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04/27/2015MINUTES OF THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS April 27, 2015 The City Council of the City of Paris met for a regular session at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 27, 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; Larry Wright, Fire Chief, Bob Hundley, Police Chief, Doug Harris, Utilities Director; and Kent Klinkerman, EMS Director Opening Amenda 1. Call meeting to order. Mayor Frierson called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Invocation. Pastor McKay gave the invocation. 3. Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Jenkins led the pledge. Mayor Frierson said they were going to change the order of the agenda and after items 4,b,c, and d would need to go into executive session for a conference call. 4. b. Proclaim the month of May as Motorcycle Awareness Month. Mayor Frierson read the proclamation and presented it to Mr. Womack C. Proclaim April 30, 2015 as the commemoration of the 501h Anniversary of the Vietnam War. Mayor Frierson read the proclamation and presented it to Mr. Mackey, Mr. Denison, Mr. Archer and Mr. Repella. d. Proclaim May 7, 2015 as National Day of Prayer. Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 2 Mayor Frierson read the proclamation and presented it to Pastors Aldridge and McKay. A Motion to move the executive item forward on the agenda was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Pickle. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 16. Convene into Executive Session pursuant to: Section 551.087 of the Texas Government Code, (1) to discuss or deliberate regarding commercial or financial information that the governmental body has received from a business prospect that the governmental body seeks to have locate, stay, or expand in or near the territory of the governmental body and with which the governmental body is conducting economic development negotiations; or (2) to deliberate the offer of a financial or other incentive to a business prospect described by Subdivision (1) as follows: A. JS Baking, LLC (Skinner Bakery) B. Turner Pipe Section 551.071 of the Texas Government Code, Consultation with Attorney, to receive legal advice from the City Attorney about pending or contemplated litigation and /or on matters in which the duty of an attorney to his client under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of Texas clearly conflicts with this chapter, as follows: Benjamin Glick/Tri -State Iron & Metal claim/investigation. Mayor Frierson convened City Council into executive session at 5:41 p.m. on Item A. JS Baking, LLC (Skinner Bakery). 17. Reconvene into open session and possibly take action on those matters discussed in Executive Session. Mayor Frierson reconvened City Council into open session at 6:27 p.m. He said the Council discussed Skinner Bakery and they would address the matter at a June meeting. 4. a. Citizens' forum Shannon Barrentine, Interim PEDC Director — she said that Tom Glascock with Turner Pipe would be coming before them to ask for a ten -year 100% tax abatement, which was an exception to the guidelines they had passed for tax abatements. Phil Smith, attorney — he spoke in support of tax abatements citing they were needed by businesses. He encouraged the City to be business friendly. Stephen Gerald, 525 -26th S.E., representative of United Way and Lamar County Chamber — he said in the last two years Turner had raised over $200,000 for United Way contributions. Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 3 Chuck Superville, Lamar County Judge — he spoke in favor of a 100% tax abatement for ten years for Turner. He said about six years ago Paris nearly lost Turner Pipe, but today they had over 700 employees. Stephen Grubbs, 2365 Wildwood Lane, PEDC board director — he spoke in support of Turner's tax abatement. He said they had a history of good stable jobs and they had been in the community for 16 years. He also said Turner wanted to continue to expand their facility in Paris. Mr. Grubbs said from an economic viewpoint, companies looked at site readiness locations, tax abatements and other incentives. Sims Norment, 6061 Church Street — he encouraged a full tax abatement for Turner. Chris Fitzgerald, 3151 Dogwood Lane — he spoke about item 13 and said he was the attorney representing Kenneth Humphries. He said his client owned Lot 6 Block 47 and his client was in opposition to the use by the Council and his client had no interest in participating in the trail easement. Mr. Fitzgerald said his client felt it was an illegal taking of his property if the Council exercises eminent domain. 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. Approve the minutes from the City Council meeting on April 13, 2015. 6. Receive reports and /or minutes from the following boards, commissions, and committees: a. Traffic Commission (3 -3 -2015) b. Paris Public Library Advisory Board (3 -25 -2015) c. Building and Standards Commission (3 -16 -2015) 7. Receive March monthly financial report. Receive March drainage report. 9. Receive demolition report. 10. Approve change for meeting date in the month of May. 11. Discuss and act on RESOLUTION NO. 2015 -021: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS; APPROVING AN APPLICATION FOR AN AUTOMOBILE BURGLARY & THEFT PREVENTION AUTHORIZING GRANT FOR CONTINUATION OF THE NORTHEAST TEXAS AUTO THEFT Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 4 TASK FORCE; AUTHORZING THE EXECUTION OF ANY AND ALL DOCUMENTS NECESSARY FOR ACCEPTANCE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SAID GRANT UPON NOTICE THEREOF; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Reiular Agenda 12. Approve ORDINANCE NO. 2015 -012: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS, AMENDING THE TRAFFIC PARKING SYSTEM ADOPTED IN SECTION 31 -84 AS IT IS ESTABLISHED IN THE TRAFFIC CONTROL MAP IN SEC. 31 -65 OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS; REMOVING A LOADING ZONE AND ESTABLISHING A TWO -HOUR PARKING AREA ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE 100 BLOCK OF NORTH MAIN STREET; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS RELATED TO THE SUBJECT; PROVIDING A REPEALER CLAUSE, A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE, A SAVINGS CLAUSE, A PENALTY CLAUSE; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Assistant Chief Tuttle explained the Traffic Commission received a request that the loading /unloading zone be removed and two hour parallel parking allowed. He said the commission recommended approval of the request. A Motion to approve this item was made by Council Member Pickle and seconded by Council Member Plata. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 13. Discuss and act on RESOLUTION NO. 2015 -022: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS DECLARING THE NECESSITY FOR ACQUIRING BY EMINENT DOMAIN A MULTI -USE TRAIL EASEMENT OVER LOT 6, BLOCK 47, LOTS 8 -10, BLOCK 50, IN THE CITY OF PARIS, LAMAR COUNTY, TEXAS AND FEE SIMPLE TITLE TO LOT 1, BLOCK 50 FOR A MULTI- USE RECREATIONAL TRAIL IN WEST PARIS, TEXAS; AUTHORIZING THE CITY ATTORNEY, OR HIS DESIGNEE, TO FILE PROCEEDINGS IN EMINENT DOMAIN TO ACQUIRE THE EASEMENTS AND REAL PROPERTY; MAKING OTHER FINDINGS AND PROVISIONS AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Mr. Godwin said there were two properties that were necessary to complete the West Paris Trail. Mr. Godwin also said condemnation was always a serious matter and cities have a right to condemnation, because sometimes you have someone who doesn't want to sell and without condemnation you might end up having to cancel the entire project. Mr. Godwin said staff had talked to the second property owner and believed an agreement might be reached with that owner. He also said the City was pushing deadlines and this was a grant fund project and the City could lose some funding if they do not proceed quickly. Mr. Godwin said at this time City staff strongly recommended that the City Attorney begin condemnation proceedings. Council Member Hashmi confirmed with the City Attorney that this was legal and also asked Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 5 Mr. Fitzgerald why his client wasn't interest in doing this. Mr. Fitzgerald said it was infringing on his client's peaceful right to his property, his client believed it would decrease his property value, and would interrupt the natural flow of water. Council Member Lancaster said Mr. Humphries' piece of property where the proposed trail was to go was in the flood plain. Mr. Godwin said the City staff had looked at other options and they would not work. He also said if they were going to move forward with the trail project they needed to proceed with condemnation proceedings. A Motion to approve this item was made by Council Member Lancaster and seconded by Council Member Hashmi. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 14. Discuss and act on formation of a joint committee to determine the policies and procedures that were followed with regard to issuance of the permit to Tri -State Company Recycling Depot. Mr. Godwin said he did not have anything new to report. He said he provided the Council with a report a couple of months ago, he provided a two page outline in their agenda packets, which included a timeline. Mr. Godwin said Tri -State asked the City for a nonbinding letter, and that was a direct quote from Mr. Glick, and that staff gave him a nonbinding letter. He also said in that letter, the community development staff said that they thought commercial zoning would suffice for that purpose. Mr. Godwin said when Tri -State bought the property, a building permit was issued, and the City staff quickly realized that was issued in error and that permit was revoked. Mr. Godwin informed Council that the staff that dealt with it was not fully aware of the entire ordinance, but they were now. He said in the future no staff members would be sending those types of letters that imply or give any sort of development rights to anyone, unless the City Attorney reviews that letter and approves it completely. Council Member Hashmi said he was the one who asked to put this item on the agenda after receiving a request from residents of the community. He clarified this item was not a personnel issue as Mr. Godwin indicated in his letter. Council Member Hashmi said it was a question of policies and procedures that were followed in this process and to ensure this does not happen again. He said he knew Mr. Godwin addressed some of these things in his memo, but he would still like to ask the residents if they wanted a committee to determine what procedures were followed. Council Member Hashmi said they follow open government and transparency and if something is learned by a committee that would help the City to avoid future issues such as this, he was for it. Council Member Hashmi asked if they could receive public comment and Mr. Godwin said it was not a public hearing, but Council could make that decision. Mayor Frierson said it was for discussion and action, but not posted for public comment. Council Member Pickle inquired about what a committee would be able to add to this. Council Member Hashmi said he thought the request was reasonable if it satisfied the community to go through a process. Mayor Frierson asked Ken Kohls if he would like to speak as he was the one who suggested the committee. Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 6 Ken Kohls said he lived at 3935 Brandyn Place in Morningside, so he was directly affected by this procedure that came about. He said last month he complimented the City Manager on his admitting that the City staff made a mistake in issuing a building permit and also asked him informally for an explanation is to how this happened and the process to ensure it doesn't happen again. Mr. Kohls said two weeks ago he asked the Council to formally created a committee because the City staff failed in its assignments, and the lack of management supervision in issuing this building permit to Tri -State Company. He also said this lack of staff coordination and lack of supervision caused a great embarrassment to the City and there is a potential for financial loss. According to The Paris News, Mr. Kohls said that Mr. Godwin informed the Council on the situation and the corrective action, but the citizens still have not heard any of this and that is why he was at the meeting. Mr. Kohls said the citizens wanted to know what happened, how this occurred. He asked Council Members, as business owners how they would feel if they came to the City and were issued a permit to enlarge their building or relocate it, started construction and a week later the City stopped them. Mr. Kohls said this situation was one that embarrassed the City and could cause great financial harm. He said he would like to learn the staff process on how this was handled and at what level it was approved. He said according Mr. Godwin's memorandum, the zoning error by City staff was based on an incomplete knowledge of the City zoning ordinance, but yet it still was approved by the City staff and was not allowed to go to Planning and Zoning or City Council. He said he wanted to know who made those decisions and how it happened. Mayor Frierson told Mr. Kohls his comments were well taken and said they were all human, all fallible, and Mr. Godwin had explained it. He also said it was an unfortunate situation but hopefully their trust was in Mr. Godwin to make sure that his staff was well educated and trained. Mayor Frierson said he did not think there was any one person that was perfect and had not ever made a mistake. Mr. Kohls said he understood that, but still had not heard an explanation of management or who made the decision. Mr. Godwin said the names of the people that made that decision were in his memo. He said if Mr. Kohl's issue was that he was not over there watching every decision staff made, then that was on him. Mr. Godwin said he had 327 employees, and he could not watch what all 327 were doing all day long. Mr. Godwin said staff made a mistake, the names are in the memo, the council members have been given those names and he preferred not to fuss at people at a public meeting. Mr. Godwin said ultimately he took responsibility, because they worked for him and he should have been paying more attention. He said the building official had issued several hundred permits since he had been in Paris and he did not ever see any of those, because it was not his job. Mr. Kohls said he understood that, but someone needed to make sure the information was correct. Mr. Godwin said he agreed mistakes were clearly made. He said he felt very confident that those people would never ever make that mistake again. He said he was not finished with them yet, but he did not want to talk about it in a public meeting, because even the ones that made mistakes were important to the City. Mr. Kohls said they were looking for information as to how it all happened. Council Member Plata said Mr. Godwin sent City Council the ordinance that staff had reviewed prior to making a decision. He said anybody that read that ordinance could see that this fit under commercial. Council Member Plata said Mr. Godwin took it upon himself to take responsibility. Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 7 He also said if you read that ordinance, there were a lot of businesses that fit the bill when it comes to commercial. He told Mr. Kohls he needed to let everybody else talk, because he was trying to blame somebody for something and he thought they had done their job correctly. Council Member Plata also said he understood the residents not liking what was going on in there. He also said staff was in their right to allow it to go in there. Council Member Plata said if you look in that ordinance under commercial, you can put sexually oriented businesses in there, garages, and the carwash. He told Mr. Kohls that he was trying to point out that somebody made a mistake and he did not agree with it. Mr. Kohls explained that the citizens did not receive the information that Mr. Godwin sent to the Council. Mr. Godwin said it had not been explained to the citizens and asked if he could talk with Mr. Kohls, if he distributed the information on the City's website and gave it to the newspaper if that would be acceptable. He told Mr. Kohls he would get him whatever he needed. Mr. Kohls told Mr. Godwin he thought that would be adequate. Council Member Hashmi suggested that in the future, the City staff have the City Attorney involved in the process, so that they have the correct interpretation rather than the City go through this again. Council Member Plata said if a committee was formed, they needed to go through the ordinances. Council Member Pickle said they needed to go through the zoning. Mr. Godwin said another thing they need to do to protect this neighborhood change commercial zoning to retail zoning. He said staff needed to add that to a future P &Z agenda. Council Member Grossnickle said it would be a step in the right direction if Mr. Kohls disseminated the document he had in his hand to the residents in Morningside, and that it could be place on the City web -site and published in the newspaper. He also said the other thing to consider was that there could be financial repercussions and sometimes it was best not to have too much information disseminated in a public forum prior to the negotiations in a lawsuit. Mr. Kohls said if Mr. Godwin does what he said he would do then he recommended no action be taken on his request to form a committee. No action was taken on this item. 15. Discuss reconstruction of Collegiate Road and provide direction to staff. Council Member Pickle said the road from Collegiate to Jefferson was awful and the City had the money, the funds were designated and could not be used for anything else. He said the plan was to have a turn lane before and after the bridge. Mayor Frierson agreed. Council Member Hashmi asked if it was legally allowed and Mr. Godwin answered in the affirmative. Mr. Godwin said the issue came up two years ago and at that time included a parking lot and driveway at the police department, but those were removed and this was for Collegiate Road only. It was a consensus of City Council to move forward with this project. Mr. Godwin said he would bring back an item for consideration by the Council. 16. Receive bid tabulation, discuss and accept lowest responsible bid from Pittard Construction in the amount of $3,041,970.00 for Contract 132 -2013 Bond Fund Water and Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 8 Sewer Replacement Project; award contract subject to execution of an approved contract, receipt of bonds and insurance. Mr. Godwin reported two bids were received and the low bid was from Pittard Construction in the amount of $2,998,470.00 and that city staff and AECOM recommended adding bid alternate ALT -02 for micro - surfacing in the amount of $43,500.00 which would bring the proposed contract up to $3,041.970.00. Council Member Pickle confirmed with Mr. Godwin that it was under the estimated price. Council Member Hashmi confirmed with Mr. Godwin that it was allowed under the bond language. A Motion to approve this item was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Pickle. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 17. B. Turner Pipe As requested by Turner Plant Manager Tom Glascock, a Motion to bring Turner Industries forward for discussion in open session was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Pickle. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. Mr. Godwin said Turner Pipe had met with the tax abatement committee and would be asking for a 100 percent 10 -year tax abatement on two projects worth about $12 million. He said their current guidelines would need to be amended if Council wanted to grant the tax abatement as requested. Mayor Frierson inquired if when they approved the guidelines did they grandfather existing companies. Mr. Godwin said at one time that provision was in the guidelines and criteria but was removed. Council Member Hashmi wanted to know if they could amend the guidelines to include that provision and Mr. Godwin answered in the affirmative. Mr. Glascock explained to the Council that March 15th would be the 16th anniversary of production for Turner Industries in Paris. He said they initially promised they would create 300 jobs, but to date had created 722 jobs. He said the new project proposal was for an office building and it would not create new jobs, but their current office building was so bad in that it was difficult to recruit engineers and accountants. He said the project proposal also included an expansion to their coating facility, which would allow them to keep more work at the Paris location. Mr. Glascock said he intended to present a proposal to his boss but first needed to know from the taxing entities if they would support a ten -year tax abatement at 100 %. Council Member Hashmi made a motion to give the ten -year abatement and for staff to bring back an amended policy. Council Member Pickle asked the City Attorney if they could proceed. Mr. McIlyar said they would need to amend the policy, create a reinvestment zone and then approve the tax abatement. He said they could bring something back at the May 11th meeting. A Motion to instruct the City Attorney to bring back the necessary documents in order to move forward with the tax abatement was made by Council Member Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Pickle. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. Regular Council Meeting April 27, 2015 Page 9 18. Consider and approve future events for City Council and/or City Staff pursuant to Resolution No. 2004 -081. Mr. Godwin reminded everyone that the slow roll bike ride was scheduled for Saturday and the HOT Audit would start next week. 19. Adjournment. There being no further business, a Motion to adjourn was made by Council Member Pickle and was seconded by Council Member Plata. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m. MATT FRIERSON, MAYOR ICE ELLIS, CITY CLERK