Nov 01, 2016 City Council on 2016-11-01 2:00 PM

[Music] Well welcome everyone to this meeting of the Denton City Council on November the 1st, 2016. It is 6 30. If you'll join with me and please stand if you're able and pledge allegiance to the American and the Texas flag. [Pledge of Allegiance] [Pledge of Allegiance] Okay we've got a proclamation here for Veterans Day so any veterans that would like to join me down front please you 're welcome to come down and we'll certainly be honored by your presence. [Pledge of Allegiance] Fantastic and we're going to take just a little time I want everyone to introduce themselves and give their rank and if you where you served or something I just want to understand you know your service to this country. James Schaefer Marine Corps E4 Corporal Desert Storm. Staff Sergeant Howell United States Army 20 years. Kenny Horn Marine Corps four years and Commander of Post 71 . Petty Officer First Class Daryl Hartley USS Missouri BB 63. Golf War Plank owner Yes I'm talking about. Ray Stevens United States Army during the Korean War 54 to 56. Roy White US Army 1953 1956. Randy Hoff Power United States Navy IC five 74 to 79. Ginger Simonson United States Army 1981 to 2005 Iraq and some other places thank you. JT Forbes United States Marine Corps I'm also the Sergeant of Arms for the state of Texas American Legion. Microshells I've boarded the USS Intrepid carrier CVA 11. Forrest Beatle United States Army First Infantry Division 1994 to 2001. And I'm Jill Beatle former captain of the United States Army Nurse Corps. Served from 1996 to 2001. Pat Smith Colonel United States Air Force retired 1984 to 2008. Anita Burgess Colonel United States Marine Corps 28 years. Thank you all so much for being here and for your service to our country and providing us the freedom that we so rich ly enjoy. Got a proclamation for Veterans Day I'd like to read in honor of you all today. Greetings whereas Veterans Day is observed on November the 11th each year to commemorate the service and sacrifices that our men and women in the armed forces of the United States of America have made. With special memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice to protect our national security and way of life. And whereas this significant day November the 11 marks the cessation of hostilities in 1918 between the allied powers and the central powers. And became known as our Mr. Stay on November 11th 1919 to honor the veterans of the Great War currently referred to as World War One until 1954 when the United States Congress changed the name to Veterans Day. To honor the veterans of all wars and conflicts in which the American Armed Forces have participated. The American Legion chartered by Congress on September the 16th 1919 to promote patriotism and the ideals of American ism is the only veterans organization whose membership is composed of American veterans from all wars and from all branches of military service. And the American Legion on October the 4th 1919 chartered a post in Denton Texas and named it for Arthur O. McKinsey the first Denton County soldier killed in action during the Great War. The American Legion Arthur O. McKinsey post number 71 has been an integral part of community life in Denton since its beginning to serve the needs of the veterans and area youth . And the American Legion strives for an adequate national defense and promotes peace through preparedness and proper medical and rehabilitation care of veterans. I Chris Watts Mayor of the City of Denton Texas urge all citizens to honor our veterans on Veterans Day and all days and join me again in thanking them for their service and their sacrifice. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Give it to the commander. There you go. Thank you very much. Thank you. Will they come down. Yes. Next proclamation is American Recycles Day. And anybody would like to come join us at the front, give you a chance to introduce yourself. Hi. How are you? Good. You want to introduce yourself to us. No, come on down. You don't want to. Okay. What's your name? Isaac. Oh great. Thank you Isaac. And I'm Stuart Birdseye with Solid Waste and Recycling. That's River. Hey River. Wendy Chance with Solid Waste and Recycling. Vanessa Ellison, Solid Waste and Recycling. And I'm Alana Taylor with Solid Waste and Recycling. We've got a proclamation here for American Recycles Days. Whereas Dent Texas recognizes the importance of protecting and preserving our natural resources by offering outstanding local services and education to the community, which in turn have a global impact. And whereas the City of Dent Solid Waste and Recycling Department view waste as a resource and continue to find innovative ways to manage waste in an environmentally, economically, and socially responsible manner. And whereas community leaders, businesses, schools, nonprofits, and individuals should encourage purchasing reusable, compostable, and recyclable products for homework and play. And whereas Dent currently has over 300 businesses participating in recycling. And whereas recycling creates jobs for our local economy and saves landfill space. And whereas Dent and Solid Waste and Recycling is an environmental leader by partnering with Dent schools, nonprofit organizations, and other city environmental service departments to promote comprehensive environmental education through the Dent and Sustainable Schools Program. And whereas in 2015 to 2016 school year, over one million pounds of our pre-K through 12 schools waste was recycled. I want to say that one million pounds. That's phenomenal. Whereas it is important that all Denton Texas residents and visitors, young and old, engage in waste reduction, reuse, and recycling. And learn more about the many products available to them as consumers. It is also fitting for Denton Texas to celebrate American Recycling Days 2016. Now therefore, I, Chris Watts, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim Tuesday, November the 15th, 2016, as America Recycles Day in Denton and urge all citizens to participate in this nationwide initiative. And who would like to just speak for just a moment about the recycles? Thank you for having us. Denton is a leader in all of our solid waste and recycling efforts. And it's because of our wonderful residents that live here. And we have great education and lots of support from all levels, from you guys and our children. They're our advocates. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I believe we've got an award, presentation of 2016 Gold Leaf Award. Mr. Paul Johnson, Texas A&M Forest Service. There you are. Come on down. Tell us what we're doing. Good to see you. Hello, my name is Paul Johnson. I'm the Urban and Community Forestry Program Coordinator for the State of Texas with Texas A&M Forest Service. And I'm here today in recognition of both Texas A&M Forest Service and the International Society of Arbor Culture, Texas Chapter, to present to the City of Denton the 2016 Texas Community Forestry Award for landscape improvement for all of the efforts, particularly the Shady Trails Initiative, in order to improve the canopy and the urban forest here in the City of Denton. It's really, I live in Austin, drove up for the day just because I wanted to do this. It's really great to have examples like this to show to other people around the state. And so all of your efforts have been recognized and really congratulate all of you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I am Marshall McGee. I'm with the Parks Department here. And we have helped install a lot of the trees and look forward to planting more. I'm here with Morgan. I'm the Urban Forester for the City of Denton. And I just want to say that this all started back in 2014. My first time at council, I went to council asking for funding from the Tree Fund to do one thing. And I came out with a directive to plant trees, which I was I was happy about that because up until that time, the fund had not been used to plant trees in Denton. Oddly enough, it's the Tree Fund. So in collaboration with our friends in parks, we were able to come up with plans to get trees and parks along trails to expand the canopy here in Denton. So I'd like to also say thank you, council, for that direction. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next agenda item is presentation from members of the public. We're going to roll the introduction on that. 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. First speaker and agenda item 3B1 is Deborah Armentar regarding an ethics ordinance and charter changes. Hello, Deborah Armentar, 2003 Mistywood Lane. There might be some coughing involved since I'm getting over a cold. I'll try to keep that to a minimum. Let's see, where's my timer? Okay. Thank you for finally agreeing to raise the bar on state law by considering an ethics ordinance. By enacting an ethics ordinance, Denton would join the ranks of other major Texas cities that have opted to raise the bar on our weak state laws on financial conflict of interest for elected officials and staff. Laws that allow 10% of conflict of interest and that focus only on punishment rather than prevention. We know where that gets us. There's a saying that goes, "What you put up with, you end up with." Well, if we set the bar no higher than state law, we end up with 10% corruption, period. That's 10% of our billion-dollar budget spent on conflicts of interest. Now, I don't care if you're a far-right conservative or a far-left liberal or if, like most decent people I know, you prefer ethics and issues over labels and categories. Nobody wants to see tax dollars wasted on anything and especially not conflicts of interest. Nobody. Only the people benefiting from the corruption would approve of it. So we should all be on board with this. Another deficiency of state law is that it does not apply to government staff. An ethics ordinance with teeth would apply both to staff as well as elected officials. Cities like Fort Worth and San Antonio that have ethics ordinances, solid ethics ordinances with teeth, apply to staff as well. Also, our current ethics policy, what we have that has received some attention of late, is not, in fact, an ethics policy, but a decorum policy and an unenforceable decorum policy at that. Unenforceable because too broad and nonspecific. As a recent DRC article explained, "The resolution asks that council members be service-oriented, communicative, and cooperative when dealing with constituents." Another word I remember from that policy is progressive, which I don't know exactly what that means in that context or how such a quality would be enforced. An elected official quoted in the article states, "That's very subjective behavior. What I may deem as respectful may not be exactly what someone else deems as respectful. I also know that what I deem as speech that I would participate in may or may not be what others would or vice versa." I agree. And I would add to that, that that pertains not only to that specific case, but to all imaginable future cases as well. That is why, as far as I know, and I really mean as far as I know, there might be some case I'm not aware of, nobody has ever been censured for anything under our current rules. And please correct me if I'm wrong. As a parent, decorum is very important to me. But I have specific decorum rules. I don't just say, "Be polite and have good table manners." I say, "Say please and thank you and eat spaghetti with your fork, not with your hands." Specific rules like that are enforceable. Generalities are not. Also, specific ethics rules should not be in a charter. They should be in only in the ordinance. You don't have to continually be revising the charter. There should simply be a statement in the charter saying something to the effect of C, ethics ordinance. Finally, I would like a more concrete timeline. I'm so thrilled and so excited that we finally reached this point. And I would like to know more than simply a November 2017 ballot deadline. I think the public, your constituents would like to know some more specifics on the timeline as well. Thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker number two will be Amber Briggle regarding Serve Denton's Little Food Pantry and Food Insecurity in Denton. [ Inaudible ] Sure. No problem. [ Inaudible ] If someone from the back could come assist with the podium computer, please. [ Inaudible ] [ Inaudible ] [ Inaudible ] Thank you, Brian. Thank you. [ Inaudible ] Absolutely. You bet. Good evening, council members. I'm Pat Smith, 1417 Cambridge Lane. I'd like to spend a few minutes giving a presentation titled Hungry for Change. November 12th through the 18th is National Hunger Awareness Month. This is a project that we've recently completed called Hunger in Focus. In it, we gave six digital cameras to people who experience hunger every day in our community and asked them to document what their life was like. And then we captured their thoughts in the captions that you see. These are some of the faces of hunger that we have in Dent on. I know Robert has been in a wheelchair for about ten years. He eats our daily bread every day and is a very generous man. But he also struggles with hunger in getting through life. This is the reality of hunger. Melody is actually a SNAP benefits worker. She works for the state. She makes about $900 a month. And she does not qualify for SNAP, but she's the one that does the interviews to help qualify people. And this is what she has at the end of each month to get by or probably at the end of each week. This is Violet. Violet is an assistant manager at Taco Bell here in town. She eats at our daily bread every day for lunch. And when she has change to buy bread, she does, and when she doesn't, she won't buy bread. This is James. James is a homeless gentleman who -- he calls this hope on the go. It's the snack packs that a lot of folks that go to our daily bread receive every Friday to get them through the weekend. This is a picture of Bobby. Bobby is a friend of mine. He has stomach cancer. He feels comfortable eating beans. And he usually gets his beans from Vision. But you can see there the hours for Vision are pretty limited. And sometimes because he works, he can't always get to Vision in time to get food. And Bobby is homeless. So these photos help us all understand the realities of hunger in Denton today. We have over 115,000 people who are food insecure by the USDA based on 2010 census data. Many who are food insecure, surprisingly, are disqualified from SNAP and reduced cost school meals because they make more money than they're allowed to to enroll in those programs. That's often referred to as the gap. And it's a very well documented situation that many families and communities across the U.S. encounter. Families run out of money before they run out of month. And they must juggle the big five. Housing, utilities, transportation, debt, and food. Well, guess one which goes short. We have some solutions that I'm very proud to talk about. The first of all of those is the Denton Hunger Coalition where we've brought all the food pantries together with the Terranera Food Bank, Texas AgriLife, UNT, TW, NCTC, to take a systematic approach to combating hunger. And we've made a lot of improvements in that over the years . One of those that's probably been the most successful is the Denton Mobile Pantry. The Denton Mobile Pantry is a food pantry supported by Ter ranera Food Bank. And it's the second Saturday of each month at Serve Denton where Terranera Food Bank brings in a tractor trailer full of nothing but fruits and vegetables. The same quality that you would get at Kroger's or any other supermarket in town. And then that's distributed to people in need across not only Denton but Denton County, into Cook County, as well as into Tarrant County. We can see the numbers there. We have served over 4,400 families, 16,000 individuals. Those aren't unique individuals, but every month it's between 12 and 1,500 unique individuals that we're supporting. Most recently in October, Terranera Food Bank's CEO came to a Serve Denton board meeting and called the DMP the most successful of the seven that they operate in 13 counties. Now I'd like to turn it over to Amber. So now that -- do I have to say my name and address for the record? Yes. Thank you. Amber Briggle, 1315 Dartmouth Place here in Denton. Now that Pat has, I guess, set the table to speak about hunger issues in Denton, I'd like to talk about one solution that we've thought of, which is a little free pantry. Do you remember a time when neighbors helped neighbors with something as simple as a cup of sugar? That doesn't happen so much anymore in Denton, and yet that 's a quality that we value deeply here in Denton. We are generous with each other. We are kind to each other. But not everyone may know who to turn to for help or where to go for help. As Pat showed in his part of the presentation, some people may not meet eligibility requirements, whether it's for food stamps. Some may not meet the eligibility requirements even for a food shelter or a food pantry. And some of those food pantries have limited hours. And when you work or you are juggling school and kids and work, it can be difficult to get there. A little free pantry is one small way to address the issue of hunger and food insecurity in Denton. This was an idea that started in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It's gotten some national attention. But the closest little free pantry that we have to Denton is to our neighbors in the East in McKinney, which is a little bit too far for some people to travel. Basically, a little free pantry looks like this. It's like a little free library built out of cedar to help repel bugs. It is weatherproof. And it's funded and built by the Young Men's Service League . Are there some people here from-- thank you so much. Yeah. So it will be built. It's funded and built by them. And basically, it will be delivered and installed and fully stocked from the get-go. We're looking for 20-- our goal is to have at least 20 little free pantries across Denton by February 1st. Thus far, we have about 10 individuals signed up. You can be a church, a nonprofit, a business, or even a private family to sponsor this. It is no cost. And it functions very similar to a little free library. So we see little free libraries across town. And for those who have sponsored a little free library, I can bet you they didn't spend $100 on books to put in there . They may do with what they had, right? And they're self-sustaining. The community adds and the community receives. And little free pantries are much the same way. So we're looking for sponsors who will maintain these, let us know if they need upkeep and maintenance. Just check on it once in a while. Make sure that things are cycling through. But basically, our ask of city council is would you consider sponsoring a little free pantry in your district, at your home, at your business, in a park, in your neighborhood? Would each of you commit to sponsoring a little free pantry ? Do you know members in the business community? Would your church possibly sponsor one of these? Again, our goal is to install 20 of these by February 2017. It's very simple to do. We have a Facebook page. We do have a website. And you can sign up online. There's a simple Google doc. And once all that information is collected, we can get back in touch with you and find out where you'd like that located on your property and just kind of teach you some basic tips on how to maintain it and how to keep this going forward in the community. I recognize that this isn't going to solve the hunger issue in Denton, but it's one small piece. It's very Denton that we are helping our neighbors. It's self-sustaining and community-focused. And we're just really excited about it. Did I miss anything, Pat? Okay. I guess with that, we can stand for any questions if you have any. Sure. We have a couple of questions. Councilmember Hawkins? Thank you, Amber. So how does this work? Somebody can just open it up and take whatever they need and whoever is sponsoring it, I guess, just replenishes. That's exactly it. Yeah. Just like a little free library. So you don't need a library card to use a little free library. Just like how you don't need to meet any sort of eligibility requirements to use a little free pantry. So people give to the little free libraries and people receive from the little free libraries in the pantries the same way. So once we have these installed, we're going to have a map online, too, to show people where they can find these. So if someone would like to make a contribution, maybe there's a little free pantry across the street from where I work and I just happen to buy an extra can of peaches at the store. I mean, something as simple as that. Okay. And it will also let people know where they're at. So if they need help, they're open 24/7, you know, you can just stop by and grab something. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Wasney. What a great idea. So thank you. Question on location. Does Serve Denton pick the location? The group sponsoring picks the location. That's correct. And because our goal is to have 40 or 20. Well, why not 40? Why not 100? Our goal right now is to have 20. And so we don't, I mean, we don't pick the location. We're counting on people to come to us to say, I have a location in mind. I would like to sponsor this, you know, at my church or go ahead. And we want organizations to take ownership of the pantry. That's I mean, it's at no cost. But once it's there, it's something that an organization or a person would keep an eye out on and periodically stock. There's no set frequency. But we want some ownership so that these things don't become dilapidated over time. And if there's a storm and there's damage, they can contact Serve Denton and we'll get a volunteer group out there to work on them. Great. Thank you. Do you guys have a guideline as to what is best suited for this application as far as the type of foods? I mean, obviously. Each pantry will have a little list of recommended items that goes in. If it's laminated, there will be a little sign that says Little Free Pantry on the outside and that has its own little logo because everything that we serve in does has a logo. And then those things are so we don't want raw foods in there, prepared foods, things like that. And if I could add to that too. So the Little Free Pantry, obviously, you know, a lot of food is going to go in there. But imagine one that's maybe close to a school. Maybe you could have school supplies in there, notebooks or crayons. If the teacher is coming, maybe you could put a hat and some gloves or something in there. So it's basically to meet the needs of the community. Yeah. Great. Did you want to talk about the gratitude cards too real quick? Sure. We're going to put a little box. Each full free pantry will have a little box with note cards. And if someone wants to say thank you or write a note, they can leave that and they will go by once we pick them up, post them on Facebook. And so there's a feedback mechanism there. Sure. I want to point out YMSL is a great group of ladies. They and their sons were in the picture. They're building these. They've been doing a lot last two Saturdays. And we'll be building and installing more this next weekend . We'll be installing about eight. And they're learning to use their hands in the process. So it is a great program. And they have totally funded all of it. Great. Fantastic. Any other questions? Oh, Mayor Pro Temit didn't register. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Can you just go back on the screen so that if somebody wants to respond to sign up, which one of those things do they go to to say that? Any one of them. They can go to the Facebook page or go to Serve Denton Little Free Pantries or go to emailinfo@servetenton.org. Yeah. The link is on the Facebook page. Oh, gotcha. You can just search for Little Free Pantry Denton. Great. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Right now. Oh, okay. Sure. Council Member Gary. Is that something this question is for Howard Martin? Is that something that we could use our contingency funds for? I think it's a nonprofit. I think it would qualify. And so I think that's just a real question. Okay. Jogging. Thanks. All right. Thank you. We have our next speaker will be Mr. Willie Hutspeth regarding the selection process for the Charter Review Committee and the schedule. And the scheduling of the Council Work Sessions. If you'll come down and state your name and address, your time will begin. Mayor and Council Members, my name is Willie Hutspeth. I live in 623 Newton. I just want to start out by saying that my wrist is hurt because of Jennifer Walters and Councilman Gregory. They just didn't want to talk to me. They beat me. Brian, they beat me up and they are -- I'm just kidding. Just want to get your attention, Missy. Just in case you want to know, Brian, you need to deal with a couple of people in here just a little bit. I got carpal turtle, carpal tunnel surgery, and that's why my hand is in this place. But it was much more funny to say that Jennifer and Gregory beat me up. Okay. So you're going from high to food to Veterans Day to -- what was that other one? That was a good one. Veterans -- The Forestry Award. Forest, that's right. To me. So that's the way it goes. The issue of your meeting, I think those work sessions are inappropriate if the thought is to get citizens more involved in the council and what's happening with the council. I think that's counterproductive. That's when you talk about what you want to talk about without citizens being there. So I think that they should be eliminated. And the closed session, one quick statement about that. If you have someone that stays in those closed sessions and they are taking notes, and that's the reason that you have them there, then the notes are then available for the public. And I'm going to request them. If the -- if when I'm there watching to see who's in there, and then I leave after I see who's in there, and they come back in there after I've left, which I think happened, then I'm going to speak to that and I'm going to take their picture as they come back in. There's no need for the acting city manager to be in there. There's no need for notes to be taken unless those notes can be provided to the public. You're just council members discussing what you need to discuss. And there's no need for legal unless you have a legal question. That's my thought. All right. Lastly, two things. Very moved by that, the pantry thing. And I'm going to get one. I've been just wrecking my brain. What do I do? I see so many people that don't have what I have. And I've been there. I've been where they are without food and without a place to live. And now I'm not there. And in Isaiah, God was talking to me and he said, don't bring me your sacrifices. I'm sick of that. Do what I tell you. And he keeps listing. Feed the hungry. Take care of the widows and orphans, those who don't have, and quit hoarding it for yourself. So that pantry, that's the one I want to do. And then lastly, I've been discussing this ordinance that you're planning to present as far as hands-free appliances. And there are lots of arguments. And my argument to the person was, then what do you think is going to change when you come up with that ordinance other than trying to get police to do extra work? You're not going to change anything from most people. They're still going to use it. And he said, what do you do then? I said educate. Hawkins made a comment that also I need to piggyback on because he said he was educated. He was informed about the hands-free and he saw it for himself. So did I. So what did I do once I saw that? I don't do it anymore. So education, I think, is the way to do it, not legislation . Thank you, sir. We don't have any open mic speakers for agenda item C, so we'll move on to the consent agenda. I'm sorry, Madam City Attorney, I forget something. Mayor, before Council acts on the consent agenda, before you is a very minor amendment on item 1394, 16-1394, which is item I on your consent. And if you would please substitute this page into the agreement that is resident in that agenda item. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Chair would entertain a motion on consent agenda. Apparently my request for speakers is not working. Nobody's showing up. But okay. Council Member Hawkins. Thank you, Mayor. All right. I move approval of items A through K, but we're going to be pulling items A, B, C, and G for individual consideration. And with I, we're going to use that substitute wording that our Madam City Attorney was just noting. So I'm sure somebody's probably motion for a second. Was that you, Mayor Pro Tem? I second. Oh, I get it. Yeah. We got a second? Okay. Okay. I'll just watch. I'll watch yours. We've got a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Save. We're pulling items A, B, C, and G and also substit uting the document mentioned by City Attorney for agenda item I. All right. Let's vote on the board, please. Yes. No. Nothing's working. I'm sorry. Yes, I am voting yes. And do we need to have some, is there a way to reboot this on mine or where is it? Where are you? It on the side. Anyway, motion carries 7-0. We will now move on to our items for individual consideration on the consent agenda that have been pulled. Agenda item 4A, which is consider approval of resolution reviewing and adopting revisions to the investment policy regarding funds for the City of Denton and providing an effective date. Audit Finance Committee recommends approval 3-0 and we do have a card that's been filled out on that as well. And we'll take that public comment after we have staff presentation. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to call on Chuck Springer, our Director of Finance, to do a brief overview of this item. This item is a resolution adopting revisions to the city's investment policy. State law requires the City Council to consider the city's investment policy covering the investment of public funds on an annual basis. The city's policy is modeled after and complies with state law, which is Chapter 2256 of the government code. In terms of the priorities of the city's investment policy, the priorities in order of importance are safety and principal, liquidity and yield. It's the city's practice to hold securities until they mature and kind of to ladder our portfolio based on our cash needs. The general investment strategy takes account the cash flow needs of the city. And to give you an idea, our average maturity of the portfolio is about one year, so it's a conservative portfolio. The changes recommended this year in the investment policy really only relate to the restrictions of the portfolio on percentages and just recommending one change for commercial paper to increase the allowed percentage from 5% to 15% and also add a restriction that no single commercial paper issuer can be greater than 5%. The SEC's made some changes to money market mutual funds. Due to those changes, the investment yield on commercial paper has become more attractive. The money market funds are holding less commercial paper. So because of this, we would like to increase the portfolio 's percentage. Commercial paper is a short-term investment of 270 days or less, can be issued by a corporation or a government municipality. With that, I'll take any questions the council has. Councilmember Begarry. Thank you, Mr. Springer. To clarify, our policy doesn't have any prohibition on purchasing commercial paper from an entity with whom we either contract or purchase equipment from, for instance, correct? No, that's correct. The policy is based on the investment grade of the commercial paper has to be A1, P1 or higher. And then we also contract with the financial advisor that does kind of research on all the commercial paper issuers. So we also only purchase from those that are recommended by the financial advisor that meet that rating criteria. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? Seeing none, thank you, Chuck. We do have a speaker. Mr. Husbeth, if you'll come down and state your name and address, your time will begin. Mayor and council, my name is Ray Huntsworth. I live at 623 Newton. One question I'd like to clarify. The city attorney changed one other item on here. Is there going to be a consent item as well? I mean, one that we can deliberate? You didn't say so. You all voted on it, did you not? Aye. That is correct. We did vote on it, yes, sir. Vote on it. But that didn't -- you didn't discuss that in the work session, which you should have if that was going to be a change. She handed out something to you. She said, per this, that she handed out. It was discussed. Should have been discussed in work session. But then it should -- then if you're going to change it, then it needs to be discussed now. You can't just take it from the consent agenda, make a change up there, and then vote on it as though it was a consent agenda provided to us. So it should be voted on. It should have discussion. That's my only point. All right. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. I move approval of agenda item 4A. Councilmember Hawkins. I'm going to second. We have a motion to second. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 7-0. Moving on to agenda item 4B. Consider approval of a resolution revising administrative policy number 403.07, debt service management, and providing for an effective date. Thank you, Mayor. Chuck Springer, our director of finance, will handle this item. Thank you, Howard. Mayor and member of the councils. This is a second policy of the city that we bring back to the city council on an annual basis. It's our debt service management policy. This is not required by state law. It's really what would be considered a financial best practice. We bring it back annually. We also have it reviewed by our bond council and our financial advisors. Really covers the debt service, the policies on the issu ance of debt, the maintenance of our debt, disclosure, and all other items related to outstanding debt. In terms of the change that's recommended during the current year, it's really related to some legislation passed in 2015 that requires some specific information to be either released by the city or sent to the comptroller to be released on the city's debt. The city has been putting together an annual debt report since 2013 and will continue to do that. What we're proposing with this change is really to add this additional information in the format required by the compt roller's office to our existing debt report and blend the two together is really the major change that's recommended on this. With that, I'll answer any questions you may have. Any questions for staff before we take public comment? Seeing none. Thank you. We have a card wishing to speak Mr. Willie Hutsbeth if you 're waving that off. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. I move approval of agenda item 4B. Council Member Gregory. Second. We have a motion and a second on agenda item 4B. Let's vote on the board please. Motion carries 7-0. Moving on to agenda item 4C. Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Texas, approving a grant application from Jimmy Trent, owner of JT Clothiers 200 West Oak from the Downtown Re investment Grant Program. Thank you, Mayor. It looks like we have Julie Glover lined up here for the staff presentation on this particular item. Good evening. Just have 30 or 40 slides is all I have here. You got two minutes. I got two minutes. Good. So we've been discussing this grant program quite a bit lately, so you should be fairly familiar with it. I did put in the consideration so the public could see what happens here. This grant is tied specifically to historic buildings in the downtown area to help us preserve our history. This particular building is at 200 West Oak right there at Oak and Elm. It was the Ethan Allen store for many, many years. Recently it has become JT Clothiers. It's kind of a recent picture once Mr. Thomas leased the building to Mr. Trent, who is here, by the way. This is kind of some of the progress that they made on the inside. Discovered some old transom windows that have been covered up, some nice ceiling tiles and things that were undiscover ed before. This is the building as it stands today. The building was occupied by the Thomases for over 50 years . The downtown task force and the economic development partnership board have both looked at this. And there may be something confusing in your backup in that the task force recommended $20,100, which was the maximum allowed for the building in that they had already gotten a $4,900 grant previously, and there's a $25,000 grant per building. When the economic development partnership board looked at it, they recommended $20,000. So that is what stands before you today in that EDP kind of trumps downtown task force. And like I said, Mr. Trent is here as well if you need to ask him any questions, but I'd be happy to answer questions . Councilmember Begay. Thank you, Ms. Glover. Where do the funds for this particular downtown reinvest ment grant come from? Technically, they're in general fund. They are funded through the alcohol beverage tax that the city collects. Okay. And as far as those alcohol and beverage taxes, what private entities are eligible to receive a reimburse ment through those tax funds? Anyone within the downtown implementation plan area. That is the weight threaten right now. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? We do have a couple of cards wishing to speak. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. First card will be Mr. Willie Hutspeth. Come down and state your name and address and your time will begin. Mayor, Councilman, my name is Willie Hutspeth. I live at 623 Newton. I was in these works in the work sessions when the questions came up as to the end of discussion that which I agree with. The funds that are provided for in this particular -- these kinds of grants is for downtown. What about the rest of the city? Why is it just singling out downtown for this money? And if there are other grants that can be used in other parts of the city, I'd like to know what those are. And in discussion that I remember in the work session, there weren't any more grants that could be provided for or used for these particular items that they're being used for and for this location. And if that's not the case, then I stand corrected. But I think that's what I remember hearing. And again, if that's true, then I don't think it's a fair system that you take money that's provided for only -- and I think it's city funds. I'm not -- I think -- I vaguely remember where the money comes from to create these grants. So if I'm off on that, then I stand corrected. Thank you, sir. Next speaker would be Deb Armator. Please come down and state your name and address. Your time will begin. My name is Deb Armator, address 2003 Mistywood Lane. First, I want to say I checked -- opposed to this item, but I wanted to explain that. I love downtown, and I'm thrilled with the progress that has been made by the downtown reinvestment grant program. I'm really proud of what it has accomplished. It seems to me to have accomplished its goal. We have a wonderful booming downtown. We have terrific businesses, including the one mentioned here. I have nothing against this business. It's terrific. My mother buys a lot of clothes there. Well, I shop at Denton Thrift, but sometimes she'll get me presents from there. It's a wonderful store. So nothing against this program or this business or downtown. All these things are wonderful, especially our downtown. But it seems to me that this reinvestment grant program is no longer needed, at least not to help out businesses that can already afford to be in our high rent downtown. This seems like something that should be for startup businesses. Obviously, it's called the downtown reinvestment grant program, so either the program needs to be ended or it needs to be reapplied in some other way to help downtown. We obviously have a big hunger problem in this city. We have some homeless people who hang out downtown. Maybe we should be spending money to get some of these little free pantries or maybe even a great big free food pantry downtown. Money to diversify our businesses downtown. We have more minority-owned businesses, something like that . If it were up to me, I'd be in favor of, as Willie said, focusing elsewhere in the city to areas that could be our next downtown. I wish this weren't an either/or situation. We could just shower money on everybody that has as well as the have-nots, but resources are limited. I believe we should be prioritizing the have-nots over the haves. I just want to state that my opposition to this expenditure is by no means in opposition to downtown. I celebrate downtown, and I see it as succeeding on its own now because of all the terrific businesses that are there. Anyway, I guess I've said my piece. I hope I've made myself clear, my opposition clear. Thank you. Councilmember Briggs? Can I make a point of clarification? Just that in the discussion, Council had last these funds of $200,000 in this downtown grant are already in that fund . The $100,000 from the general fund was not added to it. It's kept separate so that another program can possibly be started. These are funds that are already in there that are allowed to use that we just unfroze for applications that can be used. Just clarification on that. Yes, yes. Thank you. Yes, I see. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Councilmember Hawkins? Thank you, Mayor. First, I wanted to welcome J.T. Clothiers and Mr. Tritt to downtown. You've been a long-standing business in our community and I welcome you here. I know rehabbing some of these old buildings can be a little bit unnerving at times. You can open up a wall and, oh no, what did you find? As the City of Denton continues to encourage infill development, we just really welcome you. I move approval of item 4C. We do have one more request to speak. Thank you, Council member Hawkins. Councilmember Gary? Is the floor open for discussion right now? I think so. Okay. I just wanted to clarify. I won't be voting in favor of this, but I did want to provide a little bit of clarification. Obviously, my family's been in business in Denton for quite a long time as well, so it's definitely not any type of slide upon the business community and people who have been here. I do think that if we're going to use general fund money, we should be using it for public purposes. I understand that there's a debate about what's a private and public purpose. In this instance, I would say that it's a private purpose and for that reason, I won't be voting for it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gregory? Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to second and as I do so, make a couple of comments. Sure. Many of us were disappointed and saddened when Thomas Furn iture, a great, long-standing Denton business, decided to close and move from downtown. And those of us that love downtown were really concerned about what was going to go into that prime location. And when I found out that it was JT's, I was delighted because a great family business is being replaced by a great family business. I am so delighted that you guys are moving downtown. I think it's good for downtown. I think I hope it's going to be great for your business. The Downtown Reinvestment Grant Program is one, certainly not the only one, but one of several factors that has resulted in the kind of vibrant downtown that we all benefit from, the public benefits from. We focused on the downtown because it's an area of strength for our city and we want to keep it strong. And a lot of us on council, me included, have said when we can find another area that we want to target funds for to do the same kind of reinvestment, to create the same kind of energy that we created downtown, we need to do that. So as the public is out there, if you've identified a spot that you think would benefit from that, please bring it to our attention. We're looking also. So I'm pleased to second this and I'll be pleased to vote for it. Mayor Pro Tem. Yeah, I'm happy to support this as well. You know, there's been a lot of discussion about the mixes of types of businesses in the downtown area. If you come down to eat or to enjoy a beverage or something like that, to be able to have something else you can go to and linger longer downtown and the idea of having retail, specifically high end retail that attracts new types of clientele to downtown is a welcome, welcome addition to the downtown area. I've visited the store. It's gorgeous what you've done to the place and the appeal of the sidewalk appeal and even at night when you're not open, the lights that kind of come out and exude from that place. That's what this grant is about. It's not just about investing in private business. It's about investing in the streetscape of downtown, which is the jewel crown of our city. It makes sense. It's one of the most successful government programs we have in the city. Why there's so much interest in changing this boggles my mind. But thanks for your investment. Thanks for building a gorgeous place. And already we're seeing as you're talking to folks who are leasing in the area that's attracting more retail. More folks want to be around that sort of thing. So it starts building upon the success. So thanks for investing and I'll be happy to support this. Councilmember Briggs. So I just have another question about the grant. It goes the grant funding goes to the building, right? Not the person. That's correct. Right. And so there's a maximum per building. That is correct. There's 25,000 max per building per building. And because this building had already received a previous grant with the previous owner of forty nine hundred dollars, they were only eligible for the remaining amount. And then he kind of rounded it down to twenty thousand. Okay. All right. Thank you. Councilmember Wasney. And for our citizens, the discussion that council had as well as Denton grows, our planning department is talking about creating some small area plans that we get the stakeholders involved in the small area plans. And that quite possibly we could be looking at investment grant programs in those small areas because Denton is more than just downtown. There are areas all over this city that as we fine tune the small area plans. So kudos to planning and bringing this idea forward. I applaud it. I support it. And once we get all of that rolling, it's just logical to take a look at some reinvest ment grant money for those small area plans as well. Thank you. I guess everybody's comment. I'll comment. Mine 's pretty simple. I don't oppose the program. My concern comes with the source of funding because we do have a tip downtown that is providing, I think, over close to three hundred fifty five dollars. Three hundred fifty five to four hundred thousand dollars a year now going into the fund. And these funds come from the general fund that move into that are applied to businesses downtown. So if there's any increase in value in those businesses due to money coming from outside the TIF, that increased revenue from those increased tax assess values is sequester ed within the TIF. So I think it's been a good program. My concern all along has been just the source of the funding, not that the program exists. With that, we have a motion and a second. There's no more discussion. We will vote on the board. Motion carries six to one. We'll now move into item four G. Item for individual consideration. We'll come get you. Consider approval of the resolution of the city council of the city of Denton nominating PACCAR to the office of the governor. Economic development and tourism. Thank you, Mayor. Carolyn Booth, our director of economic development, will address this particular item. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Good evening, Mayor and council. This item is going to seem familiar to you because you have in fact already approved a resolution nominating PACCAR as an enterprise project under the Texas Enterprise Zone program. PACCAR does qualify for what's called a concurrent designation because the project in which it's investing capital is above the five million dollar minimum. In fact, they're investing more than 25 million dollars in their project. And its employment numbers exceed the 500 jobs that are the maximum under one project designation. So companies are limited to two active project designations at a time. So if in fact you do approve PACCAR for a second project designation, it will not be eligible to ask for another one for at least five years. Approval of this resolution only allows PACCAR to apply to the enterprise program for designation. It does not guarantee that it will receive it from the state. If it is designated as an enterprise project by the state, it must hire 25% economically disadvantaged persons, enterprise zone residents or veterans for its new or replacement personnel for certified jobs during its enterprise project designation. And I'm glad to answer any questions that you might have about this. Any questions for staff? We have a blue card wishing to speak. But any questions for staff before we take a public comment? Seeing none. Thank you. Mr. Willie Hutsmith, please state your name and address and your time will begin. My name is Willie Hutsmith. I live at 623 Newton. This project here is what I'd like to see downtown to implement some of this for the minorities, the disadvantaged, the veterans, something. I heard some of your council members really champion what this business is going to do for downtown and all of the lighting of the streets and that you've known the person for a long time. Isn't that wonderful? Name me one minority owned business that's downtown. One. Anywhere. Well, other than Logan's. It's been there for a long time. Name me another one. Ever in the history of downtown. Don't tell me about it's wonderful you're doing this. And also, if the grant supplies money for people who could afford to do it themselves and are doing it because they don't have a grant yet, they're affording they can afford to do it. Then I own my lime green building. The corner of Bonnie Pre y and Oak. I need a grant. I'm minority and I need a grant. Now I know that's ridiculous what I'm asking. I'm just trying to bring up the point. You don't act as though this is good for the community. It is one ethnic group that have two characteristics. Skin color and money. So that's the thing that we're going to have to change. This is something that's good and seems like they're in the right direction. If those funds came from the general committee funds, then I sure would like the percentage of taxes that my money went into producing that and get that back. You don't even consider that, do you? It's our money. We got it. We're going to do whatever we want with it. Well, it still needs to be noted. If I is not talked about, if you don't talk about and let me speak to I, what you added, then I will deal with that the next meeting. We have no more cards. We have Councilmember Gregory. Move approval of 4G. Councilmember Hawkins. I second. We have a motion and a second for agenda item 4G. Let's vote please. Yeah, Councilmember Gary. Motion carries 6-0. We now move on to our agenda items for individual consideration. Agenda items 5. We had a request, Councilmem bers, for agenda item G, which is considered option of ordinance of the City of Dent, Texas, amended section 18-38 of the Code of Ordinances as relating to the wireless device proposed ordinance to move that to the front. So just sort of taking thought. Has somebody went to get Councilmember McGarry? Okay. Just wanted to hear comments or get your feedback on that. Mayor Pro Tem. Well, it seems like there's folks here for A through F and those probably aren't going to take very long. So my thoughts are get through those so they don't have to sit through something that might take a long time. Okay. All right. That's my thought. Councilmember Wasney. I agree. I think the first items are going to go relatively quickly and we'll just keep everything in order. Thank you. Okay. Well, Chair will make the call that we will keep the agenda as slated. We'll take first couple items and we'll take our first break. Agenda item 5A, which is consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Dent, Texas on second reading confirming and approving a boundary adjustment agreement with the City of Corinth, Texas. Thank you, Mayor. Ron Mangata, our long range planning administrator will handle this particular item. Thank you, Mayor, members of the council. This item forward to you today is for consideration on second reading confirming and approving a boundary adjustment agreement with the City of Corinth for a boundary adjustment along the southern east corner of our city. As you see here, outlined in red, close to Geyer High School. The purpose of the boundary adjustment is to facilitate the extension of Lake Sharon Drive as it connects onto FM 2499. The reason for the boundary adjustment is to accommodate a design that the city engineer for the City of Corinth determined that was required due to a 90 degree angle to again connect to FM 2499. Here outlines the area that would be adjusted and be brought into the City of Corinth if the council were to approve this ordinance. Just real quick, we met on September 20th on the first reading, October 2nd, the ordinance was published and then tonight we're considering the second reading of this just adjustment agreement. And for the record, I'm going to read the ordinance, an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas confirming and appro ving a boundary adjustment agreement with the City of Corinth, Texas adjusting a mutual boundary of the city's not exceeding a thousand feet providing for solvability and providing an effective date for this ordinance. That concludes my presentation. I'll be happy to answer any question that you all may have. Any questions for staff? Thank you. We do have one blue card requesting to speak. Mr. Hespits, if you'll come down. All right. Mr. Hespits declined to speak. We have no more blue cards. Mayor Pro Tem. It occurs to me about 200 years ago, Texas boundary disputes were handled either through poker games or gunf ights. So it's a tribute to American democracy that we can vote peacefully tonight to resolve this. So on that note, I move approval. Councilmember Gary. I'm just glad Corrins didn't build the wall. I'll second. Okay. Gosh, it's only 745 and we're already going downhill. We have a motion and a second for agenda item 5A. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 7-0. Moving on to agenda item 5B, consider adoption of ordinance establishing an economic development program under Chapter 3A of the local government code. Thank you, Mayor. Carolyn Booth, our director of economic development, will address this item for council. Thank you, Sally. Hello again, council members. To refresh your memory on some background about the Sally Beauty project and Sally Beauty Corporation itself, Sally moved its corporate headquarters to Denton from New Orleans in 1982. It is now the world's leading specialty retailer and distributor of professional beauty supplies. The company has $3.8 billion in annual revenue. It has 5000 company stores and 10 distribution centers worldwide. It is Denton's fourth largest private employer with about 1000 full-time employees in the community and 27,000 employees worldwide. The project in question is a complete remodel of the interior office portion of the building at 3900 Moore Street. You see there on your map. The project itself comprises a $7.5 million total investment and will lead to the creation of 80 new or reloc ated jobs, and that's jobs relocated from other locations in Texas or around the United States as Sally acquires companies that are competitors or complementary businesses and moves those jobs into Denton as well as the ones that will be created new. The Economic Development Partnership board recommends a three-year 50% rebate totaling $72,714. That is $24,238 a year for three years. The agreement itself is in the form of a Chapter 380 rebate and will apply only to revenue increases that are attrib utable to the improvements at the 3900 Moore Street building . Sally does have its corporate headquarters building at Colorado Street, and that is not part of the equation in terms of what is going to be incentivized. The key conditions in the agreement are that the combined assessed value of both of Sally Beauty's Denton facilities is at least $28.6 million, which is 80% of the 2016 combined assessed value of those two buildings. If the assessed value is less than $28.6 million in any of the three years of the grant, there will be no grant payment in that year. Another key condition is that the minimum employment at 39 00 Moore Street must be 250 employees with a minimum average annual wage of $51,800. Should Sally employ less or provide a lower average wage than the minimum thresholds, their grant payment in that year will be reduced by the percent decrease in their actual employment or actual wages against the threshold that was set. Sally Beauty will submit an annual certificate of compliance in order to receive payment, and the City of Denton staff will verify that the conditions have been met prior to issuing payment. Key points, Sally Beauty is one of Denton's top four private employers. They're investing $7.5 million in the project, and it's going to create about 80 new or relocated jobs. Their request is for a three-year, 50% rebate on new city ad valorem tax revenue attributable to project improvements , and the agreement is performance-based, and compliance will be verified prior to payment. Happy to answer any questions. I have a question. How do, when they send in that certificate of compliance, how do we verify, let's say, for example, on the salaries, how do we verify that with data that is, I don't say trustworthy, but... With the certificate of compliance, they do have to have that notarized, so that's one step, but we do, in the agreement, we do require them to allow us to correspond with their human resources department to pull samples and do some verification, and they agree to that in the agreement. Okay, so it's not just a notarized statement. Right, that's kind of step one, but then step two is we can access the records. Great, thanks. Councilmember Wasney? I just want to confirm for our citizens that the minimum employment for this building is 250 jobs with an average wage of approximately $51,000 a year. Yes, that's correct. Thank you. Any other questions for staff? We do have one card wishing to speak, so any questions for staff? Councilmember Gary, you? Yeah, I have a question. One thing in the backup said it was a straight average annual wage. What does that mean? I've never heard it termed that way, straight average annual wage. I think that just, I mean, that's just an average of all of the wages. It's not weighted or anything. It's just... So like from CEO down to... Just, no, just the ones that are employed in that building, in particular. The CEO works at the Colorado Street building. Okay, thank you. Any other questions for staff? All right, thank you. You're welcome. We do have a card wishing to speak, Mr. Willie Hutsmith. Come down and state your name and address. Your time will begin. My name is Willie Hutsmith. I live at 623 Newton. Wouldn't it be wonderful for somehow you tied this grant money and these embatements or rebates? Or the amount of money that you're allowing them to not have to pay? How about tying to that hiring some minorities? How about checking to see how many minorities are already there in these jobs that they're offering here? Now, I don't have the data to show what they are. But I've had to do business in that building. And I don't see very many, just in looking around. So wouldn't it be wonderful if... Well, wait a minute. Maybe all things are equal. Blacks are actually, and Hispanics even worse, are being hired. We just don't qualify. I've heard that so many times, I'm just sick of it. We can't cut the mustard. We can't do the jobs. I don't agree with that. I don't think that's the case. I think what happens is those of you who are sitting there, look at this project and all you see, because I think because you weren't raised like I was and what I had to go through here to just make it, and all you see are those numbers. The number that they're going to improve by and what they 're purporting to do, what they're going to do. And that's it. That's all you see. So I'm here standing in the wings and at this podium who have finally figured out how to get my voice heard, because you seem to want to silence it all the time, to say to you, you need to consider what is the ethnic breakdown of these jobs that you're handing out and all of these things downtown, we just talked about that , and here we're talking about this. And one of the things that I'm going to do, I'm going to create a -- I've got to get some people to come down and do some videos, because I'm going to show your reactions when I bring this up. I want -- maybe it is on TV already. I want to let the rest of the people say, here we go again. Can't we just drop this and get along? Well, yeah, if you start hiring some people, fire department. Thank you. Thank you. We have no more cards wishing to speak on this agenda item. Councilmember Hawkins? Councilmember Hawkins? Sorry. Move approval of item 5B. Mayor Pro Tem? I second that. Okay. Councilmember Begari? Just a point of clarification. I'll be voting no on this for the same reason I voted no for the downtown reinvestment grant, which is that this is a private purpose and we are exp ending public funds on it. Thank you. Thank you. We have a motion to second for agenda item 5B. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 5 to 1. Move on to agenda item 5C. If somebody could start, Councilmember Briggs? We'll present them both, but vote on them separately. Yeah. All right. The next two agenda items, 5C and D, are related, so I will call the captions together, but we will take the votes separately. Agenda item 5C is considered option of ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas, approving an amendment to an economic development program agreement dated April 7, 2015. And then D is considered, 5D is considered option of ordinance authorizing the mayor to execute a tax abatement agreement with WGBP Investments Limited. Thank you, Mayor. Carolyn Booth will handle both of these items. Good evening, once again, and I think for the last time tonight. I'm going to give you some background on Westgate Business Park as a project, and as the mayor stated, we have two separate items, but since they're connected, I'm going to go ahead and go through the background for both of them at the same time. Westgate Business Park is a project of WGBP Investments, which is an operating company of WGBP Management. This is an entity that is local developers here in the community. The business park is located on Western Boulevard near Highway 380. It is Class A industrial space, which means it is a property that represents the highest quality building in its market and area. The total project is planned for three multi-tenant buildings totaling 413,000 square feet. Building 1 was completed in late 2015, and the current tenants are Quality Industries, which is a supplier of metal fabricated products to Peterb ilt, and Tetra Pak, which is a packaging and food processing solutions company. Tetra Pak is actually using this space for materials storage. Buildings 2 and 3 of the business park are going to be constructed in the future. In April 2015, council approved a 10-year, 60 to 75% Chapter 380 tax rebate, and the variable percentage is based on a 60% base incentive rate plus an additional 10% for a supplier to an existing Denton major employer and/or an additional 5% for a national headquarters location. Westgate will pass the incentive through to their tenants in the form of reduced triple net costs, which means if Westgate's tax burden is reduced, the tenants' tax burden will be reduced by a lower triple net. In January 2016, Westgate requested the termination of their existing Chapter 380 tax rebate and its replacement with a tax abatement agreement, which will allow them to apply to Denton County for a tax abatement. A complicating factor is that Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code does not allow for reimbursement on existing improvements, and as you recall, Building 1 is on the ground at this time, so that makes it ineligible for inclusion in a tax abat ement agreement. The intent of the original Chapter 380 was to incentivize all three buildings in the business park, and in order to respect the intent of that original agreement, staff recommends an amendment to the existing Chapter 380 agreement to cover Building 1 only, while including Buildings 2 and 3 in a tax abatement agreement. So to discuss the Chapter 380 amendment in a little bit more detail, that amendment will include a one-time cash grant of $50,000 and a 10-year annual grant of 70% of property tax revenues on Building 1 improvements only. As a condition of the agreement, Westgate must make its business records related to this agreement available for inspection by city staff, and that is to allow us to verify that their tenants are indeed paying a lower triple net rate. And Westgate also must submit an annual certificate of compliance to be verified by city staff prior to grant payment. The Chapter 380 agreement amendment will cover Building 1 only, and the estimated incentive on Building 1 over the 10-year term is $434,000. The estimated net revenue to the city from Building 1 over the term is a little over $164,000. And this is everything that I have related to the general background and then the points about the 380. So if you would like to ask questions on that portion of this, I would be happy to answer those now. Got a question. Could you go back and I might have, maybe I'm confusing something with it, but the other one, could you go back one slide? Okay. I remember the $50,000 grant, one-time grant. I thought that's what we were doing instead of anything else. No, sir, that was in addition to the 70% on Building 1 for 10 years. Yes. Okay. Mayor Pro Tem. As I recall the discussion, it says 70% represented the city's contribution. Gotcha. In that one time. Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. Clarified. Appreciate that. Okay. Any other questions for staff on this agenda item? We do have a card wishing to speak. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. We do not have any cards. Let me see. Yeah. On this agenda item, we do have a card wishing to speak. Okay. Let me see. Yeah. On this agenda item, any other questions for staff before we call the item? Seeing none. Okay. Council Member Gregory. Move approval of Item 5C. Council Member Hawkins. I second. We have a motion to second on 5C. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 5 to 2. Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem, for that clarification. That rattled that cobweb. Yes. And now, 5D. Okay. Yep. Okay. For the details on the tax abatement agreement, what we're looking at here is a 10-year, 60% tax abatement of property tax revenues that are attrib utable to real property improvements on Buildings 2 and 3 only. The amount of the abatement may be increased by an additional 5% for national headquarters and/or 10% for a supplier in support of major employers in Denton. And this is in keeping with the intention of the original agreement. Again, Westgate must make its business records related to this agreement available for inspection by city staff, and they must submit an annual certificate of compliance to be verified by staff prior to tax abatement. Key points here, again, the tax abatement agreement will cover Buildings 2 and 3 only. And I know there's a lot of words and numbers up here, but I wanted to make sure to convey to you all and to the people who are watching that the estimated incentive at the minimum level on Buildings 2 and 3 over the term is $585,000. And the estimated city net revenue at the minimum level on those buildings is $390,000. That's related to the 60% abatement. On the high side at 75%, the estimated incentive at maximum is $732,000, and the estimated city net revenue is $244,000. To summarize everything about the Chapter 380 and the tax abatement agreements, Chapter 380 will cover Building 1 only. The tax abatement agreement will cover Buildings 2 and 3. The total incentive package to Westgate, minimum 60% abat ement is just -- is a million dollars and change. The maximum at 75% abatement is $1.1 million. The total net revenue to the city at the minimum level is $ 555,000, and the maximum would be $409,000. And this is the total of both the 380 and the tax abatement agreements. Happy to take any questions that you all have about that. >> Councilmember Hawkins. >> Just to clarify, the language is the same. This was previously a 380 agreement that had passed, and just we are changing it now because we had -- there's some legalities to -- and that's all we 're doing. >> Correct. It's -- yes, that's a good way to put it. >> Any other questions for staff? I see no cards wishing to speak. So Chair would entertain a motion. Councilmember Gregory. >> Move for approval of 5D. >> Mayor Pro Tem. >> Second. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. >> Madam City Attorney. >> Just clarifying, we are acting on the substitute that was passed out on this item and affirming that that's what we did on the earlier item as well. It was the substitute agreement. >> Move for approval of 5D, the substitute. >> I second with those changes. We have a motion to second. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 5-2. Madam City Attorney, do we need to revisit 5C to ensure that the record is clean as far as the acceptance of that with the changes? >> I think just to make sure, let's do that. >> I think we need to have a motion to reconsider that item and then a motion then to approve it with the substitute if we could, please, sir. >> Chair would entertain a motion to reconsider agenda item 5C. Councilmember Gregory. >> So moved. >> Councilmember Hawkins. >> I second. >> All right. We have a motion and a second to reconsider agenda item 5C. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 5-2. We've had staff presentation. Councilmember Gregory. >> Move for approval of 5C, the substitute document. >> Mayor Pro Tem. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second on agenda item 5C with the substituted agreement. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 5-2. Let's go ahead and take a quick five or ten minute break and we'll come back and wrap up agenda item Z and F and then we'll move on to agenda item G . All right. We're back with this meeting of the Denton City Council at 815 November 1, 2016. We're on agenda item 5, grouping, which is items for individual consideration, moving on to agenda item 5E, consider appointments to a charter review committee. >> Thank you, Mayor. Senator Walters, our city secretary will handle this item. >> Thank you, Mayor and Council. There are a few appointments left to be made and I thought I'd just go down the list and see if you have some that you would like to add. Mayor Watts, you still have an appointment? >> Yes. Ron Johnson. >> Ron Johnson. >> And I believe you would have his contact information, is that correct? >> Correct. He's been on the, he's on the, I'll get it to you. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> All right. Then Council Member Begari, you still have one left. >> I don't have somebody yet. Sorry. >> All right. No problem. Council Member Briggs. >> Not today. >> Not today. Council Member Gregory. >> Yes. Jorge Urbina. Dr. Robert Bob Bland. And Marty Rivers. >> Okay. I'll put this back on the agenda for next week and see if we can get some more. >> Yeah. I want to, yeah, I really want to, I mean, obviously I missed one as well, but we want to try to wrap this up as far as appointments as quick as possible so we can get them moving because I know we were all concerned about time and trying to get it done expeditiously. Yes, Council Member Begari. >> Maybe Secretary Walters can tell us how many seats are left open. Is it two? >> Just two. >> Just those two. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And then if you could give me any kind of contact information, phone numbers, addresses, email, whatever, if the person happens to be on a board, you can just tell me that and I can get the information off their application. >> All right. Thank you. >> Anything you can help me with would be great. >> You bet. Thank you very much. >> Okay, agenda item 5F, appointment of alternates to the Council Ethics Committee. >> Mayor, earlier tonight you passed a resolution adding additional alternate committee members. This gives you the opportunity to appoint those alternates. Madam City Attorney, did you have any other thing? >> Thank you, Mr. City Manager. I might just add that we have previously amended this resolution making the mayor the first alternate and so tonight when you amended this resolution again, you created four additional alternate positions so the mayor will stand as the first alternate so it would be the responsibility of the Council then to appoint a second alternate, a third alternate, and a fourth alternate if you would please. >> Okay. As for who wants to -- I mean I'm alternate 1, alternate 2, 3, who wants to take which slot because I believe Councilmember Briggs and Wasney are already on the Ethics Committee so they're already on the standing and so would they be sitting -- they wouldn't be sitting as alternates. >> They would not be sitting as alternates. The standing committee is Councilmember Wasney as the chair and then we have also Mayor Pro Tem Rodin and Councilmember Briggs who that's the standing committee. >> Okay. Councilmember Hawkins. >> I'll volunteer for second alternate. >> Okay. Councilmember Gregory? >> I'll take third base. >> Councilmember Geary? >> Fourth. >> Okay. Okay. Madam City Attorney, is that -- we have to have a motion and approval of this? >> Yes, sir. These are your appointments but obviously you've taken volunteers but we need the City Council to confirm those positions. >> So I'm naming Councilmember Hawkins as alternate number 2, Councilmember Gregory is alternate number 3, Councilmember Beghery is alternate number 4. Councilmember Gregory? >> I move ratification of your appointments. >> Councilmember Beghery? >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Let's vote please. >> The motion carries 6 to 1. We don't have any comments on that. No. All right. We'll move on to agenda item 5G which is considered adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas amending section 18-38 of the Code of Ordinances relating to the use of wireless communication devices while driving to prohibit the use of wireless communication devices while operating a motor vehicle, providing a repeal or clause, etc. >> Thank you, Mayor. We've saved the best for last. Lee Howell, our Chief of Police will address this particular item. >> Thank you. Good evening. I'm going to just start with a brief overview, historical overview to bring it up to speed. As you know, this item has come before Council a number of times before and it's been discussed at several levels. I've provided a lot of backup material over the last course of the year, but just to historically cover the progression of the wireless ordinance, you know, in 2014 the Council adopted an ordinance prohibiting texting while driving. It has been suggested and discussed to strengthen that ordinance and so we brought back an ordinance that allows only hands-free usage of any wireless device in the vehicle other than a few exceptions. The ordinance admittedly is somewhat strong. The intent of the ordinance is to prohibit handheld use and manipulation of the device by drivers. So there are some additional restrictions beyond what is currently in the texting ordinance. In the backup material that I've provided, there's a lot of research, studies, surveys, tests done over the course of the last several years. I think the conclusion can be drawn that you can find studies that support almost any position or any side of the debate, whether laws are effective or not, whether texting and wireless devices are a major contributor to crashes or fatalities. So my only real suggestion at this point would be to focus in on what we know about within the city limits of Denton and the community and base any decision you make on how it has been affected within our community and whether or not it would be, you feel like it would be an effective thing to strengthen the ordinance and enhance safety here in our community. And just to quickly address that, since we've been documenting specific factors contributing to accidents in regards to wireless device use since 2014, those numbers have consistently risen in terms of crashes that we can attribute to wireless devices. We currently have over the course of the last three years about 87 total crashes that we can attribute to wireless use. Three of those crashes since 2014 have been fatalities resulting in the deaths of seven people including five children. The last two occurred this year and were multiple fat alities in both cases. In regards to the current ordinance, there's been a lot of discussion recently after this item has last been set and a lot of, as you know, council discussion, questions and answers back and forth between yourselves and also myself and the city attorney's office. And admittedly, although the ordinance itself is clear in terms of how we, how the police department would understand it, it does leave some ambigu ities in terms of how the average driving public might see it. So I am perfectly good with taking any further direction that you have and I will answer any questions that you have at this point. Well we've got the whole board lit up so we'll go down the line. Councilmember Briggs. So I was one councilmember who sent several questions. Mostly because I was kind of confused, I went back and looked at the definition and I was confused. It said no hands. And for me to operate my phone that is hands-free on the dash, I still would need to, you know, do this and it also allows for GPS. So my original thought was if we were doing hands-free to help enforce, it might create the same issue because now if you have your phone, the police do not know if we're texting or making a call. If it's hands-free and it's on your dash and you see someone touch the phone, which would still be illegal under this current ordinance, it would be hard to determine if they were using it as a GPS or something else. So that was the first issue that I brought up. So I think my suggestion is that maybe it should be a handheld device rather than a hands-free ordinance. So it would be a little simpler for the public if you have something, a handheld device in your hand, then that may be a little more enforceable for the police officer to see. So that's just one thought. I have several other thoughts here that I can go down, but I see that lots of my fellow council members want to talk. So that's just my concern right now is the definition and I don't necessarily think that the current ordinance is going to do what it's intended to do at the moment. So I would like to see it tweaked a little bit. Okay. Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. I was on council when we passed the text ban and those of us who remember that the whole thing was going down in flames until we kind of forged this sort of a compromise to say let's ban texting, but not the whole kit and caboodle. And we were able to kind of get that through. I thought all along has been we've been talking on phones for 20 years and it's a different animal than what we're seeing now. The other day in the height of the Pokemon craze, I saw folks in my neighborhood at night, I was walking past the park near my house, driving their car. You could see it lit up because it's dark outside, searching for Pokemons in a moving vehicle, the driver and the passenger. Those folks should be locked up and never be allowed to drive again. That is so irresponsible. We now have so many addictive things on these things that I 'm all for making sure people aren't doing texting, Facebooking, Twittering, Pokemoning, whatever while they're driving. I do think I'm concerned with this ability to be able to press a button. I don't know how to answer a phone without touching it. A lot of folks that don't have the latest devices, that don 't have the lava 2005 Ford Chevy, I don't know how to, I can't set that car up to be able to get something Bluetooth through my stereo system. So I guess my question is this, Chief, is there a way, do you think, is there a way to solve that problem? In other words, I want to be able to allow a person, I'm fine with forcing someone to wear an ear plug, to talk hands free, I'm fine with that. I just think that just the basic pressing a button to answer a call or hang up a call I don't think is what I'm trying to get at here. Is there a way that you think we can nuance this that's not going to prosecute someone for doing that but can still give you guys the tools you need to take care of the Pokemon guys? Yes, I think there is. In discussion with some of the council members in Ms. Burg ess's office, we discussed a way to solve that by defining an exception to how a hands free device, in fact, might be activated to use. So there's a number of different what if scenarios you can come up with but right now you're correct that just a fingertip touch on a device that is not integrated into the vehicle or affixed to the vehicle somehow can be against the law. That would be a very difficult thing for us to enforce just as the texting ordinance is now. Only by observation and sometimes by the admission of the driver can we in the absence of a search warrant can we sometimes be able to prove what kind of activity somebody was doing. So I think if we were to research that a little bit, come up with some good language to allow for a broader definition of activating the device, then I think that might solve that issue. Great. I just also had a follow up question and I appreciate the citation data, the table that you provided in exhibit two. A lot of the thrust for this current discussion has been the inability to enforce as it currently stands. But I was interested to see that of the citations, at least in 1415 only four were dismissed by the prosecutor. Not a lot of people were using the defense while I was trying to dial phone number zero in 1516 and zero so far in the current year. Can you even get an anecdote on a type of situation that obviously some officers had the confidence to go ahead and move forward with a citation in these cases even though there's the ambiguity in the current ordinance. What's an example of what gave them that confidence and why this was able to stick? Because it seems like the whole reason we're here is because they don't have that confidence and it's not able to stick through prosecution. Yeah, most of those are incidents where the officer has observed somebody holding the device in their hand and manipulating it. They stop them in and say, "How are you using your cell phone?" or just question them and they'll honestly answer, "Well, I was texting." Sometimes they're aware of an ordinance, sometimes they're not. So that's where you see most of these citations come from. I might add too that those citation numbers are only the ones that are written by Denton Police Department. If you add in ones that are written by UNT PD and TWU, that number more than doubles because their situation around the campuses, especially UNT , is a little different because they have so much pedestrian traffic and they put officers on the ground, on the sidewalks a lot, just watching the vehicles come through the campus. So they're able to observe them a little bit more and write actually as many tickets as we do citywide. One final question. Sure. I know California has a rule that for 18 and under, they can have no interaction with a mobile device. Do we have that in Texas? If you have a provisional driver's license, which is at that age, then you are not allowed to text or use a wireless device. And also, of course, the state enacted several years ago a prohibition on using any kind of wireless device for texting, cell phone, or whatever else in school zones. And I might add too there that our citation count is about twice and sometimes in some years it's been three times as many citations in school zones. So when you consider that fact that that's a much smaller area but a tougher law and easier to detect, that shows you what type of result this could have if we didn't strengthen the law. Great. Thank you. Councilmember Wasney. Take your eyes off the road for an instant and the consequences are catastrophic. This hands-free ordinance is aimed at a simple goal, which is keeping your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road. But I do understand that the way this ordinance is currently written, there are some ambiguities and some items in it that are not as clear as they could be . I think we can work on this ordinance a little bit and make it clearer to our citizens so when they look it up they understand the specifics that are in the law. But I also think we can make some clarifications that helps law enforcement enforce the law once it's written because the text ban that we currently have on the books is difficult to enforce. So we're trying to give you, Chief Howell, and your team the tools that it needs and that means clarifying the ordinance that came forward tonight. One of the things I think we have to be certain is that the ordinance includes that Bluetooth or Bluetooth devices are legal so that we can clean up the language to make certain because so many vehicles come with that technology now. You can purchase that Bluetooth technology easily and it's something that you can use hands-free in your car. So I would encourage counsel over the next two or three weeks to contact legal with any clarifications that you feel are important in this ordinance. I would encourage Chief Howell, and you've agreed that there are some unclear elements in this ordinance, to work with legal to clean up some of the language and to make everything just as clear as we can so we're not coming back in a year or two and saying the ordinance is difficult to enforce. Let's do it right when we do it. So I would like our counsel to consider a postponement this evening to date certain of Tuesday, December 6th and ask that legal come forward at that time with an ordinance with some clarification on some of the issues that council members would like to see in this ordinance. And I would like to say thank you to our police chief for everything that you do and we want to give you the tools that you have asked for and that's to strengthen this ordinance and to bring hands-free. And I do want to emphasize to our residents that it's not a flat cell phone ban. I know that it's been couched in that terminology. It's a hands-free ordinance. It's why we need to be so clear about the Bluetooth technology because our phones talk to us and I know the GPS element of these wireless devices are key to getting around. I know I certainly depend on it and I'm happy that they talk to me. But we need to make it hands-free because to be driving and looking at your phone, like I said, catastrophic consequences, we have an opportunity to save lives with this ordinance and I'm determined to get it passed. Thank you. >> Councilmember Hawkins. >> Thank you, Mayor. And I would agree with you, Councilwoman Wasney. I want to vote for this too and I want it to be done right but I am struggling with some of the language in it. And while we have the opportunity, though, Chief, I did -- there's a couple things in the ordinance and I just wanted to get your take on it or your opinion. In the section that says stop or stop means to stand on an occupied or unoccupied vehicle in a location other than a lane of traffic on a roadway, what they're getting at is if you do not have the technology and you must make a call that you were to pull over to the side of the road is what I'm guessing. Is that correct? >> That's true. Out of a main portion of a moving lane of traffic. So it could be your driveway, it could be a parking lot, it could be a curb, it could be off on the shoulder of a road if there is one. >> Well, I was going to ask on the shoulder of the road, is that seen as being dangerous? You think that could possibly get out of hand? You know, it's probably worst case scenario, but I just wanted to get your opinion on that. >> I think as long as -- you know, that doesn't fall under the actual definition of operating the vehicle if it's stopped and you're off the roadway. So I think that would be much safer than driving down the road. >> But somebody would not be issued a ticket for doing that or -- >> No. >> -- a legal place to put your vehicle in park. >> Yes, that's correct. >> Let's see. I've had a few people say that they think that they can get behind this, but sometimes they'll be in a vehicle with other people in the vehicle and they didn't want the conversation broadcasted. And I just wanted your opinion on if they did have the earbuds in and they're on a phone call, is that considered dangerous? I know, you know, if you're listening to music on earphones or something like that, you're not aware of quite everything using all your senses. Just get your opinion on that one. >> You know, I have seen the studies and looked at some of the research that show that there are in fact hazards to just cognitive distraction of being on a phone call while you're driving, period. That could also be changing the stereo. It could be a number of other activities within the vehicle that could cause your mind to take off from the objective part of driving. So to specifically answer your question, could it be dangerous? I think there is some research that would show that it could be. I think, though, that the, you know, again, the main objective that as we know from most of the research is that anything that takes your eyes off the road, your hands off the steering wheel, or significantly takes your mind off your responsibility of driving could be dangerous. So would a Bluetooth device be more dangerous than it just being broadcast in the vehicle? I can't really say that it would be. >> Sure. Well, I said this a couple weeks ago in work session. Originally I did feel like this was kind of infringing on people's rights in their vehicle. But I decided to start using the hands-free option in my car. Although it is not perfect, it is not that big of a deal to use that. I want us to clean up the language and I'll be supporting this once we do. Anyway, oh, and one more question for city attorney. In the ordinance it says if this became effective 14 days after it passed, there is no issue if we decided to have it effective at a certain date longer than 14 days. >> Right. Your 14 days is a minimum in order to give the citizens effective notice of the passage of penal ordinance. But we could make the effective day different depending on the desires of the council. >> Well, I would just encourage council when we get to the point when we're ready to vote, I would like this to be six months to a year out to give people enough time to prepare for it. Thank you. >> Councilmember Begheri. >> Chief Howell, I don't know if you know, but Captain Bo ots took me out on the fire truck to try to sway my vote on this. So we actually went around and you could see inside people 's cars and they're definitely on their phones. Now, I didn't see anybody doing this number. Thank God. I saw people at stop signs, a lot of passengers on the phone. That was my one experience with looking into everybody's cars. Okay. So I think I know. I think what I'm getting from all of this and from the studies and everything that we've talked about over time is that the issue is distraction. It's not focusing on the task at hand, which is moving a one ton vehicle with a bunch of other one ton vehicles. So what I struggle with is the idea that somehow putting your phone up, oh, my gosh, that's a lot of text, putting your phone up like this and reading it or watching YouTube or doing whatever it is you do with your phone and driving will somehow prevent distraction. To me, that's the same thing as holding it. I just don't see a distinction between the two. So that's where I'm at in terms of the distraction part of it. The other thing I wanted to talk about was, well, two parts . One is I'm really curious to know what the police department is looking for in terms of probable cause. So if we were to pass this ordinance in an ideal world for the police department, what would be cause for you to pull somebody over? Well, again, it's all based on observation of the officer. So I think, again, going back to the primary objective of making it safer in terms of not being distracted, taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road, your mind off the responsibility of driving is a little bit different and would be impossible for us to enforce. But given those first two, I think that holding something in your hand, taking it off the steering wheel, especially manipulating it with both hands while you're still trying to drive is probably the most dangerous activity. So therefore, hands-free devices would eliminate that to the degree that if you're obeying the law, using the hands-free device, you wouldn't be having it in your hand or manipulating it to a degree, except perhaps with the exception of what we talked about about activating a hands-free device. So as far as probable cause, ultimately, and the way that we are able to enforce the state law in the school zone so effectively is that anybody who's driving through the school zone when it's in effect is holding a wireless device, either up to their ear or in their hand, gets stopped and questioned about what they're doing. So taking this ordinance or some variation on this ordinance, what would probable cause look like if this ordinance were to pass? Well, I believe it would just be the observation of holding the device in your hand and manipulating it or talking on it, other than a hands-- we wouldn't know necessarily if somebody's using a hands-free device, if they're just observed doing that. Sometimes it's difficult to tell unless they have something in their ear and they're speaking. You can make an assumption, but that's, again, not probable cause. There would still be the follow-up after a traffic stop with a short interview of what the person's doing and see if they can tell us, well, I was calling 911. Make sure that we eliminate the exceptions to whatever we happen to adopt. But I think all those factors together, the observation and any statements by the driver or any other factors that would indicate that they were using the device in contrary to the law is what we'd be looking for. So the other thing that we talked about in our prior discussions was the idea of education. Would the police department be open to the idea that, for instance, for first-time violators, instead of a fee, there was a class they had to take or some type of education component where they have-- I'm thinking of defensive driving. For instance, if you get your ticket and you have to take defensive driving, you learn how to not be a jerk on the road. So maybe-- I took defensive driving a couple times. So maybe there could be some other education component. The reason I say this, all of the studies that we've seen and even the data that you brought before us show that it's 18 to 24-year-olds who are just the biggest clump of people who are getting tickets for this, et cetera. And my concern is that's who's the least likely to have a new car that has all of the hands-free enabled components to it. That's who's the most likely to not be responsive in a lot of ways to traditional education campaigns. So if there's some way that we can fold education into this without making it so punitive, I think I could get on board with something that I'm not really comfortable with anyway, as long as we can steer it in that direction. Last thing, going back to that 18 to 24-year-old issue, which I don't think anybody has discussed, just from a demographic standpoint, 18 to 24-year-olds do not have the same demographics as people 35 and older or 65 and older. By and large, 18 to 24-year-olds are minorities, almost always. I mean, it's like more than 50%. So I looked up TWU and UNT's demographics, and they are minority majority. So we're talking about 18 to 24-year-olds. Again, no indictment against anybody, but I'm concerned about a disproportionate effect of this law. So if we're pulling over more 18 to 24-year-olds by demographics, that means we're also going to be pulling over more minorities just because that's the demographics. So if we can somehow take that into consideration, I think that's worth a part of the discussion that we're having, and it's worth consideration that the way this law is going to be applied is not going to be -- it's not going to have the same effect on over 65 and all these other groups because, frankly, those aren't the groups that need the law, if you will, or the hot spots on it. So that's my piece on that. Thank you. >> Councilmember Gregory. >> How long did it take us to get the signs to put up for the texting ban? >> It took several months, and that's a good point in terms of addressing the grace period because once the law is enacted, it would take us several months to replace all the signs. >> The signs that we put up for the texting ban were delayed because we had to get permission from TextDOT for the particular wording or approval. Is that correct? >> That's correct. >> But aren't there already some approved signs for no -- for no handheld use? >> Yes. There's some that are accepted, and it wouldn't be quite as big of a problem or a job as the polls are already in existence. They don't have to be planted or relocated with the exception of 35. >> In the backup that you provided, there were some statistics, and these are Denton statistics. Is that correct? >> Yes. >> And it's from 2014 to 2016. Through 2016, correct? >> Yes, sir. >> And we're not even done with 2016. >> That's correct. >> When did we put the texting ban into effect? >> It actually went into effect in May of 2014. We didn't start enforcing it until the fall of -- I'm sorry , 2014, the year of 2014, but we didn't actually start enforcing it until the fall of 2014. >> And those seven deaths that you referred to, what years did those take place? >> One of those was on Christmas Eve of 2014. The other two were this year. >> Uh-huh. >> The other two accidents. >> Do we know the minority status of those people? Does it -- never mind. It doesn't matter. They were fatalities, seven people that died due to distracted driving, specifically to cell phone use. >> Yes, sir. >> And according to your statistics, of all the distracted driving, 31% are due to cell phone use. Is that right? >> Well, that is distracted driving. Those are -- >> Yeah, of distracted driving. >> Right, of which encompasses a number of different distractions. >> Our goal here is to reduce distracted driving. We know that we're not going to eliminate it. But the fact that we can't eliminate it doesn't mean that we shouldn't do what we can to reduce it. Because by reducing distracted driving, I think it's inargu able that it's going to reduce automobile accidents. It's going to reduce injuries. It's going to reduce deaths. No constitutional guarantee of driving carelessly that allows people to drive carelessly. And again, while it's not a guarantee that we're going to eliminate distracted driving, it's probably going to reduce distracted driving. In fact, what we've already heard is that this very conversation is reducing distracted driving. We've had citizens to talk about it, that the discussion has made them rethink their own personal behavior. People up here on the dais said the same thing, that they 've rethought their behavior. Certainly, a law in place and signs up all around town are going to reduce it. It may not eliminate it, but it's going to reduce it. So I think that we have an obligation. And if it means that more younger people get tickets, well, that's part of the educational process. And I would say, if we're going to be working on ordinances about that, I'd say after you've taken-- if you get tickets and you've done defensive driving twice and you're still getting tickets, maybe we need to stop giving defensive driving and just give tickets. Real big fines, because maybe that'll stop people from driving recklessly. Because this is a public safety issue. From what I've heard about the concerns for the ordinance-- and that's why I feel an urgent urgency to do something sooner rather than later. Because we've already kind of drug our feet on this. We did a compromise ordinance by doing the texting ban. It seems from what I've heard about the concerns, if we went to the ordinance itself and went to the provisions under section 18-38, section E, it says this section does not apply to an operator of a motor vehicle using a wireless communication device, one, while the vehicle is stopped, two, the wireless communication device is used with a hands-free device, or three, that is affixed to the vehicle and used as a global positioning or navigation system. I think we could add four to accept or end a phone call. And that may-- I'm not sure what other clarifications are needed. I mean, if there are specific things that council members think need to be clarified, we could do that right now. We could make adjustments to this or give our attorney a recommendation so that we can stop delaying this, put an ordinance into place sooner rather than later to reduce distracted driving and reduce accidents and improve public safety. Council Member Riggs. So there is an actual real fear among minorities and myself that this law may unfairly target people based on age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status. I mean, that's a real issue out there, and I've heard from many people. And I do believe if there's an issue, council needs to address it in real time. So my question to you, Chief, is it possible to get a quarterly report on data on those who have-- on the amount of tickets that you've given and the age, race, and sex of the driver that has been ticketed, like in a staff report to council, every six months? Yeah, that's certainly possible. We collect all that data already for the state report, which is an annual report, which is known as the racial profiling report. It's a driver data collection that we collect already, so yeah, we could distribute that. Just so that we can keep up with that and make sure-- and would that need to be in the ordinance, or is that something that would be just extra? I'm just curious if that's-- OK, so that-- Mayor Pro Tem. I don't know that I'm comfortable with wordsmithing this now, because I think what I want to be able to have the confidence in is not just what can't we do , but I want to be able to communicate to the public, here's what you can do. Here's how you're able to take a phone call in a car legally. Here's the types of devices or things like that that you're allowed to use so that people have that clarity. And I'm not sure that that clarity is in my mind, and certainly not in our citizens at this point. But to that point, this issue with age, certainly young people are more likely to play Pokemon while driving a car. If more young people get in trouble for that, I don't have -- but I do have an issue with-- and this is why I want clarity on this, and this might-- I 'll probably have a lot of questions on the available technology to do this, but not everyone has a car that's Bluetooth enabled. That's a certain year or beyond, and that's an economic issue. Not everyone has a phone that's a smartphone. Folks still have flip phones. I don't know what's allowable in that sort of a situation. And so I'm thinking about the guy who's running a landscape firm, or maybe he works for a guy that runs a landscape firm who's required to take a call about where he's supposed to go next, or her, and what are they able to do. They're not trying to text, they're not trying to Facebook, they're just trying to do their normal commerce throughout the day, and that's my concern. This is potentially pretty disruptive to people who have everyday jobs where they're used to driving around using the phone for conversations in a safe manner. And I'll just state again that my concern is getting folks off their smartphones, which are addictive by nature. All these new apps, texting, they're designed to get us to go back and back and back, which is why you can't get in line without people being on the phone. I mean, they're addictive. Being on the phone is a very different thing. So to get some clarity as to the technology of what's allowed so that we can say here's what you can do, and how that can transcend ages of cars and types of phones, I think would be helpful as we get to this on the 6th. We've got a couple comments and questions, and then we've got some people coming up. So if you've, like, Councilmember Briggs, you're on your sort of third round, and Councilmember Wozni will be coming up. So if we're going to postpone it, I mean, we could be here, and we've got people wishing to speak, so I'll just ask that we make sure our comments are succinct, because it looks like we're going to move to look at this at a different time, but I haven't said anything, so I'm going to take just a couple minutes. I want to find a way that I can support this, but I also want to find a way I can support it that makes sense. I hear the conversation about distracted driving. I hear the conversation, Councilmember Wozni, you said two hands on the wheel. I don't know, I mean, I try to drive with two hands on the wheel. I don't know how many people drive with two hands on the wheel 100 percent of the time. I think that's probably a rarity, especially because you see a tremendous amount of distracted driving. In my own car, I might be changing the radio. I might be taking a drink. I might be eating a burger. I've certainly been more aware of what I'm doing to be distracted. And we've talked about this texting ban ordinance we have, but so somebody help me understand this because my understanding is the reading that I read of that ordinance, the current one that we have, basically in essence says you cannot do anything on your phone except make a call. I don't think it was restricted to just a texting ban. I think it's restricted to everything but making a phone call. So we've said this texting ban, texting ban, but it's texting ban. That's using that phone for anything other than initiating, ending, or beginning a phone call. Is that correct? Is that correct, Madam? GPS. GPS. GPS. So that's allowed. I'm sorry. I don't have the texting. Well, my point being it seemed like we were just saying a texting ban, but there are more things that are encompassed in our current ordinance. It includes almost everything but maybe talking on the phone and using it as a GPS device. That's true. So it's like surfing the Internet. Yes. That sort of thing. Yeah. And so a couple of questions I have in the ordinance and it sounds like there's going to be some modifications is the definition of stopped. I mean if this issue is public safety, when you talk about stopped and you can't be stopped in a lane of traffic, if I'm stopped at a stop light, especially in the city of Denton where you're going to take maybe five or ten minutes because of road construction to get through a light, I don't think there's anything wrong with initiating a phone call and on your hand held device. I mean that was an exception, if you're stopped, you can do that. I'm saying let's expand that definition of stopped simply because if you're in traffic and if you're at a stop light, I think it would be perfectly reasonable to think that you can at least initiate a call and then hang up at the next opportunity. I think it's critical. Bluetooth devices, yes, they're built into cars, but most people if they have a Bluetooth device are going to have a Bluetooth headset. And to activate that Bluetooth headset, you're going to have to press a button on your phone. And so I don't know if that means that your phone has to be affixed in order for you to press that button or if you just press a button as you're driving or if you're stopped at a stop sign or a stop light. So I don't have much clarity on that. I certainly want to provide as much opportunity as we can to reduce distracted driving. But I think we're, to lay this all at the feet of cell phone use talking on the phone, there are so many other distractions that are out there everywhere. People are distracted all the time. And these traffic accidents, it's horrible that people lose their life in traffic accidents for a myriad of reasons. And certainly when you're driving down the highway at 50 miles an hour, if you've got that phone in any close proximity to where you're having to shift your eyes, it's just not safe. So I want to find a way that I can support this. And for me, at least on its face, let's look at the definition of stopped because I think we can have some leeway there. If you have, I'll just give an example, if you have a Bluetooth headset, it's not Bluetooth car, you have to have a smartphone, though Council Member Pro Tem for that, that your Bluetooth, if it's activated on the phone, it's automatically on. It's not unless you get out of range, it stays on unless you turn it off and press of a button. You can hang up a call, you can make a call. If you in your contacts, you can, you can hit a speed dial. So I don't know from the way the ordinance is written, from what I read, it's, you can't touch anything to activate a hands-free advice, hands-free device. I don't know of any. Maybe there are some really expensive automobiles that have voice activation. But even if you're activating it on the steering wheel, I hear people say, "Well, we can activate our phones on our steering wheel." You're still distracted. And so I want to make sure that what we pass is something that makes sense because if we really want to eliminate distracted driving from cell phones, you know what you do? You just ban them. You ban any use of cell phones. And I know you've said this isn't a ban on cell phone use, it's a hands-free. But if that's really where we're going, and we're saying that's going to do it, if that's really what we're trying to do is reduce as much as possible distracted driving on this graph that you gave us, then is that not what's in the school zone? You can't use anything in a school zone. Is that correct? Not hands-free, not anything. Is that? You can still use, well, no, you cannot be on the phone, period, through the school zone. It's basically a virtual ban on the use of that in a school zone. So I'm all for finding a way to improve public safety, but I want to make sure that we do it in an approach that's measured, that's rational, and that really does promote truly what we're trying to achieve. If we're only trying to achieve enforcement, I need to really look at that and make sure that we have some exceptions that will allow people to act responsibly. But if we're truly trying to say we want to reduce distracted driving from cell phone use, I'm not calling for this. I'm just saying if we really think it's that much of a public safety hazard, and some would say it is, and some would advocate for a full cell phone ban, I'm just saying if we really think it's that much of a public safety hazard, I'm just saying whatever we want to have, is it going to be tailored to meet the public policy that we're trying to achieve? Because I can guarantee you, no matter what we pass, unfortunately, people are still going to be on their cell phones, and they're still going to get in wrecks, and unfortunately people will still probably experience fatalities. So whatever we need to do to craft something that we all can hopefully get on board with, I'm certainly in favor of doing that. Mayor Pro Tem. No? Council Member Briggs. So I also had trouble with the stop definition in our ordinance and looked, and Austin has something where it's no handheld device while in motion. So they address the motion of the vehicle, not the stopped of the vehicle, which might be something to explore. And back to Mayor Pro Tem's comments about technology, it is moving really fast. And so I would like to have a council automatically review the ordinance that we decide upon in two years to make sure that we're staying relevant and fair and enforceable. And I also have a question for you, Chief, because there are cars right now who you don't even need your phone. It comes with a data plan and Wi-Fi and everything inside the car, but you operate it like a radio kind of because it's all built in. Are they held accountable and are they under the same laws that the people that are just using their phones are, even though it's in their dash? I mean, I'm just looking for, because if not, then it's kind of unfair. Under the proposed ordinance as it is currently, it would fall under the same hands-free. It would basically be the same thing as having a hands-free device, but we would still have the issue of the activation of it if you had to activate it with a touch. You'd still have that issue to get over. Okay. I believe Council Member Gary, and we do have cards with individuals wishing to speak, so want to make sure that we're aware of that and we can get them in. Council Member Gary? Okay. I looked up the Code of Ordinance 18-38, and I think, Mayor , you are correct that any use of your cell phone besides dialing telephone numbers or talking to another person while operating a motor vehicle is already illegal. And the only affirmative defenses there are is that your vehicle is stopped out of the moving lanes of the roadway, so what you're talking about would be actually creating a more -- A broad exception. -- a broader exception than what already exists. It would be making a weaker law. Second, to strictly engage in a telephone conversation, including dialing or deactivating, so that's your defense. A fixed to a vehicle, again, we're talking about that, except for global positioning. A 911 report if your life is in danger or solely for a voice-activated and/or hands-free mode. So I'm really not sure what we're doing now, because all of these things are illegal already. I mean, even going back to that horrible accident that happened with the -- I don't want to use names, but that person that was FaceTiming while he was on the phone, that was illegal under this ordinance. So I'm not -- Well -- Go ahead. The only problem with that was it was not illegal under the current ordinance because the interstate -- Highways, yes. Okay. So I understand that part, but the actual activity itself, everything that we've been talking about in terms of distracted driving is already illegal. So what is it that this code -- I guess this is a legal question -- what is this expanding upon that's not already illegal? Well, the ordinance before you, as written, as the chief has pointed out, is a strong ordinance, and it does not allow the use of a wireless communication device as defined in the transportation code, which would include the activation or deactivation, i.e., touching the device. And so it would not allow the use of that while traveling in a motor vehicle. So it's a very -- it's a broader ban as far as the use of a wireless communication device. It's a stronger statement of the law. I guess, Councilmember Gary, what you're saying is, does the law that we have currently sort of achieve the goals that we're trying to achieve with this , in essence? And whatever comes back, I would like to have a copy of the current ordinance as it exists as part of the backup, if we could. Councilmember Gary, do you have any other questions or follow-up? Only that I think what we're talking about is already illegal, in addition to causing harm in a motor vehicle already being illegal. If it's a matter of the police having greater ability to have that probable cause to pull people over, I understand that, but I don't think the actual activity has changed with this ordinance as it's written. That's all. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Hawkins? Well, what you said, Mayor, I agree with 90 percent of it, and that's where I'm struggling too. But I do feel that there is a percentage of our population, if we do have an ordinance on the books, that will stop using their phone if it is against the law to do that. And I'm not trying to pick apart what you were saying, but at the end I think you had said something, little -- people will continue to do this anyway. I still speed sometimes, and you're right, but I do think that this -- once it becomes illegal and it is an actual law, that there is a percentage of the population that knows even when they do it that they are breaking the law and that they -- you know, that's a chance for them to get a fine, a ticket, whatever. So anyway, I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Councilmember Gregory? I think maybe one of the differences as I look at the current ordinance and what we're proposing is that under the current ordinance, you can call somebody while you're driving. That means you could hold your device in one hand, you could dial the numbers, you could scroll through to find a phone number, and you could touch that button, and then it would automatically dial. I think that the current ordinance allows that. One of the concerns is that because of the way that we crafted the current ordinance, all of our signs simply tell people there's a ban on texting. The signs don't say there's a ban on FaceTiming. The signs don't say there's a ban on all of these other activities. If there was a sign on handheld use -- and I think it would be helpful since it's clear that we're going to be coming back to this -- to see what the signs would look like, what the allowable signs are. Because I think you're right, Joey, that when people are driving along and they say, "Oh, I keep seeing these signs saying no texting," think about it, that's a bad idea to text while you're driving. But it's also a bad idea to be dialing numbers while you're driving. It's a bad idea to be scrolling through your phone looking for numbers while you're driving. That's just a bad idea. And if we could discourage people from behaving in a bad way that causes deaths while they're driving, that's a good idea. So to see what the signs would say, because the signs are part of that education program. Just like a police officer pulling somebody over and talking to them about distracted driving is a good idea, whether it comes with a warning or a ticket or whatever. Because your officers have that option now, don't they, to write a warning. We don't have to write that into the ordinance. That's available, isn't it? And the judge right now already has an option of not assessing a fine the first time the defender comes for a texting ban. The judge could assign them to defensive driving course, couldn't they? Could they assign them to do community service? Yes. Okay. All right. Council Member Briggs, real quickly. I'm fixing to cut off discussion on this until we hear from the public. Okay. Well, we can continue our conversation after? Is that what you said? We can't. Well, I mean, we've got a motion that... I don't even know what the motion is, but if we're going to postpone it, we're going to have another opportunity to visit this with a ordinance that contains a little bit more of the feedback that we've given. So that's my only... It's quick. Go ahead. I just would like for my colleagues to consider if this policy should include cyclists. Okay. Yeah. Bicyclists? Yeah. Okay. All right. So, before we move to the public, we've got a card wishing not to speak. Michael Hinnon puts, "I do not wish to speak. He is in support using mobile phones in hand while driving. It's inherently dangerous." Our first speaker is Gerard Hutzpeth. If you'll come down, state your name and address, your time will begin. Before I start, can I have that pie graph pulled up? The one in the backup? Chief D.N.? Yeah, the backup. Yes. Okay, the backup shows the 31%. This one? Yes, sir. Man, I'll try to get this in four minutes. My name is Gerard Hutzpeth, 606 Wilson Street, Denton, Texas. So at issue first, I want to give you a perspective from someone that's going to be on the other side of this ordinance. So I need you to ask yourselves, will you lend me the same weight in this conversation that you lend Chief Howell? Or will you weight his more because he's the chief of police and you've been in meetings with him and you've had conversations with him? Because that's what you face when you go in front of a judge and you're trying to argue a case and the judge and the prosecutor and everyone treats you as though you've already done it. Right? You don't get to go to the window at the city and just pay or have a conversation with the person in the window. They say you can either pay or you can come back. And you've got to wait in a long line all day to talk to the prosecutor who then talks to you as though you've already done it. Then you have to somehow produce proof that you didn't do it to then be free to go about the rest of your day that you've lost. And if you can't, if you're not like me, I make time for that because it makes me that crazy but I shouldn't. And also, and I'm going to lose my points, but I'm frustrated by the conversations because there's a couple of the counsel that have diversity training, obviously. But there's others that are way out of whack and don't exist in reality. So I would encourage the counsel to find your local minority that has experienced life on a different side of the tracks that you respect and go have a conversation. And I'm not going to, I don't want to lose my time, but I will encourage you to do that because there's a lot of stories, there's a lot of stories of power locks getting hit on people and people just getting treated differently than obviously some of the counsel members have been exposed to. So I have six points that I'm going to try to hit. So first, I'm in favor of driver safety. I'm in favor of distracted driving ban. I'm against this ordinance as written. And one of the things that was pointed out, the five kids who were killed on May Hill in that accident, if I recall correctly, it was in the Didn 't Record Chronicle, those kids didn't have seat belts on. That's against the law. And that factors in. That was left out of the conversation before. But, so I'm all for the ordinance. But if you look at this, 31% cell phone, distracted cell phone. If I get pulled over and get a ticket for $200 and Bob drives by with Fluffy in the front of his car, I'm going to be furious. That's not right. There's so many pets in the front of cars, unrestrained all day, every day, not a mention of it. And so this data doesn't include, or it doesn't cite where the data comes from. It comes from Denton, I heard tonight, but I'd like to see more data to back that up, those stats. But, so it ignores, this ordinance that you're considering ignores 69% of the problem, distracted driving. And pets are a big part of that. And so I think that's one issue to be considered because Chief says himself, you take your hands off the wheel, you're petting Fluffy, and you're doing other things that, dealing with a pet that would, is that right? Good night. Well, I have a lot more to say. I'll be back. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hesbeth. We're going to have another conversation on this, obviously , possibly. We haven't taken a vote yet. Next speaker is Krista DeLuca. If you'll come state your name and number, your time will begin. Hi. Good evening. My name is Krista DeLuca and I live at 2900 Pottery Trail. On the evening of April 9th, my friend Emma and her daughter Tita were driving northbound on 377 in Denton County. A young driver and her two-year-old daughter were heading southbound at the same time. The southbound vehicle drifted into the oncoming lane and struck my friend's head on. Neither driver had time to break or react. All four died that night. Officer Hinojosa was the officer on the scene that night. The accident report stated that cell phone use was the cause of that crash. Tita was an all-star cheerleader at Champion Cheer and although Champion was her home away from home, many gyms throughout the country and even as far away as Australia knew Tita and heard about the accident. Tita and her mother left a large hole in the close-knit cheerleading community. Support came in from everywhere on how people can help change the laws. Since that night, Tita and Emma's friends and family have been working very hard to spread awareness of distracted driving and to make a difference where they can. If you have the time, go out to your favorite social media site and check for the hashtag #TextFreeForTita. It's our campaign against the use of devices in your car. They recently started a petition on Change.org, which we plan to take to the Texas Legislation Acts that the laws be passed statewide. In one week, we have over 5,000 signatures. I have no doubt that they will be successful in January. My plea to you this evening is to please pass this ordinance in Denton related to the use of wireless communication devices while driving. The statistics speak for themselves. More importantly, no one can argue that driving with a phone in your hand is safe. I was also guilty prior to this accident happening. I'm constantly worried about getting on the next conference call or taking that phone call from my boss. It took the loss of a very good friend and her daughter for me to have to change my habits. Please, please don't let this wait any longer. Every week, every month that you guys wait and hash out the writing and the ordinance is possibly another life that will be affected. This is no different than driving under the influence. It's no different than speeding. If the laws weren't out there, you would take the chance. You would speed to that meeting if you were late. You might drive home if you had a couple of drinks. Please let Denton County, the county where this tragic accident occurred, be an example to the other counties in the state of Texas. The next life that you save could be your home. Just remember that this is a difficult change for everybody . It's a difficult decision. I realize that. But it's like jumping into a cold pool. You know you want to go swimming. You got to jump in with both feet. You can work out the kinks later on. There's always changes to laws that get amended. We can work out the changes. We can look in and as Briggs has stated, review these in a couple of years. See if they're being enforced. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker is James Schaefer. If you'll come down and state your name and address, your time will begin. >> James Schaefer, 2501 Shenandoah Trail. On April 9, 2016, my wife and daughter were killed. She's a white 41-year-old woman and a white 12-year-old daughter. They were killed by a 24-year-old white woman with a three- year-old white girl daughter, both killed. The driver is a 24-year-old white woman, to satisfy everyone's demographics, killed her own daughter and my wife and my daughter. Once at 815 to 816, she was sending, receiving, reviewing, and trying to respond to a text that she was on her way home. She didn't make it that night. She killed everyone, everyone. The bottom line is this. You don't have to try and reinvent the wheel. Just take a page from Austin. They've already done the research. They've already done the work. They've already looked into the fatalities. They've already examined the who's driving, who's stopped, who's going where. I don't understand why you guys want to say we're going to recreate everything ourselves. Why don't you take a page from their textbook because it's in the statues? Because they've had people dying from distracted driving. They've had people dying from bicyclists sitting there trying to see how many miles they got on their little pedometer, and they killed an innocent pedestrian walking down the road. It's already been proven, so you guys need to stop mulling over that. Start with them. Move forward. Take what you like, what you don't like. But the bottom line is the more you waste your time, the more people are going to die. I would challenge you or anyone in this room, if you were standing in my position with the loss of your wife, the loss of your child, would you be sitting here arguing points like you are? Would you be worried about who has an expensive car, who has an expensive phone, or would you actually be trying to do something about it? 39 citations in year 2015 is unacceptable for your current statute. NBC5 has already done all the research for you and already interviewed the city of Denton police, several of you, to help support this. What you guys need to do is make a decision tonight, tomorrow, the next day, in good conscience, are you able to sleep at night by doing nothing? Are you able to sleep at night by not changing an ineffective law? Or is it going to take one of your loved ones to be lost, for you guys to actually stop and look at the impact? Do you need to come over to my house and have a conversation with my 10-year-old son about why he's heartbroken and cries every day because he doesn't have a mother anymore? That's what you need to ask yourself. Stop bickering over small little minute details. Save that for the other folks who are here all the time. But the bottom line is this, I wonder if a hands-free law that was in effect, a hands-free law period, and others were getting penalized, citations and education will come when you lose a loved one. If it was in effect, would my wife and daughter still be here today? Thank you, sir. Those are all the blue cards that we have. Councilmember Wasney. I lost a brother in a car accident, and I'm so sorry for your loss. It's why I want to get this law passed. We've been talking about it for a long time. But we don't have council the second half of November because it's Thanksgiving break. So just in terms of cleaning up what we have so when we come forward on December 6th, we have something concrete that this council can support, that we can move forward so we can save lives because the damage to families is forever. And I understand that. And I am so sorry. And with that, I would like to make a motion to postpone this until date certain, December 6th. I would encourage our police chief to please talk to legal and encourage council members to please talk to legal so that when we come forward on December 6th, we have something that we can pass and put on the books. I understand delay because of signs. Let's find out also, staff, just how long it will take for signs to go in. And I appreciate the council talking in depth about this tonight. You know I've been on this for a while. So I just want to say thank you to my fellow council members. A sincere thank you. >> Mayor Pro Tem. >> Second. >> We have a motion and second to postpone to date certain. I believe it was December the 6th. Is that correct? The 6th? Yes. 2016. Let's vote on the board please. Motion carries 6 to 1. Believe that concludes our items for individual consideration. We'll go to concluding items. Council members have concluding items. Council member Hawkins. >> Thank you, Mayor. This past weekend a small group of volunteers, they've organized the Day of the Dead festival and the coffin races and the Halloween show. And it was a huge success. Once again there were thousands of people. And I want to thank everybody who came out, all the volunteers and just all the businesses, the sponsors who supported it. And once again Denton had a pretty incredible festival. We just have an act for doing that. So thank you very much. Council member Briggs. >> Tonight I am saddened to hear that a notable musician and long time resident of Denton and friend of many in our community, Joe Cripps, has been reported a missing person in Little Rock, Arkansas. I know that he has many friends in the community and around the world that are distraught hoping and praying he's okay. If you know Joe's whereabouts, please contact the Little Rock Police Department. >> Thank you. Council member Gregory. >> Thank you, Mayor. The Carinthia Bike Shop, Community Bike Shop is needing to relocate. It's a volunteer nonprofit bike shop that teaches bike maintenance and it does inexpensive bike repairs. It rehabs old bikes to sell at a very inexpensive price or to give away to those who can't afford bicycles. But they're looking for a new location. And if anybody knows of a location where they might move, please let our bike coordinator, Julie Anderson, know. But I would also like for us to ask our bike coordinator to talk with our city manager and to any other staff to see if there might be any facilities in the city owned by the facility -- owned by the city that might be appropriate. And I'm not sure that there are, but I would like to have a review of those to see because this is a nonprofit organization. It's providing a service to the city. This is not an organization that represents competition with the for-profit bike shops. It provides a different but a similar service. So if we could do that, I would appreciate that. >> Councilmember Wasney. >> November 11th is Veterans Day. And I want to do a salute and an honor to all the veterans across -- truly across the globe, but especially the ones who live in our city. Thank you for your service. We appreciate you. >> I had a couple. I'd like to have staff contact the University of North Texas. I'd like to get on a work session just to report about different ideas and transportation plan for the university and to bring forth some proposals for partnerships between the city and the university. So I wanted to get that on a work session report. Put staff in contact. And then I wanted to just say that I'd heard this week and we hadn't met in a while -- I heard a couple weeks ago that John Gilmer -- I don't know if some of you knew John Gilmer -- he was on the EDP board. He was, I believe, the plant manager at Flowers Bakery. He passed away a couple, two, three weeks ago. And he was a really strong part of this city. He was just a good man. And he loved his employees. He loved what he did. And he will be missed. And I just wanted to honor him in that regard. Any other councilmembers? All right. If not, we'll stand adjourned.