Missouri City City Council on Monday voted unanimously to approve the issuance of $1,400,000 in bonds.
The bonds are part of a package approved by voters in 2003, and will be used to fund various drainage improvement projects.
First Southwest Company’s Joe Morrow, the city’s financial advisor, said the 20-year bonds received seven bidders, with a low bid of 1.9496 percent interest on the debt issue. He also said no other municipal bonds were up for sale at the same time as Missouri City’s offering.
“We are bumping up from the bottom of historic lows here for the municipal bond market,” Morrow said. “So I think that, coupled with the fact that we kind of had the stage to ourselves today, turned out very well for the city.”
The city council voted unanimously to approve, on final reading, of an amendment to the city’s Code of Ordinances to allow for the establishment of a solid waste service franchise fee.
“The franchise fee for solid waste is to be implemented on commercial and residential users,” Assistant City Manager Bill Atkinson said. “Before holding the required public hearings on the ordinance setting the franchise fee, the city must amend Chapter 78 Solid Waste to provide the rules and regulations related to solid waste franchises. This franchise will be applicable to residential as a nonexclusive franchise and as exclusive for the commercial customers.”
Any individual franchise fee ordinances will be considered in November and December, with implementation of a franchise fee anticipated for February 2013.
The five percent fee, if implemented on solid waste franchises in February, will provide revenues of $250,667 to the city.
The city council voted unanimously to indefinitely postpone action regarding a restated an amended congestion mitigation/traffic management agreement with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County.
The agreement was originally signed between Missouri City and METRO in 1999, and extended in 2004 for a term to end 2014. The agreement requires METRO to pay back one-half of all sales and use tax revenues collected by METRO in the city’s limits.
The new amendment would extend the agreement through 2025. The city has collected $44,362,488 during the course of the past 10 years through the payback of the sales tax portion.
The city council voted 5-1, with Jerry Wyatt opposed, to approve the final reading of an ordinance amending Planned Development District No. 76 to allow for deviations to the architectural and signage regulations for a “Raising Cane’s” restaurant.
The business did agree to remove banners it had requested originally, and to reduce the number of “flags” to three.
Wyatt said he could not support the item based on the signage, but supported the business.
“I do want the business to come in and be successful,” Wyatt said.
All other items were approved by unanimous vote. Council Member Danny Nguyen was absent. Agenda