HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 05.11.2009 CC-WMinutes of the Meeting of the Governing Body
of the City of Georgetown, Texas Monday,
May 11, 2009
The 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:
Keith Brainard, Gabe Sansing, Dale Ross, Ben All Council present.
Oliver, Pat Berryman, Bill Sattler, Patty Eason
Staff Present:
Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Patricia E. Carls, City Attorney; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial
Officer; Jessica Hamilton, City Secretary; Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil
Service; Glenn Dishong, Water Services Manager; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager for Utility
Operations; Eric Lashley, Library Services Director; Keith Hutchinson, Public Information Officer;
Kimberly Garrett, Director of Parks and Recreation; Jill Kellum, Parks and Recreation Admin;
Minutes
Policy Development/Review Workshop - Call to order at 04:03 PM
Council recessed to Executive Session -- 4:03 p.m. under Section 551.071
Council reopened and returned to Open Session -- 4:24 p.m.
A Presentation regarding City of Georgetown's current efforts to establish and maintain a competitive position in its
defined market. Review of current Pay System, performance management, and benefits -- Kevin Russell,
Director of Human Resources and Civil Service and Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager
Brandenburg described the item and gave a brief introduction to the Citys personnel policy and benefits. He said
this same presentation was given to the General Government and Finance Committee. Russell said he would
like to speak with the Council about remaining competitive and added he would like to concentrate on non-public
safety benefits and pay. He spoke about attracting and retaining employees and noted, in the past, the City has
done compensation studies comparing Georgetown to surrounding Cities. He said, in the last couple of years,
Georgetown has concentrated on comparing itself with Round Rock He said the City tries to make sure that
non-public safety employees' pay scale is at 95% of Round Rock. He said the City tries to keep their pay scales
as competitive as the benefits. He said, in the past, the City had a performance-based pay system and he
described how this system worked. He said the City eventually got rid of the system and therefore did away with
the process that would move employees through the pay scale.
He showed Council a graph of the current compensation problem in Georgetown He said, if an employee is
hired without a lot of experience, that person will start at the bottom quartile of the pay scale. He said, right now,
in order to stay competitive, the City uses cost of living adjustments (COLA) which goes toward both the
employee and the pay range. He showed Council an example of how this affects the pay range and noted, even
though the salary increases with a COLA, the employee stays in the relative range in the pay scale. He noted a
new employee with more experience could be hired in a higher quartile in the pay range than someone who has
been with the City for years. He reviewed the types of pay the City offers to its employees including variable pay,
pay for performance bonuses, and longevity. He said Round Rock and Cedar Park have a one year waiting
period for longevity pay. Russell said the staff would like to develop a merit -based pay system so that employees
City Council Meeting Minutes/May 11, 2009
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will move through the pay range and receive credit for their experience. He explained the way an employee
would move through the pay range with a merit -based pay system. He noted this system would recognize the
value of the amount of experience of existing employees. He showed Council a graph of the proposed solution
and explained the process. He said the City will move people through the pay range if they are exceeding or
outstanding. He showed Council a graph that demonstrates the cost of this compensation solution to the City.
He said staff would like for Council to approve a certain amount of money for staff to use to fund the merit -based
pay system. He showed Council current pay for performance graphs in the City. He spoke about the next steps
in the process including Council approval of the concept of a merit based pay system as well as changes to the
City's longevity pay program. He said staff will probably bring forward policy and procedure changes to
implement a waiting period for longevity pay. He gave Council other considerations including the recent move to
a high deductible health plan base, the utilization of the medical expense ratio, future costs and plan changes.
Brainard asked and Russell said, for the high deductible health plan last year, it was 95 co -pay plan/5% HDHP
usage last year instead of 60/40 this year. Sansing said he believes giving people who earn it merit raises, but
he is not sure if employees who only meet expectations deserve merit pay. He suggested changes to the
percentages in the proposed merit -based pay system. Russell said the City is not tied to the statistics that were
just given to Council. He said there are percentages in the first and second quartile because anyone at the
midpoint of their range can go anywhere and command a salary. He said, if the City does not move employees
through the pay scale, it becomes a training ground for other organizations. Sansing noted the City needs to do
what they can to empower employees in order to get to the exceeds level. Ross asked and Russell said the
organization overall is closer to a normal bell cure in terms of evaluation rankings. Ross asked and Russell said
it would be possible to lower the percentage of the COLA and raise the merit pay percentage Russell said he
has thought about this before, but it is really a Council directive. Sattler asked and Russell said, in real numbers,
about 170 employees had exceeds evaluations last year. Brainard listed the components of the City's pay
system and noted it would be helpful if the Council could get a picture of the employeds compensation with all of
those components put into in one place. Brainard asked and Russell said it would be possible to get a
distribution of all City employees based on their location on the pay scale. Brainard said it would be good to find
creative ways to compensate City employees including rewarding good performance by employees more often
and tying employee incentives not only an individual, but to a City department or unit as well as the City as a
whole. He also mentioned matching the amount of compensation given to employees with how well the City is
doing financially. Sansing asked and Russell said those programs are not difficult to implement, but noted the
problems will come with making sure the City has the adequate financial controls in place
Brandenburg said it is not difficult, but you just need to identify what parameters are there from the outset He
mentioned the Save Us Monday (SUM) program that will be given to employees. Mayor asked and Russell
explained the eighteen step pay schedule for both the police officers and firefighters. He said the way the system
is set out is to base the police and fire's pay scale to Georgetown's competitor, Round Rock. Mayor asked if there
could be a way to untie Georgetown from comparing itself to Round Rock Russell said that that is a Council
discussion and noted the City needs to take into consideration the organizations to which they are losing their
employees. Brandenburg said this has been changed in the past and noted eight or nine other comparables that
were used. Ross asked and Russell said the pension plan is also part of the benefit program and added the City
needs to look at this in a strategic way. He said there will not be money available over the next five years if the
pension plan keeps growing like it is today. Russell said staff will be looking for opportunities and ways to
discuss the current problems the City is having regarding employee compensation. He said it is important to
make sure employees are being educated about the problem along with possible solutions. There was much
discussion.
B Presentation and discussion regarding an amendment to the Water Conservation Plan including updates to the
Drought Contingency Plan and Water Rates schedule -- Glenn Dishong, Water Services Manager and Micki
Rundell, Chief Financial Officer
With a PowerPoint presentation, Dishong gave Council a water conservation plan update. He gave a brief
overview and history of the water conservation issue. He said the last State legislature required the City to
submit an update to its water conservation plan. He listed the water planning elements including the
conservation plan, the drought contingency plan, the 2030 plan, regional planning and the system master plan.
He said a lot of their planning is driven by the City's Comprehensive Plan. He said the City does regional
planning and is in Region G, Brazos River Authority. He showed Council the water logistics equation showing
supply, treatment, and demand. He explained this equation and how it works. He said it is difficult to tell what
the peak customer demand is going to be each year because it all depends on the weather and other elements
He spoke to Council about the current water supply broken up into the Edwards Aquifer and groundwater supply
and said the City is using as much ground water as possible. He said Lake Georgetown makes up about
18% of the water supply. He said the City has 36,000 acres available and it needs 54,000 acre/feet to service
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the 2030 plan. He explained the future water supply needs. He said there is a shortfall between available water
and what is needed. He spoke about how to make up for the shortfall including conservation efforts and the
purchasing of more water. He spoke about the costs of purchasing water. He said the per capita water usage is
about 200 gallons per day per person and the goal is 160 gallons per day. He said, once this goal is reached, the
City will not have to go out and spend $150 million to get ground water to the area. He said the City could attack
water loss, water theft, and inaccuracy in meters. He said the City's current water loss is at 15%, compared to
20% five years ago. He said staff is working on fixing leaks as quickly as possible to lower this percentage. He
said the goal should be 10% water loss. Brainard asked and Dishong said the water usage would not be any
different without golf courses because the City is using reclaimed water and untreated ground water for the
courses. He said controlling irrigation use will affect the usage. He said the Water Conservation Plan is required
by the Texas Water Code and it must be submitted to TCEQ and the Water Development Board. He said the
plan must be adopted by resolution of Council. He mentioned and described the Drought Contingency Plan.
Dishong spoke about the Sun City Conservation pilot and added the purpose was to study the feasibility of a
twice per week watering schedule. He added it also studied the impact of feedback on water demand. He said
the information gathered from the pilot will be used to update the Water Conservation Plan and Drought
Contingency Plan and the conservation rate structure. He spoke about the weather conditions that were in
affect during the Sun City pilot. He described the weather and usage trends during the pilot He showed
Council a graph of the monthly demand pattern in 2008 and noted the months that were used for the Sun City
pilot. He said this has been the City's typical pattern for the past number of years. He noted the increase has
been due to the rising need for landscape irrigation. He showed Council the results from the pilot study. He
added there was quite a bit of savings from educating the public. He spoke about the percentages of people in
the pilot program who were over irrigating their yards. He said a follow up survey was done after the pilot was
run and he gave Council the feedback from the survey. He noted three quarters of the people utilized the usage
feedback given to them. He listed the many recommendations (in order of preference) from customers including
implementing a customer usage feedback system, revising the rate structure so people pay more when they
irrigate landscape, implementing watering restrictions, and lastly expanding treatment facilities. He noted these
results match up closely with a normal managerial response. Dishong spoke about the conclusions drawn from
the pilot program. He noted education and feedback all results in water conservation. He noted customers are
more likely to conserve on a two day schedule, but conservation could also be achieved on a three day
schedule. He noted a two day schedule is somewhat problematic because of the shallow soil depths in certain
areas and added the current rate structure has limited influence on water conservation.
Dishong said the recommendation from staff is to adopt the Water Conservation Plan with a goal of 160 gallons
per capita, revise the Drought Contingency Plan, implement automated usage feedback, Implement a Water
Conservation Specialist position, and revise the current water rate structure. He summarized each one of those
recommendations for Council. He described the Drought Contingency Plan and said, as the drought increases,
the implementation of the plan increases. Sattler asked and Dishong said there are water use averages that
apply to the plan. He said the automated usage feedback will be sent to users via e-mail. He said the customer
themselves will tell staff when they would like to be notified on their water usage He noted this will be brought to
Council at the second meeting in May. He spoke about the full implementation of the automated feedback system
and described the Water Conservation Specialist, or customer educator. He noted the current project
coordinator position role will be expanded to provide water conservation services to customers in order to
become the Conservation Specialist. He noted the services of the specialist would include irrigation system
audits, billing analysis, and high use customer outreach.
Sansing said there is a product that uses algorithms to determine when the City needs rain. He said, evidently, it
has been very successful and noted this is something staff may want to look into further. He noted it would be
nice for every person to have this in their homes so that it would automatically turn on their sprinklers when they
need the rain. Dishong said the City will continue to look for ways the City could help the conservation effort
Berryman said she would like to talk about water sources and added she thinks the City is spending more than
what was anticipated on purchasing water. Briggs said he asked the consultant to take the City's water service
territory and find out how much water the City needs in order to completely build out He said, if the City uses
160 gallons per capita, there is plenty of water to utilize without having to go out and purchase more. Briggs said
the next acre foot of water is going to be extremely expensive and it is important to not have to do that
Berryman asked and Briggs said every person who participated in the pilot wanted to achieve the goal of 160
gallons per acre. Berryman said and Briggs confirmed this is a realistic goal but it will require changes in
people's habits and stewardship. Sattler asked and Dishong spoke about the differences between groups A, B,
and C in the pilot. There was much discussion.
Dishong gave Council the proposed water conversation rate block changes for residential users, small
commercial users and commercial users. He said the 27% of customers who use less than 10,000 gallons will
not see a rate change. He added the non -potable water rate will also need to change in order to cover the cost
City Council Meeting Minutes/May 11, 2009
Page 3 of 4 Pages
of operating the utility. He spoke about the water treatment plant expansion. He reviewed the next steps in this
process and when the corresponding Ordinances will be coming to Council. Eason said she is glad the pilot
study was done and added it seems to her that the key is educating the public on this issue Sattler asked and
Dishong confirmed the new rates include the enterprise fee. Oliver said he likes what Dishong and staff are
doing with this. Ross asked and Dishong said, under the current block rate, the people who live on a smaller
amount of land will end up paying more relative to those who live on larger acreage Dishong gave examples for
how this problem could be solved. Ross asked and Dishong said staff has looked at having two lines, one for
potable and the other for non -potable water. Dishong added this adds complexity and it doubles the line cost for
the developer. Sansing said conservation is very important but added, he thinks the City needs to be prepared
for the future in regard to all water options. Briggs said the City will not be eliminating the ability for the City to be
looking at other resources. Brainard said he thinks people want to do the right thing, but the problem is they do
not receive the right amount of information. Mayor thanked staff.
Council recessed to Executive Session -- 6:03 p.m. under Sections 551.071 and 551.074
Council reopened and returned to Open Session -- 7:33 p.m.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 07:33 PM.
Approved :
Mayor George Garver
City Council Meeting Minutes/May 11, 2009
Page 4 of 4 Pages
Attest:
City Secretary Jessica Hamilton
RESOLUTION NO.
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
GEORGETOWN, TEXAS AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN THE
ADVANCE FUNDING AGREEMENT WITH THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF
TRANSPORTATION RELATED TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH AUSTIN
BRIDGES PROJECT.
WHEREAS, the Texas Transportation Commission passed Minute Order Number 114335,
authorizing the State to undertake and complete a highway improvement generally described
as reconstruct the North and South Austin Avenue bridges from 2nd Street to Morrow Street,
Georgetown, Texas called the "Project"; and,
WHEREAS, for the Project the term reconstruct includes replacement, rehabilitation,
preservation, protection, and/or anti-icing/deicing for bridges and tunnels on a public road; and
WHEREAS, as part of the administration of the Project, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning
Organization, by resolution number 2014-11-4, awarded the City of Georgetown a total of
$1,299,174 in Surface Transportation Program Metropolitan Mobility (STP -MM) for the Project;
and
WHEREAS, in order to determine which alternative best serves the interests of the citizens of
Georgetown, the City supports a study of alternatives including the following (1) do nothing,
(2) alternative alignment, (3) maintenance, (4) rehabilitation/preservation and/or (5)
replacement through a public involvement process which is also a requirement of the National
Environmentally Policy Act (NEPA); and
WHEREAS, the STP -MM award by CAMPO, using the term reconstruct, may require the City
of Georgetown to submit to CAMPO a Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) amendment
in the Spring of 2017 based on the decision resulting from the range of alternatives undertaken
by the City of Georgetown; and
WHEREAS, TxDOT works with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and other
federal agencies to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and uses the
TxDOT environmental compliance process for state and local projects, where TxDOT is the state
approval authority;
WHEREAS, the Advance Funding Agreement between TxDOT and the City allocate funds
including a City contribution of $142,000 for the environmental review and is required for
TxDOT approval.
Resolution No. 0'5n 711 L.o - L Page 1 of 2
Date Approved 3 a
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
GEORGETOWN TEXAS.
SECTION ONE. The facts and recitations contained in the preamble of this resolution are
hereby found and declared to be true and correct, and are incorporated by reference herein and
expressly made a part hereof, as if copied verbatim.
SECTION TWO. The City Council of the City of Georgetown finds it to be in the best interest of
the citizens of Georgetown to enter in the Advance Funding Agreement with the Texas
Department of Transportation related to the North and South Austin Avenue Bridges Project.
SECTION THREE. The Mayor is hereby authorized to sign this Resolution and the Advance
Funding Agreement and the City Secretary to attest thereto, on behalf of the City.
SECTION FOUR. This Resolution shall become effective on the c1aday of nO 2016.
PASSED AND APPROVED on the as day of (Y'W c),, , 2016.
ATTEST: CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS
5 By:
Shelley N lin City Secre Dale Ross, Mayor
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Charlie McNabb, City Attorney
Resolution No. O 3 1 o- L. Page 2 of 2
Date Approved 3�;�Alaottp