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04-02-2024 Council Workshop MinutesMINUTES CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP April 2, 2024 A City Council Workshop was held by the Schertz City Council of the City of Schertz, Texas, on April 2, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. in the Hal Baldwin Municipal Complex Council Chambers, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Building #4, Schertz, Texas. The following members present to -wit: Present: Mayor Ralph Gutierrez; Mayor Pro-Tem Paul Macaluso; Councilmember Mark Davis; Councilmember Tiffany Gibson; Councilmember Robert Westbrook; Councilmember Allison Heyward; Councilmember Tim Brown Absent: Councilmember Michelle Watson Staff City Manager Steve Williams; Deputy City Manager Brian James; Deputy City present: Secretary Sheree Courney Call to Order Mayor Gutierrez called the workshop to order at 5:00 p.m. Discussion Items City Manager Steve Williams explained the workshop was organized at staffs request to put items in front of Council for general discussion. It is a posted meeting to allow a quorum to be present and discuss city matters while maintaining compliance with the Texas Public Meetings Act. The objective is to address items that were initiated by Council by creating a platform for discussion that will result in general direction to staff on how to proceed. The intent is to have these workshops on a periodic basis, currently one per month, whenever there are items to bring to Council. The workshops will be live -streamed and recorded for residents to view. Councilmember Heyward requested future workshops not be on the same evening as a regularly scheduled Council Meeting. She recommended the 2nd or 4th Tuesday of the month. No decision could be made since it was not listed as an agenda item. Councilmember Heyward asked that it be included on the next agenda as an action item. 1. Workshop on the Strategic Housing Implementation Program (R.Westbrook/S.WilliamsB.James/L.Wood) City Manager Steve Williams explained that the agenda identifies the name of the discussion item as well as the Councilmember who initiated it and the potential staff support who would be best poised to address the item. He indicated there is a link in the backup information provided in the agenda packet that will take you to the City of San Antonio's website which has information on their Strategic Housing Implementation Program. Councilmember Westbrook provided that the rationale is a follow-up to the strategic 1 planning session to ensure everyone is on the same page in terms of terminology and where the City is currently. The Strategic Housing Implementation Program would in essence compliment the comprehensive land use plan building a framework for housing moving forward. Councilmember Davis stated that he understands where Councilmember Westbrook is coming from, but doesn't see the need for a Strategic Housing Implementation Program for Schertz. There is a significant difference between the City of Schertz and the City of San Antonio with respect to housing needs. The success of a steering committee for Schertz comprised of local residents and developers to come up with a vision for housing moving forward is doubtful. Developers will provide an extensive list of what Schertz needs and residents will say we are developing too fast. A comp plan was just completed that simplified a lot of the aspects of projected development, and we have a housing authority in Schertz. The Schertz Housing Authority was created to address issues such as increasing affordable housing production. There is a board for the Housing Authority that is appointed by the Mayor, and they provide advice and guidance to the director. They have been taking action to address affordable housing concerns as they arise. He is not convinced that adding another committee and additional staff workload would provide any significant benefit to a community of our size. Councilmember Brown also spoke about the Schertz Housing Authority's role and addressed the difference in population size between the two cities. Schertz does not have a billion dollar budget like the City of San Antonio or the number of staff. The Schertz Comp Plan addresses the major overarching goals. He added that the definition of affordable means different things and asked who should be making that determination for Schertz? He stated that the assumption for affordable housing is targeted for $1,000/month rentals in our demographic, the City of Schertz, but no developer is going to come in and do that. It has to be a goal of the community to maintain the older type B, C, and D properties, so we don't have substandard living conditions in these lower rental areas. Schertz already has Section 8 (low income) and Section 11 (fixed income) housing options, which work in our area, especially because of the military who are on a fixed income. He stated he doesn't think we should add to staff workload, but rather provide guidance and maybe meet again with the Schertz Housing Authority. He closed with, the city can ask developers to do certain things, but its up to them and their private money to do them. Mayor Gutierrez added that the city didn't want the challenges associated with affordable workforce housing, which is why they moved it to the Schertz Housing Authority for them to manage it. San Antonio is a big city, so they receive federal funding that is not available to Schertz. Councilmember Heyward stated she spoke with the Schertz Housing Board and believes they do a good job of identifying the needs and areas for workforce housing in the City. She believes we need to continue that and the Comp Land Use Plan gives an overview of what can go where. Council does not need "to get down in the weeds." Councilmember Westbrook clarified that this was not about affordable housing, it was about putting more "meat on the bone" in terms of Comprehensive Land Use Plan. The 2 discussion at the Strategic Planning session was a disagreement about whether the City of Schertz had enough affordable housing. He felt they were discussing two separate issues. His contention was that Schertz has enough affordable housing. He just wanted to ensure that Council were all on the same page and speaking the same language in terms of affordable housing. He just wanted to establish a framework for moving forward and to ensure they were using the same common language. 2. Workshop on the Ambassador Summer Internship Program (R.Westbrook/S.Williams/S.Gonzalez/J.Kurz) Councilmember Westbrook stated that the premise behind the Ambassador Summer Internship Program is that neighboring communities, not just San Antonio, including school districts, develop local talent, especially college -talent people who've gone to Clemens or Steele High Schools, by developing a summer pilot program for them to learn about civic service and government. Paid internships wouldn't be prohibitive because we would be developing local talent. Interns would be chosen based on a set of standards; minimum 2.5 GPA, certain degree plans, etc. He believes the City should implement a constituent services program. Councilmember Gibson likes the idea of the Ambassador Internship because it creates another wave or funnel for city employment. Currently the only option for city employment is through the application process. Schertz has the Young Leaders Program, which is not a college program, but this internship could play off of it as a more expanded ordeal to allow the City to fill some gaps such as part-time employment. A small paid internship could alleviate some tremendous costs by providing a bridge for positions with high vacancy rates. The requirements provided for the Ambassador Internship were geared more toward college level, but she would like to see those requirements decreased to allow high school graduates. Councilmember Davis fully supported the idea of an internship program for municipal government. However, he doesn't believe it has to be a paid internship. He stated the City could re-engage with the Skillbridge program which allows members of the military who are separating to use their last 180 days to learn other skill sets that will help them transition to the civilian sector. Interns under the Skillbridge program are paid by the federal government. So it's a win -win for those leaving the military who are looking forward to the next chapter of their lives, as well as the city with vacancies in hard -to -fill positions, such as engineers, financial analysts, and planners. Conversely, it might not be a bad idea to do the same thing with a city -sponsored paid internship where we bring in a college graduate as an entry-level engineer or planner. The City could also partner with local colleges and/or trade schools to provide internships that are part of a curriculum requiring practical experience. He believes it's a great idea, but staff would need to come back with a formal proposal to include where they think they could use interns and looking at what avenues are available, whether paid programs, programs like Skillbridge, or partnering with local universities or trade schools. Councilmember Heyward stated she is not opposed to a program for internships. She recommended partnering with local universities where the internship could be part of a 3 Capstone project, so it's part of the academic requirement to complete a degree and not a paid program. Councilmember Macaluso said the only concern he has with a paid internship or partnering with local universities is if the intern were a non-Schertz resident. If it's a program to help the community, the focus should be on residents of Schertz to help them with their future, not individuals that may never set foot in Schertz other than the internship. Councilmember Brown directed his question to staff asking if this would enhance their offices, their recruiting, and/or their retention. Council can provide all kinds of ideas, but that can add to staff workload without any benefit. He asked that something like this not necessarily be generated by the staff but that the staff be the one that buys into it and indicates they could really use this type of program as opposed to Council telling what to do and how to do it. City Manager Steve Williams responded that he has quite a bit of experience running internship programs in city government throughout different levels of his career. One early in his career where they partnered with the North Central Texas Council of Government, equivalent to AACOG here. They would get graduate students from MPA programs and bring them into the budget office and have them be part of that process. It was great. They paid them a nominal amount. More recently, he worked with an internship where graduate students would rotate among many city departments. Cities have very diverse functions, Parks and Rec is very different from the Police Department. So, if you are going to bring in interns, it helps if they're more specialized in what those operations entail. He is supportive and would like to put some opportunity in place for the different departments, but would hesitate to make it too structured. He recommends bringing back a proposal after seeking input from the different department heads to see which ones might be interested in starting an internship program and have them put their best proposal forward and organize that into an expanded program request for the new budget year. Councilmember Brown stated this is what he was recommending. Mayor Gutierrez stated it could be considered, but it does need to be part of the budgeting plan. Councilmember Macaluso stated that it depends on whether you are doing it to help the city fill shortfalls or if it's for the community to give experience to students. He views these as separate and would be more interested in doing something for the local residents rather than someone that's not, unless the city found that they have a need for an intern. Mr. Williams clarified his original statement by stating that each department has a different approach. He added that the easiest way to contact local residents and have them be involved is at the high school level. Once you start adding collegiate level and graduate school level, it's harder to identify the pool of individuals that would be available to you. In his experience on a school board, they had an internship for IT 4 through the summer in which the school district would bring in high school kids to teach them. Local students would learn a practical trade and be paid. Perhaps this could be an option for Schertz. 3. Workshop on the onboarding of newly elected Councilmembers (R. Westbrook/S. Edmondson) This item was deferred to a future workshop at the request of City Manager Steve Williams due to the absence of City Secretary Sheila Edmondson, who was participating in the Charter Review meeting. He stated that Ms. Edmondson is putting something together for this item. Councilmember Gibson stated that the items in the packet are actionable items that need to be taken by the City Secretary, not actionable items on what Council should be doing. She would like the focus to be onboarding Councilmembers from the perspective of new Councilmembers. 4. Workshop on creating a City Council Project Fund (R. W estbrook/S .Williams/S . Gonzalez/J. Walters) Councilmember Westbrook opened discussion on this item. He stated that he is unaware of any block development grants within the City, but feels all Councilmembers have been approached on occasion to support one function or one idea. When this came up in the City of San Antonio, every council person was allotted a large amount of funding to support a project or an organization as long as they were a nonprofit. Transitioning to the City of Schertz, this would be a pilot program, whereby every council person would have $500 or $1,000 per year to support a nonprofit organization of their choice if it met certain requirements. He is suggesting a way to support different projects rather than just trying to budget for them at the beginning of the year. Councilmember Brown is not opposed to having a City project fund, but doesn't feel it should be tailored any further than the City in general. The City of San Antonio is divided into districts, so they need their votes. They use these funds to say to their constituents, 'look I brought you a million dollar project.' Schertz has to take care of the community, not get votes. Councilmember Heyward stated she doesn't mind the idea, but at the $500 or $1,000 level, that is something that could come out of their individual pockets. She stated she has a hard time using taxpayer dollars to fund a project, knowing there are other things that they need to be doing for the residents, such as fixing roads. Granted, it wouldn't have a major impact, but the city already provides funding or support through activities for non-profit organizations. She would prefer to continue by this means. She does not support providing each councilmember with a certain block of money. Councilmember Davis stated they do take taxpayer dollars and spend them on things that benefit the community. His concern is migrating the funds down to the individual councilmember level. The city has a program in place to assist the Schertz Housing 5 Authority, a program to assist the Prescription program for eligible residents, and we have block grants or incentives for certain development or certain areas like Main Street and Historical Preservation. The difference in how we do it here is that all of those items come before the Council as a group often embarking on a spirited discussion regarding the value of expending the money. He stated he is not opposed to looking at different grants, programs, or incentives for exploration, but he prefers to keep it at the level where they can bring it to the Council and the Council discusses and approves it as a group as opposed to having a block of money that is administered by a Councilmember individually. Mayor Gutierrez concurred with Councilmember Davis, adding that giving funds to individual councilmembers didn't sit well. He prefers having a project fund that is allocated by the group for a priority set by Council that benefits the City. Councilmember Westbrook felt the item generated some good discussion and thanked Council for their input. Mr. Williams added that the projects would need to be things that serve a public purpose. He recommended they bring back an amount of money during the budget process to include as part of the proposed budget. It could be a pooled amount that Council would hear proposals on and make determinations, or it could come in the form of an expanded program request for specific things that are discussed during the budget process. S. Workshop to discuss the implementation of a Women's History Month program (R. Westbrook/S. Williams/S. Gonzalez) Councilmember Westbrook stated that March is Women's Appreciation Month. The City of San Antonio set up a program to recognize the importance women play in the community. Programs are nonexistent in Schertz and Cibolo for recognizing the contributions of women in business and the history of the cities. He recommended something as small as a banquet or luncheon to show appreciation for the role that women play. Councilmember Gibson stated she understands the celebration of women during the month of March, and it's a good idea to network something to showcase women in male -dominated career fields and/or women and their impact on the community, as opposed to singling out any one person. Councilmember Heyward stated that the Schertz Public Library does a fantastic program for Women's History Month, and they should be allowed to continue that. However, she doesn't like the idea of celebrating women's achievements for just one month, she believes it should be integral throughout the year. Don't make women a subset of history. Mayor Gutierrez stated this would be the final comment on this item since the Workshop had a hard stop to prepare for the Regular City Council Meeting scheduled for 6 6:00 p.m. Adjournment Mayor Gutierrez adjourned the Workshop at 5:45 p.m. ATTEST - Sheila Edmonds City Secretary