Regular Meeting January 24 @ 6:00 PM St. Agnes Church Hall Minutes I. Call to Order: President, Ramiro Ramos called the meeting to order at 6:05 p.m. after declaring a quorum. In Attendance Fr. Serafin, Pastor; Ramiro Ramos, Pres; Mary Ann White, VP; Members: Jorge Ibarra, Nancy Hayter, Anita Martinez, Ruben Falcon, Ray Pena, Jimmy Hernandez; Finance Council Members: Carlos Ortega, Clarissa Lujan, and many parishioners. II. Prayer: Fr. Showed a video. III. Approval of Minutes Nancy Hayter motioned to table the approval of minutes. MaryAnn 2 nd the motion. All in favor. Ruben asked when the last time we approved minutes. Nancy said the last time was in December. Nancy requested there be a summary of the special meeting held in December. Everyone is in agreement that Jorge will record the meetings and then type the minutes. IV. Ralph Hernandez Ralph thanked Ramiro for accepting one of his four items to be on agenda. People had asked him about the St. Joseph leaks and expenses. Ramiro asked for a report, but he was not given the information needed from the office regarding donations and expenses. Ralph was told that he would have to get approval on being on the agenda as we have a time limit in bylaws. Nancy said that a few meetings back we said we would get the information about the project put in the bulletin along with a thank you note. Ramiro reminded everyone that Fr. just got back and he also has a long list of items to take care of. MaryAnn suggested to let the parish know that we are not putting off thank you s. Carlos noted that donations should be earmarked for their use or they go to the general fund. V. Ministry Report a. Strong Catholic Families - Sophia and Rudy Franco reported that there are 8 couples that went to training in San Angelo. They requested $5000 for their group to perform their activities. They do not want to do many fundraisers, because they think it takes away from people s tithing. Their goal is to promote family life within the parish. Some of the events are Movie Nights, Bingos, Sweetheart Supper, Sunday Meals, and 100 meal baskets during Christmas time. They will have a March Family Night with board games and pizza. The group is for single parents, or grandparents that are raising their grandchildren as well as married couples. They would like to expand their events to include a game night for family fun. Ramiro noted that this is a very worthy cause. He asked how much was needed for the Sweetheart Supper on February 18 th. Sophia estimated $900 for 40 couples.
Nancy made a motion to make this Strong Catholic Families a line item in our budget. Ramiro suggested digging in our pockets a little more. Rudy said they were not just asking for the sweetheart supper, we have other events like the movie nights. Sophia said they would like to give out books for lent to all the families of the parish. Nancy said that she had a motion on the floor. Ramiro would like to take care of this event first. We would like to make it a line item for the next year. Carlos said when we look at the budget for next year we can add a line item. For future use with the approval of the council we can utilize money from the humanitarian fund, until we have it as a line item in the budget. Again Nancy made the motion for a line item for Strong Catholic families for the 2017-2018 year. 2 nd by Ruben. All in favor. Motion made by Nancy to give the Strong Catholic families $500 from the Humanitarian Fund for the February Sweetheart Supper. 2 nd by MaryAnn. All in favor. Nancy asked Sophia if they had seen the Lenten booklets given out at the Sacred Heart Cathedral, and strongly recommended them as having a strong family influence. She would be willing to fund that project. Ramiro asked if the council was aware that we can use the humanitarian fund for this event. The Francos will present a video after the meeting regarding Strong Catholic Families. b. Youth Group We have a retreat at St. Stephens with 20 youth wanting to attend. We are asking for help to attend this event. Cost is $50 per person. We are also looking to attend a WorkHeart camp in New Braunfels but the cost is high at $365 a person. Life Teen program needs lots of adult and youth leaders. Taco Tuesday is big success. Plan to ask 1 st Presbyterian to use van as some kids need rides. Maybe Knights can help. c. Cemetery Report Ray Pena and Jimmy Hernandez reported that the clearing and street repairs were not completed. The Committee eventually put a stop to this project. Fr. Serafin said not to spend any money and put a stop to all projects until his return. Fr. Hatch said he got permission from the Bishop to make payments in $2k increments. Mr. Franco was paid $12,400. Ramiro let everyone know that the deal was $2,000 per occurrence, not by increments. MaryAnn stated that we are parish council, not cemetery. So why are we involved in this? Ramiro stated that they are reporting to us what is happening. MaryAnn asked what is Ray asking of us? Ray said that he is asking the council for a date of completion of this project. Ramiro let everyone know that when the gentleman finished the paving project at St. Agnes and St. Joseph, he gave an estimate of $30K for the cemetery. But it was put on hold because; Fr. Serafin was going on sabbatical. I think the cemetery still has money to complete that project, but Fr. Hatch spent money for more gravesites. We still have
about 80 open sites. One of two things is going to happen. There is nothing we can do about it as the money is spent. The other thing that might happen is the diocese might dispute this with Fr. Hatch. Nancy asked if this is out of the cemetery fund? Ramiro stated it was from the cemetery funds. Jimmy stated that the cemetery committee was not consulted at all, regarding this. Ramiro stated that he and Rey Lopez tried to go to that meeting and Fr. Hatch locked the door on them, and he would not let them in. MaryAnn asked who was in the meeting. Ramiro said he did not know. Jimmy said that at that meeting, Fr. Hatch had already made charges for 2 or 3 thousand dollars. We had all decided at that meeting that we would respect Fr. Serafin s wishes and wait until he got back. All projects would stop because Fr. Serafin said that only $2,000 would be spent in the whole duration he was gone, not in increments. So after we were all in agreement, the very next day we got an email from Fr. Hatch, saying we needed to convince Fr. Serafin to spend that money. I wasn t going to do it, because we had already decided at the meeting. I wasn t aware $12,000 was spent until after Fr. Serafin came back. Fr. Hatch acted on his own. Ramiro reminded everyone that Ray was there on behalf of the cemetery committee to let the council know what was going on. Mr. Franco stated that there was a water line leaking, and he let Ray and Fr. Hatch know that he would come back to do the work after Pedro had fixed that, otherwise it would defeat the purpose. He has gone back twice a week to check on that, and it is still leaking. d. Hispanic Ministry - Fr. Serafin reported the Spanish scripture study will be started by Deacon Ruben. They are waiting for the materials to arrive. The Mujeres de Fe y Esperanza had a meeting with the officers. They planned out a formation program for the group. The president will discuss that with the group to see of they will accept that. If they accept it, they will proceed with that program. Their goal is to be responsible and effective agents evangelization. Last year they had a Lenten Retreat and Conference. They meet on the 2 nd Tuesday. Ramiro will be meeting with Delia and Deacon Ruben about the study. e. Guadalupanas - Mary Ann stated that she is no longer the president of the Guadalupanas. The secretary, Viola Alvarez, is the one that does the calling to get help with funeral meals, and it is always the same people that help. Ramiro asked for update on the kitchen at St. Joseph. MaryAnn said that it was done. Nancy stated that it did need to be discussed because she looked up what the cost was on the kitchen. Nancy said that according to the May minutes, the estimated cost was $5,275. MaryAnn said that the Guadalupans paid for it; so why are we bringing it up? Nancy said, we are bringing it up because, we did not do what we were supposed to. In the minutes, $1,000 was to be paid by the Guadalupanas, $1,000 from the Fall Fair
Group, and the rest was to be paid by the church. That did not happen. It is my understanding that the Guadalupanas paid for the entire thing. MaryAnn said, that's fine, because Carlos asked how much was the church going to pay for. I took offense to that, because we were in a bind, and Rosalie also back tracked and said well if you still need the money, I said not a problem, it s a done deal, its all paid for. Ramiro said, Are we all in agreement? Nancy, said, I have a problem with it. If we say we are going to do something, we ought to do it. I think that if that s causing people to be upset, and angry and hurt, that s not ever a good thing. Ramiro said, That s what Carlos was asking. How much do we need to pay? Carlos said that just for the correction, he was simply asking what was the total cost. Ramiro asked for a solution. Nancy said we should do what we said we were going to do. Referring back to the minutes, Guadalupanas $1,000, Fall Fair $1,000 and the remaining balance $3,275. Ruben made motion to go by the minutes and take $1,000 from the Fall Fair Group, $3,275 from the parish, and $1,000 from the Guadalupanas. Nancy 2 nd the motion. After discussion it was decided to table the motion until we find out what was paid and from where. Ruben 2 nd the motion. All in favor. f. Funeral Meals - At the meeting at Ramiro s house in December, we agreed to ask the Guadalupanas and Mr. Martinez to work together for the funeral meals. The problem is that he Guadalupanas are self-funded, while those at St. Agnes are paid by OLG. How can we get uniformity? The council decided that what happens at one happens at the other. Nancy, said it should be one committee with branches. It shouldn t be separate. Alonzo Martinez said that St. Agnes used $1,300 last year. We just want to be fair with everyone. The Guadalupanas are a strong group and can support themselves. As far as the church goes we want to be fair with everyone. Nancy reminded everyone of the vision of the parish with the two churches. We need to have one funeral committee, that would serve either church. We still need to have that set of rules. Ramiro asked Nancy to get with the Guadalupanas and Mr. Martinez and put something together. Motion made by Nancy to extend the time until we finish. Ruben 2 nd the motion. All were in favor. VI. Old business a. Finance Carlos passed out reports that are to date. See attached. i. The inactive Guadalupanas account was moved to the general account. The Men s club was moved to the funeral meal account. These accounts will show up on this sheet until the end of the fiscal year.
ii. Since there is no one in the St. Agnes house, the Finance Council recommendation is not to spend any money on that house until we figure out what is going to happen. We are looking at a heating & cooling unit of $5,000 or higher. Nancy suggested we should stop the project. I would like to resend the motion, pay Joe s Climate what is owed to them and have them pick up the equipment from the house. Motion 2nd by Ruben. All were in favor. Ramiro said that when the Knights of Columbus were redoing the floor, there was a crack in the foundation of about an inch wide. We should have someone come and inspect the house before we proceed with any repairs to it. MaryAnn asked why there are boxes left in the garage that were not returned. Carlos said the project was unfinished so linoleum was not installed in the laundry room. iii. The floor in the large hall has been redone, but when we had rain the roof leaked. The Finance Council recommends that new bids come in for repairs at St. Agnes. A bid was submitted in 2015 from LT construction. We are asking for new bids. We consider this as a priority. On the back of the bid from LT construction are the repairs for St. Joseph. These are 1 and 2 year old bids. The total for these two projects is roughly $116,147.50. We are proposing to take the existing funds from the repair and renovations, the humanitarian funds, and savings to make improvements. To be done in 1 of 3 ways 1- By repairing both churches at the same time using all the funds and the pledges continue. We would be depleting savings, humanitarian, and building fund. 2- Repair both churches use about $50,000 and ask the diocese for a loan for half of the cost. And we still have at least 50%. 3- Renovating St. Joseph then St. Agnes. Nancy said we did not stop taking pledges of St. Agnes. We in fact made a motion we would continue the pledges, but change the plan as we did not have to enlarge. It is still ongoing. We stopped it until Fr. Serafin got back. Carlos said we need to revise the letter and continue the pledges. We want to approach this in multiple ways. St. Agnes is in need. St. Joseph just got a new roof but the exterior is in need of repair. MaryAnn said that if the money is there then do both churches. Why repair one while the other is falling apart? We have the money; don t ask for a loan that is
just putting us in a bind. We have that money that you just mentioned from the pledges. Nancy said that the money collected has to be used for St Agnes, because that was what it is designated for. Carlos said that it is only $15, 254.85 that has been collected. We need to call for new bids. Ramiro said that before we call for bids, we need to decide what needs to be done. We need to form a committee. Jorge said that we need to step back and relax. Take this one step at a time. I don t agree with spending all the money. We need to take it in steps. Ruben suggested that if you asked for pledges for St. Agnes, then ask for pledges for St. Joseph. One thing is the Humanitarian Fund, I would like to designate that as the emergency repairs fund. The Humanitarian Fund is going to get taken advantage of. If there is something drastic like the a/c unit, then we can take it form there. I would like to keep it, but change the name, and still continue to contribute to it like we have been. If people understand where the money is coming from, they will give more. Ramiro suggested we get a few more people together and get a prioritized list. He doesn t agree we should spend all our money. We need to start with what we feel is most important. If we spend all our money we will be totally in the hole and totally broke. We are going to start telling people no when they come and ask us for help. MaryAnn said she doesn t want to take out a loan. Just use what money we have. Getting a loan is putting us in the hole. Nancy suggested we need to announce this at the parish masses, and ask if there are people that would like to be involved on this committee. The more people that are involved, the more money will come in and good ideas will come in. That is something we do not do very well - get people involved. We need a member from parish council, finance council, and Fr. Serafin along with anyone else that wants to be on this committee. Jorge said that another suggestion is we need professionals that will be honest with us. What if it is as simple as a plug that needs to be removed and we will spend thousands of dollars on something that had a simple fix? Ramiro said that we need to make a list and prioritize it so we know what needs to be fixed and who we need to contact. iv. Long term plans Fr came to us with a fix the financial issues. 1. Someone wants to buy the car the sisters had. The one belongs to the parish. Do
we want to get rid of that asset? We pay liability insurance on it. It is not being used but we still have to move it around. 2. Houses - The rectory behind St. Agnes has seen lots of money put into the house. The suggestion is fix up the rectory on Sage Street where Fr. currently lives and sell that property. Then fix the St. Agnes house so Fr. can move and that is where any future priest will live. The rectory at St. Joseph is livable and is used by visiting priests or anyone that comes in for weekend masses. Excess funds from sale of Sage Street can be used where needed. MaryAnn It s a good idea to sell the car, sell the property on Sage Street, and fix up both houses. Jorge said that if we are talking about money, staffing here at St. Agnes, we are paying someone to clean, why can t it be voluntary? Furthermore, we are paying someone to run the store, that store does not generate enough money to pay someone to run it. The cleaning can be done voluntarily. Ramiro When we start with volunteers cleaning, they start off real strong. Then as time goes on, it falls off and you re going to have that general maintenance again. Nancy You have got to keep it going and keep working it. Carlos said they will take a closer look at the employee roles and make a recommendation for the next meeting. b. Golf Tournament i. Augie and Cordelia were the coordinators for the golf tournament this past year. We need a vote on the date. November is not an ideal time, so Augie reserved the course for June 24 th. That is the typical weekend for fiesta de San Juan and it is prime golf season. The council needs to approve that the date be set and also a coordinator. The other thing, if we do not have the tournament on that day, we need to pay to close the golf course on that day, we will lose it to another tournament and we may not be able to lock in a date for the next year. The green fee is $500. Nancy made the motion made to have it on the June 24 th and pay for it regardless. 2 nd by Jimmy Hernandez. All in favor. VII. New Business The Be My Witness is an informational meeting for the parish council. The results will be presented at a meeting on Tuesday at 5:30 with meal by Alfredo s. All should attend.
VIII. Next meeting is on February 28, 2017 6pm at St. Agnes Hall. Ruben said that he would like to request a meeting with the finance council on February 7, at 6 pm to go over the budget. Carlos let everyone know that the finance council will be meeting monthly. Nancy said that it is kind of dividing when we list things. For example the St. Joseph Christmas Bazaar. I would like everything to be Our Lady of Guadalupe across everything. Also I would like to see a parish calendar with all the events in the parish for everyone. Post it on the website, social media so everyone can see it. Also on the 10 th of June, Timothy s first Mass will be here on the 11 th, and I would like to ask if we can have a church dinner. Fr. Serafin stated that it is taken care of. Ralph requested the agenda to be posted at the churches so we can see it? Nancy made a motion to adjourn. Ruben 2 nd the motion. All in favor. IX. Closing prayer