City Council Preview – August 7, 2012
We get started on Tuesday with a Work Session at 3pm, followed by a Regular Session at 6:30pm – all at the main City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. Click here to see the agenda along with back-up information. Here are some items that might be of interest to you…
DENTON COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE
The Denton Plan is the key document determining the direction of the city for the next 20 years. If you have ever had an opinion about the direction of the city, what it needs, how to make it better, and what you think would make Denton a great place to live, work, and play, you NEED to get involved in this process. Things get kicked-off this Thursday night at 6:30pm at the Center for Visual Arts (corner of Hickory and Bell, just near the Downtown Transit Center). If you haven’t yet been to the Plan website, go here – and get connected to them on the various social networks in order to keep up with the progress.
During our meeting, we will get a chance to meet the consultant team and hear more about plans to involve the community in the process of updating the Plan.
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
I have posted at length about this process here. Council will be finalizing their nominees and we will vote on those during the regular meeting.
MORE ON THE BUDGET
Council will have another chance to review and ask questions about the proposed budget. For more info on the budget, see my earlier post about it here. Nothing is finalized until council votes on it at our September 11 council meeting, so now is the time to chime in. Take a look and let me know your thoughts.
WE AREN’T RAISING TAXES, YET WE ARE INFORMING VOTERS OF A TAX INCREASE?
An item on our agenda is a vote for a proposal that would give the public notice of a tax increase. At the same time, our budget boasts “no tax rate increase.” How does all this jive? To help you understand this, I am posting an explanation below from the backup material for this meeting…
The truth-in-taxation guidelines require taxing entities to calculate and publish their effective and rollback tax rates. The effective rate is the calculated rate that would provide the taxing unit approximately the same amount of revenue it received in the previous year on properties taxed in both years. This rate excludes taxes on properties no longer in the taxing unit and also excludes any growth due to new property values. The City of Denton’s 2012 effective rate is $0.68046/$100 valuation.
The rollback rate divides the total property tax revenue into support for maintenance and operations (M&O) taxes and debt service taxes. It provides approximately the same amount to revenue it spent in the previous year for maintenance and operations expenses, plus an extra eight percent. If a taxing unit adopts a tax rate higher than the rollback rate, the voters have the option to petition for an election to limit the size of the tax increase. The City of Denton’s 2012 rollback rate is $0.73218/$100 valuation.
The City Manager’s FY 2012-13 Proposed Budget recommended a tax rate of $0.68975 per $100 of valuation, and this rate is $0.00929 above the effective rate. If the City Council considers adopting a tax rate that is higher than the recommended effective rate, state law requires the governing body to vote to place a proposal to adopt the rate on an agenda. In addition, state law requires that two public hearings be held on the proposed tax increase, with the second hearing occurring three to 14 days after the first. Publication of quarter-page notices (“Notice of Public Hearing on Tax Increase”) informing the public of the hearings and the publication of a quarter-page notice (“Notice of Tax Revenue Increase”) prior to the adoption of the tax rate are also required.
PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED STREET BOND ELECTION
I have talked about this ongoing issue at length on this post. You will see all the info on the recommended streets, cost of projects, and other details all broken down by council district. Because we are hoping to go to the voters in November (the same day as the Presidential Election on Tuesday, the 6th), we need to decide how the proposition for the bond proposal will look on the ballot.
You might recall that there has been a discussion related to Public Art financing as part of this bond program. This can be traced back to a 2006 City Council Resolution asking that 2-4% of all future bond programs be dedicated to Public Art. It has been a trick to see how that policy is supposed to work in a clear, single-issue bond election such as this one. Council has agreed to ask for no more than 2% of this bond issue (or $400,000, given the total bond package is $20 million). At issue is whether we put this altogether as a single bond proposition or split the streets and art funding into two separate bond propositions – each one having to rise and fall as individual votes. What do you think?
That’s about it – as always, if you have thoughts, feedback, or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940.206.5239.
Council Budget Workshop – August 2, 2012
Your city council will be meeting on Thursday to begin taking a detailed look at the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Oversight of the city’s budget is perhaps one of the most important and powerful roles of the council. Similar to the legislative branch of our federal government, the city council holds the “power of the purse.” Each year, we must approve the budget – this enables the council to set priorities for a given year and beyond.
To see the proposed budget for this year, please go here to download the pdf. If you are new to looking at city budgets, I offer you this suggestion… Read pages 15-18, an introductory note from the City Manager, in order to get a concise overview of the financial and strategic direction of the city. Then I would read pages 29-55 in order to understand the various revenue sources, major expenditures by category, and the various funds the city uses to carry out its business.
And because I realize that most of you do not have the leisure, interest, or patience to sit through Thursday’s 5 hour budget workshop, I have gathered the powerpoint that we will be seeing and posted it here for your benefit and perusal.
Realize that we are just beginning these discussions. We will have a public hearing on the budget during the August 21 council meeting and will not be voting to adopt the budget until September 11. Your voice in this process is essential, so after looking at this, please let me know your thoughts.
Backpacks Needed for Annual SE Denton Back-2-School Fair
The annual SE Denton Back-2-School Fair is coming up on Saturday. August 11. See all the info on the flyer below. The organizers are in need of 1000 backpacks to help make sure local students can start-off their school year right.
Can you donate a backpack or money to get one? Please let me know and spread the word to others. You can contact me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.
City Council Preview – July 17, 2012
I apologize for the late posting of this and for its brevity…
Today’s meeting begins with a Work Session at 3pm followed by a 6:30pm Regular Session, both at City Hall on McKinney Street. Go here to see the full agenda with back-up materials. Here are some things you might find interesting…
STREET BOND ELECTION UPDATE
For some time now, we have been discussing the possibility of going to the voters in November with a $20 million bond proposal for the purpose of doing some much needed repairs of streets in our city. I posted a very comprehensive look at the proposed projects (sorted by district) a few weeks back – go here to see it.
Today will will begin the discussion on how the ballot proposal might look – because there has been the desire to follow-through with a 2006 council resolution which provides 2-4% of every subsequent bond program monies to public art projects, there is a need to determine how to word that on the ballot. Specifically, we need to determine whether the public art proposal is part of the street proposal or a separate proposal altogether.
TAX INCREMENT REINVESTMENT ZONE
A proposal has been made by a private land owner to create a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, allowing the owners to invest in needed infrastructure work with a promised reimbursement of their investment through increased property taxes over the years. The goal would be to jump start interest in the area from companies. We will be discussing the pros and cons of this proposal.
McKINNEY and MAHILL ZONING CASE
We will return to two zoning cases previously postponed by the council… One is near the corner of McKinney and Mayhill. The sticking point with this proposal is fear from nearby neighborhoods of development projects that will exasperate and already clogged street. Specifically, there have been questions about whether or not multifamily development projects are currently appropriate for this area.
FAIRHAVEN ZONING CASE
We will return to the zoning change request from the current owners of the old Fairhaven structure, one of famed local architect O’Neil Ford’s buildings. Go here to see my write-up for this when it was before us in May. This is an important case with many historic, planning, neighborhood, and business principles at play – some of which do not share similar ideals. According to the latest proposal, the owners of the building are willing to agree to not changing anything on the exterior of the building without prior permission from the council. This is akin to agreeing to come under many of the guidelines of local historic landmarks. That is a significant step from the last city council meeting – we’ll see if it is significant enough to find a path forward.
PASCHALL BAR
My friend, Historic Landmark Commissioner, District 1 citizen and part-owner of District 1′s own Paschall Bar (pictured above), Eric Pulido, invited me out for post-council discussions after the meeting. So perhaps I’ll see you there?
Serve Your City and Save Democracy: Board and Commission Openings
The City Council will soon begin the annual process of nominating interested individuals to serve on our citizen boards and commissions. This is a great way to contribute to this city and participate more fully in the democratic process. You might not realize this, but great improvements have been made during the past year which make the work of our boards and commissions more accessible to everyone. Under the leadership of our City Secretary, Jennifer Walters, you can now find out all sorts of things about each one – membership, agendas, minutes, as well as ways to contact members of each board or commission. Click here to see what I am talking about.
It is absolutely essential to the vibrancy of our local democracy that these boards and commissions thrive. A healthy city has many avenues available for substantial citizen governance. It is how a city keeps its ear close to the ground and best moves in accordance with the will of its people. A feisty, questioning, even ornery citizen board, though no doubt a headache for city administrators looking for a clean and easy way of running the city, is the beautiful symptom of democracy taking place.
You may have heard of Alexis de Tocqueville, the early 19th century Frenchman whose study of the American experiment in democracy resulted in the famous, Democracy in America. He argued that the uniquely American spirit of freedom came about through citizens practicing democracy primarily in their local cities, villages, or townships. Consider this profound quote on this subject:
It is nonetheless in the township that the force of free peoples resides. The institutions of a township are to freedom what primary schools are to science; they put it within reach of the people; they make them taste its peaceful employ and habituate them to making use of it. Without the institutions of a township a nation can give itself a free government, but it does not have the spirit of freedom. Fleeting passions, the interests of a moment, the chance of circumstances can give it the external forms of independence; but despotism suppressed in the interior of the social body reappears sooner or later on the surface.”
If you reflect on it, you come to understand this somber point: the freedom of our nation rests on our citizens learning to employ their citizenship in the context of local democratic institutions! It is why it is crucial that our generation turn its political focus back to the city, to where our democratic citizenship can more meaningfully be exercised. Motivated yet?
Below is a list of the anticipated open positions on Denton’s boards and commissions. There are people currently serving whose terms expires, but are eligible for reappointment – since most of those will be reappointed, I haven’t listed those as open, available positions. You will also see the council member who is responsible for nominating that particular position (we each have “spots” on each board and commission). An “ALL” means that they can be nominated by anyone on council.
| BOARD | # of POSITIONS | COUNCIL MEMBER |
| Airport Advisory Board | 1 | Pete Kamp |
| Animal Shelter Advisory Committee | 2 | Kevin Roden and Pete Kamp |
| Community Development Advisory Committee | 2 | Jim Engelbrecht and ALL |
| Health and Building Standards Commission | 2 | ALL |
| Historic Landmark Commission | 1 | Mark Burroughs |
| Library Board | 1 | Jim Engelbrecht |
| Parks, Recreation, and Beautification Board | 1 | Chris Watts |
| Planning and Zoning Commission | 2 | Jim Engelbrecht and Pete Kamp |
| Public Art Committee | 2 | Jim Engelbrecht and Chris Watts |
| Traffic Safety Commission | 2 | Dalton Gregory and Jim Engelbrecht |
| Zoning Board of Adjustment | 1 | Mark Burroughs |
If you are interested, here is what you should do ASAP:
– Click here to fill out an online application to serve on a board or commission.
– Email the appropriate council member – the one listed next to the position you are interested in. The above council names are hyperlinked – just click for their email.
– Email me to let me know that you are interested as well, especially if you are in my district. Although I only have certain positions to fill, I can suggest people for the benefit of other council members looking for great applicants.
- Stay tuned – we’ll be finalizing these at some point in August.