September 27th meeting

Mayor Bill Weber opened the meeting promptly at 5:30 pm, with about a half dozen visitors present. Scott Giddings gave the invocation.

Then there was a presentation by Bob Wallace on the progress of rehabilitating the Hwy 84 well, the subject of past posts. In brief, the good news is that the water appears to be Trinity aquifer-quality, having some scale content but not excessive. The pH (8.68) is a little higher than the nearby Tater Hill well (8.5), but again not seriously different. The bad news is that a video inspection revealed that the holes in the well casing that allow water to flow in appear to be clogged. Mr. Wallace consulted with several knowledgeable people before concluding that the clog is most likely to be from leftover "drilling mud", which is Bentonite clay. At this point, Mr. Wallace recommends a mud-removal process instead of the planned acid treatment, at an additional cost of $28k. It appears increasingly likely that the company that originally drilled the well (Layne-Texas) did substandard work, and even at the time (2007) failed to meet all specifications. For example, a drill bit was left lodged in the well. There was some discussion of what would be required to try to recover costs from the company. There was no vote. The Council is beginning to be less optimistic about this well’s prospects.

Then there was a presentation on the progress of the Public Safety Building renovations. Awhile back, the foundation repair was done, and this was tested over a couple of wet/dry cycles to see if it was really fixed. The answer was yes. So now plans are being made to renovate the inside of the building to redesign it for higher efficiency and to make more room for the municipal court. The total cost (including the foundation repair) will be ~ $625k. The Wallace group is overseeing the planning, at a cost of $30.5k. However, certain changes in the plans have required the services of a structural engineer, so they are requesting an additional $13.5k fee in services. As this was a presentation only, no vote was taken.

Next was a time to hear from visitors. Former Councilman Robert Humphrey came to ask what progress the Council had made on the investigation of former Arboretum Manager Karen O’Bric’s alleged improper rentals of the facility. Way back in June (see here) Robert had presented the Council with some evidence of impropriety on Mrs. O’Bric’s part, and has been patiently waiting for results, or even any indication that an investigation is ongoing. This is at least the third time Mr. Humphrey has asked the Council about this issue, and about a month after the original request I had mentioned (here) that the City had “investigated carefully well in advance” of this allegation. I still believe this is true, and I had asked the City Attorney about a week ago to help settle this. However, it appears that the City is now seeking guidance from the Council on how to proceed. Some discussion ensued, and the sentiment among the Council seems to be that the City should reveal what it knows about this as long as it doesn’t compromise the City’s position in the ongoing lawsuit, and if necessary carry out further investigations.

Then came the “consent agenda”, generally routine things needing the Council’s approval. This involved plans to put up some public Christmas lights this year (for the first time I believe), to purchase t-shirts and caps for the Woodway Family Center, and to purchase an air conditioner for the Public Safety Courtroom. All were approved unanimously.

The next agenda item was to consider authorizing the City Manager to execute a Task Order for engineering services related to the Business Acres well. The Wallace Group engineering fee (which I believe covers contracting and oversight of the project) is $400k, and the entire well drilling project is projected to cost $4,194,500 (up from an earlier estimate of $2,942,767). As are virtually all major projects in Woodway, this one has been planned and budgeted for well in advance, to City Manager Yost Zakhary’s credit. But at Mr. Zakhary’s request, the authorization was delayed by one week to check on some details.

Then there was a discussion about whether to approve a new ordinance regulating signage in Woodway. There was discussion of whether largish signs should be allowed along Hwy 84, and whether they should be allowed in office parks. Action on this item was put off until these questions could be settled.

There was an item dealing with the Health District fee schedule, then a discussion on how to proceed with considering updates to the City Charter. There are several places at least where the Charter is out of date. It was decided (Don Baker’s idea) that each Council member would choose one citizen to help with proposing updates to the document. This is to be done by the October 25th meeting. Any changes to the charter will require a vote of the citizens, and the hope is that this could be on the May ballot.

The placing of audio recordings of each Council meeting on the City website is proceeding, not in place yet but probably before long.

The Mayor had requested a study of how much the City had saved by combining the positions of City Manager and Police Chief, and the information was available tonight. Since the City Manager is the higher-paying of the two positions, Finance Director William Klump put together a tabulation of Police Chief salary, benefits and vehicle costs for the past ten years. This was based on a second-year salary of $80k, with yearly raises, etc. The total came to $1,210,342 since Yost Zakhary took over the combined positions in 2001. Don Baker mentioned that Yost’s ideas along the way had saved the City additional costs.

There was discussion on the windmill ordinance, that is, the developing regulations for putting wind power generators up in Woodway. There has been some progress on this, and it will probably be complete around the first of November.

The meeting adjourned about 7 pm. The next meeting is in just one week, the result of a Columbus Day conflict.