II b. Recognize a citizen for a life-saving event at a pickleball match. Mayor Charles Johnson presented a proclamation to Ms. Robin Gold for providing lifesaving assistance to a fellow community member in Baytown. C. Present a proclamation designating April 21-25, 2025 as Community Development Week. Mayor Charles Johnson, accompanied by the Community Development Staff, read the proclamation designating April 21-25, 2025 as Community Development Week in Baytown. d. Present a proclamation designating the month of April as Fair Housing Month in the City of Baytown. Mayor Charles Johnson, accompanied by the Community Development Staff, read the proclamation designating April as Fair Housing Month in the City of Baytown. Mayor Charles Johnson took a point of privilege to allow Council Member Sarah Graham to recognize a citizen. Council member Sarah Graham presented the Distinguished Citizen Recognition to Ms. Tammy Guidry for all her work and dedication to the Community of Baytown. 5. PROPOSED ORDINANCES a. Consider an ordinance amending Chapter 2 "Administration," Article VIII "Code of Ethics," of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Baytown, Texas, to align the procedures for addressing potential ethics violations with the Charter of the City of Baytown and Ordinance No. 15,709. A motion was made by Council Member Kenrick Griffith and second by Council Member Sarah Graham to take Item 5.a. regarding Code of Ethics to be discussed after Executive Session, but will take citizen comments. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 5 of 36 Other: Council Member James Franco (Absent) Approved Don Aikey, 410 Rollingwood Road, stated, "I'm here to speak on ethics, and somewhere I read they were thinking about making City Council, City Manager and City Staff, the ethics Committee. I think you all have a lot of nerve even dreaming that you all are ethical. Over 3 years ago, I sent a letter to everybody on City Council, the Legal department and everybody else about playgrounds filled with toxic materials. Baytown's not following the law. It's been over 3 years and we still have playgrounds that have the toxic materials. We are not following State law and you all can stop it in 2 seconds. I don't see where you get a connection about being ethical. If you don't care about 1-year-olds and 2-year-olds in the playground, don't tell me you care about ethics. You've cleaned up some of them, but you could have cleaned them all up. If you all could be ethical and save the kids by following State law, not only moral law but State law. I don't know how you can say this is ethical. It's also unethical that we have the leaders of all the Cities putting raw sewage in the Galveston Bay over 20 years and we still can't get it right. The City since April of 22, we've committed $4.629 million for attorneys to say we're guilty. All I worry about is the environment, mainly and I'm not a public figure. I'm song if I got out of bounds." Mayor Charles Johnson informed Mr. Aikey he was only able to address the Item he signed up to speak on. Calvin Mundinger, 411 North Burnett Drive, stated, "Good to see you all. A while back there was a night when I spoke at the Community Center, the night where we were welcoming Charles aboard and we were thanking Brandon for his service. What I spoke about that night was the importance and the need for cohesion amongst the staff and City Council Members. This contemplated Charter Amendment, I think is a significant threat to those relationships. I think you guys investigating each other for what could be false, scurrilous accusations is going to really tear apart your working relationships and it could lead to political fighting or political chaos. I strongly urge you all to not go there and in fact create a situation where you investigate yourselves for possible wrongdoing. When I talked to the attorney for the state of Texas Ethics Commission, he said never has he ever heard where a Texas City Council is acting as its Ethics Commission. He said, if it exists, I don't know, but he said I have never in my long career heard of such a thing being done. There's a reason when nobody's doing it; it ought to tell you something. There's something wrong with it, what's wrong with it is how it's going to fracture your relationship, is what he said. A major concern is the cohesion and another concern it says on page 3. Any person who believes that a violation of any portion of this article occurred may file a complaint with the City Clerk, just like they did on Kenrick. Personally, I don't think you all had any standing to file that complaint, and that complaint got recorded. Now that complaint is a public record, okay. I haven't read the complaint, but it is possible that complaint be full of scurrilous false accusations, but it's of record right now. Everybody on the planet can get a copy of that document. That is what's contemplated here. That same scenario presents itself here. It says anybody can file a complaint, it's a public record. They could accuse you guys of sexual misconduct, or criminal misconduct. It's going to be a record and everybody's going to see that. Let me close I really urge you all not to go there because you had a commission. Here's what happens in a commission. There's a complaint it's handed to the commission. So last, but not City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 6 of 36 least I strongly urge you to reform the Ethics Commission and get you all out of the crosshairs of that, because all of the City employees in this room could be the target of scurrilous and false accusations. That's a given, but when you had the Ethics Commission, here's how they do that. Right now, there's no filter on these complaints. They would hand a complaint to the Ethics Commission, not file the record. The Ethics Commission would then appoint an attorney to go investigate it and then that attorney would come back with his finding of a dismissal or a probable cause. In that case, they call for a public hearing and that's when the document becomes public. There's a filter and here there's no filter that's imperative for this not to have a filter it is really not a well -written amendment. It puts you all at risk of scurrilous and false accusation. All of you and many of your City employees. Same thing because you know why? They're City officials, and they're subject to that in this amendment. Thank you all. I urge you to not go forward and to vote against this. Please in the near future because you have a complaint to investigate reform the Commission, let the Commission investigate that. Please. Thank you all." John Issac, 5410 Bayou Boulevard, stated, "With the Commission, there's a thing called fox in the henhouse. There's a reason you don't investigate yourself. There are separate departments to do it and you just don't want it. I mean people, we don't investigate ourselves. That's a rule. That's what you all would be doing is investigating yourselves. Now, as of holding back information it should be an open record if somebody files a complaint against somebody. I as a citizen, have a right to know. Now if it's false, it should be noted in there. This is what the findings were. We should not investigate ourselves into any forms or means. It's just wrong and it leads to a view of people, a vision of impropriety on you all's part. One of you all own the commission, put an alternate. If the person is the complainant, the alternate takes their place as a part of the board. That way you all do have some say in what goes on. You should not investigate yourself. You know, if everybody's honest, it works great, but let's face it. I don't know really any of you at all, nothing personal. I see it going on in Washington where they investigate themselves and just throw it away, not do anything. We don't need that here in Baytown. If we need to pass an ordinance like they did the smoking ordinance, where it's required to have a commission? We just need to know ahead of time if we need to go ahead and do it. Thank you, I'm sorry." Ceila Cravey, 4612 Country Club View, stated, "Pretty much everything I wanted to say has been said by Mr. Mundinger and Mr. Isaac. I want to reassure what they said. It seems that he used my own words, the current code is a case of the fox guarding the hen house and I think it's terrible that the Council would be investigating itself in a complaint violation by a Baytown resident. Like they were saying, what's to prevent a scurrilous retaliation against a Council Member by another Council Member? Resident files a complaint against a Council Member, somebody's got an issue with that Council Member, you've got maybe scurrilous retaliation going on. I don't like it. It's a really bad idea. Also, I found it really concerning that agenda item l La., identified the Council Member under the complaint. It seems that individual's identity should not be released, it's similar to what Mr. Mundinger was saying It shouldn't be released until a hearing's been held and a complaint has been validated, and maybe a decision reached on consequences. It's just inappropriate that the information is out there. I'm really asking the Council to consider all these concerns that have been addressed tonight. This is very upsetting. It's just not proper. I do want to say that Ken Griffith is a great Councilman and I think this whole complaint should be dismissed. Thank you." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 7 of 36 Byron Schirmbeck, 4727 Blackstone Stone Street, stated, "I know some of you haven't had the benefit or the experience of going through an ethics complaint. I can give you a little bit of the perspective. I was around and attended the one for a former City Manager. The idea of having an impartial ethics commission that's outside of City politics is crucial and we can argue that it wasn't a good idea to have it as pastors. We should have had more people. That's fine. The whole idea is to figure out a way to have it as an impartial body to make investigations. Imagine if there was for example, there's nothing there, but there's a complaint against Mr. Powell. Then you guys are in charge of investigating that complaint. Well, guess what? You need his vote on something in your district later on. Is he going to hold it against you? I know he's a good guy. He probably wouldn't, but I mean I can't say that for sure. Is there going to be any kind of a temptation for an improper relationship to say, hey, can you guys take care of me? I'll get your back if you get a complaint. I'm not accusing anyone of that. I'm just saying there's at least a temptation of that. The way it used to happen was that no complaint would get published unless the Ethics Committee decided to have a hearing. A complaint would be submitted, an attorney would review it, as Mr. Mudinger said. Figure out if it's frivolous or valid, and make a recommendation. Even though we're saying that, oh we're following the ethics process that's in place, we really aren't. You aren't just substituting yourself for an Ethics Commission right now, and the problem is that there's a complaint, and you don't have a well-defined process in place. There's no way to clear this man's name if you do decide that it's a frivolous complaint. That complaint is hanging out there. I don't know, maybe this was the plan. Back in February last year, the Council had a work session, and you all said very clearly that you were presented with different options. One of them was the Council serving as an Ethics Commission. Another one was forming committees, an Ethics Committee of outside folks. The one thing that everybody said they were very clear on was that there should be a well-defined process, perhaps a new form and somebody that's designated as the intake and a well-defined process. That it will be publicized for the citizens so that they know that there is a process and that's legitimate and this is what it is. That hasn't happened to my knowledge. I can tell you from my experience too, I find it interesting that just 3 weeks ago at the District 1 listening tour, we were told basically we don't need an Ethics Commission. We don't have to worry about that. Now we're starting to do it just 3 weeks later. Coincidentally, at the exact same time as the one guy that's tried to stop some of the bad things that have been happening that some of you have been very angry about. I don't think it's a coincidence that these 2 items are on the same agenda today. What you really should do is dismiss any pending complaints, and say that they're improperly filed, invalid or frivolous, whatever you want to do. Anyone that wants to file a complaint, including the one that I filed yesterday on the City Manager should be refiled if they so choose to do so at another date after you have a defined process where everyone can agree on the process. I agree that this never should have gone on to the agenda. By the way the person that filed complaints against Mr. Griffith is a City Official herself and they're subject to this same ethics complaint process, too. If we get into the dirt, the back -and -forth and the fighting you guys are never going to be getting anything done. If you want to serve as the Ethics Commission, I'm telling you it's going to be a very long summer. You won't be able to get anything done. You're going to be investigating, you're going to be hearing complaints, and it's not going to be fun. Mr. Lester, I think you're familiar with this process, too. I hope you can give your colleagues a little bit of insight on what it was like to be around at that time. I understand it wasn't very fun. Do you want to have one of these every single Council session up to a couple times a month, I don't think you do. Mainly figure out a way to get this right. We need an Ethics Commission, but have an impartial body City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 8 of 36 outside City politics that everyone can trust and believe in. Have a Charter Review Committee, maybe to review this since this is a charter change. We haven't even had a town hall or discussion, and see what people actually want in an Ethics Commission. And then let's go forward, and any complaints can be refiled at a later point. Thank you." City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "I would ask for Council to consider, but you don't have to take any action on 5.a., and 5b., you can take action after the executive session as Mr. Griffith has proposed and was passed by the City Council. I would ask the Council to maybe amend the that is have a discussion so that the citizens can hear that what is being portrayed from the citizen side is not actually the case with what 5A is. And that way you all can talk openly about what that is, but you don't have to take any action until after the executive session." City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "You can still have your discussions here at open session, since we are going to take the item out of order after executive session, you would come back and vote at that time. But it's perfectly fine to have the discussion right now. City Manager Jason Reynolds informed the board that Council Member James Franco just text me that he's on his way. What I would be afraid of is that there was so much misinformation just put out that if people leave while you wait for the end of this meeting, that they may not stay for what happens at the end of this meeting. I'm just saying so that proper feedback is given to the citizens on what this is because it is not a charter change. There are so many things that need to be addressed." City Attorney Scott Lemond advised the Council, "I'd like to remind everyone, the citizens as well as Council, that you all did discuss this in February of 2024. At that time, you voted to disband the Ethics Commission because it wasn't a workable process. Prior to that vote, we had an open session and a work session in which I gave a presentation, a little bit of the history of the charter and the ordinance. From what I been able to see and don't hold me to this, but it looks like the charter provision that provides that Council is the arbiter of proper decorum of ethical behavior of eligibility, has been in the charter since the charter was voted on originally in the 40s. This ordinance that is before you today are just a continuation of that discussion. If you recall during the work session, the number 1 thing that we discussed is that ethics is a priority in the City of Baytown. The Ethics Commission was always an advisory body. It never took any action. All it could do was make recommendations to Council because that is reserved to Council in the charter. Additionally, that responsibility is reserved to Council in the charter with respect to Council Members, City Manager, the Municipal Court Judge, and the Associate Municipal Court Judges. Then with respect to employees, the City Manager is given the authority to discipline, discharge and conduct inquiries into the conduct of those employees. Those are charter provisions. This ordinance does not change that. Additionally, if a violation of a criminal law was uncovered in the course of an ethics complaint investigation, this does not change the fact that the City Attorney, the District Attorney of Chambers County, the District Attorney of Hams County have the authority to prosecute crimes committed by members of the Council and employees of the City. Also, we discussed that the Texas Ethics Commission provides the forms that are required for ethical disclosures, which you are all and employees are also required to fill out if there are conflicts of interest that are discovered. What we are doing here today is conforming the code of ethics to the City to change the term Ethics Commission to either City City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 9 of 36 Manager or City Council, depending on the person who is being investigated. With respect to the City Council, you all would have the authority to investigate a matter yourselves if you so choose, but you would retain the authority just as it was in the ordinance previously or I should say currently to hire a lawyer or to use a lawyer in the City Attorney's office to serve as the investigating attorney, to gather the facts and to provide a recommendation. With respect to City employees we changed that a little bit in this proposed ordinance so that the City Manager has the authority to make those determinations outside of a formal hearing as you would have to do as a City Council because you have to have a public meeting. To make the provisions and the ordinance align more with the City personnel policies, and the City administrative rules. So, in effect the only thing that we are doing with this ordinance is excluding the Ethics Commission, which is what you did in ordinance number 15,709 last year." City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "On top of that, there are pieces to further talk about. That Calvin is right. This can be weaponized. To Mr. Beck's point with me, there was an ethical complaint filed about me yesterday. It goes on, the overall theme is that to be treated exactly the same so that I too have it on file just like how it's labeled today. Right. That was the point of what was going on from my point of view with that ethical complaint. Now, before that even happened, there were already discussions with the city council that, hey, we need to better this process. Okay? Because after Mr. Griffith and I talked, and there were other conversations with the rest of the council, as me preparing for this agenda item, it became evident that, hey, this could get tricky with how it is. And apologize that it will be on file, right. To Calvin's point that it will be on file. And it was, I don't think when council addressed that in February, was that a talking point or a consideration? What was a consideration from this body was that it needs to be open and transparent as possible as soon as you get something filed. Right. That was what this body recommended. And with that, and based off what the ordinance currently says, the ordinance currently says that with the consent of counsel, you can recommend to go to an outside attorney to investigate. The only way that you can get consent of counsel is to bring it to the city council meeting to get consent. That is the only way that counsel can give consent on an item. That was the attorney's reading of the law and how it got onto the agenda the way that it is. Based off those factors, from what I understand, what was briefed to me on that process up to that point." Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I appreciate you sharing all that. But we did agree as a council to wait on Mr. Franco. And I am a little worried that there has been a lot of great information shared, and I know it is important for the citizens as well to hear that, but I'm learning a lot right now as well. And I am concerned because we did agree to wait on him. Does anybody know how far away he is? Because at this point I do feel like it has become a discussion. Although we haven't said anything, there has been." City Manager Jason Reynolds clarified, "From what's been briefed to me on this process, the first that I was aware of this was last Wednesday I believe. Then as we started to work through this process we identify things that were happening with this. It was okay. Balancing being open and transparent, which was the guidelines from the Council at that time with what the code says and how it all lays out for everything to be considered. Those kinds of things need to be pushed out there so that people understand what this fully was when it started because it was supposed to be wrapped into a full board and commission review from the Ad Hoc commissions piece. That's City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 10 of 36 why it hasn't been back, because we were wrapping up all that at one time. Then this popped up and that's why Ms. Alvarado and I stated what we did at the listening session because we understood what the whole process was on how this was laying out with the code of ethics or ordinance change." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "Earlier on your statement, you said there has been misinformation out there. Can you explain for us and everybody out there concisely exactly where the inconsistencies are and the misinformation?" City Manager Jason Reynolds wanted to clarify that, "The ordinance is something that Council can do. A charter is something that the voters can do, right?" City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "Yes, and if I may, if you just look at the item itself it specifically says that it's amending Chapter 2, Article 8 of the code of ordinances. It's doing that in order to align the code of ordinances with the charter provisions that grant to Council the obligation to discipline itself. It also grants the City Manager the authority to discipline and investigate staff." Council Member Kenrick Griffith express his disagreement with Mr. Reynolds characterization of this matter and stated, "The layman is seeing this and they're making statements. I mean, it's almost like you're calling them a liar." City Manager Jason Reynolds responded by stating, "I'm not calling them a liar, I'm saying that there's misinformation being put out. It's not a charter change, it's an ordinance change. In addition to that, this is not a witch hunt. It's not coincidental that it popped up. There was a code of ethics violations filed by a citizen. From our understanding of the law or the City Attorney's understanding of the law, the consent of counsel needed to be had before you can recommend to a lawyer of what's going to happen. The other misinformation put out is that it's policing your own. That's not the case. The Council has the right to hire an attorney that's stated in here. That they can hire an attorney and investigate themselves. Those are the 3 major things, Mr. Griffith, and I'm happy to talk those ad nauseum. Those are the major things that are being alleged against this body." Council Member James Franco entered the meeting. Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "So how long since the February 8 meeting, would you say how many hours legal has spent working on the amending of this ordinance?" City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "To answer your question, legal spent dozens of hours looking at this issue last year, as well as this particular ordinance change. Now, I will say again for Mr. Franco's benefits as he wasn't here before. While you were gone, we were discussing sort of the history of the ordinance that is at issue. I reminded Council as well as the citizens that back in February of 2024, Council disbanded the Ethics Commission. That was part of our overall global look at Boards and Commissions." Mayor Charles Johnson informed the City Council that they we're open for discussion now. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 11 of 36 Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I did go back and look at the meeting. I thought it was February 8th, but it was February 4th work session. I actually have it down to the minutes. At minute 14, what's really interesting since we're sharing with citizenry is that 2 of the people that spoke were me and Ken. If you go to minute 14 on February 4th work session, I would like to know because I could not find this anywhere, is when did we make the vote to all agree on what was at the work session? Was it unanimous? At the work session, Franco and former Mayor Capetillo were not present per the video that I saw. I would like to know at the meeting, when was the vote taken? Was it unanimous and was everyone present?" City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "I can't say whether it was unanimous, I don't recall. The vote was taken during the regular meeting of Council, which I believe was held on the same day. That vote was to disband the Ethics Commission along with some other Boards and Commissions. I don't remember which ones specifically, but I did go back and check the ordinance, again 15,709. I believe that was passed also on February 8, 2024." Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "For those that are here that don't know this, myself, Laura Alvarado and former Councilwoman, Heather Bettencourt were put on an Ad Hoc Committee for Boards and Commissions by the former Mayor Capetillo. Most of the work per hour was done with myself and Ms. Alvarado as the chair. If you've attended a lot of meetings, we were given a binder. I've never seen a binder that was as large as this one. It had Commissions and Boards in it going all the way back to the beginning of our charter, such as the Finance Committee. I will tell you, just to reiterate to the public that's here. I definitely want an Ethics Commission. I like the ideas that were given today by the speakers. However, it really is and I don't know if this is the right saying, a catch 22. When we were having our discussions, what I specifically remember was thinking that we didn't want to do an Ethics Commission. Ours formally, if you didn't hear one of the speakers was 3 clergy. From my understanding, they had not met in a very long time. Ironically, one of the clergies on there, Pastor Van Buskirk, I know for a fact from the Lutheran Church, has not lived in this community for over 10 years. All of that being said, when Ms. Alvarado and myself were going over this, all the research that was given to us and legal. Yourself and one of your team members actually came in, it was really important to both of us for the transparency and there to be a way for ethics complaints to be filed. However, we were told that the State already had a system in place. At the work session, when you hear myself and Councilman Griffith talk, we're just asking specifically about is it easy to find? How is the complaint made? Does it go through one location at the City? Those were the directives given at minute 14 at the work session. Again, I didn't go back to the meeting so I apologize for that. I just remember that it seemed almost like the Ethics Commission, where I was going to go with the catch 22 thing is that it could be weaponized. I don't know if this was what Mr. Schirmbeck was talking about because I wasn't around, but in the past, I was told that the Ethics Committee and commission was used against one Council Member to a next. It seemed more appropriate if it was something criminal that it would be filed, but go through the State to a higher level where we wouldn't be policing each other. I'm needing clarification from everyone is I could not wait to talk about this because we were told by Legal that client attorney privilege. We were not to speak about any of this at all with one another and or anyone in the community until this was taking place. Which was very surprising to me because when I got on the internet, there were so many details available to everyone. I immediately was like; how do City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 12 of 36 people know that? I'm following the direction of Legal. All of that being said, I want to know what we can do to be more transparent moving forward with how this is going to work." Council Member Mike Lester stated, "We can talk about this ordinance all we want, but have to be very cautious that we don't discuss the complaints. Until they go forward as a couple of the members have spoken, those are confidential. We have to be very careful. Again, I appreciate the comments from everybody as well. Sorry to jump in, Mayor, but this is the first time, I've got to see it. Normally with an ordinance of this importance we have more than one discussion on it. At first blush, this is not a bad draft and that's the way I look at it. Can it be tweaked? Can it be a little better? As was brought out as an individual who's been through this process, it needs some tweaking, but it's not a bad first shot. We can talk about the proposed ordinance all we want. We have to be very careful to not talk about any of the potential specifics. The issue is held confidential until a hearing. The minute someone files a formal complaint with the City, it becomes public record. I don't know how we can prevent that. Mr. Schirmbeck is one that's very good about getting PIRs and public information. We have to be very careful with that. Of how we establish the process and the procedures so that we can be as respectful to the complainant and the complainee. We can talk about the ordinance all we want. We have to be very careful not to talk about either l of the 2 specific complaints that I'm aware of is out there." City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "If I may piggyback on that or maybe clarify, you all can determine what procedures you want. This is the recommendation from staff. You can take it, you can leave it or you can change it. I want to make clear that because the Ethics Commission was in fact disbanded and because the legal team had decided to wait until we had finished with all of the Boards and Commissions cleanup, which would include for the legal staff drafting proposed rules of procedures for what bodies remained. This is what was considered a housekeeping matter. It was not on the front burner until a complaint was filed. Now a complaint was filed, we need to have a process. That's what this ordinance is intended to be. That process is part of the code of ordinances. It is not a charter amendment. It has nothing to do with the charter, except as it aligns a process with what exists in the charter already." Mayor Charles Johnson stated, "So my question, from what I've known, and from what I've heard in our discussions, we would not be investigating ourselves. We would be making a decision on if we want someone for the legal department to do it, or we want to hire outside counsel to do it?" City Attorney Scott Lemond clarified, "That's true. I will say that the draft does say that the Council has the authority to conduct the investigation or it may hire a lawyer. I shouldn't say hire or it may select a lawyer to serve as the investigating attorney. City Manager Jason Reynolds clarified, "To Mr. Mundinger's point and to Mr. Schirmbeck's point. There are other considerations that this Council does need to go through if there is a desired effort to keep it more reserved until it's actually a formal investigation. From the City Attorney's side, following what the process was defined as already was how everything led to, we need to change this ordinance." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 13 of 36 Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I think one of our mess-ups was putting it on the back burner and I know you can't see into the future. To Mr. Schitmbeck's point again, I can understand how people think that it's not coincidental, because as you just said it was not put to the forefront of everything. Now there's a complaint and now we need a system. I will say that it doesn't look good at all and that I hate how it played out like this." Council Member Laura Alvarado stated, "I appreciate you giving the history. Back when we went through all of this, we were told that there already was a process. That is following the Texas State Ethics rules and our ordinance at that time. Which is why we as a group felt we can disband this, because there was a process. You went and gave a PowerPoint on what those ethics rules were. Not just for us as a body, but as a whole for other employees as well. All of that was presented to us. That's why we felt at that time and again, I'm trying to remember here because I did go back as well and review that. That is why we went in the direction that we did. It's not that I said we would never have an Ethics Commission, what I said was that there was not a need to have an outside committee because there was an internal process. I wanted to clarify that because I know there's been a lot of conversation about what was said at my district meeting. It's not that we wouldn't have one it's that we were told there was already a process. Our guidance in reviewing all of the different boards and commissions was to reduce redundancy. Which is what we felt we were doing at that time." City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "Council Members, thanks for bringing that up and let me clarify, in case there's any miscommunications or misunderstandings. There is a process and if we don't do the cleanup right now we'll still have a process because the charter says that you all must make the determinations about eligibility and conduct for your own members. When we discussed this last year, the conversation centered around the fact that as the ultimate authority, nothing is going to change. The City Clerk's office already had a form prepared that if a complaint came in, instead of going to an Ethics Commission, if it was a Public Official, City Manager, Associate Judge, Municipal Court Judge or Board Member it would go to you all. If it was an employee, it would go to the City Manager. I don't want to give the impression that there is no process. I want to give the impression that before we start investigating a complaint formally, we should make changes to the code of ordinance that will allow for a transparent process to happen. I think the first step before you begin the formal process of looking at a complaint is to determine whether this proposed ordinance satisfies your concerns and demands. If not, we'll change it however you'd like." Council Member Laura Alvarado stated, "Mayor again, to me, 1 think the clarification that it is an ordinance versus a charter, it's no different than the consent item Ta., where we're approving an ordinance to approve an amendment to the financial agreement. It's no different than that." City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "That is correct and if I can make one more comment, since this has come up a couple times. When we talked last year about the State Ethics Commission, we talked about it in terms of the body that prepares the forms that are required when conflict of interest issues, which are ethical considerations come up. It's also a body that we can ask questions about ethical conduct too. The State Ethics Commission does not investigate local government official conducts. I want to make sure that we have that proper understanding." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 14 of 36 Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell stated, "I just want to ask a couple questions from my understanding from the comments that were made. I thank all of you for coming out and sharing your comments. I got a lot of emails on this as well. If I haven't replied to you yet, give me some time. There was a lot to go through, but I will. A couple things that were said, obviously multiple people said they don't think we should investigate ourselves and I agree with that. I wanted some clarification on how this would've happened when we still had the Ethics Commission, right. My understanding is that they still would have made a recommendation to this body. Ultimately, it would have come to Council before, the same as it will in this new process. I don't see a way we don't, at some point in the process, investigate ourselves. Am I correct in that?" City Attorney Scott Lemond responded, "That is correct. Under the charter, you're the ultimate decision maker. Under the current ordinance that still contains the words about the Ethics Commission, that body was advisory only. It did not make any decisions, it made recommendations to Council and then Council would make decisions. It also had the authority with Council's approval, to ask an attorney to serve as the investigating attorney. In essence that does not change. You all can still retain an investigating attorney to investigate the facts, provide the law and provide a report to you. The only thing that changes there is the word Ethics Committee is replaced with City Council." Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell stated, "I believe it was, Mr. Mundinger that made a comment to the effect, if the commission found it to be a frivolous complaint it would kind of just go away and never made public record. Is that the case or would they still have to come recommend that this was frivolous and it would be public record at that point?" City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "The Ethics Commission would have still had to recommend that Council found the complaint to be frivolous. Council, under the ordinance, did not have to follow that recommendation." City Manager Jason Reynolds clarified, "He's asking if there was a public record because they would have to make a public recommendation." City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "It would be a public record as a matter of law. That would be under State Public Information Act Law." Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell stated, "From how I'm reading this the big change is that before a complaint would have gone to the Ethics Commission, they came to us with a recommendation and we had to act on that. Now it basically comes straight to Council and we can use City Attorney and outside legal help to do the same thing. I mean the way I see this, I agree with all the comments that it needs to be someone impartial doing that initial look at the details of the complaint and do that initial investigation. My struggle is making an impartial body because even with the citizens, if it's a group of citizens, I look around the room and I know many of you. I would think if there were a complaint filed against me that it might be difficult for you to do that in an objective fashion. I think I agree that we don't need to do the investigation ourselves. I think there needs to be some outside party that does that. I don't know that a group of citizens is the right way to do that either. I don't think it's City Staff either. Mr. City Attorney, no offense. In my mind, the best way is to get someone completely outside of the City of City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 15 of 36 Baytown. This gives us that option. Maybe an improvement would be that we just say that's the way we're going to handle it, instead of that being one of the options open to us. Is that we're just going to get an outside legal opinion, someone that has no tie to the City in any way. I think that's the main change that I would like to see in the ordinance as it's written." Mayor Charles Johnson reiterated, "That's what we're here to do. City Attorney, City Manager I thank you for taking the time to clear up the muddy water. That's how I'll put it. I think citizens have a better understanding of what we actually came here to do today, according to item 5a. Now, I know that Mr. Franco has been tapping me. Well, you didn't tap me, you've been raising your finger and I wasn't going to spill your water. He hasn't been here and I think it would benefit all of us to hear his comments." Council Member James Franco stated, "I want to apologize again for getting in a little bit late. Senior event for my daughter and I didn't get to hear the citizens comments. I did get to talk to a few people about this ordinance, kind of pull a little bit of the people that are in my District and kind of see where we're headed. I got to ask Mr. Lemond a lot of questions about that and Mr. Powell kind of was going down the same route I was going. Was where this kind of ultimately came back to Council for the final decision. I guess one of my other questions was if the former advisory committee had advised that we need to go to a third -party lawyer and the Council said, no we don't need to. We would have been what Council decided, correct?" City Attorney Scott Lemond responded, "That's correct under the current iteration of the ordinance, the Ethics Commission could only retain a lawyer to do the investigation or write the report if Council consented." Council Member James Franco stated, "So if Council didn't consent, it wouldn't have gone to a lawyer. I do think we do need an impartial, I believe what Councilman Powell said, outside of that. Also, on the other part is that our constituents voted us in here because they trusted our judgment. This is very difficult. We don't need to police ourselves like that, and I agree with that. I just wanted to kind of apologize that I did not get to hear the comments. I will go and watch them all and go through them all. Like I said, I'm going through emails and responding to those that I can respond to. I just like to say I wanted to apologize for not getting here in time. I'm going to kind of keep going and listening to everybody's comments up here and move forward with that." Council Member Kenrick Griffith requested clarification, "Mr. Lemond, on the application for the ethics complaint and the section when you fill it out, it says that the Ethics Commission has jurisdiction. It advises the applicant to fill out the application according to the code of conduct in section 2-803. If that portion is not filled out, can the Ethics Committee receive it? If it's not filled out according to that section, because they only have jurisdiction to discuss items in Section 2-803, right? Yes, sir and those code of conducts, by the way, their objective codes are not subjective, they're tied to penal codes and Vernon Texas Codes Annotated (VTCA) state regulations." City Attorney Scott Lemond responded, "Let me answer that question by saying, if that's what the form says the current ordinance does not limit the authority of the Ethics Commission in that City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 16 of 36 manner. i will also say that a form would not be able to limit the authority of this body. If that's what the form says, it's more limiting than the current ordinance, and it's also more limiting than the changes that we presented to you today." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "Scott Lemond, thank you, but I don't think you quite answered my question. I'm going to read what's on the application here for the Ethics Committee. It says, include specific law X Rule alleged to have been violated, if possible. The Ethics Commission of the city of Baytown has jurisdiction pertaining only to the standards of code of conduct, listening section 2-803, of the code of ordinance of Baytown, Texas. So, my question is, if this is not filled out properly according to this code, can the Ethics Commission file it and proceed with investigation without this filled out correctly?" City Attorney Scott Lemond stated, "Yes, and I believe I just heard what you said, Councilman Griffith." Council Member Kenrick Griffith reiterates that they don't have jurisdiction to have an investigation. City Attorney Scott Lemond clarified that the statement is not an accurate statement of the law. Council Member Kenrick Griffith request an answer to why it's on the application. City Manager Jason Reynolds informed the City Council the form needs to be updated due to there no longer being an Ethics Committee. Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "I understand that, but according to the form Mr. Powell asked earlier, if we had an Ethics Commission, with others complaint have moved forward. What I'm trying to demonstrate is, according to this form, if there was an Ethics Committee they would have in my case seen this and instructed the complainant to refile under Section 2-803 because they only have jurisdiction according to what this writing is on the form, section 2-803." City Manager Jason Reynolds responded, "Right, but now that the Ethics Commission was disbanded. The form goes to the City Council, and the consent of City Council then makes a decision on what happens with that." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "As it stands right now, what code in Article 8 gives City Council that authority right now?" City Manager Jason Reynolds responded, "I think Mr. Lemond outlined that at the beginning, the charter says that the City Council overlooks the Ethics on top of that, with the current code. I don't actually have the current code up here in front of me right now, but the current code does say with the consent of Council in the first paragraph. What we're trying to convey is the Ethics Commission is not present. The Ethics Commission is no more and the City Council is still part of the ordinance." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 17 of 36 Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "So again, as this commission can't even file this, they can't even do it. The process, there's no mechanism for that, according to the article." City Manager Jason Reynolds clarified that the City Council is still part of the ordinance. Mayor Charles Johnson stated, "It sounds like we're actually getting off topic, and we're actually discussing the complaint and how it was filed." City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "He's giving a hypothetical as if to define the process. It can be construed from both sides for this body right now that it's defending a complaint that's in process. It's hypothetical over the same term. Depending on what this body says out loud, may determine how to answer the other side. That's the dilemma that both of you all are talking about right now. From Mr. Griffith's point of view, it actually is hypothetical to what happens with the process. I think Mr. Lemond and I are trying to answer that. It may say that on the form, but the City Council still has the authority to receive and process any ethics complaint, just as they will do with mine that was filed against me at the next meeting." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "I will say this, thank you for that. I will say that I like the wording on the application. I think it's important that it be in the article in the ordinance. That will eliminate a lot of frivolous complaints showing up on our doorstep. You see what I'm saying? I don't think we should get rid of the wording on the application. I think the wording on the applications should reflect what's in the article. If we're going to make any amendment to the ordinance, we need to start there." City Attorney Scott Lemond clarified, "If I may I don't want to get into a deep discussion of this or a disagreement. I will say again that the language on the form is not consistent with Article 8. If you were to want that language in there, you would have to make the changes to Article 8 more limiting." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "I think we should make that amendment. It will clean up a lot. It'll ease a lot of issue however direction we go. It will ease a lot of time and effort on City Council or whoever committee we do that with, the article needs to reflect the application." Council Member Laura Alvarado stated, "I believe that's an amendment that we can do along with what's in here. I did get an opportunity on the request of my Committee Member here, to look at what another City does. And they were very specific that if a complaint came in was tied specifically to the code, then it would warrant continuing the process. I think that would be a valid point to include." Mayor Charles Johnson needed to clarify, "So going forward, do we need to amend this to add that into it?" City Attorney Lemond stated, "That is completely up to you. However, you have already decided to take this out of order. There are some discussions that we do need to have in executive session if that's the direction you'd like to go." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 18 of 36 b. Consider an ordinance authorizing an Architectural Services Contract to M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, Inc. "Gensler" for Master Planning Services for a multiuse facility and surrounding district. Mayor Charles Johnson announced Item b., regarding M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, Inc. will be pulled from this meeting. C. Consider an ordinance authorizing a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) Agreement among the City of Baytown, Azure Houston Investment Partners, LP, and 8121 Parkside, LP. concerning property located within Chambers County Improvement District No. 3. Economic Development Manager Brian Moran provided a detailed summary regarding Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) Agreement for 8121 Parkside, LP A motion was made by Council Member Sarah Graham and second by Council Member Laura Alvarado to approve Ordinance No. 16,101 as submitted. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith, Council Member James Franco and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None Approved ORDINANCE NO. 16,101 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO A PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES AGREEMENT AMONG THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, AZURE HOUSTON INVESTMENT PARTNERS, LP, AND 8121 PARKSIDE, LP; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. d. Consider an ordinance authorizing a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) Agreement among the City of Baytown, Azure Houston Investment Partners, LP, and 8223 Parkside, LP, concerning property located within Chambers County Improvement District No. 3 Economic Development Manager Brian Moran provided a detailed summary regarding Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) Agreement for 8223 Parkside, LP A motion was made by Council Member Laura Alvarado and second by Council Member Kenrick Griffith to approve Ordinance No. 16,102, as submitted. The vote was as follows: City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 19 of 36 Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith, Council Member James Franco and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None Approved ORDINANCE NO. 16,102 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO A PAYMENT IN LIEU OF TAXES AGREEMENT AMONG THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, AZURE HOUSTON INVESTMENT PARTNERS, LP, AND 8223 PARKSIDE, LP; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. e. Consider an ordinance amending or authorizing the termination of the golf facility management agreement with Troon Golf, LLC and possibly authorizing funding from sources not impacting general fund operations. Assistant City Manager Brant Gary provided an overview regarding amending or authorizing the termination of the golf facility management agreement with Troon Golf, LLC. Byron Schirmbeck, 4727 Blackstone Street, stated, "Mr. Mayor, Council Members, who's ready to stop talking about golf courses? If you notice, I retired my T36 hat, so I'm hoping today's a good move forward. My concern, we don't want to dwell on this. Nobody's happy about this. We're essentially back to where we started with this property. One of the options I didn't see on here, Council Member Alvarado, you'd mentioned this before, that there was the possibility of selling this. We'd have to put it out for a vote. I don't know why that wasn't one of the options presented. Maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe that could be brought up again. That's a possibility, I guess or maybe not. I appreciate Councilman Franco, Powell, and Griffith, you voted against this consistently from the start. I find it interesting that there was one man that tried to stop the final meeting where this decision was made and he was overruled and that was Mr. Griffith. Thank you, sir. You're my Councilman. You have my support. You were right all along on everything, on every vote and I thank you. Tonight, it's kind of funny because you guys drove the ship into the rocks and now you're tearing down the lighthouse that tried to warn you. I find that problematic. When we get to the issues of the golf course and Council Member Graham, I appreciate your statements online explaining what happened. I really appreciate your comments tonight. I think your eyes have been open to what some of us have seen and been talking about for a while. One of the things that you said was that you didn't get complete information. A lot of you folks are pretty upset about what happened and I understand that. I feel your pain too. The fact is, that there were misrepresentations to Council that led to this vote by your own admissions and we're here because of that. So just to clear up one comment, there wasn't anything retaliatory about my complaint. It's actually related to what you're upset about, which is misrepresenting City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 20 of 36 facts before Council. it is a legitimate complaint, far more legitimate than the one you're considering tonight. Anyway, going forward on the golf course. I do hope that we all understand that it's going to cost some money to do something with this. I think you all can come to a good decision, maybe a full-blown disc golf course like it was before. With the kitchen that you can rent out. I understand that you can't return that equipment. It's custom, so you got to do something with it. We understand you're going to have to spend some money on this. Don't worry. Council Member Laura Alvarado stated, "Mr. Schirmbeck. I know that you always have recollections of different meetings, so I'm trying to remember what I said at the time about a vote. I think what we may have been talking about is that it was considered parkland and that's why it would go out for a vote, not just simply because we would be selling it." Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell stated, "I know we were given a couple options in the work session. I mean, I've been consistent and thinking that we should stop with the golf course when we've had the opportunity. I'm going to remain consistent in that tonight. I want us to end this contract and then we can talk about what we want to do with the property. I've had the same idea of it as an option to sell? I think we'll hear if that's is a possibility and we can have that discussion later as well. My opinion is we stop where we are and even with the kitchen, that was why I asked the question earlier. I mean, even if it's three doors missing, I don't see why we buy the three doors. I mean, I think until we have a tenant or someone to use it, I don't see why we should spend another dollar on the kitchen. That's my opinion." Mayor Charles Johnson stated, "I like the idea of it being something else. That being said, from my experience, if we want to sell it and that's an if. It'd be more marketable if the kitchen was complete. Whatever needs to happen for it to be complete. Everything's already there, you don't want it just sitting on the grounds collecting dust. Bad things happen when things are not used that were made to be used. Complete the kitchen, see what else we want to do moving forward, but go ahead and end it. Complete the building. If we decide we want to sell it, go ahead and do it. If not, guess what we're going to end up having to do if we do decide to we want to sell it? We're going to have to complete it anyway because I believe no one is going to want to come in and buy something that's not complete. That's like you wanting to buy a house, you saying it's a new home, but the stove is missing and 3 doors are missing. Those are my comments on it. As far as ending it, I think we should go ahead. You said if we do it, it would stop on April the 4th?" City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "I was going to mention that there was a tournament hosted by a local nonprofit organization that has requested April 8. Everything we went through in the work session. I was going to recommend if we move forward with stopping it, maybe it be April 9, so they can finish their tournament and they're not in a rock and a hard place." Mayor Johnson stated, "So we actually have someone wanting to use it? Well, hold on have they used it before? Regardless of that, they want to go ahead and hold their tournament there? City Manager Jason Reynolds responds, "As far as I know. There's a question asked of me to see if it can be continued until April 8, when the tournament is." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 21 of 36 Council Member James Franco stated, "Again, I apologize for missing the work session. I did get to go over there with Brant this morning before we kind of went over everything that's on there. I get your point of view, Mayor. We also see what's happening when people buy new restaurants or buy an existing restaurant. They go and kind of renovate what they want and customize it to what they kind of do in the kitchen. We got to stop that. The other issue is, what if we decided we don't need the kitchen because it's not marketable, or it's not rentable? We've been taking everything out that we just finished. Let them do the golf tournament because we made that commitment to those people, which I've already spoke to them. The gentleman I did speak to that was asking me about that is also not in favor of the golf course. He wants an 18 hole golf course. They weren't going to use it again after this. They've not used it before, but they do now because they wanted to do something in the City of Baytown. They were not fans of how the course is. Allow them to do that because I'd hate to do that to them, especially a local organization that does a lot of work for the City and does a lot of nonprofit workforce. Anybody who comes in to buy it, or if we decide to keep it and try to make it an amenity to rent out, you're going to have to take that kitchen out most likely. If someone buys it, they're going to want to do it their way. We don't know what they're going to ask for. If they're going to buy it at that moment, we could say, we'll finish the kitchen. Then we can put that as part of that value. But right now, let's just stop the hemorrhaging and move forward." Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I know you're in the audience for this, but I feel like we all need a shirt that says, complete the kitchen. That's what's been being said for a long time. I don't want to go into all the what ifs because I feel like it's been what ifs for a long time now. I just wanted to comment on the possibilities and I know you're about to say as far as selling it. What's going to drive my decisions on all that is going to be Councilman Lester's leadership for his constituents that elected him. I know too many people that live in Evergreen personally. I've said this before, I have friends who back up to that property. That's just something that we're going to have to keep on the forefront of any decision we make. Of course, we're making fiscally responsible decisions as a whole, but we've got people who bought their home on an Evergreen Golf Course and we just need to be conscientious of that no matter what we decide. I could tie this to, we have citizens that come all the time that are upset about certain things that have been changed due to Cities' choices on their property. Whether it's annexing and things like that. While I am privileged to sit up here, I want to just be really conscious of the owners and your constituents that voted you in moving forward. Continue fiscal responsibility. As far as the kitchen, I just wanted to comment on that. The former Mayor used to say he was tired of hearing about the mall. I don't want to hear another thing about the kitchen. That's really how I feel. I would've loved for it to have been complete, loved it. I don't know, as far as people buying. I don't know about any of that. It is more marketable when it's finished, but I'm done with it. I voted last May to finish the kitchen." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "1 guess I was done talking about the golf course back in May, but here we are. We can't fix the past, but we could correct things. Hopefully we correct things moving forward. I didn't want the golf course to fail. I don't want anything, just because I voted against it. I don't want it to fail for the sake of the citizens of this town. I don't want to point blame. I like Council Member Powell's suggestion of selling it. I'm over it. If we could just walk away with the least amount of money spent from here on now, I'm all for that option. My heart goes out to Lester in his district. I know his heart wanting to provide an amenity over there City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 22 of 35 that those people in the area could be proud of My heart goes out to him. I know his heart was in the right place. While I appreciate Mr. Schirmbeck's comments, I want to say that the past is the past. I wanted this to be successful just like all you guys did. Here on out we need to deal with the most cost-effective solution and pull the shoot to move forward. That's all I got to say about that in the words of Forest Gump." City Manager Jason Reynolds clarified, "Mayor and Council, thank you. As i said in the work session, I feel your anger and I feel your pain. I'm sorry to you all. I'm sorry to the citizens of Baytown. This did not go as anyone planned it to go. The accusation that was just laid of misrepresenting data to you all. I believe you all know the truth, and that it wasn't. That there were many factors talked about where rounds were at and rounds based on current play without a restaurant. What rounds would be like with a restaurant as we discussed earlier in the work session. There were so many factors that we discussed ad nauseum, whether it be a bankruptcy piece, a legal piece, or whatever. Here we are today. It doesn't change the fact that we spent $1.68 million, right? It doesn't change the fact that the restaurant isn't complete. What's in front of you today is not to determine what's next with the Evergreen area, right? What's in front of you today is just to pay the remaining invoices and then start planning on what's next. Not going through all the other pieces because what we still have in front of us is not a discussion about a kitchen. It is months of work through the budget process on what we want to do with Evergreen and how we want to handle some of that. There are going to be numerous things that Mr. Lester needs to talk to Staff and Parks about the Evergreen. If they want to keep that area as a green space in front of their homes, which I'm sure they do. What they want behind them, what they don't want behind them. Have a productive conversation that we can bring back to this body and then make a recommendation on what happens with the rest of that. One of those is selling it, right? If you sell all of it at what it is today, it roughly equals $6.5 million at $1 a foot. If you drop that down to 50¢ a foot, which it may be plausible at such a large acreage buy, it's $3.25 million. There are options to start recouping some of the pieces of the pie that are there, but that's a discussion in the coming meetings. What's in front of us today is there is a $495,000 bill left to pay, along with the understanding that there's $30,000 in closing out the course fees that are there. Now, a question that I cannot answer right now that was posed to me was what happens if we don't pay? The conundrum that's in front of me right now is when this continuation was approved back in May of '24, was that I could spend no more than $1.9 million and that $1.9 million had to be allocated from the previous general fund. We are at $1.68 million, I can pay the rest of the bill up to $1.9 million, but I'm not authorized to pay anything above $1.9 million. If you choose not to give me the authorization to pay above the $1.9 million, I don't know what that means, except those bills are not paid. I don't know what the ramifications of that are. That is something that the attorney's going to have to say. I'm pretty sure we will have a suit against us to finish the rest of the judgment. There may be a lien placed on the property from what is it called a mechanicals lien for contractor's work done. That could be put there. There are situations that have to be considered. We can discuss all of that tonight. I was not fully prepared for that because that was not a question I was thinking I was going to be asked. It is a valid question and I will tell you that I can't answer that right now, but what I can do is pay up to the $1.9 million and if you're okay with the rest of the payments being late we can talk about that for the next 30 days or so. Then we can bring this back and have another discussion about the golf course. Paying the rest of the bill or what happens with the rest of the bill. That is what's in front of you today, along with discontinuing the service and amending the contract with Troon." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 23 of 36 Mayor Charles Johnson stated, "I would hope that we would not seriously consider not paying our bills. That's what the previous owner did and we had to step in. You all stepped up to the plate and made sure the businesses were made whole right here in Baytown. I'm going to leave it at that." Council Member Laura Alvarado stated, "I don't know if we have to wait 30 days because we have the next Council meeting in April the 10`h I believe? So, we could authorize up to the $1.9 million, which we've already done. Then work to see, because there has been delay after delay. I think I'd like to know exactly why those delays have happened. A comment was made about installing doors and windows. How hard is that to install, a door and a window? 2 weeks to me, I don't think it's that much to wait the process to authorize, if we choose to. The remaining funds have already been billed, then that's a different thing. I don't think that I'm prepared to authorize anything additional right now other than what we had already approved at the $1.9 million. That's all that was on my mind today, is just terminate and only spend up to the $1.9 million. I did not look at anything else, because in my mind I was done with it as well. I'd really have to go through and look at those remaining bills and where we are with them in terms of timeline of paying them, but if we can fend them off for at least another 2 weeks for us to really dive into those remaining bills, that's what I would like to do, Mayor." City Manager Jason Reynolds informed the City Council, "I'm just trying to think, I believe the invoice is already out." Council Member Laura Alvarado stated, "Those are usually what, 30 days? Unless it's paid upon delivery. I don't know. I don't know how those invoices work." City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "It's part of it, if we want to have a different conversation on paying the rest of the invoices, we can have a different conversation. Part of this is giving direction to amend the contract to stop it as well on the 8th or 91h, so that the negotiation can start too." Mr. Franco stated, "On the bills, I know normally in contracts it's a paid when paid. If it's Troon, they're going to have it paid when paid. Sometimes that takes 60 to 90 days. It's the normal in construction. Sometimes 120. Usually, if you get an invoice and you pay it within 15 to 30 days, you are probably the 10% minority." Council Member Mike Lester stated, "A comment. I don't think anyone at this diocese is going to advocate not paying our bills. I think the point that was made by my colleague is don't spend any more than we have to. So again, part of that 465 or 469, whatever it was. If that's why we're going to finish this out, no. If we haven't already spent it, don't spend it. And go from there. But I don't think anybody's going to advocate we're not going to pay our bills. No, we're going to pay our bills. I also advocate that we at least keep it open for the group that's going to hold it on the 8th. They've committed to that. They're prepped for that. They've got all their activities going to that, so we need to cover the cost. But if we haven't already spent the money, then don't spend any more than absolutely necessary. Bring us that total final bill at the next session, and we'll go from there. But this is just one of those that we should not be having this conversation. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 24 of 36 Absolutely not. Now, should we be having a conversation that the facility was lower performing than estimated? That's a completely different discussion and conversation, but we should not be having this conversation at all. As we move forward, there'll be a lot more detailed discussions on a lot of issues. Because were not going here again on any other projects. So, I think that was the point that my colleague made is, if we've already spent it, pay it. If we haven't spent it, don't spend it. And let's move forward. And I appreciate the continents from my colleagues about my constituents. Again, I have on both sides of this issue, on a regular basis. So, half of them are going to be happy again and the other half are going to be unhappy. That happens." Mayor Charles Johnson stated, "It sounds like we may need to amend this so that we are only authorizing to end it on the 91h and only spend up to the amount that was previously approved. Then we could discuss doing anything further at a later date. No, we can leave it open so they can have time to get their information. Yes, that sounds good? Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell stated, "I want to ask a question though. Is that extra? I don't have the number in front of me, but whatever we have to get us to 1.9. In your opinion, is that enough to get us to April 9 or April 10 when we're going to meet again and have this discussion?" City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "No, we've already been billed for the 495. Based on previous direction, this is what we've been working towards. This is part of the negotiation to close out, right? This was where we landed and so my face of concern is, where we are now is based on previous direction to get to this point of negotiations to get to where we are. The 495, I don't know how much it's going to change, if at all. Now, what the City Attorney was asking about are to terminate a contract without cause is challenging? There come legal ramifications that you have to be prepared for. Part of the negotiation was that we could stop April 9TH to get to this point, and this is where we're out of here. That was based off previous direction, and so that's where we built this." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "So, we could end up paying the whole bill anyway?" Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I know that you all have told Council that you went and talked to Troon and all of that. I'm going to assume you advocated for the City's ad asset." City Manager Jason Reynolds confirmed the City ad asset was advocated for. Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I'm hearing a lot of, we owe them, we owe them, but I'm feeling like I'm owed. We're owed a kitchen under the $1.9 million. I know that we went over the rounds estimate and all of that. I completely understand that, but there's nothing that says anywhere in our contract or that protects us, that those items that we voted on the kitchens and I understand all the things that happened. That everything had to be redone and they didn't know they had a pantry and I get all that. but why aren't we protected under the $1.9 million?" City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "We gave the authorization to order all the kitchen equipment for $362,000 dollars back in October, August or September I believe. The invoice was October 1 when the kitchen was ordered. Just to give the citizens an insight, it was ordered October 1. It's still not in, and then when it came in is when there were discrepancies that we had City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 25 of 36 to look at that we had to say, hey, stop everything right now. It didn't change the fact that we already ordered all the kitchen equipment, and all the kitchen equipment is custom. The questions that we went through were, what's the stocking fee to return it? There's no returning it because it's custom. The losses from operations were higher than budgeted. I may have to go into an executive session to talk about this stuff." Mayor Charles Johnson stated, "Going back to this, we're going to amend it so that you all can spend what it would take to operate it up until April 9`h, and then we will come back and discuss things going forward such as the $1.9 million." City Attorney Scott Lemond clarified to the City Council, "I would advise that because you do have the right to go into executive session before you make a vote on anything related to this item. There are some things that we should probably discuss that I think I could help you with and certainly that the City Manager and Assistant City Manager could explain." Mayor Charles Johnson informed Council Members, "What we're going to do, we're going to move executive session up because there are some residents who want to speak on executive session. We can recess it to executive session, discuss all of this, come back out, finish the vote here, and finish the rest of the agenda. It's going to be one executive session where we discuss all of this." City Manager Jason Reynolds asked Council if Item 8.a., and 8.b., could be taken before executive session. Mayor Johnson stated, "We can do that. Let's go ahead and do consent, and then we'll do appointments." 6. DISCUSSIONS a. Receive and discuss a presentation from the Baytown/West Chambers Economic Development Foundation. This item was not discussed. 7. CONSENT A motion was made by Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell and seconded by Council Member Laura Alvarado to approve Consent Agenda Items Ta., through 7.g, with the exception of Items Te., that were pulled from the agenda to discuss further. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith, Council Member James Franco and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 26 of 36 Approved a. Consider an ordinance to approve an amendment to the Financial Services Agreement with Weaver & Tidwell, LLP. ORDINANCE NO. 16,104 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO AN AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT FOR AUDITING SERVICES WITH WEAVER & TIDWELL LLP; AUTHORIZING AN ADDITIONAL PAYMENT IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND AND NO1100 ($55,000.00); MAKING OTHER PROVISIONS RELATED THERETO; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. b. Consider an ordinance authorizing a professional services contract with Perdue, Brandon, Fielder, Collins & Mott, LLP for delinquent fees and fine collections at municipal court. ORDINANCE NO. 16,105 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS AUTHORIZING A PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH PERDUE, BRANDON, FIELDER, COLLINS & MOTT, LLP FOR THE COLLECTION OF DELINQUENT FINES, FEES, COURT COSTS, AND OTHER DEBTS PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 103.0031 OF THE TEXAS CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND SECTION 1-16 OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN CODE OF ORDINANCES; AUTHORIZING PAYMENT TO PERDUE, BRANDON, FIELDER, COLLINS & MOTT, LLP IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT; MAKING OTHER PROVISIONS RELATED THERETO; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE THEREFORE. C. Consider an ordinance amending the Baytown Fire Control, Prevention, and Emergency Medical Services District's Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget to transfer funds from Fund Balance to Motor Vehicles (32007020-56800) for the purchase of a Haz-Mat tractor, trailer, and related equipment. ORDINANCE NO. 16,106 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, APPROVING A CHANGE IN THE BAYTOWN FIRE CONTROL, PREVENTION, AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 27 of 36 SERVICES DISTRICT'S FISCAL YEAR 2024-2025 BUDGET FOR MUNICIPAL PURPOSES TO REPROGRAM FUNDS FROM FUND BALANCE TO MOTOR VEHICLES (32007020-56800) IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND AND NOI100 DOLLARS ($200,000.00) FOR THE PURCHASE OF A HAZ- MAT TRACTOR, TRAILER, AND RELATED EQUIPMENT; MAKING OTHER REPRESENTATIONS RELATED THERETO; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. d. Consider an ordinance authorizing an interlocal agreement with the Baytown Fire Control, Prevention, and Emergency Medical Services District to use the purchasing agent of the City of Baytown for compliance with Chapter 252 of the Texas Local Government Code for purchases over $15,000.00. ORDINANCE NO. 16,107 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO AN INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT WITH THE BAYTOWN FIRE CONTROL, PREVENTION, AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DISTRICT TO UTILIZE THE CITY OF BAYTOWN'S PURCHASING AGENT FOR PURCHASES IN EXCESS OF $15,000.00 BY THE BAYTOWN FIRE CONTROL, PREVENTION, AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES DISTRICT; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. e. Consider an ordinance authorizing a professional services agreement for land surveying services with S&V Surveying, Inc. Economic Development Manager Brian Moran, provided an overview of Item Te., regarding an ordinance authorizing a professional services agreement with S& V Surveying, Inc. Council Member Laura Alvarado inquired, "If this included in the cost that was given to us, that $75 million dollars? It's all inclusive of that amount?" Economic Development Manager Brian Moran clarified the surveying is included within the $75 million dollars. John Issacs, 5410 Bayou Boulevard, stated, "We've got two buildings, we've got the golf course, we've got the hotel. Both have been just really mishandled. We're going in to spend $50,000 dollars, another $52,500 dollars just to survey this land. There was also another $315,000 dollars that was mentioned. I know that's not part of this, but before Baytown spends any money there should be a vote by the people to proceed with spending any more money on any major projects. Because truthfully, nothing against you all, City of Baytown has not handled projects properly. If we can't handle a golf course, we can't even get the insurance correct on a building on the water. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 28 of 36 How are we going to know that we're spending money properly? You all should stop spending money until it's voted on by the people. I'm not saying the project needs to be approved by the voters. You all got with Exxon and they donated money, but from what I understand, that is in lieu of taxes. It is a tax deal. I'm assuming I'm reading that correct. That's where I have a problem. We get paid with taxes, but they get to negotiate what they pay. Then, all of a sudden, it's in a project. That's something that we need to look at. Is that the correct thing to do without voter approval? Thank you." Council Member Kenrick Griffith inquired, "I have a question. I just want to state for the record. This is for the surveying for Vector. What is the surveying for?" City Manager Jason Reynolds confirmed it is surveying for Vector. Council Member Kenrick Griffith reiterated, "I just want on record, there's again some misinformation. The $75 million dollars from Exxon is not a gift, correct?" City Manager Jason Reynolds responded, "It is part of a 212 agreement that they give $18.75 million dollars over 4 years, and in conjunction with a. 35-year contract. As part of that contract, you pay that $75 million dollars back through abatements. What it does guarantee, there is that they put an additional 3 to 5 billion on the ground to the City. If they don't put the 3 to 5 billion dollars, the $75 million dollars is basically not for Exxon is how the agreement wrote. The risk is on them. It forces them to put the money on the ground. If they don't put the money on the ground, they're paying $75 million dollars that they didn't need to pay." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "Again, just to clarify, is it a gift or not?" City Manager Jason Reynolds confirmed it is a 212 Agreement and not a gift. Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "I just wanted to clarify. Thank you, Mr. Isaac for your statement. I happen to agree with him on this one. In lieu, especially on these past projects. I think we need to take a step back before we start throwing money at this and really look at this and really start digging into it. A point well received for me, Mr. Isaac. I'll just leave it at that." Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I'm not aware of the City telling me that the 212 agreement was ever a gift. I don't know. I have heard citizens say that, but I'm not aware of it. I was clear that it was part of the 212 agreement, and it was tied to tax abatement. Thank you for stating that again. We don't have enough time to go into an economics class, but I do not disagree, Mr. Isaacs. I don't disagree that there have been some projects that have not been fruitful. I don't disagree with that at all. I don't disagree with the fact that we need to be more careful when we move forward in this community with anything when it comes to economic development. We've got a lot of newer faces on this Council and a different dynamic, a different staffing team, different legal team than was here for those others. Right now, we're talking about the survey. I am going to tie it back to that. I'm not going to get off the topic. To say that Exxon is somehow getting something that a citizen doesn't get. I'm not ever going to go down that road because Humble Oil, which essentially started this entire area and created our economics, became Exxon through lots of things and you all know the history. But it would take an City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 29 of 36 economics class to explain how that works. Economic development is something that every community and every City has to get into. I spend some of my time getting online because we have Baytown Engage, we have all these online communities. I go to Anahuac and Moms of Mont Belvieu. What's very interesting, when you look at all communities, they're all talking about the same talking points about wanting economic development. Some of them that are closer to us compare us and they go back and forth. We need to do the survey on the land as long as it fits within the $75 million 212 agreement. That's all that I'm voting or discussing today. I do appreciate all the comments that people are making, but I do think that we're going to handle any economic development moving forward completely differently than the past based off of conversations that have taken place. I'll be there and keep my eye on it and so will these other Council Members. There's almost this new vibe in the air that we're just stopping economic development. I promise you, Baytown does not want that. You do not want that." Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell stated, "I just want to say I appreciate your comments. I agree that we do need to take our time with this process. In saying that, I think this is an important step in that. I think what would be terrible is if we had this grand plan and then we find out that on these 37 acres we can build on 3 of them. I think doing a survey like this on the very front end is doing our due diligence and making sure we don't rush into something. I'm in favor of doing this at this point before we get farther down the road." Council Member James Franco stated, "This is kind of the beginning parts of looking at the land, looking at construction of this park. This has to be done to start the process, like my colleague said, so we can know what we have there. That's the topographic part, right? What's going to be in the floodplain, what's not going to be in the floodplain, what we have to move forward with. This project is not going to start in 2025, it's not going to start in 2026. This project is going to have a lot of community involvement. We are just at probably the first 1 % of this project. That's it. The big things that are coming have a lot and are going to be a lot. Cliffs going to be very much involved in it. There's going to be a lot of community involvement, there's going to be a lot of community input. Trust us. This is not going to be a, let's get it done. You're going to be hearing the Exxon Mobil Baytown Event Center for a long time. It's going to be discussed, it's going to move at the pace the citizens are requesting. We know that, we've heard those voices. Trust me, that's why we're here. This is the beginning part to get to that. To get to where you can say, we can show you this is what can be built on here. This is what you all think. That input has to be there. Without this, we're just sitting on the $75 million dollars going, what do we do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? You have to start somewhere. This has to be done to move forward with that part of it. That other one got pulled, that's why you didn't hear it. That's what we're talking about being responsible. Not overspending on something that doesn't need to be spent yet. This little bit does have to be done for this construction. We just bought this property. We need to see what we have. If you bought a new piece of property, anybody bought a new piece of property, you would want to see what you have on your survey if you bought a piece of multiple acres like this. You want to see what you can build and what you can do. This is the beginning stages. That's why I think it's irresponsible to not do it. It would be irresponsible to the taxpayers and it would be irresponsible to the community to not do that. To not let you know what we could do and could not do with this property would be very irresponsible." City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 30 of 36 A motion was made by Council Member Sarah Graham and second by Council Member Laura Alvarado to approve Ordinance No. 16,109, as submitted. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith, Council Member James Franco and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None Approved ORDINANCE NO. 16,109 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING AN AGREEMENT FOR LAND SURVEYING SERVICES WITH S&V SURVEYING, INC.; AUTHORIZING PAYMENT BY THE CITY OF BAYTOWN IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED FIFTY-TWO, THOUSAND, FIVE - HUNDRED DOLLARS ($52,500.00); MAKING OTHER PROVISIONS RELATED THERETO; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. E Consider a resolution authorizing the City Manager to submit an application to the General Land Office (GLO), in response to the Texas Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Relocation Program (CDBG-DRRP) solicitation on behalf of Public Works and Engineering for two projects, RESOLUTION NO.2989 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT A GRANT APPLICATION TO THE TEXAS GENERAL LAND OFFICE (GLO) FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT DISASTER RECOVERY REALLOCATION PROGRAM (DRRP) ON BEHALF OF THE PUBLIC WORKS AND ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT; DESIGNATING AN AUTHORIZING REPRESENTATIVE; AUTHORIZING THE REPRESENTATIVE TO ACCEPT OR AFFIRM ANY GRANT AWARD THAT MAY RESULT THEREFROM; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. g. Consider an ordinance authorizing a Standard Utility Agreement for the Garth Road Widening Project — Phases A & B with PS Lightwave, LLC. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 31 of 36 ORDINANCE NO. 16,108 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A STANDARD UTILITY AGREEMENT ACTUAL COST - CITY WITH PS LIGHTWAVE, LLC FOR THE GARTH ROAD WIDENING PROJECT PHASES A AND B; AUTHORIZING PAYMENT IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-THREE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED SEVENTY-NINE AND 54/100 DOLLARS ($173,379.54); AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. 8. APPOINTMENTS a. Consider the confirmation of the City Manager's appointment of the City Librarian. City Manager Jason Reynolds nominated Lesley Kohles as the new City Librarian and recognized the previous City Librarian Jamie Eustace for her current work with internal audits and efficiency items. Mayor Charles Johnson and Council Members expressed their appreciation to past and present Library staff for their ongoing dedication to the City Library. A motion was made by Council Member Laura Alvarado and seconded by Council Member Kenrick Griffith to approve Lesley Kohles as the appointment to the City Librarian. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith, Council Member James Franco and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None Approved RESOLUTION NO.2990 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, CONFIRMING THE CITY MANAGER'S APPOINTMENT OF LESLEY KOHLES AS THE DIRECTOR OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN STERLING MUNICIPAL LIBRARY; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 32 of 36 b. Consider a resolution authorizing two (2) appointments to the Baytown Housing Authority. Mayor Charles Johnson informed the City Council Item 8.b., regarding 2 appointments to the Baytown Housing Authority will be taken at a later meeting. Mayor Charles Johnson announced the City Council will take citizen comments for Item l La., regarding an ethics complaint against Council Member District 3." Patricia Smith, 4710 Woodford Street, stated, "I would like to say a little something about Ken Griffith. I met Ken a couple of years ago. I was working the elections at J.D. Walker, and had the pleasure of meeting him. Not only is he our Councilman, but he is a friend. He is just a gentleman and a scholar. I just have nothing but good things to say about him. He's a very great person and just very considerate, loves his City, loves the people in our City. I just can't say enough good things about him. He is just a wonderful person and very caring. I just think the world of him as a friend and a Councilman. Thank you very much." Susan Cummings, 2102 Sheridan Drive, stated, "Good evening, Mayor, Council and Staff. I appreciate all hanging on to the bitter end like this. It's really hard. I'm a lifetime resident of Baytown and I like to say that I live in a little pink brick house, just like John Cougar Mellencamp sang about. That little pink house is for me on Sheridan. I do love it. I am appealing to Council on an issue that has just strung throughout the meeting. It has to do with transparency and accountability. I've heard some things that kind of were troubling with there being an incredible sense of a need to protect City Council and the folks who run the City from scurrilous remarks. My comment to that is you shouldn't run for office if you didn't want people to talk trash about you. They're going to be those things. I'm also here to appeal to you to include a Citizens' Ethics Advisory Board as you are redoing this ordinance. I believe that we can have citizens be objective. That's what we ask jurors to do. When we ask them to try a case, we say, do you believe the death penalty? Can you really come to a decision on this case with a death penalty as it states? We believe them when they tell us what they can or cannot do. If we had a Citizens' Ethics Advisory Council that we could have citizens plead their case to, they could be the ones who shepherded over to the City Manager to see if it needs to go to Council. Do I have 3 minutes or no? I only have 1 minute, okay. I think that the Citizens' Advisory Board is really important. The second thing is, I think that you need to be aware of what you say about your constituents. I was so drastically unhappy when I heard Mr. Griffith talk about a citizen who applied to a board. She was finally appointed to the board, but in an open meeting to the public, he said she was un-American and anti -Texan and questioned her patriotism. I find that unacceptable. We are citizens who pay taxes and we vote for you and we work on Council committees for you, we should be able to be free to say what we think in social media or whatever without fear that in an open meeting, a Councilman will question our patriotism. I finally ask that you censor Mr. Kenrick. Thank you." Byron Schirmbeck, 4727 Blackstone Street, stated, "Mr. Mayor, Council Members, I find it interesting that several in administration, some folks in the City say that everything out on social media, us the citizens are nothing but divisiveness, negativity, distractions. You know, not getting anything done. The most divisive, destructive thing that we've seen on the Council in City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 33 of 36 years is something that's actually coming from inside the City. Mr. Mayor, the person that filed this complaint is your appointee. It was filed. She's a City official at the time that she filed this complaint. The complaint was against a Council Member. There's an entire ethics process that we don't even know what you're going to do yet, except this man is hanging out right now with no way forward that we are sure of that he can actually get any sort of justice. If you find that he violated the rules and want to make a penalty, that's within your right. Absolutely, but the problem is, that you put the cart before the horse. There's an accusation with no guarantee that there's a way for him to have his name cleared. I tell you, I'm a big free speech advocate. Ms. Cummings is right; the citizens have the right to say what they say. You know, this person said things that I think we'd all or many people would find offensive. You know when they say our state is a dump, I think that's a comment that somebody could reasonably believe that's anti - Texas. What I find amazing is that somebody has the right to say that, but Mr. Griffith doesn't have the right to say that. I find that anti -Texas and to vote against that. I find that ridiculous. You want to talk about ridiculous? I find that ridiculous. No one has a right to a seat on a City board. No one has a right to a Councilman's vote. The Mayor has the right to nominate folks subject to Council approval. The complainant has the right to say whatever anti -Texan, anti- American, anti-Christian things they want. Councilman Griffith has the right to have the opinion they're anti-American. I think free speech is working. You don't have the right to say what you want to without some sort of a person, like a Councilman, saying I don't want to vote for you. I don't know what your reasons were Mr. Lester, but you are also singled out in the Baytown Sun for voting against her. I find it interesting that Mr. Griffith is on the ballot this year. Mr. Lester is on the ballot next year, but Mr. Griffith is the focus of this complaint, which could leave an investigation hanging over his head through the November election. Find a way to clear his name. Do justice. Thank you." Council Member Kenrick Griffith stated, "I'd like to take a point of privilege. Can I make a statement and I will not get into the nature of the complaint itself so I won't name any names. I'll walk softly, thank you, Mr. Lester. First, let me state as an elected public servant, I am happy to submit myself to any legitimate ethics complaint process that honors our charter, fairness, due process and the constitutional rights of the accused. I have no doubt any process will vindicate me. I have committed no ethical violations of any kind. I'm happy to answer any concerns brought by any citizens, regardless of their motives, reasoning or biases, in the proper setting with the proper fair process. What is on the agenda tonight is not such a process. What is on the agenda tonight are two items that attack due process, regular order and justice. This also conflicts with our ordinance. If the council proceeds tonight, it will do even more damage to the public trust. It will also make any Member of the Council or Staff the target of any grievance by their political opponents, no matter how petty or unfounded the complaint is. Imagine if the Council has to convene anytime someone doesn't like our votes or feels offended by something we say, like were doing today. We would never get any business done. Think of how this could be used against you before your election, as it's being used against me before my election this year. By just allowing this to be posted over my objections, easily identifying my office as the target of the complaint. Which hasn't even been determined to be valid, and without identifying the accuser who is another city official as I requested. The administration has already done damage to this body, justice and due process rights. Our City Attorney even offered the suggestion to an agenda item with the wording that did not mention District 3 and further added the comment that this stink. I agree this definitely stinks. Neither of these agenda items tonight are well thought out City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 34 of 36 or proper. The ordinance attempting to reinstate the Ethics Commission but using the Council Members or the City Manager sitting as the Ethics Commission was obviously rushed for this meeting. The executive session agenda is a little more than a coordinated targeted hit piece for the terrible sin of not going along with an agenda of which I believe hurts Baytown and weakens our financial future. I hope for the sake of all the citizens of Baytown the truth comes out about who orchestrated this witch hunt against my office and the citizens of District 3 which I represent. For years citizens have been asking for an Ethics Commission to be reinstated as before with members that are outside the ties and the conflicts of City politics. This Council not only ignored the people's requests but instead officially dissolved the Ethics Commission. Now we were asked to participate in this dog and pony show while claiming it's in the spirit of transparency. The hypocrisy is alarming. Just days after improper ethics complaint was filed with little to no preparation, the administration is asking the Council to vote tonight to approve a major change in the City ordinance ethics rules without sufficient legal advice, which could take days or even weeks. There have been no opportunities for public input in the form of town halls or public hearings to discuss what citizens believe an Ethics Commission should look like. We haven't even convened any type of Charter Review Committee to review the charter change. It's not a charter change it's an ordinance change, thank you Mr. Reynolds. We don't even know who all the players that are that thought up these charter changes, or their motives and influences. It will be an insult to the people inviting corruption and conflicts of interest to decide tonight that we, the Council, can make ourselves our own judges and jurors if there's ethical complaints filed against a Council Member. Why would we want to do that to ourselves? If we move forward tonight, we should amend this ordinance reinstate the Ethics Commission with members of the public selected by each district. Any pending complaint should be dismissed as improperly filed and invalid, with no meaning. They can be refiled properly with the Ethics Commission for their review under a fair and just process. There must also be a clear statement tonight that the record to clear my name from this improper and frivolous complaint purely motivated by a political agenda. It is important to know that even the proposed ethics complaint process demands a complaint be rejected if it is frivolous. Section 2-806 D1 states the Ethics Commission shall dismiss a complaint that it determines is frivolous. It also says that to determine if a complaint is frivolous or not the commission should consider the nature and type of the publicity surrounding the complaint. Also, you should consider the timing of the complaint with respect to the date of a pending election in which the official is a candidate. This complaint against me was filed by a newly appointed City official who is also the former Vice President of a local partisan political group whose stated agenda is to support party candidates and local elections, specifically mentioning elections in the City of Baytown. This City official would be subject to this ethics complaint process as well. This same group opposed me in my past election. I'm not a Democrat. The letter to the editor about this issue that appeared in Baytown Sun on March 3`d was written by the member of this same partisan political group. Even the citizen that addressed the Council about this issue at the last meeting is a current President of this partisan political group. Every single person involved in this coordinated illegitimate complaint being used against me are members of or closely tied to this partisan political group. This complaint, the political motives of those involved and the publicity surrounding this complaint filed against me prove that this is an organized election year political attack to benefit this group politically in the November election. By definition, this is a frivolous complaint and according to the rules should never have gotten this far at all. Honest disagreements on policy and how we vote should be respected. Keep in mind some of you may be in my shoes in the future over your votes. Those future complaints City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 35 of 36 will have more validity than the one we're conceding tonight. I commit to my colleagues that if this were to happen to you, I would fight for your due process rights, reject any complaint that does not comply with the process and afford you far more courtesy and understanding than I'm being shown tonight. I ask the Council to reject the proposed amendment until we have some type of committee or public input. I also ask the Council to dismiss this complaint, clearly state for the record that this was an improper, frivolous complaint and never should have gotten this far. Whatever the Council decides, I will be vigorously defending myself and the citizens of District 3 who I serve. I hope the votes tonight show that I do not stand alone. I retire." City Manager Jason Reynolds informed the City Council Items 5.a., and 5.e., need to be read prior to executive session and if the Mayor can read the items in the order they will be discussed. At 9.33 P.M., Mayor Charles Johnson recessed and convened in to an Executive Session pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.071 and 551.074 to seek the advice of City Attorneys and or discuss Agenda Items 5.a. and 5.e. At 12:24 A.M., Mayor Charles Johnson reconvened the meeting and announced that, in accordance with Section 551.102 of the Texas Government Code, no action was taken in the Executive Session. Mayor Charles Johnson requested assistance from Legal to address the following items. Mayor Charles Johnson announced no action would be taken on Item 5.a. and directed City Staff to explore the steps required to establish and Ethics Commission as soon as possible. City Manager Jason Reynolds, confirmed. Mayor Charles Johnson requested a motion to terminate the golf facility management agreement and authorize additional funding not to exceed $325,000. A motion was made by Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell and second by Council Member Kenrick Griffith to approve Ordinance No. 16,103 terminating the contract effective April 9, 2025, and allocating an additional $325,000 to cover shutdown costs. The vote was as follows: Ayes: Mayor Charles Johnson, Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell, Council Member Laura Alvarado, Council Member Sarah Graham, Council Member Kenrick Griffith, Council Member James Franco and Council Member Mike Lester Nays: None Approved ORDINANCE NO. 16,103 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING TERMINATION OF THE GOLF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT WITH TROON GOLF, City Council Regular Meeting Minutes March 27, 2025 Page 36 of 36 LLC; AUTHORIZING ADDITIONAL FUNDING IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED THREE -HUNDRED, TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND, DOLLARS ($325,000.00); MAKING OTHER PROVISIONS RELATED THERETO; AND PROVIDING FOR THE EFFECTIVE DATE THEREOF. 9. MANAGER'S REPORT Mayor Charles Johnson announced the manager report will be done at a future meeting. 10. COUNCIL MEMBER DISTRICT REPORT a. Receive a report from Council Member Laura Alvarado District No. 1, and Council Member Sarah Graham District No. 2, regarding projects, programs and events. Mayor Charles Johnson announced the district reports will be done at a future meeting. 11. 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 pending or contemplated litigation and/or to discuss economic development negotiations. Mayor Charles Johnson, informed Council this item will be taken out of order and addressed after Item 8.a. 12. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Charles Johnson adjourned the March 27, 2025, City Council Regular Meeting at 12:33 A.M. QF dAYtojyN Angel ckson, City C City of Baytown s C`�., .,K' .`°. •►moo[ ��