Mayor Pro Tem Mike Scotten made the motion to approve an amendment that removes the requirements that the council include the city manager and appointees from the City Council, the Beeville Water Supply District and the Bee County Commissioners Court when they fill vacancies on the board.
The amendment was recommended earlier this year to prevent possible conflicts of interest in board recommendations to the City Council.
Councilwoman Libby Spires and Mayor Santiago “Jimbo” Martinez voted in favor of the motion and Councilman John Fulghum voted against it.
Fulghum said he was concerned that the BWSD board might not approve a tax rate this year if it is not allowed to make an appointment to the EIC board. That would mean the BWSD would not be able to levy a tax this year.
The district is expected to make its final $1 million payment in March 2010 on a $10 million bond issue sold when the district first raised the money to pay for its surface water system that brings fresh water from Lake Corpus Christi.
Interim City Manager Joe B. Montez said about $600,000 of that money is expected to come from the ad valorem tax the BWSD levies on property within the district.
Montez said the tax has been in effect for at least the last 20 years because the city could not afford to pay debt service and operation and maintenance costs with water sales alone. That, he said, is especially true during times of drought when water usage must be reduced.
“I’d hope they wouldn’t hold the city hostage and that’s what it sounds like,” Martinez said.
“I don’t want to take it away from them because it could come back to haunt us,” Fulghum said before the vote was taken. “I’d have a real problem with that.”
Earlier in the meeting the council discussed the possibility of the BWSD board dissolving after the bonds are paid off next year. But Montez said he had read the law creating the district and he said he did not see anything that would require that.
“I think we want to keep it alive,” Montez said. He reminded the council that the district was authorized to sell up to $13 million in bonds on the initial project and it only spent $10 million. He said the district could spend the additional $3 million on renovations and upgrades to the system at some late date.
Council members voted in favor of the amendments after City Attorney Frank Warner assured them that the EIC board is a seven-member body and the council would still have the ability to appoint anyone they want to the remaining four positions, including City Council, Commissioners Court and BWSD board members.
In other business the council voted to:
— Authorize the transfer of $19,917.88 in community block grant funds for wastewater treatment plant improvements.
— Approve an alternate plan for planting shrubbery in the 300 block of North Washington Street.
— Accept an plan prepared by Naismith Engineering concerning the handling of brush chips at the city’s caliche pit at the intersection of FM 673 and FM 351.
—Reappoint Tom Beasley to the city’s Tax Increment Finance District board as a representative of the Beeville Independent School District.
— Appoint John Padolla to the city’s Traffic Safety Commission.
— Accept a report from Police Chief Joe Treviño concerning a grant from the national stimulus package for law enforcement purposes.
— Accept a report from Scotten on work done in preparing a job description for the city manager’s position.
— Accept work on the city’s Depot Pavilion as complete.
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