Aug 14, 2018 City Council on 2018-08-14 1:00 PM

Welcome everyone. We do have a quorum. I'd like to welcome you to the August 14th council work session. It is 1.02 and our first item up is citizens comments on consent agenda items. We do not have any cards. All right. Next item is request for clarification on items listed on the agenda. Any councilmember breaks? So on the consent agenda item A it's the pilot bicycle share and I know that the day it's for extending the date but is there an addition of scooters because I do know that we talked about it in mobility and I didn't see the addition of scooters in this amendment so I... The discussion on the scooters will be placed on the agenda I believe it's next Tuesday the 28th so this this was simply to extend the timeline on the initial program itself. The actual discussion on them whether to amend it to include scooters it will be on the 21st or 28th? 28th. And so the the timing is of essence like to extend it is that why it's coming to separate? Yes. Okay. And Mario can answer any other specific questions on the need for it? Part of the rationale for the extension is to because the pilot program ends very soon and we have no data and so I know that was a concern of council to have data of bike share and with UNT working with one of their partners for bikes we wanted to make sure that that that the pilot program extended to the end of their semester or the end of May of next year so that we can have a full two semesters and kind of a slow season as well of data to compare and see if we want to continue with that program or not. Okay I just wondered if the other item was coming to us at a different date. Okay. I have one more. I consent agenda item C it's prohibiting parking on Hanover and this is near Woodrow Wilson Elementary and I just have a few questions because that area I understand why we're doing that for drop-off pickup and that it was a request from the principal and in DISD but questions that the parents wondered because there are several events that take place and there's hardly very there's little parking in the parking lot is it possible to have certain events like grandparents day or when there is a play exempted from that or would would it just be every day all the time I mean are there days that would be non-enforceable? This is pretend they smoke traffic engineer for the city. We the way this was written in the ordinance and we talked to legal the easiest way of implementing it is all days during school hours instead of getting into the details of which day we can pick can we put in an actual date or an event name it gets too complex in order to enforce it but we can work with the school district primarily the school principal as well as PD and make sure that certain events don't get enforced so the so the ordinance will cover everything but as far as enforcing it we can work with PD and the school. Okay for certain days for certain days for events. I have one other question follow up to that. Right now when you're exiting the the driveway onto Hanover there's a sign that's posted and it says no left turns during school hours. Is that a city sign and if so it's really ignored all the time and if it if it is a request that nobody turn left on to Han over from that driveway then that sign needs to be replaced and it needs to be larger. So yes it was a request it is a city sign it was a request from the school district and the the reason that sign is in place is because of exactly what was happening is people were parked on Hanover and then double parked or double waiting to pick up kids and that's why people leaving the actual driveway did not see any traffic coming in so once we have that taken out visibility will be much better there are currently teachers at that driveway guiding folks in and out and they want the traffic to make a right out only but with this new implementation we are going to revisit that issue if we need that left out or not. Okay so that's possible that that will go away I'm just trying to figure out if these are all hand-in-hand these are questions that I've received so yes so we'll figure that one out. Okay thank you. Anyone else? George? Thanks for telling I just want to be I just want to be painfully clear and I have the answer but give me a day in the life of enforcement because here's my concern if someone breaks the rule and it's not enforced that's gonna it's just gonna be problematic right and so the problem is I know you can't in theory have someone there all the time but I would almost press the school district to allow funds to have someone there 80% of the time there's got to be significant enforcement because if you don't then someone gets away with it and it blows back pretty quick. Correct so enforcement wise I think PD is working closely with the school and the principal and in this particular case where it's really next to the school the school is more in charge of if it's happening or not and then informing PD or getting them involved when and where required so if it's more of a PD can be there initially to make sure that everything goes fine for the first few weeks and then after that they're gonna work really close with the school to make sure that they this particular one is enforced. Yeah I would just encourage us to get that written and in the email that they confirm receipt that sort of thing that they're gonna take that that ownership because I'll tell you candidly I have a picture of a DISD delivery truck parked in the no parking lane you know what I mean so it happens right I mean I can email it to you and so I'm just saying that can't happen we can't have a DISD car parked in the no parking right next to the school and then change the rules so parents can't park on the street next to the school right I mean it's just they've got to take significant ownership in that enforcement and and be a hundred percent diligent and and and a hundred percent enforcement at least first few months or so because if not it's gonna trickle down and heal pretty quick. I definitely agree and we'll send that email out to DISD and the principal school principal. Okay thank you. Any other clarification? I've got a couple of items one is I believe we have a replacement ordinance for item E on the consent agenda so I recommend that we just pull that and let them do a presentation on on what that changes are okay and then also as a housekeeping matter the public hearing was posted for a 630 meeting and so if we finish up with everything else on the agenda we'll take a break and come back and start that public hearing at 630. Okay all right we will move on to item 3 work session reports first item is receive report hold the discussion give staff direction regarding the implementation of standards standard construction specifications and contract documentation. And I questioned Todd earlier why we didn't get all this in our backup. We're gonna go through each one of these. Good afternoon Mayor Pro Tem, Council, I'm Todd Estes City Engineer and I've got with me an assistant today we have a few visual aids we will not be diving into all of them but I did want you to get an idea of what we're talking about we're talking about construction specifications and what we're dealing with today Chad Allen our deputy city engineer is going to help me with this when we get there so we're talking about standard construction and specifications and what we're looking to do is rewrite the city of Denton's standard construction specifications or more clearly to actually create our own. Currently we use a variety of sources so just to get into what is the construction specification when we go to build a job we have to tell a contractor every component of the job if there's something specific that we want done a very specific way we have to tell them what that is so I could tell a home contractor to go build me a house but I need to get a lot more detailed and what I want in that house and it can get down to just every little detail from hey I'd like 1,500 square feet I'd like four bedrooms I'd like three bathrooms or whatever that ends up being to I would like wood frames studs to or steel or what is it I want to use I have to tell the contractor that or it becomes room for interpretation which is what leads to a lot of the issues we run into in the form of change orders runs into cost escalation can potentially blow the schedule out of the project make it much longer because now we're working on different items and there's a point of confusion on even how we're gonna build something something as simple as putting a pipe in the ground sounds fairly simple but if I don't put it in the right way I could potentially have a weak point in the street to where the road could fail so all of these things have to be put into every project so that we have a uniform understanding between the contractor and the city of what's expected what are you gonna deliver and how do I want it delivered there are always elements we want to leave open for the contractor to have some flexibility and what they're doing but the things that are absolutes need to be very clear or they tend to become issues that result in claims if we had to go to say a bonding company because the contractor and us could not get to terms or they went out of business or for a variety of reasons they're gonna want to know did we tell them exactly what we wanted what is it you want to do all of that has to be spelled out very clearly or we leave ourselves open for a lot of issues during the course of the project this is just the technical definition of what is the specification and when I'm talking about specifications going into construction that is a large piece it's a very large document it's everything from how we bid the project to the contract documents what is the contractor expected to do in the contract documents to give us a bid you know I need you to send me whatever requirements that we have on a specific job show me that you can meet that show me the pricing that 's pricing is just a little bitty piece of that they got to show us a lot of other things and these are all those pieces plans specifications we have to agree on what those items are to get a legitimate price or it immediately becomes a source of a change order for the project what goes into a specification so on the screen on the right side yeah right side sorry right side of the screen here where the cursor is that's a sample specification so it's very it's not exciting it's not something that you would spend a lot of time reading late at night but it is critical for the delivery of the project it spells out very clearly what's going to be installed how it's going to be installed what equipment we would need sometimes that's a requirement how we're going to measure it so that we know how to pay the contractor and then how we're going to pay the contractor for that item all those items are rolled into it on the left side here you can actually see all the different items that go into one specification for one item so something as simple as detailing what's a stop sign look like there is a specification for that and it's very defined because you don't want to have a different looking stop sign everywhere you go it's important that it looks the same impacts on specifications and especially in the current format right now we utilize specifications from multiple sources so if you were to go into the development code you would see that we go to the North Central Texas Council of Governments fourth edition was what all of our current standards are built on but the DDC actually says to use the current edition which is let which is seventh edition I believe that's correct so we're on the seventh edition of those specifications but all the specifications that we reference to go back to the fourth or fifth version depending on which specification it is that the North Central Texas Council of Government put out we're utilizing their construction specifications with and Chad's got a red binder there the red binder are all of the City of Denton specific amendments to those cog specifications so if there's something in there that we want to do differently than what cog has in there we have to call those out specifically all of the ones that you see in that red binder point back to the fourth edition of the cog specifications then if you go to the white manual there that white manual is the traffic signal is traffic signalization striping markings signs all those things that also points back to a different manual that cog references and you also got to double check it within that red manual to make sure we don't have some kind of amendment in there then the blue binder and if you'll turn it to the side you can see all the tabs in there all those tabs are individual specifications we've pulled from other sources over the last 20 30 years to say I would like to use those in place of either what's in the black red or white binders because I didn't like them I want to use these so that's what has happened over time as you can imagine that creates a lot of confusion not just for staff trying to figure out which ones we're using for our inspectors in the field the contractors especially when they're pricing jobs for us which one of these do I use so just as an example one of the projects we've had recently is FM 2181 where it's a text that job we're doing the relocation of all the utilities out there we there they actually bid ded is one project so we gave them our plans for that job and our specifications for the utilities before the project really got underway I think within the first 30 days Chad we had a change order number one change order number one was for utility issues because in the confusion of putting all these plan sets together when text up bid it our plans called for a certain specification that we normally call in our plans in one of these books over here that didn't get put into the text out materials what text thoughts advertisement showed was K go to the city didn't website and find it I believe councilmember Br iggs did you have a question well I was just looking for more of an example because you said that there's a whole book that we came up with that's different than cog it's that red book in the white book and the in the white book yes okay so do we just go through and if you could just kind of speak to that a little bit why what would be something that we think is different and I mean we just go through individual and say well that won't work here or or this will or so the 2181 change order is exactly that okay so in our cog specifications it calls out certain types of materials so when I put pipe together especially water pipe I've got to put valves and I put some bins and some other things in there we want a very specific style and believe it or not there are a whole host of ways to put that pipe together we wanted a certain way because it's an easier way for us to maintain it we get better life out of it it's a better product that's not what's in the cog manual so we have an amendment to that that says we want to use this instead of that one and here's what that one should be but because you have multiple versions I think even the red version is not the current version of the water preferences for materials that we would need on any project so there's an additional set in that blue binder that goes to just those water items I think even on the title there there's one that says DIP fittings or something like that DIP means ductile iron pipe so when I put ductile iron together I typically bolt them together there's a whole host of ways to bolt them together and it's even to how tight I turn the bolts which has an impact for both the guys that have to replace it and how well it stands up underneath the demands of a roadway with a lot of traffic rolling over it does that answer the question it does it does it sounds really confusing it is so that's the confusion that actually led to that first change order for 2181 I believe the initial estimate on that was over six figures when they did the change order and through the negotiation and the project management process of that change order we actually brought it back down under $100, 000 for that change order but that was just right from the beginning of the project before they ever broke ground and it was the confusion that was from having so many sources the contractor had to figure out what are we using what are we doing and then how I bid that project because their first response is I didn't bid the project that way and that none of this was out there where I could find it so that becomes a problem that becomes a project claim against the project from the contractor that usually and did results resorts an increased cost of the project you're always gonna have change order some projects they just happen there's things we just can't find in the field or things that just happen you don't want to start a project with change order one thanks yeah maybe this is obvious but just so it gets asked is this literally like paper binders or when we bid something is this all digital and linked you know what what allows it to be so confusing right it's a variety of that so we have some that are hard copies because they are that old we have others that have been scanned in as PDFs you have others that are sitting out on a website to go find anyway you look at it things get missed when I start pointing you to hey go pull this off the state's website because that's their version of this specification we like that versus we have our own uniform set of specifications that say this is how we want it done and it 's one document I'm not gonna point you to eight then answer your question okay all right so that's our current and existing set of status of specifications and how we get these projects out the door they almost always result in a project cost increase they can result in a schedule increase because they just take time to work through these issues or you find out that a material the contractor figured he was going to use when he bid the project he's gonna use something totally different and it takes longer to get it in so I could push a project easily out eight to twelve weeks right from the start so the expected outcomes we have for actually going and writing our own specification is that we reduce that confusion we can reduce the impacts both schedule budget potential scope increase for those situations much like the FM 2181 scenario you don 't want to run into that right from the start you can expect on average a good bit of this construction specification confusion will net out to about a 1% cost increase to the construction and and we'll come back to that in a little bit but if you put that across the board so you have a hundred million dollars worth of projects out there that's a million dollars worth of impacts right from the get-go so what do we need to do those books that you see there on the table have to be consolidated into one tome one volume and that's a lot of work we got it for every one of those specifications we have to get the right people in the room when we need legal advice on what we can and cannot require they need to be in the room purchasing needs to be in the room we need to have the right departments in the room if we're building something for water and wastewater they need to be in the room so that we know exactly what they want and how we 're gonna put it in the ground then how we're gonna measure and pay for it everybody needs to be in on this game so as you can imagine when you've had that many people in the room it takes a while there's also a need to make sure that the contracting community understands what we're asking the development community also plays a role in this because they're building a good bit of our public infrastructure so they have to have some sort of say in this process in total as well because there are some methods we might not consider they could bring to the table there are others they may consider to be overly extreme that conversation needs to be had as well it will take a good bit of time just to get this amount of work done so we're looking at roughly 12 months to get through all of the specifications that we normally run into that's just our standard set of specifications then every project that we do will have what we call special conditions or special specifications that are unique to that project those are the one-offs that we have a special need for that scenario we don't typically run into those so every project will generate those as well so then the question becomes how do we fund this how do we get it done if we utilize current staff to try to do this we would be engaged in this you're you're looking at somewhere around 5,000 hours to get through all of these items get them quantified coordinate collaborate do all this work together if I had somebody dedicated to that I would need one person plus another person and almost a third of another person just to get all that done working on it solid for a year and that's all they did or I can go the route that we're recommending which is we hire a consultant based on the RFQ that we submitted and put out to advertise last fall to help us develop these standards and put these specifications in place coordinate collaborate write all this we could get that done within a year we would have a working draft ready within about six months so that we would be able to utilize that on capital projects within 12 months we'd have a final published set that we could go through the normal process of approval like we do with our design criteria manuals and we come back to you to see the final format and we would have a very solid consistent set of documents that we're working with both on the private side and the public side going forward every project of a capital project that we have coming up would benefit from this what we are looking at doing is splitting this cost amongst 20 projects that we know will be the direct benefic iary of this so if we're estimating around nine hundred fifty thousand dollars to get this done we would be looking at splitting that amongst all the upcoming construction projects where this would be ready to go what you have on this list right here totals about a hundred and twenty million dollars worth of construction if you just consider that we could prevent one percent change and that's a minimum to expectation on the confusion that misleading specifications can lead to project that one percent of construction costs we talked about earlier when net to about 1.2 million of the hundred and twenty million dollars with the construction we have coming up if we were to spend it on up front we could avoid a good bit of that confusion and that one percent is a is a minimal cost it can get much higher usually when you start a project without even breaking ground with a change order I can bank on and there's gonna be more change orders coming along because that was just the first blush at what we missed so this sets us on a very stable footing going forward with all these projects you'll get better bids you'll get a better expectation out of the contractor because they know exactly what we're doing councilmember Nelson thanks this is a sort of slightly off topic hoping Aaron you'll give me a little leeway that you're part of the genesis of all this all these diverse specs it sounds like it's because we find things that are that are different and better than what NCT cog is recommended correct so is there a process where you know the things that we're uncovering or that other local governments are uncovering feed upstream like you know if it's not just like somebody doesn't like something right it's not truly like waiting like this we like that we're trying to save money and sure just maintenance and so on so why wouldn't that go upstream to their their specs so the COG specification the way really the genesis of the North Central Texas Council government specifications was that you had a variety of sized communities that a good portion of them much like Denton 20 30 years ago couldn't afford to do their own specifications to get off the ground in the way they needed to they also didn't have a way of keeping up with them over time so cog much like it does for everything else we do it's an attempt to how do we help equalize the playing field a little bit how we make sure we're doing things similarly and help those organizations in those cities around the metropolitan organization area that aren't able to do this on their own they need something so you can feed it up but it tends to be fairly generic and it doesn't it doesn't reflect it's not as easy a process to amend and change because it's got to go across the board you know if I want to address this this is have a mean organizations are in the total Council of Governments district they got to approve that as well so what you see the lion's share of communities in in this area do is they say okay well that that works for most things but we want specifics Dallas and Arlington of Fort Worth all of those communities in in and around the area that are large enough size similar to where we are or larger they say you know that's not cutting it because I'm not as broad-based as everybody else this is what we want we want it specifically for this reason here's what it is and then I don't have multiple sources to go look at when I'm bidding this project does that answer your question any other questions so would you basically do a 1% or a point nine percent whatever it would be to work out for 120 million dollars worth of projects until that was covered is that the intention we would be looking more to weight it because not all projects will need all of those specifications and we would be looking to weight it based on the project so kind of an average weighting you know a Bonnie Bray a Mayhill bridge is gonna need certain requirements and they're gonna be more costly than say one or two streets so so our projected timeline if we get the go-ahead today or get the nod to proceed further with going into the contract negotiation phase we would be coming at council in September with a contract with a consultant and then we would start work tail into September to progress this as quickly as we could this would be our intent would be that this is a hourly not to exceed contract so while we're estimating nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars is in the ballpark we will work very hard to make sure that we keep everybody on track and focused and keep that cost down as much as possible councilmember Bray has a question how does this intertwine or does it intertwine with our our code rewrite it's very much intertwined with it okay the code points to a certain set of specifications already right that would have to change with this okay so is that part of the reason for the timeline because we are in the process of doing our code rewrite would they would they go hand-in-hand and kind of be implemented around the same time not really they do point to each other okay but really the reason that this was kind of last on our list and it just dovetails with the DDCs they do point to each other the timeline here was we needed to rewrite our design manuals first and we did that we needed to update all of our standard construction details which also goes into these specifications and then we needed to have our construction manual set up to where it was ready for this now we dive into the details here of how do we make all those things we said we wanted in the design manual become reality and that's what these are because I looked at one of the sides over here and they're labeled and ESA development noise ordinance I mean there's a lot of things that we were talking about in the code that yes would be implemented so I've just yeah so I'm kind of yeah all of those things are they get closely tight you have to run that and that's part of the reason why legal becomes a part of this as a critical partner for us you have to run that against the code is do they you can't have the specification cancel out the code or vice versa we gotta make sure they talk to each other and well so in that essence for me it seems to be pretty important that they the timelines line up absolutely okay thank you you know frankly this seems so like integral to how you run your shop like I almost feel like why do we need to look at this but but we'll just share with you that it just does sound like an awful lot of money you know the the virtues of having things be organized and not having it be confusing and I can easily believe 1% problems but you know the nature of the work is it gonna be competitively bid or just like it's just not obvious to me that it's you know that it's a million dollars worth of work it's probably obvious to you but you know how can we feel more how can we feel better about spending a million dollars on this in terms of the type of effort required it sounds kind of clerical almost you know so you know help me out on this so there's a lot more to it than just hey let's type up a specification and stick it in the document there are a lot of individuals that have a say and what those item and items actually are that go into this the wire department your field crews you have a variety of folks in the inspector's crews and the inspector corps that needs to be involved in plus the engineers who are actually designing these things and requiring that they be there that 5,000 hour figure that we had up earlier is really how much time we're talking about in that collaboration of getting everything together lined out typing it if I was just having somebody type it it would probably ten or fifteen thousand dollars we could have that done you know that wouldn't be that big an issue it's the coordination of all of these elements making sure they work with the DDC the legal requirements OSHA the Texas Municipal Manual and Uniform Transportation Code I'm thinking something totally different so making sure that when we actually build something in the public right away we're not endangering the public either with just the traffic controls the safety measures we have to have in place that all goes into one document making sure you have them and then understanding what they are just takes a lot of time and as we try to push the vast majority of the projects out the door that we need we don't have a lot of extra time to go do that and keep up with our projects we could try to do that but it would take us years to get there and we'll get projects that are ready to go out the door here in the next six months that could be a benefit of this mostly my reaction is this is coming out of existing funding yes you're not actually asking for any additional funding it's part of how you know you feel the need to do your work so it can be done efficiently you know I almost feel like I 'm not you know I'm not gonna keep you from trying to do work as efficiently as you know you can I think one of the thing I would add that Todd's kind of not really spoken about too much but one of the biggest sources of controversy we have with our development process is the fact that we have all these different standards and typically you'll have developers come in wanting the lowest cost standard it may not necessarily be the one that's the best built which matters to us from a long-term maintenance perspective and it puts our staff in a really difficult position when we're negotiating developer agreements or negotiating new subdivision standards because which set of specs are we going to enforce and oftentimes a lot of you will get the complaints that show me where this is in the code and it happens to be maybe in one of these different you know additions of a book and there's just a lot of debate and concern that goes over how do we actually build these roads that we're ultimately going to take over and maintain because oftentimes the development community is worried about costs we're worried about longevity and maintenance and I think that's probably to me everything he's laid out is absolutely correct in terms of how we're building these roads but it also has it's so integral in terms of how we run our development department and how we interface the development community making sure there's a clean set of standards and putting assets in the ground that really have the taxpayers best interests in mind long term and we're not arguing over which addition of we're going to use which is very frequent that's my barometer yes so I - I'm convinced that this is a hundred percent necessary and this will make a big difference for years to come like councilmember Meltzer you know I'm finding the the cost for a consultant the proposed cost hard to swallow but I'm I'm I'm invincible you know and and again this this is clearly necessary and has been for quite some time I'm wondering if you considered alternatives to a consultant that maybe might get more kind of long-term bang for the buck such as hiring a a full-time staff person what well-paid person specifically you know to start out to do this work and then with some plan is to you know after this is done in the future other you know similar work they could do so yeah have we considered that absolutely we did I mean that was one of the things that we had looked at initially was do we have somebody internal do that the reality is just to get there could I get you know you it will probably take roughly a month per specification if I have one person working on it and there's 130 plus specifications we're looking at because of all the fine detail coordination that has to go into it just to get this done I'm already 130 months out and if I pushed them hadn't worked overtime maybe I could get to fully complete in a month I'm still at 65 months I'm five years out we have projects that need to hit the ground with this little cause and confusion and potential cost impacts I know we threw up that 1% number I have been a part of projects where specifications were an issue and the right from the get-go we had a question of whether or not we'd be able to maintain the 25% cost differential when I bid a project if I change order the project more than 25% of the initial construction bid I need to I have to vacate that project and rebid the project that's the limit that we can do so I've been a part of projects where we have had that exact scenario happen and we were worried we weren't even going to be able to make the project go and we had to find some other very creative ways of getting there to start a project right from the start without that cushion you're gonna run into issues out there some way somehow it 's a very dangerous place to be the other issue that you run into with so much of this is if I do this in-house that I'm gonna be lagging behind on the time and let's just run the just a brief hours if I look at each project I'm gonna have to generate these documents for each project you could plan on somebody spending 20 to 40 hours just trying to get this done per project I'm gonna be doing this over and over again I can do it once the thought was we do this once with a consultant who can do the heavy lifting pay for it up front and then spread it amongst a whole host of projects that will be a beneficiary to this and minimize the cost to each project what this would be and then long term we do have staff internally in a process already established to where when we do amendments or upgrades every year which we will do that staff would be taking it from there and moving on so then it becomes manageable for a person or two people internally to handle that whereas the consultant can bring eight nine ten folks however they need to get this done quickly okay thanks yeah and that was could be my next question how many how many people do you know do you anticipate the consultant one have working on this project well thank you you've convinced me also kind of stressed me out you know thinking about all of the the risk involved in just the the status quo how we've been operating for so long so anyway thank you thanks for that explanation and I'm convinced thanks councilmember Duff yeah you know I look at all of this and we didn't get to this point yes sir in a short period of time this is something that has been evolving yes sir and I really I really think your approach to fixing it is solid and it's something that's probably long overdue to be done councilmember Meltzer just to offer you know a possibly helpful question do you think there might be some kind of an 80/20 rule that would apply here that not every part of the you know the spec encyclopedia causes equal amount of problems right there's probably some that come up over and over and are you know is there you know do you would you intend to might you intend to prioritize the work so they get more benefits sooner from certain areas that just brainially cause problems absolutely we've thought through that we know we have multiple projects that will be going out to bid very soon we have four that are coming up here in the next 30 days and we this will not make it they'll be working off the same system we've had in the past and they're in danger of running in some issues right from the get-go if we're not careful and we're doing everything we can to minimize that we have another round they'll be coming out around the first of the year to go to bid and we would be prioritizing which of these particular specifications need to go into those projects first so we at least have something good to go with and then work on the other ones absolutely I'll just add us I was actually waiting for councilmember Duff to weigh in because this is like probably close to your professional life in some some degree so I appreciate hearing your perspective well having been a project manager in my past life I can definitely appreciate this when contractors bid they bid based on the specs that they're given correct and they bid as low as possible and when that first changer comes up that's when they I don't want to say they they dog you but you know you might do a cost plus five percent to get the bid and then you start going to a cost plus ten on change orders and it gets more costly when if it's not in that original spec I've personally experienced that with a job at TI there's all the contractors knew that you had to include the John West factor and if you did not you were gonna lose money on the job because he had a very good set of specs Councilmember Hussman so I have a few questions so could you first what is the role that the development community plays in this because I argued for the development community to play a role in the the draft that you're currently working on the code and I was told we don't need that and so I'm trying to understand their role in this process so they play a big role in this process because part of what we do as we're reviewing their projects when they come in is then we hand them hey here's our standard product so if you're building a water line that we're gonna own and maintain when your project is done we need it built this way so their impact and their feed they 've got to understand what they're being required and requested to do on our part they also need to be able to bring to the table if you have a thought that is different to what we're doing let's consider that because part of what I don't want to do is get so locked into something without looking at it from all aspects is it better to do something they may have seen somewhere else so when you bring them to the table to ask that question I get to either defend what we're saying is the requirement and and we have that education moment with the developer here's why we're doing this and there's a very specific reason and we also get a chance to listen to some alternatives that maybe we just never considered because I saw that one I liked it better we're gonna use it some of these specifications I don't know how they were chosen I just know that's what we've been working with for years okay if I may thank you and so compare and contrast that process of them going step by step giving that input versus we draft it they look at it and then give their input so my thought is why are we going to argue ever over it as we go versus uniformly this is what we perceive to be best practices so and then have them uniformly go kicking and screaming wherever they're gonna kick and screaming and then clean to have those discussions that was not the intent so if I alluded to that my apologies they're a part of this process but it's not one of those things where we have them come talk to us with the water maintenance guys in the room and say hey help me put this together it's more of a here's what we're doing and here's why it just becomes easier when we're dealing with all these specifications to have multiple meetings like that instead of one big one and try to digest this we could be there for weeks going through everyone of those items if you've ever sat in a room full of contractors and argued over the specification of a project you got to limit the time because they all have an opinion on exactly how it should be done to some degree there's the creativity gets lost if I don't allow some of that as we go through this process but it also becomes an education to normally get the developer when he goes into a project has an expectation of what he's gonna deliver if this is for everybody to see in a very defined format they know what to count on a lot of the questions we deal with on the development side right now especially is that you can't figure out what it is they're supposed to be using so there's a lot of question - is it this kind of valve or that kind of valve I'm not really sure I use this in Lewisville I use this in Flyer M ound and I use this one in Fort Worth I want to use it here because I'm used to it well we want something different and we're gonna own it if they didn't factor that into their initial conversation because they didn't hear about until three four stages late in the game then they are upset because that's not something they counted on from a cost perspective okay thank you and then when when do we project to be able to to view drawings in 3d how far out is that is that baked in the here anywhere in the new software this really has nothing to do with that particular issue we already do everything in 3d so every every set of plans that we do I may not have a hologram set up or easily for me to grab a pipe and move it up and down but everything's done in three dimensions so we know where it's set horizontally vertically and spat ially I know exactly where it is that's part of every design we do and the software that the consultants used to design that will allow you to actually rotate that and see it in three dimensions you all will actually see some of that as we go forward through the design process some of the projects we 're bringing forward you'll see some of those things as we discuss those projects most specifically as we start going down the path of discussing roundabouts at some point in the future whenever that may come we'll be bringing some 3d models so that you can see them and what they look like and how traffic revolves around that phonometric analysis of street lighting and pedestrian lighting that's an it's a much easier way for us to try to ascertain what kind of lighting am I actually getting is it going where I want it to go what impediments do I have in the way and how do I adjust for that we have to do that in three dimensions today okay and then so a few more here but sorry so if there's this is not a question but a comment if there's any way to bake in a rewrite understanding that's coming I don't see why we don't bake that into the price out the gate at least one revisit you know it's like if we're hiring hey bid on this to draft this and you're saying bring on someone or someone kind of internally manages the rewrites I don't see why we don't bake that into this bidding to say you're gonna help this draft it and then we're gonna bring on a person or assign a person to manage the rewrite and you're gonna work side by side with that individual on that process kind of a passion of the torch a year later so now we've kicked the tires the person the company that originated the documents is working with the person that's going to carry it forward and kind of has that knowledge base transfer a year later versus compact to the process and and it's all kind of top of mind so in that mindset that's exactly what we're doing the team that is a team of five individuals that will actually be the owners of this document be responsible for updating it they 're the same team that is working on the design criteria manual rewrites this year they're working on that actively they collect it throughout the year all the updates and then by the time we hit August they're stopping the collection of updates and they're making changes to the construction details to the design criteria manual that we feel are important and necessary and then we begin that public process much like we did last year where it goes out for public comment period then comes back to PNZ then it comes to council and by the time we get to December you have through this group you have a complete set of revised documents ready to be started as effective for January 1 of each year so we do have a team in place that that's their their role well it's one of their many roles they're an in-house design and engineering services group they provide engineering service for water for wastewater they 're a group that's dedicated to those types of issues okay and so I have a comment in the compound question and I'm done so so the the compound question is I want to understand if you can take me through what is the current master document that they kind of launches so a project comes in there's got to be some assembly of these documents that it kind of comes from and the compound part of that is how does that process begin right so if someone comes with a project would take me through this is in the door here's how we're gonna do that and then the comment is I find it interesting during this conversation it's it's been alluded to which I hold that position static that we don't need to compare communities and or projects that sort of I mean you didn't stand alone we don't need to compare didn't the Louisville because it never lines up and so it's interesting to hear in this presentation it's kind of that different communities have different codes that aren't beneficial to our area that we kind of have to find the best of which fit which fits didn't so it to me the comment is just simply I wish we would stop with the this company does this in this area so didn't should adopt that theory because it does not fit and so in this line it's hey Louisville maybe do it in a certain way but for Denton this is the way that's best for us so we're gonna go that way and so that should be uniformly applied but I don't know that it will be but that's that's my wish one day so if you can walk me through the beginning of what is the master document and then kind of how you briefly just kind of how you cobble that together more in regard to when we go to construction because it's yes okay so after we have put together plans and we've designed the project with keeping in mind what documents are what specifications we have to use because that does tell us exactly what we need to design in some cases there are certain things that require certain things and you put that in the design documents when I assemble all these documents together it is then the form of a contract so that they understand what would be the agreement if you're the bidder who wins so you see what would that be what what are we requiring how many days do we expect it to be what we anticipate the cost to be that's blank because they got to fill that out but here's all the items that go into that and they tie every one of those items that's in this list so it if I put together a set of plans I got to then condense it into what we call a unit price schedule how much asphalt how much grass how much dirt how much everything you can think of it's got to be in there and we have to specify that directly so that unit price schedules tied with a number next to each item to the specification so if you can imagine how confusing it is for a contractor to go okay I have this item I got to figure out which specification I got to go to because every one of these spec books has a different way of numbering them what we're talking about doing is not only consolidating all of what we prefer into one book but also putting into a uniform numbering code that the contractor can go this item goes to here so I know exactly how to bid that item because I know what 's expected all of that goes into one master document with the bid dates how long is it gonna advertise for when are we gonna have a pre-bid opening meeting then when are the bids gonna be opened all of these documents get assembled together along with warranties and bonds and commitments by the contractor that if they get this job they're gonna do it this way and they're on the hook for this much there's typically a two-year warranty period for all items that they construct all those things are spelled out in the overall document the specifications are tied to the overall document I put all these things together with the plans then I bid them through the newspaper through some online buy boards that they typically monitor what we're doing we put them on our website and then it advertises for at least 21 days by the state's requirements we typically do 28 to 36 depending on what we need might give a little longer if there's some holiday periods things like that we're also very careful about when we let those out to be advertised and when the bid opening date is because contractors look across the entire Metro plex and anywhere else or they do work to see who's opening bids on what days and that will impact who we get text dot always opens I think is on the first Tuesday of each month so you're not gonna get contractors opening wanting to come to a bid opening with us until text out opens and they see what they got and on purpose we schedule afterwards so that we can very strategically line this up in a way that makes sense it also means we do have to look at the other communities to see what they've got coming out the door is if we have too much coming out the door at one time in conjunction with Louisville or Flower Mound or any other local communities we may not get what we want in the way of number of bidders which makes it very hard for us to get a competitive price thank you very much helpful Councilmember Meltzer just you may already be planning to do this I'll just chip in you know a thought that as you begin the work it may be helpful to have someone just take the download of say the last 10 years of change orders I'm just to avoid completely boiling the ocean on this right take the last you know here we've actually had issues last 10 years of change orders code by what portion of the specs are involved and group and then just at least use that as a checklist at the end to say would we have avoided these there will yeah would we have avoided these if we'd had this in place then you know I'm saying like just just as a test no I do we like the final product we could do that and unfortunately that's exactly what led to this scenario is I didn't like that one and that was a bad change order for us so I'm gonna pull this one for this one and then that works great now and then it works for four or five years and then it doesn't work again because somebody wouldn't have you with something we pull a new one that's why exactly what we have is what we got that's me what type of direction you need just sounds like we've got pretty good consensus on moving forward with this is that any disagreement with that if Council's on board with where we're headed and we will come back in September with a contract to move forward with this path okay yeah cuz cuz I completely getting all the specs into one place also affects the long-term ownership of that you know you need repair parts to repair things and if you 've got to have 17 different brands on a truck or you've got send that truck back to the shop every time to get the right repair part it gets expensive so yes sir all right anything any other comments on this item we will move on to work session 3b receive a report hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the fiscal year 2018-19 City managers proposed budget mayor pretend City Council Tony pointed director finance first of all just let me say that you know we've come to you a number of occasions this is again our continuation of just an update as we continue to work through the proposed budget there's been a number of questions that that the council had back when we did the budget kickoff on August 7th we provided a memo with as many responses as we were able to to compile at this point and so you you have that as part of your backup there's only a number of staff members here that are present they'll be happy to go through any questions you have on any of those specific items we'll continue to work through the remaining questions anticipate having the majority of those if not all of those completed for August 21st certainly if there's questions today then that may that may spill over onto the 28th but we anticipate having all those questions completed by the 21st so I do have a very short presentation or a couple of items that the council had requested and some updates I'm going to go through that certainly if you have any questions on any of that please stop me as we go through so just really quickly I'm going to go through some budgetary changes that we've made kind of go over the updated forecast for the general fund there was two items that that I've identified here regarding property values and collections and also some history on market values go through an update on the downtown turrs based on recent feedback and direction from the council as well as the tree mitigation fund that went through the committee on the environment and then complete that with just an update on next steps of the budget process so some of the changes that we've made to the general fund include a one-time cost of 285,000 if you recall this was part of our capital projects it was for I believe two specific capital improvements the council gave us direction to go ahead and fund those and so we've included that in the 1718 estimate and will like may result in a in a drawdown of fund balance at the end of 1718 depending on where we end the year also the council recently added approved the addition of an assistant chief position in the police department we've also added that that's an ongoing cost and has been added through the five years of the RFP I mean excuse me of the forecast finally just want to give you an update that we did communicate to the council that the following projects the master thorough for a plant thoroughfare plan mobility master plan and the fire air truck that those would be priority items contingent upon the performance of our year end and just to be clear we continue beyond the September 30th day to accrue expenses of revenues out to 60 days out and so we have some time even beyond the fiscal year to make additional expenses if needed contingent upon you know where we see that that fiscal year is going to be ending we could do that and or we can always amend the prior year's budget so again we'll be looking at that as we get closer and work with our external auditors they are here currently looking at our books and so as we continue to go and wrap up this fiscal year we'll be able to better assess where we are and what we may be able to do with these top three kind of priority unfunded projects at this point so this is really quickly for you the update to the financial forecast and so for fiscal year 17 18 we have included the the parts capital project funding as a one-time project for 17 18 and in the police chief is certainly on the outgoing had minimal impact on our projected fund balance over that period of time we do anticipate to be at about 16.9 percent fund balance at the end of fiscal year 23 again this is a living breathing forecast and budget that will continue to monitor and make changes as we continue to progress through each of these fiscal years this was a slide that was requested by by the council regarding our property tax values I do want to mention that certainly from the time that we get our certified values which is on July 25th of every year to where that those values are at the end of each fiscal year there's certainly some changes and this certainly demonstrates that from year to year you know for the most part as I mentioned to you when we talked about the effective tax rate calculation even for this year we're already at the 33rd supplement and so those continue we continue to receive those throughout the year and even beyond the fiscal year as those items that are under ARB review are settled either through court proceedings or through the ARB process we get supplements to that certified value and so those changes are there and so for example for fiscal year I'll just look at fiscal year 17 or excuse me 16 which is the last completed fiscal year our certified values were 9.7 billion we ended that fiscal year at 9.37 billion the projected revenue at the time was 62.6 million dollars this total revenue to the city where we ended the year was at 64 million dollars so that was you know a little bit over a 1.4 million dollar increase in revenue but what I've added here is I've included what the actual collections are again just because it's a it's a projected revenue based on the levy what we actually record to the general fund is actual collections and so there is a 60-day period beyond the fiscal year where we can actually accrue and and book those those revenues so of that 64 million dollars based on that the the levy at that time we projected that we would that we collect or we collected sixty three point seven million dollars again that's a direct result as you can see here what I've included is the amounts that have been under ARB review at the certified value they did begin to spike in 2016 basically doubled and so we've seen that certainly this for fiscal year 18 that has even grown even more to 491 million dollars conversations with the central praise district is really this is just a side effect if you will of increased protest primarily related to equity protest market value protest on the commercial side so while we do anticipate that these will be settled again they may not necessarily be settled within this fiscal year and certainly collections may not occur until some future year depending on when those are settled and paid so I just wanted to you know we provided this for you I don't know if you have any specific questions on this that you may that you may have the other item that the council requested was just a five-year history of where our market values have been based on the category so single-family all the way through exempt properties for single families from 2014 to 2018 seen as 57 percent growth in those market values followed by multifamily and also commercial industrial and so these are the trends of where our market values have been 43 percent overall increase in market values based on the category of properties that are that are out there again these are market values certainly for single-family residents some of those are certainly exempt others exemptions homestead exemptions over 65 exemptions those aren't reflected here these are before any exemptions are applied so going on to the downtown terz as I as we discussed during the August 2nd budget process we had at that time included 76 thousand dollars for that incentive payment related to the rail to the rail yard and also eighty thousand dollar reimbursement to the general fund since that time the council did provide staff direction to continue to fund the downtown reinvest ment grant program out of the out of this particular fund and so we have made that change and included that in the expenses so the total 18 19 expenditures from this fund would be two hundred and fifty six thousand dollars we have a projected fund balance of about three hundred seventy seven thousand that we're projecting at the end of 930 19 councilman breaks so council approved several sidewalk projects pedestrian and lighting projects with this fund is that the expenditures there for 256 or has that been taken out where where does that fit in to this fund those expenditures act actually happened in 17 18 okay it was I think about 1.5 million it was basically the the entire balance of that fund that would that would that had accumulated and so we transfer that over to a capital project that happened in 17 18 okay and so this is what it built back up to and this is the what's remaining yes ma'am that's basically we're projecting five hundred sixteen thousand dollars to come into that fund and that's what's really funding these expenditures expenditures I have a follow-up on the downtown reimbursement grant wasn't there our if I remember correctly there was still some money available yes can can somebody speak to that and how that's gonna work now that this has been funded have those applications been approved and is that amount going to be fully utilized so we have we have a downtown reinvestment fund that has about a hundred thirty one thousand dollars what we have in the proposed budgets we're projecting that about thirty one thousand will come out of 17 18 and then we budgeted the full hundred thousand remaining for for 18 19 and so I think what we would anticipate is that any any grants that are being applied for would come out of those funds first to extinguish that and then we would then go into the downtown reinvestment or downtown turrs okay so those funds that have already been put into that fund for that specific purpose will continue to be used for that until they are until they're all gone yes ma'am okay good thank you very much okay so the other fund that I wanted to provide an update is the tree mitigation fund this fund back in August 2nd had two items that were included was the 750,000 for tree plantings on and public parks and also $75,000 for a comprehensive urban forestry plan for $75,000 back in June and in subsequent to that August 6 the committee on the environment was provided a plan that included a tree rebate program tree initiative program and so those items based on that plan we've also provided to you that a memo a memo that includes a three-year plan to address these programs has been included in your backup but that tree tree rebate program also includes have an intern position that will be that will be adding to the budget twenty three thousand one hundred dollars for that tree rebate program the tree initiative program is sixteen thousand five hundred citizen forester training is thousand dollars in this promotional contingency cost of twelve thousand five hundred those items are being proposed to be added to that proposed budget that would bring the 18 19 expenditures to eight hundred seventy thousand one hundred it's about a five hundred sixty eight thousand dollar drawdown in the fund balanced for that fund and then we anticipate having at the end of nine thirty nineteen a fund balance of about one point two almost one point three million dollars again these items that are hot that are in both for you or the items that have been added and certainly if you have any questions or staff here that can specifically address these items but they these items were discussed with the committee on the environment any questions so finally just next steps again we'll continue to come in front of you as we continue to work through this budget we have a few more meetings on the schedule we do anticipate for August 21st to bring an update to a couple of other funds one of those being the DM E fund and certainly we'll try to have as many of those outstanding questions completed for you we'll have a public hearing our first public hearing tonight on the tax rate we'll have a second public hearing and also a public hearing on the proposed budget on September 11th and then finally scheduled for adoption of the budget the tax roll and the tax rate is scheduled for September 18th that concludes my presentation if you have any questions be happy to go through those council members any any questions thank you very much Tony that will move on to agenda item 3c receive a report from staff hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the design and construction of the new North Lakes dog park everybody's leaving and this is the best part good afternoon my name is Laura Barons and I am the assistant director for parks and recreation and today I want to provide you with an update for the North Lakes dog park and also share the preliminary concept design with you I also want to take this opportunity to introduce Glenn McLe an who is with our parks department and is the designer of this project and has also been designing several of our other park projects that are ongoing right now so the goal of this project is to provide a second dog park in the north part of our city that gives both people and our pets our canine pets a place to socialize and to exercise with this park we're also looking to provide programs for pets and their owners and one of the most exciting features about this is the support that we're looking at providing for the McNatt animal care and adoption center that's right next door and that includes everything from again programs to even some daily activities where folks that are looking at adopting an animal adopting a pack can take the dog to the dog park and spend some time with it when they're considering adoptions we're also looking at the integration of art in this project and also in general just an enhancement to our overall city park system just to give you a little bit of orientation on the site this is located off of highway 77 in our North Lakes Park it is right next door to again the animal care facility and is really kind of located in between our Vela athletic complex that's currently under construction and the tennis center which you've had an opportunity to hear about and is in also the design and concept phase there are some residential properties around the dog park everywhere except for the West which is the natural preserve area located right in the middle of North Lakes Park just another site perspective again it 's gonna be this open area that we see here our main points of access for travelers you can be highway 77 and University Drive and then we also have several other points of access that will go over for pedestrians when we were considering the design for this project we really wanted to take a different approach most dog parks have kind of a play on words like our very own Wigley Field but in this case Glenn came up with the idea to focus on the relationship that we have with dogs and our pets and so as you can see that's been going on for a lot of years but one of the ways that this has been documented over time is literally in the stars and so there are several constellations that are named after dogs and that became the focus in the platform for our design just a quick overview of the park itself it would incorporate four dog run areas two large dogs and two small dog runs the parking lot was designed in 2014 I believe and our proposal would be to phase the parking lot in with starting with about 60 spots here and the ability to double that in the future in a phase two the overall objective of the park is to be educational and fun and we'll look at how each of these design elements will carry that out first it 's very easily accessed from several different points for our pedestrians we've got access off of the sidewalk here and also through our trail system that are currently are already existing in the park and as well as from the parking lot so we have multiple entrance points for pedestrian access we've also incorporated some sun and shaded exposure with shade pavilions these trees are already planted so we're incorporating the planting of many more trees to give us that shade for the visitors and the animals and then we've got one main point of entrance for the actual dog runs themselves in that main point of entrance for the dog runs is one of our first major design elements which incorporates the planets part of that celestial design where the solar system can be built into the hard surface here that can be accomplished through several different types of materials that we have yet to decide and that's really some feedback that we're looking for from not only our park users from the community but also some focus groups and some folks that we want to talk to and incorporate their their thoughts for the use of this park helps my breaks so is this when you mention art public art would this be where the public art funds would come in to pay for this design we actually have and I've got that on another slide we've got a location where we're looking at incorporating sculpture and that's where the public art would come into this would just be part of the basic design and layout for hards cape okay as I mentioned before we've got four dog runs and this is where the constellation concept is integrated each one has a playful design within each dog run that resembles four different constellations the first large dog run is canis major right next to it is a small dog run of canis minor and so the constellations are laid out through the different structures within each play run utilizing the trees the pavilions and agility or play structures for the animals we have lupus which is also known as the wolf constellation and then the hunting dog which is canis finitisi I hope I'm not I'm saying that correctly on one of the main entry ways coming from the parking lot this is the area where we've actually left space and have the thought and design for sculpture pieces that we would work again through the public art committee in selecting that art this is a different little concept design that you can see some of those elements a little bit more closely again the parking lot this this entrance would be coming off of the Linda McNatt parking lot 60 spaces to begin with under phase 2 we can double that up to about 130 spaces the four dog runs we also have some spray structures their concepts at this time but will definitely provide watering stations and cooling stations for the dogs and of course watering fountains as well for our citizens and and the dogs themselves we also have some digging stations councilmember breaks well yeah you could I've just wanted to address the the cost in in the funding so the current funding is 411 538 and that is that is the amount that we have that's currently the amount that we have overall we're looking at a budget of about six hundred thousand dollars we have a little over 400 already allocated for this project yes so it would be I I would prefer that we stay within the amount of funding that we have I think the design is awesome and creative but I think that it's kind of extravag ant a little unnecessary for a dog park I mean when we're talking about six hundred thousand dollars water fountains a pond you know digging fences I think you know that's that's the the basics of what we need I think you know having some a few sculptures may be great with a partnership there I am very supportive of this dog park I have been since I've been on council because that's I've heard about it you know for you four and a half years so I just kind of wanted to go ahead and address that and let you know where where I am as far as budget and funding the existing funding of four hundred thousand dollars is primarily from our park dedication and park development so those are restricted funds that have to be spent within a half mile to a mile radius of the development that contributed those funds the other identified funding sources that we're looking at are also restricted funds specific to park projects and they include revenues from our gas well leases as well as reall ocating some bond funds that the original purpose have already been completed through the through a private donation that came in so it freed up those bond funds to allow us to reallocate it towards other projects within the park system so that's the primary those are the primary funding sources that we 're looking at to make up that difference anything else again these things can be phased in anything else above and beyond that we can work with the Parks Foundation to help raise that additional funding this project is included in their annual project plan moving forward that's my meltzer I'm inclined to line up along the lines of councilmember preaches comments I'd be curious to see what that design would look like if you were you know strictly trying to stay within the fund the current funding also curious to hear you know what the demand is like the response is like from the community input that's forthcoming so we'll hear that I 've read studies that no more than 65 percent of dogs actually know the planets but that's just one study councilmember armator yeah I want to piggyback on council members Briggs and Melzer said I this is a a fabulous design however I can 't couldn't justify spending and anything over that designated amount especially when we have people sleeping in the street and people homeless people who are you know being arrested for criminal trespassing for being in our public park after after hours so and that that's just to say you know within the big picture if I were looking just at the issue of dog parks I would say yes this is the dream dog park I love dogs I'm a dog person but you know because my my job is to to serve people and and I've been asking like with the past few parks presentations on for the tennis center and also the industrial pocket park both of which I approve of my questions have kind of all been along the lines of you know how are these public parks serving low-income people who who benefit theoretically anyway by our public parks so this this for me is one where I feel like I'll kind of a line has been crossed and I feel like I have to come out and say you know not well people are sleeping on the on the street can I support that so but then again you know that beautiful design great job and I don't want you to feel guilty for that that has nothing to do with with you but and I will say a little more about that in concluding remarks thank you this park is a little bit bigger than our existing park so the majority of the cost is going to be in the construction in terms of grading sodding fencing with the actual theme itself we're just incorporating those elements into the design so we would already be providing pavilions for shade structure we would already be providing the trees as well for added shade structure we would already be providing some of those play structures or what we call agility structures for the dogs it's just the way that it's actually then designed into incorporated into this theme again this can be phased in in terms of the one of the one of the cost efficiencies that were already proposing is the parking lot itself but certainly some of the other the number of pins the number of runs can also be phased in as well as some of the other features council member breaks on the parking how many spots does Wrigley field have I don't know Glenn if you know right offhand so approximately maybe 70 because that that that parking lot originally was part of the park itself and then it became used for access to the dog park and then there have been some improvements to that parking lot so but I'm glad to see the faced in parking because with all the other areas and especially North Lakes and the trails I feel like those are going to be utilized absolutely a lot more so I I'm glad to see the parking scaled back I mean if 60 is scaled back I think that's gonna be plenty but but again the current funding I would like to know is there because I don 't want to put it off any longer I know we have public meetings I'm excited to hear what the the public has to say but but again if we're if we're trying to go really beyond to fulfill the design and spend I'd rather scale it back down and then implement so that we can actually get the dog park because that's the the main priority is to to get it right no absolutely and our current dog park is just a little under three acres and it gets used quite a bit so there has been a demand for a while to have an additional dog park this one is just at five acres which gives us a little bit more room and space for those for the dogs the Wigley Field right now has three pens this one has four so there are some there are some ways that we can definitely look at phasing in but being able to having some lesson learned you know from Wigley Field we're trying to incorporate that as well here we do have we've had some several internal meetings with not only within our parks department but also with some feedback from mr. O'Neill who's the manager at the animal care facility and then we've had a preliminary presentation to park board just last week at our monthly meeting of course we're here with you today we have a public meeting scheduled for August the 16th at 6 p.m. at North Lakes Recreation Center we also have built in some time for any additional focus group meetings that we want to hold and anticipate coming back to you and a park board in the September October time frame any other questions I am kind of curious you know if as just as an alternative what what it would cost out to do something more along the sort of the basics lines that councilmember Briggs outlined where it's essentially fence water what makes a dog park poop bags yes poop bags we'll have those there yeah maybe you know a small amount of us of astrological information but you know not that much you know what would that what would that cost and how much of the public demand with that meet night and I'm curious if the public were to see you know that as an alternative and with that price tag you know where would they land would they land somewhere in between you know I I'd be very interested in taking guidance from the public well and I'd say to you because the what's currently available the 411 is the current if there's another development within that half mile to mile radius that will increase as well which would give us more funding you mentioned the Parks Foundation is a is a possible addition I think if they coordinate as well with Denton Animal Support Foundation I 'm I'm not opposed and actually think it would be a good idea to maybe do naming rights for certain size donation on the pavilions and that might be a way to be able to pay for those and offset some of that cost but I think it's a great idea I'm looking at I'm interested in the in the public input on this thank you you know what's missing from this conversation that there's a couple of things one I think it's it's interesting that no one touches on the difference in the two right so we would we would fold in all the greatness here and not consider those at the original park so I found that missing from the conversation so I would advocate for looking at the differences I would advocate for a split of the place structures shade structures and an art those are the kind of the key ingredients that I find missing from that would be baked in here that would not be baked in that are not currently there and so that's where I would see a division of the money but also I think it missing from the conversation is giving credit where credit is due so I asked for and received the kind of list of how we got here and so around the horn everyone latches on the 400k but that's based on magic beans and no one no one researches that no one asks no one brings it up that there's no research there's no drawing there's no nothing to support that number absolutely nothing it was just the council is in a budget and they threw a number to it so I want to give credit will regret is due to staff in a city manager and to those on City Council I would ask you what are you justifying that number on you're saying you want to hear from the public on a number that you can't support there's no backup information that supports what goes into that and that's then even that's 2014 numbers so you didn't even factor in inflation so for me I think it's important to note one the quality information we get now versus what we had in the past and this is my argument when we start drudging up old stuff about past city managers versus current city manager and not adjusting our thinking to from then to now but the money's already there I've checked we can't do anything else with it so so I would suggest whatever 400 K looks like at the new one but no matter what if there's 200 K available I want to see that applied to the other Wrigley part to make sure that we can normalize the experience across our town versus make it punitive and overload one you know to kind of go to the latest and greatest so that's my three cents thank you that's great and with Wig ley Field we just did some major upgrades to that park it was recently regraded resotted and we added a digging station at that park specifically in an area that does not get we don't we can't get the grass to grow because it's so shaded and dogs normally dig there anyways and they're digging up the grass in other areas so we added a digging station added sand added a retaining wall to keep all that together and provide a place for dogs to have that activity so we are looking at that balance as well but definitely some other things that we could go back and look at and consider adding to Wigley Field yeah if I make no I latched on all the zeros that I had zero place structures there's zero shade structures in there's the educational piece and opportunities I set that aside there's zero art and so that's why I latched on to that that's my brother yeah just responding to adding to a councilmember Hudson's comment I I too would hit was curious to know more about how that figure that four hundred eleven thousand figure was developed back in the day and what what you said councilmember Hudson but that was kind of my sense of things but I hit I didn't know for sure that that was the case I'd be curious to have that confirmed and then also I'm wondering you know and part of this is just me being new on you on council but I think it's also something that that the public wonders about too sometimes when in a case like this so that and I'm looking at city manager because I assume it would be a question for you and maybe for finance but in a project like this where we have a certain amount of money that's been marked for a specific purpose what where is the the wiggle room for kind of how we can you know how that can be applied how that can be spread out elsewhere because I I too am thinking kind of along those lines as gosh you know four hundred eleven thousand that's a lot for a dog park we have to spend it on on a dog park or do we just have to spend it on on on parks or something in something in this location you know I'd like to know exactly what we've committed to in in paper so we can't for this specific project so we can see how that that money might be better better used in a way that still meets those that's that's still legit according to what with what that has been designated for yeah the most of the funding for this park is you'll get familiar with the 9 59 16 funds which are really land development and park development fees which we have relied on to build this this particular facility we have been slowly and ever since Laura's been in that department we've been slowly working our way through the city because those funds are collected in zones throughout the city can only be spent in those zones so there's a restriction we couldn't take money that would for instance plan for this particular park and put it out at South Lakes because that's in a different zone so that's where your funding sources come from but you know in trying to make the the budgets hold it we will identify savings from other projects that sort of thing this is one of those cases where if we ended up increasing the budget councilmember Ryan's onto one revenue stream if you had some more development that contributed to the funds in this area you could be use it for that or like in the council went through with numerous debates on Bella there's other you know general fund dollars can be put there so I think what we're hearing from you is you know there's a there's a desire from majority of you to stay within the budget we'll take a look at what that looks like if there's some inequities with the two dog parks we can certainly keep that in mind as well and look for identity funds that have been donated for that specific part of Denton to see if there's a way to equalize that but we can take all this feedback that we're receiving today and you know and certainly sulfur acts I think the I think the issue is you know and what we've heard today is if we need to eventually ensure that the demands appropriate and add to this park in a second phase a majority of you appear to be in that in that that mindset that's fine but the restrictions on these park development fees are very restrictive actually we've got a professor right now at the Texas A&M who's well renowned in this area helping us rethink the way that the funds are collected because you know Denton doesn't in no community really grows as orderly as a park development impact fee rationale set up so we're actually going to be bringing something back to you probably within the year to have an additional debate on how we collect these and how we sequester the funds great that's that's great to hear and so follow-up question on that just to confirm so it sounds like so from what you're saying those funds have to be spent at the North Lakes Park they have to be spent in this particular area within this zone this particular area the zone of Denton correct it's a mile to a mile radius of the development that contributed okay very restrictive yes and so do they have to be spent on a dog park no the answer the answer is no however this has been a project that has been on the books something the council has wanted to see you completed and I think staffs done a really good job in terms of providing realistic cost estimates and trying to give you some idea what it would take to make that initial desire come to fruition but what we're hearing is work within your budget and and and bring forward a four hundred eleven thousand dollar project which we can do but it does not they're not dedicated to a specific project or dedicated to a specific zone okay so that's that's very good to know thank you and I think probably a number of members of the public don't quite understood that either yep so I would like to see also you know some to see kind of how how bare bones I keep trying not to use dog p ines about dog mark and bear bars and wiggle room how how bare bones you could get in the in the the funding while still making dogs happy because I mean it is after all it's a beautiful park and so kind of what would be the barest minimum and and then I have some other ideas about that those funds that I'll save for concluding remarks because they don't pertain to this particular project but thank you so much for explaining that and thanks I'd just like to understand a little more of your comments so I can't remember how to but I mean obviously you're not privy to what exchanges and conversations I had pre vetting before but you definitely got into some areas that I didn't but were you satisfied on the point that the four hundred eleven is a real number there that this really cost six hundred or you know I just didn't know where you were going with that and I'm curious to know also you know are you you seem to question the idea of hearing the public respond to a price tag on a project yeah and I guess I just want to understand where you landed on that like are you do you not want the public to see alternatives at different places right so the short answer to your last question is that's silly we all are elected and we all are responsible to the public and I've advocated very much so for everything I do about the importance of that now to hold that holistically to say that that feedback man magically controls every decision I make absolutely not because you can look at a situation like Don sits in where half his neighbor every neighborhood he represents a split down the middle and they're upset about different different things I have downtown I have I have pecan Creek I have southeast didn't very different needs so depending I can't I can't say well I've heard from more southeast didn't people today so I'm gonna rebuild a street down there or advocate for that that 's not how it works in my mind and so the short answer your question is yes I think the valuable but I think it has to be factored into reality the latter part the first question you ask I think I was clear when I said I I was surprised that it was not said so I don't dig into what emails or communications you were had you had outside of this arena but in this arena I base my comments on what you said or what was not said and then when you ask about the four hundred thousand dollars it's real cash money and it can't go anywhere outside that zone that's what that's the confines I work with them not to say that it's justified it's not due to due diligence and it's in a it's a mentioned in a budget in 2014 with nothing subscribe to it the total number was 1 million seven hundred thousand two hundred nineteen dollars prescribed to six parks in the dog park that's not that's not steeped in reality at all we spent a million bucks on a parking lot we spent eight hundred nine six hundred thousand on a bathroom you know so these numbers aren't it's not a real number what's real is it is what it is and it has to be spent where it has to be spent and people want this dog park done so let's move forward with reality and let's give credit what credits do for the city manager's office bringing us bad news early when and you know and that's because then people will get in the buy in if we continue to hammer home that message that there's a new sheriff in town and his name is Reggie Hammons and and we're gonna get stuff done differently then then that'll be fantastic and and and I think that will begin to buy back the trust in the public when you go back and talk to him versus base in the dog park in everywhere I'm running this table I wait and listen everyone was latched on that at four hundred thousand dollars that's tied to nothing when you can't find it so that's my point so so so right so you're not satisfied that the foreign alone means anything in particular other than it got allocated right that's I mean I thank you for elaborating and it does leave me kind of curious to know what the you know what the justification for the 411 was what is it tied to there 's a the only constant in this is that there's been X number of acres set aside for a dog park that is trying to meet meet the need up north they've shown you what it would take to do then you know kind of the one a one-stop build out for the project which is gonna be closer to six hundred thousand dollars I think councilmember Hudson is he's spot-on in terms of the concepts not being shown budget numbers being thrown out there we don't spend a lot of our time reverse engineering these things it's just not worth it but what we can do is say if we did this once this is what it would look like what we heard today is you 've been able to identify about four hundred thousand dollars left over from whatever might remain of the bond funding and some additional impact fees from the from the parks area we can certainly bring you back two or three different options and and show you how we would grow this park over time but the only thing that's really been constant is the lands been set aside for it so we can I have no problem just bring you back two or three different options and and work within those confines but I think I think what he's telling you and he's he's absolutely right is there was a lot of projects on the books with numbers put at them put there that we can't necessarily track back where the estimates were or whatever it seemed good at the time we're bringing you back real concepts with real costs and trying to get your feedback on it I think we got a lot of good feedback today you want a couple of different options and we'll bring those back if I may I'm you know I'm actually influenced by what I hear and so I'm kind of landing in a different place my after doing the diligence that I did do my sort of willingness to entertain this now is really solely because of the equity issue but because I like I'm something higher priority on my list just in general dog park but but the fact that it's a northern part of the city dog park and I and I truly didn't take into account like what's the comparison of the amenities in the two places so you know I think that's a very valid observation I kind of be interested in saying in knowing what the cost would be to create something that's up to the you know basically the level of what's offered in the south we will certainly bring you back that option as well as what do you get for four hundred eleven thousand dollars to the best of our ability obviously we can't bid it yet but we can provide a pretty solid estimate since so much of it's just grass and grading councilmember Doug yeah I guess I've been kind of consistent on these kind of things you know if we're gonna do this you know I think we need to do it very well because this is something that's going to be there for a long time you know I understand the the money part of it on all that and maybe we don't need to do it all it start with and maybe phase in some of it but let's don't shortchange the thing if we're going to do it let's do it right councilmember Briggs so on the the timeline because I'm just want to reiterate that this dog park has been a long time coming and the constituents near there and around in the city have been expecting it for a long time so it says park board and the City Council September October is that coming back for final design approval yes that will be will be bringing back some concept designs based on the feedback the collective feedback that we've gotten and incorporated that into some final designs for you to to review so one of my concerns because tomorrow is the public meeting and this is more than likely what's going to be shown and from what has been said here today a design probably a little less than what is shown is going to be has been asked for is there a way to in I mean I'm just trying to figure out because there's not options for the public to see no house absolutely that's a great point one of the benefits of having Glenn who again is one of our park team members is that he can take the information that we have today and go back and start working on and drafting some some scaled down versions some fate you know take this concept and do more of a phased in approach and present that and we can we have that ability to quickly turn around these types of projects whereas if we had outsourced this then you're right we would have to go back place a call get you know to be dependent on somebody else to do that but we would be able to probably quickly turn around something that would bring them into that four hundred thousand dollar scope and give them some options that that's good to know yes as quick as tomorrow okay thank you very much councilmember yeah no I want to say how grateful I am for that expertise I mean that it to have that in houses is really fantastic the the mindset and everything is outstanding I really like that and and I agree with Don that we need to begin to upgrade our facilities and be better about that and even if it is at a phase approach I respect that if I'm gonna make one plea though because I have an eight-year-old so sometimes I think like her so if you go to like the the the consolation the first one and I'm not gonna put that on her but I'll just say I sometimes think like eight-year-old so right there that's good right so depending on where we put this and how it's it's stamped whatever that is my concern and again forgive me my mind just goes there so if you scratch off the C if you can somehow analyze a C that's less than great so I don't know if we mean you're one letter you know you just so I think as long as it can't be damaged otherwise I need a different name well we can definitely you know consider using those names underneath that are the more common names it's known as the great dog and I'm sure that there's probably some jokes that could be made about that too but I don't know we can control it all but definitely yes well I'd say we're you know right now at that hundred thousand foot level it's still got to go through public hearings and see what that that has we haven't even really approached some of the other groups to find out what they think they might be able to raise to help with this obviously we can do it in stages I would even question whether that much parking is needed considering it's in a residential area and is on our trail path that I think a lot of people using this park are going to be using the trail to get to and from and those are the types of things that we want to hear some input from the public on again you can phase in parking a little at a time it does get more expensive when you do smaller parts but you know we can see from the start and there's always going to be overflow over at the shelter as well so I think we'll probably find more people will park there and walk the trails then and we're gonna have more people walking the trails with their dogs so yes which is great is something that we very much want to encourage yes so any other questions or comments on this do you have the direction you need from us thank you all right in case we've been going at this almost two hours so let's take a five-minute recess and we'll be back welcome back everyone we are going to resume our August 14 th work session it is 305 we just took a short break and we're going to start back at item 3d receive a report hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding quiet zones along at grade railroad crossings within the city of Denton good afternoon thank you mayor pro tem council members my name is pre-tem Deshmukh I'm the city traffic engineer and I'll be talking about quiet zones I don't have chat here to have some props there and start acting on bed it's a start with how many at-grade cross crossings we have we currently have 34 throughout the city they're spread in three major corridors the first one is the biggest one that's the Union Pacific railroad corridor that runs across the city there are about 16 crossings there along UPR are eight in the northern segment segment excuse me four in the downtown and then four crossings are on the south side towards the up towards the west of the city southwest Kansas City Southern is the second line that runs across the city on the west side it has about nine at-grade crossings and the last one the newly installed DCT that's the most recent one light rail it has nine crossings all the crossings at-grade crossings along DCT are quiet zones and I'll go into detail of what exactly quiet zones mean it's one or a group of crossings that implement extra or additional safety measures to eliminate train horns typically it's in a group of crossings if you have a crossing that is quite zoned and then the next crossing isn't and they're typically if they're within half a mile then it's really hard for train operators to not have any sound at one crossing but then blow the horn the next so that sound travels pretty further away so typically it's recommended that these quiet zones are implemented in a half mile area or half mile segments what are they required for they're required to reduce noise in residential neighborhoods as Denton grows we have more population moving closer and closer to these at-grade crossing so there are more residential neighborhoods being developed near these crossings their schools as well as some sensitive sound sensitive areas like hospitals are also located near these at-grade crossings that's why quiet zones are required according to the federal railroad administration every operator train operator has to blow horn at at-grade crossing for about 15 to 20 seconds which is typically a quarter to a half a mile before the crossing and through the crossing and these horns are typically really loud I have a slide that shows you how far their reach is there are about 96 to 110 decibels within the first hundred feet from the crossing so what are the some of the supplemental or additional measures that can be implemented in order to make a at-grade crossing quiet is the first one is the four quadrant gate which is gate on either side of the track on on both directions so the entire street is completely blocked by these gates once there the arms are down the second option is to I'm not sure if you can see it clearly but there is a gate around here the second option is gate in only one direction but then actually have a median for quite a bit of length almost a minimum of 60 but then they can go all the way to 100 200 feet so that that way it ensures that people that are actually traveling on the right side of the road and not swinging around will be stopped by the gate the other alternatives are one-way streets if you convert the whole streets to one way you don't need four gates you need or four arms you need two arms and that would be enough and then the last last one is a wayside horn it's a much smaller horn than the train horn and I think there is a slide next one so to the left is the reach of the train horn if a train is passing on this particular track which is the UPR are this figure illustrates how far they're reaching and they 're they're well into the residential neighborhoods and you can actually see the impact zone cone is pretty high now these wayside horns as part of supplemental managers they will only have horn directed towards the traffic coming towards the crossing so these wayside horns can be implemented I think one there is one location on the TCT a track it's either sycamore or prairie has wayside horns which is less intrusive very low noise compared to the train horn and some of the supplemental measures identified for our funded projects we do not have wayside horns I just wanted to make that clear then I'll talk about the supplemental projects that are the projects that are funded there are two one is the downtown segment has four crossings Hickory McKinney sycamore and prairie there is a little under one million dollars allocated for this particular project three hundred and fifty thousand dollars came from the 2014 bond fund and then there are six hundred thousand dollars that came from the H ickory Street enhancement that's how we have close to a million dollars for these four locations the estimated cost of the project is currently uncertain one of the biggest uncertainty here is a UPR or the railroad is in control of their own designs they have to design their own equipment and then they come up with the cost for installing we have to pay them for doing their own construction so at we don't have a project cost estimate plans and specifications from UPR at this point but once we get them we get an idea of how much money will be spent and then we come back to council with requests for moving forward with that and having an agreement with UPR for construction is there a question councilmember breaks this question yeah I appreciate this presentation and thank you for requesting it I think councilmember Hutzpah requested it since I've been on council again in the dog park this is an item that comes to me maybe once a month and I'm sure I afford it to mark and he answers the best you can and you as well it's a lot there's a lot of confusion of people don't really understand they know they voted for something a very long time ago and nothing it's the trains are still really loud and there's nothing that has been done so I appreciate this presentation because it's helping me understand a little bit more about the process as well as the public but what because you showed the different options and safety measures which ones are we choosing for this funding is that correct so I'll go to the next slide okay through the process and then define words choosing who is choosing and what is choosing and I'll tell you which ones were choosing so there will be different ones for different crossings correct so they want okay thank you any other questions did you have the questions okay so moving on to these are the steps for getting to a quiet zone we're currently working with a consultant CTC and going through the whole process there they have done multiple quiet zones throughout the Metroplex so they're really helpful in doing that so as you can see there there are several steps we've already gone through the first three we have evaluated it we've already made contact with the railroad we have ran a diagnostic review now this is the most critical stage for a quiet zone this is where officials or staff from the railroad from the city and federal railroad administration they all come together they have an on-site meeting for several hours visit each and every crossing identify what the improvements are needed what kind of improvements are needed what what is the extent and you know work with the railroad if that if these improvements are feasible for the railroad or work with the city staff and as the improvements are feasible for staff once that whole diagnostic review is completed then these improvements are decided in terms of meeting notes and then sent out to all the parties involved we've already gone through that phase for the downtown project and for three crossings that 's McKinney sycamore and Prairie all we're doing is installing medians so we're installing medians one of the criteria is within the where the medians are installed there shouldn't be any driveways let me see if I can find there there are the specific graphics for each of these locations I can send them over after we talk but all we're doing is installing meetings so those are all city improvements and we're working on designing those as we work through Union Pacific Railroad to design one improvement at the Hickory Street crossing I think one of the issues on the Hickory Street crossing was there was a fatality a year or year and a half ago and that's what triggered more safety measures at that particular location and railroad is upgrading all the arms that are moving the arms at the right location so railroad is currently working on designing the improvements at the Hickory Street we're working on the rest of them and their minor improvements in the sense that they're only medians or driveway relocations and I can send the exhibits for specific changes so is it also my understanding that even though these improvements are implemented that it is still up to the train conductor to hawk the horn if they feel it necessary correct so it quiet zones are not quite quite there yet but yes so they're not completely quiet if there is a person crossing a railroad or if there is an animal in the track or something the rail the according to federal rules and regulations the railroad operator has to honk or blow the horn in order for them to get them moved out of the railroad or be safe or at least understand that there is a train approaching so it has to happen so short of installing fencing all up and down the railroad there is very little control over how you can control even places where people there's no crossing people jump the tracks in neighborhoods and rail train operators are required to honk yes any other questions I can quickly go through the next few steps as I mentioned the railroad is designing improvements once we find out how what's the total cost we'll come back to council get an agreement in place with railroad to go and construct it typical timelines are 12 months for a project like this which only has one location to improve we feel that this can be shortened I've talked to the railroad and we're working with them and then after the construction is completed there is a 30-day final notice of establishment or you notify the public that there is going to be a railroad is a quiet zone established and then the current schedule for this project to be completed is July 2019 the next project they were working on and that's funded actually this is funded to the fiscal year 18 19 which begins in on October 1st so I'm currently getting scopes from a consultant to start helping us with this project there are eight crossings along this segment northside along you PRR frame Street will a street pertain Street one of the one of the things that I want to point out is two crossings Willis and pertain we're planning on replacing those two at grade crossings with one crossing which is Roodale Street and Roodale Street at some point we're still under design but yes as the council may know we have made some changes and move the monies so we're working with a consultant to figure out what's best approach to get the other crossings converted to quiet zones especially these three on the north side earlier or sooner because we only have a limited amount of fun nine hundred thirty thousand dollars we want to see whatever we can accommodate and guess those established rather than waiting for the R oodale and will listen pertain to be taken off so that's that's how we're moving forward on this one and we'll come back with the consultant agreement or and or the agreement with Union Pacific for the this particular project next year any questions on this project that's my breaks it kind of just goes about the process so if I were to say why did the first section take so long like so can you is it the conduct diagnostic review I'm asking because the next segment we just talked about the northern segment cannot can the public expect for that to be five years down the road where we're just getting started or is that has the process been worked out now where we understand what we need to do as you is a railroad more friendly I mean just I'm trying to figure out so there yeah I there are a couple things the process typically takes about two years from the time we start so that's the normal timeline working with the railroad working with the federal redwood administration from the time we kick off the consultant get everything established data collection and everything railroad requires majority chunk of the time about 18 months to do their process but it's 24 months a standard timeline this project took a little bit longer I think the bond funds were sold in 2014 this is 2014 funded because the city was work trying to work with the railroad to repurpose there's a there is a maintenance yard here for UPR are and we were working with the railroad and DCTA and NC and the cog to see if we can repurpose this railroad move this maintenance yard up somewhere else and then repurpose this place for other uses like parking retail and that's what the main issue was that whole deal took a lot longer the coordination and ultimately we found out that the railroad was not willing to work with us so we had to drop the idea that's what the time lag was for councilmember death I just want to make a comment anytime you're working with the railroad it's gonna take a long time because they are not cooperative I've had experiences with them and they just they're just not because they don't have to so these are the next segment of southern segment of UPR this the project that's currently not funded the reason I've highlighted vintage Boulevard as part of the Bonnie Bray project vintage Boule vard is currently almost under the design is complete they're getting ready to go to construction but that this particular crossing will be completely upgraded to meet the quiet zone criteria so this particular location where vintage Boulevard crosses and connects to 377 will be upgraded completely so when we go back for any quiet zone on any of these crossings that particular location does not need any upgrades and then the last portion is the Kansas City Southern Railroad it has about nine crossings one of the thing here is there are three private crossings which go to one parcel or one particular business and oftentimes you have to work with them to make sure that they they're included in the process of converting the whole thing in quiet zone and similar to the previous one the Bonnie Bray Street that will be crossing this particular railroad I think it is up here this is the one that will be fully you know constructed as far as quiet zone safety measures are concerned and once that once the project is built it's face three of Bonnie Bray I believe that goes through here it's gonna end her design and this project is not funded it also any questions yes I was wondering if you go back to this slide where you show this those different options of supplemental safety measures and if I assume that kind of when you're thinking about which of these to use and you're doing weighing the pros and cons you're kind of thinking about safety as far as the real the railroad goes and also about traffic concerns you know in what extent to what extent one of those safety measures will create a lot of congestion so if can you just could you just kind of briefly speak to because I'm trying to you know figure out for myself which of these would be the safest in any given situation and then which would create the most congestion how you weigh that and in addition to that and I mean you could even though this is a big question you could answer it really in just two sentences if you wanted to but I'm also trying to kind of reconcile you know to those what do they call those those localized horns that they don't have is yeah those wayside you know would those be equivalent in in safety to oh that 's right this is what right there wayside horns to one of these you know three silent silent safety measures is it is it equivalent is it I mean is it apples and oranges is it good to have both at the same time so so the way this is decided there are a couple things when the diagnostic team gets together federal railroad administration staff discusses several options that with the railroad as well as the city saying here are the options that you have and this is what we feel would work better or this is what we recommend so there are certain recommendations that come from the federal railroad so even though we have some say they prefer to have certain ones just based on their knowledge and their experience in the past with hundreds of these or thousands of these throughout the nation they know that if there's a certain type of roadway it has a certain amount of traffic then these are the ones that would work better so they try and recommend certain of this of course we can go back and work with them and say this would work better as far as traffic is concerned if there are signals near which one which way side horn right here you can see there are signals those are the ones that we have to be those are the ones that will be impacted when the arm is down so we typically want to work with the railroad and have some sign of type of communication with the signal saying preempted so that everyone clears off the track while the arms are coming down so that that we definitely tie into for example Wood row on the DC 28 track or Colorado at the DC 28 track the signal is really close we have communications with the gate so whenever the gate is trying to get down where it gets hits the signal our signals are agreed so that everyone clears off so yes we are we are working closely with them excellent thanks that was really helpful any other questions I just uh thanks I would just comment keep leaning forward I think this is a great way to pretty efficiently really improve quality of life and death thank you in just so I understand it completely if you're using one of these other three methods you do not have to use the wayside and you can still be a quiet zone yes you can use either or they pick one they don't pick a whole lot and as I mentioned three of our crossings don't even need anything other than putting in these med ians and the arms already exist so any other no other questions then thank you very much our next item item 3e receive a report hold a discussion give staff direction on the composition of the oak gateway area plan steering committee I think this is going to be quite similar to one we had last week on a different committee yes yes mayor pro temp members of council this item for your consideration is for staff to seek direction on the composition of the oak gateway area plan steering committee as you all heard in our last presentation where we provided an update back in June 12 the committee is moving forward there's a lot of momentum focus in the right direction the only issue that we're having to date is trying to be quorum we have some really dedicated folks that are on the committee but again to be able to move forward we need the quorum to be met and so we're seeking your help in moving this committee in the right way so real quickly this presentation here or this slide here just illustrates what we've done to date we are currently at the I would like to call the halfway mark we've got our draft vision statements already drafted we're hoping to meet next couple weeks in the next couple weeks to formulate some goals and then hopefully prepare some recommendations that we can bring forward to the planning zoning Commission and City Council currently the starting committee is made up of 24 members one councilman sorry three members from each council members and three from staff staff selected three members to add to the steering committee they are made up of UNT DCTA members representing their entities this is the list of current steering committee members as you can see they represent a variety of stakeholders from business owners to property owners to bicyclists we've got UNT again DCTA student representation and others these individuals have given notice that they are no longer able to serve on the committee there is a total of eight of the members that have requested that they be removed or have resigned and so these are the folks that we are trying to one either replace or if that is not the direction from council reduce the number so that we will be down to just the 16 that are left so here's the option that similar to what we heard from the prior steering committee is one is to reduce the number of the committee member size again reducing it by eight bringing us down to 16 just as a FYI I have received some comments from our committee members one of our committee members the said person is in favor of option one option two is the reappointment of the those eight members that have given their notice the breakdown that I've shown here based on denominations of those non of those steering committee members that have given their notice one would be from councilman Watts or a mayor Watts councilman Briggs has provided her nominations already to come from councilmember Armentor to replace those that were nominated by councilman past councilman Gregory commissioner Hutzpeth there is a one committee one of the members that have resigned is a student representation a representative and we would like for the current student representative to be replaced to be replaced by her and her name is Gabrielle Tilly if that is your choosing and choosing come out councilmember on Metsler there are two that would be need to be replaced again those two that were nominated by councilmember of the Gary and her dot there's nothing you you need you're good those council those members that you've selected are still in place Teresa Rogers we're recommending if we go with option to be replaced I'm sorry we replaced mr. James Davis on the committee and also I've got a list of members if the council would like again option two where I reached out to have their it seek their interest and there are approximately eight so far that have shared that they are interested in being on the committee I can share that list with the council after the meeting if again we choose or the council direct staff to go with option two that being said that is what the staff is requesting is your direction on the composition of the steering committee again option one option two let's just start over here and work our way around councilmember death yeah I would be for option one I think 24 is probably too big anyway and I just think that reducing the size of committee rather than bring new people in makes sense option two and I'm fine with the student representative replacement I'm a little torn because I know that that this is a very dedicated committee that has wanted to meet more frequently but can't because of coronal requirements on the other hand I also know that they are sorely lacking in representation from two of the sub areas of that you know of the area under question would it be possible to hear from from the committee chair yes I apologize Patrice like just walked in cheese here as well as vice chair Kim McGibbon is here as well it's up to the council bring them up now yeah yeah Patrice help me help you like 1109 Egan so Ron and I discussed the committee makeup six weeks ago it it's summertime I've lost track it's been a little while but we talked about the committee makeup and he did reach out to committee members who have been unable to attend over the past few meetings as you know when we started talking about this we were on a schedule of meeting maybe once a month every six weeks but when we recognized how much work we had to do we began to meet once a week and that did be we did see a fall in attendance at that point and so at that point you know Ron and I had talked about adding members so that we could replace and hit our 24 because this is a big area we need the voices but we also need the voices to consistently be there so I do understand a I can I can see an argument for reducing the committee to 16 to be honest with you it is a little bit more of a maneuverable committee but I also I think I'd lean more sixty percent toward getting it back up to full steam at 24 particularly since there are some I don't we've already identified some people who would continue additionally some of those spots on the committee are kind of standing spots so for instance Jim from Jim Davis from UNT if there is a way to make that simply a standing spot you know a representative from UNT in that capacity or the student government spot if that were a standing spot and because some of those positions rotate so since we already have some people who are does it you know who have expressed interest and who can come in we can get them up to speed from the last meeting that we had you know that we have mission statements written for all four of our sub areas and we're ready to get back to work on August 23rd so I'm so far we're 50/50 over here you're you got me up here counseling that's all right any questions I saw your hand moving I had a question but then I realized that we were kind of we were going around so I'm not sure okay so is is the committee still working with the consultant on a regular basis or is it consulting we okay no we are still working with the consultant but they are currently standing at the ready so we have been meeting more as a you know a steering committee citizen-led staff is with us but we are to the point we are where we are getting ready to ask the consultants to come back so they have not been attending every meeting that we have had since sometime in the spring our weekly meetings they did not attend but now we have more direction and more specific information that we will ask from them so we are getting ready to bring them back any other questions for the chair councilmember if we did decide on option two would it be a recommendation that the list of interested individuals from the sub areas that have been chosen be looked at first to fill in the availability spots right yeah okay yeah if there if there are people who've already expressed interest it's a it's a big task and I suspect it's a bigger task than some people saw it to be at the beginning of the process and so yes if there are interested people especially in sub area two and three those are very under represented we're heavy in sub area one you know as a member of some area one we're heavy there but if there are people in two and three then I would I think that is a good it's a good idea especially since the idea behind the ginormous small area plan is to not just push our problems over into neighboring areas that then have to mop up after us so other questions with you well this is not so much a question but it's well I was gonna go back okay thank you okay councilmember Nelson have you that help you form an opinion yeah yes it did I'm certainly willing to support you know the chair and what the committee needs I just hope and expect that will you know reinforce very strongly to the to the people from there is two and three who might join that they really have to show up and to give an incentive I'm willing to double the pay and I'm gonna take the same privilege our mayor normally does and save my comments for last so councilmember armator yeah so I'll say I appreciate the arguments you know for and against either option it's kind of it's messy either way but these these processes are are messy and good things come out of the messes I will I am going to go with option number two and I think the most compelling case for that as far as I'm concerned is that that there is is not enough representation of those other two sub areas so you know if it when it comes to me if it's up to me to appoint two members then I will be looking at those areas and I will just I'll just say you know seeing that list of who all is on that committee it's a list of really fine people and I know most of those people and a lot of those people are on other committees and have served on I've served on other committees in the past or serving on other committees at present I think this is another case for reducing the number of committees that one person can serve on is a way to encourage us as a council to branch out and ask more people more of our constituents to get involved even constituents who we don't know we need more diversity in all all respects on our committees including more even within the small area plan so we need more geographical diversity within the small area plan so anyway that's that's really really telling to me so I hope that you know in the near future we can be addressed that that issue so yes I will be going for number for number two primarily for that reason councilmember Briggs I appreciate Patrice coming up and I'm kind of the same with her I see the reason why we would want to reduce the size of the committee but I also think that having different voices speak matters I like the idea of having the standing seat just so that if you know we're not coming back individually approving you know each person so you know maybe so many members from the community or UNT you know that I like that idea I think that that would help especially if there are issues with someone moving or somebody are not coming so I mean I would go with option two and and just add that having those standing seats there may be good and not have a specific name for those who we know need to be on the on the committee that would be hopefully we we get this done and they don't rotate off you know right well and also one of the reasons I'm kind of leaning more towards option two is because you said it's it's the halfway mark and I know that it's not the very beginning but it's not the very end and since the consultant hasn't yet come in I do believe that anyone coming in can kind of hop on board see see where the committee's gotten thus far sure and then share their input with the consultant well to certainly do our best to make sure that they do get on board as quickly as possible well I will say I'm for option three which is kind of a hybrid I do believe having the standing student representative and a UNT representative would be good but as far as adding more members at this point I feel like we've gone quite a ways on this already and don't think it's necessary and I will say that I would have a a principal issue with the fact that one of the persons recommended is on the ballot for a future election and it's kind of been these in unwritten rule within council we don't put elected officials or people who are currently listed to be on a ballot in the near future onto a committee like this so that's kind of where I stand I think I'm probably out I think outnumbered with the number of people who would like to go with option two okay so is that I think councilmember Duff and myself are option one with the possibility of letting UNT and student representative come back we've got we got four for options yeah I think the standing seat is pretty well accepted by all yes could you please weigh in on that I never heard of of that the person is is an actual resident but not running for any city office so I mean if it if it is a an issue then that can be made but I hadn't heard of any policy or seen anything to that effect I would just like an update from the our city attorney on that please I'll just make comments since it was my initial one and let him weigh in give him a moment to think it through it's not anything that's written anywhere it's not anything in our policy but it's kind of been one of those you know we've never appointed we've never put a commissioner or JP or you know state rep or any of those types of people any elected officials on boards nor have we ever put someone on a board that I know of while their name was already placed on a ballot I'm just gonna agree there's no policy or ordinance at prohibit side depending on the board or committee that a person is put on there they if they're an elected official they may have to look at whether they have any issues under what we call the common law as a dual office holding or if they're violating some constitutional provision in holding two offices that that's for them to decide not us but as far as the city of Denton having any any written policy or ordinance there is none but I I understand why it has been done in the past but I but I will tell you there is nothing in writing thank you I should make sure I wasn't violating any sort of so thank you well and again it's just something I've observed over time though we've never never done it and you know she's a great person I've known her for a number of years I think she'd be great on there but it's it's the principle of someone on a ballot being on a committee I just wanted to ask just to I think this through sir are you making a distinction between appointing somebody who's on the ballot for it to be on a committee who's on a ballot to be on a committee versus somebody who is on the ballot and already was on the committee prior to being on a ballot that makes sense I guess what you're referring to in councilmember Meltzer was on this committee exactly and was on the ballot he was put on this committee prior to filing any paperwork fire prior to the fact that he was going to be on the ballot yeah so that's that's the distinction is you can say that somebody is may run for an office in the future that's a different scenario than someone is on you know is already listed on the ballot and that's that's where I kind of draw that line I 've got no problem with somebody who in the past has been on a ballot or may in the future be on a ballot but if they're currently deep on the ballot that's it's a you know personal principle of mine that that's just you know are we stepping ourselves into an issue of well when the election happens then we got a replacer again potentially you know that's that becomes a situation that you're just setting yourself up for the potential of having a problem again in the future so yeah I'll just say I myself so thanks for explaining I myself don't have a problem with that but I would imagine that that would be a situation where you know if individual people on council wanted to you know not approve a certain nomination and a matter of principle that that would be our right to do so but I don't have a problem with that myself at all but thanks for qualifying so just to summarize move forward with option two we're replacing all eight including those that are and then bringing back to the council for approval in obviously identify the those standing seats and moving this committee forward is that council direction I believe so I would just like to add that if if there are issues with attendance or something comes up that it not just kind of snowball and get bigger and bigger that we're made aware so and that we can kind of come in at one one by one if there are issues instead of awaiting for so long so that the committee isn't stuck understood understood and after tonight or today's a meeting I will send out an email or have our city sector sending email out with the names that have already identified that they are interested in it in in serving on this committee as well as a little description of you know where they are as far as area and what they represent so that you all have that as an option if you are looking for nominations any other questions comments thank you very much thank you and we will move on to item 3f receive a report hold a discussion give staff direction regarding the human rights campaign minute municipal equal quality index the city of Denton MEI score and options for consideration on the MEI score and I just kind of like to get my council's preference on this as to I believe the first several slides are informational how we got to the score that we have in the last slide is more on the policy so I'd rather we hold our questions till we get to that last slide if that's good with everyone thank you thank you mayor pro tem council members my name is Sarah Keckler I'm the director of public affairs here to present today on the human rights campaign municipal equality index this is the first time staff is presenting this item to council so I will spend the majority of the time kind of education what is the MEI what are their criteria and then I'll conclude the presentation with that last slide which lists all of the options and seek council direction if staff should work on any items further so to start off who is the human rights campaign or HRC as I'll refer to them they are a civil rights organization founded in 1980 representing the LGBTQ community and they have over 3 million supporters and members nationwide they developed the municipal equality index the MEI as an annual scorecard to examine and rate how inclusive municipal laws and policies are to the LGBTQ people I just want to say that this is a tool in the toolbox to evaluate annually how we're performing as a city in terms of being inclusive the HRC even states quote the MEI specifically rates cities on their laws and policies while respecting the legal and political context the city operates within is not a measure of an LGBTQ persons lived experience in that city so as a community it makes up many things beyond just the MEI score the human rights campaign select cities for the MEI annually in 2017 they selected 506 cities nationwide and it kind of listed out how they go about selecting what cities they're going to rate generally they are the larger cities in the nation but they do select those that are nominated by HRC members and supporters as well so the cities are based upon five categories and I'm gonna have a slide on each one of those categories I do want to point out that first category of non-discrimination laws requires adoption of citywide laws prohibiting discrimination discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity the remaining four categories are how the municipality as an entity operates to be inclusive so I speaking with an HRC representative they said that generally cities will focus on those last four categories first since it's under control of the municipality in terms of how we operate and then we'll come and focus on the non-discrimination laws category and our previous scores for the city of Denton on the scorecard where in 2016 we had a total of 35 and this is out of a hundred points in 2017 we increased slightly to 44 and then in 2018 we estimate that we will score 52 I just want to stress that this is my staff estimation of what we will score this is not HRC those final scores will be released in September or October in 2017 there were 25 cities in Texas rated they had an average score of 41 and then nationwide in 2017 the average score was 57 and this slide just shows the 2017 comparison to other Texas cities and where Denton Falls to other cities in the DFW region so we scored a total of 44 out of a hundred and you can see it being very low and in Irving to all the way Dallas and Fort Worth scoring above the maximum of a hundred points with the bonus categories included and so this is the first slide I'll get into to kind of describing what are the different sections and categories of the MEI and so this is section one on the nondiscrimination laws this category rates municipalities if they have adopted citywide nondisc rimination ordinances on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in three categories private employment housing and public accommodations I just want to point out section one points can come from state law county law or city law so if the state has protections for these three categories on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity a city can score points in these areas however if a state law or county law doesn't cover it the city can adopt their own ordinances to have nondiscrimination on the basis of the two categories I do want to spend some time kind of going through the background of what are the existing state and federal protections and even city protections and nondiscrimination so for private employment Texas law does prohibit discrimination and employment based on a person's race religion gender national origin age or disability however it does not expressly include a prohibition based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity there were some Texas legislative bills introduced last session however they did not pass and go further as for housing the second category listed there and the Texas Fair Housing Act and the US Fair Housing Act prohibit discriminatory housing practices in the sale rental and financing of dwellings based upon a number of protected classes however again it does not expressly include sexual orientation and gender identity it again had bills introduced during last Texas legislative session however they died as well the city does have a fair housing ordinance that's chapter 15 in our code of ordinances and that protects every individual within the city to obtain housing without regards to race color sex handicap familiar status religion or national origin however it does not expressly include the two on sexual orientation and gender identity the third third category listed here is public accommodations and this is protected by federal law under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it states all persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods services facilities and privileges advantages and accommodations of any place of public accommodation however the act has not been amended to include sexual orientation and gender identity and I just want to point out here with all of these non- discrimination laws there would be considerable work that we would staff would need to be put into in terms of coming up with an ordinance development what would be covered underneath that ordinance and then the majority of work would be what would be the administration enforcement of that ordinance how would we accept complaints how would we review complaints how would that be staffed how do we do give due process to both so there's considerable work work that would need to be done per the HRC the only Texas city with cities with comprehensive non-discrimination ordinances in Texas or Austin Dallas Fort Worth and Plano and then the last two categories here are the bonus categories so the first one all gender single occupancy facilities the city can earn two points if it passes a citywide ordinance that says that all single occupancy restroom facilities would have to be all gender the city can earn half credit in this bonus category so earning one bonus point if it makes this mandatory for our city buildings staff to do some background research and we currently have 64 single occupancy restrooms in city buildings and then last category and this is new in 2018 for their HRC criteria is that it would protect we would pass a discrimination ordinance non-disc rimination ordinance or sorry we pass an ordinance that protects youth from conversion therapy also new in 2018 cities will be deducted points if they allow carve outs and if they allow religious exemptions that single out sexual orientation and or gender identity so that was section one I'll keep moving through the second section here is the municipality as an employer and so we did earn full points and are expected to earn full points again for non-disc rimination in city employment we do have that policy the second category trans inclusive health care benefits we are expected to earn zero in this category I did want to footnote and the city does provide health care benefits for transgender health care needs including mental health care and home and hormone therapy however it excludes those areas related to surgical treatments therefore we do not score any points in this category because surgical treatments must be included in the city's health care plan in order to earn those points 2.3 it would be a city contractor non-discrimination ordinance the city earned one point in our standard contract template we do prohibit a discrimination on sexual orientation for contracts in order to earn full points the city would need to adopt through policy or ordinance that all businesses that contract with the city will have an employee non-disc rimination policy that expressly covers sexual orientation and gender identity and the last category here 2.4 is an inclusive workplace there's a number of things that can be done to achieve points in this category including diversity training for all city staff or recruitment program that actively advertises available positions to the LGBTQ community the last year bonus point that you can earn is if the city extends health care benefits to domestic partnerships Texas law does not recognize the legal status of domestic partnerships I just want to point out the city of Denton's current health care policy defines a spouse as an individual to whom you are legally married so it covers if same-sex marriages for our employees that have same-sex marriages they can the health care benefits are extended to them as well it just does not cover domestic partnerships because that's currently not defined by Texas state law section 3 moving on is municipal services first category here is a human rights commission and the HRC defines this as a community- facing body tasked with eliminating discrimination and educating the public on issues of diversity and inclusion and the city the Denton together coalition serves this purpose is not an official city body but a community group that gathers to discuss these issues and therefore we do not have an enforcement mechanism through the HRC as it is not a city body and we do not have the non-discrimination ordinances in place that that body would be enforcing the third category is an LGBTQ liaison to the city executive we earn full points in this category and that is myself so I am available and willing to talk to anyone about any issues that may have come out there may be in the community my contact information is on the city website and I am designated as liaison on the city website as well and then there are a number of bonus categories listed down here where you can get points for well the city provides services and supports many community organizations serving the LGBTQ community we cannot earn bonus points unless the support the support or funding is specifically targeted for the LGBTQ community meaning it's not community wide it would have to be specific to that population section four is law enforcement and we do expect to earn full points in this entire category this year and we have designated police liaison and that is lieutenant Chris summit with the police department again his information is available on the city website as well and then we have consistently reported as a police department our hate crime statistics to the FBI each year earning the full 22 points in this category and then finally the last category is leadership on LGBTQ equality and there's a number of different things that can be done but HRC really reviews articles proclamations public events city officials are they supporting the LGBTQ community and that 's in that first category I expect that we would earn a four we do an annual proclamation to recognize LGBTQ month in June as well as a number of other events and support from our city officials and then the second category here is pro equality legislative or policy efforts and that would be counsel trying to lead forward more of these efforts and then there's a couple bonus categories here as well recognizing if we have elected or appointed municipal leaders who are LGBTQ and the last one is if we are testing the limits of restrictive state law so overall this slide kind of shows the first column here the estimated 2018 score again that's what I think we will score a total of 52 that means this last column here the additional possible points we could get additional 48 points and the 22 here in kind of gray is the bonus points that would also be available so these these items here are additional efforts that staff could work on and our seeking policy direction from council in terms of what should be our priorities what questions do you have what additional research would you like to see where should we head next councilmember Briggs I believe you had a couple of questions who went through there did thank you so the the most recent one is on page 7 of 11 under the bonus I know that the city we don't provide services directly to to anyone the youth bullying prevention policy for city services does parks and rec not have a bullying policy and is that a way to implement that because that is something I think all schools have and any department that has works with children should have some sort of anti-bullying policy yes the Denton Public Library currently has a rules of conduct policy for their facilities however it doesn't expressly state sexual orientation and gender identity so we could work with them on revising that policy to state that and then we could also work with parks and recreation to adopt and the policy okay I had a I had a few other things but by withholding them I need to reorient my thoughts so somebody else can I would suggest that or I'd like to propose that staff go ahead with the all of all of the items on this list that are not ordinances that are kind of under the auspices of at least I understand it that would be kind of under the city city manager's office that council would just kind of come back and sign off on and that those ordinances come back to us at a later time I'm not trying to shut off discussion of those I support and I support all of all of this I was I had pushed pushed to get this on the agenda and so grateful for the for the job you did there's so much here that I wonder if that might be a productive way to go about it to break it into ordinances you know versus those on this list those items on this list that where we can just kind of give give staff direction that's all just kind of saying that well and I have I don't know how much you would call that out that wasn't part of an ordinance I would think most everything up there is going to require either an ordinance or resolution from the city in order to make that change so is there anything in particular up there that you see that you sees the the low-hanging fruit from your standpoint I was sure I mean everything that everything that is not an actual law so for instance you know the health care benefits that's not a law the single occupancy the bathroom I mean there's so much low-hanging fruit I see of course it's subjective what one sees as low-hanging fruit or not I see everything that's not a law as as a low-hanging fruit and I guess within that low-hanging fruit then you could take those things that could just you know with with an email or the stroke of a pen be be set in place you know versus those where there's a lot of room as to if we decide to go ahead with it how we would want to define it such as you know the Human Rights Commission but but another way to do that would be to say yes to the Human Rights Commission and to say you know staff you go and kind of come back with us it has a future date with kind of a proposal you know how how you might envision that you know everybody on council picks one etc anyway I mean those are just some suggestions but I I think you've probably thought some about this I don't know if you how you would I think there's a couple opportunities from staff and you know the inclusive workplace that's that's one opportunity that we can work with our Human Resources Department on the bonus category here of adopting youth bullying prevention policy that's something we can work on at a staff level however you know changing our health care plan we would not counsel input on that if we were changing what is covered underneath our health care plan and as well as the city contractor we are updating our purchasing policy manual that would be it's planned as a future project that would come as an ordinance adoption through City Councils that's something if you wanted us to look at but we would want council adoption of that as well through an ordinance so of course ordinances require council approval any other questions or comments I mean I the bullying policy yes I think that should definitely be put in place you know there there are some of these we can you know almost come back individually as a category to possibly look at some of them but yes some of it also to me goes to the different layers and do we want as a city to be outside of HUD requirements you know I've got no problem with the housing ordinance but we start getting into you know worse our ordinance is now so much different than what HUD requires and that can cause you know some issues as well so I think some of them take a deeper dive to to really figure out where we can go on them my understanding is that it's kind of like our ethics ordinance and that we can raise the bar on on the the state or federal policy but we just we can't go below it we can't take anything away so I don't anticipate that being a problem or at least it you know hasn't been in in other cities it's just kind of within our right as a home-rule municipality to raise the bar I will say you know among the benefits besides equality besides equality equal access it's be really good for for business relationships in the city for attracting attracting new businesses and as we grow as a city increasing tourism and making you know not only people who already live here feel welcome but people who are going to be doing business here who we're considering economic development deals with you get them excited about doing deals with Denton I will say that the one that I get the most feedback on not related to the municipal equality index just in general is the issue of single single-use bathrooms being you know not having gender specific identity on them just saying restroom and obviously you know city wide we've got 64 single-use bathrooms that's super low-hanging fruit and that would be one of these universal designs a design improvements that would benefit everybody because then regardless of gender identity you're less likely to be waiting in line so you know that would be I see it as a universal good I had proposed last time throwing something in there this is kind of something outside of this but I would propose as adding to that that we just have a little kind of certificate that we could give to local businesses I'm calling a certificate you know just a piece of paper something to put in their window but that would be citywide of course that any individual business could do this on their own for those businesses that choose to or they'd already just by default have bathrooms that are not limited to one one gender that so that they can put it on their on their window I think that would be really good way to easily and cheaply reward small businesses for being inclusive and make people in the community feel welcome Councilman briefs I want to thank you when we when this was brought to our attention in 2016 you guys really started going to work and figuring out and it's been raised each year and that's really great we 're not going backwards we're not moving you know we don't have over a hundred points just yet but we're getting there our neighbors Dallas Fort Worth I noticed that they have in Arlington I know they're they're bigger cities they have their high high points are in municipality as an employer and law enforcement and so do we have I'm just I'm just wondering because ours is it looks like we could raise those two up so far law enforcement last year we earned partial points we didn't have and police liaison names this year we do as we expect to earn those full points of 22 okay so that that helps to bring our score up and then municipality as an employer you can see here the benefits category is six and the city contractor would be five so that's eleven that's a considerable portion of that of that category that just assuming and the other municipalities are earning full some of the couple that you mentioned Allison Arlington and my last question besides thanking you for working on this and we're moving up the legislative part last year we've got two points and this year one is there a reason the legislator five point two yeah it says last year we were at two points in this year there's only one as an estimated score I'll have to go back and look it might just be the difference sometimes they change the category slightly so this public position versus pro-equality legislative or policy efforts I may have adjusted that slightly again this is all a little flexible but I think this was at three last year this top one of five point one was at three I think I just changed that estimation slightly okay because I do recall last year the chamber did send us a letter saying that they were not in favor of the policy the anti bathroom legislation and so I mean that was the chamber it wasn't necessarily the city but I don't know if if that is good if that counts or not and if this is my estimation at one it could stay at two okay thank you come from outside yeah could you clear up the point for me about domestic partnership it sounds like something that may have predated marriage equality so that might not might just might not be kind of a relevant category anymore for my understanding it was a category and then HRC removed it as a category and is now reinstated as a category in 2018 to have it for those that may not be married but our domestic partners but I mean regardless of sexual orientation or anything like that you know health care benefits yep generally don't go to people you know to family members unrelated by birth or marriage right I mean whether you know homosexual heterosexual correct and that's Texas does not recognize domestic partnerships there are a couple cities in Texas that have tried to define on their own what a domestic partnership is and how you provide the documentation necessary in order to prove that you have a domestic partnership and then order to qualify to get health care benefits this is actually one area to go back again to this idea of universal design where we make men can make a change that would benefit one group of people that really ends up really benefiting many many more people everybody we could if we wanted to as I understand it and you can correct correct me city attorney but to expand the health benefits to include domestic partners and you know in certain other kinds of domestic living arrangements so that when you have somebody who is living with an elderly you know somebody living with an elderly parent somebody who's taking care of their of their you know niece and nephew who are their guardian but they're not adopted I mean they're you know and I I'd be curious at the very least as to how if we decide to go ahead with and again like I said before I support every single one of these issues here and want to give direction for all of them but that would be an example of one area where we could see how we could add more to it and another thing to think about too is when we all of these items that include kind of adding sexual orientation and gender identity to an existing list of groups and identities that we're not going to discriminate against veteran status is missing from a number of those so this would be an area where we could address you know while we're while we're doing it I mean it wouldn't count that doesn't count for the municipal quality index but if we're going to be going back and looking over air revising our anti discrimination ordinances why not add veteran status to all of those two so that somebody can't be discriminated against in housing for instance for veteran status councilman breaks just one last quick comment we talk about things that we could do I'm in favor of the the city contractor non discrimination policy I think that is something apparently all the other cities around us are doing and so that means that the contractors they are using have these in place and I'm sure a lot of municipalities use a lot of the same contractors so that may be something that the the contractors around in the area already have in place that might not be such a big issue for them if we start looking into their policies and that's something we can work on doing more of an analysis on and perhaps we can fold it into that overall purchasing policy update as we're looking at reviewing the entire policy that's an item we can we can look at at that time and tell you what the if there would be any projected impacts yeah I'd just be curious to to know I mean a lot of the larger ones probably already have anti-disc rimination policies just not cities but contractors larger contractors and consulting firms any other questions just to suggest that outside of these these categories that are created by the human rights campaign I would like to see staff come up with and you could you could define these however however you wanted to but kind of a list of to use your term mayor pro-democracy low-hanging fruit what is the low you know if you could decide in terms of implementation what is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit so what if you could come up with a list of what items would be the fastest and easiest to implement and I realize there are a number of different factors it's subjective but just kind of as a starting point because again this is so many and we could spend a lot of time on each of these but this is just such a wonderful beginning to this discussion anyway for me that would be helpful and I would imagine you know from my colleagues as well in seeing what would be the fastest to implement where we could just all say okay you know look around the table do we agree to do this and have nods and we all know what it means you know versus maybe those other things that could would be fast and and and cheap or free to implement but first we would have to establish exactly what that means so for instance I my guess would be that I don't think that any of us it would can doesn't know what it means to just take a sign off of you know take a women or men sign off a bathroom and just to write restroom on it right so that I can't imagine unless people want to be particular about you know what color would font whatever you know that that doesn't matter to me so that would be something I would imagine it's just really quick consensus can we get I don't know do I how does making a motion work in a work session I notice doesn't happen much we don't really do that but but I mean I would definitely give you know myself say it'd be great to just go ahead and and and and do that right now if my colleagues agree and if people want more time then maybe that would be the next the next stage would be simply to have staff go back and to create that list of you know prioritize in terms of or maybe not even prioritizing just just listing in terms of the lowest hanging fruit quickest and cheapest for implementation branching out and I imagine that the ordinances would be would kind of it would take the most time and be the most complicated not not the most not costly per se but just you want to get those just right certainly couldn't hurt would probably be helpful to see the difficulty of implementation in sequence yeah I think we've got at least three I'm sure somebody over here would also agree with the fact that we'd like to adopt a youth bullying policy I think that's that's a no-brainer right there on the item of restrooms I think we would want to check with our health department I don't know if this is strictly with restaurants but I know when I would get inspections when I owned a restaurant there are differences if the restrooms look single-use restrooms if they looked identical you may pass on the men's and not on the women's so there are differences in what's required by a business by our health department in certain situations as to what has to be in in the different restrooms so you know that's something that could be discussed yeah how exactly does our does the didn't together coalition you do they look at any of these items or are they not specifically but we can bring this item to them for discussion and input for that group we are kind of trying to do a refresh of the dentin together coalition refresh the members are on it as well so I want to make sure that we have the LGBTQ representation on that group but I think that would be a great community group to discuss it and are there items that aren't on this list that maybe we can work on as a community I think I would really like to see a group of citizens to a committee maybe charged with addressing this but as far as I'm concerned you know the I'd be fine with kind of staff and council and if working on this with constant citizen input but this the Human Rights Commission whether it's a some other incarnation of the dentin together coalition or whether it's something completely new to me that would excuse me that would seem to come be one of the first things that I would like to see us do and you know making it a priority of having LGBTQ representation on that Human Rights Commission including people who are parents and guardians of LGBTQ youth who are too young to to serve on committees but need to be represented too so do you feel like you have some direction which yes I think we'll work on the youth bullying prevention policy we'll work on inclusive workplace I think those the two I heard and then just overall there's you have an awareness of staff or some other items that could be policy discussions for council in the future as we work on other items you know I think you know if if the council wants us to bring back you know priorities then the next two would obviously be the housing and public accommodations although we do need to have legal weigh in on both of those and I don't want to put Aaron on the spot right now so it's really up to you if you want to spring back I feel like we've pushed as far as we really can I mean right now this group wants to see they don't care what I think they care what you know if the council wants to move the ball from a policy perspective and a legislative so I think we've done what we can there's there's a couple of smaller policies we can certainly change and I could you know if there's agreement on the bullying for instance that's a real simple one to to take on I'm happy to do that but they're they're wanting you know council positions on some of these other things so we've we've kind of implemented as councilmember Brink said over the last couple years some of the things that I readily control from an employment and just a workplace equity perspective but when it comes time to when it comes to actually you know dealing you know adding you know to the the city benefit program and all that that is done with councils approval so I feel like we have pushed as far as we can and you know if there's four of you that want us to move forward and bring some research back we're happy to do it but I feel like we're at a place where we put with the exception of the bullying policy we pushed about as far as we can without you so and we still have of course we've got one member who 's not here mr. mayor who who you know declared the pride month did the pride month declaration so it'll be good to have his way into and I'm just I'm really pleased to have heard no objection and no vocalized objection to any of these items so I'm excited about that and thanks to staff for moving moving forward as much as you can on those staff issues and when can I ask when could we expect roughly the next or would you need time to to to regroup and think about that could we expect the next I think the real question is what direction are we being given to bring you back I mean we've heard the bullying policy well the list of priorities for us well I yeah I guess the question is is are we hearing from a majority of you that this is something you want to move forward on you know and if it is we can we can sir I think that would I would stand by the public accommodations and housing issues after conferring with the city attorneys quest their their bigger point issues but I'm not sure I want to be careful in the housing I think mayor pro tem hit the nail in the head I want to want to be sure that we're not in any way adopting policies that that we're not thinking through that you know I want to have the research done on that just to be sure he's that we're clear of all obstacles right now and we're those would be the next two that we would clearly bring back and research if we've directed by a majority of the council councilmember tough well I you know I'm good with the bullying thing and all that but as far as moving forward on most of this I'm not far at all and I can rest assured there will be citizens that will weigh in on this city attorney and I just wanted to weigh in I just wanted to make understand the ordinances piece that councilmember arm and tour was discussing about housing and public accommodations are you trying are talking about those similar ordinance or similar ordinance that Plano or Dallas have adopted which are just general anti-discrimination ordinances which cover or include sexual oriented orientation and LGBTQ and if so I mean I want to leave you all with this question to think about what exactly do you want to accomplish with that ordinance because if you look at all these ordinances that are being passed the enforcement mechanism is a class C misdemeanor for a violation it doesn't get a person's job back if they're terminated because of their sexual orientation or LGBTQ it doesn't guarantee them housing and all those issues so I just wanted to at least to let you all know as a council the types of ordinances are out there they're anti-discrimination but the only enforcement piece to them is issuing a citation and and so and there are a lot of exceptions in these each of these ordinances will have a list of exceptions for religious grounds employers under certain that have certain number of employees like 15 or less and that's what you start seeing so as you start having those kinds of discussions that's the question I want to leave with you is what exactly you wanted to accomplish for you in an ordinance that's my brief yeah well that I was gonna ask that you do look at other cities ordinances and see what they have as well on on the contractor on the municipal on the housing and and I know that people are still discriminated against even though the policies are in place for many other reasons not just you know sexual orientation but we can do what we can do to make it to make it better and so I mean that that's all it's all we can ask Councilmember Meltzer we're the government and you know represent the law and there's just a very basic principle that all are equal before the law so whatever we do that goes to just establishing that very basic principle that helps every single person that everyone is equal before the law I'm for that and we'll you know so I'm interested so as far as what the benefit would be it's purely just a statement of principle to all citizens that everyone is equal before the law Councilmember Amateur I would like to see some some teeth to that to answer your question to those ordinances but I feel that kind of what what that would entail I imagine would involve you know separate discussion and presentation from legal and would vary on each each of these ordinances at the same time you know I feel much like with our ethics ordinance for a long time we didn't have one and now that we have one you know I might I might not agree with everything in it I might want it to be stronger and raise the bar even higher but it's but I I'm so happy that we've got something you know so anything I would be happy with the barest minimum that but once we had that I would want to push to to give it some some teeth to make people feel more protected and I would just say you know speaking to you that counts member Duff's but he mentioned you know I think you seem to have alluded to the idea that you know that there might be letters coming in that expressing a dislike or disapproval of LGBTQ equality and when those letters come in I believe those letters themselves will end up making a further case for why we need to show these people who are being discriminated against that the city respects their their rights and their equal access and equal opportunity and that we're on their side councilmember Duff yeah Paul I just want to totally agree with you which which is kind of surprising no but what you said I totally agree with you know I don't want anybody discriminated against but you know there 's a there's a lot of other issues involved with this so we'll see what happens any other comments sir thank you very much and leave that concludes our work session items so we will now can oh okay had a request before we go into close to go ahead and do can see the consent agenda and that way some of staff won't have to stick around past their normal time so with that I will we will convene in a in our special call session at 440 so and the first item up is the consent agenda move approval of the consent agenda I don't know I don't item II I move approval of the consent agenda but for item II second got a motion and a second all in favor seek to fight by raising your right hand motion carries unanimously mr. city manager do you want to go ahead and do individual consideration including item II sure and we have Mr. Kenaz ari's here also to answer your question on II if you want so it's up to you how do you want however you want to take the order well I guess the main yeah we'll go ahead and call for item II on the consent agenda I was informed beforehand before the meeting that there were some changes to the ordinance so if we can just quickly explain what changes were made absolutely mayor pro to the members of the council Mario Kenazari's as a city manager real quick what had happened was the North Texas Fair Association had made a request to utilize some city owned road cones in the past they have have borrowed these cones about 125 of these for the North Texas Fair the fair starts this coming week and last another week another eight days beyond that and so in the past so when they've made this request it's been administered through staff but with the recent changes to our ethics policy it was it was deemed that the City Council needed to render a decision on this request and so that's why you have an item on your on your agenda I don't have to go through all that you have it in your backup but the bottom line is the reasons why this thing this item was pulled is there some issues with the ordinance the original ordinance that was posted on the agenda indicated that there would be a financial contribution of $ 5,000 that is not the case did not provide any specific language of the actual request and then it was confusing the ordinance did not match the information in the AIS so that's basically the the changes that we're asking for here on this item again it's 125 cones the North Texas Fair staff comes and borrows the cones they use it they whatever doesn't get brought back the city charges them a fee I think a little low a little under seven dollars a cone to replace those and the North Texas Fair staff immediately issues the check and covers the city's expenses so that's really that's the intent of the other request Councilmember Briggs so the they will pay us back is that we said they will if again of the they borrow 125 so they borrow 125 125 were returned of those that aren't for if they're damaged or they're missing that we charge them for whatever it is that's missing okay and so I just have a few questions because we do this is not the sponsorship money that they get from DME no man and this is not the hot fun money which they get so this is separate it's separate and above and above that do we do this kind of thing for other even like with cones do is this normal for us to do as far as cones I'm not quite sure I know that other entities have come in the past prior to the ethics ordinance ethics policy to set up barricades for some of the other events and we've accommod ated that so it's one of those things that because of policy was just recently adopted these requests are coming in in that in that transition phase so what we need to do a better job is just making sure that those groups that make those in kind requests that have been administered by staff that they just include that request and if all their sponsorships so that way it's all identified on their front end and it can be the decision can be rendered at that time so we're not caught off guard like this so I'm glad this is coming before us and we probably will see other things but my concern is that we're doing in kind services for an organization that made four million dollars last year on top of that we do not do the same or provide the same service for our neighborhood or block parties our citizens who just want to have a block party we charge them to use these things so I would like to see if we do provide the service for organizations that we provide the same type of ability or service for our citizens who want to just have a block party in their neighborhood thank you we can certainly do that as we're finding these past practices we're requiring that they come before you to see you understand what it is and in compliance with the ethics ordinance but Mario's right with these should certainly be included in any any asks of the really the hot and the hot fund and sponsorship committee in the future and in terms of the residents we can certainly draft a policy like that thank you motion do we have we have a motion and a second all signify by raising your right hand motion carries unanimously thank you and so that all will have to come back for is the public hearing go ahead and call is call the the item for individual consider yeah that's a sense we'll go ahead and call the item for individual consideration item 2a consider adoption of an ordinance the city of Denton Texas authorizing city manager and is designated to execute advanced funding agreement good evening mayor pro tem council members I'm passing around something that updates the backup that was provided to you previously this is an updated version of the agreement the only thing that has changed is this morning we were notified by text dot that the text dot name on the signing page had changed the previous person mr. Selman is no longer there so the only change in this agreement is who needs to sign it at the state so I wanted to pass that out for y'all before I begin the presentation so I'm Chad Allen deputy city engineer and I'm here to present about the Fort Worth Drive utility relocations project it's associated with the text dot us 377 roadway widening and specifically I'm going to ask you to adopt an ordinance to execute an advanced funding agreement and the a fa is between the city of Denton and the state of Texas through text dot it's regarding water and wastewater utility improvements associated with the text dot us 377 roadway widening project it's going to allow us to pay text dot to have their contractor to move our utilities out of the text dot right of way and the amount of the advanced funding agreement is six point eight six million dollars I'm going to describe that more in in just a few minutes but basically we're expected that the city of Denton will be obligated to pay three point eight six million dollars and then we're going to receive additional regional toll revenue funding in the amount of three million dollars from net cog to finalize execution of the a fa so this map shows the limits of the text dot project the the text of product starts at the I 35 e frontage road and extends to the south to country Club Road or FM 1830 text odd is going to widen the existing two-lane roadway to a six lane concrete roadway with the raised median and they're going to construct traffic signal improvements at multiple intersections they're going to install an underground storm drain system and remove the roadside ditches and then they're going to build concrete sidewalks along both sides of the road throughout the project limits before that happens we have to move our utilities outside the text dot right of way and basically we're going to modify our utilities and relocate them to avoid any conflicts with the text odd improvements so what we've done is we've designed our utility relocations we've hired our engineering consultant and we have final plans for our utility relocations and we put those plans in along with the text op plans and we're bidding the job text odd is bidding the job all as one project they're gonna hire a contractor and that contractor is going to relocate our utilities and also perform their road way work and in order to pay for that we have to enter into an advanced funding agreement so that we can give money to text ot and then they'll pay the contractor to move our utilities so back on July 9th I brought a draft version of the a FA to PB and at that time the amount of the a FA was based on our engineering consultants construction cost estimate and we thought the total was going to be three point two million dollars around three point two million dollars I told that to be on July 9th and the very next day on July 10th text ot open the bids there were nine bidders for the text op project and the low bid der for the project was a company called SEMA construction Inc and they had an overall low bid of forty three point six two million dollars and that includes all of the roadway work and our public utility work so this is a list of the bidders SEMA is shown on top there the low bidder the overall low bidder you can see right here I've highlighted their low bid of forty three point six two million dollars but unfortunately when they open the bid we immediately looked at the public utility numbers and their public utility bid is very high it's six point one million dollars it's almost three million dollars more than what we initially estimated our utility work to be so we looked at all the other bids and you can see that some of the other bids for instance bidder number four had a bid of three point five million for the public utility work bidder number nine had a bid of three point seven million for the public utility work those numbers are much closer to our estimates but we are obligated to pay the six point one million dollars because text ot has to choose the low bid der which is SEMA construction Inc so we opened the bids on July 10th and we were very concerned of how high the public utility bids were so we immediately coordinated with text ot and thankfully all of our stakeholders agreed that the public utility work that the overall low bidder provided for prices for was very high so everyone text ot net cog Denton County and those of us at the city all agree those numbers for the public utility work and the overall low bid are unreasonably high so we all work together to find a solution and everyone agreed that net cog would go to the October 2018 RTC meeting the meeting of the regional transportation council and they would propose approval of an additional three million dollars in regional toll revenue funds to cover the higher costs of the public utilities which are unreasonably high so we 're not so this this number right here six point one two million that's the public utility bid from SEMA we have to pay a little bit more than that when we enter into an AFA with text ot they ask us to pay an additional 12% it's 2% for barricades 5% for mobilization and 5% for contingency so the amount of the AFA is actually the SEMA public utility bid of 6.1 plus an additional 12% so it 's this six point eight six million dollars amount that's the amount of the A FA and again we believe we're gonna be obligated to pay the three point eight six million then we're going to receive the additional RTR funding from next net cog in the amount of three million dollars so this is how it's gonna work the AFA sets out the terms and conditions of the payment right now the AFA says that the city will make two incremental payments to the state the first payment we have to make right after this meeting if City Council approves execution of the AFA we're gonna send a check in the amount of three point eight six million dollars to text dot then everyone all of our stakeholders agree that at the October 2018 RTC meeting an additional three million dollars in RTR funds will be approved and then we'll take that money it will be given to the city and we'll make our final payment to the state on or before February 16th of the three million dollars so we anticipate that the total amount the six point eight six million dollars is all we'll have to pay for the for this project the only reason we would have to pay more than that is if during construction the city of didn't requested a change order if we ask for the text dot contractor to do more work on our behalf we would have to pay for that otherwise we expect this to be the total amount we owe for the project so I'm asking you to adopt an ordinance to allow the city of Denton to enter into an AFA with the state of Texas in the amount of six million eight hundred and sixty four thousand nine hundred and seventy nine dollars and ninety eight cents regarding water and wastewater utility improvements associated with the Fort Worth Drive utility relocation project the US 377 roadway widening project are we happy to answer any questions you may have councilmember Riggs we had a presentation earlier today for my engineering department about change orders yes and so I know that you just specifically said if we request anything different but is it possible that things that will come back to us that are change orders to make this project more expensive even if it's something that we're not requesting like extra bells and whistles because of the thing that we learned this morning and and what do we have planned to pay for that if so so the thing you heard about this morning was about the FM 2181 project and that was where we almost requested a large change order based on the fact that some of our specifications for various reasons didn't include be included in the text dot bid text dot put the entire bid package out there and those amendments we were talking about this morning those amendments didn't get in there so the text out contractor bid the project without the amendments so what happened is we requested it we almost requested a change order hey we want you to include these amendments and this is going to be the changes we're asking you to make because these are our preferences the contractor came back with a very high price over a million dollars so in the end we decided that that was not reasonable that we couldn't justify an additional million dollars and so we did request it was our request that final change order of around a hundred thousand was our request but it was much smaller than we then our original preferences would have made it be so that would have that that example you heard this morning would have been us asking for a change order but what I'm saying is that come on up here Todd that situation won't happen with the text dot bid because it's already been bid and all of those issues have already been there's always the potential on any project that we may run into a change order for unforeseen circumstances but learning from the 21 81 scenario we did make sure that text I had the correct information here okay in this current one okay thank you that's my question thank you councilmember melting I'm not fully understanding the cash flows here okay you can help me out so we thought it was going to be 3.2 million the utility portion and presumably that's budgeted somewhere so now after the NCT COG kind of supplement that'll still leave us with close to 3.9 million so do we know where the extra 700,000 supposed to come from so we attributed to a couple of different things we talked to our engineering consultant who put together our cost estimate and since then it's been about a year and a half since we've done that cost estimate because the project was delayed because of coordination with the railroad so City of Denton I was very proud of the City of Denton and how we got it went out there and got our eas ements and finished our plans in time for the original text dot deadline but unfortunately text dot was delayed by over a year so we were ready it took another year year and a half before they could go to construction so prices have escal ated since then because of inflation and we specifically talked to our engineering consultant about a couple of those things pipe cost definitely increased and so we think that's a part of it and then just yes the 18 months of delay caused an increase in construction costs that was actually very interesting but it wasn't really what I meant to ask the budget I must understand the short the short fall will come from either allocated bond funds and water and sewer or from fund balance yes and currently just to go with city manager mentioned currently the project is funded up to I believe it's five point two million which is the original anticipated overall project cost so they're still close to four million dollars in that fund balance right now for construction this stays well within that range so I apologize I thought you're asking about between our estimate so is it coming for us basically just because it's a change because it's not it or is it because it's more funding it's a kind it's a contract with text dot so it's coming it's coming before you because you're contractually agreeing to pay our fair share which is a six point eight million dollars what Chad has basically shown you is how the money will work and I have to thank you know our partners at cog and Denton County quite frankly for for helping us with the RTR money which is a three million dollar offset to get this done so they came through but it's this is basically a contract for services yeah I just want to tackle that to say thanks to those entities for helping us out with those additional funds and also and thanks to staff for being on time and within this project and I can tell you know just in your the way you're presenting how much you care about keeping costs down too and I really appreciate that the public really appreciates that so you know it's too bad that that the cost soared so much this was a great you know great effort to try to get some some some accountability for that so thank you councilmember dot yeah I guess this is really just money to get get the thing started so there's a whole lot more money is going to be spent putting the roadway in there and I would I would imagine replacing that bridge is a big big part of it and that's what you were alluding to with probably the railroad closing you know slowing that down and one of the problems with that bridge is what I understand is the fire truck can't go under it so yes that that whole portion of the project was complicated and working with the railroad takes time so yes that delayed the project but everything's been worked out council member husband yeah so before I move approve move approval fun fact I learned it uh the again at the engineering potluck one of our employees made mr. frosty's list as he was clearing right away he's oh that was pretty awesome to see our employees name up there for a bit awesome from my perspective I'm less than awesome but it's like beware of or something so it's pretty awesome but anyway so I move approval watch out for a year and a half on the side yes yes it was up there a while we have a motion second second back council member armator any further discussion all those in favor signify by raising your right hand and motion carries unanimously so now we will move into the closed session so we will convene in closed session at 5 o 2 we will consider the following items consultation with attorneys under Texas government code section five five one point oh seven one and deliberations regarding certain power public power utilities competitive matters under Texas government code section five five one point oh eight six welcome back everyone we are going to continue with our August 14th special call meeting it is 630 and the next item up on our agenda is a public hearing hold a public hearing on a proposed proposal to adopt a tax rate of sixty two point oh four seven seven with a maximum allowable rate of sixty three point seven eight five six per hundred dollars valuation mr. mayor for tam city council Tony point the director finance have a very short presentation that I'll go through so if you have any questions be happy to answer your questions just wanted to remind everybody that the current proposed tax rate is sixty two oh four seven seven it's broken up between maintenance operations debt service as you can see up here that does reflect a proposed one cent increase from the city calculated effective rate we've had that discussion about the state calculated effective rates of the state calculated effective of which were required to publish is actually sixty eight five one six eight cents the roll back rate as you can see up here is a little bit over seventy two cents the maximum rate that we utilize to to do this publication and also to that was set as the maximum rate was actually last year's tax rate of sixty three cents a little bit over sixty three cents total certified values for the city was eleven point three billion dollars that was that represents about about a nine point five three percent increase over the prior year if you include the terse values it's a nine point seven percent this gives you a breakout of the current proposed budget for the general fund on the revenue side a little bit over 127 million dollars as you can see the majority of that is coming from adverlorem taxes 36 percent followed closely by sales taxes at at thirty two and a half percent the current proposed expenditures by category 129 million dollars the majority of that as you can see in the general fund is 67 percent is where the majority of those expenses are in the general fund that's personnel expenditures by function this is actually by department by City Department 129 liberal hundred twenty nine million the largest share of course police and then followed by a fire so public safety certainly makes up a little bit over 48 percent of the general fund budget followed by the parks department at eight three percent eight point three percent and libraries at four point six percent just as a reminder we'd had some discussions about some of the capital project funding the one cent increase that that you've you 've directed us and are considering includes funding of capital projects these projects include a replacement of the radio system the city radio system design of fire station 8 service center rehabilitation some small transportation projects our match for the Mayhill Bridge at DCTA some money to complete the police fire range was actually part of the 2014 bomb program also funds to to reconstruct some airport roads and then finally the lion's share is the reconstruction dollars to to complete the 2012 and 14 street segments last week you approved a notice of intent we've already published that are required to publish that for two weeks so there's a 30-day wait period the intent is to come back to you on September 11th for consideration of the actual bond ordinance that would authorizes to conduct that sale of certificates of obligation so that will be coming back to you pending any different direction from the council between now and then the total city proposed budget for fiscal year 18 19 I was a little bit over 1.1 billion dollars certainly the general fund the piece that I just went through is 10.9 percent of that the electric fund makes up a little bit over 17 percent you'll see all the other funds listed here I just want to point out that a large portion of our city budget is related to our capital program new funding makes up 9.2 percent and already available dollars that were required to reappropriate on an annual basis is a little bit over 33 percent of the total budget per council members requests we did break out down here in the notes what the other funds are comprising next step in this process is that the council will consider well they you considered already and voted on a maximum tax rate on on August 2nd today is the first public hearing on the tax rate proposed tax rate we'll have a second public hearing on a tax rate on September 11th there will also be a public hearing on the budget on September 11 we'll continue to have ongoing discussions with you at every work session on the budget the next opportunity will be on September 21st and then finally budget adoption is currently scheduled for September 18th that concludes my presentation if you have any questions be happy to answer your questions I'm gonna go ahead and open the public hearing and then we can any questions from council on this item another question just a comment I'd like to express appreciation to our city manager for spending some quality time with me investigating just what variations we might have conceivably pursued for instance if we were gunning solely for the effective rate I'm the the of the three options of doing what we're doing which allows us to do the sorely needed road work which allows us to fill in the very much needed police and fire augments the inspectors that versus not having any of those extra items you know I think where we are is the right place it's a small it is a small tax increase but it's less than what people will actually be saving in this cycle in utilities so I think as a balance of keeping the citizen whole and meeting urgent needs with it with great efforts at staying economical in each department I think you know we're in a very good place and I you know encourage the public to support this any other questions or comments then since we are this is a public hearing so anyone wishing to speak may step forward to the podium anyone wishing to speak I see no one here so I'm going to assume that we don't have anyone wishing to and go ahead and close our public hearing I believe there's no action to be taken at this time I'm correct okay then we will move on to our next agenda item number four concluding items any councilmember Briggs I just want to make sure asked that our our parks be ordinance is going to come back to us this budget cycle yes that I didn't miss that and I'll defer to you Tony or Brian in terms of the date that's coming back councilmember we're shooting for the 21st but I think realistically it'll be probably the August 28th when we'll bring that back to you and then just last back to school tomorrow for everyone I just want to wish the teachers and students a great year ahead councilmember hasn't thank you masterful job keeping us on a straight narrow day so we appreciate you stepping up in that regard but mr. city manager I would ask that staff and it could be an email to me I'm just I'd like to look at frame Street behind the police station and see if there's a way to make that a dead end without affecting the neighbors behind us yeah I just think there's a way kind of positioning to so that our office come out of the back and there's there's not you know people we have we actually have a committee researching it now we'll get you an update in a Friday report okay yeah I just I don't know what those barriers look like with the property lines look like but okay I was I was curious about so that's good to know that's in the works and then along the back to school route I mean I think for those that did not make it to the back to school eat backpack event I mean there's so many people I could not imagine you know if a portion of that was at MLK I mean just UNT gateway wasn't big enough so I don't know what the next steps are and I'm sure there's detractors from that event but I went twice just to kind of see the beginning middle and I just I welcome those conversations but I mean it's like I felt like we needed a bigger boat even then you know and that's that's a big complex so but it was run very well and so whoever kind of contributed participated in that I appreciate that and think it did a lot of good yeah this is just in light of the earlier discussion about parks projects today I would love to see and some some upcoming staff report and in answer to the question of whether our in-house designer Glen could be put to use to help out if he has any interest in helping with design work with the the committee on shelter solutions and the the the other committee looking at I'm not sure if a committee has been formed yet but work group looking at at other transitional options and kind of to to what extent our and you know maybe if his creativity could be used to and experience in parks to think of ways in which our parks could could help to serve our low-income residents low-income kids you know we've got this term that was new to me until a little while ago rogue play which you know I think when most of us were kids that that was what playing at a park was you know pick up game of basketball the kind of things you do for free when and so I would like to you know as we do all these kind of these fancy proposals for things things in parks to see what creative options we could have to to kind of to scale back and look at how we can serve our our lowest income residents and low-income kids for free that's all thank you I just have a couple of announcements I want to remind everybody that the North Texas fair and rodeo starts this Friday a great lineup on music over the next week and a half so be sure and check the schedule and show up when you can and also we're all feeling very blessed for the rain we've had for the last few days wonderful totals would be sure and walk through yards dump out buckets dump out the little the tray underneath your potted plants and etc so we can keep the mosquito population down so and that's all I've got anyone else and I guess we will adjourn at 643