Minutes October 3, 2005
CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
October 3, 2005
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Special Called
Meeting on Monday, October 3, 2005 at 11:30 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room.
PRESENT: Mayor Brock; Mayor Pro Tem McNeill; Council Members Heggins,
Montgomery, Mulroy, and Thomson.
ABSENT: Council Member Kamp
1. The Council received a report, held a discussion, and gave staff direction regarding the
vendor selection process for the automated traffic signal enforcement program.
Lt. Scott Fletcher, Denton Police Department, reviewed the history of the automated traffic
signal enforcement program. The evaluation criteria for the request for proposal were also
discussed. That criteria included back office performance, technology and hardware, program
cost, experience/qualifications, termination plan and project approach. Five vendors responded
to the request for proposal. A red light camera committee was selected to review the proposals
and make a recommendation to Council. The Committee ranked the five vendors based on the
criteria and heard one-hour oral presentations from the top two vendors. Based on the
information received in the written and oral presentations, along with the comments provided by
other cities using the companies, the red light camera committee unanimously recommended
Redflex as the vendor for the City?s automated traffic signal enforcement program.
Council Member Kamp arrived at the meeting.
Council discussion-
There will be a need for a part-time hearing officer position.
What portion of revenue stream would the State take - Fletcher responded none of the
revenue would be going to the State at this point in time.
Need to discuss with TxDot to allow the City to place red light cameras at intersections on
State controlled roadways.
This was a health and safety issue as opposed to a revenue stream issue.
Consensus of the Council was to proceed with the contract with Redflex as recommended by
staff.
2. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction on the design
and impact of the proposed design changes to the Texas wholesale electric market design.
John Rainey stated that the Public Utility Commission of Texas had made a decision to redesign
the Texas wholesale electric market to a system based on nodal locational market pricing,
effective January 1, 2009. He stated that a nodal implied that there was a price determined at
every ?node? on the system. A ?node? was a monitored point such as a substation, generator,
demand meter, transmission line element, or customer. This system was not a solutions model; it
was a pricing model. It was not a market design model; it was a settlement model. The Nodal
system did not fix congestion; it priced congestion. It also collected more money from loads
City of Denton City Council Minutes
October 3, 2005
Page 2
than the actual cost of the generator redispatch used to fix congestion and paid the extra money
collected to holders of hedging rights. In Texas, the market design auctions the hedging rights to
the highest bidder and required loads to pay higher congestion costs and distributed that money
to players in a separate commodity market. A Nodal LMP model did not guarantee the lowest
cost generators would be used, did not guarantee the most efficient generators would be used,
based generator dispatch decisions on bids/offers that were not related to actual costs, allowed
?virtual? players to bid/offer in the market without having actual generation or load and sent
?prices? to loads who were the least able to directly influence market behavior.
Council discussed the various aspects of the nodal locational market pricing system. The
suggested process to follow was to start working with other elected officials in the Metroplex to
understand why this was a challenge for cities and then to have them try and influence State
elected officials.
3. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding a
petition of JNC Partners Denton, LLC requesting consent to the creation of a Water Control and
Improvement District at Craver Ranch, located within the City?s extraterritorial jurisdiction
(?ETJ?); and also annexation of real property in the City?s northern ETJ under annexation case
no. A05-0002. The City Council reserved the right to convene into closed session to consult
with its attorneys under Texas Government Code Section 551.071 regarding any legal issues
related to this matter where a public discussion would conflict with the duty of the City?s
attorneys to the City Council under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the
State Bar of Texas or would jeopardize the City?s legal position in any administrative
proceedings or potential litigation.
The Council convened into Closed Session to discuss this item.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
____________________________________
EULINE BROCK
MAYOR
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
_____________________________________
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS