City Council Preview – December 2, 2014
The Denton Holiday Lighting Festival is this Friday – there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the country. Bring the family out for a distinctively Denton dive into this holiday season. Find out more here.
Another long day of council discussions begins with a Work Session at 1pm at City Hall. Click here for the entire agenda and keep reading for my take on what to expect at the meeting.
CONTINUED REVIEW OF THE FINAL DRAFT OF THE 2030 COMP PLAN
The council has been reviewing the update to the comp plan in pieces. This week we will look at the following sections:
- Community Health, Safety, and Services
- Infrastructure and Utilities
- Implementation and Monitoring
If you are interested in reviewing the final draft of the plan, you can do so here. The council is scheduled to hold a Public Hearing on the plan prior to voting to adopt it on December 16.
KINGS ROW SUBSTATION (and other substations)
Under Council direction, Denton Municipal Utilities has been embarking on an ambitious and needed update to our transmission and substation system. Being among one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, we must plan ahead for the electrical needs of a booming population. Re-routing transmission lines, upgrading and re-siting large substations inevitably involve growing pains as citizens rightfully concerned with the integrity of their neighborhood get engaged in the process.
You might recall the controversy surrounding transmission line routing in the Summer of 2011 in Central and NE Denton that ultimately resulted in nearly 6 months of very public discussions and changes both to those transmission plans and policies of how we handle public involvement in such projects moving forward. I sure do – this issue was on the agenda at my very first meeting in June of 2011.
While the discussion that summer centered around where to route transmission lines, the placement of the new Kings Row substation was still very much a part of that 6 month public conversation. As an example, here’s an article from November 2011 including it as part of the public discussion.
Nevertheless, I anticipate we will see some people from the surrounding neighborhood addressing the council on this issue and I look forward to their comments.
I also look forward to a discussion of how we might be able to shrink the timeline of site selection and the process of officially approving such sites. In this case, following the public process involved in the transmission line routing, council provided direction to move forward with the proposed substation location. But because that process requires a separate public process working through our development process and public hearings at both Planning and Zoning and City Council, the initial site selection and final approval process became separated by nearly 3 years. We must find a way to tighten this process up. The public involvement process pursued by DME following the initial controversy of the Summer of 2011 has been outstanding and malleable to adjust to changing conditions and circumstances. I am confident we can find a way to make this process even better as we move forward.
STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
In the wake of the November vote to ban fracking in Denton, the City Council’s 2015 State Legislative Agenda has become a much more interesting item to many in our city. This is the document that outlines the city’s position on a number of issues likely to come before the Texas Legislature during the 84th Session. You can see the most up-to-date agenda here.
BODY CAMERAS FOR THE DENTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
In the wake of Ferguson, the issue of body cameras for police has become a national conversation. Just this week, President Obama called for significant federal spending to put more of these in the hands of local police departments around the country as a way to bring more transparency to interactions and altercations involving the police and the individuals they encounter in the course of their often dangerous day-to-day job.
As is often the case, Denton is ahead of the curve and leading the rest of the nation. Our Consent Agenda includes the approval of nearly half a million dollars on the purchase of body cameras from TASER International for use by “all officers currently working in the field,” according to a memo by Chief Lee Howell.
Denton’s Collective Impact Initiatives
The Denton City Council and Denton ISD School Board met today in a joint meeting – something that happens quarterly in our city. This fact alone is something that makes most communities marvel. The collaborative spirit is alive and well in the city of Denton. We met today to hear an update from the President and CEO of United Way of Denton County, Gary Henderson, to the 2011 Community Needs Assessment. It was at such a joint meeting back in 2011 when a similar presentation sparked an enormous amount of collective impact initiatives aimed at tackling many of these issues.
Here’s an illustration to show the many community players that have come together to solve some of these issues:
In the last three years, the Denton community has come together in the following ways to begin the process of solving our communities most pressing problems:
PRE-K COALITION - increases kindergarten readiness and promotes lifelong learning and success to individuals in poverty.
MENTOR DENTON - matches adults with at-risk/economically disadvantaged students one hour per week to increase the probability of high school graduation and preparation for college or career.
SCHOOL-BASED COMMUNITY CENTERS - leverages the neighborhood school to eliminate barriers to community resources and help.
DENTON COUNTY WORKS - is a private/public partnership that provides training for students that will immediately enter the work force after graduation with job search, interview preparation and interviewing skills to increase their access to a living wage job.
BANK ON DENTON COUNTY COALITION - increases financial capabilities for individuals in poverty through education and access to mainstream financial services at over 20 area institutions.
VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE (VITA) - provides free tax preparation services to low income (below $50,000 in total household income) to maximize tax refund dollars returning to Denton County.
DENTON COUNTY CITIZENS’ COUNCIL ON MENTAL HEALTH – with goals to increase mental health access, services, and cohesive and complete treatments in Denton County.
Click here to see the slides for today’s meeting. A special thanks goes out to United Way of Denton County for serving as the hub of all of these collaborative projects.