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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 02.12.2013 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, Danny Meigs, Tommy Gonzalez, Bill Sattler Rachael Jonrowe, Troy Hellmann, Jerry Hammerlun Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Wayne Nero, Police Chief; John Sullivan, Fire Chief; Minutes Sattler absent Mayor called the meeting to order at 3:07PM Meeting recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071, 551.074 and 551.086 of the Local Government Code -- 3:08PM Meeting returned to Open Session and recessed -- 6:16PM Mayor opened the Workshop meeting -- 8:25PM A Parks and Recreation Planning and Financing -- Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager Brewer spoke about the Council having their strategic planning session. He said the Parks has continued work on refining the definition and plan for how they will contribute to the City being a "signature destination." She spoke about the Parks related elements for the signature destination. She said Council indicated there should be a downtown focus which, from a Parks perspective, includes urban parks, streetscaping and trail head connections to the downtown. She said they have also been talking about a civic center and festival area. She noted arts, entertainment, food and wine was another part of the signature destination element. She said they are defining that to mean the arts center/ pocket park, public art, multipurpose festival entertainment area and an arts incubator area. She said the recreational focus is also something Council asked them to work on. She described some of the Parks related projects under this priority. She spoke about the promotion of Lake Georgetown as an amenity and how many citizens still do not get out to the lake. She spoke about the possibility of a multi -use stage out in the park as well as Blue Hole Park. She said the Amphitheater and Conference Center was another thing identified by the Council and she said they are currently working on supporting the parks improvements for those projects. She described the 2008 bond referendum. Garret spoke about the current Parks and Recreation related projects. She spoke about the trail expansion and said it is the section from Blue Hole Park along Scenic Drive to University. She said they should have the trail completed by the summer. She spoke about the West Side Park acquisition and noted they are currently in the City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 3 Pages feasibility study. She spoke about the playscape replacement and how that will occur in December 2013. She said they are looking at possible partnerships with corporate entities which will assist the City in becoming a signature destination. She said some of the upcoming projects including the San Gabriel River bank stabilization, river corridor preservation, San Gabriel Park/FM 971 adjustments, West Side Park planning, an amphitheater and a downtown festival area/open space. She said staff has had conversations with Mr. Garey and noted he is open to starting the design of Garey Park. Brewer noted staff will continue to work on these projects and will look at how to gradually issue the 2008 bonds. She said they have been working with Finance and think it is the right time to start issuing the bonds. She said there is attractive market conditions and tax rate impacts are lower now than they would be at higher interest rates. He said Garey is encouraging staff to start some of the design work for Garey Park. She noted it would be two years before any construction would occur. She said the City is also talking about a westside park and noted land will continue to be more expensive and it will be more difficult to acquire a piece of property that would mimic something similar to San Gabriel Park. She said they will be moving forward with these projects. Jonrowe said she is happy to see the City moving forward with its vision for the future. She noted she thinks the City is in an advantageous spot to take advantage of the good interest rates. Hammerlun agreed and asked if staff is capable of tackling all of these project simultaneously. Brewer said she believes staff is ready to move and noted the park acquisition with probably take 5-10 years to fully develop a 90 acre park. There was much discussion regarding the Parks projects. Eason said we are so incredible blessed by the work that was done by Randy Morrow. She noted it was incredible visionary. B Public Safety Overview -- Wayne Nero, Police Chief and John Sullivan, Fire Chief Nero provided Council with the police department annual update. He provided Council with some 2012 Highlights including the medal of valor, distinguished service and life savings awards that were presented to members of the department. He spoke about how their staff is relatively young and energetic. He noted they completed their transition from an older training model to a new training model and he described the new model for the City Council. He said they have been cooperating with TABC on alcohol purchases by minors. He spoke about identity theft in Sun City. He spoke about the branding of the department and showed Council the new car wraps for Georgetown as well as badges. He said he is not a fan of unmarked cars when the City is going to do a lot of enforcement. He spoke some of the training highlights they have done despite being 6 or 7 officers short. He said the City has completed over 17,000 contact training hours. Mayor asked and Nero said, if we host training, they pay directly to that entity. Nero said it allows the City offices to go to other training for free. Nero said, in the future, the goal is to charge fees for training. He showed a graph of motor vehicle accidents in Georgetown as well as total traffic stops. He spoke about manpower and how the department is severely short staffed. He said the city is currently at 1.48 officers per 1,000. He said an additional 10-20 officers would result in more proactive policing. He spoke about looking ahead and said he has given the strategic/business plan to the Council. He said they will be bringing a crime analyst on board this year. He noted there will be a new public engines suite site that the City will start publicizing after tonight. He said Georgetown Police will be the very first agency that will be using all of this. Jonrowe asked and Nero said the compensation adjustment has been affecting the department for the better. Jonrowe said she would like to see a trend for national night out and how many there were last year. Nero said he will get those statistics for the Council. Chida presented the Racial Profiling Report to Council and said a tremendous amount of work and data analysis goes into the report. He said in each year he has done this, he has never noticed a problem with racial profiling. He said there are 41 pages in the report showing Council there is not a problem. He provided Council with a listing of the agency demographics. He said the City is pretty comparable to the national average. He said, since 2010, the Georgetown Police Department has hired 13 officers and nearly half have been either minority or female. He said the goal is to make sure the department hires the most qualified people no matter who they are. He thanked Council for the new pay plan which has helped in their recruitment. He said they are redesigning the web, which is an understanding of how the younger generation searches for job. He said the new building will also be a huge draw. He spoke about pre -stop and post -stop racial profiling. He said this year's data is remarkably the same as last year. Chida said this is the second year the City has done this in depth analysis. He showed Council a chart of the stop demographics as well as the stop reasons. He said the controversy about racial profiling really came about because of searching and he spoke about consent searching. Gonzalez asked and Chida said they have never had a complaint regarding racial profiling. Eason thanked the department for the report. There was much discussion about the report. Sullivan introduced himself and thanked both departments for the work they did in paying tribute to the fallen marine soldier. He showed the Council a chart of the incident activity within the Fire Department. He spoke about how actual fire incidents are few and added Sun City views the Fire Department as the de -facto medical provider. He said they will be opening Fire Station Two in a few short weeks. He said the open house will be on March 16. He said there will be a relocation of the battalion chief to that location as well. He said they are City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 3 Pages currently housed in Leander but noted the recommendation is to move them closer in to a more centrally located station. He spoke about changing perceptions of the Fire Department. He said there is a strong correlation between the movie Moneyball and the Fire Department. He spoke about wanting to change the game. He spoke about needing to be "smart" about the future. He continued to speak about his vision for the future of the department. He spoke about where to go from here including having more conversations, consider a third -party study of the department, propose deployment models based on national policies, evaluate staffing plans, focus on fire and life safety programs, emergency management, accreditation and ISO and pursue best practices and best attitudes. Eason said she thinks the City Manager hired the right guy and she thanked Sullivan for moving the department forward. Hammerlun asked about the balance of tackling the current issues while looking at the long range vision for the Fire Department. Sullivan spoke about trying to be creative with EMS, digital signage and social media packages. He mentioned again the third party study which will be helpful to the department. Jonrowe said it is obvious he is coming in with enthusiasm and new ideas. Gonzalez said it is always good to see the insight from new employees and ideas they will bring from their previous departments. Brandenburf spoke about the business plans being developed for all of the priority areas that were developed at the visioning session last year. Appr ed zi Mayor eorge Oarver City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 3 Pages Meeting adjourned -- 9:45PM Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 09:45 PM.