Civic Center Fees at the City Council meeting

City Council meeting for March 5


Hello again Copperas Cove!! Tonight's City Council Meeting was a short one, but there was a long discussion involving the Parks and Rec fee schedule. We're going to give you the run down of what was said so you know where your council members stand. So to start things off, lets take roll - 1 note, we don't THINK we saw Mayoral Candidate Brandi Weiand tonight, but we've been wrong with new candidates before. So Brandi, if you were there - let us know! Ok, moving on -

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

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

Citizens Forum:
We had two citizens up tonight. The first one was Mike and he spoke about bringing a rec center into Copperas Cove. In 2008 we had a vote on it which failed by 95 votes. That was over 10 years ago and we've had a lot change in population and direction of the city. He feels like we need to have another vote on this and see if the citizens are ready for one yet. Mike coaches for various sports and said he could see this being a great benefit to the city.

Next up was Debbie. Debbie was asking when is the last time that the City Park Pool filtration system has been maintained. When she uses the pool, if she sits in the water, she finds hair on her skin that was floating around in the water. However when she uses the pool at the Gym, this is never an issue. She also wants to know why the removed the water fountains from the pool. Now people are forced to go buy water from the concession stand since they don't allow any food or drinks to be brought in from the outside. She feels like it is wrong to force that on the citizens.

The Agenda

Consent Agenda: All items PASS

Action Items: 

H1 - Discussion was brought up with direction sought regarding the Parks and Rec fees schedule related to renting city facilities. This item was requested by Joann Courtland at the previous City Council Meeting after discussion about discounts for non-profits. P&R Director Joe Brown started the discussion with a brief overview of the P&R fee schedule and his thoughts on the requested intent to offer discounts to non-profits who would like to use city facilities. Joe stated that we recently had a reduction in fees across al
l facilities with the intention of nullifying discounts. We were charging $800 a day for facility use, and we dropped it to $500 a day which was along the lines of the discounted rate we were giving anyone who requested one before the council anyways. So to stop taking up council time, they just dropped the fee to $500 with the intention of no more discounts. Joe further advised that traditionally, P&R rentals are not subsidized - meaning that they are meant to bring some money in for the city. 

Joann Courtland responded first, saying she's not trying to set a discount, but wants to come up with a set fee for non-profits because she is trying to look out for the entities that provide things like free meals and services to the entire community with no door charges or qualifications needed. Two of the places she's looking at are the Civic Center and Ogletree Gap. Just for full disclosure, Joann Courtland and Kirby Lack both operate non-profits (Operation Stand Down and Trinity Worship Center - respectively). 

Charlie Youngs asked "when do we stop cutting funds and realize we're losing money?" These non-profits that are holding events should plan and budget for rental fees. With that said, he believes we should set the fee to the daily operating cost. If it costs $250 to operate the civic center one day - then charge that for the non-profits. 

Kirby Lack said his church is a non-profit, and he agrees that they should pay the fees for their events because they are always fund raising events. Non-Profits like the Star Group should get a discount because they help anyone and everyone who comes to their events and they don't make any money from the events. Their events are all about feeding the community and whatever is charged from the city is taking away from that event. To this, Charlie Youngs came back and reinforced that he is concerned about the city taking a loss of daily operating costs, and he's not about to take a loss for the city. 

Joann Courtland comes back and argues that losing a little on a rental fee is better than not making anything from non-use. To this, Dan Yancey reminds everyone that we already dropped the rate to avoid these discussions and help everyone across the board (citizens and non-profits alike). 

Fred Chavez states that he wants to eliminate back door discounts by setting one rate and sticking with it. If an event raising money - then stick to the fee. If they're providing a service to the entire community with no segregation involved, then that's different. Fred Chavez runs the theater out at Central Texas College and they have non-profits come through all the time asking for a discount. There's a lot of things he can be flexible with as the director, but one thing that must stay firm is the pricing. If a non-profit falls under a certain designation, then they can fill out an application with proof of that designation and get the discount. If you don't have that designation, then you pay the regular price. 

Jay Manning came in and said we're trying to collect enough to provide a service, so we need to keep rates the same to benefit ALL citizens. A few years ago, rates were doubled and from doing so, the city lost a lot of business. That was what caused us to lower our fees last year. He feels like we should lower them a little more to try and bring back some of that business we lost. 

Joe Brown stepped in again and said we just spent a LOT of money on renovations and we still have more renovations coming. He feels like we should keep the rates the same to help out with those renovations. Every other city he's worked in has not provided breaks. Our costs are already very low compared to other cities. To this, Joann stepped in and said that Killeen offers a special rate for non-profits and the Killeen Community Center just went through renovations. 

Kirby Lack stepped in and said that Joe has done a phenomenal job turning around our City Parks and Golf Course. We have our own bills to pay and we need to be careful what we give away. Joe added in that we have a couple House Bills looming that, if passed, could force department heads to make pay cuts across the city. If that happens and we lower rental fees as well, that could put the city in a bad position. 

Fred Chavez asked if we could just narrow the fee reduction down to two areas - the Civic Center and Ogletree Gap. Ryan responded by suggesting creating an application with check marks that need to be met in order to be able to get a discount. He thinks this could prevent abuse of the discount and avoid non-profits having to come to the council to request a discount and get one based off a good sales pitch. The council unanimously PASSED this idea. The city will work on an application and bring it forward in a future Council Meeting where they will go over operation costs of the Civic Center, review the application, and decide on a price point for rentals. 

H2 - This item was basically making a few adjustments to the fee schedule for Copperas Cove. Mostly removing fees for services that aren't provided anymore. A few of note:

-Farmers Market - removing the $25 daily fee. There is now only a $25 application fee which is great news for our local farmers. 

-Library has a color print fee now of 15 cents per page

-Library has set its overdue max fee to $10

PASS 6-0

H3 - The Police Department is requesting to have the HVAC system in their IT room replaced. It has been out for about 2 months now, requiring them to leave the door propped open for air circulation. Not only does this create a security risk for a room that is supposed to remain locked, but proper air conditioning is VERY important in any IT room for the computers to work properly. This repair will cost $20,540 which will be covered by other project savings. 

PASS 6-0

H4 - The Police Department has identified excess and obsolete equipment that is of no use anymore and would like to dispose of it. It consists of some old police uniform items as well as some Parks and Rec computer items. They will be transferring these items to solid waste in accordance with the Texas Constitution. 

PASS 6-0

H5 - There is an ongoing project right now along FM116 South and FM 3046 where they are trying to put in a bicycle lane and side walk. The city has determined that they don't have enough asphalt area unless they remove a vehicle lane, and they don't have enough easement room without making a LOT of driveways steep for home owners. What the city is recommending is creating one shared usage path instead (Option 1), which the engineers have already said they can make work.
PASS 6-0

Executive Session: 

There was a short executive session held regarding the offer of a financial or other incentive to a business prospect referenced as #ED-2018-2 Project Glow. When the council came back out to the Dias, it was announced the no action was taken.