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.
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September 10, 2020
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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.
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September 10, 2020
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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.