December 03, 2012 Minutes
CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
December 3, 2012
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Work Session on
Monday, December 3, 2012 at 11:30 a.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall.
PRESENT: Mayor Burroughs, Council Member Gregory, Council Member King, Council
Member Roden, and Council Member Watts
ABSENT: Council Member Engelbrecht, Mayor Pro Tem Kamp
1.Receive a report from the City Council Ethics Committee and hold a discussion regarding
recommendations of the Committee as a result of their meeting on October 12, 2012.
Anita Burgess, City Attorney, stated that the Council Ethics Committee had met in October and
that the committee chair, Council Member Dalton Gregory, would review what they had
discussed.
Council Member Gregory stated that the Committee had considered whether the current Council
Ethics Policy needed to be updated or changed. The Committee had also considered whether it
would be appropriate to include an ethics training session at the next annual planning session.
He stated that the Committee had discussed having about a 30 minute review of the ethics rules
during the annual planning session. Since the policy referenced several state laws, they thought
that would give them a chance to walk thru that and that there might be some questions. Also the
Committee discussed whether the boards and commissions should follow the ethics policy.
Council Member Roden stated that he concurred with Council Member Gregory’s comments
regarding the recommendations of the Committee.
City Manager George Campbell stated that they would discuss it with the Agenda Committee to
see if it would be added to the annual planning session agenda or placed on a work session for an
upcoming meeting.
2.Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding a
Branding/Marketing Proposal presented by the Economic Development Partnership
Board for a new Denton Airport Logo, Tag Line, Anthem and Name. The Economic
Development Partnership Board recommends approval (7-0).
Quentin Hix, Director of Aviation, stated that the Economic Development Partnership Board had
appointed an Airport Branding Task Force to look at the airport, determine where the growth
was, determine what the brand of service was, what should be done to prepare to market the
Airport for continued development which included looking at the naming, logo and other
marketing information related to the Airport. The Task Force appointed Cleve Breedlove as the
Chair of the Task Force. The Board was assigned specifically to consider the name of the
airport, the theme line, an anthem statement which covered the services provided by the Airport,
and the logo and other graphical representation of the Airport for marketing purposes. Hix stated
that they had used a marketing consultant, Sullivan Perkins, to create multiple options for each of
the five branding elements for consideration by the Task Force.
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December 3, 2012
Page 2
Hix reviewed the recommendations from the Task Force for the logo, the tag line and name and
the anthem. He stated that the recommendation was to change the name of the Airport to Denton
Enterprise Airport.
Council Member Roden asked if the official airport code would remain DTO.
Hix stated yes. If the Council decided to change the name, they would have to notify the FAA.
Hix stated that it would take approximately nine months to a year to notify the other entities that
published directories and other airport information for pilots or aviation publications to let them
know that the name had been changed but officially DTO would stay.
Council Member King asked if adding DTO in the tag line would be beneficial to aircraft
personnel or marketing personnel.
Hix stated that schedulers and dispatchers knew it by DTO. The people that we were marketing
to in terms of aviation commercial and industrial development usually knew it by its name.
Mayor Burroughs stated that there had been a lot of discussion at the EDP Board meetings. He
stated that it was very difficult to come up with a perfect solution.
General consensus of the Council was to move forward with bringing the item back for Council
approval.
The Council agreed to let Don Smith speak regarding this item.
Don Smith spoke in opposition of this item. He stated that the city had a good airport. It was
functioning well. It has had remarkable growth in the last ten years. He thought it was a bad
idea.
Hix stated that this was a continuation of the implementation of the 2010 Business Plan.
Council Member Watts asked if there was any input from the Airport Advisory Board.
Hix stated that it had been presented to the Airport Advisory Board and they had supported it.
3.Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding Airport Fund
Investment Guidelines. The Economic Development Partnership Board recommends
approval (8-0).
Quentin Hix, Director of Aviation, stated that these were guidelines that gave staff a framework
in which to go out and negotiate leases of improved property at the airport in order to generate
more revenue than just the raw ground leases which had traditionally been done. Any individual
project that involved the investment of airport funds to then subsequently lease to an individual
tenant would still have to come through the vetting process back to the City Council for specific
approval as a project which would include a financial analysis.
The guidelines were included in a one-page summary in the backup as Exhibit 1. Basically, what
they entailed was that anyone who was involved in leasing improved property at the airport and
City of Denton City Council Minutes
December 3, 2012
Page 3
was proposing a public/private partnership involving invested airport funds would have to have
at least a five-year record of successful performance in whatever type of business they were in to
be vetted as a potential tenant. The return on investment that the airport would make on the
funds would be considered an investment that through the lease rates would have to be recovered
over a 20-year period with at least a 4.25% return. In addition to that, there would be an
additional margin through the lease rate that would produce as much as 25-50% additional cash
flow for the year to go specifically to operating and maintenance. All the revenues from any
improved property would go into the fund and at the end of the year, as an Enterprise Fund, any
surplus would go into Capital and Surplus for future investment or any deficit from operating
revenues would be covered by the Capital and Surplus that was generated primarily from gas
well royalties.
Hix stated that the idea was to get the Airport to the point where it was operating as an Enterprise
Fund and was not dependant on gas well royalties for ongoing annual direct or indirect expenses.
This too was a continuation of the proposal in the 2010 Business Plan for the Airport to operate
with financial sustainability as an Enterprise Fund. Staff was looking for direction on these
proposed guidelines.
Council Member Watts felt that in number 2 of the proposed guidelines a 4.25% annual return on
investment was too low. He stated that this was an Enterprise Fund and any bank would loan
money at a margin of what they were able to purchase it at so he felt more comfortable having
that a little higher. He asked about putting in some specific procedures in the event the annual
return needed to be changed based upon market conditions. He asked about where it said “may
be adjusted periodically by the City to reflect a current cost of capital for the City of Denton” –
did they want to leave it that open-ended or did they want to have some other type of process
where that was defined.
Mayor Burroughs suggested that in number 3 of the proposed guidelines, adding the word
“minimum” in front of “a range of twenty-five percent to fifty percent”.
4.Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding Airport entry
infrastructure improvements. The Airport Advisory Board recommends approval (6-1).
Quentin Hix, Director of Aviation, stated that this was a proposed entry improvement at the
Denton Airport that staff had been working on. There was a need to provide a Denton County
Transit Authority (DCTA) bus stop and turnaround to accommodate bus service scheduled to
begin in January 2013. Also, there was a need to provide a truck turnaround for the daily traffic
of semi tractor-trailers that reach the dead end of FM 1515 at the Airport entrance and then had
no accommodation to turn and go back on the highway. Another current improvement that
needed to be accommodated with the Airport entry improvement was a small open area for a
sculpture commissioned by the City Council through the Parks Department.
Hix stated that as part of the proposed entry improvement, Airport staff had included a new road
entering from Airport Road and connecting south to an extension of Spartan Drive. This
improvement would allow access to over twenty-seven commercial hangar locations in the
southeast area of the Airport, as well as a location for on-site directional signage for public
access to these sites. Both US Aviation Services and Business Air Management would be
accommodated by the improved entry access and signage.
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December 3, 2012
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Hix stated that this was presented to the Airport Advisory Board at their November 14, 2012
meeting. The Airport Advisory Board recommended approval of a modified improvement to the
Airport entry. The portion of the proposal related to the bus stop/truck turnaround was approved
and the portion of the proposed entry improvement related to the southbound entry road was
tabled for future consideration. The discussion with the Airport Advisory Board included
specific requests of staff to provide more information regarding potential development in the
area adjacent to the southbound entry road and notification to all tenants in the southeast area of
the Airport that this improvement was pending. Notification to tenants had been provided and
staff had not received any feedback. Additional area development information would be
discussed with the Airport Advisory Board at the December 12 meeting.
Hix stated that last Friday one of the board members, who did not support the southbound road,
sent an email to a number of people and reminded them that if they wanted input on this that they
should contact staff and express their concern about it. Hix received seven emails – five were
from tenants, one was from a fixed base operator, and one was from Mike Nebrig, Nebrig and
Associates. They indicated for one reason or another that they felt it was an inappropriate
improvement and an inappropriate use of funds. Overall they felt it was providing a benefit to
one specific tenant at the Airport.
The Council agreed to let Jeff Soules with U.S. Aviation speak regarding this item.
Jeff Soules, U.S. Aviation, 4850 Spartan Drive, stated that this improvement would benefit U.S.
Aviation, but it would also benefit other customers – anyone on the south side of the Airport
would have access onto Westcourt.
Consensus of Council was to proceed with Phase 1 and wait for a recommendation from the
Airport Advisory Board on Phase 2.
5.Under Section 551.042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, respond to inquiries from the
City Council or the public with specific factual information or recitation of policy, or
accept a proposal to place the matter on the agenda for an upcoming meeting
AND
Under Section 551.0415 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, provide reports about items of
community interest regarding which no action will be taken, to include: expressions of
thanks, congratulations, or condolence; information regarding holiday schedules; an
honorary or salutary recognition of a public official, public employee, or other citizen; a
reminder about an upcoming event organized or sponsored by the governing body;
information regarding a social, ceremonial, or community event organized or sponsored
by an entity other than the governing body that was attended or is scheduled to be
attended by a member of the governing body or an official or employee of the
municipality; or an announcement involving an imminent threat to the public health and
safety of people in the municipality that has arisen after the posting of the agenda
Council did not have any items.
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December 3, 2012
Page 5
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:03 p.m.
____________________________________
MARK BURROUGHS
MAYOR
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
____________________________________
JANE RICHARDSON
ASSISTANT CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS