01-20-2015 MinutesMINUTES
REGULAR MEETING
January 20, 2015
A Regular Meeting was held by the Schertz City Council of the City of Schertz, Texas, on
January 20, 2015, 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 -Tern Daryl John
Councilmember Grumpy Azzoz
Councilmember Robin Thompson
City Manager John Kessel
Executive Director Brian James
City Attorney Clarissa Rodriguez
Deputy City Secretary Donna Schmoekel
Mayor Carpenter called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m.
Invocation and Pledges of Allegiance to the Flags of the United States and the State of
Texas (Mayor Pro -Tern John)
Mayor Pro -Tem John 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)
No announcements were provided.
• Announcements and recognitions by City Manager (J. Kessel)
No announcements were provided.
Presentations
• Presentation/discussion and update regarding Food Trucks in the City of Schertz. (B.
James/M. Sanchez/M. Harris /J. Hamilton)
Mayor Carpenter recognized Development Services Director Michelle Sanchez who
provided a Power Point presentation with the following information.
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 1 -
The Schertz Code of Ordinances, Chapter 34, Article II addresses two types of food
and/or beverage establishments: 1) permanent brick and mortar restaurants and mobile
vending units, and 2) temporary food establishments that are restricted to no more than
14 consecutive days in conjunction with a single event or celebration. Ms. Sanchez
provided further details regarding the six types of vendors (i.e. vendors that drive around
on the streets, temporary setups, business fair participants, and those that park within
rights of ways, private property or at food parks. She stated that mobile vendors provide
additional dining options within the community, bring new business opportunities to the
city and is an upcoming trendy dining concept for today's customers. Potential negative
impacts may include noise and smell from cooking food(s) and increased competition for
the brick and mortar restaurants and the general food service industry as a whole.
Ms. Sanchez continued her presentation by providing a sampling of details on regulations
that would need to be adopted by the city to oversee these types of business vendors.
Examples were restrooms, and handicap accessibility, electric service, Fire & EMS
access and more. Afterwards, Ms. Sanchez, and City Sanitarian Jesse Hamilton answered
questions from council as well as input by potential mobile vendor /owner, Mr. Derrick
Sanchez.
Mayor Carpenter added his comments at the end by stating that as council considers this
subject matter, we might want to thinks of things such as the long term land use for food
parks /courts and think about the highest and best use of that property. Would this meet
our long term goals as a city that attracts business to come to our area. We recently
regulated the parking of RV's which are similar in design to food trucks. What, areas
would be appropriate for these vendors to go and park to conduct business? He would
like to see the Economic Development Department and the Economic Development
Corporation weigh in to offer comment and look at any ordinance we might consider
prior to us passing it. We will probably need to be more restrictive in the beginning and
then see how things go as we move forward. Staff should craft an ordinance to share with
the two economic development groups as well as the Schertz Chamber of Commerce for
their input and suggestions.
Mayor Carpenter moved to the presentation regarding the Animal Adoption Facility
0 Presentation and updates regarding the Animal Adoption Facility. (M. Harris /S. Roman)
Mayor Carpenter recognized Animal Services Manager Shanna Roman who stated they
had some good news to share tonight regarding the Animal Services Department.
Ms. Roman stated that they received the following in donations for the shelter and/or the
new adoption trailer. Ms. Roman recognized the following:
1) Schertz Chamber of Commerce
2) Samuel Clemens D.E.C.A. Club
3) Anything Goes With Glass
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 2 -
Hyper Group Donation
Donation towards adoption trailer
Silent auction/ Donation towards adoption trailer
4) GVEC Donation towards adoption trailer
5) Homes for Pets Donation towards adoption trailer
6) Debbie Krause Assistance with organizing silent auction for
adoption trailer
7) Donna Schmoekel Several donations for the shelter medical fund
8) Harriet Higgs /John Sabo Dog training classes at the shelter.
9) Harriet Higgs Donation towards adoption trailer.
10) Girl Scouts Completed merit project by volunteering at the
shelter and made blankets for the animals.
11) Lowe's (O'Connor) Appreciation for allowing us to have adoption
events at their location.
12) Lowe's (Schertz) Appreciation for allowing us to have adoption
events at their location.
12) Mattenga's Pizzeria Silent auction for adoption trailer/Pizza
fundraiser
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Azzoz who thanked everyone for doing such a
great job and he hopes we reach our goal one day to be a no -kill shelter.
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Edwards who thanked the shelter
volunteers and staff and stated his own kids volunteered there and it not only gives back
to the community but also instills discipline in the young volunteers.
Mayor Carpenter stated he has adopted four rescue pets from the shelter. This is the city
at its best and has been going on for over 50 years. This is what we are as a community
when we choose to help each other out especially for a cause like this. It is difficult work
and yet rewarding. He said they do not get thanked enough; job well done.
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Fowler who stated he wrote an article,
"Why I love Schertz" when running for re- election of Councilmember Place #1. One
more time they have just proved why he is glad to live here and is proud to serve.
Presentation and discussion and update regarding Street Improvements — past, present,
and future. (Item requested by Councilmember Fowler) (B. James/K. Woodlee)
Mayor Carpenter recognized City Engineer Kathy Woodlee who provided the following
highlights of her presentation and answered questions from Council:
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 3 -
Street Improvements fall into two separate categories:
• Major reconstruction projects funded by bonds
Complete excavation, add base material, repave, curbing
Mill and Overlay (Major)
• Maintenance Projects funded by the General Fund
Chipseal, Pot Hole repair, Mill and Overlay (Minor), Crack Seal, etc
Future Street Improvement List — Major Reconstruction
• Main Street Improvements
• Northcliffe Street Reconstruction
• Aviation Heights Street Reconstruction
• Tri- County Business Park Street Reconstruction and Portion of Lookout
Road
• Dove Meadows Street Reconstruction
• Silver Tree Reconstruction
• Live Oak/Maske Road Realignment (FM 1518 to FM 3009)
• Greenfield Village Subdivision Reclamation
• Village Unit IV Subdivision Reclamation
• Hubertus Reconstruction
• Friesenhahn Reconstruction
• Eckhardt Road Reconstruction
• Schwab Road Reconstruction
• Pfeil Road Reconstruction
• Scenic Lake Drive Reconstruction
• Schaefer Road Reconstruction
• Weiderstein Road Extension FM 3009 to FM 1103
• Schertz Forest Street Reconstruction
• Lower Seguin Road and FM 1518 Intersection Improvements
Next Steps:
• Prioritize Projects
Assess current roadway conditions
Collect and analyze traffic counts
Evaluate historic and current maintenance records
• High End Cost Estimation
• Complete Master Thoroughfare Plan
• Propose Project Programing based on anticipated bond funds (5, 20, 15 years)
Maintenance Projects funded by the General Fund Budget:
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 4 -
• Micropaver Program is being updated
• List will be created based on maintenance needs
• Second presentation to Council will occur in the future
Mayor and Council thanked Ms. Woodlee for the update.
Hearing of Residents
Mr. Robin Thompson, who on behalf of Operation Comfort, presented Mayor Carpenter
with a plaque of appreciation for the City of Schertz in support of the 5K/10K Run —
Walk they had on Saturday.
Ms. Maggie Titterington, Chamber President who provided updated information
regarding the upcoming Chamber Events.
Workshop
• Discussion and/or possible action regarding the City Council's Code of Ethics.
(Mayor /Council)
Mayor Carpenter stated that at the January 6, 2015 City Council meeting Councilmember
Edwards stated that he felt the Councilmembers should all sign their names to the Code
of Ethics because it would give the document more weight.
A copy of the City Council's Code of Ethics is now attached with a page added for each
Councilmember to sign. Mayor and Council concurred and signed the Code of Ethics
signature page and provided that copy to the City Secretary.
Discussion and/or possible action regarding the City Council's Code of Conduct and
Procedure related to voting and abstentions. (Mayor /Council /C. Zech)
Mayor Carpenter stated that at the January 6, 2015, City Council meeting a discussion
was held with City Attorney Charles Zech who explained the way the current city charter
reads regarding voting and abstentions. It takes a vote of three to take any action. When
an individual abstains, this actually acts as a `no' vote; the reason for that is it counts
toward the quorum for the purposes of a vote. He further clarified that three votes of
`yes' would be for M action and not just limited to ordinances and/or resolutions.
According to the Texas Local Government Code law, when you have an actual conflict of
interest, you are required to file a disclosure statement and abstain from voting. Under
Roberts Rules and under case law when that occurs you are not counted toward the
quorum for the purposes of the vote. This doesn't help the City of Schertz because of the
charter provisions that say it takes three (yes) votes for action to be taken. City Council
authorized City Attorney Charles Zech and City Staff to outline some steps for handling
abstaining votes along with recommendations for council to consider.
City Staff worked with the City Attorney to review the City Council Rules of Conduct
and Procedures regarding the proposed language. Council members proceeded to discuss
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 5 -
the proposed language and select option "A" or `B" for each section. A continued
discussion commenced between councilmembers concerning the issues of what
constitutes a tie with either a nay or abstention vote. City Attorney Clarissa Rodriguez
explained that the options presented tonight for council is to decide how they wish to
proceed in the future.
Councilmember Thompson made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Edwards to
consider any vote by a councilmember that is not an aye vote or a nay vote shall be
counted as a nay vote unless it is an abstention as required by law. The vote was
unanimous, with Mayor Pro -Tem John, Councilmembers Fowler, Azzoz, Edwards
and Thompson voting for and no one voting no. Motion passed.
Mayor Carpenter asked that the City Attorney's office to draft an ordinance and language
necessary for our rules and procedures to address that.
Discussion and Action Items
1. Minutes - Consideration and /or action regarding the approval of the minutes the Regular
Meeting of January 13, 2015. (J. KesselB. Dennis)
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Azzoz who moved, seconded by
Councilmember Fowler to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of January 13,
2015. The vote was 4 -0 -1, with Mayor Pro -Tem John, Councilmembers Fowler,
Azzoz, and Thompson voting for, no one voting no, and Councilmember Edwards
abstaining. Motion passed.
2. Ordinance No. 15 -T -05 — Consideration and/or action approving an Ordinance
authorizing a Budget Amendment to the Grant Fund 405 for the Award from the FY13
State Homeland Security Program through the Texas Homeland Security State
Administrative Agency. (First & Final) (J. Bierschwale /J. Correu)
The following was read into record:
ORDINANCE NO. 15 -T -05
AN ORDINANCE BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SCHERTZ,
TEXAS AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT TO THE GRANT FUND
405 FOR THE AWARD FROM THE FY13 STATE HOMELAND SECURITY
PROGRAM THROUGH THE TEXAS HOMELAND SECURITY STATE
ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCY; REPEALING ALL ORDINANCES OR PARTS
OF ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT WITH THIS ORDINANCE; AND
PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE AND DECLARING AN EMERGENCY
Mayor Carpenter recognized Deputy City Manager John Bierschwale who introduced this
item stating the City was awarded a grant for $65,564 from the FY13 State Homeland
Security Program through the Texas Homeland Security State Administrative Agency
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 6 -
(THSSAA) for the project titled: City of Schertz Spillman Interoperability Insight
Interface. The City is not required to match any funds. The application for this grant was
originally approved by council on 10 -29 -2013. This ordinance is to amend the Fiscal
Year 2014 -15 budget in the Grant Fund 405.
He stated the goal is to provide essential data management software that will allow the
police department to improve the effectiveness of investigations by sharing information
with other communities and public safety agencies, tracking of criminal incidents and
trends to improve investigations and prevent large scale incidents. Staff recommends
approval of first and final reading.
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Thompson who moved, seconded by
Councilmember Edwards to approve Ordinance No. 15 -T -05 on first and final. The vote
was unanimous, with Mayor Pro -Tem John, Councilmembers Fowler, Azzoz,
Edwards, and Thompson voting for, no one voting no.. Motion passed.
3. Employee Compensation — Discussion and possible action regarding the City's
Employee Compensation Plan. (J. Kessel/Council)
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Azzoz who stated he had a question for
City Manager John Kessel. An internal survey that was done on August 8, 2014
indicated two big issues were the pay and internal communication. Then another study
that was done with the University of Texas at Austin came back with the same thing, that
the biggest concern of employees was pay. His question is that once a company is
selected to do the new proposed classification and compensation study, how long will it
take to get the study done? Mr. Kessel answered it would take about 4 to 5 months.
Councilmember Azzoz stated we have the $300,000 set aside and budgeted. It has been a
year since the other surveys have been completed and while the new study we are going
to do is important, why can't we use this money for pay increases now?
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Azzoz who made a motion to take the
lower 40% of employees and award them the $200 per month using the $300,000
budgeted amount. Mayor Carpenter asked for a second; as there was no second, the
motion failed.
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Thompson who stated we have discussed
this for a month now and several prior motions on this matter have subsequently failed.
He made a motion to not take this discussion up again on this subject until after we
receive the results of the classification and compensation study. Councilmember Fowler
seconded the motion.
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Fowler who stated he thinks the indication
of council has been that we are not really comfortable with giving out this money until
we get the analysis in order to do a proper and fair distribution of funds to employees. If
we continue to discuss this and if the main concern does not change (that we want to see
the analysis first) then it would just be a waste of our time to continue discussing this.
1 -20 -2015 Minutes ' Page - 7 -
Councilmember Edwards said we talked about this earlier and we said we had to have
something concrete to go forward. Four weeks ago we made a motion and voted to wait
for the study results and now we are doing this all over again. Council continued
discussion of the pros and cons on waiting for the study before distributing the money.
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Thompson who moved, seconded by
Councilmember Fowler to not take this discussion up again on this subject until after we
receive the results of the classification and compensation study. The vote was 4 -1 -0,
with Mayor Pro -Tem John, Councilmembers Fowler, Edwards, and Thompson
voting yes, and Councihmember Azzoz voting no. Motion passed.
Roll Call Vote Confirmation
Deputy City Secretary Donna Schmoekel provided the roll call vote information for agenda
items 1 through 3
Requests and Announcements
4. Announcements by City Manager
• Citizen Kudos
• Recognition of City employee actions
• New Departmental initiatives
Mayor Carpenter recognized City Manager John Kessel who stated that on next weeks
agenda management will be bringing forth an item for action; a recommendation to
council on a contract and work plan for conducting the classification and compensation
study. Concurrent with that we have a merit program each year that is a two step average
across the city program; we intend to do that early this year for our employees. This is
going to have a small impact in that some staff members who will have a little less time
to complete their annual work program/goals. However, they will also have the
opportunity up to have an additional four percent raise. Some may have in a six month
window an 8 percent raise, 6, or 4 percent raise; the average employee will have 4
percent; some with 2 percent and some with zero. This will be a significant thing while
we wait for the study to be completed.
Mr. Kessel also pointed out that the City Attorney tonight is Ms. Clarissa Rodriguez who
is covering for Mr. Charles Zech. He thanked her for this.
5. Requests by Mayor and Councilmembers that items be placed on a future City
Council agenda.
No items requested.
6. Requests by Mayor and Councilmembers to City Manager and Staff for information.
No items requested.
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 8 -
7. 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 attended the
following:
A meeting in Seguin for the SSLGC group. Some good things are going on in the water
department with the purchase of needed equipment for the future.
Today at 3:00 p.m. he attended a meeting on the natatorium facility and they are close to
awarding a contract for hiring a manager -at -risk. The manager will start by doing an
analysis of our proposal of the building(s) and figure out if it is within our budget. They
should have more information in March or April.
The update and information Schertz Chamber President Maggie Titterington gave today
regarding the activities and infrastructure that has been established was very good and
lets people know what all is going on in our community and how they are working with
our small businesses. Kuddos to her.
Tomorrow morning from 9:30 -11:00 a.m., he will meet with some pastors and citizens in
the city to determine what they can do to fill a much needed void of matching church
volunteer groups that can maybe assist those citizens in our community who need help.
Mayor Carpenter recognized Councilmember Thompson who stated it was a pleasure for
him to represent Schertz in the Selma - Schertz lOK Run this past weekend and we should
continue to be sponsors for this event in the future.
Mayor Carpenter provided his thanks to those who attended the funeral services this past
week for 1) Garden Ridge Mayor Dalton, and also 2) Councilmember John's
grandmother, Mrs. Lillie John. Thank you for being there for their respective families
and representing the City of Schertz.
Adiournment
Meeting was adjourned at 8:41 p.m.
Michael R. Carpenter, Mayor
ATTEST:
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 9 -
Donna Schmoekel, Deputy City Secretary
1 -20 -2015 Minutes Page - 10 -