City breaks ground on Public Safety Facility, contracts CDBG admin, confirms record charter vote

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

November has been bustling in the City of Marble Falls with the groundbreaking for the Avenue N Public Safety Facility on Nov. 14 and city council meetings Nov. 15 to set sewer repairs in motion and Nov. 21 to canvass the record charter amendment vote.

On Nov. 15

The $275,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) announced last month and another proposed for $300,000 in 2017-18 will be administered by Langford Community Management Services of Leander, following the decision by the Marble Falls City Council Tuesday, Nov. 15.

Langford was the only company of seven qualified service companies contacted by the city to bid for the $30,000 contracts, but it came with staff recommendation.

“I have been working with the city since 1997,” said Langford's Margaret Hardin.

Finance Director Margie Cardenas said she would be working with Hardin on the search for an engineer for the 2016 grant replace to a sewer line along the alley between Avenue K and Avenue J.

The grants require city matching funds. In the case of the current grant, the city will contribute $55,000 bringing the total of the project to $330,000, including the $30,000 to Langford for administrative services.

The grant proposed for the 2017-2018 grant cycle would replace two deteriorating clay sewer lines along an alley between Broadway Street and Avenue P, and the other along First Street and Avenue L.

The policy that the company that prepares a grant application become the administrator is a new governmental provision. However, Cardenas said that $30,000 contract with Langford was provisional.

“They agreed to prepare the application at no cost,” she said. “If it is funded, they will charge the $30,000 for administrative services.

Hardin explained that the CDBG program of federal funds, awarded by the Texas Department of Agriculture, pass applications first through regional review.

“The The Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG) decided, since costs are still rising, that the limit for the grants for cities the size of Marble Falls would be increased to $300,000 with a 20 percent match. That could go to $60,000.”

City Engineer Eric Belaj, who walked the council schematics of line conditions and replacement, noted that targeted areas coincide with CDBG requirements to serve areas of particular socio-economic needs.

Also at the meeting, the council approved an agreement with the Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department for the Marble Falls Police Department to provide dispatching services.

“This request came to us in July,” said Police Chief Mark N. Whitacre, who attended with Communications Manager Stacy Baker Marberry. “This will encompass calls from Emergency Service District 6, the City of Meadowlakes and all of the Marble Falls Extraterritorial Jurisdiction.”

In other action, the council appointed members to the Zoning Advisory Committee (ZAC) to work with City Planner Elizabeth Yeh and other staff and their consultant, Halff Associates, Inc., to develop and update Land Use Regulations/Zoning Regulations and associated City development codes.

No date has been set for the first of the many meetings the ZAC will conduct over the next 1-2 years, but the committee is to include Mayor Pro Tem Jane Marie Hurst, former mayor Richard Westerman and Norman Reed from the council; Steve Reitz, Darlene Oostermeyer and Gregg Mills from the Planning & Zoning Commission, and citizen or business representatives Brian Shirley, Jim Weber, Matt Fields, Dave Plante, John Page and Steve Nash.

General Election Vote Canvass

The meeting of the Marble Falls City Council Monday, Nov. 21, made it official: all but two of eight amendments to the city charter passed by three and a half times the voters of any other election this century.

The meeting was the formal canvassing of the 2,303 votes cast on Nov. 8. On a wave of presidential balloting, the city enjoyed a turnout that had never been equalled.

In Burnet County, 67.24 percent of 28,938 registered voters went to the polls. In Marble Falls it was 57.6 percent of 3,997 registered voters.

Occasionally since 1980, voters in a mayoral decision have edged past 600. That happened in 2001 (625 votes) and 2009 (645 votes). But by and large, decisions in the city are made by 500 or fewer voters.

Since the Home Rule City Charter was adopted by 168 voters in 1986, this was only the third time a Charter Advisory Committee had been asked to bring amendments forward to voters. That process is allowed every two years under state law. The eight propositions endorsed by the council concerned language of the charter and were described as required to comply with state law or needed for smoother city operation.

Not every voter cast a vote for every proposition and a majority were leery on two of them.

Proposition 4 to allow facsimile signatures on the value of checks to be increased from $5,000 to $15,000, was rejected by 51.61 percent of 1,740 voters (898 votes “no”) to 48.39 percent (843 votes “yes”).

Proposition 5 to provide that the City Manager be required to present financial reports to the City Council on a bi-annual basis instead of a monthly basis also was defeated by a slightly larger margin among 1,756 voters. The vote was 56.03 percent (or 989 votes “no”) to 43.97 percent (or 776 votes “yes”).

All the other propositions carried:

Proposition 1 to require that newly elected or re-elected council members or mayor must take the oath of office within 30 days of the election or the office will become vacant: 91.7 percent (1,699) to 8.30 percent (151) of 1,820 votes.

Proposition 2 to change the requirements for readings and publication of an ordinance from two each ton one each, except as required by state law: 64.51 percent (1,098 votes) to 35.49 percent (604 votes) of 1,702 votes.

Proposition 3 to allow the city manager to designate an alternate city employee the authority to execute checks in the absence or unavailability of the city manager: 73.8 percent (1,321 votes) to 26.2 percent (469 votes) of 1,790 votes.

Proposition 6 to allow the city council discretion to designate which officers and employees of the city that handle money need to be bonded instead of mandating that all officers and employees that handle money be required to provide a surety bond: 58.06 percent (1,012 votes) to 41.94 percent (731 votes) of 1,765 votes.

Proposition 7, to be consistent with State Law, changes the requirement for continuous employment of a city employee from two years to six months to allow the employee to remain employed in the event a relative is elected as mayor or to the city council or from two years to 30 days if a relative is hired as the city manager or other appointing officer: 72.38 percent ((1,234 votes) to 27.62 percent (471 votes) of 1,705 votes.

Proposition 8, to be consistent with state law, removes a section of the charter that requires that a candidate for elective office not be in arrears in the payment of taxes or other liabilities due the city: 54.38 percent (943 votes) to 27.62 percent (471 votes) of 1,734 votes.

Early voters, 1,601 of them accounted for most of the votes and Election Day was more in line with previous elections, 466 voters. Because some of the 236 absentee ballots had a later deadline the council canvassed a total of six more votes than the unofficial tally on Nov. 8.

The council adopted a resolution affirming the vote and an order adopting the six amendments that were approved. City Secretary Christina McDonald said the results would be filed with the Texas Secretary of State before the company that codifies city ordinances prepares the revised charter.