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ccswks 07-28-1982 197 -- I Mr. Courtney asked to be relieved of his appointment as Ex Officio member to the Library Advisory Board effective immediately due to confl,icts in his schedules. This item is to be placed on the August 3rd agenda. Council agreed, on the recommendation of the City Manager, to send Certificates of Appreciation to the resigning members of the Housing Authority Board. #9 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to come before the Council, the Mayor declared the meeting adjounred at 8:55 P.M. ATTEST: SPECIAL WORKSHOP MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JULY 28, 1982 The Schertz City Council convened in Special Workshop Session Wednesday, July 28th, 1982 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; Mayor Pro Tem Jacqueline Lawler; Charles B. Sharpe, Jeff Duffield; and Adolph Aguilar. Staff were City Manager Jimmy G. Gilmore and City Sec- retary June G. Krause. #1 JOINT MEETING: Mayor Sawyer welcomed the members of the Industrial Development Committee to this joint meeting and asked the Chairman bring the Council up to date on their committee progress. Mr. Richburg, Chairman of the IDC, said the committee had finished their work on the plan and with Mr. Duffield's help it should be ready for the printers soon. They have been working closely with the City Manager in getting people to locate within our city. They would 1 ike to meet at least quarterly with Council and be advised of the contacts the City has in order that they might follow up on some of the contacts. Council agreed a quarterly meeting would be in order. #2 HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION: Mr. Norris Hall of the County Appraisal District addressed the Council concerning the new law which authorizes a tax exemption on all homestead properties beginning in 1982. This is a local option and may not exceed 40% of the value from 1982 through 1984, 30% from 1985 through 1987, or 20% after 1987. This exemption may not be less than $5,000 even if the percentage granted is only 1%. He expressed some of the potential disadvantages of this amendment to the constitution as being: (1) if the City grants the maximum exemption, local homeowners would experience two automatic tax increases over the next six years (2) granting the exemption to one type of property owner does not reduce overall taxes, but rather would increase the tax burden on other 198 classes of property; (3) since it would be a percentage basis, the large and expensive homes would receive a much larger exemption than the smaller homes (4) By granting the maximum exemption, there is the possibility of exceeding the maximum effective rate for taxes by more than 8% which is subject to the potential of a tax roll-back petion; (5) if any taxing unit within the County decides grant an exemption, the District may experience a substantial, and currently non-budgeted, expense related to the redesign of computer software. Such costs would have to be borne by the taxing units within the Appraisal District. Mr. Hall advised the law needs to be closely looked at, that each of us needs to talk to our legislators. Mr. Lawler, the Cityls representative on the Appraisal Review Board, said his request for this meeting was to let Council know the potential of this law before any action was taken. After thanking Mr. Hall for his explanation of the law, Mayor Sawyer called for a recess at 8:12 P.M. The Workshop session was reconvened at 8:22 P.M. #3 GENERAL DISCUSSION: The Mayor asked Mr. Gilmore to give Council the latest information on the water situation. Mr. Gilmore said that if nothing else goes wrong, we should be pumping water into the tank by Friday. The well has been test pumped and it has held up, the water samples have gone to the Health Department and if they come back okay, we will start pumping Friday. We have run into some problems with the new well being drilled. It looked, at first, like we might have to shut down on that well; but the problems seem to have been corrected now and we will start drilling again. Mr. Aguilar said the railroad crossing at FM 3009 is in bad shape again. Mr. Gilmore advised it has already been reported but it usually take about three weeks for them to correct the situation. I I I '--' Mr. Gilmore announced a meeting on July 29th at 7:00 P.M. at the School District Conference Room. The area Mayors and Managers have been invited to discuss the District Tax Office. Mayor Sawyer asked Mayor Pro Tem Lawler to attend as he had a conflict. Mr. Gilmore also advised Council of the proposed fees for animal impoundment and adoption for the new shelter. These include fees for Randolph Air Force Base, the cities of Cibolo and Marion. I ( Mr. Hal Baldwin, the City.s representative on the Regional ~MS Committee, briefed Council on the latest meeting he attended. He said there is another city that is planning their own ambulance service. They feel that with the increases in SAFES rates, they can operate their own. All the cities showed concern in that they feel they should have some say in the organization. Mr. Baldwin feels that if we start splintering off, the SAFES is going to have to reorganize. I ,- I. f 199 - I Mr. Baldwin said he wanted to address the next meeting of the Council of Mayors on this subject but Mayor Sawyer said we could invite all Mayors and Managers to a meeting here in Schertz on this subject. Mr. Baldwin said he would set up such a meeting. Mr. Duffield said that since he had asked about the Water Replacement Fund purchases at the last meeting, he wanted Council to know that he had met with Mr. Gilmore and we found that we coulQ move that into two contingencies - one in general fund and one in water and do away with that - just remove that title and everything is alright. Mr. Gilmore reported that the animal shelter is doing very well, infact it is overcrowded already. We have put a portapotty down there for the volunteers until we can do better. The Humane Society is really coming through for us. They are building the cages, furnishing the dishes, food and medicine for the vaccines, and they are manning it on both Saturday and Sunday from 9:00 until 12:00 noon. Mrs. Lawler asked if we would be having a grand opening and Mr. Gilmore said that we would like to get the water line in first. He also said it was his understanding that the Council still wants to get the shelter going properly and that it will require changes in line items within the budget and that Council has given him the authority to do this. Council agreed. #6 ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the Mayor declared the meeting adjourned at 9:00 P.M. ~~L~ ayor, ity of Scher Texas ATTEST: