B190 Info, Park Restrooms, and the Chamber during City Council 7 Jan 2020

B190 Info, Park Restrooms, and the Chamber during City Council 7 Jan 2020

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-Absent

Workshop Agenda

Business 190 Median Project Status Video

Road Map Video

The main subject of the workshop this evening was about the upcoming Business 190 Median Project. It will span the area from Constitution to Avenue D or 1.3 miles. When finished it will have three lanes of traffic on each side, the median, a bicycle lane and a sidewalk on the south side of the road. The price for the road project, to include design,  is just over 11 million dollars. Copperas Cove paid for the design and is only responsible for anything over 10 million dollar construction budget. 

When the medians are built, each one will have a 4 foot safe haven at the end for pedestrian safety and paver stones after that. The distance between will be TxDOT standard for vehicle U-Turns. All Business entrances will have a TxDOT approved entrance widths at their locations, the map doesn't specify the measurements. The MLK intersection will be redesigned and be striped. The order for the project is the sidewalk, then the median, and then a complete overlay.

TxDOT recommends 20 MPH but the city is recommending 30 MPH. 

City Council Agenda

Citizens Forum:
Ashley Wilson- She want to make the public aware about the 20th Annual Polar Bear Plunge and 5K on January 25, She also invite members of the council to participate.
Rachel Pierce- She wanted to recommend that the council look at adding Civil Defense/Tornado sirens to the Copperas Cove area. Her residence was in the path of the EF-2 tornado that struck Copperas Cove on June 9, 2019. She did not receive a Cove Red notification until after the storm had passed.
Siggi Loe- She wanted more transparency from the city in the following areas; the planning of the under/overpass proposals at the railroad crossings with traffic congestion, how would an overpass even work, she heard about a mentioned overpass at the HWY 9/N116 intersection, speed limit of 55MPH is to fast on N116 and should be no higher than 40MPH.

Consent Agenda:
All seven items on the Consent Agenda passed unanimously.
The first five were for meeting minutes approval.
Item 6 was for granting Jack Smith an excused absence from the current meeting. It did not specify the sickness or emergency reason for missing the council meeting.
Item 7 was for authorizing the City Manager to execute acceptance of a General Warranty Deed conveying property to the City as necessary for the Southwest Water Improvement Project and the future development of the Valley at Great Hills Subdivision.

Public Hearing:
1. Oak Cove Development wants the council to amend the Future Land Use Plan from Low Density Residential to Medium Density Residential at 111 Wolfe Rd. They want to build a duplex on the location. There were no speakers. It passed 6-0.

2. Oak Cove Development wants the council to rezone the property from R-1 Single Family to R-2 Multi-Family. There were no speakers. It passed 6-0.

3. The city needs two public hearing for public disclosure to reconcile the FY 2019 Budget that recently ended on September 30, 2019. It was an extensive list. Please review the attached link to review the list on the agenda. This is normal business and there were no speakers. No vote is scheduled until the next public hearing.

Action Items:
Councilman Dan Yancey was nominated for the third year in a row to be the Copperas Cove Mayor Pro Temp. The person filling this position fills in for the Mayor when he/she is not available. He was selected by a vote of 6-0.

Judge Bill Price's Annual evaluation came up for approval before the council. The council had three options. Reappoint for two years, remove from office, take no action and on the 91st day after December 2 would automatically be reappointed for two years. He has been the Municipal Judge since 1992. The vote was 6-0 to reappoint for two years.

Associate Judge Lisa Kabala's Annual evaluation came up for approval before the council. The council had three options. Reappoint for two years, remove from office, take no action and on the 91st day after December 15 would automatically be reappointed for two years. The vote was 6-0 to reappoint for two years.

The Economic Development Corporation needs to fill a vacancy on it's board. The seat runs through September 30, 2020. The following people applied for the seat: Charlotte Brown, Amy Williams, JC Stubbs, Edson Florexil, Darren Blair, Shawn Alzona. JC Stubbs is currently on the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors (as is the Mayor and Councilman Jack Smith; neither voted on the nomination). JC Stubbs was approved by a vote of 6-0.

The Planning and Zoning Commission needs to fill a vacancy on it's commission. The only applicant is Jerry Cantrell. He also serves on the Board of Adjustments for Copperas Cove.  Councilman Payne said he was not comfortable with Cantrell serving on both boards. Mr Cantrell was present and reassured everyone present that his military experience taught him to be open minded about the offices he is appointed. He was approved by a vote of 6-0.

The final plat for Heartwood III consisting of 147 lots on about 76 acres came before the city council this evening. The subdivision is located off of Courtney Lane by S.E. Lee Jr High School. WBW Land Investment brought the request. There were no questions from the council. It passed by a vote of 6-0.

The Chamber of Commerce came to council requesting the final payment of $12,600 for HOT funds for the Kris Kindl Markt, at City Park, from December 5-8, 2019. The total amount received would be $15,646. They said total attendance was approximately 15,902. Their largest unexpected expense was for lights costing $5721. To be honest the presentation was very hard to follow due to them jumping all around with groups of numbers for that weekend. We are including the expense report here for your review. It passed the council by a vote of 6-0. Payment Request link!

The council debated changing the policy for receiving Hotel Occupancy Tax funds. It would simplify the paperwork. Also, the city would like to stop enforcing the 25% rule which would mean that and organization could only receive 25% of their anticipated revenue in HOT support. For example, it the annual Art Guild Spring Fest revenue was $10,000 they would only be able to ask for $2,500 in HOT funds. Several council members wanted to raise the percentage so to help the smaller organizations. This was led by Councilman Payne, Manning, and Campbell. In the end the ordinance passed by a vote of 5-1 (Payne voted no). Councilman Chavez later request a future agenda item to rectify the percentage.

The city would like to amend the Personnel Improvement Plan for FY20-24 and the Position Listing for FY20. Please review the attached agenda for the complete list. It passed with a vote of 6-0.

In order to ensure compliance with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the City Manager must submit by January 15 the Revised Storm Water Management Plan for the City's MS4. The vote was 6-0 to authorize the City Manager to submit.

The Parks and Recreation Director recommends rejecting the bid for replacing the restrooms at City Park and South Park. If it went forward it would put the project $100,000 Dollars over budget. Jeff Stoddard said that only one bid was received and it was for $230,212 for prep work. His plan is to work a solution out and bring it back to council. The restrooms are part of Phase II of the five year parks renovation project. The restrooms were supposed to be ready by the start of baseball and softball season. There are Port A Johns at the parks now. The council voted 6-0 to accept his proposal.

Last year the engineering firm BSP merged with anther group to form MRB. Since the name changed the City Manager needs the authority to sign legal paperwork with the newly named engineering firm. The council authorized him to do so with a vote of 6-0.

The Mayor brought out the new Committee Assignments that council members act as liaisons for the council. The Mayor added to additional committees to the chart. Marc Payne will be on Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful and Dianne Campbell will be on the Library Advisory Board. Still, there are no council liaisons for the Planning and Zoning and the Board of Adjustments. The council approved this by a vote of 6-0.

Recycling Update

The City Manager wanted to let the citizens know that the legislation allowing recycling on post was passed in December. It is located in Sections 326 and 327 of the FY2020 NDAA that was signed by President Trump on December 20, 2019. Congressman Carter was very instrumental in getting this passed. This will result in substantial cost savings for the city. The City Manager will need to work out specific language with Fort Hood before it will begins.

Fathom Update

December 17, 2019 is the termination date of service with Fathom.
The transition is in progress.
The Utility building now needs an architect before going forward.
Before Fathom ceased operations the sent out city sections 5,6, and 7 statements showing a due date of January 6, 2020. This led to 1800 calls on January 6 to our CSRs.
The are no late fees or disconnects right now and service connections are being presently being manually logged.
Online payments will be returning soon.
The Finance Department is also taking payments.
The city will soon be sending a letter to all Copperas Cove Utility Customers.

City Council for April 2, 2019

Copperas Cove City Council meeting April 2, 2019

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. 

Thanks for sticking with us and staying in tune with your town. If you have any questions about something referenced or have something to add - please let us know in the comments! As always, please subscribe and share, share, share. Lets get this around so people can be in tune with what's going on in their city and have an opportunity to Speak Up!!! 

February EDC meeting!

EDC meeting for February 27, 2019










Directors:
Adam Martin-Present
Chris Mulvey-Resigned
Jeremy Tate-Present
Joey Acfalle-Present
Marcie Lowery-Present

Council Laiason:
Charlie Youngs-Present

There is a vacancy on the EDC, so apply if you would like to serve in Copperas Cove!

The Agenda

    The only item for action during this EDC board meeting was about the possible demolition of the building owned by the EDC, on 201 s 2nd Street. This is the building that housed the old DPS Driver's License Office. They received an estimate for $40,000 to included the foundation. The board reached a consensus to continue to look for possible bidders and continue planning.

Staff reports:

Ms Drussell invited "Workforce Solutions of Central Texas" to speak to the Board. Chris Gallen (Army Retiree) spoke about a wide range of topics to include "Hiring Our Heroes". It is a program where existing Field Grade Officers anf Senior NCOs start in the program 180 days out from retirement and the last 12 weeks of the program the Soldier is placed in an accepting firm and the salary is paid for by "Hiring Our Heroes".

There were three executive session items for Project Etch, Project Glow, and about the search for their new Executive Director. They came out and reported no action taken!

Workforce Solutions documents