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2021 07 22 WS MinutesMINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN July 22, 2021 The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday, July 22, 2021, at 5:30 P.M., in the City Hall Council Chamber, 2401 Market Street, Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance: Laura Alvarado Mayor Pro Tern Chris Presley Council Member Charles Johnson Council Member Heather Betancourth Council Member Jacob Powell Council Member Mike Lester Council Member Brandon Capetillo Mayor Rick Davis City Manager Karen Horner City Attorney Angela Jackson Acting City Clerk Mike Holden Interim Sergeant at Arms Mayor Capetillo convened the July 22, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum present at 5:35 P.M., all members were present with the exception of Council Members Johnson and Presley who both arrived at 5:37 P.M. 1. DISCUSSIONS a. Discuss the proposed traffic calming policy. Traffic Engineer, Matthew Johnson presented a summarized update to the traffic calming policy and stated that the neighborhood treatment versus a single street, limited to local residential streets only; therefore, arterial and major collectors could not receive these treatments, establishing the same thresholds from before for triggering traffic calming and then also creating the traffic calming tool chest. He stated that the feedback received from council was to simplify the process and that there not be a council -triggered or council -led option for such so it was not included. He stated that one of the big things done in rewriting the policy was the removal of a lot of very specific and owner standards. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that the proposed policies, generally traffic calming, is not a spot treatment and the analysis have to include a larger area. He stated that the non-residential collectors and arterials were not eligible for traffic calming as the primary affected roadway must be at least a thousand feet and the traffic calming measures will primarily address excessive speeds and excessive volumes. He further stated that a specific standard was included, which notes that if the city's traffic engineer determines that an immediate and substantial traffic safety- City Council Work Session Minutes July 22, 2021 Page 2 of 8 related problem exists, then the standard procedures will be suspended and city staff will promptly address the traffic safety -related problem without having to initiate traffic calming, but rather go through this policy and follow the procedures. He stated with regards to excessive speeds that the primary affected roadway, which is the biggest problem, can have at least 500 cars a day, but can't have more than 1,500 and the number of speeders has to exceed 15% of the traffic volumes during a four-hour off-peak study period. With regards to excessive volumes, he noted that the primary affected roadway has to have more than 1,500 vehicles per day. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that the proposed procedure to identify the potential traffic calming issue, although a little bit longer by steps but much simpler than before, included to submit the application for neighborhood traffic calming, collect the data, develop a plan for neighborhood traffic calming, neighborhood resident meeting, then the plan for the neighborhood traffic calming endorsement, plan for neighborhood traffic calming approval, and funding design and implementation, and then monitoring and evaluation. He noted that before it is initiated by residents, staff will meet with residents, perfonn a windshield survey to better understand the issue, then submit an application for neighborhood traffic calming, which will give a six -week timeframe to collect the necessary infonnation. Then a resident team of three to five property owners would be established to verify if an application petition is still wanted and further noted that there would be only one signature per property. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that staff will discuss the findings from the report of the collected data with the resident team and if the results are that the area doesn't meet the thresholds the process stops but it doesn't stop their from resubmitting when they feel like it's necessary. He stated that if the thresholds are met the residential traffic team will move forward and develop a plan under the guidance of the staff then he'll review. He stated that after the review there would be a public meeting with the rest of the residents to receive their comments and integrate that into their traffic calming plan. The resident team would have to get endorsements to make sure that a sufficient number of property owners are on board, in which they'll have six weeks to get the necessary signatures. Additionally, he noted that staff set it to two-thirds of the property owners instead of the previous 70% of property owners. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that if the resident team can't obtain the endorsements they'll still able to revise the plan and try again, but process ends if they can't get the endorsements the second time. He stated that if it goes forward then as required by the code of ordinances, it would have to be approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission "P&Z" and if approved there will be a discussion with regards to funding. He stated that they'll have the opportunity to fund themselves or if there's money in the current budget the City possibly could fund it immediately. He mentioned that if funds were not in the current budget the resident traffic team can request the City to consider the project during the normal budgeting process for the next budget year. He also mentioned that it also stipulates that projects that do require construction as opposed to installation that will require engineer drawings. He noted that the difference was with the construction installation the speed cushions are put out, but that actually modifying the street requires construction, which would require engineering drawings. He further noted that there was a possibility that city crews could potentially perform the construction or installation and the decision would have to be made at such time depending on the size of the project. Additionally, he stated that there would be an after study done to make sure that what was done met the intent of what was put together. City Council Work Session Minutes July 22, 2021 Page 3 of 8 Mayor Pro Tern Alvarado mentioned there has to be a threshold of 500 and if not, the process just stops. She further inquired if there would be any other recommendations and what would be done in that instance where it doesn't ineet the 500 because there were not 500 cars that pass through there in a day. In response to Mayor Pro Tern Alvarado's inquiry, Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that generally when he receives those phone calls from residents he passed it on to PD, talk to patrol, and ask the resident for an idea of when the problem times occur so that he could assist PD isolate the time periods when they see the problems. Council Member Johnson inquired as to how would safety be defined if said that if it's a safety issue. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that generally if it appears that it's a likelihood that someone will get killed or some property will get damaged, such as going to run over the top of the curb those are emergent issues and very safety specific, but further noted that there was not a definable threshold or situation. Council Member Johnson further inquired as to how did it get back to fifty percent of homeowners when during a discussion instead of having 50 percent of homeowners in the neighborhood that it would be to look to one or two streets over because most homeowners in big neighborhoods like Lakewood or Eastpoint didn't care what happened on another side of their neighborhood as they more than likely wouldn't travel to the other side of their neighborhood. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that the 50% would be of the homeowners in the affected area and not the whole neighborhood. Council Member Johnson also inquired as to how would that area be defined. Mr. Matthew Johnson further explained with an example as follows: that El Chaco was one of the big streets that needed to be looked at, as well as Pinehurst roadways and if the City were to put traffic control on El Chaco, is there an easy or simple way for drivers to bypass those and go on to a different street? And if there is and would it make sense that that would occur then those streets would be added in because we would need to add the traffic calming there as well. That's how it gets added in. So, it's kind of a step process to see which extra streets would be added in. Council Member Johnson also inquired with regards to the post study what happens if it's not achieving what it was put there for. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that in that case, although he didn't write this in, there was a very specific process that was written in and it was in the current form of the policy, but he pulled it out because it didn't make a whole lot of sense to follow that rope method. However, the answer would be if it's not following it or if it's not achieving its goals it would be reviewed again and there would be a meeting with the residential traffic team to explain what's going on and to figure out why it didn't work because it should. Council Member Betancourth inquired if staff would use this policy when a citizen brings a concern in which staff doesn't agree that a traffic calming measure is needed or be used at any time a citizen brings a traffic calming concern. In response to Council Member Betancourth's inquiry, Mr. Matthew Johnson stated it should be used anytime a resident brings in a traffic calming concern, which is the reason for the initial meeting at which point staff would evaluate the issue being brought in and discuss the findings. Council Member Betancourth noted that this could be really useful in such situation, but if used for every situation could complicate a simple problem. Mr. Matthew Johnson mentioned that included in the policy is an explanation that traffic calming is a self -enforcing mechanism; therefore, if it requires enforcement like a stop City Council Work Session Minutes July 22, 2021 Page 4 of 8 sign that would not be traffic calming and further noted that if someone can get a ticket for it, that's not included in here. Council Member Powell stated that the thresholds of getting two-thirds of the people might be difficult to reach and further inquired if renters would be allowed to sign or only the property owner. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that the way he wrote the policy the property owner could elect to allow a proxy and further noted that if it shows that the 50% mark is reached, another two weeks to get the rest of the signatures could be granted. Council Member Lester inquired for clarity if an individual would basically have to do two petitions and further noted his concern of having citizens go back and do it twice. Mr. Matthew Johnson responded by stating that the 50% would get it started and the two -third comes after a plan has been developed. He stated that the thought process was to allow those people who were part of the 50% to review the actual plans, make recommendations, or opt -out if need be. Council Member Lester further noted that there were streets in his district just barely a thousand feet long that may not have the 500 vehicles per day, but still have potential speeding problems that would be out of luck and would have to deal with the speeders, which was not acceptable. He further inquired who picked 500 vehicles a day. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that 500 was actually a lower number than what the majority of the other traffic calming policies from around the country and around the state use and also noted that the City of Baytown's existing policy's minimum is 750 vehicles per day. Council Member Lester also inquired if the test for speeders would be according to off-peak times. Mr. Matthew Johnson responded yes that the test would be done according to off-peak times. Mayor Capetillo stated that his understanding of the process before was that if citizens contacted a member of council, the member would contact Mr. Matthew Johnson or the City Manager who has the authority that if there's a safety issue could place signs there immediately that would take place for 90 days and after 90 days an agenda item regarding the signs which would give neighbors the ability to sign up and voice their opinion then council would either approve it or not. He noted that within that 90 days he'd expect that it would be verified if there would be a warranted stop sign placement or whatever the case may be. Mr. Matthew Johnson noted that traffic calming stuff doesn't affect stop signs and is only for non -traffic control issues; therefore, if someone can get a ticket for it, it doesn't apply here, the process wouldn't change for stop signs. City Manager Davis stated that he'd never heard the term traffic calming until probably the late '90s, and up to that point, the only way to calm traffic was to put up stop signs, stop lights, pull people over and give them tickets, in which was called saturation enforcement. He stated it's become a lot more sophisticated over time and the vast majority of actions taken in response to some of the complaints will fall under that category of traffic enforcement and not traffic calming. He stated that traffic calming is going to be less common than and further explained with the following example: getting a call from Council Member Johnson about speeding on East Point Boulevard and he had a conversation with the Chief of Police and there's going to be a deployment out there that's going to send a message. City Manager Davis note that's not traffic City Council Work Session Minutes July 22, 2021 Page 5 of 8 calming, rather that's traffic enforcement that he thinks will work. He stated that this will calm down for a while and maybe a year from now will pick back up again. He stated that what was proposed is an innovative and progressive alternative to the traditional put up a stop sign, put up a traffic signal, pull people over the type of thing and further noted that in a lot of ways some of the traffic calming ideas or infrastructure suggested are going to be quite the enhancement to the neighborhood sometimes. City Manager Davis mentioned that he talked to Mayor Pro Tem Alvarado about the future of the state streets and implementation of more of a roundabout configuration there instead of two or four stop signs on a corner, which is not very aesthetically pleasing. In response to Council Member Lester, City Manager Davis stated that there would be a plan to spend a lot of money that's going to permanently affect the lives of people in that neighborhood because if it doesn't work the City can't come and uninstall it and walk away again. He stated that the thresholds that Matt recommended are an insurance policy to make sure that we make those sizable investments that people are happy with, because they're the ones that have to live with them but further noted that staff would make whatever adjustments to the thresholds or streamlines at council's request. Council Member Johnson inquired for clarity if someone called about speeding would go through the proposed process being discussed. Mr. Matthew Johnson stated that for those roadways there would be a call to patrol requesting them to start taking a look at it and if the problem persists then they could go through the process for traffic calming. City Manager Davis also noted that there might be a traffic calming solution for that, but he'd deploy law enforcement and maybe eight or twelve months later the problem may pop up again, but there might be a solution. Council Member Johnson noted that if it's already proven by the officers corning out, writing tickets, and stating that people are speeding further inquired why put the residents through this. City Manager Davis stated that there has to be a threshold of buy -off on the improvements that we're going to make because there are several different things that we could do to calm traffic as it were and they may not be all equal in terrns of their appeal to the people that call. Public Works and Engineering Director Frank Simoneaux mentioned that the most common traffic calming device is speed bumps or speed cushions and this policy is for requests to install speed humps or speed cushions and not to install stop signs. He also noted that enforcement of speeding is one thing but this is the policy that would be used to primarily address a request to install speed cushions. He stated that there's a lot of other traffic calming that was presented at the last workshop and further noted that staff didn't want to just go install speed cushions in a neighborhood without having buy -in, which is primarily the reason for this policy. Council Member Lester commented that he has one of the older districts and the concern is the numbers and modifying the roadways in these long-established residential areas is probably not financially or physically feasible, but he'd like to have something to slow down the speeders. City Council Work Session Minutes July 22, 2021 Page 6 of 8 b. Discuss the Tyler Energov software deployment and provide a functional demonstration. ITS Director Ed Tomjack presented the agenda item and stated that EnerGov is for planning, permitting, licensing, and code enforcement. He stated that back in 2019, staff created an ILA with Grand Prairie with a request in an amount not to exceed $900,000 with a committed timeline of about 18 to 24-months, which has been exceeded. He stated the first kick-off with the initial team was done by June and in September they were on -site helping build the product, but staff was not in sync with the original team so there was a request for them to be replaced and Tyler granted such request and provided another team. He stated that by December, there was another kick-off and in February that team was on site, but unfortunately, by April, there was the COVID stop where everything came to a grinding halt. Mr. Tomjack stated that by June, the city was back up and had enough of an operational mode to go with virtual with Tyler although they were still not traveling. He stated by August, there was a change in leadership on the planning side due to the retirement of Mr. Foster and in September, Tyler was hacked and were totally shut down for about six weeks. He stated that once they paid the ransomware and came back online they were up and running so we went back in operation again, but then in November, some of the City's ITS department core staff members that were developing the product came down with COVID, along with one pregnancy. He further stated that in December, a new director of planning was on board, but there was another change in leadership and by January, another COVID full stop on the team and by February, there was the Texas freeze adding to another week or two that everything shut down again. Mr. Tomjack noted that in March, there was another COVID stop in the department, but by April, there was a product to test and start getting end -users their hands on and by June, the product went live. Mayor Capetillo inquired if the purchased version was still current. Mr. Tomjack stated that it was upgraded about four or five times while going through this process with three versions past where started. He also mentioned some of the team members that put a significant amount of effort into it: Planning Department — Adriana Montalvo, Yvonne Briscoe, Cynthia Baptiste; Health Department — Shawn Cochran and Dustin Sieber; Public Works Engineering — Erica Galloway; Fire — Victor Medina and Fred Spencer; City Clerk — Angela Jackson, Raquel Martinez, Glenda Bruce, Alexis Bernal; and ITS — Alex Garza, Kevin Boatswain, Levi Masterson, and Jason Perdersen. Additionally, he extended time to other team members to provide detail of the product. With regards to technical details about the actual applications, Mr. Alex Garza stated that EnerGov is classified as a penmitting and land management software whereas the following may be done: apply plans; locate property; apply for a plat for a subdivision or pen -nits for building, construction, Fire, or City Clerk; track inspections, business licensing with annual renewals along with some code enforcement. He stated with regards to the technical side that he made sure that EnerGov itself is running and all of the users are able to log in. Additionally, he noted that the software versions started with 2019 and was upgraded to 2020 and the 2021 version is in wait. With regards to the customer service side, Ms. Erica Galloway stated that the customer will click on the landing page to register then on the home page apply for permits, plans, licenses, birth, City Council Work Session Minutes July 22, 2021 Page 7 of 8 and death, city maps, any other thing that they need within the city. She stated that from the dashboard, once the citizen applied for a permit they will see the status of each pen -nit and also provided a quick overview of what the customer would see once they applied. She noted that the items would change colors and the applicant would be notified of the progress as the item is complete. Ms. Galloway mentioned that the citizen also has options to request inspections and if there are reviews, they can see the review details. She stated that they would be able to see all attachments in the plans, comments or markups then provide markups and resubmit. She stated that they can also see the process of any kind of sub -records needing to be applied for the MEP's or floodplain, stormwater, anything like that and further noted that the sub -permits can be linked to the actual pennit. She stated that the applicant will get an invoice, in which they will receive an email regarding the status of where they're at and what's the next steps. With regards to an actual permit, Mrs. Adriana Montalvo stated there's a workflow for every permit that tells the steps exactly from the beginning to the end which can be seen from the view of staff, as well as, on the customer side. She stated that when pen -nits are submitted, the departments that conduct the review actually apply or tie any other application that could be applicable for that project instead of the applicant making an application to the city then while in their review finding out they have to apply for another type of permit or application. Mrs. Montalvo stated that from through Tyler Hub, staff is able to find the back -office work. She mentioned that at the start use of EnerGov, which was four weeks prior to this meeting, there were 210 contractors registered with a total of 347 cases that includes inspections, plans, and business licenses. She further noted that people are actively using the program and it's very user- friendly once they get in to where they don't even need staff s help. She stated that each department created different Tyler Hub cards which helps track the process as staff must know when the applications are in and how they need to be processed and further noted that permits are divided by permit types and categorized in order by the next step needed. Council Member Presley inquired if it was possible instead of receiving the markup back after the applicant applied for a permit to have a feature like a virtual assistant to ask questions before they apply for their pen -nit. Ms. Galloway stated that in speaking from the engineering side as a reviewer, there is an engineering checklist on the website that details what's needed and guides them to where they need to be and if at any point there is more detailed information they can simply call or email. Council Member Presley further inquired if the email would get a reply back the same day and would the email be in a very accessible easily found place. Ms. Galloway stated that every department has their own emails which are monitored and kept up with if there are questions. Mrs. Montalvo added that on the building side the permits were divided based on the pen -nit application type and they tailored it to ask specific questions depending on what type of project. Planning and Community Development Director, Martin Scribner stated that in terms of having an automated response instead of an email the system isn't quite that sophisticated, but in going through the permitting process there's prompts for certain things and the applicant can always save the progress and come back. He also noted that they're seeing a pretty high volume of phone calls and emails that are dealt with all day long every day. City Council Work Session Minutes July 22, 2021 Page 8 of 8 Mr. Garza noted that EnerGov is very incorporated with the city's GIS and anytime it changes in the city maps, it'll change on the EnerGov. Mr. Scribner mentioned that with one of the Council's priority items to make sure we're getting more feedback as we go, it's incorporated that whenever the applicant gets that automated email that says, "Hey, your permit is ready," or, "Hey, whatever it is, it's been approved," there is a link to our Baytown Engaged where we've placed a simple three -question survey. Mayor Capetillo inquired if a survey could be incorporated for every CO issued. Mr. Scribner stated that it could be incorporated to the current permits then be added at the end. Council Member Lester inquired if the survey says the response is back are identifiable or anonymous. In response to Council Member Lester's inquiry, Mr. Garza noted that they're anonymous. C. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda for July 22, 2021, which is attached below. There was no discussion. 2. ADJOURN With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the July 22, 2021, City Council Regular Work Session at 6:30 P.M. Angela JaBkson, City of Baytown