04-27-2016 MinutesMINUTES
REGULAR MEETING
April 27, 2016
A Regular Meeting was held by the Committee of Committees Advisory Board of the City of Schertz,
Texas, on April 27, 2016, at 3:00 p.m., in the Hal Baldwin Municipal Complex Bob Andrews
Conference Room, Building #1, Schertz, Texas. The following members present to -wit:
Chair Richard Dziewit
Board Member Fae Simmons
Board Member Michael Dahle
Members absent:
Board Member Frank McElroy
Vice -Chair Barbara Hall
Board Member Howson Lau
Board Member Tim Brown
Staff Present: City Manager John Kessel
Executive Director Brian James Executive Director Kyle Kinateder
City Secretary Brenda Dennis Deputy City Secretary Donna Schmoekel
Guests Present: Robert Brockman, Maggie Titterington
Call to Order
Chair Richard Dziewit called the meeting to order at 3:00 p.m. Members of the board introduced
themselves.
Chair Dziewit started off the meeting with a few announcements:
(1) Mr. Kessel celebrated his 50th Birthday yesterday by giving out cake to everyone.
(2) Board member Howson Lau is being transferred. Chair Dziewit recognized Board member Lau
who stated that he has been reassigned for a three year tour by the Army to Korea. He will be
working with the transformation of the U. S. Army over there.
Reports/Updates
Boards, Committees, Commission reports /updates.
Chair Dziewit recognized Board member Barbara Hall who stated that the month of May is
National Preservation Month and they will be observing it with a Symposium on May 21,
2016 at the City Council Chambers Room from 10:00 a.m. to noon. They have secured
several notable speakers that will be speaking about historical preservation. She stated that at
the next Council meeting a proclamation will be presented regarding the recognition of
Historic Preservation. She stated that she will be getting more information back regarding the
Aviation Heights Clean Up.
City Manager John Kessel and City Secretary Brenda Dennis provided the following
regarding the information they had on this event. The following was reported:
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Ms. Dennis stated that it was absolutely amazing with all the many volunteers from United
Methodist Church, Love Where You Live Group, Bexar Waste, City Employees for the Fire
Department, Marshal and Public Works, Chamber of Commerce and many other businesses
and individual volunteers who showed up on Saturday and Sunday transforming several
historical homes and other homes in need of repair for those that were not able to do it
themselves. A total of nine major projects were accomplished with over 20 smaller projects
also completed. Several yards were mowed and cleaned, many trees were trimmed and
chipped and several loads of debris were hauled off. It was a successful event and everyone
that was impacted was so humbled by the help they received.
Mr. Kessel stated that the area that they worked with was identified by the Historical
Preservation Committee as Aviation Heights, the second oldest neighborhood in Schertz.
They worked with the City Marshal Code Enforcement Department and the Love Where You
Live Committee. As was mentioned before, accomplishments were lawn mowing, house
repairs and painting. The area was designated as a Historic Neighborhood area and now it's
not only a historic neighborhood area it has a face lift all at once. This is an incredible model
of volunteering and shows that the city does care about its history. It is different from what
the Historic Committee has done in the past and it is a more holistic approach. We are hoping
that this spreads. This is a very big bragging point for us.
Ms. Barbara Hall, Historical Preservation Committee stated that there was a lot of planning
and special meetings that took place in order to get this event accomplished. Mr. Kessel stated
again that this was 100 percent from the Historical Committee in identifying this area and
designating it as a historical neighborhood area and the need to assist in preserving it.
Chair Dziewit recognized Board Member Dahle who stated that the Planning and Zoning
Commission has been fairly quiet but tonight their meeting might get some excitement will be
getting exciting as they have on the agenda an item of modification regarding our sign
ordinances and rezoning for an area for our water tower for southern Schertz.
Chair Dziewit recognized Board member Lau who stated that the Library Advisory Board had
a very successful book sale recently. The next book sale will be in July. Pricing has, gone up to
$4.00 per bag of books. A question was raised by Board Member Dahle who asked if the
Library Advisory Board will be providing books to the kiosk library at Crossvine. Mr. Kessel
stated that they will be responsible for that and it is their own thing. He stated that they are in
conversations with the City of Cibolo about a possible kiosk style library at a future
community center should one be built. Member Lau described some of the events and things
they do with the money that they raise. An example of this is that they now sponsor on -line
tutoring for grades kindergarten through high school age students. This is free.
Chair Dziewit recognized. Board Member Simmons who stated that on April 16, 2016 the
Parks and Recreation Board toured all the parks within the City and those that were identified
as a park in Schertz. Ms. Simmons stated that she had mentioned one of the threats that the
board recently discussed regarding deteriorating areas in some of the neighborhoods. She
stated they identified a piece of property (showing on a map she had provided) on #8, Palm
Park and the board had discussions about focusing on that area to try and at least get it mowed
for those residents to use as there is nothing right now in that area for neighborhood children,
boy scouts and others. The Parks Board wants to focus on getting this accomplished. Ms.
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Simmons encouraged everyone to go look at some of the parks that she had on the document
she provided.
Mr. Kessel stated that we have a couple of parks that have been added that were not included
on the map. The city owns a triangle shaped piece of property on Schertz Parkway. We have
the Sedona Park property where the trees are being trimmed at present and we also accepted
Cypress Point Park a few months ago. He said we are on schedule to accept Ryan Valley Park
Homestead which is in the platting stage and it has a park adjacent to the Hilltop property.
There are also five more additional parks and they are working on updating the Parks Plan.
Chair Dziewit stated he was reporting for both the BOA and TSAC Commissions. As he
mentioned last time, TSAC is primarily a reactive board. At the last meeting they had, most
of the involvement was in regard to street stop signs, speed bumps and issues about parking
vehicles in front of mail boxes.
Regarding BOA, they will be having a meeting on Monday, May 2, 2016. He is unsure of
what the items or issues are but they haven't met in some time. As a reminder he stated this is
primarily a `reactive' board to public concerns.
Chair Dziewit stated before we get started he wanted to bring up a couple of topics for the
board to consider. One is the School District. The School District is a major part in any town
because of what they bring to the town and it helps decide what kind of boundaries they
require for their schools and what areas they need to utilize. For these reasons, and we do not
have a representative from the School District on this board, but what he would like to do and
he has spoken to the Mayor about is the possibility of having an individual from the school
district as an advisor. The advisor would bring information to the board about the school
district and their needs. The same thing would be for having an advisor from The Chamber as
they are partners with surrounding cities and we talk about the need for partnerships all the
time. He believes an advisor from The Chamber would also be able to update this board on
the needs that they are aware of. If you feel this is something you want to consider, then we
can place this on the next agenda to discuss. The other members concurred that there was
merit in these proposed advisory positions.
Discussion and /or Action Items
2. Minutes. Consideration and /or action regarding the approval of the minutes of the regular
meeting of March 18, 2016.
Chair Dziewit recognized Board Member Lau who moved, seconded by Board Member
Simmons to approve the February 26, 2016 minutes. The vote was 4 -0 -1. Board Member
Dahle abstained. Motion passed.
3. Discuss presenting the 2016 City of Schertz Strategic Plan to respective Boards, Committees
and Commissions.
Chair Dziewit thanked City Secretary Brenda Dennis for getting these Strategic Plan
documents out to them in spite of her very heavy workload. Ms. Dennis stated it is suggested
by the management team that each member take this information back to their boards and
share it with the other members.
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Mr. Kessel said city council has approved this document and it is what both council and staff
are working from. It is the hope that each member of this committee will go back and give an
overview to their respective boards /commissions. One of the primary roles of this body is to
help exchange information between boards and commissions and from council to the boards
and commissions and back. This information should help each of them see where they are in
the big picture.. Staff has a PowerPoint presentation available that could be modified a bit for
the boards should any of you want to go that way. The staff member will probably be
Executive Director Brian James for most of you. Each board has their own cycle and this can
be put on their respective agendas in the next couple of months as each board meets.
Mr. Kessel said he wanted to extend compliments on the concept of getting everyone's `buy -
in' (i.e., the Aviation Heights Volunteer Cleanup). Buy -in will go a long way to moving this
committee's goals forward.
Board Member Hall stated on her board they began by educating the public and they have had
a lot of discussion on this. This is where the Aviation Heights Cleanup idea came from.
Preserve the old/historic neighborhoods because once it is gone, it is gone.
Chair Dziewit said he would like to have Mr. Kessel explain a little bit about the Bond Issue
and FM 1518. Mr. Kessel stated he was going to call this a staff report update. The Bond
Committee approved three projects 1) FM 1103 ($2 million) 2) FM 1518 ($5 million) and 3)
Fire Station No. 3 ($8 million).
We have a TxDOT Match of $2 million for FM 1103. We are in the environmental stage
already and TxDOT has already had public hearings. By summer they will be completing the
environmental and transitioning to right -of -way acquisitions and utility relocations through
the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017. They feel they will be complete with all the right -of-
way acquisitions and utility relocations for construction in 2018. This will be two lanes going
into four lanes going through Schertz (about one mile). They are also doing the same project
in the Cibolo portion (6 or 7 miles). There is an average of 10 feet of right of way on either
side of the roadway. Also, TxDOT is 100% committed to doing the IH 35 bridge section in
advance of that project. It will be expanded from a two lane bridge to a five lane bridge. This
is forecast for construction in 2017. We are guessing on the price; it could be $3 million, twice
that or half that, but it is some big number. So far, with our original $2 million we have
leveraged another $2 million and in addition to that, the bridge, for an estimated $7 million
project. This is good community value. TxDOT is treating the Schertz and Cibolo portions as
a single project. It is a state project with state funding. Regarding sidewalks, they have to
comply with EPA, erosion control standards, re- establish turf or put in a permanent layer of
concrete.
Mr. Kessel stated we will be in and out of this bond package very quickly. We just signed the
final contracts with TxDOT yesterday on FM 1103. Technically, whenever the check pops out
of Finance, then the bond measure is satisfied. Our portion will then be 100% complete.
FM 1518 is really exciting. We put in $5 million and TxDOT verbally agreed to $5 million.
The combinations of these were then submitted to the MPO as a match request for $9.5
million, which has been approved. This resulted in a leverage of $19.5 million. It sounds like
a lot of money, but it is not. However, TxDOT understands that our desire is to have a Phase
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II to keep, this project going. While they are focusing on intersections, turns, and safety, they
are also going to approach the design and environmental from the full length of IH 10 to Hwy
78 and try to get that blessed in advance in the event we can get additional funds in the next
few years, thus keeping the project going. It will probably be 2018 -2020 before we see
immediate relief because of the process they have to go through. We have good connections
with the various TxDOT offices right now which of great value for us.
Board Member Hall asked how the money is allocated, just in the city limits, ETJ, etc. Mr.
Kessel explained the city money is primarily going to be in the city limits. The TxDOT
money can be anywhere in the state and the MPO money can be anywhere in the ACCOG
district (county or city). Because we have funding from all of these, we can spend those
dollars all the way from FM 78 to IH 10. This is a really nice partnership. We are also
working closely with Joint Base San Antonio Randolph AFB who is ensuring that we have
encroachment and compatibility. This is perceived by them as a positive thing.
Mr. Kessel stated in regard to the proposed Fire Station (No. 3), we are currently interviewing
design firms and will be going to council within two months with recommendations for an
architect. We have looked at three tracts of land and selected a favorite and are in
negotiations on that piece of property. In May or June you should see action items on the
council meeting agenda for securing land and beginning the design phase. Two months after
that we will probably secure a Construction Manager at Risk (CMR). Maybe by September
we should have all these things in place and under contract.
4. Review and discuss Council and Staffs SWOT priorities developed during the recent retreat
and finalize the Committee of Committees Advisory Board's SWOT.
Chair Dziewit stated he looked at these and noticed that in the strengths category everyone
listed things like public safety, long range planning and partnerships. Others such as low
crime, water, and citizen input -- -these were specific to either CCAB or Council.
Mr. Kessel stated that Council had access to a review of what CCAB and city staff had done
when they did theirs. Staff is generally more operational minded while Council looks at the
big picture. From a staff perspective, the one Council did is what we are using for direction in
going forward. He explained that some of the views were aligned and others were not, as well
as some differences in priority.
Chair Dziewit stated he would like this committee to determine what their main focus will be;
what is it that we are going to concentrate on - -more of the weaknesses, strengths or threats?
Mr. Kessel said the primary role of this committee (CCAB) is the information side,
communication (information sharing) and alignment. How do we get the boards or
commissions, Council and city staff to work together effectively? He drew a governance
model on the dry board and said Council represents policy, staff is about operations, etc. We
have recently added more strategic planning and now are focusing on tactical, which is how
you apply the strategic plan to the daily operations. At the end of the day, Council sets the
policy. Boards and Commissions cross over between policy and strategic planning and
management develops the tactical components; how do we deploy this best? It is important
that our boards and commissions are in sync to achieve success going from our policies to our
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operation stages. How do we align all these? It has to start with a strong focus and information
sharing. This board was formed to help with this.
Board Member Dahle said he sees this committee's job as being similar to a company's
leadership team whose job is to provide alignment so everyone works cooperatively together.
In the city's case, each committee should know in what direction the city is headed.
Board Member Simmons expressed concern about getting buy -in from all the members of
each committee and commission as the members may feel they have no input into policy
development. Further discussion and comments were made as to how information exchange
will work amongst the committees and how it can be effectively delivered and shared.
Executive Director Brian James asked for further clarification of Ms. Simmons concern. She
stated she is just concerned about getting the involvement of the board(s), buying in (i.e.,
policies of the council), and being able to explain to them exactly what we are trying to do.
Mr. James said the policies are really the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats,
which are in this document (2016 Strategic Plan). He summarized saying the boards and
commissions were not involved in creating this plan and the idea is we are going back to the
boards and saying Council has adopted this and we may get push back from them saying, I
don't agree with this. Mr. James said that basically at the end of the day, Council is in charge.
In reality, we may agree with it or we may not. As an example, he cited the recent item from
the P & Z Board in regard to new proposed permitting requirements for sheds and fences.
Council did not agree with the first proposal and sent it back for more work. It is okay for
people to disagree. He doesn't know if we can get everyone on board but the reality is this is
the document Council has said we want to move by.
Mr. Kessel said he wants to always assume the best intentions of the board's members,
Council and this committee. He thinks everyone is trying to make this a better community.
This document is not trying to be something just for Council; it is trying to be something for
the City. He feels as more people read it there will be more agreement than disagreement. This
does not replace the Parks Plan, Comprehensive Plan, or the Thoroughfare Plan. Board
Member Dahle stated this is the guidance document and the others are the details. Staff and
Council do intend to update the document again in January of 2017. Mr. Kessel pointed out
that this is also on our website for anyone to look at even if they don't have a hard copy.
Chair Dziewit said knowing and explaining to our respective boards and commissions, it
works both days. This is the presentation and what we are sort of governed by as a city. It is
supposed to work. Some people may be negative about it but maybe that feedback will work
for the next one. That is the key. He feels after the individual board presentations, the
members will have a better understanding of what this is.
Mr. Kessel suggested each member consider leading a "Is, Is not" discussion with their board
and see what they come up with. It would be insightful to see what is different and what is the
same. Then their data could be presented back to the CCAB group for discussion and
consideration. We should come back each year to address the SWOTS because it should
change. We should have new issues, addressed old threats, taken advantage of past
opportunities, etc. Ultimately, Council will bless it in January and staff will turn around and
help prepare the budget. Everyone wants to get more participation in this. Mr. Kessel said his
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thoughts would be that each member on this committee would be able to present and discuss
the policy values, operational values, the SWOT information, Is Is -Not discussions on each
one and maybe give a few examples and walk through how that plan is structured. How do the
boards and commissions look at all of this? This would be some good feedback for us. If one
of our goals is for all our board members to say they know what we are driving to and they
know their board's specific plans and those items are in alignment, then they can see the
whole picture and be cognizant of what the other boards are doing. Everybody should be
working together.
Each board should be coming up with their own tactical plans (daily operations). The City
does not have a strong history of doing this. Project management is the tactical side. What do
we do first, what do we do second? Because of limited resources, we have to select the most
important things, narrow the scope and do those things well and have them touch the broadest
number of areas to be successful or leverage the greatest amount of additional resources. The
value is to get everyone started on the same page. As individuals on each of your boards, you
are ahead of the game. How can we multiply this, where we have not just 10 people knowing
everything we know but 75 or more, and all talking about the same stuff? The great ideas
people are having are helpful to all of us on all the boards. We have to believe in our ideas
(small or big) and communicate this to everyone else.
5. Discuss existing municipal complex including City Hall and Public Works.
Chair Dziewit recognized City Manager John Kessel who stated we are looking at our Master
Facility Plan and finalizing it. Then it will be presented to this board. We will be doing some
`What if9 plans, low dollar, low detail, specifically for remodeling buildings at City Hall and
Public Works, figuring out costs and what things would look like a certain way. We will share
this information with you as we get it. We also have a 5, 10, and 20 year plan and we need to
know if we are going east or west. Meanwhile, we need more space with minimal investment.
He gave an example at the Civic Center where they are looking at remodeling some storage
areas to gain better functionality. We are also going to do this with Building I and II and
Public Works. We want to better utilize the existing space we already have and buy more time
until we have to eventually build something new.
Chair Richard Dziewit asked if anyone had anything else to say before they adjourned. Chair
Dziewit recognized Board Member Lau who asked about his replacement when he leaves.
City Secretary Brenda Dennis stated that Mayor Carpenter and Library Chair Bobbie Boyce
have both been notified of the need to replace him. She recommended he reach out to Ms.
Boyce and offer her a recommendation if he so desired.
Mr. Kessel pointed out that one of the Council threats they listed was a change of leadership.
An important thing to take away from this is that if we do our jobs well, any one of us can
leave and any other member of the boards and commissions can step in with minimum
disruption and allow continuity of governance to continue. We cannot invest knowledge in a
single person anymore; it must be invested in groups of people to spread and share this
information.
Chair Dziewit recognized Board Member Dahle who moved, seconded by Board Member Lau
to adjourn the meeting. The vote was 5 -0 -0. Motion passed.
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Chair Dziewit adjourned the meeting at 5:06 p.m.
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04 -27 -2016 Minutes Page - 8 -
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