From curb regulations to tax appraisals to mixed feelings about the city administration, Austin citizens brought a variety of issues to city council members at the second Coffee with the Council meeting.

Council members were pleased about 10-12 people showed up to the meeting, an attendance increase from last month. What’s more, council members were pleased people wanted to bring up county and state issues along with city-related questions.

“It’s an education for us too,” said Marian Clennon. Council members Clennon, Janet Anderson and Brian McAlister attended the meeting, along with Mayor Tom Stiehm and County Commissioner Tony Bennett.

Residents had questions ranging from police procedures on red lights to stoplight issues, questions which council members say they were happy to answer.

“It’s good we’re able to explain a few of these smaller issues so they don’t blow up to become big issues,” Clennon said.

 

HRA troubles

One of the bigger issues at the meeting involved City Administrator Jim Hurm’s suggestion that City Engineer Jon Erichson replace him as executive director of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority. Hurm brought the suggestion to the council at its April 2 meeting, which left several HRA members frustrated that Hurm didn’t let them know beforehand about the suggestion. Though one resident told the council he was pleased that Erichson’s name was brought up, HRA board chairman Marv Repinski expressed displeasure with Hurm at the meeting.

“We will deal with it at the next board meeting,” Repinski said. “We were violated by not being involved in that decision as a board.”

Anderson pointed out that the HRA hadn’t come to a decision about the HRA director and nothing was official yet, but Repinski and HRA board member Marilyn Prenosil were still unhappy over the issue.

“I feel that Jim had a suggestion, it should have come to the HRA board first and not to the city council,” Prenosil said at the meeting. She described the act as a “slap to the face of the HRA board.”

Repinski said he thought Erichson was a good man, and he liked Hurm, but the way Hurm’s suggestion was revealed and subsequently announced in the Daily Herald and local media wasn’t proper.

“We were violated by not being able to act as a board to even make a suggestion,” Repinski said. “This is not the way for a[n] agency director to do their work, to skirt around the edges, to dominate a duly elected board.”

Stiehm said the decision to hire a new executive director ultimately lies with the HRA board and asked residents to put aside attacks against Hurm, as Hurm was not present at the meeting.

 

County concerns

Several residents spoke on county issues as well, including the Veit Disposal Systems proposal to the County Board of Commissioners to change the business’s conditional use permit to allow friable asbestos to be dumped at its VONCO IV Demolition Debris Disposal Facility, 24477 U.S. Highway 218 north of Austin.

“It’s a health concern,” Repinski said, believing Austin residents could be affected by the waste if the wind picked up the landfill’s dust and asbestos debris.

In addition, several business owners were concerned about their commercial land’s recent reappraisals done by Vanguard Appraisals. Steve Davis, owner of Steve’s Pizza, said his property value has increased from $164,000 in 2009 to $378,000 last year. Davis’s taxes rose from $6,000 to $11,000 a year with the reappraisal as well.

“Now I’m looking for someone that can perhaps buy my building, and I’ll pay him rent,” Davis said.

Peter Grover agreed that reappraisals were affecting his business too, as one of his rental properties was turned into a commercial property this year. Grover said the value on that property rose 25 percent and he wasn’t looking forward to next year’s tax bill.

Bennett answered as many questions as he could. He said he wasn’t pleased with Veit’s request but the company wasn’t doing anything illegal that would prevent their permit from being changed. While he was pleased residents were bringing their concerns forward, he wasn’t sure the county board would emulate the city council’s Coffee with the Council idea to connect with more residents.

“We already go out into the townships,” he said. “We get invited out there every so often.”

Bennett said he could bring the idea to other commissioners to see what they thought about hosting their own informal chat with residents.

 

In other news, council members:

—Heard from Aaron DeVries about curb cuts. DeVries’s daughter uses a wheelchair and sometimes he has to help her get around rough patches of sidewalk. He said his daughter has difficulties going down the sidewalk if there aren’t curb cuts. Council members said though there are regulations, they didn’t think there was a specific program to deal with curb cuts but they would look into the issue.

—Heard from Habitat for Humanity members about the cost of building permits. One member said Habitat for Humanity wouldn’t be building a house this year because the permit cost $1,200. Council members said they would look into either decreasing the permit cost for Habitat for Humanity or asking the HRA board to contribute part of the permit cost.