HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 03.26.2013 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, Bill Sattler, Tommy All Council Present.
Gonzalez, Jerry Hammerlun, Troy Hellmann,
Rachael Jonrowe
Staff Present:
Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City
Secretary; Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Eric Lashley,
Library Director; Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service; Andrew Spurgin,
Planning Director; Jordan Maddox, Principal Planner; Jim Briggs, General Manager for Utilities;
Minutes
A Consideration of a draft strategic plan for arts and culture in the City of Georgetown -- Eric Lashley, Director,
Georgetown Public Library and Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager
Jonrowe, Gonzalez absent.
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Brewer introduced the first two items on the workshop because they go hand in
hand. She introduced members of the Arts and Culture Board as well as the Convention and Visitors Bureau
Board to the City Council. She briefly reviewed the visioning session which occurred last year and the council
priorities that came out of those sessions. She spoke about the Signature Destination priority that Council
identified and how many of the Boards and Commissions will help the Council achieve that goal.
Lashley introduced the members of the Arts and Culture Board as well as the President of Georgetown Art
Works and the architect of the new Arts Center. He said the purpose of the plan is to accomplish the directives
in the Arts and Culture Board's bylaws, the 2030 Comprehensive Plan and the Downtown Master Plan. He said
the arts and culture strategic plan has seven major goals and he said the list is to establish and foster a vibrant
Arts Center as a major component of a downtown arts, cultural and entertainment district. He briefly listed the
seven goals of the plan to the Council.
He said a handout has been given to the Council with the new logo for the arts center. He said, regarding the
arts center, they are looking into doing a co-operative/incubator space for artists. He said another goal of the
Arts Center is to create an Artist in Residency Program. He continued to elaborate on all of the goals and spoke
about the creation of an arts district in Georgetown. He spoke again about the possibility of an amphitheater in
the downtown. He said the idea is to create a festival area on 8th street near the Old Library. He spoke about
how the City is applying to become a cultural district with the Texas Commission on the Arts. He spoke about a
gentleman who has started in a position called the Arts and Culture Director at the City of Round Rock and
added he would like to have a similar position in Georgetown. There was much discussion. Eason said she is
happy to see a vision of an arts district becoming a viable project. Hellmann asked and Lashley said they
wanted to get feedback from Council before getting actual numbers. Meigs congratulated the group on this plan.
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Hammerlun asked where Lashley thinks the amphitheater may fit in the timeline. Lashley described where they
think the amphitheater could be in the future.
B CVB Goal Setting -- Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager and Stephanie Blanck, CVB Board Secretary
Brewer introduced members of the CVB Board at the meeting this evening. She introduced Cari Miller, who is
the tourism manager and board liaison for the CVB Board. She described the legal use of Hotel Occupancy Tax
revenue and expenditures and clarified the parameters for the City Council. She introduced Stephanie Blanck,
the secretary for the CVB Board. Blanck said she has lived in Georgetown since 1980 and noted she loves the
direction Georgetown is going. She read the vision statement and the mission of the Convention and Visitors
Bureau to the City Council. She spoke about the signature destination priority and how the City can define that.
She spoke about the City's identity which is to develop a marketable identity to focus on and enhance the
signature elements which are unique to Georgetown. She spoke about how they have focused on the question
"Who are we as a City?". She described how the CVB defined the term "signature destination." She described
some of the partners in creating a signature destination, including the Chamber, Southwestern and other local
entities. She spoke about marketing and how the City should develop and implement methods to effectively
market Georgetown as a signature destination. She said the City will probably need to work with a marketing
agency to market Georgetown as a signature destination. She noted their plan is to look into other CVB and
determine their best practices and have a visitor's center right off 1-35. She said another goal is to maximize the
CVB Board's effectiveness.
Gonzalez arrived at the dais.
Hammerlun thanked Blanck for her enthusiasm. He said he has never thought about the visitors center on 35
and now the idea is beginning to work for him. Sattler spoke about attracting visitors and how it is related to
sports, including Southwestern's brand new football team. Meigs spoke about having an event in Georgetown
during large events in Austin. He spoke about doing a marketing survey by professionals to look at these
issues. Hellmann asked and Miller described where the City markets tourism. Miller also spoke about the City's
new iPhone application. Hellmann spoke about how the City can also do a lot within our region regarding
marketing. Eason said she wants to bring people here but noted she is worried we do not have enough places
for people to stay.
C Overview of possible self-insuring City of Georgetown employee health benefits -- Kevin Russell, Director of
Human Resources and Civil Service and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Russell said one way to stabilize having to make changes to health policy each
year is the possibility of going self insured. He said they have been working with the current brokers Benetix on
this issue. He said they would like to provide Council with an overview of how self insurance works as well as
advantages and disadvantages.
He introduced Jeff Kloc of Benitex. Kloc said self funded means that the employer would assume a portion of
the risk for health benefits. He said the majority of the risk will be taken away through stop loss policies. He
spoke about how the insurance process currently works. He said the self funded plan will allow the city to move
pieces of the plan without affecting the employees. He described the administrative options available to
employers choosing self -funding. He said the City should be looking into this in a very detailed way. He
expanded on the different options available to employers. He said the bulk of the cost will be claims. He said, if
the City is self funded and has a good year, they get to keep their extra funds. He spoke about stop loss
insurance and how this would work under a partially self-insured plan. He then spoke about aggregate
insurance and when that would kick in. He provided the Council with a self funded timeline versus a full insured
timeline. He said, once the City goes self-funded, it does not make sense to go back to fully insured. He added
this would be a decision made that would affect the long term future. He spoke about an individual and
aggregate stop loss cost and an example of how a $225,000 claim would be handled. He described the
advantages and disadvantages of the self -funding option. He concluded and said self funding will provide
long-term stability. He said it is an opportunity to control costs and retain savings. He said the city can
customize the plans to fit the needs of the City's work force. He said this is step one to review the terms and
how it would work. He noted they will have hard numbers at some point to see how much it would cost to move
forward if Council so chooses this option.
Gonzalez asked and Rundell spoke about how the City would be able to fund up to 125% in the first year. She
said the city already factors in a 20% increase into the budget each year. Rundell confirmed the City could make
it work. Hammerlun asked about the aggregate stop loss industry participants. Sattler asked and Kloc said the
health care reform will effect everyone. He described what they are doing to prevent the cities from incurring
penalties. There was much discussion and many questions.
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D Discussion regarding the city's long-term Annexation Strategy -- Andrew Spurgin, Planning Director and Jordan
Maddox, Principal Planner
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Maddox provided a brief overview of the long term annexation strategy. He
said annexation powers are derived from the state and he described those for the Council. He said, in 1999, the
City passed an annexation plan that serves as a municipal annexation plan. He said in 2005, they adopted a
policy to review voluntary and involuntary areas. He said, in 2007, the landscape changed with a new law that
required offers of development agreement to properties with agriculture or wildlife exemption. He said they
provide a service plan for all annexations. He spoke about the annexations that have occurred over the last
several years. He showed Council a map of the current city limits. He said the city limits population is a little over
50,000 and the ETJ population is a little over 70,000. He said the City population has dropped over the past ten
years. He said large lot residential has grown considerably in the ETJ without annexation. He spoke about the
land area in neighboring cities. He said Georgetown has the largest current land area and largest future land
area. He spoke about how annexation can be a tool for achieving the Council's goal of City of Excellence. He
said another thing to consider is the impact of new annexations to the general and utility fund. He showed
Council a map of the future city limits of Georgetown. He said the 2030 plan does mention annexation. He listed
some factors that the city and the council can look at when considering annexation. He spoke about the reasons
for the donut holes in the City and said it is the "path of least resistance" strategy. He spoke about how those
holes could be due to the expense of annexing that land as well as resistant landowners. He reviewed some
questions for consideration including the effect of the Chisholm Trail merger on annexation strategy. He said
staff does not have any recommended high priority areas at this time. He asked if the Council would like to
develop a long-term plan for incorporation or just continue with the status quo approach. He said there is not an
immediate timetable on this plan. There was much discussion.
E Discussion of Implementation of Unified Development Code provisions for mobile or outdoor food vending --
Andrew Spurgin, Planning Director
Spurgin said he wanted to update Council that this was going on within the planning department. He reviewed
some of the mobile food vendors in the City of Georgetown. He spoke about how the 2008 economic downturn
helped to steer people in the direction of mobile food vending. He said this is a growing trend from coast to
coast. He spoke about the mobile food vending models. He said, prior to the 2010 ordinance that was passed,
this issue would have been governed by the itinerant merchants Ordinance. He said the 2010 Ordinance allows
temporary use of mobile food vending in C-3 Commercial areas. He said the health district has many
requirements related to safe mobile food vending. He spoke about some state requirements of the mobile food
vendors as well. He said alcohol has to be sold through a permanent building, not a mobile food truck. He
spoke about commissary and the issues the city has had with that. He showed Council a few examples of what
the current proposed mobile food site would look like. He showed Council an example from San Antonio and
how it would be a good example for the City to follow. He said the developer did mulch the ground on the area of
their development. He spoke of an earlier version of someone in Georgetown who was attempting to do this. He
said the first temporary mobile food court is scheduled to open on April 1. He said approval is pending a full
inspection. He described some of the weaknesses of the mobile food vending ordinance. He said the purpose
is for Council to know there is a first operator scheduled to open a mobile food on April 1. He said they will follow
up to see how they are operating and then come back to Council with a possibility of a change to the Ordinance.
Eason said she has seen this done in many places where it was very successful. Hellmann said he thinks this
is a great idea and will bring people to the City. He asked about parking and Spurgin said that is one of the big
issues he struggled with regarding this development. Spurgin spoke about how the developer has an agreement
with the nearby mattress store. Hellmann said he doesn't want the first attempt to mess up the whole concept for
everyone. Hammerlun said he thinks the City needs some sort of permanent solution to the issue. He asked
and Spurgin said an alternate site would be better but the landowner owns that site
Jonrowe arrived at the dais.
Gonzalez said it seems there has been a lot of planning going into this for it to be a temporary site. He asked
many questions about the site of the project. Spurgin said they are looking at having seven different truck
vendors on the site. There was much discussion about the parking and other details about the development.
Mayor summarized the discussion.
Recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071, 551.072 and 551.074 -- 4:16PM
Meeting returned to Open Session and adjourned -- 6:19PM
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Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 06:19 PM.
Appro
Y-e�or
CIrtary Je%siba Brettle
City Council Meeting Minutes/