Jun 21, 2024 City Council on 2024-06-21 5:00 PM (City Council Retreat - Day 1)

So today is Friday June 21st, it's 5.05 p.m. we do have a meeting to order first item on our agenda is item and in the order of things to be we'll do item a while they're finishing up setting up dinner then we'll step out grab dinner between a and b but the first thing is a ID 2 4 1 2 2 6 receive report hold discussion gives that direction regarding the results of the 2024 community survey good evening Amy Catholic chief strategic officer I'm here today to provide you with the results of the 2024 community survey so the survey is conducted every two years to give our residents the opportunity to raise the quality of life as well as dentin services and propose priorities for the next two years survey invitations were sent to a random sampling of single-family and multifamily households stratified by zip code based on Denton's population distribution the invitation along with subsequent reminders as well as the survey instrument itself was available in both English and Spanish the survey opened from February 20th to March 23rd received 830 completed responses this is a statistically valid sample and a significant increase over the 267 survey responses that we received in 2022 with a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error plus or minus 3.4 percentage points these results can be confidently applied to the entire population results of the survey are reported in seven categories quality of life community characteristics public safety quality of city services communication city performance and service priorities throughout today's presentation unless otherwise stated results are based on the top two positive responses of excellent and good very safe and safe and very likely and likely because of changes to the survey structure and scale shifting from a predominantly four-point scale to a five-point scale comparisons to prior performance and are not entirely useful however where there are significant variances compared to 2022 and the highest ratings of excellent and the lowest rating of poor when compared to excellent and poor very poor are noted in addition results are compared to both national and local benchmarks selected for their similarities to Denton in terms of population services amenities as well as their use of a five-point Likert scale the quality of life section asks residents to rate didn't as a place to live work and raise children to ensure didn't remains attractive accessible and welcoming to all residents rating their neighborhood is a place to live and Denton as a place to retire rate slightly higher than both the US and the Texas benchmark averages in addition ratings of excellent for Denton as a place to retire increased seven percentage points since 2022 with other scores in this category closely aligning with benchmark averages it's clear that the quality of life ratings for 2024 are commendable the community characteristics section of the survey allows residents to rate key aspects of their services their perception of the quality of services that didn't offers in quality of life this includes community involvement opportunities community appearance and design transportation and mobility and economic development engagement in arts culture community foster civic pride while positively impacting quality of life ratings in this category surpass benchmark averages and highlights residents love of Denton's unique culture in general less than half of residents rate aspects of the city's appearance favorably with most scores falling below benchmark averages despite these scores code enforcement is not a priority for our residents as it came last and a list of 11 possible options it's also important to note that while 44% of our residents rate code enforcement excellent or good only 18% rated as poor or very poor meaning services are rated average or above by 82% of our residents in addition the rating for overall quality of code enforcement is aligned with benchmark averages while feedback related to this category indicate scoring is influenced more by the impacts of homelessness and rapid growth on the cleanliness and appearance of the city and less on dissatisfaction with the enforcement of property code standards fairly low scores suggest that there are areas for improvement and Denton's design and layout but there are a few things worth highlighting in the survey residents rate the availability of affordable housing slightly higher than the u.s. average with ratings of dissatisfaction improving 18 percentage points in 2024 well it may be too early to attribute these improvements to the implementation of the affordable housing strategic toolkit this is definitely a metric that we want to continue to measure going forward didn't outperforms the u.s. benchmark for preserving its historical cultural character feedback indicates that residents want the city to focus on improving downtown Denton's appearance and supporting its businesses as a means of protecting Denton's character lastly while the quality of development falls below benchmark averages levels of dissatisfaction have decreased by 13 percentage points since 2022 residents selecting overall design and layout of Denton is a priority express concerns about the rapid growth and the increase in multifamily housing developments also indicating that they do not see these developments as an answer to affordability transportation and mobility ratings indicate again opportunities for improvement with fewer than one-third of residents rating the overall quality of Denton's transportation system favorably that's much lower than the u.s. average it's also the third highest rated priority for our residents while traffic management during rush hour significantly below benchmark averages feedback from our residents actually suggest that this has more to do with interstate traffic rather than Denton's roadways a survey data indicates a positive shift with substantial decreases in dissatisfaction ratings for transportation mobility compared to 2022 this includes public parking timing of traffic signals and the overall quality of the transportation system again this may be due to the ongoing implementation of the 2022 mobility plan and a prioritization of traffic signal timing and maintenance as part of a pedestrian and cyclist safety audit on another positive note residents indicate that Denton is more drivable likable and walkable than other Texas cities survey comp comments emphasize the need to alleviate traffic congestion and ensure that Denton is able to meet the transportation needs of a rapidly growing city you'll see throughout the survey there are a lot of concerns about the pace at which Denton is growing residents also expressed a need for safer bike routes and increased walkability although not under Denton's jurisdiction residents expressed dissatisfaction with the public transportation system advocating for expanded and modified services along with route changes so next we'll look at economic development this is actually the seventh highest ranked priority for our residents ratings for overall economic development efforts aligned with the US benchmark average and are only slightly below the Texas benchmark average however ratings for unemployment I'm sorry employment opportunities fall below benchmark averages feedback suggests a need for us to attract larger employers and higher paying jobs while ratings for Denton's variety of business and service establishments as well as shopping opportunities rate higher than the benchmark averages residents express the need for more grocery stores unique dining establishments and support for small businesses especially in Denton's downtown area which if you'll notice received a vibrancy rating of 65% next we'll look at public safety public safety is the fourth highest ranked priority for Denton residents fire and ambulance services are among the highest rated services among the highest rated services in the city these services along with animal services and animal control and neighborhoods are fairly in line with benchmark averages though dissatisfaction with neighborhood animal control has increased by 10 percentage points since 2022 it has one of the lowest ratings of dissatisfaction in this category with 87% of our residents rating average or better police services received a rating of 55% which is below benchmark averages so it's important to note that that does not mean that 45% of our residents are dissatisfied with police services on the contrary only 10% of our residents rated poor or very poor leaving 90% of our residents rating an average or better however dissatisfaction with crime prevention has increased by eight percentage points while rating of ratings of excellent for traffic enforcement have declined by eight percentage points residents who prioritize public safety indicated the need for additional well-trained well resourced officers to increase officer visibility in our neighborhoods retail areas and in Denton's downtown they want them to strengthen traffic enforcement and enhance crime prevention residents also want to ensure that staffing and resources for all aspects of public safety are prepared to meet the growth related needs of the city you'll see that this is also a priority for our city manager as she prepares for proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 so residents in Denton feel exceptionally safe during the day and in the evening regardless of the circumstances the most notable of these are the feelings of safety in our downtown in the evening which rates at a 75% safe very safe this significantly surpasses the US average of 28% and the Texas average of 15% residents overall feelings of safety align with Texas averages and are significantly higher than the US average reflecting a strong sense of security for Denton's residents the survey allows residents to rate the quality of various city services to help the city better allocate resources to meet community needs the city's parks and library services are highly rated with every aspect meeting or exceeding benchmark averages while not highly prioritized by our residents feedback reveals an overall appreciation for these services and a desire for me or even more opportunities to be engaged with our parks and libraries while also recognizing the significant contribution these services have on their quality of life the public work section section of the survey allows residents to rate the city's infrastructure ratings very in this section with some services rated highly and others indicating opportunities for improvement so despite scores in the condition of major streets being lower than the benchmark average there's actually a very good story to tell here and that is that negative ratings for the condition of major streets has actually decreased in dissatisfaction by 26 percentage points this is the most significant change in ratings positive changes in ratings of dissatisfaction in the entire survey this is really a testament I think to the city prioritizing street maintenance the next one that we see a significant change in a street sweeping where rates of dissatisfaction fell 11 percentage points so while ratings ratings of good or excellent significantly surpassed the Texas benchmark average excellent ratings for water and electric services increased by 13 percentage points for water and 10 for electric in addition the reliability of our electric services is significantly higher than benchmark averages the overall quality of infrastructure aligns with the US average and shows a reduction in negative ratings of 10 percentage points the overall quality and maintenance of our streets and sidewalks is the second highest ranked priority for our residents followed closely behind by the quality of our infrastructure in fifth place feedback expresses the need for us to repair our roads as their current condition has a negative impact on the appearance of the city and the driver experience residents emphasize the need to improve conditions in Denton's downtown and specifically named Locust Elm Eagle and Hickory and their comments we know that efforts are currently underway by text dot to bring those up to city standard so we do hope that that will have a positive impact on ratings in future surveys residents also want to ensure that all aspects of the city's infrastructure are prepared to meet the demands of a growing city results indicate a high level of satisfaction with solid waste services in fact residential trash collection is the highest rated city service in the entire survey followed closely by recycling services both are aligned with benchmark averages while brush and bulky waste pick up landfill operations and household hazardous waste collections services surpass benchmark averages ratings of excellence for trash collection increased by 16 points recycling by 20 points and brush and bulky waste by 17 points since the 2020 suit to survey educational and environmental issues and promotion of conservation are well received by our residents various departments including environmental services and sustainability DME and water are committed to promoting conservation and ensuring adequate electric and water supplies while maintaining affordability for our residents though not highly ranked those provide prioritizing environmental sustainability urged the city to continue its conservation messaging promote sustainable practices and suggests that we consider establishing community gardens residents view the city's communications efforts positively the city's website serves as the primary source of information for over half of survey participants with roughly 80% having visited the city's website in the last 12 months however satisfaction with the city's website falls slightly below the US average and significantly below the Texas average recent improvements to the city's website including efforts to make it more accessible hopefully will have a positive impact on this rating going forward while ever soon gauge residents is a low rated priority residents have taken notice of the city's efforts to keep them informed resulting in 11 percentage point decrease in dissatisfaction with our efforts to engage them around key issues the 2024 community survey introduced questions about homelessness and potential city responses 50% of our residents rate homelessness as a major problem while another 35% rated as a moderate problem to the right you see a small sample of the nearly 200 comments that our residents provided in the survey regarding homelessness while recognize the recognizing the complexity of the issue residents rate addressing homelessness as their number one priority residents indicated the presence of homeless individuals in our public spaces diminishes their quality of life makes them feel unsafe and affects the cleanliness and appearance of the city they also see the issue is detrimental to businesses located in Denton's downtown while there is a call for stricter measures and the removal of attractors there's also a sense of compassion in many of the comments for example residents really want to help people who have genuine needs but they're also very frustrated by hand handling to that end the city is placing signage at key locations to encourage residents to donate to well-established networks in hopes of deterring hand handling as well as increasing the awareness of local opportunities for assistance so the top three services deemed most essential to managing homelessness or sheltering during inclement weather mental health programs and substance abuse programs the city currently offers job training programs year-round sheltering housing and rental assistance and supportive housing services as homelessness as we all know is an issue that goes far beyond the city of Denton additional solutions are going to require that we develop regional partnerships as the city does not have the resources or the capacity to tackle an issue this significant regardless of the approach it is clear that there needs to be a balanced response to homelessness while protecting quality of life of our residents feelings of safety and Denton's downtown the survey compares city performance to other government entities including Denton County the state of Texas and the federal government residents expressed significantly higher levels of satisfaction with services provided by the city of Denton in addition residents value for the services for taxes paid and the city's general direction are in line with benchmark averages nearly three out of four of our survey participants indicated that they had been in contact with a city employee in the past 12 months those individuals rated every aspect of customer service provided by those employees very highly with overall service provided rated significantly higher than both the US and the Texas benchmark averages to further support Denton as a place to live 75% of our residents indicated that they would recommend living in Denton to someone who asked while another 79% said that they planned on remaining in Denton for at least the next five years this is in line with the Texas average and surpasses the US average so to better understand our resident priorities the survey included the opportunity to rate the top three service areas out of a list of eleven residents believe require the most emphasis from city leaders for the next two years so you'll see the top six listed here is along with the slide reference to where you can go back if you want to refer to some of that feedback that we received from our residents as mentioned previously homelessness is the number one priority for our residents they are concerned about the impact of homelessness on their quality of life and their sense of safety and call for both stricter measures and increased supportive services this is followed in importance by maintenance of our streets and sidewalks with respondents wanting better maintained streets to improve the appearance of the city as well as the drivability of Denton's roads residents expressed expressed the need for the city to be better prepared for the rapid growth that we are experiencing and terms of transportation infrastructure and design and layout of the city and despite strong feelings of safety our residents continue to prioritize public safety with a desire for increased police visibility and enhanced traffic enforcement and crime prevention they also want the city to keep up with growth when resourcing all public safety services so just to balance out this list and not included here but in rank order economic development community amenities which includes libraries and parks resident engagement environmental sustainability and code enforcement residents express a high level of satisfaction with the quality of life in Denton and Denton as a place to live as well as the services the city provides they value arts culture and the recreational opportunities that we offer and appreciate and want to protect Denton's unique culture and character there are a lot of comments throughout the survey about protecting our downtown opportunities exists for the city to mitigate the impacts of homelessness improve the condition of our roadway enhance aspects of public safety and effectively address growth related needs that impacts so many of our city services questions or feedback what's yeah specific questions or feedback and what we prefer if you have specific questions you can send them to us like you do to the CMO we can pull that and then but if you have some comments you want to make whatever you got okay thank you representative from district 3 I just want to say so that really outstanding piece of work and I really want to spend a lot of time with it but it's it's very clarifying I wish that some of the enthusiasms things were greater than they are and that's you know like there it is there's there's reality and with the size of it you know full responses is great I think it's gonna really help represented from district 2 and this may not be something trivially answered I recognize that but we as we go into the next section we have the when it was a hundred one twenty nine priorities hundred thirty nine thirty nine it's really thirty five ish better more council-driven so you know on order of 135 priorities and we have our strategic plans and whatnot and where we we've had our past prioritizations do we have a feel for how well our prioritizations line up with this survey is the question that is tomorrow sorry I'm just gonna interrupt preview tomorrow we're gonna spend a lot of time comparing what you said individually where your personal priorities we're gonna look at what the established 36 list is with the six key focus areas and then we're gonna compare them to what the residents have said so we can look at it holistically and see where the gaps exist and where the commonalities exist because then I think we might see some trends for some data that helps support where we should be focusing our efforts over the next year year two years three years so and then we'll also talk a little bit about some of the financial implications of what we can afford and where we might choose to put our money moving forward based on some of that priority so we'll bring it all together tomorrow and try to have a more robust conversation that involves this data that answer your question any other feedback questions this this is remarkably in line with my very admittedly unscientific survey but that's exactly what I that's exactly what I found it thank you I just want to say that I'm very appreciative of the information given and I am along with the residents here I certainly do want to protect the feeling of you know the way that we feel here just having that now having the opportunity with this privilege to be able to speak with developers and you know give them some information of who we are and what we like and what we want you know hopefully that could be seen in the future you know for us to continue to have that same kind of feeling so I do want the community out there too I don't know how much they get it they can trust us whatever however they want to do it but I would hope that they would think that we're here you know talking to these folks when they want to come in here and bring something to us that they you know we all have an opportunity to tell them like and so I'm going to employ the community to make sure that you show up so we can all you know go forward together and you know make these numbers better so thank you for bringing those to us for me the first survey that I run for this city the love that the residents have for this city you could see it there may be opportunities for improvement that's okay but their love for the city is immense and then they'll certainly bring people into the office and have that same kind of passion as well that's what I would want them to do. Anyone else? Could you just for me I'm sure I missed it while I was getting set up here. The timeframe to collect information and the different ways that people were able to give their their feedback. So it was open from February 20th to March 23rd of this year obviously the email was just the invitation was sent via email all responses were received online and there is we did not do I know the city in the past has done where they just open to everybody but that is not actually included in the data and the analysis of the survey we left it with the random sampling of individuals that were selected. Okay. Representative from district 3. Just one question. How do you understand the very strong feelings of safety that people expressed and their sort of meh attitude about policing? You know it is we have talked and talked about that it is very it's very strange it's just that that they are more at a neutral place and it's in from what we're seeing it's because they do want that that increased visibility throughout the city they want increased enforcement they want enhanced crime prevention that that's there they're in residents comments and feedback in fact the police are the only service within the city that had a comment about that specifically named an employee and praised their their assistance and their support through an incident that this resident dealt with in the past year there is not a plethora of negative comments provided by our residents around or around our police so it's we'll just say it's just in there you know there's just a feeling of neutrality but there aren't negative feelings like it or not try to attach the dots strong dissatisfaction with the presence of house people and maybe that's it doesn't like a safety threat it's a strong preference they want more police presence that's kind of people who prioritize public safety prioritized the staffing and the resources of public safety there weren't comments around in that category around the homelessness but people who prioritize homeless do want stronger enforcement stronger stronger regulations in place it just those two didn't seem to come together as much as you would think that they would also notice in the comments that you isolated for us well this is both the pro and the anti at least among several comments you know even the people who are like angry about almost this say you sign a need for mental health services that don't exist and you know that you talked about needing regional attention just know and it truly was equal parts supportive services equal part remove detractors and even more enforcement people are saying there should be mental institutions and I assure you that those were randomly selected and at some point they were selected to fit in the box but there are hundreds there are hundred and sixty seven plus comments on the subject so the I really appreciate the mayor's comments it brought up a follow-on in terms of the procedure do for the participants I know we randomly sampled and we got who responded responded but do do we know to some degree if they were a repeat participants from prior years so that we can judge how their one data point changes for me from every two years so because a an outside party did the survey last in 2022 I don't have I don't have that listing we don't have that information not it's not that I've come across asked me that in two years and I can absolutely answer okay yeah I just I mean if we can judge some things by the trend lines you know that obviously that's what we're trying to do with the larger and larger sample but it would be interesting to see if especially for the highs and lows if they felt like okay no we're moving in the right direction and the other thing I want to ask is related to sort of the this not disconnect because I think it just is more of an analytics issue how why why safety and police didn't quite line up but I guess my second question in general is some of the answers that I saw the survey and some of the questions seem to indicate sort of a lack of awareness of limitations to mechanisms that the city can employ sometimes the state or federal government ties our hands and we can't do with the citizens ask us to do in the way they ask us to do it so is as the reason I bring this up is it seemed like they did feel like education outreach and training were higher so I guess how do we is there do you have any insight on the their level of awareness for the mechanisms of government and and how that affects their opinions about our success no I think only specific to homelessness there was a desire to learn and be informed around the programs around the approaches even around like how can we as a community but overall knowledge of the inner workings of city government okay from a timing standpoint was during this range but did the ambassador program come up in conversation there was one comment around that he was probably just too early it'll be interesting to see what impact that has on on resident ratings in the next survey it was just what Danny maybe just like two or two weeks or so into okay okay yeah all right any other questions it's important to know and you read every single comment that's how she can answer the questions comments and just want to give her a shout out she did a great job handling this and getting the questions put together she did a national search for best questions and things like that so yes thank you for that agree thank you very much great presentation great information okay so that concludes item a it is 540 round numbers so we'll grab food and then let y'all get set up so let's say 10 minutes should be plenty right so 550 we'll be back okay that smells wonderful yeah well thank you I really appreciate it well let's go ahead and get started and we begin by introducing myself I don't recall I didn't be ID 2 4 1 0 6 5 older retreat workshop and discussion facilitated by strategic government government resources ink and give staff direction priorities regarding governance challenges policy development and specific goals for the 2024 2025 fiscal year you got okay thank you I forgot my city you know how we have to do business so anyways again my name is Ron Kelly and I'm gonna share with you here tonight some experiences that I had my disclaimer right off the bat is how many of you were here last year with Ron Holyfield Ron you have a big fan of Ron really you have a tremendous amount of respect for him really sgr wonderful organization they do great work well I'm not Ron Holyfield I'm the other Ron he's way better than I am but my my comments tonight are gonna be based on my experience when I was on Plano City Council I probably was on Plano City Council during the toughest time that the city of Plano has ever had and I'll share some of those experiences with you I also you may not agree with everything I say I'm going to share with you what my experiences were I also have been very blessed to serve on a lot of boards I think I have a good handle on on boards that are operating in the correct way and so even if I share something that you don't agree with I'm just sharing my experience I really know very little about the city of Denton and so anyways but I'm honored to be with you here tonight and just a little about my background so you know where I'm coming from I was in fiber optic technology for 19 years I would tell you I was more lucky than good I felt very blessed I had some wonderful opportunities but in 2002 I really felt a calling a different direction on my life and I was working very long hours and I just felt that I was being called to do something else I struggled with it for two years in 2004 I quit my job I went to seminary I get hired at a local church and I've been in ministry for 20 years now and so I did something really crazy in 2015 I ran for Plano City Council I won and I was the Deputy Mayor Pro Tem in 2017 and I was the Mayor Pro Tem in the year 2017 through 19 and those were the tough years there were some I'll share more with you here today but today I serve on the North Texas Municipal Water District Board representing the city of Plano and I also serve on the Collin County Appraisal District Board so that's a where they're kind of the protests are off the charts in Collin County sure it's the same here in Denton my path to city government I've always been interested in politics the national statewide but local politics I was like that you know not so interested well I found out fairly quick the power of city government I live on the west side of Plano on Midway Road and there's a small strip center there in our neighborhood all family-friendly businesses back when there were there was TARP money and all these banks took that TARP money and a lot of them built new bank locations in the community we had one from Capital One it was there for less than a year so we had this standalone building in the parking lot of this strip center and right behind this strip center is a nature preserve it's an incredible nature preserve from my house my kids we would ride our bikes there we would walk there there's Jay's Donuts Jay's Donuts is they're the greatest donuts in Collin County it's interesting my kids were four and two and I used to bring my kids to get donuts there I'm now bringing my grandchildren there and so anyways a liquor store wanted to move in to that vacant bank they wanted to have a drive-through they wanted to have a drive-through liquor store the website read that hey we have free tasting samplings you want a cheap buzz worthier place and we just felt that that was horrible for our neighborhood and so we we had a group of citizens and it is the single largest residential protest that TABC had ever had matter of fact the director of TABC came to meet with me somehow I got put in charge of this group I didn't ask for it it just happened and the director of TABC came to visit me says hey I want to meet you what how did you do this I mean if we get 50 you know we get it gets our attention you have over 1500 residents who have filed a complaint now the problem is that the zoning allowed that so we went to the City Council and that was my first encounter with City Council and what I learned is you know Washington DC and Austin they can make changes and where it won't affect our lives for years but City Council y'all can do something you can take a vote and change your residents life overnight there's great power in city government I'm a big fan of city government here and so I ran and I win and so my first two years I mean you know we had some bumps along the road like you all do I mean that's just the nature of the beast but 2017 to 2019 and I will tell you I'm proud of my city and city I believe Plano is an extremely well-run city they do so much well but through that time frame there 17 through 19 we were we were divided and we were in turmoil here we had a vocal group of citizens who simply did not trust their city government anymore now I'm gonna give you some examples of some things that were going on it's not my intention to weigh in whether they're right wrong indifferent that's not what's important here I just want to give you a flavor of what was going on in the community and what the council was facing there was an equal rights ordinance that was done there was a group of citizens that did a petition the petition was thrown out because they did not use the correct form and they had written notes on the form and when they were collecting the signatures you have to have the ordinance there with you they didn't have that is thrown out so we have a group of citizens who felt disenfranchised of the density of our city apartments that was a big issue people who had did not want any more apartments I would tell you in my election that was probably the single biggest issue no new apartments and then tied to that was our comprehensive plan our new comprehensive plan called the Plano tomorrow plan that had won awards from planning organizations but the city but the citizens we didn't trust the city they wanted it overturned they had a petition they submitted it to the to the government to our secretary and it was denied because you can't you can't have a petition for a comprehensive plan that was the position of our city attorney of our council and so the citizens sued the city and that suit went on for four four years the city spent millions of dollars in in legal fees and they ended up bringing a community group together and it just was a mess the mayor who I have tremendous respect for at the time he became isolated and and there was a void of leadership and communication and I'm here to tell you it demoralized in our council and that mayor he had some skills he had great vision but he just he isolated himself and it hurt our council it really did so the lowest point though that happened to us is that we had a social media attack by an extremely politically motivated council member on a particular religious group in our city it's the worst experience that I went through on council the mayor hastily called a press conference matter fact I'm at lunch I get a call from our state rep I'm friends with our state rep says what's this press conference that the mayor has called I said I have no idea now I'm the mayor pro tem I called the city manager says Ron he says look we advised him not to do it but he's doing it and the press was there and he called for the resignation of that council member and so I understand what he was doing but he didn't even talk to that council member to find out what had happened why did he do it and we didn't discuss it as a council and so again more more dysfunction from the council should have been addressed by the entire team because we would have been unified because what happened was the the enemies of our mayor they made it all about him we had a special we had a special meeting on a Sunday I left church I had to go to this special meeting I'm telling you is the worst thing I've ever experienced our council chambers this is a picture from the from the newspaper that I pulled and this isn't even this is before we even got started do you see that second floor up there is that second level there but when we got started there were people standing up there that people were in the aisle I mean the fire marshal could have shut us down people are booing they're cheering they have signs and it was just a horrible horrible experience here and then the threat so I get a phone call as I'm driving to the council chambers from a gentleman who's a leader of a group that you know his back council members and he told me that he was calling me on behalf of a bunch of groups in our city and they told me that I better back that council member in the meeting or else they were going to pull all their support from me and so you know I'm not look I'm not perfect I'm gonna share some things I did wrong and but I know what is right and what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong and as council members I think this is the biggest challenge we have you get input from the citizens I mean we need to listen to our citizens I mean we work for them I mean your org chart I noticed your org charts the same way in Plano we work for the citizens of the city and so we need to listen to them we need to get their input but here's the reality of the situation you as council members have more information than what the normal citizen has so many times there's a perception that citizens have that is not accurate you need to manage and go about your business by the facts and do the right thing and that means that sometimes you may go against those citizens who have input and you may even lose support here you know one of the greatest things I remember from Ron Holyfield when he came and counseled our our City Council he said I'll never forget this he said you need to be prepared to lose your next election and and that's hard isn't it I mean we want to get re-elected we want to continue to serve and but that's a hard thing and so anyways just to give you a flavor a little flavor there was more I think the point that that that I want to make here is that as community leaders you have a tremendous influence on the messaging on the tone and the climate of your city and I've experienced and again I'm not I don't know any of you I don't know what you know how you go about your business but in Plano we had council members who were blowing things up so they could win political points case in point the Collin County Rape Crisis Center we were going to give them $45,000 in our grant I was approached by one of those politically motivated council members who he had flat out told me that he had decided that that politics was going to be his thing and so counsel was just a stepping stone for him and he says hey I know you're pro-life and I want you to join me we're gonna I want to blow up this grant there's no way we should be given money this grant was for a counselor to pay for a counselor I don't think there's a more horrific crime than sexual abuse sexual crimes these women are victims and I thank God that we have that center in Collin County it's the only one in Collin County and I was excited that we could help pay for a counselor but in the back of this counseling center someone had given them a grant and someone was providing the morning after pill and so he wanted to blow this thing up and our city for two weeks just went through pure health to be perfectly honest to win political points and that's just wrong here so the challenge the challenge is we have to decide whether we're gonna feed into the defunct the dysfunction of the day or be an example of how we can work together to make sound decisions as a team here now there were ramifications of what going on in our city again I'm very proud of my city a lot of wonderful things but there were some ramifications and the first one was we saw extreme political groups move into our city to try to stir up more trouble we also were starting to hear negative reports from our economic development corporation that they were hearing our corporate partners and even the companies we were talking to about coming to Plano they were very concerned JP Morgan Chase was one of those companies they were very concerned about what was going on in in Plano politics here we saw decreased productivity from the council we were bogged down with all of these issues troubles I can't tell you just that councilman that that we had to deal with there was a petition to throw him off but that ended up in court the court threw it out because of numbers of signatures and all that just wasting time and then what we saw were some really great staff members who just said enough is enough our city manager Bruce Glasscock I don't know if you ever knew Bruce Bruce is a tremendous guy I consider him my friend and I'm gonna tell you a story about me and Bruce and Bruce retired he didn't want anymore we had we had a great council member leave our our council our dais and so anyways it was it was a rough time at the city here well anyways um well you're on City Council and I believe that being elected to serve your city is a great honor and it's not an easy task I know and you're gonna be faced and you are faced with challenging issues and circumstances but I believe the key the key is to establish and maintain effective working relationships with the city staff your fellow council members and the community and that's easier said than done I get that but that's what the challenge is and I always like to start with people that you know you may not agree and I like to start with what can we agree upon you know what is it that we can agree upon and let's build from there and I think you would all agree everyone in this room again we're all different we all come from different backgrounds we all have different experiences but I guarantee that all of you all of you want to make your city great and make it a great place to live work and play I think we would all agree that that's that's what you would like to accomplish here you know we're not seeing much of much of that in in at the federal level these days I've always appreciated the fact that here are two men that are politically polar opposites but they came together and they they came up with solutions to fix the problems of our nation and that is not the reality of our political climate here today so so what I want to talk to you about here tonight is the importance of good governance while confronting the realities of our of our current culture look we're not going back to the days of Mayberry okay and Andy Griffin we're past that we live in a very complex culture what we politically if you look at the political climate we're a divided nation at this time politically and it's trickled down to local politics here unfortunately local politics supposed to be nonpartisan nonpartisan has turned into political parties now weighing in on our local elections again I don't know if that's the experience here and then I would guess that it would be because it's happening everywhere and I don't I don't believe that's good here people are angry at the national and state level and it transcends here to the local level and because you're the easiest elected official to get to now maybe some of you can get to the president of the United States I don't know maybe our congressional leaders maybe you can get to them that's hard to state leaders state senators state reps probably the easiest to get to but not it's not simple but you are here in the community every day doing your job so I'm in the grocery store and get my stuff I'm pushing my cart a lady I'm not exaggerating she rams my cart rams my part says you're Ron Kelly aren't you I said yes ma'am and she just went off on me she went yeah that's my brother that's my twin brother yeah but anyways so she just goes off on me with her list of complaints and I said ma'am ma'am that has nothing to do with city government oh all you politicians are the same you need to find a new job a job you know well city council is a job but none of us are I mean we're doing we're doing this to serve our community and but there's a lot of anger out there and it's transcended down to the local level here look the reality is picking up trash maintaining our roads delivering clean drinking water providing sound zoning and providing a safe city those are not politicized issues are they should not be and that is the role of city government and I just think we're messing up with a good thing by allowing politics to come in and destroy what what what the job is for city government here look our culture has bought into a huge lie and the lie is if someone doesn't agree with me a hundred percent I'm going to make them my opposition and I'm going to minimize or discount them in any ideas that they have the truth is that differing viewpoints are healthy and they challenge us here diversity of thoughts is not a bad thing but we've made it a bad thing and I believe the key is baby is being able to have respectful mature communication and we're going to talk much more on that here in a moment so building consensus is not a bad thing and you know I showed the slide of Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill Ronald Reagan made the statement that hey if I can get 85% of what I wanted that's better than zero but today we have a winner-take-all mentality if I don't get everything I want then I'm going to I'm going to you know I'm not going to play this game here you know one of the things I do in my past 20 years I do a lot of marriage counseling and I have what I've experienced in the 20 years the couples who have the most successful marriages have the ability to reach consensus now there is no bigger difference than a man and a woman we're just we're wired different we think differently but the reality is that our differences when we're together is more powerful is more powerful than in you know we are as individuals here and a lot of the principles of a good sound marriage are principles are principles that we can use to be a good functioning counsel everyone's voice needs to be heard we had a council woman her husband actually was on the council he turns out and so she runs in his spot she wins she was a wonderful wonderful lady she had no business sense whatsoever most of the stuff we were talking about I mean she would even admit she says hey I'm just I raised my children and all that but you know what we the city of Plano wanted to invest a lot in the arts she knew more about the arts than anyone on the council and she had great value I'm gonna share with you about something called Envision Oak Point and she lived in the East she knew the people she led that charge so everyone has something to offer and something of value here success as a group where everyone contributes is far greater than individual wins and what I saw on witness on council is what I I turned I call it the shutdown technique so we were gonna have a vote on a big important issue and what the mayor's strategy was is I'm gonna go in I'm gonna state what my belief is I'm gonna make a motion and you're gonna you're going to second the motion and we're gonna cut down the debate the discussion whatever and that's just wrong I wasn't gonna engage in that type of tactic as council members every one of you have the right to have your voice be heard and I'm not talking about changing your values but all of us should listen to what our fellow council members have to say here you know all of us know Henry Ford Henry Ford you know mass production of automobiles and all that but Henry Ford he could have been a a organization consultant and building effective organizations and all that he was a whiz at all this but here's the statement that he made he says coming together is is the beginning keeping together is progress working together is success I love that that's a great look it's an imperative that's a city government all these things of city government that we're on the same page you are up against it you have an incredible challenge you know what comes from Austin what comes from Austin is local control is under attack every session doesn't seem that way well we control there they're going after our ability to make decisions for ourself I don't think that's good I think decisions ought to be the closest to the people as possible here how about unfunded mandates you struggle with unfunded mandates again every legislative session there are responsibilities financial responsibilities and they don't fund them that come upon city government here and there's so much more but the reality is is that we have to deliver city government needs to deliver and if we don't our local communities are going to suffer here look I don't know how you can accomplish what you need to accomplish if every entity within the city is not functioning and fulfilling their role and doing what they need to do here and so anyways any breakdown in any assigned role is going to create it's going to create a roadblock I'm a big sports fan I love sports when I was younger I was a football player here I've got two artificial knees I just had my hip replaced separated my shoulder three times my body's a wreck and but I love football that's my favorite sport here the thing I love about football the team aspect of it you have 11 players on offense and defense it only takes one player not fulfilling their role or their assignment blow up the whole play if the center doesn't properly hype the ball to the quarterback the play is dead quarterback gets the ball but the receiver doesn't run the right route he's supposed to go and turn in but he goes and turns out I mean you're not going to have a successful play and I that's how I view city government all these moving parts and we need we need to be on the same page here if we're going to have success so I want to talk to you there are many things that make up well-run organizations but I want to focus on two things that I think that are very important here and so I'll begin number one clear definition of responsibilities and roles here and so the City Council you the council you are the board of directors for the City of Denton here you set policy you set the direction you approve the budget of zoning change approvals you hire the city manager you have an incredible responsibility it's important what you do here the mayor the mayor you're the chairman of the board and you set the tone the mayor sets the tone of presiding over the meetings facilitating discussions and the mayor serves as the city's leader and spokesman here a critical role a very important role and then your city manager see managers the CEO the chief operating officer running the day-to-day operations to ensure smooth and efficient operation of the city and I will tell you this here's a lesson that I learned city government these are professionals these are they have education they have experience they know what they're doing I have the utmost respect for city staff here and I'm gonna tell you more about that here in a in a moment it is imperative it is imperative that you have clear and mutual understanding of respective roles responsibilities and stated expectations here and also I don't know how your city is set up but the city manager some cities the city of Plano we had a chain of command where it was a single point of contact now I went when I first joined the council I didn't understand that hey if I have a question about our roads I'm gonna go to our guy who builds the roads I want to hear from him and that's not the way that that our chain of command worked I had to go to Bruce Blaskock and Bruce and I had a conversation about that one day and he was absolutely right if I am messing with our workers with our staff out in the field I'm disrupting them first off the staff they want to please council members that they want to do well but it creates havoc for them to have the council contacting everyone throughout the staff and Bruce's commitment was you tell me exactly what it is that you want to know what information you need and I'll get you that information within 24 hours and if you couldn't get it in 24 hours he would let us know that is such sound governance and and so we had a couple of the road council members who just didn't think the rules applied to them it caused so much trouble and dissension with the council here so I'm a big believer in the chain of command here also in terms of board of directors again I've been very blessed to serve on a lot of board and direct a lot of boards and I have noticed though and here's my question what do you think the most common problem is in organizations with board of directors anyone want to guess what what you said yes ma'am it's go yeah that's a big issue yeah absolutely I didn't win I'm sorry yes ma'am oh there's no you didn't see it I would think it's kind of along the line of finding people to in qualified people finding people to fulfill those roles on those boards missions and committees the difficulty I would agree with you there I mean finding people is getting harder and harder today find qualified people who truly understand and and a lack of understanding is is leading to the answer that I came up with again based on my experience the answer is board members trying to run the day-to-day operations of the organization that is not their job that is not their job yet they think that it is and it's the biggest challenge that I have seen the North Texas Municipal Water District Board is a success story there's a whole new management team in place look your water districts are so important clean water wastewater big issues facing water districts and when I first showed up on on that board the staff was afraid of the board they were afraid of the board they were afraid to make decisions and one of the things we had to do was empower them now we had to get the right people in place but we had to empower them hey we're just setting policy and direction you need to run the day-to-day business and you need to stop running to us for every decision that you have to make now we put in an entire new executive team there and I'm telling you it's like day and night but board members need to make sure that they're not attempting to run the day-to-day operations here and you know and so how can you help your staff I would tell you as council members encourage your staff encourage them I mean a little words of encouragement mean a lot and I made a point whenever I showed up to the municipal center I walked around and thanked as many people as I possibly could for for they're doing a great job for our city now I'm no longer there but but when I show up there they all run to me because III because I invested some time to know them and thanking them and appreciating them as opposed to being beaten up and so anyways that's just my that's just my example here the fire department I became really good friends with the fire department be friends with the police and the fire department okay but I made some great relationships with the fire department they gave me a Plano fire department hat okay so I like wearing that I would wear it and I was getting free coffee wherever I went and they thought I was I had to finally admit I'm not playing no fire department you know I need to pay for this coffee but everyone I mean I look our Plano fire men they're in way better shape than I am and but anyways I've made some some relationships some friendships that they're gonna be lifetime friendships here and the best thing that we can do as a council is now be authentic I mean you know people can pick up when people are phony but encourage our people encourage and thank them whatever here also your strategic plan now the city you have a strategic plan every city has a strategic plan here and staff the mayor the council you all have input I guess tomorrow you're gonna talk about your strategic plan and your priorities that you have here and but I would just encourage you again your input council needs to be heard you need to give the direction but you need to let your professional staff do their job here I love again I'm a big football fan whether you like Bill Belichick or not you know he coined the phrase do your job do your job and and what he would tell his teams if everyone does what they're supposed to we win so the message to the players was do your job do your job and so that's the only way to create a winning culture here so you have your strategic plan in place the marching orders and what I've witnessed what I've witnessed in my city when I was on council we had our strategic plan and council members started diverting from the plan or requesting we divert from the plan or adding on to the plan and what it did is it confused the city staff again city staff they want to please the council and the result was confusion slow it slows productivity it also causes discouragement on the staff because they don't feel like they're living up to what the expectations are of the council here and so you put a lot of work into your strategic plan then execute on that plan and there are times in the process where you can review that strategic plan and any changes that need to be made make them but continue to pile on the staff in different directions and whatever it it causes a lot of confusion with the staff here okay um the second the second thing I wanted to talk to you about that I think well-run organizations do any relationship is a good communication good communication so I need to make a comment though about defense mechanisms we all have defense mechanisms we all have and our defense mechanisms a lot of times on especially subjects that we have passion for that they'll kick in we want to defend our turf we want to defend our turf but what I have experienced that and I've been guilty of this myself I've had that I've caught myself where sometimes we're more interested in being right than getting it right and when our defense mechanisms kick in we it's so easy to get off of topic because we're protecting our turf we're protecting our turf we all have to deal with defense mechanism we have to realize it and we all have to realize that we bring baggage into every situation in terms of communicating with people or with groups here I put this next bullet in red because I when I joined Plano City Council they were worried about me who is this guy I came from out of nowhere and they were actually afraid that I was going to come in and blow everything up and cause trouble and whatever I had lunch with with Bruce Bruce glass cock he asked me he says he says well what are your intentions on counsel I said mr. glass cock I want to come in and learn as much as I can and I want to be the best council member that I can you could see the sigh of relief on this on his face here okay now that other council member who is extremely politically motivated Bruce asked him the same question you know his answer was you're my enemy and my job is to keep you on your toes and make you walk the straight line how do you think that relationship went not good not good here I also council members every one of them were nervous about me I started at the end the dice calling them say hey I'd love to buy you coffee breakfast you know lunch whatever I'd love to get to know you now there was zero discussion about council business and I made that up front I just want to get to know you I want to get to know your background where did you come from and so I did that I went all around the dais and did that took me took me a couple months to do it and I'm so I'm telling you it's the best thing that I ever did I'm gonna tell you a bad on Ron okay I'm not a perfect person I make so many mistakes there was one council member my initial you know we all have you know the first impressions of my first impression I did not like this this council member and like arrogant egotistical didn't like him at all so when we met and we started to discuss our lives our backgrounds our families and all that he told me a life story I literally I was embarrassed I started crying in front of him I've been accused of crying at the opening of a Walmart okay and so but it brought me to tears the story that he told me and that his mother was his whole life his father had nothing to do with him his mother dies when he's 14 years old his father doesn't want him he moves in with the neighbors he sit at the table the kitchen table saying wow this is what I've always wanted was a family it was a family that family eventually said Scott you need to go live with your father in Texas he goes his father wants nothing to do with him and all that the reason why he acted the way that he was he was always trying to prove that he was good enough that he was worthy he was a great guy do you know that person is my one of my best friends today he's like my brother I love that guy we're planning a trip to go to Lambeau field this fall and he's one of my dear friends and in shame on me my initial reaction was I didn't like him I would encourage you to do the same I mean I know I think there's one new council member here or whatever but but I would encourage you I really I would encourage you all to take time to get to know one another and what your life where you came from about your family and I would really do that the other thing you know I was there for 10 years again I was more lucky than good I went from being a field sales guy to vice president of North American sales and I left there I did some startup companies and we my first startup company I had a ownership stake in it but the main partners were four Pakistani gentlemen and it just wasn't going well and so we brought in this CEO his name was Steve purse he was a big time executive at Sprint Steve is one of the best leaders I've ever seen Steve had a concept called straight talk where he demanded that we speak to one another in a way that was honest direct respectful and it was always solutions based one day we were complaining about all our troubles that we had he told us all to get up and follow him into the men's room he says I want you all to have a great cry in here when you're done crying come on back and maybe we can talk about some solutions you know I'll never forget that um look we need to be honest with one another but we need to do it always always as if you know that person needs to know that you care the date that you care about them here and then just authentic mutual respect you're not gonna be best friends like I became with Scott you know and I didn't become best friends with everyone on council but I had a relationship with them and it was a mutual respect and what it did is it built trust here now you also though so these are non city talk you don't want to talk about anything about the city okay but one of the things that when when Bruce left and Mark Israelson took over I don't know if you know mark or not yeah I love mark mark is a wonderful man great leader mark started spending time with all the council members just to hear from us they weren't long meetings 30 minutes minutes for a cup of coffee it's okay what's on your mind I want to hear I want to hear it and that was a really smart thing for for mark to do and he made sure that it was on a consistent basis here but with that said I would just I would just tell you know tell your council members that make sure you respect your staff's time and their workload they have a heavy workload they work hard they work hard and respect their time and just don't again you shouldn't be calling them up anyways asking questions whatever but but respect their time in their workload here so anyways and then with effective communication what we're trying to get at is trust I've already I've already said this effective communication will lead to trust and trust will lead to a successful relationship you know I've shared a few things with you when I first joined council in 2015 here's another bad on Ron see from my experience dealing with the council I was totally with the liquor store totally naive totally I'll even use the word ignorant to how the city went about their business and I had some perceptions I had some perceptions that they really didn't know what they were doing I knew better I mean I've run organizations I've done that you know well when I showed up what I learned is that man our city is really well run and these people they care and they are professionals and again I have the utmost respect for them here so sometimes our perceptions we need to beware of our perceptions and get to the facts here I also told you about some rough times that we went through um that day that we had that that council meeting on the Sunday dealing with that just foolish ignorant post here I went back and watched my comments that I had made during that during that council session I didn't feel comfortable I came across a little too angry okay now I think it warranted to be upset but I think I I should have stayed calmer should have kept my cool and I just learned through whatever I start feeling that way just the pause and that's on video now and I wish I would have done better I showed it to my wife she's oh my you know and and so anyways I also would encourage you to avoid public criticism of your fellow council members of the of your city manager of the staff and I you can do a lot of damage if you if you talk that way that doesn't mean that you don't deal with issues but but do it behind closed doors here you know I told you or the mayor had isolated himself and kind of was on his own agenda so he was really involved in the US mayor's conference I guess it's going on right now the US mayor's conference did you have to miss it I don't know if you're engaged yeah yeah well you're a good mayor being here with your team but the US mayor's conference and the mayor was really he was on the executive team there and they were meeting and then they were going to go to the White House to hear about the infrastructure plan that the that the administration was going to come out well I'm reading the Dallas Morning News the next morning drink a cup of coffee and it says and mayor of the Ross the air has boycotted the White House in protests and very well wait a minute wait a second he was said we paid money our taxpayers paid money for him to go to that meeting to hear about the the infrastructure in the lobby for the city of Plano and so anyways now I could have shown up at a council meeting and blew him up because we had a council meeting a couple of days later that was wrong I called him up I said hey when you back in town we need to meet and you just didn't realize that that wasn't the best way to go about it he addressed it to his credit in the next council meeting here so anyways I think we should always it's easy to try to score political points by by taking jabs at people but I'm here to tell you if you do it in public at the end of day I'm telling you in the long run you're hurting yourself and you're hurting your city here again discuss privately fix the issue not the blame you should have each other's back you should have each other's back a citizen comes up to you and starts complaining about someone on your council or the staff and you gotta stop them in their tracks and you gotta correct me hey we may not agree on everything but they're they're a hard-working professional and they want what's best for for the city of Denton here so anyways hey I told you about the challenging times in my city let me just kind of update you and I want to make a point about about that the Plano leadership has done a tremendous job calming things down I salute the new mayor mayor Muns I don't know if you had a chance to meet mayor Muns he's done a tremendous job I'm big fan of John's a mark I've already told you how great I think Mark is but every single council member I've told them this they've done a tremendous job calming things down why because they the city did something our city I mean I'm telling you our city the great city of Plano was we were we were in a decline and there was an attitude that was so negative so they did a community tour to listen to the citizens and what they heard from the citizens every one of these council members took it to heart were hurting our city playing childish games trying to win political points here and they decided as a council that they were going to change the way they were doing business here they put the well-being of the city ahead of any personal agenda that they had and they really embraced mutual respect and they started to communicate in the right way to build consensus here and I'm so proud of them and and what I would tell you though in the process no one walked away from their values I mean they're all different we have some very conservative members we have some on the political realm who are more liberal and but they're but they they didn't put their values away but they're going about their business differently and it's had a dramatic influence on the community people have noticed here and and they've also they made a commitment they made a commitment to respect and embrace their defined roles that they had in city government here and because of that they're back doing great things for our city I'll just give you a couple examples here see again I will tell you the two years of turmoil we weren't getting anything done we weren't getting anything done we were just dealing with dissension problems well just in a short time frame the council East Plano East Plano Plano is really like it's really like three cities either there's East Plano Central Plano West Plano they're all distinctly a little bit different here there used to be you know the East Plano didn't like the West Side the West Side didn't like the East Side but I think we've gotten over that but the East Side there has not been a lot of development in the East Side and there's some beautiful land over there and we're running out of land by the way in Plano and so anyways there's a Moore's dairy farm there they approached the city they felt like they wanted to develop that land I had citizens contact me and say ah you can't let them develop the land wait they own the land you have to give them the right to develop it if you want to keep it a dairy farm you raise the money and buy it yourself keep the cows there but but anyways um but there's some great assets over in East Plano there's calling college there's this dairy farm there's the event center there's some land over there so we came up with a vision called a vision old point that originally when the city was arguing and fighting with one another and the citizens were all upset they didn't want anything to do with it it was shelved well they went ahead and they now they've approved it it's a great vision it's a great plan and it's going to make East Plano even better the new water district contract here now I know you're not part of North Texas Municipal Water District big issues at the North Texas Municipal Water District there's a new reservoir that came on board Bodark is now online cost about 1.8 billion dollars the cost of waste water and water it's concerning but we have so much growth in the bill wastewater treatment plants are very expensive reservoirs expensive and infrastructure but the problem we had to build that reservoir every city had to agree to conservation and that meant that you could only water two days a week now the city's only enforced that I don't know about your city but Plano we only enforce that because we want the revenue when we went into drought situations and but the way that the contract had read that we were committed to like 19 billion gallons of water and we were only using now about 11 billion gallons of water because of conservation but yet we were having to pay for that 19 billion Plano citizens paid over a hundred million dollars for water that they never even received this contract had to change and it was said that you could never be done and so anyways the council the council took a they took a big risk and they went the path of suing the water district at the PUCL and you know you're rolling the dice there and but it paid off other cities hopped on board there's a new contract in place the there's no way the the city council would have been able to make that decision if they were not they made the decision as one as one and they were fully behind it and and they knew what the consequences are a Collin Creek mall development if you live in the Plano area everyone has a Collin Creek story it used to be like the gathering place when we first moved there in 1996 people would gather at the mall we don't gather at the mall anymore Collin County Collin Creek Mall was really bad in bad shape and it's in a critical area of route 75 it's not just the redevelopment of Collin Creek Mall it is spurring growth all along the 75 corridor it also is going to help downtown Plano and they're going to connect downtown Plano with Collin Creek Mall there's residential it's a work play and live type setup here and so they're a little behind because of COVID but that is now taking off we're starting to see the homes being built there on that site I drove by there the other day and it's pretty amazing and the council they pulled this off if they would have tried to do this when I was on council it would have never happened because the citizens were just they were complaining they didn't want anything in terms of new development here and then the recent one that they worked really hard on is short-term rentals I don't know if that's an issue in your city I know it probably is and but the council the council worked very hard and hey I'm gonna be honest with you tree pack tree pack gave me money and when they handed me by the way the president of tree pack his name was Ron Leach it's Jeff Leach's dad Ron Leach is a wonderful man I'll never forget he handed me the check and says and don't ever mess with property rights and so there was there was a dissension on the on the City Council of where we can't do anything with this well the council came together and they if you saw it in the news that there's a new ordinance in place they believe the problem in the past was ordinances ending up in court and losing but they believe they use the model that the city of Arlington used and that has held up in court and they recently passed that and that was a big thing there's way more things I could share my point is my point is when we were dysfunction when we weren't operating the way that we should have we weren't getting anything done for the city of Plano and now they've made a concerted effort that they want to do away with this mess that we had and they want to function as a as a good board of directors here I'm just gonna very quickly here there's two other things I would share with you and these are words that you don't typically hear with government service but I want to talk to you about faith being a faithful steward and servant leadership here and then we'll wrap up here you know as city leaders you're called to be a faithful steward what is a faithful steward is to be a good manager with whatever you have been given no matter how little or how much the citizens and the city of Denton have given you assets and opportunities you need to be a faithful steward with that with those opportunities here the public they've entrusted you they've entrusted you with assets and opportunities the characteristics of a faithful steward and I think these are characteristics that council people should follow again we're all unique we all have different personalities that's great that's wonderful it's good but I believe that we need to have the characteristics of faithful steward which is humility and meekness a lot of people think of that word meekness means being weak nothing could be further from the truth being meek means power under control having humility grounded not taking oneself too seriously and having trust having trust where you're looked upon by your fellow council members as reliable they have each other's backs it doesn't mean you have to agree on everything you're stronger as a team versus individuals and then obedience putting into practice what council has agreed how you're gonna go about your business as a team and respecting your rules of engagement here and then lastly forgiveness and not hold the grudge what do I mean by that well I what I mean by that is in your votes so what I would tell you is that at the end of the day you must vote what is best for Denton and its citizens but my point is that you must be open to communicate in a healthy way and be open to hearing other viewpoints if your words and votes are not are just a political move I am your next opportunity or scoring political points I believe you're not fulfilling your calling to serve there is nothing wrong with having four three votes there is nothing wrong with having four three votes as long as you operated in good faith now I'm going to ask you a question do you think it would be healthy if every single vote that you ever took was 7-0 maybe that would be wonderful do you think that's healthy I don't think that's healthy because there would be no additional ideas different thoughts I mean we can make what we believe even better by listening to all here and what I'm getting at is we vote we move on and we never hold grudges when the envisioned Oak Point first came I went to a council member who is totally against it and and I said hey you know this is good for the east side of Plano we really need to get you to come on board I mean what what's your problem oh no no no hey Angela is heading this up and she went against me on this other vote I'm not supporting her with this because this is kind of like her big project that's not good governance that's holding a grudge that's that's embarrassing here and then I'll wrap up here having the heart of being a servant leader again it's a it's an honor to serve your city it's a thankless job at times I don't think the average citizen knows how much time you put into it how much it entails to be a council member heck you're here on a Friday night but you know servant leadership places the primary emphasis on the well-being of those that you're that you're serving another way put is when you focus on the needs of others before your own you know again a big sports fan I'll never forget I'm living in Syracuse New York I'm like 12 years old I would listen to WPI X radio the New York Yankees the Syracuse Chiefs or the New York Yankees triple-a ball club mr. O'Shaughnessy my neighbor worked for the Syracuse Chiefs he used to load all us neighborhood kids in his I can see his paneled station wagon we'd go to MacArthur field and shag balls for the players it was awesome and the Yankees would come to town every year do an exhibition game and seven innings and the Chiefs would always come back in the bottom of the seventh and beat the Yankees and we'd be all fired up and whatever so I became a Yankee span and when free agency happened Reggie Jackson was the big first signing for the New York Yankees and the Yankees have all these stars who had come up through their farm system I'd seen them in Syracuse they're starting to be a good team they were terrible but they're starting to be good and Reggie Jackson shows up and he says I'm the straw that stirs the drink I'm the man how do you think that went over with all those guys who rose up through the farm system and are now in the Yankees Ian had a single friend on that team here you know Zig Ziegler anyone Zig Ziegler fans Zig Zig was a member at our church I knew I knew I knew Zig Zig in the redhead Zig was a wonderful man I taught his he had a very large Sunday school class I taught his Sunday school class he came up to me after he says that's the greatest lesson I've ever heard it's not true but he was such an encourager he was such a good man such a good man and as a matter of fact the headmaster of our school and I were the last two to have lunch with Zig and his wife before Zig passed away Zig had had a fall at his house and dementia had it brought on dementia and but we're we have a deal called Zig Ziegler servant leadership award and we were having lunch the headmaster and I was Zig to tell who the recipient was going to be and Zig proceeded very articulately to tell us the same story three times in a row Jean finally said Zig Zig you've told these boys the same story now three times without missing the beat Zig says well I don't think these boys were listening and I'll just have to keep telling them that you know Zig was an incredible man and Zig here's one of Zig's classes statements the only way to reach the mountain peaks of life is to forget about self and help other people reach greater heights that's what you're doing as council members and as a staff you want the citizens of Denton to experience a greater life a good experience living in this city and it's obviously working by that report that you share here all cities have concerns and issues but it sounds like you're on the right direction here also Zig said the foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty character integrity faith love and loyalty I don't think we're seeing those things in government today we're not I think local government is our last hope I really do don't mess it up and so anyways your job for the city of Plano is too important to be drawn into the mess that we have today in the local arena you're better together as opposed to individuals chasing after your own wants I'll close this and this will be my last slide John Wooden famous basketball coach with UCLA credible record his last 12 years of coaching they won the national championship ten times no one is ever going to match that they would win the national championship and they would start the following years practice and he would show them this is the first practice this is a basketball he showed them how to properly put on their socks what was the correct way of putting on their basketball sneakers and lacing them up properly he started with the basics here he had rules about you know about length of hair and all that he's big player John Bill Walton Bill Walton just passed away Bill Walton grew his hair out he says coach I'm sorry but I'm not gonna follow that rule he said Bill I'm sorry but we're gonna miss you good luck wish wish you the best of luck in your future he got a haircut that day but what he came up with John Wooden is what's called the paradigm of success this has been used by companies and training people of sports teams I was part of a football team where the coach used this check this out here check about ambition adaptability resourcefulness fight patience integrity reliability honesty sincerity enthusiasm cooperation loyalty friendship self-control alertness initiative and ten in this team spirit skill condition poise confidence competitive greatness but you know in in his latter years he said I made a mistake I made a mistake with the paradigm he said I I need to change it at the top of the pyramid should be love because every championship team that he had successful team they cared about each other they cared about each other again they were all different they all came from different walks of life they all had different opinions but they cared for one another as a team you guys are a team you're a team you should look out for one another you should care for one though you got to get to know one another and so again you may not agree with everything I said everything I shared is based on my experiences there's very difficult time on Plano City Council serving on many boards organizations and I wish you the very best thank you so much for having me here tonight I'm so glad that you're working with SGR throw their wonderful organization that does that does great work so have a great evening thank you for letting me be here tonight thank you thank you so I actually went and met with the owner of that business I said sir I don't begrudge you one bit okay I don't begrudge you one bit but sir my kids and I we walk through this parking lot to get to the nature preserve or to go to jays dominance and your own website I showed his website and I said sir you promote free tastings get drunk for free and all that that's not being a good neighbor my friend never opened up the drive-thru I also encouraged him though find another site I said look at this this is a terrible location when do most of your customers come at rush hour I said I want you to get in your car at rush hour I want you to try to go left on Midway good luck I want you to also going south on Midway it's not it's not easy they went out of business after 11 months so I don't you know I don't hate I don't like that for someone but it was a terrible location and today they tore down think about a bank building you wouldn't put in there and he can't it costs too much but a restaurant's too small um they tore it down and it's one of those quick salad places for you to drive through and the neighborhood loves it so anyways yeah yeah good price too good price good sound any other questions comments hey I used to have a boss all the time and tell me I got two orders for you get out and stay out okay so so if that's what my orders are to me no problem I've heard before no thank you very much God bless you all thank you all right so tomorrow we're going to turn our attention from governance to the strategic plan and trying to kind of unite around some issues figure out what our priorities truly are so we can give some better more specific direction to staff so tomorrow's going to be kind of a heavy lift we'll have parts of it that compare some of what we've heard some of the survey results as well as your independent thoughts and so we will get going I think we started 830 with the ethics training and then we'll take as much time or as little time as you all need but we do have some prepared exercises and some of that kind of collated information that we'll present in the morning and get going so with that that was it for our program this evening unless anybody's got questions thoughts concerns Jay's doing it's in the morning I'll be there any questions or anything like that Ron we'd be here tomorrow as well okay so if you have questions Ron we need to get him in okay we're good so I think that's all yes so at 7.05 I'll adjourn our today's meeting thank you