And the PROPOSED TAX RATE will be....

The PROPOSED Tax Rate Vote and HOT Funds (TABLED), General Fund distribution August 1, 2019

Hello Copperas Cove! The Cove City Council held a special Council Meeting on the afternoon of August 1, 2019 to discuss the property tax rate and City Manager's FY 2020 proposed budget and plan of municipal services.

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

Council Seat 5 Candidates:
Dianne Campbell-Absent
Gary Kent-Absent

Action Items:
- "Coryell County Tax Assessor/Collector Justin Carothers has calculated the Effective and Rollback Tax Rates.  Staff has reviewed the calculations and concurs with the calculations as presented on July 30, 2019 during a City Council Workshop. The proposed budget is based on a tax rate of $0.797908/$100 property value."

"City Council is required to take a record vote and set the required public hearing dates for the proposed tax rate if it exceeds the effective tax rate or the rollback tax rate, which ever one is lower, as dictated by the Texas Tax Code." -  Ariana Beckman, Interim Budget Director

With the property values certified, the city has proposed a tax rate of .797908/$100. City Manager Ryan Haverlah presented the council with 3 rates they can choose from and the impact of those rates. 

 Dan Yancey opened discussion stating that next year there will be a state-wide roll back rate that the council will have to deal with. With that, he suggests to save money this year by not demolishing the old Police Station  and go with 0.7865/$100. Charlie Youngs agreed that this is probably the best way to go, and it would be a good way to show the citizens "we do feel their pain". Editorial Comment: What about their pain about Fathom and the pending Business 190 Median project? Kirby Lack said the tax rate hasn't changed since 2012 - lets leave it the same. If we back up the rate, we'll be having to come in and make up for it in a few years. With a 5-2 Roll Call vote, the Proposed tax rate was PASSED at .7865. 

Nay: Jay Manning, Kirby Lack

- Ariana Beckman said city staff recommends to set the date to adopt the tax rate and vote on September 3, 2019. In a 7-0 vote, the council PASSED this date.  

- Ariana Beckman said city staff recommends August 13 and 20 as the two dates for the PUBLIC HEARING of the tax rate. In a 7-0 vote, the council PASSED these dates. 

-Ariana Beckman dove into discussion about the different groups requesting funding from the city General Fund. This year, the city has $122,122 allotted to outside organizations. 

The Boys and Girls Club, HCCAA, HOP, and Noon Exchange Club applied for funding support this year. Each group was given an opportunity to provide a 10 minute presentation followed by Q&A with the council.

PRESENTATIONS:

"Boys & Girls Club of Copperas Cove is a youth serving organization that provides Copperas Cove kids with opportunities for a great future through safe places, caring mentors and life-enhancing programs focused on academics, health, and leadership. Our mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need us the most, to reach their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens." - Funding Application The Boys and Girls Club is coming on 25 years of service in Copperas Cove and they have seen a recent spike in attendance which has caused attendance to almost double. Charlie Youngs asked how are all of the movies on the training calendar helping to educate our youth? He was told that falls under the have fun and de-stress part of the program. But there are other educational opportunities. Leisure time is necessary to balance work plus the club also provides a safe space for children that they may not otherwise have. Kirby Lack  asked what other funding they have coming in? It was stated that they receive funding on a Federal Level, from the MLB, Boys and Girls Club grants, and a fee of $100 per member per year, and a $30 transportation year if they need that service. Kirby Lack then asked what percentage of their budget is this $15,000? It was reported that this would make up about 1% of the overall budget.

"The purpose of Hill Country Community Action Association, Inc. is to promote the reduction of poverty, the revitalization of low-income communities, and the empowerment of families and individuals to achieve economic, self-sufficiency, and maintain personal independence." Through the "Meals on Wheels" program, participants receive meals once a day - 5 days a week. The Meals on Wheels program operates within all of Copperas Cove as well as up to a 2 mile radius around city limits. For many of the participants, these meals are their primary source of nutrition. In some cases, they even split their singular meal to be lunch and dinner because they don't have the funds or the means to go out and get food on their own. In a few extreme cases, participants are trying to make the meals stretch into breakfast as well. With an annual budget of $46,257, they are requesting $5,000 from the City of Copperas Cove. $16,303 of that will go toward salaries. With the left over funds, they are proposing 7,850 meals which will cost $22,145. Due to space constraints, they can only full-fill 40 meals per day. Because of this, there's always a waiting list of participants. While they do ask for a $3.00 per meal contribution, they will never turn down service due to no contributions. They have one participant who has never paid for a meal, and they have no intention on dropping her from the program. The $5,000 from the city will pay for 1,773 meals. It costs less to feed the participants for 1 year than it costs for 1 day in a hospital or 6 days in a nursing home. Charlie Youngs stated the PD started the "R U Ok" program for Senior Citizens to join. Councilman Youngs said that he called the Copperas Cove Police Chief to ask him how many seniors were enrolled in the program. Editorial Comment: Council members are not allowed to ask staff members to do work for them, per the city charter. The VFW has volunteered lock boxes to the PD for this program so if they need to get into a home, they can without kicking down the door - "This is what community is all about" - "We need programs like the R U Ok program and Meals on Wheels program." Kirby Lack  and Marc Payne  both chimed in with agreement. Marc Payne brought up that the facilities for Meals on Wheels are really too small. It's a small space and everything is very crammed with the freezers always full. He felt we need to look into how we can help with space. Dan Yancey asked what is causing the backlog - it was re-affirmed space and some funding.

The HOP is requesting $98,089 - down from $100,000 last year. They serve the Temple, Belton, Harker Heights, Killeen, and Copperas Cove area. They offer 9 routes and offer 290 fixed stops - with door to door stops available for those with special needs. In Copperas Cove, they average 13 riders per hour, with the goal for funding being 10 riders per hour. They get funding from Federal, State and Revenue but there is still a funding shortfall. TxDot and the Federal entities recommend against a fare box increase due to an anticipated ridership drop. The HOP will start providing advertising on their buses and bus stops to bring in more funding. Marc Payne  asked how far away are we from seeing the advertising being implemented, to which it was replied the advertising is expected to start in January 2020. He then asked why the drop in the funding request, to which it was told that last years $100,000 was an estimate of funds needed but they were able to fine tune that a little better for this funding request. Marc Payne closed out his questioning by stating "Copperas Cove needs bus service for its residents but can't afford to provide it by the city". Dan Yancey is concerned we're "shouldering a disproportionate burden compared to Killeen". The HOP rep agreed with that sentiment, but they are going to Killeen with adjustments of options to raise funding or reduce service. Jay Manning mentioned that in 2017, we paid $42,165. Even if we raised funding 10% per year since then, we'd still be way under this amount - "You're pushing for too much". The HOP rep replied that if local governments aren't contributing, the federal government doesn't either. The bottom line in all of this is the 5 cities being serviced need to determine if you really want public transportation or not. The national average that cities contribute towards public transportation is 32% of the budget. Of the 5 cities serviced by the HOP, they're only asking 5% of the HOP budget. The reason for the steep rise in 2018 was the loss of their broker system.

The Noon Exchange Club is requesting $4,033 for their Annual Feast of Sharing they do every year around Thanksgiving. For this meal, they charge $11.50 per person, and have an estimated 650 planned for this year. This dinner has a total cost of $8,064 so they are asking for the Council to contribute 50% of the funds. Charlie Youngs brought up that in the beginning, this dinner was a program to provide a dinner to disadvantaged families and individuals. At what point did it become open to just anyone? The Noon Exchange rep said this was started in the early 90's by the City Council aimed at helping the disadvantaged, and was run by the Council until the early 2000's. Once the Noon Exchange Club stepped in, they decided it was tough to turn someone away simply for being too successful - especially since everyone has their own situation at any given time. With that, they opened it to the general public and now attendees range with everyone from the disadvantaged to Council members, business owners, and the general public. It's really become a good way for people to network and get to know their fellow citizens.

Council Discussion/Appointment of Funds:
Marc Payne started off discussion by stating he wanted to move $3,000 from the HOP and add it to the requested Meals on Wheels funds - bringing the total to $8,000. Bradi Diaz stated she wanted to keep things on track and address the groups one at a time and in order. She then went on to say that the Boys and Girls Club is invaluable to the community and she wants to see them be taken care of.  Fred Chavez said he's been watching them closely over the years and while they have had their ups and downs - they currently have great leadership who are pushing things in the right direction. He would rather see us pay for those children on the front end then have to pay for them on the back end. We should take care of them now rather than address the issue when they wind up in jail. Other members of the council agreed with his sentiment. Kirby Lack put the discussion back on the Meals on Wheels by saying he'd like to take $5,000 and add it to their requested amount. Bradi Diaz asked if they would be able to provide additional man power with the increased funding? The rep for Meals on Wheels stepped up and said while they greatly appreciate the generosity of the council, currently their issue is space. They only have enough space to prep and store ingredients for 40 meals at a time. If they can ever get into a bigger space, they would let the Council know and request additional funding at that time. Fred Chavez thanked her for her honesty and let her know it really meant a lot.
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB - $15,000 APPROVED

Fred Chavez started off discussion about the HOP funding by asking about the incoming advertisement funds - what would be the impact? The rep stated they feel confident with the funding, but they are too early in the process to have an idea of the impact. Jay Manning voted for $60,000 to go to the fund, and Dan Yancey voted for $79,665 to be put in the HOP fund. Joanne Courtland stated that we need our 1 route that comes to Copperas Cove and she didn't want to lose it - to which Bradi Diaz agreed. Dan Yancey reminded the council that last year we told them they needed to look at stretching funds, but instead they decided to be slow about it instead of doing this a year ago. Advertising is just a small band-aid on this wound, and they should also look into partnerships with local businesses that rely on the HOP to bring their customers such as Scott and White Hospital. Fred Chavez is a proponent of mass transit, but he also doesn't want to pay more than our fair share. Tax payers shouldn't be paying more for a bus ride than the people actually riding the bus. With that, Fred Chavez voted for $82,000 or $83,000. Jay Manning actually went for a bus ride today to see how things were going and it was nice. But nothing in our budget has ever gone up like this, and he doesn't like to ask our citizens to pay as much as $3 per ride, when the riders are only paying $1. Kirby Lack, Charlie Youngs, Joann Courtland, and Marc Payne all voted for $98,000 making it known we have to have a bus system, but they are not happy with the cost.
THE HOP 4-3 vote for $98,000 APPROVED

In regards to the Noon Exchange Club and the Meals on Wheels - Full funding request APPROVED. Editors Note: This allotted $11 of funding over the available balance which will most likely just be transferred from another account. Typically with budgets, if there's a small carryover like that, accounting can find a little wiggle room to even things out. - Jeremy 

Stay tuned for part two of the budget meeting. It will cover entities who are requesting funding from the Hotel Occupancy Tax fund. While some groups were heard, no funds were designated at this meeting due to errors with some applications. This is because the Texas Hotel Lodging Association reviewed the applications for legal compliance and found several mistakes, that were returned for corrections. They will be debated on August 13, 2019, because there is more requests than money available. The debate on whether or not the Visitor's Bureau will be the responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce is also delayed until August 13, 2019. Editorial Comment: Why is the Chamber of Commerce requesting all the funds and getting their people placed on several boards and on the council? We may need to look into this. More on that with the next update!

Last City Council meeting before Mayor election!

Last City Council meeting before Mayor election!


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 REJECTED by 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-3 Clarence 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.