ccswks 10-30-1991
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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OCTOBER 30 I 1991
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop
Session Wednesday, October 30, 1991 at 7:00 p.m. in the
Conference Room of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz
Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The following members were
present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer, presiding; Hal Baldwin,
Mary Marsh and Ken Greenwald. Absent: Joe Potempa and
Barbara Stanhope. Staff present were City Manager Kerry
Sweatt and City Secretary June Krause.
#1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: Mr. Bill Neller. A.
Mentioned that the flags have been placed at all absentee
voting places and will be at the polls on election day, as
they have been in the past.
B. Also the flags will be placed along Main Street on
Veteran's Day - November 11th.
C. Mr. Neller also brought up, again, the subject of the
traffic jam in the parking lot on election day, asking that
all employees be asked to park elsewhere that day.
Mayor Sawyer welcomed seven Samuel Clemens Government
students who were attending the meeting for a class project.
#2 Anita Clark to report on July 4th activities.
Mrs. Clark stated this was the formal report on the Schertz
Business Club 4th of July Jubilee. They had a review
meeting after the event and came up with suggestions and did
some additional planning to make next year's event even
better. One problem was with the PA system for the parade
and opening ceremonies, but they hope to get a better
system. Also there is a need to block off the entrance to
the stadium parking lot much earlier; each entry in the
parade should have a number to make it easier for the MC;
they have decided to have commercial booths and charge $35 a
space; have a sports tournament with the Greater Randolph
Family VMCA hosting it; carnival will be the same as this
year; the theme for 1992 will be "Let Freedom Ring". They
also plan to have fireworks; a 50's dance at the VFW will be
held on March 14th to raise funds for the fireworks and cans
have already been placed at several businesses to collect
funds for this. Mrs. Clark said they will continue having
a dance on the evening of July 3rd, along with the carnival
and they plan to have another street banner made to be hung
at Elbel and Schertz Parkway. She ended by presenting their
profit/loss statement, which showed a balance of $1,540.27.
Mayor Sawyer thanked Mrs. Clark for her good report, saying
we look forward to another great year.
#3 Discussion of resolution supporting the City of
Kirby regarding site location TEX TGV (High Speed Rail).
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Mayor Sawyer said he was of the opinion that we should go
ahead and give them our support.
Mrs. Marsh ask if it wasn't true that Schertz is by-passed
by this rail. Mr. Sweatt said that right now it looks as
though it will probably be the Southern Pacific tracks or
right of way.
Councilmembers had no objection to this resolution.
#4 Discussion of P&Z Annual Report.
Mayor Sawyer advised that Mr. Andrews, P&Z Chairman, had
said this report is just repetitive work for them since
Council gets copies of all their minutes.
After receiving concurrence from Council, Mayor
advised the City Manager to tell P&Z it is no
necessary for them to make this report.
Sawyer
longer
#5 Discussion of re-appointing of P&Z members.
Mayor Sawyer stated P&Z are recommending the re-appointment
of Bob Andrews, Bobbie Vanada and Jim Shriver.
Council had no objections to the re-appointments.
#6 Discussion of P&Z request for clarification of BOA
process.
Mr. Sweatt advised that their understanding is that Council
wishes them to continue in the review process of BOA actions
even though P&Z is excluded in this process as the Ordinance
is now written. If Council agrees, would the Mayor sign the
statement.
Mrs. Marsh agreed that Council should have P&Z input.
Mr. Greenwald advised that P&Z wants clarification of what
procedures to take.
Mr. Baldwin just wanted it clarified that P&Z was not in
the process on two levels and was assured they were not.
#7 Discussion of policy regarding Mayor Pro Tern
selection.
Mayor Sawyer stated that under the new policy, he will be
swearing Mr. Baldwin in as the new Mayor Pro Tern on Tuesday
at the regular meeting.
#8 Discussion of casting City of Schertz votes for
Guadalupe County Appraisal District Board of Directors.
Mayor Sawyer suggested Council cast their votes
nominee J. L. Stewart, even though he did not
would be elected.
for our
feel he
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Mr. Baldwin asked if we wanted to check to see who other
entities with low number of votes are going to vote for
because if we water down our votes, Seguin and the Seguin
School District is going to put three people on the board.
Mayor Sawyer asked Mr. Baldwin to contact the other
entities so that we could combine our votes to at least get
one member from this end of the county on the board.
Mr. Sweatt advised that we could wait until the workshop of
November 13th to cast the votes since they don't have to be
in until November 15th.
#9 Discussion of proposed agreement with Bexar County
regarding Urban County designation on Community Development
Block Grant matters.
Mr. Sweatt said this has been discussed on a number of
occasions. He added that we received a copy of a letter
written by Cynthia Leon, who is the manager of the HUD
office in San Antonio. This was in reply to a request by
Bexar County. Even the City Attorney could not understand
this letter. The best we can determine is that they have
interpreted the rules to mean that we cannot do what we
believe we should be entitled to do. That is, designate the
portion of our population that is in Bexar County to the
Urban County designation and leave the remainder of our
population to compete on state-wide CDBG funds. They have
determined that we must do one of two things: (a) put all
of our population with Bexar County and, according to them,
would be eligible to participate for CDBG programs in any
one of the three counties in which our city is located. (b)
do not designate any of our population and compete all on a
state-wide basis. That way we would have to compete with all
the other cities in this region.
Mr. Sweatt said they have quoted some regulations that the
City Attorney is helping him to run down because he feels
this is an incorrect determination but if we do not do
something pretty soon, we will lose out completely.
Mr. Sweatt recommended that we place on next week's agenda
a resolution, that will designate all of our population to
Bexar County and ask that it be adopted with the stipulation
that we appeal this ruling with HUD.
#10 Discussion of possible donation of lot in Live Oak
Hills Subdivision.
Mayor Sawyer said we already have five lots in
subdivision so he did not see any reason why we should
accept another one.
that
not
Mr. Sweatt said that afternoon another lot was offered to
the City. He circulated a map showing the location of the
presently owned five lots as well as these two lots we were
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being offered for taxes.
Council agreed to accept the lots as proposed.
#11 Discussion of agreement for utility easement and
correction of right of way adjacent to 890 Garden Circle.
Mr. Sweatt handed out a plat of the area in question,
saying this is a most confusing issue. Schertz Parkway was
originally planned as eighty foot right-of-way but we now
find that some of it is only sixty foot right-of-way. As
shown on the plat, there is a small portion of the house
being constructed that is on city right-of-way. He added
that it is our proposal that we convey to Von Scheele that
portion of the right-of-way that contains the portion of the
house so that all we are left with is the corner. Then they
will convey to us a five-foot utility easement on the front
of their property from Pecan Drive to the drainage
right-of-way. Our water line is in our right-of-way but we
do not have room for maintenance without this five-foot
easement. We belive this is the best solution. We will
further stipulate that no fence will be built into the
twenty-five foot triangle that could block visibility of the
intersection.
Mr. Greenwald added that this would be making the best of a
bad situation.
#12
that he
Saturday.
CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: A. Mrs. Stanhope asked
remind Council of the Senior Citizen Bazaar on
B. He put in the packets a copy of the Chamber of Commerce
ballot, saying he would ask that this be on the November 5th
agenda for casting our votes. Mr. Sweatt said the Council
is entitled to cast four votes.
Mrs. Marsh pointed out that only one lived in the metrocom
area.
C. Announced that he would be sending Council an
information memo and copy of letter received from the
attorney and one from a resident of Deer Haven and will give
them a briefing on the bomb scare.
D. The Library Board would like to name the Genealogy room
for Joe and Margaret Lem. If council concurs, they would
like to do that at their next meeting.
E. On November 15th at 10:00 a.m. we hope to hold a
"Turn-on" Ceremonies for the Schirmerville project. Will
get more out on this at a later date.
F. In keeping with a Council request, we have been giving a
brief summary of the financial activities at the end of each
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quarter. As this quarter ends the fiscal year, we only have
preliminary numbers right now. He said he was happy to
report we will close the fiscal year with overall
expenditures being some 9 7% of the General Fund Budget.
That alone has produced approximately $83,000 savings over
budgeted income. As it stands, we believe we will close the
fiscal year in the General Fund with approximately a $90,000
reserve. This is the first year in three years we have been
able to do that. Mr. Sweatt said he was proud to report
that this is brought about by the Department Heads paying
very close attention to expenditures. The Water Department,
in spite of a terribly bad year, revenues have only amounted
to some 88% of anticipated revenues, we have reduced
expenditures in line with that so that we are going to end
up the year with some $23,700 of revenue in excess of
expenditures. Between conservation practices and rainfall,
the Water Department took a real hit this year. SAFES'
income is 108% of budget. The audit is coming along and
should be in next week to begin their work. We hope to have
the audit completed and out before the Christmas holidays.
#13 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mrs. Marsh - A. The VFW
meeting report showing they have met 77% on membership and
they are shooting for 100% in the next couple of months.
They are working on by-laws now and should be ready for the
next meeting. They will participate in the November 9th
Veteran's Day parade. Mrs. Marsh said she now has a drive
out for a piano for the VFW. They are still doing well on
funds and still making a profit.
B. The Economic Development Task Meeting was a good one. A
Mr. George Gregg from the Seguin/Guadalupe County Chamber
of Commerce was present and they shared thoughts with him on
the one half cent sales tax. They are still trying to find
a Contact Team Chairman. Mark Marquez is doing really good
work. They talked about McDonalds opening in late November.
They also adopted the Robert's Rules of Order. The Business
Appreciation dinner was a real success with about 140
present and talked about doing even better next year.
C. Schertz Business Club had a United Way representative.
The Treasurer's report showed they are doing pretty good.
Talked about the Roaring 20's dance. They talked about
twenty minutes about the Chamber of Commerce, saying it is
now time for Schertz to have it's own Chamber of Commerce.
They donated $100 to the Development Foundation and will
bring this up on a quarterly basis and if there is money to
spare will continue to put money into the Development
Foundation. She named the new officers as Anita Clark,
president; Nolan Edwards, Vice President; Bobbie Vonada
will be Secretary; Jim Shriver, Treasurer; the Executive
Committee will have Viola Kramer as Chairman along with Jean
Stewart and Dennis Kusak. They talked about the election
and the lottery.
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Mr. Greenwald: A. Mentioned the sign on FM 78 that used
to say "Speed Radar Enforced" is now completely unreadable
and needs to be replaced.
B. BVYA met last Thursday and we need to get their contract
signed and back to them. They are ready to start their
basketball season with approximately 140 children.
#14 ITEMS BY MAYOR: A. Announced that those not
attending missed a beautiful dedication of the Resurrection
Baptist Church the previous Sunday.
Mayor Sawyer again welcomed the students from the Government
Class who were in attendance, saying Council would be glad
to answer any question they might have.
#15 ADJOURNMENT:
come before Council,
adjourned at 8:27 p.m.
There being no further business
the meeting was to
by Mayor Sawyer.
to
be
ATTEST:
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