Fathom is out of here on Friday the 13th. We have a plan!

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

Marc Payne-Present
Jack Smith-Present

Meeting Agenda

Council Video

Hello again Copperas Cove!!!

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

The slides that explain it all!

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.

City Council meeting for September 17, 2019

City Council meeting for September 17, 2019

Happy anniversary to the United States Constitution!!!

The Council:
Mayor Bradi Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Absent
Dan Yancey-Absent
Jay Manning-Present
Kirby Lack-Present
Marc Payne-Present

Place 3 Candidates
Jayme Sigler- Present
Dario Eubank-Absent

Place 4 Candidates
Matt Russell- Present
Benjamin Beck- Absent

                                                                                                                                                                    Place 5 Candidates                                                                         

Dianne Campbell- Present                             
Gary Kent- Absent

Place 7 (Unexpired Term) Candidates
Jack Smith-Present
Terri Deans-Present

The Agenda for September 17, 2019

Citizen's Forum

The Mayor started things off letting everyone know that due to recent legislation passed by the Governor, there will start being time alloted during each Action Item for citizens to speak about that Action Item. This is a new thing though, so please be patient during the learning curve.

Alicia Menard, President of the Chamber of Commerce, gave some CoC updates to the Council and citizens. Among them – the Military Affairs Dinner will be this Thursday at the Civic Center, and the next one will be Oct 26^th. There will be a Ribbon Cutting for “Lasting Memories” on Sept 24 at Pacific Tanning. This Saturday, they will be hosting their Gallop or Trot 5k at the Civic Center. Sept 26 at Camp Caylor, they will be hosting their mixer which will be sponsored by Cove Nursing and Rehab. On Oct 7, they will be hosting a political forum for the upcoming city council election. That will take place at the Technology Center – informally known as the City Council Chamber.

Terri Deans got up and spoke about disaster preparation and classes being held in the area that are free. For more information, contact Teresa Deans, or contact us and we can get you in touch with her.

Consent Agenda

The routine items that are usually reserved for the Consent Agenda were all passed 4-0 except for the fifth one. The first two were for meeting minutes. The 3rd was an interlocal agreement with Copperas Cove Independent School District and the Police Department for policing services. The 4th is for another interlocal agreement with CCISD to share facilities between each other. The 5th item was for a food service contract with C & H Hawaiian Grill. Councilman Payne recused himself because he has business dealing with them, but since there were only three voting councilman and thus a lack of a quorum it was tabled until the next council meeting.

Public Hearing

Duran Homes Inc. is requesting the the properties  located at 101 and 103 East Ave C be re-designated in the Future Land Use Plan from Retail and LD (Low Density) to HD (High Density Residential). He wants to build a 1600 square foot home. There were no speakers. Vote to pass 4-0.

There was supposed to be a public hearing and vote to adopt the 2019 Comprehensive Plan Update. Councilman Payne asked for it to be tabled until October 15 to give him a chance to complete his reading of it.

Action Items

The are two appointments for the Economic Development Corporation before the city council this evening. There were seven applicants for the council to consider. Out of those persons Richard Kirkpatrick and Jay Jackson were nominated and passed 4-0.

Mike Creagle was nominated on a resolution to the Lampasas County Central Appraisal District Board Of Directors by a vote of 4-0.

Justin Carothers, Bradi Diaz, Teresa Johnson, Jay Manning, and Bob Weiss was nominated on a resolution to the Coryell County Central Appraisal District Board Of Directors by a vote of 4-0.

The council authorized the City Manager to execute an agreement with Bell County Water Control District #1 for composting material chipping and removal and general site maintenance of the City's composting site. Vote to pass 4-0.

The long range financial planning document called the 2019 Capital Outlay Plan was amended to add and additional irrigation pump at the golf course. The cost is $14,522. If it is not replaced the other one will fail before its end of life cycle. Vote to pass 4-0.

The 2019 amended Personnel Improvement Plan to show the Budget Technician position with a pay rate of $27.62 per hour. Vote to pass 4-0.

The council debated a resolution to support State Highway ramp project. It would be 100 percent grant funding. This would redirect commercial traffic from Clark Rd to Tank Destroyer. It also would include a left turn point to allow Copperas Cove residents to safely turn on Tank Destroyer and return to Copperas Cove. The resolution passed 4-0. Editorial Comment: Terri Deans spoke up in favor of this resolution for safety reasons. She IS the first to speak out in council under provisions of HB2840.

The Chamber of Commerce and the City are looking to allow the Military Affairs Committee to use the Civic Center four times a year an no more than once a month free of charge in exchange for Copperas Cove receiving a table for the dinner. Vote to pass 4-0.

FATHOM

Ryan started the update by referring back to the previous in which the council had authorized 2 meter reader service technician positions. As of today, both positions are filled, and are out working. They have received training, still have a little training to receive, but are out working now. Fathom and the City are still working together to improve response and customer service. Brad Drier then stepped up to give his update.

-Total Calls still hover in the 2,800 range that it's been in since the last update

-Total Abandoned calls has gone from 1.56% to 2% between July and August,

-The average speed of answer has gone from 12 seconds to 26 seconds from July to August

-On a 5 point scale, customer satisfaction has stayed around 4.78 since the last update

-Call Resolution has maintained around 97% during the last two months

They've made some changes in support, so now from a support standpoint for the City of Copperas Cove, they have a Operations Business Manager who has a lead, 6 Dedicated Reps, and an Analyst. On top of that, they have a “peak team” that acts as floaters and step in to help where it is needed. Peak time is typically at the beginning and end of the month.

They also now have a new Director of Operations who's managing the Regional Directors. They have a Director of Data Management, they have given the City Direct access to some of the info that Fathom has so the City can access that directly, and they have also brought on a Searchable Knowledge base for Fathom which is where they can look up the city policies and business practices from the computer while the rep is on a call.

In regards to calls, they are working on looking at how they can drive the call volume down. One of the key things they are doing is looking at escalations and what's causing them and what the outcome is. If a customer calls in and says they aren't happy and want to talk to someone else, they log that call and why it was escalated to another person. A lot of them are regarding disconnections, move outs, and payment return. In Copperas Cove, the escalations are less than 1/2% of all their calls. Mayor Diaz asked Brad why her tenants are calling Fathom to ask what's going on, and Fathom is telling them they need to go to their landlord for answers. Brad didn't have any answers for her, but said he would be in touch with her and look into it. Mayor Diaz said the feeling she's getting from her tenants is the Fathom reps are going down their scripted answers to resolve the issue, and if none of those work, then they are referring tenants to the landlord. Brad stated he will dig further into that for her.

Thursday and Friday of this week, they will be implementing an Mobile Data Collection System. It's a driveby system for the AMI software that isn't transmitting wirelessly like it should be. The are also continuing to provide additional training to the city staff for the work order management system, customer billing, and the AMI software. The registration rate through the online customer portal has increased by 2% in the past 3 months, setting us at 54% - which is great.

Jay Manning asked about the excess calls and the cost associated. He wanted to know if that's something they'd be willing to renegotiate. Brad said that as per the contract, yes there is a fee for call overages. However, as you know, they haven't done that in the past 10 months. He believes there's more work to be done to reduce those numbers and address it as a partner with the City. He said the contract is out of his control, but he's an advocate for Copperas Cove in trying to work with Fathom.

Kirby Lack brought up that a long time ago, they used to be able to call the City around the Holidays and inquire about families who are behind on a water bill and pay it off. It was typically a thing churches would do. Is there still a way to do that? Brad excitedly said he doesn't know, but he would love to look into it and see if there's a way to make it happen. Brad did bring up that the city has access to the system and they can look into that as well. Ryan stated that if someone comes in and says they want to pay a bill, the city will never stop them from doing that as long as they have identification needed for the form of payment. As far as city staff identifying those individuals – the city would never allow that nor would they authorize Fathom to do that because it is a privacy issue. Kirby responded that the city never told them who they were helping – it would just be something like the city saying, yes we have a bill here for $150 – would you like to pay it and then the church would pitch in towards that bill. They never knew who they were helping out, and the customer was never told who helped them out (which was good to keep them from begging for more). Ryan brought up that there ARE organizations that are provided to customers who help customers with their bills. He would be willing to provide that list and the churches can donate to the organizations if they would like.

Joanne Courtland asked what will happen if in 6 months we are still having issues and the call volume is still as high as it is now? Brad went over multiple things they are working on with the online program to promote more and more people using it, and making it easier to use which should help drop that call volume down.

With that, the Fathom Update came to a close. There were no items for executive session and the meeting came to a close. 

June 18 City Council Workshop and Council Meeting

June 18 City Council Meeting and Workshop


The council:
Mayor Diaz-Present
Joann Courtland-Present
Fred Chavez-Present
Dan Yancey- Excused Absence
Jay Manning-Present
Kirby Lack-Present
Marc Payne- Excused Absence
Charlie Youngs-Present

Editorial Comment: Marc Payne was not at council this evening because he was at a Keep Texas Beautiful meeting. This is not a sickness or emergency! I do not know where Dan Yancey was.

https://www.facebook.com/KeepCopperasCoveBeautiful/photos/rpp.99914121766/10156180266606767/?type=3&theater

From our City Charter

Sec. 2.07. ‐ Vacancies, forfeitures, filling of vacancies. (a) Vacancies. The office of a council member or office of the mayor shall become vacant upon death, resignation, removal from office by recall, or forfeiture of his/her office. (b) Forfeiture. 1. A council member or the mayor shall forfeit his/her office if he/she: (1) Lacks at any time during the term of office any qualification for the office prescribed by this charter or by law, (2) Violates any express prohibition of this charter, (3) Is convicted of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, felony or is assessed a deferred adjudication or probation for a felony, (4) Fails to attend two (2) consecutive regular meetings unless excused by city council (said excusal may be obtained before or after the absence occurs) caused by sickness or emergency, or (5) Moves his/her permanent residence outside the city limits.

Hello Copperas Cove! Welcome to another City Council Update. There have been a busy couple of weeks since the last City Council Meeting, and of course the leading buzz around town is the Tornado that hit Skyline Valley/Flats/Hill on June 9th. I just wanted to take a moment and express how thankful we are that in all the damage, nobody was hurt. We're also very thankful for the quick response time of local citizens, business owners, Copperas Cove first responders, employees, and the Cities of Kempner, Lampasas, and Killeen for pitching in a helping hand. 

Tonight's meetings saw discussion covering topics from Mayor Diaz proclaiming June as "Parks and Recreation Month" to a local business owner finally finding a way to move forward with a lot he has that has been caught up in a lot of red tape. 

Workshop Items

To start off the workshop, Mayor Diaz proclaimed the Month of June as Parks and Recreation Month. She went on to express her pride in our P&R department, and said "We have an amazing Parks and Rec Team". Ryan Haverlah pitched in that "Parks and Rec do tremendous work". When you look at the stats, our Parks and Rec "Do more per person and per acre than most communities try to do". Congratulations Parks and Rec - we appreciate everything you do! 

As if that wasn't enough good news for the city employees, Ariana Beckman (Interim Budget Director) presented the council with  the "Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Presentation Award" for FY 18-19. This is based off very strict nationally recognized guidelines. 

Once done with the award, Ariana went on to give a presentation on the proposed FY 19-20 budget, taking discussion and direction on the different sections. There really was a lot to follow, but it seemed like they had some fat to trim from the budget, and the biggest targets were maintenance budgets for the fleet, fuel/oil, and raising tax rates to make up for short falls. NOTHING HAS BEEN FINALIZED. This was only discussion for now, and it will be brought back for review.

City Council Meeting

Ryan Haverlah started the meeting off with a thank you to the community for the immediate action after the June 9th Tornado. Within minutes of the tornado dissipating, neighbors and citizens were out trying to help assess damage and clear out downed trees. He also thanked the cities of Killeen, Kempner, and Lampasas for their help with the clean up. No citizens spoke during the Citizens Forum, which is a rarity. So we'll jump into the Public Hearings. 

Public Hearings:

The First two public hearings were in regards to Mr Abdelazeem and his lot on Meggs and 1st. In past updates, we've gone into how he was wanting to establish a convenience store on the edge of a long-time neighborhood, and the neighbors were fighting him on it. On top of that, he had gone against what the city wanted him to do and found himself caught up in a lot of red tape trying to get this store to happen, but kept getting shot down. Mr Abdelazeem has changed course - he is now looking to amend the Future Land Use Plan as well as rezone the property to allow him to build a completely ADA compliant Duplex aimed at being used by Disabled Veterans. These were PASSED with no objections from the citizens or council. 

Next up on the public hearings, Belton Engineering (representing D Bar C Holdings) was requesting an amendment to the Future Land Use Plan to change 73.864 acres from Low Density Retail to Low Density Residential. They are wanting to put in a new 212 lot subdivision called "Big Divide" right off of ..well...Big Divide down by Taylor Creek Elementary school. The gentleman who owns the property across the street was strongly opposed to any development. He's concerned his property will be directly impacted. He claims no plans or studies have been performed by Belton Engineering. Additionally, he claims that known low water crossings are slated to have homes put right in the middle of them. Then he brought up Big Divide Rd. Will it be able to accommodate all the traffic without needing to be widened? The school letting out already backs traffic up out to Hwy 190/I-14. What's going to happen once you add in a new neighborhood? And finally- who will be responsible for future damage to his property from the neighborhood kids or trash blowing around?  Once he was done, Fred Chavez asked Bobby Lewis (Development Services Director) if all necessary studies have been performed, to which Bobby agreed they had. This vote PASSED in a unanimous vote. 

Wrapping up the public hearings was consideration to rezone property requested by WBW Development for some lots in the neighborhood next to SC Lee Jr High. The first phase of that neighborhood is nearly complete, but there are a few areas where the developer was not able to build initially due to there being a flood zone. He would like to rezone the area from a Single Family Residential District to a Planned Development District. The reason for this is a PDD will give him more room to work and build up those lots so he can build on them. He will need to bring in soil and reinforce it to make it strong enough to withstand the nearby water. A neighbor on that street spoke out in concern for the plan. He said the amount of water that rushes down that street is immense, and he's concerned that it will erode away the lots that are put in place. Kirby Lack asked Bobby Lewis if he thinks this plan will work long term. Bobby responded that this will be heavily regulated by FEMA since it is on the edge of a FEMA flood zone. Kirby conceded that if the developer can get the OK from FEMA, then things are probably going to be good to go. This measure also PASSED with a unified vote. 

Action Items:

The Star group asked and received by a vote of 5-0 a two year extension of their lease to the old police building for their non-profit group.

Fathom Rep Brad Drier came out and gave a quarterly report. Ryan started things off by updating the council we have had 2 new meter reader positions and 1 customer service position added to the Utility Department. We've also had our Utility Office waiting room expanded. From there, Brad took over. In the past three months, they've had about 3,000 phone calls. 86% of those were answered in under 1 minute, and they have an average answer time of 24 seconds. They have a 95.8% first call resolution, and the disconnect process has been improved. 22%-28% of the calls (the largest percentage) have been for move ins and move outs. Fathom has also introduced a new Customer Information System for the reps to use which has been a lot more useful than U2You. Fathom has introduced a new payment process for the utility department. This new system can take almost any kind of payment you can offer (I said ALMOST - don't get crazy), and they have a real time payment process coming soon to our utility department. That will make it so you can make a payment and have it hit your account on the spot. Copperas Cove has a 43%-52% enrollment rate in Fathoms online services, which has us far in front of the national average (20%-25%). Of the 2469 Leak Alerts sent out, only 69% of the emails were opened up. Fred Chavez started asking about the billing inquiries being called in and what they're about. Brad didn't have that exact information, but he WAS able to say that less than 1% of calls have turned into escalations where a supervisor is needed. Fathom is in the testing stages of making it to where people can not set an auto-pay for a date after their due date.  

Kempner Fire Department came out asking for support in creation of an Emergency Services District in Lampasas County, which would overlap some small portions of Copperas Coves extraterritorial jurisdiction. Right now, the volunteer FD has an annual budget of $68,000, but by doing this they could increase it to $488,000. This would be accomplished with a .10 per $100,000 tax increase for Lampasas County. Right now, they can't even afford to keep up repairs on the vehicles they have. Their annual vehicle repair budget is $25,000, and last year they spent $27,000.  If this passes, they will hire on two full time fire fighters to hold things down while all the volunteers are at work. Some legal questions came up, and this was POSTPONED until July 2nd. Editorial comment: The council debated for about fifteen minutes before they brought a motion to the floor. RRoO says motion 1st, then 2nd, then debate! Also the council wanted to table until the 2nd meeting in July so to study the matter more. ICM told them it had to be July 2nd since it would be more than 60 days. The ICM should have brought it to council sooner than he did.

The Planning and Zoning Commission had two vacancies to be filled tonight. The only two nominees that requested to serve our city were Ron Nelson (Seat 3) and Dustin Dewald (Seat 4). The vote for them was 4-0 to appoint. Neither of the gentleman were present. Councilman Youngs had stepped down for about five minutes for a break when the vote was held.

The Final Plat for Creekside Hills Phase III came before council this evening. This development is located on North FM116 and Lutheran Church Rd. It passed 5-0 (Youngs was back).

Ms Beckman and the Interim City Manager went over several changes in the fee schedule with one in regards to HB852 which forbids municipalities from charging by the square foot for building permits. It took effect immediately. The vote passed 5-0.

The Personnel Improvement Plan 2019-2023 was amended by a vote of 5-0.