The July 12th meeting

The meeting opened with about 25 visitors present. Mayor Weber asked me to do the invocation. Then Yard of the Month awards were given to the King, Fugitt, Moore, and Maness families. An award was also given to T&D Real Estate.

Then quarterly (April-June) presentations from the Department of Public Safety and Community Services and Development were given. Assistant Chief of Police Robert Smith went through the statistics. Most crimes and problems were significantly lower than last year. Community Services Director Randall Riggs gave a presentation of new construction or remodeling going on around the city.

Given the calls for video recording of the Council meetings from the community (and from some on the Council too), there was a discussion of options for video recording/broadcasting of the proceedings. The options were

(a) simple amateur video done by city employees, something like You-Tube quality.

(b) hiring a full time person to record not just Council meetings but also other city activities (Summer Concerts, Movie Night, etc.), but the cost would be in excess of $30k/year.

(c) Video set up and distributed by the VBrick group out of Houston. They would show city staff how to run the equipment, and VBrick would manage the storage and availability of the files. This would cost (after the initial cost of the cameras, etc.) about $100-200 per month, depending on the number of files, etc.

(d) A company called Swagit Services could "do it all", operating the video equipment remotely, indexing and time-stamping the files as well as providing for the distribution. This would have a monthly cost of $300-600.

Examples of options (c) VBrick and (d) Swagit "products" can be viewed at those links.

A major question was whether to go with a "live streaming" option (ability to watch the Council meetings as they occur) or only to be able to watch later. I suggested that we ask the community. A decision was made to include on the city website, and in each water bill, a note asking citizens to let their preference be known. This strikes me as an important step in opening communication in Woodway, perhaps the first survey of the community by either the website or the water bill, so I hope many will participate. (tomorrow I'll try to verify whether this has ever been done in Woodway before).

Then Mayor Weber gave a brief update on the external review, expects that a report will be given to the Council by the August 16th meeting, followed by an executive session then an open public session where questions will be taken from those present.

Then City Manager Yost Zakhary gave an overview of the proposed budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year that begins on October 1. He stated that a balanced budget had tentatively been achieved, though at a level 3% below last year's budget. The health insurance costs are still an unknown. Yost detailed most of the measures by which he hoped to balance the budget, including pulling $220k from reserves.

Note added 7/13: Woodway Finance Director William Klump today sent me a corrected figure for the funds from reserves, $195k rather than the somewhat larger value given above.

Regarding the Arboretum improvement plan, roughly 75% of the cost of this $3 million dollar project would have to be borrowed. There are two basic options for this, issuing a Certificate of Obligation (which requires no approval of the citizens) and a General Obligation bond, which requires a special election. Funding via the former could be in place by November, while the latter would take at least a couple of months longer. I stated that normally the community should be allowed to vote on large projects like this. But in this case the funding would be coming from the Hotel Occupancy Tax revenues, most of which can't be spent on anything else. So a vote would really be just a referendum on whether to spend the Occupancy Tax revenues or not (which I think is required by law at some point; I don't think you can save this up forever). There are many issues related to this project, like options on how to borrow money (Rodney Kroll addressed this later), whether the Occupancy tax is a reliable source of funding (Don Baker's caution), etc. So this will remain an active issue for awhile.

There were other items in the budget. The City is planning to provide "pet chipping" (that is, inserting an RFID tag to easily identify stray animals as necessary), once in the fall and once in the spring. Another pet-related issue: the City will begin posting pictures of stray animals on its website to facilitate getting them back home. So if you lose a pet, look there.

There were options discussed of how to provide for raises the next fiscal year, including starting the raises Jan. 1 rather than in November. The recommendation was for merit raises rather than across-the-board ones. Some discussion of whether to add Veteran's Day as an official holiday, which would make a total of 13 holidays. One of the Council suggested that Veteran's Day was more important than Columbus Day (I agreed), but then that gave two holidays in November and none in October, so no decisions were made on that.

Then came Item 7, Hear Visitors. The Mayor explained why the time set aside for this had moved around recently, being because he felt that the work of the Council was of primary importance. There were so many visitors speaking at the first few meetings of the new Council that the City's business was in danger of being put off, but that as things settled down, the visitor’s time would be scheduled increasingly earlier. He said that it was "starting at the bottom and working its way up."

The first to speak was an unidentified woman who asked, "Is the investigator only working on Fridays?" (at first I thought she had said "...only working on crimes?") Mayor Weber immediately corrected her to say "independent outside counsel", and that he visited on Fridays but did some of his work back in Austin ("as the bill will no doubt reflect", said the Mayor).

The Rodney Kroll came to the podium, mentioning that he could recall the days when (in the old City Hall building) they would fill even the fire bays with visitors and stay until midnight sometimes. He then proceeded to make a few points:

(a) That preliminary assessed valuations were up 1.5% (a value given by Mr. Zakhary), so that meant a 1.5% increase in tax revenues, something to work with at least.

(b) On the issue of funding the Arboretum expansion with a Certificate of Obligation versus a General Obligation bond, the new Council members were obligated to go the G.O. route (requiring a bond election), since they had campaigned on the basis of greater public involvement.

(c) He recommended that the City go with a G.O. bond with "market placement" to get the best interest rate.

(d) He asked if the Sales Tax had been audited. (I think Yost said it would be)

(e) He pointed out that the tourism tax is not an Arboretum tax.

Then Linda Draper came to ask about permission to install a wind generator. She had a $500+ power bill last winter and would like to install a wind turbine in her yard, which is quite large and should be able to accommodate such. She has approval of her homeowner's association and her neighbors, wants a 40' tower to take advantage of the 13 mph average wind speed at that location. This was her second request to the Council, the first being last February. Councilman Scott Giddings made a convincing case that ordinances were the way to proceed rather than by a special use permit, the latter being more arbitrary. I believe the Council intends to develop such an ordinance in the near future.

Note: Mrs. Draper said that her electric rate is $0.13 per kilowatt-hour. About 18 months ago, I switched to a natural gas-based plan with Reliant Energy, and my rate has been between $0.065 and $0.10 per KWH, so my advice is to check your provider for a natural gas-based plan. Or go to powertochoose.org, which gives a wide variety of providers and plans to choose from.

Then former Council member Dee Smith came to the podium, invoking a "woman’s prerogative" to speak once more. She stated that she understands Rodney Kroll's concerns and the "campaign stuff" ("which is just that"), but called on the new Council members especially to try to avoid a special bond election because the public generally has a negative view of municipal debt, perhaps especially in the current economy, even when good causes are at stake.

Then Mary Behrens came to speak in favor of developing bike paths. She made a strong case for the need for these, citing pedestrian safety and health issues, among others. "This is something that is coming", she said, and can either be embraced or futilely resisted. She then said, "This is my first meeting and I'm impressed.", to which Mayor Weber replied "There is still time, you may get over that." (laughter) The Council intends to look at this issue after the new budget is in place. Council member Jane Kittner said that she has a "pedestrian master plan" that would shed some light on this.

Then Bert Hernandez of the Woodway DPS, on behalf of Ben Selman, Ray Dobbs and Norm Burgess and himself, thanked the Council for moving ahead on the external review, and Council members Lillard and Garner for time they spent with the DPS volunteers, and especially for Councilman Lillard spending most of a hot day cutting up cars in "jaws of life"-type training.

Then former Councilman Robert Humphrey came to ask whether the Council had acted to investigate the allegation he had presented at the June 14th meeting. City Attorney Mike Dixon assured Mr. Humphrey that indeed that allegation and other aspects of the situation had been investigated, and would be reported when possible. Note: If a lawsuit were not in progress, it may have been appropriate for the Council to request an investigation of the allegation. But as things stand, these issues are part of the City's defense of the case, and as such were investigated carefully well in advance of Mr. Humphrey's allegation.

Then Jim Ross came, mentioning that the new Council members asked for these jobs and he hopes we are enjoying them (!). He went on to make two points: (a) that he doesn't think it is fair for the citizens to have to pay to get past the allegations, and would like to leave on the table the possibility of recouping the costs of the review from the allegator. (b) He thanked the Woodway DPS for their work to make the improving statistics possible.

Then there were some items on the "consent agenda": (a) bids on striping the newly-resurfaced roadways; (b) approval of some special use permit renewals; (c) approval of the agreement with the Waco Humane Society for taking (where necessary) stray animals from Woodway. (all approved unanimously)

Then Roger Barker of the McLennan County Health District presented three ordinances to "improve consistency and clarity of the current ordinances". Two of these were approved, one on public pools and spas and another on food service ordinances (this one was amended slightly after Councilman Don Baker's careful reading caught some poorly worded portions). But the third ordinance dealt with rodent (mice and rat) control, and (as Don Baker wisely pointed out) this one made many everyday situations into violations of the ordinance, and gave altogether too much power to inspectors (such as entering homes without notice, etc.). No one on the Council made a motion to approve this poorly-designed ordinance, and it was not incorporated into the City codes.

The Council adjourned about 8:30 pm, after a 3-hour meeting.

The next meeting is August 16th.