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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04 0323 min264 The Plainview City Council met on-March 23, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of the. Plainview City Hall at 901 Broadway. The agenda for.this meeting was posted in City Hall at 4:30 p.m. on .March 17, 2004. Mayor John C. Anderson presided. Councilmembers present were: Kelvin Tipton-District 1, Mary Jane Shanes- District 2, Belinda Pena-District 3, John N. Bertsch-District 4, Ross Owen-District 5, and Buddy McGehee-District 6. Councilmember Irene Favila was absent. Staff members present were: Greg Ingham-City Manager, Wally Hatch-City Attorney, John Castro-Director of Community Services, John Berry-Director of Public Works, Dale Simpson-Director of Civil Service, Will Mull-Police Chief, Gary Glass,Fire Chief, Jack Keller-Budget Manager and Belinda Hinojosa-City Secretary. Guests present were: George Meriwether, Jimmie Davis and Roland Nash News Media Representative: Richard Orr-Plainview Daily Herald Preacher Wayne Lemons of Ash & Carver Church of Christ delivered the invocation. Brownie Troop 616 led in the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilmember Pena moved to adopt the consent calendar. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Shanes and carried by unanimous vote. Items approved on the Consent Calendar included: approval of minutes of March 9, 2004 and March 18, 2004; financial reports and granting an excused absence to Councilmember Irene Fa¥ila. The Council approved Resolution R04-132, a Resolution of the City of Plainview designating early voting ballot board judge; designating district polling place judges; and setting hourly rate for election officials. The Council approved License Agreement with Plainview lSD and Optimist Club for use of baseball fields. The Agreement basically provides that PISD and the Optimist Club will coordinate their activities with the City and participate with the City of Plainview in the maintenance of the fields. PISD will provide $19,430 in the first year and the Optimist will provide $3,000 a year as their payment which the City directs towards the maintenance of the fields with the City handling the rest of the cost for the maintenance in this area. Both groups are required to carry appropriate insurance to cover their activities in the park. George Meriwether, CPA went over the Audit for Fiscal Year 2002-2003. He stated the City was receiving a clean opinion. He stated there were a couple of findings in the compliance and internal control report. The first item relates to an EPA matter that pertains to the old wastewater treatment plant, which has now been upgraded and is no longer a problem. It is probable that the EPA will at some point assess a monetary penalty for the alleged violation. The next item relates to accounts receivable for EMS services and municipal court fines. The problem centers around software. He stated they want to see an accurate aging of those receivables and a controlled figure that can be reconciled to the general ledger. There have been some ongoing problems in that regard and staff is working on those problems. He thinks this can be improved upon. Mr. Meriwether stated overall financial records are in good condition and appreciated the opportunity to be the City's auditors. City of Plainview Minutes March 23, 2004 Page 1 of 3 Councilmember Tipton moved to accept audit. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Owen and carried bY unanimous ¥Ote, Gary Glass, Fire Chief advised stated there are currently 750 million dollars allocated to be disbursed between all fire departments under the Firefighters Assistance Grant Program. The City of Plainview is in need of a new fire pumper to replace one of its older units. The costs for a new pUmper would be $300,000 with 90% of the costs paid by the federal grant and 10% of the costs to be paid by the City. It is estimated the cost for a new pumper would be about $300,000 for the new truck and equipment. Under the grant the City would be required to provide 10% in matching funds. If the Council authorizes the City to submit this application, the City of Plainview is committing to provide $30,000 in matching funds towards the purchase of a $300,000 fire truck upon approval of the grant. There was no public comment. Councilmember Owen moved to approve submittal of the application and to allocate $30,000 in the event the City is a recipient of the grant. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Shanes and carried by unanimous vote. Greg Ingham, City Manager introduced Resolution 04-133, a ResOlution Opposing any School Finance or Tax System Reforms that would Negatively Affect City Revenues and Economic Development Efforts. He stated cities are interested in school finance because we are integrally tied together in terms of communities and as the legislature is looking into various options as to what they, re going to do to resolve the school finance problem there is a potential opportunity that they could impact our cities by limiting our current revenue or future revenue growth, The cities ability to build infrastructure is critical to our school systems and our communities. Some of the areas that School finance reform could impact the City are: (1) Negatively affect the ability of cities to generate property tax revenue. In the City's budget that generates over 40% of our revenues. It is important for the city to have that ability and for the city council to be the ones to make that decision and not have it regulated by our state legislature. (2) Reduce sales tax revenue. Sales tax makes up another 40% of our total revenues for the City of Plainview. They are talking about broadening the sales tax base and funding schools with it. One of the City's concerns is that they may take this year's sales tax which has been relatively flat for the last several years and say anything over that goes to school finance. He stated we are asking the legislature to be very careful about that as they look at this. (3) Harm municipal and regional economic development efforts. The cities are one of your prime drivers in terms of economic development in Texas. Plainview is a prime example of that with cooperative efforts between the different entities here. If you get into a really large project, your school districts do have the ability to participate. One of the things they're looking into is hindering schools or eliminating their ability to participate in economic development. (4) Appraisal District expenses. If the state comes in and shifts the property tax burden from the school district to the state, then the appraisal district costs are going to City of Plainview Minutes March 23, 2004 page 2 of 3 265 266 remain the same. Right now the school district is paying 50% of the costs in Hale County and if those costs go away then the city and county are going to wind up basically paying that part of the bill because the number of parcels in the county and the number of appraisals that are going to have to be done are still going to be the same. Mr. Ingham stated if you look at the overall distributions of property tax collections over the years what you'll see in 1985 your cities were collecting about 23.3% of your property tax collections and as of 2002 that percentage is actually reduced down to 15.3%. The cities are not actively out there trying to go out for massive tax increases but do feel it is important to keep these opportunities to make these decisions locally available to our council. He stated he had discussed this with the school superintendent and they do understand we are not opposing a reform to school finance, we feel strongly that that does need to be done and that the state does need to address their needs in a positive manner. He stated we just don't want them to limit our cities at the same time they are trying fix their problem. Mr. Ingham asked the council to support the resolution. There was no public comment. Councilmember Buddy McGehee moved to adopt Resolution R04-133. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Shanes and carried by unanimous vote. Mayor Anderson presented for second reading, Ordinance No. 04-3416, an Ordinance amending the zoning map of the City of Plainview for zoning from a central business district (CBD) zoning district to a light manufacturing (M-l) zoning district said parcel being Block 3, Lots 6-11, Original Town, the same being in the 400 Block of East 6th Street, City of Plainview, Hale County, Texas; cumulativeness clause; conflicts clause; severability clause; and effective date. Since this was the second of two readings, the Council chose to forego the staff and went straight to public comment. There was no public comment. Councilmember Pena moved to adopt Ordinance No. 04-3416 upon second reading. The motion was duly seconded by Mayor Anderson and carried by unanimous vote. Councilmember Owen moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was duly seconded by Councilmember Tipton and carried by unanimous vote. There being no further business, Mayor Anderson adjourned the meeting at 7:54 p.m. Belinda Hinojosa City Secretary City of Plainview Min utes March 23, 2004 Page 3 of 3