On June 22, the city commissioners held their bi-monthly meeting, beginning with the recognition of Police Officer and Dispatcher of the Year presented by Lieutenant Armando Renteria.
“Every year we select an Officer of the Year and a Telecommunicator of the Year, and at this awards banquet, Max Etheridge was listed as the Officer of the Year. A little bit about Max, he’s been with us for over a year and a half. He’s a very smart and helpful young man, and he’s very dependable. If you ask him to help you do something, he will above and beyond help you, and sometimes you don’t even have to ask, he just steps in and takes over and helps out. He does fulfill the part of our brand at the PD, and that’s to have a servant’s heart, and that is Max. The peers vote on the Officer and Telecommunicator of the Year, and those votes are submitted to the Chief, and those votes are tallied up and it’s announced at the awards banquet.”
“The Telecommunicator of the Year is Savannah Trent. She came to us almost two years ago. Jessica is her supervisor, and not only do the officers vote for the Officer of the Year, but they also vote for Telecommunicator of the Year, so it’s a whole department and everyone voted for Savannah to be our Telecommunicator of the Year.”
“Congratulations to both of you, and great job,” Mayor Mike said.
Next on the agenda was the budget introduction by Finance Director Theresa Daniels. The budget can be viewed at www.cityofpampa.org
Next was to consider approving the minutes of the June 8, 2026 Regular Commission Meeting and to excuse Commissioner Reed from that meeting, both were approved.
Next was to approve the list of disbursements dated May 2026, which was approved.
Next was to consider adopting on the second and final reading Ordinance No. 1836, amending the Code of Ordinances by repealing and replacing Article 13.05, Water Conservation Plan, and Article 13.06, Drought Contigency Plan. Both plans were presented by Gary Turley in the last regular commission meeting, and the commission voted to approve the ordinance on this final reading.
Next was to consider approving on first reading Ordinance No. 1838, amending Chapter 1, Article 1.10, the Special Events of the Code of Ordinances, to which Troy Schwiegerath addressed the commission.
“There’s a big push to have a film industry here in Texas. I think it is the entire state who is looking at this to be more film-friendly. That’s how this started. In doing this, we pulled up the statute to make sure that we are in line with it and there were some things we didn’t understand. If you read our permit, it’s settled down for everyone to make a decision. Once Shane signs it, it’s a done deal. But now we have an appeal process to that so putting the film thing into a new thing, we sought some language change in there and I think Brian did all that. I think the original one was written off before I got here. The only process you had was if someone wanted to do something in town, you filled out a permit to block the street. Since PampaFest came into it, there were some situations that happened that we didn’t have control of, so that’s how the permit thing came across. In the language of the original ordinance, it had the chief of police and it didn’t make sense because realistically it affects more departments than the chief of police. That’s why Shane should have the ultimate authority, and if they don’t like the decision, they can appeal to a board.”
“So basically this is giving all the authority to Shane?” Mayor Mike asked.
“That’s correct.”
“If someone is turned down and files an appeal, it goes directly to Shane?” asked Commissioner Keough.
“Yes. There are two appeal processes, before it was just the final word and I don’t believe there was an appeal process in there. Now if you don’t like the result and if we say no, basically Shane looks at any recommendations of any problems he things we’re going to have, then he makes the final decision. But if he says no, then he’ll appoint council to three of the people who are in that group to make a decision. That decision is final unless it’s film. If it’s film and we said no here, the film process is they have to come to a city council meeting and stand in front of you and ask if they can be appealed. If it’s just a regular permit and it gets denied, it goes through the regular committee, and if it’s denied again, that’s it. But if it’s film and Shane says no, then they have to come in front of you and ask.”
“Our event permit process kind of started on the back of a napkin if you will when we really started when Homeland Security made it to where if you had any massive events with a lot of people- a lot of Troy’s work is trying to figure those events out and making sure a lot of people can attend them safely,” City Manager Shane Stokes said. “So our little event permit turned into a document so we can foreshadow or mitigate any issues that may come up in an event. We started doing it, and now with the film-friendly that we’re trying to do, we’re trying to mold these two ordinances together where they match. This is literally just changing the authority and the permit process. It was originally the police chief, and I think it was because our permits back in the day was just blocking off a street. When the police chief signed off on it, that’s really all you needed. It has evolved into this major thing where we want to know everything you’re going to do, when you’re going to do it, what time you’re going to do it, and that’s to keep the public safe.”
“It’s all about safety,” Troy said. “We’ve never denied a permit. We’ve said that there are a couple of things that need to be changed, and they usually take care of them. We will raise the fee to $50. Twenty-five was just getting something out there because it does take a lot of time to prepare all this and it didn’t cover any of the cost whatsoever. So even going to 50 won’t cover the cost, but it won’t be nothing.”
With no further discussion, the ordinance was approved.
Next was to consider approving on first reading Ordinance No. 1839, establishing Film Production Guidelines and Permits, to which City Secretary Barbara Stucker addressed the commission.
“Cortnie with the Chamber approached us about this, and she’s been working with the Texas Film Commission going through the steps to make us a film-friendly community. One of those things was we needed to adopt some film production guidelines. When she approached us, we got a committee together, and they had some suggested guidelines that we went over. It’s mostly about trying to get people to come to Pampa and letting them know there is a database that lets them know we do welcome filming here.”
“Everybody go to the site and submit more information once it’s official,” Cortnie said. “You can put your home, land, stores, anything like that in this database and it’s open worldwide to people who want to make a movie. If you have an abandoned gas station, they might pay you to film it. It’s the same as when Yellowstone came in and that improved a lot of our businesses and was really great for them to have film crews come in. It’s a good opportunity to get more people here and for them to able to see our town, and for our town to maybe make some money from it too.”
With no further discussion, the ordinance was approved.
Next was to consider approving an application from Pampa Independent School District to replat the 5.2 acre tract of land located in Suburbs 66 and Suburbs 67 to the City of Pampa to be formally known as the Baker Subdivsion, which was approved.
Next was to consider adopting Resolution No. R26-007 approving the grant application to the Texas Water Development Board, which was approved. The projects include: converting the ten acres by the water plant into a 15 million terminal water storage reservoir, new water well, the reuse project, an additional ground storage tank at the prison, finishing out the meter project, and leak detection equipment.
Next was to consider approving the consent agenda items that included:
• Consider awarding the bid to Robert Kimberly Blalock in the amount of $350.00 for the delinquent tax property located at Lot 23 Block 2, Finley Banks, of the City of Pampa, commonly known as 842 S. Banks.
• Consider awarding the bid to Fabian Israel Soto in the amount of $1,000.00 for the delinquent tax property located at Lot 25, Block 8, Prairie Village, of the City of Pampa, commonly known as 1125 Huff.
• Consider awarding the bid to Trinidad Mata & Lizeth Rodriguez in the amount of $5,500.00 for delinquent tax property located at Lot 6, Block 7 Carr Terrace, of the City of Pampa, commonly known as 1320 Terrace.
• Consider awarding the bid to Christopher Lucas in the amount of $1,000.00 for the delinquent tax property located at S45 of Lot 8, Block 2, East End, of the City of Pampa, Commonly known as 318 N. Warren.
• Consider awarding the bid to Diego Hernandez in the amount of $15,200.00 for the delinquent tax property located at Lot 4, Block 6 Lavender, of the City of Pampa, commonly known as 1013 S. Christy.
• Consider awarding the bid to Flora Castillo in the amount of $4,000.00 for the delinquent tax property located at Lots 12 & 13, Block 3 Wynnelea of the City of Pampa, commonly known as 732 N. Dwight.
• Consider awarding the bid to LeQueta Presson in the amount of $15,111.11 for the delinquent tax property located at Lots 11 & 12, Block 3, Tulsa, of the City of Pampa, commonly known as 312 N. Dwight and Lot on Dwight.
The commission then went into an executive session, and with no further items on the agenda and no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.
