Minutes August 16, 2004CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
August 16, 2004
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Special Called
Work Session on Monday, August 16, 2004 at 7:30 a.m. in the City Council Work Session Room
at City Hall.
PRESENT: Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tem McNeill; Council Members Kamp, Montgomery,
Mulroy, Redmon and Thomson.
ABSENT: None
1. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding the
2004-2005 Budget and the 2004-2009 Capital Improvement Program, including a draft charge to
the special citizens advisory committee.
Mayor Brock suggested a listing by Council on what was felt to be the remaining outstanding
unresolved budget issues. She felt that the major issues included the debt service fi:om the 1996
drainage bonds and whether to transfer that back to the general fund budget; utility transfers in
general; police funding; cutback in library and parks hours; and park maintenance.
Council Member Mulroy requested a citywide table of organizational labor costs.
Mayor Pro Tem McNeill noted that sales tax collections would be over budget by the end of the
year.
Council Member Mulroy questioned the deferral of the payment for general insurance f~om last
year's budget to this year's budget.
City Manager Conduff stated that that was an intentional decision based on the economy at the
time. Past councils had held the line on tax increases and deferred certain payments.
Council discussed the philosophy of deferring payments from a prior year to the next year and
having to meet those costs in a future budget.
Mayor Pro Tem McNeill stated that if property taxes were not raised to the proposed rate, items
that would not be funded included the opening of the Emily Fowler Library, aA of the cost of the
health insurance increase, and a reduction in social services funding. He questioned how those
items could be prioritized, as those three items were not ones to cut. The citizens had voted for
those items and now they needed to pay for them. He was not sure that Council was asking for
enough of a tax increase.
Council Member Mulroy agreed that 3 cents might not be enough based on everything that
needed to be done.
Council discussed the cost of adding two new police officers, the philosophy of the vehicle take
home policy and whether that policy was still affordable.
Council Member Mulroy and Mayor Pro Tern McNeill suggested that the vehicle take home
policy be examined to determine if the total number of vehicles was too large for the philosophy.
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August 16, 2004
Page 2
Council Member Montgomery felt it was a utilization factor as expensive pieces of equipment
were only being used 50 hours a week at most. The City was paying for vehicles whether they
were being used or not and he questioned if the City was getting the full value for the cost of the
vehicle.
Mayor Brock stated that another philosophical discussion was the fact that the 2000 bond
election had scheduled to add an additional cent to fund bond programs but the Council at that
time did not want to add that increase and raise taxes. The voters had authorized the additional
increase but it had not been added.
Council Member Mulroy felt it was not honest to keep taxes artificially low and then next year
again have to try and keep up.
Council discussed the proposed tax rate, the rollback tax rate and the effective tax rate. A street
maintenance fee was also discussed relative to assisting with future C1P funding. Council
expressed the negative effects of a rollback election and how services would be severely affected
if a rollback election were successful.
Mayor Pro Tem McNeill asked if the proposed 3% salary increase for employees was an across
the board increase or merit increase.
City Manager Conduff replied that it would be an across the board increase as a merit increase
typically had a minimum and maximum increase associated with it and with a 3% increase the
numbers would be very small.
Council Member Thomson stated that public safety was an important issue and he was
committed to putting on more police officers. He was not sure that the function of a city was to
fund social services and would be in favor of reducing the amount of funding to social services
in order to help with the budget. He liked the idea of $1 per person per population for funding of
social services.
Council Member Redmon agreed and felt that the City had a large number of nonprofit
organizations that could pick up the funding for social services. Additional police officers could
be hired if funding were reduced to social services.
A proposal was made to reduce social services by 33% that would provide $98,330 for the
budget and to reduce the budgeting for social services by one third for next three years in order
to have the funding level percentage at $1 per person per population.
Council discussion on the proposed reduction in social services funding included the
consequences for such a reduction, the fact that Denton was much higher in fund'mg for social
services than many area cities, and a concern that a higher level of funding was attracting
individuals to Denton for these services.
Consensus of the Council was to reduce the social services fund'mg by 1/3 across the board with
first priority for the recaptured funds going to public safety.
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August 16, 2004
Page 3
Council Member Mulroy indicated that his budget priorities would be to add one cent fi.om the
prior approved bond package for public safety; restore the library and recreation center hours;
incrementally restore the maintenance of the parks to an acceptable level; and empower the City
Manager to find additional %% funding for an incentive based work environment.
Mayor Brock indicated that she would like to keep the tax rate under $.60.
Mayor Pro Tern McNeill indicated that he would like to keep the increase at $.05.
City Manager Conduff stated that staff understood the Council's priorities and would keep the
tax increase at $.05 to accomplish what was needed to be done. Staff would also work to find a
½ cent in the budget to go with 3% proposed employee increase that would be implemented
through merit increases.
Consensus of the Council was to address street maintenance in the budget but with no figures at
this time.
Council Member Redmon questioned if a CIP would still be viable given the $.05 tax increase.
Consensus of the Council was to continue with the CIP process.
Council discussed the drainage issue relative to the 1996 drainage bonds and placement of the
debt.
Council Member Mulroy listed his concerns as:
Changes in the drainage structure were presented at City Council and Public Utilities
Board meefmgs.
The PUB had three tunes voiced strong concerns on how the issue was being handled.
He felt the issues had not been fully presented to community and that it created a new tax
for general government money.
Charging ROI and a fi.anchise fee for a drainage fee was not correct.
The drainage fee was not paying for new projects - it was paying back old debt.
Mayor Pro Tem McNeill stated that ROI was not a separate line item for drainage and asked if it
was a part of wastewater.
City Manager Conduit stated that it was budgeted under wastewater.
Council Member Montgomery stated that if correct, how could the situation be rectified. He felt
that the City could inform the citizens that this needed to be corrected and staff needed to show
how to get back on track.
Mayor Pro Tem McNeill stated that from a procedural standpoint, a prior Council had voted to
make that change, and whether right or wrong, it was a legal action. The current Council had the
ability to change it back.
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August 16, 2004
Page 4
Council discussed the pros and cons of charging ROI and franchise fees on drainage. Consensus
of the Council was to continue to very seriously examine the issue as soon as possible and get
more information on the issue.
Council then discussed the CIP program and the draft charge to the Advisory Committee,
suggesting a few word changes to the charge.
2. The Council considered, discussed and debriefed outcomes on various local issues
discussed at the Council Retreat of July 22 and 23, 2004 including without limitation: streets;
planning, zoning, and development issues, including urban density, downtown projects, gas well
drilling, and residential development; economic development; customer service; government
efficiency and operating procedures; public safety issues; utility budgeting and transfers;
workplace diversity; local environmental issues including code enforcement and green building
standards; transportation; and statewide issues like school funding and Council operating
procedures.
Council reviewed the list of action items from the council retreat and made suggestions/changes
to the list.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:45 a.m.
EULINE BROCK
MAYOR
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS