November 5th Workshop and City Council Meeting

Items include a workshop going over Comprehensive Plans, discussions on IT services, spot zoning, and employee compensation. Also - hopefully a bike lane! 🚴

Comprehensive Plan Workshop at 4 PM

Council will host a workshop at City Hall discussing strategic and comprehensive plans. AJ Fawver, a representative from Verdunity, will do a Zoom presentation entitled 'Planning for Alpine's Future - Tools & Approaches'. The presentation will compare each type of plan. Council will be moving forward with one of the plan types in the future and will be seeking community feedback. Stay tuned.

City Council Meeting at 5:30 PM

Below are important items for the meeting on Tuesday, November 5th. The full agenda is found here. My opinions are in italic. Any errors are my own and not that of the city.

1. Discuss the use of Edlink18 as a managed service provider (MSP) for IT services. [D. Nance]
   The city currently does not have a technology department or any full-time IT staff. Edlink18 could help manage technology services for the city.

2. Discuss correcting a possible error in a recent ordinance concerning non-contiguous zoning, or spot zoning. [C. Eaves]
   I'm unsure what this error is. Planning & Zoning previously sent an ordinance amendment to council that would have eliminated the P&Z and city council's ability to do a spot zone change. Council did not accept the amendments and instead clarified the ordinance language - keeping the ability to do a spot zone if needed. I’m looking forward to learning more at the meeting.

3. Presentation on the Employee Compensation Study by Evergreen. [M. Antrim]
   Evergreen compared City of Alpine employees to comparable communities nearby and throughout Texas. This report will compare Alpine's benefits, salary structure, and tenure length, then offer possible solutions and revisions to the current pay scales and benefit packages. This is only a discussion so no immediate changes are taking place.

4. Approve moving forward with a bike lane on Avenue B. [D. Nance]
   I spoke with the streets department and they don't see any issues doing a temporary bike lane from N Harrison St (Loop Road) to Hancock Dr, along the Sul Ross side. If it proves popular the city can look at making it long-term.

There are items added by other councilpersons that I don't have as much information on if you’d like to view the full agenda (linked above). It will likely be a longer meeting.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I hope you can attend the meeting and remember to go vote November 5th! 🗳️