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REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
JULY 5, 1988
The Schertz City Council convened in Regular Session, Tuesday
July 5, 1988, at 7:~~ p.m. in the Council Chambers of the
Municipal Complex, l4~~ Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas. The
following members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer, presiding;
Earl P. Hartzog; Hal Baldwin; Ray Stanhope; Adolph Aguilar and
Ken Greenwald. Staff present were Interim City Manager Steve
Simonson and City Secretary June G. Krause.
PUBLIC BEARING: Mayor Sawyer declared the purpose of the public
hearing was to receive citizen input on the propose disannexation
of approximately 3.98 acres of land out of Comal County. Said
land is located in Northcliffe Country Club Estates, Section 2,
on the North side of Charleston between Country Club Drive and
Fairways Drive.
Mr. George Brown of 3421 Charleston was present, along with Mr. &
Mrs. Clark. Mr., Brown advised they had been petitioning for this
disannexation. He said they do not feel, because of the distance
from the center of Schertz, that they can be served by the police
and fire departments. Mr. Brown said they also have their own
water and sewer service. Bonds were sold for this service and
they are paying a lot of money for this service. He went on to
say that if all of Northcl iffe was annexed into the City of
Schertz, they would not be asking for disannexation. They feel
the tax is an additional cost with little or no additional
services.
There being no other citizens wishing to speak pro or con for
this disannexation, Mayor Sawyer closed the pub1 ic hear ing at
7:~5 p.m.
11 APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Mr. Baldwin requested that the
first sentence of item l~ -B of the minutes of June 15, 1988, be
I corrected to read as follows: "B. We have a back log on seal
coating of streets because' the tar kettle has a crack and has
become a hazard." Also the the first sentence of item 5 B of the
minutes of the Regular meeting of June 21st be corrected to read
as follows: "B. The Policemen have requested to use some of the
STEP funds to buy additional radios."
Mr. Baldwin
Meet ing of
corrected.
I follows:
then moved to approve the minutes of the Special
June 15 and Regular Meeting of June 21, 1988 as
Mr. Aguilar seconded the motion, which carried as
AYES:
Greenwald.
NAYS:
Councilmen Hartzog, Baldwin, Stanhope, Aguilar and
None
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12 BEARING OF RESIDENTS: Mr. Jim Shriver, president of the
Schertz Busine'ss -Club said- they had just completed the 14th
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Annual 4th of July Jubilee and expressed his thanks to the City
Council and staff for there hel~ in making it a great success.
He also wanted to express spec1al thanks to Earl Hartzog for
bringing in sufficient people to take down and put up the tables.
A full report will be given to the Council at a later date.
12-A BXBCurIVB SBSSIOR: Mayor Sawyer called an Executive
Session under Article - 6252-17, Section 2- (e) of Vernon' s Texas
Civil Statutes at 7:86 p.m., to discuss with the City Attorney a
Federal subpoena served to a city employee on June 38, 1988. p.m.
The Regular Meeting was reconvened at 8:44 p.m.
'2-B Consideration and action to be taken in regards to
itea 2-A above.
Mayor Sawyer advised Council had completed the executive session
with legal staff.
Mr. Greenwald moved to hire Mr. Lawrence Souza to represent the
City of Schertz in any and all interface with the United States
Attorney's office. Mr. Stanhope seconded the motion, which
carried with the following vote:
AYES: Councilmen Hartzog, Baldwin, Stanhope, Aguilar and
Greenwald.
NAYS: None
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13 AUDIT: Discuss and take action on interim audit and
going out for 'audit proposals.
Mr. Ed Thorpe, representing Melick, Thorpe and Armstrong, CPA
firm, stated they had been doing the City's audit since 1979.
They rotate which CPA would do the audit annually to give a fresh
outlook. He said there is a significant amount of employee
assistance between his office and city staff. If they would be
doing the audit next year Mr. Melick would be the one doing it.
Mr. Thorpe said some of the things they have done over the past
18 months outside regular auditing is (1) the pretty detailed
work done on the bond issue such as things being out of balance
with the general fund. On the transfer from taxes for debt
services, they always come in during the year and check that
rather than wait until the end and say it was not done properly.
And of course the various telephone responses during the year.
They do some things that are billed. They billed for some
assistance in training and recently bill for some classification,
totaling an additional $588. It would have priced out at about
$2888 if billed properly. The other thing is that some cities
have a treasurer, serving as a controller but this city has not
had that and uses the auditors for this purpose. The City of 0
Schertz is a fairly complex accounting system, in that you have
the separate SAFES fund and also the self insurance and equipment
replacement as - additional trust funds that require additional
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coverage. Another thing is that Schertz collects our own
taxes.And of course the auditors have done a ver~ detailed report
for Certification which is a great help according to your bond
attorney in getting a more favorable bond rating. That is
something that Council would not have to continue and would
result in a lower audit cost. The only concern is that your
readers - ones that have your bonds - are not use to seeing a
regular audit now. Mr. Thorp said he would suggest, before you
cut that back to a more normal format that you check with
Rauscher Pierce and some others to ask what the impact might be
on future bond issues. He said they also do what they call
select management areas in the audit, by asking Councilor
management what areas they would like for concentration to probe
in depth. These are the kinds of things that cause the price of
the audit up some. He said we also suggested that you get your
bookkeeper into an accounting course, which you have done. Also
with the turn over right now in City Managers you might take that
into consideration.
Mr. Greenwald said that one of the things Council had discussed
in workshop was is there a need for a mini audit or balancing the
books between city managers.
Mr. Baldwin said that is more what Council wanted the auditors
present to discuss rather than a future audit.
Mr. Thorpe said that it is not standard operation procedures to
do this type of audit between city managers. He said they would
be happy to try to come up with something if Council had
particular areas of concern but it is not something that is
routinely done like in a bank.
Mr. Aguilar asked when they would usually start the audit. Mr.
Thorpe said they usually start in August and that he would really
hate to see Council spend the money involved in an interim audit.
Mr. Aguilar said he just wanted to be sure that the Interim City
Manager feels comfortable. Mr. Thorpe said they would almost
have to audit the whole city to do an interim.
#4 BID APPROVAL:
Consideration of going out for radio
bids.
Mr. Baldwin moved to go out for bids on police radio units. Mr.
Greenwald seconded the motion, which carried as follows:
AYES: Councilmen Hartzog, Baldwin, Stanhope, Aguilar and
Greenwald.
NAYS: None
#5 POLICY: Consider and take action on a Warrant Policy.
Mr. Simonson said the policy that was originally established by
himself and Mr. Starr has been reworked at Council suggestion
into a more thorough document. These are guidelines for Council
to look at.
Mr. Baldwin asked if these guidelines would be put into policy
form.
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Mr. Aguilar suggested taking the items and putting them into
categories such as requirements, procedures and fees. He said
that way anyone would know what section to go to.
Council further discussed the guidelines and then Mayor Sawyer
asked that the completed policy be placed on the next workshop
agenda.
16 ~AX RBIIIBORSBlIBft: Consider and take action on
reimbursement - of overpayment - of taxes for San Antonio Savings
Association.
Mr. Stanhope moved to reimburse San Antonio Savings Association
for overpayment of taxes. Mr. Baldwin seconded the motion.
Mr. Aguilar explained that the Guadalupe Appraisal District had
the wrong valuation on this property, SASA paid our tax bill, and
now the Appraisal District has re-evaluated the property causing
this error.
Mayor Sawyer then called for a vote on the motion, which carried
as follows:
AYES: Councilmen Hartzog, Baldwin, Stanhope, Aguilar and
Greenwald.
NAYS: None
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17 CI~ MANAGER'S RBPO~: None at this time.
18 ITEMS BY COUNCIL: Mr. Hartz09 mentioned that Mr.
Shriver had thanked Council for helping with the tables for the
Jubilee and he wanted to add that John Bierschwale helped also.
Mr. Stanhope said he had been petitioned by people on Curtiss
Avenue who are concerned about rats and roaches at this one
house. Be said he could not find anything in our ordinances,
except for the health officer checking this out.
Mayor Sawyer said to have the health officer check this out.
Mr. Simonson said we have had our inspector send a letter asking
them to get it cleaned up and have also had the animal control
officers out there.
IIr. Aguilar asked if there could be a sign placed on the 135
access road indicating where Schertz Parkway meets the access
road.
Mr. Simonson said that would be the Highway Department and he 0
would get in touch with them. Be said we do have a street sign
there now.
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Mr. ~-ee~: thi1iaIU~dslMit<>..n 9DrMi4j.t<lMJ fime f:BB@iRess Club for a
very fine 4th' of July.
19 ITEMS BY MAYOR: Mr. Sawyer said he had a letter he
wanted to send' to Mr. Clark of Comal County requesting SAFES
funds. If Council had no disagreement, Mayor Sawyer would send
the letter. Council concurred.
B. On July 16th, the Gateway Realty was having a Tama1ado and
have invited the Council.
C. There will be a meeting of the Bexar County Mayors. If
Council has items to be discussed let the Mayor know.
D. Have received a letter from Commission Bob Lee that he will
discuss at the next workshop.
E. Received a letter from CPS on water conservation.
i 1 ~ ADJOtJRRllBNT:
adjourned at 9:13 p.m~
unanimously carried.
Mr. Aguilar moved the meeting be
The motion was duly seconded and
ATTEST:
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