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Minutes September 08, 1987256 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES SEPTEMBER 8, 1987 The Council ~onvened into a special called work session at 5:30 p.m. in the Civil Defense Room. PRESENT ABSENT: 1. Mayor Stephens; Council Members Alexander, Ayer, Boyd, Gorton and Hopkins. Mayor Pro Tem McAdams The Council held a discussion and approval of the TMPA Power Sales Amendment. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, stated that staff was looking for a general consensus of support for the amendment. Council Members would be attending a city council meeting in Greenville on September 22, 1987 for a TMPA presentation. Bob Nelson, Executive Director of Utilities, stated that the amendment allowed the Council to legally proceed with the hydroelectric units on Lake Lewisville and Lake Ray Roberts. Two types of units were allowed under the original contract, the existing units or those under construction when the original contract was signed in 1976 and up to 10% of the existing uni'ts upgraded or a solid waste refuse burner. The amendment allowed for any type of unit with no single unit more than 3,000Kw or a total sum of units not to exceed 5,000Kw. Consensus of the Council was to continue as suggested and bring the amendment back at a future meeting for formal approval. 2. The Council held a discussion regarding the proposed 1987-88 Annual Program of Services. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, stated that there were eight issues the CounCil still needed to resolve i'n regards to the budget for next year. The eight issues were: (1) Holiday pay for fire fighters. After discussion, consensus of the Council was to pursue the compromise proposal of voluntary use of compensatory time for holiday pay. The option would be closely monitored for budget impact. (2) Funding to outside agencies. Consensus of the Council was to hold funding at current levels except for adding funding for a new program, H.O.P.E. (3) Downtown Development. Consensus of the Council was to allocate $10,000 for a master plan and use funds from the hotel/motel tax for the Main Street project. (4) Add 5-7 p.m. hours back to the Civic Center. Consensus of the Council was to add those hours back to the Civic Center. (5) Extend the hours of the Recreation Center from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 during the winter hours. Consensus of the Council was to add 24 weeks worth of extended hours to the Recreation Center and monitor the usage during those weeks. City of Denton City Council Minutes September 8. 1987 Page 2 (6) Secretarial support for the Municipal Court-Judge. Council Member Gorton left the meeting. Consensus of the Council was to approve the use of the Judge's moving allowance for the hiring of a COE student. Decision on the secretarial support was tabled until John McGrane looked at the space available for that person to work. (7) Sports official funding. Consensus of the Council was to reduce funding one/half for the cost of umpires and referees. Council Member Gorton returned to the meeting. (8) Tax rate options. Harrell presented the options as a $.59 rate with $200.000 allocated for Flow or the fund balance, a $.59.28 rate with $250.000 allocated for Flow or the fund balance or a $.61 rate with $600.000 allocated for Flow or the fund balance. The Council convened into a special called meeting at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. PRESENT: ABSENT: rate increase and set a date, vote. Mayor Stephens; Council Members Alexander, Ayer, Boyd, Gorton and Hopkins. . Mayor Pro Tem McAdams The Council held a public hearing on the proposed tax time and place for the tax rate Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, stated that the proposed budget filed with the City Council called for a tax levy of $.59/$100 of valuation which was the City's current tax rate. Subsequent discussions by the Council following the filing of the budget, instructed staff to make legal advertisement that would be sufficient for the Council to increase the tax levy from $.59 to $.61 per $100 valuation. That action was taken so that there would be more flexibility when dealing with the Flow issue. The current budget filed did not contain an allocation for funding for Flow. The Mayor opened the public hearing. Kenneth Stout stated that he had a 46% increase in the taxes he paid on property he had in Denton and felt that the City budget did not reflect that kind of need. He strongly objected to the Central Appraisal District acting under the authority of the City Council as contracting agent. He asked if the Council had adjusted the salaries of employees or the number of employees in the departments where the building inspection fees were down to reflect the work load. 257 25.8 City of Denton City Council Minutes* September 8',~ 1987 .~- Page 3 Mayor Stephens stated that those employees were used for other projects such as the CIP projects and not just for inspections. Dorothy Damico stated that her concern was connected with Flow Hospital. The community needed a public hospital. She commended the Council for the interest it had in trying to find a resolution to the hospital situation. She hoped that the CounCil would continue to work in that direction. If that involved a necessity of increasing taxes, what would be saved in the long run would .greatly off-set that which would have had to be paid in taxes. She would support whatever the Council would do. M. C. Burch felt that a good place to start looking at taxes was at the Appraisal Board. Most of the time, the appraisal set by the Board was not anywhere near what a person could sell the property for. ~ The Mayor closed the public hearing. Council Member Boyd stated that the $.59 tax rate was based on funding a bUdget that represented no lay-offs but at the same time no significant increase in the City workforce and no increase in the pay scale. It resulted in service maintenance in most areas, service reduction in small areas. It was a budget that tried to maintain the quality of life in the City without a significant increase in expenditures. Hopkins motion, Alexander second to set September 15, 1987 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers as the date for the tax rate vote. On roll vote, Alexander "aye," Hopkins "aye," Gorton "aye," Ayer "aye," Boyd "aye," and Mayor Stephens "aye." Motion carried unanimously. The Council convened into executive session in the Civil Defense Room. The Mayor asked that the meeting be moved to the City Manager's Conference Room. The Council held a discussion of legal matters including litigation of the County of Denton vs. the City of Denton, real estate including consideration of the offer to purchase the County's interest in Flow Hospital and personnel/board appointment. The Council reconvened into open session and took the following action: City of Denton City Council Minutes September 8'; ~1987 Page 4 A. Ayer motion, Gorton second to Appleton III to the Human Resources Committee. unanimously. appoint Roy Motion carried With no further business, the meeting was adjourned. 259 JEN~ER ~LTERS CITY'SE CRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ~ 2744C