good morning it's nine o'clock on June 14th so we'll call to order the city of
Denton public utilities board meeting the first item is public comments at
this point are there anybody on the line or here that wishes to speak okay all
right then we'll move into the regular meeting first item is agenda oh I'm
sorry I can't hear you can't hear me Lee can you hear well enough to
understand what you're saying can you hear me now no no really can you hear me
you guys yeah okay Lee can you hear me obviously not okay what do we do okay
Rachel this is Tony can you hear me I can hear you very well Tony but we had a
lot of trouble hearing the people in chambers so maybe now can you hear can
you hear Susan Barbara no it's it just sounds like she's very far away Tony
you're very close but it sounds like she's very far away okay let's give us a
second we're gonna see there might be some technique can you hear me this has
been jumper we are standing by for technical difficulties
okay can you hear me now no ma'am it's not any better yet can you hear me am I
we could switch mics yes yes okay maybe it's this mic you sound far away but it
is legible or audible Tony that was clear as a bell just fine that one must
have been worn out it's perfect much better thank you
I yes Lee ma'am I wish to pull agenda item G from the consent agenda okay any
other items I had a quick question on a okay pull a any others all right do we
have a motion to approve items B C D E F H and I so moved Karen moves I second
and seconds I'll become very faint again I'm sorry to report oh same I'm sorry
Lee he says you're very soft again very vague okay so we have a motion and a
second on approving the items all in favor say aye aye opposed okay Liam
Barbara can you hear me no I'm almost on top of the microphone I don't know what
to do you can't hear me it's got to be audio zoom related issue right Rachel can
you hear me it's very faint again ma'am okay can you hear me now no and we got a
very a very intense feedback from virtual host when that happened okay can
you hear me now
Rachel can you hear me no still very faint
they're saying that you're not going to be able to hear me very loudly we're the
first ones doing this so we're going to have to just bear with it so Barbara and
Lee do you vote yes or no on the proving those other items just raise your hand if
you can you hear me at all okay so can you hear do you want to prove those
items or not
sorry ma'am could not hear you Lee can you hear me once again I can hear you
okay so we don't we don't know what's going on so so so the chairs asked if if
you are approving the consent agenda items except for a and was it G a and G
a and G are you in favor yes Barbara yes okay okay thank you all right
item a I just had a quick question I have a vague memory of this happening
before of a vendor bidding and then changing their their bid can somebody
remind me if this is a recurring problem with wind energy or am I just imagining
things can you hear me yes okay Terry Nolte assistant general manager DME so
this was a an RFP that was issued in actually late 2019 and so due to COVID
in early 2020 bids were delayed and our decisions were delayed by the time we
got to negotiations with this particular contractor or this supplier he decided
so much time had expired that he was going to change his price and when he
changed the price the contract no longer became cost-effective relative to other
bids we received and we'd already moved moved away from those other bids so
that's why we're asking you reject this yeah thanks that that makes sense I just
wanted to make sure this wasn't something we were gonna have to go
through repeatedly thank you okay do we have a motion to approve item a so
moved in a second second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor say aye
aye aye okay motion carries item G is there someone here to speak to item G
so we should have either pre-tem or Steven on the phone yes go ahead Lee
madam chairman my reason for requesting pulling this item was so we could get a
little better explanation of it and the impact it might hold for the future
since it appears to be a long-term consulting contract for wastewater
management
can you hear me Lee someone should be on the line to answer your question this is
a this is Chris Campbell water and wastewater capital project superintendent
I can answer any questions on this item hey Chris this is Tony if you could
speak up a little louder please so we can all hear you thank you is that is
that better Tony yes did you hear the question for mr. Ryback if I do
understand correctly he was just wanting some more detail because this is going
to be an extensive contract is that correct yes sir that is correct it
appears to be a long-term consulting contract and I thought it might be good
for us to get a little further explanation exposition of it thank you
yes sir mr. Ryback no problem so this this is a the the utilities group did an
RFP here recently and scored multiple criteria for the water and wastewater
group one of the criteria was was for planning and permitting right now the
current or currently the the water and wastewater group we do have a water
master plan however we do not have a wastewater master plan so this was this
was top of our priority list to get this consultant on board to to evaluate
currently what we're doing within our model and within our basins and then
also look at what do we need to do for the next 25 to 50 years with water and
weight or with wastewater infrastructure so yes this will there is an extensive
amount of effort that's going to be put forth for surveying and looking at our
existing system and as well as our basins and then and then they will break
down each basin and then come together with a holistic plan of how we should
proceed forward with our wastewater infrastructure alrighty then so this is
the result of a screening process that has already occurred that is correct yes
sir okay have we done business with this firm in the past yes sir Kim Lee Hornan
Associates have done quite a bit of business with the with the city of
Denton they've actually just recently helped write our standard standard
specs for the for the city of Denton as well very well thank you I appreciate
that I just want to get a better flavor for this particular contract because of
the time frame and money thank you absolutely anytime okay do we have a
motion to approve item G okay Lee's motioning second do we have a second
I'll second thank you Karen all in favor say aye aye aye can you hear me better
now yes a little bit a little bit okay because the alternative is to move into
the work session and I'll be via zoom can you hear me yes yes you can hear me
okay so we can hear you okay so the next item is items for individual
consideration item consider the approval of the May 24th 2021 minutes
were there any changes or corrections okay do we have a motion to approve the
minutes so moved okay been moved do we have a second Lee's seconds all in
favor say aye aye I'm abstaining I was absent okay thank you Karen I did that
last time
me too everybody okay so leaving leaving green
okay okay the next item is item B consider recommending adoption of an
ordinance for the city of Denton a Texas Home Rule municipal corporation
authorizing the city manager or their designee to execute a contract with
Hammett extra excavation incorporated for the construction of the perimeter
landfill gas header perimeter road and waterline extension for the solid waste
and recycling department providing for the expenditure funds therefore and
providing an effective date awarded to hammock excavation Inc and the not to
exceed amount of three million six forty one nine hundred and forty dollars and
six cents six cents six cents good morning members of the board my name is
Brian burner I am the solid waste director for the city of Denton it's
nice to see everybody in three dimensions for a change so I am here
today to talk about the project with Hammett to award a contract to extend
our landfill road perimeter road gas well header and waterline what I do want
to talk about today is why we need that this work done talk a little bit about
the process to identify the contractors and the cost to provide our
recommendations and then answer any questions that you might have a city of
Denton landfill in the exist under our existing permit we actually started our
fill pattern on the south and the west side currently we are now moving into
the east side and we need to install the infrastructure to support this service so
again access road on the east side as well as waterline and gas line header to
manage the landfill gas that that is located or that will be produced in this
area when we talk about the work to be completed again from landfill gas system
we're going to stall about 4,600 feet of 18 inch header control and collection
system a 950 foot leachate force main a non potable effluent waterline to help
with not only cleaning and watering the roads but also a desk control and then
again an all-purpose 10 inch reinforced concrete pavement road to make sure that
we can get in and out of the landfill on the east side we had construction
specifications prepared by SES consulting engineers that were released
for review on March 16th of this year we sent the request to 463 companies with
two active responses on April 22nd based on a review of the event of the RFP and
the evaluation the lowest responsive company that was identified was Hammett
Construction and with the 205 day proposed for construction we do
recommend awarding the landfill gas header waterline and concrete road
construction to Hammett Excavation I'd be glad to answer any questions that you
might have at this time questions yes mr. Rebek go ahead
Lee go ahead mr. madam chairman my question is regarding the landfill gas
collection system it's probably a dumb question but I'm gonna ask it anyway so
what do you do with the methane gas that you collect currently we are flaring
that gas however as we speak we have at least nine contractors out at the
landfill who are reviewing the system to install what we call a high BTU plant
what we want to be able to do is take this material actually clean it up to
pipeline grade quality and put it into the at most landfill or excuse me the
at most natural gas pipeline that runs along the north end of our property to
create a beneficial and usable product as a result of this so it's a it's a
beneficial reuse of that material well that is excellent so this is an
extension to an already existing landfill gas collection system that I
understand that correctly that is correct we currently have the header
that runs on the south and west side of facility what we want to do is create is
complete the ring by running it along the east side mm-hmm all right well very
good thank you thank you Karen did you have a question to Lee's question took
care of it thank you thank you all right any other questions do we have a motion
to approve this item motion to approve a motion okay it's been okay we have a
motion and a second all in favor say aye aye okay that one carries the next item
consider recommending the adoption of an ordinance of the city of Denton a Texas
Home Rule Municipal Corporation authorizing the city manager or their
designee to execute a contract with Hammett Excavation incorporated for the
construction of the public disposal facility for the solid waste and
recycling department providing for the expenditure of funds therefore and
providing an effective date CSP 7568 awarded to Hammett Excavation
incorporated in the not to exceed mount of 2 million 526 832 and 34 cents good
morning again now Brian Bernhardt of solid waste director with city of Denton
before you this morning to talk about our public disposal facility and award
of a contract to Hammett construction company again what I want to try to do
this morning is to define the need for the what we're going to call the PDF
again the process to identify the contractor the recommendations for
approval and answer any questions that you might have city of Dent public
disposal PDF facility is located on and within the permitted boundaries of the
city of Denton landfill purpose really is to provide a safe place and
environment for residents to dispose of materials at the landfill what we try to
do is it's actually separate from the working face so residents who don't have
dump trailers don't have the big landfill equipment basically drop it on
on a concrete pad the materials picked up and actually transferred to the
working face keeps him separate from the landfill equipment and reason we need
this facility built is because our current PDF is located within the
footprint of the next landfill cell which is currently under construction so
that facility will be removed I have to have a place to go so what we want to
try to do is to go ahead and build a what we're going to consider a 30-year
facility so that it increases our reliability and the safety that's going
to be concerned with the construction we hope this facility will be complete by
the end of the year so we can start using it again the work will be
completed we've got about quarter million square feet in this facility it
will include earthwork concrete road ramps pads pillars effluent water
supply line for for water monitors electric litter control fences just
everything that we need to make sure that this works and does not impact the
environmental integrity of the facility with the request for proposal we had
Biggs and Matthews environmental prepare our bid specs and documents it was
released on March 12th we sent it to 461 companies we had four responses that were
received on April 22nd of 2021 the results of the proposal evaluation is
that Hammett again Hammett can excavation had the best overall and
final offer with a 230 day construction time period we would recommend awarding
the PDF contract to Hammett ex excavation would be glad to answer any
questions that you might have regarding this questions yes go ahead Barbara is
this the company we're working with here or proposing to could you repeat your
question please no Hammett excavation is actually located in bottom Texas but
they are the company that's currently doing the landfill cell expansion and
and this is what they do they are their experts in the installation of these
types of facilities so we're extremely comfortable in them having and building
that the facilities as well as doing it on time and under budget so there's some
synergy with our synergies quick all right other questions go ahead now you
said it's a we're looking at a 30-year facility for this new one correct how
old is the existing facility the existing facility was there for about
ten years but again it was very rudimentary was basically just a pad
with some some a frame type concrete barriers you dumped it on the pad they
scooped it up this is more in line with a I'm gonna call it a pseudo transfer
station so we drop it on a pad it goes down into a truck a lot less moving parts
but again cleaner safer for our residents and in you know in the off
chance that we have an extreme rate event it allows us to really keep that
the landfill running at that at optimal speed okay okay thank you any other
questions okay do we have a motion to approve this item go move the moves and
second I guess we'll give that one to Barbara all in favor say aye aye motion
carries thank you thank you very much next item is management reports so thank
you madam chair and members of the PB in your management the reports this time
around we did send you a memo on the budget process I think mr. Ryback had
previously kind of asked for just some detail on that and Cassie Ogden our
director finances here if if there's any questions regarding the content of that
memo or just any general questions about the budget process any questions I would
love to ask some questions but unfortunately I had not yet had a
chance to read the memo having been out of town over the weekend if you could
give me a few minutes and come back to this I would appreciate it that's that's
fine mr. Ryback that no issues with that the other alternative too is if if you'd
like to set something up or reach out to miss Ogden she'll be happy to to meet
with you individually or have a call with you and and answer any questions so
but again if it's up to you so to the next item that we have go ahead no I'm
just gonna say I would appreciate it if we could give me a couple minutes and
then I'll I can get back to it and ask any questions yes sir if that's all right
with you madam chairman sure that's fine go ahead so to the next item that we
have is just the calendar for future agenda items we did have an item
scheduled for for today that was you know slipped back and so that I'll probably
come back to you on the 28th but I think that generally speaking the budget items
that are listed on here with the dates are in order and consistent I think with
what's been provided to you in that in that budget memo as well and then finally
the the last item that we have for you is just a new business action matrix
again these are the same items that we've had the turn of the first two and
we're planning to come back to the PB and do time to address those and then the
last time that was added was just a legislative update as you know the
legislative session has concluded there's a number of bills still kind of
waiting for the governor to to potentially veto or sign or just let
pass there's there's also the possibility of a special session that
might be called by the by the by the governor but we are working with our
legislative consultants and and do plan to come back to you probably sometime in
July with with an update of of all all matters related to legislative activity
impacting any of our utilities so again that that's on the schedule and be happy
to answer any questions that I mean you ever might have on any of that any
questions all right have you had a chance to read it Lee or you need a few
more minutes yes ma'am I have thank you very much and I do have a couple of
questions okay she's coming up to the podium already well I was wondering it
seems that we use the departments are using baseline budgeting so that means
last year's budget is always the start of next year's but I understand that
correctly from the memo yes that is correct okay next item is I was
wondering does the if we're starting with the baseline each year may I assume
that budgets never go below the baseline but always above not necessarily if
there were one-time expenses we do back those out before we roll it forward and
if we always look at a three-year history of the expenses so if the
department historically has been spending less than their baseline we
will work with them and they could possibly reduce their budget their new
baseline okay so the baseline is in the hard bottom it's still flexible enough
based on actual expenditures possibly one time and also ongoing correct okay
the other item I noticed is that there is a quarterly review by the budget
manager yes the quarterly review takes place before our quarterly report is
published and so we do provide that quarterly report to PB and council but
we go through and look at any all of the expenditures ensure that we are where we
think we were forecasting and do kind of a deeper dive of the budgets very good
this quarterly budget report is that something that we typically see as a
utility board yes we do provide that to the pub and to the council okay and it's
very much those are my questions and madam chairman I appreciate you giving me
a little flexibility here and mr. Ryback those quarterly reports are also on the
city's website under under the finance department and there's a history there
of those reports along with annual financial reports as well okay well very
good thank you okay the next item is concluding items does any board member
have any items they'd like added to a future agenda or any congratulations or
whatever no okay and we will move into our work session receive a report and
hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding a proposed high
performance computing operation on leased property at the Denton Energy
Center under development by Tanasca
well good morning pub members it was actually 2017 I was thinking when the
last time that I presented to pub was so I believe miss Parker you were here
miss Russell was on the board at the time but everyone else is new but I'm
Jessica Rogers I'm the director of economic development for the city of
Denton I previously was with DME so they did get to see me a little bit more in
the past but I'm going to be leading the presentation today of course Terry
Nolte is here with DME and as well as we have representatives from Tanasca on the
line with us and so in the event that I can't answer a very technical question I
have a lot of help so let me sort through these thing go
all right so for you today I'm going to be presenting on and the development of
a modular data mining prospect and so this project came to us through Tanasca
Tanasca is a large private energy company that specializes in power plant
development natural gas and electric power marketing and a number of things
so DME and economic development have been working with Tanasca with a
specific data center client on the development of a high density computing
operation and I have pictures to kind of show what that looks like here in a few
slides this project is going to be unique because it has an extraordinarily
high electric demand and to sort of put that in perspective is this specific
projects demand is going to be larger than the entire city of Denton demand at
build out and this project is also unique because they're looking to
construct this project at the Denton Energy Center and that's because that
site has adequate transmission and substation capacity really with minimal
build out for this particular project so it's really a unique project and Denton
has a unique location that can meet their needs and we're gonna go through
all of sort of the details of the introductory comments over the next few
slides so what does this look like in terms of a project so the modular data
mining campus where they're going to be performing those high density and high
performance competing applications really looks exactly exactly like a
modular data mining campus would look like in your mind they're sort of the
size of a semi truck sort of can shipping container and they'd be located
there on the site so this is the deck schematic so this is the south side of
the deck right here sort of kind of on the airport side of the deck for those
like me who are directionally challenged and then this is what it would look like
on the ground here and this is where they would perform things like
cryptocurrency mining doing competing operations for artificial intelligence
DNA mapping and machine learning and those sorts of things so here's a good
aerial of the deck site so here's the Denton Energy Center the Jim Crystal
substation so this project is being proposed to be developed in three phases
so phase one is the south side of the Denton Energy Center phases one and two
which is about 19 acres and the goal would be to have that operation up and
running September to November this year in phases one and two and then phase
three is 11 acres on the north side of the Denton Energy Center with target
operation date of March 2022 no surprise but electric will be supplied from the
Jim Crystal substation and because of the extraordinarily high demand of the
project it's a little bit different than projects that I usually get so we're not
negotiating an economic development incentive but we are looking at a
purchase power agreement and that's sort of again extraordinarily unique
situation where we have such a high demand and high user that we'd be
looking at a purchase power agreement they'll the company will also be leasing
the land from the city of Denton and that will be market-based a market-based
lease rate so the property because the city owns it is currently zoned public
facility so we do have to initiate a rezoning process to allow for a private
use and so we are in the process of doing that right now I believe the PNZ
meeting is upcoming later this month we'll be rezoning that those sections of
the property from public facility to light industrial to allow for this use
so speaking to why this particular project is pursued here in Denton and
sort of a quick list of what did the customer need they needed transmission
level voltage they needed really high reliability but able to contain curtail it
when the system conditions called for it they needed rates pursuant to a PPA
access to the workforce to operate the computing center and one thing that's
really particular to Denton is access to renewable energy was extraordinarily
important for this client and they wanted to be somewhere where they had a
good community and environmental partner for their goals and of course there on
the right you'll see that didn't was able to meet and really exceed all of
the expectations of this client so this really was a great partnership and a way
to utilize property at the Denton Energy Center and that has a lot of benefits
for both the company and the city so getting into direct benefits for the
city of Denton so this particular project is in alignment with our economic
development strategic plan this board I don't know how involved you were in that
process throughout the pandemic but we just finished our economic development
strategic plan it was adopted in February of this year and in that plan
it specifically calls out strategic growth areas and identifies what we
would consider high value development areas data centers like this operation
were one of the few industries that were specifically called out as having
extreme benefit here in the city of Denton in terms of our economic value a
lot of that has to do with having our own electric utility so we certainly are
pursuing data centers as an economic development strategy the second point
would be that the full build out of the project so all three phases it would
more than double all of DME is current retail energy sales and create
additional revenues for our general fund in terms of franchise
fees ROI energy sales revenues on sales taxes as well as property taxes
related to the business personal property of the client and then lastly
this does have the potential to increase DME system load profile by reduce doing
that could reduce costs to serve the existing customers so we always like to
examine what are the risks and the rewards of any project as no project is
without a risk right so we looked at the commercial risks of the project so for
this particular project of course it's such a large-scale project that the
customers credit is something that we look into so we will work to mitigate
that through the actual purchase power agreement we also looked at what's the
lifecycle of the business plan how long can this modular operation continue and
what happens when it's over and so in our discussions and research really
knowing that there are other potential computing operations going forward to
expect coming online in the future and so we certainly can continue to explore
what those opportunities are as we're going through the first few years of
this operation and lastly is that this does consume a significant portion of
available transmission capacity in our industrial area that's not a huge risk
all that means is that if someone needed the power kind of soon thereafter we
might have to go through a little bit of a longer process to get the
infrastructure there to serve them it's not a huge delay not a significance
concern for our staff but something that we want to acknowledge in terms of
benefits to the city again significant revenues increasing based on the sales
of the energy seeing some general fund relief which is always positive and then
some electric rate relief possible and then lastly is again a little bit on our
economic development strategic plan but a possible funding source for what we're
calling our economic development catalyst fund so this is the fund with
which we would fund economic development programming and then lastly that this
does utilize right now that we have transmission capacity surplus so this is
able to take advantage of our current situation so jumping into timeline and
that's next step so this project because it's a modular installation is going to
really have an aggressive timeline and in terms of how quickly it can be
installed so we're gonna start there we've started the rezoning process it
goes to public hearing at the Planning and Zoning Commission on June 23rd and
that's to rezone the property again to light industrial as soon as the zoning
is in place then we can begin permitting the project and they can move really
quickly the project will come back to pub and to City Council in terms of both
the PPA and the reason sorry PPA will come back to pub and council the
rezoning process will go through City Council but the real goal is to get this
project online really late fall 2021 as soon as we possibly can so continuing on
those next steps so what we're kind of doing on the staff side now one working
the rezoning process but two working on negotiating that comprehensive purchase
power agreement and that's going to include what the costs of the power are
the terms of the lease any type of that credit credit or collateral requirement
and then also getting the final details about the interconnection and any type
of operational requirements that would be needed to operate that facility and
lastly I'll just make a point that we do have the economic growth writer that's
in your rate structure this project is so large it would not qualify for that
that's one of the reasons we're moving to a PPA so our direction today and that
we're seeking is to provide 120 day exclusivity exclusivity period on the
deck site so simply allow us the time to negotiate the terms of the PPA with this
project and then move the PPA through its approval processes and so with that I
will stop talking and I'm sure there are lots of questions on this project but
no I've got I've got some assistance here as needed okay thank you Jessica any
questions and madam chair and PB members we also have a couple of folks with the
company too so if there are questions for them they'll be happy to answer any
questions you might have okay all right questions all right we'll start with
Karen sorry Ben I was curious about what since this is placing such a high demand
on our electric generation or electric transmission I guess what will happen
when there's another tropical storm or winter storm URI and we need that
electricity for the ratepayers of denton come on come on down Terry Nolte
assistant general manager DME again the way that this transaction is being
structured this is a fully interruptible load so we would have the ability to
interrupt this load for a number of for any reason and certainly if we had a
situation like URI again it would be the first to go okay are they able I mean I
know that the target distribution center has its own generators that can kind of
get off the grid would it is this just a project that is too big for them to be
able to generate any of their own there are they are not planning to generate
and I think it's a it's a cost issue yeah having a backup generator of this
size would be they'd be a small utility right effectively so they're relying on
that intermittency I'm sorry the interrupt ability in order to make the
economics work effectively I did also just want to commend utility staff in
general for your willingness and eagerness to think outside the box
because this is a very creative seems like a very creative project that not
everybody would have would have considered so I'll just give some accolades
to ten ask me to ask is one of the largest players in the in the power
business in Texas and so the innovation is really theirs well yours too so thank
you it's true all right Ben so I guess I'm curious about the land what why do
we have so much land that we're not using and then did we have a purpose for
it in the future or otherwise my understanding and I was not here at the
time that the deck property was Tony might be able to answer the question
better but you know typically when you build a power plant you want to have a
buffer area around it in order to control access and and as with other
property purchases that the city does for utilities you kind of have to buy
what the parcel is so the acreage is really determined by what what the
parcel is okay Terry's exactly right I mean it was really a kind of all or
nothing on that particular land deal but I will tell you that even then and now
there is the potential future use of that property for a service center annex
for the city as you know especially with hunter coal ranch coming in you know the
the likelihood that we're gonna be able to serve much of that you know southwest
kind of side of the community becomes a real challenge out of our current
campuses and the current service center over here at Texas Street and so that's
something we that we've been working on obviously if if this project comes into
play we'll need to kind of reevaluate that but I think the I think the
benefits of this project certainly outweigh the potential drawbacks and
those having to rethink kind of a service center annex property so is is
to ask a recording in progress are they effectively going to use all remaining
available land or like could we continue like do that service center annex as
well what I think there's still gonna be additional land you know one of the one
of the projects that will be coming through there will be the loot 288
project that's gonna bisect some of the property that DME owns and so I'm trying
to remember I think it's property on the south side of that that would still be
available to us and it'll just have to be a much you know smaller scale kind of
annex than what we've been talking about but that's something that we'll be
working through with the with the architects on that so yeah much of much
of the land at the deck is actually impeded by easements for the gas lines
and the transmission lines out there so really this these two areas are areas
that could be developed and you know just an innovative use of property okay
thank you okay Lee did you have questions Lee can you hear me yes ma'am
chairman I can't hear you my question is has to do with the
interrupt ability of power that's very unusual for a data center operation a
little unclear about it and I've had a little trouble hearing from the meeting
room so you may have covered this but I wasn't able to make it out very well so
could you tell us a little bit more either Terry or the folks from to ask
about the interrupt ability of power in this data center operation I think I'll
defer to mr. Hemshot with with to ask on that one
hey good morning how's my volume can everybody hear me okay
yeah wow real good okay thanks good morning thank you very much for for the
for taking the time and answering for asking these questions I also want to
compliment the you know the city Terry staff everyone has been just excellent
responsive and Terry very innovative as well the city has been just just just a
pleasure to work with I want to I want to start to say in terms of your direct
question on the ability yes this is different this this is called
effectively tier zero data center tier four would be think of all the
applications on the internet where response time is in milliseconds to a
given to a given poll on the system and that it has to have multiple layers of
redundancies in order to actually fill that to fill that need those layers of
redundancies are you know important in that application but they do layer on a
lot of inefficiencies such that you know they have to have multiple backup
systems they have to have multiple cooling systems multiple of everything
to have that redundancy in this example because these applications are more
computing process intensive where they occur over a period of time and they can
be scheduled you know I go back in time and think about you know some of the you
know initial classes that I had in computer science where you're actually
scheduling time on a given piece of computing equipment you know back way
back when it's a similar thing in this case here where they're scheduling over
a period of time so an interruption is more of just a delay of the process and
it's not you know so as critical as it is for a tier 4 data center. So the time that's
being used in your modular systems are either scheduled or are they like flow
through historical data gathering from different organizations? I'm sorry the
interrupt ability when it occurs or I'm sorry that's okay we have structured the
question a little awkwardly what I've asked of asking is first to clarify that
you're talking about the time in your modular systems is actually mostly
scheduled rather than flow through and if it is flow through is it just staging
for keeping historical data over time? Okay so the a lot of the a lot of the
activity will be on mining which is flow through or just a continuous process and
that process can be interrupted virtually at any point in time. Oh the
data mining I got you thank you. Right in terms of the any of the artificial
intelligence video rendering applications like that those are more
scheduled applications. Okay thank you that makes a little more clear I
appreciate it. Sure okay and Barbara go ahead if you can hear me. Yes I was just
going to say that the presentation answered a lot of questions and I
appreciate the information that was presented to us thank you very much. Okay
and and I want to echo what Karen said that this is very creative and it's
going to benefit the city greatly so I'm certainly in favor I guess what you're
looking for is some kind of consensus direction? We're looking for
recommendation from this board to council which will be discussing tomorrow
on the 120 day exclusivity period for continuing negotiations. Before I forget
I do have one question we have no issues with our bonds on this arrangement. No
ma'am we've sought out an opinion from from bond council and we're good to
proceed with with the project. Okay excellent thank you. All right so do we
have a consensus to move forward to recommend moving forward with this
project? Sure. Okay yes all right is that what you need? Okay all right our final
item and we'll be adjourning into a closed session so I do need to read the
entire thing and it's a long e but it will take us approximately five minutes
or so from the time we close to go into we we're moving into the work session
room so that we can have a zoom. So yeah so so Barbara and Lee if you guys will
hold on we're we're all gonna jump on zoom and so I think it'll be a little bit
easier for us to hear everyone. But here is what the closed meeting is about
deliberations regarding certain public power utilities competitive matters
under Texas Government Code section five five one point zero eight six
consultation with attorneys under Texas Government Code section five five one
point zero seven one receive a presentation from staff regarding
public power competitive and financial matters regarding the provision of
electric power to a perspective large electric demand customer discuss
deliberate and provide direction to staff regarding the same consultation
with city's attorneys regarding the legal issues associated with the matter
where the public discussion of these legal matters would conflict with the
duty of the city attorneys to the city of Denton and the Denton City Council
under Texas disciplinary rules of the professional conduct at the state bar of
Texas or would jeopardize the city's legal position in any administrative
proceeding or potential litigation any final action decision or vote on the
matter deliberated in the closed meeting will only be taken in an open meeting
that is held in compliance with Texas Government Code chapter five five one
except to the extent such final action decision or vote is taken in the closed
meeting in accordance with the provisions of section five five one point zero eight
six of the Texas Governmental Code the public power exception the public
utilities board serves reserves the right to adjourn into a closed meeting or
executive session as authorized by Texas Government Code section five five one
point zero zero one the Texas Open Meetings Act on any item on its open
meeting agenda or to reconvene in the continuation of the closed meeting on the
closed meeting items noted above in accordance with the Texas Open Meetings
Act including without limitation section five five one point zero seven one through
five five one point zero eight six of the Texas Open Meetings Act thanks
Catherine going into closed session thank you