Minutes October 13, 2003CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL/PUBLIC UTILITIES BOARD MINUTES
October 13, 2003
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Joint Work Session
with the Public Utilities Board on Monday, October 13, 2003 at 12:30 p.m. in the City Council
Work Session Room at City Hall.
PRESENT:
Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tern Burroughs; Council Members Kamp, McNeill,
Montgomery, Redmon and Thomson.
ABSENT: None
1. The Council held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the role of boards in
good governance including but not limited to understanding board roles, handling board
recommendations, a good governance agreement, Council's vision for the community and the
Board's role in that vision.
City Manager Conduff stated that this session was an outgrowth of a prior Council planning
session to help further the great relationship between the Council and the Public Utilities Board.
The Council was in the process of setting the vision for the community. He reviewed the
governance agreement that the Council had in place for dealing with board recommendations.
The Council and the Public Utilities Board discussion included the following points:
More news reporting coverage was needed especially in the area of street
construction.
A decision of the PUB would not be overridden except if new information came to
Council and if so, would be remanded back to PUB for consideration.
The minutes of the PUB needed to be a good summary of the discussions. A
unanimous, non-controversial vote would not need as much detail. Split votes needed
more flow of the meeting in order to determine why the vote was taken as it was.
A consideration might be to change the day of the PUB meeting to the second and
fourth Mondays of the month in order to provide minutes in a more timely manner.
The role of the PUB was not as a policy-maker but rather as the implementer of the
policies set by Council. Unclear policy issues needed to be separated and the Council
informed of those issues. Policies needed to be created before implementation with
input from the PUB.
A discussion was needed regarding Section 12.03 of the Charter dealing with return
on investment and the transfer of money from utilities to the general fund.
When dealing with concerns of the PUB, it was suggested that the PUB would
investigate and return recommendations to the Council, request legal opinions when
necessary and once Council had decided on an issue, all would abide by that decision.
Might it be beneficial for DME to have a separate board rather than referring those
types of issues to the PUB.
City of Demon City Council Minutes
October 13, 2003
Page 2
Determine what types of issues would be brought to the PUB for consideration.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:10 p.m.
EUL1NEBROCK
MAYOR
CITY OFDENTON, TEXAS
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS