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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/11/1983 City Council MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF THE COLONY HELD ON JULY 11, 1983 A SPECIAL SESSION of the City Council of the City of The Colony, Texas, was called to order at 7:30 p.m. with the following members present: Larry Sample Mayor Scott North Councilman Noel Long Councilman Norman Adeler Councilman Don Amick Councilman Charles Dodds Councilman and with Councilman Marlene Poole absent; however, a quorum was established. EMERGENCY ITEM NO. 1: CLOSED DOOR SESSION AS AUTHORIZED BY ARTICLE 6252-17 OF VERNON'S ANNOTATED CIVIL STATUTES, AS AMENDED REGARDING PERSONNEL Mayor Sample announced that the Council would now meet in a closed door session. 1. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Upon reconvening in open session, Mayor Sample led the Council and members of the audience in a pledge to the United States flag. EMERGENCY ITEM NO. 2: CONSIDERATION OF APPOINTMENT OF CITY MANAGER Councilman Longomoved to table this item. There was no second to this motion. Councilman Dodds moved to appoint Janice Carroll, Assistant City Manager, to the position of City Manager. Seconded by Councilman Amick, the motion passed by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Ail members present voted aye Noes: None 2. CITIZEN INPUT Mayor Sample explained the citizen input procedure to the members of the audience, and noted that no one had signed up at this time. Mayor Sample then recognized Mr. Randy Bergfield, a member of The Colony Softball Association, who wished to speak to the Council concerning fencing at Office Creek Park. Mrs. Sylvia Brantley, Recreation Supervisor, was also present at this time, and she gave the Council copies of a letter written to the Parks and Recreation Department by Mr. Bergfield concerning this fencing. Mayor Sample asked Mr. Bergfield about the time frame of this requested fencing. Mr. Bergfield stated that they would like to begin setting the posts immediately if the Council approved. Mayor Sample then asked Mr. Bergfield if this request had been brought before the Parks and Recreation Board, and Mr. Bergfield answered that it had not been presented to them in a meeting. Mayor Sample then stated that he would prefer for them to go before the Parks and Recreation Board in a formal meeting with this request. Mrs. Brantley advised at this time that a special session of the board could be called for this purpose, and Mayor Sample stated he felt that the Council could also call a special session to do this if necessary. -1- 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Barbara Stiefer, who had prepared these minutes, stated at this time that Mrs. Brantley had pointed out an error on Page 6 concerning the charge for air conditioning by LISD. This should be corrected to only $600 during the summer. Councilman North then moved to approve the minutes of the Special Session held on June 27, 1983, with the above-noted correction. Seconded by Councilman Adeler, the motion passed by the following roll call vote: Ayes: All members present voted aye Noes: None 4. CONSIDERATION OF REQUEST FROM THE COLONY SOFTBALL ASSOCIATION TO DELAY THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POLICY OF CHARGING NON- RESIDENT FEES AND TEAM-PARTICIPATION FEES Mayor Sample recognized Janice Carroll, City Manager, to present this item. Mrs. Carroll advised the Council that they did have in their packets copies of Resolution #83-10, as well as the fee schedule implemented at that time. Mrs. Brantley was recog- nized and recommended that this be postponed until January 1, 1984, as she had not yet put together the details of this policy. She advised further that the Softball Association had requested this delay because they felt it would make it difficult for them to get their teams together for this season if the policy was implemented at this time. Councilman Amick asked if the $30 per team per season charge covered field lighting. Mrs. Brantley replied that this charge would cover the lighting and, if the fees were delayed, the city woud have to pick up the lighting expense. Councilman Amick then asked if there were any teams in any of the other sports associations being charged fees at this time. Mrs. Brantley replied that there were not. Councilman Amick then asked if the adult basketball teams paid a fee, and Mrs. Brantley answered that these teams were sponsored by the Parks and Recreation Department and, therefore, they do pay a fee to help cover the cost of supervision, trophies, rental of facilities, referees and timekeeper. Councilman Amick then asked what would be needed in order to implement these fees. Mrs. Brantley replied she needed to set up a procedure for collecting the fees and for field usage. Councilman Amick stated that he thought the fees should be paid without an established procedure, and he asked about the possibility of having the field lights metered so that the Softball Association could pay this expense directly. Councilman Amick also did not feel that the non-resident fees should be waived at this time. Mr. Bergfield at this time replied concerning the issue of the non-resident fees, pointing out the lack of maintenance of the field by the Parks and Recrea- tion Department (he stated that all they did was mow), and he felt this caused difficulty in keeping quality teams. Councilman Amick stated that he really did not understand the need for top quality teams. Mr. Bergfield stated that he felt the need was to have a variety of talent on the teams, in order to maintain the different divisions, and he explained that Division 1, for instance, was much more competitive than Divisions 2 and 3. Mr. Bergfield advised that themain problem at the present time is in Division 1. Councilman Amick then asked Mr. Bergfield how many of the players in Division 1 were Colony residents, and Mr. Bergfield answered about half. Councilman Amcik did not understand why anon-resident would want to come to The Colony to play softball, and he also did not understand the need for this division if it was made up so heavily of players from out of town. Mr. Bergfield explained that The Colony Association is not in the ASA and that players who play in one place where the Association is in the ASA cannot play in any other association which is affiliated with ASA; therefore The Colony would be a second place for a player who wished to participate on more than one team. Mayor Sample then addressed some of the questions raised in the letter written by Mr. Bergfield concerning these fees. He stated that the reason for the fee was that the city felt -2- the taxpayers had helped pay for the fields and were, therefore, entitled to play free; on the other hand, the non-residents who did not help to pay for the fields should not be entitled to play free. Councilman North explained that the reason water had not yet been provided to Office Creek Park was that the cost would be around $20,000, and the city was waiting before spending this kind of money to complete negotiations with the Lewisville Independent School District which might involve this site. Mr. Bergfield stated at this point that he felt it was important for the city to have these three divisions of softball teams and he stated further that The Colony simply was not large enough to maintain three divisions without the non-resident participation. Mrs. Brantley advised the Council that the Parks and Recreation Board wished to postpone these fees at this time, as they did not understand all of the details and they had not had time to work out the procedure or to talk with the Softball Association about their concerns. Councilman Dodds clarified that the post- ponement until January was the recommendation of the entire Parks and Recreation Board. Councilman Amick then moved that the Council adopt this recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Board to postpone the non-resident and team-participation fees until January 1, 1984.. This motion was seconded by Councilman Dodds. At this point, Councilman Dodds did ask that the Parks and Recreation Board look into the electric bill situation. Councilman Adeler wished to have clarified that this had been brought before the Parks and Recreation Board, and they had made an official recom- mendation which was a matter of the minutes; Mrs. Brantley advised that this had been done. Councilman Long stated that he was inclined to go along with the fees. Mayor Sample asked Mr. Bergfield if he could assure the Council that a Colony resident would not be denied the chance to play on a certain team when a non resident might be playing on this team. Mr. Bergfield could not give this assurance. Mayor Sample and Councilman Long both felt that this would not be fair unless a fee was being charged. Mr. Berg- field then stated that as long as he is in the Softball Association, a Colony resident would not ever be denied the right to play on one of these teams when non residents were playing. Councilman Amick then stated that he would like to see the Parks and Recreation Department given the opportunity to study this in order to come back to the Council with a good solid recommendation. Councilman North asked Mrs. Carroll if the Softball Association had been made aware of the Resolution adopting the fees prior to its being adopted. Mrs. Brantley answered, stating that they didknow about it in advance. Councilman North pointed out that there had been no opposition to this when it was done, and notification had been given before the fees were passed. Mayor Sample then called for a vote upon the motion on the floor, which passed by the following roll call vote: Ayes: Ail members present voted aye Noes: None 5. SUBMISSION OF PROPOSED BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 1983/84 BY THE CITY MANAGER TO THE COUNCIL IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 10.02 OF THE COLONY HOME RULE CHARTER At this time, Janice Carroll, City Manager, stated that she had presented the Council with a draft of the budget, which was not in the form ifor final printing. She explained that this budget would be on file in the City Secretary's office to be reviewed and that it could be purchased. She also stated this budget represented much work by the Council. Mrs. Carroll then read her budget statement from the front of the budget. Mayor Sample asked Mrs. Carroll to explain the capital expenditure list and the decision which had been made by the Council concerning these purchases. Mrs. Carroll explained that the various departments had submitted "package" requests at the beginning of the budget process which were reviewed by the Council. After review, the Council decided which capital items they felt were necessary and assigned numbers to the list based on the order in which they -3- felt these items should be purchased. She explained further that the Council had decided that the revenue from housing permits would be used for these capital purchases as it became available, in order to begin getting away from the lease-purchase method of acquiring capital items. She did advise that the Police Depart- ment vehicles would be put on a lease purchase after the bid process was completed and, if the funds came in, the lease would be paid off at that time. Mayor Sample and Councilman Adeler stated that it was their understanding that the lease would be paid off within one year, even if it was written for three years. Councilman North then stated that Mrs. Carroll's budget message stated that some of these items would be purchased, and he felt there was a possibility that they might not be. Mrs. Carroll clarified that these items were in her letter so that those reviewing the budget could see the direction in which the city was going. Councilman North stated that these capital items would not be coming from taxpayers money, since they would be purchased from building permit revenue, and he wanted this noted for the record. Mrs. Carroll did state that there had been basically no growth during the past year in the budget. Councilman North moved to accept this budget as presented. Seconded by Councilman Dodds, the motion passed by the following roll call vote: Ayes: All members present voted aye Noes: None 6. CONSIDERATION OF ORDINANCE CALLING A BUDGET HEARING FOR THE PROPOSED 1983/84 BUDGET FOR AUGUST 1, 1983 Mayor Sample read the following ordinance caption: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF THE COLONY, TEXAS, PROVIDING FOR A PUBLIC HEARING ON THE MUNICIPAL BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL YEAR OCTOBER 1, 1983 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 1984; PROVIDING A TIME AND PLACE FOR SAID PUBLIC HEARING, TO-WIT: ON THE 1st DAY OF AUGUST, 1983, AT 7:30 O'CLOCK P.M. AT THE COLONY CITY HALL; PROVIDING FOR NOTICE; AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Councilman Dodds moved to approve this ordinance as presented. Seconded by Councilman North, the motion passed by the following roll call vote: Ayes: All members present voted aye Noes: None There being no further action to be taken by the Council, Councilman Dodds moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Councilman North, the motion passed by the following vote: Ayes: All members present voted aye Noes: None Mayor Sample adjourned the meeting at 9:16 p.m. A~~R R Y~ AM PL~E~-~ MAYOR __ ATTEST: JANICE CARROLL, CITY SECRETARY -4-