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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 11.24.2009 CC-WMinutes of the Meeting of the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Tuesday, November 24, 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; Mark Sokolow, City Attorney; Jessica Hamilton, City Secretary; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager for Utility Operations; Terry Jones, Support Services Manager; Laurie Brewer, Assistant Director of Finance; Robert Fite, Fire Chief; Mark Thomas, Economic Development Director Minutes Policy Development/Review Workshop - Call to order at 04:01 PM A Workshop review update of Public Safety Needs Assessment and related impacts to the City's Facility Plan -- Paul Brandenburg, City Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer and Terry Jones, Support Services Manager Berryman, Brainard, Ross off the dais. Mayor recognized two Boy Scouts who were in the audience Brainard returned to the dais -- 4:02 p.m. Mayor introduced the item and City Manager, Paul Brandenburg, began the presentation. With a PowerPoint presentation, Brandenburg reviewed the Public Safety Needs Assessment as well as the Citys Facility Plan. He summarized the space needs study and facility changes over the past seven years. He reviewed past City Council action on this issue. Berryman and Ross returned to the dais -- 4:08 p.m Brandenburg spoke briefly about the Albertson's building and introduced Gina Irwin of Brinkley Sargent Architects. Speaker, Irwin, thanked the Council and said Brinkley Sargent was tasked to study the space needs throughout the City. She gave Council an overview of the properties to be discussed in the presentation including the old library site, the current police site, future court sites, relocating the fire administration site and the future of the Albertson's building. She said they also looked at a Shell Road property as a satellite location for a fire station. She noted the property is 10.2 acres. She began summarizing the different options that have been developed for the City. She noted Option A, Part One, would be to renovate 16,200 square feet of the Old Library for Municipal Court. She added the existing parking on that site would be utilized and the City could demolish the police annex for additional parking She said the existing police building could be used for an alternate City use. She noted all findings, budgets and numbers are based on the predication that everything will begin in January of next year. She noted Option A, Part 2, would be to renovate the old Albertson's building for a Police Station. She reviewed the estimated budget for Option A. She said Option B would be to put both the Court and Police Station in the Albertson's building. City Council Workshop Minutes/November 24, 2009 Page 1 of 3 Pages She noted, with this option, the site will not fit all required parking and would be 70 spaces short. She said, with this option the court will need to move out of the building around 2023 to allow the police to expand around 2023. She said Option C, Part A, is to look at the possibility of building a new facility for the Police Department She said Part B of Option C would be to renovate the Old Library for Court and utilize the existing parking. She said Option D1 is the quick option to accommodate immediate needs. She said this would be to renovate the old library for the Police Department to occupy. She said the total are is less than the projected needs for 2017 and will fulfill the space needs until 2015. She said the second part of Option D1 would be to renovate 1,700 square feet of a current city building off the downtown square for the Court She noted there are select improvements for sidewalk and parking to be considered with this option. She noted design would start January 2010 and occupancy would be sooner than May 2011. She described Option D2, which would be a delay in building a new police facility, and said the City could renovate 16,200 square feet of the Library for Court. She noted, with Option D2, occupation would be in 2019. She showed the City Council a summary of the police/court options as well as the corresponding costs. She reviewed the pros and cons of going with Options A, B, C, D1 or D2. She noted they predict an escalation of needs each year by 7%. She said the other property to be utilized for a fire station is on Shell Road. She reviewed the Shell Road options, budgets and pros and cons of those various options. She reviewed the Fire Administration options and corresponding budgets. She said there is a packet with all of the options, broken down with budgets that has been given to Council. Oliver asked and Irwin said the cost of renovation for Option A went down from the first estimate because inflation did not match the estimated amount originally used. Sattler asked and Irwin said confirmed the City would be 70 spaces short if the Albertson's building is renovated for both the Court and Police. Irwin explained how parking space estimates are developed. Sattler asked and Irwin said the current police station has 54 parking spaces, but noted they are also allowed to park their cars at the old library parking lot across the street Irwin noted, for the police department's future needs, the City is looking at around 179 parking spaces. Brainard reviewed the cost of the different options for the Police Department Brainard asked and Irwin confirmed, if Council went with Shell Road Option 3, it will not address Fire Administration needs and it will also leave out the police substation option. Brainard said it would be nice to have fire, police and public works in the Shell Road station. Berryman said there is also the fact that the City can purchase space, use it, and then lease it out. Berryman asked and Irwin said the cost estimate for the Shell Road project was created using a construction manager -at -risk process. Berryman said she would like to see a comparison between that and a design build process. Sansing asked why the City is considering a public works substation Brandenburg said the development to the West of the City is causing the public safety officials to take too long to get to those areas of the City. Brandenburg noted Briggs thinks this is a need that the City has. Briggs described the current service territory and noted the City has experienced losing 2 hours and 15 minutes in travel time each day if crews have to go out to Sun City. He noted the City is trying to prepare for the future North Berry Creek and Goodwater developments. Mayor asked and Brandenburg said the cheapest option at this time is to do nothing. Brandenburg said a decision should be made, however, on what to do with the Albertson's building. He said it would also be good to know what Council wants to do with the satellite station option as well as the Shell Road options He noted this issue will most likely come back to Council at the second meeting in January. He added these estimates do not include the cost of land. B Overview of the September 30, 2009 year end preliminary financial information -- Laurie Brewer, Assistant Director of Finance and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer With a PowerPoint presentation, Rundell reviewed the preliminary financial information and said this review is done every year. She said the preliminary numbers are slightly better than anticipated. She said the sales tax budget ended better than anticipated last year. She said the City ended the year a little over 5% less than what was anticipated. She reviewed sales tax for property tax relief and said the total budget this year for sales tax is $6.9 million, which is 2% more than the'09 projections. She said the economic slowdown continues to impact revenues. With a graph, Rundell reviewed the sales tax history from 2001-2010. She noted the City's sales tax per capita decreased and added the preliminary fund balance is about $10.1 million, or 97 days. She said the City has $398,000 worth of excess funds. She noted the development related revenues are $791,000 less than the previous year, but slightly higher than projections. She reviewed the residential, commercial and development applications received last year. She spoke to Council about construction permits and noted the City probably permitted $140 million of new property. She reviewed the general fund and said it is $398,000 higher than projected. She noted the revenues are slightly higher, yet the expenses are on target. She noted the one exception to the expenses is the timing of the street maintenance projects. She reviewed special revenue funds and said the majority are higher than anticipated due to revenues being higher or expenses being lower than City Council Workshop Minutes/November 24, 2009 Page 2 of 3 Pages anticipated. She added, on the internal service funds, facilities maintenance was $29,000 higher due to savings and operations. She noted the joint services fund was actually $125,000 lower due to lower allocations from expense savings. She spoke about the fleet services fund as well as the information services fund. She spoke about the debt service fund and said they are $208,000 higher than projections. She noted the airport fund ended on a positive noted and said the ending working capital was $29,000 higher than projections. Rundell spoke about utility funds as well as recent utility growth. She said the City has almost 18,000 wastewater customers and she showed the City Council a graph of the utility customer growth She reviewed the electric fund and said the total revenue is $219,000 higher than projected and the special revenue is $352,000 less than projected. She said the CIP expenses were $167,000 less than projected. She noted the ending working capital in the electric fund is $3.4 million greater than projected. Rundell noted, on the water services fund, the total revenues are $371,000 higher than projected. She said the ending working capital of that fund is $4.5 million higher than projected. She summarized other utility funds. Rundell reviewed the major capital projects that were completed over the past year. She concluded by saying that balances are higher than anticipated in most funds. She added timing of expenditures has created negative variances for street maintenance, general capital projects and information services. She said the budget amendment to finalize the 2008/09 proposed budget will be brought to Council in January 2010. She said the budget amendment to adjust allocations for 2009/10 will also be proposed in January 2010. She noted the external audit is currently underway and field work should be completed within two weeks She said the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report will be presented to the City Council in February. Brainard asked and Rundell said staff does most analyses in the Microsoft Excel program. Brainard said and Rundell confirmed the sales tax projection per capita is very conservative. Rundell noted the City is only projecting a 2% increase in sales tax revenue. Ross asked and Rundell said, regarding the projected versus actual fund balance, the City was off by 27% in the City's forecast. Rundell said a lot of that was in personnel cost savings and other savings that could not have been predicted. Ross asked and Rundell said projections are finalized in July. Ross asked and Rundell confirmed construction projects are down but the budget for those projects have stayed the same. Rundell noted this is the case because there are projects that may roll from year to year and there are also possible long term projects. Sattler asked and Rundell said there was a historical study done of what has happened with the sales tax She added these statistics are currently being studied and incorporated into the City's data. Council recessed to Executive Session under Open Meetings Act Sections 551.017, 551.072 and 551.086 -- 5:12 p.m. Meeting reopened and adjourned -- 6:15 p.m. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 06:15 PM. Approved: Mayor George Garver City Council Workshop Minutes/November 24, 2009 Page 3 of 3 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. ban -;;i I Lo - L Page 1 of 2 Date Approved 3 la -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 aaday of na-t 2016. PASSED AND APPROVED on the as day of (Y'\.0 c�, , 2016. ATTEST: S Shelley N lin City Secre APPROVED AS TO FORM: Charlie McNabb, City Attorney CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS By: �Z� Dale Ross, Mayor Resolution No. Page 2 of 2 Date Approved 3