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Minutes June 13, 1995068 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 13, 1995 The Council convened into the Closed Meeting on Tuesday, June 13, 1995 at 5:15 p.m. in the Civil Defense Room. PRESENT: Mayor Castleberry; Mayor Pro Tem Brock; Council Members Krueger, Biles, Young, Cott, and Miller. Closed Meeting: A. Be Legal Matters -- Under TEX. GOV'T CODE Sec. 551.071 Received a report and discussed status of litigation in GTE v. City of Denton, City of Rusk~ et al v. GTE and Denton's complaint against GTE pending before the PUC. 2. Considered action in Disheroon v. Scott~ et al. Real Estate -- Under TEX. GOV'T CODE Sec. 551.072 Personnel/Board Appointments -- Under TEX. GOV'T CODE Sec. 551.074 Council considered the following items in a Special Called Meeting of the City of Denton City Council on Tuesday, June 13, 1995 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall. 1. Council considered a resolution of appreciation for Mark Chew. Council considered the following Resolution of Appreciation: RA95-016 A RESOLUTION IN APPRECIATION FOR MARK CHEW, RETIRING CITY COUNCIL MEMBER Miller motioned, Brock seconded to approve the resolution of appreciation. On roll vote Cott, "aye", Brock "aye", Miller "aye", Castleberry "aye", Biles "aye", Young "aye", Krueger "aye". Motion passed unanimous ly. The following items were considered in a Work Session of the City of Denton City Council on Tuesday, June 13, 1995, at 6:00 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of City Hall. 1. Council heard presentations from Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks; McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen; and Sawko & Burroughs regarding the collection of delinquent taxes and gave staff direction. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 2 Mayor Castleberry informed presenters that there would be a 15 minute time limit on presentations. Jon Fortune, Chief Finance Officer, said the City's current contract for the delinquent tax collection expired at the end of June. As a matter of procedure, staff solicited request for proposals from additional law firms. Six law firms responded and that information was provided to Council at the June 6th meeting. Fortune pointed out one correction to the June 6th report. He said two Denton County clients were omitted from the law firm of Sawko & Burroughs, the Town of Flower Mound and Hickory Creek. Council Member Krueger asked if their totals had changed. Fortune responded that the totals did not change, the two cities were inadvertently omitted. He said Council directed Staff to narrow the respondents to three would make 15 minute presentations. He said Staff would anticipate further direction from Council regarding the contract renewal or a new contract to be brought back for Council's approval for tax collection services beginning July 1, 1995. Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks made a presentation to the Council. Mike Greggory introduced their team: Peggy McCormick, Data Manager; Debbie Patten, Manager of the Denton Office; Curtis Loveless, local Denton Attorney; Beth Weller, Bankruptcy Attorney; Gary Bennett, Lead Attorney for Denton; and Charlow Bradshaw, Lawyer in Greggory's office. Greggory said his firm did the job as well as it did because they had a better system, better equipment, better people, people who worked harder and had personal contact with the tax payer. The firm had always been a leader in collections, affirmative action and in local involvement. He said the key issue for the Council was who could collect the most tax dollars most efficiently. Each year on July 1, the delinquent tax roll was turned over to the attorney. Their numbers, prior performance, and performance with the Denton Independent School District would show they could do it better. Peggy McCormick provided further explanation. She said they believed collection performance was the single most important thing to use when making the decision about which law firm should collect the taxes. She said as the former tax assessor/collector for the City of Grand Prairie and Haltom City, she was associated with the process many times, as a client. She associated with Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks two years ago. They were the type of law firm that exemplified the collection performance and level of service to the client she expected when she was a client. She said the Council's decision should be about revenue, which delinquent law firm could collect the most revenue for the City of Denton. McCormick said every taxing jurisdiction had certain revenue City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 3 expectations when choosing a law firm and Denton had those revenue expectations in 1986 when choosing their law firm over the former firm of Terry Lewis and Dan Coffey. She said they met those expectations by increasing collection over $350,000 in the first year, a 122% increase. She said they successfully represented the City of Denton until 1993 and collected over $5.5 billion dollars on the City's behalf. They worked hard to create a collection program that would generate the most money for the City of Denton. In 1993, the City chose to change to the McCreary firm. She said there was a 16% decrease in collections from the last year Blair, Goggan collected the taxes and almost $70,000 less was deposited to the City's treasury as a result of the McCreary firms efforts. She said when Denton Independent School District chose to change firms they also had revenue expectations. They changed from the McCreary firm to Blair, Goggan and they increased their collections over $222,000 in the first year, an 18% increase. She said the DISD was so careful to make the decision to change law firms based on performance that they submitted their number to their own independent outside auditor, Hankins, Powers & Deaton for verification. She said the collections should be seen in the context of the universe that it was to be collected. McCormick said the City Tax Office did a fine job of collections and the Council had seen the current collection percentages increase over the last five years. She said collection had also increased for her other clients due to the economy and more sophisticated collection techniques. She said it was true that the McCreary firm had less money to collect in the first year of their contract with the City. They had 15% less money and collection dropped 16%. McCormick said in DISD's first year, they also had less money to collect in current year turnover but their decrease was 27%. Despite the 27% decrease in current year turnover they increased collections over $222,000 for the DISD. She felt that was an important and valid comparison since the City of Denton and DISD were similar taxing jurisdictions with overlapping properties. In fact DISD taxes were harder to collect. Higher tax rates meant larger tax burden and people tend to pay the tax bills they could afford first. She felt Denton had suffered a collection shortfall over the last two years. The City of Denton's effectiveness was nearly 10% less than DISD. When the 10% difference was applied to the current year turnover, it resulted in a collection shortfall of $34,762. She felt the City of Denton had been under collected. If the City of Denton had been collected as effectively as the DISD was by Blair Goggan, the City would have recognized an additional $34,762 in the first year of the contract. Through the most recent nine months the shortfall was $27,400. She said Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks did a better job of collecting taxes than any other law firm. They proved it in Denton twice. She said thoro other qualities that made their law firm collection performance and level of service to clients superior and unique to any of their competitors. City of Denton City'~uncil Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 4 Gary Bennett addressed the Council and'told why they should select Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks over anyone else. He said they do the litigation.~ They send out letters periodically to the tax payers. He said what they did that other firms did not was maintain personal contact with the tax payers.' They had them on the 'phone and talked with them on a weekly basis, not as harassment but to act as problem solvers to enable them to find out ways to get their taxes paid. They thought it was important to compare their performance at DISD to the City because of the similar atmosphere, tax payer, property, and sets of problems. Bennett said because they go the extra mile with the personal contact they get more money collected quicker in a specified period of time. Because of the personal contact they generated a lot of money for the City as they worked through their programs. They welcomed'the City as a client in the past and hoped tO have the City as a client again. He invited the Council to independently verify all the figures and performance levels presented if there were questions. Bennett said they had a local presence in Denton. The office was staffed by local people, used local vendors and pumped a lot of money into the community on an annual basis. He told the Council that no one understood and knew the tax payers better than Debbie, their Denton Office Manager. They. felt they had a superior track record and could back up what they said. He said they would love to represent the City again. He gave his personal commitment that ~f the City decided to.go back with Blair, Goggan they would not experience shortfalls and there would be more money to work with then over the past 22 months. Curtis Loveless concluded the presentation. He emphasized that he and Mike Greggory had both been residents of Denton County and the City of Denton for over 45 years. He said they were committed to being a local presence. He said they felt they had the local ties, experience, and the background to do the best job and the figures showed that. Council Member Young said he noticed that there were minorities that worked with the firm and asked Loveless why there were no minorities from their firm represented. Loveless said Ms. Sampson was on vacation and could not attend. He allowed one of the representatives from the Dallas office explain further. The'representative explained that Ms. Sampson was a main partner in the firm and a shareholder. The other minority members were in the Dallas Office and acted as support to the local office to provide business to local minority vendors. He said Ms. Sampson was of the opinion that if further action was taken_ she would be back to attend the next Council meeting. 71 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 5 Young asked how many people on the staff were here in Denton. The representative responded that there were two people that man the Denton Office. He was the Attorney and was in the local office once every week, once every two weeks or as often as necessary. He said the local counsel was there on a full-time basis to help with problems. Council Member Miller asked that the representative explain the process of making the personal contact. Bennett said they employed professionally trained collectors. It was not like a collection agency and not harassment calls. They had records of the number of letters or paper work sent to taxpayers. They contacted them on the basis that they had sent several letters and other pieces of information and have had no contact and were concerned if they had they correct address or if they received the letters. Bennett said it was sometimes the case they had not. Bennett explained that they engaged the taxpayer in conversation and explained the payment options available to them. Usually they were not aware of the options and they would be set up on some payment plan to help get taxes brought current. He was aware of very few instances where the process had been a problem. Bennett said they began by working down the list of all delinquencies. Miller asked how often was the personal contact each week. Bennett said every week they worked the rolls. He said it might be for Denton they had a clerk that may work the rolls one day per week or two days per week. It varied but every week the roll was worked by someone. He said he was available as the attorney to answer any legal questions. He would contact persons by phone or arrange for a personal appointments with the taxpayer. Miller asked if 55% of their Dallas work force was minority, with 33% percent Afro-American, 10% Hispanic and 12.5% other, and 73% female. He asked that Bennett describe the types of jobs the minorities were in. Bennett said they go all the way from partners to clerks. He said Curtis Mayfield, Senior Attorney, and head of the Beaumont Office was an African-American. They had African-American paralegals, collectors that were African-American as well as Hispanics. They also had managers of various departments that were either African- Americans or Hispanic. Bennet said their firm had always been the leader in the industry in the Stat~ in m£nority involvement and in providing jobs to outside vendors which were minority owned. They were pleased with that and felt their record spoke for itself in that regard. 73 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 6 Gil Bragg of McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen addressed the Council. He said their main office was located in Austin but they had a branch office in Denton. Bragg said the local office was staffed with 5 persons. He introduced the four staff members attending the meeting: Kim Sanders, Shyra Pedice, Karen McGee, and LeAnn Bassett. Donna Elkins was the fifth staff person but was unable to attend the meeting. Bragg said he was there at least one, sometimes two to three days each week and considered himself a Denton resident although his legal residence was in Austin. He said Byron Berry and Richard Hayes would speak regarding their part of the partnership. He said the McCreary firm was established in 1960 by Jack McCreary. They had been in continuous operation with the change in name because of different persons elevated to the level of partner. Their first client in Denton County was Argyle ISD which they represented continuously since 1979. They were hired by the Commissioner's Court of Denton County in 1985 and had represented the County since 1985. They were hired by the City of Denton in 1993. A complete listing of their Denton County clients was listed in the proposal. Bragg said they enjoyed their relationship over the last two years with the City Staff. He worked closely with Mr. Schneider in the Tax Office and also Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Fortune. He said he was the person that met with them on almost a weekly basis monitoring the progress. He stressed that the numbers in their presentation was prepared by the City Staff. He said Hayes, Coffee & Berry were not local counsel but a true, legitimate partnership formed two years ago for the purposes of representing the City of Denton and Denton County. Bragg said it had worked excellently. Bragg referred to his charts and focused on the numbers from the June 6 meeting which charted the current year turnover each year of delinquent taxes and where that had gone. He said it was excellent news for the Council but bad news for a delinquent tax attorney. With the tax year of 1989 - 1993 each year the turnover had steadily gone down. He said the 1994 turnover would be considerably less than $200,000. He said it put a delinquent tax collection firm in a difficult position in trying to stand up and boast about increasing collections year after year when the pie was getting smaller. Bragg said the way you judge performance was by asking what the firm was doing in the first year with what was turned over to them to collect. Bragg said the Council had established traditionally a very aggressive standard of 60% in the first year. The May report showed that in 1989, the percentage started out at over 60% but as the turn over went down the performance went down. He said those numbers were taken straight off the report the Council received the previous weeks report. Beginning with the two years they had been the delinquent tax attorney Council could see in 1992 by the end of May they were at 58.24% but the year prior to that the Heard firm wa~ as 53.41%. He said currently they had exceeded their goal even though they had until the end of June to reach 60%. At the end of May they had received a 61.54%. He said he checked with the Tax City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 7 Office and they were up to 61.94% as of the previous Friday. Bragg said he took the worst month they ever had in collections and if they did that well in June they would reach almost 62.5%. Taking half of what they did in June of the previous year, $5,000, they would reach over 63%. He told the Council that they were aggressively going after and trying to get the dollars into the City coffers as soon as possible. He thought Council was also entitled to know where the taxes were that were delinquent at the time they were hired. As of May 30, 52.5% had been collected. Of the remainder, 21% was in some form of litigation; less than 1% had some sort of pay out arrangement or the people were over 65; 11.5% was in a pending bankruptcy; and 14% they were still working on. He said that 14% was the most difficult since it was the oldest years. They were still making efforts to collect that but in all honesty they were probably vacant lots that would have to be sold and they were aggressively working in that regard. Mr. Berry of the McCreary firm addressed the Council. He said what differentiated their firm was the fit they had between local attorney's working with the state wide collection firm. He felt Council should give them a chance because of the work that had been done in the past and the program they had together. He said they did what they told the Council they would do 2 years ago. Looking at apples to apples they could see that the collection numbers had gone up from the prior firm. He said he talked with the people at the County and asked them who they preferred to work with and they had an excellent working relationship with the partnership they were presenting to Council. Berry said the fit was going to continue and they hoped to continue to work with the City both in delinquent tax collection and the work they had done outside the partnership individually and as two firms working for the City of Denton. Richard Hayes stressed that they did in fact have a real partnership that worked well for the City the last couple of years. He said they did title research, analysis of change of title, court appearances, and appeared in bankruptcy court. He also talked about the previous history of declining effectiveness which was the reason Council went out for RFP the last time. Now there was a history of improving collections. In regards to the previous firms presentation about a $34,000 shortfall, Hayes said Council could look at their own numbers and there was no relevance they could find. In regards, to the School District numbers they collected there was no analysis to tie to that number. Hayes said the bottom line was that when Council looked at audited internal data there was an improvement. He introduced the staff they brought with them. He said they would appreciate Council's support and vote on the issue. They were committed to continue doing an excellent job. 75 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 8 Miller asked what their method of contact was with the citizen in regards to tax collection. The speaker said two times a year they made a concerted effort to contact citizens that owed delinquent taxes to follow up a mailing. He explained that the conversation was to say they just sent a mailing and wanted to be sure they received it and that the information on the tax roll accurate. He said the conversation inevitably turned to "how can I pay this, is there someone I can talk to, etc.." In addition to the telephone, the contact was constant. There were citizens in the office everyday. He said they rent a large space across the street in the Denton County Tax Office building. They also represented the County so if they were there to pay County taxes they probably owed City taxes as well. He said all pay out arrangements with the City were monitored by them so the City Staff was not encumbered by having to continually know who was current on the pay out arrangements and who was not. Miller asked to what extent the people in the Hayes, Coffee and Berry office got involved in the process. The speaker said they had a real estate paralegal that has done title work on a regular basis. There had been times when Mr. Bragg had a particular thorny thing and since he was board certified in commercial and residential real estate he had done some of the complicated title analysis. Virtually everyone had gone to court for the trial/determination on the matter. There were a number of things they did. He had met with City staff before to handle matters and there had been lots of involvement. Miller said looking at the statistics relative to equal employment opportunity, the Afro-American population was 4.5% and Hispanic 6.8% for a total of 11.4%. The speaker said the numbers in the report were accurate. Of the Denton Office Staff 20% were African-American. Mr. Bragg from the firm also addressed the question. He said there was a lot of talk about all the equal opportunity but they realized that there were no attorney's in Denton County that fit what they needed. He said they could not help that but what they could do was to hire people. He said they hired Loranna Morales as a junior in high school who worked her way through TWU. They tried to get her to go to law school but she refused. After working with them, she was going to be a teacher. He said they were really proud of that. Miller asked if the 78 people they listed were Denton people. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 9 Bragg said there was a line indicating the Denton Office. The remainder of the chart was everyone in the firm that was not in Denton. He said to the Council that 2 years ago they hired two Hispanic gentleman from the UT Law School as Law Clerks. Their intention at that time was to have both gentlemen work for them and possibly one would consent to come to work for them. They were so pleased with their performance offers were extended to them and as of August 1, the would have 2 Hispanic attorneys in the firm. At that time there would be 20% minority. Krueger asked Bragg how he would address the question that they were not a local firm. Bragg commented that it was all about how you defined local. He said he sleeps in Austin, Texas but spends a lot of time and money in Denton. He said he was obligated in the form of office rent and salaries to spend $159,000 every year in the City. He said he thought that made him local. He bought the suit he was wearing at JT's along with his shirt and his 1994 Yukon from James Wood. He said he was sorry that had not felt compelled to Denton because they were living in Austin first but he said he loved Denton an felt local. Krueger said he received a letter from a citizen regarding a complaint with the firm as far as getting a release after the delinquent taxes were paid because Bragg was unavailable to sign the release. He asked if that was out of the ordinary or was that something experienced because he was in Austin. The citizen said Bragg was the only one that could sign the release. Krueger asked if that was true and if so what could be done to alleviate that in the future. Bragg said he was the one that signed the releases. If they dismiss a pending lawsuit and they had somehow made an error, that lawsuit could be refiled. If they released a judgement and it got recorded and they refiled the lawsuit because it was released in error they would have a serious problem. Because of that they had very strenuous safeguards regarding actual copies of receipts and verification that the taxes and court costs were actually paid. He said for a lot of people with delinquent taxes it was alright to let them go delinquent, or to let the lawyers take a judgement but when they go pay the taxes they want the release the instant they write the check. He thought that would be an unreasonable position for any lawyer whether in Denton or not. The got the gentleman his release in a timely manner. He said if the Council wanted them to establish a procedure where he was not the only one to sign the release they would be glad to make that change. He said it was to protect their clients from an inadvertent release being signed. 77 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 10 Hayes said the gentleman paid by check on a Thursday. Part of the delay was to allow the check time to clear and Gil Bragg was also not in the office. Hayes said the release was signed on the following Monday or Tuesday. Cott asked how many releases they signed each week, month, or year. Bragg said it was not an inordinate number. Cott asked if one was a significant number. Bragg said they do a lot more dismissals. Mayor Castleberry asked if it took longer to supply the release than it took the client to pay the taxes. Bragg said no. He said the gentleman's attitude and persistence actually impeded the process. Mark Burroughs addressed the Council on behalf of Sawko & Burroughs. He had lived in Denton for a number of years but his office location was in Ft. Worth. He said Lewisville ISD was the first taxing unit he represented in Denton County and he did so for a number of years until they consolidated their collection services with the attorney for non tax purposes. He thought there were several reasons why they should be the City's next delinquent tax attorney. He said they were the best bidder of the three finalists for several reasons. First, he said he was here. He was the attorney that would be assigned the tax collections work for the City. The other two firms were not local firms even though they had affiliated with local counsel. If the local counsel was competent to perform the tax collections work they would be doing it themselves and not going out of County and sending a great majority of the attorney's fees out of County. Burroughs said he was with the firm of Hayes, Coffey & Berry the previous year and was generally responsible for tax work and administering their contract and their work with Gil Bragg of McCreary, Veselka. He said he broke back out with his partner Greg Sawko and decided to enter back into his old realm of business, collecting delinquent. He said he had been doing it for 13 years and was quite experienced, starting out in the City of Houston representing a number of taxing units in the surrounding area. He had represented taxing units not only in Denton County but Cooke County, Collin County, Smith County, and various other places. Burroughs said he focused on delinquent tax collections and for that reason they developed their own tax collections program. He was personally involved on a daily basis with the tax collections work. Their general program was to do the mass mailings like the other firms and they also file hundreds and hundreds of law suits for the units they represent. Before they take any significant step in the 78 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 11 collections process they communicate with each tax payer. He said he spends the majority of his time each day on tax business and had a high degree of expertise in the tax collection field. He said he was the only delinquent tax collection specialist competent and capable of performing the work based in Denton. He said the current staff level was six. In the past he had a little greater staff and less staff. In Ft. Worth he consistently had 25% minority hiring. Currently they had one person of American Indian decent. He also said their work was restricted to Denton and Cook Counties and they were much more efficient for that reason. The had a greater attorney and staff ratio to taxing unit than any of the other firms by far. He spends his time in Denton and Cook County. He said his charts showed that they had superior rates of collection which had to do with the personal hands-on approach they took in the collections process. He presented information regarding the total adjusted levy for the last fiscal year for the City of Denton and six of the taxing unit clients he represented and compared that with the total collections of current and delinquent. He said by using that method you account for a lower turnover of delinquency. For the City of Denton, the last fiscal year ended, 99.9% total rate of collection was achieved. His representative taxing units, Lake Dallas, Town of Flower Mound, Little Elm, City of Gainsville, North Central Texas College District, and Gainsvllle Hospital all had superior rates of collections to the City. He was trying to indicate that his approach to the tax business works and gets superior results. Being based locally would give the city a double advantage over the competing law firms. If someone had a question they could call him. If there was a hang up in the system he was there every day to adjust to them. He said his approach had been effective in the results. He presented a second chart showing what was happening with the City of Gainsville. In 1989-90 and 1993-94 he represented the City of Gainsville. The interceding years they were represented by Curt, Goggan & Blair, now Blair, Goggan, represented the city. He said they turned the program around. Collection severely declined during the years with Curt Goggan because they did not have a local attorney who was active in the collection process. He said one of the reasons he departed from Hayes, Coffey & Berry was the level of activity of the local counsel. He wanted to be more personally active in the collections process. He said the range of services of what they did with collections encompassed mass mailings, and everything the other firms did. They also followed through. He said in certain circumstances you have to go to foreclosure, that was the hammer and that was what made people pay. If you just threaten all the time there was a tendency for people to say you do not follow through. Burroughs presented the total history of fore¢losure~ for all taxing units in Denton County. Of those taxing units 143 foreclosures took place during 1987 - 1995 of which 90 of those were his taxing units. He represented a number of the smaller taxing units and Lewisville ISD City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 12 where there were several foreclosures. He wanted to make sure the job was done right, consistently. He felt they were the best firm because they paid attention on a monthly basis to what was going on with the revenue situation so if the City was falling behind, he would be there to address it and jump on it. He said if the Council, City Manager or staff had a suggestion as to how to approach it he was there on a daily basis to get that from them. Since the fees were not being divided in his firm to out of County firms he was the only local law firm that kept all of the attorneys fees in Denton, did all the work in Denton which meant more jobs in Denton. He said because they live and work in Denton everyday, the City of Denton was a very important aspect of their work lives and they spent all of their fund in Denton. Burroughs said there was a magnifying effect of the dollar utilization by spending the money in Denton. Approximately $56,000 in attorney fees of tax payers money was being paid to the delinquent tax attorney, the majority of which went out of County. He strongly requested that the Council consider them as the next delinquent tax attorney. Council Member Krueger said it had been brought to his attention that their modus of operandi was to file suits rather than seek a settlement. He asked what their standard operating procedure when they received a tax collection. Burroughs responded that they always worked with the tax payers and let them know before they took any step that they needed to communicate with them. He said one of the biggest reasons a person went delinquent was the lack of communication. They enter into payment agreements, and on many occasions work with tax payers to try to get a title company to pay up on delinquent taxes that were collected at closing but were not disbursed out. He said it was not in their best interest to file a lawsuit and they did everything they could not to get to that step. He said the 143 foreclosures of the 8 year period was not a tremendous number but it was an effective number when looking at his jurisdictions. It showed that eventually if you did not respond or get involved in trying to correct your own problem they would go to lawsuit if necessary. Mayor Castleberry asked if there were questions for any of the three firms. Council Member Brock asked if the firms would like a minute or two for a rebuttle after having heard each others arguments. Mayor Pro Tem Biles agreed that a couple minutes to respond to the other presentations would be appropriate. McCormick from Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks said they were proud of their performance and made every effort to verify their numbers 79 80' City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 13 and have the source data for them. The City of Denton had always made it a practice to look at the firms performance based on the 60% collection of the current year taxes. The numbers provided by the McCreary firm showed an 11 month comparison. She said the Council should be aware that it was not a complete representation of any of the law firms performance. She said if the Council were to look at the City of Denton and Denton ISD that year and last year the City of Denton was at 61% and Denton School District was at 63.5% and through the end of April the City of Denton was at 59.08% the School District was at 62.76%. She said they thought that was important. Burroughs from Sawko & Burroughs referenced the charts and said he realized it was hard for the Council to try to weigh the statistics. He said on the chart where it was the 99% and 101%, 1% to the City was $140,000 in collections. Council Member Cott commented that it did not matter where you stop as long as you stop consistently the same place year after year after there was a relative basis. McCormick from Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks responded that if you were judging a law firm's performance on a 12 month basis it would be reasonable to expect that you had a difference in what months you collected the taxes. There was never one year when Blair, Goggan did not meet the Council's goal. She said in 1991 they collected over 9% in the last month alone. Depending on when that snap shot was taken you would see a different picture. Cott asked if they were comparing numbers the same day each year and the same number of days, should not the numbers be relative. McCormick from Blair, Goggan said if you were judging the law firms performance based on a 60% collection of current year turnover then what the Council saw was not a full year's comparison but 11 months. They could collect the entire 60% in the last month. She said what Council saw as a snap shot was not a full year's collection performance. Council Member Brock motioned to direct staff to prepare a contract for collection of delinquent taxes with the firm of Blair, Goggan, Sampson & Meeks. She said the firm they had the last two years has done a good job but believes Blair, Goggan could do better. She also said she appreciated their treatment of the citizens with difficulties and illnesses and so forth. Their record of minority hiring' and patronizing minority vendors was outstanding and unequaled by any firm of their sort in the state. She said they had an excellent state wide record, the most sophisticated approaches as well as a more personal human approach. 81 City of Denton City Council' Mih~~s~' ~' June 13, 1995 Page 14 Council Member Miller seconded the motion. Council Member Krueger asked each firm who prepared their brochure. Ail three firms responded that their brochures were produced in house. Mayor Pro Tem Biles said he was personally acquainted with all three of the local counsel of all three firms and considered all of the attorneys to be personal friends. On roll vote Cott, "nay", Brock "aye", Miller "aye", Castleberry "nay", Biles "aye", Young "nay", Krueger "aye". Motion passed with a 4-3 vote. 2. Council received a report and gave staff direction regarding renewing hotel occupancy tax recipient contracts. Jon Fortune, Chief Finance Officer reminded the Council that staff made a presentation made at the May 23 meeting regarding the process to the current contract with hotel occupancy recipients. At that time Council asked that staff come back for further discussion. Fortune referenced the back up items presented to Council. First, he referenced the memorandum dated February 15 which was sent to the hotel occupancy subcommittee appointed last year to study in depth the distribution and allocation of the hotel occupancy tax. That committee consisted of Mayor Castleberry, Council Member Brock, and Council Member Perry. The memorandum described the five year history of the allocation of the revenue source. He said prior to 1991-92 there was approximately $.01 distributed to the Greater Denton Arts Council building fund. It was determined that particular allocation was an inappropriate use of the funds. A decision was made that the City would continue paying the Greater Denton Arts Council building fund out of the General Fund. The City would then use the hotel occupancy funds previously given to the Arts Council for eligible activities that would promote tourism in the City. The second backup item he referenced was the subcommittee's recommendation to the Council, dated February 22. The third memo reconciled the subcommittee's recommendation and the motion made the evening of that recommendation. He said that was how Staff ended up with the contracts they had. The final attachment was a memorandum from the external auditor in which he addressed the issue of budgeting for hotel occupancy tax funds. The current contract expired in September 1995. Fortune said staff's primary reason for coming back to Council was to get further direction regarding renewing the contracts for October 1, 1995. Fortune said he needed three Dieces of information from the Council prior to coming back with the actual contracts. He reminded Council that each recipient recommended would have to make budget presentation in late July 82 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 15 early August. Fortune asked Council for direction on which organizations should be funded next year. He said those currently funded include the Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Denton Arts Council, North Texas State Fair Association, and Denton County Historic Foundation. Several other organizations made a request for funds in the past year but were not recommended by the hotel occupancy subcommittee. Fortune also asked what type of funding scenario Council would like to pursue. He referenced a graph from the back up material and said the graph looked at the current budget and the allocation of the total $504,000 that each recipient received. Fortune said it was anticipated that $546,000 would be received in 1995 from hotel occupancy funds. That estimate was derived from taking 5% growth over the prior year actual receipts. He said if Council were to keep the current year allocation percentage based upon next year's projection, there would be actual increases for each of the recipients. Fortune also asked for direction on the length of the contract term. Previous contracts were for terms of 4 years. He reminded Council there was also a 6 month contract that expired September 30. Council Member Krueger asked that Fortune review his first question in detail. Fortune commented that there were 5 contracts with organizations to receive hotel occupancy funding which would expire September 30. He said staff was looking for direction from Council as to whether they would like to continue a contract with that group of five recipients, add to those recipients, or have some other proposal for funding. Council Member Krueger presented a proposal he felt would allow for expansion of the Lalor funds to be spent and spread among more people and still maintain current budget for the 5 recipients and perhaps allow for some increase and expansion of the recipients in funds. He said the back up material showed in 1990 and 1991 how the 7% hotel occupancy was distributed. He said 3% went to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, 1% to GDAC Operations, 1% to GDAC building fund, .88% to Denton County Historical Museum .12% to Denton County Historic Foundation and 1% to North Texas State Fairgrounds. Subsequently, that was changed and based upon a different allocation, those allocations being the Chamber of Commerce which dropped 15% from 3.0% to 2.85%, GDAC lost 1% because of the building fund, Denton County Historical Museum went from .88% to .84%, Denton County Historical Foundation went from .12% to .11% and the North Texas State Fair Association was at 1.0% and dropped to .95%. He said he had a serious problem with placing a cap on any of the allocations. His philosophy was that none of the groups should be penalized for doing their job and getting the money out and promoting the City of Denton but he also felt it needed to be expanded. He said if Council looked at staff's 83 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 16 recommendation for fiscal budget 1995-96 there was a 5% projected increased in taxes. Krueger presented a formula designed to expand the program. He said for instance, the Chamber of Commerce was expected to receive $17,000 more in 1995-96. You could take their current tax rate allocation of 2.85% and reduce it to a 2.7% - 2.75% and they would still maintain as much as they made in 1994-95 and $300 - $400 more. He said the GDAC allocation could also be reduced from 1.0% to .95% or .98% and they would still receive more money than the previous year. He said he did not touch the Denton County Historical Foundation because they had such a small amount to begin with or any of the other eligible city expenses. He took a certain percentage off the top three allocations which Would increase the participation of another entity to promote the City of Denton and also to promote tourism and fill the hotels which would increase the number percentage by which the budget was determined without decreasing the amount of current revenue of any entity they had so far. That was an approach that did not place a burden or a cap on any one of the original recipients. Secondly, it provided and incentive for them to go out and market and fill the hotels. Thirdly, it provided an incentive and market for other entities like the Main Street Program, for example, to get actively involved and try to get some of the funds. Krueger said it was a win/win situation for the Council and all of the other entities involved. He said it also allowed for the reserves to grow because the more people in it and participating the more tourism and filled hotels, the eligible expense from the city goes up. Krueger asked that the Council consider his proposal. Council Member Cott felt Krueger was headed in basically the right direction. Cott explained that the hotels and motels all over the State of Texas which paid a bed tax. That bed tax was allowed to be used by the local jurisdiction for anything that promoted tourism. He said the problem he saw was that all over the State the way the number was chosen was so capricious that the hotels and motels should organize and say give back the money and they would do the job themselves. He said some people did that with the electricity companies. He suggested that Council set up a formula to stick by and then do what Council Member Krueger suggested. Krueger said the proposal was basically a declining formula. By dropping each entity, over the years their whole dollars would continue to increase and the economy would grow allowing in another two years to drop another percentage to add other entities. Council Member Brock responded to Council Member Cott's comments that the hotels and motels were paying the tax. She said they did not pay the tax, the people who stayed in the hotels and motels paid the tax and it went to the State and then the State allocated a certain percentage to localities. She asked the Attorney to clarify the ordinance regarding the expenditure of the taxes. 84 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 17 Herb Prouty, City Attorney, asked Mike Bucek, Senior Assistant City Attorney, to respond and discuss that provision of the ordinance. Bucek said it allowed 1% for the arts and there was no requirement about did that bring in tourism. The presumption was that arts would do that and there was no criteria that required it. Mayor Pro Tem Biles said as a pro bono action he represented all of the contractual recipients with the exception of the North Texas State Fair at the inception of the very first contracts negotiated with the then City Attorney Debra Drayovitch. He said the tax was by design an incentive. The harder the Convention and Visitor's Bureau worked to bring outside folks in to Denton, the more hotel motel occupancy tax would be paid. As a result, the revenue to the Convention's and Visitors Bureau went up. He said it was the american way, the harder you work the more successful you were the more fruits of your labor you should be able to enjoy. He said that applied to all of the recipients. Biles said he was involved in downtown Denton issues and a strong supporter of the Downtown area since the day he returned to the City of Denton. For every dollar that the City of Denton put in to Downtown, there was a return on that investment of 23 to 1. He said there was no other entity in the City of Denton that had that kind of return on investment. He said although he participated with each and every one of the organizations and had close relationships with a number of them, he said the Denton Central Business District Association- the Main Street program far out shadowed and out performed the other organizations in terms of raw dollars brought in to town. As for the issue of what entity should be funded, an entity should be added to the list because of its proven performance was the Denton Central Business District Association-the private sector partner with the municipally funded Main Street program. Mayor Castleberry restated Fortune's questions. The first question was which agencies. He suggested that Council open it to everyone that would like to make a presentation. Krueger said that was fine with him. He thought the adoption of the tax rate allocation would formulate much more if they adopted his proposal. To add more people on would necessitate some type of an adoption of what he was laying out. He said he did not want to place a burden on the people they already had because he believed they were doing an excellent job promoting Denton and filling hotels. He thought at the bare minimum they should receive the same amount they had last year. He felt Council should be in accord and agree to that before they started adding people. Council Member Brock wanted to be sure she was clear on Krueger's proposal. She asked if he was saying they should reduce the present percentages each agency received slightly so that if the City of Denton City Counci!~<M~u~9S~<.!~ ~~ June 13, 1995 Page 18 projected 5% increase was met, they would actually get more even though their percentage of the total was less. Council Member Miller thought it made sense to continue funding the one they had and maybe in the next year or so look at other agencies. He agreed about the downtown association but was not sure they had enough time to make the right decision. He suggested leaving the rate they paid the same for those organizations, look at the budget staff presented which would give each organization an increase and look at that as the new cap. If the 5% was exceeded that amount would accrue to the reserve. That cap would remain for a two year period so if there was another 5% increase next year, there would be another $42,000. That way Council could see what kind of experience they were having under that kind of scenario. That would be in keeping with what they said to the agencies as to why the item was being deferred at that time. Miller also responded to Council Member Krueger's comment about keeping the allocation for Denton County Historical Foundation the same. He said the committee recommended that it be cut in half because there was a feeling that over a two year period that perhaps it would be eliminated. He asked that the Council consider that approach. Krueger said he did not believe that any kind of cap to any of the organizations was any kind of economic incentive. He said that the sky was the limit. If they filled up every hotel in Denton at 100% occupancy they should receive well over $300,000. He said that was incentive. If they decided to put any kind of cap on those organizations they would be cutting their own throats in the long run. He said he was not privy to the committee information about the Historical Foundation. He said you could pick any 10 entities and still felt the numbers ought to be the same. They should reflect a reduction and an expansion to allow more entities to come and promote the City of Denton. If they waited two more years they waited two years too late. Krueger said if they expanded and allowed a new entity to come in and in 2 years allow another entity to come in and promote the City of Denton until they run out of entities, they would be far better off because they still had no ceiling. Council Member Cott refereed to the source of the money which was the traveler in the hotel and the fact that most hotels like the Raddison would rather have the money for themselves to work with. He said as the Council added new agencies that could use the money, he believed they needed financial standards because he did not feel the hotel and motels wanted to be venture capitalists. They did not want to put a new type of organization in to business over a 5 to ? to 9 year period. They wanted to get instant people into their hotel. He believed that it was Council's job to set a standard by which organizations could get in and use the money. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 19 Biles said his example of the Main Street program was among those leading the community in setting the standard with the organizations they had and the number of proven participants in their activities. He said the Visioning process was nearing conclusion and the Fantus report was receiving action by the Council. He said the City was growing and if they waited for two more years to review who the recipients were they would have by passed many golden opportunities. Biles said it was time for them to ensure they had full participation and took full advantage of the opportunities. Biles respectfully submitted that they add to Staff's list the Denton Central Business District Association. He said if it was the pleasure of the Council that they reopen to those entities that met the standards, as Cott suggested, and statutory criteria by bringing folks in from outside the City of Denton to fill hotel beds and possibly build more hotel beds, that was what they needed to do. He disagreed with Miller that they should stick with the five entities and wait another 2 years. He urged his position that Denton was a growing City and needed to understand that the numbers presented by Fortune showed an increase that if they kept the percentage the same the Convention and Visitors Bureau would have an additional $17,077. If they could take that incremental increase, give it to the Main Street program that brings thousands of people into Denton they then would have more money to market their events more intensely to bring even more money in so everyone would receive an increase. Mayor Castleberry asked Biles if he was saying that it should be opened that any group that would like to be considered for Lalor funds to be able to come before the Council and make a presentation. Biles responded yes, if they had a demonstrable compliance with the statutory criteria and they were bringing people from outside the City of Denton. He said because they had filled the percentage on arts they would be talking about pure tourism. He did not feel that would present much of a delay since they could fast track the process. Mayor Castleberry asked if he was saying that the current recipients would make a presentation plus any other entity that wanted to come and make a Dresentation. Biles said he agreed with Miller that the five entities they had before needed to continue receiving funding. He understood the justification for the reduction on the Denton County Historical Foundation and did not have a problem with that. He said he was talking about adding other entities. Council Member Brock suggested that the three new Council receive the application materials from the current recipients and those 87 City of Denton City Counci! Minu~es: ~ June 13, 1995 Page 20 applying to be added to the list so they would not necessarily have to open up and have presentations. Mayor Castleberry thought if the process was opened to one it should be opened to anybody. Biles said if the Council was provided an opportunity to review and reconsider those earlier applicants in addition to the five that would probably expedite the process. He said that was not making it wide open but just to those who presented to the subcommittee. City Manager Harrell commented on Council Member Krueger's suggestion as a point of information that they need to be working towards. He said a couple of years ago the state law was changed so that the City Council had to formally approve the budget for each of the organizations they funded. He said it would seem prudent if Council followed his proposal they would formulate a contract with the Chamber of Commerce Convention and Visitors Bureau, for example, that said they would get 40% or whatever the percentage was, of the hotel motel tax or "X" amount whichever was less. He said at some point they would have to give the agency a dollar budget for the Council to approve. He suggested that Council could get to where he wanted to go but they would have to plug in a dollar number that would become the budget for that organization. Council Member Krueger said found it strange that the law was interpreted a different way from one year to the next. He said if that was the way the law was written he was not sure that was what it was written for. He felt strongly against putting a cap on anything and did not feel they were being realistic if they tried to put a 10%, 15% or 20 % over what they really thought would happen. He asked if they collected more sales tax than allotted did the law require them to give back. Harrell responded no but they were not permitted to spend it. He said if the money was not budgeted and allocated it would be rolled over and becomes part of the fund balance for the next year. Krueger said the next year they could budget it to spend. Harrell said he was not trying to take issue with where he wanted to go but was trying to help Council get there. Krueger asked if they had an Attorney General's opinion on the law. Mayor Pro Tem Biles said the objective the statute was written upon was that those recipients of the money could either die by the sword or be victorious with the sword. If they were to blow it when they used the dollars, their revenue would go down and they 88 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 21 would have fewer dollars to spend on marketing to bring folks in from out of town. If they were successful and numbers were going up, they would have more dollars and benefit from more and more dollars. If Council adopted a budget that had a fixed dollar amount on it and the organizations could not exceed that, they would have no incentive to work harder. Biles said he knew prior Councils had a concern with reserves and how money had been spent. He said those were statutory concerns. What they were talking about was were they operating on the incentive that the statute had built. If they worked harder and were more successful, they should reap the benefits and be able to use the extra money. If the City Attorney advised Council they had to have a fixed dollar and they could not exceed that dollar amount in the budget year, it would make him mad if any excess revenue generated as the result of the hard work of the contractual recipients was turned over to the City to spend on whatever. Instead it would be used for what the statute said it ought to be used for, to bring tourist dollars into the City. He said he did not trust government with his tax dollars and if he was going to spend a night in a hotel bed he wanted the hotel tax to be used for that purpose. Cott said the supplier of the money said be careful with my money no matter what you spend it on. Be sure it was used to bring people into the City but if not do not spend it. Harrell said everyone was struggling to be legal and yet get where Biles articulated. He said if the Council proceeded by saying they want "X" percentage and that percentage should go all of the agencies and the City collects more than that then the agencies should get more than the amount estimated from the fixed percentage. He thought it was perfectly legal as long as they recognized they could carry that over to the next year. In other words, Council adopted a budget based on a 5% increase noting that the Chamber would get 40% of the amount. If the estimate was low and, the amount grew by 8% instead of 5%, then the following year when Council starts the budgeting process for the Chamber, they would get credit for the extra 3% collected the last year and then allocate 40% of the estimate for the following year. As long as Council was comfortable that was doable. Krueger said that was not a cap. He said budgetary wise they may need to put a blanket coverage on it but as long as that was known by all the entities involved that was acceptable. Biles said if instead they made 8% instead of 5% the extra 3% profit would be allocated the following year according to the contra~t that was in place during the year the money was earned so the entities would have the incentive to work harder the next year. Harrell felt the contracts could be set up that way. 89 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 22 Krueger said to Council Member Cott that it was not the hotel's money that they were spending. It was the citizen's money. It was not about a hotel being filled. He said it was about filling the hotel. Cott said he accepted the fact that it was about filling the hotel but it was also about some company investing money, putting up a building, buying sheets and pillow cases and saying to itself, "we got stuck with this thing somehow and the City of Denton is playing around with our money. We would like to get it back. Maybe what we should do is get 1000 hotels in the state". Council Member Miller said he heard what was said about the incentives. Hopefully, they were contracting with responsible organizations. What they were looking at was how much they had to budget. In most cases that money was just a part of their budgets and he did not feel that any of the organizations would say because they got $200,000 that year, they would stop working because they would not get any more money. Secondly, he said the broad purpose was to bring tourists into the City but dared say that the 2 universities accounted for as much of the hotel business as any other organization in terms of bringing it in. He could not fully accept that it would automatically be increased by that amount. He thought that whatever direction the Council went if they were going to say reduce the rate and say to them if you work you get as much or more, Council should sit down with each organization because some assumptions were made before that did not go over very well. He said he was willing to listen but did not buy the idea that it had to be done for each of the organizations to be responsible and to bring tourists into the City. Mayor Castleberry pointed out that he previously served on the committee and the Historical Foundation was reduced because they thought they were sitting on too large a reserve. The Convention Bureau was sitting on $200,000 reserve. He asked which agencies would be funded from the Lalor fund, the ones currently receiving it, or to open it to everyone. He asked if it were opened to everyone did Council want to use the backup material without having presentations. Council Member Biles motioned to address the issue of continued funding for the current five contractual entities and for staff to bring to Council the written materials previously submitted and that it be limited in scope to those entities. He also asked that Staff come back to Council with the necessary backup for each contractual entity to receive a percentage allocation of the total $.07 tax revenue with a dollar budget established for each of the contractual entities with a provision that if the dollar budget was exceeded for the contractual year those monies were to be held over for the next contractual year and must be allocated back to the 90 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 23 same entities with the same tax rate allocation. The third part of the motion was for a two-year contract effective October 1, 1995. Council Member Krueger seconded the motion. Council Member Young asked if the Black Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce were qualified to receive some of the funds. Mayor Castleberry said if they had a convention bureau they would probably qualify. Bucek said under the statute Council was enabled to have a Conventions and Visitors Bureau and Council had elected to have the Chamber of Commerce perform that function. For the remaining funds Council would pick out what they thought would encourage tourism. There was a limit of $.01 for the arts and the rest would be allocated among groups that provide a budget saying they would do these things to encourage tourism. He said the Black Chamber of Commerce could present an event that would bring tourism in and Council could consider it. At the point Staff went through the process there was no response from either organization of having an event like that to encourage tourism. In the realm of possibility he said it could exist. Young said he wanted to see the Council add them to the list. Bucek said there was no presentation received from them. When the process was opened up there was no movement by them to show that kind of event. The normal circumstance of a chamber of commerce was to bring business in. He said they would have to have a tourism type program in order for them to bid to do that. He was not aware that they had such a program and asked Council Member Young if he knew that they did. Young said at a recent meeting at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, Reverend Chew and Herman Wesley were discussing that and putting together a package. He felt that the Council should do what they could to help those chambers because they were interested in drawing people into Denton. He said they had the same interest as the other chamber and he thought Council should con~ider them. Cott asked Fortune when the next report would be. Fortune responded that staff was hoping to receive direction so they could come back at Council's will. Cott asked if it would be possible to leave those two pieces open and if they got in fine. In terms of presenting a report they would need to do it under the Council's format. 91 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 ~'" ...... Page 24 Mayor Castleberry asked Prouty for his comments. Prouty said the points made on the two organizations by Council Member Young would probably go under the first part of Biles' motion that it should be limited to the written materials previously extended. He said to include the Black and Hispanic Chambers of Commerce that part of the motion would need to be amended to either extend the period in which written materials could be received or to open it up to allow those organizations to make written presentations. Council Member Brock mentioned to Council Member Young that the Conventions and Visitors Bureau was housed within the Chamber of Commerce but it was a separate entity. She said in some cities she had discovered the Convention and Visitor's Bureau was housed by the city. In other cities it was not apart of the city government or chamber of commerce. It was a free standing entity. In fact in Fort Worth it was a free standing entity and they receive all of he hotel motel tax. She said the Chamber did not use any of those funds for their own operations. It just so happened that they took on the responsibility of organizing the Convention and Visitors Bureau. Cott said Council may not come back for two weeks and they needed to understand the rules. He suggested that it be left open for them and if they got in with a package done the proper way like all the others they should be judged like everyone else. Council Member Biles declined to amend the motion for the reason that the backup was misleading. He said it was not the Chamber of Commerce but the Convention and Visitor's Bureau. He said it was a self sustaining entity that had it's own budget. The money was not received nor spent by the Chamber of Commerce. He did not want any one to misperceive his motivations on why he declined to accept the amendment in that there was only one convention and visitors bureau in Denton. He thought Miller made an excellent point in that Council needed to expedite the process. They currently had five qualified recipients and those that had previously made presentations and were likewise qualified. He suggested to Council Member Young that when the Black and Hispanic Chamber of Commerce formally establish a convention and visitors bureau type function that it would then be time to come to the table with that. He felt Council needed to make progress with those to the point where they could vote on it at the next meeting. Young said they had plans just like the other Chamber of Commerce. They had their own travelers bureau. He ~aid R~v~rend Chew was talking about bringing the Black Baptist Church Union to Denton. He asked that the Council give them a chance to come make a presentation and be on the same field with everyone else. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 25 Council Member Young motioned, Cott seconded to amend Biles motion. On roll vote Cott, "aye", Brock "aye", Miller "aye", Castleberry "aye", Biles "nay", Young "aye", Krueger "aye". Motion carried with a 6-1 vote. Council Member Miller asked for clarification on the main motion. He thought they were to move ahead with the five there and receive information from a number of other organizations and make determinations during the current budget cycle. Biles said he understood that they had to visit the contract issue and have them in place by September 30 and have them into effect October 1. Miller asked what was the intent of the motion. Biles responded that the motion's intent was to have everything in place and signed by October 1. Miller said the second part of the motion had to do with the tax rate allocation. He did not hear any numbers for that. Biles said they did not know how many entities there would be so they could not yet establish numbers. Miller wanted to know if it was conceivable that if there were 4 or 5 more entities the Convention and Visitor's Bureau could go from 2.85% to 2.5%. Biles responded that conceivably given the logic Council Member Krueger presented he did not anticipate that being the case. Each of the present five contractual entities would still receive an increase in funding over last year. Miller asked if he was making a determination that they would receive an increase. Biles said the motion was trying to resolve how to arrive at a legal answer to allowing the incentive to remain in place. He said that was by having a percentage allocation subject to a dollar budget but allowing the excess revenue to be reserved over back in the same proportion to the same entity. Miller said that was answered but wanted to go back to the percentage. Krueger said his specific recommendation was that each Lalor recipient would maintain or better their current dollar receipt in effect by lowering each tax allocated deal you could add one or two 93 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 26 depending on how much you wanted them to receive but not to be any more than what was equal to or more than what they received in the previous year. He said every Saturday morning for the past 12 years he got up at 5:30 to deliver mail for the U.S. Government and got paid for 9.5 hours. He said it took about 6 hours to do it but he still got paid for 9 and that was called incentive. Miller said he understood incentives and understood the way those organizations worked. He said they were in there day in and day out to provide a service to the community. Mayor Castleberry said a motion was made and amended which would include additional entities. Biles said his motion was that it was premature to establish amounts if they were going to allow other entities. Therefore,'the way he answered Fortune's second question as to how much funding each recipient receive, was to direct staff to achieve a methodology of allocation that a percentage allocation of the total tax be written into the contract based upon an anticipated 5% increase over the previous year. He pointed again to page 2 of the June 9 memo. Cott called for the question. Mayor Castleberry said the motion had been amended to include additional agencies, the existing recipients would receive their current level plus five percent. Biles said his motion was that staff prepare the necessary backup for Council to consider. After they decided the following week or two weeks how many recipients they would come back to decide the percentages. Mayor Castleberry said at first Biles did not say that. He asked if he was changing the motion. Biles responded that he was not at all changing the motion. He said he had not yet ever established a percentage or dollar amount. Rather he was attempting to clarify the discussion of the last several weeks. Mayor Castleberry asked if it was wide open. He said he wanted everyone to understand what they were voting for or against. Biles said his motion did not establish a percentage allocation nor did it establish a dollar budget. Rather it directs staff to ascertain that it was a workable formula. It was a different type of formula than had been used in the past and it was also different than the formula that had most recently been included in Council City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 27 backup. He asked that the City Attorney and the Finance Department come back to Council to verify that it was an appropriate methodology in arriving at he contracts. He said the third point was for a 2 year contract. On roll vote Cott, "aye", Brock "aye", Miller "nay", Castleberry "aye", Biles "aye", Young "aye", Krueger "aye". Motion carried with a 6-1 vote. 3. Council held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding appointment of Blue Ribbon CIP Committee. City Manager Harrell said Council Member Brock asked that the item be placed on the agenda for discussion. He said Staff was almost completely out of approved projects for CIP funding. The last major bond issue as a City for CIP Projects was approved in December of 1986. At that time it was to be a 5 year Capital Improvement Program. Because at that time the Council made a pledge to the voters that it would be funded as a no tax increase bond issue they actually stretched out the program until the current fiscal year. He said so a 5 year program turned into an 8 or 9 year program. Harrell said Staff was now at the point of exhausting virtually all authority for capital improvements except a few minor street projects. He said in 1986 the Council, in preparing to go to the voters with a CIP program, recognized that to be successful they needed to have substantial citizen involvement, a lot of people had to have an opportunity to have input into the process and to finalize the package that the Council would submit to the voters for consideration. At that time the Council, in July of 1986, started the process of formulating a 50 member CIP Committee very diversified throughout the community that started with the recommended 5 year CIP but then conducted hearings, did investigations, defined and reshaped the 5 year program and came back to the Council with a recommendation of the package that would be submitted to the voters for consideration. He said as they contemplated how to get to the point of having a CIP the one thing he wanted to mention to the Council was if they were going to go through a broad based citizen procedure they needed to let themselves have at least about a 6 month period of time from the time they began formulation of the committee until the election. H~ said about all of that time would be needed to get ready to go to the voters. He also mentioned that one of the somewhat complicated factors was that the Visioning project that should be ready for presentation near the end of September. Harrell said they might want to have the timing such that the committee could consider the Visioning projects along with the other projects that were listed in the CIP. Council Member Brock said they were really at the preliminary decision stage and they needed to get an idea of whether they want City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 28 to take that approach. She said it was very successful in the last bond issue which was after the voters had turned down a public improvement bond issue. She said they had not had the input of formulating them or selling them. As a result, she said the streets were much worse than they currently were. She said the city administration at that time made the decision that they were going to get a bond issue through so they did not allocate a lot of funds in the regular maintenance funds but that was a major issue with citizens on the committee. Because it was such a broad based committee that represented many different elements in the community, they worked very hard at listening to the community needs and what the priorities should be. Once the recommendations were accepted by the City Council that committee took on the responsibility of selling the program to the voters so it passed handily. She said since that system worked very well, she consistently wanted to get a lot of citizen involvement in that kind of decision making when they were spending peoples money. She recommended that a similar procedure be instituted and that Council begin making some decisions about whether they would have a committee, what size it should be, how many members each Council Member would appoint and that sort of thing. Cott asked if they had to be citizen's of Denton. Mayor Castleberry responded yes. Biles said before Council made any move on the decision he wanted more information about not only that particular committee but also the bond process. He asked for more details on the determination of what goes in to the bond issue, who would make the decision, what kinds of bonds, what was the correlation between the bond issues and the CIP. He said Manager Harrell brought forth a poignant concern and that was the timing with Vision. He did not want to leave out the timing of the Fantus report. He was concerned about the informational process on the CIP. With the Fantus, CIP, Vision and that process he wanted to have a lot more information before making any decisions. Castleberry asked if Biles wanted Staff to bring back to the Council numbers that were used before in a workshop session. Biles said that would be excellent. Council Member Young asked if the committee had already been chosen. Castleberry responded no. Young wanted to know who would pick the people for the committee. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 29 Castleberry responded that the Council would decide how many people each Council Member could appoint. He asked if it was satisfactory with everyone that the item be placed on a workshop agenda with appropriate back up material. There was a consensus. 4. Council received a report and gave staff direction concerning noise control measures for contractors. Council Member Krueger said he asked that the item be placed on the agenda because it had been brought to his attention by several contractors. He read a recommendation by Council Member Biles that was very appropriate. It was for an administrative stamp of approval if certain criteria were met. He felt the noise ordinance currently in place was an undue burden on contractors during the months of June, July, and August when it was hot and when it was unbearable at the hours of 12 noon and 1:00 p.m. Krueger said when a man with a business starts pouring a slab at 7:00 a.m. he may not be through until 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon when it was unbearable. He said if he could get started at 6:00 a.m. the heavy work would be done by the heat hours and the finishing work was underway. He felt there needed to be some flexibility rather than having to go through the whole process of the contractor having to know weeks in advance and come to the Council for a variance. He thought there should be something in place where the City Manager or city staff could give a quick administrative approval to speed up the process and help the businesses that earn and spend money in Denton. Mayor Castleberry asked Krueger if he wanted to tie in into daylight savings time. Krueger said daylight savings time was a little long. He thought it applied just to the summer months and that was all the contractors were asking for. Biles asked if staff would come back with an analysis of the issues. He said there were several sub issues. First, whether it would go from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m or whether it would go from 8:00 p.m. or 8~30 D.m. to later in the evening. Was that something the City Manager could address in terms of an administrative process or was something the City Manager and staff would feel more appropriate for the variance to be brought to Council. Secondly, he wanted to know if there was a way to streamline the process and as the Mayor said was daylight savings time a valid criteria. He ~aid for ~ampl~, h~ would not think it would be appropriate that a variance be granted under most circumstances for a loud construction at 6:00 a.m. on Scripture. However, there were wide expansions along University Drive in District 3 where no one would 97 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 30 hear the noise. Further up north along the highway by Texas Instruments there was half mile to a mile to the nearest resident so there was no problem with a variance on the time, early morning or late evening. He said he was looking at a more efficient use of the City's time as well as the developer's time. He said it was much easier to get good, quality work done in the morning because by mid afternoon it was just too hot to work. He asked Harrell in what ways could they ask Staff to come back to give Council ideas on pursuing the issue. Harrell responded that the Building Inspection Staff and others involved could get together to brain storm and see if there might be some suggestions they could frame to meet the flexibility Krueger mentioned while being conscious of the neighborhood integrity. He said staff would also do a survey of surrounding communities that may have addressed the problem also to see how they might have approached it. He felt that might also prompt some good ideas. Harrell said if Council wanted Staff to do further research there were ways to do that and if they wanted to pursue a specific ordinance they would have more information to do that. Biles said in that process, objective criteria, such as the Mayor's suggestion of daylight savings time, relation to zoning, and minimum distance from an established residence would be helpful. Young said he used to be in the concrete business. He said you really have to start early in the winter too because after a certain temperature the concrete ruins. He said they did not need to just focus on the summer months when it was hot and people were trying to keep from getting heat strokes. Young said there were a lot of big projects that go on in the winter. He said it also took so many hours to lay it out and then to finish it. There was consensus among the Council to send the issue back to staff. 5. Council received a report and gave staff direction concerning alcohol prohibition and curfew for Fred Moore Park. City Manager Harrell introduced the item and directed comments especially to the new Council Members regarding the Council's adopted working procedures so they would understand how staff dealt with particular issues. He said agenda items 3, 4, and 5 were items that an individual Council Member specifically asked be placed on a future agenda. According to the Council's adopted work policy, any City Council Member had a right to place any item on a Council agenda. However, staff had also been directed that they were to do very minimal work on a specific request that had been forwarded by a particular Council person until that item could be placed on a work session and then Council as a whole would give City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 31 Staff direction as to what additional work, research, information they wanted gathered to make a final decision. He said that was to make sure staff did not spend a lot of research time working on an issue the majority of the Council was not interested in pursuing. He said the three items 3, 4, and 5 all fell under that category where Staff had done fairly minimal research just to introduce the subject so the Council could have an opportunity to discuss it as a group and give direction on what to do further. Harrell said item 5 was asked for by Council Member Young. Council Member Young said when he was running for Council it was expressed to him by a lot of people that if you could drink in one park why could they not drink in their park. He said he was asked to do something about that if he won. Young said he knew alcohol was a controversial issue but by being controversial it would draw a lot of interest. He campaigned for more citizen participation and Council Member Cott told him that was the most citizen participation he had seen since he had been up there. Young said that part was working. Having been elected, no matter how he felt about the issue, to be right an honorable towards to the people that elected him he had to bring the issue up. He said when the issue came up there was a focus on Fred Moore Park and District 1. Out of that came a realization that Fred Moore Park needed a new rest room, would get more picnic tables, a new pavilion, more trash barrels, more playground equipment, electricity on the northeast corner, and portable rest rooms for June 19. He said there was $300,000 set for parks and Fred Moore Park would get a lot of that. Council Members also looked at Pecan Creek, Willow Creek, and extension of Newton Street. Young said Council Members got out and walked it that was something that did not usually happen in Denton but they drew the interest. Young said it looked like Carl Young was the guy to bring alcohol to Fred Moore Park it was not the truth. Council Member Young motioned to keep the 10:00 curfew, to ban alcohol at all Parks, also on special events like June 19th for there to be a variance so groups could come before Council for a variance so they could drink alcohol. Young added that you could not bring bottles, it would have to be plastic or cans. He wanted everyone to understand that Carl Young would not be scared to get on controversial issues because he would take them head on. He said there had been a real good look at Fred Moore Park. The eyes and ears had been on Fred Moore Park and its problems. He said as far as the COPS Program, it was a great program. It got rid of the drug dealers but what they found out from the people that said they were being harassed was that the design of the COPS program was designed for having black officers in the black area and hispanic officers in the hispanic area. When you have just white officers enforcing, resentment builds. He said then the people start disrespecting the police and the police start disrespecting the police. He said it was all human nature. Young said you then have a person saying the policeman was picking on him because he was 99 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 32 black and the policeman saying he's trying to protect him and he disrespected him. At that point you had people talking about harassment. Whether it was harassment or not, Young said people said that to him so as a leader he had to address it for everyone. He said he wanted everyone to understand that he was not against the COPS program but Council needed to take a look at all of the concerns of other people in District 1. Mayor Castleberry asked for clarification on the motion. He said the motion was that the curfew be the same for all parks in the City. Young said it was a thing of equality. He said now there was no alcohol in any park. Biles seconded the motion. Miller mentioned a couple of issues. First, he said there were a number of parks where alcoholic consumption was not allowed and 13 of them were enumerated, the neighborhood parks. He said the parks where alcoholic beverages were allowed were the Civic Center Park, Mack Park, and North Lakes Park. He understood there was currently discussion in Parks and Recreation that the Parks Department and Police Department look at alcohol consumption in 2 of those parks because there were problems when there were softball games. He said there was a uniformed policy with the neighborhood parks and then the city wide parks. He said they also needed to get a recommendation for Owsley and the new South Lakes Park. Secondly, he said what ever they did, Council should refer the issue to the Parks Department and let the Parks Board study it. Thirdly, he was concerned that if Council said they would allow on special occasions alcoholic beverages in the neighborhood parks they would have taken a back door approach to opening all of the parks for alcoholic consumption. Miller said currently with the noise ordinance they allow exceptions. He could not remember one occasion where the request was denied. He said once they allowed the first exception they had opened the door. He felt they should keep the policy for the neighborhood parks and not open it up at all. He was willing to send it back to the Parks and Recreation Department look at the other issue. There may be times when any group might like to go to the Civic Center Park and under proper supervision have alcohol in that environment. He did not think they should deny the whole city the opportunity to do that under controlled situations. But under no circumstances in neighborhood parks should they allow alcoholic consumption. Council Me,Der Brock thanked all the people who turnod up and sat through the other items. She hoped they learned a little about the way the City Government works. She also expressed appreciation for all those people who attended the NICE meeting. She said she would 100 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 33 not be able to vote for it because she felt it was a back door approach to getting alcohol in the neighborhood parks. She said if they did have that sort of getting special permission she thought if they wiped out general alcohol consumption in all parks then they could possibly have special permission to use it in those parks where it was already authorized. She could see various groups coming forward with requests and the Council would be charged with discrimination and even racism if they said the event was not legitimate or best for the community. She felt the approach would open Council up to all sorts of possible abuses. Brock was concerned to preserve the improvements that had been made in the park and the neighborhood. Brock said having a system where people could apply to have alcohol in the neighborhood parks was a step in the wrong direction. Council Member Cott said the way they were was no different from any other way they could be. He motioned to amend the original motion and that it be turned over to the Parks Department for their recommendation to the Council. Biles seconded the amendment to the motion to send Council Member Young's recommendation to the Parks and Recreation Board. Young agreed with the motion to send his recommendation to the Parks Board. He did not see where anyone would be charged with racism for granting the variance. He said it should be handled just like the Fair and the Fry Street Fair. After the first year Council could evaluate to see if there were any violations. He said you could monitor whatever organization used the park. One of the things Council could do when there was alcohol in the park was to have Police Officers there. He said Council did discriminate against people who drank beer because they were being cut completely out. By getting permission from the Council, they would have the change to review the groups. He said "x" number of Police Officers could be required. That way everyone would be protected and Council would not discriminate against the beer drinkers. Mayor Castleberry asked Young if he was accepting the amendment. Young responded yes. Prouty clarified the motion. He said Young wanted alcohol banned at all Parks and a variance to allow the service of alcohol for special events. Young said you would have to get Council permission then it would be up to the Council's discretion to have a certain number of police officers. 101 City of Denton City Council Minutes · June 13, 1995 Page 34 Biles said it would be much more efficiently handled if they sent just the recommendation to the Parks Board that the 10:00 curfew be maintained as it presently stands and ban alcohol in all parks but the variance procedure be there in place for all parks. He said the Parks Board could come back with a different recommendation but Council had given them some framework to work within. Brock wanted to be sure that it was clear that the motion included a recommendation that would open all neighborhood parks to alcohol. She said it would require a variance and the City Council would have to vote on it but it would be opening up all neighborhood parks to consumption of alcohol. Young said only for special events. Mayor Castleberry commented that the Parks Board would be asked to consider the recommendation but they might come back with a different recommendation to the Council. Miller said that was the most unusual request he could remember sending to a board or commission. He said they had already given them the answer but wanted them to come back and tell Council that's not a good answer instead of saying "here is a situation, we want you to study it". He thought the purpose of the motion was to open up the parks for alcoholic beverages. He was still very much opposed to that. He said he had heard from citizens all over the City the past 5 days, not just Southeast Denton. He did not think that was what they wanted. He said he could not vote for it in the form it was in. Young said as it was currently, you could already drink in parks. He said the motion was saying you could not drink in any park without City Council authorization. He said that was controlling who drinks and when they drink. It would give the Council control over alcohol consumption. Young said the City Council would not just let unresponsible people go in. He said the police would be there monitoring the whole situation. Miller said he appreciated Young having his opinion and he was also entitled to his opinion. He thought that it would open up alcohol to all parks over a period of time. Miller said he could conceive of all kinds of events that Council would be hard pressed to turn down. Krueger said he had witnessed the Council turn down noise ordinances, variances and numerous things in the past. He agreed with Council Member Young that it was an avenue for organizations such as Juneteenth, the Arts Fest, Jazz Fest, Storytellers Association or a family reunion to go to a park. He said there was alcohol being drank in parks now. He said he had a conversation 102 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 35 with Council Member Young about that and he said if he wanted to go down to Avondale Park and have a beer he could pour it in a cup and drink it. He said Young responded that if he did that in Fred Moore Park there would be 3 Police Officers sniffing the cup. Krueger said what was good for the goose was good for the gander and the Council needed to make equality felt in Denton. If they were going to do that, alcohol needed to be banned in every park and make an allowance. He did not particularly feel Council needed to send it back to Parks and Recreation Board. He said they were elected to make those decisions and they should make it. He did not need anyone telling him. He said he would listen to advise and sometimes even take it. Council Member Brock asked if there were currently 13 parks where consumption of alcohol was illegal. It may be that it occurs but not with the sanction of the City Council. She said with the motion it would be legal under certain circumstances to consume alcohol in all parks. She said that sounded like opening it up. Biles responded that her comment was a mischaracterization of the motion. He said the motion was to send the issue as a frame work for consideration to the Parks and Recreation Board. He said they could come back with whatever recommendation. They could say no variances anywhere at anytime or recommend that they have alcohol 24 hours a day in every park created in the future. All the motion did was create an opportunity for the Board to consider the motion as a frame work. Biles felt that a number of council Members were missing the point. Council Member Young said he wanted Council to go ahead and make the vote to send the issue to Parks and Recreation Department and let them make the final decision. He said they were the ones with expertise. They would probably come back and say no alcohol in any park. Young commented that if that was what they recommended that was what he would accept. Mayor Castleberry mentioned that there had been some complaints about alcohol being used in North Lakes Park, particularly on the lake on Bonnie Brae. Cott said it would seem to him they should havo 2 pr~sentations, a zero drinking presentation which may be very costly and secondly, let them recommend those occasions when each park might open for alcohol and what it costs for police. Cott agreed with Miller and Brock that it opened up the 13 parks that were not currently opened to alcohol. Young said the Parks and Recreation Board could come back with the recommendation that those variances go only for the community parks. 103 City of Denton City Counci! Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 36 Biles said that he received a number of telephone calls and letters from the people in District 3. They were concerned about McKenna Park which was a neighborhood park. They did not want any alcohol in the park at all. North Lakes allowed alcohol in most areas but there were a number of people concerned about alcohol in that park. He expressed concern with certain annual events at the parks. He said for instance the rugby club had annual events at North Lakes Park and for some reason rugby players really liked beer. If they came before Council with due consideration, if it was a well organized event, a responsible organization then they could ask for consideration to consume alcohol at the rugby match at North Lakes Park. He said what if the City was growing and adult softball leagues were so numerous that they had to play games at every field including the 3 at Mack Park, 6 or 8 at North Lakes Park and including the one at Fred Moore Park. It would be a very specific event only between narrow hours sponsored by a responsible organization. He said it was not opening up a haphazard approach to alcohol. The motion was to send the issue as only a frame work to Parks and Recreation. He said everyone in the audience as well as all of his constituents in District 3 could go to the Parks and Recreation Board and come to Council when they received the Parks and Recreation recommendation. Brock said she was about to remind Biles what the motion was about when he was discussing the merits of it. She said the motion was really about whether they were opening the door for opening the door. Miller said he agreed with Brock that it really was giving instructions to the Parks Board to come back with that policy and they were really opening the door. On roll vote Cott, "aye", Biles "aye", with a 5-2 vote. "aye", Brock "nay", Miller "nay", Castleberry Young "aye", Krueger "aye". Motion carried 6. Council considered nominations to the City's boards and commissions. City Manager Harrell said each of the Council Members had a booklet provided by the City Secretary listing out the various boards and the positions for which vacancies were occurring or terms had expired along with the name of the individual Council Member that had the opportunity to make a nomination for that seat. He called Council's attention to that fact that the rules of procedure call for a Council person to make a nomination at one meeting and it would b~ voted on by th~ ~ntir~ Council at ~ubs~qu~nt m~tings. Mayor Castleberry mentioned even though a position was assigned to a Council person by a drawing three or four years ago, another 104 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 37 Council Member could make a nomination for that position also at the next meeting. Council Member Brock said she did not understand that was the procedure they adopted. Mayor Castleberry asked if he was incorrect on the issue. Miller said yes. That was one where they reserved the spots as an exception to having other nominations. Krueger asked if they could proceed with their current nominations or if they needed to wait until they had them all. Mayor Castleberry said they did not have to have them all. If they did not have any, that was fine or if they had a few that was fine. He said the nomination would be effective July 1 so the sooner they got to it the better. Biles asked when would they have the final vote. Miller commented that they would vote the next week on the nominations made at this meeting. Then at the next meeting there would be nominations to be voted on at the following meeting. Brock said there was actually a problem sometimes filling technical positions. For example, she had a place on the Electrical Code Board that required a master electrician and she would be glad to have some suggestions. Mayor Castleberry said there was an unwritten policy, because there were term limitations for Council Members they had followed the policy that someone that reaches 6 years on a board or commission would not be reappointed but were eligible for another board. He said that was 2 four year terms for the PUB. Miller commented that it had actually been put in the rules and regulations. Brock said she recalled it saying three terms and that included the PUB which would mean 12 years because it took so long for them to get up to speed. Miller located the reference from the Council's rules of procedure, 8.3(d). Th~ following nominations were made: Airport Advisory Board: Young nominated Hal Jackson, Krueger nominated Rick Woolfolk, and Brock nominated Mike Stephens. 105 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 38 Animal Shelter Advisory Board: Cott nominated Veronica Rolen. Board of Adjustment: nominated Ed Terry. Brock nominated Rachel Mays, and Young Building Code Board: Young nominated Willie Hudspeth and Krueger nominated Nicholas Eassa. Cable TV Advisory Board: Young nominated Dessie Johnson. Community Development Advisory Committee: Young nominated Cowendel Johnson, Cott nominated James McDade, and Brock nominated Roberta Donsbach. Data Processing Advisory Board: Young Johnson Sr. nominated McTawahla Downtown Advisory Board: Brock nominated Don Davis, Mayor Castleberry nominated Teri Rheault, and Krueger nominated Don Hill. Electrical Code Board: Castleberry nominated Schertz. Krueger nominated Stuart Cawthon, Mayor Fred Reed, and Miller nominated Terry Historic Landmark Commission: Krueger nominated Bryan Briscoe, Cott nominated Bullitt Lowry, Miller nominated Suzanne Byron, Brock nominated Mark Merki, Young nominated Charlie Heggins, and Biles nominated Alan Smart. Human Services Committee: Cott nominated Wesley Stewart, Miller nominated Catherine Bell, Young nominated Susan Cross, Miller nominated Carol Riddlesperger, and Brock nominated M. Valdez. Keep Denton Beautiful Board: Cott nominated Doug Ebersole, Miller nominated Jean Ross, Young nominated Reverend L. E. Lasson, and Krueger nominated Martha Len Nelson. Library Board: Miller nominated Linnie McAdams, Brock nominated Jean Greenlaw, and Young nominated Dorothy Minter. Parks and Recreation Board: Miller nominated Doug Chadwick, Brock nominated Burkley Harkless, and Young nominated John Catlin Jr. Planning and Zoning Commission: Cott nominated Rudy Moreno, Mayor Castleberry nominated Barbara Russell, Young nominated Bob Powell, and Krueger nominated Guy Jones. Plumbing and Mechanical Code Board: Biles nominated Frank Cunningham, Cott nominated Karl Martino, and Krueger nominated Dave Reynolds. 106 City of Denton City Council Minutes June 13, 1995 Page 39 Public Utilities Board: Biles nominated Dick Norton, and Cott nominated Bob Coplen. Sign Board of Appeals: Cott nominated John Weber. Traffic Safety Commission: Cott nominated Harry Phillips, Miller nominated Brenda Minnis, and Mayor Castleberry nominated J. Hobdy. Civil Service Commission: Bates. Denton Housing Authority: Whitson and Vicki Hill. TMPA Board of Directors: City Manager Harrell nominated Jana Mayor Castleberry appointed Warren The Council nominated Bill Geese. Miller asked if further nominations for the Sesquicentennial could be placed on the next agenda. He said the new Council Members had not had an opportunity to nominate people for the Committee. Mayor Castleberry commented that they may have to rent the Civic Center for the meeting. 7. Council discussed and considered invitation to tour the Denton County jail. City Manager said the Council had an invitation from the Sheriff inviting Council to take a tour. Council Members Young, Miller, and Brock said they would like to attend. Mayor Castleberry asked Harrell to come up with a couple of dates for the next meeting. Council convened into executive session. The meeting was adjourned. Veronica S. Rolen Deputy City Secretary City of Denton City of Denton /