Aug 24, 2021 City Council on 2021-08-24 2:00 PM

August 24, 2021 City Council
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             - Good afternoon.
 Welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council.
 It is 2.01 PM and we do have a quorum.
 So our call this meeting order today is August 24th, 2021.
 And do we have any citizens comments on the consent agenda?
 - Not today, mayor. Thank you.
 - Thank you. Okay.
 That takes us to a request for clarification
 on the agenda items listed on the agenda.
 So questions on the consent?
 None in the room. Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
 - Thank you, mayor.
 Regarding item F, how much is budgeted
 for outside legal consultation?
 And I have a second question as well.
 - Just one second. Mayor Pro Tem, staff is coming down.
 - Okay.
 - Good afternoon, mayor, council members.
 Laura Barons, the city's grant administrator.
 We currently don't have any money that's budgeted
 for consultations on grant writing or grant administration.
 - No, no, no. I'm sorry.
 Maybe I'm referring to the wrong item.
 Hang on one second.
 Let's talk about that.
 - Okay.
 - I'm sorry. I'm talking about item G.
 - Okay.
 - I'll talk by one.
 - That's yours.
 Mayor Pro Tem, can you repeat that question then?
 If it's not F, it's G?
 - Yeah. How much is budgeted in the general fund?
 For outside legal consultation.
 - David, do you know how much we budget total
 every year for outside consultation for outside attorneys?
 - David Gaines, assistant city manager.
 I don't have that number in aggregate
 for the general fund offhand,
 but we can certainly get that information
 before this evening and get it out to council.
 - Great. Thank you.
 And mayor, if I can ask about another item.
 - Sure.
 - Yeah. This is about item H and I'm sure it's item H.
 And I actually know the answer,
 but I think others might be interested in hearing.
 Is this public art at the fire station to be funded
 from funds specifically already set aside
 for that purpose and limited to use for that purpose?
 - Gary Packen is actually here.
 Gary Packen is here in the facility.
 He can answer, but usually through
 a capital improvement program, money is set aside.
 A percentage of dollars are set aside for art projects,
 but I'll let Gary give us two cents.
 - Mayor city council, Gary Packen,
 director of parks and recreation.
 I cleared it again on a treadmill,
 just running out the steps.
 That funding is specifically for a 2014 bond program
 for art in public spaces.
 For public.
 - And as I recall, it's specifically for public safety.
 - Public safety. That is correct.
 - Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
 I'm sure others or I suspect others
 might be interested in that too.
 Thank you.
 - Thank you.
 - Any other questions?
 Seeing none.
 Okay. Thank you.
 Takes us to our work session.
 Item A, which is, and I'll call the first,
 A is ID 211478.
 Receive report from Texas women's university
 regarding their master plan and hold a discussion.
 - Mayor, I'm sure all of you know,
 but we have our chancellor, Chancellor Faiton here
 to present about the plans
 and the work that they're doing at Texas women's university,
 which is very exciting and many things that connect
 to what we're trying to do here in the school at the city.
 - Okay. And just so to keep it in context.
 So it says discussion, no direction needed,
 just kind of update, right?
 - That is correct mayor.
 - Perfect. Thank you.
 - I think that's right.
 Hallelujah. Here we are.
 Kareen Faiton, chancellor and president
 of Texas women's university.
 It is a pleasure to be here with you today
 and thank you for your time.
 You know, I was going to share with you a slide
 with one of my favorite quotes from Jim Collins,
 but, and that's the Oregon Christopher.
 - Okay. Steve or Billy, can y'all come out
 and give us a little hand here at the podium.
 They'll come out.
 I heard the door.
 - Thank you. Sorry about that.
 - Let me just chart first in the demo room.
 So this will help you navigate through it.
 - Isn't it? What?
 - Are you open in, it's a PDF, okay.
 Did you guys open a file on a desktop?
 - Yeah.
 - Okay. I'm going to stop sharing for a second.
 You want to close this?
 - Yeah. Okay. And this is it correct?
 - Yes.
 - So this is in a PDF, the present,
 if you want to do a PowerPoint presentation,
 you would have a PowerPoint format here.
 - So you can't do a PDF in full screen mode.
 - Right. It's going to, sorry.
 - So you just have to scroll down.
 - You're going to have to scroll down.
 - So you just have to use this arrow.
 - All right. Figuring out the technology. Can you hear me?
 - Sure. Yes.
 - Sorry about that.
 - And then he'll just share it again.
 - Are we on?
 Maybe.
 - Okay. Well, you know, maybe I will leave this quote up.
 Jim Collins is sort of appropriate.
 So I've been talking to the campus about the flywheel effect.
 It's one of my favorite concepts in Jim Collins,
 where he talks about the fact that, you know,
 it's sort of like a merry-go-round.
 It takes a lot of different people, a lot of pushes,
 especially in the beginning,
 when you're at a dead stop to get things moving
 and everybody pushes.
 And there's not like one single thing that makes it happen
 or one single person that's going to click and, you know,
 this PowerPoint presentation.
 So it's everyone working together
 that really creates that momentum
 and then it starts really flying.
 So I thought I would start though with some gratitude.
 And the reason I'm saying that
 is because we are very fortunate to be in Denton
 and have had a really good relationship
 with the university across town and with the city
 and the various organizations in the city.
 And so I think that momentum that we've been experiencing
 is really because of all of that joint effort
 and working together towards a similar goal.
 We've had a long-valued relationship
 with the city of Denton.
 Some of you may remember this,
 but when I first came here seven years ago,
 I created a little video together with the city
 about highlighting the benefits
 and the wonderful things that Denton has to offer.
 And it was really a recruitment tool for TWU.
 And to me, it was obvious that people come to a university,
 but they come to a city.
 And the experiences that you can have there, et cetera.
 And so that's been one of our most popular videos actually
 for the first few years.
 But we've worked a lot
 with the Denton Black Film Festival thin line,
 supported Denton Chamber.
 We've been on several of my VPs
 on different boards in the city.
 And I think that's been a really positive relationship.
 So a few years ago now,
 I had a meeting with the city council too
 when we were really thinking about
 closing down the golf course.
 And what that would mean,
 what would it mean for the city,
 because we knew that 95% of the,
 well actually it was higher than that,
 of the rounds that were played on the golf course
 were played by members of the city.
 I think it was only 3%, really,
 were played by faculty, staff, and students.
 So we wanted to see, okay, what can we do?
 And so that was a really productive conversation
 that really told me at the time,
 if we can work together and figuring out,
 get feedback from each other about what it takes
 and what is everybody's needs and desires,
 then we can work towards a common future,
 which is really positive.
 And so that's sort of my hope today too.
 So we add a sort of a tipping point in our history.
 And I wanted to share a little bit with you what that meant.
 And hopefully, what I'm really hoping to get also
 is what it means to you and what you'd like to see
 from the city's perspective in terms of TLU
 becoming a system, what it means,
 how can we really help each other out,
 and what are some of the hopes that you have
 for that particular event that we've experienced.
 So I'll start with our strategic plan, Learn to Thrive,
 which as you can see, it's going to end in 2022.
 So we started off with 17 initiatives,
 which have most of them, except for a handful,
 been really worked into the fabric of what we do at TWU.
 And we have about a handful left to do work on this year.
 But really, this strategic plan was a joint effort.
 And we had members from the community on there.
 We've had members from Dallas and from Houston as well.
 So it's been a really collaborative process.
 And I think that it was very successful.
 And the reason, by the way, you see here version 1.4
 is we wanted to make clear that this was a living document.
 So not something static you put on the shelf,
 but really, this is sort of guiding what we wanna do.
 And I think that's important for,
 as you see what we coming up next.
 So the Institute for Women's Leadership,
 you may have heard about that.
 That was our chair of our Board of Regents, Jill Jester.
 The Institute for Women's Leadership
 has three different centers,
 Center for Women Entrepreneurs,
 Women in Politics and Public Policy,
 the Center for Student Leadership
 also has archives from women in Texas
 who have made significant contributions
 to politics and public policy.
 We have an exhibits hall, which is really pretty cool.
 And I'm hoping this can become
 sort of an attraction point to Denton,
 for people to come to Denton and visit.
 Unfortunately, because of the pandemic,
 we haven't been able to have an opening or anything like that.
 So we're looking forward to doing that,
 hopefully in November, if all goes well
 and the pandemic doesn't get much worse.
 November 4th, the governor will be here
 to celebrate the Texas Women's Hall of Fame,
 which every other year women get inducted
 in the Texas Women's Hall of Fame,
 which is housed at the university.
 And so that is the data we hoping to have
 an opening of the Institute.
 So something else that I wanted to mention here
 is our research, a lot of the research
 that's focused at university is research that matters.
 I mentioned that Jane Nelson Institute
 for Women's Leadership,
 but we also have the Woodcock Institute.
 And I think Mary, you were there in the opening of that.
 Focus on neurocognitive research and applied practice.
 We have some research going on right now
 that I'm very excited about.
 We're working with the congressional folks
 and our folks in DC.
 It's focused on PTSD.
 And I don't know if you know this,
 but there's very, very little research
 on the longterm effects of PTSD on women and on minorities.
 So this particular project not only focuses on that,
 but it's also they have done a pilot
 and they've had amazing results.
 And it is a very non-invasive approach
 to treating PTSD with brain stimulation
 and omega-3 fatty acids.
 So it's a very simple thing
 that we could easily send to people in rural counties
 so it could really impact a large group of people.
 And it's really exciting to see the dramatic results
 and positive effects they've had so far.
 So we're looking forward to seeing what happens with that.
 We've done a lot of work in the area
 of finding alternatives to opioids.
 It's very interesting research
 focusing on the native Texan plant
 that has a substance that's an analgesic.
 It could really be used.
 Well, you're probably familiar with this.
 A microbiologist, you know all about that.
 So it's kind of exciting to see the kind of research
 that's going on in this regard.
 We've had also a grant recently, a national grant,
 with several institutions around North Texas
 and school districts that are focusing
 on blockchain technology to help students
 own their own credentials as they move from high school
 to community college and college, et cetera,
 or later into employment.
 It's a huge obstacle oftentimes for students
 to be able to transfer, find their transcripts,
 move from one place to another.
 And so now they would own all their credentials
 on their phone, including any of their scores,
 their vaccinations, meningitis, whatever they need
 to be able to transfer.
 And we hope that that's gonna really help
 in terms of removing obstacles for students
 to go to college.
 So those are some of the examples of the kind of research
 that has been going on and that I call research that matters.
 So I know I've presented to this council,
 I mean maybe not this council, but to the council,
 the city council a while back a few years ago
 about our master plan.
 Basically, I mentioned earlier the golf course.
 When the decision was made to close the golf course,
 we went from a land poor university
 to a land rich university.
 All of a sudden we had this big piece of land
 and sort of we were able to dream and say,
 okay, what do we wanna do?
 So I felt it was really important
 that we bring a team together
 and we have some of the members here of the team
 that to help us think 20 years out, what is the vision?
 What do we wanna do so that we don't start building
 here and there as the needs arise,
 but really think with a bigger long-term plan
 and think about what all the different options,
 what are the different needs of the university
 and how do we wanna meet them?
 What are some of the guiding principles
 that we wanna use, et cetera.
 So we are really thrilled
 that we have this campus master plan
 because then all of a sudden we were able
 to really move forward with some of our projects
 and know how we're gonna approach them.
 So I wanted to share these guiding principles
 and I'm not gonna go over all this in great detail.
 This is all available on our website
 where all of that is laid out,
 what our guiding principles are, what the goals are,
 what the campus master plan looks like, et cetera.
 So I invite you to go visit that,
 but I guess it's important to realize that we really,
 and by the way, we had members from the city
 on the campus master plan team,
 so we really were trying to be all-inclusive
 and get all the various perspectives
 as we moved forward on doing that.
 One of the things you'll see here
 that we prioritize the Denton on-campus pedestrian experience
 with an autofree core, but also bicycles,
 trying to keep the green space, all of that,
 the history, to maintain the trees that we have on campus,
 et cetera, so here are just some of the slides
 from that website that you can look at.
 I invite you to take a look when you have a chance,
 but it really has lots of wonderful information
 about the goals that we had, focus on health and wellbeing,
 and as you can tell here, one of our big goals
 is to involve and engage the community.
 So very much deal with you being part of the community
 and how can we make that work in a synergistic fashion.
 Here it is about preserving and enhancing the ecology,
 trying to keep the green space and the trees, et cetera.
 Some of the buildings that have come online since
 are science and research building.
 We used to have what was called GRB.
 It was kind of like a dark,
 well, you probably know that building,
 not exactly inviting a space,
 so now we have a state of the art science and research
 complex, which is really wonderful.
 We just were able to tour with our regions last week
 and it looks like the faculty are feeling really happy.
 It's very well lit and lots of natural light coming in,
 so it's very exciting.
 Our Oakland complex, I have told our faculty
 at our meeting last week that we went from a parking crisis
 to maybe now a regular parking problem,
 like many other universities have,
 but we built this fantastic Oakland complex
 where there's a parking garage
 and also some office space, et cetera.
 We've also had parking built on the surface
 on what used to be the golf course,
 so hopefully the situation will be a whole lot better.
 Brand new student union.
 Again, unfortunately, this is one of the buildings
 we have not been able to have a public opening yet
 because of the pandemic, so we look forward
 to actually have that take place.
 Our residential village, I think you were there also
 for the opening of that, and it's just been really exciting
 to see all of the activity, brand new teaching,
 I mean the dining hall.
 Actually, something I want to mention about the dining hall
 and a lot of the buildings that we've worked with at HKS
 is really keeping this idea about how can we use nature
 and the beautiful space around and help bring that
 into the space of the building.
 There's a lot of research around the idea
 that it really helps with mental health
 and stress of students when we do that.
 And so we've really tried to capitalize on that,
 and I feel really good about what we've been able to achieve.
 Our dining hall also has a teaching kitchen
 'cause we very much want to learn to do by doing
 and really teach our students about how to cook healthy meals
 and all of that, so it's been exciting.
 The closing of the golf course allowed us to have
 more open space and a trail system that we still,
 we're in the process of working on that we hope can connect
 with some of the trails that you envisioning for the city,
 because I think it'd be wonderful if we can have that
 seamless connection between all of them.
 We're still working on that, and Rob is here with me today,
 so I'm just flying over these concepts,
 but hopefully this'll tease you for if you have any questions
 and Rob can answer some of those questions
 much better than I can.
 I'm gonna bring Christopher up to talk a little bit
 about our Quaker Town projects.
 I know this looks like beautiful little scribbles, Christopher.
 - Thank you, I'm Christopher Johnson,
 I'm the Chancellor's Chief of Staff,
 and the reason she asked me to present on this
 is because I'm on the Quaker Town Committee.
 So I wanted to give you a little bit of history
 on the Quaker Town Committee and what it means.
 We got a comment in the Chancellor's suggestion box
 back in 2017 that said we think you should remove
 the name Brawley from the building,
 because Brawley was one of the principal architects
 for the park bond issue that ended up relocating
 60 families in Denton to a less desirable place,
 but farther away from the university.
 And so that was the first I or the Chancellor
 heard about this story, and so she decided,
 well, let's look into this and then let's form a committee.
 So we actually formed a committee including the student
 who put that suggestion into the suggestion box
 of faculty, staff, students, and community members
 to investigate what do we do about this issue
 that the student raised.
 And so we looked at some inspiration
 from places like Brown University, Georgetown University,
 as well as looking at the Memorial for Peace and Justice
 that was under construction in Montgomery, Alabama,
 to see what it is that other universities had done
 to try to reconcile with their past.
 And so we took a lot of their ideas,
 especially the work from the Memorial for Peace and Justice.
 There's a great TED Talk called Architecture That Heals,
 and it was the architect who designed that building
 who made that TED Talk.
 And so that was very inspirational.
 There was a lot that they talked about
 with a concept of Bundahay, which is the community
 coming together to work on something big like this.
 And we have a history of that actually
 at Texas Women's University
 with our little chapel in the woods.
 There's a lot of elements to that little chapel
 that our faculty developed, student developed.
 And so we wanted to try to use that sort of as a way
 to think about how do we acknowledge the role
 that the university played in the Quaker Town story,
 as well as look for something that would help us
 with the current milieu that we are in today.
 And so one of the suggestions obviously was,
 well, just take the name off the building.
 That would be very quick,
 and there would be nobody who would remember that,
 except for they would remember that name wasn't on the building.
 I mean, they wouldn't see that name on the building.
 But it wasn't something that would allow us
 to have conversations, hard conversations,
 about social justice issues.
 And we were facing a lot of them, and we still are.
 And so the committee came together with a lot of ideas,
 and one was that we would have a amphitheater in the round.
 There's a lot of symbolism of that.
 We wanted to have conversations
 that brought voices at an equal state.
 We had no spaces on the campus
 where people could talk at an equal state.
 It was almost always sage on the stage type of scenarios.
 So that was important to us.
 But we also wanted to make sure,
 so that would allow us to have those kind of ongoing
 conversations and engage in the work that will help,
 I think, address some of the systemic racism and injustice
 that we see in our community.
 And so we put that forward, but we also wanted to make sure
 there was an acknowledgement element to this.
 And we wanted to really also memorialize those people
 who had been relocated.
 And so as you can see on this slide,
 we've been working with HKS again.
 They just have such great history in designing architecture
 that heals effectively.
 And so they've been partners with us
 to bring the committee's vision to life.
 And so you can see on here, we have that amphitheater element.
 We have elements that are going to allow the story to be told.
 It was really important for us to also be mindful
 of who controls the narrative.
 And so we want to make sure that there are all kinds of voices
 that come into the storytelling.
 And so we're creating spaces specifically
 that students can contribute all throughout the rest of history
 with what their understanding is of the story.
 So there's a lot still to do.
 We've selected a location on the former golf course.
 It's in a five-acre wooded area.
 We're committed to not cutting down trees in that area.
 So the boardwalks will be under there.
 And we're also committed to really the vision
 of the committee.
 And so we go back and forth with biweekly meetings
 between the designers and the committee.
 So that's the Quaker Town project.
 I also want to mention that while there's a physical feature,
 there's also a pedagogical and curriculum feature.
 So there's a group of faculty who are working also,
 and they've begun this summer doing workshops
 to how to teach about Quaker Town in the curriculum.
 And so that's an ongoing grant that they got
 from the National Endowment for Humanities,
 which is a very prestigious organization to get grants from.
 I will mention that this is just one
 of many diversity, equity, and inclusion projects
 that the university has been working on.
 So when we talk about momentum, this is an area that I feel
 like we've built a lot of momentum on.
 And I'll say that one of the things we realized this last
 year is how much people didn't know about the different things
 that were going on at different parts of the university.
 And so the idea of this council was
 to bring all those voices together.
 And it's actually, I think, very innovative in comparison
 to a lot of other approaches to DEI at an organization,
 because it empowers the champions who already are
 in existence on the campus so that they can go out
 and be influenced there or bring back information
 to their spheres of influence.
 It's led by Jason Lambert, Dr. Jason Lambert.
 He is the chair of the council.
 He also does a lot of work for the community.
 He does work with the Denton Chamber of Commerce,
 as well as the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce,
 and he works with the city.
 One of the pieces of this, I think, that's most critical
 for our population is how do we work on our faculty?
 So we have a very diverse student body.
 So the provost has this working group on anti-racism
 where they're really focused on integrating DEI concepts
 into the tenure and promotion process.
 That's very critical for us.
 So I wanted to highlight that.
 Next, I want to bring up these slides.
 So Gallup and Purdue worked a long time ago on the idea
 about what is graduate success in life,
 and how do we correlate that success with experiences
 that students have at the university?
 And so they wanted to -- they came up with this Gallup-Purdue
 index, and they did a lot of measurement, I think,
 over 90,000 participants over the last 10 years.
 And Excellency in Education is an organization that --
 their idea is that we can intentionally serve Latinx
 students while serving all, so that we don't serve them
 at the expense of others, but we can serve all.
 And so they partnered with Gallup to try to look
 at differences in the data between national universities
 and Hispanic-serving institutions.
 And so that's what this slide shows.
 The data is interesting in itself,
 but the next slide I think is most interesting, because, yes,
 you can ask me and I can say, yes, I think we have a lot
 of momentum built in what we're doing, but it's another thing
 to ask the graduates themselves, the alumni themselves.
 And so that's what this -- this is what we were able to do
 by pulling out, since we're a Hispanic-serving institution,
 our data from the Gallup and Excellency partnership,
 and really showcase how Texas Women's University plays a role
 in really affecting the lives of our students,
 and therefore our community.
 I think one of the most impressive ones is my education
 from Texas Women's University was worth the cost.
 Look at how different that is
 from Hispanic-serving institutions nationally
 and other universities nationally.
 So I think that's important
 because our student body really reflects the state
 and the community.
 And we are one of the most diverse universities
 in the state, as measured by U.S. News and World Report.
 I think one of their measurements that's so key here,
 is that their definition of diversity is you take two
 students at random, and what's the probability
 that they aren't the same ethnically and racially.
 And so that is how they make that measurement.
 And when we look at that, we have one
 of the most highest rates in the country, fifth in the country,
 and tied for first in the state.
 So I'll turn it back over now to Chancellor Faiton
 to talk about our enrollment.
 >> Thank you, Christopher.
 So this is a slide about our enrollment as, well,
 this was created about a week or so ago,
 so we don't have the latest data yet,
 but this is what we anticipate.
 And as you can see, the trend is going
 in the right direction, shall we say.
 It's from our perspective.
 So the total enrollment is really growing,
 and we feel really good about how the direction that's going.
 And the fact that we are responding, you know,
 and something else that's important to recognize is
 that different universities have different missions.
 Of course, we've said something, you've heard
 about the demographics, you know, about half
 of our students are first generation,
 about half of our students are Pell eligible, et cetera.
 And so there are about 27 universities in the state
 of Texas that are focusing
 on comprehensive regional universities,
 and that are really focused on educating the bulk
 of the growing population in Texas.
 So we feel good about our enrollment growing
 from the perspective that that means we serving the state
 of Texas the way we're supposed to,
 meaning really serving the needs of the students
 in the demographic that is really growing in Texas.
 So a couple of points that we're really proud of, I guess,
 is what we call the opportunity and excellence, our two values,
 that we were recognized by the Dallas Business Journal
 as number one in DFW for graduates,
 really cost versus value, the salary that our graduates end
 up earning when they graduate versus the cost to attend.
 Number two in Texas for the value
 that the university adds to an individual.
 This was number 45 in the country, number two in Texas.
 This is a measure I'm particularly proud of
 because The Economist is a well-known respectable magazine,
 and they ranked universities differently
 from how universities are typically ranked,
 which is based on your research, your endowment, your,
 you know, those kinds of things.
 Here they really were focusing on the transformation
 that a university does at an individual level,
 and what they did, being The Economist, they predict based
 on all the data that's available to them
 from the Department of Education.
 They look at a person, Gerard, you know, where you live,
 what major you're going to take, et cetera,
 and then they predict what your income is going to be.
 Then they look later and they look at the income
 that you actually earn after you've graduated
 from X university, and that's how then if you're hired
 and they rank you higher, so whatever the differential is,
 is how they estimate the differential impact,
 the transformation that the university has made
 on the individual students.
 And if you look at the measure that way,
 we rank number 45 in the whole country
 among 1,275 institutions, including Yale,
 Harvard, Princeton, you name it.
 So that's pretty significant from my perspective,
 because that is what we're all about,
 is changing the lives and making sure
 that we transform them in the right direction.
 Number three in Texas in terms of total cost
 of tuition fees, room, and board.
 And another measure that we're particularly proud of
 is that 85% of our graduates are employed
 or attend graduate school within the first year
 after graduating.
 That's always a goal for everyone,
 especially parents sending kids to school,
 making sure they get a job.
 So 85% of our students achieve that goal,
 which is really nice.
 Another measure we just found out about here recently,
 we've emphasized a lot the whole notion
 of open educational resources,
 which affords students to access textbooks
 without having to buy the textbooks.
 It's a different way of providing the materials
 and the resources that they need.
 And this semester, this year, we will be on track
 to save students about a million dollars
 by engaging in this open educational resource.
 You don't always realize the cost, the burden
 that the cost of textbooks adds to the student debt.
 So this is pretty significant and we're very proud of that.
 Now, another topic that I wanted to talk about,
 which is you probably don't expect me to talk about,
 is athletics.
 We are adding the new competitive sports
 to TWU's roster of sports, right?
 And we're really excited about this
 because also of the caliber of the coaches
 we've been able to attract.
 So, synchronized swimming, we have a coach
 that used to be the coach at Stanford,
 has a huge following.
 And so she relocated to the area and was excited
 that we were looking at starting
 a synchronized swimming competitive sport.
 And so came on board at TWU,
 so we're really excited about her.
 Randy Miller, we just hired her for women's wrestling
 and she is a Olympian medalist.
 So at first I said, "Oh, you're an Olympian."
 She says, "I'm an Olympian medalist.
 "I guess you could be an Olympian
 "without winning a medal," but she did.
 So we're really excited about that as well.
 She brings, again, if you have that caliber of coaches,
 it brings a whole different level of students
 who are going to come to TWU for these particular sports.
 And they may not have considered the institution before.
 That was the whole idea behind
 starting these competitive sports
 that are not necessarily NCAA sports,
 is attract students that are strong academically.
 They may be strong athletes, but maybe not strong enough
 to be in a Division II school, for example.
 But they really still want to continue to play their sport.
 And so here is an opportunity for them to do that.
 And similarly, Jasmine Owens, our new stunt coach,
 just started also this summer practicing
 and they're going to start in the spring, I guess,
 is when stunts will start.
 So she as well is an amazing coach
 with an amazing reputation, all-American athlete, et cetera.
 So it's just very exciting to see this happening.
 We also are starting to move in the direction of e-sports.
 What's exciting about that is you probably know
 that this is a very male-dominated sport.
 And so I'm kind of excited to see what happens here
 and if we can attract some really strong women in e-sports,
 that would be pretty cool.
 So that's in terms of our, oh, and I forgot, our dance team.
 Yes, within their first year, they actually placed nationally.
 That was quite an achievement.
 That was also one of our,
 that was our very first competitive sport, as a matter of fact.
 Something about our annual economic impact in Texas
 is so significant and I thought, you know,
 we don't often talk about that,
 but it's important to realize 1.8 billion dollars
 as an economic impact in the state of Texas.
 It's pretty amazing.
 This was compiled by an organization
 that has done this for several universities in Texas.
 And so the metrics and the measures and the methods
 that they use to come with those numbers
 are pretty much the same across
 the different universities in Texas.
 So we were really happy to see,
 and a big portion of that has to do, obviously,
 with our alums and the contribution
 that our alums have in the area.
 A majority of our alums, a great majority of our alums,
 stay in Texas when they graduate from Texas Home.
 So therefore, they really also contribute significantly
 to the state of Texas.
 So what's all of this building up to, right?
 I'm building up the momentum here and why does it matter?
 So I guess we were not the only ones
 recognizing this momentum,
 but at this 87th legislative session,
 which is really 120 years and 60 sessions
 after the establishment of TWU
 at a time called College for Girls,
 the Texas legislature and the Governor Abbott
 recognized the importance and the fact
 that we mattered in the state of Texas
 and established us as the Texas Women's University System.
 So this was really the impetus
 for us to come talk with you today,
 as I mentioned in the beginning,
 and sort of talk about what does that mean?
 I can tell you what it means for us,
 what are some of the goals that we have,
 but also I would love to hear what it means to the city
 and how you see that this could be benefiting the city.
 One thing I will mention is that in the bill,
 it specifies that the headquarters for the system
 are to be located in Denton.
 And so we don't have a separate administrative structure
 for the system, but rather collapse with the university.
 So my title, chancellor and president,
 and so it's all staying in Denton
 as far as the headquarters and whatnot.
 So this is something I would love to hear your thoughts on.
 Denton, Dallas, and Houston are obviously
 the three campuses that we already have.
 The idea with the system is that basically it's,
 right now at this point, it's very much symbolic, right?
 When sort of the state giving us permission
 to engage on that journey of becoming a system
 and establishing those campuses
 as separate independent universities.
 Some of the goals for that is, obviously,
 we want to grow our influence in those different communities.
 We don't feel like we've done as good a job in Houston,
 for example, of serving the community there,
 because we don't really have an administrative structure
 that we don't have a leader there.
 I can't be at all the Chamber of Commerce
 or any events in Houston as much
 as I can be in Dallas or Denton.
 So it's a lot harder to establish those connections
 and make sure that we serve the community properly.
 So some of the goals that we have
 is definitely wanted to have a greater influence
 and serving those community better.
 We also want to grow our partnerships
 with the different universities and community
 and agencies in those communities.
 I mentioned the ACE grant around blockchain.
 We were able to do that in partnership
 with several universities and independent school districts
 because we have built relationships in North Texas.
 In Houston, we really haven't done as good a job.
 So it's important that we be established there,
 we can grow those partnerships
 and grow the philanthropic support,
 obviously, for those campuses as well,
 so that the communities there can feel like
 they own those campuses and those universities
 and those cities.
 So that's sort of the goal.
 I'll skip to my favorite, not favorite,
 but it's something that when I came
 to Texas Women's University, I mentioned
 that we were in a VUCA world.
 You might have heard that word before.
 VUCA stands for volatility, uncertainty,
 complexity, and ambiguity.
 And I thought that was the case seven years ago
 and I think you'll agree that maybe it's even more so today.
 So what does that mean in terms of vaccine,
 vaccinations, the testing, masking, et cetera?
 We've had lots of questions about this
 and basically, the position that the university has taken
 is we are a state agency
 and I had a conversation yesterday with mayor.
 We are a state agency and as such,
 our board of regents is appointed by the governor
 and as such, we're employees of the state
 and need to follow those particular guidelines.
 But we are strongly encouraging and urging
 anyone coming to campus to wear masks.
 And we try to model that.
 And I will say that our students
 have been really, really good in this regard.
 I mean, I've seen a lot of compliance with that.
 So that's been a positive thing.
 Masks, I mean, sorry, testing.
 We're starting a mandatory testing program
 and are exempting folks who are vaccinated already
 and some other exemptions,
 those who are taking classes online, for example,
 who are not coming to campus and those kinds of things.
 So we're moving forward with that as well.
 And all that with the goal, of course,
 of trying to keep the campus as safe as possible.
 We did pretty well last year,
 but, you know, with having more and more people on site,
 we just don't know what the future is gonna bring
 with the Delta variant.
 So we wanna take every precaution we can
 and encourage folks to get vaccinated.
 And, you know, with the testing,
 at least being able to identify
 if there are any kinds of risks
 and take that into consideration as we plan.
 So I will end here with something
 that's probably you would not expect of me,
 but I wanna tell you this little story about this farmer.
 So there was this farmer
 who grew this exceptionally good corn
 and every year he was winning the award for the best corn.
 And so one year, a reporter came to interview him
 and found out this really kind of interesting
 piece of information that he was really surprised about.
 He found out that this farmer
 was sharing his seed corn with his neighbors.
 And the reporter said, "Well, how can you do this?
 "Why are you sharing your corn with your neighbors
 "that are entering the same kind of competition
 "that you are every year for winning the best corn?"
 And the farmer says, "Why, sir?
 "Didn't you know that the wind picks up the pollen
 "from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field?
 "So if my neighbors grow inferior corn,
 "cross-pollination would steadily degrade my corn,
 "the quality of my corn.
 "So if I am to grow good corn,
 "I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
 And I thought this was a great metaphor.
 And I think it's really important, so to speak,
 for why it's important that we all do well.
 If the city does well, the universities do well,
 what benefits one university benefits another,
 if we all do better by sort of challenging each other
 and supporting each other.
 So I guess that's one of the reasons I feel good
 about being in Denton because I do think
 there is that understanding that we all do better
 if we work together and sort of look out for each other.
 So I'm happy to leave you on this
 and happy to answer any questions you might have
 about any aspect, and I'll call up our people
 if you have questions that I don't know the specifics on.
 - Okay, thank you very much.
 Councilmember Armitage?
 - Okay, so first, thank you so much for coming to speak to us
 and for your philosophy of town gown relationships.
 Don't take it for granted, you know,
 and I wish that all universities
 had that same kind of relationship with their cities.
 There's just a big history, as you know,
 in this country of divides and the story of Quaker Town
 is hardly unique, and so anyway, so much appreciated.
 So first, just kind of specific question
 about a constituent had asked
 about the parking garage pollution issue
 on Austin Street.
 You know, I know that had been a concern.
 I was wondering if you just had any kind of updates on that
 and also if you just wanted to speak to,
 since I know it's such a concern for you,
 you know, as kind of new construction goes up
 and the effect on the surrounding neighborhoods
 with light pollution, noise pollution, et cetera.
 - So tell me more about the pollution from the garage.
 - Oh, light pollution.
 - Oh, okay. - Light pollution.
 - So when we actually build the garage,
 we actually had town halls meeting with the neighbors
 and whatnot and sort of,
 we actually really took that into consideration
 that we built the walls on the different floors higher
 so it would stop the headlights from shining
 exactly for that purpose.
 Actually, it costs us a lot more money to do that,
 but we felt like it was important
 to really keep that in mind and be mindful,
 be good neighbors basically, right?
 So I can ask Rob to talk more about that,
 but I remember specifically
 there was a really clear decision that we made
 to make sure that those,
 I forgot what they call those little walls
 at the end of the wetter cars park,
 but they would be higher than the headlights
 so that we wouldn't have that light pollution.
 So I'm not really totally sure.
 - Yeah, thank you.
 And I'm fine with just that and be happy for,
 if you wanted to, I could be in touch with it
 and reach back out to the resident to let them know
 'cause I too was under the impression
 that that issue had been taken care of
 'cause I remember it was a concern
 and so I was surprised to see just now
 that's still an issue.
 So anyway, I'd be happy to--
 - I'm happy to look into it.
 - But yeah, also I wanted to say,
 from a few years ago when you came and spoke,
 I was skeptical about the plan for Bell.
 I've actually been pretty strongly converted to it
 and the advantages for pedestrian and bike safety
 and connectivity of the town.
 And of course, all of that is contingent
 on some other form of throughway for car traffic,
 which is a thing.
 - Absolutely.
 - But I know that it's my understanding
 that city traffic engineers are working on that,
 I don't expect you to speak to that.
 I didn't know if the city manager or someone
 would just wanna give a brief update
 since that's such a big part of residents' concerns about it.
 - Actually, Council Member, we'll be coming back
 on September the 14th to talk just specifically
 about Bell Avenue, if I'm not mistaken,
 and we've been working very closely hand in hand
 with our partners at TWU.
 - Okay, wonderful.
 - I would say from our perspective,
 this is really a conversation with the city.
 You know, the way I like to describe it
 is we all have things that we want
 and we all have things that we can offer.
 And so it's like, okay, let's bring together
 what's good for you, what's good for us,
 and how can we find a win-win solution for everyone.
 So it's really an ongoing conversation.
 And I like to think about it, it's not so much closing,
 it really is more having a pedestrian and cyclist approach
 and letting emergency vehicles still go through.
 So it's really more like, like you said,
 finding alternative ways to handle the traffic.
 But more than anything else,
 the whole motivation for this was safety.
 So we've built, you know where the towers are,
 those are the dorms, and then right across the street,
 right across Bell is the new dining hall
 and the other housing.
 So imagine the traffic back and forth, it's constant, right?
 So that's really, it's that section
 where we wanted to be sure that we considered that
 ahead of time with the city and say,
 okay, what should we do?
 What's the best solution?
 How can we be good partners and--
 - Yes, yeah, and it's also great for pedestrian
 and bike safety for people going through the campus
 to get from the university area,
 which is a pretty dangerous area,
 to kind of downtown, Quaker Town Park area,
 so that would make it even safer.
 So, and my other question was about the Quaker Town project
 and Raleigh Hall.
 First, I was just curious, since it wasn't clear,
 and I might have missed in the explanation,
 is Raleigh Hall still going to be renamed?
 Is it going to be renamed? - Oh, it has been.
 - Okay, good, okay, that's what I--
 - With some really, so I will tell you this,
 it's also one of our smallest and ugliest buildings
 on campus, and so we didn't wanna give it a glorious name
 on a building that wasn't, and so,
 what's it called now, some really innocuous name?
 - Support Annex. - Support Annex, yeah.
 You can't be any more functional.
 (laughing)
 - That almost contends with UNT's general academic building.
 - Yeah. (laughing)
 - The GAB. - Yes.
 - So, and so my other kind of related question
 just about the Quaker Town project also has to do
 with kind of city-university relations,
 and I was just wondering to what extent do y'all plan to,
 or have you involved the community,
 people in the community in the area
 that was known as Solomon Hill at the time,
 the place where those same families got displaced, too,
 and to what extent are y'all thinking about,
 how to, and I say this with the understanding
 that this is an issue that all universities
 in urban areas face, and so your approach
 is proactive and wonderful to kind of stave off
 future possible displacement and gentrification.
 I mean, the golf course, I think, is one great example.
 Instead of growing out and taking over,
 you're building up with what you already have.
 I love that, I've always loved that,
 but just wondering if you wanted to kind of speak
 to those two related issues.
 - Sure.
 No, absolutely, and Christopher can be even more eloquent
 about this because this was part of the work
 that the committee did.
 They also reached out to the community
 that used to live in this area and wanted to get the feed,
 'cause the committee really considered
 all kinds of different options on how to articulate this,
 and this idea, exactly what you're talking about,
 working towards the future and making sure
 we don't make the same mistakes, is the whole idea
 behind the amphitheater, and first of all,
 I'm gonna let you talk to me more about this
 since you're on the committee.
 - Sure, yeah, we definitely, one of the things
 that was sort of challenging for us
 was to identify who are the descendants
 and how do we have those conversations with them?
 One of the ideas was to collect oral histories
 and kind of create an oral history project around that.
 That's not off the table yet.
 It's still something that some of our graduate students
 in the history department are really considering,
 but it wasn't necessarily part of the memorial project.
 We can maybe embed through AR or augmented reality
 some of those oral histories in that.
 That's what we're hoping for eventually,
 but we didn't dedicate some of the funding
 for an oral history project.
 We kind of put all of our eggs in this one basket,
 hoping that that was going to be the most strategic way
 to move forward and have these hard conversations
 that will hopefully last into the future
 and create this acknowledgement and this reminder
 that our past has not always been what some of us think.
 It's so easy to forget the things
 that are hard on a community.
 And so we really wanted to be careful also, I guess,
 in where we placed this amphitheater
 so that it wasn't looked at as performative allyship.
 So we wanted to create a space for catharsis.
 We wanted a space also that Denton community members
 could access because it is a whole community's story.
 It's not just the Texas Women's University story.
 And so when we looked at locations,
 having a space that's close to parking
 for Dentonites to come and visit the space
 and others to come and visit the space was important to us.
 So I hope that answers some of it.
 - Thank you.
 And that wall, I call that, if the parking garage,
 I call it an emergency break.
 (all laughing)
 No, Council Member Byrd.
 - First of all, I wanna say that I was a student
 at Texas Women's University.
 I got to Denton in 1983.
 So 18-year-old Southside girl from Houston.
 And I spent 27 years at Texas Women's University
 and 23 of those.
 I worked for the university.
 And I will say that if my mother
 had not given me permission to go away and grow up,
 I know I would not be sitting right here right now
 because our university helped me grow up.
 And it gave me all that courage
 to know that I can be what I wanted to be
 when I wanted to be and how I wanted to be.
 And that brought me to this seat right now.
 So I just couldn't imagine being anywhere else.
 And I am very proud to know that you're there,
 taking the lead on making sure that it is sustainable.
 So I'm gonna tell my girlfriends tonight,
 I'm gonna get on the line and tell them,
 "I got a chance to see you."
 And I'm gonna be so excited about that
 and let them know that we have some people
 taking care of our place.
 Thank you for that. - Definitely.
 - I do have a question.
 I don't know if it's just me,
 but I'm not real sure of where this memorial
 is gonna be located.
 - It's not just you.
 - It's just me. - We didn't show you.
 - You know, I could spend all day talking about this
 'cause it's one passion of mine,
 but also something that I've worked on
 for, well, I guess six years now.
 So it's gonna be on the golf course.
 So there is a big parking space that's,
 there's a creek that runs through the golf course
 that is actually part of the,
 on the master plan you'll see it
 as kind of a water-developed area.
 And some of the landscape architects
 have really wanted to use that water feature
 as part of the storytelling.
 And so, because actually there's a creek
 that runs through Quaker Town as well,
 and it's now kind of a big ditch.
 But so anyways, we wanted to sort of look at those elements.
 So it's out there, it's on a five acres plot of land
 that's actually a tree area,
 just south of the soccer fields
 and just north of what we're calling our through fair,
 which is going to be a big walkway
 that's the east-west axis on the mall,
 on the master plan.
 So that's the space where it's located.
 - And I did see something like that on one of the slides.
 I saw the, is that the big, this is the second question.
 The master plan, is that the big master plan
 that we're talking about?
 'Cause I saw something over on the west side of the campus
 where there might be another high rise,
 maybe on the corner of Locust and Oakland.
 And then I saw some things going on over there
 where there are physical buildings
 that will be on the area where the golf course is.
 So is that what we see is what we kind of should expect?
 - Those are our dreams.
 Those are dreams. - The long-term plan.
 The dreams?
 - It's a 20-year master plan, right?
 So there's, basically it's about organizing space
 and how do we organize where the academic spots are,
 where the student life spaces are,
 where the athletic spaces are,
 and how can we do that in a strategic way
 so it's not like, oh, let's throw a building up here
 that's academic and then have a soccer field
 right next to it?
 You know, these types of things.
 So that's really what the master plan does.
 It doesn't set in stone.
 - That's not necessarily set in stone.
 'Cause I was gonna use it to send it out
 to all the folks I know.
 - It's really thinking about if we were to get,
 so basically when we did this effort,
 when HKS helped us, they really interviewed
 the whole campus.
 We looked at all the needs that we might have
 in the next 20 years, what kind of majors we wanna grow,
 all those different kinds of things.
 The utilization of our campus right now,
 so there was a lot of data collection
 that went into this, and then projecting out
 how much we were short on space.
 And based on that, where then would it be strategically
 placed around the campus?
 Now the buildings may not be exactly there.
 We may not get exactly that building,
 but they're sort of the zones
 that what Christopher was referring to,
 if it's a housing zone or academic zone
 or that kind of thing.
 But at least we have somehow a plan
 for if we do get money and we're able to build the buildings,
 this is where we would put them.
 And we've already fulfilled like a few of them,
 that we've talked about like the parking garage
 and dining hall and the parliament residence halls
 and that kind of thing.
 But so it's really with that in mind.
 And at the time that we designed the campus master plan,
 we actually did not have yet the specifics
 of the Quaker town, so that's been added later.
 So that's why we engaged HKS again and said okay,
 considering everything we had on the master plan,
 where would it make sense?
 You know, and that's how those conversations are evolving.
 - Okay, all right.
 Thank you so much. - You're welcome.
 - One other thing about the Quaker town there,
 we do have a resident guru in town
 that is studying Quaker town.
 This gentleman, I don't know if you all have been
 in touch with Randy Hunt.
 Does that name sound familiar to you?
 Randy Hunt? - Yeah.
 - You have been, okay.
 So I know that he has been very instrumental
 in educating all of us about Quaker town.
 He was at a neighborhood meeting last night
 catching the folks up on what some future plans could be
 for recognizing that area.
 So I just wanted to put that name out there
 and I'm pleased to know that you all
 have been connected with him in some kind of way.
 So I'm gonna leave it right there,
 but again, I'm just ecstatic. - Very nice to see you here.
 - To know that you all are taking care of something
 that is very dear.
 I know a lot of people are proud of their alma mater.
 We all go this, go that, but I will do my little--
 - Thank you, appreciate that very much.
 - Thank you very much. - Thank you.
 - Councilman Bet.
 - Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 I think Green Act, we haven't spoken in like five
 or six years, so it's good to talk to you again.
 I noticed that, and I applaud, you're making great use
 of the golf course space and trying to develop
 those elements and that's really great.
 I was curious, though, for the parcel north of university
 that used to be the experimental school
 and is now a shell lot, can you guys talk about
 what your intentions are for that little sliver
 of Idiot's Hill that T.W. owns?
 - So you're talking about that section that's along 380--
 - North of university across from the fields--
 - There's a parking right now, temporary parking.
 Yeah, we floated a couple of different ideas
 on what could be going there.
 We've been looking at all kinds of possibilities.
 At one point we were talking about the dream
 of having a sort of a retirement community where,
 because half of our majors are in the healthcare fields,
 so it would be a place where PT and OT could be doing,
 could be useful and having that whole idea
 of having older adults being able to mentor younger people
 and have that whole intergenerational approach
 to education, so we floated lots of different ideas.
 None of that has been solidified, but those,
 the challenge we have is, at one point we considered
 putting an academic area building there,
 a new health science center or something,
 but the challenge, and you have to cross 380.
 And so that, talk about safety there if you think Bell is bad.
 You know, crossing 380 is really challenging.
 So that's kind of, so I don't want to be putting
 an academic unit out there that then cannot be connected
 to the core of the campus for dining services
 and everything else.
 So if whatever we put, we end up putting there
 would be something that would be related to the university,
 but maybe not central to the academic mission, it depends.
 It could be some clinics, for example,
 or other things that we might be expanding
 that are more community-serving and not necessarily
 directly serving the students.
 There are a couple different options there.
 - Well, the reason I ask, I guess, was,
 there were some concerns from people up in that region
 about sort of, well, I guess it kind of alludes
 to what Councilor Armitage said earlier about sort of,
 what is the interplay of structures
 and the surrounding neighborhood?
 And I think, you know, based on some of the artists'
 conceptual drawings, which are not real,
 everybody understands that, but to some degree,
 they're a little bit aspirational sometimes.
 And so I think the Nottingham Woods/Idiots Hill area
 had some concerns that TWA could go a long way
 to ameliorating the kinds of integration
 with that neighborhood, with a little more feedback
 and a little more interaction.
 Obviously, you're not gonna put another dorm right there,
 or something like that, where we would see it
 from 30 miles away, but the sort of integration
 with the neighborhood would be an important thing.
 And I realize that might be a 20- or 30-year concept,
 but to the extent that we can have lots of feedback,
 lots of interaction, fewer surprises,
 lots of expectation management,
 that would really go a long way to--
 - Sure, and remember, that was one of our goals
 in the campus master plan, if you remember that.
 It's really the community engagement.
 I think we've been pretty good about doing that
 when there are buildings that were more impacting
 to the neighbors, right?
 It's really getting that feedback,
 and how can we be sure that we're good neighbors,
 that we hear multiple perspectives,
 'cause we don't necessarily think of all aspects,
 but point well taken, and it's definitely something
 that we will pay close attention to.
 Right now, we don't have any specific plans for that area,
 so, but I'm sure at some point--
 - And we're gonna take a quick five-minute break.
 We're having broadcast issues to the internet,
 so we'll take a break at 3.04.
 We'll be back at 3.10.
 - Sounds good.
 - And welcome back to this meeting
 of the Denton City Council.
 It's 3.18, and we're back on the record.
 And Council Member Beck, you have the floor.
 You have any additional questions?
 - Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 I have no further items.
 Thank you.
 - All right, thank you.
 Any other questions here in the room?
 Seeing none, Mayor Proctor-Melter.
 - Yes, thanks, Mayor.
 Not a question.
 I just want to take the opportunity to comment.
 First of all, so nice to see you, Dr. Payton and Christopher.
 It's always wonderful to hear
 about how TWU lifts students up,
 especially women and women of color.
 And I would just like to acknowledge
 there is a great mutuality of interest.
 I would wager that every prospective student,
 every visiting scholar, every family member
 visits downtown Denton.
 And the more that that is sort of attractive
 and appealing place, I think that you'd agree
 that also makes TWU seem like truthfully
 more attractive place to go.
 And I would amplify that just to say,
 I think all of TWU's investments in the cultural life
 of Denton, especially downtown Denton,
 accrued to the benefit of TWU.
 And I look forward to lots of ways to cooperate
 and collaborate in the days ahead.
 - Thank you.
 - Any other questions?
 Okay, great.
 And so in the essence of time,
 I'll just mention that thank you for your presentation.
 Thank you for your information.
 And I think I would direct people to TWU's website
 to see their accomplishments around the science area,
 NASA competitions, et cetera.
 So really great things there.
 And then just across the board,
 all your achievements and competitions.
 Thank you very much, appreciate it.
 Okay, thank you all very much.
 Appreciate y'all.
 Okay, that concludes item A.
 Take us to item B,
 which is ID211718, Receive Report, Hold Discussion,
 and give staff direction on proposed water
 and wastewater rates for FY 2021-2022.
 - Good afternoon, mayor, city council members,
 Nick Vinson, assistant director of finance.
 Let me pull the presentation up really quick
 and we'll get started.
 Okay, I'm gonna take my class off here.
 So let me share this here.
 So look forward to the conversation today.
 We're gonna finish our conversation
 regarding the fiscal year 2021-2022
 water and wastewater rates.
 If you remember a couple weeks ago,
 we did have a conversation about the fiscal year 2021,
 we did have a conversation about the fiscal year 2021,
 we did have a conversation about the fiscal year 2021,
 we did have a conversation about the fiscal year 2021,
 a couple weeks ago, we did have a conversation
 regarding the rate structure for water.
 This is a continuation of that discussion
 and to answer any questions that you may have.
 So before we get started,
 a little bit of history of the prior presentations
 we gave to the public utility board and city council.
 So on July 26, we did give a presentation to the PUB
 to talk about the initial rate structure
 that staff is recommending for water.
 We did do a follow-up presentation to them yesterday.
 They did give us direction to proceed with option three,
 which creates a new tier from zero to 5,000 gallons.
 Immediately following the presentation on July 26,
 on July 27, we did visit with city council.
 We did receive the same direction from the city council
 to proceed with a new tier from zero to 5,000 gallons
 and to bring that back forward to city council
 at a future date and also to provide
 a little bit more context to the 11% of customers
 that will see a rate increase in the water utility.
 So the current residential rate structure within water,
 we won't spend too much time on this slide.
 We have seen this before.
 You can see a residential bill is made up of two components,
 a facility charge and a volume charge.
 The facility charge is a fixed fee
 that residential customers pay monthly
 based on their meter size.
 That's the most common meter for residential customers,
 the three-quarter-inch meter.
 And you can see that fee in the table below with $15.84.
 Currently, which is the focus of today's conversation,
 is talking about the water utility bill.
 Today's conversation is talking about the seasonal rates
 of winter and summer and have all a metric charge,
 and we'll talk a little bit more about that
 in the preceding slides.
 And then just wanted to note that the average
 residential consumption has decreased from 9,200 gallons
 to 7,600 over a period of about five years.
 So residential distribution, we'll spend a little bit of time
 on this slide.
 It really feeds the conversation about the customers
 that will receive a rate increase.
 We use over 15,000 gallons average usage
 over a time period.
 So you can't see in the table on your right-hand side
 from zero to 15,000 gallons.
 We currently have about 89% of the bill distribution
 within that tier.
 15,000 gallons and above,
 we currently have about 11,000 gallons,
 or I'm sorry, 11%, and that 11% is the focus
 of today's conversation, the analysis that staff completed.
 This table below does show the distribution of gallons
 of water usage per 1,000 gallons.
 So you can see zero to 15,000
 being the most prominent usage.
 So first, before I get started on this slide,
 I just want to give a special thanks
 to the customer service department and water department,
 helping us put this information to the city's GIS system
 and platting the information for the 11% of the population.
 So in summary, what staff has done,
 we've taken over 35,000 partials in the city of Denton.
 So for different properties within the city,
 we've taken the consumption data for those partials
 and we've mapped them in the city's GIS system.
 What that did is it helped staff look at,
 is there any correlation between a property size
 and water consumption?
 I'm here in front of you today to tell you
 that there is no correlation between a partial size
 and water consumption.
 For example, there could be two houses
 on the same residential street
 with exactly the same lot size
 and one of them used 5,000 gallons
 and the other could use 30,000 gallons.
 This table is really meant to give you a summary
 of what that water consumption looks like
 by different partial size.
 So you can see up here to your right,
 the different partial sizes from 10 to 12,000 square feet
 all the way up to one acre and above.
 And then over here in the table, the bottom,
 by the graph, you can see consumption,
 so 10 to 5,000 gallons
 with the next group being 5 to 7,500 and then 30 to 90.
 Really see no correlation between the two.
 And one other point I want to put on this slide is that,
 you know, I was talking to Stephen Gay
 and he's here today too and we can talk about this too,
 is you know, since there is no correlation
 between the partial sizes and water consumption,
 it really comes down to consumer habits
 and how they use water at their household
 and if they water their yard more than someone else
 or what type of appliances they have in their household.
 So just wanted to point that out,
 as we continue to invest in GIS system
 and the water utility, it'll help us better understand
 water habits around the community.
 So I think that was important to point out for this utility.
 So different options for the water utility.
 You can see at the top of the slide,
 just really given that direction we received
 from the Public Utility Board and City Council
 over the last several weeks.
 So PEB did approve yesterday option three,
 which is currently staff's recommendation
 that you can see at the bottom of the slide.
 This option does introduce a new tier
 from zero to 5,000 gallons.
 You can see that rate accordingly for 363.
 However, we did get feedback from council
 a few comments last time about introducing a new tier
 or an additional tier between the five
 and 15,000 gallon range.
 So we are showing you option four today
 if that's something council wanted to consider
 and we come back to you in September
 for approval of the rates.
 However, one thing I do wanna point out
 is that to accommodate that additional tier
 and that lower rate and to remain revenue neutral,
 we had to increase that rate for those higher water users.
 So you can see, for example, in staff's recommendation,
 over 50,000 gallons of usage would be $11.79.
 Over 50,000 gallons in option four would be $12.04.
 And then you can see, of course, 30,050.
 Staff's recommendation is 953.
 Option four is 968 and then 712 and 725.
 And we'll look at what this translates
 into rate increases here shortly,
 but just wanted to be sure to point that out
 to the city council.
 Residential rate comparison.
 So there's that 89% or 29,000 of the 32,000 customers
 who actually see a rate decrease based on water consumption.
 And then at 11%, we noted earlier,
 above 15,000 actually see a rate increase.
 So status quo, if you're an average customer,
 average annual consumption in the city of Denton,
 your bill right now would be $46.62.
 Under option three, staff's recommendation,
 that bill would go to $44.52.
 So that customer would see a $2.10 decrease a month.
 Moving up to the 30,000 gallon range.
 So over that 15,000 threshold,
 currently a customer's paying 162.99.
 Under staff's recommendation, that rate would go to 181.29.
 So an increase of $18.30.
 Over 50,000 gallons is 321.99.
 Currently with proposed a 371.89.
 So an increase of $49.90.
 So higher tier customers will see an increase.
 And then at 11%, we mentioned.
 Commercial rate recommendations.
 We talked some about this last time.
 This presentation was in front of you.
 We're not looking to make any changes
 to regular commercial water service.
 We are looking to make changes to irrigation.
 We'll review those with you here shortly.
 But currently the facility charge
 for commercial customers is $50.99.
 The volume charge is based on per thousand gallons of usage,
 which is $4.34.
 So you can see that average customer bill
 there at the bottom.
 So commercial irrigation.
 So in an effort to be consistent with the residential
 rate structure and for simplicity,
 staff is looking to combine the seasonal rates
 of winter and summer, which gets us consistent
 with the recommendation we got from the consultant.
 So you can see that recommendation of combining the $4.34
 and the $6 into one rate of 5.75.
 By doing this, the average irrigation customer
 in the commercial class would see a decrease of $10.65.
 Wholesale rates, I won't go through these in detail.
 We reviewed these last time this presentation
 was in front of you.
 So these are contracted rates for the water utility.
 There is one that I want to note that it changed.
 The wholesale raw water pass-through rate
 was updated to .0285.
 That update was in accordance with the CPI adjuster
 for the month of June.
 So last time this presentation was in front of you,
 that information was not available.
 So it has become available since then.
 Wastewater rate changes.
 These are some cost of service adjustments.
 I know we talked about these last time also.
 So you can see the dino soil rate per cubic yard,
 increasing from 30 to 35.
 And then the discount rates,
 if you were to buy between 10 and 99 yards
 or 100 yards plus for 40% off.
 So this continues to be a sought after product
 that the city is making.
 Utility rate changes.
 You can see leading up to fiscal year 2017,
 the city did have some rate increases.
 Starting in fiscal year 2018,
 I really haven't had any rate increases for the utilities.
 We've had some rate decreases over the years.
 So I just want to point that out to the city council.
 Rate recommendations.
 This is a really quick recap,
 but I'd be happy to flip back to the slides
 if necessary, if you have questions.
 So for today, staff is recommended to proceed
 with option three that establishes one new tier.
 It will keep the utility revenue neutral
 and establishing this new rates for the utility.
 One thing we would say is once we understand
 the transition or if there are any habit changes
 within this utility, so for example,
 people that are currently in the 30,000 tier
 or the 50,000 tier move into lower tiers below 15,000.
 We can explore the possibility
 of future tiers in the future.
 So we can bring that back forward to you
 as part of the fiscal year 2023 budgeting process.
 Commercial water service, we talked about this,
 just option one, keeping that current structure
 for commercial regular water usage
 and then irrigation combining the seasonal rates.
 Then risk, we did wanna point out to city council,
 I know I just mentioned this in my previous statement,
 but each of the options are revenue neutral.
 They do not currently forecast any movement with the tiers.
 So consumer habits were to change.
 It could be a possible revenue impact to this fund.
 So staff will continue to monitor it
 throughout the fiscal year and report back to council
 with any information that we have.
 Some of the next steps coming up.
 So definitely looking for your feedback today
 if you're okay with option three for the residential
 rate structure and the commercial recommendations
 that are in front of you today.
 If so, we'll bring that back to you
 to budget adoption on September 21st
 when the tax rate and utility rates are adopted.
 And then one other thing I wanted to say
 about the GIS analysis, this question may come up here
 in just a second and Council Member Beck,
 I think we may put this information out to you.
 So we are working to get this information available
 to the council where we can share it to you
 and show you the plots and the different partials
 around the community and what the water usage is.
 So it's good information.
 We do think it's valuable for the council to see it
 and we anticipate that to be ready in the next couple of days.
 And Mayor, that concludes the presentation.
 - Okay.
 So seeking questions for staff and clear direction.
 Council Member Archer.
 - I don't have any questions,
 but I do have clear direction and that is to say,
 I really like option number four.
 I really appreciate the information here
 and the research that you did
 on some of the questions asked by council.
 To me, this is a great solution and thanks to,
 I don't remember which one of my colleagues it was
 to have that suggestion about coming up
 with that additional category.
 But I think that's really smart and I can see that it works.
 I do not have a problem with charging those higher users more
 that fits very well with our goal of sustainability
 and conservation while saving the lower using rate payers
 money in their bills and being revenue neutral.
 So I'm strongly in favor of number four.
 - Okay, Council Member Beck.
 - Yeah, I'm in favor of option four or thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 I'm in favor of option four.
 I like that it does give this step tiered,
 sort of bite at the apple of doing some conservation,
 but also for those people from five to 7,000,
 it actually is 15 cents reduction in rates.
 So it actually is a reduction even for the moderately
 bigger users, but still gives them something to strive for.
 So I'm in favor of option four.
 - Council Member Burke.
 - I'm also in favor of option four.
 I just like the idea of our users being able to save
 a bit more or lower volume users,
 have an opportunity to save more.
 And it just seems just a bit more appropriate.
 Thank you.
 - Okay, Council Member McGuire, then Mayor Pro Temelter.
 - Thank you, I have a question for staff.
 Can you give me a sense and a rough estimate is fine
 of what proportion of the water usage
 by city water customers is residential versus commercial?
 - Council Member McGuire, I don't,
 looking at Stephen Gay, in just a second,
 he may be able to answer that question for you.
 - Good afternoon Council Members and Council Member McGuire.
 This is Stephen Gay, the Director of Water Utilities.
 Hey there.
 That's a really great question.
 It's a little difficult to answer right now.
 So we'll have to follow up and we'll include that
 in a Friday report.
 - Okay, thank you.
 And that's fine, it really doesn't impact my direction.
 I agree with Council Member Armenter
 and Council Member Beck.
 I like option four.
 I like that it kind of cuts in on that
 where a majority of our customers are,
 and kind of encourages that lower usage
 rather than lumping everybody into one group,
 or an overwhelming majority of one group.
 - Mayor Pro Temelter.
 - Thank you, Mayor.
 I concur on option four.
 I would state that I think you'll only really get
 the maximum desired benefit
 if there's communication along with it,
 and not just the blunt instrument
 of your bill went up or down.
 And I do have a question.
 There's a comment in the presentation
 about the fact that water conservation might affect revenue,
 but isn't it also true
 that it would affect capital requirements too?
 - Council Member Meltzer, it's a great question.
 It actually came up yesterday
 in the Public Utility Boards meeting.
 So it definitely could impact revenue.
 That is a great point.
 If customers in the community started conserving water more
 and more customers transitioned to the lower tiers,
 this fund could have a revenue impact.
 As far as for future plan expansions,
 the utility has to plan on the peak demand of the community.
 So it actually would not have a huge impact
 at those infrastructure improvements in the future years.
 - Well, I guess it's a matter of scaling then, right?
 Just when would it affect peak?
 By how much?
 And over what period of time?
 And then it's sort of what's huge, right?
 Like you can say an effect on revenue,
 but we don't know if it's a huge effect.
 It might be a, not a huge effect.
 It might be not a huge effect on capital requirements as well.
 Is that a possibility or do we really have a sense
 of the scale on both sides?
 - Let me ask Stephen Gay to speak to the production side
 of it and what that peak demand would look like.
 - When we talk about the peak,
 it's not just based off of like irrigation use
 and or domestic use.
 We also have to factor in firefighting capabilities.
 So it's a pretty complicated equation
 when we look at our peak demand.
 So we have to build the systems to deliver that peak demand.
 And that includes firefighting, irrigation and domestic use.
 - So, I mean, I guess I'm wondering kind of what the point
 is of the comment about it might affect revenue.
 I mean, is it, is it your view that we don't want
 conservation because of that?
 Or is there a benefit to conservation
 or only the negative?
 - Council Member Melton, this is David Gaines,
 Assistant City Manager.
 I'll play musical chairs up here.
 I think, I think your point is very well taken.
 If we limit usage in the longterm,
 it will lessen our capital requirements.
 It will lessen when we need expansions, things like that.
 I think the point of that comment was
 the revenue impacts could be immediate, right?
 If we have less usage, we lose the revenue in the short term.
 So we may have to have rate discussions in the short term
 if that plays out, whereas the expenses
 are more of a longterm savings.
 - Fair enough, I guess we'll kind of cross that bridge
 when we come to it.
 Thank you.
 - Okay, any other questions?
 So for me, I have a couple.
 So option three in staff's opinion
 gives us the most mitigation against the unknown.
 Is that a true statement?
 - Correct, Mayor.
 So option three was the recommendation of our consultant.
 Staff's thought process was, is that would allow us time
 to see if there's any changes in habits and consumption,
 bring back future tier options for council
 to consider at a future period.
 So that would lessen the risk from a revenue standpoint.
 If more people transition from the higher usage tiers
 to the lower usage tiers, there would be a little bit
 of a greater revenue impact associated with option four.
 So hopefully that answers your question, Mayor.
 - It does, and then also just to confirm,
 'cause I don't think we have,
 have we had a public hearing about this?
 - We're not required to have a public hearing on the rates,
 that's just for the budget and tax rate.
 - Right, but to confirm, we have not talked to the public,
 got public input formally for this change.
 - No, sir, no, sir.
 - Okay.
 And then, okay, well, so I'm gonna just give my feedback
 that option three is the best option
 because the alternative subjects the residents
 to a all of a sudden reversal the other way.
 One, two, I do have a problem charging Serve Denton more
 with their shallow gardens, because to your point,
 it's not about the size of the land.
 So all of a sudden, sir, shallow gardens gets a bigger bill.
 And I think that does our community
 a tremendous disservice.
 So I, and I think Council Member Davis
 who pointed out the last time you were here,
 and I think it's unfortunate that they're going
 to have to pay more, but I understand the direction.
 So those are my things, the lack of a public hearing
 to discuss it, the lack of the expert support for this,
 not even PUB.
 So PUB makes a recommendation, they're not experts.
 The consultant and staff are, they recommend
 that we maintain and monitor, I agree with that.
 So I'm gonna opt for option three
 and then Council Member Davis is not here.
 So that concludes item D, thank you.
 Okay, that'll take us into a closed session.
 So we'll need to go into closed session to discuss,
 take up item C, is it?
 Yeah, so let me get there, 'cause I left the folder,
 but I can just read the caption.
 See, here we are.
 That's consent, sorry, here we go.
 So we'll go into closed session for consultation
 with attorneys under Texas government code section 551.071.
 And it is, we'll take a, how long do we need?
 Probably, how long do we need to transition?
 Five minutes, so we'll come back.
 So we'll be, we'll take a five minute break.
 So that'll take us to four, pardon me, 348.
 And then we'll be in closed session after that.
 We'll come back, thank you.
 And welcome back, it is 413.
 We are back in open session.
 So I will call the meeting back to order at 414.
 And the next item on our work session is item C,
 which is ID 21818, receive report, hold discussion,
 give staff direction regarding an update
 to the city of Denton COVID-19 response.
 All right, thank you, mayor and council, Ryan Adams,
 customer service and public affairs.
 I'm gonna be doing my best Sarah Keekler impersonation
 today, giving you this COVID update.
 There we go, just a bit of a background for the council.
 We provide updates regularly, and this will actually
 be our 30th update to the council
 since the start of the pandemic.
 Most recently on August 12th, we did provide an update
 and a situational report on the state of the pandemic.
 And that was also the date that council adopted
 his 13th order of council relating to mask requirements.
 And today we're going to follow up just again,
 with another situational update, and then provide a review
 and update on that 13th order of council.
 So this is information that we have taken
 from Denton County Public Health's website,
 COVID statistics website.
 And so I'm gonna give you a very brief overview of it.
 But I will defer to the county for any in-depth questions.
 They do provide an update every Tuesday
 to their commissioner's court.
 And we do provide that in your Friday report
 so you can watch it.
 It's also available on their Facebook.
 Just for an overview of cases to date through the pandemic
 and cases by date of symptom onset, as you can see,
 we are well into a third wave of the pandemic,
 not as severe in terms of overall cases as the wave
 that we experienced in the winter time.
 Although it is creeping up,
 and certainly higher than what we experienced
 early on in the pandemic.
 We do expect that those, as you can see,
 trails off towards the current date in that first chart.
 We do expect that as more cases are reported,
 that will trend a little bit upward.
 So this is something that's very dynamic.
 And we encourage people just to check it daily
 if these are numbers that you're interested in,
 because they do change.
 I've also included the reported weekly, not daily,
 but weekly cases by age.
 And as you can see, in the most recent week
 that has reported data over in the bottom right-hand corner,
 most of the increases in our cases
 are very much coming from the younger population demographics.
 Really 50 and younger, age 50 and younger.
 But as you can see, it starts zero to 20, 20 to 29,
 and on up for every 10 years.
 Those are where you're seeing the most cases,
 or pardon me, the most growth in cases on a daily basis.
 Most growth in cases on a weekly basis.
 Again, this is something that they do update
 on a weekly basis, so you can check it out,
 and it will change, and we should have another update
 here in the next few days, I believe.
 A couple of extra numbers, a couple of more numbers.
 Of course, several council members inquired on occupancy,
 particularly ICU occupancy.
 Now, this is the staffed ICU beds.
 And of course, as staffing changes,
 availability of staff goes up and down,
 so does the availability of staffed beds.
 This data was taken this morning,
 so it's as recent as yesterday,
 where we had 91 occupied ICU beds in Denton County,
 and four available beds.
 And in the bottom graph, again,
 all available at the county's website,
 you can see the percentage of COVID cases
 in ICU beds versus other cases.
 So the dark color at the bottom are COVID cases,
 and then in the middle, you do have your other ICU cases,
 non-COVID related illnesses in ICU beds.
 And then that top little notch is what's available,
 those four ICU beds listed in the table above.
 So a couple of other tidbits,
 events that have occurred since we last met
 and gave you an update.
 The vaccine portal for the county has been opened
 to those who are eligible for a third dose,
 that is mainly for those who are immunocompromised.
 We expect that in the coming weeks, sometime in December,
 that a third dose will be recommended for all
 as a booster shot.
 So anyone who's 12 and older would be eligible
 for a third dose of the COVID vaccine.
 You probably heard this week that the Pfizer vaccine
 was granted a full FDA license,
 so it's no longer on that emergency authorization use.
 And then one other piece of data,
 and we can send this out
 in the Friday report of council would like,
 there is a website on the State Department
 of Health Services website that shows by county,
 how many individuals have received one or both doses
 to become fully vaccinated.
 And what the state is reporting is that 67.6%
 of Denton County residents have received one dose
 and 59.4% have received two doses.
 So they would be considered fully vaccinated.
 A brief update on the city organization and our facilities,
 we continue to work from home where possible.
 And in those occasions where we do have positive cases
 within the city organization, city employees and staff,
 we are doing ongoing contact tracing.
 Our in-person public meetings,
 just a reminder for council, they resume September 1.
 So the TOMA, Texas Open Meeting Act provisions
 that the suspensions to TOMA that allowed us
 to have virtual meetings, those will end,
 or at least are expected to end at the end of August.
 And we have no indication that the governor
 will continue those suspensions.
 So we can expect that in-person meetings to be required
 with some exceptions under our rules of procedure
 beginning September 1.
 City facilities remain open, but with minimum staffing
 due to us trying to get as many folks as possible
 to work from home and lessen the amount of staff
 in each facility.
 And face coverings are required inside all of our buildings
 per the 13th order of council.
 And of course, we continue to monitor the CDC guidelines
 and information from Denton County Public Health
 in case conditions or recommendations change.
 So after council adopted its order on the 12th,
 we began a campaign to try to educate the community
 and provide outreach on what this order was
 and what it requested of the community
 and what it asked of the community.
 This included press releases, news media, social media,
 our website was updated very quickly,
 and direct outreach to some of our stakeholders,
 folks like we reached out to DISD,
 we reached out to the chamber just to be available
 to answer what questions they have.
 We had a lot of calls and emails seeking clarification
 as you can imagine.
 Some of the challenges that we heard in speaking
 with residents and speaking with our stakeholders
 were they were simply confused.
 And that was due to the city saying something
 that the county and the state were not.
 And they were saying something different.
 There was also confusion relating to legal actions
 taken by the state in the intervening time.
 General public did not know what those meant for our order.
 So we had to get clarification
 and try to explain that as best as we could.
 With regard to city buildings,
 so the one area that we have a lot more control over
 within our third order of council,
 we did post signage in all of our buildings
 and deploy face coverings, deploy masks
 to make them available for anyone who didn't have one.
 We would offer one to them.
 So we spent a lot of time explaining to people
 the requirements for our city facilities.
 Of course, we also had challenges here as well.
 We had some, and I hate to put a percentage on it
 'cause we simply don't know,
 but we did absolutely have residents, customers,
 people who frequent our facilities outright
 refuse to wear a mask.
 And so we try to do our best,
 not letting situations escalate.
 If we can provide their service that they came to seek,
 and we would try to do that as quickly as possible.
 But we made sure to educate them to offer a face covering
 and to make sure that they did not feel like
 they were being booted out of a city facility,
 especially when they needed a service from the city.
 Again, one of the big issues that council
 probably had some emails on from constituents
 was related to libraries and parks and rec centers,
 particularly in the case of parks and rec
 with fitness classes or exercising.
 So our order as it's written is very short, very direct,
 but of course we use language from Denton County.
 Denton County does not, to my knowledge,
 have recreation facilities or fitness classes.
 And so that led to some questions
 from some of our constituents,
 particularly would they need to wear a mask
 if they were engaging heavy bouts of exercise?
 Looking at the order that we had to work with,
 we determined that that is what the order called for.
 So that is what we implemented
 with regard to fitness classes and exercise facilities.
 Additionally, there's no allowance for unmasking it
 when folks are isolated or distant.
 So a great example may be,
 if someone is renting a study room at a library,
 do they have to unmask
 if they are in a room by themselves with the door shut?
 The order does not necessarily grant them an exception.
 So it is one area where, again,
 we would have to explain to them that, yes,
 that is something we would like,
 to have masks in all facilities at all times.
 And I did include a slide on educational institutions
 since that had been an area where we did get some questions,
 what they currently require or recommend
 for their facilities.
 NCTC masks are optional.
 This is information taken late last week
 from each of their websites.
 NCTC masks are optional.
 They are strongly encouraged for the unvaccinated.
 TWAU masks are strongly encouraged.
 And of course, Chancellor Faitin today announced
 that they are going to be doing testing
 with an opt-out if you can prove up your vaccination.
 The same goes for UNT,
 testing required for the unvaccinated.
 So you do not have to do COVID testing
 if you can show that you are vaccinated.
 And they also recommend masks.
 And as Chancellor Faitin today indicated for TWAU,
 with any of these institutions,
 they may view themselves as institutions directly
 in line from the state,
 and may or may not be bound by our local order.
 I also added DISD in there.
 Of course, their website has been updated with information
 since we passed our order.
 And at this time,
 masks continue to be strongly encouraged
 with virtual learning options for K-8 students only.
 And I wanna remind council,
 and I know council knows
 that it's a very evolving situation.
 So things can change at any point in time.
 And so, you know, what's on here right now
 may not be the case a week from now or two weeks from now,
 but we'll continue to keep an eye on it
 and communicate anything we learned
 that's notable to the council.
 That is my presentation.
 I'm happy to stand for questions and we'll be available.
 And thank you for your time.
 - Okay, thank you.
 Questions for staff, Councilman Armitage.
 - So a question about testing and vaccine.
 So any of the, to your knowledge,
 of any of the state institutions
 that require some form,
 some combination of testing and vaccine,
 as in, you know, if you don't show proof of vaccination,
 then, you know, you have to get tested
 on some sort of regular basis.
 Has any of that been challenged by the state,
 by the attorney general or by the governor in any way?
 - Not to my knowledge.
 - Okay, and there's nothing in the governor's order
 prohibiting that.
 - I would have to look at the provisions
 that speak to requiring proof of vaccination.
 I'm not sure I can give you an honest answer right now.
 And whether it does prohibit or allow
 maybe something that's up to debate,
 depending on who you ask.
 - And do we know, I think the answer is no,
 but I want to ask anyway.
 You know, do we have any idea of, you know,
 percentages of city staff who have been vaccinated?
 - I do not believe we do.
 I do not know if Tiffany's on the line.
 I don't believe she is.
 Don't believe that is something that we take,
 that we track or take data on.
 I don't believe that's, I don't know the reason,
 but I do not believe that's something we have data on.
 - Maybe like a HIPAA or some FERPA or whichever though.
 - Yeah, so we can't ask that question.
 - Yeah, yeah, so we can't ask that question.
 But apparently, but a state institution
 can say that testing is required.
 And then if, you know, but if you have show proof
 of vaccination, right, then you can get around the testing.
 So that's kind of getting, so that would be a situation
 where you're, I guess, giving employees the option
 of showing you the proof of vaccination
 that they've been vaccinated, right?
 Maybe that's data that can't be collected
 or quantified in some way.
 I wouldn't understand why.
 - So I don't know the mechanism
 of how they're requiring that proof
 or how they're allowing people to opt out of the testing.
 So there may be more nuance to that than we're aware.
 - It's just, it's literally just by showing the photo
 of your card, you just screenshot of your card or in person.
 - If your question is, is that something
 that the city could do for its employees,
 I think that's something that we would have to look into
 to understand what the ramifications might be.
 There's probably a lot of considerations
 that deal with privacy, HIPAA, and probably others.
 So that is something that we would have to look into.
 I'm not sure I can give you an honest answer right now
 if that's something we could or couldn't do.
 - Yeah, sure.
 And I'll just say, 'cause it's not obvious
 by the fact that I'm asking so many questions about it,
 it is something that I would like to see
 and I'm heartened knowing that certain state institutions
 are doing this, some form of testing
 and vaccine requirements and not facing challenges
 as far as we know, right?
 So that is heartening to me.
 It suggests to me that that is possible.
 It is something I would like to see
 for the safety of our employees and for the community.
 - Councilmember Armitage, I think Ryan's correct.
 We'd have to look into that,
 whether or not it's a HIPAA violation.
 The other thing is, we're also would be asking our staff
 to share information, but then making requirements of them
 that has not been listed in the requirements
 for them to have a job with the city.
 And therefore, we also have to think about
 the risk of losing employees.
 And if that's certainly some desire from council,
 then you would need to direct me to do that
 because that may cause some problems with employees.
 - I mean, are there any kind of unique situations
 unique to the city as an employer
 that don't apply to the state in that regard?
 'Cause I don't think the state employees,
 you know, had ever asked that information before.
 - Well, twofold, I'll ask the city attorney
 to speak to that legal question.
 And then two, I think we need to hold off
 and see if we have direction
 before we go too far down this path.
 So, Ms. City Attorney.
 - My recollection of GA38 is that it does prohibit
 the requirement of vaccines.
 And the analysis, kind of the question in terms of,
 can you require testing, but let people opt out of it
 if they have that, is does that effectively require,
 does it effectively violate GA38
 because it pushes people into it?
 So that's where there's kind of an open question in my view.
 Yes, you were saying more places do that,
 but you also have specific prohibitions in GA38
 that only apply to governmental entities.
 - But yeah, exactly.
 But so far, nobody's been challenged.
 You know, state institutions that are doing this
 have not-- - Not that I'm aware of.
 - Have not been challenged.
 And ones that are being so careful
 as to not want to do anything more
 than strongly recommending a mask
 or mask wearing.
 - Okay, any other questions?
 Okay, Council Member Byrd.
 - Oh yes, I want to, I'm gonna make a statement
 and then I'll ask a question.
 Statement, I had a neighborhood meeting last night
 and I want to just give praise to those folks
 who came out to the neighborhood meeting.
 There was 100% mask wearing
 and we didn't have any questions, comments,
 or current concerns about any of that.
 So I just want to praise those folks
 over in Southeast Denton Neighborhood Association.
 Thank you all for being so cooperative.
 If you could hear me.
 Also, I was wondering, did we lose any kind of classes,
 fitness classes behind this particular order?
 Did we have any instructors that decided
 that they were just gonna cancel the classes?
 Any negativity revolving, something like that?
 - Gary Pack and Director of Parks and Recreation.
 We have had some challenges.
 Approximately eight out of 10 of our fitness participants
 have refused to wear a mask.
 We have had some instructors say they cannot do the program
 while wearing a mask.
 That it's very challenging to breathe
 when you're working at that high pace.
 Specifically in fitness programs.
 We'll have some future athletic programs coming up soon,
 but also in our weight rooms as well,
 we're getting a lot of pushback and concern
 from our customers.
 So I would say, yes, we're probably losing customers
 and instructors that aren't willing to work right now
 because of that.
 - Are they aware or educated that this is going to,
 you know, it's until the end of the month
 or are they planning on coming back?
 Have there been any of those kinds of conversations?
 - Obviously we'll definitely take them back.
 If they need some temporary employment because of that,
 then I'm sure that they're seeking other opportunities
 or other avenues or just kind of waiting to see
 what happens if there's a change in the current ordinance
 or if there's some modifications that could be made
 or if it expires at the end of the month.
 Obviously if it goes forward for a longer period of time,
 then I'll continue.
 We did consider canceling programs because of that,
 but we decided ultimately that we wanna try plugging forward
 and seeing how it works and overall feedback
 I think has been challenging for our staff.
 You're welcome.
 - Okay, Council Member Bet.
 - Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 So this might be a question for legal,
 but my understanding of HIPAA is that this is only
 for folks providing medical information
 and doesn't otherwise cover us.
 Is that not correct?
 Am I into the false understanding?
 Well, it hates you too. (laughs)
 - Right, HIPAA only applies to certain entities
 based on how those entities are defined.
 In some contexts, the city is one
 because of its group health plan.
 For purposes of this though,
 I think there are two things
 that we would actually need to look at.
 There's the notion of common law privacy,
 which has implication beyond HIPAA.
 So that's the first thing that we would have to look at.
 And then there's also kind of a Texas statutory version
 of HIPAA that's a little broader
 than the HIPAA provision actually is.
 So that's the other area that we would need to look to.
 - Answer that particular question.
 - Okay, I take that.
 I guess I was just a little confused
 because when I'm dealing with HIPAA privacy information
 in my outside career,
 it's completely about the information transfer itself
 and the fact that UT in that case
 is an actual medical provider because of their hospitals.
 Okay, so then my other question is probably also for legal
 and that is, what are the implications for it?
 And this may not be a question we can answer right here.
 You can tell me that,
 but what are the implications for not defending
 this kind of say masking or vaccination
 if say if we were to move into a vaccination direction.
 And I'm not saying we are, but let hypothetically
 and then other vaccinations where no one cares
 about those vaccinations, meningitis,
 other things that we might want to require.
 Is it opening us up to a potential for resistance
 where there was none before
 because we're not defending our position on this vaccination.
 - And I apologize because I'm having a hard time
 hearing you in here.
 I hate to ask you to restate that, but I will.
 - That's fine.
 So my question goes to, there are other vaccinations
 that are required that no one complains about.
 And if by not defending, if we were to go in the direction
 and I'm not saying we are,
 but if we were to go in the direction
 of not defending vaccinations,
 would that open us up to not being able to defend
 any vaccination that we might want to require
 if we don't defend these vaccinations
 should we choose to go in that direction?
 I keep adding that hypothetical bit.
 - I don't have a response to that at this time,
 but we can certainly provide that to you.
 - Yeah, if you could get something to me at some point,
 that would be great.
 And then I guess in terms of my understanding
 from looking at CDC guidance,
 as well as other institutions,
 is that exercise is not precluded during masking.
 And about the only gray area is heavy breathing exercise,
 not heavy exertion, but heavy breathing.
 So I guess my response has been to citizens
 that have sent me requests that I've forwarded on to staff
 is sort of what is the state of their actual,
 because the whole point is to preclude exaltation of saliva.
 That is the whole point of the masking exercise.
 And so to the extent that,
 I guess this might be a Gary question is,
 are these heavy intensity
 or they're typical intensity kinds of classes?
 And I could guess maybe I could see my weight clear
 to some accommodation, the heavy intensity,
 but not typical intensity, like the weight room,
 typical intensity.
 - Gary, and--
 - And I'm not asking you for your medical opinion,
 your description of the courses.
 - Tread very softly, 'cause you're representing,
 you would be speaking to every individual
 that ever exercises in their personal health history.
 Go ahead.
 - I guess what I could state is when we were operating
 prior to the recent mass ordinance,
 we were operating with masks up until the program started.
 And then we're also trying to keep everyone separated.
 So we have markings on the floor
 in regards to where to participate
 for the high intensity fitness in our gyms.
 We spread out our equipment.
 And if we couldn't, we had alternating equipment
 so people would work on a treadmill separate from each other.
 So that's how we were operating at the time.
 - At the previous time.
 And so if I might, Mr. Mayor, real brief follow-up,
 and that is, so it's my understanding that in all that,
 I'm gonna just call it 18 months period.
 That may not be exactly accurate,
 but in all that time that you were under various guidelines
 like that, to your knowledge,
 to the rec center's knowledge, no one,
 that your facilities were not a source for,
 to your knowledge for COVID.
 - Yeah, I can't confirm that.
 You know, it could be coming from an internal family
 or various areas, but to my knowledge,
 I can't confirm it.
 - Not an update, okay, thank you.
 - Council Member Armitage.
 - Yeah, so, oh, sorry, Gary, oh, don't go, sorry.
 So maybe not, kind of following up with Council Member Beck
 was saying, you know, maybe not a source,
 but there were certainly cases.
 I mean, I remember, you know, seeing notifications
 that as one does when one's responsible, you know,
 which we're being, just kind of letting people know
 that there was somebody, just the number of people
 in which facility tested positive for COVID,
 just letting people know.
 Certainly that has happened in our rec centers, right?
 - That is correct, and we try to put that,
 everyone in the Friday report,
 I think we've done a pretty good job
 of letting council aware of that,
 and then also reaching out to anybody
 potentially impacted by that as well.
 - Yes, and so I wanna thank you for doing that,
 and just to say that as far as,
 not that you implied otherwise,
 I'm just kind of stating this,
 that, you know, as far as Delta spread,
 it doesn't matter,
 Delta will spread at a source of origin, you know,
 or it'll spread somewhere else, it just,
 the virus just spreads.
 So I know that a lot of times people are concerned about,
 not saying that you were, Council Member Beck,
 but about, you know, finding the source of origin, right?
 But for me, it's just a matter of, you know,
 are rec centers somehow immune to COVID?
 And the answer is, of course, no, you know,
 'cause the buildings with people in them, right?
 So anyway, you know, for that,
 I'll just state that, you know, for that reason,
 I feel really strongly that, you know,
 since our goal is to mitigate COVID,
 and, you know, I don't think any of us would say
 that mitigating COVID is fun,
 is a form of recreation,
 but, you know, unfortunately, this means that,
 that people have to wear masks when they're exercising,
 and it's true that mask wearing
 while you're doing, you know, heavy exertion,
 you know, running, et cetera,
 I mean, that is not recommended, as I understand it,
 nor is it desirable.
 I wouldn't want to do that,
 but the answer to that is that people can go outdoors, right?
 So I would just tell people, you know,
 who want to do heavy exertion exercising to go outdoors,
 and I would love to help do whatever I could.
 I was wondering if maybe you had suggestions
 as to how to make it maybe more flexible
 for instructors who teach indoor classes
 to hold their classes outdoors if they're interested.
 I understand they might not be interested,
 but, you know, outside of that, you know,
 I'm pretty inflexible only because we're just looking at,
 these are buildings with people in them,
 and because of the Delta virus is highly contagious,
 and we know that, you know,
 unfortunately, 'cause of the way that the Delta virus works,
 the way it's transmitted, social distancing,
 you know, moving the, you know, treadmills,
 you know, six feet apart when you're exercising
 with a bunch of people, and I guess it's,
 no need to go into it, but anyway,
 that's my rationale for that.
 - Thank you.
 Any other questions?
 Council Member McGuire, then Mayor Perot and Melter.
 - Thank you.
 I'd like to ask for some clarification regarding,
 you know, issues like the one that we were just discussing
 of specific policies related to group exercise programs
 and addressing individuals who are maybe alone
 in a room in city facilities.
 Do we need to amend the ordinance
 to address these kind of particulars,
 or is it enough to like provide guidance?
 - So let me, City Manager, if you wanna speak to,
 is guidance sufficient or does the order have to be amended?
 - The order will need to be amended
 if you have specific guidance,
 and I am gonna ask for some specific guidance
 in regards to the rec centers and the wearing of masks
 because our staff are getting killed
 and it's not fair to them.
 - Okay, so my specific guidance regarding
 parks and rec facilities is that
 if it's not possible for residents to use a mask
 during a particular activity,
 which is totally understandable, high exertion activities,
 I've tried working out with a mask on
 and it's very challenging and probably not advisable
 for people who have breathing problems.
 If those classes or activities can be moved outside,
 I would ask that parks and rec move those classes
 and activities outside.
 If they cannot be moved outside,
 I would ask that parks and rec cancel them
 and issue a refund to the residents
 who have already prepaid for those programs.
 I would also like to, you know,
 specify that if a person is alone in a room,
 even if it's in a city facility,
 they don't need to wear a mask
 if they're in a room that's completely enclosed
 and there are no other people in that room.
 - Okay, any other questions from, okay.
 Mayor Fortuna-Melter.
 - Yes, thank you Mayor.
 I'm exactly aligned with Council Member McGuire's comments.
 And then on another topic,
 is there any communication from the County suggesting
 that they might ramp up or reprise their testing operation?
 There's clearly a need.
 If you've tried to get a test locally,
 you know that it's super difficult to find appointments
 within half an hour's drive.
 There are some self-administered tests
 available on the shelves, but that's my question.
 Any indication that the County is even thinking about it?
 And if not, can we suggest they think about it?
 - We've not heard anything.
 We've not heard anything that suggests
 that they are going to be rolling anything out anytime soon.
 Of course, we can definitely ask that question
 and follow up in this week's Friday report.
 - Thank you very much.
 - All right, any other questions?
 Council Member McGuire.
 - Sorry, I'm a bit scattered here.
 I had intended to provide additional direction to staff
 to not necessarily write up an amendment to the ordinance,
 but to explore the feasibility of implementing a policy
 similar to UNTs.
 And I believe I heard that TWA is doing this as well,
 that requires testing and...
 Sorry, my daughter just found a knife.
 I didn't know I had a knife in here.
 Okay, that requires testing and exempts people from testing
 if they show proof of vaccination.
 - For clarification, testing of whom?
 - City employees.
 - Okay, and so, Ms. City Attorney,
 I'll let you speak to that if there's anything
 that gives you anything to speak to.
 - Just, I think the request was that that's something
 that we look into and that's something that we can evaluate
 and provide information on.
 - Okay, Council Member Armitage.
 - Just real briefly for what it's worth,
 this will be no surprise, you know,
 but I obviously support both recommendations
 that Council Member McGuire made.
 Obviously that's kind of where I was leading.
 And I also support the,
 I guess you were asking for a staff report, Mayor Pro Tem,
 but you know, the call to look into expanded testing,
 that's something that I would really like us to do
 because people are having a problem finding,
 still having a problem finding a place that is close by,
 that is free or cheap and that has, you know,
 same day appointments, you know,
 which for a lot of people is really crucial.
 And then people, well, the alternative is to go
 with that being tested and that's risky
 or to prolong the testing.
 So I really think it's worthwhile.
 It's unfortunate that the county's not doing more
 on that end, but I understand that they're doing a lot
 and, you know, their hands are full and I think it would be
 a really reasonable way to spend our money
 and time doing that.
 - So if I understand correctly,
 your direction is supportive of Council Member Meltzer's
 request for us to ask the county what their efforts will be,
 or is it also related to something separate?
 - Yeah, so to ask them and, you know,
 to just get more information about what, you know,
 what are the possibilities, what we can do to,
 I know we've already designated our ARPA funds for,
 we talked a little bit about, you know,
 the possibility of mobile vaccination somehow involving
 mobile testing, but I know that, you know, there was,
 you know, kind of got the idea from staff
 and correct me if I'm wrong,
 that the testing equipment discussions were more about,
 at least coming from staff or more about testing of staff,
 right, and, you know, and not of the public.
 And so while, of course, I totally support that for staff,
 I also want, I want there to be expanded testing options,
 you know, quick, free testing options for the public
 'cause people are having a hard time finding it.
 And so I think that is important and time sensitive
 that, you know, we figure out what to do
 if the county's not going to do it.
 - And Ryan, obviously David and Chief spoke to the cost
 and that's cost prohibitive.
 Do you want to send something out and speak to that or,
 one, we don't have it yet, but two, if we have it, yeah.
 - I think we would look for a consensus of council
 to give that direction to look at that.
 I don't want to speak for Sarah though.
 - I have worked with Chief Hedges
 and we are looking at something
 where we would have availability
 with testing equipment here for the city employees
 because it's so difficult in other locations
 and the test kits that would go along with it,
 it would not be for the general public,
 but it would be for employees with the city of Dent.
 - Okay, so if you can just send out that information,
 that'll maybe guide future direction
 so that people understand the cost.
 Okay, Council Member Bet.
 - I'll be brief in the absence of a like button.
 I support what Councilor McGuire said.
 - Okay, Council Member Byrd.
 - I'm in agreement with all that I've heard,
 but I was also wanting to recommend
 if you're not doing this already,
 you may be doing it already,
 that we make it very clear that these are city,
 the city of Denton's recommendations
 and mandates and responsibilities
 to keep down from the confusion.
 Like you said earlier, when we initially did this,
 people were confused about county, universities, state.
 So when we're putting out press releases
 and news media, social media,
 all of that would just make it absolutely clear
 that this is what we're doing with the city.
 And if there's any kind of connection
 with any of these other areas,
 we'll just make sure that we specify those things.
 - Definitely. - To cut down on it.
 I have not seen anything that's been specific
 to literally note those things.
 But I would be okay with that.
 Thank you. - Yes, ma'am.
 - Okay, seeing no other questions.
 Mayor Pritzker-Melter.
 - Yeah, thank you.
 I have a slightly different direction
 to give regarding employees.
 I completely understand and not averse personally
 to the ideas that have been put forward,
 but I would just say my general direction
 is to encourage the city manager to have a solution,
 which I mean, it almost doesn't need to be said,
 or it doesn't need to be said,
 but I'm going to say it anyway,
 to keep employees safe.
 If you've got a different way to achieve it,
 that's fine.
 I mean, I know that it's really hard
 and we don't have to do it
 in terms of dealing with the pushback,
 of all kinds of feelings with,
 whoever I might feel about the basis for them,
 you have to deal with it.
 So if there's another way to achieve it,
 I'm open to hearing it,
 but we can't just say because people push back,
 can't have a solution to make sure that employees
 are kept safe.
 So I'm just trying to broaden the pallet for you,
 if you've got another way to achieve it.
 - Okay.
 Got it.
 Any other questions, comments?
 I have a few.
 Council member McGuire.
 - Thank you.
 I just want to point out
 because I know that during the presentation,
 we were using data from yesterday
 and today's data is now out.
 And just so everybody knows,
 Denton County Public Health reported,
 sorry, I'm pulling it up,
 519 new COVID cases countywide.
 85 of those were in the city of Denton.
 There were eight new deaths,
 two of whom were residents of the city of Denton.
 - Okay, any other questions, comments?
 So Ryan, I just want to understand a few questions.
 So currently in Denton County,
 the city of Denton is the only one with a mask mandate.
 - That's, yes, that's true.
 - And then,
 DISD, who is the board that's in charge
 of the school district,
 is not following the city of Denton's guidance?
 - That's the information we received,
 the most recent information we received, correct.
 - Even if they did follow our guidance,
 not all their schools fit in Denton,
 which causes confusion or causes a conflict point.
 - Well, not all the schools fit inside the city of Denton,
 so they would have to figure out
 how they wanted to handle that.
 - Right, and then the city of Denton
 has ordinances and regulations and guidance
 that we would ask people to follow.
 Yeah, we just have rules that we ask people to follow.
 - Generally, yes. - Yes.
 But is it staff's analysis that our order conflicts
 with the governor's order, at some degree,
 some point it conflicts with the governor's order, or no?
 - I think that's a fair way to frame it.
 - Okay, and then I'll pick up where one person left off.
 So city staff, by and large, is 18 or older,
 just on average, right? - Correct.
 - And so we're saving city staff from themselves.
 Don't answer that.
 And then just from recollection, the rapid testing,
 which has been referenced a lot.
 If I recall, Dr. Richardson mentioned
 that they don't rely on that
 because its accuracy is not dependable,
 so it's not recommended to use that rapid testing.
 - To be honest, I'd defer to either Chief Hedges
 if he's able to answer that question
 or the county themselves.
 I don't think I have the expertise to speak on that.
 - Got it, while he's working his way down.
 City rec centers paid by citizens' tax dollars.
 - Overwhelmingly.
 - Yeah, so we're denying someone access
 to a public building is pretty significant, right?
 - We have strived to avoid a situation
 where we outright deny someone access.
 But if you're saying, this is a statement, not a question.
 - Sure.
 - If you're telling someone
 that they can't listen to their own body
 and their own doctor and understand
 how best for them to exercise, right?
 So if a person has some kind of medical condition,
 some sort of mental condition
 that would require them to not wear a mask while working out,
 that wouldn't be disclosed to the city.
 And the city is then saying, hey, you have to do this
 or you can't use a facility.
 That to me seems problematic
 because we don't know that individual history.
 We're making a broad assumption
 that everyone's happy, healthy,
 and can wear a mask when they work out, no problem.
 Or you can't use a facility.
 That's kind of my read on it, not yours.
 But Chief, you wanna?
 - Just on the testing aspect.
 So I have learned a little bit
 since the last time we presented.
 So three different types of tests.
 So starting the very gold standard is PCR,
 this is a lab test.
 That's the one that takes multiple days.
 Next step down is a molecular,
 which is that what we're looking to do for city employees.
 It's a mobile test that can be completed
 within 13 minutes to produce a negative.
 Five minutes for a positive.
 And then what you're probably talking about
 is the antigen testing.
 That's the one you can buy in Walmart,
 those various other stores that gives on the spot testing.
 Antigen testing is fairly accurate on positives.
 They deliver a high percentage of false negatives.
 So yes, you are correct.
 A lot of people are going to the antigen testing
 when they're walking to work.
 But then again, you have a high rate of false negatives.
 - Thank you.
 Got it.
 And then, so Ryan, an anecdote that I wanna kind of overlay
 and this is where I arrived.
 So we just had a conversation, matter of fact,
 about, so the mask out mandate would apply to
 and does apply to everyone in the city,
 regardless of circumstance.
 So if you're in the city- - It's only in the circumstances
 within the order of commercial entity,
 public facility, school.
 - Yes.
 And so, but commercial entities have staggered
 utility rates, right?
 From the city, from DME, they have staggered utility rates
 depending on their usage.
 Water usage is staggered based on scenarios.
 - Based on use? - Yes.
 So using the same commercial entity as an example,
 we take into consideration your usage
 and kind of your uniqueness when it comes to water.
 We take into consideration commercial entities'
 uniqueness with electricity.
 Is there staggered rates for commercial uses with wastewater?
 Basically all the utilities, yeah?
 - Yeah. - Okay.
 And so we take all those individual things
 into consideration on everything but this.
 Somehow this, and this is not a question,
 is uniquely qualified to stand on its own
 irrespective of an individual's individual health.
 And that to me is a problem.
 It's a problem to overreach into the school district's
 authority to mandate its schools.
 And so that to me stands out and we don't have a way
 to control the city of Denton border.
 So we don't have, it's not like we can shut ourselves off
 from everywhere else and control our environment and say,
 "Hey, if we mask up in this way, then we're,"
 I just, and so I don't wanna sound, I am very pro-mask.
 I just don't think this is the way to achieve
 the results we want because this does not drive people
 towards vaccinations.
 I'll tell you, UNT, which has driven
 and pushed towards vaccinations has 10,000 people
 that have been vaccinated.
 That's not to mention people that may have had the virus
 and now have a kind of a natural immunity.
 So there's a lot of good work going on.
 The city's just not participating in my estimation
 by not focusing on education and on driving people
 to that are vaccine hesitant, get them the information
 they need to maybe get them to make a different decision.
 So we're ignoring that saying we're going to just try
 to mitigate the spread in our own kind of unique way.
 And we're going in alone.
 There's not the county, not the school district,
 not the junior college, not the universities.
 And so that to me is confusing
 that the city of Denton is going in alone.
 And then to say that we're going to,
 and obviously there's a consensus to then say
 we're not possible to mask the classes should be moved
 outside, which then you know, there's heat.
 There's all kinds of issues that are wrong with that.
 And then if not, just cancel the classes.
 So we're going to take away someone's livelihood
 from a teacher.
 We're going to refund the money.
 It just, and all in all, you're denying people access
 to public property.
 And that to me is a problem.
 And then we're not going to be there to support
 the city staff that then has to explain to someone
 because that's, if you think the first version
 drew a reaction and then, so that's,
 that is a problem for me to put, again,
 either city employees or 16 year old hostesses or whatever
 in charge of enforcing our ordinance.
 And I just think it's just, there's a better way
 to get people to towards vaccines.
 And so I look, I just don't think this is the best use
 of our opportunity to draw people together.
 And that really is it.
 And so I'll summarize by saying this.
 These decisions, you know, it's just,
 it doesn't serve the entirety of the community.
 It doesn't bring the community together.
 It does not consider people's individual health concerns.
 And it does not consider partnering the ability
 to partner with others.
 If we could soften our stance and then partner
 with the county, partner with the schools.
 I think that's a better thing to go in it together
 versus to fight everything by ourselves from this desk.
 I think that's just, we're swimming upstream.
 We should partner with those that are available.
 We're asking the governor to soften his stance.
 If we soften our stance,
 we could then maybe pick up some allies,
 but we're holding firm and getting more rigid.
 So any other city attorney?
 - Just want to make sure, point of clarification,
 just to make sure here, 'cause I promised you I would.
 So rec center fitness classes, weight room,
 if you can't do it outside,
 which they're doing their hardest to do,
 then they need to wear a mask.
 If they're not wearing a mask,
 then we will cancel those classes.
 And that's what I'm hearing.
 In testing of city employees,
 that's something we have to investigate.
 So we'll come back to you.
 And then the third item is the masking alone,
 which was mentioned by council member McGuire.
 When you talk about masking alone,
 are you speaking to if you're sitting,
 like if I'm sitting in my office, I don't wear a mask.
 No one's in there with me.
 Same thing with other facilities.
 Is that for city only commercial business?
 If they're in there by themselves, does that apply as well?
 'Cause I want to make sure that we're being very clear.
 - I would suggest that it apply to any situation
 where someone is in a completely enclosed room
 by themselves.
 - Okay.
 - So for example, an office with a door that can close,
 I would suggest, yes, you should be allowed
 to remove your mask in that situation.
 A cubicle, I would say no.
 - Okay, that helps me.
 I just wanted to make sure that we have the right direction.
 Thank you.
 - Do you want to confirm everyone that,
 so I have mayor Pro Tem Meltzer,
 council member Armitter, Beck and Byrd
 to get your consensus there.
 - Yeah, so I have council member Beck,
 council member Byrd, council member McGuire
 and council member Armitter and the mayor Pro Tem
 as what I just said, as being supportive of that.
 - For clarification, if I may,
 did that also include a health exemption?
 I believe that was mentioned by council member McGuire.
 I did not hear it in your recap,
 but that's my understanding as well.
 - Can you clarify what you mean
 when you said you heard me talk about a health exemption?
 - It sounded, and I may have misheard you,
 it sounded as if you wanted an exemption
 for those who could not or wearing of a mask
 or face covering would put them at risk health-wise,
 similar to what was in the original city order back in 2020.
 I may have misheard you, but I want to make sure
 that if it is something you wanted
 and a majority of council wanted,
 we didn't leave it on the table.
 - That's not something that I addressed.
 - Okay, thank you.
 - Okay, all right, that concludes that item.
 Thank you very much, Ron.
 - Thank you, council.
 - Takes us to item D, which is ID211091,
 receive report, hold discussion,
 give staff direction on pending city council request.
 (keyboard clicking)
 - Good afternoon, mayor and council.
 This is Rachel Ball-Thretman,
 those are assistant to the city manager,
 and I will present the work session
 for our pending requests for information.
 Just as a little reminder for those that may need one,
 up to seven requests will be reviewed per meeting.
 Today, we have two, I'll introduce each one,
 and then the elected official that made the request
 will have up to one minute to describe and justify it.
 Afterwards, the remaining elected officials
 will then have up to one minute to provide feedback
 and indicate your support for the use of staff time.
 And we'll, of course, respond to all requests
 where a consensus of council is established.
 The first one today is from council member Armentor,
 where she requests a work session
 to add Denton College and university campuses
 to our new mask ordinance.
 And her full request is there,
 as well as some information that she provided as backup,
 as well as some information that staff provided.
 And I'll stop sharing so that we can see.
 - Thank you.
 So Dallas County has recently added universities
 and colleges, institutions of higher learning
 to their mask ordinance.
 And Denton, City of Denton's mask ordinance,
 of course, is modeled after Dallas County's
 for strategic reasons.
 I think it's a very good idea for us to do the same,
 to save lives and mitigate the spread of COVID,
 both inside and outside university communities
 and college communities.
 We've got about 57,796 students,
 and college students in Denton,
 that's about 42% of the city population
 that does not include staff and faculty.
 That's a lot of people.
 If we could affect even 10%,
 get 10% more of those people to wear masks,
 it would make a huge difference.
 - Okay, any others?
 Council Member Beck.
 - When we originally discussed this,
 this was an idea that I supported and I support it now.
 - Council Member Davis.
 - For all our discomfort with Austin telling the City
 of Denton what to do in local matters,
 we seem eager to tell other governmental agencies
 and bodies, including our school board, our universities,
 even folks who we try to partner with and other things.
 We seem very eager to tell them
 what to do on their campuses,
 even when they've told us in no uncertain terms
 that as separate governmental entities,
 they will follow their own legal advice
 regarding the governor's orders.
 It's a terrible idea.
 - Mayor Pro Temelter.
 - I think there's no uncertainty at all
 on the part of those institutions where we stand.
 And they've for the most part responded
 with an awareness of our ordinance was cited
 in communication to the public by the superintendent at DIST,
 as well as by President Smatresk at UNT.
 I think they're kind of doing what they can
 within their restrictions that they're under
 to support getting this under control.
 So I don't think it adds a positive
 and I think it adds some risk to the defensibility
 just even to move it around, other than, you know,
 to make the sort of fact-based modifications
 we talked about in the earlier session.
 So I'm not for making that particular change.
 - Council Member Burt.
 - I am gonna say that I'm not in agreement with this.
 I think that it's an inappropriate thing for us to do
 is to require someone else, you know,
 another entity to follow along with what we're doing.
 And this is the reason why I noted to earlier
 about making sure that the public knows
 that this is what the city of Denton is doing.
 Since we have not gotten anybody else on board
 and it doesn't appear that anyone else is coming on board.
 So at this point, I think that this particular matter
 is inappropriate for what we need to do right now.
 - Council Member Guara.
 - Thank you.
 I don't see any particular harm
 in adding this to our ordinance.
 The reality on the ground likely will not change,
 but I think that it sends a somewhat clearer message
 to leaders of our institutions of higher learning.
 And I would urge everyone,
 particularly those who are leaders
 in educational institutions
 to recognize how much messaging matters.
 You know, you can say masking is optional,
 or you can say the city of Denton
 has a mask mandate in place.
 Both are true.
 One is more likely to result in people wearing masks.
 And anecdotally, I'd like to share that,
 I'd heard that at Newton Razor Elementary,
 masking is quite high, so you can require.
 - That's your time.
 Okay.
 Anyone else?
 - I'll just say, I don't support it,
 just to have a clear record.
 We've not brought forward any of our partners.
 We've not talked to them.
 We've not had a work session, not one business.
 We passed this original thing in the middle of the night.
 We then try to amend it.
 The messaging has been difficult as is.
 And we've done a lot of effort to then change and pivot.
 It adds more problems.
 And then I've seen the emails that get forwarded.
 And I don't see the staff as then
 having to manage those things versus this body
 that made the decision having to defend those things.
 So I don't see a reason to continue to try to dictate
 to other government entities
 how they should conduct their business.
 We wouldn't want them to do that to us
 and as evidenced by our actions thus far.
 So thank you.
 - Thank you.
 I'll move on to the next one now.
 Allow me to reshare.
 (audience laughing)
 Our next request is from Council Member McGuire.
 She would like to seek a resolution
 opposing Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 3,
 which are planned to go before the floor
 in the Texas Legislature Special Session.
 We do have her full request here
 and a little bit of backup information.
 And I'll stop sharing so that we can.
 See her.
 - Council Member McGuire.
 - Thank you.
 I am requesting that Council consider a resolution
 opposing SB 1 and House Bill 3,
 which are planned for consideration
 in the Texas Legislature Special Session
 currently underway.
 You all read my statement about it.
 I included some sample language,
 which was forwarded to you in the Friday report
 based loosely on Austin's resolution,
 which also passed.
 It's quite possible that this might become a moot point
 if these bills come up for a vote
 before the end of the current special session
 on September 7th, which is before our next meeting.
 We may not get an opportunity to vote on it,
 but it's also possible that a new special session
 could be called, in which case I would like for us
 to have the opportunity to vote on this resolution
 on September 14th and get that on the books
 in case it comes up in a future special session.
 - Councilor Arbiter.
 - I strongly support this resolution.
 This is a direct attack on the people who we represent
 and their rights to vote.
 And I think it's essential that we show them
 that we are supporting them in this matter.
 - Anyone else, Mayor Proctor Meltzer.
 - To the extent that it addresses local elections,
 I think it's very much in our lane.
 I would urge it to be whittled down to,
 I think we're stronger if it does only address
 the impact on local elections,
 and the rest is there by implication anyway.
 As far as the timing, I would support whatever steps
 we had to take to act in such a way
 that it could have actually reached someone
 before they had to vote on it.
 - Council Member Beck.
 - I'm concerned about the timing,
 but I support the messaging overall,
 so I'm in favor of this.
 - Council Member Byrd.
 - I'm absolutely in favor of this.
 I think just as important that we protect this,
 everyone's right to vote.
 So thank you so much for bringing this forward.
 - Council Member Davis.
 - I don't think there's anybody on the dais
 who would oppose someone's right to vote,
 or would want someone's right to vote infringed.
 However, what we're talking about are two pieces
 of live legislation in the Texas House.
 We had members of the Texas House flee the state
 so the legislation wouldn't be considered.
 It's highly politicized.
 It involves many issues to Council Member Meltzer,
 excuse me, Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer's point,
 that are not necessarily in the city's wheelhouse.
 I could support a work session
 to talk about the city's response,
 something that says that a city supports voting rights,
 supports people's access to the ballot box
 and all of those things that anyone can agree on.
 But again, this is a work session request,
 so I would not wanna see a mistake like we made prior,
 which is simply a letter that then gets voted on
 as an individual consideration.
 If we're gonna send a resolution,
 it needs to have a work session as is being requested
 under our rules of procedure where it can be wordsmithed
 and hopefully crafted more like
 what Mayor Pro Tem suggested.
 - Okay.
 Then I'll just say, yeah, I don't support it as presented.
 Again, it's gonna have,
 Council Member Davis makes great points
 that it's going to change and have varying degrees of change
 now that they're just getting back started.
 And yes, I mean, I just think from a focus standpoint,
 it's important to craft it well
 and have that work session so that
 we can speak to things that affect our community
 and represent our constituents best
 versus speak on things that we have no control over
 that will then,
 I just don't think have as great an impact.
 So thank you.
 All right.
 I would refer to staff on the summary.
 Okay. - Thank you.
 So that concludes those two dinners here.
 It is 518, but let me take us in.
 So that concludes that portion.
 I'll call the special, the closed session,
 then we'll grab dinner and go into closed session
 for one item, two, two items.
 Great.
 So I will convene the closed session at 519 PM.
 We will consider the following items,
 deliberation regarding personnel matters
 under Texas Local Government Code, Section 551.074,
 deliberations regarding certain public power, utilities,
 competitive matters under Texas Government Code,
 Section 551.086, consultation with attorneys
 under Texas Government Code 551.071.
 And so now we're in closed session.
 We'll take...
 Welcome back to this meeting of the Denton City Council.
 It is 752.
 We are back in open session
 and wrapping up the rest of our meeting.
 Thank you for your indulgence during the closed session.
 So we bring this to the consent agenda.
 Nothing was pulled.
 I'll take a motion.
 Council Member Beck.
 - Motion to approve.
 - Council Member Byrd.
 - Second.
 - So we have a motion by Council Member Beck,
 second by Council Member Byrd, discussion.
 I just wanna say that with respect to,
 I received numerous emails regarding item G
 with respect to the allocations for the attorney's fees.
 And I have talked and confirmed
 that there is a method by which
 the members of this body can pay into that fund.
 And some indicated they would,
 not to this specific fund, but a fund.
 And so I did not pull it
 because I just didn't think it would be beneficial.
 You know, based on our earlier conversation
 and subsequent and previous conversations,
 I didn't think it would not pass.
 And so I will continue to monitor that.
 And I just wanna say to those that emailed,
 I am concerned about your tax dollars.
 And I am concerned about understanding the challenges
 and continuing to do what I can,
 but hoping that we don't have to spend taxpayer dollars
 on that.
 So I share those concerns.
 Again, did not feel like there was a good method
 by which to prevent this from moving forward,
 but did wanna speak on the record that I do not support it.
 Although the suite of consent agendas will be,
 it'll sell a yes,
 but wanted to just kind of segregate that out to say,
 it's unfortunate that this would put your tax dollars
 potentially to be used in this way.
 But I'll quote Mayor Watson and say, I trust the process.
 So I hope that we can avoid spending taxpayer dollars
 on this, but that's to be seen.
 So, all right.
 So we have a motion by Council Member Beck,
 second by Council Member Byrd.
 Any other discussion?
 Seeing none, Council Member Beck, Councilor Eave.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Byrd.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Armitage.
 - Yes.
 - Council Member McGuire.
 Council Member McGuire.
 - Aye.
 - Mayor Pro Tem Metzler.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Davis.
 - Aye.
 - Mayor Hutzpah, aye, that passes seven, zero.
 It takes us to our first item for individual consideration.
 I'll call it, it's item AID 211270,
 Consider Appointments to the Development Code
 Review Committee.
 - Thank you.
 Good evening, Mayor and City Council.
 My name is Rosa Rios and I am your City Secretary.
 And I'm here to present the item.
 Okay.
 Again, I'm gonna present
 the Development Code Review Committee Appointment Process.
 So to kind of outline the creation,
 before the Development Code Review Committee,
 the DCRC was previously an ad hoc.
 On April 6th, it was made a full standing committee,
 just like other boards and commissions.
 The difference is that the members are nominated
 and appointed by the full City Council,
 and it is composed of six voting members,
 three of which represent City Council members,
 and then the other, the Planning and Zoning Commission
 members, so those are the special qualifications there.
 Any individuals appointed tonight would serve
 for a full term beginning September 1, 2021,
 and ending August 31, 2023.
 And then of course, in the event that any member ceases
 to serve as a member of the City Council
 or the Planning and Zoning Commission,
 they would see, the seat would be vacated
 not only on the PNZ, but also on the DCRC.
 As you can see here, you can see the current membership,
 which is Council Members Byrd, Beck, and Davis, respectfully.
 And the commissioners are Andrew Rozelle,
 Margie Ellis, and Tim Smith.
 I will note that Andrew Rozelle is termed,
 and his last official day will be August 31st, 2021.
 So for the Planning and Zoning Commission membership,
 you can see here who all the members are.
 I've indicated who the nominating Council member was.
 Again, I've made a notation for Andrew Rozelle,
 and he has indicated there's no need for him to hold over.
 But we did appoint Jordan Villarreal to that seat,
 effective September 1st, and it also outlines
 the total terms that each member has served to date,
 as well as the remaining terms here.
 So the objective here tonight is to appoint
 three City Council members
 and three Planning and Zoning Commissioners
 for a full term to begin September 1, 2021,
 and ending August 31st, 2023, and I'll take any questions.
 And let me just close out the--
 - Questions for Seth.
 Council Member Amater?
 - Yes, would you like us to nominate,
 nominate one group of nominees first, and then the other,
 or would it be helpful to nominate a batch of them at once?
 Vote on that.
 - It would be the preference of the presiding officer
 of whether you want to nominate.
 We have broken out nominations to maybe first the PNZ
 to kind of get those out of the way,
 and then the City Council members.
 - Okay.
 So let's, I'd just prefer to get all the questions
 out of the way, and then we'll,
 if there's any questions, additional questions,
 and then we'll come up with a process.
 Any other questions?
 Seeing none, okay.
 Council Member Amater, so yes, let's,
 and so for the record, City Secretary sent out request
 and focusing on PNZ members.
 There were two nominations for Eric Pruitt,
 and so let's have the PNZ conversation.
 If we hold over the, so currently PNZ is Margie Ellis,
 Tim Smith, they're still eligible,
 and Eric Pruitt could potentially serve
 in place of Andrew Rozelle.
 That would complete the PNZ requirement,
 but Council Member Amater?
 - Yeah, so I love the idea of Eric Pruitt.
 Filling in for Andrew with Rozelle's spot as his term ends,
 and I would also love to see somebody new on that committee.
 I think Jordan Villarreal would be great,
 and Tim Smith's spot, I think he's been there for a while,
 but his term isn't expired, right?
 But if it's possible to get somebody new in there,
 I think that would be an excellent group.
 - Okay, so I don't think Jordan's taken his office,
 and I don't know that, well, I won't say anything further.
 I'll just say he's not been,
 he didn't begin till September, not an option,
 I don't believe, but.
 - But these terms end on the 31st, so.
 - Right, and if I may, Mr. Mayor,
 what was communicated was that,
 because we're trading these kind of separately,
 that a council member would nominate one PNZ member,
 and then also maybe nominate,
 if not themselves, one council member.
 - Okay, so. - That was the intent
 of the process.
 Now, just keep in mind, too,
 that whatever process we use tonight will carry over
 for the preceding years for the appointment process.
 - Yeah, so, taking that point, thank you.
 So one nominee for PNZ, and that would be what,
 for you, Council Member Armitter?
 - Let's see, so that would be for Jordan Villarreal
 to replace Tim Smith.
 - Well, I don't know that it's just an appointee.
 Okay, got it. - Well, so,
 I should say, I don't wanna put another, you know,
 nominee in competition with Eric Pruitt.
 I think he'd be really good there.
 I want to vote in favor of him,
 and others have nominated him.
 - Okay, Council Member Davis.
 - Mayor, I think we kind of see the issue
 in going one by one and nominee by nominee.
 So I could make a motion at this moment
 if that would facilitate further discussion and debate.
 - Okay, thank you, Council Member Davis.
 - Thank you, at this time I move to appoint
 to the Development Code Review Committee
 Council Member Byrd, Council Member Beck,
 Council Member Davis, Commissioner Pruitt,
 Commissioner Ellis, and Commissioner Smith.
 - Is there a second?
 Council Member, okay, Council Member Byrd,
 let me get this, sorry, Davis.
 Motion by Council Member Davis,
 second by Council Member Beck.
 Pardon me. - Byrd.
 - Thank you for the correction.
 Motion by Council Member Davis,
 second by Council Member Byrd.
 And discussion.
 Council Member Armitage, or?
 - So just a procedural question, I'm a little confused.
 I hadn't realized that we were going to be
 voting on them all in one slate.
 I thought we were gonna be voting on first the
 nominating the P and Z members and then the council members.
 I thought we were gonna do it one by one.
 Is that, or did I misunderstand?
 Maybe I misunderstood.
 - No, you were correct.
 And then we, there was a problem with that process
 because we can't say who goes where.
 It's, we never were able to process through that.
 Council Member Davis pointed that out, mentioned it.
 He said, I can make a motion.
 You concurred, he made a motion.
 Council Member Byrd seconded.
 - Okay, sorry, I thought it was gonna be just a motion
 for Eric Pruitt to replace Andrew Rizzo.
 I misunderstood that.
 - Yeah, no, he, yeah, that's the sequence.
 Any other discussion?
 - Okay, motion, what?
 Who, I can't see who, there's no hand.
 Who, oh, Mayor Pro Tem.
 - Just speaking in favor of this slate.
 I think it's good mixture of continuity and new eyes.
 - Okay, okay, so Council Member Davis, how so you?
 - Excuse me, Mayor.
 - Yes.
 Council Member Beurre.
 - Thank you, so just to clarify,
 we are doing away entirely with the nomination process
 and we are just voting on the slate
 that Council Member Davis has proposed.
 - No, we're not doing away with the nomination process.
 There were the, I don't understand the question.
 We were taking them one by one.
 Council Member Davis made a statement that that won't work.
 Then Council Member Armitage concurred
 that Council Member Davis would make a nomination.
 Council Member Davis made a nomination.
 It was seconded by Council Member Beurre
 and we were in discussion.
 - Okay, so just to be clear,
 if we want to nominate members other than those
 who were proposed by Council Member Davis,
 we have to vote no to this motion.
 - That is correct.
 Okay.
 Okay, Council Member Davis, how so you?
 - I'm sorry, Mayor, I had a first request to speak.
 - Yes, I wasn't sure if that was a holdover.
 - Council Member Davis.
 - Just speaking in support of the motion,
 I made the motion phrases I did
 because we've had the question pending for weeks now
 and the nomination that was made
 through email to the city secretary was Eric Pruitt.
 Everybody else is still eligible to fulfill a next term.
 There weren't other nominations
 that came to the city secretary,
 so I felt very comfortable proposing this current slate.
 And then I was kind of waiting
 and letting the process unfold
 and it looked like we were just gonna do this tip for tap,
 fill in six spots one at a time.
 And we've got other business to do,
 so that's why I proposed the slate that I did in one motion.
 I don't think you have to vote the motion down.
 If you don't like the slate,
 I think you could propose an amendment to the motion,
 but it looks like it.
 I think the slate is gonna have support to carry forward
 and get the committee going.
 - Council Member Ormberger.
 - Yes, I'd like to make a friendly amendment
 to replace Tim Smith with Jordan Valerio.
 - Council Member Davis.
 - One, no such thing as a friendly amendment.
 Two, I do not accept the amendment.
 I think Commissioner Smith has served well in the committee
 and his experience is invaluable
 if we're looking to review and amend the code.
 - Okay, so any other discussion?
 Seeing none, Council Member Beck.
 - I'm not trying to stop this.
 We're not following sort of our typical nomination process.
 And I realized that we're following
 a typical motion process.
 We're not following our,
 what's the word I'm looking for?
 Precedent for how we dominate other standing committees.
 So, you know, whether or not I would support this slate,
 I sort of am sort of irritated at the process.
 And I ask that we follow a more typical process.
 - Well, and I'll speak to that before you speak,
 Council Member Davis.
 But if you don't recall, I'll remind you
 that the typical process met your same consternation
 earlier in this process when I nominated.
 And then if you remember that whole thing,
 it was a traditional process
 and that was met with consternation as well.
 And I just, so we're just gonna,
 both processes have been met with resistance
 and I respect that, but I don't know
 if there's a third and unique way to do it.
 But we've had this, this is, I just think we need to,
 again, both processes have been met with frustration.
 And I don't, this, we've talked about this.
 I mean, again, this makes me the target
 and I don't understand.
 It just, we tried it before when we first got on
 and that was a problem, today is a problem.
 I mean, I don't know what else to tell you.
 Council Member Davis.
 - Thank you, Mayor.
 With all due respect, Council Member Beck,
 I don't think there is a precedent for this committee.
 This is the first time since the creation of the committee
 that the whole slate's been up at once.
 We've had some unexpired terms to fill
 with turnover and council members.
 So we had some individual spots to fill the last time,
 but the city secretary told us a little while ago,
 what we do today will set some precedent potentially
 for the future.
 That's because there is not a set way
 to do this particular committee.
 It's the only one we have that is set up in this way.
 And this is the first time we've had a whole term
 to appoint since the very first time we did it.
 And I'd have to go back and look at the very first time
 we did it to see exactly what we did.
 But I know that we didn't kind of go back and forth
 on each particular spot, filling each berth one at a time.
 - Council Member Beck.
 - Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 Just for points of fact, the process the first time
 was P&Z elected its internal members
 and council elected its internal members.
 And that to some degree ameliorated
 some of the back and forth,
 although they both suffered from the same
 appointment process, the mayor is quite correct
 that I objected to it at the beginning of our term.
 So I would have preferred to hear
 the entire council's body of nominations.
 You know, that's not the process we're following.
 I find that very unfortunate.
 - Okay, any other discussion?
 Council Member Davis, I'll say you.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Burke.
 - No.
 - Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Beck.
 - I'm gonna vote no just because I want to hear
 the other slate options.
 - Council Member Armitter.
 - No.
 - Council Member McGuire.
 - No.
 - Okay, Mayor Hudspeth has an aye, fails four, three.
 I'll take a nomination.
 Council Member Armitter.
 Just the entire slate.
 - So we've decided that what we do,
 the way we vote tonight will set precedent, right?
 But does that mean that the way that we voted
 and the thing that we voted no to,
 the first motion that was made, sets the precedent?
 That's not clear to me.
 - Yes, I'm asking for the entire slate, please.
 - I'm gonna withdraw my motion then.
 - Okay, looking for a motion.
 - Council Member Byrd.
 - So Mayor, I motion that we terminate Vicki Byrd,
 Brian Beck, Jesse Davis, Eric Pruitt for planning and zoning,
 Margie Ellis for planning and zoning,
 Jordan Villarreal for planning and zoning.
 - Okay, is there a second?
 Council Member Armitter.
 - I second.
 - Okay, we have a motion by Council Member Byrd,
 second by Council Member Armitter.
 Discussion, Council Member Davis.
 - So instead of voting no to the previous motion,
 we could have moved and seconded an amendment
 to substitute out Jordan Villarreal for Tim Smith.
 Council Member Armitter said when she nominated
 Jordan Villarreal that she wanted to sub him in
 for Tim Smith.
 That all could have been done in just the same way.
 So all we've done with this new slate
 is given Tim Smith the boot.
 And if we're gonna do that,
 let's just say we're giving Tim Smith the boot
 instead of cloaking it in another motion.
 No offense, Council Member Byrd.
 I know that's not exactly what you're intending to do,
 but I'm gonna speak up for Tim Smith
 and say that he served admirably on P&Z.
 He's a valuable member of that board.
 He brings experience.
 He brings a voice to the business community.
 He's the president of our Parks Foundation.
 And that's just one example of the way that he gives back
 through himself and his firm to this community.
 And if you're just gonna give Tim Smith the boot,
 say it out loud.
 At this time, I move an amendment to replace
 the name Jordan Villarreal
 with the name Tim Smith on the slate.
 - Council Member Beck.
 - Mr. Mayor, there's a motion.
 Are we doing discussion still or the motion?
 - Yes, we're doing discussion.
 - Point of order, your honor.
 I've made, excuse me, your honor.
 I've been in court all day long.
 Gave you a little promotion there, Mayor.
 Point of order, I've made a moved an amendment
 and that needs a second or it'll die for want of a second.
 - Oh, I'm sorry.
 I was, I'm trying to keep track.
 Could you restate your motion, please?
 - I move to amend the motion that's on the floor
 by Council Member Byrd to replace the name Jordan Villarreal
 with the name Tim Smith.
 - Okay.
 All right, so there's a motion.
 Is there a second?
 I'll second for discussion.
 So motion by Council Member Davis,
 second by Mayor Hudspeth to,
 it's an amendment to the motion.
 Discussion, Council Member Beck.
 - Mr. Mayor, is this discussion about the amendment,
 I assume?
 - Yes, sir.
 - Then I'll withdraw my request to speak.
 - Thank you.
 Mayor Pro Tem.
 - Yeah, we're just going to go around in circles.
 You know, we already voted on substantively
 what would be the effect of the motion.
 I'll just share with you,
 I'm going to vote no on the motion on the amendment.
 I'm going to vote no on the motion.
 Just for consistency sake,
 I think Jordan Villarreal is great.
 He's brand new.
 The point of DCRC, if it has one,
 I think it's for people who know their way around,
 primarily to kind of vet things.
 I think Eric is such an astute student of policy
 that I think he will add capability even though brand new.
 But I think give Jordan a chance to learn.
 And I also think it's important, frankly,
 to have a bit of a diversity of philosophy on there.
 It doesn't have to kind of have tilt all one way.
 So I think Tim would have something to add,
 but I'm going to vote no on this
 because we already voted on this concept.
 And as I said, I'll also vote no on the underlying motion.
 - Councilor Davis.
 - Thank you, Mayor.
 I owe Jordan a good word here.
 Jordan's a friend.
 I think he's a good addition
 to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
 But I think the Mayor Pro Tem
 just summed up my entire issue with this process so far
 is that the purpose of the DCRC
 is to put ideas through the ringer,
 the ringer from both sides,
 put the ideas out there, fully vet them
 so that we get a fully baked something to talk about
 and good options when we get to council.
 I think the slate that I originally proposed,
 the slate we'd have if my amendment carries
 is the slate of people who can do that.
 - And I'll just, yeah, I couldn't imagine.
 And for those, I mean, I just think for me,
 if you don't think there's a learning curve,
 then you need just look at the newest person on P&Z
 that's gone through, I think, three meetings
 and not said a word because there is a lot,
 for some there's a learning curve.
 And I think the purpose of this body,
 again, I like Jordan as well,
 but I don't think it, just because,
 and I think it's skill set gets there, no question,
 but I just don't think day one you're able to serve
 and give the insight that you can without any experience.
 And so that's, it's, again, it should not be
 an individual look, but just a skill set.
 We're looking for a particular skill set
 and does a person that's never served on P&Z
 have that skill set?
 And I don't believe they do.
 And I've served in both capacities.
 So I'm gonna trust my own personal experience in that.
 And I think he can get up to speed.
 And again, I think Tim Smith has served well.
 He's been dynamic in this community
 and doesn't deserve, just because of a change of vote
 to be voted off, a change in kind of structure.
 He doesn't deserve to be voted off.
 He deserves to be able to continue to serve
 in that capacity in my estimation.
 So, but, Council Member Bet.
 - Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 This is exactly what I was wanting us to do
 is to have a discussion about the qualifications
 of the nominations and why we support them
 and why we like them and why they think they're valid.
 And Councilor Davis pointed out some excellent points.
 And Mayor, you pointed out some excellent points
 and we might have changed and voted,
 and we still might depending on the course of the action.
 But that's, we're being set with a slate
 with no discussion until the entire slate is slated
 and not a body of nominees with rationales.
 And that is the problem that I had
 on day one of this meeting.
 - Okay, thank you.
 Any other discussion?
 Seeing none, Council Member Davis, how so you?
 This is on the motion to exchange,
 Commissioner Tim Smith for Jordan Villarreal.
 - Aye.
 - Mayor Hertha, this is an aye.
 Council Member Burke.
 - No.
 - Council Member Armitage.
 - No.
 - Council Member McGuire.
 - No.
 - Council Member Meltzer.
 I'm pardoning, Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
 - No.
 - Okay.
 - Thank you, and Council Member Beck.
 - Nay.
 - Okay, that fails, the original motion's back.
 And so we have a motion by Council Member Byrd,
 a second by Council Member Armitage, any discussion?
 Council Member Davis.
 - You know, our facilitator from Saturday
 would throw a rock at me for doing this.
 I'm using this opportunity to show
 you can always discuss a motion.
 Even if it's presented as a slate,
 you can always discuss a motion.
 My original motion did nothing to curtail discussion
 'cause you can always discuss a motion.
 - Council Member Armitage.
 - To demonstrate that, I will discuss this motion.
 And just to say that the motion as I heard it
 was not let's give Tim Smith the boot.
 I didn't hear anything negative said
 by anybody about Tim Smith.
 So I reject that characterization
 in the spirit of having people step down
 and new people come on.
 I think Jordan Villarreal would be great.
 I agree, Tim Smith is a terrific person
 and has done a great job on this committee
 and thank him for his service.
 But I am not seconding a motion to give Tim Smith the boot.
 - Okay, any other discussion?
 Council Member Byrd, how so you?
 - I.
 - Council Member Armitage.
 - Yes.
 - Council Member Beck.
 - Yes.
 - Council Member McGuire.
 - I'm sorry, I need clarification
 on what motion is on the floor right now.
 It's the original motion that was,
 it's Council Member Byrd, Beck, Davis,
 Commissioners Pruitt, Ellis, and Jordan Villarreal.
 - Yes.
 - Bear with me.
 Council Member Davis.
 - Nay.
 - Mayor Pro Temelter.
 - Nay.
 - Mayor Hutzpeth is a nay as well, passes four, three.
 Thank you, Rosa, sorry for the extra time.
 Okay, takes us to item A, which is ID 211345,
 consider approval of a resolution of the City of Denton,
 providing for removal for cause of a member
 of the Health and Building Standards Commission.
 - Thank you, good evening again.
 My name is Rosa Rios, and I'm your city secretary.
 This is the last time you'll need to put up with me tonight,
 so I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen.
 So in presenting the item, a little bit of background
 on the member that's applicable to the item.
 So Sandel Addison has been a member of HABSCO
 since November 2018.
 Her term currently does expire June 30, 2022,
 and has been nominated by, has historically been nominated
 by Council Member Armenter,
 and fits the at-large alternate one position.
 In the attendance policy, we do send that to all existing
 and any reappointed new members as part of the,
 any potential changes that are happening annually.
 And of course, it's also part of the new
 or the reappointed member packet.
 It also includes some guidelines that made it
 a little bit easier for the members to kind of decipher
 what the process is and what the notification needs are.
 And then of course, so we developed a form
 that they could potentially use,
 although we do accept notification of a potential
 or absence that they could just basically use
 or send us an email.
 So under the attendance requirements,
 there are a couple of sections on Article II
 of the city code that outline
 what the attendance requirements are.
 It also notes what, how an unexcused absence
 or potential removal could happen
 if they miss more than three unexcused absences
 or 50% of the number of regular scheduled meetings
 in a year, and that would be considered again for cost.
 So Article XIV of the city charter does provide
 for removal of a board member for cost.
 However, that provision is permissive,
 but it is not mandatory.
 So on June 22nd, city council was presented an item
 considering the removal of member Addison
 for having missed over 50% of the scheduled meetings
 in one year period, which covered June 2021.
 I'm sorry, that should be June 2020 through May 2021.
 And of course, the removal was denied.
 So this item today is presented in that now
 that as the months progress in the 12-month period
 now covers August 2020 through July 2021.
 And as you can see here, member Addison has missed more,
 has more than three unexcused absences
 and unfortunately also has that over 50%
 of scheduled meetings in any one year.
 So the city secretary's office is required
 to send the member notification to either resign
 or face potential removal.
 As you can see here, the letter was sent.
 The member did respond.
 You were provided a copy of the detail
 that she provided to you.
 And so far, as far as for the absent meetings,
 the member just simply failed to either respond
 to emails from staff when we were seeking
 to confirm attendance or even any phone messages
 that were left requesting a callback
 on that potential attendance at a meeting.
 So the item today presents the member's removal
 for having more than three unexcused absences
 but also having over 50% lack of attendance
 for the given year.
 City council has the option to remove the member
 or deny the removal.
 I do wanna note that because of the reporting period,
 and I'm gonna go back here a little bit,
 until the member reaches an attendance factor
 that will kind of provide for her
 to have an over 50% attendance at the actual meetings.
 Every time she misses a meeting,
 while she may not meet the more than three unexcused,
 she could potentially meet that over 50%
 if she misses a meeting,
 because that over 50% is the meeting,
 whether it's excused or unexcused.
 So that's one of the issues
 that you're kind of facing tonight.
 So again, those are your options,
 and I'm here to answer any questions that you may have.
 And I'll quit sharing.
 - Okay, questions for staff, council member Armitage.
 - So first I want to just thank you Rosa so much
 for what you do, both in giving members of boards
 and committees the unfortunate news that,
 especially under COVID, but it's just the policy, right?
 That there is, and you do a wonderful job of it.
 And thank you for standing here before us today
 and listening to our democracy is messy style bickering.
 It's all part of the process.
 And I think we might disagree on some things,
 but I guess we all agree that you are awesome.
 So thank you, just wanted to acknowledge that.
 So as you know, Sindel, Anderson, well, first of all,
 COVID has been difficult for attendance
 for a number of people.
 So let me ask you, if you're gonna go into discussion,
 then let's get a motion on the table in a second.
 If you have questions, by all means, go right ahead.
 - Okay, no, I guess I don't have any questions for now.
 - Okay, I'll take a motion.
 Council Member Armitage.
 - I want to move, no, not to remove Sindel, Addison.
 - Okay, is there a second?
 - Who was? - Mayor Proctor Meltzer.
 - Yeah, I'll second and I'll hold my comment, too.
 - All right, okay, discussion.
 Council Member Armitage.
 - Yeah, so Sindel Addison,
 who represents some much needed diversity on this committee,
 turns out she was in a car wreck
 and had been hospitalized multiple times
 and had been dealing with symptoms.
 And when I was finally able to reach her
 to find out that this had happened,
 she explained that she only feels safe attending on Zoom.
 And so she says that she will be able to attend on Zoom,
 but she cannot attend in-person meetings.
 So I'd like to give her a chance to do that.
 - Okay, Council Member Bet.
 - Mr. Merrick, is it appropriate to ask questions
 to staff at this time? - Yes, sir.
 - Okay, Rosa, is this meeting, is this a committee,
 the Building Health and Sandwich Commission,
 are they one of the ones that is scheduled
 to be video allowed?
 - Well, they were actually, recently under the council
 action that kind of defined the in-person hybrid,
 is that what you're talking about?
 So they were actually in-person,
 however, every member still continued to be able
 and have been provided the opportunity
 to participate virtually.
 The key was that when staff sent out the notification
 or left phone calls, that they respond in kind,
 advising what method of participation they needed.
 Even now to this day and then forward,
 there is a provision in the council rules,
 which the board and commission members
 are required to follow,
 that if it's medical due to travel,
 or if there's an emergency order in place,
 that they would be afforded the opportunity
 to attend virtually.
 But again, it's a matter of responding to that notification
 so that we know in advance.
 - And thank you.
 So there is at least until the end of the emergency order,
 the opportunity to continue to meet virtually.
 And Ms. Edison has said that she's willing to meet
 in that way, is that your understanding?
 - Yes, yes, she verified that she would be willing
 to participate virtually.
 Now, our process is that we contact the members each month
 or before every meeting and to receive a response
 so that we know and plan accordingly.
 We do not normally let a member give us like,
 say that they're gonna attend virtually
 for the next three, four or five months.
 We kind of do it on a meeting by meeting basis.
 But if council wants us to do an exception for that,
 to that process, certainly we'd be willing to do that.
 - And I guess sort of my last question
 is back to the 50% problem, the constant rollover.
 Would, and I'm not sure, I'll just ask you this question
 and another staff member can interrupt
 if you're not the right person.
 Would a way to cure this be to have council armature
 reappoint her and would that reset the clock?
 - Well, she would need to cease being a member.
 So every time a member gets re-appointed,
 the attendance just keeps rolling.
 But if the member ceases to be, to not serve, right?
 Let's just say, for example,
 if she would be removed or she resigned.
 And, but then opt it to go ahead and apply
 and be re-nominated.
 Then basically the whole attendance,
 everything is wiped clean for the previous service
 and she starts all over again.
 So all of these attendance that she might have,
 if she wasn't a former member for the board,
 regardless of what the period, wait period is,
 then if she's reappointed, it's basically a clean slate.
 She starts her terms and everything start counting all over.
 I mean, all, everything is fresh.
 - And there's no, there's no children's permanent record
 for getting removed from a board and commission.
 There's nothing that trails after you
 in any way, shape or form, is there?
 - I'm sorry?
 - There's no, there's nothing, no record
 that trails along behind a board and commission members
 saying, oh, you got removed.
 You're not eligible to be on a board
 and commission ever again.
 - Right.
 - That there's nothing like that.
 - Correct, right.
 And the handbook does allow that a removed member
 can still be reappointed, even nominated
 and reappointed to the same board or even another board.
 - So it sounds like the way to cure this
 because the member wants to continue.
 And it's, and I see from the head nods
 that Councilor Armitage would like her to continue
 is for us to unfortunately remove her, clear her slate,
 and then have Councilor Armitage nominator back again.
 That would be my recommendation.
 Thank you.
 - Councilor Armitage.
 - Yeah, so thank you Council Member Beck
 for explaining to me what Rosa explained really well.
 Now I'm realizing, putting two together,
 realizing that that's what you were saying
 about the double bind of the 50% with the rollover.
 So yeah, in that case, I will,
 and I don't know if I can remove this motion
 and make a new motion all at once.
 If so, I would like to do that to withdraw this motion
 and then to make a motion to approve this resolution.
 - Yes.
 - Okay, so then I move to approve the resolution.
 - Is there a second?
 - I second.
 - Thanks.
 Discussion.
 - Motion approved by Council Member Armitage,
 second by Council Member Beck.
 Discussion?
 Seeing none.
 Council Member Armitage, I say you.
 - Yes.
 - Council Member Beck.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Byrd.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Davis.
 - Aye.
 - Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member McGuire.
 - Aye.
 - I'm sorry.
 - Aye.
 - Thank you.
 Mayor Hutsbeth has an aye as well.
 That passes seven zero, takes us to item C.
 - Mayor, item C is a repeat of the item
 that you heard last week.
 We have Erica Sullivan here,
 which she would actually be doing the same presentation
 in regards to PACR.
 The presentation has not changed.
 We did not receive any information
 in regards to the accusation that was made last week.
 We have no documentation whatsoever,
 but you all should have received
 in your Friday report or by separate email,
 all of the items that PACR is doing
 in relation to COVID-19.
 - Okay, so let me call that.
 So it's CID2118233.
 And yeah, so there's no presentation,
 but staff, I would ask you to put up the slide
 from Friday's staff, pardon me, Friday's email.
 (mouse clicking)
 Yeah, if you could just display that for a second.
 And then I'd like to.
 So just for the members of the public and for this body,
 there were some rather harsh things that my words,
 that my sentiment better said
 that were kind of disparaging, I believe,
 to a significant partner in our area.
 And I thought it important that we,
 they have an opportunity to clear their name.
 They provided this information.
 There's been, and to the city manager's note,
 there's been no, there was no information
 brought forward then during the planning,
 pardon me, during the business development meeting
 and the city council meeting,
 no information brought forward
 to substantiate the allegations.
 Then there's been another full week
 and there's been no information brought forward
 to document those slanderous,
 those same slanderous statements.
 And so I think it's important
 that we then give the same opportunity
 for Packard and Peterbilt to clear their name
 and their process.
 And so this has been provided, I won't read it,
 but I just wanted it to be part of the record.
 So you can pull it down and then we'll have a discussion.
 But I'm gonna, before we do that,
 I'm gonna move approval and give Packard my apologies
 for having to wait an extra week
 and be, and go through this process.
 Is there a second?
 Council Member Beck, second.
 So Mayor Hunts with the motion.
 Council Member Beck, second discussion.
 Council Member Arnter?
 - Yeah, so I wanna say a few words
 just about workers and whistleblowers.
 When workers come forward to me in confidentiality
 and express their concern
 about the safety of their job environment,
 I believe them.
 I believe them, especially when it's more than one.
 And when there is corroboration
 between the various stories.
 I'm not making a case in court.
 I disagree that it's slander.
 So if you or somebody else wants to,
 I mean, those are fighting litiginous words.
 If somebody wants to take action against me for that,
 I don't think that they would be very successful
 in doing that.
 All I'm doing is saying that I hear
 from workers whom I believe
 that conditions are not safe there.
 So on behalf of those workers,
 I'm not comfortable voting yes to this.
 And I wanted to represent that,
 the meeting last time I did this time.
 The burden of proof, I don't think should be upon me.
 I can't get into that plan and inspect it.
 But I'm glad that I had the opportunity
 to just make that public.
 I hope that the company does a good job.
 I certainly hope that I'm wrong.
 But I, again, I believe whistleblowers
 who say that their working conditions
 are unsafe under COVID.
 Unfortunately, in factory conditions like that,
 it's very common.
 So that is why I am going to be voting no to this.
 - Councilman Bet.
 - Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 I seconded this week as I seconded it last week.
 This is no disparagement against anyone
 who's talked last week or this week.
 The reason I voted for the motion to postpone
 was simply to allow some air and sunshine in.
 And I received no information or contact to me.
 I have nothing.
 So I have to make the same opinion that I did last week.
 But I gave that a fair opportunity for information
 to be shown to me, to be given to me for an investigation
 of whoever and whatever to be provided to me.
 So this is not a dispersion against anyone.
 I'm seconding because the information that I have
 last week and this week seem to be the same.
 I don't refute anything that was said.
 I just have nothing to go on.
 So that being said, I'm gonna second and vote yes.
 - Okay, any other discussion?
 Seeing none, okay.
 Mayor Hudson, aye.
 Council member Beck.
 - Aye.
 - Council member Arniter.
 - No.
 - Council member Byrd.
 - Aye.
 - Council member Davis.
 - Aye.
 - Council member McGuire.
 - Aye.
 - Mayor Pro Tem Melter.
 - Aye.
 - Thank you, that passes six one.
 Thank you, staff.
 - Thank you.
 - Okay, that concludes item C.
 Takes us to item D, which is ID211704.
 Consider adoption of an ordinance
 of the city of Denton, Texas home,
 a Texas Home Rule Municipal Corporation
 authorizing the city manager or their designee
 to execute a contract with Gomez Floor Covering, Inc.
 - Good evening, Mayor and Council.
 My name is Marissa Barrett and I am with the,
 I am the administration manager for the facilities
 and airport departments.
 Tonight, I'm here to present a proposed contract
 for flooring services, including new installation,
 renovations and maintenance for all city buildings.
 This contract would cover a total of five years.
 It's a one year with a four annual year extensions.
 And while only one vendor responded,
 staff have verified all references
 and received acceptable recommendations.
 The rates provided were also comparable
 to other vendors we had previously used.
 So I have a very, very brief presentation.
 And.
 There we go.
 So there are over 200 rooftops in the city of Denton
 that the facilities department helps maintain.
 And that's about 1.4 million square feet.
 There are various different types of flooring materials
 used throughout the city.
 And we evaluate those on an annual basis
 and our recommendations are presented
 as part of our capital improvement plan
 in the annual budget.
 Here is our estimated cost for this contract
 for that annual program.
 These include the capital replacements,
 small renovations and any minor changes
 or upgrades that need to be made.
 So, like I said, very, very brief,
 but are there any questions?
 - Okay, let's see.
 Questions for staff.
 No questions?
 I'll take a motion.
 Councilman Betts.
 - I motion approval.
 - Thank you.
 Is there a second, Councilor Davis?
 - I'll second.
 - Thank you.
 Motion by Council Member Beck,
 second by Council Member Davis.
 Discussion?
 Seeing none.
 Council Member Beck, I'll say you.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Davis.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member Armitter.
 - Yes.
 - Council Member Byrd.
 - Aye.
 - Council Member McGuire.
 - Aye.
 - Mayor Proctor Meltzer.
 - Aye.
 - Mayor Huntsman, so aye as well.
 That passes seven, zero.
 - Awesome, thank you so much.
 - Thank you.
 Takes us to two, E.
 Don't let me forget, we have a blue card
 and we have a caller, but I'll call item that's ID 21183,
 consider adoption of the ordinance of the city of Denton,
 confirming the effective period
 of the declaration declared state of local disaster
 related to COVID-19 emergency
 as provided in ordinance number 211290,
 superseding and replacing the 13th order of council
 issued on August 12th, 2021.
 - Mayor, members of the council,
 we do not have a separate PowerPoint presentation
 for this item.
 You were emailed draft copies of the updated order
 about 20, 25 minutes ago.
 I do have paper copies that I'd also like to pass out to you.
 So you can take a look and we're happy to receive
 any additional direction or answer any questions.
 - Okay, so I'll call the, let's take the caller first.
 - Thank you mayor, if you'll hang tight just one moment,
 I'll get her in.
 - Thank you.
 - Hello.
 - Hello, if you could give your name and address please,
 and then you can begin, you'll have four minutes to speak.
 - Yes, hello, my name is Jennifer Lane.
 I live in Denton, Texas.
 And I am calling because you may have not just heard
 that the ISD just passed the mass command date.
 So I wanted to let you know that first of all,
 the numbers are really scary amongst the children.
 And I wanted to let you know that just this morning,
 just now I sent a message to the ISD
 before that decision was reached.
 And the message is as follows, excuse me,
 give me just half a second to be able to read it to you.
 Yes, here we are.
 I learned from a colleague at where I teach at university
 that although vaccinated, this colleague has COVID-19.
 And this colleague has it because his seven year old
 and 11 year old attended in-person school for the first time
 since March, 2020.
 After four days, they had caught COVID-19
 and brought it home to this college colleague
 who now cannot meet his class at the university
 until he has improved and tests negative.
 The colleague has made clear that even though vaccinated,
 it's been a real rough time with the disease.
 Not requiring masks in the colleges and universities
 and previously in the ISD
 has been causing disruptions everywhere.
 Some of them quite serious.
 Please do extend your ordinance, the city's ordinance
 to include the colleges and universities.
 I know that came up in a work session today
 and didn't go any further,
 but now there's new, new, shall we say.
 So I would appreciate you doing that.
 It makes a big difference to all of us.
 That's it.
 - Okay, thank you very much.
 - Yes, this item I know is going to be discussed
 as what to do about your emergency,
 COVID emergency ordinance.
 So, this would fall under the category of what to do.
 - Okay. - I really appreciate it.
 - Thank you. - Thank you very much.
 - And then we also have Daniel here to speak.
 And I don't wanna beat up your last name.
 If you could, thank you very much.
 So if you could give us your name and address
 and you'll have four minutes, thank you.
 - Sure, my name is Daniel Cioffines,
 8008 Cherry Tree Lane, Denton.
 So during the emergency meeting,
 a caller came in and made the statement
 that thousands of kids would die
 if masks were not observed.
 With this, which councilwoman armature
 that I agree with everything that you just said.
 I looked up the deaths per age range
 and I'm seeing a big fat zero for anyone under 30,
 despite having 33,000 deaths or 33,000 cases.
 So they're getting infected and they don't die.
 So I think that statement that was made is patently false.
 Now, maybe you want to expand on that later,
 but I would appreciate more direct correlation.
 There's also a matter of hospitalizations.
 Now, I don't have a breakdown in Denton County
 of pediatric cases by hospital admitted.
 Do you?
 That's the first question that I would have.
 And I'd love to see that if you do have that, thank you.
 Going forward.
 We do have a study for,
 I do have the hospital stats
 for a large scale study that expand over a year.
 It's published at the CDC, peer reviewed,
 and it went from March 2020 to March 21.
 This particular study outlined
 a number of different cause consistently.
 The number one cofactor along with deaths and even ICU
 was obesity and complicated diabetes.
 So when you're all talking about shutting down classes
 and exercising, I'm raising alarm bells.
 Can we do something different?
 It's hard to break your schedule
 and get going and get fit at times.
 Furthermore, what's very interesting
 when you actually look at the data,
 there is actually at ages over 65,
 one thing that struck out to me is for ICU emissions,
 malnutrition actually were the cofactor.
 This is a national study not for done,
 which very much surprised me.
 So I would encourage us to look at the data
 and not just go on the bandwagon of saying across the board,
 masks are effective.
 Now, I'm not saying that masks are not effective.
 I'm not saying that vaccines are not effective.
 All right?
 However, if you've ever been to an elementary school,
 there are co issues.
 So I'm specifically targeting your mask mandate
 as it stands for elementary students and pre-K.
 That seems kind of loony.
 Let's talk about other countries here.
 Wales, England, Norway, other countries.
 I didn't list them all.
 They have modified mask schedules for kids,
 oftentimes no mask during the day or during the class,
 and then maybe during passing nothing, you know,
 put a mask on, or there are other options
 that many countries have.
 And so it's not just an all in or all out,
 believe it or not.
 There are issues with young kids, especially
 in special ed, having a mask.
 My sister, the special ed, and her whole face
 is very important for these autistic kids.
 It is how they learn.
 That's very, very important.
 And so having a blanket mask mandate
 is not a good thing for elementary and younger.
 That's not a way-- you can modify the schedule,
 but that just doesn't make any sense.
 And I want to speak specifically to Councilmember Beck.
 You seem to say that if we don't enforce this mask mandate,
 that other people will say, oh, I cannot get other vaccinated,
 your statement.
 That's nonsense.
 That is derogatory towards people
 who are vaccine-evident and mask-evident.
 They have very good reasons, and it does not
 carry over to other pre-approved, well-tested,
 well-studied, Tdap, you name it.
 That does not carry through.
 You don't know your own population.
 Am I troubling?
 Your attitude, and sometimes Councilmember Armitage's
 attitude, is fundamentally the reason.
 To sum up, it's not so much about your mandate.
 It's about we don't want to move towards New York, California,
 Oregon, Australia, et cetera, et cetera.
 We don't want to move in that direction one iota.
 That's the real reason.
 And if you can't understand that,
 you'll just keep on putting your foot in your mouth.
 So I would encourage you, if you modify the mask mandate,
 look very specifically at elementary schools.
 Look very specifically at modified mask mandates.
 You have a plethora of countries and their data regarding that.
 Thank you.
 OK.
 Thank you.
 Do you have a question for the speaker?
 Or is that something else?
 OK.
 Thank you very much.
 If anyone could provide me-- you have my contact information.
 If you can provide me that pediatric hospitalization,
 I would appreciate it.
 Yes, sir.
 Thank you.
 Thank you.
 Thank you.
 OK.
 Councilor Armitage.
 So I just wanted to state how happy
 I am to hear the news about DISD.
 Their new rule about masks being required on their campuses
 by students and staff now corresponds with the city's
 requirement.
 And they were basing their decision on the data.
 If you see-- those of you who are DISD parents got the email.
 I don't know if there's something up on their website
 by now.
 But I'm certainly-- as a parent and member of the community
 and council member, I'm really thrilled to hear that.
 And I think we should all be proud that we saw this coming.
 We saw the warning signs.
 And we didn't want to wait until the numbers at the schools
 started spiraling out of control.
 But I'm really glad DISD is on board now.
 I'm proud of our ordinance.
 I'm sad that today, anyway, there
 wasn't consensus to get colleges and universities in on it.
 But I'm still very proud of this ordinance.
 I'm proud that we haven't gotten any legal action for it.
 We're not even listed on the attorney general's list
 of cities with mask mandates.
 Anyway, but anyway, very proud and support this.
 Any other questions?
 Comments?
 Ron, I have a question.
 So based-- I see this as a conflict,
 but I need your help understanding.
 So it says face coverings are not
 a replacement for social distancing,
 frequent hand-washing, testing after exposure, vaccination,
 and self-isolation when sick.
 That's the very last paragraph.
 Then it goes into the bullets.
 So this is page two of two on the actual--
 OK.
 But also then-- and so using the Director Parks-Packins point,
 he says they were doing distancing at the recreation
 facilities.
 That is what we did in the summer of 2020, yes, sir.
 So it seems to read that if you can distance,
 that supersedes masking.
 But am I reading that wrong?
 I think our intent with this one-- and really,
 our intent is to say that masking alone is not effective.
 And we're basing that on just CDC guidelines
 to include these other things that the CDC recommends
 in addition to masking as safeguards.
 Got it.
 And then I did not see a carve out for health issues.
 We did clarify in the work session,
 but that was not part of what the majority of councilmembers
 agreed to with Councilmember McGuire's original statement.
 So there's no ability to accommodate for someone
 that has a health issue.
 That is not within our order right now.
 There's no exception that's related
 to an underlying health issue.
 That's correct.
 That's a major flaw for me.
 Because if someone needs to read lips,
 or there's a preexisting condition,
 we're then saying, hey, subject yourself
 to something that's unhealthy for you.
 If you need to then try to use our public facility,
 that's a problem for me.
 Then I'll ask you--
 so by the lettering of this document--
 and this is just-- it's minute, but it's to go to a point.
 So by the letter of this, it says I have to wear a mask.
 Is that correct if I'm going to a city facility?
 If you're going inside a city building, yes, sir.
 But it doesn't say--
 it's not prescribed how to wear the mask.
 It is not.
 So then someone that wanted to give our staff a hard time
 could wear it like this.
 And technically, you have a mask on.
 Technically, it doesn't say how you have to wear it.
 Because we're dealing--
 and that's what I'm saying.
 We're dealing with people that are frustrated.
 I get it in the perfect world that everyone
 would be complicit, and would understand,
 and read between the lines.
 That's not where we are.
 And you know that because you filled
 at the questions this week.
 And that's my problem with documents
 like this when you're trying to legislate and mandate.
 There's people out there that are going to shoot holes in it
 and kind of press us on it.
 And then our staff's in the middle of that.
 And it's just a tough situation to put our staff in.
 It really is.
 And I think we could get a lot more compliance
 a different way.
 And so that's why I won't be supporting this.
 And then just from a--
 again, just touching on from a financial standpoint,
 because this is a general COVID-19 update,
 we talked about it.
 Just to confirm on the record, a individual of this body
 that did not want taxpayer-- that
 wanted to help avoid taxpayer money going to legal fees
 could contribute to a fund to then use those dollars
 towards any legal fees.
 I believe the direction that we gave earlier in the work
 session was that there are mechanisms to set up
 for donations.
 We have to do a little work to see how that's set up.
 Such a thing could be set up.
 So there's precedent for it.
 Right.
 So hypothetically, if some people on this body said, hey,
 I'm willing to put forward $1,000, $750, my stipend--
 if someone said that, their staff
 is researching a mechanism to receive that money.
 Our understanding is that that's feasible.
 We would have to work out the details.
 OK, great.
 Thank you.
 Councilmember Armitage.
 No, never mind.
 I removed myself from class to speak.
 Yes, no.
 Councilmember McGuire, then Mayor Fertil Meltzer.
 Thank you, Ryan, for the clarification.
 I look forward to having the opportunity
 to put my money where my mouth is on that.
 And I'd just like for us all to remember
 that this is a constantly changing situation,
 and our response is constantly changing.
 And we had a work session and a closed session
 to discuss what changes we wanted
 to see to the ordinance.
 And I'd just like to remind everybody,
 if there's a change you would like to see to the ordinance,
 bring it forward.
 Suggest it.
 Mayor Fertil Meltzer.
 Would it be out of order to offer a motion at this time?
 No, sir.
 Yeah, I'll take it.
 OK, so I move approval of the new order
 as presented with the request that language that
 was in earlier City Council orders specifying
 that masks are covering nose and mouth be incorporated,
 and also to incorporate the earlier language,
 allowing for exceptions due to health conditions.
 That's something we can pull from previous orders
 and insert.
 All right.
 Is there a second?
 Councilmember Armitage?
 Yes, I second that.
 Discussion.
 Councilmember Beuer.
 I'd just really like to hear the specific language in question.
 OK, so do we need to table it, or are you pull that up?
 We may need to pull that up.
 I don't have that handy right now.
 OK, so while we're under discussion,
 is there anything else?
 I'll just say, again, if I can shoot a hole in this
 from now, from this afternoon till now,
 I don't have any suggestions on how to fix it.
 I don't support it.
 So that's just my point, that we're putting up
 people in an impossible situation,
 and you can't plug all the holes.
 And the business owners get another shot of, hey,
 don't come to Denton.
 And I get a lot of calls from business owners,
 and I have a duty to represent their interest, as well.
 And they're recovering.
 I don't know who all on this council's
 ever owned a business, a small business, but it's difficult.
 And they're very passionate, and they're very upset.
 And I have a duty to represent them to the best of my ability.
 And it's unfortunate what we're doing to them,
 because the first time, there were federal dollars
 and subsidies, and those aren't coming this time.
 And you can look no different than--
 if you read the article in the Denton Record Chronicle
 regarding Legends Cafe, this is exactly the thing
 that they pointed to as an issue with people not complying
 and just not shopping there.
 And unfortunately, other businesses
 are going to be in that situation.
 I'm fearful of that.
 And there's no federal dollars.
 There's no city dollars to fill those gaps.
 And that's unfortunate.
 And my heart goes out to city staff
 and to those small business owners.
 And I wish there was more business owners here
 that can maybe understand what we're putting them through.
 Councilman Burke.
 Mr. Mayor, my husband and I happen
 to own two small businesses.
 And we are very successful in our businesses in our own way.
 And last year, we were affected by everything,
 like everyone else was.
 And we did not make a tenth of the money
 that we normally do on an annual basis.
 But we persevered through all of that.
 So I'm just going to put that right there.
 So there are some businesses that are thriving
 and that have thrived.
 And of course, we know that there are some that did not make it.
 And as respectfully as I possibly
 can say about the business that you mentioned,
 please know that there were other businesses
 in that same complex that experienced the same issues
 that that particular business did.
 So those people that own that business,
 they may have had an opportunity or should have had an opportunity
 to look at their business model.
 As a matter of fact, I was just in that complex this morning
 at a business that is thriving still in that complex.
 So we know that the roads were bad.
 We know that we had to wear a mask.
 And we had to do all of that.
 There are some businesses in that complex.
 So I just want to just say that it's OK for us
 to have these discussions and these audiences out here.
 And they're designed for us to make changes,
 come back and talk about it, make it
 as perfect as we possibly can, although there's
 no such thing as that.
 So it's out there.
 Mr. Mayor, I appreciate you allowing me just to comment.
 Thank you.
 - Councilor Marmotor.
 - Yeah, I just wanted to add to that briefly
 since it's an important point.
 I'm sure that there are business owners who
 don't like mask mandate.
 I know that there are others who really appreciate it, who
 have already been requiring masks themselves
 as Governor Abbott allows them to do.
 And they haven't felt very supported by the city until now.
 So there are some who really appreciate that support.
 As far as people not doing business in Denton, it's true.
 I have heard from some people who
 say now that Denton requires masks,
 I'm not going to do business in Denton.
 I take that to mean these are people who
 don't want to wear a mask.
 And so if they're not going to do business in Denton,
 well, we will lose their dollars.
 But we'll also lose whatever COVID
 that they're going to spread here.
 And I'm OK with that.
 And I have also heard from people--
 and this is something I believe Mayor Pro Tem predicted
 would happen.
 And now I've seen it happen.
 I don't know if others have heard this too.
 But people who have written and reached out and said,
 thank you so much, Denton, for doing this.
 I will do my business in Denton now.
 I don't live in Denton, but I will do my business in Denton
 because I feel safe there.
 Or I want to move back to Denton now
 because Denton feels safer than the place I'm living now.
 So in many ways, this is good for business.
 But that's not the reason why I don't think anybody is doing
 this.
 It's because it is good for public health.
 And that is the main motivation.
 And businesses are nothing without the people
 who run them, the people who work there.
 And I know one thing that I love about Denton small business
 owners is that they care for their employees like family.
 And a number of them actually care
 more about the welfare of their employees
 than they do even about their own profits.
 And I've seen that time and time again.
 OK.
 All right.
 So Ron, you'll work on this and get it back to us.
 So what's the process to table, or do you already have it?
 It's going to be a bit--
 What's the process to table?
 Process to table is just that I'm on the table.
 OK.
 So I move we table this until we can see the new draft.
 And it's circulated via email for those that are not here.
 Is there a second?
 Mayor Pro Temelzer?
 Yeah, I'll second that.
 Got it.
 So any discussion?
 So a motion by myself and a seconded by Mayor Pro Temelzer
 to table.
 I'm an aye.
 Mayor Pro Tem?
 Aye.
 Council Member Beck?
 Aye.
 Council Member Armitage?
 Yes.
 All right.
 Council Member Byrd?
 Aye.
 Council Member Davis?
 Aye.
 And Council Member McGuire?
 Aye.
 OK.
 Motion to table passed 7-0.
 Thank you.
 We'll take up the last two items.
 Item F is ID 211486.
 Consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton, Texas.
 Home Rule Municipal Corporation authorizing the city manager
 to execute a lease with Core Scientific
 Inc. for approximately 30 acres of city-owned property
 located in the Moses H. Davis Survey Abstract, number 377.
 Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Terry Nolte,
 Assistant General Manager at DME.
 Mayor, if you would, could you call the next item as well?
 We can take up both these items at the same time.
 Yes, sir.
 So that's item G, which is ID 211364.
 Consider adoption of the ordinance
 of the city of Denton, Texas.
 Home Rule Municipal Corporation approving the power purchase
 agreement between the city and Core Scientific
 Inc. Delaware Corporation.
 OK, Mayor, I'm bringing up the presentation now.
 Yes, sir.
 OK, good evening.
 And thank you very much for entertaining this ordinance
 for consideration.
 This is a really important item for not only Dent Municipal
 Electric and our customers, but for the taxpayers of Denton
 as it represents a significant potential new source
 of revenue.
 We are proposing to lease 30 acres, just a little bit
 over 30 acres, of property at the Denton Energy Center
 to Core Scientific for the development of a large data
 mining operation, a data warehouse operation,
 that the lease site consists of two parcels, a parcel
 to the south of the Denton Energy Center,
 a parcel to the north of the Denton Energy Center.
 And this is located on Jim Crystal Road
 on the northwestern part of the city.
 As part of the proposed 30 plus acres of leasing,
 the term will be a seven-year term lease with a seven-year
 option to extend.
 The term of the lease is coterminous with the power
 purchase agreement under which DME will sell electricity
 and provide energy management qualified scheduling entity
 services to Core Scientific for the proposed property
 and the proposed project.
 The lease rate is $10,075 a month.
 There is a lease escalation provision
 that allows for an escalation of lease payments every two years
 based upon the change in the consumer price index.
 And it is a market-based lease rate.
 Important in this agreement is the fact
 that it is a cross-default provision to the power purchase
 agreement.
 A default under the lease agreement
 or a default under the power purchase agreement
 would result in a default of the other agreement.
 The agreement restricts access to the secured areas
 at the Denton Energy Center and to the substation that's
 operated by Denton Municipal Electric.
 We request approval of this ordinance
 authorizing the city manager to execute this lease agreement.
 And with that, Mr. Mayor and city council,
 I will be glad to answer any questions that you might have.
 Thank you.
 Questions for staff?
 Let me get back to that screen.
 OK.
 Any questions for Sarah?
 Council Member Guar?
 Thank you.
 Yeah, I was just wondering, because I asked about this
 earlier, if I could see that the slide regarding
 the financial impact updated for the new proposal.
 Yes, ma'am, I was planning to put that
 into the Friday report for you this Friday.
 I can't pull it up now if you'd like to see it.
 I would like to see it before I vote, please.
 All right.
 You'll have to bear with me one moment, then.
 Thank you, Terry.
 OK, can you see that screen now?
 Yes, sir.
 OK, I believe this is the screen you're looking for,
 Council Member Guar.
 This particular slide shows the forecasted financial impact
 of the combined lease and power purchase agreement.
 It includes the purchase agreement,
 and it includes about $1.4 million, $1.1 million
 of incremental net income to dent municipal electric
 in the first year, $6.9 million in the second year,
 and incremental city revenues of approximately $1.6 million
 to $2 million in the first year.
 And I'm ignoring the property tax line here.
 If you will, because those property taxes will not be
 actually realized until 2023 or later
 after the project is built and taxes are assessed.
 And as you can see, 2023 and '24,
 under the phasing of the project,
 that's when we start to see the full financial impact,
 about $6.9 million to dent municipal electric
 of net income, and roughly $8.5 million
 of incremental revenues to the general fund.
 I would remind Council that the franchise fee of $3.6 million,
 you typically would allocate 80% of that to the street fund.
 So you'd have to take 80% of that number out of this,
 this particular chart.
 Does that answer your question?
 It definitely does.
 And just to clarify, so 100% of that ROI and 20%
 of the franchise fees--
 sorry, I lost it because I wasn't looking.
 I have no working memory.
 My apologies.
 But so the ROI in particular, that
 is all going into the general fund, correct?
 Yes, ma'am.
 OK, thank you.
 That answers most of my question.
 Thanks.
 OK, any other questions for staff?
 OK, seeing none.
 So I'm going to make a motion to approve.
 Councilman Byrd?
 I second.
 OK, and just to be clear, so this
 is a motion to approve 2F.
 We have to take them one at a time.
 So motion to approve 2F.
 Councilman Byrd has seconded on 2F.
 Any other discussion?
 Seeing none, aye.
 Councilmember Byrd?
 Aye.
 Councilmember Beck?
 Aye.
 Councilmember Armitage?
 No.
 Councilmember McGuire?
 Aye.
 Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
 Aye.
 Councilmember Davis?
 Aye.
 OK, that passes 6-1, takes us to 2G.
 I'll take a motion.
 Councilmember Beck?
 Motion approval.
 Thank you.
 Councilmember Davis?
 I'll second.
 Thank you.
 Have a motion by Councilmember Beck,
 seconded by Councilmember Davis.
 Any discussion?
 Seeing none, Councilmember Beck, I'll say you.
 Aye.
 Councilmember Davis?
 Aye.
 Councilmember McGuire?
 Aye.
 Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer?
 Aye.
 Councilmember Byrd?
 Aye.
 Councilmember Armitage?
 No.
 That passes 6-1 as well.
 That concludes.
 Those two items will wait on staff.
 So they're ready?
 [INAUDIBLE]
 I have--
 [INAUDIBLE]
 OK.
 [INAUDIBLE]
 OK, so I'll pick up item E, right?
 Yes.
 And is that all I need to do?
 OK.
 Yeah, taking it from the table.
 And so we're back on E. I have another question for you,
 I think.
 So sorry to mess it up, but I was trying to catch you
 before you finished.
 No problem.
 So my question is this, so have we
 had board members that attend meetings that don't wear masks?
 I've not been made aware of any.
 The answer is yes, but I'll let the city manager answer.
 Sure.
 Yes, we have had some board members attend a meeting
 without wearing masks.
 OK, and then we have citizens that attend these meetings
 without masks.
 This is correct.
 So this proposal, this new draft,
 would say we don't allow citizens
 to use a citizen-funded recreation center,
 but then they can come to City Hall
 and have access without a mask.
 And so in essence-- and some of those meetings are broadcast,
 so then the citizens that were told
 they can't go in a rec center would watch a body perform
 their function without a mask and wonder,
 why wasn't I allowed to go into the rec center
 if they're allowed to be in City Hall?
 They're all city buildings, right?
 And so it's complex.
 Councilmember Armitage?
 Yeah, I just wanted to clarify, nobody
 is being denied access to a rec center that I've heard of.
 Ryan, I want to speak to that because that's absolutely--
 There's a difference between in this exercise class,
 masks are required versus you can't come in the building.
 So if you want to talk about saying
 you can't come into this particular exercise
 class without a mask, sure.
 But I think it's important to clarify, I have not heard--
 I mean, I will stand corrected if it turns out that happens,
 but anybody being denied access to a public building.
 This is about just trying to mitigate the damage of COVID,
 trying to save lives.
 It's difficult. It's messy.
 The governor has made it messy.
 I don't think that this council is the one who's made it messy.
 So my understanding is, Ryan, if they
 don't want to attend with a mask,
 we're going to tell them that they're not
 welcome to attend, or not those words,
 but you have to attend with a mask.
 Is that that simple?
 So the way the draft that you have that was emailed out,
 the way it's stated is that any fitness-based class that
 every participant wear, every participant cannot wear a mask
 or will not wear a mask, that would either
 be shifted to outside, or it would be canceled.
 OK, so it'd be--
 either way, it's treated different than city hall.
 Correct, it applies only to fitness-based classes.
 Right, so then someone that's--
 their class is either canceled, or they
 don't want to wear a mask to attend,
 they're sitting at home watching a proceeding at city hall,
 or watching speakers at city hall with no mask.
 There's-- it's just-- it's treated different,
 and it's the same taxpayer building,
 and I just think that's a problem.
 But no-- I stand alone in that.
 That's no problem.
 So Councilor Armitage.
 I just want to clarify, there's a difference between--
 I mean, if we canceled city council meetings, if we said,
 OK, no more city council meetings till COVID,
 and the public can't come and be here in city hall,
 I would hope that we could all agree that there's
 a difference between that and saying,
 look, for liability reasons for public safety,
 you don't feel safe having an exercise class.
 We make decisions to take risks every day.
 The safest thing to do would be to be in a bubble
 and stay at home.
 Instead, we decide, OK, these are the things
 that we think are worth doing and mitigating,
 and these are other things that we don't need to be a part of
 to encourage for public safety.
 This is temporary, and people can--
 exercise classes can happen outside.
 People can exercise on their own.
 We're not stopping people from exercising or having fun,
 but there's just a big difference between these two
 kinds of things.
 So I just--
 I really take exception to that.
 OK.
 Council member McGuire, have you had a chance
 to look at the email?
 And while you are, I'll just say,
 I'm for us treating citizens the same
 because we're an impartial body.
 Have you had a chance to look at it?
 Councilor McGuire, you requested it.
 Yes, yeah, yes.
 OK.
 So let me see where we are.
 We had a-- when we tabled it, we had
 a-- we have a motion by Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer and a second
 by Council Member Armitter.
 OK.
 So if we can load that back up.
 So this is item 2E.
 Again, motion by Council--
 Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer, second by Council Member Armitter.
 And any other discussion?
 Seeing none, oh, Council Member Davis.
 Just want to say very briefly, I encourage everybody
 to take a look at the email from Superintendent Wilson
 on exactly what the ISD is doing and what they're not doing.
 I'll point out once again that UNT
 is a separate governmental entity.
 They have made their choices.
 TWU is here with us earlier in the day.
 They're a separate entity.
 They have made their choices.
 DISD made their choices not because the Denton--
 Denton led the way or paved the way or went out there
 on a limb for them or directed them to do anything,
 but because the TEA issued new guidance this week,
 giving them the ability to do so with the advice
 of their own lawyers.
 So I also point out that if you have a kid at DISD
 and your kid participates in physical activity,
 there are exceptions for wearing a mask
 during physical exertion so they can continue
 with their physical activities, whether those
 are distance inside or outside.
 So I can't vote for this for any number of reasons,
 but not least of which is the fact
 that we're encouraging people not
 to participate in our city activities
 even with appropriate distancing.
 Thank you.
 Council Member Bet.
 Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
 I will just put into context that Sanger ISD also
 implemented a mask mandate just yesterday.
 So that would be three entities in Denton County
 not going in alone.
 OK.
 So any other discussion?
 Seeing none, Council Member-- pardon me.
 Mayor Proctor Meltzer, House, AU.
 I don't remember.
 Can you hear me?
 Aye.
 Council Member Archer.
 Yes.
 Council Member Bet.
 Aye.
 Council Member McGuire.
 Aye.
 Council Member Byrd.
 Aye.
 Council Member Davis.
 Nay.
 Mayor Hutspeth has a nay as well.
 Passes 5 to 2.
 Thank you for the quick work, Ron.
 Appreciate it.
 That takes us to concluding items.
 Any concluding items?
 One more time, concluding items.
 Great.
 Thank you.
 I'll adjourn the meeting at 9.27 PM.

        
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