May 06, 2013 Minutes
CITY OF DENTON CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
May 6, 2013
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Work Session on
Monday, May 6, 2013 at 11:30 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room, 215 E. McKinney
Street, Denton, Texas.
PRESENT: Council Member King, Council Member Watts, Council Member Gregory,
Council Member Engelbrecht, Mayor Pro Tem Kamp, Mayor Burroughs
ABSENT: Council Member Roden
1. Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding an update on the
City of Denton Strategic Plan and Preliminary Budget priority items for FY 2013-14.
Bryan Langley, Assistant City Manager, presented the details regarding the overview and
purpose of the discussion. He stated that the Overview and Purpose would be to (1) review goal
and history of the City's strategic planning process, (2) provide an overview of key focus areas
and goals outlined in the Strategic Plan, (3) review Strategic Plan Performance Metrics, (4)
discuss upcoming budget priorities identified, Council requests, and linkage to the Strategic Plan
goals, and (5) discuss the next steps in the budget process. He reviewed the goals of the
Strategic Plan and the history of the Strategic Planning Process.
The Vision, Mission and Value Statements were presented for review. The Vision statement was
"Destination Denton”, the Mission statement was "Dedicated to Quality Service” and the Values
statement was "We Care". The Plan was divided into Key Focus Areas of (1) organizational
excellence, (2) public infrastructure, (3) sustainable economic development and environmental
stewardship, (4) safe, livable, and family friendly community and (5) partnerships and regional
leadership.
Potential changes to the Strategic Plan. The Plan was approved in April 2011. It was
recommended that strategic plans be reviewed at least annually to determine if any modifications
were necessary. The Leadership Team had reviewed the Plan and did not recommend any
changes at this time. The next major update for the Plan would most likely occur once the
Comprehensive Plan update was completed. Staff was asking if Council had any items for
modification.
Mayor Burroughs asked where the customer satisfaction area was located and indicated that this
was different from customer service. Customer satisfaction could be added to that area.
Strategic Plan Performance Metrics – the areas tracked included number of measures on or above
target, the number of measures below target, and the number of measures significantly below
target. 78% of the measures were on or above target.
City Manager Campbell stated that staff was trying to make a realistic goal but also one which
would stretch the organization and continue to improve. The rankings were a good visualization
of the progress that had been made in the focus areas. This was a good internal tool to use on the
management level for progress.
Council Member Engelbrecht stated that the electronic billing goal was 6% and questioned if that
was that in line with other cities with electronic billing in the private and public sector.
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May 6, 2013
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Langley stated that the industry benchmark was 5%. Staff was trying to stretch the goal and
ultimately get to 10% or more.
Council Gregory questioned what happened if there was a yellow or red measure.
Langley stated that red was not a punitive measure but an opportunity to see if the performance
was being measured properly and what was driving the performance. There was a need to look
at the measures on an annual basis as each quarter the figures might change and go up or down
per quarter.
Performance Metrics included (1) identify target levels of performance was critical but difficult;
(2) some performance measures were difficult to assign to specific goals, (3) city staff and
departments were still learning from performance metrics, and (4) budget priorities should be
based, at least in part, on performance indicator information.
Mayor Burroughs asked if Code Enforcement had set goals indicating a number of citations to
issue.
Langley stated no.
Council Member Roden joined the meeting.
Council Member Gregory stated that some goals did not lend to some kind of measurement. He
felt it would be ok to have those types of goals as not everything was measurable. He did not
want to take one out just because it was hard to measure.
City Manager Campbell stated that some goals might not be measurable but that did not mean
that there was not support for that goal. There was a need to determine what was measurable and
what was not and how far down to go with the measures.
Upcoming Budget priorities
Langley indicated that this discussion was on a high level regarding strategic, budget, and policy
priorities and was not intended to be focused on specific financial information. Detailed
financial information would be presented in June and at subsequent meetings during the budget
process. Priorities should reflect key elements of the Strategic Plan and City Council policies.
Budget priorities by Key Focus Area
#1 - Organizational Excellence included maintain reserves in accordance with financial policies,
propose rate structures that achieved financial self-sufficiency for enterprise funds, utilized fee
structures that recovered the costs associated with services that were provided, enhanced citizen
engagement efforts, continued to promote a high performance work force, and utilized
technology to improve customer service, efficiency, and productivity.
#2 - Public Infrastructure included implement first year of voter approved Street Bond Program,
continue to manage street funding based on Overall Condition Index methodology, develop
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May 6, 2013
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financial plan to provide required level of funding to maintain OCI rating, utilities revenue
funded capital when possible, and develop upcoming bond program that was based on
community needs.
#3 - Sustainable economic development and environmental stewardship included complete
update of comprehensive plan, develop financial strategy to implement the DTIP, pursue
economic development incentive projects that offered substantial return on investment for the
community, attempt to further refine and improve the development review process, and promote
environmental sustainability.
Council Member Roden asked about a plan to guide economic development.
Langley stated that there were guidelines for incentive agreements.
Aimee Bissett, Director of Economic Development, stated that Denton had a unique setup as
most cities the size of Denton were 4A and 4B sales tax cities.
Jon Fortune, Assistant City Manager, stated that a study was done to identify relationships in
those areas such as TIP strategies.
Mayor Burroughs stated that incentive provisions had very specific employment goals and sales
per year to look at for economic development.
Council Member Roden stated that as the study was 10 years old it might be time to think about
another study.
Council Member Gregory stated that last year staff was working on a new set of goals for the
Economic Development Partnership Board and the Board gave suggestions on how to update
those.
Fortune stated that those were more on a departmental level but one could be done for more city-
wide goals.
#4 - Safe, livable and family friendly community – priorities included evaluate staffing needs in
the police department, complete the design and begin construction of a new fire station, complete
construction of the new animal adoption center, continue proactive code enforcement program to
meet community expectations, enhance program and technology offerings in libraries, and
evaluate potential parks/recreation facility improvements to be recommended for inclusion in
upcoming bond program.
#5 - Partnerships and regional leadership - continue to maintain active dialogue with state and
federal elected leaders and agencies, build relationships with officials in other Denton County
municipalities, continue working with UNT and a private developer to build a convention center,
and enhance partnerships with social service agencies in the community.
Council budget priorities – budget priorities that had been suggested by Council included (1)
Downtown shuttle service, (2) supplemental bicycle lane funding, (3) Downtown reinvestment
grant program, (4) community market enhancements, (5) restore Council contingency funds, (6)
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May 6, 2013
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staff dedicated for development projects, and (7) additional funds for Human Services Advisory
Committee. Langley asked if Council had any other suggestions to include.
Council Member Roden suggested exploring the cost for an economic development study in a
broad sense.
Council Member Engelbrecht stated that he would like to look at an incubator project as a base
line on what were the resources the City had for those types of projects.
Mayor Burroughs stated that Denton was characterized as the greenest city in the U.S. but that
required time and attention with resources to get to that level. He stated that if and when the
southern part of Rayzor Ranch was developed, there was a museum project associated with the
development and he wanted to make sure the City shepherded that facility. It should be a
priority once definite plans were known. The City would need to at least think about some kind
of resource allocation to shepherd that project.
Council Member Gregory noted that United Copper bragged that their facility was operated 40%
through wind energy. He would appreciate a staff report as a follow up to the Mayor’s
comments.
Council Member Engelbrecht suggested considering funding for an art master plan. He noted
that some Council contingency funds went to the fire fighter museum and he requested staff
review with the Chief what funding the museum might need going forward. He asked how it
was funded and what might need to be done. The Fire Department had a large antique toy
collection but could not display it because there was no space for it. He questioned what other
possible goals the museum might have.
Council Member Gregory suggested finding out if any person at UNT in the public
administration program would be available for internship programs for research. He suggested
amending the last bullet point in Key Focus Area #3 to refer to the city-wide sustainability plan
which provided those details. He also suggested that Key Focus Area #4 have a reference point
added for a bike and pedestrian mobility plan.
Mayor Burroughs stated that in his view, the proactive nature of Code Enforcement for non-
safety related items needed to be reviewed and the number of write ups that had increased. He
felt there was a point at which it became more trivial in nature when it was proactive. A
proactive approach for non-health related issues was something Council needed to think about
and was not comfortable that it was a high priority.
City Manager Campbell stated that staff had heard that message at the Council retreat and that
there were not enough resources in Code Enforcement for petty issuances.
Mayor Pro Tem Kamp suggested looking into a dedicated administrative person for Council and
the Mayor.
Council discussed the possibility of adding a staff person to assist the Mayor and/or Council.
Langley reviewed the next step in the proposed budget calendar from May to October.
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With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:05 p.m.
____________________________________
MARK A. BURROUGHS
MAYOR
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS
____________________________________
JENNIFER WALTERS
CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS