May 07, 2019 City Council on 2019-05-07 1:30 PM

Welcome everybody to this meeting of the Denton City Council on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. It is 1.33. I call this meeting to order. We do have a quorum, but nobody can leave the room until we get somebody else here. No council member anyway, or we'll have to suspend. Our first item on the agenda is citizens' comments on consent agenda items. I do not see any blue cards, so I don't believe we have any citizens' comments on consent agenda items. Request for clarification on the agenda items for this agenda. Anybody have clarification? I guess I don't need to look to that side of the room. Yes, councilmemorandum. I think it's the first one. I was just opening my laptop. Hold on. Yes, on number -- or letter A. I would just like some clarification on that. And that's all. Just letter A. Is there a specific question or -- Yeah, just primarily just because it involves the -- one member of council or a designee and any time there's something like that, I want to know just why something like that isn't coming before all of council. Sometimes there's a reason, sometimes not. So you're saying as the mayor, execution by the mayor or is there her designee? Yes. Okay. Do we have somebody that can answer that? Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and council, councilwoman Armentar, I did not hear the entire question as I was walking over here. Oh, so sure. I'd be happy to repeat it. So yeah, my question is, Jessica, why does this involve authorizing and approving a decision by the mayor or his designee? In other words, not specific to the mayor role, but why just one person or a designee as opposed to all of council? For item A. For the ordinance? Yes. Okay. Are you talking about the construct of the committee? Yes, exactly. The ordinance that was adopted enabling the risk management committee has generally the chair of PUB, the mayor on that, it's just been how the committee's been set up, it's a quarterly oversight group and tended to try to roll those up into annual, I guess, reports to the city council. One other change that's there as well is also providing, Mr. Puente is working on a contract as well to provide additional oversight at those quarterly meetings. So it's just a standing committee overseeing that making sure that the trades are being done appropriately within policy, that everyone that's being invested in is credit worthy, and then it rolls up into an annual report. Okay. So it's kind of like what we had for TNPA where- Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it, maybe with a little bit more oversight there than that. Yeah. Well, I love the additional oversight. I guess I'm curious to know if there was any consideration about having it come to council to select an appointee, or if there's a good reason for that. I'm Smith Day, by the way, Mr. Elector, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. With the general structure, the committee's been around a while, and this is an annual iteration. This actual risk policy here requires, and the last one did as well, to come before the council at least annually. And we could come even more often, other changes need. And also there's an oversight as far as whether certain deals or transactions exceed a certain amount. Those transactions have to come to council as well. There's a hierarchy. There's a tiering of everyday routine deals that we may need to buy electricity for. And then there's further out. And then the city manager has authority for, I believe it's a year, and deals longer than that need to come, must come to council. So you do have direct oversight there. Yeah. Just kind of for the day to day, or monthly, whatever, meetings of this committee involves just the one individual or appointee in terms of oversight of the committee and choosing, selecting representation for the committee. Is that correct? Do I understand that correct? Can you repeat the question? So how about this, can you just go over kind of how the committee is composed? Okay. Yeah. So the committee group is, can I go on section 2.1. 2.1. Okay. The structure is the PUB chair and the city manager, our designee, and the DME general manager, the compliance manager, that's myself, and the chief city CFO, that would be Tony Puente. And so that's the general structure. And then there are two non-voting members, the city auditor and city attorney, or who they designate. Okay. So there's no council representation on that committee unless the -- The mayor is the council representative. I'm having a hard time understanding what the concern is. This committee is not approving something that this council will not have to adopt at some other point. It's just the setup of the committee. So I don't -- I really don't care, but I'm trying to understand what you're really -- what your objection is to this -- I mean, this was passed by a city council, I guess, some time back. This was -- and it was -- let's see, passed last year, and then we came back with a work session on it just a few months ago and introduced -- walked through it in detail in a work session. This. Yeah. Well, there's a few slight revisions, but we did -- But the structure -- Exactly. That structure -- The appointees and what we're discussing now was part of that work session back then, is that correct? Yeah. Yes, sir. That structure remains basically the same. Yeah. And so just since this was part of -- again, I was just asking for clarification. I'm not necessarily objecting to anything, but as a matter of course, I just tend to -- you know, whenever there's a committee where there's a makeup that either doesn't include someone from council or just one person from council or designee, I just like to ask about, you know, the reasoning as to why, but I appreciate that explanation, and I appreciate the confirmation that anything regarding expenditure of a certain amount or over will come to council and any major change in -- or change in practices or any kind of decision, major decision would come before council. This is just kind of as a matter of checking in -- Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. -- a well visit. Along with the requirement that it be reviewed annual, and then there's the quarterly -- I think there's a quarterly reporting back to this council in your packet as well. So there's multiple opportunities throughout the year to view what's happening. Yes. Okay. Well, thank you, and thanks, and just sometimes just for the benefit of the public, I like to just check in on things like that. For the benefit of the public, agenda item 4A also states that -- which are incident to a related -- confirming that the city of Denton, Texas, its mayor, its city council members, its city manager, or his designees, and its city secretary or her designees are authorized to perform such actions and obligations, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So there's nobody going to be doing anything or executing any kind of ordinance or policy or entering into a contract, anything based upon just that committee. So I just want to make that very clear. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. I'm completely satisfied based on what the gentleman just said, so thank you very much. My question is probably for Mr. Estes. It's item M, the execute the professional service agreement for the mobility plan, which I'm really excited to see here. And it's just -- so now that this gets approved, when can we see that in our hands, like the actual plan, so that we can start planning? It will be a year-long process to go through this. It has multiple facets. It's a pedestrian plan, a bike network analysis, as well as combining the ADA transition plan, and then the master thoroughfare plan update. Once all those components we should have within the first six months, a rough draft of that ready to go, so there will be a variety of public meetings and some work session items that will bring some more longer vision items that are encapsulated in that program. I mean, coming back at various times over the next 12 months, but a rough draft would be intended to bring back for a discussion within about six, seven months. And may I follow up? Oh, sure. So you listed quite a few different things that this is going to include. Would all of those things have to come back and be approved at once, or can we take them, you know, like the ADA aspect of it, if that comes through and gets through quicker, can we move it individually, or is it all? Potentially, but overall, the mobility plan would be one-all captured into one document together. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Any other clarifications of agenda items? Okay. We will move on then to our work session reports, which are our work session reports 3A, receive a funding recommendation report from the Community Development Advisory Committee and the Human Services Advisory Committee. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council, Danny Shaw, Community Development Manager. Today we're here to provide a presentation for you from our two grant committees on our recommendations for grant funding in response to our need to submit our HUD action plan this year. So our purpose for today is to review those. The committee members will come up and present those recommendations. And then we also would like to make sure that the community is aware that we do have some upcoming public hearings. We've posted it as well as having a public hearing on May 21st. And then to receive any additional direction or feedback from Council. As a reminder, we did go through this process in November, but just to make sure it's clear, we do have the process in place where October and November, we look at the applications and the committees approve those. And then those go out to the community for review and to apply. We also host public hearings during November and December to get feedback from the community about how those funds should be utilized. And that information is shared with the committees as they're making their funding decisions. The applications are received in January. And then in February and March, both committees hear presentations from the applicants to discuss what their presentation or for what their application is for. And then in March, we finalize those recommendations. And so we're here today to present those to you. In the process, we also have the public hearing, as I said. Our HUD action plan is due to HUD in the middle of June. So that's why we are on this schedule to present it today. And then if HUD approves our action plan, then our funds for any of the CDBG and HOME funds will actually start August 1st. Any of the additional funding that we'll discuss today through the general fund will start in September when it's within the approved budget. So with that, I'd like to invite our Chair for the Community Development Advisory Committee, Larry Barnes, to come up and share those recommendations from the CDAC. Thank you, Danny. Mr. Mayor, Councilmembers, here I am again. We really appreciate the opportunity to serve the city. And this is an important endeavor that's always nice to be able to spend somebody else's money. I don't do it alone. Danny and Louisa have been excellent partners for our committee. I think you see the committee members who are up there, none of which were able to attend this afternoon. But that does not negate the tremendous amount of effort that they put through in revolving each and every application and making sure that various questions were asked and answered. So again, I thank all of those who participated on the committee. The purpose of the development grants, as you well know, is to assist organizations and departments with funds to benefit low and modern income persons and neighborhoods. That's the goal of the funds from HUD. This year we received eight applications in the amount of $1,195,218 from the time that I've served on this committee. From the time that I have served on the committee, this is probably the smallest number of applicants we've received. And that was not because of lack of trying. We did the same processes that we have in other years. But we just simply did not get the number of different applications. And as it turned out, of the eight, four were from city departments and four were from the city at large. And this time we actually got more money than was requested. That is, again, something new. And surprise, surprise. We basically have funds available for CDBG in the amount of $669,896. The home funds available were $633,077. But yet we had that totals up to $1,003,000 and change. And I'll talk about what the committee is contemplating recommending to council in just a minute because we are in that unique position of having more money than was asked for. Committing criteria, as you all know, is comparison of cost per household, benefit, project need, timeliness expenditures, project viability, and sufficient funding to complete the project. All of which are variables that this committee took very seriously. In terms of the community development grant, again, $669,896. We actually have five programs there. CASA, which was requesting $40,000 for ADA facility improvements, they actually requested additional money, but based upon HUD guidelines, the actual constituent needs to be serviced on the property. And these are only administrative offices for CASA. So we came back and we approved the maximum we could for the ADA, which is allowed. ADA modifications are allowed by HUD using CDBG funds. Lease Like Rain was another interesting project in that we didn't know if we were going to even be able to go forward with this project. It is for transitioning families into a healthy environment that are down on their luck. They will have counseling services on this campus. They will have housing on this campus. And what we didn't know and what could have been a problem was that they were going to open on leased land that they didn't own themselves. Well, a little bit like Mana from Heaven, out of the skies came a donation of a piece of land, 16 acres on McKinney across the street from Ryan High School. That solved a major problem for us and a major problem for them as well. So at any rate, we think that we have worked through all of the unique situations that will affect the planning process for a Grace Like Rain. Habitat for Humanity, they came in again and they wanted funding for four pieces of land, four lots acquisition, 220,000. Obviously, each lot is not going to be the same amount of money, but the total allocation that we have allowed for this coming funding year is $220,000. We then have a new program, City Major Systems Replacement Program, requesting $175,000. Now you're probably sitting immediately wondering, well, why did you short them? Why did you only give them $168,000? Because we only had the $69,000 to allocate and we had to balance the sheets. So since it's a new program, we didn't think we would harm the program itself by cutting back just slightly. Council Member Briggs and then Council Member Armitage have a question. You mentioned that's a new program. Can you expand on that just a little bit, on what that program is? I can to the best of my knowledge and staff will help me out if I don't do a good job. But it basically is for, it's not minor repair, it's like if you need to replace a roof or if you need to replace a HVAC system, something that is much larger than minor repairs can handle because it has a repair funding cap. So it's to take those homes that are really in significant disrepair and be in terms of the fundamental living ability and make modifications in that as well. I hope that answers your question. Yes, that does and I would probably need to follow up with staff with a few extra questions about that, but that's great. That's a good thing to do. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Council Member Armitage has a question as well. Could you just speak generally to what are the qualifications to apply for that, at least in terms of income or how long you stayed in a residence? Danny, you might cover that. It has the same qualification criteria as all of CDBG does because it falls within that category. Now, how it's awarded, Danny probably has a little bit more insight than I do. Right. So this will fall in line with all of our criteria to be 80% or below area median income to qualify for it. They do have to be a home in Denton and they do have to reside in the home and there'll be requirements on the back end that they stay in the home for a certain period of time and that will generally depend on how much funding we put into the particular home. This program just gives us that little bit of gap to help us cover those folks. Okay. Excellent. And if there's money left over in the program, it rolls over? Correct. In all of our programs, if there is money that is left over, it just rolls over into the next year or we can reallocate it if there are other funding priorities in another year, which we've done also. Okay. We reallocate it to any other program that qualifies for CDBG? Yeah. We move that money inside. We move that money in and it's part of their decision making, much like we did this year. Excellent. Yeah. I have a couple of questions. So this is a new program. I don't recall us seeing it at council as far as... So is this created by CDBG or is this a staff-related program? Where did this originate, I guess is my question. Right. Our applications for the city projects go just like any other project to the advisory committee first for review and then we develop the guidelines around it. We propose these guidelines to fill a necessary gap in between our mine and repair program and our reconstruction and renovation program and also to help us leverage a couple of other things that we're having with our home buyer assistance program. We can actually then preserve some affordable housing in the community, keep it affordable, keep people in their home and safe and stable, and also create new home buyers as well when we can buy or utilize lower-priced housing that has issue. Could you maybe send out just a white paper or something to the council? Just describing because if it's a new program, it's one that you all felt was a need and so then the $175,000, unless that's all new money, where's that money coming from? Is it being taken from some other programs to create that or what's the genesis of that additional funding? Yeah. It was reallocation from another program, our infill program and some other funding that we had available that we just reallocated there. So it's not taking away from any existing program and most of these are being funded at their... Because we had, within this program, we had a surplus of money, we were able to fund it without harming another... If you could step just a little bit behind the mic, yes, I'm sorry, that's what this light means. Yeah, so if you're wondering. We did consider that and because it was within the same program and we had a surplus of money, had we not had a surplus of money, more offered by HUD than was requested, we would have probably taken a slightly different stance. But since we were able to fund it and because it did make inherent sense in filling that gap, as you so said, we felt that, again, the $168,000 was viable. So is this going to be a new program moving forward annually as some of our others? Is that what the intent is on this? Yes, sir. We hope that this will be a program that we'll continue on. And you mentioned that it's the same qualifications as the other guidelines for CDBG, which is 80% or less. Right. Our programs, they qualify at 80% or below, area median income. And I appreciate that. But of course, someone at 80% and someone at 50% has a very different need level. Correct. So is there some kind of money set back for -- do you sort of parse it out or is it first come first serve? If you meet the under 80% threshold and you meet all the other criteria, it's -- you might get approved. It is first come first serve as they present to the department and are qualified for the program. So we don't have a wait list, though, that would require us to prioritize it this time. If that were ever a factor, we would take that into consideration. All right. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Councilmember Armitage. One more question about that in a comment -- or actually, both are comments, really. One, there's a huge need for this kind of program, so I'm thrilled about this. It really does help -- something like this really would help people stay in their homes. My request would be that if somehow this 168 ends up being used up, if the community development would let Council know in some way, come forward to Council, let us know. I would like to know that. Of course. Thank you. Okay. May I proceed? Thank you. I think we then are at minor repair program, which the advisory committee always wants to prioritize because it's probably the biggest bang for the buck in serving the most people. So we always try to maximum fund that. Takes us over to home. Of home, we had an allocation -- maximum allocation of 633,077. You'll note there's -- again, because I know you all read forward even if I ask you not to -- you've gone to the bottom line and programmed home funds of $114,000. That is because, again, we had more money than was requested or that we could, for example, give to CASA because of the restrictions on the use of the property. What we have here, though, in terms of the priorities, is that you have debt and affordable housing, rental unit rehabilitation. That $84,250 is for the two duplexes on Strata Street and the debt and affordable housing comes to us every year with the desire to upgrade, you know, several properties of theirs or as many as we can fund. And so that's what they're asking for this year. Any homebuyer assistance program, down payment and closing costs for first-time homebuyers. Again, we feel we put as much money there as we possibly can. Because there's a side effect that happens to all of this. It's not only helping families, low to moderate income families, with their lifestyle and with their housing itself, it also affects the community. Because each of these programs, in their own way, motivates an individual to take some other kind of action that helps us, particularly in beautification. City homebuyer assistance program, down payment and closing costs for first-time homebuyers. Again, we felt was a very, very viable program. City home improvement program, home repair assistance. We've talked on that one as well, 354,612, leaving that unallocated $114,000. >> I have a question from Councilmember Rockford. >> Yes. >> So a few questions about the first item, debt and affordable housing corporation. Can you speak -- you mentioned that they're -- that they own two duplexes and several other properties. They have several properties. >> Yeah. >> I don't recall what their total is. >> They have just over 90 properties that they maintain currently as a rental. >> That's a lot for several. That helps to explain why. So that 84 -- so that figure would be dispersed -- I mean, I guess -- >> It would be dispersed for two specific duplexes on the stratosphere. They defined what the work was going to be done for, how it was going to be done, and where it was going to be done. We're not just giving them a check of random money. We are specifying, and it's almost like a restricted -- think of it as a restricted grant. >> Okay. So these are -- so it would be restricted to these two duplexes that are currently inhabited? >> Don't know that they are. >> Yes. We've made some plans to make sure that those families -- the contractor they're going to use is not going to displace those families while the renovations occur. >> Okay. >> So they told us that specifically in the application presentation. >> Okay. Great. And you could just speak to kind of what kind of upgrades or improvement? >> It's a full rehab, so it's widening for ADA. It's adding some additional major system repair. I think there was a roof included, so -- >> Yeah, it's whatever needs to be done to that property to make it livable. And make it a home that the residents can be proud to live in. >> Okay. Yeah. I would just love to -- you know, I have -- had tried to reach out in the past at Dental Affordable Housing Corporation, would love to kind of get -- speaking for myself individually, get together with them, see some of their properties. >> Well, each year one of the things that the committee does, it provides an opportunity for particularly new members to go out to some of these projects and actually see firsthand the impact that they've had. And I would suggest that perhaps the chair next year when we -- he or she would develop that kind of field trip, just put it out to the council, and if you want to come, it would be wonderful. >> I would love that so much. >> I bet. I will be there if my schedule allows. Thank you. >> Did I overcommit? [ Laughter ] >> Too late. You said it. >> So anyway, the $114,000 we can either put out for bid again. I'm sorry. >> Well, I think Council Member Briggs had a question. >> Okay. >> Well, just a follow-up on that for the DAH, they have 90 units you mentioned. Do they go by the same housing -- the coordinated entry -- the same housing list that some of our other nonprofits use? >> They don't actually participate in the housing crisis response system in that way, but they are a referral. So any of our agencies who are providing housing assistance will connect with them to see if they have an available unit and where they can use the federal funds. And within the context of all the units that they have available, they're all different types of requirements on those based on how they were funded previously. So like this project will have some requirements on it so they won't be able to use other funding or put other people in that unit until those requirements go away based on the agreements. >> Oh, okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Very hard to see the green lights. >> No, no. I bet it is. >> Real quick question. On the 114,215, was it not sort of dispersed amongst the three that have applied simply because they didn't request it? Is that the reason for that? >> That was the reason. And then we discussed it in committee. And Luis and I actually were just discussing it before the meeting started. It may not be cost-wise a benefit to actually put that up for bid again and we may want to get the committee to come back together and consider allocating it across the other even though they didn't ask for it, but we still allocate it across. My guess would be they could find a use for it. >> They probably wouldn't reject it. >> That's my guess. >> They probably wouldn't reject it. >> I have never run into anybody who rejected $114,000. >> About how many home buyers in number seven will $80,000, I mean, what's the average outlay for that type of assistance for down payment and first-time closing costs? Do we have an idea? And if you don't, that's fine. Just get that back in an email or something. >> Yeah, it's actually in your backup as well in the project description. So the home buyer assistance program with this $80,000 will assist five home buyers in the city. >> Okay. >> With about $15,000 in down payment, $1499. >> Plus closing costs. >> And closing costs and down payment, however they choose to allocate it. >> Okay. >> Mr. Mayor, one of the things we try to do as a committee is we try to get the biggest bang for the buck. >> Of course. >> To affect as many families as we can. >> You've done a very good job. >> Thank you. >> This year and historically as well. >> Thank you, if there's not any other questions. >> Any other questions for the community development advisory committee and their recommendations? So then you will let us know what the committee decides on the additional $114,000 when y'all come back together. >> Correct. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Larry. >> Thanks, Larry. So now I'd like to invite up the chair for the Human Services Advisory Committee, Hannah Garcia, and she'll be presenting the recommendations for that Human Services Grant. Hi, thanks so much. Thanks, Danny. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. Yes, it is. Hi, my name again is Hannah Garcia. I'm the chair of the Human Services Advisory Committee, I think this is my second year as chair. I think my fourth year participating on the committee and I'd like to echo sort of similar sentiments that thank you for the opportunity to serve on a committee like this and to make these recommendations to you all. My committee members, one of my committee, fellow committee members is here, Amy Morgan, but the others weren't able to attend in person, but have also spent countless hours reviewing and putting thoughtful consideration into the recommendations we will put forth. So as I think you guys are aware, the purpose of this grant is to assist our low and moderate income citizens with grant funds that are awarded to organizations to meet their basic emergency human needs and offer prevention programs to promoting the highest degree of assistance towards the goal of self-sufficiency. But we really, you know, focus on the needs of our city of Denton residents, funding considerations are focused in the areas of homelessness and homelessness prevention, housing, domestic violence services, health and mental care, and programs that serve children and youth. I think, I don't think senior citizens are included in this, but I think that's also part of our scope. The factors we consider when we review these applications include the amount of funding that we estimate. So staff helps us estimate how much we have available because unlike the HUD funding, we've never had a surplus, so we always have more of a demand than we have funds available. So we like to get a nice ballpark heading into it. We look at the impact, the number of city of Denton residents that are served by these programs versus the dollars and look at sort of trying to make the maximum impact with the number of individuals that could be served with the funds. We look at the community needs and try to prevent duplication wherever possible and we look at the number, the organizations and their ability to collaborate with others. And we also look at the financial stability of the organization and their sustainability. All right. So this year, we received applications from 17 agencies and one community impact program. So there were three agencies that previously received funds who did not apply this year. Six of the programs or six of the organizations support children and youth. Six are focused on housing, homelessness, emergency services. Two are senior programs. Two were healthcare programs and one mental and behavioral health program. And the total requests came in at almost $700,000 and we are making recommendations around $482,000. That 482 is actually just above what we estimated being having available, $148,978 is the 15% allowable for CDDBG funds for public services and that would be distributed across these five organizations. So these would be your CDDBG. Yes, Councilmember Briggs. I just want to make a note of the City of Denton Parks and Rec for the summer day camp scholarships. So I had a message regarding that about somebody thought that the funding was going, it was getting less and it was going to be harder to get a scholarship. I did receive clarification on that, that that is different. But I'm seeing this and if you look at the $64,000 and then the $29,000 recommended, it looks pretty significant. But if you look in the years past, the $29,000 is actually an increase from what they received before. So I just wanted to kind of put that out there so people understand that. It is and thank you for mentioning that, I mean, I think you all have a copy of the recommendations Exhibit 4 in your packets. Let's see what was requested and then recommended. So it does include prior year awards and the request amount. And year after year, the request amount gets higher in the amount we have available. We try our best to keep level funding at minimum if we're able to. And in some cases increase, but that one is one where we did recommend a slight increase from a prior year. Do you know if the Parks Foundation is going to be able to do scholarships as well? Is it the same for the same program? I'm not sure how they fund the difference. That would probably have to be a follow up question with Danny and someone from the city. That program specifically as well is really I feel like it's really important because it is the only 100% scholarship program for low income individuals for summer care. I think Laura has a comment on that. So the foundation helps, I'm sorry, Laura Behrens, Assistant Director for Parks and Recreation. The foundation helps us fund our partial scholarship program. So we, the department, the city, actually supplements the additional costs that aren't covered through the CDBG grant funding for full scholarship. Okay. So these are full scholarships. These are full scholarships. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Follow up question for Laura while you're there. So does the city end up funding or rather between the city funding and CDBG funding, would you say 100% of the applicants who apply for that and qualify? What it actually does is because of some of the criteria that were mentioned earlier under the other programs, the funding, one of the grant requirements is that the funding that's given you have to be able to demonstrate that it is being directly received by those participants. So for this particular funding we use for staffing because staffing, we can directly show that the staffing provided services to the applicants or to the, you know, to the families that are participating in the program, in our summer camp program, versus using it on equipment. We wouldn't be able to, if we bought equipment, that's used across the entire summer camp system and so we wouldn't be able to demonstrate that this ball that we bought was specifically used by one of the scholarship applicants. So it's used for staffing, everything else is then supported by the city. Okay, and so, and when you say everything else is supported by the city, just generally speaking do all of the applicants who qualify get the full funding for these scholarships or are people, do we end up having to turn people down? The applicant is only responsible for a $10 administrative registration fee and that's it. They participate in the program and receive full services just as any other camp participant would. Awesome. And so, but has anybody ever turned down because we don't, because we've already agreed to fund a certain amount? I believe we actually have a wait list this year. Okay. So we're only able to, depending on the level of funding, we're able to support a certain number of spots and I do believe we have a waiting list this year. Okay, and do you feel that or do you know offhand, is the wait list due to not enough staffing or room for the activities or because of not enough funding for the scholarships? As we increase our enrollment levels, we have to add staffing so that we have a ratio between staff counselors and children. So it would be a matter of staffing. Okay. Well, I for one would love to see that waiting list reduced to zero and would support funding through general fund, whatever it takes to do that. So possibly that would be a council supplementary budget item for consideration or when the parks comes before us, I'm not sure if Parks was planning on putting that in, I'm not sure how my colleagues feel about that, but I think that's a pretty important need we provide, but thank you for answering those questions. Council Member Briggs. So you mentioned spots and wait lists, if you could just follow up with us on the exact number of spots. We definitely can. And then how many are on the wait list? Okay. That'd be really great. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, so we had the remaining, I'm trying to kind of maybe make up a little time and keep us on schedule, but Denton City County Day School, we did make a recommendation on theirs that was just slightly under their prior year. That wasn't due to anything other than the availability of funds. Denton County Friends of the Family, we made the recommendation to fully fund their request. SPAN for Meals on Wheels, again, make a recommendation to fully fund that request. And making a recommendation to fulfill 25,000 with 35,000 for the Salvation Army of Denton, which is a little slight increase from the year before. As you keep on continuing going through, we're looking at 31,000 for CASA, 30,000 for Communities and Schools, 28,000 for Denton Christian Preschool, 18,000 for Denton County's MHMR Outreach Program for Suicide Survivors, and 35,000 for Fred Moore Nursery School. Question about the MHMR? I don't know how to go backwards. So I'm looking at their prior years and when their first award was 22,000 and then it was 15 and 15 and now it's back at 18, which isn't close, but then I see the outreach program to suicide survivors, does that each year when they apply, does what they're asking for the money go to something different or has it been consistent? That has been the same, right? Is that true? Yeah, I believe so. So the first time MHMR was funded, it was for their residential treatment program. And then they did receive a reduction in funding because they didn't expend all the funds in the previous year, and so last year they brought us a new program and requested it, this outreach to suicide survivors. And so it was a new program, they funded it at 15,000 and then this year gave it a little bit more. So it is different programs, I can't compare them apple to apple. If they wanted to come back with the original program, which was the residential, they could do that? They could. We do have, because of the limitation on the funding, the committee has, over the last couple of years, asked that applicants only bring one application to us rather than multiple programs so that may limit them, they will prioritize which application they want to bring to us. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Amater. I was wondering if you could speak to a couple of things, but Fred Moore Nursery School, so obviously a big difference between what, you know, they're requesting and not recommended. I know that the money is limited, but I also noticed that, see, last year they were awarded 40,000, previous year 48, year before that 48. Can you speak to a little bit of what went into that 90,000 request because, you know, they feel, you know, like all of these, they feel a big need. I'm just wondering kind of what their, if they've got 90,000 worth of need. That 90,000 for, was for, completely for staff, headcount, you know, for full-time employees or for teachers, I don't know if they're full-time or part-time, but part of the decision and the part of the recommendation is based on looking at their overall funding and their overall health, not health, their overall financial picture and trying to look at what portion we make up of their overall budget, trying to make sure that we're recommending a balanced -- Got it, yeah. So did it look like they were in better financial shape than last year? We don't judge necessarily in terms of their health of the organization, but just really wanting to make sure that people have a balanced portfolio, I guess, in terms of their -- and this application was actually received late, and so this committee did take that into consideration when they were reviewing their allocation, and that has some emphasis on their ability to report and meet the requirements of the grant, so they had a historical decision-making in a previous year. Last year they also did dock an agency because of their late reporting on their application, so some of what you're seeing in the reduction is about that as well. Okay. Thank you for answering those questions. Did you have any questions on any of the other recommendations? I think I have one more kind of block of organizations. All right, PediPlace for pediatric medical care, $7,500 for them, which is an increase from the prior year, volunteer support for RSVP, serving Denton County volunteers, $5,000, and then a $12,000 recommendation for HMIS licenses for agencies to use reporting into that shared database. Okay. As I mentioned, we did have multiple agencies who did request higher amounts from prior years. This is actually something we see every year, is that they sort of ask -- most agencies ask higher than we are able to fulfill, but while some of these were not fully funded, we tried our best to increase where we were able to. The three organizations who did not apply this year included the Denton Community Health Clinic, RSVP's VISTA program, and Youth and Family Counseling. Eleven agencies, we recommended an increase in funding based on the growth of the program and their ability to demonstrate a need and higher request from the previous years. We have five organizations for whom we've requested some level funding, and of those, three of them we've recommended to fully fund their request, two, we've recommended that their funding stay level with what we've funded the prior year, and only two organizations did we recommend us a slight decrease, and that was, as you saw, Fred Moore and Denton City County Day School. Fred Moore was, like we said, their application was received late, and we did have some reporting concerns. Denton City County Day School, I think the amount requested was just very slightly under 1 or 2% lower than the prior year, and we didn't have any concerns with that, just based on the amount funded. - Thank you. Council Member Briggs had a question. - So on your list, on 10, I see Interfaith Ministries, and is that the same, so do we? - I need Danny to talk on this one. - Yeah, 'cause we also fund them through, all right, is that through our general fund for utilities, or is this something different? - That's correct. It's important to note though that this agency did just notify us after we had already set up this presentation, that this particular funding was for rental assistance program, but they did not feel like the funding was sufficient for them to continue that program and have now declined that funding, and feel like it can be better used by other organizations that are doing the same work, so this 7,000 will go back to the committee for reallocation. - Okay. - Sorry. - Thank you. - Go ahead, Council Member Armitage. - So, and thank you for mentioning that, so will the committee be giving special priority to organizations that provide rental assistance, like I'm looking here, I know Giving Hope does? - So we did make recommendations on Giving Hope, and their funding to fulfill a similar need in the community, so. - Excellent. - Yeah. - Excellent, thanks. I think our committee will need to reconvene and figure out how to distribute the 7,000 that we had previously recommended to go to Interfaith. I think we'll have to figure out the best, I'm pretty sure that requires a separate meeting for us. Does anyone have any questions about any of the other recommendations? - Yes, go ahead. - Sorry. - Thank you to DTV, by the way, and so my question would be, Fred Moore, my understanding and maybe staff would have to answer this, my understanding is DISD is in the process of taking that building over or doing, are you aware, I think there's something that they're doing to try to act on a grant that would allow, if they have a daycare facility in conjunction with a school in the same building, I think there's something in the works to take advantage of some grant in that capacity. So if we could check, I would just want to understand when the funding is going to happen, if there's a transition in place, and if, because if they ultimately take over the building that may affect my feeling towards the funding. - Yeah, we would want to know that as well, because of the funding that we put into that particular, but they have two sites, so I'm not sure if it's the Fred Moore at Gonzales, which is a school that they're doing on-site pre-K programming, which may be what you're thinking would be being affected, but we'll check to make sure. - Thank you. - Yeah, thank you for bringing that to our attention. - Any other questions on the recommendations, the funding recommendations from the Human Services Advisory Committee? - No, well, again, I just want to thank you. I think my fellow committee members and I take this role very seriously to become, we try to be the best stewards we can, both above the city's dollars, but then also the, making sure that the constituents served are the most, the best served based on our recommendations. We have put some thought into developing a sort of a resource guide for the organizations as well and have talked with staff about developing a sort of a one pager to help identify additional resources outside of what the city provides that are available locally to try and assist the organizations in a little bit more expanded way and be a little more proactive in how we help them, and so that's something that we've talked, we've visited with staff about preparing and putting together, and that's about it. We have two members who serve with us for their rolling off their term, and Pam Barnes and Stephen Coffey who have both been valuable and will be greatly missed, so I want to thank them. - Well, thank you so much for your work on the committee because I know it's an arduous task to try to take a limited amount of funding to spread out a bunch of needs around needs that there's never enough. - Well, I mean, they're very important needs, I mean, they're true needs, and so it's very difficult to even fund slightly under. - Yeah. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. - Thank you. I did want to recognize we did have a couple of our program recipients in the house who are requesting funding, so Grace Lightgrain and Habitat, so thank you for coming and supporting the committees and their presentations. Just as a final, our next steps, of course, we've posted our public comment period for the draft action plan, it's available on our website to review for any citizen who's interested in commenting on how we're allocating the funds or how we're using these federal funds, and they'll have through the 30th, and we also have it available if people want to come in, it's in our office or we can make it available. We will have the public hearing on May 21st at the council meeting for anyone to come in and make comment directly. We will then also present our action plan to city council on the fourth, hopefully by consent agenda. If not, individual consideration for your review on the fourth, and then submit the action plan to HUD by the 15th with your signature, and then, of course, if all goes well, then our funding will start on August 1st as our funding year for the federal funds is different than our fiscal year. Any other questions? - Council Member Hudson. - Thank you. I would just ask if, looking at that schedule again, so I think it's before the 21st meeting, I don't know how my peers feel, but I would like to see, in the CDBG funds, the habitat housing, I'd like to see draft language that would require geographic restrictions, and it goes back to the same thing I've talked about before. I just don't want the clustering. And so I'd like to see some sort of draft language to ask my peers to review and approve that would say whatever that is, but let's share the wealth. - Yeah. At this point, we did do some analysis based on those questions for this particular project and why we put them in CDBG. The question we would have is our ability to be able to restrict the federal funds. So we would have confidence in being able to use language that would say we want to encourage you to diversify, but until we can get in a process, and I'd like to talk that process through, but where we can get it into our next five-year consolidated plan that would allow us to then target and focus that kind of stuff, that would be the better recourse for us legally. - Yeah. Let me make sure I'm understanding. We're going to allocate the money, but we can't legally set parameters for that. Those parameters are set by whom? - That's a good question. - Let the city attorney address that, if you don't mind. - We're looking at how the guidelines are set on that. - Yeah, there may be some federal housing guidelines that may restrict language that restricts the funding. So what they're saying is they don't know yet, so that's what they're going to try to research. - Yeah, we're just not confident we know if we can put language in that would restrict it without putting some other items in place, like a neighborhood reinvestment plan in our consolidated plan, which would allow us to then say we're targeting particular areas rather than restricting. - Okay. Then do this. I know this what we can do. I'd ask that we draft a letter to Habitat to then ask them to respond if they would agree to it just organically. So if they either write a letter, they'll say yes or no, and then I'd like to see that response. You got it. - Thank you. - Sure. - Okay. All right. So I'm going to back up just a second. I appreciate your position on that. I guess my concern is when we start talking about drafting letters, instructions from a single council member to send to organizations, I think that probably we need to have a policy discussion on that. Understanding exactly where you are based upon some of your previous conversations, so it's not a criticism, it's that I just want to make sure that we're not sending out things that really don't have sort of the blessing of the council as a whole from a policy perspective. Does that make sense? - Yes, sir. A great point. And so if there isn't the consensus, I'll do it myself and I'll share with you what I hear back. - Okay. All right. Okay. Appreciate that. All right. Any other questions? Comments? Appreciate your work on this. - Thank you. - I really do. Well, let's take a five minute break before we get into our next agenda item. - I heard that. - Welcome everybody back to this meeting of the Denton City Council on Tuesday, May the 7th, 2019. It is 2.37. Moving through our work session items, we're on 3B, receive a report, hold a discussion, give staff direction regarding the City of Denton's special event process and proposed ordinance. - Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Laura Behrens. I'm the Director for Parks and Recreation. And today I want to review a proposed ordinance for our special event process. So the purpose of this ordinance is to ensure the safety and compliance with the ordinance, which includes permitting processes and requirements from police, fire, risk management, streets, traffic, consumer health, and solid waste. It also is to provide us a level of consistency by setting standards that are equally applied to all of our event organizers and also creates a streamlined process. It also helps us to accomplish some internal operational tasks that include planning for staffing, site preparation, and an approval process for any special requests. It also impacts our budget in terms of in-kind service requests and overtime. And then finally, it's meant to enhance customer service by creating a one-stop shop for the application process and payment. And we've also developed a comprehensive guide that walks event organizers step by step through this process. So if you'll recall, we originally brought a proposed or the idea of a proposed ordinance to you back in May of last year. At that time, we reviewed the current application process, procedures, and shared with you some issues that we had identified with that process. We also discussed related ordinances such as parades, food handling, fire code, amplified sound, alcohol, and street closures that all are a part of the special event process. We also discussed First Amendment activities and block parties and how this process would apply to them. There was a desire to include an appeal process for the denial of a permit for special events. And then lastly, we did bring to you some ideas or thoughts in wanting to get your feedback on what type of special events you would want to see brought in front of the council for your review prior to any approval. So after that discussion, we went back and we began meeting again with our internal stakeholders, all the departments that are directly impacted by special events or have a piece of that process. And we took your direction and began to revise that proposed ordinance that was presented back in May and then also to develop the special event guide. The ordinance that you have in front of you now is a comprehensive and detailed outline that really puts together the administrative and operational procedures that go into holding a special event. So I wanted to go over those with you briefly. So it begins with the application submittal. A special event organizer would submit an application, now a master application, that goes through a cursory review for completeness and for clarifications. We want to make sure that we understand the nature of the event and the proposed activities for that event. After that, it goes through a first internal review where it's sent out to all the departments that would be directly impacted by this proposed event. Each one of those departments would then provide us with comments and make a determination of any requirements that would be imposed upon the event organizer. Those comments are going to serve as notification to that organizer in terms of what they need to do prior to approval of the application or ultimately a permit. We will meet with the event organizers as needed or requested through this process. Once they've had an opportunity to review those comments, they can make adjustments to the application and then resubmit those to us for a second review. At that time, the departments will confirm whether or not those requirements have been met and we can do this as many times as we need to. If there are additional questions, concerns, comments that need to be addressed, we can do that individually one-on-one with the event organizer. From that point, we began to prepare any documentations that would be required in terms of permits, applicable contracts such as the sale of alcohol, and then those council approved items that require an agenda information sheet, an ordinance like exceptions that might be requested, and mankind requests. We also have the issuance and approval of those documents based on the proposed activities, and then we have final approval of the event itself, and that's the administrative side. On the operational side, internally kind of running concurrently with the administrative process, staff is beginning to look at what type of resources it's going to take to help support the event. In terms of staffing, we have building attendants, park maintenance, inspectors, security and EMS that are involved for site preparations for using one of our buildings or one of our park properties. We have facility and grounds set up. We also have solid waste, restroom facilities, fencing parameters to establish perimeters and street closures that have to be set up, and then for the event itself, we have building attendants on site for operations. A lot of times we have park maintenance on site for the duration of the event. We also have liaisons and facilitators that help with any requests that may occur at the time of the event on on-site, and then they're also there to ensure compliance and safety with those requirements of the permits that have been approved. And finally, with the wrap-up, staff is involved a lot of times with the takedown and the cleanup after the event, the coordination of equipment takedown and removal. Park maintenance then comes back in, especially if it's on park grounds, to make any final repairs or adjustments, put the park back in place for general public use. We document the event, and we also have a final assessment of fees. That will normally come with our EMS and police personnel. Is all this associated with a certain size special event, or just any special event? Yes, it is dependent on size, and it's also dependent on activity. We might have a special event that has fewer attendants, but might have activities that would still require us to go through this entire process. And this is on city property, or in the public right-of-way? This is on city property, however, we have special events that come through us that may not be on city property, but we do have an exemption in the proposed ordinance for properties that that is their business, that's their certificate of occupancy. They are an event center. Okay, so it's like the fairgrounds, or somebody else who has events regularly would not be subject to this every single time? Correct. They had an event. Correct. Okay. Council Member Hussbett has a question. Yes, sir. I'm trying to track with you, but in the preparation before the event, is there an opportunity for the planner and staff to review kind of the, almost like a rental car, where you walk the car before you accept the responsibility? Where would that fall in here, and is that documented, signed off? Yes. Okay. Where would that fall? That's going to fall really in both places, but under the comments here, meet as needed and requested, that primarily takes place when we have the rental of a facility. We do a walkthrough with the renter or the event organizer who's going to be using it, and then we document the condition of the property before, and we document the condition of the property after. Okay. And that's done in both parties are there, and staff and that individual, and then they both sign off? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Council member Briggs, do you have a question? Yeah, on that one page, if you go back, no, back where he was, yeah, so the adjustments to the event for compliance. So I believe we're probably making a few changes. I just want to confirm that we're not making or putting restrictions or requirements on individuals who may have previously been able to rent the Civic Center, but say now for our adjustments, may not. Yeah, so that's broad. What this is, what the ordinance is actually doing is really formalizing what our existing practices are for the majority of things. There are some additional requirements, and those requirements are going to be in terms of completing the master application. There are requirements for, and even opportunities for being able to secure, do a deposit, an event now, or an event center or facility. And then we are also firming up those payments of permits and fees and so forth. And then also have some recommendations on any requests for in-kind services or exceptions. So for the most part, this again is just really encompassing what we are already doing, but it's formalizing it. It's giving us a little bit more authority to follow through on those requirements that are already in place. Okay. Thank you. Do we, the one complaint I've heard in the past is the refund timeframe, do we stipulate in the ordinance that, I think there's advantage to using a credit card, I think the refunds come faster, is that right? With a credit card, yes. We do not take debit cards, and the reason for that is because you have to come back in and enter in your PIN for us to be able to refund through debit. What takes the longest is refund through a check. And so do we stipulate, one, do we advise people, is that listed in, is that noted in the ordinance, and then two- I believe it is, and it is also in the facility use policy, I know that it's specifically noted in there, there's a 30-day turnaround on checks. And again, and that has to do with just our internal process and procedure for cutting those checks and getting them out, but the quickest is the refund via credit card. I believe we have a seven, either a seven or 10-day stipulation on that. And those are, that's captured in the forms or pointed out or something? Yes. Overall, addressing the customer service, this ordinance creates that one-stop shop that we previously discussed. With the special event ordinance, we clearly define what a special event activity is and outline or what a special event is and outline activities so everybody knows up front what those requirements are and the planning and the detail they'll need to go into hosting or putting on a special event here in the city. It establishes requirements for consistency. We've also developed a guide that I'll want to walk you through here in just a second. We're very proud of, and we also have updated the website with information. It outlines the activities, the related requirements, and the steps needed for planning and compliance. Then we have that master application that we talked about. Rather than filling out multiple applications or permits, now we have one that will feed into all of the permits that may be needed or required based on the activities that are being proposed. We have a designated park staff member. We've had a designated staff, a park member in the past. We revamped that position a little bit and we now have a trained backup as well. So that gives us a continuity of service in case that staff member is unavailable, we'll always have a staff member that is able to step in and assist. We've also created through this process a special event permit. This will act as your master permit for the final approval of all of those compliance steps in one. And then we've also added a refundable deposit to secure your date. So this actually addresses a couple of issues that we've had and that have come to us, specifically with the notice to organizers of any potential conflicts. So by coming in and wanting to secure your date, we'll be able to tell you whether or not there is another event going on in a nearby park or even in that facility, like, okay, if you want to have your birthday party here or your wedding here that evening, we just want you to know that that morning we have this other event going on or we have an event going on in the park so that that gives them a heads up, gives them notice and an idea of what other activities might be happening at the same time as their proposed activity. Okay. I'm going to go with Mayor Pro Tem and Council Member Amartyr and then Council Member Briggs. When looking at the standardizing review process, I noticed in the ordinance it talks about minimum of 60 days, not more than 12 months in advance, which means that if a neighborhood right now wanted to have a Fourth of July party and close off the cul-de-sac, they couldn't do that? Well, and that there is actually a specific provision for neighborhood block parties that we'll discuss also. Okay. Thank you. Council Member Amartyr and then Council Member Briggs. So question about the refundable deposit, are those entities that are exempt from the special event fee, are they still responsible for a deposit? So the entities that are exempt are going to be First Amendment activities and block parties. Anyone else has to request an exemption of fees for the waiver of those charges? So just to understand, and how does that apply to the deposit? Because is there a difference between the fee and the deposit? Yes, there is. So the deposit's different. Again, it's refundable, they could request a waiver of the deposit, but that would have to come to Council for approval. All fees and waiver, all waiver of fees and charges have to come to Council for approval. And we do that through the in-kind ordinances that you see for special events. Okay. So in other words, those activities, block parties and the big First Amendment activities are not exempt from the deposit, they're exempt from the special event fee, but not from the refundable deposit. Well, the block parties normally don't use our park facilities. So that's held in their own neighborhood and the special events, the First Amendment activities and events, again, normally are held out in public spaces and not actually reserving or renting one of our park facilities or city facility. Okay. And so how exactly is facility defined? Does that mean indoor? So you're talking about indoor building? I'm talking about the civic center, yes, our recreational centers, but then also park spaces because there are rental fees for park spaces as well. Okay. So open air park spaces. If you want, yes, if you want the fee specifically for, you know, designated for your event, Carson Jazz is a great example, they rent the entire Quaker town, Cinco de Mayo rents Quaker town, so does the Blues Festival. They rent the park as part of their event. And so the park itself is then designated specifically for that event. Okay. So I was trying to save my questions about the First Amendment stuff for slide eight because that's when you talk about the exemptions. So I'll just kind of flag this and have some questions about the deposit, how it would apply to that. So I have some concerns about the First Amendment, including First Amendment activities in this, but thank you. So, Andy, you're talking about renting parks and I know that Woodrow Wilson does that with Nettie Schultz for the end of school thing. So I'm familiar with that, but on the pavilions, because I know and I've also reserved the pavilions for birthday parties, but there have been situations where you show up to do your party and there's someone already using it that has no idea that's not logged into the system that doesn't have another event. How do you go about handling that? Is there someone that goes out now ahead of time to the larger pavilions and puts reserved on it or, because it's a really uncomfortable situation, especially for someone who has gone through the process, they paid their deposit and they show up with their decorations and there's no place for them to go and you have to kind of kick someone. I don't really think that's fair for the person who's gone through the process to do so. How are we addressing that? Well, right now, you can actually go onto our park website and see the availability of all of our facilities, including pavilions, but of course somebody who's just showing up at the park and uses a pavilion will probably not do that. We can definitely look into what it would take to put reserved notifications or something out for those pavilions, but at this time, it's just really left up to the park users. I would personally like to see at least some type of sliding thing on it. Somebody go out to check on the pavilion and just put reserved, so that way there's something where somebody can point to, like this is reserved for me right now just to help that family out. Okay. Definitely. We can look into that. So the refundable deposit will also let you avoid double bookings or help us to avoid double bookings. Some key provisions in the ordinance is number one, the liability insurance. It does set a minimum liability now at a million dollars, which is consistent with other activities that risk management requires liability insurance for. The current minimum is $500,000. In a review of 30 of our past events, 27 of those already met the proposed minimum requirement of a million dollars, only three were still at the $500,000 threshold, and the difference between a $500,000 policy and a million dollar policy is $40. So there's minimal impact and it's only affecting three events. Thank you. Mr. City Manager, I've come across this before and my ask, and it may already be in place, but my ask is if we have a list of, let's say, or can we, I don't know if we can, have a list of four or five insurance companies that we're familiar with that others use kind of regularly. So if the layperson comes in and I'm not used to shopping for this type insurance, it just seems like it'd be good for us to point them to someone that we have a good reputation with, that we know is reputable and say, "Hey, we've worked with these four or five before. Give them a call." Something like that. But I don't know if we're allowed to do that, or I don't know the rules, but I just think that would be helpful for someone that does not know where to turn. I can certainly talk to the city attorney and see where those parameters are. That gets a little dicey, potentially making recommendations like that. Yeah, that's what I figured. But obviously, any of these applications are available to the public as well. Let me talk to Aaron when he gets back on that. I think maybe it's just a, "Here's the last five events that have to have insurance," and there's a highlighted portion there that I'd direct you to, something like that. Councilman Briggs? What are the three events that did not meet the requirement? I'd have to go back and look. We do have that information. I just have to go back and look. Okay. Thanks. Another key provision is the timeline, as Mayor Pro Tem mentioned. For an event that does not require any council approvals, we've set a minimum timeline of 60 days prior to the event. That gives everyone time to look at the application, review it, make any adjustments that are needed, and perform subsequent reviews. And then again, it gives both city staff and the event organizer the time that they need to plan appropriately for the event to meet those requirements. If it does require council approval, we have a minimum of 90 days. It has to go through all of the same processes for the 60 days, but we have that added timeline or time in there for the preparation of the documents, the agenda information sheets, the ordinances, the legal review that goes into that, and then also scheduling that on a council agenda for approval. There's a seven day application requirement for First Amendment activities. This is for those First Amendment activities that are planned and scheduled. So if you actually have a future date for that, we're asking for a minimum of seven days. The primary reason for that is to evaluate the event for public safety and also for operational planning. So if you have any other needs, questions, any assistance that we can provide that group, we want to have those few days to be able to provide that assistance, but again, it's primarily to review the event and address any public safety needs that they might want or have. So I have some concerns, as I mentioned, about including First Amendment activities under these provisions at all. Now, some of my concerns were somewhat allayed before the meeting in discussions with staff and very helpful. Others I have remaining, I'll say first, I'm going to be requesting that we either reserve the discussion of any giving direction on the First Amendment activities until a later date when we can present this as an individual item or public hearing and have members of the public speak on it or just if people feel comfortable now, just kind of not including that for now. My biggest concern originally, which was somewhat allayed, was that would this apply to a spontaneous protest? For instance, one night City Hall gets painted purple and the next day people are upset and they say hey, let's get together and let's have a protest, so as I understand it, that would not apply if there's any kind of a march or protest responding to something that's recent happening in real time. One of my concerns has to do with the fact that there's a $500 fee for violations of this and that there's kind of a slippery slope and maybe language could define it that would clearly distinguish between what is covered by freedom of assembly and freedom to spontaneously protest or planning several days in advance because that happens to you, then that's several days in advance planning. So there's a kind of slippery slope and what I would recommend since when I asked in advance how many events have there been in the past year or two that would apply under this category and I was told really the Women's March is the one, is that correct? So maybe one suggestion might be to instead of just labeling it First Amendment activities because it's pretty scary to see First Amendment activities with regulations, it almost feels like a contradiction, that to label maybe a parade or a march, something like that, if that's the one category that applies so I've got some big concerns about that. I don't so much have a problem with an event as big as the Women's March which I haven't attended but I guess I haven't attended it at all but I'm familiar with the organizers and one of them reached out to me about this. They were concerned about the application, pleased to see that insurance isn't required so that's good but they found it rather onerous so maybe, I'm not going to take up all my time right now with this, I'll wait until later in this discussion but if at some point you could kind of walk us through and show what would be involved in checking off the boxes on that form for an event like that and then how, as far as defining, if we don't want to change it to simply marches or parades, you know, how we're going to define so that somebody who's having a protest or demonstration that they have every right to have doesn't get told by maybe a misguided, somebody representing the city who might not know all the details of this, oh you're not allowed to have that, then it dissipates and then we've got a liability, you know, first amendment liability case on our hands. So you are correct, it does not apply to those spontaneous events or activities that are in a direct response to maybe an incident or an issue that's pressing in our community. What we're finding though, and again it has only at this point applied to the one event, they did come to us and ask for assistance specifically on some public safety concerns that they had, but as, again, those communications with the event organizers really went on and we were able to better understand some of the activities that they were proposing, what we also realized was the expanding impact that it could have. So originally there were some additional activities that were planned that would have put them, I don't want to use the word marching, but definitely walking in the streets, so that would be something that we would want to know and try to prepare for, it was going to be on the square, so there's impact to businesses, residents, potential parking issues, so those were all the things that, what we're looking for is just that initial notification as narrowed as it is for the seven days so that we can assist them in having, number one a safe event, if they know about it, if they know that it's planned, if they know that they want to hold this event, then we would want to encourage them to give us that notification again just simply so that we can understand what the nature of the event is and then provide them with any assistance to make sure that it is safe and hopefully without any complications. And then minimal impact to any of the surrounding areas, depending on where it is, a lot of times things are on the square because that is a popular public space to meet at, but it does not apply to, again, those spontaneous acts and none of the fees or permit fees would apply, they're exempt from that as well as the insurance. And then I just wanted to show you the guide here for a second, so I have a question about that because that is a good point about marches or parades, where would they fall under, say like the MLK Day Parade or, you know, I don't really see that as much different or the July 4th, like those are really large parades, they're in the streets, so would they be under a special event not exempt or how is that different and why don't we just have a parade section? So we do have a parade section now, so they would still fill out the master application and again, depending on the event, it's a very simplified form now, you go through and you check boxes, what applies to you and what doesn't. So if we see something like a parade but they have nothing else, right, they don't need solid waste, they don't need restroom facilities and so forth, then that master application is just going to go directly to the police department for review and then we'll work with them on getting everything that they need to be able to close the streets. Most parades require street closures, so what are the requirements for the street closures? It's going to go to streets, it's going to go to police and fire to review their parade route, those are things that are all already happening today, that's the process for it today and then again, we're just trying to formalize it, but they would still be required to go through the permitting process and what type of fees would they pay? So the permit for the special event is $35 and that's now being rolled into the parade, so it's one fee, is that correct? So why wouldn't we just, just the Women's March, just because we've made it its own special category for some reason, why, if they just call it the Women's Parade, then they would be here and not subject to the special circumstances, like I'm just trying to figure out why it's divided. Well if they were actually a parade and they knew that they were going to be a scheduled event, they would be held to the 60-day, but as a First Amendment, they only have to give a 7-days notice, and they wouldn't have to pay. So it's not like it's extra honors on them for this? It's less. Yes, ma'am. It's less restrictive for them. Yes. So I wanted to show you the special event, the master application. So this really, from this, it just gives basic information, contact information, date, time, location, the nature of the activities that you're proposing to hold. And then again over here on the public safety communication, sometimes the event organizer is different than the person that may be designated as your lost and found person, your emergency communication person, your lost child person. So we need to know all of that. So if we do have an issue at the event, we know who to go to, who to contact in those events. But from this, then it takes you, if this, then that. So if you want, or if you need a temporary food permit because you're going to have food vendors, then it will take you to the next page. And then what this also does is it auto-populates information. So you only have to type it in once. And it continues through, again, totally dependent on the type of activities that you're proposing to have. So street closure, the parade. And then so your street closure notification. Operational permits for tents. If you're going to have a tent, then it'll direct you to this page again. Auto-populate the information you've typed into the master application, carnivals and fairs and your place of assembly. So all your permits are now in one place, one stop shop. And the deeper you go into the application itself is dependent again on the type of activity that that event is wanting to have. But the master application is just these two pages. >> Thank you for explaining that and Councilmember Briggs for those questions. I still strongly recommend just removing the First Amendment category and just saying whatever your event, if you're going to have a big parade, then you need to fill out these, take care of this business that's already here. As far as kind of the filling out the form >> Seriously. So let's take the women's march for instance. Because I think what you're asking for, it sounds like that's not really what you would want in the end. So what I heard is that let's say we don't have a First Amendment category, all right? And they want to come before and ask for a women's march. They're going to be subject to a 60 day application process. Because it's a parade, it's a march down the street. So if we do that, it's going to hurt those causes. So I know that's not what you mean. So is there something I'm missing? >> That's a good point. Yeah. I actually I think the 60 day is too long. I think some kind of medium, you know, if seven day is too short. I mean, if seven days, that would actually be a really short period to plan for a women's march. I'm guessing they did a lot of planning ahead of well ahead of seven days. I don't exactly know. And again, for something like this, and this is why I made the other request about requesting public input. You know, I would want to know I heard from one organizer who was kind of letting me know in real time as this person was reading about all the questions that they had. So I would like to see this come before, you know, counsel at a later point if people insist on keeping that in there. But, you know, maybe three weeks. >> If you could move forward, because we're getting bogged down here, we're going to have an opportunity to have -- we don't have an action item on this tonight, I don't believe we do. So it's going to come before the public. So if you could just sort of be a little more concise, I would appreciate that. >> So I just took a moment from what I prepared to talk about to answer your question. And now I'm going to -- >> You're arguing against yourself, counsel member Armitage. You're arguing against yourself. You're saying you want to remove this label or this provision about first amendment being seven days, and then when I point it out, you say that's a good point, but then you say, well, maybe that's too short. I'm just trying to understand exactly what you're saying. >> What I'm saying is I want to remove the category of first amendment, and then in addition to that, which I hadn't gotten to yet, I appreciate that you're bringing that up, I think that the 60 days is kind of excessive for a parade. So a couple weeks maybe. But I don't know. That is why I would like that as far as parade, for a parade or a march, whatever you want to call it, something that would cover both the MLK day march, which I go to every year with my family, the women's march, which I unfortunately haven't been to yet but plan to, something that would kind of cover both those categories and make the groups who organize those kind of events pleased and also make the city pleased, but again, I preferred it remove that first amendment category, but just as far as this form goes, I just want to know for security management and fire and medical management, we've got these two categories. So say I'm putting on an event and I'm filling out this form, head of security or officer, would that just take kind of emailing or calling DPD and then you say, hey, who can come and they give you a name right there and you just fill out the form? So that would actually work two ways. There's some events that hire their own security. So if you're an event that is going to be bringing in your own security, you would fill in that information. If you are going to be requesting that security from the city, then we would assist you in facilitating that service and then yes, we would put the city of Denton there. Okay. Okay. And so that could be covered as simply as just phone call or email. It's going to go, that will be part of that administrative process, the review portion of it. That's where we are going to help facilitate those conversations between the event organizer and the police department, the event organizer and let's say solid waste. If they need extra receptacles for their event. So that's all part. And that's actually why it's taking that 60 days, yes. And that might be, again, it sounds like a lot to me, but again, to answer your question, you know, Mayor, if it turns out that 60 days is okay for a parade organizer, for example, these two groups mentioned the Women's March or the, you know, MLK Day March. I'm going to have to ask you to wrap up your comments, at least we've got two other council members that are waiting. I think we understand what your requests are. The council is going to consider that either today with direction or at the time when we have this come before us as an agenda item. So if you could really wrap up what you're requesting so that staff can understand it and we can move on with the discussion. Thank you. So one more question and same with fire and medical management. Is that correct? Same process? Yes. Okay. So those are my questions. I object to the First Amendment. I can't approve this if we have that listed as a category, but I am open to certain requirements for marches and parades if that -- and I'd be curious to know if people who do put on these events find that 60-day window acceptable or not. Okay. Okay. Council Member Dove. You know, with social media the way it is today, I guess kind of ask the question, okay, because these things can pop up very quickly and they can turn out, you know, whether it's a protest or a parade or whatever it is, they can pop up very quickly and we're not talking about small things. We're talking about if a lot -- and there's nobody, you know, basically organizing. It's just spontaneous on, you know, I kind of wonder where that fits in here because there's not going to be any application on anything. These people are just going to show up. Right. And I believe back in May when we were having this discussion, there was a desire to memorialize in some way the protection of First Amendment, which is why we included it. When we first proposed the special event ordinance, that actually came from Council in wanting to preserve First Amendment activities and block parties and making sure that they were addressed and how they would be handled through the special event process. So that's why they're included because we really want to preserve that right for them. But if, again, it is from experience and from what we've learned from the events that we have had, if there is one that is, again, organized and planned to where we know we're going to have it next month or on an annual basis, next week, next month, annually we're going to have this and we feel that it is a First Amendment protected activity, then that is something, again, we can work with you to make sure that it's -- we're providing a safe environment for not only the participants of the activity but also those that may be impacted in that area. But that was the original intent, was to preserve those rights and preserve the right of block parties. Those were two that were specifically brought to our attention when we were first looking at this. >> From Council. >> Yes. Yes, sir. >> That's what I wanted to mention. And the difference in the other march -- the other parades that I mentioned was that those usually have a set date. And so you know 60 days out from when that's going to be. >> Their annual events and a lot of times they're actually even in conjunction with larger events. >> Yeah. And so for me, for the spontaneous things, that's not even covered, that's not anything we're worried about here, but for a -- say the Women's March, the seven days, that helps allow for weather changes so that if you're looking at a 10-day forecast and you're seeing that your plan and then you need to change it, you can really reorganize and focus, focus it again within that seven days. So -- and you could not do that if it were, you know, 60 days or 30 days or 20 days. So it helps -- it helps with that outdoor event as well. And we discussed those types of things too to make sure that there was flexibility for an event like that. >> Councilmember -- Mayor Pro Tem. >> Thank you, Mayor. Just basically on how I'm reading through the ordinance, I've got a couple of concerns. One I know we discussed last time was when I read about the police protection, the way I'm reading it, it sounds like you have to use the city. So if we can include language, it just says the Texas Licensed Peace Officer -- >> Oh, I believe that we did. >> That's not in the police section unless it's police protection. It might be in a different area, but because it says the applicant shall be responsible for re-inversing the cost of providing police personnel, the cost of police personnel shall be paid at the off-duty rates set by the police chief. >> I believe it's going to be in the police protection section. >> Well, if we can just make sure that that's included because I know several organizations that use constables for those types of things to ensure that, and then I'm going to go back again to the neighborhood block parties, because as I read it, it is a 60-day that you're going to be required to do this? >> There's definitely flexibility in that. We know that they don't -- they're not -- I don't want to say that they're not as organized but -- >> Maybe we can do something that if it's a residential street versus a different type of street that, you know, there's a lesser time frame in there. >> Yeah, we're working through that with traffic on, but we can definitely look at reducing that timeline. It could go down to seven days. The only thing with that would be the street closure. Any associated street closures on both parties, there would be that time allocation that's needed for preparing for the street closure. >> Okay, and also on neighborhood block party, when it comes to food or alcoholic beverages, as long as it's not the sale of them, that we're not requiring them to get the health department out there. But the way that it reads right now, it implies it doesn't designate whether it's the sale of or providing alcoholic beverages and food. >> Yeah, we can go back and make sure that that's clear in there. Normally there's not selling of alcohol. I think that there are probably some -- there would be some legal requirements if they were doing that, but that's not normally what's associated with the block party. >> Just as long as we clarify. >> We can definitely make sure there's language in there to clarify that. >> Thank you. >> And if we're on the topic of block parties, we also received an email of someone who was concerned about neighborhood events that actually are not closing off streets, getting involved in this somehow, and that actually don't need to go through the special event filing, but since there's not an exception or it doesn't differentiate that, would be included here. >> And I think that they just inherently, through the nature of their event, they would be excluded by definition. So one of the things about the ordinance is it clearly defines what qualifies as a special event. So one of the big things is the number of people that you have, so that would not qualify them as a special event, and then again, if they're not closing a street, if they're not doing X, Y, and Z, then they would not actually even be considered as a defined special event and would not be -- would not have to comply with this ordinance. >> So like an HOA's community room for neighbors or if they use their own private property or anything. >> Correct. All of those, yes. >> Backyard, like, okay. >> Those would actually not qualify them as a special event. >> As an event. >> They wouldn't meet the definition of a special event under this ordinance. >> And I remember in our last conversation talking about block parties as well because I had someone message me about the -- all the requirements, and at that time we were requiring them to hire engineer and also pay for all the barricades and all that. Is that still a part of this? >> It is, and if you might remember we did come back with some information on that. There are very specific street closure requirements that have to be met under a Texas standard for streets. So we've done a little bit of additional research on that and what it would take. It looks like the average cost for that would be anywhere between $200 and $300. I know that sounds like a lot. But one of the things that we are proposing in addition to this, and it's on one of the next steps, is we are making a request through the budgetary process to create a fund that would assist neighborhoods with that particular expense. So we had about 10 neighborhoods that came to us last year. We're asking for $2,500 to actually cover 12 in case we get a few extra. That would allow a neighborhood -- for us to assist neighborhoods with that cost at a maximum of $200. So that would cover all if not the majority of a cost associated with the required street closure, you know, barricades and so forth. >> So of those 12 that came for requests for block parties, did they all complete the process and were successful or did some of them not? >> It's my understanding that they were successful and still holding their events. Yes, ma'am. >> Good to know. Thank you. >> Forgive me if I missed it. So if I'm planning an event and I'm not aware of the triggers, is there a way to email events at city -- >> Absolutely. >> Okay. And so the minute -- if I'm planning and I don't know any of this, I'm just email this address and then someone would then -- >> You can do that, yes. But we'll also have this guide online. And again, just really -- well, I'll be brief and just kind of -- this is your step by step. One, two, three, four, it outlines everything that you need. Again, if this, then that. If you're selling alcohol, here's what you need. Here are the requirements. Here's who you contact. Same for recycling, amplified noise. We have a page here for traffic control, parades, site map preparation, description of your event, your public safety plan. And then it's got fillable PDFs in each one of these areas where you can put in your information to comply with those requirements. Here is the more specific information on public parking. We have maps now online that will provide you with the resources by identifying where public handicapped parking is, where available just general public parking is. >> So -- >> Public safety. Yes, sir. >> Go ahead. >> So just -- would they email parks? Because I think that's valuable, but I think if you take a step back and you say I don't know those details yet, how long do I have the planet type thing, who do I instruct people to email? >> We do. We have Jennifer UC. She's a dedicated park staff member who oversees special events. And we also now have a dedicated backup for her. >> Okay. >> So we've got that continuity of service. We'll always have somebody available to answer those questions, even in the early stages of planning. Even if you call and say I'm thinking about doing this. Can you help me? Absolutely. >> So that would be my ask to wrap it up, that we come up with -- I'll put it on me. I'm not that good at spelling UC. >> So if we could have something that says events at city of Denton, I can spell events. >> It's there. It's there. >> It is? Okay. >> Yes, sir. >> So there you go. That's -- >> All right. Okay. >> All right. >> Next steps. >> Okay. We do need to talk about in kind services. So the additional time that's needed, one of them is -- this is a new requirement. And that will be that if you will be requesting any in kind services from the city of Denton, we ask that that be included at the initial submittal of the application. We have had some events where we're midway through or a week out from the event and they've already even paid for something and they're asking now that that payment be waived. And so we're having to go back -- come back to you in a short period of time, ask for the approval of the in kind service and then issue a reimbursement. So we want to know that up front. That's also going to help us with preparing what staffing we need to provide you in those services that are approved for in kind. So that we've got the in kind applications or a waiver reduction of established fees applicable to an event, labor and staffing assistance, public safety services and provisions of other services and funding for costs. There are some events where we actually are paying for some of their costs. The departments that are impacted are our parks department, police, fire, EMS, streets and solid waste. The budgetary impact to the city are those waived costs. Many of those are programmed revenues. We do have labor and staffing that work regular time and over time that are dedicated to an event. The use of equipment and supplies, everything from our ground preparation supplies to the amenities and the vehicles, equipment and tools that are used. And then funded services, some of those direct costs that we support and pay for are solid waste fees, wastewater disposal, street closure costs, cleaning fees and the rental of tables and chairs. And just to give you a snapshot of what that looks like. Last fiscal year, we officially waived $51,000 in in kind services, but the actual impact in real funding, in real dollars was closer to 500,000. That does not include the hot funds that the events receive. This includes personal expenses, direct out of pocket costs and those in kind fees that were waived. So the city is supporting through either in kind services or direct services for just under a half a million dollars. This was last year. In the current fiscal year, we've already approved in kind sponsorships for 10 events for a total amount of $245,000. The six events have received funding in the amount of $248,000. So we've already exceeded in the current fiscal year what we supported special events in all of last year. In addition to the in kind services and direct support and the hot funds, there are three events that receive $10,500 in direct cash donations. >> Could you go back to the last slide, just so I understand what the slide's telling me. So under the event totals, that's the in kind that for our police officers and all these other things that they're out there, the event is not paying for that. >> Correct. >> We're providing those in kind. So that's that event total in the blue. And then the hot funds, those are actual dollars that those events are receiving as a hot fund allocation. >> In addition to, yes, sir. >> Yes. And so when you add those together, that's where you get the 467. >> Yes, sir. >> So then your next slide is showing that currently, not even six months into the year, we've already exceeded those two. >> What we paid in all of last year. >> Okay. All right. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> So that support comes in waived rental fees, personnel cost, equipment and supplies and services. Moving forward, what we're looking at, we're drafting now a co-sponsorship policy for your review and approval. That policy is going to establish the eligibility to receive city support. It will look at the applicant. We can do this one of several ways, of course, but our recommendation is going to be to have an eligibility on the applicant and the type of services that are provided, the level of support, meaning a monetary support, and then we're asking for a budget allocation so that we can make our departments whole. >> So what happens now? Like, on that blue line, that total, are those budgeted in those particular departments' budget? >> No, sir. >> Where does the money come from? >> It comes from our operating budget. >> Okay. Help me understand that. >> This is a big advantage of going through this exercise and is helping the department heads plan and we're basically going through the public safety overtime budgets, trying to take them apart, put them back together again, and we're wanting to show the council exactly what these special events cost, why we need so much time to plan because we've got force backs, arranging staffing, that sort of thing, but I think it's just something that the council needs to understand is these events have a significant impact on the budget across the city. Trying to show that to you, we're also doing this as we're putting the general fund budget together for '19-'20 so the department directors know where their overtime dollars are going, and so this special events policy is very helpful to us in terms of matching everything up. This is only one aspect of their overtime budgets. >> Could you forward to us on the events that we've already had, could you create a spreadsheet like this, year to date, so that we can see -- because some of these events have already occurred, but when I start looking at the ones that have and the ones that haven't, I'm like, where did it all come from, so it would be nice to have a comparison of just the first six. >> And we can definitely provide you with a compilation of that. On the individual request, we are now including that as part of the ordinance. So when you receive an in-kind request, part of the packet includes a specific breakdown of the estimated costs for the in-kind services that they're requesting. And so you'll see that the big difference between last year, where only $51,000 of this total, $238,000 came to you, was simply because the only thing that was being included at that time were the waiver of fees. >> Right. Actual hard dollars that they were required to pay, right? >> But we were finding that we have other hard dollars that we can track and other direct expenses that are hitting our annual operating budget that are, again, dedicated to these events. It's not something that, oh, we're just spending a little time here and there. This is dedication to a single event. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And so we're trying to -- we've improved that process in giving you more accurate and detailed information, but we can definitely put that all together for you in one. Then you'll be seeing a funding request, a supplemental package for a special event budget that will cover the cost of these special events, and then you'll also see that fundamental -- I'm sorry, that funding request, the supplemental request for the street closures in the amount of $2,500 covering 12 block parties at a cost of $200 each. Now next steps, implementation. How this works is you can now have the opportunity -- you don't have to, but you definitely have now the opportunity to secure your date through a refundable deposit. Step two would be to submit your application. Step three would be that assessment process that we talked about, that whole administrative procedure process. Four is wrapping it up with the application approval or denial. There is now an appeal process for denial. So if you go through the entire process and we deny that application, the organizer has five days to appeal that to the city manager. The city manager has five days to render his decision. Next steps are going to be a system software. We're looking at a software system that would allow us to do this entire process online. Something similar to what planning has where you enter in an event and all of the internal stakeholders are tied to that event, they'll receive the application internally. They can post their comments there and the event organizer can go online, look up their event and see what the status of their application is, look at the comments that have been made by the other departments, and then see where they are in that approval process. That will help all of us better plan and keep track of that event process. And then the last is that cosponsorship policy that we hope to bring back to you here pretty soon. So there would be no kind of coming before Council as an individual item? That had not been proposed. Again, we came back -- we first came in May and had that initial conversation and a proposed document at that time. We took all of the direction given to us and really incorporated it into this document. I can tell you that the event organizers that we deal with on an annual basis and even the new ones, we are already communicating these changes to them. And so they know that for their next event, that this process will apply to them. So we've already started that notification process with those event organizers. Thank you for mentioning that. I was -- this discussion was May 8th, and I've only been on Council since last June, so I missed that. But the Women's March organizers, again, that was the one category where this new First Amendment category that I disapprove of, that's the one category that applies to -- were they notified about this and consulted about the process? Again, talking to them, certainly we took that feedback, and that was part of looking at exempting from fees, exempting from the liability insurance, and then narrowing down that timeframe to seven days, which would be more than appropriate to help that event get off the ground. Awesome. I still think at some level, having it come to the public would be great, especially since it sounds like that the last time that there wasn't opening up to the public, but I appreciate the reaching out to the different groups. That's awesome. Right. Well, and our previous special event coordinator did hold the stakeholders meeting for our direct customers, which were the event organizers. So we did get feedback from them at the time, and again, that master application, really, and this whole guide addressed the majority of the concerns that were originally raised and that we identified in our own processes and that we discussed last year. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Oh, yeah, I was under the impression, too, that it would come back and then we would just kind of vote in the open session and kind of wrap it all up. The plan was to bring after today, and if there were any outstanding issues, make those revisions and then bring it back to you as a Consent Agenda item. We can always. But if we need to do that. Put it on a vigil. We'll just put it on individual consideration. Okay. That'll take care of it. Okay. Thank you so much. That's not a big deal. Okay. Direction. Council Member Hussman. Yeah, my direction. So I like it, clicked around. I don't see the email address. I know it exists, but I would just maybe on the front page or something. I don't know where it is. Okay. It should be on there. Jennifer's picture is on there and everything. I see her picture, yes. Oh, but her email is not on there. Okay. Yeah, I clicked around. There's no link or anything. Okay. We'll get that added. Yes. And then the only other direction I would say is, so you click on the, so I'm in the application and let's say I click on the noise ordinance already. So it takes me to the noise ordinance. I would refer that to be a separate tab. So for example, instead of having to click back, so if I open the noise ordinance, I look at it, but then I have to backspace to get back to the primary document. Okay, I see. If it pops up in a separate page, I can shrink that, go back to what I'm looking up, and so I can in theory have the noise ordinance, the health ordinance, everything kind of up at once instead of having to navigate back and you lose your space. Great feedback. Thank you. We can definitely look at that. All right. Okay. May I pretend? Yeah, I think I've kind of given some direction on a few things already. The other item I'm concerned with is national night out, making sure that we were making provisions for that, that they're not having to pay $35 for permits on each individual location and something to that extent. Correct. And so those would fall under essentially a block party because those are the neighborhood, you know. Not even shut the streets down either. Yes. Yeah. So they would be exempt from that. Go ahead. Okay. Yes, ma'am. But I'm not sure that the neighborhoods are going to be prepared 60 days in advance. Yes. And we'll, we'll look at the timeframe on the block party specifically. Because sometimes they're set up like two days ahead of time. I understand. Right. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Council member, we know your direction as far as removing that item. I'm okay with leaving that in. Anybody else have an objection to leaving that in as far as moving forward on this on the, on the first amendment seven day? Yes. Well, I, I'm afraid to remove it. We can rename it if that's, I mean, but I don't want them to fall into the other category and be 60 days and be subject to all the other permits and fees, which the parade. We don't need to rename it. I mean, that, that, that we did it specifically. I mean, I remember this conversation specifically. We specifically asked for it to be in there with a shorter amount of time so that we were showing that. So direction is moving forward. Look at the changes that you, that you've heard that the council agrees with or it gives you direction on, and then we'll bring it back as an item for individual consideration so the public can, can have a say in that. Okay. All right. Good deal. Thank you. All right. Before we go on to our next agenda item, let's take a five minute break. Welcome everybody back to this meeting of the Denton city council, Tuesday, May the 7th, 2019 it is 453 moving down through our work session reports at work session 3C receive a report, hold discussion, give staff direction on the updated integrated pest management program. Good afternoon council, Laura Barons, assistant director for parks and recreation and wanting to give you an update and are on our integrated pest management program, otherwise known as the IPM program. A little bit of background, the current IPM program was adopted back in 2001. During that time, citizen input was gathered through a focus group. Another component of the design of that, of the IPM was the establishment of a pilot program that included five park sites where different cultural, biological, and organic methods were tested. It resulted in some immediate citywide changes and focused on education and evaluation. There have been no updates or changes, amendments, revisions to the IPM program since it was first drafted and adopted. Back in 2008, January of 2018, we gave a council presentation on the current IPM program, returned to council on February 13th with a proposal on how we would update the program and provided an informal staff report on the process back in August. We've since presented this information to the committee on the environment yesterday and park board last night. So, for our current review process and updating the IPM that you've got in front of you that's proposed, we again used a similar concept with a focus group and a pilot site. Our focus group was composed of 10 members of the community. We had a very diverse group of individuals that included field expert from UNT. We had a biochemistry professor from TWU who was also part of the native plants of Texas, our, yes, the native, oh, I'm sorry, Native Plant Society of Texas representative. We also had representatives from the master gardeners group, the master naturalists group, the Denton County Beekeepers Association, and then we also had Ed and Carol Soph on our committee. In addition to our community members, we also had parks and recreation staff, primarily our park maintenance staff, all who have extensive knowledge and experience in the field, have educational backgrounds, certifications, and licensings in this area. And then our partner in this program and this project was Dr. Banks and his environmental group and we had a representative from that department at every one of our staff meetings or every one of our focus group meetings. But together we reviewed several documents that included our current IPM program, Austin's IPM program, which we used as a template for the proposed one that you have in front of you, and we also looked at a couple of other sample IPM programs that are in place. We reviewed our park acreage, the classification of our park system, the maintenance schedule under each classification, as well as the products that we use, the amounts that we use, how they are used, why they are used, and we provided safety data sheets for each one of those products. From all of this information and the discussions, we've been going through this process for a year now. I believe we had 10 meetings. We came together with the draft document, again, that you have before you. Joining concurrently to this, we established a pilot site. Rather than having five individual sites, which was done back in 2001, we decided to do a single site. With this, that gave us an opportunity to better control the site, which would set us up more for success than failure. One of the things that we learned is that there are some issues with cross-contamination. If you are having just one area where you're piloting different methods than what's being used in another area, you have to use different equipment and so forth so that you're not, again, cross-contaminating products. This also gives us that better control gives us the ability to better monitor and evaluate the results and document those for future implementation in other areas. What we did on this pilot site is we enlisted the assistance of Howard Garrett, who's known as the dirt doctor. He has extensive background in organic maintenance as well as park administration and landscape architecture. He was referred to us by our committee members. We reached out to him, retained his services in developing an organic program for Deena Park. The reason why we chose Deena Park is because it has a diverse group of amenities there. It actually has a feature that is pretty much recreated in all of our park system. We've got an open area, we have a playground, we have athletic fields there, we have a recreation center there, and we have landscaping as well. That project is ongoing. We're now in the process of purchasing the products that he's recommending to implement the organic maintenance program so that we can get started with it. It's expected to take a year. We just talked about this in some of our earlier discussions that we want to get at least one full growing season in. Once we start it, we'll have some results within a year, but we plan on continuing it even past that year to check the results of effectiveness. Some key provisions. Going through this process, our objective was to provide a holistic, multi-faceted approach to manage pests that includes weeds, insects, and rodents, and the environment that would balance the costs, benefits, public health, and environmental quality. We established a mission, and something that's very important is that our group develop goals, which is really progressive in the terms of including those in an IPM program. Those goals are specific to Ditten, and what we felt really captured the culture and the desires of our community, and then it outlines the IPM program in detail. It's a methodology. It's a process. It doesn't tell you what products to use, but it tells you how to identify your issue. What type of bug is it? What type of weed is it? What is the extent of the infestation? Once you determine that, what is your objective? Do you want to just immediately eradicate it? Do you need to control it? Are there other measures that you have to take to achieve whatever your end goal is? Both of those are taken into account in the established action thresholds. The IPM methodology will tell you, if you get to a certain point, what action to take, whether you'll take a cultural method action, a biological action, mechanical action, or chemical action. And then it requires you to evaluate your results. How successful were those actions? The documentation goes to not only legal compliance, but also used as a learning experience that you can apply to other pest actions that are taken in the park system. The document itself includes 19 detailed operational strategies. It outlines the licensing and training that's required for all of park maintenance, a notification process for activities, specifically spraying that's going on in a park system, the handling of storing of materials, safety measures, including required personal protection equipment for our staff, and then also a targeted pest management process. The document also includes an appendices with 10 sections. The very first one is the approved pesticide list, list all of the products that are currently used in the park system and what they're used for. It also outlines the maintenance schedule and the control methods that are used based on that maintenance schedule. There's an appendices in there that outlines how to read a product label and SDS sheet. And then finally, there's a glossary. Additional considerations that were discussed in our focus group was organic maintenance in general, kind of the pros and cons of organic maintenance and what that would look like in our park system. What we learned is that organic maintenance is essentially a balanced environment. It's a healthy soil turf and plants with beneficial organisms and a natural tolerance. When we talk about natural tolerance, we'll mention this in some of our options in a few slides, but natural tolerance means that anytime you've got any kind of cultural, biological, or organic environment, you're going to have pests. So what is the tolerance? You're going to have weeds, you're going to have insects. What is our tolerance level for that? It is highly dependent on the site condition. So organic maintenance is not a one size fits all. There's not one product that you use that will take care of your weeds or balance your soil nutrients. It's going to take a combination of products based on the condition of your soil. It'll have different treatment methods based on those conditions, and then that will eventually determine your maintenance level. What we learned and what we're finding with denia is initially, that's going to be very high because the condition of the soil is poor, so it's going to require a lot of work up front. Once you establish your balanced environment, that will taper off some. There is definitely a significant impact to materials and labor cost. That information was detailed in the agenda information sheet in terms of the differences in cost for materials, specifically for denia. We have an annual budget of just over $7,000 for products to maintain denia park. With the organic maintenance, we were given three different programs. The recommended program, program A, had a cost of close to $50,000 for products only. The lower cost was $14,000, which is double what we normally spend or budget for in that park. We are going with that program C as our pilot. Moving forward, regardless, we do certainly acknowledge and understand that there are some benefits to organic maintenance. One of the practices that we used to have within our park system is called top dressing. That was discontinued several years ago due to budgetary constraints, but we are requesting a supplemental package to bring that back. Top dressing is essentially spreading a combination of what most people think of as dino dirt and mulch over the top layer of your turf. What that does is it provides additional nutrients to your soil and helps the growth of the turf. The other topic that we discussed was the use of glyphosate. There have been a lot of questions and concerns about the use of glyphosate, which is most commonly known as Roundup. Glyphosate is a post-emergent, non-selective weed killer, meaning that it is sprayed after the weeds come above ground. Non-selective being that anything it comes to contact with, it does kill, so it kills grass if you spray the grass as well as the weeds. The major difference between glyphosate as a weed killer and the other weed killers that we currently have in our inventory is that it kills the root. All other weed killers that we currently have are just surface kills, so it does kill the weed for a period of time, but it does come back. Currently in our park system, we use approximately 100 gallons a year. That's across our entire park system that's primarily used in Class AA's, which are our athletic fields, Class A properties, which are going to be our highly visible properties such as, let's say, a city hall lawn, also our irrigated parks, and then Class B properties are going to be our neighborhood parks that are non-irrigated. We don't use Roundup. We use two products, though, that have glyphosate as the active ingredient, and they're called Ranger Pro and Honcho Plus. It's also used in our landscaping beds and as well as spot treatment, so around fence lines, poles, sidewalk cracks and crevices is where this is normally sprayed. One of the things that was brought up during our discussion are some lawsuits that have occurred in California. I believe that there have been two with judgments against the maker of Roundup, and there's one currently pending. It's my understanding that both of those are under appeal, so we're watching those closely, and we've had Legal also provide us some information on what that potential impact would be for us in terms of glyphosate use, but we can tell you that at this time, there have been no changes to the regulatory status of glyphosate, so just as recently as last week, the EPA came out and continued to support the use of glyphosate as directed by the manufacturer. Given all of that information, you have the proposed document in front of you, how it was created, the process that we went through to develop that draft, and also those additional considerations that were taken into account by our focus group, we have a couple of options in moving forward with this proposed IPM. Option one is to adopt the proposed and updated IPM as drafted. What this would do is formalize our current operational procedures. It establishes our standards for maintenance. It is very detailed and transparent, which is one of our goals. One of our other goals and something that we were really wanting to achieve in drafting this document is to make sure that it was in a format that was user-friendly and educational. Not only does it provide you with information about what we're doing within our park system, but it also provides you with information that you could use for your own home use. Option one also has minimal impact to our current operations. We will continue with our DENIA organic maintenance program, evaluate the effectiveness of the steps that we've taken out there, look at those results, bring that back to you in the form of a report, and then also make recommendations on what type of applications that were used there that could be used in our other parks and facilities. And then again, we do have the supplemental package for the top dressing that we're looking to reinstate as an organic practice for our turf maintenance. Option two has two parts. Option two would be to approve an IPM program that excludes the use of glyphosate. In terms of the document, nothing would change in the actual IPM itself. Where you would see the change is in the appendices. It would be removed from the approved list of pesticides, and it's also going to impact the standard of our maintenance. If we exclude the use of glyphosate, one of the options that we can do that would continue to help combat the weeds specifically would be to increase our fertilization. By increasing fertilization of our turf, we would improve its health. By growing grass naturally, we would inhibit the weed growth. Again, we would continue to have weeds, but this would be a natural inhibitor. The impacts to using an increased level of fertilization would be additional mowing cycles. For our class A, our mowing cycles would go from 32 to 36. For our class B, they would increase by 12, going from 20 to 32. Just simply, the more fertilizer we use, the more grass will grow, which is what we want it to do to choke out the weeds, but then we are going to have to mow more. There would be additional materials and costs specifically for the purchase of additional fertilizer and for watering trucks. The watering trucks would be used on our class B properties. They're not irrigated. If we fertilize more, we would have to take out trucks to manually water that fertilization in. Again, we will have an increased appearance of weeds that is going to change how our park system looks. For some, it can be perceived as a reduction in service. In terms of monetary impact, that increased mowing would cost us an additional $248,000 a year. Additional $40,000 would be needed for fertilizer. Water trucks for our class B properties is at a cost of $80,000. We can also choose to substitute a product, substitute a weed killer for glyphosate. If we do that, we've got two options. We can choose to do it for spot spraying only at a minimal cost of $1,200, or we can also sub it for the broadcast spray, which is that annual wide spray at a cost of $11,000. If we spot spray only, we're looking at $369,000 a year for this option. If we include the broadcast, $380,000 is going to be the financial impact on an annual basis. Council Member Armitage. Most of that mowing would be for athletic fields, is that correct? No, it's actually for the A and B properties. Can you define again the A and B properties? Double A are athletic fields. We're out there every day already, so we wouldn't increase the mowing cycle out there. Our A properties are going to be the city properties that we currently maintain, so our city halls, our fire stations, our libraries. In addition to our community parks, our larger parks that are irrigated. Class B are our neighborhood parks that are not irrigated. We're talking Nettie Schultz, Joe Skiles. Those are our smaller neighborhood parks that are currently, again, not irrigated. Thanks. Do you happen to know offhand, and sorry for not asking this question in advance, it just occurred to me now, what the annual costs is of mowing to the city of mowing athletic fields? I actually, oh, the athletic fields, I'll have to get back to you on the athletic fields. Okay, that's fine. That's fine, thanks. Council Member Briggs, did you have a question or comment? I have comments, but we saw this yesterday in the COE, and so I'm going to hold my comments till the end. Okay, thank you. Next steps, option 2B is essentially the same in terms of eliminating the use of glyphosate, but this option would be with no additional fertilization. The impact would be no change to the turf health, no natural balance to weed growth. The impacts would continue to be increased mowing cycles. Class A would be the same at an increase of four cycles. Class B would go down to four cycles from 12. There would be additional cost for product substitution if we choose to do that. And again, this is probably the one that would have the biggest impact in terms of appearance to our park property. Mowing would be at a cost of $107,000. The substitute broadcast and spot only are the same as from the previous option. We're down to $108,000 on an annual basis and $120,000 if we decide to do a substitute product for broadcast spray. Our last option is a combination of the first two. We can adopt the limited use of glyphosate, so keeping it on our approved list to be used only in specific areas, which would result in the overall reduction of its use. Our recommendation would be to use it in the least populated areas, such as right aways and medians, and also to use it in areas where we will see an impact to the level of service. Those are our athletic fields and our landscape beds. Option 3B would be to phase in the discontinued use. So we could set that time at whatever we'd want it to be, three to five years. One of the advantages to this would be to giving us the opportunity to evaluate what those true impacts are going to be. We'd have more time to be able to evaluate the results of the organic maintenance program in Deena Park, evaluate the costs. Also if we choose kind of a combination of option of A and B, which is what the park board actually recommended, they ask that we go ahead and limit the use, or that was their recommendation was to limit the use, but also to give ourselves a set timetable for the full elimination over a couple of years. Again, giving us the benefit to really assess what the true impacts of the elimination of that product would be on our system, not only to the condition of the parks, but also the budgetary impact. Under this option, we're going to see similar results as option two in terms of additional mowing, additional material costs, and labor. It's going to be closer in cost, it will be closer to the option two A, the higher cost. That's it, Councilmember Briggs? Well, I could go first. I'll just say, I'll repeat what I did yesterday. My options were two A or B. It was to get rid of the glyphosate as soon as we can. For me, I'm coming from that research that I found, it's a headline here too, that glyphosate weed killer increases cancer risk by 41%, and I'm also coming from it as an individual who has several friends who are fighting for their life right now because of cancer. And I just find it disturbing that we are worried about how pretty our grass is and the cost of getting rid of a chemical that has been linked to cancer and other health impacts on humans and animals and our pollinators. So that's where I'm coming from. Okay. Councilmember Armitage? Yeah. And I second that. I would prefer option two B, which excludes, it's the exclusion without additional fertilization, but I would also be okay with option two A. And I think we need to, because of the health concerns, kind of redefine, and it would be re-education involved, what we consider nice looking fields, nice looking grass on public property. We've got some great examples of that in town, including our, the most recent, Keep Denton beautiful award-winning lawn. One exception to that, of course, athletic fields, you need to keep it down. And I'd be curious, this is for future reference too, just to request a staff report about kind of safety, the safety issues, safety concerns, and improvements in safety regarding artificial sports turf, just as far as kind of keeping costs down. I realize that's not what we're talking about now, but it's related because that adds to the cost and the upkeep. But yeah, definitely option two B would be my first choice, option two A, my second choice for the reasons that Councilmember Briggs said so well. Anybody else? Mayor Proctor? Do you know what the substitute product is that you all priced at? One of them was a product called Finale, and the other- DiQuat. DiQuat. DiQuat, okay. Because I've done a little research on it, and there's one, Natrilla, N-A-T-R-I-A, that is- I don't know that- It's fairly new to the market. It uses a different, and I'd actually reached out to my lawn care guy, and he had recommended this to me. And it doesn't include, it's actually about 75% of the cost. It's lower price than what the Ranger Pro was when I looked it up. So I'd like to kind of see if you all could look into that product as well. As I said yesterday, I want to phase it out for sure. It's just a matter of, you know, I don't know what we even have on hand for product right now, but I want to make sure that we're not increasing our labor costs dramatically because we immediately stop it. We need to test something out and find a good alternative. Does the one that you described, is it have, how do you say this, what's it called? Glyphosate. Glyphosate. It is ammoniated soap of fatty acids, it's in- Okay. All right. Yeah, it's not. Yeah. Okay. All right. Anybody else? Council Member Hussbuss. No. Yeah, I'd be for, well, fair question. Do we know how much we have on hand? Russell Cook is one of our park area managers, or our park managers. Could you repeat that, so- He said seven or eight gallons. Seven or eight gallons. Again, we use 100 gallons a year across the entire park system so we don't have a tremendous amount of inventory. Yeah. I think we, just in an abundance of caution, I think I would fall on just doing away with it. I mean, increase the mowing or, because I just don't think the weeds are the problem. It's stickers, it's sticks, rocks, ants. I mean, when I think about the stuff that was my nemesis while rolling down McKenna Park Hill, that was pretty much it, cement, those type things. Weeds I'm okay with. Well, but the stickers and the burrs are classified as a weed. Yeah. So those are the types of things that generally raise complaints or concerns. Right. Yeah. And so to that end, maybe it's a bagging thing. I don't know. I struggle with that cost, though. I mean, I did some quick math, it wasn't sophisticated, but $200,000, 258, that's 21,000 a month. That's 5,000 a week across the system. But I just ... And that's based on our current mowing contract. So that's assuming the cost that we currently have under contract. But for our A's and B's, we have that inventory in our park system. Yeah. Sure. No, I'm certain it just was surprising to see at that ... But yes, I think that's until we know more. Understanding both sides of the argument, I just say in an abundance of caution not to say that one study is proper or improper, just to say what I'd rather do until it's more definitive. Thanks. Does that product you recommend, does it do the same thing as far as kill the root or does it just kill the surface? Yes. It does kill the root as well. Okay. All right. So what I'm hearing is that that may be an alternative that would then mitigate some of the costs that you're ... Because when you look at the step two, is it ... What's the ... We'll go to your slide before this. Right. So I want to make sure I understand this slide. So you got the mowing of 248, you got the fertilizer of 40, that's 288. You got 80,000, that's 366, 1,211. These total spot only spray or total broadcast. Those are mutually exclusive. You're going to choose one or the other. Correct. Well, the total broadcast spray, I really just assumed that if you were okay with the broadcast spray, you were going to be okay with the spot spraying. So that's the mowing, fertilizer, labor for the water trucks, the spot spraying and broadcast spraying together. So you're not adding each one of these numbers up because that's a million dollars. If you add all those numbers up across there, that's a million dollars. But you're saying that embedded in the total spot spray and the total broadcast spray are some of these costs to the ... Correct, yes. Okay. They're summed up across. Yes, yeah. All right. So it would only be $368,000. Got you. Okay. Just want to make sure I understand that. Or 381. Yes, sir. Yes. All right. Did you have a comment? Just to add, I mean, we have over ... I think you sent me something and it was just an estimate over 2,000 acres of parks and municipal buildings where we are applying this. And so my concern and I appreciate my council members weighing in on their concern as well is that we have municipal employees that have to be around this constantly and those are the ones who are mostly affected, pregnant mothers and young children in our parks and that's where these are being used, so just to add that to the comment. Thank you. Okay. So what I'm hearing is if you do the research on the other product that's sort of been named here, some other similar product, and they work to a similar fashion as the other that we're looking at excluding, then these costs- Could go down. Go down, go away. Yeah. It's just a substitution. I mean, best case scenario, it's a wash. Worst case, you might have a little bit more because it's not as effective. Right. Okay. All right. Yeah. So I mean, I'm okay with either 2A or 2B, but I do want to see that research or to check into that because that might be something we could implement immediately. And we have been looking at our focus group sends me information on articles that they find, we reached out to the city of Miami, which recently discontinued the use. Now, their use was completely different than ours, but we still reached out to them to see what products, what substitute products that they were using, so they gave us one that we're looking into as well. Good. Okay. So yeah, this is definitely an evolving area, and that's actually what our intent of the IPM program is in and of itself, is that it's a growing document, it's a living document, it's going to change. There have been so many advances and lessons learned since 2001, so it's definitely the revisions and the updates are needed. But moving forward, this will be continuing to be an evolving and living document. Yes. I'm okay with that. I just want to just take a moment to thank you, Laura, and park staff, and the committee who worked so hard on this over the years, and my colleagues on the committee for the environment, whose meeting I attended the other day on this. I know a lot of work went into this, leading to what seems to be a pretty short discussion, but thanks to all who put in all the legwork on that really important advance. I'm hearing that the direction is for option two, are we going with or without fertilization? We got to do it. We will start getting people wondering what the heck is going on, and the difference is a couple hundred thousand dollars over this park system. And then if this works, it's always going to work out in the budget. We want more money here, we want to spend more money here, it means we spend less money over here, and it's about priorities and setting priorities based upon some of the comments that Council Member Briggs made, so that's sort of how it's going to play out. But we can't, we've got to have our parks and our city facilities looking decent, and I think that for the Delta, if we're going to go this route, it would be sort of, it wouldn't make sense to go the short change route. That's just my comment. So which would be what, 2A? 2A. 2A. Anybody have any objection to 2A? Council Member, Mayor Pro Tem, I know you wanted to phase it out. Well, I mean, we've only got seven gallons, and if this other product works as well, let's get changed to it. I didn't know how far in advance, I didn't want us to be sitting on something that, now we've got to figure out how to hazmat it out of our system, but I definitely would want us to look at this. We might need to use part of this this year, if this product works, and I've used other products from this company in the past that are fantastic and completely organic. Okay. Great. So we'll be moving forward with implementing a proposed, an alternative IPM program that excludes the use of glyphosate, and then begin planning for an increased fertilization program. Yes, that's correct. Yep. Okay. Fantastic. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you all. We'll go ahead and go move through our agenda item to 3D. Since we're getting, we've got a closed session after this as well. Receive report, hold discussion, give staff direction regarding the use of utility service addresses for public hearing notifications. This ought to be fairly quick, I would think. Well, I don't know if I want to say okay, it depends. Go out and move it. Okay. Go ahead. Yep. Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council. My name is Charlie Rosendahl, business services manager with the development services department. I'm happy to be here with you today to discuss the possibility of using utility service addresses for notifications of upcoming development public hearings. This item originated as a council request in November. Staff provided an analysis as an informal staff report in the Friday report in December. That ISR is included in your agenda backup. And then City Council wanted to discuss this further and directed staff to put it on a future work session item in March. So the Texas local government code requires us to send mailed notices to the owners of real property within 200 feet of a proposed development project. And also that notice is published in the local newspaper. Following a work session in April of 2017, we change those legal notices that are sent within 200 feet to certified mail instead of regular mail. And we also send a courtesy postcard to residents within 500 feet for the following public hearing items. Signs are also posted on the property and we include information on the website. I did want to note here that applicants are assessed fees based on the actual costs of the mailings. That was a result of that April 2017 work session. And only the owners of the property within 200 feet are eligible in the protest petition to meet that super majority requirement. So staff analyzed 27 zoning and specific use cases from 2018 when we looked at the possibility of using utility service addresses, 56% of those cases resulted in additional mailings and an average cost of $108 increase and that cost would go to the applicant and not the city since we charged the actual cost, excuse me. The maximum that we found was $1,161 as an increase for one case. Those differences occur because currently we use Denton County appraisal district data. So there might be a single parcel with only one address that we send notices to currently. In using utility billing information, that same property might have multiple service addresses as in the case of an apartment complex. Some considerations identified by staff was an increase in transparency as a result of using utility service addresses. There would be the increase in cost and again, that would be borne by the applicant. Property owners only have legal standing within 200 feet. So any courtesy notice we send to 500 foot residents, they wouldn't be counted in the protest position for a super majority vote, but they would be, they could speak at a public hearing and send their comments in that we could include as agenda backup. Those apartment complexes with a single utility address would still only receive the one notice. And since we use this information and hand it to the developers to notify for upcoming public hearings, any changes that we make to the notifications process here would also change how the upcoming neighborhood meetings are noticed. So when you say one utility, so if you live in an all bills paid apartment complex, then that I guess we just go to the owner of the complex or to the management. Yeah. Yeah. Whoever wherever that address is for the utility. Okay. Okay. And with that, our staff recommendation is to begin using utility service addresses in the 500 foot courtesy notices for future development projects. Um, for legal and staff when who actually sends out the physical notices, does the city or the developer the city sends out the notices? Yes. Because what I don't, I mean, I know that there's some confidentiality on utility bills, and I want to make sure that we're not in any way breaching that. Even though it's just an address, it's still gonna have a name and an address. So I just want to make sure that we're good. Okay, with that, we've already talked about that, we're sending it out to residents in the Neanderthals. There's no name on it. Okay. Okay. Any other further questions, Councilmember Barmiter, and then we'll go to pro tem. Yeah. So I think this is wonderful, really excited about it. And I was wondering, you know, would this apply also to the increased notification under the new development code about, you know, when there's a new development, engaging the neighborhoods, you know, the one that was based on the SPIN, the South Lake SPIN program that we had talked about? Could this be used also for that? Yeah. So the list that we do, if we were to make this modification, we would provide that list to the developers to send those notices out to residents of upcoming neighborhood meetings. So it would be the same people that receive the notices that would also receive the upcoming neighborhood meeting notifications. Awesome. Great. So that would, in a number of cases, extend beyond that 500 foot, if I understand that correctly? It would only be the utility service addresses within 500 feet. Right. No. Yeah, it wouldn't extend over 500 feet. Oh, I see. Oh, got it. Okay. Got it. Okay. Anyway, thank you very much. Any objections to this? Mayor Pro Tem? Not objection. You called on me, but didn't call the second you go around. Go ahead. Yeah. Um, is the, uh, the certified mail, is that something that we do as a city or is that a state requirement? State. City. It is a state. Certified? Certified to a city requirement. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Certified as a city requirement. Yeah. Um, to kind of level it out, level out the playing field, I don't know that the certified really does a whole lot of good anymore because people don't generally go pick those up down at the post office. So I would say drop the certified at a city level and just require the 500 foot for, for utilities as well. Well, nettle balancing, because certified's pretty expensive. That'll actually bring their costs down to cover the additional cost of sending it out to all the utility. If it's not a change. No. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We're not posted for that kind of change. Um, that specific or because what you're asking is go ahead and go with this, but then in the process, change the notification also for the certified 200 foot. Let me rephrase it. I would say go with this as a future agenda item. I'd like to have it come back to us to discuss the, uh, whether or not a certified letter is really required. Okay. All right. Okay. Any objections to moving to the 500 foot, uh, using the utility service address, courtesy notices and I believe those are postcards. That's correct. Yeah. Seeing none. We'll move forward with that. Uh, okay. Well, that will conclude our open session. I will now convene a city council and executive session at four 38, uh, for consultations under Texas government code, section five, five, one point oh seven point, and is that the only one we've got five, five, one point oh seven one five, five, one point oh seven one. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to this meeting of the Denton city council. It is Tuesday, May the seventh, 2019 it is six 30, uh, PM. Our first item on the agenda is to, is the pledge to the allegiance to the Texas and U.S. flag, if you would stand if you're able. What it is that we pledge 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. On our Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the city, Texas, one state under God, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we've got several proclamations to read this tonight. The first one is, Mr. Ryan, you here? I think I saw you come in. Come on, come on down. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much. Good to see you again. Yes, sir. Councilmember Hussbett, I believe this was this proclamation was sort of at your impetus. So if you'd just like to take just a moment to first take that be great. So while she's coming. So yes, I had the opportunity, and I'm going to say this wrong. So Mr. Ryan, I need you to help me. So I I met you at the key, Katie Keeney. There we go. Yes. Yes. So I met him at that lecture series. And if you've not heard of it, I would ask you to go look it up and maybe he can share some other speakers. But Jerry Jones was the speaker that day and he did not disappoint. And so yes, yes, yes. And so and so and then ultimately just ask him and he was gracious enough to to be here just to celebrate his contribution to to the city and to UNT by proxy. Fantastic. Yeah. Well, it's my honor to read this proclamation afterwards. I just want to give you a chance if you want to say a couple of words to to be able to do that. You're your wife. Yep. This is a proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, whereas in recognition of G. Brent Ryan and his generous gift to the University of North Texas, UNT students, faculty and staff, whereas in January 2019, G Brent Ryan charitably donated thirty million dollars to the University of North Texas College of Business. And whereas this gift will provide ongoing funding for business research through academic endowments as well as funds to support strategic program initiatives to guarantee that that college is one of the nation's top providers of higher education in business. And whereas the gift will create at least six endowed chairs as well as provide funding for academic program initiatives over seven years, the areas of focus include taxation and tax research, entrepreneurship, finance, logistics, information technology, cybersecurity and behavioral accounting. And whereas this exceptional gift will propel continued growth for UNT and its business program as well as draw top tier professionals, researchers and students to the university, which will significantly contribute to the enrichment of the city of Denton. And whereas G Brent Ryan serves as chairman of UNT's Board of Regents and has frequently donated to various UNT programs throughout the years, displaying his exemplary record of supporting the university and its students. Now therefore, I, Chris Watts, mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim May the 8th, 2019 as G Brent Ryan Day in the city of Denton and urge all citizens to recognize and honor the many contributions Mr. Ryan has given to the UNT community and to the city of Denton. I want to thank you personally for that. As an alumni of UNT, I just think it's wonderful just to have supporters like yourself to really propel that university which always helps our city. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. You bet. You bet. You bet. Well, thank you very much, Mayor, members of the council. You know, frankly, I would never have imagined in my wildest days when I was here on campus and I spent six wonderful years at UNT in Denton. I love Denton. I don't know why I was in such a hurry to leave. Frankly, if I had it to do over again, I might stay a little longer. But it's been a real privilege and a pleasure to be part of UNT. And I just want to thank you for this recognition. I know that that would never have been in my wildest dreams when I was here. So thank you for that. And it's just a privilege and a pleasure to be part of UNT. You know, UNT is really going places. You know, I've now been on the board almost 10 years. Six of those years I was chair. And every aspect of UNT is accelerating and growing. And I know it makes the Denton community proud and I know we're going to continue to make you proud. So thank you so much for this recognition. Amanda and I really love the university. We're going to we're going to see the College of Business in particular go places. Not only were we able to make this gift, but we structured in a way that it will be eligible for trip funding. So the total gift value to the College of Business will be closer to $50 million. So we're really proud of that. And now we're going to do some great things with that money. Thank you. The next is Denton County Mental Health Month. So everyone here for this proclamation. Come on down and. Who will be the spokesperson? Pam, you're going to be doing well, doing well. So this is a proclamation for Denton County Mental Health Month. Could you just tell us a little bit about that? Yes. Thank you so much. I'm Pam Gutierrez. I'm the executive director for Denton County MHMR and we have several people here. Can I introduce? I'm Tiana Gooden and I am a licensed clinical social worker and the chair of the Watch Alliance or Watch Coalition. It's Wellness Alliance for Total Children's Health. Hi, I'm VNA Reinhart. I'm a licensed professional counselor and I am the co-chair for our education work group. And I'm Laura Prewitz. I'm the deputy director of juvenile probation and I also co-chair the child and family work group for the behavioral health leadership team here in Denton. Thank you. Well, this is a proclamation by the mayor of the city of Denton, whereas the citizens of Denton County recognize that mental health is essential to everyone's overall health and well-being and value their health as well as that of their families. And whereas one in five adults has a diagnosable mental health condition, increasing the importance for comprehensive coordinated mental health services for individuals and families in our community. And whereas Denton County MHMR Center and Denton County behavioral health leadership team through their unique partnership and approach to serving individuals are effectively caring for the mental health needs of those in our community. And whereas each citizen, local business, school, government agency, health care provider and faith-based organization shares the burden of mental health concerns and has a responsibility to promote mental wellness, recovery and support prevention efforts. Now, therefore, I, Chris Watts, mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare, proclaim May 2019, the month of May, as Denton County Mental Health Month in the city of Denton and call upon all citizens, agencies and organizations interested in meeting every person's mental health needs to unite this month in observance of such exercises as we'll commit the people of Denton County to increasing 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 people with mental health conditions. Thank you so much for what y'all do in our community and just reminding us every year at this time how important it is for our community. Thank you so much. Thank you, Pam. Thank you. Thank you. You bet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. No? You don't? Okay. All right. Okay. Thank y'all so much. Thank you. You bet. Oh, yes. Go ahead. I just want to say thank you so much for all you do, and I want to, since it's mental health month, I just want to come out and say that I am somebody who has dealt with mild depression for a long-time depression and suicide run in my family. I've had postpartum depression, and we're all just one degree of separation away, and it affects everybody, even happy, smiling people like myself. So you never know, and thank you so much for all you do for our community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pam. Newton's Mental Health Awareness Day. Oh. It's all related. Come on down. Yeah. Would y'all like to introduce yourselves again? No? No? No? Are you sure? Okay. All right. You bet. No. This is important. This is a proclamation by the mayor, "Whereas addressing the complex mental health needs of children, youth, and families are fundamental to the future of Denton." I want to read that again, because I think sometimes that gets overlooked. "Whereas addressing the complex mental health needs of children, youth, and families are fundamental to the future of the city of Denton, and whereas the need for comprehensive, coordinated mental health services for children, youth, and families places upon our community a critical responsibility, and whereas only 50% of Denton County children and adolescents receive needed mental health treatment, and whereas it is appropriate that a day should be set apart each year for the direction of our own thoughts towards our children's mental health and well-being, and whereas the Denton County Behavioral Health Leadership Team, in partnership with the United Way of Denton County, Denton County MHMR Center, and the Wellness Alliance for Total Children's Health of Denton County, led by Cook's Children's Hospital, through their prevention-based approaches to serve children and adolescents, are effectively addressing the mental health needs of children, youth and families in our community. Now therefore, I, Chris Watts, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim May the 7th, Mr. Day, I guess, as Children's Mental Health Awareness in the City of Denton, and encourage all citizens to recognize these organizations as they promote the mental health well-being of children, youth, and families in our community." So thank you all again, comprehensive approach. Thank you so much. I just want to make sure that you all know that we have 24-hour services for children and adults at our center. It's a 2509 scripture, and we will go anywhere in the county if you have a loved one that is in need of our services. That's for crisis services, 24 hours a day. It's a 2509 scripture, and I want to make sure that everyone knows that. And we have a 24-hour hotline available, because I think a lot of people don't know that that's available, and it's available to you free of charge. There are no charges for our services. Our hotline is 1-800-762-0157. And please take advantage of our services. It's available to you at no charge. And you can come in. People are there all night. So if you need help and you know someone that needs help, please come and make our services available to you or someone that you know, because I would bet there's someone that you know that needs some help, and we're there to help you. Thank you so much for that work. I just wanted to add a lot of the reason we do this is to spread awareness of mental health needs, and spreading that awareness hopefully will help decrease the stigmatization that's associated with mental health. You know, people should feel as comfortable getting help for their feelings and for their moods and for their mental health as they do when they have a cold or flu or a broken bone for their physical health. So, you know, I think we're working toward that, but it's real important to start normalizing and making it okay to talk about your mental health needs. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Be back. Be back. City of Denton Bike Month. Okay, going to give you all a chance to introduce yourselves. Hello, Mr. Mayor. I'm Mark Oliphant. I'm the Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the City of Denton. Thank you for having us. Jennifer Lane, Cyclist. Sonia Vasquez, Cyclist Advocate, as well as a Fleet Coordinator for Bike Share. Jonathan Braddock, Executive Director with Bike DFW. Wendy McQuade, Cyclist. Susie Roemor, I commute by bicycle. I invited Jonathan. He's brand new with Bike DFW and wanted to see Denton. So, I thought this was a good time for him to come up and kind of show him around. Natikin Risatopong, Cyclist. Dan Krutka, Protected Bike Lane Advocate. I'm Garrett Roemor, and I'm also a daily bicycle commuter. I'm Julie. Lindsey Baker, Cyclist. Agatha Bynes, Cyclist. So, tell us a little bit about Denton Bike Month. Yes, sir. Well, this is actually a national event. May is Bike Month nationwide. There are all kinds of things going on. Bike to School Day, next Friday's Bike to Work Day. This Saturday, we'll have a traffic safety event at Emily Fowler Library, 10.30 a.m. We'll have free bicycle helmets for kids available. We just try to do our best to advocate for cycling and promote it during this month. Fantastic, thank you. This is a proclamation by the Mayor of the City of Denton, whereas for more than a century, the bicycle has been an economical, utilitarian, environmentally sound and effective means of personal transportation, recreation, and fitness. Whereas the City of Denton, Texas recognizes people on bikes as a legitimate roadway user and therefore entitled to legal and responsible use of all public roadway facilities in Denton, except highways constructed to interstate standards. And the City of Denton, Texas encourages the increased use of the bicycle, benefiting all citizens by improving air quality, reducing traffic congestion and noise, decreasing the use and dependence of finite energy sources, as well as fostering exercise. And whereas the League of American Bicyclists, Bike Texas, Bike Denton, local bike shops, and independent bicyclists throughout our community are promoting greater public awareness of bicycle operation and safety education in an effort to reduce accidents, injuries, and fatalities. And whereas the City of Denton encourages all citizens to ride their bicycles to work, to the store, to the park, around their neighborhoods, and with friends and family to promote the personal and societal benefits achieved from bicycling. Now therefore, I, Chris Watts, Mayor of the City of Denton, Texas, do hereby declare and proclaim the month of May 2019 as City of Denton Bike Month in the City of Denton and urge all citizens to ride a bike and be aware of bicycle riders on city roads. Thank y'all for bringing this to our attention again this year. Thank you. Thank y'all so much. One more, Building Safety Month. Who's here representing building safety? Who's the spokesperson here? Oh, oh, no, no, we can't have you. Wow. Is this the whole department? How are you doing? How are you? Okay. Who's the spokesperson here? Emily. Well, we'll start down here. I want to just introduce yourselves. I'm Scott McDonald, the Director of Development Services. Richard Canone, Deputy Director, Planning Director. Billy Uton, Inspections Supervisor. Brad Garrett, Building Inspector. Billy Thompson, Building Inspector. Dave Powell, Building Inspector. John Thomason, Building Inspector. And Mark Roberts, Building Inspector. Linda Gayler, Permanent Technician Supervisor. Amber Rogers, Chief Plans Examiner. Emily Loisel, Assistant Building Official. Turner Rosendahl, Business Services Manager. Angela Adams, Plans Examiner. Josh Hamlin, Plans Examiner. Carolyn Huggins, Permit Technician. Janelle Montgomery, Plans Examiner. Michelle Brown, Plans Examiner. Haley Robinson, Administrative Supervisor. Corey Quirk, Permit Technician. Candice Moon, Permit Technician. So you're going to be the spokesperson, is that right? Okay. All right. Tell us about Building Safety Month. We're very excited to be here. Thank you, Mayor, Council. We appreciate the opportunity to celebrate Building Safety Month. It provides an environment for our citizens to come into our building, see what it is that we do, get a little better handle. What you have before you here is about half of the staff that make Denton what it is, make Denton safe. Ultimately, it's your first preventers and your silent defenders. So they're doing their job best when nobody knows that they're doing it. So we get a certificate of occupancy, all that we take for granted, safe water, safe stairs, electricity, and everything that we do, where we live, work, play, eat, sleep, is all thanks to this staff and the staff that work so tirelessly to make sure that our buildings are safe and our community is a better community. Thank you. Well, I think those are the things that happen behind the scenes that we really don't realize the importance of. We just take for granted that when we walk into a building, when we turn on our water faucet and those kinds of things that, you know, we can trust in that. And so thank you all so much for what you do. Thank you so much over the last few months of improving the process. You know, when customers come in and citizens come in. So I read this with honor. It's by the mayor of the city of Denton Proclamation. Whereas the buildings where we live, learn, work, and worship, play and go to school each day are among the safest in the world. And whereas often we cannot foresee or prevent dangerous situations such as fires and severe weather, the presence of thoughtfully written building codes and the diligence of building safety professionals often prevent such events from becoming tragic. And whereas during the month of May, an awareness campaign will be conducted to reinforce the importance of building safety and the many individuals who contribute to their, who contribute, excuse me, their invaluable experience and expertise. Whereas building safety month is dedicated to remind the public about the critical role of our community's largely unknown guardians of public safety, our local code officials who assure us of safe, efficient, and livable buildings. And whereas no codes, no confidence, the theme for building safety month 2019 encourages awareness and promotes actions everyone can take to ensure the places where we live, learn, work, worship, and play are safe and recognizes that countless lives have been saved due to the implementation of safety codes. And where during this month and throughout the year, we encourage our citizens to learn more about building safety and pay tribute to all who work to this end throughout our community. Now, therefore, I, Chris Watts, mayor of the city of Denton, Texas, do hereby proclaim the month of May, 2019 as building safety month and encourage citizens of Denton to participate in building safety month activities and thank y'all so much for what you do. Thank you, Scott. Thank you. Thank y'all. Our next item on the agenda is agenda item three, which is presentation from members of the public. So if we could roll the. The Denton City Council has adopted rules of procedure, including a code of conduct that applies to citizens as well as council members. These rules were enacted to promote an orderly process and to preserve decorum. Here is a brief review of the rules that apply to citizen reports. Citizens will have four minutes to give a scheduled citizen report and four minutes to give an open mic report. There will be an electronic bell when time has expired. If the remarks are not concluded by that time, the citizen will be asked to stop speaking. If the citizen does not cease and a second request is made, the mayor will request to have the citizen removed from the council chamber. Citizens are asked not to approach the dais. If a citizen has papers or other materials to hand out to the council, please let the city secretary know in advance. For scheduled citizen reports, the council may initiate discussion or questions following each citizen report. For non-scheduled open mic citizen reports, the council may listen to citizens speak. 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 limits any deliberation or decision by the council to a proposal to place the item on a future agenda, a statement of factual policy, or a recitation of existing policy. Citizens are asked to direct all remarks and questions to the council as a whole, individual member. Please refrain from making abusive, personal, impertinent, profane, or slanderous remarks. Anyone who violates this council rule of procedure may be immediately removed from the council chamber. Thank you in advance. Copies of the rules of procedure are available from the city secretary. Our next item is agenda item 3B, which will receive scheduled citizen reports from members of the public. Mr. Lester Hudson, regarding high speed internet in Denton, if you're here, come down and you can state your name and your time will begin. Yes, and then she'll pass them. Thank you very much. Bless you. We are Connie and Lester Hudson. I'm going to have my wife Connie start out. Sure. Yes, sir. Yeah, just state your name and your address and in that time, your time will start. Okay. My name is Connie Hudson. If you could maybe get a little bit behind the mic. Yes. Thank you. I'm already nervous. You're okay. My name is Connie Hudson. My husband and I live at 5100 Swisher Road in Denton, Texas, 76208. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for allowing us this forum tonight. First, we just want to say we love Denton. We weren't born here and we didn't grow up here. Our kids talked us into moving up here. Two of them graduated from UNT and moving here was a choice for us and we couldn't be happier with that, except for one thing and that's what we're here to talk about tonight. We moved from Plano in 2010 and lived on Cape Town Drive in the Preserve at Pecan Creek where we enjoyed access to high speed internet while we built a home on Swisher Road also in the Preserve at Pecan Creek. Because we were building in the same neighborhood, it never occurred to us to ask whether or not phone and internet service would be available any more so than we would have thought to ask if there was electricity, gas, trash or water. It wasn't until we started updating our address with service providers that we learned that only access available for us was cellular for phone and satellite for internet. So welcome to the 21st, right? There are 15 homes in the section of the Preserve where we live. There are 27 internet providers in the city. 14 of them offer residential service and only Hughes Net satellite is available to us where we live. A few of us have spoken with and corresponded with Melissa Craft, City of Denton Technology and Dodie Brigadier, Admin to the State Representative Pat Fallon in an attempt to help us pursue this matter. Everyone has been empathetic and responsive, but we're here tonight because this issue is bigger than us and we need your help. We've contacted providers directly all to no avail. We have a belief that basic phone and internet access ought to be as available and reliable as a reasonable consumer would expect it to be, just like electricity. And it's not just about the conveniences we've come to take for granted, like banking and shopping and paying bills and using multiple devices simultaneously. It's about productivity, like working from home or entertainment, like watching TV or streaming music and video and watching live feeds of city council meetings. It's also a security concern. We can't use webcam for security. We can't get a monitored alarm system. We can't use the ring door app or the Chamberlain garage door opening app. We can't even dial local 9-1-1 unless we use a cell phone. And if we had to do that, we can't really rely on accurate location services because we don't have reliable internet where we live. So before I eat up all my time, I want to turn it over to Les, who will make our closing remarks. Thanks, Connie. I think she's made all the salient points. I just want to summarize. We're here to ask for your help. We implore that you help us. We've tried for about a year and a half now. Satellite, of course, comes from the sky. A lot of things affect sky signal. Weather, events on the other part of the globe cause our computers to go down or go slow. Everything, basically, even movies, continue to buffer when we do it. What we have today with satellite service is half as good as DSL was 15 years ago, and DSL was reliable even though it went over copper. To end, right now, as I stand here in front of you, they are digging dirt 750 feet away from our home, looking for a junction to lay fiber, the conduit to be laid first and the fiber inside the conduit on Shady Shores Road. Right behind us are two luxury apartment complexes with approximately 400 residents. They all have CenturyLink high-speed Internet. Across the street from where we live is Shady Shores. They have high-speed Internet. There are 15 homes in our enclave, and I would guess that combined we probably pay about $175,000 to $180,000 in taxes. I heard the bell. Please help. There's a couple of questions or comments. Member Armitage. First of all, thank you so much for coming out to speak. I really feel for you and this issue you're struggling with. I don't know if you're aware that we have on our work session list high-speed Internet discussion that will hopefully happen eventually, so I know you've waited a long time, but at least that discussion, it seems like, is going to happen. I'd also like to request a staff report on a hot map on which areas in Denton to our knowledge are lacking high-speed Internet access of any kind, so I'd like to know and request that, you know, we keep our mind open to short-term fixes for those who are completely without Internet access of any kind, as well as looking to kind of long-term, bolder solutions for what we can do to provide citywide for everyone. Thank you so much for coming. One last comment. We're 75 feet away from connecting to coax, excuse me, to a conduit that will provide fiber. Seventy-five feet. We're the first home, and there's 15 behind us. If somebody would say they're digging the dirt as I speak to you right now, end of comment. Councilmember Briggs has a comment or question. Yeah, so I appreciate you coming out and speaking tonight. And I think I've seen you post on the Concrete Neighborhood page about this issue. If not, someone that's affected in those 15 homes has. So I would just like to ask the city manager if we're aware of any plans for this area, and if we are not, if we could reach out to our contacts at either Frontier or Charter and directly speak with them about this area and see what they can do. CenturyLink. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Seeing no more questions, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Our next item on the agenda is the additional citizen reports, commonly referred to as the open mic. We have two cards. I see the first card is Mr. Willie Husbeth. Mr. Husbeth here? Okay. Next card will be Jennifer Lane. If you'll come down, state your name and address. Your time will begin. Hello. Thank you. Jennifer Lane, 1526 Willowood Street. First of all, congratulations to everybody that won their election and especially to Don Duff, who gets to have a life again. And then I also wanted to thank you all for banning glyphosate products in the parks and playgrounds of Denton. That's great. And if there will be maybe an announcement once you sort that out in the monthly newsletter, that might help the local citizens to figure out what they should be using as well. I wanted to actually speak, however, to the work session item that came up today on the special event process and so forth. This item has the words First Amendment in it, and I suggest that you change that because anything with the First Amendment would probably have to have special language along the lines of, or maybe even exactly, this provision is not intended to encompass the right of the people to peaceably assemble spontaneously to exercise rights secured by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. If that language is not there and you use the word First Amendment and include it with block parties, some other later body could come along and misuse that document. And also, our First Amendment rights are already protected. We don't actually have to have them mentioned in a city ordinance that includes them with block parties. That's a little bit sort of kind of small to big, maybe even a little bit insulting. What I suggested that you look at the ordinances that other cities have in this regard, and as an organizer, women's march organizer, I have some experience with this. We don't have a national holiday that we're hanging in the women's march to yet the way the Fourth of July and the Martin Luther King holiday is attached to marches there, establishing them deeper, however it may come. And in my opinion, the events ordinance should simply state that, you know, maybe that all these, that the First Amendment is accepted or take that language out completely, looking at a different document, and perhaps the ordinance should cover events that involve food, drink, or sales, and/or sales, that sort of thing. That pretty much covers block parties all the way to the Christmas lighting celebration. The women's march went through a lot of hoops last year, even before this ordinance was passed, and I guess in a way we were sort of a case in which you could sort of see where the limits lay, and the seven days, and so on and so forth. I do believe that if we march, that if the police are concerned, that the police should simply take it upon themselves to decide whether or not they know what they need to do, if they see a situation that they think they need to be there for. I don't know that these marches and organizers should be, you know, maybe paying for that sort of service necessarily, but I do understand why there would be a need in some other cases. I wanted to also say that I wanted to thank you all very much for understanding that insurance is impossible for rallies and protests. There are no insurers that would cover every eventuality that could come up. Then also, I do believe this should go to a public hearing, and the reason even so is because organizers and activists, as well as the public at large who organize all the kinds of events that may be considered, will want to weigh in, and I realize that is can of worms city, I get it. But still, the people, the organizers and activists, and even people who are organizing the food, drink, and sales types of events might wish to speak to their government about this, about these changes. They're pretty sweeping, and they may have some good ideas to add to you. And I'm wondering also if you know that there wasn't really, after the last Women's March, this was perhaps the first one that could have been predicted. The first one was a spontaneous event, large but spontaneous. The second one was almost equally spontaneous because nobody expected there to be a reunion. Now there's a sense of let's keep doing this until all the sought rights are achieved. But it would have been helpful, just wrapping up to say that it would have been helpful to have received maybe an invitation to postmortem the event, and maybe we still can as part of a public hearing. That's it. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to our Consent Agenda. Council Member Husspeth. >> Move approval of the Consent Agenda. >> Mayor Pro Tem. >> Second. >> We have a motion and a second for the Consent Agenda, Item 4A. Well, Agenda Item 4, Consent Agenda. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. Moving on to items for individual consideration. Agenda Item 5A, consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas, a home real municipal corporation authorizing the city manager to execute a contract extension between the City of Denton and Chago Public Company. >> Evening, Mayor, Council. This contract is our small construction contract that we use across the city to get a lot of our construction projects done, some of our bond streets and also some of our O&M's that we use, and we also do it on some of our engineering projects. Originally, the contract was started May 8th of last year. It was for $10 million. Currently, we have invoiced and paid $5.3 million on 18 projects. We have $4.5 million covering 10 projects that are scheduled to be completed in the next three to four months. Most of them are already under construction and in the process, so it is already encumbered. We have a remaining balance of $143,000 that we've left for contingencies if we run into any issues on any of the few that are left. So we are requesting a six-month extension of the contract with no additional funding so that we can complete our list and use if we have any savings in our funding so that we can add some extra streets and get some taken care of. Some of the reasons that we've been looking at, we've lost anywhere from two to three months of rain, mainly due to weather over the past year. I wanted to throw up some of the streets and sections that we've already done. We've completed $5.3 million, and you can see the list over here to your left of all the ones we completed. Currently in construction, we have almost $3.6 million in construction. We have another one, $945,000, which is going to be starting in the next week or two. So this extension is really just to look at the ones that are in construction. If we do have any cost savings from those, we have the ability to use the contract to use that money to actually put towards that $143,000 to use towards extra roads that we can get done. Council Member Briggs. So this isn't for any new projects. It's just to make sure we have enough to continue the ones that were planned for the original? Correct. It's just a time period because of the amount of rain that we've had in this fall that everything was kind of pushed back. So we're running right up on our timeline and we want to make sure we have enough time to get those finished. Okay. So my original question before that was at one time we were using two different companies for asphalt or concrete companies, I thought. Currently on our asphalt contract for supplying, which is a different contract, this is just for actually the turnkey construction, which was one just by a Jiggle Public as of last year. Okay. All right. Thank you. Council Member Armitage. So first of all, I just want to say I support this and this is, as you mentioned, basically a way to ensure that work that was supposed to be done earlier is going to get done because of weather. So I support that. I just wanted to know if you could speak a little bit to kind of the process by which this contract was originally secured and then if you feel capable of speaking to it, what kind of considerations are being taken by staff now in terms of updating and refining the RFP process. I don't know if you feel comfortable talking about that or if someone else here who would, but as far as road construction contracts are concerned. So I wanted to sort of get a little bit more clarity on what your question is because this is an extension of a contract. So what you're asking is it could either be very broad or very narrow and I'm afraid that we might fall outside the scope of this particular posting item. So could you help me understand what you're asking for? So maybe if you don't feel comfortable answering, I'll announce and then how about this and then you can correct me if you know anything wrong with it. It's my understanding that the way in which we secure contracts for this kind of work being refined and we're going to be extending it further. And so just to let everybody know that that is happening. Is that fair? I just want to weigh in. That's really outside the post. So I withdraw that question. I can't withdraw my comment. But I certainly withdraw the question. Anyway, I do it to go back to my original comment and then I do approve. Thank you. Any other questions? Mayor Pro Tem. I move approval. Council Member Husbeth. Second. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. Mayor Pro Tem will be recusing on agenda item 5B. So you will have the chair. Agenda item 5B. Consider adoption of an ordinance by the City of Denton Home Road Municipality Corporation rejecting all and any competitive bids under IFB 6976. Good evening, Council. I'm Cassie Ogden, Director of Procurement. I'm here to talk to you about rejecting all bids under 6976 for HVAC services. So we issued an invitation for bid in January of this year requesting for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning services for all of our city buildings. We sent it to 282 prospective suppliers and we did receive four bids. We're recommending rejection of all of our bids due to unclear evaluation criteria, minimum qualification requirements, and anticipated contract award was unclear in the solicitation documents. So I'm here seeking your approval to reject all bids and we will re-bid this if you approve the rejection. Council Member Husbeth. I move approval. Council Member Armitage. I second. Any further discussion? We have a motion and a second. Let's vote on the board. My board's not working. I just had to say it out loud. Okay. And the motion carries 5 to 0. All right. And I will be recusing myself on the next item. Agenda Item 5C, consider approval of resolution of the City of Denton approving a letter of support for Serve Denton regarding its grant proposal of $100,000 to the Moody Foundation to complete expansion of the Serve Denton Center facility. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, Sara Kuechler, Director of Public Affairs. So Serve Denton is preparing a grant application to the Moody Foundation in the amount of $100,000 and this is to assist with their current construction, which will help to build out the facility to accommodate the Denton Community Food Center, Health Services of North Texas Clinic, and the Children's Advocacy Center offices. As part of this grant application, they are requesting a letter of support from the City of Denton. A resolution has been prepared with a draft letter, and if that resolution is approved, it would authorize the mayor to execute that letter and provide it to Serve Denton. Kathy Curley with Serve Denton is here tonight if you have any questions. Seeing none. Okay. Council Member Briggs? Motion to approve. Council Member Hussbeth? I'll second. We have a motion to second for Agenda Item 5C. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries, 5-0. Agenda Item 5D. Where's John? Okay. I will be recusing myself on Agenda Item 5D. So the mayor pro tem has the chair. It's the last one for me. Item 5D. Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, approving a consent to collateral assignment on the airport lease between Mark Hicks and Access Bank. Good evening, Scott Cray, airport manager. This item here is the collateral assignment of lease following the approval of the lease agreement on April 2nd by the council. It was a 30-year lease agreement with two 5-year city options for a 1.3-acre site. It was for a corporate hangar and office facility. The reason we're here this evening is Access Bank requested a collateral assignment associated with a development loan for the construction of this project. Our lease agreement requires written city consent to approve that, and therefore it went to the City Council Airport Committee, which recommended 2-0, and staff is here this evening and recommending approval as well. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Council Member Husspeth. So I'm going to move approval, but also I'll say for those that are listening or here, if you've not been out to the Denton Municipal Airport, it is growing by leaps and bounds. I appreciate staff's leadership and guidance and just kind of really impressed with what's on the horizon and what's currently there and growing. So thank you very much. And with that, I move approval. Council Member Duff. I second. We have a motion and a second for Item 5D. Any further questions? Let's vote on the board. Motion carries 5-0. Agenda Item 5E, consider approval. Council Member Armitter will be recusing. A lot going on today. 5Es, consider adoption and ordinance of the City of Denton authorizing the City Manager or his designee to execute a purchase agreement by and between MD Mossad Reza, I believe, the owner and the City regarding the sale and purchase of a fee simple to an approximate 1.656 acre track or less situated in the Alexander Hill survey. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Paul Williamson, Capital Projects. Tonight before you is a consideration of an ordinance to purchase a 1.656 acre tract at the corner of Eagle Drive and Bernard. It's the site that raises the tract. It's got a couple of improvements on it, but it's slated for the future site of Eagle Substation, electric substation. This tract has been in play for a few years now. We've had a resolution approving the site, authorization to acquire it. We've gone through the negotiation process. The Public Utility Board considered a counteroffer for settlement yesterday and has recommended it 6-0. I stand for any questions you might have. Any questions? Seeing none, Council Member Hudspeth? Again, one thing before I make my motion, I'm going to miss that purple building. We can never have enough purple buildings, but with that, I move approval. Mayor Pro Tem. I second. We have a motion and a second for Agenda Item 5B. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries -- somebody didn't vote. If we could repost the vote, please, for us to vote. Motion carries 5-0 with one abstain. Agenda Item 5F is to consider nominations, appointments to the City Boards, Commissions, and Committees. Do we have a presentation on that or the sheet? Is that the sheet that you passed out? Yeah. So I believe a sheet was passed out at work session and updated list of the current nominations from the various Council Members for the various Boards. Does anybody need to go over that sheet as a summary? Need a presentation on that? Any Council Members? Seeing none, okay. Council Member Hudspeth? I move approval of the nominated appointees. Council Member Briggs? I second. We have a motion and a second for Agenda Item 5F. Let's vote on the board, please. Motion carries 6-0. Moving on to now our public hearing portion of the agenda. Agenda Item 6A has been postponed. So we'll move down to Agenda Item 6B, which is hold a public hearing and consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas approving a specific use permit to allow for a multifamily dwelling use on an approximately 9.91-acre site. Thank you, Mayor, Members of Council, Ron Magida, Planning Principal Planner with the Development Services Department. For you today is a consideration for a specific use permit as read into the introduction. It is a proposed multifamily dwelling unit use that is being proposed. Under the zoning of NRMU 12, it requires a specific use permit. The applicant is proposing to develop 118 dwelling units within 12 buildings. There will be a clubhouse and approximately 375 associated parking with this development. It is approximately 9.91 acres, generally located just south of Mingo Road, south of the railroad tracks and west of Mockingbird Lane, as shown on this slide. Per the future land use map and under the land use element, the area identified is designated as moderate residential, which calls for 4 to 12 units per acre. Primarily single-family detached housing or small lots are within this designation. There are opportunities for low-rise multifamily dwellings, townhomes. The idea here is to provide that buffer or that transition while maintaining the scale and style of the building orientation. Again, it is a transitional zoning between low residential, which you see on the south side of the property, to a more intense commercial uses, which you see along University and what's shown here as community mixed use. As stated earlier, the subject property is zoned NRMU 12. That is its current zoning. Again, in order to develop multifamily, it requires a specific use permit under the L4 limitation, which, again, under the NRMU 12, 12 units per acre is the maximum dwelling units per acre. Maximum lot coverage is 60% and the building height maximum is 40 feet. Here is a site plan. I apologize for the quality, but you can see that the development is shown here with the 12 buildings. The clubhouse is in this general area here that is oriented towards or along Mockingbird Lane, that is. Two entrances, one to the north and one to the south. And again, there are 118 multifamily dwelling units proposed, 375 parking spaces required. This illustrates the landscaping that is proposed for this development. They will be at the maximum of 60% impervious lot coverage. They do have requirements for screening and buffer type buffers along the north and west as well as on the south, and they are complying with the requirements of the development code. Ron, if I could ask you. Yes, sir. Thank you. On the -- is it the type D buffer that is along the residential? I believe it is a type -- what is that? Which one is that? C along here. And that -- refresh my memory of what that comprises. 15 foot wide with a number of trees and shrubberies that is along that landscape buffer. Okay. No fence requirement? No. No fence required. However, I just want to illustrate that there are -- there is a drainage channel between the residential homes as well as this proposed development. It's shown in this kind of swath area right here. And then the 15 foot takes over a little bit there. So there is a drainage channel between the two properties. I thought I saw on that -- let me look. It says a 26 foot fire lane and access easement right there? For the drive aisle right here. Okay. So how wide is it from the building to the back property line? Do you know if that -- I don't have that. I'm the property owner and the engineers here and they may be able to answer that question. And also -- okay, there they are. I was looking for the circular points inside the actual site plan. Are those the trees? Correct. Okay. All right. Okay. And I believe they're preserving a number of trees along the north side and some along the southern side. So there will be some trees along those areas as well that are existing. So the circles are the ones that they're adding. Correct. Yep. So as part of the analysis that Plang reviewed against, which is in section 3564 approval criteria, they conform with all the standards and they will conform with the standards as we go through the development process. One of the major things that we look at as far as a specific use permit, specifically with the multifamily, is it compatible and does it create any adverse impacts to the surrounding area? So with that, I would just want to illustrate in this few next slides is, again, how this development is in relationship to the other areas within the proximity of the project. You have, again, the site here illustrated outlined in red. University to the north, Mingo as well, Audra to the south, and Loop 288 just to give you the orientation of where we are. We have a number of existing neighborhoods in the area. We have the Oak Ridge Estates to the east, Bell Air North addition directly to the south, Audra Heights again further east, East Hampton further south, and then Woodlands of Den. I just want to illustrate, show that because one of the things that we looked at, and this is an existing multifamily development, how does this compare to what's being proposed? So this is an existing multifamily development. It is approximately 15, almost 16 dwelling units per acre, two to three stories high in height. It is zone NRMU, so it's a more intense zoning. That's how they got up to 15, 16 dwelling units per acre. Phase one was 148 units, and then phase two, which is proposed, will be 168 dwelling units. As far as the transportation infrastructure, again, the site is generally located here. You have Mockingbird to the east and then Mingo to the north. Followed up with our engineering department, and there are plans for Mingo Road, but nothing funded. There are no plans for Mockingbird Lane, so unfortunately that's to be determined. Now the applicant had prepared a TIA, traffic impact analysis, and based on the existing conditions and what they are proposing, the TIA resulted in that there would be no negative impact. So that was provided and reviewed with our transportation engineering department. Again, just to let you all know, Mockingbird is a collector under our mobility plan. Mingo is a secondary arterial, and Old North is a collector, which is an extension of Mockingbird. All three are not to its full capacity or full roadway classification at this time. We won't spend a lot of time on this slide. Your backup has the information. Again, I've already stated that TIA was submitted. Any mitigation measures associated with that TIA, the applicant will incorporate or have incorporated in their site plan. We looked at their preliminary site plan and landscape plan, and they comply with all of the requirements per the development code. Notifications were sent out, 200 and 500, and you can see here on this exhibit or this slide, there were six in opposition, three in favor. They did post two signs, one sign along Mockingbird and one along Mingo. One, I believe, is generally in this area here. They did hold two neighborhood meetings, one on October 31st, 2018, held at the Courtyard Marriott. One member of the community attended. They then had Planning and Zoning Commission after that and heard a lot of comments from not only the Planning and Zoning Commissioners, but also the public that attended. At that time, they were proposing a higher density. I believe it was 26 units per acre. The applicant, after hearing that, requested that their item be postponed for the P&Z to consider. They held a second neighborhood meeting on January 31st, 2019, earlier this year. At that meeting, they reduced their number of dwelling units per acre to less than 12, so now they meet the NRME 12 Zoning District requirements. It is lesser than what they originally proposed. There were 12 members of the community that attended that neighborhood meeting, and generally, I can say I was there as well. They were pleased to see that the number of dwelling units had decreased. There were still concerns about parking, traffic and drainage, but that is something that we will have to deal with as part of the development review process and the site planning of that area. Again, the applicant is here and will be able to answer any questions related to those concerns. The Planning and Zoning Commission did recommend approval of this SUP request. Staff also recommends approval with the following conditions. I won't read the conditions. They are in your backup, but technically they reflect the intent to comply with the site plan and the landscape plan. If there are any minor alterations, that can be approved by City Council as long as they meet all elements of the DDC that will be allowed. Any amendments to the SUP would have to go through an ordinance to require any amendments. In incorporating the requirements of the SUP of the site plan, those are the following here. The maximum development of this site will be 9.91 acres under this SUP. No more than 12 tenant buildings in one clubhouse would be allowed. 118 dwelling units would be their maximum. 375 associated with that dwelling units would be their maximum, and 60% lot garbage again would be their maximum. With those conditions, again staff recommends approval and so does the Planning and Zoning Commission. I'll be happy to answer any questions and again the applicant and his engineer are present as well. So we've got several that have indicated they want to speak. Are all those questions for staff, for those that are wishing to speak? Okay, all right. So here we go. Council Member Briggs. If you could just, I know the Mayor mentioned the trees, but I want to clarify because I know that there's already some really nice healthy trees there on the property that's separated from the homes and also from, it's a natural buffer to the train. So do you know if they're planning to keep the large natural growth for sound as part of their sound barrier? That is my understanding and I'm pulling up the landscape plan here. You can see that along the northern part of the property, these are the trees that you're referring to Council Member Briggs. In addition, they will add additional trees along the northern portion again to help create that buffer. As far as those large trees within the property, I know they created this island here. I don't see a lot of preservation. Obviously anything that they remove would have to be mitigated. That is part of their plan. I don't know they were able to save as much as we would hope, but again the applicant would probably be better answer that question. Do you know what percentage was able to be preserved? I don't have that information at the top of my head. Council Member Hudspeth. Thank you. Are you able to speak to the traffic study or is there someone else? I can talk about it as best as I can. Yes sir, thank you. If we could get to a map that just has the streets, anyone will do. Sure, let me see what I can do. Please and thank you. Probably this one right here. Sure. Yes. I just need help understanding that philosophy because one, they dump everything on Mockingbird so that's one lane each way. Then you have that odd jog right there at Mingo where you could have one car on one side off the track, the other one, and Mingo doesn't stop so that one car could sit there for a bit before they turn so it's going to back up there. Let's assume they don't go that way which is University Drive which is the prevailing direction you want to go, you go one car at a time. Let's assume they don't do that. Then they go down south on Mockingbird to Audra which is two lanes, turn right on Audra, that's two lanes, turn left on Audra, that's two lanes, or go down Mockingbird further to where you have another apartment complex waiting for you at McKinney. What in that study says that's okay? There's no walking, there's no sidewalk on Mingo, we've talked about that, we've talked about improving Mingo so I'm just trying to process how they got to yeah, this is good. I can say that the measurements were done during the peak hours and so the majority of the traffic will be heading north is how the traffic impact analysis was presented. There will be some going to the south so the impact area would be that Mingo in Mockingbird area. Based on the traffic numbers again that was presented as part of the TIA and reviewed by our engineering department, they did meet the level of services that was acceptable by the city. As far as the numbers, I don't have the exact numbers but I do know that what we looked for was does it meet the level of service and it does. Well, then I'll just conclude with this. One car at a time, you say the prevailing traffic is going north, one car at a time and somehow it's nine acres worth of apartments and we say it's okay. I'm leaning and so I'll just, I'll hear. And so Mr. City Manager, if we can get an email from somebody that helps me understand how one car a time is a good idea, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Council Member Armitage. So just to confirm, so you mentioned before that the density has changed since the last iteration. Correct. When it was in the last iteration, this development was denied by staff, correct? Or was it on the way towards, it looked like it was on the way towards denial? Yes, it actually was. They were originally, they also submitted a rezoning to go to NRMU to allow them that 26 units per acre but because they are now at 12 units per acre, they no longer require that zoning. So staff is now supportive of the object because it's lower in their density. Got it, got it, yes. And so nothing else has changed other than the density, is that correct? Correct. Okay. So I share the concerns mentioned by Council Member Hutzbeth about the traffic issues on Mingo, also the train crossing and congestion at that area and concerns about pedestrian safety. I was wondering if you could speak to the drainage concerns that were expressed to us back then when this was first proposed by residents. Sure. My understanding from listening to the residents and understanding the area is that the drainage flows in this open field through this channel and then heads west. The issue has been that there's been ponding here when it's a high event, rain event that is. The applicant has stated or has addressed the drainage within their property and they're going to use the drainage channel to help ease from what's coming off of their property but what happens along or within other areas not within the property they can't control. We do need to look at drainage in this area in general. Again, the area that's causing that drainage is generally in this portion of the site or outside the site. I have heard from property owners in that area, your other area you're pointing to. Right. It's currently vacant. Again, I can have our applicant and his endure maybe they may have additional information on the drainage and how they're going to deal with drainage as it relates to their development. Thank you very much. Mayor Pro Tem. Thank you, Mayor. Two questions. One also relates with the traffic. Are we saying they wouldn't have to do anything? No deceleration, no left turn? There will be some deceleration. I may have not explained that clearly. You see that there are some deceleration coming from over here. Again, I apologize for the quality of the image but there will be a deceleration as you head south on Mockingbird into this property. Okay. Will they be required to put a left turn lane? Not with the TIA that was prepared for this density that was shown as part of their recent proposal. Okay. My other question, if you can turn to your notification map and response map. Sure. You're showing on the top there in red that is that Wolf Village East LLC? Correct. Okay. I'm looking at the response form that's in our backup and it says in favor of the request. It says what? It says they've checked the box in favor of request. We'll double check that. I mean if they were in favor then that's, we'll make that correction. Just for clarification. Okay. Appreciate that. That's it. Okay. Any other questions? If you could go back to the site plan real quick. I just got one last one just to make sure I understand this. Where the, it's the southern property line against the, that backs up to the residential. Okay. So as I blow this up on the laptop, I see all the little trees there on that. And so that those two lines represent that 10 foot buffer. Is that right? Those, there's, you see that line of landscape buffer and then there's, there's a couple of lines there. Is that the 10 foot buffer? Because then I see something that says 30 foot building setback. I'm trying to figure out where, what the numbers are here. So I guess I'll ask the applicant because I see a drainage easement. I see a 26 foot fire lane and access easement. So I'm not sure how all that's fitting inside there. Within that area. Yes. Yeah. So I'll ask them. Mayor Pro Tem, do you have another question? Okay. You're showing requests to speak. Okay. No more questions from, for staff. We will go ahead and open the public hearing and I want to give the applicant a chance to come down and speak. If you'll state your name and address and then your time will begin. Thank you and good evening. My name is Patrick Filson. I'm with Kirkman engineering here, representing the owner and developer of this project. And we are asking for an SEP on this property. We have been to PNZ a couple of times and met with the neighbors a couple of times. And it's been a very long process to get before you tonight. We are excited about this project. Ron did a great job explaining the case and kind of where we are and give me a little background. I think I can clarify a couple of the items here as well. So just big, big picture of what kind of the things we want to talk about again, like Ron just mentioned the existing zoning, we are requesting the SEP and the public hearing dates and some questions, just an overall picture of the, of the site. And Mr. Mayor, as you can see here, the red line is our Southern property line, that drainage, there's a 40 foot drainage channel that's outside of that Southern property line that, and I think you were thinking it was inside our property. Okay. That's the way it looked like. So you're because that's the way it looked like on the, so you're saying that the back of the fence yards, the backyards of those residential homes to the South of your property, there's a 40 foot drainage exactly that backs up to those property lines, those residential property lines, and then the 10 foot buffer starts. Okay. Exactly. And then there's a 26 foot fire lane and then 10 feet or 15 feet to our buildings or so. So there is a substantial amount of buffer between the actual residential property and the building themselves. Okay. Is that a natural drainage channel? Is that concrete? It's concrete. Yes, sir. Okay. And it was performed, there is floodplain, FEMA floodplain through the area. There was a flood study that was done and it's all been studied and that channel actually holds the entire 100 year floodplain. So the, it's designed that way. And so the drainage issues are really just a issue of undeveloped land and, you know, undeveloped land has got low, low spots and depressions and it doesn't drain very properly. When we come in and develop it, we'll create a better drainage solution. We'll get that water moving and going to where it needs to be at a much faster pace than it is today. So it just pond and sits there and creates the problems it's creating today. We should significantly improve the drainage, certainly on our side, potentially, you know, from upstream as it gets through the culvert under Mockingbird Road. Okay. Rick, thank you. Existing zoning, you can see our site, we're in the NRMU 12. I feel we're pretty consistent with that zoning. We're requesting that SUP to stay at that 12 units per acre. Like Ron mentioned, we were at a higher density before. We met with the neighbors, that was their biggest concern was the density and the amount of people that we're bringing in. We brought that significantly down, less than half of what we originally proposed and met with the neighbors and there was some satisfaction there. Another thing that we did through that process was reduce the height of the building. There were three-story structures before. These are all two-story structures. And really, so really this is the future land use is for low-rise, multifamily, townhome, you know, that medium density multifamily product. And we've got, we're calling this a multifamily product because it's all private. It's all a private development. It's all contained within itself. I think it's really more of a hybrid development and it's really going to function like a townhome development. It's multifamily, all the roads are private, but each unit will stand within itself. And it'll be a building that's got, you know, five or six units in a row and they're vertical. And you've got your personal driveway, personal garage that is tied to that unit. And so parking on site certainly shouldn't be an issue. The density is significantly less than where we were before. And really when we get, we're thinking about it, we want to make sure we're thinking that it's not a typical standard multifamily development where you're seeing these 25, 26 units per acre and a ton of larger, higher buildings. Go ahead. So real quick question. Absolutely. Because being in a college town, we've got measurements of multifamily by the number of units. And we also have by the number of bedrooms because a unit can have either one bedroom or four bedrooms. So on this particular one, your original concept, are you keeping the same number of bedrooms per unit as you did on your original submission or did that change? The original submission had a much higher density or ratio of units. So there were some three bedrooms, there was a number of two bedrooms, a number of one bedrooms. And these are all two and three bedroom units. So, and that's sort of my point is you might have gone down in the number of units, but in the number of bedrooms, because if you're required to have 375 parking spots for how many units? Is it 119? 118, yes. 118. So you're at three parking spots per unit, which that typically indicates probably a three bedroom unit. Right. And that's just the way the units are set up. So if you look at this image here, you've got, I wish I had Ron's picture. So there's a driveway here that can really house two cars in a two car garage. And so we had to work with staff pretty intensely through this process. So technically there's a four car parking. That's not going to, it can't function as four cars of parking. And there's not on street parking. These are all fire lanes. You're not allowed to park on street. It'll be privately maintained and privately enforced. We're not allowed to do that just like any other commercial type of business. I guess my point is that yes, you reduce the density, but not since it didn't come to council before, we're not really sure what it was at that time. The density of the number of units per acre as we measure density here. But if the bedroom count stayed the same, then, or close to it because of a different configuration, it's still sort of the same economic kind of performance as it would be if it were at the other level. Yes, sir. I completely understand. And I don't have the numbers right in front of it. The bedroom counts went down significantly as well. Okay. So not only do we decrease in the overall number of units, but the number of bedrooms certainly decreases. Okay. Great. Council Member Armitage, do you have a question? I had a question about the rent of the units. What's your sense of, and I know you can't necessarily speak for it, but at least the range. I'd like to call the owner and developer of the property. He'd much be able to speak on that better than I would. Great, thanks. I design it and set it up and that sort of thing. Is it okay if we see if he has any more to say in his presentation and then we'll get the owner up to talk about maybe some different specifics about the project. Yeah, go ahead. So drainage, transportation. So transportation, the impact study that was done was done in accordance to normal standards that all traffic impact studies were done. We didn't do it. We hired a third party engineer that did it and that works with the City of Denton very regularly, very well-respected traffic engineer throughout the Metroplex. They are the ones that came up with the recommendations. We're simply following them. A lot of the issues really are regional and not adjacent to our site and in the area next to our, that is adjacent to our site, we are making improvements. We will be dedicating a section of right of way to get Mockingbird Lane at least our half of the collector requirement and then providing those two diesel lanes that were mentioned before. The Mingo intersection is certainly not ideal for our development and we would certainly like to see improvements there but it's just not adjacent to our site and simply not something that's feasible for a project of this size to be able to make that, those types of improvements for a regional solution. We also feel that the impact of the number of cars that will be increased in this area is within the traffic study that shows that it works at a classification that is reasonable and so we're basing that on the traffic study that was done and reviewed and worked through the city. I think that is, oh the trees. So you know in any type of development we want to preserve as many trees as we can because it, full transparency of the trees are cost money and when you have to replace trees or remove trees it costs money to remove them and then cost money to replace them. That's just beyond the fact that we like the natural buffer. In this scenario we've got the trees that are along the railroad that we will preserve as many of these as we can and that's to serve for a great benefit to provide that buffer between the these properties here, these units here and the railroad that comes through pretty frequently and the trees here along the, between the residents and the drainage channel. So that drainage channel actually sits down here at the bottom of the screen and so we'll preserve those as many as we can. Out here we'll try to preserve, if we can preserve some here we'll certainly try to, particularly because we will phase us so we will have to try back into the existing rate here but once we start grading and we get to the fine details of designing the site then that's when we'll really determine exactly how many trees we can preserve and I'm gonna go this is a pretty conservative effort and we'll work through that as we get to it but it's certainly in our best interest and everyone's best interest to preserve as many trees as we can. That's all I have. All right we've got, is anybody have any questions for the current speaker or would it be for the owner? Council Member Pro Tem or Council Member Briggs? Mine was about the trees he just answered. All right okay go ahead. Yeah I did because you said it's kind of like a town home so I'm guessing looking at the, what's in our backup here is it two-story apartments then? It's a two-story unit that'll be, each unit will be two stories so everybody will enter on the ground floor they'll have a second floor and with a garage on the bottom floor and a driveway on the bottom floor so. So the only thing that's preventing you from from doing it as town homes is that you would need more property to do the width of the streets to make them dedicatable to the to the city that's I don't know dedicatables a word but. Right essentially it would be a town on product if they were all public streets. Okay all right thank you. Okay all right thank you and then Mr. Parna if you'll state your name address and then we've got a couple questions for you. Sure yep. Mukesh Parna, 5811 Cary Drive, Frisco, Texas. Council Member Armitter. Yes so I was wondering if you could speak to the rent and kind of what kind of clients you're as far as like an income base you know family students you're aiming these apartments towards. Sure yep so these products were designed for a more like a family type people around 1800 to 1900 is what we are thinking for the rent and also what was your other question. You know aiming towards families students you kind of answered that. Yeah more family driven because the rents are so high that I don't think students can afford as much. Yeah students cannot afford that rent. Thank you. Got a question on the elevations is this what every building will look like. Yes each one of them. Okay yeah all right is that it looks like you've got a little wains code of either brick or stone that comes up probably four feet or so is that what that is the white along the bottom. So that's the sidewalk right you're talking about the front. Let me pull it up. It's just brick and stone. Okay so but it looks like most of it's stucco is that is the is the tan part stucco that's orange part I'm just trying to understand what what the building materials are on the outside. Is that brick or do you know or does anybody in the development court to see what okay. No this is just a general is rendering yes the materials haven't been decided and the potential materials will certainly meet the ordinance of stucco brick or masonry requirements and I think I just confer with ron I think it's a 40 percent masonry requirement and we'll certainly provide that. Okay masonry being either brick or stone or is that also including foment cyber board just brick and stone okay because that's what I was going to ask because that's what I would prefer to see because I think it just it you know has a little bit different look to it than just a stucco and maybe a hardy board look. Okay all right so I want to make sure that I understand that the current code ron if you don't mind requires a 40 percent brick or stone I think it probably says masonry but we can restrict it to 40 percent brick and stone is that correct yes yes it says 40 percent building materials let's see here because I know our new code to go in effect october 1 right I believe requires that but I didn't think that our current one did. Well you can you can take some time to research that you bet all right okay that was really my question. Council member Armitage you're showing a request to speak that's an old okay anybody else have any questions for the current speaker seeing that okay man I just like to have found it an amount equal to 40 percent of total net exterior wall area of each building elevation excluding the windows and gables doors shall be brick or stone or masonry so brick stone or masonry and just by definition if we wanted to limit it to brick and stone the masonry portion we'd have to say that specifically we can the council can do that because by definition I don't think we have a definition for masonry in our current code so if you want to specifically require that 40 percent be brick or stone I would make that as part of the motion okay because stucco could be considered masonry and cement five reward if we don't have it defined yet okay right fantastic thank you do you have any more comments you'd like to make or okay regarding tia just one additional comment regarding tia when they did the when they did do the tia they did mention the first time when we submitted the distance from this intersection on the north side to our entrance was less than ideal so we did not want any one to be impacted so we moved our driveway south to make it more safer so there is a lot of visibility that was the only thing that was mentioned in the tia and we adjusted that okay thank you thank you very much all right this is a public hearing so we do have another card believe it's is it nancy carson nancy yes if you'll come down state your name and address your time will begin my name is nancy carson i live at 2908 oakshire first of all i would like to show y'all a longer picture of the the apartments i know we just looked at those but some of them are going to be longer than this and as much as maximum 30 feet high would you see would you mind putting it down on the base or i think our overhead camera will get that as well it might not i don't know if it'll if you can zoom out and up there you zoom out just a little more billy yeah okay that gives us an idea and what these remind me of are storage units they're not showing very much class at all the garage doors are the emphasis of the home i'd like to talk about the surrounding areas primarily this section bel-air north below this subject area is 31 31 acres plus some and there are 127 homes there so we're looking at taking a third of that amount of space and putting 118 homes so it really is a dense area also want to talk about the traffic coming down mockingbird here right here at audra where you would end up is a three-way stop sign it backs up real easily a lot of people run it but my concern is that are people going to come down this one one lane two-way street to get to the stop sign and wait on it or will they take these nice room roads through bel-air north and whiz down them i have seen occasionally cars that cut through our neighborhood here and they're always speeding and i'm i'm concerned that that's what's going to happen with the situation here why do you want to go back up here stack up and wait on a three-way stop sign when you can just cut through here zoom down the road and get where you're going a lot faster okay uh here on mingo we've talked about these village east apartments they're low end they're pretty tacky there's big holes in the in the roads there and then over on the okay of course the train which there's lots of train traffic 25 to 30 trains a day go through there seven 24/7 over here on the west side is the roofing company that has a lot of vehicles in there they live there there's a two-bedroom house it's kind of what you would expect of a roofing company they're just a lot of stuff over on the east side uh this property has been cleared away there's a an old old house uh i furnished you some pictures and the materials that i i had for you and uh broken down fence so that's really tacky all right what i wanted to talk about was the uh uh scrap metal place and i have provided you information on that so i hope you'll consider it anybody have any questions for the speaker councilmember armature sure yeah if you could just speak a little bit about the scrap metal place i know you've mentioned in your yes um they make a lot of noise at first i didn't know what the noise was and i followed the sounds one day uh they use these big uh cat i think they're called heavy duty equipment with the big bucket on it to pick up but but theirs is a little different it has like a two scoop that grabs the stuff and throws it in whatever they're putting in it very loud a lot of going on there a lot of 18 wheelers in and out of there all the time okay all right okay any other questions seeing none thank you very much i appreciate it this is a public hearing anybody else wishing to speak please come down state your name and address your time will begin anybody else wishing to speak one more time anybody else wishing to speak all right we will now close the public hearing uh council member hudspeth yeah so do i need i'm gonna make a motion but i want to speak sure same thing to swoop so um i wish staff would have been here to help me understand the traffic study i get it but um absent that understanding i absolutely do not deny that it was done i don't deny that was viewed but it does not pass the the eye test i mean one car at a time i just drove it recently so i i'm very familiar one car at a time in that intersection we we're already talking about mingo tw working with them and ascend let's assume it works and let's assume it flows well we're sending more traffic down the area that we already admittedly say is a problem just a few blocks up just the unimproved drainage on the right side on the north side that affects the shawnee neighborhoods would that water doesn't magically mystically disappear it's a problem upstream it becomes a problem downstream and so the the water issue the traffic issue and i'm fine if this council wants to spend whatever it takes to improve mingo which we're already talking about for a significant amount of time that says we have people walking that street and it's very dangerous so why i cannot support adding traffic to that area which we've everyone here is on record of saying mingo is a dangerous street and then we're saying we're going to add more cars to it but if we're going to improve it let's spend the money improve it and then this project can go forward but i i just don't want to get into a a situation where we build and then come back and fix the sidewalks because that's dangerous i don't understand the traffic study as it comes as i understand the traffic flow on sunday with churches so it didn't bible it now they let everybody out on mingo and so again i don't i just wish i had someone here that could help me process that information not saying that it wasn't done properly just saying i don't understand it and when i look going to the south we with same thing that's that's the issue we had with the development on the other side of bayfield that the traffic was too bad on audra to support that other project and then you talk about the the rental component once they're renting we have no control over that and next thing i understand the rates proposed but that's not that's not static and so then that changes and we're looking at rental properties and unt kids and etc etc and that's in their purview to do so i'm going to move denial for the fact that the the the road on mingo is is is too dangerous i'm not crazy which this will sound crazy coming from me not crazy about the the amount of trees and preservation and the the lack of just kind of detail to that i think understanding this council's position on that i think i would i would have expected a higher sensitivity to that and and thorough analysis of those numbers and that percentage to be presented versus we'll we'll do the best we can well that that's not very reassuring so lack of information on the trees and that's no secret that that is this council has been very clear on that so and and we have so anyway move denial for those reasons thank you uh council member armater i second that well and i appreciate your comments and your in your motion um i'm going to hesitate to vote against uh denial when it seems like that if you had some information on the traffic study and you've certainly addressed the issue of the trees and the lack of detail um that i for one would want this is the first time that this applicant has been before this body and i would want to be able to provide them an opportunity to hear our concerns and especially if you're if you just need whether you change your mind on the traffic study or not is is i have no idea but obviously you're not understanding it um i know that oftentimes you will say that if we've got codes on the books that we should we should approve those and so i think it behooves us to let you take a look at the traffic study that's been done by you know professional engineers who do this kind of work and see you don't have to accept it but i'd rather you have an opportunity to see it and i'd rather have the applicant an opportunity to give you some information and this council some information for the trees and such uh instead of just maybe carte blanche denying this application right off the bat when it's the first time that they've been here so fortunately the chair can make motions so i'm going to make a motion to postpone to a date certain which would be the 20 do we have a 23rd uh council meeting 21st is that enough time i think that'll be enough time to sort of get the questions answered in the traffic study if that motion to postpone passes so uh i'll make a a motion to postpone and we'll get it up there and if you if you want a second just raise your hand if not then council member briggs yes you'll second it yeah but can i yeah after can i say something too yes but you you are seconding the motion i am seconding okay all right go ahead yes yes i am second but i would like to have that information as well the the traffic study and i would like to see what they say there at old north because there's not an arrow to turn there and if we're putting that many more cars and we need to have an uh an answer for the movement of the cars going up there to um university as well to get out safely and and also usually when we have an sup come to us and i don't know if this is just because people have been doing it because the planning but we have seen what the design is going to look like we have the the tree preservation plan and this just seems kind of not complete and when it comes back to us i really hope that there's some definite building materials there's a vision we can see what we're putting into this neighborhood if it's approved and there's a traffic plan that's going to work and so i i'm willing to take a look at those things before i um go along with with denial but those are those are things that i would really like to see uh mayor pro tem well i'm going to withdraw my request to speak i think council member briggs covered most of what i had to say okay all right anybody else want to speak on the motion to uh postpone till may 21st is that right is that the council meeting okay uh we have a motion and a second to postpone to a date certain of may 21st on the board with the corresponding information to be delivered to council via either in-person meeting with each individual council or i'm being told by mr canoni we need you to continue that to june 4th i'm assuming there's uh publication reasons yes i just want to make sure we have the notices out and then we have all the information that's requested uh when we bring it back um that way we'll have about a week turn around to get all the agenda items ready so if we go to the first meeting in in june we would have enough time to one notice it and then have all that information okay i will be out that meeting but that's okay i mean i guess um what's the next what's the next meeting the third the 10th do we have a meeting on the be the 11th 11th uh yeah i'd like to make the motion that we postpone to a date certain of june 11th so i can be here to hear that i mean we're not in any i don't think we're in any rush to decide this at least i'm not if we get the information back go ahead council member i will i will second that uh date certain okay yeah i guess i should have clarified that withdraw my motion or i could have amended my motion yeah uh so the motion is to postpone to a date certain of june the 11th with the corresponding information to be delivered uh or gone over at that time or before then with staff and council all right let's uh i think we're ready to vote but i'm not sure that we've got the we ready to vote okay let's go ahead and vote the motion to postpone carries i guess that was five to one okay that concludes our agenda items except for concluding items that includes all our public hearings so concluding items council member briggs so i um was given a some concluding remarks from the building safety month earlier they were down and forgot to um to say some events coming up so i would like to go ahead and mention those for them here um so there's going to be a city-wide coloring contest for children zero through 12 years of age um and you can so that that's one event um the offering free popcorn at development services center every friday in may and i think that's for all ages um and there's going to be a booth at the community market saturday may 11th from nine to one um so i hope that you could attend some of those and visit our developmental our development services department um and they'll probably give you one of these cute little little pins if you if you do visit um and so that's for them but i also want to take a moment here if i can because i i know we had a storm or a tornado surprisingly come through um my district and i know it's it's been a while but i do want to publicly say thank you to our city manager and staff and solid waste and dme and our community members with them the city worked really hard of police and fire as well for the response that that we got so it didn't go unnoticed and i just want to publicly say thank you to all of you i mean we're still working on it a little bit but i think we're almost almost there um so and and on that um i'm curious if we have rebates for storm shelters that we give our residents that invest in them i know they have the kind that go in your in your garage and there's some um emergency management um i don't i don't know if there's grant for emergency management um to re to rebate that if we can check on that uh that would be good thank you mayor pro tem thank you mayor i'd like probably an informal staff report uh as developers do tias and they don't uh aren't required to take care of items uh but we do charge them road impact fees is that something that could possibly be put on there is what their what their amount of road impact fee would be on on uh you know when they're presenting to us so we know there is money for the future repairs or future impact on that road yeah and just just your point uh mayor pro tem i've been in conversation with mr cannoli we will have a policy council in the next few meetings um i am used to situations where developers would escrow a certain amount of dollar for the city traffic staff to double check all the tia so the situation like was frustrating councilmember hutzpah tonight you would have an objective third party review of the tia and then be able to have a more balanced conversation so we're going to be bringing that policy to you in the next couple meetings uh even further try to enhance the level of information you're getting councilmember hutzpah yes sir so uh just wanted to remind people that didn't know that didn't diabolo's the the semi so the professional soccer team has their first game i do believe this weekend or it's coming up i have to double check it is this weekend okay yes and uh so i'm a proud season ticket holders i'm biased but looking forward to that and then just briefly want to want to thank my neighbor i think he's uh not going to be here next week so i want to appreciate him and let him know i'm going to continue uh going to his school of limited wording but uh one of these days i'll graduate so thank you you bet uh councilmember armature um i just wanted to say uh this is the beginning of uh ramadan so just wanted to wish uh ramadan mubarak to our amazing dent in islamic community and a safe fast to everyone councilmember don duff this is really my concluding remarks i i can tell you i never really intended to you know get into politics and this this really all started when kathleen wasn't he decided to initiate the tax freeze and uh i got involved in that and the end of it and and made it happen um you know and there's several other things i could say about uh you know the sanctuary cities but uh i think everybody knows that uh that law is still in effect and the uh united states fifth circuit of appeals happened to agree with me but uh i'm very gratified that uh somebody taking this seat that is really an impressive young man and it's been a it's been a long ride guys but in short my friend okay uh good i get the final word um concluding remarks i was talking with someone today uh when we post zoning notifications on signs on properties um i think it's a requirement to put the project number on those signs if not i'd like to look into some policies about that and then if we because when people see the signs they don't know what's going there so they've got to call staff they got to take staff time so if we had a place uh spot on our website where people could go look at a summary of the projects that were listed on signs i think that would really help alleviate some of the misinformation or or lack of information that may be happening when people see these uh public notice signs that go up on property so if we could maybe look into that um and council member duff um since it is your last time i've got a i just can't you know one thing i've tried to do as as mayor is you hear things that you just sort of let go but you said something that i can't let you let go and that is when you said the fifth circuit agreed with you on the sanctuary city resolution uh i'll say it again and i said it then and i'll say it again that resolution passed by this council was simply to support the right of parties to seek a constitutional challenge to any law we all have a right to challenge a state law for its constitutionality it wasn't a support in favor of or against it was simply in support of the rule of law so i can't i can't let that go because that's important but be that as it may i appreciate you serving thank you so much in fact i was talking with billy matthews and he said that he thought your first meeting that you had went to like two or three o'clock in the morning or something like it was one of these long meetings and and so i commend you for that but i do thank you for your service uh it's it's uh when people put themselves out there i think it's it's a sign of courage and just a commitment to the community notwithstanding whether we all agree with everybody all the time it's still a matter of wanting to serve the community so i thank you so much for your service in that regard um all right well having said that bon voyage council member duff um we will still have your plaque and we will still make sure that we get your council photo to you to hang on your wall as a as a memory of all of us and i'm sure you will hold it in high esteem okay we will we will stand adjourned