By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Organizations raising funds with car washes will have to find a new way to make money,
as charitable car washes will no longer be allowed while the city is in Stage 2 water
restrictions, city council members learned Tuesday.
A discussion about charitable car washes arose during the city council’s consideration of
amendments to the city’s existing Water Conservation Plan and Drought Contingency
Plan during its regular meeting.
After City Secretary Mari Acosta read the heading of the ordinance to adopt the updated
plans, Mayor Al Arreola asked City Manager Shawna Burkhart to speak before anyone
made a motion.
Burkhart told the council, “This water conservation plan must be filed. We must update
that. However, it’s my understanding that we have been in Stage 2 drought conditions,
and through that, the bad part about this ordinance is that is does restrict charitable car
washes, and we have been in that situation in years past, but we have not restrained
ourselves from charitable car washes. This will require us to do that.
“So that means football teams, softball teams, traveling teams, cheerleaders, et cetera,”
Burkhart added.
Assistant Public Works Director Greg Velazquez, who was at the podium to answer
questions about the ordinance, added, “That is correct. And it’s not something that was
added. It’s been there since we started the water conservation plan.”
Velazquez said he believes education is key to the public’s understanding why the city is
now prohibiting charitable car washes.
Arreola asked if organizations were required to get a city permit to set up a charitable car
wash.
Velazquez replied, “So that’s question that I had. Who is permitting these charitable
events? And I believe (the organizers) approach the commercial business to give them
permission to use their parking lot. However, I don’t think there is an actual permit that
has to be processed through the city in order to have these type of charitable car washes.”
When Arreola said City Attorney Ana Markowski Smith could look into the issue, she
said, “Presently, there is no ordinance that I’m aware of that governs charitable car
washes. As you said, it’s on private property, and it’s the businesses that allow them to
conduct that activity, but there is an ordinance prohibiting them during Stage 2 drought
conditions.”
Burkhart said the city could use its utility billing system to notify commercial and
residential water customers of the restriction.
Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez asked, “Is says here that we adopted, the city council
adopted, a formal plan on Aug. 27, 2019. Does the current plan include or identify the
prohibition of charitable car washes?”
“Yes,” Velazquez replied.
“So it was just something that we’re not doing,” Gutierrez said.
“Right,” Velazquez said.
“And so instead of 2019, you will be updating it, and we will have something more
current,” Gutierrez said.
“We do have the current conservation plan, and it was submitted to the Region J Planning
Group, which is a requirement from TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality), and it has been submitted to TCEQ, so the new version is in their hands, and
once we adopt this, we’ll provide it to the council, and it will be on the city’s ordinance
page,” Velazquez replied.
Burkhart added, “I would ask if there are concerns from the public regarding this
ordinance, that they contact the city manager’s office, and we can address those.”
Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus also raised several issues, noting that education about the
requirements of the drought conservation plan is vital.
“One of the reasons we switched the way we do our utility billing mail-outs is to have
that ability to add that information, so we really need to take advantage of that, so we
really need to do a good public campaign and work with our PR folks to get that
information out there, so people understand,” DeReus said.
He also asked about phrasing in a portion of the conservation plan dealing with the
ongoing replacement of the city’s water meters.
He noted the plan reads that the city will “test and replace 1 percent of meters” annually,
adding the figure seemed low.
Burkhart said, “To share with the public, the industry standard has changed. We are
moving away from moving parts, or impellers, within the structure of the water meters,
and now it is literally just a laser, no working parts on these water meters, and their
accuracy is, I believe, within a hundredth of a gallon, so these are very accurate and they
last between 15 to 20 years.”
DeReus asked about another section of the plan, in which the old and new sentences were
“exactly the same.”
“I’m trying to figure out what was different,” DeReus said.
“I believe it’s simply making it its own paragraph,” Burkhart replied.
After some additional discussion, Gutierrez made a motion to approve the ordinance, and Councilman J.P. Sanchez gave the second. The council unanimously approved the ordinance without further comments or questions.
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