Loading...
Min 09/04/2007 < _ 149 • CITY COUNCIL MINUTES Wichita Falls, Texas Memorial Auditorium Building September 4, 2007 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: Lanham Lyne - Mayor Ray Gonzalez - Mayor Pro Tern Glenn Barham - Councilors Michael Smith - Dorothy Roberts-Burns - Rick Hatcher - Charles Elmore - Darron Leiker - City Manager Bill Sullivan - City Attorney Lydia Ozuna - City Clerk Mayor called the meeting to order. Item 2a Mayor Lanham Lyne gave the invocation. Item 2b Councilor Gonzalez led in the Pledge of Allegiance. Item 3a Mayor proclaimed "Boys & Girls Club Day for Kids" in Wichita Falls and encouraged all citizens to set aside some quality time for the young people in their life. Proclamation was accepted by Mr. Dennis Kays and some children. Item 3b Mayor proclaimed September 16-22, 2007 as "Surgical Technologist Week" in Wichita Falls, and encouraged citizens to appreciate the professional concern and care they receive from the surgical technologists. Mr. Jeff Feiz, Vernon College, and a student accepted the proclamation. Item 3c Ms. Lesley Daly, Library Administrator, announced that the selection for Wichita Falls Reads 2007 is Rocket Boys by Homer Hickman, Jr. This will be a collaborative effort between the Midwestern State Moffett Library, the Wichita Falls Independent School District, in particular the Hirschi High School Library, and the Wichita Falls Public Library. There will be a whole week of community activities during Teen Week, October 15-20, 2007. Mayor Lyne encouraged everyone to read the book and participate in the community activities. 150 Item 3d Captain Mike Davis, Wichita Falls Fire Department, was recognized as Employee of the Month for September 2007. Mayor presented Captain Davis with a plaque, a check, and restaurant certificates. Item 4 Robert Van Voltenberg, 708 Webster, is the owner of 704, 706 and 708 Webster. He informed that he has made some repairs to the trailer and another structure. He stated that they are used strictly for storage. He has no future plans to use it as a residence for anyone. He was told by Code he would have to obtain a contractor to repair any rental facilities, but these are not used for rentals only for storage. Mayor stated that Mr. Bobby Teague, Building Administrator, will follow-up on that. Item 5 The Minutes were approved as distributed. Item 6 A public hearing was held on the proposed property tax rate for the 2007-08 fiscal year. Mayor declared the public hearing open. Finance Director Jim Dockery informed that this is the first of two public hearings on the proposed tax rate for FY 2007-2008. The tax rate is the same as last year, $0.59246 per $100 assessed value. A growing tax base will result in approximately $1.4 million additional revenue to the City. The second public hearing will be held September 11, 2007 at 8:30 a.m. and the Council will vote on the tax rate at their September 18, 2007 regular council meeting. David Brock, 1819 Hines, commended the Council for keeping the tax rate the same. He hopes that we will continue to grow and that taxes will not have to be raised in the future. He suggested that Council look at funding needed technology in the Police Department especially the Crime Scene Investigation, and Public Works with the extra money. He does not think the Business Park is an area that money needs to be put into before helping the Police Department and Public Works. He thanked the Council for keeping the rate the same. Mr. Dockery informed that the total tax base has grown by $242 million. Of that amount, new growth or properties that were not on the tax roll is $71 million and the market value increases that were on the on the tax roll is $171 million. Councilor Smith reminded Council that the budget process as it is unfolded is open to our questions, comments, and concerns. He reminded Council that this process is still unfolding although we are talking about a tax rate that sets revenue, we need to remember that we have the opportunity at the next public hearing to bring any other information and ask any other questions. We are not done. Just a reminder for me and the rest of the Council. Mayor called for additional public comments. There being none, Mayor declared the public hearing closed. Item 7a ORDINANCE NO. 73-2007 ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, REMOVING FROM PROBATION DAVILA TRANSPORTATION, INC. DBA ALL AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION AND PREZO, INC. DBA PRESIDENTIAL TRANSPORTATION PURSUANT TO ORDINANCES #11-2007 AND #12-2007; FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS ORDINANCE WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW. 151 Item 7a continued Moved by Councilor Roberts-Burns that Ordinance No. 73-2007 be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Elmore and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Lyne, Councilors Barham, Smith, Roberts-Burns, Hatcher, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 7b ORDINANCE NO. 74-2007 ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, ORDINANCE MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO THE SPECIAL REVENUE FUND FOR TUBERCULOSIS CONTROL RECEIVED FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES IN THE AMOUNT OF $3,500; FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS ORDINANCE WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW. Moved by Councilor Roberts-Burns that Ordinance No. 74-2007 be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Elmore and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Lyne, Councilors Barham, Smith, Roberts-Burns, Hatcher, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 8a RESOLUTION NO. 135-2007 A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, DENYING THE REQUEST OF ATMOS ENERGY CORP., MID-TEX DIVISION, FOR AN ANNUAL GAS RELIABILITY INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAM (GRIP) RATE INCREASE IN THIS MUNICIPALITY, AS A PART OF THE COMPANY'S STATEWIDE GAS UTILITY DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM; SUPPORTING STATUTORY REFORM OF THE TEXAS GRIP STATUTE, FINDING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS RESOLUTION IS PASSED IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC; AND PROVIDING FOR NOTICE OF THIS RESOLUTION TO ATMOS ENERGY CORP., MID-TEX DIVISION AND THE CITY'S LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION. Moved by Councilor Roberts-Burns that Resolution No.135-2007 be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Gonzalez and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Lyne, Councilors Barham, Smith, Roberts-Burns, Hatcher, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 8b RESOLUTION NO. 136-2007 RESOLUTION TO APPROVE JOINT FUNDING AGREEMENT WITH U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY FOR OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF STREAM FLOW AND RESERVOIR CONTENT GAUGING STATIONS; 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. 136-2007 be passed. 152 Item 8b continued Motion seconded by Councilor Gonzalez and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Lyne, Councilors Barham, Smith, Roberts-Burns, Hatcher, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 8c RESOLUTION NO. 137-2007 RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS, TO APPROVE ADVANCE FUNDING AGREEMENT FOR A PRIVATELY FUNDED DRIVEWAY THAT WILL BE CONSTRUCTED WITHIN THE MAPLEWOOD STREET IMPROVEMENT PROJECT; FINDING AND DETERMINING THAT THE MEETING AT WHICH THIS RESOLUTION WAS PASSED WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AS REQUIRED BY LAW. Moved by Councilor Roberts-Burns that Resolution No. 137-2007be passed. Motion seconded by Councilor Gonzalez and carried by the following vote. Ayes: Mayor Lyne, Councilors Barham, Smith, Roberts-Burns, Hatcher, Gonzalez, and Elmore Nays: None Item 9a Mr. Dave Clark presented a report on flood-related activities and projects. City Manager asked Council that any questions or comments regarding this be given to him and instruct if they want staff to go in another direction. We will provide options to Council at the next Council meeting for your consideration. Keep in mind that some of those issues are very long term and it will take some time. City Council recessed at 9:55 a.m. and reconvened at 10:10 a.m. Item 9b Councilor Smith gave kudos to Mr. Bob Sullivan and his staff at MPEC for the excellent fireworks extravaganza on Sunday night. It was a great activity and very well attended, and the portable stage was well used. Councilor Smith asked for an update on the Loop 11 project. Mr. Scott Taylor informed that the State will open bids in September and construction will begin probably in December. Utilities relocation is going on now, and this week the City will be relocating utilities as well. Councilor Smith reminded Council about the information the City Manager provided them in August relating to possible training for meet and confer meetings in the future. He asked that Council contact the City Manager and let him know if there is a need or not for additional training on this. City staff and the Fire Department have engaged in that process. This was training for City staff and those selected by either the Fire Fighters Association or the Police Officers Association. He thanked the City Manager for the information. Councilor Gonzalez also thanked Mr. Bob Sullivan and his staff for the outstanding job they did on the fireworks event. The parking was handled very well. It was a great turnout. Councilor Gonzalez stated that the Tuesday night concerts are very well attended. That was a good change to have it at the old Funland site. 153 Item 9b continued . Councilor Gonzalez thanked the persons who are a part of Larry Krugles' crew that responded to repairing pot holes. It is a real good crew. He commended them; they do an excellent job. Councilor Gonzalez encouraged persons who have not seen the progress at the golf course to go out there; it is looking great. We are going to have a first rate golf course. It is going to be very good for the City. Councilor Hatcher agreed with Councilor Gonzalez on the golf course. Councilor Hatcher said that a good job had been done on the fireworks event. Councilor Hatcher mentioned the proposed water rate increase and stated that he had looked at it in every possible way to try to avoid an increase but that is unlikely. He said that through his research on this he was made fully aware of certain things that in the past City leaders bit off a lot, but now we are ahead of some other cities while they are in the process of doing what we have already done. He thinks that if you compare us in the next 2-5 years we are going to be looking very average while other cities are going to have to do what we did. It is great to maintain the tax rate the same. It would be great if we could lower it. Councilor Barham echoed that the fireworks were great; they could not have been done any better. Some comments were that we should continue to do this at the end of the summer and forego the 4th of July. It was well attended and everyone enjoyed it. Councilor Barham agreed with Councilor Hatcher on the water rates. I know staff struggles when they have to make this recommendation but it is something we have to do. Councilor Elmore stated that some comparable cities are having water problems and if we are on the front of that particular issue; they will be looking at an increased cost with everything else that has gone up. We are going to have to find places to provide water and I think Wichita Falls has done an exemplary job in that area. Councilor Elmore gave kudos to the MPEC Staff for the job they did on the fireworks event; it was great. We should have an end of the summer event like this every year. We had a great time and I really enjoyed it. Councilor Elmore wanted to know to whom a weed violation letter would be sent or who would be cited if the property is rental, the renter or the property owner? City Attorney replied that it can go to both. Many times we do not know that it is rental property; but the liability is potentially to both. I would defer to Mr. Clark and Code to determine to whom the letter is sent. Councilor Elmore stated that in 1990s we had a mandatory notice in the Code for all code enforcement violations. I would like to see some of that. My understanding is that the State has made changes in their level of fines, and that our$2000 fine is no longer valid. Also, I would like to see the modified letter that we are going to send out. We indicate it is a courtesy on the part of the City but to me that letter is a threat. To a great extent the citizenry feel intimidated and that if they do not comply they will be subject to a $2000/day fine. We desperately need some changes in that letter and I would like to see some changes. City Attorney stated that at one time there was a mandatory written notice in the Ordinance with regard to notice of weed violations but we encountered problems with that. One, if you make it a mandatory notice it would have to be sent by certified mail and you would incur a fair amount of cost. Second, from a prosecution's standpoint when you put that requirement in there you will have to be able to prove that they received the letter; otherwise the first offense they offer is that they did not receive the letter and that we are required by law to send it. If we cannot prove we sent that letter, we would not be able to prosecute that case. They should know the condition of that property, and we should not have to send a letter to tell them that their grass is over 8 inches tall. Beyond that it is a practical issue in terms of cost and an element of proof. If you put that mandatory notice back in there it affects the way we have to prosecute our cases. I raise that issue with you before you put that in your ordinance. The letter itself is a separate issue. Councilor Elmore stated that if we do not make it mandatory, he would like to see it as a practice to send that particular letter on each one of these offenses. City Manager stated that we are looking at the content of that letter and will put some drafts together to soften the language and to clarify. I think we do have the responsibility to tell the public what would happen if they do not comply. That is why we put the fines and things like that in the letter. Councilor Elmore stated that his contention is that if we tell the people the fine is $25 they say they get 80%-90% compliance with the letter that is sent out now, but my feeling is that they 154 Item 9b continued will get 80%-90% compliance if it is $25 because 95% of the people want to do what is right. I would like to see a significant difference in the letter with a kinder, gentler letter than we have now. What I hear is that the fine structure is just an additional tax; a money maker for the City. I do not like that perception and I do not think that is true. I think Code Enforcement's primary responsibility is to see that the citizens are in compliance with the law, not to "get somebody". That is what I hear and I don't like that. I would like to see a situation with all the employees where their primary thinking is "how I can help the public", not "how can I get them". That is where I am coming from. Councilor Elmore said he received a letter relating to tall grass and weeds on U.S.287 and he wants to let them know that this is a TXDOT issue not a City issue. We had problems at U.S. 287 and City View where ragweed is extremely tall. Councilor Roberts-Burns commended Mr. Bob Sullivan and his MPEC staff for an outstanding fireworks show. She hopes we can use those grounds for other activities. It was a great area; good turn out. Councilor Roberts-Burns commended Larry Krugle and his staff for the pot hole repairs. They do a great job and respond quickly. She thanked them. Mayor Lyne thanked Mr. Bob Sullivan and his staff for the fireworks display. He also thanked Mr. Matt Benoit who worked diligently to find a workable location. I think from everyone's comments that it was a great location. The parkland behind MPEC was a new discovery and a great place to have fantastic events. There were many comments that it was the best fireworks event. The bands were great. It was a great day of celebration for the City; it was a great way to end the summer. All City Departments were involved. Mr. Bob Sullivan thanked everyone for the kind comments. He pointed out that because of all the help from the City departments we put that event on. We could not have done it without them. We showed that MPEC is there for events such as these. Traffic flows smoothly and we did discover a good setting for future events. As far as doing this on an annual basis, it is just a matter of money. It is a good start and we are already talking about how to make it bigger and better. I appreciate the kind comments. It was a cooperative effort with all the City departments participating. Mayor Lyne mentioned that this was the second year that we budgeted for this and he reminded citizens that they have an opportunity to contribute to this through their utility bill. Item 10 City Council went into Executive session at 10:38 a.m. as authorized by Section 551.074 of the Texas Government Code. City Council reconvened at 1:12 p.m. Mayor announced that no votes or polls were taken in Executive Session. Item 11 City Council adjourned at 1:15 p.m. PASSED AND APPROVED this Slay of 2007. r MAYOR ATTEST: 1-0 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, September 4, 2007 Beginning At 8:30 A.M. City Council: Mayor Lanham Lyne, Councilors Glenn Barham, Michael Smith, Dorothy Roberts-Burns, Rick Hatcher, Ray Gonzalez, and Charles Elmore. 1. Call To Order 2. (a) Invocation: (b) Pledge Of Allegiance 3. Presentations (a) Proclamation - Boys & Girls Clubs Day (b) Proclamation - Surgical Technologists Week - Vernon College (c) Wichita Falls Reads — Wichita Falls Public Library/Library Advisory Board (d) Employee Of The Month - Fire — Mike Davis 4. Comments From The Public To Members Of The City Council Concerning Items That Are Not On The City Council Agenda. People Wishing To Address The Council Should Sign Up Prior To The Meeting Commencing. A Five Minute Time Frame Will Be Adhered To For Those Addressing Their Concerns. 5. Approval Of Minutes Of August 21, 2007 Regular Meeting Of The Mayor And City Council. REGULAR AGENDA 6. Public Hearing On Proposed Property Tax Rate For The 2007-08 Fiscal Year. City Council Agenda Tuesday, September 4, 2007 Page 2 7. Ordinances (a) Ordinance Removing From Probation Davilla Transportation, Inc. DBA All American Transportation, And Prezo, Inc. DBA Presidential Transportation Pursuant To Ordinances #11-2007 and #12-2007 (Council Bill #209) (b) Ordinance Making An Appropriation To The Special Revenue Fund For Tuberculosis Control Received From The Department Of State Health Services In The Amount Of $3,500. (Council Bill #210) 8. Resolutions (a) Resolution Denying The Request Of Atmos Energy Corp., Mid- Tex Division, For An Annual Gas Reliability Infrastructure Program Rate Increase; Supporting Statutory Reform Of The Texas Grip Statute. (Council Bill #211) (b) Resolution To Approve Joint Funding Agreement With U.S. Geological Survey For Operation And Maintenance Of Stream Flow And Reservoir Content Gauging Stations (Council Bill #212) (c) Resolution To Approve An Advance Funding Agreement For A Privately Funded Driveway That Will Be Constructed Within The Maplewood Street Improvement Project. (Council Bill #213) 9. Other Council Matters (a) Staff Council Discussion - Hear a staff report from Dave Clark concerning flood-related activities and projects (b) Discussion Of Items Of Concern To Members Of The City Council. 10. Executive Session - Evaluation of the City Manager, City Attorney, Municipal Judge and City Clerk as authorized by Section 551.074 of the Texas Government Code." 11 . Adjourn City Council Agenda Tuesday, September 4, 2007 Page 3 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. Wireless Listening System devices are available at the City Manager's reception area or you may call 761-7404 for inquiries. CERTIFICATION I certify that the above notice of meeting was posted on the bulletin board at Memorial Auditorium, Wichita Falls, Texas on the day of 2007 at o'clock (a.m.)(p.m.). City Clerk