Staff Reports
Consent Agenda items which were moved to Action Items, presentations, and public comment took up over 90 minutes of the two-hour Jefferson City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Council spent 30 minutes listening to citizens speak about three topics: a quiet zone; support for Alderman Richard Turner following social media and a submitted opinion piece in the Jimplecute calling for his resignation; and the billing of the Phoenix Organization for just shy of $14,000 for a water line break during the October Burn benefit [see Water elsewhere in this edition].
Quiet Zone supporters included Michelle Fox-Davis, B.W. Brooks, and Kay Brookshire. All of which stated that the establishment of a Quiet Zone was a priority for them and they hope the City will put the item on an Action Item agenda so that the costs can be officially determined and then see whether or not to move forward and how to fund – through either public, JEDCO, or private funds – the project. Joann Stacey spoke about a survey conducted by the Jimplecute and said it did not ask if the project was funded by private funds if it would be supported. Following her comments the Jimplecute showed Stacey the survey questions which did ask that question. Jim McIntosh also spoke and called on Council to make the issue an actionable item on an upcoming agenda.
Kim and Steve Shaw, Harold Blair, Brookshire, Jeff Sofich all stated how they supported Turner and the other Council members. Sofich asked Council to tell him what they’ve accomplished for the City over the last few years. He indicated they’ve approved projects, but all were agenda driven. Sofich ended his comments by asking Council to think of the people and not what [Council members] want for themselves or their friends before making a decision on what you do for the City.
Joe McDonald rounded out the public comment by asking Council to examine the recent drainage project at the intersection of Austin and Vale streets. “The streets are sinking around the manholes,” he said. “Water still backs up and floods the area. You need to figure out why this is happening and if there are any possible repercussions against the engineers who designed it or contractor who built it, or to the surrounding buildings. Please look into this.”
Reports were provided from JEDCO, Friends of Jefferson Animals, North East Texas Municipal Water District city representative George Otstott, and Jefferson PD Chief Tino Perez.
JEDCO president Bubba Haggard provided council with an update on the financial position of JEDCO as well as projects currently being reviewed including The Retail Coach to recruit retail companies to the 59 corridor; converting the former Sonic to a Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken; and transferring 13 acres of JEDCO land to Queen Wood Products for expansion. Haggard said JEDCO had a Dec. 31, 2022 fund balance of $1,542,090, and that he hoped to bring annexation paperwork to Council for the Harold Nix property south of downtown to the next Council meeting.
Sharon Goolsby updated Council on the financial status of FOJA, saying they had spent almost $4,500 of their funds on animals inside the City limits. She also said that there were live traps available for individuals who are dealing with feral cats and how FOJA continues to work on finding fosters or relocation services for dogs, puppies, cats and kittens.
Otstott told the city their cost for treated water would not be going up this year as NETMWD continues to be able to keep their costs down. He said the rate of $1.48 per 1,000 gallons would remain the same as it had been for the last 12 years. He also said that despite the heavy usage during the recent freeze and a fire at a timber plant, Lake O’the Pines remained just six inches short of being completely full this season. He also reminded the City that there is $6,000 available from NETMWD for fire hydrant and valve replacements, but the City just needed to supply him with a paid invoice by May to receive those funds.
Perez supplied the City with JPD’s year end review and racial profiling report. In it Perez said that while the number of Criminal Charges almost doubled from 2021, it did not indicate an increase in crime in Jefferson. Perez said in 2021 more warrants were issued rather than direct charges filed due to COVID and staff shortages. He also said that while Traffic Stops were down significantly in 2022 from 2021, the department was not fully staffed, and that he was training officers on traffic stops and those numbers should be going back to normal levels.
Perez highlighted the Security Check/Vacation Watch program the office conducts and how it’s numbers increased by over 6,000 calls in 2022. This was due to the number of businesses requiring regular checks having increased, as well as requests by citizens for safety checks on their properties. Perez said the full report was available on the JPD website.
A set of Council meeting minutes from April 2021 had to be approved as they had been overlooked and were now required to be submitted for the completion of a grant. City Secretary Melissa Boyd said she and another City employee had reviewed the video of the meeting, comparing it to the not-completed minutes, and forwarded both to council members for their review.
Ward 2 Alderman Robin Moore said she was uncomfortable approving the minutes as they should have never been overlooked and that only one or two current council members were on the council at the time of that meeting.
Turner moved to approve the minutes based on review of the video and Ward 1 Alderman Jim Finstrom seconded. The motion passed 5-0-1 with Moore abstaining without specifying why she abstained.
Moore also brought up the City’s contract with the Jefferson Carnegie Library and how a number of items in it were not being followed. She also wanted more information on the Interlocal Agreement with the City and the County over funding the Library.
Otstott indicated he was not aware of some of the requirements not being fulfilled, but he’d get those taken care of immediately. Baker and Otstott said the Interlocal agreement was so that both entities agreed to provide funding for the Library every year. Both the contract and the agreement were approved 6-0.
Lastly, Moore brought up the proposed contract with the county over election services and that the City had purchased $40,000 of equipment that now was not being used.
Baker said the purchase “time was a perfect storm in a bad way.” He said the previous equipment was outdated and would not be supported so new had to be bought. Afterwards, the county implemented an Elections Administrator which allows the City and the School District to utilize their services and save money at the same time. He also said if the City were to run their own election, it would cost approximately $15,000, where the County is only charging $6,783.34. Additional credit would be supplied to the City for the use of their equipment, lowering the bill.
Boyd also pointed out that it is becoming difficult to get election workers, and if the city were to do the election themselves, with the County holding an election, finding those workers would be very difficult.
Turner raised concerns over the use of county-wide polling places when the City only affected a small portion of the County and how the use delayed obtaining final city election results. “Very few ballots were cast out in the county, but it delayed our results significantly due to having to get those outside boxes,” he said.
Elections Administrator Karen Jones will be contacted to possibly help explain the issues and to see if the city elections could be consolidated to only one box, said Baker. Jones told the Jimplecute she wasn’t sure if that could be done, but she would check.
Council approved the agreement 5-1-0 with Turner voting against the contract.