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Minutes August 10, 1999CTY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES August 10, 1999 After determining that a quorum was present and convening in an open meeting, the City Council convened in a closed meeting on Tuesday, August 10, 1999 at 5:15 p.m. in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Beasley; Council Members Burroughs, Cochran, Durrance, Kristoferson and Young. ABSENT: None 1. Deliberations concerning Real Property – Under TEX. GOV’T. CODE Sec. 551.072; and Consultation with Attorney - Under TEX. GOV’T. CODE Sec. 551.071. Considered and discussed the valuation and the possible sale, transfer, or other divestiture of real property pertaining to the City of Denton’s electric utility system, including, without limitation: the Gibbons Creek generation facility located in Grimes County, Texas; the Spencer generation facility located on Spencer Road in Denton, Denton County, Texas; the hydroelectric facilities located in Denton County, Texas; and other components of the City’s electric generation assets. Conduct a consultation with the City’s attorneys, including the City’s outside legal counsel, in order to consider and discuss various options and strategies, and to obtain the advice and recommendations of the City’s attorneys respecting the issues concerning the city’s electric generation assets contained in this numbered paragraph. Work Session of the City of Denton City Council on Tuesday, August 10, 1999 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Work Session Room in City Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Miller; Mayor Pro Tem Beasley; Council Members Burroughs, Cochran, Durrance, Kristoferson and Young. ABSENT: None Item #3 was considered. 3. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding two amendments to the 1998 Denton Mobility Plan Component. Amendment One was described as the Southwest Denton IH35W/US77 amendment. Amendment Two was described as the Lakeview Boulevard Route Amendment. Jerry Clark, Director for Engineering & Transportation, reviewed the alternatives as indicated in the agenda materials. Staff was recommending taking $170,000 from right-of-way money and use towards a Cooper Creek bridge. The developer should donate all right-of-way for the route. Mayor Miller stated that he did not want another low water crossing in the City. He understood that the Lakeview developers had concerns regarding the proposal. Paul Spain, Lakeview developer, stated that they were interested in a better location than what was originally proposed. A suggestion was to change the zoning on the section of Lakeview Ranch between Mills Road and Pecan Creek. Part of that request was to move Lakeview Blvd. to the west. They had a meeting with the surrounding neighbors who indicated support of the second option they proposed. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 10, 1999 Page 2 Council Member Kristoferson did not like the idea of a higher level of participation. The bond money was passed for current citizens while the proposed development of Lakeview was not. Council Member Young recommended that the development plan be adopted. The proposal would relieve the area of some of the traffic. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley stated that this was a major transportation issue. Development was rapidly progressing in the area. Consensus of the Council regarding Amendment Two was to proceed with a traffic study to determine an estimate of cost for right-of-way and bridges for the options before making a determination on which option to support. The developer could continue through the process with his proposal. Clark reviewed the proposal for Amendment One located in the southwest quadrant near IH 35W and US 377. It was proposed that the section of roadway between IH35W and US377 be changed to Primary Arterial Classification which changed the section to Urban from the Rural Expressway Section used on Loop 288 on the north and reduced the needed right-of-way from 220’ to 120’. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with a public hearing on the proposal. 1. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction concerning the construction and operation of a Materials Recovery Facility at the City’s landfill or alternative recycling services. Charlie Watkins, Director of Solid Waste, stated that the 1995 Solid Waste Management Master Plan recommended the construction of a Materials Recovery Facility. The MRF would be located at the City’s landfill and would process the residential and commercial waste delivered to the landfill in order to remove its recyclables. It was estimated that the use of a MRF would add about nine years to the landfill’s useful life. He presented options for the facility as noted in the agenda materials. Staff was recommending that the Council postpone further consideration of the MRF until fiscal year 2001 budget preparation cycle. Staff also recommended the continuation of the current recycling program. Council Member Young stated that he would like to see a private partnership with the City for a MRF. If that was not possible, he suggested contracting the recycle program to a private organization. Council Member Kristoferson felt the same as Council Member Young and wanted to proceed with looking at a MRF. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley felt that the community wanted to recycle and wanted such a facility. She questioned what another year would achieve. Martin stated that another year would provide more information concerning cash flow and making the facility fiscally sound. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 10, 1999 Page 3 Council Member Durrance felt that as growth increased, the need for recycling also increased. He suggested working on a “blue” based recycling system that might assist in recycling. He felt the interest in recycling was there in the community. Consensus of Council was to have staff look at the cost estimates for building a MRF and purchasing a baler for paper and cardboard. A committee might be formed to look at the issue to report back to Council. 2. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the 1999-2000 budget adoption process. Jon Fortune, Director of Management and Budget, reviewed the 1999-2000 budget adoption process as noted in the agenda materials. Consensus of the Council was to proceed with the recommended schedule. 4. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding a proposed amendment to the Council’s Rules and Procedures relative to nominations on boards and commissions. Herb Prouty, City Attorney, stated that currently the rules indicated that each council member was responsible for nominations to places assigned to him/her. City Council Members made nominations and the entire Council approved those nominations. The concept of the Council’s rules indicated that nominations would try to have new people in the board/commission places from time to time and from all sectors of the community. There was not much guidance in the Council’s Rules and Procedures relative to the number of times to nominate an individual to a particular position. Roberts Rules of Order did indicate a procedure for such a case. One Council recommendation was to amend the rules to limit the number of times to nominate candidates to same position. Another recommendation was to limit the number of times to nominate a particular candidate and if that nomination failed, to have a vacant position until a candidate was confirmed. That would not be possible in the case of decision making boards as the law indicated a hold over provision where people presently serving in a position kept that position until a new member was appointed and sworn in. His recommendation was to keep the current procedure to nominate candidates for each place on board or commission. Council would decide the number of times to nominate each candidate. A single candidate could be nominated for that number of times and if failed, the nominations would be opened to the Council and every member would have an opportunity to nominate a person to that position. When nominations ceased, Council would vote on the nominees and the one with four affirmative votes would be confirmed. If the current ordinance were amended, it would take effect when passed and not be retroactive. Council Member Burroughs suggested a procedure in which each member would submit four nominations for any one position with no nomination more than twice for the same person. If that Council Member were not able to successfully nominate an individual to that position after four votes, then the procedure would be opened to the entire Council. Nominations would have st to be completed by September 1 and if no nominations were suggested by the council member, the process would again be opened to the Council for nominations. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 10, 1999 Page 4 City Attorney Prouty suggested a time limit of 30 - 45 days with four attempts to nominate. Council Member Young stated that he had researched this procedure back for 14 years and could not find where a Council Member had had a nominee rejected. He was the first and now Council was going to change the rules. This was a racial procedure as he was the only African-American on Council and the only one this was being done to. Council should not be able to appoint someone else’s position. That would allow for a situation where a block of Council Members could continue to deny an individual Council Member a nomination to a board or commission. Council Member Durrance suggested a variance to the proposed procedure whereby each Council Member would have two nominations per position with two votes on each nomination. If, at that point, the nomination was not confirmed, the process would be opened to the entire Council as a whole with a majority vote confirming the candidate to fill the position. All Council Members would have an opportunity for nominations at this process. This would formalize a procedure Council was following. He suggested making the procedure retroactive to the present nomination process. Council Member Cochran noted that in July 1995 a commissioner nominated for the Planning and Zoning Commission was rejected. The current procedure for nominations had only been in existence for 4-5 years. There was not a 14 year history of this process. This proposal would be fine tuning the process that they had been following for a number of years. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley stated that all of the Council Members had had nominations rejected before this new process for the Parks and Recreation Board and the Public Utilities Board as they were open nominations. This was not something new. Council Member Kristoferson stated that the proposed ordinance was to clarify the officers rules of service. Issues were to determine the point of termination of service. It was to clarify termination of current service and to determine the point of termination if not the current member was not re-confirmed. City Attorney Prouty stated that by law a decision making board had to hold over the current member until a replacement could be confirmed and sworn in. A distinction would have to be made regarding which boards that would apply to. Mayor Miller suggested not taking any action at this point. If the suggested procedure were followed there might be a case where a group of council members might purposely not vote for a nominee in order to have a different nomination. Council Member Kristoferson felt that there was not a clarification of this particular procedure and that this type of situation might happen again in the future. If there was an oversight in the process it needed be corrected. Mayor Pro Tem Beasley was not in favor of having any type of change be retroactive. City Attorney Prouty reviewed the proposals presented by Council and indicated that an ordinance for Council consideration would be prepared. City of Denton City Council Minutes August 10, 1999 Page 5 5. New Business There were no items of New Business suggested by Council for future agendas. Following the completion of the Work Session, the Council convened into a Special Called Session. 1. The Council considered a motion to authorize the holding of a City Council meeting outside of City Hall. Burroughs motioned, Beasley seconded to authorize the holding of a meeting outside of City Hall. On roll vote, Beasley “aye”, Burroughs “aye”, Cochran “aye”, Durrance “aye”, Kristoferson “aye”, Young “aye”, and Mayor Miller “aye”. Motion carried unanimously. 2. The Council considered nominations/appointments to the City’s boards and commissions. Council Member Kristoferson nominated Diane Crew to the Community Development Advisory Committee. Durrance motioned, Burroughs seconded to suspend the rules to allow the Council to vote on the nomination at this meeting. On roll vote to suspend the rules, Beasley “aye”, Burroughs “aye”, Cochran “aye”, Durrance “aye”, Kristoferson “aye”, Young “aye”, and Mayor Miller “aye”. Motion carried unanimously. On roll vote for the nomination to the Community Development Advisory Committee, Beasley “aye”, Burroughs “aye”, Cochran “aye”, Durrance “aye”, Kristoferson “aye”, Young “aye”, and Mayor Miller “aye”. Motion carried unanimously. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned 10:00 p.m. _______________________________ JACK MILLER, MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ________________________ JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS