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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN 07.24.2012 CC-WMinutes of the Meeting of the Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas Tuesday, July 24, 2012 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, Tommy All Council Present. Gonzalez, Jerry Hammerlun, Rachael Jonrowe, Troy Hellmann Staff Present: Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager; Jessica Brettle, City Secretary; Bridget Chapman, Acting City Attorney; Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer; Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager; Jim Briggs, Assistant City Manager; Jennifer Bills, Housing Coordinator Minutes Policy Development/Review Workshop - Call to order at 04:00 PM A Continuation of the special meeting on the July 23, 2012 related to the overview, discussion, and possible action on the 2012/13 City Manager's Proposed Budget -- Paul E. Brandenburg, City Manager and Micki Rundell, Chief Financial Officer Eason absent. Mayor reviewed the item and said this is a continuation of the item discussed at the special meeting the day before. Rundell briefly reviewed the items included in this budget. She said the tax rate is slightly below the effective rate. She said, should Council want to go with the recommendation, no more action is needed. She spoke about what Council would have to do if they wanted to go above the recommended tax rate. She noted two public hearings would be required under truth in taxation. Mayor asked and Rundell showed a graph demonstrating that Georgetown has the lowest tax rate and cost of living in the central Texas community. Rundell reviewed the new programs and service level increases including staffing and operations for Fire Station 5, the public safety complex, the arts and culture center construction and a significant investment in parks. She spoke about the several parks related projects in the budget. She said the city facility planning, the Albertson's building and the Chisholm Trail merger possibility is also in the budget. She said a major component of the budget is to determine what is in it for the employees. She said the City is implementing the Gonzalez approach for the compensation plan. She said, all together, the cost of the compensation plan is about $1.1 million. She noted increases are based on performance and will reward high performers in the City. She said it also addresses increases in the middle levels of the fire department. She reviewed the one time general fund expenditures. She reviewed the staffing additions in this budget year. She said they have also continued funding of the AMI/CIS project and noted asset management is another important part of the utilities funded during the coming year. Rundell provided Council with a property tax overview. Mayor asked and Rundell spoke about the tax rate. She defined effective tax rate for the Council. She said Georgetown is a little different because anyone over 65 is frozen. She described the proposed tax rate and noted the penny increase is due to the recent voter approved bond issue. She spoke briefly about the different components of the tax rate. She said an increase of one penny would create over $300,000 of funds. She said going higher than that would bring in even more. There was much discussion regarding the tax rate. She said a tax rate of 42 cents would definitely accelerate the City of Excellence projects. She spoke about the next steps in the budget process. Eason said, if the Council picks a rate higher than the effective rate, it will allow for a public process including City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 1 of 3 Pages public hearing. She noted the Council can lower the tax rate later. She asked if that was made clear to the council and that they know this is not the final vote. Rundell said that is correct. Gonzalez spoke about the positions in the City the Council is no longer freezing. He noted none of those are in Code Enforcement and asked if extra positions in Code Enforcement would be something the City needs. Brandenburg said that would be more related to the building inspections department. He said the city is watching that department very carefully. He said the city is cognizant and aware of the staffing in that department and noted is something that does not have to come through the budget process each year. Gonzalez asked about transportation expenses and asked if the City has looked at an overall transportation plan. Rundell said there are funds included in this budget for year one of the public transportation issue. She said staff determined it is necessary to have a year to decide where the City wants to go with that process. Gonzalez asked about sales tax revenue growth and if the future growth can fund some of these items. Rundell said the City has been very close in its projections this year. She noted the City has already captured a lot of the extra sales tax revenue in the city's model. There was much discussion regarding sales tax revenue estimates. Hellmann said a lot of stuff was packed into that one cent and if the Council goes up one more cent, the city should put that into construction projects. Sattler said his biggest concern is not him raising taxes but the fact that the schools said they will already raise their taxes.. Sattler said he knows his constituents are very worried about the increase in taxes. He said 40% of his constituents are not frozen in their taxes. He said most of those people are not working and are not making additional money. He said his concern is the way this is starting to accumulate and noted it will effect his constituents more than anyone else. Brandenburg said a good thing about our society is democracy and, with that penny increase, it will bring projects that the voters approved on the ballot. He spoke about compensation and how the employees have not received a compensation increase for three or four years. He asked that Council be cautious with cutting the budget too much. Sattler said his opposition is not for the current budget as it is today. He said Sun City people have voted in greater numbers than anyone else in the City. He said he is not saying that the current budget and proposed rate is unacceptable but noted he is concerned with going above that to 42 cents.Hammerlun said he thinks the City has a responsibility to respond on behalf of the city in order to become a City of Excellence. He said he is going to support a slightly higher tax rate because he does want to hear from the community at a public hearing process. He said he would like to get some feedback on what the community wants. Jonrowe said she thinks one of the most effective tools the City has is to make sure the City is appealing to a wide demographic and bringing in younger families. She said she is looking for those quality of life issues that will accommodate younger families as well as retirees. She said this is an opportunity to cash fund some of the City's projects. She said she also thinks the 60/40 plan for the implementation of the compensation plan is good but noted she would like to talk about fully implementing it in the next budget cycle if that is something that is possible. Gonzalez said one of the issues with the tax rate is that the City always finds ways to spend money. He said funding and increasing taxes to different levels puts a burden on citizens paying those taxes. He noted he thinks that is an acceptable level to grow and noted there are other expenses coming up. He said he would not want to consider anything higher than the effective rate at this time. Mayor thanked Rundell and said a related action item will be on the regular agenda. B Discussion and possible direction to the Housing Advisory Board on the draft Housing Element of the 2030 Plan -- Jennifer Bills, AICP, LEED AP, Housing Coordinator and Laurie Brewer, Assistant City Manager Bills introduced the item and turned the presentation over to Tim Todd, the Chair of the Housing Advisory Board. With a Powerpoint Presentation, Todd spoke about the Housing Element of the 2030 Comprehensive Plan. Todd spoke about why it is important for the City to adopt the Housing Element. He said the Housing Element is required as an element of the Charter. He noted it is one of fourteen such elements. He said it provides a consistent framework when considering housing development applications. He said those applications can take many forms. He said the Housing Advisory Board (HAB) has tried to drive the term affordable housing away from the idea that it is Section 8 housing. He said they will now be calling it workforce housing. He said the element allows for the HAB to assist and save time by pre -qualifying submittals based on established criteria. He said the element will allow the HAB to create a framework in which to approach these projects. He described the benefits of workforce housing including viability and support of citizens as well as community responsibility. He reviewed the past direction on this item and said in September of 2010, the Council directed the Board to revise the first four policy recommendations of the draft plan. He said the original plan included up to 15 policy recommendations. He noted some of the policy recommendations have been approved by the Council and he described those. He said the City is rapidly approaching that 50,000 person population mark. He said the HAB added an introduction to the recommendations explaining the rationale for making affordable housing a priority. He said, as part of the revised policy recommendations, they chose to develop a program through which Workforce Housing developers can be and will be eligible for incentives to initiate new projects. He continued to review the revised policy recommendations including projects wishing to request incentives will have to meet City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 2 of 3 Pages criteria for program participation such as meeting affordable housing needs, having a desirable location and utilization of existing infrastructure. He said the developer must also show the project provides a return on investment to the City. He said an increase property value and future property tax collected with affect the return on investment. He said, as part of their revised policy recommendations, they are going to guide the location and amount of land zoned for multi -family housing development. He said city staff and the housing advisory board will review potential sites within the city that could be ideal locations for multi -family development. He said an analysis will be done for the rezoning of some of the sites. He spoke about pro -actively choosing sites for multi -family development.He said these recommendations cover policies that the City can implement over the next 10-15 years. He said, once adopted, the recommendations will be used as guidelines for the HAB and staff. He said the Public Hearing and First Reading is on the regular agenda for action. Hammerlun said he appreciates the refinement of the recommendations and noted he is looking at the recommendations listed according to high priorities and low priorities. He spoke about the high priority items. He said when he sees the numbers, he is not sure that is enough. Hammerlun asked and Todd said the 50,000 population number does not do much for them in terms of CDBG funding. Hammerlun asked and Bills said the numbers are actually determined by Housing and Urban Development. She said the City is still participating with the County for the next three years. Brandenburg spoke about the pros and cons of becoming an entitlement city once the population hits 50,000. Hammerlun said this is very beneficial information and noted it is a significant issue that needs to be dealt with. He said the other question is when infrastructure will be available for this type of development. He said any multi -family development needs to be done in coordination with the school district. Todd said infrastructure will become more regionalized as time goes on. Jonrowe said she appreciates Todd's service on the Board. Jonrowe said this is a continuing issue she sees in the City and noted her constituents do want workforce housing. She said the City has quite a few employees that do not live in Georgetown because there are not more affordable options. She said she appreciates all of the work that has . been put into this. Gonzalez said, as he tries to digest everything in the report, it was overwhelming. He spoke about the vision for the future of housing in the city. He said the Council needs to determine the percentage of multi -family structures versus homes. He said, when talking about workforce housing, a percentage must be determined before moving forward. Todd said they are trying to create a framework within which multi family housing development can occur. Sattler said he thinks this is a good planning document. He said he thinks the information if comprehensive but noted the devil is in the details and spoke about the importance of how the City approaches a project when it is brought forward. He said the document is well done. Meigs siad he also has some concerns about the planning required for the multi -family developments. He noted the City needs to look at the other issues, how it relates to infrastructure and the sch000l district. He said he can certainly approve this as a starting document. Hellmann said he read through this and got lost in some of the numbers. Hellmann asked and Bills said the City is just now starting to have a deficit of single family affordable homes. She said some of that is misrepresented due to the large retirement community. Hellmann asked and Bills said the City is going to look into renters versus owners. Eason said she is glad Hellmann asked all of those questions because workforce housing is not just multi -family. Eason said this is a framework and noted she is impressed and appreciates the real work that went into putting this report together.She said, in her opinion, all of the priorities need to be done now. She noted she is not sure why the priorities were stretched out so far. Todd said the Board works at the pleasure of the Council and noted they can bring forward any additional or amendments if requested. There were many questions and comments from the Council. Meeting recessed to Executive Session under Section 551.071 of the Local Government Code -- 5:18PM Meeting returned to Open Session and adjourned -- Meigs, Sattler to adjourn 6:13 PM Adjournment Approve M yor Georg Garver The meeting was adjourned at 06:13 PM. st: i Secreta Jessica Brettle City Council Meeting Minutes/ Page 3 of 3 Pages