Mayor Bill Weber (left) and June 2011 Yard-of-the-month awardees.
Agenda item 2 was to hear from visitors, but no one chose to speak.
Item 3 was a presentation by MTTS Granite (Tim Hicks) regarding a proposed design for construction of a granite-countertop business along Hwy 84. At issue were small deviations from the ordinance specifying various parameters. Its not clear why some of the figures in the ordinance had been chosen, so the consensus was that the City staff should look into whether changes in some parameters would not be in order.
Item 4 was discussion and possible approval of a $4.56M General Obligation Refunding bond issue to refinance City debt. This was presented by Jason Hughes of First Southwest. It turns out that by doing this, the City can save a good deal of money, given that the bonds can be had at something like 1.8% interest, saving the City something close to $300K. And this was done without extending any of the payoff dates for the existing debt. These terms were helped by Woodway having the third-highest credit rating possible (AA). Mayor Weber paused to thank the previous City Councils and City Manager Yost Zakhary for the City having such good credit ratings. The proposal was approved unanimously.
Item 5 was also regarded issuance of Certificate of Obligation bonds, these for the Arboretum expansion project ($1.8M). These were at about 3.58%, and will be repaid by hotel occupancy tax revenues. Neither of the bond issues are expected to result in property tax rate increases. This was also approved unanimously.
Item six was a proposed bid to microsurface about 20 Woodway streets, at total cost of $265K.
Item 7 involved acceptance of an application for an office/retail development near the Woodway Best Western (adjacent to Hollywood Theaters). The Council was impressed with the design, and voted to send this to P&Z for further study.
Item 8 was the "consent agenda", the most interesting thing being a proposal that some items being replaced in the Public Safety renovation, like light fixtures, be declared "excess" and thereby available for donation to Habitat for Humanity, for example.
Item 9 was approval of the consent agenda, unanimous.
Item 10 was presentation of a preliminary 2011-12 budget. This is very preliminary document, and subject to revision until final adoption in August or September. Item 11 was setting of a date for a public hearing on the budget (August 15).
After a brief City Manager's Report, the meeting adjourned at 6:45 pm.
