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ccswks 02-12-1997 SPECIAL WORKSHOP SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 12, 1997 The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session on Wednesday, February 12, 1997 at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The following members were present: Mayor Hal Baldwin, presiding; Councilmembers Charles McDonald; Earl Sawyer and Ken Greenwald. Absent: Councilmembers Joe Potempa and Timothy Swinney. Staff present were City Manager Kerry Sweatt and City Secretary Norma Althouse. #1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS No one had signed up to speak. #2 ORDINANCE: Consider and take action on final reading of ordinance calling a Home Rule Charter Amendment election to be held in the City of Schertz, Texas on May 3, 1997; making provision for the conduct of the election; and resolving other matters incident and related to such election. Mayor Baldwin introduced an ordinance and read the caption as follows: ORDINANCE NO. 97-E-8 AN ORDINANCE CALLING A HOME RULE AMENDMENT ELECTION TO BE HELD IN THE SCHERTZ, TEXAS ON MAY 3, 1997; MAKING FOR THE CONDUCT OF THE ELECTION; AND OTHER MATTERS INCIDENT AND RELATED ELECTION. CHARTER CITY OF PROVISION RESOLVING TO SUCH Mr. Greenwald moved to approve the final reading of an ordinance calling a Home Rule Charter Amendment election to be held in the City of Schertz, Texas on May 3, 1997; making provision for the conduct of the election; and resolving other matters incident and related to such election. Mr. Sawyer seconded the motion. Mr. Sweatt advised this is the first election to be held under the arrangement with the Guadalupe County Elections Administrator. There were some minor changes made to this ordinance since the first reading to accommodate several things Mr. Perez and Mr. Spain needed to resolve. Under Section III, it does name the election judges for both early and regular voting. Mayor Baldwin commented he spoke with Mr. Perez today and he seemed a little overwhelmed at the size of the ballot for this first joint election. Mr. McDonald was concerned the voters will get tired of reading. -166- There was a brief discussion on how to publicize the Charter Amendment election. Mr. Greenwald felt Council should take out an ad in the newspaper. Mr. Sawyer felt a message should be included on the water bills. Mr. Sweatt said they have the Newsletter to get the message out. At this time the vote was taken and the motion carried as follows: AYES: Councilmembers McDonald, sawyer and Greenwald. NAYS: None. #3 Discuss EAA Irrigation Suspension Program. Mr. Sweatt indicated the City is a participant in the Irrigation Suspension Program whether they send another dollar or not. The original request by the EAA was that each water purveyor, and others, participate by contributing to funds for the program. There were no guidelines or rules. Council approved participation for the City at $1.00 for each active water meter. Several other purveyors used that guideline as well. In the meantime SAWS, as well as several others, asked EAA how much they wanted them to contribute to participate. They came up with a formula based on the entity's percentage of total pumpage from the Edwards in 1995 as that percentage related to the amount needed to fund the Irrigation Suspension Program. By the deadline there was a mixed bag of circumstances and the Edwards didn't have enough money. The EAA has now said they would like everyone to participate on the basis of their percentage of pumpage from the Edwards. That would raise participation by the City from $4,897 to a total of $22,800. It is his understanding they reached, temporarily, their one-third payment by an increased payment from SAWS. They mayor may not have increased participation by the time the second payment comes due. Mr. Sweatt went on to say what we're really doing is buying insurance for 10% more water and if it rains, we won't need it. Mr. McDonald asked how much of what is being pledged will actually go to the irrigators and Mr. Sweatt replied 100%. Mayor Baldwin commented he doesn't see how the City can not do it. Mr. Greenwald wondered how they will police it. Mr. Sweatt replied he understands the question, but doesn't have an answer. Mr. McDonald inquired where the money is coming from to pay for the City's contribution and Mr. Sweatt replied from the capital recovery fund. After being asked by Mayor Baldwin, Council agreed they were ready for this item to be included on next Tuesday night's agenda. -167- #4 Discuss approval of Semi-Annual Water/Wastewater Impact Fee report. Mr. Sweatt reminded Council the Planning and Zoning Commission serves as the advisory board for the Water/Wastewater Impact Fee program. Mr. Bierschwa1e, Public Works Director, met with them in January and made a report of the system and of pre-payment collections. He also reported on projects underway now. Mr. Bierschwale's recommendation is that capital recovery fees remain at the current level. Planning and Zoning agreed and has made the same recommendation. Water is $750 per living unit equivalent and sewer at $315 per living unit equivalent. The City also collects CCMA's sewer capital recovery fee at the same time and that's another $985 per living unit equivalent, but it's not ours. Council needs to officially receive the report at their next meeting. No action would be necessary unless they want to discuss changing the fees. Council indicated their readiness for this item to be included on next Tuesday night's agenda. #5 Discuss appointments to Library Advisory Board. Mr. Sweatt list of those serve on the Grosskopf, Juan reminded Council they have in their packet a who have expressed a desire to continue to Library Advisory Board. They are John Thorn, Barbara Ricks and Pattie Lovelady. Mayor Baldwin asked if these the bond committee and Mr. Sweatt Mayor then commented all the volunteers. people are on the list replied some of them. board members are for The good Council admitted they were prepared for this item to be included on next Tuesday night's agenda. #6 Discuss status of water study. Mr. Sweatt related the original contract was with Hennings, Durham and Richardson (HDR) of Austin, along with attorney Crockett Camp, to conduct a potential groundwater study in the Carrizo-Wi1cox Aquifer area. After a lot of review, there was found to be concern about a conflict of interest with an ongoing study that firm was doing for Trans Texas Water Plan. HDR asked to be released from the contract so they could remove any possible conflict of interest issues. They have talked with Mr. Camp about the opportunity to proceed with the project, using another engineer outside of this area who has no contact with any of the water purveyors, SARA or GBRA. Mr. Clay Roming, who has an engineering firm in the Waco area and has done extensive water supply studies, will be the new engineer for the study. They believe a big part of the issue will be those -168- of legal concern and feel keeping Mr. Camp in charge of the project and working with Mr. Roming will give them the best of both worlds. These gentlemen feel they can do the work that was set out originally in phases one and two of the program. It will probably take about six months to complete. It is recommended Council acknowledge dissolution of the agreement with HDR and authorize a new agreement with Crockett Camp and Clay Roming. Mr. Sawyer asked if it will be the same amount of money and was told by Mr. Sweatt it will be. Mr. Sawyer had no objections, saying we've already committed to do the study. We should charge on. Mayor Baldwin inquired if the new contract will be on the agenda for next Tuesday and Mr. Sweatt answered he would at least like to place a minute order on the agenda for action by Council to dissolve the old contract and authorize the new one. Council was in agreement. #7 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: A. Deferred to Judge Cinnamon who was present to tell Council about the new Teen Court Administrator and how they plan to get the Teen Court up and running again. Mayor Baldwin asked if it hadn't been running and Judge Cinnamon replied it had been running, but not under that title. He has been handling it through Municipal Court in the same manner, but without the teen jury. Judge Cinnamon related the new person is Henry Castro and he's a night auditor. An inquiry was conducted concerning him and came back clean as a whistle. He is a very knowledgeable man in the handling of children and very confident in his personality that he can converse with them. He handles himself well. Judge Cinnamon advised he has a schedule set up to start training in the high school. It will begin on February 18th and then be held again on February 25th in the high school library. The first Teen Court will be on the 6th of March at 4:00 p.m. After that, they will always be on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. A lot of interest has been shown to get it started again. Newer training materials are available. Regarding juvenile probation, Judge Cinnamon mentioned there was a special session called on Friday of the Juvenile Probation Board and with pressure from the Commissioners Court and others, they terminated juvenile detention. There isn't any in Guadalupe County anymore. Mr. McDonald commented they decertified the facility and Judge Cinnamon responded that's not quite true. They had granted a waiver as long as the Commission would say they were working on it. The Commission said they weren't working on it - close it. The Juvenile Probation office is -169- still open and their certified will suffer. situation. will continue to function. They are losing officers. The children and their families There was a brief discussion about the Mayor Baldwin asked if they are working on a plan and Judge Cinnamon replied no. The situation needs to get unpolitical. B. Announced the public hearing for the FM 78 right-of-way is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. tomorrow. #8 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mr. Sawyer: A. Noted the signs on Schertz Parkway are up. One of them says 33 mph and the other says 28 mph and they are stirring up a lot of people. That's good, that's what we wanted. Mr. Sweatt mentioned that in two weeks they will ask the Highway Department to do a recount on FM 3009 for signalization. B. Stated there will be a dinner and dance at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Valentine's Day. It will be sponsored by the Lion's Club and the Humane Society. C. Reminded everyone the grand opening for Berry Creek is tomorrow. Mr. McDonald: Remarked he would like to see the names of Juan Thorn and James Harris added to the bond committee list. Mr. Greenwald: A. Reported attending a CRWA meeting on Monday. He will have the minutes for Council's next package. Michael Spain will be doing the water treatment contract. We're still in the master contract with everybody else. We're going to figure out a way to delete ourselves and buy our own water. Mayor Baldwin commented he thought they were all in this thing together to get some water. Mr. Greenwald assured him they are not trying to cut off CRWA, but they are looking at the fact if EAA goes to the 1989 pumping averages, they can't supply this City. Mayor Baldwin asked if they could find an alternate that quickly. Mr. Sweatt pointed out if the City their own water, as opposed to CRWA owning it, they contract with anybody to treat x number of acre feet of wherever they could get the nearest pipeline. source owned could it to Mr. Greenwald mentioned the idea of the City getting it's own plant and this prompted a lot of discussion by Council. Mr. Sweatt acknowledged the possibility of trading the water because it is a marketable item, a valuable commodity. The options if we own the water are a lot better than if we let someone else buy it. The consensus of Council was for the City Manager to press on and get a contract to buy the water. Mr. Sawyer asked how much we would have to raise the water -170- rates to come up with the money. Mr. Sweatt replied that today it's budgeted. B. Related that at last Steve Simonson gave single-family housing phenomenal. night's Planning and then all a chart growth from 1982 to zoning meeting, showing the 1996. It is 19 ITEMS BY MAYOR: A. Read a letter from United Way thanking the city for it's participation in this year's campaign. Evelyn Boggess organized the effort on behalf of the City of Schertz and they thanked her for her efforts and invited her to attend a reception at Trinity University on February lath. Mayor Baldwin also extended his thanks to Mrs. Boggess on behalf of Council. B. Read another letter, this time from the Buffalo Valley Lion's Club, informing the Council they will be conducting a clinic for free eye examinations on February 22nd from lO:OO a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the K of C parking lot. It was decided to present them with a Proclamation at next Tuesday's meeting. C. Stated that Samuel Clemens High School will host an academic decathalon for medium-sized schools next week and on Saturday, February 22nd, they will have what's called a Super Quiz. He encouraged Council to attend the Super Quiz. The other events are pretty much closed, but this one is open. # 1 0 ADJOURNMENT Mayor Baldwin adjourned the meeting at 8:23 p.m. a , Mayor, City of Schertz, Texas ATTEST: ~n:-~~('~'/ City Secretary, City of Schertz -171-