Official Website of the City of Horseshoe Bay, Texas

 

December 13, 2006

Council Comments….

It’s Wednesday morning at the Bay and your council scribe is hard at it, completing a task he should have done last night.  But alas, Christmas food and beverage activities dominated last evening’s schedule.  So, as I watch the sun arise over the power plant, I’ll begin before I forget something important.

The regular council day began promptly at 12 noon with a workshop to discuss the City’s Employee Compensation Plan.  Having spent 35 years observing, administering and being paid by several different such plans in a large corporation, Southwestern Bell, I was interested to see how our City’s plan compared.  In a word, very favorable, - that’s two words.  Our rates of pay are based on the prevailing rates as determined by a survey of other Central Texas public sector employees performing similar tasks.  Much discussion was held concerning minimums, midpoints, performance evaluations and merit increases.  The bottom line is – your City pays a competitive wage in order to attract the very best police, fire, utility and administrative employees to serve our citizens.  The plan is very good, the compensation is very good and as a result our employees are very good.

Verification of those good employees was quite evident as the council meeting began at 3 p.m.   One of the first items of business was to pass an ordinance establishing a Municipal Court.  We then appointed a judge, prosecutor and two clerks.  The credentials of the judge and prosecutor were outstanding and the two clerks, Megan Garcia and Barbara Eaton, are current outstanding City employees.  As stated at the previous meeting – the Council wants the Court to mirror the City’s attitude toward its citizens and visitors – to enforce Horseshoe Bay’s ordinances in a professional and courteous manner.  Our new judge, Kevin Madison, explained that our court will record all court proceedings, eliminating the need for a new trial on appeal.  The appellate trials are often a way for the bad guys to escape justice.  Judge Madison appeared both knowledgeable and personable.  Eddie Arredondo, the current Burnet County Attorney, was appointed City Prosecutor.  He has an excellent resume and lives in Horseshoe Bay.  Later in the meeting, General Manager, Mike Thuss, introduced Lynette Willms, our new administration clerk.  Lynette is a former third grade teacher and yet another example of the quality of employee hired by the City. 

The Lifestyle Committee made their first recommendations for new ordinances.  How timely – more to do for the new city court.  The ordinances address fire zones and false alarms - fire zones address “no parking” in areas, to which the fire fighters might need access; one intentional false alarm or five unintentional alarms caused by your alarm system in a twelve month period are also violations.  A good beginning by our Lifestyle Committee with much more to follow.

Other items discussed involved the ongoing efforts of Chief Lane’s folks to continue monitoring the construction traffic in the Cape area and on Island Drive.  This will be ongoing until construction is complete. Also, the pesky weed eradication will be discussed in more detail at the January 23 Council meeting. 

An important called meeting of the Council will be held on January 9 to discuss more Skywater plans including annexation, sales building plans and the PID , don’t ask --- more to come later.  Also at that meeting, the Horseshoe Bay POA will begin discussion on their proposal for the upgrade and transfer of roads, currently owned by the POA to the City.  We are also hopeful that we can approve the new subdivision ordinance at one of the two January meetings.  This ordinance will be important to residents and developers, as it will be a road map for future development in Horseshoe Bay.  PID’s, road and subdivisions – ought to be a good way to start 2007.

Well – time to sign off, sun’s up and it’s another glorious day in the Bay.  Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy (and safe) New Year and we’ll reconvene in “07”.

 

Jeff Robinson

 By the way a PID is a Property Improvement District!

 

 

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