This is the meeting where the money becomes official. After proposing a rate on August 25, the Council will adopt the FY 2026–2027 budget and set the property-tax rate (Items 6–10), holding the required public hearings first. The adopted rate is $0.429041 per $100 — the no-new-revenue rate. Because the budget raises more total revenue than last year (mostly from new construction), a separate vote is required to ratify that increase (Resolution 2026-34).
Also up: public hearings and final votes on the two James Oxer Survey annexations the Council accepted in August (Items 11–14), an ordinance to regulate Flock cameras (Item 16), the creation of a Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee for the long-range plan (Item 15, which the agenda mislabels as a Capital Improvement committee), planning for how the city will inform voters about the Home Rule Charter election (Item 17), and consent-agenda renewals of the county jail and dispatch agreements. A four-item executive session includes a mediation settlement in the Beall-Dean case and a legal consultation on the Mayor’s requests for confidential documents.
Presiding: Mayor Teresa Palmer. Council: Eric Contreras, Chawn Gilliland, Buddy Wright, Scott Smith, and Nathan Crummel (Mayor Pro Tem). City Manager: Toni Fisher. Item 1: a proclamation to Freedom House recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Agenda: 24 numbered items, including a four-item executive session. Posted: September 1, 2026.
The meeting opens with the invocation, pledges, and the Mayor’s standing comments, followed by a proclamation to Freedom House recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Willow Park. Freedom House is a Parker County shelter and advocacy organization for survivors of family violence. The item is ceremonial; no Council action is required.
Four routine items pass in one motion unless a member pulls one. Item 2 approves the August 18 special-meeting and August 25 regular-meeting minutes. Items 3 and 4 renew the city’s interlocal agreements with the Parker County Sheriff’s Office for jail services and dispatch services for FY 2026–2027. Per the packet, the county jail per-diem rate rises from $97.70 to $103.26 per prisoner on October 1, and the city’s dispatch share is $126,240.01, paid quarterly. Item 5 adopts the FY 2026–2027 city holiday schedule.
This is where the budget becomes final. The Council holds two public hearings — one on the budget (Item 6), one on the tax rate (Item 9) — then takes the votes to adopt the budget (Item 7) and set the tax rate (Item 10) for the year starting October 1. The budget is balanced and funds a 3% raise for city staff and 5% for police.
| New tax rate | $0.429041 per $100 |
| Last year’s rate | $0.421646 per $100 |
| Typical homestead bill | about $46 lower than last year |
Both, depending on what you mean — which is why it’s confusing. The rate goes up a little. But home values fell this year, and that matters more: the city’s official estimate shows the typical home paying about $46 less than last year. Your own bill depends on how your home’s value changed.
Here’s the part that sounds backwards: the city takes in more money overall (up 3.38%) — but almost all of that comes from new construction added to the tax rolls, not from existing homeowners paying more. Because the total went up, state law makes the Council take a separate vote to formally “ratify the increase” (Item 8), even though a typical bill isn’t rising. Residents can speak at both public hearings.
The two voluntary annexations the Council accepted on August 11 return for their public hearings and final votes. Items 11–12 cover roughly 0.82 acres near the northwest corner of E. Bankhead Highway and Torri Court (Property ID #118980, Bar-Ko Land Company), proposed for annexation by Ordinance 950-26. Items 13–14 cover roughly 0.33 acres in the Bankhead Commons Addition (Property ID #125053, Willow Park Services LLC), by Ordinance 949-26. Both parcels are in the James Oxer Survey, Abstract 1029. A public hearing precedes each vote, and approval would formally bring the parcels into the city.
The agenda lists Item 15 as appointing a Capital Improvement Advisory Committee — but the staff briefing sheet in the packet corrects that. The actual action is to create a Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee (CPAC). Staff writes that “although the agenda reads the former, the correct action for this item is the latter.”
The two are different bodies. A Capital Improvement Advisory Committee is a technical group a city must have when it charges impact fees; Willow Park already appointed one in 2022 (its Planning & Zoning commissioners plus a resident real-estate professional). The Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee, by contrast, guides the update of the city’s long-range Comprehensive Plan — reviewing land-use visions, goals, policies, and community feedback. Staff notes it isn’t required, but is recommended to broaden public involvement in the planning process.
If the Council approves creating the committee, staff would take applications September 9–18, with Council appointments on September 22 and a first (virtual) committee meeting September 24. Public workshops at City Hall are planned for October 3 and November 21, with additional meetings into the spring.
Item 16, brought by Councilmember Contreras, is now backed by a draft ordinance added to the packet after it was first posted. It would amend the city’s traffic code to add a new article on automatic license-plate recognition cameras — the technology Flock provides. Rather than authorize the cameras, the draft restricts them: the city could not operate an automatic license-plate-reader system, or contract with another government to run one, except on a temporary basis of 180 days or less and only for specific purposes — investigating a felony, locating a missing person, recovering a stolen vehicle, identifying unregistered or uninsured vehicles, or securing a restricted-access area.
The draft also adds data-privacy limits: no targeting drivers by race, ethnicity, or income, and no selling, sharing, or transferring captured plate data to private parties, to the federal government, or to other agencies for purposes not listed. Because this is a “discussion/action” item, the Council could adopt the ordinance, amend it, table it, or take no action — watch whether it passes as written and how the 180-day temporary-use limit is discussed.
The Council will set plans for the information process around the November 3 Home Rule Charter election — how the city will inform residents about the charter question on the ballot. WPCN maintains a voter reference guide on the Home Rule charter, with a clearly labeled personal endorsement by me, on the Home Rule Charter page.
The Council will recess into closed session for four matters under Chapter 551; any decision must be voted in open session afterward. Item 18 is the Beall-Dean Ranch lawsuit (Cause No. CV26-0175), specifically a mediation settlement agreement — a sign the case may be moving toward resolution. Item 19 is the Halff & Associates matter (Fort Worth Water Project). Item 20 is a legal consultation regarding employee complaints. Item 21 is a legal consultation regarding the Mayor’s requests for confidential documents.
City Manager comments (including National Night Out on October 6 at The District), Council and Mayor comments, and future agenda-item requests. No action.
The budget gets adopted. After proposing it in August, the Council holds the public hearings and takes the final votes on the FY 2026–2027 budget and the $0.429041 rate. The rate is the no-new-revenue rate, the total levy still rises 3.38% (requiring a ratification vote), and the official impact statement shows a median homestead paying about $46 less — though individual bills vary with each property’s value.
Two annexations finalize, the Council takes up a draft ordinance that would restrict Flock cameras to temporary use, and it takes up creating a Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee for the long-range plan (an item the agenda mislabels). The executive session is worth noting for a possible settlement direction in the Beall-Dean case and a legal item on the Mayor’s document requests.
