Goodbye to the Council and to blogging

  At the upcoming meeting Monday (agenda here), two new members will be sworn onto the Woodway City Council, and two current members will be continuing for another term.  None of the Council races were contested, so each person who filed will be on the Council.  Councilman Paul Scibielski and I decided that it was time to let someone else have all the fun.  Gil Lillard and Barbara Grandy will continue their positions, joined by Bob Howard (taking Paul's place) and Mike Tambrella (taking my place).  Mike is a great asset to Woodway, having contributed to the community in many ways, including being on the Arboretum Board.  Mike's wife runs Patti's Kitchen, a really high-quality catering service.  Below is a picture of Mr. Tambrella at the Arboretum tour last January.

  I ran for the Council two years ago because I thought there were problems in Woodway's management, but I was wrong.  I found the City to be remarkably well run.  There are always issues with infrastructure (esp. water and sewer maintenance), and sometimes ordinances will upset residents (like the "no RVs in driveways" rule), but all in all this is a great place to live.  City Manager/Police Chief Yost Zakhary does an amazing job of balancing the various demands with grace.  I can assure you that the members of the Council are without exception dedicated, honest and working for the City's best interests.  The City staff I got to know are also wonderful.  Jennifer Canady is incredibly professional and attentive to details.  Natalie Edwards and Donna Barkley do a great job.  Janet Schaffer runs the Arboretum very well and is really easy to work with.  Woodway Finance Director William Klump is amazingly thorough and knowledgeable of the City's finances, and as honest as they come.  If anyone tries to tell you that there is anything amiss with the City's finances, don't believe it.  I don't see how anyone who knows William could be worried about dishonesty there.  In fact, if you hear anything bad about City management, I encourage you to go see Yost, meet the staff or at least talk to any of the Council members. They are all approachable and glad to help.

  This is the end of my Hello Woodway blog, though I plan to leave the existing posts up and available indefinitely (including my Favorite Things 1 page) in case they are of use to anyone.  I would hope that one of the current Council members might start a blog to communicate with Woodway residents.  It is easy to do, doesn't take all that much time, and doesn't have to cost anything either (at least Google blogs like this one are free to set up and run).  Thank you for allowing me to be your Councilman for the past two years.  I learned a lot, met many fine people, and perhaps even helped a few good things to happen too.

New Councilman Mike Tambrella, representing Ward 2, Place 1.

Agenda for April 9th meeting

The agenda for the upcoming April 9th meeting has been posted here.

Results of the February 27th meeting

Mayor Don Baker opened the meeting at 5:35 pm, and asked me to do the invocation.

There were no visitors to speak on general issues.

Item 3 was a proposed development in the Lake Forest Addition (off Estates just past the Arboretum). What are being considered are individually-owned "garden homes". This is only in the consideration phase, by developers that have experience with a similar project in Waco that has gone well. The Council seemed open to the idea even though some ordinance changes might be required. The City staff will explore the issues.

Item 4 was the "consent agenda" and consisted of several relatively routine things that are generally approved as a package, though any Council member can request that an item be pulled from this group for future consideration. This time around, the main things were a couple of well-related items, new bullet-resistant vests, re-appointment of the Municipal Judge and audio-visual equipment for the Arboretum (almost $50k but budgeted already).

(Incidentally, every Tuesday at 3:30 pm is municipal court with Judge Gobel, and on Thursdays trials are held as necessary, though generally avoided if possible. The public is, I believe, welcome at both of these.)

Item 5 was to act on the consent agenda, which was approved unanimously.

Item 6 was the City Manager's Report ("as submitted"), and Item 7 was City Council Reports (none).

The meeting adjourned at about 6:20 pm. The next meeting is next Monday, March 5th (to avoid spring break, otherwise it would have been a week later).

Results of the February 13th meeting

Mayor Don Baker opened the meeting at 5:30 and gave the invocation himself.

The next agenda item was to hear from visitors, but none chose to speak.

We then went to item 4, discussion of a plan to build a medical office building along the north side of Hwy 84 a few blocks from the intersection with Hwy 6. The plan was a good one, and the Council approved its progression to the Planning and Zoning Board. This proposal is scheduled to be discussed again for (I believe) final approval at the March 5th Council meeting (moved up from the 12th because of spring break).

We then returned to item 3, Executive Session to discuss pending litigation (O'Bric vs City of Woodway).

Having returned to normal session, we went over the consent agenda. The main items were repair of one well, construction of volleyball pits at the Woodway Family Center, and formally approving the general City election for Saturday May 12th, 2012. The consent agenda was approved unanimously.

About the May election: at that time, four Council positions will be elected, currently held by Gil Lillard, Paul Scibielski, Barbara Grandy and myself. I believe all of these except me (see earlier post) will be running for re-election. I have found that everyone on the Council is an asset to the City. Each of them is thoughtful and brings valuable insights to the issues we discuss. I imagine there are many in Woodway that would do a good job on the Council, but I call tell you that Gil, Paul and Barbara certainly do.

As for my position (Ward 2), I know that Mike Tambrella will be seeking to replace me on the Council. I'll post more on this later, but suffice it for now that Mike is an outstanding choice for the Council. He has extensive experience, including a long-term appointment to the Arboretum Board.

The meeting ended at 6:20 pm, one of the shorter sessions I have been part of.

Results of the January 23rd meeting

Mayor Don Baker opened the meeting at 5:30 pm, and Mayor pro tem Gil Lillard gave the invocation.

Then the time for visitors to speak came, and there were two who chose to.

Pete Peterson came to say "thank you" to the City staff and Council for helping Woodway be a great place to live. He went on to describe his candidacy for Justice of the Peace. Checking this out later, I found a You Tube video here. I do not know Mr. Peterson personally, and this does not constitute an endorsement. But he strikes me as very likable person, has many years with the Highway Patrol, and I appreciated that he made the effort to speak at the meeting.

Then Parnell McNamara came to say that he is running for County Sheriff, and feels that his approx. 33 years with the U.S. Marshal's office was good experience for the job. I checked around some and found this and this on You Tube. Again, I do not know him personally, but he seems to me to be a very impressive person, and someone I think would do a good job as Sheriff.

Next came Jed Walker to make a second presentation on the proposed Colonnade apartments project (adjacent to the Hollywood Theaters). I blogged about this after the December 12th meeting (see here). At that time, the Council was concerned about a portion of the land in question being reserved for planned commercial development, and also that adding more rental property to Woodway was less desirable than individually-owned properties. Mr. Walker described a few changes, mainly that the plans had been re-worked to leave the section mentioned above as planned commercial. This required decreasing the number of units from 277 to 240. I asked how developing for individual ownership (rather than rental) would influence the project. The answer was that market research had shown that there was nowhere near a demand for 240 condominiums in Woodway. Then four major figures in the area (Linc Harris of First National Bank of Texas, Dr. Michael Thrasher, Dr. Mark Barrett, and Dr. Everett Watson) came to speak in support of the project. In particular, Dr. Barrett stated that the project would afford convenient housing for the medical staff working at Providence. The Mayor then polled the Council, and six of the seven were in favor of the development, largely because it was so well planned and would be using space surrounded by unsightly Waco industrial areas. Mayor Baker remained against the proposal because (a) a new zoning type would have to be developed to allow this, and (b) the project goes way beyond the currently allowed density of six units per acre (this project requires about 16 per acre). This presentation was intended only to get a sense of the Council's level of support for the project, and did not result in a vote of any kind. Given the Council's support, the City Manager will proceed but with some caution.

Then was a quarterly financial report by Financial Director William Klump. This covered the last quarter of 2011, and there were "no surprises". Revenues are in general up somewhat, including sales taxes (which had taken a hit in the past year or so).

Then was a quarterly report on the Arboretum by Janet Schaffer, Director of Arboretum, Tourism and Recreational Services. Arboretum rentals had been about the same as last year, with 89 events (52 of them paid rentals) in 2011.

At that point I had to leave the meeting to get to a commitment at Baylor. If you are interested in the remaining agenda items, there is audio of each meeting posted a day or so later. (Added 1/26: the audio is available here, along with that of all the earlier meeting for the past year or so).