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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSeptember 15 Agenda Questions ResponseDate Submitted By Type Item ID Number Department Topic Question/Comment Staff Response 9/13/2026 Nick Stevens Work Session A ID 26-1434 OSBP FY 2026-27 City Manager’s Proposed Budget On August 18th, Staff responded to a question I had regarding downtown cleaning. They responded that Parks and Recreation currently budgets $80,000 per year for this. Under Council Action Items, it states that council could choose to fund focused downtown cleaning for $80,000. If this amount is already budgeted each year, what exactly is being proposed? Parks and Recreation currently has $80,000 budgeted, which provides only limited visibility. This funding level supports three days per week of litter removal and quarterly pressure washing. Staff estimates that with an additional $80,000, service levels could increase to a moderate visibility and frequency, including up to five days per week of litter removal and monthly pressure washing. Staff additionally estimates that with an additional $160,000, service levels could increase to a high‑visibility, high‑frequency response, including up to seven days per week of litter removal and bi‑weekly power washing.These estimates are preliminary and based on a recent RFP. If additional funding is approved, the department would prepare a solicitation to contract the services out. 9/13/2026 Nick Stevens Work Session A ID 26-1434 Finance FY 2026-27 City Manager’s Proposed Budget Do 2026 Funding levels in the slide include in-kind support?No, the column in the presentation only includes HOT and Sponsorship requests. Staff will update the presentation to include in-kind support in the 2026 total. 9/13/2026 Nick Stevens Work Session A ID 26-1434 Finance FY 2026-27 City Manager’s Proposed Budget What was the total amount of funding for the Denton Festival Foundation in 2024 and 2025? Please, also, break down the funding. In 2024, the organization was awarded $345,773 with the following breakdown: $125,000 (HOT), $15,000 (Cash Sponsorship), $205,773 (In-Kind). In 2025, the organization was awarded $352,110 with the following breakdown: $135,000 (HOT), $20,000 (Cash Sponsorship), $197,110 (In-Kind). 9/13/2026 Nick Stevens Work Session A ID 26-1434 Finance FY 2026-27 City Manager’s Proposed Budget When an organization applies for funding, are the organizations year end financial statements required to be submitted in the application? Yes, the City requests two years of prior financial statements as part of the application process. 9/13/2026 Nick Stevens Work Session C ID 26-0698 Development Services Citywide Parking Study Staff is recommending LPR’s for parking. In the presentation, please consider providing alternative solutions. The staff recommendation is based on the study that we should "Expand Parking Technology Options" including the use of License Plate Recognition and includes a best practice from San Marcos utilizing Automated License Plate Recognition, but also manual enforcement from officers. Multiple alternatives for parking enforcement exist, including radars and ALPRs. However, staff will evaluate nationwide best-practice alternatives to these and share them with the Mobility Committee and Council before any implementation. 9/13/2026 Nick Stevens Work Session C ID 26-0698 Development Services Citywide Parking Study The presentation says one member of the mobility committee supported lifting all city-wide parking minimums. What was the consensus otherwise? Similarly, in DCRC, what alternatives were provided by the 50% who did not want to completely eradicate parking minimums? No formal vote was taken regarding the pilot program, rather it was a discussion at both committees. Because of the interest from both committees for this pilot program, City Staff wanted to bring this forward to City Council as an item for consideration. If there a consesus of City Council to move forward, a future ordinance would come forward for formal adoption. 9/13/2026 Nick Stevens Work Session E ID 26-0971 CMO streamlining the City of Denton’s boards and commissions processes. Previously, Board of Ethics and P & Z had required qualifications for their nominees. What were these qualifications? When were they removed? The Board of Ethics previously required that at least three of its members be licensed attorneys. At the time, the Board consisted of 7 regular and 3 alternates. Council removed this requirement in January 2022, and later reduced the number of members to 7 regular members. Staff believes removing these professional qualifications was part of a broader Council effort to make service on Boards and Commissions more accessible. Historically, the Planning & Zoning Commission has not held specific qualification requirements for nominees. However, before 2025, P&Z members also served on the City’s Capital Improvement Advisory Committee (CIAC), which did include requirements related to experience in real estate, development, and similar fields. During the 2025 Legislative Session, a bill passed requiring cities to establish a separate CIAC, removing the need for P&Z members to meet those qualifications. 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Work Session A ID 26-1434 OSBP Finance FY 2026-27 City Manager’s Proposed Budget With 2 EMS positions, comprehensive cleaning, and sponsorship funding the total of funding left over is $92,150, after adding back the women’s building annual rent. Is that correct? Can staff please add the “in- kind” totals for 2026, so we have the full amount organizations were funded, please? In this scenario, the remaining dollars would be $89,510 as the item regarding the Women's Building rent is a question of how we use the revenue (or expense the dollars). Staff will update the presentation to include in-kind support in the 2026 total. 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Work Session B ID 26-1221 DME re-implementing ERCOT’s Commercial Emergency Response Service Program How many years have we been a part of this system? When does the bidding period end, and when would we find out if we were selected to participate in this program? ERCOT's initial program began in 2007 and was revamped to the current program in 2012. DME incorporated this program in its GreenSense offerings around 2015 but it was discontinued in 2023 due to lack of participation. ERCOT opens bidding 4 times a year in early October, February, April and August. Notifications of award are about one month prior to each 3-month contract period. DME will work with each program participant to submit bids. 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Work Session C ID 26-0698 Development Services Citywide Parking Study What alternatives do we have to ALPRs being used for citations? What is the financial benefit of outsourcing citation recovery versus creating paid positions to handle it in house? The staff recommendation is based on the study that we should "Expand Parking Technology Options" including the use of License Plate Recognition and includes a best practice from San Marcos utilizing Automated License Plate Recognition, but also manual enforcement from officers. Multiple alternatives for parking enforcement exist, including radars and ALPRs. However, staff will evaluate nationwide best-practice alternatives to these and share them with the Mobility Committee and Council before any implementation. Paid positions are one of the alternatives staff will consider during the evaluations. Currently, our identified parking program manager is exploring the options related to enforcement, paid parking, etc., but we don't have the data to support cost- benefit analyses related to either option. This would all be part of the work for the goals identified in the study. 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Work Session D ID 25-2152 Audit Audit Project 046-City-wide Overtime. So we spend $16.7 million dollars a year in overtime and the findings indicate this is due to staffing shortages? No, the audit findings indicate that most of the City's overtime hours are incurred to meet service-level needs for Denton residents (about 63%; see Table 1). About 8% could potentially be further reduced if supervisor monitoring practices were improved. Generally, overtime is a cheaper method of meeting service-level needs than hiring new employees due to the cost of benefits and related resource needs (e.g., technology, vehicles, facility space, etc.). Audit used two measures to evaluate if the costs of overtime within each City division were "excessive" (i.e., hiring new employees would be more cost-efficient): (1) what percentage of employees regularly worked 25% more hours in a pay period than is standard; and (2) the average overtime pay to base pay ratio within the division. The average vacancy rate of City divisions with high excessive overtime metrics were then reviewed to determine if staffing shortages could be the cause. These results are outlined in Appendix B; most Divisions with high excessive overtime metrics did appear to have some vacancy-related issues. It should be noted that this analysis is complicated somewhat by the effects of the City's overtime policy choices, because the policy causes the City to record and pay for some labor hours as "overtime" despite the employee not actually working more hours than the overtime pay threshold. 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Consent Y ID 26-1444 Development Services Highway Safety Improvement Program design of traffic signals Wondering why we outsource for design so often, and how this is more cost effective than hiring staff? Can staff provide the bid responses to the RFP, with the rankings? HSIP's design component is complex, with many state regulatory requirements and compliance standards to meet. Professional help from consulting firms ensures the design process complies with design standards and reduces the City's liability risk if flaws are found in the designs. Staff is currently building in-house capacity to conduct the design, provided skilled staff resources are available. August 18 Agenda Questions and Responses 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Consent AJ ID 26-1044 Police agreement between the City of Denton and the Children’s Advocacy Center for North Texas What operating budget is 310102.7762? Is this part of the Police Budget or coming from somewhere else? 414 units of service is what is said to budgeted for for CACNT and the County. HBU: 310102.7762 is part of the PD operating budget, and this is a budgeted expense. The 414 units of service represent the number of children's cases registered in the City of Denton that received services through the CAC. 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Public Hearing A ID 26-0562 OSBP FY 2026-27 Proposed Budget. What is the Public Housing Corporation and where is the 300K coming from? Miscellaneous Donations is over 500K. What is that used for, and where do donations typically come from? The $300K for the Public Housing Corporation is part of the 2023 Bond Program. The Miscellaneous Donations Fund includes donations for park and park enhancements, recreation programs, public safety, library services, and animal services and support. Dollars come from a variety of sources and are used for only the purposes for which they were donated. 9/14/2026 George Ferrie Individual Consideration B ID 26-1511 OSBP amending the fiscal year 2025- 2026 budget What is that total allotment across all departments? Is that to come from the general fund? The total allotment across all departments is approximately $2.5 million. Of that amount, roughly $1.3 million will come from the General Fund. This is not new funding; all payments will be covered by current‑year personnel savings within each applicable fund. No additional spending authority is being requested. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Work Session B ID 26-1221 DME re-implementing ERCOT’s Commercial Emergency Response Service Program There are 200 potential participants among DME customers. If we assumed all 200 customers qualify for this program, is there a limit to how many can participate? If so, what’s the limiting factor? There is no limit on the number of participants as long as they meet the program requirements. However, DME would need to consider implementing an automated notification system if the number of participants grows beyond staff's ability to communicate timely. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Work Session B ID 26-1221 DME re-implementing ERCOT’s Commercial Emergency Response Service Program Other than suspension from the program, are there any other fines or fees associated with DME/participants failing to meet program requirements after being accepted? Yes, possibly. In the event an individual participant is unable to meet the program requirements, DME would likely remove them from further participation to avoid discontinuation of the entire program. ERCOT takes an escalating approach to ensure compliance but financial penalties could be levied for severe and repetitive non-compliance. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Work Session B ID 26-1221 DME re-implementing ERCOT’s Commercial Emergency Response Service Program The AIS says customers would need to power down within 30 minutes, while the presentation slides indicate they should power down within 25 minutes. Which one is the actual target? ERCOT's requirement is 30 minutes but DME is proposing a more stringent requirement of 25 minutes to ensure compliance. The current prospect is agreeable to meeting the 25 minute requirement but DME must perform testing before final approval. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Work Session C ID 26-0698 Development Services Citywide Parking Study Slide 11: Under Item 3 says “Allow for reductions based on the same methods already in place and by providing a parking demand study, if necessary.” Why is a reduction methodology needed during the one-year pilot if it’s a “One-year pilot to Lift Parking Minimums to 100% Citywide”? A one-year pilot in this way is a more structured approach that allows for considerations based on the use-cases maximizing the possibilities for parking reductions for the applicants with staff having full understanding of site requirements. This also allows for city- wide benefits for an item like affordability incentives for those developments that might choose to take that path for a reduction. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Work Session D ID 25-2152 Audit Audit Project 046-City-wide Overtime. I may need a verbal description during the meeting of how vacation/holiday leave relates to overtime. I’ve read the full audit but remain unclear. Happy to provide a verbal description during the Work Session, but, essentially, the City's policy and financial systems count vacation and holiday hours as "time worked" even though staff do not actually work those days. This results in the City paying the premium overtime rate for labor hours that it could legally pay at the employee's regular rate of pay because it basically lowers the overtime threshold for weeks when a holiday/vacation occurs. For instance, a regular non-civil service employee has an overtime threshold of 40 hours in a work week; to be paid overtime they must actually work more than 40 hours. However, due to the City's policy during the week of Labor Day, this threshold is basically lowered to 32 hours because the 8 hours for the Labor Day Holiday count as "time worked." This results in there being an 8 hour window (between 32 and 40 cumulative hours of actual work) that an employee is not entitled to overtime pay per federal and state law, but is entitled to overtime pay per the City's policy. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Work Session E ID 26-0971 CMO streamlining the City of Denton’s boards and commissions processes. Slide 15: Would it make more sense or less sense to align committee terms based on election cycles instead of odd/even council seat numbers? For example, all district seats are elected in odd years, and all At Large seats are elected in even years. The original approach of aligning committee terms with odd and even council seat numbers was intended to create a simple, easy‑to‑understand cadence and improve accessibility. Since that recommendation was introduced in the January ISR, staff has had additional time to revisit the options. Based on that review, staff believes the Council member’s inquiry about aligning committee terms with election cycles may offer a more strategic connection to the cadence of Council elections. Ultimately, the decision rests with the Council. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Consent AA/AB ID 26-1446; 26-1447 Procurement Communications Inventory These two items look like the same need split into two contracts. Why were they separated out into two contracts? What is the difference between Section B (Item AA) and Sections A and C (Item AB)? The RFP solicitation for communication equipment was intentionally advertised by section which allowed for the evaluation and award by section. While each section is broadly for communication equipment, Section A is for specific equipment that cannot allow for alternatives (e.g. the exact manufacturer/model number item must be bid). Techline was the only vendor who was able to source and bid on the entire basket of specific items. Section B was for communication equipment which allowed for variability and flexibility in the items proposed by the vendors (e.g. these can be interchanged and any manufacturer proposed). In Section B, CESI scored high due to their short lead and delivery time which has been a critical issue for the City. CESI has a proven record of delivering large quanties quickly and accurately to the warehouse. Section C was specifically advertised for communication boxes. Overall, based on evaluator scoring, Techline came out on top for Section A and C, and CESI came out on top for section B. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Individual Consideration A ID 26-1332 DME approving the purchase and exchange of certain transmission assets Would this asset swap terminate the joint operating agreement between TMPA and Oncor? It appears so, but I’d like confirmation. Yes, this would terminate the agreement since all those assets would now be owned by Oncor. 9/14/2026 Suzi Rumohr Individual Consideration A ID 26-1332 DME approving the purchase and exchange of certain transmission assets How would these TCOS and maintenance savings translate to DME customers? Would DME customers see a lower TCOS rate on their utility bills? If so, approximately how much? This asset swap will not have an immediate rate impact on DME customers since TMPA will need to file a new rate case with the PUCT to remove assets being transferred to Oncor and add assets being transferred to TMPA. TMPA estimates the net impact represesents approximately $1M more TCOS revenue to TMPA under its current approved rate of return. The rate case will likely take 6 months to complete. However, by transferring these assets, TMPA will be the sole owner of assets on DME's northern service territory allowing for a smoother interconnection process to service future DME customers along with making future transmission investments easier to coordinate.