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Minutes January 12, 1999 CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES January 12, 1999 After determining that a quorum was present and convening in an open meeting, the City Council convened in a closed meeting on Tuesday, January 12, 1999 at 5:15 p.m. in the Civil Defense Room in City Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Beasley; Council Members Burroughs, Cochran, Durrance, Kristoferson and Young. ABSENT: None 1. The Council considered the following in Closed Meeting: A. Conference with Employees – Under TEX. GOV’T. CODE Sec. 551.075. The Council received information from employees during a staff conference or briefing, but did not deliberate during the conference. The Council convened into a Special Called Meeting on Tuesday, January 12, 1999 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at City Hall. 1. The Council considered adoption of an ordinance authorizing the City Manager to execute a grant application with the Telecommunications Infrastructure Funding Board under the Internet Enhancement (Program B) Grant For Public Libraries/LB3 and approving an application to the board to obtain a grant for internet enhancement of the Denton Public Library; ratifying the actions of the City Manager, Director of the Library, and other city officials in regard to this grant application; and providing an effective date. Eva Poole, Director of Libraries, stated that this was a grant for the infrastructure for the libraries to have telecommunication access to the computers at the two universities. The following ordinance was considered: NO. 99-016 AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A GRANT APPLICATION WITH THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING BOARD UNDER THE INTERNET ENHANCEMENT (PROGRAM B) GRANT FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES/LB3 AND APPROVING AN APPLICATION TO THE BOARD TO OBTAIN A GRANT FOR INTERNET ENHANCEMENT OF THE DENTON PUBLIC LIBRARY; RATIFYING THE ACTIONS OF THE CITY MANAGER, DIRECTOR OF THE LIBRARY, AND OTHER CITY OFFICIALS IN REGARD TO THIS GRANT APPLICATION; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. Beasley motioned, Young seconded to adopt the ordinanceOn roll vote, Beasley “aye”, . Burroughs “aye”, Cochran “aye”, Durrance “aye”, Young “aye”, and Mayor Miller “aye”. Motion carried unanimously. Following the completion of the Special Called Meeting, the Council convened into a Work Session. 1. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding the Growth Management Strategy. City of Denton City Council Minutes January 12, 1999 Page 2 Dave Hill, Director of Planning and Development, stated that this was one of the last stages of review for the growth management strategy. The contents of the strategy, including the recommendations, etc. had not changed over the last several weeks. The only addition was the inclusion of comments from recent meetings. After this work session, the Planning and Zoning Commission would hold a second hearing and would then be asked to make a recommendation to the Council. The second public hearing for Council would be January19th with possible adoption of the ordinance at that meeting. Council Member Burroughs asked at what point and in what way were public comments incorporated into the plan. Hill stated that staff looked at the consensus of what had been heard. Because the policies were done separately and done first, they directed how the map would look and what was the community sentiment. The outstanding issues would still be dealt with in the comprehensive plan. Council Member Burroughs stated that one of the primary items raised was timing. The issue was that the Council needed to be aware of the DISD issues and questioned where that aspect would be emphasized. Hill stated that the ability to evaluate adequate public facilities was not with the growth management plan. The plan was a rough organizational pattern that did not lend self to intensity for growth. Timing issues were not looked at. Council Member Cochran suggested changing the population figures for the year 2020 in the basic assumptions. The current figure was for the entire ETJ and not for the City of Denton only. He felt that should be changed to clear up that perception of the figure. Hill suggested indicating that the study area of the population would be a certain figure and that the estimated population inside the city limits would be a certain figure with anticipated annexations. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley asked if Council would be voting on all of the presented materials or only the four or five pages of the strategy. Hill replied that it would not be all of the exhibits. The staff analysis and public comments would not be a part of the considerations. Council would approve the strategy with a resolution and would indicate that it would be subject to change based on updated data from the comprehensive plan. Council Member Young felt that this was an important study especially in the light of the situation in Flower Mound. Denton was always looking ahead to maintain its infrastructure and would not fall into that type of a situation. Mayor Miller felt that as Denton grew, it was important to make sure that a sense of community was maintained. This document would be the cornerstone of the comprehensive plan. 2. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding economic development strategies, activities, and policies. City of Denton City Council Minutes January 12, 1999 Page 3 Linda Ratliff, Director of Economic Development, stated that at the last Planning Session, Council identified economic development as a primary issue. There were four actions that Council wished to address: (1) a review of the current economic development policies, activities and performance, (2) establishment of outcome based goals and policy for economic develop, (3) identification of methods to achieve these goals and (4) development of a marketing plan and strategy within the city. She reviewed each attachment in the agenda back-up materials. Council Member Cochran stated that the City funding for the Chamber this year was $112,000. The contract indicated basic items that the Chamber was going to perform for receipt of that money. Two of those items were to provide office space and support staff for the operation of that office and to solicit private sector funds in the amount of $85,000. He questioned if that same contract was in place. Ratliff indicated that it was time for a new contract but staff had waited for direction from Council before finalizing the contract for this year. Council Member Cochran asked if the Chamber had fulfilled the terms of the contract. He felt that the Chamber should have provided office space and raised $85,000 for programs. Ratliff indicated that that was a different budget cycle. The contract was for the last fiscal year and $85,000 was not raised in the last fiscal year. This budget was for next fiscal year. The Chamber provided office space for the economic development office. The $64,000 was a result of the Economic Development Committee’s request to take the area and turn into a first rate working area. Council Member Cochran stated that five new businesses located in the City and there were expansions of businesses. He questioned if there was any cause and effect relationship of location and expansion and the efforts of the economic development office of the City or Chamber. Ratliff indicated that the chart in the agenda materials indicated companies that the Chamber and City had had some level of contact with and the level of involvement varied. Some were only involved with the Chamber. Council Member Cochran stated that the joint effort was $524,000 for this year in expenses for staff and programs for economic development and questioned if there might be a way to establish that the City was getting its money’s worth. Council Member Young felt that the City needed to support the Chamber more than it was currently doing and needed to stop questioning every dollar the Chamber spent. Ratliff reviewed the attachments presented in the agenda materials and responded to Council’s questions concerning those attachments. Council Member Young felt that the City should have more involvement with the Chamber in attracting economically clean businesses to Denton and to continue with the present effort. Council Member Durrance asked for an assessment of in-house versus contract economic development. He suggested exploring the rebate tool for incentives for economic development. Goals should not be market linked to the extent result of economic forces outside a particular region. He wanted to explore the option of enterprise zones problems. City of Denton City Council Minutes January 12, 1999 Page 4 Council Member Cochran felt that it was not fair to use the amount of growth in Denton as a bench mark for success. With the current situation of the utility deregulation, he questioned if it was appropriate to use the taxes the rate payer’s pay from the utility side enterprise funds to help pay for economic development when they were when having trouble catching up with demand. He also questioned if it was fair to subsidize a private organization. He was unsure of using economic development funds for remodeling the Chamber offices and questioned if the Chamber had fulfilled what the contract was for. He was unsure of the lobbying efforts on local political issues from an organization that received City funds. He questioned the effectiveness of the program and not the motives. In a down economy there was a need to sell a community. In an economy such as the current economy, that was not necessary. Extreme measures were not needed in this type of economy. This was a type of free market approach. He felt it might be better to redefine the economic development roles. The City provided information to prospective clients and the Chamber ensured that new prospects would see the community in a favorable light. He felt there was duplication of efforts with two offices for economic development. The City economic development department had a role to provide raw data to industries and where to locate. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley stated that she would like to see the Chamber raise more private sector money and rely less on city money. A two-prong effort in economic development was good. Performance measures were good but she would like to link contributions to the Chamber with the amount of money raised in the private sector. The Chamber was a private group and should raise a substantial amount of money through that area. She would like to see the rest of the Council informed about the joint committee with the Chamber and City. Mayor Miller stated that the City role and Chamber role were difficult to assess and determine success. He felt there was a role for both the private sector and city department. He also had questions regarding funding to the private sector from the City. Few other cities had municipal owned utilities that would affect the way economic development was presented. He supported the idea of continuing the joint partnership with the Chamber. Council Member Burroughs stated that the Economic Development Committee had suggested that the Chamber renovate the offices so as to have more than just an office but rather a marketing tool for a “selling” room for economic prospects. He felt there was a need to address economic development as a community goal and not just a private sector process. Council Member Cochran felt the City was capable of doing economic development in-house rather than with a creation of a second level within the Chamber of Commerce. City Manager Jez stated that staff had made two recommendations in addition to a recommendation by Council. It was felt that there was a need for an in-depth analysis that would include five specific issues including enterprise zones, a comparative analysis with other cities and other topics. A number of Council had raised questions about the measurement criteria that was currently being used and whether to continue to use those criteria or other combinations of criteria. Tying performance standards to commercial/industrial growth to ensure that it either met or did not exceed residential growth, more/less involvement with the Chamber of Commerce had been discussed along with specific types of target development. Different roles with contracting all or none or some economic development activities had been also discussed. Staff needed specific direction on which way to go with some of City of Denton City Council Minutes January 12, 1999 Page 5 those directives. Council Member Cochran stated that if the City was going to provide the Chamber money for economic development it should be on the basis of matching funds and another source for the funds should be found other than the utility fund. City Manager Jez stated that if it was the desire of the Council to follow that suggestion, he would recommend that as the funding for this year’s budget had already been allocated, the commitment to the Chamber be honored and perhaps move in another direction for the next budget year. Mayor Miller stated that the recommendation was that for the next fiscal year funding for the Chamber be by matching funds and not come from the utility fund. Council Member Kristoferson stated that she did not want to place the Chamber in a position of having to chose whether to subsidize an economic development department or support the community’s effort. She felt that would be making the Chamber make a choice between economic development and other types of Chamber efforts. A matching contribution was not necessarily needed. Council Member Burroughs stated that as there appeared to be no time crunch at this point in time, he would prefer to break down the issues to criteria and give choices in addition to what was already in existence. He would like time to think through the issues before having to vote on them. Mayor Miller suggested a summary of the issues as outlined be prepared and returned to Council at a future session for further discussion. City Manager Jez stated that one of the Council Members had suggested a different kind of analysis. Council Member Durrance stated if there was no particular time constraint, he asking for additional information for a comparative analysis. He suggested continuing with the present contract with an extension until Council could address these issues and consider various scenarios at a later date. The additional information was (1) to review what other cities had done based on projected population growth of the area with scenarios for in-house, pure contract and a combination for services, (2) whether or not these cities had criteria and how they were developed, (3) whether other uses of individual planning by scenarios of planning was used, (4) criteria of goals not linked to marketing strategies, and (5) marketing by individual contract. Ratliff suggested preparing an outline of the issues raised and the information asked for. Council could then review that outline to ensure that the outline was complete. Another work session could then be held following that review. Council Member Kristoferson requested additional information on additional economic development tools available to the City. City Manager Jez stated that the issues were now narrowed to two items. One was the analysis requested by Council Member Durrance that would require more staff time to put together than the second option. The second option was to bring back specific items such as measurement criteria, City of Denton City Council Minutes January 12, 1999 Page 6 economic development tools, contracting marketing versus contracting pieces or the entire economic development program. Council Member Durrance’s analysis would require much more staff time. He questioned which of the two options Council wanted staff to proceed. Council Member Durrance stated that he was not indicating that anything should change at this point in time. Some of these issues on how to approach economic development had not been examined by Council for a long time. This was not a suggestion on how to continue, discontinue or change the relationship with the Chamber. There were enough cities with results in economic development that Denton should look at their successes. He felt there was a need to look at other options from other cities with good economic results. Council Member Kristoferson stated that she was centering on an elaboration of current economic tools available while Council Member Durrance was talking about changing policies. Kristoferson motioned, Young seconded to receive information on the items on Attachment C in the agenda materials that the City was currently not doing that were available as a city. City Manager Jez stated that the issue for staff was whether the Council wanted a more global analysis of economic development or address specific issues. Both could be done if Council directed. Council debated the pros and cons of whether to proceed with a short-term analysis or global analysis of these economic development issues. On roll vote of the motion to receive information on the items on Attachment C in the agenda materials, Beasley “aye”, Burroughs “aye”, Cochran “aye”, Durrance “nay”, Young “aye”, and Mayor Miller “nay”. Motion carried with a 5-2 vote. Council Member Cochran stated that he wanted it on record that when Council discussed the Chamber’s contract during the budget cycle, the question of matching funds from the Chamber and possibly not using the utility fund to fund economic development would be discussed. He requested that a copy of his written comments be attached to the minutes of this meeting. 3. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding a review of the City’s boards and commissions. Jennifer Walters, City Secretary, reviewed the staff’s recommendations found in the agenda materials concerning the various boards and commissions. Council Member Durrance requested that Council not follow the staff recommendation in regards to the Airport Board and allow it to remain in its current status with the exception that it would meet the 1969 criteria of financial interest. Consensus of the Council was to follow staff recommendation for the boards and commissions with the exception of the Airport Board and that the Board would follow the recommendation as noted by Council Member Durrance. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:10 p.m. City of Denton City Council Minutes January 12, 1999 Page 7 _____________________________ JACK MILLER, MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ___________________________ JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS