City Council on Oct. 7 approved several items by motion, including a consent agenda that contained professional services authorizations, passed a three‑year holiday lighting contract, cast the city’s ballot in a Texas Municipal League election and approved merit/market pay adjustments for two senior staff members.

What the council approved:

- Consent agenda: Council moved and approved the consent agenda as presented. The consent agenda included, among other items, a professional engineering services agreement with Birkhoff, Hendricks & Carter LLP for design work on East Brenner Road at Tall Tree Drive, not to exceed $64,500. Staff said the money is included in the current budget and recommended approval. The consent motion carried with all members voting in favor.

- Holiday lighting services: Council authorized a three‑year agreement with Splendid Christmas Lighting Company with the ability to extend the contract, in an amount of $39,000 per year billed annually for installation and takedown services. Staff said the awardee was the low bidder and had been the city’s contractor in prior years.

- Texas Municipal League ballot, Region 13 director: Council cast the city’s official ballot for Mayor West Mays (Coppell) for Region 13 director of the Texas Municipal League Board of Directors. The motion to cast the ballot passed unanimously.

- Executive session pay adjustments: After an executive session on personnel matters, council approved a 3 percent merit adjustment for the city secretary and approved a market adjustment of 2 percent and an additional 3 percent merit increase for the city manager. Council recorded the motions and voted unanimously.

Why it matters: The contracts commit city funds and vendor relationships (engineering design and holiday lighting) and the personnel decisions affect the city’s compensation structure for senior management. Council repeatedly noted that the design contract addresses a safety concern at the East Brenner/Tall Tree intersection and that funding for the contract is budgeted.

Votes and procedure: Recorded votes on these items were unanimous in favor; the consent agenda was approved after motion and second and council members who spoke identified budget availability for the engineering work and confirmed staff had performed bidder and reference checks for the lighting contract.

Provenance: The consent vote and discussion of the East Brenner Road/Tall Tree Drive design contract took place during the consent agenda segment; the lighting contract, Texas Municipal League ballot and executive‑session personnel actions were recorded later in the meeting.