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4-27-23 MinutesPage 1 of 7 SCHERTZ HISTORICAL PRESERVATION COMMITTEE THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2023 6:00 PM MEETING MINUTES Committee Members in Attendance: Barbara Hall Christopher Hormel Dr. Miguel Vazquez Roz Wise Committee Members Absent: Becki Babcock Patrick Holmes City Representatives in Attendance: Brian James Cyndi Simmons CALL TO ORDER Meeting called to order at 6:06 PM by Acting Chairperson Miguel Vazquez. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS • Marc Thornton, Samuel Clemens High School History Club Sponsor, Melissa Scott, President of the History Club, and Addison Welch, member of the History Club introduced themselves. • Ralph Gutierrez, Mayor, City of Schertz • Maggie Titterington, Chamber of Commerce President and resident of Schertz • Mark Davis, Councilmember, City of Schertz DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION ITEMS 1. Election of Chair and Vice Chair Barbara Hall nominates Miguel Vazquez as Chair of the SHPC. Roz Wise seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Barbara Hall nominates Chris Hormel as Vice-Chair of the SHPC. Roz Wise seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 2. Minutes – Consideration and/or action regarding the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of March 23, 2023. • Roz Wise noted the error in numbering on page 2, paragraph 4. • Chris Hormel motioned and Barbara Hall seconded to approve the minutes with corrections as noted. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Samuel Clemens High School Application for Landmark Designation Chris Hormel commented that it was a great presentation last month and the application was received. Chris Hormel motioned and Roz Wise seconded to approve Samuel Clemens as a Landmark Designation. Motion passed unanimously. Page 2 of 7 Barbara Hall commented that she spoke with the Elbel family and there are three heirs – the 4th generation of the Elbel family. They are excited because their grandfather donated the land for the school. They are willing to provide us with photos and documentation and they want to visit with the History Club. Miguel Vazquez commented that they would like to get the presentation done in May before graduation. Brian James remarked that it has to go to Council and the bylaws and the ordinance requires a notice. He doesn’t remember how many days, but it may be 10 days. If he delivers the notice tomorrow to the property owner (the superintendent of Clemens) and it is approved, then we can present to Council on May 9. We will give written notice to the property owner that the SHPC has recommended the designation. He will draft the letter tomorrow, take it to the school district tomorrow and will also email it. He can’t remember how many days it is in advance of the hearing, but he thinks it’s 10 days and we could still make the May 9 agenda. If it's longer notice, then it would be the May 23 meeting. Chris Hormel asked Melissa Scott, the club president and a senior this year, if they had named a new president for next year’s club and she replied they have not. They will not vote on that until the beginning of next school year. Mark Thornton advised that graduation will be Sunday, May 28. 4. Direction of SHPC Going Forward Miguel Vazquez remarked that City Council came to the conclusion that it is not necessarily a good idea to disband this committee. Items for discussion to make the functionality of this committee better: • In terms of a meeting location, we would rather meet in a space with a round table or oval table rather than the Council Chambers. Brian James asked if they had a location in mind and Miguel Vazquez remarked that they would like the Bob Andrews Conference Room or the Library. Brian James commented that because we’ve gone to a monthly meeting, the EDC meets the same night. EDC has traditionally met in the Council workroom. You could change either the day of the week you meet or the week of the month you meet to when the conference room is free. The other option is you could do Bob Andrews. The challenge we have had with Bob Andrews is when you have more members and when you have a lot of students/guests, it’s a little tight and that can be an issue. We certainly could reserve the library for you to meet in their community meeting room. The other option is we can do a table set-up in here (Council Chambers) with chairs around the table in any layout you desire so that you’re not up on the dais and you’re around a table, like you’re set-up around a table in Bob Andrews, but you have more room. If you did the 3rd Thursday of the month, it would be free. TSAC is held the 1st Thursday of the month in here. However, you can’t easily get 14 people around the table in the Council workroom. Miguel Vazquez affirmed that they will begin meeting on the 3rd Thursday at 6:00 PM in the Council workroom. • Maggie Titterington commented that she is a resident of Schertz who is interested in joining the committee. She had a chance to look at the past minutes and bylaws and the bylaws are a bit of a mess. Your bylaws are too specific. Speaking as a representative of a non- profit, she had to update The Chamber bylaws because they are filed with the Secretary of State and bylaws should just be maybe three or four pages maximum and very general. Page 3 of 7 What is going to be the running of your committee, election process, but nothing so detailed as the times, the month, when and where you’re going to meet. That would be for a Policies and Procedures document. Your current bylaws could be split into bylaws and then policies and procedures. It would not be a hard thing to do. She feels passionate enough about the history of Schertz – having been here 50 years in July – that she’s seen a lot of things and seen a lot of things disappear from our city and would like to help protect whatever we have left here. She would be happy to offer some suggestions based on how they do their bylaws with the State and make sure it is the same with the city. • Miguel Vazquez responded that we now have seven members and the bylaws indicate we can have nine members. We are in the process of rewriting the bylaws because we know that’s been a weak point and we’ve been operating for a very long time not following the mission that was set-up many years ago, which included trying to get a museum. It was put to a vote to the public 12 years ago and it didn’t pass at that time, but stayed in our bylaws all this time. We weren’t really working towards that, but it may be time to relook at a museum, history center, or something because we do need some space if we want to start collecting some artifacts. Chris Hormel asked Brian James when the committee will be approving new members. Brian James responded that they are generally done as applications come in. There’s an annual poll when memberships end, but if you have vacancies and applications are received, those will go to City Council for appointment. As soon as we have folks who want to be on, they can apply and then Council can appoint. Roz Wise asked how they will know when someone applies. Brian James believes that typically the City Secretary’s office receives the applications and they will send an email to the Council Liaison, the Nominating Committee, and the Chair of the Boards and Commissions and staff is copied. If they are good with it, it goes to Council. Miguel Vazquez would like to have the SHPC interview the candidates first and then send them to the Council. Brian James advised that if that’s the consensus of the committee that you’d like us to convey to Council is that you would like the SHPC to be able to review the applications and interview first and if there’s a positive affirmation then it would get communicating up to the Nominating Committee. He asked for a nod of heads and everyone agreed that this would be the process they would like use moving forward. The applications would still go to the City Secretary’s office first and if Council is good with this idea and then they would be sent to the SHPC Chair and then coordinate the interviews. Mayor Gutierrez commented that Brian James is correct in some of those procedures, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Our interview committee only meets three times per year and that will become an obstacle. Most of the time, just by all of the applicants concerning the two big boards we have – Planning & Zoning and Economic Development. When there’s a large number of people that want to interview and those positions are filled, we offer different positions and that’s where it becomes complicated. Maybe they’ll accept the Historical Preservation Committee, but it’s not a passion. When you don’t have that passion, you’re not going to have that dedication. He thinks that he would propose by Resolution is to remove that interview portion from this committee and let you interview them yourselves and let you appoint them yourselves so you have that right person here Page 4 of 7 with the passion that’s needed; otherwise, you’re just getting someone that didn’t really want to be involved because this is not their forte. Brian James also commented that staff will take this Council and let them know that the SHPC wants to change the way that folks are appointed to the SHPC for the obvious reasons – we want people with passion – and his thought is that folks would still apply through the City Secretary’s office because that’s how the system works and she would send them to the Chair, the Chair would look at the application and determine if it’s someone they want to interview and then that interview by SHPC would occur. The way we do it now in off periods is that an email goes out to the folks on the Nominating Committee just with the application and the recommendation from the SHPC just to make sure there isn’t a concern on anyone’s part there and then Council would make the appointment at the next Council meeting. It fits what we want which is that the SHPC is vetting the candidates for that passion and level of commitment to make sure we’re getting a good fit, but then double- check with the Nominating Committee to make sure it’s all okay, and then Council would still make the appointment so that it is an official city board or commission process and that could be moved through pretty quick and it wouldn’t require a resolution. • Miguel Vazquez asked if Brian James and Cyndi Simmons need to be at the meetings. Brian James commented that approximately 10 years ago, the committee generally took care of everything they did. They had a treasurer who tracked the finances and a secretary who drafted the minutes, and what we saw over time was that at times it was a challenge to get folks to take those positions because it’s not an insignificant amount of time to work up the minutes. A lot of people aren’t comfortable tracking the finances and staff said if it helps, we’ll take those roles. For example, if staff was not here tonight, you would think we’ve acted on this recognition for Samuel Clemens High School and let’s get it on next week’s Council agenda and part of the role as staff is to inform of the process of providing notice, etc. Often there are questions for the staff regarding facilities and resources. Beyond that, there’s not necessarily a need. So again, if the idea of the committee is that you’d rather become more self-sufficient and you don’t have a need for staff support roles, then you can record the meetings yourselves and prepare minutes and then communicate from the chair to staff of things you need. If the committee feels you don’t need staff and that you’ll take those roles, then that’s certainly your call; that’s what Council talked about is that you set your destiny that works best for you. Miguel Vazquez responded that they’d like to try again and may come back at a later time to ask for assistance again. Brian James commented that if you’re looking to go that way, you might want to meet at the Library because then we won’t have to have somebody stay here to open and close the building, whereas the Library is available and open for those hours. Just let us know. Roz Wise wanted to thank Brian and Cyndi for always being there for them and responding efficiently and fast and considers them as consultants and she appreciates that. Chris Hormel echoed that. • Chris Hormel also asked if there was a way to virtually store their items. Is there server space where they could post their stuff – applications that they get, etc. Brian James responded that the solution could possibly be, the city – using your funds – pay for everyone to have an Office 365 account and then you can create a SharePoint site where you can store all your documents. The only thing we would need as a city board or commission, those documents are likely subject to Open Records so we have to have a way to retain and retrieve them in the event of an Open Records request. That was solution that when Page 5 of 7 speaking with IT seemed the easiest. Create Office 365 accounts, IT would have access, and then create a SharePoint site. If that’s the way you want to go, just need a nod of heads and we can get you set-up with your SHPC 365 accounts for all the board members and create a SharePoint site to save and organize your items. It would help if we got communication from the Chair and all the communication from members routes through the Chair and we can route back to the Chair. At times we struggle with how busy we are with other things and frankly it helps you because if it’s going through the Chair, the Chair is aware of what everybody is looking for and helps make sure there’s alignment there. Chris Hormel also asked about physical space to store items. He commented that one of the things the committee should be doing more is interacting with the public, trying to get artifacts, trying to get pictures, but right now we don’t have anyplace to store anything. He’s great with the SharePoint, but is there a room or the possibility of renting a storage space. Brian James advised that the question is for the SHPC to define what your needs are. The city paid for an air-conditioned storage unit for SHPC to store all their items for a number of years. The question is what you want and need or are really looking at a physical location that is accessible to committee members for storage, a computer workstation, etc. Define your space needs and desires first and we can price that out and see how that would be funded. If you want space beyond a storage unit, how much is that worth to pay monthly. Is it $30,000 year worth to have that space. If part of what you want to do is start becoming self-sustaining and we’re going to raise funds to pay for that and that will change the equation. Ultimately, we want to be there, but we need to make sure the city is willing to fund this. Do you want an office with storage, do you want a storage unit which is what you had before? Send your ideas to the Chair and have the Chair send the ideas to us. We could price out a storage space at the 3009 storage by Starbucks between 3009 and Schertz Parkway. They have on the ground floor the storefronts – it’s storefront space with storage behind that small businesses use. There’s a space you could meet, have a computer, and storage behind. Chris Hormel commented that they no longer have any artifacts, so they aren’t sure of their space requirements. Roz Wise commented that she has contacted Dean Weirtz and he’s been very cooperative and she’s been to his house and he has a garage and bedroom full of Schertz artifacts. She asked Brian James if he paid for those items or did Schertz pay for them. She is going to ask if he’s willing to donate or have Schertz buy the artifacts that he has. Brian James responded that he doesn’t know what digital archives we don’t have that weren’t given to us on the thumb drives. In terms of the physical artifacts, the committee voted to not keep those and the vote was to return some specifically to the folks who donated them or to turn them over to the Cibolo Valley Historic Association and that went to City Council and based on the committee’s recommendation, Council approved that. His impression is that those items were either donated, purchased by committee members with their own funds, and believe some were purchased with committee funds as well. The minutes of the committee are all on the website, so you may go back through the minutes and see the details. His recollection and impression is that it was probably donations, committee members buying them using their own funds, and Historical Committee funds to purchase those. Again, if the committee desires to approach Dean Weirtz to see if we want to buy them back or if he will donate them. Brian James did advise that per the bylaws and city policy, depending on the amount it may have to be approved by Council. Page 6 of 7 • Miguel Vazquez asked if staff would be available to write articles. Brian James advised if the committee doesn’t want to write articles, staff is here to provide support and the direction from Council was decide what you want to do and how you want it done and if the committee’s direction is you don’t want to write the articles, then we need to hear that direction. Miguel Vazquez replied that he’s asking this more as a resource. They are going to continue to write the articles, but if there’s other people that can do articles as well. Brian James replied that the city staff is here to provide support. What Council said is tell us what you want to do, tell us what you want to be, tell us what you need from the city and we’ll go from there. For example, if your desire is to have city staff research and write four articles a month, that’s what we want to hear from you. Again, we have 350-400 staff people and if that’s the desire of the committee, then we need to hear that from you. One of the things that everybody felt bad about is how do we ever get articles about Schertz’s history produced if the committee goes away or if the committee decides that’s not what they want to focus on. Again, if the direction is that it’s important but the committee doesn’t want to focus on it or if they have done away with the committee, then the direction could be for staff to do that. Roz Wise asked if a city staff member could serve on the committee and Brian James advised that would be something he would not recommend as a conflict of interest. • Maggie Titterington commented she can get the storage spaces Brian James was referring at a rate of $725 per month including all utilities with a 12 x 12 front office space and storage space of 12 x 18 and a cost of $8,750 per year. NEW BUSINESS 5. 2023 Car Show Roz Wise motioned and Chris Hormel seconded to cancel the 2023 Car Show. Motion passed unanimously. Subcommittee Reports 6. Bylaws (Chris Hormel, Coordinator) • Chris Hormel sent out a proposal for the updated Mission Statement and responsibilities, Section 2.1. Please look over the next month and bring back your recommendations. He would like to structure this by every month we take a section, look it over, bring it back the next month and move on to the next section. Once we complete our bylaws, we bring the revisions to the city for their approval. He commented that what we’ve been doing hasn’t worked. Look over articles 3, 4, and 5 and we can discuss that further. 7. Publications (Roz Wise, Coordinator) Roz Wise reports that she’s spoken with Devan regarding the Schertz Magazine and they will publish the Clemens High School article we received from them in the June magazine. Roz is also working on the Looking Back articles for 2024. 8. Landmark/Historical Properties/Cemeteries • Proclamation at City Council on Tuesday, May 2 for National Historic Preservation Month. Barbara Hall reports that everything seems to be in order for the proclamation. Page 7 of 7 • Schertz-Cibolo Cemetery Tour on Saturday, May 6 will be the signature event for National Historic Preservation Month. Miguel Vazquez advised there will be mariachis there, Clemens Buffalo Brass, activities for kids, hunting for arrowheads, etc. He reports that the cost for the event is approximately $1,600 and the cemetery can cover $500 of that. Is there a way the SHPC can assist? The expenses include port-o-potties, stage, chairs, mariachis, etc. Barbara Hall asked if we need to have police security since it’s a city function. Brian James responded that it wasn’t clear to him that this was a city function. It was his understanding that this is the historic cemetery association’s function and they looked for support and cooperation from the SHPC. He doesn’t know that we have to have security for the event. Again, what Council said is they want to know what sort of support you need and if the support you’d like is someone from PD or EMS out there, that’s the kind of thing we need to know. For example, for the car show, there was substantial staff support time for that. Fire, PD, EMS, staff support with set-up and take-down. Going forward, make clear that the event is being put on jointly with SHPC and that would help this issue. Council made clear that they want staff to provide support for you and if that’s something you’d like, we can get that done. Chris Hormel suggested that this particular event is low-risk. Roz Wise will have a table with the books, a brochure that Cyndi put together for us, and possibly some artifacts. Chris Hormel will also have applications for landmark properties. Chris Hormel motioned and Barbara Hall seconded for the SHPC to assist with $1,100 to cover the costs of the event. Motion passed unanimously. 9. Main Street Restoration (New Coordinator) No report. Chris Hormel suggested that by the next meeting that they look at the city calendar and work out a plan for the committee to be present. ADJOURNMENT Chris Hormel motioned and Roz Wise seconded to adjourn the meeting at 7:08 PM. Motion passed unanimously.