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ccswks 07-27-1988 202 \ SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JULY 27, 1988 o The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session, Wednesday, JUly 27f 19818Jn~t 7h:00 p.m. kin the chonference RoomTohf the Munic1pal Comp ex, 4u8 Sc ertz Par way, Sc ertz, Texas. e following members were present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer, presiding; Earl Hartzog; Hal Baldwin; Ray Stanhope; Adolph Aguilar and Ken Greenwald. Staff present were Interim City Manager Steve Simonson and City Secretary June Krause. 11 BEARING OF RBSIDEftS: A. Mr. Jerry Graham announced that the Schertz' Swim Team 'won' first place in overall competition at the recent meet. This is the firs.t time that Converse has been beaten. Mr. Graham also advised that the Schertz Business Club had asked him to be Chairman of the July 4th parade next year. Before accepting, he said he would like to have Council's feelings on this proposal. Council concensus was for him to accept. B. Mr. Brain Beck voiced his concern about the residence at 927- 929 Beck Street, which is next door to him. His opinion was that she is running a kennel at the address, since she has three grown dogs and 6 to 8 puppies. He said he had complained to the Animal Control people and talked with Mr. Simonson during the last month and nothing has been done. He contended that the animals have 0 not had any water or food in 4 weeks. He was told that the lady sleeps during the day and throws papers at night but he had not ) seen the woman in the past four weeks. Also the yard needs mowing, there are rats coming from that yard. Mr. Simonson said that in respect to calls that have come in, he had the Animal Control people down there to explain to them that when their animals had a litter, they would nave to get rid of the pups after a certain amount of time. The lady from this residence has come in and complained about harassment. Mr. Simonson said he asked Brian Beck if he would meet with this lady to try to settle this and Brian refused, saying he did not have time. Mr. Simonson said he has asked the AiC people to monitor this situation. Susan Beck advised that these dogs are chows and the one that is chained to the tree not only barks but the owner said this dog attacked her. Susan said the rodent problem is awful. She said she was told by one of the A/C people that since they refused to meet with their neighbor, there was nothing else that could be done. Mr. Beck showed some pictures he had taken of the yard. Mayor Sawyer and Council suggested checking with the health officer on 0 the rodent problem and have the Animal Control people go by again and check this out. 1i'jj;~;:,:;,~,~.i;;;"\4~o':'" ... lit,. ',~ ! ...;.....,,*'1IiiJI. 'L,~''ii ;-- 203 r-- C. Mr. Willman pointed out the new zoning map, saying we have just gotten the new update. He asked Council to look at it and let h~m know if anything needs to be corrected. #2 Guadalupe County Juvenile Probation Officer to present proposal to Council for consideration. Maribeth Powers, Chief Probation Officer for Guadalupe County, said her proposal had been submitted to the JUvenile Probation Board and was enthusiastically accepted. The proposal presented is to place a juvenile probation officer in our offices full time. In the past they could not justify placing one in Schertz full time but Ms. Powers said the time has come when the caseload has grown with the growth of the city. She indicated they cannot give Schertz the service it deserves without someone here full time. In order to place a full-time officer in Schertz, they will need office space, desk, chair, telephone, etc. - whatever Schertz can provide. The officer to be placed here is Ron Quiros, who is identified with this area. He lives in Converse and has developed good' relations with the Schertz Police Department. He will be able to present programs to the community. Mr. Simonson said we could provide temporary space in the police department with desks, etc, including telephone. r ,Mr. Hartzog asked how this would work with our Juvenile Officer. iMr. Simonson said they will be work ing very closely with each iother and this way they could make a stronger team. iMr. Aguilar asked about the school distr ict being in more than ione County. Ms. Powers said they work only with Guadalupe County juveniles but work closely with Bexar County. One of the real ,advantages is that Schertz will have good visibility and ,availability, which is very important. She went on to say that she was sure we could see more activity with referral services. iCouncil concensus was to support this effort. Mayor 'Sawyer asked that this item be on the next agenda for vote. 13 Discussion of bid for liquid asphalt distributor. Mr. Simonson said when we went for bids, we were looking for !something that would do more than just carry tar. We only received one bid but feel this is a good bid. This equipment will allow us to do things in the County that we were not able to ido in the past. - , Mr. Aguilar asked if we expected this pr ice. Mr. Graham said this is a good price and includes shipping and safety items. It lis coming from Canada. It has a wand built in that can help keep the dust down in the Shirmerville area. Mr. Stanhope asked if we have the money for this item. 204~ I Mr. Simonson said it could be purchased from bond money. He had talked with Tom Anderlitch and he said as long as buying street equ ipment and seal coat ing, we could use the bond money. Mr. Simonson said at the next workshop, we would be bringing the schedule for the next phase of seal coating and we will have money left for this. We feel that we can get the same contractor and do all the rest of the seal coating at one time. Mr. Hartzog asked if the interest on bond money has to go back into the bond funds and Mr. Simonson said it does. o Mr. Hartzog asked if we have the equipment to haul this and Mr. Simonson said a half ton pickup could haul it. Mayor Sawyer asked that this be put on the next agenda. 14 Discussion of Re~ersbip Assess~nt by Bezar County Council of Mayors. Mayor Sawyer said they have asked for an assessment of $20 a year. He then asked that this be on the next agenda also. 15 Discussion of possible purcbase of vater veIl site. Mr. Simonson reminded Council that they have talked about getting a well in Guadalupe County and drill as soon as possible. He 0 said they could not get agreement on the one area so he then went to Morton Southwest. He also went to an engineer who has been drilling wells in that area. He came out and drew an imaginary line showing where we would have a very good chance of obtaining good water. Also Morton Southwest will let us back out of the deal if we do not hit water. He said they will work with us to make sure we have an easement. Also they have no problem if later on we want to put a tank on the property and asked that we coordinate with Selma. After discussion of the location, etc., with Mr. Simonson advising that the expense could come from bond money, Mayor Sawyer asked that this be on the next agenda. 16 Discussion of disposal of police vebicles. Mayor Sawyer reminded Council that they had asked Mr. Greenwald to look at our vehicles and he has presented his report.. Mr. Greenwald said his report makes reference to two suggestions whereby the City could realize savings by going with a solid color vehicle and a smaller engine. Chief Star r advised that he had done his own vehicle check and look into the expenses on each and came to the conclusion that it D! would not be cost effective to spend any more money of these vehicles. L:: ' ( 20El r- I ! Mr. Stanhope asked Mr. Starr how he felt about the smaller ~ngines. Mr. Starr said he did not feel anything wrong with that put asked not to go too small. Mr. Baldwin asked the method of selling the vehicles. Mayor Sawyer said Council could authorize the City Manager to dispose of them at auction. I Mr. Simonson said both Mr. Bierschwale and Mr. Graham said they felt if the vehicles were cleaned up a little, it would enhance the price. He suggested cleaning and fixing what we are able to do in house and then go out for sealed bids. He said he felt we would get better prices by the sealed bids and it would be a 1C0ntrolled bid. Mr. Aguilar asked how this would affect the officers taking the cars home. Mr. Starr said it would not affect them very much as these were the juvenile officer, investigator etc. cars. ~ayor Asked this be on the next agenda. r-- Mayor Sawyer then called for a recess at 7:34 p.m. rI'he Special meeting was reconvened by Mayor Sawyer at 7:51 p.m. : 17 BUDGET WORKSHOP: Mayor Sawyer called attention to the 1988-89 proposed budget with accompanying cover letter from Steve Simonson. Mr. Sawyer said it appears that there is a short fall and Council needs to come up with about 8.45 cent increase. Mr. Simonson said that because of the shortfall found, he had asked Mr. Thorpe to be present to help answer questions as to how we got into this situation. He said he was at first looking at a ~ery conservative budget that had small raises; however, the one presented this meeting is without raises. The big problem being there is no cash forward to supplement the taxes. i Mr. Thorpe explained that when the present 1987=88 budget was being put together, it was anticipated that there would be $150,888 left in the operational fund. However by the end of the ~ear, because of the economic condition, the cash reserves were used. We started out this year without the reserves we ,anticipated at the beginning of the year. The I&S should be piscussed as a separate item; because when you pass an ordinance that sets debt service, it has to be used for debt service only. ~s we collect taxes, that portion is transferred over to I&S bank accQunt and stays there until it is used to pay bonds and is not avaJ.lable to uSe. There are some bonds tba"t are combination bonds that can be paid out of water funds or I&S. Council could pay more out of water and spend some of the I&S. The problem is that Water & Sewer is $10S,0Se to the good but the only legal way of transferring from Water & Sewer is through Transfer in Lieu of 206 ~ I taxes. The Water fund is already paying their share, which comes out to about $200,000. Mr. Thorpe went on to say that with the Mangum case there were extraordinary expenses paid out of general fund and that the City Manager's and Council s times spent on th:..s case could be reimbursed from Water & Sewer fund. That would amount to about $13,000 more that Water could reimburse for Transfer in Lieu of Taxes. o Mr. Baldwin asked if we had put all of the I&S requirement in the I&S rate to pay our bonds. Mr. Thorpe said yes and over the years we end up with some build up. However once it is in the I&S fund, it cannot be used for anything else. Mr. Baldwin asked what happened to the fund balance. Mr. Thorpe said that the opening entry was anticipated and we had well over $100,800 in CDs when the budget was made up; but dur ing the balance of the year it was spent. You are anticipating in May what you will have for a fund balance in September. Mr. Baldwin agreed it is tough to make decisions with budget amounts. Mr. Baldwin said he had never advocated raising the Transfer in lieu of taxes because the water customers do not have any recall but to pay their bills. Mr. Baldwin said he was really discouraged because there are a lot of things that Council have planned and now to find out that the City is in the hole. Mr. Simonson said it really shocked him 01 also. He said that revenue sharing has to be spent this year by law. Mr. Hartzog asked Mr. Simonson how he was going to make it through the end of the year. Mr. Simonson said he has asked depar"tment heads to put the brakes on and only spend what is absolutely necessary. Mr. Hartzog said he felt Council should spend some of the self insurance funds for police cars. Mr. Baldwin said he felt Council should have been told the end of the previous year of the short fall and Mr. Aguilar agreed. Mr. Hartzog asked the status of Water & Sewer and SAFES. Mr. Simonson said both are in pretty good shape, they are meeting their budget. Mayor Sawyer said the plans Council had made included up grading some of the salaries and they need to look at raising salaries even if it means a tax increase. Mr. Sawyer said Schertz has about the lowest tax rate in the area. Mayor Sawyer called for a short recess at 8:58 p.m. The Special Session was reconvened at 9:81 p.m. o ~~~fd~ ." 10*,.-- '...',.'" "lll.>......"......,.c;" ( ,.-- ,.-- r-- ~ 207 ~r. Simonson said he would like to have a special workshop just for the budget. He said he would like to bring the department heads in so that they could tell Council just what they are asking for. ~r. Baldwin said he felt the Council should be told just what got the City into this trouble. i Mayor Sawyer advised that we can t live in the past but have to look at the future. Mr. Thorpe said that he assumed Council was well aware of this, that they were getting the type of information discussed at this meeting. He said that from what he is hearing, Council was not aware of it. He said the figures were all in the budget and audit. Mr. Simonson said that living on our resources has been going on for several years. Mr. Thorpe added that last spring the City had some pretty good CDs and he could see where these figures "ere projected. Mr. Aguilar said that when things would come up, Council would ask if there was money to pay for it. He said that lookinq back Council bought a lot of tbings that were really needea but apparently the City really did not have the money to spend. Mr. Thorpe said he is working with bookkeeping now on a ~implified design, which could furnish Council with a summary of the budget montnly that would go into some detail. I ~r. Hartzog said one thing that was not in the budget is the FM ~009 project. Mr. Simonson said about a~l we have now for buying ~ ight of way on FM 3009 is about $8,000. He said they have talked with some of the people and maybe will get most of the right of way free - all except one of two parcels. i 8 CITY IlARAGER' S REPORT: ~. Mr. Simonson asked Council if they were ready to go to public pearing on the MediPure request for specific use permit. Because pf the weekly newspaper, the only way the public hearing can be on August 16th would be to put the notice in the Seguin paper as well as the Herald. Council agreed to go with the 16th of August. B. Chief Starr has requested that one of our former police officers be appointed to the Police Reserve on a non-paid officer ptatus. Mr. 'Starr has talked with Brady Thompson and this is basically as a reserve but we are protected on liability by the officer naving the 400 hour course rather than just the 120 required for a reserve officer. Mr. Greenwald said to be sure and check the Fair Labor Standards on this. 208 c. The Chamber of Commerce has requested a renewal of our agreement and are requesting $1250 per year. This would be on a future agenda as it is not effective until October 1. D. We have problems at the Animal Shelter - the electric surger burned both motors out on the lift station. It will take about $1,000 to replace. We really need help in trying to find a better location for the shelter. We really hate to put a lot more money in this location. E. In Council packets there are two letters concerning the Animal Control - one a good letter and the other a complaint. 19 ITEMS BY COURCIL: Mr. Aquilar: A. There could be a dangerous situation on East Live Oak Road just as you turn off of Jack Hays Boulevard. There is a sign post facing vehicle traffic at an angle. Jerry Graham said he would look at it. Mr. Hartzog: Met Saturday with the Selection Committee and Mary Marsh was selected Chairman. The committee is meeting this same evening and have taken the information Council completed to consider. Dr. Richard, a member of the selection committee, said they have a question about salary. They have gone through the applicants ana have selected seven right now and may submit five to Council. Mr. Stanhope: It looks like they are completing the railroad br idge work - are they going to take all the dirt out. Mr. Simonson said he was told a month ago that it would be removed. He has not been able to get in touch with this this week. Mr. Graham said he had talked with them that day and they are suppose to start taking out the dirt and resurfacing within two weeks. Mr. Baldwin: Have presented a memo with the results of the Deer Haven meeting concerning streets. The real problem is Fawn Drive. This group felt like the Antler Drive people were more outspoken than those from Fawn. The solid majority said they do not want anything done with their streets. The bottom line is that the best thing that could happen is the people who live there take responsibility on themselves to regulate speed. Mr. Aguilar announced that the coming Monday would possibly be the last meeting of the Charter Review Committee and everyone is welcome to attend. 110 I~BIIS BY IlAYOR: Received a letter from Mr. Kenneth Conway, Treasu'rer of Northcliffe Homeowners Association, expressing appreciation for outstanding service afforded him by the Streets/Parks employees. .tt t, t- 'L:~,ti'::rt1If: :. .r I o o o ( ,...-.- r- i r 2'09 Also received a letter from Mrs. Courtney commending Animal Control Officers Betty-Ann Kent and Nanette Walkingstick. Mr. Sawyer said he would be sending a letter to Mayor Jones in Seguin on the 150th Anniversary. Received a lett'er back from Mr. Hines of GVEC and he says the last two outages had nothing to do with the big one. He has asked to come meet with Council. .11 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to come before Council, Mayor Sawyer declared the meeting to be adjourned at 9:31 p.m. ATTEST: