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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes 2006-12-04 Special 12/04/06 2589 STATE OF TEXAS )( CITY OF FRIENDSWOOD )( COUNTIES OF GALVESTON/HARRIS )( DECEMBER 04, 2006 )( MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDSWOOD CITY COUNCIL THAT WAS HELD ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 04, 2006, AT 4:30 PM AND A REGULAR MEETING AT 7:00 PM AT FRIENDSWOOD CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 910 S. FRIENDSWOOD DRIVE, FRIENDSWOOD, TEXAS, WITH THE FOLLOWING PRESENT CONSTITUTING A QUORUM: MAYOR DAVID SMITH MAYOR PRO-TEM CHRIS PEDEN COUNCILMEMBER LAURA EWING COUNCILMEMBER JOHN LECOUR COUNCILMEMBER JIM HILL COUNCILMEMBER JAY HORECKY COUNCILMEMBER MEL MEASELES CITY ATTORNEY JOHN OLSON (arr. 5:45 pm) CITY MANAGER BO MCDANIEL CITY SECRETARY DELORIS MCKENZIE Mayor Smith called the meeting to order. 4:30 PM—SPECIAL SESSION Discussion was held with the Community and Economic Development Committee (CEDC) regarding goals and objectives. Chairman Deirdre Carey Brown introduced CEDC Board Members Vice-Chairman Kirk Lippert, Members Ed Sebesta, Karin Massicott, Jon Olansen, Dr. Hilmar R. Zeissig, Pauline Moore, and Bill Provenzano, and presented a PowerPoint presentation providing a overview of the work that the Board has been doing and various subject matters, goals of CEDC, Vision 2020 and 15 goals, asked for Council ranking of those goals, planning for the future, who is leading the efforts for quality economic development, gave history of Friendswood Economic Development, what is the purpose of CEDC, City Council's 2004 Economic Development strategic goals, updating Vision 2020, the future of Friendswood, build out in Friendswood, population, future goals, Economic Development portfolio, CEDC sub- committees, update on current mixed-use projects, Falls of Friendswood, West Ranch and Downtown Revitalization, infrastructure and Beamer Road and Open Meetings Act as it applies to CEDC and sub- committees. Mayor and Council thanked the committee for their hard work and dedication to this process. 6:00 PM—CLOSED EXECUTIVE SESSION Council convened into Executive Session in Accordance with the Texas Government Code, pursuant to Section 551.072— Deliberation regarding Real Property and Section 551.074— Personnel Matters. Council convened into Regular Session at 7:00 pm with action taken later in the meeting. RECONVENE INTO OPEN SESSION 6:30 PM—Special performance from Cline Elementarv School Bell Rinqers 7:00 PM— REGULAR SESSION The invocation was given by Pastor Randy Castillo with Calvary Chapel. 12/04/06 2590 Mayor Smith led the Pledge of allegiance to the United States and to the State of Texas. Mayor Smith requested Council to suspend the Council Rules of Procedure to take agenda item #15 out of order, with Council concurring. RESOLUTIONS **Councilmember Ewing moved to approve Resolution R2006-32 - a Resolution of the City Council of the City of Friendswood, Texas, recognizing Roger C. Roecker for his outstanding services as Interim City Manager from April to November, 2006. Seconded by Councilmember Hill. The motion was approved unanimously. A standing ovation was given in recognition of Director of Administrative Services Roger Roecker for his service to the City. SPECIAL RECOGNITION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS City Manager Bo McDaniel presented the Five Star Spirit Employee Award for the Third Quarter of 2006 to Ted Beason, Accounting Manager in the Administrative Services Department. Dustin Ferguson, Store Manager of Wal-Mart, presented a $3,000 grant award to Police Chief Wieners. JOINT DOCKETED PUBLIC HEARING Mayor Smith and Planning and Zoning Chairman Jim Gibson called a Joint Docketed Public Hearing to order, to receive comments from the public, either oral or written, regarding the Zone Classification change for a tract of land containing 24.62 acres, being part of Lot 4 of the Burgess Subdivision, and situated in the George W. Patterson Survey, property known as Bofysil tract located off of FM 528 near Friendswood Lakes Boulevard, and being Reserve A of the proposed subdivision called Friendswood Lakes West, Galveston County, Texas, from Single-Family Residential (SFR) to Community Shopping Center(CSC). Sherry Angelo, 1650 Highway 6, Suite #170, Sugarland, addressed Council and stated she is one of the owners of the property, is in support of proposal and is available to answer questions regarding the proposed development. Carol Garner, 1702 Sandy Lake, addressed Council and expressed concerns as to what may be proposed for a large tract of land that would lose small town feel, it is disheartening, property is across from a large subdivision, losing pride in ownership, commercial next to homes cannot be good. Kristy Kaiser, 1706 Waterfall Drive, addressed Council and stated she is opposed to commercial backing up to her property, not a very promising future for the residential area, concerned with property value and decrease, concern with raising her child. Glen Kessler, 1914 Sandy Lake, addressed Council and stated he is the President of the Homeowners Association, spoke against the proposal, read statement into the record expressing concerns, traffic safety and traffic flow issues, Winding Water Way must be resolved regarding the proposed development of a four lane road, concerned with the density of the subdivision, amenities of Friendswood Lakes were designed for a much lower number of units than is presented on the preliminary plat, the existing design 12/04/06 2 5 91 does not meet Vision 2020 and concerned with park amenities and requested the rezoning of Reserve "A" be postponed until such time as the total picture of the Friendswood Lake West subdivision is known to one and all. Hearing no further comments, Planning and Zoning Chair Jim Gibson closed the Joint Docketed Public Hearing. Mayor Smith left the Public Hearing open in the event further testimony is provided. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC Mike Mize presented a report on the Clear Creek Environmental Foundation's efforts and asked for Council participation. Kelley McKnight, 1106 Glenshannon Avenue, addressed Council and asked about the drainage project for Glenshannon subdivision and stated it seems that it is not moving very quickly. Mayor Smith asked Ms. McKnight to meet with Staff for an update. City Manager Bo McDaniel stated the City has sent an offer to buy the property necessary for a drainage easement and will bring a report to Council regarding the offer and it may take condemnation to acquire the needed property. Ms. McKnight read an article that the Council may be putting off drainage projects that are only helping a few people, want to be sure that this is not Glenshannon. Mayor Smith urged Ms. McKnight to get with the City Manager. Councilmember Peden stated all of Council has stated that drainage is important and Glenshannon is not being pushed back. City Manager Bo McDaniel stated this issue was voted on by the citizens in a bond election, and Council does not have discretion on this project, and is moving forward as quickly as possible. Councilmember Hill stated drainage in some areas have been neglected and stated that he will see that this drainage issue moves forward. Mayor Smith stated Glenshannon is on top of Council's list. M.J. Musser, 410 Ella Court, addressed Council and stated he is concerned with costs associated overall with the use of other languages, and would recommend Spanish Language training. Del Murphy, 902 W. Castlewood, addressed Council and stated the clarification helped him to understand, asked if English was the language used by the builder of Councilmember Peden's new home in Eagle Lakes. Councilmember Peden stated the house was bought after it was built, does have mowing company that all have legal status. Mr. Murphy asked about the street signs if changed to Spanish, books in libraries, the question is does Friendswood want English as the official language, a lot more important issues, kids have to walk in the street to high school for lack of a sidewalk, this is a lot more important than the issue before Council tonight, if want to prosper in this country need to speak English. M. Fred Krch, 209 Dawn, addressed Council and stated he would like to provide a handout to Council regarding heritage and English language, literacy, common bond is English language, what national/federal agency requires the use of English only, Federal Aviation does. Noelia Murphy, 902 W. Castlewood, addressed Council and stated she is proud to live in Friendswood, proud of heritage and expects her child to respect where he came from and learn different languages, stated she is Native American, Councilmember Ewing had a very positive statement, overlooking the facts, all of us want to learn the language, but want to maintain language, overlooking nothing prevents speaking English, as a City and as a community must provide services for anyone not speaking English, does not understand why there is a need to pass a Charter amendment to have English as Friendswood's official language, asked what threatens the City to have this. Sophia LeCour, 110 Canal Drive, addressed Council and stated she wished to address a concern about a City employee that could not speak English while doing work, stated why it is important for immigrants to speak, read and write English to live the American Dream, stated she is a legal immigrant, came to America when she was 14, was forced to learn the language as a young girl, and appreciated it, easier to 12/04/06 2592 learn when younger, went on to learn the English language, attended schools, graduated in top ten, attended college and has engineering degree and works at NASA, to prove her point she spoke to Council in Chinese, to show how difficult it is when you cannot understand what someone is saying. Rick Dovalina, 1707 S. Houston, addressed Council and stated he is a representative of League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), must have meeting's in English, stated we are all Americans, stated his concern was about English only, understands that he misunderstood how this was being addressed, and will support a resolution by Council making English the official language, in order to achieve the American Dream you must speak English, will submit and hopes Council will adopt, all of this is about perception, stated he is Hispanic, and is getting calls that they are not welcome in Friendswood, not image that you want for Friendswood, this is a non-issue, and we do not have problem but safety is a valid concern, City Manger has corrected that by changing up the employee application, if taken further would create great harm, asked if that is something the City wants to do, is the City employee friendly, talking about economic development, Council's job is growth of this City, hear that you want to support this city, if pass law then someone may break that law, may be discriminatory if ticket someone that cannot speak English, but a citizen of the United States urged Council to support the issue and stated he will help. Councilmember Peden stated he appreciates the input and applauds citizens for statesmanship, hopes to find a resolution to this issue, appreciate and hope to have further dialogue, and stated he is glad everyone is participating in this. Councilmember LeCour stated he also appreciates citizens being here tonight, some schools have had issues with Latinos and hope that LULAC will not support isolating Latinos, help remember that in the future, has not heard that City employees issues have been resolved. City Manager Bo McDaniel stated it is sensitive what the City should legally do, is in the process of reviewing some areas that may be a safety constraint, employees are asset to this City, is continuing to work on this process. Councilmember Peden told Public Works Director Kaz Hamidian and City Manager Bo McDaniel he would like to know if language training is needed for this years' budget, and stated can do a budget amendment for training. City Manager Bo McDaniel stated may not need to as it has been offered for free, but will need assessment before that can be determined. Mike Sharp, 1200 Shooting Star, addressed Council and talked about perception, does not believe anyone has a strong bias here in Friendswood, about 19 years ago saw a television story about Friendswood's 4t" of July parade and saw a wholesome hometown, was very impressed with town and moved here, spoke about perception, about City employee not being able to speak English, worked for Houston for a number of years in the Police Department, if complaint received, investigate, if is true take enough initiative to fix it, somehow bumped up to official language, rumor is that Friendswood does not like Hispanics, gets to be a bigger problem, does not believe any of this is true, official language of this country is English, adopting something is meaningless, taking action on stuff that is just not necessary, downside is the perception has more to lose than gain, not going to change what is taught, if not going to do anything,just let it go, if have personnel problem, address those issues, it is all perception. Frank Ortiz, 16815 Townes, addressed Council and stated he has lived in Friendswood for 27 years, is a retired NASA engineer, past national LULAC president, is speaking on English only, not a wise thing to do, Friendswood has a very limited tax base, will send wrong message to residents or those thinking about locating in Friendswood, ordinance will be misunderstood, will lead into discrimination, do not put self in a no win situation, non-issue, as citizens would rather see taxes spent for other things, believe was 12/04/06 2593 home when work crew in Forest Bend were doing work, spoke to them in English, had no problem speaking with them, Friendswood is a bedroom community, work, shop, and play together, not give wrong perception to area communities, do not bring bad publicity to Friendswood, all live in peace, keep it that way. Robin Hall, 1803 Vaquero, addressed Council and stated she thinks there are two issues and is confusing, gave information on confusing information regarding language, having a official language a non-issue, pending legislation to make English a national language, not going to give someone the American Dream, defacto language is English, thinks the real issue is that someone complained that a city employee could not communicate in English, the City has recently hired a City Manager and have Directors that can separate out issues and address any personnel concerns. James Montemayor, 2008 Pebble Lane, addressed Council and stated he lives here because of Christian community and schools, had to explain to 12 year old daughter what a wetback is and has become an issue, LULAC hit it on the head, last two weeks on his job, as a sales representative he has heard Friendswood has a lot of issues, 6-year military veteran, thinks a non-issue, thinks a one-person issue, concern for his children, does not think the City should spend money or efforts on this, truly opened up Pandora's Box. Diana Ruiz addressed Council and stated it is hard to get up as a Mexican American to speak, has experienced problems as past speaker, Councilmember Peden did not think this would be an issue, most in this audience do not have to deal with this, hurtful to hear what some have to say, being Mexican American is pretty damn hard, loves Friendswood, is a good town, attends church, husband is NASA engineer as well and is Mexican, thanked for support from LULAC and appreciate speakers that give support, sometimes does not feel welcome and neither does her high school daughter, will continue to teach her daughter about this issue, and stated her daughter is in the top five percent of her class, and stated, "Councilmember Peden, I hope this all works out." CITY MANAGER'S REPORT City Manager Bo McDaniel gave an update on Glenshannon Drainage Project. Staff has been negotiating with the property owner for easement acquisition for the advancement of this project. The appraisal for the property has been finalized at $44,000 which accounts for the loss of some trees. Staff is scheduling a meeting with the property owner early next week and has talked with Les Rumburg from the Galveston County Consolidated Drainage District (GCCDD) about regional detention. The plan is to be on the December 12 GCCDD agenda for this discussion. The City will be required to buy regional detention from the GCCDD at a cost of approximately $100,000. This is due to the fact that the project calls for adding a new line into the creek. The engineer is proposing to provide 90 percent completed drawings by early next week for review by City staff and GCCDD. A letter proposing the terms for the acquisition of the easement is being finalized for review by the City Attorney. City Manager Bo McDaniel reported on the December 11 Work Session topics. With only two responses received from those Councilmembers who responded to the consensus poll requested regarding the priorities for future work sessions, the City Manager stated he cannot report the initial consensus ranking from which Council could begin any deliberation to finalize as the priority for future agendas. Council guidance from all members is respectfully requested so that we can help you narrow the focus to issues warranting discussion and deliberation. The blank ranking sheet is included once again. City Manager Bo McDaniel reported on the Compliments/Complaints bumper sticker. The bumper sticker will be placed on non-public safety vehicles seeking community input and feedback. 12/04/06 2 5 94 City Manager Bo McDaniel reported on the status of the Live Oak Tree in front of City Hall. Councilmember Horecky has graciously offered to provide stainless steel bands/bolts/washers suitable to brace the base of the oak tree in front of City Hall that is trying to split and possibly fall into the street. The City Manager recommends that the City at least try to salvage the tree after reducing risk to nearby pedestrians and motorists. That would involve some radical trimming and placement of the bands/bolts/washers to stabilize the tree. If Council has no objections, the City Manager will accept the no cost donation from Councilmember Horecky and have the tree trimmed appropriately. In the event Council is not familiar with the tree in question, pictures have been provided for Council's review. City Manager Bo McDaniel reported on an officer graduating from LEMIT Leadership Command College. Congratulations are in order to Detective Sergeant Reagan Breaux, who graduated from the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas Leadership Command College (LEMIT) November 17, 2006. Sergeant Breaux has been a police officer with the Friendswood Police Department since April 1996. In his 10 years of service, he has worked in the Patrol Division and the Criminal Investigations Division. Sergeant Breaux received training in numerous levels of management principles. Participation in this program is intense, demanding, and requires a substantial amount of focus and self-discipline to complete. He attended three modules of three weeks each at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas Women's University in Denton, and Sam Houston State University in Huntsville. Sergeant Breaux joins the ranks with other Friendswood officers who have completed the program including Chief Robert Wieners, Captain Jimmy Holland, Captain Shari Burrows and Corporal Ryan Jenkins. Five other officers are currently enrolled in this prestigious professional development program. ACTION ITEMS **Councilmember Peden moved to approve the appropriation of $1,600 funds, for placement of additional/secondary notices in the Friendswood Journal newspaper, when feasible and practical. Seconded by Councilmember Measeles. The motion was approved 5-2, with Councilmembers LeCour and Horecky opposed. **Councilmember Measeles moved to approve a contract extension for the Concrete Street Maintenance Program. Seconded by Councilmember Peden. The motion was approved unanimously. **Councilmember Horecky moved to approve the Mayor executing an addendum to the contract with LJA Engineering for professional engineering services to design the 16" transmission waterline from Sunset/Shadowbend to Water Well #4. Seconded by Councilmember Hill. The motion was approved unanimously. **Councilmember Hill moved to approve the Mayor executing a contract with Property Acquisition Services, Inc., to provide easement and right-of-way acquisition services for the Deepwood Force Main Project. Seconded by Councilmember Horecky. The motion was approved unanimously. **Councilmember Measeles moved to approve the property swap of Fire Station No. 3 and the Forest Bend Civic Center. Seconded by Ewing. The motion was approved unanimously. LeAnn Baust, Forest Bend Homeowners Association President, stated the Board is ready to negotiate the property swap, and stated the trade is beneficial to both entities. **Councilmember Horecky moved to direct the City Manager to explore possibilities and cost regarding the Household Hazardous Waste and City of Pearland's voucher program. Seconded by Councilmember Hill. The motion was approved unanimously. 12/04/06 2595 **Councilmember Hill moved to approve the acceptance of streets, drainage, and utilities for West Ranch Estates Section I, Stonecreek Section I, and West Ranch Reserves A & B for the contractor's one-year maintenance period and authorize the Mayor to execute the plat for West Ranch Reserves A & B as property owner of Reserve B and the Lift Station. Seconded by Councilmember Measeles. ***Councilmember Peden moved to amend the main motion to approve subject to bringing Lift Station pumps into compliance and conditions of deficiency in inspections are met for Stone Creek Section 1 and West Ranch Reserves A & B, not to begin one year period until GCCDD signs off on outfall and City Manager and Staff give final approval upon completion of those items. Seconded by Councilmember Ewing. The motion to amend was approved unanimously. ****The main motion as amended was approved unanimously. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE MAYOR AND COUNCILMEMBERS Mayor Pro-Tem Peden spoke regarding the City's employment/hiring practices. He stated, "I understand that those are at the discretion of our City Manager, he made those changes, and he gets concurrence from Council when required, and the changes he made are not substantive in my opinion, not requiring any changes, so I applaud him for what he did in taking the initiative. Second item is, I have been asked several times in the past week about the City of Farmers Branch, their ordinances, and I would like to take this moment to make my response publicly about those ordinances and give any other member of Council the opportunity to make the same, when I say "Friendswood's response" it is not my personal response, I would like everyone to have the opportunity to respond. There were three basic ordinances, and I am going in reverse order. The last one that they did pass was the ordinance to make it illegal to hire, make it unlawful to hire an undocumented or illegal worker. I told the newspaper that I could not or would not support an ordinance of that type for the City of Friendswood, and the reasons why are simply this. That is an issue that the federal government should regulate, and they have. It is currently illegal to hire someone who is undocumented, or an illegal immigrant. I do not want our Police Officers taking their time away from protecting our citizens to do the job of the federal government. I do not think that is appropriate, I do not think it is right for us to put that on our Police Officers, and I think it is something that if we have a real issue with it here, we should complain, send folks to Washington to ask them to take care of that. In some degree we did that when we sent a resolution to the President and Congress telling them to enforce the law or change it. We are a country of laws. That is my position of hiring illegal aliens. The second one that they dealt with was renting property to an illegal alien. This one is just in my opinion fraught with, almost impossible to write a law that can actually do what they are intending to do. First of all, it is asking landowners or a landlord to be responsible for checking documentation of an individual they are writing a lease to. I am not sure we want to place them in that position. Second of all, suppose you have an individual, I can think of all kinds of scenarios where this would not work. You have a scenario where a family comes to the United States, their child has cancer, they are here for four or five months, do you want them living in their van while their child is getting his medical care? At what point do we say that they are allowed to rent property? I think that there are other instances when people could be vacationing in the United States and they have a child while they are here. The birth of that child, that child is a citizen and afforded every right of every other citizen of this country. Do we then want to tell the parents, `Well you have to take that citizen somewhere else because you cannot rent property'? I do not see any way you could write an ordinance that can do what they actually want it to do. And I do not see how you could ask anyone to enforce that ordinance. So I do not think that is an ordinance that Friendswood wants to get involved with, and frankly I am not even interested regardless of whether it stands up in Farmers Branch to the legal challenges it may face. I do not think it is something that Friendswood wants to do at this time. Which leads to the English language as Friendswood's official language. I have caught a lot of positive reaction and a lot of negative reaction. And frankly, some of the positive and negatives are from individuals who I scratch my head in wonder where they get their positions from. But what I do know is that some of the individuals who have opposed me and are for me have had very valid points and I have taken those and I have listened to those, but I want to make sure 12/04/06 2596 the people understand my position. One is I do not believe that City Council should be making an ordinance that names an official language of the City of Friendswood. I think if that is something that happens, the voters have the right to vote on it. So, that is the reason I would support it being on the ballot. Now that brings a question of whether I would vote for it or not. I do not generally share with people how I vote, but I would support that amendment to our Charter if it came up. What does it mean if it is the official language of the City of Friendswood? That is the second question I get a lot of times. It in no way indicates or is meant to indicate in my opinion English only. Anyone who thinks that, that we could somehow pass a law that would mandate what a restaurant or a bank or any other establishments the language they spoke to their customers, is somewhat insane to me. You could not pass a law that would do that, it is unconstitutional, it is really just immoral in my opinion. But what establishing an official language does, is it is a baseline. The City of Friendswood is going to publish everything in English, our meetings will be held in English, if you want to address the City Council, you will address the City Council in English, if you want to apply for something, you will apply for that, the forms will be written in English. Now that does not in any way mean that they cannot or will not, or will not, or should not be written in another language. That just simply means the official language of this City is English. In reality, it is simply codifying the practices that we have been doing all along, it simply makes it the rule. And if it is the rule, the voters would decide, not seven individuals sitting in front of you tonight. What we would decide is whether it is worthy of going before the voters, and four of us is all it will take to decide that, I believe. To be affirmed, it does not require a supermajority, so it will just be four votes. That is my position, I want to clarify one thing that I believe was taken out of context in the Houston Chronicle article. Understand that there is a small space for Mr. Evans to write his article, so you cannot expect him to articulate my complete position in four sentences. I made reference to the sex offender ordinance in relation to this charter amendments under these two contexts. One is we are a home-rule city, we have the right and authority to set the rules that we are governing ourselves by. Those rules may or may not apply to the state of Texas, other cities, or the country as a whole. But we can make rules for ourselves. That is what a home-rule city does. And to that extent, if we place this on the ballot, and it is approved, that is our right as a home-rule city. The second context in which I made that comment was this. We passed a sex offender ordinance in this city before we had a sex offender problem. And this is something that I believe is proactive. We do not have a language problem in this city now, but in the future we may, and I want to head that off. It has nothing to do with anything other than those things. So individuals who take this and want to make it into something else, are just not listening to my words." Councilmember Ewing stated she does not believe the City needs to make official language, does believe all people living here should speak English, does not think concern or issue in Friendswood already doing this, City Manager had authority to change wording of the employment application, we are a nation of immigrants, all City employees are legal immigrants, all of us are from immigrant stock, more than one side of the story, if placed on the ballot would create turmoil and would impact candidates running for office, if approved would this deny First Amendment Rights of residents, business owners, churches, etc., where do you draw the line, State Education Laws provide for teaching English language as a dual language, no one graduates in Texas without passing 4 TAKS tests in English, visited Georgetown and the Library of Congress/Jefferson Library and the use of other languages in the books that are housed there, no reason to do this, this is a non-issue, stated her Pastor said this is expressed the need for us to deal with such issues as drainage rather than English as an official language, spoke on the number of wars that many fought in and died for this country, the Vietnam Wall, and the Jefferson Library. Councilmember LeCour stated he spoke to his Pastor as well and agrees it is a moral issue, if employees cannot speak English, has a fear for their safety, could not communicate in the event of an emergency, protection of citizens is important, wants everyone to live the American Dream, raised on the farm and worked with the Latinos and helped them to learn English and encouraged them to learn to have greater opportunities, gave them hope, other languages are also problems for others, looking at City employees and hiring practices, are going to help them, not going to lose their jobs, how far to take this to be discrimination, has heard of abuse of power, not going to get rid of police officers, need to keep the law, has not read the Farmers Branch ordinance, does not believe the City needs to be doing the Federal 12/04/06 2597 Government's job, does not believe the City needs to enforce federal regulations, not going to do that, not going to spend that kind of money, does not know what English language as Friendswood's official language means, need more discussion on this, talked about Thomas Jefferson, was dead broke, needed money, did speak a number of languages, would encourage speak English to live American Dream. Councilmember Horecky stated he would be very brief, has 12 employees with 9 employees Spanish- speaking, stated he helped his employees learn English and he learned how to speak Spanish as well, they all can speak some English now, talking about our employees being able to speak to communicate, resents comments by Councilmember Ewing regarding the Vietnam Memorial Wall, English is official language of this country, bordering on irreverence, what was being discussed was employees. Councilmember Hill stated he does have a problem with English language being official language of Friendswood, disservice is school teaching speaking bilingual in school and not requiring to speak language read an email sent to Councilmember Ewing from a teacher, regarding speaking English and stated this is not an issue in Friendswood. Councilmember Measeles stated the City does need to have City employees proficient in English, does not support that Friendswood make English the official language, interesting that some of the comments made during campaigns were for less government and now here we are talking about more government, lot of respect to immigrants wanting opportunity to better lives, as long as legal, thanked all citizens that spoke, helps to understand different views, it is about perception, loves this community, Council needs to think about some of the things that were spoken, some things said are hurtful, announced the tree lighting tomorrow night at 7:00 PM at Brown Heritage Museum. Councilmember Horecky stated several citizens have called and have received tax refunds, and thanked Staff for getting those tax rebate checks out. Councilmember Hill reported that TxDOT has put signs up on FM 528 designating Centennial Park location. Councilmember LeCour stated he thinks some things that have been said were hurtful, and thinks statement by a Councilmember about Clear Creek Independent School District (CCISD) being a ghetto school needs a public apology. Councilmember Ewing stated she was the Councilmember that made the comment about CCISD and it was taken out of context, she stated comments were made by the teachers was that this was a ghetto building, CCISD has a lovely student population, thanked everyone for attending and the media as well, thanked Acting Community Services Director James Toney for getting the Bird Sanctuary signs are up. Mayor Smith apologized to Council for not passing on an invitation to the Hospice Tree Lighting held at City Hall, issues and subjects brought up tonight will be addressed by Staff as customer service issue, the issues brought up tonight are not Council issues, things bring harm and wrong perception, the true American dream is what each person wants. CONSENT AGENDA **Councilmember Peden moved to approve the Consent Agenda as presented: A. Approve and authorize the Mayor to execute an addendum to the Galveston County-Regional Trunked Radio System Governmental Users to allow the City of Friendswood to utilize the District for radio repairs. B. Approve a comparable transitional pay adjustment for Roger Roecker as was approved for the City Secretary during the new City Manager's transition period. C. Approve Minutes of November 20, 2006 Meeting Seconded by Councilmember Horecky. The motion was approved unanimously. 12/04/06 25gg A motion was made and approved to adjourn at 10:05 PM. � - Mayor David J.H. Smith Attest: �. � Deloris McKenzie, T C City Secretary .��� �R'�kO�� t �p �i p * t d� �►qt� � ,�+�,q'