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ccswks 08-01-1990 K 278 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL AUGUST 1, 1990 The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session Wednesday, August 1, 1990 at 7:00 p.m. in the Conference Room of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The followinq members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer, presiding; Joe Potempa; Barbara Stanhope; Mary Marsh and Ken Greenwald. Absent: Hal Baldwin. Staff present were City Manaqer Kerry Sweatt and City Secretary June Krause. #1 HEARIRG OF RESIDERTS: Mr. Ed Mazian reminded Council that about five weeks previously he had told them about the ruts on Fawn Drive. They are still not fixed and are getting worse, especially after the rains. He asked when would they be fixed. Mr. Sweatt said the maintenance crews have been tied up in the Schirmerville area. The Fawn Drive and Antler Drive ruts are on the maintenance list and will be processed as quickly as possible. He advised that we have had problems getting asphalt. Mr. Mazian also asked about the police vehicles he observed parked behind 4-M Motors, beinq concerned about the cost of storage. Mr. Sweatt advised that there is no cost involved and the vehicles have been advertised for bid. #2 Discussion of a Board of Adjustment hearing on a request by Rick & Rita Saenz, 501 Aviation, for an 8 foot front yard setback variance. Mrs. Krause informed Council that 63 letters were mailed to property owners, with ten returned undeliverable for various reasons. Ten were mailed back to us - nine in favor of the variance and one against. Mrs. Marsh asked for clarification of the last paragraph of the Planning & Zoning recommendation. Mr. Greenwald explained that two members did not feel this request met the four requirements of the ordinance since there is room on his lot. Mrs. Stanhope said that if they moved the house back there would be no room for mobility to qet in and out of his garage. Mrs. Marsh said the man is only askinq for 8 feet and will still have a 17 foot set back; but she still was concerned about this request not meetinq the criteria for variances. #3 Discussion of a Board of Adjustment hearing on a request by Southwest Remodelers, on behalf of Bortels at 700 Mitchell, for a 4' side yard variance. 279 Mr. Sweatt pointed out the Planning & Zoning recommendation for approval of the variance request and the drawing of the property. He also called attention to the fact that the work was commenced prior to getting a permit. Everyone is being very cooperative. Mr. Potempa asked how much work had this contractor done in our ci ty. Mr. Greenwald said they have been doing work here for years and in this instance, they claimed some mix up between the workers and their office concerning the permit. Mr. Sweatt added that our ordinance also calls for a penalty for not getting the permit prior to doing the work. They would have to pay double for the permit. Mr. Greenwald suggested a letter be put in the file with Southwest Remodeler' s bond that they are put on notice. He advised that the City Inspectors have, on their own, come out on weekends to check on any building going on to be sure permits were obtained. #4 Discussion of the final consideration of an ordinance amending the Code by revising Section 13-14 Peddlers' and Solicitors' Permits (b)(7) and (e). There were no further comments on this proposed ordinance at this time. #5 Discussion of the final consideration of an ordinance amending the Code by adding Article VI Garage Sales. Mayor Sawyer and Councilmembers said they had no further comments on this ordinance either, except to get on with it. #6 Discussion of budget workshops. Mr. Sweatt said it was his intention, in accordance with the City Charter, to file the recommendation on the budget the following day with the City Secretary. He said that a number of the meetings were also predetermined and he needed direction on several others. He then listed the meeting dates in August as being the 7th, 15th, 21st and 29th. He suggested the meetings of August 7th and 15th as workshops on the budget as separate items from the regular meeting. We could also have workshops on the 21st and the 29th if necessary. To comply with the Texas Tax Code, it appears there will have to be a special meeting on September 11th, which would be a public hearing on the tax rate. It must be the only item on the agenda. The effective tax rate can be published on August 8th, then we would anticipate to have on the September 4th agenda a proposal to adopt a tax rate. This is just a proposal to place the consideration of it on the agenda. Under this schedule the notice will be in the paper on \ ~ A 280 September 11th on what the tax rate is proposed to be; and on September 18th, Council would be considerinq a vote on the tax ordinance. At the same time, the budqet public hearinq would be held on September 18th. MR. BALDWIN ARRIVED AT 7:37 P.M. Mr. Sweatt said that if the tax rate is adopted on the 18th of September, that qives us time to qet the tax notices out by the 1st of October. He said we are still receivinq final information from the Guadalupe County Appraisal District. It does appear that we have had a decrease in our total assessed valuation, ranqinq from 3 to 5%. It appears now that we would be lookinq at a tax rate increase. #7 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: A. Just for information, there is a project that is 100% reimbursable - that is a cooperation project with the Texas Department of Public Transportation for relocation of a water line on Schertz Parkway at I35. Bids will be received on the 16th. B. It has been called to our attention that speed limits on Lower Sequin Road have been considered and posted at a speed that was thouqht to be proper. However, somehow it has slipped throuqh and has not been put in ordinance. We would now like to place this ordinance on the next aqenda. C. We have solicited bids for a number of items of surplus property. There is equipment from the Fire Service, Administration, BUildinq Maintenance, Police, Street/Parks, and Water/Waste Water plus five vehicles. As of the deadline, we only received two bids and those only on partial items. One bid was for only two printers for a total of $100. The second included various items includinq all of the bicycles. The hiqhest bid for anyone bicycle was $5.00. Council was in aqreement to not let the bicycles qo for this bid and to include them in an auction by the Humane Society/ Library. Mr. Sweatt said one of the reason we had not qone with an auction on all these items was the complexity of qettinq all the items toqether in one place. Mr. Baldwin said the School District also has a qood bit of this type items and suqqested qettinq toqether and havinq a combined auction. Mayor Sawyer suqqested lettinq the City Manaqer see what he could come up with and make a recommendation to Council. D. Just a reminder that bids are out now for qarbaqe collection services. The bid openinq will be about the 23rd of Auqust. 28] *8 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mrs. Marsh: A. The Metrocom Chamber of Commerce met on July 18th. The Diplomat Committee talked about the "Business of the Month" and the luncheon at Red Lobster. The Economic Development Committee is searching for a new Chairman. Joe Ramos brought up the fact that the UTSA Economic Development Center gets funds to help people trying to get going with things on Economic Development. Joe was considering the possibility of getting some help on the Profile, and he was going to submit this as a special project for funding under this program. They still do not know when they will get the profile out. Education Committee had no report. There was a UTSA Seminar at Converse about how the seminar could benefit the ci ties. They did not have too good a turnout. Now they are going to contact the cities and try to get them to host one of these seminar in their city. They are planning on one a month. They talked about the good mixer at Gunn Chevrolet, had about 160 people there. The Past Chairman talked about the Wal-Mart $2,000 grant and that it was not a continuing grant. Then they discussed Economic Development tourism. They also talked about the San Antonio/Austin Corridor Council dues coming up and lot of discussion about it being too much for what little good they got out of it. They also discussed working on getting new memberships and they need a new Chairman for this committee. Jim Shriver, Treasurer, advised that right now they are out of the arrears and a little on the plus side. Mrs. Marsh said her observation is that this Chamber does not real I y impress her. They can I t seem to get people to do what they are suppose to do, they can't get committee chairmen or get them to go to the meetings. They needs plans and everything. She added that when you have so many cities working together, there is so much that could be done if properly organized and run. She added that perhaps we should start thinking about our own Chamber of Commerce in the City of Schertz. Jim Shriver said that had he known what he was going to get into, he would never have volunteered to run for director. He said that the way the Chamber is organized, he sees no future for it and they can not even get the cities to participate in the Chamber. Mayor Sawyer suggested getting our City people, Business Club Members and politicians together to see if there is a way they can form a Chamber of Commerce and hire a person to direct it. Mr. Baldwin said to hire a director of a Chamber is not cheap. He added that he has always been an advocate of keeping the regional concept. He said he did not see any real value in each city having their own little Chamber. B. The last Business Club meeting was very en joyable and well attended. The meal was free from Marianne Bulgrin. There were comments about the 4th of July Jubilee and they are looking \ \ ~ x 282 \ \ forward to it being bigger and better in the future. Anita Clark did a fantastic job and so did Nolan Edwards on the parade. Anita has said she will take it again next year. There will be an after-action meeting on August 8th. They had a little trouble with the carnival so will have a different one next year. The "Sweetheart" really enjoyed herself. They discussed ways of getting more interest in the "Sweetheart" contest for next year. Mr. Potempa added that the Schertz Business Club will sponsor our "Sweetheart" into the Greater Randolph Area Chamber of Commerce pageant to represent us. Mrs. Marsh asked how we are going to get requests for our float to be in parades. Mr. Sweatt said that Nolan Edwards was going to get us a list of parades and then we will write letters saying we have a float available. He added that we need to come up with some ground rules on the float, primarily where we are going to go with the float. Mr. PotemDa: A. Humane Society will meet August 6 at 7 p.m. at the Kountry Kitchen and the first Monday in September, they will meet for an election of officers. B. On Friday night during the ten o'clock news on channelS, the City got some bad publicity. Mr. Sweatt said he and Mr. Potempa had discussed this and they were accurate as far as it went. The number they used stating that the City of Schertz was the second highest city in regards to dollars of fines in the San Antonio area, with Leon Valley being first, was the amount in our original budget last year. That figure has now dropped downward, during our mid-year adjustment, to about $168,000. He said he did not know where they got that number but it was right at the beginning of the budget year. C. At the next Tuesday's meeting, the Business Club will present the Employee of the Quarter plaque. Mrs. StanhoDe said she would like for the Council to have some mini tours of various departments prior to discussion on the budget. After discussion, it was decided to meet at 6:00 p.m. and tour at least two departments prior to the next meeting. #9 ITEMS BY MAYOR: A. Mayor Sawyer and Mrs. Marsh attended the Swim Meet and it was very nice. B. Mr. Gutierrez has started his recycling effort off FM 3009 at his old landfill site. 283 # 10 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business I Mayor Sawyer declared the meeting to be adjourned at 8:31 p.m. ATTEST: \"