HomeMy WebLinkAbout031212 CC MinThe City of West University Place
A Neighborhood City
CITY COUNCIL
Bob Fry, Mayor
Susan Sample, Mayor Pro Tern
Ed Heathcott, Councilmember
Joan Johnson, Councilmember
Dick Yehle, 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 in special and regular sessions on
Monday, March 12, 2012, in the Municipal Building, 3800 University, West University Place, Texas
beginning at 6:00 p.m.
SPECIAL WORKSHOP (BEGINNING AT 5:30 IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM)
Call to Order. Mayor Fry called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Council and staff in attendance
were: Mayor Pro Tern Sample, Councilmembers Heathcott, Johnson (arrived at 5:42 p.m.), and Yehle,
City Manager Ross, and City Secretary Lenz.
Workshop agenda item was as follows:
1. City Council Goals
Matters related to Council's goals.
While waiting for Councilmember Johnson to arrive, City Manager Ross reviewed staff's goals per
Council's direction. He discussed them as follows:
College Avenue /Bellaire Boulevard drainage project. This is the highest property and
staff hopes to obtain the remaining 9.1 acre feet of detention. A letter has been sent to
Houston formalizing the request with documents attached in support from the Harris County
Flood Control District and the City's engineers, HDR.
Communications. Staff has improved and continues to improve external communication by
establishing a communication's team.
Councilmember Yehle said there seems to be multiple communication opportunities,
especially during extreme events and asked Mr. Ross if staff has considered narrowing
those down to a single focus. Mr. Ross responded that each communication tool has a
specific role and confirmed that the information will be consistent throughout all
communication tools.
Mayor Pro Tem Sample said she thinks that due to the demographics, using different
communication tools is best as long as the message is consistent.
• Continue pay as you go infrastructure replacement. Staff is developing and prioritizing a
list of projects to present to Council in April.
Establish electronic direct payment capability for residents using City services. This
project is complete and the Parks and Recreation Department has enrolled approximately 100
City Council Minutes, March 12, 2012
recreational memberships within 30 days and staff is encouraging current residents to enroll in
the program as their memberships come up for renewal.
Councilmember Heathcott asked if consideration has been given to including electronic
payment for water bills at some point. Mr. Ross responded that residents can already do the
direct debit for water bills and said staff continues to send out notices to residents in water
bills regarding their ability to do so.
Improve public safety two -way radio system to ensure better and more reliable
communication. During the budget process, Council approved 50 percent of that purchase
and staff has done what it can do to date. Staff is coordinating with Bellaire and Southside
Place to determine how fire station alerting will occur. We are waiting for Houston for
implementation of the entire program next year and the remaining 50 percent of the funds
will be requested during the 2013 Budget process.
Councilmember Johnson arrived at 5:42 p.m.
• Achieve the Texas Comptroller Leadership Circle Gold level award for online
transparency Gold Level Award. The City has obtained Gold Level Award for open
government and staff will request funding during the 2013 Budget process to purchase the
Laserfiche component needed for residents to be able to access City documents via the
website.
• Structured Student Intern Program. The program is underway and is led by Executive
Assistant Rachelle Moody. She has been in contact with the University of Houston and
other colleges for recruiting and marketing. We have received 2 or 3 interested applicants
for the summer.
• Employee Succession. Staff continues succession planning whenever the opportunity is
presented.
• Electronic Agendas. Pilot program has been initiated with iPads beginning with this
meeting and into the next meeting. Hopefully, the program can be rolled out for all of
Council beginning with the first meeting in April.
• Compensation packages. Each year we have a review of competitive compensation and
provide it to Council during the Budget process. The City met the national standards lists of
top Houston employers in 2011. In response to Mayor Fry's question as to when Waters
Consulting Firm reviews the compensation packages, Mr. Ross responded usually the
beginning of the Budget process, around August, each year. Staff has already begun
discussions with our benefit consultant for the health insurance RFP process.
Ruff ino Hills. Staff has completed fire break work in the clearing between the homes where
our property exists. We have contacted our environmental consultant to get the old
methane test wells removed, which will help make the sale move more quickly when the
opportunity arises.
• Revise employee policies to address e-mail retention and recording of conversations.
Staff is finalizing the proposed changes to the Employee Handbook and intends to bring the
revised handbook to Council for consideration probably in April or May. Regarding e-mail
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retention, the City Secretary recently brought forth a new Records Management Ordinance,
which included e-mail retention.
Continued improvement in customer relations at all of the City's service counters and
in general. Staff had training in 2011 and training opportunities in 2012 are being
evaluated.
Councilmember Yehle confirmed that a policy regarding social media use will be included in
the employee policies and asked that "social media" be specifically added to Goal #13, so that
it reads "revise employee policies to address e-mail retention, recording of conversations, and
social media."
At this time Council goals were discussed. Mayor Fry asked Councilmember Johnson to lead the
discussion as she requested the workshop.
Councilmember Johnson stated she feels as though Council needed to look at what is coming in
the future and talk about how Council will present any issues to the citizens. She said she thinks
Council needs to do a better job of educating citizens of things that are coming up for a vote by
Council, particularly street parking, leaf- blowers, and single - family recycling (i.e. residential trash
service), which she believes will be potential issues.
Mr. Ross said he recommends surveying residents first to see if they have a concern regarding a
particular issue.
Mayor Pro Tem Sample said she believes it is better to survey before rather than educating after so
that staff can get a feel about what people think about some of the bigger issues.
Councilmember Johnson said if staff doesn't educate citizens before sending out the survey, then
the responses received may not be correct.
Mr. Ross said he agrees and said this can be on future Council meeting agendas for public
discussion. He also said staff can develop a fact sheet to attach to the survey that will provide
explanations to the questions.
Councilmember Yehle said he has grave concern about surveys for sensitive issues, especially
ones that have trade -offs involved, for example, parking across sidewalks. He said the people that
are most affected are the people on corner lots, so you will get relatively a small number of people
who are directly affected by it. He said he thinks surveys are great for broad generalities, but for
specific items, he is concerned they don't provide good valid answers.
Mr. Ross responded that this is the reason for asking Dr. Murray of the University of Houston to
come to a meeting for discussion.
Councilmember Johnson asked if Council could hold Town Hall meetings on specific topics in order
to present the facts as to why that topic is something Council would consider and give them the
opportunity to ask questions.
Mr. Ross asked if we would want Town Hall meetings before the survey and Councilmember
Johnson responded, yes, so that people are knowledgeable when answering the survey.
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Mayor Fry said if staff is planning to have Dr. Richard Murray do the survey, he needs to attend a
Council meeting to inform Council how he plans to conduct the survey.
Councilmember Heathcott suggested giving priority to two goals for town hall meetings and go
through the process to see what is learned.
After receiving a suggestion to have a town hall meeting to discuss street parking and recycling,
Councilmember Heathcott stated that he would not suggest combining those two as he believes
they would both be too controversial. He said after thinking about it, Council should just focus on
on- street parking at this time.
Council agreed with Councilmember Heathcott's suggestion and Councilmember Johnson
suggested having three meetings, two different nights on two different weeks and once during the
day.
Mr. Ross said the staff's goal is to have the survey hit the streets before school is out in order to get
the best participation.
Mayor Fry asked if the Council Goals are for two years or does Council need to meet in June and
start with new goals. Mr. Ross said, historically, Council goals run through the end of the two -year
term, but new ones are sometimes added during the two years.
Mr. Ross said the Parks Board subcommittee will give a presentation at a Council workshop on
March 26th
Mayor Fry asked that staff bring forth the Council goals for review at a Council meeting in June.
At this time Councilmember Yehle wanted to put the Town Center Retail District on the table. He
said he thinks it is an identified problem that Council should do something about and doesn't
understand why Council isn't considering it. He said we have a situation where a group of people
(i.e. the committee and ZPC, etc.) had an understanding of the issue and developed it. Then there
was another group of people who came around in January, who didn't have the background and
teed off on a couple items, legitimately because they were misinformed on some of the realities of
it, and now Council is giving weight to that group disproportionate of the people that understood the
issue. Councilmember Yehle said he thinks there is some middle ground. He said he is not saying
the proposal was the best thing and other things couldn't be considered, but Council isn't looking at
other options and he thinks it is important to do that.
Councilmember Yehle suggested that Council put the issue back on the Council's goals and
complete it this year with an education process. He said the hearing is still open and so Council
should have another formal presentation and reintroduce the proposal showing the problems and
the things that were considered in coming up with the proposal. He said this Council hasn't even
discussed the issues that were raised and what can be done about them.
Councilmember Heathcott said whether Council does it in the context when the commercial codes
are rewritten or now, he thinks it needs to be addressed, because it isn't going to go away. He said
if Council wants to tackle the street parking issue right now and put the town center on the back
burner, he doesn't have a problem with that, but does think that it eventually it needs to be
addressed. He said the further you get away from when the original study was done and the
original Council, the more Council will have to start over. He said there is going to have to be a lot
of education on everybody's part before the best answer is found and the best answer is going to
take some study and thought.
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Mayor Pro Tern Sample said she agrees with Councilmember Heathcott and feels it will require a lot
of education for the residents and the Council. She said it is a big issue and doesn't think Council
can just look at it, put it on the agenda, have a few comments and vote on it.
Councilmember Johnson said it is an important issue and said there has to be room for compromise
to get it correct and agrees that it will require a lot of education of everybody's part.
Councilmember Yehle said he agrees with everyone's comments and said he thinks there are
certain ways the current proposal could be massaged to address a lot of the issues, knowing you
will never make everybody happy. He said there are some people who are in denial and want
what's there, but what's there is not attainable. He said the zoning situation needs to be
normalized.
Mayor Fry said there are two rights — one would be to go ahead and wipe it out and the other right
thing is to listen to people who tell you they don't want it, which is what he thinks Council has done.
He agreed that if and when Council considers it again, it will require a lot of education and for
Council to listen a whole lot more. He said, however, he is for leaving it off the goals right now, but
if the rest of Council wants it back on the list, it goes back on the list.
Councilmember Yehle said if Council doesn't do anything within the next six months, it is potentially
shifting it to the next Council or it's going to be up for discussion during the middle of an election
cycle, which isn't helpful to anybody, which is why he thinks it needs to be finished this year.
Mayor Fry said he doesn't think it could be completed that fast.
Councilmember Yehle asked why not. He said we know the issue and Council has an excellent
physical presentation of the problem. He said Council is putting itself in a position by doing
absolutely nothing about an identified problem.
Councilmember Johnson said she heard about two big issues —the parking garage and traffic. She
said the parking garage can be eliminated, but she's not sure how we can deal with the traffic.
Councilmember Heathcott said he doesn't think the traffic issue is factually based, but is rather a
perceived threat. He said the same basic businesses will still be there and doesn't think we are
doing anything that will enhance the shopping and eating activity, so he doesn't know if that is a real
issue. He said in his mind there are two issues — the parking garage, which can be eliminated and
the 35 -foot limitation. He said if Council limits the 35- limitation to two floors, instead of three, that
would take all of the objections and simplify them so that most people will buy into it. He said if
Council approaches it on that basis, it could repackage the proposal and move forward with the
educational program so that people will understand.
Councilmember Heathcott said what Council is trying to do is to allow people to rebuild those
facilities in the event something happens.
Councilmember Yehle said Council is also addressing a known issue of buffering on the Poor Farm
Ditch side and a known issue with pedestrian flow on the east side of Edloe.
Councilmember Johnson said she doesn't disagree with Councilmember Heathcott about the traffic,
but perception is everything and the perception about traffic is really strong.
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Mayor Pro Tem Sample said what Councilmember Heathcott said was right, but there were a lot of
dimensions to the ordinance, so people might have missed some things and hooked on to what
they saw as negative and wasn't able to see the positives. She said she thinks this is something
that will take some time and probably more than six months.
Councilmember Yehle asked what would be so time- consuming. Mayor Pro Tem Sample said
dissecting the ordinances and putting different options on the table.
Mayor Fry said he doesn't want to do anything now that will tie the hands of a future Council. He
said it has to be done right and with citizen input.
Councilmember Yehle said if you don't do it within the next 6 months, it will be at least a year.
Mayor Pro Tem Sample said Council could put it on the list and if Council decides to do something
later, it can.
Councilmember Yehle said he would like for it to be kept on the list, so that Council can have
something moving and figure out how to educate the citizens. He said putting it on the list and
doing nothing is like not having it there.
After discussion, the consensus was 4 to 1 to not move forward with the Town Center project at this
time; so, Mayor Fry asked Mr. Ross to remove it from the list of goals until otherwise notified.
2. Adjourn
At 6:32 p.m., Councilmember Johnson moved to adjourn the workshop session. Mayor Pro Tem
Sample seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED.
Ayes: Fry, Sample, Heathcott, Johnson, Yehle
Noes: None
Absent: None
REGULAR MEETING (BEGINNING AT 6:30 P.M. IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS)
Agenda items were as follows:
Call to Order: Mayor Fry called the meeting to order at 6:34 p.m. Council and staff in attendance
were: Mayor Pro Tem Sample, Councilmembers Heathcott, Johnson and Yehle, City Manager Ross,
ACM /Public Works Director Peifer, City Secretary Lenz, City Attorney Petrov, Finance Director
Daugherty, and Police Chief Walker.
Pledge of Allegiance: Councilmember Heathcott led the Pledge of Allegiance.
3. Public Comments
This is an opportunity for citizens to speak to Council relating to agenda and non - agenda items.
Gayle Rosenthal, 2611 Cason, spoke to say that she is glad that we have a new water provider
(meter readers), but wish they would learn how to put the meter tops down.
Mrs. Rosenthal also spoke about solicitation. She said she is on the Do Not Knock list, yet she
continues to get solicitations. She said any help will be appreciated.
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Carolyn Sacchi, 3768 Rice Boulevard, spoke about parking on both sides of the street near the
little league baseball fields. She requested that the City have temporary one -sided parking on Tri-
Sports opening and closing ceremony days and West U Carnival days, because during those times
her street has large SUVs parked on both sides of the street and it is a hazard getting in and out of
her driveway as they visually block her line of vision to see traffic going back and forth. Ms. Sacchi
said it also creates a very narrow spot to where if there is a fire or medical emergency
transportation will have difficulty reaching the area in need (3700 block of Rice Boulevard).
John Palmer, 3835 Riley Street, spoke to ask if there has been any up -to -date report as to the
progress the City's making in establishing the restrainer (removing the storm sewer restrictor)
needed to reduce flooding in his area.
Mr. Ross informed Mr. Palmer that Public Works Director Peifer would provide him with an update.
4. Bond Purchase Agreement and Authorizing Issuance of Refundina Bonds
A. Matters related to the approval of a bond purchase agreement.
B. Matters related to the adoption of an Ordinance authorizing the issuance of Refunding Bonds.
Mr. John Robuck, BOSC, Inc., provided an overview of the current market and presented the
results of the bond sale. He said we sold $8,555,000 in bonds today to refund $8,475,000 of the
Series 2003 Certificates of Obligation.
Mr. Robuck said the City saved approximately $810,000 by issuing the bonds today, which equates
to a present value of approximately 8.9 percent savings.
Councilmember Yehle moved to approve the Bond Purchase Agreement of the Coastal Securities, Inc.,
and the First Southwest Company and approve an ordinance authorizing the issuance of Permanent
Improvement Refunding Bonds, Series 2012. Councilmember Johnson seconded the motion.
MOTION PASSED.
Ayes: Fry, Sample, Heathcott, Johnson, Yehle
Noes: None
Absent: None
5. 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 February 27, 2012.
B. Scout House Lease Agreement with HISD
Matters related to a lease agreement with HISD for the use of the Scout House located on
HISD property.
C. Errors and Omissions Exception Ordinance
Matters related to an ordinance amendment recommended by the Building and Standards
Commission that will remove the Errors and Omissions exception.
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D. Fraud Policy
Matters related to the consideration and adoption of a Fraud Policy for the City of West
University Place.
Item B was removed for discussion at Councilmember Yehle's request.
Request approved for remaining Consent Agenda items. MOTION PASSED.
Ayes:
Fry, Sample, Heathcott, Johnson, Yehle
Noes:
None
Absent:
None
Councilmember Yehle said he requested Item B be removed because the recommendation is for the
Mayor to negotiate the agreement with HISD and, while he doesn't have any particular problems with
the agreement, he thinks it is better negotiated by the City Manager .
Councilmember Yehle moved to authorize the City Manager to execute the Scout House Lease
Agreement between the City of West University Place and the Houston Independent School District.
Councilmember Heathcott seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED.
Ayes: Fry, Sample, Heathcott, Johnson, Yehle
Noes: None
Absent: None
6. Reports by Council /Staff
A. Electronic Agendas
City Manager Ross will update City Council on matters related electronic agendas.
Mr. Ross announced that the City is running a pilot program this meeting and the next using (pads
for electronic agendas and will bring the matter to Council for discussion at the first meeting in April.
Mayor Fry announced that Council would be recessing the regular meeting and convening into
executive session.
Councilmember Yehle moved to recess the regular council meeting to enter into executive session in
accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code. Councilmember Johnson seconded
the motion. MOTION PASSED.
Ayes: Fry, Sample, Heathcott, Johnson, Yehle
Noes: None
Absent: None
7. 3936 Marlowe
Matters Related to Real Estate.
The executive session began at 6:50 p.m. to discuss real property per Section 551.072 of the Texas
Government Code.
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City Council Minutes, March 12, 2012
8. Adjourn
At 7:03 p.m., Councilmember Yehle moved to adjourn the executive session and reconvene into
regular session. MOTION PASSED.
Ayes:
Fry, Heathcott, Sample, Johnson, Yehle
Noes:
None
Absent:
None
With no action necessary, Mayor Pro Tem Sample moved to adjourn the regular meeting.
Councilmember Heathcott seconded the motion. MOTION PASSED.
Ayes: Fry, Sample, Heathcott, Johnson, Yehle
�rBa +tt Noes: None
` r, Absent: None
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Pr ar
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Thelma A. Lenz, City Secretary Date Approved