ccswks 05-29-1991
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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
MAY 29, 1991
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Meeting,
Wednesday, May 29, 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: Hal Baldwin: Barbara Stanhope: Mary Marsh and Ken
Greenwald. Staff present were City Manager Kerry Sweatt and City
Secretary June Krause.
#1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: Mr. Gary Geyer, Chairman of the
Universal City Festival held in October, gave a little background
on this festival. It was started in 1985 as their celebration of
the City's twenty-fifth anniversary. He related that the
proceeds from the festival go to support the Parks and Recreation
Program. He said this year it should be bigger and better with
invitations going to the area schools, parents, churches, the
military and civic organizations. His hope is that the regional
cities can correlate their big events so that each can be
supported by the entire area.
#2 Discussion of Park Facilities Fees.
Mr. Sweatt said he had included in the Council packets a memo on
the fees, as well as an area rental fee survey, our park
reservation form and a personal survey of park usage for Easter
Sunday. Also included, is the information relating to the
lighting at the large pavilion. The last survey shows that 12%
of the park users were from Schertz, 9% from Universal City, 14%
from Converse, 12% from Randolph AFB and 52% from San Antonio.
This shows our facil i ties are being used by other than Schertz
residents. Mr. Sweatt said we anticipate $2400 in revenues from
park fees, which is not a large amount of money. He reminded
Council that the fees are waived for non-profit organizations.
The fees are for the exclusive use of the area. If people want
to take a chance, they do not have to make reservations.
Mrs. Marsh said she felt the fees are too high for the size of
our city - adding that there is very little that our citizens get
for nothing or a reasonable fee. The citizens pay taxes for the
maintenance of the park and do not feel they should also pay a
high fee to get exclusive use of an area.
Mr. Sweatt said it seems to him that those that use the park
should be the ones that pay for it.
Mr. Baldwin said he did not have any problem with the rates for
out-of-town people and suggested looking at a different in-town
rate since the Schertz citizens have already paid taxes for the
use of the park.
Mr. Potempa suggested not charging a user fee, but just charge
for maintenance and maybe only half of that suggested.
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Mrs. Stanhope asked how much maintenance could be traced to the
family type reservations. Mr. Sweatt said a lot of the clean up
is with the pavilion.
The discussion included the fact that the problem of havinq in
and out-of-town rates is that no one would admit to beinq an out-
of-town resident. Al so the security is in the form of a cash
payment because it goes directly to the off-duty police officer
and not throuqh the City books.
Mrs. Marsh suggested reducing the small pavilion fees to $25 User
Fee and $15 for maintenance; 6-tables user fee at $15, leaving
the maintenance at $10; and the 3-table picnic area user fee
should be $10 and the maintenance remain at $10. Also use Mr.
Baldwin 's suqqestion of a flat $100 fee for the large pavilion
and forget the sliding scale.
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Council agreed with her sugqestions, and Mr. Sweatt was asked to
have this item on the next aqenda in ordinance form.
Council then discussed the liqhtinq of the larqe pavilion as
brought to their attention by Mr. Sweatt in February. Mr. Sweatt
.uqgested using a timer at a fee of fifty cents for forty-five
ainutes or $1.00 for ninety minutes. The timer device would cost
between $700 and $800 and it is estimated it would take a year to
pay for the timer. The average cost of electricity for lightinq
the large pavilion is $611 per year.
Mayor Sawyer said that for only $600 a year, we keep enough kids
off the streets to make it worthwhile to leave the liqhtinq as it
is. Both Mrs. Stanhope and Mrs. Marsh aqreed this is a small
price to pay to qive the kids something to do.
Mr. Sweatt said we currently have a timer that turns the lights
off at 11:00 p.m.
# 3 Discussion of proposals for publication of Official
Notices.
Mr. Sweatt advised that the City Attorney has reviewed the
proposals and Council has been provided a tabulation of proposals
received. Mr. Spain has provided what the law says reqardinq an
official newspaper and also what the courts say as to how to be
in total compliance.
Mrs. Marsh complimented Mr. Spain on his understandable memo.
She told Mr. Lindemann, Publisher of The Herald, she appreciated
his letter and his interest by taking a survey but said he had a
different view of coverage than she did. She said she did not
consider weddings, obituaries and calendar things as beinq a
human interest item.
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Mr. Lindemann discussed with Attorney Mike Spain the definition
of an Official Paper.
Council agreed they would be ready to vote on this item at the
next meeting.
#4 Discussion of June 4th public hearing on four proposed
changes to the Zoning Ordinance involving Parking Regulations,
Site Plan Review Requirements and Landscaping.
Mayor Sawyer referred to the
Planning & Zoning Commission.
recommendation for approval from
Mr. Greenwald recalled that most
discussed at a previous workshop,
public hearing the previous night
said probably the only time Council
a developer comes in to file a plat.
of these changes had been
adding that P&Z held their
wi th no one protesting. He
will get a complaint is when
Mr. Sweatt said the publ ic hearing on these changes is set for
the Council at their next meeting. At that point, Council can
act on the changes, table any action or take the previous
recommendation of the Planning & Zoning Commission. He added
that he believes the P&Z will continue to recommend approval.
Mr. Baldwin asked if this would place a tremendous burden on
developers. Mr. Greenwald said it will be somewhat more
burdensome; but if they are real I y serious, it wi II not be any
problem because this will become a part of developing.
Mrs. Marsh said what she liked about this is that it will
precl ude what happens all too often. Developers come in and
strip everything and this will preclude that.
Mr. Greenwald said he did not see it as a restriction because all
we are asking for is a true rendering.
After further discussion, Mayor Sawyer received concurrence to
have this item on the next agenda.
#5 Discussion of TML Southwestern Bell Franchise.
Mayor Sawyer reminded Council they had discussed this in the past
but did not want to expend any money without it coming back to
Counci 1 . Now, they have come back and want money and staff
recommends that the City spend the $105, which is our portion of
the costs.
When asked what we would receive for this $105, Mr. Sweatt said
the City would receive the legal analysis and comparison of
SWB's proposed ordinance. This effort is to pool our resources
among all cities across Texas and arrive at what we believe would
be an equitable agreement with Southwestern Bell.
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Mayor Sawyer said he did not like the way Southwestern Bell does
business and would be willing to spend the $105 to enter into an
agreement with TML. He then received a concensus of Council to
enter into this agreement.
#6 EXECUTIVE SESSION: Mayor Sawyer called an executive
Session at 8:17 p.m. under Article 6252-17 Vernon's Texas Civil
Statutes, Section 2 (e) to discuss possible personnel and civil
actin litigation.
The Special Meeting was reconvened at 9:18 p.m.
#7 Consider and take action, if any, on the above executive
session.
Mayor Sawyer announced that Council did hold an executive session
to discuss litigation and possible litigation with the City
Attorney.
#8 CITY MAJ(AGER'S REPORT: A. Mr. Sweatt distributed a
memo and map showinq the route of the tour of the City Council,
P&Z and the Economic Development Task Force has planned. This is
scheduled for June 29th and will be by un-airconditioned school
bus and will last about 2-1/2 hours. He said he planned to have
some department heads on the tour and some additional ones will
meet with Council for lunch.
Mrs. Marsh said the only question she had about the tour was the
date because she and Mr. Potempa would be extreme I y busy that
week just prior to the Jul y 4th Jubilee. She sugqested havinq
the tour July 6th and the other Councilmembers agreed to that
date.
Mr. Potempa said he would like to see the tour go through Mobile
Villa.
B. Mr. Sweatt said he was asked to remind Council of their
invitation from the volunteer firefighters to bring your spouse
and join them for breakfast on Saturday June 1st.
#9 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mrs. Marsh: A. Reported on the May
21st VFW meeting, saying they have 98.6% of their National
Membership quota. They have their beer license for both July 3rd
and 4th for the Jubilee. They are going to be doinq some work on
their building - painting, replacing ceilinq tiles and stripping
the floors and are posting a volunteer work roster. They will be
sendinq the Commander to the 24-hour Officer Traininq Seminar on
Jul y 18-20, 1991. They will have their annual Poppy sale this
weekend. They had the installation of officers for both men and
women.
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B. Mrs. Marsh then reported on the Business Club Meeting held at
La Pasadita on May 28th. They announced that Anqela Rehm was the
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Scholarship recipient and she is attending Incarnate Word College
and wants to be a CPA. They reported a new member - Bill
Lindemann and announced the Annual Military Appreciation Day at
Northcliffe on the 31st of May. She said Mr. Sweatt reported on
City Hall activities, including Mr. Potempa as the new Mayor Pro
Tem, the Firemen's Annual Supper on June 1st and Senior Citizen
Appreciation Day on June 15th. Anita Clark then gave a July 4th
Jubilee update. Under new business, they have a"Fun" Raising
Committee that is planning such things as Dog Dips, bake sales,
car washes and a garage sale. They announced that Johnny
Peterson was the Employee of the Quarter.
Mr. Potempa: A. He referred to the memo from the City Manager
concerning the weed letters sent to individuals. He hoped that
the Inspection Department would use good judgment and in reality
should send letters to the City first. He recognized that we
have had a lot of rain; but said the City should set an example.
Mr. Potempa asked if the language in the notice could be cut down
so that it is more understandable.
Mrs. Stanhop~: A. She asked the status of the animal shelter.
Mr. Sweatt said we are still trying to get the right-of-way and
easement into the area. When these things are resolved, the land
donation offer will be brought to Council.
B. She reminded everyone about the Fire Department Supper on
June 1st and said they would appreciate donations of cakes.
Mr. Baldwin: He reminded everyone of the Senior Citizen
Appreciation Day activities on June 15th, asking Councilmembers
to start getting contributions for prizes. He said all should
meet at the Parish Hall about 6:00 p.m. on Friday, the 14th of
June to prepare the food.
Mr. Greenwald advised he had raffle tickets for the benefit of
Buffalo Valley Youth Association.
#10 ITEMS BY MAYOR: none
# 11 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to come
before Council, Mayor Sawyer declared the meeting adjourned at
9:54 pm.
ATTEST:
City