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Minutes June 11, 1991159 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES JUNE 11, 1991 ~The Council convened into the Special Call Session at 5:15 p.m. · in the Civil Defense Room. PRESENT: Mayor Castleberry; Mayor Pro Tem Hopkins; Council Members Alexander, Chew, Perry, Smith and Trent. ABSENT: None 1. The Council convened into the Executive Session to discuss legal matters (considered action in Patel v. City), real estate, and personnel/board appointments (considered appointments to all City of Denton Boards and Commissions and held a discussion of Council Committees.) 2. The Council considered adoption of an ordinance authorizing the Mayor to execute a contract for the collection of delinquent taxes. Harlan Jefferson, Treasurer, stated that there had been a change made in the contract on page 3 paragraph IX. The original contract indicated that if the firm had less than a 60% collection rate, it would award the City $7,500 cash. The revision indicated that if the collection rate were below 60%, the firm would provide the City $7,500 worth of legal service, programming and computer services, or date processing equipment or cash. Council held a discussion regarding the collection of payment for delinquent taxes and how the money was handled. The following ordinance was considered: 91-086 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF DENTON AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT FOR THE COLLECTION OF DELINQUENT TAXES; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Perry motioned, Chew seconded to adopt the ordinance. On roll vote, Trent "aye," Alexander "aye," Hopkins "aye," Smith "aye," Chew "aye," Perry "aye," and Mayor Castleberry "aye." Motion carried unanimously. 3. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding utility rate comparisons. 160 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 11, 1991 Page 2 Bob Nelson, Executive Director for Utilities, stated that within the Electric Utility Department's operating budget for 1992, there was a proposal for a 3% revenue requirement reduction. The proposal was a 2~ per KWH reduction in the Energy Cost Adjustment. The present ECA was 1.9~/KWH and it was proposed to reduce this to 1.7C/KWH effective October 1, 1992. The overall reduction in revenues was estimated to be $1,572.000. Total retail sales revenues represented were anticipated to be $53,065.000 after the reduction. With the reduction, Denton's electric rates would be below or very competitive with area electric utilities. Nelson presented graphs indicating the rates for typical electric customers ana a comparison of Denton's electric charges with other utilities. In most cases, Denton's proposed rates were lower than Texas Utilities except for the winter rates for use over 1000 KWH. A comparison of current rates indicated that Denton's rates were again lower than Texas Utilities except for the winter rates. Compared to TMPA cities, Greenville had the highest rates followed by Garland, Denton and Bryan. Council Member Trent asked for a comparison of commercial rates similar to what was done for residential rates. Nelson replied that Denton was slightly higher in the commercial area but was not out of line with respect to rates. He could present that information at a future work session. 4. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding an overview of the C.O.P.S. Program. Mike Jez, Chief of Police, presented a reorganization chart of the Police Department. He stated that originally there were three divisions in the Department. Those divisions had been changed to Field Operations, Central Operations, and Support Services Operations. This reorganization resulted in the reassignment of 18 of 22 command staff personnel. The City was divided into two sections - the east side and west side. The two areas were commanded by two police lieutenants. Those lieutenants were responsible for the development and implementation of the C.O.P.S. program within the respective neighborhoods throughout Denton. The Department's interest in the C.O.P.S. program was to make certain that as a police agency, it was identifying relevant neighborhood issues and was developing police programs which were addressing those issues. An action plan was developed for each neighborhood. The officers meet with the neighbors and determined what their priorities were as it related to the delivery of police services. The officers developed goals from those priorities and those goals were written on a goals statement. After that had been completed, the officers developed a program objective worksheet. The officers meet with their supervisors, the team of officers which would provide the services for that City of Denton City Council Minutes June tl, 1991 Page 3 neighborhood and developed program objectives that were relative to the goals indicated by the neighborhood. The final part of the action plan required the officer to include the activity and description of the goals, what kind of manpower would be required to accomplish the objective, what kind of equipment would be needed, the cost of the objective and what were the anticipated results. Once the action plans were completed they were presented to the neighborhood to determine if that was what they had in mind. Once the neighbors had endorsed the plan, the officers began implementing it. The officers meet with the neighborhood 'at least monthly and more often than that if necessary to monitor the progress on the action plans. The action plans were reviewed biannually and more often if the neighborhoods felt it was necessary. Currently there were two C.O.P.S. programs in operation - one in southeast Denton and one in the Owsley Addition. Plans were being considered for programs in the Township II area and the North Lake area. Council agreed that this was a worthwhile program and should be continued. 5. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding an overview of building needs. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, stated that during the last two to three tight budget years, the City had not been in the position to fund improvement projects needed to be done to various City facilities. During the current budget discussions, Council would be seeing from staff, several suggestions of methods to be used to attack the problem. Staff needed direction on how to start addressing the problems in a systematic manner. Steve Brinkman, Director of Parks and Recreation, stated that over the last three, requests had been received for approximately $2.7 million worth of items from various departments for repairs. Without funds, the level of service in various facilities, would be adversely affected. Some facilities were already being affected. Bruce Hennington, Superintendent of Facility Management, presented slides of various projects. He stated that the buildings were aging and needs would continue to grow each year due to the inability to obtain funding to provide quality maintenance in the past and present. The projects (detailed in the agenda backup) included location, cost and results if the project were not done. City Manager Harrell indicated that this was an indication of the types of problems and the scope of those problems. There was a need for a systematic plan to Correct those problems. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 11, 1991 Page 4 6. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding the State House of Representatives Redistricting Plan and gave staff direction regarding appropriate action. City Manager Harrell stated that a number of the Past Presidents of the Denton Chamber of Commerce had met with the Mayor and him, at their request, regarding a position paper adopted by those past presidents. The position was that they were in opposition to the House of Representatives Redistricting Bill which was passed by the State Legislature. They requested the Mayor and Manager present to Council two suggested actions. One was that the Council formally contact the Governor urging her to veto the legislation as passed and the second was, if the Governor did not veto the legislation, the Council become involved in court action either with another group or independently to protest the district lines as drawn. The problems stemmed from the fact that the City would be divided into three sections in three different House of Representative districts. City population in Jim Horn's district, the southern portion of the City, was only 25%. The City population in Ben Campbell's district was 21% and the Cit~ population in the new district was only 11%. Thus there would be no collective voice for Denton on issues before the Legislature. If the Governor vetoed the legislation, the matter would go to a Legislative Redistricting Committee made up of the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House, the Attorney General, the Comptroller and the Commissioner of General Land Offices. Those individuals would then draw the new district lines. Council Member Perry asked if the Past Presidents were representing themselves or the Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Castleberry replied that they were representing the Past Presidents of the Chamber of Commerce. Council Member Perry asked if there was any other input from any other groups regarding the issue. City Manager Harrell replied that the Chamber Board formally endorsed the position taken by the Past Presidents. Council Member Perry asked what would happen if the Governor vetoed the legislation - would that be just for Denton. City Manger Harrell replied that a veto would reject the entire redistricting bill. Council Member Alexander stated that the plan also ~plit the two universities into two different districts. This was a potential threat for the cooperative 'spirit now being developed between the two universities and also felt City government would be adversely affected. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 11, 1991 Page 5 Council Member Chew felt that the Council owed the citizens to send some type of letter urging the Governor to veto the legislation. It was bad for the entire City of Denton. Alexander motioned, Chew seconded to authorize the Mayor, on the behalf of the City Council, to send a telegram to the Governor advising her of the Council's request to veto the redistricting bill because of its adverse effects on the City of Denton by dividing the City of Denton into three different legislative districts. Motion carried unanimously. Council felt that the telegram should include information concerning the adverse effect on the two universities and the stance of the Chamber of Commerce and the Past Presidents of the Chamber. It was also felt that a note of thanks should be forwarded to the Chamber and Past Presidents commending them for their interest. Council Member Perry felt Jim Horn should be informed of the City's concern and actions and ask him for his support. Council Member Trent asked that Ben Campbell be also informed. Council Member Smith felt that individual people should be contacted which the Council felt might also get involved in the issue. Council Member Trent stated that he was in favor of sending the correspondence to the Governor but was reluctant to become involved in any kind of a lawsuit. 0 Miscellaneous matters from the City Manager. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, presented the following item: A. A summary of the Council's planning session had been distributed for their review. 8. The following official action was taken on Executive Session items: A. Hopkins motioned, Chew seconded to appoint following Council Members to Council Committees: Audit Committee Mayor Castleberry Mayor Pro Tem Hopkins Council Member Trent the 163 164 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 11, 1991 Page 6 Economic Development Committee Municipal Court Advisory Committee Mayor Castleberry Council Member Perry Council Member Alexander Council Member Chew Council Member Smith Investment Policy Committee Agenda Committee Motion carried unanimously. 9. New Business Mayor Pro Tem Hopkins Council Member Perry Mayor Castleberry The following items of New Business were suggested by Council Members for future agendas: A. Council Member Trent asked about the creation of a City Internal Auditor position. City Manager Harrell replied that it would be a budget issue in the upcoming discussions. B. Council Member Trent asked in regards to a zero base budget format, if one or two departments could demonstrate how their budgets were put together. This would help the Council understand how those budgets were put together and would give insight into how the budget was built financially. Two departments could, when they came in to do their budget briefing, present their budget from the ground floor. Council Member Alexander felt there was a problem in that the budget process had already begun. That type of process would take a significant amount of time and he was not sure he wanted the department heads to be doing that with their time for that purpose. He was not sure that the result would be worth the amount of energy and effort required to do a zero based budget correctly. It was a very time consuming process. City Manager Harrell stated that right now the City did a modified zero base budget. If Council Member Trent was asking for an explanation of the budget process, how the budget was assembled for departments and the steps involved in fine tuning it to the point where it went to the Council, it would not be a problem. Consensus of the Council was that the Manager's suggestion would be followed for one or two departments. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 11, 1991 Page 7 The Council then returned to the Executive Session. official action was taken. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned. No 165 J~,N~IFER~ALTERS CItY/ SECRETARY CITY~OF DENTONt TEXAS 3402C