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Special Council Meeting August 31, 2015 Page 3 or attendance at professional conferences. Council Member Plata asked if police department employees that got raises last year would receive a raise again this year. Mr. Godwin said if a police officer received the step 8 increase last year and if Council approved an increase for the police department this year, they would be getting it. Mr. Godwin said the police officers were underpaid for what they do. Mr. Godwin also said this was the first time in twenty -nine years that he had asked a Council for a tax increase. Council Member Plata said he was uncomfortable in giving a raise to some employees and not all of the employees. Council Member Lancaster wanted to know how much was budgeted for housing demolition and Mr. Anderson said it was $60,000. Council Member Lancaster said there were a lot more houses that needed to be torn down. Council Member Lancaster favored raises for the police officers. Mayor Hashmi expressed appreciation to Mr. Anderson for keeping the City in the black. Mayor Hashmi said he opposed a tax increase and he was not in favor of a COLA because he did not feel the City could afford it this year. He also said he favored a $3,000 a year increase for police officers and the EMT step increase. Mayor Hashmi said next year they could give a raise to the fire department and all other employees. He said he was in favor of decreasing the travel expense of each department by 10 %. He also said he was opposed to committing $350,000 to Garver Engineering for the design of a new water treatment plant without hearing from other engineering firms. He said part of what Garver had presented was work that had been done by Hayter Engineering and the City had already paid for that once. Council Member Pickle said Mr. Anderson had done a great job with the budget. He said he was not comfortable with a tax increase or issuing certificates of obligations, but was fine with raises for the police and thought firefighters should get a raise too. Council Member Pickle explained how everything they wanted to do could be accomplished without raising property taxes. Council Member Frierson said he had a problem with not giving all employees a raise, because to give selected departments a raise was creating a hierarchy. He emphasized they should compromise to give raises across the board. Council Members Pickle and Plata said they supported a raise for all employees. Following additional discussion, it was a consensus of City Council to not raise property taxes; to give a $3,000 salary increase to police officers and fire fighters; to not issue certificates of obligation; to include step increase for the EMS department; and to decrease departmental travel budgets by ten percent. Mr. Godwin said with deletion of some of the items, there would be additional funds in the budget and asked if it would be okay to give that money to the other employees. Mr. Godwin emphasized all employees were important. Mayor Hashmi said he was okay with it, if the City could afford do it. It was a consensus of the City Council for Mr. Godwin to do so and to bring the revised budget back to the Council. 6. Convene into Executive Session pursuant to: • Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code, Consultation with Attorney, to receive legal advice from the City Attorney about pending or contemplated litigation and/or on matters in which the duty of an attorney to his client under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of Texas, clearly conflict with this chapter, as follows: JS Baking, LLC (Skinner Bakery) Tax Abatement Agreement.