The Abilene City Council heard a presentation from Annette Larma, director of public health, on proposed changes to the city’s food-establishment fee schedule and approved a motion removing specified fees that the city may no longer collect under new state law.

Larma said Senate Bill 1008 and House Bill 2844 (as referenced in the staff presentation) limit the local authority to charge certain inspections and move responsibility for some mobile food vendor permits to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). She told the council that the department projects a $34,500 revenue loss from the state changes and that a preliminary 10% across-the-board increase would recoup roughly $14,700; the city would absorb about $19,725 under staff’s suggested split.

Larma and environmental health staff explained DSHS draft rules would charge higher fees for statewide mobile-vendor tiers (staff noted a $1,500 annual fee for the highest tier in draft rules). The department said it will consider contracting with DSHS to perform inspections the city will no longer be permitted to charge for, but the contract terms and compensation are not yet finalized.

After public comments urging delay to collect firmer financial numbers — including remarks by resident Tammy Fogel and Eddie Pugh — council members debated tabling the issue versus taking targeted action to comply with effective state changes that have already gone into effect for certain items.

Councilman Price moved and Councilman Beard seconded a motion to remove the enumerated fees from the local schedule and to reduce the temporary-event permit fee as shown on the staff slide (the motion applied the five bullet changes presented by staff). Council approved the motion, recorded as "all yeses, motion carries." The items approved for removal and adjustment included express processing, plan review, preliminary inspection and catering add-on fees for certain nonprofit- and day-care-related activities and a reduction to the temporary-event permit fee to align with state rules. Staff said they will clean up the ordinance language and revisit the fee schedule if a state contract or final rule changes the local impact.