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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN JULY 11 1989 REGULAR SESSION CITY COUNCIL - CITY OF BEAUMONT HELD JULY 11, 1989 - 1: 15 P.M. BE IT REMEMBERED that the City Council of the City of Beaumont, Texas, met in regular session this the 11th day of July, 1989, with the following present: HONORABLE: Maurice Meyers Mayor Andrew P. Cokinos Councilman At Large Lulu L. Smith Councilman, Ward I Michael Brumley Councilman, Ward II Audwin Samuel Councilman, Ward III David W. Moore Councilman, Ward IV Absent: Bob Lee, Jr. Mayor Pro Tem Councilman At Large Ray A. Riley City Manager Lane Nichols City Attorney Rosemarie Chiappetta City Clerk -000- The Invocation was given by Councilman Audwin Samuel. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Cliff Walston, a Boy Scout visiting Council and working toward a government merit badge. -000- MAYOR MEYERS• . . .I do want to take a moment and share with Council this poster that we've just received from Beppu. It' s the Oita Wheelchair Marathon poster, and at 5:00 p.m. tonight I 'm going to place a long distance call to Mayor Nakamura, the mayor of Beppu. And, next week representing the Sister City Commission, two things are going to happen. Charlie Gibbs has been able to secure free transportation over to Japan, and he' s going to carry some specific details and meet with the Mayor representing our Sister City Commission, but at the same time he is going to enroll and represent Mr. Todd Freeland, who representing the Mayor' s Committee for Employment of Disabled will be competing in the 9th International Oita Wheelchair Marathon. That' s November 5, 1989. Todd is an outstanding young man here in Beaumont. And, actually at this point, he' ll be representing the State of Texas as well. And, he is now going to be going over and training with a World Class Wheelchair Marathon person in New Orleans helping Todd to prepare for it. The Committee has secured funds for a competitive wheelchair from private sources, and they have this training outlined for him, and in probably the next couple-three weeks, they' ll have Todd come and -170- July 11, 1989 meet all of you at Council, if you haven' t met him before. But, he' s an outstanding young guy and he' s going to represent the City of Beaumont, as well as all of the State of Texas, in the upcoming Oita International Wheelchair Marathon. It' s a massive effort, and it' s the world-wide event for wheelchair marathons. It' s held outside of Beppu in Oita Province. So, that came today, and they met this morning, and they have completed all of the details, and Charlie Gibbs will actually be taking. . .they've got loads of application forms, but the only one signing up is Todd Freeland representing our city. So, it' s a name that you' ll hear more about. They' re going to be outfitting him with the proper Beaumont uniform and all the rest of the stuff. . .That really is all, but I wanted to call that to your attention. -000- Mayor Meyers announced the Workshop Session will be conducted today in the 3rd Floor Conference Room following the Regular Session. -000- Mr. Anthony Holmes, liaison to Council from the Lamar Student Government Association and protege' of Councilman Samuel, made a special presentation to Council. ANTHONY HOLMES• Thank you, Mayor, for giving me a chance to speak to you all today. As you know, I 'm no longer working with Councilman Samuel anymore due to school and my new position as S.C.A. President. But, I wanted to come by and say thank-you to all of City Council and all of Beaumont, because without you I wouldn' t have achieved the successes that I 've achieved. Through the Mayor for a Day Program which I was Beaumont' s first Mayor for a Day was a truly worthwhile program, and I hope to see it go on. The school project which I was a part of was a worthwhile program. I think the Southend needed something like that, and I hope to see something like that in the future. And, Councilman Samuel who was my mentor, my friend, and all-around teacher who helped me get my foot in the door, helped me secure an internship in Washington, D.C. with a congressman this summer, which I had to turn down when I decided to run for president. Like I said, I just wanted to come by and say thank-you to you all, and on behalf of the Lamar Student Body and Lamar, I 'd like to present to you some inaugural glasses which was from our inaugural banquet which was held April 22nd, and what it is is a champagne glass set with the inscription, "April 22, 1989--Toast of Leadership Banquet, " which is an annual banquet which we toast all of our leaders on campus at that point and time, and also our new incoming president gives us an inaugural address and outgoing president gives his farewell address. So, I just want to come by and say thank-you and give you this small token of my appreciation. (Anthony distributed the commemorative goblets to the Mayor, Council, City Manager, and City Attorney. ) -171- July 11, 1989 MAYOR MEYERS: Thank you very much, Anthony. We appreciate you taking time to do that. . .You've been an excellent representative of the University here at Council. . . COUNCILMAN BRUMLEY: Thanks, Anthony. I 've enjoyed meeting and working with you around on the 3rd floor. It' s been a lot of fun. COUNCILMAN SAMUEL: I 'd like to say I truly enjoyed having the opportunity to work with you. I met Anthony at Leadership Lamar retreat a couple of years ago, and he expressed his interest in local government, and I took it to be a passing comment, but following that he continuously asked me if I, he would be able to work with me, and I truly enjoyed working with you, and I know you' ll be very successful, and I wish you the best. COUNCILMAN MOORE: I, too, have appreciated your effort here, but I 'm not going to say like I 've enjoyed working with you, I 'm looking forward working with you at Lamar while you serve as the S.G.A. president, and all, and look forward to you assisting me again and making Ward IV a better place and whatever I can do to help you while at Lamar, hey, I 'm here! Thanks again. MAYOR MEYERS: Anthony, thank you again. We appreciate your thoughtfulness and the fact that you've been so consistent in being here at Council and communicating back to Lamar University. COUNCILMAN COKINOS: May I also say that you have a bright future, so keep up the good work. MAYOR MEYERS: Do you know who would be replacing you, or, have they looked at that? ANTHONY HOLMES• Yes, I 've appointed a gentleman by the name of Chuck Martinez. . .as liaison for the fall. -000- Citizen comment was invited on the Consent and Regular Agenda items. No one wished to address Council. -172- July 11, 1989 The following Consent Agenda items were considered: Resolution No. 89-141 authorizing purchase of a trailer mounted 12-inch brush chipper to be used by the Parks Division to pulverize tree trimmings for disposal in the amount of $11,630. 00 from Dietz Tractor Company; Resolution No. 89-142 authorizing an annual contract for modified asphalt crack sealing compound for use by the Streets and Drainage Department at $ . 29 per pound for an estimated quantity of 44,000 pounds at an estimated total of $12,760. 00 with Crafco Texas, Inc. ; and Resolution No. 89-143 authorizing payment of $10,318.00 for emergency abatement of asbestos at the Tyrrell Historical Library to Premium Construction, Inc. The Consent Agenda Agenda was approved on a motion made by Councilman Cokinos and seconded by Councilman Moore. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Resolution No. 89-144 authorizing a commitment to provide water and sanitary sewer service to the proposed site for a State Correctional Facility south of the city limits (according to plans developed by the Water Utilities Department, at no cost to the Texas Department of Corrections and to be included as part of an incentive package to be presented to them to show desirability of the site) was approved on a motion made by Councilman Moore and seconded by Councilman Cokinos. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Ordinance No. 89-38 authorizing increasing taxicab rates for pickup and the first one-eight of a mile at $ . 80 and $. 10 for each one-eighth of a mile thereafter to $1. 00 for pickup and the first one-tenth of a mile and $. 10 for each one-tenth mile thereafter and increasing the rate for waiting time from $ . 15 per minute or $9. 00 per hour to $ . 25 per minute or $15. 00 per hour was considered: ORDINANCE NO. 89-38 ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 29, SECTION 29-52(b) OF THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF BEAUMONT BY AMENDING THE RATE AND FARE SCHEDULE FOR TAXICABS; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY PROVIDING FOR REPEAL AND PROVIDING A PENALTY. Ordinance No. 89-38 was approved on a motion made by Councilman Cokinos and seconded by Councilman Smith. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -173- July 11, 1989 MAYOR MEYERS• I would want to add one comment. I think we have an operator in the audience. This morning at our meeting for the Mayor' s Committee, as I mentioned earlier, another subject that I think is becoming more apparent is that through tremendous effort on the parts of all of our cities, we are seeing to it that we create work opportunities for handicapped. They spoke this morning of the earnings of a gentleman who has an IQ, I think of some 26 or 27, who had been able to earn in about the last six or seven years some $50,000. The critical aspect for most of these people appears to be transportation. Perhaps within your organization and group, all I 'm suggesting today is maybe there' s an opportunity for the taxi people to come back and originate something that would offer special rates and special prices for handicapped individuals who might need that form of transportation just to get to work or to get home. Many times the hours of their work is so unusual that the normal modes of transportation don' t work. They threw this out in discussion so I mention it and perhaps you can feed this into some of your associates in the taxicab business and maybe do something more helpful there. MR. DALE BEAN: Council, I 'm Dale Bean. I own a cab company. I took it over last September. We are hauling a lot of the handicapped people--regular customers daily. You know, we have lots, a lot of our business is just to and from work people, and I 'm working some of the handicapped. So, we have, we know we work with them in anyway we can. We do have special rates. Some of them aren' t even run on the meter. They just have certain rates. They give us plenty of time to pick them up so we can work them in, but we' re working with them every way we can. MAYOR MEYERS• That' s great! It' s something that' s going to continue (to be) , I think, more and more important, and you have opportunity to communicate with other cab operators. My thought today is just that you might start putting that into conversation with them so that it might be something that all would be receptive to doing. MR. BEAN: Yes sir. I 've even put on, I 'm putting on another station wagon so as far as the wheelchairs and things of this nature. Some of them don' t fold up. We don' t have, you know, the equipment so far as the big vans yet. Insurance situation, we' re trying to work on that. That' s so bad when you get to the vans and stuff. MAYOR MEYERS• You may want to check with the Municipal System. When they get, I think, three replacement vans, they have three vans that are high mileage vans, but they are probably going to be. . . -174- July 11, 1989 MR. BEAN: I talked to one individual there. They are supposed to contact me when they, when one of those vans, when they' re going to replace it or whatever, we' re going to try to work something out. More and more we' re hauling the handicapped. COUNCILMAN MOORE: Before you sit down, I would only like to add one other thing. The Mayor' s Committee, which is an excellent committee in the things that they do. There is also another group that is formed out there and is very interested in trying to help in regards to handicapped is a group called SEASET, and their concern was the fact that handicapped people after their normal days of public transportation, be it the City service or relatives, they are somewhat prohibited from taking part in other enjoyable events such as maybe going to a movie or things of that particular nature because the bus service doesn' t run on Sunday. And they were looking for some people to work with an effort that they could put together a special project. Since you do have in place some effort right now through your own service, it may be a group that might want to work with you and help you along that way. MR. BEAN: We' ll be glad to. Some of the, like I say, some of the handicapped now they call, in fact, they will ask for a certain driver. You know what I mean. Some of them have to be picked up and things like this. Some of our drivers are capable and some aren' t, and they know who to ask for. And, you know they' ll call, like I say, give us plenty of time so we can get that time available. But, I 'd work with them anyway I can. MAYOR MEYERS: Thank you a lot. -000- Resolution No. 89-145 awarding an annual contract to Beaumont Products and Services, Inc. for providing custodial services at the Beaumont Health Department facilities in the amount of $2,125 per month or $25,500 per year was approved on a motion made by Councilman Smith and seconded by Councilman Samuel. Question: Ayes: All Nayes: None -000- Councilman Brumley shared experiences of the July 4th Fireworks and Lazer Display at Riverfront Park, expressed appreciation for the collective teamwork and Council support, commended Dr. Carlucci and the musicians for their tenacity in performing in spite of the inclement weather, commended the enthusiasm of the citizens committed to -175- July 11, 1989 celebrate the nation' s day of independence, thanked the corporate contributors for their financial backing, and stated it was a good event and looked forward to next year' s celebration. Councilman Cokinos recognized the tenacity and determination of Councilman Brumley in finalizing a very successful 4th of July celebration which at least 20,000 people witnessed and enjoyed. Councilman Cokinos thanked Mr. Riley for immediately taking care of the deplorable condition in front of the City Auditorium (Julie Rogers Theater) , questioned the employment percentages in Enterprise Zones, said he has received reports that at 785 Peyton there are hospital wastes stored in an empty garage and at 795 Peyton there is hospital waste and recycling cans in the driveway and asked Staff to check the situation. Councilman Moore stated he was proud to participate and support Councilman Brumley in the July 4th activities and that it was a good event. Councilman Samuel commended Councilman Brumley' s leadership and said it was good to see the people enjoying the fireworks display and stated he thinks it will be a festivity that will become another landmark in Beaumont. Councilman Samuel asked Mr. Riley to contact the Transit System regarding the feasibility of extending a bus route passed the Municipal Complex, and requested an ethnic breakdown in professional and executive positions by department held within the City during 1987, 1988 , and 1989. Councilman Smith said she could not find words enough to praise the efforts of Councilman Brumley as director of the 4th of July celebration and said the Staff needs special commendation for doing a fantastic job and hanging in until the end in spite of all the problems evolving from the rainy weather. Councilman Smith invited everyone to attend "Concerts on the Move," Thursday, July 13th, at 7 : 00 p.m. to hear Vince Vance and the Valiants with the Valianettes. Mayor Meyers reported that Councilman Lee is out of the city on business and unable to attend Council, commended Mr. Riley on his remarks to department and division directors relative to the Citizen Friendly Policy adopted by Council. He said, "This isn' t a program that has succeeded or failed. This is a program that has to be continued and become a way of life. " Evidenced by Mr. Riley' s remarks, Mayor Meyers said the City Manager has a complete understanding how important this is to the citizens of the community and complimented Mr. Riley for his leadership. -000- Mrs. Delia Harrington, 815 Willow Street, addressed Council to compliment the Fireworks Display, complained about the synchronization of traffic signals on Willow and Park Street, and complimented Mr. Riley on the follow-up of the Citizen Friendly Policy -176- July 11, 1989 Mrs. Diana Copeland, 1652 Avenue I , addressed Council to thank the Public Works Department for the drainage assistance on Corley Street and Avenue I, but stated it is not adequate. Homes are still flooding in that area, and said a nearby railroad crossing adds to the problem. Mr. Brian Carpenter, P. 0. Box 8415, Lumberton, Texas, addressed Council as an applicant for the Beaumont Police Department to complain about the hiring procedures and charged discrimination against him. Mr. John Stevens, 7530 Pebble Beach Drive, addressed Council regarding the condition of Walden Road, cited a recent accident caused by a pot hole, suggested the City seek Federal and Drainage District 6 financial assistance for rehabilitation of Walden Road, stated that last year' s traffic study for Walden Road is out of date because of new construction in the area, and asked for feedback regarding a time period for repair and offered assistance from residents. Mr. Mark Asteris, 7460 Pebble Beach, addressed Council as President of the Civic Association with 71 homeowners, stating they have already sent a letter and petition relative to the condition of Walden Road to the City, requested an indication from Council regarding the future of this problem, and invited the Mayor to speak at their next neighborhood meeting. Mr. Roy Brittain, 7540 Pebble Beach, addressed Council and reported he was involved in an accident on Walden Road, while traveling 25 miles per hour he hit a pot hole, slipped into a ditch and collided with a tree causing damage to the rear of his automobile. After reporting the incident to the City, the road was immediately repaired, but he said it is only a temporary repair and will not last. -000- Mayor Meyers welcomed Mrs. Maree Calcote, Chairman of the Clean Community Commission, and expressed to her his congratulations for her leadership in attaining the award for Beaumont being the cleanest city in Texas in its category. Councilman Moore said while he was in Houston yesterday, he received many congratulatory remarks concerning the award Beaumont received and added his thanks to Mrs. Calcote for her efforts. -000- There being no other business, the meeting was recessed before continuing with the City Council Workshop Session in the 3rd Floor Conference Room. I, Rosemarie Chiappetta, 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 July 11, 1989. Rosemarie Chiappetta City Clerk -177- July 11, 1989