City may pair elections with county

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When the City of Gonzales holds its municipal election on Nov. 3, it will likely be in conjunction with the election operated by Gonzales County using the same ballot and polling locations.
The May 2 election was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. How the election will be held is up to the city council and at Thursday night’s meeting it was presented with options but only one reasonable course of action.
Interim City Secretary Kristi Gilbert informed the council that its best option for conducting the election was to join the county’s election versus doing a separate election on the same day.
“The city is required to use all of the same polling locations the county uses in the city,” Gilbert told the council.
The council met in person for the first time since the pandemic shutdown, but public access was only by phone in keeping with state orders and safety guidelines.
Gilbert told the council that if the city conducted its own election that it would have to provide its own equipment, ballot, workers, and other necessities separate from the county. The city, however, does not have enough voting machines to run an election and would need to borrow from the county and/or rent from its vendor. The county is using its machines and the vendor has already rented out its supply. Also, with most trained election workers already committed to the county election, which includes state and federal elections, there would be a shortage of workers for a separate city election.
“They’re (county) more than willing to help us,” Gilbert said.
The council will make a decision at its next meeting in July.

Financial dealings
At Thursday’s meeting, the council took several actions, including refinancing a bond issued in 2011 for a wastewater treatment plant and water well. It will save the city more than $400,000 over the life of the bond.
The savings comes as welcome news to the council as it voted to continue the city’s Fiscal Management Contingency Plan which outlines steps the city should take during times of anticipated budget shortfalls. The city is anticipating a drop in sales tax revenue for April and May during the COVID-19 closures. On Monday Mayor Connie Kacir learned that April’s revenues are $10,000 below budget.

In other action, the council:
• Authorized the city manager to enter into agreements for engineering and grant administration services for the Texas General Land Office Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program.
• Amended the Gonzales Police Department use of force policy to include first aid recommendation in the event of injury.
• Approved a zoning change request from R-1 Single Family Residential to C-2 Heavy Commercial District the north half of lots 8 and 9 of the Kings Second Addition and lot 7 and the south half of lots 8 and 9 of the Kings Second Addition.
• Affirmed compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), including the ADA Amendments Act of 2008; the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, Including the Use of a Telecommunications Device for Persons Who Are Deaf (TDDS) or an equally effective communication system.
• Authorized the city manager to add Brick Yard Road to the 2020 Street Improvement Plan.
• Authorized spending no more the $100,800 for the change out of electrical poles.
• Authorized the city manager to defer all hotel occupancy tax payments for the second quarter of FY2019-2020 (January, February, March) for a minimum of 90 days, with penalties waived, based on the recommendation from the Gonzales Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.
• Set limits on time spent without charges for repeat public information requestors. According to her report to the council, Gilbert said one person has made 29 requests since Jan. 1.
“In this instance, the single requestor has cost the city a minimum of 40 hours of staff time (excluding attorney time), only 4.5 hours of which was able to be charged at a rate of $15 per hour,” she reported in the meeting packet.
“Through the adoption of this ordinance, staff will be able to assess labor and overhead charges for any requests that exceed 15 hours per month or 36 hours per fiscal year, regardless of the number of pages requested. This will allow the city to better recover the costs associated with the voluminous requests.”

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