2018 09 13 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN
SEPTEMBER 13, 2018
The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday,
September 8, 2018, at 5:30 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
Mayor Pro Tem
David Himsel
Council Member
Chris Presley
Council Member
Heather Betancourth
Council Member
Stephen DonCarlos Mayor
Rick Davis City Manager
Ignacio Ramirez City Attorney
Leticia Brysch City Clerk
Mayor DonCarlos convened the September 13, 2018, City Council Regular Work Session with a
quorum present at 5:30 P.M., all members were present.
1. DISCUSSIONS
a. Receive and discuss a presentation regarding the status of the City's Emergency
Management Division.
Receive and discuss a presentation regarding the status of the City's Emergency Management Division.
City Manager Rick Davis presented the item and stated that the Fire Department's Emergency
management Division staff would be giving the Council an overview of the updates and changes that
have been undertaken since Hurricane Harvey. He noted that staff will be updating the Council on a
quarterly basis as it relates to emergency preparedness and strategy.
Fire Chief Kenneth Dobson introduced the City's new Emergency Manager Jamie Galloway and noted
that he would be available to answer any questions at the end of the presentation.
Mr. Galloway noted that the staff had made some progress and he was very excited to join the team and
keep the Emergency Management Division moving forward. He noted that Assistant Chief Ronald
Roberts oversees the Planning Section of the Fire Department that includes the EOC; he is the Emergency
Management Coordinator, and they will be working to fill the open positions of Deputy Emergency
Management Coordinator and Administrative Assistant.
Mr. Galloway noted that the high water vehicles purchased recently were all in place and being painted
and equipped with specialized equipment before being stationed at each of the fire stations.
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September 13, 2018
Page 2 of 5
Mr. Galloway also note that he is working with the Red Cross and local organizations and churches to
create local shelters, including the training and certification of locals and staff to oversee the management
of said shelters. There are some special issues that staff will be looking into such as shelters to the north
of the City, shelters for people with special needs and medical needs, and functional locations with
kitchens, bathrooms and showers.
The Council voiced some concern regarding the Red Cross' inability to reach Baytown during the last
emergency and noted that it did not want to find itself scrambling to shelter and assist its citizens during
any future emergency. Council noted that without the help of local churches and organizations, the City
would not have been able to provide the hubs during Hurricane Harvey.
Council Member Alvarado noted that there were families that were separated and had trouble finding
each other at other shelter locations. Mr. Galloway noted that there are systems that can assist with this
issue and staff will be looking into different options to help with the registration, evacuation, and control
of people at different shelters; hopefully there will be something that will meet the City's needs.
Mayor DonCarlos asked that a protocol be put in place if it has not already, to have shelter locations have
generators and follow appropriate maintenance on them. Mr. Galloway noted that this is something that
could be looked into through an assessment of the selected shelter facilities. He noted that this item is
already on his to do list.
Mr. Galloway also noted that he is looking into options for the transportation of residents should it be
necessary, updating maps, looking at increasing the registration of residents to the EOC call out program,
registering those elderly residents that need help with transportation or have limited mobility.
Mr. Galloway noted that staff is also looking into filling in the openings on the emergency management
team in order to train those individuals, both in specialized training for their positions and then multiple
emergency scenario trainings to keep everyone aware of how the EOC operates. Staff is also looking at
doing outreach and education for the community and some of the things staff is looking into doing next
year include the annual grilling in the spring, a hurricane presentation in May, a community hurricane
workshop in May to June, among others.
Mayor DonCarlos requested that the nursing homes be looked at because during Hurricane Ike, these
places had no plans or resources to take care of their patients and many just abandoned these poor people,
which was a travesty. Mr. Galloway noted that he would be looking into the nursing home issues, their
preparedness and evacuation plans, the regulations and codes for these businesses and making sure that
there is not a duplication of what happened during Hurricane Ilse.
The Council discussed requiring nursing homes and gas stations have generators for emergency
situations.
City Manager Davis thanked everyone for the discussion and noted that he was very impressed with the
progress in the EOC and that staff would continue to make things better and report back to the Council
periodically.
b. Receive and discuss a presentation regarding this City's list of projects for
submission to the Houston -Galveston Area Council's Transportation Improvement
Program (TIP); including the options for an East/West crossing over Cedar Bayou.
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September 13, 2018
Page 3 of 5
City Manager Davis presented the item and stated that engineering staff would present the City's
project submission to H -GAC for the transportation improvement plan, along with some options
regarding the East-West crossing over Cedar Bayou.
City Engineer Jose Pastrana stated that staff would present a brief overview of the TIP, which
stands for the Transportation Improvement Program, as sponsored by H -GAC, along with a
summary and brief description of the projects that staff hopes to submit to the H -GAC for
potential funding. When a project is submitted to H -GAC, the City is committing to a 20% cost
contribution to every project; therefore, it is imperative that the right projects with the most
impact are submitted. He noted that Matt Johnson, the City's Traffic Engineer, would give
Council the project descriptions.
Mr. Johnson stated that he is a P.E., a professional traffic operations engineer, professional
transportation planner and a fellow in the Institute of Transpiration Engineers and has been doing
this type of work for a while. He noted that the Transportation Improvement Program, earlier this
year, made a call for projects for the uptown in TIP, which is a financial plan of transportation
projects that if approved would receive federal funding of the next four years, 2019 through
2022. There was a significant delay in this process and on September 4, 2018, the TIP
application was released to allow for the submission of transportation projects. The projects must
be submitted online with paper copies being submitted within a week of the online application
closing. Therefore, by the first week of November, staff must have the paper copies for anything
that is submitted to the TIP. Following the submission, there will be a long working process
ending with a month long public comment period, followed by the TBC roadway project
recommendations for project eligibility, which have to be roadway projects greater than half a
million dollars in value or active transportation and transit projects greater than $150,000. The
City does not have a major investment category, which is considered to be $100,000,000 or
greater, so everything else comes in as a part of their other categories.
However, the City can get reimbursed for all planning, design, environmental, right-of-way
acquisition and construction costs, but most importantly, the City does have to have a funding
20% available and ready to spend for each of the submitted projects before they will even be
considered.
Mr. Johnson noted that the grant has different investment categories for project submission. He
noted that the first category is Access Management, Safety and Grade Separations. This
category is fairly self-explanatory, but it is to improve the safety and operation efficiency to the
application of access management, safety equipment and other changes. The City has four (4)
potential projects in this category; however, these projects and their costs are preliminary at best
and at best, they are plus or minus 50% because staff does not have engineering estimates, right-
of-way acquisition, and a number of other costs that are associated with these types of projects.
The projects for this category are: (1) Garth Road raised medians, (2) intersection
improvements at Texas Avenue and Market Street and the potential roundabout, (3) SH 146
right-of-way acquisition, which was identified in the State Highway 146 Sub -Regional Planning
Study that was recently presented to the Council in a joint meeting with the Planning and Zoning
Commission; and (4) the Baker Road and Garth Road intersection improvements. Mr. Johnson,
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September 13, 2018
Page 4 of 5
in response to a question on the Baker and Garth Road intersection project, noted that Baker
Road has an annual average daily traffic of 43,000 cars per day; therefore, it needs much bigger
geometric improvements; including recycling the intersection so that the improvements can go
into that area.
Council noted that this intersection is also in need of sidewalks and crosswalks for pedestrians.
Mr. Pastrana noted that the planned improvements are much broader than just right and left turn
improvements, but include the addition of dual left turns to facilitate moving traffic a little faster
through the intersection. He noted that this would have some budgetary impact; such as the 3.3
million for some additional right-of-way acquisition to the inter -block intersection, which would
then allow for the placement of safer pedestrian lanes across the intersection.
Mr. Johnson noted that the next category is the Regional ITS Infrastructure, which is basically
exactly what it sounds like, these projects would allow the City to work with TranStar, with
Harris County, Chambers County, and all of their neighbors to create IT efficiencies and
enhancements to the area. He further noted that staff has a long list of potential ITS projects;
however, before anything is submitted, staff would definitely pair that list down and identify
astringently what staff looking would feel will give the City the best return on its investment.
Moving on to the next category, Mr. Johnson stated that the next category for discussion is the
Infrastructure Resilience, and noted that staff has identified one main project for submission in
this section as is related to the Rollingbrook driveway construction, that includes the base course.
Mr. Johnson noted that over the years this roadway has disintegrated due to environmental and
natural causes and needs some attention. He also noted that particular category is intended for
infrastructure that has been damaged through environmental factors such as in addition with
Harvey, from Ike potentially, so this would be an excellent project for this category.
Mr. Johnson stated that the next category is the biggest one as it includes the added capacity,
along with construction and widening in the streets. The first project relates to the Alexander
Drive and SH 146 to include a left turn lane to the north; this is the most complained about
intersection in the entire city; the widening of Garth Road from SH146 to I-10 is another
proposed project, and the last proposed project is the most expensive, and that is the additional
east/west crossing over Cedar Bayou.
Again, Mr. Johnson noted that the presented numbers are very preliminary and staff does not
really know what the exact costs are going to be yet. He noted that staff identified several other
projects; such as intersection improvements to Decker Drive at Wade Road, that intersection in
Sjolander and Crosby Cedar Bayou Lynchburg; however, since portions of these areas belong to
other jurisdictions, the City felt that these would be better served as joint venture project with
either Harris County and/or TxDOT.
The Council and staff discussed the three options for the east/west crossing over Cedar Bayou.
Mr. Johnson noted that staff is still looking at the options presented with the SH 146 Sub -
Regional Study for options to limit the need to right-of-way acquisition, better alignments,
minimal impact to the residents and reducing costs. He further noted that while they still do not
City Council Regular Work Session Minutes
September 13, 2018
Page 5 of 5
have a best options, staff continues to review all possible options, but feel that the project is
important enough to submit with their current estimated costs. Mr. Johnson noted that before
staff can make a final recommendation on this project, staff will have an alignment study done
that would also do a preliminary environmental study that would identify the use of the land that
would be purchased. He noted that this study would also give staff the steps forward for
environmental clearance on crossing the Bayou and it would also give us three separate options
for alignments.
C. Receive and discuss a presentation regarding the Baytown Public Works
Department's process for seeking accreditation from the American Public Works
Association.
Public Works Director Frank Simoneaux noted that the Public Works Department would begin
their process to become an accredited department from the American Public Works
Association. He noted that this process would take about two years to complete, and stated that
he felt this was the next step in the PW strategic plan, and become a professionally accredited
department.
d. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda
for September 13, 2018, which is attached below.
This item was not discussed.
2. ADJOURN
With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor DonCarlos adjourned the September 13,
2018, City Council Regular Work Session at 6:28 P.M.
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Leticia Brysch, City Cl
City of Baytown
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