May 03, 2022 City Council on 2022-05-03 4:00 PM

Good afternoon and welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council. It is Tuesday, May the 3rd, 2022, it is 401 and we do have a quorum so I'll call the meeting to order. The first portion is the work session and we do not have any questions from the public or citizen comments on the consent agenda. That takes us to the next section which is requests for clarification on the items in the agenda from Council. Any questions for staff? Councilmember Davis. Thank you, Mayor. I just need to pull W, X and Y for recusal, please. Okay. W, X and Y. Got it. Thank you. Any other questions? Councilmember Byrd? I wanted to pull C, ID 2279 to clarification. I'm sorry, you need to... Pull C? Okay. Did you want to... I just had some questions. Right. Did you want to give staff an indication so that they can prepare to speak to those? I was just wanting to know a little bit more about this, the obligations of the city. You know what that means to us in terms of any funding or providing space in city spaces, you know, the cost on that, how is all of that going to work? We have Gary Packing come answer that, or someone from Parks. So it's not to pull it, you just want to quit? Well, I just wanted to clarify a couple of things that all the city needs to know. Okay. Got it. Pull it, clarify. Mayor, I'm also going to be recusing from W, X and Y. Okay. Afternoon, Jason Barrow, Athletics Manager for Parks and Recreation. I'm sorry, volume wasn't on and I didn't hear your question. Oh, okay. Well, the question was, it says that there's going to be a partnership between the Parks and Rec and Denton County Brewing Company to offer recreated, operated adult cornhole league at space provided. Okay. Yes, ma'am. So is that, are we anticipating, it's provided by the Denton County Company. Are we bringing, are we, are the clients going to go to the Denton County Brewery to do all of their cornhole, what is that called, cornhole? Correct. So they're going to be going there to do that? They'll be going there at their site. Okay. So what does that have to do with the Denton Parks and Rec? It's our league, so the people that are registered for the league will register through us. They're just going to be the host for it because we don't, cornhole doesn't have like an athletic field per se. Okay. It can be, we typically play it over here at the Civic Center, we're trying to find a way to be more community engaged and they, we had reached out to them or they reached out to us about some type of partnerships and we had this idea. So is there going to be any kind of funding or anything exchanged here or it's just whoever signs up for it, that's where they're going to go and play? The people that registered through us, they pay the city, but there's no money exchange between Denton County Brewery and the city. Okay. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Any other questions for staff? Council Member Armitage. Not a question. Just, I will be recusing for items W, X and Y as well. All right. Any questions for staff? Mayor Pro Tem. I'd like to pull R for a brief presentation. I just think the public will be interested. Do you have anything in specific? No, the presentation provided is perfectly adequate. Okay. Any other questions? No. Seeing none. Okay. So for staff, W, X, Y, no presentation. Those we've pulled are a presentation of some sort. Okay. Great. Thank you. Takes us to our first work session, which is item A, which is ID 22386, Receive Report, Hold Discussion, Give Staff Direction on an Automated Notification Dashboard for Development Projects. Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. My name is Charlie Rosendahl with the Development Services Department. Happy to be here today to discuss an item that came before City Council as a two-minute pitch to have an automated dashboard to notice people of development projects. Some background. This started as an item that was on P&Z, and then you guys discussed it as a two-minute pitch in January, and then P&Z discussed this last week, and some of their feedback is included in the presentation. So just a brief history on how we currently notice development projects. We have a legal requirement to send letters to owners within 200 feet of a project and then post a notice in the local paper. In addition to this, the City of Denton sends postcards to residents within 500 feet. We also post signs on the property, and we post the public hearing information on the city's website. Some additional pages on the website or maps that we have for people to become informed about development projects is the active projects map, which discusses all projects that are currently active in the city, and then the weekly projects map that shows projects from the last week's submissions. In addition to this, we added a walk-through site in the last year that shows somebody how they could get on our website, look at a project, go to the public meetings page for background on that project, and then also search that project on DCAD. So what we're proposing as a solution is we would use that active projects map as our base since we map all projects in that solution, and then we would have a sign-up form for individuals to opt into this. We would create a map layer and create a buffer based on what they select down on their distance and how far they want to be noticed, and then we would send out an email notification to them based on that information. That email would include things like project name, location, and then links for additional information. Some of the benefits that we've identified in this proposed solution, we utilize existing software that the city currently has or licenses. There's no additional cost to the city for this. We also are able to create customizable notification distances, which is a benefit that a lot of cities are not doing that do this type of notification, and it's immediately deployable. One of the drawbacks is it's not a fully automated system. We would be automated if we were to move forward up to the point where we email individuals, so we would have a list of who to contact based on the buffer that they want to be notified in and what the project is, and then we would send that email out weekly. And then this requires minimal staff time for the emailing. And the other drawback is it's not based on a status change, so we would just send out a single email on this project. So one of the items, or the first item that we're asking for council direction on, is what type of projects we would notify on. It would be all projects or just the public hearings that come before PNZ and City Council. Our staff recommendation is to notify only for public hearing items. We feel like if we're notifying for other projects that are more ministerial and that the public can voice their opinion on, but they may not have the ability to change the action from PNZ or council, that those might cause frustration for the residents. And then PNZ's feedback was that the only notify for public hearing items also. So I'm looking for council direction on these for the types of projects. Okay, do you, you want to go ahead and complete the, yeah, let's do that. That way we don't get just that last part as well, and then we can come back and get you the direction. Sounds good. And then the second item that we're seeking feedback on is notification timing. And at what point in the process do we send these notifications out? One of the considerations that we have is we send the notice out at the beginning, right at the time of submittal for a project. There is some time between when that project's submitted and when it comes before planning and zoning commission and city council. That time allows for changes in design or scope of the project, and it may lead to citizens not having a full awareness of what the project actually is when it comes before you for consideration. So our staff recommendation is to send notices at the same time that we're doing other public hearing notifications, or we would send a notice in advance of a neighborhood meeting if it comes up prior to that project. And the planning and zoning commission also discuss the item coming before public hearing, sending notices before public hearing. Okay, very good. Any, anything, any other, okay, great. So the two questions when you respond could, if you would please, the project types and notification time and if you can be as clear as and synced as possible, that'll help staff take notes and make sure they act on if there is a consensus or not. Councilman Bet. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate you all doing this as it was myself and Commissioner Smith's initial idea, long time in fruition and I especially appreciate that there's an immediately deployable solution based on existing technologies, I think that was a real cherry find of staff to be able to do that. As I made some comments that I think there are some opportunities to augment the automation, but I think the advantages of immediately deployable are good and you can get those automation features over time, I suggested some ways that you could do that. In terms of the projects and timings, I think maybe the optimal thing is to maybe get it on people's radars right when a project starts because most of the time a piece of property is sitting idle, fallow, nobody knows that a project has been initiated, I think there was a lot of concern in the public, I didn't even know anything was going on anywhere, I didn't even know that after sitting for 30 years something was going on with it. So I think that getting it on the radar is really important as an initial first step. I concur with staff and P&Z that probably the bulk of your time and labor should be spent on the public hearing items, but I think there's an opportunity to sort of maybe have a modified email that says something to the effect of this is the initial, it is subject to massive changes, we recommend you tune back in when we send out an announcement about public hearings and just sort of leave it there to manage expectations. I think you can do both and that actually addresses both the project types and the timings, so if you have an initial out, there it is, we're not really going to mess with it or address it, I mean technically anyone can do a request for information or a PO or something like that and get any information at any time, so it's not really something that, I don't think we really want to follow delay through obfuscation, I don't think that's really the best customer relations best practice, so I'm going to suggest that you do a cursory project initiation, just cursory letter and then a more full throated standard notification of public hearing and that hits both type and timing is my recommendation. Thank you Mayor, actually I agree with Councilmember Beck on this point, I think public hearing items but I also think it's possible to, and I'm being very cautious of staff time here because today it's minimal, having been in charge in previous jobs of regular emails that are expected to go out at a particular time, it can stop being minimal pretty quickly but especially depending on how many different subsets of people we have, you know if I've got a 500 foot buffer but I've got neighbors who have a 600 foot buffer and there's other people who have a city wide buffer or whatever the outer limit that's allowed, you have a lot of different emails potentially could be going out that somebody actually has to drag and drop that list into, so until it's automated, I'm trying to be very cautious of fully automated, I'm trying to be really cautious of staff time but I agree with Councilmember Beck that even if that initial filing is nowhere close to what the ultimate public hearing item is, that's where folks, neighborhoods can be getting together, talking about the project, awareness can be raised, that's when frankly developers can be reaching out to neighborhoods even if they're not required to have a meeting yet, they can start talking to folks in the neighborhoods and really improving their project before it even gets that far. My recommendation would be that initial notice does whatever it can to not invite the question, say there has been a filing, it's kind of like when I sign up for automated case updates with the Texas Supreme Court or Court of Criminal Appeals, they are very cautious to tell you sometimes just a clerk getting into the file and clicking on the wrong thing or cleaning up something in the file will generate this automatic response, don't get your hopes up that something's happened in the case. So that initial message can tell them nothing interesting is happening, you are getting this because you signed up for it, do not call us, we will call you when there's a meeting set up, we'll tell you about it, when there's a project actually happening, we're going to tell you about it, planning staff cannot help you with any information regarding this filing because we just got it today too. Something, I'm being a little flip, that's something like that, bare minimum initial, because frankly the entire purpose I think behind notifying folks is that so neighbors can or interested parties can involve themselves in the process and if they are involving themselves in the process the day it's placed on a P&Z public agenda, well that's a day late, a dollar short, we need to give them that opportunity early on and they can make meaningful changes to the project earlier on. Just one piece, Scott McDonald, Director of Development Services, one piece to add to this and we may be able to create some automatic notifications to say, you know, do not reply to this email, see the website, et cetera, et cetera, it is the types of notifications are of greater concern, so when we have an application come in that may or may not require a public hearing, we do not think that it's a good idea to send notifications on every type of project because some if they check all the boxes, it is truly a ministerial act and we're going to set somebody up for believing that they have a say when it is they may not have a say on what a project is, so if it's entitled to be there, so we're just trying to be cautious on the types of notifications that we're going to send out and then the timing was the second piece that it may take a year, it could take two years for somebody from the time that the initial notification would go out versus when our actual notifications by law would go out, so just to add that piece and to make sure that we're separating those two items. >> Could I briefly follow up, Mayor, I get that and that's something I hadn't thought about, at the same time, one, that kind of Brooks in favor of fully automating and figuring that out as soon as we can, two, and I recognize that they're a challenge, they're technological and licensing and all that kind of stuff, but two, it's also, there's an education piece there, you know, where and I'm not saying that we need to take it upon the planning department to make sure that every citizen in town knows these are the kind of cases where you have a say and these are the kind of cases where you don't have a say, but it's very helpful, I think, for the P&Z members, too, if something comes up and it is a something they're entitled to and it's a ministerial vote by P&Z or it's administrative approval, I think constituents need to know that that's the process and here's the reason you don't have a say. That apartment complex popped up in your neighborhood and you don't like it, and the reason why they will do that by right is X, Y, and Z. Again, trying to be cautious of staff time and not opening up the Pandora's box of public comment, but I see it as another avenue for the public to have information about when things are done by right, why that beautiful blue bonnet patch next door to their house or my house is suddenly something that they didn't expect it to be. They're entitled to know those things, and they're not all going to have the wherewithal to get down to the development code or the zoning map and know that stuff, so I don't know. I see where you're coming from, but I err on the side of public information, and maybe we just need to fully automate it before we roll it out, if it's going to be that onerous for staff. Kristen Berg. I think that we need to go with the public hearing only route, but I also along with that, I believe that we as a city can do a better job in educating the public on, you know, simply even just looking for those little white signs along the side of the road that suddenly pop up. And so I'm trying to do that with, you know, anybody that asks me about, you know, why did I know about this, and then I can point to this sign that says here's your opportunity to know about these things. So I'm very, you know, very healthy in the educational perspective of teaching, you know, people on what's going on, but I do also want to put that energy towards city council members as well to make sure that their constituents are aware of certain things, and that could be by going to some of their neighborhood meetings that they regularly have, or however they can communicate with them, to educate them on what's going on and how things are done, if we know. And if someone asks, and I'll just use myself as an example, if someone asks me a question that I don't know, then I know where to go to get the answer. So I'll pass it along, get the answer, work with the individual. So I don't want to put that much, I don't want that on top of the city employees to take care that you all should expect for us to also help out in this process, if nothing else, to help educate your constituents, okay? So that should be something that we should be taking on as something that's part of our job, that's what we do. So I'll leave that right there. Also timing when the notices come, I think that, you know, I think that we, if I'm saying all of that other stuff, then of course I would certainly agree to want them, the public, to get the information as soon as we know. And then that'll, and then we'll, you know, remind them to hash it out and talk about it, you know, amongst themselves, and then let us know what they need, let us know what they're thinking. So did I answer the question? Yes, I answered the question. Thank you very much. Chair Patu? So I lean to the concept of, at initiation, the concept of it already made and, you know, later when there's the hearing, I think ultimately it would be really beneficial to the public and I think would meet the need that I feel like I run into a lot. If things that were going to hearings and things that weren't going to hearings were also noticed, but obviously the challenge is the language to say, in those cases, this is for information purposes only, this fits, you know, everything we know says this is in conformance, this is just so you know what's happening. I think it would kind of help the proper functioning of the market so people just have information, they know what's going to be going up behind their house or next to it, or a business knows something's coming in, it helps people plan. Now to the issue of capacity to do it, I take that very seriously as well and you know I'm heartened by the fact that you think not much time, no additional money, software, you know, we can do this customizable. My suggestion would be start with the public hearing items for like a three month trial and see how it goes and come back to council and say is better than we thought, worse than we thought, and have an opinion at that point about whether, yeah, actually there is capacity to try to broaden the scope, or we found there's a really, you know, great way to automate this which would give capacity, you know, or you know, this is the most we can possibly do. So that's my suggestion, a three month trial and then report back starting with the public hearing items. Okay, Council Member Arbiter. Yes, so I support what Mayor Pro Tem just suggested. I'm not sure if three months is a reasonable trial period, but I do like the idea of a trial period. Maybe it is, but I'd just be curious to know what staff would think. Maybe you have to get together and, you know, and huddle before coming out with that, but, you know, some sort of representative time period enough to get a kind of a template in place and then to see it over a certain period. And I'll also just add, because I agree very strongly with those who have spoken to the educational component of this, how important it will be to have really clear language with no jargon that even terms that many of us council members, you know, use regularly that we didn't know before we got really active in city politics. And it's a real opportunity to ultimately, in the long term, save staff time of having to explain what it means to, as Council Member Davis said, to be able to build by right. It doesn't mean that because this person's our best friend, it means because in the codes it says you can do that. And I think that initial work done by staff will be replicated because while, you know, every new project is unique, you know, there will be a lot of overlap so there can be copying and pasting, you know, and then templates worked up from there. Thank you. And if I, I'll try to answer your question and Mayor Pro Tem, I appreciate the suggestion truly that we start somewhere, be able to build upon it and we want to be successful in launching whatever it is and certainly don't want to fall flat on our face so making it scalable would be great. I will tell you, when we had our developer town hall, we had for the month proceeding approximately 80 some projects that came in and of those 80 some projects, six or so or half dozen were public hearings. So the vast majority of the projects that came in may or may not have gone any further. They may be some of those that were, you know, truly something that men have been a ministerial act just trying to temper with maybe that ratio or, you know, less than 10% are going to be a public hearing item that, you know, 80 90% of those might be giving some false sense of something to our citizens. So if we, again, could build upon something, learn how to do it and then figure out what language we would use on different types and projects and be able to build in some of the suggestions made by Councilmember Beck on how it is we can automate the process would be helpful. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? Councilmember McGuire. Thank you. I feel like Councilmember Davis did a really good job of articulating kind of exactly where I'm at with the desire to share as much information as possible, educate the public. I think that the numbers you just shared were a really great illustration of how, I mean, most members of the public don't understand that an overwhelming majority of these projects aren't something that they have a say in and I think that this could go a long way in helping the public to understand that, but I am definitely very concerned about the staff time that might be involved in that. Can you give us any more information about what options there are for automation? What the cost might be of investing in building a fully automated system and what the timeline of something like that might be? So we would have to do more research on the fully automated piece. We could be automated up into the email notification at this point. So we think that we could source some tools to become fully automated, but that would be an enhancement that we would do over time. Okay. I get where the Mayor Pro Tem and Councilmember Armenter are coming from with the idea of a trial period. My only concern with the trial period is that it's going to take folks a long time probably to catch on to what you all are trying to do here and it's pretty likely that in the first, you know, if we do a three month trial period, probably not very many folks are going to sign up and then once people learn about it, probably lots more people are going to sign up after that. So that's just my only concern about that kind of trial period. I'm going to give direction that is completely different from what everybody else is given and well, not completely different, but you know, perhaps some folks might want to amend their recommendations in light of this. My direction is that in the short term, I would like to take staff's recommendation of, you know, only sending out notifications for public hearing projects and doing it at the normal time that you generally notify members of the public about public hearings, but with the long term goal of investing in an automated system that would enable us to send out notifications at the initiation of every project and hopefully keep the public better involved without costing too much staff time. So two part direction there. Okay, and if I may, I just want to also remind the council that we have the active projects map. We're going to look to make improvements to that also. So that's a source for people that they get online and want to see what other projects are out there. We include all projects on that active projects map. And then one other item that hadn't been discussed for projects is if it's a public hearing, it'll come before PNZ and city council, and then oftentimes we have another eight to 10 projects related to that platting and then civil engineering plans that come after that. So if we were if we're going to send notices on everything, then we would continue to send notices in each phase of that. It was notices for for all, not just public hearings. Okay, anyone else? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think just to clarify some of my direction, I was just saying the initial project initiation. I think that's you'll you'll probably get notifications during the public hearing and other events of the downstream ancillary reports that are coupled, they click on the project map, they'll they'll see the other items. If you direct them with appropriate, you know, links and other things that will develop over time as as you as this becomes a more fleshed out tool, I don't think anyone's expecting you to to invent something amazing overnight, especially not with it immediately deployable. But a question was brought up in terms of that relates to both staff time and sort of the the time it takes to develop a more full threaded tool. And that is, if if, say, as you were saying, 80 projects of which 72 were ministerial. So what is our ArcGIS license capacity for number of queries? I don't want to break the system answering emails so that y'all can't use it. So you know, do you have a query limit on what we can do now? And that may be a long term question that you may not want to answer here necessarily. But in terms of like, I'm just curious what that is, and it goes to sort of the pain of whether you just do six public hearings or or, you know, ten times that amount in initial notifications. I I think there's some fine grained knowledge that we need as to what's what actually initiates pain. I know that's sort of two and a half questions, but if you could do your best on that. So as far as the actual query amounts for a license, we can follow up. I don't I don't know the answer to that. But I don't think that having license count issues would would cause an error in the system. And the only thing that I might piggyback on that, and I value the comments that we've received on the education of our citizens. A lot of those notifications would require staff to truly have communication with our citizens. We wouldn't be able to steer them to a place or again, as Councilmember Armitage said, to generate letters that would be truly just in simple speak that we could explain that this is something that someone is able to do, the properties zoned for it, so on and so forth. So to be able to kind of work through that to start the model, wherever it may be, we can find out on the on the querying what that would create. And I'm more so concerned with truly that we're operating with bare bones planning staff at the moment to be able to do the work that needs to be done, let alone fielding. I don't know how many phone calls it may or may not be if we're if we're doing a mass mailing to say a project came in when, honestly, most times staff can't answer a lot of the questions because it's somebody just may be fishing, they may be just looking to see what the entitlements will take where it will go. So if we just find something that truly is scalable, and then we can start on that path of what we've heard here today on on how it is we can develop more robust tools. And then maybe some of those interim steps even before we come back is maybe some notifications on some of those project types that will at least point somebody to the developer, you know, to the recent projects map to say, Hey, there's been a change in this map or some just segue tools. So I really appreciate that because it goes, I think it goes to some at least some counselors recommendations to start off and grow, including that is my recommendation as well. And I think you can start off with a bare bones notification that actually probably needs to be full of jargon initially. So you are conveying exactly the information that is out there. And then over time, that lets you develop a jargon less response as as warranted. So I'm actually my recommendation would be for you to start with minimal responsive initiation and probably full of jargon, just to get the ball rolling, because that's the lowest hanging fruit and easiest for y'all to deploy. Okay, so I'll close out we're we're over time. So I'll try to be succinct as possible to get to the next item. I think for me, it's I take staffs recommendation, I think Scott is spot on, we don't want to in in date staff, I just think it's important to kind of get a feel get a pace for what's going on. I also would like to go the other way, right, I've worked with, and I've heard great reports from American Legion Hall, we're working with the seniors, and we have some TW staff and I mean, students coming over and helping them learn how to set up email addresses and those sort of things. But I think there's a technical component of this, that would go right over some of our residents as we get older that you just, I think it's important to touch everyone. So my direction would be kind of to explore the other way, David, can you help me? What is the name of the software that solid waste uses? It's rubric root root something, you know what I'm talking about Rubicon some. Thank you. I think I think that I think we go that way. I think we see what algorithm what logs they're using because they're going by every house anyway. I'd like to see something where we work with our existing system explore options, they're going to every house if it's billing, right, or a utility bill going everyone's house, and it has a QR code or something like that that then allows us to enhance the map, update the map only. And as people go back and check back refresh, it's automatically refreshed, or some kind of way to communicate via that system already to go in every house anyway, and also maybe enhance notifications at rec centers at the senior centers at the libraries, maybe there's a screen we're putting up that does that, you know, kind of thing as people avail themselves of services. But I just think there's a lower tech option that touches more people. And there's a tech option that lines up with what we're doing already, giving staff time to explore those things. So that's really what I'd look at it be it billing, be it metering, you know, whatever we're doing that's kind of at that every home level that just says, hey, there's a new there's a new thing within this radius. And there's an algorithm that picks that up and delivers that information. And it produces something that produces a kind of paper or some kind of notification. So we'd just like to look at just kind of low tech options as well. And also building notifications, some kind of standardized screen that people can begin to understand and look at. But all that around just kind of staffs initial analysis to say, this is something we can do today. Great. Let's do that for and good to be clear on public hearings only. And I just I really think that is a critical part that Scott touched on Charlie, you touched on as well. These things change so much, right. And so the ability to I'm concerned about misinformation and and the ability to update people to say, no, this has changed, this is modified. They've met with their neighbor, they think this is happening, and we see it all the time. And so it's just they move so fast. And I'm preaching to the choir, you know that, that it's just to put out misinformation. Now all of a sudden, we're we're in putting ourselves in a bad situation, because they're going to say, I got an email from you that said this, and it's either you read it wrong, or it's changed, or you're right, but so because if we are updated ordinance, does that trigger automatic notifications, you know, if we change sweeping zoning, does that trigger automatic notifications, just so many moving parts that happen at the at the policy level, let alone at the project level to keep up with all those things and make sure we have all those endpoints plugged in that I'd give me great concern to give someone the wrong information. So want to get it to them early, but want to get it to them correct and have a systematic way to keep everybody updated. Because the other thing is, if it goes a P and Z, and it fails, and they go build by right, you know, let's say they wanted a special use now, does that trigger something, you know, does it then give a new update that says, Hey, nevermind. So there's a lot of moving parts there. So again, I'm comfortable with what staff says they can do today. And then looking forward for a tech solution to a more low tech option as well. So thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Take this item B, which is ID 22243, receive report, hold discussion, give staff direction regarding the audit project 026, wastewater systems operations, uh, reclamation. Hello, Mayor and council. I have to load my presentation. I apologize. Sure. Thank you. All right. So I'm Madison Rocha, uh, Denton city auditor. I'm here to present our findings, uh, from phase two of our audit of the city's wastewater system operations. Um, so I'll get started, uh, so to begin, uh, as the owner of a wastewater utility, the city is responsible for collecting wastewater for its customers, uh, and treating it at its two water reclamation plants so that it can be safely discharged back into the environment. Uh, in general, the city receives about $26 million annually, uh, from its customers in order to provide this service. And so this audit generally evaluated, um, the wastewater or the water reclamation processes, uh, including the wastewater rate structure, uh, pretreatment program, compliance, reclamation infrastructure, planning and maintenance, uh, and discharge quality reporting. So I'll begin by discussing, uh, the city's wastewater rate structure. Uh, so according to industry best practices, uh, wastewater rates should generally be structured to allocate treatment costs to customers based on their impact to the wastewater system. Uh, this impact is generally measured through, uh, the volume of wastewater being discharged as well as, um, the strength of the discharge, um, which strength is most simply just a measure of how difficult it is to reclaim the water, uh, from the wastewater. So based on our review, uh, we found that the city's wastewater rate structure, um, is designed in accordance with best practices to include a volumetric charge, uh, fixed customer type charge, as well as a strength surcharge for commercial, industrial and wholesale customers, uh, with higher than normal impact. So that being said, uh, we found that historically commercial, industrial and wholesale water wastewater customers had not been billed for wastewater strength surcharges. Uh, in addition, some commercial and wholesale customers, um, are not regularly actually even tested for strength. Um, and so without billing commercial, industrial and wholesale, uh, customers for their wastewater strength, it's not really possible, it is possible, sorry, that the city's residential customers are paying more for their wastewater service, uh, than best practices would suggest is equitable. Um, according to water utilities and environmental services staff, uh, they began testing and developing the strength surcharge, um, billing process for the city's four wholesale, uh, water customer or wholesale customers about six months ago. Um, however, they are just kind of at the very beginning of doing this for the commercial and industrial customers. It should be noted, um, that it's really unlikely that the city has the resources to test all of its commercial, industrial and wholesale customers every month, uh, for their strength. Um, and so, and then in addition, the city's facility charge is based on customer type, and so it's probably accounting for some of those differences in impact. Um, so for that reason, we recommended that they, we evaluate, uh, the applicability of those surcharges for the different types of customers. Um, in addition, based on a comparison of bill codes and pretreatment program information, we found that, uh, some commercial and industrial customers, uh, had been, uh, inaccurately billed, uh, or not billed a monthly surcharge for being part of the city's pretreatment program. Uh, and then in addition, we found that one of the city's four wholesale wastewater agreements had, uh, expired. Based on their management response, uh, environmental services and customer services, uh, have already begun clarifying a process to ensure that commercial and industrial customers are billed accurately for their, uh, part of, of the city's pretreatment program. Uh, and in addition, environmental services and water utilities, uh, are working to evaluate the applicability of the wastewater strength surcharge, uh, for the different customer classes. And finally, uh, finance plans to evaluate the customer classes to determine if there need to be any additional subclasses, uh, if they'll be beneficial. Next, um, city operates two water reclamation plants as part of its utility, um, wastewater utility. These plants must be adequately maintained, um, have adequate reclamation capacity and be appropriately permitted, um, in order to ensure that wastewater does not negatively impact public health. Based on review of a sample of the water reclamation division's work orders, uh, we found that they had generally established an effective preventative maintenance program, um, and that, uh, it ensured that, uh, repair work and maintenance work was completed in a timely manner. Um, that being said, uh, the work orders did not, uh, generally include details about what was actually being performed, um, and there was not evidence that quality spot checks, uh, had been performed within the work orders either. So for that reason, we recommended that the division ensure that plant, uh, staff have written guidance and periodic training on how to complete work orders, uh, to ensure all information is included. In addition, we found that water utilities is currently using two work order, uh, work order and asset management softwares, uh, one for its vertical plant infrastructure as well as another for its horizontal lines, um, and so while both softwares generally ensure work orders are effectively assigned, uh, it's possible that efficiencies could be gained if asset management was, uh, consolidated into one software and so, uh, we think that consolidation of the softwares would also aid the department, um, as it continues its process of developing a formal asset management program. On the planning side, uh, we found that the department had established a short-term forecasting process that appeared to rely on reasonable assumptions, uh, to ensure that the reclamation plant capacity was adequate. In addition, the department has, uh, begun developing its first wastewater master plan to help ensure that, uh, anticipated capacity expansion needs are met, uh, through plant improvements and are adequately funded. Uh, further, in order to discharge water, each plant must be permitted by TCEQ, um, and so the city's Pecan Creek Water Reclamation Plant, which is the big one that does most of the water reclamation, uh, it has 21 million gallons per day of permitted discharge, uh, and that appears to be adequate for the city, uh, in right now, um, and it's also in the process of being rerated so that capacity might increase in the future. Um, that being said, the city is also permitted to divert 6 million gallons of effluent each day to its reuse water system, um, but only about a half million gallons is actually being used by customers. So expansion and promotion of the reuse water system would likely help to defer, um, not only future wastewater, but also future water infrastructure costs. Uh, and based on their management response, Water Utilities is currently developing plans to expand the reuse water system, uh, as well as to consolidate its work order and asset management systems. Um, as part of the consolidation of these work management systems, the reclamation division plans to develop a work order completion training component. Uh, so finally, uh, as a wastewater utility owner, the city is required to treat its wastewater so that it meets certain quality levels, uh, so it can be just, just discharged back into the environment safely. The city's, uh, two main processes for doing this include its pretreatment program, uh, which is, uh, when, includes specific pretreatment devices being implemented by customers that have higher system impacts and so that you treat the water before it actually enters the wastewater system, uh, and then the, at the reclamation plant, um, which is where all the wastewater is discharged. Um, so for the pretreatment program, we found that the pretreatment program division, uh, has established effective processes to identify significant wastewater system users, uh, and has appropriately established local limits, um, and in addition, significant industrial users are generally monitored for compliance, uh, with local limits in a timely manner. Uh, the city has also established a fats, oils, and grease, uh, greases control program to further protect the wastewater system from commercial sources of pollutants. Uh, and we found that the pretreatment program, uh, division had established performance metrics for this program and had, uh, historically performed site inspections in a timely manner. So, uh, moving back to the, the plant, the water reclamation division staff are responsible for ensuring that wastewater meets quality standards using the plant's reclamation processes and based on our review, we found that these, uh, processes generally ensure that the discharge meets, uh, discharge effluent meets permitted limits. In addition, uh, the city's wastewater treatment plant operators are licensed as required by Texas law. Uh, furthermore, environmental services laboratory division is responsible for testing discharge, uh, effluent quality. Um, based on review of three discharge monitoring reports, uh, we found that the division's testing processes adequately prevent, uh, intentional misstatement, uh, minimize data entry errors and ensure that test results are accurate. And so based on this review, we didn't issue any recommendations, uh, for these sections. In summary, we did issue a total of six recommendations, uh, all of which the department concurred, that's concurred with, and based on their response, we believe the identified risks will be appropriately addressed and plan to conduct a follow-up review in 18 to 36 months. That's the end of my presentation. Okay. Questions for staff. Councilor Armitage. Uh, yes. So thank you, first of all, for this audit. This is a great example, um, of how internal audits can, uh, really save cities money and and individuals as well. And along those lines, I was wondering if you would feel comfortable speaking to kind of a ballpark estimate of how much you think the city might have lost or not collected in the period covered by this audit in both commercial and industrial strength charges and also in pre-treatment surcharges. - I don't know that I can estimate that because it's dependent on how much over certain levels the customers are actually discharging for their strength. So I don't have any data on that. There's no way for me to estimate that necessarily. - Okay, yeah, and that makes sense. I was just curious. But it's-- - I think it's likely that some customers, if they were tested, would be charged that amount, but probably not all of the commercial customers, if that makes any sense. - Yes, yeah, that is just an average or generality. And my next question, you might also not be able to answer, and it might also be more of a question for the city manager or someone from Wastewater, but I'm gonna ask it anyway, and feel free to delegate it to somebody else if you feel comfortable. But in that is, can residents reasonably expect at least a conversation about reducing residential fees once these improvements are made, and we see these commercial and industrial users getting charged for their use? - I would defer that question. - Sure, without knowing the dollar amount, it's hard to say what that magnitude will be, but as we do our next cost of service study, these changes should be implemented by that time, we'll be able to do the cost of service study and see what the true cost should be. And if it works out where there's, we need to make an adjustment, we certainly will bring that to council. - Excellent, thank you. - Okay, any other questions? Mayor Percival. - Not sure if, this isn't strictly an audit question, but I would be curious to know what you glean might be some of the larger wastewater reuse opportunities, since that seems to be a big volume, what are the kinds of things that comprise it? - Right now they're being used to water like fields, and I think the parks department actually does use the reuse water system to water the fields and the parks, all of the green space that the city owns. It's reused, it's used-- - That's what we currently do, but you're saying there's an opportunity to go from like half a million to six million or something. - Right, well I think in theory commercial customers could use it for their irrigation as well. I think there are a lot of options. I'm probably not the best person to speak to them, but if there were water, I know that Stephen is here. - Maybe for another day. I was just interested to hear what impressions-- - Council Member Percival. - We'll follow up. - Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I was gonna ask a similar, but it's more of an infrastructure cost question, is wouldn't, and again, you're not a wastewater specialist, but wouldn't that reuse require a separate infrastructure? - Yes, it does. - And so then there would be whatever the costs of infrastructure to be, unless it was adjacent or nearby where cost was de minimis. Well, it's never gonna be de minimis with that, but. So I'm correct in assuming that it would require a separate infrastructure. - Correct, yeah. Currently there's a separate reuse water system that it can't be touched, it can't be combined with any of the, like the other, the regular water system, because it's not technically potable. So that's why it can only be used for things like watering grass or in situations like that where it's not going to be used by a person showering or something. - But we have a separate system already? - Yes, a very small system. That's how the half a million is being diverted currently to customers. - Oh, thank you. - But it would need to be expanded to be used more widely. Any other questions? Seeing none, okay, thank you. Thank you, Madison. Thank you for being here. All right, that takes us to item C. Receive report, hold discussion, give staff direction on pending City Council request. - Mayor and Councilor Ryan, I'm City Manager's office. I'm pitch hitting for Monica, who is saving her voice right now. - Great, thank you. - So these are our requests for, pending requests for information, our council pitches. So just to give a brief reminder, each council member who has a pitch will have two minutes to present that pitch. The council members will have one minute for follow-up and clarification. Council members will also have the ability to provide their assessment of the priority, high, medium, or low, of the request. We have two pitches this afternoon. The first pitch is a council vote in support of Medicare for All resolution. This is from Council Member Armitter. A copy of that resolution has been provided in the backup, and I will yield to Council Member Armitter for her pitch. - Okay. - So first, I wanna thank the local activists who brought us this resolution for city governments to demand Medicare for All of the federal government. Every year, our municipal emergency medical service, Denton residents, and small business owners spend millions compensating for the lack of nationwide public healthcare for people of all ages. Heroic local non-profits, like the Denton Musicians and Artist Collective, DMACC, work hard just to mitigate a small fraction of the physical, financial, and emotional suffering experienced by our constituents under age 65 who can't afford healthcare. I love and donate annually to DMACC, but make no mistake. All the DMACCs, Rotary Clubs, and First Refuge Ministries of our great city can't fix what's broken. Only federal government has the power, tools, and budget to expand Medicare to all ages. Instead, as you surely know, national electeds of both major parties continue to drop the ball and pass the buck, while the private health insurance companies who donate to red and blue politicians alike thrive like parasites at the expense of Denton working families. Small businesses like Harvest House that provide both healthcare and living wages for their workers struggle to stay in business just for doing the right thing. Since 1965, Medicare has helped Denton seniors tremendously, but it has left all other Denton residents behind. It's our job to advocate for extending Medicare benefits to Denton residents of all ages. Under COVID, this council depended on federal policy and funding to save money and lives. That happened in part because many US cities and states, though not ours, were putting immense pressure on the feds to do the right thing. Sure, any resident can individually petition the feds for Medicare for all, but only seven of that 140,000 have the power and responsibility to do so collectively on behalf of the other 139,993. Please say yes to putting this no-brainer, no-cost, no-risk resolution for Medicare for all on the consent agenda at our next council meeting, which will also be my last. - Okay, any comments? Mayor Proctor. - I'd like to take this broader. To quote Mayor Hudspeth, public health is a co-responsibility of the city council, and as Councilmember Armentor pointed out so compellingly back in our retreat, healthcare is a huge part of what the city of Denton actually does when you consider that most fire department calls are EMT calls, and the police are now explicitly addressing mental health emergencies, and that of course is what the city does, self-insuring its own employees. I'm not so much a fan of using city council to make statements about national policy, but I would very much like to build on this excellent impulse from Councilmember Armentor and have a public health work session focused on addressing any gaps in public health in Denton and to consider policy options potentially within our power to address those gaps and improve outcomes for Dentonites. And if council decides a resolution belongs on the resulting action list, fine. - Okay, anyone else? Councilmember McGuire. - Thank you, I wholeheartedly support bringing this resolution before council for a vote. Single-payer healthcare would massively benefit our residents and our employees. Not only would it improve access to healthcare, it would reduce the waste that is currently present in the healthcare industry, which our taxpayers are bearing the cost of. We must pay into a private healthcare system when we pay for benefits for our employees and our taxpayers are paying for that. Studies have shown repeatedly that the private healthcare industry is not an efficient way of providing healthcare to the public, and costs would go down for customers and for our taxpayers if single-payer healthcare were enacted, so I do believe that this is an issue of municipal concern. - Okay, anyone else? Councilmember Bec. - I actually support both of the things that I've heard. I think we have, the idea that we could potentially save costs and address better financial stewardship with better approaches for the city is clearly compelling, especially given my public health and at least biological background, but at the same token, I think we do also need a comprehensive analysis of the service gaps and the financial impacts because we argue about this all the time. It becomes an issue of politics rather than an issue of policy, and so I think we need both, and I encourage us to do both, to talk about where these needs can be covered and what would be the impacts of such a resolution, and I will end with, we make resolution recommendations for our lobbying group to do resolutions all the time for things that we don't control, that we just support. So I would recommend we take both Mayor Pro Tem and Councilmember Torz actions. - Anyone else? Councilmember Byrd. - Just for the sake of it, I am certainly in agreement with this particular resolution. I'll support something like that, thank you. - Anyone else? Anyone, okay, ready for number two? - Yes, sir. Our second pitch is from Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer. This is for our work session, and this is regarding the donation of firefighter equipment. We are no longer using to the city of Musquise, Mexico, who is our friendship city, and then also the installation of signs at city entrances, noting that fact. So I'll yield to Mayor Pro Tem. - Thank you, I'm not sure if we can discuss something while we can hear anything. Many Dentonites may not be aware that Denton has an official friendship city, Musquise, Mexico, and I actually didn't know that we had another friendship city and a sister, one, three relationships with cities in Mexico. With Musquise, it's not a random relationship. Thousands of Dentonites are from Musquise, or descended from Musquiseño parents who came to Denton. The first Hispanic council member, Dr. Roland Vega, was Musquiseño. We have two Musquiseño school principals and many teachers. The tooled leather saddle you pass in the hall at City Hall was a gift from the people of Musquise, as was the table made of florita in the mayor's office. So I would like a brief work session so council can consider giving direction to make a gift of firefighter equipment we'll no longer be using, two Musquise, as was done some years ago. They're a county seat and serve five fire stations, so there is need. And one more thing, when you enter Musquise, there are signs saying Ciudad de Amistad de Denton, Texas, Friendship City of Denton, Texas. I would like us to consider showing the same pride in our friendship, which in our case, it's really a family relationship of so many Dentonites by having signs that our city entrances proudly proclaiming Denton, Friendship City of Musquise, Mexico. And I would tag on the other relationships I didn't know we had with Mexico, cities of Mexico as well. Thank you. - Okay, anyone else? Council Member Davis. - Thank you, Mayor. I support the request. I'm wondering, I think I might rather see it as ISR first, just because I think most of what is being asked for is really stuff for the staff to do, calling down there and asking what they need, finding out what are, maybe determining where the best places to place the signs might be. We have some other monument projects kind of in the works already. I think I might wanna see an ISR on it first before a work session. I don't feel like there'd be a lot of pushback from council on surplus equipment going someplace where it could be of need. I just feel like there's a lot more details to be worked out that are at the staff level rather than the council level, before we're ready for council input on that. - Okay, anyone else? Council Member Bet. - Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I support the work session, because although I take Councilor Davis's point, there's a lot of details. We're gonna wanna know those details as soon as it's known. That could be in a report, but the staff is gonna come up with concept plans and ideas for these things. So I think we might as well have the work session and be presented it. - Okay, Councilor McGuire. - Thank you, I agree with Council Member Beck. This is eventually going to require action on our part. We might as well go ahead and have a work session about it. - Councilor Armitage. - I strongly support all aspects of this proposal just with the qualifier, maybe too obvious to even point out, but I will say that staff make sure in reaching out to the City of Mooskies, if they have a need and a want for our old fire equipment, maybe the answer is no. And of course, needless to say, to make sure that the equipment we're giving them is not equipment that we've stopped using because it is expired or less safe than it was when we used it, even if it's not still unsafe. - Okay, anyone else? See none, okay. Thank you. - Thank you, Mayor. - That takes us to our closed session. Let me get there. Okay, so we're going to, I will convene the closed session at 5.06. We will consider the following item deliberation regarding real property under Texas Government Code section 551.072. And so we'll give a, let's take a short break, just maybe five minutes to set the room. So we'll, I'll call the item at, let's call it five, pardon me, right, yeah. Five, 15, let's say. We'll call the item and get started. So we'll take a few minute break. So we'll be in recess till then, thanks. - Good evening, welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council. It is now 6.31. We do have a quorum, so I'll call the meeting to order. The first thing on the agenda is the pledges to the United States and Texas Flags. Please stand with me if you're able to do that. - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - Honor the Texas flag. - Pledge allegiance to the Texas one state under God, one and indivisible, okay? And then we have some proclamations. We're gonna change the order around a little bit, but I'll come down for those. (murmuring) - So the first is gonna be, if you could, the internal audit, great. First. (laughing) Yeah, right, right, first things first, for sure. So if you can introduce yourself, tell us what we need to know. - Okay, I'm Madison Rorschach, is this wrong? - I think so. - All right, well, I'm Denton City Auditor, and we're just here to celebrate Internal Audit Awareness Month, if that's what it is. As the auditor, we look through, we look at the city's departments, and make sure that they're operating efficiently and effectively, and try to make sure that everything's going smoothly and for y'all's benefit as the public. So that's kinda what we're doing. - Do you know the, I hate to put you on the spot, do you know the website, 'cause you track all of it. - Yeah, well, I don't, we have a department webpage on the city's website, and you can also even submit any audit ideas that you guys have, so please go check that out. I don't know the URL, but. - No, it's great, but thank you for doing that. Okay, so I have a proclamation, here we go. So it says, proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, to all whom these presents shall come greetings. Whereas internal auditing is a vital part of strengthening organizations and protecting stakeholders in both the public and private sectors. And whereas internal auditing helps identify and manage the organization's risk, and ensures policies, procedures, and controls are in place and working properly. And whereas an internal audit is an increasingly sophisticated and complex activity requiring specialized knowledge, training, and education. And whereas historically the global internal audit profession promotes awareness about its value during the month of May each year. And whereas the contributions of internal auditors to the success of organizations and the global economy are at large, deserves our recommendation and commendations. Now therefore, I, Gerard Hutzpeth, mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the month of May 2022 as Internal Audit Awareness Month in the city of Denton and encourage all citizens to extend greetings and best wishes to all observing in Internal Audit Awareness Month. I also invite the citizens of Denton to join me in recognizing professional internal auditors for their contribution to our society. Can we give them a hand, please? (audience applauds) - Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you very much, appreciate it. - Have a nice night. - Yes, likewise. (laughs) Okay, and then we have the National Day of Prayer. If anyone is here for that proclamation, you can come on down. Okay, and then we have the National Day of Prayer. If anyone is here for that proclamation, you can come on down. (audience applauds) Can I give you a hand? That step's a little trippy. Hey, how are you? Good to see you. - We've got most of the team here. - Oh, excellent. - Some of them are here, but every year we're here. Thank you. - Yes. Hey, how are you, sir? Good to see you. Man, it's been a long time. Good to see you. Yes, for sure. Can I give you a hand? - Thank you, sir. - Yes, ma'am. Hey, Sister Belle. - Yeah. - Good to see you. - Yeah, thank you. - Yes, ma'am. Hey, how are you? - I'm good. - Great. - I'm great. - Yes, very well. Thank you. Outstanding. Hey, brother, how you doing? I know, I'm following you around. (laughs) Okay, so if, hello. Hey, how are you doing? Good to see you again. Okay, if I'm gonna pass around, y'all can introduce yourselves and explain a little bit about what we're recognizing. - Go ahead. - I'm Gary Adams, and we are working together with the National Day of Prayer. I'm president of Mission Harvest America, a humanitarian aid organization globally, and glad to be a part of this team. - And I'm his wife, Ruth, and I do whatever's necessary to keep everything running, and I'm her sister, and she's the leader here in the National Day of Prayer, so. - And this is my other sister right here. June Curl. - That's all you're gonna say, hucks. (audience laughs) - I'm John Smith, and this is my wife, which is running the National Day of Prayer, and I do all the things that nobody else wants to do. (audience laughs) - The National Day of Prayer is something that we have been brought to Denton for many years now, and so we're having our event. It's always the first Thursday in May, and this year we've been invited to have it at the county, the new county courthouse. Unfortunately, the weathermen are saying we're gonna have rain Thursday morning, and so we've moved inside, and so I get to talk from the judge's place. So I said I promise not to replace him, but that's where the prayers are going out, so he's gonna be blessed by the time this is over. (audience laughs) This is my sister. - Hi. - Aletha. - I'm Cheryl Wright, and I handle the music part of the journey here. We have great fun. Get there early, and you'll enjoy it. - A whole hour of music. - Yes. - 11 o'clock. - 11 o'clock, yes. - I'm Kay Treach, and I'm treasurer for this group. - I'm Alton Taylor, and I do watch and work. - I'm Thelma Jackson. - I'm Catherine Bell. - All right. Okay, very good. Well, I have a proclamation, and so then, but I have to get the original to you and I'll explain, but we'll get you the original. We have to make some changes, but I wanna read it to you, and we'll get pictures today. So it says, proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, to all whom these presents shall come. Greetings, whereas National Day of Prayer was first declared in 1775 when the Continental Congress appealed to the colonies to pray for wisdom in forming this nation, and on May 5th, 1988, President Ronald Reagan declared the first Thursday of May of each year the National Day of Prayer. And whereas throughout the history of this great nation, many citizens and leaders rely on the power of prayer and their faith in God, and whereas there will be a city-wide gathering on May 5th, and this is at the Denton County courthouse, one courthouse drive, at which time people will come together and pray for the seven centers of influence, and that's at 12 noon, and also they'll pray for government leaders and all level of our military, the media, the business community, education, churches, and families. Now therefore, I, Gerard Hutsworth, mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the fifth day of May, 2022, as National Day of Prayer in the city of Denton, and encourage citizens to gather on May 5th, 2022 to pray for our nation. Can you give them a hand, please? (audience applauding) So, we'll get you another printed copy, but we'll get a picture, we'll hold it, they'll never know. (audience laughing) - It's not that good a camera, it's even that close. - Yeah, okay, slide on here, so y'all hold it in the middle, is that okay? There we go, now slide in here. Come on, let me slide around back, here we go. All right, there we go, perfect. All right, ready, one, two, three, got it, thank you. - Okay, great. (audience applauding) Thank you very much, I appreciate it, thank y'all. So, we'll get it over to you, thank you. - Thank you, too. - Y'all, thank you very much, appreciate all y'all do. It's fantastic. - And we will see you next year, because it's on the calendar, Karissa puts you on that. - Okay, outstanding, you're fantastic, thank you very much. Thank y'all for being here, appreciate it. Yes, great to see you, thank you, appreciate all your work. Okay, okay, great. All right, those here for Mental Health Month, if you could come down, please, and thank you. - Thank you. - Yes, ma'am, you gotta, all right, hey, how are you? All right. Hey, great, good to see you, everybody. - It's good to see you, too, how are you? Dan's been telling me to tell you hello. - Oh, great, great, oh, he's fantastic, he's great. Okay, well, I'll let y'all introduce and tell us a little bit about what we're recognizing. - Hello, everyone, my name is Phyllis Finley, and I'm the Community Outreach Coordinator for Ditton County MHMR. I'm representing our center, as well as Cooke's Children's Watch, Wellness Alliance for Children's Health, in celebration of May as Mental Health Month. And so, mental health affects one in five adults and young people in this country, and over 167,000 of our own residents in Ditton County. And so, that's why we're here today. - Great, I'm Lisa Elliott. I'm also with Cooke Children's Medical Center, run the clinic here in Ditton County, run the clinic here in Ditton. I'm also here representing the Ditton County Behavioral Health Leadership Team, and I'm also representing WATCH, as well. - And I'm Laura Prowitz, and I'm here as co-chair for the Child and Family Work Group for the Behavioral Health Leadership Team. - Hi, I'm V&A Reinhart. I'm with Connections Wellness Group and former chair of the WATCH Coalition, so I'm here on behalf of both. - And I'm Michelle Conrad, and I'm the Chief Financial Officer for Ditton County MHMR. - Hello, I'm Pam Gutierrez. I'm the Executive Director at Ditton County MHMR, and I'm here on behalf of all these agencies. And I wanted to take a moment just to thank Deb for everything that she's done for all the citizens of Ditton County regarding mental health. We're so grateful for everything that you did for years and the recognition you've given us and the people that have needed it the most. So, I wanted to take a moment and personally thank you because it's meant a lot to the people that we serve and to me personally, because it's so important. And today, you all are recognizing mental health, and it's more important than ever with a pandemic, and the needs are just tremendous. So, thank you so much for everything that you've done for our citizens. (audience applauding) - Okay, to all whom these presents shall come, greetings. Whereas addressing the complex mental health needs of children, youths, and families today is a fundamental to the future of the city of Ditton. And whereas the need for comprehensive, coordinated mental health services for individuals and families placed upon our community a critical responsibility, and whereas there is a strong body of research that supports specific tools that all Americans can use to better handle challenges and to protect their overall health and wellbeing. And whereas each citizen, local business, school, government agency, healthcare provider, and faith-based organizations share the burden of mental health concerns and has a responsibility to promote mental wellness, recovery, and support prevention efforts. And whereas the Ditton County Behavioral Health Leadership Team, Ditton County MHMR Center, United Way of Ditton County, and the Wellness Alliance for Total Children's Health of Ditton County, led by Cook Children's, through their unique partnership and prevention-based approaches to serving children and adolescents are effectively addressing the mental health needs of children, youth, and family in our community. Now, therefore, I, Gerard Hutzpeth, Mayor of the City of Ditton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the month of May 2022 as Mental Health Month and May 7th, 2022 as Children's Mental Health Awareness Day in the City of Ditton, and I call upon our citizens, agencies, and organizations interested in meeting every person's mental health needs to increase awareness and understanding of mental health, the steps our citizens can take to protect their mental health and the need for appropriate and accessible services for all mental health conditions. If we can give them a hand, thank you. (audience applauding) - Yeah, I can get you. Actually, I have a speech in just a little bit. I appreciate it. All right, one, two, and three. Thank you. - Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Y'all, thank you for being here this evening. Thank you. Appreciate all you do. Thank you. - Okay, bike month. If there's anyone here for bike month. Right. This is great. Thank you. All right. Well, I'll let y'all introduce and say whatever we need to know, and then I have a proclamation for you. - Absolutely. Thank you very much. My name is Becky DeViney. I'm the City Engineering Director of Capital Projects, and we're excited to be here today to celebrate bike month. I will send my regards to Nathan George, who is our Senior Planner, Bicycle, and ADA Pedestrian Coordinator, who is under the weather, who's been texting me, letting me know, and wanting all of you to know that he's here in spirit with you all. So we're very excited to celebrate bike month. We have multiple individuals from the bike month group, and I'm gonna turn it over to Susie Roomer and let her talk a little bit about the activities that are going on this month. - Thank you so much, Becky. My name is Susie Roomer, and so tomorrow is Bike and Walk to School Day. So if you know any college students or kids who are still in school, encourage them to bike or walk to school tomorrow. And then May 20th, that's a Friday, is Bike to Work Day. So if you're still working or even volunteering somewhere, try biking there, if it's within a reasonable distance, and you can get there safely. But yeah, just all month, try riding your bike. It's a good time. And I'm gonna send the microphone down the line, and if everybody will say your name, and just one thing, I'm sure you have many things, but one thing that you like about biking. So I like biking so I don't have to look for parking. - That's a good one. My name is Lindsay Baker, and I've actually really enjoyed the camaraderie 'cause I met all these wonderful people through bikes. - Hi, y'all, I'm Julie, and I'm gonna promote a regional program called TryParkingIt.com, and there's a bike challenge going on this month through TryParkingIt.com. You can win prizes. - Trevor Crane, Deputy Director of Capital Projects, and I'll throw something out there I like about bikes. It gives me something to do with my kids, get out there and teach them how to ride their bikes and give us something to, you know, bond over. - I'm Brett Pujois, the Deputy City Engineer for Denton, and I like bikes because it's a good way to get out and be part of the community and get around and see nature. - Clay Thurmond, and I'm a lifelong cyclist, commuter, and recreational, and bicycling represents freedom, I believe, to me, and good exercise, and when I'm out on the bike, I see more things on the streets than I wouldn't have otherwise seen, that I'm moving at a slower pace, and I'm interacting more deeply with the environment. - My name is Sean Hunt, and I work at a local landscape architecture urban design firm here in Denton called ValleyQuest Design. We love to work on any projects where we get to design bicycle facilities. (audience laughs) - Hi there, Mark Oliphant. I'm here with my three children, one of whom is standing with me. Abigail, fifth grade. - Hi. - Nettie Schultz, and I have two others who are up there. They're not up there because they're intimidated by standing in front of large crowds. Joseph, who's on the DHS baseball team, and Anna, who's a third grader, at Nettie Schultz, and we love cycling as a family. We actually have two tandems we rode down here today. A lot of fun. And I'm Harry McMaster. I bike all over Denton. I bike every day. And it's great. You get out in nature. It's low impact, easy on the knees, and you meet the best people on bikes. - Hi, and I'm Garrett Rumore, and I regularly commute to work. And so in addition to just having some exercise automatically built into the day, I also get some of the best front row parking at my building, so. Thanks. - Thank you very much. - Thank you. - I appreciate it. And giving credit where credit is due. Susie got me out on a bunch bike, and we had a video that won an award for it, and had a blast. It really was a great, great time for the family. And I couldn't agree more, Clay, about kind of the different perspective, right? You just see things you wouldn't ordinarily have seen. So thank y'all very much. And so it's a proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, to all whom this presence shall come, greetings. Whereas the city of Denton is committed to improving conditions for bicycling by pursuing the designation as a bike-friendly community through the League of American Bicyclists, and through the establishment of the Vision Zero Program. And whereas the city's recently adopted 2022 Mobility Plan outlines the goals that promote travel by bicycle, including prioritizing safe travel, delivering an effective network for travel, facilitating alternative travel opportunities and leveraging innovation. And whereas bicycling is recognized as a sustainable, efficient, and enjoyable form of transportation and recreation that benefits our community by protecting the environment and improving public health and quality of life. And whereas the city of Denton, Bike Denton, Bike Texas, the League of American Bicyclists, local business and civic groups will be promoting bicycling during the month of May, and encouraging everyone to experience the joys of bicycling through educational programs, commuting events, Bike to Work Day, charity events, races, or by simply getting out and going for a ride. And whereas the city of Denton, Bike Denton, Bike Texas, and the League of American Bicyclists, local bike shops, and independent cyclists throughout our community are promoting greater public awareness of bicyclists on our roads and trails, improved safety for all road users. Now, therefore, I, Gerard Hutsworth, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the month of May, 2022 as Bike Month in the City of Denton, and encourage all citizens to ride their bikes to work stores, parks, around their neighborhood with friends and family to promote the personal and societal benefits achieved from bicycling. If we can give 'em a hand. (audience applauding) - Come on in and introduce yourself. - You guys might have to squeeze a little bit. - Yeah, introduce yourself. - Hi, my name is Wendy McQuade. I'm a Denton resident. And I love the freedom of movement that it gives me, the, obviously, the health benefits. I love getting exercise. I am a member of the Denton Women's Cycling Group. And, sorry, I'm very thankful for the sisterhood that I've found in that group. So it's been great for exercise and for mental health and for growing and nurturing friendships. So I ride my bike probably three, four times a week and love it. - Oh. (audience laughing) - Surprise, you're on the spot. - This is my first time here at City Hall. My name is Maria De Santiago. I am actually a commuter. I like to bike for fun, but I also see it as a primary means of transportation. So, yes, I, that's why I'm here. - I'm Victoria Congrega, and I commute here from Prosper 'cause I love Denton so much. And these ladies, no, I drive here. (audience laughing) But I do it for social and fun. If there is a trail going in, that I will be able to ride through. - Excellent. Okay, so we're gonna slide in here, so we gotta get, slide in best we can for a picture. Thank you. - So maybe a couple of you can come to this side right here so you're not blocked by the podium, that'd be great. (audience laughing) All right. - All right. - All right. (audience laughing) - Make sure you can see me. If you can see me, we can see you. Okay, ready? One, two, three. Got it, thank you guys. - All right, very good. All right, thank you very much, you're appreciated. - Yes. (audience applauding) - Thank you very much. - Okay, Drinking Water Week. All right, hey. How are you, sir? - I'm well and yourself? - Great, very well, good to see you. Okay, all right, well I'll let you introduce yourself and then everyone can introduce and you tell me what we need to know. - Awesome. My name is Stephen Gay and I'm the Director of Water Utilities for the City of Denton. Drinking Water Week is an opportunity to celebrate the vital role that water plays in the everyday lives of our community and the men and women that work tirelessly 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure the reliable, safe delivery of that asset to you. So I'm gonna pass it on to Val. - All right, my name is Val Jean-Bart and I'm the Infrastructure Division Manager and I'm excited to be here and I can't communicate how important water is, y'all, okay? - Hi, I'm Casey Bowles. I'm the Division Manager for Field Operations. - I'm Kim Mankin. I'm the Water Utilities Admin Manager. - I'm Annie Bunger. I'm the Water Management Analyst and I promised my mom I'd say hi to her. - I'm Jewel Lanning and I'm the Contract Control Specialist for Water Utilities. - Daniel Parrish. I'm the Production Manager for our Ray Roberts Water Treatment Plant. Thank y'all. - I'm Gail Meeker. I work in the Wastewater Lab. - What you forgot to say mom's name? - Aurora Jackson. She lives on Neptune Drive. - All right, and you said you have two-- - Yeah, there's two future water operators up there in the back of the room. - Okay, yes, those are great. Fantastic, they're so cute. Okay, well, and then you stepped up things. You got a video going while you're talking. I mean, other future proclamations you gotta have to, yeah, they gotta step up their game. You gotta have videos going. That's great. Well, thank y'all very much, so important. And so it says to all whom these presence shall come, greetings, whereas water is our most valuable natural resource and whereas our only tap water delivers public health protection, fire protection, support for our economy and the quality of life we enjoy. And whereas all measures of successful society, including low mortality rates and economic growth and diversity, productivity, and public safety, and in some way, are in some way related to access to safe water. And whereas we are all stewards of the water infrastructure upon which future generations depend on. And whereas each citizen of our city is called upon to help protect our water sources from pollution, from practice, to practice water conservation, and to get involved in local water related issues. Now therefore, I, Gerard Hutsworth, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas, do hereby proclaim May 1st through the 7th, 2022, as Drink Water Week in the City of Denton and encourage all citizens to drink water often throughout the day and ask for those who are near and ask those who are near and dear to do all the same. Thank you very much. Give him a hand. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. One, two, three. Thank you. One more. Four, five, two, three. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Pleasure. OK. All right. Now we have Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month, if you're here for that. Are you coming down, please? Yes. All right. This is for you to present to Post in your yard for the month. Oh, great. Thank you. Or on a city property. Yeah. I don't want to block him. My name is Kirsten. And I probably don't need this microphone. Just in case. For the millions and millions of people watching. My name is Kirsten Scheidemann. I'm actually the independent rep for Texas ABA. We are a motorcycle safety organization, as well as promote legislation to the benefit of motorcycles. May is Motorcycle Safety and Awareness, but I think every day should be Motorcycle Safety and Awareness, as well for these bicyclists that ride back here, because they get seen as less as I do on my bike. We're asking you to please look out for us. We do not have the protection around us as you do in your vehicles. There's 315,000 motorcycles registered in the state of Texas. Denton County has the largest registered motorcyclist group, owners. We also have the most highest fatalities. We had two over the weekend. One was up by the square. Look for us. Look twice. Look three times. Don't follow too close. It takes a motorcycle a whole length of an 18-wheeler to stop my bike. Otherwise, I'm flying off the handles. Don't ride my butt. Don't follow too close. Give us all a chance. Give all of us a chance. Do the speed limit, even in your vehicle. Use your turn signals. Most vehicle accidents, car or motorcycle, are on a left-hand turn, because you pulled out in front of someone you didn't see. Unfortunately, we wear a little too much black. I don't know why it's a thing. Just look twice. Save a life. Okay. Thank you very much. I heard another person, I think, from a similar group talk about the -- I was surprised. I think it was 31% of accidents happen at red lights, because people don't see the bicycle and hit it while it's stopped. While it's stopped, we are currently trying to get legislation passed, where we, as a motorcycle -- because they don't trip. The lights don't always trip for us. So we're having to sit there and sit there, and people are watching the light and not watching that there's an object. Got it. So we're trying to pass a bill that if the light cycles more than twice and doesn't give me a green light, I can take a left-hand turn. It's usually when we're trying to take a left-hand turn. Got it. Okay. Well, thank you for raising that awareness. That's great. Okay. This is a proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, to all whom these presents shall come greetings, whereas each day more and more citizens are taking part in motorcycling on the roads of our country, and whereas cyclists are roughly unprotected and therefore more prone to injury or death in a crash than other vehicle drivers, and whereas campaigns help inform riders and motorcyclists alike on motorcycle safety issues in order to reduce motorcycle-related risk injuries and most of all fatalities through a comprehensive approach to motorcycle safety, and whereas it is the responsibility of all who put themselves behind the wheel to become aware of motorcyclists granting them the same respect in any other vehicle traveling the highways of this country. It is also the responsibility of riders and motorcyclists alike to obey all traffic laws and safety rules, and whereas we urge all citizens in our community to become aware of the inherent danger involved in operating a motorcycle and for riders and motorcyclists alike to give each other the mutual respect they deserve. Now, therefore, I, Gerard Hutzbeth, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the month of May 2022 as Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month in the City of Denton and encourage all residents to do their part to increase motorcycle safety awareness in our community. If we can give them a hand. [applause] Yes, yeah, for sure. I'll get with you. I'll send it to you directly. Okay. One, two, three. Thank you. Mayor, if you could put this on the City's social media. Sure. We certainly will. Thank you. All right. [inaudible] [laughter] Did she help, though? Did she? Did Mom help? Yeah, yeah, she helped. Okay. But it was, yeah, she made some bad decisions. Oh, man, it's awful. Nice meeting you. You're doing good. Thank you very much. I appreciate you saying so. Go Broncos. Yeah. Well, jeez, thank you. Oh, didn't I, Broncos? Yeah. Oh, didn't I? Yeah, yeah, yeah. She wasn't into that. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate you. Yeah, no problem. Thank you. [inaudible] Got it. I'll do it. Thank you very much. [inaudible] You can leave it. We'll put it out. We'll put it out front somewhere. Awesome. We'll just stick it on City property. That'll work. Yeah. [laughter] That'll be good. Okay. Let's see. So this is a proclamation for National Police Officer Memorial Day. Is there anyone here to ... Yes. [inaudible] Thank you very much. [inaudible] Now remind me your name again. One more time. What? Your name again. [inaudible] Yes. Oh, thank you. All right. Okay. Chief, introduce yourself. [laughter] Frank Dixon, Assistant City Manager and Chief of Police. And we're here to gratefully, very gratefully accept this proclamation. Since about 1796, there's been over 25,000 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. So far this year, there's been 101 in the country, 23 of those right here in the state of Texas. The next closest state to us is Alabama with six. So we really take this to heart. And next week, we'll be traveling to Washington, D.C. to be adding Detective Rodney Mooneyham on the memorial for us. Hi, my name is Chris Womack. I'm Crime Analyst for the City of Denton and have enjoyed researching all of the history of our department and those who have been fallen in the line of duty. I'm Paul Womack, Deputy Chief of Support Services for the department. Recently had a job change. [laughter] Officer Ryan Greeley, Patrol and also Honor Guard member. Bobby Smith, Assistant Chief of Police. And I just wanted to recognize guys like Ryan, he's going to be going out there next week representing our department. And they do just a spectacular job. I've actually get to see that in real life. And it's a tremendous honor to be there when they, you know, they honor our folks that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, Texas to all whom these presence shall come greetings. In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week of May 15th as National Police Week. Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others. Whereas the International Association of Chiefs of Police have declared law enforcement officers safety and wellness a top priority. And the IACP's Center for Officer Safety and Wellness promotes the importance of individual agencies, family, and community safety and wellness awareness. And whereas the members of the Denton Police Department play an essential role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Denton. And whereas it is important that all citizens know and understand the difficulties, duties, and responsibilities their police department face on a daily basis. And the members of our police department recognize their duty to serve the people by safeguarding the lives and property by protecting the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression and intimidation, and the peaceful against violence and disorder. And whereas the Denton Police Department is a progressive and professional law enforcement agency that continuously provides a vital police service. Now therefore I, Gerard Hutpeth, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim May 15, 2022 as National Police Officer Memorial Day in the City of Denton and call upon all citizens of Denton to honor those police officers who through their courageous deeds have lost their lives or have become disabled in the performance of duty. I further call upon the citizens to observe the week of May 15 through 21st, 2022 as National Police Week. If we can give them a hand. Great. Thank you very much for that. That takes us to get there sorry bear with me one moment. Presentation from the public if we could play the video please. The Denton City Council has adopted rules of procedure, including a code of conduct that applies to the public, as well as council members. These rules were enacted to promote an orderly process and to preserve decorum speakers will have four minutes to give a scheduled report and four minutes to give an open mic report. A bell will ring when time is expired. If their marks are not concluded by that time, the speaker will be asked to stop speaking. If the speaker does not cease and a second request is made, the mayor may request to have the speaker removed from the chamber speakers should not approach the dais. If a speaker has materials for the council, please notify the city secretary in advance. For scheduled reports, the council may initiate discussion or ask questions for non scheduled open mic reports, the council may listen. However, because no notice of the subject of the open mic report has been provided to the public in advance, the Texas Open Meetings Act prohibits discussion or decision by the council on non scheduled items. As a result, the council may only proceed as follows on non scheduled items proposed to place the item on a future agenda. Make a statement of factual policy or a recitation of existing policy speakers are asked to direct all remarks and questions to the council as a whole, and not to any individual member. Please refrain from making abusive, personal, impertinent, profane, or slanderous remarks. Anyone who violates the council rules of procedure may be immediately removed from the chamber. Thank you in advance. Copies of the rules of procedure are available from the city secretary. Okay, thank you. So the first person on the agenda is Wanda Bowman. Wanda Bowman. Okay, we'll come back to that. Steven Dillenberg. Okay, you can come down. Give your name and address. You'll have four minutes. Yes, thank you. My name is Steven Dillenberg. I've got a video to play first. So if you guys play that. Okay, thank you. Thank you. The video may be difficult to watch. Florida Gators start Yonti Johnson collapsing. But definitely not normal. On mile eight, she suddenly felt fuzzy and blacked out. 17 year old Ryan Jacobs heart stopped. Unexpectedly collapsed on the field. Megan went into cardiac arrest. Collapsing during Friday night's football game. The reason for his collapse is unknown. The reason why Manny collapsed in the first place still isn't known. What is causing these vaccine injuries? Dr. McCulloch, I mean, you certainly understand about myocarditis. There's unprecedented non-fatal injuries in the same data system. And then when we look outside and we look in the yellow card system in the UK, we say the same thing. And we look in the uterus system in the EU, we do the same thing. We have just fulfilled the Bradford Hill tenets of causality. Meaning, I am telling you, as an epidemiologist, the vaccines are causing these fatal and non-fatal events to a large degree. And many of those skilled around the table, I'm sure would agree. The vaccines, all the vaccines in use in the United States and predominantly across the world, use genetic technologies that harness the body's own cells to produce the protein on the surface of the virus, the spike protein, which is acknowledged to be dangerous. This is the first time in human medicine that we have an uncontrolled exposure for an uncontrolled duration and quantity in the human body in a mosaic of cells. And to make matters worse, the vehicle that carries these genetic products into the human body goes into vital organs. And it's unprecedented that we've ever exposed a single human, let alone hundreds of millions of people, to this form of technology. And I published an op-ed before these were ever released saying it was a gamble. I knew it was a gamble. I knew based as a clinician and one expert in clinical trials and safety. This is different than the story that we're told. And this story is not allowed to be told. In fact, I was deplatformed from next door for telling this story. And this is just facts. This is an expert, an epidemiologist, that is saying that the vaccines are doing this. And you guys have told us to take this vaccine. It almost killed my mother. Six days after her vaccination, she was one of 3638 Texan Medicare recipients that had a stroke, 13% of whom did not survive. This is not normal. It's not okay. And our community is in danger and we need your help. Stop telling people to take this. Investigate it. Have you guys pulled the community and asked them, like I asked you to, if people have had injuries that were reported? Because the AMA has told doctors that if they even treat a vaccine injury or if they report it to VAERS, their licenses will be pulled for review. Okay? That's scary. And I'm bringing this to y'all's attention because we need some help. All right? That's it. All right. I'm going to leave it there tonight. Y'all have a copy of this. I'm going to ask y'all to do something with this affidavit that was provided to y'all. And that's it. Thank y'all. Thank you. Okay. The next speaker is Nick Stevens. how's it going hey very well thank you if you could give your name and address you'll have four minutes thank you my name is Nick Stevens I'm at 417 Amarillo Street I'll be pretty brief I know we're in the middle of a contentious election right now but I didn't want to lose sight of a big loss that the city's gonna experience next week and that's the loss of the bar mentor on council and so there are a few individuals that wanted to use the open microphone opportunity tonight just as a measure to thank her for all the work that she's done and I'm sure you all know all of it already but over the past week I've been thinking about all the different things that she's done whether she failed or succeeded that brought more people into government conversation got more people active in what you talk about every single week and I wrote down some of them because I wouldn't be able to remember them all and it's just a matter of her listening to folks who need help access to water at the green tree states partnering with the human rights campaign pushing for the NDO and pride flags at the city fighting for increased wages for city staff fighting for increased homestead exemptions for homeowners police oversight and accountability banning no-knock warrants all which we still need you to do and cannabis decriminalization and that's something that is true to form with who councilmember Armitier is it's that when it failed in a work session she didn't just stop she got back up dusted off her shoes she teamed up with community advocates and organizers and started a petition to allow the residents to vote on it themselves that's who Deb is and she constantly does it every single week two weeks ago she did it with no bus cuts debt and trying to pass a resolution just today she did it with trying to pass a Medicare for all resolution all because she listened to people in the city who wanted help and sort of close if and I ask that you do take me seriously here I would ask that maybe you consider why she's always been so successful why everyone loves her so much why as I constantly remind you she's gotten more votes than anyone ever in Denton history it's because she listens to people she listens to people and that's a low bar that's a low bar but she does it and she does it well councilmember Davis I'm gonna use a quote from you if you don't mind if something you said about her you said Deb has always given absolutely everything she has to serve her constituents and do her duty in the way she feels best she truly loves this town and the people in it it's something I'm proud that we have shared together even when our perspectives and approaches differ and I think that's very spot-on with who you are I'm honored that you were my councilmember for four years and over the period of time I'm honored to have considered you one of my best friends and so the word of advice I would like to give people that are running for office even now is if you notice about the elections or the campaigns that Deb ran they weren't partisan they weren't pitting people against one another they weren't dividing communities they weren't nasty mailers trashing your opponent her campaigns were constantly full of optimism and joy and inclusiveness and fun and love and that's how she won and so I hope that that's something that y'all will actually take to heart because that's been pressing on me especially in the past few weeks with all the mailers I keep getting so councilmember Armature just on behalf of myself and tens of thousands of residents I want to thank you for everything that you've done and I'm looking forward to the example you've set of how many other people are going to be running for council in years to come to fill your shoes so thank you thank you that takes us to Deanna Leggett okay Chris Watts okay if you could give your name and address you'll have four minutes sure let me get this started yes mayor and council Chris Watts did in Texas I'm here to speak concerning councilmember Meltzer's misappropriation of the city secretary Terry's notary seal without permission or authority for his private political purpose it is clear that councilmember Meltzer does not believe he has done anything wrong I disagree with that he's used city property for his private political matter and may possibly be in violation of the Dent City Code of Ethics mr. Villarreal who was paid $12,000 by councilmember Meltzer has said on social media that this issue has been all trumped up and it sort of mocked the harm done to the city secretary I simply asked that mr. Villarreal needs to resign from the planning and zoning Commission his appointment was under false pretense due to councilmember Meltzer's failure to disclose to his colleagues his payment one day prior to the vote he is unable to be objective and unbiased he has disrespected the deliberative process of the Commission and his fellow commissioners another supporter suggested there are more important issues in the city of Denton than this one and I disagree this isn't about external public policy but about internal values character honesty respect and integrity these values seem to be absent in the treatment of the city secretary councilmember Meltzer explored the imbalance of power between council members and city staff which exists by its mere uh default by disrespecting her notary seal without her permission or with or without authority the notary seal is an important component of her job who can she turn to to file a complaint human resources the city manager there's no redress thus the imbalance of power politicians know the risk when entering the political arena we do it willingly understanding attacks are part of the process councilmember Meltzer has involuntary place the city secretary into the political arena against her will by using her notary seal on campaign mailers he exposed the city secretary to possible revocation of her notary seal and of legal liability as a manager councilmember understands councilmember Meltzer understands the importance of trust and respect a leader must foster in those he or she leads if councilmember Meltzer were working for a private or public company and committed such acts he would be fired on the spot so I asked the question does it make didn't better when councilmember Meltzer pays $12,000 to Jordan Villarreal who thinks the misappropriation of the city secretary notary seal is a joke does it make didn't better when councilmember Meltzer makes the payment one day before zoning commission without disclosing said payment to his council colleagues does it make didn't better for councilmember Meltzer to use taxpayer dollars i.e. the city seal notary seal with the secretary's seal which is paid for by the city for private political purpose madam city secretary I want to apologize for behavior of one of my past colleagues I want to apologize for the disrespect he's shown you by using your notary seal without your permission and authority I want to apologize for the decisions made that demonstrate a disregard of the impact of those decisions on your reputation and your profession you're an integral part of the city of Denton you perform your job well and take painstaking effort to remain neutral in all activities you did not deserve to be thrust into this crazy political arena involuntarily thank you mayor okay next is Eva Greco mayor you can give your name and address I requested to speak and to recite policy which is one of the three things we can do state your policy give me one moment all right the policy is that members of council including myself after someone speaks can't say anything back when it's an on when it's an item that hasn't been posted before can't reply can't explain can't give contacts can't refute thank you even if you give your name and address you'll have four minutes 802 West Oak Street here in Denton I I'm almost speechless by what I've just heard not the first speaker but the this speaker now um kind of what I got to say to that is how's it feel you get a taste of your own medicine because a lot of what he speaks about other people is what he has in the past and currently practices his self okay and it's been evidenced quite clearly in the last few years in the five and a half years I have been a resident of the city of Dan but I guess some people never change I'll go back to the first speaker he made my part I'm getting so choked up um Deb I can never never thank you for all you have done not just for me okay as far as being a friend tutor just just amazing you've guided me you've helped me figure things out as a council member and as a friend um and I know I repeat everything that first gentleman said I love you with all my heart I love you and thank you for all your service um to the city and the citizens of this city okay whoo something I just added in tonight is this new quote-unquote public entrance I came to a meeting last month okay nobody said anything the doors locked you had to walk all the way around all right um that's the most commonly used building I mean door to this building and it was locked during break tonight well after closed session we're on break and I was outside and there were a group of senior citizens they left already um they were from the prayer group actually and there saw the signs if they're standing they're looking very confused okay where is the entrance I did speak what Ryan last last month and he explained why that door is locked I get it but you got a website you want us to vote for you you can't even put this on your website and let the citizens know make them aware of it instead of inconveniencing the citizens come on people you want us to vote for you but a simple thing like this I mean you put so many things on the city website that really we don't care about but this is something that affects us physically for a lot of people um and and please put something on the on the website it's not too late you still need to put something on the website all right next item my understanding that mayor and council work together they certain council person may select a topic I'm sorry all right thank you ladies and gentlemen you correct me where I enunciated that wrong please it's Mariela no news chains I'm at 3449 Lake Country Drive here in Denton good evening when as notches I don't usually come to city council meetings I come very few times and usually when I do come I have something to say and I'm not in the business of taking the mic just because I can take the mic I usually ask you to do things but tonight I'm not gonna do that I'm gonna talk about what you have done and I'm gonna do that by highlighting the legacy and the work of the bar mentor who has been a model representative of our community and who in the 19 years that I have made Denton my home has made me and other Latinx immigrant residents of Denton who also call the city our home feel like we belong and it's not just me hopefully I'll get a chance to read an email from some other folks that really think about the same thing but here are just two things that I want to share with you about her legacy and how that is an example for all of you who are here and those who maybe will be filling in her shoes Deb represents all Denton residents in action is not rhetoric it's not just words it's with her actions I witnessed that firsthand when she called me to ask for help with green tree unlike any other representative sitting here and who had the privilege to sit here before she did not speak for the residents of green tree she spoke with them and she was the only council member who went to one of their homes and spent an evening there to see what it was like to live without drinkable water ironic that we had a proclamation tonight just about that and that at that time it took a city council member to go to our community members homes to be able to make a case for drinkable water for a community that had remained invisible until then she has been able to get important urgent information not just translated in the website and translated in city communications from English to Spanish but communicated in a way that people understand and that happened during green tree it happened during COVID 19 years it has taken me for me to see that right in a city where we have over 22% Latin X community she hears and she listens and she listens with an open mind and an open heart and ultimately for me she has democratized this council so these chambers have become our chambers so much a cutting of total corazón thank you so much that thank you and David lady yes I'm sorry David oh is it okay maybe I got it wrong okay then I have one caller then yes you're right sorry we've got all the blue cards running together up then we have a caller is that right good they them hello hello yes if you give your name and address you'll have four minutes yes my name is Elba Hernandez my address is 6509 we don't blame then don't take us six two oh nine two eight sorry ah excuse me I can't they interpret the Mariela Nunez is in the audience here sure if you could please so if you could reset the timer to eight minutes no okay go right here yeah she can hear me right okay okay Good afternoon everyone my name is Elba Hernandez the reason for my call is to thank everyone but in especial to Deb Armiton for su apoyo incondicional and especially Deb Armitor for her unconditional support that she gave us when we most needed it during the time that we had trouble with our drinking water at Green Tree Estates. Deb is gonna leave an empty spot that will be hard to fill and I hope that there is somebody like you that will fill that spot. Because people like you is what we need. Deb I'm sorry to see you go. But you know your reasons. Thank you for all the attention that we got from you. May God bless you and your family. Thank you Deb. Okay that takes us to our consent agenda. I'll take a motion but for items W X Y and R which were pulled. Councilman McGuire. I move approval of the consent agenda accepting items R W X and Y. Okay Councilor Davis. I'll second. Thank you. I have a motion by Councilmember McGuire second by Councilmember Davis for the consent agenda but for W X Y and R. Let's any discussion? Seeing none let's vote on the screen. Then that passes seven to zero. Let's start with our item R and let me get there to call that sorry. It's ID 22912 consider adoption of ordinance of the City of Denton Texas Home Rule Municipal Corporation authorizing approval of a first amendment to the professional services agreement between City of Denton and Kimberly Horne and Associates Inc. I'm Robin Davis project manager for capital projects on this project. So I'm not sure of the specific questions that you might have had. So if you just want to go through the. It's Councilmember. That'd be great. Bird I think. Is that okay? No okay. Yeah I thought this is very interesting and that that the general public would like to see it. So just and I think what you have here is fine. Just what's planned? So what we are doing here we've already approved the the original professional service agreement with Kimberly Horne and Associates. So we have an original project scope that is the green line here that you see. It's a ten foot side paths. Yes ma'am. The green line on Sycamore is a ten foot side path which is includes a bike lane and pedestrian path together. And then this line over here on Welch Street is a bike lane. That will just be an extension of the bike lane that's already on that street from Hickory. It'll be extended up to I'm sorry Eagle. It'll be extended up to Hickory. So that was the original scope. It also included the signal modifications at Carroll Boulevard. So when we got into design we realized that these intersections that are circled the signals that are there now are so old that they don't they can't accommodate any pedestrian modifications or upgrades for the signals that are needed for the pedestrian path. So we need to add that and we need to add that to the project to make sure that those signals can be improved to accept pedestrian modifications. And then the other one down here near a DCTA. As you know this corridor has a UPRR Quiet Zone project that's going on. So the DCTA crossing is only about 500 feet away and we need to make that also a quiet zone crossing for the DCTA tracks. So that's what we're asking to do with this project. Okay. Mayor Pro Tem. Yeah actually I can ask a question. Sure. Thanks. So when you say that the signals are too old to accommodate pedestrians, so when there are new signals there it'll sense a pedestrian present? Is it that type of thing? Yes. So the new signals they'll be the new signals will be installed, the traffic signals and the poles and everything that will accommodate all the pedestrian. I don't know the legal terms or the traffic terminology for that stuff. That's exactly what we're doing, yeah. It'll sense that you're there to know. Yes, it'll have also bicycle radar and things like that on it as well. Bicycle radar. Great. Thank you. I move approval. Okay. Councilmember Armitage. I second that. Okay we have a motion and a second. Any other discussion? Seeing none, let's vote on the screen. That passes 7-0. Thank you. Takes us to item W and let the record reflect that councilmembers Davis, McGuire and Armitage have recused themselves. I'll call W ID 22902 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton authorizing the city manager execute a service agreement related to public education government grants with the University of Noe, Texas for its NTTV PEG channel. Councilmember Beck. I move approval of item W. Councilmember Byrd. There's a second. So there's a motion by Councilmember Beck, second by Councilmember Byrd. Discussion? Seeing none, let's vote on the screen. That passes 4-0. With the same recusals I'll call item X which is ID 22903 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton authorizing the city manager to execute a service agreement related to public education and government grants with the Denton Independent School District for its PEG channel. Councilmember Beck. I move approval. Councilmember Byrd. Motion by Councilmember Beck, second by Councilmember Byrd. Any discussion? Seeing none, let's vote on the screen. That passes 4-0. Takes us to our last item with the same recusals. It's ID 22904 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton authorizing the city manager to execute a service agreement related to public education government grants with the University of Noe, Texas for its Denton community television PEG channel. Councilmember Beck. I move approval of this one as well. Thank you. Councilmember Byrd. Okay. We have a motion by Councilmember Beck, second by Councilmember Byrd. Any other discussion? Seeing none, let's vote on the screen. And that passes 4-0 as well. We'll let the other members join us. We'll move to our public hearings. There's just one tonight and that's item A which is ID 22356. Hold a public hearing. Consider approval of a resolution of the City Council and City of Denton, Texas adopting the establishment of policies, guidelines, and criteria governing the tax abatements and declaring an effective date. The Economic Development Partnership Board recommends approval 7-0. Okay. Good evening. My name is Erica Sullivan. I'm the Economic Development Program Administrator here at the City. I'll be providing a presentation on tax abatement policy. It seems to be frozen. I don't know if someone can assist me with this. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Thank you. Our objective today is hold a public hearing. Consider approval of a resolution adopting the Denton tax abatement policy. Some tax abatement considerations. Chapter 312 of the Texas Tax Code requires the governing body to adopt guidelines and criteria governing tax abatements in order to be eligible to grant tax abatements. The policy is effective for two years and during the two-year period the policy can only be amended or repealed by a super majority. Governing body must hold a public hearing regarding the proposed policy. I'll go over five items today regarding tax abatement, the policy history, council direction, the strategic growth areas, incentive evaluation matrix, as well as living wage consideration. We'll begin with the policy history. The first tax abatement policy was approved in 1989. The policy was updated to include green incentives in 2010 and also in 2012. It was broadened to apply to chapter 380 and offered cash grants in 2014. Retail was addressed, definitions were added, and the investment fund and aircraft programs were incorporated into the policy under one umbrella in 2018 and then most recently approved in 2020 with no significant changes as we were working on a new strategic plan. The proposed changes, the summary of the changes to the tax abatement policy that was presented to council in March during the work session is to incorporate the city's values, provide a framework through the strategic plans, five guiding principles, structure policies around the three major goals of the strategic plan, replace the targeted industry sectors with strategic growth areas from the strategic plan, add strategic plan definitions for better clarity, align public benefit priority considerations with the strategic plan and council priorities, and then provide an incentive matrix, address due diligence, and finally update census maps. Council direction, council directed staff during the March meeting to include additional industry codes into the strategic growth area. The first is 7-11 for performing arts and the second is 5-12 music production publication and this is done to the creative sector section of the strategic growth areas. The council also requested an additional consideration to encourage minimum and/or living wage for all new employees to the policy and to the matrix. The strategic growth area that I mentioned creative, this is where these two fall under. You will see the different components with that as well as 5-12 music production publication and 7-11 performing arts. The evaluation matrix is the next section. This is the matrix. I will go over it individually. The first section has not been changed since the March meeting. The red areas are what the EDP recommended to council in March. The second section hasn't changed except for the point structure because this is the first half of the priority considerations the change occurs in the next slide. This slide represents the change that council requested to encourage a living wage for all new employees and this will be done from the most current MIT living wage calculation that was proposed by the economic development partnership board which we'll go into in more detail later. You can see that the economic development partnership board had also requested three sample projects, a capital sample that had previously funded, an expansion sample and an entrepreneur tech sample and so those have also been evaluated with the tech entrepreneur sample having the highest wages and scoring the most points in that area. The public benefits section has not been changed. It was the same recommendation made by EDP in red from the March work session to council. And then finally we have the total by category which has changed slightly because of the additional scores for that living wage consideration. Moving on to the living wage consideration itself. During the March meeting the work session council had some requests to encourage a living wage. The request that was made was for all new employees of at least 21 hour. I've provided it annually as well for your convenience and then a threshold of a minimum hourly wage of 15 per hour was also suggested. Then you can see that there's a table highlighting these by annual and hourly both a threshold and a living wage. Some general basic information is good to provide as we move forward. The living wage consideration, we're providing a table with the Denton County average and median wages to begin the discussion. Then we have the living wage consideration. This is an MIT calculation for the state of Texas. It's done at three levels. It's done for the state, for the MSA, and for the county. The most conservative of all those levels was the state level. And the EDP board made a recommendation in the first row under living wage and they proposed the ones that are highlighted from 0 to 2 for one adult, two adults, and then two adults both working all the way to 2240. They also looked at HUD considerations with income limits but not a living wage and Texas Workforce Commission also as well for income limits not a living wage and then several comps that are provided in the AIS as well. This has been updated from the data that was presented to the EDP board that was compiled prior and the recent update has been incorporated into this presentation. They updated in the first quarter annually. So this is it summarized just isolating the recommendation taking out the three children that the EDP board didn't recommend. So encouraging a living wage with again the updated wages that the EDP board didn't have but have now been updated and so the most current data is available for the council. Encouraging a living wage for all new employees in accordance with the current living wage from one adult and zero children to two adults and two children again from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology living wage calculator for Texas. So the recommendations the EDP reviewed and concurred with the council's recommendation recommended policy changes with a recommendation that council include a living wage from the most current as this will change when we have a policy for every two years as they updated annually. MIT living wage calculation for Texas from one adult and zero children to two adults with two children and the vote was 7-0. The recommendation is that council approved the tax abatement policy and supporting documents with the proposed changes from the EDP and City Council. I'm happy to entertain questions. Okay thank you I'll open the public hearing. Councilor Beck. Thank you I appreciate that. As we talked about in the hallway and then for the public benefit and benefit of the councilors there's also the Denton County MIT living wage calculator and so I'm going to encourage us as we go through our deliberation to maybe utilize the Denton County values rather than the Texas at-large in our final whatever motion whoever gets to make it makes I'm going to encourage that. I did have one question and I don't I apologize for not seeing it in all the presentations before but can can you convert into English for me both staff and board evaluation to be conducted and presented with a recommendation from the EDPB to City Council as one of the recommendations? Can you can you explain to me what that sort of means in in the recommendations? Okay so in February the Economic Development Partnership Board was presented with the economic development policies aligning the new policies to the strategic plan and a summary of those changes that we first discussed. In March there was a work session to City Council and so that was brought forward to this board. There were recommended changes from City Council that were again brought back to the Economic Development Partnership Board in April. So the Economic Development Partnership Board concurred so they agreed with the council's recommended policy changes particularly the industry codes that that the council had suggested and recommended the council include a living wage from the current MIT living wage calculation from Texas from one adult and zero children to two adults from with two children. They looked at a number of things remember the Economic Development Partnership Board is composed of top taxpayers aviation different members of the business community top taxpayers for example and so they looked at a lot of data and tried to make a recommendation from that so they looked at HUD they looked at MIT living wage calculator they also looked at some comps from other cities in Texas and this is the recommendation that the Economic Development Partnership Board made. And so if I might parse that a little bit that this simply indicating that the EDPB is recommending that we follow the combined guidance of all the prior events is pretty much what that statement yes it's been building since February so that I just want I mean I that's how I interpreted it but I wanted to be clear on what that was thank you. And to your point I do also have the other calculation at the different level. Some reason it doesn't want to make it larger. Oh sorry I wasn't looking at the whole screen. So I'm here are the MIT living wage for Denton County that was mentioned here. We chose Texas and the recommendation was Texas but if the council so chooses we can change that to Denton County it is a little bit higher in Denton County and the MSA being kind of in between so that's another option as well. Okay any other questions? Seeing none this is a public hearing so if there's anyone wants to speak they can speak just need to fill out the card after the fact. Seeing no one moving I'm going to close the public hearing I'll take a motion. Councilor Beck? I move approval of the item with the exception to use the Denton County MIT concurrent values rather than the Texas-wide. Councilor Davis? I'll second. Thank you we have a motion by council member Davis. Any discussion? I have one question. Did the EDP board see the Denton County numbers and just okay perfect okay got it. Councilor Armitage? Yeah so I'm gonna be voting yes to this and I it might be the very first incarnation of economic development policy that I've actually voted yes to I'm not sure but and seeing the how seriously the board has taken council's insistence on living wage and with and I appreciate councilmember Beck's recommendation and councilmember Davis is second of inclusion of specifically the Denton County data from the MIT living wage calculator that's that's really a big deal a big step forward and and even though you know as I've said before I would much prefer this to be in a rather than just something you get extra points for I would prefer for it to be a deal maker or deal breaker you know living wage no living wage and you know you don't it don't even get considered but that's not what we have and were I to stay on council which which I'm not and that's you know it's and that would be my own personal metric to you know to vote yes or no it would continue to be but I just want to acknowledge this is really a big step forward and to thank the thought that everybody put into it I'm really glad it's there and we can only only move forward as a city from here so thanks thanks to everyone who was involved in this this progress sorry councilman Davis thank you mayor yeah I just wanted to kind of hit on something you mentioned mayor that the EDPB did not have the the Denton County numbers they had lots of different metrics to look at but I think what was really important in that conversation was you had people from a broad cross-section of the community that's how we structure that board right and they were initially somewhat skeptical of the idea because they are skeptical of the data but once they had the data once they saw there was something that could one be a range that fit different circumstances that a firm applying for one of these incentives could fall within a range and that that range was based on data that we didn't have to put a certain number into the chart that we could call back to a calculation that are reputable a university affiliated research group produces annually that made them much more comfortable I think with the whole idea that it's not just kind of back of the envelope math it's actual data that's produced accumulated crunched and that we can reference back to and that we don't have to revisit that number every year with the fluctuating economy inflation all that kind of stuff so I wanted to kind of speak out on or speak up on behalf of the board that they spent a long time and as a council member being on that board is very careful and how I participated in that conversation because I wanted to get their their honest feedback and once they had a grip on the idea and had some good solid data they they had a robust conversation I think it was very productive so one thing I'm going to take forward from this as a council member is that for me when it comes down an economic incentive this particular item on the chart may or may not be a deal-breaker a deal-maker it'll be evaluated within the context but if it is a deal-breaker a deal-maker for someone it's available for them to reference it it'll be there it'll be data that we have it'll also be data for that those of us who find it important but maybe not the most important factor in a particular type of incentive depending on the industry or the firm we can evaluate it in the right context with you know with solid reputable industry or what's the word I'm looking for but widely accepted data that the economic development industry lots of different firms rely upon okay thank you anyone else seeing none we have motion by councilman Beck second by council member Davis let's vote on the screen passes 7-0 thank you very much Texas that's our last and only public hearing takes us to items for individual consideration item a ID 2 2 3 5 7 consider approval of a resolution of the city of Denton pardon me resolution of the City Council of the city of Denton Texas adopting the established policies guidelines and criteria governing chapter 380 incentives declaring an effective date Erica Sullivan again economic development program administrator this time I'll be presenting the chapter 380 policy this is the first chapter 380 policy standalone that we've had so the objective is to consider approval of a resolution adopting the Denton chapter 380 policy we will be moving a little more quickly because a lot of the items are similar to the previous items so we'll go over the proposed changes council direction strategic growth areas incentive evaluation matrix and then the living wage recommendation this slide summarizes the changes to both policies which you saw in the last presentation this slide summarizes the changes that are specific to the chapter 380 policy so we've now included the entrepreneur program and our job-based grants provided job based grant definitions and a stratified job based grant table we've made the necessary third-party verification updates to the based aircraft grant summary in the policy and retain definitions pertaining to sales and use tax council direction again this would be the two industry codes 7-eleven performing arts and 512 music production publication to the creative SGA and then adding the consideration to encourage a living wage for all new employees to the policies and matrix the valuation matrix itself and only the slide that includes the change which is to encourage a living wage for all new employees for the most current MIT wage calculation that will now be for Denton County and again the updated wages are presented here but it is for Texas and not Denton County will be utilizing that and the recommendation the EDP board again reviewed and concurred with councils recommendation and the policy changes that the council made and the recommendation from the economic development partnership board is that the council include a living wage for the most current MIT living wage calculation for Texas which is council is decided from the last policy for Denton from one adult and zero children to two adults with two children so we recommend the council approved the chapter 380 policy and supporting documents with the proposed changes from EDP and council okay any questions for staff seeing none I'll take a motion all right counselor back it's just as a point of procedure do we have to make that same motion we end up with Texas versus Denton County so we I'm whoever makes it needs to make the same amendment yes okay Councilmember Guara I move approval of the chapter 380 policy with the amendment that it used the most current MIT living wage calculation for Denton County oh and well let me do back up we have is it is this the items they have it for 6a is that is that right I don't think that's right right okay I'll adjust it here sorry okay counselor so most of our counselor were counselor Davis second thank you okay got a motion by counselor wire second by counselor Davis discussion seeing none let's vote on the screen that passes seven zero thank you that takes item B ID 22254 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of in Texas amending chapter 22 parks and recreation by replacing the text of article 3 park dedication with the updated text providing new fees dedication requirements for park land dedication or payment of cash in lieu of condition of subdivisions plat approval and providing for payment of park development fees and condition to building permit issuance in order to provide for the necessary park development providing for an effective date Mayor City Council Gary pack and director of parks and recreation back March 1st we provided a work session update in regards to proposed changes for our parkland dedication and development ordinance more commonly referred to by staff as 9 15 16 just for a translation from staff lingo just some updates that we wanted to share with you we did have the conversation and some email communication back and forth the Dallas Builders Association in regards to some of their feedback we did make those adjustments we reduced acreage on our irrigation within our proposed development costs for the parks we reduced the percentage of architect design fees from 12 to 10 percent we reduced the contract profit from 15 to 10 percent we were pricing this as if we were building the park so we had to add in some profit somewhere for the private sector assuming they're making a profit so we call that out in a separate line item provided clarifying language to existing residents residential homes for example if a house is being renovated or if a house is torn down and another one's built in this place they would not be subject to the fee but if a house is torn down in a hundred apartment units would be 99 of those units would be subject to the fee we did add formulas into the ordinance so it's easier to to view and to identify as a result of the changes above the single-family unit one from 2753 down to 2515 and the multifamily one from 1906 down to 1741 the approach just to summarize here we did have a focus group that we worked with through this development process we did attend and present a number of our town halls for developers we as well as City Council and we did have communication with the Dallas Dallas Builders Association which is included in your packet the proposed updates as as shared the item that's highlighted here the three hundred and twenty four thousand dollars four hundred three hundred and twenty four thousand four hundred twelve dollars is the average cost for development per acre that was reduced from three hundred and fifty five thousand approximately in some change based on the changes that I shared an earlier slide and then from the proposed again the three hundred twenty four thousand dollars is the average development cost per acre that is determined based on our service level to cost to build an average neighborhood park in community park the proposed fees one of the changes the major change that in this ordinance is if you remember in the 1998 ordinance that that was based on a one mile radius around from that development occurring that created some inherent challenges on utilization of that fee and having enough in critical mass in order to use it effectively without supplementing with alternative sources this moves to zones so we have five zones and the fees collected could be used in any one of those zones again highlighting the two thousand five hundred and fifteen single family dwelling unit is the reduced fee that was adjusted from present from us presenting in March 1st and the one thousand seven hundred forty one dollar for multifamily that change this is a comparison to share with you based off a three hundred ninety units the current assessment would be two point seven three acres of land dedication or a fee in lieu of twenty two thousand one hundred eighty six dollars the development fee would be a hundred and thirteen thousand dollars four hundred ninety the proposed fee as presented would be slightly higher in the land dedication a little over three acres the fee in lieu of if they chose to pay instead of providing the land would be a hundred and sixty nine thousand dollars and the development fee is nine hundred eighty thousand dollars so you can see the difference there of point two nine or eight hundred sixty seven thousand dollars based on the new methodology presented in the chapter we recommend this timeline would be this would be approved implementation implementation timeline the ordinance would be effective August 1st that would give any development in the process that could get their preliminary platin and be grandfathered into the existing fees the new fees of any new development after August 1st would be effective to the new fees with that I'm hoping there any questions okay questions for staff councilman back thank you mr. mayor one of the things I particularly liked about the proposals as I've seen it develop was it was clear that this was from the cost it takes us to develop a piece a parcel for you for for your department to develop a parcel and then all the other ancillary formula is just sort of descended from from those costs it seemed the formula was nice it was robust to variation so two questions on that I guess I'm a little slightly confused about the 350 to 324 change in the cost of development park and then following on from that and I think you'll be able to answer at the same time so I'll ask it at the same time is as the cost to develop park increases are we at a static level at 324 so the changes the reason why it went down on the average is these adjustments here so we originally had the entire park irrigated based on acreage and we reduced that to a percentage realizing that we're not irrigating the entire neighborhood part just maybe hot point you know a quarter of 20% on the average so that reduced it the percentage of architect fees we reduce that reduced the percentage of profit so that reduced the cost to develop in the neighborhood park in the community park so that's why the average dropped and then realizing that this hasn't been updated since 1998 we want to get into a cycle of reevaluating this every three years so as that process we will look at the DCAD values for the property make adjustments there make adjustments on the cost to develop the community or neighborhood park reevaluate those and then plug all that into the formula to spit out the new numbers and the updated fees and so you'll be bringing those back to us for reevaluation every three years okay it could be sooner but that's that's kind of what we've put in motion that we need to come every three years so we have some consistency all right thank you councilor Davis thank you mayor what would a phased approach look like it I mean it's mentioned in the in the backup materials that that's possible to do what would that practically look like it's but taking into account what you just said that we want to look at this every three years for updates yep you know based off council direction we surely could could go in that direction that would we could identify that based off of the let's say for example the single family is $2,500 we'd say we're gonna bring it to 75% of that realizing that after 24 years it is a big jump to get to the full cost of a park construction so we could set parameters in there to say it's 70% 80% 90% 100% over the course of three or four years we could set it in three-year increments to get to 100% is a totally an option the downside of that is this longer that we're not gonna have enough funding to build those parks so we will have to subsidize it so that's I guess basically the outcome of that but that is a possibility I'm looking at some of the pier cities in exhibit 9 and I'm wondering if the backup material talked about pier cities in terms of the fee cities that charge that would that charge a similar fee or more but when you look at similar pier cities by fee it's like Melissa's at $4,000 including townhomes but the at the average excuse me the median home price and Melissa's $551,000 so it might not $4,000 on a dwelling unit and Melissa might be a different thing in their population is like 10,000 people they're they're building out as opposed to Denton that's growing it has an affordable housing issue whereas Melissa is like come on we'll build as many houses as we can as we can manage which of those pier cities from not a fee standpoint but from a park system park build out growth pattern standpoint do you feel like is really a peer to what we're trying to do the goals of our park system the reason why we're needing to raise the fee because if you look at it from a fee standpoint well it's kind of like finding the data that justifies the increase as opposed to finding the city that's trying to do the same kind of thing that we're trying to do and did that fee work for them in the same way that we're trying to make it work for us does that make sense yeah so example Arlington they're built out for the most part I fortunate opportunity to work there so I have that knowledge prosper Melissa and they're growing communities so those may not be comparable from a housing standpoint cost perspective but from a growth standpoint and trying to keep up with the growth and demand that would be a fairly good example do you have something that Laura Barron's assistant director of procurement now also to one of the things that we discussed is it is really hard to make that comparison apples to apples because everybody's using or moving towards that level of service factor now so we would have to be comparing not only level of growth or pace of growth but also whether our parks our neighborhood and community parks are comparable to theirs whether we have the same amount of acreage as they are whether our population is the same in addition to our our housing value so that that's what makes it more difficult to look at in terms of comparing apples to apples what about like Frisco or McKinney both growing booming cities fantastic park system building great new parks all the time and they're both both those cities set both their fees that they have kind of a tiered structure kind of like what we're talking about and their fees are under $2,000 per dwelling unit right it looks like Frisco's their last update was in 2018 so that was something else that we were looking at if you can see some of the higher ones are some of the more updated going through the same process we're looking at experiencing ourselves that increase in cost and then the you mentioned Frisco and McKinney yes very comparable so you can see that theirs is 1993 just under $2,000 and they are one of the most recent updates in 2022 so theirs has gone up within the last year what we did look at is that we out of the 15 cities that we looked at there are nine cities that even have a development fee you notice on here that some of them don't but there are about 17 different fees and some of them are structured similar to ours multifamily single-family but some of them also include other residential types as you'll notice that there's dorms there's hotel motels fees in here as well so just looking at the average of that we're looking at about $1,600 just under $1,700 as an average so when we're looking at kind of the totality of it not too far off for us do we know if McKinney uses a level of service do we know the methodology when they got to their how they got to their fee we did not have that level of detail with each city in regards to their methodology of how they determine the fee cool thank you Councilman Armitage yeah so I just wanted to say I I support this I think it's it's really important you know we can't continue to do all the great things that we do with our parks and in rec without having without having them them funded as we continue to grow we need that growth to to to fund our parks so I think this is really important I'll just say you know I'm less interested in kind of what other cities are doing I'm not uninterested in it I'm not saying it's irrelevant but as I am in the cost of service for for Denton parks I will say that and I'm happy to make the motion to support this you know I continue to be concerned about how this will impact affordable housing and and I I think it's important that that we as a city I mean this is not to decide in this particular individual item today but as the city continues with affordable housing conversations to consider waiving really any fees and barriers that affordable housing faces in Denton especially those that are you know created by the city and and this would be one of them but I'm not going to let that hold me back from voting yes to this because of how important it is and also knowing that that those fees can be waived or alternately having a fund for those fees through another decision by council on another department but parks benefit people who live in affordable housing and we need park equity throughout the city so anyway I just I can't underscore how important this is I'm happy to support it. Councilman Byrd. I appreciate the the conversation on the affordable housing part of this it just seems like whatever we start talking about the term affordable housing there it's always just a little piece is missing so I appreciate you bringing that up Deb it's very important we keep that conversation alive with everything that we do but I had a question in regards to it says provide clarified language does that mean in layman's term when you're when you're providing clarified language to existing residential homes so the original draft of the way we had it worded I think there's one or two words we changed just to clarify that the fee would not be imposed on a rebuild of a house or major repairs it was if that property went from a single-family to a multi-family with a hundred units it would be the difference between the existing and the new proposed thank you also what August 1st why we we wanted to provide a window of opportunity for developers that have a project in the queue to get that in so it wasn't you know effective tomorrow to give them the opportunity to get that through the process because they may have already started planning that based off our existing impact fees and we wanted to give them a window opportunity to get that submitted yeah I just want to comment that that this goes in the direction that I think is so critical for Denton and for having the developed and be even better than the current one I was concerned when we spoke about this last that you know sometimes when everything is going on in one direction that it doesn't adequately take into account you know posing views that you may have legitimate points and I would just say that since then I've had my own conversations in the development community and I was also very took note of Tim Smith writing us from parks board but knowing that he approached foundation knowing that he comes from PNC as well and is sensitive to that side and I'm persuaded that it's it's going to be an adjustment but it doesn't break the business model and it's in in the long-term benefit of of Denton and I think that's ultimately a long-term benefit to the long-term benefit of people want to develop in Denton too so I'll be supporting David we have one card David lady you could give your name and address you have four minutes yes sir good evening mayor council my name is David lady director of government affairs for the Dallas Builders Association 5816 in West Plano Parkway Plano Texas we are the Association for the residential construction development sector as you know including didn't and nine other counties the council's receipt of our initial comments via our 28th February letter and we appreciate your consideration I also want to applaud the efforts of Gary pack and his team and keeping us involved early on we appreciate his efforts and his team there as you are aware from Dallas BA we are concerned about the impact the increase in fees will have on already challenging new home cost while we understand that the fees will change due to not having been updated for a number of years the proposed increases are still higher than what we see in other cities as you know to hear this evening we appreciate the work mr. pack and his team to find ways to bring that down the major concern is the park development fee for us and the cost it adds to each home it is important to realize that the cost will ultimately be borne by the man paid by the home buyers some of whom are already didn't residents and who have paid into the city funds for years these fees are part of the final sales price of a home and actually cost more over the life of a home mortgage you're sitting somewhere with your interest in your bill fees and you get $2,800 even as 2,500 now when you get the developer interest and the other items over a 30-year mortgage one of my guys estimates that it comes out to 5,800 over the 30-year mortgage of a home so it's not as bad as we've seen other cities which is good the fee increases come at a time when the city is contemplating increases with roadway impact fees as well so I should keep that in mind given questions about the economy as we come through a pandemic Dallas VA is concerned about the overall impact on didn't ability to be competitive in the new home market and it's always our chief concern with cities around the other area when people are complaining about home prices they don't necessarily go to the City Council about it they just go move to another city or buy in another area so I keep asking to keep that mind when you look at what's happened in other cities they made not heard complaints but they may have seen the movie bands Dallas VA recommends consideration for lowering the proposed fees or facing them over facing them in over a period of years to reduce market impact Dallas VA also recommends more credit be offered towards fee in lieu and park development fees paid by the developer when park-like facilities are included in the development and abiding by the city's guide for parks again we thank you for your consideration and at the time spent on this and again mr. Packenstein okay thank you very much any questions seeing none thank you appreciate it so Gary I have a question so just wanted to explore that a couple of things did you do the math or kind of get a feel for the if we phase it in over a year or two kind of what that does or can you can you kind of give me a feel for that I just think it is important that the market's going to turn right now it's you know it's unbearable and so it's going to turn gonna level out I just think that cushion of a couple years because I think it's just yeah shame on us for not get it done before you know now but and I so if I can get comfortable with the numbers and I want to also just join them and saying thank you for your responsiveness to the questions concerns that that's helpful but to phase it a couple years because we can always pick up steam year three and and kind of have a regular cadence but what does that look like for for you so obviously 24 years and in the market that we're in right now with post-covid and construction costs and staffing costs it's challenging time for sure with us in the collection based off of fees from 20 in 1998 it's caused us not to have the revenue in place in the funds that we could build those parks and put that those funds into action so we've had to subsidize it considerably in some areas we couldn't do any construction it's just the funding is just sitting there until we're able to find a match for it by delaying in a few years it prolongs that a little bit longer we're gonna have to just continue to subsidize it obviously we're getting more revenue so we're not have to subsidize it as much we continue to look for grant opportunities and in creative ways to move forward with park construction projects whenever we can we're working with the developers to try to have them build the park for us and from that perspective so we're trying as many ways as possible to get the the funding into action and the parks built for those neighborhoods well so so if it's if it's 75 80 90 100% over three or four years it's it's shortening the gap 100% it's it's a right direction that we're moving it's taking a little bit of that sharpness off of the increase we realize that so we'll just have to find funding to to provide to provide for that match so and to that end I really like what you said and we've talked about this is there anything we could do from a policy level in this ordinance to incentivize the developer be you know giving more credit or something so that the developer bills of the park per our specs per our requirements that sort of thing but we incentivize that versus payment in that sort of thing is there anything or is there if there's not I'm not trying to change it on the fly I'm just trying to that is a that is appealing the credit that's provided is 50% credit if they build certain things even if they're private for those neighborhoods that has not changed but if you go back to razor ranch which was approved about a year or so ago the developer built that park for us and then gave us a completed park at one time that's a great situation we're able to put that that park into action immediately they spent well more than they were supposed to required to by the ordinance realizing that our fees were so much lower to do what they wanted to do to provide a marketing asset for that neighborhood to help sell their their units that was their approach so we're going to continue doing that I'm not sure if that answers the total question or not no I mean but I think it's it's it's helpful and I think the the takeaway I have is as developers kind of have a project there's opportunities to have those type razor ranch discussions yes or no yeah okay got it so just to give you an example mayor drew up an assistant director of park so our planning team we work with developers day in and day out we have individual a park planner Chris Escoto he he spends 40 to 50 60 hours a week sometimes working with developers so we've we've brought you some of these developer agreements so for instance Gary talked about razor ranch that was a developer agreement Parkside the new community that'll go in off Hickory Creek Road right they're building the entirety of the park they're building six hundred and something thousand dollars worth of park space they only owe us I think it was I don't know see like it was a hundred and twenty thousand but they see the value in the park so as these fees go up we can still do developer agreements and say okay your park space you're gonna give us five acres it's a neighborhood part you're gonna put in trails and a playground and a pavilion and water fountains and you're gonna pay for the you know the irrigation you're gonna plant trees you're gonna do all these things that are wonderful barks have through the developer agreement that we bring you we show you the impact that they're gonna put in which is typically probably more than what they're gonna pay us or now it'll be equivalent to what they would have paid us but instead of paying us in funds and money they're gonna pay us in a product so almost like you know your traditional farmers market where we trade goods so okay got it thank you alright thank you very much that's helpful cancer armature yeah I just wanted to just speak briefly to why I'm not in favor of rolling in the fees gradually because because I'm you know people have brought that up and I think it's a reasonable request and so I just wanted to answer that instead of just seeming like I was ignoring it and my motion to adopt this as is and it's for the simple reason that if we were to roll in fees to meet today's cost to service then by the time we finally met those fees it would be we'd be at tomorrow's cost of service so this is you know one of the things that I like about this plan is that it calls for repeated assessment and adjustments so that we don't end up falling behind like how we have in the past so again when you're talking about meeting cost of service there really can be no gradual roll in you just have to keep updating it and that's just you know that's just unfortunately the way the way it works okay counseling back even smear I have a similar I want to explain because I think it is reasonable to say hey can we stage this you know we're we are considered there are concerns about the rolling in and all at once and and I think the the question is more flipped how long does the city want to continue subsidizing the development with I don't see insufficient but unmatching levels of park impact fees that that simply means that to build for Gary to build a park we have to get out of general revenue or some other funding source and and that means that we're having a disproportionate impact across funding groups that we did not plan and we're having to you know have sources that are not directly aligned with with the impact of the development so I I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that but I think it is you know if we're going to subsidize the development we need to do it on purpose and not sort of by accident so I'm gonna stick with the proposal as written mayor for Tim yeah thank you I have a question Gary so the fees are in lieu of parkland dedication right my question is are the with the fees go only toward parkland development of existing you know already acquired land or could it be used for purchase of parkland as well yeah so the the the dedication and the fee and lure are tied together it's either war so they the developer can dedicate a percentage of the land right or they can pay a fee in lieu of that what can the fee be used force my question you can be used for purchase of land it can be used for land and if there's if there's not land that's needed or available in that area it can be used for park development as well yeah okay so to me that that's really the point and as much as like you know I really blanched at the the steep you know change in the fees last time we spoke but the point really is choices are going away every day if we intend to preserve some park space and trail space etc you know if you slow this process down it may not be there so you know when we when we decide that we're ready to charge the amount we need to to buy it so you know that that's my my concern with not going to staff recommendation so I am still supporting that yeah no and and we're gonna we're gonna vote but but I before you speak I want to because I want to you can add to this because I know you have some stuff but my focus is this Habitat House appraises for $220,000 for-profit house is 300 plus right you just that's just the way I'm assuming the math works I'm close is there anything the city can do to subsidize someone's home price right so just give someone money to say hey we're gonna lower your home price the answer is no but if we can phase this in so we we the city can subsidize park expenses at the same time save homeowners some money right and so that's really the the pass-through I'm looking for and it's attractive to me it's not it's there's no there's no silver bullet here is no perfect world it's it's either you know we don't subsidize parks all the way or we raise the hot the prices of homes significantly straight out of the gate because home builders in the business of doing business right there they're not gonna you know that's just that's that's how it works so that's the appeal to me is the city can participate and hope helping to keep home prices down in a way that we can't by just giving a homeowner money so we can subsidize parks and at the same time keep home prices down and at the same third wheel of that is raise our fees right so we get more fees we keep home prices down and we then you know so for me that that's a perfect blend obviously we'll see how that shakes out and but that's just for disclosure I like everything about this but the the steep immediacy of it I'd rather phase it in because I want to save homeowners money and this is the only way that I can do it from this day in this situation and so I'm not willing to subject homeowners to this swift market change if I can avoid it you know and and because we can always again we can phase this the home market will cool off and at that time or give people time to adjust get people time to get their projects in get time give them time because if we're talking about development deals we got to get there right so we got to give them time to work those things so really my heart goes out to those that will be purchasing homes that the the the floor is 300 plus and and and climbing so that that's a real concern for me so and you can speak to whatever you just to kind of follow up that obviously the market is what it is today and it's unfortunate we're in this position today which would have been ten years ago that we were updating this but it's it's a policy decision based on Council's direction we'll use the resources we have to the best of our ability and our team to put as much action into our parks as possible regardless of whether it's $50 or $100 we'll use our best ability to do that for the community whether it's all the one time or if it's prorated and then just a quick follow-up to the the housing concern about subsidized housing projects you know through a developer agreement council can make those decisions per project so that and we've had conversations with community services to work through that process so that's how that could be handled and I just want to get it on the record that the open space we're talking about is heavily treated that's what's left the correct me if I'm wrong but the bulk of the property that's undeveloped in the city of Denton is heavily treed and our tree ordinance mandates about 50% retention so if you have you know it's it is significant to to say that we're gonna buy it I guess there's not there's not open land that we're gonna buy it's not heavily treed or and again it doesn't go to the housing market as well I mean that's it's the opposite way housing is going to go up because of fees etc and be it road impact tree preservation all those things yeah there I mean there's still property on the on the perimeter that we're looking at in regards to making sure that we have neighborhood property for future developments as well got it okay thank you very much all right Councilman Armitage. I move approval. Councilman Beck. I second. Okay motion second Councilman Davis. Thank you mayor this is discussion on the motion which I think I think where most of our conversation really falls tonight I'm not gonna be able to vote for this and not because I like the way you put it mayor that you support everything about this except for the pop-up this is what I call fool around and find out territory nobody in this room and this is no offense meant to staff because we did have to engage some outside help for this no one in this room is qualified to tell us what this does to the market what it does the housing market the one thing we know that this does to the housing market is adds price per lot per multifamily unit in the amount of the fees to each new unit it adds it right on top and anybody who's ever offered a product for sale knows that the builder is not gonna pay that they're fronting the cost they've got some margin built in and everything that's not that margin they pass on to the end user the end consumer whether that person is paying rent or whether that person is buying a lot and I you know I appreciate the gentleman who spoke earlier for bringing up the mortgage issue as I've been looking at this I hadn't even thought about that that nobody's paying cash for these houses so when we see those signs for these new developments stop saying homes from the low 300s and start saying homes in the high 300s and homes in the low 400s or when are already built house prices keep climbing and when we have entire citywide strategies that we pay consultants to draft for us on how to reduce home prices or to make homes more affordable in Denton make the cost of renting more affordable in Denton that we can't just throw up our hands and say oh my gosh how did house prices get get to this place how did housing get to be so expensive in other parts of the world they get there through actions like this policymakers well-intentioned not knowing the ultimate effects of what they're gonna do and I'm not just talking about you know a $2,000 fee here I'm talking about we're gonna have impact fees that we're gonna take up not long from now and those have to go up just like these park fees had to go up to meet the cost of service and we're gonna do the same thing we're gonna look at the developers like a piggy bank and figure that we can cut into their bottom line to make up for some things that frankly we should have been on the ball about 10-20 years ago increasing these fees there shouldn't be this pop-up it's not on the development community that it took us this long to make the change we should have been looking at this over time and I don't say that to criticize current staff at all to the contrary current staff is who recognized this issue and saw that we were woefully underfunded on developing new parks and that every time they bring us one of these wonderful concepts thanks Drew that they're underfunded they're not funded because we don't have the we don't have the fees to back them up but to to put that all of a sudden on the backs of the development community like it's just this endless piggy bank of funding and not recognize that that trickles down to the ultimate buyers and I'll add one more thing the latest trend that I've heard is to complain about the number of investment firms that are buying up homes in the city of Denton and that's true there's a bunch of them buying up homes in the city of Denton who can afford a house in the city of Denton an investment firm with a whole well capitalized investment firm and this doesn't make it a lot better I think the phased approach is fair to everyone concerned I think it is fair to the builders that have projects in the queue I think it's fair to the folks who are who are paying already very high land values to try to get a product to market to provide for folks who are wanting to buy a house here and like we've talked about many times in this chamber folks are coming here they are paying they're they're they're paying very high housing prices like we have not seen in this city ever before they are paying those things not because not by getting higher paying jobs necessarily but by reducing other parts of their family budgets because they have to have a place to live and it's got to be here because that's where the education is that's where the job is that's where they want to be that's wonderful but as policymakers we have a responsibility to not just nickel and dime every chance that we get and my the reason I can't vote for this because it's not phased and if we want to phase it in such a way that by the time we get to year three we're already reevaluating what that advance what that increase needs to be because we know there's going to be an increase in year three that's fine if we want to phase it to where we're instead of 75% we're starting at 80 or 85% knowing that we've got to get to what's really going to be a hundred and ten hundred fifteen percent three years from now however we need to work it I think there's a better way than to say every new homeowner in the city of Denton congratulations you're gonna pay an extra two thousand dollars for your home next year mayor Pro Tem yeah thank you there are three legs to the pricing stool cost is only one of them this cost this competition and then there's there's just value which is perception and it's driven by supply and demand existing home prices are up something like 27 percent year over year the cost didn't go up it's pure market demand now when you're building new for sure the the whole sort of price you know the the profile the economic the financial profile of a new house has shifted because labor is up if you can get the labor materials were up but the price is way up too so there's there's they're still making margin they're still running to do it and the the total cost works out to something like five percent my point is only this that it's not the the price of homes is not driven entirely by cost it there's there's it fits within the mark within the profile to allow margins it's a shock no question you know I mean and one thing I would absolutely share councilmember Davis's concern about is that I do think even though I'm going to support this that we do need to at some point as a council look holistically at all the fees what's the total add-up look like because we can kind of nibble away like that you know like ducks we need to look at what the total burden is and make those comparisons you know kind of to competitive cities and so on so so you know yes that that would be a sensible way to look at it councilman bet respectfully to councillor Davis I think you're arguing both ways to a large degree we're not treating it as a piggy bank they've been treating this city to some degrees a piggy bank for forcing us to subsidize the parks and then I'm not saying they did it on purpose there was money to be had they didn't have to spend it that's great they did exactly what their boards and and shareholders would expect of the bike I don't criticize them for it but it is simply costing us the money and the question you have to ask is how long do we subsidize that and and you know if we say that we're agreeing that there's nothing wrong with what we're doing with our methodology and we just need a few years to phase it in that you're saying that we agree this is what it costs to build a park you're agreeing intrinsically to the overall scheme and it's just we would like a few more years of subsidizing to go on and and so you know as mayor pro tem says there are market forces it is not simply the cost of materials but it is the cost of materials that has been going up and up and up for the city so I think I think we need to be careful and you know not overburdened any particular sector as we try to compensate for you know the explosive growth we're having but the same token I don't know that we have to force parks and the rest of the taxpayers to to take the the burden is that you is that you get that's my second by the apple but councilman bird hasn't spoken yet okay some bird what I really want to say is that regardless of whatever happens there's enough money out here for everyone and I believe that the developers are going to continue to develop regardless of which way this goes and there are going to be people that can afford whatever they put out there to be purchased that's just it I would certainly encourage anyone that is living in a home right now don't make a mistake by selling your home and going and purchasing a larger home just because and that puts you in a in a different family financial difficulty but I'm certainly gonna vote for this I just want to put that out there but I just think that I don't believe we're putting a burden on the developers they're gonna develop this is a prime place to develop and we know that they want to develop here they want to give us what they think we need they are going to put the price of the home as they please and there's just gonna be people out there that can afford it so with that being said I would hope that my fellow peers on the dais would we need to start looking at some type of policy in regards as to how we're going to approach the developers when they do develop whether or not they will set aside homes or complexes or in places to live in rental units and things like that yet at a higher rate to accommodate the affordable you know housing situation forty eight percent of our roofs are rental that's very very high so there is not much that the people that are renting right now but they're still renting people are still moving here so you know I just want to give credence to that part thank you for allowing me to speak Councilmember Davis thank you mayor just to kind of briefly respond to a couple of things I don't necessarily disagree with the use of the word subsidized or the characterization of subsidization I think we have to be careful though to not pretend like that hasn't been our model for park development for a long time I don't think anybody's representing that in 1998 it was a one-for-one cost of service fee or that even all these peer cities that we're looking at have a cost of service model if you ask people what are your taxpayer dollars go to on your property taxes they're gonna say police fire roads parks libraries there is not a misconception out there in the community that we're footing the bill for all these parks but it really ought to be the developers this is a fairly new this is a new direction for the city of Denton to look at this as a cost of service model or level of service model and not so we've rebranded it as subsidization what it's called is a city building parks and I completely agree with the new methodology I want to be very clear with that but to say oh well we've been footing the bill for years and now to it's completely just inequitable to make the development community foot the bill that's not exactly the situation that's why our parks department has been so proactive with these developer agreements and getting these good developer agreements that are beneficial for us I'm not sure if we're gonna see some of those same developer agreements in the future because the fee they might just say you know what here's the money and maybe that works out for us and maybe it doesn't again we are in fool around and find out territory nobody who knows what happens next when you shock a market in this particular way I also want to point out that Councilmember Byrd I agree with you completely they're gonna keep building houses they're gonna keep building them at the price they can build them out they're gonna keep selling them at the price they can build them up that means that those of us who vote for this don't get to throw up our hands in another couple years and say why do these prices keep going through the roof we might look at all the different components of the pricing as councilmember Meltzer did but we have to recognize that policy decisions have consequences and if we want to be the kind of community where it's you know just keep building them and people keep paying and then we also want to the out the other side of our mouths complain about house prices without taking a holistic look at how we got there I just don't think we can do that last point on the subject of holistic looks this is it this is our last opportunity for a holistic look at fees until we get to impact fees and today we're talking about park development the next time around we're talking about being able to afford building new roads and to improve the roads that we have we have a lot more flexibility no offense to our parks department you're fantastic we have a lot more flexibility in park development than we do in road development and that's just a fact of running a city so it's fine to say holistic view today this is your last chance to have a holistic view of all of our fees because the next time around it's the roads that are on the line and I don't think anybody's going to have a lot of appetite next time around for shorting the roads okay so we have a motion by Councilman armor to second my counselor back I just want to have a question and I'm gonna close us out here and then we're gonna vote so question for you Gary if you started a park to build a park from scratch tomorrow how long does it take you to build at least a year right if not more right so we're not we're not shorting anything in my estimation if we start tomorrow and it takes us a year and we phase this in over a couple of years we're taking in money we may subsidize it for a year but I think by the time we take in that second year's money it's finished we can you know wherever we we shifted things around we shift it back or we plan accordingly so that's helpful to know for me and then I also want to put just for me it's we've we've sanitized the word developer habitat for humanity is falls under that definition of developer is that is that correct they have 32 houses that they're going to build in southeast in in that in that stretch whatever that aka to clock it they they would be subject to these fee increases that's correct yes grace like grain giving hope if they develop there they're going to be subject to the fees that's correct yes see that that's the thing that pains me the councilmember Davis is spot and you can and then my peers can phrase it however they want they can situate it however they want but the fact of the matter is either increase of fees raises the price of house or doesn't that's that's the bottom line with how much it raises it would percentage of facts in matters not it raises it and so that's a concern for me and so the other thing is passionate about keeping Denton Denton had a friend an acquaintance to today close on the house go buy a house in Dallas County mission failed ended up buying a house in Denton County because that's what they could afford it what you're going to do is make people from Dallas see Denton as a landing spot because our prices aren't Dallas prices no matter what we do so you just price out Denton people but it's not pricing out the market it doesn't change who's available to buy houses it becomes Airbnb it becomes you know investors it becomes rental property etc etc so that's my concern so yeah I can't support this going untempered if you will because it affects it affects not for profits it affects just your average Denton folks it just flat flat bottom line it raises the cost of a house however you parse it so if we were phasing it I could I could deal with it but I'm not going to support it because I don't want to do that to Denton folks let's vote on the screen that passes five to two takes us to item C ID two two six two four consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton authorizing the city manager to enter into the development agreement between the city of Denton and jazz dev ink for payment of park development fees fees in lieu of park dedication and the granting of public access easement for trails parking spaces and on and on the Pebble Brook Parkside development all right good evening mayor and council drew up an assistant director of parks so this is a developer agreement for Pebble Brook Parkside which is located off of loop 288 right here in this area just south of McKinney so obviously here's all the numbers for the multifamily development going in that area here's our current park development fees that they will be paying they this is a little bit of outside the box thinking so we do have Pebble Brook Park excuse me Pebble Brook Park which runs from loop 288 all the way to May Hill pretty good sized piece of land right there will we be bringing a pecan Creek trail master plan to you in just a couple weeks to work with a consultant to build the concrete trail all the way from the DCTA stop all the way to Lake Lewisville so this is just a section so with this outside the box thinking we met with the developers and we are getting a trailhead parking so obviously that's the kind of visitors area next to their amenity center three of those spaces will be specifically marked as the trailhead for the or the parking for the trailhead for the park and then we'll have a public access agreement through that multifamily that will tie in to the future per concrete trail along Pebble Brook and I'll open up to any questions questions for staff seeing none councilor armature I move approval councilor McGuire glad to see the outside of the box thinking I second motion by councilman armature second by councilman McGuire any discussion seeing none let's vote on the screen that passes 7-0 takes us to item D which is ID 2 2 9 1 1 consider adoption of ordinance of the city of Denton Texas home rule municipal corporation authorizing city manager execute a contract with Mario's and cola and Sun's excavating ink for the construction of Hickory Creek Road phase 3 project good evening mayor and council Trevor crane deputy director of capital projects so tonight I'm bringing a presentation for the war of construction for the Hickory Creek Road phase 3 project just a quick project scope this is to construct a four-lane section of roadway from River Pass Drive to FM 1830 this will include a four-lane bridge that will span Hickory Creek and remove the safety concern of the 90-degree curve on Hickory Creek Road so I have a short little video here you can kind of see what it looks like now and what it's going to look like after construction just a couple of things I want to touch on while you're while you're watching this this project does take into account the ultimate right-of-way that we have to require for this project so as you can see there's two there's median area in between the new street that leaves us room for future expansion later down the road to accommodate the additional residents that are moving to the area then we get into the bridge here you'll also see that there's some room in the middle the bridge will be built to the ultimate width so we can just add those lanes we won't have to come back and to build a bridge in the future so it looks just like that on the other side I won't go all the way through it if I can get past it so this project was bid with the CSP with a competitive seal proposal this allows us to to kind of look at these proposals in a holistic way we don't have to just look at the low lowest price we can take into things like their their personnel their detail their schedule their safety record as you can see Mario Sincola and sons scored the highest with an eighty six point nine seven project schedule we completed design in November of 2021 I didn't want to point out that there is a seventh month seven month time frame between when we complete design and when we're coming for council award that that represents a lot of work that was done to to acquire that right away that I talked about and then a lot of utility coordination and utility relocations on this project to get us prepared to go out for construction so we're looking for a council award on tonight notice to proceed June in 2022 and then a construction completion of June 2024 so staff recommendation is to authorize a contract approval with a base bid of forty nine million five hundred and forty five thousand one hundred and seventy five dollars and twelve cents for the construction of the Hickory Creek Road phase three project for the not to exceed amount of fifty two million twenty two thousand dollars four hundred and thirty three dollars and eighty eight cents which includes the five percent project contingency and I will note that that's a that's a huge number we worked with our finance department extensively to kind of build out a spin rate on that project and then that due to that that spend schedule the 2019 bond program commercial paper program will be used to provide contract appropriation authority and then with that I'll answer any questions councilor Davis thank you mayor if you don't have the answer tonight this is just fine it just be some helpful information for us maybe to get offline but can we see at some point a little bit more the design particulars in the creek and in the treat areas I recognize a project like this it's gonna have it's gonna have an environmental impact it's gonna have to go there's gonna be some pilings in the creek bed that kind of stuff but if we could get a little bit more detail on the impact to the creek and the creek bed and the the treat areas there that'd be really helpful to know sure we can follow up on that but my understanding is that the bridge is going to completely completely cover all the way to the other side of the creek bed I can let dust Dustin Draper our project manager speak to that a little bit if you if if you'd like but the a lot of that area that we're going over is going to be wetland I mean not wetlands but a floodplain and so we're gonna the bridge will cover that completely we're not as far as my understanding is we won't be making any impact to that to the creek bed itself is that correct dusty and as you're getting that answer ready I'm also particularly concerned I mentioned already pilings in the creek bed and then also stabilization of the banks I imagine there's gonna have to be some concrete poured and to what extent are we gonna be kind of channel izing the creek right in that area of the bridge and to what extent can we leave it natural so good afternoon counselor or good actually good night my name's just driver I'm a project matter of cattle projects you do have a lot of good points the reason for the cost of this bridge being 52 million dollars is the bridge pearling beams that run underneath were extended and they're custom to expand outside of the area that would make the least amount of environmental conflict so you will have columns that are in the floodplain but not that are in the watershed or that in the protected area you know or that need any environmental clearance we're not changing the confines of where the creek is so there will be no bank we're just gonna overshoot it would be very minimal bank impact the abundance that come to the bridge are so far outside where the creek is and we did this by design to create the least carbon footprint we could for a bridge but when you do that you do have an inherent cost that comes with it to get the steel beam grinders that run underneath a bridge of this size to like to space out your columns a little farther does come with a prostate thank you I appreciate that okay thank you very much I actually have a related but similar question I know that in these riparian areas especially in this area especially in floodplains along the creek beds this is this is where instead of environmental which is what you would normally expect me to be yelling and screaming from the dice about but the archaeological and historical impacts this is where you know you know when you do CRM work and and you're part of your environmental assessment you have to do the cultural assessment as well and so I know that the county is getting more interested in collecting that data so that they're there the archaeological data that there might be out there so with it extending out of the creek bed great no that's perfect you know that's from an environmental sort but from a historical standpoint are we doing CRM work because I know we're building up those those those big ramps to do to be environmentally friendly are we still being historically friendly yes that's a great question you know we've had similar projects in the past where we've run into those archaeological findings so you know we've kind of had some lessons learned on those things on this project specifically it didn't the area did not trigger any of those specific studies but our contractors we talked to our contractors extensively our on-site inspectors our project managers we're always on the lookout for those types of things so as those excavations you know start coming up if we run across any signs of the archaeological things that's when we shut down projects and we know the people to call to come out and study those things to tell us hey you know you need to stop we've got some studies that need to happen or hey you're good to go you can continue I know that when you're using a state and federal monies you have to coordinate with the THC and Department of Interior and you have to do CRM work just do a gar you have to go out and do samples that my wife's whole career was that so the is this are we required to do that as part of city projects or are we using state monies in any way or that would trigger something like that is my understanding is that it depends on the area that we're that we're digging in whether it triggers that or not we do do extensive you know studies on on the on the front ends of projects whether you know be geotechnical surveying and I know that that happened on this project I wasn't in this role when all that was going on so I can't say specifically that that was done on this project all our projects go through those there's extensive coordination with multiple agencies whether it's you know right-of-way environmental like you've touched on so that would that would be my statement on that all right thank you Yes sir. Councilor McGuire. Thank you Mayor Hatsbeth I just want to say you know for any constituents who might be still up and still watching I know that there there are a lot of folks in this area who are concerned about the the traffic impact of this project but I just want us to keep in mind that there there have been several lives lost on this roadway it's it's really a very dangerous stretch of road and we we really have a responsibility to improve the safety here and of course the the the traffic is increasing in this area every single day just in the last few months I feel like I've noticed far far more traffic on this roadway than there was in the past and so we really I'm glad to see that there's a fast timeline on this to address those safety concerns and I will say to your point there's multiple other projects along that Hickory Creek corridor so we've looked at those schedules there's also a project that will be upcoming on Ryan Road but we've looked at those schedules to make sure that we've can we've kept that east to west availability for traffic it's not best you know people are still gonna have to go one way or the other but we're doing the best we can to try to mitigate those traffic issues okay thank you very much I'll take a motion councilor Davis I move approval I'll say for the record Brian and I did not coordinate him doing history and me doing environment got it life's just funny sometimes Councilor McGuire a second motion by Councilor Davis second by Councilor McGuire I just have one one question do you feel like we're properly protected from cost not change orders but overrun just from supplies I know you said 5% I know I know it's but you know the whole thing just makes me nervous and you can always pull force majeure if you need to from it I'm not gonna tell you what it makes me but just you know it's hard it's gonna be tricky to kind of pin what's gonna happen with materials and those types of things mainly the material issues that we're seeing or with piping utilities you know PVC pipe large diameter steel those types of things we haven't seen any issues I'll cross my fingers on the materials that we would use in this project so you know that's why we're trying to get this thing in the construction for a lot of different reasons we've looked at mitigate some ways to mitigate those material issues with our with our project team not specifically on this project but it would fall under that as well so we have tossed around some ideas of if we start seeing those issues in this project we're prepared to put some things in action got it okay thank you very much appreciate thinking about that let's vote on the screen that passes seven zero thank you takes side of E which is ID two two seven eight nine consider adoption of an ordinance of the city of Denton a Texas home rule municipal corporation authorizing city manager executed development agreement between city of Denton and 4,000 Ganser investments LLC I'm Christine Taylor the assistant city manager and before taking this role in the city manager's office I was in procurement and we did worked on a cross-functional team kind of leading this project for the last year so I'm going to carry this through this evening so we're gonna talk a little bit about the background of this agreement some opportunities that we have the agreement highlights project costs benefits and next steps so 4,000 Ganser investments our developer began feasibility discussions with the city and early 2021 regarding a 155 acre multifamily project located in the city's ETJ one so the initial feedback that the developer received from development services and their pre-application conference was that services had not been extended to the north end of the city system which meant that they would have a delay in being able to develop and prolonging their project in September of 2021 the developer contacted the city manager's office and indicated they were interested in entering into an agreement to cost participate towards the extension of the wastewater services up to the north end of the area so water utilities and capital projects identified this opportunity to partner with the Texas Department of Transportation on their utility relocation project along I-35 which included eliminating two of the city's outdated lift stations the city currently had a CIP project for Milam and Clear Creek Basin which would extend wastewater services out to the north end of the system but it was in our capital improvement plan in an out year and included a funding gap so the cross-functional team was developed to explore the feasibility cost of this participation agreement that team included capital projects Becky Devaney Stephen Gay our water utilities director we had legal on our team one of the new attorneys and then finance was included to help us work through this so a couple agreement highlights to covers the property is located in the city's ETJ one so in our agreement all regulatory approvals for the development within the ETJ will be issued in conformance with the city's code and development code code of ordinances and development code so that means they will go through all plotting requirements submit civil engineering plans they'll replat if necessary based on CEPs and they are subject to all development and impact fees so with this the city is agreeing to permit the developer to go out of sequence and CEPs cannot be completed until the city's project is designed continuation of agreement highlights as the city will provide the Milam Clear Creek basin design documents to the developer for the purpose of the development of their civil engineering plans the cost participation of 8 million dollars will partially fund it will fund the design and partially fund the construction of the project in this agreement the developer will waive any claim against other developer contributions dedications or any developer proportionality study the developer will dedicate a 30 foot water and wastewater easement by deed and they will pay the 8 million dollars to the city upon execution of their agreement the city project is expected to be completed by calendar year 2023 so the project estimated cost is roughly 20 million dollars we're estimating a text dot reimbursement of 7.6 million along with the developer contribution it will allow the city to complete the project for 4.3 million dollars the benefits of partnering on this agreements we're going to it's going to provide a regional sewer solution removing the need for individual wastewater systems on the north end of the system it's going to replace two undersized and aged lift stations with gravity sewer it can be completed in conjunction with the tech stock project for the utility relocations reducing duplication of work and future relocation of facilities and again will reduce the city's overall total cost to complete the project so next steps staff will bring forward a design amendment for the tech start relocation project which is approximately 750 thousand dollars that's estimated for the next council meeting in May the developer will remit payment to the city upon execution of the agreement and the construction package will go out for bid and council approval in the fall of 2022 if we decide not to move forward the city will be moving forward with just the text dot utility rotate utility relocation project only no design amendment will required and then wastewater services would be extended out to the north in the system in the next three to five years instead of if we partner we can have utility services out there in the next year is there any questions questions for staff seeing none I move approval is there a second may pretend I second most of our mayor hurts but second by mayor pro tem councilmember wire yeah I look forward to future conversations about what we can do regarding development in the etj but in the meantime this this sounds like a solid solution any other councilman Davis and just a quick shout out to staff and this is really forward-thinking and there are about 13 different things in that slide show that the easy thing to key in on is you know somebody's giving the city money to get a project done faster but there's a whole lot of other things that are working and they're cutting in the city's direction and this agreement that without the staff's forward-thinking and willing to get being willing to go to the developer with those requests wouldn't have happened so kudos it was a great team Steve and Becky Becky's team will deliver the project and the developer mr. Hiles is here too if there's any questions for him very good no I appreciate the developers patience long time coming so it'll be really good all right any other anything else for staff questions see none it's right on screen pass 7-0 it takes us to our last item before concluding items it's ID 2 2 9 3 8 consider adoption of orders ordinance of the city of Denton Texas amending the fiscal year 2021 2022 budget and annual programs of services of the city of Denton to allow for adjustments to the general fund of nine hundred forty four thousand five hundred eighty three dollars good evening mayor city council Cassie Ogden CFO I just have a really brief presentation one slide for you you may recall last council meeting council gave direction for fire to move forward with six entry-level firefighters and one block blocker truck driver so staff is proposing to amend the 22 budget by three hundred and forty four thousand five hundred and eighty three so this will fund the the positions for the remainder of the current fiscal year and then those positions will roll into the proposed FY 23 budget when we present that in August along with the fire budget amendment we're also including the planning budget amendment you may recall council gave direction to move forward with the small area plans for loop 288 and Sherman Drive Southeast Denton and downtown master plan update so the cost of for the consultants to move forward with the small area plans is six hundred thousand dollars for a total of nine hundred and forty four thousand five hundred and eighty three and with that take any questions okay any questions seeing none councilman McGuire I move approval counselor back second motion by councilman back second by councilman and pardon me motion by councilman McGuire second by councilman back any discussion seeing none let's hold on screen that passes seven zero thank you very much takes us to concluding items any concluding items mayor pretend yeah just want to make sure everyone knows Saturday is Election Day in Denton for municipal elections be heard anything else okay council armature yes I think Vicki was councilman bird was in the queue in front of me okay so I just want to say really briefly thank you to all those people who said those really kind things to say goodbye to me and I'm just overwhelmed by that and I will still be here in in Denton and I anyway it's just been such an honor serving serving you and working with everybody here on this day is including our amazing staff but and most of all our amazing constituents so I want to just mention to speaking to Greco's comments earlier about the new entrance I think that's a great idea to have a little reminder on the city website about the the entrance and also having it on the actual agenda these agendas for the time being maybe you know have it highlighted like at the beginning because very often and I'm sure we'll still miss some people you know who won't check the website but but often people coming to a council meeting will check the agenda so if there's a note that jumps out at them you know first for for some of us it's you know not a big deal to just go walk around but for for people with disabilities it is a big deal so anyway that that would be nice also you know if at all possible to have some sort of I don't know maybe like a planter or something like something temporary a planter with flowers or something right at that path where you walk through so that it just kind of leaps out at you you know don't walk here I don't know that that might not be feasible but I know it's not always easy to see the sign unless you're looking for it customer bird in my effort to be as transparent as I could possibly be while I'm sitting here on the day as I do recognize and understand that there's going to be a big project that's going to come before us as a community in that is it's a refurbishing project downtown the brown building and I am I have spoken with this gentleman and what he has asked me to do is to always remind him that the city does have a certain culture associated with it and you know I've already told him what you all are thinking I just want to let you know that whatever you're thinking about him he knows and I've told him and so many other people have to but he asked me to gather some folks together who I think that could really sit down with them and reverberate what it is that we want to do of him in terms of him developing this project I will tell the folks out there that I am NOT against anyone failing I don't believe in failure I only believe in mercy and grace and I believe in everyone being able to have a place to live where there where something to do and they're proud of so what I'm going to do is probably tomorrow or this week for sure I want to gather at least between 12 and 15 folks together so we can sit down with these people and let them know from a certain perspective what we're expecting out of them I am NOT being judgmental towards any individual and that means any person that I've ever met or any person that's in this room or anybody that wants to call me or whatever I don't have any kind of personal anything with anyone but what I do want us to do is to make sure that we're supportive of everyone everyone that is giving us a place to be proud of and continuing to if we want to continue to live here so that's what I'm going to do so expect my call please answer the phone when I call you if you would so we can sit down with these folks and let them know what we think all right thank you okay councilor Davis so I'm told there's something going on on Saturday that's some kind of big deal I get that but Sunday is Mother's Day call your mama but more importantly give her a really nice gift like a ticket to motherhood the musical it's a Donna Trammell production if you've not seen or participated in a Donna Trammell production well are you really even from Denton so this is a fundraiser for theater Denton you might remember a few years ago musical theater of Denton and community theater merged together this is a fundraiser show it's gonna be a lot of fun a whole bunch of people that you know are gonna be in it the tickets are very reasonable and again it's a fundraiser for the arts shows are the seventh at 730 I don't know everybody else can be doing at that point but sudden Saturday at 730 and then on the 8th at 3 p.m. for the matinee show and there's an additional reception after if you know somebody special and can get a ticket to it thank you customer back yeah there's there's some couple things going on this weekend aren't there so yeah I'm gonna double down on those two please go vote please give your mom a hug and then I'm going to just take this this formal moment to to praise my colleague and and friend Deb Armentor for her service to the community I know we'll see her next meeting briefly but I will say for the record that Deb Armentor was the first person that I formally made a relationship with when I moved to Denton in 2007 and she may not remember that she had a lot going on at the time but it is always gratified me that we were able to you know not only do that be neighbors and now serve unfortunately as politicians together but I just really want to thank her for her service and continued service and I think we can all recognize what a force she's been in our town then I will also speaking of forces remind us all that we are one among one of the heaviest bird migration times please do lights out please help these birds migrate so we continue to have some of the heaviest bird migrations of all time and we don't watch those diminish so if you can between 6 and 11 turn out your lights take other actions that the sustainability and environmental services programs are loading on their their website to help us be Bird City USA and the final thing is a I don't think we recognize them last year but as I personally went through it DME has last year got soul smart gold standard record recognition for the speed and access that you can get your solar permits done and they I think we need recognition for that I was exposed to it just very recently and it was fast and easy so you can go get your solar panels and afford them do it DME makes it easy thank you turn over to the assistant city manager David gains sure thanks mayor wanna see Bob Hart is the was the city manager for the city of Corinth and he passed away on Friday so we want to send our thoughts out to his family and to the staff out there in the community sad to hear sure yeah thank you for that and yeah and mayor Bill I'm in there hiding one there too as well you know and all the staff and so yes thank you for for mentioning that so a couple of things to close out so today's Frenchie's birthday so happy birthday Frenchie I couldn't wear my orange dress shirt it was and the cleaners then there's also Cinco de Mayo please celebrate safely but enjoy there's no parade this year for those that are wondering Twilight tunes huge success last week hopefully it's same this week this Thursday Mother's Day has been mentioned so shout out to my mom dr. Doe is what she goes by or nanny to the kids so happy happy Mother's Day and then on a Saturday note so my I went to high school with a friend a niece her name now Moki and she lost her daughter Sawyer in that car accident so I was able to make it attend the wake yesterday and show my support and try to help her best we can you know but just keep them in your thoughts as they they process through that and then also Frank Dudowitz who I served on P&Z with and he ran for council passed away so waiting for service announcements for him but he'll be missed he was a great advocate for the animal shelter and and I forget the 100 clubs he did a ton of things around town great business owner so we'll want to say I appreciate him thinking about his wife and family and all they contribute to the city of Denton so at 939 we will conclude tonight's meeting thank you very much