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Minutes October 22, 1991407 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OCTOBER 22, 1991 The Council convened into the Work Session at 5:15 p.m. in the Civil Defense Room. PRESENT: Mayor Castleberry; Council Members Alexander, Chew, Perry, Smith and Trent. ABSENT: Mayor Pro Tem Hopkins 1. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding Council district boundary adjustment options. Harry Persuad, Senior Planner, stated that originally three alternative plans for adjusting voting district boundaries had been prepared in accordance with the criteria adopted by City Council on October 1, 1991. Recently two additional plans had been developed based on concerns expressed by the University of North Texas Student Association. In drawing up alternative plans, every effort had been made to enhance the voting strength of the black and hispanic population and at the same time minimize county precinct splits. District One and District Two were over the acceptable population and District Three was under population. Persuad detailed the block moves necessary in each option for each district in order to equalize the population numbers. Option A had the least amount of change and had five split county precincts. Option B tried to keep city district lines consistent with county precinct lines. There were only two split precincts in Option B. option C had many changes in the districts and had two split precincts. Option D and E addressed student concerns. Council discussed each option and the effects of the changes on the minority population and student population. Lloyd Harrell, City Manager, stated that there would be a public hearing the first meeting in November regarding the options. Following that, Council would need to decide a tentative preference for an option so that an ordinance could be written and considered at the second meeting in November. 2. The Council received a report and held a discussion on preliminary recommendations for the 1991/92 Employee Health Insurance Program. Tom Klinck, Director of Personnel, presented overheads on the City's claim history, the rate increase history and city funding history. The City had contracted with Coopers & Lybrand to negotiate with Sanus/New York Life for a 1991-92 renewal and to develop/analyze alternatives options to meet the City's long range goal~. During th~ budget preparation, Sanu~ indicated that the renewal rate for the next year would be in the area of a 23% rate increase. In addition, the Employee Insurance Committee had 408 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 2 indicated as well as employees in general, a dissatisfaction with the doctors available on the Sanus program as well as other kinds of service issues. Alternatives included bidding the health insurance program out for a fully insured program and to explore direct negotiations and relationships with the local providers. Dave Palatiere, Coopers & Lybrand, stated that there were three tasks Coopers & Lybrand had to accomplish for the City of Denton. There were to (1) locate a traditionally fully insured program, (2) negotiate the Sanus rerate and (3) develop a local managed care arrangement which would be fully insured. From a financial perspective, the City was already ahead in that through the renegotiations with Sanus, the proposed 23% rate increase had been dropped down to 8% and 2% based on the most recent information. He had received additional information this morning which adjusted the figures downward even more. The alternative program being proposed was also at or below the City's budget for the health plan. The Sanus program included a SanusHMO with approximately 240 employees enrolled in a program in which they had to use specific doctors and hospitals. The Sanus Plus program with higher premiums and a different plan design allowed employees to either use the network providers or any provider they wished. Problems as seen by the Employees Insurance Committee were the stability of the doctors, waiting lines for appointments, lack of physicians on the HMO side, waiting time for specialist referrals. All of those created problems in the delivery of health care for the City. The alternative program consisted of local providers including both local hospitals and the two local physician organizations, and local pharmacies as appropriate. Tertiary care facilities had been negotiated as a by-product of negotiations with the local physicians. A competitive plan design had been developed and negotiations had taken place with insurance carriers to underwrite the plan for a fully insured plan. One carrier had been identified which agreed to take the contract that had been developed locally and underwrite the health plan using those contracts. Council Member Perry stated that in the list of providers, mental health providers were not listed. How would they be addressed. Palatlere replied that any provider not associated with the two major physician groups would be able to be a provider as long as they accepted the same reimbursement level. In regards to mental/nervous/alcohol providers, as long as they were state licensed and agreed to the reimbursement levels, they would be included as a provider. Council Member Perry stated that somewhere in the final plans, there would be a procedure whereby mental health professionals 409 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 3 would be contacted and have an opportunity to become a provider as long as they were willing to abide by the rules of the system. The main criteria would be state credentials. Palatiere replied yes. He continued that letters of interest were invited from companies for the City's health insurance program, under the fully-insured, traditional health insurance plan or a fully-insured, managed care program. Bids for a fully-insured, traditional program were sent to nine companies that expressed interest in reviewing the City's request. This bid was published in the Denton Record-Chronicle. None of the nine companies that expressed an interest, submitted a bid for a traditional fully- insured plan. Sanus/New York Life submitted a bid for a new program with costs higher than their renewal for the current HMO Only/Sanus Plus program. It was recommended that that bid be rejected. Three companies (Cigna, Travelers, and Philadelphia American) expressed an interest in a fully-insured, managed care arrangement, using the City's direct contracts with medical providers. Discussions with the Denton Independent Physicians Association, North Texas Medical/Surgeons Association, Denton Regional Medical Center and Denton Community Hospital provided quotes for medical services that were substantially discounted below current health insurance program costs. Those providers expressed concern regarding the release of this confidential contractual information to Cigna and Travelers. These local medical providers had already existing contracts with Cigna and Travelers and any release of City negotiated contracts for medical services could potentially jeopardize the medical providers arrangements with Cigna and Travelers. This represented a conflict of interest. It was determined that it would be to the advantage of the City to negotiate directly with Philadelphia American to underwrite a proposed health insurance program for two reasons. First, Philadelphia American did not have any conflicts of interest with local medical providers that could have an adverse impact on its ability to provide the City with a cost effective, fully- insured managed care program. Second, this company's preliminary costs met the City's cost objectives, without limiting employees' access to local providers. The Employee Insurance Committee rated the two health plan alternatives based on degree of stability, availability of providers, quality of service, affordability/cost, and plan design. From a degree of stability, they rated Sanus low given historically it was proven to be unstable due to the lack of sufficient providers and provider continuity. There was also a concern about continued instability and continuity of physicians. The Committee rated the degree of stability of the Philadelphia American plan as high as the plan included physicians from Denton Independent Physicians Association and North Texas Medical/Surgical and both local hospitals. Sanus was rated low in the area of 410 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 4 availability of providers due to the lack of sufficient physicians offered through the HMO plan, the gatekeeper requirement and the limitation of one pharmacy. The Philadelphia American plan was rated high in the area of availability of providers as the plan included physicians from both local provider groups and both local hospitals. There would be no gatekeeper requirement and would be open to any pharmacist agreeing to be part of the network. In regards to the quality of service, Sanus was questionable as the Employee Insurance Committee felt there were significant quality issues such as waiting time and physician referral. The Philadelphia American plan was felt to have a high degree of quality of service due to increased physician representation and availability issues. Both plans were rated as high in the area of affordability/cost. The proposed Sanus rates were a 2% HMO increase and an 8% Sanus Plus increase with a second year rate guarantee of 14%. The Philadelphia American rates approximated the Sanus composite. There was a three year rate guarantee from the local hospitals of 8% per year and 6% for the local physicians. Plan design for both plans were rated as high. The Employee Insurance Committee recommendation was to terminate the Sanus program and implement the Philadelphia American program with a single plan. council Member Perry stated that the expansion to a much larger body of physicians being available to the employees was one of the chief advantages of the new plan. He indicated that he would not put his name on the provider list as long as he was on the Council. He felt that the increased provider list would strengthen the plan. Palatiere reviewed the rate design comparisons and the proposed rate schedules which were included in the agenda back-up materials. Council Member Trent felt that if the gatekeeper requirement were lost, there might be an escalation in rates. Palatiere replied that there would not be a gatekeeper requirement but that there would be utilization review. The Employee Insurance Committee was concerned with the referral process as some doctors would not refer an employee to a specialist. Tom Klinck, Director of Personnel, stated that Sanus had made a strong effort to attempt to get additional specialists and doctors and keep the levels as best they could. One of the problems was that even if an employee could get a referral, sometimes, they had to drive to Dallas/Fort Worth for the specialist which impacted the City's sick leave program and the time the employee was away from work. The proposed plan had a large number of local specialists available for the employee. 411 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 % ...... Page 5 Council Member Trent asked how the gatekeeper function worked. Klinck replied that the employee had to first go to the primary care physician and receive a referral from that doctor for a specialist. Under the proposed program the employee could go directly to the specialist. Council Member Perry asked about the cap on rates. Palatiere replied from a utilization standpoint, the costs would go up either on a unit basis or by higher utilization. The gatekeeper slowed down the utilization of resources. The proposed plan was to keep that same effect without the barrier of the primary physician referral. The only way to do that was to make sure the physicians were abiding by the correct criteria. Klinck reviewed the budget/cost alternatives. The 1991-92 budget allocated $1,814,951 for insurance costs. The Sanus program, under the current design, would cost $1,814,951 with some savings from turnover or a position which would be vacant for a period of time. The Philadelphia American alternative rates would cost $1,735,841 with a savings of $79,110. It was recommended that the Sanus contract be extended for 30 days to make a smooth transition to the new program at a cost of $12,000 and extend the Coopers & Lybrand contract to assist the City through the transition period. That extension would cost $10,000. It was felt that the Philadelphia American proposed plan provided significant service improvements with expanded doctors and expanded hospitals and direct access to specialists with lower costs. Staff's recommendation was to prepare the necessary ordinances for Council consideration on November 5 to extend the Sanus contract for 30 days, and transition to the new Philadelphia American contract to be effective January 1, 1992. Open enrollment would begin November through December. Council Member Chew asked for the rating of PhiladelphiaAmerican. Klinck replied it was rated as an "A" company. Council Member Trent stated that it looked from a cost savings standpoint that Philadelphia American was more desirable. He wondered if Council should hear from Sanus regarding anything they had not heard in the presentation. Louie Heerwagen, Sanus, stated that the program, as it was laid out, looked good. It should be remembered that the numbers were Dreliminary and not final from Philadelphia American and could possibly change. He felt Sanus, over time, had saved the City money as the claims had gone down. The rate increase was first 412 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 6 projected to be 23% but as the claims changed, the rates moved. Yesterday, the figures were updated to a 0% increase for HMO and an 8% increase for Sanus Plus with a 12% second year cap. He felt that plan brought assured financial stability for the next year. He felt Coopers & Lybrand had done a good job in capping the hospital costs and physician costs but that was only part of the total puzzle. That was not capping the premium costs. There was no question that there had been problems with the physicians. Yesterday an alternate to the program had been proposed in order to make more providers available. One was that the current benefit for the Sanus Plus plan was to go to any doctor not in the network and would cost a $400 deductible and $5000 out of pocket. In the proposed change, there would be a $250 deductible and $1500 out of pocket. A second alternative dealt with the primary care physicians. Sanus would add any primary care physician for the $15 copay arrangement which existed in the proposed plan with Philadelphia American. That would generate a separate list of providers and an employee who went to one of those physicians would pay only $15 in addition to the HMO doctors. Council Member Trent asked if the Council would be receiving another comparison of the two plans with the updated Sanus information. City Attorney Drayovitch stated that the bids were due October 28, 1991. A representative of Philadelphia American stated that the proposed rates probably would not change. Consensus of the Council was to provide a further analysis of the alternatives and to prepare the proper documents for the extension of the Sanus contract, the extension of the Coopers & Lybrand contract and the new Philadelphia American contract. 3. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding private property accidents. Mike Jez, Chief of Police, stated that since the inception of the Community Oriented Policing program, the patrol officers were asked to assume a myriad of new duties, among them increase foot patrols and bicycle patrols. He was suggesting that the Department change its existing policy regarding the investigation of motor-vehicle accidents which occur on private property. Even though the law did not require peace officers to investigate such accidents, they currently investigated approximately 600 such accidents each year. He felt that the man hours used for this purpose could be more effectively used elsewhere. Investigations would still be required 413 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 7 when the private property accident was a hit and run, involved bodily injury, involved DWI or resulted in an assault. Police officers would still be dispatched to the scene during the transition period to provide blue forms and instruct the vehicle operators on how to exchange information. Council Member Smith asked how people involved in an accident after the transition period, would know what to do. City Manager Harrell stated that police officers would continue to be sent to an accident with the blue forms and information on how to proceed until staff returned to Council with the issue. There may be some point in the future where workload might cause staff to reexamine even that procedure. The procedure then would be to tell the individual over the phone that the police department no longer responded in person to that kind of an accident and to go the Police Department to receive the blue forms. Jez stated that many cities responded in that manner and did not come to the scene of a private property accident. It was felt from a service standpoint, that it was better for an officer to respond to the scene and assist the motorists. Council Member Chew stated that from an insurance agent's perspective, it was better to have the officers investigate the accident but if that was not the policy, then the officer should not respond at all. It would be best to have the motorist go to the Police Department and pick up the blue form. If an officer were to respond to the scene, then the agents might try to get an accident report and no report would be available which might be more confusing. City Manager Harrell replied that it was staff's concern that it would be much better received from the public, if an officer respond to the scene of a private property accident with the blue forms as opposed to no longer even going to the scene. Council discussed the pros and cons of the procedure as opposed to not responding to private property accidents. Consensus was to proceed with the proposal to send an officer to private property accidents with the proper forms and information for the motorists but not to investigate the accident. It was suggested that letters be sent to the insurance agents to inform them of the change and perhaps request an article in the newspaper regarding the change. 414 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 8 4. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding amending the sign ordinance. Frank Robbins, Executive Director for Planning, stated that the Planning and Zoning Commission was considering an ordinance amending the sign ordinance adding a temporary use permit provision and amend the variance criteria. The temporary use permit would allow a legally non-conforming ground sign to be altered so long as the sign became no more non-conforming. The Planning and Zoning Commission would consider the duration of the temporary use permit and/or establishing a future date for which a temporary use permit could not be issued. A bond or escrow equal to the cost of removal would be posted with the temporary use permit, guaranteeing removal. The permit would be reviewed annually. The new variance criteria combined and clarified existing criteria and would provide a measure of increased discretion for the Sign Board of Appeals. Robbins presented a slide presentation from Lubbock detailing the effects of their sign ordinance. City Manager Harrell pointed out that there were 37 new conforming signs permitted to replace non-conforming signs during the first nine months of 1991. Council Member Smith asked there would be a fee for the temporary use permit. Robbins replied that there would be a $35 annual fee. The permit would be issued to the landowner and could not be issued for an illegal or abandoned sign. Council Member Alexander stated that in four year, the same amount of accomplishment would have been made. Four years was not unreasonable for phasing in the process. Looking back, he voted for the amendment to the sign ordinance as was it was a reasonable compromise and he wanted to bring closure to the issue. If lines were not drawn and adhered to, there would be continued attempts to modify the sign ordinance. The ones who would be hurt by that process would be the ones who complied with the ordinance to begin with. City Manager Harrell stated that even with a four year time period for the temporary use permit, when the time came, there would still be complaints regarding a sign ordinance. A community standard was needed and that standard needed to be adhered to. council Member Alexander ~tated that he understood that there were groups who wanted the sign ordinance changed. He also understood that there were large numbers of individuals who wanted the sign 415 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 .: , Page 9 ordinance to remain in place and if there were too many more modifications to the ordinance to weaken it, there would be a great deal of support to demand the ordinance be tightened. A sign ordinance was needed that the Council could be comfortable with and not encourage individuals to get it modified. Council Member Perry pointed out that the City was spending dollars for beautification and to move utilities underground in an effort to improve the appearance of the City. At the same time, continually modifying the sign ordinance would nullify those objectives and gains. Mayor Castleberry stated that most cities had a transition period on the face change of signs and felt that the original sign ordinance might have been too hard. Council Member Chew felt that there should be a transition period but that sooner or later the standard would be needed. The longer the ordinance was changed, the longer the City would not be moving toward the goal of beautification. City Attorney Drayovitch stated that the Dallas and Lubbock ordinances allowed for an amortization for existing businesses. Any changes of ownership or face changes, required compliance with the ordinance. Those ordinances were stricter than Denton's. Council Member Trent asked what the City was doing to inform the businesses of the sign ordinance - what was happening with the sign ordinance and where it was going. He felt there was a need to inform the businesses. Council Member Perry was concerned with the number of individuals who had complied with the current ordinance. Now there was a suggestion to allow other additional time for compliance and that was not fairly applying the ordinance. Robbins stated that a bond or escrow equal to the cost of removal would be posted with the temporary use permit. The permit would be reviewed annually. Council Member Trent expressed concern over the cost of the bond or having to escrow the money with regards to small business people. Robbins replied that the cost of the bond would probably be under $100. A transfer fee of $5 would be charged if the temporary use permit were transferred to a new owner. New varian~ oriteria combined and clarified existing criteria and would provide a measure of increased discretion for the Sign Board of Appeals. 416 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 10 5. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding the City's current travel policy. City Manager Harrell stated this item was presented at the request of the Council during the last budget session. He stated that there was a three point check on expense reports - one from the supervisor involved, the Finance Department and the independent City auditor. Mayor Castleberry felt it was good to look at various City policies. Council Member Perry felt that it was a good policy and adequate for the City's needs. Council Member Trent asked if there was a policy regarding writing trip reports. He felt there should be a means of sharing information learned at conferences with other staff members. City Manager Harrell replied that there was no formal organizational policy requiring such a report. That function was handled on the department level and different departments had different procedures they utilized to share information. Council Member Trent asked when was the last time a trip report was passed out for individuals to share. He had never seen one. He felt it might be beneficial for others in the organization to read trip reports from various departments to further their knowledge in various areas. City Manger Harrell replied that one of the problems with that type of report would be that people would be spending their time preparing the reports and that might not be the most productive use of their time. Currently that was left to the discretion of department directors. Mayor Castleberry questioned the need for receipts for taxi rides. John McGrane, Executive Director for Finance, replied that it was at the discretion of the department directors. Mayor Castleberry felt that perhaps an additional sentence needed to be added which required receipts. Council felt that requiring a receipt would not help tighten the ~yst~m as there were many ways around such a requirement. Mayor Castleberry asked how the mileage was reimbursed. 417 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 11 McGrane replied it was figured according to IRS regulations. Mayor Castleberry asked if a receipt was required for parking expenses. City Manager Harrell replied yes. Mayor Castleberry questioned the phone call allowance. How long of a personal call was permitted each night for the individual. McGrane replied that it was at the discretion of the department head. City Manager Harrell stated that some of these items were the responsibility of the Manager. If the Manager was not managing properly, then he needed to be released. He expected his department directors to sign off on the travel report and to make those types of questions and determinations. 6. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding the zoning ordinance rewrite. Frank Robbins, Executive Director for Planning, stated that the zoning ordinance needed to be rewritten for several reasons. Nine zoning districts had not been used for over 10 years, there was an over use of the planned development district, there was a need for a more user friendly document, there was an incompatible development of the table of permitted uses which was out of date, there were no standards for "edge" of different uses in the master plan and there had been piecemeal amendments made. Robbins reviewed the current zoning ordinance structure which was included in the agenda back-up materials. He felt that the most important aspect of the structure and approach to public land use decision was the importance of the single mixed use district (MXD) and the standards which would apply within that district. Most new non- residential and probably a good deal of new residential zoning would be to MXD. This would put the standards of the ordinance, rather than the process of rezoning, as the focus of land use decision making. The MXD would allow all uses with standards for each use, would have residential adjacency standards, and bufferyard requirements. A bufferyard was an area of plantings surrounding a land use which screened or blocked vision, noise, pollutants, or other negative by-products associated with that use. In the case of very intense uses abutting considerably less intense ones, structural components such as fences or berms might be required of a bufferyard. Robbins showed slides of natural bufferyards in the City. 41 8 City of Denton City Council Minutes October 22, 1991 Page 12 Council discussed the concept of bufferyards. Questions raised regarding bufferyards included what would happen if the plants were trimmed or removed, who w~uld enforce compliance, would smaller plants which would grow to the recommended size be permitted, the cost of planting the bufferyard and the fact that some property distances would not allow some bufferyards. Robbins continued with a comparisOn of the MXD with the current system. Traditional straight zoning had a standard of uses for zoning. If a use was not on the list of uses, a rezoning was required before a building permit could be issued. With the planned development, a site plan was required with standards and a list of uses for zoning. If the zoning was not listed on the site plan or was not the requested used, rezoning would be necessary before a building permit could be issued. The mixed used district would have standards, bufferyards, adjacency and a site plan to trigger the zoning and subsequent building permit. The MXD would have a shorter time period to receive a building permit and could be viewed as an economic development tool as the process was faster, easier and cheaper. The proposed zoning standard used bufferyards, residential adjacency standards, site plan triggers and adopted site plan standards. The Planning and Zoning Commission was currently working with the Zoning Task Force on the proposed standards. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m. [ct, kGTTY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS/ / ACC0000B