During Tuesday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council unanimously approved an agreement with Open Sky Media, Inc. for full-service concert production for $49,000 to be paid from hotel occupancy funds. Open Sky will organize, manage, and host a fall “midsize” concert – comparable to those the size at the former Brownwood Reunion – at the Event Center this fall.

Through this agreement, Open Sky Media would handle all talent bookings, event marketing, hire and coordinate sound and lighting, manage all production rentals, handle ticketing, manage bars, coordinate with food vendors, create the production schedule, and operate the event.

“Staff has been working for a year or so to roll out the inaugural events for the Brownwood Event Center,” Ray Tipton, Brownwood Municipal Development District Executive Director told the Council. “We looked at different iterations of it but basically for 2024 the plan was to have a series of three events – a grand opening event, a mid-size concert and a one-day festival. It became clear a third -part route or a full service production company is probably the best direction. We also discussed doing it as a series with one company or breaking it up. What we discovered through getting quote is the inaugural event, that we intend to be a free public event, is something we can handle locally between staff and a volunteer committee to help with that. When you get to the ticketed concerts, especially the procurement of talent, it’s get a little more complicated. We don’t have the connections and staff to do those kinds of things.

“Open Sky is a company out of Austin that is connected to Texas Monthly and they do these type of things throughout the state with a lot of success. They came to town, toured the facility, they were pretty impressed and we’ve been working with them on this initial proposal for September-is most likely. The way it works for them on this particular concert is we would pay them a flat fee and they would manage everything else as far as procurement, ticketing, etc. They also have staff that will be site to manage the day of the concert. In other expenses beyond what we are paying them is their responsibility.”

Tipton said that for the planned all-day festival later in the year, “we’ll do an RFP there to seek bids from as many companies as we can, and Open Sky would also be included in that. That’s something we’re putting together now as far as the RFP. Once we put that out and get get bids we’ll bring that before council for additional approval.”

Council member H.D. Jones asked Tipton how much revenue the City of Brownwood would receive from ticket sales for the concert.

“With the agreement the City would not get any of that, it would go back to Open Sky with the idea that it would cover their cost plus whatever additional profit they would make,” Tipton said. “The flip side of that is our risk is $49,000, so if the event doesn’t happen Open Sky is going to have at least that much money in this as well so that part of the risk is on them, ours is limited. But the ticket sales would basically go to cover all the additional costs.”

Also Tuesday, the City Council moved to reject all AWOS (Automated Weather Observing System) replacement bids and rebid the project.

City Staff received quotes to replace the AWOS System at the airport on Feb. 15. After reviewing the quotes, the City determined that the lowest bid was not the best value for the City due to the proprietary equipment being proposed. This would mean that all future repairs, replacements, and support would have to come directly from that vendor.

The City would prefer that the equipment installed be of a more common variety which would allow the equipment to be serviced, repaired, and replaced more easily in the future. The City will also modify the specifications for the RFQ to specify that proprietary equipment will not meet specifications and resolicit for quotes.

The Council also accepted a bid from Strong Data for the startup cost of $13,500 and an annual cost of $9,300 for new Landfill scale software which may require a year end budget amendment.

A lightning strike took out several computers and other electronic equipment at the Landfill during a storm event several months ago. In the process of repairing equipment and replacing the scale house computers, it was discovered that the scale software was not compatible with the new updated computers.

When the IT Department analyzed the problem, they found that the software was antiquated, not being supported by the current software provider, and therefore was not receiving needed updates or maintenance.

Staff solicited bids and received five responses from vendors, with Strong Data being the greatest benefit to the City, as well as the lowest cost.

On the consent agenda, Council authorized the City Manager to sign an agreement and any subsequent addend urns, amendments, and acceptance of additional funds during the term of the contract between the City of Brownwood and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) for $5,000 to build the capacity of the local Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) beginning upon signing of the agreement through Sept. 29.

The grant is funded through NACCHO from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response to build local Medical Reserve Corps units. Funding provided from this grant will provide support to the MRC unit and promote regular programs, and activities to the MRC.

City of Brownwood Police Chief Ed Kading also presented the racial profiling report, in which Brownwood is in full compliance. Kading stated there were 3,380 stops in 2023 with 2,229 resulting in warnings.