2018-06-05 Committee on Citizen Engagement Minutes
COMMITTEE ON CITIZEN
ENGAGEMENT MINUTES
June 5, 2018
After determining that a quorum was present, the Committee on Citizen Engagement convened
in a meeting on June 5, 2018 at 10:34 a.m. in the City Hall Conference Room at City Hall, 215
E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas.
PRESENT: Council Member Dalton Gregory, Council Member Gerard Hudspeth,
and Council Member Keely Briggs.
STAFF PRESENT: Bryan Langley, Sarah Kuechler, Melissa Kraft, Jessica Rogers,
Sarah Fullwood, Justin Harmon, Kevin McGinnis, Rachel Wood, Stuart Birdseye,
Michelle Cunningham, Charlie Rosendahl
A. Consider approval of the minutes of April 3, 2018.
Council Member Gregory motioned, and Council Member Briggs seconded to approve the
minutes. The motion carried unanimously.
B. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the Citizen
Relationship Management (CRM) software and provide a demonstration of the
application.
On February 6, 2018 staff presented information on the CRM application to the Committee
on Citizen Engagement (COCE) and provided a demonstration on the software. Since that time,
staff has been working with CitySourced, the vendor awarded the CRM contract, through
development and implementation of the new software.
At this time, the software implementation is mostly complete and staff will be working with the
departments utilizing the software during the soft launch phase to test the request routing
functionality, and ensure that software and processes are working correctly. The initial user
departments are Community Improvement Services, Animal Services, Customer Service, Solid
Waste, and Traffic Operations.
Rosendahl provided an update and gave a brief demonstration of how a citizen can enter a
request, some of the functionality, and the back-end application for employees.
Briggs asked if the household chemical collection area is where citizens can sign up for pick
up through the app.
Rosendahl stated that yes, household chemical collection and bulk pickup items are both items
available on the application for citizens to sign up.
Gregory asked if there was a section for street lights that were out.
Rosendahl stated that it is not currently set up but will be part of phase two in a few months.
There is currently a section for “Other” requests that citizens can use for requests that are not
listed.
Briggs asked if there was a priority rating for items that are dangerous or need immediate
attention.
Rosendahl stated that there currently isn’t, but priority and emergency items will be listed on
the top with a phone number for the citizen to call.
Hudspeth asked if the request goes to more than one person within the City.
Rosendahl stated that it goes to one specific person in the department. There are other people
who are notified, such as supervisors, as an FYI and can check on the request if the main
person is on vacation, etc. There will also be a feature that escalates the request to another
person if the request has not been responded to in a certain amount of time.
Gregory and Hudspeth asked that in the future they would like for notifications to be sent as
soon as possible and if there are delays or holds in the process of a request.
Staff expects the official go-live date to be on June 18, 2018. An update will be provided in
the Friday report on June 15, 2018 and staff will also put something out on social media to
alert citizens.
Hudspeth asked if something could be sent out via DTV or the YouTube channel and develop
an advertisement that could be used at events, set up on tables, etc.
Rosendahl stated that yes, he has also been working with the vendor to set up marketing that
will walk a citizen through the process of submitting a request.
Briggs asked to make sure to send the link to Council so that they can send it out to citizens.
C. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding a Complete Count
Committee for the 2020 Census.
Kuechler gave a brief presentation regarding a Complete Count Committee for the 2020
Census.
The 2020 Census will be conducted in April 2020. In preparation for the 2020 Census, the
U.S. Census Bureau has asked that municipalities begin creating Complete Count Committees
(CCC). A CCC is a community based group that helps the federal census initiative by
developing ways to promote census completion, particularly in areas that have had low census
response rates in the past. CCCs can be broken into subcommittees focused on different
demographic groups such as community-organizations, faith- based, education, government,
business, housing, and media.
The Census count helps determine how over $600 billion in funding from the federal
government will be apportioned. The Census Bureau estimates that for every person that is
underreported through the Census, each state loses approximately $1,574 per year in funding.
The primary goal of the CCC is to increase response rates so that the 2020 Census provides an
accurate reflection of our community’s demographics and to increase the availability of
federal and state funding provided on a per capita basis. This is especially important for the
upcoming Census as federal funding for outreach efforts for the Census is proposed to be
reduced significantly.
Prior to the 2010 Census, a CCC was formed via Council Resolution and consisted of a total of
37 members from various civic, educational, faith based, and non-profit organizations in the
community but the organizations were not specified in the ordinance.
Kuechler stated that staff is looking to take a Resolution forward to Council in August. Staff
would like to reach out to the proposed organizations, and is requesting feedback on the list
of proposed CCC member organizations and any additional organizations that could be
represented in the CCC.
Staff would recommend having flexibility to add member organizations and/or subcommittees
as the process progresses as the goal is to be inclusive and reach as many populations as
possible. Council may want to consider appointment of a Chair through the Resolution forming
the Complete Count Committee. It is the recommendation of the Census Bureau to have a
strong Chairperson appointed that can coordinate and oversee a comprehensive outreach plan
and subcommittee work.
Kuechler stated that there would be four main subcommittees: Faith-Based, Community-Based,
Government/Business and Education.
Briggs stated that the information provided looked good and asked how successful they were in
2010.
Cunningham stated that we were one of the communities recognized by the director of the Census
bureau because we were one of the first cities to achieve some of the different metrics. She stated
that we were in a different environment then, the challenge was to have our undocumented
population respond since our services are extended to them and to make sure that funding was
there. The current climate is going to make that increasingly difficult to happen. The faith based
approach tends to be the best approach with people responding to the census due to people having
more trust in them.
Gregory asked to add Trinity Presbyterian to the Faith-Based group because they are the church
that hosts the open doors program for immigrants and support undocumented immigrants. He
also added that it would be a good idea to contact the groups who helped with the 2010 Census
and see if they have suggestions.
Hudspeth suggested adding Interfaith church. He also suggested adding builders and realtors to
the business group and for the education group, possibly adding the young business owners /
main street association member.
Briggs added that TWU / UNT also have faith based groups on campus that you could reach out
to that may help.
Cunningham stated that adding the VP of housing for the colleges may be helpful.
D. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding resident and
business surveys.
Kuechler gave a report regarding resident and business surveys.
The City of Denton completed both a resident and business survey in 2015 with National
Research Center (NRC) using a sole source contract. Staff requested a budget supplemental in
FY2016-17 for $25,000 to continue surveys and perform a resident and business survey on
alternating years. After the budget supplemental was approved in October 2016, staff sent out a
request for proposal in fall of 2016 for a vendor to provide survey services. The City selected
National Service Research (NSR) and the City Council approved a contract on February 17,
2017.
In summer of 2017, a resident survey was completed by NSR with results presented to the
Committee on Citizen Engagement in August 2017. During the survey process, staff
encountered problems with NSR using copyrighted survey questions from the previous survey
done by NRC in 2015. This resulted in the City paying a licensing fee of $6,750 to NRC, in
addition to contracted costs of $15,650 with NSR, for a total resident survey cost of $22,400.
In preparation for a 2018 survey, staff has reviewed the options available and taken into
consideration factors such as cost, comparable results, timeline, possible litigation, and quality
of surveys. Staff would like to brief the Committee and provide options for consideration at the
meeting.
Kuechler presented two options.
The first is to use the current vendor NSR that we have under contract, however we can cancel
that contract at any time with 30 day notice. The basic survey price is $15,650. We would have
to pay another licensing fee to NRC to use that same template. That would come to a total of
$23,150.
The second option would be to go back to our prior vendor NRC. With a total comparable to
$23,130.
Staff recommends option two, proceed with the prior vendor NRC.
Gregory stated that he thinks it’s important to use the same vendor as previous years for good
comparison.
Briggs asked if we were allowed to share that data.
Kuechler stated yes, the information could be shared.
Kuechler stated that the 2015 survey is still available online for reference and that she could send
out the link and stated that the 2017 questions would be the similar for comparison purposes.
Kuechler asked if the committee was ok with recommended option 2 to proceed with prior
vendor and to start with the resident survey and then the business survey, and the committee all
agreed.
E. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding citizen
engagement, communication, and transparency initiatives.
Kuechler gave a general update on the following:
Improving Denton – Staff has continued to work with Capital Projects and Utility departments
to communicate information on capital projects to residents and the public. Currently, staff from
Public Affairs, Tech Services, Capital Projects, and Utilities are working together with the
City’s GIS vendor to develop an interactive map that would show information on capital projects
and be integrated with existing software. It is expected this tool will be ready by the end of
summer; staff will update the COCE on this project.
Citizens Academy – There are 25 residents signed up to participate in the second annual Denton
Citizens Academy this summer. This is a great participation rate for the second year as 12
residents participated for the first academy last summer. The program consists of 5 interactive
sessions from May to July with a combination of presentations, tours, and facilitated activities.
The program ends with a proclamation at the City Council meeting on July 17.
Kraft gave a general update on Smart Cities Project.
During the last COCE meeting in April, Denton Smart Lab presented a proposal to work
with the City on proposed pilot program concepts. Since the last meeting, Economic
Development, the Downtown Parking Working Group, and Technology Services have met and
are working collaboratively to develop a statement of work around a Smart Cities project in the
downtown area. The project will include a proof of concept around providing visibility of parking
inventories using sensors that actively monitor your parking spaces in real-time. This proof of
concept cycle approach is being evaluated to ensure that implementation is manageable,
affordable, and relevant to providing visibility into downtown parking. Staff is currently
investigating two options; one with the Denton Smart Lab who is a local non-profit and
ParkAware who is a vendor that specializes in smart parking sensors. Staff anticipates to have a
recommendation in late June.
Set Future Meeting Dates and Topics.
Topics: Gregory would like see about a dedication for the Fire Station on E McKinney.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:24 a.m.
The next committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 10:30 am.
GERARD HUDSPETH KARISA RICHARDS
COMMITTEE CHAIR RECORDING SECRETARY
CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS