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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/21/2002 City Council 0077'3., Oct. 21, 2002 CITY OF THE COLONY DENTON COUNTY, TEXAS OCTOBER 21, 2002 The Regular Session of the City Council of the City of The Colony, Texas, was called to order at 7:07 p.m. on the 21st of October 2002 at City Hall, with the following roll call: Bernetta Henville-Shannon Mayor Present John Gordon Councilmember Present Lewis Jue Councilmember Present Joe McCourry Councilmember Present Lynda Bayliss Councilmember Present Perry Schrag Councilmember Present Joel Marks Councilmember Present And with seven members present a quorum was established and the following items were addressed: 1.0 I ROUTINE ANNOUNCEMENTS, RECOGNITIONS AND PROCLAMATIONS: I Call to Order Invocation - First Baptist Church Pledge of Allegiance to the United States Flag Salute to the Texas Flag Mayoral Proclamation for Chamber of Commerce Week Loretta Hill, Executive Vice President accepted the proclamation and advised the chamber had surpassed their goal for membership this year with 390 members. Citizen Input Elaina Leard, 13290 Beach Club Road. Ms. Leard stated she is not a resident of The Colony, advising she lives in what is known as the Beach and Tennis Club west of Etheridge Drive. She said the Beach and Tennis Club Association was formed 35 years ago. There are 14 houses on the property and all are on septic tank systems, which she believes dump into Lake Lewisville. She further advised that 3-4 weeks ago she saw suds along the shoreline of the lake. Ms. Leard stated that the property had been annexed by The Colony in 1986 and then in 1989 was disannexed. She said originally all the homes were vacation homes, but now 10 of them are permanent residences. She said she wants city services and police coverage from The Colony and for the good of all citizens and for the beauty of the lake, she requested that The Colony annex the property into the city. 12.0 I CONSENT AGENDA I 2.1 Consideration of approval of the minutes of the council meeting held October 14, 2002 (Wilson) Motion to approve the minutes as written - Gordon; Second - Jue carried with all ayes. 2.2 Consideration of approval of cancellation of November 18, 2002 regular council meeting (Council) Motion to approve as recommended - Gordon; Second - Jue carried with all ayes. 2.3 Consideration of approval of an ordinance amending Chapter 6, Article I, Schedule of Fees for Multi-family permits (Persaud) Oct. 21, 2002 Councilmember Jue asked Harry to summarize the action being taken. Mr. Persaud explained that the council had re-visited the schedule of fees regarding multi-family permits at the October 7, 2002 council meeting and pursuant to action taken at the meeting, staff has prepared this ordinance for adoption of new multi-family permit fees of $356.00. Motion to approve as presented- McCourry; second Bayliss carried with one dissenting vote by Councilmember Jue. 2.4 Consideration of approval of a resolution granting tax exemption for charitable organizations (Koo) Motion to approve the resolution as written - Gordon; Second- Jue carried with all ayes. 2.5 Consideration of approval of a resolution to enter into an Interlocal agreement with the city of Frisco for the purpose of cooperative purchasing between the cities of The Colony and Frisco (Sparkman) Mayor Henville-Shannon asked if the purpose of this agreement is to allow us to purchase items, which may not be available through our agreement with the Houston-Galveston Area Council of Governments. Mr. Cheatham stated that the backhoe, which the city wants to purchase, is available through the City of Frisco bid, however we have to enter into an Interlocal agreement with them to take advantage of the purchase. Motion to authorize the resolution as written - McCourry; second- Gordon carried with all ayes. 2.6 Consideration and approval of an ordinance authorizing the purchase of a Backhoe/Loader for $55,885 from Future Equipment under the Interlocal purchasing agreement with the city of Frisco (Sparkman) Motion to authorize the ordinance as written - Jue; second - McCourry carried with all ayes. 2.7 Consideration of approval of council expenditures (Council) Motion to approve as presented - Gordon; Second- Jue carried with all ayes. 2.8 Consideration of approval of an ordinance amending the Oncor electric franchise agreement (Sparkman) Councilmember Schrag stated the city settled with TXU earlier and this ordinance allows them to re-coup their money from the customers. He asked if this means there will be no increase. Cheryl McKinnis explained that in the Electrical Franchise the money paid to the city is not being billed out to the customers, but in the Gas Franchise, it is, but only for 3 year. She also noted that two items were added to the list on which the 4% franchise fee is based, which will make the money received by the city in the future a little more. Gordon Hikel recommended that the city pass this ordinance and item 2.9. Motion to approved item 2.8 and 2.9 as presented - Gordon; second - McCourry carried with Councilmember Schrag voting no. 2.9 Consideration of approval of an ordinance amending the TXU gas franchise agreement (Sparkman) Oct. 21, 2002 This item was approved with the motion as shown in item 2.8. 3.0 ] REGULAR AGENDA ITEMS I 3.1 Consideration and approval of an ordinance awarding a contract to Teague, Nail and Perkins not to exceed the amount of $254,760.00 for engineering services relating to improvements of South Colony Blvd. (Hanvey/Johnston) James Hanvey, city engineer gave an overview of this item and introduced Dick Perkins with Teague, Nall and Perkins, Inc. to give details. Mr. Perkins stated the streets will be concrete, 4-lane divided with some water and sewer replacement. He suggested looking at upgrading streetlights. The cost estimate is $2.2 million. Motion to approve as presented - Gordon; second - Jue carried with all ayes. 3.2 Consideration of appointments to the following advisory boards: Board of Adjustment & Appeals, Library, Parks & Recreation, Arts (Council) Mayor Henville-Shannon asked each Councilmember to name their nominees for the BOAA. All members name the following people for appointment: Constance Yahwak - reappoint to place 2; Michael Barrett - appoint to Place 1; Mike Cart - appoint to Alternate No. 2. Mayor Henville-Shannon asked for nominees to the Library Board. Motion to re-appoint Lorraine Clark, Wayne Bullard and Jayme Skelton - Gordon; second- McCourry carried with all ayes. Mayor Henville-Shannon asked for nominees to the P&R Board. Motion to re-appoint Lisa Leary and Rich Lewis and to appoint Rene Asprion to Place 1 - Gordon; second- Bayliss carried with all ayes. Mayor Henville-Shannon asked each Councilmember to name their nominations to the Cultural Arts Board. They are as follows: Gordon - Parker, Shaw, Rose, Hudson, Ripperger, Martin, Hill Jue - Parker, Shaw, Rose, Hudson, Ripperger, Martin, Hill McCourry - Parker, Ellis, Shaw, Rose, Hudson, Martin, Hill Bayliss - Parker, Shaw, Rose, Hudson, Ripperger, Martin, Hill Schrag - Parker, Shaw, Rose, Hudson, Ripperger, Martin, Hill Marks -Parker, Shaw, Rose, Hudson, Ripperger, Martin, Hill Henville-Shannon - Parker, Ellis, Shaw, Rose, Hudson, Martin, Hill The following persons received the majority of votes: Cyndi Parker, Morgana Shaw, Janice Rose, Pat Hudson, Liz Ripperger, Christi Martin, Lori Hill. Motion to appoint those named above to the Cultural Arts Board - Gordon; second - Jue carried with all ayes. Mayor Henville-Shannon announced there would be a work session on October 28, 2002 to discuss P&Z, 4A, 4B and Telecommunication, noting that appointment will be on November 4, 2002. 3.3 Receive report from staff on the city's sign ordinance and provide direction to be incorporated into the sign ordinance (Persaud) Mr. Persaud presented proposed changes to the city's sign ordinance for discussion. Oct. 21, 2002 Real Estate Directional Signs - Portable and off-premise signs are prohibited in some of our neighboring cities. The standards and display restrictions are less restrictive in The Colony. In order to reduce clutter and provide order in the display of such signs staff proposed two options: Option A - Institute more restrictive standards and display limitations as follows: (a) Maximum size 6 sq. ft. (b) Maximum height 3 ft. (c) No closer than 100 fee and no farther than 150 feet from intersections. (d) Individual builders signs shall be no closer than 1000 feet. (e) Maximum number is 15 signs per builder (f) Minimum 3 feet set back from back of curb. (g) Signs are prohibited along SH 121 (h) Duration is from noon Friday until noon Monday. (i) Signs must apply to real estate located with The Colony City limits. Option B - Prohibit off-premise real estate directional signs. Councilmember Marks said all signs dealing with property out of the city should be eliminated. Councilmember McCourry said all builder signs should be eliminated. Councilmember Gordon said he has no problem with the ordinance as is, but Inspections need to patrol on the weekends to enforce it. He agreed that those signs advertising property out of the city should be eliminated. Councilmember Bayliss said suggested Option B and eliminating all building signs. Dale Cheatham advised that Inspections staff could be scheduled to work weekends if that is direction of council. After lengthy discussion a motion was made. Motion to adopt Option A with stipulations (a) (b) (e) (g) (h) (i) and to authorize additional hours for Inspections for enforcement - Gordon. Discussion followed. Motion amended to adopt Option A with stipulations (a) (b) (d) (e) (g) (h) (i), reducing (e) to 10 - Gordon. Mayor Henville-Shannon asked Mr. Persaud's opinion. Mr. Persaud said other cities prohibit the signs completely and that staff would recommend that option. The builders would complain, but the city does allow them other opportunities for advertising. Councilmember Marks stated elimination would be simpler, and then each builder could be handled with temporary signs. Oct. 21, 2002 Councilmember Jue seconded the motion, which failed with McCourry, Bayliss, Schrag and Marks voting No. Motion to approve Option B - McCourry; second - Bayliss carried with Gordon, Jue and Schrag voting No. Political Signs - Mr. Persaud gave a brief overview of the ordinance provisions and said if council wishes to make political signage more restrictive in line with neighboring cities, additional standards to consider are: (J) Political signs shall only be posted on private property with the consent of the property owner. (K) Delete the current provision which states "Special permission in granted on election day only, to erect special purpose political signs in city right-of-way, excluding center line medians, to within one-hundred (100) feet of designated polling places." Motion to leave the sign ordinance regarding political signs, as is - $chrag; second - Marks. Councilmember McCourry said he asked this be brought up due to the clutter they cause during election times. He said the council has been trying to clean up clutter and he thought this would be one way to do that. Mayor Henville-Shannon asked if he thought political signs should be allowed in the public right-of-way on Election Day only. Councilmember McCourry believes we should control the placement of those signs. Councilmember Gordon said he sees no problem with the ordinance as it is. He said according to the ordinance there should not be any signs in the public right-of-way. Councilmember Gordon said, "I guess I would ask the question then the signs that appeared last week, were those political signs? No, I guess I'll address that to the mayor. Mayor, again, what the question that arose, then is the two signs that were up last week. Were those political signs?" Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "there is a difference between political signs and special events." Councilmember Gordon asked, "What did that sign say on the bottom?" Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "It said it was a special event, it was a fund raiser for a special event." Councilmember Gordon asked, "It didn't say anything about being a paid political..." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "I believe it did say that on the bottom. Those signs were not meant for a political sign as basically to re-elect, vote, vote, vote, those are political signs. Those signs that you are referring to were for a fundraiser and they were classified as a special event. I had that looked at and before we even decided to put those out." Councilmember Gordon asked "Who looked at it?" Mayor Henville-Shannon said "I had our city attorney to take a look at those." Councilmember Gordon asked, "Is that correct?" Gordon Hikel (city attorney) said, "Councilmember Gordon the mayor and I briefly discussed the issue and whether a sign is a special event sign or a political sign. Basically start first of all looking at how our city ordinance defines what a political sign is and what a special event sign is. And it is a factual inquiry. What the Supreme Court has said is when you have a sign for example that communicates a message, and I just saw the actual tonight for the first time. And what the court has said for example, I think at the bottom there, I think it says, I can't see that far, but I think it says paid.. I don't know what it says. (He was handed a copy of the sign) It says here 'paid political advertisement for the campaign to re- elect Bemetta Henville-Shannon mayor. Kathy Ferguson Treasurer.' And so in trying to determine whether a sign is a political sign, a special event sign or anything else, you take the sign in its totality to see what is the primary message being communicated by this particular sign. And no one particular sentence will define what the sign really is. And I'll be honest with you and tell you as I look at the sign, today one may conclude that it is a political sign and one may conclude the very next day, no, it's a special event sign or a fund raising sign." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "And those signs were placed on private property too. They were not placed on city property." Councilmember Marks said, ". .... in Oct. 21, 2002 somebody's front yard." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "I saw that someone had removed it and we went out and removed that back to the location where we had permission from the landowners at Morningstar and Memorial and that's where it should have remained. Someone pulled it and put it in that yard." Mr. Hikel said it is a very close call. He said it could go either way because of the language at the very bottom and because at the top it says "fundraiser". He said he does not know the answer. Councilmember Jue asked if there is specific language that constitutes a political sign and asked if there are filing requirements before someone can use political advertising. Mr. Hikel said Article II, Section 6 defines a political sign. It refers only to an issue or a candidate. He said when looking at this sign, it does refer to a candidate, but you have to ask what the essential purpose of the sign is. Councilmember Jue asked if you have to have filed for a particular office in order to place signs such as this. Mr. Hikel said our ordinance says signs should not be placed until 30 days before the election and they have to be a particular size. Councilmember McCourry said based on this, the ordinance definitely needs some clarification regarding political signs to eliminate problems like this. Mr. Hikel agreed stating the sign ordinance needs to be more crisply defined. Councilmember McCourry asked Mr. Hikel to assist in the amendment so we don't violate first amendment rights. Councilmember Schrag said the disclaimer at the bottom of the sign (would seem) to make it political. Councilmember Gordon said, "I am not here to argue whether this is a political sign or not a political sign, but if you have something on the bottom of the sign that reads paid political advertisement for the re-election of Bernetta Henville-Shannon, we can all come to our own conclusions, whether that's a political sign. But number one, if it is a political sign, it was placed illegally. It doesn't meet the sign ordinance. It's larger than what the sign ordinance calls for, it's up long before 30 days before an election and it was not placed in the front yard of an occupied lot. So I mean if it's a political sign, it's illegal, but my point and the only point I want to make tonight is, if the mayor runs on an ethics platform, she ought to hold herself to the same standards that she wants to hold other people." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "Councilman Gordon, to address that, I definitely agree with you, but in our eyes and in my eyes, and I'm sure we can all discuss on how we review this or how we look at it. Because as we know the law is only an interpretation of how you perceive it when you read it. But in our eyes, in the innocence, and we are talking about ethics, and I do agree with you about the ethics thing. But, in our eyes we were thinking about that, the people who put that sign together were putting it together for the sole purpose ora special event for a barbecue to come meet and support. That was the sole purpose of it. We didn't even think in our wildest dreams that someone would think it was politically motivated and a political sign. I understand what the sign ordinance is. I understand what's inside the sign ordinance. That's why I chose not to put it on public property and it all went on private property with the owner's request. That was the true intention and there was no hidden agenda there. It was not meant to politically motivated, but I tell you right now, we have sure gotten a good lesson on what the sign ordinance is and it looks like we need to definitely re-visit this so we can clear up some of these things." Councilmember Gordon said, "Mayor, it was a political sign, it's illegal." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "John Gordon, I have the floor if you don'.t, mind. I do grant you your right to speak and I do wish you would grant me that. I understand you want to jump in a hurry, and that's O.K. because I'm getting used to it. But our true intentions of that was merely for a barbecue, it was not meant to be political. Councilmember Gordon said, "My last word on this." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "Do you understand that I have the floor? I really appreciate that." Councilmember Gordon said, "I understand Mayor, I understand, I just want an answer to my question." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "Councilman Gordon, I have the floor. Would you respect that honor and let me have that? Councilmember Gordon said, "Certainly." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "I have done that for you. I would only ask for the same things from you. I have done that patiently for you so be patient with me and let me finish what I have to say. It's O.K. you're going to jump in. I mean I expect that out of you, but would you please give me the same common courtesy that I grant you every time, every time you speak?" Councilmember Gordon said,"~tw'ayor, I don't need a lecture. If you want to lecture me, you can do that Oct. 21, 2002 after the meeting. I'll give you five minutes." Mayor Henville-Shannon said, "Councilman Gordon, you are out of order." Councilmember Marks said he had assumed they were political. He said the Texas Ethics Commission gives verbiage for a disclaimer, which makes a sign political. He said he also thinks the ordinance needs to be amended. He stated the mayor had expressed problems with prior councils with regard to ethics and now it seems she is following the same path. He said we need to amend the ordinance so something is in place to prevent this type of problem. Councilmember McCourry agreed there are some interpretation problems. Mayor Henville- Shannon asked Gordon Hikel and Harry Persaud to please review this matter and bring a recommendation to the council. At this time the mayor called the question. The vote on Councilmember Shrag's motion was taken as follows: The motion to leave the sign ordinance regarding political signs as it is passed with Councilmember McCourry voting no. Temporary signs in the r.o.w. - Staff recommends adding a presumption clause, which would allow staff to cite the person whose name, and/or phone number appears on signs, which have been illegally placed on public r.o.w. Motion to add the presumption clause - Gordon; second McCourry carried with all ayes. [4.0 [EXECUTIVE SESSION I 9:15 p.m. 4.1 EXECUTIVE SESSION as authorized by Section 551.074 and 551.071 of the Government Code regarding personnel, to-wit: A. Annual review of City Secretary (551.074) 10:10 p.m. 4.2 Consideration of any appropriate action to be taken as a result of the executive session. Motion to authorize a 6% increase for the city secretary -Mmarks; second - Gordon carried with Mayor Henville-Shannon voting no. With no further business to address the meeting was adjourned at 10:12 p.m. APPROVED: ~e-Shm~non, Mayor ATTEST: / Patti A. Hicks, TRMC, City Secretary