January 8, 2024 Work Session Notes
Works for the IRS, he gonna make you sweat
It’s the first Work Session of the year and it is intentionally kept short so that we may perform our annual evaluations of the positions per the City Charter that the City Council is directly responsible for hiring — City Manager, City Attorney, City Auditor and Municipal Judges — during our Executive Session.
As always, for my notes, I’ll make my comments for each item in bold italics. Please email council7@garlandtx.gov with your input.
CONSIDER THE CONSENT AGENDA
One consent agenda item I am interested in hearing about is Item 2e. - GP&L Lookout Substation NTT Terminal Additions.
I am curious about the cost difference between the firm our Purchasing Department evaluated as the “Best Value for the City” Primoris T&D Services, LLC and the second place firm Ferreira Power South, LLC.
Ferreria Power South had a significantly lower bid by $1,282,155 but had lower experience, qualifications, equipment, and safety scores to make their bid have a lower overall score. I want to make sure the extra $1.2 million we will spend is worth the difference.
WRITTEN BRIEFINGS
Regulatory Compliance
Written staff presentation regarding adoption of a Paid Quarantine Leave Policy as proposed. Unless otherwise directed by Council, this item will be scheduled for formal consideration at the January 9, 2024 Regular meeting.
We will formally adopt a Paid Quarantine Leave Policy as required by State law. If, God forbid, there ever is another pandemic like COVID-19, this policy will provide continuing salary to Garland’s first responders and detention officers if they are forced to quarantine due to a virus exposure while performing their duties.
Amending the Garland Development Code and Code or Ordinances to Comply with Recent Changes to State Law.
Consider an ordinance amending Chapters 2 and 6 of the Garland Development Code and Chapters 10, 22, and 26 of the Code of Ordinances. Unless otherwise directed by Council, this item will be scheduled for formal consideration at the January 9, 2024 Regular meeting.
Like the above item, the changes to existing ordinances made by this item are required by State law. One specific change is that we are no longer allowed to specify curfews for minors.
Also, some definitions in our ordinances are being updated to align with State law.
Police Staffing Realignment
Written staff presentation regarding approval of the revised 23-24 Civil Service Classifications & Compensation Ordinance, reducing sworn Police Officer positions from 305 to 303. Unless otherwise directed by Council, this item will be scheduled for formal consideration at the January 9, 2024 Regular meeting.
As needs change within our Police Department and with the continuing difficulty to bring in new recruits and officers to our police force, two sworn officer positions will be eliminated to fund three new non-sworn or “civil service” classification positions.
Per the Work Session notes, the three new positions including the job descriptions will be:
A Senior Application Programmer to provide programming support for maintenance and new initiatives within the Police technology environment, including internal GPD-Web pages, searches, tools, and dashboards.
An Information Systems Analyst who will support software configuration and maintenance for Police software applications, including Axon (body cameras) and Hegaxon On Call Records (WebRMS).
An Equipment Maintenance Coordinator who will manage the department fleet and be responsible for the equipment and maintenance on those vehicles.
Optional Redemption of Tax Notes
Council is requested to consider exercising the optional redemption of Tax Notes, Series 2023.
VERBAL BRIEFINGS
Council may ask for discussion, further information, or give direction to staff on an item posted as a verbal briefing.
Charter Review Committee Report
City Staff and Charter Review Committee Chairperson, Scott Roberts, will review items discussed at Charter Review Committee Meetings and provide suggested changes for City Council to discuss.
The Charter Review Committee, which first convened in September 2023, will provide its recommendations for the City Council to discuss. Largely, the Committee recommends that the City Charter remain status quo with limited changes. The Committee does recommend increasing our Council pay from $72 per meeting to $85 per meeting. I’m curious how they arrived at that number.
I know some fellow Council members have advocated increasing Council pay substantially, even as much as $20,000 per year. I don’t believe that pay is a limiting factor in attracting quality candidates to serve.
Even at the $20,000 level, it is not enough compensation to make someone quit their current job to enter public service. Speaking for myself, I serve on Council to make Garland the best city it can be regardless of the pay, and I believe that is true for my fellow council members as well.
Since there were absolutely no pictures in the Work Session packet this week for me to clip and include in my post, here’s a picture of a cute kitten.
(Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cute-kittens-12929201-1600-1200.jpg)
Preview and Presentation of the 2024 Proposed Capital Improvement Program
The City Manager will present the 2024 Proposed Capital Improvement Program to the City Council, followed by a staff presentation about the 2024 Proposed Capital Improvement Program.
One of the most important things we do as a City Council is approve the annual budget. This presentation will be the first look we have at any large projects considered for approval for the next fiscal year.
Capital improvements may include large investments in buildings or equipment which typically has a long life span. Examples include new libraries and recreation centers, or a new fire engine. This process is how many of the bond projects approved by voters in 2019 get budgeted and built.
If you have any suggestions for any capital improvement projects, I’m happy to hear them. One idea I am considering is adding cameras to our parks.
Saturday, January 20, we will have an all-day work session to dive deeper into the CIP budget with presentations on each item to be considered. If you are deeply interested in how the council spends your tax dollars, I encourage you to review the budget and provide any comments to me once the CIP budget is available on January 9th.
CONSIDER APPOINTMENTS TO BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
Terms are usually staggered whereby at least half of the membership has previous experience. Members are appointed based on qualifications.
Council Member Carissa Dutton
Larry Dunn - Senior Citizens Advisory Committee
ANNOUNCE FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
A Council member, with a second by another member or the Mayor alone, may ask that an item be placed on a future agenda of the City Council or of a committee of the City Council. No substantive discussion of that item will take place at this time.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
Council will adjourn into executive session pursuant to the following sections of the Texas Government Code, Sections:
The City Council will adjourn into executive session pursuant to Sections 551.071 and 551.074 of the Texas Government Code to deliberate or discuss:
1. Attorney/client matters concerning privileged and unprivileged client information related to the emergency management plan and reasonable accommodations (551.071);
2. Personnel matters related to the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of public employees (551.074); and attorney/client matters concerning privileged and unprivileged client information related to the same (551.071).
ADJOURN
Since we are performing a yearly review for our beloved City Auditor Jed Johnson, here’s a song named “The Auditor” by Michelle Malone.
Disclaimer: The lyrics have nothing to do with Jed.