The Candidates Debate – April 14 – Dan’s Silverleaf
With four Denton City Council seats up for grabs and early voting for those elections beginning in less than a month, the time is now to start paying attention.
Once again, a bunch of local hackers are organizing all that info over at VoteDenton.org – there you’ll find all the candidates and links to their websites and social media sites. Becayse one seat is a district specific seat (District 2), you’ll be able to use the great interactive map in order to determine your district.
There are several opportunities to catch these candidates engage the issues and ideas, but there is one you should make sure to catch. We Denton Do It, Denton Downtowners, and Drink and Think are teaming up for The Candidates Debate on Monday, April 14 at Dan’s Silverleaf at 7pm.
Local politics, with beer. Probably the way it was intended to be.
Check out all the details on the Facebook event page.
On Storms and Humanity
There is something about the onset of stress that tests one’s character. What is true of an individual is also true of a community. This is why it is often said that natural disasters bring out the best and worst in humanity. Our moral progression as a civilization is revealed when our comforts of typical life are removed.
I went swimming with my family last night at the Denton Natatorium. All of a sudden, a lifeguard ran into the pool area, quickly gave a signal to all the other lifeguards on post, and within less than a minute the entire pool area was cleared and everyone in the building huddled in one of the locker rooms. The staff was calm yet directive. The entire operation seemed to be run by a staff of teenagers, but their age was no issue here – they knew what to do and we all followed their lead.
Soon, folks started coming in from the streets. There’s a sizeable mobile home community just Northwest of this area and the city sirens and other news announcements drew many residents out of there and into the closest open building.
City personnel, city buildings, and other city resources come to the aid of the city’s most vulnerable in ways we often don’t realize. Consider the homeless who find refuge and relief on hot or cold days in one of our libraries or rec centers. Consider the poor who are often invited in to the Civic Center pool at the end of hot summer days when the staff decide to stop taking payments early. The city is made up of people who are empowered to care.
Inside the locker rooms, people took care of one another. Towels were shared, anxiety-filled kids were tended to, updates were shared as some were able to access news and social media from their smartphones.
And throughout the city, similar stories happened throughout the evening. Street crews, DME workers, high-water teams, police, and fire teams got after it. The Denton social media team was active and responsive, providing information and responding quickly to reported issues. Here’s a shot of the DME crew restoring power to homes in our neighborhood which was accompanied by Twitter hashtag #lovethistown.
But the most impressive display of character I had the privilege of observing came from a 3rd grader from Ginnings Elementary School named Jake. His family came to seek shelter from a nearby neighborhood. As we struck up a conversation with his family, Jake jumped in to help translate for his parents’ broken English. Realizing that my kids and others around us were starting to go stir crazy after being in a cramped locker room for 30 minutes, Jake called the children to himself…
“Would you kids like to hear a story? Everyone come over here and I’ll tell you a story, OK?”
When the teenagers of your town are effectively managing emergency situations and the third graders of your city are bringing hope and encouragement to the kids, you’re doing it right Denton.
Denton a Leader in PreK Innovation and Collaboration
The call for universal PreK is quickly becoming a policy priority well beyond school districts. At all levels of government, the race is on to figure out how to invest in our youngest citizens in order to fix the achievement gap before it begins. And for good reasons. We now know that a person’s academic success is greatly influenced by their first few years of life. The greatest predictor of graduation rates is 3rd grade reading scores. The greatest predictor of 3rd grade reading scores is the quality and quantity of vocabulary a child has in their head when they come their first day of Kindergarten.
I grew up in a family with two educated parents where reading, learning, and discovery were commonplace. The expectation was there from an early age that I would do well in school, go to college, and likely seek an advanced degree. Even with all that, my parents still sent me to Betty Bixler Preschool at the church down the street. But I fully recognize my relatively privileged upbringing.
A growing number of kids are entering Kindergarten without having books in the home. Many kids are raised by parents who have never understood education as a priority – in large part because it was not part of their upbringing. The stress of poverty compounds this situation and we have an epidemic of kids entering school at 5 and already having years of catch-up to do. If education is a key to socio-economic mobility in our country, then justice demands we fix this and give everyone an equal shot at success.
Many know that my wife created an innovative tool to help tackle some of this. Inspired by her days as an elementary school teacher, her work in the educational publishing industry, and role as a mother of three little ones, she created a way to put high quality preK into the hands of parents and caregivers - ReadyRosie. Through daily videos modeling everyday activities in English and Spanish designed to promote greater vocabulary, essential skills, and a love for learning, the kids’ most influential teacher (the parent) is getting the tools they need. And it is designed to be delivered daily free of charge to the families who need it the most.
While so much of the policy emphasis is on building preK centers, we cannot give up on the parents. Regardless of their background, we have to believe that parents ultimately want what is best for their kids. We can unlock the potential in kids by unlocking the potential in their parents.
Developed in Denton with Denton families and first adopted by Denton ISD and available to every family of 0-5 year olds in the district, ReadyRosie is now being utilized by communities throughout Texas and around the nation.
In order to implement this tool and establish a vision for tackling the preK issues in Denton, the Denton PreK Coalition was formed. A collaborative initiative comprised of Denton ISD, United Way of Denton County, UNT, the City of Denton, and many churches, non-profits, and businesses, the Coalition is frequently being referenced and replicated in other communities. It’s another way Denton is pulling together its resources and leveraging its assets and partnerships to lead the nation in creative solutions to tough problems.
In that spirit, I’m excited to partner with 100 UNT students this Saturday to canvass the neighborhoods surrounding the Denton ISD elementary schools with the greatest number of at-risk students. We’ll be putting resources and tools into the hands of parents of young ones. This is all part of UNT’s Big Event where over 2500 volunteers will spend the day serving the needs of our community.
GO HERE to see Superintendent Jamie Wilson’s column on the PreK Coalition.
GO HERE to sign up for your free subscription to ReadyRosie if you live in the Denton ISD district.
GO HERE to see a KERA story on ReadyRosie and their work in another community.
City Council Preview – March 4, 2014
Tuesday’s City Council meeting begins with a Work Session at 2pm, followed by our Regular Session at 6:30pm. Both meetings will be held at our main City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. Click here for a full agenda with backup reading material. Here are a few items of interest…
COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT AND ANNUAL AUDIT
Did you know that you can have access to all the major documents and data relating to the city’s financial budgets, plans, strategies, and reports – it’s all here. One of the major reports we receive each year is the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) – this represents the entire financial position of the city for the year of the report (in this case, ending on September 30, 2013). Each year, the city goes through an annual audit from an outside firm where the CAFR comprises one of four major components.
It is important to our values of open government that our books are open, accessible, and transparent to the citizens. We’ll be receiving the best possible report from our auditors and receiving an update on the CAFR. Because I sit on the Audit/Finance Committee of the council, I have the privilege of hearing this twice in one day!
STANDSTILL AGREEMENT EXTENSION (WITH EAGLERIDGE) and what a NO vote to this would really mean…
Up for a vote as part of the Consent Agenda will be an extension of the Standstill Agreement. As a reminder, this agreement was the initiating agreement that brought the city and Eagleridge to the table to discuss a possible “global settlement” as it relates to gas drilling operations in the city. While a certain amount of drilling activity was allowed to continue under the terms of this agreement, it also represents a “standstill” on any further drilling activity by the operator over the course of the agreement.
To be clear: the goal of these negotiations is to fix problems with a large amount of existing well sites that can’t be sufficiently addressed through municipal regulations. While our most recent gas drilling ordinance updates gave us a much more robust ordinance from the perspective of NEW gas drilling in the city limits, we will continue to be plagued with the problem of drilling OLD gas sites previously permitted and vested under earlier rules (especially as new technology and business models have sparked new interest in these otherwise old sites).
And to be even more clear: a YES vote on this standstill agreement is a YES to a continued stand down on new drilling activity by Eagleridge and a YES vote to continue negotiating in hopes of finding a solution to these old sites. Therefore, a NO vote on this standstill agreement is a vote to allow Eagleridge to pull new permits and the continued possibility of drilling in dangerously close proximity to protected uses. A NO vote on this standstill agreement is a vote to continue with the status quo. I don’t think that is acceptable. Negotiations may or may not be successful, but given the consequences of the current status quo, we owe it to the city to try.
As a reminder, here’s a post from this past November on the subject where I attempt to give a more comprehensive overview of the problems with these old gas well site.
As always, let me know your thoughts…
My Decision
I’ve heard from hundreds of you over the last couple of days. Beyond the many encouraging comments, I am most inspired by your vision for Denton and your willingness to work hard to accomplish it.
What has become most clear to me through this and over these last three years I’ve served on council: the creative class of Denton is emerging. They want a city that is smart, innovative, ambitious, and continually solving big problems. Having been reared politically through the abstract mess of national politics, they are discovering true democracy locally and becoming beautiful citizens with a love for their city. They are dissatisfied with the traditional role and scope of local government. Understanding that cities can and should be the incubators of innovation, they see government as one of the many essential platforms upon which people can be brought together to create great things and solve the toughest issues of our day.
As most of them are from elsewhere, they are frankly uninterested in hearing narratives about how far we’ve come. They want to know where we are heading. And, perhaps more importantly, they are ready to roll up their sleeves and be part of that movement forward. They want to create, innovate, tinker, and do.
They are looking for civic leaders who inspire them, involve them, connect them with others, and unleash them to create a great city. In reality, we as a city should be following them.
After taking seriously your comments, spending time assessing the political landscape, and recognizing that there will be many changes on council come June, I have decided that the best thing to do is continue my term as the council representative of District 1 and not seek the Mayoral seat.
Several of you are now paying attention to this race. Jean Schaake and Chris Watts are both good, honest, smart, and hard-working servants who love this city and want what’s best for it. Insist that this year’s election for Mayor be about vision and big ideas.
Jean and Chris – I look forward to working with either of you, helping you be a great mayor of this city, and helping move this city forward. There’s an army of our city’s best and brightest ready to help as well. Inspire them. Lead them.