Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 10.25.2011 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: Patty Eason, Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Pat Berryman, Tommy Gonzalez, Troy Hellmann, Rachael Jonrowe Council Absent: All Council Present. Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil; Kathy Ragsdale, Environmental and Conservation Services Director Minutes A Discussion and possible direction to staff on proposed amendments to the Stormwater Utility and Drainage Fee -- Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer Mayor called the meeting to order at 3:05 PM. With a Powerpoint Presentation, Briggs reviewed the proposed amendments to the Stormwater Utility and Drainage Fee. He said the purpose of the utility is for public health and safety, within the corporate limits of Georgetown. He said it is to manage and monitor the drainage systems throughout the city. He noted it is a funding mechanism for operations and necessary projects within the system. He said the Stormwater Drainage Utility is authorized by Local Government Code Chapter 552. He noted the city's stormwater utility was established in 1992, but there was no fee associated with it until 1995. He said this was created in response to flooding issues along Smith Branch drainage channel. He said the first recommended rate in 1995 was $5.00 a billing unit (BU) and the actual established rates was $0.75/BU. He said a billing unit is the amount of square feet of impervious cover on a typical residential property across the city. He said the revenue from the original fee covered only debt service on the bonds issued at the time for specific improvements. He showed Council a graph showing the pictorial rate and revenue history since 1995, when it was established. He said, since 2004, the fee has remained unchanged. He said when the city first established the 75 cent per billing unit rate, the fees collected covered 25% of the revenues and the other transfers into the fund were property tax revenues. He spoke about the different budgeted expenditures for the fund. He spoke about the capital projects that have been funded by the utility as well. He described those projects for the City Council. He spoke about the maintenance and operations of the fees. He spoke about the future of the storm water utility. He said the area that needs to be covered by the utility is expanding. He said capital projects such as Smith Branch watershed improvements and existing infrastructure and curb and gutter maintenance need to be addressed. He said, going forward, we are on the cusp of the compliance with the the municipal storm water regulations that come from the EPA that we will not be able to get around. He said the expense of this compliance is huge. He noted, once we click over 50,000 in population, we must follow these regulations. He said the potential impact will be to the 2013 budget cycle. He described the highlights from the 2011 study that the City did related to the storm water utility. He said they determined customer class distinctions, addressed ways to properly handle the various property types within billing, they verified existing accounts and corrected inaccurate records, calculated City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 5 Pages an updated billing unit (BU) and identified possible ordinance revisions that would be required to update the utility. He said the new billing unit (BU) based on the growth the city has had since 1995 is 2,808 square feet. He said the original billing unit was 2,088. He said each residential unit is equal to one BU. He noted for non-residential property, the total impervious cover on a parcel is divided by the square foot of a BU to yield a total number of BUs assigned to the property. He noted they are recommending a new rate of $4.75, which is a 50 cent increase per month to residential accounts. He said this rate would be effective March 2012. He noted this is the first increase to this fee that has been discussed since 2004. He showed Council the residential rate comparison between the current and proposed rate.He reviewed the Ordinances revisions for the Council. He said they would have to change the wording to reflect new service areas, revised definitions for consistency with other utility ordinances, established new process for determining and assigning impervious cover area to utility account and discounted rate equal to 20% of the standard rate for commercial property within the city limits that does not drain into the City's drainage service area. He said the Ordinance also revised the process for appeals. He spoke about the billing processes. He said the next steps would be to make whatever changes are necessary from the discussions this evening and prepare the notice and ordinance to go public. He continued to show the City Council a calendar of the process to implement these fees. He said the first reading would be on the December 13 agenda and the second reading in January. He said they will move forward with the March date for implementation. He spoke about the future significant projects that could be done with the addition of this new fee. Jonrowe said she needs a little clarification on payment information. Jonrowe asked and Briggs said the recommended rate is $4.75, which will be a flat rate per month for residential structures. Jonrowe asked and Briggs spoke about why the City decided to do a flat rate. He noted a lot of it is for the ease of administration. Jonrowe asked and Briggs said the City is concerned with the larger conveyance system and the neighborhood structure and streets and how it affects the drainage. He added this is not specific to what one person can do to their lot. Briggs said the impact the residential element will have on this is relatively static. He said the impact of what might happened will be addressed more toward commercial. Jonrowe asked and Briggs said he feels the infrastructure will continue to hold up well into the future. There was much discussion about keeping up with the city's infrastructure. Berryman said this is determining some of the CIP projects we are already doing on areas in the City. She asked, if there is an area in the ETJ that cause problems within the City, if we go in and take care of those issues. Briggs said, no we do not deal with issues on areas that are not in the city limits. Sattler asked how much of this flow of water is covered by the Corps of Engineers. Briggs said the flow is not covered by the Corps. Sattler asked and Briggs said the State of Texas owns the water if it is in a defined bed and bank. Briggs noted if we were to go in to a stream or clearing, we would have to check with TCEQ. He said FEMA regulates flood plains. Sattler asked and Briggs said the Cowan Creek problems in Sun City is the responsibility of the developers and not of the city. Sattler asked and Briggs showed the Council the business rates. Sattler asked and Briggs agreed the rate will be reduced but the total revenue for the commercial developments will increase or balance. Briggs said part of the issue is some areas do not have the adequate calculation and, after these changes are made, it will bring the City to where it should be. Sattler asked and Briggs confirmed we have about 21,000 customers. Rundell noted this will level the rates so everything is fairly adjusted and then it has a small increase over and above to pay for improvements and costs associated with the new mandates. She said, initially when we looked at this, we projected an increase closer to $1.00. She said they wanted to phase in the fees over time. Briggs asked that Sattler remember we have 21,000 accounts. He noted the multi -family is calculated as one building unit per door. Hellmann asked and Briggs said the City has evaluated a possible regional detention site plan. Briggs said the biggest issue we have is we have to maintain the conveyance system so it carried the water. He noted, if we do not keep the system clean, we could cause flooding. There was much discussion. Mayor asked and Briggs clarified what the direction of staff would be tonight. Sattler said he would like to get more input from the constituents. Briggs said an open house is scheduled for the month of November. Hellmann said he always has a concern over a fee increase, especially on top of a recent tax increase. B Presentation, discussion and possible direction regarding the City of Georgetown's Benefits and Compensation recommendations -- Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service and Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager With a Powerpoint Presentation, Russell reviewed the benefits and compensation recommendations for the Council. He reviewed the medical benefits. He gave the Council a snapshot of the current medical plan with TML (Texas Municipal League). He showed Council the current TML Standard Plan as well as the High Deductible Health Pian (HDHP). He said both of these plans are relatively high due to a bad year we had with insurance claims. He provided Council with a national survey from Milliman, which carves out information from the international realm on health insurance. He showed the comparisons for the current HDHP and Copay Plans. He showed the Council the city's current rate structure for the employees. He spoke about the City's healthcare utilization and the ratio of what the paid in premiums compared to what it has paid out in claims. He City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 5 Pages said TML was proposing an increase for both plans. He said City Council directed staff to go out for an RFP this year. He said they went out for RFPs, had a benefits committee review and staff recommendations. He said the benefits committee reviewed the proposals and came up with a recommendation to management. He said the top two providers who responded were Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana. He said Humana had slightly higher rates but lower out of pockets for the employees. He said the committee looked at providing employees with better healthcare costs and less out of pocket costs. He said, therefore, Humana is the recommended proposal. He spoke about the High Deductible Health Plan under the proposal as well as the health savings account offer. He described the two different copay plans they will be offering for the employees under Humana's proposal. He noted all of the rates are coming in at less than what the employees are paying right now. He said the increase on the copay plan is about a 3% increase. He said the proposed rates are relatively comparable to Round Rock and the rest of Williamson County. He described the other benefits such as dental, vision and supplemental coverage. He spoke about the action items that will be on the agenda late this evening for approval. He said the action items are the authorization of incentives and authorization to enter into contracts. Gonzalez asked and Russell said all employees are required to have health insurance. Russell added the city pays for the employee only amount and the employee will only have to pay if they want to start paying for their family. Mayor asked and Russell said the benefits committee agrees with what staff is recommending today. Russell said this has also been presented to General Government and Finance Subcommittee. Mayor asked and Russell said we are now able to provide employees with improved coverage at a less cost. Mayor commended staff for providing this to the city's employees. Hellmann asked and Russell said the net increase for the city for the copay is 3.3% and the HDHP is a .9% increase. Meigs asked and Russell said the the overall budgeted amount for increases is 15% and the City is well below that. Russell said, of the 15% budgeted for insurance increases, we are looking at using 8.9% of it. Meigs said, in a tight budget year, this means the City can offer additional benefits to its employees. Berryman said she is happy about the City offering Health Savings Account contributions. Berryman asked and Russell said the employees can contribute to the account up to the IRS allowed amount. Jonrowe said she would be curious as to why the healthcare costs have gone down for the City. Russell said one reason is we are having a lot of insurance carriers that are trying to build their businesses. He said they are taking a risk that their claims won't be that high. He said, as a City, we do not have to stay with insurance carriers each year. He spoke about how we do not do any multiple year contracts. He said another things affecting this is that employers are changing things around because of the new federal legislation. He noted this is sending more organizations away from private insurance companies and more into risk pools. He noted all of these factors are providing the city with a better deal. Jonrowe thanked Russell and everyone on the committee for their hard work. Gonzalez asked why we didn't want to do the RFP sooner. Russell spoke about the city's claim history over the past couple of years and how that helps to determine when to go out for RFP. Gonzalez said, if we are having good years, it's good to have an RFP process and when it is a bad year do not do an RFP process. Russell agreed and said that is probably a good way to look at it. Russell spoke about compensation and said no cost of living adjustment is budgeted, no merit increases are budgeted, no monies are budgeted for performance based pay and no market adjustments are being made to maintain 95% of Round Rock. Russell said Round Rock is looking at 7 to 11 % increases this year. He spoke about retirement, retiree health insurance and adopting the retirement military service credit. Mayor asked and Brandenburg said it has been about 8 or 9 years since Council decided to stay within 95% of Round Rock. Brandenburg said Council needs to do another study on how Council wants to handle some of these issues, including compensation. He noted Council needs to be careful what it asks for because things can be pretty eye opening when they try to get certain employees to the mid point of their pay scale. He said it is going to be easily six figures trying to come up with comparable dollars. C Discussion related to the renewal of the Solid Waste and Recycling contract with Texas Disposal Systems (TDS) amending the contract rates and services as presented to address customer requested service upgrades, market rate increases, and facilitate a new revenue source -- Kathy Ragsdale, Environmental and Conservation Services Director and Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager With a Powerpoint Presentation, Ragsdale review the current solid waste contract and the pros and cons of renewing it. She gave a brief history of the current contract with Texas Disposal Systems. She said the current contract was initiated in 2007 for a five year term with the option of two additional five year terms. She said the City brought in a consultant, Hartley Sappington, to help them with this issue. She said staff started by receiving feedback from customers and respondents using the Solid Waste and Recycling Survey. She said the survey showed how much everyone enjoys the service and especially the solid waste services. She said the one comment is citizens wanted single stream recycling. She spoke about the citizens' comments expressed during the Solid Waste Ordinance presentations. She reviewed those comments for the Council. She said the the single stream recycling service is identified in 4.0 of the 2030 comprehensive plan. She showed Council a summary of what Texas Disposal Systems is offering in the proposal right now. She said the is a choice of three residential packages as well as single stream recycling. She said they will be picking up green waste at the City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 5 Pages curb as well, which has been a huge request. She noted they will add a voucher program at the collection station. She described this program for the Council. She said they will have the rewards program for recycling which means, the more someone recycles, the more points they receive toward products and services from local businesses and restaurant. She said the plan is to have no bags at the curb. She said not having the extra bags will speed the trash service up and encourages recycling. She said they are going to adjust the commercial rates closer to market right now. She said they are going to take commercial construction roll -offs off of the exclusive list. She described the current service for the City Council, what is included with this service and how the residents pay $14.35 for it. She showed Council the proposed residential packages and described those for the Council. She said the benefit of packages is that someone can pick a package so they do not end up paying for services they do not use. She spoke about single stream recycling. She said this includes a 96 gallon container, picked up every other week, with option to downsize the container. She described the green waste pickup for the Council. She said green waste is typically yard waste, which includes grass clippings, leaves and hedge clippings. She noted this is for anything you can get into the paper bag, including cut up limbs from trees. She noted the green waste is picked up twice monthly. She described the Smart Rewards Program for the Council. She said every time they empty the bin, it is recorded in the truck and a person can earn points. She said the City will have deals with businesses in town to earn points and get free drinks, hamburgers etc. She said this is completely voluntary, but it is an incentive to recycle more. She said one of the things on the list is the transfer station being used for an extra revenue stream. She said the transfer station has been located adjacent to San Gabriel park since 1985. She said the trailers at the transfer station are used to transfer materials collected in Georgetown during the day to the TDS landfill. She said the City would like to rent the transfer station to TDS. She noted the trucks from surrounding areas will use the station to drop off materials and those will be transferred to the landfill at night. She said staff brought this idea forward six years ago and it was decided that the City did not want to bring the trucks over the low water crossing. She noted now, with the new bridge, this is not an issue. Ragsdale said the revenue is already included in this year's budget. She spoke about the commercial construction roll -offs. She said this only applies to roll offs used for temporary commercial construction. She spoke about the rules for participation in the open market and said the contractor must register with the City of Georgetown. She said, right now, there are seven landfills up and down 1-35. She said four of them are in the Austin area. She said one is TDS, one is BFI and two are Waste Management. She said, in 2015, BFI's landfill is closing. She said this will be a huge stress on the landfills that will be remaining. She said, right now, the BFI landfills are not even close to full. She provided Council with a list of residential rates for the Cities in the surrounding areas. She read all of the rates for the Council. She said Leander and Hutto are not on the rates list because they do not have single stream recycling. She showed Council a graph of exactly what services each City received for that amount of money. Ragsdale said everything we are looking at now are the wholesale rates being offered to the customers. She spoke about the financial impacts that go into the City's portion of the rate. She said some of these impacts include debt service on landfill, franchise fees, allocations and ROI as well as City staff and facility O&M expenses, and landfill and cap maintenance. She said they are looking to increase the management fee at the collection station as well. Briggs said when TDS requested the option to submit a proposal for extension, the City worked with them to come up with the services to address the issues and requests received from the customers through surveys. He spoke about the history of single stream recycling in the City. He said staff was highly involved in the process but this proposal is coming from TDS to the Council for review. He said he is an advocate of the RFP process but added, with that in mind, he evaluated an RFP that went out for similar services and the response did not equate to what TDS is offering in their proposal. He said he does not know what is best but noted he only knows what he can evaluate. He said it is up to the Council to decide how they want to proceed with this process. He said the proposal we have just present is probably the best proposal we will see from the vendor at this point. He said the way Georgetown is different than other communities is because we have a managed collection station. He said the issue of construction roll off containers has been a large one. He said the customers noted they wanted to see single stream recycling. He said the one issue is if the proposal is accepted, he believes the services could go into effect as early as the first quarter of 2012. He said, if the City goes into the RFP process, it would initiate either during the last quarter of 2012 or the first of 2013. He said, if we do an RFP process, it would be about May before the City receives responses from that process. There was much discussion. Brandenburg said staff has worked very hard to get to this point. He said right now Council has a decision to make to either move forward with this or to go out for an RFP process. He noted Council is at that crossroads right now on where to go. He said staff is ready to proceed with whatever direction Council would like to go. He gave kudos to Texas Disposal Systems because he never receives any complaints from constituents about them and their services. Gonzalez asked about green waste and Ragsdale said after two pick up times, you can leave it on your grass or take it to the collection station. Ragsdale added a person can also wait until the next pick up. Gonzalez asked and Ragsdale said it is 50 cents for extra bags. Ragsdale said we do not have a green waste program right now. Gonzalez said they have never received any negative comments about TDS and its services. Gonzalez asked and Briggs answered additional questions about the proposed green waste program. Jonrowe said she likes the idea of having different tiers that rewards people that are careful about City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 4 of 5 Pages what they put out at the curb. She noted she likes the city incentivizing people to reduce their garbage. She said she also likes the idea of a rewards program. Berryman said she likes the idea of offering tiers and options to people. She said a family of two does not produce the same amount of garbage as a family of six. She noted she also thinks the green waste is a good idea, as well as the single stream recycling. She noted there is a concern she has about the rise in cost to individual businesses. She said every time we add an expense to the bottom line of small businesses, the worse it is for the City's economy. Ragsdale clarified it is just the cost of dumpsters that is going up. Briggs said he has the same concern. He also spoke about the holiday provision and added the "out of the norm" trash accumulated at the time of the year will be rolled into this and incorporated into the service. He siad, whatever gets put out will get picked up during the holiday season for a six week period. Ragsdale said if you really can't keep the garbage in one container, you can get a second one for six dollars a month or you can buy a bag tag. Sattler asked about the cost of the new recycling cart. Ragsdale said, when we start the service, they will bring it out and deliver it at no extra cost to the resident. Sattler asked and Briggs said the cost of hte cart is about $60, but the customer will only be paying a dollar or two dollars incorporated into the rate per month. Sattler asked and Briggs said, by contract, we pay $65,000 annually to TDS to run the transfer station. Briggs said TDS is the operator of that and in no way does that amount pay for the entire cost of running the station. There were many questions about the current waste disposal services. Meigs commended TDS for the job they do for the City. He said he thinks this is a fair proposal but noted, his only concern is the live oak leaves in the spring in his neighborhood. He noted he is going to get some questions about that in his neighborhood. He noted there was some talk of the cost of an RFP process. Meigs asked and Briggs said the City has a tight $40,000 budgeted for the RFP process. Hellmann said he likes the tiered approach and said anything that gives the customers a choice is a good thing. He noted he likes the increase in recycling as well. He said there are a lot of times they put their trash in the regular bin sometimes because the recycling bin is full. He noted he likes the emphasis on service as well as price. He added he has not received any complaints, which is great. He said he thinks the RFP process is essential to our democracy as well. Hellmann asked and Briggs said we used to do this ourselves but it did not work out well. Briggs said we used to operate the landfill and said there are certain people that are solid waste managers that do this for a living. He said there are workers comp issues, staffing issues and there are enormous headaches that come from it. Hellmann asked and Briggs confirmed there is commercial recycling going on currently. Eason commended the staff for coming up with a great opportunity for us to save money and do the things our customers want. She said she wants to clarify the attendance that was reported on the GUS Board meeting. She said there are seven members on the Board and one of the members left early. She noted one of the reasons she does not have questions is she was there for two of the two and a half hours this was discussed. She noted she had to leave early as well. Briggs said if these services are automated, you can do it much more effectively and you can control costs. He said, while this is great for a large portion of the community, there are going to be sections that are going to have issues with solid waste and disposal. He noted we will have to deal with those issues as they come up on a case by case basis. Meeting recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071, 551.086 -- 5:16 PM Meeting returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:17 PM Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 06:17 PM. City Council Meeting Minutest Page 5 of 5 Pages Jessica Brettle