Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
The Carrollton City Council held a combined worksession and regular meeting on August 18, 2026, beginning at 5:45 PM. The worksession focused on discussing funding recommendations for community service, the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget, tax rate, and fee changes, as well as Council reports. The regular meeting at 7:00 PM included a consent agenda approval and a public forum where multiple residents spoke about the city's use of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras (Flock cameras). After the public forum, the Council returned to worksession to finalize budget decisions before proceeding into executive session.
During the Public Forum, several residents spoke on the topic of Flock cameras (ALPRs) used by the Carrollton Police Department:
No speakers addressed the Council during Citizen Comment for consent agenda items.
Councilmember Nancy Cline presented the Community Service Committee's recommendations for FY27. The committee recommended $63,300 in community service funding, a reduction from $67,000 the prior year. Council discussed specific requests, including the Plano Symphony Orchestra (funded based on students served in Carrollton) and Denton County MHMR (not recommended for funding; the Council noted that mental health services are provided through a navigator contracted via Metro Care, which serves all county residents, and that county-level funding is the appropriate source). Council directed staff to bring back reports on the mental health navigator's effectiveness.
The Council deliberated on the proposed FY27 budget, which includes $432,000 in recurring dollars and $5.289 million in non-recurring dollars for additions to base (ATBs). Melissa Everett, Finance Director, reviewed the budget and tax rate details.
Fee Changes:
Tax Rate Discussion:
Additions to Base (ATBs) Decisions: During the worksession, Council systematically reviewed ATBs and made initial decisions:
Stormwater Fee: Already adopted; not part of this vote, but acknowledged as an offset to the tax rate savings.
Budget Next Steps: The August 25th meeting will be cancelled unless needed; a public hearing is scheduled for the September 1st meeting with adoption expected.
All right, welcome, welcome uh to our budget season, August 18th City Council meeting. Appreciate all of our guests here. Um council will uh see a couple minutes. Uh everyone's having a good hot day out there. Trucker heat out there. All right. Uh as we always do, we'll start with our uh normal agenda item. So first is our minutes from July twenty-fourth, strategic retreat. Any questions? All right. Number nine. Consider authorizing the city manager to approve a professional services agreement for engineering services with Burkhoff, Hybrix or Hedricks and Carter, LLP for the channels and floodplains aerial survey project and an amount not to exceed five hundred forty-four thousand one hundred. Absolutely. Make sure it flows right. Uh number ten, I'm we're polling. Um we'll bring this back at the later date. Um again, the phase one just completed, you know, people haven't even had a chance to enjoy it. We do have a few punch list items from a safe in from a safety perspective, whether that's hydration or trip hazards or steps that we'll ask staff to kind of bring back um some punch list items in a near term uh council meeting. This will be brought back at a time later once we're once we're done with budget and we understand where things look and it might be uh later this year, early next year, or even a year out. Okay. Uh the documents necessary to enter into an easement encroachment agreement with CoServe Electric to allow for the placement of electric conduit and wiring across and within easement um dedicated to the city of Carol Finn. Any questions. Okay. Sounds like a meritor thing. Uh number twelve. Consider uh a resolution authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute an interlocal co-op agreement with the North Central Texas Council of Governments uh to provide local match funding for the design and construction of the cotton belt uh shared use trial. I think this is uh coming back because of some changes with um over on the other side of the trail. So questions on this. No, what's really interesting though is I've got an email yesterday. This one raises it. Um they just submitted this year for a reduction. So it's actually gonna be a net a dollar ten, I think reduction once a month starting in October. I have another one raised at 320, their other one dropped it by 440, something like that. So it's actually even though we're approving a rate increase, or you're gonna see potentially a rate decrease. I do have a question. This is what we have here with the consultants of budget and 253.4 million. So there's a discrepancy there. So I was just wondering what that was why there's a big difference. What are you talking about? I'm sorry. Um the number of what we have here is 260 point five million. Which was initially presented for all of the yes, yeah. The consultants figure was the one of 53.4. Right. So they submit to the PUC what they think their budget should be. And then we go, our consultants go through it and make a recommendation on what they think it should be, and then they negotiate and settle somewhere, hopefully in the middle.