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10-28-2014 MinutesMINUTES REGULAR MEETING October 28, 2014 A Regular Meeting was held by the Schertz City Council of the City of Schertz, Texas, on October 28, 2014, at 6:00 p.m., in the Hal Baldwin Municipal Complex Council Chambers, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Building #4, Schertz, Texas. The following members present to -wit: Mayor Michael Carpenter Councilmember Jim Fowler Councilmember Cedric Edwards Staff Present: Deputy City Manager John Bierschwale Chief of Staff Bob Cantu City Secretary Brenda Dennis Call to Order Mayor Pro -Tem Daryl John Councilmember David Scagliola Councilmember Matthew Duke City Manager John Kessel Executive Director Brian James City Attorney Charles Zech Mayor Carpenter called the meeting to order at 6:04 p.m. Invocation and Pledges of Allegiance to the Flags of the United States and the State of Texas (Mr. Ken Ratcliff, Schertz Church of Christ) Mr. Ken Ratcliff provided the invocation followed by the Pledges of Allegiance to the Flags of the United States and the State of Texas. City Events and Announcements • Announcements of upcoming City Events (J. BierschwaleB. James) Mayor Carpenter recognized Executive Director of Development Brian James who provided the following announcements: • Early Voting continues through Friday, October 31St • Wednesday, October 29, SSLGC Administrative Building Dedication, 108 W. Mountain St., Seguin, TX, 6:30 p.m. • Thursday, October 30, Community Volunteer Banquet & Steve Simonson Award, Schertz Civic Center- Bldg#5, 6:30 -9 p.m. • Friday, October 31, Trunk -Or- Treat, Pickrell Park, 6:00 p.m. • Saturday, November 1, Junior Achievement 5K Run, Pickrell Park, 7:00 a.m. • Sunday, November 2, Daylight Savings Time changes; set clocks back 1 hour. • Tuesday, November 4, Election Day • Friday, November 7, Hal Baldwin Scholarship Golf Tournament, Olympia Hills Golf Course, starts at 8:00 a.m. • Friday, November 11, Veterans Memorial Plaza, 512 Schertz Parkway, 10: a.m. 10 -28 -2014 Minutes Page - 1 - Mr. James also stated that one of our staff members whom you see here often, Chuck McCollough, just had a birthday yesterday so make sure you give him a belated Happy Birthday wish when you see him. Mayor Carpenter wished Mr. McCollough a belated Happy Birthday. • Announcements and recognitions by City Manager (J. Kessel) Mayor Carpenter recognized City Manager John Kessel who stated we just fmished up this year's merit program which is a massive undertaking that involves 325 full - time employees. It all comes down to a lot of work in the Finance Department to get all that information organized and properly updated in our system. A lot of the information is hand entered data and he wanted to recognize Elizabeth Wiley who is in the Finance department* who did all that work and made certain everything was correct. Mr. Kessel stated we are appreciative of everything she did with the city's merit payroll changes and she had to also keep up with her other normal duties simultaneously. She did an amazing job and if you see her, tell her how much she is appreciated. Hearing of Residents This time is set aside for any person who wishes to address the City Council. Each person should fill out the speaker's register prior to the meeting. Presentations should be limited to no more than 3 minutes. All remarks shall be addressed to the Council as a body, and not to any individual member thereof. Any person making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks while addressing the Council may be requested to leave the meeting. Discussion by the Council of any item not on the agenda shall be limited to statements of specific factual information given in response to any inquiry, a recitation of existing policy in response to an inquiry, and/or a proposal to place the item on a future agenda. The presiding officer, during the Hearing of Residents portion of the agenda, will call on those persons who have signed up to speak in the order they have registered. Mayor Carpenter recognized the following who spoke: • Ms. Pamela Britt, 5205 Cabana Drive, who spoke regarding the flooding issues in the area around Lowes. They have been fighting this issue since 2008. She provided some hardcopy information to Council. Lowes has claimed responsibility for the flooding problems three times. They have built a retaining wall; however, the PSI pressure that comes to her home is unbelievable. She said the grates are not the only problem; it is also the PSI pressure. Beginning in 2009 is when it became worse. The flooding has at times taken her home skirting, insulation and wood. Her home has been in the family 35 years and she doesn't have her husband/handyman any more to help make repairs. She is stuck here. In talking with Lowes, they say the City should be taking care of her. For four years 10 -28 -2014 Minutes Page - 2 - sandbags have been laid up behind the retaining wall. When the rain in May came, it did not protect her property. She is asking for the City to speak with the people at Lowes again to get this corrected. • Ms. Rosemary Grayson, 5213 Cabana Drive, who also spoke regarding the flooding problems from Lowes. She has had engineers look at this area and she has taken some classes in urban geography including information about rainfall. In the past, she has taken pictures regarding the depth of water after a rainfall. She has compared her rainfall data with several local weather stations and the information matches. Now, she is concerned about two things. First, we haven't had a big flooding rainfall that is even a quarter of what the engineers said the culvert is good for, so what will happen when we do. The second thing is the vacant lot beside Lowes; she was assured that any water from that property would not go into the pipe that was aimed at the Britt's house but would go to the pipe in the middle of the ditch. Mr. Britt crawled through that ditch and found out the pipe had been sealed. Her concern is that when the new development is made, she wants to be sure that they don't cut into that pipe but go to the one more towards Interstate Highway 35. She hopes the City can give her assurances that when new development occurs there will not be additional fast water added to the situation. Mayor Carpenter stated that since the last time he spoke with her there has been some action that has been taken by the City and she needs to have those updates. He requested she work with Executive Director of Development Services Brian James on getting this information. Mr. Henry Gutierrez, Bexar Waste, who spoke regarding the recently concluded the fall cleanup. Bexar Waste had over 2,500 residents who signed in over a 16 day period. He said they may need some traffic enforcement assistance on the weekends the next time we hold this event. They help out a lot elderly or handicapped people during this time. Overall, he said they helped a lot of people and it just keeps getting bigger each time. He wondered if Council had any comments on this. Mayor Carpenter stated that they could not comment on it now but he would say something at the end of the agenda since he availed himself of the service. Mr. Gutierrez also wanted to say that three (3) weeks ago they lost an employee, Paul Kalinec. Mr. Gutierrez stated he was his right hand man in regard to sales and customer service and he worked closely with the Marshal's Office and other city staff. He wanted to introduce his new employee, Selena Roach who will be working with city staff in the future. Discussion and Action Items 1. Minutes — Approve the minutes of the regular meeting of October 21, 2014. (J. Kessel/B. Dennis) Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Edwards who moved, seconded by Councilmember Duke to approve the meeting minutes of October 21, 2014. The vote 10 -28 -2014 Minutes Page - 3 - was unanimous with Mayor Pro -Tem John, Councilmembers Fowler, Scagliola and Edwards and Duke voting yes and no one voting no. Motion passed. 2. Cancellation of the November 4, 2014 City Council Meeting and holding a Special meeting on November 12, 2014 — Consideration and/or action cancelling the November 4, 2014 City Council meeting, and holding a Special Meeting on November 12, 2014. (J. Kessel/Mayor /Council) Mayor Carpenter asked City Secretary Brenda Dennis to elaborate on the reason for the special meeting request of November 12, 2014. Ms. Dennis stated that November 10 and 11 were approved last year as official city holidays. Therefore, we need to hold a special meeting the next day (Wednesday) so she can canvass the election results which she will be receiving at noon on that day. The final numbers will be ready to present at council that evening. She also stated that November 12a' is the earliest date we can canvass the election. Mayor Carpenter recognized .Councilmember Edwards who moved, seconded by Councilmember Duke to approve the cancellation of the November 4, 2014 City Council meeting and hold a Special meeting on November 12, 2014. The vote was unanimous with Mayor Pro -Tem John, Councilmembers Fowler, Scagliola and Edwards and Duke voting yes and no one voting no. Motion passed. 3. Ordinance No. 14 -M -46— Consideration and/or action approving an Ordinance authorizing and amending the City Council Rules of Conduct and Procedure; repealing all Ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict with the Ordinance. First Reading (Mayor /Council) ORDINANCE NO. 14-M-46 AN ORDINANCE BY THE CITY OF SCHERTZ AUTHORIZING AMENDED CITY COUNCIL RULES OF CONDUCT AND PROCEDURE; REPEALING ALL ORDINANCES OR PARTS OF ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT WITH THIS ORDINANCE; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE Mayor Carpenter stated that he had requested this item as a result of what happened when council was approving the tax rate and budget a few months ago. He stated Councihnember Duke was correct in pointing out a matter of procedure that we had on the books, a motion to reconsider. However, the request for reconsideration had to come from someone who was in the prevailing party. After reading that section, he realized while the intent was there, it did not say that specifically. It just said that anyone could make a motion to reconsider. Without a limitation on that we could actually have a motion to reconsider item after item. Roberts Rules of Order actually is the one that specifies that such a motion must come from the prevailing vote. Since we have some alternatives here before us he asked the City Attorney Charles Zech to walk us through those first before discussion begins. 10 -28 -2014 Minutes Page - 4 - City Manager John Kessel spoke first to explain the two alternatives stating that the first alternative is the standard Roberts Rules of Order. The reason to select this one primarily would be that you wouldn't want to have something continue to come back over and over again. The second alternative addresses the situation that we had occur which was how you would allow a minority opinion to reconsider in unusual circumstances that most folks would consider reasonable. So we have a provision that says we can only have two motions for reconsideration that would address the kind of badgering situation where someone is just doing that to disrupt the proceedings but does allow a minority opinion to have the motion reconsidered. This is a benefit in that we are a public organization that has a number of different constituents and ideas. Council has often said if there is a need for transparency and open discussion on an item we should err on the side of more transparency and more discussion rather than less. This is to address the one consideration of not having it occur over and over again but provide the opportunity for anyone on the dais to ask for it to be reconsidered . There is not a right or wrong answer. Ultimately a motion has to have a second and an affirmative vote by a majority. With that said, he leaves it to the Council for discussion. Mayor Carpenter stated since he brought this item up, he thinks a good option is to allow any member of Council to put forth a motion to reconsider whether they be in the majority prevailing or in the group that does not prevail. Many times in the past he has seen that something has come up that would be a salient point on something that had already been discussed and voted on. Therefore, he prefers a provision that allows anybody to bring forth a motion to reconsider, but also have a limit on that so we would not have 50 motions to reconsider. Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Fowler who stated he agreed there could be unusual circumstances where someone who voted in the affirmative might want to relook at it as well as someone who lost. He agrees that we should limit it; two reconsiderations, seems to be reasonable. His question is: When does the motion for reconsideration have to occur, right after the vote is taken? Mayor Carpenter responded that the intent is at any time before the meeting adjourns. Mayor Carpenter recognized City Attorney Charles Zech who expanded on this by saying another possible outcome could be that someone makes a motion to reconsider, it gets a second, and you vote on the motion to reconsider; you now have a motion to reconsider the item. Then you could make another motion to place it on the next agenda to be further discussed and voted on during the next meeting. It should be noted that the motion to reconsider is a separate motion that has nothing to do with the substance of the original agenda item. As the Mayor explained earlier, if someone makes a motion to reconsider and it gets a second, you must dispose of the motion to reconsider at that meeting before adjournment. If you affirmatively agree to reconsider the item immediately afterwards, then the agenda item is back before the body at that point in time and City Council may act on it immediately. A second option is that Council could say, we want to discuss and reconsider the item at the next meeting. 10 -28 -2014 Minutes Page - 5 - Mayor Carpenter summarized all this by saying 1) anyone can bring an item up for reconsideration, 2) it can happen more than once, and 3) it leaves the door open for reconsideration at a subsequent council meeting. Mr. Zech further clarified that if an item for reconsideration is affirmatively voted to be placed on the next meeting agenda; it may be reconsidered two more times at that second meeting. The ordinance that is currently written limits the motions for reconsideration per meeting, not `in total'. Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Edwards who suggested a change to the currently written ordinance stating he preferred the wording `any councilmember' rather than `prevailing side'. Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Edwards who moved, seconded by Councilmember Scagliola to approve Resolution No. 14 -M -46 with the change of allowing any councilmember to make a motion to re- consider an item, and limiting that request to two. The vote was unanimous with Mayor Pro -Tern John, Councilmembers Fowler, Scagliola, Edwards and Duke voting yes and no one voting no. Motion passed. Roll Call Vote Confirmation Mayor Carpenter recognized City Secretary Brenda Dennis who recapped the votes of items 1 through 3. Requests and Announcements 4. Announcements by City Manager o Citizen Kudos o Recognition of City employee actions o New Departmental initiatives No further announcements were made. 5. Requests by Mayor and Councilmembers that items be placed on a future City Council agenda. Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Scagliola who stated he would like a discussion of the use of personal electronic devices during council meetings. Mayor Carpenter requested it be put on the November 18th agenda. He requested a discussion of council rules of procedure, code of conduct and proposed ethics ordinance. Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Fowler who requested that in the next 30 days he would like Council to begin to explore what the City can do to help minimize blighted areas in our neighborhoods. This is in regard to code enforcement, where citizens may not be able to afford the cleanup request. If this is the case, how can the city help in these situations? City Manager John Kessel suggested a work session discussion 10 -28 -2014 Minutes Page - 6 - format where staff can outline all these different areas for council. Councilmember Fowler agreed that was fine. 6. Announcements by Mayor and Councilmembers • City and community events attended and to be attended • City Council Committee and Liaison Assignments (see assignments below) • Continuing education events attended and to be attended • Recognition of actions by City employees • Recognition of actions by community volunteers • Upcoming City Council agenda items Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Fowler who stated he just wanted to make a report on his observations at the local polling place during this early election period. So far it looks like we are having close to three (3) thousand folks voting. We are maintaining a pace of about 300 -400 people per day which could bring us to around six (6) to seven (7) thousand people at the end of Election Day, November 4 . So far it looks like a good turnout. Go Schertz and vote! Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Scagliola who stated he just wanted to say thank you to Ms. Maggie Titterington, President of the Schertz Chamber of Commerce for hosting and acting as the moderator of the `Meet the Candidates' event last Thursday evening. Mayor Carpenter stated he did avail himself of the fall cleanup that Bexar Waste had for us earlier this month. It was fantastic and is an important part of what we do each year to give our citizens an opportunity to clean up on their residential lots. He thanked business owner Henry Gutierrez for this service. Mayor Carpenter also stated that another tradition within the city is that at the meeting before an election we wish all the candidates good luck; those that are running for re- election and those who are running to be elected. He wished everyone good luck in their campaign efforts. Adi ournment As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:48p.m,__ Michael R. Carpenter, Mayor rA'I'TE�T: � Brenda Dennis, City Secretary 10 -28 -2014 Minutes Page - 7 -