February 28th meeting

Note: The audio recording of the meeting is available here.

Mayor Bill Weber opened the meeting at 5:32 pm, and the invocation was done by Mayor pro tem Gil Lillard. Councilman Don Baker was absent and Councilman Paul Scibielski arrived about 15 minutes late.

The first item was to hear from visitors. Reggie Richardson came to the podium to say that a water leak had been discovered near his house, and the City service personnel responded promptly and professionally, doing a great job. Mayor Weber asked the City Manager to pass this commendation along to the personnel involved.

Item 2 was acceptance of the Annual audit of the City finances for the 2010 fiscal year. A presentation was made by Diana Ward of Jayne, Reitmeier, Boyd and Therrell. The determination was that the City is in good financial shape, with about 6 months of operating reserves. One issue was noted in control over recording contributed capital assets, but corrective measures were already in place on that.

Item 3 was discussion and action of the Public Safety Building renovations, total estimated costs $761,400. This item has been in the planning stages for quite awhile, and now bids had been received and evaluated. Darrell (an architect with the firm evaluating the bids) described the process. Seven bids had been requested, and six received. These were opened last week in the presence of all the bidders, and then ranked according to several relevant criteria on a point scale. I questioned how systematically the points for base and total costs had been assigned, since I could not discern a simple, consistent relationship between the cost figures and the points assigned. However. My own point assignments based directly on the cost figures did not change the outcome, which was that John Erwin Construction was the most attractive bid. The Council voted unanimously to approve this choice, except Councilmember Jane Kittner abstained. Construction is expected to start in 2-4 weeks. I hope and expect that future bid evaluations will be accompanied by an explanation of systematic point assignments.

Item 4 was an update on the review of the City Charter. A committee being headed up by Linc Harris has been meeting every week or two and making good progress. Approval of a new Charter will require a vote of the Woodway residents (as well as prior approval of the Texas Department of Justice), planned for May 2012. So there is still lots of time to get everything in order.

Item 5 was an overview of the City Budget, this time dealing with the Public Safety Department part of the budget. This represents over 50% of the City budget, but I understand that is not unusual. Personnel represents about 85% of the PSD budget. Woodway has the remarkable response time of 3 minutes or less for police, and this comes at a cost. There are 26 sworn officers, near the upper end of the 1.3-3.0 officers per 1000 population that is found in most cities. Hewitt has, for example, 22 sworn officers for 15,000 residents, but their police are not cross-trained as firefighters; they also employ 15 firefighters. Woodway officers are all cross-trained as firefighters, and this improves initial response time. Mayor Weber asked about the SWAT team costs, and I asked for a justification of such a team in a city as safe as Woodway. City Manager/Police Chief Yost Zakhary gave what I thought was a good answer: the riskier calls in Woodway are answered by SWAT members, which provides a higher level of safety than if a general officer were to respond. And the SWAT costs are not extreme (as far as I can tell, not a separate budget line), being mostly equipment related and only incrementally involving personnel training costs. Woodway is part of a larger joint SWAT group that includes Hewitt and Robinson; Woodway contributes 13 specialized SWAT members, Hewitt and Robinson two each. Apparently relying on neighboring SWAT teams has been deemed unacceptable in the past. My sense is that the Council was satisfied with this explanation.

Item 6 was the "consent agenda", consisting of approval of minutes from two meetings, replacement of a concrete slab at the Greenbranch liftstation, and an issue with the Southern Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. Bills have been introduced into the Texas house and senate to allow the district to exist without requiring another county's partnership. Item 7 was approval of these (unanimous).

Item 8 was the City Manager's Report. Most notable was the idea of advertising Woodway hotels at Baylor sporting events.

The meeting adjourned about 6:40 pm.

Agenda for February 28th meeting

The agenda for the upcoming meeting has been posted to the City website here, as well as at City Hall itself. Items of note are:

• Discussion and consider action on acceptance of the FY 2009-2010 annual audit.

• Discussion and consider action on sealed proposals received for City of Woodway Public Safety Building renovations and authorize the direct purchase of miscellaneous items not included in the base bid.

• Update on progress of the Woodway Charter Review Committee.

And of course a time to hear from visitors at the very beginning. Maybe see you there?

Unwanted guests...

Woodway has an abundance of wildlife. But raccoons like to find attics to move into. Over the years I have caught several raccoons living in my attic, most recently the little guy shown below. One really nice feature of Woodway is that Animal Control officer Albert Lopez does a great job of relocating such animals (but not skunks) if you trap them. And the City will loan you a havahart-type trap if you put down a deposit, which I did once. But after that I bought my own trap at Tractor Supply.

There is an interesting page on raccoons at Wikipedia here. They are remarkably intelligent, have very dexterous hands, and account for about 38% of rabid animals (in 2006).

Did you know...

(see follow-up below)
Did you realize that you have to get a permit in Woodway to

• replace your water heater? ($40)

• replace your AC unit? ($75)

• put in a sprinkler system? ($35)

The list of such things and the schedule of fees is found on the City's website here. The penalty for starting the work without a permit is double the permit cost on the first offense, more on subsequent ones.

I'll try to find out the rationale behind these rules and report back. But I noticed that the City of Waco has a similar fee system, found here.

Follow-up: The fees are mainly to pay for the mandatory inspection the City does after these kinds of work. But something to watch for: if a repair or installation company charges you for a permit, make sure they actually went to the City and got it. They should do this before doing the work, and should display the permit, readable from the street, while the work is going on.

Results of the February 14th meeting

Note: The audio of the Feb. 14th meeting is now available here.

Mayor Bill Weber opened the meeting at 5:31 pm, with Councilman Scott Giddings giving the invocation. Only Mayor pro tem Gil Lillard was absent. There were somewhat more than the usual number of visitors present, some due to the parking ordinance changes but mostly because of the Elysian Lane agenda item.

The first agenda item was to hear from visitors. The first was Brian Wilson, who was concerned about the updated "prohibited vehicle parking" ordinance and the City's response to his requests.

First, some background: A few weeks ago, the Council passed an updated parking ordinance. The main change was that RVs were now considered "prohibited vehicles" in the sense that you cannot leave them parked on the street or even in your driveway if they are in front of the line that defines the front of your house. That is, RVs, boats and campers are supposed to be parked on the side or rear of homes. The State of Texas had changed RVs to be defined as passenger vehicles awhile back, so this was the City's fix for that change. However, the ordinances were not uniformly enforced throughout the City, depending mostly on whether anyone complained or not.

Back to Mr. Wilson's complaint. For the first time in at least several years of living in Woodway, he was notified that his camper would have to be parked on the side or rear of his home, something the yard is not currently set up to do. He contacted the City and asked for some guidance on how to correct this. One City employee responded (Albert Lopez, Code Enforcement). Mr. Wilson was told that he had to file (and pay) for a building permit before the inspector would come out. But Mr. Wilson's point is that he needs some guidance to know what to propose to fix this, hence needs a visit from the Inspector. He expressed a great willingness to get this taken care of if only the proper guidance were provided. City Manager Yost Zakhary said that this would happen in the next couple of days.

The second visitor (Steven Friday) spoke on the same issue, in this case a 21' bass boat cited for being parked in his driveway. In this case, there is no easy way to accommodate parking beside or behind his home, and storage of such a large boat is hard to come by. Mr. Friday stated that there had not seemed to be any ordinance against parking a boat in one's driveway when he moved here several years ago, otherwise he might have moved elsewhere.

I asked Mr. Zakhary whether the problem with parking such vehicles in one's driveway was that they were considered unsightly, and he responded in the affirmative. He said that over the years the City has gotten many complaints from neighbors on the parking of RVs, campers, boats, etc. and that most (but not all) cities have such ordinances. My view: generally speaking, I don't consider these to be unsightly and I'd like to see the City work toward amicable solutions that do not overburden our citizens.

Item 2 on the agenda was a presentation by James Stefka of East Texas Medical Center EMS. This is the group that operates the ambulances in the Waco area. Of interest was the fact that they use computer analysis to predict where calls are most likely to come in, and position ("post") ambulances close to expected call areas. They also use this analysis to predict how many vehicles to have in operation at any one time. There appeared to be many benefits to having this group in charge of ambulance service in our area.

Item 3 was the "consent agenda". Notable items included funding an outside inspection of Woodway's water facilities (done annually, ~ $1600) and raising deposits on the Arboretum to $500, non-refundable. Item 4 was approval of the consent agenda (unanimous).

Item 5 was discussion and action on the Elysian Lane water line. There is currently a 2" line, too small for the number of residents on that street and entirely unable to support a fire hydrant either. What brought these problems to a head was the desire of Greg and Karen Hansen to build on a vacant lot along that street. The costs of upgrading the line are significant and the City was reluctant to participate since this had not been budgeted. After several months of the Hansen's being frustrated with the City, Mayor Weber finally got serious discussions going. The Hansens were willing to bear the cost of installing a 4" water line, and the City agreed to cover the additional cost to make it a 6" line that could support a fire hydrant, up to a total cost to the City of $11.6k. Greg and Karen have taken on some risk, since the total cost (~$29k) is only estimated at this point. But I'm glad to see the City responsive enough to find the money to work with this family.

Item 6 was supposed to be a discussion of parts of the City budget, not required but rather just as an educational exercise for the benefit mostly of the new members on the Council. But given that it was Valentine's Day and that Baylor was playing A&M tonight, the Council agreed to postpone this discussion.

Item 7 was a "legal overview presentation" by City Attorney David Cherry. He basically advised the Council on common pitfalls, especially with respect to zoning issues.

As he was leaving, there was some good-natured sports rivalry. Mr. Cherry said something to the effect that Baylor had the better team, and Mayor Weber responded that not everyone could get into A&M so some had to accept their second choice (Baylor). You had to be there.

The meeting adjourned at 6:23 pm.

Agenda for February 14th meeting

The agenda for the upcoming meeting has been posted to the City website here. The agenda includes discussion and action on several water system maintenance issues. I'm glad to see that discussion and possible action on the Elysian Lane water line has been included. This deals with a water line under an older, privately-owned street. The line is too small for the number of residents currently using it, and also prevents new construction in that area. This has been a real headache for one family wishing to build there, and I'd like to see us have at least a plan for upgrading it.

2011 election coming up...

The annual election (or re-election) to fill expiring Woodway City Council terms will be held on Saturday, May 14th. There are three Council members whose terms are expiring this year: Don Baker, Jane Kittner and Scott Giddings. I assume each of them will file for re-election. In my opinion, they have all been doing an excellent job. Don Baker has two decades of experience in Woodway government and is really good at catching problems buried deep in lengthy documents. Jane Kittner has been on the Council about 16 years, and her experience as an architect is frequently useful. Scott Giddings has only been on the Council a couple of years, but brings six years of experience in city governance from Marble Falls, TX, and I find his insights to be excellent. (to see a history of current and past City Council elections/appointments, see here and scroll down.)

But should you be interested in running for a place on the Council, the City has election information here, and there is a one-month window in which to file, between February 14th and March 14th. City Secretary Jennifer Canady is in charge of Woodway elections and is very helpful and professional.

Snow in Woodway