Two items are likely to draw the most public discussion. Item 16 is the Home Rule Charter: City Attorney Andy Messer will present his legal update, and the Council will consider an ordinance calling a Special Election for November 3, 2026, to put the proposed charter before Willow Park voters. The August 17 deadline is the legal cutoff to call a November election; June 9 is the first regular meeting at which Council can act, not the last.
Item 12 is a joint discussion by Councilmembers Smith and Contreras on data centers and Flock cameras — two distinct technology and land use topics. Flock Safety's automated license plate reader cameras have become nationally controversial in 2026 amid concerns over license plate data access by federal agencies; several Texas cities have ended or restricted Flock programs this year. Data center development has accelerated across the DFW exurbs as demand for cloud and AI computing has grown, raising resident questions about traffic, power, water, noise, and the character of development in the area.
In executive session, Toni Fisher's employment contract for permanent City Manager (Item 20) and a separate personnel deliberation regarding Michelle Guelker (Item 21) suggest the city's interim management arrangement is being formally resolved. A new economic development executive session item involves BPO Real Estate LLC (Item 19), a Rockwall-based developer with prior business before the city. The substantive agenda also includes a Parker County Public Utility Agency water supply presentation (Item 4), the full Republic Services joint solid waste contract for review (Item 5), a park dedication to former council member Lea Young (Item 13), the return of the Parker County interlocal for road improvements (Item 14), and an Employee Compensation Plan tied to the police salary work authorized at May 12 (Item 15).
Item 2 — May 12, 2026 Minutes. The consent agenda includes approval of the May 12 minutes. Those minutes are the official record of the canvass of the May 2 election, the swearing-in of Wright, Smith, and Crummel, the re-appointment of Crummel as Mayor Pro Tem, the authorization of City Manager contract negotiations with Toni Fisher, and the appointment of Quincy Hamilton as Interim Police Chief with Bryan Goode as Interim Assistant Chief. Approval is ministerial.
Item 3 — HUB International Competitive Bidding. The Council will authorize HUB International, the city's insurance consulting firm since June 2023 under an auto-renewing annual agreement, to solicit competitive proposals for city employee health, dental, vision, life, and short-term disability benefits for the new fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026. The city puts the employee benefit program out to bid annually to prepare each year's budget. This is a staff recommendation and routine.
Freese & Nichols engineer Jessica Brown returns to update the Council on the development of the Parker County Public Utility Agency (PUA), following her initial February 2026 presentation. The PUA is a proposed regional water supply entity formed under Texas Local Government Code Chapter 572, which allows public entities to create a joint agency via concurrent ordinances without requiring state legislation. The item is informational; no vote is anticipated.
| Willow Park Annual Cost Share | $20,000 (population 5,000–10,000 tier) |
| Total Initial Annual Budget | $300,000–$500,000 across all members (depending on whether a General Manager and admin staff are hired) |
| Potential Members | Up to 14: Aledo, Annetta, Aqua Texas, Brock, Hudson Oaks, Millsap, Peaster, Rio Brazos WSC, Springtown, UTGCD, Walnut Creek SUD, Weatherford, Willow Park, and Parker County |
The core problem the PUA addresses: per the Freese & Nichols presentation, Parker County has the highest cumulative number of water wells drilled of any Texas county (15,488 since 2003), yet average well depths are increasing while yield per foot is declining. Regional water demand projections show supply shortages emerging by the 2040s–2050s. A regional entity can pursue state and federal funding at a scale no single city can access independently.
Per the Freese & Nichols schedule, ordinance advertisement begins June 2026, concurrent ordinances are passed July 2026, the advertisement period ends August 2026, and the user agreements are executed and the board is seated in Q4 2026. The 14-day advertisement minimum begins as soon as participating entities adopt their first published notices.
This item is discussion-only as agendized. If Willow Park wants to be a founding member of the PUA, the concurrent ordinance authorization will need to occur at this meeting or a subsequent meeting in time to meet the timeline. Council members may signal whether they want this brought back as an action item.
The full text of the new Joint Solid Waste Agreement with Republic Waste Services of Texas, Ltd. is included in the packet. The agreement, effective May 1, 2026, is the five-year contract between Republic and the six-city consortium: Willow Park, Aledo, Hudson Oaks, Annetta, Annetta North, and Annetta South. It runs through April 30, 2031 with an automatic five-year renewal that the member cities must act jointly to stop (or that the contractor must decline); a single city cannot block the renewal on its own.
| Effective Date | May 1, 2026 |
| Term | 5 years, through April 30, 2031, automatic 5-year renewal |
| Equipment | New automated side-loader (ASL) trucks; Republic-provided polycarts (96-gallon trash, 65-gallon recycling) |
| Willow Park Service Days | Tuesday & Friday trash, Tuesday recycling |
| Base Rate | Fixed through April 30, 2027; then 4% annual increase |
| Bulk/Brush Limit | 2 cubic yards per collection day |
| Franchise Fee | 12% on residential and commercial billings, paid to the city |
The April 29 meeting produced significant resident complaints about the rate change from $19.08 to $25.12 at the new contract's onset. Council approved the rate change ordinance and directed staff to work with the other five cities to attempt to renegotiate the contract. This discussion item appears to be a follow-up on that direction.
The new agreement references Attachment A for rates, but the Attachment A pages actually included in this packet are the prior 2023 renewal schedule, which shows a $3.15 cart rental fee; the new agreement's rate sheet appears unpopulated. The $19.08-to-$25.12 increase reported here comes from the city's April 29 rate ordinance and prior coverage, not from this document.
Whether staff reports any Republic response to renegotiation overtures from the six-city consortium, and what leverage the consortium has on a contract that just took effect May 1.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. Any local government receiving federal transportation funds — including TxDOT grant programs like the Meadow Place/Kings Gate Advance Funding Agreement approved at the May 12 meeting — is required to adopt and maintain a Title VI Non-Discrimination Plan. The plan is updated every three years.
The plan included in the packet designates the Interim City Manager as the Title VI Coordinator, establishes complaint procedures, and identifies vital documents (Title VI Policy Statement, Complaint Form, and Complaint Procedures) for Spanish translation upon request. Per the plan's own demographic data, Willow Park's population is approximately 5,688 with 178 Spanish speakers (3.1%); no language group meets the federal "safe harbor" threshold that would require automatic written translation. The plan is a routine federal compliance requirement, typically uncontroversial.
The budget calendar establishes the schedule of workshops, public hearings, and Council votes required to adopt the FY 2026-27 budget before the fiscal year begins October 1, 2026. Council has an actual decision here: the packet presents three workshop scheduling options — weeknight sessions on July 14 and July 28, an all-day Saturday session on July 11, or July 18 — and the calendar notes that four of five members must be present to vote. Texas Local Government Code §102.006 requires that notice of the budget hearing be published not earlier than the 30th day and not later than the 10th day before the hearing.
The briefing sheet lists the Budget and Tax Rate Public Hearing as August 28, but the draft calendar itself lists August 28 as the date to publish notice and September 8 as the actual hearing. Worth clarifying which date governs before the calendar is adopted.
The Council is asked to declare certain Public Works Department items as surplus and authorize them for public auction. Texas Local Government Code §263.151 governs the disposal of surplus municipal property, requiring a competitive bid or auction process; proceeds return to the city. The specific items are not enumerated in the agenda. This is a routine periodic action.
Interim Police Chief Hamilton is requesting authorization to donate a Willow Park Police Department patrol car to the Aledo Independent School District Police Department. Aledo ISD operates its own school district police department. Donating surplus vehicles to neighboring public safety agencies is a common inter-governmental practice in Texas; state law permits the donation of surplus property to other governmental entities without competitive bidding under certain conditions.
Council member Chawn Gilliland previously served 12 years as Aledo ISD Police Chief before joining the Council. The agendized item is sponsored by Interim Police Chief Hamilton, not Gilliland.
GovWell Technologies is a cloud-based permitting and code enforcement platform designed for small to medium-sized local governments. The software handles building permits, development review, zoning applications, plan review, and code enforcement case management, with AI-assisted features including automatic application checking against local code, 24/7 resident-facing status updates, and digital plan markup.
For Willow Park's Planning and Development office — currently processing permitting activity from the Beall-Dean Ranch, Clearion, and Bar-Ko developments — a modern permitting platform replaces paper-based or legacy workflows and provides residents and contractors online application submission and real-time tracking.
The packet includes GovWell's full Order Form with line-item pricing.
| Year-One List Price | $49,000 — $36,000 annual subscription plus $13,000 one-time deployment and data migration |
| "CEO Discount" Price | $40,000 ($31,000 subscription + $9,000 deployment) if signed by June 13, 2026 |
| Years 2–3 | $31,000 per year (three-year initial term) |
| AI Community Assistant | Structured as a separate one-year trial |
| Itemized Modules | Building Permits $10,000 · Code Enforcement $8,000 · Planning & Zoning $7,000 · Business Licenses $5,000, among others |
| Texas Addenda | Non-appropriation clause, Public Information Act clause, and a clause declining indemnification on state constitutional grounds |
The June 13 signing deadline falls four days after this meeting. Council is being asked to approve a roughly $40,000-per-year, three-year commitment against a vendor-set deadline.
Councilmember Wright is bringing a motion to authorize city staff to "responsibly update city ordinances as deemed necessary." Willow Park's code of ordinances has accumulated provisions over many years that may be outdated, inconsistent with current state law, or superseded by recent ordinance changes. This authorization gives staff standing to identify and recommend updates without requiring a Council member to initiate each individual amendment. Updates identified under this authorization would still require Council approval via ordinance before taking effect.
This item combines two distinct technology and land use topics that Smith and Contreras are raising jointly.
Flock Safety is the dominant provider of automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras in small and mid-sized Texas cities. Flock cameras photograph passing vehicles, capture license plates, and also record vehicle make, model, color, and distinctive features. Police can search the Flock network retroactively by vehicle description to generate investigative leads. The technology has become controversial in 2026, with cities reconsidering contracts amid concerns that license plate data could be accessed by federal agencies for immigration enforcement. Several Texas cities have ended or restricted Flock programs this year.
Data center development has accelerated across the DFW exurbs as demand for cloud and AI computing infrastructure has grown, with communities near Willow Park seeing interest from data center developers. Residents have raised questions about traffic, power consumption, water use, noise, and the character of development in the area. This item gives Smith and Contreras an opportunity to discuss where the city stands on data center land use, whether the zoning code addresses them, and whether any policy guidance is warranted.
Whether Council provides staff direction on either topic — toward adopting, rejecting, or deferring a Flock contract, and toward developing data center land use policy — or whether the discussion is exploratory only.
Smith and Wright are proposing a park dedication honoring Lea Young, who served on the Willow Park City Council from 2018 through her resignation in July 2025 — nearly seven years including time as Mayor Pro Tem. Young served in Place 4 and worked on the city's parks and trails program, including the East Parker County Trail (EPCoT) system proposal, the Parks Board as ex-officio liaison, and the development of Cross Timbers Park at Ranch House Road and Stagecoach Trail, which opened in April 2021.
Scott Smith was appointed to fill her Place 4 vacancy that August and is among those proposing this recognition. A park dedication is a public honor action by the Council and typically requires an ordinance or resolution naming a city park or trail segment. The specific park or feature to be dedicated is not identified in the agenda.
This item returns from the May 12 agenda, where it was discussed but no action was taken after CPA Jake Weber cautioned that drawing $1.4 million for road repairs from the city's $3.9 million in reserves "would be very unwise" and recommended planning the work alongside the Squaw Creek project and the CIP currently in development. The June 9 agenda lists this as Discussion/Action rather than Discussion only, indicating Mayor Palmer is seeking a vote.
The interlocal agreement with Parker County allows the city to coordinate street improvement work using County equipment and resources in Precinct 4. The packet contains a two-page, road-by-road cost breakdown organized by subdivision — Laguna Vista and El Chico — listing work type (chip seal, hot-mix overlay, and P2 reclaim/stabilizer), scheduled work dates, and separate employee, equipment, and material costs per road. The Laguna Vista work totals roughly $708,000; the El Chico page runs higher.
Weber's May 12 reserve-depletion caution is the key context. Several rows on the El Chico cost page are flagged "NOT included in County repair total in presentation," meaning the full table and the figure presented to Council as the county total do not match. If Council moves to approve, the funding source, the specific street scope, and which total Council is acting on should be on the record.
This item connects to the police salary work authorized at the May 12 meeting. At May 12, Mayor Palmer stated she wanted Police Officers to receive a $10,000 raise to make their pay competitive with surrounding communities, and Commander Hamilton was authorized to compile updated salary survey data. This broader compensation item addresses the city's full employee pay structure — not just police — in the context of the upcoming FY 2026-27 budget. With a permanent City Manager contract being negotiated and a formal Police Chief search likely ahead, compensation alignment across city positions is an immediate practical issue.
| Election Date (Proposed) | November 3, 2026 |
| Statutory Deadline to Call | August 17, 2026 |
At the May 12 meeting, City Attorney Andy Messer told Council he had not yet been able to complete his legal review of questions raised by Council members about the Home Rule Charter, citing his focus on existing litigation. He committed to returning with that review, and noted the August 17 deadline to call a November election. The June 9 agenda lists Messer's legal update and the consideration of an ordinance formally calling the Special Election for November 3, 2026.
The Home Rule Charter was drafted by the 10-member charter commission appointed in August 2025 and chaired by Gene Martin. The proposed charter was submitted to Council in early 2026; Council tabled a May ballot call pending the additional legal review. If Messer's review supports proceeding, this item produces an ordinance calling the election and setting the ballot proposition language. A new state law, SB 506 (89th Legislature), introduced requirements for charter ballot proposition language including "definiteness, certainty, and facial neutrality," and provides for Texas Secretary of State review upon petition.
A home rule charter, if approved by voters, would transform Willow Park from a general law city to a home rule city — granting the city broader self-governance authority, potentially giving the mayor voting and veto powers (depending on charter language), enabling citizen-initiated recall elections, and allowing term limits. The specific provisions are governed by the proposed charter document itself.
Under Texas Election Code §3.005, Council must order the election no later than the 78th day before election day — August 17, 2026 — to place the charter on the November 3 ballot. June 9 is the first regular meeting at which Council can call it, not the last: the posted calendar already shows a June 23 meeting, and Willow Park's standing 2nd-and-4th-Tuesday schedule would add further meetings in July and early August once they are posted. If Council misses the November ballot, the next uniform election date is May 2027.
Council will recess into closed session under Texas Government Code Chapter 551 to discuss the following five items. Any action taken after reconvening must occur in open session.
This is a new executive session item under both §551.071 (legal consultation) and §551.087 (economic development). BPO Real Estate LLC is a Rockwall, Texas-based real estate development company. The company appeared before Willow Park's Planning & Zoning Commission in February 2023 for a 6-acre restaurant site plan. The nature of the current negotiations is not specified, but the §551.087 citation indicates active economic development discussions whose disclosure could harm the city's negotiating position.
The meeting closes with City Manager comments, Council and Mayor comments, items of community interest, and future agenda items. Councilmember Scott Smith is expected to share details for "Coffee with Council," starting June 5, 2026. Community Interest will include a reminder of the Willow Spark July 4 event at The District of Willow Park.
