Friday, June 5, 2009

Wilmer City Council notes - 6/4/09

By Staff of Wilmer Public Citizen

Both the Wilmer City Council and the Planning & Zoning Commission met Thursday night (June 4). P&Z started a bit late but the Council was ready to go at 7:30 - as usual the Executive Session went late.

It looked like the P&Z Commission might not make a quorum, but the City Secretary swore in the new members prior to the meeting and a quorum was made. Bob Turner was elected as Chairman of the Commission and Casey Burgess was elected Vice Chairman. Victor Pena gave the invocation, was reelected as Secretary and conducted the meeting as the only seated officer in attendance. Dennis Vandygriff was also in attendance but somehow managed to ensure that others were elected to the officer positions.

And then there was the council meeting. Bob Turner gave the invocation. The discussion around the consent items (minutes of the previous meetings and paying the bills) proved to be indicative of how the meeting dynamics would transpire. Vicky Vandygriff and Marlena Dyess traded motions and seconds most of the evening and Tiny Lange voted "No" or abstained on most motions.

Of the three public hearings scheduled, only the New Subdivision Ordinance generated any public comment, one from a developer representative and one from the public.

The council approved the supplemental agreement to the Dallas County Capital Improvement Program (Pleasant Run Road bridge to start construction 2011), 4 to 0 with one abstaining.

The council approved Mayor Jeff Steele as Wilmer's voting representative to the NTCOG General Assembly, 4 to 0 (with one abstaining) or perhaps unanimously. Mayor Pro Tem Matias Leal seconded the motion submitted by Vicky Vandygriff.

The council approved repealing the existing subdivision ordinance and replacing it with a new ordinance, 4 to 1 with Tiny Lange voting against the measure. Stan Bell made the motion and Marlena Dyess made the second.

The resolution to reallocate 2008-2009 community development block grant funds was passed unanimously.

The adoption of tax abatement agreement guidelines was put o the table until the next council meeting by Tiny Lange, who remarked that the issue was approved in March 2008 and had not expired as stated by Mayor Steele. The group took a 5 minute recess to substantiate Lange's claim but no record of the 2008 action was found. Even former mayor and Ellis County resident Don Hudson was on hand to confirm Councilwoman Lange's assertion. The motion to table passed unanimously.

Next up was a "lively" discussion on mandating minimum monthly work requirements for Wilmer Police Reserve Officers. Tiny Lange objected to the termination of reserve officers not conforming to the mandatory monthly requirement in the past 90 days on the basis that the current council had no jurisdiction since it had been seated less than 90 days past. The measure passed 4 to 0 with Lange abstaining

A new public works project for BWR was passed (4 to 1) with conditions that a report was to be presented to the council after four weeks and the initial contract would be for a maximum of eight weeks when the council would reconsider the contract duration.

The reallocation of 2009-2010 Community Development Block Grant funds was passed unanimously with Stan Bell providing a second for Marlena Dyess' motion to approve.

Upon the discussion to appoint a Library board, Marlena Dyess moved to allow the City Secretary to take applications for the four boards (Library, Parks, 4A and 4B) and have the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem recommend a slate for the entire set of boards for the council's consideration. Fortunately, the measure passed unanimously, saving a great deal of time.

The Mayor called a brief recess before the Executive Session considering the terminations of WPD Chief Robert Wells and Dispatch Supervisor Teri Cohen. Chief Wells asked that the council hold his termination hearing in open session. Mayor Steele replied that Chief Wells could appeal the council decision in an open session, but that the consideration of termination would be held in Executive Session.

Upon reconvening in open session at 9:42PM, Chief Wells was terminated (pending appeal) and Teri Cohen was terminated - both over the Tiny Lange's strong No vote.

The meeting was adjourned, but this reporter did not stay to cover the usual parking lot after-the-meeting banter.

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