The Amarillo City Council has a packed agenda Tuesday, but three issues are likely to dominate the meeting: the expected departure of City Manager Grayson Path, adoption of the city’s next budget and a property tax rate that will generate more maintenance and operations revenue than last year.
Council members are scheduled to meet Tuesday, Sept. 22, with the regular meeting beginning at 3 p.m. The agenda also includes millions of dollars in infrastructure work, economic development business, a proposed tiny home village and dozens of consent items.
But the biggest question going into the meeting is what happens next at City Hall.
Council to consider Path resignation
Near the end of the lengthy consent agenda is an item to accept the resignation of City Manager Grayson Path.
The item specifically says the resignation would be accepted under Section 9.A.d of Path’s employment agreement.
That provision is significant because it deals with a situation in which the city manager resigns after the council, representing a majority of the governing body, formally or informally offers to accept his resignation. In that circumstance, the contract allows the employee to declare a termination as of the date of that suggestion.
The resignation item follows a Sept. 16 executive work session devoted to the city manager’s employment, evaluation or reassignment. Path was selected as Amarillo city manager in 2024 after previously serving as city manager in Paris, Texas.
Mayor Cole Stanley said last week that the city intends to follow the terms of Path’s contract and indicated more details would come at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The contract that’s in place spells out a lot of different scenarios and what can and could take place per the contract,” Stanley said. “The city of Amarillo always honors their contracts and will continue to try to walk this one out in honoring of what the contract does and does not say.”
Stanley also described Path as “a good man” and said he believed Path did the best he could under the circumstances he inherited.
The agenda does not list a separate item specifically appointing an interim city manager.
Budget comes up for a vote
At the same meeting, council members will begin the final legislative process on the City of Amarillo’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget.
Ordinance No. 8270 is scheduled for its first reading and would formally adopt the budget for the coming fiscal year.
That vote is only part of the financial business before the council. The agenda includes budget actions for several entities and special districts, including public improvement districts, the South Gateway Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone and the Amarillo-Potter Events Venue District.
The council will also consider budgets connected to the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation, Amarillo Hospital District and two Center City tax increment reinvestment zones.
The timing puts major decisions over Amarillo’s finances on the same agenda as a potentially significant change in the city’s administrative leadership.
Proposed tax rate: 43.07 cents
Council members will also take their first vote on Ordinance No. 8271, which establishes Amarillo’s property tax rate for the 2026 tax year.
The proposed total rate is $0.43070 per $100 of taxable property value.
Of that amount, $0.32412 would go toward maintenance and operations while $0.10658 would be used for existing debt.
The agenda contains a state-required taxpayer impact statement saying the rate will raise more maintenance and operations taxes than last year’s tax rate.
According to the notice, the tax rate will effectively be increased by 2.9 percent and will increase maintenance and operations taxes on a $100,000 home by approximately $9.
That distinction is important: the agenda is not simply saying the nominal tax rate is 2.9 percent higher. It uses the statutory language that the rate will effectively increase taxes by 2.9 percent.
Millions in infrastructure spending
Away from the budget and leadership questions, council members have plenty of other spending decisions to make.
One of the largest is a $3.071 million contract with MH Civil Constructors for the second phase of repairs to settling basins at the Osage Water Treatment Plant.
Another $3.297 million contract would go to Amarillo Utility Contractors for storm drain improvements near Southwest 45th Avenue and South Lamar Street. The council is separately being asked to transfer $1.35 million in drainage bond funding to support that project.
The consent agenda includes an $838,754 landfill engineering contract with Parkhill, a $552,773 Municipal Court remodeling contract and a $465,411 replacement of the Amarillo Civic Center cooling tower.
The Civic Center also needs repairs to one of its chillers. That proposed $84,644 project involves a unit with multiple gasket leaks, a ruptured disk and failed shaft seal.
Tiny home village returns
Another potentially notable item is the second and final reading of a rezoning request for a proposed tiny home village near Coulter Street and Southwest 77th Avenue.
The request covers approximately 5.7 acres and would change the property from Office District 2 zoning to Planned Development District 412 for the project.
Council members will also consider final approval of a separate rezoning near Southwest 47th Avenue and Washington Street for a manufactured home park subdivision.
Economic development land deal
The Amarillo Economic Development Corporation also has a land transaction before the council.
Council members are scheduled to discuss and potentially act on a purchase and sale agreement between the AEDC and Cooper Crouse-Hinds, LLC involving 51.45 acres neighboring the AEDC South Georgia Business Park in southwest Amarillo.
The agenda does not provide the purchase price or other financial terms of the proposed transaction.
Other items include police traffic-enforcement grants, federal funding for homeless services, airport improvements, equipment purchases and funding to prepare three additional Amarillo Police Department vehicles for new patrol K9s.
Tuesday’s agenda would be substantial under normal circumstances. With the city manager’s resignation, a new city budget and the property tax rate all landing at the same meeting, however, routine business is unlikely to be what draws most of the attention.
