January 05, 2015 Minutes
City of Denton City Council Minutes
January 5, 2015
After determining that a quorum was present, the City Council convened in a Work Session on
Monday, January 5, 2015 at 11:30 a.m. in the Meeting Room at Emily Fowler Central Library,
502 Oakland Street, Denton, Texas.
PRESENT: Mayor Pro Tem Engelbrecht, Council Member Gregory, Council Member
Johnson, Council Member Roden, Council Member Ryan, and Mayor Watts.
ABSENT: Council Member Hawkins
1.Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the annual library
report for FY 2013-14, an update of the strategic plan and recent construction at the
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Emily Fowler Central Library
Kimberly Wells, Emily Fowler Central Manager, presented the Library staff present for the
meeting. She stated that the Library’s Annual Report was an audio visual report which
highlighted the customers of the Denton public libraries.
Highlights for 2013-2014:
A.A primary goal was more community in terms of being part of the community and going
out to them. Equal access should be provided for education for all ages such as library science
that had forty three different topics which were presented nine times. In May of 2014 the Forge
was opened. It had 716 visitors, over 150 3D print drives, and tours. The 3D printer had 450
hours of use.
B.Embedded librarians – 16 professional librarians had joined community organizations
such as the PTA, DISD, etc.
C.We Mean Business – a member of the Library staff was the Business Librarian who
regularly scheduled classes for small businesses and packaged presentations and partnerships.
D.Community Resources – What Can You Download – downloads were available for
ebooks, audio books, magazines, movies, TV episodes and music. A Decision Center helped
determine what resources to purchase for the libraries.
E.South Branch Library – was looking for future expansion.
F.Strategic Plan – This was year one of the plan that encouraged increasing time for
working parents. So far they had a 90% action on their Strategic Plan.
G.The Future – the Libraries would be turning outward, have a shift in thinking, and placing
community needs first in decisions. This would be done by becoming more intimately involved
in the rhythms of the community by holding ongoing events punctuated by specific events.
Council Member Johnson stated that he liked the idea of customers for the Library and to get
embedded in the community. He also liked the proactive aspect of the Library goals.
City of Denton City Council Minutes
January 5, 2015
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Council Member Roden asked about the impact of the Library extending past the building into
the community and questioned if the Library had looked at what part of the community was not
accessing the library.
Stacy Sizemore, South Branch Library Manager, stated that they had studies on which areas of
the community were using which library but not what part not accessing the library.
Wells stated that it was not done as a statistical analysis but working on community outreach into
the community through the DISD and other organizations.
Council Member Gregory asked for a future report on various meetings and ongoing workshops
that happened in the library, either hosted or sponsored by the library.
B. Receive an update report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the Hickory
Grand Street project.
Julie Glover, Economic Development Program Administrator,presented information on the
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Public Relations Campaign for Hickory Street. The project was started on November 15. She
presented information on total impressions, Facebook likes, click-through/engagement rate,
average cost per view and media spent to date. The campaign was performing 20 times better
than the industry standard.
John Davis, City Engineer, reviewed the updated phasing and schedule. The project was
currently in Phase 4B. Phase 5 would start in the next 7-10 days to help make up lost time
during the holiday weather. Many city departments were helping with the project such as Parks,
Economic Development, etc.
Mayor Watts asked about the original completion date.
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Davis said it was scheduled for January 19 without any conflicts, etc.
Council Member Gregory questioned when the sidewalk on Mulberry would be fixed. He had
received an email several weeks ago from Davis who indicated that money had been found to fix
it and Gregory was appreciative of the response.
Council Member Johnson asked Davis if he had any thoughts on how to avoid this type of
situation in the future with businesses suffering during construction.
Davis thought it would be better to wait until the completion of the job and then look at lessons
learned on how best to avoid those pitfalls. One area might be to do more extensive utility
location to avoid finding unnoted utilities.
Council Member Johnson requested an Informal Staff Report following the completion of the
project detailing best practices and what was learned about the process.
Council Member Gregory had the impression that the project was faster and moving along more
than the Cedar Street project.
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January 5, 2015
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Council Member Ryan asked about what plans had been made as far as coordinating sidewalks
with businesses. He didn’t want businesses to shut down because customers could not get to
them.
Davis stated that the sidewalks would be done segment by segment and staff was working with
businesses for access.
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Mayor Watts stated that the date for Phase 5 on the schedule was February 9. The original
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schedule had the Phase starting on January 5 and ending on February 9. He questioned what
was happening to compress that ten days.
Davis stated that there was an overlapping of Phase 4 and 5 and that the subcontractors were
hiring more people to work on the job to speed up the process. There was also the discussion of
a possible bonus for early completion.
Council Member Roden asked what else might be done in terms of future updates for the area.
Glover stated that this was an unfunded program so a lot depended on how much money could
be found to keep the campaign going through the project.
Aimee Bissett, Director of Economic Development, stated that originally this was a three month
media project and staff would see in the future how much more funding was needed for it.
Council discussed the public relations campaign costs, future segments, future funding for the
campaign, and whether more segments would be produced.
C. 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.
There were no items of New Business.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourn 12:37 p.m.
______________________________ ______________________________
CHRIS WATTS JENNIFER WALTERS
MAYOR CITY SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS