Minutes TC 09/09/2002 - Special SessionMINUTES OF SPECIAL
TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
FOR THE
TOWN OF TROPHY CLUB
SEPTEMBER 9, 2002
* SPECIAL SESSION — 8: 00 A.M.
STATE OF TEXAS
COUNTY OF DENTON
The Town Council of the Town of Trophy Club, Texas, met in a Special Session on Monday, September
9, 2002. The meeting was held within the boundaries of the Town and was open to the public.
SPECIAL SESSION
TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
Scott Smith
Mayor
Roger Williams
Mayor Pro Tem
Susan Edstrom
Council Member
Bill Matthai
Council Member
Scott Spence
Council Member
Beverly Foley
Council Member
STAFF AND GUEST(S) PRESENT:
Donna Welsh
Roger Unger
Sharon Huppert
Bill LeGrand
Patricia Adams
Neil Twomey
Town Manager
Director of Finance
Administrative Assistant
Public Works Director
Town Attorney
Ways & Means Chairman
CALL TO ORDER AND ANNOUNCE A QUORUM.
Mayor Smith called the special session to order at 8:04 a.m., noting a quorum was present.
INVOCATION.
Barry Huizenga gave the invocation.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE AMERICAN FLAG.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE TEXAS FLAG.
"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas one and indivisible."
Bill LeGrand led the pledges.
CITIZEN PRESENTATIONS: THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CITIZENS TO
ADDRESS THE COUNCIL ON ANY MATTER WHETHER OR NOT IT IS POSTED
ON THE AGENDA. THE COUNCIL IS NOT PERMITTED TO TAKE ACTION ON OR
DISCUSS ANY PRESENTATION MADE TO THE COUNCIL AT THIS TIME
Page 2 SPECIAL SESSION September 9, 2002
CONCERNING AN ITEM NOT LISTED ON THE AGENDA. THE COUNCIL WILL
HEAR PRESENTATIONS ON SPECIFIC AGENDA ITEMS PRIOR TO THE COUNCIL
ADDRESSING THOSE ITEMS.
Barry Huizenga of 120 Greenhill Trail addressed the Council.
TOWN COUNCIL TO OBSERVE A PRESENTATION BY THE WAYS & MEANS
COMMITTEE REGARDING THE TAX RATE.
Neil Twomey gave the Ways & Means Committee presentation. Neil stated the Committee
unanimously concluded that the Town Council should not reduce the tax rate by an additional
two cents for various reasons.
The Town's unsubsidized real estate tax rate including debt service is $0.52776. Only due to
targeted budget cuts that resulted in the deferral until next year of certain maintenance expenses,
the redistributing of budgeted long term street repair funds to reserves and the financial
assistance of the Town's two EDCs has the Town avoided a 2002-2003 tax increase.
The Committee noted that the entire ninety -day fund would be used to fund the Town's
operating expenses from October 2002 until January 2003, when the collected property taxes will
be realized.
Mr. Twomey further stated that the Ways & Means is concerned that the Town continues to take
budgeted funds from street repair to balance the current budget and never replenishes the funds
for future repairs.
TOWN COUNCIL TO CONSIDER AND ADOPT AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF
TROPHY CLUB, TEXAS FIXING AND LEVYING MUNICIPAL AD VALOREM
TAXES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR BEGINNING OCTOBER 1, 2002 AND ENDING
SEPTEMBER 30, 2003, AND FOR EACH FISCAL YEAR THEREAFTER UNTIL
OTHERWISE PROVIDED, AT A RATE OF $.44051 PER ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS
($100.00) ASSESSED VALUATION ON ALL TAXABLE PROPERTY WITHIN THE
CORPORATE LIMITS OF THE TOWN; DIRECTING THE ASSESSMENT THEREOF
TO PROVIDE REVENUES FOR THE PAYMENT OF CURRENT OPERATION AND
MAINTENANCE EXPENSES AND INDEBTEDNESS OF THE TOWN; PROVIDING
FOR DUE AND DELINQUENT DATES TOGETHER WITH PENALTIES AND
INTEREST; PROVIDING A CUMULATIVE CLAUSE; PROVIDING A SAVINGS
CLAUSE; PROVIDING A SEVERABILITY CLAUSE; PROVIDING PUBLICATION;
PROVIDING FOR ENGROSSMENT AND ENROLLMENT; AND PROVIDING AN
EFFECTIVE DATE.
Jim Budarf of 547 Indian Creek, Connie White of 119 Trophy Club Dr, Barry Huizenga of 120
Greenhill Trail, and Gene Hill of 11 Cypress Court addressed the Council. Bob and Jodi Ashby
requested that their letter be read to the Council.
Roger Unger address the Council in reference to his findings as the Finance Director for the
Town. He stated that current projections indicated a 21/2 cent tax rate increase next year and 61/2
cent if we lower the rate by 2 cents this year.
Council Member Edstrom made a motion to adopt the Ordinance as written. Council Member
Matthai seconded; motion carried unanimously.
Page 3 SPECIAL SESSION September 9, 2002
TOWN COUNCIL TO DISCUSS AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION REGARDING
STAFF DIRECTION ON POOL CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURES:
A. MANAGER AT RISK
C. HARD BID
Beverly requested that the following letter be incorporated into the minutes:
September 9, 2002
On Friday, September 6, 2002 I called the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and spoke to one of their
attorneys, Barbara Owens, concerning the fact that Trophy Club was submitted fees with what was believed to be
"qualifications". The cover letter from Teague, Nall & Perkins (TNP) stated attached were "qualifications". We as
councilmembers were only given the "qualifications" but the engineering fees were submitted to or requested by
Donna Welsh, the Town Manager. I was under the impression we were at the stage of reviewing "qualifications" for
an architect/engineer firm to prepare the design and construction documents. Donna was also asked last week to get
one other firm to send in a qualification for the meeting this morning so we could have at least two to review.
Due to the fact we have received fees we are now in the second phase of hiring an architect/engineer firm, the
"negotiating of a contract". We are unable to review another firm until we have made a decision with TNP. No
scope of work was written and no selection criteria was written. How do we determine TNP as "most highly
qualified" if there is no other firm to judge them by?? This is bad business to only review ONE qualification and
then have only ONE choice to negotiate a contract from.
The "Texas Engineering Practice Act" found in - Texas Administrative Code, Title 22 Examining Boards, Part 6,
Texas Board of Professional Engineers, Chapter 131 Practice and Procedure, Subchapter 1, Professional Conduct
and Ethics, Rule 131.155 states:
(c) "engineer shall not:
(7) submit or request, orally or in writing, a competitive bid to perform engineering services for a political
subdivision of the State of Texas unless specifically authorized by state law.
(A) For purposes of this section, the board considers competitive bidding to perform engineering services to
include the submission of any monetary cost information in the initial step of selecting qualified engineers. Cost
information or other information from which cost can be derived must not be submitted until the second step of
negotiating a contract at a fair and reasonable cost."
(B) This section does not prohibit competitive bidding in the private sector.
The reason I bring all of this up is that Ms. Owens stated that receiving only ONE proposal with fees was not in
violation of the above section. However, the Mayor and myself, made a request to Donna to get several
(MULTIPLE per Ms. Owens' term) qualifications for us to look at for this morning's meeting. I can only assume,
Teague, Nall and Perkins and Donna had to know that if fees were submitted Donna would not be allowed to get an
additional qualification. That action, per Ms. Owens would have made TNP and the Town in violation of the above
rule.
By Donna's and TNP's action we are now "limited" for this morning's meeting to only reviewing qualifications
from ONE firm. I continue to believe that the Town should never only look to ONE firm for "qualifications" and
only ONE firm as a choice to receive a proposal from for any project we do now or in the future.
State law mandates (Local Government Code 271) and Ms. Owens agreed, that if you do not have a "full-time
employee" who is an engineer to prepare the construction documents, the Town must follow statute 2254.004 from
the Government Code. Donna, the Town Manager, will state that the Town chose Teague, Nall and Perkins 10 years
ago to be the "engineer of record" for the Town by a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process. The scope of work
and criteria for selection has not been produced. To my knowledge we do not have an annual contract or a
resolution that states we must use them for every engineering project we have.
Page 4 SPECIAL SESSION September 9, 2002
Let me briefly bring to your attention another instance where we didn't follow procedures for hiring an
architect/engineer firm. Hoover and Klein, who was chosen to design the ballfields currently being built, if Teague,
Nall and Perkins was our "engineer of record" why weren't they assigned the work to do instead of Hoover and
Klein? We also did not go out for an RFQ process to hire Hoover and Klein either. The same occurred for
designing the conceptual plan of a pool in January by Hoover and Klein.
The Town actually received a letter from Hoover and Klein dated May 22, 2002 submitting a "proposal for
professional design services" with fees. Have we formally ended our relationship with Hoover and Klein and
declined their proposal? Which we must do before we can negotiate with another firm. The letter stated - "Thank
you for selecting our firm for this work. It is really appreciated." So how was Hoover and Klein selected? Teague,
Nall and Perkins is the second firm who submits a proposal to design the pool. Wouldn't this process been
shortened if we had just interviewed three or four firms initially in January and then selected one, negotiated fees,
and then hired them. Instead we have gone through one firm for seven months and now starting with another.
We are not talking just about procedures here, we are talking about state law. Ms. Owens also stated you do not
forego state law for expediency.
Ms. Owens also stated she did not know of a ruling that would not have allowed Brannon Corp. from submitting his
"Qualifications" to us independently of the fact that Brannon Corp. was also listed in TNP's "Qualifications".
However, it is correct that due to "prices" being submitted to the Town, Brannon Corp. would not be able to submit
a "Proposal" also.
Brannon's letter declining the offer to submit a "proposal" states that Trophy Club is negotiating a contract with
Teague, Nall and Perkins. It was stated in the letter that a proposal with engineering fees was already sent to Trophy
Club by TNP. Again, I was under the impression we were reviewing "qualifications".
The Town should make the decision today to follow state law and not try to circumvent the process. I will not be
able to support any decision where we accept a proposal from only ONE firm when the Town had the opportunity
many weeks ago to write a scope of work, prepare the selection criteria, advertise for firms to send qualifications to
the Town, and to select the "most highly qualified" from those submittals. As several engineers told me — this might
not be illegal, but it "smells real bad".
Jim Carter of 204 Fresh Meadow Drive addressed the Council.
Mayor Smith added that we are not accepting the fee structure from Teague, Nall and Perkins at
this time but only the type of procedure to follow.
Mayor Pro Tem Williams made a motion to move forward with the Manager at Risk procedures.
Council Member Edstrom seconded; Council Members Matthai, Edstrom, Spence and Mayor
Pro Tem Williams voted for the Manager at Risk option and Council Member Foley voted
against.
TOWN COUNCIL TO OBSERVE A PRESENTATION AND TAKE APPROPRIATE
ACTION REGARDING POOL CONSTRUCTION.
Barry Huizenga addressed the Council. Donna Welsh addressed the Council and Citizens that
were present in the Board Room to offer responses and comparisons to methods and/or options
of construction of the pool. Tom Rutledge with Teague, Nall & Perkins addressed the Council
and submitted clarification on the Manager at Risk option.
Page 5 SPECIAL SESSION September 9, 2002
ADJOURN.
Pro Tem Mayor Williams made a motion to adjourn at 9:32 a.m. Council Member Edstrom
seconded; motion carried unanimously.
t
,Town of Trophy Club, Texas
zp
ATTEST:
17
A
Town Secretary, T1!w
of Trophy Club, Texas