2025 03 27 CC WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN
March 27, 2025
The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas, met in a Work Session on Thursday, March 27,
2025, at 5:00 P.M. in the Council Chamber of Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street, Baytown,
Texas, with the following in attendance:
Laura Alvarado
Council Member
Sarah Graham
Council Member
Kenrick Griffith
Council Member
Jacob Powell
Mayor Pro Tem
Mike Lester
Council Member
Charles Johnson Mayor
Jason Reynolds
City Manager
Scott Lemond
City Attorney
Angela Jackson
City Clerk
John Stringer
Sergeant at Arms
Mayor Charles Johnson convened the March 27, 2025 City Council Work Session with a quorum
present at 5:03 P.M. All members were present with the exception of Council Member James
Franco.
1. CITIZEN COMMENTS
Mayor Charles Johnson announced a citizen signed up to speak.
Mr. John Isaacs, 5410 Bayou Blvd. Baytown, Texas, stated, "I'm going to be short to the point.
While I agreed with the decision y'all made last July, on the golf course. I think it's time to face
the facts. It's not going to fly. I believe we have to terminate it as a golf course. Get rid of all the
out go on the golf course. There's no sense paying somebody to do something that the people
obviously don't want because there's not enough play. Also, we need police at Pirates Bay
Waterpark. We talked about last at the end of deal, where there should be police outreach within
the waterpark to get the kids used to police officers in a non -police environment. Okay? So, it was
discussed at the Baytown Police Advisory Committee Meeting on Tuesday. Okay. That's all."
2. DISCUSSIONS
a. Discuss the preparations for Pirates Bay Waterpark for the 2025 season.
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary introduced, Johnny Blevins of P23 Consulting regarding an
update on the progress at Pirates Bay Waterpark.
City Council Work Session Minutes
March 27, 2025
Page 2 of 6
Mr. Johnny Blevins conducted a presentation detailing an overview of Pirates Bay Waterpark.
(Exhibit A)
b. Discussion regarding current and future public transportation options for the City of
Baytown.
Mayor Charles Johnson announced the presentation and discussion of the Relocation Policy will
be moved to a future meeting.
C. Discussion regarding the future plans for the Tabbs Bay Golf Course.
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary conducted a presentation detailing the future plans for the
Tabbs Bay Golf Course. (Exhibit B)
Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell appreciated the presentation and referenced slide 6 of Exhibit B and
stated, "It was $255,000 for the construction closeout. Is that to finish the construction or is that
the equipment that we know we'd have to pay for even if we stopped working today? If we walked
away today and didn't finish anything, we'd owe what? The $162,500, which we'd still need to pay
for the kitchen equipment?"
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary stated, "This is to finish construction completely, which
includes the installation and acquisition of the equipment plus these other items that are still
needed."
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary informed the City Council that the majority of the invoices for
the kitchen equipment have started processing.
Mayor Pro Tern Jacob Powell requested clarification on the status of the work for the kitchen.
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary summarized that most of the work has been done, and there
may be some materials that they are waiting on. However, he did mention that the dollar amount
of $162,500 is a good estimate.
Mayor Pro Tem Jacob Powell referenced Slide 8 from Exhibit B and wanted clarification that
option one was $150,000 and would get the City through the end of the fiscal year. Mayor Pro
Tern Powell also requested clarification on the plan moving forward after the fiscal year.
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary summarized that the $150,000 would be for maintenance at
the Golf Course and another discussion would be had for a plan for FY26 prior to the end of the
six-month period.
Council Member Sarah Graham summarized the three options that were given to City Council on
the May 7th meeting; $3.9 million, $1.9 million, and the last option being similar to the first option
except it was to decommission and walk away. Council Member Graham requested clarification
City Council Work Session Minutes
March 27, 2025
Page 3 of 6
on why the amount to decommission the park at the past meeting was $250,000 to $500,000 and
now the amount is $150,00.
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary summarized the reason for the amount being significantly
lower is the City knows exactly what the decommissioning would involve and what the next steps
might be for the park, compared to back in May the project was just starting out and there were
different options for the park. Mr. Gary mentioned out of the $150,000, $30,000 will be going to
Troon for the closing of the operations and to send the equipment back.
Council Member Sarah Graham stated, "I don't know of a true plan to me, and I wanted to make
sure and say this up here, to me, the options that we had, and one of them was to decommission
the park 10 months ago. I'm going to repeat myself, it's not much different than this. 1 know we've
already talked about this to some extent, but the kitchen's still not done. I mean, I know that he
asked specifically where we were at and you're giving the best response you can, but whether it's
a door, a window, carpet, HVAC system, I mean, whatever it is, it's not done. It's not operable, it's
not open. I appreciate you coming up with these two options. I have zero faith in anything that has
to do with this golf course right now, because now I'm at option five at this point in my two and a
half years as a Council member. So far, none of them have actually come to fruition of what was
in front of me. Thank you for putting it together. But for me, I don't believe any of it anymore."
City Manager Jason Reynolds summarized the issues that City Council previously had with Build
Baytown and how that factored into the amounts since Troon could not give a lot of information
due to them being an employee of Build Baytown. Mr. Reynolds informed the City Council there
were a lot of unknowns due to the lawsuit with Build Baytown. There was an amount of $1.9
million to be paid back to the vendors; however, a portion of that money was handled by Troon,
which reduced the City's liability.
Council Member Sarah Graham clarified, "I mean, I want to be very direct with everybody. It is
public knowledge that I abstained from a vote on May 2nd. After five days of research and
guidance from an expert lawn person, I decided to go with what was in front of me, which were
three choices, and chose the one that I thought was the best for Baytown." Council Member
Graham stated, "1 was eager to see tonight at the work session. I still feel like I did 10 months ago.
I appreciate you acknowledging and saying you understand why there's little faith for me. It's like
we're back to point A, and point A with less money. I'm eager to hear what everybody else says
about this, because it's a situation where I didn't know it was going to cost $150,000 to
decommission."
City Manager Jason Reynolds informed the City Council that it will cost $240,000 to mow the
grass each year at the golf course. Even if the golf course stops operation, there will still be costs
that the City will have to pay to maintain the park.
Mayor Charles Johnson referenced slide 8 of Exhibit B and wanted clarification on if the price on
option one included sending the kitchen equipment back or if it includes the installation of the
kitchen equipment.
City Council Work Session Minutes
March 27, 2025
Page 4of6
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary clarified the amount of option one would be added to the
original amount of $495,000. The amount of $150,000 is for the maintenance of the park and the
decommission, which will include getting the equipment back in that progress.
Council Member Mike Lester referenced slide 8 of Exhibit B and stated, "Every time we talk about
the numbers, it gets more and more confusing. $495,000 finishes everything out as far as
construction in the restaurant. Then option one is an additional $150,000. It's actually closer
$700,000 to close out. Option two is $495,000 plus the $870,000."
Council Member Mike Lester stated, "I've stated from the very beginning, and I was deciding to
vote to move forward with this course, that I would not support a city -owned, operated and
supplemented golf course. The concept of this course was a nine hole that could be played as an
eighteen hole. The City would lease the property and we would put in 6 million to help generate
or create the park. They would own and operate the golf course and they would either take the
financial hit or the financial gain. Great concept. I still think that concept is a wonderful concept.
The struggle over the last, three years, is at every opportunity, roadblocks are put in place. But
every step of the way, there were delays. When we voted for the $1.9 million, the discussion hinged
around what is it going to take to get this thing finished so that we could resell it to somebody else
to come in and do what the original developer had the concept of. We gave the money and moved
forward. Here we are, 10 months later, the restaurant still not finished. I have serious lack of
confidence that we can finish this project, and I'm frustrated. You would think it's a simple issue,
but apparently not. So, I've been asked, if I'm frustrated with this, I'm not frustrated with this at all.
I'm angry. A city this size, and we can't even finish out a project without it running into triple cost
overruns. It's just how did this go so wrong and how do we fix it? As a Council Member sitting up
here taking the heat, and I'm taking heat on both sides. I have individuals calling me, going, in for
a penny, out for a pound, stay the course. And I have individuals going, when is enough, enough?
I'm at the point where enough is enough. It's in my district and it's going to have serious negative
impacts. We just can't keep pouring money into this when there's so many unknowns. I don't know
what guidance to give. There's nothing that is going to be cheap and it's going to continue to cost
us. This thing has gotten so lost in the woods. Frustration is not the correct term, so I'll let it go at
that, Mayor. Thank you."
Mayor Charles Johnson stated, "I sat in the audience when this conversation was had, so I didn't
have the information that you all had, I just heard as a citizen. What it sounds like I'm hearing now
is that staff gave you all the information and a decision was made based off of the information that
you all were given. Talking with the City Manager, they didn't have all the information. They gave
the information that they had, and you all made a decision. That's not saying anybody is wrong, to
echo the words of Mr. Lester. You all finally have pertinent information, you sifted through things
and have factual information now. I'm confident in these numbers because I feel that you have
factual information. Now, we were asked to give direction for after April 41h. We are not going to
have another meeting before then. We need to take some time, and give some serious thought to
this. If these are our two options, we need to take the time and give staff direction so we can move
City Manager Jason Reynolds referenced slide 8 from Exhibit B and informed City Council, "What
may help is if we take the $120,000 off of this issue, option one is $30,000 on top of the $495,000
City Council Work Session Minutes
March 27, 2025
Page 5 of 6
that has to be figured out. The $I20,000 is just the realization that there's a budget aspect of
operations that have to be endured to the park. That is separate and aside from choosing what
happens to the golf course. It's just a reality that comes with it. You can say that option one is
$30,000."
City Manager Jason Reynolds referenced slide 5 from Exhibit B and summarized slide 5 for City
Council. Of the $1.9 million, $800,000 went mostly to Baytown businesses that were assisting
with the development of the course, $1.1 million was dedicated towards the build of the kitchen,
and $360,000 was dedicated to support the operations for the rest of 2024 and 2025. The amount
of $100,000 was budgeted for irrigation use and no money has been used.
City Manager Jason Reynolds stated, "Right now, $1.9 million was spent. Currently, in the actual,
$I.68 million was spent. The ask in front of you right now is to spend $500,495 plus additional
$30,000. If you close that out today, that's the $495,000 plus $30,000. With option one, the total
amount would be $2.188 million. The overage at this point was $300,000. In total, this project has
run the course of costing this body $300,000 more. That was why we brought it to you to decide
because it's not operating anywhere like we thought it was based on new numbers that we got late
January. I'm sorry that this has been such a cluster."
Council Member Mike Lester commented, "I think staff has done what they can. Part of the issue
of underperformance for the course."
Council Member Mike Lester expressed his opinion of having fifty percent of a golf course will
not be operational, both the restaurant and the golf course itself will be needed if the project is to
succeed.
City Manager Jason Reynolds wanted to inform City Council and the citizens, the golf course
alone, was operating as it should have. The rounds met expectations, but the rounds were expected
to double when the restaurant opened. Since the opening of the restaurant was delayed, the
expected rounds were hindered.
Council Member Laura Alvarado references slide 8 from Exhibit B and stated, "I don't think the
point is that can we make it work? I think the thing is, do we want to invest any additional dollars
to make it work? I think that's the real Question. What 1 would like to ask, if we go with option
one, are we for sure that we have no other obligations to Troon after this? Do they understand that
if we choose option one, we decommission and we're done, do they understand that?"
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary informed City Council, that Troon has seen the presentation
and has received verification from Troon in regards to the information that has been provided.
Assistant City Manager Brant Gary stated, "To the extent that I can speak for someone else, I
would say yes."
Council Member Alvarado stated, "I just don't want any surprises that we've had from Build
Baytown One."
City Council Work Session Minutes
March 27, 2025
Page 6 of 6
Mayor Charles Johnson expressed his gratitude to staff, and to Mr. Gary for the presentation.
3. ADJOURN
With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Charles Johnson adjourned the March 27,
2025, City Council Work Session at 6:05 P.M.
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