HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 05.14.2013 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; Rachael Jonrowe, Troy Hellmann, Jerry
Hammerlun
Staff Present:
Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City
Secretary; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Ed Polasek,
Transportation Services Director; Trina Bickford, Purchasing Manager;
Minutes
A Discussion and possible direction to staff regarding transit options as part of the Austin Urbanized Area and
addressing the potential loss of CARTS service in FY 2014 — Edward G. Polasek, Transportation Services
Director and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Polasek went through a brief history of the city's Austin Urbanized Area
designation and its affect on the city's CARTS service. He introduced Meredith from Texas Transportation
Institute (TTI) who will speak about how the City will be able to keep CARTS in Georgetown. He said she will
also have a five year plan to present to the Council. Polasek said TTI was employed to assist the City on this
issue.
Meredith Hysmith, of TTI, said anything that is not covered in the presentation background wise will be in the
information packet provided to the Council. She spoke about the current transit in Georgetown. She spoke
briefly about the significance of the 2010 census and said the point is that federal transportation funding is
based on the most recent decennial census. She spoke about the concept of urban areas. She said it is based
on analytical measures of size and density and does not depend on incorporated status or city limits. She said it
is implemented by a computer analysis with a uniform application of rules. She said the Census Bureau defines
urban areas for statistical purposes but does not control other agency use of the concept and designations. She
said FTA uses this information to determine funding. She said it is defined every 10 years following the
decennial census. She showed a map and explained what actually happened and how Georgetown was linked
to the Austin Urban Area through two "jumps": Terra Vista Parkway at 0.6 miles and FM 1460 at 2.1 miles.
Bill Sattler arrived at the dais.
She spoke about the impact of the census on transit funding and said CARTS will not be able to continue to
provide service in Georgetown using rural transit funds. She noted CARTS will no longer have access to State
transit funds for areas now a part of Austin UZA. She said CARTS can continue to provide transit service
through interlocal agreements with Capital Metro. She spoke about the background of this and what has been
done so far on this issue. She provided the Council with the various options on how to fund and continue
CARTS service. She noted, on May 22, 2012, the city was awarded a one-year extension of CATS service
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through FY 2013. She said staff was directed by City Council to work on developing a budget and interlocal
agreement with Capital Metro to administer a demand response program to replace the CARTS services. She
spoke about what is involved in capital metro administered service. She said Georgetown can establish an
interlocal agreement with Capital Metro. She added service may be provided as outlined in the Capital Metro
Service Expansion Plan. She said Capital Metro may contract with CARTS for service and the City is eligible to
apply for federal urban transit funds for capital and some operating expenses. She said there are no state funds
for local share and Georgetown must provide local share. She said other considerations would be the City
could begin with demand response transportation and increased service through a five year growth plan. She
provided Council with a public transportation plan for the City of Georgetown. She said the plan is to develop a
transit system internal to Georgetown, connect customers with local businesses, employment and educational
facilities and enhance local economy. She showed Council a map of the fixed route transit network for
Georgetown and the four major options for how to move forward. She focused on assumptions for Option 3
including funding assumptions through FY 2018. She provided Council with financial planning for Option 3. She
spoke about the next steps in the process and noted they seek approval from Council to pursue funding for
Option 3. She said the decision should be made by May 31, 2013. There was much discussion of and
questions regarding the different options.
Jonrowe asked and Hysmith spoke about how the City generated the passenger trip numbers for Option 3.
Jonrowe asked and Hysmith said this would assume a fixed route service. She confirmed they took into
consideration potential rises in fuel costs as well. Jonrowe asked and Hysmith spoke about why the medium
duty buses are more expensive than the fixed route buses. Jonrowe asked and Rundell confirmed this was
incorporated into the fiscal year plan. Hammerlun said he appreciates the handout with all of the documents to
review. Sattler asked how the City addresses the fact that 73% of people who responded to the citizen survey
said they do not want public transit. Staff clarified and said they want the transit but they do not want tax
increases for it. Hysmith spoke about why there is a large need for public transit in Williamson County. Eason
asked that Polasek provide Sattler with the ridership numbers. Polasek said the total ridership numbers over the
last years is 8,000 hours of service. Sattler noted the next Council should be the one to make the decision of
whether or not to move forward with this. Polasek said the action tonight is to determine whether or not this
should be in the budget. He said the new Council will have to approve the budget. Hellmann asked and Hysmith
said the fare for demand response is $2.00 per ride, round trip. Hellmann asked and Hysmith said the demand
will probably be higher if the rates stay the same. Hellmann asked and Hysmith clarified complimentary
paratransit and what that means. Eason spoke about transit related to Southwestern University. Eason spoke
about how public transit around the University and the downtown area will help increase business in the
downtown. She spoke about the possibility of having a public-private partnership with the businesses downtown
as well. Mayor asked and Polasek restated the motion being asked from Council.
Motion by Eason, second by Jonrowe to direct staff to put this plan and budget in a five year program request
for the City Manager's budget as well as add it to the City's transportation plan.
Eason asked and Polasek said an interlocal agreement with Capital Metro will be brought forward at the next
meeting. Sattler asked why this can not wait until the next Council meeting when new members are sitting on
the dais.
Approved 5-1 (Sattler opposed) (Gonzalez absent)
B Main Street Board Strategic Plan -- David Kellerman, Chair, Main Street Advisory Board and Laurie Brewer,
Assistant City Manager
Gonzalez arrived at the dais.
Brewer introduced Kellermann to the Council, who presented the Main Street Program Strategic Action Plan to
the City Council. He spoke about how the City has been honored with many significant awards including the
First Lady's Texas Treasures Award, The Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas Award and the Preserve
America Award. He noted it is downtown that draws people to Georgetown to live, work and play. He said a
vibrant downtown can also be compared to a healthy heart for a strong body community. He said the Main
Street Program exists to provide downtown revitalization. He said the Board is happy to have Matt Synatch and
Laurie Brewer at their meetings on a regular basis. He spoke briefly about the mission of the Georgetown Main
Street Program. He listed some of the accomplishments of the Board in 2012-13. He reviewed their 2013-14
Strategic Action Plan. He said the first goal of the plan is attracting and retaining a healthy business mix, the
second is raising awareness and funding for Georgetown Main Street Program Projects and the third is
promoting downtown's image as a signature destination.
Gonzalez spoke about his hopes that the downtown businesses will open on Saturdays and stay open later. He
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added he knows they can not make businesses stay open late even though they ask. There was a lot of
discussion of this issue. Eason said she thinks the Main Street Board has done a fabulous job and noted she is
excited to see the effort to revitalize the 8th street alley area back on the priority list. Jonrowe said they are a
great Board and spoke about their partnership with the Heritage Society and the benefit of that effort. Meigs said
the square is the crown jewel of the City and it gets better and better. Sattler said he appreciates the hard work
of the committee. He noted they have a lot of fantastic ideas. Gonzalez said he appreciates the work of the
Board and added he loves the square. He said he wants to keep it vibrant.
C Consideration and discussion of proposed change in practices used by the City for procurement of vehicles. --
Trina Bickford, Purchasing Manager; Paul Pausewang, Support Service Director and Micki Rundell, Chief
Financial Officer
Mayor asked that the Council discuss this item first.
Sattler, Gonzalez absent.
With a Powerpoint Presentation, Rundell reviewed a proposed new method of the procurement of vehicles. She
said this new method will save staff time and money. She said the City purchases 25 to 30 new/replacement
vehicles per year. She said specs are required for each and there is competitive bidding for standard vehicles
(about 1,618 per year). She said there is a process that is involved with competitive bids. She went through
each of the three phases of the competitive bid process. She went through the new proposed process through
the use of cooperative purchasing contracts. She went through the three phases and said the total time frame
will be from 11 to 37 weeks. She spoke about the advantages of this new process and said there will be a faster
turnaround on vehicle replacement, reduced costs and reduced staff resources. She said there are some
disadvantages and said it removes opportunity to purchase from local vendors. She said historically, over the
past three years, the City has bid 53 vehicles, 14 are purchased locally and 75% have been purchased from
vendors that use cooperative purchasing contracts. Rundell said the staff recommendation is to do a pilot using
a cooperative contract for FY 2013/2014 and determine whether or not there are savings. She is asking for
Council input on whether or not to go forward with that type of approach.
Eason said this came to GGAF and she said it may be nice to hear about why the City is not able to get any
local vendors to respond to these bids. Rundell said the only vendor available locally is Hewlett. She spoke
about how they are not a high enough volume of a dealer to meet the low prices of the other bidders. She said,
however, the City does bid the preventative maintenance which is done by local vendors. She noted a lot of the
City parts are purchased locally as well. Mayor asked and Rundell spoke about specialized equipment for
vehicles such as police cars and how it is hard for local vendors to manufacture those. Pausewang spoke about
local vendors and how they are just not staffed up to be able to handle the equipment. Hammerlun thanked
Rundell and said this is a logical approach. He added he still has a concern with not using local vendors. There
were many questions and much discussion on this issue.
D Overview of 2013 Appraisal Values for Georgetown and Williamson County -- Alvin Lankford, Chief Appraiser,
Williamson Central Appraisal District and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
Rundell introduced Alvin Lankford, who provided the Council with a Georgetown Appraisal Value update.
Lankford spoke about the WCAD.org videos. He spoke to Council about the visitor check in process and what
happens when someone wants to meet with an appraiser. He spoke about how the wait times are displayed in
charts to the public. He said the average residential wait time is about 7 minutes. He also spoke about the
appraiser meeting time. He showed Council a graph of residential property trends as well as commercial
property trends in Georgetown. He said about 56% of the commercial properties went up in value. He said the
retail properties are much higher value as well. He spoke about the total market value of each of the parcels.
He described the number of new residential improvements in the past few years and noted there are 426 new
residential improvements in 2013. He said it seems we have come out of the recession based on the number of
new commercial improvements. Jonrowe asked and Lankford said the more rooftops coming in, the more the
city will see commercial improvements. Lankford said occupancy levels are increasing and the income from
those retail properties are increasing as well. He showed Council a graph of the changes in property values
from last year to this year. Sattler asked and Lankford said the last day a person can protest their property value
is May 31. Sattler asked and Lankford said a person can protest their property even if its taxes are frozen.
Recessed to Executive Session under Sections 551.071 and 551.074 of the Local Government Code -- 4:54PM
Returned to Open Session and recessed Executive Session -- 6:23PM
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Approved
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Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 06:23 PM.
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