Mar 22, 2022 City Council on 2022-03-22 3:00 PM (SPECIAL CALLED MEETING)

and welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council sorry but a few minutes behind and we are coming to you live from the for the first time since I've been there in the work session room so we're breaking new ground here so it is 3 0 5 we do have a quorum call a meeting to order and the first thing on the agenda is citizen comments on the consent agenda item we have one commentor so we'll ask them to come up I don't know did I go to the podium is that yeah all right and if you could give name and address and then you have four minutes Eva Greco 802 West Oak Street has been a long time since this room and the room itself has changed um just a few quick things here I wanted to say at the last meeting I spoke about the increase in at most energy bill and when I make a mistake I will be the first to admit it and I just wanted to make a public apology to Deb Armentor because she voted against it and I misspoke and the second thing was on today's agenda the consent agenda and I know you can't answer a question but when you discuss item 22 568 if you can make the public aware it's regarding the dark fiber if you can just make the public aware if there is any cost to the taxpayers on this item and that's it thank you very much okay thank you very much appreciate it okay and then that takes us to questions for staff on the consent agenda what counselor not a question but a request to have item a B ID 22 568 on the dark fiber pulled for individual consideration given that it's that this issue is such a matter of public interest okay is is there something specific you want presented or just just that don't need a PowerPoint you know just in yeah an overview for the public but mostly just to answer questions from council in front of the public right and so that's to give staff a heads up on the questions or at least so they can be there to answer the questions do you have any specificity into what what topic you're going to discuss or what questions generally or no sure yeah I'd be happy to give a heads up I can't promise it it's it's conclusive but I'm curious to know if there have been any previous dark fiber lease agreements in the city I'm curious to know where else we have dark fiber in this city curious to know if any other businesses have asked to use or lease our dark fiber that we might have buried elsewhere and also I'm curious to know how long this policy that is in the backup the front from the authorized rate book about dark fiber lease rates I'm just curious to know how long that's been around roughly and you know I think I know the answer about cost but because that was just asked by a member of the public but because that's a question that that the public keeps asking I think it would be be nice to have that answered publicly we'll have we'll have staff that'll be able to answer those questions wonderful thank you great thank you all right anyone else seeing none Council member a ID two to five to nine consider approval of a resolution the city didn't supporting centers for disease control and prevention guidelines regarding the prevention of increased transmission of a severe disease from COVID-19 virus I like to ask the staff to clarify whether or not if there is another event such as this COVID-19 situation to confirm whether or not the city may have an opportunity to bring back a mandate of sort that will help with the prevention of something like this what kind of issues should we expect to run into I'll ask Ryan Adams if he can come in here and answer that question for you now and he should be yeah he'll make his way over yeah thank you mayor and council Ryan Adams chief of staff I apologize can you repeat your question I was racing over here and I might have missed the last bit to five to nine I just wanted to get some clarity on whether or not if we we as a society have an event like we did with the Colbert the pandemic some people seem to think that it's over something that we still have ways to go if there is another situation such as that just a clarification that we will continue to follow the CDC recommendations what what is the relic resolution going to look like for us so the and that would be a matter for council to determine if they took any particular action if conditions changed in the future whether whether they take an action or not and how much that aligns with the CDC would be up to the council what I can tell you from staff's perspective is that we are even though the emergency declaration has concluded we continue to keep up with Denton County Public Health we still get the case numbers we still receive and digest that information this resolution is more a statement of council saying even though the declaration has concluded we still think it's important and want to encourage people to be vigilant to take advantage of testing take advantage of vaccinations and to use preventative measures that are available to them under the guidance of their personal health care professional so this would not impact any future action that council would have available to it and I believe that your question that's it yes thank you you got it okay any other questions seeing none that so I first staff the only thing that was pulled was a B and then it just kind of the questions is there an anyone else that leases who else leases or any other leases out there who else leases if there is anyone other businesses that have requested it police policies no pardon me how long it's been the policy has been around and then obviously the touching on cost and then yeah and that's it we call first takes us to our first work session and that's item a which is ID two two four seven five receive report and hold discussion give staff direction regarding audit project zero to five energy portfolio management renewable energy offset goal hello mayor and council I'm Madison Rorschach Denton City auditor gonna present our findings from this audit of the city's renewable energy offset goal so this report details our findings from the second phase of the energy portfolio management project phase one was presented earlier this month and covered the administration of energy portfolio transactions so this report generally evaluated compliance with the city's renewable energy offset goal in the past the city has adopted a goal of achieving 100% renewable energy for all DME rate payers the achievement of which is primarily the responsibility of DME's energy management organization through the management of the city's energy portfolio since the Denton renewable resource plan was adopted in 2018 the city has increased its renewable energy production by almost 30% as shown in the slide so as part of this review we evaluated how renewable energy goal progress is calculated monitored and reported so to begin we found that in general there is no formal definition in the city policy or internal DME procedure for how renewable energy offset goal progress should be calculated in addition DME is not has established any standard operating procedures outlining how renewable energy offset goal progress should be monitored or reported and defining how the renewable energy offset goal renewable energy load offset is calculated but would help to further promote transparency and simplify the monitoring or reporting process for DME staff in addition we found that the Denton renewable resource plan should be updated to reflect expected load increases and regulatory changes and then finally we found that in the general electric industry renewable energy certificates or REX are generally used to account for and make renewable energy power claims according to industry best practices institutions or companies should retire REX in order to ensure their renewable power usage claims are properly supported that being said the city of Denton is not required to retire REX as part of the state of Texas's REQ program and as a utility has different reasons for making renewable energy power usage claims or so for that reason we're recommending that the city evaluate the costs and benefits of retiring REX specifically retirement of REX would likely simplify the reporting process and increase transparency as annual retirements would be publicly reported by ERCOT that being said REX can be sold to other market participants so requiring REX to be retired would limit the city's ability to partially recoup renewable energy costs and so just before I move on I want to make sure that it's clear that audit is not necessarily recommending that REX be retired only that the pros and cons of retirement be weighed when defining how renewable energy offset goal progress is calculated in the future so due to kind of the lack of clarity and the policies that I just described as part of the audit we evaluated the how the renewable energy offset progress goal is calculated in three different ways and compared it to DME's load as shown in the figure on the slide so the first was just direct generation which is a spread line here and that was calculated based on all megawatt hours that the city paid its renewable PPA generators for so that line captures only energy delivered to the grid for the city from pure renewable energy providers the all REX line which is kind of this gray line that kind of you can see better here it's calculated based on the total number of REX in the city's ERCOT rec account so that line captures all REX transferred to the city from its PPA generators including REX that the city did not receive physical energy from and then finally the DME's calculation line is what is you was used by DME to calculate renewable energy offset so that's the yellow line as you can see it just is above the blue line here and so this line calculates different generators differently so specifically some generators are measured using direct generation and some are measured using REX the REX in the city's account based on our assessment of this account there's no overlap so they're not counting some generation directly in some REX for the same generator and it's likely this is the most accurate method currently given the structure of the city's current PPA agreements and some potential data discrepancies noted during the presentation earlier this month as well as discrepancies that we identified between the megawatt hours paid for by the city and the REX received for those from those same PPA providers to date and so using DME's calculation practices the city offset 101 percent of its load for 2021 so in summary we issued a total of four recommendations to DME all of which were concurred based on their response we believe the identified risks will be appropriately addressed and we plan to conduct a follow-up review in 18 to 36 months in conjunction with the first phase of the audit project so we'll have just one follow-up review for both of those presentations that I've done this month there you go okay thank you very much questions for staff councilor Armitage yes several questions one in completing this audit and actually I should probably say first thank you so much for this it is very helpful it is for me confirmed you know my understanding of the way things work but it has added some put some data behind it that is very helpful for me did did you and your staff kind of consider in addition to the the possibility of way weighing the you know pros and cons of retiring REX also did you consider the way did you consider recommending weighing the pros and cons of counting REX at all or was that not considered since a previous council I know had decided that REX should be counted I think what we found was that in the industry generally REX are the way that most market participants used to calculate what percentage of their load is renewable so that was what industry best practices showed us we didn't necessarily have an opinion whether that's the right way but that's what the industry best practices are yeah and thank you and you know it's it's my understanding that that is the case too just you know in full transparency I at the time objected and you know continue to object to counting REX towards renewable towards our renewable percentage that is REX that we don't we haven't even traded I do understand however that is industry practice so next question what are how old are our old districts that have not retired and you know what is the can you speak to you kind of what the standard retirement age is for a record does it depend what is it what is that what are the industry best practices on that matter so after three years a rec will just expire if it has not been retired so I think 2022 so I think our oldest would be sorry 2019 maybe something like that three years ago basically and then sorry what was the second part of your question the second is kind of when did this so so there's a three-year shelf life regardless right yeah and so that'll happen whether we do anything or not so what what is the industry recommend industry best practices I mean have to say about when before those three years rec should be retired so with the Texas the way that their rec program works you have to retire a certain amount in a specific year and you essentially have three years to do that because of the way the recs this is my understanding so Terry or Tony is so you're retiring a rec for a certain year but you could potentially use recs from a previous year to do that in that year does that make sense so if I was going if I needed to retire 100 recs this year and I had to you know 20 from last year I could retire those this year and that would count towards the state of Texas's requirement okay yeah that's that's complicated but I understand the gist of it yeah and and the purpose of that is to just to make sure that we're that the industry is continuing to incentivize new renewable energy right and not letting us sit on energy that's been created in the past well anyway so thank you so much for answering those questions be very curious to know what staff has you know decided probably won't change my mind that we shouldn't be using you know recs at all for the full transparency for the public but I do really appreciate this audit thanks okay anyone mayor pro tem yeah thank you on the use of recs at all and it's very clear to me that with a commodity like energy that when you increase the returns to the producers on on a form of energy that draws out more production and our goal is to draw out production of renewable energy so you know that that part makes sense to me the on the there's gonna be a bit of a long wind up to the question but on the on the selling of the recs it it's I understand with let's say money when it gets passed along and people have transactions it multiplies the amount of total money in the system but when you pass recs along it doesn't increase the total amount of renewable energy that's created right I mean it's it's creating more transactions but it's not going back to this is all a question it's not going back to being a return to the producer that would incentivize more production am I right about that so I think I understand your question so I think what you're asking is yeah well let me rephrase to make it simple when when when when a wreck that has been bought from a producer is then sold to someone else right does that is that does that in any way incentivize increased production of renewables not necessarily I think the produce one one individual is paying for the rec to be made and then they sell that wreck to someone else that wreck has already been made and sold I think maybe what as far as that the way that the Texas program works as in it's designed to incentivize the creation of those recs and so by retiring them you're fulfilling that quota and so then that you're not necessarily you're filling the quota that the Texas State has set but if your objective is to incentivize the production of renewable energy then wouldn't the activity that most does that be retiring them I think you could Terry would like to speak on this and you know that may not be everybody's objective but that's how I would look at it good afternoon counsel Terry Nalty assistant general manager DME so the recs do have a three-year life and one of the reasons why the legislature included that in in the authorization for was because as renewable generation is built it's built rather lumpy and so if the loads picking up and there's a surplus of of renewable energy that's produced in a given year it can be used in subsequent years the part of the problem that we're trying to dance around here is the fact that for the competitive markets which we're not a member of they are required each year to have recs in a certain percentage a percentage of the load that they've served that to demonstrate that to ERCOT and so those recs that are used in the year that they serve load can be either that vintage year or subsequent vintage years so to your to your question yes it does incentivize additional renewable generation because these are fungible tradable products that the retail market the competitive retail market can in fact monetize and use towards compliance anytime during that three-year period so I kind of get that that it's a way to time shift the sort of the credit literally the credit but then if now not in terms of meeting state requirements but in terms of meeting the spirit of what we're trying to do if we were to sell a rec then wouldn't we have to stay true to what we're trying to do deduct that from you know what we have done toward our own goals so what we have done in the past is we've we've used the the vintage rec for the year that we actually served load and we we have never sold recs out of those accounts so they're all sitting there and for 2021 which we're now being populated the fourth quarter actual generation is actually being populated by ERCOT into our accounts one of the reasons why that graph was shown the way it was so you know we have never sold any and in the spirit of the Denton renewable resource plan we've used the vintage years that that correspond to the actual generation that took place so practice still makes sense to me by the way with the beard you totally threw me I have no idea we will we will be coming back to the council later in the year to talk about the Denton renewable resource plan and as the as the finding indicates we'll be making recommendations on how this calculation should be done in the future and hopefully you guys will have a good debate about what we should do with those recs if we generate a hundred and ten percent of of what we need for that year I mean theoretically we could sell the other ten percent monetize that for the benefit of of rate payers I understand that nuance yeah thank you and thank thanks for doing this audit Madison okay customer Davis comes from back after that so just kind of to piggyback on that if we were to monetize recs at some future time we would be the decision maker the policymakers we could decide how that counts against whatever formula we're working with but we could we could conceivably find a way to monetize surplus recs in a way that is true to the spirit of our renewable and we set the renewable plan right so we could make that decision is that correct that's correct we've already heard that we don't sell recs on the open commodities market do we ever buy recs just out on the open market to satisfy our our renewable goals I know that as part of one of our PPA agreements we get recs that are not associated with direct generation I don't believe that apart from that we buy recs on the open market so a little while ago you told us about how DMA DME's calculation that yellow line it reflects that some PPAs are different from each other do we count those recs that we that you just mentioned do we count those towards our renewable goal or is that part of this calculation that needs to be kind of codified that we're talking about it would be best for it to be codified but yes I'm gonna see if I can just pop this back up part of this line this yellow line is their calculation and it does include those recs that are part of our PPA but are not associated with actual generation so it it includes recs that are it includes generation that's from this line but not in this line does that make sense yeah so so we've got a commitment through this purchase power agreement that we are going to purchase certain amounts of recs that are not directly corresponding with generation that we've contracted for that we use in Denton or that we put into the grid or anything like that it's just part of the contract correct do we know how long that contract I believe it expires in 2023 okay I get the feeling that sometimes when we talk with the public about recs they think about in the same way like Bitcoin you know there's just a computer somewhere churning out you're mining out recs is it possible for a rec to be created that does not correspond with somewhere someplace in the grid renewable power being generated not to my knowledge or God awards them based on renewable energy generation within that quarter from renewable energy generators thank you customer back so so the councillor Davis's I think this man councillor Davis's question brought up a quick question for our recs do we do we buy our recs directly from original source over there they're on the open market we're buying anyone's recs we're receiving the recs most of our recs as part of a people we're receiving all of our recs as part of a PPA genera PPA agreement so they're all associated with direct generation except for that we have one PPA agreement where the generator essentially buys mark 30 megawatts of recs on the open market and then gives those to us okay so just the one and then and in terms of the the value add and this was partially the email and partially in response to the counselors it seems from from those two sets of conversations that we I guess I'll ask my question it seems there's two processes we can we can we can sequester recs from the market and they expire or we can sequester recs from the market and retire them purposefully and as I understood the response to questions to staff if if we don't retire our recs and just simply hold on to them to one day either let them expire after three years or after two years in in 300 days retire them effectively the same thing then does that mean that there are less recs in the marketplace such that more renewable generation has to be generated to create recs just to satisfy Urquhart's requirements I think you could say that if we we're generating recs and if we do not sell them to someone else they would have to go purchase recs from somewhere else to fill their requirement does that answer your question yes it and then so is it better in terms of what Mayor Pro Tem was talking about in advancing our renewables our DIRP is it is it better to hold on to them and let them expire and and this may may be a Tony and Terry question is it better to hold on to them and let them expire or to retire them every year as one of the options that you were discussing I think what advances the most use of sustainable energy sources I don't think that I can speak to the council's goal with the renewable energy plan but I can't say that our retirement of the recs versus spot letting them expire would not necessarily advance the state of Texas's goal because we are not part of the allocation that they set every year does that make sense so and so they have a goal that they allocate to all the generators we're not part of that allocation so any renew any recs or renewable energy that we generate is not included in their calculation towards their goals okay if we did retire them though it would be reported as part of what was retired that year so it would be clearly didn't retired this amount for 2020 or whatever okay all right I think I understand thank you okay any other questions seeing none thank you very much appreciate it takes us to item B which is ID two two three five five receive report whole discussion give staff direction regarding the city of Denton's policy for tax abatement and incentives good afternoon my name is Erica Sullivan I'm the economic development program administrator here at the city and I'll be providing presentation today on incentive policies the objective is to provide an overview of the recommended incentive policy changes and updates that align with our new strategic plan include council priorities and seek direction from council regarding the proposed changes and updates I'm going to be going over four key areas the policy history the economic development tools involved the proposed changes as well as the internal processes and next steps going forward we'll begin with the policy history policies typically have updated every two years I'm going to highlight some of the major things that have occurred since inception in 1989 with the first tax abatement policy the policy was updated to include green initiatives in 2010 and then refined in 2012 to also include some green aspects we didn't include the first time the policy was broadened in 2014 and expanded to include cash grants so chapter 380 was included then retail was addressed definitions were added there's probably the most significant changes in 2018 where we incorporated our investment fund and our aircraft incentive programs the most recently approved incentive policy occurred in 2020 and we had basically no changes since we were working on our strategic plan that year and then we'll move on to the economic development tools so before we move forward we need to revisit some of these tools because they play a key part in the policy changes that we're looking at today and the first is tax abatement tax abatements are governed by chapter 312 of the taxes Texas tax code and they allow for the exemption of all or some of the property taxes over a 10-year period the property owner receives a tax statement from the Denton Central Appraisal District and then that the amount that's abated is reduced and they pay that net amount so we've awarded 11 tax abatement since its inception in 1989 and the most recent was Tyson Foods then the other tool is chapter 380 this is very broad it's literally half a page of regulations and this allows cities to grant loans cash grants and services for economic development and this must be budgeted in fact we do a five-year forecast for all of our incentives and then after the grantee has met all of their thresholds then the rebate is paid in form of a payment and we've had 27 awarded throughout the history since 1989 and the most recent was Safran last year for their expansion project so this table summarizes the economic development tools and regulations that we've discussed so on the first column you have your tax abatement of property taxes then you have your tax rebate of sales tax hot even mixed beverage funds expansion cash grant and then you have a job based cash grant in the second column you have the agreement type the first being a tax abatement and the next three being chapter 380 agreements the program would be tax abatement for the first rebate for the second an entrepreneur tech and business expansion grant and then the final being the entrepreneur tech and business knowledge and highways wage job grant the source of funds would be a reduction in property tax bill that we discussed under the rebate it would be a cost share of property sales mixed beverage or hot hotel occupancy taxes the investment fund we haven't talked about this this is a particular fund that we've set aside to be more competitive with other cities that don't have since we don't have type a type B so we've allocated a hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year of mixed beverage taxes that go into this fund and it has three criteria in order to be eligible an applicant must meet two of those criteria significant tax investment of 15 million high-wage knowledge-based jobs or be a targeted industry sector and then the final column has the statute the tax code 312 for tax abatement in chapter 380 for the other programs now we've set the framework we can discuss some of the proposed changes the most significant changes we've separated our tax abatement and incentive policy into two policies so we have the tax abatement policy that direct addresses property tax and then the chapter 380 that addresses a number of things the rebates we discussed the cash grants job-based grants and then all of our grant programs are under one umbrella in our chapter 380 and these are designed so they can stand alone and can be sent to prospects as needed some of the considerations of chapter 312 again this is our tax abatement code it requires us to adopt a criteria or policy every two years in order to amend during that two-year period you need a supermajority the governing body also has to hold a public hearing before it's approved and these all fall under these regulations and I should note the Denton County will not will participate in tax payments but will not participate in chapter 380 ones and this is the county equivalent of chapter 380 so proposed changes involving our city values we've incorporated our core values into the policy of integrity transparency inclusion fiscal responsibility and outstanding customer service we've also tried to align our strategic plan so we've included the five guiding principles that establish the framework of how we do economic development here in Denton these are core resiliency future-focused inclusive growth entrepreneurial spirit and cultural vitality you'll see on the right the three major goals these are the building blocks that the strategic plan is built upon and these are accelerate recovery to foster growth strengthening community inclusion the strategic plan also has another area where it's diverged from what we've previously done in our policies the strategic growth areas are our former targeted industry sectors and they've put them into different categories all of our different industries are now under connected creative sustainable and competitive to align with our strategic plan you have this exhibit at your table and we'll go over it in each section as we move forward the largest of the strategic growth areas is connected and this is everything from electronic project manufacturing to real estate and you'll see I won't read them to you but you can see some of the industries presented here now I should say that the next in this particular document were put to a three-digit NAICS rather than a five-digit NAICS so it could be easily distributed but any project fitting it within that same family would also qualify the next is a strategic growth area creative and this includes everything from printing services to engineering and architectural services today I received a request from a council member to consider some of our creative elements our local performers that would be 7-eleven and 512 for arts and theater and movies so that's something that we can consider as well this this as we move forward on this work session the next area is sustainable and this includes everything from utilities to solid waste processing and then the final is competitive and this has different industries from financing to hospitals as well so the proposed changes we want to include some of the definitions that the strategic plan had that would help understand we just went over all the different targeted areas strategic growth areas and then these are classified by their North American industry classification system so this describes that as well as the ink ecosystem that the strategic plan incorporates proposed changes to the chapter 380 policy includes our job based grants so we have an expansion relocation grant that many of you are familiar with this is a one-time relocation or expansion grant for the reimbursement of furniture and fixtures permitting fees necessary site upgrades incremental increase in rental cost infrastructure needed for our IT properties job based grants these are performance one one time a year job based grants for each eligible new job added and then we have a residency bonus and this may be granted for eligible new job with a primary dwelling in our city limits during the coverage period the job based grant definitions we diverged a little bit here under the higher wage definition in the past we had a higher annual wage of 55,000 or greater for all positions in our policy this is our investment fund or at least 25% of the positions having an annual wage of 65 in the past so we've increased them by 10,000 each to 65 for greater of all positions and 75 or greater now the original ordinance for the investment fund was drafted in 1516 so it's a little bit outdated and we've been granting grants using the 65,000 as our threshold and that has worked really well and established resident versus new resident this was something the council requested when we brought the saffron incentive package forward for consideration and they wanted to the council this this council decided to give more weight to an established resident for this particular project it was 300 for a new resident and 700 for an established previously it was 500 we've also included the stratified job based grant table since we've been awarding these grants we included this in the pot and the policy you can see for as the wage increases the amount per each eligible new job also increases again with that 65,000 threshold the factors and considerations that we've had in our policy in the past have been updated and more closely aligned with our strategic plan the considerations on also include items that council has mentioned or prioritized and then the evaluation matrix is never this is a first-time-ever document that we've created combining the strategic growth areas priority considerations and the public benefit factors that are included in the policy this gives you an idea of what it looks like I do want to say that I incorporated all the changes that the economic development partnership board recommended in February unfortunately the board was not able to meet in March there wasn't a quorum with spring break and everything else so but I did want to see that the changes that they recommended so those are in the the red and blue font as well as they requested that we incorporate projects sample projects from previous incentives awarded to see how they might score and evaluate so we created a capital sample so this is a high investment project large-scale project an expansion sample this is an existing business that chose to add new capital or expand their footprint and then a tech entrepreneur sample and we'll go over each section individually so the first section is our target what was formerly our targeted industry sectors if you remember these are our strategic growth areas now so the the point structure for all of the different sections the economic development partnership board as that we consider an other category for things that weren't addressed in these areas for each section so we've included another category and that has increased the point structure you can see that for the sample the capital fell under capital and the expansion fell under connective and our tech entrepreneur sample fell under creative the other target area that they asked for a staff evaluation so I included additional considerations here our expansion sample had another NAICS code that created a cluster and that would have been aerospace so I gave them additional points for that and the entrepreneur tech sample had is a hub and it's spoke companies it's offshoots give it additional six points for consideration for example and then you go on to the second section which is our priority considerations this is half of the priority considerations presented here you can see generating new utility customers the capital sample scores a little bit higher here than the tech entrepreneur and the entrepreneur encourages new business market suppliers and entrepreneurship you can see obviously the entrepreneur is going to score well here engages in sustainable practice our capital partnering engaged in a couple of sustainable practices and then increasing jobs the second half of the priority considerations is presented here we're encouraging knowledge-based jobs you can see that the tech sample with their high-wage jobs scored the highest in this one spur and fill development or redevelopment our expansion project relocated to a previously a vacant project for two years so we gave them additional as at the staff level points for that and neither none of the projects were a headquarters or had childcare assistance programs that's not something that we had incorporated in the past the childcare assistance so that was expected the other considerations the capital sample received seven the expansion got five and the tech entrepreneur got three for a total here that's another thing that staff added was just adding a subtotal so it would be easier the final section under the evaluation matrix subsections as the public benefit factors again you can see the point structures have changed for the ten points but we've also incorporated comments from the economic development partnership board so they felt that we should expand the tax base and the fiscal impacts should be weighted higher we want to look at our net return you know with our net revenue report and we want to make sure that we can better communicate that to the community and they felt that that was a high priority so that's been adjusted you can see when expanding the tax base the high capital example project is going to score higher than the tech but the tech is a human capital so it's a little bit different the fiscal and economic impacts you can see that both the capital and the tech score pretty well the capital scored a little higher the community investment all all did pretty well there and then the private public private partnerships some partnered with ISD and different programs here and then use the local contractors and then the total there wasn't any other factors given by staff under this category and then you'll see the total here and I want to say too that you know this just provides a framework from which to start from we also try to incorporate the board comments as well and this is the best point where we're at moving forward so we're trying to give you the most updated information as we do that so one of the requests that EDP also had was that we categorize and break down the the totals by index subcategories so we have poor from 0 to 44 points we have acceptable from 45 to 84 points and then excellent from 85 to 165 it doesn't that isn't set in stone again it's just a point to start from staff utilized different resources we have from IDC from looking at other policies Austin was kind enough to share their evaluation matrix so we utilize that as well to come up with these you can see how these sample projects would have scored have they gone through this process at the staff level one of the things that EDP recommended is both a staff number and a board number come before council so council can see both sides and evaluate it from a parent and child point of view as the example that was discussed there and so we have 79 74 and 74 and you see they all fall under an acceptable range so that how these scored also help create the breakdown as well moving on to due diligence we've created a new due diligence form that legal is approved and we've actually utilized once the project didn't move forward but we have had an applicants prepare it and so we've included this in the policy as one of the requirements in order to move forward and this allows the city to look into financial statements creation documents and credit rating we've done this a few cases before without this type form but it was usually for really complex projects like the O'Reilly Convention Center for example the Secretary of State verification is something we'll continue doing to verify that a business is registered to operate in the state this is usually done during the agreement process and then tax record verification so if they're in another state we can look at that appraisal district from the county then the state that they're in or parish that they're in and then we'll also use maps for verification for the future and then minor changes every time that we update the policy we update the census tract map if it's been updated to make sure we have the most current we've cleaned up a few things we have a third-party verification with the appraisal district but the wording didn't match their methodology so we clean that up and then definitions pertaining to sales and use tax were retained in the chapter 380 policy but removed from the tax payment policy because they were not needed for that and then we've covered a lot of ground so I want to summarize the changes there for both policies for this slide so we want to incorporate the city's values provide a framework through the strategic plans five guiding principles as well as the three major goals of the strategic plan we want to replace the targeted industry sectors with our strategic growth areas add strategic plan definitions for a better clarity align public benefit and priority considerations with the strategic plan and City Council priorities provide an incentive evaluation matrix address due diligence and update our census maps so that's for both policies and then the summary of the changes to the chapter 380 alone because it includes items that aren't needed in the tax abatement and this would include the entrepreneurial program and job-based grants providing job-based grants definitions with a stratified job-based grant table so people are clear make necessary third-party verification updates that we discussed to the based aircraft summary and then retain definitions pertaining to sales and use tax particularly for the construction and equipping of a facility internal processes and next steps we wanted to give you the most updated changes to the policy we are going to be bringing it back to EDP next month and then we'll incorporate both your changes into theirs and their changes when we bring it back for individual consideration the tax rate will also have a public hearing as we move forward some of our internal processes our investment fund that I mentioned this is an ordinance and it will need to be updated to include our strategic growth areas instead of our industry sectors but we're not making these updates until we have the final policies approved the utility line fund we've this has actually gone around interdepartmentally to update and we're going to be bringing that forward to the advisory board and councils too in the coming months incentive application will also need to be updated for both our regular and our entrepreneur in tech and I'm happy to entertain questions okay thank you very much and you said 7-eleven does that come with slurpees or no that's the only thing that came across from me that's the next tax code for the performing arts Councilman back council McGuire and then mayor Pro Tem thank you thank you mr. mayor I'll pick up on the 7-eleven that's performing arts and music and so that's I was going to strongly encourage this body to to consider given the history of our of our town and our music schools and and our love of performance and the distinctiveness that that gives our community that we consider strongly adding 7-eleven and 5-12 to to the creative section and then I did have a question for the for the rubric well I had a couple questions for the rubric can you score in multiple SCA's or just one so if I if I sell AI enhanced smart banjos and ship them around the country I hit all four categories so then then I mean that's silly but is do we have a mechanism if we are ticking the boxes of multiple SCA's well in the case of the expansion example here it's in the second column they're under connective because they are a manufacturer advanced manufacturer and then they got eight extra points because they're also aerospace so this is made a manufacturing so the sort of bonus consideration would go into the other category is that's how I did it here but it could be structured in that's why it's good to have these in practice and you can see it there won't be too many that have to the entrepreneur attack actually has two examples it has like a data hosting as well as monitoring of equipment so there are some that have a primary and secondary sick those can be considered in that target area or some may not even qualify so maybe you have two industry sectors but only one qualifies so I think we'd see that in practice again we can always implement and change this over time and I'm happy to change it now too but certainly we could do that yeah the the other thing I would encourage us to do is two things one if we're setting strategic plans I wouldn't and I said this in the email to stop I wouldn't necessarily want the other category to have equal weighting to the primary categories simply because you know having a lesser point doesn't let any random other thing break our strategic plan and if we want to break our strategic plan we have the power to do that we can always do that but I don't want us to do it by accident so I would encourage us to have the points of the all the other categories which would of course mess up the matrix of this 165 or whatever but to that final of the overall scoring and I said this in the email as well but I want to I want the body to consider it and that is when when you design a rubric you you you purposely balance the category so I think the response was well we wanted about 20% SGA and and about a third or something I can't remember the exact response I can pull it up here in a second but so but the question I asked that that elicited that response was is public benefit twice the value in terms of our priority as as considerations and and so I think you know properly balancing our rubrics is important because it aligns with our strategic priorities so I'm I guess I'm not encouraging a particular score other than to say I do think we should adjust those scores so that if we're going to have these categories that are informative the SGA the consideration and the benefit it helps us to set policy if we can say well our biggest our biggest policy like the thing we're most concerned about is public benefit or or the thing we're most concerned about a sector of adherence or we can we can set that policy and then it's easy for you to implement because you know the balance of them so I think it just goes to make governments and implementation a little better if you understand that and not just sort of like oh I've got a bunch of categories in the all sum to 85 I think in one case or something like that so I you know I encourage us to be slightly more mindful in construction of the rubric and and then the last question I had it goes to this and I understand the the the economic development partnership board wanted a high medium low poor poor acceptable excellent category and I like that too it makes it you know at a glance kind of decisionable but it seems like again those are a little arbitrary where and so if I could over the development of these of this scoring rubric if we could get a little clarity on you know like the in the examples you said they were all in the mid 70s out of maximum of 165 so you know just from like a raw point score these are all meh sort of scores you know they're there to the 50 percentile so that you know I guess that's acceptable and so it from a policy perspective do we want to be leaning into the oh wow kind of excellent ones or or where do we want to set that and I guess that's it's the the poor acceptable excellent levels will be something that we have to adjust so I guess I'm encouraging this body to be mindful of where we set those levels to get everyone up to speed if you didn't see the response that I sent earlier today the first category that he was talking about was the the top one the SGA targets so if when he was talking about the other in each category being reduced we could certainly reduce it to less than half or half instead of 10 points it could be weighted at five points or it could be weighted at four points when you're talking about the weighting of each section the majority he performed the calculations at 55 percent goes to the priority considerations and that actually has eight and they are priority so I think it's weighted that the way that we came about it was rated at 55% and also the EDP board was consistent with that the SGA targets was roughly 12% and it's typically one sector one item that you're moving forward so it makes sense that that would be roughly 10% and then the public benefit factors that's where the third came in it I believe 33% so it's roughly a third and again it has five considerations instead of eight and that's part of it I can tell you that and it's expressed here that the economic development partnership board wanted to give more weight to fiscal and expanding the tax base impacts as far as the the total category it's not an empirical progression it's more qualitative we looked at other policies we looked at IEDC how they look at things we looked at the rubrics that Austin uses which is very comprehensive and then we structured it it's not a grading system and that's one of the things that and the two members here councilmember Davis and mayor can attest that we talked about thresholds we talked about a grading system there was a lot of discussion that we didn't want it to be adequate it's a meh or a grading system of a C or you know that type of thing so that's another thing to consider that they they also had issue with and did I answer or cover it okay councilmember war thank you um I want to echo the the desire to include 7-eleven and 512 as well as strategic growth areas in particular area 512 especially recording and distribution I think is a real opportunity for growth we're home to what is in some years the largest College of Music in the world so we really I think it's incumbent on us to try to leverage that I would also like to suggest and I hope that my colleagues will support this as well an additional consideration you know we we talked about wanting to increase high wage jobs and I think that that's a worthy goal but in addition to that I would like to see businesses applying for tax abatements to include or to pay both their employees and their independent contractors a minimum wage of I would suggest $21 per hour and I'm gonna just share how I came up with that number so the the countywide per capita median income is forty two thousand four hundred ninety eight dollars per year which assuming a 40-hour work week and fifty weeks of work per year is approximately $21 an hour so that's that that seems to be to me to be a livable wage and one that is fairly average for our area and we want to attract businesses that are going to pay their lowest earning workers an above-average salary for you know for the type of work that they're doing that you know may not require a college degree or things like that there are a number of policies that include a minimum like that yes and I would love to see our policy include that as well I'm open to discussion about the exact number but I thought I'd throw out $21 an hour we could even bring forth that HUD also has some quantifiers for living wage we can bring forward some of that information thank you okay yeah first I'll echo support for recording production distribution of creative content that seems like a natural fit for us also support the idea that well about trying to increase wages has always been part of the program and I recall in just a few years past it was a stated goal was to have an average wage of 21 somewhere between 20 and 22 or higher but the way it was calculated was was taking all the jobs and taking their average which meant you had you know one person making $100,000 and then a whole bunch of people making 15 not that it's a you know a sin to make 15 but it just wasn't really a match with the policy goal so you know I support that I would I just like a little more help with the rubric thing I realize now I should have asked my question before in a different way here's a couple of ways to try what is the total number of points that you were able to go for before and what's the total number of points you're able to go for now just increasing all the points on everything it seems a little like this is spinal tap you know turning it up to 11 like are we actually shifting the weight in the past we didn't have a scoring rubric we had our priority considerations and staff would internally look at that and we would present what they met you show numbers it's going from 80 to 90 it's good you know this is brand new we haven't utilized it before but I can tell you that it the extra 30 bonus points wasn't presented to the economic development partnership or that was one of the recommendations that was added and I choose to add it more as a bonus because it I didn't want it to look like it was artificially inflating but what is the ultimate impact does it mean everybody passes now or now things pass that are more X than Y it's unclear to me what the net impact of you know the the shift is I just for more apples to apples comparison if someone were to contest it that we can go back to this and they can see how they scored in the areas that they scored in here for the opposing view you know and I think Eric commission during the presentation a couple points one it's just one piece of the conversation so it's really just I think internally in their commission this hasn't been something that we've brought before brought forward before in the policy conversation internally we've used a document like this where you've tried to score it to just have another data point for you all the reference so as we move forward again it's something that can adjust and then we can fine-tune to have those conversations with council but it gives you an opportunity to compare okay this one came in here here's what those examples that Erica gave came in here's what those those scores look like so we're still continuing those conversations with the board obviously and maybe we'll change some of those ranges that they look what those ranges are I think that's an appropriate conversation for us to have that we want to continue to emphasize this is just one piece of what was the point of this piece just to have some way of comparing different proposals going forward to put them in a common measurement or was there was your goal to weight something more than it has been in the past and if so what well well I think the weight obviously it's tied to the strategic plan now right so now we're really it's kind of one of those measures you know when you have something that's measured you actually put the due diligence to say are we meeting those so when you actually when you see this rubric there and you say here's all of the goals we're trying to get and you actually have numbers there it makes you go through that mental exercise to say are we actually hitting what we want so that's really the goal is to go through that process of actually seeing it laid out and then I do get that it's more closely tied to the economic development strategy you know I mean there could be one that comes in at 50 but it hits this goal so well that council wants to consider it despite that and to answer your question earlier the changes in the numbers that was the change from Ed BP that was from when we went to the board we had a staff recommendation the the change you see was the internal conversation right in the development okay that helps thank you very much I thought it would be better if you could see what the board recommended more clearly okay any other question your counselor yes first just briefly I second my colleagues recommendations on 7-eleven and in 5-12 being incorporated into this I really like the idea of having a separate staff having staff recommendation and EDP recommendations presented separately I think that's wonderful to see I I strongly support councillor McGuire's suggestion that we give points to and prioritize a living wage at the lowest level the look for the lowest earners in the business in fact the the absence of that was the the primary reason why I voted no on the this the previous incarnation of this these agreements in spite of the number of significant improvements that that I was very pleased with so but I wanted to address just these three issues in just a little more detail so first the the due diligence form I think it's wonderful that we've got a process for due diligence I'm just I'm curious to know is are there kind of agreed upon you know best practices for how to do for how to do due diligence in these kinds of situations so that you know we don't get scammed by by you know somebody who just seems to good to be true and it turns out they are is this a way to you know you know to do the most that we can to avoid that from happening this allows us to do more so they're they're granting us access to more than they have in the past like I said the only one I think that was scrutinized at that level would probably be the Convention Center the this was done following the ranch land example so if you look at that as an example we we created this form we also did the verification with to make sure what entity they are with the state we can do that with other states as well that's usually done at the contract phase we can look at other appraisal districts in their county or parishes we talked about that we we did do that some already because sometimes you want to see what are they are these numbers correct so you would look and do the value of where their facility in this place so we would do comps and do things like that in the past in this case we would also have a map which really wouldn't have helped us with ranch line because it was ag so we wouldn't have been able to see a building or structure so we'd be in the same kind of boat in that aspect but it might help us with other projects so we're learning to adapt after after that I can tell you that like with saffron we started incorporating some of the new ideas it was kind of like a test pilot project we even presented in a format similar to this evaluation matrix sent checking you know ex exing all the the different fields that they met rather than doing it more of a qualitative way and explaining it so we've been kind of like pilot testing getting to this point we've been working on it for some time yeah excellent and and I love that that this you know just really unfortunate mistake of the past is being used as kind of a test case because we can and should we have an imperative to learn you know learn from that mistake all of us and you know so you mentioned that as far as that there are some ways in which you know these new standards on the suit form would not have helped raise some of these or shed light on the existing red flags in the case but yeah in the case of the map but but others are yes yes I think they would have helped with that yeah thank you that that was my understanding too I just want a confirmation on that so anyway but our agreement in Mack and step in our agreements have provisions that protect us they would never have been paid having not met exactly exactly exactly yeah and that was the case with with ranch land so we were already protected but it's just time was wasted or time was spent you know and we wouldn't have reached that point so then about the the other category if you can you go to that or I guess we're already here this is that slide 26 wrong right so each of them have another category under each section so there's three the SGA targets the priority considerations and public benefits yes yes so they each have this other category so looking at you know I'm not gonna do this with all of them right but for instance at the very top upper left hand with the SGA targets so looking at for instance aerospace let's say aerospace cluster not in SGA's couldn't that something like that be included in connectivity for instance just you know anything having to do with aerospace aerospace since we have a cost are starting to get a cluster of it I think that would be wise yeah yeah so and I feel like you know and granted I mean it's these these categories can't really be applied until there's until there's an actual company you know where we can say exactly what you know what aerospace means in this company but just looking at these I feel like anything that could fall under other maybe not anything but at least the ones listed here could be applied to any of these other categories connective creative sustainable competitive so for instance you know including for instance the first one under capital you know connective for manufacturing you know that could be either under connective or under competitive because it makes us more competitive I don't know or or both this is something that tip strategies prepared in a line with the strategic plan staff had additional comments and we went back and forth but this was actually in response to when the strategic plan was presented to council council discussed industry sector targets of the past and this was what tip strategies developed after the plan in response to a council yeah so and so I guess so kind of my question is why bother having like I don't see the point of having an other category if some if these things that fall under this and other categories so broadly defined could also fit into existing categories and you know at least that's in the case of that this the SGA targets you know in the under priority considerations you know if it's and I don't know if this list is conclusive I guess that would be a question versus capital regional distribution and ISO 55 expansion and tech entrepreneurial retention are these is this a conclusive list or is this just an example this is an example a staff example yeah so because I feel like it you know this other category the category of other just opens up a way to add it to to pad a score where instead of looking at what is already the priorities that are already established that are there you know and I understand the fear that there might be a really legitimate project at least that's what I imagine it's coming from a really legitimate exciting project that is that would be really great for Denton in ways that hadn't been anticipated in the existing rubric so there needs to be some kind of other score for that but you know some of these are so broad that it's really hard for me to imagine anyone that wouldn't so you know so unless I could be convinced otherwise and I might be able to be convinced otherwise but for now I'm not in favor of having another category it's not just for the SGA targets for the other two sectors yeah yeah for all of them I was just using that as an example and again you know I might be invincible if I you know it had explained to me you know how this is necessary but I'm just I'm not seeing it now and so finally I'll just say that you know for me the question of actually I'll start with a positive first to say you know thank you for but not just you but everybody who you know EDP and everybody who is involved in upping in the the average ideal salary the the bar for that it's good to have that increased you know because a lot has changed cost of living is gotten more expensive and you know with that in mind I would like to see that attached to that that figure attached to some sort of cost of living calculator you know and I don't have I mean you mentioned the existence of a number of them because I would just like to see that also that way this could be adjusted you know in a year-to-year basis just if we're going by a certain cost of you know cost of living calculator that we agree makes sense rather than saying okay this year we're gonna raise it by you know $10,000 because we haven't raised it for a while I'm not saying that I have a problem with that figure raising it by $10,000 it sounds good to me but it would be nice to see it addressed it attached to a cost of living calculator and then you know to go back to the point about the importance of the lowest wages paid by a company and seeing that those be a living wage for me that is that is so important that that I would like to see that be an absolute requirement I I can't approve myself my own rubric a 380 agreement unless the lowest wages are at least $15 but as councilmember McGuire said you know implied no $15 is really below below living wages just this is where we are nationally that that would be a huge improvement in the national living wage again so for me that's a an absolute requirement but I understand we're not talking about having requirements just having a point system right so having that count for points but for me in order to approve of the 380 agreement and to approve of this hope of the whole policy that would have to be an absolute requirement as well as having a certain percentage of jobs high percentage of jobs go to existing residents in the city of Denton and I I appreciate the definition that there's that definition there now you know but for me that is a you know make-or-break rule that is just even beyond you know getting some extra points for it anyway that those are that's the extent of my comments and questions. Councilmember Davis. Thank You Mayor. I'm really okay with however the the point totals shake out I know you put a lot of thought into it and did a lot of research and councilmember Beck is right you know that this is where we can affect policy decisions you know in a soft way in fact the EDP be spent quite a bit of time kind of thinking about but kind of putting a thumb on the scale on a policy way saying these are economic incentives there should be an economic return to the to the city that that that should be weighted higher than some of these other considerations that we're also taking into account so I really find how the numbers work out as long as we're kind of true to that spirit that these are economic incentives they're intended to bring tax base good jobs that kind of stuff on the subject of good jobs I'm very open to the living wage conversation I need more math I need more data points I'm not willing to go with just a median hourly for the whole county there's a lot of different kind of industries in the county a lot of different places to live a lot of different incomes in the county I really like to see some more math on how we get there and before I'm ready to decide how I want to weight that or what what weight I'm willing to give that I want to take a little bit different perspective on the 7-eleven 5-12 idea that the first thing I'll mention is what we've already covered which is that the these SGA's come from our strategic plan like they were selected working with us in the EDP be by the consultant because the old way of doing things was if that industry sounds cool we're gonna put it in our list and we're gonna go out for it we're all gonna everybody in Texas is gonna start competing for tech stuff because Austin is a tech hub and Richardson has a tech corridor and all this kind of stuff so we really got very strategic with those particular areas they were selected because they strategically met things that didn't is already good at or could very naturally become good at or already has developing clusters for so I'm very I'm very wary of just kind of picking picking one that we think is a fit without a lot of the the thought that went into what we already have here's the other thing if I vote for a tax incentive for the new Guitar Center I'm gonna get a call from Thad Bonduras or somebody it goes note or if I vote for an incentive for a big recording studio I'm gonna get a phone call from the panhandle house and they're gonna say Denton has a home-grown music industry that exists and it's not of a scale that is necessarily going to be competitive for the kinds of incentives that we're talking about so I don't know I don't think it's as simple as saying Denton is a music town we need to encourage the music and or the creative industry generally in these different areas I I think we have to be more careful than that than just to say these folks get incentives I think there is room in the current plan if something in those one of those codes 7-eleven or 5-12 a movie studio if that was in the offing and somebody showed up and said we'd like a 380 agreement to build the next studios at Los Colinas in Denton that's the kind of thing we're talking about fitting this program I don't think we're talking about something that is going to be on the scale with the local businesses that we already know and love and the kind of support that we already have for our local music industry I just don't think they're I think they're kind of apples and oranges so I don't support including the 7-eleven or 5-12 not because I don't think that the arts need our support I don't need our support but because I don't I don't want to see an application from a standalone guitar center or something I don't want to see an application from a national recording chain that's just not the kind of thing that I think this is here for this is for tax-based kind of projects and we have better more targeted and better for our local folks ways to support the arts okay cast member I'd like to bring in the conversation about our housing in our housing strategies that we have here you know with the ideas the city that's gonna be bringing in numerous opportunities for housing because of course my interest is neighborhoods and families and you know the overall healthy well-being of our citizens being able to consider this a home not just a place where you live and work but also a place that you can support and appreciate appreciate and support so with all of that being said I was trying to connect that industry of home building and of you developers coming in all types of developers coming in using incentives to for low-income or low-wage housing low income housing and then there is this new this is new a sign that I saw where this developer was using this this term affordable luxury I've never heard of a affordable luxury okay so to me that sounds like that's a high-end price point but you're getting basic materials that are on the low end of luxury now I don't know how that works and I don't know how much cost but I do know that it's out there so that that concerns me is that now we're moving into all of these different types of terminology to declare that we're a luxury a city but we're still affordable for who so let's um let me find out let me give me some information on where do these people fit in is it in the sustainable area under building construction is it specialty trade contractors if we have developers to come in are they using local employees you know how does all of that work and how is that gonna fit here into this strategy I'd like to see the affordable in everything that we do and I'm sure that there are some people in this room that make high enough salary for the luxury part of it okay so let's see how we're gonna add all of that in jail all of that in here how are we going to do that or is that possible where does that go residential is something that we historically don't have precedent for incentivizing okay first off I can tell you that why we as community development work and we with economic development work with community development and we're now housed in the same facility which is great and I was on the affordable housing work group internally so I could tell you that we work together the pit guidelines might be a more appropriate place for that and one of the things we're working on is a comprehensive development handbook so right now we're working since we have a pit policy we're working on the tours policy so we've that's been through staff and it's going to be coming forward to our partnership board and it's going to come forward to council later we can always amend the the pig guidelines but since we didn't have a tourist policy that was given preference but that may be the more appropriate well and also I think this brings up a good point a good question but as Erica mentioned one of the reasons it's so important that there's a connection between the community development and one Danny's doing through the housing strategy plan is that there has to be communication ongoing communication with economic development and and how they're handling the businesses and developers that want to come into the city because you can't have one not talk to the other if you have workforce people coming in let's say you're a big industrial business come in we're going to want she's going to want to talk to Danny to make sure we have housing right for those people so that's how the connection occurs is that and that's why we keep talking very number one and that kudos to Erica that we're focusing on council priorities as we do a plan like this same thing with comprehensive update and mobility but the other thing is that they're all interconnected and that we're not making decisions without thinking about the bigger picture if we bring them can we sustain can we house them can we keep them in to stay here so it's it's really important that that one they're housed together but two that we're talking with each other so that we're making sure we're not creating a situation where then we have another problem so I and I and I it piqued my interest because I saw real estate as one of the listed areas under I think that was somewhere I saw that along with rental leasing services so that put me in the mindset that you know it's all connected and I was just really trying to get an idea of how is this connected to everything and I believe that you all answer that question for me okay thank you anyone else great so you have direction you need I've got clear direction on on most things on the other category I've got some different opinions so one is that we remove all the other category the other is that we reduce the other category is there a general consensus on that I didn't give direction all right I would be in favor of reducing it I kind of want to speak up for the other category I think there's got to be if we want to tighten it up I'm fine with that if that's a consensus to tighten it up but I don't think just lopping off points necessarily serves the purpose that we're going for I think if there you have to leave room for the stuff that does just doesn't fit a category you could have all the codes in the world and if it just doesn't fit a category there's got to be a room somewhere in there for us sitting here or EDPB to say this is a spot-on project for Denton and all the ways that we failed to imagine how to quantify earlier one example I gave to the board was what if it it's not listed here but it helps diversify our tax base it's something that we don't have it's leaking somewhere else that we don't have so that would be an example yeah counselor Bert it sounds to me like tightening it it up and reducing it was in the same category and that is something that I would suggest yeah I'm fine with it as is this is a communication tool it's not a formula that actually drives the decision it's a way for the EDPB to tell us what they think and you know we can respond to that you know as we see fit okay and then so just in closing I'm fine what it is is as well people can it's just again people get their information and vote how they vote it's just it's a data point then I'll say this it's important for those tracking along the ranch land project that worked as we can always get better every day but the fact of the matter is the system it hand worked right and so it's not a failure it's not a mistake it's not an error it's none of those things it's a learning experience that we learned from and I'll note even the cities that quote-unquote got it right we're still pursuing them right so no one you know I mean it's just people people give incomplete information and I think it's it's to the detriment of our staff I mean because everything in place from legal to staff worked and would have prevented us from ever giving them a dime and if we're in the interest of saving staff time I'm a hundred percent with that but that's not where I'd start so I just want to kind of make sure that's clear that if anyone looks at it you'll see the city that got it right was still pursuing them quote-unquote if you believe in right and wrongs in that environment then I'll say I just think it's important when you come back the pay component is punitive if you just arbitrarily grab a number to councilmember Davis's point and the workforce solutions has a great document on that that says because you have to count in account for child care etc etc higher taxes it's just not an arbitrary if you put more money at the top of the funnel more money comes out at the bottom of the funnel and so I just think it's you know there's a lot more that goes into that that so if we just look at it from a single point of view we're gonna miss the mark and so it has to be a complete look at the day in the life of that parent that you know family member that's raising that child or that they don't have children but just kind of there's there's an there's a better look at it that I'd rather us take that position so that's that's what I'm gonna look at when that comes back so alright it's 434 we'll take a break let's take about 20 minutes we'll come back 454 and yeah I heard them right yeah so that's what I'm saying so we'll take about 20 minutes come back 455 now and finish up the last three items thank you and welcome back to this meeting didn't City Council it is 5 p.m. we do have a quorum again we're all back so I'll call the next item item C which is ID 22161 receive report hold discussion give staff direct direction regarding the sustainability framework fund work plan hello Michael Gagne the director of environmental service and sustainability here to walk you through the work plan as presented by the sustainability framework advisory committee this is a part of background the sustainability framework fund was created back in August of last year it was a commitment towards sustainability initiatives only off the sustainability framework fund I'm only discussing the framework fund as part of this work plan this is not all the sustainability measures or anything we're doing across the city it's just for this fund then in September we adopted the budget with $500,000 initially we have not reached full revenues because the facility is still under construction so the revenues are lagging there'll be a budget discussion coming back to y'all in June of this year to go through the budget this work plan was actually finalized by the framework advisory committee back in October they came up with nine recommendations nine items to fund or do during this work plan on this graphic you can see the estimated cost per item is listed kind of in the center as a running total going down so you'll see their work plan actually goes above the 500,000 anticipating additional revenues or other things because not everything would be done during this year and then on the far right column if you're interested the chapters out of the simply sustainable framework that apply to that item are referenced for you so they're going a little more detail the climate action plan is the primary thing or the first thing they recommended they wanted us to go in and look at Denton specifically to bring everything you can think of climate action into one plan make it Denton specific lots of robust community input tied to the residents the businesses the universities everything that makes Denton Denton they also moved into air quality monitoring wanting us to purchase and look at doing neighborhood level monitoring across Denton this is not for regulatory purposes it would be for data collection to make general discussions and decisions off of it would be very relevant data but it wouldn't be for regulatory purposes it would be neighborhood level and the fund amount of money they had set aside it looks like we could purchase around 12 monitors with that low income weatherization was another big push we do have a lot of great robust rebate programs here in Denton but some of the community doesn't get serviced by that so looking with an equity lens we want to go and give direct assistance back on weatherization to the affected community so that would go beyond any rebate program it'd be direct assistance the food fellows program is actually looking to tie in the local growers the local community into tying them into the becoming local food suppliers so we want them to learn how to tie in with the restaurants the grocery stores different aspects to learn how to do that alternative transportation education campaign unfortunately you can never have enough education on how to get people to use alternative methods this would focus on public transportation bicycling walking cycling scooters anything else out there to get people to move around and limit single vehicle occupancy trips city fleet electrification what they recommended here is not to go buy electric vehicles but help to fund that cost difference so as a city is looking to electrify their fleet primarily on a light duty currently because light these we have the most options we would actually defund the incremental difference for that thing so if the vehicle was let's say a regular combustion engine was 30,000 electric vehicles 40,000 this fund would fund the $10,000 difference that's it then we get into a core group of municipal project recommendations the first one is rainwater capture looking at how to actually capture rainwater coming off those areas to reuse it on site to limit erosion flood control water conservation different things but it's focused on four municipal locations currently then we move into solar structures which is a large broad discussion if you go back to the summary slide that has a to be determined value on it because we don't really know what all that would entail facilities is doing an audit process currently across the city so that'll turn over some things we could look at which facilities would make the most sense it may be parking structures or maybe shade structures I don't know which way that would go same thing under building efficiency we're currently doing a facility audit so as they go through and make recommendations on what to come back with we want to look at having things done the best way we can so if they're having to only fund a certain level of an HVAC and we want to go a little bit higher to get a better rate of return and cost benefit we would use this fund to pay that incremental difference or if someone recommended say five energy items to be done and they can only afford four maybe we would fund that fifth to make that building be as efficient as possible so we would be looking to align with the International Energy Conservation Code of either 2018 or 2021 just as reference currently we're looking at 2016 in Denton so we would be recommending to go a little bit above that so within that I'm just looking for feedback y'all can give us authorization to proceed with the work plan which would authorize staff to start doing some procurement processes taking the necessary steps to make some of these actions happen develop the program details such as the weatherization program how would we do that who would be involved how would that be managed develop that program you can recommend or propose modifications or we can reject the work plan so I stand for questions customer Davis so all in all very I have very few comments I think they did the committee did a lot of really good work exactly why we've picked those folks to be on that committee they know what they're doing can you speak just a little bit to you mentioned we're not fully funded obviously facilities not not there can you speak just a little bit to prioritization and you mentioned those procurement processes are those gonna kind of leapfrog over each other how how does this look going forward from the work plan phase to when we start seeing yes so to speak from this they're like the climate action plan we'd actually go out and get a third party contractors would go through our normal procurement process that could take us three to six months by the time we get through all that depending on what all gets involved with that to make that happen before we would actually be needing to spend the money so probably the shortest about three months at the longest about six months then within the air quality monitoring equipment we all look at how we can procure those items there are some other local jurisdictions looking to do something similar we might be able to piggyback some of their contracts we have consultants who do similar work maybe they have resources we can tie into as well on joint purchasing agreements we have to see how that works for the education and outreach campaigns again those can be done mainly internally so let's give you them more quickly but they're also the lowest dollar figure so those are things we could do more effectively the fleet electrification that's timing with fleet services on how we can acquire those vehicles to be able to spend that money same thing on the rainwater capture we have some quotes in on how to get that done through parks that project could probably be a little quicker because of that so the timing on anything going through procurement it's probably the shortest time frame is about three months before we'd start spending money and the longest about six and the smaller pieces on there we'd be looking at doing real short-term and immediately so if I'm hearing you correctly it's kind of an advance on all fronts perspective but some things are just naturally through their the nature of the project or the procurement process are just going to happen in their in their due course correct so we would start them all to get them moving because again some of these have project development so we have to get the guidelines like the weatherization program we're going to figure out how we're going to play within that how we identify the folks how we receive those applications and build that program a little bit that'll take a few months to get done thanks okay no customer bird councilmember that I was looking at the alternative transportation education campaign and I was just wondering is that is gonna have any connection to the DC ta as part of the education portion of that you know any part of that I could see the bikes and the pedestrian stakeholders but is there any connection with DC ta as part of that campaign I would say additionally right now there wouldn't be a direct tie-in funding wise there is a direct tie-in to educate and bring awareness to the public transit that exists across Denton and how those services can be used also the food fellows program no I don't think there was food fellows that I was looking at I was actually gonna look at the low income weatherization program is that is that seventy thousand dollars there is that the total amount per like per year or that's what program yeah that's what's recommended to get the program started okay this is so within that for if we use that go back to my note that would assume that we could do about 20 homes per year okay is about the estimate on that number and also you noted that there's got to be some kind of way that these people are you know interested in this program a direct to a direct line to the to the community folks correct how are you all gonna do that haven't fully flushed that out there's lots of different ways that we have different programs where we do certain utility assistance different things already at the city so we may look at some of those folks that are getting that assistance to see if those are ones that would meet and go in and qualify and use this weatherization money to improve those structures to then reduce demand on that utility assistance so it actually be a win-win that's just one thought all right thank you cancer back thank you smear yeah in general I'm really supportive of moving forward with the work plan the thing that I do see that the climate action plan has is a pretty pricey price tag because it's a consult work so I guess my question is more like I mean I think you really need that to establish baselines and establish needs so you need that data to know where to proceed with the next items that that and the efficacy of future items so I think it's good that then the S vac has that in the list I guess given the kinds of timelines you were killing counselor Davis we're really looking after June so go back to the list and sort of tell us what's what's pre what's likely to be accessible pre-june and what's what's likely to be not starting until after June well for sure pre-june the easier ones would be the food fellows program and the education campaign on the alternative transportation because both those have a shorter fuse to get started we may be able to actually initiate the rainwater capture as well if we decide to go that route even though it's above that $500,000 line because that one we have some costing in the city fleet electrification would just depend on fleet services timing on acquiring those vehicles I don't know what's in the pipeline at this point if there's anything that would come in prior to June weatherization will be post-june air quality monitoring will depend on if we can find an agreement to piggyback off on to figure out the timing to secure that because that could actually shorten that window and be pre-june climate action plan while it's on the price tag of 250 that doesn't mean we won't be working on it staffs already working to make sure we have as much of the background details everything we can share everything we've been doing for the last few years to make sure that when we get the consultant on board they hit the ground running so not having to wait on data from us we're trying to pre think and prepare and have that ahead of time yeah and that's I guess that's those are the things that are sort of concerning me not not with any of the plans I think these are they're really great but insert in terms of timing and and and alignment with revenue sources and and funding opportunities and so you know I know that like staff is you and your staff are probably assuredly looking at with with DMA you know some of the the new funding that the White House just announced for for electrification options so I imagine that we could probably get some of that started and going for for some of those opportunities and so I guess the last question I'll ask is if we if we get going on if we if we pull the trigger on all this these first few items these are the the caps so we're not going to run into say so quite having to sequester the let's see then we'll just look at one like the electrification of the fleet for instance we're not looking to oh we've sequestered $110,000 to do that we're doing that on almost all of these on an as needed basis so these are just our sort of current caps correct okay all right so we could really just pull the trigger and and and the but the flip side of that is you don't want to we don't want to start any programs that we can't finish if we don't get the funding and revenue sources that we suspect correct anything we're doing procurement wise we'll balance in with the revenue but we need the time to make sure we can get out there and get the contracts there to then come back with a vacation to y'all when we have that funding source so what we just need now is direction to say we want to go this way so we can be prepared to jump once the funding hits that's the goal here so again on the fleet the first let's just say the first year it might not be to 11 vehicles they're projecting to have a certain number per year it might only be three so we may have to shuffle that money to something else if we have all that revenue to spend it during that first year okay all right so yeah this my direction is to proceed and this work plan they built this off the initial five hundred thousand dollar allotment with the expectation there'd be a secondary sometime this year looking only at fiscal year 21 22 okay so we'll do a whole new work plan towards the next budget cycle once we know how that revenue's coming together all right thank you come from our turn in councilmember were this will be really short just giving my direction I authorize staff to proceed with the work plan councilmember why thank you I have to admit that I had really hoped that we could see significant additional funding for parkland acquisition as part of this work plan but my colleagues I voted to allocate a majority of the the revenue from that core scientific deal to other funds so given given that situation and and the restricted funding that we now have I think that this is is a great allocation my direction is to move forward with the work plan okay first of all yeah I think we have a great group working on this and that I have a high trust factor kind of going in and and you know with your guidance - I feel it's very helpful and I like very much the fact that a lot of your comments talk about how you're sort of funding the incremental difference so that you have the most increase in sustainability for the dollars that you spend you know like like putting the difference and getting to an electric vehicle and so on I'll you know be honest that I blanched a little at the idea that half of the available funds were good old plan but I take confidence in councilmember back pointing out that the way these things go you need to do kind of heavier lifting up front to establish but you know benchmarks going forward I'd love to hear more about what all goes into it's a pretty big consulting project and I'm sure it has you know lots of dimensions I'm interested in hearing about all of it my my you know one sort of more pointed comment is about the second smallest piece of it just the alternative transportation education campaign I would just give us feedback you know just that I hope that they'll equally in an equally clever way find moments to communicate where it would make an incremental change in someone's behavior I think people you know know what a bike is and so on so it's not a hundred percent obvious to me you know how you how you make an incremental difference with it but but I am ready to be surprised and pleased I support moving forward okay see you have the direction you need yes sir okay great thank you that concludes item C takes us to item D ID 2 2 1 7 9 receive report hold discussion and give staff direction regarding an overview of paid and unpaid leave policies for the city of Denton employees analysis and options for paid parental leave good evening everyone Debbie and risk today I'm going to share with you an overview of the paid and unpaid leave benefits that are currently offered to city employees just to provide a bit of background in August of 2021 City Council adopted its priorities and major focus areas which include pursue organizational excellence by continuing to evaluate organizational staffing and benefits HR and risk is actively working towards this goal as I've highlighted on our slide on January 4th councilmember McGuire made a two-minute pitch for a work session with an overview of paid and unpaid leave benefits for city employees including options for paid parental leave in today's work session I'll provide an overview of paid and unpaid leave benefits for city employees with a focus on non-civil service leave benefits as well as provide HR's recommendations for adjustments to leave benefits and policies and provide an overview of research and options for paid parental leave including estimated costs based upon some historical information and then prints present some options that can be considered and included in the fiscal year 22-23 budget process if council it directs us to do so so leave benefits are an important part of the benefits portfolio that we offer our employees however I think it's important to note that it's not the most important part for everybody that there are other pieces of our benefits and compensation plan that are important to our employees as well so I'll start with the the leave benefit that I think is the favorite I think and go out there and say that everybody loves the vacation leave benefit so for full-time employees they accrue ten hours of vacation per month which is a hundred and twenty hours of vacation per year after five years an employee begins to receive bonus time of an additional four hours of vacation for each year worked an employee is not eligible to take vacation time until they've completed six months of employment now they accrue vacation time during that period they're just not able to use that accrued vacation time until they've completed that six months last year we removed the vacation time accrual cap so there's no maximum on the number of hours employees may accrue however there is a maximum payout of 320 hours when the employee decides to leave the organization so compared to other municipalities our vacation accrual time is comparable but three other cities do not have a waiting period and allow employees to go ahead and begin using accrued vacation time during that initial paid period that it's accrued so basically from date of hire so as we've all we've all considered job offers and we know that you know prospective employees do consider benefits as a whole as a whole package whenever they're considering new employment and making a change to a new employer so in an effort to assist with recruiting and retention of new employees staff recommends reducing the requirement to be employed from a minimum of six months to a minimum of three months to be able to use that initial accrual of vacation time like vacation regular full-time non civil service employees accrue ten hours of paid sick leave per month 120 hours per year and sick leave can be used during the pay period in which is accrued so there's no wait time for employees to be able to use sick time there is an accrual cap of 720 hours for non civil service employees in 2017 staff evaluated benefits of comparable municipalities and recommended an increase in the sick leave accrual from eight hours per month to ten hours per month and City Council adopted that policy revision in September of 2017 so as a result of that change that the city of Denton is largely more generous with sick leave compared to other municipalities and so at this time we do not recommend any changes and with the holiday policy this one might be familiar with y'all having discussed this you know fairly recently the city currently pays or provides 11 paid holidays per year and two paid personal floating holidays as you recall late last year staff evaluated benefits of comparable municipalities and made a recommendation to increase holidays for city employees so council recently adopted a revision to the holiday policy back in December of 21 and added to city observed holidays for Juneteenth and Veterans Day as well as the two personal floating holidays so at this time staff does not recommend any changes and everybody's very appreciative of that by the way so death in the family leave provides paid time when an employee suffers a death in their immediate or extended family currently city policy provides three days for immediate family and one day for family members as defined on the slide also provided on the slide is a number of hours used and the gross pay for death in the family leave for the last three fiscal years so we evaluated other comparable cities and the majority of comparable cities are consistent with the three paid days however two cities do offer five days for immediate family and three for other family members so at this time staff recommends consideration to provide up to five days for spouse or domestic partner parent or child and three days for other family members and in the interest of time I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here but I wanted to provide you a brief summary of other leave benefits that are offered to employees so as you'll know the city of Denton must comply with federal and state leave laws which includes the family Medical Leave Act or FMLA as general background the FMLA provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid job protected leave for employees for an FMLA qualified reason which includes among other reasons the birth and care of a newborn within one year of the birth and the adoption or foster placement of a child within one year of the adoption or placement of the child at the family so the current state at the at this time for employees who are experiencing the birth of a child is FMLA leave as I just discussed providing 12 weeks of unpaid job protected leave it applies to the birth adoption or foster placement of a child and under our policy cities month cities employees must use accrued paid leave before taking taking the time unpaid so they do have to use that accrued sick time or vacation time they have to exhaust those banks before they can take that time unpaid another option is employees may elect a voluntary benefit of short-term disability insurance they can elect this insurance with their new hire benefits enrollment or they can elect to enroll into the insurance during our normal annual open enrollment process so the short-term disability insurance provides income replacement for the recovery from the birth of a child and after meeting the 14-day waiting period that benefit is 60% of weekly wages up to $1,200 per week and the benefit period is generally six to eight weeks depending on the method of delivery of the child so staff researched other Texas cities that provide paid parental leave others Texas cities with a paid parental leave benefit for the birth adoption or foster placement of a child are Austin Dallas DeSoto Fort Worth Lake Jackson and San Antonio and provided in your backup is some additional information regarding this research and some information about how these cities policies how they vary because there is some variation between city to city and if council is interested in adding a paid parental leave benefit then staff can begin to draft a recommended policy for council consideration also provided in your backup is additional information regarding the estimated costs to the city if we were to provide a paid parental leave benefit so to estimate the potential cost of the city staff looked at historical data as if it paid leave had been provided so the chart shows the number of employees and this includes civil service as well as non civil service on an approved FMLA leave for birth adoption or foster placement of a child and known to have a qualifying event for the birth adoption or placement of a child but did not use FMLA lead so please note that this information is what was known by HR there could be additional employees out there who did not take an FMLA leave or who were not on the city's medical insurance to institute a qualifying event to add a child as a dependent to their insurance coverage so estimated costs of the city was to provide three weeks of paid parental leave would be approximately two hundred and fifty thousand per year and five hundred thousand if the city provided six weeks there are estimated cost these are estimated costs to the city but it's not necessarily a payout and it's not one of those expenditures that you would see realized in a single line item most employees use accrued sick and vacation pay during their FMLA time or they take it unpaid so as a result we may see an increase in vacation time paid out when employees leave the organization and we also may see other indirect costs such as impact productivity cost to service such as increased overtime and those kinds of costs that could roll over from fiscal year to fiscal year so in summary council may consider the recommended changes to the vacation and death and the family leave policies that I just discussed and if directed to proceed staff will draft policy revisions and bring those back to council for consideration and council may also consider paid parental leave options at this time staff is seeking direction from council to include or not include paid parental leave as a council supplemental in the upcoming budget process for the next fiscal year and if directed by council staff will begin to draft a policy to bring it back for consideration. Any questions at this time? Great questions for staff. Councilmember Hamilton, councilmember Moore. I don't have any questions at this point but I do have a direction so I support the recommended changes to leave benefit policies. I will say as far as you know death in the family you know I would think that the death of a spouse or domestic partner or child would seem to require more than five days but that seems like this that seems like it's kind of a standard and I don't know how we quantify that anyway you know these are obviously life-changing but to have a good policy we have to quantify it so you know I would love you know I'd love to see you know something like you know ten days for for spouse domestic partner or child and you know five days for parent three days for other but you know but but I think that the five and three is definitely better than the status quo so I think it's very good and I am strongly in support of paid parental leave and I am strongly in support of the full six weeks and I just want to to state you know a couple of additional benefits of the paid parental leave. We are a competitive city when it comes to hiring and also when it comes to retaining and we're looking and of course anybody can become a parent at any age but you know people who become parents tend to be younger and so we've got lots of young talent we're competing with other cities for so it's extremely important in terms of hiring being competitive in hiring and also retention and also just in terms of morale and as far as productivity just you know kind of speaking from my own experience as someone with you know two kids who had the good fortune to be able to take time off I don't think you know had I remained at work I don't think my product I think my productivity would have been worse so that's purely anecdotal but I have a feeling that that is not just me I you know I think it would be neat if you know we could do something like seven weeks you know if everybody else is doing six weeks why not in seven weeks and then we get more people you know I would have to see you know then the numbers on that so if others you know support seven weeks I would strongly be in favor of that too but in general those are my recommendations so first question about vacation and sick leave can you share with us why the stash house staff came to the conclusion that that we don't need to increase the number of vacation days paid vacation and paid sick leave days it was based on the comparison to other cities with the recent increase well somewhat recent increase in 2017 to the sick leave benefit the city of Denton is a little bit more generous than other cities when it comes to sick leave benefits and when it comes to the vacation benefits were pretty comparable with the exception of those couple of cities that do offer employees the ability to use their accrued vacation as they accrue it when they start instead of having that wait period so whenever we look at the accrual were comparable it was just those couple of cities that were outliers or different from us whenever it came to the usage time period all right well my direction on the vacation leave is I agree with staff recommendation to reduce the requirement to use accrued vacation leave from six months down to three months let's see in regard to death in the family leave I totally agree with increasing that to three days for relatives and five days for immediate family members so regarding parental leave I do just want to kind of point out you know if there's anybody who kind of hasn't been in this boat that short term disability insurance can be kind of tricky you know as councilmember Armitage pointed out people who are having children for the first time are often younger and they often don't view themselves as being in need of short term disability insurance and they may not know at the time of open enrollment that they're gonna get pregnant this happened to me twice that I just missed the window it's a sign up for short term disability and so didn't didn't get any paid leave at all in terms of the the amount of paid leave I was hoping to also see you know 12 weeks but of course that would just be you know double what six weeks is I would say that that six weeks of paid leave is the absolute bare minimum that we can offer and still consider us humane humane employers who treat our employees with dignity a person who's had a c-section absolutely should not be coming back to work before six weeks under any circumstances it's not safe but lots of folks do because they just need the income my own mother went back to work two weeks after her stitches were not healed because she needed the money and and she didn't have any kind of paid leave so I would say six weeks is the bare minimum that we should be considering for paid leave yeah that's all I have okay anyone else Councilman Davis council member thank you Mary I'm good with the staff recommendations I'm glad to see some some dollars and cents in the parental leave category I'm okay with including it as a in the budget process I'm not gonna ask the question you know what are the trade-offs because we we get to make those decisions later there's gonna be they're gonna be trade-offs they're gonna have to be decisions made whenever there's something with this kind of a fiscal note attached to it there will be decisions that have to be made later in the budget process but I see it as a competitive advantage and we do want to attract the best and the brightest and the best and brightest happen to be planning to have a family or happen to find themselves in situation where a family found them then we want to be set up for that yeah I just want to give my approval for us to consider the recommended changes to the leave policy and also reiterate some things that I've already heard in terms of the parental leave benefit so I just think it's a good thing I just came from off of a going to a funeral you all don't know I went to Alabama this week so I had a you know drive to Alabama that's ten hours you know attend a funeral do we come back the next day do we you know because I'm retired and don't have to go to work you know we were able to stay a few more days so I can just imagine having to come off of a funeral and getting right back because of you know three days or something like that because it wasn't a close family member of mine so I certainly do agree with expanding that we need to have we need to have that on board thank you anyone else just weighing in happy to support the staff recommendations I also support them I do have a question I think I saw in the backup we have a 720 hour cap on sick leave do I remember that correctly 720 hour accrual cap and civil service you just retained that in perpetuity or you know I mean I don't want to get too much into the weeds of the reason let me say the reason I'm asking the question is the I know you're gonna come back to us with a policy on how everything dovetails I think it's we need to be a little little careful on you know how quickly and then how much we front vacation and sick leave into the into the paid leave and other you know sort of FMLA changes that will that will be concomitant to a paid six or three to six week or whatever we decide leave so I I mean I don't want to like the pin I'm trying to put in things is I don't want to mess up other leave right trying to establish parental leave okay yes so I've already given my directions just kind of a consensus building question based on what we've heard so far so I've heard there two of us mentioned unless there was someone I missed openness to expanding paid parental leave for more than six weeks I mentioned seven weeks I'll admit in the hope that you know to me that this is so important paper and to leave just having as councilmember requires a six weeks for a bare minimum I didn't want to risk losing a consensus in favor of it to you know die on the hill of it's got to be more than six weeks but but you know councilmember McGuire inspired just now that that sense in me that that could be possible so I would like to see if there's anybody else who would at least like to see I mean I think we can imagine just doing the math ourselves what those figures would be you know based on the three and six week figures to get you know staff response on on eight weeks ten weeks twelve weeks I would I would certainly like to see that curious if there's any more than two of us who are open to that okay thank you anyone else yeah I'd say just given that it's a staff recommendation I'd be happy to to look at it when we get to the budget time see what the impact would be and see if staff has kind of further in input whether you know why they are where they were would they welcome this but I'd be open to considering it during the budget process it's just some something more than six weeks okay anyone else no so I I think it's it's it's really good work I think we have a lot of work-life balance issues that aren't captured in this but I think hopefully this will spur those conversations right I think it's important that we treat people well and understand as everyone else mental health is a big component and we play a role in that for this organization and so I agree if we're going to be good leaders good stewards of this responsibility we as a body need to take a holistic look at those all components that factor into this and so I think this raises that profile so I appreciate that I will tell you this when you come back if you could please crunch the numbers for this and and I've mentioned this before I'm passionate about it so and and the city manager may correct me where I'm wrong but for the loss of a child I think that should be on the same plane as the birth of a child and so I don't know how you calculate that number as far as projections or if it's tracked anywhere but if you could give me just a feel for here's what that could look like you know I just think those two run a parallel track I just think a week is a great step in the right direction but I just think it's bigger than that to me so I just like to understand what that is and then advocate from there so and but I know you've not had time to I didn't give it to you in advance so if you can just whenever whenever it comes back so work on it as is great that extra component would be fantastic certainly thank you very much great presentation all right that concludes item D takes us to our last work such a mr. city attorney are both closed sessions are we having those there's one tied to the first was tied to the audit was just a placeholder so it's not necessary but we need to have the item be perfect okay great okay so that will take us to item D pardon me E which is I ID 22156 receive report hold discussion give staff direction on pending City Council requests good evening everyone I'm glad to see y'all in this room likewise I'm Rachel Walthert Mendoza assistant to the city manager and I will present for y'all the City Council pending request for information just a little bit of a background on this process up to seven requests will be heard per meeting we have two this evening and I'll introduce each one and the elected official that made the request will have up to two minutes to describe and justify it and then the remaining elected officials will have up to one minute to provide the feedback and indicate support for the use of staff time in response to that request we will respond to all requests where consensus of council is established won't read this verbatim but just as a reminder about the priorities that will be set and I'll just get right into our first one with councilmember Davis who's gonna pitch about a work session to discuss an agenda item consider repeal of the redistricting excuse me redistricting ordinance passed in December okay yes whenever you start I'll start the timer here this is gonna be a little bit difficult so forgive me if I read this statement I am beyond disappointed to raise this topic today but the actions of certain council members have forced my hand and I'm sad to say that people who I consider my friends have betrayed the public trust more than anything else we do in the council chamber the redistricting process must be open transparent and fair but before the redistricting vote in December members of this council engaged in secret communications and private deliberations in violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act then when I made a lawful request for public records on redistricting which any member of the public is entitled to see members of this council either withheld the records or destroyed them in violation of the Texas Public Information Act councilmember Beck knowingly made himself the nexus of at least one walking quorum councilmember Meltzer councilmember Beck and potentially others are either withholding public rights records now at this moment or have already destroyed them they did this even knowing that such direct such records belong to the public and must be disclosed a moment ago acting only in my personal capacity I forwarded the details of my findings to Chief Dixon and requested a full investigation I've made a formal complaint to the Attorney General and that office has asked the city to cooperate with their investigation any action taken by a city council in violation of the open meeting open meetings act is voidable in court and with good reason the redistricting vote in December was the culmination of secret and illegal deliberations and I'm asking this body to now do the right thing and undo the mistake before the matters taken out of our hands the public is owed an explanation for your actions they are owed a fair process not the corrupt pre-determined sham that we got in December okay discussion Councilmember McGuire thank you I do not support holding this work session I believe I have access to all the same information that councilmember Davis has and I have not seen evidence that there was a violation of the Texas open meetings act I know that councilmember Davis is disappointed at the outcome of the redistricting that was passed it's not favorable to him it's not favorable to me either but it's it's it was legally decided upon by this body okay anyone else councilor Armitage yeah I completely agree now those are serious charges and there's a you know time and place for those charges to be taken up it seems to me pretty frivolous based on what I am aware of and what I've seen but again you know holding council to change a very carefully and very publicly considered redistricting process to change that which does benefit the public which came in based on public input out of fear of a you know of retaliation from a fellow council member I think we set a really bad precedent if we redo our decisions based on that okay anyone else mayor pro tem can Charlie speak to motivations it seems very political to me it is certainly an attempt to cling to a shameful gerrymander that never should have been instituted in the first place I'm glad this council took it on I have no interest in this work session okay anyone else yeah I don't I don't support the work session this is a super majority vote the the public records were delivered it's there's no point revisiting this okay anyone else council member I will agree that I will not support this this work session I think that we all put in our due diligence to speak with our constituents on what their what their choices were and I just think the vote was appropriate thank you okay great and just so I'm on the record I would support the work session I don't think we've had work sessions over several things to just get a deeper dive be able to look at the documents or the analyze them I don't think that I think the conversation jumps the gun right it's a work session to have a conversation to then consider if there was a mistake made clean you know then you have an opportunity to revisit it's so to me it's step one have a work session to discuss and I think the talking about public the the public asked that question at that that time it so there was a placeholder from a lady I forget our address but she says hey I want you to deny that there was any collusion or whatever her word was and so at that time the question was asked so I think a work session is appropriate because the public has questions so but that fails about a five to me I have a point of inquiry state your point of inquiry kind of a clarification or a confirmation from councilmember Beck a statement he just made that he has disclosed all public records in his possession responsive to the public information request mr. city attorney help me out mayor's up to you that would be the point of inquiry is asking for clarification or information from the either the mayor or the council if you want the to ask the councilmember back to answer the question he's certainly within his rights to answer it to not answer the question especially based on the allegations that have been made so it's up to you mayor how you want to proceed well it's councilmember Beck I'll let you speak for yourself I don't choose to engage in this okay next yes item two is a work session on how to bring awareness to the importance of citizen involvement on boards and commissions including the selection and retention of board members and the addition of an alternate board to set to excuse me set to serve in the absence of a regularly appointed member and we'll hear this from councilmember bird thank you civic engagement or civic participation in any individual group activity addressing issues of public concern civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and none political actions to protect public values or make a change in the community that's from Wikipedia one way that our community has chosen to create a source of community engagement is by creating and developing boards and commissions these specialized groups are defined as citizens given the opportunity to participate in the city's governmental process there are 23 boards and commissions some require specialties some do not but all in all they require dedication for fulfillment of the responsibility as defined our issue is that as a growing population we invite members of the community to be involved in civic responsibility as we now know through our recent vote that not enough citizens were engaged and enforced the city to open this process to possible non citizens citizen is defined as quote illegally recognized subject or national of a state or a Commonwealth either native or naturalized it's also defined as an inhabitant inhabitant of a particular town or city it is incredibly important for us at this time to be mindful of how we want to develop our city's mindset we do that by participating in governmental actions and directions I challenge the citizens to contact your city council representative inquire about how you can be more involved through boards and commissions I challenge the city to offer up increased awareness of boards and commissions and the importance of citizen involvement on these commissions including the selection of in retention of members and to the possible additions to an alternate board seat to serve in the absence of a regularly appointed member for quorum purposes I asked my fellow council members to agree that these requests be noted as an area of importance thank you councilor armature yeah I like the idea of increasing awareness of citizen and involvement you know I used a term community involvement but I understand when you say citizen you mean residents of Denton and that's exactly what I what I mean too and I also like the idea of having an alternate on you know boards and committees and the absence of a regularly appointed member in case there's difficulty making quorum I don't know if that's necessary for all boards and committees but it might be but as you know certainly open to it I think it's a good idea if it would help us make quorum okay Mr. City Attorney it am I correct that so that the the council member that put forth the request spoke and then councilor armature changed the definition for her speak I just want to make sure it's accounted correctly right so council member gave a definition of citizen councilor armature revamped that a bit or said this is what I understand it to be I just want to make sure we're okay that how does that work I think it's a fair point mayor and to the point that you want to clarify so that the council is all talking about the same thing I think it's worthwhile to have that conversation really quickly just to make sure everyone's on the same page yeah and I'm just gonna work it backwards so that the the person that put it forward gave a definition and so just succinctly council member do you adopt that definition or no so do you in your support do you adopt that definition I like I said I adopt the part of the definition that defines it as residents of Denton okay well then who's ever keeping track and account for that anyone else member Tim we certainly had our share of troubles trying to achieve quorum and boards and Commission so I'm very happy to have a short work session to air any constructive ideas happy to hear it okay customer days I kind of prefer the ISR route see if we've got really really solid public affairs folks we can maybe give them a crack at it and and see what they can suggest to us and then if we look at the ISR and say well that's that's not enough action for us or we need to do something a little more aggressive or talk about it the council level we certainly have that available after that too I agree with councilmember Davis on this I think that this is certainly a worthy thing for staff to do but they're they're already doing it to a certain extent we do have an outstanding you know public relations arm of the city who does great work of pushing out information on social media perhaps we could you know just via this conversation indicate to them that we would like a little bit more of that in regard to boards and commissions and perhaps also you know an ad in the DRC and then if we can see in a Friday report what what actions those are if at that point we feel like it's not adequate then perhaps we can have a work session but I think that this this is what we're only asking staff to do a little bit more than they're already doing here I think the idea of a starting with an ISR makes sense to me to understand what the starting data is where we are I feel like that that would lead us into a better work session as needed in the future so I'd prefer more than ISR okay comes from bird it really succinct because you're getting two bites of that one I understand thank you very much for the opportunity but I did want to go back on that notation of what and I'm glad I wrote all of this down so I can clarify that I noted that it that I stated that a citizen is it is defined as a legally recognized subject or national of a state or Commonwealth or our native either native or naturalized it also defines a citizen as an inhabitant of a particular town or city this comes from dictionary comm Wikipedia so those things can be interchangeable for whatever direction that we want to go so I just wanted to clarify that and I appreciate you all for giving this support mayor just a quick point one item that's coming on the agenda for the Historic Landmark Commission is reducing the number of members so that's another option to look at where you instead of nine having seven so a step if that's the desire we'll come back with an individual staff report on some creative ways of sharing information on how to be how to get involved in the city of Denton by joining the board okay and I'll just I'm not going to take a position I just have a statement I find it curious that a few weeks ago we had a vote on whether to loosen the restrictions to allow more people into the pool being the vote the vote the voter registration requirement and the the proposing council member voted against adding more people to the pool but then comes back and says hey we need more people in the pool and so that's all on the record but that's the part that confuses me so I'm not going to take a position and and I don't think that there is a majority either way but I'll leave that to staff to analyze for the work session that I would agree yeah and in the ISR I don't think there's consensus either way I would like to ask a little bit more clarification on that point because if I'm understanding we did have three that one of the the ISR and then we had two that were in favor of the work session itself but councilmember bird's presentation was for a work session so it I don't want to get too deep into semantics about it but as far as what is actually on the agenda would be the work session but if everyone wanted to try you know we have the ability to say if we wanted to do a report instead and if councilmember bird were amenable to that I believe that we would have that for you are correct great yeah no and that's why I don't summarize I get in trouble for doing that so great that works thank you okay thank you all right then that get that concludes our work sessions takes us to closed session so we'll set the room councilmember Davis or someone can you hit the light switch to set us up and so I'll say that we're going to go into closed session to consultation with attorneys under Texas government code section five five one dot zero seven one consultation with discussion deliberation receive information from the city attorney to review and discuss litigation related winter storm Yuri mayor if you could get and welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council it is now 630 we do have a quorum so I call the meeting to order the first portion of our agenda is to pledge allegiance to the United States and Texas flag please stand with me with me if you're able honor the Texas flag I pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God one and individual thank you okay next we have one proclamation so I'll step down for that and here's this okay council member did you want to okay great all right and and and so this is for Delta Sigma Theta so if anyone else wants to come up and introduce themselves and have words please do so all right good evening my name is Robin Robinson and I am the current chapter president of Denton County alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority incorporated we do represent a portion of our chapter and we are very active in the Denton County community where we present different programs to assist our community however of course due to the pandemic we have not been in person as much as we normally would be but we're looking forward to getting back into our programs and our events in our community service I just would like to take the privilege if you allow me madam president to note that we have some really beautiful people here in our midst we have some charter members here we have a number of presidents and past presidents of our organization here so I just wanted to make sure that we noted that thank you all I hope you can hear me through the mask I'm Dorothy Watts one of the past presidents of Denton County alumnae chapter and a charter member and I have with me our first chapter president Dr. Rose Chu and we have our eighth president Cleo Bickler and our tenth president and I am the seventh but anyway we serve so long we forget I've been serving for 27 years now with the chapter so thank you thank you very much so I have a proclamation to read and it and it reads whereas Delta Sigma Theta sorority Inc is a private not-for-profit organization who's more than 1,000 chapters provide support in local communities throughout the the world including Japan Germany West Africa and the Caribbean and whereas since its founding in 1913 Delta Sigma Delta Sigma distinguished itself as a public service organization that boldly confronts the challenges of African Americans by providing an extensive array of public service initiatives through its five-point programmatic thrust of international awareness and involvement educational development economic development physical and mental health political awareness and involvement and whereas on March 25th 1995 under the leadership of Southwest Regional Director Shirley Frieda the 20th national president Bertha M. Roddy Sharon Sharon Berlison Shelly Bayless Butler Vicky Bird Rose Chu Bertina Hildreth Combs Delana is that right Delana Delana thank you Cofield Sandra Dublin Johnny Gales Margaret Gibson glad it Gladys Gladys thank you Hildreth Valda Morgan Carolyn Price Loretta Robertson and Dorothy Watts humbly committed themselves to their beloved sorority to provide unwavering support for Denton County communities by establishing the charter of the Denton County alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority and let me get there sorry whereas the the only African American alumni a sorority to serve all cities in the greater Denton County area DC AC has become a well-known well known for its three signature programs the women's symposium the annual HBC use information session and HBC you historically black college university and then and also and as an annual town hall meeting and whereas DC AC is instrumental in the development of programs and partnerships throughout the greater Denton County area include those with the Denton Police Department Texas Women's University and the Little Elm Independent School District Frisco Independent School District the city of Denton Fred Moore daycare Center Thomas Thomas Rivera Elementary and Habitat for Humanity and whereas Denton County alumni chapter in Delta Sigma Theta sorority Inc will celebrate its 27th year of service to Denton County on March 25th 2022 and now therefore I Gerard Hutsworth mayor of the city of Denton do hereby declare and proclaim the 25th day of March 2022 as Denton County alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority Inc day in the city of Denton and encourage all citizens to congratulate them on this special day if we can give them a hand I bet you didn't find somebody take a picture if y'all want a picture is that all right okay there he is he's already moving okay all right very good thank y'all very much appreciate okay okay so that takes us to our consent agenda do we have any callers or speakers on the consent agenda just want to make sure no perfect thank you okay so I'll take a motion on the consent agenda understanding one only a B was pulled councilmember Beck accepting item a B counselor Davis okay we have motion by counselor back second by councilmember Davis any discussion seeing none let's vote on the screen well that passes seven zero that so we'll take up item a B separately let me get there no well by unanimous consent we can do it right here we'll cue it back up we'll do it all over again so that's counselor back and and then councilmember Davis and yeah we're ready yeah I like it he's mind-reading good well it says item end of is that right okay so just vote here or no yep great yes go ahead and vote no they'll adjust it great so that's the consent agenda but for a B right perfect okay then I'll take item a B which is ID two two five six eight consider approve adoption of an ordinance of the city of Denton providing an authorization and notification of dark fiber agreement between city of Denton and core scientific ink regarding the use of city's dark fiber facilities good evening mayor Terry Nolte assistant general manager DMEF with me Shannon Mayha who is the deputy director of information technology the questions that were asked previously the answers councilmember Armenter dark fiber current was a rate that was approved by this council in 2005 the rate was is the same as it was in 2005 there's been no changes to the rate currently we have contracts in place with the county we have an exchange agreement for 21 miles of dark fiber service we exchanged 21 miles in Denton for 21 miles that they provide to us over to Lewisville we have had agreements in the past with the ISD as well and as far as we can tell core scientific is the only private entity that has requested the service and as you know since that service is in the rate book it is available to anyone that approaches us okay councilmember thank you so you mentioned that so we haven't that rate hasn't been adjusted since 2005 that's correct are there other DME rates or not DME just rates in our utilities rather that you're aware of that have not been adjusted for that many years it's a little unusual to me that we're going to yes councilmember I'm sure I am not aware of any any rates that have been in place for that long but of course I've only been here about three years so I couldn't tell you what happened prior to that you still have a dark fiber rate agreement with them today no no okay has the ISD approached us to your knowledge my understanding is that we had an agreement with them and now they're self-providing now they are self providing yeah okay so that would make this as I'm understanding the core scientific the only entity currently and just one of two since 2005 to have such I think there were prior prior agreements in place with other entities okay prior to the ISD for example so the ISD is just one example there but there might be other public entities you're saying we found prior agreements with UNT as well as TWU as well I don't know if they're still active but there were agreements at one point in time with them as well we looked through the past history that were also agreements at one point in time with UNT as well as TWU to use the fiber as well I don't know if they're still in effect but those were existing at one point okay so but this is the first private entity yes correct okay okay thank you very much for for answering those questions and could you address and I think I know the answer but since it's such a matter of public interest be helpful I think for the public to have it explained you know what cost is this to the city both kind of financially and as far as service yes so we the city through DME has a ring of dark fiber of fiber optic cables across the city that links all of our substations together that system is a backbone fiber system that also is used by traffic and police and other city departments for fiber optic services when we put those services in we put in a large number of fibers knowing that there would be growth and these are fibers that are not used that we are then leasing so there's no net cost to the city we're basically getting a new revenue stream for the lease of what's effectively called dark fiber because it's not lit up so that that's what we're providing okay so there's no cost as far as materials or additional expenses because it's already in the ground and that's just like you said that's just by definition what dark fiber is right but is there any cost in terms of service does that does it need to be serviced is it you know what do the city staff need to do anything to set this up so the core scientific the contract that you have in front of you there are service commitments that we provide in terms of response time if there are issues with our fiber and that's included with the cost of the lease agreement correct okay well thank you for shedding light on that I am going to be voting no for the same reason that I have voted no to everything having to do with this data mining operation and the city's agreement with them but I truly appreciate your having brought this to the public meeting and taking it off the consent agenda because it is such a good important matter of public interest so thank you and thanks to the rest of council for allowing that okay I move approval mayor pretend yeah very happy to help pull this operation onto renewables I second it's a motion to second any other discussion seeing none let's put on the screen passes 5-2 takes us to our public hearings which is versus ID it's item a ID two to five zero eight hold a public hearing and consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton Texas adopting the the up-to-date adopting the up-to-date update to the city of Denton's comprehensive plan good evening mayor council Tina Ferguson the deputy director of development services and the planning director for the city of Denton so this evening the planning team is pleased to present to you the Denton 2040 comprehensive plan which is an update to the city's 2030 comprehensive plan it is appropriate to review the comprehensive plan every five to ten years to evaluate the vision for the city but also evaluate the policies and goals and action items that are contained within that plan to determine if they are still relevant particularly as Denton continues to grow and mature in the future this is why the city embarked on this ever on this endeavor starting lat at the beginning of last year throughout this plan update process it has been clear that Denton is interested in managing its growth for the future but also defining what we mean by managing growth for Denton the Denton 2040 comprehensive plan continues to focus on four themes just as it did in the Denton 2030 plan and those are sustainability community health mobility and community characters and these themes resonate throughout the document and provide the framework for all of the goals and policies and those particular 271 action items that we're looking forward to embarking on implementation throughout this update effort several key items have resonated to the top the first being preservation of land a preferred land preservation plan has been included within the Denton 2040 comprehensive plan document right next to the future land use map so that we are able to communicate to the development community the city's desire for land preservation sustainability has continued to be a significant theme throughout the entire plan document just as it was in the 2030 plan in tandem with the land preservation plan map having Denton 2040 conference a plan communicate the city's preferred land uses within the ETJ or extra territorial jurisdiction and understanding that the city has limited regulatory authority in that regard but still we were interested in making sure that we were communicating what is our preferred land use development within that area should it occur also directing growth in accordance with the preferred growth scenario map and focusing on infill and redevelopment opportunities particularly towards the interior of the city continues to be a priority for the city additionally having continuity between the Denton 2040 conference a plan and the city's updates to the 22 mobility plan which is also on your agenda for this evening as well as the recently adopted parks and recreation master plan having those three plans all be synchronized with each other was imperative for our community and as Becky would say takes a holistic approach to achieving that finally implementation in monitoring this has been an item that we've discussed multiple times staff has committed to providing annual updates to both the planning and zoning Commission as well as to the City Council on our progress as we work towards implementing the Denton 2040 comprehensive plan and the various 271 action items that are included within it and I must say Gary packing pointed out to me that now we're down to 270 because one of those items was getting the adoption of the parks and recreation master plan so we're already on a roll right but it was also very clear from our discussions in January and February of this year when we had quite a few work sessions and including the joint work session with the planning and zoning Commission that this group is wanting to focus on implementation and working towards achieving all of those action items therefore in order for us to be able to do so we need to accomplish one first key task and that is adoption of this 2040 plan that's before you this evening so throughout the past 14 months I'm happy to report that Ed Boyk with matrix design group is actually here in person with us to make a final overview and presentation I know you've seen Ed many times on zoom calls as we've worked in many work sessions with the council in the planning and zoning Commission and will provide a final overview as it relates to this project he'll reiterate some of the items that I've just highlighted for you just now but also then he will include addressing any modifications that have been made to the 2040 conference of plan document as a follow-up to the joint meeting that we had on February 14th of this year following edge presentation then I'll wrap up with our typical our typical next steps calendar slide and address that as well so with that I would like to turn things over to Ed Boyk thank you for your consideration this evening thank you Thank You Tina. Mayor, Council, Ed Boyk, Matrix Design Group I'm very happy to be here today it's been a long journey but I'm really excited to be here to present what is really a great plan for a great city Denton's been wonderful the city staff I work with but Tina Scott and Ron and everybody else in the other departments has been absolutely great to work with and between our my interactions with staff in the community you could see that the forward planning is very important to the city not only to the council and planning and zoning commission and staff but also to the residents and so I'm happy to be here to talk a little bit more about this update that's been put in place so the 2040 plan is a reflection of those current conditions we have today and what's anticipated which is a lot of continued growth in the city it has confirmed the vision that was put in place in the 2030 plan it's addressing new challenges it's confirms in those key policies and it's in as Tina had said incorporating those plans were being reviewed prepared and approved concurrently so the approach for this plan was not to do a wholesale rewrite it was to do an update a strategic update update it where the updates really need to be made because the bones of the plan were still good the 2030 plan has several different tasks that have been implemented over the recent years and this is building upon that so through our through the activities that we pursued to put this plan together we refine the implementation plan we work with staff and the community to review and analyze the policies and goals that were in the 2030 plan for appropriateness to continue to move forward we confirmed again that vision was still valid for the city and then as Tina had said we created a stronger nexus between the growth concept map the future land use map and also that preferred land preservation plan public engagement this was a plan that was developed during the height of kovat and that could present challenges but not when you have a very interested community that wants to be a participant in the plan we conducted virtual stakeholder virtual stakeholder meetings early on in the process followed up with three virtual public meetings we had a dedicated website a whole bunch of tools available on it and then we even had the opportunity late last year to come in person and present many of the findings that have been developed through all those virtual engagements to the community in an in-person open house and as you know there's been numerous engagements with the Commission's council through workshops and especially in recent months so what are the results of that well we've had pretty great response rate for having to engage through virtual means and then in person almost 2,000 unique comments were received through all the different media that we utilized to engage with the public so all of those comments that were received really helps us validate and ensure that this plan is representative of how we should move forward as a community so some of those key discussion changes these are items that we've talked about quite a bit through the planning zoning Commission workshops the joint workshop and the workshops at the City Council but I'm just going to kind of run through them rather quickly there is the community vision statements integrated in the plan there's a development within the ETJ we've incorporated that land use policy to discuss how that should be handled in the city's preference for land use align that with that land preservation plan to give that better direction made other adjustments and updates to the future land use map with the preferred Grove plan area plans and infill and redevelopment are inside of this plan as well as part of the implementation sustainable sustainability being a large component of this plan other important factors that were discussed such as wildlife corridors and preservation and protection of natural and recreation open spaces and ESA's and parks and trails all of that is found within this plan and then also reflected in the implementation table so I'm going to jump over to the implementation and actions these are the things that put the plan into action this makes the plan do something and not be something that sits on the shelf some of the main tasks that are short-term tasks that we're going to be addressed our area plans were that refined fine-grained study of those areas in the community that would need the special attention so that you can make sure that the development pattern the uses community building is appropriate for that area infill and redevelopment directing that growth inward into those developed areas as Tina had mentioned there's 271 actions now 270 there's a lot of work to be done in the short mid and long-term range and then also those implementation metrics to make sure that these actions are being implemented properly reported back to you and then adjustments being made as necessary to continue forward so again thank you very much for the opportunity to be here I'm very happy to be here and present this I'm going to turn this back over to Tina and she's going to continue on so this calendar you've seen many times throughout this project and so I'd like to draw your attention to to near the bottom we did have the planning and zoning Commission take consideration and action of the plan they did recommend unanimously for adoption of the plan back on March 9th and as you know originally we were trying to go on February 23rd but Mother Nature had some other ideas for us with an ice storm so we were originally anticipating a March 1st adoption for the plan but hence why it's before you this evening on March 22nd and we talked about area plan implementation as Ed alluded to and or mentioned on his previous slide so we are beginning that conversation with the planning and zoning Commission tomorrow evening we will be having a discussion with them regarding which areas of the community the Commission thinks that we should focus on for developing area plans as part of that we will also share with the Commission some of the direction that we've already seen from Council because I know some on Council have expressed interest in an area plan for the northeast part of the city as well as in southeast antennas too so but following that conversation with the Commission tomorrow evening then we will bring forth a presentation to Council to start working on and getting your feedback on where you believe we should focus our efforts when it comes to the area plan so we have that calendar for April 5th and one additional item that we've began underway is to have a discussion regarding habitat connectivity throughout the community and I know that's been something that was recently and we provided in your Friday report a discussion that has come about as recent with Mayor Pro Tem Melter and Councilmember Beck and a draft plan map was included associated with that report so we have that calendared right now for May 17th to be able to have that discussion with Council so like I said we're ready to get moving forward on the implementation items what we would like to do is be able to get the comprehensive plan adopted this evening so as I mentioned the Commission they did unanimously recommend approval of the document as presented and I should take a moment and I realized I forgot to mention so another key person that's in the audience is Ron Mingida on my team so you all know Ron here with the City of Denton Ron's been very instrumental on helping get this project across the finish line working behind the scenes with Ed so I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Ron for all of his hard work and effort on this so in addition to the planning and zoning Commission I can assure you the planning team also respectfully request adoption of the comprehensive plan this evening and with that happy to answer any questions that you may have and look forward to the public hearing as well. Great so questions for staff? I open a public hearing and so I don't think I have any cards but that doesn't mean you can't speak to it let me just make sure I do have no let me see this is no yeah so no cards but if you wanted to speak you can you can come down speak and then fill one out give it a moment don't see anyone rushing up mayor pro tem Melton. You know I participated as a civilian in the 2030 plan it was a great inclusive process I remember seeing the mayor at that time overseeing it and I think it was quite a good document but there were a lot of frustrations in the years that followed because there were opportunities for it to not really become the vision that got enacted to some extent yes but to some extent we saw if there was a conflict between the mobility plan and the comprehensive plan you know someone go one way someone go the other there was a preferred development plan but there wasn't as crystal clear an emphasis on what we want to preserve there was a call for small area plans and some some of that happened but not with the rigor that maybe was originally envisioned and I just want to underscore some of what you just heard and I think everything that you highlighted a really why I'm so eager to move approval of this the fact that staff took the time to carefully knit together this comprehensive plan with the mobility plan with the parks plan with the trails plan you know so we're not going to play pick the plan the future that was months of work there is a preferred pattern of land use preservation in it that acknowledges our future green space parks connectivity and we will be having that session on wildlife corridors very soon and and the thing that heartens me the most perhaps is the fact that starting tomorrow we're already beginning on priority prioritizing the small area plan so I very heartily move approval of this long awaited plan okay and I'll close the public hearing councillor Davis thank you mayor we haven't been working on this the whole time I've been on City Council but getting kind of close but this is so vitally important one of my colleagues might say didn't is that an inflection point there are so many choices to make in the days ahead as we grow the way in which we grow and I think the whole council the staff and planning zoning commissioner done yeoman's work really bringing all of these seemingly conflicting ideas and situations together and helping us chart a path forward so I'm very happy to second the motion great we have motion by mayor Pro Tem second by councilmember Davis any other discussion councillor back I'm going to concur with my colleagues and one of the things I really like about having these comprehensive plans like this is it really allows us to knit them together when you were sitting we were talking just earlier about dovetailing you know our economic development plan or strategic plans with with this comprehensive plan it when we have these actionable items it allows us to make sure that we do as mayor Pro Tem said stick stick to our plan and and in make it unified across the entire scope so I appreciate that thank you okay any other discussion seeing none let's vote on the screen oh yes I just want to recognize Tina and Scott and Ron and the rest of the staff this is not an easy task to undertake obviously doing a comprehensive plan is a major undertaking but updating a comprehensive plan is also an undertaking and we have such outstanding staff here that really put their heart and soul in it and heard like you said really listened to council to me that means the world and I just want to personally thank them and let them know how much it means to me to have that kind of quality people who listen to the community into council and then follow through with the work and they won't let you down I can tell you that right now and I'm thrilled to death to work with such outstanding thank you well said and that passes 7-0 thank you thank you very much all right text item B which is ID 2 2 5 1 3 hold a public hearing consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of Denton Texas adopting the update to the city of Denton 2022 mobility plan and I'll open the public hearing good afternoon mayor and council Becky DeViney city engineer director of capital projects ask to you that I am thrilled to be here today to bring this plan forward to you as you know our team has been working on this for a number of months it's been an awesome opportunity for the collaboration that you will see between the planning team development services team also the parks department and building that strong relationship that we've had that opportunity to build while working on these plans together so it's my honor and pleasure to run through this quick presentation with you and talk about the 2022 mobility plan so I'll start off by saying that one of the most important things I see for the plan is the direction that we headed this time with the update to the 2022 mobility plan as you know the last mobility plan we had was back in 2015 and I think that we all commonly focus on the thoroughfare plan but we all heard you very loud and clear and I know Nathan is trying his best to get here today he's coming from Austin from a training session so he may or may not make it but I will tell you and when we talk about that multimodal approach I think you all know how important it is for us not to just look from that auto perspective also to look from that bicycle and pedestrian perspective so really excited that this plan actually adopts and looks at that multimodal transportation method oh I went the wrong way so sorry so community input I mentioned this during planning and zoning several of these public meetings happened when I was not even with the department but happy that those meetings happen some of those happened in person then of course we had the COVID scenario and some of those were work sessions and then of course we had those virtual public meetings and that's when I became began my journey with the mobility plan where we had those five public virtual meetings when we talked about specific areas of course the northern western the downtown eastern and southern areas it was a great opportunity to receive a public comment through either the public meetings or the the virtual meetings talk a little bit about input I know you're all aware of this I'm sure you've all visited the map when it was online and looked at the little yellow sticky notes so you could see what comments we received if you looked in some of the particular areas of which you had the same concerns there were a lot of comments in some of the particular areas which I think through the collaboration with working with yourselves and also with the development services team we've been able to address the majority of those comments you can see the responses that we received during the different time frames during 2019 and 2020 talk about some of those additional opportunities we also were a part of the open house that development services held for the comprehensive plan we also coordinated with Gary Packen with the parks and trails open house and really work together there's been a number of presentations that have been made to planning and zoning as you can see on the screen and then of course City Council presentations that you're all aware of like Tina mentioned we were very excited to get this adopted and then of course we all may have shed a tear when the ice storm came through knowing that we were gonna wait a little bit later than we had anticipated to get this adopted and as you can see Nathan on the screen he's very much a important and critical asset to this overall adoption of this mobility plan common themes we've talked about this several times I'll just remind you that multimodal approach complete streets that bicycle pedestrian and automotive measures really working to accommodate those bicycle and pedestrian safety and access points you'll see that through out the year as we work to update our criteria manual and standard details also to incorporate those complete streets and additional bicycle and pedestrian measures that we were not in and able to incorporate all of last year some of the items that we received the comments on we were actually able to address through maintenance and operations and that's wonderful to hear some of those comments that can actually be sent over to the public works and street operation department to get addressed future development obviously you know we worked very hard to look at the land use map assumptions and that's part of the great relationship that we continued to work for our work from and developed with the land use map and of course with Ed, Tina, Ron and of course Preetam with transportation planning coordinating with future text dot roads that's a challenge but we really pushed forward some of those things actually changed at the last minute on us but we were able to get that map updated we have a great working relationship with text dot and we continue to work through as additional questions arise working on those roadway classifications obviously you know we want to make sure those standard details match those different areas of the criteria manual and looking at where arterials are needed versus collectors and then of course that consistency or I have to say it holistic approach to the Denton plan 2040 and parks trails master plan you can see those two emblems on the screen I will tell you that I believe that they're critical to the adoption because we all three work together to make sure our plans cooperated and collaborated with each other so I'll sum really kind of up with the key focus you've heard me say it in the beginning of this presentation but that multimodal approach it is so critical that we look at the different ways that people communicate and collaborate through the community and I mean that in the most serious terms as as they're moving from point A to point B they might use a bicycle an auto or a pedestrian route also I know that one of your biggest concerns that you brought forward was safety so we took that opportunity to take that goal although it wasn't really goal number seven because they weren't in a hierarchy order but move that to goal number one so that we could make sure that we address those concerns and we agree that safety is the first and foremost most important goal and you'll see some updates to that vision zero plan here over the next few months and then of course looking at those context safety and sensitive design so looking at really what makes sense for the area of which the development is going to be moving forward with that overall development whether it be the different types of arterials collectors that type of scenario as we work through with the planning department and with that I will mention that this did pass seven to zero at the Planning and Zoning Commission and the staff would like to recommend with the biggest smile that I can make on my face approval of the Denton 2022 mobility plan as presented I do want to take a minute to thank the development service and planning team because it like I said it was a great collaboration also think the parks team pretend did an excellent job of helping us from a transportation planning aspect and of course Nathan is not here but he did honestly was very instrumental in making sure that those bike and ped components were instrumental throughout the entire process and so with that I will stand for any questions and allow you to open the public hearing sir great thank you any questions for staff seeing none I don't see any public speakers anyone wishing to speak it is a public hearing you can come down fill out a card and speak seeing none I'll close the public hearing mayor Pro Tem yeah it's really part of one one big coordinated effort it's part of ensuring that the the bigger dent we're going to become it really is a better dent and the values that you know that hopefully you see expressed in this mobility plan are different than when you might have seen before multimodal the emphasis on safety so I'm happy to move approval councilmember were outstanding work on this Becky and the rest of the team that worked on it I know it was a huge collaborative effort and and thank you so much for for your dedication of this project I'm second okay motion by mayor Pro Tem Mel to second by Councilmember McGuire discussion councilor Armitter yes I just wanted to take a moment also to thank staff so much for not just for your hard work all along but between this version and the last one we saw just really incorporating council's feedback on on vision zero and safety in in so many different ways all throughout the plan and it's clear that you really integrated it in a way that you all really understood the meaning of it it didn't just feel sprinkled in there so I'm really proud and grateful of y'all and for your work so thank you yes ma'am thank you counselor bet thank you council armature just stole pretty much everything I was about to say so I will I will just concur with that and say I really appreciate that the renewed emphasis on safety I think that's what the community was telling us and you listen to that feedback and I really appreciate it and and I really just in addition to all your staff did a great job but I really want to really just laud the presence of Nathan I really think he's he's been instrumental in sort of getting us focused on a lot of these efforts and so I'm really pleased that we hired him recently and he's really leveraged a lot of the the good changes that we've seen so I'm that was a really good move so whoever whoever got Nathan that I really appreciate it okay anyone else by all means I don't want to leave my kudos out for you know I I know people are here to speak and other things but it really does my heart good when you really turn something and there's Nathan the man of the hour when you take a look at things and bring everyone together we had really not done that in the past so kudos to Gary pack and kudos to Scott and Tina Becky Nathan pre-tim the staff and in her shop when David and David and the CMO staff we looked at this and said we shouldn't be doing any of this until we really look across all the areas to make sure we're not leaving any stone unturned and this is the people who are doing that work and like I said about our development services and planning staff I don't think we can find any better staff in this in anywhere that can do this kind of work with the kind of pressures and other things they're doing and listen and then follow through with what needs to be done and again I couldn't be more proud to work with such great people and here's Nathan he comes in right on time so three hour drive three sentences go no if there's anything you want to add or just you know by all means want to give you some time I just want to say that this was truly a collaborative effort I think our teams work very closely to to make sure that these three plans have cohesion and I'm really excited to see us execute and start moving forward into implementation we're really excited to start getting stuff in the ground great thank you thank you very much mayor pro tem I just want to note there was a time when we heard about all the silos and sitting up and now yeah look where we are that's great okay great then let's vote on the screen that passes 7-0 all right that takes us to item C which is DCA 2 2 0 0 0 1 hold public hearing and consider adoption of ordinance of the City of Denton Texas amending the Denton Development Code to provide the pathways and trails in section 7 4 7 a permitted uses and activities in the riparian buffer and water related habitat environmentally sensitive areas and I'll open the public hearing thank you Christy Upton with environmental services and I will be presenting this code amendment tonight so in for the last 20 years the city of Denton has had on the Denton Development Code a set of regulations to protect and preserve environmentally sensitive areas there are four types of environmentally sensitive areas first of all there's a flood plains and then there are riparian systems and then their water related habitats and then there's the cross timbers upland habitat trails are permitted to be constructed within the undeveloped flood plains trails are not permitted to be constructed within the riparian buffers the water related habitats or the cross timbers upland habitats recently the parks recreation trails masters system plan promoted the use of the green spaces and corridors created by the preservation of environmentally sensitive areas this plan that was adopted at the beginning of the month because it will be capitalizing on these environmentally sensitive areas staff has identified that these trails are that are not permitted within these certain areas creates at best a speed bump and at worst a barrier to accomplishing the goals of the trails master plan and thus we have identified that we that this code amendment will help to facilitate moving forward with the trails master plan staff shares and some of the questions and potential concerns that could be raised by the idea of constructing trails within these environmentally sensitive areas these are some of the similar questions that were brought up by the parks board and by the planning and zoning Commission I wanted to reassure you that we are addressing those concerns by this code amendment and by the general policy that we are proposing to initiate and to adopt tonight first of all that the the code would restrict to the construction of those trails to only those areas where the trails would be city-owned and operated by the city this would eliminate some of those concerns with allowing for willy-nilly trails to be constructed say for example within a private property an HOA lot for example where we would not have as much control over the long-term maintenance of that of that trail secondly this is we staff are working closely environmental services engineering Nathan for example has been a big help to me on the discussion on this and with the Parks Department discussion of how we will be adopting policy within the parks parks and Recreation design and construction manual and within this manual we will have a list of items that a trail construction would have to follow and with that this is the proposed amendment we would be adding this language so after these trails and the planning and zoning Commission recommended approval and with that I will stand for any questions thank you very much questions was that mayor pro tem yes I'm not coming from a point of view of opposition at all just from an appreciation for the coordination just like we saw with the parks and mobility and so on you're here we're about to have a session in May 17th about wildlife corridors in some cases you don't want trails in the ESA there because it would interfere with wildlife and I'm just wondering would we not be better off rather than pass this now and kind of get you know one effort in front of the other to work together on kind of map mapping mapping that out where where the trails belong where they're not wrong I heard what you said about which type of environmentally sensitive areas but you know just have a holistic you know sense of what we're up to you know kind of a map that takes both into consideration that's all the question pick any part of that to respond to so I would encourage you to go ahead and adopt this and the reason why is that we can continue discuss what the wildlife corridors means to us and and what that could incorporate what I'm talking about here with the permission for some of these trails what we're envisioning great example of that would be the Eagle Creek development okay so on Eagle Creek development there are cross timbers up land habitat there's a riparian system there's a floodplain that that riparian system is is traversing through the best course for the trails to be constructed in that development right now is for it to be taken up through the sewer easement and so we're going to be focusing on that trail following the sewer easement for the most part now some of that sewer easement is already overlaid on the riparian system so that sewer easement inward for maintenance of sewer systems you have to keep it clear of trees and vegetation the overgrowth so that that vegetation is already being cleared so we're going to be focusing on on on using trails like using spaces where there's already open space like that that's already been created and the developer and Parks Department have agreed that another component of that trail within that particular development it would be best to have a crossing it's the safest place for pedestrians and for bikers and such to enjoy that whole open space in order for them to cross that Creek they have identified that there's a old farm road that was so the farmer had kept that clear already so they're going to also be placing the trail along that area in order for that crossing to occur so first of all under I hope I'm I'm hoping you understand and appreciate that staff shares those concerns we share that we we aren't trying to open up to all areas for access for for people but there's also that component that's important for the construction of these trails of bringing people to nature and and it's really important to for people to have that access in order for them to appreciate the more that people appreciate nature the more likely they are to support greater protection of so I feel like with this trail construction permission we're going to be getting out of the way of preventing some of these trails or in or making it hard for these trails to be constructed while at the same time improving in or promoting for people to be able to access those natural areas customer our mayor pro tem just if I can add one piece that's got McDonald director of development services very aware of the work that's going to be performed with the wildlife corridors in mapping that out we currently have some areas where he says really are in close proximity to people wouldn't necessarily be a wildlife corridor so this would this would help to augment the trail system in those areas but we certainly will be working with parks environmental services and development services to coordinate and to minimize any impacts where it is that it may be and that work session will be coming quite rapidly so as we talk through that will be cognizant of those issues you know you kind of anticipated my following question of a man there I don't quibble with or disagree but they agree with all the objectives it's really more a question of coordination and collaboration so so my question is how closely is environmental services knit into the decision-making process in the game I will say they were very closely if not managing that that will really be environmental services not development services so they will be managing that process we're just going to help facilitate that's great really addresses my question thank you comes from back yeah thank you mr. I think that last point was the one the question to follow on that I was going to add I think that the sort of synergies that we've seen earlier this evening I'm seeing that here and you can tell from the answer that Christy gave that you know I think I'm sensing that the environmental services is taking lead on on on approval on a lot of these things and I think that's the improvement that we were looking for and so as long as that element stays as sort of you know whenever we hit one of these that you know y'all are the lead because that shifts the focus from recreation and and mobility into environmental preservation it feels like that's actually what we're trying to do with these unsiloed things so I'm in support of moving this forward as long with that with that emphasis councilor Davis thank you Mary I'll just be really brief I agree with what council member Beck just said I think this strikes a good balance between preservation ever environmental preservation but also giving the public access to public land you know we don't want folks out using every single bit of land that we're preserving from environmental protection but the taxpayers on the land and we have to give them some reasonable access to enjoy it and trails are a good low-impact way to do that my question can concerns criteria manuals and you mentioned those they're not not mentioned specifically in the code but is that going to be a part of the the part of the proposed amendment that is subject to approval by Department of Environmental Services are those criteria member manuals that will be developed by environmental services that will be housed with environmental services how does those criteria manuals I guess make their way into enforcement under the code sure thanks for that question so it's the parks and recreation design and construction manual and the reason that we landed on that manual for for the place for this policy is that it's most obvious for anyone who you know is working with the parks department to pick that up and will know where to go to find the policies that we will be creating to for the protection of the environment for the long-term maintenance of those trails for the protection of those habitats okay any other questions for cat for staff okay this is a public hearing is anyone who would care to speak you can come down and speak and then you just need to fill out a blue card after the fact seeing none I'll close a public hearing I'll move approval Councilmember wire with the understanding that these trails will be designed carefully with with an eye towards sustainability and wildlife corridors I second okay we have a motion by mayor husband second by Councilmember McGuire any other discussion seeing none let's vote on the screen that passes 7-0 that concludes our public hearings for this evening takes us to our items for individual consideration please note for these for items or individual consideration you'll need to fill out a card before the item is called if you care to speak so if you want to speak on an item that's listed in section five their items for individual consideration you'd need to fill out that card in advance of when it's called once it's called you that item is you can't speak on that item so just so that you know so I'll call the first item is ID 2 1 1 6 0 8 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton amending chapter 18 article 5 motor vehicle and traffic of the city of Denton code of ordinances mayor mayor yes just real quick I'm gonna recuse from this item okay got it so we'll give a minute and let the record reflect that councilmember Davis has recused himself okay okay let the record reflect that councilmember McGuire's recused herself as well you're ready for me yes you're clearing the dais I'm so sorry good evening mayor and council Becky Davini city engineer director of capital projects I'm here today to talk about the golf cart and off-highway vehicle ordinance for university use I am joined today by members from our Denton police department and also our UNT PD and I want to first start off by mentioning that this is a collaboration between Texas woman University and the University of North Texas and the Denton police department so this is a really short and sweet presentation any of us can speak and ask answer any questions at the very end but we're going to go ahead and get started so you may ask yourself what is the definition of where these golf carts are off-highway vehicles can be used those are on what are called publicly owned highways which are our road street way thoroughfare or bridge within the city these highways running through and adjacent to the campus with posted speed limit signs of no more than 35 miles per hour within the University of North Texas and Texas woman's University you might ask yourself what type of equipment is to be used these different golf carts and off-highway vehicles must be equipped with headlamps tail lamps reflectors parking brakes mirrors and any other items required by the Texas transportation code they also must have the university logo on the vehicle the requirement of the operator is that they must be the age of 18 and hold a valid driver's license the permissible operation for these two different golf cart and off-highway vehicles are specifically for official University units use only like I mentioned they must have a Texas or state valid driver's license but they also must have a university identification on their person and they must be within the University of North Texas and Texas one woman's University any person that would be violating any of the provisions of the ordinance shall upon convention conviction be found guilty of a misdemeanor and find a sum of not more than $200 for each violation so what I'd like to do now is recommend the adoption of an ordinance approving golf carts and off-highway vehicles for the use of University of North Texas and Texas woman's University for that official being business units I can't speak business use only I apologize staff will continue to meet with UNT and TWU to facilitate that ordinance adoption shall it become effective today it will post for 14 days in the Denton record Chronicle and we will continue to work with those teams and collaborate with them so with that I will end my presentation and we will be more than happy to answer any questions that you might have great and so that I don't forget we have one card so I'll call her up and do that first so ever if you can come up please and if you give your name an address you'll have four minutes and then that way if there's something you say maybe we can get an answer to it as well Eva Greco 802 West Oak Street she answered some of my questions but I'm a little confused the subject was to regarding golf carts or off-highway vehicles on city streets and then just in the background it went speak about highways so I'm not sure if they're talking to make this for city streets because that was my impression of it reading this because they're already I'm talking the area I live which is near UNT and I've been stuck in traffic with golf carts on the streets already so I'm a bit confused by all this wording and everything so got it so so I can I can help there some and I'll stop your time so we're we're changing the ordinance to match what what's happening now so it's just a it's a cleanup right it's like hey we need to put some place to and and so that's that's what we're doing and it's it's city streets only near the universities much to my chagrin I'll talk about that later but but right now it's just you know around the universities and it's city streets but she gave the proper definition which technically I guess that that highways mentioned in it but it's talking about city streets and just common vernacular but technically what I was thinking yes because we're coming up to date with something that's already being done but it wasn't supposed to be done if I drove a golf cart on the city street depends already driving yeah golf carts on city streets they're not being held accountable for that so instead of holding them accountable we're going to well let's conform to them and make it okay for what they've been doing where is me a full-year resident not a temporary resident or a part-year resident a full-year resident would be held accountable or you know so we're it's like we're catering again we have no parking UNT no parking signs on city streets right by campus but that's okay you know you get what I'm saying it's not fair it's not fair to the full-time residents who live in the area especially more so yes no and I appreciate those those thoughts thank you very much clarification on that yes no very good thank you appreciate it okay and then staff we do have questions counselor armature yes so I have a question which is also my big concern and sticking point on this one and that's a matter of safety so is it true that that these kind of vehicles they generally don't go more than 20 miles an hour I'm gonna ask sergeant coast to come up and speak specifically about the case good evening Brian coast traffic safety unit sergeant to answer your question the golf carts do operate usually below 25 miles per hour is the threshold to have one of those slow-moving vehicle triangles on there some of the off highway vehicles may be capable of achieving higher speed limits but most of the roads that we're talking about are posted at 20 or 30 miles per hour and so those speed limits would apply regardless of what type of vehicle was being used yeah okay thank you and that that that met with my understanding but I just want to check so my you know I don't claim to be a traffic safety expert but I know how to read and I've learned a lot you know from being on this council including from our vision zero mission and all that you know as far as I'm concerned you know these golf carts are there another form of electric car I own and drive an electric car but mine goes much faster it has the capacity to go much faster it also has you know a roof on it and other things that protect me and so I'm concerned about safety of the people the workers who were driving these carts tend to be they tend to be workers and and also as the member the public just mentioned he spoke you know concerns about safety for residents in the area so I would be okay with this if instead of requiring that it be that it pertain to highways running through and adjacent to campus with posted speed limits of not more than 35 miles per hour if it was instead of not more than 20 miles per hour or maybe 25 if it turns out you know that say most of these vehicles you know can go up to 25 to me that would be a real sticking point because I don't want a vehicle with so little protection that can only go 20 miles an hour to be driving around with vehicles that are going 30 okay and let's get let's get all of the all the comments and then we'll tackle it and then we'll vote so counseling back well okay this is gonna sound weird then because I was I was gonna just ask for clarity but it's my understanding this is mostly golf carts on on sidewalks and cement areas in the campus wishing to cross to other areas and not be illegal while they run down the street to another area or they cross over an intersection or something like that that this is more of a how can I get if I've got roads in the middle of my campus how do I get from one side of the campus to the other is am I interpreting that correctly but I'm not sure given the chairs there the mayor's what no that the last one was a statement trying to change suggesting a change to the entire ordinance that's not a question yours is a question that can be answered I'm trying to get all the questions answered then people can make a decision how they want to vote you know we're not going to take it piecemeal so questions are fine by all means Councilmember back they do have the ability to traverse through the campus but they will have the ability to drive on a roadway located within the campus according to way though the ordinance is written okay that's what I thought thank you Councilmember I'm thinking that one of the things that we could do is to kind of address the term off-highway vehicles that could be a little bit confusing as to what is an off-highway vehicle so an off-highway vehicle is the kind of global definition and the transportation code for if you think like it could be an ATV but more likely in this case it's going to be like those gators or something like that that has a utility bed on the back that you'll see like parks maintenance and folks like that driving around in that would be considered an off-highway vehicle thank you also I think that you just to clarify you know the off-highway versus the golf courts and I think that that's maybe be what one of our citizens was trying to make to clarify so I can see you the employees at each one of those agencies needing to be on the street to get from side to from one side to the other all right I'll leave it there thank you yeah if I may just provide a quick clarification in the transportation code all streets are called highways so when you hear a highway that's the transportation code definition of what we would consider a city street any street is called a highway in the transportation code may pretend yeah I don't know who can answer this but how did this why did this come up what is the problem that we're trying to solve why is this before us so both TWU and UNT has they approached the city several years back asking for this provision it's in the transportation code where cities have this ability to authorize golf carts and off-highway vehicles on certain roadways they asked just in the and their operations you know their maintenance individuals landscaping or you know tours of the campus just to have this ability to put some smaller scale vehicles out there and not have to use you know big vans or buses when a small off-highway vehicle or golf cart would take care of that issue okay I still see names here but you've already are you still there or no that way okay got it okay any other questions for staff seeing none I don't have any other cards so and I'll just say this and and and then I'll make my motion I think well first I want to say to John Williams owner of Eastside I'm working trying to get golf carts downtown but Chief Dixon told me no several times but I'm chipping away at him I feel like I'm making progress and it's difficult to park downtown and I think it'd be great to have a shuttle type thing but he is to the police department's credit they're concerned about safety on those areas so this is something crafted where they're saying no not everywhere specific use in specific areas with respect specific requirements you got to have your ID you got to have driver's license you got to follow the speed limit you don't need an adjustment to the speed limit you have to follow the speed limit so it takes care of itself that's and so for me this is I understand the heart of the police department because they've told me no several times because of the safety issue so they are focused on those things they are dialed in to to making sure we keep our community safe irresponsible irrespective of how easy would any great it would be to be able to get downtown but no so so I'm gonna move approval and I thank staff for their work on this Councilman Burke I second have a motion by Mayor Huss with second by Councilman bird discussion councilor Archer yeah so I'm not gonna repeat what I said before but I will state another side of it and that is you know one solution to this problem that would that would be that would meet my definition of safety which is not original to me the idea that you know if we're talking about vehicles that can only go 20 or 25 miles an hour they should be restricted to 20 or 25 mile an hour streets if it's really necessary for these vehicles to go on city streets then the city should consider and I realize that that's not what's on the table today but the city should consider reducing the speed limit on some of these streets now there's a portion of hickory that is already 20 miles an hour and you know if that is the the portion that's used then my proposed amendment to the ordinance which it looks like I'm alone in this so I won't propose it as an amendment if it's just gonna waste waste time here but then you know then it would be a moot point and then we would avoid the problem of a collision where where someone gets really hurt with one car going 35 miles an hour and a car with very little a vehicle with very little protection just going going 20 at at most 20 so again we can change the speed limits it's not that though that those are fixed except on text dot roads right but on city-owned roads we can change the speed limit and there are already safety concerns for pedestrians and bikes around these areas so anyway just wanted to mention that okay okay thank you very much and until it's let's let's vote on the screen and that helped me you need for that's a majority okay got it so it passes 32 and we'll let them come back okay next item is item B and before you before I call that again just reminding if anyone just came in late understand that you have to fill out a blue card before the items called if you're going to speak on that item so we're moving to item B then we'll go to the next in order CDEF NG so just letting you know where we are and so I will call item B which is I ID 2 1 2 1 4 3 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton authorizing the city manager to enter into a development agreement between the city of Denton and first Texas homes so this is the Parkside development if you remember a few months ago you approved their zoning plan and their development plan and a part of that plan was for for us to have a park there through a development agreement with them and also the right-of-way acquisition for the new Hickory Creek Road and bridge that will be built soon so here's its location so it's off a Hickory Creek Road right there in the area where the bridge will start I'm sure you've seen plans on that and looked at that several times throughout the last couple years it's just to the west of Crosstembers North and Crosstembers South here's the area that we have here so it's just for the park land total it's just over 21 acres and then the right-of-way for acquisition for Hickory Creek Road is just over four and a half acres so if you look the big kind of purplish blue area is the the lower Parkland which is actually is in the floodplain throughout 20-something years of being in Denton I've only seen it with water once and that was a long time ago so not even in 2015 it was a little wet but didn't get fully fully flooded and we all will remember how much rain we got then and then the yellow part is upland so it is not in the floodplain this is also kind of a depiction of where the floodplain is we do have a gas well there we have contacted the gas company that well is never been operational in fact there's a head stuck at the bottom of what they started drilling so they can't get anything out of it we will be working through the process to fully cap that and have that contained so we can take that 500 foot radius out in the future here is what we've come together with the developer to to make for the park so it does have a very nice pond there so we'll enhance the pond with a fountain fishing dock those depictions of the sports fields are similar to what we have like at Nettie Schultz and Avondale and Carl Young where we have kind of the soccer fields that are kind of there with goals maybe a backstop for a little practice baseball and then we have the loop trail we will be putting parks will be putting a playground in at a later time where the developer will be putting all the infrastructure in for that playground space and that later time will be next year so 23-24 budget cycle here's another closer depiction of the park space and here is our all of our cost estimates for what they what the developer is putting into that park space so you can see they're putting in quite a bit of money into that on top of giving us all the property so this is a really good acquisition for parks not only do we get we get everything but a playground in a park space that the developers building on their on their own down so great thank you questions for staff seeing none I'll move approval counselor Davis second motion by mayor Hudson second by counselor Davis discussion seeing none let's vote on the screen thank you that passes 7-0 takes us to item C which is ID 22407 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton amending chapter 14 of the code of ordinances health and human services to add article eight titled non discrimination in public accommodations employment practices and housing mayor City Council Sarah Kickler deputy director of human resources I just have a very short presentation to introduce this item tonight less than three slides as we've had a number of presentations on this item over the last few months so this first slide shares the background and the timeline of how we got to where we are tonight the non-discrimination ordinance was first requested in last June by a council member and since that time staff has presented research we received direction from council to draft an ordinance we've reviewed that draft ordinance with council received further direction to revise it and then we've opened it up also for public input that took place in January and February with the public hearing on February 15th where we shared that input with City Council at the conclusion of the public hearing on February 15th City Council provided direction for the item to be placed on a council agenda which is why we are here this evening for council to consider adoption of the non-discrimination ordinance so this slide is just a very high-level overview of what is in the non-discrimination ordinance there's a lot more details as you know as we reviewed through the past few work sessions I did include in the backup to this item the presentation that was presented public hearing which has more details but overall this ordinance would prohibit discrimination in housing employment and public accommodations on the classes that are seen here on the slide the language in the ordinance generally mirrors what you're going to find in federal and state non-discrimination laws to be consistent and to also allow the city to refer complaints where we can there are some exclusions that are included in the ordinance as we reviewed previously if someone believes they've been discriminated against in violation of the ordinance they may file a complaint that complaint would need to be made within 90 days of the alleged violation of when it occurred and there'll be more details of how that complaint can be made as I've just stated if we can refer complaints we will refer complaints to the correct agency that is within their jurisdiction so right that right now that means housing and employment any complaints made on that basis will go to the appropriate federal or state agency for housing this would be HUD and for employment it would be the EEOC or the Texas Workforce Commission what that means is that locally we may have to investigate any complaints on the basis of or in the area of public accommodations and we've developed that process that's outlined in the ordinance for how we would investigate those complaints locally as well as try to also conciliate them and then if we are unable to conciliate them and conciliate them the enforcement mechanism that may be there as a potential and so we've gone through that with council previously and that would be part of our next steps if the ordinance is approved tonight we do have a delayed effective date in the ordinance of 120 days meeting this ordinance if passed tonight would not be effective until July 20th of this year and that's to allow staff to take the next steps and actions that we would need to do which is a lot of public education about what this ordinance is what this means for the community as well as any other interested parties such as businesses so we'd be doing a number of outreach efforts to the community and businesses and as listed here on the screen in addition to public education staff also needs to take a number of actions to establish the necessary processes including coming up with a complaints form an intake process how we preliminary review that as outlined in the ordinance and then going into that investigation and conciliation stages well we'll need to find a third party that would handle that on behalf of the city to not burden city resources and to be in line with the direction that we received from council previously so we would keep you updated on the progress of these next steps and actions through Friday reports until we get to that July 20th date when the ordinance would be effective so that's my brief presentation I do have slides from the last public hearing if there's any questions I can answer great counselor bit so the the thing I like about this is that we are we are just being consistent with our principles and guidelines and so my question to you is the it's it seems like you know these these characteristics match our strategic plans they match our comprehensive plan they match all the planning documents that we've been describing through the last few weeks and especially many documents tonight I think this is just an alignment with with sort of inclusive nature that with those words inclusive are clearly in our plans so I'm just confirming that that that's all in all these plans and that we're we're being consistent is that correct correct and counseled during your council retreat last August did set this as a priority or major focus area for this item to be worked on appreciate that thank you mayor protect yeah I appreciate the fact that it is consistent with the economic development plan that emphasizes inclusiveness that corporate America is way ahead of cities in terms of not wanting their employees to be discriminated against if we want people to come here they need to know that their employees will be treated with respect and acceptance it's it's an application of the Golden Rule which matters to some of us that if you're a member of a you can imagine being a member of a small group that you know that is viewed as different you know how would you want to be treated you would want to be fully respected and fully equal in housing hiring and public accommodations and and it also meets with a kind of an unspoken Denton rule which is just don't hassle people unless I just want to acknowledge this is the culmination of a lot of careful thought and discussion and looking at what other deck Texas cities have done we're not blazing new trails has not been cataclysmic elsewhere and it is also the result of a persistent behind-the-scenes effort and advocacy by by many people but I especially acknowledge Amber Brickle in her in her private efforts to organize support so I will be supporting this thank you counselor armature so obviously I'm a huge supporter of this ordinance that's a big understatement and I'm really here to hear you know what the public has to has to say but I do have a question for staff that's a very in the weeds kind of question and I know that our city attorney is prepared for this and so I had you know prepared him for this a while ago and that is on so on page 10 of the ordinance it's possible for you to easily show it that would be great but if not I'll just read it very brief so there's this wonderful part that said this this is item three on page 10 this item I guess what is it number two anyway it's easier for me to say what page it is on and number three and then to go trace the you know and on the outline number three of what but anyway so it's number three veteran source of income except is prohibited by Texas Local Government Code section 250.007 as amended it shall be a discriminatory practice to discriminate in housing based on a veteran source of income so I love this and I know that that staff already knows I'm just mentioning this in case the public is not aware that in the state of Texas it is unfortunately legal to discriminate based on source of income except when it comes to veterans if cities want to those when it comes to housing discriminate in housing except when it comes to veterans cities have the option to issue a rule like this that says you can't discriminate on against veterans based on source of income and by the way what source of income means in this context is housing vouchers not only Vash vouchers that are just for veterans but any kind of housing housing voucher that that low income veterans are in possession of so anyway I'm really glad that's in there I wanted to highlight that but you know my question is you know why then isn't source of income or one then aren't source of income and veteran status also included at the very top of the ordinance on page one in the whereas is and and also in the definitions in other words it's this this wonderful aspect of our ordinance that protects veterans from discrimination based on having housing vouchers you know it but my worry is that it being buried in the deep so deep in the ordinance it won't that so people might not understand that they're protected yes if you could speak to that sure great question and so we heard your question at the last public hearing and I worked with Danny Shaw the director of community services and we did make two revisions to the current ordinance and highlighted that in the agenda information sheet to just try to make it a little bit more prominent in the ordinance so under protected housing characteristic that's a definition it's actually on page 5 we did add into there one of the protected classes for housing is a veteran source of income to try to make that clear for housing for veterans source of income that is protected and then also just adding on page 10 you see that veteran source of income as a title we didn't previously have that as a title it was just kind of at the end of the paragraph so we did try to make it more prominent by making that a title so those are the only two changes made to this ordinance since the last time you've seen it at the public hearing and we did highlight and yes yeah and thank you but thank you for mentioning that yeah those are improvements to the previous iteration of the ordinance you know I wonder you know if you could explain why is it so it's still missing from the whereas is why not include that in the whereas is at the beginning just to show that these are both protected categories and and why not for both for the definition 24 of protected housing characteristics and that item on page 10 why not instead of saying veteran source of income just say veteran status and source of income except where prohibited by state law blah blah blah as it says so nicely sure second iteration as we went through the previous policy discussions with council we heard make veterans source of income for housing a protected if you extended veterans to the other areas of employment and public accommodations those are currently not protected by federal and state law so that mean additional things that would need to be handled locally and when we reviewed that with council that was not the the direction to extend those classes further it was to start with this is base that we have and frankly that this is you know we're setting up processes and new things and not sure you know how far do we extend versus getting some practice and experience with this ordinance and there's something that council could always you could direct us now to include it but it's always something that could be extended later once we know that we have kind of a process and ordinance that has gone through some practice and understand how this works okay thank you for for explaining that I am sorry for not you know cannot communicating clearly enough that I would like to see those to see veteran status and source of income included but that isn't by no means gonna that is included in the overall whereas is that is by no means gonna prevent me from approving this outstanding ordinance and I really do appreciate those changes so anyway thank you for answering those questions okay any other questions for staff see and then I have six white cards that will go into the record that did not wish to speak but all six are in support so that'll go into the record we have two callers so I will take those callers and and while you while you pulling up the the callers I'll just say this Alejandro I did reach a note on the back I appreciate that noted and so I thank you for your comments and if the callers ready you don't need to take some folks in the room first okay great so first in the room and we'll come back to the callers is Marty Epstein if you can come down and give your name and address you'll have four minutes Marty EP EP ST EIN we'll come back to it oh okay if you can give your name and address you have four minutes please thank you Marty Epstein so let me start off sorry in 2015 Bernie Sanders woke me up my openly gay six-year-old transgender nephew wanted something different than most kids for his birthday he wanted the COVID-19 vaccine for the greater good of humanity because unlike the racist Republicans he wanted to protect our democracy and take on his social responsibility to do his part for the greater good he is now gone from this world he recently had a heart attack but the doctors say they don't know what caused it but I know what caused it it was a stress from the Donald Trump supporters and the science deniers now you might recognize this man as one of the most evil men if not the most evil man in history is what you call him but I have somebody who is much worse his name is Donald J Trump now let me tell you why Donald Trump is worse than Adolf Hitler number one Donald Trump hurts my feelings and Hitler does not number two Hitler at least put people in quarantine camps and made them wear masks while Donald Trump continues to spew out Russian disinformation third Hitler had the decency and kindness to kill himself meanwhile Donald Trump is still alive at least Hitler had the decency to leave us alone Trump on the other hand refuses to kill himself and makes him significantly worse war with Ukraine Russia it would be worth it the only way to fight for our democracy is to get vaccinated while supporting Ukraine in the fight and that is your social responsibility everybody look up to who have begun to love it's Klaus Schwab and he said by 2030 you will own nothing and be happy and I stand with him because I am not selfish and those who stand against it are selfish killers I still remember like it was yesterday I was shopping at Target in the pride section looking for a shirt for my six-year-old openly gay transgender nephew after I got off work at Starbucks where I'm a barista but at least I know that I was helping the LGBTQ community while Breonna Taylor was killed. Every night I lay on my pillow and I pray to Dr. Fauci we make vaccine for white supremacy. I hate myself! Thank you that's your time appreciate yeah could you do that over there so we can get the next person thank you okay if we could so we'll take like a five minute break and wipe all that down so it's 8.13 we'll be back at 8.20 and we'll take the second speaker thank you and and welcome back to this meeting didn't City Council's 8.25 we're back on the record and so we are ready to take our next speaker again if we could please hold ourselves together or give give me a wink if you if it's for a YouTube page I want to help you get clicks so I'll play along but whatever it takes here we go so JVT I'll take the guitar as a wink sensitive topic and a lot of people say a lot of things like what is way I can be memorable so I was like I'll just bring a guitar and wear tiger stripes so just trying to have fun because absolutely but for real like this is something I'm actually passionate about um for college athletes and I know transgender rights and women's sports are kind of a topic right now and so and let me do I got to do this I got to say my part I got to say give you an address and then you can either give it or ignore me like half the people it's up to you JVT at 3210 Fair Meadows Street and so yeah so last week Leah Thomas you know I'm sure for the new swimmer for Penn biological male but she identifies as a woman she won the and she won the NCAA championship and Emma Wyant she's a biological female she came in second and and I just wanted to talk about the broader issue about you know transgender rights and saving women's sports and I just thought it would be kind of a fun light-hearted way to do kind of a fun parody song about it about the Backstreet Boys so to the tune of I want it that way so it's I won't be silent cause Emma Wyant got robbed of first place why do girls sports go away I could not believe my eyes cause South Park is real life let the girls play why do girls sports go away Tell me why hitting Brian is a crime I assume Unless it's in the Penn girls locker room I never want to hear you say Why do girls sports go away But please just don't act surprised when girls sports are all guys that's how it stays why girls sports go away what if Shaq went to the WMEA he would score 850 points a game even Caitlyn Jenner thinks it's insane please don't let girls sports go away I know that just trying to be funny but I think we can advance transgender rights and have compassion for them but also preserve women's sports is something I'm passionate about and I think you'll remember this because you never heard a Backstreet Boys parody in a city council I don't want to go over my time but thank you very much thank you okay if we could if we could not interrupt each other that'd be great okay next next speaker is I'm gonna get it right I always mess this up Eva yes even Greco you come here and I and I want to do you and I mess it up so sorry you if you can give your name and address here four minutes at this point hey you Eva Greco 802 West Oak Street I'm gonna really age myself and I'm just gonna say one little line from an old old song long hair freaky people need not apply remember that when it was long haired people you can't get a job you were sent home from school you are ridiculed in public just a few years ago we thought that was resolved for the most part it was more recently you fast forward you have students whose hair is being cut by school personnel for whatever reason you know this is just mind-boggling mind-boggling you know we're gonna pick and choose you know what certain people like we're not gonna everybody is not gonna like everything a hundred percent of the time we just need to respect each other which I think as society as a whole we've lost a lot of respect unfortunately um I think this is a great policy I think it's a long time in coming the only I only have one little issue with it and it is the part on what is not covered and public accommodations does not apply to bona fide social fraternal educational and I'm gonna stop there so a student a transgender individual in school is still not gonna have any protection in the city of Denton and it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair to our children who are our future male female transgender gay black white whatever they are our future and we need to include this in every entity I know there are laws and regulations private clubs this and that and I get that but as far as the educational system it's a public educational system okay and as a parent and a grandmother and gay individuals in my family okay we need to we need to include educational because our children are the ones that are suffering especially the transgender children they are suffering right now and we still even when we pass this we still have nothing to protect them and whether we like it or not they are our future and we need to respect them we cannot continue to demand respect and not respect them you have to give respect to get respect thank you and that's all I have to say thank you okay Brett Davis if you can give your name and address you have four minutes hi my name is Brett Davis I live at 1014 Mack Place and I am here to speak in favor of the NDO tonight mayor Hudspeth and councilmember Davis will tout a survey with 159 respondents as their reasoning to vote against the proposed to non-discrimination ordinance frankly I don't think this survey represents the will of Denton voters whatsoever it represents a small group of hateful individuals who circulated it amongst themselves this is exactly what happened last July when City Council members received death threats and hate speech in their email inbox just for even considering not even doing it but just considering flying a pride flag above City Hall who does represent the will of the voters is the multiple City Council members up here sitting before me who ran on passing an NDO that's what an electoral mandate is mayor Hudspeth and councilmember Davis what would it take to convince you you've heard personal anecdotes and pleas from our LGBTQ+ community you've heard the pro-business arguments something I know you two are very very concerned about and you've heard that an NDO would be good for the long-term growth as it attracts more residents to Denton it makes our tax base bigger it gives y'all more money to spend and waste probably but the truth my fellow community members is that mayor Hudspeth and councilmember Davis are doing something tough they're running as conservatives in Denton and the only way that they can win is with the help of Denton's Christian right they need Jim Mann they need the New Life Church that is their base they'd rather drum up their base to win future elections instead of do what's right for all Dentonites I asked council to do the right thing and adopt an NDO because LGBTQ+ lives are not your political playground and I have a minute left so I'm gonna go off script now you know if you don't want people coming in here and making a fool of of you of this institution maybe don't try to divide us up on these issues maybe don't argue in bad faith maybe don't make a mockery of this sort of stuff maybe don't stand and pose for a photo with Pride Denton and then turn around and vote against flying a pride flag against City Hall or turn around and start lying about the NDO that's all I have to say thank you Ellen Smith you're coming down and give your name and address you have four minutes hi I'm Ellen Smith I live at 3500 North Bonnie Bray and I'm an on and on and off again resident of Denton my career takes me in and out of the state to different cities to different states but I always come back to Denton I came here for school when I was 17 years old to attend the University of North Texas I graduated this past December and still I plan on continuing to return to this community it has become my home and I'm here tonight to stand up for my home and its community members didn't is my home because it is a vibrant and diverse and joyful joyful community it does all of these things without losing its Texas flair my friend Jordan in the back is wearing cowboy boots and I'm up here talking about LGBTQ rights and that's what makes Denton Denton when I travel around the country I tell people about all of the funky things I've gotten to experience and Denton and all of the interesting people I've gotten to meet living in this town when my dad lived here in the 70s and 80s he got to do the same things and he told me about these wonderful eccentric things about Denton and that's what made me want to move here diversity is our strength it pulls people here it keeps people here it makes home here a lot of that diversity in our community comes from the spectrum of gender and sexuality identifications of the people of Denton kids from across Texas feel safe to come here all the way from El Paso or the Midlands or Odessa or Nacogdoches wherever they're from they feel safe here in Denton families whether they're queer or straight they feel safe to raise their families here and know that they will be welcomed they will be safe and they will find a community within our home I personally feel safe here as a queer woman living in Denton and calling at home my friends and I feel safe here and we should be able to continue to feel safe here and feel safer here this particular ordinance feels like a basic thing it feels like something that should have happened years ago in my head when a friend of mine told me that this was being discussed and I was like that seems like something that already exists because it should queer people are human the LGBTQ community were human were people and I think that this is very basic to recognizing that every town it it feels basic specifically here in Denton and I say that completely lovingly I love this town and all of its weird aspects with the bigger picture of state and national laws it's a scary time to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community every day on the news you hear something wild that you didn't expect to hear whether it's sitting senators discussing the overturning of marriage equality or the governor of Texas instructing child protective services to investigate families for supporting their children but here in Denton we have the opportunity to make our community members feel safe Denton can be a safe haven the way that it already has been for many for generations it can be a place where people can feel free to be themselves to dress like a kindergarten teacher at a city council meeting it can be a place where kids feel safe to come out to grow up to raise their families this safety this comfort allows us to grow it makes us stronger and it makes us Denton this is why I'm encouraging you to support this non-discrimination order ordinance tonight thank you very much thank you Jim McKinney you can give your name and address you have four minutes sure my name is Jim McKinney I live at 2019 Crestwood place here in Denton and I'm just here to briefly say that earlier speaker I go to open worship which is a LGBTQ IA plus affirming faith community that is part of the first United Methodist Church it's the one on Locust Street that looks like a giant Federal Reserve building or something like that and I'm just here to point out the earlier speaker rightly mentioned that there's a nexus between lawmakers and faith communities in terms of negative action against LGBTQ people and I'm just here to point out that there are many of us who are part of faith communities for whom it is vitally important that we protect our fellow children of God from the attacks that they are suffering currently and I'm sure always have but it's become pronounced now and there there is a connection to faith communities with that and the the faith communities like the one to which I belong don't tend to be as loud but it's it's time for us to change that and to speak up for our fellow children of God as we understand them and to protect everyone as everyone's dignity as a human being deserves to be protected and that's all I have to say thank you thank you Donnie bloom apartment Donna bloom forgot I didn't read that right hi hello my name is Donna bloom I live at 2019 Crestwood place you might recognize that address Jim McKinney is my guest friend and we share a life together here I'm here to encourage all of you to support the non-discrimination ordinance I'm an attorney practicing here in Denton County I've been here since 2007 I love this community and I love the the work of the city of Denton and the commitment that many of you've had to protecting people in my work I work with victims of violence and it's in our work it's really important to design the implementation of our work for the most marginalized if you design your services for the most marginalized then you make sure that you're encompassing everyone I'm also participating at open worship and I watched a little bit about what this in February and there were some vocal people of faith against the ordinance speaking and so I felt it was imperative that I be here to say that I am I'm a Christian and I believe in the dignity and worth of all people and I I'm not I just want to read to you what we say at open worship every week that I believe is very relevant to supporting this ordinance and I want anybody hearing me or watching this to know that there is a faith community here that's Christian that believes these things that we affirm that God is a good God who lifts the oppressed loves the vulnerable and is open to all so we choose to have open hearts open minds open arms and open doors to God into each other we believe that everyone is a child of God every age race gender identity ability and creed and all are beautifully and colorfully made and of sacred worth I am I'm very grateful that you guys are considering this I'm hopeful that this is supported and passed and believe that it is absolutely the right thing to do for the city of Denton okay James Jackson you can come down and give your name and address you have four minutes hello I'm James Jackson I live at two zero zero seven Teasley Lane and 76205 you may remember me from the last time the non-discrimination ordinance was discussed if not I was the one that openly shared the time I was discriminated against for being trans at a Planet Fitness in Denton and the one that the mayor gaslit and disrespected shortly after I spoke and which is an example of why the didn't needs a non-discrimination ordinance the mayor also said that he wanted to hear the other side of the story I'd love to hear it too it's too late for me though but if he passes non-discrimination ordinance maybe someone who will not maybe will but will experience discrimination in this town for being trans intersex non-binary or gender non-conforming maybe it won't be too late for them and they'll receive some validation and the discriminatory parties will be held accountable vote yes for a non discrimination ordinance in Denton the queer and trans community deserve this after the fierce unrelenting passionate work of the incredible activists in Denton I want to especially thank the outreach didn't steering committee members who were the activists that put a lot of time emotional labor and personal support to making sure that this happened and how like a father Kathleen Hobson and Adelaida Saucera and Elise Gomez Adrian Ortega Nina Chantana Puma Jenny Bates George Ferry and Rams are ending I'll be clearer thank you for all you did and continue to do as others have said this NDO is long overdue trans people are not debatable trans lives matter Gerard we already know your stance on protecting and respecting trans people so we already know your vote but I hope everyone else on City Council will vote in favor thank you Jordan Villarreal you can come down and give your name and address you have four minutes howdy my name is Jordan Villarreal I live at 5500 Delray Drive Denton 76208 precinct 4163 I want to thank the City Council for considering the adoption of this non-discrimination ordinance folks fall in love with Denton because of how welcoming inclusive and vibrant our community is and our law should reflect this fact we need to have a comprehensive ordinance that protects every marginalized community in Denton and this proposed change accomplishes this that I urge council to vote in support of this item and I thank you for allowing me at a time to speak I'm a seven-generation Texan a Christian and I support this ordinance Adrian Ortega good evening everyone my name is Adrian Ortega I live in district 5 76205 in Denton and I'm here to speak in support of the ordinance as I mentioned during the meeting in February this ordinance affects all individuals across all communities that make up Denton across race ethnicity age economic status ability religion this ordinance provides protection for people regardless of gender identity this City Council heard from people last month and some tonight who shared hateful views and are exactly why we need a ordinance like this in place so that individuals cannot blatantly discriminate against people from the LGBTQ+ community and I ask that you all vote in support of this ordinance thank you George Ferry if you can come down to give your name and address you have four minutes good evening my name is George Ferry I live at four seven zero eight Conley Lane in district two and I didn't prepare anything per usual everyone on council who is elected knows me personally every single one of you I've run for council twice my biggest platform issue is what is being discussed right now as a queer person myself I want to quickly point out for folks behind me and community listening that like today is a good moment and that I don't want to let the first two speakers take that away from me and I'm not gonna let that happen and I hope you guys don't let that happen either because it sucks it sucks to work so hard constantly and fight in grassroots organizations like Pride Denton and outreach Denton and put your whole heart and your life on the line constantly to better the world you live in in your own community and to find so much hate even in celebratory moments it's just really hard just keep that in mind every time you want to celebrate it's at a cost right it's your own mental health I don't come to these anymore because they're so freaking hurtful and they're so harmful and destructive and as a masters in social work student I know that I got to set boundaries and they're about me right I'm no longer going to accept things on impactful in a positive way so I'm here today because this is great period point-blank we've been fighting for it for years for years and years and years some of us longer than others some of us renewed and revitalized by the energy of young folk in the room I think it's important it's important work we will continue to do it I'm thankful to be here I am thankful to get to speak today I hope you realize and others in the community from folks that work for the city and do diligent research about the benefits of having an NDO and how it is in fact the bare minimum someone can give a community of people who are constantly marginalized and if you needed an example I'm gonna refer to those first two speakers you even joked about them having their own YouTube page you recognize that this is not right you see it's not right so it's important to then act upon it because you're in the position of power you have this leverage you see it's wrong you must act because if you don't you are complicit in the non-act right you are doing further harm when you know this isn't right this isn't how I was raised this is what I not I know not to be okay it it's so frustrating when you run for city council and you do your homework and you come prepared with answers and you sit and you listen to folks running against you or who currently sit not have answers say nothing feel no way about any of it it's like it's like it's just shouting into the wind sometimes it feels and then you have passionate people discuss very personal private moments of harm that's been done to them and they showcase their trauma and put it on a stage for you and they're still mad with gaslighting behavior with pure just ignoring writing it off right this is just a really passionate person I have ten seconds and what I'll say is I have been in front of you all so many times I've run against some of you several times and I hope that you understand we're not going away and we'll keep being here so thank you Kathleen Hobson Kathleen Hobson you can give your name and address chef for me good evening my name is Kathleen Hobson I live at 903 crews here in Denton I use they/them pronouns I'm here tonight to speak in favor of the NDO I serve as the director of the Pride Alliance at UNT which is the gender and sexuality resource office on campus I am also a former member of the steering committee of outreach Denton and a founding and executive board member of Pride Denton I have lived in Denton and worked in these various roles for eight years all of which serve and support queer and trans communities in addition to training programs and events that center gender and sexuality my work on UNT's campus specifically is supporting students faculty staff and alumni who are members of queer and trans communities I've personally worked to support current students and alumni who have experienced discrimination on the basis of their gender and or sexuality in the city of Denton with regards to housing and employment they have been fired from their jobs they have received inequitable pay they have had pay withheld and have been denied housing as a result of discrimination queer and trans students preparing for jobs and are afraid to work in the city of Denton these concerns are in addition to the valid fears and the valid fears that they have of violence that they face daily for over eight years UNT has implemented a non-discrimination policy that includes protections on the basis of gender identity and sexuality UNT is a major employer and source of revenue for the city of Denton and while students faculty and staff are protected on campus they do not enjoy the same protections in the city in which they live and work I strongly urge you to consider voting to support the implementation of the non-discrimination ordinance to protect the residents of the city of Denton on the basis of the outlined identities which specifically include gender identity and sexuality thank you Nicholas Stevens so I speak and then we'll take a break and try to get the folks on the call and give your name and address you have four minutes please thank you yeah my name is Nick Stevens and I'm at 417 Amarillo Street Denton Texas I'll make it very brief I'm talking to you as someone that's lived here 20 years I voted in I think every municipal election I have a small business here we bring in three million dollars worth of revenue to the city every single year and so I have a lot at stake in this city ordinances like this are good for business ordinances like this are good for our residents and I was listening back to the last time of all the reasons this was good and then something I I guess thought about was that what I love about government is that ordinances and budgets are moral documents that you create and it's it's a demonstration of what you feel about your citizens and so even when I was watching all of you today and the work session and here I thought about we have and I'm not sucking up though I could like we actually have an incredibly diverse wonderful council and even just today so much has happened I think Councilmember McGuire you're the one that put forward parental leave and we're about to have that for city staff that's incredible and now we get to go further today and codify an NDO for our queer and trans community and so when I think back to even this last time I was just really bothered because we had people that chose to just punch down instead of care for community members that are asking for equal treatment under the law I mean it's not complicated and I hate proselytizing but as an ordained minister as someone with two seminary degrees from evangelical seminaries and want to point out that there's this verse that if you're practicing or not there's this Jesus and Nazareth guy who talks often in the New Testament the Christian scriptures and he says something that Paul you brought up excuse me Councilmember Meltzer you brought up on the Golden Rule he says I was hungry and you fed me I was tired you gave me a place to stay and his disciples are looking at him like man we never did anything like that he's like no but you did because what you did to the marginalized among us you did that for me and he's talking about the natural divinity in every single human being and so I get really bothered when I think about people who constantly punch down I get bothered when when things like that happen because what would be a win tonight and it's like the elephant in the room it's gonna pass but what would be an even greater win if it was a win by 7-0 where we did not use like partisan politics or and so I guess there's just a few things I would ask please don't use my faith as an excuse to vote against this don't do that and and it mind you even those far-right WASP churches that want their rights you actually cover them in this ordinance and so they're fine so please don't just please don't do that and I guess I'll just end by saying this I'm really appreciative that this is finally coming up of all of the councils I've ever seen legislate from this dais I'm so proud of all of you and the first female city manager and so it's just an incredible time to be here I love this city I love I love I love this city and I love what you all do here and so I'm looking forward to passing it thank you so we will take a short break it is 859 and as soon as they can get the call phones back up and running we'll be back so I don't want to set a time I just as soon as they can we need to get back to it thank you welcome back to this meeting of the Denton City Council it is now 904 we are back on the record back at item C we have two callers to take on and then excuse me excuse me we're gonna get I need to I need to be able to hear these callers if you'd be so kind if you can yeah okay if staff if you can bring up the callers thank you mayor I will patch them through right now thanks Monica the phone is muted please unmute the phone hi there good evening everyone hello if you can give your name and address you'll have four minutes to speak okay thank you good evening my name is Megan Bradshaw I live at 1212 Rio Grande here in Denton I am really happy to have met most of the council members and Sarah but for those who have not met yet my husband Michael and I are proud Denton residents he attended UNT and we raise our children here we own a business here we fully support the non-discrimination ordinance to better represent not only our clients but dear friends and our family over the last decade in real estate we've had the privilege of representing a really wonderfully diverse group of people we serve those who live in Denton or hope to make this their home the lack of federal protections for LGBTQ a plus community members is absolutely unexcusable we work harder than should be necessary to shield them from discrimination because existing laws do not and so we need them to find a home a safe place for themselves for their family and it's heartbreaking I call Denton my bubble and it should and could be safer for everyone else I'm thrilled to have heard so many people speak in support of the ordinance several cities have already adopted this or additional discrimination ordinances and I know Denton will be better to serve the citizens by doing the same this ordinance is the absolute very least that we can do and it not only provides accountability it shows that Denton believes all of our residents are valued they deserve regard and equal opportunity in our town so thank you so much for your time and thank you for your hard work to better all of our community thank you and staff whenever the next call is ready thank you mayor it'll be just a second while I choose them up , thank you. [Music] Are you there? Yes I'm here. Okay if you give your name and address please you have four minutes to speak. Sure my name is Brittany Cole 2200 Kingston Trace Denton District 2 long-time listener first on caller I'm calling to voice my support for the non-discrimination ordinance I have lived in Denton for 15 years and I have heard many folks oppose this NDO for a myriad of reasons and I would like to address some of them first that there are laws already in place that deal with this true we do have title seven of the 1964 Civil Rights Act which allows certain provisions however in our neck of the woods states rights are often used as a rebuttal and currently there are absolutely no statewide laws that offer protections to the LGBTQIA+ community from discrimination in the areas of employment housing and public accommodations sadly Texas has more than 1200 incorporated cities and only four of those cities have adopted an NDO let us be number five investors are also snapping up available homes in real estate in Denton County at a rapid pace and not passing this NDO would mean that there would be folks who cannot love who they love present how they present and be able to live here unfortunately coming out can also mean homelessness as data collected by the Generation Study conducted by the Williams Institute at the UC at UCLA sites that sexual minorities are 17% more likely to have experienced lifetime homelessness which is more than twice of that found in their general population study money is next as the chief of staff presented last year the city could pay an outside firm to investigate any potential breaches breaches on a case-by-case basis for approximately 30 to 50k a year I have seen the council attempt to give away hundreds of thousands more dollars than this to sweeten the pot by offering tax incentives to multi-million dollar global businesses that want to come to Denton and also that we shouldn't make laws for students who are only here part of the year and lives here some live the rest of the year somewhere else passing this ordinance would show dent nice that they are seen respected and that the city cares about equity and inclusion on a level beyond lip service I would like to think that the city of Denton could be a rock for its citizens in the rising floodwaters of hate discrimination in a rager there have been several instances of hate speech graffiti and threats against folks in this town in the last few years a place where folks who come here to live when they cannot live anywhere else this Indio is state afloat for several years thanks to the grassroots support of folks who live work and love here I would like to think that I'm sorry currently our state and federal government engages in LGBTQIA erasure books are being taken out of classrooms rights and regulations are being rolled back I asked the council to vote yes failure to pass this ordinance could result in economic losses from students tourists potential employees and families who take their human and financial capital elsewhere a council position is one of leaving a legacy vote yes if not for yourself but for the law of averages that says that someday someone you love will be affected I yield back the rest of my time okay thank you like I think we have one more caller yes mayor I'll patch them right through thanks hello if you can give your name and address you can begin to speak you have four minutes yes all right hello my name is Jenny Bates and I live in the 2400 block of Southerner State 35 East I am in the keepers district I am actually calling you from Waco because I am at a conference but I know that didn't need the non-discrimination ordinance our LGBTQ community needs protection and housing employment and public accommodations the fact that I have to call while I'm on vacation and we go at a conference to help defend my community members is honestly kind of annoying but I am extremely grateful for the city to take their time both city staff to write this out and for city councils to discuss this for as long as we have been we've been doing this since at least 2018 and we have seen a slowing growth of care and wanting this to happen in our city I'm a person of faith at the end of the day the reason why I think this matter is because queer people are beloved by God trans people are created in the image of God and we should reflect that and how we talked about and how we consider the needs of the people in our community I just want to thank the council again for their time and I hope everyone takes into consideration that this is what's best for Denton for both our queer and trans people and our cisgender and heterosexual people this makes our city safer in a multitude of ways and I know there are some concerns about how does this can impact other marginalized people in our city this is not the end of a conversation this is the beginning of what it looks like to fight discrimination in our city and if we take this first step together we can continue to fight together to make our city safe for everyone so thank you and that's the end of my comment thank you okay that concludes the comments concludes the presentation council armature for a motion yes I move approval of this ordinance as written mayor pro tem I second got a motion a second discussion Councilor Goer I will obviously be voting yes to this this is something that I campaigned on this was one of the very first things that I brought forward after I was elected this is incredibly important to me personally I have a large number of queer folks who are very close to me and close to my heart and I've witnessed firsthand the the discrimination that they have faced for everyone that came here tonight first of all thank you for coming thank you for speaking thank you for for sharing your stories I know that it's not always easy and it's it's deeply appreciated and I want everyone listening here and listening at home to recognize that the passage of this non-discrimination ordinance means that your City Council believes that you deserve to be safe no matter who you are that you deserve dignity and you deserve protection from discrimination you don't deserve to be discriminated based on your race your color your national origin your age your religion disability sex sexual orientation or gender identity you are valued and you are an important member of our community and I hope that our vote tonight will demonstrate that Councilor Davis thank you mayor I want to be crystal clear where I am on this issue because I know many of you in the room personally some of you I don't know some of you I know only this way that I've spoken with you across this this bench or over over zoom or heard from you over the phone in 2019 I'm not a queer person I haven't lived that experience so I asked the question I don't know come and tell me what is happening in Denton because I heard for the first time on the campaign trail about this idea of non-discrimination ordinances and the MEI and all those kind of things and and the things that I heard shocked me they shocked me about some of my my neighbors about people that I knew that the way that they felt and the things that they would say in private that they would never never say or at least hopefully would never say in public and at that time I brought this forward issue this issue forward there was a Supreme Court opinion that bared on that bore on the issue so we set it aside and I have during the whole time that staff has presented it this time around I have been working my way trying to find a way to vote in the affirmative for this ordinance the very first ordinance that staff presented and Brett I have to apologize I have no idea what survey you're talking about and if you if you think that I I only take votes that respond to a certain base we ought to ask what some of those folks think about some of the votes I've taken up here the very first ordinance that staff presented is something I would have voted for immediately that day since then the ordinance has changed and I know that when we say NDO we hear the headline we hear the sound by non-discrimination ordinance this ordinance is not like plaintiffs this is not like Dallas's this is not like Austin this is different from all of them it has little flavors and little little nuances that are different from every other ordinance in the state because that's the process we went through was to craft our own ordinance and in the process three things happened to the ordinance that moved me further and further away from the thing I wanted to vote for and was excited to vote for it was glad that I brought up in 2019 the first thing was we made it a criminal offense I'm in the courtroom almost every day of the week proving things beyond a reasonable doubt that's the criminal standard is exceptionally difficult to prove intent or what's going on inside of somebody's mind I prosecuted hate crimes it's very difficult to prove criminal intent for a hate crime for a discriminatory intent very difficult we will see fewer prosecutions because this is a criminal offense not more look around the state and see how many criminal prosecutions have come forward in those cities that have made it a criminal offense because the burden is so high I can't vote for an ordinance that makes it a criminal offense secondly and that's you know call it what you want to but I'm a lawyer that's how my mind works the second thing is that when I hear people talking about their their personal faith that's not something you hear me talk about a lot up here I try to put some healthy separation between myself the councilman and myself the person of faith but I agree with everything Nick said everything that Donna said everything that last caller said there's nothing in my personal faith that finds any any conflict whatsoever with that however Texas law already on the books contains a religious exemption for sincerely held religious beliefs and this council has amended this ordinance from the original that I wanted to vote for and has refused to acknowledge that that Texas law exists is called the Texas restoration of religious religious freedom act look it up we've talked about it up here it ought to be in the ordinance because it's already a defense under the law that's my second problem my third problem is this I believe that there are perfectly legitimate non bigoted non amoral reasons to exempt bathrooms locker rooms and dressing rooms from an ordinance like this there are plenty of folks who disagree and that's just fine I'm asking you for some human grace here just like you've asked the council for to understand that this is a policy disagreement that this is not a moral disagreement that you and I have that this is not a lesser than or different than this is when you go out and you talk to folks in this community and there are many many more folks in this community than the ones we've heard from already are the folks who are in this room there are legitimate policy reasons to exempt bathrooms so at this time mayor I propose the following amendment I move the following amendment dad the following is section 14 2034 c two it shall not be a violation of this ordinance to deny the opposite sex access to facilities inside of public accommodation segregated on the basis of sex for privacy such as restrooms shower facilities locker rooms dressing rooms or any similar facility you'll recognize that language because it was in the original original ordinance that I was chopping at the bit to vote for and I have the text of that if you need it okay there's a motion so do you want to reload the board okay and and councilmember Davis if you could read it one more time to see if there's a but and then I'll ask if there's a second sure would you like me to read in the entirety or or just this notes just the in summary the language that sure he language what I moved was to amend the ordinance to add the following a section 14 - 0 2 3 - 4 c 2 and the text I have in my hand is what I read it's the original language proposed by staff after the work sessions well and better said so can you help me can you put it on the Billy can you give me the the document camera please and then zoom in a little for people like me I cover my right eye back so I can pick out a letter or two I think we forgot how to work that camera yeah it's been a bit Billy can you blow that up a little bit do you want me to read it no I was I was just hoping surely he can zoom in no no okay very good there we go it's been a while okay yeah never mind okay anyway that that's the language and he summarized it is there is there a second bear with me okay the the motion fails for for want of a second take us back to the I think I forget who made the original motion there we go okay thank you counselor bird I know I'm gonna be voting for this and this is why because it is imperative that we allow God's work if we want to talk about God to be what it is and it's perfection that's what I think I think whatever is brought into our lives is supposed to be there sometimes we're gonna be in the way of negative things anything that's terrible that's ever happening right for me or on me I was in the way so I want you all to know that God is love it's kind patient thoughtful mindful peaceful and there's got to be a significant amount of appreciation for our responsibility for the greater good we're supposed to take care of one another not hurt one another and above all we need to mind our own business that's what we need to so I just want to let you all know that I'm a very I'm in support of what you all need as long as I'm on this day I will listen to you I will hear you thank you counselor armature okay I'm trying to not cry this is a really big moment for Denton obviously I am up here as a member of council and I started out as an activist and I'm still an activist and very soon I'm gonna go back to being an activist who is not on council and my first involvement in Denton on and trying to get City Council to pass an NDO was getting together with a few other activists at least one of whom wasn't living in Denton anymore and we figured that we had a really good strategy which was to use the human rights campaigns municipal equality index which was which assigns points for many many different LGBTQ plus inclusive things that cities can do from everything from having an ordinance against bullying to banning conversion therapy which I really hope you do this someday in Denton and you know lots of other needed things and actually this in the same staff member who presented today Sarah Keekler did a wonderful job back the back then actually I'm skipping a number of years because I ended up not get not getting that to council but then I was on council when I was on council was able to at least get a work session on that the municipal quality index and so an NDO what we're voting on today was just a part a small part of this big point system but it had a lot of points to it because it is arguably the most important part and I figured it would be kind of a Trojan horse you know we would that we could bring an NDO and with all this other good stuff and I thought you know Denton what likes to be competitive and have lots of points and more points than other cities so I thought that the love of kind of competing with other cities and gaining points would cause us to pass everything causes council to pass everything and that HRC municipal equality index menu of items that didn't happen then when I got on council got to have a work session on it presented by Sarah Keekler who did an outstanding job and it was really you know as a queer woman who was not out as a you know politically you know in my role on council seeing just a little piece and we died as we went around the work session table and just just seeing you know me coming in just wanting the whole thing I want all of it all of its necessary and then seeing you know people pick and choose little well just listen little these little bits of it that were wanted and so an NDO didn't even make the cut the only thing that that whole council agreed on that was a different council than the council you see here before you was to have a non bullying and an ordinance against bullying and nobody in explaining why people were against a bullying sorry we're for an anti-bullying policy nobody but me and I remember that very well you know talked about queer identity it was just well bullying is bad for everybody well of course I think blings bad for everybody but it just felt it was a real downer and you know staff had done a lot of work preparing all the different items so my there went my Trojan horse strategy that was a bad strategy but you know so then actually as I was thinking about how to bring an NDO before us and listening to activists and and the activists keeping up the the pressure and that pressure continuing and again I'm not trying to pretend that I was somehow any more instrumental than any other activist because I certainly wasn't I was just one of the many who just happened to be up here it was actually councilmember Davis who proposed like he said proposed an NDO and that was really exciting to me until I saw the exclusion until I saw that what council was that what a majority on council seemed to be rallying around was something that excluded bathrooms and changing rooms and there was no way I could vote yes to that that excludes all gender non-conforming people that excludes trans people that is that is no kind of NDO that I want to be a part of it's true that that's what Plano has Plano has a bad NDO we're about to have a much much better one and one with teeth also so anyway I've already talked too much but I really feel like after tonight after this vote tonight I can step down and just be proud I'm really ready to step down now and if I wasn't up here with the council that that I could tell based on past work sessions was gonna vote yes to this I would stay up here until it did until it did but now to go back to what George Ferry was saying about you know your personal boundaries now I'm ready you know step step down anyway but I'll be there with y'all this is you know yes this is the work of council and yes it's the work of staff and staff has just been so amazing on this but in really most of all it's the work of activists that queer activists in the community who just without Denton it went without y'all I just didn't it's not a place where I would want to live and it would be feel a really empty place for everybody so anyway love you all I'm really happy to have lived to see this day and I can die happy now thank you everybody Councilman bet thank you mr. mayor I think the thing you're seeing all of us is we all our neighbors for the most part we believe in being inclusive and showing respect and dignity for all people that's why we love Denton there's so many of us are here saying we moved here we stayed here we grew up here we're not leaving we're raising families you know forming communities because of that and and the thing that we run into is unfortunately it's not everyone and and there's there are people that's that that aren't going to be part of that inclusivity that aren't aren't going to treat their neighbors with respect and dignity and I think that's what we're doing here with this NDO is just we're putting on the necessary bumper rails that say no we're we're gonna treat each other with respect and dignity and and we're gonna treat each other and we're gonna ensure that this is what happens and and you know if it takes the specter of going through the bureaucratic process and maybe maybe being reminded that you need to be a good neighbor and maybe that's all that you need you know we have we can cure it that way but if we need to we need to remind each other that that that that respect and dignity is due to everyone and and I think it's just really important that we establish those those sort of boundaries and and so I'm real proud of what I hope is about to happen okay any other comments see none let's vote on the screen and that passes five to takes us to item D which is which is ID 2251 to consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton amending the fiscal year 2021 2022 annual internal audit plan and providing an effective date this will be so fun everyone no anyway I'm Madison Roche I'm done city auditor I have a very brief presentation to talk about a proposed amendment to the fiscal year 2021 22 annual internal audit plan so this proposal is intended to essentially delay the first annual police property room inventory to the next fiscal year and replace it with a separate project on the audit plan so this is a brief history the police department requested that internal audit perform what essentially would be a partial inventory of the property room to help them comply with their accreditation standards last year sometime so that project was then approved as part of the current annual audit plan as a routine project and so what a routine project is is it's more limited in scope than our regular projects and we wouldn't we basically perform certain agreed upon procedures and report the results without issuing any recommendations or opinions on those results and then we would do that on a on a regular basis so as we were conducting the recent follow-up of the police property room which we presented to y'all I think last year we learned that the police department was planning to conduct a full inventory on its own due to the current remodel and so that would satisfy their accreditation standards and so we were like well we don't want to do double work when it's not necessary so I discussed that with the new internal audit advisory committee who agreed with the staff recommendation to delay the project sorry the first inventory of the police property room to the next fiscal year so then based on that recommendation we presented the list on the screen to the internal audit advisory committee as potential replacements to that for that inventory project and after some discussion they recommended that the health insurance operations follow-up replace the project on the current audit plan so the basically three options are approved the ordinance with the internal audit advisory committee to amend the audit plan you could then give direction you could give secondly you could give direction to delay the property room inventory and replace it with a different project and we would bring forward another ordinance on the consent agenda next next meeting or you could give a direction not to amend the audit plan and we would just conduct the inventory later this fiscal year there we go thank you questions for staff comes from back from the language it sounds like that the the police department would be significantly more thorough than what you were planning to do so you know it feels like we would be getting a more intense audit as it were if they do it rather than if your office does that's correct so basically they're just going to they're going to inventory every single item within the property room to see make sure that what's in there is correct in their system what we would do is take a sample of what's in their system and make sure that it's in the property room and only do a partial like a you know statistical sample basically to comply with what's in their accreditation standards okay any other questions for staff seeing none I move approval mayor pro tem I second and I'm glad to see that the internal audit advisory committee is proven to be helpful to you yes okay let's vote on the screen passes seven zero takes us to item E thank you ID two two five one six consider adoption of ordinance of the City of Denton Texas amending the fiscal year twenty twenty one twenty twenty two budget and annual program of services of the City of Denton to allow for adjustments to the recreation fund of four hundred thousand four hundred seventeen thousand six hundred forty five dollars mayor I have one presentation for item E and F okay let me call that so it's ID 2 2 5 1 7 consider adoption of ordinance of the City of Denton Texas amending the fiscal year 20 21 2022 budget and amendment program services of the City of Denton to allow for adjustment to the general fund of three hundred fifty eight thousand twenty dollars good evening mayor council Cassie Ogden chief financial officer here to present a budget amendment for both the rec fund and the general fund for parks so just brief presentation parks and rec operate out of two different funds that's why I'm bringing you two different amendments so the one for rec fund is four hundred seventeen thousand six hundred forty five thousand dollars the proposed budget amendment for the general fund is three hundred fifty eight thousand and twenty dollars so the purpose of this budget amendment is really an wage increase for seasonal staff as you may know we've had some issues filling some of those temp seasonal positions at the water park as well as the rec centers and this is really meant to incentivize applications and get those positions filled as well as retain those staff from season to season and so along with the wage increase its incentives for seasonal staff some position reclassifications in the department as well as some equity adjustments that are happening between seasonal and the high turnover positions and Gary packing is here if you have any operational questions okay thank you questions for staff seeing none we'll take them one at a time so this is item e councilmember Davis I move approval and want to say I'm really pleased to see those things that not only is the workforce demanding in today's world for season employees but they're rightfully demanding and we've got a we've got to adjust with the times councilmember Beck yeah I concur I'd like to second this motion discussion councilmember Guara yeah I'm really glad to see as with a lot of things parks and rec is kind of on the on the front edge of a push to increase wages as a way of addressing our staffing issues and and I hope that other departments take note and and and feel free to come and ask us for more money so that you can pay people to work for us okay any other discussion to vote for item E on the on the screen passes 7-0 takes us to item F I'll take a motion counselor back I move approval is there a second councilmember Guara a second so motion by councilman back second by councilman McGuire let them get that set up and then we'll vote on the screen thank you passes 7-0 takes us to our last item item G thank you it's ID 22520 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton Texas a homeroom municipal corporation authorizing a city manager to ask you to contract with Archer Western Construction LLC good evening mayor council my name is David Brown I'm a construction manager for city didn't water utilities and I'm gonna bring you a project it's listed as effluent filters aeration diffusers and digester project but it's a part of a solids handling project and this is phase 1a of it this will be at the pecan Creek water reclamation plant and like I said this is phase one of a three-phase approach to do some capacity upgrades over at the plant so let's look at an outline here what we talked about basically we'll talk about what's going on at the plant now what TCEQ recommends and the requirements as far as flows at the plant and then the individual components that will be replaced and rehab on this phase so over at the plant which is over at Mayhill it's 60 years old and a lot of the key components have you know if they've reached the end of their useful life they're inefficient and also they're becoming very problematic oh excuse me I went back let's see so over at the flows so we're permitted for 21 MGD average average daily flows with a peak of 46 MGD so right now we are at 71 percent of the permitted average daily flows over at the concrete coming in on the influence side TCEQ has what we call is a 75 percent 90 75 90 rule so what that means is when we reach 75 percent of the average permitted daily flows coming in then we need to start a design process to do some capacity upgrades when we reach 90 percent we are to be in construction for those upgrades or a plan expansion one of the first things we identified was effluent rehabilitation right now they use sand and it's sand media filters which is outdated and and past technology we're going to replace it with a cloth filter system lower on maintenance easier on maintenance costs operation costs it's automatic and with this also there are four basins three of these will be rehabbed each basin when installed with cloth filters will be able to average 23 MGD capacity so with one filter out for redundancy with two filters running we'll be able to meet that max peak flow of 46 MGDs also we have aeration diffusers aeration diffusers will be added or rehabbed in each of the aeration diffuser diff aeration bases excuse me so what that means four of them there's eight four of them will be fine bubble ariations another four be coarse bubble aeration so we'll be using membrane diffusers which are easier on maintenance lower on operation and have a longer operational life and on the last part we'll be doing some anaerobic digester improvements one of the main things is we'll be cleaning both of those we'll be adding a gas holding lid to the primary anaerobic digester so what that means is we're going to capture the methane gas that right now is just flared off and that's about a hundred million cubic feet per day so with that we catch that excess methane gas we'll use it to warm the digester during the wintertime and also we're going to tie into a landfill project to capture that gas and have some revenue off that excess gas so we went to a competitive seal proposal and we went through selection process and we selected archer western construction for a little over thirteen point five million dollars 395 days for construction with that the staff recommends that we award this effluent filter aeration diffuser and digester improvements which is part of solids handling to archer western construction so if you have any questions we glad to answer okay thank you questions for staff councilmember McGuire thank you yeah I'm thrilled to hear about the proposed improvements the efficiency the improved sustainability that's all really wonderful my only question is so when we talk about you know increased filtration capacity of 46 million gallons per day with one filter out of service or I'm assuming but I would like to clarify that that is taking into account increases in in capacity needs that will be needed in the future as more development happens this is this is the first phase and what it does it's a building block with newer technology coming in so we can build upon it and we'll be bringing some more projects to increase that capacity and we also have a master plan that's in the works right now that's in conjunction with the comprehensive land plan in order to show us a vision of where we need to do these but the main thing is that this plan it's the only plant we have now and that we need to start some capacity upgrades the solids handling project as a whole three phases will add 5MGD so we're moving that band remove that band for that TCEQ requirements okay great thank you so much yes any other questions for staff seeing none councilmember Davis I'm so sorry we saved you for last because unironically I mean this seriously you made a sewage plant sound exciting this is this is something that people don't know we've been working hard the water plant the sewer plant electrical capacity they don't know everything that goes into ramping up that capacity is a multi-year decades long process I appreciate so much that you brought this kind of funny that we saved the 13 million dollar price for last but I'm gonna move approval thank you thank you okay and I second any other discussion this vote on the screen great that passes 7-0 thank you takes us to concluding items I'll turn it over to the city attorney thank you mayor you need to go back and correct the record on one of the votes that was taken earlier it was related to ID number 21 1608 which is the amendment to the code to allow for the operation of off-street I'm sorry off highway vehicles on certain city streets it received a vote of three in favor two opposed and two abstentions our rule of procedure says 229 g5 says the council rules of procedure says that affirmative vote of four members of council is necessary to take an official action of the city so based on this rule the motion to approve failed because it did not receive the four votes so there is an option still available if you were one of the two that voted against it you do have the ability to make a motion for reconsideration you could do that today or after the meeting but just has to be done before the next succeeding meeting of the council if you wanted to take that otherwise that item will fail for lack of receiving four votes okay so and then they would just have to be on the next it would if there was a motion to reconsider submitted to the city secretary or even at this point in the meeting that would be on the next agenda meeting okay all right so thank you for that update thank you for looking into that and any other concluding items Councilman McGuire yes thank you I just want to extend my condolences and and note the passing of of John Murphy John was the chair of the division of jazz studies at UNT for several years he was a brilliant musician a kind man deeply engaged in the musical culture of our city and and just contributed so so so much to the jazz studies to the College of Music to the university and to our community and he will be deeply missed okay anyone else may pretend yeah if anyone's still listening I'll just call your attention the fact that thin line festival is this weekend it's a free festival and kind of a unique Denton homegrown deal with music international documentary films and it's quite cool and everything is free and also Saturday morning shout out to those who are gonna show up at 10 in the morning to participate in the great American cleanup okay anyone else seeing none I have a couple things so first I want to offer my condolences to Deputy Curtis Stevens so he's with the Denton County Sheriff's Office and his son lost his life there recently we read the news there near Farah Street so that's tragic and I've reached out to him and his family then want to then say pivot to the folks that I met in DC during the conference it was there's a couple of young guys from this area that talked to me there's another person where I had a UNT shirt on and he was asking about the basketball tournament etc so our little town is really getting a lot of exposure really doing great things congratulate the Mean Green on a great season both men's and women's and and so really excited about the future for them and we'll get ready for football season when that rolls around and in support of in the other other sports and TWU is doing great things as well so really fortunate that way and then Ryan I'll email you but wanna or and also the city manager I'll email you but I mean pardon me city attorney I'll email you both I think I'm getting questions about the one status of lawsuits with the state and then to cost and so I need to get that on to public side of the ledger so that I can answer those questions so I'll email you both and for Ryan your part of that is I want to understand if you've if we've received payments so we'll take that up and I'll get it to you separately then the last thing city manager the action item I need to put it was brought to my attention tension from a constituent on an issue where we need I want to put on an agenda for our next meeting whatever that is to have a work session discussion on ethics and it's around council and in how we engage with our boards commissions there's a payment question that I can't answer so we need to have a direction going forward so that we can address that policy discussion so if you could put that on the next work session to give staff direction on how we want to proceed with that nothing for staff to do just a it's a policy discussion we need to have so and I'll say this because the if we just have to complete the ethics training and it touches on not only conflicts but the avoidance of appearance of of conflict so it falls under that category or that's the heading that we'll need to discuss so with that it's concluding items go counseling back I can put stuff on the agenda as the mayor so I was just telling the city manager I'm putting it on the next agenda meeting yes I don't have to you want the city attorney to tell you yeah mr. city attorney can you confirm that sure yeah I guess as far as the point of order yes it's what rule is being violated right now and I guess you're asking whether the mayor something on the work session and that's he can under the rules of procedure the mayor and city manager can both place an item on them on the agenda all right thank you yep all right 957 that'll conclude today's meeting