The City Council voted 5-1 Tuesday to approve the first reading of an ordinance that, Community Development Howard J. Koontz said, would allow the council to approve signs that would not ordinarily meet the strict letter of the city’s current sign ordinance.
"We don’t want to exempt ourselves from our own good judgment," Koontz said. "But if there is some type of sign that the city could find mutual benefit from, where it could provide economic development, incentive for some business for some kind of wayfinding or some other attention-getting signage that could help with their efforts to get destination at activity centers — if somebody wished to come forward they could make this application outside the requirements of needing a variance from the Sign Control Board. Instead you could approve this through the process enumerated in the text for a special exemption."
Koontz originally designed the ordinance so that only commercial businesses not located on the interstate would be eligible, but council member Travis Mitchell convinced a majority of his colleagues that the ordinance should apply to all areas of the city.
"I am in favor of unique signs," Mitchell said. "Great giant pies, great giant rail towers, great giant whatever — anything the brings uniqueness to the area, I’m in favor of at least taking a look at it. My concern is how we decide what is and what is not a regional draw."
The proposed first reading was approved on a 5-1 vote with council member Daphne Tenorio casting the lone dissenting vote. She said she was concerned that the ordinance would allow the influx of gaudy flashing signs all over the city. Somewhat inconsistent with that stand however, was her unwavering opposition to removing just such a gaudy flashing sign from the historic City Square Park and she turned out to be the only council member to vote against relocating that sign to a more appropriate location.
Tenorio was also the only council member to vote against ethics reform, improving the overall quality of life in Kyle’s residential districts, taking steps to improve the quality of board and commission members and, perhaps even the most more shocking of all, attempts to beautify the city.
Tenorio’s opposition to strengthening the city’s ethics code came as really no surprise since her ability to use a loophole in the code that was amended recently allowed her to escape public censure on an alleged ethics violation. The changes to the code, among other things, eliminated that loophole. It also changed a provision that allowed elected officials to be named to the ethics commission, a change that was originally made at Tenorio’s request and allowed her to appoint a colleague of her husband’s on the school board to the ethics commission. However, although the reform measure passed 5-1, all the council members agreed to grandfather Tenorio’s ethics board political appointee until she completes her current term in November 2018, unless she chooses to vacate her seat for some reason before that date.
Tenorio’s opposition to the other measures were bewildering, however, since such opposition would not appear to be a successful way to construct a winning political resume. In fact, it would seem, opposing (a) improving the city’s quality of life, (b) raising the standards for applicants to city boards and commissions, and [c] making the city more visually appealing would provide a potential political opponent more than enough ammunition to defeat her in a political campaign. But, admittedly, I retired from managing and directing political campaign communication programs more than 15 years ago and the results of recent elections would argue the entire U.S. political world has been turned completely upside down between then and now.
Tenorio willfully violated Roberts Rules or Order by going on a rant after she opposed the quality of life issue before the council. Reading from prepared remarks during a time when Roberts Rules expressly forbid such remarks, she basically argued "If developers want to come to Kyle and build crappy houses, we should not stand in their way and try to prevent them from building crappy houses." Regardless of the state of the current political universe, I simply can’t view that as a convincing argument. Nor can I envision that many voters actually embracing her stance that anyone who applies for a board or commission vacancy should be allowed to serve regardless of how unqualified that applicant may be. Not only that, earlier in the evening she criticized the city manager’s efforts to make the city more visually attractive. Fortunately for the city and its residents, she was the only council member who staked out that same territory on any of those issues.
In other actions last night:
- In a humiliating display of how little concern Kyle residents have about the most important decisions a city council can make, no one came to speak during a pair of public hearings, one on the city manager’s proposed $75.5 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 and the other designed to solicit citizen input on the proposed property tax rate. I find it strange that residents have no qualms taking to social media and other outlets to complain about the amount of local taxes they must pay but when given the opportunity to actually confront those who make the final decisions on those issues, those same residents are nowhere to be found.
- In an emergency meeting immediately preceding the regularly scheduled gathering, the council unanimously approved spending up to $50,000 to replace a culvert on newly reconstructed Bunton Creek Road, but not before council member Shane Arabie severely chastised a process that allowed this deficiency to escape notice when engineering studies were conducted on that part of the roadway before construction work commenced on that bond project. As it stands now, much of the just completed reconstruction on the road will have to be ripped out and then rebuilt after the culvert has been replaced.
- The council was briefed on the latest design of the proposed Veterans Memorial which would consist of a garden, an American flag display and obelisk and what appeared to be a smaller version of the wall at Washington, D.C.’s, Vietnam War memorial.
- Approved a stronger franchise agreement with Pedernales Electric Cooperative that will produce almost $600,000 in additional revenue to the city in just the next fiscal year alone.
- Unanimously approved a consent agreement what will pave the way for a planned major commercial development project on either side of FM 1626 from Kohler’s crossing north to almost the city’s limits, Such a commercial development seems to make sense since the opening of the toll road that’s currently under construction linking the southern edge of Austin’s Mopac with FM 1626 near the Hays-Travis County border will guarantee that FM 1626 will soon rival I35 as the major north-south motor way between Kyle and the state capital.
- The council unanimously passed the first reading of an ordinance that would provide significant financial relief for residents needing sidewalk repairs as well as Mitchell’s slightly revamped economic development plan designed to attract businesses, predominantly, but not exclusively, small businesses, to locate or even expand their physical plants in Kyle by offering them rebates on the property tax valuations increases directly tied to those efforts.
- City Manager Scott Sellers announced the groundbreaking for an Alsco facility in Kyle at Kyle Crossing and I-35 will take place at 2p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30. The 128-year-old firm provides linen and uniform services and products to customers that include restaurants, hospitals and healthcare clinics, automotive, industrial, and manufacturing facilities. Tenorio tried to diminish the significance of the economic development project that could bring as many as 250 jobs to the city by asserting most of the jobs were, in her words, "menial." However, Diana Torres, the city’s economic development director, countered that the average salary at Alsco is higher than the overall average salary paid to other workers employed in Kyle.
- Library director Paul Phelan announced the library will be a drop-off location for a few days next month for food donations, mostly canned goods, for the Hays County Food Bank.
No comments:
Post a Comment