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01/12/2015MINUTES OF THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS January 12, 2015 The City Council of the City of Paris met for a regular session at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, January 12, 2015, at the City Council Chamber, 107 E. Kaufman, Paris, Texas. Present: Mayor: Matt Frierson Council Members: Richard Grossnickle; Aaron Jenkins; Sue Lancaster; Benny Plata; Edwin Pickle; and A.J. Hashmi City Staff: John Godwin, City Manager; Kent McIlyar, City Attorney; Janice Ellis, City Clerk; Gene Anderson, Finance Director; Shawn Napier, City Engineer; Jerry McDaniel, Public Works Director; Larry Wright, Fire Chief; Bob Hundley, Police Chief; Doug Harris, Utilities Director; Kent Klinkerman, EMS Director; Alan Efrussy, Planning Director; and Priscilla McAnally, Library Director Opening Agenda 1. Call meeting to order. Mayor Frierson called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Invocation. Pastor Brad Aldridge gave the invocation. 3. Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Lancaster led the pledge. 4. a. Citizens' Forum. Louise Moseley, 3915 Shannon - she said item 19 was not posted for public input and it should have been because it pertained to freedom of speech. She also said Mayor Frierson allowed applauding by some, but not others and that everyone should be treated in the same manner. Mrs. Moseley opposed selling land at the airport. b. Proclamation recognizing August Hunt's public art contribution to downtown Paris. Mayor Frierson read the proclamation and presented it to August Hunt. Regular Council Meeting January 12, 2015 Page 2 Consent Agenda Mayor Frierson inquired of Council Members if they wished to pull any items from the Consent Agenda for discussion. There being none, a Motion to approve the consent agenda was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Lancaster. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. 5. Approve the minutes from the City Council meeting on December 8, 2014. 6. Receive reports and/or minutes from the following boards, commissions, and committees: a. Paris Economic Development Corporation (11-11-2014) b. Main Street Advisory Board (11-18-2014) c. Paris Public Library Advisory Board (11-19-2014) d. Planning and Zoning Commission (11-3-2014 & 12-1-2014) 7. Receive November monthly financial report. 8. Receive November drainage report. 9. Approve the Final Plat of Lot 1, Block A, Paris Church of Christ Addition 296, located at 3175 Lamar Avenue. 10. Approve the Final Plat of Lot 1, Block A, Paris Habitat Hearon Addition 142, located at 343 E. Hearon Street. 11. Approve the Final Plat of Lot 1, Block A, Campbell Soup Supply Company LLC, located at 500 N.W. Loop 286. 12. Award the bid to Liberty National Bank to serve as the city's depository beginning March 1, 2015 and ending February 28, 2017. 13. Award the bid to Benton Rainey, Inc. d/b/a Blankinship Oil Company for furnishing and delivery of unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel for use by various city departments. 14. Approve Change Order #1 increasing the contract amount by $12,958.00 to Simwick, LLC for the 2014 Downtown Sidewalk Improvements Project, TCF Contract No. 713272 to include additional budgeted work. Regular Agenda 15. Receive presentation from Sahil Prakash about Project Pedal On. Regular Council Meeting January 12, 2015 Page 3 City Council heard a presentation from Mr. Prakash about Project Pedal On, which included encouragement of construction of more bike trails, bike lanes, the benefits of biking and a request for a proclamation in May for bike to work day. 16. Discuss and act on RESOLUTION NO. 2015-001: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS, ACCEPTING A SURPLUS PROPERTY RELEASE FROM THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION ON 12.662 ACRES OF LAND ADJACENT TO THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF PARIS COX FIELD AIRPORT SITUATED WITHIN THE CITY OF PARIS, LAMAR COUNTY, TEXAS, PART OF THE WILLIAM SCOTT SURVEY #856, AND BEING PART OF A CALLED 1552.97 ACRE TRACT OF LAND CONVEYED TO THE CITY OF PARIS BY DEED RECORDED IN VOL. 308, PAGE 287 IN THE LAMAR COUNTY DEED RECORDS; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. City Engineer Shawn Napier explained that AgPro requested to purchase an additional 12.662 acres of land at Cox Field for possible expansion and the City requested a surplus property release from the Federal Aviation Administration. Mr. Napier said the City received a formal letter from the FAA in December releasing the restrictive deed covenant on the acreage. Council Member Hashmi inquired about AgPro's plans and Mr. Napier said they planned to build additional facilities to increase production. City Manager John Godwin added that AgPro planned to invest approximately 1.4 million dollars. Council Member Hashmi said he supported business expansion, but that the City was also trying to encourage growth Cox Field. He inquired about the possibility of a long term lease of the property. Mr. Godwin said that had been discussed in the past, but AgPro did not want to spend that amount of money on someone else's property. Mr. Godwin suggested they approve this item tonight and staff could check with AgPro again and report at the next meeting. Council Member Plata asked about the number of jobs AgPro would create with an expansion and Mr. Godwin told him between eight and twelve jobs. Council Member Lancaster confirmed with Mr. Godwin that if this item was approved that the acreage would still have to be bid out prior to the City selling it to anyone. Mr. Godwin said once bids were received, the Council could either accept the highest bid or reject all bids. A Motion to approve this item was made by Council Member Pickle and seconded by Council Member Grossnickle. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. 17. Discuss and act on RESOLUTION NO. 2015-002: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS, DECLARING 12.662 ACRES OF LAND LOCATED IN THE 800-900 BLOCK OF FM 1508 (EAST SIDE) AND GENERALLY AT THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF COX FIELD AIRPORT, BEING PART OF THE WILLIAM SCOTT SURVEY #856, CITY OF PARIS, LAMAR COUNTY, TEXAS TO BE SURPLUS PROPERTY; AUTHORIZING THE SALE OF THE PROPERTY BY COMPETITIVE SEALED BID IN ACCORDANCE WITH STATE LAW; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Regular Council Meeting January 12, 2015 Page 4 Mr. Napier explained in order to sell the property the City must declare the property surplus and advertise for bids. Mr. Napier also said AgPro currently has 429 acres leaded from the City of Paris that includes the 12.662 acres. He said the appraised value of the 12.662 acres of land is $89,000 which is $7,000 per acre and the minimum bid price was $89,000. A Motion to approve this item was made by Council Member Pickle and seconded by Council Member Plata. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. A Motion to move item 21 forward on the agenda was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Pickle. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. 21. Receive and discuss update on home repair loan program. Mr. Godwin said about one and one-half years ago Council Member Hashmi put together a group of local bankers, and they were joined by Council Member Lancaster. He said the idea was to save some of the homes that would ordinarily deteriorate to the point they had to be demolished. Mr. Godwin said an agreement was reached between the financial institutions and the City to create a loan guarantee program whereby the City set aside money that was going toward demolish of homes to be used to guarantee up to 50% of each $5,000 loan to repair homes. He reported that 58 applications had been received by the City that 30 were denied due to back taxes, not within the abatement zone, not the owner, denied by the bank, and not living at the address. Mr. Godwin said the other 28 were approved for eligibility by the City that 16 had been approved by the banks and 6 had been completed. Mr. Godwin also said the program had gone extremely well and these were houses that might have gotten worse. He said citizens that had participated were extremely happy. Council Member Hashmi expressed appreciation to Carl Cecil in taking the lead and also thanked the participating banks. Council Member Hashmi said there had been no defaults and he hoped they would continue the program past the initial one year term. Mr. Cecil said it seemed to be working well, that he would get with the other banks and he thought they should meet again. Council Member Hashmi asked staff to set up the meeting. Mayor Frierson said he was glad to see it was working so well and citizens were taking advantage of the program. 18. Receive update on residential tax abatement program, and discuss possible changes to include other areas of the city and provide direction to staff. Council Member Hashmi said this program was started by the Council a couple of years ago and there had been 6 or 8 abatements. He said he placed this item on the agenda with the thought they could extend the same program to the other areas of the City to encourage more development city wide. City Attorney Kent McIlyar reported the program began October 2013 and the program was to encourage single residential development in new structures, additions or renovations that were at least 20% of the appraised value of the existing structure in Districts 1- 5. Mr. McIlyar said to date the City had received eight applications, two of which were still pending and that six that had been approved. He further said some of the projects had been completed. Regular Council Meeting January 12, 2015 Page 5 A Motion to direct to city staff to bring back to the City Council an ordinance to include the entire city in the residential abatement program was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Lancaster. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. 19. Discuss and take action on changing the language of citizens' forum. Council Member Hashmi said he placed this item on the agenda in response to Mrs. Moseley's comments at a prior citizens' forum. He said he did not have a problem with changing the language, but he thought if the agenda wording was going to be changed that the Council should vote on it. Mayor Frierson asked if Council had to vote on something like that. Mr. Godwin said the Council establishes the rule and if the Council doesn't have a rule, then the moderator could change the rule or either the Council could vote on a rule. Mayor Frierson said he changed the wording twice in an effort to make it more clear as to the purpose of a citizens' forum, and to hold to the two minutes. Council Member Hashmi said if a citizen had a complaint about something, he thought the right approach was to allow citizens to address it in the citizens' forum with the entire Council instead of being told to address an issue with their individual Council Member. Council Member Lancaster said she did not ever want to stop citizens from talking. Council Member Pickle said he thought they should adopt a rule. A Motion to adopt a policy approving the language currently written on the agendas (Persons desiring to address the Council must limit their presentation to no more than two minutes. Unless an item is posted on the Agenda, the Texas Open Meetings Act prohibits the Council from responding to any comments other than to refer the matter to a future agenda, to an existing policy, or to a staff person with specific factual information. Claims against the City, Council Members, or employees, as well as individual personnel appeals are not appropriate for citizens' forum.) was made by Council Member Pickle and seconded by Council Member Plata. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. 20. Receive presentation and discuss U.S. statistics on economic growth and job creation over the last five years and the effect on Paris, Texas. Council Member Hashmi presented statistics on economic growth and job creation citing several sources, such as Forbes Magazine, Dow-Jones Industrial Average and Politics USA. 22. Discuss and act on a policy for creation of reinvestment zones within the City of Paris. In follow-up to the December City Council meeting, Mr. Godwin said he created a policy to provide consistent guidelines for creation of reinvestment zones. A Motion to approve the policy as written was made by Council Member Grossnickle and seconded by Council Member Plata. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. Regular Council Meeting January 12, 2015 Page 6 23. Receive and discuss update of 2013 bond water and sewer line replacement projects and necessitate road repairs. Mr. Godwin told City Council that Contract A was complete; Contract B l was under construction; Contracts B2, C, D, and E were under design and should be bid in approximately March which totals approximately 22 million dollars; and a final project to expand and upgrade the Southeast Lift Station was also under design. Council Member Hashmi inquired if the projects were going according to schedule. Mr. Godwin said the projects were a few months behind due to all bids being rejected on Contract B, but there was the ability to get back on schedule. Council Member Hashmi inquired about Church Street and Mr. Godwin said that Church Street was not part of these projects, but when completed Church Street would be great. 24. Discuss status of city roads and repairs and program of work. Council Member Hashmi said he had placed this item on the agenda. Mr. Godwin said the City was currently working on older roads in three districts. He said the work included patching and repairing street surfaces, cleaning roadside ditches, replacing curb and gutter at various locations. Mr. Godwin also said the annual crack seal program was scheduled to begin in mid-January and included the Trail de Paris and the Oak Park track. He also said the seal work was scheduled for June and July. Council Member Hashmi said once the infrastructure was complete, they should look at the roads, because the roads were not a part of this. He also said the Council might want to consider putting a proposition on the ballot for a bond election to let the citizens vote to decide whether or not they wanted to improve the roads city-wide. Mayor Frierson inquired about the current funds and Mr. Godwin said they would have between 3.5 and 5 million dollars left over, but that you get about two roads for 5 million dollars. Council Member Hashmi suggested that an item be placed on a future agenda to discuss and obtain the real costs for engineering, construction, and to the taxpayers. Council Member Plata said he wanted it clearly stated that taxes would go up if a proposition was approved at a bond election. 25. Convene into Executive Session pursuant to Section 551.072 of the Texas Government Code to deliberate the purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property. Mayor Frierson convened City Council into executive session at 6:32 p.m. 26. Reconvene into Open Session and possibly take action on those matters discussed in Executive Session. Mayor Frierson reconvened City Council into open session at 7:07 p.m. Mayor Frierson said they discussed acquisition of potential land for an EMS Station and land acquisition as it pertains to the West Paris Trail. Regular Council Meeting January 12, 2015 Page 7 A Motion to authorize the City Manager and EMS Director to initiate discussions for acquisition of land for an EMS Station was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Lancaster. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. A Motion to instruct the City Attorney to initiate possible land acquisition proceedings and condemnation, if necessary on property as it pertained to the West Paris Trail was made by Council Member Pickle. Council Member Lancaster recused herself. Council Member Plata seconded the Motion. Motion carried, 6 ayes - 0 nays. 27. Consider and approve future events for City Council and/or City Staff pursuant to Resolution No. 2004-081. Council Member Hashmi asked when they would get the list of tax delinquent properties that were to be sold. Mr. Godwin said it was in the process and he would get an updated list to Council. Mr. McIlyar said that in order to move forward with a future annexation of a skilled nursing facility on Stillhouse Road, two public hearings were required within a certain timeframe and they would need to have a special meeting the week of February 16ffi. Mayor Frierson said the city clerk would coordinate schedules with the Council for a special meeting date. 28. Adjournment. There being no further business, a Motion to adjourn was made by Council Member Pickle and was seconded by Council Member Lancaster. Motion carried, 7 ayes - 0 nays. The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 p.m. MATT FRIERSON, MAYOR r J ICE ELLIS, CITY CLERK