Final TSAC 8-6-26 MinutesTransportation Safety Advisory Commission Minutes
Thursday, August 6, 2026
The Transportation Safety Advisory Commission (TSAC) convened for a Called Meeting on
Thursday, August 6, 2026, at 5:30 PM in the Council Chambers, Building #4
1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas 78154
Present: Richard Dziewit, 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;
1. Call to Order/Roll Call – Transportation Safety Advisory Commission
Called at 5:30 PM by Chairman Richard Dziewit. Chairman Dziewit also thanked Commissioner
Heyward for doing a great job at the June meeting.
2. Hearing of Residents
None
3. Minutes: Consideration/Action for approval of June 4, 2026, TSAC Meeting Minutes
Motion was made by Commissioner Starr. Seconded by Commissioner Ragsdale. Motion passed.
4. Traffic Related Item Updates:
a. Ashley Park Speeding
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 as 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 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 strip 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 there. 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.
b. Hollering Vine speeding- speed hump installation will start next week.
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.
c. Primrose/Medical Bldgs. accessing SPW
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.
d. Curling Post and Sagenite Signage
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.
e. Speeding on Devonwood & Cypress Point
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.
f. Davenport Speeding-Signage Review
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.
g. Green Valley School Signage
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.
h. Woodland Oaks Drive Safety concerns
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.
5. Staff Comments and/or New Requests
a. Crest Oak and Golden Oak
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.
b. Hubertus Road Sidewalks
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.
c. Safety campaigns
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.
d. TSAC Budget
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 Dziewit 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 Dziewit 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 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.
e. PD Presentation
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 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 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 run traffic patrol officers run traffic.
Commissioner Jamison asked if patrol officers run travel.
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.
Sargeant Morehouse stated 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 Dziewit 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.
7. Adjournment
Motion made by Commissioner Wiley. Seconded by Commissioner Heyward. Motion passed.
Meeting ended at 6:50 PM by Commissioner Dziewit
Attest:
______________________________ ________________________________
Richard Dziewit, Chairperson Tammy Lawrence, Recording Secretary