Littlefield City Council held their regular meeting on Tuesday, May 28th, at 6 p.m. at the City Council Chambers located at 525 Phelps Ave. to discuss a 14-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.
There was nobody present to comment during the public comment portion of the meeting.
City Manager Mitch Grant stated that they had one new employee to introduce, who was hired in Code Enforement, Code Compliance and Licensing, but they were not present at the meeting.
Item six on the agenda was to consider and approve the minutes from the April 23rd meeting and the May 7th special meeting.
The motion to approve the minutes from both meetings was made by Council member Michael Rangel and seconded by Mayor Pro-Tempore Rucker. The motion carried.
Item seven was to consider and approve monthly departmental reports: Police Dept.; Fire Dept.; EMS; Code Enforcement; Animal Control; Landfill; Water/Wastewater; Streets and Parks; Municipal Court; Monthly Financial Reports; Sales Tax Collection; Property Tax Collection reports; LEDC A and B minutes, if Boards met.
Council Member Rangel stated that there were a bunch of stop signs that were leaning over and some poles that don’t have street names on the signs and that he would like to see those start getting fixed.
Mayor Turpen mention, “EMS has been pretty busy. I want to thank the volunteer association for helping by some new equipment, they donated $3,600.”
The motion to approve the monthly departmental reports was made by Mayor Pro-Tempore Rucker and seconded by Council member Buddy Holmes. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and approve April Expenses.
The motion was made by Council member Rangel and seconded by Council member Holmes. The motion carried.
There were no expenses for All-Ways Towing this month.
Item 10 was to consider and approve appointments and re-appointments to Park, Open Space and Advisory Committee.
“They really haven’t met much at all since we built the swimming pool,” Grant said. “ We have Ronnie Rodgers, Lance Broadhurst, Shawn Pickrell and Keith Logan. We’re going to suggest another name, Toni Montes, she is the Chief JPO, and she has expressed interest in getting involved.”
The motion to approve the reappointment of Ronnie Rodgers, Lance Broadhurst, Shawn Pickrell, Keith Logan along with the appointment of Toni Montes along was made by Council member Rangel and seconded by Council member Eric Saenz. The motion carried.
The next order of business was to consider and approve Water and Sewer Rate Changes.
City Manager Grant went over the changes with the Council, saying, “ The rate changes shouldn’t effect lower water users to much.”
Mayor Turpen added, “Your big users Continental Dairy, the Prison, will have a decent sized increase, but your average homeowner uses around 10,000 gallons or less, so the normal residential user will see about a $10 a month increase on their bill. The last time we had a water rate increase was in 2016, but we just passed $4.5 million bond for the water and sewer project.”
The motion to adopt these ordinances with the rate changes as discussed was made by Mayor Turpen and seconded by Council member Rangel. The motion carried.
Item 12 was to consider and approve Appointment of Mayor Pro Tem for a Year. (Home Rule Charter, Section 2.03). The motion to reappoint Kenny Rucker as Mayor Pro-Tem was made by Council member Rangel and seconded by Council member Holmes. The motion carried.
The next item on the agenda was to consider and approve change order #2 for Annual Seal Coat Contract.
“I’ve updated the map, there was a lot of back and forth on this with numbers, but at the end of the day, we’re going to be able to get a lot done,” Grant said. “This is a huge seal coating job that will start in September. Change Order #1 is a change order between contract, contractor and engineer, but Change Order #2 was a change order for production and price.”
The motion to approve the Annual Seal Coat Contract was made by Mayor Turpen and seconded by Council member Holmes. The motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned by Mayor Turpen at 6:14 p.m.