HomeMy Public PortalAbout1999_04_27 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES OF APRIL 27, 1999
A regular meeting of the Leesburg Town Council was held on Tuesday, April 27, 1999,
at 7:30 p.m., in the Council Chambers, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia. The meeting
was called by Mayor James E. Clem.
COUNCILMEMBERS PRESENT
Frank Buttery
Mervin Jackson
Leonard McDonald
Kristen Umstattd
B. J. Webb
Bob Zoldos
Mayor Clem
STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT
Acting Town Manager Paul E. York
Director of Engineering and Public Works Thomas A. Mason
Director of Parks and Recreation Kaj Dentler
Personnel Manager Nancy Fixx
Planner Kristie LaLire
Public Information Officer Susan Farmer
J. Hamilton Lambert
Deputy Town Attorney Deborah Welsh
Clerk of Council Barbara Markland
1. INVOCATION: Councilmember McDonald
2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG: Councilmember Jackson
3. ROLL CALL: All members of Council were present.
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: MOTION: On motion of Webb, seconded by Jackson, the
special meeting minutes of March 23, 1999, April 6, 1999 and the regular meeting minutes of
April 13, 1999 were approved as written.
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Umstattd, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
Abstain: Councilmember Buttery from 4.(a) and (c). McDonald from 4. (b).
Mayor Clem stated, "I would like to have an amendment made to our agenda tonight and add
after our public hearing an executive session."
MOTION: On motion of Jackson, seconded by McDonald, Council will convene in executive
session following the scheduled public hearing.
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Umstattd, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
5. PETITIONERS:
Mayor Clem stated, "item number 5 is the petitioner's section and the only person I know that
has signed up is Mr. Steve Colangelo. Mr. Colangelo would you like to come forward please?"
Mr. Stephen Colangelo with McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, addressed the Council stating,
"Good evening Mr. Mayor, members of Council I want to start out by introducing Jack Farmer
who is with Robinson, Farmer and Cox Associates and is the accountant who worked with us on
the audit of the investigation that we did relating to the American Express credit card account.
We are here and I'm going to deliver to you tonight a copy of the report that Mr. Farmer prepared
along with a cover letter that I have making some recommendations in connection with what we
found. I'll just say by way of just brief summary that the investigation that we did we could not
find any indication that any of the town's funds had not been spent properly. Where it had been
used to pay anyone's personal expenses. We looked at the policies relating to the use of credit
cards. There is one policy from April of 1997 and there is a portion of the town's Personnel
Manual that deals with expense reimbursements. Really the credit card use is a sub-set of the
expense reimbursement. And we looked at those provisions to see if we thought they had any
problems or were in need of any adjustments and I think that in essence the substance of those
provisions are adequate but there is some ambiguity or potential ambiguity as to whom those
policies apply. And as a result they were not followed uniformly and I think we can say
generally the documentation that was called for in those policies was not followed and as a result
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of that it made it difficult if not impossible for us to verify how some of the money was spent and
whether all of the town's policies were followed. Generally a much more informal process of
reporting expenses was used and using that in cross checking we are able to say that we couldn't
see any indications, as I said in the beginning, that any of the town funds had been used for any
personal expenses. But it was difficult if not impossible to then look at the business expenses
that had been charged to the card and determine what they were for. I think there are a number
of improvements that could be made in the policies with very minor tweaking that would
eliminate the problems. I think the credit card policy, for example, ought to be applicable to
everybody without any questions. The policy as it is written now says that the cards are to be
limited to business meals and travel related expenses. You may or may not want to keep that
limitation. The card was used for other kinds of legitimate business expenses but that is a
violation of the policy because the policy says meals and travel related expenses. So you should
look at that, decide whether you want it to be broader or not and then once you decide, you need
to strictly enforce the policy that is there. I think that one of the problems was that the Finance
Department was kind of put on the spot at times with having to deal with his superiors and the
directions to the Finance Department need to be very precise. I think that once you get the
policies clarified then the Finance Department will be in a position to be able to say, we can't
write that check because it doesn't comply with the policies. That is a difficult thing to do
sometimes because they may be addressing that to the Mayor or member of Council or the Town
Manager who are their bosses. But if the direction is clear they will be able to do that. The
expense reimbursement policy as it is written in the town's Personnel Manual does not apply to
the Town Council or members of boards. From what I can tell there is no policy on expense
reimbursement - written policy that applies to Councilmembers or members of boards. You
should have one and you can write one that is specifically for Councilmembers and boards or you
can make the one that is there for everyone else applicable. It may need some adjustment but we
could see no clear direction that you have to when you are entitled to incur expenses on behalf of
the town. Whether you need prior approval for example, if you are to attend a conference in
New York on municipal government and if you need prior approval who should give you that
prior approval. Those are the kinds of things which you should address in a policy that would
apply to members of council and boards and I have made a number of recommendations like that
in the letter that I am going to deliver to you now with the report. Let me also say that because of
the way that we conducted our investigation, the information in the report and in my letter is
privileged. We conducted it that way because when we went into it we didn't know whether we
would be filing a civil law suit trying to collect money from people or not. I am assuming, based
on our findings, that you probably are not going to be finding yourself in a civil law suit. It is
certainly up to you to determine whether you want to waive any privileges that are applicable to
the report and release them. It is done in such a manner that it is protected by the attorney-client
privilege as it now stands. We'd be happy to answer any questions. And I also have to apologize
for Mr. Jackson, I don't think I have one with an envelope."
Mayor Clem stated, "are there any questions of Mr. Colangelo?"
Councilmember Jackson statei:l, "I'd like to ask a question since I'm new and I don't know
anything about the investigation but have you got any report just how much it cost the citizens of
the Town of Leesburg?" Mr. Colangelo stated, "how much the investigation cost?" Mr. Jackson
stated, "yes, the public knowledge of how much the investigation cost the citizens of the Town of
Leesburg." Mr. Colangelo stated, "I actually do not have those numbers. It would be easy to put
them together and we could provide that to you but we haven't tallied it all up yet." Mr. Jackson
stated, "I would like the citizens to know. Everybody is asking how much it cost and what the
investigation cost. So I would surely like to know how much the investigation cost the citizens
of the Town of Leesburg."
Councilmember Buttery stated, "Steve you have indicated that there were some expenditures that
were hard to nail down as to whether or not they were specific business or if they were for
business related or whether or not they - I don't mean to paraphrase, ! can't quote you exactly,
but whether or not business expenditures were valid. Could you elaborate a little bit on that?"
Mr. Colangelo stated, "yes. The policy says that you should submit a receipt which indicates for
example if you are on a business meal - who you are having the meal with, what company they
are and an indication of what it is for. None of those kinds of records were provided. So all we
would be presented with would be an indication that there would be a charge, lets say for a
restaurant and that would be identified as a business meal. We have no way of verifying whether
that in fact was a business meal or not and there are also some guidelines that are in your policies
with respect to how much you should or shouldn't charge for meals and we have no way because
we don't know who was at the meal - of knowing whether those kinds of guidelines were
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followed. What we had was an informal report that would designate that expense as a business
meal and at times, I believe and Jack you know this better than me, but I think there were times
expenses would be coded to certain accounting categories so they would be designated as to
which account for the town's business they should go to. But it still would not tell us exactly
who was there and what it was for."
Vice Mayor Webb stated, "Steve if you have an opportunity - included in this evening's packet is
a recommendation from the Personnel Committee for amending sections 12.1-17, 12.1-94 and
12.1-98 of the Town Code and Personnel Manual that relates specifically to the financial
expenditure situations that we believe probably needed to be tightened up and I would be curious
to hear any suggestions or recommendations you have after reviewing that section. If you had
any recommendations, I would suggest to the Council that we might want to refer this back to
Committee and take a look at it at the next Council meeting so we'd have an opportunity for you
all to review them." Mr. Colangelo stated, "what sections again were you talking about?" .Ms.
Webb stated, "included in our Town Council packet tonight are the amended sections which is
12.1-17, 12.1-94 and 12.1-98 of the Town Code and Personnel Manual." Mr. Colangelo stated,
"I know that 94 is the section on employee expenses which I do think I actually made some
comments on tonight. One of the things I noticed, there is an odd and I think its just an oversight
in the way that it was done but in Section 12.1-3 of the manual it divides persons and service of
the town into four different categories, one of which is called employees and this if you follow
that and consider that as a defined term then people like the town manager who in some certain
situations would be considered an employee arguably is not an employee and clearly members of
Council and boards are not and then when a policy is made applicable to employees that's where
the ambiguity was created. Also in the way the policy is worded, if the town manager is the one
that is responsible for making approvals and if the section applies to him. It certainly can happen
that way but there ought to be an acknowledgment in the way that it is written that indicates he is
the one making the approval and perhaps some guidelines that can be put in that would help the
Finance Department on their dealing with his expenses knowing that there is no one sitting over
top of him to review them. Those are the kinds of things that ! think you need to address." Ms.
Webb stated, "I believe we have accomplished that but I would like to have your eyes and Ms.
Welsh and Sally to have an opportunity to review it before we pass it without some other
scrutiny from perhaps more objective sources." Mr. Colangelo stated, "its also something that
we dealt with in the course of these specific events and you see when you take a policy that is
written in the abstract and apply it in certain situations where the bumps are."
Mayor Clem stated, "I've made a note here that we should in fact send this back to Committee to
make sure everything is coordinated. Then we can bring it back."
Councilmember McDonald stated, "your Honor, if I may. ! have one question. Its along the
lines of his - you talked about business expenses. Did you find any evidence of anything that
was of a personal nature that was not repaid?" Mr. Colangelo stated, "no." Mr. McDonald
stated, "okay." Mr. Colangelo stated, "and actually you use the word repaid and we've had a lot
of discussion about that word. In fact, all items that were designated as personal and which
appeared to be personal were paid in the first incidence by the individuals. There was never a
situation that we found where the town advanced the money or paid and got reimbursed. And the
way our understanding of the procedures and the way the Finance Department worked that is the
Finance Department would require a check from the individual for the personal expenses. So
people use that term repaid loosely." Mr. McDonald stated, "! understand. The only other thing
is along with what BJ said, I've read the changes and ! think they are pretty thorough. One of
them is, it makes it very clear that no one elected or appointed is exempt. I certainly appreciate
the section that says no alcoholic beverages will be purchased with taxpayers dollars."
Councilmember Umstattd stated, "Mr. Mayor, I have a question for Mr. Farmer. Mr. Farmer the
Commonwealth's Attorney was very concerned that a number of phone calls that had been
designated as town business were not necessarily so. Were you able to call all the numbers so
listed and verify who was at the other end?" Mr. Farmer stated, "we did not really deal with any
phone charges as such. We were only focused on the other credit card charges. If there were a
phone charge to that ! am not aware of it right off but it was analyzed."
Mayor Clem stated, "any one else? If not, we thank you very much sir and we will send our item
back to committee where we will work on it and then correlate - coordinate that with you."
Mr. Colangelo stated, "it was always a pleasure to be of service to the town and I know it was a
difficult time for the town but ! appreciated being able to be a part."
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Ms. Kelly Gower addressed the Council in support of Child Abuse Prevention Month.
6. PROCLAMATIONS:
a. MOTION: On motion of Umstattd, seconded by McDonald, the following proclamation was
proposed and adopted.
PROCLAIMING NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, MAY 6, 1999
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Umstattd, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
b. MOTION: On motion of Zoldos, seconded by Webb, the following proclamation was
proposed and adopted.
PROCLAIMING SALVATION ARMY WEEK, MAY 10-15, 1999
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Umstattd, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
c. MOTION: On motion of Buttery, seconded by McDonald, the following proclamation was
proposed and adopted.
PROCLAIMING PRESERVATION WEEK, MAY 10-14, 1999
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Umstattd, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
7. PUBLIC HEARING: To consider an amendment to the Town Code regarding operating
hours of town parks.
Mr. Dentler provided the staff report. No public comment was received. This matter was
referred to the Administration and Public Works Committee agenda of May 4, 1999 for further
consideration.
Councilmember Zoldos stated the Parks and Recreation Commission fully supports the proposed
Town Code amendment.
Mayor Clem stated, "okay at this time I'd like to recess and go into executive session. I don't
have an idea of how long that Will take but we'll take a recess to do that."
The Council convened in executive session in the Councilmember's meeting room at 8:15 p.m.,
where the following motion was made.
MOTION: On motion of, and duly seconded, the following motion was made: pursuant to
Section 2.1-344 of the 1950 Code of Virginia, as amended, I move that the Leesburg Town Council
convene in Executive Session. The authority for this Executive Session is found in Section 2.1-344
(a), Subsection (1) of the 1950 Code of Virginia, as amended. The purpose of this Executive
Session is to discuss personnel issues.
J. Lambert, Nancy Fixx, Paul York, Deborah Welsh and Sally Hostetler are to remain for the
executive session.
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Umstattd, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
MOTION: On motion of, duly seconded, the following resolution was proposed and adopted.
99-120- RESOLUTION - CERTIFYING EXECUTIVE SESSION OF APRIL 27, 1999
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WHEREAS, the Town Council of the Town of Leesburg, Virginia, has this day convened
in Executive Session in accordance with an affu'mative recorded vote of the Leesburg Town
Council and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Leesburg Town Council does hereby
certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, 1) only public business matters lawfully
exempted from open meeting requirements under the Freedom of Information Act were discussed in
the Executive Session to which this certification applies; and 2) only such public business matters
as were identified in the Motion by which the said Executive Session was convened were heard,
discussed or considered by the Leesburg Town Council.
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Umstattd, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
8. COUNCILMEMBER COMMENTS
Councilmember McDonald attended the joint meeting of the Tree Commission, EAC and Parks and
Recreation Commission on April 26, 1999. Mr. McDonald asked that a copy of the town's refuse
contract be forwarded to EAC Chairman Tolbert.
Councilmember Buttery_ stated two trees were planted at the Union Cemetery and will be counted in
the town's 2000 by 2000 project. Mr. Buttery thanked the Parks and Recreation staff for a
successful flower and garden event. The Loudoun Border Guard event will take place on May 1,
with a Fife and Drum parade beginning at noon.
Councilmember Jackson referenced an email he received from Vice Mayor Webb regarding
vehicles on the bike trail, and then questioned what happened to the barricades that used to be on
the trail.
Councilmember Zoldos commended the Parks and Recreation department and town staff who
volunteered for the successful flower and garden event.
Vice Mayor Webb thanked police officers T. J. Moore and Wes Thompson and Peter Burnette
and the other volunteers both from the police department and the business community who came
out and worked on the Christmas in April house on Loudoun Street. Ms. Webb recommended
that the Council ask the Department of Economic Development to look into moving forward with
an RFP on the property on Loudoun Street on both sides of the entrance to the parking garage.
Ms. Webb requested a bi-monthly update on CIP projects funded by the January bond issue. Ms.
Webb met with the officials of Loudoun Hospital and the developers who are considering posting
bids on the RFP on Cornwall Street. In addition, Ms. Webb met with the neighbors of Memorial
Drive and Cornwall Street to discuss the RFP as well as the issue of street landscaping. Ms.
Webb and Mr. Jackson attended the Kincaid HOA meeting. Mowing has been completed on the
Battlefield Parkway. Ms. Webb proposed a proactive town meeting on how we assure that the
Town of Leesburg would not be another Littleton, Colorado.
9. MAYOR'S REPORT
Mayor Clem stated the skate park has received $30,600 to date and thanked all the young adults
who were involved in the creation of the skate park. He reported on a good turnout for the
March of Dimes Walk-a-Thon. The little league baseball season began on Saturday. Mr. Clem
met with Dr. Cook regarding the RFP for the re-use of the hospital. Mr. Clem reported on the
successfulness of the Arbor Day and Flower and Garden Festival events. Mr. Clem thanked the
LVFC for turning off the siren. He stated a meeting will be held with the LVFC, and the Public
Safety Committee. Mr. Clem stated, with regard to the re-development of Loudoun House, that
all but 10 families have been relocated and that Loudoun County is working with these families.
The developer plans to spend $25,000 on each unit.
10. MANAGER'S REPORT
Mr. York referenced the written Activity Report and welcomed Michele Aguilla the town's
Director of Information Technology. Mr. York congratulated the Parks and Recreation
department on the successful flower and garden festival.
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Mayor Clem thanked Councilmember Zoldos for serving on the IT Committee.
11. LEGISLATION:
(a) MOTION: On motion of McDonald, seconded by Zoldos, the following ordinance was
proposed and adopted.
99-0-11 - ORDINANCE - AMENDING SECTION 10-176(a) OF THE TOWN CODE
REGARDING OCCUPANCY OF METER PARKING SPACES
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
Absent: Councilmember Umstattd
11. (b) was referred to the May 4, 1999 Administration and Public Works Committee.
CONSENT LEGISLATION:
(c), (d), (e), (f) MOTION: On motion of Jackson, seconded by Buttery, the following resolution
were proposed as consent items and adopted.
(c) 99-121 - RESOLUTION - ROUTE 7 LIMITED ACCESS IMPLEMENTATION
PROPOSAL
(d) 99-122 - RESOLUTION - AUTHORIZING A NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING FOR
AN ORDINANCE AMENDMENT REGARDING CONSTRUCTION HYDRANT METER
LEASE POLICY
(e) 99-123 - RESOLUTION - AUTHORIZING A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR A
POLICE MANAGEMENT STUDY
Mayor Clem stated, "I'd like take item (e) and see if Mr. Lambert would like to give us some
information on the police management study."
Mr. Lambert stated, "as you'll recall, we did meet with the subcommittee of the governing body
to discuss this issue and Chairman Webb at that particular moment was involved in the
discussion related to the RFP. There were two items that we changed as the response to
Council's discussion. Go to page 2 little horseshoe (c), the department turnover rate including
the turnover rate of various ranks and position classifications as compared with other
jurisdictions. ! believe Councilman Buttery made that comment to be included. And the reason
for employee turnover to be determined by interview with former employees, current employees
and management. That was "made at the suggestion of Council person Umstattd. They were
added and we intend to proceed to go forward with that."
Mr. Lambert, "Two other comments on a different subject on the technological study and the
committee. In reviewing that, we approached it at committee we found that the town was limited
in getting direction in a number of their areas and how their communities were structured and
with the help of Ms. Markland and pulling out a lot of information that you all have, we will be
sending to you a committee structure that we feel can then apply to other problems that the town
may have. Sort of an overall committee structure. That will be coming to you all when the
manager decides within the next week or so."
Mr. Lambert, referenced the Thomas Balch Library and stated "I'd like to take a few moments to
tell you the good news and the bad news. As you will recall we did transmit a memorandum to
you dated April 20, 1999, and the purpose was to advise you on what transpired on a number of
these meetings. The manager and I held a meeting with, what started out as a basketball team
and ended up being a football team, of staff to analyze what is the status of all items related to
the library project. What is required to get the project moving and expedited and what are our
projected time schedules. We were not happy with a number of things. One is, the project
primarily has been in limbo since September of 1998. What that means is you had about eight
months of deterioration to the project not only physical deterioration but also economical
deterioration, if yoWll allow me to use that term. The engineering cost index has gone up. I
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don't think anybody would question that. That's been a little bit of a concern to us. With the
prodding of Councilmember Buttery, we also tried to put together a structure as to how we could
move forward with expediting this project. In addition, I would be remiss if I did not say that
both Tom Mason and Barry Thompson have been extraordinarily valuable so far in assisting us
in putting together this structure. We believe still that you can move on the project and have a
start up time of August 19, 1999. I just received today a memorandum from Mr. Thompson who
corrects me as usual and says August 10, 1999. So he's a little bit more precise than I am and I
have to defer to that number. We feel fairly comfortable we can move forward with the project.
The architect feels comfortable. The only concern we have at this time is the project cost. The
project cost right now is structured at around $2.4 million and I want to reserve right now the
comment on that as to whether or not that's going to be sufficient. I know Councilman
McDonald raised that issue. I did talk with the architect about that and about expediting it.
There is a portion of that project which really should not be charged to the library project but
was put together for ease of bidding and merging which is about a $300,000 storm drainage
project which may or may not be totally necessary. Those are the things we have to look at. We'
are going to use preferred bidder situation. We are going to make certain people that bid on this
project know how to do libraries or have some experience in that type of building structure,
historical in particular and that they would be responsible also for the storm drainage self
contracting so that we can localize and focus in on just one contractor instead of having to deal
with a whole cast of thousands. I must tell you that the town team has been superb. Certainly
they were extraordinarily helpful to me. I feel now that I probably know more about the Balch
library then I ever thought I would want to know and am comfortable that I don't want to know
much more."
Mr. Lambert stated, "on a personal note I feel it incumbent to bring up one particular point and I
don't expect a response on this but in Leesburg Today at the last printing of the document there
was at least appeared to me to be some indication that the management study that I'd
recommended had something to do with retaliatory action related to the credit card situation.
That's not true. As I've mentioned before I've been accused of a lot of things in 30 some years
in local government but never of an integrity issue of that nature. That's just not a fact. And I
challenge anyone to prove that it is. That troubled me and some of my friends and it should have
troubled me and I just want to let you know where I stand on that. If the Council is
uncomfortable with that, I am willing to address those issues. That's about all I have to say."
Mayor Clem stated, "we thank you. I am glad you brought that up. I was going to point that out.
But now that you have stated it very eloquently I can't improve on it."
Vice Mayor Webb stated, "your honor if I could add one other point that some how seemed to
not get the attention that I thought it might. The management study has been requested by the
Chief in 1997 and 1998 during our budget process. Mr. Brown for financial reasons did not
include that management study in the budget that came forward to the Council and it was the
Chief when we were discussing at the first budget workshop the issue of salaries at the entry
level that he once again refninded us that he had asked on two previous occasions for a
management study. So it was my understanding that we were moving forward with a
management study at the request of the police department and I too was disappointed with the
coverage and I believe of the misinformation that was provided to the public."
Mayor Clem stated, "well it actually had 3 problems. One we were very concerned as a Council
of the fact that we had lost 23 employees. I think that generated the question and I concur with
everything you've just said. That its a separate issue entirely and in there you will also read in
the article that $50,000 was set aside to do this study when in fact $50,000 has been set aside to
handle this study and any pay adjustments that may be needed and I'm hoping that we can do that
for less. But I think its a number that had to be put out there and we have something to work
with. So I thank Mr. Lambert for bringing that to our attention and I thank you for your
remarks."
Mayor Clem then called for the vote on the consent agenda.
Vice Mayor Webb referenced agenda item (c) and stated, "the County for whatever reason has
decided to move forward with a public hearing on a map that they drew without ever physically
looking at the property constraints - within the next 60 days. Additionally, that map is located in
the libraries both here in Leesburg as well as in Purcellville for people to look at. So we have a
number of citizens with the impression that this parallel road access plan - you know
unfortunately once people see a piece of paper with lines drawn on it they tend to think that oh
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my gosh that's my house underneath that road and I just would like to reassure people that we're
no where near that far and Mr. Grow was kind enough to go out with me last week and look at
one of the parallel access roads and realized that physically it couldn't fit there if they created a
miracle. So I hope the County will pay attention to this and will also be a little more careful in
the material that they put forward."
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
Absent: Councilmember Umstattd
REGULAR LEGISLATION
(g) MOTION: On motion of Webb, seconded by McDonald, the following resolution was
proposed and adopted.
99-125 - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE PREPARATION OF A RIGHT-OF-WAY
ACCESS AGREEMENT WITH HYPERION COMMUNICATION
Mr. Jim Means representing Hyperion Communication addressed the Council providing
information about Hyperion and answer any questions.
Vice Mayor Webb asked, what does this do for the town? Mr. Means stated, it provides
competitiveness access for telephone service. Improves the technology as far as the telephone
service to your businesses including the town itself. Hyperion offers a higher band width then
the typical, local exchange carrier which provides a better capability for data processing.
Hyperion will offer a T-1 line for data capabilities which will greatly improve the
communication with what it is linked up to. It is a quality network with quality customer service.
The biggest benefit is an improved telephone service.
Mayor Clem asked, will this product be above ground or under ground? Mr. Means stated, they
will be above ground. Mayor Clem asked, is that negotiable? Mr. Means stated, ultimately its up
to this Council. Unfortunately, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 provides that the
incumbent, local exchange carrier is to have the same facilities as a competitive local exchange
carrier. If you require everyone to go underground, we will surely go underground.
Unfortunately, I believe the local exchange carrier now is above ground and we would prefer it
that way.
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
Absent: Councilmember Umstattd
(h) MOTION: On motion of Buttery, seconded by Webb, the following resolution was proposed
and adopted as amended by Zoldos.
99-126 - RESOLUTION - DONATING A TOWN VEHICLE TO THE LEESBURG
POLICE CITIZEN SUPPORT TEAM, INC.
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
Absent: Councilmember Umstattd
(i) MOTION: On motion of McDonald, seconded by Jackson, the following resolution was
proposed and adopted.
99-127 - RESOLUTION - AUTHORIZING A NEW AGREEMENT AND APPROVING A
PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE FOR EXETER HILLS SECTION 6A AND
RELEASING A CORPORATE SURETY BOND FROM K. HOVNANIAN AT EXETER
HILLS, INC.
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VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
Absent: Councilmember Umstattd
(j) MOTION: On motion of Webb, seconded by Zoldos, the following resolution was proposed
and adopted.
99-128 - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND ACTING TOWN
MANAGER TO SIGN THE DOCUMENTS FOR THE SUBDIVISION OF THE
GRENATA TRACT
VOTE:
Aye: Councilmembers Buttery, Jackson, McDonald, Webb, Zoldos, Clem
Nay: None
Absent: Councilmember Umstattd
On motion of, and duly seconded, the meeting was adjourned at 10:55 p.m.
Clerk of Council
J~mes E. Clem, Mayor