There are some super important meetings this week so lets get started!
As always, please refer back to the city's website calendar to see if any meetings are added after this newsletter goes out. https://www.waxahachie.com/calendar.php
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Tuesday, June 28, 2022
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***** 12:00 PM - City Council Special Meeting *****
Council Chamber, City Hall
401 S. Rogers St.
4 - Public Comments
5 - Canvass and accept votes of City Council Runoff Election held on June 18, 2022
6 - Administer Oath of Office to Council Member Place 2 - Congratulations Mr. Patrick Souter
*** 7 - Organization of City Council *** - This is where the Council will, amongst themselves, appoint the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem. Per our charter, it seems like the Mayor doesn't have much authority, but in reality, he/she does. This position works very closely with the City Manager and determines some things that happen in our city. One example is the board/commission appointments. Usually the Mayor, Pro Tem does those and Council generally rubber stamps that.
Not only that, but from my experience on Council, the person who is Mayor sets the tone for the Council. For example, Mayor Barnes was extremely amicable, treated everyone with respect even when there were differences of opinion and when it was time for discussion on items at meetings and during executive sessions, he would ask each Council member for their input. I can tell you for a fact that that kind of professionalism and team building does NOT happen all the time. In fact, it was the first time while I was on Council, that a Mayor did those things.
Anyways, the point is the position of Mayor is an important one and I believe that we the residents, should have a right to vote for the Mayor directly - NOT vote on council members and then Council members appoint a Mayor. In order to do this, we must have a charter change AND I strongly believe we should also get rid of runoff elections, which was a fairly recent change to our charter. It cost the city (taxpayers) THOUSANDS of dollars for this runoff election and only 893 people voted in it... in a city of over 44,000 people... I believe these runoffs are a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. It's costly for candidates too and leads to voter apathy (as you can see by the numbers) because it's yet ANOTHER election people have to go vote in. Just to let you know, it would be a very easy change to do this because you just have to take
out that the winner of an election must have 50% +1 to win and insert
that the candidate who received the highest number of votes in any
specific election would be declared the winner; however, it would need to be voted on by the residents since it would be a change to our current charter.
Unfortunately, this public meeting is being held at noon, so many who work will not be able to attend. Luckily though, this meeting should be live-streamed and if so, you can access it at this link starting at noon: https://www.waxahachie.com/government/city_council/city_council_meeting_live_stream.php
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6:30 PM - Planning & Zoning Commission Briefing Session
Council Conference Room, City Hall
401 S. Rogers St.
This briefing session is being held for the P&Z Commission to discuss items on the 7:00 PM meeting agenda with staff. It is a public session that is usually has quite a bit of information, so I always recommend attending the briefing sessions whenever possible. If you have public comments or are coming to City Hall to speak on a public hearing item, please save that for the 7:00 PM meeting. There is not a time for folks to do that at the briefing session.
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7:00 PM - Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting
Council Chamber, City Hall
401 S. Rogers St.
Most of the items are pretty routine, so please refer to the agenda packet link above if you'd like to see the other cases not listed below and their details.
8 & 9 - Public Hearing on a request for a Plat of The Place at North Grove, located at the northwest corner of North Grove Blvd. and Washington Avenue. The applicant is proposing to plat approximately 10.67 acres of land into 3 lots. Lot 10 is for mixed-use, Lot 11 is for retail and commercial uses, and Lot 12X is an open space common area. It doesn't explicitly say that apartments or townhomes are going to be involved be it does state that approximately 252 dwelling units are being considered in the mixed-use development. There should be more to come on this as the project moves forward, but staff is recommending approval per comments.
12 & 13 - Public Hearing on a request by Tom Wright, Heart-In-Hand, for a Zoning Change from a Central Area (CA) zoning district to a Planned Development - Central Area (PD-CA) zoning district located at 212 S. Rogers St to allow for a tattoo shop. Staff is recommending approval per comments.
This is a public meeting and you are welcome to attend. If you are unable to make it to the meeting, you may watch the live-stream at this link: https://www.waxahachie.com/government/city_council/city_council_meeting_live_stream.php
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Thursday, June 30, 2022
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*** 8:30 AM - City Council Work Session ***
Waxahachie Civic Center
2000 Civic Center Lane
Not much to put on here, unfortunately. It is disappointing that there wasn't at least a tentative or proposed budget or at LEAST some very basic numbers like what tax rate the budget has been based on, what is the city's no-new-revenue rate, and things of that nature.
1 - Call to Order
*** 2 - Discussion of City of Waxahachie Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Budget ***
3 - Comments by Mayor, City Council, City Attorney and City Manager
4 - Adjourn
This is a public meeting and I HIGHLY recommend anyone who is able to attend this meeting, please do so. It has not been streamed in the past, so I don't expect this one to be any different. Unlike other meetings like the special meeting on Tuesday that COULD be set for Monday or Wednesday evening because it's basically just a Council kind of deal, the budget workshop usually involves every director for the City and all administration plus council, so it is a big deal and usually takes a large portion of a day, if not all day. The budget and tax rate go hand-in-hand, so that's why this is a huge deal.
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That's it for this week, but make no mistake about how important this week's city meetings are! Please stay informed and involved!
Have a great weekend and wonderful week ahead!
Your Friendly Neighbor,
Melissa Olson
(text) 817-507-5162
olsonfortexas@gmail.com
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