During Tuesday morning’s Brownwood City Council meeting, mayor Stephen Haynes, Ward 1 council member H.D. Jones and Ward 4 council member Draco Miller Jr. were sworn into another term of office.

All three ran unopposed in the recent May 2 city election.

The election of a Mayor Pro Tem, which is held after each election, followed and again Ward 5 council member Walker Willey was voted to the position.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, council members approved a new one-year contract with Lifeguard Ambulance with a 3 percent price increase. Currently the County pays $477,405, the new Agreement for Ambulance Service is $491,727 which equates to a 3% increase. The City of Brownwood’s ambulance subsidy will be $173,777 which is 35.34% of the total $491,727 Brown County Lifeguard Ambulance Agreement.

Council on Tuesday also opted to table any action regarding an ordinance granting to Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC an electric power franchise to use the streets, alleys and other public rights-of-way of the City of Brownwood for the purpose of delivering electricity to the City and its citizens.

The City and Oncor have negotiated a new Franchise Agreement. The key provisions of the new Franchise Agreement are:

• Grant to Oncor: Gives Oncor the right to use and occupy the present and future streets, alleys, highways, public utility easements, public ways and other public places (“Public Rights-of-Way”) to operate an electric utility system in the City of Brownwood.
• Term: 20-year term beginning on the final passage of this ordinance and ending August 31, 2046.
• Construction of Oncor Facilities: obligates Oncor, when it constructs its facilities in Public Rights-of-Way to obtain the approval of the City’s Public Works Director and clean up and restore the Public Rights-of-Way to its original condition.
• Relocation of Oncor Facilities: obligates Oncor to relocate its facilities at its own expense, if the City is widening and/or performing work on its Public Rights-of-Way or its utilities laid therein. The exception is if the City’s work is solely for aesthetic/beautification purposes or if the City is the customer purchasing electricity and the request is for its own benefit as a customer, then in such case the City shall reimburse Oncor for the relocation costs.
• Franchise Fee: obligates Oncor to pay the City an annual franchise fee equal to the franchise fee factor of 0.003222 multiplied by each kilowatt hour of electricity delivered by Oncor to each customer in the City, plus 4% on all other charges to customers in the City. These are the same fees as the previous franchise agreement.
• Reservation of rights to adopt ordinances controlling City rights-of-way: The agreement expressly reserves the rights of the City to adopt ordinances that would regulate City rights-of-way, in addition to the terms of the franchise.

Section 118 of the City Charter requires that the ordinance be published in the newspaper once, if the newspaper is a weekly newspaper, at the expense of Oncor and the ordinance will not go into effect until the expiration of 20 days from the date of publication in the newspaper. The eventual plan is to approve the ordinance on one reading, then publish it in the newspaper, and bring it back at the next Council meeting following the expiration of 20 days, for approval on 2nd and 3rd reading.

The Council wanted to further review the agreement, thus the delay in action, though the item is expected to be taken up again at the next Council meeting in two weeks.