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HomeMy WebLinkAbout101810S CC MinutesThe City L A Neighborhood City CITY COUNCIL Bob Kelly, Mayor Bob Fry, Councilmember George Boehme, Councilmember Steven Segal, Councilmember Chuck Guffey, Councilmember STAFF Michael Ross, City Manager Alan Petrov, City Attorney Thelma Lenz, City Secretary CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES City Council of the City of West University Place, Texas, met in a special meeting on Monday, October 18, 2010, in the Municipal Building, 3800 University Boulevard, West University Place, Texas beginning at 6:00 p.m. Council and staff in attendance: Mayor Pro Tern Fry, Councilmembers Boehme, Segal and Guffey, City Manager Ross, City Secretary Lenz, City Attorney Petrov, City Manager/Public Works Director Peifer, Finance Director Daugherty, and Police Chief Ken Walker. Mayor Kelly was absent. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Kelly called the special workshop meeting to order at 3:05 p.m. Agenda was as follows: 1. Continuation of Public Hearing on the 2011 Budget Matters related a Public Hearing regarding the proposed 2011 City Budget. 2. Second and Final Public Hearing on Tax Increase Matters related to the second Public Hearing on the City's proposed tax increase. Mayor Pro Tem Fry opened both public hearings at 6:02 p.m. Finance Director Daugherty presented and provided a brief overview. After her presentation, public comments were heard. City Manager Ross announced that the format for tonight's meeting would be that all questions will be answered once everyone has had the chance to speak. Alida Drewes, 6112 Fordham, said she had concerns about funds for "other" benefits, community relations, leisure class instructors, professional dues, publications, travel and training, trees, the city secretary's salary, and 3% merit raises for employees. Nancy Gilbertson, 3901 Rice Boulevard, asked when the open budget workshop was held and how many non-councilman and staff members attended. She stated that she disagrees with the justification of competitiveness with the salary increases. She asked if the proposed 3% salary increase is across the board, and if so, she feels it should be from the bottom up so that the lowest person gets the most increase and the highest paid person gets the smallest increase. of West University Place Michelle Moore, 3908 Rice Boulevard, spoke to say that she is against the proposed tax increase. She said the City needs to live within its current income like her household. She said there are two expenses that stand out to her in the proposed Budget - the proposed average 3% in salary for City City Council Minutes, October 18, 2010 employees and significant increases in costs associated with a full year of operation of the new recreational facilities, including property insurance, electricity and natural gas, pool operations and maintenance. Ms. Moore said she believes the users of the recreational facilities should shoulder the burden of increased expenses. She said in the 2011 Budget is there any evidence that council considered any cost saving measures to accommodate our reduced income at the same tax rate. She said if there were cost-saving measures discussed, she would like to hear about them and why they were rejected. Fred Schiller, 6608 Vanderbilt, spoke to say there is a huge amount of waste in government and officials need to work a lot harder to control expenses and be held accountable. He said he feels that Council has a lot more work to do with this Budget. Mr. Schiller said there are three items the City could cut very easily which could result in not having to raise taxes: cut the Technology Fund by 15%, cut the Replacement Fund by 10%, and cut proposed raises from 3% to 2%. Alida Drewes spoke again regarding the street maintenance budget. She said we just had new streets installed and doesn't think we need to have the streets maintained. She also said she has a serious problem with the 3% salary increase for employees. Jeanne King, 3802 Case Street, asked Council why each of them ran for Council and why are we spending all this money. Fred Schiller, 6608 Vanderbilt, spoke again to say that Council thinks it has a unique perspective on what residents want and need. He said the residents do want the services the City provides, but they want them at reasonable prices. Council began to answer some of the questions asked. Councilmember Segal said regarding leisure classes, all of the classes that are part of the recreational facilities are funded by the classes themselves. Regarding the proposed 3% salary increase, Councilmember Segal said Council made a major cut in the Texas Municipal Retirement pension plan by eliminating the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) which reduced the City's unfunded liability from $12.5 million to $7.5 million. He said by eliminating the COLA we are also able to fund the full current cost of the pension plan at 15.71 percent of payroll rather than 22.41 percent. He said this was a major cut to the employee benefits, so with the savings the 3% salary increase, merit based, is being proposed. Regarding street maintenance, Councilmember Segal said there are always maintenance issues, which will continue to be ongoing and so funding is necessary. City Manager Ross said that part of the funding is for resealing the joints to protect the concrete pavement, as well as curb repairs, etc. Finance Director Daugherty spoke to explain some of the "other" benefits and community relations. She said community relations costs includes meetings with residents regarding issues that can't be tied back to other specific funds. City Manager Ross said he will provide more detail information regarding line items for this fund and costs pertaining to "other" benefits. Ms. Drewes said if Council finds that individuals can pay for some of the dues, then she would expect Council to address it. In response to Ms. Drewes' suggestion for staff to find publications on the internet rather than purchase them, Councilmember Boehme pointed out that the publication expense is for professional Page 2 of 5 City Council Minutes, October 18, 2010 periodicals and publication of legal notices. He said he is satisfied that the number is required for the efficient operation of the City. In response to Ms. Drewes suggestion that tree maintenance by done by volunteers in order to save $42,000, City Manager Ross stated that this is costs associated with our Urban Forester. He said the Urban Forester is necessary because he does things that volunteers are not be able to do. In response to Ms. Drewes suggestion about trimming police salaries, Mayor Pro Tern Fry said he would not consider that because one of the most important functions of city government is safety. Councilmember Boehme stated cutting our police salaries at a time when we are struggling to fill positions is counterintuitive. Ms. Gilbertson came back to the podium to ask if Council has made the decision to vote on this or are they going to actually consider balancing the budget. Councilmember Segal said Council will consider changes being discussed. In response to Ms. Moore's comments, Mayor Pro Tern Fry explained that the 3% is merit based, not across the board. He said it for those employees that have done an exceptional job that we want to keep. Councilmember Boehme said it is important to note that all of these things were discussed and the prevailing thought was to cut the COLA increase and give the 3% pay increase to employees. He said the reality is that the COLA savings was more than the 3% increase. So, when you ask the question if Council has looked at these things and made the hard decisions, the answer is absolutely. Councilmember Boehme said before getting elected to Council, as resident he watched the City take the easy shot to defer this and defer that and he is not going to be for deferring things. In response to Ms. Moore's concerns regarding fees pertaining to the recreational facilities, Councilmember Segal said the Parks Board had decided to wait for a full year of operations before making any decisions regarding the fees. Mayor Pro Tern Fry explained the budget process in trying to answer one of Ms. Moore's questions. Ms. Moore explained that it is not clear to her what the marching orders were. She said she didn't get the feeling that Council started from trying to keep it the same tax rate and spend accordingly. She said she got the feeling that Council received all the different expenses from the departments and then tried to figure out how to raise the money, which is a whole different attitude. Councilmember Segal explained the effective rate of tax and said his and Council's target was to try to see how low the tax rate could go in order to generate the same amount of revenue as the year before. Councilmember Guffey asked Finance Director Daugherty how much more does a person pay in taxes this year over last year on average home of $791,000. After a brief discussion, Finance Director confirmed that the average person would pay $8.30 per month more than the prior year. Mayor Pro Tern Fry asked Councilmember Segal to address Fred Schiller's concerns. Regarding Information Technology, Councilmember Segal said he is not willing to challenge that budget at this point, because there is a lot of technology issue involved with all the new facilities in the City. As for the Replacement Fund, he said that is like suggesting we not repair the foundation. He said we do not need to postpone these issues. Regarding giving employees 3% instead of 2%, Councilmember Segal said that will be considered. Page 3 of 5 City Council Minutes, October 18, 2010 Mr. Schiller spoke again to say that the IT department will make it work with what you give it. He said if you give IT enough for a "Chevrolet" (in comparison to a Rolls Royce budget) the job can still be done. He said Council may not be able to control some of the benefits, but there are a lot of things that can be controlled while still giving the citizens the services they demand and want, which is first class amenities and first class services without raising the tax rate. Councilmember Boehme responded to Mr. Schiller and said there are a lot of presumptions. He said the IT budget raised the eyebrows for most of Council, but after reviewing he said he is comfortable with it. He thanked Mr. Schiller for being a part of the process, but wishes he had been involved at the beginning. He said but to come now and make a flippant comment and say the way to cut our tax bill is by deferring technology and equipment replacement without any specific knowledge is just as irresponsible as if Council told him that we are not going to consider any cuts. He said deferring these costs is what people did for years and years and years and he is not going to be party to that. He said as it relates to salary increases, he said all of the points are valid and are things that they grapple with Mayor Pro Tem Fry stated that the IT budget is not first-class and is "Chevrolet" and thinks the funds are the minimal amount we can get away with without getting behind the eight ball. Regarding the Replacement Fund, Mayor Pro Tern Fry said if you are not contributing to it now, you are giving somebody down the road one heck of a headache when they have to come up with all that money. He said you have to be planning ahead. In response to Jeanne King's question as to where in the budget it states that Council will fix Case Street from flooding, Councilmember Segal responded that is not a budget item. He said we don't know the cost or whether there will be a cost, because the issue is still being resolved; but, if we have to pay money, it won't come out of our tax revenue. Brian Hoogendam, 2738 Talbott, spoke to say that he thinks we live in a great city with great service, but wanted some information on the increase in sewer and water rates. He also asked that Council consider removing the $6,000 alligator from the 2011 Colonial Park Pool budget. Regarding the increase in water and sewer, City Manager Ross explained that the 13 percent increase on water and 9 percent increase on sewer proposed to be effective January 1, 2011, is primarily due to the increase costs of operations, which include the City of Houston's 12.65 percent increase to the City for purchase surface water. He said the solid waste fee is a 4.2 percent rate increase which is being proposed due to the increase in cost to provide the service and also it includes transferring a position from the General Fund to the Solid Waste Fund where it belongs. Regarding the alligator, City Manager Ross encouraged anyone wishing to talk about the alligator to go to the Parks Board meeting. Alida Drewes spoke again to ask about Tri-Sports. Mayor Pro Tern Fry explained that Tri-Sports is an organization that was formed at the City's request for improvements to the parks for softball, soccer, and baseball. He said Tri-Sports have been a long standing function to provide athletic facilities for youth sports. Councilmember Segal said it also serves to remove staff's obligation of coordinating these youth sport activities. Alicia Drewes spoke again to ask why funds are earmarked for street maintenance if the streets are new. City Manager said we want to maintain protect the $100,000,000 streets that the residents paid for. He said the maintenance cost is very minimal in comparison to what replacing the concrete would cost the City again. Page 4 of 5 City Council Minutes, October 18, 2010 Gayle Rosenthal, 2611 Cason, spoke to say that she is in the part of the City that doesn't have parks or much of anything. She said she has lived here 38 years and said she received a lot for her taxes when she moved here, but doesn't see one thing she's getting for her taxes today. Alicia Drewes spoke again and asked why not collaborate with surrounding cities to work with them and try to make the budget stretch further. City Manager Ross said we do share some services with other cities. Councilmember Segal requested a special workshop meeting on Monday, October 25, 2010 before the Council meeting to discuss budget issues. Councilmember Boehme seconded and requested an explanation in increase for line items for Other Benefits and Community Relations. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Fry, Segal, Boehme, and Guffey Noes: None Absent: Kelly Councilmember Segal moved to close and adjourn the Budget Workshop at 7:40 P.M. Councilmember Boehme seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Fry, Segal, Boe , and Guffey Noes: None Absent: Kelly t/ k Prepared By: c`0 n- Page 01 OAl/to~C9Th a A. Lenz, TRMC, City SecreLly Date pro ed: 6 of 5