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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN DEC 08 1987 REGULAR SESSION CITY COUNCIL - CITY OF BEAUMONT HELD DECEMBER 8, 1987 - 1: 15 P.M. BE IT REMEMBERED that the City Council of the City of Beaumont, Texas, met in regular session this 8th day of December, 1987, with the following present: HONORABLE: Maurice Meyers Mayor Bob Lee, Jr. Councilman At Large Andrew P. Cokinos Councilman At Large Lulu L. Smith Councilman, Ward I Mike Brumley Mayor Pro-Tem Councilman, Ward II Audwin Samuel Councilman, Ward III David W. Moore Councilman, Ward IV Albert E. Haines City Manager Lane Nichols City Attorney -000- The Invocation was given by Reverend Lamar Pittman, Associate Pastor of the Southside Assembly of God church. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by City Manager Albert E. Haines. -000- Mayor Meyers welcomed Mr. Leon Douglas with the Texas State Teacher's Association to City Council. Mr. Douglas is meeting with the Convention and Visitor' s Bureau to consider bringing the 1989 Texas State Teacher's Association Convention to Beaumont. Mayor Meyers called Mr. Douglas forward and introduced Council members, the ' City Manager, and City Attorney to Mr. Douglas and presented him with a Beaumont branding iron paper weight. MAYOR MEYERS We're delighted that you' re here. We look forward to hosting that convention in 189, and we know that you' ll give us every consideration. Please make any comments you'd like to while you're here today at the microphone. Anything at all you'd like to say. MR. DOUGLAS I ' ll take two minutes. Let me say this to the Council and the people in the audience, TSTA, last spring we got a call from your Mayor, and he basically said to us, wa want your convention in Beaumont. And, he has, along with Tim Himphill and Larry (Schimkowitz) the president of our local association here, the Beaumont Classroom Teachers, has done everything in their power to bring us to Beaumont. I was talking with -406- December 8, 1987 your Mayor, just earlier, and I will reiterate it to the Council here today that I 'm here with an open mind. I 've got four other cities that are interested in our convention, either in 189 or ' 90. We're going to be visiting those. You will get every and all due consideration to having the Texas State Teacher' s Association Convention. We' ll bring some 1,500 to 2,000 educators into your city. We' ll do that in a period of about three days. So, we plan, in normally a good year, we' ll bring anywhere from $450,000 to $600,000 into the city. That is something that I think would also be attractive to Beaumont, but I know that Beaumont will be attractive to a bunch of our educators across the State, and Larry will make sure that that occurs, because I 'm sure he' ll be talking to them throughout, the year. But, again, thank you for your consideration of having TSTA in your city, and I ' ll definitely take this back. And, our president (Charles Beard) , just so that--some of you may know or may not know--our president of the Texas Tech Teacher' s Association, which is on his second term, and that will be four years in office which speaks highly of him, but it also speaks highly of Beaumont because he is from Beaumont, has taught in the Beaumont system for many years. He is now on released time as a full-time president of TSTA. Again, thank you Mayor and City Council for having us here. MAYOR MEYERS Have a good tour this afternoon, and thank you, Tim. Thank you, Larry. We appreciate your coming. -000- One proclamation was issued: "Bill of Rights Day, " December 15, 1987. -000- Mayor Meyers called forward Public Works Director Tom Warner to conduct the signing ceremonies of an "Adopt-a-Park" participant. MR. WARNER Thank you, Mayor. As Council is aware, the Parks and Recreation Commission recently adopted a program which provides support to City crews in maintaining our park system. This program called "Adopt-a- Park" allows volunteer groups to come into our parks and maintain these parks by either picking up litter, doing mowing, weeding flower beds, or whatever the need may be. Today, we have a group before us that is willing to adopt a park. The group has agreed to take on Rogers Park, which is one of our larger neighborhood parks. The group is the Sigma Nu Fraternity out at Lamar. The fraternity was founded in 1969. One of the founding members of the group, as it was called the College Club, was John Gray, and currently Sigma Nu has the highest gpa on campus for any fraternity. With that, I would like to introduce Chris Graham who will introduce the people in his group. Mayor, if I could have you and Councilman Samuel come forward. They are also signing a contract, basically which will state that they will maintain that park in a manner that is acceptable, not only to the City, but to our community, and with that Councilman Samuel and the Mayor will also be co-signing that contract. Anything you would like to say. -407- December 8, 1987 COUNCILMAN SAMUEL We appreciate you taking on this responsibility. It shows that there' s a cooperative spirit out at the university, and we sincerely appreciate all of you. CHRIS GRAHAM With me are Brothers Allen Merriweather, Clif Huebel, Pledge Marty Schrode, Brother Brian May, Brother Rob Emanuel, Little Sister Anita Girch, and Brother Steve Johnson. (Mr. Graham, Mayor Meyers and Councilman Samuel signed contract. ) MAYOR MEYERS While Councilman Samuel is signing it, we do really thank you for your coming forward. The closer ties that we can create, not only as a community in efforts like this, but certainly with the university, I think will mean a great deal to us in the future, and I hope that your leadership in stepping forward is something that others will copy. . And, Audwin and Tom, I compliment you. It looks like we got a good group, and Parks can certainly use your help, and we thank you a lot for that. -000- MAYOR MEYERS Now, continuing on a theme of cleanliness and a better looking community, I ' ll call on Maree Calcote to come forward representing the Clean Community Commission. She has some presentations that are noteworthy as well as some information to share with us. MRS. CALCOTE The Clean Community Commission in cooperation with the City Council makes presentations to citizens that they feel have contributed in a particular way to the beautification or the cleanliness of this community, and we have four recipients today with us, and Ellen McClain who chairs this committee for the Clean Community Commission is here with me to present these. The first person we have is Mrs. Mary Sears. Mary, will you come up? Mary is an employee of the City, but she does a beautiful job at her home on Corley of planting flowers and being a real example in the neighborhood of what a house should really look like, and we want to say thank you, Mary, for your work. (audience applause) MRS. SEARS Well, thanks to you all for recognizing that I am trying to keep the community clean. -408- December 8, 1987 MRS. CALCOTE The next person. . . is Mr. Messina here? Mr. Vincent Messina has a business here in town and he has been observed out making sure that the curbs are swept and everything around his building is clean everyday, and that' s a really wonderful example of a business doing what it really needs to do to make this city look better, and we'd like to thank Mr. Messina. (audience applause) MR. MESSINA I 'd like to thank the Beaumont City Council as well as the Clean Community Commission. I think it' s all a matter of pride in our city, you know. I think it' s really starting, you know, rub off on everybody. Our downtown is really looking up, and the city itself is looking up. So, I 'd like to thank you all again. MRS. CALCOTE Next, I 'd like to recognize Mr. Mike Dougay. He has the Tamale Company out on Phelan Blvd. , and he not only takes care of his own business, but he takes care of the entire shopping center there to make sure everything's picked up every day and looking good. And, we'd like to thank you. MR. DOUGAY Thank you. (audience applause) For once in my life, I really don't have that much to say. The people that know me know that' s really unusual, but I 'd just like to thank you all for this recognizing. MRS. CALCOTE And, the next person we would like to recognize is Mr. Bill Johnson. Bill has taken some very dilapidated houses in his neighborhood and, he has purchased these houses and has renovated them, and I 'm sure he will never get his money back for all the things he' s done, but he' s taken an area and really put his money to work for the city. If more citizens would do this we'd have a great looking city, and we'd like to recognize Bill. (audience applause) MR. JOHNSON This property is located on Pecos Blvd. right in front of our Central High School, and I hope that one of these days we can get someone to adopt a boulevard! Because there are only four blocks of grassy area in Pecos, and of course, it' s in front of one of our major schools in Beaumont. I 'm doing my part, and I hope the City will go along with me. MAYOR MEYERS We' ll work at that--"Adopt-a-Boulevard. "' -409- December 8, 1987 MRS. CALCOTE The next person. . .is Mr. Messina here? Mr. Vincent Messina has a business here in town and he has been observed out making sure that the curbs are swept and everything around his building is clean everyday, and that' s a really wonderful example of a business doing what it really needs to do to make this city look better, and we'd like to thank Mr. Messina. (audience applause) MR. MESSINA I 'd like to thank the Beaumont City Council as well as the Clean Community Commission. I think it' s all a matter of pride in our city, you know. I think it' s really starting, you know, rub off on everybody. Our downtown is really looking up, and the city itself is looking up. So, I 'd like to thank you all again. MRS. CALCOTE Next, I 'd like to recognize Mr. Mike Dougay. He has the Tamale Company out on Phelan Blvd. , and he not only takes care of his own business, but he takes care of the entire shopping center there to make sure everything' s picked up every day and looking good. And, we'd like to thank you. MR. DOUGAY Thank you. (audience applause) For once in my life, I really don't have that much to say. The people that know me know that's really unusual, but I 'd just like to thank you all for this recognizing. MRS. CALCOTE And, the next person we would like to recognize is Mr. Bill Johnson. Bill has taken some very dilapidated houses in his neighborhood and, he has purchased these houses and has renovated them, and I 'm sure he will never get his money back for all tht-� things he' s done, but he' s taken an area and really put his money to work for the city. if more citizens would do this we'd have a great looking city, and we'd like to recognize Bill. (audience applause) MR. JOHNSON This property is located on Pecos Blvd. right in front of our Central High School, and I hope that one of these days we can get someone to adopt a boulevard! Because there are only four blocks of grassy area in Pecos, and of course, it' s in front of one of our major schools in Beaumont. I 'm doing my part, and I hope the City will go along with me. MAYOR MEYERS We' ll work at that--"Adapt-a--Boulevard. " -409- December 8, 1987 Citizens were invited to comment on Agenda Items A through D. No citizens wished to comment. -000- The following Consent Agenda items were considered: Approval of the Minutes of the Regular City Council Sessions held November 24, 1987 and December 1, 1987; Resolution 87-242 authorizing Texas Commerce Bank-Beaumont to release the following securities: $30,000.00, Livingston ISD, 5.50% (due 12/15/87) held at the Federal Reserve Bank Dallas-Houston Branch effective December 15 , 1987 and Spindletop Savings Association to release $700,000 . 00 U. S. Treasury Bond; 9 7/8% (due 11/15/2015) held at the Federal Reserve Bank Dallas-Houston Branch effective December 8, 1987; A resolution making committee appointments to the Clean Community Commission and the Small Business Revolving Loan Fund; and, Resolution 87-243 authorizing a License to Encroach for the McFaddin- Ward House to encroach one hundred forty (140) feet south of McFaddin Avenue to fifty ( 50 ) feet north of North Street for installation of a communication cable for a one-time fee of Five Hundred Dollars ($500) . The Consent Agenda was approved on a motion made by Councilman Cokinos and seconded by Councilman Samuel. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Mayor Meyers announced there would be an Emergbncy Meeting of the City Council at 2:00 p.m. today to consider a proposed settlement agreement with the First City National Bank of Beaumont as a matter of urgent necessity which could result in hardship and/or loss if consideration is delayed. -000- Ordinance 87-92 establishing the creation of the Loan Board for the Beaumont Small Business Revolving Loan fund revised to increase the board from seven to nine and to add two at-large positions with five (5) of the initial members to be appointed for three ( 3 ) years and four (4) members to be appointed for two (2) years, thereafter, appointments for two ( 2) years was considered: -411- December 8, 1987 ORDINANCE NO. 87-92 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A SMALL BUSINESS REVOLVING LOAN FUND BOARD; PROVIDING FOR ITS ADMINISTRATION; PROVIDING ITS DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY AND PROVIDING FOR REPEAL. After discussion of eliminating designated representation from the Minority Business Development Center to comply with the EDA application, enlarging the at-large positions to two, and the relationship of the Small Business Assistance Center at the John Gray Institute to Lamar University and the non-profit status, Ordinance 87-92 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Lee and seconded by Councilman Smith. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Councilman Lee asked if it is appropriate to make commission appointments on the Consent Agenda before actual approval of that commission. Mayor Mayors responded negatively to the question and asked for a motion to delete that item from the previous vote taken on the Consent Agenda. Consent Agenda Item A-2 was deleted from the previous vote on a motion made by Councilman Lee and seconded by Councilman Brumley. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Resolution 87-244 of the Consent Agenda appointing Pamela Rowles to the Clean Community Commission for a term expiring September 30, 1988; Rick Canady (representing the CDBG Citizens Advisory Committee) , Gearld C. Clark (representing financial institutions) , Craig Sherlock, George Gardner (representing small or minority busihesses) , and George O. Hudsbeth (representing . Minority Business Development Center) to the Small Business Revolving Loan Fund for terms expiring December 8, 1990, and appointing Betty Dunkerley (City Finance Officer) and Roy Huckaby (Small Business Assistance Center) to the Small Business Revolving Loan Fund for terms expiring December 8, 1989 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Lee and seconded by Cc,-..Incilman Brumley. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Councilman Moore,, in an effort to thoroughly understand the Small Business Center profit/non-profit status and ins relationship in the Lamar University system, requested that City Attorney Lane Nichols check into its functions and jurisdiction. -000- -412- December 8, 1987 Resolution 87-245 awarding an annual contract to T-Mix Materials of Beaumont for purchase of approximately 5,000 tons of limestone base at $10. 98 per ton plus transportation costs at an approximate annual expenditure of $54,900 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Brumley and seconded by Councilman Lee. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Resolution 87-246 awarding a contract for a creative park on Central Park located west of the Community Center building south of the parking lot which would include grading and landscaping, construction of sidewalks, picnic. tables, drinking fountains, a shelter and modules with playground equipment to Merrill Construction Company in the amount of $49,875.00 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Lee and seconded by Councilman Brumley. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Ordinance No. 87-93 amending Section 7-66 to add roll-on containers to the mechanically-loaded closed containers specified in the definition of commercial container service and Section 28-36 to permit commercial garbage collectors to haul garbage collected outside the city limits to the City' s landfill without obtaining a franchise with all haulers making garbage collection within the City required to have a franchise for closed container service was considered: ORDINANCE NO. 87-93 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 7, SECTION 7-66, "FRANCHISE REQUIRED; DEFINITION" AND CHAPTER 28, SECTION 28-36, "PRIVATE TRANSPORTATION OF REFUSE; FRANCHISE REQUIRED;" PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING FOR REPEAL; AND PROVIDING A PENALTY. Ordinance No. 87-93 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Brumley and seconded by Councilman Smith. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- In response to Mayor Meyers call for an Emergency Session Resolution 87- 247 authorizing prepayment of $830,000 from First City National Bank of Beaumont to liquidate its obligation to the City under an agreement authorized on October 22 , 1986 to resolve a dispute between the City and the bank related to the collapse of ESM Government Securities, Inc. was considered. After a discussion and questions relative to the affect of a settlement on pending litigation, future investment of the monies, the account in which the monies would be deposited, and expenditure of the -413- December 8, 1987 funds, Resolution 87-247 was passed on a motion made by Councilman Moore and seconded by Councilman Lee. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Councilman Moore requested that Public Works Director Tom Warner follow up on repairs of the railroad crossing at Lavaca and Avenue A. To date the problem has been given no attention. Councilman Moore also requested that Community Development Director Sherrell Cockrell investigate the structure at Harriott and Park Streets that suffered severe damage causing demolition of the roof during a recent storm and creating a potentially hazardous situation for citizens in that area. -000- Mrs. Jessie Cooper, 446 Georgetown, addressed Council to report that she and a visiting relative had the opportunity of touring the Port of Beaumont recently and were very impressed with the hospitality and quality of information received during the tour, and to express her concern that her suggestion several months ago to investigate purchase of a water pump for sewage disposal that would save the City money has been ignored. Mr. Henry Dannenbaum, 3305 Avenue A, addressed Council to report that he has been nominated "Man of the Year" by First Baptist Church and distributed tickets to attend their Christmas production entitled "A Christmas Celebration. " -000- Mayor Meyers announced there will be no Council meeting next week because Council members will be at the National League of Cities meeting. The next City Council meeting will be December 22, 1987. -000- There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. -000- I , Barbara Liming, Deputy City Clerk of the City of Beaumont, Texas, certify that the above is a true copy of the regular City Council session held December 8 , 1987. Barbara Liming Deputy City Clerk -414- December 8, 1987