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2019-04-02 Committee on Citizen Engagement Minutes• i.�ll � � �• After determining that � quorum was present, the �ommittee on Citizen Engagemeni convened in a meeting on Apri12, 2019 at 10:34 a.m. in the City I�all Conference Room at City Hall, 215 E. IVIcl�inney Street, I�enton, Texas. PFZESENT: Council Member Deb Armintor and Council Member Keely �riggs. �TAFF PRESENT: �arah Kuechler, Jessica l�ogers, IVlelissa Kraft, �illy IVlatthews, Amy Cunningham, 5arah Fullwood, 3ustin Harmon, Stuart Birdseye A, Cotaside�° apg�r°ov�Il of ��e �rn�anutes �f Dec��h�er 4, 2���. Council Member Armintor moiioned, and Council 1l�Iember �riggs seconded to approve the minutes. The motion carried unanimously. �. �eceive a t-e�o��, ho�d a dIlsc�nssio�n, aa�d ��ve s�afff �nrec��o�n a°��a�°dfl�� devefl�p�ne�t of a smart �fl� �lefIl�fltioffi and g�np9e�nenta�gota ��an fo� ��nto�. During the Oc�. 9, 2018 City Council meeting, l�enton resident Dorothy I�uhn requested the City develop a smart ci�y vision and strategy based on community needs. Foilowing her remarks, the City Council directed sta�f to provide information and recommendations on I�entoll's smart city plan. An informal staff report was provided to the Council through the Jan. 18, 2019 Friday Staff Report. Staff research has included review of over 30 smart ci�y organizations that could poteniially assist in generating a smart ci�y plan, attendance of two smart city conferences, and a benchmarking survey of 15 local cities. Like I)enion, many neighbor cities are just beginning to realize the need for a formal smart city plan while already having several individual smart projects underway. In the last few years alone, I3enton has launched: � Open I7a�a Portal: http://data.cityofdenton.com/ • Free I'ublic Wi-Fi L�owntown • Engage I7enton application: https://denton�.citysourced.com/ � Interactive Capiial Improvement Plan Project IVIap: https://portal.cityofdenton.com/projects/ • Automated Traffic Management System A�ter researching the multitude of snlart city programs and organizations, staff recomrraends hiring a consulting firm to assist with this project. The main bene�t of hiring a consulting firm is that it would provide staff with impartial guidance during the development of a srriart city strateg� free from bias. Further, this option would enable staff to require the gathering of citizen input be ihe foundation of the project. The following outputs are expecied to be written intio the scope of worlc: 1. Ide-nti�cation of community values �i needs 2. Smart city de�niiion for I7enton 3. �mart city strategy a. IZoadmap i. Prioritized list of projects ii. Synced with existing �trategic Plan iii. 1Vleasures for effectiveness b. Framework for future staff decisions I�irector of Technology �ervices IVlelissa Kraft commented that smari cities are not just about technology, they are about the people and the coflnrr�unity. Council Member Armintor commenied tha� she would like to keep a broad definition of a smart city and would like to hear more about specifc smart city tools that could be useful io the community. Armintor also inquired why a consultant might be helpful rather than relying on an in�ernal staff and eXpertise. Kraft replied that a consultant would be more neutral rather than local groups/organizations thai may have vendor affiliations. In addition, a consulYant would also look at smart cities from a community standpoint, whereas IT staff might be more inclined to focus on the technology itself. Council IVlember �riggs stated she is in favor of seeking bids from consultants and is olc with the scope of worlc for the project. . E �; i � 7�;. .� t�t"il�l�l�? {il��, .� Ml i�„-.i�l} �lik �� ,�fi lii' ,�1f1!i 1"��r� �I, 1f+ ,I_�. N�,i�;�n si�,k },��,,!,�i�� 1.��li� i�i� •i, �� �iaAl� �i�i�" �1� 1;"�i i. ;�I1 i�' ili+�' In Aug. 2018, City staff presenied information about recording and televising public meetings to the Committee on Citizen Engagement. During the previous discussion, the Commiitee was interested in options to iake an incremental step to record additional public meetings. Staff developed options and presented a recommendation for a budget supplemental of � 10,000 to record 50 public meetings per year using the City's current vendor, Swagii Produciions. �taff reviewed the recorrgmended option with the COCE and requested feedback prior to presenting the upcoming budget supplemental for full Council consideration. Sarah Kuechler said �hai I�TV is currently at capacity. �illy Matthews said over three years, �he number of ineetings has increased by 7�%, the produced hours has increased by 96%, and the length oi City Council rrieetings has increased by �3%. As a result of this, Ivlaithews said, I�TV has had to turn down some department requests for videos and P�As due to the lack of available staff time. As a solution, Matthews recomrnends outsourcing 50 meeiings per year, which would cosi $10,000 annually, with a one-time ��5,000 fee to purchase and set up equipment. This would be cheaper than it would be to hire a full time or part time staff inember. 1Vlatthews added thai there would be an option io add additional meetings after the first year, if needed. Council Member Armintor stated that she liked the idea of outsourcing the filming of some meetings. Council Member Briggs asked if outsourced videos would be live-streamed and posted by Swaggi�. Matthews confirmed that they would; no staff time would be needed to post the videos and they would be streamed live. �riggs asked if it would be possible to just record audio for some meetings, rather than doing videos. Matthews said there's not a fail-safe way io do that without staff present to run the audio. Though it could technically be done, it would make more sense to go ahead and do video considering the amount of time and work it would take to do audio recordings. There is also an issue with ihe posting of audio-only files on the website- the current plaiform used to post videos doesn't have an option for audio �les, so the audio files would have to be housed separately from the videos on the website, which would likely be confusing to residents. Briggs asked if the project could start sooner or be accelerated. Sarah Kuechler stated that there is currently not enough money in the budget for this project, so we would have to seek budget approval�through the normal process be%re we could start the project. �0 12�ceflve a�epo�°�, Y�o�d a�escaussgon, a�d �nve s�aff di�ectio�a re�a����� a�n �nquaa°y �'o�° �entin� a dfls��ay case at Goflden 'Trflang�e 1�aIllle CouncillVlember �riggs inquired if the City could use display cases at Golden Triangle Mall to display information and materials on City programs and services. Staff reached out to the mall and received a quote to rent one display case at $500 per month through a lease agreement with the mall for a minimum of 23 months. Staff does not currently have a budget for this program at a cost of $ll,500 for �he 23-month period. If the Commi�tee desired, the option could be included as a Council budget supplemental for consideration for FY19/20. While visitors and residents could benefit from information available at the mall, staif believes marketing dollars may be better used for targeted or community-wide digital mariceting or mailers (depending upon the campaign) or for printing of materials on program and services to provide to various City staff that atiend community e�ents and fairs. Additionally, to lceep information relevant and attract attention, the materials and displays would have io be changed out regularly. A siaff inember would have to spend a few hours each month to develop materials and displays and travel io the mall to se�-up. Council Member �riggs stated that in her observation, the Golden Triangle Mall population is made up of older people, members of the Hispanic community, and children. �he believes these residents may noi be getting information through the marketing channels currently being utilized by ihe City and that advertising in the mall could reach a totally different market that we may not be reaching currently. Jessica Rogers stated thai the City's total markeiing budge� is �65,000. We try to leverage low cost options as much as possible to be �ood stewards of taxpayer dollars. If we seek funding for this project, it would be a 20% increase in the marketing budget and may not be the best use of funds compared to social media campaigns and oiher options. Council Member Armintor asked if �IOT funds could be used for ihe project. �he suggested this kind of advertising might provide overnight tourism. �4rmintor suggested purchasing wire racks and asking the Golden Triangle 1VIa11 to let us put ihem up in the mall for free. Sarah Fullwood suggested encouraging departments to do outreach at the mall as a low-to�no-cost way to reach residents who visit the mall. The Golden Triangle IVlall has been helpful and receptive to this kind of activity in ihe past. ;� ��' •i, �-'��Ii"t 1,1�1�1� J;l. �� k� � rf`% �A i#�1, 1'��,�;Il��� �!/'�t% � ;�-r „�i ii ut �,Y� �' il ,1. ;�1)�; il?1,.` �taff regularly provides the Committee with a brief update on some of the recent citizen engagement, communication, and transparency initiatives. 5taff provided general updaies in the Agenda Information �heet and to the Committee on Speak at a Council Meeting, Waze app, Improving I�enton, �Iebsite I'ages, VJebsite IVlanagement, Election Education Information, Recycling Education, Gas Well Noiifications, 3rd Annual Citizen's Academy, and 1Vlayor's Summer Youth Jobs Program. Council Member �riggs stated that she was a� ihe Convention Center (Embassy �uiYes) and a visiior who had been in town for a week had no idea I�enion had a downtown. �he said we should do some marke�ing there to make sure people know what the downtown has to offer and to encourage them to leave the hoiel. �arah Kuechler said the City will work with the CVB on this and expressed appreciation for the suggestion. Council Member Armintor asked if the online calendar has moved on the City's website. Justin Harmon said it hasn'i been moved, but isn't featured prominently because it isn't ail-inclusive; some departments, such as Parks and the I,ibrary, use third-party tools to post events. Armintor asked if the City could move the calendar io the top part of the home page and sync all the calendars. Sarah I�uechler said the City can put a link on the calendar page that will go to the other calendars with events that aren't included on the main calendar. Briggs asked if the City could feature Cipen Government on social media. She also asked that departments be encouraged to put their big programs on the calendar. Jessica l�ogers said we could do bo�h of �hose things. �riggs aslced about the siatus of the opiion to include information about gas wells in local realtor information packets. �arah Kuechler stated that there may be some laws restricting what we can do about ihat. �riggs said she would seek more informaiion on the topic. �riggs asked if gas well fires �re included wiih COI�E IZEI� notifications. Kuechler confirmed that they are. �riggs asked if the City notifies high schools about ihe Nlayor's Summer Youth program. Stuart �irdseye said all high school students were emailed about the program. Briggs asked if we could send out another reminder. �nnintor said she's received some emails about the zoning change notifica�ions that were mailed out. She said people don't know what it's about and asked if there anything on ihe website explaining it. Jessica I�ogers confirmed that there is information on the Ci'Ly website about the zoning changes. She said we are also trying to make space in the Resident Update io share a link to the webpage where people can �nd more information about the zoning no�ices. Justin Harmon said the information can be accessed using the URL I�entoncode2030.corr�. t f � •� i ; � il�� � i , � ' t �c ; �Uith no further business, the meeting was adjourned ai 11:41 a.m. ,. � � � � .�,.� � SA I� FUL,L OOI7 RECOIZI�ING �ECRETARI' CITY OF I�ENTON, TEXA�