Thursday, January 26, 2017

Notes on Marfa City Council meeting, 1/26/2017

Marfa City Council Meeting, 1-26-2017, 6:00 PM

All present 

Citizen Comments:

None

Item 4: minutes of Jan 10- approved as presented

Item 5: mayor's report, none

Item 6: city administrators report 
Election: state requires electronic voting machines. Separate machines for early vote and election day vote. Been using County machines. County is reviewing purchasing new machines. New machines will have a marked ballot for each vote.
Eliminated hand counting of ballots. Can still be counted by hand if needed. City may need to buy own machines. Could cost $10,000- $15,000
City on Feb 23rd is hosting regional TML meeting. 
Equipment for paving quotes have been collected. Very expensive. Will need to advertise for bids. 

Item 8: presentations, none

Item 10: concerning project graduation for high school lock in may 27,28. Cynthia Ramirez presents. Mac building and pool from evening until 6 AM. Wants to waive fees. Manny Baeza moves to allow without fees as long as deposit $250 for cleaning. 
Genevieve Bassham seconds. Deposit will be returned if cleaned. Project Grad has to provide their own lifeguards. Mayor has comment: police to be painted this year. Could be an issue. Has to be warm in April to do this. Also, council needs to determine who will operate the pool. Mayor has been the operator for the last ten years. 
Undetermined at this point. Council will need to decide on these issues.
Unanimous

 Item two
Proposal to repair ambulance. Box is on its second ambulance. Electronic issues to be addressed. Louisiana firm does this. This had been main ambulance until new ambulance acquired. Money from tax note can be used. Mark Scott moves to use money to repair ambulance Box. Peter asks about time frame. Mustard says he does not know but they are ready to work on it now. 
Twelve thousand seven hundred fifty four dollars
Unanimous

Item three
Election ordinances may sixth.
Mustard describes three tasks for authorizing election. 
Need election Judge as Rosie Garcia is likely to not be available.
Florcita Saenz is backup. No commitment from her yet.
Sign orders to schedule election. 
Unanimously adopted. Currently two mayoral candidates. Two candidates for two spaces on city council.
Feb 17 deadline to register.


Item four- 
Office of City Treasurer: creation of office. 
City atty Teresa Todd has info on this.
Provisions from chap 22 of local government code. General law municipality is what Marfa is a Type A Aldermanic form of municipal govt.
Duties of mayor include chief budget officer.
Other officers include possible Treasurer.
If adopted, city Treasurer's duties include being directly responsible to the council. 
Not same as city comptroller. Comptroller would be responsible to city administrator.
After Leo Salgado departed Florencio Salcedo took on duties. After he was dismissed, Mayor took on those duties. 
Section 22.075 sets out how office can be created and duties of office.
Dunlap says that financial responsibility fell to him ten years ago and he has been managing that since. By end of May there will be a vacuum.
Advantage of Treasurer is answers to council. Not to city Administrator.
Treasurer is also investment officer. 
Teresa says that Mayors power as chief budget officer may not be delegated to another person.
Mark Scott asks about application process. 
Teresa says there is not one, but a two step process is probably best. 
First step is to make the office, the. Decide whether to advertise, etc. 
Teresa says that if you create this position it is subject to the removal by the council. 
Position will be bonded. 
Dunlap says that it is most important that these duties be picked up for continuity.
Peter Stanley says that the timing on this is a concern. Mustard's contract is up in September. Next administrator could have these duties. Duties need to be performed, and he does not think that having the new Mayor doing these duties is optimal. These duties may discourage candidates, among other issues.
Teresa Todd says that once the city creates this position, the City holds this position. Mayor reminds council that money has been budgeted for this purpose in this fiscal year. 
Mustard says that city council could wait until next fiscal year to hire. No requirement to hire immediately if position is created.
Mustard says in the interest of transparency that he no longer wants to be gas company manager and city manager at the same time. No money currently budgeted for this transition, whatever it may be. 
Audience member asks what the duties for treasurer are.
Teresa says that Treasurer shall receive and keep all monies received.
May not pay an order without councils approval.
Must render full accounting of receipts and payments.
Must report 
May also do other duties. 
Mayor confirms this employee will be an at will employee. 
Mustard says that this same employee will maintain and update computer software for the city.
Audience member asks council to take their time. City is always hurting for money. Please take your time, this is very important.
Teresa Todd says that city had been in a financial crisis ten years ago and that people who were here took on extra duties based on lack of funds. 
Now there is some funding. Issues still end to be addressed on a daily basis. This has been a unique situation. 
Audience member says that money is still a big issue. Pease study it more, give people more time to ask questions. 
Lineaus asks if questions are to be allowed before a motion. 
Mayor asks for motion. No motion.
Mark Scott moves to table item.
Peter Stanley seconds. Unanimous 

Adjourn at 6:39 PM






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