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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN MAR 07 1989 REGULAR SESSION CITY COUNCIL - CITY OF BEAUMONT HELD MARCH 7, 1989 - 1: 15 P.M. BE IT REMEMBERED that the City Council of the City of Beaumont, Texas, met in regular session this the 7th day of March, 1989, 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 Michael Brumley Councilman, Ward II Audwin Samuel Mayor Pro-Tem Councilman, Ward III David W. Moore Councilman, Ward IV Ray A. Riley City Manager Lane Nichols City Attorney Barbara Liming Deputy City Clerk -000- The Invocation was given by the Reverend Robert Turnage, Victory Temple. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Ronald Thibodeaux, a student at Dick Dowling Elementary School. -000- Mayor Meyers introduced Mrs. Faye Hawkins, a teacher at Oak Forest Elementary School in Vidor, and welcomed her third grade class of students who are high achievers and gifted children studying city government. The children were invited to ask questions of Council at an appointed time. -000- Three Proclamations were issued: "Professional Social Workers Month, " March, 1989; "National Young Audiences Week, " March 13-17, 1989; and "Public School Week, " March 6-12, 1989. -000- Mayor Meyers called attention to the fact that the City of Beaumont has a $1 1/2 million Community Development Block Grant Program budgeted for the 1989/90 fiscal year. There are many opportunities in the program to provide funding assistance in various ways. Community meetings to make the citizens aware of existing opportunities have been scheduled at 7: 00 p.m. on March 7th, Saint Pius X Catholic Church; March 9th, Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church; March 14th, McCabe United Methodist Church; and March 16th, City Hall Council Chambers. -56- March 7, 1989 MAYOR MEYERS• I 'm going to stray from regulation and ask Mrs. Hawkins if she would ask one or two of her students that she thinks might want to pose a question to Council before you leave. We ask that--you have to come up to the microphone and give us your name and address, and then you can ask any question, and this Council is capable of answering anything you could ask. FIRST QUESTION I 'm Deidre Aerie. I live on 1192 Timberlane, and what are you going to do about littered schools? MAYOR MEYERS• Littered schools? Ooh, that' s a good question. I have some real good answers, but I 'm going to let Council begin with that. Who wants to answer her question first? COUNCILMAN SAMUEL: I ' ll take a shot at it. I think what' s very important is students getting involved in the process. We can go in and clean up the schools, but the following day there will be litter back there. So, I think it' s very important that all of the students become aware of the problem, and from that awareness you begin to work with other students. When you see them dropping trash, you need to tell them not to drop the trash because it' s you that has to come back and pick up the trash. So, I think it' s important that you help monitor that project and get your classmates to help you also. COUNCILMAN LEE: And, I would say that the group that was just recognized (Dick Dowling Elementary School students, recipients of the "Public Schools Week" Proclamation) have gotten a project going at their school that is based on what Mayor Pro-Tem Samuel is talking about. We call it "Operation Clean Street, " and the students regularly go out and police the grounds, that is pick up the litter that has accumulated on the grounds, and make their school look just beautiful. MAYOR MEYERS• Thank you. . .Who else would like to come up and ask a question? SECOND QUESTION I 'm Kevin Hobbs. I live on 1625 Aloha, and I want to know how you let the people that live in Beaumont know what you' re going to be doing? -57- March 7 , 1989 9 MAYOR MEYERS• That' s a real good question! Sometimes we have trouble. Ah, who would like to answer that question? COUNCILMAN BRUMLEY: What we do is, we depend on some fine young journalists. We depend on the newspaper, and we depend on the radio, and we depend on the television, and we depend on people to speak to one another. And usually the word gets out of what we' re going to talk about once it' s in the newspaper, and then a lot of people will show up. Other than that. . .and then anybody that comes down to City Hall, we put, you' ll see as you leave, there' s some pieces of paper on the glass and some pieces of paper outside on the bulletin board. We post out there on the bulletin board what we' re going to be doing down at City Hall and when we' re going to be doing it. So we try to give everybody an opportunity to come down and participate in the decisions that are made down here each week. COUNCILMAN SAMUEL: And Councilman, you might want to point out that that' s a requirement by State law. And in that they' re studying government you' ll find that there' s certain things that has to be posted. MAYOR MEYERS: . . .Another thing that you' ll find that Council does quite often is we go out in the community and speak to different groups, organizations, and schools. We speak often at different schools because aside from what we do and what is circulated through the newspaper and radio and TV, we have a responsibility to go out and tell the citizens. Many times we even go to people' s homes door-to-door and share information. So, it' s both information that we put out through the mail, through the newspaper, or that we go out and talk about. . . We have time for one more question. So far they've been rather good questions. THIRD QUESTION Hi, I 'm Robin Amy. I live at 1415 East Railroad Avenue. What are you all going to do about the kids that take drugs to school. COUNCILMAN MOORE: What we' re doing is we' re trying to help those kids understand that' s the wrong thing to do. But, in order to do that effectively, we need the help of the students that don' t use drugs to tell them that it is the wrong thing to do, and we' re working with their parents and we' re going out visiting with them and we got the Police Department with the Chief and his men, they' re spending time visiting youth like yourself, going to -58- March 7, 1989 the schools and going to their homes telling them drugs are bad for them. And, those students that choose not to listen are going to come to a very, very bad end because they will be picked up, and they will be taken away from their homes. So, if you know students that are bringing drugs to school, tell them to stop. And, if they choose not to, then eventually we' re going to get to them, and it' s not good at all what happens to them. So, we just, we need your help sometime to call the student police or just concerned students to help us help those that are making that mistake. Okay? MAYOR MEYERS• Who else would like to respond? Anyone, before you leave? I 'm going to give our Police Chief a chance to respond to that question. I think he has a great feel for that situation. CHIEF SCHULDT• I 'd like to say that what we' re trying to do is to work with a better understanding of what the drug problem is. . . .trying to work in the schools and to teach the people at an early age the problems you have in dealing with drugs and what they can do to your life in the future and give you a better understanding so that everybody can work together to solve that problem. MAYOR MEYERS- I don' t know if any of you have had occasion to see the wonderful work that the Police Department is doing. They actually have puppet shows and other different programs that they conduct in school, at Parkdale Mall, and other places, and included within their programs they' re constantly telling the young people how to deal with the drug question and what you should do if you' re confronted with someone who uses drugs. So, an awful lot' s being done. That was why I wanted the Chief to share that with you, and thank you very much for your question. . . I imagine your students (comment directed to Dick Dowling teachers) will have to be swirling out also. . . . let' s take a moment then, and if you've got a student or two that wants to ask a question, let' s do it now. . . QUESTION NUMBER ONE What are you all going to do about MAYOR MEYERS- You have to give your name and address, and she' ll write that down. FIRST QUESTIONER My name' s Felicia Blackstone. I live at 290 Caldwell. I 'm moving into a new house, and it' s sort of old. What are you all going to do about all -59- March 7, 1989 the old houses? My grandparents say that you' re going to tear them down-- old buildings that are damaged and all. What are you actually going to do about it? MAYOR MEYERS: Good question. Who would like to take a stab at that question? Dr. Smith? COUNCILMAN SMITH: We are attempting to identify all the homes that are sub-standard that pose a problem. We just talked about drugs. A lot of the drug addicts live in the old houses that are unoccupied. So, we' re making a concerted effort to locate these homes through Chief Shelton of our Fire Department, and the ones who--the owners do not choose or cannot bring up to standard, then we will demolish them. So, are you concerned about the home you' re moving into? FELICIA: No mam. I was just curious ' cause we walk by this house, aah, today on the way to City Hall, and it looked pretty bad. I was just curious. COUNCILMAN SMITH: Yes, we have quite a few and we've a very vigorous program to eradicate these. COUNCILMAN SAMUEL: I think it' s important you understand, it' s not just old homes, because some old houses are real good houses, right? But, it' s those houses we see there' s a danger that is present. It' s unoccupied houses where there might be some type of structural damage. Those are the houses that we' re concerned with, and as each of you kids go throughout the day in your communities and in your neighborhoods, if you see a house that no one' s living in it and the doors are open, you need to make sure you tell your parents to call and let someone know that that house is there because those are very dangerous structures. When they' re open and no one lives in them, there ' s a lot of things that could happen. So, you need to stay away from them, but most of all, tell your parents to call here and let us know, okay? MAYOR MEYERS• Thank you. David, you want. . . COUNCILMAN MOORE: There ' s just one thing. There was a question asked earlier, "What do we do to let people know about what we' re doing in the community?" And a -60- March 7, 1989 young man asked that question and the young lady had a very good question about what we' re doing about housing and structures. Well, the Mayor announced a meeting tonight, and they' re going to discuss that. They' re going to discuss what you can do about dilapidated structures and how you can fix some of those structures up. So, tell your parents to go out to St. Pius Church tonight at 7: 00 p.m. , and you can tell them, you can even come. You can learn what the City does with all of its other workers and employees to make the City better for you. That' s how we get the word out, and tonight we can even tell you a little bit more about what we' re doing. Those were some great questions, Mayor. MAYOR MEYERS: Yes. Is there one more who would want to ask a question so we would not deprive the opportunity? Yes, Sir. He looks like he' s on the football team over there. COUNCILMAN SAMUEL: Make sure you give your name and address. SECOND QUESTION My name is Tobias Lewis . I live on Deville and North. What are you all going to do about drinking and driving? MAYOR MEYERS• Drinking and driving? Okay, who would like to respond to that question? COUNCILMAN SMITH: Well, I think we have, and the Chief will probably back me up on this, we hope to have in place a two-prong program. One is education of students that alcohol is like any other drug, substance. To abuse it, to drive and drink is wrong. And, we' re going to try to educate people so they will learn to not do this, and particularly young people, and at the same time we hope to increase the enforcement through our law enforcement division, through our State Highway patrol and our City Police, so that we do pick up the people who are driving while intoxicated. But, the best program is prevention and education. So that--we' re trying to target all of you to let you know what the effects of driving under the influence of alcohol. Do you have a program at your school? Do they address this at the same time they' re talking about drugs? TOBIAS: Yes Mam. COUNCILMAN SMITH: You do? Well, education and law enforcement are our, hopefully, our best tools. Do you have any addenda to that? (to Chief Schuldt) -61- March 7 , 1989 CHIEF SCHULDT• I 'd just say that' s true in any type of substance abuse whether its alcohol or drugs of any kind. . . .we' re trying to better educate people on the harmful aspects of what it can do to you . . . There' s an excellent program that we ' re cooperating with in the schools. . .getting designated drivers, making sure that people that have been consuming alcohol are not the people behind the wheels. And, I think we have an active enforcement program in Beaumont, and we have a specialized traffic unit that concentrates very strongly on the offense of driving while intoxicated. MAYOR MEYERS: Thank you all very much. We appreciate your questions and real glad to have you with us today. -000- Citizen comment was invited on Agenda Items 2-b and 3 . No one wished to address Council on these items. -000- The following Consent Agenda Items were considered: Approval of the Minutes of the regular City Council session held Fe rl,�a ,,,v 28, 1989 ; Resolution No. 89-44 authorizing Texas Commerce Bank - Beaumont to release of $100,000. 00 pledged in securities held at the Federal Reserve Bank - Dallas/Houston Bank, effective March 7, 1989; Resolution No. 89-45 appointing Hal Dawson to the Housing Rehabilitation Loan Board for a term expiring May 31, 1990; and Resolution No. 89-46 waiving penalty and interest pursuant to Section 33 . 011 of the Texas Property Tax Code as each taxpayer' s failure to pay was caused by a billing error or similar mistake to: Hazel Brown, Account Number 046650-053300, $499. 63 ; James Bodin, Account Number 012150- 036800, $52. 32; Ellen Haynie, Account Number 300056-017500, $12. 82; Alexine Howell, Account Number 008950-018600, $22. 12; Mary F. Bowlin, Account Number 840610-003700, $47 .72; John Rayburn, Account Number 700000- 803117, $40. 45; Delaware Office Plaza Joint Venture, Account Number 021750-003000, $81. 24 ; and C. L. Sherman & Sons, Account Number 257416- 000200, $341. 97 . The Consent Agenda was approved on a motion made by Councilman Cokinos and seconded by Councilman Moore. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000 -62- March 7, 1989 A Public Hearing was opened for consideration of an application filed by Eugene Arceneaux for a license to operate an auto wrecker service to be known as Arceneaux Wrecker Service at 3140 Blanchette Street that would employ five persons and operate four wreckers. Mr. Eugene Arceneaux, Route 6, Box 797, Beaumont, addressed Council in support of his application and to state that the location has been changed to 6901 Fannett Highway and that he will employ four people and operate three wreckers. Mr. Arceneaux stated he has been in operation since 1975 in Fannett and desires to expand his business into Beaumont because he loses preference calls. Mr. Chuck Guillory, 3147 Elinor; Mr. Gene Braquet, owner of Bra-K Wrecker Service at 9293 College; Mr. John Neff, Vice-President of Neff Brothers Automotive Service, 1775 Plum; and Curtis Lumpkin, 5360 College; addressed Council in opposition to another wrecker service receiving a license due to present lack of business for their services and added competition for their companies. Mr. Otho Cooper, 1840 Threadneedle, addressed Council regarding the procedure allowing a wrecker company to pick up a vehicle after an accident and begin to charge storage fees immediately while the owner may be incapacitated, unaware of the location of his vehicle, and unable to make a decision regarding the future of his vehicle. He suggested a lapse of time before storage fees begin to accrue. There being no one else to address Council, the Public Hearing was closed. -000- After a lengthy discussion raising many questions which included proof of need, number of wreckers and companies presently in service, background and equipment checks and licensing procedures, the rotation system for no preference calls, competition control, sub-leasing, insurance, and fees, Councilman Samuel made a motion, seconded by Councilman Lee, to defer action on this item until the next Council Session to evaluate the present wrecker ordinance. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Ordinance No. 89-14 amending the Zoning Ordinance to establish criteria for the warehousing of plastic and rubber materials for use in manufacturing requiring that these warehouses be one-story buildings with a height not to exceed 45 feet on lots with an area of at least 10, 000 square feet, building setback lines at least 20 feet from all property lines, and permitted as a right in Light and Heavy Industrial Zoning Districts, the Central Business District, C-M (Commercial Manufacturing) Districts or allowed specific use permits in GC-MD (General Commercial- Multiple Family) Districts and Planned Unit Developments was considered: -63- March 7, 1989 ORDINANCE NO. 89-14 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 30, OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF BEAUMONT TO PROVIDE A SPECIAL CONDITION REGULATING THE STORAGE OF PLASTIC AND RUBBER MATERIAL; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY AND PROVIDING FOR REPEAL AND PROVIDING A PENALTY. Ordinance No. 89-14 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Smith and seconded by Councilman Lee. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Ordinance No. 89-15 amending the Fire Protection and Prevention Code to allow storage of rubber and plastic materials up to 25, 000 square feet surrounded by one-hour fire walls and smoke barriers was considered: ORDINANCE NO. 89-15 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 10 BY ADDING A NEW SECTION ESTABLISHING REQUIREMENTS FOR THE STORAGE OF PLASTICS AND RUBBER; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING FOR REPEAL AND PROVIDING A PENALTY. Ordinance No. 89-15 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Brumley and seconded by Councilman Lee. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Resolution No. 89-47 recognizing the "Main Street on the Neches" festival to be held September 15-17, 1989, consisting of an Ethnic Heritage Festival, a Jazz Festival, Main Street Alive, and United States Formula I Power Boat Races on the Neches River and authorizing execution of a contract with the U. S. Formula One Racing Association for organizing and conducting the races and establishing a $105,000 budget for the racing event with anticipated festival revenues to provide payment for such expenditures was approved on a motion made by Councilman Lee and seconded by Councilman Brumley. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Councilman Moore thanked those who attended the Community Meeting last Tuesday at Starlight Baptist Church and reported that there was a good discussion; acknowledged Chief Schuldt and the Police Department' s action last Friday night in conducting a drug raid and complimented their ability to work so well with the media. Councilman Moore attended that raid with the Police Department. -64- March 7 , 1989 Councilman Smith reported that the reception for Mr. Riley last week was very well attended and acknowledged the assistance received by the Convention and Visitor' s Bureau and the catering service. CITY MANAGER RILEY: I just might add, I really do appreciate the Council sponsoring such a reception. It--you have been very, very kind and very warm in the reception, in giving me this opportunity, and I really do appreciate how really nice you've been in making me feel welcome. -000- Mr. Joseph Coco, 5770 Viking Drive, addressed Council to complain about the condition of city streets and asked that money be allocated for their repair. Mr. Henry Dannenbaum, 1567 Wall Street, addressed Council to compliment Mayor Meyers for receiving an award from the Texas A & M Club and spoke about public housing conditions. Mr. Forest "Ted" Posey, 3695 Edmonds, addressed Council on various issues. Mr. Larry Gouthia, 5926 Greenwood, addressed Council regarding various suggestions he has previously made regarding potential savings to the City, the use of incarcerated persons for helping pick up litter throughout the city, and expressed his opinion that another wrecker service on the rotation list is not necessary. -000- There being no further business, the regular City Council meeting was recessed to conduct the Workshop Session. -000- I, Barbara Liming, Deputy City Clerk of the City of Beaumont, Texas, certify that the above is a true copy of the Minutes of the regular City Council session held March 7, 1989. Barbara Liming Deputy City Clerk -65- March 7, 1989