2015-10-05 Committee on Citizen Engagement Minutes
COMMITTEE ON CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT MINUTES
October 5, 2015
After determining that a quorum was present, the Committee on Citizen Engagement convened in
a meeting on October 5, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. in the City Council Work Session Room at City Hall,
215 E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas.
PRESENT: Mayor Pro Tem Dalton Gregory, Council Member Keely Briggs, and Council
Member Kevin Roden.
A. The Committee considered approval of the minutes for May 4, 2015.
Mayor Pro Tem Gregory motioned, Council Member Briggs seconded to approve the minutes.
The minutes were approved.
B. Receive a report regarding the redesign of the City’s website.
Alison Ream, Administrative Services Manager, provided an update on the website development.
She introduced Robbie Stengel, Public Communications Manager; Kevin McGinnis,
Website/Social Media Administrator; and Justin Harmon, Marketing and Communications
Administrator. She stated that the current site was launched in 2009 and our website was where
citizens looked for information. She stated that user expectations had changed over the years and
now the website was the City online. The focus for the new website would be on citizen
engagement and customer service.
Internal and external surveys were conducted and Public Communications had performed a SWOT
analysis with City departments. The main takeaway from input received included: Information
was difficult to find on the website. The current website was a poor mobile experience. The design
did not reflect the identity of the community. We needed opportunities to tell our story and engage
residents. We needed to use technology to improve workflow and provide better service.
Ream stated that the overall goals of the new website were to serve as the central resource and
communications platform for the City of Denton and to reinforce the values of the organization
and the vibrancy of the Denton community through a consistent brand experience.
Ream reviewed key elements for the RFP – Navigation and Site Architecture – intuitive, easy to
use; user-oriented, fewest clicks possible, and challenge – volume of information/pages. She
stated that when doing the department interviews, they had asked staff to bring samples of good
websites – TXU, City of Arlington, and City of Sacramento were some websites that staff members
had shared.
Mobile Accessibility was fundamental to the next website. One in five American adults depended
on a mobile device for internet access. Staff would look at the design for mobile first – responsive
design and a mobile home page.
Engagement – social media integration; polling/surveys; establish a central newsroom; and e-news
& notifications.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) self-service requests, tract status, workflow
management, first step towards comprehensive system.
Committee on Citizen Engagement Minutes
October 5, 2015
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Additional functionality – electronic forms; registration – departments with free programming
sometimes like to know how many people might attend their event; dynamic calendar; smarter
search engine – could look at how people were searching for information; file transfer protocol
functionality; and google maps integration.
Content Management System (CMS) – easy for all users; drag and drop widgets; slideshow/banner
functionality; media library; and graphics package.
Other considerations included post-launch services and hosting – needed someone that could
provide 24-hour hosting; transition planning and migration services; a digital roadmap – looking
at what systems we had and what systems we were going to have going forward; going to ask
vendor for electronic forms package; governance and policy; and training and resources for staff.
Partner criteria included innovative and out of the box; experience with cities and projects of
similar scope; resources for ongoing support and services.
Ream reviewed the next steps which included release of the RFP in October 2015; the selection
process in November/December 2015; contract negotiations and award – January 2016; and
engage a vendor.
Council Member Briggs asked about the public art survey on the website.
Ream stated that the survey was being managed by an outside consultant and we could provide a
link on the website to the survey.
C. Hold a discussion and provide staff direction with regard to amending the City Council Rules
of Procedure (Ordinance 2015-231) as it concerns public comments during City Council Work
Sessions.
Aaron Leal, First Assistant City Attorney, stated that Council had amended the Rules of Procedure
in August 2015. During that work session, there was discussion whether the Council should allow
public comment during work session discussions. Leal indicated that on page 10 paragraph b of
the Rules of Procedure, there was a sentence that allowed the Mayor to invite citizens or other
interested persons to participate in the session. If the Mayor invited citizens to participate in a
work session, their participation would cease at the point the Mayor closed the session to public
input. Leal stated that there was nothing that mandated the Council to allow public comment
during the work session. He stated they could consider adding a citizen comment section which
would extend the length of the meetings, particularly if there was something controversial on the
agenda.
George Campbell, City Manager, stated that in his experience Denton did an incredible job
allowing opportunity for citizen comments. From staff and the City Manager’s standpoint, the
work sessions were an opportunity for the City Council to talk among themselves and debate issues
and give staff direction. Staff needed Council feedback on some of these issues. For the public,
the work sessions were an opportunity to listen to the topics and then submit their comments to
Council. Time was a real concern for staff. Council was already meeting four Tuesdays a month.
As the City Manager, sometimes it was difficult to get the direction that Council wanted to go with
a topic. This was the time when City Council needed to be able to do their business.
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October 5, 2015
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Roden stated that the backup was usually pretty extensive for an item and Council could call
someone out if they had information relative to that topic or if there was a lot of citizen interest,
Council could give direction to set up a separate public meeting for an item.
Gregory stated that if someone wanted to provide new information, there were lots of opportunities
for citizens to provide new information besides at a meeting. He stated that it was not always a
good use of staff time to be in long meetings.
The Committee decided that the existing ordinance provided adequate opportunity for the Mayor
to permit or request citizen participation in the work sessions. General consensus of the Committee
was to make no changes to the existing ordinance.
D. Management Report
a. Open Data Update
b. Topic Matrix
Melissa Kraft, Chief Technology Officer, stated that the Open Data Program had been launched
on January 5, 2015. There had been a lot of usage since it started ranging from 450 users to 850
users. She recommended forming a volunteer open data citizens committee and hoped to form a
technical committee with Council Member Roden’s assistance.
Roden asked if a task force could be created without an enabling ordinance.
Bryan Langley, Assistant City Manager, stated that it did not need to be formed as an advisory
group. It could be a group that staff could meet with that would give them information.
E. New Business
Roden asked for ideas for discussion for the Committee moving forward.
Briggs suggested looking into having a pop-up city hall at a festival, maybe having some Council
Members and a couple of staff members manning it.
Roden stated that he had seen different City departments at festivals and maybe they could be
consolidated into one booth.
Briggs stated that at TML, she had seen a mobile council meeting which could be set up at places
where there would be people that would not normally be engaged and was interested in exploring
that possibility.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:27 a.m.
________________________________ ________________________________
KEVIN RODEN JANE RICHARDSON
COMMITTEE CHAIR RECORDING SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS