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08 Council Minutes (08/28/01)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL August 28, 2001 The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session Tuesday, August 28, 2001, 6:00 P. M., Paris Junior College, Applied Technology Building, Room 1016, 2400 Clarksville Street, Paris, Texas. Mayor Michael J. Pfiester called the meeting to order with the following Council Members present: John F. Bell, Joe E. McCarthy, Richard Manning, Kevin Gray, John A. Carter, Jr. and Benny Plata. Also present were City Manager Michael E. Malone, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham. Invocation was given by Gene Anderson, Director of Finance for the City of Paris. Mayor Pfiester announced that the City Council would receive input from interested citizens of Paris proposing services or projects to be included in the 2001-2002 City of Paris Budget. Ann Gillian, Secretary of Keep Paris Beautiful, requested that their organization again receive funding from the City of Paris. Ms. Gillian said that last year, their first year, the City of Paris gave them $5,000.00. That support and support from the Lamar County Commissioners and businesses like Wal-Mart and Liberty National Bank, and generous contribution from individuals helped them be successful. The organization had received third place in the "Governor's Achievement Award" given by the State of Texas. Ms. Gillian asked continued support as well as increased financial support from City Council. On a question from Councilman Manning regarding the funds that have been placed in the Budget for removal of dilapidated structures, Tommy Haynes advised that the budget has been cut from 60 structures to 12, or $180,000.00 down to $36,000.00. He also stated that the mowing budget went from $100,000.00 down to $60,000.00, for a reduction of $40,000.00. Mr. Haynes suggested that the city needs to set the cost of mowing and Special City Council meeting August 28, 2001 Page 2 cleaning lots instead of using the bid process. Mr. Haynes said that does not include the help of prisoners, but there is also the cost of disposal of the refuse, which comes out of the demolition figure in the budget. He told the City Council that the average cost to demolish a house is approximately $3,000.00. After further discussion, the City Council was in agreement to include $5,000.00 for the Keep Paris Beautiful Organization in the budget. Mayor Pfiester announced that the City Council had been discussing the brush pick up at a previous meeting and they would continue with the Sanitation Division. Mayor Pfiester asked what impact the brush pick up has had on the city. Terry Townsend, Director of Public Works, came forward telling the City Council that the trash pick up, street sweepers, brush service, and bulk pick up are included in the Sanitation Division. Mr. Townsend said that when those pieces of equipment go down, repairs for all come from the Machinery, Tools and Equipment line item, so it is hard to break out the cost of the brush pick up. Mr. Townsend continued to discuss the brush pickup with the City Council. Mayor Pfiester said he felt very strongly about starting to implement a user fee for brush pick up. The City Council discussed the possibility of establishing a user fee for brush pick up, and the City Council was in favor of recouping the cost of brush pick up, which does not include any deviation from the original city policy regarding the two bundles that are allowed in the current policy. It was the consensus of the City Council to recoup the cost of brush pickup by establishing a user fee of $10.00 for requested brush pick up, other than the normal two bundles, to be placed on the water bills when the service is used, and directed the City Attorney, City Manager, and the Director of Public Works to get together and come up with an ordinance establishing this fee along with a fee for tree Special City Council meeting August 28, 2001 Page 3 contractors bringing brush to Public Works. City Manager Malone pointed out that the street use fee is not performing by $4,000.00. The City Council advised that they would look at it again next year and see how it is performing. Councilman McCarthy questioned the $50,000.00 in the account for motor vehicles. Mr. Townsend explained that the budgeted amount is for the obligations for lease/purchase of the street sweepers, packer trucks, cuttermill, and knuckleboom loader. Councilman Plata asked about the account for the landfill. Mr. Townsend advised that TNRCC has requested additional work at the old landfill located on Stillhouse Road regarding the monitoring wells at the site. Mayor Pfiester announced the next budget for consideration was the Street Division of Public Works and asked about the $300,000.00 for street and alley repair. Mr. Townsend advised that this includes all of the street maintenance such as gravel upgrade, pot holes repair, the chip seal program, and preparation for the street overlays. The City Manager said this does not include the cost of hot mix and the machine to do the street overlay, so you have all of the base material, curb and gutter repair and things of that nature. Mr. Townsend uses several accounts to accomplish those items, and then it is supplemented with the Certificates of Obligation money. City Manager Malone went over the expenditures from the Certificates of Obligation, Series 2000 with the Council, and pointed out that $58,387.00 has been spent for the 2001 street overlay program so far. Mr. Townsend said the basic program for last year cost was approximately $525,000.00. City Manger Malone advised that the balance in the Certificates of Obligation is $5,199,531.00. City Manager Malone said there is a plan in this year's budget, but if the City Council does not designate the funds, it can not be accomplished. Special City Council meeting August 28, 2001 Page 4 Mayor Pfiester said the next budget for consideration was the Traffic and Public Lighting Division of the Public Works Department. There were no changes made to this division's budget. The next division for discussion was the Garage Division of the Public Works Department. Mr. Townsend said the only piece of capital equipment in this budget previously cut that he would like to have restored to this budget was an air compressor. After discussion, the City Council agreed to place $2,800.00 back into the budget for the air compressor. Tommy Haynes came forward and discussed the budget for the Airport. Mr. Haynes pointed out that under the capital outlay line item, there is $166,667.00. He said that $150,000.00 was for the drainage and dirt work in preparation for the taxiways around the new hangars, for which there is grant money for their construction, and $16,667.00 will be taken out of the Certificates of Obligation for the match. After discussion of personnel, mowing of the Airport, hangar fees, land use fees, and promoting the airport, no action was taken in the budget. Mayor Pfiester announced that the next item for discussion was the Warehouse. Gene Anderson, Director of Finance, advised that the only thing unusual in this budget is new software to be purchased through ADS, which is a warehouse parts inventory module of George Butler software which will cost $4,000.00. Mr. Anderson said in after discussion with Mr. Townsend, this would also be a benefit for his department as well as the Warehouse Department. On a question by Mayor Pfiester regarding the shortfall in the Water and Sewer Fund, Mr Anderson told the City Council that he had calculated the Special City Council meeting August 28, 2001 Page 5 shortfall to be approximately 1.2 million dollars, and because the city is having to refund the December debt payment, that is going to leave the city a wipe-out of the carry forward balance. Mr. Anderson said he had calculated rough estimates of what kind of rate increase he thought the city would need. He said the Wastewater is the area that is under performing, and some of the contractual areas, such as Campbell Soup for water consumption, are also under performing. Mr. Anderson said it would be beneficial to do a rate study. City Manager Malone pointed out that another thing the city needs to do is a water loss study, and nothing has been budgeted for that. Mayor Pfiester asked if anyone had thought of an efficiency study, and he was speaking of how the city could improve the efficiency of the over all operation at-large. He said we should look at all the personnel that the city has - do we need all the personnel in the Water Billing Department, does the city need equipment, or can we get rid of it? Mayor Pfiester said these efficiencies are what he was talking about. Mr. Anderson advised that this is being looked at all the time as to how improvements can be made. He told the City Council that one of the things that he that he had budgeted this year was about $25,000.00 for a folding and stuffing machine, which he is not going to spend in this year's current budget, because it is his intention to out-source the bill printing, and folding and stuffing mail. He felt that in terms of cost, it is going to be neutral from what it is costing the city to do it verses what it is going to be to pay a firm to do this work; therefore, he will not have to purchase a new machine. Mr. Anderson explained that this would accomplish two things. He will not have to spend $25,000.00 for a new machine and it will cut down the overtime hours of the person who does the folding and stuffing mail process. His intention is to implement this process. Mr. Anderson also discussed the personnel and their duties in the Water Billing Office, winter averaging of the water bills, billing cycles, cutoffs Special City Council meeting August 28, 2001 Page 6 and other functions of that department. Mayor Pro Tem Manning pointed out the City Council was talking about one of the divisions of the city that brings in more revenue than any other department, and one thing that can be done to save money is the use of the touch-read meters. He felt that the city needed to get a program going, spend the money and get these meters. He pointed out that where he grew up they implemented these meters a year and a half ago and they have more than paid for themselves since that time. Mr. Anderson advised that there are about 10% of the meters already placed and they continue working on this as time permits. City Manager Malone said one of the things that the city is trying to do is get out from under the EPA Order, and by doing that, the city could reallocate those resources for other needed projects such as the touch-read meters placement. After a considerable amount of discussion, Mayor Pfiester suggested using $450,000.00 of the $500,000.00 of the Water and Sewer Certificates of Obligation money that was not going towards any project, towards the touch-read meters, and $50,000.00 for the water loss study. He asked that this placed as a top priority and directed the staff to come up with those figures. The City Council also asked that the City Manager bring back to the City Council figures regarding car allowances. Herb Campbell, Director of Utilities, came forward addressing the problem of people having water leaks. He said that when Mr. Anderson or someone in the Water Billing Office calls his department regarding a water leak, they will go out and place a meter master on it and it will tell to the minute how much water they use per minute. Mr. Campbell said if they are using more than three or four hundred cubic feet per month, then there is a problem. Special City Council meeting August 28, 2001 Page 7 After further discussion, a motion was made by Councilman McCarthy, seconded by Mayor Pfiester, to adjourn the meeting. MICHAEL J. PFIESTER, MAYOR ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM CITY CLERK