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2020 09 10 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN September 10, 2020 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, September 10, 2020, at 5:41 P.M., in the Council Chamber 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 Charles Presley Council Member Heather Betancourth Council Member Brandon Capetillo Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Karen Horner Interim City Attorney Leticia Brysch City Clerk Keith Dougherty Sergeant at Arms Mayor Capetillo convened the September 10, 2020, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:41 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Council Member Johnson who arrived at 5:56 P.M. and Council Member Himsel who was absent. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Discuss challenges with roadway striping and potential strategies for completing the work moving forward. Director of Public Works and Engineering Frank Simoneaux presented the item and stated that he wanted to spend a few minutes talking about street striping and pavement markings, which includes centerline stripes on the road, the stop bars, turn arrows, crosswalks, and really all markings on the pavement. Mr. Simoneaux noted that a few years ago, the city’s budget for this item was about hundred fifty thousand dollars a year, and this was based on what staff thought the city could afford to put into striping. However, Public Works has done an analysis of how often the stripes wear out, how often these need to be renewed and how many miles of stripes the city has and how much it will cost to actually maintain them, and staff came up with a fifteen- year plan which resulted in a budget increase to about three hundred fifty thousand a year. Mr. Simoneaux noted that staff has not had a lot of good cooperation from the contractor that does this work on the city’s behalf, and in the past three years, the city has gone through three different contractors due to poor performance and non-responsiveness; this has led to the city being behind its striping plan schedule by two -years; therefore, the staff recommends bringing this work in house. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes September 10, 2020 Page 2 of 4 He noted that Public Works has purchased some equipment whereby staff can do things like the intersections, the crosswalks, the stop bars, and small parking lots; however, it does not have the necessary equipment to handle larger scope of work; such as long lines and the centerline stripe down on the roads. Therefore, staff is proposing that in the future state in FY 2021, the city purchase a long line machine, which could do the centerline stripes on all of the roadways; the cost for the equipment is about a hundred twenty-five thousand dollars. They would also purchase materials for the projects in the amount of about fifty thousand dollars and start a training phase for city personnel, in order to undertake an implementation phase as the new equipment is purchased and brought online. Mr. Simoneaux stated that the city would keep and use its contractor as best as possible with the hundred seventy five thousand listed in the current contract, and then in FY 2022, staff would be asking for the addition of two traffic personnel, in order for them to dedicate their time and efforts to street striping at a total personnel costs of about a hundred seventy-five thousand dollars; with a total annual cost to bring this activity in-house of no more than three hundred thousand dollars for personnel and materials, and equipment replacement. Assistant City Manager Nick Woolery stated that part of the reason for the timing of this item is in order to point towards where the city would like to go with its stripping operations and then move forward with the purchase of that long-line machine as soon as staff is able. Mr. Woolery noted that where the decision has to be made of whether to maintain the outside contractor for this type of work or begin the transition to it in-house operations. Council Member Hoskins stated that he thought this was a great idea because the council has been asking for some action on the striping issue for two or three years now, and there are some areas of the city that when it rains, drivers cannot see any of the stripes, so it is very important that this get done. He noted that he would rather see the staff handling this item in order to deploy and handle targeted areas quicker and easier. Council Member Presley asked about if the quality of the product would improve if brought in- house. Mr. Simoneaux noted that the quality is very important to staff and they would ensure that the quality is to the department’s high standards, and undertake the work better and cheaper than that of the contractor. City Council commended the staff for its plan and looked forward to seeing the end product. b. Discuss future expansion of the boundaries of Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone No. One, City of Baytown, Texas. Assistant City Manager Nick Woolery presented the item and stated that he wanted to give council an overview of the TIRZ as staff is getting to the point of making some decisions on its future expansion. Mr. Woolery gave the council a brief history of the TIRZ, and the projects it had undertaken since 2001. City Council Regular Work Session Minutes September 10, 2020 Page 3 of 4 Mr. Woolery noted that staff had a discussion with the TIRZ board about a month and half ago and they were very supportive of the annexation of the portions identified in the last page of the packet. He also noted that the Mayor and himself had talked to Commissioner Garcia with Harris County, in order to get a sense of whether or not there would be support in getting Harris County to participate in future projects because that really is important; without their increment, it makes it much tougher to fund these types of large-scale projects. Mr. Woolery noted that he felt there was general support from Commissioner Garcia and he would obviously have to get support not only from the Harris County Economic Development and Budget Office, but also of the other county commissioners; therefore, they provided some recommendations of ways to garner said support, and the TIRZ consultant, David Hawes, has started to work on what this annexation would look like, along West Cedar Bayou-Lynchburg Road, from Garth to John Martin, and John Martin Road, basically from that point all the way up to Wallisville Road, and then the actual properties that would be the extent of the TIRZ would be the northwest corner of I-10 and John Martin, and then some property east of John Martin, and south of Hunt Road, and West of San Jacinto Boulevard, which is all green space right now. Mr. Woolery noted that what this would do is that it would set up the TIRZ to potentially fund the widening of Cedar Bayou-Lynchburg, from Garth to John Martin, from the current two lanes to a four-lane boulevard, sometime in the near future. He noted that the idea is to try and build up enough increment in the annexations to fund those two projects, and staff is working on completing the analysis of whether or not this is possible and this all really depends on how quickly the growth happening within the TIRZ occurs. Mr. Woolery noted that the reason for bringing this item to the council was in order to get a feel for what they are thinking because the city has a 100% participation in the TIRZ, and that is what kind of gets that increment to fund these projects, so just like Harris County is important, the City's increment is also important, so he was open to any of their comments, questions or concerns. Council Member Betancourth asked if the annexation being referred to was primarily that of commercial properties. Mr. Woolery noted that the annexation of the TIRZ does not impact the properties at all because they are not being annexed into the city necessarily but into the TIRZ. Mr. Woolery noted that the properties in question are already inside Baytown city limits, but even if they are not, it does not impact them at all, from a development standpoint. Council Member Betancourth stated that she really appreciates the forward-thinking of this plan and noted that she could see the vision for this area and appreciated staff thinking about this so far in advance and finding a funding mechanism for what is going to be needed out there for its future success. Mr. Woolery noted that the goals in this area are really twofold: (1) is to spur economic growth in those areas and (2) is to figure out a way to make those infrastructure projects happen, which will then also spur economic growth. He noted that the right now, the county is doing the preliminary design on West Cedar Bayou-Lynchburg, so they are still a little bit early in that process right now, currently there is nothing planned on John Martin, even with all the growth that is happening north of I-10. He thanked the council for their foresight in putting this preliminary design of that project in the budget, which will really kind of speed that up this next year.