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HomeMy WebLinkAbout042511R CC MinThe City of West University Place Wil 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 MEETING MINUTES The City Council of the City of West University Place, Texas, met regular session on Monday, April 25, 2011, in the Municipal Building, 3800 University Boulevard, West University Place, Texas beginning at 6:30 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Kelly called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Council and staff in attendance were: Mayor Pro Tem Fry, Councilmembers Boehme, and Segal, City Manager Ross, City Secretary Lenz, City Attorney Petrov, Assistant City Manager/Public Works Director Peifer, Parks and Recreation Director Tim O'Connor, and Police Chief Ken Walker. Councilmember Guffey was absent. Luke Dutch led the Pledge of Allegiance and Pledge to the Texas Flag City Secretary Lenz confirmed that the Notice of the special and regular meetings was duly posted in accordance with the Texas Government Code, Chapter 551. Agenda items were discussed as follows: 1. Solicitor's Older Americans Month Proclamation Matters related to proclaiming the month of May as Older Americans Month in the City of West University Place. Mayor Kelly proclaimed the month of May as Older Americans Month in the City of West University Place. Seniors Board co-chairs Stan McCandless and John Neighbors, along with Senior Board members Dorothy Zinc, Barbara Marvin, Mary Lee Gray, and Joan Johnson, came forward to accept the Proclamation. 2. Public Comments This is an opportunity for citizens to speak to Council relating to agenda and non-agenda items. Dan Krocker, 3835 Marquette, spoke regarding the College Street/Bellaire Boulevard Transportation Drainage project. He said through the years we have heard testimony from neighbors who have been deeply affected by the flooding situation. He said after all the drainage work and years of anticipation, some of his neighbors would consider the restrictor an insult. Mr. Krocker said the recent $403,000 offer from Harris County Flood Control is simply a communication and said it's not good news or a big step, it's simply an offer and we can pat ourselves on the back after we decide what to do with the offer. He said he would like to hear ideas. City Council Minutes, April 25, 2011 Nancy Gilbertson, 3901 Rice, spoke to say that she would like responses to an email she sent to Council and the City Manager. She stated that she inquired about the status of the website, the total cost of the new parking lot next to the police station and whether it was budgeted for, the total cost of remodeling the existing Community Building on Auden and whether it was budgeted for, and the $400,000 flood control project and whether it was budgeted for, and if not, how would we pay for it. Ms. Gilbertson said she doesn't understand why we need to remodel the Community Building at Auden and Rice since we have a new Recreation Center, a new City Hall Police Compound, a new Colonial Park facility, and the use of the Scout House. She said the City just purchased the property for the new parking lot and so this property is now off the tax rolls. She said we have a critical need to secure drainage to help alleviate flooding and asked was it really necessary to incur more expense for the parking lot and remodel the Auden Community Center. City Manager Ross said he would respond to her email and provide answers to her questions as soon as possible. 3. College Street/Bellaire Boulevard Transportation and Drainage Project Matters related to authorizing the City Manager to enter into an Interlocal Agreement with the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to purchase 4.4 acre-feet of mitigation capacity at the Meyer Tract (HCFCD D500-08-00) for $403,700 for the subject transportation and drainage project. Councilmember Segal moved to authorize the City Manager to execute an Interlocal Agreement with HCFCD to purchase the 4.4 acres for $403,700 as stated. Mayor Pro Tern Fry seconded the motion. City Manager Ross presented the history of this project and stated that the City has been working on the College Avenue transportation and drainage improvements for about a decade and said the completion of this project has been the number one goal of each Council since tropical storm Allison struck the region in August of 2001. Mr. Ross said when the City's infrastructure replacement program began in the 1990's the vast majority of the City was made up of failing asphalt streets with open ditches for drainage. He said, by contrast, in that point in time, the College Avenue area had a comparatively more modern curb and gutter street with less than a two-year standard drainage system. He said over about a 10-year period, through the infrastructure program, the City's various drainage systems were brought to the new minimum two-year design standard. Mr. Ross said the two-year storm system frequency event is when the rainfall intensity has a fifty percent probability of occurring in any given year or is nominally likely to occur every two years. He said at the time Allison struck in 2001, the College Street area was without a standard system and so that storm led the City to ultimately constructing a new College Street system that brought that area up to the City's drainage systems standard. Mr. Ross said it was the City's belief that the new system not only benefited our City, but the region, so it has been the City's position that any required detention should be the responsibility of the Harris County Flood Control District. He said HCFCD did not agree with the City's position and in April 2011, HCFCD sent a letter indicating that it was West U's responsibility to provide the required detention in order to remove the outfall restrictor. Mr. Ross said HCFCD has offered to support the City by selling their unallocated 4.4 acres of detention for $91,750.00 per acre foot in the Meyer tract for a total of $403,700. Page 2 of 5 City Council Minutes, April 25, 2011 Mr. Ross said funds are available in the City's Metro Grant Fund Budget for this purchase and that, if approved by City Council and the Harris County Commissioner's Court, it would allow for the reduction of the outfall restrictor by approximately one-third. Mr. Ross said we plan to continue to work with the HCFCD and the City of Houston to obtain the remaining 9.1 acre feet of detention. He said since we received the final answer from HCFCD, we have now sent Houston our formal request to purchase the remaining 9.1 acre feet from them and we have asked our engineer for a proposal to perform a feasibility study on Kilmarnock Ditch to determine if the applicable remaining detention could be built into that ditch if we were unable to purchase the remaining acres from Houston. Mr. Ross said we will also ask the engineer to explore any other detention options that might be available for resolution. Mr. Ross said staff recommends that Council authorize the City Manager to execute the appropriate Interlocal Agreement with the HCFCD and the City to purchase the 4.4 acre feet of storm water mitigation for $91,750.00 per acre foot, for a total of $403,700. Councilmember Segal said it is obvious that we ought to do this because we have had a promise outstanding for these residents for many years and we should take advantage of this offer and move forward as staff has recommended. Councilmember Boehme said he believes Mr. Ross did an excellent job in going over the history because he thinks there has been a fair amount of misinformation. He said what we have today is a system throughout our entire City that is now an updated, modern, minimum two-year flood event, which is the standard for Harris County and the eight-county region that we're in. He said this is the final step to give everyone in West U a first quality storm water system and, in his view, it's a day late for the folks on College Street, but is a phenomenal step in the right direction and so he will vote that we go forward. Mayor Kelly said that he invited Chris Claunch and Dave Casper to attend the meeting tonight to explain a chart Council received from staff pertaining to the affects of leaving the full restrictor in, partially removing the restrictor (one-third), or removing the entire restrictor. Mr. Casper with Claunch and Miller came forward to explain the different scenarios on the chart provided to Council and stated that the more of the restrictor that is removed, the lower the flood level in a hundred year flood. Mayor Kelly asked why Riley is the most impacted street when it comes to the restrictor. Mr. Casper said because the pipes change size by the time you get to Riley. Councilmember Boehme said that he stated from the beginning that we needed to make people understand that taking this restrictor off is not going to make people walk on water and make the blind be able to see. He said it is just one of the tools we need to make a complete and useful system. He said at this point, the restrictor is doing exactly what it intended to do, which is restricting the full use of the system. Councilmember Boehme said it appears to him that from the studies he has done, that one of the reasons that you don't see drastic differences as you might otherwise see is because of the huge amount of new underwater storage we have. Mr. Casper confirmed Councilmember Boehme's theory. Mayor Kelly said the citizens in the College Street area should not expect any significant change in the flood conditions with a partial removal. He said you have to get where you totally remove it and Page 3 of 5 City Council Minutes, April 25, 2011 then you sort of still have a minimum effect running down. He said with that in mind, there was a proposal, maybe in 2006, that on the dead end streets, you can put a pipe down at the dead end streets to flow the water back to the main pipe down College, which would cost an additional $1,000,000.00. Mayor Kelly asked Mr. Casper if removal of restrictors would have had a more significant affect had the aforementioned project been done. Mr. Casper said he is unable to answer that question at this point. Mayor Kelly said if you go the $403,000 route in removing partial restrictors, in some respects you've gone down this road of buying extra retention space to solve this current problem. He said we can spend this money for the 4.4 acres, but we don't know what the other 9 acres will cost us. He said we hear from HCFCD that they don't have it and we've heard, unofficially, from Houston that they are not real interested, but won't take any steps until we submit a formal proposal. He said when we submit a proposal, they could turn us down; so, it's entirely possible that this $91,000 per acre is a minimum that we may have pay in the future to get the other 9 acres and it could possibly cost us millions. Mayor Kelly said whatever route we go, we are going to need retention. He said even if we purchase the 4.4 for $91,000, should we not in the future, along with the retention concept, be looking at another avenue of trying to resolve the issue. Councilmember Segal said it seems to him that the issue before us tonight is whether or not to buy the retention. He said anything else you do is going to require more retention and he thinks the majority of us feel that we need to remove the restrictor entirely and this is the first step. He said this seems to be the best price we are going to get for retention that we are going to have to have. Councilmember Segal called the question. Councilmember Boehme seconded. Mayor Kelly said discussion can't be cut off. He said the point he is trying to make is that buying this 1/3 of the detention is not the end-all-save-all program. Mayor Pro Tern Fry asked City Attorney Petrov if the motion and second to call for a question require a vote. City Attorney Petrov responded yes. Mayor Kelly confirmed that the motion on the call for a question was only to cut off discussion and a vote was taken. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Fry, Boehme, Segal Noes: Kelly Absent: Guffey At this time Mayor Pro Tern Fry called the question on the original motion by Councilmember Segal and second by Councilmember Boehme to purchase the 4.4 acre feet of storm water mitigation for $91,750.00 per acre foot, for a total of $403,700. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Segal Noes: None Absent: Guffey Page 4 of 5 City Council Minutes, April 25, 2011 4. Consent Agenda All Consent Agenda items listed are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Council member requests in which event the item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda. A. City Council Minutes Approve City Council minutes of April 11, 2011. Mayor Pro Tern Fry moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Councilmember Boehme seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Segal Noes: None Absent: Guffey 5. Reports by Council/Staff There were no Council/Staff reports. 6. Adjourn With no further business before the Council, at 7:16 p.m., Councilmember Boehme moved to adjourn the regular meeting. Councilmember Segal seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED. Ayes: Noes: Absent: Meeting adjourned. Prepared Kelly, Fry, Boehme, Segal None Guffey A. Lenz, City Secretary a ~ q v a ` 22-c a r ~9v C Date App ded Page 5 of 5