The Henderson City Council will try to manage its time better tonight with the help of estimates from City Manager Eric Williams on how long each agenda item should take.
Williams’ estimates total 65 minutes for the meeting.
That excludes a report from the council committee working on Williams’ performance appraisal and Mayor Clem Seifert’s opening remarks to welcome the 2005 Leadership-Vance class and to celebrate the award of $216,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to the planned Carey Chapel Crossings housing development near Aycock Recreation Complex.
“This is an experimental process, so the effectiveness is yet to be seen,” Williams wrote in a note on the agenda. But the goal for tonight should be a motion to adjourn by 9 p.m.
The complication is that the time estimates can’t account for “unanticipated discussions,” and there are plenty of opportunities for those.
For one, Williams has included information about the Planning Board’s public hearing last week on a proposed amortization ordinance to eliminate junkyards and auto repair shops from residential areas and to force those establishments in other areas to take certain steps to improve their appearance. But there’s no time for discussion about the ordinance.
Given that the Planning Board began working on the ordinance in response to a City Council request, and given that 11 of the 15 people who addressed the Planning Board on Wednesday opposed the ordinance as drafted, some council members and the mayor might offer advice to the Planning Board on what to do when it meets next Monday.
That issue and others also could come up during the public comment section of the agenda. No one from the general public signed up in advance, but City Clerk Dianne White has a sign-up sheet before the meeting. In light of Seifert’s expression of frustration when the Rev. C.J. Dale moved to speak without signing up, it will be interesting to see how strictly Seifert applies the rules on signing up and speaking for no more than three minutes tonight.
The council has little in the way of action on the agenda tonight. No public hearings are scheduled, and the seven budget amendments on the consent agenda either have been discussed by the council’s finance committee or will have no influence on the budget’s bottom line because they involve donations:
* The Fire Department and the Appearance Commission would give up a combined $30,461, cutting the use of the fund balance in the current budget to $19,001. The Fire Department didn’t need nearly as much money as it expected to get licenses for its new ladder truck, and the Appearance Commission didn’t get the grant for which it needed $10,000 in matching funds.
* The water distribution budget is spending $1,355 from insurance proceeds on a wrecked vehicle.
* The Code Compliance Department has received $5,250 in reimbursements for demolitions and will put the money to work at two other sites that need cleanup.
* The Recreation Department wants to take $3,500 from its donations account to buy a wireless transmitter for the new scoreboard at Fox Pond Park (itself a donation from Coca-Cola Bottling of Durham) and to buy a followspot light, backdrop curtain and keyboard amp for the Henderson Rec Players.
* The water plant needs two budget amendments regarding the generator the city bought after the old one almost blew up. The first, for $5,300, covers the insurance deductible and a late bill for the work; the second dedicates $22,000 in excess insurance money to pay down the loan on the new generator.
* The refinancing of a CDBG loan is freeing up $1,197 for the Planning Department to advertise for engineering services.
The bulk of tonight’s time will be taken up by a variety of reports:
* Williams is to pass along the Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence’s sentiments regarding the city’s 2005-06 budget. VOICE agreed Wednesday to express full support for the budget requests from the police and other public safety agencies.
* The city staff is to respond to the complaint of Brady Mattox from two weeks ago. Mattox, who lives outside the city, said he thought he was being overcharged on his monthly sewer bill.
* Planning Director Grace Smith and City Engineer Frank Frazier are allotted 15 minutes, the longest of the staff reports, to discuss the city’s road priorities for the state Transportation Improvement Program.
* Recreation Director Alan Gill and City Attorney John Zollicoffer are to join Williams in explaining what the city did with a $20,000 recreation donation from Southeastern Shelter Corp. several years ago and why no playground has been developed on a lot donated for that purpose next to the Henderson Heights apartments on West Andrews Avenue. Those issues came up two weeks during the approval of a rezoning request behind Henderson Heights at the corner of Beckford Drive and Andrews Avenue.
* Williams and Zollicoffer will share the news that Schewel Furniture’s purchase of a piece of city land next to the Operations & Service Center on Beckford Drive isn’t a done deal after all. The sale would bring the city $90,000 — money that was in this year’s budget under another proposed sale of the site that fell through. The complication this time is that Lowe’s, which sold the land to the city, included a provision barring its use by any competitors of Lowe’s. Schewel and Lowe’s both sell major appliances. A letter from Schewel’s Donna Clark notified Henderson that the company can’t buy the property until the issue is resolved. The company wants a 30-day extension of a due-diligence period, until May 18, to correct the problem; otherwise, the deal is off. An added complication from the City Council’s perspective is that it was advised there would be no due-diligence delays or contingencies on the sale because Schewel was buying the due diligence prepared for the previous prospective buyer.
* Zollicoffer also is due to speak on the continuing case of Samuel Smith, the Shank Street resident who lives outside the city but apparently was charged a city sanitation fee for 18 years. The specific issue this time is whether the city could offer Smith in-city rates on his water bill to compensate him for the overcharges. Finance Director Traig Neal once said that would violate the terms of the city’s revenue bonds, which bar special rates for customers, but he later said it might be allowed. Council member Elissa Yount requested a letter from the revenue bond attorney to settle that issue.
* Code Compliance Director Corey Williams is due to discuss the appeal of civil penalties levied against K&R Associates, owned by Charlie Keeter III and Al Rivers, for the condition of a house at 1002 Standish St. Keeter wrote a letter claiming that the property has been repaired.
* The city manager is to present information on businesses that were sent letters for operating in the city without privilege licenses.
* County Emergency Operations Director Brian Short will present a “continuity of operations” plan for the council’s review and possible adoption. The plan fits with the existing emergency operations plan and covers departments that could be affected by, but don’t respond to, disasters. Short’s example: Where would city offices go if the Municipal Building suffered a fire?
* Police Chief Glen Allen is due to talk about the Police Department’s potential reaccreditation after the visit by an assessment team from the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies last week. Allen said in an interview that he is optimistic about a three-year renewal of the city’s CALEA accreditation.
The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. in the council chambers at the Municipal Building. As usual, Seifert will host a Speak Up Henderson forum from 6 to 7 p.m. in the council chambers. That forum gives people the chance to talk or ask about anything on their minds for as long as they want.