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SPECIAL SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL
OCTOBER 25, 1988
The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session,
Tuesday, Oe~ober 2;, 19BB, at 7:00 n.m. in tha Coun~il ChamhAfS
of the Municipal Complex, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas.
The followinq members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer,
presidinq; Earl P. Hartzoq; Hal Baldwin; Adolph Aquilar and Ken
Greenwald. Absent: Councilman Stanhope. Staff present were
City Manaqer Kerry R. Sweatt and City Secretary June G. Krause.
#1 HEARIBG OF RESIDERTS: A. Mr. Rick Evans, representinq
Jack In the Box, had been asked by Mr. Hartzoq to address Council
on their new project.
Mr. Evans said he had been workinq with Planninq & Zoninq for a
couple of months. He said their plans for their new project are
about 98% complete. The plan's review would be the next Friday
with staff. He explained that this would not be a typical Jack
In the Box. It will seat between 90 and 100 people and have the
,Southwest architecture. Mr. Evans said they looked forward to
providinq up to one million dollars in taxes annually. He said
they are most anxious to get started on the buildinq. The qround
breakinq will be November 11th at 11:30 a.m. and he invited all
Council and citizens to be present. Formal invitations will
follow at a later date.
Mayor Sawyer thanked Mr. Evans for the briefinq and said Council
,looked forward to havinq them a part of our community.
B. Mrs. Courtney asked who the members of the audit committee
Iwould be as she recalled the mention of two members and she only
Iheard Mr. Baldwin's name beinq mentioned. Mayor Sawyer said he
was the second member of the Council on this committee.
C. Mr. Ed Mazian asked when somethinq was qoinq to be done about
paintinq out in front of this building and the Community Center.
Mayor Sawyer said he felt that would be taken care of when the
landscaping committee completed their plans.
#2 Discuss transfer of Cable Television franchise.
! Mayor Sawyer advised that he and Mr. Sweatt had met with the
people that are takinq over the cable television in our area.
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!Mr. Sweatt said there is a plan to purchase Roqers by KBLCOM, in
ithe name of Paraqon. They now have over 600,000 subscribers and
Ithis will add about 500,000, which will make them third or fourth
larqest cable supplier in the state. It would appear that they
are capable of operating the cable system as they now operate in
:a number of Texas cities. Mr. Sweatt said it is our
understanding that the final arrangements have not been approved
but should be by November or December of this year. Our
franchise calls for approval by the City Council. At the time
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the request is made, it will be placed on the agenda and someone
will be present so that Council can ask questions. We placed it
on at this time to make Council aware of their plans.
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Mayor Sawyer added that they do not anticipate any changes in
service or personnel. He said that our people are interested in
service and that we can ask them to come to a meeting. Mayor
Sawyer asked that a copy of the sample resolution be on the next
agenda.
.3 Discuss Garbave rate increase request.
Mr. Sweatt reminded Council that in September there was a
discussion with Mr. Gutierrez on rates caused by a increase in
delivery to the new landfill site. Mr. Gutierrez provided
information on this additional cost. In the Council packets is a
recapitulation of the costs of service and they are asking for a
6' increase across the board on their services, which is
basically to address their increase. Our franchise also says
that because of the CPI increase, they can come to us with a rate
increase request. Our present rate for residential is $6.50,
with 15' of that being retained by the City. The proposed rate
would be $6.89. Universal City's rates are $6.84; Cibolo's
$6.83; Selma pays $7.65; Garden Ridge - $6.25; Marion - $7.00 and
Converse is $5.59. They have requested rate increases on the
last three cities.
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Mr. Gutierrez pointed out that in his letter of September 15th,
he had provided the informational breakdown of their increased
costs. He reminded Council they are only asking for about one
half of the increased costs to them.
Mr. Sweatt said the City has received requests from time to time
about bulk pick up. Mr. Gutierrez said this can be discussed now
and they can work it into the system. He said they do get calls
on large amounts of brush. Mr. Gutierrez said they did not
figure bulk rate pick up into their proposed rate request.
Mr. Sweatt asked if there was an option for residents to use the
large containers.
Mr. Gutierrez said they do not have any in Schertz except the
Schirmerville area. He said that in Cibolo and Marion they
provided the large container, which cost Waste Management about
$80 to replace. It saves the customers from haVing to
continually buy cans. They are picked up once a week except for
the three summer months. This will only work in areas where
everybody is on the same system. This can certainly be discussed
in Schertz if a complete subdivision would want this type
service.
Mr. Hartzog said his concern is that Converse' rate is lower and rl
they are closer to the landfill. LJ
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,Mr. Gutierrez said they provide additional services to Schertz
that they do not provide other cities; such as the larqe
dumpsters in the park. It costs about $115 to dump that
container and they have about 2-1/2 pulls on it a month. They
also provide extra service for the various city functions - more
than other cities.
Mr. Aquilar asked how much this extra service cost them.
Mr. Gutierrez said it costs them about $1000 per month. Durinq
the City's Sprinq Clean Up they provide containers at different
,locations around the city.
At the request of the Mayor, this item will be placed on the next
aqenda.
14 Discuss awarding bids for Water Transaission Main
I btension.
,Mr. Paul Denham of Ford Enqineerinq advised that on October 14th
the City accepted bids from 12 companies for 10,000 linear feet
lof transmission extension line. Bids were received from a low of
$269,874 to a hiqh of $472,869. Two of these were lower than
-anticipated. What we have to insure is that the contractor has
considered everythinq that has to be done. The superintendent of
the job and Mr. Denham went throuqh this project and Mr. Denham
said he feels very confident that they can do this job at this
price. They also checked into their bonds. They have done work
for Bexar County and Rollinq Oaks Mall. The majority of their
emphasis is pavinq; but now have some people experienced with
!water line construction. This is a very low bid so Ford
Enqineer inq had to look at it very closely. He said that
everyone they have called with the State that knew the supervisor
,said they always finished the job on time. He said he could not
find any bad words on the contractor. He understands what is
qoinq on and all about the job.
Mr. Sweatt reminded Council that they will have to do some very
,close work on this project.
Mr. Denham said they would beqin at the 20" line at Windy Meadows
and qo back on Chestnut. Start aqain on Chestnut and qo next to
'the curb riqht next to the homes for 500 feet until they qet into
the area behind the houses. He said they would have to cut the
street in that area - the concern will be the people and traffic
in the area.
Mr. Baldwin said he was concerned about their bondinq company -
what is their financial condition - so that we will not qet
cauqht in the same situation as we did before. It seems now the
rbondinq company is more important than the contractor.
Mr. Denham said it is very hard to qet information on a Bondinq
Company. This one has the capacity of 1.6 million but we do not
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know how many jobs are involved. It becomes very difficult to
find that search. The thinq that protects us the most is that we
retain enouqh money until completion.
Mayor Sawyer said what Council needs to do is rely on this
enqineer to check them every way possible. Mr. Denham said they
would check into the bondinq company as best they can.
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'S Discuss ordinance to correct leGal description on the
recently disannezed 3.98 acres.
Mr. Sweatt this is mainly a housekeepinq chore. The metes and
bounds will not close without this amendment. We need this to
clarify and close this disannexation.
'6 Discuss United Sub~ban Cities plans.
Mr. Sweatt said there continues to be discussions between the USC
and CPS reqardinq franchise requirements. A qroup of City
Manaqers met with CPS and they still have hopes of beinq able to
resolve a number of issues with CPS. They want to create a war
chest for leqal fees. The most recent discussion is based on l'
of franchise fees received by the cities - in our case about
$116. There was additional discussion of leqislative action by
TML dealinq with utilities and franchise and limit on fees. It
is all still up in the air and at this point USC will take no 0
action until after the TML meetinq. We will come back to Council .
after that time.
'7 CIrY NARAGER'S REPORT: A. Mr. Sweatt proudly pointed
out and discussed plans for the monthly newsletter, showinq them
a draft copy. It will be on leqal size paper usinq both sides.
Tom Dovey is edi tinq it. Mr. Sweatt said we do not intend to
circumvent the news media, this will be an addition. As the
newsletter indicates, we will receive comments and name proposals
after the first issue.
Mr. Dovey advised that the first issue of 3000 copies would cost
$200 and after that it would be $185 month. He said that City
staff has done a fantastic job of submittinq articles. These
newsletters will be placed in 42 businesses throuqhout the city.
The suspension date is the 20th of each month for receivinq
articles.
Mayor Sawyer received a qeneral concensus from Council to proceed
with the newsletter.
B. With reference to the request to look at Christmas liqhtinq
of FM 78, there are as many as 90 poles that could be used. Mr.
Sweatt said he had not been able to locate a company where we can
buy new material but did locate some used materials. They have
offered to sell this for $1000 - they paid $4500 to replace these
and say the condition of the decorations are from fair to qood.
GVEC has qenerously indicated that they would be willinq to help
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if we choose to do this. If we purchased new material, it would
,be out of the question for this year.
C. Mr. Aguilar and Mr. Sweatt attended a meetinq at GVEC
,reqardinq the evaluation of the pole failure. They found the
rebar steel has resulted in a plan desiqn failure. They are now
adding supports to all poles and plan to complete that work in
one year or less. It will cost $10,000 per unit to do this
remedial work.
Mr. Aquilar added that they will be workinq on the lines toward
us first, riqht now are working around FM 1103. They also
discussed the loopinqi however, riqht now because of the expense
of this work they have no money for loopinq. We asked them not
to forqet this project. They have considered coming in from CPS
from a line around FM 1518. This is just in the thinking state.
D. We received a notice of a planned December 7th meetinq at
Judson High School regarding the joint land use study. We will
also encourage Planning & Zoning members to attend this meeting.
E. At the last workshop, you asked that we investiqate an item
dealinq with the Board of Adjustment. At this stage we have not
been able to find cases on this topic. It would require a chanqe
in the Charter. Mr. Sweatt said he would continue to study
this.
la ITEMS BY COUNCIL:
Mr. Hartzoa: A. Tomorrow night is the Bon Fire and Home Cominq.
B. The Christmas Tree Liqhting ceremonies will be December 1st
at 6:30 p.m.
C. We have not had on a workshOp the discussion of the Charter
Review Committee recommendations. Schedule for next workshop.
D. Has there been anythinq on additional streets that could be
paved with money we have left over. Mr. Sweatt said he wanted to
be sure that the contractor does a qood job and will be brinqing
a change order back to Council.
E. Mr. Hartzog had several items for the police department:
A. Calls from people saying they do not have patrols in
their area.
B. At the intersection of Elbel and Schertz Parkway, there
was some comment at the Business Club about a traffic light.
Perhaps some more patrolling needs to be done there at peak
times.
C. Abandoned cars are on the streets with expired stickers,
also numerous junked cars.
F. The Journalism and Drama Groups from Samuel Clemens also
received a 1 and are advancing to regionals.
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#9 ITEMS BY MAYOR: Reminded everyone of the Snake Dance
and Bon Fire and invited everyone to attend.
'10 ADJCXJR-.ar: There being no further business, the
meeting was adjourned at 8:32 p.m.
ATTEST:
ljI'i,C.,
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rtz, Texas
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