When the Katy City Council meets tonight, much of its business will involve the appointment and reappointment of members to a number of city boards and commissions.
Council members will take up ordinances appointing various city officials, as well as members of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission and the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Hal V. Cardiff, David Frishman, William M. Lawton and Frank Tucker are slated for appointment to two-year terms on the Planning and Zoning Commission. Dan D. Burris is expected to be appointed as an alternate member.
Steven J. Hauck, Herman C. Meyer, Beverly Oliver, Otis M. “Mike” Sadler are expected to receive council approval for two-year terms on the Zoning Board of Adjustment. David Minze and Jo Ann Tilton are nominated to serve as alternate members.
Additionally, the council is expected to make appointments to the Katy Heritage Park Board of Directors.
Linda Mikeska is expected to win reappointment as the Katy Heritage Society representative on the Heritage Park board, with Linda Ferris nominated as the City of Katy and Katy Heritage joint representative and Trish Johnson as the City of Katy representatives. All appointments are for two-year terms.
The council will also consider the nomination and confirmation of a mayor pro-tem. The mayor pro-tem is selected from among council members to serve in place of the mayor, including chairing council meetings, when the mayor is not available.
Councilman Hank Schmidt is the current mayor pro-tem.
Other items on tonight’s agenda include a presentation by the Texas Department of Public Safety on future plans for a local driver’s license office. In May, the council tabled a proposal from the Texas Facilities Commission to renew the lease on the current driver’s license office in the VFW building on George Bush Drive.
In a letter to Finance Director Byron Hebert, regional lease officer Bob Bugnand proposed renewing the existing lease for an additional 60 months through Dec. 31, 2014.
The renewal proposed to continue to use 960 square feet of the VFW building, which is owned by the City of Katy, for $856.22 per month.
Bugnand’s letter contained the lease renewal agreement for the city to sign. No one from the state appeared at the May meeting to discuss the proposal.
The council tabled the renewal proposal after VFW Post Commander Peyton Lumpkin objected to the lease renewal, saying the driver’s license operation was hampering VFW operations.
Lumpkin said his organization was being severely limited by the driver’s license operation. With the continuing growth of the Katy area, he said the problem will only grow over the period of the lease.
“In the next few years, we’re going to have over 300,000 people in this area,” Lumpkin told the council in May. “This is the only driver’s license office in the Katy area.”
With a new nursing facility opening across the street and increased use of the VFW parking lot by people going to the driver’s license office, traffic is already increasing, Lumpkin said.
“This could easily turn into a hazardous situation,” he told council members.
Lumpkin also told the council the VFW is operating a “first class museum” within the facility, but that, too, is being squeezed out by the DPS.
“We were hoping the DPS would find a new home so we could expand our museum,” Lumpkin said.
He pointed out the museum already has a number of artifacts and exhibits they are forced to keep in an off-site storage building because of a lack of space to put them on display.
“There are also (other artifacts) that we will be given if we can expand our museum,” Lumpkin explained. “If we lock ourselves into a five-year lease, we would be hurting ourselves. It will certainly hurt the plans for the VFW.”
City Administrator Johnny Nelson also urged council members to table the renewal request, telling them the terms of the agreement have not changed over the years and the city actually loses money on the deal.
“It’s costing the City of Katy a lot of money to support this driver’s license facility,” Nelson said.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
We need a BETTER DPS office in Katy as this facility is a poor excuse for one. I have been there many times over the years and the wait time is always long, it is understaffed and there is no way it can get any better where it is. I hear the same thing from everyone who goes there; long, slow, and told to come back multiple times because they don’t have someone to do the driving test or they can’t take any more reservations after 9 a.m. The list of complaints goes on.
It is time the DPS steps up and moves to a better location. Given the empty retail spaces we have in the area, I suspect they can find a place to work their magic. If the city is willing to rent space for that price, I want to take them up on it myself. I’ll take the spot and kick in another $100 a month for the five years the DPS is requesting.