TSAC 9-3-26 Agenda Packet
MEETING AGENDA
REGULAR SESSION
TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADVISORY COMMISSION
September 3, 2026
HAL BALDWIN MUNICIPAL COMPLEX COUNCIL CHAMBERS
1400 SCHERTZ PARKWAY BUILDING #4
SCHERTZ, TEXAS 78154
CITY OF SCHERTZ CORE VALUES
Do the right thing
Do the best you can
Treat others the way you want to be treated
Work cooperatively as a team
AGENDA
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2026 at 5:30 p.m.
1.CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL-TRANSPORTATION SAFETY
ADVISORY COMMISSION
2.HEARING OF RESIDENTS
This time is set-aside for any person who wishes to address the Commission.
Presentations should be limited to no more than 5 minutes. Each person should fill out
the Speaker’s register prior to the meeting and give it to the Chair. The Commission can
only discuss items that are on the agenda. Discussion by the Commission of any item
not on the agenda shall be limited to statements of specific information given in
response to any inquiry, a recitation of existing policy in response to an inquiry, and/or a
proposal to place the item on a future agenda. The presiding officer, during the Hearing
of Residents portion of the agenda, will call on those persons who have signed up to
speak in the order they have registered.
3.Minutes: Consideration/action for approval of August 6, 2026, TSAC Meeting Minutes.
Attachments
DRAFT TSAC 8-6-26 Minutes
4.Traffic Related Item Updates
Ashley Park speedinga.
Hollering Vine speedingb.
Primrose/Medical Building accessing Schertz Pkwyc.
Cypress Point speeding/signaged.
Transportation Safety Advisory Commission
September 3, 2026 Page 1
Woodland Oaks Drive safety concernse.
Ashley Oak speedingf.
5.Staff Comments and/or New Requests
Crest Oak & Golden Oak - speed humpsa.
Hubertus Road Sidewalksb.
TSAC Budgetc.
Aero at Randolph stop signs d.
Railroad crossing pavement marking refresh and signage refresh e.
6.Future Agenda Items Requests from Commissioners
7.Adjournment
I, Tammy Lawrence, Administrative Assistant - Engineering Department of the City of Schertz,
Texas, do hereby certify that the above agenda will be posted on the official bulletin boards on
this 26th day of August 2026, at 11:30 AM, which is a place readily accessible to the public at all
times and that said notice will be posted in accordance with Chapter 551, Texas Government
Code.
Tammy Lawrence
Tammy Lawrence, Administrative Assistant - Engineering Department
I certify that the attached notice and agenda of items to be considered by the TSAC
(Transportation Safety Advisory Commission) was removed by me from the official bulletin board
on _____day of _______________, 2026.
____________________________Title:__________________________
This facility is accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Handicapped
parking spaces are available. If you require special assistance or have a request for sign
interpretative services or other services please call 619-1180 at least 24 hours in advance of
meeting.
Transportation Safety Advisory Commission
September 3, 2026 Page 2
Transportation Safety Advisory Commission 3.
Meeting Date:09/03/2026
Subject
Minutes: Consideration/action for approval of August 6, 2026, TSAC Meeting Minutes.
Attachments
DRAFT TSAC 8-6-26 Minutes
Transportation Safety Advisory Commission
September 3, 2026 Page 3
D R A F T
TRANSPORTATION SAFETY ADVISORY COMMISSION MINUTES
August 6, 2026
The Schertz Transportation Safety Advisory Commission convened on August 6, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. at the
Municipal Complex, Council Chambers, 1400 Schertz Parkway Building #4, Schertz, Texas.
Present: Richard Dziewet, Chair; Ferrando Heyward, Vice Chair; Roy Ragsdale, Commissioner;
Paul Wiley, Commissioner; Steven Icke, Commissioner; Jay Starr, Commissioner;
Jonathon Marquez, Commissioner; Rick Jamison, Commissioner; Nathan Serna, Alternate
Absent: Chris Hormel, Commissioner; Mark Davis, City Council Liaison;
Staff Present: Kathy Woodlee, City Engineer; Larry Busch Jr, Public Works Director; Brian James,
Deputy City Manager; Scott Morehouse, Police Sergeant; Robert Martinez, Street Supervisor;
Lee Harris, Senior Engineer; Serena Contreras, Associate Engineer; Tammy Lawrence,
Administrative Assistant;
Call to Order/Roll Call – Transportation Safety Advisory Commission 1.
Called at 5:30 PM by Chairman Dziewet. Chairman Dziewet also thanked Commissioner Heyward for doing a
great job at the June meeting.
Hearing of Residents2.
None
Minutes: Consideration/Action for approval of June 4, 2026, TSAC Meeting Minutes3.
Motion was made by Commissioner Starr. Seconded by Commissioner Ragsdale. Motion passed.
Traffic Related Item Updates:4.
Ashley Park Speeding a.
Lee Harris stated that Public Works has striped a double yellow centerline. Then new counts were taken, so that
we had a comparison, but they came back very interesting. The double yellow essentially helped in one direction
by lowering the speeds, but not in the opposite direction. We don’t know why this is. The north direction heading
toward FM 3009, speeds went down. The south direction going toward SPW increased. Why is this, not sure. We
have a couple thoughts, but one thing could be possibly due to homeowners parking in front of their homes along
Ashley Park. The southern part of the roadway has all the houses that front it. The north side, which is the one that
has higher speeds, does not. When people park in front of their houses, that effectively narrows the lane width, but
the other lane is still very, very wide because not as many people park on Ashley Park on the other side of the
street. We don’t really know exactly what is happening, but that is our thought. We are continuing to figure out
what we are going to here next. We have received the initial complaint, and they were requesting speed humps
here along this roadway. It would warrant speed humps with it being over the threshold of the 85th percentile. One
thing that we were also thinking about doing would be maybe adding another white line along the road to try and
help narrow the other side to make it feel more restricted there to try and help reduce the speed. We have also
received a complaint, because one of the residents called in and said they did not like all the striping that we did on
Ashley Park. They said we did not need it. And they also complained about all the additional signing as well and
said that we were wasting taxpayer dollars by putting up additional signs. So, it's kind of a Catch 22, but we
said that we were wasting taxpayer dollars by putting up additional signs. So, it's kind of a Catch 22, but we
wanted to kind of bring all of that up to you. So, you guys were aware, not wanting to hide it from you, but we're
looking at doing a couple different potential things here and we'd like to kind of throw it out to you for some
guidance as well, on whether we should be doing a speed hump petition and sending that back to the resident. If we
want to look at kind of restriping to see if that helps again to try and slow speeds. So that's kind of where we're
standing at the moment. So, I don't know if you guys have any questions regarding that.
Commissioner Dziewet stated that the one that I look at the most is the entrance from FM 3009. When the traffic
comes in there, it's kind of slow because they've just turned in, and then maybe about halfway through is where
they'll pick up a little bit in speed. But it's not as significant as we may have thought originally. To me it looks
kind of good. So, are we doing any more testing or watching over there in that area?
Lee Harris stated it is still on our list for patrols. So, the police are still actively out there now. You'll probably see
in our presentation later how many people we have on patrol at one time, and the number of complaints and streets
that they have to monitor, and you'll get some more information on that, but they are out there just as much as they
can be.
Commissioner Heyward stated you are in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. In a little while school
is about to open back up. So, foot traffic for kids is going to increase. Instead of increasing the labor for you, if
they want to speed hump. If Fire Department and PD don't mind, give him the speed hump and then they can't
complain.
Commissioner Starr stated I'm sorry. I'm going to have to disagree with you on the speed humps. We have them on
Mulhouse and they are not slowing traffic down. And cars still go 50 mph down there. My suggestion is if you
stripe it out to make it look narrower. Looking at Google reviews for a lot of the areas around here, bike traffic is
really low rating for the housing areas. Like if you go to homes.com, it tells you the bike path. You move that line
out, you give those cars that feeling, plus you have a bike lane in the re. And people usually have tendency to slow
down because they're looking for those bikers. And that way we have something for the bike community as well.
Lee Harris stated we are looking for everything that we can possibly do to try and help slow traffic. We have that in
other places as well. As you've probably seen with Woodland Oaks, we have the bike lanes there so we're looking
at every option. We're just trying to make sure we get a consensus on how we kind of want to keep moving forward.
Commissioner Ragsdale stated we had the bike lanes put in at Woodlawn in our neighborhood and it really helped
a lot.
Commissioner Marquez stated in my experience, all speed bumps aren't the same. There's some where you go over
it, it's going to pop your car. And then there's some where bloop, bloop, bloop. You just drive, drive over. So, if
possible, I would like to see the dimensions of the speed bumps we're installing. Maybe they're not big enough to,
to fully stop a car because I drove a low car in any speed bump is almost a flat tire to me. So maybe we can review
the style of speed bump because they're not all the same. But I do agree with the bike lane as well. I think a
combination might work. That's my input in this.
Commissioner Starr stated with those speed humps, you have to take into consideration not only the first
responders' vehicles, the fire trucks, the ambulances/EMS, but also the street sweepers. They have a very low
profile that they can go over. And I brought up that question on Mulhouse of why they're so low, and we have to
be taken into account. the street sweepers and the other equipment as well.
Lee Harris stated I appreciate everybody's response and opinions on all this. I know everybody will have their own
opinion and what can work best. I believe what we were looking at trying to do is potentially add those white edge
lines/slash bike lanes on the outside, and then probably go back and look at trying to take some more speed counts
again later. So, we can kind of do an installation and just keep monitoring it and seeing how traffic reacts. And
hopefully we can use that on other streets as well. Once we get a little information on how the different striping
can slow traffic. So that's kind of the direction that we were leaning but wanted to throw all that out there for you
and kind of get some thoughts and opinions as well.
Hollering Vine speeding- SC- speed hump installation will start next week.b.
Serena Contreras stated this one is short. Hollering vine. Our Speed Hump installation will begin next week. We
were waiting on some of the equipment to come in. So, it's all here now.
Primrose/Medical Bldgs. accessing SPW c.
Lee Harris stated our next one is the Primrose/Medical Buildings. We have reached out and we are trying to
schedule the improvements. What we are looking at doing is making the medical facilities on the east side a right
out at that intersection and putting in and lengthening the islands on the center between the north and southbound
lanes. Restricting those to right out only on each side. The other side we are going to also be modifying the drive
approach over there. Again, with the lengthening of the islands in the middle. Public Works has been in the process
of trying to schedule the contractor to get out there to do the work. Right now, the contractor has been doing other
work for the city. They did some concrete work earlier this week, and they're actively starting some sidewalk out
on Hubertus Road here today and tomorrow, and hopefully have some sidewalk out there finished by the end of
the week. We are working to get them scheduled here after that to do some of this work.
Curling Post and Sagenite Signaged.
Serena Contreras stated all of the new signs went into effect on June 10th. Just a refresher, we did switch the stop
sign locations from stopping traffic on Sagenite to now stopping traffic on Curling Post.
Speeding on Devonwood & Cypress Pointe.
Serena Contreras stated the Speed Hump installation has begun. The Speed Hump closest to IH 35 is the only speed
hump in at this moment. Public works will be completing the rest of the installation starting tomorrow. Signage
review was also done in this neighborhood. The blue dots on this map represent all of the signage that was out
there previously, and orange represents all of the signage that Public Works has since then put in.
Davenport Speeding-Signage Reviewf.
Lee Harris stated we have been out and looked at the signage that was out there. As you can see on the map here,
we did a review and we went ahead and added some additional signage. The ones in orange are the ones that we
have added along the roadway. And police are also keeping this on their list for patrols to also monitor the speed.
So, with that, this one should be closed for now unless we get another complaint here in the future.
Green Valley School Signageg.
Lee Harris stated we have Green Valley. Here we did some striping improvements along the roadway as well as
looking at signage. Everything here has been completed, so we've been out and refreshed all of the markings along
Green Valley and for the school zones. We have corrected or added any additional signage that needed to be
added. So, with that, this one will also be taken off the list here for next time.
Commissioner Starr stated there was also a concern about the ordinance. I guess for lack of better terms. That is
written saying what the times were for that school zone. Were those updated as well? Or do you know or the
ordinance has not yet.
Kathy Woodlee stated no, not yet. Thank you.
Woodland Oaks Drive Safety concernsh.
Serena Contreras stated traffic counts were taken along Woodland Oaks. As you can see, there's slight speeding.
The speed limit is 30 mph in all of the sections that we took counts at. So staff along with taking the speed counts,
evaluated the site distance at Broadleaf, Crested Heights and then Grove Park. So, there is an equation on the
screen right now for intersection site distance, which the Engineering department then filled out. And compared to
what you can see in the field. Site distance to the right is not sufficient. Crested Heights site distance to the left is
not sufficient. And Grove Park site distance to the right is also not sufficient. To combat both the limited site
distance and slight speeding concerns similar to what we did on Alsatian. We've looked into bulbouts. These
bulbouts would bring all three intersections to a compliant site. This is an example for Crested Heights. Staff are
working on a cost estimate and plans for Broadleaf and then Grove Park. So, the lane narrowing would include a 3’
bike lane buffer, and with those 3’ and the ability for vehicles to move up and not be in the lane of traffic. That
would help with the site distance at Grove Park. We wouldn't need a bulb out for that intersection.
Lee Harris stated in regard to the fencing out there that has been hit, Public Works is currently working on trying to
fix the fence out there. They're talking with someone right now and trying to get costs to have them come out and
weld and fix the fence in place as it is. Right now, we're currently just working on fixing the fence. The sidewalk
and making it all ADA compliant will be something that's going to have to be some type of a future project. But
we did get some confirmation from an engineer saying that we can basically fix the fence in place as is. As long as
we're not changing any of the grades, we won't have to bring that into compliance at this time. But eventually we
probably will and have to look into doing that.
Serena Contreras stated at our last meeting, we did discuss the possibility of bollards at the mailboxes on
Woodland Oaks. Staff went out and measured the distance in front of the mailboxes. And currently it's 4’ 8” and
according to city standards, bollards would take up a minimum of a foot and a half. And then when you include the
parcel box opening, that would be another foot with all of that math, placing bollards would not provide a sufficient
turn radius for wheelchairs. It would then make the mailboxes out of ADA compliance. So, we cannot add
bollards at this time.
Commissioner Heyward stated this is my info with the speed humps. What's the acronym- TMUTCD? What's the
minimum distance you can have between speed humps?
Serena Contreras stated 300’ apart.
Commissioner Heyward stated 300’ apart. Okay. I just asked that question because I'm going to our initial role at
Ashley Park as Brian James says, even with speed humps, we know people are going to race in between speed
humps. But I guess my thought is less than we have enough that they can't really race in between speed bumps.
That's why I asked that minimum distance.
Staff Comments and/or New Requests 5.
Crest Oak and Golden Oaka.
Serena Contreras stated we did have a request for speed humps on Crest Oak, Golden Oak and Circle Oak. There
is a significant speeding issue in this neighborhood. So city staff has put together a speed hump exhibit. There is
currently one speed hump in that neighborhood between Lazy Oak and Shady Oak on Circle Oak. The red lines
indicate recommended speed humps and the blue indicate optional speed humps. If we ever have to go in and
place more because speed humps work best in series. This has been added to Public Works list.
Hubertus Road Sidewalksb.
Lee Harris stated currently our contractor has been hired. We're working on installing the sidewalks on the Rbfcu
site, which is on the east side, right up near the intersection of IH 35. That is currently being constructed, hopefully
finished here tomorrow, if not early next week. We have also reached out and made some contact with the property
owners attorney for the site just north of that, which would go between Rbfcu and the school. So, we have reached
out to them, and we are in talks of trying to get easements from them to complete that side of the sidewalk. On the
other side, we have a project that is finalizing their plat right now. We are looking at having that platted here
probably in the next couple weeks. As soon as that's platted, we are planning on getting the contractor out there for
the city to install the sidewalk on the west side of the road because we'll have easements and the land to do that at
that time. So right now, it's all in process. We are just kind of waiting for the last little bit of right of way and
easements that we need to kind of get the one done on the one side.
Commissioner Marquez stated my issue is this little gap. And if it's going to take time, can we clean up that area
and maybe drop some gravel? Is that a possibility? Because I get it. They are going to take time. But that little gap
by the store and the elementary schools generally where the most traffic goes through. So, I would recommend, if
we are not going to have it done by the school year to at least go landscape it up, make a little trail that way, you
know, they are not getting scratched or anything like that. Just as a little buffer to give us time if we are not
completed by the school year.
Kathy Woodlee stated we are scrambling to try and get as much as we can done before the school year starts. We
can certainly talk to the property owner and see if they'll just give us verbal approval to go in there and, and get it
mowed, so that it's at least passable. And we're hoping that the plat process or the easement process will be done
within a couple days. And then I think we've already gotten with the contractor who will build the concrete path. So
that should happen very shortly after it. So, we can't really speed it up much more than that, but we can probably at
least get it mowed because I do understand there's quite a bit of brush and we can probably get that done with a
verbal from the property owner.
Lee Harris stated we are very close to getting that done.
Safety campaignsc.
Serena Contreras stated I know we touched base on this briefly in the last meeting. Since then city staff has talked
to Public Affairs. The advertisement on the left-hand side is in the August edition of the Schertz magazine. That
QR code will take them to a PDF that has all of the school zones in the city, so you'll know what the speed limit is,
where the crosswalks are, stop signs and such. And some of you may remember the advertisement on the right for
parking so close to an intersection. Public affairs is going to rerun this in the September edition, and we're working
with them on getting social media posts out for various topics that relate to TSAC.
Commissioner Heyward stated this is going back to the social media. Sometimes you got to call things as they are.
Those adverts, I appreciate them, they're lovely. Can we also add one to put the onus where it is? Most of the
speeders are people that live in the neighborhood. It's a very, very little pass-through traffic that's speeding. It's
people in the neighborhood. Can we say it's your neighborhood? It's your kids. Slow down.
Kathy Woodlee stated I think speeding is one of the topics that we're probably going to have a little article in the
magazine about. And then also Serena's been working with Public Affairs to maybe do some reels. Is that what
they call them these days on Instagram? Just little short videos that are kind of engaging for folks and usually have
a little bit of humor in them. But yeah, that's definitely one of the biggest complaints.
Commissioner Starr stated the email blast that goes out to everybody for the electronic newsletter that Schertz does.
Can you put that in there as well? That way we're covering all the bases.
Kathy Woodlee stated that certainly sounds doable.
TSAC Budgetd.
Kathy Woodlee stated okay, so remember last year when we looked at different projects and came up with a
budget request and council saw that that was a good idea. Wo got funded for it for a one time, one year funding.
Wanted to come back and show you what we've done with the funds. We've done pretty well. What I handed you,
we have on the next slide. Brian, am I allowed to mention what I saw today? Okay, it looks like the proposed
budget for next year does include funding for tech issues again. So, it's proposed. We'll see. Um, but if anybody
wants to advocate to city Council certainly do that. I'm just going to run down the list and kind of give you a verbal
explanation of the expenditures. So, the crosswalks are the biggies. Those really blew our budgets out of the water.
It was two or three years ago when we first had the requests, staff looked into them, did a study, had our consultant
give us cost estimates for those. But once they got into the design, the work expanded a little bit, coupled with
extremely significant cost increases. It's not just these crosswalks; it's all of our street projects. Everything is much
higher than expected, just costs going up significantly. So, we do have them underway. Design is nearing
completion and those should be bid out and installed within the coming months.
We anticipated some crosswalk requests and what we have we haven't had specific other crosswalk needs
identified. But we have found is on Woodland Oaks, some ramps that do not have crosswalks associated with
them. We also have some ramps where there's one on one side, but not a receiving ramp on the other side. So,
we're anticipating cleaning that up a bit. And so, we’re going to use some funding from this to work on the
alignment of the crosswalks in Woodland Oaks.
The traffic calming typical of the Alsatian way project that was done. We did the Alsatian Way bulbouts and we're
looking to do the similar ones that Serena described to deal with the sight-distance issues on Woodland Oaks and
also, I put in here the work that will be done at those medical offices on Schertz Parkway. The right in right out,
enhancements, and existing crosswalk enhancements. We haven't really used that line item.
We would have used it for the pecan Schertz Parkway crosswalk enhancements, but that's going to be fully
signalized. The design of that is nearing completion. We will bid that out and install the full signalization right out
here at the exit from the council campus. So, there won't be a need for enhanced crosswalk there, because that will
be part of the Signalization, and that is going to be close to $500,000. It's being paid for with a different funding
source than these dollars.
Complex specialty studies. We did start one. It was estimated to be $35,000. This was led because we had someone
come and express a significant concern of the lack of connectivity for pedestrians, particularly kids going from
Dobie to the Karate facility across the road for after schoolwork. We looked at it, we observed it, the consultant
observed it. Serena was out there a number of times, and she also met with teachers at the school. We just did not
observe a lot of pedestrians in this location. There is a crosswalk fully signalized just down the road. So, we ended
that study. We didn't see the need to continue spending funds on something that we weren't seeing the need.
Speed humps. This one, we really did dive into this one, and I'm glad to hear some feedback that they're not
working on Mulhouse because for quite some time, we really try and we still kind of try to steer folks away from
the speed hump request, because there are other ways to deal with these issues that in some cases are more
effective. But we do have the ordinance that does allow for it, and it does have strict parameters if they're met. We
can't necessarily say we're not going to put them in and let's put them in and have a good number of them so that
we can then assess and determine objectively whether they don't work or they do work. And like Mr. Marquez
says, we can look at the types that we're using to, to see if maybe that has anything to do with their effectiveness.
So, with that, we've put in a number of them on Mulhouse, Hollering vine, Cypress Point, and we do have some
extras, spares that were purchased and likely will go in on Crest Oak, Circle Oak, Golden Oak, and possibly
Ashley Park. If a different striping scenario doesn't work.
Signage and striping. We've done quite a bit of that. You can see the list there. I won't read it to you.
And then standard traffic studies this year. We didn't use that. We didn't have the need for any outsourced studies.
So, we were able to save those dollars.
So we did go slightly over the budget, but we have operating and project funds that can cover the difference there.
So, any questions on how we've done this year.
Commissioner Dziewet Just maybe just like to let me know since this budget is all prepared, is that an existing
factor with the City Council right now on just exactly where we stand with this to get the funds, or has it already
been approved?
Kathy Woodlee stated, no, it hasn't been approved. It will actually be presented to council on Tuesday evening. We
have a budget retreat with council. I believe it is advertised. It's an open meeting, so you're certainly welcome to
come. It's going to be held here, starts at 5 pm and that's the first time that they'll actually see the list of all the
supplemental requests of which this was one. And so management takes that to council to present to say this is
what we propose gets funded and there's a list of I don't know, I think it was $12,000,000 worth of supplemental
requests. And I believe $7,000,000 is being recommended to be funded. And this is one of the requests that came
above that cut line. So council certainly from there can say they can pick and choose. They can say that we want to
spend more money and put more and fund more requests. They can say that we want to save money. We're not
going to accept these. That's not particularly likely. They generally stick with what's been recommended. Although
last year this one was pulled from those that weren't even recommended because council saw the need for it. So I
don't see a high likelihood that they wouldn't approve it, but it certainly. So they've got that meeting and then
they've got a couple other follow up budget meetings before it's a done deal.
Commissioner Heyward stated again that another request for working with Public Affairs. Can you really work the
advert for all these communities that have all these problems, because I've gone to budget meetings before and lots
of citizens and residents don't come out so they can help advocate for their own needs. Public Affairs to make
advertisements about budget meetings to get more participation in budget meetings. Because people who are asking
these things, they come here so they can really go to the budget meetings and make sure they speak on their own
behalf.
Brian James stated I would agree with you. I certainly understand we want to get the word out on budget meetings.
Um, I'm not sure it's a lack of sort of effort that causes folks to come out. I understand your point. Just not sure that
you know, at some point, how much more is that going to do to get people out. I don't know, just maybe a slightly
different take on it. So we have these folks that come, they're really concerned on these things, and they come back
meeting after meeting after meeting, right or not. That's a question.
Commissioner Heyward stated or rhetorical. I'm just saying they come to the meeting and they state their case, but
the people are really going to put the dollars to the project. They don't go to those meetings.
Brian James stated they don't. Right. I mean, it's planning and zoning commission. We have a big zoning case
come up and we get a huge crowd that comes out. but then we don't we don't see them again. Right. So I don't
disagree. Fundamentally, you and I are on the same page that we want to put the word out on budget meetings. I
think I am not confident that if we emailed out blasts five more times, it's going to increase the number of folks that
come to the budget meetings frankly. I'm trying to give you an honest answer with that. Again, don't get me wrong.
And maybe bigger conversation, right? Do you recall how many residents showed up at the last budget meetings
where the budget were approved?
Commissioner Dziewet stated I would you say on 3-4.
Brian James stated that's literally what we've got. Yeah. Out of 45,000 people. I mean so I don't disagree the more
we can do. So we did. You may recall we did budget meetings on the go, where we went out. And those were
great the first few years. And then we saw attendance kind of decline. I agree with you. We want as much
engagement as we can get. I think we struggle as a community with that for a number of reasons. I think we have a
somewhat transient community with the military population here that folks kind of come and go. I think we change
as a society, right? I mean, when I was a kid, you'd walk to baseball practice, right? But most people now, if you've
got kids, you're driving them to who knows where to get to baseball practice, to their activity, things like that.
People are really busy. We have all sorts of means for folks to communicate, right? One of the things is not
coming to an in-person meeting, but watching the meeting online so folks can sit at home, right? And they can
watch those meetings, and you can see the comments that folks have during the meetings. And so again, I think the
gauge is a little bit different. But you're right. I mean, we don't have a huge amount of gauge. We try to get the
word out. I'm just not confident that we're going to get a significant change with that. So before we say, hey, Public
Affairs needs to do a better job, get the word out. That's why we don't have people. I'm just not sure that's the case.
That was maybe more my point, phrased poorly.
Commissioner Heyward stated I wasn't blaming public affairs at all in the least. I'm just really trying to throw the
egg back in the community's face and go like, if you want this show up.
Brian James stated I agree with you. I mean, I think this is and we're getting in a long philosophical conversation,
not on the agenda. I think if you look at what we did with the trash survey, that's probably a good example. We had
a number of people said, I'd like to go back to twice a week trash service. It tended to be mostly people who
previously had twice a week trash service, as opposed to people who had once a week trash service, those that
always had once a week. They were kind of like, yeah, same thing we had before. I don't get what the issue is
because they didn't realize they were subsidizing the people who had twice a week trash pickup. But even of those
because they didn't realize they were subsidizing the people who had twice a week trash pickup. But even of those
people who said, yeah, I want twice a week trash service. And we said, okay, great, you're willing to pay for that.
Then our number drops, right? So there's a little bit of that, right? How we pay for this stuff. And so, and the last
thing I say, and I mean this sincerely, I, you know, I really do, I think on our boards and commissions across the
city, we've got a lot of very thoughtful, very committed people who give up their time, often face angry residents
not happy with these things that they don't fully understand the issues with us. And I think we've got a lot of very
committed people on council and have had very committed people on council who really want what's best for our
community. Right. And not every community has that. But you guys saw that when you said, hey, we need money
to fund these projects. When we took that forward, council said, yeah, that's the case when you as individuals have
come forward and said, hey, here's the safety issue I've got, Council said, let's make this thing happen. When a
library board a few years ago said, hey, we're having trouble keeping up with the change. Now, people want
written books, but they want digital stuff. We need to step up our funding. Council did that, right. I think part of the
reason we have a low turnout is because generally, our elected and appointed officials do a really good job. They
see out, they talk to you at church, they talk to you at your kid's school events. They talk to you at Rotary or Lion's
Club, and most have faith going I think our council and our boards and commissions are doing a pretty good job.
And that in some ways hurts us from getting people to come out because they trust you guys doing it, which is
what you've done here. You all have advocated saying, we need money to do these things, and there's less need for
them to come out. And I think council gets that. council gets that our citizens are really busy. So when they hear
from you, it does mean a lot to them. I mean that sincerely.
Commissioner Marquez stated if I may, what would it hurt? I mean, it's an email that goes out. If it works, it works.
And if it doesn't, it doesn't. But there's still a chance. Because I know when I was personally advocating that would
have been a great reminder to me, you know, a great reminder, maybe you can sign up.
Brian James stated you can get notices for our council's meetings.
Commissioner Marquez stated I do get the Schertz.
Brian James stated if your opinion is people want more emails coming through, including from the city, it's
something to try. But what I will tell you, our balance in Public Affairs is balance is not overwhelm people with
emails on the stuff they need, right? Because we do, we put in the thing we sent out- it's got here's the stuff going
on. And it's always balanced to do more. Just the caveat would simply be. I hear you, but at some point, we
overwhelm with emails. I think we just get a lot of this from a lot of boards and commissions and things like that. I
would encourage you, right, to attend the budget meeting and say, hey, let's talk about the ability for our public
affairs to do more things going forward, right? Because it used to be with public affairs, it was the magazine. And
we put posted thing in the water bill. How many of you guys get a water bill in the mail? What do we got? 3-4-5,
the others get electronically. So that notice doesn't do any good. The flip side is now what do you watch where
you're getting videos. So again, that takes money to produce videos. Which is more entertaining for you. Watching
a video, somebody describing something or getting an email blast, right? So, we're trying to do that. But I would
encourage you, right. If you say, hey, look, we think engagement can be increased if we really expand in a
thoughtful way, the outreach to the community, I'd attend. I'd encourage you all to attend the council budget
meetings as well to advocate for that. That's sort of the stuff because PA would love you to be there saying, hey, we
need to really up our game and do more of this stuff. They'd be, we're on board with you. They, they put in the
request too. But again, how much do we want to pay for that stuff?
Commissioner Starr stated I would suggest that we do another FY26-27 Budget breakdown like we did or you did
at the time for the 25-26, that way we have something documented. We list our priorities one through Z and we
submit that up as well. Sounds good.
Kathy Woodlee stated we can put something together and come back because we'll know. Okay, here's the dollar
amount that we've got and here's our starting point. And basically, staff will put something together. We'll
recommend it to you. And then you can tell us, here's how you should change it.
PD Presentatione.
Sargeant Morehouse stated I'm the supervisor for our traffic unit right now. Woodland Oaks Drive. So we have not
seen, as the data showed earlier, a significant speeding issue on Woodland Oaks. Data from the speed studies we've
done, and there was a company that was giving us a demo of a program that does speed studies, also showed that
there is no significant speeding issue. I believe the average speed was right around or within one or two miles an
hour of the speed limit on Woodland Oaks. So we've only had 6 stops, 1 citation, 5 warnings for speeding in this
section since 2024. Now, where we did see the issue is the stop sign violations since the same time period. There
are 40 stops, 13 citations, 27 warnings. The traffic unit and patrol have been hitting this area pretty steadily lately
since this issue was raised. And again, we're trying to put our presence out there. I sit out there myself sometimes
for an hour or two, and I just love the reaction when they come up and they're about to roll the stop sign. They look
down the side street and there I am. And they spill their coffee because they hit the brakes so hard because they
had no intention of stopping until they saw me. This is a major issue, and frankly, the only way is going to be us
out there patrolling, enforcing, and getting the word out. We were brought up that there were an issue with the
collisions. So there have only been 4 reported collisions. Not saying there wasn't more, but only 4 of them have
been reported to us and only 2 of them required a state crash report. So the other 2 would have been handled by
exchanging information with the other driver, that kind of thing.
Parking in the traffic path. So the only parking issues we've seen is the residents themselves stopping at their own
mailboxes, the community mailboxes on Woodland Oaks. One of the issues that we've seen out there is they will
come up from the opposite direction, cut across a lane of traffic drive on the wrong side of the road, park, get their
mail, and now they have to pull out across traffic again. So I've personally given out a couple of warnings because
there's no exception for mailboxes or anything like that. You can't drive on the wrong side of the street. You can't
park facing traffic.
We were asked about the time of day. So most of the accidents that we've seen have been during daylight hours.
Only 1 of them was at night. The traffic stops and complaints are mostly occurring during the daylight hours.
About 70% of them are during daylight hours. So there have been in this area since January 2024, 204 Traffic
Related actions. So these are proactive patrols, us being out there, us responding to traffic complaints and traffic
stops in this area.
Ashley Park so absolutely we are seeing the same thing that the study showed. There is a significant issue with
speeding on Ashley Park since January 2024. There's been 17 stops. 10 of them were citations. 7 of them were
warnings. And that was strictly for speeding. There have been other traffic stops for other reasons. But, we are
hitting this area. We did let off a little bit when they were doing the speed studies because we don't want to affect
those speed studies.
Hollering Vine. Again, this was another big area. We have been out there, 22 stops with 8 citations, 14 warnings
for speeding alone. And we are correlating everything with the speed studies. We're seeing the same thing. It is
definitely an issue.
So we asked about traffic staffing for our traffic unit. So right now it is myself and I have two officers in the traffic
unit. Our current allocation is for myself and four officers. We have just hit 100% staffing in the department, but I
want to say 12 of those are in training. So they're either going through FTO with us, which is our field training,
which for an experienced officer coming over, takes about 3 months or so to get them on the road. For somebody
coming out of the academy with no experience. It's almost five to six months to get them on the road by
themselves. We also have a program where we sponsor cadets through the Academy. So the academy is 6 months
and then it's 6 months of training after that. So although we're seeing 100% staffing, that's not what's actually on
the road right now. And that's, you know, for the department. Until we can bring up those numbers and get officers
on the road in patrol, we have more positions over in the schools that we have to fill. We have a position in our
investigations that's still open, that needs to be filled. It's going to be tough for me to fight for more officers in
traffic when they're needed for patrol. So once we get our numbers on the road up, my positions will be filled. Our
traffic officers now are normally scheduled Monday through Friday from 7a-430p - the officers get every other
Friday off. So on Fridays there's either 1 traffic or 2 traffic officers here nights and weekends. Traffic is not
normally scheduled, so we do have patrol on nights and weekends. If a traffic complaint comes in, they'll handle it.
When I get complaints, I turn them over to the patrol sergeants so that their officers are out there addressing these
issues. But we also do different- I won't call them campaigns, but we do different specialty patrols. The last
weekend in August, I will be out there doing a DWI patrol. It's called Saturation Saturday sponsored by Madd.
Labor Day is coming. We want to let you know we're out here, don't drink and drive. And it's in the final approval
process. But I believe we're going to get a significant detail on Labor Day weekend to go out there and do DWI
enforcement. So although we're not scheduled normally on nights and weekends, we do come in for different
enforcement. So although we're not scheduled normally on nights and weekends, we do come in for different
things. And I have the ability; my boss is great. If I say, hey, we need to hit a certain area at a certain time, we can
flex our schedule, come in early. First week of school. All of our traffic officers are going to come in a little bit
early. So they're out in the traffic in the school zones prior to, to the school zones being open. Let everybody know
we're out there. I'm a drug recognition expert, so I'm available 24/7 for any drug related DWI investigations. So
3am on a Tuesday morning, if my phone rings, hey, we got somebody who we arrested, they're intoxicated, but we
don't think it's alcohol alone or we don't think it's alcohol. Then I come in and I do an evaluation on them, that kind
of thing. We also handle collision reconstruction. So any significant accidents, fatality accidents, accidents
involving serious bodily injury or felony charges, the traffic unit where all certified to come in and do the
investigation on it, try to reconstruct that accident, determine what happened. So the Fourth of July, we had a
fatality accident right here on Schertz Parkway, unfortunately. So my entire traffic unit came in in the middle of the
night and had to reconstruct that whole scene. So we are available 24/7 for things like that. So our workload, we
handle traffic complaints. All of the parking complaints that come in get funneled to us. And we handle most of the
major collisions during the normal working hours. We also have to do special details such as security for the
municipal court and events such as Shred Day, Clean the Creek, Food Bank, those kind of things. The traffic unit
goes out and we man those patrol can stay on the roads. So this is probably almost a month old at this point. Since
the beginning of the year, I was only on 474 calls for service. And that's because a lot of what I do is in the office
and doing things like putting this together, going to meetings. The two officers on the shift both have about 850
calls, so they're active. A lot of the traffic calls are faster handled faster than patrol. You know, patrol goes out
there and sometimes it's a 2–3-hour investigation, whereas traffic, we handle a higher volume of calls, but their
average traffic stop is 10 minutes or so. All right. So real quick we right now have our police department has the
city broken up into districts. So district 1 is everything from 1103 towards New Braunfels. District 2 is along the
highway from 1103 to the city limits. District 3 is from the highway down to about Live Oak/Maske. District 4 is
from there down just around 78 area and then District 5 is everything in Bexar County, with the exception of Pecan
Grove, but everything else in Bexar County is District 5. So that being said, these are the hot spots that we are
currently looking at. So these are places where I've gotten multiple complaints. So I get complaints in 5 major ways
through you or through the TSAC staff, through people calling in and through our dispatch. There's an online email
crime report that people contact us. And then the city has two other systems. One's called City View, one's called
GovQA. So five different ways that traffic complaints or parking complaints come into us. So these are all the spots
where I've had multiple complaints come in. And this is all within the past year or so. So just in District 1 alone,
you can see a lot of them are the ones that you guys hear about Cypress Point and Devonwood. Meadowhead,
Morningside Cliffside, all of the same complaints you guys get, we get and we get additional ones. So Hubertus
Road. In District 2 I mean you can see it's extensive. District 3, Schertz Parkway. We have the truck complaints,
but we've also been getting a lot of speeding complaints on Parkway recently. Wiederstein road if traffic backs up
on the highway.
Everybody's Apple Maps or Google Maps tells them to come down. The problem is they're still trying to do
highway speeds through Wiederstein. And then again, the Ashley Park, the Crest oak, Golden oak. I was out there
this morning about noontime on the motorcycle and made several stops out there on Crest Oak and Golden Oak.
District 4 again, extensive complaints. And then down in Bexar County, Mulhouse Drive, Alsatian way and then
again, 1518, especially with the construction, we got a lot of complaints out that way.
So going on to the issue with the trucks on Schertz Parkway, trucks with the railroads. So we made contact with
TxDOT regarding the signage. I've got a slide coming up in a minute. But 1518 from FM 78 to IH 35, we own part
of that. Selma owns part of it, but there's a section in the middle that is unincorporated Guadalupe County. Due to
that, the state rules that the counties cannot make a road a no truck route, only a municipality can. So with that in
the middle, even if Selma and our city agreed and passed ordinances to make 1518 a no truck route, we can't do it
because of that one section there. We can place signs on state highways, all of the farm to market roads and IH 35
so long as there. And we've gotten conflicting information, but about one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet
away, either side of a state sign. We can put our own signs up. We are allowed to put the weight limit signs on FM
78 and IH 35 access road, indicating the 15,000-pound weight limit on the parkway. So as I said, there's one
section between the dotted red lines is unincorporated Bexar County, Guadalupe County. So due to that, there's no
way to restrict the trucks on 1518 in that area. This is some of the existing signage that we have. So at First Street
and 78 and Randolph at 78, the low ground clearance signs you can see out there. And this is where we are
proposing to put the new low ground clearance signs. So there's going to be a whole lot more out there to be
ignored honestly. But at least it's out there for us to say, how did you miss this? Schertz Parkway at 78. These are
our existing signs. And these are the proposed signs. And you can see we're both adding low ground clearance signs
and the weight limit signs along with no through truck traffic signs.
Commisssion Starr asked can they be blinking flashing lit signs.
Sargeant Morehouse stated so some of them can. The ones that we have that are on city property can the ones on
the state highways, they have restrictions and I don't remember exactly what the restriction is, but it cannot be that
close to a traffic signal because of the confusion. But we can, we can take some of our signs, the existing TxDOT
signs. We cannot do anything with their signs, but our signs, we can put up the LED lights around them or
whatever there.
Commissioner Starr stated and I was just thinking that if they're lit, maybe it'd draw more attention to a trucker and
go, oh, there's a low crossing here. I can't do that. And prevent a train accident.
Sargeant Morehouse stated that's one of the things that that we are looking into. I don't know if any of you caught
it. It was KSAT out here the other morning and did a short piece on it. And that was one of the things that we
brought up, was we are going to be doing some lit signs. So, Schertz Parkway an IH 35, these are where our
existing signs are. And this is where we want to add signs. And again, it'll be the weight limit signs and no through
truck traffic signs. So we do have a suggestion also for putting signs at all the major entrances to the city. Simply
saying that authorized truck routes are the following, and it's all of the farm to market roads that go through the city
and IH 35. We could also add on those signs that there's a 15,000-pound weight limit on all city streets, because
our ordinance already says that. If you read our ordinance, it's a little confusing because it specifies certain
roadways that have a 15,000-pound weight limit, but also in the same ordinance, it says all city streets have a
15,000-pound weight limit. So I don't know if that might be something City Council will have to address is why are
we specifying certain roads when it's all city streets? It does make it confusing. Even my officers have come to me
and said, but that's not a weight limit. Then we're going to have I've reached out to TxDOT and want to see if we
can work with Selma and maybe put a sign on FM 1518 in their city before trucks come on to 1518 indicating that
there is a low clearance up ahead. I don't know what TxDOT rules are on that. I'm still waiting for a response.
So I also reached out to the GPS companies. Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze. Basically, they said, well, we show
that there's a train crossing there and that's all we're going to do. So they're bigger than we are. They're more
powerful than we are. They get to dictate the rules to us. I mean, life, right? I went and looked at truckers apps, and
there are several of them that are free out there. I downloaded them to my personal phone. Some of them work,
sometimes some of them work, once in a while, their free apps. You get what you pay for. Most of them are not
going to show anything on here that says low clearance, do not come this way. There's a couple of paid ones that
I've reached out to but have not - I'm trying to get a free demo from them to see what they have. And I guess
Schertz is not big enough and I don't have enough clout to get that yet, but I'm trying. There is a company called
Fleetworthy. Fleetworthy has an in-cab system that a lot of bigger truck companies use. As you're coming up to the
you've seen the truck weigh stations as you're coming up to it. In-cab system will alert them that there's an open
weigh station. And a lot of times it'll have scales on the road. And if you're way under the limit, it'll tell you to
bypass. It also does their toll roads. This is not a requirement. It's not like the electronic log books that are now a
requirement in every truck. It is an optional system, but I have reached out to them, and they have now added our
crossings to their system. So if a truck with an in-cab system comes up to any one of these roadways. The in-cab
system will send an alert to them and say, low ground clearance, do not go this way. So one victory so far.
Do you have any questions?
Commission Jamison stated you only got three officers that run traffic.
Sargeant Morehouse stated full time patrol officers run traffic.
Commissioner Jamison asked if patrol officers run traffic.
Sargeant Morehouse stated yes sir. Our patrol officers, when they're not on calls we try to keep them as busy as we
can. And traffic stops is one of the things that that they often do.
Commissioner Jamison stated this was a very informative presentation, I appreciate it. Thank you. You've got five
districts. You showed a lot of different streets on there and everything else. There's no way with you. And even
with 4, if patrol's not out there doing the same thing. So the stats you gave us tonight were just from you and your
other two officers. Nothing from patrol, correct.
Sargeant Morehouse stated so right now, as far as traffic stops go, the traffic unit itself is making about 40% of the
traffic stops. So the three of us are out there hitting just traffic, but the other 60% patrols out there doing okay. So
they, they are staying active. They are hitting those areas that, you know, I pass on to them, but their main priority
is going to calls, disturbances, fraud calls, whatever the case may be. That's their priority. They're what they do
when they're not going to calls is things like traffic stops in the 5 districts.
Commissioner Jamison asked how many officers do you normally have on a shift for the department?
Sargeant Morehouse stated that our minimum staffing on each shift is 5 officers or 5 people between sergeants and
officers. Our biggest patrol shift right now, I believe is 9 officers if everybody's here. Well, 7 officers and 2
sergeants.
Commissioner Heyward asked this is just a question, and it's more for to get it out. For anyone who's looking at
this as an independent trucker is my understanding that for the railroad crossing, if a truck gets stuck on there, that
trucker is responsible for all the damages. Is that correct?
Sargeant Morehouse stated absolutely. And in fact, the accident that we had was it February. Right here on Schertz
Parkway. There was a truck carrying a couple of ambulances on a on a flatbed that got stuck on the track on the
parkway. And between the, the train and all of their expenses, we went through and found out every officer fire,
personnel, EMS that responded there, how long we spent on there, what equipment was out there, what damage
they did to our, uh, our property, like our sidewalk in that. Not anything to do with the railroad. We total all of that
up. And my understanding is that has been submitted to the Truckers insurance company. So hopefully we get
reimbursed. And I just ask that for anyone who knows an independent trucker, larger companies do a little better
than they actually have the equipment to help route them around. But those indies- you're going out of business,
especially when the railroad gets a hold of you. I was told that I believe for every ten minutes the railroad is
stopped. It's something like a $1,000,000. Because not only does it affect that train, but it also affects trains
nationwide, and they have to reroute or slow down or I mean it, it messes up their schedule. So it is very expensive
on their side, and I believe that that trucker told me that day. He goes, well, that's the end of my career. My
business is gone. I'll never get insurance again. And he's probably right.
Commissioner Dziewet stated thank you so very much for the information. It's great. It's something I guess I know I
hadn't heard about all of this before. It's really great. And I do appreciate the service that your group does for all of
this. Thank you.
6.Future Agenda Items Requests from Commissioners
Commissioner Ragsdale asked if we could invite representatives from TxDOT to come to our next meeting to
explain the relationship that we have with them. It would probably help all of the new board members to
understand what's going on and how we interface with those people.
Kathy Woodlee stated I apologize for not bringing that up proactively because you did reach out to us and I did
talk to Dale Pica with TxDOT who has come and spoken previously, and he'll be really excited to come. He might
bring someone else from his office along, to get some planning for the future there, get the next folks at TxDOT
too. So if anybody has any particular issues or questions that you have, if you would email them to Tammy. And
we can send them over so that he can be even more prepared. I mean, he'll probably come in and give a bit of a
presentation, but he can be even more prepared if you have particular things you'd like him to address.
Commissioner Jamison stated the only thing that I would like is maybe an update on FM 1518 construction. This is
on my second meeting, so I don't know if they've been here and done that already but be curious to see what's going
on out there and everything.
Adjournment 7.
Motion made by Commissioner Wiley. Seconded by Commissioner Heyward. Motion passed.
Meeting ended at 6:50 PM by Commissioner Dziewet
Attest:
______________________________ ________________________________
Richard Dziewit, Chairperson Tammy Lawrence, Recording Secretary