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
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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
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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
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Meeting adjourned -- 9:45PM
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 09:45 PM.