By Sarah Tucker
After a lengthy and somewhat contentious discussion, Bellaire City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to approve the FY16 city budget, adding a $300,000 line item for beautification projects under the Capital Improvement Plan.
The vote caused City Manager Paul Hofmann to successfully delay council consideration of a contract for the Holly Street improvement project, which was also on the agenda.
Councilmember Jim Avioli proposed the amendment to spruce up unsightly areas in Bellaire because he felt the city wasn’t showing enough commitment to beautification. “It comes across to me as an ambiguous goal of ‘maybe we’ll do something, maybe we won’t,’” he said of the lack of a budget line item.
Councilmember Andrew Friedberg countered with an amendment to list the line item under the capital improvement plan section of the budget. Although Avioli disagreed with this placement, Friedberg’s amendment to Avioli’s amendment passed, 4-3.
Friedberg then tried to pass a second amendment, modifying Avioli’s $300,000 request to $112,728. Councilmember Mandy Nathan supported Friedberg, saying she “wasn’t comfortable” with the $300,000 and that council needed to understand where that money was coming from. Friedberg’s second amendment failed 3-4, with Mayor Phil Nauert siding with Friedberg and Nathan. Avioli’s amended amendment passed 4-2, with council members Avioli, Roman Reed, Gus Pappas and Pat McLaughlan for, and Friedberg abstaining.
Several members of the grassroots organization, Citizens for a Beautiful Bellaire, attended the meeting and were pleased with the outcome. John Monday, spokesperson for the group, said the organization intends to provide recommended steps and work with parks and recreation, planning and zoning, and other city departments.
“Our group can’t spend because we have no authority,” Monday said. “We want to act as a resource for Bellaire staff … and work collectively with the city manager to decide what we want the city to say about itself.”
“The group got together because the city was beginning to look a little worn around the edges,” Monday said.
More FY16 amendments, repercussions
Avioli also proposed an additional amendment to the FY16 city budget: a generous mileage compensation plan to help recruit and keep police officers in Bellaire.
Mayor Nauert applauded Avioli’s innovation but was hesitant to approve the amendment without feedback from the police chief, exit interviews with police officers, as well as concern over unintended consequences, such as reaction from other city employees who live outside of Bellaire.
Reed and McLaughlan both advocated for Avioli’s amendment, with McLaughlan half-joking about finding extra money in a $20 million budget, but the amendment failed and was postponed to a later meeting for more discussion.
Immediately following the approval of he FY16 budget, council attempted to award a contract for the Holly Street Esplanade project but were stopped by Hofmann, who requested the item be removed from the agenda because the passage of the FY16 budget with the beautification amendment didn’t leave enough money to complete the project.
Hofmann took offense at a critique by McLaughlan and insisted he wasn’t “trying to play games” or pit one project against another. Hofmann said he was directionless about how to come up with the $300,000 council had just approved and requested additional time before going ahead with the contract.
Avioli, Nathan, Friedberg and Nauert voted 4-3 to remove the item from the agenda temporarily and give Hofmann more time to go through the numbers.
Site Plan Alt A wins approval
After a short break, council moved on to approving the Ad Hoc Municipal Facilities Committee’s recommendation for Site Plan Alt A. It wasn’t without more discussion, however.
Pappas, who was council liaison to the Ad Hoc committee, wanted to bring the top site plans (Alt A and Alt D) back to the people for public discussion, while Reed didn’t want to completely disregard the initial March 27 plan.
Nathan said she found nothing wrong with Site Plan Alt A but would prefer to have public input on Alt D, committee member John Gabriel’s version. She said she needed to hear from residents that they wanted a “police station in our park rather than a library.”
Nauert and others reminded council that they were elected to be leaders to make decisions for the community. Nauert was against the public hearing amendment because the more people are together, the less consensus develops, he said.
Ultimately, council declined to hold another public hearing and voted to support Site Plan Alt A.
In other action, City Council:
- Voted unanimously to increase the city’s tax revenue and set the property tax rate at 38.05 cents per $100 valuation. Public hearings are set for Monday, Oct. 5, during regular council meeting, and Monday, Oct. 12. This proposed tax rate is actually lower than the previous year’s of 39.36 cents per $100 valuation.
- Unanimously approved Avioli as the Bellaire candidate to the Harris County Appraisal District’s Board of Directors.
- Voted against touring Bellaire High School (a traffic study last year suggested a higher speed would be more desirable); and declined to host upcoming winter council meetings in different city parks. All three items were proposed by Reed.
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