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April 9, 2013 Minutes CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES April 9, 2013 After determining in Open Session in that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Closed Session on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall. PRESENT: Council Member Engelbrecht, Council Member Watts, Council Member Gregory, Council Member King, Mayor Pro Tem Kamp, Mayor Burroughs, Council Member Roden ABSENT: None 1. Closed Meeting: A.Competitive Matters Concerning Public Power Utilities - Under Texas Government Code Section 551.086. 1.Receive competitive public power information from staff regarding plans and proposals respecting the Denton Municipal Electric ("DME") system and its resources; and discuss, deliberate and provide staff with direction regarding such matters. B. Consultation with Attorneys - Under Texas Government Code Section 551.071. 1.Consult with the City's attorneys regarding legal issues associated with the delegation of authority to the City Manager to make offers and accept counter offers to purchase real property for public works and electric utility capital projects where the duty of the City's attorneys to the City of Denton and the Denton City Council under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct of the State Bar of Texas clearly conflicts with the provisions of the Open Meetings Act, Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code. 2.Consult with and provide direction to City's attorneys regarding legal issues associated with the regulation of gas well drilling and production with the City Limits and the extraterritorial jurisdiction, including Constitutional limitations, current and proposed statutory limitations upon municipal regulatory authority, current and proposed statutory preemption and/or impacts of current and proposed federal and state law, including case law, regulations, and proposed legislation as it concerns municipal regulatory authority and matters relating to enforcement of the ordinance. Council Member King left the meeting during the Closed Session. Following the completion of the Closed Session at 5:04 p.m., the City Council convened in a 2nd Tuesday Session to consider the following: City of Denton City Council Minutes April 9, 2013 Page2 1.Receive a report, hold a discussion, and provide staff with direction regarding delegation of authority to the City Manager to make offers and accept counter offers to purchase real property for public works and electric utility capital projects. Paul Williamson, Real Estate Manager, stated that the proposed ordinance would give the City Manager the authority to extend offers to property owners for easements and rights-of-way for electric linear projects as well as wastewater, drainage and sewer projects. Mayor Burroughs asked Williamson to describe what the proposed changes were and the purpose of the changes. Williamson stated that the changes included separating out “capital projects” to “public works facilities” and provided a range of authority to the City Manager that tracked with the existing authority he had for procurement purchases. Mayor Burroughs noted that there were generic changes for both options. Both eliminated the wording "or his designee" and provided definition of public works facilities. Williamson stated that the authority of the ordinance would only be for the City Manager and not to a designee. Capital projects were reworded as public works facilities to include linear electric project, street and roadway expansion and improvement, water utility infrastructure expansion and improvements, sanitary sewer utility infrastructure expansion and improvements and storm water utility infrastructure expansion and improvements. There was also a statement that these were authorizations for offers and not authorizations for eminent domain. Eminent domain issues would still go to Council as a separate action. Council and staff presented and discussed suggested changes to the ordinance. (1) Last “whereas” on page two was changed to include the wording “nothing contained herein shall be deemed to be authority to take or acquire property by eminent domain, rather the City Council shall make such determinations independent of this ordinance and this ordinance serves as a mere delegation of the process of making offers required by law and accepting counteroffers within the limited amounts herein specified”. (2) Section 1 – remove the wording “a public use and necessity exists” and keep the wording “that the public welfare and convenience require the acquisition…” (3) Section 2 – the discussion noted that there were policy concerns with regard to the siting of projects particularly above ground projects such as transmission lines and substations. Wording was added “after siting approval by the City Council of any above ground Public Works Facilities which do not require a Specific Use Permit”. (4) Settlement Amounts- the discussion centered around total compensation amounts; tracking the amounts more along the line of the current procurement ordinance and carrying that over to the land rights, and percentages of variance in terms of appraised value. Wording was changed to indicate that the Settlement Amount for public works facilities except electric utility infrastructure expansion and improvements, would not exceed the greater of $100,000 and for City of Denton City Council Minutes April 9, 2013 Page3 properties with a Total Compensation Amount of more than $100,000 but less than $500,000, as prescribed in the appraisal, the amount would not exceed an amount equivalent to the Total Compensation Amount of the property plus 20% of such Total Compensation Amount. For Public Works Facilities that were electric utility infrastructure expansion and improvements, the amount would be the greater of $500,000 and for those properties with a Total Compensation Amount of more than $500,000 but less than $1 million, as prescribed in the appraisal, the Settlement Amounts would not exceed an amount equivalent to the Total Compensation Amount plus 20% of such Total Compensation Amount. (5) Council consideration – wording was included that would allow the City Manager to place any offer or counteroffer on a City Council agenda for consideration by the Council. (6) Section 8 included wording that the City Manager would provide a quarterly report to Council regarding occasions when this ordinance was used. Williamson noted that the public works facilities related to electric infrastructure tracked with the procurement authorization for the DME electric operations. Council Member Gregory stated that he was comfortable with using this for property because it was still based on the appraised value. Mayor Burroughs noted that he had two issues going into this proposal. One was the delegation of public use which he now understood and was comfortable with that. The second was the proposed wording for Section 2 regarding the siting of a project. He initially had concerns about a situation where a public facility or public works facility project was vetted internally with siting determinations such as a roadway not made by Council. He felt better with the proposed wording change. Mayor Pro Tem Kamp left the meeting. Council Member Roden stated that with a specific use permit, the public process for the purchase of the property had already been made and the ability of the Council was limited with that type of project. He questioned what form would the siting approval take place. City Attorney Burgess stated that there were several opportunities for the siting such as during the budget process. There would also be opportunities when letting a contract for a street widening project. Mayor Burroughs stated that a mobility plan amendment would be another opportunity. Council Member Roden suggested developing a parallel procedure similar to the above ground projects and use it with future road projects. That would clarify the process. He was also concerned about the specific use permit being done after the site was selected. Mayor Burroughs stated that some project acquisitions were made by contract but did not close until the due diligence process was completed which included the specific use permit. City of Denton City Council Minutes April 9, 2013 Page4 Following the completion of the 2nd Tuesday Session, the Council convened in a Special Called Session to consider the following: Ordinance No. 2013-094 1.Consider adoption of an ordinance of the City of Denton, Texas, delegating certain authority to the City Manager to make offers and to accept counter offers to purchase eligible real property interests necessary for City of Denton public works and electric utility capital improvement projects; authorizing the City Manager to execute contracts to purchase said real property interests for and on behalf of the City of Denton; authorizing the City Manager to expend funds in accordance with the terms of said contracts; providing a severability clause; and providing an effective date. After completing the above discussion on proposed changes to the ordinance, Council Member Gregory motioned to adopt Option 2 of the ordinance with the conditions noted above in (1), (2), (3), and amending Section 2, (2)b) to indicate 20% in place of 120%. Motion died for lack of a second. Council Member Roden asked about provisions for a sunset clause. If this procedure was being done for pressing needs at hand, it might be good to relook at it in a future time frame. There might be benefits to realigning numbers as new needs came up in the future. He suggested five years to relook at the ordinance. City Attorney Burgess indicated that wording could be added to Section 10 of the ordinance that it would terminate five years from the effective date. Council Member Engelbrecht asked what would happen if the termination date were missed and the ordinance was still needed. City Attorney Burgess stated that rather than a termination date, the wording could direct staff to review the ordinance at a set time period. Williamson stated that SB 18 which was the legislation associated with all of the required paperwork was not going away and that element would not change the requirements. Council Member Gregory motioned, Council Member Roden seconded to adopt the ordinance with the above noted changes. On roll call vote: Council Member Watts, Council Member Gregory, Council Member Engelbrecht, Mayor Burroughs, Council Member Roden – “aye”. Motion carried unanimously. 2. 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 City of Denton City Council Minutes April 9, 2013 Page5 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 Member Engelbrecht asked for an accounting on where the brochures for the special election had been distributed. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:12 p.m. ____________________________________ MARK A. BURROUGHS MAYOR CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS ____________________________________ JENNIFER WALTERS CITY SECRETARY CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS