ccswks 04-29-1991
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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
AP R I L 2 9, 1 9 92
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop
Session, Wednesday, April 29, 1992 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; Joe Potempa;
Mary Marsh and Ken Greenwald. Absent: Hal Baldwin and
Barbara Stanhope. Staff present were City Manager Kerry
Sweatt and City Secretary June Krause.
Mayor Sawyer welcomed Larry and Linda Jones to the meeting.
stating that Larry is the County Treasurer and his wife
Linda is running for District Judge. He also welcomed Jack
Strickland, a candidate for Mayor in Universal City.
#1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: Bill Neller A. He
mentioned that it was brought to his attention last year
that Randolph Air Force Base did not have a procedure for
flag destruction. Mr. Neller said he wanted to publish the
information about the Flag Day Ceremonies of flag
destruction. He had contacted the Public Information
Officer at the Base and they will also advertise and collect
old flags for the ceremonies. He expects a large turnout of
people, including the American Legion, VFW, DAV and others.
So far he has collected twenty-five flags.
B. He received a call from Randolph AFB saying they are
getting a full-time radiologist so they will possibly open
up mammogram checks for others than active duty females.
C. He felt the need for a new roof so contacted a builder,
who obtained a City permit. He said he could find no where
that it says a person has to have a permit to put on
shingles. Also although the permit says "Do Not Remove", he
took it down without an inspectors sign off.
The procedures for permits was explained to Mr. Neller in
detail.
Mr. Larry Jon~ said it had been some time since he had
been to Schertz and just wanted to visit and advise Council
that he is working on an employee benefit package. He has
already talked with several entities in Seguin and will be
back to present to Council at a later date.
Mayor Sawyer suggested Mr. Jones meet with the City Manager
and give him the details and he, in turn, will get back with
Council.
~. Jack Strickla~g - A. It was brought to his attention
that the Schertz Library did not have a copy of his book so
he wanted to present a copy to the Mayor and City Council.
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B. He mentioned the statement made in Universal City "Why
would we want our citizens to go to Schertz any way". He
said he realized that it upset many people both in Schertz
and Universal City. He advised that he had contacted TV
stations, newspapers, etc. i and would meet at the low water
crossing on Friday to symbolically tear down the barriers
between the two cities. He invited the Mayor and Council to
attend.
#2 Discuss revision to garage sale permit ordinances.
Mr. Sweatt recalled that Council wanted to amend the
ordinance to clarify so that subgroups would not be subject
to the restrictions of two sales per year. He added that
staff has proposed the following be added to Section I d.
"Each subsidiary organization or subgroup of any charitable
or non-profit organization, including for example each
auxiliary, club, special committee or any other group
designated by a charitable or non-profit organization as a
subsidiary organization or subgroup. shall be treated as a
separate charitable or non-profit organization for purposes
of Article VI of Chapter 10 of this Code."
Section 10-106 would also be amended to change from a total
of two to a total of four garage sales per year.
Mayor Sawyer and Council agreed this is what they wanted.
#3 Discuss setting Public Zoning
recommended by Planning & Zoning Commission.
Hearings
as
A. Zoning for Beck Concrete property.
B. Special District for Schertz Parkway.
Mr. Sweatt advised that both of these public hearings had
been coordinated with P&Z and were set for June 2. 1992.
#4 Discuss authorizing the creation of Tax Increment
Financing District for Schertz Parkway.
Mr. Sweatt reminded Council that this issue was discussed
several weeks ago when our current policy and practice were
raised. We currently have a provision that deals with
Schertz Parkway from Live Oak Road to 1-35. In order to
gain funds to repay developers for their share of cost of
construction and/or to gain additional funds for making
additional improvements to Schertz Parkway, a special
platting fee was established. As we have reviewed that. in
light of the changing of the economy, we believe this method
is counter productive and would be detrimental to
development.
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The Planning & Zoning Commission has reviewed this with
staff and we propose a suggestion, that in lieu of the
platting fee a provision of State law that deals in Tax
Incremental Financing be used. This seems to be an ideal
situation for the Tax Incremental Financing. He mentioned
that Mr. Marquez was present to briefly describe to Council
what the district might do and how it might work.
Mark Marquez said the district could do virtually anything
that Council would chose it to do. This is very similar to
tax abatement, except in this case the taxes would be
collected as normal, but some portion of the increment
increased appraised value would go into an escrow fund. The
nice part is that we would also ask the County for a piece
of this action, as well as the school district. For
example, if the property was worth $1,000 today and the
following year it went up to $2,000 as the result of
improvements, you would have an increment of $1,000 to deal
with. What would happen is that, through a political
process, we would determine some percentage of that to go
into a fund. Specifically, that fund would be targeted to
improve Schertz Parkway. He said the State law is
cumbersome but is a workable law.
Mr. Sweatt said the beauty of this is that no entity would
lose. they would simply not gain the full appreciation.
Mr. Marquez went on to say that staff would corne up with a
preliminary plan as to what we want to do to Schertz
Parkway; and it would be returned to Council for approval.
After that. Council would approach the other entities and
advise that this is what we want to do so let us talk about
it to make sure that everyone agrees with the plan. The
second part of that is to take a look at the dollar flow to
see what percentage would be appropriate,and to get all the
entities to agree on a number. The next steps would be a
set of public hearings to actually create the zone. After
that, then the ordinance is passed that creates the zone for
the purpose of Tax Increment Financing. After that. the
Council has to appoint a Board to manage the Zone. Members
of the County and School District would be a part of the
Board, as well as members of the City. That Board would
develop the final plan as to exactly what we want to do and
precisely what it is going to cost,and this is what we are
going to do to structure the financing. When that is done,
the Board approves and adopts that package, sends it back to
the Council and the Council blesses it as a final action.
When it goes into effect, each year whatever taxes come out
of this will go into an escrow fund that we can allow to
build. Conceivably,we could lay a bond on this if we wanted
to widen the roadway now; and if we can show that, because
of the improvements on that roadway, the revenue was there,
we can get a revenue bond and pay for it out of the
increment financing. The nice thing about that is that any
of the bonding agencies can not come back to the original
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taxing entities if. in fact. we do not make debt
Mr. Marquez said it would be his recommendation
issueing any bonds for several years to allow the
build up a bit.
service.
to hold
fund to
Mayor Sawyer said he felt Council should go ahead and spend
staff time and do this - bring it into reality. He asked
how Council felt.
Mrs. Marsh said she likes it and Mr. Greenwald said to him
it was fantastic - the sooner we get away from the platting
fees. the better for us.
#5 Discuss Community Development Block Grant (CDGB)
applications.
Mr. Sweatt advised that there are five in the report
supplied to Council and he has three more on top of that.
He said Community Development Block Grants are the Federal
Government's answer to revenue sharing. In this instance we
are not an entitlement city. We are participating with
Bexar County through an agreement as they serve as an Urban
County. There has been a lot of argument with the Federal
Government and HUD as to how we are to be treated. We are
in an unusual position as being a split place under the law.
meaning we are in more than one county and only one of them
is an urban county. Because we are counted as an urban
county participant, we have been assured that all of our
population is counted in HUD's determination for Bexar
County eligibility. Therefore, they are willing to consider
projects not only in Bexar County but also in Guadalupe and
Carnal Counties. We have prepared several projects that we
recommend to Council to present at the Public Hearing on May
14th. Part of the requirement for a successful project is a
certain percentage of low to moderate income. In one case
it was necessary to survey an area to determine if that
would be eligible. We believe the Mobile Villa area
qualifies. However. we felt the first project for Mobile
Villa would be the more costly should be a waste water
collection system. But as we conducted the survey door to
door it became apparent immediately that we had little or no
support in the subdivision for a sewer system. The property
owners felt their septic systems were sufficient and should
not be changed, also there would be a monthly cost to them
if the sewer system went in. As we recognized that, we felt
we needed to change project and move to water and a majority
of the property owners agreed because mainly of fire
protection.
Mrs. Marsh asked if we get the water project, would we go
ahead and use the bond money for the streets. We always
said we would not deal with the streets until the utilities
were done. Mr. Sweatt said that would be his
recommendation.
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Mr. Sweatt said staff had prepared a total of five projects
that we would like to present at the public hearing.
1. Expansion of the current Schertz Area Facilities for
Emergency Services (SAFES) facility. He added that we do
not know if we can qualify this project but it meets the
regional needs. This project totals $125,000.
2. Upgrade water lines in Mobile Villa subdivision
$137,000.
3. Rebuild Pfeil Road - $132,000.
4. Drainage projects expansion of
channel from Schertz Parkway to Elbel Road.
current drainage
- $450.000.
5. Drainage Project - expansion of the current drainage
channel from Elbel Road to FM 3009. - $470,000.
Mr. Sweatt said that at the same time, we would like to
present three other regional projects as discussed by the
area City Managers.
1. A proposal for an Economic Development Study Plan, which
the County would fund through cDBG funds for some $50,000
and each city put $1,000 in to conduct a region wide
economic development study to determine what area we need to
concentrate on.
2. Region wide consortium of six cities to ask Bexar County
to allocate a percentage of funding of cDBG funds. Our
combined population of Schertz, Selma, Universal City,
Converse, Live Oak and Kirby, represents 17% of population
of Bexar County exclusive of the City of San Antonio. We
believe it would be appropriate that from 16% to 20% of the
CDBG funds be allocated to this Consortium of the six cities
and let those cities establish the priorities and pick the
projects themselves.
3. A proposal by Schertz Economic Development Foundation
for seed money of $100,000 to seed the foundation.
Mayor Sawyer felt all the projects were good and we should
proceed on these. councilmembers agreed.
#6 Discuss requirement for security provision at
Convenience Stores.
Mr. Sweatt said he was surprised because in any other city
where he had worked, the Crime Prevention program had
stressed in-store camera security for those stores open
24-hours a day. He said apparently there is not a
ordinance in any city in the State of Texas where one is
required. We have talked with TML and a number of other
cities. He said San Antonio had made a similar inquiry to
the TML this same date. Currently ten establishments in the
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City would fall under the general criteria and only four of
those are twenty-four hour a day operation. The minimum
cost for such an operation is in the neighborhood of $3500.
We cannot find any down side to this other than the cost.
The presence of cameras are a deterrent. There is some
question as to how to handle the Grandfather Provision.
Mr. Greenwald suggested telling them that within one year
to thirty six months you must have this system; and of
course the new construction would comply immediately.
Mr.
and
make
been
Sweatt said we believe that under the Health, Safety
Welfare provision the City would have the authority to
that requirement as a part of our code. This has not
tested anywhere.
Mayor Sawyer suggested drafting an ordinance and have
legal staff look at it to see if they can defend that
ordinance. Council agreed.
our
type
#7 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: A. The Council asked us to
investigate and Goofy Golf's owner insists that the old sign
at the corner of Oak and FM 1518 is a part of their
acquisition and they would like to improve it. Under our
sign ordinance, it is a non-conforming use and this would
allow six months to come into compliance and if not. then it
could be removed. Under the terms of the ordinance, we
likely could cause the sign to be removed now. If they
are
serious to renovate and to continue the non-conforming use.
it would require a permit from the Planning & Zoning
Commission.
Council discussed
should be enough
upgrade the sign.
this issue and agreed that
time for them to get their
thirty
permit
days
and
B. In accordance with our policy on quarterly financial
reports, he gave a brief financial report. Through the
month of March, we are fifty percent through the fiscal
year. The General Fund expenditures total fifty percent.
Water/Sewer expenditures are 47%. SAFES are 45.9% of budget.
Revenues the General Fund is 68.4% received; Water/Sewer-
46.6% received and SAFES 55.5% received. We are in the
process of mid-year budget process now and Water/Sewer is
going to be hurting this year - this is the second year of
rain and low water sales. Out of the General Fund
expenditures. there are only four departments that are over
expended. First one is the City Manager's office, which
includes the Finance and we had quite a bit of overtime
through the audit review this time. In the Tax Department,
we are 63.2% expended through fifty percent of the year.
That is primarily due to the quarterly payments to the
Appraisal District. Parks is 53.7% expended due to an error
in allocation of salaries and we are correcting that now.
In the Economic Development Task Force program we are 52.8%
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and we had one extremely big printing bill and a couple of
our travel and conference attendees of travel shows early in
the year have distorted that figure. The Non-Departmental
budget is 88.6% expended and that is due to the audit
payments. The only other unusual expenditures are legal
services have been extra ordinary and SAFES had a payment
for engineering work for design of the facility. The other
expenditures are pretty well routine activities.
C. We have received two notices of a National Day of Prayer
for May 7th proposed to be held at City Hall. We have a
letter from the Trinity Church in Windcrest and the Randolph
Christian Church in Schertz and they are issuing a
nationwide invitation for everyone to meet at City Hall for
a prayer between the hours of 12:20 and 12:40 p.m. on that
date.
D. We will be canvassing and declaring the results of the
election at our next Council meeting.
E. We are experiencing some very expensive
our pump at well #2 in Universal City. We
service from this pump during the last ten
pulling the pump now because we need to get
on line. This is another example
expenditures.
repair work on
have had good
years. We are
this pump back
of unbudgeted
F. We are pleased to report the Kiwanis proposed to donate
the labor on some of our landscape projects at the Municipal
Building. We will furnish the material. This will involve
extending the flower bed in each side at the front of the
building. We have almost $500 in the budget for purchase of
material.
G. We are trying to finalize a project with the Mormon
Church that has approximately 180 to 200 youth they propose
to bring to Schertz to conduct a public improvement project
or projects. This is a part of their church community
relationship. We are discussing their painting curb numbers
throughout the city or painting fire hydrants. They would
really like to find one or more senior citizens or destitute
citizens who would like to have their home painted. We are
going to make some arrangement for them to use our pool and
pavilion as part of our commitment to them. We will reduce
fees or something. This is a very enthused group of people.
#8 ITEMS BY COUNCIL:
Mrs. Marsh: A. Reported on the Economic Development Task
Force meeting of April 16th, mentioning the Community
Relations Team will be getting a couple of "Welcome to
Schertz" signs at McDonalds and Jack In the box on I-35.
They have a new team - Site Team. Mr. Bornmann spoke of
his experience as a successful businessman and promotion.
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B. Reported on the VFW meeting and election on April 20.
The District Meeting was hosted by Garden Ridge but held in
Schertz. They have received 94% of their quota of
membership. Announced the poppy sale on May 30th and a
special meeting called for May 4th to consider by-laws; the
VFW has sponsored Pack 18 of the Boy Scouts for over 23
years. There will be an installation of officers on May 2
at 5:30 p.m. at which Mrs. Marsh will be sworn in as
Senior Vice Commander.
C. The Business Club met on April 28th. Their finances are
looking good with a total of $4,694.17 in general fund.
scholarship and savings - made $182.50 on the 50's Dance and
$113 on the Bake Sale and have sold $177 worth of raffle
tickets. They still lack $1438 for the fireworks for the
4th of July.
Mr. Baldwin gave a State Highway meeting report that was
interesting. They will have a Jamboree at May 24th and are
going to have a silent auction. They had three applicants
for their scholarship and Jennifer Peel was the winner. and
explained how the pageant was revamped. The Business Club
has changed their name to the Schertz Business Association -
this goes along with the new incorporation. .
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were working
subscriptions
permit. Mr.
A. He had received a call stating two girls
their way through collage selling newspaper
and wanted to know if they had to have a
Sweat advised that they do have to have one.
B. A citizen in Oak Forest was upset about the City cutting
bluebonnets.
C. Mr. Ackermann approached him about trees hanging over
the street on Mill Street.
D.
p.m.
Announced a "Win or Lose" party on Saturday night at
at the Kountry Kitchen on Saturday night.
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Mr. un__O:reenwC!ld: A. Mentioned the Tex-Mex Ser ies that wi 11
have from six to eight teams and asked if the City would
allow them to use the pool. Mayor Sawyer said that in the
past the Council has allowed this, under certain conditions.
#9 ITEMS BY MAYOR: A. Mayor Sawyer said that Mr.
Strickland's invitation for Friday evening is very political
and felt it would not be wise to attend. He added that we
do not usually get involved with other entities politics.
B. Mentioned that he and Mr. Baldwin attended a meeting in
the Schermirville area for a "Meet the Candidate" meeting.
He said that later they would give a report of this meeting.
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Mayor
p.m.
#10 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business.
Sawyer declared the meeting to be adjourned at 9: 18
ATTEST:
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