Loading...
02-05-2015 Approved Workshop MinutesNortheast Partnership for Economic Development City of Cibolo Cibolo Municipal Building 200 S. Main Cibolo, Texas 78108 MINUTES OF SPECIAL JOINT WORKSHOP FEBRUARY 5,2015,6:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order and Establish a Quorum. Mayor Carpenter called the workshop to order at 6:00 p.m., as a quorum was present. Mayor Carpenter welcomed those present. NEP Members present were: Mayor Michael Carpenter, Schertz Mayor Mary Dennis, Live Oak Mayor Lisa Jackson, Cibolo Mayor John Williams, Universal City Mayor Tom Daly, Selma Acting Mayor Nadine Knaus, Garden Ridge Mayor Timothy Wilson, Kirby Mayor Pro -Tern Jay Hogue, Cibolo Guadalupe Regional Mayor's Association: Mayor Gil Merkle, City of New Berlin Mayor Jeff Hunt, City of Santa Clara Mayor Barron Casteel, City of New Braunfels Mayor Glenn Hild, City of Marion Mayor Pro -Tem Bill Seiler, City Of Marion Chief of Staff for Mayor Ivy Taylor, Jill DeYoung, City of San Antonio 2. Introduction Mayor Carpenter thanked everyone for being here this evening and went around the room and those present introduced themselves. Mayor Carpenter stated that he had invited the Guadalupe Regional Mayor Association this evening to join them. Mayor Carpenter stated that this is the normal Northeast Partnership Mayor's Workshop meeting, which we have the first Thursday of the month and then the following Thursday we have our luncheon that we have at Olympia Hills Golf and Conference center. Under normal circumstances and outside the legislative session we would just meet and talk about what is going on with our individual cities and what is going on with the Northeast Partnership. Mayor Carpenter stated that this evening we are continuing a discussion on the current legislative session and talking about bills that are of concern to cities and planning on how we are going to make our presence known in Austin during this legislative session. 3. Old Business (a) Discussion regarding the 2015 Legislative Bill proposals, (b) Discussion regarding upcoming 2015 Legislative Session: Mayor Carpenter stated that the last time they met they talked about a number of things, one of which was our lack of ability to hire a full time lobbyist financially. We talked about do we make a single trip to Austin, do we make multiple trips, do we go in pairs. Do we break up individual bills that we have interest in and assign pairs to work on those individually? He stated that we didn't come to any final decisions, so this evening is an opportunity to talk further about some of the bills that are out there but mostly what our plans are to act as a group and the Guadalupe County Mayors that have joined us this evening we are hoping that you will be just as interested and want to join in and participate and then start planning on when we are going to go up on our first trip and how we are going to manage as we go through this session. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Barron Casteel, City of New Braunfels stating that his mom served two (2) terms in the house, and he is familiar with what goes on in Austin. Mayor Carpenter thanked Mayor Casteel for being here this evening. Mayor Carpenter mentioned the City - related bills filed list, (67 pages) that was obtained on the TML Website. Mayor Carpenter and those present discussed the following bills: - HB 365 — Revenue Cap: would (1) lower the property tax rollback rate from eight percent to four percent, with an exception for a city located in an area declared a disaster area by the governor or president of the United States during the current tax year; and (2) provide that a city must hold a ratification election to adopt a tax rate that exceeds the four - percent rollback rate (as opposed to current law, which only requires an election if a petition is received from the Citizens). (Companion bill is SB 182) Mayor Carpenter stated there is a ton of legislation that has been proposed and most of which is in a committee that seeks to either provide us with unfunded mandates about reporting or seeks to limit what we can do as municipalities. He stated that one of the bills has an eight year term limit for everyone in the state, no matter where you are. There are other bills on how we can issue debt, how we have to report that to Austin, how we have to word it on the ballot, and it goes on and on. He stated that it appears to be a somewhat conservative largely Republican State Legislature that is all about big government control of the locals. Mayor Carpenter asked the group what they wanted to do as far as planning our first trip up to Austin. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor John Williams who more have gone to Austin and have done this. Timing wise, they just seated their committees yesterday, so things are not moving fast in the house. The Senate got ahead of them and they got their committees seated ten (10) days ago. Mayor Carpenter asked Mayor Williams when the group thinks they should make their first trip and do they think we should all go up one time, or break it up into two (2); just thoughts. Mayor Williams stated that for sure we all need to go once all together, everyone. He stated that the strength in numbers has a tremendous impact and following up in pairs of small groups. Again he stated we all need to go up in one large group showing our unity, and that unity makes a big difference in Austin, not only with our delegation but with others that may have an interest in the bills that have been introduced. Mayor Williams stated that the property tax one really is an issue; for those of us that have to rely on property tax for 99 percent of our revenue that would be a brutal hit to not allow us the opportunity to be flexible. You drop it to 4 percent and that is a huge impact. We have to fight for every single one of those "unfunded mandates" as you put it. Mayor Williams indicated that we need to get up there in the next two (2) weeks, no more than a month from now because the last day to file the bills is March 10th; we got to be up there before that time. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Casteel and asked him from his view and experience, when do things in Austin start flowing out of committees? Mayor Casteel stated that everyone basically is going home Thursday and comes back on Tuesday at least for the next two (2) weeks. Once the Committees start forming they will start organizing more, but the next two weeks they will still be going home on Thursdays; after that things begin to heat up, and of course after all the bills are filed, that is when it really heats up, so after the bill deadline that's the squeeze. Mayor Casteel stated that your appraisal caps and rollback cap is a really strong push by Dan Patrick, Lieutenant Governor. With the change on the Senate rules on how to get things through, you are going to see the State forcing some type of appraisal design; they have been pushing this for years, and now they are in charge. Mayor Casteel also mentioned that once you reach 50,000 in population there are other responsibilities and mandates and that's what they are facing and having to look at. Mayor Casteel also mentioned about all the clean water rules that are hitting his City and that will be hitting others soon. Mayor Casteel indicated that absolutely you want to go up and reinforce bills that will affect your cities. He also indicated to get with your State Representatives and get them involved. Mayor Casteel also mentioned that TML has a lobby arm and it is good to tell them about our concerns. Mayor Dennis, City of Live Oak stated that she had recently conducted a conference call with TML last Tuesday and they were going to draft a Resolution and take it to the Speaker of the House and see what his thoughts were. She stated that they were going to pay a company to do a study to say how much cities would look at if the revenues were capped. She stated that they say he is asking for four (4) percent, but he really wants six (6) for the rollback. She stated that they were going to update the study and provide that to Speaker Strauss hopefully this week. Mayor Casteel said to pick a day and TML will help organize and do a lot of your leg work before you get there. Mayor Carpenter again recognized Mayor Williams who stated that we need to get someone from TML down to our next meeting. Mayor Dennis stated that she sits on the TML Board and if they can give her a date, maybe Bennett Sandlin or Sharma Igo could come. Mayor Williams stated that Sharma Igo has always been our contact person; if she could come and provide us with information on what the critical issues are. Mayor Carpenter concurred to get Sharma to come and speak to us before we go to Austin. Mayor Carpenter asked the group how often they would like to meet while they are in session here at the beginning part. Mayor Carpenter suggested that they meet every two (2) weeks and do nothing but have focus time on what is going on in session. Members agreed. The next scheduled meeting will be February 19, 2015. Mayor Carpenter asked the group if there was anything particular that they have looked at that they are excited about or want to work on. Mayor Tom Daly, City of Selma stated that he is excited what would allow us to bypass the advertisements in newspapers now and let all that information go on -line; this will save us a lot of time and effort. Mayor Carpenter concurred. Members present discussed this issue. Members discussed the bills regarding mobile devices; Mayor Carpenter stated the ones he has seen are relatively intelligent. They don't band their use; they're really saying you can't text on them. Mayor Wilson, City Of Kirby stated that the one that he is concerned with is the one on open carry. If you take that and put open carry in a small city like the City of Kirby, we have two officers that are on duty that patrol their city, and you are not used to seeing someone walking in their city carrying a gun. Every time someone sees that, that is going to take our resources away from their normal patrol and what they are supposed to be doing is to be handling those calls. People are then going to be complaining that State Laws say they can carry. This is an issue that he has gone around and around with; to him it is not made in today's society for our area, yet if you live in say Karnes County and no one else is around you within 25 miles, then that's a different purpose, and it's still the country. This is not good in the urban setting. Members discussed their views on this issue. Mayor Carpenter stated that they are going to have differences of opinions within this body, so let's discuss how we are going to deal with conflicts of opinion on this issue. Mayor Carpenter stated that they are going to have different points of view on these things and are we not going to speak to these things as a group when we have different opinions or are we going to force a majority where we agree. How are we going to handle this? Mayor Daly stated that when we are up there as a whole, you can break off as an individual to go see the representative yourself on these types of issues. Members agreed to do this should they have differences of opinions that each one would go individually to advocate for or against. Mayor Daly agreed we should focus on issues as a group and if you have a separate issue you believe in, then go individually, and have a white paper drawn up by you. Members concurred. Mayor Carpenter stated that the consensus is that unless we all agree, none of us will represent when we have a differencing of opinion of the group, unless we want support of a specific issue and agree that it is not controversial. Mayor Carpenter also asked the Mayors that were here with the Guadalupe Regional Mayor Association if they also agreed. What he would like is on the things that we all agree, both groups, Northeast Partnership and the Guadalupe Regional Mayors Association be able to have our list that we can carry with us when any of us are up in Austin and say the Northeast Partnership for Economic Development and the Guadalupe Regional Mayors Association all together have the following opinions on the following bills and be able to hit everyone with those. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Daly who stated that we have two (2) weeks, present this to our staff as well as ourselves, look at the bills, see what is important and what do we think is important in our area, present white papers and bring copies back in two (2) weeks to this group. Then we can look at what we have and see where we are hitting on and concentrate on the ones that are important as a whole. Mayor Carpenter also again mentioned to have Sharma either come next week or try to get her to come on the 19th at our next meeting. Mayor Daly asked if we could get Shanna to forward to our City Managers what TML thinks are the critical issues that are going on in our area and have our staff look at them. Mayor Carpenter recognized Acting Mayor Knaus, Graden Ridge, who stated that TML has basically already looked at these, and what we need to decide is if we agree with TML's positon. If we agree with TML's position then we do not have to re- invent the wheel, we simply agree. Members concurred. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Dennis who stated that if you go to the TML site you will see that they put out a daily exchange regarding issues across the State and you can find their stance on the different issues. Mayor Carpenter mentioned TML's most recent survey that they sent out to member cities and asked if everyone had a chance to fill it out. The mayor encouraged everyone to go to their website and fill out the survey. Mayor Williams, Universal City, stated the opportunity to go to Austin and speak to the various committees regarding bills that are being pushed is very important. If there is something that really jumps out to us we need to volunteer to go up and testify. This is a very important part of this process. Mayor Carpenter requested that we all keep up with what we are doing so that we are not replicating any effort. So anyone that is taking on something in particular or once to champion or represent, to keep everyone informed so we do not have multiple people working on the same thing. Mayor Carpenter stated that he has taken the day off and is going to Austin on Friday. Some of the individuals he wants to visit with like Senator Campbell will be there and then he will be going from office to office to meet staffers and start the ball rolling, letting them know that they are here and are going to be around and asked if there were things you would like to tell us about, let's hear from you, we are going to come talk to you, etc.. He is just going to spend the day there getting this going, and will be going by Representative Farias' office to let him know that we are getting this planned to come down so that they can secure us a room as he had earlier indicated. Mayor Carpenter asked the group what else and recognized Mayor Dennis who asked about the bus and will we be securing a bus for everyone to go up together. Mayor Williams stated he had provided this information to Acting Mayor Knaus and that this is the best way to travel. Acting Mayor Knaus stated that she has all the information and is just waiting on a date and how many will be going. Once this has been decided then she can finalize the arrangements. Mayor Carpenter also stated that we are going to be going up there multiple times and would like to know if it would be ok with reimbursing some minimal expenses for any members that go up to Austin. Just bring back receipts and provide them to Acting Mayor Knaus. Members discussed placing this on the next meeting agenda for action and approval. Mayor Williams asked the representative from San Antonio what are some of the key priorities they have in Austin. Mayor Carpenter recognized Chief of Staff Jill DeYoung who stated there are few things they are looking at. She stated that she could forward to the group the information San Antonio has prepared. She discussed the importance of having a lobbyist. Mayor Carpenter stated that they do not have the financial funds yet to afford a full time lobbyist, but we probably could afford a partial session lobbyist. The challenge is how effective will that be; could it be if they are not developing relationships well throughout the year before the bills are submitted, how effective would they be for 90 days. Mayor Dennis stated that they had a lobbyist come and bring them a budget but it was out of their price range. Mayor Casteel asked what would be their price range as he knows a few. Mayor Carpenter stated that the one who approached them was relatively in- expensive; he wanted $3,000 a month for a 12 -month contract. Mayor Casteel stated that that was a good price. Mayor Carpenter stated that we as a group on the amount that we contribute as cities is per capita and we bring in about $10,000 a year, which means we have to save three years or more to have one year of lobbying. Short answer, we do not command the amount of money we should to have a full time lobbyist. The Members discussed the ability to host fund raising events during the year in order to raise funds for this. Chief of Staff DeYoung stated that the City of San Antonio has a whole legislative package that she would like to email to each of them. Again, Chief of Staff DeYoung stated that a lobbyist, the right lobbyist goes further than you think. The right lobbyist would know each of the cities and what their issues are. She stated that she does know a few lobbyists that she would hire. Mayor Williams asked what about the key issues and concerns that we come up with. We could theoretically hire someone that could go up to Austin and advocate on our behalf and push those key issues, and if we have to pay them $6,000 to $9,000 then maybe they could be upfront with our positions and how we feel about these things and be there constantly knocking on doors. Mayor Carpenter stated that he enjoys going up to Austin and playing "politics" is his favorite thing. Mayor Carpenter stated that he is going to be taking vacation time throughout the session and he will be going. Mayor Casteel stated the reason you hire a lobbyist is not to get something passed, this person is there to kill something that your local representative is going to prove. The lobbyist brings to the table all the other representatives and senators that are our representatives. Ms. DeYoung stated that if you had a lobbyist and each one of you wanted to go up there, they get you to the right people at the right time. She continued stating there are staff members in Austin that are equally important to visit and get to know. Mayor Carpenter stated that is why he is going up tomorrow. Mayor Carpenter stated that this is really our first foray in this manner. In the past we have at least gone up once and made ourselves heard and come back and gone on with business. This is the first time we are doing extended work and we are now including people outside of the Northeast Partnership group, some of our colleagues from other cities around Guadalupe County. Mayor Carpenter stated that this is a first step and we will probably have the appetite for a lobbyist down the road. Mayor Carpenter stated that the Guadalupe County Mayors Association is not formalized as a non - profit corporation; it's simply a friendly group of Mayors that meet from time to time; no dues are paid into anything and no financial resources go to this group. Mayor Daly stated that as a representative of San Antonio, and there are cities here this evening that are in Bexar County, they would like to see the paperwork from San Antonio they have sent up. Mayor Carpenter asked Ms. DeYoung to send this to Brenda Dennis and she will disseminate it out to the group. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Pro -Tern Seiler who stated that one of the organizations he sits on is as a realtor in the Governmental Affairs Committee of Realtors Association and they have gone through this process and have the same type of papers Ms. DeYoung has and he will be forwarding to the group the issues from the Texas Association of Realtors (TAR) that affect all of us as elected officials. This is what they forward to all of the Government Affairs Committees to localize and interview candidates in the local elections. Mayor Pro -Tem Seiler also stated that this is a great group to consult with and they pretty much take the same stand as the cities do, and everyone now and then might bump heads regarding city ordinances, but most of the time they go along with the cities. Mayor Carpenter requested that Mayor Pro-Tern Seiler also send this to Brenda Dennis to disseminate out to the group. He stated that then we can compare the two, and although it will be a combination because of the different focus, it is the same political dynamics. Mayor Carpenter concurred as well as us having the information from TML. Mayor Pro- Tem Seiler stated that if we go against TAR on certain issues then we would need to clear it with them stating we're not going to support you on certain issues and go on our own way. Sometimes this is good or bad, but it's usually only on local issues and with this group it is big enough and we have enough across the board that you are going to end up with a whole series of information on how we are going to do this and to draw from. Mayor Carpenter stated that when we meet in two weeks we need to be in a position to go through a number of items that we get from the groups to include TML, and get TML's top 10 issues and then go around the group and see if we agree and to advocate for or against, etc. Mayor Dennis asked could you hire somebody that already has a lobbyist and piggyback with them. She stated that the Realtors have a lobbyist, so could we piggyback with them and then it wouldn't cost us so much? Mayor Pro -Tem Seiler stated that TAR has a whole organization sitting at the Capital. He stated that there are lobbyists already out there connected to different areas, it might be a question we would want to ask, something like cost sharing. Mayor Carpenter asked if there was anything else on the legislative session they wanted to discuss and recognized Mayor Jackson who stated if we are going to meet in two weeks, where are we going to meet and what time, and do we want to come up with a date in which we all will be going to Austin or decide this in two weeks? Mayor Carpenter suggested maybe the first week after the closing of bills being filed. Mayor Williams stated no later than that and we need enough lead time to secure transportation and secure the room from Representative Farias' office. Mayor Williams stated that last year after they had spoken to TML they looked at some windows of time and then decided on some positional dates and then contacted Representative Farias' office to assist with getting them a meeting room. We have to have a place to assemble and this year Representative Farias' office has reached out to us again so we just need to provide them with some dates. Mayor Carpenter stated that if we think we want to go up the week of March 9th then he could go to Representative Farias' office staffers tomorrow and say we think we would like to come up on March 9th; could you take a look at it. Members present discussed the date and provided information when the college is on Spring Break. Members agreed to make this decision at their next meeting. Members discussed the next meeting and set it for Thursday, February 19, 2015, 6:30 p.m. at the City of Selma. 3. Old Business (b) Alamo Area MPO Update/Issues Mayor Carpenter stated that now that we have the Guadalupe Mayors here, one of the things we need to talk about and discuss involves Cibolo more than anyone else, is the possibility of FM 1103 coming across to Interstate 10, and then as we go north, involves New Braunfels. They are talking about a road in Guadalupe County that goes from IH 35 over to SH 130. Connecting SH 130 and IH 35 and connecting IH 35 and IH 10 through our county will help over time in his mind change the way that our traffic patterns go, and economic development wise will open up a host of possibilities. Mayor Carpenter asked for comments or thoughts on both of these, and then we will share with our folks at MPO. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Tom Daly, City of Selma, who talked about Proposition 1, which is found money, but they do not have any idea as to how the found money will be distributed and how much is going to be there. He stated that at the last MPO meeting they stated that they had no idea how much money will be available due to the current oil prices. He stated that they have already put their projects in for the next 15/20/30 years, and some of these are at least 10 years out. He said that Proposition 1 stated that they are going to get to specific projects but when they do get to them the prices are going to be more than what they propose they are and the money will not be there. Mayor Daly stated so Proposition 1 right now to him is a fantasy, unless you get a hit on it the first couple of years with the money, which allows it to be engineered and designed in the overall, but we don't know if they are going to get to these projects. He stated the MPO is excited about Proposition 1, which is money that they didn't have, the same thing, we have to keep reinstituting these projects back in every time it's time to write them. He stated that in 2016 you can put your projects back in and encourages everyone to continue to do this for funds coming in from the State. Mayor Daly stated that it seems like it is more beneficial to tap an FM or TxDOT road as this is what they are pushing. Lookout Road was the only local road that was picked from the Proposition 1 money; the rest were FM roads, TxDOT roads and Bexar County roads. Mayor Daly stated that he is dealing with Commissioner Kyle Kutscher and he has some good ideas and they will be sitting down next week to try to help out with FM 1103. Mayor Daly stated that they are grabbing what they had to do; it has taken a year and it will take a lot more. You have to go make friends behind doors, get your own group on who is backing what; we are starting to feel that, it happened a year ago when they gave everyone the projects. He stated they probably were not going to address you for years and years to come. He stated that he was told by Renee Green the first day that he was there as the MPO Representative you guys had seven projects last year, and don't even bother. He told that to Sid Martinez that he might as well just ship in a cardboard copy of himself, as he was told the first day to just shut up. Mayor Daly stated that he says more behind doors than he does sitting at the meetings. He stated he is strong and adamant as the MPO Representative trying to get Lookout Road as one of the projects stating that they were the only ones giving 50 percent of the money, the ones who already completed the study and were ready to go and they were ignored. He stated that he has had conversations with Mayor Riley and will be setting up meetings next week to address Lookout Road as they have businesses coming in along this road and we have to get this road completed. Mayor Daly continued stating that he has had conversations with others who say that they cannot wait for MPO; they must start right now making moves. Mayor Daly stated that they are doing better with getting recognized by MPO, but they have given the money to TxDOT, Bexar County and San Antonio roads. Mayor Casteel stated that the money provided were to those that the projects were ready, and if not ready they are going to be moved out. Mayor Casteel stated that there are other MPO's that are looking to take our money, and that cannot happen. Mayor Daly agreed and stated that is why they had to pass the plan for 2040 and address this as well as roads in other cities. Mayor Casteel stated that in speaking about FM 1103 and who all this will impact, if the cities around FM 1103 want this, they would love to see this, because Hwy 46 is a disaster; it will never not be congested as long as it is the only thing north of San Antonio that's a connector between IH 35 and IH 10. Mayor Daly stated that Hwy 46 is one of the key things they are working on right now. Mayor Casteel stated that even if Hwy 1103 was completed you still would have to have a high speed connection to SH 130 North off of 11135. Mayor Casteel stated that there is a lot of interest in San Antonio for a SH 130 connector, so when you start trying to figure out ways to the SH 130 connector you can find other projects that they will be willing to back. Mayor Jackson stated that they had a meeting last week with over thirteen people and are starting conversations and plans on coming up with other ideas for FM 1103 and not waiting. Mayor Casteel stated that another thing they are doing to match MPO the correct way is when you have a project like the expansion of Lookout Road and you're too far away is to look at a Texas Reinvestment Zone (TRZ). He stated this normally scares individuals because they hear tax reinvestment zone; this has nothing to do with the developer, there is no money to the developer, this money is all for TxDOT. TxDOT doesn't quite understand this yet and they want to do things the way they have always done, which is they pick the project and you get to say nothing. With a TRZ, when they are looking at putting money into different places you create a zone and the increment. Then you deal with TxDOT; you have created a funding source for them to design and engineer when it wasn't on the list. You have suddenly opened up something that they can work on when the found money occurs, because they already have the money to work on it and design it. Mayor Casteel stated that before you commit to a TRZ, because it is an expensive process, a lot of surveying and a lot of economic analysis, make sure you get all the information. Mayor Jackson stated that there were two companies at their recent meeting and they are looking at doing something like this. She stated that they received a lot of dialogue and understand the vision of the project that if FM 1103 were to be a high speed connector, it's going to open up everything for all of us, specifically with all the building going on in New Braunfels, Cibolo and everyone that is traveling down IH 35 to either get to San Antonio or other areas, that is now an overflow area and this will open up economic development in all of our cities that we will prosper from, getting over to IH 10. She stated that this is a long term vision — master plan, and again we cannot sit back and wait or it's going to be gridlock. She went on to say that their voters passed a 7 million dollar bond to upgrade that road and TxDOT had told them before we put this on the ballot that if this passed they would match it dollar for dollar and then they throw in another 4 million that they fund, so now our 7 million dollars that our voters voted on is now 18 million. She stated that this is a drop in the bucket ultimately of what they need, but we are moving in the right direction, and there is a big part of Schertz on FM 1103 as well. She stated it was a very productive meeting and that they came away from the meeting very optimistic. Mayor Daly again asked everyone when they do start looking and formulating our roads from the various cities to let him know and he will be able to assist in pushing these forward, as they will be looking at different roads next year, and he can assist. Mayor Daly said when he was lobbying this year he noticed that roads in Kirby like Ackerman Road showed up on the list and he didn't know. Mayor Wilson from Kirby stated that they were actually pushing two roads. Ackerman Road was one of those strange roads and they had conducted a traffic study and found that people cheat off IH -10 and come down Ackerman Road through the City of Kirby and then go north to San Antonio or north to the county. The results were 23,000 cars coming down this road. How does he justify this to his residents. He would have to push for a $500 million dollar bond to pay for a road that has ten times the amount of cars that are not in Kirby but use it. Mayor Daly stated that our road issues are a tough sell sometimes but if we communicate our issues of the effects and we lobby for them there are successes. He will continue to get the backing from the MPO on our issues. Mayor Daly indicated that they are making a lot more progress than before in the last year that he saw. He stated that when you are dealing with 21 people that only care about their areas, it is hard to push your project through. You got to go and start to make friends and let your issues be known. Mayor Williams stated that there is a big sergeant on Commuter Rail that directly affects two of our cities - Schertz and Live Oak. Mayor Dennis stated that she met with Lone Star Rail about two weeks ago and will again be meeting with them next Tuesday. Mayor Williams stated that there are issues that affect all of us, even areas on FM 78; they spoke about the relocation of freight trains that will now be going through areas. Mayor Carpenter stated that this is germane to the Guadalupe County group, for Lone Star Rail to work Union Pacific is going to drop new rail lines that are going to cut right through our county. These are going to be high speed rail lines and there are going to be hazardous materials and such going through the middle of our counties, so we have a balance to think about. It is going to be very interesting how this plays out. Mayor Williams stated that this is a huge compounding issue, some things are positive and some things are negative. He stated that we need to stay on top of this and right now the proposed stops are one in Schertz, one in Live Oak and one in New Braunfels. Mayor Williams stated that there seems to be a lot of interest. Mayor Carpenter stated yes a lot of interest but not a lot of money. Mayor Daly stated that this was also a topic at the MPO and he did let them know that this is an important thing for San Antonio because if you look at cities like Denver, they thought well ahead of time to start a train system. He thinks this is an important thing for us to think about getting it to San Antonio as it would alleviate traffic on IH 35. Mayor Carpenter thanked again the Mayors from the Guadalupe County Group for joining them this evening and we will continue the invitation through the session. We will meet every two weeks, and after the session is over maybe we could continue to have a couple of joint sessions a year with each other to talk about what the two groups are up to. Mayor Carpenter stated that we as the Guadalupe group have something we want to pursue and it will not hurt to have the rest of the Mayors in the Northeast Partnership Group to be on board with us and vice versa. 4. New Business: 1. Discussion on Randolph Air Force Base. No discussion was held. 5. Items of Interest by the Member cities. Members discussed that the next meeting for the Guadalupe Regional Mayor's Association is Wednesday, February 18, 2015. Members are waiting for Doreen with Guadalupe County to get back with them and send out the invitation. Mayor Casteel stated that if it is Wednesday then he would be able to host. They agreed to get in contact with Doreen and let her know that Wednesday, February 18, 2015 is a good date and that the City of New Braunfels will host. 6. Establish a Date, Time and Location of the next meeting. All present agreed to meet in two weeks, February 19, 2015, 6:30 p.m., at the City of Selma. 7. Adjournment. Mayor Carpenter adjourned the joint meeting at 7:43 p.m. PASSED AND APPROVED THIS DA 2015. Mayor Michael R. Carpenter, NEP Chairman