Mayor
Dee Grimm
Councilmen
Francisco Arevalo
Susann Baker
Dwayne Padalecki
David Rakowitz
Doug Thomas
City Secretary
Barbara Pawelek
Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting
October 1, 2015
1. CALL MEETING TO ORDER
Mayor Dee Grimm called the city council meeting to order at 7:30 pm.
2. ROLL CALL AND ESTABLISH A QUORUM
Roll call was taken. Members present were Councilwoman Susann Baker, Councilman Frank Arevalo, and Councilman David Rakowitz. Councilman Dwayne Padalecki and Councilman Doug Thomas were absent. A quorum was established. Barbara Pawelek presided as City Secretary.
3. READING AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES
There were two sets of minutes council needed to approve.
The first set of minutes to be approved was for the Budget Public Hearing on September 3, 2015 at 7:00 pm.
Councilman David Rakowitz moved to approve the minutes as written. Councilman Frank Arevalo seconded the motion. All were in favor; the minutes were approved.
The next set of minutes was from the Regular City Council Meeting immediately following the Public Hearing. Councilman Frank Arevalo moved to accept the minutes. Councilman David Rakowitz seconded the motion. All were in favor; the minutes were approved.
4. READING AND APPROVAL OF FINANCIAL SUMMARY
The financial summary was for the month of August 2015. Councilwoman Susann Baker moved to approve the financial summary as written. Councilman David Rakowitz seconded the motion. All were in favor; the financial summary was approved.
5. REPORT FROM FIRE DEPARTMENT
There was no one in attendance to report for the fire department.
6. REPORT FROM CODE COMPLIANCE
Kathy Palmer gave a report of the calls she received this month. She issued only one commercial building permit this month. She said the calls were few.
Mrs. Palmer received a letter from Hill Country Homes stating there is a building permit on file for the property on 720 N. Graytown, however, they terminated the contract with them and are no longer the General Contractor on this project.
Tim Murray called regarding property he purchased on 14781 St. Hedwig Road. He bought it as 3 separate tracts, and 2 of them are considered non compliant because they are less than 5 acre minimum. They were surveyed in September of 2004, which as long as he was within the year of the zoning ordinance being passed, then they are grandfathered. He was advised that as long as he does not make changes to the property, then he could sell the properties as divided. Mrs. Palmer gave him a letter to this effect.
There are no building permits needed to install solar panels unless they are making changes to the structure itself.
7. CITIZENS TO BE HEARD
Wanda Polasek, resident of Churchview, spoke on the street lights in Churchview. She gave council the plats of the meets and bounds from Bexar County, as well as a letter from CPS Energy saying that the streetlights are on Public Right of Way.
8. OLD BUSINESS
A. ROADS
Councilman David Rakowitz gave the road report. He said under his supervision, Mr. Valerio from Texas Road Repair did crack fill and pothole repair and did not exceed the $30,000 as authorized last month by Mayor Grimm. The areas that were crack filled included Abbott Road, Adkins-St. Hedwig, Adkins-Elmendorf, and North Lupon. Due to excessive cracking, we had to prioritize based on the size of the cracks. One resident has since reported cracks along Miller Road, so we need to look at doing more crack filling in the near future.
Chris Respondek has been putting up various signage, mostly replacements, particularly in Church View and along Graytown Road. This month, he is going to work on reflectors.
Ron Mills completed spraying the roadways a few weeks ago. Next up is shredding, but Councilman Rakowitz wants to hold off a little until the growing season slows down.
A citizen commented about a problem area on E. Lupon where people take the corner too fast by the little church and run into their fence. The citizen suggested rumble strips or a speed bump. Councilman Rakowitz will take a look at the situation within the next week.
B. CITY PARK
Councilman Padalecki was not here to report on the city park, but Mayor Grimm said a lot has been happening in our park. The sidewalks have been poured; the benches are being secured down. We also ordered some dog receptacle containers and signage to pick up after your pets.
Mayor Grimm said we did have an incident where a citizen put up a target and was shooting in our park. It was a BB gun; however, this is not a good thing. Mayor Grimm said we can put up signs such as “No weapons allowed, or “No shooting in our Park”. Councilman Rakowitz said we need a set of general rules. Mrs. Palmer said she brought this to council’s attention a while back. She will look and bring it to council again.
C. CRIME STATS
Mayor Grimm read the crime stat report. The period covered was from August 28th thru September 29th. There were a total of 7 crimes in the City. A copy of the report is on the website at http://sainthewigcity.com Mayor Grimm said she will put in another call to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and ask them to patrol our area more often.
D. HISTORICAL MARKER
Mayor Grimm gave an update for the historical marker for our city. She said the application has been done with the help of Alan Kosub. She said he has been very instrumental in helping with the application and wrote an eleven page narrative about our City, with no cost to us. The next item that has come up is where we would put the marker. Council suggests downtown St. Hedwig, maybe at FM1346 and Pittman Road. Other options that were suggested was around Lubianski’s or the Post Office. There may be more room to pull over to look at it and read it. Mayor Grimm will drive by there and take a look at these locations. She said the sooner we get it in the better chance of us getting it. The deadline is November 15th.
The wording on the plaque is placed on there by the Historical Society. They get the wording from the narrative Mr. Kosub wrote for the City. We do not get final approval of the wording. They choose what would be best on the marker.
E. CITY SEAL UPDATE
Mayor Grimm said we are very close to having a city seal for the City. Based on the conversations council had at the last city council meeting, we have a new design. It will be placed on the website for citizens to comment on after council agrees on the final version.
Council looked at this version and had a couple of suggestions. One was to add the Texas stars on each side of the crescent, take off ‘Bexar County’ and put the date the City was founded there instead. The mayor will make these recommendations and bring it back again.
F. CHURCHVIEW STREET LIGHTS – Discuss and Take Action
Mayor Grimm congratulated Mrs. Polasek on her persistence and patience since we took some time looking at this.
We did receive the documents needed. The plat and letter is in council’s packet. The Mayor said instead of keep going back and forth on this, she sought legal counsel. She wanted to know what our legal obligation was to take on the street lights and what is our potential liability to the city should we take on the lights and what is the process to do so.
Mayor Grimm read the letter from the attorney. Their suggestion was the City should not accept the street lights unless it goes through the formality of having the owners dedicate the street lights, and adequate maintenance easements, to the city for public use and maintenance and the City formally accept the street lights for same. Per our subdivision ordinance, the property owners would also be required to provide a one year maintenance bond. Also, the owners would have to pay the costs of placing the lights on a meter located on public property and associated with a city account.
Mrs. Polasek questioned doesn’t the City already own the street? Kathy Palmer injected that the confusion is that CPS has an easement to go onto your private property to maintain that light. Mayor Grimm said it is not a “City” easement. It is a public easement of a utility.
What has to happen is when the City assumed the responsibility for the roads itself back in 1988, they did not assume maintenance of the lights. There is a formal process that has to happen. The Mayor said it is not as simple as CPS to just move the accounts.
Should the City accept the dedication of the street lights it would be responsible for future maintenance and repair. Additionally, the city could be exposed to liability if one of the street lights were to become a hazard, which was known to the city but for which the city did not take corrective action and the hazard caused property or physical damage.
Should city council wish to proceed with the dedication the path forward is as follows:
Direct the City Engineer to have the street lights inspected and make recommendations as to any outstanding maintenance and repair issues that should be addressed before acceptance of dedication;
Direct the City Engineer to survey the necessary easements (it is assumed that the lots will not be required to be replatted but please confirm with the city engineer);
Direct our office to prepare the necessary easement instruments;
Coordinate with a title company on closing of transfer of the easements and street lights (including issuance of title policies insuring good title);
Once that is completed the owners can provide the required bill of sale and easement transfers and warranty bond.
As you are aware, each of the above steps will cause the incurrence of expenses. City Council will need to decide who is going to be responsible for such expenses.
The attorney stressed that we are under no legal obligation to take over these lights. Mayor Grimm explained this letter does give us clarification. She left council to discuss.
Councilwoman Baker said it certainly is more to this process than we expected, and what happens if other citizens want us to do the same thing. We do not have the resources to do this. She felt badly for Mrs. Polasek, but her opinion, based on what the city attorneys stated, she will not go along with it. She apologized to Mrs. Polasek.
Councilwoman Susann Baker moved that we do not take over the Churchview Street Lights. Councilman Frank Arevalo seconded the motion. All were in favor; the motion was approved.
9. NEW BUSINESS
a. MD Systems Exclusive Waste Agreement- Discuss and Take Action
The Mayor explained that we received an email and phone call that MD Systems has an exclusive agreement with the City for waste disposal. There are other contractors coming into the City.
Mayor Grimm did some research, and according to our ordinance, we do have an exclusive agreement with MD System till 2018.
The recommendation that MD Systems would like for us to do is put out letters to the other waste companies that they have an exclusive with the City. The Mayor said if there is any citizen that is having problem with MD Systems, she would like to know that. She said she never can get a hold of MD Systems and they do not return her call. Councilwoman Baker said she never had that problem.
Mayor Grimm explained that in the past there have been contractors that have tried to conduct business within the city limits and we have contacted our city attorney who have sent letters to them to let them know they must cease and desist because we have the franchise with MD Systems. Councilwoman Susann Baker asked if letters have gone to individuals and to businesses. Kathy Palmer said they went to both. She said she started with a call from Code Compliance, then she followed up with a letter. When there was no response, it was handed over to the city attorney, where they sent a letter. Mrs. Palmer said it was sent to Tiger, but since then there have not been any other issues until now. Councilwoman Baker said she mentioned it to her last year about Apache and Waste Management and Mrs. Palmer was to research the franchise agreement. The City Secretary mentioned that MD System complained about Best Waste, a new company coming in out of Seguin.
Councilwoman Susann Baker said she would call and speak with Duke Carlisle, with MD Systems, and find out what addresses are not using them.
Kathy Palmer said she needs to clarify in the Zoning Ordinance 1404, if one of the things they did was whether commercial would be allowed to do whatever they wanted or whether or not we made it to follow the management of waste through our residential agreement.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
· National Night Out on Tuesday, October 6th from 6:00 till 9:00 pm in City Hall Parking Lot
· Turkey Dinner at the American Legion on October 18th
· MD Systems Fall Cleanup Day on Saturday, October 31st from 9:00 am till 1:00 pm on back pad FM 1518 entrance
· Mayor Grimm announced that Abbott Road is holding a Neighborhood Watch Program on Friday, Oct 2nd at 7:00 pm
AGENDA FOR NEXT REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING November 5, 2015 at 7:30 PM
1. Call Meeting to Order
1. Roll call & Establish a Quorum
2. Reading and Approval of Minutes
3. Approval of Financial Summary
4. Report from VFD
5. Report from Planning & Zoning Commission
6. Report from Code Compliance
7. Citizens to be Heard
8. Old Business
a. Roads
b. City Park
c. Crime Stats
9. New Business
10. Announcements
11. Determine Agenda for next meeting
12. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 8:24 pm.
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