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ccswks 02-13-1991 x -<" " SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 13, 1991 The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session, Wednesday, February 13, 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; Joe Potempa; Barbara Stanhope; Mary Marsh and Ken Greenwald. Absent: Hal Baldwin. Staff present were City Manager Kerry Sweatt and City Secretary June Krause. #1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: Mrs. Coralee Fenner advised that she is Public Relations representative for senior parents for the tl Project Graduation tl this year. She said basicall y they wanted to present their plans for graduation night and get a 1 i tt le publicity. She advised that they would also have a Project Graduation Market Day, an outdoor craft-bazaar on April 20th. Mrs. Cindy Boeck said they wanted to see if something could be done about the roads in the Schirmerville area. She said that there are at least three roads that are almost impassable. Mr. Graham had been out and agreed with the condition of the roads but said that he did not have the funds or manpower to do anything about it for the rest of this fiscal year. She added that these three roads, in particular, are really dangerous. She also asked if the Street Department could draw up some long-range plans for the roads in their area. Mr. Wayne Hofferichter said that Boenig Lane is almost impassable and that East Central School District does not allow their buses to dr ive on that road. They are having to pick up the children at other locations and are adding seven to eight minutes to their routes, which means the kids are on the bus some one and a half hours one way. Mr. Sweatt said we have had our Street personnel out there all of the first three weeks of January. He agreed that some of the roads in the Schirmerville area are in bad condition and we will do our best to maintain them. He said we are spending to the limit of our resources on the roads, adding that this last rain did cause of lot of washing out. Mayor Sawyer said we will do the best we can and will put this on our bell ringer and will talk about roads in Schirmerville during the next budget discussions. 12 Discussion of audit presentation by Auditor and Audit Committee. Mayor Sawyer said that he and Mr. Baldwin are on the Audit Commi ttee and they are real happy with the audit, which shows about an $86,000 built-up in the General Fund. This shows amazingly good management on the part of the City Council. good spending habits by staff and good leadership by the City Manager. x 150 He then introduced Mr. Frank Leal and Mr. Barney Ortiz of the audit firm. Mr. Ortiz, mentioned that there were no page numbers - they would be added later - as they do not number the draft audit. He then asked to turn to the Opinion page. This shows that the City Manager and Finance Officer are responsible for the report contents, adding that the auditors might assist but are not responsible for the report. He said they do not perform a 100% audit as that would be cost prohibitive. He added that what they do is "test check" certain items. He said that technically and officially the Opinion is the only thing the auditors give to Council. This is an opinion stating to the fact that they have audi ted the financial statements and have issued an opinion. Governmental entities will at some time go out for bond issues and your financial reports, especially the auditor's opinion is a great factor in determining bond ratings. Mr. Ortiz then referred to the page entitled "Combined Balance Sheet". He said this tells the reader what is owned by the City and is broken down by governmental fund types and proprietary fund types. The governmental fund types are those activities or funds that pertain to the activity of the governmental entity with respect to services provided. The purpose of a proprietary fund is to earn some kind of return to finance itself. I Incl uded in this is the Water and Sewer and SAFES funds. The " accounts groups are broken down into two items the general fixed assets and the general long-term debt. Through a staff error, the pages of the audit were not in order making it difficult for Council to follow. Mr. Sweatt asked Mr. Ortiz if he would just make some general overview statements instead of trying to go page by page. Mr. Ortiz said the overall picture of the City appears favorably. Most of the fund balances have increased from last year, especially in the general fund, Financially the City stands at a very good position. The revenues came down; however at the same time the level of expenditures were adjusted down al so. The $850,000 debt was the only issue of the year but you did have a roll-over debt of about $50,000 from the bank for police vehicles; and part of that debt was paid off during the year, leaVing a balance of $25,000. That is a capsule of the whole operation of the City. Mrs. Marsh said she noticed there were no discrepancies in operating procedures. Mr. Ortiz said there were minor items that were discussed with the City Manager and there was nothing that was out of the ordinary in the operation of the City. He said one of the things they did notice, and which were discussed with the audit committee, is that there are a lot of entries that were not made j at the end of the year. He said when they inquired as to why I / x x 151 they were not made, since they in their exp-er ience are normal entr~es that would be made during the operation of., the governmental entity, they were advised that the previous auditors advised not to make them - that they would make them. Mr. Ortiz said he saw no reason why the City's very competent staff should not make these entr ies, since they know how to do them. They advised the Finance Officer to go ahead and make them - such as the depreciation and accrual entries, which should be made on a monthly basis. Mrs. Marsh said to her this is a very favorable report and she asked what it would take to get back to a triple A rating. Mr. Leal said the fund balances or net worth was in bad shape; but a tremendous improvement has been made in bringing that back into the black. He said he wanted to caution in that although it is a tremendous improvement, it is onl y the first step in the right direction. In the future, he said he looked forward to having that figure brought up to a three-month's operating expense to maintain the integrity of the City. Mr. Sweatt asked if Council wanted another workshop on the audit and Council agreed that one would not be necessary, that they would be ready to accept the audit at the next regular meeting. #3 Discussion of awarding bid on a Street Department one- ton truck with tilt bed and lift tail gate. Mr. Sweatt advised that this is a budgeted item in the current budget. The total budget for this item is $24,138.00 which includes truck, equipment, overhead lighting and radio equipment. We received five bids and reviewed them; and the apparent low bid, with base bid and options, is Bluebonnet Motor Company Inc. However, as we reviewed the options, there were some discrepancies so we went directly to the supplier and asked for quotation. We now find that we could purchase the base equipment from Bluebonnet Ford in the amount of $12,541.62 and rejected the bids on the options and go direct 1 y to the supplier, which is Texas Equipment Company, who would sell the optional equipment to us for $6400, bringing the grand total to $18,941.62. This is a $786 savings from the apparent low bid. The options with Bluebonnet were the 3-way tilt body at $5272, the lift tail gate $1714, and receiver hitch is $200. Mr Potempa asked if the trade-in had a 3-way til t bed and was told no, it is just a dump truck. Mrs. Marsh said she fel t this showed a lot of initiative from management to look further to help save money. #4 Discussion of awarding bid on a Water/Waste Water Department 3/4 ton extended cab pickup truck. J\ 152 Mr. Sweatt said this vehicle is to replace one that has a good amount of miles on it. There were six bids received and again the apparent low bidder was Bluebonnet Motor Inc. in New Braunfels, with a base bid of $12,838.42 and the utility body being $3131. With a trade-in of $500, that leaves a grand total of $15,469.42. Again we looked at the optional equipment and find that the City can be better served by purchasing it from Texas Equipment Company for $2503, for a grand total of $14, 841.42. This represents a savings of approximately $645. There being no further questions, Mayor Sawyer asked that this item be placed on the next action agenda. #5 Discussion of an agreement with Bexar County regarding CDBG project funding. Mr. Sweatt said that late this same afternoon we received proposed agreements from Bexar County; but have not had an opportunity to review them. They are said to be similar to those executed in the past for Schirmerville. There are some discrepancies from what we anticipated the project to be, and the way the CDBG Department proposes. He added that we believe that we can resolve those discrepancies between now and the next meeting; and would like to plan to have it on the agenda. Right now, there is a discrepancy as relates to our own capital recovery fee. It was our anticipation, when the project was originally approved for participation, we applied for a grant of $100,000. That incl uded the City furnishing labor and other related work that would be capitalized in the amount of $131,000. Since the awarding of the CDBG grant, the County participation was reduced to $75,000 and that raised the City's participation both in cash and in labor and contributed capital to a total of $156,485 for the total project. We believe that can be accompl ished; however the CDBG Department has decreed that the $75,000 is required to cover not only the materials but to pay the capital recovery and impact fees. We think we can resolve this with the department. CDBG has written the agreement in such a way that we make the payments, then apply to them for reimbursements. That is not in keeping with our plans. Mr. Sweatt added that the problem is that we dealt with political portion to get the grant, then they turn it over to the Bureaucracy. We feel that we have to work with staff but if we cannot, then we will go the political route. #6 Discussion of an ordinance amending the garage sale ordinance. Mr. Sweatt advised that these amendments came about to clarify some items Council had questioned. They incl ude broadening the definitions to include church or non-profit organizational bazaars, addition of neighborhood garage sale wording, charitable or non-profit organizational wording. Additional changes include provisions for application for a neighborhood garage sale made by ; I / x J53 an individual property provide clarification signs. owner wi thin the area. and for permit cost and price of changes to additional Mayor Sawyer asked that this item by placed on the next agenda as there were no further questions. #7 Discussion of a resolution requesting Guadalupe County Commissioner's Court to establish voting precincts. Mr. Sweatt said he felt the resolution was self-explanatory. The 1990 Census shows our city population to be above 10,000; and the Election Code provides that communities over 10,000 can petition the Commissioner's Court to re-al ign election precincts. They are charged, under the Election Code, each March and April of odd numbered year to determine how the election precincts are drawn. We believe that it is appropriate to ask them to consider redrawing the City of Schertz into one or more election precincts as it falls in Guadalupe County. Currently, our election precincts cover areas both inside and outside of our city limits. We believe this will be well received by Commissioner's Court. #8 action execute Company CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: He asked to place on the next agenda a resolution authorizing the City Manager to documents regarding the FM 3009 right of way. The Title has requested this. #9 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: of FM 3009 widening? .t1];~_, _M~u:E..b : A. What is the status Mr. Sweatt said we have acquired, or the acquisition is in the pipeline, all the right-of-way. Our utilities adjustments could be accomplished very quickly. We are continually advised by the Department of Highways and Public Transportation that we are looking at a minimum of next year. He recommended setting up an appointment with the District Engineer and then set an appointment with the Highway Commission. This will be after the right of way acqusition is completed. B. What about Deerhaven drainage problem? Mr. Sweatt said the engineer representing the developer made contact with us; and we discussed some options and his estimates as to the cost of running underground storm sewers. We suggested that he set up a meeting between himself and the property owners in that area to see if they could resolve their problems. He assured us he was going to contact the group and set up a meeting. We have not talked with him this week. C. Had the City Manager checked on her street lights? He said he had asked GVEC to look at it. Mx~ Poternp9: A. Reminded that the VFW meeting would be the next Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the VFW. 154 x B. He then reported on the Humane Society meeting, referring to the balance sheet he had distributed to Change in Fund Balance of $1,654.65. He of 31 January, is $2218.67; and they purchased another $1500 CD. Council, which showed a said the balance now, as said they had recent I y The officers are President - Ruth Keller; Vice-president is Robbi Rawls; Vice-president Barbara Weir; treasurer is Candance Purcell; Publ ici ty is Gill ian Parker and Secretary is Debbie Abbott. There will be no auction this year; but a woman will have a Tupperware party and will donate 25% of the profits to the Humane Society. They al so talked about seminars that will be held at the Library to cover subjects such as fleas, ticks, and skin diseases of animals. HEB is providing free dog food and kitty litter. They advised that t-shirts were given out with new memberships. They got a new copier for the Animal Shelter. The Humane Society will be meeting the second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the CVADAC bUilding in Cibolo and the meetings will be opened to everyone. Mr. Potempa reported that the Humane Society had donated $100 to Mr. Little for a vinyl grinder at the school. Also, they will call Mr. Shriver because it seems the books are not in order and he has agreed to audit the books in May. They will have a jamboree the 25th of August and are planning a street dance and will participate in the 4th of July Jubilee. They are still looking for dog dip volunteers. Mr. Sweatt announced that the annual animal shot clinics will be held the 9th and 16th of March at the Fire Station. Mrs. Stanhope: A. She asked what is wrong with the animal ordinance, she thought it had been reworked. Mr. Sweatt said there were a couple of changes recommended by the Health Department. B. Mrs. Stanhope said she would not be at the next Council meeting. Mr. Greenwald: A. The next free seminar by CVADAC will be February 21st from 7: 00 to 8: 30 p. m. at the Library hosted by John C. Ramsey entitled "Handling of Special Problems with Older Persons" . B. He mentioned the advertising telephone book that just came out listing all cities in the area as being in Schertz. / x 155 C. Mr. Greenwald said he would 1 ike to see discussion at the next workshop about what it would take to get 5 or 6 parking spaces reserved from 6:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for Council and Planning & Zoning members. #10 ITEMS BY MAYOR! Mr. SawYQr aGkQd that thQ bid GhQQtG be standardized so they are easier to read and understand. Mr. Sawyer announced that Mrs. Rita Sabo is in the hospital and very sick. She has done a lot for the City. # 11 ADJOURNMENT: There Sawyer declared the meeting to Mayor ATTEST: