Editor: Shannon Cottongame
July 27, 2023
The Whitney City Council met in a regular session Thursday, July 20, and named Billy Pribble operations director, formally abolished the city administrator position, voted to withdraw from an agreement with Emergency Services District (ESD) 1 and acted on several other agenda items.
The council convened in a closed session for deliberation and then voted in open session to abolish the office of city administrator, create the job description for the operations director and appoint Pribble.
Pribble has worked for the city since September 2019, when he started as the public works supervisor and was later promoted to public works director in October 2022.
In February of this year, previous Mayor Jerry Barker assigned him to a more administrative role within the city, and he has continued assisting current Mayor Janice Sanders with daily operations of the city since she took office.
Pribble is originally from Fort Worth but moved to Whitney when he was 14 years old. He and his wife met in Whitney and recently celebrated their 20th anniversary.
Outside of his municipal service, he also served six years in the Texas Army National Guard as a combat medic and served two tours of duty in Iraq.
As operations director, he will be responsible to the council and mayor for administration of the city’s affairs and will supervise, with the mayor’s guidance, all city employees except those appointed by the council.
Pribble will organize city work operations, have operational control over departments other than those reserved to the mayor and council, assist the mayor with the budget, assist with development and implementation of plans and policies and handle other administrative tasks.
Chris Brennan, a member of the Public Works Department crew, has been promoted as that department’s supervisor with Pribble’s new appointment.
The council also voted to withdraw from its agreement with ESD 1 and authorized the mayor to send a notice of withdrawal at Thursday’s meeting.
The council discussed the renewal of the interlocal agreement in January, when Interim Fire Chief Roy McCleary and retired Chief Wayland Price expressed their concerns about continuing the contract.
When the local ESDs were created, Hillsboro and Whitney opted out of joining ESD 1 and 2, which oversee and provide fire coverage (ESD 1) and ambulance service (ESD 2). ESDs are political subdivisions of the state that have the ability to impose both property taxes and sales taxes to support emergency services in the district.
While Whitney is not a member of ESD 1, it has a contract with the district to respond to calls in the ESD 1 service area outside of the city limits. Price said that the city has received $10,000 per year from ESD 1 for a number of years, and that amount is not even covering the department’s fuel expenses for making the calls.
Price said that ESD departments received a payment for increased fuel costs this past year, but Whitney did not receive a payment for its increased costs and was told it would need to renegotiate its contract if it wanted more money. McCleary reported that the majority of the department’s fire calls are outside of the city limits.
Fire Chief David Gilmore told the council at Thursday’s meeting that the fire department will continue to respond to calls for assistance outside the city limits, but mutual aid agreements can be entered into without the city contracting with ESD 1.
He said that the contract is heavily weighted in the ESD’s favor and there is no benefit to the city renewing it.
He pointed out specific requirements in the contract, such as those that allow the ESD to take back any funds provided if they are not spent by the end of the budget period and require that monthly and annual financial reports be provided to the district if requested.
Gilmore said that his biggest issue with the contract is language stating that all property purchased with district funds are owned by the district. “This is the one that really got me,” he said. He presented a hypothetical scenario in which the department is fighting a fire in the county and has equipment damaged that was paid for by Whitney taxpayers.
Gilmore said that if the department wanted to use ESD funds to cover the cost, it appears that the district would then own the equipment and could take it in the future. “It doesn’t mean they’ll do it, but they can,” he said. “It’s a heavily controlled environment now compared to what our old agreements were.”
In another agenda item, the council resolved an issue that has been ongoing since 2019 regarding a now $7,790 water bill that the school district has had due to water expenses at Baker Field, which is utilized by the Whitney Wildcat Football League (WWFL).
Background information presented to the council showed that in fall 2019, a previous council voted to “approve, with contingency with bond council, entering into an agreement with WWFL for the watering of youth football fields with city water.” At the September 2019 meeting, the council voted to seek “additional legal expense on a water bond for the youth football league.” In October 2019, there was discussion about forgiveness of water for the youth football league on the agenda, but there are no details about the discussion in the council minutes.
Whitney Superintendent John McCullough said that he first reached out to the city about the bill in October 2019 and has been trying to get the issue resolved since that time. He said that the district had been told that WWFL would be allowed to water the field for free.
In February 2020, city records show that former City Administrator Chris Bentley sent an email to Whitney ISD stating that the council had voted the previous month to take responsibility for the charges on the Whitney ISD account. Bentley wrote that once approved by the council, the past due amount would be written off by the city and the school would not have any responsibility for late payments.
City staff reported that there is no record of the vote Bentley referred to on a council agenda or meeting minutes.
The issue was back before the council last October, but no action was taken.
Pribble told the council that the issue was in dire need of a resolution. He said that the issue goes back to 2019, when there was supposed to be an agreement between the city and WWFL to water Baker Field using city water, but it was never executed. “The school has asked the city several times to resolve this issue, because the school did not use the water but it is on their account,” Pribble said. “I believe, from the city’s standpoint, if the city committed to providing this, then the city needs to make it right.”
Council Member Valery Peacock said that it was her understanding that the city had provided a certain amount of water and WWFL exceeded that amount. Pribble said that this was not correct, and the limit she was referring to was for Whitney Youth Association at the city park, not WWFL at Baker Field.
WWFL President Jeremy Adye told the council that the water bill was so high because of a break that occurred during the February 2021 winter storm that was not caught for a while and kept water flowing continuously.
Council Member Jason Ince said that while he is in favor of supporting youth he wanted to make it clear that the city would not waive the water bill based on a leak not being caught. “As far as youth goes, I’m all about youth,” he said. “I can’t support that reason though. You cannot give free water out because somebody didn’t catch a leak.”
Peacock said that the bill went back further than the winter storm, and Nicole Corson, who said that she was a board member at the time WWFL made the initial request to the council, responded that WWFL had not received bills and wasn’t aware of the issue until it was brought to their attention by previous Mayor Jerry Barker and the superintendent.
After discussion, the council approved eliminating the charges from the school’s account, which statute says is allowable since the bill is for a municipal school district. Pribble said.
“I think it is important to note that, yet again, if we had executed this agreement between the city and WWFL we would not be here two years later. If you as a council want to do something like this going forward, I think it is of the utmost importance that we discuss those terms before we enter into any type of situation like this going forward.”
The council also heard a presentation from Oxbow Development Company representative Evan Landrum on behalf of Kim’s Convenience Stores.
The company is proposing to develop a 7,300 square-foot travel center, including a Whataburger, at the intersection of North Brazos Street and HCR 1240.
Landrum said that the business would be a significant tax revenue generator in the city and would bring about 40 jobs to town on the Whataburger side and eight to 12 employees on the Kim’s Convenience Store side.
Because the convenience store would sell beer and wine, the council would have to provide a variance to the ordinance that prohibits alcohol sales within 300 feet of a public school due to the proximity of one of the district’s buildings.
In June, Whitney’s school board approved a resolution stating that the district would not oppose the city granting a variance to the business.
No action could be taken at the meeting because the city must amend its current ordinance to allow for a variance. The council passed the amendment to the ordinance, and action on the variance is expected to be back before the council when it is formally requested by the business.
Police Chief Kevin Hughes came before the council to request approval of a new hire for the department. The council questioned whether the department had the budget for an additional hire and took the issue into closed session. After resuming open session, no motion was made to approve the hire.
The council voted on a temporary construction easement that will allow the Trinity Estates subdivision off North Trinity Street to move forward.
Pribble reported that all public improvements are supposed to be constructed prior to a final plat being filed under the city’s subdivision regulations, but that did not happen.
Mayor Barker previously filed the final plat to record before there was a properly executed contract for the maintenance of the detention pond and before public improvements were made.
Since the final plat has already been filed, the easements and right-of-way are dedicated to the public, and the city needed to enter into a temporary construction agreement to allow the project to move forward.
Pribble also presented information as the city continues to seek options for possible renovations to property at 102-108 South Colorado Street.
The council discussed the issues with the building at its last meeting and asked to receive cost estimates before making a decision to renovate the buildings or move to another location.
Pribble said that the city’s attorney recommended having a contractor investigate all of the issues with the current structure before seeking bids. He said that underground fuel storage tanks have recently been discovered and will be an additional cost, and he told the council that the overall project could be very costly.
Salvation Army volunteer Carol Westbrook, who operates out of a portion of the building, asked permission to have a contractor perform temporary repairs to address leaks. She asked the city to consider paying the estimated $700 for the repairs to allow her to continue operating until the city makes a permanent decision. She cautioned that if she has to leave the city’s building, the Salvation Army will likely be pulled from Hill County.
In open forum earlier in the meeting, Westbrook presented information about all of the work the Salvation Army does in Hill County, including education, food boxes, school supplies, purchasing air conditioners for those in need and other efforts. She pointed out that all of this is done on a volunteer basis.
Also in open forum, Whitney resident Jason Sneed spoke to the council as a concerned citizen and said that the school resource officer position is a highly specialized position and tough to fill, because it requires a calling to want to work with kids and be respected by and relevant to them. He asked the council to make a special effort to see that the pitfalls of “politics, ego and unnecessary burdens” do not come into play with the position. He referred to School Resource Officer Chadwick, saying that his character is above reproach and he has gone above and beyond his contractual requirements to the district. “Specifically in this case, with a proven SRO with an undeniable character, who meets those extremely narrow requirements of a calling to the job, I would ask the council to make special effort to see that none of those pitfall issues of politics, ego and unnecessary burdens come into play, especially with a man’s career and reputation.”
In other action, the council voted to abandon an alley that runs through property at 103 South Guadalupe. The area is one of several in the city that had alleys laid out in original surveys and has never been used for that purpose. The council also voted to set the rate of longevity pay at $100 per year for each full year of continuous service to the city after two years. This cleans up an issue in which the increased rate was approved by the council in 2016 but never implemented.
During departmental reports, the fire department reported responding to 26 calls in the city and 48 in the county in June. Gilmore reported that he had to rewrite and submit EMS protocols to the state for approval, and the department was certified for another two years.
The police department responded to 201 calls for service in June, with the top five being false burglar alarms (21), disturbances (15), suspicious person/vehicle (14), ambulance emergencies (13) and meeting a complainant (11).
Crimes of note were five vehicle burglaries in which three arrests were made, four thefts, one forgery and one fraud case.
The department made 95 traffic stops in June with 82 citations or warnings issued.
Chief Hughes reported that the department completed the successful reinvestigation of the 2020 burglaries of Eubank Drug, Edward Jones and Kitty’s Barbers and recently took the prime suspect into custody in Houston, and he was indicted in Hill County in July.
Public works reported that five water leaks were repaired, pothole repair is ongoing as weather permits, the department has purchased a used 2016 Ford F-150 from Hillsboro Ford, and three applications are under review as the department seeks employees.
Library Director Denise Carter reported 529 visitors to the library in June with 47 new cards issued. She said that the library has become the go-to place for grandmothers keeping grandchildren over the summer, and staff has put together activity guides providing details about activities to do with children within driving distance. The library is offering many activities for children this summer, which can be found in the newsletter at http://www.whitneylibrary.org and in editions of the newspaper.
The council’s next regular meeting date is Thursday, August 17.
The Lakelander 