Amarillo City Council is set to consider just over $5.1 million in spending items during their next regular election, scheduled for Tuesday, August 1st.

The most expensive item on the agenda is item 8N, which is consideration of a $1.6 million purchase of 9 heavy-duty trucks from Premier Truck Group and Roberts Truck Center. Close behind 8N in cost is item 8H, which is consideration of a $1.4 million 60-month lease of a landfill scraper from Warren Cat/Caterpillar Financial.

Though it only has the third largest pricetag of the spending items on the agenda, item 8O is perhaps the most notable. The nearly $600K item is consideration of a contract with Dell Technologies for "the design, creation, and implementation of an artificial intelligence ‘digital human’ which will assist visitors of the City of Amarillo website.”

The three largest spending items, along with 7 others, are included on the consent portion of the agenda, which means they may all be approved with a single vote unless a separate vote is requested by a member of the council.

Three spending items are not included on the consent agenda. Item 9D is consideration of a purchase of 2.09 acres of property just south of Lawrence Lake. The seller is Olsen Office Warehouse, LLC, and comes with a pricetag o $375,000 plus closing costs.

The two other non-consent spending items were included on the agenda for the July 25th meeting. Item 9B is consideration of a $79,795 concession trailer for use at the Santa Fe Depot Pavilion, while item 9C is consideration of a $60,368.05 purchase of replacement pit seating for the Globe-News center. These two items were removed from last week’s agenda at the request of Councilman Place 3 Tom Scherelen.

Aside from spending items, the council will consider the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation’s $4 annual budget and an agreement with Wridz, LLC to operate an UBER-like transportation business at the airport. The council will also receive a presentation on the online utility payment system.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 3:00 pm on the third floor of Amarillo City Hall. Those interested in speaking during the meeting may sign up here. The full agenda and agenda packet for the meeting are available at this link. The meeting will be preceded by a closed-door executive session meeting of the council scheduled for 1:00 pm. Councilman Place 3 Tom Scherlen will be available to meet with members of the public ahead of the meeting from noon to 12:45 in City Hall room 203. As always, a summary of spending items is included below.