Brownwood City Council approved granting a $300,000 infrastructure incentive to Leeco for retail development at Tuesday’s council meeting.
According to Brownwood City Attorney Pat Chesser, the council approved the incentives (after meeting in executive session) to develop two retail pad sites, upon which two restaurants will locate, and the development of a retail strip center with approximately 18,000 square feet of retail space.
The location of the shopping center is adjacent to United Supermarket in the 400 block of E. Commerce in Brownwood, the previous location of the Value Lodge.
Brownwood Mayor Stephen Haynes announced at the Brownwood Chamber of Commerce luncheon held in June of this year that McAlister’s Deli will open a new location in Brownwood in the first quarter of 2016. The Value Lodge was recently demolished and the approval of the incentives marks a step closer to the construction beginning.
In other matters on Tuesday’s city council agenda:
*Council held a public hearing on a proposal to increase the total tax revenues from properties on the tax roll by 3.88% by adopting the proposed tax rate of $.7463 per $100 value. This is regarding the effective tax rate, in terms of the city’s total tax revenues. Mayor Stephen Haynes pointed out that the city’s tax rate will not increase; it will in fact remain unchanged. The tax rate will be considered for adoption on first reading on September 15th meeting and on second and third/final readings on September 18th.
*Council approved the Brownwood Economic Development Corporation’s $1,900,743 2015/2016 annual budget. According to BEDC Executive Director Guy Andrews, total expenses will exceed the total revenue by $61,143. Andrews explained that total expenses were 9.7% less than budgeted in 2014/2015. BEDC has $3,000,000 in cash reserves according to Andrews.
*The Meet and Confer Agreement between the City of Brownwood and Brownwood Municipal Police Association (BMPA) was approved for a one year term, October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016. Highlights of the agreement provide for all officers (excluding the School Resource Officer) will be 84 hours per two week pay period. CID officers were previously 80 hours. This increase provides for uniformity with patrol officers. Total payroll for base salaries were increased by 4% overall with pay scales giving individual raises as follows (after review of the comparable sized cities salary survey was completed): 5.5% increase for patrol officers; 2.1% increase for corporals, 0.49% for sergeants; and 8.5% for lieutenants. City Manager Emily Crawford stated that the raises were divided in the above manner in order to allocate more of the increases in salaries to the positions that had the greater disparity in salaries as compared to that of other similar sized cities included in the survey.
*The Meet and Confer Agreement between the City of Brownwood and the Brownwood Professional Firefighters Association (BPFFA) was approved for a one year term, October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016. Highlights of the agreement include increased probation for promotional positions, clarifying the extension of a probationary period in the event of sickness, injury or family leave (Family Medical Leave Act); a 4% raise in base salaries, and changing performance evaluations from semi-annual to annual.
*Council voted to authorize a contract with Tri-Stem, Ltd. to conduct an audit of franchise fees received from Oncor Electric and Atmos Energy. According to Mayor Haynes, this contract is the same as it has been in past years and for a number of years the city has seen a good rate of success through the audit.
*Council approved mayoral reappointments of Charlene Tedford, Mary Acuna, and Cathy Day to the Brownwood Housing Authority Board. All three terms will run from September 15, 2015 through September 15, 2017.
