[ Silence ]
[ Music ]
>> I'm going to say good morning because we've been here
since 9 o'clock, but I'm going to say good evening.
Good evening. I wanted to welcome you to the September 1st,
2015 Denton City Council meeting.
It's 6 31 and if you would join me in standing and pledging
to the U.S. and the Texas flag.
[ Applause ]
>> 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 pledge allegiance to the Texas flag and to the state of
America, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all.
>> We have some proclamations that I'll come down and
recognize.
[ Silence ]
>> We have a proclamation for blood cancer awareness month.
I'm not sure if they're here this evening. If not, we'll be
sure and mail that to them.
Anyone here for blood cancer awareness month? All right.
Thank you.
[ Silence ]
Live United Month. Gary, you all come on down and introduce
yourself and tell us the month we're celebrating.
[ Silence ]
>> I'm Mark Sacco. I am the chairperson for United Way of
Denton County and this is September is Live United Month.
>> I'm Carol Kyer on the executive board.
>> Mark Murkey and I'm on the executive board.
>> Gary Henderson and I'm the CEO of United Way of Denton
County.
>> Give us just a real brief description of what Live
United Month is.
>> Wow. What is it not?
>> That's better.
>> So obviously United Way has been a staple in our
community for years and years and years.
Our goal is to raise money to help people in our community.
Effectively, we do things relating to just about any need
that a person in our community might have.
For example, we've been tackling the question of mental
health.
And what's surprising is that mental health affects just
about everybody.
Everybody in our community in some form, some fashion is
affected by it.
If you look at our jails, what do you see?
Lots of folks that are in jail because of a mental health
reason.
So we're trying to get a grasp around that and trying to
help those folks and figure out how does that impact.
Because mental health, and I'm just picking on one subject,
if you're unable to perform, well, you're probably not
providing for your family.
You're probably not helping to educate your children very
well.
You're probably not doing a lot of things that you
otherwise could if you were properly diagnosed and treated.
So that's one of the things.
And so we have the Coalition on Mental Health.
We've also helped out with the Mayor's Job Program this
year.
And that's a new program that, effectively new, I believe,
that is basically helping kids who need the help the most,
teenagers, high schoolers, to get jobs and learn and gain
skills.
We also do an income tax service that helps out elderly
folks and folks that have limited means to be able to get
free tax services
instead of going to a tax preparer.
We've also tackled the, and you all are familiar probably
with Bank on Denton,
it's a way to tackle the loan sharks out there, the payday
loans, the payday lenders.
And the list goes on and on as well as we support 20
agencies in our community that provide all the way down to
the most basic service.
I wasn't really prepared to talk, but I hope I did okay.
Mayor, thank you so much for honoring us today.
Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely.
[applause]
Well, I will tell you, I will read a proclamation,
but there's no way that words on a piece of paper can
explain the great blessing that Denton County realizes as a
result of United Way
and all the many programs that they're involved in and all
the new initiatives that they're involved with.
So really do appreciate all that you guys do for our
community.
You're there day in and day out helping the nonprofits that
you support,
and really to support the people in our county. So thank
you very much.
Thank you.
This is a proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton,
Texas,
whereas United Way of Denton County achieves its mission to
improve lives in Denton County
by mobilizing community resources that identify and address
critical issues in the areas of education, income, and
health,
the building blocks for a better life.
And whereas United Way of Denton County's Collective Impact
Initiative,
Denton County's Citizens Council on Mental Health rallied
support this past year to launch a Denton County Behavioral
Health Leadership Team
to develop strategies that will improve the behavioral
health system in our community.
And whereas across Denton County, one in three children are
at risk of dropping out of school.
I'm going to repeat that one more time.
Across Denton County, one in three children are at risk of
dropping out of school.
United Way of Denton County and community collaborators
continue to mobilize volunteers
through Mentor Denton to help at-risk children succeed in
school.
And whereas United Way of Denton County serves as the
backbone organization for collective impact initiatives,
including Pre-Kindergarten Readiness Coalition, Bank on
Denton County, Denton County Works Job Interview Training
for Youth,
the Mayor's Summer Youth Jobs Initiative, Project Blueprint
Board Training, school-based community centers, and the
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program.
And whereas this past year, 12,026 generous donors gave a
total of $2.468 million, almost $2.5 million,
to support the mission of the United Way of Denton County
grants to 20 partner agencies and collective impact grants
that target unmet local needs.
And therefore, it actually is really my pleasure and honor
that I, Chris Watts, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas,
do hereby proclaim September 2015 to be Live United Month
in the City of Denton and join United Way of Denton County
donors,
volunteers, and partners in calling on all residents to
live united and give, advocate, and volunteer.
So thank you all very much for what you do for our
community.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much
, Mark. Thank you.
[Applause]
Let's see, Phil. Phil, I'm just going to, you're going to
be last. Is that okay? I'm going to do the, all right.
Sorry. I don't have my glasses on. Okay. This is for the
Denton Dolphins Day.
So everybody that's involved in the Denton Dolphins Day
program, come on down.
[Silence]
I'm going to have you all introduce yourselves and tell us
a little bit about the Denton Dolphins.
I'm Kathy Avery. I'm the program area manager for aquatics.
And if you're not familiar with the program, it's a
recreational program affiliated with the Texas Amateur
Athletic Federation.
We've been affiliated with them for as long as I've been
here. It's been a long time.
Every year we offer a program both at the auditorium in the
off season in fall and spring, and then also in the summer
we work out at the Civic Center Pool.
And this year we had several of our swimmers that not only
competed locally, but all of them went to regionals.
Many of them qualified to go to state. Several of them also
went to the nationals this year in Nebraska.
And we qualify every two years to do that. We're extremely
proud of them.
We started with 89 swimmers at the beginning of the summer.
In the fall we don't get to have quite as many just because
we don't have enough space, lane space to keep accommod
ating that many swimmers just indoors.
But we've had a wonderful year. We've had some very
dedicated coaches and athletes.
At this time I'd like for them to introduce themselves,
starting with the head coach.
I'm Carla Parr. I'm the head coach for the Denton Dolphins.
I'm Maddie McAlister.
I'm Hannah Hickman.
I'm Joe Morales.
Jack Racin, assistant coach.
Rosalie Byer, assistant coach.
Alright, well let me read this proclamation.
Proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, Texas.
Whereas the 2015 Denton Dolphin swim team, as part of the
city of Denton aquatics program competing with TAAF, which
stands for Texas Amateur Athletic Federation,
has achieved recognition on both the state and national
levels, proudly representing the city of Denton.
And whereas of the roughly 90 summer athletes, seven
qualified for the summer games of Texas in College Station,
Texas,
with four competing including Emma Calvert, Juliana Holland
, Will Lemons, and Kaitlyn True, who earned a silver medal.
And whereas three national qualifiers competed in the state
games of America and Lincoln, Nebraska,
including Hannah Hickman, who earned gold.
Who is it?
Okay, alright, who earned gold.
[applause]
Who earned gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Maddie McAlister, who earned one gold and three silver
medals.
[applause]
And Joseph Morales, who earned two gold and one bronze
medal.
[applause]
And whereas this success was largely made possible by the
dedicated efforts of the Denton Dolphins coaching staff,
including Carla Perriman, head coach, Cassie Pritchard,
assistant coach, and Rosalie Bayer, assistant coach, sorry,
and Jack Racin, assistant coach.
Therefore, I, Chris Watts, mayor of the city of Denton,
Texas, do hereby proclaim September the 1st, 2015, as Dent
on Dolphins Day in the city of Denton,
and ask all residents to honor the Denton Dolphins swim
team for all their accomplishments and admiral
representation of the city of Denton.
Congratulations to all of you.
[applause]
Thank you. Thank you.
Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank
you guys for helping.
Thank you all very much. Thank you.
Bill?
Come on in guys.
I'm very, very proud to bring in some of our linemen. We,
19 years ago, things come full circle.
Roddy Patterson competed in the first, second, and third
Texas linemen rodeo, and now is superintendent at DME, and
has Lanny here who competed three, four, has competed also,
and is now our rodeo coordinator.
And a linemen rodeo, as you see some pictures here, is a
way for us to encourage our linemen to practice and perfect
their skills they need for their job.
And they compete with other organization co-ops and
municipal utilities from across the state.
At this year, there were 103 apprentices that competed, and
we didn't just show up, we showed off.
We had first and second place out of 103 apprentices.
[applause]
Let me just read some of the things that they came away
with. We told them to bring home some hardware, and they
certainly did.
The apprentice overall, first and second place, Tanner Hold
er was first place, Blake Smith was second place. Apprentice
written test, Tanner Holder was second place there.
We had journeyman Hurtman rescue, which you see there is a
picture of that. Good timing.
They've asked me before to participate in the practice
drill. I do not volunteer to be the dummy.
But we had second place on the team there, Curtis Espinall,
Ryan Clearman, and Ethan Horton. Ethan and their team is
out working tonight, so they may show up here in a few
minutes.
First place, Patrick Campbell for journeyman Polkline
individual and journeyman Polkline team.
Abraham Goodneck, Patrick Campbell, Jason Wallam.
And then we had other competitors also, somebody named
Michael Penton, Randy Key, Daniel Hutchins.
We also furnished several judges that participated in the
judging the contest.
All of our teams scored in the top five of the competitions
they competed in.
I'm just very proud of them, very proud that the linemen we
have, when they get called out, they're not just coming out
to do their job, they're coming out to serve their
neighbors.
And just really appreciate them and the hard work they put
in on their time to practice and practice their skills so
they can go compete in this on the weekend again on their
time to do so well in this contest.
Really appreciate their efforts. Thank you all very much.
[Applause]
Thank you gentlemen. Thank you so much for representing
Denton very well.
Okay, if we could have the review of procedures for
addressing the City Council.
The Denton City Council has adopted rules of procedure
including a code of conduct which applies to citizens as
well as council members.
These rules were enacted to promote an orderly process and
to preserve decorum.
Here is a brief review of the rules that apply to citizens'
reports.
Citizens will have four minutes to give a report. There
will be an electronic beep when time has expired.
If the remarks are not concluded by that time, the citizen
will be asked to stop speaking.
If the citizen does not cease and a second request is made,
the mayor will request to have the citizen removed from the
council chambers.
Citizens are asked to not approach the dais.
If a citizen has papers or other materials to hand out to
the council, please let the city secretary know and she
will have a staff member distribute the materials to the
council.
The attorney general has ruled that council members may
listen to citizens speak and may ask questions of citizens
for clarification of the issue.
Council members will not engage citizens in discussion of a
topic because to do so could potentially be a violation of
the Open Meetings Act.
When speaking to the council, citizens are to direct all
remarks and questions to the council as a whole and not to
any individual member.
Please refrain from making abusive, personal, impertinent,
profane or slanderous remarks.
Anyone who violates this rule will immediately be removed
from the council chambers.
Citizens' adherence to these rules will help make an
effective presentation and will preserve the order and
decorum of our proceedings.
Copies of the rules of procedure are available from the
city secretary.
Okay, so we're on agenda item three, which is a
presentation from members of the public.
Our first speaker, number one, is Sam O'Donnell regarding a
petition for a skate park.
If you'll come down and state your...
Hey, now that's more applause than I get. We can't have
that.
If you'll just state your name and address, your time will
begin.
Sure. My name is Sam O'Donnell. Appreciate you guys' time
today and appreciate everyone coming to support this cause.
Basically, my goal today was just to help raise the
awareness and bring the attention to our city
representatives, the need for a local and concrete
preferred skate park in Denton.
I'm a current resident, UNT alumni, and I work at the Dent
on Skate Supply local skate shop here in Denton.
Just like the first day, we appreciate the skate park we do
currently have.
Without that, there'd really be nowhere to skate for us,
and that's been great over the last few years.
But as time goes by, we've started to see other skate parks
kind of pop up in the area, Roanoke, Lewisville mainly.
And started to feel like the park we have here is a little
bit outdated, not only that, but out of the way, a little
bit farther out of the central Denton area than I think a
lot of people are able to get out to.
So I guess not only that, but... Oh, I forgot.
Our current skate park also. I brought some pictures here.
I did recently see that there was a lot of maintenance. I
stopped by the park, you know, very frequently.
I noticed there was some maintenance done on the park, you
know, sporadically throughout the last few years.
But even so, you see in the left picture, like, there's the
screws kind of sticking out, falling out, metal pieces kind
of coming off the ramps gradually.
The middle picture there just kind of shows how the layout
doesn't really make sense.
Those ramps are actually intended to be launched off of,
and there's no landing.
And then this fence here just kind of has the brackets
broken off, which I think can be dangerous on falling into
the ramps.
So what we started to do after hearing, you know, we're
working at a skate shop, we are the ones who hear the
people of Denton complain about this typically.
We started actually taking a petition, basically calling
for a new skate park in a more accessible area, thinking
that Denton could definitely benefit from this happening as
well, from people coming to visit it,
and then we started to get a lot of support for our general
public.
Just in the two months that we had it open online, it got
about 500 supporters.
And then our in-store petition, which I handed to you guys,
probably has about 500 as of today.
I actually contacted Roanoke Parks and Rec director and
Lewisville Parks and Rec director to kind of get an idea of
what maybe were the main reasons why building one in Denton
would be a good idea.
They both reported that their skate park currently gets
more participation than almost any other park they have in
the area, excluding the water park directly across the
street.
So I just thought that would be good.
Also, the age range of the participants, I think most
people have a stereotype of skateboarders, in-liners, BMX
ers being, you know, the teenager misfit kind of age group.
And it's actually come to find out a lot of these people
are actually older or even younger now, showing it with
their kids. So I think the whole point of it being a wide
age range demographic would definitely be great for the
city.
I've actually been a student in recreation leisure studies
and used most of my school projects around how skateboard
ing or just recreational sports period benefit an individual
or the community.
One of those main factors being the fact that having a
skate park provides a safe area for people to participate
in these activities.
Currently, most of the laws in Denton are kind of confusing
when it comes to where you can and cannot skateboard.
So I think this would definitely help with that, as well as
give people who are into maybe not the mainstream sports a
place to get these health benefits and develop physically,
socially, psychologically in those aspects.
So what we'd like to hopefully have happen, as you see here
, this is a concrete skate park. The current one we have is
more of a metal park, like prefabricated skate light.
So what we'd be hoping for is a concrete park in a more
central area of Denton. I kind of showed where the current
skate park here is in the top and more of a central Denton
area there.
I also kind of pointed out that I think that's Quaker Town
Park would be awesome. That's right next to here, just kind
of areas in those local Denton areas would be preferred.
[bell rings]
Appreciate it.
We've got a couple questions for you. Sure. Council Member
Hawkins.
Thank you, Mayor. Thanks for doing this. You definitely
coming out and bringing all these people with you. This is
how things happen in Denton, so that's cool.
I'm glad you had that drawing. I'm just wondering if it did
have to be at the existing site, and let's say we put a new
one there. Is the one that you want, is it quite a bit
bigger? Is it the same size? Do you know?
I think the main thing, I mean the bigger, the better it is
. The more people are going to come, the more our residents
are going to actually use it.
So I think that's something obviously we desire, but I
think really it's just a matter of a local, more
centralized park would be greatly appreciated.
I'm not saying we should tear down the one we currently
have, because I think that's great that we have that as
well, but I think a lot of people have trouble getting out
there. They've started going to the parks in Roanoke, McKin
ney, and Lewisville as an alternative to what we currently
have.
You should know the closer you get to downtown, it's just
going to be tough. I'm not saying it's impossible.
Totally understand.
I'm from a rich group. I'm about to be 41, and I was
skating in high school, so it's just, I don't do it anymore
, or I probably wouldn't make it to many council meetings,
but anyway, but thanks for coming out here.
Of course.
Great. Okay.
Several, a few more. Council Member Johnson.
Thank you, Mayor. Sam, thank you for putting all this
together and for having the drive and initiative to kind of
get this conversation going.
And the rendering that you put up there, so is that an
existing park somewhere?
I think it's a concept park. This one you saw attached to
our petition right there.
That was just, I think, an image we looked up online to
kind of get an idea. That's not entirely exactly what we
want, but I think that would be much appreciated.
And so the folks that you spoke to, Roanoke and Lewisville,
they have the type of park that you would desire here.
In those conversations, did you have any feel in the
conversation for what it would cost to build one of those?
I didn't get like exact costs. I mean, that's definitely
something I could figure out from them, but kind of the way
they put it was that the age groups, different demographics
it covered kind of made it a good public funding thing for
that.
Just the fact that it covers so many people. The gentleman
I spoke to in Roanoke said that the kind of justification
for why they were willing to fund it, again, I'm not sure
how much, was that they didn't really have any programs
that were geared towards the middle demographic.
So this obviously a highly participated sport and
activities for that demographic, but it went towards all
age groups.
Okay. Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem Gregory.
Thanks. Yeah, I'm over 41.
And when I built my skateboard, I had used my old skates
that you had the skate key to clamp on your shoes.
And I first time I used them, I fell and hit my head. And
as a result, I ran for city council.
Yeah, it all explains it doesn't.
So a couple of questions. In the parks that you're going to
in the neighboring area, do they charge?
No, the current like Louisville, Roanoke, McKinney parks
are free. There are some skate parks that charge, but they
don't seem to last when there's free public skate parks
popping up everywhere.
Do they open 24 hours a day? Do they have attendance there
to monitor? How does that work?
Typically, they're open about 10 to 10. Some of them have
lights, some of them do not. Obviously, the ones that don't
probably close around seven or eight.
As for the second question, supervisors, staff there that
are monitoring.
I know the one in a, it's called Railroad Park in Louis
ville. I think that one really, it's just that whoever they
have, like that's a giant park, you know, lacrosse field,
soccer fields, things of that nature.
Staff that kind of regulates the whole park, not just the
skate park.
So I think what's best is to put the skate park next to
some sort of other facilities that require some sort of
supervision or maintenance in order to keep track of that.
But I don't think it's also completely required or
necessary to really maintenance it besides the trash at
night possibly.
Well, that was the final question, because do you ever see
them connected with something like a BMX bike park or
something?
Yes, I mean, the one in Louisville does have all the other,
you know, mainstream sports and even a dog park next to it.
When it comes to the BMXing, skateboarding difference,
really the park can be geared towards both.
Some parks don't allow BMXs, BMX bikes, because they do
more damage.
But we really be happy with any kind of consideration for a
park like this.
And I think they should be allowed to as well. I don't
think that'd be fair to them.
Thank you very much.
Council Member Rodin.
Thanks, Sam, for coming out. And how many people, by the
way, are here to support this? Just a show of hands.
Holy mackerel. Well, thank you guys for showing up.
Welcome to City Council. I'm sure for many of you the first
time.
I am 41. I had hair like down to here when I was in high
school trying to do that skater thing.
But I had more of the look than I had any skills. But
hopefully my kids will get it.
You mentioned Quaker Town Park. Are you able to use
existing concrete creek beds as part of the design for
something like this?
I think that'd be an excellent idea. A lot of people
actually go for the kind of creek beds as part of the
obstacles they skate.
I know we're not supposed to, but when there's not really a
great public park in the area.
That wasn't really a serious question.
Yeah, I think it's true.
So don't reveal too much about what folks do here in town.
But a serious question related to this only because you
brought it up.
So I guess it's fair game. And I have heard this raised
from other circles.
And that is questions about what is the legalities in terms
of being able to skateboard as a means of transportation in
town.
Which a lot of people do with longboards and whatnot. What
do you understand? What are the rules?
I've heard people say you can't even go down a street or
sidewalk since you're kind of left.
It's kind of ironic that you asked because I was actually
stopped today for skateboarding in a street on UNT in order
to prepare this presentation.
So the current rules to my understanding, the officer
informed me, you're allowed to skateboard across Denton
sidewalks.
Excluding the square that has places that have signs on it.
You're not allowed to skate on that.
But as for the streets, basically it's become a traffic
violation is how they recorded it to me.
Gotcha. So if there's no sidewalks, you just got to walk.
You just got to walk it.
Okay. Thanks. Well, thanks again for coming out.
Of course. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Now I know when you asked about the creek beds, I thought
the city manager was beginning to quake in his boots.
But thank you so much and thank you all for coming out. I
've heard from several of you and I appreciate the
initiative.
Of course. And we certainly will take a look at that. Thank
you.
I appreciate your time. Thank you. You bet.
Mayor, don't they have to stay for the whole meeting?
Sorry, guys. Welcome to council.
Our next speaker is Mr. Roy Messler representing the Mons
ignor King Outreach Center regarding an update and request
for funds.
Since I figured the council has heard me speak about as
much as they can stand for one day, one of my good fellow
board members will present.
Yeah, if you could just state your name and address, your
time will begin. Thank you.
Steve Murray, Aubrey. We own moms in Aubrey and we're on
the advisory board, my wife and I.
And just great privileges to council, mayor, for going to
speak tonight.
Roy did say that he was wore out this afternoon when he
called me and it was kind of a long session, I guess.
But we just really appreciate the fact that this building
looks like it's going to be a homeless shelter.
And about six months ago, the Monsignor King homeless
shelter was homeless.
And we had a meeting at the church and lo and behold, the
city came along and we got to use this shelter for the time
being.
And two weeks ago, we had another meeting and we thought,
oh boy, we're going to be homeless again.
But we just appreciate the fact that the city can work with
us and see the basis that we've done in the last six years
for the community.
And we're going to be able to help the community.
We're going to be able to help the community.
Is this your first time to speak before us? Before the Dent
Council? Yes.
Okay, well then you're entitled to a free dessert.
I'm entitled to a free dessert.
Just like when you're first time to eat at Mom's, you're
entitled to a free dessert.
That's exactly right.
And I see some familiar faces up here and we appreciate it
also.
But thank you so much for working with us and getting this
project underway.
Thank you. Thank you for what you do in our community.
Thank you so much for that.
Thank you.
Yes, absolutely.
Our next speaker is Claudette.
Is it FET or FETI?
I'm sorry. FETI.
I'm sorry. I apologize.
Regarding the coordinator position for the homeless and
associated homeless needs.
Hi.
State your name and address and your time will begin.
Sure. I am Claudette FETI.
I'm the executive 2708 Glenwood in Denton.
I'm sending a letter so that I wouldn't be, or a written
page so I wouldn't be tempted to just read to you.
I am a citizen.
Additionally, I teach at Texas Women's University in the
School of Occupational Therapy.
And I volunteer at the Denton Community Health Clinic.
And run a group we call Able Disabled, which includes
people who are homeless, people who have psychiatric or
mental health needs, and people with physical disabilities.
And they wanted to do two things.
They wanted to provide voice and advocate for the needs of
the poor in Denton.
They also wanted to develop productive occupations.
And we've been doing some of both.
This is part of.
And doing some advocacy across a number of different fronts
.
And then also they're creating crafts that they're
beginning to sell.
And then we've developed a time bank to help divide those
resources back out and build some skills and abilities.
I'm here to advocate for increasing our support for people
who are experiencing homelessness.
And for people who are at risk of homelessness.
And there is an overlap with the mental health issues that
United Way reported.
Certainly that is a big part of our population.
I want to support, in addition to it sounds like you all
are going to use the shelter, the old animal hospital as a
shelter.
And I absolutely support that.
In addition I'd like you to think about extending the
possibility of using it in the daytime.
I don't think we make adequate use of our resources locally
.
I teach at university and I have lots of students who need
community experience to apply what they're learning in the
classroom.
And they get that experience through a lot of the different
things I do in the community among the ABLE disabled group.
And I don't think we make good use of those resources.
We have two universities here with lots of students who
need experience.
So I'd like to see us make better use of that.
I want to support the Homeless Coalition's request for a
coordinator.
There are a lot of different services and things out there,
but they're not very well coordinated.
And I think we need to look at some of the resources that
we're under utilizing.
So that, churches, people with lived experience as well.
I think we need to be looking at peer to peer.
We need to be looking on this time bank to kind of help
people build the opportunity to volunteer and reengage.
And this would be another opportunity.
And there are plenty of willing volunteers who know what it
's like to be homeless because they have that experience.
And lastly, to think about the other ways that we spend
those resources in jails and more restrictive placement
because we don't have the supports that we need.
So let's do it different.
Thank you.
And that's it.
Thank you.
[Applause]
Okay.
Okay. We've come to agenda item 3C, which is where we have
additional citizens' reports.
And this is a section of the agenda that permits anyone not
registered for a citizens' report to make comments
regarding public business on items not listed on the agenda
.
This is limited to four speakers per meeting with each
speaker allowed a maximum of four minutes.
So I've got three cards here.
And as I call your name, if you would just come down and
state your name and address and your time will begin.
Timothy Swenson.
And you can share with us what you want to talk to us about
.
Just name and address.
Yes. I want to discuss about the Homeless Coalition and the
support of the coordinator situation.
And I also want to talk about the experience of the people
that are disabled and the problem that they face is the
homeless situations.
There has been times that I needed a homeless situation
where I needed help.
And I went to shelter and unfortunately, as you can see
with my service dog, I am a seizure patient.
I had a seizure there.
And because I had a seizure there, I was turned away and
services were denied.
And I have met people in wheelchairs.
I've met people that are blind.
I've met many different types of disabled people and they
were just turned away because of the condition.
And it's not so much of the condition, it's the fear of not
understanding the conditions.
And because of that, there is not the support and need and
help for the people that are mentally ill to the physically
handicapped.
And there is a big, big issue out there at hand for the
people that are disabled because they are the ones at the
higher risk of becoming homeless because their financial
income of just trying to pay for medications or just
treatment just eats up their financial sources and then
they don't have nowhere to go.
And then when that happens, then it becomes a big issue for
them and they try to go get help.
And they are turned away because people don't understand
the conditions and things of that nature.
And I really wanted to give the support of quite a fit for
being one to do the coordinator situation.
And I'm also part of the Able Disabled Support Group
situation.
Fantastic.
Council Member Hawkins.
Thank you Mayor.
Thank you for talking.
I think that's pretty courageous of you.
Thank you.
Ultimately, what was it that kind of helped you or maybe if
that's too personal, you don't have to answer.
No, a lot did not help me to be frank with you.
I just became more motivated to get help for the people
that are disabled and the people that are mentally
challenged.
That's not nature because I see that there is a big demand
for help.
And I said, if nobody doesn't speak up like I'm speaking
before you, nobody's going to do it.
So that's why I decided to do this.
And I figured the more to speak out, then maybe help will
become available.
Thanks for doing it.
Thank you.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Tim. We appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker.
The next speaker will be Leah Duncan-Tim.
Sorry if I mispronounced that.
If you'll state your name and address, your time will begin
.
Okay.
My name is Leah Duncan-Tim and I live at 418 Des Moines
here in Denton.
And I just really appreciate the opportunity to come before
you to talk about homelessness here in Denton.
And to reiterate what Mr. Swenson said about the physically
handicapped are even more discriminated against and the
mentally ill are also discriminated against.
I really thank you for the opportunity to talk to you about
this situation that exists in Denton and in Denton County.
It's a countywide situation.
I am part of ABLE disabled because I am disabled myself.
I have not personally experienced homelessness, but I'm one
crisis, one paycheck away from experiencing homelessness.
And so far, God has seen fit that that has not happened to
me.
I have taken two women into my home, own home, on a
voluntary basis who needed housing.
One is sustaining and becoming self-supporting through my
help and assistance and through the support of ABLE
disabled.
Unfortunately, one of the women that I took into my home
was too mentally ill to be sustained in a private home
situation.
And so that was not successful.
I think it's really important that we focus on peer-to-peer
services, people with lived experience.
Tim and I had an opportunity to attend a conference this
weekend in support of that.
And we like to try to get a group started here with peer-to
-peer support, like I say, for people with lived experience.
And there needs to be a range of support available.
It doesn't help just to throw money at a situation and then
, you know, the person uses the money, like Tim said, you
know, for the immediate need that they have.
And then the problem continues.
I would like to ask for the council to consider a
coordinator for the homelessness to coordinate services
that are available already in Denton.
I think we have a lot of repeat and repeat kind of services
going on.
And I think that the depth of the services that are
available are not well known and well received because we
have no central person to go to.
And/or coordinate these services.
And I agree with Claudette, who says that the universities
are a great resource.
And I've had the opportunity to work with some of the
students from her classes at ABLE Disabled.
And it's been a wonderful, very positive experience.
So I encourage you to help us encourage the universities to
participate in our situation.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.
And we have one more card on the additional citizen report.
It's Dylan Vassard.
If you'll come down and state your name and address and
your time will begin.
Hello, I'm Dylan Vassard, 1409 Oxford, Denton, Texas. 1409
Oxford. Oxford. Okay. I'm sorry.
So I've been here for about eight years. I'm an alumni of
UNT as well.
I just wanted to speak on behalf of Sam's skate park idea.
So I'm in support for it.
I have a couple of notes that y'all are asking questions
about.
Most of the parks around here are about $100,000.
And there are actual websites that a lot of these parks
that have gone built, they go to these builders that have
kind of templated parks.
So it keeps costs down for that.
And the current plot can, it could accommodate a concrete
park.
There's no reason that it could not.
Though I know that the they're advocating for more
centralized area.
And just wanted to speak as a minority voice in a minority
sport.
I don't skateboard and my friends don't. We rollerblade.
But a lot of the parks around Texas and a lot of the free
concrete parks actually, they cater more toward just
skateboarding,
which makes it not very enticing sometimes to go to these
other parks because it just doesn't have the obstacles that
you want.
And then that ends up, it ends up that people would rather
just skate street, which going to businesses and skating on
their stuff, you know, it's does cause damages.
I can see why no one wants their their rails or their
stairs or whatever it is to be skated on.
So anyways, I am the concrete park would I think it would
be less maintenance overall because you don't have screws,
wood ramps falling apart.
It's for the concrete sets and it's done essentially.
So I don't know if maintenance is an issue for the park or
not currently.
And sorry, these are just real quick notes. This is very
formal.
It makes me a little nervous, but I just wanted to get it
get this out here. Take your time.
And it's just an dent in a real art community.
And I value that a whole lot. And it makes me feel better
to be part of such a tight knit community.
And for my generation, a lot of collaboration and
creativity comes out of skate parks and meeting together.
It's I get to meet with my peer group out there and my
career is motion graphics and it's an art field.
And a lot of people that I skate with and do these action
sports with, they have similar fields.
And I mean, I've gotten work from work from going to skate
parks, just just talking to people and getting more
involved in the community, essentially,
maybe not doing necessarily charitable things, but meeting
the people that are around in the community. And it's nice
from that standpoint.
And I really like that. So just more of opinions, I guess.
And yeah, that's it.
Well, thank you. Thank you for coming down, Sharon. What
does she bet?
We have one last card for the citizens, additional citizens
reports because we're limited to four. It's Liz. Is it Em
erson?
Come down and state your name and address and your time
will begin.
Let me jump in. Sure. I didn't even plan on doing this
today. My name is Liz Emerson and I live at 1225 Belmead
Drive.
So I just want to speak in support of the Monsignor King
Outreach Center.
I do street outreach as my primary function at Giving Hope,
Inc.
And it's really hard when it's hard to help people find
jobs and get medical services and get everything they need
when there's not a place to sleep at night.
Having having all these great services and didn't really
can't be utilized if we can't be consistent and have a
place for people to stay regularly.
We have a great hunger initiative happening right now in
Denton.
There's a harvest fest the second Saturday of every month
to serve Denton.
So I feel like we're addressing a lot of the basic needs,
but we still haven't met that shelter.
We just need a shelter for people to stay in, not not to be
put through all these different, I guess, tests.
And I survey people all day long. I'm the one that collects
data.
And it's just it's frustrating because I've been doing this
for a year and a half now.
And I do feel like I'm able to help some people, but I'm
very limited in what I can do.
And I advocate for what Claudette said about having a day
shelter, especially for those that are disabled,
not having to walk around all day long with we don't have a
shelter currently for families.
So there's a lot of things that need to be addressed in
terms of just basic needs so that all of our wraparound
services can be successful.
Because if you don't have a mailing address, it's not going
to be easy to get signed up for services or apply for a job
.
And if we're expecting people to quote unquote pull
themselves up by their bootstraps with nowhere to lay their
head without worrying about being ticketed or sleeping in
places where it disturbs the other citizens in the
community.
I get reports about people sleeping places, people using
the restroom places, things that I have no power to fix,
but I know could be addressed.
And we could send all of these specific services like
having able disabled have a place to stay even though the
community clinic has done so much.
And I just think it would be so much easier to have a
centralized place because bouncing people around is just
not fair to them,
especially when we're bouncing them to a place that may not
be able to help them that day.
So I just kind of want to put my two cents in.
Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Okay. That concludes the agenda agenda item or portion of
our agenda where it's presentation from members of the
public.
So now we'll proceed on to the rest of the agendas for this
meeting consent agenda agenda item number four.
Councilman something happened. Councilmember Hawkins. Thank
you, Mayor.
I move approval of consent agenda items. Sorry. A through P
. We have a motion.
Mayor Pro Tem Gregory. Did we pull one of those?
Okay. Second. We have a motion and a second.
Let's vote on the board, please.
Agenda carries consent agenda carries unanimously.
Moving on now to agenda items number five, which I believe
are items for individual consideration.
Agenda item five a is considered nominations appointments
to the city boards and commissions health and building
standards commissions human service advisory committee
parks recreation beautification board and zoning board of
adjustment.
We do have one card. Do we want the speaker to speak before
we make any nominations or I think that'd be appropriate.
Normally. Yes. Okay. Yes. We have a card. Mr. Willie Hutzp
ah.
No, that's fine.
And I do have a nomination. So, yeah.
Thank you, Mr. Hutzpah. Name and address your time will
begin.
Name is what I asked for 11623 Newton.
The boards and commission commissions are nominated by you
all.
What I don't follow is how you choose people and how you
vote them off.
It seems like you just vote your friends on there, not
those who offer to serve.
I don't think you'll have good government like that good
fair balanced government. When you just pick your friends
and individuals nominated for the animal shelter or
whatever that board is and several of you voted for that
nomination to fail.
And I'm thinking, well, who do you want on those? Who do
you want on the boards? You know, I thought about that.
I would never get nominated to be on a board with this
group. I don't think so. You would never have my insight.
All you have is puppets. And that's not good. That's not
good.
And one side note before I wrap up. Nice award for DMZ. The
Denton municipal DMZ.
Not one African American anything in that group. In fact,
that's one of the groups that I'm going to be talking about
later on. They're not any hired. You don't have any
administrators in that in that in that pool.
The electrical equipment operating pool, the manager part
never in the history. Have you ever had an African American
in those in that spot? That's just an aside.
So if you're going to get back to the issue that I'm
speaking to if you're going to pick boards and commissions.
From the standpoint, it has to be someone all of you like.
You ought to put that in there. Don't get bored and ask for
people to serve in board and commission.
And then it's so embarrassing for one of you to have
nominated the person. And then some of you voted him him
off. I don't guess I can mention his name.
He doesn't mind me missing his name. But this thing you put
up there about what you can do and can't do. I'll just have
to check later on if I can mention the person's name.
But you all know who it is. And I think some of the
audience know who it is, too. So put that in there. We have
to like them. All of us. Or they can't be on boards and
commissions.
Thank you, Mr. Husband.
Do you have a nomination for the I think it's a health and
building standards? Steve Mossman. Steve Mossman.
Some of you might recognize that name. He was the tax
assessor collector for many, many years.
And so he's agreed to serve on that on that committee if he
gets so approved.
And I still have one outstanding, which I'm working on. I
apologize.
Is there any other? Am I the only one that's left? OK, well
, there you go.
So that's my nomination is Steve Mossman for that. Do we do
we have to have a motion and vote on that? All right.
Chair would entertain a motion. Council member, pro tem
Gregory.
Thank you, Mayor. I would move that we approve the slight
as presented in our backup, including your addition.
OK. Council member Hawkins. I second.
We have a motion and a second on the floor. Let's vote on
the board, please.
Carried unanimously. Let's see.
Going on to five B.
OK.
We got a card to speak on it, though. Yeah.
Let me call it. I lost my place in my agenda. I apologize.
Including items. OK, five B, I'll call the item is
considered option of an ordinance of the city of Denton,
Texas, approving an economic development agreement for the
incentive grant between the city of Denton, the board of
directors of the tax increment reinvestment zone.
Number one city didn't Texas.
We do have a card to speak on this. Mr. Willie Husbeth, if
you'll come down to speak on agenda item five B, state your
name and address and your time will begin.
My name is Willie Husbeth. I live at 623 Newton. Mayor and
council members.
The ordinance process is that you make suggestions, someone
does, and then you all deliberate about it and then you
come up with your votes. I think that's the way it works.
So your votes to either accept it or not or make comments
and adjust it as you think it needs to be adjusted.
By the way, that last vote, I guess you all liked Mr. Moss
man. Everybody liked him. So that's how he got in. The mayor
nominated him. Boy, that would have been a lot of fun had
they voted you.
But they didn't. So we like him. Back to the ordinance. I
think that process needs, you just need someone in the
process that just don't agree with you on everything. That
's not good government.
Have someone who sees a different perspective and then have
them talk about the ordinances because there are some
really bad ones as far as code enforcement that came about
in situations like this.
You change the name of that organization, code enforcement.
But the people that you have in place of that group are
enforcers.
That's all they do is enforce.
And so I think that the ordinance process should be a
little bit different and then you should have a little bit
more input and what it is that you're voting for. Thank you
.
Thank you, Mr. Husband.
Mayor pro tem Gregory.
Five B.
On item five B I move that we postpone until September 15.
Councilmember Hawkins. I'll second. You have a motion to
second to postpone till September 15. Let's vote please.
Motion carries. The only reason I hesitated that the motion
said motion to table. I guess that's just because of the
the way the electronic thing is. I'm assuming that's still
correct.
Okay. All right. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure.
Thank you. Madam, Senator, Secretary.
We'll go on to agenda item for public hearings agenda item
6A and believe the new procedure now is I'll read the
caption and then open the public hearing and then we'll
have staff presentation and then anyone wishing to speak on
that agenda item is welcome to come down and speak.
So 6A is hold a public hearing and consider adoption of an
ordinance of the city of Denton, Texas, providing for an
amendment to a detailed plan for a single family
development within a plan development district zone on
approximately one point three seven acres of property.
You're opening the public. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.
I will open the public hearing public hearing is now open.
Thank you, Mayor. And I'll call on Amy Bissett, our
director of development services to present this case.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor and City Council members.
What you're considering this evening is an ordinance to
amend a detailed plan.
Get the presentation up here.
This is an ordinance amending a detailed plan for a single
family development. This is plan development number 12 and
the purpose is to simply amend the detailed plan to
incorporate approximate 2.9 acres into the plan.
And this is this case is going to look familiar to you
because this is the fourth time you've seen it this year.
But each each item is a step in the process that that is
necessary.
This is a detailed plan that is located just off of State
School Road near the boundary of the city of Corinth.
This past couple of months, you've had two public hearings
related to amending that boundary to be able to incorporate
this additional point 2.9 acres into the city of Denton.
The plan development essentially bifurcated the city of
Denton and the city of Corinth boundaries. We have since
made that boundary adjustment, as you can see here.
And the full area of the detailed plan is now included in
the city of Denton limits.
As I indicated before, this is located just off of State
School Road. It's near the intersection of Waterford Way
and Winston Drive.
On the area presented overhead, the overall yellow line
represents the entire plan development.
However, the small sliver on the southern boundary is the
only piece incorporated in the detailed plan.
The reason for that is that the rest of that plan
development is in the floodplain.
So this small sliver is the only part that will actually be
developed.
It is zoned as the plan development number 12.
It is designated for residential low density in our future
land use map.
And this particular detailed plan calls for a cluster
housing is the plan concept.
And that plan concept was approved previously, but it is
consistent with this future land use designation.
We have considered the boundary adjustment agreement, which
is now complete.
The concept plan, which was approved in October of last
year, calls for cluster housing,
which is a residential development that the developer has
defined in their concept plan to be anything less than six
dwelling units per acre.
This particular layout calls for 5.8.
And so their detailed plan is consistent with their concept
plan, which was approved in October.
And it is consistent with the Denton plan 2030.
The planning and zoning commission recommends approval
seven to zero and staff recommends approval as well.
And with that, I'll be glad to take any questions.
Any questions for staff before we go to our public speakers
?
Seeing none. All right.
We have a card, but of course, this is a public hearing.
So anybody wishing to speak does not have to sign up for a
card.
But Mr. Willie Hutzpeth, you'll come down.
I'll go get him.
Okay.
While we're waiting, if anybody else is wishing to speak on
this agenda item, please come down and state your name and
address.
Anybody else wishing to speak on this agenda item 6A?
All right.
Well, we'll wait for Mr. Hutzpeth to come in.
You got a question?
Okay.
We've got a question.
Amy.
So you said just the front part is going to be developed so
the backspace, the floodplain is going to stay trees and --
That's correct.
The only piece incorporated in the plan are those eight
lots and that small sliver.
Thank you.
Mr. Hutzpeth, just state your name and address for agenda
item 6A.
Thank you.
We already know it, but for the record.
My name is Willie Hutzpeth.
I live at 620 Lee Newton.
I'm here in council members.
I'm concerned that I have a house on Bonnie Bray and these
lines are going to come down through where my house is.
I paid attention to what was told me that was going to
happen with those transmission lines.
Am I on the right one?
Yeah, we're on 6A, which is a residential -- which is a
planned development amendment.
I believe yours was -- or the one you're speaking on.
Which one is that?
He's on 6B, but we're on 6A.
Yeah, you did fill in a card for 6A, which is a -- 6A is
adoption of an ordinance for amendment to a detailed plan.
So if you'd like to speak on that, you're more than welcome
, and if not, we'll get you on 6B.
6B, thank you.
Okay.
Thank you, sir, very much.
Okay.
This is a public hearing.
Anybody else wishing to speak on agenda item 6A?
6A.
Seeing none, I will close the public hearing.
Councilmember Briggs?
I make a motion to approve.
All right, we have a motion.
Councilmember Wasney?
Second the motion.
All right, we have a motion and a second for agenda item 6A
.
Let's vote on the board.
Motion carries, 7-0.
Agenda item 6B, hold a public hearing, consider approval of
resolution for the proposed transmission line route for
construction expansion and use of electric power
transmission lines beginning on the Bonnie Bray substation
of Dent Municipal Electric.
Boy, my speech is flaring.
It's getting so late.
We've been here so long.
I apologize.
We will now open the public hearing for agenda item 6B.
We have a staff presentation.
Yes, I'm sorry.
Let me invite Mr. Brent Heath to come and present his
public hearing.
Thank you, Mr. Heath.
Thank you, George.
Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers.
This public hearing is for the Bonnie Bray to North Lakes
transmission line project that we have.
I'm going to move to a slide to refresh everybody's memory
where this is at.
The red outer loop lines around the city of Denton here are
the 138 kV transmission line system that we presently have
in operate.
The green circle inside of the red is our existing 69 kV
transmission line system.
This is the portion of our transmission system that's
targeted to be converted to 138 kV.
The project tonight in question for this public hearing is
Bonnie Bray to North Lakes identified as number 5 in the
top left-hand corner of this map.
It's also identified here in the bottom right-hand corner,
and it says that this is to replace aging structures and
increase capacity.
We do analysis and studies of our entire transmission
system.
One of the formal reports that we do each year required by
NERC is a FERC 715 study.
The FERC 715 study says we have to analyze the entire
system, identify any weaknesses, and we must go ahead and
figure out a way to upgrade the line to prevent any type of
issues in the future.
One of our engineering consultants is Power Engineers.
This is a constraint map that they prepared that shows
where the Bonnie Bray substation is at right in this area
at the bottom of the map,
and the North Lake substation in the top third of the map
to help orient some other identifiers.
This is I-35.
This location in the bottom third is US 380 or University
Drive.
And up here in the north top is Loop 288, US 77, and Riney
Road here with North Lake substation.
Presently, we have the 69KV line that runs from Bonnie Bray
substation up Bonnie Bray, past Windsor, up to North Lake
substation.
The reason for the constraints map is we need to try to
figure out are there other ways that we can get from
station to station and what would be obstructions that
would potentially be in the way.
And so the orange or dark yellow color here indicates resid
ences or homes where people live.
The area outlined in green is the city of Denton Park,
North Lakes Park.
It shows the blue route that I'll show in another map that
's a little easier to see and some possible routes that I'll
discuss.
This map is a zoomed in area showing Bonnie Bray at the
bottom, North Lake substation at the top, existing route
runs straight up Bonnie Bray.
We had a yellow route that was proposed that we wanted to
have under consideration as well as an orange route and a
green route.
On the right hand side of this map, it's zoomed in from
Windsor Avenue, which is halfway, about halfway between
Bonnie Bray and North Lakes, a little bit closer from Winds
or up to Rony Road.
One of the things that our engineering consultant, Power
Engineers, has requested that we do, that they do across
the country, is to go ahead and do a matrix, talk about the
pros and cons of each of these route options.
So we identified nine different options that they said are
typically used for transmission line, length of the routes,
length of the right of way that would require new
transmission line right of way or easements,
how close is it to roads, how close to residences, other
items, or any of the landowners of the property willing to
negotiate or work with you on easements or land sales.
So we have the blue route column, which is the existing
route.
We have the yellow transmission line route as proposed by
one of the neighbors in the area, which is right here.
And the orange route, which is the yellow route with a
little variation at the northern end.
And the green route, which is the yellow route with another
variation.
The items and numbers that are identified in bold font are
some of the positive route indicators.
An example of that would be this very first line item, the
length of the alternate routes.
The blue between Bonnebrae and North Lakes is 8,175 feet, 8
,127 feet linear length between Bonnebrae down, way down
here all the way at Bonnebrae to North Lakes.
The yellow route would be 8,581, so you can tell there's a
difference of 300 feet right there.
The orange route would be a little bit further, and the
green route is the longest route.
And you can look down through each of these line items to
see how they compare with each other.
One of the things that I wanted to note at the bottom of
this map is the apparent landowner's willingness to sell
land for easement.
The blue route, the existing route, is identified as yes,
whereas the yellow, the orange, and the green are no.
This is because on this map, if you look at the right-hand
side, the yellow route, the orange route, and the green
route,
all of this land right here is owned by a single property
owner, and the property owner would be the Razor families.
And the Razor families said that they would prefer that it
remain in its existing location,
and they would be willing to sell some additional easement
for the additional width that would be required between 69
kV to 138 kV.
Whereas, they said, since they own the property, their
preference would not be to subdivide and split up the
property that they own.
We also have another home that's up here, southeast corner
of Ronnie Road and Bonnie Bray.
This homeowner has indicated through the second open house
that they also are willing to negotiate with the city.
We had, this was an involved process back in November 2013,
we held the very first open house for the North Lake Sub
station Project and the transmission line.
We went to the Public Utility Board in January of 2014.
At that time, during the public hearing at the PUB meeting,
they recommended that we only move forward with the Sub
station Project North Lakes,
but postpone approving and recommending the transmission
route.
And that was because during the public hearing, the
citizens, some of the homeowners got together and presented
an alternate route that they would like to have analyzed.
And so we moved forward only with the Substation Project,
came to City Council February 2014, and it was approved.
We had a second open house, which was promised at the
Public Utility Board when they said that the transmission
line would be delayed and put on hold to analyze the
alternate routes.
We had that on June the 29th, 2015 at the North Branch
Library.
And we held a Public Utility Board public hearing on August
the 10th, 2015.
And after that public hearing, the Public Utility Board
recommended moving forward with the blue transmission line
route.
To give you some numbers on the open house summary, the
meeting was on June the 29th.
We held out June the 15th 141 notices to people that would
be potentially affected within 500 feet of the transmission
, any of the transmission line routes.
18 people attended the meeting and we received back 12
comment forms.
One of the questions that was on the survey said, do you
understand why the transmission line needs to be, why it's
needed and why it needs to be rebuilt?
100% of the people that responded to the survey said yes,
they understood.
It's kind of rare to get 100% of people to agree on
anything, but they agreed that the lines there needs to be
rebuilt and they understand the need.
This is another question that was on the survey.
If you look to the top left hand corner, the top two sites
or routes, you can reference on the right hand side.
The top two routes, the blue route and the green route were
the two most strongly opposed routes.
Whereas on the right hand side, the top two strongly
supported routes was the yellow route and the blue route.
So the blue route made it both strongly opposed and
strongly supported.
Here's some of the comments with quotes that came back from
the surveys.
Philip Baker, he's the representative for the Razor family,
in quote, he said, we request the blue route, the existing
route be used for the reconstruction of the transmission
line along the east side of Bonnie Bray.
Any of these routes would impact property that the Razor
family is on.
I'll let you read through these, but I'll highlight a
couple of points.
One of the comments said look at the aesthetic value and
this goes down to the Razor Ranch property, so consider
that.
Another comment says the green line easement, which is the
furthest east one, would take up most of their backyard.
Most likely it would require them to move a building and
that they think that the blue route would be the cheapest
to run and to maintain.
Another citizen came in and said be sure and consider the
aesthetic impact, the visual impact, because the Razor
Ranch shopping centers.
Another citizen said I believe the blue option provides the
least expensive option since the right of way has been
established for many years.
This original line has been in place since the early 60s
and it's been there for many years.
Another citizen said the house is on the corner of Bonnie
Bray and Riney Road.
The line would run right over their front door on their
house and so there would be some easements that would be
needed.
And this is one of the landowners that through the second
public hearing, excuse me, public open house, has indicated
that they're willing to negotiate with the city.
It's not only due to the transmission line, but they also
are aware that on the mobility plan, at some point in the
future,
Bonnie Bray will be widened and also Riney Road will be
widened.
It's a secondary arterial and a collector street and they
will be widened so they know that it will be squeezing
their existing house from two different sides.
So the next public involvement steps based on citizen
comments from the two open houses, the positive indicators
from the valuation matrix,
the engineering factors, willingness of the impacted
property owners to work with staff and PUB's recommendation
during the public hearing for the blue option.
DME recommends, staff recommends moving forward with the
Bonnie Bray to North Lakes transmission line along the
existing blue route.
I'd be happy to answer any questions that you have now or
after the citizens speak.
Any questions for staff at this time?
Will we go to speakers?
Councilmember Wasney.
So after Bonnie Bray is widened and we look at the center
point of the road to the transmission line, there is a rule
that said that's supposed to be 60 feet.
Is that correct?
And will this be 60 feet from the center point when the
road has been widened?
I'd like to be able to answer that question.
I'm not an electrical engineer, not a civil engineer, and
we have engineers at the city that actually do mobility
plan and road projects.
But the location of where the existing wood pole line is at
is presently around 32 and a half feet east of the existing
east curb line.
And our new steel transmission pole line would be within
two to three feet east of that, which would accommodate any
future widening of Bonnie Bray.
So I guess I come back to my question, is there a rule on
the books that it's supposed to be 60 feet from the center
of the road?
And if it's not currently --
You're talking 60 foot easement for the transmission line?
Yeah, from where the pole and the transmission line --
One of the things, the advantages of keep having a
transmission line parallel to an existing roadway, which is
one of the criteria in the evaluation matrix, is you don't
have to have the full 75 foot width easement.
You can utilize the road as a portion of that 75 foot eas
ement and only need half of that or a little bit more than
that on the property side.
And so the 75 feet used to be the 60 feet when we were
using 69 KV lines.
So I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to.
That answers my question.
And then another question, too.
You have a large portion of property to the east and a
large portion of property to the west.
Can you tell me approximately how many acres are on each
side?
I know that you said there was one owner primarily to the
east, but I believe we have a large chunk of land to the
west and we only have maybe three or four property owners
on that side.
Do those two pieces of land, are they similar in size?
Could you help redirect me to which section of land that
you're speaking of?
This is north of Windsor to the east.
We have one property owner that owns kind of the big chunk
of land.
And then we have three or four property owners to the west
just trying to establish that there's kind of an equal
portion of acreage to the west as there is to the east of
land owners that will be impacted by the blue line.
On all four of these routes, the blue route, the yellow
route, the orange route, and the green route, all four of
those would impact a single property owner of any of these
route options.
If you're asking could we move the line to the west side of
Bonnie Bray, there are some large property owners over
there as well and that didn't seem as viable.
Just trying to establish that we do have a large tract to
the east and we have a large tract to the west.
I just want to establish that fact.
Yes, that is correct.
Any other questions?
Oh yeah.
Any other questions?
Were you?
Okay, I'm sorry.
Any other questions for staff before we take citizen
comments?
Thank you.
All right, we've got a green card which is the first.
That's kind.
And the green card represents that the speaker will be
representing four or more people and will have additional
time.
The speaker will be Joyce Poole, so Joyce if you could come
down and state your name and address.
I've got the four people you're representing, obviously
yourself included.
John Smith, Dorothy Smith, Eric Fullerton, and Marla Full
erton.
If you all are here, could you just raise your hand just so
we can.
Okay, great.
Come on down.
And you do have, because you are representing several
speakers, you do have ten minutes to speak if you need it.
And if you don't, that's okay too.
I may just talk in one minute.
I'm nervous.
No, you'll do fine.
Let me think.
And if you just state your name and address once you begin,
your time will begin.
My name is Joyce, excuse me.
My name is Joyce Poole.
I reside at 3021 North Bonny Bray.
I am speaking primarily tonight for those of us who live on
the west side of Bonny Bray.
Those properties, the five of us who are here tonight are
Mr. and Mrs. John Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Fullerton, and
myself.
Four others were unable to attend due to illnesses in their
families, Mr. and Mrs. Sean Smith, and Mr. and Mrs. Tim
Duke.
You've just already seen the map, but I'll leave it there
anyway.
In answer to Mrs. Wozni's question, the combined property
totals facing Bonny Bray, owned by the people I've just
named, comes to over 50 acres.
Mr. Razor's land is about 48 total, just for the record.
Each of the families are personally affected by the
placement of the proposed transmission lines, not only in
our daily living, so near the lines,
but in a very decreased property value for, according to
real estate, articles on residential properties being
located near transmission lines.
For most of our homes, we will be about 100 feet from our
property to the lines, or the transmission lines.
From the neighborhood meetings with DME, conversations and
surveys, it becomes obvious that no one wanted these lines
near their homes.
It's not in my backyard, the old famous syndrome.
In order to seek a compromise of the homes on Hardaway and
those on Bonny Bray, we had proposed the placement of the
lines along the yellow line, or the yellow to orange.
It could go either or just straight through.
Excuse me.
In reviewing the survey results, which I have downloaded,
in the materials I noted that three of the 12 people who
took the survey, or responded to the survey,
were not residents of this area at all.
So when you combine the support, or strongly support
options, the percentages of each of those options, it
results in 71.1% for the orange, 44.4% for the blue,
51.1% for the yellow, and 33.3% for the green, a huge 155%
for anything but the blue.
The Razor property representative has stated, "There are no
plans for development on this land. It is just an
investment property.
There are approximately 48 acres, and they're currently
used for ground crops."
The 69 kilovolt line currently running along Bonny Bray are
on wooden poles.
They are set approximately 35 feet from the pole to the
curb edge.
And then if you went from the pole to the center line of
the road, which I believe Ms. Wozni was indicating, that is
currently between 55 and 60 feet, depending on which pole
you measure from.
We understand that a 60 to 75 foot distance is needed from
the pole to the center line of a road for traffic safety.
This is what we currently have.
According to the mobility plan, Bonny Bray is scheduled for
widening beginning in 2016 from I-35 to the south up to R
iney Road, which is, well, you can see it there, up here.
To Riney Road on the north, whether it will be a one lane
or two lane seems not to be settled, per my own inquiries.
This presents a major question concerning the placement of
those transmission lines.
DME has stated that the new lines could be placed three to
five feet east of their current location, and that would
allow for a road widening.
That does not seem possible and still maintain the eas
ements of a 60 plus foot needed to the center line of a road
.
It would seem even a minimum one lane road expansion would
require the new poles to be placed 12 to 15 feet more to
the east of the present poles.
If a wider road is designed or an even greater distance may
be needed or allowed for, then we have to again consider
where that could be.
Will there be a median that will increase a distance needed
?
As traffic continues to increase, going both to razor
shopping areas, our parks and homes, it is prudent to make
this easement allowance now.
While this is still all undeveloped land.
As traffic continues to increase, too often we have not
used good foresight for our need for sufficient roads to
handle the traffic as Denton continues to grow.
We ask you tonight to please amend your resolution to show
a commitment of a new transmission line placement 15 feet
or more to the east of the current location of the lines
rather than the three to five foot.
I think that needs to be in black and white so that we feel
comfortable as residents and taxpayers.
I might add or remind that the council should know that ERC
OT does pay a percentage of required easements for
transmission lines.
So the cost should be of minimal impact overall and does
affect the greater good of Denton's future growth.
We appreciate your time and consideration of these issues
and I hope I've answered questions.
Thank you.
Any, see no questions.
Thank you.
Thank you, John.
We got a question.
We got questions flying all over the place now.
Councilmember Johnson.
I couldn't get the screen to work.
Thank you so much for the detail.
I do need one point of clarification.
Did you say you would prefer that it's 15 or 50 feet to the
east of the current location?
15 minimum.
But I think if you're going to consider there may be a two
lane additional road width in the future, then you would
need to double that and say 30 feet, probably 25 to 30 feet
to the east.
Where the current line is.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay.
Councilmember Briggs.
I just wanted to thank you for bringing it to my attention.
When I was looking through the comments, I didn't
necessarily see that there were that many in support of the
blue line that did not live in the area.
And I think that is vital for us to think about because
when you go back to the chart of the graph, it strongly
support and strongly disagree.
If you take those out, it kind of changes the way that it
is.
And of those five and six people, three of those responders
are not residents.
Right.
That's important.
Thank you for that.
Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem.
My question is more for staff.
When all of the citizen comments are done, I've heard
people say something to the effect of the easement from the
center line of the road.
And I just need for staff to be prepared to give some
clarification to that.
I don't believe I've heard of requirements about center
line when we're talking about easement.
So I'll just want to get some clarification.
Okay.
Councilmember Wasney.
I'd like council to consider a postponement on this until
we do that.
Well.
Just to accommodate engineering to look at that 15 foot.
That may be something we want to talk about after the
public hearing.
I mean, because you're talking about making a motion.
Okay.
So after that, after the public hearing.
We can take a look at that and then discuss with staff some
of the questions that we may have that might pertain to
that.
All right.
That all the questions?
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you for your time and consideration very much.
All right.
We've got a couple more.
We've got another card.
Mr. Willie Hutzpeth on agenda item 6B.
Transmission lines.
Name and address for the record please.
Thank you.
Willie Hutzpeth, 623 Newton.
Would you put this up?
This picture that's on the screen here.
If you could pop the screen image back up.
Thank you.
Okay.
Question.
How far does that, this yellow.
What street is this right here?
Can you see that?
No, you can't.
I guess you can't see that.
I think it's north of Windsor.
I'm not.
Oh, yes.
I see it now.
Windsor.
Okay.
And the, I am not for the green.
For obvious reasons, wherever the transmission line will
affect individual properties naturally,
you wouldn't want them there because of the disruption and
property values.
I own the piece right to the, that would be east of the
green line.
That's my property.
Right?
East of the green line.
And I would not be for that.
But it's just because it's my property and I want to move
there or do something with it.
And I don't want, I wouldn't want a transmission line there
.
Are these lines above ground or underground that they're
going to be replacing within the blue?
It's above ground?
I believe so.
We'll make sure we clarify that with staff.
All right.
And there are lines already in the blue.
They would just be upgrading those lines, right?
Okay.
Yeah, I would not be for the green or the orange.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Public hearing, anybody else wishing to speak?
I have a blue card, but it was wishing to speak last, so I
want to call anybody else that has a desire to speak on
this agenda item.
This is a public hearing.
Whether or not you fill out a blue card.
Oh, Councilmember Rodin.
Oh, we've got one more.
I just want to, anybody else wishing to speak?
We've got one card left.
Mr. Philip Baker, if you'll come down and state your name
and address, your time will begin.
Philip Baker, 400 West Oak Street, Suite 200 Denton, Texas.
Good evening, Mayor, Council.
I represent Razor Investments, the owner of the property,
and it's more like 55 acres and not 45.
And it adjoins your property, this North Lakes Park.
We share a common boundary on the west side.
DME approached me several years ago and asked my opinion on
this, and my first reaction was that it seems like those
poles need to go back right where they are.
Tony Bray's a major corridor.
That's where you would want to locate things like this
infrastructure in the least invasive way possible.
And my reaction was they ought to just go back there.
But I did tell them that if there was some compelling
reason that the city or good engineering dictated another
direction, I'd be open to listening to it.
And they came back to me and indicated that from all their
analysis, those poles needed to go back where my reaction
was in the first, right where they are.
So having said that, I'm not in favor of any of the other
options.
I don't think they're good for us, and I don't think they
're good for the city of Denton in North Lakes Park.
The easement on Bonnie Bray, and I think I'm right about
this, my understanding is it's going to be 75 feet wide
because these poles are big.
And that's the center. They would be on the center line of
75 feet.
So for us, that's the least impact because part of Bonnie
Bray will share that 75 foot easement.
So the corridor will be not as negative for us.
Now, if you want to go that yellow route, that is a big
impact.
There is already adjacent to your west boundary line, our E
inside our property line.
There's a 30 foot water line easement that has a 40 inch
diameter water line in it that travels.
It's in our property, but it's right adjacent to your
boundary line, and it cuts across the north end of North
Lakes to get somewhere north.
So that's there. So this would have to, if you'd follow
that yellow route, this would have to be right beside it.
So you're talking about now 100 feet wide width. It's going
to impact that property, our property, and there's going to
be a negative impact.
And that's going to cost. That's going to carry a cost with
it.
And then if you want to go north and split the property at
the north end in two pieces, you're adding dollars.
I mean, I don't want to get in a fight with you, but this
is just not good land management to cut that into two
pieces.
And it's not, it is an investment property. It's not just
an investment. It's held for investment.
We don't have any plans, but nonetheless, that doesn't mean
you want to wreck it in the meantime, as anybody would
guess.
So, and then I think the one big factor is you've cut that
whole cloth in two pieces and North Lake Park is negatively
impacted.
I don't know what the future holds for that part, but there
's some of that land, maybe one day might look practical as
part of the park.
I don't think you're going to want electrical lines cutting
it in two pieces. It's not practical and it's not good long
term thinking.
I think the obvious answer here is to put it up the blue
route or DME wants it.
I think it's the proper place as a landowner. And yeah, I
mean, nobody wants this, but gee whiz, we all need
electricity and this is part of what we need to function.
So I think that's the best route guys. And if you have any
questions, I'll answer them.
I mean, I told DME I wouldn't fight them on that yellow
route, but you know, I didn't think they liked the numbers
because they're going to, it's going to be millions added
to it to cut that property up and damage it that way.
So I don't think it makes sense for the rate payers or the
city to do it.
So any questions for the speaker? I see none. Thank you
very much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you.
This is I believe that was if we didn't have anybody else
wishing to speak at least. So I will now close the public
hearing.
Councilmember Wasney.
So it sounds like blue line, but what I would ask the
council to consider would be to postpone this.
So engineering could study a 15 foot movement of this
transmission line to accommodate the families that are in
the audience who came up to speak.
If we're going to say blue line, I think it's a really good
compromise to say let's accommodate and create just a
little bit more distance for these people and add 15 feet.
But to do a motion tonight without engineering weighing in
on it. So I would indulge council and indulge DME to
consider that study and then bring it back to council with
a report on that 15 feet moving the blue line to the east
15 feet.
Okay. Councilmember Wasney, is that a of course we've got
some questions, some people wishing to speak that may
address some of these questions that we've had about center
line and easements and those kind of things, I'm assuming.
But you didn't state it this way. But were you was that a
motion or was that simply a request? So I just want to give
you the opportunity to clarify that.
It's a request of council to consider this.
Okay. All right. Okay. We'll, we'll take that into
consideration. Not being a motion then we don't really vote
on it. Okay. Councilmember Rodin.
Thank you, Mayor. I do have some questions to address some
of these questions that have been raised. So I guess for
whoever in staff who can best address it.
There's this question about this supposed regulation that
would keep a transmission line pole 60 to 75 feet. I think
I heard a couple different distances between that pole and
the center line of a street.
Can you speak to that regulation?
Well, that was probably why I looked a little bit confused
because I'm not aware of that ordinance that way. Now, the
number 60 is used and we do have in the development code a
60 foot transmission line easement which is what we used
for 69 kV.
And the poles are typically placed in the center of that
easement and it's defined actually within the document is
30 foot either side of the center line. So if it's a two
pole structure, it'd be the middle of the two poles.
Now for 138 kV and everything we're doing moving forward,
it's 75 foot which is 37 and a half foot. An additional
seven and a half foot either side of the center line.
Now that's the center line of the pole. That is not the
center line of the street. And I have never heard that
until tonight.
Right. So that's kind of what I figured because it seems
like we tend to put these things right up next to streets
in those cases because of it seems to be a better land use
determination we've got next to right away like that anyway
.
Versus pushing it into a property. So okay, that helps. And
so currently, what do we have there? Do you have any
pictures of what what the lines actually look like?
I do.
I'll just zip through these.
This is a picture of the line when it's laying horizontally
. Typically it's vertical. This was some straight line winds
that blew over the this is exactly the same line that we're
talking about here tonight.
Back in May of 2003, we had a microburst a straight line
wind and it caused these wooden poles that were along
Bonnie Bray to fall over eastward or eastward into the park
on the east side of Bonnie Bray.
And what's actually rather ironic and very, very fortunate
is the house that you see in this picture, the White House
in the center of the picture is the Collinsworth House,
which is at the corner of Riney Road and Bonnie Bray.
This is the house that says that they will be squeezed in
by the widening of Bonnie Bray and Riney Road and that they
are willing to transact with VME for this transmission line
easement.
As you can tell, the poles are still standing vertical
about two to three poles south of the house. So they were
very, very fortunate and spared and we were very lucky that
the wind hit where it did.
But I do have some other pictures where they're standing up
more vertical. After this line fell down, we did have to
get it back up so we could supply electric power to the
customers in Denton.
Here's a picture of what was involved with putting the new
poles back along Bonnie Bray.
And to show you the type of structure that will be put in
in place, we have been building some transmission
infrastructure here in town recently.
And one of the new poles that we put up on Paisley Road is
this picture right here. This is what we're proposing to
put in the existing line location, the blue route, actually
a little bit further away from the houses eastward, three
to five feet from where the existing wood poles are at.
Personally, my opinion is it's a little cleaner looking
structure, definitely a lot more structural integrity to it
. We'll withstand those winds and it gives us a lot more
capability to support the aging growth and system growth
and aging infrastructure here in Denton.
Will you be keeping up any of the wood poles? I noticed on
one of your, one of the pictures there, the first one where
they're falling over, you had kind of the smaller
distribution pole and then you had kind of the larger
transmission one.
Will anything of the wood be remaining once you put in
these new and improved middle lines?
There will not. Actually this wood pole, the distribution,
this is the transmission pole that's actually been broken,
part of it's on the ground, part of it's still in the air,
so it's been splintered.
Gotcha.
And so there will not be any wood poles along Bonnie Bray
in this area with the new steel pole line.
Thanks.
Mayor Pro Tem.
Could you go to that center picture, the middle picture?
So right now I'm trying to do some calculations.
That sidewalk is about four feet wide and it's about three
feet from the curb.
And so right now those poles are probably 12, 15 feet back
from the curb and you're talking about going five feet more
back from the curb just for the current proposal.
Is that correct?
I actually do have a survey drawn that we have one of our
other consultants work up and if I may I'd like to show
that to you here.
This is at Bonnie Bray and over in this area is the road
that goes into the North Lakes Park.
Ms. Poole's house is across the street kind of in this area
.
There is not a pole directly in front of her house.
The pole is south of the road and there's another pole
further north here as shown at that location.
These would be the poles that are presently there.
The 42 and a half feet, which would be the new easement
that we would be requesting from the property owner, would
allow us to get the 75 foot width here with the poles in
the center of that 75 foot.
The center line of the street has nothing to do with that
75 foot.
It's so it does show the 32 and a half 32.3 feet from the
curb to the existing pole locations.
Okay, Councilmember Hawkins.
Yeah, and going along Bonnie Bray how far apart are the
poles.
They're typically around 300 feet spacing, they can vary
from 250 to 350 depending on streets structures that you
need to have you can't really adjust.
But you know, typically 300 feet.
How about those wood poles that are there right now.
They're probably a little bit closer than that.
Okay, just a little bit.
Yeah, not not much.
So it's going to be the same number of poles, ultimately.
Essentially the same.
Okay.
Councilmember Briggs.
That was my same question.
I was curious about the number going in as far as the
number going out.
It's about equal.
Right.
We have the preliminary designs on this, but we wanted to
get a route selection decision and then we will finalize
the designs and it's possible we could save a few poles.
Councilmember Wasney.
So to confirm, we're looking at five to seven feet past
where the poles are currently.
Is that right?
I would say between three to five feet.
Three to five.
That's why the 42 and a half feet allows you a five foot
room to put the new pole in and still have 37 and a half
feet past that.
I think maybe some of the discussion of the center line of
the road gets sort of not confused, but when you talk of
right of way on a road, you measure from the center line of
the road out when you're measuring.
It's my understanding for right of way.
So I can understand how that could be sometimes interchange
able.
Whereas with the easement for a transmission line you
measure from the center line of the easement is where you
want to place your, your infrastructure.
That is correct.
Okay.
Councilmember Johnson.
Thank you, Mayor.
Well, I appreciate all the discussion, but I'm going to
make a motion to approve.
I don't think it makes sense to delay it.
And to me, I think Mr. Baker made the most sense, which is
you already have poles.
So we're putting poles, new and improved poles right back
where existing old poles were.
They're safer.
I mean, obviously, no matter when you put power lines in,
you're going to upset somebody, but just from a, from a
land use standpoint and from from an economic standpoint to
me, you already have poles there.
So to me, that's the that's the logical place to put them,
rather than creating a whole new line to the east.
So I'm going to move approval of item 6B.
All right, Councilmember Roden and then Councilmember Haw
kins will come to you.
Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to second that, but just a
quick comment.
You know, a lot of times when we're looking at these
transmission lines, we're looking at kind of trying to
forge brand new paths where there otherwise weren't
transmission lines or nothing altogether.
And that is a much more difficult discussion.
In this case, we have existing transmission lines.
And to me, on a street like Bonnie Bray, this is on the
opposite side of the street from the homeowners that are
that are going to be impacted by it.
It seems like it's the best option instead of charting a
new path for this.
So I'm going to second this motion.
All right, Councilmember Hawkins.
Just one more technical question.
I'm sorry.
The actual lines themselves, are they going to be higher
off the ground than with the wood poles?
Yes, sir, they will be.
How much higher?
Probably 10 feet or so, I'm going to be determined in the
final design, but they will be a little taller poles.
And as you saw in the picture, I mean, it's a lot better
ground clearance than what we have had in the past.
Okay.
So I think it's a little less visible up higher.
One real quick question.
So there's no ancillary infrastructure attachment or pole
attachments to our current poles like cable, telephone.
There's no other pole attachments that if, you know,
because I know we've had issues with them not removing
those pole attachments.
So we've had to cut like on Bonnie Bray in front of between
35 and scripture, the new metal poles are in and then the
wood poles are there cut off at the top that still hold
those pole attachments.
Is that not going to be the case here?
These wood poles there, any infrastructure, other
communication companies will be relocated to the new pole
because they're so close to where the other poles were.
Good.
All right.
Fantastic.
So that will be done by whom?
That'll be done by our transmission contractor Chapman.
Okay.
So it's not like we're waiting on the telecommunication,
the communication companies to do it.
It will be done.
Only if there is a riser that goes down it or something, we
will have to coordinate that with either Verizon or charter
if there's risers going down a pole.
Okay.
Good.
Thank you.
All right.
So we have a motion and a second for approval on agenda
item 6B.
Let's vote on the board, please.
Motion carries 5-2.
We'll go on to agenda item 6C, which is hold a public
hearing and receive citizen input on FY215-16 proposed
budget.
I will now open the public hearing to accommodate staff
presentation.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'm going to ask Mr. Chuck Springer, our director of
finance, if he will present the budget public hearing.
Thank you, Chuck.
Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.
This is a requirement of the city charter and under state
law to hold a public hearing on the proposed budget.
Just to give a brief summary of the proposed budget in
terms of proposed dollars, the operating budget is proposed
expenditures of 557.7 million,
5.3 million of grants and the capital improvement program,
402.3 million for a total proposed budget of 965 million.
With that, I'll answer any questions the council may have
over the budget and open up the public hearing.
Oh, did I forget to?
Okay.
All right. Any questions for staff before we open it up for
public speakers?
Seeing none.
We have a card. Mr. Woody Husband, if you'd like to come.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Any other people wishing to speak on the budget on this
public hearing?
Anybody wishing to speak?
Do we close?
We close it? I mean, this is just a regular public hearing?
Okay.
Last time.
Seeing none, we will now close the public hearing.
And we don't take any action on this.
We will take action on this agenda item on the 15th.
So, Madam City Attorney, how do I go back and put these --
do I just go ahead and call that public -- it's been closed
.
The public hearing has been closed.
What do I need to do to get these cards in the record?
This was on the --
6B.
6B. And these individuals did not desire to speak?
I think at this point in time, just reference the agenda
item, point out the speakers, and put those back into the
record.
All right. Thank you.
We did have some cards wishing not to speak on agenda item
6B.
First name is Elizabeth Puez, is in support of the blue
route.
Claudio Ruiz is in support of the blue route.
And Deborah Collinsworth was in support of -- yes.
And if the blue line runs where it's supposed to run, which
I will be willing to negotiate to sell.
And Ruiz is at 3309 Hardaway Road and 3301 Hardaway Road.
So I apologize for that -- for missing those on that
particular agenda item.
And, Mayor, I would just note for the record that this is
not a statutorily required public hearing.
This was a courtesy public hearing that the city has been
conducting as a result of the locating of these
transmission lines.
So just putting that particular point into the record.
So noted.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Thank you.
Agenda item 6C -- oh, we did 6C.
Item 6D is hold a second public hearing on a proposal to
adopt a tax rate of 0.696380 per $100 valuation,
which will exceed the lower effective rate or rollback tax
rate.
We will now open the public hearing.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
And I'm going to again ask Mr. Chuck Springer, our Director
of Finance, if he will present this public hearing.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mayor and members of council.
This is the second public hearing on the tax rate.
And just to point out, the published tax rate proposed, 0.6
9638, was the maximum tax rate the city council can consider
.
This will be considered on September 15th.
So they can consider a lower rate, which is the proposed
rate now of the council, a lower rate below that.
The effective tax rate, 0.656271, and the rollback tax rate
, 0.72155, were required by state law to hold the public
hearing and to calculate those tax rates.
And I think at the last public hearing, the mayor had asked
the effective tax rate is really a calculation designed to
draw in the same amount of dollars as the prior year from
the same property.
It excludes new property within the city.
With that, I'll answer any questions the council may have.
Any questions for council?
I mean, for staff, I have one.
And just want to make sure I'm clear on this, that the 0.69
and some odd is the maximum.
But as been pointed out in our work sessions, that we've
been looking at a tax rate lower than that as far as just
in the preliminary budget discussions.
So at the September 15th meeting when we're voting on
whatever the proposed tax rate is, that's where if council
decides to adopt that lower rate, that's when that would be
brought forth.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
On the 15th.
Okay.
This is a public hearing.
Mr. Johnson, you want to?
I was going to see if we could get Brian Langley down,
since he stayed this whole time, to give us maybe a history
of the tax rate in the city of Denton.
I tell you what, we'll let you do that.
I'll do that.
We do have a card.
Mr. Willie Husspeth, you wish to speak on this item?
All right.
Thank you very much.
Anybody else wishing to speak?
Staff, media, anybody?
Reporters.
All right.
This is a public hearing.
I will call it one more time.
Anybody else wishing to speak?
Come on down and give us your thoughts on the proposed tax
rate.
Seeing none.
And I do close this one.
I will close this public hearing, and we will take action
on this item on September the 15th.
We're now to our agenda item number seven, which is
presentation from members of the public.
We have one we can dispense with the review of procedures
for addressing the city council.
And it's Mr. Willie Husspeth regarding City Hall.
If you'll come and state your name and address for the
record, please.
Your time will begin.
My name is Willie Husspeth.
I live in 623 Newton.
I want to speak to the fact that you make me and citizens
stay to the end of the -- or require them to stay to the
end of the meetings.
At the forums, I remember what you say when we -- at the NA
ACP LULAC forum.
You talk as though you're for the citizens.
This is not for the citizens.
This is not good.
But you do whatever you want to do.
What I'm going to do now, since I'm here, I'm going to look
at every one of these items that you talk about.
And so it turns out it's good.
I'm being educated.
And then I will -- they come up, I'm going to fill out
every one of those cards, and I'm going to do what I need
to do.
I don't want to move up early unless you do away with it so
no one has to stay here unless they choose to stay here at
the end of these meetings.
Can you imagine what this would be like for a single parent
to come up here and stay to the whole meeting?
Now, you do it, but you chose to do it.
And you're here for the people.
You say that.
But I don't understand this rule, where you make people
stay here the whole time to have a comment.
With that said, let me take a breath.
Councilman Gregory and City Manager Campbell were the two
people that addressed what I said at the last meeting.
My representative doesn't address very much at all what I'm
dealing with.
And that's another subject altogether.
But I appreciate you, Mr. Gregory and Mr. Campbell.
I have to compromise.
And I compromised on what's happening at my property
because these two gentlemen came out and they didn't change
anything.
They didn't go over the code enforcement community
improvement decision.
Not one.
Neither one of them said they would and they didn't.
They just talked to me like I'm a citizen and that I vote
and that I matter.
I would suggest the rest of you start doing that.
That I matter and I have a vote.
They didn't even look at it as far as if I had a vote.
That wasn't even their concern.
They really communicated to me that they were concerned
about what I thought and what was going on.
They just wanted to know from my perspective.
Mr. Gregory came out to my location.
Mr. Campbell had me come to the office and he said some
things that really impressed me.
I went ahead and made the changes.
I still don't agree with them.
But when he said, Mr. Gregory as well, compromise is how I
get my job done.
You just have to give a little and take a little.
And so I put the rule -- you don't know what this is all
about.
But there was something I had outside that was going -- it
is construction material and I'm allowed to have it.
But the code enforcing person said no, it isn't.
But it is.
And I could fight that.
I wanted to go to court and fight it.
But both of these men said to what end?
And I told them just because I want to do it, I don't like
anybody pushing me around.
And I don't.
The rest of you should learn from these gentlemen.
Don't push citizens around.
And with that said, I will be at the next meeting and then
continue how the city attorneys did me.
We'll start over there and I'm going to just hammer it out
unless another code enforcement situation comes up.
Thank you for the time.
>> We will now -- I believe that concludes our agenda
except for concluding items.
Mayor Pro Tem.
>> Thank you, Mayor.
A couple of things.
I would ask staff, I suppose through the parks and rec
department, to provide a report in the next few weeks on
skate parks.
Kind of an update on the parks that we have.
The possible cost for construction of a second park.
The possible locations on current city owned property where
one might work.
Also looking at the potential for either a joint or a
separate facility for BMX bicycles.
So that's one item.
And the other item is I would ask -- and I don't know if
this comes in the form of --
I'm stuck on how to do this, whether we need a work session
or maybe the possibility of the mayor appointing a
temporary committee to -- of council members to work on the
exposition street event space.
Regarding a couple of different issues.
It looks like it's in the budget.
Because we talked about some agreement issues that we may
want to go over with the Denton community market on their
use.
Some stipulations as we go ahead with that on small
business development and issues about local food production
.
Make sure that we understand their facility needs.
There may be some other things.
But also the possibility of talking to other potential
users and other stakeholders, i.e. property owners in the
area as we talk about how we look at that.
There probably are some other issues involved in that also.
So I don't know the best way to move forward with that.
But before we expend any funds on development and design to
have some work on that.
I think probably the work session because we obviously can
't -- we couldn't say committee because this is -- but I
think a work session where we can decide those particular
options.
Councilmember Rodin.
Thank you, mayor.
And I'm going to ask my fellow historic landmark council
committee members to chime in if I miss anything.
I understand there's an issue that's holding up at least
one certificate of appropriateness and it has to do with
the use of hardy boards in historic districts.
And the mechanism as we understand it legally is that the
process to look at possible code changes to the historic
regulations has to begin with HLC and move its way through
PNZ and council.
As it stands, it seems like some on HLC are just refusing
to even consider that change which is keeping it from
moving through the process.
So I think I'd like to on behalf of the committee as we
talked about this last week and I think they have an
opportunity at their next upcoming meeting from the council
perspective to task HLC to consider that.
Whether they reject it, approve it would be up to them.
But to just allow that to move through the process so
ultimately council can look at that.
I think we have some new construction issues at play that
we might be holding some property owners up significant
times unless we get that kick started.
So that's my recommendation to the city manager if you
could help with that.
Councilmember Hawkins.
Yeah, I wanted to add to the skate park thing.
I was just very impressed with Sam and the group that came
out.
And I'm looking forward to the conversation that we could
have about either replacing the existing one or finding a
new location.
And then I just wanted to applaud my fellow council women
and men today and staff.
It was a long day and I didn't know how today was going to
end up.
But I think that it's been a really good day and just
wanted to tell everybody it was a good job.
So I appreciate it.
So except for Kevin.
No, especially Kevin.
So thank you very much.
Councilmember Briggs.
Yes, I would like to ask staff to research and council to
possibly consider adding a youth advisory board to our
board and commissions.
Research and look to other cities.
Have a report on that.
Great.
Good.
I've got a couple.
I thought you were going to break out.
Councilmember Hawkins and I don't remember the movie.
Somebody's going to.
I love you, man.
Where I was expecting you to say so.
That's the trivia question.
Old school.
Okay.
That's right.
Because I do want to echo that sentiment and not just for
the long meeting, but for the discussions on the budget and
just the differences of opinions and priorities.
But the collaboration and compromise, as I believe was was
pointed out in an earlier speaker that that the two of you
gentlemen, but I think that's that's good.
I think collaboration and compromise is is is something
that I really am proud of my colleagues here on this
council that we were able to really work through things.
And I just was I was very excited about that.
The second one is just to acknowledge what a great
community we have.
The proclamations with the great Parks Department and the
the the dolphins and then United Way, the living for the
month and then the the rodeo the lineman.
We live in a great community and we're doing a lot of
things and for the homeless issue.
And so I'm very proud to be living in this city and at this
time because I really think we're really moving forward on
some really great initiatives.
And last but not least, I had a call and I could not answer
this question.
If we have any ordinances regarding drones.
So I'd like to for the somebody had mentioned drones as far
as you know, flying around neighborhoods and privacy issues
and no, no, no, no, no, not drones at the meeting like I'm
doing right now.
So just like to get it sort of a maybe an informal staff
report or something to see what the limitations are on a
city's ability to regulate those kind of that kind of
equipment.
Because I really don't know.
That's all I've got.
Councilmember Hawkins.
I forgot one thing.
I just wanted to publicly say how much I like the mayor's
growth, the beard thing going and hopefully it continues.
It's wise. I like it.
Thank you.
Keep denting beard.
That's right.
I appreciate that.
Councilmember Johnson.
I'm not sure I want to follow Julie tonight.
He's a little punch drunk.
I just want to say, Bill, if you're watching, Peggy
deserves to come in at noon tomorrow after stomaching a 12
hour day here with us.
Wonderful.
All right.
Seeing no other requests for new business.