November 19th City Council Meeting
Items include an ordinance review, a new short-term rental (STR) management software, and the hiring of a city CFO after over a year-long search. 👏
City Council Meeting at 5:30 PM
Below are important items for the council meeting on Tuesday, November 19th. The full agenda can be found here. My opinions are in italic. Any errors are my own and not that of the city.
Ordinance Review. [M. Antrim] A list of the code of ordinances and their last review date can be found here. The city is working hard to make progress on this project. This is a big endeavor, but has been an enlightening process as a councilperson.
Approve the sale of unimproved city property. [M. Antrim] The solid red property in the image below was recently purchased, however the red outlined sections are city owned streets kept in case of development. The new owner would like to buy the city owned sections for the appraised cost of $30,000. This should be a good discussion as I'd like to make sure the property behind this parcel does not get landlocked from future development.
Red outlines show planned city streets that may be sold to the property owner.
Approve Deckard Technologies RentalScape software. [M. Antrim]
Deckard Technologies is a short-term rental (STR) software that scans thousands of websites to make sure local operators are permitted. It also allows for HOT tax remittance. Using the software should increase compliance and free up labor from manually researching non-permitted operators. I'm hoping council updates our STR ordinance soon, increasing permit fees, to cover this cost. Currently, Alpine charges $350 for a first year permit and $100 for renewals. This is much lower than permits in Marfa which are $500 or higher annually.
Approve the recommendation to hire Victoria Sanchez as Chief Financial Officer. [M. Antrim] Megan Antrim has done double duty as city manager and CFO since she took the city manager position. The city has searched for a CFO for over a year. Victoria Sanchez has 30+ years of experience in school finance and should be a great resource for the city. This hire should free up time for the city manager to focus on moving other city projects forward.
There are items added by other councilpersons that I don't have as much information on. You can find the full packet in the link listed above. Please let me know if you have any questions.