City Council approves Windwehen, discusses budget

The Gonzales City Council met on Tuesday in a special called meeting. The purposes of the meeting were to take action on hiring an interim city manager and hold a budget workshop.

There was a second budget workshop held on Wednesday.

After discussion in executive session on Tuesday the City Council voted unanimously to hire Charles Windwehen as the Interim City Manager effective March 1.

All Council members were present for both meetings including Gary Schroeder (Dist. 1), Tommy Schurig (Dist. 2), Lorenzo Hernandez (Dist. 3), Bobby Logan (Dist. 4) and Mayor Bobby O’Neal.

Windwehen is a native of Gonzales and brings a wealth of experience having worked as a city administrator and city manager for the City of Victoria for 36 years.

The majority of the discussion in these two meetings was in regards to the City of Gonzales budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1 and ending on March 31, 2012.

City Finance Director Joe Cavazos informed Council that the department heads needed direction as to if, and when projects could begin or if they are no longer being considered.

The City of Gonzales is looking at an estimated $1,071,00 excess in expenditures for the next budget. The general fund balance is estimated at $1,414,000, the budget revenue is estimated at $5,633,000 and expenditures are estimated at $6,705,000.

On top of that, Cavazos informed the council that he had worked in a one-step increase for all employees that qualified as instructed by the previous City Manager. The one-step increase will cease at 10 steps. Cavazos said that the one-step increase accounts for an estimated $100,000.

The main topic of discussion focused on the Capital Improvement Projects general fund that is looming with a potential cost of nearly $1.4 million.

Three areas were of concern including the RV Sites at JB Wells Park, the St. George Street improvement project and the Reid St wastewater line rehabilitation project.

“We feel, to have a balanced budget, that $1.3 million needs to be reduced by almost $1 million,” said Interim City Manager Windwehen at Tuesday nights workshop. “We have some difficult decisions to make without a lot of options.”

Discussion first focused on the 96 RV sites being utilized at the JB Wells Park by oilfield employees. There are 154 sites available at the park but concern lies on whether the city can offer the existing oilfield workers a temporary site during the Memorial Day weekend rodeo finals, which will need every site available.

The site is generating $31,000 per month from the existing 90 tenants that have been here as much as five months. A budget amount of $189,000 could double if the tenants remain in excess of a year.

In Tuesday’s meeting Windwehen expressed his concerns about the St. George Project and the estimated $440,000 cost.

This project accounts for the largest estimated expenditure from the general fund and includes street construction for three blocks along with sidewalks and drainage.

A $150,000 grant was received in January from USDA. The funds are to be used toward the construction of new curbs gutters and sidewalks. The project start date must begin within a year from when the grant is awarded and it must be completed with in two years of the date it is started. Matching funds are to be provided by the city for this project.

The plans for St. George also include replacing the water and sewer lines in the 100, 200 and 300 blocks. There have also been requests to address the bus parking issues in front of the Gonzales Youth Center, which is located on St. George.

City staff members are currently working on options to lower the cost of the St. George project. After working on the plans during the day on Wednesday they were able to come back to the meeting with ideas that could decrease the cost by almost $100,000.

During Wednesday’s meeting there was also much discussion about completing the work on the sewage lines on Reid Street. That project is included in the budget for this fiscal year, however the bids that have come in are higher than what was estimated.

In regards to the Reid Street work, Councilman Logan stated, “That is vitally important.”

Keith Schauer reiterated, “That line is in desperate need of being replaced. This is a potential health safety type issue.”

There was then discussion on how the current budget could be amended and work could get underway on the project as soon as possible.

Another area of concern in the future is the water treatment plant possibly needing new pressure filters. An estimated cost of $3 million would be needed to fund the new upgrade to the treatment plant.

Improvements to the Independence Golf Course were discussed including the construction of new restrooms away from the clubhouse.

Other areas of discussion included Victoria College concrete slab work, vehicles for JB Wells Park, two patrol cars, a new animal control truck, street reconstruction and equipment and electrical wiring for the Museum.

A ramp grant of $50,000 for the airport and the AWOS grant of $105,000 were also discussed.

Bob Burchard spoke for the Beautification Committee. He requested funding of material to continue their efforts in a program that was implemented by council.

No action was taken on the discussions of the budget meeting. Windwehen pointed out that there was still much work to be done on the budget and that what has been presented is very preliminary. There will be more staff meetings before formal proposals will be made to city council.

Council did approve the support of the Texas History Museum District. Glenda Gordon spoke to council and asked for official support of state designation for Texas History Museum District in Gonzales. A letter of support was sent to Senator Glen Hegar in Austin.

Dr. Lynn Denton, Director of Public History Program, wrote to the City of Gonzales and stated in his letter, “This historic city is emblematic of the vast and diverse history of our state and it has worked to commemorate this history.”