The Shoreacres City Council meeting tonight was fairly routine – the budget/tax rate discussions will be held in a special meeting tomorrow night starting at 6:00 pm. Be there or open your wallet. Two members were absent – Aldermen Jones and Wheeler.
Special Presentations
There were two special presentations at the start of the meeting. The first was from Chief Roy Hunter of the Clear Lake Emergency Medical Corps (CLEMC). I gather that CLEMC is concerned that they will lose Shoreacres’ business to La Porte and Chief Hunter’s job was to try and stop that. He went over the history of CLEMC, their community outreach programs: community training in CPR, kid’s programs in Hunting and Angling education, the number of medics, equipment, and awards they’ve received. He also had an ambulance on-site for citizens or council to tour.
His presentation brought up as many questions as it answered and I’m not certain he was effective at stopping the city from at least considering other options. The main concern for me is response time (with qualified medics) – his answer actually upped my concern. They only have three ambulances, with one stationed in Seabrook, one in Webster, and one in unincorporated Harris County west of I-45. They are considering adding a fourth and perhaps stationing it in or close to Shoreacres. They are also considering partnering with the Port of Houston and having the Port be a first responder to us. Chief Hunter admitted that we (Shoreacres) are “disassociated” from their service area. They are dispatched out of Webster and their peak call times are from 10 am – 4 pm daily.
The next presentation was from Chad Burke of the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region. Mr. Burke described what he Alliance is, what it does, and how it helps the community. You can browse around their website and find most of what he talked about. The most interesting thing for me was the number of jobs we are adding and the number of jobs that we can’t add because we don’t have enough skilled construction workers. Lots of opportunity on the East side of Harris County.
Citizen’s Comments
Vickie Ellis – Ms. Ellis reminded the council that she had asked for public apologies before for the former Mayor and city employees and thinks it is time for those apologies after the recent audit of the books showed that everything was in order. She also said that the council should apologize to Chief Newman after he is found to have done nothing wrong.
Darlene Gamble-Bay – Ms. Gamble-Bay thinks that the city should put the flags up on Shoreacres Blvd. on Wednesday, 9/11, in memory of those killed by the terrorist attacks. She also urged council to include purchasing our own mosquito spraying equipment during the upcoming budget discussions so that we do not have to rely on Harris County. I certainly agree on that one – the mosquitos out here are baaaad right now.
Michael Lecompte – Mr. Lecompte wanted to know the progress of the street and drainage improvements on Oakdale. He said that the improvements had been delayed several times and wanted to know about the scheduling.
Nylia Stevenson – Ms. Stevenson wanted the council to be well aware of the current economic conditions as they approach budget discussions. She was for contracting with La Porte EMS but cost has to be a consideration. CLEMC needs to reduce their response times and she would prefer that an elected council member be the liaison with the CLEMC board versus a city employee.
Dana Woodruff – Ms. Woodruff was also concerned about the budget season.
Administrative Reports
As a reminder, you can view the entire council packet, not just the agenda, by clicking here. You can find most of the report information there. City Administrator David Stall was able to answer Mr. Lecompte’s questions about the problems with the Oakdale improvements. Most of the delays were because a tributary runs under the road and part of the area is considered to be wetlands. The questions about the wetlands have now been answered and the project should begin in January 2014.
The new Interim Police Chief, Mike Massey, was in attendance and was introduced by Mayor Webber. Chief Massey gave a brief introduction of himself and said that his job was to find out the facts and present them to the council. In response to a question from citizen Nylia Stevenson as to whether Chief Newman was no longer with the city and if Mr. Massey was a Temp-to-Hire, Mayor Webber stated no, that Chief Newman was on paid administrative leave, adding that it was not punitive.
Business
Item 8.2, a proposed ordinance to increase the number of building inspectors, was left pending after Mayor Webber brought up several problems with it.
Item 8.3, a proposed resolution concerning the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Act of 2012, passed on a 2-1 vote, Moses and Schell for, with Bunker the dissenting vote. I was a bit surprised by the pushback on this resolution because it is a boilerplate that many cities have passed. The pushback was on “grandfathering” properties that haven’t flooded in the past so that they do not get hit with the full impact of the coming rate increases. Citizen Kendall Pickett spoke against the resolution, saying that the council should drop the “grandfather” wording and try to get all of the homes reduced rates. Mr. Stall explained that 17{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the city has never flooded and that there was no possibility that Congress would give reduced rates to homes that have already flooded.
Item 8.4, a proposed resolution designating a representative and alternate to the Houston-Galveston Area Council 2013 General Assembly was left pending when no one volunteered. They hope to fill the positions at a future council meeting when everyone is present.
Item 8.5, a proposed ordinance amending the rules for Citizen’s Comments in council meetings was left pending after Bunker suggested it would be better to wait until the full council was present to vote on it. The reaction from citizens was somewhat mixed, with three citizens speaking against it and one in favor.
Item 8.6, a proposed ordinance to recording council meetings and making them available on the city website passed unanimously.
And that was a wrap – the meeting ended right at 9 pm.
But wait! There’s more!
Special Budget and Tax Session
There will be a special session Tuesday, 9/10, starting one hour earlier at 6 pm, to discuss the budget and tax rate. The Effective Tax Rate calculation has been prepared and it does not look good for those of us whose appraisals stayed the same or increased. Here is the ETR calculation sheet:
Click here if the viewer doesn’t open.
As you can see, the ETR is 5.48{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} higher than last year. I went over what the ETR is in this post. Council can legally adopt a rate up to 7.99{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} higher than the ETR without holding an election – 8{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} is called the “rollback rate”. I have no idea what this council thinks about tax hikes and such, so it would behoove you to be present Tuesday night to get a feel for what they are going to do.
If your appraisal stayed the same in 2013 as it was in 2012, which mine did, the ETR increases your taxes by 5.48{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. If your appraisal increased, as some in the city did, your increase is higher. I calculated one that went up 16{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}.
If your appraisal decreased by 5.48{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} your taxes will be the same as last year. If your appraisal decreased by more than 5.48{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}, your taxes will be less than last year.
I created a Google Doc spreadsheet that you can use to find out the impact of the ETR on your own taxes. Click here and then enter your 2012 and 2013 appraisals in the yellow cells.
See you Tuesday night.