City Council Holds 8 Minute Meeting

San Angelo's City Council had one item on the regular agenda, budget amendments for the current year.  It approved buying the former Standard Times building for $1.8 million and adding chip seal to alleys in Southridge Addition ($20,000 funded by Southridge residents).  

Council tackled the 389 page background packet in 8 minutes.  That included approving the minutes of the July 27th budget workshop.  In that workshop Council spent considerable time giving staff direction on the number of customer service inspectors to include in the 2021-22 fiscal budget.  

Mayor Gunter was very clear on her belief the city did not need to employ five CSIs to meet TCEQ cross connection control program standards.  A TCEQ investigative report on the February toxic chemical contamination was delivered to city hall for Mayor Gunter on June 9th, according to city e-mails.  A number of City Council persons agreed with Gunter in the workshop.  Not one council person asked for comparative information from peer cities pertinent to the staffing request.  Recall McAllen, Midland, Abilene and Brownwood helped the city with industrial inspections during the crisis.  Oddly, the minutes of that planning meeting reflect none of Council's discussion or direction.

TCEQ's investigative report cited four areas of failure in the toxic chemical intrusion event.  The city's plan to resolve three of the four deficiencies is due to TCEQ today. 

The City of San Angelo ignored TCEQ's cross connection control program standards since they were revised in August 2016.  Anyone reading the TCEQ investigative report could easily conclude the city has been guilty of gross negligence.  For over two months water from Lone Star Beef flowed back into the public water supply, nearly 1.4 million gallons.  

Council hedged on spending $310,000 for five CSIs while it sits on $28.5 million in Water Operating Fund Balance.

I suggest TCEQ investigative staff watch both the July 27th planning workshop and today's City Council meeting to see how serious elected leaders took the findings in their report.