04-06-2017Northeast Partnership for Economic Development
City of Garden Ridge
Council Chambers
9400 Municipal Parkway
Garden Ridge, Texas 78266
I. Call to Order and Establish a Quorum.
Mayor Carpenter called the workshop to order at 6:36 PM.
Members present were:
Mayor Michael Carpenter, Schertz
Mayor Bill Seiler, Marion
Mayor Nadine Knaus, Garden Ridge
Mayor Elect Larry Thompson, Garden Ridge
Mayor Al Suarez, Converse
Mayor Nick Milanovich, New Berlin
Mayor Jeff Hunt, Santa Clara
Mayor Mary Dennis, Live Oak
Mayor Pro -Tem John McCaw, City of Garden Ridge
Others Present:
City Administrator Nancy Cain
Catarina Gonzales, Denton, Navarro, Rocha, Bernal, Hyde & Zech, PC.
II. Introduction
Mayor Carpenter welcomed those present and those present introduced themselves. Mayor
Carpenter recognized Mayor Nadine Knaus who introduced Mayor Elect Larry Thompson,
City of Garden Ridge.
III. OLD BUSINESS:
1. Update regarding the 85' Texas Legislature. (Catarina Gonzales/Mayor
Carpenter)
Ms. Gonzales stated that today they have on the floor in the House SB 1 which is the
budget, the Senate version cuts a lot of public funding, that's the main difference
between the House and the Senate version. They are several billion dollars apart. The
biggest issue is whether they ae going to use money from the rainy -day fund to fund
things like public education and health and human services.
There are 482 amendments they are debating and last year they had less and went to
3:00 a.m. discussing them. She suspects it will be a long night. She said it is a good
way to see who is in a faction with whom, etc.
SB2 and HB 15 are still sitting in committee, S132 was received by the House from the
Senate, but hasn't been referred to committee yet. Question was raised by Mayor
Carpenter about HB 15 and was this going through, and she stated that it is holding
right now; that being said Chairman Bonham's father passed away last week so he has
been gone, but now he is back, and of course the budget is this week, so she is not sure
when that will be moving again. Mayor Pro -Tern McCaw asked what he would like to
know is who is on the fence on this, those are the individuals that we need to concentrate
on and communicate with so they may go on our side. He would like to have a couple
of names. Ms. Gonzales answered that we need to wait and see if it gets a hearing. She
doesn't think the House and particularly the Speaker on handing any victories to Dan
Patrick in the Senate right now. She believes we need to wait until it gets posted, instead
of wasting capital, and then we can see who we can go visit with.
Regarding the annexation bills most of them got a hearing yesterday in the House. The
Committee Chair was very diligent keeping a clean hearing going and making sure
there were no points of order on the bill based on testimony and how people registered
for that. This makes her believe that he is going to move one of the bills over. She
knows there is particular interest in regard to annexation with this group, so if there are
things we need to work on, let her know. Mayor Hunt stated that there are two bills
that are his, and this is annexing his donut holes, so we can stop certain types of
businesses moving into those areas.
Mayor Seiler spoke about SB 1587 and HB 3695 - -- requires cities to replace all lines
that have any lead—so everybody does lead testing. It puts it back on the water
purveyor. Ms. Gonzales said she would look at where those bills are.
She also said that a big thing happened today which was that SB 1004 got out of the
Senate (the small cell wireless appointment). This bill strips cities of their right of way
authority in terms of placement of these things. It is a bad bill; it is very industry
friendly and caps the fees you can charge for these things, like at $250. She said there
will be further discussions at the legislature on this item. The wireless issue is going to
be a big item and an ongoing issue.
The TxDOT sunset bill has moved out of the Senate and the House will probably be
taking that up in a week or two. Right now, things are moving real slow and people are
waiting for their bills to get referred. There is a lot of delay, some because of conflict
between the lieutenant governor and the speaker. This session, local government has a
big target on it.
Discussion/comments continued regarding the apparent onslaught of local control bills
regarding business development, annexation, revenue caps, backyard chickens, etc.
Further discussion/comments were in regard to the cities being landlocked, ability to
offer services in newly annexed areas, the possibility of a toll road (Cibolo), imminent
domain issues, transportation (rail) etc.
Ms. Gonzales said she thinks things will start moving better next week. The Texas
Legislative Session ends this year on Memorial Day. The texting while driving ban
appears to have some momentum building. She will keep the group updated on future
developments.
IV. NEW BUSINESS:
2. Discussion regarding members prepaying.
City Secretary Brenda Dennis stated that we already have some members that prepay
for lunches and that when this is done, she works closely with the Treasurer to keep
track of them. She stated that she does not see a need to get a credit card reader and
that most people who now attend know to either bring a check or cash; if they do not
have cash for the event and since we do not have a way to bill, she directs them to the
nearest ATM.
V. Items of Interest by the Member Cities.
Garden Ridge will be replacing Mayor Nadine Knaus with Mayor Elect Larry
Thompson. Mayor Knaus expressed her gratitude for the support group she has had as
Mayor in Garden Ridge and in working with the NEP group.
Mayor Dennis also expressed her gratitude for Mayor Knaus's past contributions and
asked the group what their thoughts were about the meeting frequency (currently, once
a month) of these NEP workshops; should they be more or less? This is something they
can think about.
City Secretary Brenda Dennis reminded everyone of the TML Region 7 meeting
coming up on May 11 at Live Oak Hilton Conference Center, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Mayor Carpenter recognized City Administrator Nancy Cain and City Secretary
Brenda Dennis who stated that on behalf of the NEP organization, they would like to
present this plant and card to Mayor Knaus for her work as being the Treasurer for the
Northeast Partnership for Economic Development Group and wished her much success
on her next adventure.
VI. Establish a Date, Time, & Location of the Next Meeting. (Next up is the City of
Converse to host for May.
City Secretary Brenda Dennis stated that the City of Converse has agreed to host the
next meeting.
VII. Adjournment.
As there was no further business Mayor Carpenter adjourned the workshop at 7:28 p.m.
PASSE PROVED THIS Stn DAY OF MARCH 2017.
,,Pd'a'YoFlK4ichael R. Carpenter, NEP Chairman