San Angelo City Council 11-21-17

[0:00:01] that would be a call to order and that is at 8:30 four in the morning thank you everyone for being here today we are gonna start off as usual on the prayer and the pledge and Brian is going to lead us in prayer today father Lord we come before you and we just ask Lord for wisdom for everyone here making a decision Lord for this council that you just give them supernatural wisdom Lord and help us to remember to be thankful for everything we have during this time of season Lord everything that you've provided for us just all the divine providence and everything that we see from day to day Lord we think here in Jesus name Amen we're also going to do the a pledge next and I'm going to ask Tommy Hebert to please lead us in the prayer I'm in in the pledges today if you would please sir Russell are you here this morning would you come forward please I know you're shy and I know you don't like to be in public but you're on today the engineer Russell Pell has been honored by the sign Angela standard

[0:02:02] times as one of its 20 under 40 young leaders for 2017 - those of us who work with Russell this is no surprise his job involves tending to hundreds of millions of dollars of municipal infrastructure he is also a point person for millions more and proposed upgrades to streets water and sewer lines as well as storm damage that's a daunting responsibility but russell approaches these duties as he does life solidly steadily and with much integrity away from work he continues to contribute to our community Russell is a deacon and a Sunday school teacher at Southland Baptist Church he is also a volunteer and board member with helping hands the organization formerly known as Christmas and April that helps the elderly with home volunteers they can't do themselves as Russell said during his 20 under 40 interview anybody can be a boss but it takes a servant to become a leader therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor of the city of San Angelo on behalf of the city council do hereby recognize and applaud Russell pal for his achievement and positive determination to make a difference in our community [Applause] Mason Matthews are you here today an angel' fire department firefighter

[0:04:15] Mason Matthews has been honored by the San Angeles standard times as one of its 20 under 40 young leaders for 2017 that's because Mason is a yes-man where the Mason is asked to lead the fire departments fill the boot campaign or to spearhead San Angelo hosting the Texas firefighter games or to spend his days off leading Reagan County's fire department and emergency medical service the answer is always yes Mason has pun intended a fire for his profession he has earned 12 certificate certifications and his sought statewide to teach and train his peers he is at the top of the command chain and Big Lake and near the bottom in San Angelo that exemplifies his ethic of leading not from the front or the back but from where one is lead where you are and be willing to serve he says aside from his professional responsibilities Mason has been an active volunteer with our area's youth whether that's mentoring teaching or coaching them in classrooms or on ball fields in all capacities Mason says he tries to treat people with empathy and respect if you do that he says nothing really comes routine therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor the city of San Angelo on behalf of the city council do hereby recognize and applaud Mason Matthews for his achievement and positive determination to make a difference in our community [Applause] is Christina Woodard here today Christina Woodard has been honored by

[0:06:27] the sign Angela standard times is one of its 20 under 40 young leaders for 2017 that's a tribute to Christina's unbridled enthusiasm for San Angelo though she has been here only about four years she is one of our community's top cheerleaders always touting San Angell's mini charms a paralegal at Elkins law firm she founded the sign Angela professional paralegal Association to provide her peers with educational opportunities she also was president of the local chapter of the Texas Exes the University of Texas alumni group that follows a long record of service and leadership as a student on the UT campus and she is the vice president of the young professionals of San Angelo and a member of the city's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board saying she cannot be involved Christina raves about how San Angelo has embraced her passion for public service here's a direct quote in San Angelo these people engage you so you get on these boards you should be prepared to work they want to hear what you have to talk about and they want to take you and help you have a dynamic presence in the town therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor the city of San Angelo on behalf of the city council do hereby recognize and applaud Christina Woodard for her achievement and positive determination to make a difference in our community [Applause] leaf lugar you here today 2017 marks a 24th anniversary the annual

[0:08:33] city of San Angelo Council Christmas celebration the celebration with over 3 million lights is one of the largest Christmas lighting events in the state of Texas the event offers a 2 and 1/2 mile walking or driving tour beginning behind the Main Street office in post office on the corner of Abe Street and 1st Street in ending and El Paseo de San Angela those involved consists of hundreds of volunteers including inmates from the Department of Corrections who assist with installation of Christmas scenes the financial Restaurant Association who supply food to the inmates and RSVP volunteers who deliver the inmates food the community Christmas tree lighting ceremony will be held Saturday December 2nd of 2017 if by 15 p.m. at the corner of South Chadbourne and West concho Avenue activities will include the San Angelo community band conducted by dr. Constance Kelly evangelist State University in the Twin Mountain townsmen directed by Mark Clark the community tree lighting will be followed by the 16th annual lights of Christmas parade at 6 p.m. which may be viewed on Second Street between Oaks and Chad burn on Chadbourn between 2nd Street and concho on concho between Chad burn and Oaks on oaks back to 2nd Street the tour of lights can be seen Sunday through Thursday from 6 to 10 p.m. and each Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 12 midnight December 1st through December 31st 2017 therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor the city of San Angelo on behalf of the City Council I do hereby proclaim Saturday December 2nd of 2017 as concho Christmas celebration day and encourage citizens to join the activities and view the magnificent holiday lights that have become a community treasure [Applause] I just want to thank the City Council

[0:10:35] for recognizing the more than 400 community Island volunteers that for these 24 years has made concho Christmas possible to our community to enhance the holiday season for all of us here in San Angelo is anyone here from the hazel Dooley family okay hazel mccoy moved to San Angelo to become the home demonstration agent for Tom Green County on September 1st 1942 her office was on the first floor of the County Courthouse her main objective was to help women of the county to produce and save food clothing and shelter many women at the time grew Victoria gardens to help with food needs during the war years she also served on the board for Tom Green County but she would certainly never tell anyone because she was making the decision to select men for active duty to fight in the war she is a true pioneer in every sense of the word she graduated from John Tarleton Agricultural College now Tarleton State University in 1938 the University of Texas in 1942 a time when women rarely attended college she married Roscoe be Dooley 1948 and stayed at home to rear her two children after her youngest graduated from Central High School in 1971 she returned to work as an extension agent heading up the expanded nutrition program a federal government program whereby she took all donated foods distributed by the welfare program at the time and created nutritious foods families could prepare at the time the majority of the foods picked up at the food distribution centers was flour lard and beans her recipes encouraged healthy eating for all she has been very active in volunteer work and in fact doing with her husband RB Dooley they actually began the Meals on Wheels program which is known now known as meals for the elderly she has funded several endowed scholarships at Angelo State University as well as Texas A&M University in 2002

[0:12:40] she was named an honorary alumni of ASU although her 100th birthday will be November 28th to 9:17 the family will be hosting a birthday celebration for her on Saturday afternoon November 25th 2017 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at First Christian Church 29 North Oaks in San Angelo therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor the city of San Angelo Texas on behalf of the city council do hereby proclaim November 28th 2017 as hazel em Dulli day Brian groves and Brandon Whitford please come forward ok and Angela's now the helm of an Emmy Award on November 11th city videographer Brian groves and Angela state university multimedia specialist Brandon Whitford won the iconic statue for producing shattered dreams a dramatic video telling of the fatal consequences of teenage drinking and driving groves in Whitford with a number of local partners to create a full immersion immersion visual experience their 12-minute video coupled with a live element promoted responsible decision-making among high school students regarding underage drinking and impaired driving it did so by showing teens how irresponsible choices can end the dreams of young people and of others the video was one of six finalists in the Lone Star Emmy Awards in a category that honored television works related to special programming for teens the statewide award recognizes excellent in the TV industry shattered dreams also won the Kurt Oakland programming Impact Award from the Texas Association of

[0:14:42] telecommunication officers and advisor as the video that most influenced perceptions by touching hearts and minds it was the second straight year the city's public information office won the state award shattered dreams can be viewed on the city's youtube channel and on sa TV therefore I Brenda Gunter mayor the city of San Angelo on behalf of the city council do hereby recognize and applaud Brian grows in Brandon Whitford for their achievement and positive determination to make a difference in our community [Applause] either one of you like to speak you'll notice the excitement hasn't worn off because we still take them with us wherever we go this has been an incredible experience one that we both have just been it it kind of fails to bring words up I think one of the more incredible things with this project is that it was a community project that it involved so many different organizations both hospitals all sorts of different law enforcement agencies the city ASU and a number of other organizations and it just shows that you know when the community can come together you know great things can happen and hopefully a project like this can hopefully save some lives and keep some of our young people from making some bad decisions so

[0:16:44] thank you [Applause] at this point we would like to make sure that everyone has turned their cellphones off including me I've checked mine so I'm good we'll have public comment at this point issues of items that are not on the agenda may be raised by the public at this time citizens should speak from the podium begin by stating their name and limit remarks to less than three minutes Council members may request that a discussed item be placed on a future agenda the council takes public comment on all regular agenda items during the discussion of those items do we have anybody here to speak public comment today Steve err Council thank you very much my name is Steve Hampton I am here because of well let me start at the beginning here tax reductions are now and in the news again and they're done to stimulate the economy and and to camouflage other legislation that they don't want people to see I think also concerned concerned about spending is is increasing on my mind I know that many of you have made campaign promises or or would like to reduce the spending in the overall budget and yet I see that you've all locked in your votes on raising our expenses these are emergencies I know that many of them are very important and yet there will always be emergencies no matter how long you're on the council you're you're going to see it over and over again it's a reoccurring theme so

[0:18:47] the hard part of fulfilling your your elected duty is is often thought to you you have to make the hard decision and to spend for something I've proposed that the hard decision is to not spend to hold you are spending on the before the curve and instead of after you should be spending off a budget that is where you have stored funds instead of spending before you you receive them this is there are many also there are many clubs here in the community that start their meetings by saying that they appreciate small government's and and family values and I wish you to remember that and that is all I have to say at this time thank you very much thank you Steve Bob mayor council biosolids director neighborhood Family Services I want council to know that we have some ASU students here today with us they're taking a government class and they're here to witness local government in action and I would love to say that they are the they volunteered because of the thirst for knowledge but it could be because they're getting extra credit I don't know so I think one wasn't at least one wants to speak so please start by stating your name please yes ma'am good morning council mayor and city manager my name is Andrew Russell well I am a student here at ASU I come forth today as a previous cadet in the Explorers post program the Explorers post program was initially designed by the Boy Scouts of America and a lot of students aged 14 to 22 trainee learn with local law enforcement fire

[0:20:48] departments and paramedics now one of the initial functions of the Explorers post program was an advanced recruitment and training tool for these institutions it can be much more for the entire community when I was in explorers post 1101 we did more than learn just about law enforcement we were trained in skills though no longer taught well in public schools such as integrity discipline service sacrifice commitment and much more through us in countless hours of community service we were able to bring these back into the community where they were once lacking and within a year we saw more community involvement activities and overall connection that ever been in that community before we also saw troubled families come back together and told students get set back on the right path now I know San Angelo is a great community but no matter how great our community is today we need to focus on the growth and well-being of the community that comes after us and much of this community is going to be comprised of local students and is still going to be watched over by the law enforcement fire departments and paramedics here in San Angelo I believe the Explorers post program can help initiate and keep the values our community needs to keep going for the generations to come there's already been great successes all across Texas you look at Austin San Antonio Dallas Harris County Kendall County Longview Rockwall Lubbock Midland and the list goes on many places already have these programs so I believe it's time that we catch up with these other growing communities communities and I believe it's time that we invest in the Explorers post program ourselves thank you thank you very much yes sir would you like to come forward my name is Kyle shopper and I have a topic that has been growing on my mind and some of my neighbors that I have

[0:22:50] discussed with the idea of reclaimed waste water going into the tap system at first it's kind of a the gross factor is overwhelming most people who want to pass on it because they simply think it's a gross idea however after talking with some of the neighbors on my street some of the people that I know around town they've all kind of agreed that if some sort of pamphlet or flyer something that described the safety precautions taken to make sure that there is no chance of contamination that there's no chance that some STD is going to come through the water source and contaminate their families they said they would feel a lot more comfortable with it and so I'm here to propose that there be some sort of citywide pamphlet or flyer made that just ensures the Securities of non contamination of that water if it should go into time system thank you very much any further public comment all right I have three things I want to just discuss before we go into consent agenda and they're basically housekeeping issues as it relates to the way we will conduct our City Council meetings number one you need to be acknowledged before you speak number two we are all elected by the citizens of San Angelo so each of us should respect each others opinions we should not be rolling our eyes or smirking when a vote is taken if the vote didn't go your way we are here to represent the citizens and not to put one councilmember against the other and to be very careful when we leave our city council meetings and use the restrooms or other facilities that we keep our conversations relative to the City Council meeting and items discussed out of the restrooms you never know who's going to be in there and too often things are said that other people pick up on so I ask everybody's support on those three items we will now move into the consent agenda do I have any items

[0:24:55] that went you want to have pull from the consent agenda and moved into the regular agenda Tommy no ma'am Tom Harry nothing Billy nothing okay motion passes 6 to 0 for all consent agenda items I do on a regular agenda what we'd like to do today is to move on the agenda items e H and I if we could are those the ones the H i-dna Hyde okay so just gah I'll correct myself for the third time okay II - you've got about we're going to but we're doing this first Allison mm good morning mayor council thank you for accommodating me I'm a little under the weather today mayor we need to read the caption all right I'm sorry which one you do an H second reading and public hearing and adoption of an ordinance amending appendix a article a 8.000 utility related fees a eight zero zero eight water sewer and trash deposits by amending the deposits Allison you are on thank you this is a similar presentation they all saw last time for the first reading so I'm gonna go through pretty quickly if you all have any questions please feel

[0:26:58] free to stop me and if I'm if you can't understand me please let me know I'm a little congested so right here I want to go over and start with our current deposits that we charge as I mentioned last time the bulk of our customers both residential and commercial are in this five-eighths inch category so I'm going to focus primarily on those four for this presentation but we are amending all the deposits these are the larger size of meters the slide previously was the smaller ones and so briefly I want to go through what the deposits are I guarantee for the utility thank you so the utility provides services to customers prior to them being issued a bill this is a guarantee or deposit is a guarantee so if that customer walks that bill we do receive some of our funds back it is returned at the four year mark or if that customer closes their account prior prior to those four years and they are used to cover the the last bill or the final bill of that out and with that outstanding balance I wanted to make sure that we discussed that the increased deposits are not going to affect the current amount in collections what we're trying to do is minimize the amount going to our collection agency from here on out and so this slide is just showing that we send an average just shy of half a million dollars approximately fifteen hundred accounts to collections each year so this the increased deposits will not affect these old collection accounts but hope to decrease those in the future and so who does this effect it affects new customers only and this ordinance change will go into effect January 1 and so this will not affect our current 35,000

[0:29:02] customers I want to make sure that we send that message and they do not create revenue for the city deposits are put into an account separated from revenue and they are used for when the four year mark comes for that customer or when the customer closes that account and then it's applied to the bill and we have on average fifty nine hundred customers that close their account each year so what are we proposing still the same numbers as last time in the five-eighths inch category this is for residential customers we are going from a thirty-five dollar deposit to a hundred dollar deposit and I'll go to that calculation one more time here in a second but we are trying to recoup an average one month's bill during for the deposit these are the commercial deposits so for the five-eighths inch we're going from the $75 deposit to one hundred and sixty dollars and then the commercial these are the larger sizes and these are used few and far between and these would be very large businesses coming into the city that would use these meter sizes so this is just a recap of how we calculate that deposit amount and so we've used the base fees trash via stormwater fee and an average consumption of four thousand gallons so their total bill would be ninety six dollars and forty seven cents and rounded that up to a hundred dollar deposit the water advisory board and have seen this presentation and they unanimously recommended this for your approval and then this was also approved unanimously during the last council meeting this just as a recap of the slide for the proposed deposit amounts Tommy do you have any questions Harry Billy Laine so we're not gonna do anything about like if they had you

[0:31:05] credit that they would not have to pay their hundred dollar we did do some research on that there was one company that I guess reached out to us or that we found and we the utility would have to pay for that process it's something we can still look into but at this time if they are an existing customer or they had a previous account with us we can use that payment history to either waive a deposit but if they're a new customer new to San Angelo they would be required to pay the deposit all in favor of the proposed changes oh sorry public comment I'd like to know the what would be the the average balance of this retained money and what are will you what interest rate you'll be gaining or what do you expect to gain from it as far as income I'm sure you've thought that through Allyson you know the information yes ma'am so I guess if I understood his question correctly we hope to decrease the amount going to collections in the future because that we would be receiving a larger payment back to the utility at the time of the closing of their account so we would receive more revenue at the time of closing their account or at the four-year mark thank you no I do not have those numbers right now we we do want to remind really this is not a revenue generator for us this is after the service has already been provided that we're trying to capture mitigate any losses that we've had in the past so good moving for in the future we want to apply services have already been provided by the city any monies that have been in deposit toward that to make sure that we don't fall short URI just another comment on that

[0:33:13] that is this will ultimately save the rest of the taxpayers dollars because we're not supplementing some of these people that don't pay their bills correct any other public comment if not we have a motion in a second all in favor of accepting these new proposed deposits of say I know nays passes 7-0 thank you Alison will now do H which is the first reading and public hearing of an ordinance amending appendix a article a 8.000 utility related fees a eight zero zero seven water billing charges by mending the late fee hello again yes we are going to discuss the late fee hopefully maybe not the last time but we hope to kind of change it since 2005 we have charged $25 late fee this item has been discussed before you several times and I believe counsels prior to you have discussed this item several times we've taken this to the water advisory board and we are looking at changing it to a percentage based late fee and so I'll go through how we've calculated that percentage I want to briefly go over what our late paying customers look like we have on average 14 thousand customers 14,500 customers that pay late each year of those 14,000 this column will show you approximately 4000 of those customers pay one late fee each year and then this category over here we have a on average this is over the past for fiscal years that we have 611 customers that pay 12 late fees each year your background memo

[0:35:19] memo said 492 and that was a typo that's actually the exact number of customers we had in fiscal year 14 but the average over the past for fiscal years has been 611 if we decide to go to a percentage based late fee we need to know what we'll be charging that percentage to and so that is the delayed revenue coming in so once again these are these numbers are averages over the past four fiscal years so the delayed revenue on average from those paying one late fee each year is two hundred and three thousand dollars whereas those customers that pay twelve late fees a year delayed revenue is slightly over a million dollars is that is there any questions before I go on on this present or on the corresponding numbers underneath so 413 is three months those are those are the customers that pay three late fees a year so are the delayed revenue in that categories four hundred and thirteen thousand this chart is in thousand dollars so for a total of six point nine million dollars of delayed revenue each year okay so what it looks like on a percentage basis and what our revenue would be we took this through the water advisory board and we tried to get to the 15% but it just doesn't get there with the revenue that we need we're proposing 18% it is slightly less than we have budgeted but what we want to do is track that number to make sure that over the past for fiscal years we still see the same amount of customers that are still paying late fees and so we want to use this 18% and then just track it for this first year to see how those revenues really come in and the reason we're trying to go with the 18% is we're trying to lessen the late fee burden on

[0:37:22] low consumer or low water users and so as you can see the 18% would be an average the late fee on that customer would be approximately $20 these two average bills up here are the average late paying bill over the past four years so the residential bill is approximately a hundred and nine dollars and the commercial is approximately one hundred and eighty four dollars we did do some research and found that 90% of our late paying customers are residential 10% of those are commercial so what we're really trying to do is get this category under the twenty-five dollar mark I believe that was my last slide if you'll have any questions please let me know Billy do you have a question for Allison I do not Harry it's one quick it appears like if we go with the 18% once you back up one slide that's about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars that that will be less than the twenty five dollar fee that we're presently charging is that is that my understanding yes this is a conservative amount this is assuming that every late paying bill was paid the day essentially was out after it was late that they didn't get two months behind so there could be an increase in this 18% and that's what we want to track Tom do you have them good and Tommy do I have a motion second do I have public comment on this issue with no pub Steve I was sure you'd pop up Steve Hampton I'm I was waiting for others I seem to be the only one interested but here this like the other is what happens in a situation where the frozen pipes break

[0:39:27] and an individual does not catch it maybe they're at somewhere else for vacation and they have a major break and their bill goes way up and they're not able to pay it for three or four months you have a policy someone can actually request consideration for that broken pipe okay okay excellent also this what happens in a situation where the whole town is is caught off guard for some reason and would that be and I really can't think of a situation we can't really talk about but it seemed it appears to me that maybe a smaller beginning set it up over a time instead of a major increase in the percentage would be there are 600 people over here who for what reason are not being able to pay their bill in time we seem to be still affecting them it will always affect them if they don't pay their bills but I mean that's just a fact of life what we're trying to do is diminish the price they have to pay for not paying on time and at some point in time if you have over six million nine hundred thousand dollars of late payments we can't make excuses for everybody and this attempt this approach is an attempt to reduce that burden on the lower income or the lower bills which might or might not apply to lower income or those people there are many people who pay their bill not on time that are not in the lower income or the lower bills you can't make a policy that addresses everybody 100% I agree and but I was wondering do we have a history of people who abuse the I think

[0:41:31] we just showed that on that chart I mean are they but in the industry and the commercials area are there are there people who abuse abused it so it is there are yeah thank you very much any further public comment if not we have a motion in a second all in favor of passing the new late fee program please say aye any opposed passes 7-0 I would now like to move item e up for for conversation presentations so John James are you here item a second reading of an ordinance for Z won 7-1 to a rezoning from the general commercial heavy commercial CG ch zoning district to the general commercial CG zoning district on 92.3 six acres located between West Loop 306 frontage road and Southwest Boulevard generally known as the sunset mall and certain adjacent properties John thank you John James Director of Planning and Development Services most of this you've seen so some of them I've cut some slides but also go through fairly quickly but feel free to stop me and ask questions you can see the outline of the area affected that entire area is currently zoned CG ch general commercial heavy commercial and the proposal is to rezone it to general commercial the future land use of the area does show commercial and again the existing zoning is currently CG CH I won't go through all of these we talked about this quite a bit last time basically the recommendation of the Planning Commission to you as well as the staff recommendation is to given the area in the mall is currently exclusively retail

[0:43:33] fitting within the general commercial zoning district we believe the general commercial zoning is appropriate for that area limiting the types of heavy commercial that could be allowed or I shouldn't say limiting it would simply require a conditional use approval for those heavier commercial uses we did send out our notifications eight in favor one in opposition again I won't go through all of these there were some concerns raised by the malls it basically came down to some of the uses that they would like to see retained would be required a conditional use approval rather than being allowed by right similarly with the lumberyard if that was to return to a lumberyard it would it would actually be allowed but it would limit the outdoor storage again at that particular location most of that outdoor storage was under a roof so the limitation wouldn't necessarily be applicable to that side again went through other cities most of our peer cities their mall areas and retail corridors are zoned something similar to our general commercial in many cases for example Abilene and Odessa they're zoned a more restrictive zoning than even our general commercial is was that zoned when they built the building or don't changed after they built the building I don't know the specifics of when those were zoned typically they I would guess that they were zoned when the so they didn't have to go through a zone request change again I don't know but that that is likely correct in some of those cases for sure again this does come to you with a staff recommendation of approval as well as the Planning Commission unanimous recommendation of approval I'd be happy to answer any questions arrey do you have a question I do I make a comment I guess this ordinance was last updated I think if memory serves me

[0:45:39] correctly about 1999 98 99 so the ordinance itself is 18 years old and I'm wondering in today's business climate whether this ordinance really still fits what we're trying to do in this particular community I would suggest that however this vote goes today that maybe we revisit and see whether or not we do have the correct ordinance in place for the zoning in not only this particular area but for all areas of the community simply because as we look at it in today's world it's different than it was when I worked at the mall 35 years ago so I think we really need to take a look at that Tom do you have any comment or questions Tommy um John give him if if if you were starting with a clean slate I don't want to jump to the conclusion I think I know the answer but I want to ask the question given a clean slate what would you recommend in the composition of the neighborhood exactly what it is today what would your recommendation for zoning be it would be the general commercial zoning okay that I I assumed that so if in fact we were only going to look at the mall itself and not all these other properties do we run the danger of possibly then bumping into spot zoning no I don't think so you you mean rezoning them all but not the surround yeah yes yes no really spot

[0:47:44] zoning is when you know an area with a mixture of different types of commercial zoning really doesn't become spot zoning it spot zoning is more of a situation where one property is zoned say commercial when everything else around it industrial or everything else around its residential even that can be okay in certain circumstances but in in this area having a mixture of different types of commercial zoning wouldn't be considered inappropriate okay and in the I tell you the concern that I have because I you know was not in favor of this last time and unless I hear something differently today I'm not going to be in favor of it today either I'm just wondering if tagging under what Harry said if we don't need to rethink relook at the ordinance just because we heard from the mall manager on the first reading of this that that business is changing and has no doubt changed in the almost 40 years that the mall has been there so I'm thinking we may need to and I don't know about a across the town that's not my point but you know if we don't need to rethink some things just because of just the way the world has changed just just to comment thank you Lucy do you have some comments or questions Lane and Billy yes I do okay John did I understand you to say that the property where Blue Cross and Blue Shield is that that could be excluded from this rezoning yes with any rezoning like this you can rezone everything within the boundary that's proposed or individual properties so you could leave that one out another question if the zoning is left where it is right now general commercial heavy

[0:49:49] commercial what recourse would the City Council or the Planning Commission have if something like an oilfield manufacturer or one of the 18-wheel truck manufacturers tire truck manufacturers wanted to move in that would clearly be an exception to the integrity of the neighborhood what recourse would if we left it where it is today if it's one of those heavy commercial uses that's allowed by right then it's allowed with no special approvals needed and so there wouldn't there would be no recourse at that point I mean that's the way zoning works is if for each zoning district there's a list of uses that are just simply allowed and in this case some of those heavy commercial uses would simply be allowed under the zoning well I was gonna say I didn't have any more questions but what I would I was going to request your permission to hear from anybody in the audience okay so we do have to make the motion before you let us hear a thing before the motion and I want to just add some comments as well and that is is that I truly believe that the mall intends to make the mall a successful piece of property I can't imagine that the mall owners would choose to allow someone to move in that would anger every single neighbor and every single business to the point other people tried to break their lease he has to have some credibility and some integrity in order to save the mall himself and today malls are suffering they're grandly challenged in terms of finding people and wet we San Angelo need a mall I can't imagine what we would be if we didn't have a mall so I think that for our purposes today that we need to make sure that we

[0:51:53] don't negatively impact a mall and the potential for that mall to be successful and so I would make a motion that we do not change the existing zoning any public comment please not clarified the motion the motion is to deny the ordinance on the second reading not change the existing zoning Steve would you please come forward and speak to us how's that knee after I get it started you works pretty well thank you madam mayor and council members for allowing me to speak my name is Steve Stevens a longtime resident of San Angelo I'm here today as a partner of in representing my other partners in the building that is occupied by the BlueCross BlueShield building we own that building and lease it to them we're very happy with them as far as we know they're happy to be there we're hopeful and anticipatory that upon the expiration of the existing lease they will want to renew the lease we certainly want that to happen but as prudent property owners we have to take into account what may occur and of course what may occur is that they may decide to not renew that lease in which case we'd be looking for another tenant so our concern is that we might be limited in the type of tenant that would be interested in that particular location now let me let me empathize with you for a moment I can recall very plainly sitting where you all are sitting a few decades ago when I served on the council and I remember very distinctly that zoning cases were absolutely the worst things to come before the City Council the reality is that in most cases you've got people

[0:53:56] well-meaning people who are interested in their own circumstances that are in opposition to some other well-meaning purpose person who has an interest that is opposed to to the other so the net effect is you have to become the the judge to determine which person you're going to make happy in which person you're gonna make unhappy and that's not a pleasant thing I remember driving over this city many times looking at the properties that were coming up for a discussion at the next meeting then into people and then wrestling with that with that difficulty the reality is though you're not going to be able to please everybody all the time it's a it's not unlike dealing with two children that have different points of views and you've got to make some decisions based on what is right and wrong not favoring one child over the other but what makes sense what's good for the family what's good for the city in this case it has been said that watching legislation being made is a lot like watching sausage it's a kind of a messy process and certainly that's the case when you get into zoning issues it's it would be nice and handy and convenient if we could take a 92 acre swath of land and just take one action and take care of it but perhaps it might be best to consider breaking down that larger acreage and deal with those who I know there are some residents who had joined at least a portion of this 92 acres who are opposed to the zoning and perhaps look at whether or not that particular area that adjoins that residential area may be considered for this particular proposal and leave the restaurant alone so I would urge you to support the motion to defeat or not accept this change and appreciate your

[0:55:59] consideration thank you Steve we all know who you are but the Machine recording this doesn't so could you please state your last name as well Stevens as teph enas thank you more public comment please mayor and council my name is Steve Eustace and I'm in the commercial real estate business here in town and first I just like to say I appreciate each and every one of you regardless of what your position is of the interest and and studying the the sides of this issue because like Steve students said this is a tough issue and I understand that I believe in our last meeting we talked a lot about that the prime reason for this is because in the original motion that granted C gch zoning to owners of c2 properties there were gonna lose property rights it was a grandfathering zoning category with also the wording that it was the intent to change this comprehensive land use plans adopted by the city and I said I didn't remember that kind of discussion but so I went to the City Clerk's office after the last meeting and sure enough that battery to motion just as John said exactly those wordings and the entire that that was in the entire ordinance that was attached to that two-page I wondered where where was all the discussion where's that in a minute so I went back to the previous meeting when it was introduced and there is no minutes of any of the discussions at all so I think well I don't remember us putting this intent in there you know it's been 17 years ago and my memories

[0:58:02] not all that good and I would say perhaps both sides at that meeting being the Planning Department and the various commercial property owners there thought well at least they've got a stay of some sort for a period of time but here we are seventeen years later debating the same thing removing some of the rights of use from a very large group of commercial property owners who don't that to happen why after 17 years I don't know of any reason that cgc age has been a bad thing other than well that's what we're supposed to do because it was in that original motion and that original motion said it's the intent it didn't say you shall or this our directive it was the intent and I you know what that means I don't know but let me just say what a susan in our country buys real estate they get a bundle of rights and it's a big bundle then grant easement era rights they can lease it I mean there's hundreds of uses rights that people have from they buy real estate one of those is the rights of use and and those are based on what the zoning is when you take away some of those rights from people our position and many private property rights groups and the National Association of Realtors consider that a government taking meaning it's without compensation and without eminent domain now there are some very legitimate reasons why sometimes that needs to happen but just because it was written as an intent seventeen years ago with no other reason whatsoever is not one of

[1:00:07] those two legitimate rights for the government to take away uses that someone had when they acquired the property I've lived here all my life and I love showing off this town show it off a lot to out-of-town prospects for commercial real estate my profession requires me to protect people's private property rights and protect values and if I felt that the existence of cgc H dawning in any way was harming our city or hurting property rights I would not be taking the stand that I'm taking this has not caused many problems it's let everybody have what they feel like is theirs to have and I just think that your big can of worms you know this is just one area you didn't gonna stop there folks and I and I just think that things were working fine there's no reason to do this as far as the malls concern malls and shopping centers have Co tenancy requirements in their leases they can't just go I mean that's not gonna happen big trucking companies are not gonna come over that area of town it's just not gonna happen it's not economically feasible the building's are not set up for that and there's tons of land at a tenth of the price in other areas where those are proper things Midland Odessa and Abilene I wouldn't feel as excited if I were a commercial broker in any of those cities showing off my town because this town is it's better and prettier than any of those and we're doing just fine and we're getting along and let's leave it alone I ask you to support the mayor's motion thank you thank you Steve do I have any further public comment Lance

[1:02:22] in councilman madam mayor thank you for allowing me to be here to speak with you today I'm gonna be a little bit redundant and what's already been said if you please state your name first I'll be a little bit redundant but I'll try to move for through it quickly if that'll satisfy my prayer this morning when I got up was was that I would be a little bit more of course coherent than what I was last time that I spoke to you make a little bit more sense I don't know if that'll get answered not I'll let you determine that afterwards the American experience experiment in contrast to other countries has been successful primarily in our country due to our ability to own property and/or otherwise private property is a bundle of Rights as Steve mentioned and a major Quig in that bundle is control when you remove control of private property it becomes public property they may not be the tipping point but it certainly moves us closer as we contemplate handing over more and more control to government let's make no mistake about it this matter of removing the zoning classification of c g CH is about transferring control to some extent so i ask is it for the common good the anecdotal evidence would say no there has been at least my knowledge no abominations from the cgc h zoning the only reasoning i've heard is to justify the removal of these rights has been what might or might not happen in my mind this does not rise to the level that would just by removing someone's rights in fact I'd say that what we've learned over the years is that the market dictates ended the basic principles of economics 101 dealing with supply and demand will typically set the

[1:04:27] highest and best use of a property hey Mark is one of those examples comes to my mind off of Southwest Boulevard it was not a good retail location to the extent that the building was eventually totally removed supply and demand demand especially in this case took effect and the highest and best use will not be determined for that piece of property Sunset mall is the inside corner of loop 306 a site that is and will be in high demand due to its location due to its demand in the market the value will likely well into the future it'd be much greater than something like warehousing can afford to justify I believe that we're somewhat fear-mongering to begin to suggest this and that there are other higher and better uses for that piece of property that will come about so I close by asking you to consider has CG ch really been the cause of any real problems especially when considering the many years that c2 then becoming CG CH has been around second or private property rights important should worst-case non-historical scenarios override property rights especially when ignoring sound economic principles I hope you will agree that the rationale for removing and limiting property rights for public control should require a high watermark of public need before this becomes the solution thank you any further public comment not we will go ahead and take a vote the motion is to deny the changing of the existing zoning and to rekey pit at CG CH all in favor of the motion say aye any opposed motion carries seven zero

[1:06:37] [Applause] I'm going to go ahead and have you finished your presentations of d1 and - so d1 is considered routine planning and development service items first reading a public hearing of an ordinance for z17 - one for a rezoning from the single-family rs1 and - family rs.2 zoning districts to the neighborhood commercial c in zoning district on 0.74 acres located at 104 108 and 112 north Milton Street and an unaddressed tract generally located north of PACA Street between North Milton Street and North Van Buren Street and and will be taken 1 & 2 together first reading and public hearing of an ordinance for z17 - 1 5 a rezoning from the office commercial Co general commercial CG and low-rise multi-family residential RM one zoning districts to the single-family residential rs1 zoning district on 5.03 acres located at 1901 1902 and 1906 colonial street and an unaddressed tract of land generally located east of north bentwood Drive and approximately 100 feet north of the intersection of Pine Valley Street thank you again John James director of planning and development services and just as a reminder these are items we combined together into the routine items and - to be on the list of routine items it has to have been recommended by staff approved unanimously by the Planning Commission and no registered opposition from anyone within the notification area this first one is rezoning from single-family residential to neighborhood commercial

[1:08:39] this is the location of an existing veterinary clinic they've come in a couple of times for what's called a expansion of a non-conforming use it's been a vet clinic but it's continued to have the single-family residential zoning rather than continue to come in for for these expansions of non-conforming use they're simply coming in to rezone it basically to fix it for good and allow expansion of the vet clinic again there's been no opposition from the surrounding properties and staff and the Planning Commission recommend approval the other rezoning item this is in the bentwood area these are properties that in the past had been planned for possible commercial or apartment uses they've decided to extend the residential development into this area so it's simply rezoning from general commercial office commercial and rm1 to the single-family residential district to accommodate the single-family neighborhood expansion again no opposition registered on this case either so again the recommendations comes to you from the Planning Commission unanimously for approval with staff recommendation as well be happy to answer any questions Tommy this is in your district would you like to speak towards this no no I'm in fact I would make a motion mayor to approve both d1 and d2 all in favor of approving both items please say aye sorry these do require a public hearing and now we're open for public comments morning Henderson with San Angelo veterinary hospital that's the d1 this hospital has been in continual operation in this area probably for 70 years I think the main concern would be the compatibility with

[1:10:43] the neighborhood that we have and I think we've achieved that the past 20-something years that I've been there with our hours of operation the weekends no boarding things like that I think we're more than compatible with the area and have been have not had any problems with neighbors at any time that I've been there you know if you have any questions I'll be happy to we have any questions for mr. Hanson I live right around the block from him so I've witnessed all of this and and happy to have you in our neighborhood thank you it's been there a long time man as I took why not when I was a little kid back in the 50s I took my dogs there so it's been there it's been there at least 70 years it's almost an icon of our little neighborhood right and we'd like to stay in the area yeah that said any other public comment we will take a vote all in favor of the recommended zone changing say i-70 we'll take one last Planning Commission presentation item B consider a peel of the Planning Commission's denial of two variances associated with 1/3 replied and blocked to sunset Ranch Estates section two one variance from chapter 10.1 11.1 to allow Grand Canal Road a collector Street to maintain 50 feet of right of width in lieu of 60 feet and to uh variance from chapter 10.1 or III or one 11.2 to allow the Grand Canal Road a collector Street to maintain 28 feet of paving within a lieu of 50 feet on 3.79 five acres generally located approximately 1,200 30 feet southwest from the intersection of South US Highway 277 and Grand Canal Road done thank you again John James director planning and development services this is the one that you all had tabled last time so again I'll be

[1:12:47] fairly brief in the presentation you can see on the map in front of you is the the red area is the subject Reap lat and again normally with a reap lat if your adjacent to a substandard road the obligation under the ordinance is to provide the additional right-of-way to become standard Road as well as the additional paving they are requesting to keep the existing right-of-way and paving rather than have to give more this is the plat itself how it will be split up into three Lots this is the the surrounding area again most of the properties in this area were granted a similar waiver as to what's being requested this is kind of the maybe not the last piece of property to come forward with this but as you all discussed last time it one argument in favor of approving this would be that you know we've made the mistakes in the past and this particular property shouldn't pay for be the only one to have to remedy that again hopefully we will not make these mistakes in new areas in the future but that's an argument for not requiring it now I will point out that this adjacent property did get the variance for the right-of-way they were technically obligated to widen the street that never happened and overtime that there's some question about whether or not they're still obligated to do that but they did not do it at the time it was not required by the city staff at the time so effectively that entire area within this red you see there has gotten this same variance that's being requested having said that staff does does recommend approval of or not approval but denial of the requested appeal and upholding what's required by ordinance those variances were denied by the Planning Commission as well and so this

[1:14:50] comes to you as an appeal asking you to overrule the Planning Commission and I grant those variances with that I'd be happy to answer any questions when you say technically they might still be required to do that can you explain that further yes normally that obligation when you apply at the property is to widen the right-of-way and widen the road that one adjacent plat the requirement was held to them to increase the paving width they did not do that at the time and if they if they provided a financial guarantee for that that has long since expired and so any ability we have to go back to them and again ask them to widen the road that would be probably a legal dispute that would have to be resolved at that point Tommy again it's in your neighborhood so any comment or question yes mayor I voted last time to you know essentially grant not essentially but to grant the requested variances John alluded to a couple of things first of all I would say I think the Planning Commission did their job correctly when they denied these I think they did I would hope they would keep that in mind too to work with our planning department so that we don't get to this situation where we have variances that really should have never been granted initially so having said all of that I would since this is in my district I would make a motion that these two variances be granted essentially overturning the Planning Commission's denial second to approve the appeal yes approve the appeal correct do I have any public comment Thank You mayor and council the pose

[1:16:57] property purchaser would you please state your name oh sorry thank councilmembers they came out and looked at the property because it was tough to look at the maps and and you know determined the problems that are there so I appreciate the council members taking their time out of their schedule to come out and either meet me there go look at the property and also I'd like to say thank you to Jeff Fischer at the Planning Department kind of working me through the system it's kind of a complicated red tape has to get through all this stuff so but he's been really good to work with so I appreciate y'all looking at it and taking time and whatever your decision any further public comment we will take a vote all in favor of the motion on the floor say aye aye opposed I just have a question when there was something in my district you didn't give me an opportunity to comment on it or make the motion since I've been on the council since July 8th that has been what has been done that whoever districts something a rezoning issues in you have allowed them on the previous three that we looked at you allowed Tommy because it was in his district to have some comments and make the motion I just wondered why the difference there shouldn't be a difference and next time please speak up and we'll make sure you speak first thank you I was wondering if we can move to item I up next we have chief Carl we need to take a break or the do we need to go into executive session now in eight minutes we have eight minutes to go ahead and continue okay so go ahead and I let me find my page second reading public hearing adoption

[1:19:03] of an ordinance amending chapter to administration and personnel article 2.0 a classified service section 2.0 8.01 seven bilingual Spanish certification pay to provide bilingual pay to police officers that was lost through the expiration of the meet and confer contract and expand the pay to all languages Frankie you're on good morning mayor good morning council chief Frank Carter Chief David Howard we're here to have if you have any questions of reference to the bottling we'll pay it's my understanding you have all reviewed the PowerPoint during the first reading so we're here and available for any questions you may have actually I'd moved to approve as presented again any public comment all in favor of approval say aye motion passes we'll do is start at regular agenda item a consider ratifying Cosa DC's resolution authorizing the use of cells and use tax funds in an amount not to exceed forty thousand two hundred sixty dollars to provide an economic development incentive to Elite Solutions Inc for project related to business enterprises that creator sorry that creator retain primary jobs is authorized by type B corporation under local government Code Chapter 501 subchapter C rollin goodmorning member mayor and members of the City Council see if I can get to okay thank you so this item as the caption describes has to do with a business

[1:21:11] enterprise it does seek the ratification by the City Council for a resolution in support of approving a project for elite solutions incorporated this is a technology contractor that is headquartered and has a corporate office here in San Angelo Texas they install cable networks multimedia systems cameras this is what what is best known as information communications technology what I tend to term based on what I've seen and analyze is the smart cable systems for large venues like convention centers auditoriums hospitals and so forth this is a company that has seventy to ninety percent of business that is from outside of San Angelo they maintain sixty to seventy percent of their market share in in San Angelo there be they'll be expanding they currently have 24 employees and they want to expand to add an additional 28 employees in addition to the the expansion they would like to create a bisque big and I have trouble pronouncing Big C training center in essence this is a trade profession certification so as part of this project we're going to have folks in the trade profession that'll come in to San Angelo and will train they'll be trained and certified at this facility and so that is sort of an added value or added plus two to the project the project involves a first year minimum capital investment of $75,000 and two as part of that year one will incentivize a fifteen thousand dollar grant for that capital investment in year two they'll invest another hundred thousand

[1:23:13] dollars so we have a total of 25 thousand dollars over the course of two years and that for year two will provide an incentive of ten thousand dollars the job creation incentive equates to five hundred dollars per job for twenty eight jobs that's fourteen thousand dollars over the course of four years so we took an analysis of a four year review in addition to the proposal we have a workforce development grant that pays for a certification of the workforce a minimum of forty five dollars per job for those twenty eight dollars I mean twenty-eight jobs and that equals a twelve hundred sixty dollars total incentives is forty thousand two hundred sixty dollars over the course of four years you may or may not be aware that every existing employer when they have an existing employees those in primary jobs have an indirect or induce additional job so they maintain currently about twenty four jobs they average about thirty so that creates an inducement of additional twenty six jobs these additional twenty eight jobs that will be created they all create an indirect twenty four point four jobs what that means is an eight point seven million dollar in annual economic output and increases the gross area product of five point five million I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have also I do have the vice-president of the company here with with me he's been waiting patiently Chris Kinsey and I'd like for him to to come up and introduce himself if it'd be okay with the mayor and mayor council my name is Chris Kinsey I'm the vice president of elite solutions we started elite back in 1995 so we've been here in San Angelo for well over 22 years as explained we have about 24 employees we've experienced

[1:25:21] significant growth over the last two years and we anticipate quite a bit more growth over the next four we're a technology contractor so if you'll look around the room you see technology everywhere that's what we do and we'd like to expand our facility here we'd like to add a training facility so that we can manage this growth and help facilitate even more growth I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have do you have any issues as it relates to bandwidth or if you will pipeline in order to continue to grow and develop no we're very happy Suddenlink offers very good service where we're at I have questions from other council members Lucy I just have a question where is this located Ron Templin Road in the heart of district 1 you're on man any other questions from Council members mayor just a comment I've known mr. Kinsey for the better part of the 22 years and he has run an excellent operation and you know it's what I would call one of those and we have a lot of them here no doubt but one of those little jewels that we don't know much about Chris places people extremely well chris provides good benefits to his people so this is one of those things we need to we need to help folks good folks like Chris this there's one more comment that I'd like to make this training facility I don't know if we really realize the value that sort of brings the added value for us because it'll bring folks and that there's no other facility like it in the West Texas area the other facilities are located in Austin Houston and Dallas but we're expecting folks to come in here to train

[1:27:24] to receive that certification something like maybe 60 per year or so what's the certification could you talk about that sure the the program we're looking at actually offers a credentialing program so that we can certifying credential people to come in and install the voltage systems and that's the organization is called Big C it's the building industry consulting services international and they offer a nationwide credentialing program for that really did you have a comment or question it was answered thank you yeah are there any further questions or comments other than thank you for choosing San Angelo thank you for being a part of San Angelo we're glad to see that you have established a company that has great growth opportunity here mayor I'd move approval this resolution second all in favor with no public comment we will take a vote all in favor say aye opposed none congratulations keep growing we're gonna knock one more out I don't see consideration of a resolution by the city of San Angelo Texas City Council authorizing the city manager or designee to apply for and accept a Texas Historical Commission certified local government program grant for fiscal year 2017 and 18 approving provision for matching funds equal to 50% of the project costs in the form of a combination of matching funds and value of in-kind services and designating the city manager as a grantees authorized official John thank you James Director of Planning development services as you

[1:29:27] may know we are what's called a certified local government which is a designation about the Texas historic Commission as a community that's involved in historic preservation as part of our renewal of our certification for that the Texas historic Commission staff recommended that we apply for this grant that is available this year - in this case rewrite our development standards design standards for the river corridor in downtown and cultural overlay districts as you know we currently have development standards for the river corridor in downtown one of our goals has been to clarify and simplify those design standards to help develop developers in these areas better understand what it is the the city actually wants in terms of historic preservation and preserving the river corridor and so we are anticipating an application for this grant the total project would be for $40,000 helping hire a consultant to help us rewrite those design standards the grant amount is 420 thousand the city's match would be twenty thousand ten thousand of that it can be in conservation so the staff time involved in the project so it wouldn't actually be cash and then the remaining ten thousand would be a cash source from the city source so I have some details on the project Tomlin's but basically it's about a year long project if we get the grant answer any questions what are some of the design standards that you're looking at well I think the process what we want to do is through this process meet with downtown business owners downtown San Angelo other groups to help get feedback on what those are so we don't want to go in with an idea of what those design standards should be we want to use a public input process to help determine what the community thinks that those designs are you gonna use that book that's about this thick that already defines the design standards for

[1:31:29] downtown is the basis for this conversation yes now the idea is to take the couple inch-thick manual and reduce it to something more simplified so that both it's easier to implement for staff and easier to understand for business and property owners as they're going through the process one of the problems we have today is no one's paid attention to that standard document and so what you have is so many things that have already been approved that would have never been approved in recent years based off of that existing dialog book and so I would hope that if we're going to approve this that we would make sure that the design and historic Commission understands that their responsibility is to follow what you are going to create as new design standards because that has not been so and again that's those discussions that have led to this point are are the reason that we're wanting to go through this process we're already in the process with them of redefining those boundaries we're doing that just in-house but again simplifying the design standards is something we've heard from people going through these processes and I think that the historic Commission would benefit from more simplified standards helping them to implement them better as well as to add to John's one of the the goals that council gave us was you know to look at our zoning ordinances all those kind of things we currently don't have the funds we've brought that forward to Council to redo the entire zoning ordinance which is what we recommend because it's old so what we are doing and what John and his staff has done is look for opportunities where we can take small segments of those things and try to leverage some grant dollars to help pay for it so your questions are spot on on what we get what result are we gonna get but just from the other side of it what we're really trying to do here is find creative ways to pay for these things and do them in pieces because we can't afford to do the whole thing at once and this was one area we were getting some concerns about not only from the downtown area but the river corridor as a whole and that of course extends

[1:33:33] farther and its boundaries are pretty big so there's some discussions about well you know City Hall is so far away from the river why are we having to review the sign there are those kind of things so it's to look at a whole gamut of things and that's our goal is that inclusive of creating a historic downtown overlay yes as I mentioned we're already looking with the D HRC on splitting what is now kind of one big area into a river corridor that's just the properties along the river largely a separate district for downtown and then the cultural overlay district which is the museum area and that but part of this process would possibly identify different standards because what we're looking for development along the river should have different standards than things in the historic part of downtown and so separating those areas is part of the goal of this we'll keep in mind as we go forward with this you know this is a dollar amount that we're comfortable with as far as the grant and so forth we'll have to see how far that will go with the consultants once we get into that process so that's our hope this is something I've been working with with John and Rickon since since I was elected because there are so many citizens down downtown that when they get ready to redo their the inside of their buildings just really really struggle I have spent inordinate amount of time visiting with people to try to get them through this process and hopefully as you say mayor that particular book sometimes confuses people because it's so thick maybe if we can we can make that so it's easier to understand then everybody should be able to comply with what we need need to have done downtown and have standards that when you got a historic building in what here and then non historic buildings sitting in a side-by-side they should still look there similar on the outside just because once a historic building it doesn't mean they that it should be different than the one next to it our vice versa but there are

[1:35:36] rules and regulations on historically registered buildings by law so in one sense one is legally required to do so and in one since it isn't but we do want continuity in terms of the way it look you do I have further questions or comments of John James from anybody on council I would move to approve this as presented is there a second second is there public comment with no public comment we will take a vote all in favor say aye aye any opposed we are going to take a break and go into executive session about how much time do we think will be an executive session okay I'm going to read yeah we're not gonna let you go out of town any more I know you just said you just forget okay so our closed session executive session on the provision of government code title five open government ethics subtitle a open government chapter five five one open meeting subchapter D exceptions to requirement that meetings be open under the fine sections a section five five one point zero seven one one a consult with attorney when the government till body seeks the advice of its attorney about pending or contemplated litigation regarding tipton construction inc B section five five 1.07 one to consult with attorney when the governmental body seeks advice of its attorney on a matter in which the duty of the attorney to the governmental body under the Texas disciplinary rules a professional conduct of the State Bar of Texas clearly conflicts with this chapter regarding the West Texas water

[1:37:39] partnership section C item C section 55 1.07 to to deliberate the purchase exchange lease or value of real property related to the Avenue P drainage project and D section 55 1.07 for one to deliberate the annual evaluation of the city manager with that said at 10:12 we will now go into executive session we will call this meeting back to order at 1:13 in executive session we gave Daniel his annual performance evaluation he received an overall rating of meets expectations and with that he will receive a salary increase of 1.5% effective October 1 2017 in addition we have the following items Tommy yeah yes mayor I'd like to make a motion authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute a purchase and sales agreement for 0.43 two acres of the property located at 700 Knickerbocker Road for a price not to exceed $90,000 any public comment all in favor say aye any opposed passes 7-0 I'd like to make a motion authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute a purchase and sales agreement and related documents for the purchase of approximately forty thousand square feet of a portion of the real property located at 650 old Knickerbocker Road for a value not to exceed $300,000 is there any public comment if none then we'll take a vote all in favor aye

[1:39:42] any nays passes 7-0 we now will go to item J which is consider resolutions that number of votes to be cast for nominees for board of directors of Tom Green County Appraisal district Brian you want to give us some direction please there's only one slide Anthony as you know the process is we've got we've got seven nominees that were given they're listed on the screen there we're allocated 1293 of the total vote which is five thousand that's divided among the various taxing entities so a thousand and one would force one of these onto the board anything other than that would not guarantee a spot and as far as that y'all can as long as this by a majority vote of council you can divide it any way you want to if you did choose to divide them evenly it would be one hundred and eighty four votes a piece with five left over that would be a fractional well we presented a slate of five people actually the past city council member but we are a meeting but we also nominated to candy pool and David now and so I would like to make a recommendation that we give one thousand and one votes to candy pool is that a motion however you want you still have what I'd like to do is make this nomination for the one thousand votes

[1:41:44] and then we'll take a second nomination or can we not do that well we're adopting a resolution so it really probably needs to be in one motion I make a motion that we give candy pool one thousand votes and one thousand one votes and then we give David now in two hundred ninety three votes to ninety to ninety two I'll second that do I have public comment on this is there any public comment on this if not we'll take a vote all in favor of the 1001 going to candy pool in 292 - David now and say aye aye any opposed motion passes Billie I know that you're gonna have to leave is there any one of the last remaining ones that you would rather we pull forward and discuss while you're still here no we can just okay item F presentation on the stormwater management program and Shannon McMillan is going to present that today thanks for having me and we will make this short and quick I'm just gonna go over three big points with the city stormwater program the stormwater management program benefits the stormwater highlights for this permit term and the future of our stormwater management program so Ramona is definitely an investment in our community it's good to have aesthetically pleasing things and attributes throughout a community that we all enjoy and that we all love to take part in and that we love to show off as someone earlier in the council mentioned pollution prevention and stormwater program play a pivotal role in that our program also does public education and outreach to educate the public which is part of the reason why I'm required to

[1:43:47] do this presentation today promotion of natural resources and storm water quality monitoring inspection that kind of hits on the regulation aspects the stormwater program benefits go with increased promotion of ecotourism which brings in people that want to come in and and tour our city and enjoy our beautiful river and lake increased community pride among our residents and of course the aesthetically pleasing attributes decreased overall city pollution that's the permit that's the federal state regulation requirements increase water quality which affects wildlife human life plant and aquatic life we have better drinking waters coming in through to the plant to be treated if we do the pollution prevention and finally to meet state and federal regulation requirements so our operations and maintenance department plays a pivotal role in a lot of mechanical aspects of pollution prevention this year alone we've removed 297 two thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine tons of sediment from the city streets and that's just via street sweeping we've also collected 7.2 tons of illegal dumping and that's usually in our spoil sites and our City drains and things like that that's not including what code compliance does for illegal dumping and 900 tons of storm debris from our recent terrible storms that knocked out a lot of trees and oil and potentially could have impacted our River quality how do we would you go back to that slide sure that illegal dumping of 7.2 tons as a shocking number what's the program to stop that well that's gonna be addressed in a later slide with with the future of our stormwater management program when this was developed which was kind of in 2008 and when it really got ramped up was in 2010 the program met the requirements of what the permit was at

[1:45:50] the time but now we've kind of gone above and beyond with population and different operator statuses of what we need to do and what we need to take action for because that is City dollars and essentially taxpayer dollars that are paying towards people that are that are are contributing to that illegal dumping so the storm water highlights for the storm water engineering side is where myself and Azure come into play we do a lot of record-keeping to meet TCEQ requirements education and outreach we've we've done programs for the air force base for little ones for adults all promoting pollution prevention private and public sector inspections so not only are we required to inspect construction activities that our private sector but also public sectors so any of the city departments that are disturbing soil we are responsible for ensuring that they stay in compliance with state and federal regulation and then the storm water quality monitoring so after a certain level of rain event we do samples on the storm water quality to determine where pollution you know triggers are and to kind of maintain the program the future of our stormwater management program is as mentioned we really need to start addressing ordinance revisions to kind of prepare for being able to have some type of enforcement activity for those that illegal dump as of right now we don't really have any teeth and going after someone that say they want to dump 40 gallons of oil into the river as of right now we would be responsible for paying for and remediating that because we'd have nothing in place for for an enforcement case right now we can only enforce on construction activities we want to start a natural resource task force committee because a lot of MS

[1:47:54] Force the the university has an MS for the air force base hasn't in a MS for TxDOT and the county all have MS fors that discharge in two hours and so if we can collectively work together on developing a really impactful program then we can reduce our pollution and stay out of sites of state regulators as well as have a community that where people enjoy going and kayaking down the river they fish they can swim and not fear of what's in the water and finally an increased community involvement this program is directed and this regulatory requirement is directly impacted by citizens and industry so if you look at the river most of the river is stormwater runoff the cleaner we can get it before it reaches the river then the better off we all are and so that takes a whole community approach and community involvement and then of course finally increased measures for water quality monitoring our stations are about eight to ten years old they're kind of exceeding their shelf life and we're going to try and revisit some new approaches for doing a better job at storm water quality managing that will be more cost-effective for for our program and if you guys don't have any further questions all does anyone have a question what are our efforts on dredging well they dredged the river I guess and that was in 2010 2012 and I had you know I had some stats you know that that that's an that's definitely an option but the cost of doing that versus mitigating that before it reaches the river are better if you talk about the cost of having to do you you know D water everything and then dredge all that out and everything like that where we could prevent that before it ever became an issue and I think addressing it that way would be best for the city

[1:49:56] and probably the most cost effective way and another impart is the bank stabilization that was done back in 2010 played a pivotal role on sediment renewal removal and erosion collecting into the base of the and that really did mitigate that now if we could extend that on down throughout the city that would be wonderful I'm gonna get with you there's a project for the Parkview lake of rough Lindenwood area they've been looking at some dredging that's been talked about in the past and if you know that's where sul Ross comes down and that big funnel from the water drainage when we have a big storm comes right into there so I might need to get with you on that and it definitely plays a pivotal role in water quality because you're able to get back some really good oxygenated water in there and then not only that the the capacity so you're going to have as an adverse effect less you know more capacity to hold water would anyone else like to speak to the question thank you very much thank you will now go to the consideration of the possibility of issuing rebates of water fees which is item L and Tina your on for that what no I want you to do rebates of water fees first because Billy's under a time frame okay I think this is something she'd like to participate in and then she won't feel like she can have to stay if she needs to alrighty wait for Anthony to get our slides up here okay so our water ordinance our water rate ordinance states that by annually in April in November I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself Tina dear Ski Director of Finance good afternoon council mayor mr. Valenzuela apologize biannually in April and November of each

[1:52:00] year we bring the this item to the City Council for their decision on whether they care to issue a water rebate if action is taken and that action we try to take that action in December and May or soon thereafter as practical and then the amounts and the methodology for providing the rebates are determined by the council at this meeting if they choose to do so since inception we've provided a rebate twice the times that we provided the rebates were both in 2006 just after this ordinance was adopted we have not since then issued a water rebate to customers the first time rebates were granted the base fees were waived changed to zero for two months the second time we transferred the excess fund balance to the capital projects fund to use for capital projects so right now our estimated fund balance at 9:37 teen was three just over 3.5 million dollars or 75 day fund balance goal is four point seven million dollars and so staff would recommend no action at this time I do want to point out that that estimated fund balance is our fund balance as of September 30th in the Bluebook and then we've also taken out the carry overs that council approved in the last meeting as well any typical urine audit adjustment so that we have a better picture of where the water fund balance really stands questions from the council no questions do I have a motion any public comment the motion is to not grant rewrites doesn't really require an action okay if you're not going to ingest no action taken on this item no action taken stand set as as it is now we will do the update on sales tax revenue performance witters item K on the regular agenda hey so good news is that we're up again for sales tax this month seven point zero three percent over November of last year and we're

[1:54:02] currently over a budget for revenue by two hundred thirty six thousand dollars I do want to point out though that if we did project flat for the remaining ten months of the year that we would still be short of our budget so still I'm telling the line and being very conservative and careful and how we look at that excess revenue would you on the next report that you give us on the categories where you where you show the different categories of sales tax revenue the retail yeah and you'd ask for that last time and this was our first stab at it I wanted to see if this was what you were kind of thinking in lines up yes okay and so you can see here our retail was 42 and a half percent being the largest both November of this year and November of last year and so I have the actual percentages if you'd like me to go through those but this kind of shows you a comparison of where we are from one year to the next in hotels fall off the chart they're at point zero point one percent so they didn't make the chart right there they're right over here at the very end just above the seal but it's 0.1 percent so it wasn't large that's one thing yes so all right so that would say restaurant business is down which is interesting services went from 12.2% of the total to 12% so just very slightly manufacturing went way up which is terrific yes it's a good thing three point seven to five point one person retail is good shop local spend local support local give local yes ma'am it makes a difference thank you you're welcome thank you yes sir I believe and you might double check me but I believe through the confusion of how we handle today's meeting that we've covered every item on the agenda you had me on my toes but I believe with that I

[1:56:07] have a motion to adjourn mayor yes sir I'm so sorry before you make that motion I forgot to do something a bit earlier we know that our water director is leaving water utilities director you know Bill O'Reilly did an incredible job for us he's had an assistant Allison's true because she showed up today with the flu and still did a presentation as he's leaving I am going to go in to place her as the interim what our utilities director until we do get that position hard I think she's doing a wonderful job first right now and I just want to make sure that we we do have that in place before he does leave and I don't want to make sure I've made that announcement very good and can I can I also just mention that a reminder to everybody that's watching out there that we're not having our normally scheduled meetings in December it's going to be the one meeting on December 12th thank you we adjourn with that said I am a journey the meeting do I need a motion to do that in a second and all in favor aye go thank you everybody

Captured 2026-07-26 · source: youtube.com/watch?v=JGtwRsBZbmI