City Council Regular Meeting and Workshop - 19 Mar 2019

City Council meeting and workshop for March 19, 2019

The Council:
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Absent (Sickness)
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Kirby Lack-Present
Marc Payne-Present
Charlie Youngs-Present

Mayoral Candidates:
Bradi Dewald Diaz-Present
Ron Nelson II-Present
Joey Acfalle-Absent
Brandi Weiand-Absent

Hello again Copperas Cove! As always, we appreciate you checking in - here's the recap from the latest City Council Meeting.

Announcements:
Ryan Haverlah (our Interim City Manger) started the night off with a few announcements.
-The city of Copperas Cove will be celebrating it's 140th birthday! March 25th at 5:30 pm at the City Library, there will be a proclamation, showing of historical photos, story telling, cake, cookies, punch, and other activities. Everyone is encouraged to show up!
-Copperas Cove recently was given an award from the United Way for showing the biggest improvements during the past year

Citizens Forum:
-Terri stepped up first and kicked things off with her continued disappointment in the Fathom mess. They are still conducting improper services with 30-45 min phone calls to fix an issue and there have been a lot of hard times in trying to get answers. She would really like to see these issues her tenants are having be resolved. Moving on from that, she is a volunteer with a local emergency response team and on May 7th, they will be holding a major  mass casualty exercise around Fort Hood. They are needing a lot of volunteer actors to help out with this and can use everyone from children to the elderly.
-Mari (hopefully I spelled that correct) Cruz is an 18 year citizen with Copperas Cove. She's recently had an issue with Fathom where they pulled a scheduled auto draft of her bill and disconnected it on the same day! Then, to add insult to injury, they wanted an additional $55 up front to reconnect it, wouldn't let her authorize it to be turned back on since she wasn't the account holder (although her husband tried to have her added as having permission twice in the past), and then told her that because it was after 3 pm, they wouldn't be able to reconnect her water that day. She added that she has Lupus, her husband is a disabled vet, and they need water for medical reasons. As a final touch, she also noticed added fees on her following bill that resulted from the water shutoff.
-Debbie spoke out about payment issues she's had with Fathom. They have a small family who have been taking measures to cut back on water usage in the past months, yet she see's her bill continuing to go up. This past one, it was over 5,000 gallons. She's noticed that there's two different water and sewage fees instead of one of each like normal and doesn't believe Fathom should be double dipping like that. Editors Note: I've sat in on discussions about this by the council. It's my personal belief that there is a misunderstanding in this case. The city applies a discounted rate for everyone if they use UNDER 5,000 gallons. Once you reach the 5,000 gallon mark, your rate goes up to the "normal" rate. Most of us don't use over 5,000 gallons so we will never see the difference. It is MY personal belief that what is happening with the two line items of water and two line items of sewer is one line item is the discount rate up to 5,000 gallons, and the second line item is the standard rate applied after the 5,000 gallons. If I have this wrong, feel free to let us know in the comments - Jeremy
-Linda with the Five Hills Art Guild is inviting the public to next weekends (May 30-31)Five Hills Art Festival - "Bridge the Gap!". It will have free parking and entry, dancers, art from all across the state as well as one artist coming in from New Mexico, and dance off competitions. It will be Saturday from 10 to 7 and Sunday from 11 to 4.

The Agenda

Action Items:

H1 - The Heart of Texas Defense Alliance came out and gave its quarterly report on activities and requested payments for professional services provided. Keith Sledd was not near the microphone and the A/C was kind of loud, so we missed some of what he was saying, but I did pick up a few things.  

The Department of the Army has approved a Recycling Inter-Governmental Support Agreement (IGSA) allowing Copperas Cove to use their recycling program. The lawyers looked into policy and it doesn't prohibit this type of relationship. To make things more secure, they are now moving to include language specifically authorizing a relationship like this, and then Fort Hood and Copperas Cove will work to put this in effect. 

The Governor is working on some actions to be more supportive of military spouses and families. In the second slide (GCSM Findings and Recommendations), check marks are next to items that are already in place, and the unchecked items are being worked on to be put in place. I also heard some talk about Fort Hood resources being used towards construction of a wall on our southern border, but I think it was something being worked on. PASS

H2 - The Five Hills Art Guild made a presentation discussing the expenses put into the "Bridge the Gap" going on this weekend, and they requested a reimbursement for $8,760 out of the $12,000 already allocated in the city budget. PASS

H3 - The council assigned three members to the sign committee. Two are locally recognized business owners and one is a commercial sign contractor licensed by the State of Texas. Douglas Aldrich (All American Signs), Teresa Lange (Lamar Advertising), and Jennifer Snelling (Quine and Associates) were selected. PASS

H4 - The Copperas Cove Police Dept is looking to get rid of a number of firearms that no longer serve a purpose in the Police Department. Since they legally can't sell them to the public, they are looking to trade them in towards new firearms through a certified dealer (85 used weapons for 15 new weapons) with no financial liability to the city. PASS

H5 - Weaver (the same company that conducted the FATHOM Audit) presented an FY2018 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. When conducting this audit, they look at cash disbursements, payroll, utility revenue, tax revenue, and capitol projects. In all the areas they reported on, there were no problems found. Jay Manning asks why is this late again? The auditor stated no blame on the city, all the city staff were very helpful and prompt. Weaver took extra time in making the report presentable. Charlie Youngs motioned to approve the report. Jay Manning stated he was just given this report, and it is quite heavy. He can't vote to approve acceptance of this report with so many pages and so little time to review it. He would like extra time to review it.  The rest of the council concurred with his thoughts. FAILED 5-1 with Charlie Youngs being the only one to approve. They will revisit during a special meeting at 5:00, next Monday (March 25th).

H6 - Joe Brown with Parks and Rec gave a presentation on the current fees being charged at the Civic Center. He reminded the Council that it used to be $800 a day and $400 for half a day with a $400 refundable deposit, $100 Kitchen use fee, $100 Audio equipment use fee, $100 Stage use fee, and $40 restoration fee applied to everyone. They were getting a LOT of requests for fee reductions, so  last year the council voted to drop the rental fee and get rid of the half day fee to make it fair for everyone and stop entertaining requests for reduced fees. Now, here we are again with the council requesting a report of the daily operating expenses for the Civic Center to see how much more we can reduce the cost and still cover operating expenses. He took the overall expenses of the Civic Center for the past 5 years, and for each year he divided the amount of expenses for that year by amount of rentals for that year. Then he took all 5 years expense costs and averaged them out. Expense costs are everything from toilet paper being used to the grounds employees being paid to set things up in the civic center, to the floor wax being applied and time to do it. He did not factor in electricity used for the lights and HVAC or administrative staff time which is used towards each rental as well. The number he came up with was $560 a day or $70 an hour to run the civic center. Marc Payne started asking a bunch of questions about how many A/C units the building has, and he noticed that as prices went up over the years, rentals went down. He then factored in the city and school district using the civic center and said that means that hardly any citizens are actually renting the building. Marc further stated that we should not be so tough on tax payers already paying for these buildings or Charities trying to help the community.

From there the council started making form adjustments to specify who can receive up to a 50% discount when seemingly out of nowhere, Charlie Youngs pulled out of thin air that he wants the rental fee to be a flat $250 for anyone and everyone, no discounts applied. Take it or leave it. Joann and Marc immediately agreed. Jay Manning said he would hate to see the city losing money on renting this building and thinks we should stay at cost. Charlie Youngs then said that he thinks the people that are going to rent it are mostly citizens who are already paying for it in their taxes, and he would rather drop the price now with the hopes that rentals go up, and if they don't go up then go back and raise the fee to make up for lost costs. With that, the council voted on the new fee of $250 a day, Sound/Kitchen/Stage usage are $100 each, $400 refundable deposit, and a $40 restoration fee applied to everyone.Editors Note: Why are we as a city renting OUR Civic Center to a customer for half of what it cost to operate it- James  PASS A future agenda item will cover applying the new fees to the schedule, so the fee isn't being applied just yet.

Reports from Staff:

Ryan had some reports for the council tonight. 

-With the ongoing Texas Legislative Session going on, several bills have been presented. SB1 and HB1 both are similar bills (SB- Senate Bill, HB- House Bill) They have to do with relief payments the state gives out to help offset veterans who don't have to pay property tax. With these bills, Copperas Coves budgeted relief would more than double from prior years. Attached to those are some bills - one would expand this to Central Texas College and municipalities that lie in counties that share a border with military installations. 

-SB1152 States that local governments can't use any public funding to lobby at the state level. The problem with this is most cities are part of the Texas Municipal League which goes and does lobbying for the different cities around the state. They play a big part in staying in tune with the Texas Government and fighting for the cities. If this bill passes, the Mayor would have to be the one who goes to lobby for their city, taking some of their attention away from events going on in their city or needs of the city. 

-The Business 190 project is now in its 60% review phase which is expected to be complete by May 1st. The report from the TxDOT public meeting should be ready by the end of April, and will be made available to the public when the city gets it. 

- City employees have recently gone to South Park and cleaned out all the cat shelters (over 70) that had been placed around the park. They then reached out to the local concerned citizens and assured them that this was not a preliminary step to removing cats, but rather a measure to clean up the park. The city would like to remind residents that personal property is not permitted to be left on city property. 

Copperas Cove Workshop Notes

The workshop consisted of a discussion of the Downtown Transportation Feasability Study and the Downtown Masterplan of 2008. Neither plan dealt with traffic flow cor Copperas Cove.

The next 12 million dollar project from KTMPO road project will be the FM 116 railroad underpass project. They plan to start it in 2022 and will need two years of planning with BNSF before that due to coordination of the project. It doesn't address the traffic flow issue or the continued growth on the north side of town. Here are the options the council discussed:

1. FM 116 Railroad Underpass

2. Shift Main St to FM 116

3. FM 116 Realignment

4. FM 1113 Realignment

5. FM 116 and FM 1113 Realignment

The council agreed to have the Interim City Manager plan for the study and bring it back to them. 

With that, the meeting was a wrap! We appreciate your stopping by - be sure to subscribe, comment, and share this blog with other Copperas Cove residents!