The Jefferson City Council held a marathon three plus hour meeting last Tuesday with as much discussion and updates as action items.
Council opened the meeting with two proclamations. One declaring October Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and the other recognizing St. Paul’s Methodist Church Day Sunday Oct. 29, 2023.
The meeting ended with Council approving a $2.50 increase to the minimum water bill. For more information, see this story.
In action, the City approved an indefinite leave of absence for City Attorney Mike Martin for medical reasons, and hired Upshur ADA Barry Wallace to take his place during the absence.
Ward 3 Alderman Robin Moore said she would rather have an attorney on retainer to call upon and pay when needed. She said she would prefer to pause actions requiring an attorney consult and then restart after discussions.
Jefferson Mayor Rob Baker pointed out that the City Attorney is on retainer and is accessible whenever a question arises. He indicated he regularly speaks with Martin several times per week over ongoing City issues.
Ward 1 Alderman Bubba Haggard asked if Wallace would be attending meetings like Martin did and Baker said he would, as well as be available much like Martin was.
Baker indicated there would be no overlap in payment and Wallace had agreed to the same monthly retainer of $1,500 Martin had.
Moore continued her objection to hiring Wallace, stating that she would rather the City see if they could do something different for representation.
The leave was approved and Wallace hired with a vote of 5-0-1 with Moore abstaining.
Council also approved changing their codification software provider from MuniCode/Civic Plus to General Code/Franklin. The new system will include a review of all current City ordinances and recommendations for updating them for current law changes. The system will also provide an improved website interface for reviewing ordiances as well as offer options for future expansion and integration with zoning.
The new system will cost the City $13,295 for the conversion and review and will take up to a year to complete. The City had just approved renewing a 1-year contract with MuniCode, but some overlap was inevitable, according to City Secretary Melissa Boyd and Baker. The new system will also make it cheaper for the City to codify ordinances. MuniCode charges around $1500-1800 to add a new ordinance, while General Code charges $25 per page. Boyd said a number of ordinances had never been codified as a result of MuniCodes fee structure. Not codifying an ordinance makes it unenforcible. Annual renewal costs will also be lower, with MuniCode charging the City $2,100, and General Code at $1,195.
Boyd and JPD Chief Tino Perez indicated that MuniCode had recently changed owners and their focus has also shifting away from City codification services. Council approved the change 6-0 and tabled cancelling the contract with MuniCode until closer to being able to implement the General Code system.
Council also took the necessary steps to close out a Texas Community Development Block Grant related to the Sewer Project near Washington and Canal streets. Due to project overages, the City had to pay an additional $39,749.35. The overages were related to an engineering issue on the type of soil in the area, extra safety precautions required as a result, and additional repaving expenses. The City used ARPA funds to cover the added expense.
Baker explained that the City probably could have done the repaving cheaper, but it would have required utilizing the bidding process and left an open trench for a longer period of time. He also said the contractor and SPI worked to reduce the City portion of the bill by half.
“SPI knew what was going on, I could have told him it was quicksand over there,” said Haggard. “The professional people know the lay of the underground” and should have identified that earlier.
The City had already committed to a $17,500 match for the grant, bringing the City’s total outlay for the project to $57,254.35 on a $275,000 grant.
Other construction projects approved during the meeting included new sign permits for the PhyNet Jefferson Clinic, building permit for 409 Polk Street, and a request for a variance to build an 8-foot privacy fence in front of the portable storage building behind 1852 on Austin. Moore continued to abstain from voting on building permit requests until the City has hired a Building Inspector.
The Quiet Zone Committee requested Council allow them to expand their number by 2-3 people to assist with both being more likely to obtain a quorum to meet, and help with research activities.
“I want to give them every opportunity to do their job right,” said Ward 1 Alderman Hollis Shadden.
Council approved allowing QZ to accept applications for the next 30-days. Applications are available at City Hall, as well as on the City’s Website. Applications are open until November 15.
In other business, Council approved
- pay raises for City employees as presented in the 2023-24 fiscal year budget
- the ordinances related to TxDOT’s ability to maintain State Highways inside the City Limits
- Monthly/Quarterly financial reports, and previous City Council meeting minutes.
- Annual Christmas Parade Event application
- engaging Ritcheson, Lauffer & Vincent, PC., to provide legal services for the recently filed Amburn vs. City of Jefferson suit RLV represented the City during the Jason Carroll lawsuit and were familiar with the issues
Council also received presentations from the Texas Water Development Board NFIP & Floodplain Management programs. Jasmine Ferrell & Kate DeGennaro gave an overview of the programs and an update on how the City might use the data in the future. They indicated while a specific Base Floodplain Elevation project for the City was not underway, the City was a part of the Caddo Lake Watershed Area which was currently being reviewed. That project would provide base flood data for the area. They encouraged the City to use the data as necessary for establishment of requirements for building in those areas as well as ensuring required permits were obtained.
Additional presentations were made by JEDCO for their quarterly update, and by Colonial Life’s Ron Fischer about the City’s “Cafeteria” plan.
Moore raised objections to approving Colonial Life as the City’s only cafeteria plan for insurance options, citing that there were other companies which provide these services and that the City should be reviewing all the options for employees. Baker indicated that would be a reasonable thing to do for next year, but as the plans are currently in Open Enrollment, it was too late for this year. Boyd said that in the past, employees have not been interested in other options, and other companies had not been interested in providing additional options to employees, as only one or two employees utilized them. She also said that due to workload, she was unable to spend a lot of time investigating and reviewing options on other companies. She said only one other company had reached out, but there were scheduling issues in getting more information from them.
Council approved Colonial Life’s Cafeteria Plan offerings 5-1.
Project and initiatives updates concluded the meeting, as council members provided updates on their assigned initiatives.
Baker reported to Council that the repaving of the North Alley Street railroad crossings had been completed and the streets were significantly smoother and better for driving.
City entrance signage was a topic of discussion with Sharon Goolsby asking Council to at least repair the existing signs at FM2208 and US 59. Perez said he would contact TxDOT about replacing the “blue” highway signs on US59 which were damaged several years ago in an accident and never replaced. He said there may be some City funding required for those, but he would find out and report back to Council.
Other sign issues addressed were the “garage sale looking signs” at many of the downtown street corners. Baker said he had received 3-4 complains from citizens about them making the downtown look “ratty and junked up.” Baker asked Council to talk to the people in their wards and get their input so Council could address the issue at a future meeting.
Other Council Initiative project updates include:
- New Firestation – Haggard said he had nothing to report
- Stop and street signs: Ward 2 Alderman Will Thomas said he was in contact with chief and Streets Department supervisor Allen Whatley and they are working on getting them replaced
- Employe handbook: – Moore reached out to JoAnn Stacey but haven’t heard back; Shadden said she may not get involved due to litigation potential.
- Streets campaign: Baker said SPI was in contact with the bid winner but would probably punt to spring before work begins.
- Drainage – no sponsor;
- Cemetery: Ward. 2 Alderman Ray Hengst said that preliminary findings were that ordinances were not enforced with cemetery, pretty much giving plots away on price; meeting to be held at a future date.
- Building inspector: no council sponsor;
- Legal items: Baker said there was a new suit from Gary Amburn and it related to Carroll case;
- City limits/floodplain – no sponsor; floodplain update from TxWDB
- Quiet zone update given earlier in the meeting and a Town Hall has been planned for Nov. 2 at 5p
- Mass communication & town siren: Shadden said he and Perez had looked at the Hallsville system, and were getting more information. Hallsville has three sirens in town, spaced out, mounted on telephone pole; They were setup in 2017, and it was $32K
- General grants – no sponsor;
- City parks – Shadden said he had spoken with Gary Endsley on the river front park. They have been working on the boardwalk and were waiting on new bundle of boards. Additional work had been done on improving the new bird watching trail. The horses pulling stagecoach statute is leaning and are being stabilized. Shadden indicated Endsley said there are options for fixing walking trail and washout and will get back to him with those. Lights on the Trestle bridge are lit, but has to have a new controller. Currently, the lights are stuck on blue. Bob Thomas asked if benches could be added to the river front park. Haggard indicated there were benches removed from the Courthouse during restoration, and maybe those could be made available.
- Event town hall – Hengst said he was getting help from April Taylor Johnson, Baker and Boyd. He said the key thing is going over the video from the last meeting. and reoding the application for events. HE said he wanted a draft ready for event organizers to review at the town hall.
- New city hall – There is a town hall on Nov. 1
- Railroad projects – Baker said it was updated earlier and can be struck from list