The Littlefield City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday July 8th at the City Council Chambers, which are located at 525 Phelps Ave. in Littlefield, to discuss a nine-item agenda.
The meeting was called to order at 6 p.m. by Mayor Eric Turpen, and the invocation was given by mayor pro tempore Kenny Rucker. Mayor Turpen led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Marisa Lopez was in attendance to speak and give some insight into some ideas for the Park Grant that the City is applying for.
“I had seen in the paper about possibly getting a grant and if we had any ideas,” she stated. “Our niece is 5, and she is in a wheelchair. None of our public playgrounds/ parks are handicap accessible for her to be able to play with my kids or any other kids. If we do get a grant, if it could be possibly thought of to at least make one of the parks handicap accessible so that she would be able to have that opportunity to play as well.”
Item five on the agenda was a Public Hearing in regards to the submission of an application to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) for a 2026 Local Park Fund.
“This is a Texas Parks and Wildlife Grant,” Ray Resendez, City Manager said. “I’ve still been talking to SPAG and we’re trying to narrow down our projects. SPAG has worked on these before, so they’re not worried about it, but we’ve got to narrow down our projects list. There are so many things that we could do, I’ve had a hard time narrowing it down. One of those things on my list is handicap accessible playgrounds. I think we need something like that at each one of the parks.”
Mayor Turpen closed the regular meeting and opened the Public Hearing at 6:04 p.m.
“I haven’t looked at ideas, but we’ve talked to her mom because she’s more knowledgeable on the matter and has done more research,” Lopez said. “She can’t get out of her wheelchair at all, so even getting rid of the rocks and making it a flat rubbery surface would be better, because she would at least be able to roll around by the playground equipment.”
She added, “I tried to look up some equipment on my own and there is a marry-go-round that she can roll up on to and attach her wheelchair to it, so she can ride it with the other kids. There are few and far between handicap accessible parks in our area. There was one in Lubbock and there is one in Plainview.”
City Manager Resendez responded, saying, “It’s something that is very doable and I think we can come up with something. I’ve worked at other places where we installed some; it’s something that we can do.”
The Public Hearing was closed at 6:06 p.m. and the regular meeting was re-opened.
The next order of business on the agenda was to consider and approve Local Park Grant Resolution authorizing application.
The motion to approve the Local Park Grant Resolution authorizing application was made by mayor pro tempore Rucker and seconded by council member Eric Saenz. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and approve Police Department Equipment purchase.
“This was brought to us by Chief Sammy Garcia,” City Man- ager Resendez said. “Last year, we asked the council to reallocate some funds from the vehicle account to the equipment fund. It was to buy the tablets and accessories; there was $13,622.47 left over. Because you guys had authorized to buy the tablets, we’re coming back to ask you guys to purchase two ballistic shields, a drone and flashlights for each patrol officer. I do believe that this equipment is necessary and needed by the police department.”
He added, “I did consider sharing the drone that we have at City Hall, but then it becomes an issue of it not being charged when the other person needs it, we’re using it and they need it and who takes care of it.”
Chief Garcia stated that the flashlights will be for the officers to have on their person.
“It’s been about seven or eight years since we’ve gotten new flashlights to be able to issue out to everyone. A lot of them have failed and people are just purchasing their own. I would rather be able to buy them and be able to give them out to each officer to have when they’re on patrol. They will all take the same charger and everyone will know how to operate them and they’ll be the same across the board.”
The motion was made by Mayor Turpen and seconded by council member Buddy Holmes to approve the purchase of Police Department Equipment and use the remaining balance to make up the difference for training and overtime. The motion carried.
The Council entered into their first Budget Work session for the upcoming budget.
Resendez explained, “This is a preliminary proposal budget that we’re bringing you today. I just wanted to hit the highlights and give you the entire budget for you to look over. We had budget meet-ings with the directors a couple of weeks ago, which gave us a chance to talk to them and go through the budget. We brought them back in a few times and just tried to prioritize things.”
He added, “ When going through the budget, the scariest thing is the unknown, because you don’t know what is going to happen. Then to prioritize things, I think everything they requested is reasonable, but we just have to prioritize a bit.”
Resendez went over some of the things they did this year, stating, “We bought a new ambulance with some county assistance, we installed an onsite generator at the EMS facility, we hired a new city manager, two CDL drivers were hired in collections, we added a code enforcement officer, we began trimming trees and cleaning up at Laguna Park, the new fire engine was delivered and put into service, we hired three new police officers and increased enforcement, more community engagement by the police department, operations with water and sewer have become more efficient, a new fleet mechanic was hired which has increased our service and efficiency, continued with the demolition of sub-standard structures, purchased two UTV’s for the parks and utilities, which are working out great, purchased trucks for code enforcement and a support vehicle, continued the seal coating project, fire truck purchase was completed, police tablets for the vehicles, track loader was purchased for the landfill and we also expanded the animal control facility.”
He added, “I know that seems not important, but for those of us in operations, it means a lot to the staff that we were able to accomplish. I commend the staff, directors, supervisors, workers and the council, thank you all for your support.”
Resendez talked about his goals for the upcoming year, stating, “I want to get more strategic. I like doing a lot of planning; we had some mid-budget meetings with the directors around the six-month mark. We were in pretty good shape. We identified some areas we needed to make changes in and we did and we identified some areas we were doing great.”
The goals Resendez has put in place are: familiarize himself more with the budget process and accounting procedures, move forward with capital projects such as water and sewer, seek grant opportunities like we were doing tonight with SPAG, improve salary and employee appreciation (not just with salary, but by making an environment that is more friendly for the employees and safe, we are asking for a 3% raise accept for those who are effected by a salary adjustment or they’re just not qualified (either by performance evaluations or they just got a raise that isn’t probationary).
City Manager Resendez went over budgets for the Police Department, Administration, Fire Department, EMS, REFUSE, Shared Costs, Animal Control, Fleet Services, Dispatch, Licensing and Enforcement, Emergency Management, Residential Collections, Public Works, Municipal Court, Aquatic Center, Utility billing, Wastewater, LEDC A.
With no further business to discuss, Mayor Turpen declared the meeting adjourned at 8:43 p.m.