This is sent to me after each council meeting. If you are interested in receiving this type of recap of the council meeting by email please contact citizens2008@hotmail.com .
Hello, friends.
Council met on a strange date this month, as it was a combined meeting for November. It was not according to the usual second and fourth Tuesday schedule. (You need to memorize that schedule, as a person who is very interested in the City of League City: every month except November and December,Council meets the second and fourth Tuesday at 6pm.)
First the holiday announcements, for your pleasure:
The Library Board, staff, and Friends of Helen Hall Library will be hosting a Christmas Open House on Thursday, December 4th, from 5 to 6:30pm. Santa will arrive at 5:15pm, and the City's 'new' Christmas Tree will be lit at 6:30, courtesy of the Knights of Columbus #9310 and the League City Parks and Recreation Department. Come on out for this one--it is alot of fun!
Secondly, although the City is not the sponsor of Holiday in the Park, it is a wonderful Holiday event and your whole family will enjoy it. For more information and the schedule, check out www.holidayinthepark.org/.
The agenda was long, and held a variety of items. Included were many zoning changes, mostly just cleanup stuff, and other miscellaneous items that are mundane but do require action by Council.
One thing you should be interested in is that we awarded the annual mowing contract at a cost of almost $100,000. We all see such wonderful grassy parks and roadsides, and we just take the manicured mowing for granted, but it is a big expense for the City. There were four bids, and the City picked the lowest.
Now that cleanup from Ike is almost complete--with mostly damaged fencing left still unpicked up because it had to be inspected by insurance adjusters, the City has received a bill for an additional $72,000 worth of landfill fees that are above and beyond our garbage contract. Although Ameriwaste did not provide detailed backup for this bill, and in spite of the fact that there were some glitches in the paperwork between the City and Ameriwaste, Council voted 5-2 to pay the bill, without asking any more questions of the trash company. We have been told that FEMA should reimburse us 100%, so cross your fingers. The 2 dissenting votes were Mike Barber and Tim Paulissen.
Item 10F of the Consent agenda was to consider and take action to accept a quitclaim deed conveyance to the City of League City for a portion of Marina Way. When Mr. Cones inquired as to why the item was pulled from the agenda, Larry Herbert, Director of Public Works, said that it was pulled by staff. Actually, it was I who pulled the item because I have some questions about it. In the past few years, the city has had some trouble about accepting and changing deeds, and I just want time for due diligence to be properly done.
Another item on the agenda that was discussed at length was the matter of "contracting for surveying, environmental, schematic, and drainage design of the proposed extension of Palomino Road from its current terminus north to the vicinity of Bay Area Boulevard." Several Council members (Barber, Paulissen and Cones) said that it was their understanding that a study was going to be done to fine the best route for crossing the Creek going northbound, between the Freeway and the Bay Area Blvd. The motion was made and seconded to postpone this item until the next Council meeting.
The December Council meeting, which will be held on the 9th, promises to be another full agenda. Various items will be a Charter Review Workshop, with Council members and the 2007 Committee, at 5pm before the Council meeting. Other interesting and important items such as this bridge over the creek, the Mayor's appointment of citizens to the City Boards and Commissions, and many others of interest will be posted.
Remember, if you have a dish and therefore don't get Channel 16, you can now watch the Council Meeting live on the city website, http://www.ci.league-city.tx.us/ The sound has been improved.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! This year for sure, we are reminded how much we have to be thankful for!
18 comments:
OK ms. mayor, you are full of caca del toro. I was at the council meeting and I heard your weasel Travis discuss the tickets given for each dump of the trucks. Why on earth was there a trust system in place. Werent the ameriwaste people already convicted of fraud? Once again I remain confused. Who is runing this city?
The way the recap was put, it made it seem that we suspected fraud, but did nothing about it because the federal government would pay for it anyway. That's not right if everyone really suspected fraud.
I'm not aware of all the details about Ameriwaste, they seem to do a great job of picking up our trash.
I bet it was just a matter of all the work that needed to be done with the Post IKE clean up.
Good Morning,
The way I understood the post Ike garbage was handled seemed very logical and efficient. The Mayor and Chris Reed suspended the recycling service and pressed those trucks into garbage service. The additional charges we paid were just for the dump fees to thee land fill and not for additional man hours, fuel costs etc. Any reasonable person would expect there to be additional charges for a post storm cleanup for trash collection. Even if you take issue with the garbage contractor selection or not, the truth is the truth and Ameriwaste did a good job cleaning up mounds of extra post Ike household garbage. As a matter of fact, I would say the over all city clean up was well done. I give kudos to the Mayor, Chris Reed, and all the city employees who really worked hard during and after the storm. Thanks!
Further, No public official would intimate that there was possible fraud involved in approved city business, especially business involving the federal government. That is why I do not believe the Mayor wrote this thread. Chris are you up to your old tricks?
Marc, you are right about what you said about the cleanup quality. That was not the issue, nor did the Mayor say it was. If you listened to the discussion on Channel 16 carefully, you would have known that the issue was the fact that although there was an Ameriwaste spreadsheet provided as backup, the load tickets themselves were not provided to backup the spreadsheet.
As you know, anyone in business requires backup to pay an invoice, especially one this size.
Maybe the "glitches" in the contract was some contingency verbage that would have forwarned us of this huge charge, but only City folks know what that was about.
I watched. I heard. What the Mayor said is what I heard.
Dear Mr./Mrs. Monitor,
I did listen to the discussion carefully. I heard Mr. Travis say that he went to the offices of Ameriwaste and examined the load tickets and verified their existence. If you read the contract with Ameriwaste you would know that the contract allows for these extraordinary charges. I agree with Mr. Confused, we need to have a system of trust with verification. I wonder if the Ameriwaste trucks have GPS tracking. Auditing these records should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the loads originated in League City. We have this tracking in our vehicles for the sole purpose of knowing where are vehicles are, I think the small cost of this tracking system would be a good addition to the contract for verification purposes. http://www.teletrac.net I believe the service costs about $30.00 per month per vehicle.
Marc, you are absolutely right.
I am right? About what? (surprised look on face)
"As you know, anyone in business requires backup to pay an invoice, especially one this size."
Of course you want backup if you do not believe a charge or bill is correct or accurate. The best way to not have these worries is to know up front what a charge is or have an idea of what to expect., or as in this case, information exchange during the course of the project would have been important between the business side of the house and the surprised council members. I just always assumed that council trusts staff to handle the day to day business in an a way the promotes confidence in the system,
In our business a Purchase Order is issued by our customers for most all acquisitions of goods and services over $2000.00. We in turn issue po's for goods needed for the jobs and receive them when delivered directly to a work order. Then a corresponding work order is converted to an invoice is issued to the customer based on goods purchased for that job and services tied directly to the work order.
The best way to not need to see backup is to know about what should be expected for billing. Surprise or unexpected charges are always bad. I am not sure these garbage charges should be a surprise. However, we should use technology to leverage our city's manpower. GOS tracking in trucks should either already be there, or needs to be added.
Edleman is right, there should be a tracking system in those trucks, and I bet there already is. I think we should ask for the records of those trucks.
Mark,
Please tell us who you think wrote the thread? And what “old tricks” could you possibly be referring to? You made the statements so let’s see you back them up with “concrete proof”. Or was that just for the other blog? LOL …..
;-)
Mark,
Why should council trust the same leadership that is the cause for the distrust in the first place?
Seems to me that council is just trying to avoid a situation like signing over a deed to a bridge that the city did not own. You know looking out for the best interest of the city.
Chris what the heck are you talking about? I am out here.
Chris,
I believe there are several individuals (including the Mayor) that could have written the recap.
Given that it was posted a week ago, and the Mayor has not taken issue with the content, It's safe to assume she must agree with the statements.
Would I have phrased some things differently, and used a different medium? Yeah...I think I would have. But, I'm not the Mayor.
Marc,
How is it that you can take issue with the "tone" of the post, and not have a problem with the comments of the aptly named L C Confused Party?
Will there ever come a time when the divisionists take a back seat to those who feel a pressing need to move this city forward without each step becoming encumbered by self interest and political pay back?
Confused,
Have you ever thought about sitting down with Travis and candidly making the statement you so boldly (and anonymously) made here?
I think Mayor Randall was prudent to carefully examine all real estate deeds.
In fact, the deed in question is related to the "Bridge Deed" and the Glen Cove lawsuit.
In a very last minute effort there is a push to provide a number of Glen Cove residents with legal access to their homes. This is the legal access that was lost when the city cancelled the TxDOT bridge rebuilding project and gave the bridge and adjacent properties to a developer.
Why you ask? Because there is a lawsuit hearing scheduled in the next few day. It will be interesting to see who is pushing to support this action and who is in the background grinning. Of course it was Councilman Cones who questioned why the item was pulled from the agenda.
Nonetheless, passage of this action is only a bandage that does not address the other Glen Cove related issues.
In December 2005 and January 2006 a city plan/action sponsored by Cones halted construction of a bridge (to be built by TxDOT no cost to the city) and crafted a deal to convey a variety of property rights to a private developer.
After almost three years and a lawsuit the city decides to take some corrective action.
Thanks to all that have been following the Glen Cove issues.
Well I appreciate one thing for sure from the mayor's recap. She didn't use the staff to blunt or cover a decision that she made.
There is nothing wrong with pulling an agenda item but in an age where even the slightest questioning of events sends people scrambling and pointing fingers it WAS good to see her state simply that she pulled an agenda item and why she did so.
Chris,
It's refreshing to see a real name attached to a post in here :)
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