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ccswks 10-10-1990 x I'--~ ~,.,. (Ou SPECIAL WORKSHOP SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OCTOBER 10, 1990 The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session Wednesday, October 10, 1990 at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The following members were present: Mayor Pro Tern Ken Greenwald, presidingi Joe Potempai Barbara Stanhope and Mary Marsh. Absent: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer and Councilman Hal Baldwin. Staff present were City Manager Kerry R. Sweatt and City Secretary June Krause. Mayor Pro Tem said that before the meeting commenced, staff would like to show the 14 minute film "Talk of the Town" developed by the Economic Development Task Force. After viewing the tape, Mr. Sweatt said this tape is brand new and will be presented at the Business Appreciation Dinner, Thursday night. It will be available for distribution to certain inqu~r ~es and copies are available for purchase. This will be used as a marketing tool for external effort. #1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: Mr. Bill Neller advised that he was disappointed in the number of people that come out for election - the next to be November 6th. Also the United States Code says that every polling place should have a flag on display and some of ours do not. In conjunction with the American Legion, Mr. Neller said he had built three racks to hold flags and they will be made available at each of the polling places on election day. Mr. Neller said he was very disappointed in the small number of people that vote. He said he was making a suggestion to the three local veteran's associations. He has a bull horn and suggested going around on election day asking the people to get out and vote. B. David Richmond said he did not see anything on the agenda for this meeting about the discussion of the resol ution about the Lafarge proposal to locate a toxic waste disposal plant. Mr. Richmond said he and his wife are soon to be residents of Schertz because they I ike Schertz better than where they are present I y located. He said what concerns him about Lafarge locating their toxic wastes disposal plant at the existing cement plant is that it appears that some folks may be a little more concerned with economic growth than they are with the environmental impact on the Randolph Metrocom and Greater San Antonio area. He said he applauded the Council for looking for additional information before considering the resolution. He said his hope is that Council will support a resolution to condemn that proposal on the part of Lafarge. He added that the meetings he went to in New Braunfels had large amounts of material available. He understood that public hearings were to be held within the next 30 to 90 days before the State of Texas environmental committees that could grant them the permit. He said the concern he has is that Lafarge has a history of pursuing these plants in the ^ 66 country of adapting their toxic waste disposal to other existing facilities. This way they would use a kiln and burn facility that is not designed expressly for that. For every ten tons of toxic waste that might be disposed of in that plant, one ton will be pushed into the atmosphere and will affect the neighboring communities within a radius of 26 miles. Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald, at this time, read a proclamation proclaiminC] "The Third Annual Country Music Showcase" to be held at the VFW in Schertz on October 21, 1990. The proclamation was presented to Mr. Jimmy Gonzalez, Commander i Mr. Del Richardson and Mr. Frank Wilson. #2 Discussion of final reading of an crdinance amending the Code of Ordinances by revising Secticns 18-32, 18-35 and 18-76 regulatinC] traffic in Greenshire Subdivision. There beinC] no additional discussion, Mayor Pro Tern asked that this be on the next action agenda for second readinC]. #3 Discussion of Public Hearing and franchise aqreement between the City of Schertz and Paragon Cable, Inc. Mr. Sweatt said he had enclosed copy of a letter we are sendinq to Paragon. He added that we have all been led to believe that the FCC through Congress was goinC] to change the Cable Regulation Act of 1984 and reopen it to provide some type of local control dealing with cable, including rate regulation. According to an article in the local papers, this proposal is dead for at least this session of Congress. Our current franchise with Paragon expires on September 15, 1993. The current Cable Regulation Act requires that we must begin any discussion with the cable company a minimum of three years before the expiration date of any concerns, any possible extension of the franchise or revocation of franchise. We have proposed a number of issues we would ask the cable representatives to speak to at the October 16th public hearing. We felt this is an excellent opportunity for not only the Council but citizens to ask questions of the cable company about their operations and our concerns. Mrs. Marsh asked if there was any new word on other companies. Mr. Sweat said we have contacted two companies that both expressed some interest in discussing an additional franchise but they have not responded except to say they would look at the market. Mrs. Marsh suggested having available some figures on other companies, rather than just talk to them about their company. Mr. Sweatt said a T.J. Connolly, who is Paragon's relations and governmental liaison, would be at the hearing. public public J- ^ 6""7 y ~ #4 Discussion of C.P.S. proposed rate change. Mr. Greenwald said as Council knows, we went through the budget process and got what we thought was a decent budget and before we can even get into the budget year, C.P.S. is suggesting a 4.5% increase. Mr. Sweatt said our utility department is most directly affected because all of our wells and pumping locations are in the C.P.S. service area. He said the proposed rates are supposed to be implemented by January 31, 1991. The discussion with the Suburban Cities is scheduled for October 16i however we have a Council meeting that night and have arranged to get the information. At Mrs. Marsh's request, Mr. Sweatt said he would try to get a representative to attend this meeting. #5 Discussion of Moore Industrial Disposal, Inc. request for collection rate change during contract extension time. Mr. Sweatt said that he and Mr. Moore had spoken on several occasions and we have asked them to extend the current contract for a maximum of sixty days, during the time we are considering action on the collection contracts. Dur ing these discussions wi th Mr. Moore, he has suggested that the rate be revised to reflect the rates in the original bid. Mr. Sweatt said that after discussing this with Mike Spain, it is to the best interest of the City that we extend the contract under all current conditions, including rates. Part of that deals with our concern for the confusion of the customers, our billing cycles are scheduled throughout the month and the difficulty of rebilling on the revised rate would resul t in too much staff and equipment time. For this reason we continue to recommend the contract be extended with all the current conditions and rates. Mr. Moore wanted to speak directly to Council on this issue, however. Mr. Mike Moore said the amount of dollars is in about the $2500 to $3000 per month range. He said they would like to pass this along to the citizens. When talking about the confusion to the citizens, he said he would like to offer some alternatives. If it was felt that recalculating the rates to lower the rates would be confusing, they proposed to make a donation to one or two local projects that Council might deem appropriate. He said really he had three proposals (1) to pass the decrease on to the citizens (2) to decrease what the City pays Moore and (3) make a donation to some project. Mrs. Marsh said did we ask for a thirty to sixty day extension to the current contract? Mr. Sweatt said yes, because any change in the contract would become a change in the game plan. 68 Both Mr. Potempa and Mrs. Stanhope agreed, saying they did not feel Council had any other choice but to extend the current contract as is. Mr. Greenwald said he concurred and that he had made the motion to extend the current contract, with no mention of changing the rates or anything else and everyone concurred with that. He said since we paid good money for legal advise, we should follow that advise. #6 CITY MAlIAGER'S REPORT: A. Remind the Council that beginning at 2:00 p.m. the next day at the Community Center would be the Chamber of Commerce Business Fair. It will last through a Mixer at 8:00 p.m. that night. The Task Force will have a booth and will be represented. The time overlaps with the Business Appreciation Dinner, which is at 7:00 p.m. at the VFW. B. The City of Cibolo has extended an invitation to their 25th Anniversary and Open House of the Municipal Offices and Police Station for October 20th from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.. We will need to RSVP by October 12th. #7 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mrs. Marsh said that Mr. Sweatt had mentioned that the EDTF would have a booth at the Commerce Fair, she added that the EDTF would have the BEST booth. She invited everyone to come by the booth and have cookies and lemonade. Mr. PotemDa said he understood that 9-1-1 is giving out minitors to local fire departments in the area. He asked if we would be getting any. Mr. Sweatt said not exactly, apparently what has happened is that they funded, through Bexar County Fire Marshal's office, some thirty minitors for departments that apparently had none. They did not offer us any but we have made a contact that we would be considered for some as they fund departments who may have some. Mrs. Stanhope A. asked if anything had been done about the booth at the Stock Show in February. Mr. Sweatt said we now know who to get in touch with but have not made contact as yet. B. asked if there was anything new on the Deer Haven drainage problem. Mr. Sweatt said we are unable to find anything in the minutes about planning for the system being underground. The engineer has notified us they have completed their calculations and they are going to get back in touch with us. He said the design of the retention basin is the issue at hand - part of it is a continuing debate between engineers. '. C. Proposals for data processing. proposals and asked for Council comments. had a couple of comments. Mr. Sweatt handed out Mrs. Stanhope said she , ) 69 D. Referred to a letter received from Mr. Brown suggesting a committee be appointed to check into each department expenditures. Mr. Sweatt said the City Council serves as the Committee for this purpose but he would be glad to talk to Mr. Brown at any time. E. Mrs. Stanhope said while on vacation she went to a Commerce Fair and received a lot of literature on different types of recycling and clean air. Mrs. Marsh asked the status of the design of the Animal Shelter. Mr. Sweatt said he had not been able to get back on top of it because of being involved in the budget. He said we have two sets of plans that we are looking at internally to determine which most closely meets our needs. We are looking at the State Health Department Standards and our own staff recommendations. #8 ITEMS BY MAYOR: Mayor Pro Tern Greenwald: A. The Planning & Zoning Commission is in the process of reviewing the Zoning Ordinance and hopefully they will be forwarding it to Council in about one month. B. The City Plan is going slow - a lot of things depends on the new census figures and they will probably not be getting to us until at least July. C. There are several people on P&Z who are up for reappointment. Everyone advised they would be willing to stay on the board. All the officers want to stay in the same spots. He asked that this be on the next agenda, since their appointments run out this month. MAYOR SAWYER ARRIVED AT 8:15 P.M. Mr. Neller said the flags would be flying for Veteran's Day on November 11th. He asked if this information could be put in the next newsletter. #9 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, Mayor Pro Tem Greenwald adjourned the meeting at 8:18 p.m.. --dv .J/JL1U1R'b Mayor Pro Tern, City of Schertz ATTEST: Cit