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Minutes - 11/01/2011 ST MINUTES FROM THE HUNTSVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON THE 1 DAY OF NOVEMBER 2011, IN THE CITY HALL, LOCATED AT 1212 AVENUE M IN THE CITY OF HUNTSVILLE, COUNTY OF WALKER, TEXAS AT 6:00PM. The Council met in a workshop and regular session with the following: COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT: J. Turner, Mac Woodward, Jack Wagamon, James Fitch, Lydia Montgomery, Keith D. Olson, Tom Cole, Don H. Johnson, Wayne Barrett COUNCILMEMBERS ABSENT: None OFFICERS PRESENT: Bill Baine, City Manager; Leonard Schneider, City Attorney, Lee Woodward, City Secretary COUNCIL COFFEE [4:30-6PM] The public is invited to help the City thank Representative Lois Kolkhorst for her hard work and dedication to Huntsville. REGULAR SESSION [6:00PM] 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Turner called the meeting to order at 6:00pm. 2. INVOCATION AND PLEDGES Councilmember Barrett gave the invocation. 3. PRESENTATIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS a. Representative Lois Kolkhorst Day b. Municipal Court Week c. Year of the Huntsville High School Military Marching Band 4. PUBLIC HEARING a. Public hearing to receive comments from all interested persons on the proposed Ordinance 2012-02, amending Chapter 42, Article V, of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Huntsville, Texas, by adding a 11.253 of the Texas Tax Code; providing a severability clause; providing a repealer clause. The hearing was opened at 6:24pm. Raymond Kiser of the Walker County Appraisal District was present and defined goods-in-transit as personal property of a business. He said the Ordinance referred to removal of such goods to a bonded warehouse facility at another location. Councilmember Johnson asked about the purpose of the Ordinance and was told the current Ordinance was only in place through December 2011. The Mayor asked if current operations would be substantially impacted if the Ordinance was approved and was told they would if they stored product offsite at a bonded warehouse, whether they owned the warehouse or not. Councilmember Montgomery asked about raw goods and the assumption was made raw goods would be stored at the production facility. She also asked for and received confirmation it would apply until the product was invoiced to a buyer and that the Ordinance was to prevent escape of taxation. Councilmember Johnson requested further definition for raw goods versus finished products. City Manager Bill Baine confirmed this Ordinance was to ensure the Council would not lose the prerogative to take action when the current Ordinance expired December 31, 2011. The hearing was closed at 6:36pm. 5. PUBLIC COMMENT Walter Boyd, Sr. thanked several members of the Council and staff for their work. Clyde Loll asked the Council for consideration when listening to the public, urging civility, and thanking them for their service. Katie Newman spoke on the October 18 workshop on Records Retention and Public Information Requests (PIR), urging audio and video of Council meetings be retained as long as possible. She discussed PIR definitions of the Secretary of State and Council responses at the workshop. 6. CONSENT AGENDA (Approval of Consent Agenda authorizes the City Manager to implement each item in accordance with staff recommendations. An item may be removed from the Consent Agenda and added to the Statutory Agenda for full discussion by request of a member of Council.) a. the minutes of the City Council Regular Session held on October 18, 2011. [Lee Woodward, City Approve Secretary] b. the purchase of information technology (IT) materials for maintenance, upgrade, and repair of Consider the IT system. [Chris Vasquez, IT Manager] c. the purchase of various computers and servers for the City of Huntsville. [Chris Vasquez, IT Consider Manager] d. the award of contract for janitorial services for several City of Huntsville facilities. [Billie Smith, Consider Procurement Manager] e. purchase for temporary use of software, pending award of the extended enterprise Request For Consider Proposal. [Bill Baine, City Manager] Councilmember Woodward made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Councilmember Olson seconded the motion. The Mayor declared the motion passed unanimously. 7. STATUTORY AGENDA st to approve Ordinance 2012-05 to revise City of Huntsville Record Retention Schedule, 1 a.Possible action reading. [Lee Woodward, City Secretary] Councilmember Woodward discussed the concerns of the City Secretary on retention of Council audio and video and that he supported keeping the materials as long as possible. He also addressed charges for Public Information (PIRs), saying he thought the material should be free generally but suggested a search for balance on requests which are extremely time-consuming. The Mayor added that audio and video preservation was a worthwhile endeavor in historical terms and supported archival within reason. The Mayor discussed charges for PIRs, recommending a threshold of $100 to consider. Councilmember Woodward asked the City Secretary for recommendations. Councilmember Cole asked if there was a climate-controlled facility and the City Secretary said there was not. Councilmember Fitch discussed PIR fees and his professional experience of it, recommending the City Secretary suggest possible benchmarks for charges in order to find what is cost effective. Councilmember Wagamon addressed his item 8d, saying fulfilling Open Records Requests [sic] was one of the most important things a member of staff ever does, that it was not an interruption of what they do. He said this is not something the City . Councilmember Montgomery said she also sought a threshold for charging for requests. 8. MAYOR/CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER REPORT a. of water policy issues. [.] Discussion Standing item on first agenda of each month Fire Chief Tom Grisham discussed the length and severity of the burn ban. Councilmember Wagamon asked about a brush issue on the west side of the 500 block of Smith Hill Road. Councilmember Montgomery asked about water pressure for firefighting. The Chief discussed how much water could be used from several vehicles as a time. Carol Reed, Director of Public Utilities, presented fee comparisons of Huntsville to other cities [information from the th Texas Municipal League web site, communities of 30,000-50,000 populations], showing Huntsville to be 4 lowest thth at the old rates for 5000 gallons, 5 lowest at the new rates, and 7 lowest for 10,000 gallons. Councilmember Wagamon said he would like to see similar comparisons for sewer rates. The Mayor asked about the 10-day average and Ms. Reed said it was a little below 8 ½ million gallons per day. He also asked about building up reserves in the storage tanks. Ms. Reed said it took a few weeks of rationing, the cooler weather, and a little rain to get the City in a good position. She said the average use for the last fiscal year was about 8 ½ million gallons. Winston Duke, Director of Finance, discussed average utility bills (below), noting an average usage of about 7,000 gallons per month (gpm). Councilmember Woodward noted the overall average bill increase of $5.43 compared to the last fiscal year. The Mayor noted local wastewater rates were due to the topography and need for lift stations. Councilmember Wagamon discussed an average increase discussed of about $17 by 2030 and asked about the Planned with Debt amounts on the slide. Mr. Duke said debt was included in the rate charts discussed, to be handled over the next eight years. Councilmember Woodward said he remembered the larger increases being heaviest in the first three years and then lessening annually. He also asked Mr. Duke about the percentage of customers who used the minimum amount. Councilmember Olson said he recalled the Finance Committee agreed that minimum users would have the least amount of change in their bills. He discussed a bill from Riverside for 2,800 gallons for about $41 for water only. He discussed the value of proactively addressing the system rather than reacting to emergencies. Councilmember Barrett recalled the Finance Committee looked at setting aside money for capital improvements and maintenance, anticipated expansion of the water plant, and increase of pricing over time. b. to approve nominations for Natural Preservation Ad Hoc Committee. [Mayor Turner] Possible action Mayor Turner made a motion to approve the nominations of Helen Belcher, Dan Jones, Bobby Lane, Reggie Lepley, and James Patton as members, and Bill Baine and David Zeller as ex-officio members. Councilmember Woodward seconded the motion. Councilmember Woodward confirmed the general charge for the board being returning recommendations to Council. Councilmember Montgomery recalled the Mayor saw this as a non- budgeted group as an informational resource. The Mayor said it was important to put the group into place to help guide the Council, although they may not be quick to take action, covering ideas for what to do during the drought, determine possible responses, etc. Councilmember Johnson asked for guidelines being that the board could come to Council with recommendations soon, and the Mayor said they would be asked to return at the first of the year. The Mayor declared the motion passed unanimously. c. to approve nomination of Lydia Montgomery at the alternate representative to the H-GAC Possible action Sustainability Consortium. [Mayor Turner] Mayor Turner made a motion to approve the nomination. Councilmembers Woodward and Fitch seconded the motion. The Mayor declared the motion passed unanimously. d. of duties and responsibilities of City staff with regard to the gathering of information for Public Discussion Information Requests. [Councilmember Wagamon] Handled with item 7a. e. of resignation of Commissioner Bill Knotts from the Planning and Zoning (P&Z) Commission Discussion as the result of administrative action taken by staff at the last P&Z meeting. [Councilmember Wagamon] Councilmember Wagamon spoke as the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) Council Liaison, discussing the note received by the Commission of administrative handling by the staff of an issue on a lot, asking Mr. Kulhavy to fill in the Council. Mr. Baine said Mr. Kulhavy had instructed the requestor what their options were and did not feel summary was correct and he confirmed it was. Councilmember Wagamon said it was incumbent upon him to of resigned over it. Councilmember Wagamon asked Mr. Kulhavy how he could create the lot w prevent the creation of the lot. Mr. Kulhavy said he was not present at the meeting where the case was denied, that it was a complex issue, but that he had been involved before and after the meeting. He said a local surveyor had worked with staff on the platting issue to circumvent the need for variances. He said the developer had issues with ownership and wanted to go a different direction, creating a need for a variance staff was not comfortable approving. The develope staff notified P&Z, as was practice. Act. Councilmember Wagamon expressed a concern that there would be no need for P&Z if a lot could be created administratively when denied by P&Z. Councilmember Fitch asked if it was the same thing in both cases. Mr. Kulhavy said the plat on file at the Courthouse was different and that what was approved administratively was not what was ruled on by P&Z. Councilmember Olson confirmed what was administratively approved would have alleviated the need to go to P&Z. Councilmember Wagamon said the material difference was 3.4 acres that was expressly denied by P&Z is the lot now being added to the subdivision and does not have access. Mr. Kulhavy said the submission to P&Z was two lots, although he allowed for minor changes in the survey boundary lines on the ground. The Mayor said a major concern of P&Z was the subdivision of land and its ability to sustain development and noted there were no more lots after the administrative approval than before. Councilmember Wagamon asserted there was no material difference and said that, while he was not making the point that it was illegal, he thought the Council should follow up on this and support the P&Z. Mr. Kulhavy offered that would be helpful to the P&Z and would be very willing to share the documents or provide a report. The Mayor suggested the practice of joint Council-P&Z meetings. Councilmember Olson said he still had a problem with someone saying the staff had created something that may be illegale in Public Administration. Councilmember Cole asked the City Attorney prepare a report to present at a joint meeting and void the resignation of Mr. Knotts until a decision had been made. The Mayor asked Mr. Schneider about taking action on the item and necessary, saying the Mayor could call for a joint meeting and temporize on the resignation, to which the Mayor noted no nomination had been brought forward as a replacement for Mr. Knotts. f. of email communications between Councilmember Johnson, City Manager Bill Baine, and Jay Discussion Williams of Property Commerce regarding economic development. [Councilmember Wagamon ] Councilmember Wagamon said there had been a newspaper article following the last meeting but did not include any of his quotes and would like to respond. He recounted the history of the item and read from the article, ng deals behind the to Council. Councilmember Olson said others knew about the emails and suggested material from executive session was being shared outside. Councilmember Wagamon said it was any Coun discussing the Economic Development Ad Hoc Committee and their work in smaller numbers on many occasions. Councilmember Johnson said his only concern with open records was when they led to this kind of erroneous charge, saying he would much prefer people come directly to him to discuss their concerns. He again refuted Councilmember Wagamon said the issue was the withholding of information from other Councilmembers to the point that someone would answer negatively when specifically asked by the Mayor Pro Tem in a Council meeting and then stating the reverse in writing, saying any such discussion for reasons should e placed on the agenda, accusing Councilmember Johnson of lying by omission. Councilmember Johnson said he would like Councilmember Wagamon to understand the difference between talking about a possibility and making a deal. He Councilmember claim to represent the City and speak to someone in this way. Councilmember Wagamon discussed his pride in the email and the response it engendered. g. 1. Updates on City construction, grants, studies, City projects, City purchases, and economic development. Mr. Baine said the Library asbestos removal was now $22,000.00, and that he would take that to Finance Committee, along with Street and Water Fund concerns, as their reserves had been depleted. He said the Splash Pad was demonstrated this afternoon but that some other work would continue. Mr. Baine listed upcoming grants for the December 6 meeting agenda, said the Town Creek report was due this month, and said there was possibility of a fine for the recent wastewater spill. He said there would also be some project discussion in December and noted the work of incarcerated crews, and expressed appreciation for TDCJ. Mr. Baine gave locations for right-of-way mowing, said there were over one hundred participants per Zumba class, and noted the attendance of over 6500 at Scare on the Square. He said the Christmas Parade would be December 3 and that there would be Huntsville for the Holidays events and a walk/run put on by the Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Baine said the streetlight bill was increasing due to more poles. 9. PUBLIC COMMENT a. Related to any matter 2 minutes per speaker There were no public comments. 10. MEDIA INQUIRIES RELATED TO MATTERS ON THE AGENDA There were no media inquiries. 11. ITEMS OF COMMUNITY INTEREST (Hear announcements concerning items of community interest from the Mayor, Councilmembers, and City staff for which no action will be discussed or taken.) a. The Music in the Park free live music series will continue Thursday evenings from 6-8pm at parks around town through November 17, call 936-291-9726 or check the City website for more information. Councilmember Olson recognized the attendance of Commissioner Ronnie White. Councilmember Fitch noted the 8-0 season of the Sam Houston Bearkats and their potentially playing for a conference championship, encouraging attendance at the games. 12. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Turner adjourned the meeting at 8:48pm. _______________________________________________ Lee Woodward, City Secretary