City Council Picks Up Tab for Reduced Retiree Health Insurance Benefit

A full house showed up for the November 5th City Council meeting.  Most wanted to speak about the retiree health benefit, a promise made by management during a time San Angelo provided the lowest wages in Texas for staff.  

Council voted to reduce the retiree health benefit by adding a $500 health deductible and a $250 charge for outpatient surgery. Many retirees get less than $500 a month from their public pension while others get between $500 and $1,000. 

The current Police Chief suggested a fund be established to help those retirees who cannot meet the new financial burdens imposed.  

City Council voted to pay the whole tab for the increase to retiree insurance, albeit with the benefit reduction.

Not one person mentioned the 85% tax abatement to a private equity backed battery storage project that Council approved in September.  The 9-17 background packet stated:

The applicant intends to invest approximately $160,000,000 in capital improvements and is requesting a three (3) YEAR, 85% Abatement of ad valorem taxes.

The Inflation Reduction Act provides incentives for battery storage systems.  UtilityDrive reported in 2022:

.....standalone storage systems will be eligible for a 30 percent investment tax credit (ITC) — and up to 70 percent with additional incentives.

Private equity backed Peregrine Energy is behind the Zeppelin Energy Storage LLC project.  As for new job creatiion Zeppelin's presentation to Tom Green County Commissioners stated:

Operated remotely with periodic site maintenance.

Yes, city retirees scraping by on a measly pension, you get to pay more for your care while wealthy investors get huge tax breaks.

Two Items Return to City Council: Concho Christmas & Retiree Healthcare

In October City Council discussed two items it will revisit on November 5th.  The first is the Concho Christmas Celebration, which Council approved authorizing the City Manager to negotiate an agreement with Lee Pfluger. Concho Christmas Celebration and Downtown San Angelo.  That agreement is not on the agenda but a $200,000 budget amendment will be considered.

The 10-1-24 background packet mentioned no dollar amount and no projections were given by City Manager Daniel Valenzuela during his brief presentation.  So how can the budget amendment imply that funding was previously approved?   Shouldn't Council approve the negotiated MOU prior to approving a budget amendment?  I realize time is not on the City's side if Lee Pfluger's Concho Christmas Celebration needs to be taken over this year.  The public may or may not hear more as this is but one of a number of budget amendments.

The second item to return for Council consideration is Retiree Health Insurance.  City retirees turned out in force for public comment, governed by a pre-meeting registration process for the first time.  Former Police Chief Russell Smith has spoken on this item for decades.  As someone impacted by the proposal one might expect Smith to get five minutes of public comment time and be allowed to show his presentation.  That was not the case on October 1st.  

To stem large increases the city reduced retiree health benefits further:

This bid would add a $500 annual deductible for health and a $250 charge for Outpatient Surgery.

HR Director Brian Kendrick's memo is not clear on the amounts paid by retirees vs. the city under proposed plan changes.  Hopefully that will be made clear in the meeting.  It's hard for the public to react to information not shared in the agenda packet.  How many will hear new information during the presentation, which is after public comment registration?

I hope Russell Smith gets to speak all he feels he needs to share with City Council on this topic.  

Pre-meeting public comment registration means citizens in the audience cannot provide public comment on any statements made by City Council members during their deliberations.  Those would need to be given in the next council meeting.  

If "Citizens of San Angelo" are truly at the top of the organization chart, they should at least feel they had the opportunity to speak.  

Dog Attacked Man at His Mailbox

On Tuesday October 15th I sent San Angelo City Councilmembers data on animal to human bites for the last six years.  One person responded, Mayor Brenda Gunter.  

Six days later Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden wrote members of City Council.  Morgan stated:

On Saturday October 19th, 2024, ASO responded to 102 E. Riverside Dr. for a significant bite case – dog to person. SAPD was first on scene. 

• The resident observed a loose dog while checking his mailbox at the curb. 
• The gentleman turned his back to walk into his home.
• The dog bit his lower leg and would not release his hold.
• The gentleman drug the attached dog to his front door and attempted to slam the door on the dog. 
• The dog released his bite and followed the resident into the home. 
• The dog resumed biting the gentleman’s feet knocking him to the ground. 
• The resident’s own dog responded and attacked the stray dog. 
• The resident’s brother responded and struck the stray dog with a cane. 
• The dog retreated and ran from the residence with injuries. 

We patrolled and knocked doors of neighboring properties Saturday attempting to locate the dog and identify the owner. Today, we patrolled and spoke to neighbors again. Seeing no dog, we connected with a willing resident to set a live trap. Another neighbor who feeds the dog reports seeing the dog with injuries this morning 10/21/24. The resident sustained significant injuries and was hospitalized for treatment.

On October 16th a citizen sought help from Councilman Harry Thomas and Mayor Gunter regarding two aggressive Dobermans.  That resident wrote:

I have previously contacted Animal Services via the COSA website, as well as directly emailing to Morgan Chegwidden last week (and l have never received a response from her). My church, and my daughter's private elementary school, is at 1700 N. Chadbourne. Somewhere between there and Reagan Elementary school are two aggressive Dobermans. These dogs have chased our school kids into the building multiple times, to where the school has had to order "dog spray" and the teachers carry a 5 foot long piece of rebar outside for recess and PE to be able to protect the kids if dogs come. Animal Services has been called multiple times. 

Last night my husband and one of our pastors returned from a ministry outreach around 7pm, and the dogs were loose again and bothering others in the neighborhood. They called the police department and were told by the officer who responded that he couldn't really do anything but keep calling, keep reporting to the PD and Animal Services so maybe they'd have to do something. My husband has previously had to take a folding metal chair out with him to the parking lot to just safely get to his car, several months back. These animals are out of control. 

Therefore I am just trying to reach out to additional city officials, as well as reporting any instance when the kids are chased in at school on the COSA website, to see why we aren't seeing anything change when someone is allowing their dogs to be loose and they're being reported over and over as being aggressive towards people. I am definitely not for government intervening constantly with private citizens but we can't have someone getting hurt either.

People are getting hurt by loose, aggressive dogs.  It's happening over and over.  

September 18, 2024: This morning around 8:00 am, an employee of The Lighthouse for the Blind was attacked by three dogs on N. Malone behind the Lighthouse building. It was a brutal attack and the victim is currently at the Emergency Room, blood everywhere, tore up his arm and face. This was disturbing, but the police officer could not get animal control to respond to capture the animals. When asked when the animal control would show up the officer could not give a time of arrival and so he went to the ER to get a statement from the victim. In my opinion, an attack would warrant an immediate response to capture the animals. We are now keeping our employees in the building. 

On March 8th an eleven year old boy was attacked by a 72 pound pit bull after getting off the bus. The child screamed for help and was assisted by two men, one of whom also sustained injuries from dog bites. 

I recently requested information on the number of dog to person bites that resulted in trips to the ER, surgery and hospitalization.  The City did not provide that.  

It's time for elected officials to ask many more questions about dog attacks and get the trajectory moving away from exponentially higher.  That is if public safety is really a priority...

New ASAC Members Motivated

The recent Animal Shelter Advisory Committee had one regular agenda item on it, an orientation for new board members given by an Assistant City Attorney.  Shelter Chief Morgan Chegwidden created the agenda, saying she wanted to give Committee members ample time for that discussion.  

Two members expressed concern about the limited agenda, believing their representation mattered for a shelter facing multiple issues.

Morgan became Shelter Chief in summer 2017 and has seven years experience onboarding new ASAC committee members.  This was the second meeting for new appointees.  

The August ASAC meeting saw new members asking questions about items that could not be discussed as they were not on the regular agenda.  Morgan said those would need to be saved for a future agenda.  It's hard to save them for a future meeting if they are not included in the minutes, which they were not.

Items not discussed in last Thursday's meeting include:

1. Recent closure of the shelter for dog intake due to distemper outbreak 10-11-24
2. The rapid increase in animal to human bites over the last two fiscal years
3. Status of preparation of temporary shelter
4. Timeline for seeking bids for shelter renovation (Council originally approved financing in March 2023, funds received in April 2023)
5. Shelter capacity 
6.  Enforcement of ordinances 
7.  Budget 
8.  Barriers for the public to access shelter services

Items 5-8 were the "off topic areas" raised by new ASAC members in the August meeting.  

Morgan stated the committee's sole aim is to ensure compliance with Texas law, making it sound like discussing the arrangements with Concho Valley PAWS off limits.  That ignores the committee's history:

On October 17, 2019 the ASAC met to tackle agenda item "new RFP for an expanded scope of services for shelter adoptions."  One ASAC member turned to PAWS Executive Director Jenie Wilson and said, "You are going to bid on it again." A motion was made to approve the RFP as presented. PAWS Wilson seconded the motion, then said "Oh, I shouldn't do that." Assistant City Manager Michael Dane said the Committee needed to give the appearance of an arm's length handling of the process.

That was two years into Morgan's current job.  

In 2021 Morgan "educated" the ASAC on the history of the Community Cat ordinance, which is not Texas law.  She was not the Shelter Chief when that ordinance was adopted and had virtually no contact with the only area rescue that stepped up to serve as a Community Cat sponsoring organization.  Morgan's storytelling was generally unanchored from reality.

Last week the public heard the real story behind highly attended ASAC meetings that failed to reach a quorum.  "The people that did not show up (Chair and Vice Chair) were very aware of the public comments that were coming."

I imagine new ASAC members may never get a chance to talk about issues important to area citizens, City Council members, veterinarians and people who want to walk their neighborhoods and not be approached by loose dogs (much less physically attacked).  That's a growing but unreported problem in our community.

So much is not being talked about.

ASAC Chair's Stunning Admission

Yesterday's Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) meeting included a stunning admission by the Chairperson that a prior planned meeting did not reach a quorum because the top two officers wanted to avoid planned public comment and "did not show up."

The closed captioning for that admission is below:

It's likely the Chair referred to the June 2017 meeting where the public turned out to speak to a number of animal related issues.  However, nearly the same thing happened in October 2023.  

The 2017 meeting was not held because ASAC Chair and PAWS Director Jenie Wilson resigned by letter six days before the meeting.  Wilson sat in the audience the day the meeting did not occur.  She later rescinded her resignation, so the practical impact of her action was denying citizens their right to speak.

A February 2018 meeting did not happen because there was no agenda posted, meaning there was not a room full of disappointed people.  However, the intent may have been the same. 

The October 2023 non-meeting occurred with several vacant board positions.  Communications from the Chair and Vice Chair show both "forgot" about the meeting.  The public was turned away despite having a majority, three of the five current ASAC members, in attendance.  City staff conspired not to hold another ASAC meeting in 2023 which meant the city did not meet its own ordinance requirement for three meetings per calendar year.

City boards cannot get public feedback or input if they do not meet.  Gaming a quorum to avoid hearing from the public seems devious, even despicable.  A functional, accountable City Council should be appalled by this prospect, even more so by its historical admission. 

ASAC Agenda Missing Issues Raised by New Members

The October Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) agenda has been posted.  It includes:

3. Consent Agenda 

a. Consider approving the August 15, 2024 Animal Shelter Advisory Committee regular meeting minutes (Morgan Chegwidden) 

b. Consideration of monthly shelter performance for August 2024 (Morgan Chegwidden) 

c. Consideration of monthly shelter performance for September 2024 (Morgan Chegwidden) 

4. Regular Agenda 

a. Committee member orientation (Presentation made by Assistant City Attorney Kathleen Dabbert) 

In August new ASAC members asked questions/raised issues during the meeting (which the agenda did not accommodate).  Oddly, Director of Neighborhood and Family Services Bob Salas talked about the new temporary shelter during public comment and even mentioned they had identified a location.  When a new member asked about that location they were told they could only talk about items on the agenda.

Shelter Chief, staff liaison and ASAC board member Morgan Chegwidden verbally placed the non-discussion of the following topics into "future agenda items."  They include: 

Shelter capacity 

Enforcement of ordinances 

Budget 

Barriers for the public to access shelter services

The August minutes do not reflect items raised by new committee members and they are missing from the October agenda, which simply has a board orientation by the new Assistant City Attorney Kathleen Dabbert.  Dabbert is new to supporting the ASAC as "City attorney Holly Voth announced her resignation from the City of San Angelo" (August meeting minutes).

The next time these stated concerns can be discussed in the ASAC meeting is January 2025.  That's a full five months after they were initially raised.  

Stonewalling is not "excellence" for citizens donating their time and expertise to City of San Angelo boards.  It makes me wonder if staff even want their input.   When did ignoring board members become a "best management practice?" 

Animal Bites Soar in San Angelo

 

Animal to human bites soared in San Angelo over the last two fiscal years.  The period of rapid increase coincided with City Council's decision to enact a maximum cap on the Animal Shelter population,

City statistics showed animal to human bites had fallen  to 169 in FY ended 2022.  The COVID-19 pandemic changed animal ownership patterns and more responsible pet ownership may have contributed to this decline.  

Animal to human bites rose by 95 or 56% in FY ended 2023 and 80 or 30% more in FY ended 2024.  

Since City leadership and City Council enacted the hard cap on shelter population animal to human bites have more than doubled (up 103%).  That's a telling statistic for a city citing public safety as a top priority.