Round Rock City Council Meeting - January 9, 2025
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Round Rock City Council Meeting - January 9, 2025
The Round Rock City Council met on Thursday, January 9, 2025, at 6:00 PM in City Council Chambers. The meeting included a moment of silence for recent tragedies, a special recognition of a young nonprofit founder, citizen comment regarding ongoing construction impacts, and unanimous approval of all resolutions and ordinances on the agenda, including items related to legislative priorities, utility rates, infrastructure contracts, and annexation and zoning of 55.77 acres.
Mayor's Special Recognition
- Arjun Sharda (middle school student): Recognized by Mayor Craig Morgan for founding the nonprofit TLEEM (Technology, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Engineering, and Mathematics) at age 12. Arjun described growing the organization from one club to 30 clubs in 10 countries, helping over 1,000 people. He emphasized that impact matters more than fundraising. Council members congratulated him and his mother, praising his perseverance and vision.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Gary Tipton (1016 Oaklands Drive, Round Rock): Expressed concern over heavy construction activity from Sauls Ranch East Phase 2, including early morning and late-night equipment operation, dust, cracked streets, and increased traffic on previously peaceful streets. He also noted wildlife displacement. Council members acknowledged the disruptions and noted that the heavy grading phase is largely complete, transitioning to home building.
Discussion Items
- Consent Calendar (unanimously approved via roll call votes):
- Approval of minutes from December 19, 2024.
- G1: Resolution adopting the City’s Legislative Program for the 89th Legislative Session, focusing on local control and support for education.
- G2: Assignment of an engineering services contract to Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority (housekeeping measure).
- G3: Denial of Atmos Energy Corporation’s proposed natural gas rate increase, allowing time for review through the Railroad Commission and delaying any rate effect for residents until April 2025.
- G4: Grant application to Texas DMV for Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority ($47,450 grant, 20% match from city law enforcement fund) to purchase 30 automatic license plate readers, drone first responder program components, PTZ cameras, and tracking devices. Police Commander Tom Sloan presented.
- G5: Five-year contract with Environmental Logistics Co., LLC for shooting range maintenance, cleaning, and disposal services (not to exceed $732,000).
- G6: Five-year contract with TFR Enterprises, Inc. for disaster cleanup services (not to exceed $10 million), publicly bid and with prior performance in the 2023 winter storm cleanup.
- G7: Resolution authorizing eminent domain to acquire 0.28 acre (901 Emmanuel Street) owned by heirs of Andrew B. Perez for the Chisholm Trail Park Project, intended for future parking. City will continue negotiations; this step preserves momentum.
- G8: Change Order No. 5 ($443,000) with Austin Underground, Inc. for Lake Creek Wastewater Line Replacement Project to install steel encasement protecting the line from trail project weight and to fund Union Pacific inspector.
- G9: Supplemental Contract No. 1 ($127,000) with AECOM Technical Services, Inc. for construction phase services for Water Treatment Plant Miscellaneous Improvements.
- G10: Positive Change Order No. 1 ($480,000 returned) with Bennett Paving, Inc. for the 2023 Residential Street Maintenance Program due to reduced full-depth repair needs; funds will be carried forward to next year.
- G11 & G12: Professional Consulting Services Agreements with Raba Kistner, Inc. for construction materials testing for County Road 112 West ($105,000) and East ($142,000) projects (road widening to six lanes).
- G13: Supplemental Contract No. 3 ($98,190) with K. Friese + Associates, LLC for engineering services on the Greenlawn Boulevard Widening project (SH 45 to IH-35), design complete; bid planned for February 2025; completion summer 2026.
- G14, H1, H2 (presented together by staff):
- G14: Services agreement to provide water, wastewater, and city services for 55.77 acres (Sauls Ranch East Phase 2, 123 single-family lots). Development agreement from 2022 required voluntary annexation. Phase 1 (102 lots) was annexed in March 2024. Phase 2 is near completion of improvements. The property is surrounded by city limits (a “donut hole”). Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval 8-0.
- H1: Ordinance annexing 55.77 acres (first reading). Public hearing: no speakers. Approved unanimously; second reading dispensed with by unanimous vote.
- H2: Ordinance zoning the 55.77 acres to SF-3 (Single-Family – Mixed Lot) (first reading). Public hearing: no speakers. Approved unanimously; second reading dispensed with.
- Council Comments: Councilmember Flores received birthday wishes from multiple members. The meeting recessed into executive session at 6:50 PM.
Key Outcomes
- All resolutions, ordinances, and the minutes were approved unanimously (8-0 on each roll call).
- The city authorized the use of eminent domain for the Chisholm Trail Park property, with ongoing negotiations.
- The Atmos Energy rate increase is denied, pushing any potential effective date to April 2025.
- Annexation and zoning of 55.77 acres for Sauls Ranch East Phase 2 are complete after final readings were dispensed with.
- Staff confirmed they will monitor road conditions and traffic as requested by council and citizens.
- Executive session items were held regarding economic development incentives, sales tax rule amendment consultation, and pending litigation (Texas Disposal Systems Inc. v. City of Round Rock).
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. We have no pasture now, but we have a lot going on in our country, uh our world, and so I'd like to take a moment uh of silence and uh keep all the families in California and your thoughts and prayers and uh all the families that were impacted by the New Orleans uh incident as well. So if you take a moment of silence with me, please. Thank you. I'll call the six o'clock city councilman order and please call the roll. Here, Mayor Pro Tim Stevens here, Councilmember Lee. Here, Councilmember Flores. Here, Councilmember Fleming? Here. Councilmember Ortega? Here. Councilmember Montgomery. Here. If you'll stand with me for the pledges. Pledge allegiance. One nation. Under God. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to the Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. All right, citizen communication. Any citizen wishes to speak during citizen communication garden regarding an item on or off the agenda may do so after completing the required registration card. All comments must be no more than three minutes in length per section two-two six B five of the round rock code of ordinances 2018 edition. Any comments regarding items not on the poster gym may not be discussed or responded to by the city council per state law. Do I have any yellow cards? And if you're here by any chance for the public hearing, you will have an opportunity to speak at that time if you uh so choose. All right. All right, we'll move to E1. Considers consider mayor special recognition for middle school student ours June Sharda for his forming of the nonprofit organization T L E E M Technology Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Engineering, and Mathematics. On behalf of the City of Ramrock, Texas and the Round Rock City Council, I'd like to publicly recognize and give special thanks to Arzun Sharda on his founding of the nonprofit organization T L E M. Arzun created T L E E M when he was just 12 years old and a student in Leander Is D. Arzun and his family now reside in Round Rock and he's concentrating on broadening the reach of T Lim. Currently the organization has chapters in the United States and in India and is continuing to grow. TLAM stands for technology leadership, entrepreneurship, engineering, and mathematics. TLM helps students develop and sharpen their skills so that they are better prepared to follow their passions, get a professional job, or even change the world. Sincerely, Craig Morgan, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Morgan. And I really appreciate this award and for recognizing us because especially in the city of Brown Drug, it's also common for a lot of cities to not look about nonprofits. So I really respect you, Mr. Morgan, for you know, recognizing small nonprofits that are really making a change. You know, when I started Talem in I used to live in Leander, Texas, you know, I started it in September 2023. And I had no, I did not know it would grow to be this big. You know, when I filed Talim, you know, I used to do babysitting and save up to file to cover the registration fees for Talem. It was, you know, because it's registration is costs a lot. And you know, I had to move to Round Rock. It was Tallem was originally a small club at my school running brushing middle school in Leander ISD. I never had any intention or expectation that it would be so big because networking isn't something that you just know when you're in a middle school, right? No, I mean, we're all playing chess, Star Wars, and whatnot. I mean, to be fair, I'll let you on in a secret.
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