With the budget process going on, some questions have been going around on Social Media and Group Lists saying that Lakeway is "behind the times" on Tax Exemptions for senior citizens. Here is a document Steve Jones developed showing comparisons for different area cities. He used $423K for the average price of a home in Lakeway. It shows that we allow a $5000 exemption for those over 65, as does the Lakeway MUD (something that was left out of the social media posts) but we have a lower total tax rate than most other area entities. Adding an additional $5000 exemption would mean a savings of $8.50 per year on average with the current $.17 per $100 rate the City currently has. Looking at the chart, entities with larger exemptions have significantly higher tax rates.
Our "Short Term Rental" ordinance has come into play recently. A home was rented to individuals that held a party where over 50 juveniles were cited for under-age possession of alcohol. We will be looking at the ordinance and the outcome of the future court case to see if this is the type of business we want in a residential area in Lakeway.
I actually went to the Lakeway Court today (Friday) where there were supposed to be 40 defendants on the under age alcohol citations. 23 entered a plea bargain and were allowed deferred adjudication by meeting several requirements required by Judge Madison. 6 plead no-contest and were convicted and that will go on their record. 11 were no-shows and warrants were issued for their arrest. Ages of the defendants ranged from 14 to 22. Almost all defendants were from towns other than Lakeway - Taylor, Round Rock, Georgetown and Austin. I see this as an issue with Short Term Rentals.
Right after the hail storm and roofs were damaged, the City experienced a glut of applications for Solicitation Permits. This in some ways started the delays with permits, over 200 solicitation applications were received and required background checks and significant time to process. I am investigating raising the fees on this type of permit to assure recovery of processing time.
The City Council met in regular session Monday evening. Here is that agenda. Annexation and Zoning for Highlands Phase I Sections 8C and 8E were passed unanimously.
Item 7 was amending the Home Occupation ordinance to make it clearer and close some loop holes - passed unanimously.
Item 8 authorized staff to bid out a project for improving the parking lot at the entrance to Hamilton Greenbelt, and installing restrooms at Hamilton Greenbelt and Canyonlands Park - passed unanimously.
I had item 9 moved out of the consent agenda to allow new Council Members to see what is in it and discuss it.
Item 13, 14, 15 and 16 were pulled by Council Member Sandy Cox. 13 was modified to have the terms of the Ethics Commission members to expire with the Council Members Term that appointed them - good change!
14 amended the terms of the ZAPCO members to coincide with the new 3 year term of the Mayor.
15 amended the Board of Adjustment to two alternates from four.
Item 16 dissolved the Emergency Preparedness Committee since those duties have been revised and taken over by Captain Crowder of the Lakeway Police and some duties are now handled by the Police Academy graduates. I am currently going through the Emergency Plan - rest assured we are making sure we will be prepared for major emergencies.
18 re-appointed the members of the Board of Adjustment as required by the Charter.
Congratulations to Dave DeOme who was appointed to the City Building Commission and Wendi Severance who was appointed to the Arts Committee - Thank you both for your service to the Community!
From Steve Jones:
Much of this week was devoted to work on next year’s budget. We are preparing for our first budget work session next Wednesday afternoon.
Mayor Bain and I met with Capt. David Crowder, who serves as our emergency management coordinator, for a briefing on emergency management this week. Capt. Crowder is revising the city’s emergency management plan and updating what the plan refers to as “local annexes” that customize the plan for Lakeway’s particular needs. He is also coordinating required training for city personnel, and looking into establishing a joint emergency operations center for our area.
The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas is conducting a mobile blood drive tomorrow morning at the Lakeway Activity Center between the hours of 8 am and noon. You can make reservations online at http://www.inyourhands.org/. They also accept walk-ins.
From Chief Radford:
LPD Officers responded to 11 vehicle collisions and conducted several traffic stops during the week. The traffic stops resulted in numerous citations and warnings as well as several arrests. The arrests included two “out of jurisdiction” warrants, 4 Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charges, 1 Possession of Marijuana charge, and 1 Possession of a Controlled Substance arrest.
Officers responded to a Burglary of a Business in the 300 blk RR 620 South. Patrol assisted CID with the eventual arrest of two juveniles.
LPD responded to four separate reports of Forgery/Fraud, investigations to follow.
In reference to the Burglary report taken by patrol, Sgt Brown investigated the incident and within 6 hours, charges were filed on two juvenile suspects.
Our CJIS audit was completed with only one required action; we must update one terminal to a newer version of Windows.
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That's all for right now, more as it becomes available!
Joe Bain
lakeway@bain.us
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