ccswks 04-27-1983
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SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL
APRIL 27, 1983
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The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session, Wednesday,
April 17, 1983, at 7:00 P.M. in the Conference Room of the Municipal Complex,
1400 Live Oak Road with the following members present: Mayor Earl W. Sawyer,
presiding; Charles B. Sharpe; Hal Baldwin; Ross Hoover; Adolph Aguilar and
Jacqueline Lawler. Staff present were City Manager JimmY G. Gilmore and
City Secretary June G. Krause.
#1 Mr. Walter Ehlers to meet with Council. Mayor Sawyer introduced
Mr. Walter Ehlers, District
Engineer for the Department of Highways and Public Transportation, from Seguin.
Mr. Ehlers said that he was at this meeting to feel Council out to see if they
wanted to improve F.M. 78 or go with the By-pass that has been discussed for
at least 20 years. He showed a proposed route of a looping or By-pass, which
he feels is more feasible. The loop would be on a 90%-10% basis with the
State paying the 90%. Schertz' share would be about $400,000; whereas the
widening of F.M. 78 would cost an approximate $1,000,000 for Schertz share.
He reminded Council that they had tried to get FM 78 a! State designation
from FM 1604 to Seguin but that failed.
Mayor Sawyer stated that when the issue of the by-pass came up before the
citizens indicated that they would not vote for bonds for a loop, that they
felt wouldn't really help Schertz that much.
Mr. Ehlers said that the loop would be four travel lanes with one continuous
center left turn lane and that this would open up that area for businesses.
When asked if there were any plans to improve FM 1518 and FM 3009, Mr.
Ehlers said no.
Mr. Ehlers then briefly discussed the Federal Aid Urban System projects
for improvements to East Live Oak Road. The Mayor said the resolution on
this project would be on the next Council agenda.
Mayor Sawyer declared a recess at 7:42 P.M..
The Workthop Session was reconvened at 7:45 P.M.
#2 Discussion of UA Columbia Cablevision contract.
Mr. Gilmore gave
Council copies
questions that had
use of the Public
of a portion of the contract, which answered most of the
been asked earlier. There was a brief discussion of the
Service channel.
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#3 Discussion of concensus agreement. Mr. Gilmore explained that a
concensus agreement is not a
vote or an approval of Council. It is an agreement that when this item comes
to the City Council for vote, then whatever the concensus was - this is the
acti on that will be taken. Or it coul d merely be a case of liDo you want it
on the agenda?lI. It is merely an agreement to allow something to come before
the Council for approval. And of course, you are not bound by the concensus
given earlier. Mr. Gilmore went on to say that several times he had come
before Council and asked for a concensus on something that he could legally
decide on; but it would be something unusual and he would be asking for
Council blessing. It merely gives Council an opportunity to say "No, I
don't like that".
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#4 Discussion of sewer rates: Mayor Sawyer said this item is up for
discussion because CCMA has raised
our rates. Mr. Gilmore explained that the increase raised our rates to
$1.02, effective April 1, 1983. We have maintained our rate to customers
at $.95/1000. Not only are we paying out more than we are taking in but
we have to look at the requirements for the Certificates of Obligation
that we will be approving on the 3rd of May. He then asked if Council felt
staff should be preparing an ordinance to increase rates; and if so, it was
his recommendation to raise rates to $1.02/residential and $1.05/Commercial.
With this increase, we would be able to pay the COs without taxes right now
and going up on water or other areas. There could be budget increases in
other areas that would necessitate a tax increase but this would not.
Mr. Baldwin asked what constitutes the base rate. Mayor Sawyer asked the
City Manager to prepare the figures and have them for the next workshop.
#5 Executive Session: None needed.
#6 City Manager's Report: Mr. Gilmore reported the following:
A. A letter from Cathodic Protection System of Wallace & Tiernan concerning
a service contract proposal for the 100,000,000 gallon tank at the UC well site.
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B. We are gettiig quite a few complaints from citizens regarding windows
being shot out with BBs. At one time an ordinance was brought before Council
but was not acted on. Mayor Sawyer said the City has several complaints too
with park lights, etc. being shot out. Mr. Gilmore suggested looking at
the proposed ordinance again.
C. An unusual request was presented to P&Z at their last meeting. It was
for a 60 foot curb cut on Main Street. The City Manager has the authority
to take care of curb-cut requests, providing they do meet the ordinance
requirements and don't require a variance. After discussion, it was deter-
mineddthat this would require a variance so the item should be included on
the next agenda.
D. With regard to the State repaving Live Oak Road, Coastal Equities are
to build apartments across Live Oak. At the time they were discussing
paving in front of the apartments, Mr. Decker was to build some condos across
from them and the two of them would share the costs of widening and paving.
Now Mr. Decker has apparently given up on building so that leaves Coastal
with funds for half a street. After several meetings with Coastal, they will
build from their second entrance to connect with the street where it ends now,
if the City will participate with $20,000. That includes curbs and gutter.
There was money in the budget for seal coating, $15,000, that would not do
much seal coating. This could be used for the paving, which would reduce
the cost of the State project so that we might possibly get most of Live
Oak Road paved. Council concensus was to go with the participation costs.
E. The question was asked several months ago about the old 8" water line.
It is capped off on the high ground on FM 1518. Now we have the lady that
wants to tie ~nto our water system. She is this side of our fire hydrant
and her cost would be about $1500 to $2000. Mr. Gilmore said it is hiS[J r
understanding that there are three other lot owners that could use water.
Instead of putting a 2" line in for her, the City could run 6" line all the
way down and tie into the 8" line. She would pay the cost of the 2" and
when the others tie on, they would pay their part of the oversizing.
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If the City did this in house, it would cost approximately $12,047.27.
Much of this would be coming back in participation cost when they tie on.
This would provide an additional 611 line off the 20". There is budgeted
money set aside for water and sewer construction and it would require supple-
mental funds through a regualr vote of the budget. These funds were set aside
to run lines in Mobile Villa - one each year. Their lines are holding up much
better than at first thought, so one additional year shouldn't make much differ-
ence. Council concensus was to go with the oversizing.
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#7 Items by Council: Mrs. Lawler reported that the Senior Citizen Day
Plans have been completed.
She also said that she would like permission to pursue trying to make the
Telephone company update our system. She said she could not start until
June but like to give this a try. Council agreed she should pursue this.
Mr. Baldwin said he would like for someone to go back over the old Personnel
Board regulations and to know the reason they were disbanded. Mr. Gilmore
said one reason is that there only two cities in the state who have a per-
sonnel board; and the recommendation from TML is don't have one. The Council
acted on this and restricted the use of the Personnel Board at that time.
Mr. Sharpe said this was done during the past year and the basic reason he
voted for it was that we have a City Manager that can hire and fire and the
Council can fire the City Manager. All we had was another board that would
recommend back to the same person, so why have them. Mr. Baldwin then said
that the gentleman sitting behind him asked to come before the Personnel
Board and was told he could not do it. If this has been thrown out, it
should be stricken from the manuals that are handed out to employees.
Mayor Sawyer said that Mr. Keith had talked to everyone here and in his
opinion that is a appeal to the City Council.
Mr. Baldwin said that once again he would appeal to Council to take a look
at the speed limit on Elbel Road. A Board member was ticketed on Elbel
Road at 12:30 A.M., why should the police ticket people on Elbel Road late
at night. Mr. Aguilar said that if people are speeding they should be
ticketed. Mr. Hoover said to use common sense when no lives are in danger,
give a warning. He had no feelings against raising the limit to 40 MPH
during non-school hours. Mr. Sharpe said he thought 30 MHP was sufficient,
especially with the apartments coming in - regardless of what the limit is,
some people are going to speed. Mrs. Lawler said she felt the speed limit
should be increased. Mayor Sawyer said we have a majority concensus to
increase the speed limit from 30 to 40 MHP; but if he had a vote, he would
say no. This will be discussed again at the next workshop.
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Mr. Hoover said he had met with the Animal Control Officer and had a long
talk with him. He said he went to the meeting and didn't know what to
expect but he was really impressed with him and his knowledge. He will be
meeting with the Humane Society also.
Mr'. Sharpe asked if the City had received an update from the Industrial
Development Committee on the packet that has been discussed for some months.
If not, we have a little packet that could be updated. Also the South
Texas Chamber tries to get industries in the area and part of their adver-
tisement is a magazine they publish that goes to industries. He said it
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behooves every city to advertise in this magazine. It does not cost too
much and does a world of good.
Mr. Gilmore said he was remiss in not getting the packet together.
The Chairman told him that part of the material has been turned in and
asked Mr. Gilmore to rewrite it. He said he had not been able to get
hold of the material from Jeff and had not had time to doa rewrite.
After further discussion, Mayor Sawyer said that along with the CofC
contract, we should allow more money in the budget and earmark it for
advertising.
Mr. Sharpe asked Council to look at the Bell Ringer at the next workshop.
Mr. Baldwin again asked if it would be possible to some sort of status
report on grants - what has been done and what grants might be available.
Mr. Aguilar asked what happened to IIClean Up Weekll' Mr. Gilmore said he
has had trouble getting containers.
#8 Items by Mayor: Mayor Sawyer said he attended the Community Council
of Mayors on the 14th of April and only one other
Mayor attended. He asked for assistance onFM 78 and about Beck Concrete
Company. He said he planned to bring it up again. He also said he was
invited to the ,Community Traffic Safety Council and would also bring it up
at that meeting.
#9 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to come before Council,
Mayor Sawyer declared the meeting adjourned at
9:58 P.M.
ATTEST:
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