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Min 01/04/2005 498 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES Wichita Falls, Texas Memorial Auditorium Building January 4, 2005 Item 1 The City Council of the City of Wichita Falls, Texas met in regular session on the above date in the Council Chambers of the Memorial Auditorium Building at 8:30 o'clock a.m., with the following members present: Bill Altman - Mayor Arthur Bea Williams - Mayor Pro Tern Linda Ammons - Councilors James Esther, Jr. - Michael Norrie - Ray Gonzalez - Charles Elmore - James Berzina - City Manager Bill Sullivan - City Attorney Lydia Ozuna - City Clerk Mayor called the meeting to order. Item 2 Reverend Bob Rogers, First Assembly of God Church, gave the invocation. Item 3a Mrs. Lisa Atkins, Communications Supervisor for the Wichita Falls Police Department Dispatch Unit, was recognized as employee of the month for January 2005. Mayor presented Mrs. Atkins with a plaque, City pin, check, dinner for two, and Weeks Park Golf Course passes. Mayor proclaimed the month of January 2005 as "Crime Stoppers Month in Wichita Falls" and encouraged all citizens to recognize the success of this program and the impact on all citizens of Wichita Falls. Mrs. Carol Robinson, President of Crime Stoppers, and Officers Melvin Joyner and Brian Masterson received the Proclamation. Also in attendance were Darrel Coleman, Publisher Times and Record News, Candy Brown, Clear Channel Broadcasting, Inc., Duke Singer, American Classifieds, and Doug Bilyeu, KFDX-TV 3. Item 4 The Minutes were approved as distributed. Item 5a ORDINANCE NO. 1-2005 ORDINANCE ADOPTING THE 2005 WICHITA FALLS AREA THOROUGHFARE PLAN; FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS ORDINANCE WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW Moved by Councilor Williams that Ordinance No. 1 -2005 be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Elmore. 499 Item 5a continued Mr. Dave Clark gave an overview of the Plan and Mrs. Karen Montgomery reviewed the changes to the 2004 Plan. It was suggested that the following projects be study objectives: Lawrence Road/Rhea Road realignment, Maurine/Burk Road realignment, and Loop 11/Kemp realignment. Motion carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Altman, Councilors Williams, Ammons, Esther, Norrie, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 6a A proposed resolution was presented authorizing the purchase of computer hardware for the Library's automated software systems. Moved by Councilor Williams that proposed resolution be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Ammons. Mayor asked for an explanation on why four separate servers were needed. Councilor Williams questioned if money had been a problem resulting in a piece meal system over the years. City Manager suggested moving this to the end of the agenda in order to have a representative from Information Systems respond to these questions. Moved by Councilor Williams to table the proposed resolution. Motion seconded by Councilor Elmore and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Altman, Councilors Williams, Ammons, Esther, Norrie, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Councilor Ammons stepped out of Council Chambers. Item 6b RESOLUTION NO. 2-2005 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, TO APPROVE AN AGREEMENT WITH TXU ELECTRIC DELIVERY COMPANY FOR RELOCATION OF ELECTRIC UTILITIES AFFECTED BY THE JASPER WATER TREATMENT PLANT REHABILITATION AND IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (CWF04-544-21); FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS RESOLUTION WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW Moved by Councilor Williams that Resolution No. 2-2005 be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Esther and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Altman, Councilors Williams, Esther, Norrie, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None City Council recessed at 9:45 a.m. and reconvened at 10:15 a.m. 500 Item 6c RESOLUTION NO. 3-2005 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING AWARD OF BID FOR THE CITY'S ESTIMATED ANNUAL REQUIREMENT OF TRAFFIC CONTROL EQUIPMENT TO HI-TECH SIGNALS, INC., IN THE AMOUNT OF $36,450.00; FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS RESOLUTION WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW Moved by Councilor Williams that Resolution No. 3-2005 be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Gonzalez and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Altman, Councilors Williams, Ammons, Esther, Norrie, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 6a RESOLUTION NO. 1-2005 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASE OF COMPUTER HARDWARE FOR THE LIBRARY'S AUTOMATED SOFTWARE SYSTEMS; FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS RESOLUTION WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW Moved by Councilor Ammons to remove Resolution No. 1-2005 from the table. Motion seconded by Councilor Elmore and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Altman, Councilors Williams, Ammons, Esther, Norrie, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Annette Britton, Library Technician, Lester Gordon, Network Analyst, and Neal Howard, Network Manager responded to questions. Neal Howard informed that each server performs different functions and these two servers will replace one 1990 server. The Library is changing their software, which requires a server, and the software is written so that it requires two servers. He felt it is a good solution, and to change software would be a major ordeal. Main motion carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Altman, Councilors Williams, Ammons, Esther, Norrie, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 6d RESOLUTION NO. 4-2005 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, AUTHORIZING AWARD OF BID FOR THE PURCHASE OF LOOSE EQUIPMENT FOR THE NEW AERIAL PLATFORM TRUCK TO CASCO FIRE APPARATUS IN THE AMOUNT OF $18,395.00; FERRARA FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $5,485.00; DOOLEY TACKABERRY FIRE EQUIPMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $5,422.95; NAFCO IN THE AMOUNT OF $2,363.00; FOUR ALARM FIRE EQUIPMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $20,495.50 AND BOUND TREE IN THE AMOUNT OF $147.57. FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS RESOLUTION WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW. Moved by Councilor Elmore that Resolution No. 4-2005 be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Williams and carried by the following vote. 501 Item 6d continued Ayes: Mayor Altman, Councilors Williams, Ammons, Esther, Norrie, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 7a A discussion was held regarding downtown parking. City Manager informed that some persons had requested a change in the downtown parking. We have two-hour parking and sentinels have been enforcing this. He discussed this with Larry Drennan, SBC Manager. Parking on City streets cannot be reserved for certain businesses or individuals. The request was to remove the two-hour parking and make it open parking. Mr. Darron Leiker displayed a map with the current parking on City streets, and provided information on the number of parking garages and the availability. Councilor Williams asked about selective enforcement. Chief Bachman informed that the sentinels enforce the parking regulations. He has not seen any selective enforcement and they have no reason to do that. He will check further into that. Councilor Williams asked if they were getting calls that prompted this. Chief Bachman replied that they do get some calls from citizens about the parking downtown. Councilor Ammons mentioned that someone was ticketed on 10th and Lamar. People occupying the Marchman were ticketed and it was on the parallel parking. I was told someone had called in about lack of parking. I do not think those should be two-hour spaces. Mayor commented that he had two merchants call him and complain that parking was not being enforced. Councilor Ammons commented that she had two complaints about sentinels ticketing people after 6 p.m. Chief Bachman will check into that, and noted that those tickets can be addressed with Municipal Court. Councilor Williams suggested looking at the block between Lamar and Scott to see about letting them move their cars every two hours. Councilor Ammons suggested it be between Scott Street and Indiana Street. Councilor Williams did not want to burden folks to have to move every two hours. Mr. Dave Clark informed that Council might want to keep in mind that under the City Zoning Ordinance the City does not require parking. If it would, the cost of downtown development would be substantially higher. Councilor Williams stated that she does not want selective ticketing. Councilor Gonzalez reminded that there was a problem as far back as he could remember with security when SBC employees left work late at night. There is not much of a problem now because they can park right in front of their building. The question was asked as to what the SBC employees did during SBC's improvement project. Mr. Drennan replied that they probably parked around the corner on Scott Street, east of Scott Street and 9th Street. We have employees that park there and around town. If we move two-hour parking in that block, employees will have to move their cars every two hours and they have been told they would be ticketed if they did not move to another block. City Attorney informed that would depend on the signage and it seems that is how the sentinels interpreted that. Mr. Drennan gave a history on SBC noting that a lot of the employees used to park on the hill on 9th Street. SBC has 24-26 reserved parking spaces for company vehicles only. We are landlocked in that area. Councilor Williams said that there is a similar situation on Indiana and 9th Street, and asked if they were being ticketed. We need to look into that area as well. Mr. Drennan stated that they are not competing with any other business. Mayor stated that the parking has always been a problem but what precipitated this was the enforcement by the sentinels; the parking problem still exists. Councilor Norrie asked if SBC has looked into providing parking spaces for employees. Mr. Drennan replied that their company has never provided any parking. Councilor Norrie asked if any of their employees have secured parking on their own. Mr. Drennan said he was not sure. Councilor Ammons said that four SBC employees were renting parking spaces at the Marchman. Mr. Drennan commented that if we did not use those vacant spaces, on any day you can walk 502 Item 7a continued through there and 95% of the spaces would not be used. We pay a full-time security guard to walk employees to their cars from 5 p.m. to the last shift. I do not think that we are depriving anyone from doing business or shopping downtown. Councilor Williams wanted to know why there was a time limit between Scott Street and Lamar Street. Mr. Drennan said he had been in contact with Vicki Crump about the sale of the SBC building parking lot but he does not know where they would put those folks. He also mentioned that the alley behind our building comes out beside the Wells Fargo alley, and they do business in the alleyway. On any given day there are five cars blocking the alley and there are delivery trucks that block the eastbound traffic. It is a safety and traffic issue. Councilor Williams commented that there may be two that are using alleys to do business. The other is between Scott Street and Indiana Street (child support payments). Mr. Drennan said he would like for the City to look into this issue as well; it is a separate issue. Mayor stated that it is a separate issue and staff can get back to us on that in two weeks. Mayor said that if we totally do away with parking it would help only half of the SBC employees. He suggested letting staff continue to work on this and taking a survey of the property owners in that location to see if they are opposed to changing the parking there. We could also look at four-hour parking instead of two-hour parking. Councilor Williams suggested considering allowing them to park in the same block. Councilor Esther asked about elevated parking in the area where SBC parks their company vehicles. Mr. Drennan replied that parking is only for company vehicles not for employees. Councilor Esther stated that they should try to make allowances for their employees. Mr. Drennan informed that it was a contract item that is negotiated by the company. Councilor Williams mentioned that there are a lot of businesses that do a "Park & Ride" in Dallas. She felt that building an elevated parking garage is cost prohibitive. I just want to look at no selective enforcement. Councilor Norrie agreed that we look into that and extend the parking to four hours, as long as it does not affect someone else's business. City Manager felt that the whole area would have to be looked at. Mr. Drennan said it was not his intention to ask Council for special parking. Mayor asked staff to survey property owners and look at various alternatives and come back in thirty days to review their recommendations. Councilor Elmore commented that maintaining the two-hour parking is going to be a situation when the Marchman comes on line because we need more long-term parking in that area. Maybe we need to look at more retail parking. It seems the best thing would be to eliminate the two-hour parking in that area but I have no problem with contacting the other folks in the area. Councilor Gonzalez asked about the interim. Mayor stated that we cannot take any action on this, but I am not going to instruct the staff not to enforce the ordinance that is in the books. We can put it on the next agenda to take some action. Councilor Ammons mentioned that there was a reference made to a "zone" and asked what that was. City Attorney replied that it is a limited area for a given time, however we need to look at that further. The Traffic Department has to designate the signage. Councilor Ammons said this is the first time they have ticketed for changing parking spaces. Councilor Williams said that they needed to find out what the rationale and permission is for the signage. Chief Bachman explained that the whole zone is two-hours and you have to move to a completely different "zone". Item 7b Councilor Ammons stated that she had no items of concern. She stated that she wants to see downtown grow and she hopes we keep that in mind when we make this decision on the parking. We have three parking areas for the Marchman, and hopefully we will not be parking on the street except for those coming into the building for a brief time. Councilor Gonzalez commended the Street Department for working very hard on the potholes, but it seems like a losing battle. Mr. Scott Taylor informed that pothole work orders could be turned in by calling 761-7970. 503 Item 7b continued Councilor Norrie complimented Mr. Darron Leiker for meeting with the Wildcats' General Manager to get SAFB students to the games. He encouraged everyone to go to the hockey games. Councilor Norrie mentioned the catastrophic devastation in South East Asia and suggested that those interested in helping check the various charitable organization and church websites. He asked that staff look into putting this information on our City Channel. He asked that we keep all the victims and their families in our thoughts and prayers. Councilor Norrie thanked the Staff for everything they did in 2004. He thanked the City Clerk for the encouragement of being here today although she is ill. He wished everyone a Happy New Year. Councilor Esther mentioned a business card from ATMOS that he had received and stated that there are so many changes, such as the merging of J.C. Penny and Dillards. It looks like a group of people want to take over everything. Downtown parking is always going to be a problem. I am going to continue to look into the Maurine Street artery. I had a complaint from a citizen about street repairs because they are keeping him from getting out of his driveway, however, I checked and the contractor had complied with notifying everyone in advance. You just cannot satisfy everyone. We do need to be thankful and count our blessings after seeing the devastation in another part of the world. In 2005 get rid of suspicions and of being critical. Let's not do that this year. He thanked the staff for what they try to do for a bunch of critical people. Let's get away from this criticism. Councilor Elmore announced that he is resuming his District 5 public meetings. They will be meeting on the second Monday of the month at Kate Haynes Elementary and the third Monday at City View High School at 7 p.m. He is looking forward to 2005 and working with Council and staff. He wished everyone a Happy New Year. Councilor Williams commented that we had a very good year in 2004 in Wichita Falls, even with the criticism we do not like, but we live in a country that allows that. Life gives me a lot more than I earn and deserve. We do appreciate the staff for all they do. Keep on doing it, and you do it for a lot less than in other places. I hope that in 2005 everyone protects themselves on their health. Mayor stated that he thinks we are going to start a great year in 2005. The Animal Department and Police Department took care of situations to responses from citizens in a very prompt manner. We have a lot of challenges and opportunities this year and it is going to be a great year. We are down to nine vacancies in the Police Department and will be fully staffed, and we will look at other programs as well. He wished everyone a Happy New Year. Item 7c City Council went into Executive Session at 11:54 a. m. as authorized by Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code. City Council reconvened at 12:12 p.m. Mayor announced that no votes were taken during Executive Session. Item 8 No one signed up to speak under public comments. City Council adjourned at 12:15 p. m. I Q PASSED AND APPROVED this I Zp day of kwd 2005. WILLIAM K. ALTMAN MAYOR ATTEST: Lydia Ozuna City Clerk NOTICE OF MEETING Regular Meeting Of The Mayor And City Council Of The City Of Wichita Falls, Texas To Be Held In The City Council Chambers Of The Memorial Auditorium, 1300 Seventh Street, On Tuesday, January 4, 2005, Beginning At 8:30 a.m. City Council: Mayor William K. Altman - Councilors Arthur Bea Williams, Linda Ammons, James Esther, Michael Norrie, Ray Gonzalez, and Charles Elmore. 1 . Call to Order. 2. Invocation: Reverend Bob Rogers First Assembly of God Church 3. Presentations: Employee Of The Month 4. Approval of Minutes. REGULAR AGENDA 5. Ordinance: a. Ordinance Adopting The 2005 Wichita Falls Thoroughfare Plan. (City Council Bill #1) 6. Resolutions: a. A Resolution Authorizing The Purchase Of Computer Hardware for The Library's Automated Software Systems. (City Council Bill #2) b. Resolution To Approve Agreement With TXU Electric Delivery Company To Relocate Existing Overhead Distribution Lines Located In The Jasper Water Treatment Plant Expansion Area (CWF04-544-21). (City Council Bill #3) c. Resolution Authorizing Award Of Bid For Traffic Control Equipment To Hi-Tech Signals, Inc., In The Amount Of $36,450.00. (City Council Bill #4) City Council Agenda Tuesday, January 4, 2005 Page 2 d. Resolution Authorizing Award Of Bid For The Purchase Of Loose Equipment For The New Aerial Platform Truck. (City Council Bill #5) 7. Other Council Matters: a. Discussion Of Downtown Parking b. Discussion Of Items Of Concern To Members Of The City Council. c. Staff/Council Discussion. d. Executive Session: Briefing By City Attorney Regarding Contemplated Litigation, In Re: Wichita Falls Museum Maintenance Trusts; As Authorized By Section 551.071 Of The Texas Government Code. END OF TELEVISED SEGMENT 8. Comments From The Public To Members Of The City Council Concerning Items That Are Not On The City Council Agenda Will Be Heard At 12:00 p.m. Persons Interested In Speaking To The City Council Must Sign Up At The Council Meeting By 11 A.M. That Morning. 9. Adjourn. Wheelchair or handicapped accessibility to the meeting is possible by using the handicapped parking spaces and ramp located off the east parking lot on the Sixth Street entrance. Spanish language interpreters, deaf interpreters, Braille copies or any other special needs will be provided to any person requesting a special service with at least 24 hours notice. Please call the City Clerk's Office at 761-7409. CERTIFICATION City Council Agenda Tuesday, January 4, 2005 Page 3 1 certify that the above notice of meeting was posted on the bulletin board at Memorial Auditorium, Wichita Falls, Texas on the day of 20 at o'clock (a.m.)(p.m.). City Clerk