May 3, 2010 MinutesCITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
May 3, 2010
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council of the City of Denton, Texas
convened in a Special Called Work Session on Monday, May 3, 2010 at 11:30 a.m. in the
Council Work Session Room.
PRESENT: Mayor Burroughs, Mayor Pro Tem Kamp, Council Member Engelbrecht, Council
Member Gregory, Council Member Heggins, Council Member Mulroy, and Council
Member Watts.
ABSENT: None
1. The Council received a report and held a discussion with Denton County Transportation
Authority (DCTA) representatives concerning DCTA's recent efforts in the provision of public
transportation services in Denton County.
Guy McElroy, DCTA Board of Directors, stated that a brief presentation would be made today
regarding DCTA and introduced the DCTA staff present for the meeting.
Jim Cline, DCTA President, reviewed an update for DCTA which included:
A-train construction schedule and service launch
A-train vehicle procurement and delivery
New Member Policy Development
Service Plan Update
Record Bus Ridership
Bus operations and maintenance facility
Passenger amenities
Vanpool program
Upcoming fare and service modification public meetings
The A-train construction schedule contained a phased opening which remained on schedule with
full revenue service to downtown Denton by June 2011. Construction highlights included all
lanes of Loop 288 would reopen in June, sound wall construction, sound insulation, crossing
improvements, traffic signal installation at Sycamore and bike and pedestrian trail.
The current construction schedule dealt with temporary road/lane closures, grade crossing
improvements, sound wall construction, drainage improvements, utility relocation, replacing rail
and ties, station construction, and bike and pedestrian trail.
The A-train vehicle procurement would open with interim vehicles for 18 months. The first
vehicle delivery of the new generation vehicle would be August 2011 with final delivery in June
2012.
Ongoing coordination was needed for jurisdictional coordination of utilities, traffic control
planning, and maintenance agreements. Coordination was also needed for quiet zone
implementation, a reciprocal fare agreement with DART was being examined, the fare structure
and enforcement, bus service during phased implementation and alternative vehicle compliance.
A new member policy was being considered with a tiered membership structure that would
include a comparable, perpetual funding source. The capital component would be contingent
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May 3, 2010
Page 2
upon project status in the Service Plan. Full membership would be required prior to project
implementation. Cline reviewed a matrix detailing full member with near term fixed guideway,
full member long term fixed guideway, and associate member/contract.
Mayor Burroughs questioned the voting rights indicating that voting on the Board had challenges
as it existed now. The board representation was one vote for each member city, all with equal
voting, even with those who did not pay in. One paying city could be outvoted by those who do
not pay, other than the original service plan. He questioned if a small community with a long
term fixed guideway thus having a very small investment could be a full voting seat equal to the
original members.
Cline stated that if a community wanted to be a full member and commit the sales tax, it would
become peers with the other member cities just as though it joined in the beginning.
Mayor Burroughs asked if the three original cities were designated by law to vote on
expenditures or if a city committed sales tax would they be included in voting for expenditures.
Dee Leggett, VP-DCTA Planning and Communications, stated that the supermaj ority was
outlined in the bylaws. It was envisioned that new cities would become part of the
supermaj ority.
Mayor Burroughs stated that he was concerned about small cities that would add a very small
amount of sales tax and that could become a major shift in expenditure resources to different
parts of the community.
Council Member Mulroy asked if the by-laws could reflect a supermajority according to the level
of contribution.
Mayor Pro Tem Kamp stated that weighted votes on the board had been brought up several times
and the members were talking about revising the bylaws.
Council Member Mulroy stated that a formula should protect contributors with a supermajority
as a shift could be dynamic over time.
Council Member Gregory stated that a new city could join and not actually have a person from
that city representing them on the board.
Cline replied that could be correct depending on which seat was being represented. Those being
taxed do not have stronger representation than those not being taxed.
Cline continued with a Service Plan update. He presented details on an analysis of the existing
system; an assessment of Denton County's future mobility needs; pubic and stakeholder
involvement and surveys; a short-term plan and a long-range plan. He noted that ridership was
increased and discussed combined annual bus ridership.
Cline's next topic was bus operating and the maintenance facility. The maintenance facility was
currently located at the Denton Landfill. They were looking at location off Kerley Lane for a
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May 3, 2010
Page 3
new facility. The center of operations for the bus facility was in Denton. Cline stated that the
DCTA had recently purchased 39 passengers shelters, with integrated benches and adjacent trash
receptacles.
Mayor Burroughs asked for the number of bus stops in Denton.
Jarod Varner, VP-Bus Operations, replied there were about 250 stops.
Cline continued that thirteen shelters had been installed in Lewisville and 26 shelters were set to
be installed in Denton. Shelter installations include infrastructure improvements to make each
shelter ADA accessible.
Council Member Engelbrecht stated there were lots of issues beyond benches such as no
sidewalks and not a large enough space for a stop.
Council Member Gregory asked if any surveys had been done or design suggestions for bike
attachments.
Varner stated that there were bike attachments on the buses.
Cline continued with commuter vanpools. The DCTA had a contract with VPSI, Inc. for
vanpool service. The vanpools provided shared-ride service for 8 to 15 passengers with similar
travel patterns. The vans were driven by vanpool participants who also determined each van's
route and schedule. The vanpool costs were shared by participants and DCTA (the more
participants in a van, the lower the cost to each member.)
Council Member Heggins asked if this service was just inside the city of Denton or outside the
city.
Varner stated that the service was outside the city and within Denton County.
Cline stated that over the next six months, DCTA would finalize fares for bus and rail; bus and
rail integration; and the A-train operating schedule. Board adoption of the fare structure would
probably in September/October with implementation in January 2011. The fare would likely
consist of two tiers - local between Hebron and Denton and regional with access to DCTA,
DART and The T.
Mayor Pro Tem Kamp asked about giving consideration to local vendors for concessions in the
facility.
Varner stated that they needed information from the Federal Transit Administration to see if that
was possible. If so, they would see what interest was out there and hope to find local vendors
who would be interested.
Council Member Engelbrecht asked about advertising on the buses.
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Leggett stated that staff had been working 6 months on a policy development for advertising on
the buses. The advertising must reflect community values. It was anticipated that a policy
would go to the Board in May or June for adoption with a slow implementation of the program.
City Manager Campbell expressed concern with advertising on benches to be consistent with that
on the buses.
Council Member Gregory stated that Denton had been donated a train caboose. He suggested
exploring the possibility of moving it to the Hickory Street designation as an information booth
or concessions stand. He asked about the details of the hike and bike trails.
Cline stated that the trails would be concrete trails. They were currently working with staff on
maintenance of the trails.
Tom Le Beau, VP-Rail Development, stated that the process had already started on the trail.
Some were already built, some bridges were done. The trails would be 10 feet wide with 6
inches concrete. They had worked with staff for a design scenario for maintenance.
Council Member Gregory asked if there were places where water off the rail line would present a
problem on the trail.
Le Beau stated that all the drainage was accommodated for in the drainage plans.
Council Member Gregory asked about the placement of signs along the trail that might designate
historical events, either state or local information.
Le Beau replied that no one from Denton had approached them in regards to such signage. They
had discussions with other cities and would be willing to discuss it for Denton.
Council Member Engelbrecht asked about options for city of Denton residents to get to NCTC.
Cline stated that was outside the three member cities and that it was a challenge right now for
that service. Corinth was currently paying a service fee but would soon discontinue it. As it
stood right now, that was an open question because Corinth was not a contributing city.
Varner stated that there was a fixed route shuttle with the campus and a park and ride facility at
the mall.
Council Member Watts asked if there was a goal as far as measuring which stop received a
shelter and a goal to have a certain number of stops to be sheltered.
Cline stated that they started looking at the high boarding locations and high volume locations to
see if a shelter would physically fit.
Varner stated that they were trying to add more access points even if a stop had limitations. The
Board did not have a goal dependent on the number of shelters. It was dependent on what the
Board wanted to allocate.
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Council Member Heggins asked if there were safety measures in place at shelters especially for
seniors.
Cline stated that the DCTA was not a police authority. Part of the theory of placing the shelters
was to try and not to create places where people could hide. They did not have a specific law
enforcement plan.
Mayor Burroughs stated that the economic downturn had affected both short and long term sales
tax projections. He questioned how that impacted the service plan and what was the plan for the
downtown station with number of operations - would it be full service with as many stops as
anticipated for the future or would it be ramped up.
Cline stated that the sales tax was off last year but they had under budgeted for sales tax revenue-
ahead of the estimates for last year. That was not driving the budget. They were looking how to
phase in the service to deal with number of trains to lease, etc.
Mayor Burroughs stated that it had other implications to the City such as economic development
and what the city would be investing in that area. A station that was fully operational was
needed and the City needed to know any alternatives the DCTA might be looking at so any
needed adaptations could be done.
Cline stated that the opening service would be service up to the downtown center. They
currently were looking at time of day for service, etc.
Mayor Burroughs asked about "hop a bus" service from UNT, TWU and downtown. There was
a need to connect as efficiently as possible to help with city's budget.
Cline stated that system planning was underway at this time and they would try to incorporate it
into the plan.
Mayor Burroughs stated that if there were "hop on-hop off' service, there would have to be a
difference between the two modes of transportation. He asked if there was any possibility for
enhanced funding allocations for local impacted railways.
Cline stated that there were no funds right now.
Leggett stated that they had applied for a grant for safety improvements around Fred Moore
School and Kerley Street.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:55 p.m.
MARK A. BURROUGHS JENNIFER WALTERS
MAYOR CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS