the August 2nd Council meeting

Mayor Bill Weber opened the meeting at 5:30 pm, and asked Dr. Paul Scibielski to do the invocation. Then Yard of the Month awards were given to the Sharp, Collier, Geldmeier and Ellis families (with photos of their front yards shown) but none were in attendance. The business award went to Dr. Corbet Locke, who was present.

Then there was a presentation by the Blue Knights, a motorcycle group composed exclusively of current and retired police officers (including Woodway's Ray Dobbs). A plaque was presented on behalf of a four-year old with neuroblastoma, for contributing to the "Fight for Cooper".

Then there was a very brief presentation by Janet Schaffer, Director of the Arboretum and Family Center, on the state of those two facilities.

Then Jason Hughes of First Southwest (a group that advises the city in financial matters) gave a presentation of what is involved in borrowing for the Arboretum expansion. He began by noting Woodway's total debt of $14.7 M, and our ratings with Standard & Poor's and with Moody's (both third highest of all possible ratings). He proceeded to describe the two basic ways of borrowing, either with the citizen’s explicit approval via a bond election (the General Obligation route) or without the public's approval (the Certificate of Obligation route), as I described in my last post. He gave the possible timelines of the two routes (the GO route takes longer by at least two months). The bottom line is that to borrow the ~ $2-2.5 M needed for the expansion would require a payback of ~ $200 K per year for 15 years. No action was taken, this was just informational for later consideration.

Then Assistant to the City Manager Natalie Edwards spoke on recent progress in getting the Council meetings recorded for distribution on the City's website and possible real-time streaming of the proceedings (which costs significantly more to do). The city has been sending out a survey in the water bills (not in mine this month) and has a place on the website (here) where citizens can email back how important they feel that streaming video would be. So far only two people have responded, one in favor of the real-time viewing, and one who thought it was unimportant. Natalie also surveyed 27 similar-sized communities, and found only one (Tyler) that recorded video of their meetings (~ Youtube quality) and one that recorded audio only.

The Mayor then did an update on the ongoing review by the independent outside counsel. The investigative phase is now complete despite being very comprehensive, and Mr. Knight is preparing a report. The Mayor stated that this would probably be received at a meeting on Tuesday, August 17th, in Executive Session, then the findings would in some manner be communicated in open meeting immediately afterward.

Then the City Manager Yost Zakhary discussed items related to the proposed 2010-11 budget and the Woodway city property tax rate. He said that existing property values had decreased by $10.4 M but there was $19 M in new tax base (i.e., new homes and businesses), for a net increase in the tax base of $8.6 M, which (keeping the tax rate unchanged) corresponds to a net tax revenue increase of $39 K. However, this is offset by a significant decrease in the state sales tax revenue, resulting in an overall budget that is 3% less than last year's. This means passing on some of the higher health insurance costs to employees, and no raises in this fiscal year, but also no layoffs as many cities are experiencing. The Mayor suggested that the tax rate be carefully evaluated next year, the intent (I believe) to increase the rate as necessary to bring in some desired level of revenue. I am wary of tax rate increases, especially in a bad economy.

The August 19th meeting has been canceled in favor of a meeting at 7:45 am September 1st. This public meeting is a requirement in the budgeting process.

Then came Visitor's time, which lasted a total of only five minutes. First Linda Draper came to ask what had been done to create an ordinance for wind turbine approval in Woodway, and was told that that would be discussed a little later in the meeting.

The Jim Ross came to say that the poll about recording the Council meetings has not been very effective, and that it needs to be better publicized. The Mayor stated that the upcoming Woodway Today issue will have something about that.

Then Meg Garland came to say that the streaming video would be worth it only if it was somehow interactive, and she recommended the cheaper recording approach (the "Walmart route" as she put it). Councilman Don Baker that said that "This is not a Walmart city."

Then came the "consent agenda", basically a list of things for approval. These consisted of (a) Approval of the minutes of the last meeting; (b) Approval of paying Troop 497 to continue to put up 102 American flags on six holidays, total cost of $3060. That comes to 612 flag set-ups and take-downs, or $5 per flag per day. (c) Approval of bulk fuel purchases under contract with Hopkins Oil for $0.079 per gallon over cost. Although the anticipated yearly cost is $194 K, this should save the city money. The city uses on average 1,000 gallons of gasoline and 300 gallons of diesel fuel per week . (d) Approval of emergency repairs to a pump on one of the firetrucks ($2.3K). These were all approved in one vote unanimously.

Then was approval of the final platting for the Badger Ranch Addition, Phase 4.

Then was a presentation by Bob Wallace of the Wallace Group regarding renovation of the Highway 84 well. The problems with this well were discussed in an earlier meeting blog. Basically, they are trying to bring it back to life by a thorough cleaning. Bob Wallace is a consulting Engineer to arrange bids, etc., designed to bring this well into production at the lowest cost. Bids ("proposals") were recently solicited for this purpose, and resulted in two wildly different quotes, one for $103 K and one for $445 K, over a fourfold difference. Mr. Wallace thought that one party (who did earlier questionable work on this well and did not bid) scared some of the other bidders. But the firm with the low bid is a good one and the cost was within expectations. The Council approved the project, with the later parts contingent on successful completion of phase 1 (cleanout and chemical testing).

Some facts: The well casing is 10" in diameter and made of 1/2" thick steel, surrounded by 2" of concrete. When the well was finished, the water level was 200 feet lower than expected (as was a nearby well owned by another municipality). But the well produced 600 gallons per minute, which even with a $1.2 M+ investment should pay for itself (if/when operational) within ~ 7 years. Water is a valuable commodity!

Some puns: When asked where the money for well renovation comes from, Finance Director William Klump referred to a fund for such purposes, then went on to say that this project "will run that fund DRY. But it will be WELL worth it." Bob Wallace had mentioned earlier that "a well is a deep subject."

Then there was discussion of an industrial truck loading/unloading issue with traffic. This was followed by the City Manager's report. Included here was a proposed procedure for establishing a wind turbine ordinance perhaps six weeks hence. There was also some discussion of what could be done about bike paths in Woodway. The results of an employee benefit survey were given (Woodway is about average in that regard). One of the Councilmen (Don Baker) has dual electric meters for test purposes. The Smartmeter read 3032 KWH while the traditional meter read 3034 KWH, essentially indistinguishable. The meeting concluded just after 7 pm.

The next Council meeting is Monday, August 16th.