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June 9, 2009 Minutes AGENDA CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL June 9, 2009 After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council of the City of Denton, Texas nd convened in 2 Tuesday Session on Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 4:05 p.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall. PRESENT: Mayor Burroughs; Mayor Pro Tem Kamp; Council Members Engelbrecht, Gregory, Heggins, Mulroy, and Watts. ABSENT: None 1. The Council received a report, held a discussion and provided staff direction regarding the Downtown Denton Transit Center concept, planning process, and project schedule. Mark Nelson, Director of Transportation Operations, briefed the Council on the status of the Downtown Transit Center project. Nelson stated that this was a grand funded project through the Federal Transit Administration providing 80 percent of the funding and the remaining local match of 20 percent provided by DCTA. He stated that the discretionary grant was requested through Congressman Burgess and awarded in December 2004. In 2008, the City entered into an interlocal agreement with DCTA for the construction and purchase of the transit center. Through the interlocal agreement, DCTA would provide 50% of the local match up front and the remaining 50% at the completion of the construction phase. The final payment would allow transfer of the asset to DCTA. Nelson stated that the City entered into a contract with Jacobs Carter Burgess for engineering and design services for the proposed transit center. In 2008, JCB presented a number of transit center concepts to the City and DCTA. The current design concept was based on historical elements visually linking the proposed transit center to the Courthouse on the Square and design features incorporating architectural components similar to the original Denton passenger rail depot. A public hearing on the final design was expected in August. Council discussed different design aspects of the plans presented. Council Member Engelbrecht expressed concerns regarding adequate wind protection for passengers. Nelson stated that the project was scheduled as follows: Construction phase – Fall 2009, Completion – June 2010, Initiate bus operations – July 2010, Initiate rail service – December 2010. Nelson advised the Council that the Downtown Denton Implementation Plan would be initiated in August 2009 with a target completion of Spring 2010. He also stated that the Hickory Street Corridor Improvement Project was a congressional priority request for FY 2010 and a NCTCOG project call for October 2009. Nelson advised that the project also included a City Hall East parking lot project to restore parking inventory for City Hall East due to reduced capacity anticipated by the construction of the proposed transit center. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 9, 2009 Page 2 Council Member Gregory noted that the design phase was about three months behind schedule. Final design was originally targeted for May 1 and now it would be August 1. Nelson stated that the design had taken longer than expected but final plans were expected in August. He said they still anticipated a completion date of June 2010. Nelson stated that the transit center facility would include an indoor passenger waiting area, public restrooms, bus platform, passenger shelter and windbreakers. In addition, the facility would also house the DCTA Operations offices and provide approximately 40 parking spaces. 2. The Council received a report, held a discussion and gave staff direction regarding the responses to the recommendations made by Matrix Consulting Group on the Water/Wastewater/ Engineering Management Study. Jim Coulter, Director of Water Utilities, briefed the council on key items of the study. Recommendation to review current practices related to landscape maintenance and parts/tools inventory and make appropriate work practice modifications. Coulter stated that the security of Denton’s drinking water could be compromised if the landscaping tasks were to be outsourced. Normally, landscape contractors would have keys to the facilities they were maintaining to accommodate their schedules. There was a high risk that these keys could be compromised. He stated that parts/tools inventory control would be added to the existing computerized maintenance management system as a part of the improvements being made to the system. Recommendation to implement annual commercial meter testing. Coulter stated that staff had accelerated the commercial water meter testing program to an annual testing program. Staff planned on comparing the meter testing data with testing data for the two- year program to see if the acceleration was beneficial and cost effective. The two-year large meter calibration/repair program test data suggested there would be minimal improvements to large metering accuracies by accelerating the testing interval from 2 year cycles down to one year cycles. Recommendation to evaluate and consider enhancing the level of street sweeping service. Coulter stated that the cost to implement the additional service was approximately $165,000 annually. The increased service was not economically feasible at this time as it would require either an increase in the drainage fee or a reduction of resources in other drainage programs. Recommendation to evaluate drainage fee charges on a regular basis and make recommendations for potential revision to the Public Utility Board and City Council. Coulter stated that staff could continue to monitor the drainage fees charged by other cities and would determine if rate increases should be considered during the annual budget process. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 9, 2009 Page 3 Recommendation to use the American Society of Civil Engineers and Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists workload guidelines to develop engineering and inspection staffing estimates for various CIP projects and implement some additional project management best practices in Engineering. Coulter stated that the use of generalized percentages for project staffing derived from national statistics was not particularly useful. Staff could do a better job through budgeting and resource scheduling and was currently taking steps to accomplish these items for CIP projects. Recommendation to re-visit and re-calculate the internal engineering “billing rate” composed of a labor multiplier for both engineering’s project-based and general services tasks. Coulter stated that staff agreed with this recommendation and would review during the annual budget process. Recommendation to identify impediments to LIMS implementation and develop a new project schedule for full implementation within six months. Coulter stated that basic implementation would be complete within the six-month period and improvements would be ongoing. Recommendation to add one Field Service Supervisor to Wastewater Collections. Coulter stated that one supervisor position had been added in the FY 2009 budget. Due to funding constraints this position was being funded for 50 percent of the budget year. Staff would continue to monitor the workload and budget position as needed. Recommendation that the span of control for the Director was too broad. Coulter stated that environmental mandates and issues had increased and were currently a priority. Staff would be recommending that the Manager of Environmental Quality be changed to Director of Environmental Quality. Recommendation that in water and wastewater operations, implement a comprehensive computerized maintenance management system, a revision of existing computerized systems or a new consolidated technology product. Recommendation to form an ad hoc committee to develop a comprehensive Information Technology Strategic Plan within the utility. Coulter stated that Technology Services was currently evaluating citywide needs for addressing this issue. Staff would participate in the evaluation and determine a course of action. Current budget concerns suggested that implementation of these initiatives might be limited to availability of resources. Kamp motioned, Heggins seconded that the following item was a public power matter and therefore was a closed session item. On roll vote, Engelbrecht “aye”, Gregory “aye”, Heggins “aye”, Kamp “aye”, Mulroy “aye”, Watts “aye”, and Mayor Burroughs “aye”. Motion carried unanimously. City of Denton City Council Minutes June 9, 2009 Page 4 The City Council convened in a Closed Meeting at 5:15 p.m. 1. Closed Meeting: A. Deliberations regarding certain public power utilities: competitive matters – Under Texas Government Code Section 551.086. 1. The Council received a draft response and discussed the DME Management Study of Utility recently performed by Navigant Consulting; and discussed, deliberated, considered, and provided Staff with direction regarding such matters. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:31 p.m. ___________________________________ MARK A. BURROUGHS MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ___________________________________ JANE RICHARDSON ASSISTANT CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS