Last night’s Shoreacres City Council meeting started off on a positive note. Shoreacres Police Officer Steve Ford was given a Life Saving Award for providing CPR to resident T.F. Gibson.

Citizen Comments

Scott Tuma – 1220 S. Country Club Drive – Mr. Tuma stated that because of the improved roads, the blind turn at S. Country Club and W. Country Club should have “Dangerous Curve” signs posted as well as lowering the speed limit on the turn to 10 MPH.

Christina Tuma – 1220 S. Country Club Drive – Mrs. Tuma stated that five streets in the city already have speed limits of 20 MPH per Ordinance 2012-124. She stated that there was one sign on S. Country Club that shows the speed limit to be 20 MPH but because it is not in the ordinance, the police cannot issue tickets based on 20 MPH. She wants the ordinance changed to include S. Country Club as a 20 MPH street, that more 20 MPH speed limit signs be installed, and that officers issue tickets.

Michael Schnell – 618 Baywood – Mr. Schnell wanted council to know that there was no conspiracy theory or vendetta from him or anyone in his family against former Police Chief’s French and Newman.

Dana Woodruff – 3534 Miramar Dr – Ms. Woodruff referenced Agenda Item 8.6, saying she was concerned about some “trending” over the past few months. She directed her remarks at Alderman Nancy Schnell, telling her to find something positive to do so that she can lift herself up without tearing others down. Ms. Woodruff objected to the request that the City Administrator be directed to do reports because of a personal vendetta. Ms. Woodruff said that she hasn’t seen any other cities that have been as successful at storm recovery after Ike.

Mike Clark – 413 Baywood – Mr. Clark wanted to know where the buck stops with the city. He mentioned issues with the two previous police chiefs, public works problems, water meters not being read, etc. He stated that at his job, if his employees weren’t consistently performing their duties someone would be responsible for that. He said that the city needs a clear vision, all the factionalism isn’t helping the city.

Vicki Ellis – 414 Baywood – Ms. Ellis addressed her comments to City Administrator Stall, telling him that she enjoyed working with him through the years. She also said there was a pattern of putting people on the agenda and humiliating them until they resigned.

Gerry Victor – 3346 Miramar – Mr. Victor had concerns about the water system and what will happen if we have a catastrophic failure of the elevated water tower.

Neil Moyer – 1118 N. Country Club – Mr. Moyer talked about two issues. First was installing speed bumps in reference to Mr. and Mrs. Tuma above. He recommended using ropes because they are temporary and can be put down and  pulled up with ease.  His second issue was also regarding 8.6 and suggested that it was a waste of taxpayer money to require the City Administrator to put together reports that individual council members could pull together on their own.

Charlotte Wells – 3342 Miramar – Ms. Wells applauded the work council did in trying to reduce the budget. She then said that a major cost to the city was the City Administrator and that for years we ran the city very well without one. She stated that she was a liberal but that we need to stay within our means on the budget and she appreciated 8.6 and that it wasn’t a “he said, she said” or an “us against them” as we are all one city.

Administrative Reports

City Administrator Stall – Byway water line is well underway and you can see the water pipe if you drive up Fairfield. This will be a major improvement in the distribution of water and additional fire hydrants. The auditors are scheduled to arrive in February. Job position for Chief of Police has been posted and 22 applications have been received thus far. City pot luck dinner will be on Dec. 5th. Street improvements round two are near completion – the recent rains pointed out a couple of problems with drains being too high. David Sutton met with the county engineer and plans are to lower those drains. W. Forest from Center to W. Country Club is now on the county’s list for rebuilding and that will complete all of the streets in the Country Club addition. Emergency dispatch service with La Porte was on their council agenda for the same night. Stall has provided notice to Lakeview that we will terminate their service on Dec. 30th. The city will send out notices so that citizens can update their alarm companies with the new La Porte dispatch information.

Interim Police Chief Massey – He didn’t go over the police report. He did talk more about Officer Ford and his response. Massey said he was the backup and watched Ford perform CPR for 12-15 minutes, then Officer Ford stayed with the family after the ambulance left. He noted that Officer Ford is a reserve officer making minimum wage.

Public Works Director Sutton – Water purchases dropped this month as anticipated to 6.5 million gallons vs September purchases of 6.1 million gallons (perhaps he misspoke?). No special projects this month. Water leaks went down, only four reported. During the next two months, staff will be training for various licenses. In response to a question from Mayor Webber, Sutton talked about a project to clear the right of way on all streets in the city, saying it was about 70{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} complete. In response to a question from citizen Gerry Victor, Sutton stated that he was unaware of any leaks from the elevated water tank. He stated that there was an inspection when he arrived and there were some structural issues but he didn’t remember what they were. His opinion is that the integrity of the elevated is fine and that it should last another 2 or 3 years. If the tank failed, he stated that water pressure would actually increase because they would be using booster pumps.  The only reason we have the elevated tank is because we are required by law to have an elevated storage tank. In response to a question from me, he stated that he has been sending two people with the recycling trailer because the backend is broken and it is quicker to clean up spills on the street with two people. He also stated that he allows employees to use city vehicles to drive out of the city for lunch and breaks. Citizen Neil Moyer stated that now that Prop 6 has passed, we should find out if the state will fund improvements to our aging water system to save water from the various leaks.

Business

Agenda Item 8.2 – Approval of a contract for more street work. This one is Oakdale Avenue from Old Highway 146 to Byway Avenue and 719-feet of East Forest Avenue from Old Highway 146 towards Byway Avenue. It was approved unanimously.

Agenda Item 8.3 – This was an attempt by Alderman Moses to form a committee to select a police chief candidate to be presented to council for approval. His original proposal was to have the Mayor, City Administrator, one Alderman, and Interim Chief Massey. Citizen Dianne Victor suggested that a citizen be added to Moses’ proposal. Moses did not want a vote on the item yet but put it on the agenda so that council could think about it and then vote on it at the next meeting. Citizen Gerry Victor noted that the money for the Interim Chief’s position has run out and Mayor Webber informed him that Massey has continued on in the position at the old chief’s salary. Citizen Neil Moyer recommended having the City Administrator whittle the number of applicants down instead of allowing the committee to go through dozens of applicants. The committee could do the final vetting of the candidates. No action was taken.

Agenda Item 8.4 – This was an attempt by Alderman Schnell to clarify the city’s drug testing policy. City Administrator Stall had asked for this clarification at the last meeting. Unfortunately he was against the changes Schnell proposed and after a contentious discussion, the item was tabled before citizens had a chance to speak on the item.

Agenda Item 8.5 – This was an attempt to obtain update the ordinance requiring digital recordings of council meetings be placed online. Alderman Schnell noted that because of the placement of the recorder, one end of the table and citizens can not be heard clearly. After objections from Stall, the item was defeated 3-2, with Jones, Moses, and Wheeler against and Bunker and Schell for.

Agenda Item 8.6 – This was an attempt by Alderman Schnell to make the council and citizens aware that City Administrator Stall’s current salary is well above the average for cities the size of Shoreacres. Alderman Bunker made a motion to postpone the item indefinitely before discussion started and the motion was approved 4-1, with Schnell objecting.

Agenda Item 8.7 – Council cancelled the scheduled meeting for December 23, 2013.

Commentary

It has been interesting watching this council morph from running for election on a platform of change to one of supporting the current condition of the city. One of the most frustrating things is the inconsistency of the Mayor in his approach to citizen comments and then council shutting down  citizen comments during agenda items. Had I known that Bunker was going to shut down discussion on Item 8.6, I would have done as others and addressed the item during citizen comments. Citizen Gerry Victor tried to discuss item 8.4 at the proper time but was shut down. The ordinance about the citizen comment period is very specific, as is the working on the agenda itself:

If you will note in the citizen comments above, it is clear that some citizens were allowed to comment on an item (8.6) that was on the agenda. For those of us that adhere to the policy, and then get shut down, it is extremely frustrating. This is not the first time this has happened under this Mayor/Council.

I think that Ms. Wells said it best – you can be liberal, conservative, or something in-between, but we must live within our means if we want to survive as a city. Making a villain of someone trying to raise awareness of the problems in the city isn’t the best way to fix them.

 

I checked the City of Shoreacres website last Thursday and council has scheduled another budget workshop for Monday night, 10-7. Note that these workshops start at 6 pm, not 7 pm as is usual for council meetings. Also, they are held in the small conference room, not in the normal council chambers. The public is not allowed to speak, just listen.

Last week, Alderman Mike Wheeler was unhappy with my report. You can read his comment here, as well as my response. Although my information is limited, I decided to take him up on the challenge and propose my own budget. The starting point was so bad that even I could not get it to zero, but it is pretty close, especially if you consider the operating portion that I cut. I had to adjust the revenue down – City Administrator Stall did not correct the property tax revenue estimate on council’s revised budget. I also kept $75,000 in capital expenditures that pull from the reserve.

I realize the hot button issue is employees. Here is an org chart that I came up with:

The officer highlighted in Yellow resigned after the fiasco at the Houston Yacht Club. You can watch the report on ABC 13 here. Council decided not to replace him. Although hesitant, I went along with that cut. I hope that if revenue comes in above forecast, the council will replace that officer first. I also cut one employee from the Mr. Sutton’s department – I didn’t highlight the specific employee, I would leave that up to Mr. Sutton. I lowered the salaries of all but Mr. Sutton and the two public works employees. I also reduced the city clerk’s hours from 32 to 24 per week to avoid having to budget for insurance. I’m not sure I agree with the conclusion that our employees are covered by the new Affordable Care Act but since Mr. Stall said they were, I reduced the hours to eliminate that possibility. I also eliminated bonus pay for various certifications. There are a lot of salary estimators out there and I used one to find the average rate for our area with the exception of the Police Department. I generally left that alone since Alderman Moses has a good feel for what we need there and I think the police and our extremely low crime rate are a big asset to the city. And for those that are curious, I did reduce Mr. Stall’s salary after his current contract expires in February. At least I think that is when it expires. See what I mean about having internal information? And we need to ask why we are contributing 7{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of each employee’s salary to the Texas Municipal Retirement System and paying Social Security as well. We can’t simply drop that because of state law but we could eliminate it for new hires.

I think that all of the city’s employees are good people but sometimes we have to make hard choices in order to keep an organization afloat. I hope that they understand that.

Here is an overview of Mayor Webber’s original proposal, the council’s revised proposal, and my proposal for Alderman Wheeler:

Shoreacres Proposed Budget Overview 10-6-13

As you can see, I was able to reduce the reserve drawdown from Mayor Webber’s original proposal from $846,702 to $154,698, saving $692,004. And from council’s revised number of $481,476 to $154,698, saving $326,778.

Click on this link to view the budget details: Shoreacres Proposed Budget Details 10-6-13

If I had had more internal details, I think that I could have gotten to a balanced budget. Several accounts had footnotes on them that they had to be dedicated to certain functions – I’d like to know more about those. And the Sales Tax for Road Maintenance skewed the expenditures because it looks like it was being used as a placeholder. Again, I would have liked to have had more information about that. I would hope that Alderman Wheeler spent as much time preparing a proposed budget as I, a lowly citizen, did. I’m looking forward to seeing his recommendations tomorrow night.

The budget hole is deep but pointing fingers at past decisions isn’t going to fix it. Hard decisions have to be made if we are going to survive as a city. Public safety has to be the number one priority.We need to work hard on that contract with La Porte for fire protection as it seems out of line, especially if they refuse to respond to emergency calls. And we can switch from CLEMC to a national provider for the same or lower amount and expect lower response times and better qualified personnel.

There are things we can and must do to remain solvent. Let’s git-r-done.

 

It seems appropriate that the Shoreacres City Council met tonight on the eve of the expected “federal government shutdown” caused by the Democrats refusal to eliminate waivers for Congress from the effects of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. Of course, the “federal government shutdown” isn’t really a shutdown but only a temporary closing of offices that the Democrats think will help their cause. But I digress.

This might be the strangest post I’ve ever written, which is saying a lot because I’ve written some really strange ones in 15+ years of doing this. If you’ve been following my posts on Shoreacres, you know that we are in a devil of a bind financially. Perhaps we can all point fingers but frankly, I can’t because I didn’t attend the council meetings in the past that got us to this point, so I’ll have to suck it up and absorb the impact of the current council’s decisions.

Here is the layout of the land. The current mayor, Matt Webber, was on the previous council and was appointed mayor by the current council after the previous mayor, Mayor Dolly Arons, resigned. She resigned graciously after the last round of elections, hoping that the city would come together to solve the problems, perceived or real. Unfortunately Mayor Matt Webber proposed an increase in a budget that was already in deficit territory. You’ll have to ask him why he did that – I did and his answer is online. The budget deficit he proposed was $846,342.15 out of a total combined budget of $2,787,072.17, or 30.4{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}.

Fortunately, council rejected his budget and scheduled a workshop for this evening. Unfortunately, I do not have a spreadsheet or actual budgeted numbers that resulted from this workshop. The rest of this report is in four phases: me as a taxpayer, me as an observer of politics, me as a voter/resident, and a hero award.

As a taxpayer

To say that I was disappointed in the cuts made is an understatement. Sort of like how I felt after Matt Schaub gave up yet another pick six on Sunday and seeing the Texans lose a game they should have won. The value of my home took a hit as council decided that it was more important to spend our savings account on daily activities than it was to cut spending or increase fees for water usage. If people that ran for elected office do not understand that putting Shoreacres in a financial hole hurts our property values, who does? After all, they live here too.

As an observer of politics

I knew that this was going to happen going in. In fact, in response to a couple of emails, I told people that this council was not going to address the hard issue, which is the increase in personnel costs the past six years. It was easy to see if you attended previous meetings. The Mayor couldn’t bring himself to address it and the council, with the singular exception of Alderman Nancy Schnell, followed his lead. The body language of the rest of the council was clear – we will not cut personnel. The only personnel cuts that I saw were not replacing positions that were budgeted but were empty. I’ve been observing various political bodies for an awful long time and I think that we got as much as we could have expected, given Mayor Matt Webber’s insistence on deficit spending.

As a voter

As I looked around at the members of council, I voted for all but two – and one of those was appointed. So I was very happy, as a voter, that the people that I voted for at least attempted to correct the problem. We’ll have to wait until Thursday for City Administrator Stall to put the new proposed budget online but I think the total reduction, from Mayor Webber’s proposed $846,342.15 deficit, will be $384,000, or a new proposed deficit of roughly $462,342, or 19{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the combined budget. Not good at all but much, much better than the Mayor’s proposal. Alderman Bo Bunker showed good leadership by presenting his reduced budget and his rationale behind it. He led the charge tonight. Good on him.

Nancy Schnell gets ‘Courageous’ award

Hey, I’ve criticized her in the past, I have to give her credit when she deserves it. I think that without her efforts, Mayor Webber’s almost a million in deficit spending for the year would have sailed through council. As it is, the deficit spending, as budgeted tonight, will be less than half a million. I consider that a huge victory for Shoreacres taxpayers and I applaud her for her efforts. She was roundly criticized in several emails and flyers for suggesting that personnel had to be cut to balance the budget. It is disconcerting that no one on council agreed with her but if you look at the severity of the problem, you cannot conclude anything other but that she is right about that. And I suspect that she will be able to convince other members on council about that in the long run. But for now, she did what she could and should be recognized for her efforts.

So there you go. Stall will type up the numbers and the council will present the “new” proposed deficit spending budget at the next council meeting, which I think is on October 14th. I don’t think that there is anything you or I can do to reduce it further, or convince the current Mayor and Council that it needs to be further reduced. The only thing you or I can do is show up, speak our minds, and then vote in the next round of elections. At least they put half a tourniquet on to stem the flow of spending.