

| Held a day early this week so as to allow council members to attend a conference, the White Settlement City Council met on Monday evening this week instead of Tuesday. Identity theft was also addressed at the meeting, with the council considering an ordinance that would establish an identity theft prevention program within the White Settlement Code of Ordinances. “The FTC is requiring cities to adopt a plan,” Assistant City Manager Linda Ryan told the council. “They’re trying to make everyone accountable.” She also said that that if this matter was approved she would “implement a training program for all the employees.” The program would include several identity theft “red flag” measures and would also include other measures such as shredding papers and changing passwords on computers at regular intervals. Council member Garry Wilson made a motion to accept the ordinance and that motion passed unanimously. Public Works Director Randy Brown presented the next order of business to the council regarding a piece of business that was previously discussed on Oct. 14. This business was regarding a possible re-plat of the land including John Griggs Park. The park would remain in place, but the surrounding land that was described in a memo as being “undeveloped and unutilized by the city” would be available and the city would receive bids for residential development in order to place it on the property tax rolls for revenue. Council member Don Smith made a motion to approve this re-plat. The motion passed unanimously. With four terms expiring in November on the Board of Adjustment and Appeals, the council looked at the business of filling those four spots. All four current members turned in a written request to be reappointed and two applications for new members were also turned in to the City Secretary. Members seeking reappointment were Honey Lee, Claude Marchioni, Bobby Adian, and Robert Crow. Honey Lee was approved by the council to be reappointed, as was Claude Marchioni. Don Smith made a motion to appoint applicant James Carpenter to the place that Bobby Adian was seeking reappointment for and he also made a motion for applicant Larry Tucker to be appointed in the place that Robert Crow was seeking reappointment for. Both of those motions passed with Freta Powell voting against, as she had previously stated that she felt that board members who were in good standing and had done a good job should be allowed to be reappointed if they wished. The council also held a workshop regarding a boundary adjustment that had been proposed by a Mr. Havener, a property owner. The land, located along the creeks west of Dale Lane, was stated in a memo as having no value to the city in its current state. “It would benefit us greatly,” Jimmy Burnett said regarding what the city would receive in trade. By exchanging property boundaries with Havener it would help square up Havener’s property for development. In return, the new boundary would help the city with their Interceptor Realignment Project that will see a new sewer interceptor line placed along the creek. “It’s parts of property that we have no use for,” Burnett said, adding that he thought the deal would be a “win-win situation.” After the workshop Don Smith made a motion to give staff authorization to do this deal. That motion passed unanimously. Also on the agenda was a discussion on attendance to the Mayors Annual Banquet which would include annual dues of $350 being paid. The meeting will be held on Dec. 1, and was described as helpful to the city in the past as attendance to this meeting has had a positive impact towards the contributions the city gets towards the CDBG project they do annually with Tarrant County. “I think it’s always good when we intermingle with other cities,” Council member Don Smith said. Council member Freta Powell made a motion to approve the dues and attendance to this banquet and that motion passed unanimously. With no more business on the agenda the meeting was adjourned. story by A.C. Hall |