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Minutes September 21, 1998CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES SEPTEMBER 21, 1998 The Council convened into a Work Session on Monday, September 21, 1998 at 4:00 p.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall PRESENT: Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Beasley; Council Members Burroughs, Cochran, Kristoferson, and Young. AB SENT: Council Member Durrance 1. The Council discussed and refined the City Council five-year goals and upcoming year priority targets and the associated benchmarks for success. Lyle Sumek, Facilitator, reviewed the outcomes from the initial planning session held in May. Those included Denton 1999 target refinements and work program, Denton 2004 goal refinements and definitions, and enhanced Council effectiveness. The agenda for this meeting would include keys to Council effectiveness, targets for Action for 1999, the Council in action, goals for Denton in 2004 and planning for the next six months. A progress report was completed regarding the Council's top priority items for 1998. 1. Affirmative Action Policy -the plan had been completed and was ready for implementation. 2. Electric Deregulation -the strategy for deregulation was completed and staff was working on implementation. 3. Lalor Funding -the process for this year was completed. Criteria for future years funding would be developed. 4. Robson Development -this item was currently in progress. 5. Budget for 1999 -the budget process had been completed. 6. CIP/Bond Program - A committee would be formed in the spring with a January 2000 election date. 7. Impact fees -the first phase had been completed. water/wastewater transmission, roadways, and drainage fees. Council before the first of the year. Further work was needed on These should be brought before 8. Comprehensive Plan - The plan was close to the target dates set earlier. Sumek reviewed the proposed Council targets for 1999: 1. Economic Development Evaluation and Direction -Mike Jez indicated that parts of each item had been considered and staff was at different places on each item. He felt there was a need to begin with the end in mind and felt that staff did not have a clear understanding of where the Council wanted to go with this item. He requested a clear direction on where to go with this item and the kind of process to use on all of the issues. City of Denton City Council Minutes September 21, 1998 Page 2 Council Member Kristoferson stated that one of the processes should be the process of bringing business to Denton and how to proceed with that. Council Member Cochran suggested examples of effective techniques other communities had used that worked for business relocation. He felt there was no concrete answer on how to do it. He suggested obtaining economic development initiatives from other communities. City Manager Jez felt that rather than trying to get examples of what worked in a broad area of economic development, staff needed a definition of economic development from Council and what Council wanted staff to do in terms of economic development. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley felt that the questions might be how much money the City wanted to spend on economic development, how much staff would be needed to be devoted to economic development, and should the City or the Chamber fund economic development. She felt there was a basic policy problem with the issue. Council Member Young felt that decisions by Council had placed constraints on economic development and had negative impacts on economic development. He suggested an analysis on Council decisions regarding the impact on economic development such as the impact fees, the park fees, and billboards restrictions. Council Member Durrance arrived at the meeting. Council Member Burroughs felt that marketing Denton meant spending money. The City had deferred to the Chamber for much of this information about the specifics on attracting business. There had been no concrete plan before that. Mayor Miller felt that there needed to be a decision on what the City wanted from economic development. The City needed to work with individuals who owned large tracts of land in Denton to determine if what they wanted to do was compatible with Denton's goals. An economic development action plan was suggested: An assessment of the current program Dollars spent Staff City's role Chamber's role Chamber's goals and performance Review of the market Tools available to cities What was needed as a community Establishment of a clear policy direction and guidelines Outcome based goals Types of available career based job opportunities City of Denton City Council Minutes September 21, 1998 Page 3 Methods What Denton was currently doing What other cities were doing that worked What types of industry did Denton need Development of a market plan with an appropriate City role Land owners Private developers A positive approach 2. Annexation policy and planning -this would be incorporated into the comprehensive plan. Key action steps included testing the underlying assumptions for annexation, identifying the problems/concerns/issues, and defining the annexation goal and outcome. It would be necessary to develop a strategy to get to that outcome which would be specific to Denton. State legislation should be monitored and a legislative strategy should be developed. Council Member Durrance felt that something needed to be done by the end of the year so as to be ready for the upcoming legislative session. He had asked in July for a resolution regarding annexation for Denton and felt that there was a need to have a policy in place for Denton to take to Austin. It would be necessary to show that this was a problem for all size cities. He suggested the completion of a policy statement on annexation before January 1999. Mayor Prom Tem Beasley felt that the comprehensive plan should be completed first. Rick Svehla, Deputy City Manager stated that an annexation plan would be part of the comprehensive plan. Council would see the first portion of this in January. There would be time to complete the plan before the Legislature was in full swing. That plan could be incorporated into the completion of comprehensive plan. Consensus of Council was to include an annexation plan in the comprehensive plan and to incorporate how Denton's position compared to TML's position. 3. City Charter Review -this item was scheduled for a work session briefing. City Attorney Prouty stated that the key point of this issue would be how much to limit and the scope of changes. This could be a long and complex process unless Council decided to pinpoint areas of concern. 4. Revise zoning Rick Svehla, Deputy City Manager, stated that staff was currently working on corridor overlay districts. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley again stated that the comprehensive plan should be done first and then the zoning ordinance. 5. Tax Abatement -this item had been completed. City of Denton City Council Minutes September 21, 1998 Page 4 6. Neighborhood integrity City Manager Jez stated that the small area planning staff was working with the Fry Street area for a plan for that area. 7. Boards and Commissions Review and Revision - items to be considered included qualifications of membership and the appropriateness of those qualifications. Mayor Prom Tem Beasley suggested evaluating the possibility of eliminating boards that were no longer viable. City Attorney Prouty stated that any Council decision regarding qualifications might decrease the amount of citizen participation on boards. If the Council wanted more participation on boards it would be best to eliminate unnecessary criteria for membership. Sumek felt that it might be easier to have a task force rather than a board or commission. There might be more citizen involvement with an issue-specific task force than a board or commission. Consensus of Council was to have staff review the City's boards and commission for attendance, purpose, accomplishments, legal requirements, etc. 8. Airport Expansion and Development -this item would be considered at the September 22nd work session. 9. Density/Vested Rights policy direction City Attorney Prouty stated that the last session of the Legislature repealed the vested rights statute. It probably would be re-enacted in this session as it was an oversight that it was originally repealed. Council Member Kristoferson stated that the issue of density was not discussed in the overall policy and suggested including it in the comprehensive plan. Consensus of Council was to incorporate the issue into the comprehensive plan, monitor the 1999 legislation and make decisions on methods to use to implement the density issue in the comprehensive plan. Council Member Young left the meeting. Council discussed operational procedures of the Council and council meetings. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley felt that the majority ruled on Council and once a decision had been made and a vote taken, that unless new information presented itself, Council should move on from that issue. A councilperson should not go back to staff to go around the issue or start new research on the issue as that placed staff in a difficult position. City of Denton City Council Minutes September 21, 1998 Page 5 Sumek suggested that part of Council's house rules might be that the majority ruled. Once Council made a decision and provided direction to the City Manager, the Manager should follow through with that direction unless there was new information. He also suggested that when one Council Member requested information, it be shared with the entire Council. Council Member Cochran commented on personal attacks. He stated that arguing facts with opinions was reasonable but felt that at times opinions were being ridiculed in an inappropriate manner. Sumek suggested that the Council present an opinion but avoid personal attacks, etc. Council also needed to project a positive image. If a member had a problem, it should not be played out in the Council meeting but rather should be done on a one-to-one basis. Council Member Kristoferson questioned how to positively bring up concerns on issues and not have them related to personalities. Sumek suggested bringing them up as issues or problems that needed to be addressed. Place the issue in a policy context rather than in a negative context relative to the City. Mayor Miller stated that carrying out such a procedure would be the hard part and would be difficult to implement. He stated that Council should not revert to threats when an issue or vote did not go in a certain direction. Council Member Durrance stated that Council should have issue-oriented discussions. The Council should follow Roberts Rules of Order. Sumek stated that the Council indicated that there was a need to speak to the issue, to be concise when speaking and avoid repeating comments and not play to the audience. Mayor Miller asked how the chair would address that issue. Sumek stated that the chair needed to be supported by others. Mayor Miller questioned if there needed to be a rule on how to formally control the continued speaking to an item for a second/third time by a member. Sumek stated that it was the collective responsibility of the Council to call attention to that point of process. Council Member Cochran stated that if Council were discussing issues, one point was to respond to issues raised by another council member. He suggested placing more regular items on the work session agendas such as consent agenda items. Sumek felt that the work sessions should be used effectively to discuss issues. He felt this was the place to deal with some of the discussion of items placed on the regular session. Council Member Durrance felt that pulling consent agenda items to discuss them only for personal City of Denton City Council Minutes September 21, 1998 Page 6 reasons should not be done. Sumek suggested that everyone would receive one chance to speak on an item with a second brief follow-up with additional comments. City Manager Jez stated that if all of the Council spoke for four minutes the first time on an item and two minutes a second time, that would be 42 minutes of council discussion per issue with no staff presentation or public comments. More of the Council was speaking on each item each time. Consensus of Council was to limit debate with a four minute initial discussion by each member as a guideline and a two minute follow-up as a rule. The rules could be suspended with a majority vote. A guideline for the Consent Agenda would be to pull the item if a member wanted to vote against a particular item. If further clarification was needed it would not be pulled off but rather discussed first and then voted on with the rest of the items. Staff would implement starting the regular meetings at 6:00 p.m. instead of 7:00 p.m. Other council suggestions for the meetings included limiting staff presentations as Council should come to the meetings prepared to discuss the items and not have to hear the background on the items at the meeting. City Manager Jez suggested restricting people from the audience on the dais and individuals should not directly hand out information to the Council. He felt there needed to be more security measures for the Council and audience to follow. Sumek stated that he would draw up all of these suggestions into a document for formal Council consideration. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. JACK MILLER, MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS