City council discusses possible beautification board

The Gonzales City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting Thursday, Feb. 9 at city hall.

One of the big agenda items was discussed was forming a beautification board to oversee a master plan for the beautification of the city of Gonzales.

No action was taken on this item, but the council discussed if the new board will be like the other boards already established by the city and if they would have to follow the Texas Open Meetings Act.

“We had that conversation at staff level. And we've been going back and forth on which way to deal with it,” Gonzales Mayor Steve Sucher said.

“If we're going to put together a master plan, though, I think that there's gravity and weight to that. And for that purpose, we've leaned toward the developing of a full board,” Sucher added.

Councilwoman Ronda Miller hopes for a positive group where “everyone” can work together.

Gonzales City Secretary Kristina Vega added to what Miller said, that all the advisory boards are designed for everyone to work together.

“The council has the responsibility of appointing those individuals that would be advising any business that we have on any of our agendas,” Vega said.

Councilwoman Sherri Koepp said there were a lot of good ideas that were brought up regarding the “butterfly garden” that’ll make a huge difference for the city.

“Just having a cohesive group that align themselves to making Gonzales better than what it is now and beautifying the city, I think it's a great idea,” Koepp said.

Sucher stated the city used to have a beautification board, but it was “decommissioned” by one of the of the previous city managers.

Sucher added that Vega gave him the paperwork about the original beautification board and it had people from “varoius assigned groups” assigned to that board.

“What I feel is superior is to put together a board, and I'm recommending initially five, but we can authorize it to go up to seven. And we can add to it as we go along,” Sucher said.

“But really (we need) to build a cohesive advisory board, to help us develop a master plan and help us stay on point with the master plan for beautification [for the city of Gonzales],” Sucher added.

In other business, the council approved the following agenda items:

• approved authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement for grant administration services for the Texas CDGB-MIT regional mitigation program’s Method of Distribution Development grant.

• approved authorizing the city manager to negotiate and enter into an agreement for engineering services for the Texas CDBG-MIT regional mitigation program’s Method of Distribution Development grant.

• approved authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement for grant administration services for the Texas General Land Office (“GLO”) Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Mitigation (CDBG-MIT), Resilient Communities Program.

• approved authorizing the city manager to submit a bid proposal for Gonzales to host the Texas Junior High Rodeo Association State Finals for a period of five Years; authorizing the city manager to negotiate the contract terms if awarded the bid.

• approved a lease agreement with Enterprise Fleet Management, Inc. for the lease of several budgeted vehicles and authorizing the city manager to execute said agreements.

• approved changes to the Building Official and Code Compliance Officer job descriptions and current position classifications for Fiscal Year 2022-2023

• approved amending Article 8.300 Noise in the City of Gonzales Code of Ordinances.