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2017 02 23 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN FEBRUARY 23, 2017 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on February 23, 2017 at 5:33 P M., in the Hullum Conference Room of the Baytown City Hall, 2401 Market Street Baytown Texas with the following in attendance Laura Alvarado Council Member Robert Hoskins Council Member Charles Johnson Council Member David McCartney Council Member Terry Sam Council Member Stephen DonCarlos Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Ignacio Ramirez City Attorney Leticia Brysch City Clerk Keith Dougherty Sergeant at Aims Mayor DonCarlos convened the February 23 2017 City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5.33 P M. all members were present with the exception of Council Member Presley who was absent DISCUSSIONS a Discuss an ordinance authorizing a master equity lease agreement, a maintenance agreement, and other related documents with Enterprise Fleet Management, Inc., and its associate, affiliate, and subsidiary companies for the leasing of seventeen (17) vehicles for the Police Department through The Interlocal Purchasing System City Manager Davis introduced the item and stated that staff has shared information regarding this lease in the past, and since there have been some changes since then was brought back for a quick update Police Chief, Keith Dougherty stated that this item was brought to the Council to start looking at a change in philosophy by moving the police unmarked vehicles from being a capital expense to a recurring expense through the leasing of said vehicles, instead of buying them He stated that one reason being is that leasing these vehicles allows the Police Department to get more vehicles at one time rather than what is gained from a capital purchase Cluef Dougherty stated that there were some legal concerns with the lease agreement even though other agencies have and are using it Assistant City Attorney Deame King noted that the concerns were related to indemnity City Council Regular Work Session Minutes February 23 2017 Page 2 of 6 requirements, which are illegal under the Texas Constitution, but noted that the Legal Department will continue to work with their attorneys to iron out these issues Chief Dougherty stated that there was also an accounting concern that came up with the lease agreement and because of such the lease agreement will have to be incorporated through the budget process for next year therefore the Police Department will go ahead and purchase those vehicles that were budgeted for in this year's budget Finance Director Wade Nickerson explained that the issue with the lease agreement is truly an accounting issue that requires that the city record the value or total cost of those vehicles versus just the amount of the lease payment. Mr Nickerson further noted that the city cannot afford to expend that total cost of 17 vehicles in the current budget because there was only five (5) to (6) budgeted for purchase therefore staff will continue to pursue the lease agreement route within the budget process and go ahead and purchase those vehicles that are currently in the budget Council Member McCartney inquired of the financial impact of leasing versus buying the vehicles Chief Dougherty noted in response to the question that, in the first four (4) years there are some cost savings, but on the back half of the lease, the City will be expending a little bit more monies Mr Nickerson noted that depending on the type of vehicle and its value when actually entering into a lease agreement with the other party will help better define those numbers, therefore, it's hard to tie down these numbers for Council's consideration as there are many unknowns Cluef Dougherty noted that the change in paradigm will allow the Police Department to lease 16 vehicles at one time for the same amount that it purchases a few per year which helps maximize our fleet at a much faster rate with a better value Discuss sponsorship opportunities for Keep Baytown Beautiful (KBB) City Manager Davis presented the item and stated that Keep Baytown Beautiful (KBB) has requested that they be released from their current contract with the City, citing that they don't have enough resources in order to fulfill the obligations stipulated in the agreement He stated that for the most part, their board of directors has deteriorated, along with its volunteer base, and they don't have the necessary resources to meet their obligations City Manager Davis further stated that currently, staff is not aware of what they are going to do specifically; however, what KBB would like is to ask for a grant from the City He stated that KBB was advised that if Council wanted to entertain the possibility of a grant they would need to prepare a presentation for the Council outlining what they are bringing and what they proposed to do in return for the grant. City Manager Davis noted that the KBB voiced some frustration at the City for not being able to assume the trash -off event responsibilities and were pretty adamant that the City take over those responsibilities immediately He stated that the City has a number of recycling and trash events already planned and have a pretty full calendar and because of such staff cannot accommodate any additional events due to the limitation in time given and the state of limited resources at hand in which the organization of a trash -off event takes three (3) to four (4) months of planning City Manager Davis stated that he notified the KBB representative, Mr Tungstall that the City is not cancelling nor eliminating the trash -off event because this is not a City event but that of KBB, therefore it is their decision whether or not they cancel or eliminate said event City Council Regular Work Session Minutes February 23. 2017 Page 3 of 6 City Manager Davis stated that they did have a number of great ideas that they could undertake with the grant but they would need to come and present their ideas to the Council in order to move forward He stated that after this year, he'd encourage the KBB to use an existing CDBG grant opportunity as many of their ideas would cater to CDBG demographics Council Member Alvarado inquired if KBB still received funding from Exxon City Manager Davis responded to Council Member Alvarado s inquiry by stating that Exxon used to provide monies but that they did not now Health Department Director Mike Lester noted that in response the KBB not being able to hold the trash off in April, staff has scheduled a similar event to take place in the second week of May, which will be a little bit more scaled down due to the limitation on time and resources Council Member McCartney inquired as to how much money has the City given KBB City Manager Davis stated that currently the City has not given KBB any monies of the approved $15,000 because they do not want to accept the money with the obligations as they have not means of complying with them City Manager Davis stated that his recommendation to Council was to terminate the agreement with KBB He also recommended that KBB prepare a presentation to brig back to the Council at a future work session regarding their request for a grant and other favors and considerations such as, continuing to support two members to attend the Keep Texas Beautiful Annual Conference The consensus of Council was that they would consider the presentation, but were not in support of paying for the two members to attend the annual conference or the giving monies without any deliverables or accountability Mayor DonCarlos noted that it was a shame that what was once a really good organization has declined so quickly in the last two years Mr Lester noted that the $15,000 given to KBB via the agreement was the amount needed to cover the cost of the litter events that were at one time done by the Health Department. Council Member Alvarado stated that if KBB is interested in getting CDBG monies which have very strict requirements and accounting why wouldn t they expect the same type of accountability when receiving monies from the Council Council Member Alvarado further noted that CDBG is a reimbursable program and wondered in KBB had the monies necessary to expend up front and then wait for reimbursements City Manager Davis stated that he was not sure if KBB knew of all the details and intricacies of a CDBG grant During further discussion, City Manager Davis noted that KBB wanted the City to sponsor a gold membership to their Oak Tree Foundation Assistant City Manager Troller noted that Mr Tungstall had communicated to him a number of small events and Utter abatement projects many of which were with local schools or small neighborhoods that were doable He further noted that the City could support these types of events within its existing operations and budget Council agreed to hear a presentation from the KBB at the next work session to include a plan for the organization moving forward to include what they want to do in the community and a proposed budget City Council Regular Work Session Minutes Febnmy23 2017 Page 4 of 6 C Receive and discuss the quarterly substandard structures report Planning and Community Development Services Director Tiffany Foster presented the Council with a written report of the quarterly substandard structures report She noted that about eight (8) months ago a full time employee was assigned to dedicate himself to dealing with the substandard building program, to provide results of the activity of what was taken to the Municipal Court had increased, along with repairs to homes With regards to the report she stated that the last thing highlighted is that when speaking of the substandard program it is not only for those buildings that are taken through the court to demolish but also deals with working with the owners to undertake and complete repairs which is more of a case management duty City Building Official Scott Williams, noted that because of the complexity of dealing with repairs, staff tries to limit the case load to 35 40 active cases at any given time. In response to a question from Council Member McCartney Mr Williams stated that currently the City is seeing more demolition of substandard structures than repairs Mayor DonCarlos asked if there were any CDBG monies available to assist citizens in making repairs to their homes, as he had a citizen who was elderly and on a fixed income that cannot live in her home as her roof is in dire need of repair Mrs. Foster stated that the City has a Housing and Rehab Program which requires that the home be owner -occupied, therefore the applicant has to live in the home She further stated that if a home owner cannot live in the home because of special circumstances the City works with those individuals and asked that the citizen in question by directed to her office particularly June Tyler, CDBG Program Manager or herself, and they would make sure to help her with this item City Manager Davis stated that the Planning Department will give its next report in three months d. Discuss the feasibility of obtaining an ISO rating of 1 City Manager Davis introduced the item and stated that since his employment with the City, the Council has voiced its desire to achieve the ISO rating of I with the Fire Department He stated that since coming on board there have been several investments made that staff thinks may bode well for another application for ISO I He stated that Cluef Bill Baylis would walk Council through a preliminary examination of the potential for attaining an ISO 1 rating and after said presentation he hoped to receive fresh feedback from the Council as it related to moving forward in pursuing some funding for a consultant that would walk us through the ISO I application process Chief Baylis stated that the ISO sets the insurance rating and the lower the rating a city has the lower the insurance rates will be for its residents and businesses He stated that the big thing about ISO is that it's a really big attractant to businesses because if they know the city has an ISO rating of 1, they receive a lower insurance rate, which will bring more businesses into the city He stated that the City's Fire Department has been working toward this goal for a number of years and in 2015, the City's ISO rating went from a three (3) to a two (2) which saved the citizens about 8% on their insurance and about 2% on commercial Chief Baylis stated that at that time our score was an 86.8 and in order to move to a rating of 1 the city will need a score of City Council Regular Work Session Minutes February 23 2017 Page 5 of 6 90 or better He further stated that it was his belief that with the improvements that have been done in the last few years will propel us to a rating of 1 During further discussion Cluef Baylis noted that the ISO score is separated out into three components, one is the Fire Department the second is communications and the third is the water systems He stated that the new 911 Joint Communications Center helps meet any entena for the ISO communications system component He noted that the water supply component deals with fire hydrants which are handled and maintained by the Public Works Department in which Public Works feels that they have everything in place and necessary to meet the ISO criteria for a rating of 1 as all of their maintenance and inspections are well documented Lastly, he stated that the Fire Department carnes the biggest cost burden for the ISO rating score and while costly, has invested in the new drill tower, the new facilities and training, the new ladder truck and staffing and are now at a point where it can reap the rewards Chief Baylis stated that by going from a rating of 2 to 1, it will be a bigger incentive for the industrial and commercial people, but will also be beneficial to the residents He stated that the biggest benefit is when the city can say that we are an ISO I to a business and they will understand that their insurance rates will be lower versus if they go to LaPorte or Mount Belviue where they have a three (3) or a four (4) Chief Baylsis stated that he felt the City was at an ISO 1 rating and he would like to have Mike Peach come out and do a review of everything that the city has and complete an audit to tell us where we me in the sconng and if we are short of the 90 points, what we can do to get us to that point He stated that Mr Peach would assist with the audit, help schedule the ISO team review and assist the City through the ISO inspection He also noted that Mr Peach stated he could get the ISO inspectors out to inspect our facilities about six (6) months from the time that he completes his audit City Manager Davis stated that staff has not identified a funding source for this agreement which would be about $50,000 and noted that staff is planning on requesting this funding from the Baytown Fire Control, Prevention and EMS District ( FCPEMSD) at their next quarterly meeting, as they feel that this is an expenditure well within its wheelhouse During further discussion a request was made that staff move forward in the process and see how much the FCPEMSD could fund for this initiative, in order work on the ISO I rating this year and not have to wait for next year's budget Council Member Sam stated that if FCPEMSD could not pay for the $50,000, that a request should be made to the Baytown Municipal Development District to use as an economic development tool Chief Blake stated that he believes that if an agreement is approved in the next few weeks, he can get Mr Peach to come and do his audit around April 26th and can have the ISO visit scheduled for sometime in June or July, with a final result around mid to late July He noted that Mr Peach is highly recommended and experienced in this field City Manager Davis stated for clarity that the consensus from Council is for staff to move forward and (1) look for a funding source for this agreement and (2) put the agreement on a future agenda for Council's consideration City Council Regular Work Session Minutes February 23 2017 Page 6 of 6 e Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for February 23 2017, which is attached below City Manager Davis advised the Council that item 4.b regarding a resolution authorizing a grant application to the FY2018 JAG Grant program through the Houston Galveston Area Council (H GAC) on behalf of the Police Department will not be considered this evening, as the Police Department has withdrawn its application ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss Mayor DonCarlos adjourned the February 23 2017, City Council Regular Work Session at 6 17 P M yam, Leticia Brysch City Clbtk City of Baytown t