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Minutes August 23, 1994CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES August 23, 1994 The Council convened into the Work Session on Tuesday, August 23, 1994 at 5:15 p.m. in the Council' Chambers. PRESENT: Mayor Castleberry; Mayor Pro Tem Brock; Council Members Cott, Perry, Miller and Smith. ABSENT: Council Member Chew 1. The Council received reports and held discussions regarding the following budget hearings: Public Safety Services Fire Police Transportation Engineering and Transportation Streets Airport John Cook, Fire chief, stated that his budget had four proposed packages which consisted of the replacement of the SCBA compressor; the refurbishing of an ambulance; SCBA equipment; and rescue tools. Council Member Miller asked for the preparation of scenarios regarding the addition of firefighters on an incremental basis. Mike Jez, Chief of Police, stated that his proposed packages included 40 lapel microphones for radios; B-pads for police which were devices for entry level testing for potential police candidates; neighborhood funding for the COPS program; civilian jailers which would add three jailers to the staff and enable the jail to be staffed 24 hours a day 7 days per week; and 2 police officers to be added in January after the status of the crime bill was known. City Manager Harrell stated that if the crime bill passed, the City could ~ire approximately 4-5 officers instead.of only two if the bill did not pass. The City had been using civilian jailers for at least 4 years and this year the funding would be available to take the final step to have full time jailers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Council Member Perry asked about the new automation in conjunction with the move of the Department. Jez replied that they were making adequate progress. The request for proposal would be finalized in the coming weeks and the contract awarded in November or December. Council Member Cott sUggested that the Lillian Miller/Teasley Lane corridor needed two'o~ficers by itself. 2 City of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 2 Council Member Chew joined the meeting. Council Member Miller stated that last year new communications equipment was purchased for officers in the field. He asked if the Department still needed that type of equipment. Jez replied that with the money approved last year by the Council, the Department was able to purchased a substantial number more than originally thought. He felt it would be better to hold off on the purchase of any additional radios until the completion of the computer package. Jerry Clark, City Engineer, presented the transportation budget which was essentially the same as last year. Proposed packages included an upgrade of a 486 computer, an Engineering Tech II/Design position, a print machine, a replacement street roller, a replacement vehicle 1150, and a laser jet printer. The two vehicles would be replaced at a lower cost due to the motor pool system. City Manager Harrell stated that as management positions in the City became vacant, there was an attempt to incorporate that position with a current position. In this area, two positions were being incorporated into one position. Mayor Castleberry asked how much was budgeted for street repairs and rebuilding. Clark replied that it was approximately $700,000 with $300,000 for street patching and $400,000 with a solid waste transfer. City Manager Harrell stated that the budget had proposed $810,000 for repaving, maintaining, and reconstructing streets. Council had had a leadership role in adding dollars to the street maintenance/repair budget over the past several years. Rick Svehla, Deputy City Manager, presented the Airport budget. The two proposed packages incluCed a personal computer and the refurbishing of the beacon at the Airport. Mayor Castleberry asked about the new system at the Airport. Svehla replied that the global positioning system used satellite technology to determine the position of an airplane. The global positioning system could ~give directions for landing from the south to the north. city of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 3 Council Member Miller asked about the grant for the extension of the runway. Svehla replied that there was Still a good chance for the grant to be awarded before the October 1 deadline. Congress had not passed the bill to date but he felt that it would be passed soon. 2. The Council received a report and held a discussion regarding proposed utility rates. Bob Nelson, Executive Director for Utilities, stated that the proposed rates would be: electric - a 1% increase in the base rate and a 1% increase in the ECA rate to be effective January 1995; a water increase of 2%; a wastewater increase of 8%; a solid waste residential increase of 7.67% from $11.15 to $12.00; a commercial solid waste increase of approximately 8%; a landfill solid waste increase from $5.00 to $6.00 per cubic yard for non-city trucks. The R1 electric customer would experience a decrease of $1.42 per month. Commercial volumes were up from the original projections so that an 8% increase would be needed instead of a 9% increase. The rates varied from 6% - 15% on the commercial rates. Earl Crews, Budget/Rate Administrator, reviewed the landfill proposed rates. He presented an overhead which indicated monthly rate comparisons with area cities. These indicated that while Denton did not have the lowest rates, it was competitive with area cities. Council Member Cott suggested that staff discuss the rate changes with those affected as soon as possible so that they were informed about the changes. City Manager Harrell asked Nelson to review the Public Utility Board's philosophy regarding rate increases especially in the water and wastewater areas. Nelson stated that the water increase was being recommended at a 2% ~rate increase. In 1999 the City would have another $2 million per year payment to the Corps of Engineers for the Ray Roberts Reservoir. As that was a fairly large increase for one year, the Board recommended incremental increases and hold some of that revenue into a fund to be used in 1999 for that increase. The wastewater increase was due to the construction cost of the new treatment plant which was just completed. It was felt that within another year another small increase would be needed and then the rate should level out. 'The solid waste increase was due to the expanding of the landfill. 4 city of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 4 Council Member Miller asked what was the cost of the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant in order to be in compliance with the EPA regulations. Nelson replied that $6 million was required just to meet the higher EPA standards and the remaining was for the additional capacity for the plant. The Council convened into a Special Called Session on Tuesday, August 23, 1994 at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. PRESENT: Mayor Castleberry; Mayor Pro Tem Brock; Council Members Chew, Cott, Perry, Miller and Smith. ABSENT: None 1. The Council held a public hearing regarding the adoption of the proposed 1994-95 City of Denton Annual Program of Services. The Mayor opened the public hearing. George Seely, Jr. stated that he wanted to address his concerns regarding the Denton Fire Department. He presented an idea to help fund more firefighter/paramedic positions for the City of Denton. There had not been an increase in firefighter personnel for the last 14 years while the population had grown by over 20,000 people. His proposal included that the Fire Department would assume exclusive non-emergency ambulance service for the City in addition to the current ambulance services provided. He felt that this service would provide sufficient funds to employ 18 new positions. The service would benefit the citizens by (1) providing a city- controlled, non-emergency ambulance service and generate revenue to be reinvested in the fire department; ~2) providing more firefighter/paramedic positions which were needed at little or no cost for the citizens; (3) bringing the City closer to the standards for key rate f~re insurance; (4) allowing some of the positions to be filled l.y minority citizens of Denton; and (5) possiHly reopening Central Fire Station until a new station was built at Eagle/Carroll. He had been told by Chie£ Cook that Central would be.a good location for this non-emergency ambulance service. He asked for consideration of this request. L.T. Hensley stated that he had talked with firefighters from Dallas and Forth Worth ~ho had the radar controls on their trucks and they indicated that~it only worked about 40% of ~the time. He understood that Denton's fire trucks would be equipped with this same kind of radar equipment to change the traffic signals. He had City of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 5 talked with the firefightersin Denton who indicated that there was no way a five minute response time could be made to the Square. He would like to see the fire station and ambulance remain at. Central. Arleen Morrison stated that she was disturbed when the fire station was closed. As a member of the Board of Trustees of the First united Methodist Church, she represented their concern regarding the loss of the fire station stating this was a step in the devitalization of the downtown of Denton. Eddie Woodruff stated that the City was short of firefighters 15 years ago when he started working for the city and in that time period only 9 firefighters had been added. He urged Council to add some additional firefighters. He was responsible for the recruitment of new firefighters and it was difficult as there were no positions available. He encouraged Council to add more personnel in the next budget year. Mayor Castleberry .indicated that the following were speaker cards received regarding the fire station issue from those in attendance who did not wish to address the Council: Chris Cowan, John Shrader, Jr., Arthur Seely, Sr., Norma Seely, Dow Huggins, Mrs. Dow Huggins, Paul Beadle, Frank Blake, Mike Gregory, Bill Thomas, Euless Tonn, Will and Opal Logan. Steve Pickett indicated that he wished to speak on a property tax credit for persons with disabilities. He stated that some disabled persons were faced with a choice of paying property taxes or delaying, medical treatment or taking care of their property. He was proposing some form of tax credit so that all citizens could benefit from maintaining property values. If an individual could show that he was of limited income due to early retirement or a medical benefit and could show that he could pay for the upgrading of his home, then these costs would be given some latitude toward the payment of individual property taxes. Don Harper stated that he had minor repairs done to his home last week which he had to have a professional do while others could have done the repairs themselves. He supported the proposed tax credit. Irene Tribble was in support of the proposal. Ed Bonk stated that he spoke on behalf of the Seniors at the Senior Center. The Americans with Disabilities Act suggested easy opening doors for the Center. T~e present doors were hard to open for the Seniors and often clo~ed too quickly hitting the person entering the building. He recq~u~_ended automatic doors be installed in order to assist those using the Center. This item had been cut from the City of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 6 1993-94 budget requests and he asked that it be placed in this budget. City Manager Harrell stated that the budget package was for $7000 and staff would provide a report for Council at the next meeting regarding the proposal. Tom Harpool, Sales Tax Advisory Committee, reviewed the history of the work of the Committee. The Council had asked if the Committee would monitor the results of the election. The Committee had a recent meeting which congratulated the City on a proposal to reduce the Property tax rate by approximately 25%. There had been a concern expressed of what this higher sales tax would do to lower income citizens in the City. The Council asked the Utility Department to look. at a way to help the lower income group offset the sales tax increase. There was a recommendation for a reduction of the R1 electric rate which would offset the increase in sales tax. Billy Hubbard stated that she had a clogged drainage ditch behind her home and had 18 inches of water in her storage building from the last rain. She had asked for a clearance of the ditch and urged that extra money for clearing out problem ditches be included in the budget and a fund to assist with unplanned problems. Don White stated that budgets were developed to guide spending in the coming year. From 1984 - 1994 Denton's population increased 13,000 people. The total number of employees for the City of Denton had increased 50% faster than the population of Denton. The total payroll 1984 was at $15 million and in 1993-94 was $35 million. The consumer price index during that period of time increased 34%. When there were increases in'utility rates and increases in taxes, what was seen as a nominal increase of 7-8% really doubled the amount of money extracted from the community. He took issue with the principle of annual increases in utility rates. It took money from Denton business and Denton residents. For a business, this was called a tax increase in utility rates. For residents, this was called a utility increase. When there were increases every year and the amount of expenditures extracted from the community were doubled, it had to be called a tax increase on business. He did not believe that the increases were needed for the utilities. Kay Williams stated that on August 3 he had a need for an ambulance. If the Centra.~.. Station had been closed or no ambulance available, he would be dead. ' ? City of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 7 Jimmie McMakin indicated that he was in support, of 'keeping the Central Station open. Marie Landers indicated that she was in favor of the Fire Department. Bill Miller encouraged the Council to look further down the road toward federal mandates for environmental protection which the City would have to fund. Before the City reached an impasse, it would be good to be in a position ahead of the mandate. If the City put funds aside now, it would be able to fund those projects in the future. Thomas Webb indicated support for Council Member Miller's suggestion of a citizen task' force to study the fire protection issue. The Mayor closed the public hearing. 2. The Council held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the 1994-95 fiscal year budget. City Manager Harrell reviewed the budget procedure for the remaining budget sessions. This meeting would review prior questions from the Council regarding the budget. The August 30th meeting would begin with an executive session and at 6:00 p.m. staff would begin a review of additional Council questions. The Council would be provided a list of all major budget issues for which a decision was needed in order to balance the budget. Council would also have an opportunity to place additional items on the budget list for final discussions. September 6th would be the final budget balancing session and Council would work through any major issues still remaining. The September 13th agenda would contain all the ordinances necessary to implement the budget including adopting the budget, establishing the tax rate and the ordinances implementing various fee increases. Jon Fortune, Management Services Administrator, reviewed the Council's budget questions and responses which were presented in the agenda backup materials. (1) Tax roll and effective tax rate. The overall growth of the City was up from 1993 with a current effective rate of $.5689 per $100 evaluation. The proposed budget tax rate of $.5645 was well under that effective ta~rate. (2) Citizen complaint survey - a survey reviewed the various policies of other ~i~fes to determine how they handled citizen 8 city of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 8 complaints. Several options were listed in the agenda backup materials. (3) Vision Project - a question had been asked regarding the number of staff members involved in the Vision project and the time involved. The memo indicated that most employees were exempt and no compensation was given for extra time on the project. (4) North Central Texas Council of Governments - a response was provided indicating a summary of services provided. (5) Cable Television - the response indicated the estimated television audience the Council had during its broadcast of the Council meetings. (6) Incentive pay program - the response was included in the City Attorney's status report. Council Member Perry felt that the answer regarding radio/television was not accurate information and he wanted it reworked. He felt it did not mirror the situation as to the existence of radios in homes in the City. He felt perhaps 99% or even 100% of the homes in the City had radios. Richard Foster, Public Information Officer, stated that the response was an attempt to distinguish among the citizens who had cable from the people who had radio. The assumption was made that everyone had a radio. The 35% figure represented those individuals without cable television but who did have radio. The 35% was for those only confined to radio information. (7) Juvenile Diversion Task Force Committee - the memo addressed the first offenders counseling proposals submitted to the Committee. City Manager Harrell stated that Harlan Jefferson was making a presentation to the DISD and next week would have a report on the reaction from the DISD. Council Member Miller asked if next week the Council would discuss the services offered and compare the alternatives for counseling. City Manager Harrell stated that Jefferson had taken all the proposals to the Juvenile Diversion Task Force and the Task Force would be recommending that a combination of the University of North Texas/Texas woman s unlv~rslty programs be used. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 9 (8) Number of contract landfill customers - response indicated the number of customers and the volume of those customers. (9) Disabled Tax Exemption - several factors were involved regarding a disabled exemption. It must be adopted before May in order to be applicable for the coming fiscal year. Council could adopt an exemption this year and make it effective for the 1995-96 fiscal year. Council Member Cott asked if there was a committee set up to deal with the disability issue. City Manager Harrell stated that Bruce Hennington, Facilities Management Director, was responsible for implementing ADA compliance programs for the City. Mayor Castleberry stated that the minimum exemption was $3000 which would result in a loss of revenue of $2235. Fortune stated that that estimate was based on the total number of current exemptions given by the DISD. (10) Health insurance providers - an updated list of providers on the health plan was provided. (il) Municipal charges survey - a survey done by the City of Richardson indicated that Denton was in the middle of the list for municipal charges but with the proposed change in tax rate for Denton, it would be near the lowest rates. Mayor Castleberry asked, that Lewisville, Gainsvilleand McKinney be added to the survey list. (12) Visual Arts Center air conditioning Council Member Miller stated that one suggestion for this item was to perform an engineering study to deal with the air conditioning situation in the building. He suggested the idea of ceiling fans in the building. Betty McKean, Executive Director for Municipal Services/Economic Development, stated that was not included in the report but staff would research that for Council. Council Member smith suggested covering the windows in some fashion which might help cut the heat in the building and assist the air conditioner ' 10 City of Denton City Council Minutes August 23, 1994 Page 10 Mayor Pro Tem Brock asked if the windows were double pane. McKean replied that they were not. Mayor Pro Tem Brock suggested that another consideration might be to replace the current windows with double pane windows. City Manager Harrell stated that the building was not initially constructed by the City and there were some inherited problems. He felt that the Council was looking at some minimal costs to help with the building. Council Member Miller proposed that the City help fund the TTRIPS Program which provided at-risk high school mothers with day care services while they attended school. The program was $12,000 short of funding. He proposed that the DISD provide $6,000 and the city provide $6,000 out of general funds. He also suggested looking at the possibility of using a reserve fund or set up a reserve fund for an additional fire station near the downtown area. 3. New Business The following items of New Business were suggested by Council Members for future agendas: A. Council Member Smith presented a report from the Municipal Court Committee. They had studied the applicants for the part-time permanent judge position and now needed a date to interview the applicants. Mayor Castleberry suggested that the Agenda Committee work out a time for the interviews. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m. ACC00206 ' ~- ~ BOB CASTLEBERRY, M~YO]~--..... CITY OF DENTON, T~XAS ~