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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/12/1994 City Council MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON ~-"! February 12, 1994 The Work Session of the City Council of the City of The Colony, Texas was called to order at 9:10 a.m. on the 12th day of February, 1994 at Hedrick House located in Lewisville, Texas with the following Council roll calk William Manning, Mayor Present Mike Lynch, Councilman Absent Toby Pollard, Councilman Present Joe Agnew, Councilman Present Tom Bogan, Councilman Present John Dillard, Councilman Absent (Arrived 12:00-Noon) Joel Marks, Mayor Pro-tern Present and with five present, a quorum was established and the following items were addressed: Mayor Manning opened the work session by stating this would be an open, informal meeting to review the goals and objectives set last year. PARK AND RECREATION - PAM NELSON Ms Nelson referred to the Goals and Objectives Update and Review Report dated January, 1994 to illustrate the progress in this department. Most of the park area projects have been completed using in-house staff and volunteers. The electrical has been run to the concession area at the Youth Football fields, the gravel is in but the pump is not yet installed at the B.B. Owens pond, playground equipment has been installed at the pocket parks and the parks areas have been cleaned up in anticipation of the spring/summer season. She indicated that things were going as scheduled on the park projects. A major area of concern remains the racquetball courts at the Rec Center. Multiple repairs have been made but are not holding up. The entire area needs to be redone correctly. She suggested using funds from the Friday Night Live program to defray the expenses of the remodeling project. Discussion followed on how to improve the facilities. Additional office and storage space is still needed and the position of Athletic Coordinator should be considered in the 94/95 budget. It is also important that a secure chemical storage facility be obtained. Funding must also be added to the budget for additional ADA compliance. Discussion followed on the development of the master park plan. Mayor Manning said he felt it vital this be accomplished soon. Also discussed was the Regional Sports Complex and the growing need for additional fields and facilities. Mayor Manning directed the Park and Recreation Board to pursue this. Bill Allen Memorial Park is the largest park area in the City at 40 acres. This park was built with the help of grant money and it is imperative we maintain this park in 2 excellent condition if we ever hope to secure grant funding for similar works. Due to the remote location of this park it is experiencing a high degree of vandalism. It is vital that a program to maintain this park as well as all others be prepared. Councilman Agnew suggested preparing a maintenance document outlining the personnel and material needed to maintain the parks. This could be used for budget preparation as well as a plan when co-sponsoring organizations are helping maintain fields. User fees may need to be addressed again and perhaps establish a special fund from these fees to be used exclusively for maintenance of all facilities. Also it is imperative some type of secure gate be placed to the entrance of the old frisbee golf course area. Everything that has been tried so far has been destroyed. Police Chief Bruce Stewart agreed and said it would probably require closing the road off at the bridge. He agrees this is a very high priority. POLICE - BRUCE STEWART Chief Stewart said we had come a long way in achieving the goals and objectives set last year which would allow for the deletion of these items from the document. These included the re-keying of the municipal buildings, review of the ride along policy, establishing a Field Training Officer program, review of the school crosswalk guard program, and increasing our reserve officer force. Some items have not been accomplished due to budget constraints. We have not established a traffic division but with the expansion of SH 121 will need to set a target date of 97/98. No funding was allocated for the K-9 program but Tarrant County Junior College is offering a program which includes free training. We have two officers who are interested and have dogs which have been evaluated and are acceptable candidates for the course. The communication system is still in need of improvement. Suggestions were made by various council members of methods to improve the system from buying our own to placing a transmitter on the new SWB tower to be constructed in the city. Chief Stewart said they will look at all available options but all will be expensive. He also wants to pursue the building of a firing range in the city. This can be done with in-house staff to keep expenses down. Would like to target for 94/95 budget. Largest area of concern is the condition of cars. At this time there are four vehicles with over 100,000 miles on them, an additional three with over 90,000 and three more over 83,000 miles. Seven of these are patrol units. It is imperative we establish a policy of vehicle replacement which will prevent us from getting in this position again. Council agreed this policy should apply to all city vehicles, not just the police department as this problem is city wide. Chief Stewart went on to explain that a comprehensive study had been done regarding the take home policy. The monetary difference is small but they did find that cars assigned to individuals are taken better care of than a fleet vehicle used by any and all personnel. Council suggested that a strict policy on personal use with penalties for abuse should be considered. All departments are using every available space for office, storage, etc. and the police department is no different. They need more room but are not in desperate shape yet. It is probably time to look at expanding all of the facilities. Chief Stewart suggested any new 3 005060 facility be built on FM 423 possibly in conjunction with the Fire Department. This would allow Administration to expand into that end of the building. ~'~ All grant programs are being actively pursued as an additional source of funding. Asset forfeiture has resulted in a van for the department and this is another area which is being monitored heavily as a resource. The sale of the S.W.A.T equipment has not been accomplished. No one wants this equipment. Break 10:30 a.m. Resume 10:50 a.m. Councilman Agnew said he would like to address the radio system for Public Safety as soon as possible. He felt we should utilize the existing system as much as possible. Also need to get with Motorola about the difference between the performance of the equipment during the demonstration and current operations. PERSONNEL - MARGARET BURKETI' Ms Burkett outlined the accomplishments achieved this year. Training programs have begun for supervisors and new evaluation forms are in use. This will be an on-going program. The procedures manual now covers more areas related to the supervision of employees such as hire/fire guidelines. We have adopted the military service credit through TMRS and would like to look at increasing contributions to 6% this year. The merit pay plan criteria is complete and although evaluations are on-going, will be utilized for the first time in October, 1994. We will continue to participate in salary surveys to maintain our awareness of surrounding cities. Ms Burkett went on to state that we were not able to implement the TMRS buyback as it was too expensive. Also a physical fitness program had not been started. Mayor Manning said he thought this should be a high priority especially for our Public Safety personnel. Perhaps we should develop a policy and then establish programs to meet that policy. Ms Burkett will study various options and present them during the budget process. Another program Ms Burkett would like to implement is the Employee of the Year. The Fire and Police Departments already have programs to recognize Public Safety and civilian personnel but this should include the entire city. May is "Public Service Month" and this would be a good time to start. Fire - Van Morrison Chief Morrison was pleased with the progress in volunteer training. All but five of the volunteers will be EMT certified by May and all will be certified by November. The command post is also completed except for the addition of maps. The largest problem still with the department is the equipment. This was mentioned during the police department's presentation and it is critical that the fire department arrange for the repair/replacement of Ambulance 1. The EMS program has 302 subscribers at this 00150 time and with the money already approved it is possible to have a new chassis. Councilmen Bogan and Dillard will meet with Chief Morrison and James England, Finance Director to work out a program. Chief Morrison recommends we delete the regional fire service plan from the goals document. This program would require financial expenditure from us but we would not have any control over the program. Library. - Joan Sveinsson Ms Sveinsson said the new computer system is in and has reduced the processing/acquisition time for materials. All of the areas are not yet fully operational for the public but will be soon. It would be helpful if they had a phone system which would answer with a recorded message providing general information on services and hours, similar to the system now in Utility Administration. Many times they must leave a patron standing at the counter to answer the phone and it is often a question about "what time do you close today?" The facilities are under constant repair as there is foundation damage which has caused cracks. As discussed previously, would like to expand the facilities but an outside consultant suggested building a new building rather than trying to expand this one. The first patron survey has been completed and this will be an ongoing program. Staff has looked at ways of expanding service hours but it is not possible at this time without additional personnel. The secretary has been added and is providing much needed assistance but would still like to add another full time circulation clerk. An alternative would be seasonal help during the heavy summer months. Ms Sveinsson has been working with Ms Hicks to coordinate efforts to improve the collection of fines for overdue materials and the involvement of our Municipal Court. Some councils have determined they would rather not pursue overdue materials but if this is the case, additional funding must be allowed for the replacement of materials which are lost to the collection. Ms Sveinsson continues to coordinate the Computer Committee. Finance - James England The original goals for the improvement of the budget process have been achieved. We now have a multi-year document and the information provided is more comprehensive and useful. This will be an on-going project as it evolves into the document council desires. Additionally, the fixed asset survey is complete and tagging of all property is in process. Cycle utility billing is now in place. Privatization of meter reading services has been reviewed and is not financially feasible at this time as any hand held units would have to be purchased and will be dependent on the computer hardware we use in future. Mr. England has also reviewed the establishment of a Purchasing Department and this is not possible at this time. He suggested these items be deleted from the document. The average monthly billing program is set for a May, 1994 target. They are still looking at software. They are also looking at credit card payment of utility bills. The 5 problem is the fee for credit card use. The City would have to pay this fee and we cannot add this to the utility bill. Additional research is being done. Remote collection/payment '--" site has not been established. Businesses in the city have been contacted and none are ~ interested in providing this service. The Post Office has set up a box inside where patrons can bring their bill in. They will hand cancel the payment and deliver it to the Utility Department the next working day. This prevents payments from being sent to Coppell for sorting and then returned to The Colony. This has resulted in payments being late and customers being assessed late fees. It must be stressed that payments must be taken into the Post Office. Those dropped off outside in the boxes will still be sent to Coppell. City Secretary/General Administration - Patti Hicks Ms Hicks stated many of the items listed in the goals document are now complete and should be deleted. These include review/hiring of Municipal Court Judge, creating position of City Marshal, formal response to the Andersen Report, policies and procedures manuals for all departments as well as an Administrative manual, and the purchase of the Local Government Code for City Secretary's Office. Items which will be concluded soon are the purchase of a FAX machine for the Administrative offices and improving the sound system in the Council Chambers. On-going items are the certification process for the Deputy City Secretary and the Code of Ordinances. We have just added the water and wastewater regulations to our code and we will need to re-codify in a couple of years. This office will check on the cost with the company that handles this for us and also for computer access. The City Charter still needs to be printed in booklet form but there are some changes which need to be made. A Charter election must be held and then print. This could be in the 95/96 budget. Mr. Don Owens, Fleet Maintenance Supervisor, provided a report outlining the difference in costs to in-house maintenance versus contract with outside vendors. It is more economical for us to continue as we are at this time. As everyone else is asking for more space, the vault in Central Records needs to be expanded. Right now, almost all records are stored here. All vital records should be stored in the vault but there is not room. It was suggested that off-site storage facility rates be looked into. Ms Hicks stated Mr. van Til would cover land development in his presentation. Mayor Manning said he thought it imperative an Economic Development Director be added to staff immediately. With the completion of the SH 121 expansion and the near completion of the Tollway extension, we are going to be left behind if we do not aggressively market our city. Councilman Bogan said we need to look into expanding our phone lines. He has called many times and been unable to get through as all lines are busy. There was discussion on the best way to get information out to our citizens. The Community Marquee had been suggested in the goals document. Some thought this was not the best way but no one was able to suggest another method. tr~ Staff Planner - Bob van Til Mr. van Til said they are working on developing a Master Plan for land use throughout the city. This will help determine the best use of our resources. Staff will submit a report to Tom Cravens and Mr. van Til on capital improvements. A planning document will then be drafted. This will include streets, drainage, water/wastewater and anything else for infrastructure. This will be a five year plan. The permit process has been reviewed and changes have been implemented to streamline the process. The curbside recycling program is now in place. It was brought up that some plastics are not accepted. Council's understanding was that ALL plastics would be recycled with the exception of styrofoam. This needs to be reviewed. The Economic Development Corporation is being put together by Council and the Chamber. In addition, resource material is now available for small businesses. We continue to pursue grant funding and recently were able to purchase a computer for the Chamber using grant funds. Public Works - Tom Cravens Mr. Cravens said crews were working to keep up with repairs to roads and general maintenance. The big concern is again with equipment. We have gone out for bids on a dump truck and will be opening bids February 17, but most of the equipment and trucks are long past their expected lifespan. Cars from the Police Department are transferred to Inspections or Public Works to get a few more miles out of them. Mayor Manning directed Tom Cravens to meet with Don Owens and Councilman Bogan to draft a vehicle replacement policy. Mr. Cravens then handed out his summary on the two wastewater treatment plant expansion proposals. Mayor Manning asked each council member to review and directed Ms Hicks to add this to the February 17, 1994 agenda. With no further business to discuss, Mayor Manning adjourned the session at 3:20 p.m. APPROVED: William W. Manning, Mayor ~ ATTEST: Sandie Chance, Deputy City Secretary 7