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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes 2007-08-27 Special 08/27/2007 2773 STATE OF TEXAS )( CITY OF FRIENDSWOOD )( COUNTIES OF GALVESTON/HARRIS )( AUGUST 27, 2007 )( MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE FRIENDSWOOD CITY COUNCIL THAT WAS HELD ON MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2007 AT 7:00 PM AT FRIENDSWOOD CITY HALL COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 910 SOUTH 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 LESLIE REID COUNCILMEMBER ANDY RIVERA CITY MANAGER BO MCDANIEL DEPUTY CITY SECRETARY MELINDA WELSH City Secretary Deloris McKenzie was absent from the meeting. Mayor Smith called the meeting to order. 7:00 PM—SPECIAL MEETING An open forum was held to receive comments from the public, either oral or written, regarding the proposed City Budget for FY2007-08 as modified by the City Council for funding in part by the proposed tax rate of$0.5764. City Manager Bo McDaniel stated there are three items on this agenda, items 1 and 2 are tied to statutory requirements for the levying of tax rate, requires two published notices and public hearings, this open forum is more than what is required by law, the public can make comments and suggestions, this serves similar to a public hearing, City Manager stated to Mayor Smith to receive like a public hearing but this is not a replacement of a public hearing, gave a summary of the budget, revenues over $29.2 million and expenditures totaling a little over $29 million, original decision packages that City Manager included for Council consideration, Council accepted those proposals, changed some to keep it in balance, citizens may see a slight rise due to their appreciated home values that may have gone up, would put proposed tax rate of $0.5760 to $0.5764, there were some additional expenditures funded by Council as well as some revenue adjustments, estimates for sales tax which kept the budget in balance for total additional expenditures of an ongoing basis of $83,000 and one-time expenditures of approximately $186,000 creating a revised budget revenue stream of$29.3 million offset by expenditures of approximately $29.2 million. September 10�2007 is the public hearing on the budget and September 17�2007 will be the final reading on the ordinance to adopt the budget and tax rate as required by law. Mayor Smith thanked Staff and citizens for being here, welcomed the Friendswood Fire Department and former Councilmember Mel Measeles who were in attendance. Dick Zinser, Friendswood resident, stated he is in favor of the budget and gave a letter handout that he read giving thanks to the City for being good financial stewards. Councilmember Peden asked about bonds and Administrative Services Director Roger Roecker stated they are due to changing market conditions, reduce ultimate debt service, the City borrowed to pay back bonds and saved on interest. 08/27/2007 2774 Margaret McKale, Friendswood resident, stated she was wondering about the Brittney Bay extension and asked if it is in the budget and is the City using the tax rate to fund this. Mayor Smith stated this is fiscal year budget with revenues coming in and expenditures going out, funding of Brittney Bay is not part of the budget itself as far as expenditures are concerned but that does not mean the City is not going to have certain expenditures during the year that are related to it. Councilmember Peden stated to let Council wait and hear Brittney Bay subjects under Agenda Item 3. City Manager Bo McDaniel stated this forum deals with part of the operating budget, bonds have not been issued and it would not effect this year's tax rate. Bobbie Jones, former Friendswood resident, asked if money was approved for Laura Leigh and Public Works Director Kaz Hamidian answered yes, Mayor Smith stated street repairs were included along with street improvements as the study comes out. Councilmember Peden stated there is something on Forces At Work total, third from the end, tree cutting for buyout lots, questioned what this was, has not seen it before, Mr. Roecker stated it is to remove trees that have fallen and are dead trees only. Councilmember Hill stated Public Works has 3 quarters of a million dollars more than last year and asked if it included $215,000 in street repairs, Mayor Smith stated the other money was put in street replacement once the study is completed and they see what streets need replacement. Councilmember Hill asked if Laura Leigh will get done in the $215,000 and Mayor Smith stated yes. Mayor Smith explained the financing part of capital projects as it relates to street improvements. Councilmember Peden stated he was mistaken, the tree cutting for buyout lots was in the budget and he just missed it. Mayor Smith closed the Public Forum. Mayor Smith called a Public Hearing to order to receive comments from the public, either oral or written, regarding a proposal to increase total tax revenue from properties on the tax roll in the preceding tax year by 2.99 percent (percentage by which proposed tax rate ($0.5764) exceeds lower of rollback tax rate or effective tax rate). Your individual taxes may increase at a greater or lesser rate, or even decrease, depending on the change in the taxable value of your property in relation to the change in taxable value of all other property and the tax rate that is adopted. City Manager stated this tax rate considers two primary portions, operations and maintenance and debt rate. That is not subject to truth in taxation requirement. Mayor Smith stated sometimes it is hard to understand the math formulas, looks like we had a tax increase but that is not the case, the increase is in the revenue not the tax, the tax rate is staying the same, look at it as a cost of living increase, what it boils down to is that your appraisal may have gone up but tax rate is the same. Councilmember Peden stated he understands the difference, total tax revenue has increased by 3% due to n ew g rowth. City Manager stated that taxes do not represent all of the City's revenue. 08/27/2007 2775 Councilmember Rivera asked how this tax rate compares to other cities and the City Manager answered that Friendswood is in a good position and is in the lower range, Mr. Roecker stated the only other nearby City that has a lower tax rate is Webster and that is because they have lots of stores and shopping, Friendswood offers a homestead exemption which most do not. Mayor Smith stated what this means to him from a real estate standpoint is this is good buying power, property values are higher in Friendswood. Councilmember Peden told Journal editor Tom Jacobs, who was in the audience, that the City of Friendswood is number 51 in the United States. Councilmember LeCour stated last year the City capped taxes at 3% which gave the City a two million dollar surplus, gave the City funding for other things, part of that money came from our efficient Staff, when they are doing proposals they come in under cost and save the City money, Council will fund those street repairs because we have the money to do that, home values in the United States are dropping and if it effects Friendswood and would impact the City, it is prudent that we work efficiently, if the City has money coming in it is spent then and not up front before we know if we have the money. Mayor Smith stated Staff has been working hard on the budget for the last months, the next stage is long term plans. Mayor Smith closed this Public Hearing and stated the next Public Hearing will be September 10, 2007. **Councilmember Rivera moved to approve Resolution R2007-28 - A Resolution of the City of Friendswood, Texas, supporting the recommended Alternate Route 1 for the location of Brittany Bay Boulevard in a portion of the City, said boulevard being an extension of League City Parkway, from the east city limits to the intersection of FM 528 and Friendswood Lakes Boulevard, Galveston County, Seconded by Councilmember LeCour. ***Councilmember Peden moved to amend Resolution R2007-28 to remove any indication of the route on the schematic between FM 528 and FM 2351 and eliminate second to the last paragraph about directing to consultant Freese & Nichols. Seconded by Councilmember Reid. The motion was approved unanimously. ****The main motion, as amended, was approved 6-1 with Councilmember Ewing opposed Mayor Smith stated the City received the environmental study and Council reviewed. Councilmember Ewing stated there are prairies, wildlife habitat, wetlands and more and asked how many families will be displaced and what are the issues with the wildlife habitat that are there. Interim Director of Community Development Les McMahen stated there are no severe environmental effects for Alternate Route 1 versus the other alternate which is 1500 feet to the left, any issues that come up of concern will come up at any public hearings on this item, can be discussed during preliminary design phase, this route had the least environmental effect while other routes had a lot more impact. Councilmember Hill asked if any homes would be displaced. Mr. McMahen stated he did not think so. Councilmember LeCour asked to put the schematic map from the agenda on the screen so Council can view. Mr. McMahen showed on the schematic map where no homes would be affected. 08/27/2007 2776 City Manager stated this route is more of an economic benefit because of a rezoning of some land along the route. Councilmember Peden stated the red route is not the route that Council picked a couple of years ago to study, it was the purple route and feels uncomfortable approving a route right now since the other part has not been completed. Mr. McMahen stated it is clear in the resolution where this is at. Mayor Smith asked if the color on the schematic map can be taken out and used as an attachment. Councilmember Peden read comments from the meeting on this a couple of years ago and stated Council owes residents assurance so take the color lines out of the schematic. Mr. McMahen stated they will put a disclaimer on the schematic when they send it back to League City that the entire route is not being approved. Councilmember Peden stated he does not want a disclaimer, he wants the red and yellow lines on the schematic taken out, that is the only way he will approve the resolution. The Mayor stated that one of the items in the resolution says for Freese and Nichols to move forward with the preparation of the Diagrammatic Layout and Environmental Assessment Study for Brittany Bay Boulevard within Friendswood from FM 528 to FM 2351. Mr. McMahen stated this is our jumping off point. Mayor Smith stated nearby residents do not want this built at all. Mr. McMahen stated the City encouraged a common name for the proposed roadway in the resolution. Councilmember Ewing stated she thinks anything sent should not have the color routes on it either, it should stop at FM 528, needs more discussion, there are lots of questions that are not ready to be dealt with tonight, find out why TxDOT threw this back in the City's lap, the route Council proposed had the least amount of impact. The City Manager explained this is not approving the road but the design, need to get in the queue for funding with TxDOT. Councilmember Reid asked if the purple route was chosen to do a study. Mayor Smith stated the City studied the entire corridor, Mr. McMahen stated it stops at FM 528. Councilmember Reid stated she would like to study more and not decide on anything tonight, would like to separate these out. Councilmember Rivera stated the City cannot build on Pearland Regional Airport, we need to define how best to ach ieve route. Councilmember Peden asked why the City cannot move the Pearland Regional Airport. Councilmember Hill stated it is in black and white where we are talking about, let us tell the people now. Councilmember Reid asked if there is a chance there will be no route. 08/27/2007 2777 Mayor Smith stated we could not discuss that subject since it was not on the agenda. Councilmember LeCour asked if the resolution fails tonight is there no red route. Mayor Smith answered no. Councilmember Peden stated the City has this route on the Major Thoroughfare Plan, if this resolution fails it just means the City will not team up with League City on the construction of the road, the route is there. Mayor Smith stated the City has asked for assistance from Galveston County on this. Councilmember LeCour asked if the State could come in and build this road anyway and the City would have no choice in it. Mayor Smith stated yes they could, Webster is an example of that, the State did it on Nasa Road 1 with the construction of Nasa Parkway. Councilmember Peden stated this is why Nasa Parkway does not go into Webster, this route between FM 528 and League City has been on the City's Major Thoroughfare Plan since 1998, no one can complain they have not had prior notice, this has been on the map for almost ten years. This meeting was adjourned at 8:19 PM. ; �,; i� � Mayor David . . t�iifh Attest: � fR�O � v � �O �� � OO De oris McKenzie, TRMC v City Secretary f` * ar�T�� ,�+�'