[Story by Jacob Lehrer]

The Early City Council first considered the minutes for the last meeting held on September 13, 2022, and as there were no citizens comments to the Council, the Early City Council moved to discuss new business.

The first item on this agenda was for the council to consider approving Resolution 2022-R11. This was finding that Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC’s application to change rates within the city should be denied. According to the City of Early Administrator, Tony Aaron, Oncor has requested to increase their system wide transmission and distribution rates by 4.5% over last year’s revenue.

If this was allowed, the company would ask the city to approve an 11.2% increase to residential rates and a 1.6% for street light rates. The Steering Committee for the City of Early has asked that the City Council should deny those rate increases. The Council passed the resolution brought by the steering committee, which will now go back to Oncor and renegotiate those rates with the company.

The second item was consideration of Ordinance 2022-14, amending the Procurement Policy within the Comprehensive Financial Management Policy. According to the City Administrator, there are times when the City Council must review their policies, and this is the council’s Procurement Policy related to use of federal funds such as ARPA, federal highway and safety funds, grants, etc.

The Procurement Policy would clearly state that the City of Early would follow all federal and state guidelines when hiring professional services or going out and spending federal dollars. The City of Early is amending Section 5.3 of the Purchasing Policy, and it would say that: “this policy has been designed to ensure that all city departments meet federal and Texas state law as well as policies set by the City Council with regard to the expenditure of public funds.

Specific state procurement laws that are followed that include, but are not limited to, Texas local government code 252; 271; Government code 2253, 2254, and 2269; and when federal and state funds are awarded to or used by the City of Early, additional federal and state rules as required will be adhered to.

The City of Early adopts federal procurement policies and procedures and CFR200.317-2, CFR200.327 and Appendix 2 of part 200 as amended in the Procurement Policy and will adhere to these policies and procedures and updates as needed when procurement actions are funded with federal funds. If these policies are adhered to, The City Council and the City should receive a maximum value for each public dollar spent.”

The Council then overlooked Section 5.241, as it relates to procurement with federal highway dollars with Texas Department of Transportation. It meets all the existing policy the City has but it has some specific language about the Texas Department of Transportation and highway funds. There was a motion to accept and the Council passed it.

Finally, the City of Early Council discussed financial strategies for next steps on the Town Center Development projects. City Administrator Tony Aaron updated the Council on where they are currently, with project. Within a few days construction will be priming the parking lot and wrapping up setting the concrete on Early Boulevard. The project has drug out longer than expected due to getting water and sewer lines in place and to relocate certain utilities.

Traffic not been affected from construction. Within six weeks or less Early boulevard should be opened to the public. Everything should be in place, streetlights, etc. They are waiting on Oncor to establish the electrical lines in the area.

On the Town Center Project, the city is 90% completed on sidewalk plans. The Lake will begin construction in November. They need to start drilling the piers for the boardwalk and they’ve already budgeted $400,000 for the beginning of that boardwalk. The batting cages are planned and ready to go out for bid. Those will be on the Early Municipal Development District Agenda and City Council agenda. The city is about 60-75% complete with the boardwalk engineering plans

An unspoken question that the City Administrator answered was when does the city start selling property. They are having to wait on the final blocking of the land to sell. A key component of the Town Center is the lake shore is bordered by the boardwalk will have businesses, but they need a street first. So, if the City of Early wants to start selling properties, they need to provide a road for the businesses. They have the real estate to sell, but they need to figure out a road for and get the money for it.

The Council talked about possibilities of any debt issuance or grants they could gather for that project. Their current debt will drop over the next few years and mature in 2027. There are ways the city can structure the debt, so the debt surface does not increase.

The City Administrator talked with different entities to secure funds, and one that stood out was the Federal Economic Development regional coordinator was impressed with the project the City of Early is undertaking. They work with up to 2 million dollar projects, and you get 50% match back. The regional coordinator asked for them to file the grant in January. They get funded immediately if that board approves. But the Council must spend the 2 million dollars to get the million dollars

They talked about a 2 million dollar debt issuance and get the million dollars from the Federal Economic Council and revenue from the real estate. Or they can escrow it.

“Debt you’re leveraging for something that will bring revenue, that’s good business,” Councilmember Acker stated

After that the Council went into the City Administrator’s report. City Administrator Tony Aaron went over the City’s Risk Analysis. This is something that that is part of their fraud risk and cybersecurity risk. They are formalizing things that happen behind the scenes all the time. The city looks and identifies fraud risks and schemes, the likelihood, what’s the impact to the city, who’s involved, what are some existing controls and activities, then they evaluate those controls, and further ways to mitigate the risk.

They asked laypersons to weigh in on financial risk who said it would be important for the city to have innovatory of material equipment; how and when they are using those after they’ve been purchased.

The Risk Analysis reports on identified risks and formalizes fraud risk assessment for their auditor who is coming in two weeks. They would discover something like fraudulent credit card purchases. Financial statement included monthly what they budgeted.

For Announcements, the Early Chamber of Commerce Banquet is 6PM on October 17th at Prima Pasta Restaurant.