City Council meeting on 5 Feb 19 and Fathom audit results

Copperas Cove City Council Meeting for 5 Feb 19


The Council:
Mayor-Vacant
Joann Courtland- Present
Fred Chavez- Present
Mayor Pro Tem Dan Yancey- Present
Jay Manning- Present
Kirby Lack- Present
Marc Payne- Present
Charlie Youngs- Present


The Agenda

Bradi Dewald Diaz

 Tonight's council meeting lasted over 2 hours and dealt with a variety of subjects. For agenda item H1, Star Group brought a big family of concerned citizens including Bill French and Dr Burns, which led the chambers to have standing room only. There were 20 people left standing in the room, with more out in the lobby. The subject of Fathom was part of three agenda items and took most of the time. We will write about most of it BUT there will be a SEPARATE blog dealing with the audit.

As of now, the only filed candidate for Mayor, Bradi Dewald Diaz, was at the council meeting. We asked her why she was running for office and she told us that she felt it was time to get involved again. She also said that Mayor Seffrood set the bar extremely high for all future mayors for Copperas Cove but she can do it and wants to do it.

Citizens Forum:
-Ms Keegan about water bill. She is a 40 year resident who lives alone and is being told she went through 20,000 gallons of water last month. Some of her high water usage was happening when she wasn't home or from midnight to 8 am when she was in bed.
-Terri Deans about need for open forum about Fathom. We still have double billings, erroneous billings, and wrongful disconnects happening. She doesn't mind fighting for the citizens, but needs other citizens to support her and get up there with her. She also spoke about some disaster training provided locally provided by G317. It will be a 24 hour course and is open to the public. You can get ahold of her directly for more info, or if you need help getting in contact - we can get you in contact with her.
-Mr Oliver about road conditions on Pecan Cove Drive. They have caused at least 4 accidents in recent years due to the amount and size of the pot holes. A Fire Truck and Police Car have been involved in accidents related to these pot holes as well as at least two cars that he's seen run off the road to try avoiding the pot holes and on coming traffic simultaneously. There has been discussion since at least 2014 to repair this road with no action taken.
-Siggi Loe about Business 190 and the need of sidewalks on both sides of the street in subdivisions. She encouraged the council to start enforcing a stipulation to builders that if they are going to build a new neighborhood, they are required to install sidewalks on both sides of the street. She also agrees with Mr Oliver. She sees that we're fixing up the golf course, but leaving our roads in disrepair. She urged the council that while the Golf Course and Parks DO need attention - put our roads first.

Public Hearing:
There was an initial public hearing about the renewal of the youth curfew. Deputy Chief Stoddard gave the brief. Cheryl Davis asked who makes the determination of reasoning of a minor in possible violation of the curfew. The officer makes the decision based on the information and location from the minor and parent. Parents are allowed to send their children out on errands for the parents (grocery store, medication run, etc) but they are not allowed to give their children permission just to go hang out after curfew. The ordinance has to be reauthorized every three years due to state law. It applies to children 16 and below. The next public hearing and vote will be February 19.

Jonathan Haywood Star Group

The Star Group requested that their lease for $1 a year be extended for another year and also explained the they had invested $125,000 (minus labor) in renovations on their building. Additionally, they have invested heavily in the public. Ryan Haverlah agrees tremendous work has been put in by the Star Group. Dan Yancey stated he is "grateful for them being here" and they are "one of the best things in Central Texas". Fred Chavez stated their "main value isn't in what you've put into the building, but the work you do".  The lease can be extended three times. It passed 7-0 and included a future debate on doing a two year extension.


Next the council approved a 50% discount for the Refuge Corporation (CHOP). Joe Brown briefed the council that the Refuge Corporation has never been charged. Dan Yancey and Jay Manning reminded the council that the Civic Center fee schedule last year was voted on by the City Council and lowered from $800 (with half days and discounts ) to $500 (with no half days or discounts). This was done to encourage more entities to rent the Civic Center, and bring an end to requests for discounts coming to the City Council. Even with that change income for the Civic Center didn't go up. Joann Courtland stated we should be trying to help them since they've been a 24 year partner with Copperas Cove and now we're bringing on a fee out of nowhere. Marc Payne stated this is supposed to be the City of Family Living and we need to provide a discount. Also, the Cove House was denied their discount. Passed 7-0

The Noon Exchange came to the council asking that a $3,875 check be issued to the for Copperas Cove partnership in the "Feast of Sharing". There were 750 people fed at no charge in November. November 21, 2019 will be the next scheduled dinner. Ryan Haverlah noted that this has already been budgeted. Passed 7-0

Agenda H4. The Fathom Audit
Here is a summary (look for the other blog soon):
The Audit covered April through September 2017
123 accounts were part of the audit (1% of accounts) and randomly selected
There are 7  billing cycles in Copperas Cove
There were no inconsistent meter reads and only one error.
64 accounts had a +/-10% change in bill during the audit period but we are told it is normal.
There were no disconnects from April through June 2017.
The disconnects problem was fixed by ordinance.
Councilmen Chavez, Yancey, and Manning said there was not a need further audit but need to still get answers to existing problems.

The 1st quarterly Fathom brief from Brad Dreir and Karen Garrison. The Interim City Manager

Brad Dreier, Fathom

started by saying the lobby space in the Utility Department has been expanded for more people, the supervisors office has been improved for privacy during account discussions with citizens, hiring in progress for utility department personnel, they are looking at costs for renovating the old utilities building, and Ryan Haverlah went to Haltom City to view their Fathom operations. Haltom City operates similar to us, started out with similar problems that have now pretty much all been resolved, and city staff were impressed with how they do things. They are the first city that Fathom has put an office in to directly interact with the customers. Ryan also stated that while he can not go into specifics - Ms Keegans bill is accurate, and the meter has not been acting up. He and his staff have been in contact with her and he has a meeting with her again later this week. Brad stated to the council that Copperas Cove now has their own dedicated billing, customer service, and ticket escalation areas. Copperas Cove now has it's own point of contact/representative with Fathom, which is Brad Dreir. Anytime we have any questions, we may contact him directly and he will do everything he can to help us, or the city staff. The Customer Service training time has been doubled. For property managers, blanket accounts have been working well since November 2018. Copperas Cove customers have a 43% portal registration rate compared to 25% nationally. The answered call rate has gone from 17 minutes to 1 minute 6 seconds. They will also be implementing a mobile meter reading vehicle for drive bys.

Brad said he is always available to Copperas Cove. They brief as often as needed. It was a much needed briefing. We still need an open forum.

The next item on the agenda dealt with Capital Outlay Plan for 2019. Main subject was the purchasing of two vehicles for the Utility department. Passed 7-0

The last two items passed 7-0 and were for training for council place 1 and 2, and for legislative policy. The executive session was cancelled.

Citizens attending the Copperas Cove City Council meeting

The Workshop at 5PM was about debt policy and Copperas Cove. Copperas Cove debt is $34 million carried by taxes and we add about $30 million more. Copperas Cove has a goal of issuing $10 million annually. Gary Kimble said that we pay off our debt faster than most other cities. Our bond rating is AA.

Future Agenda Items:

Joann Courtland would like to review the fees for all city owned facilities. - Approved

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