City Council Preview – March 4, 2014
Tuesday’s City Council meeting begins with a Work Session at 2pm, followed by our Regular Session at 6:30pm. Both meetings will be held at our main City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. Click here for a full agenda with backup reading material. Here are a few items of interest…
COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT AND ANNUAL AUDIT
Did you know that you can have access to all the major documents and data relating to the city’s financial budgets, plans, strategies, and reports – it’s all here. One of the major reports we receive each year is the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) – this represents the entire financial position of the city for the year of the report (in this case, ending on September 30, 2013). Each year, the city goes through an annual audit from an outside firm where the CAFR comprises one of four major components.
It is important to our values of open government that our books are open, accessible, and transparent to the citizens. We’ll be receiving the best possible report from our auditors and receiving an update on the CAFR. Because I sit on the Audit/Finance Committee of the council, I have the privilege of hearing this twice in one day!
STANDSTILL AGREEMENT EXTENSION (WITH EAGLERIDGE) and what a NO vote to this would really mean…
Up for a vote as part of the Consent Agenda will be an extension of the Standstill Agreement. As a reminder, this agreement was the initiating agreement that brought the city and Eagleridge to the table to discuss a possible “global settlement” as it relates to gas drilling operations in the city. While a certain amount of drilling activity was allowed to continue under the terms of this agreement, it also represents a “standstill” on any further drilling activity by the operator over the course of the agreement.
To be clear: the goal of these negotiations is to fix problems with a large amount of existing well sites that can’t be sufficiently addressed through municipal regulations. While our most recent gas drilling ordinance updates gave us a much more robust ordinance from the perspective of NEW gas drilling in the city limits, we will continue to be plagued with the problem of drilling OLD gas sites previously permitted and vested under earlier rules (especially as new technology and business models have sparked new interest in these otherwise old sites).
And to be even more clear: a YES vote on this standstill agreement is a YES to a continued stand down on new drilling activity by Eagleridge and a YES vote to continue negotiating in hopes of finding a solution to these old sites. Therefore, a NO vote on this standstill agreement is a vote to allow Eagleridge to pull new permits and the continued possibility of drilling in dangerously close proximity to protected uses. A NO vote on this standstill agreement is a vote to continue with the status quo. I don’t think that is acceptable. Negotiations may or may not be successful, but given the consequences of the current status quo, we owe it to the city to try.
As a reminder, here’s a post from this past November on the subject where I attempt to give a more comprehensive overview of the problems with these old gas well site.
As always, let me know your thoughts…