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06-20-2017 MinutesMINUTES REGULAR MEETING June 21, 2017 A Regular Meeting was held by the Committee of Committees Advisory Board of the City of Schertz, Texas, on June 21, 2017, at 3:00 p.m., at the Hal Baldwin Municipal Complex Council Chambers Conference Room located at 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The following members present to -wit: Chair Richard Dziewit Board Member Tim Brown Staff Present: Executive Director Brian James IT Director Myles Clauser City Secretary Brenda Dennis Client Services Tech Ray Nichols Guests Present: Ms. Sue Boissonneault Board Member Shonale Burke Board Member Earl Hartzog City Manager John Kessel Assistant to City Manager Sarah Gonzalez Director of Parks & Rec Chuck VanZandt Deputy City Secretary Donna Schmoekel Members Absent: Boardmember Floy `Fae' Simmons Call to Order Chair Richard Dziewit called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. and asked everyone to introduce themselves. Chair Dziewit announced that Board Members Barbara Hall and Michael Dahle had both submitted notice of their respective resignations from the Committee of Committees Advisory Board due to other newly developed commitments that will now be utilizing more of their time. Discussion and /or Action Items 1. Minutes. Consideration and/or action regarding the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of May 17, 2017. Chair Dziewit recognized Board Member Hartzog who made a motion to approve the minutes, seconded by Board Member Brown. The vote was 4 -0 -0. Motion passed. Reports/Updates/Discussion and /or Action 2. Boards, Committee, Commission report/updates. Executive Director Brian James had passed out a handout detailing the latest activities of some of the city boards during their last meeting. The BOA board had met in May for a waiver of some arch standards for an electrical equipment shed. As a result, staff is now 6 -21 -2017 Minutes Page - 1 - considering whether or not they need to tweak their arch standard ordinance to make it also apply to these type of structures. The other big one, is at the last P &Z meeting, there were amendments to the thoroughfare plan. There was a big turnout of residents from the undeveloped part of southern Schertz who were concerned about these future roads and how it might impact them. On the other side, the folks from the developed area of Schertz did not show up. TSAC also started a conversation about an issue previously brought to this board's attention, which is the problem some neighborhoods have with one or more household's that have too many cars and park them along the street in front of neighbor's houses. No decisions were made and they will keep talking about this item in their future meetings. Chair Dziewit stated he wanted to thank the Parks and Recreation Department for offering the recent tour of the city parks. He was very impressed on what we have and how well our parks staff are able to take care of and maintain them. 3. City Manager report/updates. City Manager John Kessel stated that they are continuing to move forward with the capital projects that this body wants us to. You may be seeing some movement with the bridge at FM 1103. It will continue first with the bridge reconstruction, relocation of fences, lines, etc. There have not been any changes to the original design of five lanes. This is a 9+ million dollar bridge plus a 4+ million dollar section of road. There is also good progress being made on the FM 1518 design meetings. On the Fire Station No. 3 project, we have access to the property and we are getting soil testing done. Once these numbers are in and decisions are made for design plans, we can close on the property. The budget is coming up. The contract philosophy and the reserve philosophy are both still moving forward and we feel it will be very helpful in how we spend and /or save our money. We have a ten -year plan which we are following to help defer costs away from the general fund. We are also looking at staffing and how we can stay on top of that. Mr. Kessel addressed questions /comments from board members. 4. Citizen Survey discussion. Chair Dziewit introduced Assistant to the City Manager Sarah Gonzalez who spoke of the citizen survey results in regard to public communications to residents of the city. Highlights of the presentation were as follows: • Major Categories of City Services — City Communication with the Public *Ranked number 6 of 14 overall of "most important" 6 -21 -2017 Minutes Page - 2 - *Ranked last in "satisfaction" o Primary Sources of information regarding the City of Schertz: Schertz Magazine, City Website, Enclosures in City utility bill, Friends, Northeast Herald, Neighborhood Groups (HOA), Local TV news, City social media outlets, SA Express News, Local radio, Public Meetings, Mobile apps, Community organizations, post cards, Austin American Statesman. o Primary Electronic Sources of information: Email (79 %), Text (65 %), Facebook (64 %), YouTube (36 %) Expanding Public Outreach — Schertz Magazine, City Website Ms. Gonzalez introduced IT Director Myles Clauser who came forward showing a picture of our current city website home page and a proposed new homepage with an expected roll out date in late September of this year. The new design will be more user friendly and organized systematically for users to find their subject matter quicker. There will be more direct links to specific information and forms. Once the new site is up and out there, IT staff will be sitting down with each department to look at their content and improve on their features to make it easy and efficient for the users. The overall goal is to improve the site itself. The second thing is to consolidate and improve on a better class of service online. An example is a customer who can go online and reserve /rent a park pavilion without having to call in and speak with a staff member. Staff and board members continued discussing the city's efforts at moving forward with accessing new technology and acquiring cost effective tools for offering better customer service to our residents and other external customers. 5. Use of the City sports fields for tournaments discussion (B. James /C. VanZandt/L.Shrum) Executive Director Brian James said a question came up previously which was basically, why don't we hold tournaments at our sports fields to garnish more revenue for the city? This involves asking questions and dealing with challenges of associated costs, including maintenance and more intensive wear and tear of the fields themselves. Lastly, what do we view as the primary role for our fields? He feels the original intent was for them to be utilized as a local facility for our area kids rather than to outsource for major events to generate incoming revenue. The priority is to accommodate for those leagues like BVYA and SYSA for their regular season games. The philosophy is that tournaments fall behind that. Therefore, they are not always available when they are needed. Also, in regard to their usage, the fields remain in good shape, the quality of turf is very high. It is a choice we have made. Director of Parks and Recreation Chuck VanZandt spoke and said for reasons Mr. James just spoke about, they do hold tournaments, but are very selective in their choices. The fields were built based on a bond election back in 2010. The city does benefit with their 6 -21 -2017 Minutes Page - 3 - arrangement with BVYA with an annual revenue of about $450,000 (man time, materials, maintenance, etc.). From the SYSA, it is about $100 -125 thousand annually. While they use these fields, it is not so frequent that the wear and tear on the turf is a major negative. Both of these local groups are very selective in what they do. There is also down time. We do not allow the fields to be overplayed. Both Mr. James and Mr. VanZandt pointed out that there are fields out there where other communities are definitely primarily focused on the fields being a money maker for their area. However, this also involves the need for enough local hotel space, restaurants, etc. Mr. VanZandt stated that the bottom line is, our residents have made it very clear to us what our mission is with these facilities —to provide that recreational opportunity for the kids in Schertz and in this local area. So, tournament play is handled by these two local organizations on a restrictive basis and we don't do it at the cost of regular league play or at the cost of damage to the facilities. Discussion continued with staff and board members commenting that even our other local events are designed with our local residents and business vendors in mind. Our fields are very nice and in good shape, we have parking, and we have good restrooms. 6. Future Agenda Items Requested – This is an opportunity for the Board members to request that items be placed on a future agenda. No discussion of the merits of the item may be taken at this time. Chair Dziewit stated he believes that next time we will be getting the information on the opposite side of the communication survey. Mr. James confirmed yes, it will be on how folks can communicate back to us. Chair Dziewit suggested the July meeting be postponed due to people being gone on vacations, etc. Everyone agreed. So, the next meeting will be August 16. Chair Dziewit recognized Boardmember Hartzog who said he had something— recycling. He suggested a tour of the facilities and how they do things there. Mr. James said we can have a broad discussion on recycling and garbage pickup. He gave an example of San Antonio's process, education campaign and associated costs. Boardmember Hartzog stated he enjoyed the recent Park Tour and he is seeing more and more pocket parks that have no restrooms and very little parking and it appears to be what people want. He doesn't know if some of the HOA's have parks. Boardmember Burke said she told her Library committee members about her experience going on the Parks tour and they expressed interest in going on one. Mr. VanZandt stated they do have intentions of offering some more tours in the future. 6 -21 -2017 Minutes Page - 4 - Discussion turned to the fact that in a lot of parks now they are starting to switch towards portable rest rooms rather than the permanent ones and the desire to gain more green space in communities. Chair Dziewit brought up the forthcoming budgets. Something they could take a look at is contracts versus in -house operations. Also, accessibility -- North, Central, or South Schertz. if we find ways to continue to get small business in, how do we get our people around to visit them? Another thing is staff resources --can we improve based on any kind of budget restraints? By department, which one is first for facilities, equipment, and staffing? What is it that might affect these issues? Take a look at this and get an idea of where we go and what needs to get done. Mr. James suggested moving the August meeting up a week or two to be able to have something to say about the budge and discuss it. We will watch the budget schedule and see about when to have the August meeting. Mr. James reminded everyone of the putt-putt golfing event at the Library this coming Saturday. He also said the parks grant goes forward on the 26th of this month— a $1.15 million funding project request. Sarah Gonzalez also reminded everyone of the 4th of July Jubilee. Her and Mr. James explained the new processes and changes that have been implemented with staffing and vendor charges. The new changes do not require as many city staffers to volunteer their services any more. Mr. VanZandt also explained the new layout. ADJOURNMENT: Chair Dziewit recognized Board Member Hartzog who moved, seconded by Board Member Burke to adjourn the meeting. The vote was 4 -0 -0. Motion passed. As there was no further business, Chair Dziewit adjourned the meeting at 4:33 p.m. . >f' `A 'chard Dziewit, `Chair ATTEST: Donna Schmoekel, Deputy City Secretary 6 -21 -2017 Minutes Page - 5 - Tune 21, 2017 CCAB reports from boards and commissions (Last CCAB meeting May 15, 2017) BOA — May 22, 2017 The Board granted an exception to allow alternate materials for an electrical equipment shelter in Homestead. The general feeling seemed to be that while the shelter is a structure, it did not make sense.to apply the architectural requirements to an electrical equipment shelter. Staff may consider tweaking the Arch. Standards ordinance to exempt the facilities. Planning and Zoning Commission — May 24 and June 14, 2017 At their May 24 meeting, the Commission approved a number of plats and also recommended approval of the Thoroughfare Plan Update (which includes the hike and bike trail plan) and a future land use plan amendment along IH- 35 in northern Schertz, A large group of residents attended and spoke on the Thoroughfare Plan amendment. Most of the residents who spoke live in the undeveloped part of southern Schertz and have concerns aboutthe impactthe proposd future roads will have on them. At the June 14 meeting, the Commission elected Michael Dahle as Chairperson. They also recommended approval of a rezoning request to allow the expansion of the Autumn Winds Living and Rehabilitation facility on FM 3009. TSAC —June 1, 2017 TSAC received an update on the status of the Thoroughfare Plan update (includes parks trail plan), The Commission also discussed parking limits for residential streets (some homes having too many cars). The will continue to discuss this issue at upcoming meetings, Historic Preservation — (Next Meeting is July) No meeting since the last CCAB, arks and Recreation Advisory Board — April 24, 2017 No meeting was held in May, Instead a tour of Park facilities was conducted on May 19 and 20. Library Board —June 5, 2017 The library Board reviewed the Treasurers', Librarian's, Bookstore and CCAB reports for the past month. The Board discussed supporting the Library Foundation's put put golf event to be held Saturday, June 24, Schertz Economic Development Corporation SEDC meets on June 22, no meeting since the last CCAB.