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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-10-19 MinutesG47 MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL AWremeeting%of.theFayetteville City Council•zwas.held.•,on Tuesday, tdtober '19, ° 1993°, at 6:30 p.m. in the -Council Room ofc the City Administration:Building;.113'-W. Mountain, Fayetteville, Arkansas. PRESENT:^\Mayor Fred Hanna; Aldermen Fred Vorsanger,:Len Edens, Joe Box, Heather Daniel, Stephen Miller, Kit Williams, Conrad ,Odom, and -Woody Bassett;•City Attorney Jerry Rose; City Clerk Sherry Thomas; City Treasurer 'Glyndon Bunton; ;.t 1Administrative•. Services4 Director -.Ben Mayes Planning ,Management•Director Alett Little;fPublicWorks-Director Kevin Crosson; members of staff, press, and audience. CALL TO ORDER -1Mayor.,- Hanna called the meeting oto order,- with, eight aldermen present. CONSENT AGENDA Mayor Hannaintroduced consideration of items which maybe approved by motion, or contracts and leases which can be approved by resolution, and which may be grouped together and approved simultaneously under a "Consent Agenda": -Mayor Hanna requested that Item D be pulled from the Consent Agenda. Minutes of the October 5, 1993 regular City Council meeting. B. A resolution approving Davis Park. The Parks & Recreation this plan. the Master Plan for the development of Advisory. Board recommends approval of RESOLUTION 105-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE C. A resolution awarding Bid 93-32 to Ron Blackwell Ford for the purchase of 9 police vehicles at a cost of $15,777 each for a total of $141,993 less a trade allowance of $7,700 for a net amount of $134,293. RESOLUTION 106-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE D.., -Removed from the Consent Agenda E. A resolution accepting $350,000 in grant funds from the Northwest Arkansas Four County Solid Waste Management District, approving the Transfer Station and Processing Facility Project, and approval of a budget adjustment. J The estimated cost of the project is $670,000, and the $350,000 grant will be applied to this cost. Upon approval of this project by the Council, City Staff will continue to seek additional funding sources including grants, donations of funds or equipment, etc. Staff will also begin the site selection process which will include a public hearing and a public input period. RESOLUTION 107-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE F. Three resolutions indicating the support for the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act Enhancement Grant Program projects and authorising the Mayor to enter into a contractual agreement with the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department to implement the projects. These federal grant funds are planned for three projects: bicycle and pedestrian routes, enhance the main entrance corridors into Fayetteville, and preserve abandoned railroad beds for conversion to bicycle and pedestrian use. RESOLUTION 108-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE G. A resolution approving the third amendment to the Articles of Incorporation of the University of Arkansas/City of Fayetteville Arts Foundation, Inc. RESOLUTION 109-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE Miller, seconded by Odom, made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0. ITEM D A resolution supporting the National Unfunded Federal Mandate Day on October 27, 1993. The purpose of this resolution is to help call attention growing burden that unfunded federal mandates have placed shoulders of every taxpayer in every city. Mayor Hanna stated he has recently seen on television the about Fort Smith's unfunded federal mandate problems. expenses are higher than those of Fayetteville because they their own landfill. In 1993 through 1998, the average expenditure ranges from $4,482,000 to $5,566,000, or a average of about $5 million, for Fayetteville's unfunded mandates. to the on the reports Their operate yearly yearly federal Mayor Hanna stated Fayetteville has received some good news. We have been given 2 more years to bring the sewer system into compliance with federal standards, and the standards have been lowered somewhat. Staff has assured him that Fayetteville will be ZDI October 19, 1993,;: down to about 40 overflows per year next year compared to the over 400 per year we were experiencing a few years ago. Vorsanger, seconded by Edens, made a motion to approve the resolution. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a;vote of 8 to 0. RESOLUTION 110-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE DRAINAGE EASEMENT Mayor Hanna introduced consideration of an ordinance vacating a portion of a drainage easement located on Lot 1 (2700 Rosewood) of the Rosewood Addition as requested by Obert Undem on behalf of David and Rosalie Hallman. He stated the existing house is constructed over the portion requested for vacation. The drainage easement is 40 feet wide, and 20 feet of it is on Mr. Hollman's property. Alderman Miller asked if this should have been discovered •by the inspection department at the time of construction. Alett Little stated this should have been on the subdivider's plat. There was an error made some where, but this is not an inspection function. Basically, this is a housecleaning item to clear the title on this structure that was built 10-15 years ago. City Attorney Jerry Rose read the ordinance for the first time. Odom, seconded by Miller, made a motion to suspend the rules and place the ordinance on its second reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0, and the City Attorney read the ordinance for the second time. Odom, seconded by Miller, made a motion to further suspend the rules and place the ordinance on its third and final reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0. City Attorney Rose read the ordinance for the third time. Upon roll call, the ordinance passed by a vote of 8 to 0. ORDINANCE 3728 APPEARS ON PAGE Y OF ORDINANCE BOOK x XVl),- REZONE R93-42 . Mayor Hanna introduced consideration of an ordinance rezoning 1.43 acres'located at 796 N. 54th Avenue from A-1, Agricultural, to R-1, Low Density Residential, as requested by Clifford and Mary Clevenger. The Planning Commission voted 8-0-0 to recommend the rezoning. City Attorney Jerry Rose read the ordinance for the first time. Miller, seconded by Williams, made a motion to suspend the rules and place the ordinance on its second reading. Upon roll call, the October 19, 1993 motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0, and ordinance for the second time. Miller, a motion to further suspend the rules its third and final reading. Upon roll a vote of 8 to 0. City Attorney Rose third time. the City Attorney read the seconded by Williams, made and place the ordinance on call, the motion passed by read the ordinance for the Upon roll call, the ordinance passed by a vote of 8 to 0. ORDINANCE 3729 APPEARS ON PAGE .?F OF ORDINANCE BOOK XX til REZONE R93-43 Mayor Hanna introduced consideration of an ordinance rezoning 11.88 acres located off Magnolia Drive and east of Azalea Terrace from A- 1, Agricultural, to R-1, Low Density Residential, as requested by Harry Gray on behalf of Atlas Construction. The Planning Commission voted 7-1-0 to recommend the rezoning. City Attorney Jerry Rose read the ordinance for the first time. Odom, seconded by Edens, made a motion to suspend the rules and place the ordinance on its second reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0, and the City Attorney read the ordinance for the second time. Odom, seconded by Miller, made a motion to further suspend the rules and place the ordinance on its third and final reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0. City Attorney Rose read the ordinance for the third time. Upon roll call, the ordinance passed by a vote of 8 to 0. ORDINANCE 3730 APPEARS ON PAGE 21 OF ORDINANCE BOOK )(JO/1k RICHARD MAYES' ADDRESS TO THE COUNCIL Richard Mayes addressed the Council on the widening of Sycamore Street. He stated he owns a business, Mayes Auto, located on the southwest corner of Leverett and Sycamore. Widening Sycamore will require the taking of the north 1/3 of his building and about 25 feet of his land for setback right of way. He has been told this will happen by the City starting in 1986. It was postponed to 1987, then to 1989, to 1993, and now he understands it has been postponed to 1995 and finally to 1997. He asked what is next. This is one of the original capital improvement projects that was voted on in 1988. He would like the City to do something, either make a commitment to widen the road, or abandon the project, so he can get on with his life. He is unable to sell his property at this time because of the pending widening, and he would like to do something so he can retire. Alderman Williams stated he understands Mr. Mayes' problem, but the City has a problem with a lack of funds. He does not know when October 19, 19931 this project will be.done, and he does not have any answers for Mr: Mayes. He is on the Street Committee, and they have only been able to decide what to do next year. i Mr. Mayes stated he wrote a letter to Alderman. Williams and the other members of the Street Committee, and he has not received any response. He cannot sell his business or do anything with it until the City decides what they are going to do. Alderman Bassett stated he feels the road needs to be widened. He had hoped to be able to plow some of the left over sales tax money into this, but this money is just not available now. Alderman Daniel stated she lives in this area. There are additional rights-of-way the City will have to acquire before this project can be completed. Mr. Mayes stated the drainage along the road has already been completed. He suggested the City look into piecemealing the job. Maybe they could do the widening work on his corner first, and then continue with the project in phases. He stated he did notexpect an answer tonight from the Council, he just wanted to make them aware of his problem. Mayor Hanna stated the City needs to think about doing some of the street projects in phases. If the $33 million in bonds had not been lost back in January, the City would probably have been working on this project at this time. He has a business that is being affected this same way, and he feels Mr. Mayes has a good idea. Alderman .Bassett asked Kevin Crosson to provide the. Street Committee with a report on the possibility of doing the street projects in phases. SALES TAX FUND BUDGET ADJUSTMENT Mayor Hanna introduced consideration of a resolution approving a budget adjustment in the amount of $4,015,237 to pay the court ordered -refunding of sales tax monies, paying the expenses associated with the refunding process, and paying the attorney fees in Hasha, et. al. v. City of Fayetteville, et. al. Mayor Hanna stated the -budget adjustment is to transfer the money to the property accounts. Alderman Miller read a written statement he had prepared. .He stated he had been told that if he voted against this adjustment or spoke out against the settlement, he could be held in contempt of court. He felt the court was being contemptible in awarding $2.7 million in attorney fees to John Lisle. For the hours Lisle stated he worked on the case, this fee worked out to be $1,300 per hour. October 19, 1993 Alderman Miller stated no one is worth that amount of money. This fee works out to be $65 for every man, woman, and child that lives in Fayetteville. There are many projects that will have to be scrapped and/or put on hold. He stated mistakes were made, but no one person is to blame. He stated in this case, it is the legal system that is wrong. This award has left him disappointed and bitter. He stated greed and power have pushed justice aside. Alderman Edens stated he was dissatisfied with the whole thing. Alderman Box stated more than being disgusted with the judge's decision, it was the rationale for the decision that bothered him. He stated John Lisle held public office for 4 years, so he is now accepting money from some of the people who he served. Alderman Box stated he will abstain from voting on this issue because he can't vote for it. He feels Judge Mobley and City Staff did a great job in handling the refund process. He felt it was incredible that the judge did not use the same type of reasoning when awarding the attorney fees. Alderman Vorsanger thanked the hundreds and thousands of Fayetteville citizens as well as citizens of the surrounding areas that did not apply for their refunds. He stated the City can be proud of that. He stated the majority of the tax refunds went to industries rather than to citizens. Mayor Hanna also thanked the citizens who did not apply for refunds. The majority of citizens have stood behind this City Council during this whole ordeal, even to revoting the 1% sales tax. He wants to put this whole ordeal behind the City, pay the debts owed, and get on with running this City. He feels Fayetteville will be better off in the long run because of this lawsuit because (1) there is a new form of government, (2) there is a new form of managing the City's funds, and (3) the City is able to start from scratch with pay-as-you-go funding and not be paying thousands of dollars in interest on a bond issue. All of the projects that were to be done in 5 years with the bond issue will be done if 5-6-7 years on the pay-as-you-go plan. Alderman Williams stated $2.7 million was probably more money than Attorney John Lisle has made on every case he has handled up to this point in his life. It is certainly more than he will probably make in his lifetime. If a person started earning $60,000 per year at age 18, they would have to work until they were 63 to earn $2.7 million. According to Chancellor Dawson, a month of Lisle's work was compensated the same as 9 years of the judge's own labor. He stated the Rules of Professional Conduct say lawyer fees should be reasonable. Contingency fees are great for people who have been injured and need to be defended in court. In these types of cases, the clients have agreed in writing to the fees they will be paying if their attorney wins a settlement on their behalf. Alderman 1 October 19, 1993, Williams'°asked how many taxpayers agreed in writing to pay John Lisle a contingency fee.. Alderman Williams stated taxpayers attended the day -long hearing, but they.were not allowed to speak. He stated John Lisle's group, did not let the citizens speak. They silenced the same people who he was supposed to be representing. His wife had attended the hearings to speak on behalf of taxpayers, and when she had to leave the long hearing, she prepared a written statement for the court to read. However, Judge Dawson would not accept the letter. Alderman Williams read a portion of the letter where his wife wanted as a taxpayer, and not as an alderman's'wife, to speak against awarding too large an attorney fee. She stated she did not want John Lisle to get. a hugh fee from her tax money. . Alderman Williams stated the Council has no choice but•to pay what the Chancellor ordered. It was the previous City Council who made the multimillion dollar mistake that now has to be paid. The incinerator case, which is another multimillion dollar debt made by previous City Councils, will soon be before this Council to settle. Alderman Edens stated an alderman would have to work 1,023 years to earn what John Lisle was awarded. Alderman. Bassett stated even though he was definitely disappointed, it is time to move on. The City will be fine. The Council will deal with the incineratorsuit when the time comes. He stated the City is still probably 2.7 million times better off having settled this.sales,tax lawsuit. Odom, seconded by Edens, made a motion to approve the budget adjustment to pay the sales tax lawsuit expenses. Upon roll call, the motion passed : by a vote of 7. to 0 to .1, with Alderman.. Box abstaining. .RESOLUTION 111-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE BID WAIVER Mayor=•Hannaintroduced consideration of an ordinance waiving:the requirements of competitive bidding for the purchase of used bus :equipment in an amount not to exceed $11,000 for use by the Youth Center Transportation Program, and approval of a budget adjustment. .City Attorney Jerry Rose read the ordinance for the first time.. Miller, seconded by.Odom, made a motion to suspend the rulesand place= the -ordinance on its second. reading. Upon roll 'call, -the motionnpassed by a vote of 8 to.0,-and the City Attorneyireadthe ordinance for the second time. Miller, seconded.by.Odom, made .a motion to further suspend the rules and place.the ordinance on its third and,., final reading. Upon: roll call, the motion passed by a 4 F October 19, 1993 vote of 8 to 0. City Attorney Rose read the ordinance for the third time. Alderman Edens stated this bus is to replace an old bus that was involved in an accident. A young person got in the bus and pulled it our of gear, and the bus rolled down and hit a rock building. The bus was worth about a $1,000 before the accident and zero after the accident. In addition, this replacement bus will be diesel. They are attempting to get away from gasoline fueled passenger vehicles because the diesel is so much less flammable. Upon roll call, the ordinance passed by a vote of 8 to 0. ORDINANCE 3731 APPEARS ON PAGE 30 OF ORDINANCE BOOR )1,7, V1\ OTHER BUSINESS AMENDMENT TO WALTON ARTS CENTER ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION City Attorney Jerry Rose stated the University has presented the second amendment to the Interlocal Cooperation Agreement for the Walton Arts Center between the University of Arkansas and the City of Fayetteville for the Council to consider adopting. The Interlocal Agreement established the Walton Arts Center Council and the Walton Arts Center Foundation. The first amendment changed the name from "Arts Center" to "Walton Arts Center". The second amendment allowed the Foundation to increase its size to 9 members. These first amendments were made to the Walton Arts Center Council Articles of Incorporation. This second amendment changes the same things to the Walton Arts Center Foundation Articles of Incorporation. vorsanger, seconded by Odom, made a motion to approve the resolution. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0. RESOLUTION 112-93 AS RECORDED IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE RECONNAISSANCE SURVEY City Attorney Jerry Rose introduced consideration of an ordinance waiving the requirements of competitive bidding to allow the City to hire a firm to conduct a reconnaissance survey on a grave yard and/or archeological area near the Greenland schools. City Attorney Jerry Rose read the ordinance for the first time. Williams, seconded by Odom, made a motion to suspend the rules and place the ordinance on its second reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a vote of 8 to 0, and the City Attorney read the ordinance for the second time. Odom, seconded by Williams, made a motion to further suspend the rules and place the ordinance on its third and final reading. Upon roll call, the motion passed by a October 19, 1993 ;,.` vote of -8 to 0. City Attorney" Rose read the ordinance for the third time. Rose stated it appears that construction crews working on the airport -obstruction project disturbed a cemetery that lies to the south of the runway near the Greenland Elementary School. This bid waiver will allow the City to hire someone to tell us what is out there. The City of Fayetteville certainly does. not want to desecrate any cemetery or harm any archeological site. The FAA allows the City to get phone interviews from 3 candidates and hire someone to get out there quickly and assess the situation. Currently,.the airport project is on hold in this area pending the outcome of the findings. Mayor Hanna stated he feels the City is obligated to do this. _If the City has damaged the area, we will restore the area to its. original state. .._ Alderman Edens asked the estimated cost of this project. f Rose stated staff expects the cost to be in the area of $3,000 to $5,000. Alderman Miller stated maybe the University of Arkansas Archeology -Department can help the City with this project. Rose stated:they are on the list of people to call for interviews for the project. Alderman Williams asked if the City could get some of this money back from the FAA. City Attorney .Rose stated the project will be 90% reimbursable by the FAA. Alderman Odom stated he was glad Jerry Rose had taken it upon himself to get this matter corrected as quickly as possible. The City of Fayetteville does not want to do anything to any gravesite. Rose stated he feels this can be used in a positive manner to improvement the relationship with the City of Greenland. Alderman Bassett asked if the graveyard was unmarked. Rose stated some of it was. Mayor Hanna stated it was a private cemetery with stone markers, and:the-cemetery had'not been taken care of for some time. _Upon roll call, the ordinance passed by a vote of -8 to 0. ORDINANCE 3732 APPEARS ON PAGE 3,2 OF ORDINANCE BOOK %(Y VII • October 19, 1993 LETTER FROM FRANK SHARP Mayor Hanna stated he had distributed a letter from Frank Sharp, Ozark Mountain Smokehouse, where he had thanked and complimented the City on paving Smokehouse Road. Mayor Hanna stated City crews have paved about 65 to 70% of the streets they had planned for 1993. They have received similar comments like this all summer, and he appreciates the work of the Street Department. 42 INCH WATER LINE Mayor Hanna stated Richard Starr, manager of the Beaver Water District, called today and stated the 2 big pumps in the 42 inch waterline were put into service today. The City is now pumping water through both the 36 and 42 inch lines. They will be closing down the 36 inch line shortly for repairs, and then bring it back on line. The approximate capacity the City is now pumping is about 26 to 27 million gallons per day. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.