City Council Preview – September 17, 2013
Tuesday’s Denton City Council meeting begins with a Work Session at 3pm followed by a Regular Session at 6:30pm at City Hall on McKinney Street. Go here to see the full agenda with complete backup material.
Here are some items that might interest you…
ADOPTION OF 2013-2014 BUDGET
After a couple months of discussions, it seems we are now set to adopt the budget for the next fiscal year. This city’s budget is set at $825.4 million for this year and the city is made up of 1450 employees. Only $99 million of that is considered “general fund,” meaning it gets its revenue from the typical sources of property and sales tax. The rest is made up of a bunch of other funds due largely to the fact that we are a full-service city and provide things like electricity to the city.
While I feel confident the city is in good financial shape, I’m concerned about our outlook moving forward. We continue to have major infrastructure needs – this is most clearly seen in the condition of our roads. We are addressing this with more funding this year and are set to pursue other new paths to raise revenue for it throughout this year. But we have yet to get us to a point beyond just NOT declining in the overall condition of our streets.
I’m also concerned at what appears to be a stagnation of our revenue growth. The housing market has stabilized, but we are seeing only modest growth in property tax revenue. Sales taxes revenue this far for FY 2012-13 are only .93% higher than FY 2011-12 and less than what was predicted or budgeted. This combined with predicted growth needs of the city (beyond the growth of the current revenue) and our five year projections includes the assumption of a tax increase for the next fiscal year. That is not a great place to be in considering we are moving forward with economic recovery and considering that other cities in our region are able to experience much more significant growth in their revenue streams.
This is part of the reasons why I have advocated additional investment in economic development resources heading into this next fiscal year. And this is why I have advocated approaches to this that are a bit different than what we typically pursue as a city. We can’t simply bring in more box stores to up sales tax and bank on the next major industrial corporation to relocate here to up property tax. We need to begin the long, yet healthier process of building our economy from within. This means ramping up our efforts of fostering entrepreneurship, targeting industries such as high tech that better matches the skills of our workforce (and allows us to retain more of our smart college graduates), innovative approaches to building out brand as the startup capital of North Texas by ensuring our creative downtown has the fasted speed Internet in DFW and creating a downtown Innovation District, and tackling the growing gap between the rich and the poor on Denton. We can’t celebrate our prosperity when 1 in 2 school children in Denton qualify for free or reduced lunches. We can do better and it will involve innovative approaches and innovative leadership moving forward.
In the meantime, here’s where you can find everything you ever wanted to know about the budget we will be voting to approve Tuesday.
BETTER BLOCK IN DENTON?
Several of you came out to the late August info meeting about the Better Block project. Click here to catch up on that. The entire council will hear more about the project, what it could do for Denton, and some of your ideas from that info meeting. We will be giving direction on whether or not to pursue this for Denton. Here’s why this is a great idea…
CONVENTION CENTER UPDATE
It has been a while, but the city is still working on a possible partnership between us, UNT, and a private hotelier to develop a hotel and convention center on the site of the old Radisson near Apogee Stadium. We’ll get an update on the project.
REORGANIZATION OF PLANNING DEPARTMENT
The city’s Planning Department is set to brief us on a new organizational structure it hopes to unveil. It will create two distinct groups: Neighborhood Services and Development Services. This is meant to tackle the “silo effect” found in many large institutions and encourage an interdisciplinary approach to community building, problem solving, and customer service. From the looks of it, we are heading in the right direction.
Downtown Vehicle and Pedestrian Safety Report
In July, after meeting with the recently formed Denton Downtowners (an association of downtown residents) and a couple of unfortunate accidents around the square, I requested a report on traffic issues in the area along with an analysis of possible solutions to make the area safer for the many people who visit and walk around on foot.
The report was released last Friday – you can read it here.
City Council Preview – September 10, 2013
Today’s Denton City Council meeting begins at 2pm with a Work Session, followed by a 6:30pm Regular Session – all at City Hall on 215 E. McKinney Street. Go here to see the full agenda complete with back-up information. Here are some items that might be of interest to you…
Hickory Grand Street Project
You will soon see work beginning on a project to better the streetscape along E Hickory between the train station and the downtown square. In fact, you have already seen improvements between Bell and the train station, including the addition and widening of side walks, street trees, cross walk enhancements, landscaping, and public art. Click here to see a recent presentation detailing the plan. Council will get a chance to chime in on these plans prior to final designs being submitted and the project beginning.
Road Impact Fees
The condition of our streets has been a major concern of the citizens for several years. During this budget cycle, we have been exploring new avenues of generating revenue to help us with street repairs, street reconstruction, new streets, and the widening of existing streets. Two suggestions that have arisen as part of this process are Street User Fees and Road Impact Fees. Street User Fees would collect a regular fee, attached to their utility bill, from people residing in the city in order to raise additional funds to repair and reconstruct our existing roads. Road Impact Fees are meant to encourage “growth paying for growth” by adding fees to development projects that impact traffic flows to and from that new development. The fees collected would be used within the development’s geographical zone in order to increase capacity to roads already identified as Capital Improvement Projects by the city. We’ll be discussing whether or not to head in this direction.
Continued Discussion on the 2013-2014 Budget
We are a week away from formally adopting the budget for the next fiscal year after months of discussion. Go here to see a previous post I did on the budget to learn more.
City Council Preview – August 13, 2013
My family is growing – little Pearl Elizabeth (center) was born on July 15. She’s enjoying a morning reading of “Go, Dog, Go” with her big brother Francis and her big sister Rosemary.
Council will meet for a 2nd Tuesday Session at 3pm at City Hall. Such sessions typically involve only Work Session items and we will be taking no official action during the meeting. Nonetheless, we will be providing “direction” to the city staff on some very significant issues. You can find the full agenda here along with 220 page of background reading for your late Monday evening, early Tuesday morning local government reading time.
Wanna impress your friends and coworkers with your knowledge of city government? Then brush up on this…
MUNICIPAL SETTING DESIGNATION
One of the barriers to redevelopment in older parts of the city is the required environmental remediation that must be done per Texas law. If you think about the multiple uses that have occurred over the years on any given property in the greater downtown area, the possibility of necessary environmental clean-up are great. The use of a property as a gas station or an industrial shop at some point in the past will typically involve significant deposits of bad stuff into the ground below. Texas’ TCEQ is rightfully concerned about the safety of the ground water below and one of the typical requirements is getting the property and the ground water below back up to safe, potable standards.
In areas where it is unlikely that the ground water will be accessed for drinking purposes presently or in the future, Texas has made a provision whereby a city can declare a certain area with a Municipal Setting Designation – designating the water below as undrinkable and thus lowering the requirements for remediation up to that level. As an example – imagine the lot across from Oak Street Draft House is purchased and redeveloped into first floor retail shops with some apartments above. It is very unlikely that the owner of that property will ever opt to tap into the groundwater below for the purpose of providing drinking water to these tenants. We will look at the options of pursuing this designation for a certain part of downtown so as to lower the costs of redevelopment.
HOW TO FIX OUR STREETS?
The city has been aggressively upping our funding of street repairs and reconstruction in the last few years. You might recall the voters approved a $20 million bond package last November that is dedicated to reconstructing streets beyond repair. We are making progress, but here’s the problem: Continuing on the path we are on will only result in the “stabilization” of our streets’ Overall Condition Index (a fancy engineering phrase for an objective analysis of a given street’s condition) to 2009 levels by FY 2017-18.
Let’s be clear about what this means: The streets were in pretty poor condition in 2009 and things have been getting worse each year since then. Continuing on the present funding path, all we will be doing is getting us to the point where the poor conditions of 2009 do not get any worse.
This highlights how societal decisions and commitments of previous years often have enormous impacts today. At some point, we decided to build car-centered cities, resulting in a radical redefinition of city layout and planning. The “freedom” of the car meant I could live wherever I wanted, shop wherever I wanted, and work wherever I wanted. That possibility led to sprawl and, with it, a commitment to building the transportation infrastructure necessary to maintain such “freedom.” We have committed ourselves to a never-ending cycle of building more and bigger roads.
I’m of the opinion that this commitment is unsustainable. In Texas, home of the apparent economic Texas Miracle, we have yet to figure out how to fully and properly fund our transportation needs. In our own city, we are told we need to spend at least $10 million a year just to maintain roads to 2009 OCI ratings – again, that’s not getting ahead, it is simply maintaining inadequate road conditions at the time of our last street study. As a “younger” council member, I am keenly concerned about kicking this can down the street (pun intended).
So today we will be looking at additional options in hopes of trying to get a better handle on the situation. I don’t know the answer, but I know this: whatever we do to tackle this problem will likely be politically unpopular. A strange situation for policy makers given that the condition of our streets is one of our number one complaints. I’ll update you as we move forward with additional recommendations.
EXPLORING A 311 SYSTEM FOR DENTON
311 Systems are quickly becoming the standard for cities serious about improving the citizen experience. It allows citizens the simplicity of going to one place (one phone number, one email, one text message, etc.) to get all of their city-related questions answered and service requests sent in. As it stands currently in Denton, you have to have a pretty extensive inside knowledge of the inner workings of our city government in order to ask your question in the first place. That increases the possibility that you will be passed around on hold, lost in a phone shuffle, given wrong information, or a longer wait time to get your question answered to get a response to your request.
Check out, for example, how they do this in Chicago. You can take a picture of a pothole, a grafitti problem, or problem at the park and send it directly from your phone to one place. You are then able to track the status of your request through completion. They have then jazzed up their 311 system with the power of Open Data to provide more transparency to all the requests going in and out of their system. Imagine the 3rd party applications and policy possibilities that can result from data heads trying to figure out request trends and the like?
I chair the Council Committee on Citizen Engagement and this has been on our agenda from the beginning. We recently heard an update from a city task force on the matter, complete with recommendations and costs. The entire council will hear this same presentation at this meeting.
BUDGET DISCUSSIONS CONTINUE
Once again, we are in the midst of our annual budget talks. Read my earlier post on the matter. This meeting should have a more substantial conversation on the topic as we have just received some responses to several questions raised during our first full council meeting on the budget.
As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Better Block Comes to Denton?
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” ― Jane Jacobs
Join us on Wednesday, August 21 at 5:30pm at the Center for Visual Arts on the corner of Bell and Hickory for a presentation on bringing Better Block to Denton. Please join our Facebook event page to stay on top of all the information.
Just how fast can an area be revitalized? Some cities are doing it in days, not years using the Better Block. The Better Block approach to revitalization begins with temporarily transforming a single block into vibrant destination that illustrates the potential for new business, safer streets and improved livability. Built with community talent and resources over a weekend, the result is a vision for an authentic place and the momentum needed to make it happen permanently.
Join us as we discuss how Denton could use the Better Block Approach to further revitalize an area in need of just that.
Imagine an underutilized part of town with potential – what could that area become? What would happen if we pooled our resources for a weekend – artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, business owners, landlords, city planners, etc. – to show the city how to breathe vibrancy into that place?
Not familiar with Better Block or the impact they are having throughout the world? Check out their website. Then check out this TED Talk by Better Block founder Jason Roberts (of Oak Cliff):
City Council Preview – August 6, 2013
Today’s City Council meeting begins with a 3pm Work Session and continues with a Regular Session at 6:30pm at City Hall on East McKinney Street. Go here to see a full agenda with complete backup material. Here are some items of interest…
BUDGET TALKS CONTINUE
We have a Work Session item devoted to discussing the proposed budget for fiscal year 2013-14. Go here to see my post about this year’s budget along with some suggestions on how to approach it for the first time.
TEXAS LEGISLATURE ON WATER AND TRANSPORTATION
Texas voters will see constitutional amendments on the ballot for water issues (Nov 2013) and Transportation Funding (Nov 2014). What this means for our water and transportation priorities will be the subject of a Work Session item on Tuesday. Go here to read an article on the recent activity in the Texas Legislature regarding this.
NAME THE DOWNTOWN TRANSIT CENTER AFTER EULINE BROCK
Euline Brock, former Mayor of Denton, was a visionary and instrumental voice on many things you now love about Denton, one of which was the idea to bring a regional train to the city. If you are fan of the A-Train and all its potential, you have Mayor Brock to thank for that. So it is only fitting that Mayor Pro Tem Pete Kamp championed an initiative to name the downtown station in her honor. We’ll be voting on that tonight.
LONGER SEASON FOR THE DENTON COMMUNITY MARKET
The success of the Denton Community Market as been remarkable – a weekly place for the community to come together, businesses have been launched, local entrepreneurs have been encouraged, and so much more. Their new model has them open longer than ever – that revealed a provision in our code that prevented this. Because there is strong support of the market by the city, this is a fix that will enable the market to keep going strong.
It’s City Budget Time in Denton!
Admit it, it’s your favorite time of the year – after months of planning and anticipation, the Denton City Council has officially started its deliberations on the Proposed Budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
One of the biggest formal powers of this elected body comes with our “power of the purse.” Here is where our policy guidance can have dollar figures attached to it. And because these are ultimately YOUR dollars (the bulk of the city revenue feeding our General Fund comes from the city’s portion of Sales Tax and Property Taxes), it is important for you to get informed and participate in the budget process.
Click here to access a big PDF containing the City of Denton proposed budget. It can appear complicated if you are not familiar with the city budget, but it has some self-contained Cliff Notes for you. Try just reading 5 pages, 15-19, which is the City Manager’s message – it is a great overview of the big aspects of the budget. Then, if you want more, I’d read the section from 29-55 to get some in-depth insight into the main numbers and budget priorities.
Back in mid-June, I released my budget recommendations for this fiscal year – you can see them here. It is important to note that there are several needs in the community that are important and deserve attention and only so much money to go around. This year alone, various city departments and City Council submitted over $7 million in supplemental budget requests (new items), yet there is only a bit over $1 million available for new items. Nonetheless, I am happy to report that this proposed budget includes $20,000 for Economic Development programming targeting entrepreneurial efforts, startups, and local small business development. In an attempt to address the desire for training and workspace for entrepreneurs, the Library team has developed some really innovative ideas to use its space and resources and we see money allocated for a community-accessible 3D printer and software toward this end (you want to make things, they can help). The Public Art Master Plan is also being funded out of savings identified from the current fiscal year 2012-13.
I have more thoughts on all this and recommendations as we move forward. This is just the beginning of the process. The budget will not be approved until September 17. In the meantime, I’ll be posting some of my thoughts and perspectives on this year’s budget and where I think we ought to be heading economically. Read up and stay tuned…
Monday Night Tweets
If you follow me on social media, you’ve no doubt had unique access to your local government. You’ve also had unique access to me and all that goes with that – my thoughts, opinions, pictures of my kids and what I happen to be drinking on any given night.
I’ve also had unique access to all of you – your ideas, your dreams for this city, and your willingness to join with me to push important issues to the forefront. Together, and in a relatively short time, we’ve accomplished some great things for Denton: greater citizen engagement, the first city our size to take on the Payday industry, food trucks, a neighborhood grant program, a bike plan, a tougher gas drilling ordinance, food trucks, the Creative Economy Initiative, the Denton Creatives Mixers, hackathons at my house, votedenton.org, and so much more.
But all this access and communication can be messy at times. It’s no wonder why most local politicians simply fail to engage in this way – it’s clearly safer and they can avoid episodes of Monday Night Tweets…
SOME CONTEXT LEADING TO MONDAY NIGHT
I follow the Texas Legislature rather closely. When I first heard that Governor Perry was adding abortion to the list of issues to be dealt with in the Special Session, I was appalled, even tweeting…
“We can’t figure out how to fund public education, but, hey look, ABORTION!” Love, your friendly Texas Legislature.
— Kevin Roden (@KevinRoden) June 24, 2013
This is precisely why there is so much attention to politics at the national and (sometimes) state level as opposed to right here at home – both parties know just when and how to dangle these shiny objects in front of us. And we take the bait every time, thus being used by political operatives whose only interest is winning elections.
And then I was up with many of you the evening of the last day of that Special Session when Wendy Davis made her historic filibuster, tweeting things like…
How to win hearts and minds: @WendyDavisTexas tonight. How to lose a generation: the Texas GOP tonight.
— Kevin Roden (@KevinRoden) June 26, 2013
In fact, this power play by the Texas Republicans has been deplorable. They’ve had 40 years to concern themselves with the safety of abortion providers in our state, but this all of a sudden becomes an urgent issue in 2013? This is a good indication that other political motives are at play. A genuine concern for this issue by the Republicans, combined with a desire to strive for greater consensus (which I believe ought to be a major goal of politicians), might look more like this:
Raise the issue of the health and safety of patients seeking services at various abortion providers throughout the state. Recognizing the burden any new regulations puts on existing facilities, work with the facilities to identify a reasonable time period by which they can bring those facilities up to the desired standards – let’s say 5 years. Then do something really ambitious in order to prove that you actually concern yourself with the health of women, particularly in lower income situations AND build consensus with Democrats along the way: propose a half a billion dollars to fund non-abortion-providing women’s health care clinics in underserved areas of the state, with a goal of doubling the current amount of clinics in the next 5 years.
But nothing of this sort was proposed. Instead, the Texas Republicans wanted to join the club of states around the country pushing similar regulations. Who cares if the political and social health of the state suffers as a result?
The cultural conversation that followed this spectacle was discouraging, yet unfortunately predictable. For all our skepticism of politics, we sure allow politicians to dictate the parameters of these conversations. A few days later, I reflected on this with another tweet…
I wonder what the abortion discussion would look like if those of us concerned weren’t taking our cues from the games of politicians?
— Kevin Roden (@KevinRoden) July 1, 2013
Fast forward to Monday night, the 2nd Special Session is in full swing and many of us were following the action. At the time, I was working through a few hundred pages of material to prepare for Tuesday’s city council meeting. I began to see a number of tweets from several men decrying the fact that other men were chiming in on this women’s issue. Of course, these male tweeters, themselves, never discontinued their own commentary on the topic. Another example of how our thinking on such topics has grown increasingly lazy as a result of our dogmatic commitment to party-approved clichés.
But this got me thinking about the many millions of men who never chime in one way or another on this issue, but who privately support abortion rights. No doubt, some of them hold to this on the basis of principle. And, no doubt, some of them enjoy the appearance of being an enlightened advocate of women’s reproductive health while actually holding only base, self-interested reasons for such support: the sexual freedom it provides. For such men, the option of abortion can be quite empowering and a means by which they continue in their unchecked objectification and using of women. Thus, I tweeted the now infamous tweets…
I wonder how many vulnerable women in difficult situations have been thrown $500 by some dude looking for a quick way out of fatherhood?
— Kevin Roden (@KevinRoden) July 9, 2013
Make no mistake: men have also been empowered by abortion – for a few hundred bucks they can continue being irresponsible douche bags.
— Kevin Roden (@KevinRoden) July 9, 2013
That’s the background and context of my tweets. The level of scrutiny given to them has been fascinating, even prompting this profound literary criticism from a local English Professor:
So men (it’s not clear how far your generalization goes, as you merely refer to them as “douchebags”) have both made the women “vulnerable” and then forced them into abortion. This is misandry. If it was an attempt at humor, it fell terribly flat. Misandry is not funny simply because it’s not misogyny. Tangentially acknowledging coercion, while allowing the slightest bit of room for the “I’m pro-woman” argument, does not take away from the fallacious blame-placement and moral shaming of men who may support or even encourage abortion.
SO WHERE DO YOU STAND?
Because so many of you demand a box in which to put me, here you go: I’m pro-life. And guess what? I’m also opposed to the current legislation before the Texas Legislature for the reasons I’ve outlined above. My pro-life position does not require me to fall in line with every so-called pro-life politician or political proposal. I simply reject the parameters of the debate as defined by the political landscape.
AN APOLOGY
To all the irresponsible and opportunistic men out there who were offended by my characterization of you as douche bags, I apologize. I’ll use less offensive language to publicly heap shame upon you in future tweets.
A PROPOSAL – A BEER SUMMIT
To everyone else… while this issue will never come before me as a city councilman, the state of our discourse and our ability to meaningfully engage with one another on controversial topics has profound implications for the possibility of democracy on a local level.
Therefore, I invite everyone – all sides of this issue – to join me tonight for a Beer Summit at my home at 9pm at 322 Texas Street. We’ll get together and show the rest of the world how you can still be friends (or at least civil) with someone with whom you profoundly disagree.
City Council Preview – July 9, 2013
After a bit of a summer break from regular council meetings, your local city council is back in action on Tuesday afternoon to discuss some important issues. Our meeting begins at 3pm in the Work Session Room of City Hall, followed by a very brief Regular Session at 6:30pm where our only action items are several items on the typically uncontroversial Consent Agenda. Go here to see the full agenda along with background material.
A few items that might interest you…
REVIEW OF OUR FOOD ORDINANCE, particularly as it relates to FOOD TRUCKS
Upon passing the latest food ordinance last November, opening the door for food trucks in Denton, the council requested a review of the policy after 6 months so as to get feedback from operators and citizens regarding any unintended consequences. I have received much feedback and the city staff has as well – some of the points up for discussion on Tuesday afternoon are outlined in this Staff Report. The goal, from my point of view, is to make sure we have a business-friendly environment for these new entrepreneurs.
WHAT TO DO WITH THE MANY DOWNTOWNS OF DENTON
The city has aggressively pursued downtown revitalization over the last 20 years. As a result, there are varying plans, overlays, and descriptions, each with their own boundary definition of what constitutes the downtown area: the Downtown Master Plan, the Central Business District, the Downtown Implementation Plan, and the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) District. The Planning department is presenting us with a plan that would essentially consolidate the boundaries of the Central Business District (with its specific guidelines for parking, signs, etc.) and the Downtown Implementation Plan (with its suggested planning strategies, including the upcoming adoption of a Form Based Code). This would be a technical adjustment that has ramifications on development standards and perhaps be an encouragement to the desired development in the downtown area.
Tangentially related to this, yet still important, is what this change might mean for other developing areas. Take for instance the growth of neighborhood-scale businesses along Congress Street (between Greenhouse and Seven Mile) and North/South on Locust/Elm and this areas connection to the surrounding up-and-coming neighborhoods… This area, to me, cries out for its own district identity – and that identity should involve a set of development standards developed by those living and doing business there. Currently, this entire area is part of the Central Business District and, as such, would be eyed for development consistent with downtown-proper standards.
It is my view that with the success and momentum we are experiencing downtown, the city should be proactive in discovering other areas of town where unique districts are already, or could with a little help, developing. Denton deserves several unique centers of commerce with a sense of place and connected to thriving neighborhoods. This entire downtown discussion helps get us thinking in this direction.
YOUR TEXAS LEGISLATURE AT WORK
For those of you interested in the intersection of city and state politics, you might enjoy catching up on this overview of the Texas Legislative Session (now currently in their second special called session) and how it impacts cities like Denton. Go here for a great overview of all this.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can leave them below or contact me at kevin.roden@cityofdenton.com or 940-206-5239.
City Council Preview – June 18, 2013
Today’s City Council meeting begins with a Work Session at 3pm followed by a Regular Session at 6:30pm, all at City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. Click here to see the entire agenda with hundreds of pages of background material for each agenda item. Here are some things that might interest you…
NEW ANIMAL SHELTER CONSTRUCTION BID and ADOPTION FEES
You might recall we discussed a new plan for animal adoption fees during our last council meeting. We will be officially voting on those changes at today’s meeting. Go to my last preview to catch up on that.
On a somewhat similar note, we are also set to vote on the awarding of a construction contract to get the new Linda McNatt Animal Care and Adoption Center built and ready to go. If all goes according to plan, the new facility will open in April 2014. We have also required that this building will be built to LEED certification standards. This entire project has been the result of the city collaborating with the hard work of the Denton Animal Shelter Foundation. At today’s meeting, the foundation will be officially presenting the city with a check for $1,271,200, money that has been collected from many generous individuals in our community, no doubt including many of you.
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT AND ZONING CHANGE FOR DENTON BIBLE CHURCH (NRMU and NR-3 to Community Mixed Use General, CM-G)
Denton Bible Church is looking to expand its use of its property, mostly in order to facilitate the physical spot for the ambitious Serve Denton non-profit collaboration project.
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BUDGET TIME
It’s the time of year when we start pouring over the numbers for the upcoming budget year. We will be looking at key trends in revenue projections (most of which comes from sales tax and property taxes), key priorities for spending and investment, and alignment of the budget with city priorities. If you ever wanted a primer in the basics of a city budget, today’s presentation would be a good one to check out - here’s a copy of the powerpoint we will be viewing during today’s meeting.
I have also posted my own budget recommendations here. Much more on this topic to come…