Mayor
Dee Grimm
Councilmen
Dwayne Padalecki
Doug Thomas
Susann Baker
Deborah McInerney
John Hafner
City Secretary
Barbara Pawelek
Minutes of the Regular Council Meeting
August 3, 2017
1. CALL MEETING TO ORDER
Mayor Dee Grimm called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm. The meeting was held at the American Legion Hall.
2. ROLL CALL AND ESTABLISH A QUORUM
Roll call was taken. Members present were Councilman Dwayne Padalecki, Councilman Doug Thomas, Councilwoman Deborah McInerney, and Councilman John Hafner. Councilwoman Susann Baker was absent. A quorum was established. Barbara Pawelek presided as City Secretary.
3. READING AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes to approve were from the city council meeting of July 6, 2017. Councilman John Hafner moved to accept the minutes as written. Councilwoman Deborah McInerney seconded the motion. All were in favor; the minutes were approved.
4. READING AND APPROVAL OF THE FINANCIAL SUMMARY
The financial summary was for June 2017.
Councilman John Hafner moved to approve the financial summary.
Councilman Doug Thomas seconded the motion. All were in favor; the June financial summary was approved.
5. REPORT FROM FIRE DEPARTMENT
Fire Chief Larry Padalecki gave the report for the fire department. In June there were 96 calls. In July there were 74 calls.
The burn ban is in effect for Bexar County.
6. REPORT FROM CODE COMPLIANCE
Kim Fornof gave the report for Code Compliance. There were 4 building permits issued this month: 1 residential, 1 manufactured home; 2 accessory building permits.
Construction is coming along nicely on the new school.
There has been a lot of calls from real estate agents questioning if we would subdivide less than 5 acres.
For a complete report, you can see it on our website at sainthedwigcity.org under Code Compliance Reports.
7. PLANNING AND ZONING – Discuss and Take Action
a.) Appointment of Code Compliance Officer as a non-voting member of the P&Z Commission
Councilwoman Deborah McInerney made a motion to have the Code Compliance member, Kim Fornof, as a non-voting member of the P&Z Commission.
Councilman John Hafner seconded the motion. All were in favor; motion approved.
b.) Swear in newly elected officials on the Planning and Zoning Commission
Mayor Grimm swore in the following P&Z Commissioners giving them the Oath of Office:
Clifton Low
Steve Robinette
Raelyn Stolowski
Donna Solarczyk
8. CITIZENS TO BE HEARD
Curtis Rayl, 14122 LaVernia Rd, opposed to BOA Variance for less than 5 acre minimum lots. Move out here in the country to be in the country atmosphere.
Mitch Adams, 3702 Kusmierz Rd, opposed to BOA Variance for less than 5 acres. Wants to keep the minimum 5 acres. Moved out here to be in the country as well.
Wanda Polasek, 13810 Nave Way, wanted to commend the city officials for the master plan workshop this evening. She wants to keep the subdivisions out, citizens moved out here to be away from that and she is in favor of the 5 acre minimum.
Linda Doege, 14855 E. Lupon Rd, Representative from the St. Hedwig American Legion Post 539 Ladies Auxiliary, updated Council on events going on in the community. They will be holding a craft show on November 11. They just completed the baby needs drive, and are now helping collect school supplies. They applied for a grant and received it, so they will be use it for the renovation of Slim’s Alley.
Samantha Baerman, 15499 Miller Road, with the school coming, she would like to start a Health care learning center in our community.
Janie Duplantis, 3810 E FM 1518 N, her property is adjacent to the property that requested the BOA variance for the subdivision. She is strongly opposed to the variance of less than 5 acres.
Karen Germo, 4425 Stapper Rd, opposed to the variance as well. She wants to keep the rural community. She thanked the previous P&Z Commission for the work they had done.
Christopher Herron, 3928 Abbott Rd, has a public safety issue where he resides 1 mile south of 1518 on Abbott Rd, which this portion of Abbott Rd floods on an average rain. With the new neighborhood coming in, the flooding will worsen and it will be a public safety issue. All the water will be in his place and his neighbors. Something needs to be done about the water transfer system because it is not working.
Debra Rayl, 14122 LaVernia Rd, opposes the BOA Variance for less than the 5 acre minimum, they moved out here to be in the country and want to keep it that way.
Beth Jones, 14764 Felix Rd, opposes the BOA Variance, begged council to fight this. Wants to keep the 5 acre minimum.
Edward Cielencki, 655 N. Graytown Rd, opposed to letting ESD getting any more sales tax. He also opposes the BOA Variance for anything less than the 5 acre minimum.
Ralph Real, 830 N. Graytown Rd, has property on the backside of Abbott Road, directly from the subdivision coming in. He received a letter saying the variance is requesting lots of 40x120. He is strongly opposed to this as well.
Buck Benson, 2161 NW Military Dr STE 400, is the attorney representing the developer, who is requesting the variance, wanted to state for the record it is not for a mobile home park.
Louise Martin, 3190 Pittman Rd, wants council to listen to the citizens who are in support of the 5 acre minimum. Our resources are stretched too much now as it is.
9. OLD BUSINESS
A. ROADS
Councilman Doug Thomas gave the road report.
1. Texas Road Repair made repairs to the drainage pipe at Miller and Lupon Rd.
2. Mark and Jordan removed dumped brush on old Saint Hedwig Road.
3. Jordan trimmed trees around stop sign at Miller and Lupon road.
4. Mr. Seiler shredded all the roads in Saint Hedwig.
5. Ronnie Mills will be spraying the shoulders of all the roads in Saint Hedwig.
B. CITY PARK
Nothing new to report.
C. MONTHLY CRIME STAT REPORT
The crime stat report was for June and July. There were a total of 9 crimes in the area.
To see a detail listing, please visit our website at sainthedwigcity.org.
D. UPDATE ON WILSON COUNTY ILA.
Mayor Grimm said in the ETJ, we are required to have an interlocal agreement with the County that the ETJ sits in. Currently we have an interlocal agreement with Bexar County, which gives them the authority with permitting and platting of the properties in the ETJ. We are working to get a similar interlocal agreement with Wilson County. We have been working with them for some time now but haven’t gotten a whole lot of response. Currently we do not have any subdivision pending in the Wilson County ETJ, but will continue to work with them on this.
10. NEW BUSINESS
e. BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT
Mayor Grimm explained that a lot of citizens were here for item E. the BOA, so she felt she wanted to move this item up and discuss it now.
1. Appointment of BOA Alternate – Discuss and Take Action.
The Mayor said since the individual that expressed interest in being an alternate on the BOA is not here, we will table this item.
2. Discuss issues related to recent BOA meeting and application for variance application filed by landowners Robert Guerra and Edna Aimee Guerra for property located at 4282 E. FM 1518 N in St. Hedwig
The meeting to hear this variance will not be held and the reason is because in consultation with our city attorneys it has been determined that the Board of Adjustment does not have the authority to hear this variance. What this variance is asking for is not a variance from the zoning ordinance; its asking to change the zoning ordinance. The Board of Adjustment does not have the authority to do that. We have sent a letter to the landowner’s attorney to let them know we will not hear this variance. We have given them other mechanisms that they can follow within our ordinances if they choose, and that would be to redirect this through the Planning and Zoning Commission, holding public hearings giving the citizens to have their input, and then the P&Z would go to the city council with their recommendation, which would require a change to the zoning ordinance.
a. DISCUSS AND TAKE ACTION ON PROPOSED TAX RATE FOR 2017-2018
City Secretary, Barbara Pawelek, explained that we received from Bexar Appraisal District our proposed tax rate. The effective tax rate would be 0.410632, which is slightly lower than our current tax rate which is 0.424091.
Going with BCAD’s proposed tax rate would bring in approximately $20,000 more than last year. Our tax levy is $561,951.
What council needs to decide tonight, is whether to go with BCAD’s effective tax rate of 0.410632 to use as our "Proposed Tax Rate", or pick another tax rate and hold the public hearings. Once this is decided, we can submit it to BCAD, and publish our Proposed tax rate and the Budget Public Hearing in the paper.
Councilman John Hafner moved to accept the proposed effective tax rate from BCAD of 0.410632. Councilwoman Deborah McInerney seconded the motion.
Councilman John Hafner and Councilwoman Deborah McInerney were in favor of the effective tax rate; Councilman Doug Thomas and Councilman Dwayne Padalecki were against the effective tax rate; which was a split vote; therefore the Mayor had to decide the vote. Mayor Grimm was in favor of BCAD’s effective tax rate of 0.410632. Motion passed.
The next thing that will happen will be the proposed budget will come out which will have an opportunity to be looked at and hold a public hearing within 30 days of coming out. This is not the adopted rate; we will adopt the rate and approve the budget at the next meeting.
b. BEXAR CO ESD#12 FOR .05% SALES TAX AVAILABLE
Leon Nichols, President of ESD#12. What they are asking for is in the City of St. Hedwig, there is still ½ cent of sales tax still available. ESD is asking for that to offset some of their expenses. Because of the increase of calls, they are having to have more paid staff, and because they are limited to 10 cents of ad valorem tax, we need more funds, which would provide them about $2,000 a month just for the City of St. Hedwig.
Mr. Nichols said according to the State Comptroller’s Office, the City is collecting 1% sales tax and there is still an additional ½ cent left. Mayor Grimm said she would like to look into since this is the first time this came up.
Mr. Nichols said once the sales tax is given to the ESD, it becomes the ESD’s. If the City ever decided to use the extra 1/2 cent , it would no longer be theirs. Once it is given up, its given up.
Councilman Doug Thomas made a motion to table this item till next meeting.
Councilwoman Deborah McInerney seconded the motion. All were in favor; motion was approved.
c. OCCUPANCY LIMIT AT CITY HALL
Mayor Grimm explained that she knows there were a lot of citizens concerned last meeting that citizens were not able to get into the city hall because of the large crowd. She wanted to explain to the citizens what the situation was.
The day before the meeting, a citizen contacted the Fire Chief and questioned the occupancy limit in the city hall, and the Mayor was duty bound to contact the Fire Marshall for the safety of the citizens, and we did not have an occupancy limit.
Our occupancy limit is only 49 people because of the one exit door that goes directly outside. That is the reason we are holding this meeting here at the American Legion Hall. The Mayor said we need to find a way to make this work. We cannot continue to move around meetings, not knowing what numbers will attend. We want to look at some ideas or strategies for either people to attend meetings or virtually attend city meetings or we can structurally change the city hall by adding an additional door.
d. ST. HEDWIG FACEBOOK PAGE
Mayor Grimm explained that by creating a City Facebook page, we could put out announcements, update things and an area where citizens can ask questions and to be more interactive. Also is the ability to video their public meetings and post them on face book and citizens can see the entire meeting. This is good for people who cannot come in to the meeting because they do not have the ability to do so. By creating a Face book page this will increase the ways to create communication between the City and the public.
Mayor Grimm said she is not the Facebook guru, but do have members on council that are. It is a low cost method of better communication with the public.
Councilwoman Deborah McInerney moved to create a City Facebook Page.
Councilman Doug Thomas seconded the motion.
Councilman Dwayne Padalecki questioned who will maintain the Facebook Page since we have limited resources?
Councilwoman McInerney said she will be the Administer of the Facebook Page.
Councilman Padalecki questioned who will maintain it when Councilwoman McInerney is no longer on city council?
Councilwoman McInerney said you can have multiple administrators. Councilman Hafner agreed and said he can help.
All were in favor; motion was approved.
11. ANNOUNCEMENTS
· Happy Labor Day!
· Johnny Bush will be at the American Legion Hall on August 12th
12. AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING Sept 14 , 2017 at 7:00 PM, CITY COUNCIL MEETING IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING