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12 City Council (09/09/03)MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL September 9, 2003 The City Council of the City of Paris met in special session, Tuesday, September 9, 2003, 5:00 P.M. at Paris Junior College, Bobby R. Walters Applied Technology Building, Room 1206, 2400 Clarksville Street, Paris, Texas. Mayor Curtis Fendley called the meeting to order with the following Council Members present: Jim Bell, Jay Guest, Francine Neeley, Willie Weekly, Sr., and Benny Plata. Also present were City Manager Michael E. Malone, City Attorney Larry W. Schenk, and City Clerk Mattie Cunningham. Mayor Fendley advised that the Council would drop down and take up Agenda Item No. 3A and 3B first, which is consideration of and action on resolutions for the Paris Visitors and Convention Council's Budget, and a resolution accepting and approving the Paris Economic Development Corporation's budget. Mayor Fendley called for receiving input from interested citizens of Paris proposing services or projects to be included in the 2003-2004 City of Paris Budget and if there was anyone in the audience who would like to speak on a particular item to come forward. Gary Vest, representing the Paris Visitors and Convention Council, came forward, advising the City Council that the Civic Center is also part of the V&CC budget. He asked the Council to look at the proposed budget for 2003-2004. The Motel Tax Receipts are estimated to be about $317,000.00 for the year, which is down about $35,000.00 from the current budget. The other income items are very negligible, he said, so they did not place anything in the budget for those items. For other income, they have about $5,500.00 for selling souvenirs and things like that. The Tour de Paris is budgeted at $12,000.00 income and that is a wash, as they spend about $12,000.00 putting the Tour on. Mr. Vest advised that the Visitor Guide, which is line item No. 5, is approximately $20,000.00 and they make a slight profit on the Visitor Guide. He asked Council to look at the $19,300.00 in expense item number 22 and stated that they anticipate a $700.00 profit. Mr. Vest said that Item Number 6 is cashing in a CD of $17,948.00 and advised they had to cash one of their certificates of obligation and deposited it in order to meet the budget for this coming year. Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 2 Mr. Vest said in looking at the expense items of their Media Promotion, Events Promotion, all of their Convention Promotions, and everything they do to operate, the V&CC total budget is $97,000.00. Mr. Vest advised the City Council that they have one staff person on the V&CC and the total budget for that staff person is $51,414.00, which includes FICA/Med Taxes, Unemployment/Workers' Compensation Insurance, Group Insurance/Retirement, Auto allowance, etc. He said the last section of the expenses is their overhead expense for Tour de Paris, communications, printing, etc. The total expense in that section is $224,000.00 and they have a balanced budget for a total expense of $372,964.00, and that is $69,000.00 lower than what is budgeted for the current year. He explained most of that is because of the decline in the Hotel-Motel tax receipts. Mr. Vest presented the proposed budget for the Paris Economic Development Corporation. Councilman Bell pointed out that the travel expense exceeds the budgeted amount even in the year to date. Mr. Vest explained that they try to project all of the things that are going to happen and then, when there is travel outside of that, sometimes they have to follow through with a prospect such as C-Tech, Inc. He said not only did he and Eric go to their home office, but several of the ?EDC Board Members also went with them and they had extra expenses there. Councilman Bell wanted to know what meetings Mr. Vest attended regarding the ?EDC. Mr. Vest said there were other things that do come up because there was a legislative session going on and he went to Austin at least once a month throughout the session to testify on various bills. That is all under the travel expense account. Mr. Vest said other things that they go to mostly pertain to the ?EDC and they are very active in the Texas Economic Development Council, which is their professional association. He has served in all of the officer capacities of the Board. He and Eric work on various committees. Mr. Vest told the City Council of the other organizations that he belonged to and attended their Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 3 meetings. Mayor Fendley questioned Mr. Vest regarding the Hearne Street Project as there is $246,000.00 showing for this project in the ?EDC's budget. Mr. Vest advised that Reeves Hayter is drawing the plans for this project and he expected to have the plans by now and will probably have them before this week is over. Councilman Guest wanted to know when the Industrial Park will be started. Mr. Vest said as soon as they go out for bids. He said they will get started as soon as possible in putting the streets in. Councilman Bell asked Mr. Vest what the city could do to work with him and help the Paris Economic Development Corporation along to allow them to get further along and attract more businesses, other than money. Mr. Vest said they have done a lot of tax abatements in the past, particularly when they have new projects coming in. He said the one thing that would be very important for city government to help businesses come to Paris would be one stop shopping, one time permitting, just quick easy permits and receiving special attention to give whatever permit that is needed and not have to go to different places to get permits such a building permits, site permits, and site plans. He did say the city is very cooperative on that, but he felt they could go one step further and have those types of permitting for industrial projects expedited. Mr. Vest said Paris is in very good water capacity, which is a good attraction for our city, but one thing that the city does not have is sewer capacity. Councilwoman Neeley stated that they had talked about raises for city employees in terms of percentages, and as the ?EDC is sort of a quasi city government in some ways, what kind of percentage raise did his employees get. Mr. Vest advised that they will receive 4% across the board, other than Barbara Carpenter at the Civic Center. Because of lack of funding, she opted to have her employees get raises in her stead. Resolution No. 2003-154, accepting and approving the Paris Visitors and Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 4 Convention Council Budget, Chamber of Commerce of Lamar County, was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Bell for approval of the resolution. The motion was seconded by Councilman Guest and carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Resolution No. 2003-155, accepting and approving the Paris Economic Development Corporation budget for the fiscal year October 1, 2003, and ending September 30, 2004, was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Guest, seconded by Councilman McCarthy, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Mayor Fendley announced that they would move back to Agenda Item No. 2A, to consider and discuss the proposed 2003-2004 budget and accompanying Tax Rate for the City of Paris. Mayor Fendley called for anyone who would like to come forward to give public input on the budget, or to make requests or comments. No one appeared, and Mayor Fendley moved to Agenda Item No. 2C, to consider, discuss, and take possible action on amendments to the 2003-2004 budget. Mayor Fendley advised that Mr. Anderson had passed around the summary of the budget changes that have been recommended and the request for funds from charitable organizations. He pointed out that on his foot notes out to the right, it shows contributions and the fourth item down shows that is coming out of the Parks Department and Paris Band is coming out of Department 62. Those other items were in the City Council's budget. The Children's Advocacy Center, Lamar County Human Resources Council, NETCADA and Keep Paris Beautiful were in there for those requested amounts which totaled to $35,000.00. Mayor Fendley said there are two new organizations that were not in the recommended budget that they could discuss and make recommendations on. Those were Family Haven in the amount of $3,000.00 and Models of the Maker for Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 5 $10,000.00. Mayor Fendley said that Family Haven had not called him today, but just to clarify, she wanted the City Council to realize that she is seeing 750 cases a month of battered children and women that they are trying to get back in the home or make other arrangements for. After discussion, a motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, seconded by Councilman Weekly, to add $3,000.00 to the budget for Family Haven to the budget. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. Councilman Bell questioned that last year the Council raised the contribution for NETCADA from $5,000.00 to $10,000.00 and said he thought they should take them back to $5,000.00. Councilwoman Neeley stated that is in order to get the funding from the State they needed 10% matching funds. Mike Alexander, Code Enforcement Officer, came forward, stating that he was on the board for NETCADA and the reason for asking for additional money last year was, they were not remodeling, but they were moving from the old Paris Junior College building to the First National Bank Building. He said this is a very good program and it helps recovering people and they have a very good success rate and help a lot of people. Councilman Guest asked why couldn't they establish a budget amount from year to year, let them make their recommendations to the staff and then the staff make a recommendation to the Council. Mayor Fendley said they need to adjust how they handle it next year. He did not see the need for them to have to come and go through this procedure if they could take staff recommendations and they can make their recommendations to the staff. City Manager Malone said he did not feel that it would be the responsibility of the staff to make recommendations for charitable organizations. He also advised that the City Council had placed those in the budget and he has removed them in the Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 6 past. The City Manager said that is a political decision. City Manager Malone explained the way charitable organizations got into the city budget was the city used to get Revenue Sharing Funds amounting to about 1.5 million a year back in Nixon's administration. That was to send the money to the local government and let them make the decision on how it was to be spent. He said the City of Paris was very conservative about using those funds. They did not use it to fund employees and add people. Mayor Fendley stated that the information could be accepted by city staff for the charitable organizations and that information presented to the Council. City Manager Malone advised that these charitable organizations came forward, asking for funds from that fund and that is how they got in there. He said that when the Revenue Share Funds went away, the burden reverted to the city. It was the consensus of the City Council to consider each charitable organization separately and to notify each one that next year that funding may be not available. Mayor Fendley called for a vote on the funding of the Children's Advocacy Center. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, to approve funding in the amount of $8,000.00. The motion carried 5 ayes, 2 nays. Councilwoman Neeley and Councilman Weekly voting no. Mayor Fendley called for a vote on the funding of the Lamar County Human Resources Council. A motion was made by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, seconded by Councilman Guest, to fund the Lamar County Human Resource Council in the amount of $8,000.00. The motion carried 5 ayes, 2 nays. Councilman Weekly and Councilwoman Neeley voting no. Mayor Fendley advised that the Breakfast Optimist Club was in because it is in the Park's Department. Mayor Fendley called for a vote on the funding of NETCADA. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Councilwoman Neeley, to fund Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 7 NETCADA in the amount of $7,000.00. The motion carried 5 ayes, 2 nays. Councilman Plata and Councilman Weekly voting no. Mayor Fendley called for a vote on the funding of Models of the Maker. A motion was made by Councilman Weekly to contribute $10,000.00 to the Models of the Maker. The motion was seconded by Councilman Guest and failed with 2 ayes, 5 nays. Councilman Plata made a motion to fund the Models of the Maker in the amount of $7,000.00. The motion was seconded by Councilman Weekly and carried 4 ayes, 3 nays, Councilwoman Neeley, Councilman Bell, and Mayor Fendley voting no. A motion was made by Councilwoman Neeley, seconded by Councilman Plata, to leave Keep Paris Beautiful in the budget at $5,000.00. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. It was the consensus of the City Council for the City Manager to notify the charitable organizations that their funding will be in serious question, and give them the history of how this had been placed in the budget as he had explained to them earlier. Karl Louis, Police Chief, came forward stating that many of the organizations they have been discussing tonight are kind of interrelated to law enforcement. He said, for instance, NETCADA, on the prevention side, really assisted the Police Department and felt it was money well spent. He said the Children's Advocacy Center also works with the Police Department on children that have been molested and it is critically important for them to work in relationship with the Children's Advocacy Center. Chief Louis said if the city comes up with a new policy regarding recommendations to Council, especially those related to law enforcement, he would like the Council to take that into consideration and allow the Police Department to be a participant in the staff recommendations to the Council in regard to those particular issues. Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 8 Councilman Bell expressed his feelings that the City is not the place to come and get their funding. It should be through the United Way and public funding. Chief Louis stated that he understood what they were saying and the United Way is also limited to the amount of funding as they were down last year. They are also hurting. He stated that he was just trying to let the Council know that in law enforcement, they have a lot of interrelated activities with many of these organizations, even though they are charitable. They are assisting the Police Department to a degree. Chief Louis reported that they have a 9-year-old Ford Crown Victoria with 166,893 miles on it and it has been used by narcotics. They have nine year old 1994 Crown Victoria with 136,875 miles and the transmission is out. They have a 11-year-old 1992 Chevrolet Caprice with milage of 169,000. It is an old CID vehicle and it was used as patrol prior to that. He said they have 1996 Ford Crown Victoria with 114,889 miles on it. He said they also have an old Chevrolet Caprice that was used for a while. It was pulled out of service, then placed back into service. They actually have five vehicles that will go on the auction block this year. Chief Louis said they were able to trade down one of their CID vehicles to another person. City Manager Malone said these vehicles are offered to other departments that may have something that is even worse and these may not be the ones that go to auction. Chief Louis said the last vehicle is a 1996 Ford Crown Victoria with milage of 135,085. Councilman Bell asked if these vehicles could be donated, and if they can't, how can the city donate money. City Attorney Schenk advised that one of the constitutional amendments was to allow the donation of used fire fighting equipment to volunteer fire departments. That is because they are constitutionally prohibited to donate public funds. He thought the rationale previously on some of these charitable direct gifts was, as Chief Louis indicated, they could find a public purpose for what they were doing for the Police Department. He felt that it was a more difficult to show a direct Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 9 public purpose of giving a vehicle, which they might sell for whatever purpose. On a question regarding the Paris Municipal Band by Councilman Plata, City Attorney Schenk advised there was actually an election on the issue of preserving and paying for the Paris Municipal Band. He also advised there was a special provision in the Local Government Code on Municipal Band. The issue of maintaining the Band is an issue that the city is locked into. Gene Anderson, Director of Finance, told the Council that the Chamber of Commerce, through the V&CC, funds $10,000.00 for the Paris Municipal Band, so the city is looking at funding approximately 8 thousand dollars. The City Council discussed the possibility of cutting some of the overtime from the Fire Department's budget and also discussed absenteeism being the big problem. Chief Louis again appeared before the Council, discussing overtime in his budget and his new shifts that were started in March. He felt it would take a full year to see what type of impact it would have on the overtime. He thought it would reduce the overtime, but he was afraid to say that at this point until he has a full year of data as to how much that has impacted the department. He explained that dispatch 911 was driving part of the overtime plus the mandatory training for all officers in the department, which is 20 hours per officer, which includes officers working crime scenes, off duty, extensive testimony, etc. Chief Louis told the Council that what they would like to do, if they see a significant decrease in overtime by next May, is take that money and reclassify the officers and try to get at least an average of those cities that he has presented to the City Council. Councilwoman Neeley departed the council chambers at 6:09 P.M. Mayor Fendley stated that there is a Human Resource Director in the budget and the purpose of that Human Resources Director is to work with staff and look at staffing and salaries. He felt the Council was a little premature in talking about it at this time. Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 10 Mayor Fendley announced that the City Council would take a short break at 6' 10 P.M. Mayor Fendley reconvened the meeting at 6:20 P.M. Mayor Fendley stated that they have actually changed the budget by $400,000.00 on the revenue side and on the expense side, the General Fund has been reduced by $289,656.00 and the Water and Sewer Fund has been reduced by $559,600.00. Councilman Bell advised that they have another $100,000.00 to get the revenue adjusted in line with the expenditures. Mayor Fendley said either that, or they may have a surplus at the end of the year and they can transfer that surplus over and operate out of that. Mr. Anderson came forward, advising that they made a projection where they thought they would end up and it is an estimate. He said that what the Mayor stated was one possibility. Councilman Bell stated his concern in moving that $400,000.00 was to try and get the Water Department back in line as quickly as possible with an idea of not having another rate increase. Mayor Fendley advised that the annual audit will be completed around the first of the year and they can adjust the budget in the last three months of the fiscal year. Resolution No. 2003-156, setting a public hearing for September 23, 2003, at 6:00 P.M., on the proposed amendments to the City Manager's proposed budget for fiscal year 2003-2004, was presented. A motion was made by Councilman Bell, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem McCarthy, for approval of the resolution. The motion carried 7 ayes, 0 nays. The City Council also set the 18th day of September, 2003, for a Special City Council meeting for Karl Louis, Police Chief, to present his report on work by the day. Regular City Council Meeting September 9,2003 Page 11 There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. CURTIS FENDLEY, MAYOR ATTEST: MATTIE CUNNINGHAM, CITY CLERK