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Regular Council Meeting <br />August 12, 2013 <br />Page 2 <br />Hashmi said he conferred with the Texas Attorney General's Office and received information on <br />three court cases that upheld the sufficiency of how agenda items were worded. Dr. Hashmi also <br />referenced item no. 17 posted on the July 22"d meeting and that it was written in a similar <br />fashion, in general terms but no one complained or objected. <br />Anita Sherfield, Dallas, Texas — she said that she owned a house in Paris and her water <br />bill was overpriced. Mayor Hashmi asked Mr. Anderson to check into this matter. <br />Gay Ballew, director of New Hope Center — she invited everyone to a fund raiser for the <br />center, and said they planned to have a murder mystery dinner. <br />Josh Allen, 4779 FM 196, Bogata, Texas, New Hope Center board member — he said the <br />center worked with the elderly on a daily basis and they were holding a pageant on September Stn <br />celebrating women. <br />Don Wilson, 3110 Staci Lane — he said there has been much discussion about whether or <br />not the PEDC's spending on retail promotions and the incubator were legal as related to the 1992 <br />special tax election. He said at the same time the one -fourth of one percent sales tax was passed <br />for economic development, that the citizens also voted an equal amount to be used for property <br />tax reduction. He said in the last three years the Council could have reduced property taxes by <br />8.29 cents. He also said the Council had been using the sales tax income to build reserves only <br />to turn right around and spend $5,000,863,550 out of the reserves during the same last three <br />years. Mayor Hashmi said the one -fourth of one percent that the City gets was an agenda item <br />for the next council meeting. <br />b. Proclamation declaring the month of August 811 Safe Digging Month. <br />Mayor Hashmi declared August 11th as Safe Digging Day and presented the proclamation <br />to Mr. McGrath from Atmos. <br />Mayor Hashmi said he would like to re -open the citizen's forum as there were a few <br />citizens who arrived late and wanted to speak. A Motion to re -open the citizen's forum was <br />made by Council Member Lancaster and seconded by Council Member Drake. Motion carried, 7 <br />ayes — 0 nays. <br />Linda Caviness, 4240 Sunrise — she said Mr. Brown was developing property close to her <br />street and that was wonderful. However, she expressed concern about flooding the streets in her <br />neighborhood. Ms. Caviness said she knew that Mr. Brown had filled in a big pool and one <br />resident on Quail Street was having flooding problems because of that. She asked that the City <br />make sure there was proper drainage to ensure their streets would not be flooded. Mayor <br />Hashmi referred this to City Engineer Shawn Napier. <br />David Taylor, 1374 Cope Drive — he said he thought that District 7 should be included in <br />the residential tax abatement zone. He said that the exclusion was not fair and that his <br />neighborhood had their share of derelict houses that would benefit from the same abatement that <br />