ccswks 12-14-1988
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SPECIAL SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
DECEMBER 14, 1988
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session,
Wednesday, December 14, 1988, 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,
presidinq i Earl P. Hartzog, Hal Baldwin i Ray Stanhope i Adolph
Aguilar and Ken Greenwald. Staff present were City Manager Kerry
R. Sweatt, Asst. City Manager Steve Simonson and City Secretary
June Krause.
# 1 HEARING OF RESIDENTS: A. Mr. Bill Neller gave an
update on the American Legion's plans for putting flags on Main
Street durinq certain holidays in 1989.
Mr. AgUilar suggested Council should budget for replacement flaqs
in the cominq budqet.
Mr. Hartzog asked if City staff would be puttinq up the flaqs and
Mr. Sweatt advised that different civic orqanizations would be
puttinq them up and taking them down. Mr. Neller said they would
solicit organizations to put them up about 8:00 a.m. and take
them down at 5:00 p.m.. The opportunity for this is open to any
group that wishes to help.
'2 Discussion of December 20th agenda items:
A. Final reading of an ordinance establ ishing speed 1 imi ts on
Lower Seguin Road.
Mr. Hartzog said that at the last meeting Council was told that
the average speed on this road is 52 miles per hour and this
ordinance only raises the speed limit from 35 to 40 MPH. Mr.
Hartzog went on to say that right now there are three police cars
on that road qivinq tickets. He felt that only one car should
be there to slow traffic down.
Mr. Sweatt advised that is not our usual procedure but he could
not say that it did not happen. Further answering Mr. Hartzog's
questions, Mr. Sweatt said the warninq siqn at the curve should
be sufficient, that the shoulders of the road are the real
problem. When two cars meet, it is unsafe at higher speeds.
Mr. Hartzog asked that when we do start the wideninq of this
road, can we asked the property owners to donate land so that the
road can be straightened and curbed. Mr. Sweatt said, first it
is a State project. It is in their five-year plan but he did not
think the State has the money to both widen and then curb and
gutter. At this time they have not done the engineerinq on this
project.
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Mr. Stanho a ded that regardless of what speed is post d, the
Mrpe~~ q ben<;tEt1ct gone5omi~ peWi~!1rthat need to be
incluaed is th e bomber tanker trainer and the Air Fa ce h s
nOMr~vegw@si~cs wbft'tt~petbe at~plWft.k@fl@P'aP@ ij8!^e oyu&g R9ve
ye~ome informati from the State and a general est' ate of ~he
M co~ts. I
r. Sweatt said start to finish we are lookin at up to Z4
bmoA&l}6r sl~y~pt\l i~e hhitQeIti:bel }p~ ~~ ltbeL l!,guwBufaad
eo~etheWB~~QrO~!d8a~ 'viP len.
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this.
C. Cable Television
Mayor Sawyer said that Mr. weatt and Mr. Hartzog had met with
the Cable people on this las ~k.
Mr. Hartzog said he fel t that unl ss
up, Council should go ahead and
he and Mr. Sweatt could not get
of the cities are not going
could see no reason to delay
Mr. Sweatt said the transfe
part of a requirement th
corporation. The buy-ou
and not a part of our' .
could purchase the sys em
market value.
is purel
Rogers mak
was a part of
We do have in
but not at a
a legal transfer. It is
some changes to their
an Antonio's aqreement
the agreement that we
rate but at fair
Mr. Hartzog said that Mr. Guerro did say
intending to rai e rates sometime in March
agreement to sel came along. The purchaser was
scholarships.
Rogers was
before thi s
aware of the
ing of an ordinance establishing speed imit on
482. - no problems with this ordinance.
of Joint Land Use study.
Mr. S att reminded Council that most of them had atten
meet' g and heard the Department of Defense Plan. Part
doc entation included similar studies done in other citie
do e around other air bases. We believe that our city
g nerally adopted all, and perhaps other, things that were in t e
tudies. There is value to the overall region in cooperating wit
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Mr. Aguilar said it felt it would be wise to place caution siqns.
He also wanted to add Council's recommendation on the speed limit
when the road is beinq widened. Mr. Sweatt said the option would
be to develop a Capitol Improvements Program and improve this
road to thorouqhfare traffic but he was not sure if the traffic
would warrant that.
Mr. Stanhope added that reqardless of what speed is posted, the
people are still qoinq to qo 75 miles per hour.
Mr. Sweatt said that by the next workshop, he would try to have
some information from the State and a general estimate of the
costs.
Mayor Sawyer asked to have the police look at Lower Sequin Road
on the other side of FM 1518.
B. Publ ic hearing on Revenue Shar inq Budget.
this.
No comments on
C. Cable Television Transfer.
Mayor Sawyer said that Mr. Sweatt and Mr. Hartzog had met with
the Cable people on this last week.
Mr. Hartzoq said he felt that unless something different comes
up, Council should qo ahead and consider the resolution. He said
he and Mr. Sweatt could not qet them to budge on anythinq. Some
of the cities are not qoinq to approve the transfer. He said he
could see no reason to delay action on this.
Mr. Sweatt said the transfer is purely a legal transfer. It is
part of a requirement that Roqers makes some chanqes to their
corporation. The buy-out was a part of San Antonio's aqreement
and not a part of our 's. We do have in the aqreement that we
could purchase the system but not at a reduced rate but at fair
market value.
Mr. Hartzog said that Mr. Guerro did say that Roqers was
intending to raise rates sometime in March even before this
agreement to sell came alonq. The purchaser was not aware of the
scholarships.
D. First reading of an ordinance establishinq speed limit on
portion of FM 482. - no problems with this ordinance.
'3 Discussion of Joint Land Use Study.
Mr. Sweatt reminded Council that most of them had attended the
meeting and heard the Department of Defense Plan. Part of the
documentation included similar studies done in other cities and
done around other air bases. We believe that our city has
generally adopted all, and perhaps other, things that were in the
studies. There is value to the overall region in cooperating with
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other cities. We do not have a percentage amount of the
participation by the Department of Defense but were led to
believe that the Department of Defense would pay up to 80% of the
costs. There is some value of doing some mapping of part of the
AICUZ. There is the hope that each city will come up with the
general scope of services they intend to see accomplished with
this.
Mr. Greenwald said he fel t one of the things that needs to be
included is the new bomber tanker trainer and the Air Forces has
not even selected what type of airplane they are going to use as
yet.
Mr. Sweatt said from start to finish we are looking at up to 24
months. If nothing else literally developing the overlays would
be well worth our participation.
Mr. Hartzog said he felt one thing that needed to be looked at is
the possibility of the mission at Randolph being discontinued.
Everyone says it will not happen but if it does, we needs plans
for future use.
Mayor Sawyer said all type of contingencies will be built into
the plan. One of the good points is that no one knows what the
other is doing now. He said he will be bringing this up at the
next Council of Mayors Meeting.
'4 Discussion of Library Board recommendations on members
and officers.
Mayor Sawyer said Council had the recommendations from the
Library Board for reappointment of members and their recommended
slate of officers.
Mr. Hartzog asked if the By-laws had changed or do they still
have to have two members from out in the county.
Mr. Aguilar said the problem is in getting volunteers. Not
having two from the county would not violate the by-laws unless
someone complained because they did not get on the board. The
Board had two new members last year and seems to be working real
good.
'5 Discussion of Planning & Zoning recommendation on up
dating the City Plan.
Chairman Ty Brisgill said the Commission has unanimously agreed
that the plan should be up dated. He said they had not agreed on
how it will be done. You have a recommendation of a survey and a
time frame for that. He said a lot of their plans would require
funds and they are going to need some type of outside help. For
these reasons, before they get too far along in their study, they
need to know Council's feelings on how they would like for P&Z to
proceed or if Council wanted them to go forth.
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Mary Marsh added that she would like to give a little background.
The present plan was written in 1983 and is now out of date so
P&Z decided to do it over. She aqreed they are a little divided
as to how to approach it. Some felt there are a lot of elements
left out. They decided they could update the verbaqe; but
clearly no one on the Commission has the expertise to do some of
the work. Several of them went to the APA conference and got all
fired up again. It clearly pointed out that they were not
leaning in the proper direction to make it a viable and effective
plan, which would go hand in hand with zoning. If you work hard
with full citizen input in developing the plan , it works as a
protection factor for the City. Mrs. Marsh said she wrote a
proposal, which she qave to the Commission and by and large it
was accepted. It includes several things which would require
Council blessing before they proceed. First thing is that you
have to have a survey - about $180 for 4000 copies of that. They
need for Council to look at the sample survey form and make any
recommendations. They have different ways of qettinq the survey
distributed to the citizens. As the months progress, they will
need money but don't know as yet just what for but they do not
feel they will be asking for money out of this budqet year.
Mrs. Marsh said another suggestion, which was not unanimously
aqreed to by the Commission, would be the appointment of a
citizen panel of at least 7 civic leaders. This panel would
consider only where we want to go and will have three months to
complete their task. She recommended havinq a P&Z member sit in
on the panel as an advisor. After they have completed their
task, they will turn the results in to the Assistant City Manaqer
and P&Z, then there should be a town meeting to receive further
citizen input. Mrs. Marsh briefly outline the procedures to be
followed, saying the plan should be ready to go to public hearinq
the end of February 1990. Some questions Council needs to decide
is (1) do we need to up date the plan; (2) do we have the $180j
(3) will you provide more money later on and (4) do we need the
panel or not. Some P&Z members don't feel the panel is
necessary.
Council then discussed the survey form.
along with this, there will be a need
need to use this kind of information
community.
Mr. Sweatt said as we go
for further surveys. We
to develop values in our
Mr. Aquilar said we need to encouraqe comments from citizens. He
thought the survey would be a good beqinninq. He said that in
regards to a panel, he fel t there is a need for some extra
thoughts beside the Commission but he does not want the
Commission to feel sliqhted. The panel would report to the
Commission and the Commission would report to the Council.
Mayor Sawyer said he liked the plan and would be willing to
include money in next years budqet. He said he wanted to make
sure when the plan is completed it is officially adopted. He
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added that we have a fine Commission and if they all work
together, we will have a good plan.
Mary Marsh said they would include the Fire Department in the
plan and asked if Council wanted them to recommend names for the
panel. Mr. Hartzog said he felt we should solicit volunteers.
Mr. Sweatt said he thought we could use the newsletter to asked
a portion of the survey questions and encourage people to ask the
results of the survey.
Mr. Brisgill asked if the Council agrees with the panel to work
with P&Z. He said it bothers him and he does not agree witn it.
There are times when it is difficult to get the full P&Z present
and now we go out and get another panel of people who would be
interested, when they were not interested a week ago. Mayor
Sawyer said we had a Citizen Advisory Committee and it worked
well.
Mr. Hartzog said another item to be consider in the plan was
Public Transportation. It was then suggested that Council review
the survey form and bring back their suggestions to the next
meeting.
Mr. Hartzog said he disagreed with the panel - we schooled the
P&Z in planning and now we brinq in someone else so they should
also be sent to school. He said he feels the P&Z should do it,
they represent the citizens. The citizen input could be gather
at the town meeting.
Mary Marsh said she felt if the P&Z sits down and writes the
plan, then the citizens would have no part in it and that is
important - to have citizen participation.
Mr. Greenwald said he had sat through both sides and can see both
sides. He said if we go with the panel, then we will have to
have someone there that has knowledge of a plan because the
average citizen does not even know what a plan is.
Mr. Aguilar said he was thinking of all the time it takes to
review all the ordinances, plats, etc. that P&Z has to do and he
felt this is what the panel should do. They could relieve the
P&Z of some of this work.
Mr. Stanhope said he thought the survey is really good but he has
some reservation about some of the questions. He said he also
felt the Commission is sometime bogged down at certain times of
the year and does not have time. He said he could go either way.
Mayor Sawyer suggested getting the survey under way and let the
Council consider it a little more and talk again about the rest
of the suggestions in another two weeks.
Mr. Hartzog asked for staff comments.
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Mr. Simonson said that for the City Plan to work you have to have
goals and objectives and know how to achieve those goals. He
said he fel t the panel would qive us exactly what those qoals
should do, what we want them to do and once they turn it over,
there is a tremendous amount of feedback. He said the time frame
may be too short for what we are looking at. If there is a
panel, there is a need to know just what the City wants them to
do.
Mr. Richburq said he heard concern about citizens beinq on the
panel and not knowinq what is goinq on. When members first qo on
P&Z, they have to be tauqht so there should not be any problem
with this panel learninq. If you have a panel, these people could
be used as future Planninq & Zoninq Commission members.
Mr. Willman said he felt it would be a situation of the blind
leading the blind - with no one with any background on a City
Plan. He admitted he is in the minority on P&Z about this
committee; but he felt it was P&Z's responsibility to do this
plan or it may be time to bring in a consultant.
Mayor Sawyer said the first plan was done by professionals. He
went on to say there are thinqs in the plan now that does not
have to be chanqed. He would aqree with a panel as lonq as it is
under the direction of the P&Z - the panel would need quidance
from somebody. He said he would like to see who P&Z could come
up with for appointment to the panel and Council would also
provide a list of people.
Mr. Br isgill sugqested that if Council wanted to go over the
survey forms, they have their suqqestions ready for the first
meeting in January.
Mayor Sawyer said he did not see any reason to rush into this and
asked Council to have their recommendations on the survey by the
next meeting.
'6 Discussion of Park Improvement Progr~.
Mr. Sweatt said that qenerally staff wanted to make Council aware
that the bonding program included the anticipation of making
certain liqhtinq improvements to the ballfields. Our staff,
Steve Simonson and Jerry Graham, have spent a lot of time in
lookinq at estimated costs as to how we might proceed with the
liqhteninq. We believe the best approach would be for the City
to serve as a general contractor and sub contract. He said that
included in Council packet were the estimated savinqs by the City
being the contractor of $50,000 from the original bond issue of
$100,000. We would like to proceed along these lines instead of
soliciting a general contractor to do all the work. With savings
projected from the ballfield lighting upqrade, we believe serious
consideration can be given for additional parkwide improvements
which would be presented at a later date. He said that to meet
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the beginning play dates for
requesting permission to move as
lighting improvements.
ballfield usage, staff was
quickl y as possible with the
Mr. Greenwald said all along our primary concern has been the
condition of the wiring and the poles. He said that at the last
BVYA meeting, we let them know that we are only going to do the
lighting and if they wanted to turn the fields etc., they will
have to come up with the manpower right now. If they want to
turn the fields, we will just rel\:>cate the poles. He said they
should know by the meeting of December 22nd.
Mr. Sweatt said he just wanted to make Council aware that we are
moving forward and hopefully saving on original estimates to do
more work in the park. This will be a high priority item. On
fixtures, we will solicit bids but will save on the general
contractor.
Mayor Sawyer said Council is committed and have to do this this
year or next year we will not have much going on in the park.
#7 EXECUTIVE SESSION: Mayor Sawyer called an executive
session under Article 6252-17, Section 2 (e) of Vernon's Texas
Civil Statutes, to discuss pending litigation on condemnation and
annexation matters at 8:22 p.m.
The Workshop session was reconvened at 9:03 p.m.
'8 Consider and take action on matters discussed in
preceding Executive Session, item '7.
Mayor Sawyer declared that since this was just a briefing, no
action needed to be taken on the executive session.
#9 CITY MANAGER'S REPORT: Mr. Sweatt reminded Council of
the Employee Awards Program on Saturday the 17th of December at
6:00 p.m. and said he hoped all members would be there.
#10 ITEMS BY COUNCIL:
Mr. Aauilar commented that in driving around the city, some of
the houses are very nicely decorated.
Mr. Hartzoa: A. The United Suburban City met Thursday and there
will be a contract coming to Council for legal services and there
will be a need to act before the end of the month.
B. He asked how the City is coming with New Braunfel s on the
sewer line. Mr. Sweatt said we have reviewed their engineer's
findings with our engineer and are developing some information on
service area. We are really trying to make certain the line
would be sized properly and their estimates agree with ours.
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C. Another item concerns the abandoned vehicles in the city.
Mr. Sweatt said he hoped to address that item within the next two
weeks.
Mr. Greenwald: A. On the 7th of January at 10:00 a.m. at
Corbitt Middle School he hoped Council would be there to help
officially open the BVYA basketball season. He said 129 children
are already registered.
B. On the December 28th workshop~ Council needs to discuss the
renewal of the BVYA contract. If BVYA has any changes, they
need to get with Mr. Greenwald prior to that date.
C. He asked when the City is goinq to look at phase II on the
road work. Mr. Sweatt said we have not sized the projects
completely as yet. Will be happy to receive project requests.
Mr. Greenwald said one of the things in phase II was Mobile
Villa, we have never done anything with the water lines up there
either. He said the point he wanted to make is not to qo in and
put in roads when the water lines need to be worked on.
Mr. Hartzog said that something that has been forgotten about up
at Mobile Villa is the cable TV lines are too low and trucks keep
hitting the line. Mr. Sweatt said he called the TV people and
they were out there and he understood this had been taken care of
but he would check again.
D. Mr. Greenwald said a friend of his called the dispatcher
about loud music at 3:00 a.m. and was told by the dispatcher he
would have to come in and sign a complaint. This was about the
11th of the month. Mr. Sweatt said he would look into this.
Mr. Stanhope: A. Asked how the water well project was coming
over by the Bluebonnet. Mr. Sweatt said he had not had a report
from the consultant. Mr. Hartzog said he had talked with Paul
Denham and he said two contractors in San Antonio are capable of
drilling this well and one is tied up at present. He wanted to
wait until this contractor is available so we could get more
competitive bids.
B. Schertz Humane Society will sponsor a bake sale Friday at the
Kountry Kitchen at 4:00 p.m. until sold out. They will welcome
any contributions of cakes, cookies, etc.
#11 ITEMS BY MAYOR: A. Asked about the speed on Lower
Seguin Road the east side of FM 1518. The 30 miles per hour is
too low. He asked the City Manager to take a look at this.
B. Mr. Stubbs asked him if the City is going to annex his church
on FM 1103. Mr. Simonson said the church is in the annexation
now. Mr. Sweatt said letters were sent to all property owners in
the annexation area.
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C. In the early morning hours from 6:00 to 6:30 a.m., the light
on FM 78 and First Street seems to be red on FM 78 for a long
time. Mr. Greenwald said the problem is that people on First
Street do not stop long enough to activate the light. Mr. Sweatt
said he would check that.
#12 ADJOURNMENT: Mayor Sawyer declared the meeting to be
adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
ATTEST: