City of Timpson

Regular Meeting

Minutes January 15, 2013

The Timpson City Council met for a regular City Council meeting on January 15, 2013at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 456 Jacob Street, Mayor Debra Smith presiding. Councilwoman Ramsey, Mayor Pro-Tem Wolfe, Councilman Walters, Councilman Baker, and Councilman Grace were present. Also present and requesting to speak on item #9 on the agenda was Tracy Lee, Jill Hailey, and Nathan Ramsey speaking for the Timpson Volunteer Ambulance Service and Paul Smith speaking as a concerned citizen also on #9.

  1. Call to Order-Mayor Smith called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm
  2. Invocation- Councilman Ronnie Wolfe gave the invocation
  3. Pledge-United States/Texas
  4. Citizens Input -n/a
  5. Chamber of Commerce- Chamber President, Paul Smith announced the COC’s membership meeting slated for Jan 17 at 5pm and invited the council and the public to attend. He also announced the Ribbon Cutting for the new H & R Block had been rescheduled for Thursday at 2pm and the Ribbon Cutting for the new Timpson Public Library would be Saturday, Jan 19th at 10 am. All were invited to these events.
  6. Council items-Mayor Smith updated the Council on the status of several Grants. It was reported that $15,000 of the USDA grant money had been deposited into the city’s account and that $44900 had been mailed from the Dept of Agriculture and should be arriving soon. The Mayor stated the City would be mailing out payment for the Storm Siren and the 2013 Tahoe in the next few days. It was also reported that the Water Project Grant 710689 was completed and was awaiting audit. Hurricane Ike Round 2 status was reported to be on schedule. The City should be receiving bid information in time to work on Marcus Street in early summer. Mayor Smith stated that Frank Campos has begun his audit of the City’s Accounts for the FY 2011-2012.

Councilman Grace requested to be on the February agenda to discuss a call-out issue that occurred a couple of months ago involving Jacob Duke and his supervisor Tommy Sparks. Mayor Smith agreed to put his on the agenda.

  1. Presentations & Recognitions- Mayor Smith noted for the record that during the December staff and council Christmas party Tommy Sparks was recognized for 25 plus years of service. He received a plaque and a small gift showing the City’s appreciation at that dinner.
  2. FYI- (For Your Information)
  1. Public Works Report for December 2012- Tommy Sparks reported 39 work orders received, 30 resolved. He stated that his department had started setting poles and upgrading the electric service on Rose Hill Rd.
  2. Police Department Report for November and December2012- Chief Graham reported 142 calls for service and 14 arrests for the month of November followed by 144 calls in December with 16 arrests. He stated the department had worked on 255 investigations (cases) for 2012 and had made 162 arrests for the year.
  3. Municipal Court Report Nov/Dec 2012- Mayor Smith gave the reports stating there were 242 citations, 276 violations issued in November, gross revenue reported at $33,832.95. In December there were 182 citations, 218 violations and gross revenue was $15,845.25. Councilman Wolfe asked about the cycle of payments and the Mayor and Chief Graham advised that the payments for the December citations for the most part would be received around January 24th which is the court date for most of the tickets issued in December.
  4. City Secretary-Newly hired, Barbara Hunt was unable to attend her first meeting of the Council due to attending an Election Training Seminar held in Irving Texas January 16-17-18. She left early due to icy road conditions predicted for the Dallas area.

Consent Agenda

Items included under the Consent agenda require little or no deliberation by the council. Approval of the consent agenda authorizes the City Secretary to proceed with the conclusion of each item as reflected in the minutes of the meeting.

  1. Consider approval of the minutes from the Regular Meeting of the City Council on November 20, 2012
  2. Consider approval of minutes from the Special Meeting held on December 17, 2012
  3. Consider approval of Financial Statements for the months of November and December 2012
  4. Consider ratification of the Accounts Paid for the month of December 2012 in the amount of $19,399.56 and electric purchases in the amount of $86,161.88
  5. Consider approval of Accounts Payable for the month of January 2013 in the amount of $26,314.00 and electric purchases of $86,756.20
  6. Consider approval of MLK events organized by John Tutt, Jr.
  7. Consider approval of Old Spanish Trail Rider’s use of SoSo Park facilities on February 16, 2013

After a brief discussion of the items, Councilman Wolfe moved to approve the consent agenda, seconded by Councilwoman Ramsey, all were in favor.

Regular Agenda

9. Consider and possibly take action to eliminate the local EMS dispatch service and have the Sheriff’s Office 9-1-1 dispatch to take over (speakers will be present)- Jill Hailey spoke first (letter handed out with her talking points against terminating local dispatch service) Paul Smith spoke briefly supporting the City’s position that the current system may need to be eliminated and replaced by the more technologically advanced 9-1-1 service.Tracy Lee and Nathan Ramsey both spoke against terminating the local dispatch and both had valid points the council agreed to look into. Jason Terry had asked to speak on behalf of the TVFD but was not able to attend due to a fire. After a lengthy discussion the Council still had areas of concern before making their decision therefore the motion made by Ronnie Wolfe to postpone until the next meeting was seconded by Yvonne Ramsey and all were in favor.

10. Consider an interlocal agreement between the City of Timpson and the Shelby County 9-1-1 dispatch. This item was not taken up due to #9 being postponed.

11. Consider approval of a Resolution of Authority for Austin Bank, Crimestoppers Account # 2800015683. Motion was made by Councilman Ronnie Wolfe and seconded by Councilman George Grace to add Debra Smith, Paula Mullins, and Ronnie Wolfe to the authorized signers Tanya Windham and Stanley Burgay. This would allow two of the authorized signers to remove Tanya Windham per the Council’s November decision. All members were in favor.

12. Consider approval of an Interlocal Agreement between the 123rd DA’s office and The City of Timpson for the purpose of asset forfieture. Mayor Smith instructed the council that she was waiting on further information from Cary Bovey, city attorney and Corby Bittner, TML insurance regarding several issues with this interlocal agreement. Mayor Smith asked that the Council allow her to sign the agreement if (a) the city attorney found no legal issues with the document (b) TML deemed the agreement to be covered by the Errors and Ommissions Coverage in our Liability Policy and (c) the cost of the additional insurance was within reason (max $1500). Councilman Walters made the motion to allow Smith to enter into the agreement if the conditions mentioned above were met, it was seconded by Councilwoman Ramsey and all were in favor.

13. Consider and possibly approve modifications to the current Resolution of Authority on the two Timpson Volunteer Fire Department Accounts # 4636221 and 4636114.The council voted all in favor following a motion by Councilman Josh Walter and a second by Councilman Wolfe to remove Tanya Windham and Kristie Branch as authorized signatories on the two accounts noted as TVFD accounts. Two separate resolutions were prepared for Austin Bank.

14. Consider advertising for bids on the Park Mowing Contract currently held by Gareth Yoder for 12 months ending in April 2013. Following a brief discussion of the great job being done by Gareth Yoder a motion was offered by Ronnie Wolfe and seconded by Janell Baker to offer the contract to Mr. Yoder for another 12 months if he would accept it for the same money. All members were in favor. Mayor Smith agreed to make this offer to Mr. Yoder an let the Council know of his decision at the next meeting.

15. Executive Session pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.074

16. Executive Session pursuant to Texas Government Code section 551.072

The Council retired to Executive Session at 7:22 pm to discuss personnel matters and the acquisition of real property in the City Limits of Timpson.

18. Reconvene- The council reconvened at 7:41 p.m.

19. Consider allowing the Mayor to hire a part time employee for approximately 8 hours per week for 12 weeks at $8.00 per hour to work on records retention issues. After a brief discussion, Councilman Wolfe made a motion to allow the Mayor to hire a part time employee and Councilwoman Ramsey seconded the motion. All members were in favor. Mayor Smith advised she would be contacting Caitlyn Smith about the job.

20. Consider authorizing the Mayor to enter into negotiations and possibly sign an earnest money contract to purchase real property within the City of Timpson. After a brief discussion, Councilman George Grace made a motion seconded by Mayor Pro-Tem Wolfe to allow the Mayor to enter into price negotiations for the real property discussed in Executive Session. All were in favor.

21. Adjourn- Councilman Grace moved to adjourn at 8:43 p.m, all were in favor.

City of Timpson

______

Debra Pate Smith, Mayor

(THE STATE OF TEXAS)

COUNTY OF SHELBY)

CERTIFICATION

I, Barbara Hunt, City Secretary of the City of Timpson, do hereby certify that I am the custodian of the records of the City of Timpson, Texas, and that the following are true and correct copies of the Minutes of Regular City Council Meeting held on January 15, 2013.

Witness my hand and official seal of the City of Timpson, Texas on this 22ndday of January 22, 2013

______

Barbara Hunt,

City Secretary, City of Timpson, Texas