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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 12.14.2010 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. Council Absent: Patty Eason, Gabe Sansing, Danny Meigs, Pat Bill Sattler Berryman, Dale Ross, Tommy Gonzalez Staff Present. Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Mark Sokolow, City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Leticia. Zavala, Project Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Laurie Brewer, Assistant Director of Finance; Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director; Valerie Kreger, Principal Planner; A Overview and presentation of the Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Customer Information System (CIS), and Asset Management Software projects and contracts -- Leticia Zavala, Project Manager and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer Sattler, Berryman and Ross absent. With a Powerpoint presentation, Zavala gave an update and project history of the Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI), Customer Information System (CIS) and Asset Management Software projects. She said this project was originally started in January of 2009 with a presentation to the Georgetown Utility System Advisory Board. She said the AMR system was operating with obsolete technology and infrastructure and the City was looking at end of life replacement for that system. She said there were issues with inaccurate data due to unresponsive equipment and she added there was an inability to expand the system to accommodate growth She continued to describe the many issues with the current system and noted staff decided it was a prime time to look at replacing the system. She said in 2009 there was the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and added, when this originally came about, the City was hoping to secure funds for this project but did not receive anything. She said the automated meter reading system was purchased in 1995. She said it reads 95-98% of all the City's meters, 70% of which are read by a fixed network and 25% are read by mobile collectors. She said it is a radio frequency based system and said the current system can not be expanded. She said new deployment areas can only be read by mobile collectors. She continued to describe the current system the City has in place. She showed Council a comparison between the system the City currently has and the Elster AMI (Automated Metering Infrastructure) system. She said the AMI system will provide two way communication with the meters as well as a mesh system. She said it is a much more streamlined infrastructure to move to AMI. She gave Council a summary of the AMR system replacement process completed so far. She described the total project cost for the system replacement and said it is $10,300,000, of which $8.6 million is a contract with Elster Solutions to replace the meters. Mayor asked and Zavala said the City will be replacing all meters because the new ones are specialized and provide two way communication with the City. Rundell spoke about the customer information system (CIS) replacement project and said the current system was purchased in 1994. She said the City feels it has outgrown the current software. She described the constraints of the current system. She described the CIS system replacement process, which began in 2009. City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 4 Pages She said staff wanted to do both the AMI and CIS replacements as a package. She said after doing references and site visits, staff found out that the city did not have things so bad. She said staff came back with the idea that they want an enterprise wide solution where there will be no duplication of effort She spoke about what's next in the replacement process. She said staff received a call from the current vendor, Incode, about their new product. She said the new product is actually a completely different product She added it makes more sense to stay with Incode and take an upgrade, which will be a migration to a completely new platform that will integrate with all other systems at a third of the cost that was originally budgeted for a CIS system. She said, by choosing the existing system, the City will be able to take care of not only CIS, but the financial system, fixed assets, software related to Human Resources and other possible modules. She said, though the City is saving money by doing this, other monies are going toward a new asset management software. She described the cost of the CIS upgrade and said it is about $500,000. She continued to speak about the enterprise asset management (EAM) system and added it is something that the City doesn't have yet. She asked that Utility Director Glenn Dishong describe what this new system would provide for the City. Dishong described the enterprise asset management system and said this would computerize the workflow in the utility. He said the current system has very limited automation and it does not tie with CIS. He noted the new system will allow the City to look up repair history and other data on all assets He said there is not yet an asset management database for which Dishong can reference. He noted it is difficult to make improvement decisions when the city does not have any history upon which to make decisions. He said they have actually begun their data collection for the water and electric utilities. Rundell said when staff did the original project, they hired Westin Engineering to help lead staff through the procurement process and implementation. She added, since the City is going with this new vendor instead, it will need the entire portion of the Westin's contracts. She noted there will be leftovers funds for this now. She said the City has a very extensive GIS system and added this new system will truly automate workflow. Rundell reviewed the goals of the enterprise asset management system. She showed Council a diagram that was provided to the City by Westin Engineering She said it shows that the GIS department becomes the hub and depository for all the data collected from these systems. She said the cost of the asset management system will be about $750,000. She said, in conclusion, the City is going to spend a lot of money, but it is going to be providing the City with a lot as well. She continued to describe the benefits these upgrades will be bringing to the City. Gonzalez asked and Rundell said the City could look at a cost savings per home, but staff has not done that analysis yet. Dishong said the biggest chunk of this project is hardware related to meter replacement He said the City is faced with having to replace assets that are in obsolescence. He said there is probably no cost savings yet by doing those replacements, but the cost savings will be seen out into the future. Gonzalez asked and Rundell said the cost savings will vary depending on growth and the need to add new units to accommodate that growth. Mayor asked if the City is paying for the addition of new units with fees Rundell said part of the cost is paid for by fees, but they do not cover the entire cost or the technical infrastructure related to the mesh network Briggs said part of the revenue that will go to pay for the installation will be paid for by the existing rates and charges. Briggs said, by installing new water meters, the City will gain efficiency and provide the City with more accurate readings. Briggs said the new system will also offer the ability for the electric grid to become more efficient. Gonzalez said these are all odds and ends that may not be up front cost savings but, once everything adds up, the total expense may be 10 or 15% less over time. Sansing said he is glad to see the City moving forward with this project. Eason agreed and said she saw this in the General Government and Finance subcommittee meeting and she feels it is about time the City moved forward with these improvements B Review of proposed changes to the City's Investment Policy -- Laurie Brewer, Assistant Director of Finance With a Powerpoint presentation, Brewer reviewed the investment policy according to the public funds investment act, the GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) policy and city policy. She said the Public Funds Investment Act (PFIA) requirement said the city must have an investment policy approved by the Council the Council must review the policy annually, it specifies the type of securities that the city allows, the investment pools that the city invests in, it mandates training and addresses audits. She spoke about GASB 31 and spoke about how this statement established accounting and financial reporting standards for all investments held by governmental entities. Berryman arrived at the dais. She reviewed the current objectives of the City's Investment Policy, including safety, liquidity, public trust and yield. She said the current investment policy only authorizes "plain vanilla" investments including certificates of deposit, US treasuries and agencies, investment pools, money market, repurchase agreements and other investments approved by the council. She said anything outside of this policy will be brought forward to the Council. She said the current investment policy is certified by the Government Treasurers Association of Texas City Council Meeting Minutest Page 2 of 4 Pages and City's internal auditor will give council a report stating that this policy is in compliance. She said the only changes this year include minor changes for clarification dealing with title and responsibility changes and other minor clarifications. She said they are not proposing any changes to the broker/dealer list at this time. She spoke about the City's investment strategy for 2010/2011, which was to continue to hold steady and shop around for CDs that offer the best rates. She said the City will be using bond reimbursement resolutions to manage debt issues and keep arbitrage rebate liability at a minimum. She introduced Susan Anderson with Valley View Consulting, who gave Council an update on the dismal market. Anderson spoke about the market and said they feels that better times are on the horizon. She showed Council a graph of treasury bills vs. federal funds rate. She noted the rate of return depends on the federal funds rate. She said they feel they have seen the worst of it during the summer of this year. She said the implied treasury curve shows that interest rates will continue to improve over the next 18 months. She said the city has tried to keep its funds in CDs and added they will be sharing some interest rates with staff tomorrow She said she gave Council the latest market update and added the most favorable things were on the front page of that document She said corporate levels are at the highest of the past few years. Brewer directed Council's attention to the redlined version of the investment policy that staff is asking for Council to approve at the meeting later tonight C Review of the proposed Fifth Round of 2008-2009 Unified Development Code (UDC) Amendments --Elizabeth Cook, Community Development Director and Valerie Kreger, AICP, Principal Planner Ross arrived at the dais. Cook said this is the fifth round of amendments to approve. She described the amendments and spoke about the process that took place to come up with these amendments. She described the old town overlay and the residential additions and infill construction amendments. She said the old town overlay and residential additions amendment allows for new development in the old town area while keeping in tradition with the existing architecture. She said this change would include no forward facing additions on residential properties as well as a height limit of 30 feet. She said upper story additions would have additional setbacks and she described those. She added additions would be limited to 30% of the existing home. Sansing spoke about the height limits and Cook confirmed the limit in old town would be 30 feet. Sansing said this seems too restrictive and he explains his reasoning behind that though. Cook said 35 feet is the maximum building height in that zoning district at that time. Cook noted the idea of the group is that if someone is in an area that is primarily one story houses, that a person will not build something that is far removed from the design in the area. Sansing agreed with the idea that if there is street full of bungalows, you should not build a large mansion next to it Cook confirmed that is the intention of the amendment. She added, if someone would want to go past these regulations, he or she would have to get approval from the City. Eason asked if there is anything in here to prevent what happened to the house on College Street Cook asked and Eason clarified the house she is talking about is the one that sprung up on an empty lot with pillars and is styled like an Italian villa. Cook said, right now, the City does not do any residential design review in Old Town She added any type of structure can be built as long as it meets the residential requirements. She noted this amendment would not change that, unless the structure goes over one of the limits set out in the Code and the applicant would have to go to the Historic and Architectural and Review Commission for additional approval Eason asked and Cook said staff has not proposed any review of residential property in that area at this time Eason said she is surprised because of how that new structure has angered many residents in Old Town She added she was surprised the task force did not address that issue. Cook said, typically, when the City does design review, it is related to a particular district in town such as the historic district She added staff could certainly look into the possibility of design review throughout other areas in Georgetown Eason asked and Cook said the City could look into doing a UDC amendment to address that issue if they are asked to do so by the City Council. Eason said she will be pursuing this type of amendment in the future. Berryman spoke about how this amendment says additions are limited to 30% of the existing home and she asked why not increase that amount in case the older homes need more extensive renovations and additions Cook spoke about the certificate of design compliance for demolition or removal of historic structures. She said this request came about to allow more time for review of proposed demolition or removal of historic buildings She said they have set up a series of types of applications under which someone can make a demolition request She continued to describe the proposed process. She explained the process used to determine the economic viability of a property. She said this amendment is basically a more in depth review of demolition requests Meigs asked and Cook described how the City determines which structures are considered historic Meigs asked and Cook said that list of historic structures can change, but it has not done so in many years. Gonzalez asked City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 4 Pages and Cook said they do not automatically add structures to the list according to the age of the properties but added she can certainly look into that if Council wishes to do so. Sansing spoke about how the City needs to be more careful about what properties they call historic. Sansing asked and Cook said the proposed change is, for properties that are medium to high priority historic, they can be subject to up to 365 day delays before they are demolished. Cook described the addition amendments including the alternative sidewalk proposal. She said that amendment allows alternative sidewalk plan options including an alternative route, fees -in -lieu of sidewalk construction and an opportunity to delay construction. She said it clarifies that residential sidewalks will be built with other site improvements. She moved on to the home based business amendment and added there are many options for Council to consider on this issue. She described options 1-4 on this issue. She said Council has been given a lot more information on this issue because it is the most controversial amendment. She said there are also a series of miscellaneous items that will allow for modifications. She described the rest of the amendments. She said the public hearing is scheduled for January on these amendments. She said the last sheet of information given to Council includes the Planning and Zoning Commission recommendations. Eason said she agrees with the recommendations from the Planning and Zoning Commission. Ross spoke about sidewalks and said people are required to put in sidewalksk even if there is no connections on either side. He asked why the City asks that people put in sidewalks if they do not connect Cook said the goal is for all of the sidewalks in the City to connect. Ross said requiring sidewalks in a neighborhood makes sense but noted requiring them along streets like Williams Drive is not necessary. There was much discussion. Mayor suggested to Council that, by January 11, they review the amendments and see if they have any questions or suggested changes to address at the public hearing. Cook said she anticipates that there will be quite a few people at the public hearing concerned about the home based businesses issue. She added the proposal is to establish a fee for home based businesses so, if Council decides to go the recommended route, then there will be two Ordinance brought to Council to make that change. Council recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071, 551.072 and 551.087 -- 5:12 PM Council returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:04 PM 67% Mayor City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 4 of 4 Pages The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 PM. Secretary J/assica Brettle