City Council's Frightening Agenda

San Angelo City Council's agenda packet for their October 21 meeting is a scary 868 pages long.  I searched for it Friday and Saturday to no avail.  It appeared today in the form of two documents. 

There are other spooky items besides health insurance.  They include:

1)  Potential concerns over the proposed use of the subject property as a sand transloading facility has prompted the request to provide an informational briefing, clarifying the distinguishing allowed uses within the Light Manufacturing Zoning District versus those that are allowed within the Heavy Manufacturing Zoning District. Residents in the adjacent neighborhoods to the east and west of the subject property are fearful of a significant increase in heavy truck traffic, in additional to the likelihood of potentially harmful sand particles going airborne, threatening the health of both children and adults living in the area. 

Note:  City Councilwoman Elizabeth Grindstaff's role with Texas Pacifco is to help locate new rail oriented businesses in our community.  Her district will likely have some impact from offloaded sand.  When the north wind blows sand dust could fall in Santa Rita. 

Southwest Orient Properties, LLC is the sand offloading proprietor.  Local citizen and MedHab angel investor Lee Pfluger is the only officer and director of Southwest Orient.

2)  Refinancing Series 2007-A Certificates of Obligation for water capital projects. Refinancing will allow the negotiation of a lower interest rate and will create savings for the City.

There will be deal fees associated with recalling the current bonds and issuing new ones.  It will be interesting to hear more details about projected savings and the new term of the obligation.

3)  Staff recommends the City Council authorize staff to negotiate and execute a contract with with Fugro Roadware, Inc. for professional services per Request for Qualifications (RFQ) ES-01-14 Professional Services – Professional Services for Pavement Data Collection and Pavement Management.   Professional Services for Pavement Data Collection and Pavement Management will not exceed $185,000. The funding for this project has been budgeted in FY 2014 -2015.

The lack of staff engineers will cost the city in yet another way.  Look for more details on what's included.  Hopefully, a council representative will ask why the city has to contract out engineering functions it used to complete in house.

4)  Staff recommends purchase of SunGard software in support of City Council priority to “improve the development process,” realizing greater efficiencies due to the ability to perform electronic plan submissions and review, mobile building inspections, automated plan status notifications, and the like.  Financial impact:  $276,876 (one-time cost) plus $46,120 (recurring annual maintenance)

The development software will integrate with SunGard's engineering application.  It's not clear if the city is using other SunGard applications at this time.

5)  Staff requests consideration of authorizing the payment of West Texas Water Partnership invoices as they are received. Currently, all invoices are reviewed by the City Council prior to payment.  Staff recommends automating the process for payment of invoices related to charges for the West Texas Water Partnership.

This proposal comes from the transparency Gold level Finance Department.

There's more fun to be had at this meeting.  The City's Health Department will do something other than shrink as it looks for approval of

6)  A Resolution of the City of San Angelo, Texas City Council Authorizing the City Manager to Ratify the Application, Execute an Agreement and Accept the Department of State Health Services Supplemental FY2015 Health Promotions & Chronic Disease Prevention – Texas Health Communities Grant funds in the amount of $50,000.00.

This isn't the first time staff asked for approval of a grant it already submitted.  The city's contributions will be:

Health Administration will work as the liaison for the TXHC Self-Assessment and work with DSHS Program Staff to devise a plan of action based on the results of the Assessment. The Health Department has no prior history with this grant.

The Assessment is due November 15th and the Project Work Plan December 15th.  DSHS will not devise the plan of action, as stated by Health Services Manager Sandra Villareal.  The program specifies the contractor, the City of San Angelo, will complete both the Assessment and Work Plan. 

San Angelo has public health in the shallowest of ways compared to services offered two decades ago.  This grant will not stem the reduction tide under Villareal.

That's enough fright for one post. We'll see if the council meeting makes these issues more of less terrifying.