Friday, September 5, 2008

Sept. 4 Community Center Meetings

Public turnout for both the Helen Giddings meeting and the City Council meeting was
disappointing. Some folks may have left before this reporter arrived, but the small crowd was a bit of an embarrassment.


About twenty people showed up for the Helen Gidding session - including a number of "developer types", WPD officers and Council Members. We were very late arriving and did not get to hear or participate in most of the discussion. What we did hear was informative and generally well received by the audience. Rep. Giddings stated this kind of event could be held again in several months. (ED NOTE: If Rep. Giddings does return, we all (citizens, city employees and politicians) need to do a much better job of promoting the event - including WPC.

In the interest of brevity, most of the motions and seconds came from Tiny and Marlena. Most of the motions passed unanimously and most had very little discussion. Of specific interest are the exceptions. Click here to View the Agenda in a new window.

The expense consent items (agenda item "B") had an incorrect date (8/21/08) listed in the agenda. This was noted and changed to the current date, approved by the council and attorney, and passed with some discussion.

Item "D" (drainage easement South of Belt Line) Mayor Hudson called for a motion to table it due to lack of readiness by the developer requesting the easement.

Item "G" (ordinance 08-0904 (A)) annexation of the property on Belt Line to be developed by Xebec was not passed. Much to the dismay of just about everyone, it failed with 2-for and 3-against. Therefore item "H" rezoning of the property was eliminated from consideration on advice of counsel.

Item "I" effective tax rate for 2008 was described by the secretary as .485644 based on $121M assessed valuation, in contrast to 2007's rate of .61 on $97M. No action was taken on adopting the rate, that decision was tabled at present.

Neither executive session personnel items were passed. Item "J" termination of Crystol Birdwell was delayed at her request. Item "K" appointment of Wesley Leake to the WPD was not approved.

No comments: