Dec 07, 2020 City Council on 2020-12-07 2:00 PM (Special Called)

Welcome everybody to the special called Denton City Council meeting for December the 7th, 2020. Kudos to anyone who is watching at our new time, our unusual time, normally a Monday lunch which we've canceled and combined with our Tuesday meeting because tomorrow is election day in our city runoffs. Our first item on the agenda is citizen comments on the consent agenda. I don't have any calls or online comment cards so we'll move right to item two which are is our request for clarification on consent agenda items. Do we have any requests on the consent agenda? Councilmember Armitage. Let's see, so one, I wanted to pull through F for individual consideration. I don't need a staff presentation on it. I was just going to vote no on these. So I just wanted them pulled. I didn't need a staff presentation. I did have a question on G though if somebody's here who could answer it. Do we have someone on the call who can answer a question on IMG? We should have Gary Pack and Drew Huffman. Okay, and so my question is simply, you know, can you just explain in a few words why is this master plan and design for the Villages of Carmel property, you know, why is this city business? If you can explain. Good afternoon, ma'am. Assistant Director Drew Huffman of Parks and Recreation. Could you please repeat that question? Yeah, my question was, can you please explain why this item is City of Denton business for the contract for the Village of Carmel property? If you could just explain that in a nutshell. Yes, ma'am. This property is named Villages of Carmel property. The Parks Department, we do own that six and a half acres. And so we want to master plan that space for future trails, playground, pavilion, amenities such as seating or water fountains. This is similar to the master plan we brought last week for Bowling Green. So we will have a public meeting, you know, with all the residents in that in that area. And that will also it didn't help it, excuse me, it didn't help. It helps enhance that our 10 minute walk campaign that we also have. Wonderful, so this is entirely 100% city property that we're talking about us that was purchased several years ago, about two years ago. And so one to preserve the trees, and then to, you know, we want to have a neighborhood park in that area for our residents to enjoy. Well thank you so much. And I'm really excited about it. Thanks. And Councilmember Arminder, just to be clear, that was items B through F that you were asking to pull, B as in boy. Yes, and I don't need a presentation on it. I just wanted to vote no. Thank you. And Councilmember Briggs, did you have a question on item G or a different one? And if somebody out there could please mute, we're getting a little bit of feedback. If you're not actively speaking, if you'll please mute the zoom. And Councilmember Briggs, I'm sorry, were you going to ask about question about item G? Yeah, G, just a follow up, does that have, I know that we discussed an item a while ago about parks naming property that we have in our name, something similar that's near to the area. So it doesn't get a big backlash when it's renamed something different. Is that why this is named Villages of Carmel because it's a temporary name? That's why we have property on the end of that name. That way it's not Villages of Carmel Park or, you know, Milam Park, Nettie Schultz Park. So it's, we named it property and that was through the naming process that we left that as a temporary name. Thank you. I remember that conversation that we had and I think this is one of the first times that it's come up. So thank you. Chair? Go ahead. On the ones that Councilmember Armitage pulled, are any of those brand new items or are these just items that we are, are renewing? Mr. City Manager, do you have an answer on that one or someone on staff? I believe Chief Dixon is on the line or representing the PD to answer that. This is Chief Dixon from the Police Department. All of the items are up for renewal. There's one new one and that's the HSI Child Trafficking Task Force. The other ones are all renewals. Thank you, Chief. Absolutely. Any other questions from Councilmembers on Consent Agenda items? Very good. Then those are items B through F that we'll pull for a separate vote. And with that, we'll move right into our first work session item, which is ID 20-2301. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding an audit follow-up of the Utility Street Cuts Audit. Hello, Councilmembers. I'm going to share my screen real quick, if everybody can hear me all right. Awesome. All right, so I am Madison Rocha, the City Auditor for Denton, here to present our follow-up findings for the Utility Street Cuts Audit. So as you all may know, follow-up reports are intended to provide information on what changes have been made in response to an issued audit. This review was based on the recommendations and management responses originally compiled in the Utility Street Cuts Audit, issued in August of 2019. And in general, this review found that many process improvements were in progress and were just awaiting formalization. These improvements should provide further assurance that the city's roadway network is protected from unexpected deterioration. So as a reminder, utility lines are often placed alongside or under the city's streets to more effectively provide utility services to residents. For this reason, utilities must occasionally cut into the city's roadways to repair, replace, and improve their utility lines. But unfortunately, these cuts introduce weaknesses into the pavement that can accelerate the deterioration of a street. So the city mainly mitigates the effects of utility street cuts through the right-of-way construction permitting process, which has three key components. One, the design standards for the restoration of utility cuts, which are developed by engineering services. Two, the construction work conducted by utility crews and their contractors who are expected to meet those standards. And three, review and inspections typically completed by the city's public works inspections right-of-way inspectors to ensure that the crews comply with the city's standards. So to begin discussing our findings, the original audit found that the ordinance that governed the right-of-way construction and permitting process had not been updated in over 50 years and lacked some provisions that could improve effectiveness. So an updated ordinance was adopted in November of 2019, and it addressed many of these issues. Most notably, the updated ordinance allows the city to penalize a permittee for violating the ordinance or the terms of their permit. In addition, it created a new fee structure that encourages permittees to complete their right-of-way construction work on time. This fee structure is expected to be implemented during fiscal year 2021, so next, this current fiscal year. These changes should aid right-of-way inspectors when enforcing permit requirements, which are designed to protect not only the city's roadways, but also its residents. Additionally, the original audit found that enhancements to how right-of-way permits were tracked and managed could improve the efficiency of the public works inspections right-of-way division, which was struggling to keep up with a large workload due to limited staffing. Since the audit, public works inspections has developed standard right-of-way inspection guidance, which has been used as the number of right-of-way inspectors has increased, which facilitates consistency. However, inspection results are still being documented in separate word documents, which makes analyzing inspection results cumbersome and time consuming. Similarly, public works inspections has identified a software that should facilitate permit management. This software is currently being used by the city's development services department, who are in the process of updating it to a new version. So public works inspections anticipates implementing the software in their own area once these updates are complete. And the software should streamline the right-of-way permit application and review process, which will hopefully allow the division to do more with the same number of staff. Next, the original audit found that improvements could be made to the practices used when restoring street cuts to further minimize their effects. In particular, we recommended that the city require contractors to seal the joints of each patch, so that's illustrated right here with the black lines around the patch. That the city test that street patches do not hinder ride quality, so they basically you don't bump when you go over them. And that if a street had been recently repaired and put under a moratorium, it not be cut into without proper authorization. So in general, we found that progress had been made to implement these practices. However, additional formalization is needed to ensure consistency. So for example, the streets division has begun sealing all street cuts that they restore, which accounts for about 90% of all street cuts in the city. This requirement is expected to be formalized in the updated standard construction specifications, which is scheduled to go into effect January 1 of 2021. As for what ride quality, the Public Works Inspection Division has developed a draft standard operating procedure to test street patches and the equipment needed to perform this test has been purchased and is expected to be delivered in January. Finally, utility cuts on streets that had recently been repaired or reconstruction should only be made when there's an emergency or when they're properly authorized. So the new right of way construction management ordinance clearly defines what constitutes an emergency utility cut. And we found that this definition was generally being followed. However, a process to formally request and authorize non-emergency cuts on moratorium streets has not been developed. Implementing an authorization process will increase communication between the city streets division and utilities, as well as help minimize cuts on moratorium streets. So finally, the original audit found that improvements were needed in the inspections process to ensure that the city street restoration standards were being met. In particular, city utilities who cut into streets did not appear to be consistently using the required concrete flowable backfill in their utility trenches and were instead using a variety of materials, including what they had excavated. So this right here is the flowable fill. Similarly, the original audit recommended that the city's public works inspections division perform inspections on all city street cut restorations to ensure that city utility crews were complying with the requirements. Based on the follow-up review, the city's utilities are still not using this flowable backfill material. However, they have begun to consistently use an aggregate flexible base or flex-based backfill material, that's this up here, and this is commonly used when constructing large sections of roadway. In addition, they purchased necessary compaction equipment to properly use this material. While this practice does not comply with the city's current standards, it is a significant improvement from backfilling with excavated material. According to public work staff, external utilities are also currently allowed to use this flex-based material up here when they request it. In addition, the new backfill material is expected to be incorporated into the updated standard construction specifications, which are scheduled to go into effect in January. So essentially, the city is just adopting a new standard and they've been using it for a little while, and now it just needs to be formally implemented so that external utilities can use it. Likewise, Public Works Inspections has not begun inspecting City Utilities street cut restorations. That being said, when we reviewed the City Utilities work orders, we found that the crews were consistently using this flex-based material. In addition, Public Works Inspections plans to begin inspecting a random sample of City Utilities street cuts each month. Finally, the original audit recommended that Public Works Inspections begin inspecting street patches during the guarantee or warranty period. Since then, the city has extended the warranty period from one to two years and has implemented a temporary system to conduct warranty inspections for work completed after the change occurred. Since this change was implemented in November of 2019, a warranty inspection has not yet been conducted. According to staff, they ultimately plan to schedule these inspections in the new right-of-way permit management software, and conducting these inspections should help the city ensure patches don't fail too quickly, which could accelerate the deterioration of a road. So in summary, we found that most of the recommendations issued as part of the original audit were either in progress or had been implemented. Only one recommendation, as shown on the screen, had little to no progress. The right-of-way permit management software has been selected. So while many improvements have been made, we plan to perform an additional follow-up review in the future to ensure that all these improvements that are in progress are effective. So that's the end of my presentation. Do you all have any questions? Thank you, Madison. Real quickly, I know we have some staff response documents in our backup. Is there anyone available from staff who would like to respond to Madison's presentation before we take questions, or can be on the call along with Madison to answer questions? I do think we have Becky DeVinney and Ethan Cox both on board, and they were working with Madison on the audit, so feel free to jump in. Becky or Ethan, do either of you want to be heard before we take questions? Hi, Jesse. This is Ethan. Can you hear me? I can. Thank you. No, I think we're all in complete agreement with Madison's findings and follow-up. It was a very collaborative process working with her, as well as our staff. So I just want to state that we appreciate the thoroughness of what she conducted this, and her being a great partner with our staff. And we do have other staff on the line, so if Council has questions about the specifics of implementation or such, we can certainly field those questions as well. Awesome. Thanks, Ethan. Council Member Briggs, I think I saw your hand for a question. Yes. Thank you, Madison, for the presentation. It's really important. Do you know or did you look at how frequently newly paved roads or reconstructed roads had been gone back in for utility cuts? We did do that work as part of our original audit, and I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head, but I could send them to you for sure. As part of this audit, we did a sample of cuts that was like 76 or something, which means that we can extrapolate it to 10 percent, plus or minus 10 percent. And we found that only three times had that happened. So off the top of my head, I guess that's about three percent, maybe four or five percent of the time. Does that answer your question? Well, yeah, because I know that Windsor between Bell and Stewart had just been completed and reconstructed and then utility cuts had gone back in. And so hearing that presentation that the reason it should be emergency or administration approval was good information for me to know and that the quality of the road deteriorates a lot quicker after having these. And so it's just really good information to have. And I don't know if that was one of the situations that you mentioned, one of the three that you had looked into. I would have to look at my source data to look at if we actually looked at Windsor specifically. But the three that we did find were all emergencies. We verified that. So I can certainly go and find that information pretty easily. And just to clarify, so when we say city utility cuts, it's not just our city utility or our city workers, right? It's also contractors that have been hired through the city. Most of the cuts, the utility cuts on city streets are our own utilities, mainly water and wastewater. A few of them are external utilities, mostly at most the gas company. But yeah, most of the time, I think it's like 80% of the cuts are actually us on our own streets. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions from council members? Councilmember Armator? Yeah, this is not a question, but just quickly, I wanted to thank you for this really important audit and to say to the staff who's been working on it, I'm just really pleased with the progress that we're making moving forward. I think it'll save time and money and make people safer too. Good deal. Anyone else? Councilmember Meltzer? Yeah. I was just curious as you have been adjusting for staff to just have an opportunity to express their response, just how soon they feel they'll be closing the gaps and so on. Ethan, are you still on? Would you like to field that one? Yes, Paul, could you repeat that question for me, please? Basically, the audit says there are a number of steps that were agreed that aren't quite there yet. We see them coming in the future. I just wanted to hear or let anybody who's watching, hear your response. Sure. You're in agreement? When is it going to happen to complete the picture? Yeah, absolutely. I think trying to just encapsulate a lot of what Madison's recommendations are is really just quality assurance and quality control and not to disparage the staff that was here in the past because this goes back decades. I don't think there's ever been a really good coordination between utilities and the streets department and capital projects and engineering. I think one of the things that's really helped us with the responses and the stuff that we have in progress is what we do have basically an entirely new cast of characters, all of which are really dedicated to collaborating and working together. Like I said earlier, I would extend that to the internal auditor as well. In addition to this audit, there are three other audits that I think you're going to be getting updates on in the months ahead, two for capital projects and one for roadway quality. And really what we're trying to do from a staff perspective is just look at all this holistically and really just try to re-engineer the quality assurance and quality control process. I do think utilities certainly has a heavy hand to play in that. I think to some of Councilmember Briggs' questions or concerns, those are definitely acknowledged on our end. It's never a situation where we want to accelerate the degradation of a road unnecessarily. And so to that end, I think one of the things that you don't necessarily see in this audit is trying to have kind of that holistic, tied together capital plan to where the right hand always knows what the left hand's doing and that we are constructing projects, not just looking at a departmental siloed approach. And I think that's one of the biggest benefits that we've come across so far. But I also think it is a pretty big lift for staff. In particular with the COVID situation and such, it makes a lot of these process improvement efforts a little bit more difficult. I'm not throwing that out there as an excuse, but that is one of the places where we've really tried to overcome a little bit of organizational inertia. So I am pleased with some of the progress we've made. Obviously, we still have some road ahead of us here, particularly with some of the inspections. I think that's really where a lot of these comments are geared toward. And we are investigating kind of next steps in order to try to accelerate that effort, not just for this audit, but the other three audits that we have upcoming for a follow-up. Well, you know, if I can just add a comment, and I'd be interested to know if our city auditor would agree with this, my recollection from audit committee was that while all these things are recommendations and agreed to, and you know, we want to build into our processes, the one that seemed to be the most kind of resident experience affecting was this sort of simple matter, or simple conceptually matter, conceptually simple matter, of tamping down the seams around utility cuts. So that they don't become ba-bump, ba-bump, as you go over it. And I would hope that the effect of, you know, enforcing the -- looking for that in the inspection regime is that it would simply just become a routine thing, that you know it's going to get looked at. You don't do it right because you know it's going to get looked at. Eventually, you do it right because you've learned that that's the expected process now. Madam City Auditor, would you agree that that's sort of, you know, one to focus on sort of high on the list in terms of resident experience effect, impact? Yes, I think in terms of what mainly affects the residents, that is probably one of the higher -- the ones on -- higher up on the list. And I would say, you know, they have begun sealing all the joints, almost every patch that we looked at, the joints were sealed. And then they've also begun -- or they've purchased the equipment to begin testing to make sure that that ride quality meets our standards so that hopefully we catch any of those ones that are -- that there's the ba-bump, ba-bump before they're really in -- before the public experiences them too much and they become an issue. All right, that's good because I didn't actually appreciate that until you made that comment, that they're doing it and now we need to more routinely expect that that's the case and that'll sort of seal the virtuous circle, if you will. That's great. Thank you. Councilmember Briggs? One last comment, I do want to acknowledge Ethan and Becky, they've done a really great job and have taken on a tremendous amount of work here, and I want to ask the City Manager to weigh in on the inspections because we heard that it should be a priority and it's something that is still needs to be worked on. So can we expect that to be coming really soon, by the end of the year or next year, the beginning of the year? Are you talking specifically about the specifications or the staffing? Staffing. Yeah, in terms of the staffing, that is completely within Ethan and Becky's purview, when they've got the -- I know one of the things that they've been trying to do is sync up our construction inspections with the capital project as we're getting that rolled out, but they've got complete discretion as far as when we bring additional staffing on or if we decide to contract it out and we're currently studying different ways right now of delivering the CIP, so that will all be sort of rolled out to you at one time. In terms of Councilmember Meltzer's comment as well, in terms of timing, the -- one of the things that's a little bit understated in the report is that the construction specifications will be standardized and we should be -- I would anticipate having those adopt within the next month or so, and so that will sync up the internal projects and with the external projects as well. So the construction inspectors are going to have one method to enforce, one way to look at it, and they'll be trained in that method. That should make a big difference as well. And in terms of the software solution, I would hope within the next six to 12 months we'll have all that on board as well. So a lot of progress here. I appreciate Councilmember Briggs' comments with Ethan and Becky. They are spinning a lot of plates right now and trying to get the CIP ready to go and updating our specs at the same time, so a lot of great work going on, but I think we're still a few months away from having all this, but whenever Becky decides it's time to add some additional inspections, be it whatever, in-house or externally, if she's got that green line. You always seem to be managing better and better with fewer and fewer resources. I don't know how you do that, but thanks. Madison, did I see a hand a moment ago that you had something you wanted to respond to? Yeah, I just wanted to -- if you don't mind, I just wanted to speak to some of the things Ethan said. Sure. I -- you know, it's not in this report, because these are -- this follow-up reports are focused on what has been done from the recommendations, but I -- just from working with them through this follow-up, I would say there's definitely a lot more collaboration between all the departments involved than there was a year and a half ago when we first started it. So I just wanted to reiterate that, and he's correct that in -- I think we're doing the roadway quality follow-up, that should come to you in the later half of next year. And then the three CIP audits we did, those should come the year after as follow-ups, so you'll get updates on those pretty soon. Very good. Thank you. Good work all around. That'll take us to our next item on the work session agenda, ID20-2321. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding a wildflower planting program for the City of Denton open spaces and right-of-ways. Know a lot of us are looking forward to this one. All right, good afternoon, Council, I'm going to present on our wildflower and prairie grass planting program. So my name is Drew Huppen, I'm the assistant director of parks for planning and operations. This is just an informal presentation on our wildflower planning program that we're starting. So I wanted to give you a little input on how this got started. So we do have wildflower areas that are out that, excuse me, that are throughout the city. Some of those aren't at the moment and will be signed properly, so they are not mowed. We also have. Yeah, we, Drew, we can't see your screen if you're in your presentation. All right, can you see it now? Yep, we've got it. All right, so like I was saying, we do have some areas, for instance, those areas are the wildflower trail we have at North Lakes, the wildflower and birding area that we also have at North Lakes. We have some wildflowers on the right of way of university between I-35 and Luke 288. We also have some wildflowers on the east side of town on university headed towards the lake. Those will, we are making new signs and we do have a mowing, in-house mowing crew that's taking care of our cemeteries and will take care of these specialized right of way areas. So we're mowing those in-house so we can have a better really care of these areas, planting of the areas and to make sure that our contractors don't have any issues or any relapse of problems that we've had in the past, we're going to take care of those in-house. But I wanted to share with you our community and partnership input. So we started this, this idea really started to come up in May on how we could beautify the city and really enhance, you know, our city in all different types of areas and I'll go through that with this presentation but, you know, we worked hand-in-hand with, you know, it's really with our Parks Department, our Sustainability Department, our Environmental Services Department. We met with the Master Naturalist, Master Gardeners, Native Plant Society, Denton County Beekeepers, local DFW cities, TxDOT, the city of Austin that has a program similar to this. So the city of Richardson, we work really hand-in-hand with them. They've been doing this since the early, or excuse me, the mid-90s. So they have a program that's around 20 years old. So they really know the ins and outs. So we wanted to really, I've gotten with them several times and we have a direct communication on really what's worked and what hadn't worked, what, you know, what's been the best way to go about this. So I just wanted to make sure that I highlighted that, that we have met with the Master Naturalist and Gardeners and Native Plant Society and they're all really, we've met on site, we've met through Zoom, all different kinds of ways and they've been, they've been an integral part of this whole presentation and process and program and they're really looking forward to what this is going to be in the future. So the program, this is the wildflower program mission, so we're going to promote improved and sustainable environment by replacing vegetation in key public spaces and public property with native plants and native wildflowers and I really want to really emphasize native because some cities, especially in the DFW area like the city of Richardson, although they do have native plants, they also have adaptive and as we've met with, you know, our three main local groups, they've really emphasized that we, you know, we really want to go native on this for native grasses and, excuse me, native grasses and wildflowers. So right now we've identified 237 acres of right of ways in open space and this is going to save us in the long run about 100, an estimated $150,000 for reduced mowing. So what we're going to do right now, we're going to move that $150,000 over from actually paying our contractors to mow and use that money to plant the native wildflowers and prairie grasses. So we're going to divert that funding from the mowing program and over on your left is just a depiction of some of the flowers and grasses that will be planted. So our goal one is to identify and design key areas. So maintenance will be completed, like I said, by park maintenance, internal crews. So our contractors aren't going to do that. Like I said, that way it kind of helps increase our productivity and make sure that those areas don't get mowed accidentally like they have been in the past. So right of ways, we'll look at right of ways. We'll make sure that we, especially in the median, as you can see here in this picture in the background, we want to make sure that line of sight is open and in certain areas we'll have a mowed outer strip for enhanced visual aspect of that. So really what we've looked at is said, okay, on the end of the medians, we're going to go back at least 30 to 50 feet and make sure that line of sight is open for cars that are turning in the entrances of those medians to make sure everyone and then that really falls into place on what our specs are for our traffic control. So open space, we're going to help promote habitat and that's also going to be reduced maintenance in those areas so we're not mowing 20 times a year or 15 times a year, we're only mowing it maybe once a year. So we've gone through a long process of talking with all the groups to make sure we get this right and some areas will be mowed once a year. Some areas may not be mowed but every three years. This all depends on really wildflowers are like a crop. So one year they're going to do great and the next year they may not because one, we're not watering, so two, we're really counting on that rain and really with all the different crazy weather patterns we've had in the last three or four years, we're not exactly sure this year are we going to be as wet as we have been the last three or four years or maybe we're going to be a little drier. So all that depends on really how well those wildflowers do. Some of them like a lot of water, some of them like hardly any. So this, but it will, excuse me, this will be reduced in maintenance, mainly from mowing. So goal two is reduction in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. So we're going to establish these no mow wildflower areas, establish low key maintenance areas, so mowing at key times and that's the increased reseeding. So we want to make sure we mow exactly at the right time to make sure we reseed those wildflowers when they need to be and then decrease fuel consumption through maintenance reduction. So right now we have an estimated 36,000 pounds of CO2 per year will avoid putting in the air by reduced mowing. So that's reduction in ozone and other air pollutions. So goal three, so sustainable environment. So we're going to reduce soil impacts through conservation and erosion control. As you can see here in the picture depicted, you know, behind the screen are really adaptive. We want to call those adaptive grasses and adaptive plants have shorter root systems. So our native plants have deeper root systems that really hold that water in or retain that water more and hold the ground better for erosion control. So that in itself improves soil health. And then of course, water conservation is we won't be watering these areas. And then even better, we are a bee city and Butterfly City, USA. So that increases our pollinator habitats with all these flowers and grasses. So really on goal four, we want to promote public understanding. So this is, it's going to be a little different in certain areas where the grasses are two to three feet tall and we have, you know, some people may not see it as well as others to where it's not maintained at the level that it has been in the past, but it's not going to be on purpose because as depicted in the background with our pretty blue bonnets, we want to make sure that those flowers bloom. And we have gone through the process and we've looked at all these different seed types and plant types to where the goal is to have blooms from late February, early March, depending on the weather, all the way until mid-November really to where we start getting those freezes. So as certain wild flowers will bloom, especially, you know, our blue bonnets in February, March timeframe, as those die, you know, kind of die off and reseed, then we have different flowers that constantly are blooming throughout the year. So with that, we'll have educational signs, community outreach, and we will update our website information and I'll show you a map in just a second that we'll make sure that we have online once all these areas are planted that way, especially during the spring and summertime timeframe families and, you know, our residents and even people from outside of town can come in and really have this really nice picture backdrop to where they can come and visit the city and take different, you know, just see our different areas and enjoy our wildflowers and of course everyone loves to take pictures in wildflowers. So location and cost. So like I said, we have 237.11 acres that right now that we've identified over on the right is is where we've identified them and it kind of shows you the most cycles they're at right now, how many times a year those are mowed, whether it be 27 or zero, some of those zero areas or there's 47 acres next to the DEC, so the Denton Energy Center, that we want to restore prairie and wildflowers to that area. Also we want to formalize the North Lakes wildflower trail and wildflower area. That has always been a programmed area, it's never been actually formalized, but that property is in here also. So here's a map that we already have through tech services with GIS, we've already mapped these areas out and so the purple dots, pink dots really show where they're at right now and this is something that we're going to enhance and be able to put on our website for everyone to be able to see and of course this also helps the master naturalist, master gardeners and native plant society to help the pig, will go out and help take soil samples of that area and that'll really also tell us exactly what plants are going to do best there and what plants may or may not do great, that way we plan exactly what's what's going to do the best in that location. So another thing that we're doing is behind fire station seven and our excuse me seven and our at our fire stations training center, recently I hope you've seen it on DTV where they they did a control burn of approximately eight acres, we're going to use this area we partnered with them and we're going to use this area to show the benefits of wildfires on prairie grasses and wildflowers. So what we what we're going to do is right now we're we're in the process hopefully this week or next week we'll have the we'll have it planted with prairie grass and wildflowers that way next year it'll look really good and whether this is burned once a year or once every two years really depends on their schedule but this is something that we can really look at and show the depiction of how you know wild wildfires really help the growth of the wild wildflower so it really helps by you know reducing the thatch so that's the dead grass that falls down it removes that dead grass opens that soil up for those seeds to really you know be able to reproduce and replant and have a better biodiversity of germination and really they thrive a lot better in that area it's something natural that you know used to happen years ago whether it be on purpose or through lightning strikes and something that's been reduced and it really helped our native grasses that were here you know 200 years 300 years ago and longer so sustainability so this really you know we're working with the sustainability department we wanted to check off you know those sustainability boxes so in sustainability you know we have focus area air quality and greenhouse management so on goal to take actions to reduce air pollutant emissions including greenhouse gases and emissions from government operations focus area land use so goal to preserve open space and natural areas goal three minimize water use promote stormwater quality and reduce stormwater quantity through management measures and like I showed you the deeper root systems of those grasses and wildfires wildflowers really help with that and then focus area resiliency and public health so we are a b-city USA and a monarch city USA so this you know the goal two or strat that was strategy one and in strategy to complete the national wildlife federations community wildlife habitat certification so this will help complete that certification you know bringing in especially like I showed you the 47 acres we have out at the Denton Energy Center and then the formalizing of the area that we have at North Lakes plus the eight plus acres we have at behind fire station seven this really helps you know improve that wildlife habitat in those areas so I wanted to say one more thing before I opened up for questions and comments so this program has a has a tone of potential and we really really looked at it in you know just a multi multifaceted way so the potential is to grow into three different categories this is really category one where we have right of ways and open space so category two is where we moved in to drainage ways so those riparian waterways and riparian area so we've already looked at different different seeds that in different plant types that could go there to really improve so we would you know eventually once we establish this and get this program going we evolve into you know category two which would be the drainage way so we start removing that natural you know the Bermuda grasses in there the Johnson grass or the KR bluestem remove that and then plant it back with a natural riparian buffer that really belongs there like I showed you it has the deeper root systems really filtrates that water better and then category three would be our TexDOT right of way so our I-35s our farm to market roads you know our our our highways that we have here here in town you know we have a lot of them so we already have met with TexDOT and so we're already on their radar for when the when the rest of the I-35s both E and W in the main I-35 get reconstructed to where that's planted back with with natural grasses and wildflowers so I just I just wanted to make sure I said that before I stopped sharing and open it up for questions and comments. Thank you Drew that's a lot of really good information I think I saw Councilmember Meltzer first I just want to be the first to say this is just brilliant I I this is now like maybe a tie or might have edged out valet service downtown as like my favorite stash and staff initiative and I just added to the list of really the best things I'm pleased to have been here for which are where you staff have gotten a clear perception of the sort of values and principles that there's a consensus for in this case sustainability and fiscal discipline and just come out with you know just really eye-poppingly brilliant strategies all that having been said just to be you know complete and I'd just like to ask is there any downside is there any you know perhaps unanticipated or your unintended unintended consequences that others have experienced it just it sounds like you know hits on so many things that we want but you know is there anything we're missing so the only column that we that we have found is the perception that it's not being maintained okay that's where we really want to have that public outreach and the communication and the signage to say this is an intended no-mo area right so okay that's a pretty straightforward way to address that the no-mo no-mo zone that's and I've seen some of that thank you just just great let others praise it thank you councilmember Briggs yes I have tons and tons of praise I also have a few questions and I put this out to the public and got really great feedback everyone is very excited about it I didn't have any of those negative comments but I do know I think when Mr. Holman first got here he did get some weeds put on his desk once so those no most signs are going to be pretty important for outreach so question so these will not be mowed and they'll reseed and grow back every year correct yes that's the plan so we do have so for instance the the area that we have at fire station seven we're getting a no-till seed seed drill if that makes sense so it it makes it to where we can plant the seed and it helps with the germination the seed because normally it plants it within a quarter to a half inch of the top of the surface that one helps with germination two helps with the birds not not removing the seed after it's planted and we will broadcast in some areas also and help drag that in to make sure that we have a little bit of soil coverage because it most of these native grasses and wildfires they don't want to be planted deep they want to be planted just underneath the surface and so there will be times where you know we may have to go back and say you know maybe we planted the wrong seed or it wasn't the right time and so like I said it's a crop so the idea is for for these areas to take about three years for us to seed and really see what they're gonna what they're gonna do and you know like I said some years they may look great and we have you know constant turnover of the wildflowers and some years some may not want to pop up this last year some of our wildflowers in certain areas didn't come up and it really that had to do with we had it was too wet so you know like I said some wildflowers like it dry some some like it wet so that there's a little bit of difference there you know depending on what we're going to get every year so but it is a bouquet and you know there will be differences of color every year so that that's exciting also yeah and I think going native will help that they'll be more tolerant drought tolerant water tolerance sun heat tolerant all of those things which would be really great I have a few more questions so I know that we just redid mayhill and there's a lot of median on mayhill but I didn't see that in the the list and I know you said this is just kind of the first part of it and it can grow are we looking to I know we're looking to expand it to other things like you know drainage or text dot but are we looking to expand it to other areas in our city as well yes so we are looking to expand especially mayhill we were we did try to work through a little bit of the landscape design on that and that's still in the works for that landscape design it isn't complete as far as you know which they've already planted Bermuda there so we would need to you know remove the Bermuda and get you know a native grass in there which can't be done but this this 237 acres is just the beginning so it's not you know not something that we're going to we plan on stopping so it may hit will be looked at Bonnie Bray's being looked at there's a section of Bonnie Bray that we're going to start the riparian waterway seating at there at Windsor or yes Windsor and Bonnie Bray so there'll be an area where that riparian buffer gets planted in the waterway there and then of course we'll be looking at other areas for instance like Bonnie Bray itself you know the medians and Bonnie Bray to look more to to a native landscape here I have just a couple more here go for it it's a work session okay yeah and on the so we have the one two three and my question is do we have a possible number four I know Richardson does the the private areas so they have the public private partnership where there's certain private companies from that come and ask the city to to plant the wildflowers there you probably know more about the program but is that also something when you were talking to Richardson did they give you any insight to that they said that that was a little costly to do that but we have KDB has a process you know and they have their you know yard of the month and different other aspects of KDB that they look at and they have a native category so we have we have talked about all different you know especially and with the parks foundation all different aspects potentially having areas where if you know you wanted to plant this in your front yard then you know you would have a seed list and a seed source where you know all of the different types of places you know that you could get these different seeds and then possibly get a sign you know you know purchase a sign that says you know you have a nomo yard and this is why that you know that your yard is over 12 inches tall and out of code but because it's native grasses and wildflowers so right I'm glad you brought that up because I had somebody one of the comments was well can we do this to our front yard I'd like a pack of seeds that city of Denton is using as well so it would be consistent my next two two questions when we do the fire burns are we prepared is there a place for animals and the that make those prairies their homes move out to I know that's that's part of it I know fires are really great but you know you're going to have those grasses and they're going to be growing are we going to burn them more consistently where we probably won't have that type of wildlife set in those areas that area for instance the area out at fire station seven also has I don't know I think the parks department we own a street a stretcher green way there that's approximately I think it's 60 to 70 acres next to it that wasn't burned so that you know that just a small piece of eight acres that a master naturalist really want to do something like this at Clear Creek to help with the thatch and help benefit the grasses and of course wildflowers out at Clear Creek and you you would only do a small section at a time so that way they have somewhere else to go if you know of course during during that burn so you do your fire breaks make sure it's going to be controlled and then burn a small section and then wait until the following year and do the next section you just wouldn't burn all you know if you had 50 acres you wouldn't burn all 50 acres at once right well thank you for explaining that and of course I'm not a professional at all but I wanted to ask that question in case somebody else was wondering my last question is looking at the map and all the dots it looks like district two and three are going to benefit primarily from this program the district one and four have some but it doesn't look like there is clustered how how did you choose the the locations and is it is it possible to go ahead and maybe add more locations to either of these one and four we we could definitely add more what I what we looked at we looked at the medians really ease of access especially for our staff to get in and maintain or mow or or reseed also really the way traffic flows in and around our town what's already established versus you know what's on the mobility plan to be reconstructed for instance you know hickory creeks on on our radar ryan road is being reconstructed all these different areas around town are being reconstructed so we didn't want to touch anything that was going to be removed due to you know road expansion road construction so thank you i'm done councilmember armator um yeah so i i just wanted to thank you and not to say too much that has already been said um but really this is like a dream come true for me i'm all choked up actually um you know one of the things that i want to highlight uh that is not that won't be visible um at least not just not to the naked eye is the fact that we're as you said that we're having staff our in-house staff do the mowing um and how you know it was a little i don't know controversial sphere to say you know at the beginning um but i uh just you know not what's been planned for um but you know we had seen uh like you said these contractors who just don't have the investment because um they don't have the passion for dent and that our city staff have and there was concerned about the cost you know of having in-house people and i i just love how um in in investigating this um you know it was found that um you know not only would this help us do a better job but it would save on cost it's better for the environment it's really just the the word dreamy keeps popping in my head it's a corny word but it really does feel um really quite dreamy to me so i'm probably going to watch the work session again watch the video tomorrow just to make sure it actually happened but uh but no i know it happened because i i read the backup um and i'm i'm just really really grateful really pleased uh you know not not too long ago um you know definitely i think under a previous administration this just would not be possible um i i also want to just back up you know council member brings his questions um and your answers which i loved about you know looking into uh making this this available for everybody for private property owners in in the city of denton better for cost better for the environment for saving water uh so anyway i'm just really proud and very grateful thank you thank you um drew a couple of quick things from me uh first of course to echo the sentiment and it's already been expressed and i think what i think i think the major difference in this program as opposed to other times that we've planted some wildflowers or talked about native grasses is you're talking about this as a fundamental philosophy to the way that we do our medians the way that we do street reconstructions you know when we widen the road the median is going to get this kind of treatment uh or at least be looked at it uh looked at for it um i think it's a big a big difference my kind of concern there is uh you know we've all had the experience of knowing that one house in the neighborhood that has a really great garden it's really well taken care of and then somebody moves and they uh the next owner isn't maybe so into it they don't uh trim the bushes the same way they don't take good care of the lawn whatever it is and all that hard work in a couple of growing seasons the house looks like every other house on the block um are we taking precautions here that if there's staff turnover in the future um you know the wildflowers are whoever that is moves on to something different that this remains a fundamental part of how we do uh our mowing philosophy and our planting philosophy and our parks philosophy yes sir this this will be so these areas as they're planted will one be formalized in our plan on how we maintain those areas and also there'll be you know sop is written on how to take care of those areas what how the signs you know need to be worded where they need to be put you know how often they need to be mowed and we'll continue obviously you know we know you know our you know the the big three you know with that i call you know the master gardeners naturalists and native plant society they're not going away so we have we have met with them continuously on these areas and so with really this isn't just a seat you know a city plan as far as a parks department's plan it is it is all encompassing with all our different departments and our different groups you know within our residents so it it's not just i believe it's not just a city plan you know just not a departmental plan it's it's all encompassing with all of us so it will be written in our like i said our our sops standing operating procedures will be written in to really how we manage those it's going to be in our gis so that way if you know someone leaves if there's no question about was this a wildflower area or why why has it been you know you know what normal people you know what we normally say maintained so it'll be really written in on how that's there the seed list is already being built it's already there you know we we have different distributors that we're going to go to to get the seeds you know we already have 650 pounds on the ground ready to be planted at fire station seven so it it's exciting so and we look forward to really like you said changing the mindset of how we maintain you know right of ways and medians very good um kind of related to what council member briggs asked about a while ago and what you just said about having an sop in the seed list and soil types that we have identified is where certain you know in this part of town this particular mix is going to do well this other part of town maybe not so much um i mean i can think of half a dozen people off the top of my head who would love to in their own yards or their own property some of them have acreage and they would like to do prairie restoration um making those kind of sops available to the public and then when it comes time to working with with vendors i don't know what the procurement process will look like but i'm aware of at least one here in texas that specializes in seed mixes you know they put together a seed mix and it may not take too much more of a procurement lift to uh to get a dent and mix available to the public you know in smaller packets especially if we're gonna buy in enough bulk that they could package you know some home home size packets for us of our seed mix so you know you can buy wriggly field grass for your yard you could buy all sorts of different custom mixes out there why not your dent and wildflower mix that'd be great okay that's a great idea thank you and we we i have reached out to two different uh really distributors right now that really specialize this one is local and then to actually didn't and then one is local to the north texas so uh but i'll reach out further to them and talk more into that so i'll send you a website too if you don't mind is there any other questions or comment from council council member melter i know there are certain uh requirements i don't remember what they are that you know we have to maintain in order to sustain our our monarch city status i assume that this would uh you know help us sustain that that credential it does it yes sir they're gonna seal us in for a long time yes it does and we also have uh katherine barnett and sarah luxon on it they want to chime in and they're a little bit more familiar with with that than i am katherine are you there do you have something you'd like to share with us maybe not maybe a follow-up email hi this is sarah luxon this is hey thanks you guys um so this definitely would help us maintain both the monarch city usa membership as well as the b city usa membership we'd also be working towards the national wildlife foundations or federation community certification and so this would definitely help us reaching those goals that's excellent thank you you're welcome did you guys have any other further questions about those three programs we do annual reviews and so we will be reporting these metrics and those reviews to those organizations excellent thank you and then i'll just say for the public's benefit too there's a really good uh presentation in the committee on the environment on uh wildlife habitats um and habitat certification and that's available to homeowners as well to do it to certify your own property any other questions wonder sorry sarah any other questions from council okay then let's go ahead and keep rolling forward and take up our consent agenda if there's any um i'll call the item and then see if there's any action on the consent agenda that is me calling the item just saying that it's time for the consent agenda council member ryan yeah i move approval the consent agenda except for items b through f there's been a motion is there a second council member melzer i'll second we have a motion and second we'll proceed with the vote council member ryan aye council member melzer aye council member johnson aye council member briggs yes council member armator yes and the chairs and aye the consent agenda is approved um and we'll go i believe there's no uh presentation requested for items b through f so i'll call those in order item b is id 20-2258 consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of denton texas authorizing city manager or his designee to execute a memorandum of understanding with the united states department of homeland security immigration and customs homeland security investigations for participation of the dent police department in the homeland homeland security investigations child exploitation group for fiscal year 2020 and fiscal 2021 council member melzer move approval council member ryan a second there's been a motion and second we'll proceed with the vote council member melzer aye council member ryan aye council member johnson aye council member bricks aye council member armator no and the chairs and i the item carries and i tell you what i'm going to go ahead and call the others as i did on uh last tuesday so i'm going to go ahead and call c through f and then find out if we've got um action on those as a group item c is id 20-2251 consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of denton texas authorizing city manager to execute a memorandum understanding with immigration and customs enforcement homeland security investigations for the purpose of reimbursement of certain costs incurred by denton pd and providing resources to the hsi child exploitation group exploitation group task force item d is id 20-2269 consider adoption of an ordinance authorizing city manager to execute an agreement with the united states department of justice drug enforcement administration for the participation of the police department in the dallas field division enforcement group task force item e id 20-2270 consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of denton authorizing city manager to execute a memorandum of understanding with the united states department of justice id 20-2389 excuse me item f id 20-2389 consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of denton texas a home rule municipal corporation authorizing a city manager to execute a contract through the department of information resources cooperative purchasing network uh council member armintray just wanted to confirm this is one that you wanted pulled as well i believe it was not included in the last motion i just wanted to make sure this is when you wanted pulled yeah so this is it was items i pulled items b through f okay i'll finish calling the item then cooperative purchasing network contract for technology-based conferencing products and services so those are items c through f the chair would entertain action on those items as a group council member ryan with approval of items c through f is there a second council member briggs i'll second there's been a motion is second uh we'll proceed with the vote council member ryan aye council member briggs yes council member johnson aye council member armentor no council member melzer aye and the chair is an aye those items are approved and uh we have been going for about a little over an hour now so let's just take a five minute break give everybody a little bit of time and we'll come back with our items for individual consideration welcome back everybody to a special called session of the denton city council on december the 7th 2020 and we're moving right along with our agenda we've completed our work session and uh our consent agenda we're now on number two items for individual consideration item a is id 20 - 2383 consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of denton authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement with dina l fisher for art design and production services in denton for art design and production services for public art installation and industrial street park mayor pro tem city council gary pack and director director of parks and recreation just want to kind of kick off the the next two items uh john whitmore has been working uh with our art committee this past early fall late summer the public art committee was transferred back to parks and recreation it had been a few years since it was in parks and recreation and we've been working diligently to try to get a number of projects up and running uh and john's been working very hard uh in guiding us through this process and making sure that we get full input from the pack as well as the community uh in stakeholders so we wanted to share these two items with you and i'll turn it over to john and before he starts the presentation can you take that down for just a sec john i'm going to go ahead and call the other item so if the uh if the presentation is going to be on both items that way we can ask questions on both items uh the next one is item 2b id 20-2283 excuse me 2284 consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of denton authorizing student manager to execute an agreement with ray king studio for art design and production services for public art installation at north lakes park at the g roll and vela athletic complex sorry about that we can roll through both of them i'm mayor pro tem council members again i'm john whitmore i'm program area manager with the arts and recreation department and i'm here to talk a little bit about uh first of all the women's interracial fellowship monument in this particular monument i want to get go ahead and start to share the screen and there we go so a little bit uh here about some of the early part of this history of this particular group they were formed in the early 60s response to the challenges that was strained of race relations in depth now specifically they helped to integrate schools and be able to transporting students to tutoring struggling students and a variety of other things that were all trying to help blend and ease the transition of the integrating students they also promoted black political participation at all levels in government a few facts about this particular project it has a budget right now of a hundred thousand dollars and today's issue is about the eighty thousand dollar artist budget uh the funding comes from about 68 thousand dollars of hot funds and 28 thousand dollars comes from a texas commission on the arts grant and plus we've got a twenty thousand dollar commitment from the parks foundation and we have received nine thousand dollars of that and that was due to a grant that they wrote to the benefit lead overall we're at the status of the concept the artist and proposal been proved by the public art committee and the park board review and then the next steps that we plan to meet more with the members of the bwif to discuss the project and finalize the project plans but we'll be doing that with the actual artist herself i want to talk a little bit about the benefit of public art in the community as far as these monuments that involve people that have done fantastic things for our community so it will serve to inspire viewers by telling the story of these women who banded together for really positive change it also helped build community pride and inspire others to step in when they also see those community needs we'll also engage and encourage visitors that come to our town that positive change can happen when community members work together so those are really the benefits of this type of art and monument in the community now the artist in their their proposal gave a overall artist inspiration we provide a scope of work for them that kind of gave the idea of what this group did and then the artist would submit their proposals based on what that was and so her idea was that the art installation would burst with every color of the rainbow it's celebrating the visionary women of the bwif and that was through the lens of hope love trust friendship and they overcame many cultural barriers to be able to do that and really to help them reimagine race relations that was her primary inspirations the art style that's being proposed here is called an animated disc or its lenticular art and that is an art that specifically crafted that as you would look at one way and you change your perspective a little bit you may see a different picture and so you may see as far in this case you'll see a picture of one of the women and then you move to the side you may see her at a different time in the history of the group itself there's actually no electricity no computer involved in the finished art pieces so it's purely a physical phenomenon based on the ambient light that people see at the time they view the sculpture and this is what the artist red and green looks like right now and so that very large piece has been lenticular art piece and it's not actually blocking that it's actually it's going to be placed a number of feet in front so it's more of a sets off the rest of the piece with it yeah but the curtain that you're seeing in the background that has pictures of all the different people that were involved in the dbwif and the different accomplishments that they made during the time that they were together and so this is a really cool aspect of this one and i'm kind of excited about as you can tell one of the things is that people can walk up with their cell phone and through a readily available free app through a google or apple or any of those they simply need to just put their camera to any of those pieces and then detailed information comes through there and the artist actually wants to be able to use some of the recordings that unt did of some of the members of what their thoughts were and recollections of the days that they were very active in doing this particular work and so they'll be able to hear and see and be able to see the group all at this particular time through each one of those pictures and so each item will have its own portion that will be read or be seen through that path each of the discs are two-sided and so you get a variety of impressions on both sides so literally this curtain is made to be able to walk around and see other small aspects of it we have walkway lights that'll have other pictures that are involved with people in the community and showing the blending of our community a number of different locations were proposed and the first one was actually fred moore park and a fred moore park right behind where the american legion hall is there's a grove of trees and so that was first proposed to be able to locate this but also we saw a second location at the industrial street park and since we had two proposed locations i did meet with the members of the dwif over at the mlk recreation center to ask them about what they thought of this art project and what they thought about the different locations well 100 unanimous they love the art itself but secondly they did not want it in fred moore park they wanted it at industrial street park because they thought it would get much more traffic of people walking through and be able to see and enjoy that and the parking is much better because to the left side of that picture is one of our parking lots that have and then on the right side is actually industrial street and so this is not a very good picture what it looks like there's been some improvements there there's of course grown in a little bit more but that would be in general where you see some of the picked tables in the back those would be relocated some adjustments to the view and some sidewalks would go in to be able to give easy access to be able to get to and around the artwork as it's there and so i'm going to stop share there and open up for any questions that's that's member melzer uh you actually just like to uh uh add a couple of comments uh in addition to the accomplishments that you mentioned of the women's interracial fellowship uh they successfully advocated uh to break down racial discrimination and hiring at what was then one of the big employers and then more business forms uh and more business forms location it happens to be what is now city hall east they successfully advocated for equitable paving of the roads where as previously the you know the streets of southeast end were famously mud and they very bravely and uh peacefully through their just moral example broke down uh this segregation of lunch counters in dentin so quite a transformative uh uh force in dentin and a great moral example so pleased that we have a that we're hopefully choosing right now to show this respect for elders while many of them are still here you know uh to have input on it and and to accept the acknowledgement one thing i wanted to add is that this is really just phase one of the changes there for the industrial street park that we're going to be proposing a little bit later but so this one really is just to cover the artwork itself and then we've got some additional funding that i'll cover some of that infrastructure like sidewalks and things okay uh council member breaks thank you i'm really glad that this uh installation is happening i have some practical questions though and i don't know it may it may just be um something you know or don't know that i need to ask the artist about but um as far as the the structure is it um because it's a park and there are individuals that walk through it and kids they use it is it um durable can it would somebody be able to climb on it um i'm just i want to make sure that it is not going to get harmed in this in this area the disc you mentioned are they um do they twirl do they move can they pull i just i'm thinking about all the the younger kids and i'm i'm kind of worried about the art and i'm just looking at the practical aspect of it here that's an excellent question and we did ask the artist uh during a conference call that uh gary drew and i had with with the artist we always ask about how uh damage resistant anything is and whether any graffiti can stick and things to it and it is damage resistant the the glass that's actually used is extremely thick and somebody would literally have to take something like a sledgehammer to be able to to damage it that way the discs that you saw the large one is not very climbable and i doubt anybody would want to in some respects however we did talk about the curtain wall that you saw and each one of those discs is supported by stainless steel rod and those things do move and so it people will be able to move that we are concerned that if we were inviting people too close that they might want to do that so there will probably be some of their landscaping things around it to be able to just wait uh that that type of activity for it okay follow up yeah go ahead okay and i i want to make sure that it's accessible and that everyone can get to uh the art and and enjoy it but i also want to make sure because we had a deep conversation about industrial park before not being lots of concrete and that it's the only green space in denton so um i don't know if that's going to come back to us or if that's something we comment now on to make sure that you know um what's done is done specifically for um accessibility and and not just overdone uh to to get rid of you know the the grass the green space i know that some of our discussions were concerned with that and i know that they're trying to keep as much green in that area as possible and so access will be from both sides from the street and from the that parking lot behind but also it'll be close to some handicap parking spaces to allow access in that regard that property is a little bit of a slope so there will be some regrading of some of the areas from it goes from high ground where the parking lot is down to the street a little bit there so they'll they'll be working a little bit with uh on that second phase part to help really develop that maintain this is a nice place to come it's a nice place to come sit and enjoy that particular area it's a natural walkway through there to be able to get from the parking down to industrial street where there's a lot much less parking right yeah i know that when we did have festivals i'm sorry chair may i i know that when we did have festivals at that area was used for you know an extra event space another stage or you know something like that so um just putting all the information out there so it's it continues to be used by everyone and enjoyed the art enjoyed by everyone as well members of the dvif that i met with we're very excited about it being a destination type of art piece someplace where they would actually load up a bus and take kids out there it's easy access through that parking lot in the back and they would come there and part of our thoughts were create more of a more of a little amphitheater type of an area in front of that so that people could be addressed to talk about let's say these particular groups and about diversity inclusion and the struggle and where how far we come since those other days and so they were very excited about that great thank you you're welcome those are really great questions i had a similar question about kind of durability and things but i also wondered for that particular site did the artist have any concerns about the the shadiness that it experiences some parts of the day and whether that will reduce the kind of lenticular effect i mean even on the the google earth slide you showed us there's a huge shadow from a neighboring building she wasn't concerned really at all about the light as far as the lenticular effects she was more concerned because some of those walkway lights that i showed that those were currently solar and so we would evaluate whether we actually would wire some of those or have them remain solar at that time we've got to get a little bit more study as far as that go it won't change the effect at all of those particular pieces they'll still be used to along the walkways but yeah that that would be a consideration but she was not concerned about the light there for that good deal i'm glad you discussed it and then kind of following on the council member brig's question um this could this response to come in an email or a friday report but i wonder if we ensure our art pieces any differently i know we're we self-insure in large part but if we do anything differently for our art pieces they're typically more expensive to replace when they are broken or vandalized or damaged by natural events and we all know the pops carter statue had to be relocated and repaired um i i could foresee as we install more public art in the city that could be a larger line item as as they age um and again that could be an email our friday report i don't need a response right now offhand uh i don't know that answered that thank you any other questions or comments from the council council member armentor yeah i just wanted to comment and say i think that this is a really wonderful work of art and obviously it's by no means um you know it comes even close to any form of reparation in reparations for uh all that the interracial women's fellowship was up against um i do want i do want to add to what council member melzer said in his list of the many issues that that this group fought for you know among them was giving children entering the the schools at the desegregate very late desegregation of schools in denton giving them that backup and community and really preparing for that uh you know over the summer before the the the the kids started in in school that was really crucial in informing community to support children who were really out there on the front lines as strange as it sounds and was really difficult for those children and for those families and so i i just want to acknowledge you know that this is more than uh also just about you know strange race relations as the presentation stated it is really in very many ways about uh white supremacy in denton and the government's local government's involvement in it uh so it's very meaningful i think and essential you know that that government be supporting this um and but anyway thank you to those incredible women uh involved in that and i'm so glad uh to know those who have had the opportunity to meet those who are still still with us and thank you and the struggle continues thank you okay there's nothing else from the council the chair would entertain action on this item council member melzer yeah i move approval and uh also uh i'm hopeful that there'll be an appropriate uh sort of ribbon cutting or ceremonial acceptance you know when uh the time comes we have a motion is there a second council member briggs second we have a motion and a second any further discussion on the item then we'll move forward with the vote council member melzer how say you aye council member briggs yes council member johnson aye council member ryan aye council member armentor yes and the chair is an aye the item carries and is approved and i've already called the next item so we can go ahead and move right into the next presentation very good okay this item uh what we're going to be talking about is a monument also now at the g roland vela athletic complex and this is a whole art proposal for that location uh and to give you a little idea i know there's quite a bit of information that's in your backup but dr vela he was heavily involved in the dentin community through the league of united latin american citizens or lulac and he was the actual first hispanic dentin city council member uh he was also named to the top 100 texas latinos of the 20th century uh by the uh i can't remember the name of the magazine right off that but i'll look it up uh and named one of the um and he had a passion for absolute soccer in the community uh and so that was the nature of how the uh athletic complex was originally named and now this uh particular uh sculpture is to help commemorate that now again uh like i mentioned in the last one the last presentation of their benefits tangible benefits to the community and it's monuments that to significant public figures helped us to build community pride this is somebody here these are our own people that have lived and worked with us and and helped the community and the sculpture design and placement helps to inspire viewers to to find opportunities to be a community leader like dr vela and then it also engages visitors since we have so many tournaments that come to the complex that so many people are going to be walking through the gates where this art is located that they'll be able to attend those different soccer events they'll be able to learn a little bit about dr vela and hopefully it inspires other communities as well so a little bit a few facts about it we have overall budgets about a hundred thousand dollars but the artist budget itself is ninety five thousand dollars there's some dedicated funding there's seventy thousand dollars that came through the athletic complex um bond funds about thirty thousand dollars of hot funds and then a thousand dollar right now uh park foundation but we haven't quite received that yet but we put it in there otherwise this would be a hundred and one thousand dollars at the bunch of the top uh current status is that we're on contract approval for design and expenditure and then the next step after this the artist actually can start the project fabrication installation and the dedication will be summer or fall of this next year hopefully they projected to be done by the end of june the artists that were considered here in this proposal is artist named ray king he owns ray king studios and i pulled an excerpt out of his proposal because it really helps to describe what he's wants to be able to do in there he likes to use natural light or natural phenomena light and interacts with the optics and glass which is this kind of his normal art medium but his art reflects his interest in geometry and science technology light color and create these luminous interactive sculptures that kind of animate the environment and to make the mundane magical i have to use that same now the art's proposal he's calling it vela's trophy and you can see the rendition on to the right side of the screen there it's actually made of polished stainless steel tubes spheres and cables held aloft and it's all in the shape of a polyhedron where actual soccer ball and i'll get in a little bit more what that looks like and with a closer look to it so his inspiration we provided background to him on dr vela and about the complex and about the purposes that we see for what this artwork would help to inspire and so he said that he saw it as a beacon and from an old english verb to beckon or actually to call people forward freestanding sculptures very strong powerful visual landmark he mentions and it's an iconographic symbol of the community and so he wanted it has a visual metaphor for enlightenment and the burst of energy of a creative idea and so here's what the sculpture looks like in its entirety the base area is already there we constructed that earlier on as part of our scope and are asking for these proposals from the artist they were to build on top of that particular area and you'll see why in just a moment and so you see that there's it's pretty good size it's 16 feet tall from the ground using the base and the pillar portion and then the very top of that that sculpture the soccer ball is six feet in diameter and inside the soccer ball all of these polished spheres that literally run out on these steel stainless steel rods for it and as you move around it it catches light in different ways depending on the time of day now you can see a little closer idea of the rendition if you look deep in the middle of it you'll see a texas star and so that is this radiating radiating out the energy and that's the light catches it in the different times of day ray was talking to me about it he says it truly creates a very spectacular look of it for this particular piece this is what it would look like placed on the pedestal and you see a relationship of a young child running next to it to give you kind of an idea of what that would be and then we currently have the entrance to that and you can see that it is truly framed within the entrance area the one thing you don't see in the picture which we didn't have available for this picture at the time the signage curves over above it to talk about the g roland veil of athletic complex and i'll stop screen share and weird questions councilmember bricks go ahead does the um not the base we built but the base of the sculpture does it get hot hot to the touch or is it temperature resistant it's normal concrete right there we've had some proposals about maybe doing something around because i know the artist mentioned that he would like to see some seating around that or even some greenery in that particular location so to soften up a little bit there but no it'd be it'd be normal concrete just like the rest of the area around it at least the pedestal is right now okay so his his um his sculpture is concrete now the pedestal there is concrete but most of everything in his sculpture is stainless steel right that's i'm asking about his sculpture so not the not the pedestal that we built the concrete but the the part because i do think that kids young kids can touch his sculpture and i'm sure they're going to want to um i just want to make sure they're not going to get burned if they do if it's yeah i don't know there's no shade there it's complete opposite of of what we talked about before yeah i i don't have an answer for that although stainless steel does reflect off a lot of the heat and light from it does anybody know okay that's the only concern i have okay if uh if we don't have an answer today maybe we can have a follow-up or email other questions from council council member melter um this is more of like a rhetorical question that i i think i know the answer but i think the public might like to would probably appreciate better understanding this the funds that are used in both these cases are funds that by and large can't be used for anything other than public art is that correct that's correct most of these i mean all personal all the funds are dedicated to the site specific for their hot funds that are dedicated towards public art and so we don't have anything currently in the project that would be considered from a regular budget you know some people you know uh some people support public art some some don't they wish the money could be used for something else but this is money that's just for public art and uh it uh it surely may helps make dentin distinct uh and you know contributes to so i would say quality of life but but but certainly contributes to to local tourism you know what makes us it's placemaking so uh thanks for clearing that up about the funding any other questions from council council member breaks i'm back to the back to the heat and if it if this base gets too hot and can burn someone i guess city attorney do we just put a signage on there that says do not touch or um do we just put warning signs on it i just want to make sure that we're thinking about about it you can certainly do that okay we will also work with the artist to make any adjustments necessary to make sure it's safe okay thank you i kind of like to see a sign that says kids this is what a slide used to feel like at the park any other questions from council i'll note for the record too that we had no comments or callers on this item and none on the last time either i neglected to do that on the last item any action from council council member ryan i'm with approval is there a second not everybody at once council member breaks i'll second knowing that we're going to take precautions very good there's a motion to second any further discussion then we'll proceed with the vote council member ryan how say you aye council member breaks yes council member johnson aye council member armentor yes thank you council member melzer aye and the chair is an aye so the item is approved thank you that takes us to concluding items any concluding items from the council i'd have just a quick couple uh the first is of course tomorrow is an election day in the city of denton if you've somehow missed that on your radar and have not yet voted you can visit vote denton.com and you can find out where your polling location is you do have to vote at your particular location the uh second thing is i want to congratulate uh judge appointee depra jones of the 467th district court in denton county uh she is uh lives in denton and practices in denton and will be uh has now been appointed by governor abbott to fill that empty bench in a brand new court at our courthouse so congratulations to deborah any other concluding items council member breaks go ahead i just want to send um my heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the um gentleman who lost his life um while on the bicycle this past week um our thoughts and we're we're definitely thinking about you thank you council member breaks if there are no other concluding items then we will adjourn this meeting of the denton city council at 3 48 thank you all