October 11 Regular Meeting

CITY OF IVANHOE Minutes of October 11th, 2012 ********************************** The regular City Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Brockhouse at 7:02 PM. All Council members were present. 62 audience members attended. Invocation was given by Patsy Morris. Mayor Brockhouse led the Pledge of Allegiance. Several individuals had signed up to address Council in Communications from the audience: Cindy Costilow invited those in attendance to enjoy the annual Haunted Trail. Raymond Harrison requested information about the whereabouts of the dog that bit him. He stated that he was not drunk at the previous meeting, he attends AA meetings, and meets with the probation officer for his community service work. Debbie Shoemaker spoke in support of Councilwoman Bennett as a Minister, and her involvement with the Centers for Spiritual Living. David Fields expressed concern about Councilwoman Bennett going door to door, introducing herself and seeking votes and badgering his wife. He expressed forgiveness to those who have said bad things about his wife. Gaylyn Muzny commented that City Council had failed to perform due diligence before spending tax dollars on the animal control program and asked who is going to reimburse citizens the amount spent on the program. She spoke of a lawsuit against the city. Marilyn Pokorney asked why the animal shelter had taken priority, and questioned police security. Stephanie Pokorney asked Council to provide details on the advantages and disadvantages of living in the City. Tabitha Riley commented that the City is fabricating laws to suit the needs of those who run it. Janis Landry said she does not go on hearsay and likes to find things out for herself; she met with Councilman McIntyre, and followed through with writing a letter to the state expressing concern about the City’s animal control program. Feels the city has wasted $12,000 of the city’s money. Sharon McIntyre voiced that there is not going to be any fines relating to the animal shelter, she noted it is time to clear up a few things: that lies have been flying around the community, generated by a few who have a vendetta against some of the Council Members. She said it is politically motivated, including a flyer that was circulated about the animal control program, which included an ending statement to vote those individuals out of office. Ms. McIntyre gave a rebuttal to allegations involving the animal control program. Jim Beattie addressed his comments to Councilman McIntyre, and questioned notification to the governor about the animal shelter. Janis Landry called a point of order to be able to speak again. Council sought advice from the city attorney, then declined her request, since she had previously addressed Council. (Recording of Communications from audience and meeting are available at city hall) With the allotted time having been exceeded for Communications from the audience, Mayor Brockhouse moved to the agenda: Agenda item #1: Mayor Brockhouse introduced Steve Jordan with the engineering firm of Schaumberg & Polk to provide an update on the engineering side of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) application. Mr. Jordan in turn introduced Troy Whitehead who has been assisting getting the information compiled on the streets identified by Council as being eligible for CDBG funding. Thus far the engineers have made two trips to look at the roads to develop cost estimates from an engineering perspective. The initial cost estimates indicate the $275,000 grant funds will not be sufficient to do the roadwork on Lancelot, Camelot North and Durwood. As a result, the engineers are working cost estimates on Durwood since that street serves the largest population. Even then, Mr. Jordan said the grant would not fund work on the entire length of Durwood. The next step after the cost estimate will be the design phase. Mayor Brockhouse then introduced Randy Blanks from the grant writing firm of David Waxman & Associates. Mr. Blanks explained the grant application will be developed from input received from the engineers in time for submission to the Tx. Dept. of Agriculture by the Oct. 26th deadline. Street work is acceptable for applying for CDBG funds as long as the work is for an area that meets the low to moderate income criteria. A CDBG grant does not require matching funds from the City. Following the information presentation, Councilwoman Bennett made the motion to adopt Resolution #2012-14R Authorizing submission of the CDBG application for the city. Councilman McIntyre provided the second, and the motion passed unanimously. Agenda item #2: Councilwoman Bennett made the motion to approve the Council minutes of September 13th, 2012 regular meeting, September 17th, 2012 workshop, and September 17th, 2012 special meeting. Following discussion on wording on the September 17th, 2012 special meeting minutes, Councilwoman Bennett revised her motion to include a correction to the September 17th, 2012 special meeting minutes. Councilman Elliott made the second to approve each of the minutes with said correction, and the motion passed unanimously. Agenda item #3: Supervisor of Dams Rusty Harrison summarized the dam inspection reports he had emailed to Council earlier. Mr. Harrison noted some additional cracking has occurred on the Charmaine Dam apron, and that it is time to cut grass on the dams between now and mid-November. He has calculated the footage of the seams that need to be re-caulked on both concrete dams in preparation for going out for bids; his estimate on material cost for re-caulking is $45,000. He said he didn’t feel qualified to develop the bid specifications for the re-caulking project. City Secretary C. D. Woodrome said he would contact Waxman & Assoc. for recommendations. Councilwoman Bennett asked when the most desirable time for the caulk work to be done before making the motion to move forward with getting bids for re-caulking the dams, Councilman Elliott provided the second, and the motion passed unanimously. Agenda item #4: Councilman Preston reviewed the history of funds expensed on streets since the city’s inception. $0 spent in 2010 due to no funds available. $48,000 spent out of a budgeted $125,000 in 2011, and $160,000 spent in 2012 on an initial budgeted amount of $95,000. The condition of the streets puts the city in a catch 22 situation of trying to keep streets passable following rains, when the ditches and culverts do not function properly. Councilman Preston noted that the city has expensed over $11,000 on Durwood in 2012 to correct part of the drainage problem. The cost estimate from the engineer developing the proposal for the Community Development Block Grant application shows $195,000 for ditch and drainage work and a sand oil top, and that would not get all of Durwood. It is the challenge the city faces with streets that have been neglected, and to continue the long term plan to get the drainage issues resolved, balanced with the routine maintenance like the street right of way mowing that is about to begin. The item was information only, with no action from Council. Agenda item #5: Councilman Morris, as Security Committee liaison, provided the Sheriff Dept. summary of calls responded to in Ivanhoe during the month of September (copy attached). He detailed an incident involving Troy Costello the deputy assigned to Ivanhoe who was backing up other officers. Since a fatal shooting was involved, all of the officers were placed on administrative leave, meaning the city was depending on the sheriff to find deputies to fill in until the regular deputy returned to duty. Deputy Costello would be available for the night of Halloween and the Haunted Trail activities, but other deputies would have to work the weekend preceding Halloween. Agenda item #6: City Treasurer C. D. Woodrome provided a review of the end of year financial spreadsheet in conjunction with the required quarterly report. Mr. Woodrome had also provided the full fiscal year financial summary in the Councils packet for review prior to the meeting. He recommended the Council include the monthly spreadsheet report of the city’s finances on the city website, to provide citizens with information about how the city funds are spent. Councilman McIntyre motioned to accept the September financial report as presented and to include the monthly financial reports on the city website. Councilwoman Bennett made the second, and the motion passed unanimously. Agenda item #7: Councilman Elliott motioned to adopt Resolution #2012- 15R designating the official newspaper for FY 2013. Councilwoman Bennett provided the second, and the motion passed unanimously. Agenda item #8. Councilwoman Bennett provided a summary of the efforts made to bring high speed broadband internet service to Ivanhoe over the past few years. The latest effort is working with Connect Texas, an organization that will promote Ivanhoe to prospective service providers. Connect Texas requires a community champion to serve as the contact for the city, and to work with interested groups to develop the community assessment needed by Connect Texas. Councilwoman Bennett then presented the motion to appoint city secretary C. D. Woodrome to serve as community champion for the Connect Texas project. Councilman Elliott made the second and the motion passed unanimously. Agenda item #9: Councilwoman Bennett expressed appreciation to Karen Sikora, Chairwoman of the City Planning & Zoning Commission for the ongoing work on the Zoning Ordinance. Ms. Sikora noted the Commission had taken on the labor intensive project of putting the Zoning Ordinance into a codified form which saved the city between $7,000 and $11,000. Those are the fees that law firms charge. The codified version of the Zoning Ordinance was provided to City Council for review at the September meeting along with three new Ordinances to be included in the Zoning Ordinance.

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