City Council Meetings

MINUTES REGULAR MEETING MINERAL WELLS CITY COUNCIL CITY HALL ANNEX December 6, 2016 – 6:00 pm City Councilmembers present were Mayor Mike Allen, Mayor Pro-Tem John Upham, Councilmembers Clif Wright, Brian Reagan, Jerrel Tomlin, and Wayne Johnson. Councilmember Tammy Underwood was absent. A quorum of City Councilmembers was present Staff members present were City Manager Lance Howerton, Police Chief Dean Sullivan, Finance Director John Moran, Public Works Director Kelly Jones, Fire Chief Mike Pool, City Clerk Juanita Formby, and City Attorney George Gault. Mayor Allen called the meeting to order, Councilman Brian Reagan gave the invocation, and the Pledges of Allegiance to the U.S. and Texas were recited. CITIZEN COMMENT No one had signed to speak. Mr. Upham moved and Mr. Reagan seconded to approve the following CONSENT AGENDA, and the motion carried 6-0: 1. Consider minutes of previous meetings held November 15, 2016. 2. Consider approval of budgeted expenditures over $500. 3. Consider authorizing Crawford Roofing’s Application #2 for payment in the amount of $16,950.85 4. Consider authorizing Crawford Roofing’s Application for payment in the amount of $115,316.00 5. Consider resolution authorizing execution of Landlord’s Waiver and Consent on behalf of Genesys Aerosystems. 6. Consider adoption of Resolution No. 2016-2R adopting and updating the City’s Investment Policy. ITEMS FOR INDIVIDUAL CONSIDERATION 7. Mr. Howerton and Mayor Allen presented a Gold Member City Award from Texas Amateur Athletic Federation to Parks and Recreation Mineral Wells City Council Minutes 12/06/2016 Page 1 of 4  Superintendent Donnie Hoover, in recognition of his development of recreational opportunities in Mineral Wells. 8. Mr. Moran reminded the City Council that they had previously authorized staff to advertise and receive Requests for Qualifications for grants administration services and engineering services for a future, hoped-for application to the Texas Community Development Block Grant program. RFQs were received on November 17th for both services. A Selection Review Committee composed of Mayor Allen, Councilmember Tammy Underwood, City Manager Lance Howerton, and Finance Director John Moran reviewed the responses and rated and scored them according to a standard set of criteria adapted from the 2015 Texas Community Block Grant Implementation Manual. The companies with the highest score were deemed to be the finalists. Mayor Allen also discussed and explained the scoring process. Matrixes for each service were provided to show how the proposers scored were provided. Mr. Moran said that for grants administration services, GrantWorks of Austin, Texas made a perfect score. Shirleen Bonacci of GrantWorks was present and gave the Council a bit of background on her company. Mr. Moran said that for engineering services, Enprotec/Hibbs & Todd of Granbury Texas scored high. Following a brief discussion, Mr. Reagan moved and Mr. Upham seconded to adopt a resolution authorizing the award of professional services provider contracts for the 2017-2018 Texas Community Development Block Grant project to GrantWorks for grant administration services, and to Enprotec/Hibbs & Todd Engineering for engineering services. Mr. Wright abstained, and the motion carried 5-0-1. 9. Mayor Allen opened a public hearing at 6:18 pm regarding the implementation of an ordinance that declares drainage in the City of Mineral Wells to be a public utility pursuant to the Texas Local Government Code Section 552.045. Mr. Moran reminded the Council that this has been discussed at two or three past meetings, and the basic premise is that $2.50 monthly would be charged on each water connection and placed in a Drainage Utility Fund. This money would then be used to fund a study and engineering to complete extensive public works drainage projects in town. At a later date, the drainage surcharge would change and be charged differently for commercial and residential, and would sometimes be based on a property’s drainage footprint (area of impervious surface and drainage elements). Mr. Moran said that the state law set out very specific steps the City must take to legally implement the Drainage Utility Fund. The subject ordinance was published in its entirety three times in the local paper, along with notice of this public hearing, and was posted on the City’s website, as well as at City Hall. Mr. Roger Smith spoke on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce. He said a Chamber meeting had been held for the purpose of discussing this matter and getting a consensus of Chamber members. He said that a majority of the Chambers membership (415 individuals and Mineral Wells City Council Minutes 12/06/2016 Page 2 of 4  businesses) expressed support of this project. He said that the membership felt that any exemptions should be only those authorized by the state law. Ms. Ginny Milliken spoke, and said she enjoyed living in Mineral Wells and knew it took money to maintain it, but she felt too much had been asked of the citizens and she asked that the $2.50 be reduced. The City Council and staff fielded several questions from Ms. Milliken and others as to how the Drainage Utility Fund would operate. Mr. Moran said that the $2.50 monthly surcharge would generate about $200,000 annually to fund master drainage studies, rate studies, and engineering. He felt that these goals might be accomplished in about a year; but that the Drainage Utility has a minimum life of five years. After that, a future Council can discontinue it. The public hearing was closed at 6:28 pm. 10. Mr. Moran presented Ordinance No. 2016-28, which would establish the Municipal Drainage System. Following a brief discussion, Mr. Upham moved and Mr. Reagan seconded to pass and approve an ordinance of the City of Mineral Wells, Texas, amending the Code of Ordinances by amending Chapter 90, to add Article III Municipal Drainage Utility System, to establish a municipal drainage utility system; providing for drainage service, billing, exemptions, drainage charges and appeals, providing a repealing clause; providing a severability clause, providing a savings clause; providing for a criminal penalty of a fine not to exceed the sum of two thousand dollars ($2,000); and providing for an effective date. Motion carried 6-0. 11. Mayor Allen opened a public hearing at 6:56 pm regarding the adoption of a resolution that levies a schedule of drainage charges, pursuant to Texas Local Government Code Section 552.045. Mr. Moran said that after passage of an ordinance adopting the state statute, the City may levy a schedule of drainage charges; but before doing so a public hearing must be held and notice must be given the same as for the ordinance. This particular resolution simply set a uniform across-the-board fee of $2.50 for each water connection (subject to change at a later date). After hearing a few comments, Mayor Allen closed the public hearing at 7:03 pm. 12. There was significant discussion among the Council and those present regarding the proposed exemptions that were enumerated in Exhibit A to the resolution. Mr. Moran explained that exemptions granted to counties, school districts, and housing authorities (Items No 4, 5, and 6 in Exhibit A) is language that is required by state statue, but only for counties with a population of 500,000 and those items do not pertain to Mineral Wells. The exemption granted to religious institutions by Exhibit A to the resolution was debated amongst the Council. Mr. Wright preferred that everyone, including churches, participate in the initial $2.50 collection, and they could be Mineral Wells City Council Minutes 12/06/2016 Page 3 of 4  exempt later after the fee study is complete. Mr. Johnson was in favor of exempting church buildings proper, and rectories, but not other properties that might be owned by churches (rental property, etc.). Mr. Reagan was fearful that a future sitting Council might not feel so magnanimous towards non-profits and would fail to reestablish the exemption, and argued for it to remain. At the end of the discussion, the Council reached a compromise. Mr. Reagan moved and Mr. Upham seconded that Resolution 2016-01R, implementing a Municipal Drainage Utility System Schedule of Charges, be adopted, and that Item No. 7 on Exhibit A, Drainage Charge Schedule, be amended to read, “Property owned by a religious organization that is exempt from taxation pursuant to Section 11.20, Tax Code, from all drainage charges over $2.50 monthly.” Motion carried 6-0. 13. Mr. Moran presented Change Order No. 9 to the contract with Crawford Roofing, regarding the North Oak Community Center. This contract was let by the City Council on June 7, 2016 to repair storm damage to numerous City facilities. When removing the damaged roof from the North Oak Community Center, it was discovered that the underlying roof structure had concealed a “crawl space” between the newer decking and the original wooden decking, which had been damaged by fire at some past date. The damage rendered the wood decking unusable for the new roof, and have to be replaced. Further, concealed spaces are now prohibited by the Building Code, so this would need to be eliminated. This extra work will be covered by insurance proceeds, in the amount of $37,399.25. Following some discussion about the remaining life and viability of the building, Mr. Reagan moved and Mr. Wright seconded to approve Change Order No. 9 in the amount of $37,799.25. Motion carried 6-0. 14. There was no further business, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:27 pm. /s/ Mike Allen, Mayor ATTEST: /d/ Juanita Formby, City Clerk APPROVED: 12-20-2016 Mineral Wells City Council Minutes 12/06/2016 Page 4 of 4