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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 07.12.2011 CC-WMinutes of the Meeting of the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Tuesday, July 12, 2011 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: Patty Eason, Danny Meigs, Bill Sattler, Pat All Council Present. Berryman, Tommy Gonzalez, Rachael Jonrowe, Troy Hellmann Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Dave Hall, Director of Inspections; Lorie Lankford, Controller; Laurie Brewer, Finance Director; Wayne Nero, Police Chief; Kevin Russell, Director of Human Resources and Civil Service; Kathy Ragsdale, Energy Services Director; Elizabeth Cook, Director of Community Development, Glenn Dishong, Utility Director; Robert Fite, Fire Chief; Keith Hutchinson, Public Communications Director; Minutes Policy Development/Review Workshop - Call to order at 03:32 PM A Overview, discussion, and possible action regarding the 2011/12 City Manager's Proposed Budget -- Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer Mayor called the meeting to order at 3:32 PM. With a PowerPoint Presentation, Brandenburg gave a summary of the proposed budget for the city council. He said the total proposed budget is $179.1 million. He said the 2011 prior year budget was $209.1 Million. Brandenburg provided comparisons of Operations and Maintenance and General Fund amounts from last year to this year. He showed a comparison between last year and this year of the operations for electric fund, water services fund and debt service. He described how the debt service for public safety items will impact the budget over the next two years. He showed the Council the budget comparisons for health insurance and fuel as well. He noted the insurance is an annual contract and the City will be bidding that out again He said fuel is also a concern and added you can see the impact of that on the budget He spoke about the economic conditions and budget challenges for 2012. He listed the good news and noted sales tax continues to grow but signs are that it is slowing down. He noted property tax values are holding steady, utility revenues are stable and there is slight growth in planning projects, which indicates recovery in the local economy. Brandenburg reviewed the issues and concerns of the budget He spoke about the impacts the debt issues will have on the tax rate. He said in 2009/10 council bought down the debt budget He spoke about the strategies and budget contingency policy and said they will continue to freeze positions, reallocate resources and open positions will be frozen for partial year. He said, currently there are no layoffs in the budget. He said another strategy is to continue to review all revenues and other indicators during the year to make adjustments He said the City will need to look at facility planning for the future. He said the Council will need to address space in the old library, the Albertson's building, historic Police Station and other city owned property. He continued to describe the City's facility plan. He reviewed what is in the budget and added it includes only the funds needed to provide current levels of service. He said the new fire station impact will also be in the budget, including 12 City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 5 Pages F ,, .. - .. .. - � . � � � .. - firefighters, operations, debt service. He said there is a fire training facility impact for the budget as well. He spoke about how some one time expenditures are also in the budget, which are funded with prior year fund balances and bond funds/related interest earnings. He listed the one time expenditures including repairs to park restrooms, repairs to restrooms in Grace Church, Fire Stations 5 and 2 transition and conversion of the email system to Microsoft Exchange. He said the budget also contains continued funding of the AMI/CIS project, the implementation of 2011/12 CIP plan, increase in health insurance, fully funded annual TMRS retirement obligation, a grant funded bookmobile librarian, part time parts and service writer in vehicle services and four positions in electric for system growth and reliability. He describe the Texas Municipal Retirement System and the positive impacts from SB 350. He continued to speak about the 2012 contribution rate of 11.84% in the Retirement System. Brandenburg spoke about what is not in the budget, including frozen positions, four positions are frozen until April 2012, no funding for employee performance bonus, no cost of living or merit adjustment and no operational increase without warranted need. He spoke about the merit pay and added, if funds become available, they would provide bonus pay for employees. He showed Council a graph of the 2011/12 budget revenues as well as the expenses. He showed Council two graphs showing the general review sources for both the 2010/11 and 2011/12 budget. He said, with this budget, all funds are presented within Fiscal and Budgetary Policy compliance, which has been adopted and approved by the city council. He spoke about the contingency reserves and said there is $15.44 million City-wide or the equivalent of 75 days. He described the general capital projects in the budget including the public safety facility design, river trails expansion, public safety vehicles and equipment and additional costs related to Williams Drive widening. He listed the 2011/12 capital improvements for the council. He spoke about the projected 2011/12 debt and he provided the numbers for the Council. Rundell spoke about the financial impacts and said revenues have stabilized. She said the city has recently had one time impacts that have benefitted us such as the sale of an airplane or computer products. She said general fund revenues have stabilized and it includes a 1 % increase in sales tax. She spoke about utility revenues and how the growth rates of those utilities have slowed. She said electric revenue has a growth of 1 %, water services is always dependent on weather related impacts. She said tap fees and impact fees continue to be flat due to development slowdown. She explained what those fees are for the Council. She said there are some potential rate adjustments and described those adjustments in the electric rates and stormwater analysis. She said they will probably be proposing a rate adjustment for stormwater drainage. She said there are projected rate adjustments in the 2012/13 budget. She said the water/wastewater rate review will begin in the fall,which will include sewer rates and water rates. She mentioned other potential rate adjustments. Rundell provided council with an overview of the property tax She said the city's property tax rate is set by the Council and there are two components of the rate, including Operations and Maintenance (O&M) and Interest and Sinking (I&S). She noted there are many definitions to remember when talking about property tax She described the "effective tax rate" for the Council. She added the city's effective tax rate calculation is impacted by the over 65 tax freeze and abatements. She said the "rollback" tax rate is the rate at which taxpayers may petition for a rollback tax election if a City proposed a tax increase over the "rollback rate." She described how the rollback rate is calculated. She spoke about truth in taxation and how it is the State law that regulates public hearings and published notices for taxing entities. She said the estimated assessed valuation is $4.3 Billion, which is 1.9% higher than the prior year. She said the tax rolls will be certified by July 25, 2011. She said the proposed rate is $0.38750 which is a $0.03128 increase over the prior year. She said the proposed rate is 5.4% above the estimated "effective" tax rate and, therefore, the City will have to go through the Truth in Taxation process. She said the assessed valuation is better than originally projected, there is an increase estimated of $93 Million of new property, existing property is flat and there is $94 million in new frozen values and an increased impact of "abated property." Mayor asked and Rundell described an abated property for the City Council. Rundell said the 2010 tax levy is about $71 thousand more than budgeted and she described how that is so. She noted the debt service fund over collection is used to offset some of the current debt service. She spoke about the total debt impact from the 2008 voter approved bonds and said it is a little over three cents. Rundell said the "effective rate" is $0.36780 and the proposed rate is $0.38750. She said this is all about the impact of debt on the budget. She showed Council a graph demonstrating the components of the tax rate. She showed Council a graph showing how the City has the lowest tax rate in central Texas She showed council a graph demonstrating the combined total monthly utility and tax expense by a City and noted how we are the lowest in Central Texas. She said the potential of a 2012/12 General Fund shortfall the year after next is $1.1 million because of the full impacts of Fire Station 5. She said there is also decreasing margins in utilities. She said another concern is the future funding impacts of new or remodeled facilities. She said there is also the operating impacts of new public safety facility. Brandenburg spoke about the next steps of the budget and the future meetings that have been scheduled. Brandenburg reviewed the presentation and said the budget is lean, resources will be reallocated where needed, quality of service is maintained, tax rate remains low, financial reserves remain at current level, and financial policy compliance is maintained and will be reviewed at midyear for funding of additional items such as merit pay. City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 5 Pages .. I � ., - - - ---___ ___. __._.__ __.-.._-._-_. __.__--. _. __.�.._-_-___-_.--.-_•______. _1 _- _ 1 Mayor said there is no more important item for Council than the budget. He said the budget is the City's game plan for next year and the years to follow. He noted it may seem to be a bit complex, in reality staff are very well informed and can share additional information at any time as needed. Eason said she does not have any questions but noted she is very pleased with the budget She said she is impressed that we are able to continue with what we have and not have to make any job cuts. Hellman asked and Rundell said the proposed tax rate is about where it will be. She added though it could change, it would be unlikely. Hellmann asked and Rundell said the City could have excess funds in the water utility funds, but that it to be seen in the future. Rundell said her goal is to not have a bond issue in the future if she can help it. Meigs asked and Brandenburg spoke about how the 2009/10, the Council bought down the tax rate. Brandenburg explained how that process works and the long term negative impacts of that method. Meigs commended staff for keeping the budget as lean as it is. Mayor asked and Rundell said the home values have gone up a bit and added this tax rate increase would be an extra $4.55 a month. Sattler said it looks like the only increase we will have is based on debt impacts. Rundell agreed. Sattler asked and Rundell confirmed that was debt that was approved by the voters in 2008. Sattler asked and Rundell said there is CO debt in the budget as well, but that was approved by the council and not the voters. Sattler asked and Rundell said the utility debt has no tax impact whatsoever. Brandenburg mentioned the public safety facility and how that will affect the tax rate as well. Berryman thanked the Finance staff for the hard work they have done on this budget. Berryman said the public expenditures have mainly been for public safety, which is one of the most important things to provide to the public. Berryman noted she is concerned about the upcoming years and potential of the problems brought on by taking on more than we can handle Jonrowe thanked Council for helping her understand the budget a little more, as this is her first year. She asked about the freeze for homes for people over 65. Rundell said a person over 65 will have to apply for the freeze. She added the freeze does not freeze their home value, it freezes the amount of tax they pay on their home. She noted Georgetown is impacted by the frozen value more than any city in the State. Jonrowe asked and Rundell said the only other set of people who are able to freeze their property are disabled citizens. Gonzalez thanked staff again. He said, with regard to frozen value, if a home is sold they are bought and the frozen again at a higher tax rate. There were many questions. Mayor asked and Rundell said there are two public hearings required by Truth in Taxation and she listed the dates for those hearings. Rundell continued to review the calendar for the approval of the budget Mayor asked if Council feels they should have a special meeting on Thursday to continue with review of the budget Motion by Eason, second by Meigs to cancel the July 14, 2011 special meeting at 4 PM. Approved 7-0 Hellmann asked and Rundell said, in order to avoid raising taxes, you would have to cut almost $300,000 from the general fund. B Discussion regarding Ordinances which stipulate the Administrative processes for the City of Georgetown -- Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney Chapman noted Mayor Garver asked for this overview of Council Meeting Rules and Procedures. With a PowerPoint Presentation, she noted Georgetown is a home rule municipality and council manager government She described each of those definitions for the council. She said the resources where we find our governing rules are Chapter 2.24 of the Code of Ordinances, Article 2 of the City Charter and Roberts Rules of Order. She described the types of meetings including regular, workshop and special meetings. She spoke about agenda items and how they can be placed on the agenda. She described the posting guidelines for each agenda the responsibility of the City Secretary. She described the consent agenda and what type of items go on that portion of the agenda. She reviewed the general meeting procedures and rules for the council, including parliamentary procedure and citizen participation. She explained the issue of calling an item to question and how the procedure for that action would work. She described what the code says about conduct at a meeting and said the code also lists a discussion time limit per council member per item. She described what the code says about voting and added, generally, the majority of the council present and qualified to vote is necessary to repeal an ordinance or take any official action. She spoke about how meetings should be run according to the code. She said generally, no council member shall be excused from voting except with matters involving official conduct or personal interest or matters involving an appearance of impropriety. She described the rules on reconsideration of an item. Mayor asked and Chapman said, if a Council member leaves the dais as a vote is about to be taken, then the Council should not vote until that person returns. There was much discussion on this issue. Chapman spoke about how City Council enacts legislation. She reviewed what the Code says about communication between members and said emails may be subject to the Open Meetings Act, and are definitely subject to Public Information Act. She said there is no current policy or procedure for email publications. She said she has given council examples from the City of Austin or City of Arlington on that issue. She mentioned communication with staff and noted there is very little guidance provided in the Code on that subject She said City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 5 Pages _. E.: -. •, I _. ., - r� �. .: I .. _ _ � [ _ ' � �:� _ � _ .1' � �' _ � the section on placing items on the agenda says that any necessary staff assistant can be requested through the City Manager's Office. She said a sample ordinance that addresses these type of items have been provided to the Council. C Presentation & Discussion Regarding Upcoming Building Code Review Process-- Dave Hall, Director of Inspections Hall introduced himself to the Council. With a PowerPoint Presentation, he reviewed what to expect out of the Building Code Review Process. He spoke about who will be conducting public review hearings and noted the Building Standards Commission and Inspection staff will hold series of public hearings reviewing significant changes from the 2012 International Code Editions. He noted, though the Building Standards Commission will be holding these hearings, only the city council can vote to adopt that code. He said the Public Hearings will be conducted in the City Council Chambers every third Thursday at4:00 PM. He said public notices for these hearings will be posted by the agenda. He described what will be presented for public review including the 2012 International Code and the corresponding revisions to codes related to issues such as property maintenance, plumbing, mechanical, fuel gas and the 2011 National Electric Code. He said they will also be looking at the City's local ordinance. He spoke about why the city would want to have a public review process He said it provides a public forum to review significant code changes since the last adoption. Hall described some of the benefits of updating the codes. He said any amendments to the code through this process should not lessen the intent of the code. He said, once these codes are adopted and enforced, the newest versions of the codes is often a tool used to write insurance policies. Mayor spoke about how the ordinance changes will be reflected in the current version for the council. Hall said the old language is typically crossed through and the new language is inserted into the document with the reasons why. Berryman asked and Hall spoke about the amount and volume of changes that could be made to the Code during this process. Sattler asked and Hall said the Building Standards Commissions agendas are posted online, which is one way the public will be notified of these hearings. He said the Austin area home builders have already contacted staff about the hearings. He said the problem is that nobody every shows up to these hearings. Hellmann asked and Hall said the Codes are updated every three years. There were many questions. D Discussion and possible direction to staff regarding Senate Bill 100 -- Jessica Brettle, City Secretary and Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney Brettle introduced herself and described Senate Bill 100 for the Council. She said the bill will greatly impact our elections. She said SB 100 was created to comply the Federal Military and Overseas (MOVE) Act. She noted the main mandate in the bill is to require that ballots be sent to military and overseas voters at least 45 days in advance of an election. She clarified, for purposes of this discussion, an "election" is only an election in primary years. She showed Council an example of what the 2012 election will look like once these changes are implemented. She said the main issue is the primary runoff election has been pushed later on the calendar from the second Tuesday in April to the fourth week in May. She noted the voting for that runoff now begins two days after the uniform election date on which we would normally have an election She added this has created a problem for our County Elections Administrator in that they do not have the staff or resources to run both elections simultaneously on two different calendars. She said the Senate Bill states that, if this causes a problem with the Elections Administrator, that they no long have to contract with us. She noted they can also deny any request to lease or rent equipment from them if doing so jeopardizes the primary election. She said she spoke to Rick Barron, who is the County elections administrator and though they have not made an official determination, it seems as though they will not want to run the election. She noted this bill goes into effect on September 1, 2011 so this will apply to our May 2012 Election. She read what the charter says currently about the city council terms and elections. She put up the election dates of the current council members. She said quite a few of the Council members are up for re-election next year. Eason said it appears that, even though our Charter has these restrictions, we can make changes without having to amend the Charter. Chapman said the Bill is so new that there are more questions than answers and there are a lot of legal implications of the bill. She spoke about the Council's two main options which are to decide whether to maintain three year terms or move all the elections to November. She spoke about the pros and cons of each of these changes. She said those two options are the easiest legally to handle, but there are provisions on the bill that will allow the city to change the terms to four years so that the election is held on only odd numbered, non -primary years. She said another option could be to change the terms to two or four year, but have them be staggered and everyone will be elected in the same year. She said all of these changes would require a Charter Amendment in addition to the resolution, which brings up a timing issue. She discussed how council will have to figure out how the terms would fall if there is an election only in May of odd -numbered years. She referred Council to the chart that was made in 1995 that demonstrated how terms were staggered back then. She said the council will have to do that same thing if they choose to change terms because that will require a Department of Justice submission. Gonzalez asked and Chapman agreed no matter what council decides to do, the city will need to put that on an election ballot to City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 4 of 5 Pages change the Charter. Chapman said you would pass a Resolution first and then ratify the charter. Chapman said there are also questions of holding over council members for a year or two to incorporate whatever changes are made. Gonzalez asked if it would be possible to have a one-time push to a November election and then try to address with a Charter amendment the permanent solution to the issue. Gonzalez asked and Chapman said our options are to make a decision in the dark with this language. She said we could leave the terms as is, change the election to November, or move our terms to two year or four year being staggered or un -staggered. Berryman said it seems obvious that the best solution would be to move the terms to November. She noted the downside of that is there will be a lot of other things on the ballot at those elections. She said she thinks there will be better turnout that way. Chapman said staff is currently trying to gather as much information as possible on this issue. She said the main problem is the short fuse we have before the May 2012 election. She said this is very complicated and it will be a difficult decision and difficult fallout no matter what Mayor noted this was simply an effort to acquaint council with an issue that currently does not have many answers. Jonrowe said she is against having a November election because city elections are supposed to be non-partisan. Meigs asked and Chapman said the decision deadline depends on what Council wants to do. She noted, if council wants to change terms, it would require extra procedures that would require more time. Hellmann asked and Chapman said moving to November is the easiest solution but not necessarily easiest constitutionally. Chapman said the best thing we can do is to gather as much information as possible and make the best decision we can using the information was can acquire. Staff reviewed the past action made by council regarding a future charter election. Eason said she will never support moving a local election to May because it will do nothing but harm the city. She noted the city issues will be totally ignored because of the other issues on the ballot There was much discussion on this issue. Approved: Mayor George Garver City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 5 of 5 Pages Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 05:30 PM. Attest: City Secretary Jessica Brettle 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 a 1 L.D - L Page 1 of 2 Date Approved 3 1 '01 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 c�aday of nO-t 2016. PASSED AND APPROVED on the oda day of 0'W c�s , 2016. ATTEST: S Shelley Nlin City Secre . 9�e- APPROVED AS TO FORM: 7 Charlie McNabb, City Attorney CITY OF GEORGETOWN, TEXAS By: dA �a� Dale Ross, Mayor Resolution No. O a 1 l e^ L Page 2 of 2 Date Approved 3