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05 - OCTOBER 26, 2015 MINUTESII c n 'I `-k), '47, MINUTES OF THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS October 26, 2015 The City Council of the City of Paris met for a regular session at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, October 26, 2015, at the City Council Chamber, 107 E. Kaufrnan, Paris, Texas. Present: Mayor: A.J. Hashmi Council Members: Aaron Jenkins; Billie Lancaster; Benny Plata; Steve Clifford; Matt Frierson; and Edwin Pickle City Staff: Gene Anderson, Finance Director; Kent McIlyar, City Attorney; Janice Ellis, City Clerk; Bob Hundley, Police Chief, Larry Wright, Fire Chief, Doug Harris, Utilities Director; and Jerry McDaniel, Public Works Director Opening Agenda Call meeting to order. Mayor Hashmi called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Invocation. Pastor Phil McKay gave the invocation. 3. Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Lancaster led the pledge. 4. Citizens' Forum. Anna Spencer, 1710 34th N.E. — she expressed her thanks to Public Works Director Jerry McDaniel for his efforts of bringing recycling to Paris. She also said she appreciated the Council considering improvements to Lake Crook Park. Consent Agenda Mayor Hashmi inquired of Council Members if they wished to pull any items from the Consent Agenda for discussion. Mayor Hashmi pulled item 11 for discussion and asked Chief Wright if the fire marshal duties would be shared or assigned to one person. Chief Wright said those duties would be assigned to one person. Chief Wright explained by attaching the fire marshal to a specific position it restricted the fire chief from assigning those responsibilities to Regular Council Meeting October 26, 2015 Page 2 the most qualified individual. A Motion to approve the consent agenda was made by Council Member Lancaster and seconded by Council Member Clifford. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 5. Approve minutes from the meeting on October 12, 2015. 6. Receive reports and /or minutes from the following boards, commissions, and committees: a. Planning & Zoning Commission (8 -3 -2015) b. Traffic Commission (8 -4 -2015) c. Paris -Lamar County Health District (8 -17 -2015) d. Main Street Advisory Board (9 -8 -2015) e. Paris Public Library Advisory Board (9 -16 -2015) f. Building & Standards Commission (9 -21 -2015) g. Historic Preservation Commission (9 -28 -2015) h. Paris Visitors & Convention Council (8 -20 -2015) 7. Receive September drainage report. 8. Receive demolition report. 9. Receive code enforcement activity report. 10. Authorize the City Manager to execute renewal of an agreement to manage the adult softball league. 11. Approve ORDINANCE NO. 2015 -030: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS, AMENDING SECTION 12 -1 THROUGH 12 -4, COMPOSITION OF DEPARTMENT, OF CHAPTER 12 FIRE, OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS, WITHIN THE FIRE DEPARTMENT; AND OTHER MATTERS RELATED TO THE SAME; PROVIDING A REPEALER CLAUSE, A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE, A SAVINGS CLAUSE; AND DECLARING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Regular Agenda 12. Discuss and act on an Event Center use policy. City Manager John Godwin reminded City Council that the City would be taking over the Event Center from the Red River Valley Fair Association on November 1St and expressed the need for a use policy similar to the one at the Community Room. Mr. Godwin said all users would pay specified fees, regardless of location or affiliation. City Council favored approving a use policy, but requested changes and asked that a corrected policy be brought back to the next Council meeting. Mr. Godwin said he would place it on the consent agenda for the next meeting. Council Member Frierson inquired if the City had all of the necessary equipment to move Regular Council Meeting October 26, 2015 Page 3 forward with renting the facility. Mayor Hashmi said he was going to donate the chairs for the facility. Pending an updated policy, a Motion to table this item was made by Mayor Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Lancaster. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 13. Receive presentation from Mayor Hashmi and Jerry McDaniel on a recycling program start-up planned for January. Mayor Hashmi expressed appreciation to Jerry McDaniel for his hard work on this project and for undertaking the program. Mr. McDaniel presented City Council with the start-up plan for recycling, stating the only cost to the City would be the actual cost of the five containers. He explained that one container would be used for the "swap out" container with the other four being located at Leon Williams Park, Farmers Market, Wade Park, and the Trail de Paris parking lot on South Collegiate Street. Mr. McDaniel said the City was in the process of finalizing a service agreement with Choctaw Nation Recycle Center at no cost to the City. He estimated saving $226.80 per month in landfill fees and said the proposed program should be in full operation on January 1, 2016. Following the presentation, Mr. McDaniel answered questions from the City Council. 14. Receive presentation from Gene Anderson on creation and operation of a public, educational and governmental (PEG) channel and public information officer for the City, and provide direction to staff. Mr. Anderson said he wanted to inform the Council of the possibility of the City having a public, educational and governmental access channel on Suddenlink Communications and to find out if Council wanted to pursue this. Pursuant to State Law, Mr. Anderson said the City began collecting a I% fee for PEG purpose and under Federal Law the I% fee could only be spent for capital items. Mr. Anderson said the PEG Chanel and public information officer goals were to increase transparency of local government, provide ease access to information, promote City of Paris goals and objectives, and increase trust and confident of the public in local government. Mr. Anderson explained the City would be required to provide at least 8 hours of programming each day on a PEG channel, that the PEG fee would more than provide all of the equipment, and that the City would need to fund one full -time employee and other operational expenses would have to be provided by the City. Mayor Hashmi inquired about the salary of the employee and Mr. Anderson said it would be around $60,000. Mayor Hashmi asked for the City Manager's opinion. Mr. Godwin said he thought it was a good ideal and would like to see the City do this and would hope they could get some partners which would reduce the costs to the City. Council Member Lancaster said it was good anytime the City could get more information to the public. Council Member Jenkins agreed with Council Member Lancaster. Council Member Plata said he was okay with it but instead of hiring another full -time employee, they should explore using IT to handle this. Council Member Clifford said the technology was outdated and that public information channels had been around for a long time. He said this type of information is normally spread out over the internet through various means and that he did not see anything that required a governmental access channel. He said this information could be placed on a high Regular Council Meeting October 26, 2015 Page 4 quality web -site that could be streamed out. Council Member Clifford said getting the information out would be good, but said he was not sure having a government access channel was the best way to do this. Mr. Godwin said a lot of people did not have internet. Council Members Frierson and Pickle favored the PEG and public information officer. It was a general consensus of the City Council to move forward with setup of a PEG channel and a public information officer. Council Member Clifford said if they were going to move forward with this, that he would still like to give it some thought of putting the content on the City web -site. He said that would give the citizens immediate access to the information and the City would be able to get the stats of how many people watch it on the web -site. 15. Receive presentation from Mayor Hashmi, discuss and act on a ground lease agreement with Paris Economic Development Corporation for the purpose of construction of hangars at Cox Field Airport. Mayor Hashmi gave a presentation regarding improvements to Cox Field Airport, citing that he did not think they had done a good job promoting the airport as an economic tool. He explained the possibilities of attracting businesses such as airplane repair shops, upholstery and paint shops, as well as shops for retrofitting private jets with medical facilities on board airplanes. Mayor Hashmi proposed that the City and PEDC work together to construct hangars at the airport, not for storage of airplanes, but for rental to companies that will develop hangars into shops for avionics, upholstery and paint shops for private jets. He said these hangars would generate revenue, create jobs for the community, and generate sales tax dollars, thus resulting in utilization of the airport for economic development. Mayor Hashmi further proposed that the City lease a part of the land demarcated by the Airport Board to the PEDC for a period of 30 -99 years for construction of two to three hangars, as deemed feasible and keep with the long -term airport plan. Airport Advisory Board Chair Dennis Ashby reported there were people who wanted to move to Paris and start airport type businesses, but there had not been aany opportunity to do so. Airport Manager Jerry Richey said this was definitely a good opportunity to expand the airport and people will come here if there is expansion. Airport Advisory Board Member Anna Spencer said she was excited that they might be able to expand the airport. PEDC Board Chair Richard Manning said he believed this was a good ideal and that he looked forward to presenting it to the Board. Council Members Lancaster, Jenkins and Plata expressed they thought this was a good opportunity and were in favor of creation of jobs and bringing growth to Paris. Council Member Clifford said he thought it was a real good ideal and would like to move forward with the boards discussing it and bringing something back to Council. Council Member Frierson agreed with Council Member Clifford, while expressing concern about the cost of building the hangars. He said if PEDC sees that this is doable, that he would be optimistic about it. Council Member Pickle said three or four years ago the Airport and PEDC were working together to try to grow the Airport and maybe the Airport Board and PEDC needed to get re- focused. Council Member Frierson inquired of Council Member Lancaster if any recommendations had come forward from Regular Council Meeting October 26, 2015 Page 5 the committee of which she was a part of Council Member Lancaster said it was recommended that advertising begin. She said Ms. Barrentine began work and they had seen the mark -ups but to her knowledge the advertisement was not accomplished. She said they needed to get back on track. Mayor Hashmi said the advertisements were discussed multiple times, but was never completed. It was a consensus of the City Council that the City Manager pursue this ideal with the Airport Advisory Board. 16. Discuss and consider instructing city staff to initiate a zoning case to repeal all or a part of Ordinance No. 2013 -045, Lake Crook Development District. Mayor Hashmi explained that during his last tenure as the mayor, he had discussed the possibility of redevelopment of Lake Crook and due to various reasons including lack of understanding of the project, the projected was shelved. Mayor Hashmi emphasized there was no plan to sell the land, the water, or any part around Lake Crook. He said a generous donation was made by Dr. and Mrs. Swint in the amount of $100,000 but with conditions, which included repealing the ordinance that was approved on the Lake Crook Redevelopment Project. Mayor Hashmi said there were efforts made on part of some of the residents but not much had moved forward and the lake mostly remains unused as an asset for the City. Due to financial constraints, Mayor Hashmi said the City could not move forward with a major undertaking on this project. He said he believed that a joint effort on part of the City and Friends of Lake Crook would lead to a success story at Lake Crook. Mayor Hashmi made suggestions that included repealing the ordinance, placing a monument at the lake recognizing the Swints' contributions, and development of the park. He suggested creation of a task force comprised of Friends of Lake Crook, the City Manager and two council members to facilitate the Lake Crook renovation and that they proceed with utilization of the $200,000 donated by Dr. and Mrs. Susan Swint. Mr. Godwin said he certainly agrees it would be good to improve the park, because it was a great asset and not utilized enough. Mr. Godwin said the first $100,000 was given to be used at the park and that is where they would want to use it. He said the second $100,000 was given with the stipulation that it was only good until December 31, 2014, that the Council repeal the zoning ordinance and the money be spent at the lake. Mr. Godwin explained the planned zoning districts, in that there were eleven but only one had been done. He said he would only recommend repealing a part of it. He said they never planned to sell any of the lake and repealing a part of the ordinance would help alleviate those concerns. Council Member Lancaster emphasized that there was never any intention of selling any part of the lake. Council Member Jenkins liked Mayor's Hashmi's suggestions and said they needed to have more events at the lake. Council Member Plata said he was fine with it if they had the resources. Council Member Clifford said they were good suggestions, specifically the task force. Council Member Frierson said less than twenty -four months ago the City Council decided this was a good ideal, prior to that Planning & Zoning decided it was a good ideal, and prior to that city staff spent about a year designing the layout. He also said he did not understand the necessity for repealing the ordinance when everyone was in agreement to move forward with Regular Council Meeting October 26, 2015 Page 6 park improvements. Council Member Frierson said he understood that the City had received $210,000 toward this project. Mr. Godwin said that the last $100,000 from the Swints had expired, leaving the City with a balance of $100,000 toward this project. Mayor Hashmi said he had committed to a $10,000 donation toward the project. Council Member Frierson said he was supportive of constructing restrooms with the monies received by the City, but did not think he could be supportive of repealing something they did less than two years ago. Council Member Pickle inquired if they repeal the ordinance and Dr. Swint gave the City a second $100,000 could a future Council could repeal the repeal. Mr. Godwin said zoning can be changed but must go through the legal process. Council Member Pickle said at some point they would see Lake Crook developed because there was enough interest and possibly even a residential development. Council Member Pickle said that he would like to go ahead and move forward with improvements. A Motion to send this to Planning and Zoning Commission to determine if the ordinance could be repealed was made by Mayor Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Lancaster. City Attorney Kent McIlyar said this item was posted to give instructions to city staff. Council Member Frierson expressed concern about accepting funds with conditions. Mayor Hashmi said he wanted to make sure Friends of Lake Crook know that there was never an intention to sell any part of the lake. Following additional discussions, Mayor Hashmi said it was his understanding that the rest of the Council was okay with the City Manager taking this to the Planning and Zoning Commission. Mr. Godwin said he would do so. 17. Discuss and act on changes for meeting dates in November and December. Mr. Godwin explained that due to holidays and vacations during these two months, that routinely City Council would have one meeting during each month, but could schedule a special meeting if they desired to do so. It was a consensus of City Council to conduct their meetings on November 16 and December 14. 18. Consider and approve future events for City Council and /or City Staff pursuant to Resolution No. 2004 -081. Mayor Hashmi reminded everyone of the Chamber Banquet scheduled for the following evening. 19. Adjournment. There being no further business, a Motion to adjourn was made by Council Member Pickle and was seconded by Council Member Frierson. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. A.J. HASHMI, MAYOR JANICE ELLIS, CITY CLERK Regular Council Meeting October 26, 2015 Page 7