By DELANIA TRIGG, Register Staff Writer
The Gainesville City Council set May 8 as the date for the general municipal election.
During a regular meeting of the council, City Manager Barry Sullivan said early voting is scheduled to take place at the city hall building at 200 South Rusk Street.
The general election will be held at the Gainesville Civic Center.
Mayor Glenn Loch said the Civic Center is an appropriate site for the election.
“It’s worked out really, really well,” he noted.
The council also approved a resolution declaring some city equipment as surplus, making the items eligible to be sold in online auctions.
Sullivan said the city sells its surplus property including used vehicles at the renebates.com auction site.
The items sold have been determined to be of no use to the city and have already been replaced, he noted.
Selling the items online makes sense because online auctions reach larger numbers of potential buyers than live auctions, he said.
“It does help us (with) getting the prices a little higher,” he said.
The site is operated by McKinney-based René Bates Auctioneers, Inc.
The city also continues work on beefing up its waste removal services. The city plans to unveil its fully automatic collection process on March 1.
The council voted to pass on first reading some changes to the language of the current ordinance for solid waste.
The changes are required to implement the new automated system, according to information provided by Sullivan.
“In the old ordinance, it said that the citizens were required to buy their own garbage (receptacles),” Sullivan said.
The city plans to repeal Article I and Article II of Chapter 16 of its solid waste ordinance.
The changes include adjusted service charges, providing for penalties for waste-related violations, repeal of conflicting ordinances, providing for severability, providing an effective date and providing for an open meeting finding.
Sullivan said he while he expects the program to be up and running by March 1, a pilot program is already in place and the city hopes to highlight the program using public access television.
“We plan , in the next couple of weeks, to have a program on Channel 2 (instructing residents) on how to use the service,” he noted.
He also urged residents who are not participating the pilot program to “stick with the regular (refuse) carts until March 1.”
The council is also moving forward with its plan to contract with the Greater Texoma Utility Authority to purchase revenue refunding bonds for water supply and sewer services.
The bonds will save the city approximately $108,000, Loch said.
Prior to the meeting, Gainesville Police Chief Steven Fleming presented the council with the “Annual Contact Data Report.”
Fleming said the report is required by state law and is designed to ensure that police officers do not violate the civil rights of citizens.
At issue is racial profiling.
An independent auditor reviewed contact information provided by the department and concluded that the city’s police department is in compliance with the law, Fleming said.
He also said the department has received no complaints regarding racial profiling.
Traffic-related contact information provided by the department revealed that “Most traffic-related contacts were with Caucasians,” Fleming said.
Over 4,300 contact incidents involved whites, he added. Hispanic contacts totaled 817. African-American contacts were 367 while officers made contact with 44 Asian individuals and 7 Native Americans during the reporting period.
The state also requires the use of video cameras in police patrol units to help document contact incidents, he said.
Loch said no executive session was required and the meeting was adjourned at approximately 7 p.m.
