Council Meeting 2-5-2013, Part 1

This meeting will need to be covered in multiple parts. They presented the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the year ended September 30, 2012 in the work session. It deserves it's own blog since there are so many points they brought out.

Police Chief Stroman also gave a very good presentation, although he didn't get all the way through it, about the police department and some crime statistics. I simply haven't made it through the entire video taking notes. There was so much interesting information.

The agenda/minutes for each meeting is on the city's website at http://www.waco-texas.com/meetings.asp. It might be helpful to have this pulled up or printed out to follow along. I'll mention each item and add discussion as appropriate.

I have highlighted some items of particular interest. If you are short on time you might want to skip to those.


PUBLIC HEARINGS

PH-047 - Assess housing community development needs. There will be a work session at the first meeting in April. Jeff Wall appeared basically stating that this was a public hearing to hear comments about which projects will be funded. There have been no comments. No one appeared at this meeting.

PH-048 - Tax relief for property at 1425 Columbus. This is referred to as Migel House. This is to "encourage it's preservation." There were no questions and no one appeared to speak.

HEARING OF VISITORS
Mr. George Brown appeared requesting help with gang violence in his neighborhood. His grandkids come home every day with problems. Teenage boys have come to his door threatening him. He stated the police have told him the council has their hands tied. (What does THAT mean?) He also said the police told him to keep his kids in the house. He presented a petition with signatures to the council.

I was surprised there were no other visitors. At this meeting, the resolution resulting from the joint meeting of governing boards in the city was to be voted on. A local group had been very vocal in opposition to it. I think there was a misunderstanding as to what was actually happening versus what this group feared might happen (more at that resolution item) still I was surprised no one appeared.

RESOLUTIONS

AGREEMENTS/CONTRACTS

RES-049 - Agreement between City of Waco (CoW) and McLennan County to participate in Reinvestment Zone Number One for Tax Increment Financing from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2032.

RES-050 - Agreement between CoW and McLennan Community College to participate in Reinvestment Zone Number One for Tax Increment Financing from January 1, 2022 through December 31, 2032.

RES-051 - Authorizing the Mayor to execute a revised agreement between the Texas Historical Commission and the City of Waco for participation in the Certified Local Government program. Changes in state rules required a revised agreement.

RES-052 - A new one-year agreement with Blackridge, a lobbying firm. They both advocate for the CoW and provide the city with information about happenings that may affect the city. This is with the legislators and regulatory agencies.

RES-053 - Extends an existing interlocal agreement between CoW and McLennan County for centralized dispatch services.

RES-054 - There is contract for airport services, but rather than bring it to council as one big contract, it is brought as work items are needed. This is for design of an airport perimeter road to be used for maintenance and emergencies. A grant is expected to come from FAA that will fund this work item 90%.

RES-055 - Buying property to relocate an existing sewer line. Councilmember Deaver filed a disqualification.

RES-056 - Granting a contract for $167,189 to replace a sewer line. The existing sewer line has deteriorated beyond the point of repair. This is near 34th and Bosque behind 32nd and 33rd streets.

RES-057 - Reappointing Trish Ervin as City Secretary for four more years. YAY! She does a wonderful job and has been very helpful to me on every occasion I've had to request information from her.

RES-058 - Budget amendment for water and solid waste. City Manager states these are all about items they have already seen.

RES-059 - Budget amendment for Capital Improvement Programs.

RES-060 - Sale of tax foreclosed property to Oakwood Cemetery for possible future expansion.

RES-061 - Sale of tax foreclosed property to a citizen. It is adjacent to his mother's property.

RES-062 - Resolution adopting Waco's legislative priorities as presented at the joint meeting. This is merely stating that the City of Waco agrees with the priorities. There has been some talk that the Waco City Council and other governing boards want to go around the State of Texas to attempt to get Medicare Expansion funds. I cannot say there is not a plan to do so, but this resolution does not accomplish that.

RES-063 - Ordering the general election on May 11. Authorizing a contract with the county to administer the election for 2013 and extending for 2014 and 2015, designating polling places, authorizing a joint election with MCC and WISD, BISD, and CSISD. There was some concern there will be only one early voting location and only one Saturday. That is standard practice for the municipal elections. It will be important for you to check for your polling place this year.

****A new box was requested for China Spring at the Intermediate School because they have a bond election. They are paying the costs. It will need to get preclearance from DOJ. It is common to ask for voting locations at the school for school bond elections. This allows for more turnout from citizens who would be more likely to approve such a bond: parents and others associated with the schools.

ORDINANCES

ORD-064 - Revising the Project/Finance plan for TIF Reinvestment Zone One. Kinnaird, Deaver, and Herbert were all disqualified from voting on this and the next few items. With Rev. Austin's absence this meant this was approved by 2 of the 6 council members. It is second reading, so it was previously approved by 3 of 6.

1. Reducing scope and budget for TIF funding for WISD Indian Spring Middle school.
2. Revise Cottages of Cameron Heights TIF project to allow funding as expenses are submitted.
3. Partial funding for The Waco Hippodrome.
4. Partial funding for Tinsley Place LLC for 30 residential units at 7th and Cleveland
5. Partial funding for renovation of building at 418 S. 8th Street 

ORD-065 - Designating 600 Elm Street (the agenda says "Avenue" but USPS.com says it's "Street") as an historic landmark. In an effort to revitalize this area, the city is seeking to make this an historic district. They looked for buildings that might be designated landmarks. Appraisal district records show this building has been "not in use" since about 1991. It was transferred to a woman in a divorce and a couple years later it was tax foreclosed by the city. Larry Groth stated that it was easy for this building to meet the qualifications since the city owns it. The building was built in the late 1800s. Statements were made this is the largest building in the best condition on this street.

ORD-066 - Rezoning. In the previous meeting it was mentioned that this area has had an increase in requests in recent years and the levels need to be watched carefully so that the infrastructure is not overwhelmed. The City Manager stated there could be improvements that would allow more growth in the area.

ORD-067 - Rezoning.

ORD-068 - Amending the Waco Comprehensive Plan by adopting the Waco Metropolitan Area Master Thoroughfare Plan as a replacement to Chapter 3: Transportation within the Waco Comprehensive Plan. Basically, they are going to make updates to the transportation section of the Master Plan.

ORD-069 - Updates to Right-of-Way Management in the Code of Ordinances. They will delete references to the May, 1996 version of the City of Waco Standard Specifications.

COUNCIL REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

CR-070 - The list was approved 5-0 (Rev. Austin, District I, was absent).

The Mayor reported that Animal Welfare Advisory Board will submit a grant for the city to become a no-kill shelter.

Letter to Councilman Riggs concerning the "Nanny state" in Waco

The text of my letter is below. I'll follow-up in comments with his response, if any.

Waco City Council to Consider Establishing a Poverty Solutions Commission

RES-646 will be considered at the next Waco City Council meeting. This will establish a Poverty Solutions Commission. Details of how this commission might work were discussed at the council meeting on September 21, 2010. A summary is below.

After the initial planning of nine to ten months, a full-time city staff position may be considered in the next budget cycle.

Summary of the Poverty Solutions Presentation to City Council on September 21, 2010

Video: http://www.waco-texas.com/videos/Gallery/wccctv-council-meeting-work.asp - search for “Poverty Solutions” in the “Search Videos” box at the top right.

Jeff Wall made a presentation to the city council during the work session. There was a roomful of people who were there to support the initiative. I noticed that Ralph Cooper was there as well as former mayor Virginia DuPuy.

Waco’s poverty is high. Wall believes Waco is the 5^th highest in Texas. The Waco rate is 27.6% compared to 13.2% in the U.S. and 15.8% in Texas.

In September 2009, the Poverty Solutions group was formed. They met every two weeks. They also held focus group with community leaders and “listening opportunities” with community groups with people who are currently in poverty. In April 2010, they made a presentation to the council requesting a resolution in support of solving the poverty situation in Waco.

They do not believe they can make meaningful progress with volunteers meeting every two weeks. They are asking the City of Waco to be a full time administrative agent to facilitate it. Wall stressed that this is a community-driven initiative and not a City of Waco staff-directed initiative.

Key points of the resolution are that:

• Chronic poverty drags down our economy.
• A small reduction in poverty can improve quality of life for everyone.
• The people in poverty are “us” – not a separate segment of the population.
• Poverty is commonly thought of as a financial issue, but it is related to poor health and educational deficiency.
• People involved in job creation must work with people focused on education, poverty alleviation, and social issues to outflank the problems.
• The Mayor and Council should commit to work to develop and implement ad results-oriented plan to reduce poverty over the next 10 years. That means they would bring together organizations and individuals currently dealing with poverty and prosperity and they should support the research, planning and ongoing administration necessary for this poverty reduction initiative.

The next immediate step is for Dr. Yancy and The Baylor School of Social Work will work to help to begin to formulate the plan.

Longer term steps:

• Identify a champion
• Put an administrator in place, perhaps a full-time person working for the City of Waco to oversee the project. Wall states that current staff can handle this in the short-term, but longer term it may require a full-time dedicated person.
• Establish a board or commission to drive this initiative.
• Establish cross-organizational task teams, subcommittees.

Questions:

Toni Herbert - Q: How would board fit in with boards/commissions for City of Waco?

A: Similar to the Homeless plan. The city would schedule and help administer meetings, but the members would make decisions and report directly to the council. City staff would assist with research.

Randy Riggs - Q: Stated that 26.7% were in poverty – how is that measured?

A: Measured by gross income.

Q: Some of those are students?

A: Had a Baylor student pull those out and the number was still about 24%

Q: He supports this initiative, but he concerned about resources.

A: Can support with staff in short-term. PSG is prepared to seek funding for a person for at least one year.

Malcolm Duncan - Q: Is a year too long? Can we have something in place to be able to make a decision about if this new person is a worthwhile expense?

A: Yes, about 9 to 10 months would be a workable time frame.

Alice Rodriguez - Q: Would this come under purview of boards and commissions or just council decisions?

A: A lot of folks will have interest in this issue and will discuss it with their council representative. He doesn’t know if it would be a board or if it will be similar to other initiatives where they just report to council.

Toni Herbert - Comment: We can’t focus on just financials, but also health and education. Non-profits are already working on this, but they are constantly putting out fires and cannot work on the problem from a base level. Small changes can make a huge impact.

Jeff Wall - We already have a master student working on this full-time and a class at Baylor working on it.

Malcolm Duncan - Q: Can we set a timeline on having the plan?

A: General agreement.

Toni Herbert - Q: Can we hear something about the class?

A: There are seventeen master degree students in their last year. It is for an advanced practice class. It’s not just crunching numbers, but seeing the end product and the people who they are helping. They are divided into teams and will be operating as if they were a 501(c)(3). An unpaid intern will be working with the city 35 hours per week starting in January and possibly another for 16 hours per week.

Kenneth Moerbe: They are working with Greater Waco Education Foundation. It’s important that this be seen as a community-wide effort.

Wilbert Austin - Comment: The African-American clergy will also be involved.

Unidentified offscreen voice: RES-532 was asked to be pulled. According to meeting minutes, it passed 6-0.

Toni Herbert - She wrote the philosophical statement that the council passed on September 21, 2010.

COW to consider spending $65k on License Plate Reader

Click here to access the agenda for the 6/15/2010 meeting

Tomorrow night, the Waco City Council will vote on a resolution authorizing the purchase of an Automatic License Plate Reader System for $65,000. The City of Waco is facing a $2.5 million shortfall. This is a luxury we cannot afford. Besides the cost, this technology may allow police officers to check the status of registration, insurance of the likely driver, and the status of the likely driver's driver license WITHOUT probable cause. It's main purpose is to generate revenue for the City and NOT to improve public safety. If used this way, this would be a violation of our Fourth Amendment right protecting us from illegal searches.

The council will meet at the City of Waco Operations Center, 1415 N. 4th Street, Waco, TX in the Training Room at 6:00 pm. I will be addressing the council on this issue. If you wish to address the council, they will have cards to fill out and you may make a statement up to three minutes long. Your attendance is appreciated.

MEANWHILE.....

I wrote that earlier today but didn't get it entered on the blog. I wrote to my council member Randy Riggs (and all the other council members, except Mr. Duncan because he's not set up yet, and the mayor) saying that I do not believe we should be spending $65,000 on this when we will have a budget shortfall.

Here is his response:

Lisa,

Thank you for your email.  I will consider your input as the council discusses the purchase of the license plate reader system.  The funds used to purchase the equipment are forfeiture funds and are specifically restricted for certain use under state law.  Police officers currently run license plates manually.  There have been numerous arrests based on this procedure and the reader will allow our officers to provide a better service.  This equipment was recommended by Police Chief Stroman.  Would you rather spend the forfeiture funds on different equipment?  Please let me know.

Thanks,

Randy

Here is my response to him:

I'm confused by the sentence "There have been numerous arrests based on this procedure...." You may mean there have been numerous FALSE arrests based on manually running plates. I agree that false arrests should be avoided. Through careful attention and cross-checking the make and model of the vehicle these false arrests can be greatly reduced if not eliminated.

What happens to the funds if they are not used? To whom are they returned? I have no problem returning funds to the state or federal government. If local governments do not request grants then taxing authorities will not have to tax citizens.

Governments at ALL levels are in budget shortfall and accumulating debt. It has to stop and stop soon! Someone has to stop spending the money and I would like to see Waco be a leader in that trend. I believe that will attract businesses. City staff often state that we must use the money or it won't be used. Everybody (including me, sometimes) thinks to themselves, "Oh, OK, that's fine then." The other argument is that someone will get the money, it might as well be us. That kind of thinking leads to spending we (global "we" as in our country) can't afford. If cities across the state and across the country will stop spending grant money and stimulus money, the federal government will stop allocating it and borrowing money to fund it.

My other concern is that this equipment can be used to gather information about a vehicle and/or it's driver without a stop. In my opinion, this would amount to an illegal search because there is no probable cause. In general, I'm opposed to any electronic device intended to "catch" someone breaking a law. Electronic devices do not have the judgment and sense of fairness as we hope to find with a trained and professional police officer.

If the money MUST be used and cannot be sent back, I would much rather see the funds used on something that will actually improve public safety or the safety of our officers rather than just prevent data entry errors. This could be sidewalks or bicycle lanes. I don't know the options and restrictions, so I cannot make an informed recommendation.

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. I truly appreciate that.

Lisa


I did not receive a second response. This was most likely because the second email was sent after normal business hours. I will update if another response is sent.

Preview of the 5/18/2010 Meeting

You can find the agenda for the meeting here: Agenda for 5/18 Waco City Council Meetings

Remember that I LOVE comments....any kind of comments....anonymous comments are accepted and welcomed. If they are just plain mean for no constructive purpose, I will delete them.

Since this is the first council meeting after the election, the schedule is changed. The work session will be at 3:00 pm. They will go into executive session at 3:30 pm. The business session starts at 4:30 pm. All of these meetings will be at the Operations Center at 1415 N. 4th St.

At 5:30 pm in the Phoenix Ballroom at 401 S. 3rd St., there will be an election ceremony.

In the work session they will discuss the process filling the District V vacancy created when Jim Bush was elected mayor.

In the business session, there are several public hearings about changing the Comprehensive Plan land use designations.

RES-265: The contract for the MLK Drive Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation project is being raised by $186,840.25 so that the total amount will be $1.761,011.15.

RES-266: The contract for construction of the Runway Safety Area and Runways 1-19 and 14-32 Rehabilitation Projects at Waco Regional Airport will be increased by $116,306.47.

RES-267: Amends a contract with SCS Engineers for engineering work and compliance assistance at the 1419 Landfill which is now closed. They will provide contruction phase services and materials testing. The amendment will be for $28,340 bringing the contract total to $88,340.

RES-268: This will extend the contract with Krishna Ram, Inc. for the Staybridge Suites Hotel Construction Project for a maximum of 3 years. This is at the 700 block of South 5th and 6th Streets.

The next two items are about assigning residential tax abatement rights. I do not understand this yet. It will definitely require more research. If anyone knows what this means, please educate me or direct me to a resource that can explain it.

RES-269: Will approve the assignment of residential tax abatement rights of Edanbra Development, L.C. to Eddy and Sylvia Gomez.

RES-270: Will approve the assignment of residential tax abatement rights of Edanbra Development, L.C. to Terry Ridge and Melissa Washington.

The next three involve supplying the police department.

RES-271: This will allow the City Manager to submit an application to the US Dept of Justice for reimbursement of up to half the cost of purchasing bullet-proof vests.

RES-272: Authorized the purchase of ammunition under an existing contract for $64,123 for FY2009-10.

RES-273: Approves awarding a 12-month contract for supply of police uniforms with an option to renew for two additional 12-month terms. The amount is not to exceed $46,500 during FY2009-10.

RES-274: Authorized the purchase of a breathing air refill station for $52,460. I would guess this is for the fire department and other public safety uses. I can see how it would be better to have an onsite refill station rather than sending bottles out for refill. I do not know what the city is currently doing.

RES-275: Allows the City Manager to accept bids for services to process refuse derived fuel (RDF). From what I could gather quickly on Wikipedia, this is AWESOME! Maybe it's only awesome to people who like to take trash and make it into something useful (i.e. me). I don't take Wikipedia as a primary source, but I do use it to give me the basic idea and as a jumping-off point for further research. Non-combustible materials like glass and metal are removed. The remaining material is treated to remove heavy metals and pollutants. What remains can be shaped into pellets, bricks, or logs that can be used in coal power plants to produce electricity. This article states that RDF is a new concept so the financial advantage cannot be known.

Is this related to RES-267 about the engineering services for the landfill?

Link to the Wikipedia article about Refuse Derived Fuel: Refuse Derived Fuel on Wikipedia

RES-276 and RES-277: Nominates Owens-Brockway Glass Container, Inc. and Mars Chocolate North America as Enterprise Projects and submitting the Enterprise Zone application to the Office of the Governor Economic Development and Tourism's Texas Economic Development Bank for improvements to their respective properties.

RES-278: Authorizes the sale of a tax foreclosed property to a citizen.

RES-279: Invites and requests the Bellmead Development Corporation (BDC) to participate in the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC) Project and grants permission for BDC to act in support of BRIC. This permission is required since the BRIC Project is within the city limits of Waco.

I wonder if this is related to the action taken a few weeks ago by the Bellmead City Council to change the status of their Economic Development Corporation. This is an example of why it is helpful to keep up with the activities of all the cities in the area. They often work together and the action of one body may have influence on another.

Since this is the first meeting after the election, a committee to canvass the results of the election will be appointed. After a short recess, the committee will report its results.

At the Election Ceremony, the oath of office will be administered to the new mayor and they will elect a Mayor Pro Tem. There were will be presentations by several groups including the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, The Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Cen-Tex African American Chamber of Commerce. A reception will follow.

Here is the WacoTrib's take on yesterday's city council meeting

Waco City Council seeks bids to put GPS devices on city buses | Wacotrib.com

Preview of the 4/20/2010 meeting

NOTE: Unlike certain local newspapers, I LOVE feedback and comments!!! I accept anonymous comments or there are several ways to login without having to create a new account. Lately, I've gotten more comments in person than I get on the site. That's VERY cool, but hopefully people will have comments about the items  I discuss telling me what you like and don't like. Let's start a conversation.

Most of all.....start a conversation with your council member. THEY represent YOU! They really like it when you ask them for information. I'm not sure they like it so much when you call or write to gripe about something, but if I were in their shoes I would prefer that to silence.


Here is the link to the full agenda: http://www.waco-texas.com/meetings.asp Click on the date to get this meeting's agenda.

I apologize for missing the last meeting. I did not see anything of great importance and the rest of my life got in the way. Although I'm still very busy, there are several things I would like to call attention to. I have learned that once it gets on the agenda it's pretty much a done deal, but we should still be aware of what our city council members are doing and tell them how we feel about it.

I'm short on time, so I can't go through every item. I also won't be able to attend the work session today. It's getting hard for me to miss work. I will try to catch it online or on TV and give an update.

PH-202 - This is approval of a permit to raze a building so that a new animal emergency clinic building can be built. This will be at 3901 S. Jack Kultgen Expressway. No money spent and not infringing on our personal liberties, but I thought it was cool and you might like to know about it.

PH-207, 208, 209, 210 - Several alleys are being abandoned. What is interesting about these is that the Planning Commission did not unanimously vote to approve all of them. There may be issues behind this.

PH-211 - Section 28-577 in Chapter 28 Zoning of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Waco will be changed to allow retail sales from 7pm to 12 midnight and from 5am to 7am by special permit in the O-3 Office-Limited Commercial District.

RES-213 - Authorizes the City manager to execute a 12-month lease agreement with Enterprise Rent-a-Car for nine lease vehicles with the amount not to exceed $90,000. There will be an option to allow renewal of the agreement for one additional twelve-month period. There may be reasons for leasing rather than purchasing a car. My calculations say this is an average of $833 per car per month. That sounds high to me. I suppose that maintenance is included, though.

RES-214 - The Waco McLennan County Economic Development Corporation will be giving $5 million to the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative. This is the renovation of the old General Tire facility. There are news stories available online about this. $2.5 million will be given by the City of Waco and $2.5 million by McLennan County. It is contingent upon a $20 million investment. I believe this to be a good investment, but citizens should know it is happening.

RES-215 - There is a change of amount from $944,900 to $890,100 on the contract with Kimley Horn and Associates, Inc. Irving, Texas for design services for the Ritchie Road Street Construction and Water Transmission improvement project.

RES-216 - The Waco Community Development Corporation is providing funding of $60,000 to World Changers 2010 Waco Roof Rehabilitation Project. It is not clear what roof will be rehabilitated. I searched for World Changers and found a Baptist church that does a lot of mission work. I'm not sure if it is the same entity. It sounds like something they would do. I have a question about this in to my councilman, Randy Riggs.

RES-218 and RES-220 - These two talk about a "Loan Committee", "Interim Construction Loan Program", and "New Acquisition Loan Program". I wrote my councilman, Randy Riggs, requesting more information about these programs. It almost sounds like the CoW is funding the building and purchasing of homes and protecting home buyers who are forced from their homes by condemnation. Does this bother anyone else? This is not the business of government. I may be wrong.

RES-229 - The city is going to purchase mobile data computers and docking stations from PCS Mobile of Denver, Colorado. The amount is not to exceed $84,212. It does not state what the computers are for.

RES-230 - Approves a resolution reappointing Christopher D. Taylor as Municipal Judge for a two-year term.

Remember: I LOVE feedback and comments, especially when you have more information to add to my understanding.