Jun 15, 2021 City Council on 2021-06-15 2:00 PM
June 15, 2021 City Council
Full Transcript
and good afternoon. Welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council. We do have a quorum. We're in a hybrid format. So there are some here in City Hall, others still joining us remotely. It is 2 p.m. and we will call this meeting to order on June the 15th, 2021 and the first thing is comments from the citizens on the consent agenda. I do not believe we have any, which would take a second.
to our council questions regarding the agenda. So I'm going to, as a matter of process, so that I can keep up with everything. We'll start here internally and then work our way out to those that are joining us hybrid so that I can kind of keep track of everything and I'll disclose.
So my suit today is sponsored, brought to us by Tommy Joe Martins. He's a number 44 driver. He drives the Discover Denton car and so he was gracious enough to give me this and I want to support him in that way for him supporting people and encouraging them to discover Denton.
So with that, I'll take questions for staff regarding the consent agenda from my council members here in chambers. Any questions for staff?
I guess we have to do a hand because I don't think the button works. Anything you good? All good. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yes. Councilmember McGuire.
Thank you, Mayor. This isn't a question so much as just a request to satisfy kind of my curiosity as a music educator myself. I'm really curious to know more about the start jamming program from the Greater Denton Arts Council.
If staff if staff could just email me additional information about that, I would really appreciate that. And then, oh, I had a question returning to the issue of the arrow pure that solid waste is procuring for odor management at landfill.
That's consent agenda item K. I meant to ask last week, but are we using the version of that that has fragrance or the version that does not have fragrance.
Councilmember McGuire, Brian Burnett solid waste director. We are using the fragranced version. We're using the I believe it's the berry scent that we use. Okay. And are there any kinds of air quality or other environmental concerns that might exist with the fragrance that would not exist with the fragrance free version of that product?
Not that we have seen or encountered. We've been using this product for several years and have not seen any detrimental effect to the environment or the health and safety of the community.
Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Great. Okay. Anyone else questions for staff?
I guess we need bear with me just a minute. They'll bring the screen back.
Yes. So if you're if you're raising your hand virtually, sorry, I can't see it right now. Working on that. Councilmember Beck.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Procedurally, maybe I'm just being a doofus, but I don't see a button. How are we going for recognition?
Right. So yet by hand. Yes, please. And thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay. And I'm back. Council member Tim Meltzer.
Yeah, thank you. Sure. Councilmember requires interest in the start jamming proposal that funding is being sought for.
And I think the public would appreciate it. Just a brief presentation in the evening on that item, as well as on item C seeking funding for commercial food waste diversion program.
Not looking for anything in particular, just to share with the public what they have in mind. I think they sound they both sound great.
Okay. And forgive me. What what letter is start jamming? Sorry. CND. CND. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So for staff's notes.
Yeah, it's it's what's that more information. Yes. Well, it would be a proposal. So those two will be pulled by Mayor Melzer item C and D for a brief proposal.
Nothing was specified as to what he'd like to see. Just a general overview. Okay. Any other questions on the consent agenda?
Seeing none. Okay. Then just for staff's purposes, it was item C and D would only two pulled for brief presentation in during this evening's meeting.
That'll conclude that item and it'll take us to our first work session. And let me get back there.
So I'll call that that's item three, a ID two one one two four to receive report, hold discussion, give staff direction regarding the display of non government related flags at city of Denton facilities.
Good afternoon, Mayor, city council, Sarah Keuchler, chief of staff. I have a brief presentation for you today on this item.
So I'm going to go ahead and go through that presentation and take questions at the end due to the hybrid format.
Can I can I make a point of procedure? Before we get started, question of procedure.
I could staff. Could you repeat that? I'm sorry. I could not hear. I would like to make a statement or a question or request about procedure.
Okay. Okay. You have a procedure question. Yes. Yes. Okay. So as you can probably see, I'm in I'm in a car.
I'm I'm in another state and driving with my family. What is the procedure question?
The procedure question is that it's difficult for me to do zoom right now.
And I was going to repeat my request that this work session item, which is one that I requested to be put on the agenda,
get moved to the end of the work session so that I can participate while I have safely reached my destination and are sick.
Trying to juggle a million things in a car. I asked it asked the mayor for permission. I will ask again.
It's we generally tend to do this if there's a family situation or a work related situation that causes somebody to be late or early for a meeting.
And since I'm the one who brought it forward, it would really be terrific if we could just move this to the end of the work session for today.
OK. OK. Sarah, you can continue. OK. One second while I pull up my presentation.
So can I get an answer on that? I can't hear. So the.
The focus is the focus of this and it's placed here so that the city of Denton, the citizens, can have a set time. And it was it was posted Friday.
And and so no, I'm not going to have this conversation back and forth with you.
You and so it is paramount that the citizens. Well, you can't talk over me because people can't hear if we're both talking.
So I'm feeling very car sick. So pardon me if I'm not looking at the video.
OK. Very good. Sarah, continue. OK. My presentation. One second.
OK, there we go. So this is for city council to have a discussion regarding flag policies.
And just for by way of background, last week on June 8th, Councilmember Armatier did present a one minute pitch to display the pride flag and the Juneteenth flag at city facilities during the month of June.
During that discussion, during the one minute pitch work session, the consensus of council was to have a work session to discuss flag policy options and as part of that policy to discussion to include discussing the LGBTQ pride month flag and a Juneteenth flag.
What staff has done at the end of last week is tried to very quickly compile some research, some information, develop some options for council.
And so that's what we're going to present today. We've done the best we can.
There might be some questions that we're not able to answer today or that we need to do further research on.
So some options that staff has developed for council consideration and discussion are three different options that could be looked at further.
The first would be a council initiated process. This is where council would initiate the flying of any flags through resolution.
The second would be to establish a policy and then accept requests per that policy.
And the last would be to take no action in regards to other flags and just continue current recognition practices.
So I'll give you a little bit of more information on each one of those options and what they look like.
So for the first option for council initiated, this would be council driven.
So council as a governing body would be deciding what flags they would you would like to hang at city facilities to show your support based upon council direction.
Staff would draft a resolution for council to consider and that resolution would detail which flags are permitted and when they could be flown.
So just a note here, if this is council's option or desire,
staff could draft a resolution that directs staff to fly the Pride and Juneteenth flag and we could prepare that resolution for a future council meeting.
So some considerations for this options, it would allow council to handle any requests at a case by case basis.
You could amend the resolution to add or take off flags, certain flags.
However, you would probably need to establish some sort of process by which a council member could propose the entire council taking up.
If you would like to move forward with amending the resolution or not or placing that item on an agenda right now,
that might be done through the one minute pitch process where a council member can make a one minute pitch.
This option would be considered an act of government speech as the government body, you would be taking that action.
This is the most defensible option.
The city under this option, the city would purchase and own the flags as it is a city initiated process and also goes to being the most defensible option.
The second option could be for city staff to develop a policy for council consideration.
And then once a policy is established, then start to accept requests per that policy.
So this option would allow an individual or group in the community to make a request to city council.
So some considerations, we would need some time to develop that policy as you see some from some of the research we've done.
We need to address a process for how to handle requests.
What is eligible, what is not, who is approving, where would they be displayed, at what locations, for how long, would there be a flag raising ceremony and so forth.
Those are some of the other elements that we saw in some of the other policies that we researched.
And then again, we would need to create that policy first before accepting requests from an individual or group.
That's the recommendation.
Otherwise, we could be at risk for denying any future requests or placing future restrictions.
Could be seen as having some preference for one or another if we do not have that policy in place first.
So just an estimation of staff time to develop that policy and bring it back at a later date this summer is shown there on the screen.
And then lastly, a third option would be to take no action on the flags, but continue to do some of our current recognition practices.
So currently, we only fly United States, Texas and city related flags at municipal facilities.
We do have an administrative directive and administrative policy that set forth guidelines for the Texas and US flag when they should be flown at half mast and so forth.
And then as far as recognizing different groups or individuals, the mayor takes proclamation requests and those are placed on city council agendas for recognition.
Or can actually be delivered right to a community event by the mayor as well.
So some considerations with this option, it would continue our current practice of doing the proclamations and would be consistent as all individuals or groups would be recognized the same way.
And it would not require any additional staff time at this time to develop.
I also wanted to note that in your backup, I think it was exhibit three, we did include some of the policies and resolutions that we found from other cities.
Again, we did this research quickly, so there might be more out there, but just to give you kind of a perspective of some others that exist in other cities around the country.
So Long Beach, California, that's most comparable to our option one.
They as a city council passed a resolution that designates that there are six special flags that can be flown and they're flown for one month of the year and then they're rotated through.
And so that resolution clearly sets forth what those special flags are and when they are to be flown in Long Beach, California.
The town of South Windsor is similar to option one as well.
The policy was approved by their town council and sets forward parameters, including a process for a town council member to request that the entire council consider a certain flag.
And then the city of Boston, Massachusetts, this is probably most comparable to option two that we put forward.
They do have a policy whereby individuals or groups can request for a flag to be flown, has certain requirements laid out, a request needs to be made four weeks in advance.
And then it goes to a department for approval and it's kind of noteworthy that that department reports to the mayor's office.
Boston does have a different form of government, has a strong mayor form of government.
But those flag requests there, the flag would only be flown for 24 hours, I believe, in Boston.
And then lastly, the city of Dallas, Texas, in May of this year, they adopted a resolution.
Their council adopted a resolution to direct the city manager to fly the pride flag at city of Dallas facilities.
And this is actually a flag that they created that has the city of Dallas seal in the flag.
So the flags are owned by the city as well.
And so lastly, just kind of review the three potential options that we've outlined and I'm happy to take any questions from council.
OK, thank you. Questions for staff in the room?
Councilman Beck.
Thank you, mayor. So a couple for the I'll go in kind of weird order for number three.
Or in general, for any any option that includes proclamation by mayor, does the proclamation process include visual accompaniments or is it only verbiage?
Right now, it's just they make a request to the mayor and those could be done through the city manager's office and passed along to the mayor.
We as staff help develop that verbiage sometimes with the community groups as well for what will be on the proclamation.
And then the proclamation is printed and it's kind of in a decorative format and it's presented to the community group or individual at a council meeting or an event.
So there's no visual element besides the printed proclamation with the city seal and so forth.
That's presented to the group. Do we have anything precluding us from having a visual element?
I don't think there's anything precluding, but there's also not anything outlining how that would take place.
OK, and in the past, when we've had in-person council meetings, there's often always a photo opportunity that mayor and council can come down, take a picture with the group as well.
And that's usually then put out through our social media channels, maybe through the mayor's social media channel as well.
We tried to do that in the past, but given the virtual format we've been under, we've been a little limited to be able to really kind of push out or celebrate further what has been recognized during a council meeting.
But as we start up to do these in-person meetings again, we can start to do more of that social media as well.
Well, and I'll explain that before I go to my next question.
That was sort of if there are visual elements associated with a proclamation through any of the things we will consider, then that might be additional options considering that the flag is a visual element.
On concept number two, the policy by request, in the various comparables that were exploring this, were those the same flagpoles as used for city, state, and federal, or was it a separate flagpole?
I don't think I have enough information to answer that question accurately.
I think in Boston, they have probably one that's the most comparable.
I think they probably have a flagpole dedicated to special ceremonial flags.
Sort of a ceremonial flagpole for whatever purpose.
Yeah, in Long Beach, California, I believe they had the one flagpole dedicated to those rotating special flags that they had approved.
Okay, and then, but as I recall from the backup on that item, there were, you were outlining, or legal was outlining, and maybe this is more of a Catherine question, so you may need to redirect, that there was still sort of a basis for some levels of protection with either,
well, number three requires no protection, because it's status quo, but both one and two had substantial protections built in because of the nature of policy adoption.
By setting a policy, whether it's council initiative or policy by request, it helps bulwark us from potential issues.
Is that correct?
I think in both of those, it really goes to the issue of have you articulated a criteria, and that's your safer haven there, that there's some means of articulating a criteria by which those determinations will be made, and you can have that in both one and two.
Okay. And so, well, I think I'll hide and listen to the rest of the discussions for now. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, sir. Any other, Council Member Byrd.
In preparation for this meeting today, has the city purchased a flag or for Juneteenth? I know that that's also been part of the discussion.
We have not at this time.
Thank you.
Okay. Any other questions at today's? Thank you. Council Member Byrd, then Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
Thank you, Mayor. Question for staff. So I believe I know the answer to this, but I just want to confirm, given that Juneteenth is this coming Saturday, June 19th.
We do not have a plan to take a vote on any sort of resolution or other action that would directly result in flying a flag. That vote is not going to be taken today.
So we have essentially taken the option of flying a Juneteenth flag off the table for this year. Is that correct?
We do not have a resolution on this agenda. That was not the previous direction from City Council. It was for a work session.
Okay. So we will not be taking a vote prior to Juneteenth on whether to fly the Juneteenth flag.
There is not an item for consideration at this time unless we're directed otherwise by City Council to do a special meeting or any other parameters, but there is not a resolution on today's agenda.
Okay. All right. May I provide direction that we, would it be within TOMA parameters for us to add an item to tonight's agenda, or would we have to call a separate meeting?
Let me, that's not, the one-minute pitch can't lead to action, and that was cited last week, and I'll note that we do have a Juneteenth committee that has not made that request, I'm sure you're aware, and the only backup for that request has come from a private Facebook group, and so that's all noteworthy to me, but that's the answer is the one-minute pitch does not allow for that, and we've not heard from the committee.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Mayor Proctor Meltzer.
Yeah, I just want to point out that it's almost to my shock that the whole idea of mayoral proclamations has never been controversial.
Mayor makes proclamations, declares ceremonial local holidays all the time. It's in the charter that the mayor's head of government for ceremonial matters. It doesn't take up any work session slots, it doesn't take us away from our priorities, and just in the time that Mayor Hudspeth and I have both been on council, we've had mayoral proclamations before for Denton LGBTQ Pride Month, we had National Transgender Awareness Week.
I'm pretty sure we've had mayoral proclamations related to Juneteenth as well, and as we all know, there's a mayoral proclamation for Pride Month on the agenda for tonight.
And as you've heard, that's always accompanied by the fancy, you know, signed print, but I would just add kind of along the lines of what Councilmember Rebecca alluded to, I would have no qualms about also giving the mayor within that ceremonial proclamation role the power to prominently present before the community any form of mayoral proclamation display.
I would propose the marquee at the corner of McKinney and Bell, which incidentally could be outfitted to display a ceremonial flag over it.
The marquee could be changed almost instantaneously to bear the words, something like the mayor proclaims whatever follows Denton Pride Month or Juneteenth recognition.
And there are other, you know, we don't all agree, and certainly the community doesn't doesn't all agree about doing things other than government flags on the government flagpoles, but there's also the banners over Elm and Locust, which are extremely huge and very prominent.
And I understand could be presented in about a week if the mayor chose to amplify his proclamation that way. Not right now, but I would just say as a general observation, there are also banners proudly hung from the light poles, they're generally occupied by banners paid for by the universities, but I'm just pointing out those are other ways to prominently
acknowledge a mayorally proclaimed event that do not involve flying non-government flags on the government flagpoles.
So I'll just add one more thing. I understand that to do a proper flagpole, I don't know if the mayor even has any interest in doing this, but I understand that to create a proper flagpole requires some weeks and a couple grand and probably cement and stuff.
But I could tell you as a member of a Rotary Club that puts up about 500 flags five times a year that, you know, you can do a flag. I mean, you see them all over town in much less time than that involves an auger and a piece of PVC and then, you know, a regular old flagpole if you wanted to do something quickly.
So I just offer that up. I'm still very much in favor of council focusing on policy. In fact, we have an item to be presented tonight about actual protections and discrimination and actually solving the problems.
And as far as being welcoming and uniting and presenting kind of symbolically welcoming messages, I think the mayor is properly given that given that role in our charter.
Okay, thank you.
And then they'll get me back to the gallery view. Bear with me just one moment.
Okay. Any others there that would care to speak.
Can I ask a question.
Certainly Councilmember Armitage.
Okay, so, so question for staff. Is there anything preventing direction on the flags being given today and a resolution on whatever we decide to have a resolution on being voted on at a later date I say this precedent.
Number one, the recent decision made to have a resolution in opposition to three anti trans bills, coming from the Texas State Legislature that decision was made at a as part of the one minute pitch process.
And I also think that we should consider the fact that there's a proclamation tonight for pride month, which articulates values that are very much the values displayed by that portrayed by that flag.
We've had pride pride month proclamations for I believe the past three years, and since we have as a value of inclusion as one of our main city values.
So I mentioned all of this to say that, you know, we already have in on paper.
So, you know, the only new thing that today would be giving direction on black and some direction for some future.
Okay, so I'll recognize the city attorney to explain again why we can't take action based on the codes that were provided last week.
And, of course, finding resolution, and whatever people decide about policy be simply voted.
Okay.
Madam city attorney could you speak to those codes again please.
To adopt a policy of the city council under to 28 it has to be done by resolution which we're not captioned for today.
And I can barely hear some of our fellow council members online. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Yes, sir.
Okay, Councilmember wire.
Thank you, Mr. Smith. I believe I'm ready to provide direction.
My direction to staff would be to pursue option one, the council initiated initiated option, and to begin drafting resolution to fly the Philly pride flag.
To be voted on it next week's meeting.
We, unless, perhaps another. Well, let me put it this way, if there is also a consensus of council to perhaps, perhaps add a very brief special meeting later this week, where we can vote on the Juneteenth flag, I would like that as well.
Okay, that's been noted and I'm going to add my comments as people begin to give direction.
We have a Juneteenth committee, and that committee has not requested a flag nor has been been consulted by this group or, and so that to me is an issue.
And I'll point out for those that may not have had contact with those on the committee. There is an entire Juneteenth flag process to, to revealing and posting process that is not a simplistic just hey wing it, it is there steps to be considered.
And, and I would encourage those on council that have not spoke to that group to understand that process before you kind of lend a direction without first consulting that committee of those in that community, similar to what we do with the community on disabilities, etc, etc.
Then also I'll say, I have a question for staff for this. So obviously we've come through a process but at its origin, where did this request come from.
It came from a resident through Councilmember armature.
Of a citizen originated request that then is work through the process, I can't speak for Councilmember armature, but it may be just her request as well, but I believe it came from a resident and she thought it was a good idea and wanted to present it.
Okay. Okay. And then, let's see, then I will point out, there's, I think this is on on point, but it, and it goes to what Councilmember McGuire just touched on by Friday's last report so I would encourage those watching to go to the city of Denton's website
webpage and if you go to the search bar type reports, look at Friday report fast forward to the bottom of the page, you'll see a list of nine one minute pitch items that lay approved and ready is various stages of ready.
So, I can't then support leapfrogging, my, my peers, without some sort of policy in place to prioritize, because I don't want to take from one and give to the other we only have so much staff time, we have nine in the queue currently, and to say that we're just going to ignore the nine that
are previously approved nine that came from some variation of citizen request, and then just supplement those by saying oh well, we're going to put these in individual priority order we are a body and we have to give direction as a body,
and we need a policy to give the city manager guidance on how we prioritize the limited amount of time they have. And so I think it's a little presumptuous to say, just do this next week, and so I can't support that option, because there's other council members
that I respect that have brought forward options at earlier months earlier that we would then put on the back burner. And I don't think that's right without a process so there's a hang up there for me as far as how we prioritize request.
And I think staff pointed out appropriately, who owns the flag is a big deal, right, I think that's important for us to take the time to get right because for example, again, the Juneteenth flag is owned by a private individual, we don't know what that would expose
the city to. We are $1.9 billion city. And so we have to be diligent about what we expose those dollars to and litigation, and I'll touch on that. My question for staff, were you I did ask about the other government institutions in the city, were you able to hear back from
that I know it's a short term. Yes, we reached out to TW and UNT and they do not fly the LGBTQ Pride flag. We were not able to get in touch with the ISD, but we don't believe they do either.
Okay. And so I take that note right because I was also it was noted by a very wise person on council that we, you know, you shouldn't go with things by yourself right you should consider others and you should understand what others are doing and kind of make a decision in line with
kind of insight from others. So I take that insight and note it. It's not prevailing by itself, but it also is noteworthy and I thank you for checking into that. And then if you could help me because I couldn't find it on the web page, but I want people to be able to find it because I think it's critical.
Where, where does the city city list the its policies so it's specifically we have anti bullying prize policy, and then we've included a inclusion policy that's new. And so where would someone find those.
So our policies are listed under gov government open government, and then policies and procedures. Okay, so go to the government open government tab and then you'd be able to find policies and procedures underneath there.
So we have anti bullying policy, and the inclusion is a new value that the city has adopted with our four other core values, and that is for the organization to really speak to our employees of our expectations of how they should operate and provide service to the
community. Great. Thank you. And so that's important to understand that that as a staff, and as a city, we're focused on that and we're, we're modeling that as best we can.
And, and I'll just say, and can wrap it up here. I think the important part is that the legal concerns for me, and the concern of not having a policy is so critical, because the city, there's no secrets in the city we everything's open meetings,
we are hurting financially, we are going to hold the line barely on our tax rate, we don't need to expose ourselves to lawsuits because some radical organization would say hey they're vulnerable, they don't have the money to spend on this and it puts us in harm's way and to highlight the legal issues.
I replied to the ACLU and that other group that said hey you have nothing to worry here, and I and that was disseminated to my peers, and the reply I got back was a lot of backpedaling saying hey we're not giving you any promises that you won't get sued nor will we pay for it if you do.
And so I think that to me is telling as an individual that you're not willing to stand by what you can't, it's not legally feasible and so I've worked in the legal industry for 20 years, there's peers here on the council that worked in the legal industry probably
longer than that, and they understand those risks and so at a point where we're going to have to potentially raise utility rates, we're going to have to potentially hope we're barely holding line on the tax rate to expose the citizens to lawsuits at this time for something that is not a policy issue is not a core issue of Denton is not something I can support.
I do appreciate Mayor Pro Tem's point about the marquees and and we have marquees and recreation centers, and I think that's an excellent middle ground as we develop a policy, so I could absolutely get behind that I appreciate his leadership that way.
And I think that's noteworthy but I do want to say this I want to say to those watching on this day it's so appropriate for someone that pushed hard not to have this conversation this day, I want to talk about the significance of this conversation on this day
because I sit at this seat that no person that looks like me has sat in this seat in this position in the history of the city of Denton that's 100 plus years right and I think in the mid to be elected to this position in the middle of George Floyd to be elected to this position in the middle of a fight with the Confederate
monument to be in this position is significant and the citizens of Denton are outstanding. The employees of the city of Denton are outstanding, and they are caring, and they are loving, and there's no way that I will let an outside group there are struggles out
there and there are areas for us to improve, but we are doing a fantastic job, and I want everyone to feel supported every citizen of Denton all 140,000 plus waiting on a new census, but that's who I'm focused on, and all everyone checks a box it said I am a citizen
citizen of Denton, and that's unity. That is, to me, the perfect unity is, we're all citizens, and we're going to respect each other and we're going to work hard to do that. And this community has reflected that in its in me sitting in seat, I believe I'm biased that way, but I'm passionate about it, and so that's so my direction if we want to come back with a hybrid that allows us to move quickly on the reader boards that sort of thing.
I'm all forward to have that conversation. But other than that, I think we do need to have a policy discussion, an entire flag policy discussion. So that's option two. With the understanding of I like staff to backup that it takes it out of the hands of this body and puts it I forget the government official that made the decision but there was a there's a city official that gives it consistency, because there's an election at this by at this day as every year.
And so, it's not a, it's not a hot potato that we throw around as elected officials but it's something that the city can do consistently and regularly, and have staying power and I think that is important. And we owe that to our community as well to be predictable.
So that's that's where I fall on that so it's a version of option two. And, you know, we'll see what other direction we can get. I'll go to Councilmember bet.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have direction but first have a question. Can we, can we clarify something that Councilman McGuire brought up and I brought up at last meeting and that is the requirements for special meeting calling a special meeting not an emergency meeting, but a special meeting.
Is that that's three counselors 72 hours in advance, that it would have to be posted for at least 72 hours in advance so it wouldn't be from the time that it's called necessarily but however long it takes to get it posted yes it's three.
Okay, and and that would be initiated through the city manager's office, or through the mayor, the practice has always been that that would be in in this, for example in this session that that could be expressed in this session, there's not anything specific into 29 as the exact
process for how that is done.
Thank you for clarifying that I'm ready to sort of.
This is going to sound like weak sauce but I'm ready to give direction that I think a multimodal approach to this would be best, considering the deadlines for Juneteenth particularly.
And I encourage them, the mayor to expand his proclamation to include visual elements that would therefore be timely, allowing him to have a display presentation that would be put up in time as part of the proclamation in for Juneteenth.
And that, that I think would split the baby nicely in terms of the deadlines.
The same could be done with pride, although I would prefer that a council initiated action, take place, even if there is hardly any days in June left which would be unfortunate, I would still prefer that to to go forward for specifically the pride issue.
General I actually concur with with the mayor on on number two, I think, having some someone in the city manager's office, design a city manager based policy for a proclamation poll.
Hopefully actually maybe a proclamation poll at all our marquees we have marquees at MLK we have marquees at some of the libraries we have marquees at some of the other rec centers, I think it would be awesome to have a
a proclamation poll following the sort of Boston like process.
And maybe not necessarily limited to 24 hours because pride is 30 days.
Okay, just to clarify, even if it's by request, we would still a staff want those requests to come to city council for approval.
We would not be a staff administrative Lee approving requests, staff would would not want that.
No. Okay. Hot potato. So I just want to clarify sorry just I don't know if that was clear, it would be, we would handle the, just like any some other processes we have where we set out, we develop an application, the applicant
would have certain fields they need to fill in to provide to us by a certain date. If we get it by a certain date, we review it, does it meet the policy.
So it's not political in nature, it's not religious in nature, some basic factors. If it checks all that off, we do a pre screening and then we place it on a city council agenda, so it'd have to have enough time in advance, then we place it on
agenda to say it meets these basic policy parameters, and now it is up to city council to because that again makes it the most defensible option that is still
in the council and the council as a governing body, saying, yes, we approve. I take that can I can I clarify though that if council has approved the guidelines for some, whenever we get to make the policy it's on future meeting.
Council has approved the guidelines and said that this member of city staff is responsible for evaluating that, but if we've approved the guidelines, we do that for everything we council doesn't necessarily, we set setback rules for development, we don't necessarily, you know, explore every single setback issue that, you know, that comes before us.
So I appreciate that I just know that these are going to be very difficult staff doesn't want this.
And when I went on to highlight in Boston and I pointed it out is there actually a strong mayor form of government. So the, the person that's approving these is directly hired by the mayor.
This is a political appointee and almost some aspects so as a professional staff, we would do the process for you, we would review, we, we bring it back to you, but we do not want to be, I'm sorry, I don't mean to cut talk over you finish please.
So do you envision that this would be
something like a consent agenda item, item, see matches all our criteria consent agenda and yes flag is up. Would that be the sort of vague process, it would most likely be through a consent agenda process.
So, so I'm really in favor of this mixed multimodal, please Mr Mayor I encourage you to do a visual element to meet deadlines. I encourage us to do a policy initiated one for pride. This year in 2021 to get whatever time we can get and then going
back to where we have a Boston like policy for anyone, and I welcome the slippery slope I wanted I want everyone to put their flag of whatever nature on on because I think that would be a good thing not a bad thing.
And, sorry, this is unfortunately just, we just didn't have enough time to fully develop a policy discussion for today so I'm sorry if it's kind of unclear but also again, staff's recommendation the most defensible option is where it's council initiated where we own
and purchase the flag, instead of a group, bringing in their own flag to hang up so
on the on the ownership of the flag. I don't envision that being a problem. You can get a flag from many places.
And if the city needs to own it as part of our policy, then then I would give direction that if a group wants it and we don't own it and you have it and it meets our guidelines, then you can give it to us.
And those are details we could bring, if it is this council's desire back a little bit further in terms of staff's recommendations but that would probably be to again keep it the most defensible likely or a recommendation.
And so Councilmember Beck just for my, well, for my notes. I heard option two, but I missed the, and I'm taking your point into consideration the other thing got it, but I also need to make sure I heard your direction outside of option two.
Was there anything else the staff direction wise. Help me refine that update my notes. Thank you, Mr Mayor appreciate that the clarification is.
Yes, under number one under advisement please do a visual element for proclamations number two for 2021 pride, I, my direction is number one.
But going forward for any other such occurrence my direction is for number two.
After we've got sort of a policy in place.
That would be my direction. Got it. Okay.
Anyone at the dance. Council member.
Hello everyone it's good to be here.
I am giving direction for option two.
And I am also giving direction for option two.
With support for option three.
And I say that because I think that when we started mixing culturally sensitive events and in happenstance and, and all of those things, it just begins to muddy the water as to who we really are as a people.
We do believe in united we stand divided we fall.
And I think that when we start mixing these cultural events with what our job is is to take care of the city's policies and procedures.
And we are getting ready to set some kind of precedence in us being the one to pick and choose who we think is more moral or, or what we don't like and we go and put these policies together and, and here we are dictating to our community.
And we're just not dictators like that.
Again, I, you know, with Beck, Councilman Beck, I want everybody to have what they want to have.
And that's why I think that we should not allow ourselves to start dictating, you know, and I'll just use an example.
We do put the Christmas tree lights.
We put the Christmas lights out.
Some people have problems with religion, other people's religions is just not right for us to just start making those kind of dictations like that.
Juneteenth flag. There is not an official nationwide unified Juneteenth flag. There is a flag that someone made to think that it's a Juneteenth flag, but I don't think that there's going to be a whole unified understanding there's an official Juneteenth flag for all of the American people that know of Juneteenth.
So, I don't think that we can go on amazon.com and buy Juneteenth flag and have it delivered here by Friday.
So I think that that'll be out of the question and like the mayor said there's a group of people that are already handling that issue.
The pride flag. I really appreciate that and I will just personally say that if it had not been for some people on my team, I would not be sitting here right now today that have questioned me about that and they are in that arena.
And so most of the people on my team and I love them very much and I will personally tell them that this is not about you. It's about unity in the community.
I don't appreciate particularly that the Philly flag has in capture the African American black American experience because those are two different experiences and using the term marginalized.
I'm just going to get on my soapbox here for a second. I'm not really comfortable with continuing to call black and brown people marginalized people.
There's a lot of room for us to grow and we need to take the opportunity to do that and we need to stop holding people down by certain terminologies.
I do believe that. I don't want anybody taking control of my narrative as an African American person. You can't do that and I don't think that there's very many African American people that are allowing people to do that. That's why we have marches and that's why we are protesting and that's why we do what we do.
I don't want to be culturally divided. So with that being said, I am going to direct for option to but I do not think that it's going to be appropriate to take any action at this time. Let's go with what we know right now. Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone else. There's Councilmember Davis.
Honestly, I hesitate to follow Councilmember Byrd on that topic. I'm going to go lawyerly and then talk about policy because that's nice and safe for me to do.
I agree that in my personal preference, if it wasn't seven of us up here, if it was just me making the decision, I would opt for option three. I would say that government speech is not what we were sent up here to do. We were sent up here to balance the city budget, provide roads and police and fire, and that we have 147,000 people here who have the option and the ability and the privilege in this country to express themselves and their community's voice.
As loudly as they want to as in whatever forms they feel necessary.
I, I certainly don't mind and I appreciate driving down the street in Denton, Texas driving downtown and seeing pride displays on many, many businesses that is not the same thing as putting it out in front of City Hall.
However, if the will of the body, the representatives of the people is to get into this new space of government speech, we have to do so recognizing that the first choices are always the easy ones.
The first step on that slippery slope is always the easy one. It's always the one that has all the displays downtown of all our businesses that we'd like to go to and that we get lots of support from.
The next ones get harder and harder and harder. I think that Boston has probably done the best job from the policies that we've been provided and read of carving out a policy that best protects them from liability and the reason why I say it that way.
We have some legal opinions from our in-house counsel from our city attorney and then also from Lambda Legal and some others, but those are simply legal opinions. Boston's policy got all the way up to the Supreme Court.
It was litigated the whole way found to be perfectly fine, but they had to go that whole way to get the legal opinion that matters to tell them that policy was okay.
So I think we'd be on safest ground going forward with a policy in place that looks like number two, option number two.
I also respectfully, I understand staff's position on kicking the decision back to the to the council, I shouldn't put it that way, on giving the council the opportunity to make these decisions.
I think that takes us, respectfully that's the council's decision to make on how that policy goes forward.
I think that puts these, if we're going to be in this space of government speech, it further politicizes or gives the opportunity for politicization of those choices.
If we're going to have a free speech flagpole, a community flagpole, a mayor's proclamation flagpole, whatever, I say we give it to the community. You make it as, if it's going to exist, you make it as broad as legally permissible.
The guidelines can be as broad as decency can make it, no violence, no calling for violence, nothing racist, nothing that proselytizes or espouses religious, a particular religious view.
You make it as broad as you possibly can and you give it to the community.
If somebody wants to put a flag up for their Girl Scout troop, if they want to put a flag up for POW/MIA, if they want to put a flag up for anything, as long as it fits the broad criteria, I think that's basically what Boston has, even though they do have somebody checking a box and filing the form and saying that's okay.
If you give this counsel the opportunity to vote down or vote for one flag or the other, I think that puts us on more precarious legal ground and it embroils us.
I mean, here we are having a somewhat tense conversation about something because we're on this deadline to do our best to properly recognize certain people in our community.
And are we going to do this every single time a potentially contentious flag comes up or every single time that we get 100 emails on whichever the particular flag is that's applied to be flown that day?
My preference would be for option two, that is a purely administrative process, not to put that on the shoulders of one particular staff member, but to take it out of the hands of a political body and make it a purely neutral, content-neutral administrative process.
And I hope what you heard from me, too, was that that is a different flagpole than the one that is, in my view, it should be a different flagpole than the one that holds the American flag and the state flag and the city flag out in front of City Hall.
This serves a different purpose than our national and state flag.
It is a different kind of symbology, and I think it's important that those are treated differently. They are not the same. They are different.
And the last thing I'd say as well is, knowing that policies take some time to craft, even though I think this particular policy may not take as long to craft as others, it's not exactly a revision of the development code. We have some good crib notes from Boston to work on and from Long Beach and the others that we've seen. We have very bright people who work here in City Hall.
I would have a preference for, because this is the request that kicked it off, that got us talking about it, finding a way for this particular request to make it into the queue in whatever form that needs to take.
I'll note that although Pride is all of June, it's Pride Month, the Stonewall Anniversary is the 28th of June. That gives us a little bit of time, if that's a date that we're shooting for. We, of course, could shoot for the end of June, but we do have that noteworthy date already on the calendar.
I'd be open to some way that gets us there, gets this policy in place or some preliminary policy in place to allow something like that before we have to go four to six weeks out for a $2,000 flagpole, approvals for that, all that kind of stuff.
But I think that our best footing is to have a policy in place for as this comes up again.
Okay, that's everyone on the dais.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, you've not given direction.
Well, I sort of did at the beginning, just kind of a, you know, a lean to three, but with the expectation that, well, actually, just with a question, if you don't mind, for you Mayor, you don't have to answer it if you don't want to, but I'd be curious to know, based on the conversation and the input, would you be inclined to include any kind of visual element to your proclamations this month?
Whether it's marquee or whatever.
So, yes, I'd be open to understanding what those look like, right, so as I stated, the Rita board is an idea that I thought about is a good middle ground, you know, but the flag in and of itself, I think that is a weightier policy, and again, that gets us into legal issues that I don't think I can sign up taxpayers for, but yes, there's some varying degree of that, that I just have to work with staff and formulate.
But the answer is not, you know, I'm pretty transparent that way if I'm out on something, I mean, I'm open to the discussion, just, it's not fully baked, looking for, you know, kind of where we, I want to represent the body, right, and the citizens of Denton and try to merge those two best we can.
>> Let's, yeah, and I'd point out again the opportunity for the banners, you know, which could be done in a week, but, you know, again, I view that within the kind of proclamation authority, and seeing the kind of drift toward a version of two that is purely administrative, you know, I could be very happy about that.
I mean, just to be perfectly clear, if it came to it, and there were votes on flags and so on, I personally would, you know, vote with two hands up for five flags, and I would feel very hard to see it, and I know many people would, but I'm very conscious of A, slippery slope, but B, the fact that this council has a hard time getting to even the things we have to do.
And then there's the priorities that we've committed to that we, that are very important, you know, on affordable housing and homelessness and comprehensive plan, you know, real important policy matters, we don't have a whole lot of success in getting to those.
So adding a whole raft of highly controversial things that are going to, you know, create hundreds of emails I mean it's I wish, you know, I wish we got as much citizen engagement on on other policy matters but that that's that's mostly what I'm interested in protecting
I think there are ways to do ceremonial recognitions and, you know, I absolutely want people of Denton and LGBTQIA plus people and African American people to feel absolutely equal before our government, absolutely included.
And I would say to my religious constituents, we're all there, we're all equally loved by God, I know, sorry to interject the religious moment, but that's my personal expression.
So anyway, that's all by way of saying, if two can keep council focused on our business. That's fine with me and I hope that we provide some way for people to express themselves if they don't feel they have enough now.
Okay.
Councilor amateur.
Okay, thank you for calling on me.
I concur with Councilor McGuire that option one is the way to go that's the direction I give you.
I have the idea of having a special called meeting.
You know, this is a request that the request for the Juneteenth flag which I'll mention first.
It was requested by Don Cox who wrote the local book on Juneteenth. He requested it up the county last year and was denied. This is the same county that had a Confederate monument that only moved it because they were worried it was going to get damaged in the Black Lives Matter protest.
And a member of city staff.
City staff had had requested Juneteenth flag last year. I only found this out recently and was denied without that even having come to council. I don't know quite how that happened but I was really saddened to hear that.
So, you know, when the city flies a flag, it's about what the city's values are. You know, we as a council, we do get to decide what our values are. That's why we have things like council retreats.
And I really appreciate what staff said. Staff's position that number one is the most ostensible option. I agree. I don't support a flag policy but I mean if there is going to be one, I think it should be as minimal as possible.
There's no reason for it if you read closely that ACLU Texas letter and the legal letter and by the way they're not responding to the mayor's comment of the radical fringe group.
That's, that's debatable. You know, these are two legal advocacy groups that get a lot of respect and they also win when they themselves engage in litigation from that defense or prosecution.
So, and of course they have every right to exercise their own free speech to let members of Denton City Council and the public know how they feel on on any issue.
So I was, you know, really shocked by the mayor's response to their letter.
Anyway, I will say that I feel sickened.
Right now I feel very nauseous. It's mostly because of my beloved father's driving here he is he's driven like this since I was a kid.
And, but it is. Well I said mostly I would say about 50% the other 50% is because of all this drama, all this time, all this obstruction, because of black that represent inclusion not divisiveness.
I feel pretty sickened on behalf of my constituents, who are black LGBT identified people who are hearing, you know, these alleged, you know, two communities spoken of as if they're completely different communities for a lot of people they might be.
I happen to be a member of the queer community as a pansexual person I'm also a member of the Jewish community as a Jewish person.
And I do not see these two groups as in conflict with each other because they represent who I am. So there's a lot of intersectionality in in the city of Denton.
And when we see, you know, two different flags say you know apply for veterans and apply for autism, for instance, autism awareness as representing two totally different groups.
So we know we're not acknowledging that there are veterans who have autism, you know, there are black LGBTQ plus constituents, you know, one of whom wrote it really deeply moving letter to counsel.
I've been really hurt by this discussion and this obstructionism, you know, including myself. Like I said I feel I feel sickened but I hope that we can get this.
To come forward for, you know, Juneteenth the Juneteenth flag that was this is just the city way the city government saying, you know, we celebrate Juneteenth it's not trying to take anything away from the Juneteenth committee.
And I agree that you know these it's important that these these city city owned flag. I had initially asked about the dimensions of the flag, because I thought, you know, I was concerned that we wouldn't get these flags in time.
And so I thought, well, well I could go by him or see if, you know, local activist groups, you know, would be interested in in in purchasing them, you know, maybe reach out to, you know, to see if others might be interested in purchasing them.
And staff said and I think that was right. No, it's really important that the city purchase these flags.
So anyway, I will end my comment with that. Oh, and I will say finally I do.
You know, it's maybe the one thing I agree with on this discussion with with Councilmember Davis, that the Stonewall Rebellion is, you know, significant time. And in fact it is, it, it marks the, it is the reason why Pride Month is in June.
So I think, you know, if we could get a Philly Pride flag up for the Stonewall Rebellion which, and I might be wrong but I thought it was the June 27 through the through July 3, because it lasted over a number of days.
And it would be nothing, by the way, if it weren't for black trans people who fought for their rights.
And stood up to, to really make, make such a change that the queer community today especially queer people of color are in debt to. So I do like the idea of having a Pride flag to coincide with Stonewall Rebellion from, I believe it's the 27th, maybe it is the 28th through the July 3.
And if you can get it, a Juneteenth flag for Juneteenth, this way that there's not that overlap in flags that some people, you know,
don't like the idea of having an overlap. I'm saddened by that. I think the overlap is beautiful. I think it is unifying, actually.
But anyway, that's all I have to say. My connectivity isn't very good, but I hope I've made my direction clear.
Okay, thank you. And so for staff, I think, I forgot, I'm looking at the screen. There you are. So I think what I have is, and I adopt again to Mayor Pro Tem's question, an opportunity for us to visit as a staff and talk and come up with a game plan to kind of bridge that gap.
But what I have, and I've tried to keep as best notes as I can, and someone will jump up and correct me as they did last week, if I'm wrong, but I see the majority of support around option two, which is myself, Council Member Byrd, Council Member Davis, and Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer with the caveats included.
And then I show option one, there were three, there were Council Member McGuire, Council Member Beck, Council Member Armitter, and so I find the direction around option two to move that forward with some sort of proclamation pole element and a formal policy.
But yeah, and then I think it's just an offline conversation to bring back something that says, here's what we can get comfortable with the version of, and obviously I think that would have a digital element. And for those watching along, and I see you, and for those watching along, I'd note that the Juneteenth Committee, again, that's kind of doing this, that we should consult.
And again, I'd urge people to, I just want to put it out there, if you're speaking for them, then just do so knowing you've spoken with them.
If you speak for them, and not this body, but just generally, you probably want to check in and just make sure you're synchronizing with who you spoke with and make sure that's good.
Just because my understanding is they already have a plan to go forward with a flag on their own. There are already proclamation plans in place for that group as well, and so that's my understanding.
But, so there's some digital element that we could discuss and work up and make sure everyone's comfortable with and move that forward. And that's my, now you had a, I want to address your question. Yeah, I just want to repeat it back to make sure that I'm clear because it's a little unclear.
We'll work together in terms of the marquee or other ways in which you want to recognize your proclamations, and then secondly, their majority is interested in an option two version that might have a resemblance of a community flagpole, separate of the governmental flagpoles.
That's what I heard. I tried to, you know, correct track if there's, if, if I'm if.
Okay.
Councilman Burton.
I did not say any. I don't think I said anything in regards to an additional flagpole.
I just believe that we just need to have one flagpole.
And I believe that, you know, again, separating the cultural stuff from the business of the city.
Separating your cultural, your, your life, but the business of the city needs to remain the business of the city. Thank you.
Great. Thank you for that clarification. Appreciate that. And I think I'll acknowledge and I think Councilmember Beck also mentioned the proclamation pole so I think we have redundancy there but counselor back.
Yes, I had redundancy everywhere. Sorry about that.
Because I essentially voted for a fraction of each one of the options.
Voted we don't vote, we give direction. Sorry.
The, the, and, and I take you're correct that my, the bulk of my opinion would have been on number one for this particular flag. That's what I specified but the clarification I wanted to ask was
two factors, both counselor Davis and I asked for expeditious activity, because we're running out of time for the various events that were called for in the initial order and the initial ask.
That's too, but I, I thought I heard sort of general agreement with the idea of being expeditious.
And so I'd appreciate if the American clarify that. And, I mean, by default a council initiative orientation is expeditious we're voting on it now and there were three of those so depends on how you want to count my partials.
I'm indicating I would like expeditious.
And then the, on top of that I actually agree with counselor, Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer and counselor Davis that I, I, I, we did a little back and forth. I would prefer it to be just a set of guidelines and very broad.
I, I want to ski the slippery slope. I, I like it.
And I think because it promotes a broad and diverse range of expression and opinion. I think that's great. So, I know I agree with counselor Davis I'm sorry that this would put it on the head of some office member of staff but I think I agree with the other two counselors that, that I think we should just have a policy that we follow so that it doesn't have to be on the agenda.
You meet the guidelines, you don't meet the guidelines, bam.
Okay, so thank you for, so the request about speed. That is something we need to take up but so I think we have consensus around option to write, so we'll take it by sides pieces.
Because I take Councilmember Byrd's note about the proclamation poll I adopt Councilmember Beck's note, and we still get to four around a proclamation poll policy, whether that's administrative or comes back to this body I think we can have that conversation I don't know that
we need to solve for that today.
Just in that sense of moving forward.
I think I was the only person that voiced a hesitancy for speed with this issue, based on the other nine issues where we've had the same conversation that lay dormant.
And I'll take a moment to to opine there.
We have, for the, with the exception of the new members, we have been here. So I got here in December, back, I left and came back so I was back in December.
So at any point after December, this issue could have came before us. So I don't feel the need to and I don't feel compelled to leapfrog it in front of other things that went through the normal course.
It's not an urgency, a winter storm that we can't plan on is an is an emergency. Things that are not predictable are an emergency.
The calendar, the 12 month calendar is a known commodity, and just, we would chalk it up to hey we did not submit the request in time is what that would be right.
I know that I have a request for a project that's coming up and it automatically renews in January so I knew I had to get it in when I did.
So the calendar is a known commodity to me it's not an emergency. I, I've not heard anyone else adopt that theory. And, and so begrudgingly, if this body wants to move past things that are established and direction we've given I look forward to having that conversation, how are we going to do that going forward.
Because I think this is the perfect opportunity to have that conversation now versus allow some people to file things timely to get leapfrog but I don't get to make those unilateral decisions.
So, is there anyone else that would have an issue with the other nine items from the and staff time and I think that I just, I guess the city manager have to come back to us with what that affects right so then that that may be another conversation to say, if we move forward
and realize this, then this city business gets put to the side, you know, so I don't know what the effects of this decision are we're making it in a vacuum. We don't do the city's business staff does. And so we're flying blind here.
So you may have to come back upon reflection and give us some some insight as to what what the cause and effect for that but before we do that, just direction on is there anyone else that is so I'll stand alone against expediting with the understanding that we'll do something digitally will meet the need but outside of that I need to hear from people that want to that do not want to leapfrog the other one minute pitches that are ready to go.
Mayor to clarify, the only way to do this exponentially would be that option one, we would just need time to create a policy, and then be able to take requests, and have the body approve it to create this whole policy and less than a week and have it have confidence in it moving forward
you get a lot of scrutiny and a lot of details I just don't feel confident that we would be able to do that in a week or less. Okay, but there is the option if Council does want to do to do it on one time by resolution.
While we work to try to develop more of a policy bring you more research have a more developed conversation if you want to look more at option to and potentially whether it be on the same flagpole or be a separate community flagpole we can bring back some more options, but we just need time to do that.
And so the frame that if I hear you right though that would be we only have one flagpole currently and you're saying to get will be a proclamation to activate that for that for the pride flag flagpole resolution by resolution is the only way that that that speed is accomplished.
Otherwise, then you're happy to do. Okay, got it. So let's narrow the conversation to that, and I'll start with, I wouldn't support that I just cannot, I mean because, again, we have a, we have a, I think it's six years, 10 cents, we've removed from the tax rate.
And that would go the other direction in a hurry, because the lawsuits we have $1 million in the lawsuit now plus 5 million we're on where I have a judgment against us a 5 million plus we have 100 million that we owe in the right utilities, and the vandalism is a very real concern
if you think about it, the statue on the county courthouse was vandalized in the middle of our downtown square. We have a giant green tree, hiding this flagpole, and the vandalism is a very significant significant concern for me.
And then just the cost. Again, I'm, you know, and it's just, to me, we're citizens of Denton and that's that's where we get united. And so that I can't support the expeditious version of that, but I want to narrow the conversation to that we'll get to the other
conversations I just need to narrow down direction staff and then we can kind of clear that up so I'll council member.
Yes, sir. Certainly, Councilor mayor for Tim Meltzer.
Yeah, a couple points.
Doesn't sound like you'd be so inclined but the other one that's quick is, you know, whatever is sort of part of the mayoral proclamation, you know display approach, which doesn't require action of counsel.
Secondly, just, you know, I'll remind you I'm not come down to do it myself. I can probably find the tools if you know if we don't have one hand, it's an auger is PVC, you put a flag up.
If you know if there's a desire to do that, as far as the other nine items.
Time sensitivity, you know, I take your point, you know mayor that there was lots of time to have brought it up before but you know it's a reality that we're looking at dates.
So there is a time sensitivity element to it, whether you find it compelling or not, you know, another matter but there is a time sensitivity element, and what I and I think the way to make a proper decision about that is to look at the other nine items and see which
have time sensitivity elements and which is most which are most pressing and, you know, we can make an intelligent decision about that if we take time to look at it I don't know if there's a way for the agenda committee to take that up but, you know, I think we're capable
of, of sort of rank ordering the urgency of the items that are before us.
Okay.
Anyone else want to speak on the speed of things.
customer back.
Thank you, Mr Mayor.
I think you can tell from my support of the council initiative that I am in support of an expeditious manner.
I won't reiterate that discussion.
recommendation and support a visual element, along with your proclamation today.
The other, the other way to be expeditious is something that Councilor McGuire and I have mentioned and that is a special called meeting. I think you sense that there's at least two and if we only require three, I bet you we could get a third vote to have a specially
called meeting that would then allow for any sort of insertion of leapfrogging as necessary with a single agenda item or a minimal number of agenda items.
So I throw that into the mix in order to promote expedited action.
Yeah, no, and I'll speak to that straight away. There's there's no way I mean if you and three others want to subject this staff to having to hustle and do that again.
There's 1500 staff members, half of them live here, half of them are married. That's about that same number about and plus that family so let's round it up. There's 2000 people that you're affecting in some kind of way and not acknowledging their schedules and how hectic we've made it already.
And the number of emails we've generated already causing consternation. And if you if I want to have a clear record of who on this body thinks that's a good idea.
Understanding we've had since December, not you specifically this body has had since no December to move this forward timely, and we missed that opportunity for whatever reason.
And all of a sudden that makes it an emergency and and forces the inconvenience of staff. There's no way I support that and I want to have a clear record of who does so that they can be held accountable in the way which citizens can and by this by this community.
So, I welcome that conversation, not because I think it's great. I think it's sad for for us to subject staff to that I think they've done everything they can to accommodate us and move as quickly as possible.
And for us to ignore their hard work and their tireless hours. In my opinion, not yours to then force them to come back mid week then force them to prepare for another Tuesday meeting, because we didn't file something timely is egregious.
So there's, I just want to be absolutely clear. Absolutely not. If you and three others want to jump out there and do that and see what happens. By all means that's your right I caution against it.
So, speed. There's two that have spoken, I can't tell you that I could articulate what mayor pro tem Melzer landed on, and, and Councilmember Beck said, yes.
And so if there's others that want to speak to expediting, I'd need to hear from you.
Seeing none. So our option to is it. And so bring forward a policy I'll talk to staff about a digital component that we will accent the proclamation or something we'll we'll do something unique for the city of Denton.
And I think it'll be fantastic. And it's the best we can do short notice and and meet people where they are so support where we can. And I appreciate all my colleagues comment input and moving theaters.
Your staff, and your dedication, and sorry about the emails it's going to generate but we'll, we'll onward upward. So, thank you very much. Thank you conclude that that'll take us to item B, which is ID 2143452 pardon me, receive report hold discussion
and give staff direction regarding FY 2021 22 departmental budget presentations for finance economic development live library and procurement compliance warehouse.
Oh, Councilmember bar question that regards on all of these presentations. Yes, staff, explain a little bit more about what inter funds transfers are.
And why that's a, you know, part of the budget for for most of our departments, got it.
I'm sure David gains assistant city manager. Yes, you'll see inner fund transfers and all of the budgets, especially as we look at the fund level for the utility funds.
So the, the inner fund transfers we have a number of funds in the city if we step back a little bit from the general fund to our utilities funds to our internal service funds and take for example our general fund we have HR and city manager's office and finance
and functions such as that, that we, those costs shouldn't be born entirely by the general funds we take those costs, allocate them appropriately to the utility funds and other funds based on their usage so we go through a cost allocation study to determine
how much of those costs are attributable to each of the other funds so that's what you see when you see the inner fund transfers.
Thank you so much from.
Thank you, David, don't go far.
Good afternoon mayor council members. I'm Heather gray budget manager. So we're continuing with the department presentations for you. We do have one minor schedule change finance will be presenting next week, instead of today.
Today we have economic development library and procurement. And so I'll go ahead and turn it over to Jessica Rogers for economic development. Thank you.
Good afternoon mayor and council members.
Good afternoon.
Sorry, forgive me.
It's been a while since we've been in here.
It's the full presentation folder.
There we go. We were hitting, sorry.
I want to introduce you to our team so we have five staff members and directly in the economic development department to analysts, our business development administrator and then a specialist.
We also have three critical team members that are part of our partnership agreements, those being Corey Lacey, who works for the Chamber of Commerce through the economic development partnership.
Who's the executive director of Denton Main Street Association and Heather Gregory, who's the executive director of Stoke Denton and all three of those team members also participate in sort of our department meetings and keeping up to date with what's going on in the economic development world.
So we'll move into our overview. So looking back at our accomplishments over this past year.
We really had a busy year in economic development. We had a lot to learn as we were going through COVID recovery, learning about grant programs, making sure we were sharing those resources with our businesses, helping them get access to training and resources through our partners.
But we've done some creative things this year. We adopted our new strategic plan. We formed the Denton Business Allies program. We were able to adopt a new business retention and expansion policy and really started taking a look internally and doing a lot of updates and procedural and policy updates that were needed to bring some of our things up to date, modernize and in compliance with the strategic plan.
One of the most outstanding things that my team did this year is we were named the economic development partner of the year by Workforce Solutions of North Central Texas. So that's our 14 county workforce development area.
And that really goes to show to the hard work that we've been doing in the area of keeping people employed, getting people employed and making sure that they have the skills and resources necessary to get jobs when they need them.
So looking forward to 2021-22, we have a lot to do over the next year as it relates to the strategic plan. So we'll be finishing up sort of those year one implementation tasks and moving forward with discussions related to the Catalyst Fund and policies and programs that we've already sort of started with council.
We're also looking to create a minority and women business enterprise and entrepreneurship support plans. Those are two areas in terms of inclusivity that were pointed out in our strategic plan that were important to the Denton business community.
And so that's two areas that we're focusing on. We're also launching a business boot camp training program, which will be helping our small businesses get from idea to sort of operations.
We're also working with a number of partners on that program as well.
In terms of metrics, I will say this is a very high level summary of the metrics you do receive quarterly reports that give you all sorts of information and data points related to economic development operations.
And economic development, but just sort of to put things in perspective. Not only have we had to learn how to help our businesses respond to the COVID-19 pandemic over this past year, it's also been one of our busiest years on record in terms of our traditional economic development operation.
So if you'll see here, our RFI is received. So this column under year to date is how many we've received and how many we've responded to. So we've responded to 41 of the 79 we've received year to date. Prior year to date, we had received 25 and responded to seven.
So we spent a lot of time answering questions to people who are interested in coming to Denton.
And some other things, we also keep track of business assistance calls. So we have our own little customer service type of operation among our team where we take calls related to businesses, they might have questions about a zoning process, they might have questions about property, they may have questions about their utility bill.
And our staff serves as the concierge for those business related questions and helping them navigate the city processes. A lot of our small businesses, the first time they interact with the city of Denton is through our office.
So we really make sure that someone is there with them to help them navigate a really complicated city structure.
So our budget highlights. So this is our baseline departmental budget. This is the first year that will be fully contained within one business unit. So that's what you're seeing here on this slide is really some changes that we've made in terms of bringing Stoke internal to our departmental budget because we're shifting from it being a separate business unit to being a contracted performance agreement.
You'll also see in here that we have our incentives are budgeted out of our budget, which usually leads to that little asterisk there on the end, which says that our budget does look like it goes up a lot, but really those are related to the incentive agreements.
And I'll kind of break those down on the next slide, but we're not asking for any supplementals or baseline adjustments to our budget this year. We're a pretty lean and mean operation and COVID really didn't up in our operations that much in terms of how we operate our department.
So this slide breaks down those forecasted incentive payments for you. So they're broken down into categories and the two that get paid out of the general fund or property tax incentive payments. And so what you see here is our projected revenues or our actual revenues from those specific agreements.
The projected or actual payments that we expect to make for those agreements and then the net revenue from those agreements. So those payments are actually what gets budgeted on the budget side. You'll see a comprehensive look at this in our net revenue report, but this is just a summary.
The sales tax side, the sales tax revenues, those get incorporated onto the general fund revenue side, the sales tax payments. Those are made directly out of our budget. So that's what you see in that expenditure side. And then the sales tax net revenue amount is what we keep track of in our net revenue report.
And then the last column that you see is the investment fund. So that is not part of our economic development budget, not part of this HBU. It's a separate fund, but we thought it would be important to show as council has made some approvals of incentive agreements out of that fund.
We do track that as well. Right now we have a budget of about $330,000 expected to come out of that fund for some job-based grants. And this is just to show that STOKE HBU, it's going away. It's going to be zeroed out next year and it's moved over to our department operational budget.
And then like I said, we're not forecasting any changes in personnel. We have 4.75 individuals and we work very hard. We work like a team of 20, I promise you that. But that's all I have and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Okay, thank you very much. Questions for staff?
Councilmember Bet?
Thank you, Mayor. Jessica, this is just my ignorance because I'm sure that you have a whole cadre of response ends to this, but we have such a strength, probably our primary strength in this community is our colleges.
I mean, you know, that's why the community, it was started as a farm community, but it quickly became a college town, right? A hundred plus years ago. So to what extent does your office interact with the Office of Tech Transfer and not at the various universities?
And I mean, are we really mining those resources? Because that, if you're talking about the sort of incubator kind of approach, it's those, I mean, we're making seeds there for your incubator to grow.
So I'm just curious if you could enlighten me to what extent do you interact with universities? And I'd be really interested in seeing you leverage that even more.
Absolutely. So those partnerships are incredibly important. Both universities have a seat on the Economic Development Partnership Board. UNT's seat is right now held by Mark McClellan, who is the vice president of, I'm going to get his title wrong, so I apologize, I don't have it in front of me, but he is in sort of the Discovery Park sort of monetization and optimization area of getting sort of tech into and ideas into kind of a business.
And with TWU, we have the vice president of finance and administration who serves on our board, but we're also engaged with the Center for Women Entrepreneurs, and we work with them, I would say, weekly if not daily.
We also are involved with UNT's Center for Innovation, I believe is what it's called, the Murphy Center, and so we're also involved with them as well through a number of partnerships.
We talk to them as often as we need to, so if a business comes to us and says, "I need a particular skill set or training," we're talking to the universities. If a business who has come out of the universities is coming to us and they're looking to either do R&D or they're looking to expand, we're talking with them, we're helping them find locations, we're helping them workflow that workforce piece and connecting them to all of the other components of sort of the
economic ecosystem. So it's not formalized in any way other than the seats on the board, but we do work with them. I would say at least one member of our team probably talks to them daily.
Okay. And would it help? I mean, I don't want to get a cart in front of the horse. Would it help to have a more formal relationship? Would we see more entrepreneurial activities, do you think, in your estimation? Or would that just simply be extra bureaucracy?
Right now we're very flexible, so we can kind of do our work based on what's needed. We don't have set outcomes that we're trying to hit or set metrics that we're trying to hit through our relationships. We're really taking advantage of the opportunities as they come. And so I don't know that I could say one way or another.
And a half question that's very related, exactly the same scope, exactly the same framework to the previous question, and that is our art music industry is probably our second big current claim to fame that distinguishes us from everywhere else.
And I'm assuming the same sorts of answers apply for those folks trying to lure people out of Nashville, Austin, LA.
Yeah, so our department actually maintains a lot of things, I don't know what else to call them, related to art and film and music.
Through our agreement with the Main Treat Association, we also are physically located right next to the Convention and Visitor Bureau team, and we work with them on a regular basis in terms of promoting events.
And we also, prior to this past year, we're the department that managed the original Denton District, the city's cultural district that's been transitioned over to parks, sort of as we've been moving our very small team into focusing on our strategic plan implementation, we kind of have a capacity limitation there.
But we do a lot of work as it relates to arts, music and culture and how that ties into tourism and how tourism ties into economic development.
All right, thank you. Appreciate it.
Thank you. And.
Okay, Councilman McGuire.
Thank you, Mayor.
I question regarding the the incentive budget. I kind of see that ticking up a little bit each year.
Is there anything in the economic development plan that stipulates how much money we have set aside for those incentives? No, ma'am, our incentives that you see budgeted out of the general funder performance based.
So if the expenditure is going up, it's going up because it's a corresponding to an increase in our revenue.
Thank you. Um, uh, follow up question. Can I can I request that in future work sessions or meetings when you bring before us.
Chapter three eighty agreements or other economic incentive proposals, could we get like a fiscal year to date how much the city has already approved in incentives so that we can kind of stay on track as far as not ballooning that that number to large.
If that makes sense. Yes, we can provide that information. Thank you so much.
Okay, we'll get back to the screen. See if there's any other questions.
Councilman Burke.
Just curious about Stokes and was that a nonprofit initially or how do we how did this relationship start? And if we're in first, how did this relationship start a history on it? And the budget for it again, it's I think we saw it, but it kind of came through a little quickly.
Um, and the responsibility is this where all the training for the MWBE, the empowerment, the boot camps and all of that. How is all where's all of that going to be taking place?
Sure. So Stoke has a has a long history so that the original contract was approved in 2015 with the Dallas Entrepreneur Center.
The company that runs Stoke today, Hickory and Rail Ventures was, we did an active RFQ after we terminated the contract with the Dallas Entrepreneur Center in 2017 and we then contracted with Hickory and Rail Ventures who's owned by a local entrepreneur and tech guru.
And so they have managed that operation through today. It's still managed by Hickory and Rail Ventures. We brought forward to the city council gosh it was in 2020 probably October of 2020 a discussion of that contract the management agreement was coming to an end.
And so what was council's direction at the time was to transition Stoke to a fully for profit private enterprise with Hickory and Rail Ventures so that the city wasn't in ownership of the brand, we are not no longer will be the leaseholder.
Instead, given the programming and alignment of goals that we have, we have entered into a partnership agreement with Stoke in which they have committed to do a certain amount of programming certain events and really participate as members of our department.
They're required to report on activities related to our strategic plan outreach that they're doing marketing that they're doing. And that's what you're seeing that contract shift so this it's no longer a city program run by Hickory and Rail Ventures, it's a Hickory and Rail Ventures operating Stoke
Denton who's now contracted to perform activities on behalf of the city. And then I don't think that I answered all of the questions that MWBE and business boot camp so we're working on those in coordination with Stoke the Center for Women
Entrepreneurs, the Small Business Development Center, the chamber, the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce, a whole host of people that are coming together we're actually hosting our first minority business roundtable to really get perspective from minority business owners and say, tell us what you need, we're not here to dictate to you, what challenges or obstacles did you face in starting a business and running a business in Denton, so that we can incorporate that into our programming.
And that just comes back to the idea of all of that kind of centering around Stoke or, I mean, the physical location will all that take place there or, or is it going to be.
I don't know what really doesn't matter but you know you mentioned that center, and I've been there before and it just seems like it's an area where people are gathering to have events, you know that that sort.
Yes ma'am, it may occur in conjunction with Stoke they have a great space over there they're making updates to it right now. I'd also say we have a great new space at the Development Services Center where our team is now located, and we have the ability to host trainings there and invite
businesses to come in and so we'd love to utilize that space as well.
I think to just to make sure that Councilmember Byrd is gets that last portion, I mean, I think, do you do you have some details on the renovation because that open space they have is being renovated for more permanent offices due to the growth there.
I don't know if you could speak to that you probably know it better than me but I, so that everyone watching kind of understands that space is, is different, and I'd like your idea about the space there in the, in the Development Services building.
One they have great snacks and they have the good ice, the smaller ice is easier to choose. We do have the best, we have the best ice in the building. Craft ice is the lowest level of ice I don't know why that's so popular, it's coming in refrigerators now.
The small crunchy ice sonic ice that's the good ice. Sorry, go ahead. I don't have details about the construction there, they're adding offices and that sort of thing at Stoke right now.
Heather is actually on vacation or I was going to go over there this week so I will get you an update and send it out in the Friday report if that's excellent.
That'd be great. I think that'd be great to share with you. Yeah, thank you. Great question Councilmember.
Other questions.
Mayor Pro Tem Melter.
Yeah, thank you.
You know, when Councilmember McGuire asked about the sort of rising incentive number. It sort of struck me that way to what you said in response makes perfect sense as a result of, of incentives that council approved in the anticipation of 23456 times, whatever
it is in revenue coming in. So my suggestion would be, you know, that when we see that sort of line item again, would be to pair it with the revenues, you know, almost like a mini, a mini PNL.
But to owners, because I, you know, because otherwise it leads to a reaction like, oh, we better make sure that number is not getting too big but if it's generating incremental revenues that are a multiple of that, well, you know, you'd want it to get big as big as, as big as you can get it.
And I would also add to your accomplishments, slide.
The fact that gives me confidence in the budget that we're evaluating, which is that you've got a council that now and previously had members, including me.
Members are pretty skeptical about anything you might call corporate welfare, but the fact that, you know, you've had unanimous votes on for incentives.
You know, the, this, this council, and the prior one on growing high tech startups so they'll expand here, an organic food distribution with a headquarter relocation and energy services including renewables with good jobs have good wages up and down the scale.
And I think that really just gives me confidence that you're very in tune with, you know, sort of values and priorities of the council so I'm confident in the budget presented.
Thank you.
Okay, any other questions for staff.
See none I think the takeaways I have Jessica just to make sure on the same page, the revenue and spending line items associated with the incentives, and then the Stoke map kind of plans coming back, and that's what that's what jumped out at me.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Yes, be awesome.
That's fantastic. Thank you.
It is relevant to my presentation.
You did a great job at Kwanzaa the morning. Oh, thank you. Yes.
All right.
Thank you so much. My name is Jennifer Becker I'm the director of libraries with the Dunton Public Library, and I'm here to talk about our budget presentation in our services.
Our management team is up here. You want to raise your hand.
We have Kimberly Wells is the.
Thank you.
Thanks, Steve.
Our management team includes Kimberly Wells the Emily Fowler central library manager, Jess Turner who's unable to be here today he's the manager of North Branch Stacey size more is our South Branch Manager and Jennifer Reeves is our technical services manager.
This is a picture of our organizational chart. We have four different units.
Those include the three three branches and then admin which technical services falls under admin, just a little bit of overview of what technical services is because usually people can figure out what we do at the branches but that one is our back of the house operations so collection
development selecting materials acquisitions cataloging processing and interlibrary loan. So, you may not see them very often but they are keeping our library running.
These are our accomplishments over this fiscal year, and I wanted to point out three in particular.
First is our forge maker space which I handed out key chains, which is something that we are offering next week with our virtual ribbon cutting with that we invite the whole community to that will be at 10am if you can't come in person you can watch us on Facebook live.
So we've expanded the maker space at North Branch, and we're offering some really dynamic programming and educational activities there.
Another of our favorite accomplishments this year has been our 1000 books before kindergarten program.
This was a program from Rebecca Ivy who you see in the picture surrounded by some of the puppet prizes there, and that kicked off April 1, it is for early literacy so babies through preschool.
The goal is to get them to read 1000 books before they hit kindergarten and they get prizes every 250 books that they read.
Our other huge accomplishment that we did this year. Since we were affected through coven, we turned to doing a lot of projects that we had in our minds, and the entire Emily Fowler central library has been rearranged.
And when I say rearranged, I mean rearranged every single book in that building was moved by library staff facilities assisted us with moving the steel shelving which is extremely heavy.
And then we also outsourced it a little bit of that shelving move, but staff moved every single print material in that building, and the workflow is much better now it's much more attractive, and it just makes a lot more sense for families as they're coming into the facility so if you haven't been in and the last year we are open, and I encourage everyone to pop by and see the new layout.
Our goals for the next fiscal year are listed here, and the last two I specifically wanted to point out, which includes us creating a conference room and study rooms downstairs.
This was where our special collections department was located, but it's now where we have our computer lab area, and there will be a service desk there also. But along that back wall, that red wall, we're hoping to build a conference room and some study rooms and partner with local social service agencies to provide services to community members.
We already have some strong partnerships with groups like North Texas area food bank, and they come out regularly to assist our patrons with signing up for snap registration or other services, and we're hoping to expand that and offer those services in those rooms.
This is an overview of our budget.
Over the last few years, it's been relatively steady, aside from COVID.
One of the hits we did take was during COVID we did have three positions, a total of two FTEs that were vacant and frozen, and then this fiscal year, we cut those positions because we knew that our services would continue to be affected throughout this year.
However, for us to return to our full level of services and hours, we are asking to get those positions reinstated.
So we were at 49 FTEs in 1920, and we are currently at 47. And I also do want to point out the library department has not had any new FTEs in over a decade.
We continue to provide more and more services for the community, and more and more engagement with fewer and fewer staff. So we very much do need those positions reinstated.
And here it is again.
And the two positions we're asking for are at South Branch, we need a teen librarian in that position once vacated, a part-time library assistant too at the Emily Fowler Central Library covering the circulation duties, and then a part-time library assistant too to assist in technical services with processing of materials and interlibrary loan.
Any questions?
Great. Okay, so we'll pull down the presentation there, just in case. Thank you.
Councilmember Davis.
I'm afraid this is the question, as a question, but how do you do it. I mean, y'all, y'all's department, I can't give you high enough praise on the heels of this situation we've just come out of.
You are very good at being a traditional library, even in the midst of a pandemic, and you're very good at being whatever it is a library needs to be right now, which is much more than a traditional library.
So I've got nothing but kudos for y'all. And if I have to put that in the form of a question, it's how in the world do you do it.
I will say thank you and the answer I will give is we have amazing staff members. I believe firmly that working in a library is a calling. You have to have a helper philosophy, and that's why we're here.
Great.
Councilmember Beck.
I'll do similarly, although I do have a real question, and my first question is, well, I'll just state it. You basically created a monster with some of your tech transfer and programs there in the North Branch Library.
It's kind of taken over my personal world, and for those looking at the keychain, the fact that my campaign logo looks a lot like this keychain is purely coincidental.
It is the new logo for the ForgeMaker space. It was created by our communications department. It is different and unique to that location.
But the Forge and these things are amazing. And my question comes in to that issue of FTE. As you expand these 21st century opportunities, as you're having more Python training or more Forge training, as you're adding different materials, do you feel like you have sufficient staff to onboard those new technologies?
I know, at the same time, it's not taking away from traditional library services.
So, if we can get back to our 42 FTEs, we'll be fine for Stasis for a while, but we are looking forward with growth. One of the things that we've identified for the future is we will need at least a part-time person dedicated to that maker space.
And then as we look towards expanding the South Branch Library, where there's a huge need for expansion there that is undersized, we will need additional staff to work at that location also to serve the community with those additional services and things that we'd be able to add at that point.
So, our goal right now is to get back to our 49 FTEs, but yes, you'll see us back in the future. Okay, that was sort of my concern was, you know, I don't want to overburden the taxpayer, and I completely concur with Councilor Davis that you're doing amazing and your efficiencies of scales are amazing, but, I mean, you are serving a large number of projects.
And so, okay, I'm just concerned that you don't have enough FTE if you're only asking for two.
We try to take as much advantage as possible with automation technology. So, for example, one of our big things that's coming later this summer is our self-check technology is being upgraded and replaced, so that's helping.
We're also switching this year, we're in the middle of a switch to a one-desk service model where staff is cross-trained, so it helps with coverage a little bit better. So, we're always looking internally on what we can do, but there does come a point where the automation gets stuff done, but we have so much growth that we do need staff.
So, yes, you will see us in the future. Okay, thank you. Okay, other questions for staff virtually? Okay, seeing none, thank you. Oh, sorry, Council Member Burke.
If you really love the library, you will say, "I can live in the library." I'm sure there are library lovers that say, "I can live in the library," and I'm definitely one of them. I feel like I can live in the library.
I have a question about losses. Tell me a little bit about loss prevention overall for the library. So, we do have every item in the library has a security tag. We use RFID technology, which is radio frequency identification, and that's part of that technology upgrade.
That's what allows you to use the self-check machines. So, as you pass in and out of or out of our security gates, it'll beep if an item has not been checked out. We do have with our AV materials, our CDs and DVDs are in locked cases.
As you use the self-check machine, it unlocks it, and it does know if that item has been checked out. So, you can walk in and try to put any old DVD in there, and it's not going to happen.
So, that's how we deal with, we try to prevent loss through that. We do an inventory of our materials every year, so each branch has a full inventory also, so we can tell what's missing or MIA.
The good news is those rates are really low for us, and otherwise we just keep staff, keep an eye on things. We have cameras, cameras, cameras everywhere.
What about the financial aspect of it?
For financial loss, we follow City of Denton cash handling procedures. Is that what you're meaning?
There it is. I was just wondering about the amount of funds that's lost through people not bringing anything back or things that could possibly be stolen, I'm not sure.
But like you're saying, you know what's in the building and what's not in the building. How much financial loss?
Okay, so for materials that might be checked out and then just don't come back, what our process is, so first of all, items are checked out for a three week period, there's auto renewals, we try to give people some grace to get things returned.
We do not charge overdue fines because one thing that is coming out in library literature is overdue fines can actually prevent people from returning items because they're afraid of the overdue charge, they'd rather just cut their losses.
So we don't charge that and you can come in the dead of night and return it in the book drop, it's an automated thing, it's real time, it's okay, just return it, that's all we care about.
Once it's charged to an account, that's on your account. Full service accounts are the only accounts that you can check out things with, so we do have your address, your contact information.
And then after seven days overdue, you get an email or text, and after 14 days overdue, you get another email or text. After 21 days overdue, you own the item, you're billed for it.
And so at that point, it's on your account, and after 81 days overdue, we do use a gentle collection service, it is not a credit service, so it doesn't affect your credit, but they gently try to follow up because we want to retain our customers, so it's very important that we don't turn them off.
But we do try to get those materials back, and that's our bottom line, just return the item so the next person can check it out. And then of course, if you are overdue, on that day one of overdue, your account is suspended until that item is back.
So it really shoots the patron in their foot if they don't return items because they don't get to take advantage of the rest of our services.
Okay. Pardon me. Any other questions? Okay. I'll ask if you could, I'm sorry. Oh, thank you. Councilmember McGuire.
Thank you. I'm actually, I don't have questions, but I would like to provide a direction that I would like to approve the supplemental requests.
Okay, very good. And all those come back to us, is that right? Okay, yeah, got it. So thank you very much. But noted, that's good to know. Thank you. And so I had a question on, before you've talked to us about the South Branch location, is that moved any further, looking for new locations, are we still kind of in a holding pattern?
We're looking, we're working with parks because it's so great if we can combine forces. And so we're working with parks to identify some locations for that. And we're just kind of working with real estate to see what our options are.
So that's kind of where that process is at this point. But if you're new to council, our general overview for our master plan would be to, our South Branch is undersized, it's in a challenging location to get to, would be to move it to a more central area in that, between the 235s, and expand it to a larger facility to better meet the needs of that local community there.
Got it. And then also, I think this was dynamic, and especially when we have so many parents with students at home potentially, could you touch on the tutorial service and kind of where to find that, that sort of thing, overview that is pretty important.
We have a fantastic product called BrainFuse. And so if you go to our library website, which is library.cityofdenton.com, and go to online resources, you're going to see an ad there for it. And it is free online tutoring and homework help, Monday, or seven days a week, from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
It is for grades 3 through college, and they will do everything from send me a picture of your algebra problem, I'm going to walk you through it, to I will proofread your homework, your papers, help you with research.
There's also an adult side where they will help with resume writing, job hunting, and interview skills. It is free to use for anyone who has a Denton Public Library card.
Great. That's phenomenal. And then I'll just, I'll attest to your bookkeeping skills. I never thought that, I thought I could wait you out from when I was in middle school until about 10 years ago, and it didn't work. They still have the records.
So you do a great job of maintaining information. So thank you very much for what you do and all the staff there. So with that, if there's no other questions, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Thank you. And for those members who were virtual, we have your keychain. Just send me an email and I'll get it to you. Thank you.
Okay.
And next is procurement compliance and warehouse.
[inaudible]
Okay, so good afternoon. I'm Christine Taylor. I'm the procurement and compliance director.
And I can't change the screen. Good afternoon.
Okay, there we go. Sorry. So I have here today our management team. So Lori Huell is our purchasing manager and Chris Moore is our compliance officer. Dustin Rolfe oversees our warehouse. He could not be here today, but we're able to answer all questions.
So procurement compliance focus on three major areas. The first is our purchasing area, which handles all formal solicitations, all requisitions for purchases.
Our second major focus area is on compliance and a big component of that is overseeing our P card program and looking for general compliance or the entire solicitation process, as well as employee ethics and secondary employment. Then we also have a warehouse in which we oversee all of the materials needed and stock inventory to maintain our utility projects that are taking place in-house.
So during fiscal year 2021, our accomplishments have been we have implemented procurement dashboards. This means that each department has an active dashboard in which they can track all their solicitations. So they're able to see once they start, where they are in the process. Are they out for bid? Are they under review? Are they in the legal process? And then once they're ready for counsel consideration, this was a very helpful tool. So departments can also track and see how many items they're bringing through and the time that it's taking to get through the solicitation process.
We have also updated our P card manual and training and got that to 100% compliance for all card holders and supervisors who participate in the P card program. We had a large emphasis on increasing safety awareness in the warehouse and they are over 433 days without an accident, which is a very big accomplishment. And the procurement team has received the achievement and excellence in the procurement award.
So our goals for next year are to continue working on a business inclusion program. So that entails us going out to the community. We've partnered with the chamber. We participated on a panel with the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce on just letting everyone in Denton know how to participate, how to do business with the city. What are the avenues to register as a supplier? How do our solicitations work? How do we evaluate bids and how to become a P card vendor?
An additional goal is to implement compliance reviews across the entire procurement lifecycle. And we're working on a compliance policy program, a sustainable purchasing policy in which we've partnered with the sustainability office to look at a holistic approach to sustainability within the procurement process. And we're working on obtaining the transparency stars for contracts and procurement, which is a program through the state comptroller's office.
So our process improvements that we focused on, on the screen you can see is a snapshot of what those dashboards look like. We've got one for each department and then all things that are helpful to them, status of vendor request, when their items are upcoming for council, any change orders, if they're wanting to schedule to start a solicitation, we have a review committee. And if you have anything awaiting a retainage payment, if you are processing construction contract payments.
So again, that was just an overview of our dashboards. We've done automated tracking and reporting for warehouse metrics. We've updated our website and internal department page and implemented additional reports within the city contract database. So we have a contract database that allows anyone to search by keyword and see where they are as far as spend so we don't get contracts close to reaching that NTE threshold. It gives you kind of an alert so you know that you either need an amendment or you need to be starting a new contract.
Process, which has been very helpful for the timing of planning out solicitations. So in 2021, we'll work on continued metric automation, a procedures manual, which we're already working on to help our end user. Since we're an internal service fund, we're supporting all departments. So we want to give them the guidance on how to move through the procedures within the city contract management training. We kind of help everyone get to the point of having a contract and then departments should be managing those contracts on their own. So we want to provide some good guidance.
So we want to provide some good guidance on what do you do if you run into an issue with the contractor? How do you remedy that? What type of reporting should we be getting so that we have great relationships with our vendors on any city of Denton contract and then a financial system guide to help people on entering requisitions or anything they need to do in the system.
So here's one of our major workload metrics. I think when city manager's office had presented to you, they indicated that they'd brought over 500 items to council. So when putting together our statistics, it looks like procurement makes up a large portion of those items that you bring forward.
So year to date, we've brought forward 216 contracts for your approval. And the largest majority of those are our requests for proposals. And our top solicitation stakeholders are Capital Projects, who's brought forward 30 this year, Water Wastewater with 25, Electric with 25, Fleet with 20, Parks and Rec 18, and Facilities Management.
So we are on track to exceed. Last year looked like a record-breaking year with 279 brought forward, and we're tracking to exceed that number.
One area I want to highlight, which is a major accomplishment for Lori and her team, is that our goal is to process requisitions, 90% of requisitions in three days or less. So a requisition is the first process if you want a purchase order.
So they're putting that in the system, and our goal of our department is to have that 90% compliance in three days or less. And as you can see, a couple years ago, that was a very low.
It took a very lengthy time to get a requisition to a purchase order, and this year currently, we've processed 2,522 purchase orders with 88% of them being completed in three days or less.
A few metrics for our warehouse, our average monthly orders process per specialist. So our warehouse, we maintain the inventory for our utility. That is the customer base that we support, primarily electric, water, wastewater, streets, drainage, solid waste, and a small portion of the general fund, which is parks or traffic.
So they are on average having, pulling 483 orders. And then our non-inventory items, that 196 is a new item. So as city facilities closed and we weren't able to be open to accept packages at all facilities, we directed everything to the warehouse to maintain compliance.
So they've taken on an additional 196 items on average per specialist in which they're tracking in that package and taking it in for the department.
So I wanted to highlight one more time the 463 days accident free. They employ a customer service satisfaction survey after their encounters, and right now they have 100% customer service satisfaction.
And since we're an internal service fund, it is really important that we are listening to our stakeholders. So Dustin Rolfe, our warehouse manager, holds four to five monthly stakeholder meetings with those groups to make sure that we are planning properly, because the warehouse brings forward all those contracts.
They do all the solicitation and the procurement. So do we have the items you need so that you can do your job? So they do a great job meeting with those stakeholders and then continued process improvements and ongoing monthly safety training.
The P card program has really great metrics as well. So we have an average number of 1168 P card transactions per month. I think what we would like to highlight is definitely cardholder training as we were working on that training through the beginning of the fiscal year.
It got employed on January of 2021 and the last few months we've maintained 100% compliance. So this means that all cardholders and supervisors who approve those P card transactions have gone through the training and are familiar with our policies and procedures on how to appropriately administer that program.
Since we are an internal service fund, our main revenue is of course through those warehouse sales, which are inventory items. And then our second largest revenue is that cost of service transfer. So that is what we are charging out to other departments based on how they use procurement to recover the revenue for our expenses.
On our budget, same thing applies as on the revenue side. Our predominant expense is of course that inventory and the rest is very minimal operating.
So we have 23.5 FTEs. We were granted a half FTE mid-year so that we could assist the warehouse since they were down on staff and taking on those additional duties.
And our only supplemental package this year is to gain an additional FTE for the warehouse. As their metrics have continued to increase and utility projects have increased, we've seen that demand need come through that there is additional help needed for our warehouse team.
Any questions?
Okay, thank you. If we can pull down the presentation. Thank you. Questions for staff here at the dais? Okay. And on Councilmembers online, is there any questions? Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
Thank you for the very thorough presentation. Just a point, I know in the past you had a number of initiatives on kind of routinely purchased items to kind of transition toward greater sustainability.
Do you have anything like that on your horizon? I know we moved out of some Styrofoam, you know, just sort of under that sustainability heading that you'd want us to know about?
Yeah, so we're working with the sustainability department, but we do meet with Staples who is our largest vendor for office supplies and break room supplies and work with them on making sure products are available that do fall in that sustainability component.
We also have sustainability. They are included on every formal solicitation that goes out to review to review, is there a sustainability component within the solicitation? So items coming through the landfill, any items like that, fuel, making sure that we've got the fleet, clean fleet policy on there.
So we do have metrics that we will be bringing forward and we're working with sustainability and our contracted vendors to look at what are those goals and where we purchasing and what improvements can we make in separate areas?
That's great. I'm glad to hear that. Thank you.
Okay, any other questions?
Seeing none.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Okay, if I'm not mistaken, I think that concludes item B. Okay, great.
So let's take a
10 minute break and we'll come back. So it's 424 will break until 434. And then we'll be back to take up item C. Thank you. And welcome back to this meeting of the Denton City Council. It is 440 PM and we do have a quorum again.
And so we are on to our next item on today's agenda this afternoon's agenda. It's item C, which is ID 21865. Receive report, hold discussion and give staff direction regarding the 2021 through 2023 boards and commission nominee screening and appointment process.
Screen.
So good afternoon. My name is Rosa Rios and I am your city secretary and I will present the boards and commissions nominee and screening appointment process for this next cycle.
So the city city council rules of procedure does address diversity and that the nominating council members will consider interested persons on a city wide basis. Of course, also ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic levels and other factors to ensure that there's a diverse representation of Denton citizens.
You will also make an effort to be all inclusive of all segments of the community. Take into consideration the members qualifications willingness to serve. And of course, the information contained within their application and address any members are have are have are about to be termed, meaning that they have served their three full terms and replaced with new individuals. Of course, this term limit does not apply to citizen task forces or citizen ad hoc committees.
For eligibility, qualifications and betting and nominees must be a resident and registered voter in the city have no financial obligations of the city in the area of court library, liens, taxes or utilities.
We do have certain special qualifications boards, which you can see here and I'll address those that we drastically need to make sure address for this next appointment cycle.
I will note that for the development code review committee that because we do have council members that serve on those that will be handled as a totally separate agenda item like it was recently from our standard board and commission appointment item.
So for the special qualification board needs that we do ask that you, you know, you kind of look at as you consider your nominees for the animal shelter advisory committee. We do person of course must be employed. We do require the qualification that the person be employed by the city of Denton animal shelter.
This individual does not have to live in the city limits. And of course, with that in mind does not have to be a registered voter.
And then of course we also need a representative of an animal welfare organization for the board of ethics. While most of the special qualifications are preferred.
It does mandate that we have three total attorneys. We do have one attorney whose term will expire in 2022, but do we do have two attorneys that are coming up for at least those seats are coming up for appointment.
So we are going to have to ask that, you know, we get at least two attorneys to a point for the historic landmark commission.
The rules do say that the member shall include these qualifications and must be a member of the Denton County Historical Commission as well as another one must be a member of the Denton County Bar Association and our office does carefully monitor the nominees to make sure that we meet all of the necessary qualifications that each legislation on each board requires.
For terms and limits typically boards are two year terms with the exception of the public utilities board who per city code does have four year terms, their terms begin September one 2021 and then August 31 2023.
Of course the exceptions here you can see their terms begin July one 2021 and will end June 30 2023. The public utilities board does have terms beginning September one 2021 and ending August 31 2025 because of that four year term limit.
And the information we provide you does indicate what the terms will be.
But don't worry too much about that. We do police that for you and monitor very, very carefully.
And of course any member in place after the term expires will hold over until they either choose to resign or are submitted until a resignation is submitted or a successor is appointed.
So we term those as holdover members.
There is a three year term limit meaning that a member can only serve a total of six years, two years each and then there must be a one year lapse following that term limit before individuals could be appointed or considered for appointment to that same board.
However, if a member is termed there is nothing prohibiting from that individual being appointed to another board.
For removal, removal is only for cause and we do get this question from members sometimes from members of the boards and the requirements have to be met.
So if they're no longer registered voter of the city and they fail to abstain from voting on a matter involving the business entity or real property and file an affidavit setting forth the substantial interest in the matter to be voted upon.
And of course that's a requirement of state law, which we also require missing more than three regular scheduled meetings in any one year or lack of attendance at 50 percent of the regular meetings held in a year.
Typically the most common is those three regularly more than the three regularly scheduled meetings cannot be convicted of a felony, fails to submit the post-deployment paperwork or as applicable commit complete the annual ethics training.
In rare cases a public hearing is required and that is through the city charter meetings that the public utility board members and of course others as would need to be determined in consultation with the city attorney.
And vacancies are filled for the unexpired term of the previous member if applicable.
We do require an application for all nominees even if they're new or a reappointee.
It's important that we have the current information to make sure that we can conduct an up to date vetting process on the obligations owed or hopefully none.
Of course we do not do a criminal background check with the exception of the Denton Police Department Chief of Police Advisory Board and that board you will see that you do not have any members on that in your information because those all of those were recently appointed so their terms do not expire.
For nominations you can submit via email. That is just more than sufficient but we do ask that you identify of course the board commission or committee if it's your single member seat or if it's a large or alternate seat.
Any special qualification if applicable and if we need to you know we're more than happy to follow up with your nominee.
Just give us some contact information in case they don't happen to have an application already submitted.
And before we schedule any individuals for appointment it's important that we do receive their application and that they be fully vetted.
The nominations cannot be submitted on the floor, one because of the posting requirement.
We do let the public know those members that are up for reappointment as well as the boards and of course it's important that we make sure that at time of appointment individuals meet all qualifications.
You'll notice here that by previous direction of the City Council there's nothing written in policy.
We were directed that no council member shall nominate more than one at large alternate member to the same board or commission and we'll discuss that a little bit further into the presentation.
On the special qualifications the contents for your notebooks that you kind of see around the dais we did give you the special qualifications list that kind of recaps those that we need as well as those that are coming up for reappointment and you know how many of each qualification we have on board right now.
It gave you an all members rosters with contact information so that you can certainly determine you know contact them and see if you're you know they're going to fit you know who you want to represent.
The seats which expired either June 30 will expire June 30 or August 31 of this year by council member and of course it also includes those at large or alternate seats that any member of the City Council can appoint to.
An attendance report annual for all the members and the applications that does include any existing members that indicated an information or indicated an interest in being reappointed.
We did email everybody that's a current member that's up for you know who seat expires this year and told them that you know they were interested in in being reappointed to submit an application.
Sometimes we do get applications after the deadline but you know so it's not all indicative of those that maybe might still be interested in serving and then also if you for some of you.
You had also received the same information at last cycle and we did reach out to any individuals that had submitted applications for that last cycle that were not had not been reappointed and as that they go in resubmit an application make sure all of the information is correct.
And of course you know we provide updates as we try to do it on a weekly basis as applications are received and sometimes vacancies will occur.
So again you kind of think that's okay for the timeline of course you know today's a presentation and we consider this the official start of the new appointment process.
You'll notice on the board and commission item here later today that we do have some individual individuals are going to be appointed not only for an unexpired term but also for the next upcoming term.
And of course July 1 we ask that nominations be submitted to our office and we can go ahead and begin appointments on July 20 and the only reason why we say July 20 is just because we have no council meetings July 5, 6 or 7.
So normally we're able to you know kind of do appointments as long as somebody's already been vetted you have the information available in your pocket packet.
And of course you know the appointment process does move faster for those numbers is called those members whose qualifications are have been qualified and then are in the notebook with applications.
There are two areas that were some areas that we need direction from one is this council wants our office to go ahead and follow with the general practice that any one member cannot nominate more than one at large alternate seat or do you want to just kind of make it open season first come first serve or if there's more than council member nominates to more than one seat then you know the City Council as a group would decide.
Also the community services staff is planning to present a proposal on June 22 to consolidate the Community Development Advisory Board and the Human Services Advisory Board to one board.
And of course right now there's no current plans for the board to me. So do you want us to hold any nominations and or appointments for those, those seats, the ones that primarily affected are the Community Development Advisory Committee. I'm sorry advisory board. And so do you want us to go ahead and continue or do you want us to hold all of them.
So we kind of need direction in those two areas to make sure that we follow the direction that you prefer. And I'm willing to take any questions that you might have. Let me get my application.
Okay, questions for staff or general response to the questions, Councilmember Davis Councilmember bet. So by way of direction, I like the previous policy the one that's been following of not appointing more than one at large or not nominating more than one at large member for a body.
If you have a surplus of good folks, you certainly could share those names with other council members or if they've all lots of these folks come to us by way of application. We don't even necessarily know they're interested until we get their application. So they would still be available for somebody else to appoint to.
So I prefer that process where it's that we self limit to one at large nominee per committee per council member seems the fairest way going forward. And then also on the if we're going to consider merging those two committees, it seems prudent to me that we not appoint to those committees.
It could be that we don't merge them, but that's the council direction and then we pick up the process at the other side of that presentation. But if we do choose to merge them, if that's options on the table, it seems prudent to wait on nominating to those spots.
And then we have presumably need an approve an ordinance to merge the two committees or to drop one of them, whatever the case may be in that ordinance. We'd be setting a new appointment date. We need to probably hold off on putting anybody on those boards.
Okay, and then counselor back then Councilman McGuire.
Thank you. So, Rosa, the, the thing I'm not opposed to the keeping it the way it is.
The thing that concerns me that it seems to be causing especially with boards like ZBA is vacancies, and the fact that your, your eyes went up big and wide is the fact that that that's a perennial vacant board.
And I don't know what we're doing wrong and trying to fill that but it's, I concur I've seen it when I was on ZBA, that we had perennial vacancies so I guess I have mild agreement with what counselor Davis just said in terms of that direction.
But I don't, if there's a mechanism where we can limit it to to one at large unless there's a ongoing vacancy or something else or some way of noting that, you know, there's just, we can't have this vacant meetings were skipped or, or something like that, then we
could probably throw it open. I would be open for a policy discussion about how to, how to massage those rules but I think vacancy is a is a worse problem than over sampling from a given region of town.
So, for this this binder that you gave us all is there any difference from the binder I got from two weeks ago.
You have a following your election file, there's really the list of the preference list by applicant, and all of the applications.
So I would, and of course the pretty much everything because there's been so many members that have changed. So really everything. My recommendation would be that you use the information that's contained in this notebook, with the exception that maybe there's
somebody from the from the may have applied the last time that whose name you don't see in this notebook, then you could use those applications for reference purposes. Great.
So all right, so I'll absolutely switch over to using this try to get my notes into this notebook to two other questions one was about the push updating.
So our compliant push update notifications, where you've reached out to existing board and commission members and said hey do you want to serve.
I think I think you said in your presentation you did push out to everyone and said that do you want to do you want to reserve, and what's our compliance on that is it.
At a percentage crudely. Yeah, thirds, three quarters, probably, probably more about, about two thirds. Okay.
So I, I'm assuming you're on top of like constantly nagging them to please do that. We have full compliance about filling out the online forms.
Yes, so everybody's filled out the online form. So, as counselors, we don't have to worry about that unless they're a person that we're contemplating from outside the process that that's correct.
And what we do is we do avail ourselves to either do like a meeting with them, they can come to the office, we can sit with them and guide them through the electronic application.
And, and could you clarify two more things for me and then I'm sort of done.
I asked you this in and I think you responded but I just don't recall your answer to in a previous meeting and which boards and commissions can serve in parallel, you could be on multiple boards and commission.
I know it's mostly singletons, but, but I think we have some.
Right. I couldn't tell you right now like right off hand how many there are there are not that many.
I can certainly provide that information to the full city council. Every once in a while we do get an inquiry, you know as to this member once it's interested in serving on this other board.
And what we do is we consult with the attorney, and they look at all of the legislation as well as state law possibly depending on which board it is.
And then, based on their guidance when we advise the member whether they can or they cannot.
But I'll be happy to provide that list to everybody that would be great and if you, I mean if it's not a huge undertaking if we could add it like as a note in future binders to where like, you know, star seven this this one is unavailable to be doubled, or, or something like that that would be useful.
If we're entertaining something like happened.
Well, some of that's recently got put on PNC edit resigned from two boards. So, and then, I guess, the other thing I'd like, maybe, just my opinion on and to revisit it some future time when we are discussing how we do boys boys.
Boards and commissions, and that is this issue of felony.
Is that, I mean, where is that policy just for boards of commission is that employee based where, where is the felony restriction coming from maybe that's a legal question. Well, as far as I mean, certainly there's some language in the employee application about about that.
There are some applications by other entities that sometimes do ask that it's more like an honor system because we don't do criminal background checks so you kind of have to take it at face value.
It's the same as you know an application for place on the ballot, you know, I kind of asked you so it's all kind of a trust factor.
So I think monitoring it and then looking at some kind of, you know, how far can we for volunteer position. Can we go to toward doing a background check so we would have to consult with the attorney, I do believe the mayor had, you know, brought it up and I think that's an area that we were going to be looking at.
Excellent. Excellent. I would like, I mean, I don't want to ask for any, any particular baby right now, but I would like to revisit that because my personal attitude is, you serve your time, then there's should be able to serve your community.
Okay, there's a.
I think that's all my questions. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
So I have Councilmember wire then we'll go Councilmember bird.
Thank you.
So just a question with the merging of human services and community development.
Are we talking about maintaining the same number of members.
Like, I believe they're each nine members now is that correct. Well, I know that staff is going to presenting their options next week.
So I don't want to really speak to what they're proposing to present.
So simply, I kind of added that with the director's approval just to kind of, you know, get your input on whether you wanted to continue filling those seats with the possibility that you know the board will be merged and but all of those options will be definitely
discussed in a lot more more detail with my staff community services staff.
And I'll hold on to my questions.
And while I have you, Councilmember required that you have a thought on the at large appointment, whether you want to keep the current policy or change something.
Yes, thank you.
I like the current practice that we have of having no more than one council member point for an at large position.
And I would be comfortable with with us codifying that.
Okay, thank you customer bird.
Mayor I was just going to ask, I was going to note that I'd like to keep. I'm in favor of keeping the, the process where they add large, large position, the same I think it's just very reasonable.
And the other question was answered I was going to connect the Community Development Advisory Committee to the Human Services Advisory Committee.
But my question is about the Human Services Advisory Committee.
Tell me a little bit more about what the little bit more detail on the Human Services Advisory Committee, or should I just wait until next week.
Yeah, I would recommend that you wait next week because you're going to get a straight from the expert. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you. That's all I had. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
I think you've probably already got enough to give direction but also for keeping the current practice regarding the at large seats and codifying.
I suppose it makes sense to hold off on appointments till we resolve the question.
And I wonder if the date would change if ultimately staff decides that they want to have maybe those groups meet jointly to discuss whether and how a merger might occur.
Okay, well, again, that'll be next week. Yeah. Okay. And so, yes, we have a so we we find I find a consensus around the at large policy with the caveat that we do need to look at some sort of adopting kind of the idea from councilmember back, maybe a message board or some sort that if there's a vacancy or a way for council members to put forward a name.
And at some point, there's a vacancy and there's this pool of names that are willing, ready and willing that would then hopefully put pressure on the point, the councilmember to a point.
And then also, I think, to answer a question not ask, but that was my frustration with the ZBA is it does not meet always. Right. And so there needs to be some level of regular meeting and some level of content that so you do get in a sequence of meeting versus, hey, this month's been canceled because we don't have anything.
If there's some kind of way to maybe it's educational component, maybe it's plugging in codes if there's no issues to resolve, but some way to keep the people engaged and not have it go a couple of months without meeting button, you know, although that's a good thing.
That means everything's flowing well, but at the same time, it's kind of tough to plan around. So maybe there's there's some flexibility around the content they take up. And if it's just a short brief meeting, at least that we are meeting every so often.
And then the other notes I have and I see you councilmember back. The other notes I have is.
Oh, you're going to follow up with where you can serve on to and kind of what, and then going forward we, in addition to that, you'll follow up and maybe in the future I have some kind of asterisks or something to indicate which ones can so that's that's the notes I have.
I'm sorry about that.
It's not turning on. Yeah, it's tricky sometimes.
Come on.
I will accept tech services ruling on that. Thank you, Mayor. Oh yeah, there we go. The that completely concur having served on ZBA.
The, we just constantly have vacancies and as a quad quasi judicial board. I think we actually probably need to do special exceptions to that to keep that as full as possible, even if it doesn't follow our general policy so completely concur with the mayor on that one.
Thank you.
So, very good. Anyone else.
Thank you. Awesome. Thank you very much.
It's been a day or so, since we've been in here. So, how does that work. Do we take a brief. I'm sorry.
Oh, sorry.
So dinner is here. And so I'm trying to figure out how we do that. And because I don't remember break here bring it. Do we bring it back in here. No.
Yeah, so.
Okay. Can we. Okay. Well, let's do that then. So, unfortunately, we just took a break but it got here right after the last break so I wanted to take up that one item. So let's do this.
We have two more items on the work session plus a closed session. I think we're on good pace. It is five oh seven p.m. So let's take a break until
520. That gives us a little less than 15 minutes. So come back 520 we'll take up the last two items and the closed session and I apologize for the breaks and quick succession, but trying to adjust accordingly.
And then if we don't if you don't finish in time those that are here we can you can bring it here. So, five oh seven will be in recess till 520. Thanks.
Thank you and appreciate your accommodations for that short break. It's 525 p.m. We do have a quorum will get started. We are to item D of our work session.
I have a couple items left and then we will transition briefly for our closed session be back in chambers for our 630 meeting. So with that I'll call the first item back and it's ID 211188 receive report 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 Tanaka sorry to ask to ask it. Thank you.
Good evening mayor and council members Jessica Rogers director of economic development.
And I'm going to start the presentation this evening and but I will let you know that Terry Nalty assistant general manager with DME and we also have representatives from Tanaka here with us to assist and answering questions.
So jumping right in and Tanaka is a large private energy companies specializing in power plant development and operations and natural gas and electric power marketing.
We've been working with Tanaka and a client of theirs on a data center project for a high density computing operation and we'll get into the details of this in a little bit but this project has very large electric demand.
In fact so large that the project's electric demand will be larger than DME's total annual electric demand at full build out and kind of talk more about the details of that throughout the presentation and just an overview was we kind of go into the next slides this project is proposed to be constructed on leased land at the Denton Energy Center site.
That's because this site does have the adequate transmission and substation capacity, but it will require rezoning and from public facility to light industrial.
So just to put this sort of in a visual perspective and here is a sort of overview of the modular data mining campus that is being proposed. This will be a campus that will serve and high performance computing applications and things like blockchain cryptocurrency mining artificial intelligence machine learning and DNA mapping are all the types of computing operations that will happen there.
Here on the left you'll see the schematic of the Denton Energy Center here the Jim Crystal substation and then this is the data mining campus here on the south and on the next slide I'll kind of give you a better overview of the site plan.
So the project is proposed to be developed in three phases phases one and two are here on the south side of the Denton Energy Center with a targeted completion date and operation date of sometime this fall September to November for phases one and two and then phase three will be on 11 acres on the north side of the Denton Energy Center with a targeted completion date of March 2022.
Both sites will be supplied with energy from the Jim Crystal substation which you see right here.
This project's demand and usage electric usage is so high that this project does require negotiation of a purchase power agreement and so we'll be discussing that later in this presentation and in the closed session.
And so DME is also working to negotiate a land lease that will be part of the proposed PPA and that lease rate will be market based and then as I mentioned before this property is currently zoned public facility and that's because the city of Denton
owns the land and with our facilities on the land it was known to public facility when the city bought the land in 2017. And so we are going to be pursuing a rezoning to convert this to light industrial.
So one of the questions I know that Mayor Pro Tem Melter always asks is why Denton? Why did this project come here? And so what we've done here is sort of outline sort of the customer needs and the specifics of what they needed in a site. So they needed transmission level voltage, they needed high reliability from their electric system, they needed to negotiate rates through a PPA, they needed access to a workforce, access to renewable energy was extraordinarily important and they were looking for someone who was going to be a good community and environmental partner.
And I have to say that it's always great when we can say that Denton meets all of the needs of this particular client. We had the transmission capacity, we're nationally recognized reliable utility, we have access to the talent pool that they need, we are 100% renewable community with access to renewable energy for the facility and we're also seeking partnerships to further our strategic goals.
And with that I will say this project is really closely aligned with parts of our strategic plan that we just approved in February in two particular areas. One is being creative in how we attract new investment to our community and two, data centers were specifically called out and were one of the few specifically called out areas of high value potential development here in the city of Denton as that related to our municipally owned utilities.
So in terms of direct benefits to the city, the project would double all of DME's current retail energy sales. Actually Tony Puente shared the fact with me, if you think of the city of Denton as 98 square miles on 30 acres, we're going to sell the same amount of energy. So that's a unique fact to kind of keep in mind to put this in proportion.
With this we'll have increased franchise fees and ROI revenues from DME to the city, new sales tax revenue from the electric sales and new property tax revenue from a significant investment in business personal property that's being made by the data center.
And then lastly this has the potential to reduce overall cost to customers by increasing the system's load profile. We always look at risks, rewards, cost benefit and those sorts of things for these types of projects. And so the commercial risks are really that the customer's credit is going to be crucial for this project and so we're looking at addressing and mitigating that through the PPA.
We're also looking at the life cycle of the business plan, so what happens when the computing operation is sort of done doing its job, sort of what happens with that property. And so we definitely know that there are other high computing, high performance computing operations that would be possible in the future.
But looking at long term, you know, would we be able to convert this back to usable land for something else. And then lastly, this project does consume a significant portion of available transmission capacity, which isn't a huge significant problem for us.
It just means that if another data center walked in the door after this one, it might take a little bit more time to get ramped up to serve that customer, something that's certainly achievable here in Denton.
In terms of benefits, we are looking at significant new retail electric revenues are in franchise fees and ROI fees. So some general fund relief, some potential electric rate relief, and then also an interesting thing as we looked at this project is a potential source of catalyst for the funding for the catalyst fund.
And then lastly is that this does utilize some surplus transmission capacity. So we're able to generate revenue on some capacity that we have now and that we've made investments on as a city.
So timeline and next steps. This project as a modular installation can pursue a pretty aggressive timeline in terms of rezoning permitting to being operating. And so we are working through the rezoning process right now. The Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to hear the rezoning case on June 23rd.
There is a community meeting Thursday evening on June 17th on this project. While that's going on, staff will continue to bring work on the purchase power agreement and negotiate that with the client.
And we'll be bringing that back to council in late July or early August. And then again, as I mentioned, this project really wants to be online. We have December 2021 on this slide, but really as fast as feasible given the timeline.
And then the final phase online in March of 2022. So in terms of next steps, really there's two main components and the zoning change, which is being pursued currently and then negotiating that comprehensive purchase power agreement with the terms that you see on the screen.
So that'll include the power costs, the land lease terms, any type of credit or financial security terms, aids and construction and all of those operational components. That last bullet point there is just to say this project is so large that it won't qualify for the traditional economic growth rider that is a demand reduction in the rate structure.
So the direction we're seeking from city council today is to provide staff with 120 permission to use 120 day exclusivity period for the deck site for us to continue negotiations and complete negotiations with to NASCA.
And then once those commercial terms are negotiated that we would bring back the PPA to both the public utility board and the city council.
And so with that, I'm going to pull down the presentation and just let you guys know that I believe Mr. Kelly and Mr. Hemshot from to NASCA are on the phone. So if there are questions specifically for them.
Questions for staff from the day. Councilmember Beck.
Oh, I have a ton of questions. So, so for faith in advertising, I've worked for the Texas Events Compute Center in Austin. And so I have a ton. So do we, you sort of implied that this is transitory, compute usage, do we not anticipate them maintaining a facility?
It's, it's, it's, we're going to be a temporary data center and then something else.
Good afternoon, council Terry Nolte, assistant general manager of DME.
So, the, the client is or the customer is making a significant investment in this asset, over $200 million of capital investment.
It's not likely that they would pull up stakes after five years, but we, we are negotiating an agreement that would meet their needs, because as you know, computer technology changes rapidly.
And I think the estimated life on these that we've been talking with the customer is five to seven years. So, you know, if that long. Yeah. And, and so we expect that with the level of investment that's going to be made here in infrastructure.
That they'll be here for a long time.
But that's up to the customer.
So, so since, since you're there on infrastructure, there is a ton of infrastructure needs for a data center.
I mean, I know there's a lot of dark fiber on an I-35 corridor, we run it out to Austin, we run it up to OU, you know, there's a gigapop in Dallas.
This is internet fiber that I'm discussing.
And so, do we have, do they have sufficient dark fiber that they can light up for a data center here in Denton?
I'm going to ask one of the TANASCA folks to answer that question after I give you just a little bit of information, if they have further information, but this is not the traditional data center that is running, is like hosting websites.
This is a data center that is, is running cryptocurrency calculations, genome mapping, things like that, that can be scheduled and doesn't necessarily need the size of a pipe that you're speaking of with respect to the dark fiber.
So, and I would also say that I just want to make sure council is aware we do have a non-disclosure agreement with TANASCA, and so the, the level of detail that we can get into in open session is limited by the, by the terms of that agreement.
That's fine, and you can, you can point that out, I guess, when, when we need to not talk about that topic, but, well, so I, I actually, I'm a computational biologist, so genetic algorithms and genetic analysis are, you know, what I do for a living.
Sure.
And so, I mean, the other infrastructure question, so A, you can't have enough pipe, I don't care what their, their, their compute model is, even if they're going to put data on site and then compute on it, even a cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, you can't have big enough pipe.
There's no such thing.
The, that being said, another infrastructure concern that I had was water for the chillers. I mean, you know, if you do, if you do the energy heat, a literal heat map in this case, you're going to see Denton glow like North Austin, after we, if we approve this.
So, yeah, I had the same question, Council Member Beck, my understanding is that this technology does not use chillers, it uses fans, and that the traditional data center design is not what you need to use when you think about this particular installation.
Okay.
Well then, it leads to my, my, my next question, which is, one of the things we did at TAC was rerun, ran solar powered arrays, and ran a lot of our servers off of solar, so we actually did DDA converters and ran them.
We have whole supercomputers running on solar. This is a project out of NATO in Japan. And so my question after that prelude was,
is there opportunity to, to migrate off of, or to increase our renewable position, if you will, with onsite solar to augment their, their electricity needs?
Yeah, so the demands of this facility are so large that we couldn't even touch their capacity with an onsite solar facility.
The, the energy that will be used by this facility will be 100% green in, in strict compliance with the Denton Renewable Resource Plan.
So it will be coming from offsite, but the sources of that electricity will be renewable.
The RECs and stuff, yeah.
Then,
this, this, this may be a, well you, I don't know who will answer this. I, I guess, I know that public facility tends to be a grab bag, zoning designation a little bit when the government does a thing.
And so I'm not sure why we need to change from PF to LI, if somebody could address that.
And, and why are you coming up? Council Member Beck, they asked me to, if you'd move closer to.
I'm sorry, I, I, I apologize.
Sure, so the question was related to why we need to rezone it.
So this particular private use wouldn't be allowed on a public facility.
So we are converting to.
It's outside of scope.
Yes.
Okay. And I guess that just, I don't expect with the kind of capital improvement that Terry was talking about, that we would, this would abandon or not be a, some sort of high tech facility in the future if we were adopted.
But, you know, I guess we could just rezone if we need to.
But it is something to think about for the future.
This may be a closed session item but it, I think you could talk about it in 50,000 foot terms and that is the, the, the megawatt needs as, as the various phases kick in.
That is a closed session item.
Closed session item.
Okay.
Detail.
Oh, and then, I mean, I guess this was basically answered by the prelude slide.
But this is, this is primarily compute, not, not storage.
We sort of danced around that a little bit.
Correct.
Purely processing.
All right.
Thank you.
Okay.
Other questions?
Council Member Byrd, then Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, then Council Member McGuire.
Hello.
Just a couple of basic questions.
I saw where they were, they were going to bring in 86 employees.
Is that including the people, is that local people or?
So I believe this project had 33 total jobs and I'm sorry, that information is in the agenda information sheet.
And it was in the, guys, I'm sorry, I have a lot of presentations this evening.
Am I, am I making up 86?
I saw something about 86.
I was just wondering if those were the people, you know, those 86 people were inclusive to the local hiring or was that all inclusive to everyone else?
I want to talk about their safety record.
If this is a new, is this, is there, where is this, where is it located?
Are there any other locations around the country or, you know, just let's start with those three questions.
Sure.
So in your backup, there's a chart that has it broken down.
It's on this second to last page of the AIS.
It's 33 proposed jobs for this particular project ranging from the site operations director and then technical support technicians and maintenance technicians.
And so these positions would be new to Denton.
They do not exist currently because this facility isn't here.
I know Tedaska has additional sites.
They have a, the site that they gave me as an example is they have one in Big Spring, Texas. So they do have their sites.
I don't know if, if there's more detail needed on that, I would defer to the company, which they're on the line with us.
So where, are they located right now in Big Spring, Texas or is, is that just another site?
Is this a multi-site?
Yes.
So our, our negotiations are with Tedaska, the developer.
Tedaska has a number of clients that are in this business and they will be bringing those clients to this site.
And so one of the potential clients does have an operation in Big Springs.
They have operations in several other states as well.
There are, there are dozens of very large companies that play in this space.
So it sounds like to me that this is a, this is a centralized location for things to come to it.
Yeah, I think as Jessica explained, the fact that we have adequate transmission capacity here and we're a hundred percent renewable.
Where we're two very important things as they looked at sites, our speed to executions or our ability to get this project online quickly is the, is the, the main driver for the project and our site.
Okay. So we'll go Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, then Councilman McGuire, then Councilman Davis.
Yeah, thank you. On the face of it, it seems like kind of a home run, but it's raises hard questions.
Well, first of all, given the scale, just on the sort of benefit side, is it potentially enough to offset the potential rate increases that we've been sort of teasing about?
So the economics of the transaction are again subject to that non-disclosure agreement.
As Jessica indicated, the revenues that will accrue to the city and to DME will potentially provide rate relief in response to your specific question about the storm.
Yeah, I really look forward to the closed session discussion on that.
You know, it's a lot of times people hear about something that's going to be a big energy consumer causes concern.
I mean, I have in a way the opposite reaction that if it's going to be somewhere, I think, you know, I prefer it to be in our footprint where, you know, it'll be where the needs will be met through our renewable contracts.
But I understand that the intention is to supply it through recs, which are basically buying certificates from other providers that demonstrate that they have in fact produced renewable energy.
In other words, is there enough production out there to meet this need? And are we just buying recs from what's already existingly produced or, you know, has there got to be an amount equal to the demand of the city of Denton of new production that needs to come online in order to produce the recs for us to buy?
Mayor Pro Tem, I think the best way I can answer that question is if you think about the ERCOT market, you think about the peak demand of the ERCOT market at about 74,000 megawatts, over the next several years, the projected amount of installed renewable capacity will be very close to 40,000 megawatts.
Today there's about 28,000 to 30,000. So there's a lot of renewable energy coming online in ERCOT. And the renewable energy credit market, just to be clear, and you may recall this from our discussions on Whitetail a year ago or so, you can only get a rec if you produce a megawatt of renewable energy.
So the ubiquitous grid, the nature of the grid pulling energy off, as long as you have a rec, you can, you are proving that the energy associated with that rec was in fact green.
Yeah, I'm not questioning that, it's just whether it's enough out there. You've kind of addressed that, you're saying there's more coming online than we'll need. In essence, if I'm mischaracterizing your comments, please catch me.
Yeah, but I do wonder, like that's about specifically renewables coming online to supply debt and needs. But, you know, we're seeing warnings coming from ERCOT, not enough, and, you know, we know about all the conventional producers that have gone offline and, you know, feels like the supply and demand situation are kind of precarious right now.
And, you know, I don't know, can you say anything about that? You know, this is reasonable, we'll double our demand, no problem.
I know on its face, Mayor Pro Tem, it may seem counterintuitive, but the structure of the transaction that we're negotiating recognizes the issue that you're talking about, and this particular facility will take advantage of certain market mechanisms that exist in order to not contribute to that perceived shortage of generation against the load.
Can you say more about that? I mean, I acknowledge that their business is hedging the tree, their primary business. Apparently, cryptocurrency mining is another line of work. But presumably they would have the sophistication to do that. Can you say anything more about how they would prevent imbalances because of their operation?
I'm hesitant to answer your question because of the non-disclosure agreement.
Yeah, okay. I understand.
I mean, maybe Mr. Hemshot from Tanaska would be willing to answer that question.
Yes, hi. Good afternoon, everyone. How is my volume, please?
Good. Thank you.
That's great. It's great to meet everybody. Thank you for the time. I think the one element, and Terry is correct, that we need to be conscious of our NDA in place, but we can talk at a high level how different this load is from typical load in terms of its interruptibility.
The load has the ability to actively control its dispatch within the market, and as part of the transaction, Tanaska will be working with Denton as an energy advisor and manager for the load to make sure that it can manage the risk that you're talking about.
Okay. I imagine you may not be able to say more about it, and I know Denton prides itself on providing uninterrupted power. It would be good to know that there was a mechanism so that homes weren't in contention with the servant farm.
Okay.
Councilmember Warren.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, so I just want to make sure that I'm clear.
Council did receive an email.
After our work session had already started disclosing the name of Tanaska's customer client, who is proposing to build this Bitcoin farm.
Is that customer confidential?
Again, I would defer to the Tanaska folks on that one.
Tanaska folks, are we allowed to discuss who your client is in public session?
There's definitely going to be the time to get into those details after this initial meeting.
Okay, thank you. Um, so I'm still a little bit confused. I guess about
the relationships between the various entities here. I do know that Tanner Holder was a system operator at DME, and he is now energy manager at Tanaska. I don't know if this relationship between DME and Tanaska was initiated by him.
But can you speak a little bit more to what exactly the role is of Tanaska in this in this project and why we're not working, why DME is not working directly with the clients.
I'll be glad to try to address that Councilmember McGuire.
As a participant in the market here in Texas, we deal with a myriad of different counterparties, one of which is Tanaska.
Tanaska is one of the largest, if not, I think the largest gas manager, natural gas manager in the state. And we have employees that actually work for us. They used to work at Tanaska. And we have business relationship with Tanaska. We have contracts in place with Tanaska.
And so from our perspective, from DME's perspective, this is the best of both worlds or the best of any world because we have a very formidable, recognized, secure, conservative development company that's bringing us a potential project here.
And they're doing all the work on their dime. And they're quantifying and managing the risk, the transaction risk, using their money.
We've invested a fair amount of time and effort on the part of staff to date to try to bring this because of the benefits that we believe the project brings to our community.
So that is why we look favorably on working with Tanaska as opposed to directly with their customers.
Okay, thank you. So I also want to, I guess, address the issue of which, Terry, you mentioned this earlier that this is not a traditional data center. This is a Bitcoin farm, which my understanding is that it uses significantly more energy
than a traditional data center would. I mean, we're, as we've mentioned, we're talking about, you know, building a facility that would use more electricity than the entire city currently uses.
And, you know, I think we need to be, although certainly I think it's great that we're going to purchase RECs and, you know, contract for more renewable energy.
I mean, that's certainly a lot better than powering it through fossil fuels, but I do want us to, I guess, be cautious about the idea that we can just use as much energy as we want, as long as it's renewable.
This is going to still require an enormous amount of infrastructure in order to support this much electricity usage. And, you know, we're talking about huge, huge amounts of infrastructure for a facility that is primarily going to be mining cryptocurrency,
which is a very volatile, you know, it's an inherently volatile industry. Like, what happens to DME or to the city if we build out all this infrastructure and Bitcoin crashes or this company goes under? Where does that leave us?
Well, that's an excellent question, Councilmember McGuire, and rest assured we are taking care of those risks in our contract in the power purchase agreement.
We would not enter into an agreement that would put the city or its DME customers at risk for not covering all our costs or even transferring those costs to our rate base.
So we're very cognizant of those risks and we're addressing them specifically in the power purchase agreement.
Okay, Councilmember Davis.
Thank you, Mayor. Terry, forgive me if you've answered this in one form or another, but I just want to make sure I fully understand the business relationship we're talking about.
There's no financial economic incentive package. There's no, I mean, there's basically no economic development package whatsoever.
We would be the landlord of a land lease. They would build their facility. We would sell them. We would be the utility provider to that facility.
And then the subsequent relationships, and that would all be with Tanaska, and then Tanaska would have subsidiary relationships, client relationships, tenant relationships, or whatever industry terminology is most appropriate for those who buy processing capacity in their facility.
All of those business relationships would be between Tanaska and their customers. Our relationship would be as landlord and utility provider. Is that basically correct?
I think that outlines it well. I think there is the potential that Tanaska could potentially step out of the way after the project's developed, but the client would take on all the obligations of the power purchase agreement as though it were Tanaska.
So the same protections, the same financial security, all of that would be required of whoever the ultimate customer would be if it wouldn't be Tanaska.
And Councilmember Davis, if you could adjust it up. Thank you.
Thank you. If I can use an imperfect analogy, if Tanaska was instead Simon building shopping malls, and Dillard's at some point wanted to buy out the, they were a tenant, and they wanted to buy out the shopping mall
and become the new landlord of the shopping mall or the new, I guess, primary operator of the shopping mall, would that be a close enough analogy to what you're describing?
I believe so. Again, what we've been discussing is that if there was an assignment of the contract, it would be under mirror conditions, so identical terms and conditions.
I think probably a lot of people are familiar with Tanaska for a lot of different things in this space.
I'm not sure I've ever heard them associated with particularly data centers other than how you get the power to the data center and where it comes from and how it's generated.
And I also hear a couple of things that kind of, not exactly red flags, but make me perk my ears up when we talk about this is a data center not like any other data center.
This is a load not like any other load. And recognizing, of course, that if they are our new largest customer, that they will be actively involved, like you said on the phone, actively involved in that load management and helping us manage that load.
Can you tell me more about Tanaska's operation in this space? Is there another project like this that Tanaska has done, or is this kind of their first foray into developing a center like this?
Yeah, I think that's a great question for either Greg or Chris on the phone.
Hi, can you all hear me?
Yes.
Hello?
Yes.
Yeah, this is Greg Kelly. I am president of Tanaska Energy Solutions.
Just a couple things, and I'll not only answer the immediate question, but some of the other fact questions about Tanaska and our role in previous questions.
You know, right now, Tanaska is, you know, we're a Forbes 50 company.
We, in my group and team, are focused on load serving solutions, not only in terms of, you know, loads such as this data center, but also distributed generation and other loads that could enhance Tanaska's business as an overall energy solutions provider.
Importantly, Tanaska Power Services, previously mentioned, is probably the largest energy manager in North America, not affiliated specifically with own generation.
We do a lot of management of assets that other people control, so very similar to what we're talking about here.
We have almost 70,000 megawatts of generation that we manage that are owned by third parties.
We have almost 20,000 megawatts of renewable generation that we manage on a day-to-day basis, most of which is in Texas and in ERCOT, so we have access to the renewable energy credits that were previously discussed in quantity to serve the facility.
Currently, we have another 17,000 megawatts of wind and solar under development across North America, as well as two gigawatts of storage.
And as part of the load management program, we are currently managing a load of crypto currency facilities in Montana, as well in Texas, under other companies besides the customers here.
This is a specific target for us. This computing center is known as a tier zero center, so as mentioned before, it targets computing services that can be scheduled in time.
They're not, you know, typically needing immediacy and are highly interruptible, so in terms of being able to manage the load and put a priority on your native load in Denton, this facility has that unique capability, and those attributes will be built into the power purchase agreement.
In terms of our role here and why is Panaska the sponsor, I would just set it up this way. Given our development footprint, we are a natural sponsor of facilities of this nature.
We are doing all of the high voltage development, equipment procurement, engineering design, and construction on behalf of the data center, ultimately the owner of the data center.
That is not something that they typically do on a day-to-day basis. This is something that we've done multiple times across our facilities in North America, so there's a really good fit there.
And we've been working directly with Denton Municipal Electric's staff in terms of making sure that interface is seamless.
It's important to know that Panaska and its customers will pay all of the capital costs associated with those connections for this facility, so as Terry said, the utility is not at risk for the capital associated with this.
And we also then have a recurring and long-term role, so we'll have a contemporaneous contract as energy management advisor for the data center throughout the term of the PPA that Denton will enter into.
So Panaska will always be there, and I want to point out, you know, our reputation is very, very important to us. We are happy to offer up multiple references that you can contact, independent from us, of municipalities throughout Texas, as well as municipal utilities throughout Texas, that we have very similar roles in.
So very, very open about what we do, and you certainly can check our references in that regard if that's important to you in this process.
So we're, I think the right way to describe it is, we are really dedicated to communities. I think you'll find that our reputation precedes us in a lot of those areas. We are providing services that we are uniquely positioned for that these customers, as Terry mentioned, may not be, and provide a really important service here in the near term.
And in the long term, we'll be providing that energy management service, including that interoperability, as well as the renewable energy credit.
Okay, Councilman Davis.
Thank you, Mayor. Kind of a follow-up to that, Mr. Kelly. I appreciate your answer, and I appreciate, of course, your company and your organization's reputation and experience in this space.
But recognizing that yours is the newest business unit at Tanaska, if I'm not mistaken, and understanding the unique load management expertise and, in this case, capital development expertise.
My question still is, recognizing that you're kind of the lead partner here, maybe that's a better way to think of you all, the lead partner in this development, is this the first partnership and project of this type that Tanaska has taken such a lead role in?
No, it's not. I mean, throughout our history, we, you know, specifically with respect to, I would call it this tier zero computing, it is, just to be perfectly honest, because this is a relatively new space.
You know, you're all familiar with traditional data centers, the more interruptible providing services like video rendering, you know, other types of, call it batch computing services that don't have to run real time.
You know, this is a new growing channel in that industry. But we have done this, for instance, we facilitated and worked in development for a traditional data center called Switch out in Nevada.
And we're, in fact, brought the capital partner. We provided, in that case, because of the size of the facility and the location, and the inability of the existing utility to serve the load the way they wanted it.
We provided, essentially, in a very similar role as a sponsor, access to a newly developed solar facility that provided the requirements for that computing center.
So, this is not our first bite at the apple, as it were. In terms of my role at TANASCA, I've been there since 2011 and ran their traditional development team from 2013 through 2018 before pivoting to this new, what I think is more, you know, exciting space in terms of non-traditional types of applications for things specifically like resiliency.
So, you know, I've done a bulk of the development over the last 10 years for TANASCA, and a lot of the same principles apply. So, for instance, making sure that you are acquiring the appropriate permits for the facility, that you are getting the appropriate approvals, just like we're working through today.
Community relations, we're applying those same strength skill sets that we've used for decades, and that I've used at TANASCA for the last 10 years to make this project a reality.
So, to answer new space, we're applying similar principles, but we've actually done this in a very similar manner in some other projects, and I threw out one example.
Okay. And Council Member Armitage, so time stamp at 6/10. We have a meeting that starts at 6/30. We have the public here. We have this item, one-minute pitches and a closed item to get in in 20 minutes. Council Member Armitage.
Well, in that case, I'll submit my questions in writing.
Can't hear you.
In that case, I will submit my questions in writing.
Okay, got it. Okay, then any other questions? Direction, I guess. Council Member Bet.
Thank you, Mayor. Terry, do we, if we use up all our transmission capacity, what's the upgrade cycle? If we want to have any future projects where we're going to need transmission capacity in North Central Texas?
Sure. Great question. We would not use up all our capacity. We'd still have a fair amount left over after this project would come in. Because we're a municipal-owned utility, we make our own decisions about our investment in transmission, and so it's as quickly as we could make the case to you as Council to make that investment.
All right. Thank you.
Okay, so I guess, did I see your hand, Mayor Pro Tem?
Yeah, I mean, just to kind of help wrap up, I would say I'm just interested in getting to understand our deal structure. I think if it's done right, I'd be more worried if I didn't ask about their set of risks than about ours, but that's depending on the deal structure. So I'm happy to get into closed session.
Okay, and so, Seth, what do you need from us? So the direction we're asking for, Mayor, is one of the things that TANESCO has asked us for is a 120-day exclusivity period on the site. So we're asking your direction to not offer the site to other potential customers for a period of 120 days.
Okay. So is there anyone adverse to that exclusivity? I think I said that close. Council Member Arbiter?
So before I give direction on that, I have to better understand exactly what that means. Are there other -- is the city received other offers for that site? That's the first I've heard of any such thing.
So it seems to me like it's kind of more of a precaution.
Yeah, so this is a growing -- this is a very active space right now, the data center space, and we are talking to other customers about potential operations here in Denton, but nothing compares to the economics that is offered by this particular project.
So we would recommend you move forward with the 120 days.
Okay. Is there anyone that would be adverse to that? Let's -- I can't. Council Member Arbiter, is there any way you can move the microphone closer? We cannot hear you.
Okay. Is this better? No. I don't know.
How about this? Is this better? Much better. Okay, good. I actually -- I put on my headphones because staff asked for those of us who are zooming to do headphones with the microphone, but apparently -- but it's better, at least in my case, without the headphones and microphone.
You can go ahead and ask your question. Anyway, you can hear me? Yes, go ahead. Please.
Okay. So I would need to know -- so in that case, I would need to know more about who these other interested parties are. Before I could say yes to 120 day exclusive period, I need to know, you know, if they're asking for zoning changes, too.
Okay.
I would just need to know a lot more before giving direction on this.
Okay, great. Let me see if there's others. Council Member McGuire?
Thank you. I just want to give my direction, even though I do have some misgivings about this project and I do have some concerns, and I definitely want to know a lot more. I don't see any harm in going forward with a 120 day exclusivity period just while we gain more information and make our decision.
Okay. Is there any other than Council Member Armartha that's against -- are not ready to make decision on the ask, on staff's request? That's what I'm looking for, direction there. So one more time.
Seeing none, then you have direction and B61.
Thank you very much, Mayor.
Thanks. Is that -- that's everything you need for this?
Yes, sir.
Great. Thank you. Okay. So that concludes item D, right? Are we good? Okay, great.
So we have 15 minutes. Yeah, let's do it.
Mayor, can we skip the preamble on the one minute pitches? Just do them?
What's that?
Can we skip the preamble on the one minute pitches? Just get into them?
Sure.
Can we skip my pitch and go right to the NDO?
Wait. Wait. Let's -- let me call item first. So it's EID 21561, receive report, hold discussion, give staff direction on pending City Council request.
So -- so I hear you, Mayor Pro Tem, on the lead up. That's fine. Council Member Armartha, what was your request?
My request was that we skip my scheduled pitch and go to the non-discrimination ordinance, which I think is the most significant and timely pitch.
Okay. Which?
Also, by the way, I will have to recuse myself for the third pitch because it has to do with my employer, University of North Texas.
Okay. Well, that's the second one. Got it. Which one? Is hers the first one? Okay. All right. So we're going to skip one. We're going to go to two. So that's the UNT.
So anyone that's recusing for -- because it has to do with UNT would need to recuse now. And it's item C. And if you can pull up my statement, I'll zoom through this and we'll get feedback.
Council Member McGuire has a question, sir.
Oh, Council Member McGuire.
Thank you. If my husband is employed at UNT, do I need to recuse myself from this?
Well, that was --
That's a determination that you can certainly abstain or you can certainly recuse yourself if you think it's appropriate per our ethics policy.
Okay. But I need to make that decision now. My husband is not in any kind of position to make decisions regarding parking. So I will not recuse.
Okay. Here we go. Stuart.
Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor and Council. I'm Stuart Birdseye, the Assistant to the City Manager. As requested, we will skip this first part. This is your one-minute pitch.
The first item today that we will be discussing is item 2 from Mayor Hudspeth. And it's a work session to discuss authorizing staff to renegotiate the on-street parking ordinance with UNT staff and then bringing that back to the City Council.
Just to mention really quickly that your backup is the current interlocal agreement that we have with UNT. And so with that, I will turn it over to Mayor Hudspeth.
Thanks. And Rosa, do you -- do I keep the time? You keep -- I'll keep the time. I got it. So it will be really quick. Won't even be close to a minute. Here we go.
So, yes, as you can see, this agreement auto renews every year. It's been in place since 2007, seeking to adjust it to -- a lot's changed since 2007. So that's my request. Thank you.
Thank you, Rosa. Okay. Anyone else?
Council Member Davis and then Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
Yeah, I'm okay with revisiting the agreement, having a work session on that. Don't know right now that anything necessarily would change, but I think it's worth taking a look at. It's been a little while.
Got it. Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
Yeah, I'm going to hold, like, a really high bar on work sessions because if we can have three to four more amount of time, three to four times more time for working the 10 and 2040 comprehensive plan, for solid waste strategy, for affordable housing, for addressing homelessness, you know, that's where I want our time spent.
If this one slides, fine with me. I'd rather not spend a work session on it. Not saying it's not merit-worthy, but, you know, I'm after our priorities. I feel the press of time.
Okay. Anyone else?
Council Member Beck.
I'm okay with the work session, but again, I agree with the Mayor Pro Tem that this shouldn't be that high priority an item.
Okay.
Anyone else?
Council Member McGuire.
I concur with Council Member Beck that I'm fine moving forward with a work session, but perhaps place it on a lower priority than some others.
Okay. Thank you. So that's...
Yes, sir.
We have direction low priority.
Yes, sir. Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next request today, let me re-share my screen, is from Council Member McGuire. It is to have a work session to revisit the issue of a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance for the city, and her request is listed there.
And then we put together some basic information about this request in your backup and summarize that here.
So with that, I will stop sharing my screen and turn it over to Council Member McGuire.
Okay.
Do I have time?
Yes, you're good to go, ma'am.
Okay. Thank you. All right. So as several council members mentioned during our flag policy work session, the primary focus of this body needs to remain on policy.
I'm very glad that Mayor Hudspeth is going to be making a proclamation at tonight's meeting in honor of Pride Month, and I would love to see the city flag, pride flag, but to me the higher priority is to develop and pass an ordinance that would protect the residents of Denton from discrimination.
I am proposing a work session to revisit the development of a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance, including but not limited to explicit protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, sex, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, age, and veteran status in the areas of housing employment and public accommodation.
I would also like to discuss the feasibility of protections in the areas of health care and education. I believe that staff has already done a majority of the preparation work to make a work session like this happen.
I would just like to revisit it now that we have a new council. Thank you.
Okay.
Council Member Bet and then Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
Yes, I'd very much like to have that work session. Okay.
Council Member Meltzer.
Sorry. This is on that, on that, you know, list of big things that we've been, in my mind, trying to do for multiple sessions.
And I'd like to ensure that we include pregnant women and people of all races. And I would ask the public to please communicate with us through allies if necessary, as specifically as possible about discrimination experience in Denton, not addressed by some other level of government, you'd like to see the city address so we can do the best job possible.
Okay.
Council Member Davis, Council Member Armitage.
Thank you, Mayor. Very open having the conversation, looking forward to the conversation. It's been something that we've been kind of working our way around to for a little while now since I got on council back in 2019.
And I would say that I think most people who are follow these issues are aware that the Biden administration has been very active in this space, things are a little different now than they were back in 2020.
So as Council Member Meltzer said when people are communicating with us about what they want to see in this space.
You can be very specific and keep in mind that there are certain things are in the city will house and certain things that the federal government is very much active on, and are not in the city's wheelhouse.
Okay, Councilor Armitage.
I very strongly support this there's a lot that's in the city's wheelhouse, including ways that that we can really tighten up on existing federal protections and raise the bar.
I think it's imperative when we had this discussion that we are not the trans people behind by making special carve outs for bathrooms which are one of the most contested spaces for trans people in Denton.
Okay, great.
Council member I mean in agreement with everyone else and us for regarding the non discrimination ordinance that would be just something to look forward to and push us ahead.
Thank you.
Okay, great. So we have direction there as well. So that concludes item.
Third request and item E. So for those tracking along so we have a closed session item that we're going to go take care of in six minutes or less.
So we're going to take a one and a half minute break to switch locations so that we can meet in closed session will be back in here at 630 ish as close to 30 as possible but give me the ish just in case, just walking time.
But we'll be right back for that and we'll start a regular scheduled meeting we have three proclamations. So good to see people in the city hall chambers again. So it's 624, we will take a brief break and go into closed session to an impetus for that is deliberate on
regarding central public power utilities competitive matters under the Texas government code section 551.086 deliberations regarding certain economic development negotiations under Texas government code section 551.087 at 625.
Okay, thank you. And good evening welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council, it is 644pm on June the 15th we do have a quorum so I'll call this regular scheduled meeting to order the first order of business on our agenda is our pledge to the United States and Texas flag please stand with me if you're able.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I honor the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state, under God, one indivisible.
And then we have some special presentations. That's from the Denton County commissioners. So that's item a ID 21633 we have will ask Commissioner Diane Edmondson and committee Commissioner Ryan Williams to join us down front.
So, technically it's four minutes a piece but we'll, since we got started like well, we have and we have your presentation we're loading it up. So we're all set.
Appreciate y'all being here today.
We got it.
Eight total.
I'm counting on you to help me out Ryan.
I'll do that.
Well thank you very much for allowing us to come. I bring greetings to my city council I do live in didn't and it's good to see all of you here tonight. It's been a while since I addressed the Denton City Council, many years ago on several different issues and I'm glad to be back.
So, the reason that I'm here and I am presenting to a lot of city councils in my precinct is because we actually had April declared as national county government month and so we're going to talk to you a little bit about the national declaration of county government month.
But let's start out by introducing ourselves. I'm Commissioner Diane Edmonds and I represent precinct for this is Commissioner Ryan Williams who represents precinct one, and just so you can compare precinct for has about 500 lane miles and precinct one has
a little approximately a little over 700.
So he has more roads than I do he's got a few more people than I do but we're equal one vote each on the court.
We work well together.
So now, looking at the next slide you'll see that I was sworn in January 2019 about and I'm halfway through my first term. I initiated quarterly road updates for the people in my precinct.
I interact with the precinct for town and city officials. I lowered the residents taxes through homestead exemption and a senior tax freeze, and we've completed more than 16 miles of road and bridge reconstruction and paving projects sounds kind of sad 16 miles of 400.
It just tells you how expensive.
It's on zoom how expensive it is to get much accomplished expensive task, unfortunately. Right. I'm Ryan Williams, I'm new, the newest commissioner to the court just came on in January of 2021.
Excited to be involved I was a never been in politics my life.
I'm a CEO of company that's what I did in the past, and I've been very fortunate. I've got a law enforcement background as well.
I'm doing a little bit different aspect to the commissioners court.
It's been wonderful, but didn't kind of resident, most of my life.
I grew up in trophy club and saw the major changes that occurred in that side of town.
And then my family and I moved out to Sanger and to be out in the country where we love it.
It's wonderful to be there and I'm just happy to be here today, and I have approximately 16 cities under that I'm responsible for I should say.
One of the things I'd like to mention is how much we are enjoying partnering with the city of Denton.
We actually have become the model for what we call multi jurisdictional projects with our Crawford word road projects or I'm sure you remember that.
And that's actually going to finish on time where we're so proud of being able to work with you and the city of Argyle and Denton County.
We're also working with the city of Denton on the Bonnie Ray vintage project and on FM 1515 and there hopefully will be more partnerships in the future.
So talking to you about county government. Well, you may or may not realize that counties date back to 1634 in Virginia.
It's one of the oldest forms of government. Denton County was established in 1846.
One of 254 Texas counties today there are more than 3000 US counties that are chartered by state law and state constitutions.
And each of these is tailored to fit the needs and characteristics of the state and their local area.
So with April, as I said, being National County Government Month, I set about to contact all of my municipalities and talk about county government.
I know it's not April. We had this thing called COVID and many of my cities and towns were not meeting in person. So thank you for allowing us to come just a month or so late.
It's also the perfect time to celebrate Denton County and our award winning departments.
I'll start out and let Ryan talk about our budget.
Good. I'm not here to start leaning over. I'll put you back on.
Thank you. That would be helpful. Our budget department is has received a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association.
This award has been received for the last 29 consecutive years and right behind them is our purchasing department with 25 consecutive years of earning that kind of achievement.
I also want to be sure to mention our Veterans Affairs Office, Paul Baschaut, who has received the 2020 Congressional Veteran Commendation. So you can see we've got all kinds of awards in our county.
And I know that you have heard about our TMS, our Texas Motor Speedway Vaccination Clinic.
Just last week, we received a very prestigious award, the 2021 North Central Texas Council of Governments Regional Cooperation Award.
And that's because of all the cooperation with other jurisdictions and we all were after the same goal and we were so thrilled to get that.
Our Public Health Department has also received national accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation Board.
And Denton County's Public Health Department is one of only five agencies to receive this award since its inception, one of only five.
And then our Denton County Medical Reserve Corps have received national recognition.
This is a group of individuals who volunteer to help the Denton County Public Health Department whenever we have an emergency, whether it's a tornado or a flood or a pandemic.
So these volunteers were just awesome. We used about 400 at every clinic that we had and we really, really appreciate their service.
I think what this shows is how well Denton County is doing across the board to so many aspects.
And the budget is one of the biggest ones. Obviously, we've got to make sure that we're spending the taxpayers' monies wisely and that we're also making sure we appropriately count for every dollar that we receive and how we spend it.
And I think that that's a huge accommodation for us along with the others.
We are required by law as county commissioners to receive 16 hours of continuing education each year.
I went to my first clinic before I took office after I had won my election and I learned a lot of things.
For example, I did learn that we were responsible for public health. I didn't really know that before.
However, I have to tell you, in that presentation, no one mentioned the word pandemic or COVID, so it's still a bit of a surprise to find out all that we were required to do.
We've done a good job with that, I think, and I was a baby commissioner at that time and now Ryan's the baby commissioner and I'm the teenage commissioner.
So we're learning and we're enjoying it.
Our first clinic was on January 28th, 2021, and since that time there have been over 500,000 people who signed up on our portal asking to be vaccinated.
We have no more waiting list. Everyone who wants to get a vaccination will be contacted within days to come and be vaccinated.
Now, at TMS, we did over 400,000 vaccinations.
So we just are so appreciative that we were able to do that and provide. We now have, I think, 47% of the eligible people, eligible residents in Denton County are vaccinated.
I think something that's really important here as well. Not only do I think that the county did a phenomenal job.
Obviously, there was a lot of different departments involved in the success that Denton County was able to bring to TMS.
But I tried extremely hard talking to folks that had come through and received their shot to find somebody that wasn't satisfied with something we had or had not done.
And it was actually I never found anybody. And I wasn't like trying to pick and choose.
I was I talked to a good hundred people over the whole time and I just never found somebody that was upset with with the way we handle things.
So I think that again says a lot to to the way that the county handled it. But the volunteers, we could not have been successful without all the volunteers.
Absolutely. And all the cities that work with us. And certainly it was one of those cities that we partnered with. And we thank you so much for that.
Now, we felt that communication was key during this time. And so how did we do that?
Well, we had weekly meetings that were held with more than 80 state municipal chamber and school officials to keep everybody updated on COVID.
And we're currently keeping the Denton County community updated through news releases, newsletters.
By the way, I have a newsletter. If any of you don't get it, contact my office. We'd love to put you on the list and lots of social media platforms.
Now, we received from the Biden administration, pardon me, from the Trump administration, one hundred and forty seven point seven million dollars to be used to offset some of the damage that COVID had done.
We'll be getting another one hundred and seventy two million from the Biden administration. So we have a total of about three hundred and thirty million dollars.
So how did we spend our hundred and forty seven? Well, we wanted to help those people who need it the most here in our county.
And we thought rather than reinventing the wheel, let's find an agency that's already working with the people who need help, our friends and our neighbors and and some of our relatives.
So we decided to work with the United Way of Denton County. And through them, we dispense two point eleven million dollars through fifty four local nonprofits.
And they have just done a wonderful job. There's lots of specifics we could tell you, but I think that gives you a good overview.
I think one of the biggest things that we were able to accomplish is is obviously feeding the needy.
There was a lot of needy people during this time and they needed food. So that was one area that we were able to to help out with.
We were able to help out with the housing relief for folks, obviously, that were out of work and needed to still pay their bills.
Instead of we didn't we didn't send the money directly to the individual, though they had to put in for it.
It went to the landlord, right, to make sure those dollars went where they were supposed to go with their earmark for.
And I think that was a it was a huge relief for a lot of people. And I was very excited to be a part of that.
The business grants was another area I thought that was extremely important.
The last thing you want to do is see a lot of your small businesses fail because they're obviously during COVID, everything was locked down.
People weren't able to come and spend their their hard earned money with with our local in the local economy with our local businesses.
So with that said, we were able to help out a lot of the local businesses and hopefully that helped them over the hump to get back where we are today,
where everything's flourishing again, which we want to keep that obviously that mindset.
We did if you'll go back just we did distribute almost 40 million dollars to twenty four hundred fifty four local businesses.
And the average award there was a little over twenty five thousand.
We could have awarded up to fifty thousand if they met the qualifications.
One thing I'd like to mention concerning the food that we were talking about.
We found that a lot of the local food banks couldn't handle fresh fruits and vegetables because they didn't have a proper refrigeration system.
So we were able to use some of those monies and buy large refrigeration systems for several food banks.
So now they'll be having access to more healthy foods.
So I know we're running out of time, so we're going to highlight these really quickly and I want to make sure that obviously Commissioner Edmondson gets to say the things that are not that everything on here is not important.
But obviously we don't get a chance to sit in front of the council very often and talk to everybody's constituents.
So we want to make sure we hit those areas.
So if you've got a couple of things that you want to hit, go ahead with this.
This is a new thing we just really learned about today.
This is through the United Way. They want to provide a bridge to resources for both seekers of employment and employers seeking people to work.
And that'll help get households back to work.
You can see the chart here shows that almost half of our residents in Denton County are unemployed but seeking a job.
There are a few that are fully employed.
There are some that are underemployed and some that are just unable to work.
But it's so important. We all see the help wanted signs all over.
Why are those still there when there are people who want to work?
We want to try to help put the two together.
There's a QR code that can be used by anyone who would like to check on that.
So it kind of gives you an idea of the disbursement again right there, the follow up disbursements of how that went within the communities and the cities that received monies.
Yes. As a matter of fact, that's my favorite picture.
Hold on. We'll get there. We gave Denton $7.6 million of the CARES and I know you all are passing that down as well to the people who needed it in the city of Denton.
So Uncle Sam came calling and with money.
Now, there's no way if he was saying I'm from the government and I'm here to help you, we might not have believed him.
But he came loaded with money. So we were glad to see Uncle Sam.
We actually got $147.7 million in the first CARES Act and then $172 million coming in the next one.
We're urging everyone, because the cities are also getting some of that kind of money, to be careful and not just jump out and spend it like a teenager with a handful of cash.
Because there's only interim rules in place right now. We don't know what the final rules will be.
Once we found that out with the first batch, we were able to make sure we followed the letter of the law so that we wouldn't have to return any of that money.
Well, there may be areas that you don't know you can spend money on because it's not in the first few allowances.
But now, at the end, they end up putting more in and we can utilize those funds in multiple places.
Anyway, we are learning more about that. If any of you need more information on it, please feel free to contact us.
We're not far from finished.
We have eight major sources here of funding and you can see what they are.
I think everybody knows a major way that a county is funded is by property tax.
And when I was campaigning, one of the things that I found out was that most of the property tax in Denton County is paid by homeowners.
And only about 20% is paid by businesses. So that is why economic development is so important.
We need to balance this better so that the businesses are helping take some of that burden off of the homeowners.
And that's something that we are working hard to do.
Economic development is really, really big for us.
Now, this is the way our annual property taxes break down for the average home here in Denton County.
As you can see, the average home price or value is $341,090.
That was before the housing market just blew up.
I'm sorry. One thing I want to make sure everybody understands.
The Kichmishers Court does not set the value of your home.
Absolutely. That's right.
We have nothing to do with that.
Just the appraisal district does that.
We do set the tax rate, however.
So as we continue to have a nice conservative tax rate, it will help keep your taxes as low as possible.
As you can see here, the school district has the lion's share of where those taxes go.
Then comes the city and finally the county. We have only about 10% that goes to the county.
But that's one reason we wanted to adopt a senior tax freeze and a homestead exemption last year.
We knew that even though our taxes were small, the city had already adopted a senior tax freeze here.
The school districts have to, so we felt the county should join in too.
This is a chart showing the top 15 Texas counties by their county tax rate, and that includes all kinds of taxes.
Here we are clear at the end. We're lower than any of these others.
If you look at Hidalgo County, which is down in the valley, they have a 90 cent tax rate, and ours is like two.
So we are fiscally conservative, and as Ryan said, we try to do everything that we can to make it very efficient and effective.
Mandated by law and the Constitution are these services that are shown here, and it's a lot.
A lot of them, as I said, I didn't realize when I became a commissioner.
We have a little over 1,800 employees here in Denton County, and these are some of the things that we're responsible for.
I do want you all to know that we have some new courts coming online because as we're growing, that judicial system needs to grow as well.
So we actually have a new district court, hold on, get back to it, a new district court and new county court of law that will be starting January 1st.
Okay, now these are the boards and commissions that we're responsible for appointing people to.
Right now, I don't know of any openings and I don't think Ryan does either, but if any of you are interested in serving on any of these boards and commissions or anyone here today,
just get your resume to us and we'll take a look as soon as we have an opening for one of these boards and commissions.
It's a good way for people to serve.
Now, the elephant in the room is, of course, the growth that Denton County is experiencing.
We are one of the fastest growing counties in the entire state, if not the entire nation.
82 people a day move into Denton County and I think most of them move into my precinct, maybe a few of them go into Ryan's.
But anyway, it is explosive growth and we're estimating that by 2023 we'll have a million people as residing in Denton County.
Right in my precinct, we already have more than 40,000 homes, additional homes that have been platted or planned in various housing communities.
So that'll mean at least 140,000 new residents in precinct four.
Ryan, you're going to get a lot of new folks too, I'm sure.
So I want to tell you real quickly about recent changes in your county government.
First of all, we have created a deputy county administrator position and Jody Gonzales, who was head of our emergency services, has taken that position.
He reports directly to Commissioner's Court.
We put together the transportation and engineering departments so that we now just have one department that oversees all of those roads and bridges, et cetera.
And it will really make for better road projects for us.
That means that your commissioners are no longer ex officio road commissioners.
We will now advocate for projects within our commissioner precincts, but that engineering and transportation department will be in charge.
There are many future regional road projects where we're going to be partnering with TxDOT, with you all, and with others.
So we'd like to just leave by saying partnership is the key.
There are 18 municipalities in precinct four and 16 in precinct one.
Working together, we can make our part of Denton County a great place to live, work, and play.
We're looking forward to working with you.
Great. Thank you very much. Appreciate that.
Thank you. I know we're moving over.
That's good.
So thank you. And so that will be online for those watching as well if they want to revisit it.
I know that was quick, but that if you on from our city web page, they can go grab the link.
You can grab the link, share it if you want to show, you know, kind of.
And if you need a clip of that, let me know.
And I'll work with our folks and get you kind of carved out.
If anybody else has any questions of either one of us, you can go to DentonCounty.gov and it'll take you very easily.
They can navigate to find either one of us.
Perfect. So thank you so much.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Appreciate all your partnership.
Okay. Bye-bye.
Okay. That takes us to our next switch of proclamations.
We have three. We have a proclamation for Chronic Migraine Day.
We'll start there.
The next would be Delta Kappa Gamma Day.
And they have a big convention in town.
And then we have the LGBTQ Pride Month Proclamation.
That will be third.
So we'll get started with the first.
And I'll come down.
Okay.
Well, like I said, we'll start off with Migraine Day.
And if there's anyone that wants to come down with you, they're more than welcome to come down here.
So we go way back by proxy with your mom.
So this is great.
This is good.
It's good.
Okay.
And so do you want to -- before we read the proclamation, you want to tell people a little bit about why we're here and kind of your experiences?
Hi. I'm Kinsey Kish. I am Miss North Texas Teen.
I have experienced migraines until -- since I was a very, very young child.
It hit my family pretty hard.
And migraines are something you can't see.
I have struggled with people not believing me, my teachers not believing me.
And so I'm here today to raise awareness.
And I'm starting by my hometown and hopefully building up to make this a national day.
Thank you.
All right.
And I'm going to make the words bigger so that I don't mess it up that much.
Okay.
All right.
You're awesome.
You're too kind.
All right.
So here we go.
So proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, Texas to whom these presents shall come.
Greetings.
Whereas chronic migraine disease is a genetic neurological condition characterized by episodes called attacks, which occur at least eight times per month with a total of 15 or more headaches per day.
And month.
Whereas chronic migraine disease impacts all systems of the body with symptoms that include pain, nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, visual disturbances, tinnitus, chills, fatigue, impaired cognitive function and numbness and weakness all lasting from four to 72 hours on average.
And whereas the condition is leading -- is the leading cause of disability among all neurological disorders and over 20% of people with chronic migraine disease are disabled.
And whereas those with chronic migraine disease tend to experience more social stigma related to the disease than those with other neurological disorders including stroke, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.
And whereas four million Americans have chronic migraine disease including persons with the city of Denton who should -- who shoulder this burden while making meaningful contributions to our community.
And whereas the city of Denton would like to highlight the effects of the chronic -- of chronic migraines for our residents and encourage greater understanding of the impacts of this often hidden and misunderstood disease.
Now therefore I Gerard Hutz with mayor of the city of Denton, Texas do hereby declare and proclaim that the 29th day of June 2021 as chronic migraine day.
So if we can give her a hand.
Here we go.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you all very much.
Okay.
Next we have Delta Kappa Gamma.
All right.
Good evening.
Hi.
Do you want to tell us a little bit about your organization?
Delta Kappa Gamma is the largest international honorary women's education group in the world.
We are -- have chapters in every state in the United States and 16 other countries.
I am the president of the Texas state organization which is the largest organization of all of them.
In Texas we have currently 230 chapters.
Wow.
Wow.
So everything is bigger in Texas.
Congratulations.
That's fantastic.
Thank you all for being here.
And then your -- your -- your convention is --
Our convention starts tomorrow at the embassy suites and we expect over 650 people.
Wow.
We appreciate you all being here.
Okay.
Here we go.
Mayor -- mayor of the city of Denton, Texas -- it's a proclamation by the mayor of the
city of Denton, Texas to -- to all whom these presents shall come.
Greetings.
Whereas the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International -- Delta Kappa -- let me get that right.
Delta Kappa Gamma Society International unites the women educators of the world in a genuine
spiritual fellowship and whereas the society advances the professional interest and position
of women in education as it stimulates the person -- personal and professional growth
of its members and encourages their participation in appropriate programs of action and whereas
the members of Delta Kappa Gamma inform other members of current economic, social, political,
and educational issues so that they may participate effectively in a world society and whereas
Delta Kappa Gamma endows scholarships to aid outstanding women educators in pursuing graduate
study and grant fellowships to non-member women educators and whereas the Delta Kappa
Gamma Society honors women who have given or who possess the potential for distinctive
service in any field of education and whereas these efforts benefit the children and residents
of the state of Texas, now, therefore, I, Gerard Hutzpeth, mayor of the city of Denton,
Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the 18th day of June 2021 as Texas State Organization
Delta Kappa Gamma Day in the city of Denton and encourage all citizens to join me in recognizing
the impact these women have made on our community and thank -- and thank and support those who
serve our children. Thank you very much. Give them a hand.
Thank you very much for being here. I sure appreciate it. Thank you all for being here.
Okay. All right. And would everyone that would like to come down for the proclamation for
Pride Month? Please. Thank you. Sorry. Everyone will come down associated with Pride Month.
Those interested? Great. And I'll let you introduce yourself and speak.
Sure. My name is Enedelia Sauceda. My pronouns are she/her/hers and I'm on the board for
Pride Denton and Outreach Denton. We have several Pride Month activities happening. We're only
halfway through our calendar this Thursday. We are having a disability pride panel to
talk about the lived experience of those who are disabled and queer and trans. It'll be
educational and hopefully a great learning opportunity for folks to be able to talk about
their stories. We're also celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Outreach Denton, a
local LGBT organization that has done so much for our community and we hope to have a very
positive celebration with them at Harvest House on Friday the 25th, I'm going to say.
So, yes, thank you very much for everybody who's been so supportive. We love seeing the
support around the businesses and organizations around town. Ain't shy to show those rainbows.
Hi, everyone. My name is Kathleen Hobson. I use they/them pronouns and I serve as the
director of the Pride Alliance at the University of North Texas, which is the gender and sexuality
resource office. We are going into our eighth year being on campus. I'm also part of the
Pride Denton team as a founding member and happy to be here to represent today.
Good evening. Thanks for having us here. My name is Nina Chantana Puma. I'm a steering
committee member of Outreach Denton, resident of Denton for almost 10 years and also a teacher.
I'm also a firm believer that actions speak louder than words, so while I appreciate today's
proclamation, I would also like to encourage everyone to discuss a nondiscrimination ordinance
for the city to protect the LGBT community here in Denton. Thank you.
Hi, I'm Emily Ramzer. I use she/they pronouns. I am also a steering committee of Outreach
Denton as well as an educator and GSA sponsor, which means I work with LGBTQ youth in Denton.
I would also like to second Nina's call for more discussion on the NDO and to urge city
councils to really think about that and put it into place to protect our LGBTQ residents.
Hi, my name is Leslie Gutierrez. I use she/her pronouns. I'm the executive director of the
Denton County Democratic Party. This is my third proclamation with a lot of faces on
this council and the third time I'm making this request that we take the consideration
of a nondiscrimination ordinance seriously. If cities like Mesquite, Plano, Austin, Dallas,
Houston, and Fort Worth can pass comprehensive ordinances to protect their citizens, then
why can't Denton, arguably one of the greatest cities that most of us have lived in, do the
same to protect our citizens?
Good afternoon. My name is Camion Connor. I use she/her pronouns. I am on the board
for Pride Denton. I'm a founding member and very proud to have spent five years dedicated
to Outreach Denton, which I want to additionally add. Outreach Denton is a local organization
that provides mentorship and safe space for LGBT youth. And if you've been paying attention
to this recent legislative session in Texas, you know how needed that is. And that is one
of the reasons I would also like to urge council to move forward with passing a comprehensive
nondiscrimination ordinance in our city. And I'd also like to point out that I'm very proud
to be here for the third time also accepting this proclamation, but also to point out the
diversity amongst our LGBTQ identified community members here in Denton. There's a lot of diversity
here. And as you heard, we're going to be having a panel on Thursday around folks with
disabilities. They also have a lot of intersecting identities. And I want the people of Denton
and the city council to understand that our community is very diverse and we have a lot
of needs and we really want you to support us. Sorry, I just want to add an additional
thing. I had mentioned that I work for the University of North Texas. We're right now
in the middle of all of our orientation sessions. Most of the students who we serve at orientation
share that they choose to come to UNT because it's one of the most diverse universities
that they have the opportunity to attend. Many of them are attending because of the diversity
racial and ethnic diversity at UNT. Many of them are attending for the diversity around
gender identity and sexuality and would like to also put our support behind the passing
of a non-discrimination ordinance. I believe that as the city of Denton, in addition to
UNT, we have to uphold our responsibility to serve the folks and protect them. They're
coming here as part of the city of Denton and we should be able to keep them safe as
they are students here. Thanks.
Thank you very much. Very well said. Thank you all for being here very much and for your
advocacy. Okay. It says a proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, Texas to
all whom these presents shall come. Greetings. Whereas June is the recognized anniversary
of the stonewall uprising in New York as the beginning of the modern lesbian gay bisexual
transgender queer LGBTQ is the acronym, equality movement. And whereas during this month of
June, LGBTQ pride month is celebrated nationally and recognizes the tireless efforts of the
LGBTQ and allied groups who have pursued equality for all citizens in Texas and this country.
And whereas on June 27th, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of
Ogre-Perfell et al. v. Hodges, director of the Ohio Department of Health et al. ruled
that the constitution grants same sex couples the same right to marry that heterosexual
couples have and whereas on June 15th, 2020, the Supreme Court decided that and forgive
me if I'm not saying these names right, Bostock v. Clayton, that Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 covers sexual orientation and gender identity, making it illegal for employers
to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity and now therefore I, Gerard
Hutsworth, mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the month of
June 20, 2021 as Denton LGBTQ pride month in the city of Denton and ask for all citizens
to celebrate the work of the LGBTQ community in promoting diversity and tolerance in our
community and throughout our country. Give them a hand.
Thank you all very much, I sure appreciate it, I really appreciate it.
Okay, that takes us to our next, which is oh, okay, sorry.
Representative Meltzer. Before the folks who are here for pride month
leave, I hope someone will let them know that it was an hour and 20 minutes ago that council
gave direction to take up an NDO in a work session.
Okay, Councilmember Armitage. Yes, I did. Just wanted to thank
Denton and amazing local LGBTQ+ where I can continue to want to, and I'm proud to serve
you and thank you. Okay, and so we have a few registered callers
or speakers and then we have a few that did not so that signed up today so that's the
first up would be Eva H and forgive me if I say this wrong, Cadwaller regarding opposition
to rezoning and PD of the brown tract. Is Eva here or is she calling?
She is over the phone mayor and we are transfer her in now.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Eva, are you there?
Give us just one second, if you will, please. Sorry for the delay.
Thank you. There she is mayor.
Hello, Eva. Yes. Okay, if you could give us your name and address and then you can begin
to make your comments you'll have 44 minutes. Yes. My name is Eva Cadwaller. My address
is 3920 Fong Drive, Denton, Texas 76208. Okay, go right ahead.
Thank you. I protest any rezoning of the brown tract to
any PD. Here are six objections. First, our dangerous traffic congestion at the intersection
of Kings Row and Loop 288 is already unacceptable. We are bottlenecked. Getting in or out during
school pick up hours is virtually impossible. The brown tract addition would make it completely
impossible. We are trapped. Second, situations that can block the intersection
include a fire, a traffic accident, an explosion, hazardous fumes, a storm or even a simple
mishap in the heavy school traffic congestion. A resident can have a stroke, a heart attack,
a bone breaking fall or any other medical emergency that requires immediate ability
to get out for medical help or one that requires an emergency vehicle to get in fast. The ability
to get in and out quickly can be a matter of life and death. Already we don't have
that ability. This PD would make things far more dangerous. Third, the safety not only
of Deerwood, Oakwood Bend and Ferris Road residents but also of Hodge Elementary school
children and staff is a serious issue. Real people, not machine traffic counters placed
in un-busy, irrelevant times of the day and week, need to just try getting in or out during
school pick up hours. The bumper to bumper line of cars is mostly impassable on our two
lane road. Passing the many school buses is physically impossible. No road modifications
proposed by Kimley Horne even begin to fix this. An additional housing development bordering
our neighborhood on the east has been proposed. Who knows how many more PDs might be on the
way. Until new access roads are built, any housing development will loom as a constant
threat to all drivers and pedestrians. Fourth, are the serious drainage and some flooding
problems we already have on Fawn, Antlerk and Deerfield streets. They would become far
worse if this PD were approved. Fifth, what would this PD do to the character of our neighborhood
and the quality of our lives? Some of us came here to spend the rest of our days in quiet
scenic beauty. Others to bring up young children in peace and safety. The brown track PD would
defeat these goals. Next to an R3 neighborhood with custom built homes, a high density PD
is inappropriate. Those smaller, closer houses might soon be renter occupied, followed by
a deep drop in our property values. Finally, as a taxpayer, I ask, what exactly does the
City of Denton have to gain from forcing this PD onto protesting residents? Maybe some immediate
and short-term revenues, but wouldn't short-term gains soon be far outweighed by long-term
losses by infrastructure expenditures in a few years? To conclude, I oppose approving
this PD and any rezoning of the brown track until new highway access and infrastructure
are built. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much for your comments and let me see if we
have any questions. We have one. Are you still there, Eva? I'm there. Okay. We have one question
for you. Councilmember Amater? Yes. Yes. So first, thank you, Eva, for speaking. I recently
met with a number of residents of that area and the concerns that they shared with me
are very much akin to yours. If you noticed, I'm sure you did, that this PD was supposed
to be on the agenda today for a public hearing and has been cancelled. Yes, I'm very well.
I don't know the reason for the cancellation, but I know that these concerns that you mentioned
are taking it as a good sign, this postponement, for people who are concerned because I think
that there are legitimate concerns that are pretty obvious. I'm sorry, what? You're breaking
up. Okay. Okay. Sorry about my connectivity. No problem. Any other questions? Seeing none.
Okay. Thank you, Eva. Okay. That takes us to our next speaker this evening, which is
Scott Hazard regarding how the city distributes solar rebates. Is that a call as well, Stuart?
Yes, sir. We are sending him into the meeting now. Thank you. Good evening. Hello. Mr. Scott?
Yeah. Yep. I say Mr. Hazard better said Scott. So, if you could give us your name and address
and then you can proceed to make your statement, you'll have four minutes. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. My name is Scott Hazard. I live at 3000 Megan Street, Denton 76209. The reason
why I'm addressing you guys this evening is to ask you if you would consider the way that
you distribute solar rebates to people. As I understand it now, if you get a solar system
installed in a given year after that money has run out and before September 30th, you
could even apply for it for the next year. I think this is a very unfair way of doing
this. I think there's a way that you could do this where everybody who applies for it,
who qualifies for it will get it, even if it takes them a year or two of waiting to
get it. I understand there's a finite amount of money. I'm not asking you for more money
for this program. If you have more money for this program, I don't think there's a better
time to put more money in this program, but I'm not going to be the one asking for more
money for it. What I'm asking for is a more fair and equitable way to distribute the money
that you have. And honestly, even if you reduce the amount that you give to individual homeowners
who install a solar program, to be able to make the money benefit more people, I think
that would be fine too. I just think the way that it's done now benefits those who are
really kind of in the know. And I've just installed my solar system, and by the time
I found out about this, I had already signed the contract. It was too late for me to say,
well, let's do this in September. My neighbor right across the street, the very same thing
happened to them. They didn't even know about this program. I think now is the time that
you really should be -- we should all be pushing alternative energy to try to relieve some
of the pressure from our grid. And I think that letting people know that you're going
to start distributing this money in a more fair and equitable way is a way to do that.
>> That's all I've got to say. I appreciate your consideration. I'm happy to answer any
questions anybody might have. >> Okay. Any questions? Okay. We have one.
If you're -- are you there? >> Yes.
>> Okay. Councilmember Armitage has a question. Councilmember Armitage?
>> Yes. So, Scott, thank you for speaking. I concur that we're not doing enough to promote
our solar rebates. And I was wondering if you know that we have -- there's a new council.
And if you have considered e-mailing, not only -- and I know you've e-mailed council
and we've communicated on this, but also e-mailing the sustainability committee to ask that they
prioritize solar rebates and that is something that, you know, any member --
>> You're breaking up pretty good. I believe you asked me to e-mail the sustainability
committee. And if that's what you're asking, I would be happy to do that. I'll be happy
to e-mail anybody you'd like for me to e-mail. I believe that's what you were asking me.
And if I'm wrong about that, I apologize. But I was missing some words in your statement.
>> I'm sorry. My connectivity is bad. But yes, you read my mind. And I think this is
the way that we're heading. People are concerned about their electric bills. And the grid is
very vulnerable. And so this is a great way to reduce people's grid.
>> It is. And there was also a bit that we generated in our first month of having solar
power, we generated about a 30% surplus, which the city buys back from us at 3 cents a kilowatt
hour and turns around and sells to our neighbors at 13.8 cents a kilowatt hour. So this really
is a win-win for everybody. If you have enough solar systems out there like the one I have
on my house, which is not fancy, it's your run-of-the-mill solar system, if you have
enough of these out there, it really will make a difference. And it really will fill
in some of the gaps even above and beyond the homes that have the solar systems.
>> Okay. Well, thank you very much. And I think, staff, do we have Mr. Hazard's e-mail
address so we can just follow up with him? If not, yeah, we'll get you that information
to you, Mr. Hazard. >> You do. Thank you. And Councilwoman Armentuer,
I will follow up with you with an e-mail. >> Great. Thank you. Okay.
>> Have a great night, folks. >> Likewise. Thank you. Okay. So now we have
open mic speakers. The first is Eric Pruitt. Good evening. So if you will give us your
name and address, you will have four minutes to speak and understanding the rules of procedure.
We can't ask questions of you, but we can note those things and give staff direction,
that's what I think. >> Thank you. Eric Pruitt, 2111 Westwood Drive.
I'd like to provide some history on just what I've done as a resident concerning the North
Texas Boulevard bike lane possibility this year and why I think maybe this project as
well as our processes to follow our plans can possibly be improved. So on February 16th,
the RFQ for the 2020 Street Reconstruction Bundle was posted on the procurement site.
And it's a riveting website. I ensure you will have a lot of fun if you go there instead
of Netflix. But unlike previous bid packs, this one actually included the drawings which
included the striping plans for North Texas Boulevard. So thanks to staff for that. And
North Texas Boulevard did not include a bike lane or a road diet. Then April 15th, staff
did a great job of holding a public meeting. I attended and asked about the bike lanes
on North Texas Boulevard since they're shown on our draft mobility plan. Staff was very
responsive and got back to me. And they confirmed that the plan so far does not include bike
lanes at this time. But they would continue to look into it. I completely understand we
have extenuating circumstances. Last year was crazy. We're understaffed. The bike coordinator
position has been vacant for a better part of a year. We've lost a traffic engineer catching
up on many deferred capital projects. The 2019 mobility plan process has taken over
two years. I believe the contract was approved April 29th, 2019. So I get it. It's hard,
right? I guess my goal here is please don't look for somebody to blame. But let's try
to fix a systemic problem that I'm worried may continue if we don't. So how do we do
that? Well, we need a redundant layered approach so that we don't have a single point of failure,
right? Identify and reassign critical efforts of staff when we have vacancies. We need to
share just high-level plans and goals and projects with the public when it's appropriate.
Just as one aside, I noticed in backup earlier this year in a contract for the traffic circle
on North Texas Boulevard just south of 35E, that contract mentioned the following quote.
It says it is anticipated the public meeting will happen after the final design task is
completed and prior to construction beginning. So just submit that. And one thing I think
we need to consider strongly is establishing a process for reviewing striping plans, whether
it's after a reconstruction, whether it's after a mill and overlay or a micro seal operation,
right? Once you replace the blacktop, you have to restripe it somehow. So let's think
about how it's done. Perhaps maybe Traffic Safety Commission could look at this or a
similar body. I don't know what's best. But let's think about it. I don't think this is
a one-off problem. I've used the Engage Denton app after every micro seal was performed in
my neighborhood over the past 14 years to get crosswalks repainted at a Collector Street
intersection. Staff has always been very fast and fixing this, right? But it's like the
paper in the file cabinet has been lost every time. The same forgetfulness in prior bike
plans occurred along Avenue A and portions of Hercules Lane within the last couple years.
So it's not just a one-off. And I'm worried the same thing might happen in the future
we've got Sycamore and Mill Street potentially in Southeast Denton that could happen the
same thing again. So, you know, North Texas Boulevard I think is crucial because it connects
a lot of existing bike infrastructure that we've already paid for. You've got Hickory,
you've got Oak, you've got Highland, and then you've got a path to the UNT pedestrian
bike bridge, right? So let's fix this instance and then think about how we can fix the process
and make this thing move better next year and beyond. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay. And the next speaker is Julie Anderson. Hey, Julie, thank you for being
here. If you could give us your name and address and then you'll have four minutes.
Great. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Council, and city staff. My name is Julie Anderson.
I live at 721 North Wood Street in District 1. I recently moved back to Denton after a
short stint in Austin because I love this Denton community. I'm here today because
I am frustrated. I love this city. I love this community. And it makes me frustrated
to see us choosing to ignore not only our adopted bike, our adopted plans by city council,
but also entire segments of our population, those people that choose to ride a bike as
a means of transportation. People that bike live here and work here in this community.
They raise kids here. People that bike pay property taxes, sales tax, pay rent, and contribute
to our overall sense of community. People that bike do all of these things and yet are
often overlooked when we are planning our transportation network. In 2011, Denton citizens
and city staff dedicated their time to creating Denton's very first bike plan, which was adopted
by city council February 12th, 2012. Their work led to the allocation of dedicated funding
to implement that bike plan, led to the hiring of a dedicated staff person to implement that
plan, and led to the -- and directly led to the bike lanes, sharos, and paths that we
now have. A bikeway network does not spring to life fully connected. It takes ongoing
and dedicated planning, building a bike lane here, a shared use path there, sometimes we're
moving on street parking here to make room for a bike lane that creates a connected network
that allows people to get to where they want to go. Because people on bikes have the same
goals as people that drive. We just want to get to our destination. I'm concerned that
in the absence of dedicated staff, the last several years have seen a divestment in commitment
implementing the bike plan. I am concerned that an entire adopted bike plan can be sidelined
because a single position goes unfilled. I am concerned that there is not a process in
place that requires the checking of adopted plans and policies before committing to a
roadway design. Because of this, there are several roadway projects, as mentioned earlier
by Eric, that are not accounting for the bike plan and therefore contributing to the unconnected
bike network. I am concerned that Denton is moving further away from becoming a bicycle
friendly city instead of closer. It only benefits our city when we have options for getting
around. There will never be enough space for us to continue to build our roadways for single
occupancy vehicle use. We must take the opportunity now to provide options for those that choose
to take modes other than driving. I may be here today because I am frustrated, but really
it is because I love the city and I know we are capable of great things. Because we are
the best city in Texas, possibly in America, maybe even the world. I don't know. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. The next speaker, Donald Cox.
Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. My name is Donald J. Norman Cox and my mailing address
is post office box 2877 Denton, Texas, 76202. Today, full disclosure, I ignore most of the
things that you do. It's just not interesting. But today I got a lot of phone calls from
people regarding the flag and flagpole issue and all of that. And so I tuned in and I heard
Mayor Hutzpeth say something about if you're speaking on behalf of someone, make sure you
know what you're talking about. So I wrote the encyclopedia on Juneteenth. I'm speaking
on behalf of accuracy. If you're going to come up with a policy or whatever regarding
flags, especially in this particular case that we're talking about, Juneteenth flag,
there is no such thing as an official Juneteenth flag. Therefore, if I decide that I'm going
to go up and ask you permission to run my flag up the pole and someone else comes to
do the same thing, you have put yourself into a position where you've got to decide which
flag is legitimate. You know, there is no legitimate flag. I ask you to please, as you
move forward with this, side with the Texas Juneteenth, not the national Juneteenth. If
you don't know the difference between the two, I would encourage you to use the library
that you are financing this Thursday. They will have a discussion about that in the afternoon.
I don't know four minutes. I don't have the time on me, so I'm going to quit while I'm
ahead right now.
You have two more minutes.
Oh, well, in two minutes. Let me say a little more, you know.
Because of the origin of what we celebrate as Juneteenth, there is no ownership. There
is no official Juneteenth committee. We need to accurately celebrate it. We should do it
the way that we celebrate Christmas. You know, everybody has a Christmas tree if they choose
to have a Christmas tree. But there is no official Christmas tree at so-and-so's house,
and so-and-so gives permission. The flag that you have seen that is flown all over the nation
is actually the private property of an individual who copyrighted it. I am offended by that,
because to me it says that someone can copyright the United States flag, and I ain't having
that. You know? I don't see where we need to buy into that particular thing. We are Texans.
Somebody in Massachusetts or wherever decided that that is the appropriate thing. I'm not
ready for that. And I ask that you -- it applies to what you are, the decision that you are
making, because you're putting yourself in the position of deciding what is legitimate,
what is not. There are too many myths surrounding Juneteenth, including that ridiculous story
that it took two and a half years for news to get to Texas. No, it didn't. That's just
one of the many lies that we tell. It's a legend that has passed down the line. The
legend of the flag is another one. Let's get past that and do something. I support the
idea of having a flagpole that anybody that wants to run a flag up the pole, you know,
on a given day that they -- fine, given that day, I don't have a problem with the Confederacy
putting up their flag on Texas Confederate Heroes Day, primarily because nobody knows
what the Texas Confederate flag looks like anyway. It's not the stars and bars. So if
everybody saw it, they would keep right on going, just like they do at Six Flags. They
go in happy, they come out happy, right passing by the Confederate flag. Bottom line is, change
your focus. I hope you put up a flagpole that we can all use and celebrate whatever we celebrate.
Anybody can celebrate. But please don't make this more than what it really is. It's not
that my two minutes are up.
>> Thank you, Mr. Cox.
>> Okay.
>> Yes, sir. Okay. There by phone, we have two more commenters. There's William Freeman.
So Stuart, if you can --
>> Yes, sir. We are sending him in now.
>> Mr. Freeman.
>> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> Hello? Mr. Freeman?
>> Is this the mayor?
>> If you could give me your name and address, then you'll have four minutes to speak. You're
on with the Denton City Council.
>> My name is William Freeman. I live in District 3. I'm calling in opposition to any replacement
of my national or state flag for any reason and for any cause. No matter how much you
dress it up in linguistic subterfuge, the fact is this is all really just a red herring
to exercise the aversion many people have to this nation. I think the saying goes, "Whom
the gods would destroy, they would first make mad." And when I heard the news that the city
was considering replacing my flags, I mean, I had to -- I mean, I must consider that my
city must have gone mad. When you talk about pride flags and we try to turn it into this
really happy-go-lucky, resounding and ecstatic, you know, motivation, we really fail to look
at some serious issues that the gay community faces. For us to deny or ignore these issues
is really to only enable people into, you know, dangerous and in other ways self-harmful
positions. For instance, gay promiscuity among homosexual men can reach up to five, sometimes
eight times that of their heterosexual counterparts. This is, you know, this is a health hazard.
When you talk about the amount of intimate partner violence that goes on in gay relationships,
you can see how this can become a serious issue. Lesbian domestic abuse stats are also
important to note because they seem to be about twice that of their heterosexual counterparts.
The partner rape in lesbian communities is also about twice that of heterosexual partners.
I think the biggest issue for me is trans adolescence. What I can only describe as a
munchausen by proxy, this is a form of child abuse and it must be stopped in this country.
It turns out that -- >> Does this fit with our rules of the quorum?
>> Does this fit with our rules of the quorum? >> You can't interrupt the caller. You'll
have to wait. >> Okay. I just thought it might just disrupt
our rules of the quorum. >> I understand the need to censor me, but
I'm speaking in good faith and with a concern for my countrymen.
>> I understand. Please complete your comments. >> Trans suicide rates in adolescents -- actually
suicide rates among adolescents is out of control in this country and it's only going
up. Trans suicide rates, especially among adolescents, is somewhere around 46%. That
percentage has actually ticked up a few over just the last few years. Some people will
say this is due to public pressure or scrutiny or discrimination, but if we look at post
operation trans adolescents, their suicide rates are actually higher than pre-op. This
kind of eliminates any need for that argument. Again, this is munchausen by proxy. This is
child abuse. In the book of Luke, it says that it would be better to be thrown into
the ocean with a stone attached to our neck than to mislead these youngsters.
When you think about -- I guess I can move on now to the Juneteenth flag. The Juneteenth
flag is interesting for us because as Malcolm X warned us, there's nothing more dangerous
to America and to the black man than the white liberal. The Juneteenth flag is the invention
of a sanctimonious white liberal who apparently thought black people needed his help. This
is actually interesting because in China in 2010, a word started circulating. It's bizoy.
And this describes a politically correct and often egotistical Westerner who believes they
have all of life's and morality's answers. So really it's kind of -- we're kind of making
a laughing stock out of ourselves. Shelby steel describes these kinds of activities
as the oxymoronic quest for liberation through victimhood. And I think everyone should take
a look at some of his work because he really nails the religion and the race -- the religion
of racism that people worship at this altar of racism where whites will self-flagellate
and blacks will absolve them. It really is a liturgical operation.
And that's your time. Okay. Yeah. Thank you very much for your time
and thank you for your service, especially during the lockdown. I really appreciate all
y'all's hard work. Thank you. Okay?
Thank you. And that takes us to our last open mic caller,
which is Susie Roemer. Yes, sir. We are sending her in now.
Susie, are you there? Yes, sir.
Okay. If you could give us your first and last name and address, then you can go right
into your comments. You have four minutes. Thank you, Mayor. Mayor and City Council,
my name is Susie Roemer. I live at 1700 Crescent Street in Denton. Thank you so much for your
time tonight. I'm calling regarding concerns about implementation of the bike plan. And
I do want to just start off first by thanking Ms. Hensley, Rachel Wood, Becky Devaney and
Chandra for meeting with me back in, I think, March or April. And ever since then, I've
been working with capital projects to answer an admittedly very long list of questions
that I've had with them. So I appreciate all their time. So I've been following the bike
plan implementation since about 2017. And I thought for a while that I understood the
implementation plan, but at this point, I'm not so sure that I do anymore. And I'm not,
I can't really tell if we have one anymore. So I watched several bike plan implementation
opportunities get dropped over the last several years. So, you know, there's been a lot of
staff change, leadership change in this time. Eagle between Carroll and Elm was supposed
to get a road diet. It's still four lanes even after it got resurfaced. Avenue A/McCormick
between I-35 and Eagle was supposed to get a road diet when it was resurfaced and that
didn't happen. More recently, Hercules west of Locust and east of Stewart. It was on the
bike plan since 2012 and the plans for bike accommodations were not incorporated. Most
recently we have North Texas Boulevard was supposed to get a bike accommodation. And
I think in 2017, there were plans to add a road diet to it, but that didn't, hasn't happened
yet. Maybe because we were waiting to resurface it to kind of save some money. And then the
last budget cycle, I was looking through the proposed budget and I noticed that the line
item for the bike budget was removed. So that has I think $200,000 normally. So I asked
about it and it got added back. So it was, it was kind of concerning that that disappeared
and it took me, you know, kind of being aware of things to get it back on there. And then
something else is I'm not even sure if we're spending the money that we're budgeting for
bicycle infrastructure. The mobility committee used to receive regular updates about the
planned bike projects for the coming year and how the bike plan was being spent and
getting updates about the progress of all the bike projects. And I haven't seen any
updates like that since 2017, just kind of been on an as, you know, as a basis. So implementation
of the bike plan seems to be falling through the cracks. So we need an implementation plan.
We need a budget to implement the bike plan and we need regular communication about the
progress of the goals laid out in our bike plan. You know, I know we're going to be getting
hopefully a transportation planner soon to sort of fill some of those roles, but before
that person gets here, you know, we need to figure out how to salvage some of the projects
this year that we're supposed to get bike accommodations that are on the bike plan.
So those projects being Hercules, North Texas Boulevard, Fulton and Crescent are coming
up later this year and those are on the bike plan as well. And that's all I have for today
and I appreciate your time.
Okay. So thank you for the comments and I will just update so that everyone knows. So
we did hire a, we did fill that position and we're going to add to it. So we'll have two.
That's the plan, just so you're aware. And are you still there?
No.
Okay. Mayor President Meltzer.
Yeah, just for those listening, Mobility Committee, this is just a statement of factual information
that Mobility Committee is meeting tomorrow morning at nine that is streamed and that
meeting provides an opportunity for an update on status of fulfilling the bike plan among
other items.
Okay. Thank you. Council Member Beck.
Thank you Mr. Mayor. As a matter of proposal to place a future agenda item and have staff
look that up, I'd like to propose getting the bike debt and comprehensive plan, getting
a staff report on that as implemented in a workstation, please.
Okay, great. That concludes our comments and takes us to our consent agenda. Do believe
and make sure. Yes. Bear with me. Yeah. So the consent agenda, so just for the record,
item C and D have been pulled for brief presentation. Other than that, I'll take a motion. Mayor
Pro Tem Meltzer.
Yeah, Mayor, I move approval of the consent agenda with the exception of items C and D.
Got it.
I'll second.
Thank you. Second by Council Member Davis. Motion by Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer. Discussion?
Seeing none, let me see how I'm going to do this. Council Member Beck, how say you?
Aye.
Council Member Davis.
Aye.
Council Member Byrd.
Aye.
Council Member Meltzer.
Aye.
Sorry, Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, forgive me.
Also, thank you.
Thank you. Council Member McGuire.
Aye.
And I do not see Council Member Armitage, I'll pause for a moment. Okay, so that is,
that passes 6-0. That'll take up our first pulled item, item C, which is ID 21146. Consider
approval of a resolution of the City of Denton ratifying the submission of an application
to the North Central Texas Council of Governments.
Good evening, Mayor, Council Members. My name is Laura Behrens, the City's Grant Administrator,
and I'm going to share my screen here. Okay, we'll take the first item, C 1146. This is
a resolution ratifying the application to the North Texas Central Council of Governments
for their Solid Waste Implementation Grant Program. Under this application, our City's
Solid Waste Department is requesting $67,723 for a pilot program to provide pre- and post-consumer
food scrap collection. That funding would cover the purchase of carts, a channel grinder,
both which would be used to collect dairy, meat, breads, fruits, vegetables, coffee grounds,
and meal discards. This will enhance the current valet and solid waste recycling program that
is occurring on the square. Through our partnership with Main Street Association, the Solid Waste
Department will identify 50 food service businesses to participate in the pilot program, and the
program will run for 60 days. This program will also complement our current recycling
efforts by reducing contamination, increasing the diversion rate, and the scraps will go
to the Beneficial Reuse Program for composting. After that 60-day period, the program will
be evaluated, will analyze the results of the collection, study the costs associated
with maintaining the service, and look at expanding the program. And that covers the
first application. Okay, very good. And then, any questions on that? We'll pull it, yeah.
Councilman, pardon me, Mayor Potsdam-Melzer. Not a question, just good luck on the grant.
One of our priorities is solid waste strategy. Composting is something that's been asked
about since before I was on Council. I wish you luck and move approval. Okay. Is there
a second? Councilman McGuire? I second, and I'm also very excited about the diversion
opportunities through this program. Glad to see us managing our solid waste in a responsible
way. Okay. We have a motion by Mayor Potsdam-Melzer, a second by Councilman McGuire. Any other
discussion? Okay, seeing none. Mayor Potsdam-Melzer, how's that you? Aye. Councilmember McGuire?
Aye. Okay. Councilmember Beck? Aye. Councilmember Davis? Aye. Councilmember Byrd? Aye. And
Mayor Hudspeth is aye, as well. There's a moth somewhere around here that says aye,
as well. All right. So that passes six to zero. And that takes us to item D. Is that
you're presenting that as well? I'll be presenting that one as well. Outstanding. Okay. So that's
item D, which is 2-1-1-1-9-2. Consider approval of a resolution of the City of Denton authorizing
the original Denton District to provide a letter of support to the Texas Commission
on the Arts for an application by the Greater Denton Arts Council for the Arts Respond.
Correct. Just a little bit of background on this specific grant. The original Denton District
or ODD is a designated cultural district by the Texas Commission on the Arts. It's formed
around a concentration of cultural assets in a walkable area that really just encompasses
the downtown area. The ODD designation makes us eligible for TCA grants, as well as some
nonprofits that hold festivals and events within the district. The deadline for this
is today. So we've got a letter of request supporting an application from GDAC for theirs.
That letter of support from our governing body is required as part of the application
process. So their proposed grant is for a program called Start Jamming. It's a little
bit less than $9,000. It's 50%. They do have to provide a match for the other half
of that. But their program, Start Jamming, is an eight-week music education series designed
for youth ages 12 to 15 who want to become aspiring musicians. The students are requested
to have some level of familiarity with music and instrument playing. They do have to assemble
their instruments, follow basic warmup exercises, have a basic understanding of music and rhythms.
I believe that their recruitment will be through some area band programs. The participating
youth will study under professional musicians from the Dallas-Fort Worth area. GDAC will
be providing the space for this program. And again, that match is going to be coming through
their corporate foundation and individual contributions. And that is the second grant
for this evening. And again, this is for a letter of support for their application to
TCA for Start Jamming.
Great. Okay. Any questions for staff? Councilmember McGuire?
No questions, but thank you for the additional information. I'm so excited about this program.
I hope to see some of my own students participating in it. I would like to say that the students
participating are not aspiring musicians. They are musicians. They're just young musicians.
But I'm very excited about this program and I move approval.
Okay. Is there a second? Councilmember Beck?
I second.
Okay. We have a motion by Councilmember McGuire. Second by Councilmember Beck. Any discussion?
Seeing none, Councilmember McGuire, I'll say you.
Aye.
Councilmember Beck?
Aye.
Councilmember Davis?
Aye.
Councilmember Burke?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
I love all the creativity coming from staff. Aye.
Okay. And Mayor Hutz with his aye as well. That passes six to zero. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. That concludes our consent agenda. It takes us to individual consideration. First
item there is 6A, which is ID 21135, pardon me, one three, wait pardon me, 1155, sorry.
Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas, a Texas homeroom municipal
corporation extending the effective period of the declared state of local disaster to
September 30, 2021. Sorry.
Good evening, mayors.
Good evening.
It's wreaking havoc.
Mayor, City Council, Sarah Keuchler, Chief of Staff. One second while I get the presentation
up for you.
So this item is for council to consider extending the COVID disaster declaration. So currently
the City of Denton does have a disaster declaration and an order of council in effect through
June 30th for the COVID public health emergency. Staff did send out an informal staff report
in the Friday, June 4th report to give you some more information in advance of this presentation
today to provide a reminder for why the purpose and the back for why the declaration exists
and why the order exists and then also doing an analysis of the different components of
the order to make a recommendation if we should continue that or not. So I'll provide an overview
of that here in this presentation but did want to point that out that the ISR is attached
in exhibit two and does have a little bit more detail than I'm going to go through in
my presentation.
So by way of background, this first started in March 13th of 2020 and has been extended
numerous times throughout the last year and a half almost now. Go through these dates.
To move into kind of want to go through why we passed a disaster declaration and an order
and what the two documents are. So the first is the local disaster declaration and that
establishes a state of disaster and this serves as the basis and the foundation to then have
an order of council. So it's the foundational document. It is also important as it can be
a prerequisite for state and federal disaster funding and that's why we have continued to
make recommendations throughout the last year to continue with the disaster declaration.
The second document is the order of council and this has provided staff authorization to
take a number of different actions to respond to the public health emergency or also putting
in additional orders for the public and these have changed and evolved through the course
of the pandemic especially as the governor's orders has changed and we've had to comply
with those. So both the current disaster declaration and the 12th order of council are set to expire
on June 30th.
So I'll go through the next two slides with staff's analysis of both of those documents
and a recommendation moving forward. So on the disaster declaration, staff has recommended
that we continue that as I mentioned for eligibility for state or federal disaster funding. However,
as we're going back and looking at our current funding sources that are available, we're
shifting more into this recovery mode instead of the disaster and emergency response. So
a local declaration is not required for the receipt of grant funds that we currently are
going to be receiving for the American Rescue Plan and the CARES Act. It is also not required
for any potential FEMA reimbursement as long as a federal disaster declaration is still
in place and we still are submitting some reimbursements to FEMA for PPE and supplies
and so forth. However, if a local disaster declaration is continued, it could enable
and keep the path open for council to more quickly adopt an order if needed should the
public health situation change in the near future. So we have drafted the item for consideration
and for council to consider extending the declaration until September 30th to allow
for that avenue to remain open if needed. However, we would recommend letting the 12th,
the current 12th order of council expire. And I'll go through in the following slides
just a few of the details of why we're recommending that. But overall, each component is no longer
necessary through an emergency order or those items can be addressed through established
policies and processes of the city rather than doing it through this emergency provision
and order. And that just allows for greater transparency of the actions and making sure
those items are going through the processes that are established. So we recommend again
for letting that order of council expire. And this was included in the informal staff
report but lays out the provisions of the 12th order of council and then goes through
and notes why that is no longer necessary or how it could be handled alternatively through
established processes of the city. So just pointing out a couple and bringing to your
attention, for example, allowing virtual meetings. That was spelled out in the order specifically.
Council has since adopted rules of procedure on May 25th that allows for virtual meetings
to take place and how that will take place assuming the governor's waiver of certain
TOMA requirements stays in place. Also just moving through, for example, accepting grants
and donations. That's not anticipated. But if that were to occur, we do have an established
process of how city council could accept those. And then I do want to move down into a couple
of provisions to note for council is the utility fee waiver. So through this time period, we
have waived certain utility fees for our utility customers. If the order goes away, those fees
would be reinstated. So we would have to do some heavy communications to our customers
to alert them that those fees will be reinstated. We also would allow some leniency working
with our customers, as we always do, to pay their utility bills. But the really important
part to point out here is that there still is utility assistance funding available through
both United Way and Interfaith Ministries. So if it's due to COVID and not being able
to pay their utility bills, there's assistance through United Way. Those fees, any fees that
are on their bills would be eligible to be paid with that assistance funding, as well
as Interfaith Ministries still has dollars available as well. So the options for council
would be to approve the individual consideration item as proposed. So again, that would just
extend the disaster declaration until September 30th, but let that 12th order of council expire.
Council could also not approve the IC item as drafted and provide any changes to staff,
and we could bring it back at the subsequent meeting on June 22nd. You could also not approve
the IC item, and that would mean that both the disaster declaration and the order would
expire. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Okay. Thank you. Questions for staff? Councilmember Davis and then Councilmember McGuire.
Chair, if I'm understanding, we have an operational need to extend the disaster declaration because
of funding and the same reasons we've had it in place for a long time now. But we don't
have an operational need for -- we can continue doing the things that we're still doing without
the -- without a new order of council. That is correct. And we may not even need
the disaster declaration, but it's the safest way, if it is there, to just be for any grants
or reimbursements through FEMA. But it appears we might even still be covered there.
That was my next question, is if there's any harm in having a disaster declaration on the
books. I mean, there are federally declared disasters that have been in place for decades
now or federally declared emergencies that have been in place. Is there any harm in us
keeping a disaster declaration on the books to September if it turns out then that we
didn't need it? I do not believe so. I'm going to ask Catherine
to confirm that there is no harm in having a disaster declaration until September 30th.
But just to point out, the federal government still has one in place. The state of Texas
does as well. They've been continuing theirs every 30 days. And then I believe Denton County
still has theirs in place, but they did indicate that they will probably let it expire in the
coming weeks. And no, I would say no harm that I can imagine.
No harm that I can imagine from keeping it in place.
Thank you. Okay. Council Member Warren.
Thank you, Mayor Hutzbeth. I just want to make sure I'm clear on the situation with
Section 6 and Section 7. So the city will be -- so there will be an end of year budget
adjustment in the amount of $125,000 to continue providing utility assistance funding through
United Way and Interfaith. Is that correct? That is correct. So that's actually just kind
of an administrative thing that we need to have take place because it was authorized
through the order. So if the order expires, we need to have another mechanism. And instead
of waiting until the end of the year, I believe we've actually placed that on the June 22nd
agenda. All right. Excellent. Now, regarding utility
fees, you know, I know that you mentioned that the funding that is being provided through
United Way and Interfaith for utility assistance will cover fees. Is that the most efficient
way for us to cover those fees as opposed to simply waiving them? And could we perhaps
stretch that utility funding assistance money farther if we simply waived the fees on the
front end? I'm going to ask if she's willing to, Krista
Foster, our customer service manager, to come up here to address it. She knows this very
well. Mayor, City Council, Krista Foster, customer
service manager. And if we choose to, we do have the authority by ordinance to say that
we, if council would like us to do so, that when we receive a pledge, if there are late
fees on that pledge, that we could waive those fees. That would not be a problem.
Okay. Is that something we can provide direction
on now? Because I would love for you to use your discretion to waive those fees whenever
possible. My understanding is it's available by ordinance.
Ordinance allows us to be able to make the discretionary call on waiving fees. We don't
typically always do that whenever we receive a pledge, but under the current circumstances,
we could definitely do that. Right. So no action needed. It's already in place.
That sounds like that's something that you guys would like us to do for sure. So absolutely.
Okay. Great. Great. Thank you so much.
Council Member Beck. Thank you, Mayor. So this is for whomever,
I guess it's a sort of flip side to Councilor Davis's question is what is the harm in leaving
in place these items that in some cases are preemptive or preempted by the governor or
whatever, what is the harm in just extending the order to September as is without rocking
the boat? A lot of them are no longer in effect. So
it may be confusing for someone reading it. If the governor's orders have preempted us,
if they think that we're still taking in lots of donations or grants or other things, we're
just no longer doing that. The situation has changed and evolved.
Okay. Thank you. Okay. Got it. Any other questions for staff?
And I see David popped on the screen. I don't know if he has questions about the -- are
we good? Okay. Just making sure. No, no. He was checking
on our authorization. I think it made him nervous. Okay. Very good. Well, if there is
something, you know, bring it back to us if that's overly broad direction so we can address
that. Councilmember Beck. I'd like to move to change this to what staff
said, but excluding item 6 and 7, leaving those under the current status quo.
Six and seven. Let me get there. Oh. Okay. All right. Is there a second for that? So
that's staff's recommendation minus item 6 and 7. Councilmember Maguire.
I second. Okay. Okay. And so discussion, I guess, does
that give you -- is there a concern from staff's perspective for that?
We'd probably have to work with legal to draft a 13th order of council that would just have
those two provisions in it. And so we would maybe want the time to come back and do that
on June 22nd if that's the direction of council. Okay. I don't -- I mean, I just need to understand
what -- I guess if someone could explain to me from those that are supporting, I guess
from the movement or the second, what -- why the duplicate efforts are -- what am I missing?
All right. Since I made the motion, thank you, Mayor, for visually recognizing me. The
issue I have is the same that council Maguire brought up. I think there's just some opportunities
there to do fee reductions, to not impose a process or mechanism to go through a third
party -- that's available, and I'm not trying to take it away. I'm not trying to preclude
going through the third party, but we have a process that provides opportunities and
flexibility while we still have the lingering effects for these financially related items,
and I think we can just extend that a little longer and, you know, get a little further
down the path before we flip the switch and turn it off.
Got it. Okay. So for my discussion, I'm not -- I can't support it, that motion, and here's
why. We had this conversation before you joined as well. The dollars are available to help
people remove the fees via grant money now. That's not to say that will be the case in
a few months, right? So motivating people to apply and use the free money -- nothing's
free -- but the free money now is not a bad thing, because once you move down the road,
if these dollars get used or go away by some other mechanism, now they do not have access
to free money, and either we're on the hook for it or those individuals are on the hook
for it. So it's advantageous to encourage people to call now, take advantage of the
grant funds now while they're there before they're either not available, one, or fully
exhausted. So for that reason, I'm not -- I understand the heart of it, but at the same
time, you're doing those individuals a disservice, in my opinion, and that's why I can't do it,
just because I think they need to take advantage of the federal grants and funds, et cetera,
that have been made available. So that's my hangup with it. So I understand the heart
of it. I just can't get behind it, because I think there's a better deal the other way
versus them being on the hook and having to negotiate for themselves. So that's my hangup.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer? Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer? Maybe you can't hear me.
Mayor, you're completely breaking up. I think I could sort of figure out what you were saying,
but I think you're saying it's a situation where there's funding available now that might
not be available later. I guess I would like a sort of staff perspective. This is a little
bit confusing to me. You know, which approach actually stretches our resources the most?
Is it that we want people to utilize this pot of funding now while we have it? Or is
Councilmember McGuire correct that if we just waive fees, then we've got the pot for longer?
I mean, I think we'd all have an interest in kind of getting the most utility out of
the, so to speak, out of the funding that's available. Not clear which way does that.
I can try to address that and ask Krista to chime in as well. So there is a lot of assistance
right now available through the United Way of Denton County, and then we have that additional
assistance available through Interfaith. And I think Krista had mentioned, if they get
a pledge, which a pledge means they have now contacted the United Way of Denton County
or Interfaith, and they're going to be receiving assistance, that we will waive those fees
so that we're not using that assistance money to pay fees. However, there are certain customers,
and this is the difficulty if you work in customer service, that have the ability to
pay that may not be meeting as timely of requirements or so forth, and they are not being assessed
late fees right now or other fees or penalties. So there is that balance to it as well that
we've just been waiving those fees through the entire pandemic. And I don't know if Krista,
if you want to add anything else to that, and I'm happy to let you do so.
Hello. I don't have a lot more to add with it, except that yes, by removing those fees
when someone receives a pledge of any variety, absolutely will stretch those assistance dollars
further. But I can say that we did see a much greater number of residents who were coming
through us and applying for assistance and getting referrals to those agencies once we
started reinstating interruptions. You know, sometimes those things are just triggering
events that help get motivate, take that little extra motivational step of actually like getting
out there and getting that assistance turned in, the paperwork and starting the steps.
So for us, that's part of the reasons that we would stand behind doing something like
that.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So we have a motion to remove 6 and 7 and a second. So that motion
is by Councilmember Beck, second by Councilmember McGuire. We'll vote. Councilmember Beck, I'll
say you.
Aye.
Councilmember McGuire.
Aye.
Can I get some clarification? You said remove 6 and 7 on?
On the present day. So it's the utility fee waiver.
Right. So I guess I understand the confusion because the proposal is to remove 6 and 7.
So I'm saying remove, leave it on. 6 and 7 are the status quo. Let me say it that way
and not make a change on 6 and 7.
6 and 7 of the order, of the previous order.
The 12th order, the utility fee waiver and the utility assistance funding.
So maybe to state another way is to have another order.
To continue an order.
Continue an order with 6 and 7.
We're not properly posted for an order. We were only posted for the declaration tonight.
So there are two things that you could do. I'm sorry. You could either just deny it and
staff can bring it back next week with the order, with it captioned correctly, and there's
still plenty of time to do that because it's currently in effect, or you could pass this
and ask staff to bring back an order separately next week but it would be without that amendment
because we don't have a mechanism to put the order in tonight.
Well okay. I'm just caught up in the sort of chicken and eggness of what we just did
then. My goal, and you could tell me best how to do this, and then we probably should
ask Councillor McGuire whether she wants to concur with that, but my goal was to have
all the changes of staff but not the changes to 6 and 7.
So if you're saying that the way I should have stated my motion should be motion to
deny, I guess I'm not sure what you're saying the proper procedure is.
I think what you're referring to in 6 and 7 is from the current order, and what's on
the agenda tonight is only the declaration. The order was an attachment to the previous
declaration. It is not, and it's not part of this caption tonight.
So if we vote to, I'm just trying to understand, if we vote to confirm the current order, all
we're doing is shifting the expiration date to September, and there's no changes.
You're not posted for that action tonight. It wasn't posted on the agenda. Only the extension
of the declaration was posted on this agenda. Okay. So again, I don't need to slow it down,
but just to be clear, we're actually not voting on any changes, just the expiration date.
Is that correct? Of the order.
Yes. Right. But you can't -- I mean, I'm sorry. What's posted tonight is the declaration.
There's no action that can be taken on the order without a different posting.
So if I want a -- okay, this is the problem I'm trying to get around. If I want a different
order -- Correct.
-- then I should withdraw my motion and motion to deny.
Correct. Or there just being no motion. You could just withdraw the motion with the -- actually,
with the agreement of Councilmember McGuire.
You don't need a motion. You don't need a mechanism to -- okay. So if we vote to approve
this as it's cited, that is just the expiration date. I'm not trying to be a pain. I'm trying
to be clear.
Right. And I understand. You're trying to be clear. The motion, as stated, and I apologize
because I don't know that I can quote it back to you exactly, but it was the move to approve
with -- and remove 6 and 7.
Correct.
6 and 7, there is, I think, a 6 in the declaration, which is what's posted. That's what was attached
to the posting. So that's what you would think you would be removing that. That's what the
reference would be to. And what you actually intend is to keep 6 and 7 from the current
or prior -- previously adopted order.
Yes, because it's in back-up material. I sort of understand the problem. I'm just trying
to get to -- we all understand what I want. How do we get there legally?
Let's see. So Councilmember McGuire, Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, your comments, maybe that'll
help.
Thank you. Yes. So I believe we are all in agreement that we want to continue the local
disaster declaration until September 30th. If we take no action on the 12th order, then
all of it will expire. I believe what Councilmember Beck wants to do is bring forth before the
expiration of the 12th order, bring forth the 13th order that includes just sections
6 and 7 of the 12th order. So can I propose perhaps a friendly amendment that we vote
to extend the effective period of the declared state of local disaster to September 30th,
2021, and also give staff direction to draft a 13th order of Council that essentially is
just section 6 and 7 of the 12th order?
You can, or you could vote no on this, and it's not going to expire until June 30th.
So staff could just bring back the complete document next week, the declaration and the
order together.
Okay.
Either way.
So what is your-
Well, I'll let-
Okay.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, did you want to add?
I was just trying to help, but Councilmember McGuire is all over it.
Okay. So I go to the movement. You can either adopt, you know, there's been a friendly amendment
offered or you can remove your motion.
I accept the friendly amendment.
Okay. Got it. So the motion on the table then is to extend the declaration till September
30th, but give staff direction to come back with a 13th order that would then, I guess,
is the word extend, reinstate the utility fee waiver and the utility assistant funding?
Yeah.
So that would be an order that would include the utility fee waiver and the utility assistance
funding.
Okay. Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
Yeah. And just to clarify, and that 13th order would be a separate vote at a future date?
That's a question, right?
Okay. Yeah. Well, we have an update. Bear with me.
Sorry. If you pass the current proposed item as is, the ordinance is effective immediately,
so that would mean the 12th order would go away. So it's probably most beneficial to
just as a council, what direction do you want to provide? If there's any changes, we as
staff can go prepare that item and bring it back on June 22nd. I think that just, if that's
the desired direction, I think that's probably the easiest.
Let's just see if there's a consensus for that. So what is the, so motions on the table,
that's great. We'll come back to it. So just in the way of discussion, are there, let me
see from those that have a desire for the utility fee waiver and the utility assistance
program funding to remain in place. So I know there's Councilmember Beck, Councilmember McGuire,
but are there others that kind of, is there a consensus that would want to see that state,
those two stay in place? Mayor Pro-Toon, you look like you.
I'm not, I'm not, Chris, I'm looking forward to the fact that we'll get another bite, I
think, that I think we'll get another bite at the apple to discuss this 13th order, you
know, when it comes back, because I wouldn't say I'm crystal clear on what's operationally
best.
Got it.
To be perfectly clear.
So I think you're, so I take staff's point, let's just do this. Let's say we're going
to push, right, do we post, I'm going to ask the move it, because we do have a motion.
Do we postpone? Is that the way to achieve what you said for staff to, or do we deny
and ask staff to come back with it? What's the mechanism to do that?
If you postpone, when you come back, the motion on the floor is going to be the same thing.
Don't want that.
Same posting.
Right.
Got it.
Counselor Davis.
I was just, by way of discussion on the motion, going to ask the moment if he would consider
what he mentioned earlier, withdrawing the motion, and then we could either, I mean,
I guess the Agenda Committee could put this back on the agenda, or we could move to postpone
the item, and that could be the motion, and then if, am I getting, am I not close enough
to the, what I was going to say was, by way of discussion on the motion, I would just
ask if the moment would consider withdrawing his motion, then we could postpone the item
to the 22nd, and the backups could be redrafted, because right now we've got a resolution that
refers to, that's redlined out any orders, and then we have a non-existent 13th order
that would need to be drafted, so maybe we just come back to it on the 22nd.
So by way of response, yes, the thing I was trying to prevent was what Sarah was saying,
which is have the order take effect and ping-pong around.
I don't think anybody wants that, regardless of how you would vote in the future on a six
and seven related item.
So if, then I would remove, the words that cannot come out of my mouth right now.
I will withdraw, is the word I'm trying to say, my motion, and then if I could make a
new motion, or do you want to not recognize that?
Well, so what I think, and do I need action from the second, or the motion removal gets
us clean?
If the member who seconded it, it consents to the withdrawal of the motion.
Council Member Becker?
I consent.
Okay, great.
So then, yes, Council Member Becker, I will recognize you for a new motion.
I would like to postpone this item to, what was the date certain, Sarah?
June 22nd.
June 22nd.
Got it.
Council Member Becker?
I second.
Okay.
That makes it easier for me in my notes, I don't have to rewrite them.
So we have a motion by Council Member Beck, a second by Council Member Guier, to postpone
until, give me the date again, I'm sorry?
June 22nd.
June 22nd, with the note that staff will bring back some additional detail and kind of information
based on this conversation.
Yes, I think the way we would post it would be an item to extend the disaster declaration
and then an item for a 13th order with those two items in the 13th order, and then Council
could consider both of those.
Okay, great.
So just to make sure I'm tracking with you, it would come back as is, but have the flexibility
to carve out those two if needed.
Yes, I think we might actually just do a separate posting to be clean and clear.
Great.
Okay.
So that's the motion.
Any other discussion?
Okay.
Council Member Beck, I'll say you.
Aye.
Council Member Guier?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
Aye.
Council Member Davis?
Aye.
Council Member Burd?
Aye.
And Mayor Hutzpeth is aye as well.
That passes 6-0.
Thank you, staff.
Thank you.
That brings us to 6-B, which is considering, pardon me, it's ID 211092, consider adoption
of ordinance approving the economic development agreement under, turn the page, Chapter 380
of the local government code to promote economic development.
And Mayor, I actually have 6-C as well, if you want me to just kind of go straight through
on the presentations and call that item as well.
Certainly.
Let me call that.
So item 6-C is ID 211093, consider approval of a resolution of the city council of the
City of Denton nominating Dynagrid Construction Group, LLC, to the Office of the Governor
of Economic Development.
All right.
Good evening, Mayor and Council Members.
Jessica Rogers, Director of Economic Development.
I do have two brief presentations this evening on each of the two action items, so let me
get those pulled up.
So the first item before you this evening is the Chapter 380 Economic Development Agreement
for Dynagrid Construction Group.
Most of this will be a reminder, so I'm going to go through it fairly briefly, so certainly
please stop me or ask questions when we get to the end.
But Dynagrid Construction Group is a civil contractor that provides industry-leading
construction services.
They're currently headquartered in Lewisville, Texas.
They plan to relocate to a new and expanded headquarters here in Denton.
They currently employ 191 individuals, and they plan to add 82 new jobs over a five-year
period for a total estimated jobs of 273.
They do plan to add additional equipment and build a new facility in Denton.
Just as a reminder, this is the proposed site and layout.
The applicant is proposing to build a 30,000-square-foot office building to house their corporate
team and a 10,000-square-foot building to house their maintenance and shop building
for their operations and equipment.
They provided us with the stated goals of reducing their impact costs of relocation,
expansion, and site improvements through an economic development incentive and to encourage
high-wage job creation through the company expansion.
As you reviewed at the past City Council Work Session, we did receive an application for
an economic development incentive.
To summarize, the project does meet our policy-targeted sectors of services to the renewable energy
market, our strategic growth areas of connected Denton, sustainable Denton, and competitive
Denton.
They do make a significant capital investment of about $4.7 million with a total investment
of about $5.9 million, and then, as I mentioned before, 82 new jobs with 191 relocated with
a weighted average wage of $74,000 and a total payroll completion of $6.1 million per year.
The job and wage information that we reviewed at the previous Work Session is summarized
on this slide, but just as a reminder, this project does have a significant number of
jobs, 100% of new jobs above the Denton County average and median, which are policy requirements,
and then they do have also a significant number of jobs above $65,000 and a 53.7% of jobs
are actually above $75,000, which those are the high-wage criteria markers in our city-adopted
tax abatement policy, or incentive policy.
Just reiterating again, calling out the specific sections of the strategic plan with this project
complies with.
That's sections 2A2, Attracting New Investment, and section 2C2, Targeting Environmentally
Conscious Businesses.
This is all provided in your backup, and we went over this in detail at the Work Session
before, but these are the general policy provisions and priority considerations.
This project, as you see, meets four of the six general policy provisions.
It is a target industry sector, and does meet nine of the ten priority considerations.
When looking through our policy and examining under what mechanism we could provide an economic
development incentive, this project meets the qualifications for the Chapter 380 Grants
and Loans and the Use of the Investment Fund.
Under the Chapter 380 Grants and Loans policy criteria, they meet four of the six criteria
- excuse me, five of the seven criteria - microphone got in my way there - and then on the Economic
Development Investment Fund, you must meet two of three, and this project meets two of
the three criteria.
Four-year consideration tonight is an incentive package.
On the first, under the Chapter 380 section of the incentive package, it looks a little
bit different than when you saw at the Work Session.
If Councilor remembers, we made an adjustment based on the residency grant portion.
The grant now includes instead of just a flat $500 residency bonus, it's actually a stratified
bonus.
It's $300 for any relocated residents and $700 for any existing debt and residence.
That actually increased the residency bonus portion of the grant, so the grant now has
a max not-to-exceed amount of $176,800.
Just reminding Council of the benefits of this project, it does create quality jobs,
it is a recruitment and expansion of a company, it is diversifying the tax base and providing
jobs through training programs.
Quantitative benefits are outlined also in your backup, so I'm not going to go over those
in detail again, but just to say that we do have the 10-year total property tax revenue
estimated at about $350,000.
We have 191 jobs with wages of $77,700, 82 new jobs with wages just at $74,000.
The rate of return on this project is 29%, and the payback period, that's the point at
which the project will have generated as much revenue as the amount of the incentive is
3.6 years.
For your consideration, this item is an approval of the Chapter 380 agreement with the total
not-to-exceed amount of $176,800, with the three components, the relocation grant, the
stratified job-based grant, and the stratified residency bonus, and the Economic Development
Partnership Board recommends approval 10 to 0.
Okay, thank you, we'll pull the presentation down.
Questions for staff?
Seeing none at the dais, questions for staff?
Okay, I'll take a motion.
Council Member Beck, and this would be 6B, initially.
I motion approval.
Okay.
Is there a second?
Council Member McGuire?
We discussed this really extensively in a work session.
I'm very excited about it.
It's going to provide a lot of new jobs, including, you know, six-figure knowledge-based jobs,
but also good-paying, high-quality jobs for folks who do not have a college education
as well.
So I second.
Okay.
Thank you.
So we have a motion and a second.
Discussion?
Seeing none, I'll echo Council Member McGuire and say that this is a great group.
I mean, they've already plugged into the chamber.
They've really plugged in the community straight away.
So I'm grateful.
Great company, great guys.
Look forward to working with them and supporting them where we can.
Any other discussion?
Okay.
Okay.
Council Member Beck, House, A, you?
Aye.
Council Member McGuire?
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
I agree with all previous comments.
Aye.
Okay.
Council Member Davis?
Aye.
Council Member Burt?
Aye.
Okay.
Mayor Hudson with an aye as well.
That passes.
That takes us to Item 6C.
I'll take a motion.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
I move approval.
Thank you.
Is there a second?
Council Member Byrd?
I second.
Thank you.
We have a motion by Council Member Meltzer, second by Council Member Byrd.
Any discussion?
Okay.
Council Member, pardon me, Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, House, A, you?
Aye.
Council Member Byrd?
Aye.
Council Member Davis?
Aye.
Council Member Beck?
Aye.
And then Council Member McGuire?
Aye.
And Mayor Hudson is an aye as well.
That passes 6-0.
Thank you, Jessica.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So let's see.
Okay.
That takes us, we'll finish these last two.
We'll take a short break and then get to the public hearings for those that are kind of
tracking along.
So we should be, there's only two public hearings, so we're moving right along.
But this is Item D, ID 21983, consider approval of a resolution to appoint a member to the
Board of Directors of the Texas Municipal Power Agency.
Good evening, Mayor and Council.
My name is Rosa Rios and I am your City Secretary, and I'm actually here to introduce the item.
As you will recall, on the May 25 work session, we did come in and discuss, you know, proposed
maybe nominations, and then it was going to be that the appointment to TNPA was going
to be a separate item, and this item achieves that.
And let me just share the screen.
I'm not as fast as some people, I apologize.
No problem.
And so Tony Puente, the General Manager for Electric Administration, will present the
item.
Okay.
Mayor, City Council, Tony Puente, yes, I do need an introduction.
Yes, sir.
You've earned it.
So good evening.
It should be an easy, quick presentation, if you'll bear with me.
Just a little bit of background on TNPA, you know, Texas Municipal Power Agency is a joint
power agency owned by cities of Bryan, Denton, Greenville, and Garland.
Denton shares about 21.3% ownership in TNPA.
It was created back in 1975.
The main purpose of TNPA was to provide an economic power supply to the member cities
for resale to their customers.
It had generation assets, mine assets, and also transmission assets.
You may recall, you know, some of you that were on the council back in January of this
year, you know, the Gibbons Creek Electric Station and all the generation assets were
sold to a private third party.
Those are no longer owned by TNPA.
The mine property is still owned.
That's approximately 10,000 acres that's currently being marketed for potential sale.
It's something that the board continues to look at and review.
And in transmission assets, which is really now the largest assets that TNPA owns that
are owned by the member cities at some point, may be unbundled.
There's a lot of discussion still going on about that.
There'll be a process.
But at the point that TNPA no longer has any assets, then the discussion then turns to
the potential dissolution of TNPA.
So a lot of things that are coming up, you know, for TNPA and the member cities to consider.
A little bit of background on the board.
The board's made up of a total of eight board members.
Each city gets two nominees.
Our current members are obviously former Mayor Chris Watts, whose seat is due to expire this
-- in July of -- July 18 of this year.
The other seat is filled by Billy Cheek, who's our vice chair of the PEB.
He has one more year left on his term.
Staff was notified by TNPA of the need to refill the vacancy.
We sent out an ISR to the council requesting nominees, and we received two names.
Former Mayor Chris Watts and also current council member Deb Armenter.
That did reach out to both nominees and both expressed a desire to serve on the board if
the council so chooses.
The action tonight, certainly a requirement of TNPA and certainly in order for us to have
sufficient representation on that board.
To avoid any lapse, we're certainly recommending that staff move forward -- that council move
forward with a selection and affirmation of a nominee.
The city attorney was kind to provide some language that I'll leave up there on how you
might consider making that nomination tonight.
So if someone is appointed tonight, their term will be for a two-year term.
It'll be through July 18, 2021, and will expire on July 18, 2023.
With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.
>> Okay, and I want to -- for my peers, I want to say I did reach out to the current
chair of the -- well, there's two things.
I did reach out to the current chair of the PUB, and it's council member Armenter's appointee
Susan Parker, and she is also okay being considered, and I spoke to her directly.
So I put that forward, then I also put this forward, and here's my concern, but I'll open
it up to the council.
As Tony mentioned, it's Brian Denton, Greenville Garland.
The board is no longer meeting virtually.
>> Can't hear you, ma'am.
>> Okay.
How about that?
Is that better?
>> Yep, very much.
>> Okay.
So the -- it's Brian Denton, Greenville Garland, and the board is no longer meeting virtually,
and they meet -- they rotate, and they meet between, I think, Brian and -- and Garland.
And so that fact wasn't known for when we discussed it before, and so I put that forward,
and I don't know that we can have that conversation.
I understand -- well, the one person I talked to, I got it, Susan Parker, I understand,
she knows, but for council member Armenter, and obviously Mayor Watts knows he's been
attending the meetings, council member Armenter, I don't know if that's an issue or not, so
I do just put that out there.
She's not in today's meeting, which is unanticipated, but I don't know that we can -- there may
be an option to push a week, Tony, brought it back a week early, or put that buffer in
there if needed for -- if something unexpected arose.
But anyway, that's -- that's the options.
Mayor Burton-Melzer.
>> Yeah.
Thank you.
You know, as I consider our delegation, we've got Mr. Cheek, who gives us continuity, and
a current member of the PUB, and I prefer, in the other seat, someone who's currently
a member of our body.
So with due respect to Mayor Watts, who, you know, made quite a long kind of career project
out of dealing with Gibbons Creek, and that's essentially resolved, and with full respect
to council member Armenter, who has the PUB background also, I actually -- when I think
about the skills and the tasks that are ahead, and it mostly has to do with disposition of
assets, I really like the idea of council member Davis representing us, I think would
bring a relevant skill set, and would have to look us in the eyes, knowing that, you
know, a lot of us are going to be interested in environmental impacts of decisions.
So I'm nominating council member Davis.
>> Okay.
And so is there -- well, let me confirm council member Davis with the understanding of the
-- the meeting structure, are you comfortable with that -- accepting that nomination?
>> Yes, sir, I'll accept that nomination.
>> Great.
Okay.
Is there a second for that nomination?
Council member Burt, there's a second.
Okay.
So we have a motion and a second for council member Davis.
Okay.
Catch him up with my notes.
Okay.
So let's -- discussion.
Council member Beck?
>> We're still -- we're still following our current rules of first to nominate kind
of process.
Is that correct?
>> No.
Because this board does not follow those rules.
I don't get to a point that that board, you know, it doesn't follow that while it was
carved out.
And so all those were brought forward at once, and that's caused some confusion, but --
>> That's why I ask, sir, because motioning and seconding the motion, I guess, is -- or
the nomination is fine, but are we -- we're not -- we're not making a motion to vote.
We're making a motion to vote on all of them at once.
I'm asking about the process.
Does that -- just help clarify for me.
>> This is posted as a resolution.
This board is appointed by resolution.
So it's a move to approve a resolution is the more correct phrasing of it.
>> Because it's a resolution, we're posting an individual -- potentially an individual
nomination.
>> That's how it's historically been done, as a motion to approve the resolution.
>> As part of my discussion, I'm going to be saying this is not a dig against anyone
nominated.
It is for the reasons that the mayor brought up.
We simply don't know the status and the viability of one of the nominees, and so I would prefer
to vote no and then delay this, as the mayor led with, to find out how people feel stand.
Some of the nominees may go away.
I think it would be ill-timed to vote at this time without knowing that information.
>> Certainly.
Okay.
Any other discussion?
>> Councilmember Davis, then Councilmember Maguire.
>> Any motion on this item would have to be in terms of -- I'm not sure how far to be
from this thing.
I think any action on this item would have to be in terms of a motion on the resolution.
So I don't know that the nomination, as it was last stated, was in order.
>> All right.
May I restate it, Mayor?
>> Yes.
Mayor Pro Tem Melzer.
>> Yes.
Thank you.
I move approval of the resolution with Councilmember Jesse Davis in each of the appropriate blanks.
>> Okay.
Councilmember Maguire.
>> I was just going to request that Councilmember Beck and Councilmember Davis eat the mic.
Get right up in there.
We can't really hear you.
>> Yeah.
We have some bugs to work out.
Yeah.
Okay.
Got it.
So we have a motion on the table.
We have a second.
Yeah.
Councilmember Byrd seconded.
>> The new motion.
>> Oh.
Not the new motion.
No.
Okay.
So is -- so we have a -- Mayor Pro Tem Melzer, if you will state your motion.
Your motion again, please.
So we have a clear record.
>> Yes.
I move approval of the resolution with Councilmember Jesse Davis in each of the appropriate blanks.
>> Okay.
Councilmember Byrd.
>> I second.
>> Okay.
Seconded by Councilmember Byrd.
So we have a motion by Councilmember Melzer, Mayor Pro Tem Melzer, seconded by Councilmember
Byrd.
Discussion.
So, Councilmember Beck, your concerns are noted.
Any other discussions?
Okay.
I will just say that I take Councilmember Beck's point, but I think we can move forward
and see how it shakes out.
If there's not support for that, obviously we have that cushion.
I do have concern over the travel issue for anyone in the in-person requirement.
So anyway, that's my concern initially.
That being said, any other discussion?
Councilmember Davis.
>> Very briefly, Mayor to -- excuse me, now I need to eat the mic.
Just briefly to express appreciation to former Mayor Chris Watts for his many years of service
in this area as Councilmember Melzer -- excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem Melzer mentioned TNPA has
been kind of a career project for him and we appreciate his service very much.
>> Indeed.
Well said.
Thank you for that.
Okay.
Any other discussion?
All right.
I can't -- Billy, if you can help me see Councilmember McGuire as well on the screen.
I appreciate it so I can keep up, but let's -- so what's my -- Councilmember Melzer, how
say you?
>> Aye.
>> Okay.
Councilmember Byrd, how say you?
>> Aye.
>> Okay.
And Councilmember McGuire?
>> No.
>> Okay.
Councilmember Beck?
>> Councilmember Davis, this is not a dig against you.
>> No.
>> Okay.
And that leaves me, right?
Yes.
Sorry.
Oh, Councilmember Davis, that's right.
>> Understood.
Councilmember Beck, I appreciate it.
Aye.
>> Okay.
And Mayor Huntsman is an aye as well.
That passes 4 to 2.
And so, Tony, that gives you the direction you need.
And I appreciate all that stepped forward to be considered.
It's a heavy lift.
Okay.
That concludes Item D. Takes us briefly to Item E before we take a quick 10-minute break
and come back and finish up.
So Item E is ID211142, consider nominations, appointments to the City Boards, commissions,
and committees.
We -- there is no presentation.
We were emailed that list.
I'll take questions for staff or a motion.
Councilmember Beck?
>> I motion to approve the nominations as indicated in staff report.
>> Thank you.
Let me make a note, sorry.
Is there a second?
Councilmember McGuire?
>> I second.
>> Thank you.
So we have a motion by Councilmember Beck and a second by Councilmember McGuire for the
slate as presented by staff.
Any discussion?
Seeing none, Councilmember Beck, House, are you?
>> Aye.
>> Councilmember McGuire?
>> Aye.
>> Mayor Pro Tem Melzer?
>> Aye.
>> Councilmember Beck?
No, I already got that.
Sorry.
Councilmember Davis?
>> Aye.
>> Councilmember Berth?
>> Aye.
>> And Mayor Hutzpah as well, that passes 6 to 0.
Okay.
So it is 9.06.
Let's take a 10-minute break.
We'll come back -- just change on me.
It's 9.07.
We'll take a 10-minute break, come back at 9.17, finish the last two items and we'll
be on our way.
Thank you.
>> And welcome back to this meeting of the Denton City Council.
It is 9.18 p.m.
We have completed our individual items for individual consideration.
We have two public hearing items.
I'll call the first.
It's item A, which is PD20009A, and it is hold a public hearing and consider adoption
of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas, regarding a rezoning from residential rural
district to planned development.
And I guess the applicant -- we have one caller after staff's presentation, and that's -- so
if Stuart can be queuing that up.
And I'll open the public hearing so that I don't forget.
Thank you.
>> Yes, sir.
All right.
Good evening.
This is PD20009, Parkside.
The request before you is a rezoning from the residential rural district, or our district,
to planned development on approximately 62 acres.
You can see that outlined in yellow on the screen here.
This property is located on the north side of Hickory Creek Road and the south side of
Creekdale Road, which currently terminates here at the northeast corner of the property.
Some of you may recall just a little bit of background.
This site was annexed into the city in 2018.
It was part of a larger annexation of 86 acres that included the parcels here to the northwest.
At that time, following the annexation, it was given the placeholder of the RD5X under
our 2002 Denton Development Code.
That transitioned to RR, so that's the origin of the current zoning.
And then some of you may recall there was a request at that time to rezone the site
to neighborhood residential four.
That was actually a larger 92 acres that included all of this area that's vacant to the northwest.
That request was ultimately denied by council due to concerns about traffic on Hickory Creek
Road, which at that time was not a planned capital improvement project.
And so that site did retain that RD5X designation and has then transitioned to RR.
So this is a look at our current zoning map.
You can see here that larger area of rural residential that I referenced.
And then this is the proposed zoning map with the PD designation if this were to be approved.
We'll start off by looking at the development plan for the subdivision.
So again, it's a total of just over 62 acres.
They are proposing this as a cluster development, so that means they're essentially clustering
all of the homes in one portion of the site, retaining the other as open space.
So you can see here that the north side of the property would be those residential homes,
156 lots is the maximum that's proposed as part of the PD.
It would be developed as a single phase.
There are some HOA common areas that would be maintained by the homeowners association.
That would be these landscaping at the entries, the detention pond that you see here at the
northeast corner, as well as some of this open space here on the far south side of the
property.
Those would be those neighborhood entry points where you would see typical neighborhood monumentation.
Some other key features of this project, the area that's here outlined in yellow and hatched
at the bottom of the screen is 4.6 acres of right of way dedication that is needed for
the Hickory Creek Road expansion project.
And then the area that is outlined in red on your screen is just over 23 acres that
is proposed as park dedication.
So as you may be familiar with, the PD typically has two components.
It has the text component that outlines the standards, the permitted uses, and then it
has that map, which we just looked at, that shows you how all of those pieces will fit
together.
So looking at the standards now, I reference that they are proposing this as a cluster
subdivision.
So I've provided that definition on the screen so you can see really the intent is to allow
what may be smaller lots than you would normally see in a certain area, all clustered in one
part of the larger development.
And then that is offset by providing permanent protection of common open spaces.
So that's that 23 acres of parkland that we saw.
For a cluster subdivision, the Denton Development Code does require a minimum of 30 percent
of that land area be provided as open space.
So the table here on the screen shows you that breakdown of the acreages and percentages
here.
So just over 55 percent of this development would be dedicated to residential.
You can see that 4.6 acres of Hickory Creek right of way is just over 7 percent.
And then the total park dedication accounts for 37 percent of their land area.
So they are meeting and exceeding that minimum requirement.
Looking at the standards of what they've proposed, they're proposing to be consistent with our
R-6 district.
So they're proposing 6,000 square foot lots that would meet all the minimum width and
depth standards of R-6.
They're not going for that smaller allowance of cluster subdivision that would let them
go as low as 2,500 square feet.
They're choosing to stay at R-6.
So you can see all of those dimensional standards and then again them exceeding the 30 percent
open space requirement.
So all of the criteria for approval were outlined in your backup.
We have 13 general criteria that apply to all applications.
I won't go through each of those, but we will look at some of them as we go through the
six specific criteria for a PD approval.
So starting with the first criterion, which is compliance with our Denton Plan 2030.
You can see the future land use map on the screen here.
This area of town that's shaded in yellow is designated as low residential.
That is intended for single family developments with one to four dwelling units per acre.
If you look at the gross land area here for this development, they would be at 2.6 units
per acre and so what they're proposing is consistent with that future land use designation
and it's consistent with the character of this area, which we'll look at a little bit
more as we go through these.
Criterion two is whether they comply with the Denton Development Code.
So as we saw, they are proposing compliance with our R-6 district.
Anything that's not expressly listed in the PD as a deviation would follow the Denton
Development Code.
So tree preservation, landscaping, all of those things would follow our standards as
well as building design and other features like that.
Criterion three is whether they provide for greater design, amenities, and connectivity.
So going back to that plan, they are proposing some connectivity improvements for the area.
That includes the perimeter street improvements on the north side with the extension of Creek
Dale Drive.
They're proposing, of course, a primary entrance off of Hickory Creek Road and then a third
point of connectivity would be here on the east side with a stub out for a future connection
across this property to the east if it ever develops.
Again, in terms of amenities, the key feature to look at is that 23 acres of park and open
space.
So you can see here on the map, I've pointed out with red stars the three points where they're
proposing to have trail connections.
So that is something nonstandard that the code wouldn't typically require, but they're
proposing three points of connection from the residential streets and sidewalks into
the park that they're going to work, they're planning to work with our Parks Department
on the specific alignment of trails within that park in the future.
And just looking at the requirements for this, for 156 units, we would typically see just
over one acre of parkland dedication.
And then again, that 30% requirement as a cluster subdivision comes in at 18.7.
So they are exceeding that combined requirement of those two pieces.
And then again, the main feature in terms of connectivity would be to focus on those
pedestrian trail connections that we wouldn't otherwise see with a single family subdivision.
Criterion four is specific to residential uses and whether there is a compatible proposal
of buildings uses and whether it's consistent with the character of the area.
They are proposing to limit the primary uses within this PD to single family detached,
which is consistent with what we see in this part of Denton.
The lots they're proposing at 6,000 square feet are generally consistent with what we
see in other subdivisions throughout this part of town.
Ryan Meadows and some of the other subdivisions in this area all come in at around 6,000 square
feet for average lot size.
And their building design would follow our standard Denton Development Code requirements.
So we would see consistency there as well.
The fifth criterion is for non-residential uses and looks to whether they have appropriate
locations and planning for those uses.
The only non-residential use we see proposed here is that park space that again, they're
coordinating.
And they have been for months now with our Parks Department to determine whether that
is a desirable location for a park and what sorts of features they can put there to really
amenitize it and provide some additional recreational space for this part of Denton.
And then the sixth criterion has several components that we'll look at and that is the provision
of public facilities to support the development.
Starting with schools, we did reach out to Denton ISD and they provided their expected
student generation and attendance.
They indicated that all of the schools you see here on the screen would have capacity
to handle the students from this subdivision.
With respect to fire and law enforcement, the closest fire station is Fire Station 6
on Teasley that they are within the eight minute or less response time boundary that's
desired by our Fire Department and our Police Department didn't have any specific concern
with this development as the use is consistent with what we see in the area today.
Water and wastewater are both available to the site.
Water being the blue lines on the map, red being our sewer lines.
So those can easily be connected through the subdivision and continued throughout to serve
these homes.
And then finally with streets we'll look at a few things in a little more detail here
as that was the main concern that we've seen with this area.
So they do have an estimated trip generation of about 1,400 daily trips for this number
of homes.
Again, they're making all of the or would be making the standard perimeter street improvements
on Creekdale that we would expect.
And then Hickory Creek Road needs to be looked at a little more closely.
You can see our mobility plan here originally intended with this red dotted line for Hickory
Creek to go through this site and then connect across further to the north.
That alignment, as some of you may be aware, has been something that our engineering department
has looked at changing for several years now.
They have an ongoing capital improvement project for Hickory Creek Road.
This section is phase three of that development that will start at River Pass here and then
connect over to the west in approximately the alignment of this orange dash line that
I drew on the map.
The straightening of that road is obviously desired because of past incidents that have
occurred there and fatal accidents.
The road would be expanded to a four-lane divided segment with right of way for ultimate
six-lane section.
They will be starting off roughly in the vicinity of this project.
They would be creating a bridge over the floodplain and railroad tracks here that would then straighten
the alignment to connect with Brush Creek Road and create a more consistent east-west
thoroughfare across South Denton.
The developer did conduct some traffic studies as part of this.
As part of the Hickory Creek project, there's already a left turn lane accommodated for
into the site with a median opening.
The developer conducted a turn lane analysis and saw that a right turn lane will be warranted
to serve their development as well.
So moving forward, they would be working with the city to incorporate that into the capital
improvement project as well as working with this adjacent property owner to ensure that
they have adequate right of way for that.
And then finally with respect to parks, the site is currently within the 10-minute walk
to a park goal from Cross Timbers Park that you can see shaded in green on the map.
However, with the dedication and creation of an additional park within the subdivision,
they would be improving the general connectivity for this entire area and ensuring that other
neighborhoods are also within that 10-minute goal.
Public outreach was conducted for this.
We've received no written responses to date.
The applicant also had a neighborhood meeting back in April via Zoom.
They had, I believe, two attendees at that meeting, a neighboring property owner as well
as a member of council.
And finally, staff is recommending approval as it meets all of our criteria for approval.
And the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval five to zero of this request.
So I will stop sharing and I'm happy to stand for any questions.
Questions for staff and then the applicant is here.
I misspoke.
Not on the phone.
So they'll come and speak.
All right.
Questions for staff.
Council Member Boer?
Thank you, Mayor.
First of all, there are a lot of things I really like about this proposal.
I love the cluster development plan.
I love the fact that it goes right around that floodplain ESA.
Even though it's not a very heavily treed lot, it does preserve the significant majority
of the trees that were on the lot.
So I love those things.
I am curious about looking at the development plans.
It looks like there are gas wells abutting this proposed development on the north, the
southwest and the southeast.
So it's essentially completely surrounded by gas wells.
Are all of those gas wells active?
Have any of them been plugged?
So all of those wells are considered active because they have not been plugged yet.
I don't know that they are producing a large amount of gas at this time, but they are still
considered active wells.
I'm happy to pull up the plan again and show you if you were looking at the plan in your
backup, they do have the dimension setback from those.
So all of those gas wells are actually in the ETJ, so they are not strictly required
to comply with our reverse setbacks, but they have willingly done so to the best of their
ability.
So the well on the north side, I believe, would be 450 feet to the closest residential
lot, and they are meeting the 500 foot setback from the wells that are on the south side
of the property.
So I hope that answers your question, but I'm happy to provide any more details if you
had other questions about that.
That does answer my question.
So just to clarify, the proposed development is within the city limits, but all three of
those gas wells are in the ETJ?
I know specifically the one to the north and the one on the south eastern side is.
The one across the railroad tracks, I would need to confirm that is probably within the
city limits, but it far exceeds the required setbacks that they would have from it, which
would be 500 feet to the nearest lot line, residential lot line.
Okay.
I just, I mean, you're right that it does exceed the 500 foot setback.
I guess just out of curiosity, how is it handled when a proposed development is in the city
limits, but the gas well is outside of the city limits and I mean, are there any setback
requirements in that situation?
There are not, since the gas well setbacks and reverse setbacks are an element of zoning,
we cannot enforce those on a well that's within the ETJ.
So even though the property developing is within the city limits, that reverse setback
was determined by our city attorney's office to not be something that we can enforce.
However, you know, in cases like this, we do request that the developer comply with that
and in this case, they willingly chose to do so to provide that separation.
Okay.
So I guess I'm just confused because, you know, obviously the city has no authority
over the, the owners and operators of the gas wells, but we certainly do have authority
over development that's occurring within the city limits.
So I guess I'm confused about why we can't require it, but it is a moot point because
the proposal does include the legally required setbacks.
Although our setbacks are quite small.
It does, it does include those.
Okay.
Any other questions for Seth, Councilman Bet.
Thank you, Mayor.
I actually had, I'd like, I'd like to hear a little bit more about that point that Councilman
McGuire, I sort of, I didn't read it word by word, but I skimmed through the DVC and
I can, can someone point out to me where we don't have the control of our own reverse
setback?
I understand the point of the primary setbacks, you can't control where you place that outside
the city because it's an EJJ and the mineral rights and all kinds of other issues, but
reverse setbacks, that's where we put our homes.
So I guess I don't understand how we don't control where our reverse setbacks are.
I'm not sure that's clear.
Can someone clarify that for me?
So I wasn't sure if you were directing that to me or Catherine.
I'm kind of trying to look at both of you at the same time.
Okay.
I understand and certainly correct me if I go straight here, Catherine, is that because
it is, the reverse setback is written into our zoning ordinance and we only have zoning
authority in the city limits.
So because the well itself is in our EJJ, we cannot enforce a zoning regulation related
to that.
At least that is how our previous city attorney explained it to me.
So I'm not sure, Catherine, if there's a better way to state that.
Not to my knowledge.
First assistant, Mack Rhinewand, I think is on the meeting and I don't know if Mack has
a way to address that.
Okay.
Mack, are you able to pop on?
Yes, I'm here, council member, members and mayor.
I hear the question.
I don't know the past direction that our office has given them, but I'm happy to look into
that and give a follow-up to the council on where that direction came from or the interpretation
that's based on.
Just a second, so it's really hard to hear, Billy, can you maybe turn his volume up and
then Mack, if I heard you right, you're asking for the question to be rephrased?
No, I can hear you.
Can you hear me, mayor and council?
Yes, sir.
It's a little better.
Yes.
I heard the question.
I'm not familiar with the past interpretation or direction that our office has given on
this, but happy to look into that and give a follow-up to the council to give you the
basis for that interpretation and that enforcement.
Okay.
If I could just keep running with that, I want to be clear that we're following all
our guidelines.
If we need additional time, then it sounds like we would need time to consider unless
it can be done quickly, but the other thing is, the analogy to this is if we had any noxious
use on the borders of our property, we don't have any rights to say how far.
The measurement happens to be outside of our control in terms of where the object is, but
that's just a measurement.
We control what's in our boundaries and it feels very, I'm not at all comfortable with
setting that precedent or even if that was the previous city attorney's precedent, following
that precedent.
To be perfectly honest, we do have that situation in many locations around the city where the
subdivision within the city limits, the gas well may be just on the other side of that
limits and the reverse setback has not been enforced.
In this case, they are honoring that setback.
The southern pad site is far exceeding the 500 foot setback from the closest lots.
On the north side, I believe, and I don't have the plan printed in front of me, I believe
the exact dimension on there was 457 feet to the closest lot, so they are meeting that
to the best of their ability on this site and balancing that with the desire for the
park and open space on the south side.
>> Yeah, okay.
I still would like some follow up clarity on that one.
But then about the traffic impact analysis, so when I was on PNC, I thought we were punching
both roads through when I looked at the mobility plan and are we only expanding, is it Brush
Creek?
What's the east-west road?
>> Hickory Creek is the road on the south side.
>> Thank you.
Are we only expanding Hickory Creek and the sigmoidal road, whose name I can't remember?
>> So on the mobility plan that is currently on our website, the road you're referencing
is that is one and the same, that is Hickory Creek Road.
Following a fatality accident a few years ago, council provided direction to realign
that road to straighten it, so it will now connect with Brush Creek Road and go straight
over the flood plain.
Let me get that map pulled up here.
>> So only the southwest path?
Only the orange path?
>> Correct.
Yeah, this red alignment here has been replaced by this orange dashed line that I drew on
the map.
>> Okay.
All right.
Well, I guess that helps clarify that.
And then the last question I had on this was I want to praise highly this idea that the
parkland development, the retention of the flood plain and the additional 8% of HOA lot,
I think they're doing a lot there.
I appreciate that the R6 standard is bigger.
But fringe has to be somewhere, and it's a common argument that, like, we're going to
expand, we're going to expand, well, okay, now there's no fringe.
Fringe has to be somewhere, otherwise you get Houston.
You just get a city that expands forever.
And I'm from Houston, and I know the dangers, I mean, we're not the size of Houston, but
I know the dangers of perpetual expansion with no fringe.
Houston has ugly characteristics.
So I know nobody's proposing that, but the point is there has to be fringe somewhere.
And we're right up against the rural fringe there, and it concerns me that we're once
again eating into the rural fringe.
And because the density to the northwest was R3, what was the density to the northeast?
I don't think it was on the map.
>> So in terms of zoning, because if you remember the old code enforced by density rather than
lot size, so I did look at some of the other subdivisions in the area, and the highest
density for surrounding subdivisions is about 3.7 units per acre within Ryan Meadows.
Some of the others, like you referenced the NR3 on the map, that's the Creekside subdivision.
They're at about 2.8, but again, they kind of fell into the cluster subdivision where
they do have 6,000 square foot lots, but that was offset by ESA preservation on the fringes
of the site.
So overall, this subdivision falls well within the density ranges and lot sizes that we have
in this part of the city already.
>> Councilman Pritchett-Meltzer, you had your hand, did you get your questions answered?
>> No, no, I did not, thank you.
Well, fundamentally, I'd like to know, I guess from MAC, how much time would it take?
I'm not meaning to put pressure on you, I mean realistically, how much time would it
take to get us a citation of how the actual setback regulation reads, and I'm coming from
the point of view that if the prior interpretation was in error, and we've made that error, the
correct response would not be to compound the error, it would be to stop compounding
the error.
So I'd like to know, I'd like to get a citation of the ordinance and get some clarity on that,
so is that something that could be accomplished by just tabling this item until after we take
up the last item, or do we need more time than that, do we need to come back to this
at the next meeting?
>> MAC, if you're still there, and I think it can also be just, I mean, we're talking,
what did you say, 48, 483?
>> Yeah, I would have to refer to, was that estimate right here, I think it was 457?
>> It's 457.
>> I told them I heard 450.
>> 457 is the closest that they have a lot.
>> So we're talking 50, under 50 feet?
>> About 43 feet.
>> Yeah, but you know, it's not like a negotiation, it's a health and safety code.
It's there not for legal purposes, it's there to protect people.
So I really want to know if we have authority to do what this Council went through, great
pains, you know, to arrive at without, you know, with considerable, you know, acrimony
and stress and all, but we did it for health and safety reasons.
So you know, I'd just like to know if we can actually do that or not.
>> I understand.
I have a comment, but I'll save it.
So Mac, are you there?
>> I am, yes, Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, I can get with the development services staff
if we want to postpone this item while you take up other items, but most likely it's
probably ambitious to expect an answer tonight, I would anticipate by next week, if you wanted
to continue for the public hearing for a week, we could have an answer for sure by then.
>> Okay.
Yeah, I don't know, we'll see if there's an appetite for that, I don't, I don't, we'll
talk about that, I have some thoughts.
Any other questions?
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
>> Well, I, you know, I wanted to ask if there were any other sort of timing factors waiting
on this, weighing on this, I know, you know, people always, you know, naturally want to
get action when their item comes up, but I want to make sure that if we did do that,
if you know, we wouldn't be creating sort of, you know, very large unintended consequences.
>> Okay, all right, Councilmember Davis?
>> Thank you, Mayor.
I have questions mostly about connectivity, but I will say I appreciate Councilmember
Beck's point about the fringe and where's the fringe going to be.
I think I'd pick up more on that argument and, you know, Hartley Field and that kind
of area to the north.
Our fringe down here is a train track in Argyle, that's pretty much what we've got to deal
with to the south of us, there's not much fringe left except for Argyle, and the parts
of Denton who think they're in Argyle.
On Creekdale Drive, I think you already told me or somebody responded to my question that
it will connect to the east, but can you bring up your mobility slide again?
And I guess I'm really asking, as you do that, I'm really asking staff's perspective on
this, but I think the developer may have perspective on this as well, that dotted blue line, the
way it's drawn there on that mobility plan is to go through the, I think it's the Higgin
Bottom parcel to the top, the ETJ there, but we've also got, I believe this parcel and
the other Calvert parcels are at least at one time were common ownership, have there
been discussions about this developer taking Creekdale all the way over to the west?
If this developer doesn't connect Creekdale, I don't know when it would connect to other
Creekdale in the west, and if you try to move around over there in like the Thistle Hill,
Thistle Ridge kind of area, it's a maze down there, so getting those folks another way
out of their neighborhood I think would be helpful.
Sure, so the discussions thus far, because the property is limited to the area of the
zoning, the 62 acres, has been with respect to their perimeter street improvements, so
they would tie into the existing two lanes that are stubbed on the east side, and carry
that across the frontage of their property.
I don't believe the discussion was had about making that westward connection as that was
not within the parameters of this development, but I believe you're correct about the ownership
and the applicant could certainly maybe provide some additional perspective on that, but typically
through the course of development, they would be responsible for their portion of the road
that's on their frontage, and then when that other property comes in or when there is a
capital project to make that connection, then the city would either require the right of
way or require that of whoever's developing the other parcel.
And as the developer, I guess there will be, if we approve this zoning, there will be additional
stages where the exact alignment of Creekdale to the east will be addressed, because right
now it looks like the right of way on the east side, the existing part of Creekdale
is on kind of the northern side of the property line, and this proposed Creekdale is on the
southern part of the property line, and the two don't appear to meet.
I would be very concerned if, is it in the PD standards that Creekdale would have to
connect?
Yes, they will be required to make that connection.
That would be, let me pull that back up one more time here, that would be for the time
being as Hickory Creek Road is under construction, kind of the primary way in and out for them
would be river pass to Creekdale.
So you're correct, the existing two lanes actually ends here at the northeast corner
of the property, and that is on the northern side of the right of way for Creekdale.
They're of course dedicating the southern half.
There is this gap in between where I believe it's an existing detention facility within
that neighborhood.
That right of way has been dedicated to the city there on the north side as part of that
subdivision.
Since there was no connection for it to make to the west, I believe is why the road stopped
kind of there in the middle with that project.
So there is right of way there for them to have room to make that connection in a logical
way with their half of the roadway so that it won't be offset north-south like you were
concerned with.
Thank you, that's very helpful.
DCAT still has that as part of the Hickenbottom track, so that's difficult to see.
Thank you.
Okay, any other questions for -- is it a question for staff, Council Member Warren, or a comment?
It's a suggestion regarding Council Member Meltzer's question for staff.
I think that, you know, I think that's an important issue, the question of how we deal
with reverse setbacks at the edges of the city.
But it also isn't necessarily something that I think we have to get an answer on in order
to vote on this.
I would be comfortable with getting an answer on that later, perhaps in a Friday report,
because this -- I mean, there are -- except for the 457-foot setback at the north end,
it does, you know, I guess align with our -- although, I don't know, maybe I should
suggest that we request a full 500-foot setback at the north then.
Okay, well, let's hear from the applicant.
Yeah, let's do that.
And is that ten minutes?
So, you are -- thank you very much.
Yeah, there you go.
Good evening.
Good evening.
I have someone who'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe it's ten minutes to present
because you're the applicant.
So --
Thank you, sir.
Yes, sir.
My name is Jerry Silo.
I'm with JBI Partners, 2121 Midway Road in Carrollton, Texas.
We do represent the applicant on this request, the applicant being First Texas Homes.
I'll try to address as many questions as the council asks of staff and discussion points
through my presentation.
This slide just shows the general area of the Parkside neighborhood in relation to Hickory
Creek Road, Ryan Road up at the north end, Creekdale.
With regards to the rural fringe, I believe Hayley provided the council information in
terms of the comprehensive plan, and the comprehensive plan generally shows that the rural fringe
is the dividing line between rural and suburban is the center line of the creek, and that
everything east of the railroad tracks is more suburban type development, everything
primarily west of the railroad tracks is somewhat more rural type development, so that's -- and
that's why it's in compliance with the comprehensive plan.
With regards to the Creekdale connection, you know, when we -- assuming the council
approves our zoning and we go through the process and construction, even though we will
be building the south side of Creekdale, we will create a transition to get to that north
side so that it's a fluid flow of traffic to get there, because we have to use Creekdale
as our access point, as our secondary access point for police and fire.
So we have to make that connection, and it'll be a fluid connection from a paving perspective.
With regards to our specific request, as Hayley went over a lot of this, I'm going to try
to avoid just reiterating everything she said and focus on a few other things.
The big thing -- and she mentioned it through a lot of her presentation -- was we have worked
collaboratively with a number of different departments within the city of Denton for
the staff.
Obviously, we worked with the planning department, we worked with the parks department, public
works, transportation.
We've even worked with the real estate department with regards to there was at one point discussion
of a potential library site for this property.
We understand all those benefits that are addressed by all those departments, we understand
how those benefit the residents of this neighborhood, and we have always been open to making sure
that we work with the city, we work with the staff, because working with the staff and
what the city's goals are will do nothing but benefit these future homeowners.
And we view that as a positive, because from a business perspective, our client is competing
with every other home builder out there, so the better that he can make his neighborhood
compared to those other neighborhoods, the better he has the ability to market his homes
to those residents.
The key thing in our development is the 23 acres of parkland/conservation, 18 of those
acres being the floodplain.
As you can see on this drawing, the area that is noncolored right now is within the floodplain.
The area that is colored green, which is approximately five acres, is all upland property.
The south side over here is right about three acres, so that's a substantial area that the
parks department can use for amenities within the park itself.
What our client chose to do, when we started working with the city, the parks department
was very keen on trying to do something with the floodplain, passive recreation, hiking
bike trails, connecting it to the overall city system.
We were very open to working with the parks department for that.
As we got talking amongst ourselves, we saw this three acres primarily down here at the
south side, and the five acres total, as an opportunity to create something better in
this neighborhood than just some floodplain.
Our client easily could have fronted homes on this street and had those homes backing
to the floodplain in the park, create some premiums for those lots, but we thought it
was better to have our main entrance coming in from Hickory Creek.
We've got about 900 feet from Hickory Creek to our first home, so that's a great drive.
That's really a sense of arrival as you're coming into this neighborhood adjacent to
a 23 acre park.
Since this is floodplain on the left and on the right is upland, this is the high ground.
So you're looking down into that floodplain on this entire drive into the neighborhood.
So we think by doing something like that creates something special for 156 homeowners, not
worrying about five or six homeowners that get to back to that and get a premium.
We think it's a premium to the neighborhood, and that's what our focus was.
With regards to the, even the five acres, as Haley mentioned, per the city's ordinances
with 156 lots, we would be required to dedicate basically an acre of land for parkland.
Our high and dry is over five acres, so that's ballpark, a 358% increase of what we're required
to do, and that's just with the park, with the high and dry stuff.
That doesn't include the 18 acres of floodplain.
So we feel that we are creating an environment, a neighborhood that everybody out here would
be proud to live in.
These are examples of homes that First Texas has built in other neighborhoods that similar
architecture is going to take place in these neighborhoods, this neighborhood.
Assuming we get all the approvals, we're probably not having homes being built until 2024.
So the actual architecture is going to vary somewhat as architecture evolves over the
next couple of years, but generally speaking, brick and stone, high peak roofs, very what
I consider an upscale neighborhood for this portion of town.
Public land specifically, we had the 18 acres of floodplain, the five acres of upland, and
then about four and a half acres down here for Hickory Creek right away dedication.
Obviously, for Hickory Creek, typically what we would have been required to do is dedicate
our north half of the road.
But because there's going to be a big embankment here, because there's drainage issues with
the railroad crossing and the creek and everything, Public Works Department Engineering came to
us through this process and said, can we work with you guys to get the dedication for the
land versus having to go out there and buy it?
Because that's a normal process.
City goes to try to condemn it.
You get appraisals, you pay the property owner the values of that property, and we all go
about life.
Once again, we think the improvement of Hickory Creek is a benefit to our neighborhood.
So as a result, we're more than happy to work with the city to dedicate that additional
land than what we were just required to do.
This is real quick, this pond back here, which is what we are retaining within the floodplain.
These are a couple of photos of that pond.
So this is the high and dry where the homes would be.
So very nice, it's going to be great for the Parks Department, and I think that's why they're
so keen about trying to get this property for some type of city park.
And we have been working with the Parks Department right now to come up with some design schematics
for this park area.
What we're trying to do is potentially go in there with our single family development
and put in some type of active recreation, a little taut lot or something that those
homeowners could use in the interim until the city gets a full design for their park.
In this scenario, as you can see, we've sort of reconfigured the pond a little bit, get
it a little closer to the streets, make it more of an amenity to the neighborhood versus
having to walk out to get to that area.
This is just a quick sketch of what we are looking at for entry monumentation along Hickory
Creek Road.
Since we are going to start getting into the embankment across the railroad tracks, we
want a presence along Hickory Creek.
This monument is approximately 24 feet high, so we really think it's going to make that
statement as you drive down Hickory Creek that you drive down this 900 foot drive to
get into the neighborhood, but this is the calling card to tell you to turn to get into
that neighborhood.
Once again, back to the original concept plan.
As Haley mentioned, we did have a neighborhood meeting, a Zoom meeting on April 7th.
One of the neighbor immediately to the east of us did attend.
We had a couple contacts with other people within the notification area, sent out a couple
meeting invites.
At that time, nobody attended the meeting.
I did follow up with those people afterwards with an additional email about a week later
seeing if they may have not been able to make it or whatever.
I did not get a reply back from anybody, so we feel we were proactive in trying to meet
with our neighbors.
As Haley mentioned, the staff has recommended approval of our request, and last week the
Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval 50 for our request.
I will stop my presentation there and am more than happy to answer questions of the council.
Okay.
I stand corrected.
It is 20 minutes total, so if you need it.
I'm good, sir.
No, sir.
Great.
I'm good.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions for the applicant?
Councilmember Bett, Councilmember Byrd.
Thank you.
So, I love the literal parkside amenities and the integration with parks.
I don't have, I mean, I think that's great, and I wish more developers would choose options
like you're choosing.
I think it helps promote the kind of dentin that we all want to live in.
I mostly have issues with the, I don't really have an issue with the R6 per se.
I do think that it's worth reiterating constantly, more maybe to ourselves than necessarily you,
that we need to keep our eye on the future land use map because we did that for a reason.
The issues that I had the greatest concern are, and I think some of one of them you could
mitigate and answer my question on, and that is I know it seems nitpicky to nitpick the
500 feet, but as Mayor Pro Tem said, there was great consternation and gnashing of teeth
and blood and sweat and tears on that 500.
Is there, so this might be a question for both either you or Haley, is the actual distance,
the actual distance that would be inside 500 feet would probably be one, two lots in your
concept plan?
If I can get, let's see.
What ends up happening is, can we see his presentation instead of council?
The way the neighborhood lays out, the 457 is to the north property line of these lots,
so encroaching into that another 43 feet, the way this is laid out, I'm not coming down
the side of the street, I'm coming through the front and backs of the streets, so I would
end up losing an entire tier of lots because this 43 up here is going to move everything
down 43 feet, so that would carry through.
I would lose some lots on this edge because my area is getting narrower here and these,
I would eliminate parkland down at the south end.
So I guess my question to you is, how many actual lots back up to the top, is it the
entire north row?
Because if it's just one or two lots, then I can see my way clear to saying, oh, one
lot of HOA or two lots of HOA and you're in, in order to keep us within our own rules.
I really would like to keep us within our own rules, regardless of what MAC finds.
I don't want to necessarily belabor that, but let me make a bigger point.
If it is just one or two lots that can be converted to an HOA without changing anything
else, I think I could be very supportive of this project.
The other thing that is, I guess, I don't know if it's your issue or the city's, but
Councillor Davis brought this up and I think the mobility planning, again, it becomes mobility
planning is always chicken and egg, but I think we do really need to have you have access
to the south and I'm not, you know, I realize you don't own the western property, or do
you?
No, sir.
Okay.
So then there becomes, you know, this problem of where do we take your people that you're
going to instill in this property?
It makes a traffic wall that is concerning for me.
Do you have any thoughts on that?
Our primary entrance and exit will be from Hickory Creek.
Hickory Creek is being improved to a four lane divider road, which has a capacity of
about 25,000 cars a day.
Our traffic is approximately 1,400 cars a day.
Hickory Creek is anticipated to, let me get the right numbers here.
Hickory Creek construction is anticipated to be completed January 2024.
We anticipate that our homes would start construction probably in the first quarter of '23 and with
a timeline of eight, nine, ten months to build a home, we're going to hit right at January
'24.
So we fully presume we're going to be real darn close to the vast majority of our traffic
going directly to Hickory Creek.
That helps.
That ameliorates a lot of my concerns.
I guess I'll wait to hear what others have to think, but I really would consider if you
could make some thoughts.
In terms of the impact of the well, it impacts this entire tier of lots up here.
So one, two, three, four, five, six.
The well is up in this area, so that 500 foot comes down in here.
I will say that as this entire process, as I said, it's been collaborative with the staff.
We showed what we showed because that was the staff's belief that that's what the ordinances
were interpreted to say.
So even though the well site in the southeast corner of our property is in the ETJ, we held
off 500 feet from that well site.
The other well site southwest of us is west of the railroad tracks is way beyond 500 feet.
This one, understanding that it was told of us that the 500 foot didn't apply, we kept
it away as far as we can with where it is.
It's my understanding all three of those wells are non-performing wells at this point.
They haven't been capped, but they aren't being used as well.
I don't know if that means they're dry, I don't know anything about the well specifically.
Okay.
Thank you.
Councilman Byrd?
I was going to ask about the railroad track.
Yes, ma'am.
That seems like that's pretty close to the homes.
How far away is the railroad track?
But the primary question is, is there going to be some type of, is that going to be, are
we going to have questions about a quiet zone, or are we going to have some kind of barrier
up there?
It looks like it crosses over Hickory Creek.
I can imagine it being fairly loud to those high end homeowners.
So has that been considered as part of the investment package?
With regards to the railroad, the only thing I can say is the neighborhoods to the northwest
of us are immediately adjacent to the railroad.
We have basically have the buffer of the flood plain.
Generally speaking, in this area, let's just say up in here, that's probably the closest.
In that area right there, I will give you an approximation, 200 per scale, it is probably
about 300 feet from this lot to the railroad tracks, whereas the two neighborhoods to the
north of us, you see on this aerial, are immediately adjacent to the railroad tracks.
Do you know if they have any kind of buffer in that area?
I don't know specifically, no.
Okay, and also about the pond, it's going to be some raised embankments or how are you
all anticipating making any kind of corrections or to that?
I'm just kind of thinking about the drainage.
I know that the top appears as though it's lower level there.
With regards to this pond within the flood plain, everything right through here is a
ridge line.
Everything drains down this way, and that's why this is flood plain, because that's the
natural water flows.
The northeast tip of our property drains and that's why we have the detention pond on our
northeast corner.
There will be a retention pond, it will hold water, we will have an aeration system in
the fountain to keep it moving and make it more of an attractive versus a hole that has
grass in it and fills up once in a while.
So this pond and the flood plain will actually be owned by the City of Denton and their parks
department will maintain it.
I understand.
Okay, thank you.
If you can pull down the presentation.
I'm sorry.
If you can pull down.
I'm sorry.
Maybe staffs are doing that.
All right, I'm sorry.
Yeah, no worries.
Thank you.
Okay, so Councilor Davis?
Thank you, Mayor.
So you addressed a little bit of Creekdale at the top of your presentation.
You addressed a little bit of Creekdale at the top of your presentation, and as I understand
it, and maybe I just missed this from staff's presentation, y'all are building the southern
half of Creekdale?
Yes, sir.
And then is the city going to build the other half of Creekdale, or what's your understanding
of where the other lane of Creekdale's going to come from?
Typically what would happen is, as Haley mentioned, the right-of-way has been dedicated.
Typically at some point in the future, the city would end up paving that portion of Creekdale.
The ordinance requires that we build the south side.
So it comes up with some regularity with these zoning cases that somebody has lived on a
road to nowhere that everybody knew 20 years ago was going to be a road to somewhere eventually.
And, you know, one time we had a sign fall down.
You know, road will extend when development extends.
The sign fell down.
And so anybody who bought after the sign fell down thought they were buying on a cul-de-sac.
So I have some issue with half roads, roads that stub out.
Creekdale already has two large breaks in it.
We have Far East Creekdale, Middle Creekdale, and then Western Creekdale.
Do you all have any capacity in your project or in your -- in your dealings with the current
land owner or the immediately previous land owner?
First of all, who's in possession of the -- who owns the lot right now?
Who owns the tracks that you all are building on right now?
>> First Texas does not.
>> Does not.
So there's common ownership with the two tracks to the side -- to the west that would be necessary
to punch Creekdale through as are shown -- as is shown on our mobility plan.
>> I don't know that.
>> If that were so, do you all have capacity in your project and relationships with that
land owner that you could continue the entirety of Creekdale and connect that project for
us?
>> Spoiler alert, there's a barn in the way.
So I'm wondering if you all have had any of those kind of conversations at all.
It's maybe a pole barn or a maintenance shed or something.
>> No, sir, we have not because we have focused everything towards Hickory Creek.
And since Creekdale is a collector on the city's thoroughfare plan, we are dedicating
our half of the road, we're building our half of the road per the city's requirements.
And we view Creekdale as our secondary point of access for emergency.
And so from a road that ends, since homes do not front on it in our neighborhood, it's
actually -- it would technically be outside the neighborhood, in my opinion, there's not
that concern from home buyers that think they bought a house piece of property on a cul-de-sac.
That is going to be a perimeter collector, as is in a lot of developments, not only in
Denton, but almost every other city in the Metroplex right now.
>> Understood.
I mean, they won't think they're on a cul-de-sac, they'll think they'll have an alley, basically.
>> We'll have a masonry screening wall along our north end and then a landscape buffer
that's owned and maintained by the HOA.
>> Okay.
Thank you.
I didn't see that on your -- I saw the trees on your plan.
>> Yes.
I'm sorry.
>> I didn't see the masonry screening wall.
And then just for staff, however -- whether it's tonight or some future time or whatever
we do with the item, if we could get some information on that pincher well that's to
the north, its status, it is not -- I mean, based on the aerials, it's not doing what
other wells in our area are doing that are active and are producing.
So if we could just get a little bit more information, especially if we're getting ready
to build homes there.
>> Yes, sir, while we were -- while you were having this discussion, I was looking on the
Railroad Commission's website, both the well to the north and the well to the -- on the
southeast side of the property are listed as temporarily abandoned.
So until they're officially plugged by the operator, the city's status will still consider
them open and active, but to the Railroad Commission, they are both temporarily abandoned at this
time.
>> Mm-hmm.
>> Okay.
So we're going to move towards direction.
I know this has to come to a conclusion at some point.
So Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
>> Well, you know, this will help me on direction.
Is it out of the realm of possibility to investigate with the neighbor having that well plugged?
I mean, it sort of takes away, you know, my only problem with this.
I mean, it fits the future land use map.
I appreciate the clustering and the preservation.
You know, whereas I might have blocked it R6 initially, I think the point is very well
taken that the infrastructure is, you know, being put in place to handle that traffic.
So you know, that's kind of the only issue.
If it's completely out of the question, I guess I'd be interested in the answer to that
question.
I mean, I have another thought about how to approach that, but I think that would be the
most direct.
>> Got it.
Okay.
So staff is telling me, just let me know, so we need to go into closed session on this
item before we vote, so I'll make my comments, we'll go into closed session, we're going
to come back and we're going to make a decision.
So for me, I think it's interesting, if anyone did, just for those watching, if anyone and
specifically target the last week, just, you know, because it's been that type of week,
you'd find at least 50 emails that said this is what we've done in the past.
Fast forward to this conversation, it's don't worry about what we've done in the past.
Very interesting, we'll see how it settles out, but I'll say we've, this body as a whole
has argued both sides of that equation, which is frustrating for me.
We have to be consistent in our messaging and in our beliefs, and I'll push to try to make
sure we get better at that.
Then I think I want to, it's important what you kind of, what the applicants noted when
it comes to the comp plan, when it comes to staff working with developers to get them
to this point, and so what you have is a quality product that then meets the city's desires
to have the extra green space, to have the clustering, to save the trees, that sort of
thing, and it just, the mixed messaging, if I'm in the applicant's spot that then says,
well, we'd rather you, for 50 feet, gobble up five acres of park, right?
And so that to me is, well, Councilman McGuire?
I was just saying, nope, nobody said that.
Yeah, I read your lips.
I practice at that, so this is my thing.
So for me, I think it's a matter of consistently communicating to people that come to this
body so that we can then move these projects either forward or they can know clear and
early that this is not going to work for us.
So that's a concern for me is that we, the consistency on those two fronts.
Then I'll say, I appreciate the applicant, I just want to give a compliment, because
I appreciate the applicant just giving the distinction between, oftentimes people will
try to pull the end around and say, oh, well, we're dedicating this much property and it's
all in the floodplain, so I appreciate you bifurcating those things, because I think
it's important and it shows a true intent to meet staff's ask, which is this Council's
priorities, which then you work from, to then bring a project forward.
And so that being said, we'll go into closed session, get up to speed, and come back and
make a decision.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for your presentation.
We'll see if we have some questions.
So what is the, what do you want, cite this?
Great.
So it's, in ten minutes, I mean, I guess it doesn't matter.
So we'll go directly to closed session, we'll need a minute or two to set up.
So at 1018, I'll take us into closed session and the citations, consult with attorneys
under Texas Government Code Section 551.071.
So we'll be in closed session as brief as possible so that we can come back and wrap
this up.
Thank you for your patience.
Okay.
It is 1046 and we're back in regular session.
Thank you for your patience.
And so we are on item, let me get there, 7B, and just to call that number again, PD 2000009A.
I'll close the comments of the public hearing, and I'm going to make a motion to approve
item B as presented by staff in conjunction with P and Z and staff's recommendations.
Looking for a second.
Council Member Byrd.
We have a motion and a second on 2B discussion.
Council Member Davis Discussion on the property to the west and
putting a road across it.
That would be my preference.
I understand that this developer doesn't have plans to do that and doesn't have permission
to do that.
There's no easement.
There's no right of way to the west.
I would hope that happens in the future.
There's also been discussion about property to the north, excuse me, and also been discussion
about when I get this close, it's very loud here in the room, about the property to the
north and the gas well on the property to the north is temporarily abandoned according
to the railroad committee.
That is very small.
It's clear from the aerials.
There's no activity whatsoever at that gas well.
So I'm satisfied with the distance of that gas well from the PD that's being asked for
tonight.
Any other discussion?
Council Member Guara?
Thank you.
I would request perhaps an amendment or perhaps just consideration from the applicant that
the six lots along the northwestern edge of the development that would be within 500 feet
of the gas well, perhaps the applicant could develop those lots last and do the rest of
the development and then at such time as the well might be capped, then the developer could
move forward with those six lots that are within 500 feet of the gas well.
Is that something that the developer would be amenable to?
Ms. Silo, do you want to speak amongst yourselves and then speak to that or?
Once again, Jerry Silo with JBI Partners.
Our client's concern is that if since the gas well is in the county and the city doesn't
have any teeth to the well, we don't have any teeth to the well because it's not on
our property, to rely on somebody else's goodwill to cap that well at some point in the future
that does not create a negative for this neighborhood, we cannot commit to it this time.
Okay.
And I think it was just a phased question versus a prohibition, but I don't want to
speak through you, Council Member Guara.
Our intent for developing Council Member Guara is we're going to be developing in terms of
home building basically from south to north.
It's all going to be in one phase, but most of the development is going to end up going
from the south end and working its way north.
So just by the nature of it, it will be in the later stages of the neighborhood.
Okay.
And I imagine that that's probably the best that you could do.
I would posit that I certainly wouldn't purchase a home that's that close to a gas well, and
I would imagine that waiting until the gas well gets capped might be helpful to your
client as far as selling those homes and getting the best possible price for them.
But you are correct that the city doesn't have any teeth to enforce that at this time.
Okay.
Mayor Pro Temelter.
Yeah, just to follow along, you know, rather than having the goodwill of the owner of that
property be so much the issue, I think what Council Member Guara is after, and I, please
correct me if I'm wrong, would be your expression of goodwill to, you know, to find out if that's
a possibility or not.
Okay.
That's not a question.
Sure it is.
Okay.
Well, then phrase it as...
Or invite a response.
I'd ask you to...
Or invite a response.
Well, you've got to stop talking, so we're not talking at the same time.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you.
Could you phrase it as a question?
That was not phrased as a question in my interpretation.
Would you, as an expression of your goodwill, commit to the Council to investigate whether
that might be an option?
We will commit to getting with that well owner or the well company or whatever the term is
and try to work with them to get that well capped.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
You're welcome, sir.
Okay.
Any questions for staff comments?
Seeing none, we have a motion by myself, second by Council Member Byrd.
Any other discussion?
Seeing none.
Mayor Hatspeth, is there an aye?
Council Member Byrd?
Aye.
Council Member Beck?
We're not in discussion.
So I will say that this is not an element to the developer.
I really like your plan.
I really just want to have our clear cut rules followed.
And so with this slightly different, I would vote yes.
But in this case, no.
Thank you.
Council Member Davis?
Aye.
Council Member McGuire?
Apologies.
This is very near to my home.
I will certainly be keeping an eye on the situation and on this gas well, but I'm going
to take a gamble on, you know, in the hopes that things will work out in a way that will
be best for the health and safety of the future residents of this area, I'm going to vote
yes.
Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
My sentiments are similar to Council Member Beck's, but I am falling on the side of voting
aye.
I vote aye.
Okay.
Passes 5-1.
Thank you very much.
Great discussion.
Good luck with your project.
Okay.
That takes us to item C, the last item this evening.
It's Z21-0001A, hold a public hearing and consider adoption of an ordinance of the Sea
of Denton, Texas regarding a change in the zoning district and use classification for
public facilities, district to suburban corridor.
And I will open the public hearing for this item as well so they don't forget.
Good evening.
I'm Julie Wyatt.
Let me pull up my presentation.
All right.
This is Z21-0001A, commercial zoning.
So the request before you is to rezone 1.5 acres from public facilities, that's PF district,
excuse me, to suburban corridor district, also known as SC district.
The current property owner acquired the property from the Denton ISD school district in December
of last year with the intent to develop the site as a commercial use.
Just to orient you, the property is located on the south side of Highway 380, that's a
city, and it's outlined here in yellow.
It's near Malone Street and Fulton Street, kind of in between those two streets.
So just to let you know kind of how the zoning transitioned with the 2019 Denton Development
Code, with the adoption and implementation of our current Denton Development Code, we
did add a new zoning district called public facilities.
And so all property owned by the city of Denton or the school district was then transitioned
to that public facility zoning.
And the intent of that was to facilitate public and community uses, things like fire stations,
schools, libraries.
In this instance, because Denton ISD has sold the property to a private developer, they
must rezone the property now to a commercial district in order to develop the site.
So just to give you a little bit of history before we go over the criteria for approval.
At first, I have the 2002 zoning map, which shows the subject site in this general location.
It had that NRMU 12 district, which was one of our commercial zoning districts.
With the implementation of that 2019 DDC, it transitioned to public facilities, and
you can see that in that middle map, and that's outlined in that blue.
And the proposal is just to transition that to the suburban corridor, which is what is
adjacent to the subject property.
It's not only adjacent, but it's also across the street.
The criteria for approval for zoning projects is in subchapter two of the 2019 Denton Development
Code.
We have both general and specific criteria for approval.
I won't read all of these for you.
I'm just going to go over the most germane criterion or criteria for approval.
So the first thing we always look at is the comprehensive plan.
Denton Plan 2030 designates this property as well as those adjacent properties as designated
for commercial development.
This is intended for concentrations of commercial uses, and this can include or run the gamut
of intensities, both from regional, community, and then also neighborhood shopping centers.
SC is consistent with this future land use designation.
It permits a variety of commercial and service uses, and it is generally at a scale to serve
the entire community.
It's often found on arterial roadways.
So that's why you see a lot of suburban corridor on university, because it's sort of designed
for that type of roadway.
Also this is an infill area.
It is surrounded by existing development.
It also is served by an existing six-lane arterial road, and it is served by existing
water and sewer.
So it does promote that compact development pattern.
Another criterion we look at is minimizes adverse impacts to surrounding property.
As I mentioned, the SC district is consistent with that surrounding zoning pattern as well
as that development pattern.
The majority of properties that front University Drive have that SC zoning district, and this
would just be a logical extension of that zoning, and it would facilitate additional
commercial uses that you typically see on university.
Given that site's location, there's not that direct vehicular connection to the south,
so there wouldn't be a vehicular connection to those neighborhoods to the south.
And any development of the lot would have to conform to current site design standards.
As part of looking at this proposal, they have submitted a TIA, and it is under review.
I do want to caution you, the site plan has not been reviewed.
It is sort of conceptual at this time, since this is just a straight zoning.
Development of the site could conform to any permitted uses within that SC district.
But I do want to talk about this TIA and the potential trips.
They did look at the subject property, so that is that area outlined in yellow, what
we're talking about tonight, as well as the adjacent lot.
That is currently under development for a 20,000 square foot retail use.
It already has the zoning in place, so it's just going through the platting and development
processes.
So they looked at this sort of entire area, and all three uses would generate about 3,000
trips per day.
That would be about 162 morning peak and 171 evening peak.
They did look at the driveways, those conceptual driveways as part of that TIA, and they are
proposing three driveways to the site.
One would be that ride in from University.
One would be a left in to the adjacent lot from University, and then an access driveway
which connects to the existing Westway Street in the city of Denton.
And then that would go through that sort of commercial area of that roadway to connect
to Fulton and onto that signalized intersection on University.
Public water and wastewater are available to the site, and they would have TAP and impact
fees with development.
We did send out public notification for the request.
We haven't received any responses.
This item was presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission, and they recommended approval
six to zero, and then staff also recommends approval as it is consistent with the future
land use map and does conform to the criteria for approval.
And the applicant is here to answer any questions, and I'll be happy to answer any questions
as well.
Okay.
Questions for staff?
Does the applicant have a presentation?
No, sir.
Okay.
Great.
Awesome.
Okay.
Questions for staff?
Okay.
Seeing none, then I will...
That one.
What's that?
Oh.
Okay.
Yes, sir.
Council Member Beck.
A motion approval is indicated by staff.
Okay.
Is there a second?
Council Member Davis?
I'll second.
Thank you.
I have a motion and a second.
Comments?
Any comments?
So we have a motion by Council Member Beck, second by Council Member Davis.
I'll say this is exciting for the city just generally because it's, one, it shows the
school district's work in putting this property back on the tax rolls once it found it was
no longer useful.
So I appreciate their working with the community in that way.
And then, I mean, I think just the applicant moving this project forward, but it's a good
partnership, and so I appreciate that.
And it already looks better than just that building sitting there.
So thank you for that.
Okay.
And so any other discussion?
Seeing none.
Okay.
Council Member Beck, I'll say you.
Aye.
Council Member Davis, I'll say you.
Aye.
Council Member Byrd.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
Aye.
Council Member McGuire.
I do love infill development.
Thank you for bringing us an easy one.
Aye.
Mayor Hutzpeth has an aye as well, that passes 6-0.
Thank you very much.
And also, I'll close the public hearing.
Okay.
That takes us to concluding items.
Concluding items.
Council Member Davis.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'm going to be very quick.
Mr. Donald Cox, who spoke to us earlier in the evening, has a book.
It's called Juneteenth 101.
It's in its third edition.
I found it on Amazon.
I'm happy to buy it and get it here by Thursday, but if anybody knows Mr. Cox and knows if
I can buy it from him directly and not give Bezos his cut, I'd rather do that.
So anybody who could put me in touch, you have until midnight tomorrow because I want
the book.
Yeah.
Yeah, we'll get you.
That's awesome.
Thank you for that.
Anyone else?
So I have a few.
So first, Sunday is Father's Day, so to all the fathers, wish them a happy Father's Day.
On Thursday, the kind of precursor to the Juneteenth celebration, we have the Foundation
of History dedication for that mural.
So we'll close down the street.
That's Robertson and Bell Street.
So you can come out and celebrate with the women that are featured there will be there.
And so that will be a great event, so that's Thursday evening, I think at 5 or 5.30 I forget.
And then there's Friday, there's a celebration of life for Jim Engelbrecht, which Councilmember
Davis mentioned.
He's a former council member, veteran, really served on the Rotary and really excellent
part of our community that we lost.
So that's Friday.
Then Saturday, there's an actual Juneteenth parade that morning.
So please come out.
I think we have like 10 departments from the city participating, really good response.
So excited about that response.
And then giving credit where credit's due on the next dedication is coming up Monday.
Councilmember Meltzer and the Rotary group were very integral in that.
And if you've not been over there, that is a fantastic place to hang out at Shade, gives
you a puncher's chance in the heat.
And then continuing that, you may not know, but again, giving credit where credit's due,
Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer is also working on the rail trail, those new monument signs and keeping
that updated and plugging in new information.
And he has some really cool things about the Fred Moore dragons that he's working on.
And so really some compelling things that will impact the community in a big way.
So he's behind the scenes doing a lot of great stuff to make sure people get recognized.
And so oftentimes, everyone here does a lot that doesn't bubble to the top.
So just want to let you know, when things do catch my attention that the really great
group serving the community well and doing it the right way.
So they don't always toot their horn, but it's important to note all the great things
this body's doing for our community.
That being said, we will conclude tonight's meeting.
Oh, Councilman Burke.
I just wanted to just note that the matriarch of my husband's family passed away 95 years
old a few days ago, and we're going to be traveling to Kentucky on this Friday.
So I'm going to miss my first opportunity as City Council District 1 to participate
in the festivities.
So we're going to be leaving early on Friday.
But I certainly will miss everyone in all of those, all the good things there.
Okay.
Sorry to hear that.
I'll be asking for your traveling grace.
Thank you.
Yeah.
And safe travels.
Okay.
Anyone else?
Great.
At 11.06 p.m., I'll conclude this evening's meeting, and we'll be back next week.
Thank you.