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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-08-11 - Regular City CouncilMINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING City of Stephenville - City Council TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1992 - 7:00 P.M. The City Council of the City of Stephenville, Texas, convened in regu- lar session on August 11, 1992 at 7:00 p.m., in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 354 N. Belknap, with the meeting being open to the public and notice of said meeting, giving the date, time, place and subject thereof, having been posted as prescribed by Article 6252-17, Section 3A, V.T.C.S., with the following members present, to wit: P , Mayor: Lavinia Lohrmann Mayor Pro Tem: Scott Evans Councilmembers: Alan Nix Donald L. Zelman Sam Taylor II William F. (Bill) Johnson Dan Collins Absent: Bill Bailey Others Attending: Don Davis, City Administrator Joyce Pemberton, City Secretary Randy Thomas, City Attorney I. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Lavinia Lohrmann called the meeting to order and declared a quorum present. II. PUBLIC HEARING ON THE PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 1992-93 Mayor Lavinia Lohrmann opened the floor for a public hearing to consider the proposed budget for fiscal year 1992-93 and outlined the procedure for said hearing. l A. THOSE IN FAVOR OF THE PROPOSED BUDGET: 1. T. F. STEVENS, 2410 Holly St. - Mr. Stevens said he felt the Council had done the best they could with the monies they had to work with. He said maybe they could have cut some personnel, but he was satisfied with most of the budget and thought the Council had done a good job. B. THOSE OPPOSED TO THE PROPOSED BUDGET: 1. William J. Gates, 322 S. Belknap St. - Mr. Gates opposed the proposed pay increase to those employees receiving in excess of $32,000 per year and the car allowances be denied. 2. Bee Bentley, 560 Floral St. - Mr. Bentley opposed pay raises for the higher paid employees. Mr. Bentley suggested giving the lower paid employees the largest increase and let the four directors use their own private cars instead of the car allowances. C. REBUTTALS: None D. QUESTIONS FROM COUNCIL: None Mayor Lohrmann closed the hearing to the public at this time. E. COUNCIL DISCUSSION: None F. COUNCIL COMMENTS: Alan Nix - can support the budget as proposed, but there may be an area or two we want to look at again at that time. Don Zelman - in going over the budget he did not find many areas that you might call "fat". The City, in order to pro- - 190 - vide the services that the citizens need, have got to at least adopt the budget we have. If someone, between now and next week, can convince me there are areas where cuts could be made, I certainly will listen, but now I support the budget as it is. Sam Taylor - The lowering of the property values and the increase in the effective tax rate has hurt everyone. The question now is, are we going to maintain the present level of services? That is what this budget stands for, other than the pay raise. I support the pay increase. Our employees are the greatest asset the City has. we need to compensate them properly. The only pay increases given last year were F to the lowest paid employees and it is time this year to go ahead and give the pay increases to all employees. I came into this meeting with the intention of listening to what is said and to think about it after the meeting, between now and the 19th, and that's what I intend to do. Scott Evans - I agree with a lot that's been said. I'm trying to be open minded about the budget this year. I wish I had the answer to how to give pay raises. Any time you give percentage pay raises, the high end employee will get more than the low end. we did address the low end employees last year and the high end employees did not get any increase. As for the car allowances, I only see two alternatives: 1) just to pay the employees mileage, but I really think it would cost more money to do it that way; 2) go back to put all our top employees in old police cars, which is what we use to do. Realistically, we could probably save a few dollars, if we wanted to do that. I would like to remind the Council that one of the biggest complaints we use to get was from citizens that saw employees driving city cars at night. We thought it would just be cleaner if they were not in a marked car. Probably the only change I would like to see us make in the budget is to reduce the $25,000 allotted for Single -Member Districts to $12,500, I would like to reserve ^ my right to make a decision until that's appropriate. 1 Lavinia Lohrmann - It seems everyone wants to wait until the 19th to make the decision. I personally feel very good about that because I think we are truly listening to people and that's what we are here to do. As for my own feelings, I still have a problem with raising the salaries of the higher paid employees, as I do with the car allowance. If the budget is presented as it now is, I likely will oppose it. Bill Johnson - I'm not ready to make a firm consensus on the budget. I want to use the extra time to study it some more. Dan Collins - I'm generally able to believe that the budget that is proposed is reasonable. I know each of us could pro- bably find something we disagree with. Its really unfor- tunate that what's happened to the tax base has happened. I am uncomfortable with what is going to happen to the taxpayer because of the tax base change. Generally, I'm able to sup- port it. As far as salaries go, I'm going to plead lack of experience, because I need to know more personally about how the City operates and who does what. I would like to see a way for the City to take a look at the value of the jobs the employees do. I think we need to take a closer look at the "VALUE", not where we can cut, but where the "value" is that employees need to be rewarded for. I agree that if we need l 1 to move that money set aside for Single -Member Districts around, that it should be. I consider that considerable amount of slack in the budget. I would like to see this Council, when we pass this budget and I believe we will with maybe some minor modifications, make a commitment to seeing that we can show the citizens some return for their money, in sense of finding every way we can to demonstrate a higher quality of service in this town with the dollars that we spend. I think that will reflect back in being able to reward those people on our city staff who can demonstrate - 191 - that they are finding every place to squeeze the most out of every taxpayer's dollar. People won't complain, if they feel like they are getting the most for their money, even if they are paying for it. There being no other comments on the budget, Mayor Lohrmann announced that approval of the budget would be in a special meeting August 19, 1992 at 5:30 p.m. III. PROPOSAL FOR LANDFILL CLOSURE PLAN - TEAM CONSULTANTS, INC. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained that this proposal is r l in keeping with the Council's recent decision to close the existing landfill at an estimated cost of $3,317. Councilman Scott Evans made the motion, seconded by Councilman Dan Collins, to accept the proposal, submitted by TEAM Consul- tants, Inc., to prepare the closure plan for the City's existing landfill, at a cost not to exceed $3,317.00. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. IV. PROPOSAL FOR OUTSIDE AUDIT - BOUCHER, MORGAN & YOUNG Don Davis, City Administrator, advised that State statutes require that cities have outside audits performed each year. For the last five years the City has selected Boucher, Morgan & Young to perform that audit. They have submitted the proposal (in agenda packets) to do the audit again this next year. There is proposed a modest increase in their fee ($7900 to $8500). Councilman Sam Taylor made the motion, seconded by Councilman Alan Nix, to approve the audit proposal from Boucher, Morgan & Young to perform the outside audit for the City of Stephenville. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. V. CONSIDER PROPOSED SITE DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR LOT 14A, BLOCK 14, RIVER NORTH ADDITION. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained that this is for the Calvary Baptist Church, located on River North Blvd. in the block with the Medical Clinic. They are proposing a 4-phase development, this being Phase I. This proposal does comply with the Subdivision Rules & Regulations. Councilman Scott Evans made the motion, seconded by Councilman Bill Johnson, to approve the Site Development Plan for the Calvary Baptist Church and being Lot 14A, Block 14, River North Addition, as recommended by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. VI. CONSIDER PROPOSED SITE DEVELOPMENT PLAN OF LOT C, BLOCK 5, MCALISTER SECOND ADDITION. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained this development had been requested by Kyle Fornes and is located behind the Vogue Cleaners property; does have access off the Lingleville Hwy. This proposal does comply with the Subdivision Rules & Regulations, Councilman Scott Evans made the motion, seconded by Councilman Dan Collins, to approve the Site Development Plan for a storage building behind Vogue Cleaners, 1511 Lingleville Rd., and being ^ Lot C, Block 5, McAlister Second Addition, as recommended by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. VII. CONSIDER THE PROPOSED REPLAT OF LOTS 27, 28, 29, BLOCK 4, GOLF COUNTRY ESTATES. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained this is the replatting of three residential lots into two residential lots. There are two property owners involved and they want to combine said lots and make two lots out of the three. They are located on Prairie Wind and they do comply with the Subdivision Rules & Regulations. - 192 - Councilman Sam Taylor made the motion, seconded by Councilman Don zelman, to approve the replatting of Lots 27, 28, and 29, Block 4, Golf Country Estates, into two lots, as recommended by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. VIII. CONSIDER THE PROPOSED REPLAT OF LOT 8 (SOUTH 10" Don Davis, City Administrator, explained that some time ago the City sold an abandoned alleyway to these property owners and that 10 foot alley was never formally replatted into Lot 8 and the owners just want to replat the lot to include the alleyway that was purchased several years ago. Councilman Bill Johnson made the motion, seconded by Councilman Scott Evans, to approve the replat of Lot 8, Block 1. Sloan Second Addition, to include the 10 foot alleyway, as recommended by the Planning & Zoning Commission. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. IX. CONSIDER THE PRELIMINARY PLAT OF THE WAL-MART SUBDIVISION. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained this is the preliminary plat of the proposed Wal-Mart Subdivision. Approval of this plat will not finalize anything, It is just a matter of giving the developer the go ahead to continue with the planning. This preliminary plat is predicated on the relocation of the north/ south street, which is owned by Carol Barnett. Tom Galbreath, representing Wal-Mart, commented that he had attended one meeting with Carol Barnett and it was his impression that she would not ever dedicate said right-of-way. His question was at what point would condemnation proceedings start? City Attorney Randy Thomas advised this was a decision the Council would have to make. when a decision was made, then it ^ would just be the statute requirements for condemnations, an ( , estimated 120 - 180 days. Richard Haggard, 118 Diamond Oaks St., addressed the Council stating that at the prior meeting he had some objections to the rerouting of the power lines. Subsequent to the Council meeting, he met with Mr. Galbreath, Betty Chew, and two representatives from Texas Utilities. He said he was not comfortable or satisfied with the rerouting, but thinks it is a matter of reaching realistic considerations. He said he had agreed not to oppose the rerouting with the Public Utility Commission and Mr. Galbreath agreed that: 1) Wal-Mart would put up a 6 foot high wooden fence for the full length of the property on the property line; 2) that, if in the future, it does prove to be a health hazard and the property can no longer be used as a mobile home park, if he were granted a cross access easement, then the pro- perty could be converted to commercial purposes. He would have access to the full length of the property through Wal-Mart's parking lot. That was the ultimate agreement. He wanted the Council to understand his position, as far as the mobile home park is concerned: 1) when the final site plan is approved, the fence is in place; 2) he has yet to receive a cross access easement document from Wal-Mart. The purpose of his presence at this meeting is to make the Council aware of this gentleman's agreement and would like for the Council to see that this agreement is honored. Tom Galbreath said the cross access easement Mr. Haggard referred to was not the full length of the property. There is some control as to where that can occur. It will be with their logical circulation pattern. Councilman Bill Johnson made the motion, seconded by Councilman Alan Nix, to accept and approve the preliminary plat for the proposed Wal-Mart Subdivision, as presented. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. - 193 - X. CONSENT AGENDA: Councilman Scott Evans made the motion, seconded by Councilman Bill Johnson, to approve the Consent Agenda as presented below. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY by a roll call vote. A. Approval of Minutes of July 7, 1992, as presented. B. Approval of Bid Specifications for Quotation for Liability & Property Insurance Coverage. C. Approval of Bid Specifications for City Depository D. Award Bid to Alderfer Service America for Heating/Cooling Unit for Fire Station #1 in the amount of $6,485 E. Authorization to Dispose of Replaced Fixed Assets XI. ORDINANCE #1992-17 ADOPTING THE WATER CONSERVATION & DROUGHT CONTINGENCY PLAN. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained that a draft of the Water Conservation and Drought Contingency Plan was submitted to the Council some time ago. At the same time, it was submitted to the Texas Water Commission and the Water Development Board for their review. It was returned, with minor modifications, from the State agencies. This item is an ordinance, which will formally adopt this plan. Councilman Alan Nix made the motion, seconded by Councilman Sam Taylor, to pass and approve ORDINANCE NO. 1992-17, as presented. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. AN ORDINANCE ADOPTING A CITY OF STEPHENVILLE WATER CONSERVATION AND DROUGHT CONTINGENCY PLAN; PROVIDING A PENALTY OF NOT LESS THAN $10 PER DAY NOR MORE THAN $200 PER DAY FOR EACH DAY OF NON- COMPLIANCE AND/OR DISCONNECTION OF WATER SERVICES TO SUCH USERS BY THE CITY. / , XII. RESOLUTION EXPRESSING INTENT TO REIMBURSE COSTS OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT EXPANSION AND RENOVATION PROJECT. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained that the IRS recently established some regulations governing the reimbursement of costs associated with projects funded through the State Revolving Fund. In order to comply with these regulations, and to be assured of receiving the reimbursement for expenses already incurred, the City needs to adopt this resolution. This resolution was prepared by our financial advisor and our bond counsel and complies with all the Treasury regulations. Councilman Sam Taylor made the motion, seconded by Councilman Alan Nix, to adopt this resolution as presented. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. (Resolution in its entirety attached). XIII. RESOLUTION EXPRESSING APPRECIATION TO THE INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH. Don Davis, City Administrator, explained this resolution is an expression of the City's appreciation to TSU for the work and help they have given the City in addressing the solid waste problems. 7 Councilman Scott Evans made the motion, seconded by Councilman Bill Johnson, to pass and adopt this RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION to TSU as presented. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. (Resolution in its entirety attached) XIV. CITY ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT A. Don Davis, City Administrator, reported that he and Ron Jones were going to Austin on Wednesday, August 12th, to meet with John Hall, who chairs the Water Commission to talk about this - 194 - solid waste problems and possible demonstration grants. This meeting was set up by Senator Glasgow. We will keep you in- formed as we progress. B. Mr. Davis also reported that we have finished the removal of the sand, which was the final part of the Garfield elevated storage tank improvements. That project is now complete. The final details will be forthcoming in the monthly status reports. C. Also, we have essentially completed the street improvement work. There is some cleanup work to be done. Dale and Frey Streets have been reconstructed and the Street Department 1 has done a real good job. He said we feel real good about the structural integrity of those streets now. XV. CANVASS ELECTION RETURNS Mayor Lohrmann appointed Councilmembers Sam Taylor, Chair, Don Zelmsn, and Alan Nix to canvass the election returns of the spe- cial election held Saturday, August 8, 1992. Chairman Sam Taylor reported that the returns, as confirmed by the Canvassing Committee, are as follows: CITY COUNCIL, PLACE 3 George Swearingen 541 Carl Douglas Pleasant 414 L. Keith Madison 98 PROPOSITION $750,000 Street Improvement 531 FOR Tax Bonds 508 AGAINST Councilman Sam Taylor made the motion, seconded by Councilman Dan Collins, to pass and approve a Resolution canvassing and ( declaring the results of the City Special Election held on Saturday, August 8, 1992. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. (Resolution attached) XVI. ADMINISTER OATH OF OFFICE Joyce Pemberton, City Secretary, administered the Oath of Office to newly elected Councilmember George Swearingen and Mr. Swearingen took his seat. XVII. COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS Mayor Lavinia Lohrmann recommended appointing Mr. Swearingen to the Finance Committee, the Planning & Development Committee and the Public Health & Safety. Councilman Dan Collins made the motion, seconded by Councilman Sam Taylor, to accept the recommended committee appointments for the new Councilperson. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. XVIII.CITY COUNCIL/CITIZEN GENERAL DISCUSSION Councilman Don Zelman asked if it would be possible for sometime for Mr. Davis or one of the staff to take the Council to the ^ site of the Wal-Mart development? Mr. Davis replied that he would be more than happy to do so, at the Council's convenience. Elizabeth Zicklefoose commented that it was very hard to hear councilmembers' discussion. Mayor Lohrmann asked the Council - members to talk into their microphones. Louise Pless mentioned the lack of air conditioning in the back of Council Chambers. Mayor Lohrmann replied that staff would - 195 - try to figure out some fan situation to bring the cool air to the back of the room. Councilman Dan Collins said he would like for the Council to have the goal of trying to arrange the space in the Council Chambers to where the audience can see all the visual aids that are presented to the Council. Or have a duplicate copy, or some thing because he thinks they deserve to know what's going on. Mayor Lohrmann agreed. r l XIX. EXECUTIVE SESSION, in compliance with the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Law, authorized by V.T.C.S. Article 6252-17, Section 2(g) (Discussion of Personnel Matters): A. Consider contract for legal services. Mayor Lohrmann announced that City Attorney Randy Thomas had stated he would forego the Executive Session, in which the Council was to discuss a contract for legal services with Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas confirmed this statement. Councilman Scott Evans made the motion, seconded by Councilman Don zelman, to approve the proposed contract for legal services with Randy Thomas, effective October 1, 1992. The motion carried UNANIMOUSLY. XXI. ADJOURN. There being no other business to come before the Council, Mayor Lohrmann adjourned the meeting at 8:45 p.m. S T : 1 y ,doyc,,o Pemberton, City Secretary lX Q,✓tM"'a✓G�� Lavinia Lohrmann, Mayor - 196 -