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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 03.22.2011 CC-WThe City Council of the City of Georgetown, Texas, met in Regular Session on the above date with Mayor George Garver presiding. Council Present: Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Pat Berryman, Tommy Gonzalez Council Absent: Gabe Sansing, Patty Eason, Dale Ross Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Mark Sokolow, City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary - Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Valerie Kreger," Principal Planner; Wayne Nero, Police Chief; Robert Fite, Fire Chief A Review of the proposed Landscaping and Tree Preservation text of 2008-2009 Unified Development Code {UDC} Amendments -- Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director and Valerie Kreger, AICP, Principal Planner Eason, Sansing, Ross absent. Kreger reviewed the landscaping and tree preservation amendments for Council. She said these are the last two amendments of the 2008-2009 UDC amendment list. She said there were two main goals of these changes and she described those goals. She noted the first was to revise Chapter 8, landscaping, and the second was to amend the protected and heritage tree requirements. She noted, with the help of the task force, the City has had many versions of the chapters and the resulting document is a result of the many meetings that occurred on this subject. She said, because of the nature of the document, staff is asking that if Council were to see anything that needs a large scale change, the task force would like to see those in case it affects the other aspects of the amendments. She noted staff has provided an entirely new Chapter 8 to council as the chapter is going to be appealed. She described how the new chapter differs from the current one. She said staff has moved some of the process requirements into Chapter 3, including heritage tree removal permits so it follows the application process. She noted staff has tried to provide directional information and how the sections affect you depending on where you live within the city. She noted there have been some aspects that needed to be removed in its entirety, including the tree canopy provisions. She said the street tree requirements have been removed and she described those requirements as well and why they were a problem. She said the primary landscape requirements have also been removed and she added significant stands have been removed regarding historic tree preservation. Kreger said they have provided new tree preservation incentives. She described what the task force had to say on this issue and she described the various incentives included in the amendments. She said there are landscape tree credits. She noted, if you provide a mitigation tree, you can use an existing tree for your mitigation credit or landscape credit. She said staff wants trees in the right place and they are mainly concerned with tree preservation and providing trees on site. She noted if the trees are in the right location, those should be counted for landscaping credits as well. She said, in addition, if you preserve a tree on site that is 20 inches or more, that can count for two landscaping credits. She noted the amendments provide increased impervious City Council Meeting Minutest Page 1 of 5 Pages cover and she described these changes. She said, if the city approves a minimum tree preservation credit, it allows people that go over that amount to get extra credit. She spoke about a decrease in required parking. She said staff is proposing a ten percent reduction of required spaces if they preserve a tree over 20 inches. She spoke about the tree preservation priorities that are in place for heritage trees. She noted they are looking to put in sidewalk alternatives for tree preservation. She described alternative design approval in these amendments. She also spoke about exceptions and alternatives to residential boundary wall provisions as well as alternative fences. She noted they have created some flexibility in the postponement of installation of landscaping and she described this provision. She spoke about planting design and said they are proposing a little more creativity with the planting. She said they have a few changes they are providing for clarification and she described those for the council. She described how landscaping appeals have been changed in these amendments. She said because the Urban Forester is working closely with the Planning Director, any decisions of the urban forester that someone would want to appeal can be appealed to the planning director instead of automatically going to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. She said there are tree preservation changes and she continued to describe those changes. She spoke about concerns of having one side of the City being more heavily treed than the other part of the City and she described how these new amendments solves this issue. She spoke about mitigation and removal of protected trees per acre. She said there were a lot of discussion regarding this with the group and noted the group was comfortable with a 40% mitigation rate. She noted this means, if someone removes trees, they need to mitigate at least 40% of that amount of the trees removed. She continued to speak about mitigation as referenced in the amendments. She spoke about non-residential landscape requirements and described those for the council. She spoke about buffer yard requirements and said the existing ones were not serving its purpose. She described the changes being proposed for those requirements. She said there were a lot of requirements that were discussed but not changed and she described those for Council. She said staff is looking to take this to Council for first reading at the first meeting in April. Meigs asked about oak wilt throughout the city. Brandenburg said a workshop was done a few years ago on oak wilt and added it was an hour long presentation and at that time Heather Brewer pointed out where the city is starting to see it and how it can be prevented. Brewer said Leander Road is definitely eaten up with oak wilt and she added she can send Council more information on this. Sattler asked and Heather Brewer, the urban forester, said a person does not want to store red oak that has died from oak wilt for more than a year because it can spread when that wood is burned. Brewer said it is fine if you burn it right away. Sattler asked and Brewer said you can either burn the red oak immediately or ship it to be ground up. Berryman asked that all of Council be placed on the contact list with the urban forester. Mayor asked and Kreger clarified when a person must repopulate trees on their property. Mayor said one of the more beautiful things about cities is their growth and maintenance of quality trees. He asked if it would be possible to regulate trees on private properties. Brewer said the city does not have this, but there is a national program called Neighbor Woods that addresses this issue. She described that program for the Council. She added the city does not have that program in place right now. Brandenburg asked and Brewer described Tree City USA, which deals with a tree ordinance that the City does not currently have. She said she could look into this. Sattler asked and Brewer said the City has a memorial tree program through the parks department. Sattler asked and Brewer said all of those trees will be planted in San Gabriel Park, as the City is responsible for the maintenance of those trees. B Police Budget Workshop -- Wayne Nero, Police Chief With a Powerpoint presentation, Nero directed Council's attention to the police budget report. He reviewed 2010 and some of the accomplishments by the police department. He said Georgetown was ranked the third safest city in Texas with populations from 50,000 to 100,000 in the Crime in Texas Report. He described this report. He noted, once he got settled into the City, he started looking into the City's hiring process for new police officers and staff members. He said, when you look at the fast growth of the City, new officers are the city's future management. He noted there was a complete overhaul of the hiring process. He added the new process matches up closely with the FBI process. He said the process is now character based, there is a new structured interview process, new written assessment with the addition of critical thinking and a new Chiefs interview. He continued to describe the many changes that were made. He said the City tests again in March 26 and added there are over 300 applicants. He spoke about their alternate promotional system and described how it works. He said, before the changes that were made, it was all based on just a written test. He noted the new process had to be voted in by the sworn officers and added it was voted in by more than a 70% percentage. He spoke about the new college requirements for officers. He spoke about the eligibility that you need to even test for certain rankings. He said it is 5 years to test for Sergeant as well as 30 hours of college. He said it takes 7 years to test for Lieutenant and 60 hours college and 8 years to test for Captain and a bachelor's degree. Berryman asked and Nero described how civil service fits into this. He noted Civil Service creates the option of having an alternative promotional process as long as the officers vote it in. Nero said hiring and promotions are two separate types of interview processes. Nero said the employee lists are good for a year unless the city exhausts them by going through and weeding out ineligible candidates. Sattler asked and Nero said there are City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 5 Pages no provisions that require or mandate medical training. Berryman asked about providing AEDs in each of the police cars. Nero and Brandenburg said the City thought about this but noted there are a lot of issues concerning training and police officer liability. Berryman continued to speak about why she thinks this is necessary. Fite said the AEDs have to be maintained and routinely checked. Nero said he can look into this. Berryman said that would be good as Georgetown has an aging population. He noted the Austin area was designated a H1DTA area, or a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, in 2010. He noted there is a multi -agency task force to address this issue including folks from DEA, Austin, WILCO, Round Rock, DPS and Georgetown. He said the benefits are the training and experience that the officers gain being involved with this program. Nero noted they established a leadership team in November including representatives from all ranks and levels of the organization. He said there were two reasons he did this including the establish a level a trust as well as use it as a leadership training tool. He said he gave the leadership team some homework to design and develop a vision, mission statement and core values for the department. He said this new statement was revealed at Christmas time and there was a huge poster that was signed by each officer, sort of like the Declaration of Independence. He showed Council an image of the new patch and badge and added they are looking to change the image of the department. He spoke about the concept of the graphics to be used on the new police cars next year. He spoke about the training in the department and he described the foundational adjustments made to the training system. He said there is an 80 hour work period for sworn personnel, which allows for more flexibility to scheduling. He said they have also built a training day into the patrol schedule. He continued to describe the new changes to training in the department. He spoke about Erik Grasse being award the TCLEOSE achievement award for valor. He said he was given this award in April 2010 for an incident that occurred in March of 2009. He spoke about promotions within the department including two captains, two lieutenants and two sergeants. He spoke about the strength of force change as well. He described to Council the department's strategic planning. He spoke about reorganization, program evaluations and the goal of having 1.75 officers per 1,000 citizens. He said, as the City grows, the department will have a plan in place for how to staff the Police Department. He said they want to be more pro active on future growth. He spoke about the Lexipol Policy Manual and described it for the Council. He said the manual is a cutting edge piece of software that keeps the departments updated and organized according to best practices. He spoke about the Texas Recognition Program and how Lexipol incorporates with the program. He said the goal is to be online with Lexipol as the department's new policy by the Fall of 2011. He said the Texas Recognition Program is a pretty big deal in a chiefs world. He spoke about training and said they are going for a contract training provider license. He spoke about enhanced reporting, training advisory committee and regional focus. He said the goal is to develop a regional based hub for police training. He showed Council a picture of the physical readiness test (PRT) he has instituted and he described it for the Council. He said this will be the entrance test and new recruits must pass this test. He said there is a physical fitness standard that he hopes to maintain throughout the department. He said there is nothing there that an officer on the street should not be able to do right now. Berryman asked and Nero said this is for all sworn officers. Gonzalez asked and Nero said the time limit to complete the agility test is 5 minutes and 15 seconds. There were many questions about the agility test. Sattler asked and Nero said the city has one gator and golf carts that are used by the park rangers. Sattler asked for Nero's opinion of segways for event patrol. Nero said, based on what the City has, bike patrol is the way to go. Nero described the department's bike patrol. Gonzalez asked and Nero stated the fuel efficiency of the new police vehicles are about 20-25% more than the current vehicles. Sattler asked and Assistant Chief Roland Waits described the status of the department's "Take Me Home" program. C Fire Budget Workshop -- Robert Fite, Fire Chief Fite spoke about the promotional process for the fire department and how it differs from police. He said under current civil service law, the fire department promotional process is determined by written test and there are no options to be able to expand upon that or have an alternative process. He spoke about having AEDs in the vehicles and added it is used for medical calls and not car wrecks or anything else. He said, if the City puts AEDs in each police car, they are expected to act. He noted this may mean that a police car would have to be dispatched to every type of call. He noted this is difficult because the City does not know what the emergency is until help arrives. Berryman said she is concerned with getting AEDs into more places throughout the City. Fite said that would be possible, but placement is usually where there is the most people together in one place. Mayor spoke about the constraints of the civil service code on the fire department and said it may be good to discuss this further with the city council at another meeting. Fite said this same type of law applies to hundreds of other cities and all cities must be in agreement on the issues. He provided the Council with a summary of the calls the department received in 2010. He said they received 5,670 calls for service, which is a 4.5% increase from the previous year. He noted there is a steady increase year after year. He said the department received over $1 million in grant funding last year and he described those grants. He said they have 84 people on staff and 10 paramedics. He mentioned how hiring paramedics is very difficult. He described the new computer aided dispatch and records management systems and he thanked council for the funding for those programs. He noted the department found some significant flaws in the dispatch system but did not know they existed until City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 5 Pages the new system was installed. He said these new systems dropped the processing time dramatically in that it is now done electronically. He said they are slowly getting away from the quint transition. He noted one of his favorite things about the department is they are very community involved and he described what type of events in which the department is involved. He spoke about the Citygate study and added they do have the preliminary draft of that document. He said in 2009-010, there were joint decisions made with the Emergency Services Disrict (ESD) to study system wide deployment. He said, on June 28, the ESD has a presentation scheduled for the council regarding this study. He said the study looked at current and future deployment as well as ESD and City as one as well as processing time and the current and future road network. He said the City is interesting in that the roads are not in a grid pattern and they are spread out and he added a 4 minutes response time throughout the city will never happen. He spoke about the summary of recommendations from the Citygate study. He said one recommendation is for the city to adopt response time standards for dispatch, reflex and response. He said another recommendation is to plan for future fire station. He provide Council with a map of the current 4 minute engine deployment time. He spoke about how the new CAD system has saved the department a full minute of response time. He spoke about the City's aerial deployment and the acceptable response time of 8 minutes for ladder travel. He showed Council a map demonstrating an 8 minute fire response using multiple responses and how far that services reaches in the city. He showed Council the future station locations and how they will improve upon the response times throughout the City. He said connectivity will be an issue with that station, which is addressed in the study. He said the priority for the ESD is near 3405 and Williams and he described how the ESD would like to solve the issues in that area. Gonzalez asked about how the ESD is looking at the University Plaza. Fite said the city would look at the area and determine what percentage of calls are ESD and city and then split the cost. Gonzalez said there is a lot of projected growth in that area and it is already under served as it stands now. Mayor asked and Fite said if the ESD would put a fire station up by 3405, it would help the new Somerset Hills area. He said the second fire station would help Sun City but noted there is no connectivity. Fite spoke about staffing and overtime. Assistant Fire Chief Clay Shell showed Council the current staffing map. Fite said this is the four fire station deployment and added the station assigned to Sun City has an enormous area to cover. He said, while the City has adequate coverage, what hurts the fire department is multiple calls. He noted, 27% of the time, the City is handling multiple calls at once. Brandenburg said 70% of the fire calls is medical assists, hence the move to smaller attack vehicles instead of large fire trucks. He noted they are also looking into putting paramedics on vehicles. He showed Council a map of the new deployment area and its response time once fire station 5 opens. He noted the battalion chief would then be moved to the middle of the city. Sattler asked and Fite confirmed a lot of the things that happen in Sun City are medical assists. Fite said, to make this model happen and to open fire station five, the department needs to hire three more people. He spoke about placing a basic ambulance in the City to take all medical calls as long as the city has enough paramedics to staff it. Sattler asked and Fite said the County ambulance leaves the City and does service other entities in the area. Fite said the County EMS has changed their response model and now, they rarely take their Sun City ambulance out of the area. He noted the delays in medical calls have now gone drastically down. Brandenburg said the city would like to have at least one or two ambulances devoted to the Sun City area. He added there is at least another two assisted living centers being proposed for Sun City. There was much discussion regarding improving deployment throughout the City and, in particular, Sun City. Meigs asked and Fite described how the new chart was created. Meigs said, just looking at the map, the lower third of the city is a big area. Fite confirmed this is because the population a little more sparse in that area. Fite spoke about firefighter overtime and how pay works. He said they work on a three platoon system on cycles. He said anything over 53 hours a week is mandated to get paid overtime. He said overtime is manageable but it is inevitable and added more fire fighters does not equal less overtime. Berryman asked and Fite described a three platoon system. He said today, "A" shift works 7:00 AM- 7:00 AM the next day, then "B" shift comes on, etc. He said this is a never ending cycle and firefighters can always see when they are working throughout the year. Fite described the future challenges of the department and said they need to manage the increase in demand of resources. He said another challenge is to train the workforce and manage growth. He spoke about the challenges in EMS and paramedics as well as a decrease in grant funding and more state pressures. He said, to send someone away to paramedics school, it would take 18 months. Gonzalez asked and Fite said the department is not doing well at all in terms of hiring diversity in the department. He said, once the City has a training facility, the department can have its own fire academy which will open the door to so many more people since the City won't have to hire people who are already trained. Recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071 and 551.087-- 4:45 PM Returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:01 PM City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 4 of 5 Pages City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 5 of 5 Pages The meeting was adjourned at 06:01 PM. ry Jessica Brettle