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MIN CC 07/31/1984 (2)CITY COUNCIL MiNUTES OF JULY 31, 1984 PAGE 439, Book "N" MINUTES OF THE HUNTSVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON THE N THE CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS, LOCAIED AT 1212 AVENUE M IN THE CITY OF HUNTSVILL , COUNTY 0FIALKER, S AT 7:00 P.M. The Council met in regular session with the following members present: Member absent: William V. Nash, Mayor Murray A. Brown Stephen E. Davis Jerry L. Dowling Bill Hodges Percy Howard, Jr. Jane Monday Bob Tavenner 0. Eugene Barrett City Officers present: Gene Pipes, City Manager Scott Bounds, City Attorney Ruth DeShaw, City Secretary The meeting was called to order by the Honorable William V. Nash, Mayor. The invocation was presented by Councilmember Jerry Dowling. CONSIDER THE MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING Councilmember Monday made the motion to approve of the minutes of July 17, 1984 and Councilmember Howard seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING BIDS HUD- -New Addition Paving Project - -R. T. Montgomery Construction Company, Inc., Bryan, Texas, $845,404.87 Federal Funds Mayor Nash noted the funds budgeted for this particular project total $730,000 approximately. He noted we have about $113,000 less funds for this project than the low bid. He advised the staff has some options which include utilizing all of the remaining funds budgeted for every other aspect of that project, both second year and third year, to take care of this fee. Mayor Nash recommended, however, that the staff attempt to negotiate with the apparent low bidder in an effort to see if the price can be reduced to the budgeted amount. He said the basic element of negotiation being we would consider changing one of the projects characteristics, such as drainage design or driveway design. He hoped the staff would have other ideas for reducing these costs. He asked that the staff work with the contractor on areas that can be reduced. City Attorney Scott Bounds advised that if the Council wishes to proceed with this suggestion that no motion is needed as staff will work with the contractor on prices and the item will be brought back for consideration at a later date. Council- member Monday agreed with this plan of action, but noted her opposition to deleting the $55,000 park develop- ment fund in the second year because these funds will allow the city to acquire two more multipurpose fields funded by an outside source, allow joint participation by the school district, allow for recreational expan- sion within the city, and greatly benefit that particular area of the city. She felt the City should make every attempt to reduce costs without disturbing these dedicated park funds. Mayor Nash noted he did not wish to remove any aspect of this project which will add quality to the program. Mr. Pipes noted the clearing and grubbing aspect of this project could be reduced if it is done "in- house" as an "in- kind" service to the project. He noted however, that this would cost us something, but it would reduce the 540,000 estimate for that work. Councilmember Monday felt that if it takes this sort of in -kind service to reduce the project costs, she would certainly be interested in looking at that. Mr. Pipes showed the Council a map depicting the streets to be paved. Councilmember Murray A. Brown, member of the HGAC proposal review committee, advised the Council at this time that the city's request for continued funding of the HUD - -New Addition project, for some $500,000 for paving of the secondary streets, was not approved. He commended Percy Howard, Kathy James and Dale Brown for their excellent presentations at the review board meeting in Houston, noting we started out on the bottom of the 34 proposals and ended up 24th in the considerations. Mayor Nash noted this being the case, it would be highly desirable that the other streets on the plan be surfaced with something, even if it is just sealcoating, depending on, of course, slopes, drainage, etc. The Council concurred with the plan to negotiate with the contractor to bring the costs down within the budget. City Service Center Expansion - -Level Construction Corporation, Tomball, Texas, 5367,146 -- Revenue Sharing Mayor Nash introduced this item and asked Mr. Pipes to elaborate. Mr. Pipes recommended rejection of this lone bid and authorization by Council for staff to seek an outside architectural consultant to review the plans make whatever changes are recommended and then rebid the project. He noted the staff has worked with this long enough and it is now time to proceed in this manner. Mayor Nash agreed with this plan of action, noting his concern that only one bid was received. He advised too that this was a building project and not an engineering project which our staff normally does. He said an architect is more familiar with the building bidders and he should be able to get more people interested in bidding. Councilmember Monday made the motion to reject this bid and to authorize the staff to obtain a architectural consultant to review the plans and specifications before rebidding this project and Councilmember Hodges seconded the motion. Discussion: 'The Council expressed their concern for the costs of an architect. Councilmember Dowling did not understand the reasons for needing an architect. Mr. Isbell noted two prospective bidders did not bid because the plans were not as detailed as they would prefer. Mr. Pipes noted the staff has gone as far as it can in perfecting the plans due to its other commitments. He noted the project is now to the point where it simply requires the expertise of an architect to refine and detail the plans so that more building contrac- tors will be comfortable bidding on the project. The motion then of rejecting the bid received and authoriz- ing the staff to employ an architect to review and refine the building plans was approved by those present with the exception of Councilmember Dowling who voted OPPOSED to this motion. The motion, however, passed. Consider Overhead Doors at Fire Station No. 1 for 58,890 from Able Glass Company, a budgeted item Mayor Nash presented this item. Councilmember Brown made the motion to accept the low bid as noted and Councilmember Hodges seconded the motion. Discussion: Councilmember Dowling asked it tnese were electrical oors. 7'Tr. John keys, Purchasing Agent, noted they were. All were in favor of this motion and it passed unanimously. Consider Purchase of Band Printer -- N.C.R., 59,479.58, a budgeted item. Mayor Nash presented this item. Councilmember Monday made the motion to accept this bid as presented and Councilmember Hodges seconded the motion. Discussion: Councilmember Dowling asked why only two bids were All PAGE 440 -- BOOK "N" -- City Council Minutes of July 31, 1984 received. Mr. Pipes noted the bidders were limited to those whose equipment was N.C.R. compatible. Director of Finance Patricia Allen noted it was specified that if there were problems with the equipment, that one main- tenance person could be called to work on all of the equipment and that it would not be necessary to go to another maintenance person. All were in favor of the motion on the floor and it passed unanimously. Consider Housing Rehabilitation- -New Addition, Kevin Wedergren, Federal Funds for 514,650 and $14,895 Mayor Nash noted a portion of the HUD project is housing rehabilitation. He noted the Council previously established a maximum of 515,000 to be spent on any one house in the project. He said the Council provided that if the costs exceeded $15,000, the owner of the house may contribute the additional amount. He noted bids were taken on six different houses and two of those bids came within the 515,000 range and under the estimate of the staff. He noted the staff's recommendation to accept these two low bids, as noted. Councilmember Monday made the motion to approve of these two bids and Councilmember Hodges seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. (File Numbers 105 -81/83 and 109- 82/83.) City staff HUD grant coordinator, Kathy James, noted with the completion of these two houses, the project will have rehabilitated a total of 17 homes in the New Addition area. it was noted four other homes were bid but the bids came in over the 515,000 limit and will require that the homeowner fund the overage. However, according to Ms. James, the homeowners in each of these four cases, are unable to fund the additional costs. Mayor Nash asked if the renovations can be changed to bring down the prices somewhat. Ms. James noted these four homes will probably have to be rebid. CONSIDER TML LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION Mayor Nash noted the Council asked the City Attorney to prepare a resolution for submission to TML which would suggest a revision to the "Conflicts of Interest" statute to change a $2,500 interest to a percentage interest. Scott Bounds, City Attorney, elaborated on the original intent of Article 988a, noting that it related more directly to general law cities who are typically under 5,000 population and have more difficulty contracting for services it needs in a city of that size and often end up dealing with businesses owned by members of the council. He noted because of this statute, most home -rule cities -- cities having home rule charters -- adopted provisions along those lines regarding conflicts of interest to be included in their charters. He noted, however, in the last Texas Legislature, Article 988a was repealed in an attempt to permit councilmembers in small cities to have contractural relationships with their city councils and adopted Article 988b which would permit these contractural relationships within certain defined conditions. He noted it also significantly broadened the scope of what was considered a "conflict of interest." He said the net effect of the law is that it became applicable to home -rule cities as well. He said Huntsville's charter provision regarding conflicts of interest, which tracked the old Article 988a law, has been repealed and we are now required to comply with the more liberalized substantial business interest requirements of 988b. He noted his resolution proposes to exempt home -rule cities, which can be justified first of all because that is what the old law was and secondly, because home rule charter cities do have their own conflicts of interest provisions in their charters which should be applicable. Councilmember Hodges made the motion to approve of this resolution so that it can be submitted to TML and Councilmember Monday seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. CiTY MANAGER'S REPORT - -GENE PIPES Tourist Council Member Change Gene Pipes reminded the Council of the letter from the Chamber of Commerce advising the resignation of Gary Randazzo from the Tourist Council and indicating their recommendation of the appointment of Ray Eller to fill his unexpired one year term which expires January 1, }985. Mayor Nash asked the Council for their considera- tion of this appointment. Councilmember Monday made the motion to approve of the appointment of Ray Eller and Councilmember Hodges seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion passed unanimously. ADJOURNMENT TO WORK SESSION Respectfully submitted, / t u DeShaw, C.M.0 City Secretary