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2019 04 18 WS Minutes, SpecialMINUTES OF THE SPECIAL WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN APRIL 18, 2019 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Special Work Session on Thursday, April 18, 2019, at 5:00 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 Chris Presley Council Member Charles Johnson Council Member Heather Betancourth Council Member Robert Hoskins Mayor Pro Tern Davis Himsel Council Member Brandon Capetillo Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Karen Homer First Assistant City Attorney Leticia Brysch City Clerk Keith Dougherty Sergeant at Arms Mayor Capetillo convened the April 18, 2019, City Council Special Work Session with a quorum present at 5:09 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Council Member Hoskins who arrived at 5:25 P.M. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Present and discuss design and renovation options for the Baytown Animal Control Facility. Assistant Health Director Tony Gray presented the item and stated that it has been three weeks since the March 28n' Council meeting where Ms. Kim Dowdy from Form Architects presented three of the innovation and design options for the animal shelter; two of the three options were approximately five million, and the third was approximately six and a half million. To refresh everyone's memory, Ms. Dowdy is going to recap those three options and review some of the construction costs and some options moving forward. As Council may recall from the March 28a' meeting, after reviewing the first three options, Council's comments and direction were to bring back some other options that were a little more in line with the kind of a Chevrolet design instead of that more extravagant Cadillac version. Therefore, Ms. Dowdy is here to provide some more options for Council's consideration. City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18, 2019 Page 2 of 9 Mr. Gray noted that the goal for the work session was to receive guidance from the Council on which design they would like to move forward with for the new animal control facility. Ms. Dowdy stated that she would begin with a .quick recap of the options presented a few weeks ago. One of the main questions that came up then was why do animal shelters costs so much compared to retail or other typical business offices. She noted that she was quoting $375 to $450 a square foot and in looking at this number, this includes everything that goes into an animal shelter which has more stringent requirements such as an unique HVAC system for the disease and auto -control, sound control, the extensive wash down system, disinfection system, foundations that have slopes, drains, etc. Ms. Dowdy noted that a lot of those costs are related to the materials and are going to have those upfront in order to save on maintenance cost throughout the years. Ms. Dowdy noted that as they discussed Baytown's project a little bit as it relates to the cost of the facility, they looked back to quite a few of their other projects and got some comparisons. In Baytown, the population is getting close to 76,000 and animal capacity is right on target with about 80 to 90 cats in and about 78 to 80 dogs, which is basically double the amount of dog kennels that are probably needed in this facility. In their League City facility, the actual cost came in at about $300 per square foot, which was a low bid for a general contractor who does retail construction and not somebody who typically does animal construction. So then, they had to think about change orders, which will be required over time and estimated out the cost to come in at an average of $387 per square foot. Another item that cut the cost down on the League City facility was that they pulled out equipment, which eliminated well over half a million dollars out of their budget. So all in all, the estimated cost in 2020 money comes in at about $387 a square foot, which is starting to crawl up to the $400 range. League City has 98 cats and 64 dogs, so they are really close to Baytown's targets, but have a little bit less in dogs. Ms. Dowdy also gave an overview of their Seguin Animal Shelter project that came in at $408 a square foot, the Tri-City Animal Shelter, the North Richland Hills Shelter project, which was a bit more high end and Ms. Dowdy noted the original amount of the project was 12.8 million, 2,300 square feet, 86 cats, 111 dogs; this amount can be reduced based on the actual needs. She noted that they then presented some alternatives to the original plan. Option 1 was to renovate the existing facility at 1.25 million dollars with a 3,600 square feet new facility with 75 cats and 84 dogs. This plan used the majority of the new facility plus the existing facility; she noted that new facility is rather small. Option 2 was to build a larger new facility about 8,100 square feet, almost 8,200, and renovating just the existing kennels for the stray areas, the quarantine would be abandoned in that area This option gives room for 75 cats and 84 dogs. The third option had a costs of 6.5 million dollars with almost 8,900 square feet but it does not meet the needed capacity or have space for the future adoption center, it does not have any meeting rooms, but there are some meet and greet spaces, but not as much as what a modern day facility would have with cat play rooms and additional areas. This option also does not have staff spacing throughout this facility, an they are taking this option back to look at what else can be done. City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18, 2019 Page 3 of 9 Ms. Dowdy noted that in looking at the existing site plan; the deficiencies with just doing renovations, the health and safety concerns, the need for a proper HVAC system throughout, and many other issues make the existing facility not a good option to meet the current and long term needs of a growing city. She further noted that from the comments from staff and Council, they understood that the City did not really want to look at renovating the existing because that building is pretty much at the end of its life span, and renovations will only put a band aid on it and would be a temporary solution. Therefore, Ms. Dowdy noted that they have looked at a couple of different price ranges for Council to consider, and while some of them may seem a little bit high in price, to keep in mind that they can always be scaled back to a more feasible Plan. She noted that after re -assessing the shelter needs, they took back the new numbers of space for 86 cats and 81 dogs and came up with an 18,300 square foot building with about 4,100 square feet at a cost of 9.4 million dollars in construction cost, which would be at about $402 a square foot. The total project cost is an estimated 10.9 million dollars, and in order to do this option, the entire building would have to be kept under one roof. Staff requested the ability to maintain the existing facility, in order for them to have all the dogs and everything operational until the construction is completed. Ms. Dowdy walked the Council through the details of the site plan for option 4, pointing out the new parking area, adoption center, kennels, clinic, open spaces, etc. Ms. Dowdy then reviewed option 5, which is about 10.8 million dollars of the 12.4 million dollars of the total project. This option has 20,450 square feet, space for 86 cats and 78 dogs; however, this is facility is broken out into three buildings. One will have the adoption centers to the left of the existing building and the animal control structure to the right. Ms. Dowdy noted that this option does not have the ideal layout because staff will be located in multiple buildings. She noted that once the existing building is demolished, there will be a lot of room for our future expansion, space for additional kennels and possibly enough space for a future play yard. Ms. Dowdy noted that this completed her presentation of five different options for the Council to consider. She noted that four of the presented plans have a full adoption area to the left and animal control to the right, in order to allow for stray to be kept quarantined and isolated. She noted that some areas can be reduced a little bit or areas can be changed to allow for staff, adoption, or meeting space. Ms. Dowdy stated that she was hoping for guidance from Council on which option they preferred in order for them to move forward with the design process. She noted that at the low end of the options was 5.5 million dollars for the total project, all the way up to 12.8 million dollars, Council could go lower to eight to nine million dollars, depending on what features are given up; i.e. the meeting rooms, any outdoor features, the outdoor runs, etc. Ms. Dowdy reviewed the details of the five proposed plans with the Council. When asked about staffs preferred plan, Mr. Gray stated that from the staffs perspective, the preference was not to have separate buildings just because it will spread the staff thin over three buildings. He further noted that option four is nice, it gives staff the capacity it needs with a minimum of space for 78 dogs if possible. Mr. Gray noted that the current capacity at the shelter City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18,2019 Page 4 of 9 is about 39 spaces for dogs, but with the space for 78 dogs and a lot more adoptable space will help. He noted that it is difficult to project the population say 10 years from now, but he felt that at least doubling the current space is a good head start on 10 years from now. Ms. Dowdy noted that the site plan has a multi -purpose room that will be used for staff meetings, training, volunteer orientations, as well as, bringing the schools in for education in order to start the children with an early understanding on taking care of their dogs, obedience classes for the dogs, etc. Council Member Himsel noted that the City is spending about $300 per animal, and in his research found that Austin spends a little in excess than $800 per animal. So after the smoke clears and the new shelter is built and this program gets bigger, where will the City be on cost per animal? Mr. Gray started that he did not have those estimates at this time. Council Member Himsel also stated that as a steward of the public tax dollars, Council should not take a quantum leap into animal control. He noted that in his opinion, the Council needed to know exactly what they were looking at in terms of the monies because 10 to 12 million dollars to build the shelter with a for of the 12 times $75,000 which is the annual payment for twenty years is a lot of money, this does not include the cost per animal which will he anywhere from $455 to $600 per animal, how animals are seen during the year or what is it going to cost this city with these tax dollars moving forward, more of an all -in cost? Health Director Mike Lester stated that the $75,000 dollars per million over twenty years is correct, so for eight million dollars it will end up being $900,000 a year for 10 years, and that number may go up, depending on the financing. The Council discussed the Animal Control staffing needs, no kill statistics and adoption statistics, website and social media outreach, relationships with local animal welfare non -profits and some proposed changes to the animal control ordinance. Ms. Dowdy noted that the Council does not have to pick one of the options provided, but instead can use the provided information to give them guidance on the types of things that they want to see in the shelter and those things that they find important; such as square footage, overall design, shared spaces, etc., in order for them to work with staff to create a well new re -designed space. Council Member Betancourth requested that Ms. Dowdy go over option 3 because at the last council meeting, this stood out as a favorite because they could add onto in the future at a lower cost and had a $6 million figure that was more acceptable to everybody. Ms. Dowdy stated that this option is just a minor animal adoption facility with no meeting rooms or education areas, but it does have a fence enclosed Sally Port and not that full enclosure to capture the animals. Ms. Dowdy noted that this option did not meet the operational needs of the program but was a start. Mayor Capetillo stated that he was in favor of moving forward with this project, but was not in favor of coming back in 10 years asking the public for more money because we did not plan or build the facility that would meet or needs. City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18, 2019 Page 5 of 9 The Council discussed having a strong educational and outreach program to increase adoptions and decrease the number of unwanted animals. Mayor Capetillo asked the Council for their opinions of the site design. Council Member Hoskins: It's my opinion that the facility we have right now needs to be bulldozed over and let's start over. 6 and a half million dollars to put a band aid on a severed arm is not the answer and that's what this is and in addition to this, we're looking at money, but I feel because of what were doing and how important generally this is and it's a service to the citizens of Baytown, we need this, like this one here, wherever the other one was, we need that one more than we need this new building that we're building over here that nobody goes to and it's kind of like going in one of the other facilities and it was in pretty bad shape but it was because of the way we were treating that building when they do something different here and I don't think this is the answer. I'm looking at the one that's up on the screen. I think there are still a lot of the questions and what I've heard thus far is number one, I think there's a lot of numbers that need to be crunched that staff was not prepared to answer some of those questions simply because we don't know what direction we want to go yet and we're focusing on what do you need, 3 more people or 2 more people, well, that's still premature for what we want to go to right now. It's what kind of facility do we want? Do we call animal control or animal rescue? Whatever we want to do it and so, I think that's where we need to concentrate on and then come back and staff let us know this is what we have, this is what it's going to cost budget wise, this is what we're going to need staffing wise. Those answers need to come in after we give some kind of direction as to what kind of building we want on that. I think that would better serve what our needs are and what they need to do and the homework they need to get away with this and bring back to us in another date. Council Member Betancourth: My opinion on the facility is, I don't want to renovate the existing facility. I also want to tear it down and build a new one. I believe the one we're looking at is a new facility for 6 and a half million dollars. I'm comfortable with that number. I was also comfortable with option 4 where it was 9 million. So, somewhere in that range, I guess, is where I feel comfortable for a new facility and then letting them pick and choose based on their operational needs what rooms are where and how many cat viewing versus bathrooms. Mayor Capetillo: Well, this one lacks the classroom. I would say, I think, they had the dog runs, I would prefer as to have the viewing separation. Out of the other ones we've seen, I kind of like this one. I know there's some aspects we need to add which was the meeting space and the recovering. So, right now, this is one the best one as presented, bar and the classroom, but that's facility, I think we can always figure out a facility, I think first after the discussion is first, how are we going to approach our programming, how are we going to get with the rescues, how are we going to get with all the stakeholders? That may get us the next few percent, 10%, 1 don't know. That doesn't mean that we don't need a new building capacity. I think we're convinced that capacity is just almost arbitrary of how much money you want to spend. It may not actually be, maybe we're at about the right size if our programming's successful, if the volunteers are successful, if the rescue groups are successful, so I think we need to put that piece first personally and then that City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18, 2019 Page 6 of 9 will kind of be a lead into what we want to look at as a building. I agree with Council Member Hoskins. We don't have to do this tonight, right now, but I would assume that we look at some programming of what we can do moving forward, get with our advisory group and some recommendations and then see with does that look like and then that will feed into a facility plan. So, that would be my take. Council Member Himsel: 1 am still uncomfortable with how much money is being spent, and I am still waiving the strategic plan for the city and it is not there. I do agree that we need to do something with the facility and I am ok with a bulldozer too, I'm good with a bulldozer, I like bulldozers, big bulldozers, and it's crap down there, I got that, but I think that we need to be very careful. I see the Cadillac and I see the Chevy and I see the Smart Car, but as a steward of the taxpayer's money, street cities flooding in your district, sidewalks in my district, in your district, lateral lines for the sewer, and I'm just-- I can't think about the things I could-- a million of them. That's where the citizens want our money spent. Do we need to spend money in animal control? Yes, sir, we do. But what can we get for 2 million this year that we don't even finance? You have to come up with the money for and 2 million a year later, a million and a half, and we do something-- I don't know. I'm not smart enough to figure all that out. But how do we not have all this debt and still get something done? There's got to be some creative minds out there that can figure that out. But I'm not comfortable even with 6.5 million dollars and then-- and I also want to see all the cost associated with this thing going forward, what it cost to operate it, what it cost to finance it for 10 years and where we're at, and as far as the 300 dollars per animal versus 150. I guess that's like who's running the numbers. I mean, I'm told it's 300. He's told it's 150. He's probably right. I don't know. But where's that at? We need to know and then what ifs going to be going forward. I want to know all of it before I vote for anything. Council Member Alvarado: Now I kind of get where what you're saying and I hear Council Himsel and I don't think it's that were scratching one to get to the other. And Rick and I have had these conversations a number of times. We take a look at this and we take a look at this a lot during our meetings. And we talked about where it fell within our citizen survey. It's like, "Well, Rick, how important was it? Let's take a look at it again." And so I think we do have to be good stewards, we understand the needs. I want to make sure that our employees have a quality place to work, as well as having a place to control. Because right now, that's what we have, we have an animal control. And so the standards and the quality that we have our per Animal Control standards, we're moving into more of a wet shelter or something and so the standards are changing. And it's where the public is moving towards, that's what they're wanting. And so I definitely want to see what the overall cost is, employee cost, and operational cost. I've been asked about if we have these surgical suites. How much is it going to cost to have all the supplies that the vet is going to need? So we really do need to have that all in one number. So I don't think that were right now making that decision to scrap one over the other. I think we're just trying to look at the overall picture. Mayor Capetillo requested that Ms. Dowdy explain the phasing option to this project again. Ms. Dowdy noted that the phasing of the actual needs assessment is a total of 12.8 million. If it was broken up over multiple years, the cost is going to start increasing just because of that 10 percent increase for the cost escalation per year. City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18, 2019 Page 7 of 9 She noted that at that time, an interim solution for a temporary vet clinic was needed because it was a priority at that time, but this is something that can be re-evaluate, but this option converted the existing medical sally port to a vet clinic at a cost of about $250 thousand dollars and nothing else. So the existing site plan started with an adoption center, or just building a portion of it; a building With the vet clinic, restrooms, recovery and just a small adoptable area. Everything else would be a shell basically in that first phase and then wait for the next phase. The next phase, money permitting would be at a cost of 2 - 2.6 million and would complete that building. Then there is the IA phase that includes minimal parking an area outside for the dogs, a meeting room, staff area, and adoption areas. Ms. Dowdy noted that option two would be demolition of the existing facility and add the animal control with strays quarantine and isolation, which will be the largest cost of the phase at about 6.7 million dollars, 2 million, plus 6.7 million. The next phase would be another area for strays or adoptable animals, which could be multi -use type rooms depending on what the needs are at the time. So this phase basically just adds an additional wing and completes out the rest of the drives, a sally port With fire lane as well as the drop off area and that is completing out at 2 million dollars. So the project is broken out into four different phases to be projected out at a total of 12.8 million dollars. Mayor Capetillo asked for final comments Council Member Presley: I don't have any comments Mayor, just, Tony what are your thoughts for the timeline, just so we know, educate us, what would be your recommendation on a phasing approach over how many years would be optimal. Mr. Gray noted that it is hard to speculate but the funding is the questions and staff would make whatever the Council directs work. Council Member Johnson: I am right there with them and we do need to bulldoze the other place, but we really need to take a long hard look at the money being spent, how we are going to spend it and at every phase, we need to make up our minds if we are going to be an animal control or an animal shelter, number one and then talk about programming. Council Member Hoskins: I think two or three years ago, we were sitting up here and we did commit to advance this facility down here and the entire animal control in several different ways. And one, we did commit to a bit on staff, surgical facilities and all those things that were in need of right now. We've already committed to that. So I think we should stay the course. I think the reasonable thing to do would be to commit to one of the facilities. I didn't get to see the first part, I apologize. I was driving real fast down 45. So I got here when I could, but we need to decide on like the Chevrolet and then commit to phasing that in and getting it on the ground. And it'd be really easy to do and if maybe we can do like we've done other things. If we're concerned about what the public's going to say, and then let's put it in a bond package, just float it out there and let the people vote on it. And if they all say no, then were just going to get some duct tape and paint and make what we got look good. Let's have to honor what the voters say, and if they commit to saying, "Yes, we're City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18, 2019 Page 8 of 9 going to have a bond program out there, and we're going to do this program here." Then I think we should do something like this. But more down the Chevrolet line, and we can phase it in as neatly. Another thing is on the survey, when we say Animal Control services; we've all talked about how the wording is on the surveys. Not one question said, "Do you want a new facility? Do you like the one we have now?" So it is kind of foggy, but what the public one would want I want Animal Control service. But I can't say one thing. If you go out there and say, we're going to go back to destroying these animals, and stuff like that, I imagine you're going to get a lot of phone calls. And when they call me, I'm going to give them your phone number. So I think we can do better and I think we've already committed to that, and we need to stick to that commitment. Let's make this animal control like it should be. And we did commit to something somewhere in between what report is doing, what they're doing up in Austin and all, but be reasonable and be very studious with other people's money here. Yes, I think that what you currently done over there is an example, that there's not a very direct correlation between the quality of the facility and the no kill rate. And I think-- I don'tthink we'll get those phone calls, because we got a good number. And they've shown us that that number is not really contingent on what you're working with. It's more about the culture --And what we're trying to do down there. Council Member Himsel: 1 think what you have done down there is an example that there is not a very direct correlation between the quality of the facility and the no kill rate and I don't think we will get those phone calls because we got a good number and they have shown us that that number is not really contingent on what you are working with, it is more about the culture of what we are trying to do down there. When asked about financing and paying for a phasing approach to this project, Mr. Davis noted that anything he said would probably make our finance director jump out of his seat, so he would be very careful about that, but he said what he knows. The City has 2 million dollars that Council put aside this year, that was to begin some serious design work into this facility and this project into phase one. Staff has thought long and hard about programming but programming follows policy, and that's really the policy direction that staff wants from the council because might have changed our policy. The City used to have a dog pound, those days long ago over and now we have a shelter that offers adoption. He noted that it appears that the City is entering a new phase of policy that is interested in a greater humanitarian effort to save animals. There are some obvious significant improvements that can be made to staff, programming and kennels to help this new culture, but going back to the original question, there is $2 million set aside for this project this year, and he noted he could work on with staff to see how much could then be dedicated to this effort in the next three-year period. Council Member Himsel stated he was more in favor of a phased plan and to bulldoze the existing facility. Mr. Davis noted that it seemed that the Council consensus is to demolish the existing building regardless of how the future facility was financed. Ms. Dowdy stated as it relates to timelines, they will need to start over but needed a target budget, in order for than to then start working through those phasing modes and master design, but hope to start construction in 2020. City Council Special Work Session Minutes April 18,2019 Page 9 of 9 Mr. Davis stated that if he is authorized, he will bring back a design, wst and plan to build this facility. Mayor Capetillo stated that with no further discussion, he looked forward to staff bringing back the financing and additional design options based on Council's direction. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the April 18, 2019, City Council Special Work Session at 6:45 P.M. Leticia Brysch, City Cler City of Baytown