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03/28/2016MINUTES OF THE REGULAR CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF THE CITY OF PARIS, TEXAS March 28, 2016 The City Council of the City of Paris met for a regular session at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, March 28, 2016, at the City Council Chamber, 107 E. Kaufman, Paris, Texas. Present: Mayor: A.J. Hashmi Council Members: Aaron Jenkins; Billie Lancaster; Benny Plata; Steve Clifford; Matt Frierson; and Edwin Pickle City Staff: John Godwin, City Manager; Gene Anderson, Finance Director; Janice Ellis, City Clerk; Stephanie H. Harris, Interim City Attorney; Larry Wright, Fire Chief; Bob Hundley, Police Chief, Kent Klinkerman, EMS Director; Doug Harris, Utilities Director; and Jerry McDaniel, Public Works Director Opening Agenda 1. Call meeting to order. Mayor Hashmi called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. 2. Invocation. Gene Anderson gave the invocation. 3. Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Lancaster led the pledge. 4. a. Citizens' Forum. Demeka Woods, 609 10th SE — she said she was the mother of Brian Woods, who was killed in the triple homicide in 2013. Ms. Woods said it was difficult to communicate with law enforcement. She said there had been no answers, updates or justice, and then she asked for help from City Council. Mayor Hashmi asked Mr. Godwin to address this with Chief Hundley. Brenda Cherry, 1442 Fitzhugh — she said her brother was killed in 2002 and she was also treated badly by the police department. Richard Erwin, 201 CR, Powderly — he told everyone the last day to file their income tax return was the 18th. Regular Council Meeting March 28, 2016 Page 2 John Fuston, 4010 Miranda — he said the recycling program was started the first week in January, and that he and his wife began recycling. Mr. Fuston said their trash truck comes only once a week and that one -half of his trash was going to recycling. He also said the citizens did not know how the program was going and they needed feedback. Mr. Fuston said if the program was going good that they needed to move forward with doing more. Leah Rolen, 228 SE 3rd — she said she had applied to the Main Street Board and wanted to introduce herself. b. Proclamation declaring the year 2016 to be "Project Smile" year. After reading the proclamation, Mayor Hashmi presented it to Debb Fleming and her students. Consent Agenda Mayor Hashmi 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 Pickle and seconded by Council Member Frierson. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 5. Approve minutes from the meeting on March 14, 2016. 6. Receive reports and /or minutes from the following boards, commissions, and committees: a. Historic Preservation Commission (2 -22 -2016) b. Planning and Zoning Commission (2 -1 -2016) c. Paris Public Library Advisory Board (2 -17 -2016) d. Paris -Lamar County Health District (11 -16 -2015) 7. Receive February monthly financial report. Receive February drainage report. 9. Receive demolition report. 10. Receive code enforcement activity report. 11. Approve a Resolution declaring the month of April as Fair Housing Month. Rep-ular Agenda 12. Receive update from the city manager on the status of compliance for incentive and tax abatement agreements, discuss and possibly act. Regular Council Meeting March 28, 2016 Page 3 Council Member Clifford said they discussed this several meetings ago and inquired the status of compliance reports. City Manager John Godwin said he would defer to the City Attorney as the City Council had voted monitoring of tax abatement compliance would be the responsibility of the City Attorney. Interim City Attorney Stephanie Harris said that was her understanding as well. She said that was the same meeting she was appointed Interim City Attorney and she did not have any information for them tonight. Ms. Harris said shortly after she was appointed, she asked PEDC to provide her with agreements and reports, but they only sent agreements. Ms. Harris reported she had been working with EDC Director Mike Paris and would be meeting with him the following day to review the documents they had at PEDC. Ms. Harris also said her office had started a spreadsheet reflecting information for all of the agreements. Council Member Clifford said the City had been working in a situation in which mandatory documents were to be filed with the City ten years ago and that did not happen. He said this was unacceptable. He said there were two things that needed to be done and one was to determine if the City had the mandatory documents and secondly, from the documentation they needed to determine whether or not the contract had been fulfilled. Council Member Clifford said he would like to see a spreadsheet reflecting the requirements of the agreement. He said the City needed to be proactive, and get caught up, so they could do what they should have been doing all along. Ms. Harris said when she left the meeting that night, it was her understanding that the responsibility would be on her office. She said they could get the calendar going with ticklers and deadlines. Council Member Clifford asked her to keep Council updated on this. Ms. Harris inquired how he would like to receive the updates. He said that was up to her and she could e -mail them, call them or present the information at a meeting. She said the City also had some residential tax abatements, but she had not had time to review them and she thought there had been zero compliance. She asked for guidance from Council. Council Member Pickle said it was a priority but a lower priority. 13. Discuss, accept the bid and award a contract in the amount of $258,897 to Premiere Roofing, Inc. for the purchase and installation of a new roof for city hall, west annex and north annex buildings. Finance Director Gene Anderson informed City Council of the serious roof leaks due to heavy rains in recent months. Mr. Anderson said specifications were prepared and bids were taken for replacement of all three building roofs. He said staff recommended a bid be awarded to Premiere Roofing, Inc. in the amount of $258,897 and since the expense was not anticipated for the 2015 -16 fiscal year, staff was requesting that payment be made from General Fund reserves. A Motion to approve the bid to Premier Roofing, Inc. and the expense to be paid out of General Fund reserves was made by Mayor Hashmi and seconded by Council Member Pickle. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 14. Discuss and act on an appointment to fill a vacancy on the Main Street Advisory Board. City Clerk Janice Ellis informed the Council of a recent board resignation, leaving a vacancy on the board. She said the three applications received were from Jess Kammer, Leah Rolen and Kristi Head. Regular Council Meeting March 28, 2016 Page 4 A Motion to appoint Leah Rolen to the board was made by Council Member Pickle and seconded by Council Member Plata. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. 15. Discuss and act on changing the meeting date of May 9 to May 16, 2016. Ms. Ellis asked that the Council change the meeting date, in order to canvass the Election during the time period prescribed by State Statute. A Motion to approve this item was made by Council Member Frierson and seconded by Council Member Clifford. Motion carried, 6 ayes — 1 nay, with Council Member Pickle casting the dissenting vote. With the Council's permission, Mayor Hashmi said he would like to re -open the Citizens' Forum. A Motion to re -open the Citizens' Forum was made by Council Member Pickle and seconded by Council Member Lancaster. Motion carried, 7 ayes — 0 nays. Harold Valtim, 1320 Pine Bluff — he said he made application to build a fence and it was rejected. He said he needed permission to build a nice fence. He also said there was concrete with sharp edges on a curb near 13th Street and Pine Bluff and several persons had busted their tires and he asked that it be repaired. Mr. Valtim also said there was a ditch by his house that had mosquitoes in it and it needed cleaning out. Mr. Godwin told Mr. Valtim he would contact him the following day. Chris Stephens, 608 N. Main — he said he owned Stevens Automotive and there were several other business owners with him. He said they had each received a letter from Code Enforcement that non - registration vehicles would being towed after twenty days. Mr. Stephens said it did not make sense for the antique car owners to register a vehicle that was being worked on at one of their businesses, because sometimes it took several years to restore an old car. He said he agreed with cleaning up Paris, but as far as putting up gates and walls that he could not open a gate without it opening up on North Main. Mr. Stephens said there were at least five of these type businesses on North Main within a half mile. He asked if they could get this restructured to get some heat off of them. Mayor Hashmi explained this item has been posted several times and it was good to come when it was posted, so Council could discuss it with them. He said it was very unusual for Council to re -open the citizens' forum and Council did so, because they saw them sitting there. He told them that Council could not comment because it was not posted. Mr. Stephens wanted to know when this would be posted again and Mayor Hashmi said they would have to discuss that with the city manager. Rachel Stephens — she said this comes back to recycling and making things better, and that she agreed with the other business owners. Regular Council Meeting March 28, 2016 Page 5 Richard Bowers, Bowers Garage — he said his family had been in this business for 50 years and he received a letter from code telling him he had 30 days to put up a fence. Mr. Bowers said the fence would probably cost $20,000, it was not feasible and he could not afford to do it. He said he called Larry Wright, who was arrogant and made it clear that he did not care. Mr. Bowers said his shop was not in the City when it was built and it had always been grandfathered. He said Mr. Wright should have the documentation on that. Mayor Hashmi said they would have the city manager look into it and they would get back to all of them. Ronnie Seeliger, 1730 N. Collegiate — he said his family had been in the business since 1957. He also said they were for beautification of Paris and they had done a lot to make their areas look better. He said the business owners were willing to work with the Council and said some of the business owners did not have room to put up a fence. Reverend James Price — he inquired when they were going to tour Paris. Mayor Hashmi said that Mr. Godwin would set it up. 16. 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 6:07 p.m. A.J. HASHMI, M.D., AYOR ,JANICE ELLIS, CITY CLERK i