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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 11.25.2014 CC-WNotice of a Meethig of the Goverifing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas 'Tuesday, November 25, 2014 The Georgetown City Council will meet on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at 4:00 PM at the Council Chambers, at 101 E. 7 1h St., Georgetown, Texas The city of Georgetown is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you require assistance in participating at a public meeting due to a disability, as defined under the ADA, reasonable assistance, adaptations, or accommodations will be provided upon request. Please contact the City Secretary's Office, at least four (4) days prior to the scheduled meeting date, at (512) 930-3652 or City Hall at 113 East 8"' Street for additional information; TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. Policy Developinent/Review Workshop —'Call to ordet- at 4:00 PM A Update on Public Safety Operations and Training Center -- Codi Newsom, Senior Project Manager and Wayne Nero, Chief of Police With a PowerPoint Presentation, Newsom provided an update on the public safety operations and training center. She showed Council progress photos of the facility, provided a schedule overview to the Council and said the estimated completion date of the main building is December 22 nd and tactical building on January 8. She summarized the cost overview of the project for the Council. She spoke about the anticipated future costs and said the current delta from project management cost summary is $131,726. She described the miscellaneous RFIs still outstanding. She said they have not touched the $1 OOiOOO in IT savings. There was much discussion of the cost overview, Hammerlun said the wastewater December I st date is critical for the project and that falls in the city's court. k"hei-I , I I "M I I -i — IMALI AN 01-1- 1 "M WIN W -ilia and Newsom defined RFIs as "Requests for Information" and she spoke about how those come about. She said the $50,000 amount budgeted for those RFIs is just an estimated amount in case questions come up. Newsom said they are getting costs submitted on a daily basis and they are trying to keep this information updated as much as possible. Newsom said Council will definitely receive all of the final numbers. Mayor said and Newsom confirmed there will be a lot more clarity and final numbers at the January council meeting after the completion of the project. Mayor thanked them for all of the wonderful work they did on this project. thwtP the fiscal year sales tax revenues -- Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer With a PowerPoint Presentation, Rundell provided the preliminary year end variance report to the City Council. She said these numbers are unaudited and subject to change, She added these numbers are the difference between actual and projected year end fund balance. She said the general fund for 2014 ended with a fund balance of $10.7 million. She said the un -projected and unallocated funds exceeded about $714,000. She said this amount is to be used and allocated at Council's discretion. She said, however, the general fund revenues were $825,000 less than projections. She showed Council a slide showing the preliminary fund balance. She sail there were also reduced administrative allocations due to lower department expenses. She said there was $268,000 less in property tax revenue and $278,000 less in sale tax revenue. Paul Diaz spoke about the year-end sales tax information and said the city finished fiscal year 9014 with $20A6 million of sales tax revenue. He said the city has seen sustained and consistent sales tax growth since the recession of 2009. He said the retail sales tax sector makes up about 50% of the sales tax revenue. He spoke about the various sales tax sectors throughout the city and the status of each of those sectors. He described the revenue that came out of the Wolf Ranch development and the Downtown TIRZ area. He continued to speak about the sales tax numbers. Rundell spoke about other general fund revenues and said some were up and some were down. She said commercial development fees increased. She spokeaboutthe year-end expenses and said there was $1,49M in expenditure savings with all divisions lower than projected. She described all of the departmental savings in detail. She described the overall fund balance and said it was $713,622 higher than projected. She spoke about special revenue funds and said, overall, they are higher than anticipated. She noted, in street maintenance, we had an arterial reserve draw not budgeted until projects are identified. She said in parks restructured there was about $464,000 due to timing of capital projects. She spoke about theinternal service funds. She said, in the debt service fund, the city was $228,000 more than projections. She also spoke about the electric service fund and the water service fund. She spoke about the airport and storm water funds and said both ended more than projected. Rundell spoke about the policy discussions, and next steps. She said section four of the fiscal and budgetary policy speaks about the use of unanticipated and unappropriated general fund balances. She described this section in detail about how Council can use these funds. She spoke about the year end 2104 budget amendments and said the audit and financial statements are underway. She spoke about the upcoming 201415 budget amendment and what thatamendmentwill include. Brainard asked and Rundell spoke about the variance report for the cemetery fund. Fought asked Mayor spoke about the process for allocating the excess funds. Mayor suggested that Council come back at the second meeting in January to discuss how to allocate the funds. Fought spoke about his ideas for how to handle this process moving forward. Gonzalez spoke about the budget process and said he would like to have departments build their budget without considering the excess, one-time monies. He noted, the Council can then consider how to use those excess monies at a later date. He said he does not want the city to get used to this extra money. Eason spoke about how she thinks one-time money has helped the city in the past. Eason said she would like to bring back some history on how the city has used one-time funds in the past. She said it has never been for frivolous stuff. Fought said he would like to prevent the Council from walking in with a wish list. He noted he would prefer that staff bring Council options to consider. Jonrowe agreed with Fought and said the Council needs to be careful each member is not bringing their own pet projects to the table. Mayor spoke about the plan for this issue moving forward. There was much discussion. C Presentation by Alvin Lankford with the Williamson Central Appraisal District on the issues related to uniform property tax appraisals -- Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer With a PowerPoint Presentation, Lankford spoke about uniform property tax appraisals. He briefly reviewed what an appraisal district does and its role in the community. He said all appraisals are done at 100% of Market Value as of January 1. He reviewed the Texas Property Tax Law's two basic principles. He spoke about the non -sales disclosure states in the United States and how Texas is only one of five states that do not require sales disclosures. He spoke about how this law really hinders being able to obtain accurate appraisals. He spoke about why anyone would want to tell the government about the price they paid for a home. He spoke about how appraisal districts obtain residential home sales. He said they do not have MLS access and noted the district utilizes websites, they send sales questionnaires to realtors and brokers and they use property owner provided information. He said residential sales disclosure law is a thing of the past since a person can obtain sales information from these various sources. He spoke about how owners of high dollar properties only end up paying 70% of what they should in tax due to this non -disclosure law. There was much discussion of issues related to uniform property tax appraisals. He spoke about how appraisal districts obtain commercial property sales. He said appraisal districts only obtain 20%-30% of all commercial sales numbers. Hesaidthe way to correct these issues is to allow full sales disclosure of properties. Brainard asked and Lankford said the groups that lobby against changing this law are Texas, Association of Realtors, Texas Association of Apartment Owners and Exxon Mobile. He said local legislators can get a list of all of them for anyone who asks. He suggested Council go to a website called "Real Property Values for Texas" for more on the effort to change these laws. He mentioned the question of who defines the reasonable number of comparable properties. He described how the districts, as well as others determine comparable properties. Gonzalez said this seems to be a legislative matter and there seems to be huge gaps on the commercial side of the equation. He asked why it is so difficult to make these changes. He spoke about the deterrence of litigation and why appraisal districts don't normally fight these values in court. Lankford said they will be bringing resolution forward for Council to sign in support of the change to the legislation. Mayor asked and Lankford said he has spoken to other legislators who have discussed this with him but have not yet made any commitments. He spoke about how the district has -hired a consultant to help take this through the legislative process. Brainard asked and Lankford said the Association of Counties is on board with this but he is unsure about Texas Municipal League. Rundell said the intention was to forward the resolutions to Council as well as to the local governments. She said the resolution was drafted by Debora Hunt and her team. There was much discussion about this issue. Meeting recessed to Executive Session under Section 551.071 and 551.074 of the Local Government Code 5:15 PM Executive Session In compliance with the Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551, Government Code, Vernon's Texas Codes, Annotated, the items listed below will be discussed in closed session and are subject to action in the regular session. D Sec. 551.071: Consultation with Attorney - Advice from attorney about pending or contemplated litigation and other matters on which the attorney has a duty to advise the City Council, including agenda items - Meet and Confer - Rivery Update Sec. 551.074: Personnel Matters - Interim City Manager, City Attorney, City Secretary and Municipal Judge: Consideration of the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public officer or employee as allowed under Tex. Gov. Code Section 551.074 Personnel Matters Ad11 Journment — Meeting returned to Open Session and adjout-ned — 6:19PM Certificate of Posting I 1, Jessica Brettle, City Secretary for the City of Georgetown, Texas, do hereby certify that this Notice of Meeting was posted at City Hall, 113 E. 8th Street, a place readily accessible to the general public at all times, on the day of 2014, at _, and remained so posted for at least 72 hours preceding the scheduled time of said meeting, Jessica Brettle, City Secretary Approved by the Georgetown City Council on December 9, 2014. cz� L—,41A VU i Dale Ross, Mayor V : City Secretary