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HomeMy WebLinkAboutColleyville Crime Control and Prevention District (CCCPD )-Minutes-2/16/2010City of Colleyville 100 Main Street ~~''~' `. ,?°~, ~ ~ ~,, Colleyville, Texas 76034 ` `~~~~~~ Agenda 817.503.1000 r,,.. www.colleyville.com Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention District Board Tuesday, February 16, 2010 5:00 PM City Council Chambers 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. CONSENT: READING AND PUBLIC HEARING -Resolution R-10-0050 2a Approval of the minutes of the Crime Control and Prevention District Board of Directors meeting of February 2, 2010 3. RESOLUTION(S): PUBLIC HEARING 3a R-10-0048 Authorization of the imposition of the local sales tax on residential electric and gas services 3b R-10-0049 Authorization of the imposition of the local sales tax on telecommunication services 4. ADJOURNMENT I hereby certify the above agenda was posted on the bulletin boards at City Hall on Friday, February 12, 2010, y 5:00 p. Cynthia Singleton, TRMC, CMC City Secretary Any matter on this agenda may, at the discretion of the governing body, be opened for public comment and discussion. If you plan to attend this public meeting and have a disability that requires special accommodations, please advise the City Secretary at least 48 hours in advance at 817.503.1133, and reasonable accommodations will be made to assist you. City of Colleyville Page 1 Printed on 2/12/2010 ~~"~°~ City of Colleyville ~~ ~~ Minutes r,~.,~ Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention District Board City Hall 100 Main Street Colleyville, Texas 76034 817. 503.1000 www.colleyville.com Tuesday, February 16, 2010 5:00 PM City Council Chambers The meeting of the Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention District (CCCPD) Board of Directors was called to order by President Tom Hart on February 16, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: Directors David Kelly, Jon Ayers, Stan Hall, Michael Muhm and Vice President Mike Taylor were present. President Tom Hart, City Manager Jennifer Fadden, Assistant City Manager and Chief Financial Officer Terry Leake, Police Chief Steve Dye, Police Lieutenant Rodney Cunningham, Police Lieutenant Doug Cooper, Strategic Services Manager Kelly Cooper, Fire Chief Russell Shelley, Community Development Director Ron Ruthven, Library Director Mary Rodne, Human Resources Manager Elise Welborn, Economic Development Director Marty Wieder, Finance Manager Karen Hines, Communications and Marketing Director Mona Gandy, Management Assistant Christine Loven, Executive Secretary Joyceinne Williams, City Attorney Matthew Boyle and City Secretary Cynthia Singleton were also present. 2. CONSENT: READING AND PUBLIC HEARING -Resolution R-10-0050 2a Approval of the minutes of the Crime Control and Prevention District Board of Directors meeting of February 2, 2010 President Hart read Resolution R-10-0050 in its entirety President Hart opened the public hearing. There was no one present wishing to speak concerning this item and President Hart closed the public hearing. City Manager Jennifer Fadden stated the City Secretary has provided amended minutes based on a request by Councilmember Muhm. Director Kelly moved to approve Resolution R-10-00.50. Director Taylor seconded the motion. City of Colleyville Page 1 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes February 16, 2010 Prevention District Board The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 7 -David Kelly, Carol Wollin, Michael Muhm, Stan Hall, Jon Ayers, Tom Hart, Mike Taylor 3. RESOLUTION(S): PUBLIC HEARING 3a R-10-0048 Authorization of the imposition of the local sales tax on residential electric and gas services President Hart stated Resolution R-10-0048 was read during the February 2, 2010, Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention District Board meeting. President Hart opened the public hearing. Mr. Michael Carr, 7002 Shepherds Glen, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution and regarding the structure of the Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention District Board (CCCPD), responsible government spending and citizen's right to vote on any proposed tax increase. Mr. Rodger De Sarno, 302 Del Mar Court, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution and regarding the CCCPD budget shortfall, distribution of gas lease money and timing for construction of the entryway markers. Mr. Mark Johnson, 4804 Mill Brook Drive, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution and regarding cell phone fees and cost of government. Ms. Ellen Lopez, 5505-Janet Lane, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution and regarding the economic decline and distribution of the gas lease money. Ms. Reagan Yellock, 709 Creekview Lane, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution and regarding the priority of spending tax dollars. Mr. Tom McElwee, 309 West Mill Valley Drive, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution and regarding commercial development. Mr. Nelson Thibodeaux, 5612 Coventry Court, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution and regarding the history of the Police Department facilities, the creation of the CCCPD, disbursement of gas lease money and growth of city government. City of Colleyville Page 2 Prinfed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes February 16, 2010 Prevention District Board Mr. Steve Symonds, 4513 Dartmoore Lane, spoke in opposition to the proposed resolution. There were no others wishing to speak concerning this item and President Hart closed the public hearing. Councilmember Wollin stated, "I was unable to attend the February 2, 2010, Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention .District Board meeting because my husband was in the hospital. Since then, I have read the minutes and listened to the audio recording of the proceedings. I want to add my comments, for the record, to what was discussed then and now. First, I support our Police Department. They have done a tremendous job of providing service to our citizens and keeping our crime rate the lowest in the area.. I support them enough to have gone through the Citizen Police Academy and be an active member of its alumni group. The half cent sales tax increase for crime prevention was passed by our citizens in 1999 and reaffirmed by a larger majority of voters in 2003. I voted and understood this sales tax to be a tax on goods purchased in Colleyville; a tax that would be shared with nonresidents who shopped here. There was an advantage to this in that the burden of the tax wouldn't be shouldered entirely by Colleyville residents. I believe that the Colleyville residents who voted for this shared the same belief. Now, we are being asked to approve a sales tax on residential gas, electricity and telecommunications. This burden would be shouldered only by Colleyville residents. I don't believe that the voters agreed to this. I don't believe that they gave us a mandate in 1999 or 2003 to tax them on these items. There is a huge difference between what we can do and what we should do. Yes, the legislature says that we can pass a sales tax on utilities, but I don't believe that we should do that. In this down economy, everyone is struggling. Many have lost their jobs. Many saw cuts in their salaries or work week. Many have endured decreases in benefits. Our citizens have had to decide between needs and wants. They have had to tighten their belts to make ends meet. I don't believe that we should add to their burden. Thirty dollars to the average homeowner may seem like a small amount to some. But this $30 could the the last straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back. We are living in a world that is different from 1999 and 2003. Our citizens are hurting and we must listen. The City needs to make cuts just like our residents have had to do. I will do what I feel is right for our citizens. Therefore, I am opposed to this tax increase." City of Colleyville Page 3 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes Prevention District Board February 16, 2010 Councilmember Muhm stated: "I would also like to make a statement if I could. First, let me state unequivocally, I strongly support our Police Department and volunteer five or six hours of my time each month for them and encourage everyone to do so, if they can. I have also gone through the Police Academy and I am a member of the Alumni Association. As much as I believe we need to adequately fund public safety, I have trouble with authorizing this. I believe the City needs to live within our means and our budget. We cannot simply pass along new measures of tax to citizens because other sources of funding or taxation are running behind. Instead,. we must examine why and what we are spending money on, level of services we provide, needs versus wants; and balance them against funding sources. Our citizens are feeling the effects of the decline in the national, state and local economies. They are having to learn to live within their means and their only alternative is to reduce spending or cut back on what they need. They do not have the luxury of demanding their employers pay them more in salary or require their customers to accept higher prices. In fact, just the opposite, they are being forced to absorb higher health care costs for their families, cut back or struggle to continue to fund their own retirement plans, accept no salary increase, pay for toll roads to get to work and have no other option than to expect to pay higher federal income taxes, higher imposed GCISD taxes, franchise taxes, use taxes, and a plethora of other taxes. Simply put, they are having to make do with less money. I do not believe it is time to ask citizens to shoulder more taxes even though it is only effectively a two and a half to three percent tax increase. It is still asking people to pay more and keep less. Instead, I think it is time for the Council and staff to evaluate our cost structure, level of service, funding sources, and develop a long term sustainable plan for the future of Colleyville. Property values, retail sales activity and cost components are not going to magically improve overnight. I believe they will remain constrained for the foreseeable future and we must prepare Colleyville and the City for this new normal. I do not support this tax increase." Councilmember Hall stated: "I would like to speak as well. I pretty much agree with what has been said already and I don't intend to support this tax increase, but as with every controversial issue that comes up, there is a lot of misinformation, which gets spread around and I would be interested in hearing from staff exactly what our budget situation is. Are we above or below the budget? How did we do last year? And by the way, I am talking about the City budget, as well; if you can comment on that, not just the CCCPD budget. Also, I would like to hear a summary, for the citizens that are present here tonight, where we are with respect to what we call our Colleyville City of Colleyville Page 4 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes February 16, 2010 Prevention District Board Tomorrow Fund and our Parks Tomorrow Fund. How much has been spent? How much is left? Because, I think there has been some misinformation relating to those two issues." City Manager Jennifer Fadden stated, Last years General Fund budget for the City was not in a deficit position. There was a draw down of available cash or fund balance as had been planned with the adoption of the September 2008 Capital Improvement Plan. The City Council will recall the City went through a capital planning process with a citizen committee to develop aten-year Capital Improvement Program. The first year implementation of that plan included a draw down of available cash to reconstruct all the streets in the Tara Subdivision. This current fiscal year, the plan calls for an additional draw down of available fund balance to reconstruct all the streets in the Saddlebrook Subdivision. So, the City did not operate in a deficit position; there was a planned draw down of the fund balance or available cash in order to fund those capital improvement projects without issuing bonds or debt to do so. In terms of the gas well money, which Council has set aside in the Colleyville Tomorrow Fund, as well as the Parks Tomorrow Fund; those funds have been set aside for one time projects that do not have any other kind of funding source. If the Council will recall, you adopted guidelines for the use of those funds this past August and then adopted several projects for long term expenditure of those funds over time. The funds that have been spent out of the Colleyville Tomorrow Fund, which was 56% of the total $6.2 million that was received, was the purchase of the aerial ladder firetruck that is a replacement piece of apparatus that the Colleyville Tomorrow Fund is using those funds for. There are other planned expenditures, including the renovation of the Colleville Center, but if the Council will recall, that will be reimbursed through the Colleyville Economic Development Corporation over afour-year period. So, in four years, those funds will be completely reimbursed into the Colleyville Tomorrow Fund. There was also $300,000 that was set aside for capital building maintenance, in the event that a major incident occurs and a City building is in need of some type of major electrical, mechanical or roof repair. So, there are funds set aside for the future to do that, but those funds have not been spent at this point. The other 44% of the $6.2 million was set aside in the Parks Tomorrow Fund. The Council may recall that based on previous grants that had been received for the development of park land, we were required, by the covenants in those grants, to set aside funds that were earned using that park land, into future investment in those parks. The City has paid for the second phase of McPherson Park with the Parks Tomorrow Fund and there is also a planned expenditure to replace Kidsville with the Parks Tomorrow Fund." City of Colleyville Page 5 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes February 16, 2010 Prevention District Board Councilmember Hall stated, "So, of the money we have set aside in what we are calling the gas lease money, consist of two different funds, not even 30% has been spent and even if we spent everything we have been planning for, there is still about half available. Did we take money out of either of those funds to do the monument signs for the City?" ~~ City Manager Fadden stated, We did not. The entry markers were funded through the Colleyville Economic Development Corporation budget." Director Kelly stated: "Here's what I'm struggling a little bit with. I don't like tax increases and I know no one really likes tax increases. The situation is we are seeing reductions in revenue both within the Crime Control District and in our general budget. The legislature recorded only one source of revenue or income for the Crime Control District, that's sales tax revenue. There is no other source available for us. Our citizen's have put public safety as the highest priority in the City. That's probably the number one priority they put for us over everything else. We run on pretty lean budgets already. Eighty-three percent of the Crime Control District budget goes to debt service for the new police station, to personnel, and to vehicles, capital outlay. The rest is smaller stuff in terms of some operations; those type of things. So, we can make those adjustments on those things, the awning we've got in, we can make those adjustments. What happens though if this down turn continues? We are going to be faced with a couple of things. One, if there is no additional source of money coming in and we can always move officers over to the general budget, but right now with the down turn in development and the down turn in sales tax, we are looking at some deficits in the general budget. Which, again, we had some last year and we made amends and came out fine, came out with a balanced budget and we're having to make those adjustments again this year, but it puts more pressure on the general budget. But with that, we are kind of left with two options. One, we can go into deficit spending which means we are going to spend more than we bring in. That's kind of been the problem up in Washington, D.C. and what we don't like and what I don't like. I don't recall ever Colleyville doing a deficit spending budget. We have always done a balanced budget, meaning we spend what we bring in. For me, we are going to continue that. .We've always been very fiscally conservative on that. We've always been proactive. One of the reasons we are in a better position than other cities around here is because we have looked ahead, we have made plans. We have six months surplus in our general budget compared to some of the other cities who are operating almost day-to-day. So, that is one avenue that could possibly come up, deficit spending to maintain our quality of service. The other side is we may City of Colleyville Page 6 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes February 16, 2010 Prevention District Board have to reduce the quality of service in public safety. Because if you only have a limited amount of funds, you only have so much you can do. So, that's what I am struggling with. All three are very distasteful, but is there one that is less distasteful than the others? Again, that's my struggle. I certainly don't want to come back and have to say, because the way .the situation has continued, we've got to reduce our patrol officers on the street, or we've got to reduce the response times, or we've got to not replace equipment that needs to be replaced. I know situations in other cities where there is no surplus car vehicles for Police Officers. When one breaks down, they are essentially out because they haven't the revenue to do that. Or, they are actually restricted in the amount of miles they can drive per shift. There are some cities that operate that way, a patrol officer can only drive so many miles per shift. So again, that's what I'm struggling with is what is the least distasteful to where we can maintain the level of service in public safety, maintain the great quality of service that you as residents expect. So, that makes it really tough. If there was a magic wand and we could move money from someplace else, we would do it. All of us are very proactive and have done a lot of planning and we look at this every year. We begin the budget process in February and March for a budget that has to be approved in September. Again, that's what I'm struggling with is making sure that we can maintain a level of quality service that we don't have to come back and ,say that we are going to have to spend more than we bring in. That's my struggle. I'm open to any other comment in that area." Director Ayers asked staff, "First of all, comments have been made that we as a Council or as a Board have decided to do this. Can I have an explanation from staff as to how this came to be before us in the first place?" City Manager Fadden stated, "As I mentioned, Director Ayers, in my opening comments, staff brought this to you for your consideration as staff does on all policy issues. Because of the short fall in the Crime Control and Prevention District budget, which you have adopted and because of the change in state law, it initiated a look at this particular issue and as you have alluded to, this is purely in front of you for consideration as any other policy issue would be." Director Ayers stated, "The only comment I will make is this is a request, basically, by City staff that we consider this. I quite honestly agreed to table this, made the motion to table this, so that the public could hear more about it. That's what's been accomplished. At the last meeting, we had absolutely zero citizens here because nobody knew about it. We know about it now. We've received emails, we've received telephone calls, we have had people speak here tonight about this particular issue. City or Colleyville Page 7 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes PrpvPntien DistrlCt BOard February 16, 2010 I believe that we as a Council can figure out a way with the people that are here, that are fiscally responsible people, with our City staff, which is a very competent, highly skilled staff, to be able to figure out what to do to make up for this short fall that amounts to about $200,000. That's what has brought you folks out tonight is $200,000 a year. So, I'm going to join with the rest of the folks that have spoken against this basically and move to deny Resolution R-10-0048." Director Hart seconded the motion. Director Taylor stated: "I do have further questions if we're going to go ahead and close this because I'm going to go through a multitude of things here all the way back to the original bill that was signed by Legislature, also to the AG's opinion as of 1978 on whywe had an exemption on these three services for residential use. I am going to defend the staff. For one thing, there is an email and an article on a website and everything that this is the Taylor Plan for taxes. Manager, did I know about this at all? Did I ever meet with anybody? Can you help me out because I wasn't there what ever meeting that was?" City Manager Fadden stated, "Not to my knowledge, sir. As I stated, the way the legislative process works in most local governments, at least those that are Council/Manager forms of government, it is the staffs job to formulate policy recommendations and present those to the elected officials for their consideration. This is like any other thing we would bring in front of you." Director Taylor stated, "There is no known Taylor plan so that would be an absolute lie is what it amounts to." City Manager Fadden stated, "This was a staff recommendation." Director Taylor stated: "And I am going to defend the staff. This is not pleasant to have to deal with. The last thing I want is staff deciding for us, who represent you, as to what should and shouldn't come here. If it's good, bad; we have to listen to it, dispose of it. Director Ayers said appropriately, we looked out here and no one was here. I don't feel comfortable about voting on an issue like this until I've got more facts and I've heard from people. I just don't think it's right. We are empowered with that by statute. It's on the state website if you want to read it. This is a bad time. I do feel confident that every citizen in this City strongly supports not only our Police, but our Fire, as well. Every time we, as citizens, City of Colleyville Page 8 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes February 16, 2010 prPVention District Board have gone to the ballot box, our numbers have gone up in support and percentage. So, the people vote and they speak that way and we have strongly supported our Police. I don't think staff made an error in bringing it up because when you look around, just doing a layman's look at things, here is a repeal of a law that is an additional source of revenue. Now, our job as citizens is to say we like it or we don't. I think it's pretty clear, we don't like it. If I looked around just to tell you where the mind set is, here is Coppelt, Euless, Flower Mound, Forest Hill, Grand Prairie, Haltom City. These are all Crime Control Districts that have already passed this. Hurst, Keller, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills, River Oaks, Watauga and White Settlement. My point is, if they are looking around and they are saying, alright these people, I want to say it properly, we have a very affluent demographic. Matter of fact, we are one of the wealthiest cities per capita household income in the world, not just the metroplex, state and nation and you look at some of these others that maybe their household income is maybe half of ours, but their utilities are high. I think staff was probably assuming, giving the vote we have done as citizens over the years at the ballot box and what has happened around us that we would support whatever it is, $2.50 a month. I would pay that, but I think it's one of those things that first we've got to go back. I'm concerned about a lot of things because I am very mad at Washington and very mad at what's happening there and I do feel helpless: I am in the financial services business like the Mayor here and he's right in everything he's saying. There is nothing wrong with what the Mayor said, but I do think we're going to have to tighten down for the foreseeable future. We have projects. It's a shame that there are so many piles of money that are statutorily restricted. The $6.5 million mentioned in the bonus money. We had an audience here three times this. This was packed out. Folks did not want us to pass that initiative to bring that money in to the City. Mr. Hart and I were up for re-election. They threatened, if you vote for that, we're going to kick you out. We would have lost that money, folks. But the point is, that money is two piles of money. One is anything that came off park land is restricted to park land use for perpetuity. Anything else, this comes in for the General Fund and we have set that up basically to use as funding short falls, to do projects that we can take advantage of right now because the market is cheap when it comes to construction. We saved the taxpayers money there, and to borrow against. So we can do projects, but pay that money back to ourselves. It's like our own ability to borrow without having to go out to the market. That money is always there. That's why it's called Colleyville Tomorrow Fund, it will always be there tomorrow for something we need and something the citizens want to do. I hope Chief Dye, I've got to agree with what Nelson said, I hope you are not caught in the middle of this and I hope you didn't come here expecting that this was part of revenues that you would have. I don't think anybody promised that maliciously or anything, sir, and I'm glad to City of Colleyville Page 9 Printed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes February 16, 2010 Prevention District Board see you shaking your head, because we didn't know about that until it hit our agenda and so we are having to deal with it just like you are." Director Ayers called the question. Chief Dye stated the City Manager is just working hard to give all the options that we can to the Board and we appreciate the consideration. Director Wollin ask that the motion be restated. Director Ayers restated, "The motion is to deny Resolution R-10-0048." Mayor Kelly stated: "I would, again, like to make one comment for staff. Staff's position is to bring policy decisions to us. That is what their job is. In this situation, they are being proactive. What's great about our staff is, again, they are proactive, they think about the future, they think about what needs to be done and they bring those policy decisions before us. We were advised several times that this would be coming to us with the CCCPD meeting, so staff, their job is to bring policy to us, our job is to consider policy. So, I want to let you know on staff, they did their job. Again, it wasn't a decision they made. Their job is to bring that policy decision for us to make decisions and they alerted us numerous times on that and none of us said don't bring that forward or don't let us look at that. That is why we are here tonight." The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 7 -David Kelly, Carol Wollin, Michael Muhm, Stan Hall, Jon Ayers, Tom Hart, Mike Taylor 3b R-10-0049 Authorization of the imposition of the local sales tax on telecommunication services President Hart. stated Resolution R-1.0-0049 was read during the February 2, 2010, Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention District meeting. President Hart opened the public hearing. Ms. Ellen Lopez, 5505 Janet Lane, spoke regarding the Democratic and Republican Primary Election and state representatives and stated opposition to the proposed resolution. Mr. Roger Desarno, 302 Del Mar Court, spoke regarding the Voluntary Library Fund and proposed a voluntary contribution to the Police Department. City of Colleyville Page 10 Prinfed on 6/8/2010 Colleyville Crime Control and Minutes Prevention District Board February 16, 2010 Mr. Michael Carr, 7002 Shepherds Glen, spoke regarding fiscal responsibility and balancing the budget. There were no others present wishing to speak concerning this item and President Hart closed the public hearing. Director Kelly moved to deny Resolution R-10-0049. Director Hall seconded the motion. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 7 -David Kelly, Carol Wollin, Michael Muhm, Stan Hall, Jon Ayers, Tom Hart, Mike Taylor 4. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Colleyville Crime Control and Prevention District Board of Directors, Director Kelly moved to adjourn. Director Wollin seconded the motion. The motion carried by the following vote: Aye: 7 -David Kelly, Carol Wollin, Michael Muhm, Stan Hall, Jon Ayers, Tom Hart, Mike Taylor President Hart adjourned the meeting at 5:57 p.m. APPROVED BY A VOTE OF _~ AYES, ~_ NAYS AND D ABSTENTIONS ON THIS THE ~ DAY OF 2010. Minutest en and repare : . Cynthia Singleton, TRMC, CMC City Secretary City of Colleyville Page 11 Printed on 6/8/2010