Fathom is out of here on Friday the 13th. We have a plan!
The Council:
Mayor Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Absent (Prior Commitment)
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Dianne Campbell-Present
The City Manager brought the City Council in for a special meeting regarding the current state of our utilities department and the transfer from Fathom. Ryan Haverlah put on a presentation for the council with some input from Scott Osburn (Public Works Director).
Here is a timeline of the discussion:
November 19, 2019 City Council authorized additional positions in preparation for possible in-house utility administration services
November 21, 2019 City Council provided direction to transition to in-house utility administration services.
City Council directed staff to expand the current office to Suite A & B and City Hall and to begin the long-term action to renovate 305 S Main St to permanently move Utility Administration Department.
City Council directed staff to proceed with contracts with Core and Main for software and maintenance of the meter reading system.
City Council directed staff to not consider venders' Vertexone or Advanced Utility Systems as an utility customer information and billing system.
November 22, 2019 Public Forum held at the Civic Center
November 26, 2019 FATHOM notified the City of continued operations until December 9, 2019
December 2, 2019 Additional staff began training in Utility Administration Department
December 5, 2019 FATHOM notified the City of a final end of operations date, December 17, 2019
Fathom has been with Copperas Cove from 3 Apr 2017 - 17 Dec 2019. December 13th will be the last day of service from Fathom to the citizens of Copperas Cove, and December 17th will be the last day of data extraction from Fathom to the City of Copperas Cove. The City has been working on bringing in staff for in house utilities customer service with them hiring 2 more employees recently and in the middle of the interview process for a 3rd. They also have an extra position open for the billing dept. Suite "B" of their current location has been opened up to as part of the utilities office to allow for the extra employees and workload. It was originally thought to cost about 10k for this expansion, but one factor that wasn't thought of was the purchase of the extra computers needed. The final cost of the expansion wound up being $13,080. They also identified an alternate parking solution for employees in nearby parking lots to clear up the City Hall parking. Judge Price offered some of his parking nearby, as did PenFed Credit Union.
The old Utility Administration location (305 Main Street) still has many improvements needed before it's ready for move-in. An architect is needed because the city needs to have a wall added in the building for the safety of the CSRs and cash being handled. Ryan recalled having times in the past where so many people would be in there waiting that he would have people wrapping around to where the CSRs were seated while they were handling money so he would be having to move people back to the correct side of the counter. They would like to have a wall installed to increase security and safety. The building also still needs interior upgrades like abatement, ceiling work, flooring, etc to the estimated cost of $93,600, but that number is expected to increase. The exterior needs repairs in the estimated sum of $39,000, and they are wanting to install an automated payment kiosk in the drive-thru which will run $28,327 +S&H.
Once Fathom suspends service, there will be approximately 6 weeks of no bills. A physical letter will be mailed out to every house covering this and what to expect very shortly. Then, another letter will be mailed out preparing customers for the billing to start back up again. The next bill could essentially be a 2 month bill. Customers needing payment arrangements can request that with the city and arrangements will be made for everyone who needs it. Online payments will stay available via WaterSmart. The city is expecting a seamless transition from the Fathom customer portal to the WaterSmart customer portal. Auto Pay, however, will stop until the transition is complete. Joann Courtland asked if WaterSmart will offer ACH payments or if they will all be credit card payments, but Ryan wasn't sure of the answer so he said he will follow up to that and make sure it is included on the letters being mailed out.
Ryan went on to cover how the billing system works from the Neptune meter to the money being sent to the bank. From there he started covering the software that we will need to be self serving. The information collection software will run $27,844 for 36 months, and the meter reading software will cost $38,000 a year. He also covered a comparison of InScope vs the WaterSmart customer portals along with the staff recommendation. InCode will cost $21,600 per year of operation, and WaterSmart will cost $7,500 for the impliment, $28,297 for the first year of operation (the first two months will be free), and then settle out at $33,068 per year of operation after that. The city staff recommend WaterSmart due to transition consistency.
When it comes to the bill printing and mailing, Ryan went over DataProse vs USPS. DataProse will cost $46,350 annually, and USPS will cost $66,642 annually. Not only are DataProse cheaper, but they have a sizable list of things they offer over USPS that can help the city, so they are the recommendation from city staff.
With the Utility Dept report complete, the council moved on to the 3 agenda items needing vote: Consideration and action on authorizing the City Manager to execute a production agreement with (1) WaterSmart Software Inc, (2) Tyler Technologies/parent company of Incode, and (3) DataProse LLC. The City Attorney has reviewed the WaterSmart agreement and submitted changes. Those changes were approved by WaterSmart so the city is ready to move forward. Dianne Campbell is concerned about verbiage differences between two different sheets from WaterSmart. Scott Osburn agrees that we could get a more detailed list of services offered. Dianne agreed that we need a very specific list and noted just one of many discrepancies. Marc Payne asked if alert signups will be automatic, to which Ryan stated they would not be. There are certain ones the city could have as automatic, but not all customers want the same alerts so the city prefers to let people get on and set their own alerts. The city can implement some procedures with known leakers such as getting out and knocking on doors or leaving notes on doors when people don't answer. Before moving forward with the vote on WaterSmart, Joanne wanted an amendment requiring clarification of services offered. The amendment and the vote for WaterSmart both were a 6-0 PASS. The following agenda items for Tyler Technologies and DataProse LLC were also both a 6-0 PASS, and with that the city utility administration has vendors in place to move forward with bringing the water billing services back in town. We still have some work ahead, but the basics are in place.
Council:
Mayor: Vacant
Joann Courtland- Present
Fred Chavez - Present
Dan Yancey - Present
Jay Manning - Present
Kirby Lack - Present
Marc Payne - Present
Charlie Youngs - Present
Mayor Candidate:
Bradi Dewald Diaz - Absent
Joey Acfalle - Absent
Ron Nelson - Present
Brandi Weiand - Absent
Hello again Copperas Cove! It's great to have you back for another recap of the latest City Council meeting. We appreciate each and every one of you for checking in and sharing these blogs with your fellow residents. The more we can educate the citizens of Copperas Cove, the more educated people will be going to the polls and knowing what's going on in our little corner of Coryell County. If you haven't already - remember to subscribe!!
Breaking News for our concerned citizens!!!
Two weeks ago, Jonathan Haywood spoke during Citizens Forum about a shopping center entry way between the Laserwash and Valvoline that was very dilapidated with pot holes. The city and all the businesses in the responsible area thought the other entity owned the area so it was never repaired. James Pierce followed up a couple days later at the building department (they are responsible for business code enforcement) and filed a complaint against all the business' in order for the city to resolve the issue of ownership. Ryan Haverlah told Mr. Pierce Tuesday evening that the owner of the property where Lazerwash is located is in fact the rightful owner of that particular piece of concrete and has been notified by letter of the issues at hand.
The Agenda:
Announcements:
Ryan Haverlah: Parks and Rec has a Parks Improvement Plan survey out right now and they would appreciate all the input they can get. That survey can be found here: Survey Monkey Cove Master Park Plan . Also, the Easter Egg round up was postponed due to weather and is now going to be this Thursday (18 April, 2019), starting at 6pm at City Park.
Dan Yancey: Voting for our next Mayor is going on right now, so be sure to get out and vote!
Editors Note: Voting for the Central Texas College Board of Trustees will be starting next week (April 22-30). Technically, you can get out and vote Monday and Tuesday and be able to vote twice in one day! Copperas Cove Citizens can vote for the CTC Trustees at the new CCISD Administrative Building, next to Lil Tex/across from the Library.
Citizens Forum: Just a quick friendly reminder to our citizens - All citizens are allotted a 5 minute block of time for which to speak. There are 30 minutes set aside for the citizens forum. Additionally, by State Law, the Council Members and City Staff are not allowed to answer questions during citizens forum. Any questions asked will be met with helpless faces of "We wish we could answer, but we can't". However - you can show up early and ask council members questions, or stay late and ask them questions.
Nick: In reference to tonight's Action Item #1, he supports it and encourages the council to as well.
Wendy: Just showed up from Virginia, but owns property in Copperas Cove. She asked how is code enforcement enforced if violations are not addressed. She also asked is there a 5 year plan for Copperas Cove, and if so is it available for the public to see online or via email.
Terri: There will be a major disaster drill on May 7th. An application has just been released and she reviewed the general basis of it. She did mention that it says registration does not guarantee participation. Stay tuned for more on this in a future blog.
Siggi: Touched on the topic of transparency in government. There was a City Council Workshop on March 19th that was listed as "Presentation and discussion on a Downtown Transportation Feasibility Plan". When reading this, she took it as they were talking about a bus route or something to do with buses. She did not understand that it would be discussing road work that would possibly be going under the railroad tracks and she feels like it was intended to mislead the public so the City Council could push this through.
Public Hearing:
1. This hearing had to do with the applicant shutting down Kids World Daycare Center. The building has been a business for at least 50 years that she could track, and she's been running it for over 20. She shut the business down last July and the property has been for sale the past 4 years. She has been having problems selling it, and she thinks that's been in large part to it being zoned as B-2(Local Retail District) business in the middle of a residential (this is a house that was running as a business). She would like to have it rezoned to R-1(Single Family Residential) to make it easier to sell. PASS
2. This hearing had to do with rezoning from an R-3 (Multifamily Residential District) to a B-3(Local Business District). This will bring the lot in line with all surrounding lots. PASS
3. This hearing had to do with a local resident wanting to change his conditional use permit from a Commercial Office Building, to a retail store to put in a food mart. This has years of backstory and as well as a lot of recent events to it, so bear with me as I try to condense it down a little while still getting everything in here.
In mid 2013, the property owner, Mr. Amr Abdelazeem (we'll call him Mr A - with all due respect), requested the property be rezoned to R-3 (Multi-Family Residential) District with a Conditional Use Permit to allow for the construction of a commercial office building for a branch of his business office and an additional office space to lease to a future tenant. The item was passed through the P&Z Commission on May 28, 2013 and presented to City Council on June 4, 2013. The Conditional Use Permit was granted by Ordinance No. 2013-29 and was limited to the operation of certain conditional uses outlined in the Zoning Ordinance for two (2) professional office uses being Engineering Services and Architectural and Planning Services.
In addition to granting the Conditional Use Permit for them to run a business office, they presented Mr A a long list of standards that had to be met covering everything from numbers of parking spaces to the privacy fence in the back and lighting that couldn't leave his northern property line. Somewhere along the line, Mr A decided that the business office wasn't going to work out, but he wanted to put up a convenience store instead.
He took this to the P&Z Board and showed he had plans to meet all the criteria, and then some. However, upset citizens were taking notice as well and were also showing up as well as writing letters to show their displeasure. Eventually, the P&Z Board shot it down, which sent it to the City Council where it could only pass with a 75% vote in favor. Ryan Haverlah updated the council and showed that every specification asked for was met. They wanted 6 parking spots, he put in 7. They wanted a plan to show how the delivery trucks and trash truck would get in and out - he had it. They wanted a well let back area as an emergency exit, with privacy fence and a way to keep kids out from that back area - he had it all figured out. Then came the public forum.
Anna is a nearby resident and she spoke out against this. She and her neighbors are fine with it being an office space because then they would only be there during normal office hours, there would be no increase in crime, and traffic wouldn't be affected. The roads nearby aren't wide enough to handle big delivery trucks or a lot of traffic and they have had 5 hit and run accidents recently to prove it. There's not enough parking here, the building doesn't have enough square footage, and she saw mention of this needing a generator as an office building, so as a convenience store with all those cold beverages, it would need an even bigger generator which would be loud and smelly from all the gas they use! There's not enough room in the back for a privacy wall, bushes, and sidewalk as required by the city. There's not enough sidewalks in the area so kids would be walking in the streets being a hazard to traffic, or walking on peoples lawns, damaging property. Since 2013, there have been 31 code violations to this property and on average they take 1 month to resolve the issues. On top of that, the property is a construction mess that should be closed off because people are getting hurt on it as well as stuck, needing help from Cove PD to get them off the property. There's also a fire hydrant right next to the parking spots which isn't allowed, too small of a loading zone, and the city setback lines aren't met. Lastly, they have a fear of reduced property values, which their values have already been dropping in recent years because of this building.
Ginger is also a nearby resident and spoke out against this. Cove prides itself on being a community built on family living, so they need to keep citizens where they belong and businesses where they belong - not mixed together.
Mr A finally had his chance to speak up. He argued that they have complied with every city and ADA condition thrown at him. He's also on the corner of a residential, not mixed in it, and there's other convenience stores around town that are actually IN the residential areas, such as the Family Food Mart on S 23rd and Urbantke. Furthermore, there has never been any discussion about him needing an external generator for his business because they will be using city water, power lines, and everything else typically supplied to a business via service carrier. No shrubs will be needed in the back because of the fence he's putting up which leaves plenty of room for the sidewalk and fence. The fire hydrant not only isn't in the way, but he's already gotten the fire marshal to approve its location in relation to parking. The new building will be better than what was there before and will actually raise property values once it's done because it will look very nice and be nearby shopping. Trucks won't ever need to be on Megg Street, so the tight spots aren't a concern, and in fact his impact on extra traffic is 0%. Nobody is coming across town just to use a convenience store. They have met all city requests and have had no code violations, so he's not sure where this 31 number came from. When this is done, not only will the building be very clean, but it will also be run by a property management company - not him. So there should never be any code violations. This project complies with all ADA, Federal, and City codes. The sidewalk in the back will have a back door from the building as required by fire code, but there will be a gate with a one way latch on it so you can only open the gate from the inside to keep trouble makers out.
Dan Yancey said that in June 2013, this was approved for a conditional use permit issued for commercial office use - not a store. Why did you not complete that office space? Mr A stated he was told by the city planner that he could lease the space instead to make a store. He provided papers that I am assuming were backing up this claim.
Marc Payne proposed that the original use of the term "High Volume Generator" when describing the property may be where the generator confusion came from. The proposed parking use is doubling use of the loading zone/handicap zone. The area that should be allowed for vans to unload wheel chairs is also marked as a loading zone, so if a delivery truck is there, that driver may not be able to get in their van for at least 15 minutes. Mr A stated that the loading zone for vans is actually on the other side of the parking spot and is plenty of room, as dictated by the ADA standards.
Mr A's Son came up after some slight deliberation among council members and stated that he was also available for any questions they may have. Their family has convenience stores all around the area so they're used to doing things right.
Siggi spoke up and said she stands with the local residents. If they don't want it, she doesn't approve either. This sentiment was met with support from other Cove residents supporting the neighborhood residents directly affected. One resident stated "This store can't be there to support the community when the community doesn't support the store".
With that, this went to vote and was REJECTEDby the council - with no votes approving.
Action Items:
H-1 On the west side of town, the owner of the land by the SE Bypass and Dollar Tree wants to develop his land for commercial purposes. Before it can be developed, water issues need to be ironed out. The Certificates of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) belongs to KWSC (Kempner Water Supply Corporation) and they can supply the water for the Copperas Cove property but they can't supply the 1500gpm for for fire flow to fire hydrants. That is the city standard in order to supply fire suppression from hydrants. If it can't be provided then you can't build. The Interim City Manager offered three options to the council. Option one, let KWSC provide everything (they can't). Option 2, Let KWSC provide water and Copperas Cove provide fire suppression (many concerns of long term maintenance and right of way). Option 3, Copperas Cove purchases the entire CCN for $810 per acre and does it all. The council chose Option three, unanimously. This was a very wise vote because we needed this to spur development on the west side, of Copperas Cove.
H-2 Darrell, with The HOP presented a summary of it's operations the past 6 months, since the last time it was before the council asking for funding. This funding is to cover operational costs such as fuel, insurance, maintenance, salaries, etc... They have a goal of 10 passengers per service hour, and have been averaging out at around 11.5 passengers per service hour. They run Monday - Friday from 6:45 - 5:45 and recently had cut back an hour to adjust for this fiscal years budget. Jay Manning says he remembers them from their last presentation. It's not very often they get someone up there asking for 3x more than their normal asking funding like the HOP did last fall. With all these increases in funding requests, have they increased their fee schedule? Darrell stated they have not yet, but they are working towards that point. Jay responded with it's unfair to ask tax payers to increase how much they are funding the HOP if the HOP isn't going to reflect the raise on their riders. Right now, tax payers are paying about $4 per ride. Darrell responded that their fairs only cover about 4% of their operating costs right now. Additionally, the more business they get, the more federal dollars they can bring in. The less business they get, the fewer Federal dollars they bring in which in turn makes them rely on local communities more. So if they raise fairs up too much and people stop riding because of that, then that will affect how much they come to their local community for.
PASS
H-3Clarence with the National Mounted Warfare Museum presented a slide show and video showing how the new museum would affect the area, where it would go, and what it would look like. He then requested the $25,000 payment from the council. PASS You can find out more about the museum here: http://nmwfoundation.org/
H4 and H5 were both having to do with approving some new homes coming in off of Lutheran Church Road as well as approving ordinances to do with Water Conservation and the Drought Contingency Plan. Both of those were a solid PASS. REPORTS:
Fred Chavez was recently at an event in Killeen where they were discussing I-14 and it's entirety. Since I-14 passes through Copperas Cove, he started asking how Cove could be a part of this "14 Forward" initiative. He was told we should continue expansion, and look into these 5G efforts. Get with CCISD because they are looking to bring fiber optic into their schools and we could implement that into the city. One attraction for a lot of people these days is moving to areas that are fiber equipped. When it comes to the rail head - joint use can be difficult because the Army is known for taking what they want when needed. But, don't let that shy us away because this can be very good for the area. The feasibility study was easy, finding partners and funding is the hard part. This will bring rail access to the local area that we haven't ever had. Our relationship with the Heart O Texas Defense Alliance is good to have. Don't get so focused on only us that we isolate our community. We are encouraged to keep regional cooperation and awareness going.
Future Agenda Items
Marc Payne would like to see a workshop on purchasing of CCN's.
Hello again Copperas Cove! Thankyou for checking in on another City Council Update! This one was rather short (Just over an hour long), but as always - there was some good info that was put out. So, lets get started!
Council members:
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Present
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Kirby Lack-Present
Marc Payne-Present
Charlie Youngs-Present
Mayor Candidates:
Bradi Dewald Diaz-Present
Ron Nelson-Present
Joey Acfalle-Absent
Brandi Weiand-Absent
The Agenda:
Announcements:
Ryan Haverlah:
-This Saturday, from 8:30-11am, there will be a "Texas Trash Off" taking place. Please meet "Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful" at the Library for step off.
-Also on Saturday from 8am-Noon, there will be a Mayoral Candidate Meet & Greet at the VFW. There will be breakfast offered for $7.
-That following Monday (April 8th), there will be a Mayoral Candidate Political Forum held at the CCISD Board Room (Across from the Fire Station, Next to Lil' Tex). This will start at 5:30 pm and go until 8pm. The first hour of it will be a meet and greet, so if work has you running late, you still have time to get in and catch the topics.
-April 13th (Saturday), there will be an Easter Egg Roundup at City Park from 9-11am
Citizens Forum:
-Richard Smith started things off with concerns about the neighborhood he lives in. He bought a house over near Courtney Lane, near SC Lee and JL Williams. He's noticed that there is a heavy amount of traffic in the area trying to merge out into and in from FM116 - and it will only be getting heavier as they add in more houses. He's requesting a traffic light be installed at the FM116/Courtney intersection. (Editors Note: This is a common problem brought up with the area, and Mr Richard is not the first person to bring this topic up. I wouldn't be surprised to see a traffic light in this area by the end of the year - Jeremy). He also brought up that the same intersection is starting to deteriorate and a dip is starting to form. He had brought this up to Councilman Marc Payne in the past and it was promptly filled in and road re-striped. He would like to see the city address this issue once again. To end, he brought up a concern that for his road, there's really only one way in and out, so if there should be an emergency that would block that road, he could find himself stuck in the area. There could be a second route out, but the second route has a locked gate blocking anyone from going through. (Editors Note: This may be a tough issue to have addressed. Technically, if the city were to add a second way out simply because a citizen brought up an issue with it, they COULD be opening themselves up to complaints from everyone living on a cul-de-sac street. Also, there usually isn't anything they can do without impeding on someones personal property - such as would be the case with the gated access that's locked up. I feel like Mr Richard brings up a valid point, but that may just be something homeowners have to pay attention to before we buy a house - Jeremy)
-Terri Deans brought up once again that the city is still experiencing problems with Fathom in regards to billing and customer service. She would really like to see the city address these problems. With that aside, she is an admin with Central Texas Disasters Response Team. They are currently planning a mass casualty drill on May 7th and are looking for as many victim actors as they can get. They need everyone - all ages. Also, if you have a group that could use some emergency preparedness training, they can send someone out to give that training. If you are interested in training, being part of the mass casualty drill, or joining the team - please give Terri a call at 254-238-1839. Please be aware that she does not answer phone calls from numbers she doesn't recognize (dang phone scammers ruined that for all of us - amiright), so just leave a brief voicemail and she will call you right back.
-Alicia Menard: I believe she may have been with the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce. She was speaking about some other events going on in the area, but she was speaking so fast that I wasn't able to get most of it down. I did catch that there will be an Ambassador Garage Sale at the Cove Terrace Shopping Center on April 6th. (Editors Note: A little tip I recently learned for those of you who get nervous when you speak in front of groups like I do- talk slower than you think you should. Because things are going so fast and racing in your head, if you slow down slower than you think you should be, you generally wind up talking at a very good pace. I've tried it and it seems like it works. If nothing else, it calms me down - Jeremy)
-Jonathan Haywood closed things out by bringing up the driveway between the post office and the car wash. All of us locals know the one - it has MAJOR pot holes in it, and a lot of us drive in the grass to avoid it all together if we have to go that way. The problem with it is that is not a city owned road, and the business owner who owns that parking lot/driveway/road refuses to fix it. John realizes the city can't do anything themselves since they don't own it, but he asks the council if they could reach out to the business owner and help influence them to fix that road.
Consent Agenda:
All four items passed unanimously. They were for past minutes from previous meetings.
Action Items:
H1: The Chamber of Commerce came to the council with a request for HOT funds that was about nine months after the deadline for some of the expenses for the Rabbit Fest. The date of submission was March 21, 2019. Alicia Menard, the new president of the CoC, is requesting $13,375 in HOT funds. Hotel Occupancy Tax funds are the extra taxes you pay to stay in a hotel or motel and can be only used to promote tourism in a city where it is collected. The deadline for this fiscal year was last spring. The Interim City Manager informed the CoC that only $3880 remain in the fund for promotion of Arts so that the total amount would be $11,255. Mr Yancey asked the Chamber president why the request was not submitted last year and she told him that there was no interest in requesting HOT funds with the prior Chamber President. However, she is new in her position and rather than linger on the past, she is trying to look to the future and make things better for everyone - including she wants to rebuild the relationship between the Chamber of Commerce and the City Council. All of the CoC members have been working hard at trying to get things in a better position, and she fully expects to be able to turn that relationship around between them and the city. She came into this realizing that the request was late and that it could very well be shot down because of that. But she wanted to at least try to get it late rather than never, and she fully plans on going for all the HOT funds she can moving in the future to help promote the arts. Councilman Youngs stated the the previous City Manager and Council destroyed the relationship between the city and both the EDC and CoC so he's all for this to help rebuild that relationship. Kirby Lack stated that he's trying to get away from bending rules for everyone, and the CoC has missed their deadline. Alicia stated she fully understands his point, and reiterated that she is trying to slide this one in with the intention of doing things right moving forward. To get the full $13,375, they would have to do some adjusting of the budget after the fact, so Jay Manning requested an amendment lowering the amount to $11,255. The amendment and the action item that passed lowered the request to $11,255 .
Vote was 5-2. (Lack voted no based on principle/Youngs voted no because he wanted the full amount) PASS
Our question is that on the line "Registration of Convention Delegates" for $1260.
Who are the delegates for the "Rabbit Fest"?
Side note: Mayoral Candidate Bradi Dewald Diaz is listed on the board of trustees for the Chamber of Commerce.
H2: After many long, agonizing discussions regarding fee reductions at the Civic Center, the council voted to approve reducing the daily fee from $500 to $250 for everyone - again, with no discounts for any special groups. PASS
H3: For this item they were just making a few name changes with some positions and jobs. One of the bigger changes that citizens will see is the Planning Dept will now be called the Developmental Services Dept. PASS
H4: This was just Councilmembers Joann Courtland and Fred Chavez swapping some external board positions with each other. Nothing that 99% of us citizens will notice. Just like with H3, it was more of a formality. PASS
CITY REPORTS:
Ryan Haverlah gave report to staff on utility billing complaints and meter replacements.
-With the recent update to the Fathom online portal, customers can set a payment date that is after the due date. A problem that has been coming up is some customers have been setting their online payment date for after their due date, and in some cases it has fallen on their water shutoff date. So, they think they are ok because they have an auto-draft, but don't realize that if the money isn't to Fathom by their shutoff date, that water is getting shut off. Additionally, all calls to Fathom or the city after 3 pm to turn water back on aren't processed until the next business day. This is because the final 2 hours is to allow employees to close out work orders generated during the day. Fred Chavez asked if the city can have Fathom get with whoever does their code and set calendar parameters so you can't select an auto-pay date that falls after your due date. Ryan explained that there are some complications with that such as if someone sets up auto pay today (April 2nd) to have it take effect May 1st, but then they don't pay their bill for the month of April manually and it's due on the 12th. Well, now it's going to be received very late and will most likely lead to water being shut off. Dan Yancey asked if we can have Fathom allow customers to set their own due date since some customers are on a monthly income. Ryan said he will look into both options.
- There have been problems with multiple bills being sent out within days of each other. A lot of these have been resolved by now and most of those were due to either local meter reading issues that happened before all the meters were changed, or connectivity issues with the meters and data collectors that are placed around the city. There's been other cases that have popped up - one recent one being a customer who was VERY public about the fact that they were double billed and couldn't pay for other essentials because they had such a high amount to pay for their water bill. This was found to be that they were actually behind on payments. Several failed attempts have already been made to get in contact with this customer, but the city will keep trying to reach out and talk to the customer about this issue.
-There have been concerns regarding high water usage alerts. Typically with these alerts, a fast leak (burst pipe, for example) will send you a notice after one day of continual leak, and a slow leak (leaky faucet) will send you a notice after two days of continual leak. You can adjust these parameters in your Fathom online account settings. If a customer can provide proof that the leak was professionally repaired, they can request a sewer use credit for the period of time that they had the leak. This will be based on normal usage. These are limited to 1 credit every 12 months.
-One customer recently stated they had a bill showing 50,000 gallons of use. This was found to not be true both with an account search and in talking with the customer.
-In regards to double billing complaints, there is a base rate that everybody with a water meter pays. This is just to have access to that water connection and for maintenance of the city water system. After that, you are charged $4.75 per 1,000 gallons used, and that is calculated down to 1/1000 of a gallon. The sewer rate is $6 per 1,000 gallons used. Seniors get a 20% discount on all charges up to 5,000 gallons used as approved by the city council recently.
-Recently, a customer got two bills that were received two days apart. It was legitimate, and they were even for the same billing cycle. What happened was the first bill sent out was found to be incorrect, revised, and sent out again with an updated balance. But, nobody every reached out to the customer to let them know what was going on which put them into a panic - rightfully so. Everything was eventually straightened out, and I'm assuming this is an issue that has been addressed internally.
- The city began installing meters in October 2016. They did a full swap of meter and sensors. There were originally about 1,500 unreplaced meters that they could not replace safely without interrupting service to surrounding areas. A lot of times, this was due to things such as someone pouring concrete all around the meter, preventing the city from replacing anything without breaking up the concrete. The city employees have been making significant progress in replacing those problem meters, but they do still have some that have not been replaced yet. There have been recent comments about only the sensor being replaced and not the meter, or vice versa (basically a retrofit). This simply is not true.
Future Agenda Items:
Marc and Fred both would like to look at having their absences approved
Charlie Youngs would like to look at procedures for selecting EDC staff. He would like to allow the EDC staff to review applications and submit comments before sending to council. He explicitly stated the EDC staff would not be allowed to remove any applications - only provide their own comments on applicants.
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Happy Birthday Copperas Cove, P and Z, Special City Council!
Happy 140th, Copperas Cove!
Mrs Linda Ledger
was the guest speaker and gave the attendees about a 10 minute summary on the
history of Copperas Cove. She said that we as the citizens of our city need to be prepared for the 150th (Sesquicentennial) birthday.
Don Nicholas reads a proclamation to the city from US Representative Roger Williams. There were many other city and county elected officials, along with candidates for Mayor and Central Texas College Board of Trustees, at the celebration.
Councilman Dan Yancey cutting the cake.
Special City Council Meeting on March 25, 2019 (Before the birthday party)
The Council:
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Present
Dan Yancey-Present
Jay Manning-Present
Kirby Lack-Present
Marc Payne-Present
Charlie Youngs-Absent
Mayoral Candidates:
Bradi Dewald Diaz-Present
Ron Nelson-Present
Joey Acfalle-Present
Brandi Weiand-Absent
The Agenda:
The purpose of the special meeting was due to the late delivery of the city's Fiscal Year 2018 Comprehensive Financial Report. During the last council meeting wanted the opportunity to review the report in detail. Jay Manning was reassured that the grammatical errors would be corrected before publication. Marc Payne was busy thumbing through the manual the entire time.
Public Hearing #1 dealt with a requested rezoning on 1501 Canyon Drive (Private Road). The owner (who is presently overseas) is request that his property be completely zoned R-1 so he can build a home on it. He no representation at the hearing. It is presently zoned R-1 and B-4, which means a future business could possibly relocate there. Six speakers showed up to speak against the rezoning. They told the commission that he has placed the property for sale and don't believe he will build only one home on it or just outright sell it. There were concerns of vehicular access, power access, right of way, easement. The commissioners voted 5-0 to table for 30 days.
Public Hearing #2 dealt with the rezoning of 1006 S 9th Street, from B-2 to R-1. Kid's World Day Care closed and she wishes to return the property to a home. She tried to sell it for four years and one buyer backed out. Vote was 5-0.
Public Hearing #3 dealt with the rezoning of 605 S Main St from R-3 to B-3. When rezoned it would make the entire block B-3 and would be more attractive to future business. Vote was 5-0.
The action item is continued from the last meeting which was tabled. A Conditional Use Permit is being request for 504 S 1st for a convenience store. The owner revised his proposed site plan to get approval from the P and Z. He reduced the building size to 1750 square feet and has 7 parking spaces. He added fencing and fence high lighting for security. He also said delivery will not be an issue. Mr Martin told the owner he received four letters in opposition to the permit. There was a motion to forward to city council approval but it failed to get a 2nd and it died on the table. Then there was a motion to reject the Conditional Use Permit and send to council. It passed 3-2.
The last action item was for the Ranches at Live Oak. It is located in the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction of Copperas Cove. There are requesting a final Plat for nine lots on a 21.56 acre plot of land. Mr Dewald was present for questions. It passed 5-0.
This is your summary of almost three hours of city meetings and function on Monday.
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- JamesPASS 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!
