Hello Copperas Cove! This was a rather short regular City Council meeting that only had a few agenda items and a report on the Utility Administration Transition Update.
The Council:
Mayor Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Present
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Dianne Campbell-Present
Marc Payne-Present
Jack Smith- Present
There was a lot of discussion during the workshop. They debated the proposed subdivision ordinance and the proposed sign ordinance. Both items will be worked on some more to make them simpler and better. The sign ordinance brought the most council interaction because of the complexity. They are looking for more input.
City Council Regular Meeting:
There were no citizens speaking up at the meeting, nor was there a public hearing, so the meeting got right to the Action Items after a quick approval of the Consent Agenda.
Action Items:
H1 - The sidewalk project on South FM116 and FM3046 is about to continue on the Southwest part of town. Bobby Lewis said the city received five SEALED bids. The chosen firm was TTG Utilities for $783,357.50. The total length of the sidewalks in this project is for FM 116 will be 3,725 feet or 0.7055 miles and for improvements along FM 3046 will be 1,260.88 feet or 0.2388 miles. There was no debate on this item. The vote to pass was 7-0.
H2- Parks and Recreation Dept brought forward two recommendations for the council to consider. The first is to offer 50% discount for parents of athletes when they become a volunteer head coach. The second was to establish a Spring Camp and a Summer Camp registration fee of $70. There was no debate on this item. Vote to pass 7-0 .
H3- For this discussion item, Ryan Haverlah brought forward discussion concerning direction on actions related to the Citizens Focus Group. At the last meeting, Fred Chavez brought up that he would like to have discussion about a Citizens Ombudsman Program. Ryan said we already have a Citizens Focus Group that is intended to provide input about city services. Their last meeting was late 2017, around the time that our prior city manager departed. Fred Chavez stated that he's pro Ombudsman, and isn't wanting another committee formed that gets wrapped up in endless meetings. He'd rather have someone who can help citizens and provide feedback to the city. He overall just wants to see some way to help citizens. Joanne Courtland would like to see the Ombudsman program attached to the Citizens Focus Group either as someone who works with them or as the members of the group acting as Ombudsmen. To that, Fred stated he'd be ok with that. Marc Payne was one of the original members of the Citizens Focus Group and for the first couple years, he said it worked very well. All the members took tours of all the city departments and went through hours of training at each location to gain an understanding of how things worked. After that, the members tried to help citizens when they were made aware of issues, and for issues the members needed help with - they were able to go straight to the relevant department and get the answers they needed. He's pro this idea no matter if it's called Ombudsman or the Citizens Focus Group. If they move forward with this, Ryan recommends opening all the Focus Group positions to new members, but allowing current members to reapply. The Citizens Focus Group has no term limits, so the members from 2017 are still in the group. Fred offered his assistance moving forward in setting this up.
H4- During this discussion item, Ryan Haverlah held discussion about direction on a new resident briefing event. The city used to hold events a couple times a year where citizens could get to meet representatives from different departments in the city as well as different businesses from around the city. They were discussing starting these events back up again. Dan Yancey and Jay Manning want to see the events stay more informal and personal to the citizens to keep the attraction for citizens. Fred stated that for some new families, it can take up to a year to get used to where they've moved to. Along with these events, having good online information and departments being open and accessible is just as important. Ryan wanted to clarify a few things and make sure everyone was on the same page - We don't want a "big production event", but rather a friendly community event. With it, we should partner with CCISD, the Chamber of Commerce, City Services, Etc. Diane Courtland added that we have a lot of city activities such as runs and festivals, and maybe we should send a city rep with a booth to each of those activities to also reach out to citizens with questions. Ryan advised that the planning and preparation for this will take additional staff time, and it will fall a lot on our Public Information Officer (Kevin Keller), but we need the community engagement.
Reports From Staff:
Ryan Haverlah gave a report on the Utility Administration Transition. During the past two weeks, they have approached many hurdles. He wanted to give thanks to the residents for their patience during this transition, and commended the city staff for their hard work during the transition. As of now, they are 90% complete with the transition. The 1st new bills will be out next week. They will include the bill for all services from January and February. Late fees and disconnects will remain off the table for now, but are due to start up again in April.
I'm glad to see some movement towards public safety. For the Citizens Focus group. Why did it stop? Why was the last meeting more than 2 years ago? Also who do we talk to about these old outdated code laws? One side of the street we have sidewalks, the otherside nothing! This is unacceptable! More stop signs needs to be put into place. If you call a little paint on the ground a crosswalk with a sign, without no flashing lights to warn on coming cars that there is a cross walk there, then this city needs to be revamped. So I can walk on someone's grass to reach the cross walk then cross the street onto an actual sidewalk. Yeah that makes a whole lot of sense! See you Monday for the budget meeting!
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