The Council:
Mayor Bradi Dewald Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Present
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Kirby Lack-Present
Marc Payne-Present
Charlie Youngs-Present
Council Seat 5 Candidates:
Dianne Campbell-Present
Gary Kent-Absent
Special Council Meeting (5:30PM)
Special Council Meeting for 5:30PM
Public Hearing #1. As required by law, the City Manager's Proposed Budget must have a publicized Public Hearing. Ellie Hall was the only citizen that spoke out. She voiced support for the Library project but said that she wished the automatic doors would have been re-installed.
Public Hearing #2. As required by law, the Copperas Cove Economic Development Corporation must present their proposed budget to the City Council and must have a publicized Public Hearing. There were no speakers.
Action Items:
The first Action Item was for the approval of the contract for the new City Manager, Ryan Haverlah. He was selected by the City Council in June. His contracts states the his annual pay will be $155,000 Dollars. Vote to pass was 7-0.
The second Action Item was a discussion about the council travel policy as requested by Jay Manning at the last city council meeting. The current rules for city council travel state that travel has to be requested of and approved by the entire council, with $5,000 per year allotted to the Mayor and $2,500 allotted to each council seat per year. During an election year for a seat, that council member is not permitted to travel from Oct 1st through election day. This included travel for training or working with outside entities such as the AUSA. Councilman Manning stated his belief that this is restrictive of council members in their last year who have built good will with surrounding communities. Councilman Payne asked Ryan if this was only for the 6 week period during election time - to which Ryan confirmed. Councilman Lack mentioned that at one point, the Council was running amok, spending up all of their $2,500 for the year and then having to borrow from other council members who were term limited and couldn't travel. Because of that, this ordinance was cleaned up. Charlie Youngs asked if we should add a "Case by Case" caveat, which got agreement from other council members. Councilwoman Joann Courtland added that the caveat should only cover travel - not training, which again the rest of the council was in agreement with. Everything got the green light from legal, and city staff will work on implementing the change.
The current policy is a result of the November 2015 Council Place 2 election. At that time, every council member had a $2500 yearly stipend that covers the period of October 1 through September 30. However during the campaign, Councilman Mark Peterson spent the entire $2500 in October in order to go to the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) convention in Washington. He lost his election to James Pierce the following month leaving Mr Pierce with no money to go to his required training. Mr Pierce was notified about this about two months after his swearing in and immediately asked for the change in the policy. This is to prevent council members from doing this in the future. Editorial Comment: I continue to ask why would it be necessary for any member of the council need to go to AUSA except for the Mayor and City Manager! - James
Special Workshop Council meeting (5:35PM)
Special Workshop Council Meeting at 5:35PM
To start out discussion of the budget tax rate, it was shown that Property Values have been on the rise during the past years. In 2018, they rose 1.65%, and in 2019, they rose 3.5%.
The Proposed Budget Tax Rate For FY2020 is $0.797908 per $100. It would also create an additional $141,721 in the General Fund.
If the Council approves the Effective Tax Rate for FY2020 it would be $0.773628 per $100. If they did that the proposed budget would need to be cut by $161,853 Dollars.
They could also raise the tax rate to $0.828476 which would be the Roll Back Tax rate and could trigger a Roll Back Election if citizens protested it. By contrast the new Texas Law that goes in effect on January 1, 2020 triggers the Roll Back automatically at 3.5% which would be $0.806471 for this year, if it was in effect.
Utility rate discussion was saved for last. The council is looking to raise rates by 1 percent and residential solid waste from $18 to $19 per blue container. There will not be a charge for recycling, either (this was asked by Councilman Payne). Here are the proposed rates:
Councilman Manning stated the Senior Citizen's Discount is "ILLEGAL". It is presently at 20% and it applied to a primary residential account of a senior when they request it. It has been been brought up as a question in the past about if this discount was discriminating against the rest of the residents, but no straight-forward answer has ever been brought to a city council meeting.
The next Copperas Cove City Council meeting is August 1, 2019, at 5:00PM. More budget stuff to be discussed.
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