Postponed from its regular schedule, the Lytle City Council Meeting was held on January 13th, 2022 at 6:30pm. City Mayor Ruben Gonzalez, and Alderman Joseph Morrow, Sam Cortez, David Emery, Jerry Stone, and Charles Cate were all present to participate in the meeting. The council meeting included the approval to hire several employees to different public positions, the acceptance of a couple bids, and the renewal of the delinquent Tax collection contract.
Southwest ISD Joint Election Acceptance
The council began by acting on a request from Southwest ISD For Joint Election on May 7, 2022 with the City of Lytle.
A request made once a year, Lytle City Secretary Josie Campa started the conversation by explaining that the representative for Southwest ISD couldn’t make it to the meeting that night and made a suggestion.
“I would like the council to consider approving this not just this year but from this time forward to where he doesn’t have to go through this every year,” Campa said.
Alderman of district 4, Jerry Stone, backed Campa’s suggestion, questioning if n action like that would even be possible.
“It says here to request a joint election on May 7th 2022. Can we amend that from now on even though it’s on the agenda?” Stone said. “…it shows that it’s a specific date here, can we amend it tonight?”
After some consideration and coming the conclusion that an action like that couldn’t be made, at least not that same night, the council instead shifted to just approving joint election.
This action would not apply to early voting, as early voting can be done almost anywhere, while Election Day requires you to vote at a specific location.
Bid for maintenance
The council then moved on to act upon bids received for maintenance of city properties. Campa chimed in to clarify the situation, explaining that they originally had a very low bid, but for unknown reasons the bidder pulled out leaving them with their next lowest bidder, a man by the name of Sotero Cruz.
“So I spent a lot of today and yesterday talking to the next low bidder, which is that SClaw service, out of the Devine area and his bid is $2,375,” Campa said. “I did check on some of the references he gave me and they are pleased with him.”
Bid for street work
The court approved Cruz’ bid and moved onto addressing the next bids received for a street improvement project that Lytle plans to have started somewhere around March or April.
When talking about their lowest bidder, Equate, Campa relayed the thoughts and concerns of their engineer.
Lytle has been using the company, Park Construction, up until this point but recognizes the $7500-dollar difference between the Park and the lowest bidder, Equate.
The council approved the choice of Equate, going with their lowest bidder and moving on to call for an election in the next item.
Calling For An Election
“It’s that time of the year where we need to call for an election,” Campa said. “The true period is January 24th through February 18th. We usually do it at the first meeting in January.”
A motion was made to call for an election for districts four or five and the mayor, for the year of 2022. ¬
Redistricting
Lytle approved Plan D for the redistricting.
Purchasing A Well Pump Motor
Lastly the council discussed the proposal from peerless to purchase a used well pump motor. A representative from Peerless approached the council and explained that the city was being offered $7,000 for their old pump motor.
When addressing why they were choosing to sell their old pump motor Jerry Stone, Alderman District 4 added to the conversation.
“And the reason we’re selling that is because we need a big pump, so we can get some money on it and use it to purchase the new pump,” Stone said.
City Digital Sign Proposal
The council then moved on to address an update on the proposal from the Lytle Chamber of Commerce for Procurement, installation and maintenance of a digital sign for the city of Lytle.
Charles Cate, Alderman District 5, explained the situation through his questioning of what the Chamber expected of them.
“…The chamber of commerce is proposing that they put this new sign on our property, that we pay for the installation,” Cate said.
But with the presenter for this item missing, the action was ultimately tabled until the next meeting.
Delinquent Tax
The council then took action on the renewal of delinquent Tax collection contract. Campa once again explained the situation to the council.
“The 20% that the Lincoln tax attorney received is paid by the taxpayer as part of, kind of like a penalty when they don’t pay their tax on time,” Campa said.
Campa also said that the taxpayer is notified if this is about to happen and that the city takes no part on paying this penalty.
All present approved of this renewal except for Jerry Stone, Alderman District 4 who abstained.
By Christian Toler
News Correspondent