[0:07] Welcome everybody to the City of Farmers Branch study session for Tuesday, July 16th. We're going to be moving around a little bit in our line up for city session items this afternoon. But first off is citizen comment. And I will remind everybody that when I call your name, come up to the podium in the front, you'll have three minutes to speak. On the topic of your choosing, anyone wishing to speak, shall be courteous.

[0:36] and cordial, please refrain from any disparaging or inflammatory marks directed at any member

[0:42] of city staff, a board or a commission or the city council.

[0:46] First up is Nancy Holland,

[0:51] Nancy Holland, Price Trojan,

[0:59] William Kirby,

[1:04] Jason Ennis.

[1:11] Mayor, are you sure these are not for city council tonight?

[1:15] That's what I have for this.

[1:16] So Lynn Chafon,

[1:22] we can call them again later at council meeting and I'll do that.

[1:26] Okay, seeing that none of those people are here, and based on our special guests that are here this afternoon, I'm going to go first off to item C2, which is receiving update from

[1:38] atmosphere of synergy regarding future energy needs, the implementation of strategies in future direction.

[1:43] Good

[1:51] afternoon, Mayor Cunsell.

[1:52] Joaria Thoreen, Deputy City Manager, I have a representative from Edmunds here to

[1:57] present to us an update from the Edmunds.

[2:00] Thank you.

[2:09] Good evening, Mayor and Council.

[2:10] Thank you for having us here tonight and allowing us the opportunity to give you an update

[2:15] on Edmunds Energy wrap around for the past year.

[2:19] Joining me this evening is our operations supervisor for the area Russell Curley and our operations

[2:24] manager for the area, Dustin Powell.

[2:26] and they're happy to answer any technical questions.

[2:30] I understand that you have a full agenda tonight,

[2:32] so I'm going to run through this,

[2:34] and y'all know where to find me,

[2:36] and if you have any questions,

[2:37] or you'd like to invite me back,

[2:39] I'm happy to come back for another session,

[2:41] and just do a deeper dive in what we're sharing with you this evening.

[2:46] So again, I'm Jan Rug,

[2:47] Mandra Public Affairs,

[2:49] and this is our Feeling Our Energy Future Report,

[2:51] and there will be some specifics that we'll discuss

[2:54] us as they applaud to farmers branch.

[2:56] As most of you are aware, we are the largest singular natural gas distribution company

[3:02] in the nation.

[3:03] What that means is that there are other companies that are dual fuels, which might be electric

[3:08] and natural gas, but we are natural gas only.

[3:12] We provide services in eight states, and sometimes when you think about it, it's pretty awesome

[3:19] to know that this is the footprint of your company and what we do.

[3:22] and we are daily providing service here in Farmer's Branch, as well as other cities in the Metroplex.

[3:31] So this is an overview of Atmos Energy as a corporation. Those are communities served,

[3:36] employees, our spend, investment in communities. And this is the thing that we'd like to really

[3:44] tout is our investment in our system, in our communities, because the things that you care about the

[3:49] most is how are we delivering natural gas reliably in

[3:54] farmer's branch and what is the safety associated with that.

[3:57] And these are the aspects that we want to talk about when

[4:00] we discuss what our company is doing.

[4:02] So this is an overview of numbers, and then we're going to

[4:06] talk specifically about farmer's branch.

[4:09] And when we talk about miles of pipeline, that seems

[4:11] like a lot, but as you know, it's a network.

[4:15] So this is how we deliver natural gas to customers that are

[4:19] commercial and residential.

[4:23] So I know that for the city, you have a sustainability committee

[4:27] and you're looking at very things as they impact the sustainability in your community

[4:33] and conservation. In 2017, Atmos Energy made a commitment to move into reducing our greenhouse

[4:41] emissions and that impacts various things but we're on target to be in line with what our

[4:48] commitment was by 2035.

[4:53] Some of the things that we also talk about

[4:55] is energy choice. As you will know, we're in an era of electrification.

[5:00] And we believe that we are part of the energy solution for our country, that it's not just one fuel. And so what we propose is that we keep a level of choice for customers and residents. So these are an example of the states that have enacted legislation that provides that choice for residents. And we're all about that in Texas. How do we have our choices?

[5:25] So the things that we drive every day home is our safety.

[5:32] Our safety in our communities, our safety for our employees, as well as safety in the

[5:38] construction projects that we do, safety drives every aspect of what we do.

[5:45] Okay, this is our operations facility in Plano.

[5:48] So our facility in Plano is the training facility for our entire corporation.

[5:53] If you're hired for a technical position for atmos energy, you will come to our training

[5:58] facility, you will receive hands-on training, you go back to the field, you implement

[6:03] that training, come back in, you get more training, but we have standardized training across

[6:08] our entire corporation.

[6:10] So if you're hired to be a service technician, you're working in Texas, there's an emergency

[6:15] or a disaster in another one of our eight states, we can send employees to those areas

[6:20] to provide support to the employees that are working those disasters.

[6:24] We have it other times, provided mutual aid to other companies as needed.

[6:30] But this takes place in Plano, and if y'all never come visit, we'd love to have you.

[6:38] Our safety and our first responders, so our stars are in the corner here.

[6:43] We provide support to police and fire because in an event of a natural gas emergency, they

[6:49] are first on scene.

[6:50] They provide for the safety of the community, the safety of our workers.

[6:56] And so during those times, you know, we rely very heavily on them.

[6:59] And giving back to the first responders is a very big initiative for us.

[7:05] We're happy to support whether it be in donations for safety equipment or training because we

[7:10] count on our firefighters to support the safety of our employees.

[7:17] Okay.

[7:18] So, one of the things that you hear about regularly, and I've interacted with Jeff a lot

[7:23] on this, you see the warnings that he sends out that says natural gas leak, notifications

[7:29] to avoid an area.

[7:30] One of the largest risks to our system is third-party damages.

[7:35] So this is Gus the Gover, and he's our safety ambassador, and his messaging is about calling

[7:41] 811 before you dig, and you will see this notification on a lot of our advertisements

[7:47] and promotions that we do throughout the community.

[7:50] And if any of you are natural gas customers,

[7:52] he regularly drops in on your bill or on your online account.

[7:59] And this is Ms. Rosie, and she gives information

[8:02] about the safety of natural gas.

[8:04] And if you think you smell a leak,

[8:06] we have a lot of promotions that we do through the schools.

[8:11] And I don't know about you, but I remember when I was a child,

[8:14] we would have police, fire, health officials

[8:17] that we come to school and visit and provide a message for us, and we took it home.

[8:22] So the children are a very good vehicle for taking messaging home to their parents.

[8:27] And again, this is just another wraparound and touch point for us to provide our safety

[8:32] messaging.

[8:34] Okay, we're going to talk about the delivery of natural gas just for a moment.

[8:38] And this is an overview of, from the well head to what we call the burner tip.

[8:42] and this is what it looks like.

[8:45] Atmos Energy is not in the exploration or production business.

[8:49] We are in the delivery business.

[8:51] We have transportation assets in three states

[8:54] and then we have distribution again

[8:57] in the other eight states.

[8:59] So this is an overview of what that looks like,

[9:01] how the gas gets to your home.

[9:06] Okay, and this is homeowner safety

[9:07] and this is probably the bulk of our messaging to customers

[9:11] and I feel like y'all are probably impacted by a bit right now because we've had a project in

[9:17] Farmer's branch that feels like it's been going on for what two or three years. And so what we're

[9:22] replacing is the mains in the alleyways or in the street and then service lines to the customers

[9:28] homes. And from everything from the main to the meter is our responsibility and from the meter to the

[9:35] house is customer responsibility. But when we're making these improvements we're upgrading everything

[9:41] to the customer's home. So that's new meters, wireless meter reading. Also, any safety improvements

[9:48] that we're making to our infrastructure are taking place during this time.

[9:54] Okay, leak detection

[9:56] monitoring. You'll see a bit of this around here.

[10:00] I'm ahead just a little bit of where we'll be next, but we do leak surveys. And following

[10:07] a leak survey, we assess anything that's an indication of a leak, and it is graded. After

[10:13] it's graded, we schedule those repairs. Our goal is to eliminate all leaks, because

[10:19] that number one makes for the safety of the community. Secondly, it helps with the reduction

[10:25] of methane emissions and it improves our infrastructure when we make those repairs.

[10:33] So there it is, that's our AMLD, that's automated mobile leak detection device.

[10:39] We do have standard ways of detecting leaks, however this device, and you see the instrumentation

[10:46] on the top of the vehicle, it detects natural gas in parts per billion.

[10:50] So we're running surveys and probably what Jeff, every other week I'm sending you a

[10:55] notification because we do notify residents of this work, this vehicle runs at night, well,

[11:02] the barometric pressures are low, and sometimes it's concerning to residents if they see

[11:07] a vehicle drive and very slow either on the streets or in their alleyways.

[11:11] So we provide a notification that we'll be making these surveys.

[11:16] Following the surveys, we assess that information that we've gathered during that time.

[11:20] We go back, investigate, and that's how leaks are detected and repaired.

[11:26] And this is probably been one of our biggest successes in removing leaks from our system.

[11:35] Okay.

[11:36] Feeling safe and thriving communities.

[11:37] We have pillars.

[11:38] These are our giving pillars.

[11:40] And the things that we focus on is the future of our children.

[11:44] He rose first responders veterans and also our neighbors.

[11:48] members.

[11:49] And I really would like to share that, you know, in following those basic guidelines,

[11:54] Atmos Energy strongly supports Carrollton Farmers Branch ISD.

[11:58] We've had a program of donating book vending machines, and we are placing those in various

[12:04] schools in the ISD, and the principals use those as a reward for the students.

[12:10] So if the student is student of the week or student of the month, or has just even had a great

[12:14] accomplishment somewhere along their educational path. They get a token, and the token allows

[12:19] them to go to the book-winning machine and buy their own books. So, they have books in hand

[12:24] when they go home. We, again, support police and fire, and another one of our large partners

[12:31] is MetroCrest Services. We have been partnering with them for more than 20 years. We provide

[12:39] assistance at various levels. We've been a sponsor of the Food Bank. This year, we're a sponsor

[12:43] of the mobile food pantry and we're also a partner of with them with our sharing the

[12:50] warmth program. So we have a program that's called Sharing the Warmth. It is an opportunity

[12:55] for our rate payers, customers, to provide additional dollars onto the amount of their

[13:01] bill. Those dollars are partnered with other dollars provided by Atmos Energy and then redistributed

[13:08] in our communities. MetroCrest Services is a share of the warmth partner. What that means

[13:14] is that they get financial allocations from us and they can use those dollars to assist

[13:19] their clients with gas bills, new service, service line repairs and even appliance repairs

[13:25] if that's needed.

[13:29] Okay, feeling our energy future and this is our story. Is Atmos Energy

[13:35] is here to be part of our future.

[13:39] Natural gas is affordable, it's safe.

[13:42] There's, we have reporting that comes from the American Gas Association, that this,

[13:47] what these numbers are about, is the savings to homes that have a balance of natural gas

[13:53] and electricity and the savings that it provides over a period of a year.

[13:59] And we're kind of proud we've gotten good rankings from our customer service.

[14:03] And this year we were, our customer service group was ranked number one in this particular

[14:08] survey of customer satisfaction.

[14:12] Okay, smart energy choice again.

[14:15] How many customers are using natural gas, the savings and how that contributes overall

[14:21] because there are so many other aspects to what we do, you know, cost saving to families,

[14:27] businesses, and natural gas is here.

[14:31] we hope to stay. And this is, again, reflective of Texas.

[14:39] Okay. And we also feel economic growth.

[14:42] We know you'll get calls every day, businesses that are looking to relocate, farmers branch.

[14:47] We get those calls as well. And one of the questions is, can you get natural gas to this area?

[14:53] What does it take? We have a processing facility. We need high temperatures, etc. So we are here to

[14:59] to support your e...

[15:00] Economic growth.

[15:03] Okay. Any questions? And I've passed the document that is a break down for a

[15:11] former branch specific, and if you have any questions related to that, I'm happy to answer

[15:16] them or if you would like to, if you have a question because we're on time frame, if you

[15:23] would like to email City Manager and he can get those to me, I'll get you responses, but just

[15:28] just let me know how I can help and thank you for your time.

[15:31] Jan, thank you.

[15:32] Council, does anybody have any questions?

[15:34] Councilman Jackson?

[15:35] I have a question, Mayor.

[15:35] Thank you, Jan.

[15:37] So you talked about the automatic leak detection vehicles

[15:39] that drive it.

[15:40] Yes.

[15:41] Sensing leaks and you find them and you're going to address that.

[15:45] Does that miss have a program or a log of how old certain pipes are

[15:51] and a schedule for replacing those ahead of finding leaks?

[15:56] or is that mispurely reactive to detecting leaks?

[16:01] That would be an operations question.

[16:02] Russell, would you like to answer that question?

[16:04] Sure.

[16:05] Yeah, so.

[16:06] Can you come up just so we can record, yeah, please.

[16:11] Thank you.

[16:12] Yes or so, we do have a risk model that we use

[16:17] to analyze our system.

[16:18] That's based off of historical data.

[16:21] Leaks that have come up in the past,

[16:23] pipe type is steel, bare steel, old poly.

[16:27] What items are gonna go into that risk factor

[16:30] and we have a calculation that basically

[16:32] spits out the high risk areas or higher risk.

[16:37] And that's what we typically allocate our capital dollars

[16:40] to tackle those areas first.

[16:42] So it's not totally reactive, but of course the car

[16:46] as it does come through at night, it's gonna

[16:48] No triage leaks and give us kind of an immediate need that we need to take care of and then we also have that risk model for future planning.

[16:56] Okay, yeah, that's what I was looking for.

[16:57] We have something similar for our water and sewer pipes and such and the schedule of those higher risk older, different materials, vulnerabilities, and so that's what I was looking for.

[17:07] Thank you.

[17:10] Anything else?

[17:12] Council, anyone have any questions?

[17:14] No, no.

[17:14] All right.

[17:15] Thank you very much, Shane.

[17:19] Next up is going to be item C9, receive a presentation regarding the Advanced Funding Agreement

[17:24] for the Reconfiguration of Value Lane.

[17:34] And while Shane is here, I will also announce that we have Susan Clements, who is the project

[17:44] manager for the I-35 project that's going on right now, and she's here also to help answer

[17:52] any questions that we might have. So, Shane, go ahead.

[17:57] I think Mayor and Council, I guess it's still afternoon, I didn't expect to be up here

[18:01] this early.

[18:05] So that's meaning the last month we initiated discussions where it was possible

[18:08] re-configuration of IV lane. Between den and drive and nestle drive, we discussed in advance

[18:13] on the agreement which we had applied through through COG which is being funded by text.

[18:18] So this location between den and drive and nestles right in the heart of the downtown

[18:22] Farm-based code. It's originally established in 2002. There's a revision in 2012. Another one in 2019,

[18:32] and then in 2021 he had died 35 corridor study, which consultants brought in, and it actually expanded

[18:37] the boundary of this PD86, which is the downtown Farm-based code. So for those unaware, what is the

[18:44] Farm-based code? It's an ordinance. It sets up land development regulations in the PD. So essential

[18:49] ordinance is a law. Nintendo is at some point time either through cities of

[18:54] proactive nature or through redevelopment. You're supposed to develop the streets

[18:58] and other things in accordance with the ordinance. But the goal of this was a

[19:01] downtown with different mix of uses. But with a form-based code the focus is not on

[19:06] usage of the buildings. It's actually the form of the structure of the buildings

[19:09] what they look like. And so if you read through the code between a regulating plan

[19:13] and the street type specs, the building of old standards, architectural

[19:17] You're looking for a discreet uniform facade, not separate individual buildings and be almost no parking up front that will be on street parking all the other parking would be in the rear of the buildings if it's developed according to the code.

[19:31] There will be all the ways.

[19:32] So separate individual buildings, just in front of the strip, retail center, former

[19:39] tire shop, maybe at the moment, with all the parking in the front, that is not the

[19:43] way.

[19:43] This is supposed to look in the future.

[19:47] So since today, since we're talking about a road, the street type is going to matter and

[19:51] so that is specified within the plan itself.

[19:55] During the I-35 quarter vision study, the residents show up and participate and provide

[20:00] Air desires, what do you want to see? . And the two biggest things they mentioned were safety and connectivity. And those. You all showed up with the act of transportation, public meeting the overwhelming feedback for those at that location and also the Polo Service is just connection and safety. So that line, nice with the out 34 study,

[20:24] so what did this recrification look like? Well, the purpose of it again is it meets the PD desires.

[20:30] I'm going to focus on, do the space for, provide pedestrian movements, a connection to

[20:35] call site 35 and within the downtown area.

[20:38] There are some benefits to road diets.

[20:42] Restated by John Hopkins, says 1100 different road diets just to see what the impacts for

[20:49] of narrowing lanes does it increase traffic crashes, does it reduce them?

[20:53] What they found is by narrowing lanes it does not increase the number of crashes, nor the

[20:58] risk of crashes. But it does show an annual frame of 30 to 35 miles per hour that actually

[21:04] reduces the number of crashes at nine intersections. It's a small positive there. But for us,

[21:10] when we're looking at this road, we're going to create this pedestrian movements, um, create

[21:14] un-street amenities, such as tree wells, and things like that, and call for code. How do we

[21:19] get there? And the only way to get there is by reconfiguring the road. You got to create

[21:22] space for these. And the way option we have to meet this is reducing lanes.

[21:29] Federal highway

[21:30] authority has an informational guide about road diets out there, and that is assessing

[21:33] basically four lanes to three lanes. So for this four lanes to typically a two lane road

[21:38] going one direction, two lanes coming the other, reducing time to three so one each direction

[21:42] with the turn lane in the middle. As long as the traffic count, the average daily traffic

[21:47] that's what ABT stands for is less than 23,000.

[21:51] You can go from four lanes to three.

[21:52] The sweet spot is 15,000 to 17,5,

[21:55] but so long as it's less than 23,

[21:57] you can go for four lanes to three

[21:58] based on the recommendation.

[22:00] That number will come up again here in a graph.

[22:05] Here are the dimensions of the street type.

[22:07] Just use C1, call for for farmer tranche.

[22:10] We're going to build it in accordance

[22:10] with the form-based code as presented

[22:13] in our limits is at the moment.

[22:20] One of the concerns we heard at the last meeting

[22:21] and since then is, you know, we got,

[22:22] What is I-35 look like now at value view with all the construction going on and what's going to look like in the future?

[22:29] The previous configuration was you had two lanes we had a discussion in both directions, which really kind of bottlenecked everybody up.

[22:36] The other challenges they were used to signal timing down to 20 seconds. So not many cars you get through and you reduce the number of lanes.

[22:42] The way out here is what is going to look like in the future. You know three through lanes,

[22:46] one shared right turn lane, both directions, did a key left turn, both directions.

[22:51] in a single time and goes back to 45 seconds,

[22:53] not the 20 seconds you have now.

[22:57] So you should, in those y'all that come westbound now,

[22:59] they've made it the three lanes.

[23:00] There's already an improvement, I think,

[23:02] for folks trying to get through

[23:03] because you have three lanes to get across that intersection,

[23:05] but you're still stuck the 22nd timing at the moment.

[23:11] So since the last meeting,

[23:12] I'm gonna try to think through, all right.

[23:14] If we reduce it down to four lanes,

[23:15] if we have any of the rows of promised ranch

[23:16] that may look like that,

[23:17] may have similar traffic volumes.

[23:21] My first thought was valid.

[23:22] It intersects as I-35s. We should have folks kind of doing the same traffic movements and it's already down to two lanes in each direction.

[23:29] It doesn't have the turning lane like value does but that was the closest thing I could come up with in my mind.

[23:34] So text that as a website for traffic counts. If you look closely at the picture you see it's the yellow little thumb text.

[23:40] That's where the traffic data was available.

[23:43] So a Valley branch, the railroad crossing right there, they took readings there, at the

[23:48] feeder road, there's one reading, B Street, and then right about Raheib Creek for the

[23:52] value of you. For Valwood, you have one of Valwood Denton, Valwood and Josie.

[23:58] So I click the

[23:58] data and I apologize, I'm left handed, so the data is probably in reverse order from what

[24:02] you all right. Many people look at my apologies. But one of the unique things with this for the

[24:08] The value of you is you're looking at 2014 to 2019.

[24:13] The traffic volume's actually gone down.

[24:15] You're an anomaly here in Farmer's Ranch.

[24:17] It's actually about a 5% reduction overall per year.

[24:21] The text.model for planning shows a 1.7 to 2% growth.

[24:25] So these contradict each other.

[24:28] So these numbers may not mean much to folks who try to think

[24:30] how else could we show this data?

[24:33] And so we reached out to Kimlee Horn

[24:34] within the past couple weeks and ask,

[24:35] Could you put the other simulation using this data here to show what that looks like in a moving model?

[24:42] So you're familiar with the situation looks like now. So I'm going to show you two simulations

[24:46] one for current data that you're seeing here for 2025. The other one is projecting 10 years in the future.

[24:53] And so we have the contradiction here. We have a 5% decrease in the data that we're seeing right here.

[24:58] But the planning model shows one point.

[25:00] So, what do we come up with? How do we predict this? We ended up going 1% increase. So, it's just a traditional network trend in terms of traffic. Not the decreasing trend we're seeing at the moment. They should have new data coming out shortly in the next year or so. So, we'll see where the actual data falls. At this point time, we'll show some similar couple of simulations. So, these simulations, I'm going to give you the assumptions before you watch it.

[25:27] They're based on a 15 minute peak period. So, look at the PM peak period.

[25:30] When is the traffic the highest and that's what can we use for the data?

[25:36] It's going to show two lanes, the direction, turning lanes still there.

[25:43] And the biggest challenge we had is trying to get the signal timing out.

[25:45] So you're going to see signals actually incorporate it as well.

[25:47] The first time we had is just free-flowing traffic, which was not realistic for the road.

[25:54] So this is sped up at five times normal speed.

[25:56] So 50-minute segment, this is a 30-minute video.

[26:00] We tried to show all the vehicle types.

[26:04] So you'll see some different lives. We also put it in our street parking. So we should look at where we have a storage capacity for this.

[26:12] And what's the conflict that someone pulls out?

[26:14] We look really close to there. We usually have a little faint.

[26:17] Motorcycles don't show up in this. It's really hard to see.

[26:20] We also have 18 wheelers going through as well. It's not one or two percent of the volume.

[26:24] So we try to show all traffic conditions and not just put cars.

[26:31] But this is just current numbers.

[26:39] I'll put that together.

[26:45] It's engineering firm out there.

[26:46] We use them for a couple of other projects.

[26:48] They have the staff to turn something around pretty quickly.

[26:52] One thing you're going to notice is there's no turning movements.

[26:54] The do turning movement should have to take vehicle counts at each intersection.

[26:57] See how many folks are turning on the road.

[26:59] I'm here turning off.

[27:01] Whether we're really going to put the traffic signals.

[27:03] So here's the train.

[27:05] There's a tiny little green signal in there for the train.

[27:07] It doesn't show a train coming through.

[27:12] So

[27:15] we're trying to get this as realistic as we could at the short time frame we had.

[27:25] So we're about halfway through, we continue to hold three minutes, it's your choice, but

[27:29] this is what it looks like for current conditions.

[27:32] They didn't include anything further to the west with the I-35.

[27:37] No, we're trying to just focus on the AFA area, so you're basically coming off the 35 and

[27:41] less side there.

[27:42] It's coming underneath 35, coming to Denton Drive first.

[28:02] So the same thing here, this is 2035, so again 1% growth, you've got a semi-arolling

[28:10] through there at the moment, although as everything else is kept the same, you've got the signal

[28:14] timing, the signal lights, the train,

[28:19] just a slight increase in terms of traffic, based on

[28:21] the data we had.

[28:25] So you'll see a little bit more queuing,

[28:30] so five points of the model you wouldn't

[28:31] necessarily queue across the railroad track like that, but they had a pre-limited time in terms

[28:36] you get this together and we want to make sure we got the major points which was the traffic

[28:39] volumes and the signals themselves.

[28:49] So this also same thing, three minute video covering

[28:52] 15 minute period traffic.

[29:01] We all three minutes or we all can say okay and we can, I'm saying

[29:08] you said that railroad, the train activity is included in this model, we just can't see a train

[29:15] crossing. It's built into the lights and time cranes.

[29:19] We just went to the dark website, it shows when they should look at farmers' ranch

[29:21] station, vote directions, so what the time we should be for, based on those, okay.

[29:26] So we just looked at the arrival times, vote directions.

[29:29] We just be arrival in departure, and I'm not going to get it, but so I gave that to them

[29:34] off the website, and they came out and actually physically just timed the signal when I'm

[29:39] a Friday afternoon and sat there and counted how long vote directions that I'll, the two

[29:43] intersections.

[29:45] Okay.

[30:00] So that's again, simulation of what this data right here shows.

[30:08] So going back to the reconfiguration. Again, this contributes to the downtown vision. By knowing the roads, you're allowed people to get across through a quicker, you create space for more pedestrian movements, the tree wells. And we all talked about this picture last time. The point is it's uniform, and that's the intent of the form-based code. It didn't have to be this particular layout. The point is this is what the code shooting for. It's uniform in front there with discrete entrances into the shops.

[30:34] I made a mistake the last time I said on street parking would be on both sides it is only on the south side is planning staff

[30:39] Caught me out to the facts of my apologies for giving me bad information last time

[30:42] But it's only on street parking on the south side the north side is more focused on lighter sidewalk pedestrian movements

[30:50] So again with the AFAA is a 3.5 million dollar total project that covered oversight by the state

[30:58] So use your reversible amount, there's 1.3.19, and the total cost of the city is 1.131,142,

[31:05] to redo the road.

[31:07] Some other things you need to know before you all have a discussion was in the near future

[31:11] we will be installing new storm sewer and value.

[31:14] It needs to be upsized and handle the current drainage plus future proposed development out there.

[31:20] So I'll be going down value view, you will have a trench cut for the storm sewer.

[31:24] There's a water line and need to be replaced as my understanding based on LCRR just because of the pipe type we need to get that replaced

[31:30] So it'll also is a trench cut on belly view

[31:33] So we'll also be replaced but might say that'll be pipe bursting so a minimal impact on the street

[31:37] Just to provide a couple of potholes here and there, but

[31:40] That should not have the impact of the street

[31:43] Nevertheless, so our time staff is kind of kept this part of the value maintenance to kind of a minimum with the expectation

[31:48] We would redesign this and reconstruct it in the future

[31:52] So, sometime in the next few years, it will be rehabilitated and overlaid again.

[31:59] And so, at that point in time, we don't choose to walk away, which is a progative, just

[32:05] there will be a repaying the full cost for the road itself.

[32:12] Our base concern is staff levels.

[32:14] Right now, we have $9 million of funding tied up with COG and textile for the West Side

[32:18] our trail 2.2 to 2.6 for a dent drive and another one for a value of a

[32:23] mercer for a crosswalk on top of this three and just let the discloser by

[32:28] understanding going forward in your flood application if you turn back any

[32:31] money so in a step perspective that's our biggest concern is does it impact our

[32:36] funding in the future.

[32:39] Hopefully not if you all choose to go a different direction

[32:40] but that is you know from a step perspective that's what our work is can we

[32:44] continue to get funding for these projects, so at this point in time, I'll try to answer

[32:50] the question you may have for me, otherwise you can have discussion amongst yourselves

[32:53] and throughout what we do from here.

[32:56] Thanks, Shane.

[33:00] Obviously, this has been a topic of deep discussion.

[33:03] There's been a lot of information that's been put out.

[33:06] Some of it has not been totally correct.

[33:08] and but I invited a season to come specifically to address because it plays into all this.

[33:19] Comments had been made that the reduction in lanes is going to back up traffic.

[33:26] For such a long distance, it's going to create delays, et cetera, et cetera.

[33:31] And so would you come up and introduce yourself and then tell us maybe a quick overview of the I-35 project and how you see what was just presented, sort of working with what you all are doing.

[33:50] Absolutely. No, thank you for having me, Mayor. Thank you for having me, Council.

[33:52] Council, just want to touch a little bit right now you guys drive it every day.

[33:57] We've reduced capacity on Valley View and so it's two lanes in each direction, can you

[34:01] hear me?

[34:02] Introduce yourself.

[34:03] Yes, I'm sorry.

[34:04] My name is Susan Clemens.

[34:05] I'm the district engineer for tech thought.

[34:07] In the Dallas district, we cover seven counties on the eastern side of the Metroplex, including

[34:11] Dallas County.

[34:13] So as you know, Valley View itself has been reduced to two lanes in each direction.

[34:18] and we've really eliminated the right turn lines.

[34:22] The one thing I'll add, chain to your presentation,

[34:24] we've also reduced capacity on the front of droids.

[34:27] So the northbound and southbound front of droids

[34:29] have been significantly reduced as well

[34:31] before you had right turns and left turn lines.

[34:34] Now we just have one lane, or two lanes.

[34:37] On the northbound front of droid,

[34:38] two lanes on the southbound front of droid.

[34:40] What's that, what that has done

[34:41] is really limited our intersection capacity.

[34:44] And so when we're really looking at it

[34:47] as far as level of service and operations and the ultimate configuration, we're going

[34:53] to have three through lanes on valley view with turn lanes.

[34:56] The bigger key is we're also going to have turn lanes.

[35:00] So, we're going to have a couple of comments on the front of the roads as well, and that's going to allow us to get a lot more vehicles through those signalized intersections than what you're seeing today. The main reason you're seeing such the big backup, not only is it the 22nd signal timing, but it's really we can't get very many cars through the intersection in that 20 seconds, because we're only feeding two lanes, if that makes sense. And so, when we're in the final configuration, and we've got turn lanes, and we can separate folks that are wanting to

[35:27] right turn that can yield on red if you so choose really that intersection capacity

[35:34] for us is key in that traffic operations and so increasing the signal timing in 45 seconds

[35:41] think about it in 20 seconds we're feeding two lanes you're barely getting any cars

[35:45] through there 45 seconds and we're as wide as five lanes on the front of roads you're going

[35:50] to get a lot more vehicles through there so I think you're going to see significant improvement

[35:54] in operations, at the front of road intersections, no matter what you choose to do as a council

[36:01] on ballot view itself, but to us, the key is, and you'll see it along the 35 schematic.

[36:08] There are some locations we only have two lane front of roads, but at each intersection,

[36:12] we're widening out to the five lanes, and the main reason is the key is getting as many vehicles

[36:18] through that signal cycle as we possibly can.

[36:21] And so we think you'll see a lot of improvement

[36:23] regardless of what you choose to do with the value of you.

[36:27] But bear with us, we've got a couple more years of construction.

[36:30] There's really no other way to build it.

[36:32] We've got a lot of improvements to build.

[36:35] We've got to reduce capacity, but our goal

[36:37] is to get in and out as fast as we can.

[36:39] But here, to answer any more questions,

[36:41] we'll shame any way that I can help.

[36:43] Council,

[36:46] this is your time.

[36:48] So, Councilman Roman. No questions. Councilman Reed.

[36:55] Yeah, I said a couple more years ago. For that intersection, is that what we're looking at for a total timeline?

[37:02] That's correct. Early 2026 is when we're anticipated to be done.

[37:06] The main reason is, I wish we could go and just build value view, but a lot of what we're doing is impacted by what we're doing on top.

[37:13] And so we've got to build the main lanes as well.

[37:15] And so we'll shift traffic back and forth.

[37:18] I'm all right.

[37:18] It's going to be painful, but once we're done,

[37:20] it's going to be a lot better.

[37:21] So if you can bear with us a couple more years.

[37:23] Well, I know.

[37:24] I've been gone for a week and coming here today

[37:28] that going westbound at I-35.

[37:31] Now it's two lanes going straight through

[37:33] and a right-turn lane.

[37:34] And that made it even that little bit

[37:37] a little bit easier.

[37:40] So if you can imagine, eventually,

[37:41] will have that capacity in every direction and so hopefully it will be a lot easier in every direction.

[37:49] Okay. We're just asking questions on either if I have or anything.

[37:53] Yep. Okay. So with that in mind, what's the timeline for if we were to move forward with the reconfiguration? What's the timeline on that?

[38:09] So next step for us to be the utility relocation. So we need to get the storms who are done, the water line replaced those kind of things.

[38:14] There's no point doing your brand new road and tearing that thing up. So we're moving forward with those now.

[38:19] We're going to make sure we get those done in out of the way and complete the design.

[38:22] So we're going to put the design on hold to see which direction councilman to go with this.

[38:26] You're going to prove it or not.

[38:27] Otherwise, we're just really not rehabilitating what's out there as it exists.

[38:31] So we've kind of put our engineer on hold waiting to see which direction we all want to go.

[38:36] So if we decide we're going to move forward, as soon as you all know if that's the

[38:40] question I want to go, we're trying to engineer there's to complete the design.

[38:44] So we get that done and get a bid ready to go for once the utilities are completed.

[38:49] I know you're looking for the exact timeline that I don't have, how long this is going to take.

[38:52] I didn't prepare.

[38:53] I wouldn't sure how this conversation can go tonight.

[38:56] Okay.

[38:57] And by, I know we have to have some of the road to do some of the, in regards to the pipe

[39:04] like replacement and stuff like that, would reconfiguration help us with the cost for that

[39:11] project?

[39:12] No, because it's going to happen no matter what.

[39:13] I mean, that's just a set distance and a size of pipe.

[39:16] So we've got to up size a storm sewer to handle the flow currently in what's coming in the

[39:19] future.

[39:20] And really for the water line, Ray Crackney for Rob, we're just switching the pipe type

[39:23] way from, I think, believe it's galvanized to something that complies with LCRR.

[39:30] So it's the pipe type that matters with that one.

[39:32] Right. Well, I'm talking about like resurfacing or anything like that, is there any way that the two can, you know, if one piggybacks off the other, that there's a cost savings.

[39:42] In this case, we just got to get the utilities done first. We don't want to put a brand new cut right through the brand new road.

[39:47] Right. But what I'm saying. So when putting the cut in concurrently, is that what you're asking?

[39:53] Well, that can concurrently, but yeah, kind of piggyback.

[39:56] Yeah, our plan right now is just to replace those you put it first. Oops. Sorry.

[40:01] Okay. And I just wanted to reiterate that total cost to the city is going to be approximately after all the money goes back and forth by 465,000. This case, it's 131,000, that number, you go back one side, that number at the bottom 131, 142 is our out of pocket expense for the concrete work. You're going to have to pay for the utility replacement. So it's going to happen regardless. The storm sewer and water,

[40:29] But for the concrete, if you use the AFA, 131,000 are out of pocket expense for the city.

[40:36] So the difference between reimbursement, what's reimbursable to the city and the estimated cost?

[40:44] So information minimum, I'd talk about transportation development credits.

[40:49] So part of the thing we use for those transportation development credits, which I'm not real dollars because you have policies to see is adopted in the past.

[40:57] We can use those instead of finances to actually do provide part of our match.

[41:02] There's a small portion to be broken up into two projects where we do have an actual cash match we're providing.

[41:08] Plus we have to pay for some of the state oversight.

[41:11] So although there's a delta there about 400,000 that would be our number 20% match normally.

[41:16] Yes, we're providing all that money because of the policies we've adopted by applying for those TDCs or transportation development credits.

[41:24] We can use those in low of cash.

[41:27] Okay, so the-

[41:28] For this means, this is like the project.

[41:30] Some reason we've seen this dollar now,

[41:32] we'd have to find the dollars ourselves somewhere.

[41:35] Does that make sense?

[41:37] That's what-

[41:38] Can you see that?

[41:39] Everything about that city I go find on your phone.

[41:41] Right, got it.

[41:41] It's okay.

[41:42] Okay.

[41:45] I know the overall plan is to build a-

[41:50] The long term goal is to build like a downtown area

[41:53] that's that's that's walkable. What have we thought about what is going to happen with the existing

[42:02] businesses that are on the road? You know if we're thinking long-term we've got the muffler shop,

[42:08] we've got the garage, we've got the the little string all of those don't meet with that form-based code.

[42:15] So the expectation is you would have picture here the new buildings with redevelopment would have

[42:19] in the five front, all the park is going to be in the rear

[42:22] and not in the front of the building anymore.

[42:24] So in terms of form-based code, those are not compatible

[42:27] in terms of development standards.

[42:30] So if you don't want this looked,

[42:31] and you have the entire form-based code to dictate,

[42:34] the buildings are all going to have this uniform look.

[42:36] Okay, so I'd be on both sides of the road.

[42:38] Yes, sir.

[42:39] So those businesses would have to relocate.

[42:42] Correct.

[42:46] Parkings are only going to be on one side.

[42:47] How many parking spots?

[42:48] How many do you see in that there was not many just based on what our current conceptual

[42:53] land is yes ideally I'd love to see more but that's kind of where it was drawn up based

[42:58] on our conceptual nest we shared with Kimley here's what we got at the moment based

[43:01] on roadways and other things okay and can we assume I hate to use that word but can we assume

[43:08] that the right hand lane these directions is going to have bike lane capacity question

[43:15] We have shareholders out there now and so since the speed is going to be dramatically reduced, I would assume we'd stay with the Cheryl versus a separate bike lane.

[43:22] We only got so much space with the reconfiguration we could use.

[43:25] We were thinking of making sure folks can get to the shops easily by walking.

[43:29] I would expect we continue to share those to this particular location.

[43:32] Find the Cheryl.

[43:33] So if you look down on value right now, there's an indicator with like a double Chevron, right, bicycle person below that.

[43:38] Let me try it as you need to share Lane your respectful bikes that they're in this right bikes in time of the lane as much as you are

[43:49] And then with this new configuration of the like you said the expectation would be park most likely parking to the to the rear of the

[43:57] of those buildings

[44:00] We know that there's

[44:02] plans for a lot of

[44:04] new buildings, especially on where Denton hits Valley view with the Starr Center's sports complex multifamily refurbishing of the multifamily behind the high house theater.

[44:19] Those, the model that you showed the traffic increase, does that take all that into consideration?

[44:26] You looked at what the projected growth would be for the area, based off type stats.

[44:31] So I said we couldn't do full blown traffic counts at every corner just because of the time

[44:35] we're going to take in two or three weeks just to collect that data.

[44:37] We didn't have two to three weeks to collect data and get the simulation done, but they had

[44:43] a projection next to it.

[44:43] There's those 1.7 to 2% growth.

[44:46] So we're actually showing the negative decline in terms of traffic volume.

[44:50] So, we're trying to build what's a fair assessment, what's a fair prediction for the future.

[44:56] I mean, the consultant had the way to do that.

[44:58] All right.

[44:59] I want to show a negative.

[45:00] What is actual realistic positive growth trend, and we sell it on one percent. Okay. We find a data we had. Because the goal is to get more traffic into that area to support these shops and

[45:39] That's all I have right now, but

[45:40] I mean, we'll come back.

[45:41] I have something back.

[45:42] Councilman Barrick.

[45:44] Thank you both for your presentations.

[45:46] So Shane, the businesses are there now.

[45:52] Yes, sir.

[45:52] Would have no, we can't kick them out

[45:56] or have them change their buildings

[45:58] or anything like that, can we?

[45:59] I'm gonna turn to the planning department.

[46:01] This is not my area expertise.

[46:04] Okay.

[46:04] I think

[46:08] that they will have to redevelop along with the plan.

[46:14] So we can go and say you have to rebuild your building?

[46:18] We can't force them because they have already been there.

[46:20] But if they wanted to change anything as far as any of the front-end

[46:23] or if they wanted to increase the growth because of the parking,

[46:26] then we would have them have to change up to the current standards.

[46:30] Okay, that was a question.

[46:32] Regarding the, is it a, it's a federal grant that's paying for most of this?

[46:37] Yes, sir.

[46:38] So, can you explain exactly the restrictions, strings they put that require this?

[46:46] Did it say specifically you can only have this if you reduce lanes or was it a more general statement?

[46:52] No, our application, if you look at the funding agreement, it says you reduce lanes from this street to this street.

[46:58] So was that them saying that to us or y'all say that was our application but again that's based on this form-based code

[47:03] This is what it's supposed to look like so trying to find money at city enough to spend to achieve the goal of this form-based code

[47:10] Okay, the application has made many years several years ago. I think it's late teens when we made the application

[47:16] Okay, but it is specified in the terminus project term and I didn't drive nestle drive going to 16s the four

[47:22] Okay, because I guess been

[47:27] road diets been

[47:29] really negative here for several years and so it's concerning to me. In fact, I'm pretty

[47:36] sure both Councilman Jackson and the mayor in their newsletters years ago said that

[47:42] they were both against road diets and so it's a little concerning that we as a city put

[47:49] that in an application for this money knowing what the thoughts were of the residents and even

[47:58] and some of the politicians in the city.

[48:00] Yes, so road dites have always been caused

[48:03] a strong response on both sides.

[48:05] The newsletters were not pretty, too,

[48:07] so I don't know what was in those or not

[48:08] in those that don't know to the state

[48:10] for the most part what's in any newsletters,

[48:12] but the form-based code would be where council would have adopted

[48:15] what the land use would be for the city

[48:17] and what staff would go for based on that code

[48:20] to seek additional funding sources to bring forward.

[48:23] Again, with the fact that it doesn't tie council's hands,

[48:25] council's thus to consider where they would like it or not

[48:27] And if the form-based code is a challenge and we need to maybe go back and look at the code and see does it need to be updated to reflect where the council would like us to be at this point in time.

[48:36] Staff just following the guidance they have existing from council for projects and I do this quite often.

[48:40] What are the adopted plans the city has and how can we go and find additional funding sources to lessen the impact on the budget and we have multiple plans.

[48:48] We have a trail plan. We have a parks plan. We have multiple plans that we can use for those and a lot of times when you're looking for grant funding,

[48:53] They look to see that you have a strategy, a plan approach to utilize those funds as part

[48:58] of a larger perspective.

[48:59] And even road diets here, the one on Denton Drive was a better fit.

[49:03] The council went forward with that when it fits what the area is looking for.

[49:07] Still it's part of that plan, but maybe not in this location.

[49:10] So it's really up to the council if the final say, but staff's always going to go look at

[49:14] the plans we have that are adopted.

[49:15] And we try and bring those back ever so often for council to review.

[49:18] But the former base code station area did call for more density on the front, more walkability

[49:23] and then parking in the back to move the traffic right, so as you drive the city you don't see a

[49:26] sea of parked cars, you see the frontages and walkability where people are enjoying the shops,

[49:31] and eventually that causes the area to transform and become more of that downtown destination area.

[49:36] We don't have a true downtown, but the center of commerce essentially where people will do their

[49:41] leisure and recreational shopping in the city. So it's got the transportation components, it's got

[49:45] the right density, it's got the right location, but that's why staff would go for it and these aren't

[49:50] just apply for it now.

[49:52] Usually these take quite a bit of time.

[49:53] Shane, how long ago did you apply for this?

[49:55] I think sustainability made the application

[49:58] for public works at the time.

[50:00] I think it was 2018 or 2019, as far as when the application was submitted. So long term. So it's not as quick as that. So it's, that's where you'd see the current situation in the city. Obviously come a long way since then. So it's how we are here today. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Shane. That's all council. Neil Richard. I want to clarify the comment that council member made the road diet that was rode out a few years ago.

[50:29] I was vehemently against because that actually stretched all the way from marsh lane to 35.

[50:36] There was far more of the city that was being reviewed for road diet back then than what

[50:42] we're looking at now.

[50:44] I was very much against that.

[50:46] Back then, particularly the conversation was around people going east to west in our city.

[50:51] Those are the folks that live in our city.

[50:52] Folks going north and south, they're coming through our city.

[50:55] We had speeding issues, traffic issues, or a lot of issues that road doubt was supposed

[51:01] to address, but I didn't feel like anyone, well, the valley viewing road diet all the

[51:07] way from the east side of the city to the west side of the city was going to add sidewalks

[51:12] so that people could walk that entire distance.

[51:16] I don't know anybody would be interested in walking from marsh lane to four corners.

[51:20] There's just not anything at four corners to attract.

[51:22] for traffic to walk that far in typical Texas weather.

[51:27] So I was very much against it back then, you're correct.

[51:32] Last year or two years ago, council approved this PD-86.

[51:39] Part of the reason for that was to effectively for the first time

[51:44] create a downtown area for farmer's branch.

[51:46] Four corners was a nice central location, but it wasn't downtown.

[51:50] town. We also were focused on connecting west side to the rest of the

[51:56] French branch because Mercer Crossing folks want to feel more connected. It's

[52:00] downright dangerous to go under 35 today or even before the construction started

[52:05] was dangerous to get from one side of the city to the other side. So that

[52:09] connectivity was very important and this overlay, this style of downtown urban

[52:19] shopping, retail, mixture, environment was approved. What was it last year? Was it two years ago?

[52:31] One's in more of that first tile over there. 2021. Okay. So, so it was a few years ago. That,

[52:40] that whole plan was intended to create the downtown area around Mustang Station. No.

[52:46] So Shane, one of the simulations are pretty impressive while they're incorporating signal

[52:56] timing for trains.

[52:58] The one thing they are missing is traffic coming in off of Dennis, Nestle, out of the

[53:03] Rose Garden.

[53:04] A few of those side streets, which there's not a lot, it's also got traffic exiting under

[53:09] those as well.

[53:10] It's missing both directions.

[53:11] Right.

[53:11] Right. Both directions. We've got a, you know, Dennis Lane, there's a school there. So every morning, every afternoon, that particular red light on value, and I can't stand. It takes forever to get through there.

[53:25] And then, of course, on the weekends, you have a lot of sports events and such or good that create more traffic. But what I found more interesting than the simulations themselves was the average daily traffic

[53:39] from 2009 has actually gone down for all of these streets to 2019. Looks like

[53:50] the studies are whatever five years. Yeah, some more second new data from

[53:54] textile.

[53:57] So at B Street, that's ground zero for Mustang station. That one had the

[54:07] the most dramatic drop in traffic since 2009.

[54:13] 2019, Mustang Station was there under construction.

[54:19] There was, what state was Mustang Station in 2019?

[54:24] Where businesses up and running was the Cedar Creek Brewery

[54:28] going was?

[54:29] Oh, I thought that didn't launch until 21.

[54:31] Was it 21?

[54:33] Okay.

[54:33] 20, right?

[54:36] 20, right? It launched great when COVID hit. Okay. Yeah, it's just coming off.

[54:41] I believe it'll need to be project for me. So that's my world. I'm just trying to understand

[54:45] that intersection because again, that's that's Mustang station central there. Today, back

[54:53] then, it might have been construction central. And that might have had some impact on the

[55:00] Average daily traffic, but still even compared to what the study said, and if you go back a couple of sides to the study, who conducted that, that, uh, ADT study? Is that Kim Lee Horne as well? This is a paper from the federal highway authority. Okay. So federal highway authority says, says, uh, you can go from four to three lanes. If you're anything under 23,000 ADT, but a sweet spot is 15 to 17, right?

[55:29] And so if we go back, we are, that's why I put that blue line in for 23,000

[55:36] essential over traffic. We're at or below that sweet spot range. And so even

[55:43] with what's projected to be a 1.7% increase in traffic, I'd venture to say

[55:50] it's going to be higher than that. There's still a lot of capacity for a

[55:56] three lane that review lane. So again, this is going from four lanes, two lanes

[56:00] in each direction to one lane each. One lane. Well, you got one each side and

[56:05] a turn line. But that's, that's what the study says, a four to three. In this

[56:11] case, you go from six to four. Right. Okay. Yeah. So the study, the data is

[56:17] still showing, there's plenty of capacity for this. Right? Am I reading it

[56:22] correctly.

[56:25] The

[56:28] majority of the feedback I've gotten from, you know, from residents that's

[56:37] been negative, well, all of it. It doesn't have data. It's perceptions based on experience,

[56:46] observations, people that drive these lanes every day. Today, it's a big open wound because

[56:53] there's a ton of construction there that causes daily frustrations. And Season just explained,

[57:01] you know, how that's going to be relieved quite a bit.

[57:06] But I think that this plan is a very

[57:09] forward-looking, you know, future-thinking, downtown area, enhanced, farmer's branch,

[57:17] of plan and all the work that prior councils went into to come up with this plan, I still

[57:27] support. I think it's still a really good plan for that area. Again, categorically,

[57:34] road diet across the city, I wouldn't support. There's too much north-south traffic that's

[57:41] going to get bummed up and just cause our residents a lot ahead. But I think for the downtown

[57:47] on crease of downtown purposes and I still support this.

[57:51] Thank you.

[57:54] So, I'd just like to have, enter a couple of comments

[57:58] if it could and with a couple of questions also.

[58:02] So, is there any efficiency to be achieved in doing

[58:10] the, this road project, if the council decides

[58:13] to move forward with the City of Farmer Branch Road

[58:16] project in conjunction with what's going on with TechStock and the I-35 project. Are there?

[58:25] When we set through the discussions with Michael Morris at the time, we looked at 35 of the

[58:30] betterments. We had didn't drive in proposed and value view. You could separate them all out.

[58:37] That means once you know 35, then we would start on didn't drive, then after that and start on value,

[58:40] you should not your timeframe but add another 3 to 5 years on top of that for us to do our work.

[58:47] The thought is let's just do them all once get them all over with and then

[58:51] walk away. Leave this area alone leave it as it is but make it make it bad to do everything

[58:58] at once and then be done with not string this out for the residents. So it would shorten the pain

[59:03] period to do it that way, okay. And again, the R outlay of $131,000 for this, we're basically

[59:19] getting almost 27 times, a 27X ROI from the state and federal government to assist with

[59:28] this, correct?

[59:29] I'm going to trust your mouth and I'll be a calculator, but I'm going to trust you.

[59:33] Okay.

[59:36] So,

[59:39] this plays into the comprehensive plan, correct?

[59:44] That was presented to the city, just most recently.

[59:48] Yes, my name is Daniel Cyril, I'm okay with anything you want to add, but yes, as my last thing is, speak loud.

[59:53] I have to be Director of Planning, B.

[59:57] Conference of Planning was adopted last year in corporate.

[1:00:04] And that was the document adopted in 2021, which does call for the second connectedly in this area. Do you want to clarify just one thing about the PDD state expansion that was mentioned? I35 was adopted in 2021. One of the recommendations I came out of that was to rezone PDD 6 and expanded the west side of 35. And that was approved in April 2023. So I think that's a good question.

[1:00:29] Okay.

[1:00:33] And within that was also the form based code. That was mentioned. Yes. Okay.

[1:00:43] And

[1:00:44] that plan, that comprehensive plan was put together based on many citizen input meetings

[1:00:53] that were held, correct?

[1:00:55] It was about a year and a half process of public engagement.

[1:00:59] In the I-35 plan itself had public engagement process,

[1:01:02] that was mostly virtual.

[1:01:06] And then after that, it went to planning and zoning

[1:01:09] and then came to council.

[1:01:11] Yes, okay.

[1:01:14] So, Councilman Jackson said something very important

[1:01:17] and I want to reiterate that because when the whole

[1:01:20] quote, road die in quote, idea came up, I was dead set against it. Now, unfortunately,

[1:01:31] Mayor Dye who brought that term up and put it forth, didn't do himself any favors

[1:01:39] because he said at the time that he wanted to look at value, Josie Lane, web chapel, midway

[1:01:48] and spring valley. Well my own logic tells me that if you live in a city and

[1:01:57] you have a growing population, you don't necessarily take lanes of traffic away.

[1:02:02] That equation doesn't seem to balance. And so that's why I was against it at

[1:02:06] the time. But I served on a council with John Norwood, Mike Baumgarner,

[1:02:13] Bronson-Blaxton, Crystal-Rentana, and they were all for the project and in some

[1:02:21] form or fashion but not a total road diet of the city. So fast forward here we

[1:02:28] are today. I'm not picking on eBay, but Councilman Roman has put out at least two

[1:02:36] emails where he's blaming me for the road diet and saying the road diet is back

[1:02:41] and that's I think one is not fair it's misleading and while he cited me in

[1:02:53] both of those I explain why I was on board with this plan for this very

[1:03:01] specific and isolated area of our city because of what we were trying to do which

[1:03:07] was to create a downtown area, and do that, taking advantage of some of this grant funding

[1:03:18] that was available.

[1:03:22] I realize that traffic is congested because of all of the construction

[1:03:28] right now, but we have our text.represented who's telling us that the plan is not to build

[1:03:35] more congestion, it's going to be to relieve and hopefully eliminate all of this congestion

[1:03:43] when they're finished. And so, and that's what I've been reporting back to the council for

[1:03:51] the past year because don't I ask you almost every month that the mobility commission,

[1:03:58] coalition meetings, are we on schedule? How are we coming?

[1:04:01] every single month. Yes. Thank you. So I'm trying to stay on top of it and then report back if there's

[1:04:08] anything unforeseen that's come up. You know, one of the things that the city has already done,

[1:04:16] we are going to create, and we've already taken the steps to create additional foot traffic

[1:04:23] in this area by virtue of one bringing in more restaurants at Mustang Station by number

[1:04:32] two by building these star's multi-sport complex. And people will be walking around the area

[1:04:42] trying to find places to eat and relax when they're not over there. So there is going to be increased

[1:04:49] position activity in that area. And so we need, I believe, we need to have.

[1:05:02] Accessible walkability. Sidewalks that can accommodate folks. Sidewalks that will keep people safe, and perhaps slowing traffic down in this isolated area is not a bad thing. And yes, I did say that one of the goals was to slow traffic down. So we would get people to notice the businesses that we have here in farmers branch. They're not just flying by and

[1:05:30] And passing everything up, I think we invested to bring these businesses here and to help

[1:05:38] build this area with our partner western securities.

[1:05:43] Why don't we sort of finish that and make sure that those that are here and those that

[1:05:49] are to come become successful or remain successful.

[1:05:55] So,

[1:06:02] again, I'm

[1:06:07] trying to think back on previous discussion, and I just, I don't know why some have voted no, and it's your prerogative, but I would like to know and understand because either you know something I don't or I'm hearing something that you're not hearing.

[1:06:32] And I know just as being, I've been a salesperson my whole life and so when I'm making a presentation my goal is to get you to yes.

[1:06:42] And if I haven't done that then I haven't communicated my message effectively or efficiently.

[1:06:49] And so I'd like to know what is it that either you all understand that's different from what I'm hearing.

[1:07:00] just so we can try to get on the same page.

[1:07:06] Roger, you didn't speak.

[1:07:08] I wanted to hear everybody else because I've been thinking a lot about this.

[1:07:14] And I do have a question about the form-based code. Does the form-based code dictate

[1:07:20] or heavily rely or in any way on a road diet or narrowing of roads or streets?

[1:07:27] So the one-based code has a

[1:07:32] valid view. The idea is when any site along that roadway

[1:07:37] would develop, they go into that street section as close as possible. The valid view is such

[1:07:43] a large road that, you know, we recently had the thick of all the development that we

[1:07:47] know valid view. We did not have the narrow road to two lanes in front of that site. It's

[1:07:51] not feasible. It's not required from a form-based code perspective. It is required.

[1:08:14] And then, with respect to the comprehensive plan I've been hearing multiple times, we spent a lot of time and effort on that.

[1:08:22] That is it, it's my understanding is that a guideline or is that an ordinance?

[1:08:29] The comprehensive plan is more of a guideline, pdf6 is an ordinance.

[1:08:35] So the comprehensive plan is more of a guideline, so and I'm hearing comments that were this

[1:08:46] This would hopefully eliminate traffic congestion once it's completed.

[1:08:54] But at the same time, I'm hearing that we're expecting increases in population, increases

[1:09:00] in apartments, more restaurants, the Star Center.

[1:09:05] It just seems to me there's going to be more activity overall.

[1:09:10] And so my thoughts are, I was okay, and I like the idea of the Dennis Drive sort of

[1:09:19] road diet perspective, and I was hoping we could see how that turns out, almost as if

[1:09:23] like a trial basis to see how that turns out.

[1:09:26] I'm not real comfortable with a major thoroughfare through our city such as Valley View, reducing

[1:09:33] that on the hope of eliminating traffic congestion, given the apartments that are going to be put

[1:09:40] up right in that area right off there, just don't see how that traffic reduction would

[1:09:47] occur with the increased population in the apartment.

[1:09:50] So I don't know right now, I'm not really on board with this project right now, so in this

[1:09:54] particular location, that's my thoughts.

[1:09:58] Thank you.

[1:10:00] I want to go back, revisit something that the mayor said in regards to the the starry center, the sports complex, the multi-families, all that. One of our goals here, well, specifically, was to bring more businesses to the downtown area. And if it doesn't have that walkability, you know, if someone, um, is that, you know, you're with the kids.

[1:10:30] at the sports center. They're in a tournament or whatever. You get time off between games.

[1:10:34] You want to go grab something to eat. You want it? Whatever the case may be. If you don't have

[1:10:38] the walkability or the stores there, the shops there to go visit, you're going to jump in your car,

[1:10:46] you're going to drive someplace and go elsewhere. Maybe it's everything. Maybe it's someplace else.

[1:10:51] If you have, if you've set an environment that is attractive to bring more businesses

[1:10:59] in more shops, in a breakfast place, whatever it's going to be, a deli.

[1:11:09] You're going to get those businesses there.

[1:11:13] A lot of the feedback I got from folks, residents.

[1:11:17] Number one was making it difficult to get under I-35.

[1:11:25] Well, the problem is going to be resolved.

[1:11:28] So, that's not something that's going to sever the west side from the east side.

[1:11:36] I actually got a few different emails with people who were talking, they wanted the increase

[1:11:45] walk-up, walk-up, walk-ability, specifically stating they had an experience going, they were

[1:11:52] over at, I think it was Roots, they were going to the Firehouse Theater afterwards.

[1:11:59] And they're like, we're taking our lives in our hands to cross those roads to get over

[1:12:04] there.

[1:12:06] So if we want to draw people to that area and we're not looking just to draw people to

[1:12:10] Mustang Station, we're looking to build businesses up and down that road, even west of I-35,

[1:12:23] to draw that in, you know, build a tax base, you know, people want more, you know, things

[1:12:30] drawn there.

[1:12:33] It's, if you don't make it conducive to those businesses, they're not going to come

[1:12:40] and you're not going to have that environment, that atmosphere, there's one other point

[1:12:47] ahead.

[1:12:47] Oh,

[1:12:51] and the thing is with the complexes, the apartments, it's not like all these people

[1:12:56] are going to be jumping in their cars at the same exact time and driving on the roads.

[1:13:02] You might increase flow a little bit, but it's not going to be as massive as people

[1:13:10] picture it.

[1:13:12] Well, the other thing, the feedback I got was, well, if it's more difficult for me to get

[1:13:17] to the, uh, talking about west, uh, west side folks over to the east side. Well, I'm just

[1:13:23] going to go to Irving. Well, if you don't have the businesses and the shops, you know,

[1:13:27] we're going to go to four corners and go to big lots. Um, what, what is the draw to come

[1:13:32] into that area? You know, yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head. Uh,

[1:13:43] we have to give

[1:13:44] people a reason to come to deeper into the city.

[1:13:49] Joseph and Valley View, being referred to as the fourth

[1:13:53] corners area, is deeper into the city.

[1:13:55] But when you don't have the shopping that people expect or

[1:14:03] used to, and there's no reason, when you don't have the housing

[1:14:10] around it, which would support the new investment in the area, that presents a problem, you

[1:14:20] know.

[1:14:20] And so, that's why all of this plays together, the proposed townhomes that would go in

[1:14:26] there at Josie and Rohyd Creek, it's not just one little area, it all plays together, it's

[1:14:35] so interconnected and that's where the council really needs to step up and have a vision

[1:14:43] for what they want for this city for moving it forward understand that there's some

[1:14:49] people who live here don't want anything to change I've heard it loud and clear.

[1:14:54] They want the city to be the same as 1968.

[1:14:58] The problem with that is

[1:15:00] Is, if your city doesn't grow, it's going to die. And much of this investment, whether it be from tax

[1:15:09] dot, or our own investment from our taxpayers, will be for not.

[1:15:17] So that's part of your

[1:15:20] responsibilities. Council person is to help move the city forward, positive direction.

[1:15:24] that doesn't mean selling out the city.

[1:15:28] It's managed growth, yes sir.

[1:15:32] I have another question for Shane.

[1:15:34] Shane, can you go back a couple of sides

[1:15:36] to the valley of Elaine reconfigured that one right there?

[1:15:39] The second tile benefits, improved safety, reduced speed,

[1:15:42] better pedestrian experience.

[1:15:45] Was that as a result of the study?

[1:15:48] Yes, so John's Hopkins did a study recently

[1:15:49] about looking at multiple.

[1:15:52] He has 1100 different road diets.

[1:15:53] And again, if that narrow speed range of 30 to 35 miles per hour, they did say by reducing

[1:15:58] lanes, which is if it comes out the road diet, we see reduced traffic accidents and not

[1:16:04] intersections.

[1:16:05] Okay.

[1:16:06] All right.

[1:16:07] Is that one just our hope or?

[1:16:09] No.

[1:16:09] This is proven by studies of people that study this kind of stuff and so I

[1:16:20] hope this passes

[1:16:21] is because the work that's been done to plan this area and it didn't start with this

[1:16:28] particular template. It was a much different template many years ago and it's evolved

[1:16:34] into what we have today and all of that is based on data and studies, simulations like

[1:16:44] we saw tonight. And I've heard zero data from anyone that says this is going to be causing

[1:16:54] more traffic and more problems and speeding is going to be dangerous. I've seen no data

[1:17:00] that supports that theory.

[1:17:04] So if you're opposing this, I'm asking you to please provide the data

[1:17:11] It says that this is going to be the opposite of what the data says it's going to be up here.

[1:17:19] I have something to share on the data.

[1:17:37] I think the study you're talking about is that one titled a national investigation on the impacts of lane width and traffic safety.

[1:17:45] So I've read through that study.

[1:17:47] And one of the things that I did find interesting was the extrapolation that you're creating from that study and applying it to farmer's branch.

[1:17:55] When we look at the data, the data is based off of information that was collected among I think it's seven different cities across the country and those include Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Miami, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

[1:18:12] None of those cities they think are comparable to farmers branch. And so I think when we look at the data, it's difficult to interpret that and be able to speculate as to its applicability to a city that's a suburban area.

[1:18:24] They all have suburbs that are very similar to but the study did not look at the suburbs

[1:18:31] They don't know that specifically at those areas. We don't know. I do know because I read the study

[1:18:37] And one of the other things that I keep hearing is capacity is we look at the data that you've pulled from

[1:18:43] Remind me of the authority that does that. It was a text that now there was another one the traffic

[1:18:49] I used all the as presented appears from text on okay

[1:18:53] So as we're talking about the capacity, I think we're equivocating the word capacity to no traffic

[1:19:02] jam just because we have capacity to have 5,000 vehicles doesn't mean that we can have 5,000

[1:19:09] vehicles and not encounter inconveniences to travel throughout the city. So I just want to

[1:19:16] clarify that because it sounded like we were saying as long as we're within that capacity,

[1:19:20] we're not going to have any traffic issues,

[1:19:22] but I don't necessarily think that that's true.

[1:19:24] And my experience with that is when the Dart

[1:19:27] signals malfunction, it doesn't matter what we have,

[1:19:29] it's built up there.

[1:19:31] That's why we, I mean,

[1:19:35] it depends

[1:19:36] on what your level of comfort is.

[1:19:38] If you want to get through, you don't

[1:19:39] wait more and more on light cycle, that's our mess field.

[1:19:42] That's your expectation, and we got to change a lot of roads.

[1:19:45] We've got to make sure everything matches that your vision.

[1:19:47] We need to be conveyed that information.

[1:19:50] But it's up to you all to decide what is except the level, we can tell you what we think

[1:19:53] it is.

[1:19:54] In this case, we're discussing things like this, what is my comfort level, what do I want?

[1:19:59] My experience to be...

[1:20:00] I'm through farmers branch. I don't want to wait more than one light cycle to all staff. I make sure you're planning for accordingly going forward. And I think for me, I thought it was acceptable how it was before. And then, of course, the construction started and I get that things are going to happen throughout that process, but I had no issues with it as it was before. And then the other thing is I look at the simulation and I'm sorry, maybe I'm missing something. I didn't really see a really significant difference when I looked at both of them. And one of the questions that I had was particularly about the data.

[1:20:29] and what assumptions for use, part of what it is that I do for a living is create financial

[1:20:34] plans in multiple different iterations to stress test someone's viability and they're

[1:20:39] pursuing their financial independence.

[1:20:41] And one of the issues that I encounter sometimes when creating simulations is what assumptions

[1:20:47] are being used to produce that.

[1:20:48] Any type of model, let's put you on a garbage and garbage out, right?

[1:20:52] And so I understand that you have some assumptions in place that are fairly general, but there

[1:20:58] There aren't any, you didn't have the time to put together and examine the very specific

[1:21:03] nuanced situations of farmer's branch.

[1:21:06] How many cars do we anticipate in the apartment complex that's coming on Denton Drive?

[1:21:12] How much traffic do we anticipate coming from the multi-sports complex?

[1:21:16] How many apartments and how many vehicles are going to be attributed to other types of multi-family

[1:21:20] development that's not just happening in that immediate area but also on the western portion

[1:21:25] of the city?

[1:21:25] And there's also other uncertain factors that we're not accounting for.

[1:21:29] What happens when this council is done and there's another council that comes and they have other grant ideas to bring in either apartments or big attractions that draw people to the city.

[1:21:39] There's other uncertain factors that we're not accounting for that also give me concern.

[1:21:44] So as I'm looking at the data, I have a big problem with the reliability of it is that's kind of where I'm at.

[1:21:50] And I get that you're selling a point.

[1:21:54] I've worked at financial planning enough to know when I'm being sold something.

[1:21:57] And I listen very carefully and very analytically to the information that's being presented.

[1:22:04] And I just, that's my thing.

[1:22:06] I have issues with the reliability of the information that's being presented to be able to give me

[1:22:11] a great deal of confidence in knowing that what you're presenting and what you're saying

[1:22:15] is going to be with a very high likelihood happening.

[1:22:19] I'm going to do traffic counts if we put those little strips across the road and mainly

[1:22:23] count how many vehicles, how many axles drive over that.

[1:22:26] So those traffic count data is collected by tech stuff.

[1:22:31] And yeah, one of the things we don't have, which you just brought up, Councilman Roman,

[1:22:35] training movements.

[1:22:36] That applies to the apartments too, when they come out of the apartment, which we're really

[1:22:39] going to go.

[1:22:40] Yeah, I can make that projection too, to have this discussion.

[1:22:43] Are they going to go southbound and Denton, maybe northbound and Denton, maybe go to Denton,

[1:22:46] go down value view and get a 935 all turning movements. That is a detailed analysis. You are

[1:22:53] absolutely correct. But I'll tell you this is publicly available. This is what all cities

[1:22:57] use to build their bottles based off of is the text.data. They don't have their own software

[1:23:02] and do their own counts. We hired a specific engineering firm to not just have

[1:23:08] general data that's available to the public but to have a more very specific

[1:23:16] simulation of what the impacts are to our community to farmers branch to that specific

[1:23:21] area.

[1:23:22] I wanted to use something everybody had available and it was readily available.

[1:23:25] So we agreed on this data set from TechStyle.

[1:23:27] Our own software that we recently purchased shows that data is actually much less than this.

[1:23:31] I didn't want to use that because you can't see the data.

[1:23:34] You can go out and find all this data on TechStyle's website.

[1:23:36] So that's why I want to make sure it's something everybody could go look at and say, we'll

[1:23:39] shame cherry pick that data.

[1:23:41] This is all about the thing you take to the agenda.

[1:23:44] Not too necessarily.

[1:23:45] We're just going to want people to think about the reliability of the data that's being presented.

[1:23:50] But the other one is a text stop.

[1:23:51] They do a planning chart for what do we need to do with our roads.

[1:23:54] And so that growth, I've talked about this 1.7 to 2% growth.

[1:23:57] That was from the text stop planning portion of their website.

[1:24:01] But they actually use traffic accounts readily available if you want to go find them.

[1:24:07] Good points. Thank you.

[1:24:12] So, for those reasons, I just want to make sure that I'm clear and provide very clear

[1:24:16] direction to you as I'm looking at it, my opinion hasn't changed from last time.

[1:24:22] I don't think this is a project that I'd be in support of at this time.

[1:24:26] Thank you.

[1:24:28] Go ahead.

[1:24:29] That was it.

[1:24:32] Councillor, we do need to provide some direction staff on how to proceed from here.

[1:24:48] So can I just kind of make a summative sure seems to me the two things we're

[1:24:54] looking at is if you want to get from Luna

[1:25:00] Agenda to Josie as quickly as possible. Don't do this.

[1:25:06] If we want to create a downtown area that people are going to want to visit, spend time at, spend money at draw businesses to, this is something we should definitely consider.

[1:25:22] I think that's what it is. I mean, there's, there's from, from the residents that I've spoken to and many of them have a representative capacity. They've been elected to specific roles to represent it.

[1:25:33] with people, both out in the MRC crossing community,

[1:25:36] but also in the immediate area that's being impacted.

[1:25:41] And they had their different reasons

[1:25:43] for not being in support of it, but they weren't.

[1:25:46] And when you have a downtown area,

[1:25:49] it attracts the issues that they've mentioned.

[1:25:51] They've talked about parking, they've talked about congestion,

[1:25:53] they've talked about homelessness, they've talked about crime.

[1:25:55] There's all different kinds of reasons,

[1:25:57] but if I can, based off of the studies that I've read,

[1:26:00] that type of densities that those are the issues that people encounter and so I think maybe

[1:26:06] more so people are against the downtown concept. Well that would be contrary to what was said during

[1:26:17] all the public hearings the year and a half of gathering data and coming up with the comprehensive

[1:26:25] of plan they indicated that that is what they wanted and that's what they wanted to see the city

[1:26:32] move to and we had one at least one of those visioning meetings in the Mercer Crossing area in

[1:26:40] their amenity center so again their voices have been heard they were part of this process just like

[1:26:50] folks from other parts of the city and that's what I couldn't I don't know how

[1:26:57] many people total hundreds participated in all that in total but it's not just

[1:27:07] like they were a select few

[1:27:11] Mayor

[1:27:20] one of the question remind me in April 23

[1:27:25] We approved the form-based code.

[1:27:30] What was in April 23?

[1:27:31] So, the form-based code P-D-U-D-6 was then in place since nearly 2000s.

[1:27:37] In 2021, the I-35 corridor study was adopted.

[1:27:42] One of the recommendations was that that form-based code expand less

[1:27:45] to create a cohesive looking field on both sides of I-35.

[1:27:50] Seven in 2023, that expansion was approved.

[1:27:53] Okay, it was the expansion west to expand what we already had in mind, sorry, have an

[1:28:01] allergies here, that sort of centralized or that downtown like area go across 35 so that

[1:28:09] we could optically bring the west side closer to the center part of the former branch.

[1:28:16] The West Side has some unique characteristics and they co-edit accommodated for that, but the general look and feel the type of street scathing that a pedestrian focus was carried over.

[1:28:27] Okay. Wow. Councilman Roman, I'll remind you, you supported that. In fact, you've been a big proponent of the West Side feels like you're part of Valley Ranch.

[1:28:37] And we need to do more to develop Farmer's Branch to bring that West Side closer in, and that was a big part of that discussion last year.

[1:28:45] I know I was remembering something last year,

[1:28:47] I just wasn't recounting it exactly.

[1:28:50] That was a big part of that discussion.

[1:28:52] I remember being part of the I-35 corridor study

[1:28:57] and making sure that that Valley View 35 intersection

[1:29:01] is gonna be bright.

[1:29:03] It's gonna have a little bit different lane angles

[1:29:06] for people turning on the service roads.

[1:29:09] It's gonna have some nice farmers branch,

[1:29:13] I don't know the tree and some indentions and some lighting, white or sidewalks, protection

[1:29:19] for pedestrian traffic and bikes, all of that was done to try and bring west side in closer

[1:29:27] to downtown, downtown Farmer's Branch.

[1:29:31] And now we're talking about years of public engagement, multiple city councils, now multiple

[1:29:40] mayors that have kind of worked this down and we've got our signature on it now with

[1:29:46] the Mustang station area and the Valley View project where data is saying it, go back

[1:29:52] to that other side, it uses speeds, it's safer and we're going to sit here and predict

[1:30:00] That will, but more apartments is going to actually not result in that. I just, again, if we want to rely on data, and our data is not going to be perfect. We don't have a crystal ball. And we can't precisely predict what people moving into more apartments or more homes or businesses are going to do, but we've done the best that we can. And in some respects, this council is taking some risks.

[1:30:29] That farmer's branch is going to grow in a way that this council has understood from its residents, it wants to grow.

[1:30:37] And all of a sudden there's a messaging out there that we've got all these apartments, all this traffic coming and this is going to be a complete bust.

[1:30:45] I don't buy it.

[1:30:47] So I remember that specific discussion at your referencing and I do remember supporting it.

[1:30:52] And I actually reviewed that presentation and anticipated that coming up tonight.

[1:30:55] And actually, what I specifically said was, I am in support of this, in so far it doesn't create issues with people moving from the west side to the east side.

[1:31:08] If we're talking about lane reductions, it's not something that I can support.

[1:31:12] And in fact, immediately after making that statement, you said, I believe I support Councilman Roman in that belief as well.

[1:31:18] So and the data says it's going to be safer. It's going to slow traffic down and everybody knows that we want to slow traffic down in Farmer's branch.

[1:31:27] So I can't have both, but we're also we're also talking about we're forgetting you're you're overlooking the the impact of making this a downtown area.

[1:31:38] I mean, we already have issues with homeless people coming because of the dark station and I think this is just going to promulgate that issue that we're having.

[1:31:47] Even more so, I mean, look at downtown Dallas.

[1:31:50] Based off of the research that I've read, I mean, I read it whenever we were talking about the Tom Kusik thing.

[1:31:56] I read about the density and the impact on a community such as this.

[1:32:00] You just said based on downtown Dallas, right?

[1:32:02] Not based off of downtown Dallas.

[1:32:03] Well, that's what you just said.

[1:32:04] You said based on downtown Dallas.

[1:32:06] But you also said, I'm going to go Dallas, New York, Philly.

[1:32:08] You didn't say that.

[1:32:09] You said, look at downtown Dallas.

[1:32:11] The problems at downtown Dallas have your predicting farmer's branch is going to have those same problems.

[1:32:16] because we want to move from four lanes to three.

[1:32:19] I based that off of a research study that was conducted,

[1:32:22] and I said, look at Dallas, which is,

[1:32:24] if you look at the abbreviations of Dart,

[1:32:28] it's Dallas area of research transit.

[1:32:31] So that's to transit throughout the Dallas area.

[1:32:35] And so if this becomes a downtown area,

[1:32:39] is it feasible?

[1:32:40] Is it possible that people are going to come

[1:32:42] that are homeless and they're going to more,

[1:32:44] be more prevalence in the community?

[1:32:46] I don't know, but we do have that issue now.

[1:32:48] That's what I'm saying.

[1:32:49] We do.

[1:32:50] We do.

[1:32:51] But that shouldn't stop us from growing

[1:32:53] and pushing farmers branch forward progressively.

[1:32:56] I think.

[1:32:56] But we also, as we're talking about the data you mentioned

[1:33:03] something earlier, we've had since 2020 this has been going

[1:33:08] on and all of a sudden we now want to do simulation when we've

[1:33:11] had similar concerns going all the way back to 2020.

[1:33:13] We've had time to put together a simulation to have the engineers come in.

[1:33:19] I'm not looking for an exact data point of exactly what's going to happen, but I think

[1:33:23] we're far from it.

[1:33:26] That's just the feeling I get.

[1:33:27] That's my personal opinion there.

[1:33:28] That's not based off of any research study or anything, but I just don't feel comfortable.

[1:33:34] Can I ask,

[1:33:37] depending if we decide not to move forward, what happens with the grant, all

[1:33:46] the...

[1:33:48] I'll call him and tell him that we're not going to do this.

[1:33:50] They take the money from us and try and hopefully keep it in the area, redistributed to another city as a project that should be ready to go.

[1:33:56] The biggest concern at the regional level I have is there's an infighting at the state level.

[1:34:02] And the governor wanted to take funding from the Dallas area to another part of the state.

[1:34:05] And so he's trying hard not to lose any of the transportation funds.

[1:34:08] That's a bigger picture discussion, really, probably more than what you need to know.

[1:34:12] But what they would do at the local level is take the money and reply to another project that's ready to go.

[1:34:16] I don't know,

[1:34:21] because not everybody can say that all the people in there are supposed to kind of unweighting listed now, well, thank you.

[1:34:26] Then I guess I'll phrase this like this, I'd like to see the city take the bold step to move forward and make the improvements for the betterment of our community, but that's up to you all to side, so you need to express your preferences to whether we move forward or not, because staff needs to know what to do.

[1:34:49] we can't keep holding them in my vote.

[1:34:52] I don't support the road diet.

[1:34:56] Do you support the creation of a downtown area?

[1:35:00] I think for, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Mr. Attorney, the discussion today is limited specifically to discussing the road diet proposal and not anything other than that. So I think staff is looking for specific direction on that. Is that right? We're discussing a favor, but yeah. Okay. So certainly not in favor of the road diet.

[1:35:24] I'm in favor of it. I think it's going to have a positive impact on the downtown area over the long term.

[1:35:31] and it's worth the short-term inconvenience.

[1:35:36] Do you get?

[1:35:37] I'm not in favor of it.

[1:35:39] I'm supportive.

[1:35:43] So I'm in favor of a downtown area, but I don't like this particular location.

[1:35:49] I'd hope to get the Dennis Lane-Dennis Road diet together and see how that produces before

[1:35:58] We're doing such a major impact to a thoroughfare in our city, so I know the timing doesn't

[1:36:05] work out well, but at this time, I'm not in favor of that.

[1:36:11] One clarification.

[1:36:12] Denton driver, Dennis.

[1:36:13] I mean, Dennis, I'm sorry.

[1:36:14] I'm sorry.

[1:36:16] You're doing a road diet over there where they're building the apartments with retail on the

[1:36:19] bottom.

[1:36:20] I remember being, Denton, I remember being on planning and zoning when we had multi-families

[1:36:26] coming in and we were trying to advocate for more retail because we heard a lot during

[1:36:30] the comprehensive zoning meetings about does the dire by the residents to have more

[1:36:34] retail. And we had advocated to see if the multi-family developers would put retail

[1:36:39] on the lower portions but there was a big problem with that. They weren't able to lease

[1:36:44] that in from that those locations so they went to just use additional apartments as opposed

[1:36:49] to retail. So that's sticking in my mind and that's why I'm hoping this other location

[1:36:56] and that we're doing the road diet already to see how that retail develops.

[1:37:01] And that proves out to be a very good retail area, then we can consider something else with.

[1:37:08] Right now, I just see this as a major thoroughfare in our city, and

[1:37:11] I reluctant to go forward at this point.

[1:37:16] Very good.

[1:37:17] You have what you need.

[1:37:18] Yes.

[1:37:19] Thank you.

[1:37:20] All right.

[1:37:20] Okay. Thank you, Shane. Thank you all for your discussion.

[1:37:30] Okay. Very quickly, I would like to go to C3, which is receiving an update from Wohen Health

[1:37:36] Clinic,

[1:37:41] and we will have a hard stuff at about 555.

[1:37:48] So,

[1:37:54] Mayor and Council, Jennifer Rainey, Assistant to the City Manager. So today we're receiving

[1:37:59] a update from a woven Health Jackie Rikowski, a woven Health Executive Director, is joining

[1:38:05] us again.

[1:38:06] She provided their update in June, I believe it's June 4th.

[1:38:09] As a reminder, Jackie is newer to the organization, so she may not have the exact details, but

[1:38:15] she's done a lot of research together as much as possible.

[1:38:19] So a quick reminder, the contract with woven Health Services is via social services funding

[1:38:23] agreement in 2023 that was authorized at $50,000 per year for a five-year period, and

[1:38:29] then funding is contingent upon annual budget appropriation, and that's where we're at now.

[1:38:33] So during that, the 27th meeting, Mayor Lynn along with council members, Mayor Pro Tem Roman,

[1:38:39] council members Neal Reed and Jackson requested an additional update be provided, and Jackie

[1:38:44] Rikowski is here now to present that.

[1:38:52] Thank you.

[1:38:53] Thank you, Mayor and council, for giving me an opportunity to come back and talk more about

[1:38:58] Wilbur Health and our services here and hopefully answer some questions that you may have.

[1:39:05] So I've shortened the presentation and kind of tried to narrow in on some of the questions

[1:39:10] that you had but I did want to talk about, again, about all the patient services that we

[1:39:14] provide besides primary care, preventative care, women's health.

[1:39:18] We have specialists, dermatology and neurology.

[1:39:21] We last year, as I had mentioned, we did not have mental health counseling as much because

[1:39:27] we did not have a counselor for most of the year.

[1:39:28] We do have one that started about two months ago and she, the increase in patients that

[1:39:34] were seen from mental health counseling has really taken off and that is of no cost

[1:39:39] to the patient.

[1:39:40] That is through a grant that I received to grant, actually.

[1:39:44] We do nutrition counseling again.

[1:39:46] That is at no cost to the patient.

[1:39:48] It is through grant funding that we receive through the American Heart Association.

[1:39:52] We have deeply discounted labs for my understanding a year ago, a lab core which used to provide

[1:39:58] Labs at no cost.

[1:40:00] Last to our clinic has rescinded that and no longer provides free labs. And that's across the board for other nonprofit clinics as well. And then we recently partnered with Dallas Medical Center to provide discounted occupational and physical therapy for our patients. And some in-kind services are the eye exams and glasses at no cost, again, to the patient from SLOR foundation, mammograms through Methodist Hospital, cervical cancer screenings and prostate

[1:40:29] state cancer screening, so partnerships with Mon Creek Cancer Institute, all in kind.

[1:40:35] Our new patients, what we did do is for new patients as part of your $30 contribution.

[1:40:42] We are providing your annual labs at no cost to you.

[1:40:45] We are picking that up through the $30 donation and funding that we receive.

[1:40:51] And the medications that we get through our partners like Direct Relief, AmeriCorps and

[1:40:56] in a map international, we are really building our inventory up of things like insolent that

[1:41:01] our patients need or high blood pressure medications so that our patients, you know, are not, you

[1:41:06] know, especially if they're newly diabetic or newly diagnosed with hypertension, we're

[1:41:11] not just sending them to the pharmacy to pay for a medication where they may not have the

[1:41:15] money, we will give them that medication at no cost to them so they can try it out first

[1:41:20] before we even prescribe it.

[1:41:21] And then we reach out to like St. Vincent's to Paul to continue providing that for free if I wasn't able to continue getting it because sometimes these organizations don't always have it but we try to stock up

[1:41:35] so I wanted to talk about our current statistics statistics from January to June compared to last year and so last year we did have more at this time more total visits 691 compared to 651 this year but we do have more unique patients this year.

[1:41:53] year that has grown. We have about 20 new patients this year. And my thing that I had said

[1:42:00] last time was that I really wanted to do more outreach to the community. And as being

[1:42:05] somebody new, I'm going to meet with businesses, going to meet at the apartment complexes. I've

[1:42:10] been visiting churches to let them know. I actually wanted to go visit the branch church,

[1:42:15] which is down the road. And they said they had no idea we were there. We've been there

[1:42:18] for over 30 years, I was really surprised,

[1:42:21] which really made me think we need to do our work

[1:42:24] and get out in the community more,

[1:42:25] even though we do attend a lot of events.

[1:42:28] And then so those are some of the other numbers here.

[1:42:30] Again, behavioral health is a little bit lower,

[1:42:32] but again that is increasing.

[1:42:37] So the first six months of the year,

[1:42:40] the value of services for 2024 is 121,000 approximately.

[1:42:46] Patient visits for 2023 was 196 overall.

[1:42:49] All we are forecasting approximately 1,300 patient visits as that grows.

[1:42:54] One of the things I'm doing is, again, like I recently went out to a business to talk

[1:42:59] to him and his employees about one, we'll talk about the drug primary membership, but about

[1:43:05] providing care to his patients.

[1:43:07] And from that one visit at a dry cleaning service, I registered nine new patients.

[1:43:12] And so that is what I am trying to do in Pharma's branch as well.

[1:43:16] So we've been getting 50,000.

[1:43:18] It's about 4% of our overall budget.

[1:43:21] And those also are the costs that our contributions, that patients pay.

[1:43:25] And just so you're aware, if a patient can't pay that, I don't like turning anybody away.

[1:43:30] So, you know, they know the staff, if somebody has an issue paying, come talk to me.

[1:43:35] Can we refer them to MetroCrest Services, who also helps to pay for certain clients health

[1:43:41] care if they qualify for their services?

[1:43:45] So these are just some demographics of our patients that you can see.

[1:43:54] A little bit more, again, as I mentioned, females are the highest portion of our demographics,

[1:43:59] and the average patient age is 48.

[1:44:04] So the role of an healthcare plan, this is one of the questions you had had.

[1:44:08] So when I had started last year sometime, the board was talking about ways on

[1:44:13] if we don't get funding from some places, which is something that has happened with the clinic.

[1:44:18] How can we remain sustainable, keep bringing in that revenue stream into the clinic to keep

[1:44:24] the clinic open and keep providing as many services that we can provide.

[1:44:29] And so they came up with this membership model, this is the doctors on our board.

[1:44:33] And this is something it's non-traditional healthcare.

[1:44:37] So it provides unlimited care for either members or employers to buy for their employees,

[1:44:44] sort of like a health insurance.

[1:44:46] It doesn't include hospitalization and that catastrophic portion of health care that you might pay for,

[1:44:51] but it does include all the services that we provide is in that membership model.

[1:44:57] And the goal for us is to not just

[1:45:00] These individual members who come, or patients who come to our clinic a lot, you know, this would really help them to pay a membership fee monthly, but also to provide an option for businesses to provide some sort of healthcare to their employees. And you can see everything that's covered. And again, this also as their members, it also means that they get to see any partnerships that we have with other providers, like I'm reaching out to other specialists, like cardiology,

[1:45:30] and podiatrist is a new one that will probably be coming on board with us and they will have access to all of those services as well.

[1:45:41] I also wanted to show you this is the breakdown of the fees. It's based on age. Obviously the younger you are, the less it costs because the utilization of services will be less.

[1:45:51] For employers, it's based on how many employees that you have and you can see those numbers.

[1:45:56] I will tell you, if someone wants to ask, we currently have 65 individual members signed

[1:46:04] up as part of the health care plan.

[1:46:08] As part of that, there are 15 that we had signed up through our current patients.

[1:46:15] 50 City of CAHPEL residents were enrolled through funding by the City of CAHPEL.

[1:46:26] And this is something that, you know, is even new to me, I've not heard of this before.

[1:46:32] I'll be honest with you, I used to run another clinic in McKinney, and we didn't know about this.

[1:46:35] But from my understanding, the delivery system reform incentive payment,

[1:46:40] which is a Medicaid waiver, the last several years, the clinic was getting substantial funding

[1:46:46] between $300,000 and $500,000 a year to provide health care for uninsured patients.

[1:46:53] And we had to meet certain metrics and patient outcomes to get this funding.

[1:46:58] And it was provided through funding that UT Southwestern received through a federal program,

[1:47:04] and then provided to us this funding ended.

[1:47:08] And our last I guess payment that we received was for a fiscal year 2023.

[1:47:13] So that no longer exists for us.

[1:47:16] So it is a large amount of money that we are no longer getting.

[1:47:19] As we all know, Texas didn't expand Medicaid.

[1:47:21] So there is, there wasn't that other option for us to receive that funding through the state or anything.

[1:47:30] And so this just talks a little bit about the impact of loss of funding.

[1:47:34] You know, there's always obviously our service delivery and do we have to limit services to our patients.

[1:47:41] I never want to do that and I promise you I will find every way possible to continue all the services and adding more services to our patients.

[1:47:50] because I understand you know that it is difficult for health care. I don't want our patients to end up in the ER for their normal chronic disease management.

[1:47:59] And I don't think anybody wants that.

[1:48:01] So I am looking for other ways. That's why I reach out to our in-kind partners to get medical supplies. So there's an organization in Dallas called Faith in Action.

[1:48:11] You can go there, it's a partner with Baylor, and clinics and nonprofits can go there.

[1:48:16] They give you a cart and you can basically shop for medical supplies, medications, everything

[1:48:22] that they have at no cost to the clinic.

[1:48:24] And so there are ways that I am going about to reduce our expenses as well, but making sure

[1:48:32] that our patients are still getting the same care.

[1:48:38] And again, I am doing some outreach, of course, into the City of Farmers Branch.

[1:48:42] I have someone else helping me do that.

[1:48:44] We are attending back to school events.

[1:48:46] We are going out wherever we can table out events.

[1:48:49] I'm doing that as well, reaching out to businesses,

[1:48:53] apartment complexes, churches in the community, wherever I need to,

[1:48:57] to get the word out about our services.

[1:48:59] We're also reaching out to patients from Farmers Branch,

[1:49:02] or residents from Farmers Branch, who are no longer patients

[1:49:05] and trying to find out why are you no longer a patient?

[1:49:08] From my understanding, some of that has to do with the cost of labs

[1:49:11] that we're no longer free, but we're letting them know that, as you come back in

[1:49:16] re-enroll and re-establish as a patient, we will pick up your annual labs, which

[1:49:20] is the biggest portion of lab costs for our patients. And then throughout the

[1:49:24] year, if you're diabetic, it has heavily discounted the labs for our patients.

[1:49:31] I'll take any questions you might have. Thank you. So I'd just like to say, I think our

[1:49:38] farmer's branch is a pretty diverse community and we certainly have members of

[1:49:42] of our community who are in need, whether they get those services through Wobun or Metcrest

[1:49:48] services, excuse me, or some other entities.

[1:49:53] We know that there's a knee and I'm...

[1:50:00] I staunchly believe, reducing healthcare services and options and availability to our residents is a huge disservice to the community. And certainly

[1:50:19] this issue is compounded by the sources of funding that you once had that are not there now. Correct. Yes. And I would like to see the council see fit to.

[1:50:33] to leave you at what we had originally in the budget for the coming year and not add

[1:50:45] to your growing aggravation of trying to maintain services to our community.

[1:50:52] And I want, you know, the council to know and everyone that I am constantly looking for

[1:50:56] new grants.

[1:50:57] I spend a great deal of my time writing grants to other foundations.

[1:51:02] We have received funding from some in particular for a mental health counseling that is new to the clinic and I, you know, I'm striving to continuing to reach out to other funders, but certainly we still need your support.

[1:51:17] Council, any questions, comments? Yes, sir.

[1:51:21] Thank you mayor. Thank you. You've got four minutes.

[1:51:23] I know you've been on the job for a short time.

[1:51:27] You got a big road ahead of you to do what needs to be done

[1:51:32] and a lot of some of the loss of funding and such.

[1:51:34] If you can go back to the statistics January through June,

[1:51:39] I just want to get some clarity for those that are watching,

[1:51:47] I think you've just used the arrows on the keyboard

[1:51:49] you might be able to move a little faster.

[1:51:51] Okay.

[1:51:52] There you go.

[1:51:53] Perfect. Thank you. Total visits, 651 to 600 from 691. That's not just

[1:52:00] Farmer's Branch. That's. That is Farmer's Branch. It's only Farmer's Branch. Yes. We have about 2300 unique

[1:52:06] patients and about 90-100 patient visits a year for all of our patients. Okay. So. And that is the unique

[1:52:13] patients. That's the utilization that they're using. Okay. So if we fast forward a couple more slides

[1:52:20] to the patient demographics based on the race.

[1:52:24] That is all cities.

[1:52:27] This year is all cities.

[1:52:28] This year is all cities.

[1:52:30] Just overall.

[1:52:31] If about half of our population of Farmer's Branch is of Hispanic origin, I find it odd

[1:52:37] that 34% would be Asian and 51%.

[1:52:40] Yeah, no, this is all.

[1:52:41] It's other than such a small part would be considered Mexican-American Indian, which is

[1:52:45] where I assume Hispanics are characterized.

[1:52:51] I brought this up the last time you were here.

[1:52:56] I think there's a huge opportunity to promote woven.

[1:52:59] You said it yourself, farmers branched the branched church

[1:53:03] right down the street from where y'all've been.

[1:53:06] For many many years didn't even know that y'all were doing it.

[1:53:09] There's another nonprofit that operates across the street

[1:53:11] that's all very well aware of that.

[1:53:13] But I would just encourage you to continue that work

[1:53:18] that you're doing to get woven's name out there.

[1:53:20] It's been around a long time, but I just think there's an untapped visibility there.

[1:53:30] And part of that is being where we're located, you know, inside Dallas Medical Center

[1:53:35] there in the medical office building.

[1:53:37] And I have worked with the hospital.

[1:53:40] So they already have a direct referral form that they have.

[1:53:44] That if any patient comes into the emergency room or they're being discharged

[1:53:48] and they don't have health insurance they can send them to us to be their

[1:53:51] medical home but yes we can't have a sign out there we don't have you know

[1:53:56] what I would love to have is a storefront clinic so people can see us and can

[1:54:01] find us easily but that's you know not the case we don't pay rent there it's hard

[1:54:06] to give that up I would you know it's but it is a goal of mine to to be out of

[1:54:11] there and to to have a place that you know people can just walk into and and see

[1:54:15] You write out on the street, you know, so.

[1:54:18] Okay, last question.

[1:54:20] You mentioned that Kapel provides some funding.

[1:54:24] We've provided some funding.

[1:54:25] There are other cities, Dallas, Irving,

[1:54:28] maybe Richard's people come from many different places.

[1:54:33] Do other cities, other than Kapel, and Farmers Plays?

[1:54:36] Carolton, you guys, Kapel, Addison, all provide funding.

[1:54:42] The city of Dallas does not.

[1:54:44] They're funding all pretty much goes to Parkland from I do want to meet with them

[1:54:50] and that is something that I'm working on but I believe in the past they the

[1:54:54] former ED has tried to meet with them and get funding and Dallas we have a large

[1:55:01] I am talking, trying to talk to other cities. I was just at a Richardson Chamber of Commerce event because I do want us to, you know, we see patients from all over, as far as Fort Worth, as far as Anna, Lewisville, all these areas. And my goal is to go to all these cities and ask them for funding. I think that, I think the demographics, based on geographic, would be very important there. My fear would be is that we're subsidizing a lot of Dallas folks.

[1:55:28] It's kind of, you know, the humanity, humanity and we want to be there.

[1:55:32] Sure.

[1:55:33] But, you know, Dallas, I think needs to be good to have that conversation.

[1:55:39] Yeah.

[1:55:39] So, just so, you know, everyone also, when we get funding from a city or from a grant

[1:55:44] that might be restricted, it is calculated out just for a farmer's branch.

[1:55:50] Okay.

[1:55:51] Yeah.

[1:55:51] I'm sorry.

[1:55:52] I've got to step in and in this now because we have to get down for a meeting to start

[1:55:57] at six o'clock.

[1:55:57] So we will resume study session after regular council meeting.

[1:56:19] So we will go downstairs right now.

[1:56:22] Please plan on being at the council chambers at 615 now.

[1:56:26] You can stop off in the city manager's office to grab a quick bite.

[1:56:31] It's in the kitchen right here.

[1:56:33] Are we going to come in?

[1:57:16] Good evening and welcome everybody to the City of Farmers Branch Council meeting for Tuesday, July 16th.

[1:57:24] Our indication and pledges this evening will be led by Councilman Baird.

[1:57:31] Please rise.

[1:57:37] Please pray with me.

[1:57:39] I have really Father, we're thankful for this time.

[1:57:42] You've given us tonight to gather and we pray that you would guide our actions and

[1:57:47] our decisions.

[1:57:49] We're thankful for our city and for our city staff and for our residents.

[1:57:55] And we pray that your hand would be honest through this evening.

[1:57:59] In your name, we pray.

[1:58:00] Amen.

[1:58:01] And now the pledges, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all.

[1:58:19] Now the Texas pledge, honor of the Texas flag, I pledge allegiance to the Texas, one state under God, one in individuals.

[1:58:35] So we're going to be just a little bit out of order here this evening at the beginning.

[1:58:40] We want to finish one item of study session which is our discussion and update from woven

[1:58:49] health clinic.

[1:58:50] We were right in the middle of that when we had to break.

[1:58:52] So I'm going to ask the woven director to come up to the podium maybe just reintroduce

[1:58:58] yourself and then we will resume with council questioning before we get to our regular agenda.

[1:59:09] Hello again. I'm Jackie Rekowski, the executive director of woven health clinic.

[1:59:13] Okay. Thank you, Jackie, and we left off. I believe Councilman Roman had some questions

[1:59:19] that he wanted to ask.

[1:59:21] Yeah, and I think we visited over the break a little bit about it. Now I think you guys are

[1:59:25] doing a great job at providing a service to our community. One thing that did stand out

[1:59:31] to me as we were discussing the budget is I recall last year that the former executive

[1:59:36] director had mentioned something about that the request was going to be $50,000 for the

[1:59:41] last fiscal year and then or 50,000 for the last fiscal year but then it would have revert

[1:59:45] back to the original 25.

[1:59:48] And so I just was kind of looking for a little bit clarity about that.

[1:59:51] I didn't know if something had changed or if maybe we just didn't remember that the amount

[1:59:55] was supposed to go back.

[1:59:58] because I just started in January.

[2:00:00] In January, I really don't have an answer for that or what was discussed. I looked at the agreement, same way I'm sure everybody reviewed it. I would have thought the agreement would have been written that way, which would have made sense for better understanding for everybody. I did talk to my board president and treasurer and vice president. They did all assume it was a continuation over five years of that 50,000. I wish I had a better answer.

[2:00:28] but that's it for me doing it.

[2:00:32] Very good, very good, thank you.

[2:00:35] Anybody else have, Councilor Niel?

[2:00:38] Yeah, thank you, Jackie.

[2:00:39] I want to thank you and your staff

[2:00:41] for all that you do for our city and our residents,

[2:00:43] especially so grateful for all of that.

[2:00:46] And I was happy to hear about the membership program

[2:00:52] that you've mentioned.

[2:00:54] I think the last presentation last year to council

[2:00:56] or was the initiation of a membership program.

[2:01:00] And to that point, I think upstairs you mentioned

[2:01:03] there was about 65 at this point.

[2:01:06] Do you have any targets to grow that in any way

[2:01:09] and if so is that something you could share?

[2:01:12] Yes, so obviously it's in the initial stages.

[2:01:16] It's going to take time to build this program up.

[2:01:19] Mainly it is something new for this area

[2:01:21] when we do call on businesses.

[2:01:23] A lot of people don't even know what direct primary care is.

[2:01:27] Some have questions about where does that, what if I want to provide that catastrophic portion for healthcare?

[2:01:34] So we are talking to other insurance brokerages that actually come alongside DPC that provide that hospitalization care.

[2:01:42] So I know it's a small target this year, but going forward, the goal is really to increase our patients by 2000.

[2:01:51] Okay. Okay. Which is to be part of the membership.

[2:01:55] And a question for City Manager Ben. The current agreement is $50,000 per year for five

[2:02:02] years. That is correct. Yes.

[2:02:04] Okay. Because I realize that there has been some budget discussions around reducing that.

[2:02:10] And I'd just like to go on record and say I'm not in favor any reduction. Anything we might

[2:02:15] need a little more. But at this point, I'm quite satisfied with what they do for residents.

[2:02:19] And these structures that we have agreed for the next several years.

[2:02:24] Thank you.

[2:02:29] All right, Jackie, thank you so much for sticking with us tonight and we'll look forward to working with you in the future.

[2:02:38] Okay, thank you so much.

[2:02:39] All right,

[2:02:47] so now we'll be our ceremonial items and we'll

[2:02:55] begin the regular portion of our city council meeting.

[2:03:19] Okay, so I just had rotator surgery, so don't anybody try to shake my right hand, please.

[2:03:24] But I didn't want my sling on for any pictures.

[2:03:28] Our next item is G1 recognition of the Farmers Branch Fire Department, 133 and Medic 133

[2:03:35] for their actions in saving the life of a cardiac arrest victim on May 20, 2024.

[2:03:44] Guys, come on down.

[2:03:45] So,

[2:03:59] let me just give you a background here on May 20th, 24th, 11.49 p.m., the Farmers

[2:04:04] Management Department Quint 133 and Medical 133 were dispatched to a person needing

[2:04:09] lift assistance.

[2:04:11] Upon arrival, the crew found the patient on the floor with no obvious signs of distress.

[2:04:17] The crew helped the patient to their chair.

[2:04:19] By that time, the patient stated their arm was becoming itchy.

[2:04:23] Within moments, the patient became unresponsive, pulseless, and ebner,

[2:04:33] okay, not breathing.

[2:04:36] Crews immediately moved the patient onto the stretcher and started CPR.

[2:04:41] While conducting CPR, the patient was hooked up to a live-packed 15 monitor.

[2:04:46] The patient showed to be in pulseless electrical activity.

[2:04:52] Approximately two minutes later, the patient began to grunt in pain and began to breathe.

[2:04:58] CPR was stopped and the life...

[2:05:00] The PAC-15 monitor showed that the patient had a normal sinus rhythm. The patient was then moved to the ambulance for a transport. While in route to medical city, lost clean as the patient's complete vitals were taken, and it was shown that the patient had low blood pressure. An IV was established, and medication was given to increased blood pressure. Throughout the transport, the patient was alert and responsive. Later that week, the person, the patient, was discharged from the hospital.

[2:05:30] This would not be possible without the medical direction from Dr.

[2:05:35] Northing, the best EMS, field training officers, medical simulation program, and the EMS captain.

[2:05:44] And now I'd like Chief Ladmer to finish off on telling us the rest of the story.

[2:05:53] Thank you, Mayor, thank you, Council.

[2:05:54] And we have our representatives from Medical City of Los Clans who will have them come up here up here in just a minute.

[2:06:00] But I just want to go ahead and address the Mayor and Council and City of Magic.

[2:06:03] Thank you all very much for your continued support, that you show the Fire Department.

[2:06:06] You continue to show the Fire Department.

[2:06:08] And I just thank you for the assistance as well to support you to show us.

[2:06:11] But most importantly to these guys right here, our guys and girls out here in the Fire Department.

[2:06:15] As you hear, we're up here often with lifesaving awards.

[2:06:19] and it's because of the like we said the full field training officers, the

[2:06:23] train programs we have, our leadership, and our EMS captain, the operations chief,

[2:06:27] and just if you would just give them round of applause for all they do for us.

[2:06:38] At

[2:06:39] this time I'd like to invite our representatives from Medical City,

[2:06:42] Laws Cleaners.

[2:06:45] Hello everybody. My name is Travis Hardy, I'm the EMS coordinator

[2:06:48] of Medical City Laws Cleaners. Today with me, I got our COO, Marcus Jackson, and Josh

[2:06:52] Clonsettino, our trauma program manager. So only about 10% of cardiac arrest that

[2:06:58] that happen out of hospital actually end up surviving.

[2:07:00] So we like to celebrate it when it happens.

[2:07:03] It takes a whole team to help save people's lives.

[2:07:05] It starts with the call tickers, the dispatchers,

[2:07:07] all the way to the EMS.

[2:07:09] No one would ever respond to the call

[2:07:10] without the dispatchers appropriately

[2:07:12] activating the correct units

[2:07:13] and getting into the correct location in the right scene.

[2:07:16] And the recognition for someone in distress

[2:07:18] is vital for our EMS jobs.

[2:07:20] So a simple lift assist turned different very fast.

[2:07:23] It was just helping somebody get off

[2:07:25] floor and turn it into something different fast.

[2:07:27] So due to the quick actions of farmers branched fire department personnel, we as a hospital

[2:07:31] were fortunate enough to be able to part of saving the patient's life.

[2:07:34] When they immediately able to survive to the hospital hospital, we quickly performed

[2:07:38] multiple tests and imaging after being monitored in the ER for a few hours.

[2:07:42] The patient was moved to our ICU for continued test.

[2:07:45] After an echo, it was determined that as well as the allergic reaction that caused the cardiac

[2:07:48] arrest, the patient suffered an in-stimmy, which is a type of heart attack.

[2:07:53] One of the major blood vessels supplied to the heart was 95% to no, it was basically clogged

[2:07:59] up.

[2:07:59] So we were able to perform a surgery put in a stint in place and it ended up being discharged

[2:08:05] with zero percent stenosis.

[2:08:08] The patient was continuously monitored for the rest of the day and discharged the next morning

[2:08:12] with instructions with the follow-up of the cardiologist.

[2:08:14] So everyone involved in caring for the patient deserves recognition from the call-takers, dispatchers,

[2:08:19] fire department personnel and all the hospital staff.

[2:08:21] So we want to thank the thank farmers Brett City Council and the fire department for allowing us to be here to give our thanks to all those who played a part in saving the patient's life.

[2:08:29] And one of the special things we do and we continue what we'll continue to do it as we have a plaque that has the fire department personnel, all the crew members that are involved in the call that are on it.

[2:08:39] So Chief, that's for you all.

[2:08:41] And we also have some certifications that will head out to the guys afterwards.

[2:08:45] Thank you all.

[2:09:01] That's it for us once again. Thank you all very much for the support and once again. Thank you guys for coming tonight

[2:09:06] Thank y'all for all y'all do for our community. We appreciate you

[2:10:40] So next is item G2, which is a presentation of a proclamation to the James A. Smith Masonic

[2:10:47] Lodge, number 395, for their 150th anniversary. John, come on down.

[2:10:55] So the James A. Smith

[2:10:56] Mathematonic Law has been in Farmers Ranch since 1898.

[2:11:01] In that time, the law just served the city through various community activities, such

[2:11:06] as the adoption of Blair Elementary School and the support of the city's first responders.

[2:11:14] Pardon me.

[2:11:16] We honor their involvement and commitment to the citizens of Farmers Ranch and present

[2:11:22] this proclamation to honor their 150th anniversary.

[2:11:30] So, this is a proclamation from the Office of the Mayor, whereas on June 6th, 1874, James A. Smith,

[2:11:38] Masonic Lodge, number 395, was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Texas and was named in honor

[2:11:43] of Reverend James A. Smith, and whereas Reverend James A. Smith was the first minister to establish a

[2:11:50] Methodist Church in Dallas County, and whereas the Lodge moved to farmers branch of Texas in 1898

[2:11:58] to promote the principal tenants of brotherly love, relief, and truth.

[2:12:04] And whereas the James A. Smith Lodge continues to serve the City of Farmers Branch through community involvement,

[2:12:10] the adoption of Blair Elementary School and their support of those who serve our city as first responders.

[2:12:17] And whereas the James A. Smith Lodge celebrated their 150th anniversary on June 6th, 2024.

[2:12:23] Now, therefore, I, Terry Lynn, Mayor of City of Farmers Branch, do hereby honor the James A. Smith,

[2:12:28] Masonic Lodge, number 395, for their 150th anniversary and celebrate their achievements.

[2:12:36] Thank you,

[2:12:43] Mr. Mayor of Council and senior manager, it's indeed a milestone for the

[2:12:49] The attorney of James A. Smith was Sonic Lodge to receive this proclamation.

[2:12:54] It's been a growth, learning, and an impact that we have in our community.

[2:13:02] We look forward to many more generations of impact for our city.

[2:13:08] Thank you very much.

[2:13:09] Thank you.

[2:14:10] Next up is G3, item G3, presentation of the Employee of the Month Award for the month

[2:14:16] of June to add in almond eras of the Parks and Recreation Department.

[2:14:32] So tonight, we're here to recognize Adam, Youth Program Leader, Parks and Recreations

[2:14:40] as our employee of the month for the month of June.

[2:14:42] Adam has demonstrated a remarkable ability to connect with the community

[2:14:46] fostering a positive environment.

[2:14:49] His proactive approach and willingness to go above and beyond have

[2:14:53] significantly contributed to the success of the programs he oversees

[2:14:57] at the Park and Recreation Department.

[2:15:00] Adam's ability to work with the teen fire academy is just one example of how he continually strives to make a positive impact. He's comfortable with displaying his leadership skills, with other departments, and doesn't hesitate to help others. So I just want to say, Adam, thank you. I feel like we're very lucky to have you. Would you like to say something?

[2:15:25] Good evening. My name is Oshima Nielis Recreation Manager, and also Adam's direct supervisor.

[2:15:30] Adam received employee of the month for June due to his exemplary work with team fire academy.

[2:15:36] But this accomplishment only confirms for us as a full-time staff.

[2:15:41] All that we've seen in Adams, since he started the team leadership program.

[2:15:45] This Adams first summer with us and has been a great start from the beginning.

[2:15:49] His passion for making connections with the teams and his fellow team members has seen every day.

[2:15:54] His work ethic and willing us to be a team player is outstanding.

[2:15:57] We are excited to continue to have Adam and our team for years to come.

[2:16:01] Thank you.

[2:16:13] First, I want to thank my Lord Xavier for always watching out for me being there for me.

[2:16:19] I also want to thank my family for being my biggest support system.

[2:16:25] Then I want to thank my team at the Parks and Recreation Department for giving me this opportunity.

[2:16:33] Thank you.

[2:16:38] So we have this beautiful employee of the month award, and I hope you'll display it proudly at your house.

[2:16:45] In my college door.

[2:16:46] The next

[2:17:17] step is item G for a presentation of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Texas Chapter Award for the John F. Burke Nature Preserve, presented to the city by Dunway and Associates.

[2:17:29] So

[2:17:36] the Texas American Society of Landscape Architects Awards identifies and recognizes outstanding

[2:17:43] examples of recent and past works by Texas Landscape Architects and acknowledges their contributions

[2:17:49] to the quality of life for all citizens of Texas.

[2:17:53] Awards are given at an annual Texas ASLA conference each year and are judged by volunteers from

[2:18:00] other states.

[2:18:01] The awards program includes projects in various categories, including design constructed projects,

[2:18:07] design unrealized projects, planning and analysis, communication, international and classic.

[2:18:16] The John F. Burton Nature Preserve was submitted with the Design Constructed Projects category,

[2:18:21] which recognizes site-specific landscape architecture and urban design works for built projects.

[2:18:28] At the jury's discretion, the John F. Burt Nature Preserve was selected to receive an award

[2:18:33] of merit.

[2:18:35] Located at the crossroads of a major freeway interchange and the Trinity River Corridor,

[2:18:41] the John F. Burt Nature Preserve is a precious remnant serving as a guarded home to a diverse

[2:18:46] community of wildlife and vegetation.

[2:18:50] The property encompasses repairing forests, meadows, and wetlands, an unexpected ecosystem

[2:18:56] system within a highly urbanized area.

[2:19:00] The master plan incorporates successful parking upgrades, composting, resting facilities,

[2:19:08] and amphitheater and plaster.

[2:19:11] Wetland boardwalks and gateway pedestrian bridge, river outlooks, wildlife blinds, and

[2:19:19] an international hierarchy of both impervious and natural surface trails that connect to the regional

[2:19:28] hiking bike trail network. So I'm going to have our park director come up and say a few words.

[2:19:36] Robert Diaz, parks director, I just want to thank we've got two representatives with Dunway here,

[2:19:41] Elizabeth Malkorath and Aaron Law. Aaron was actually the principal designer on this project and

[2:19:46] And I also want to kind of call out some of our park staff, Ross Pittman, one of our

[2:19:50] park managers in Mark Moffitt, our Park 2% are actually ones at a conference and ones

[2:19:55] on vacation, but they were very, both those guys are instrumental in making this project

[2:19:59] happen.

[2:20:00] All the park staff and the contracts that we had to make this possible and it's a real gym and we appreciate them done away putness on for us. So, I don't know if you guys have anything. Did you want to say or? Okay, my name is Elizabeth. I'm a principal at done away and got to go on the journey of master planning the John Burke nature preserve all the way from the start to now that we've got phase one on the ground and you guys are right. It is a gym.

[2:20:31] in this community and we're proud to have gone to our professional organization and received an award that would honor the design and honor the property.

[2:20:41] And we're happy to share it with the city because working alongside city staff as designers sometimes that's easy and sometimes it's not just to be honest.

[2:20:52] But it was very easy with this community everyone loves the property and hopefully everyone is enjoying it now that phase one is on the ground.

[2:21:00] So we're happy to share the award with the city

[2:21:35] Next

[2:21:52] up for our items of community interest

[2:21:56] Thank you, Mayor items of community interest for this council meeting of July 16th, 2023

[2:22:01] Mark your calendars for October 18th and 19th at the Farmers Branch Historical Park because the 15th annual Blooming Bluegrass Festival returns

[2:22:10] Here to Farmers Branch and tickets are on sale now.

[2:22:14] The Del McCurray Band and Rhonda Vincent and the Rage will head

[2:22:18] line.

[2:22:18] You can buy those tickets online at bloomandbluegrass.com.

[2:22:22] Since the Memorial Day Storm, our city sanitation crews have cleaned up

[2:22:27] nearly 12,000 cubic yards of brush.

[2:22:31] Now to put that in perspective, that equates to more than six months

[2:22:34] of debris collected in about six weeks.

[2:22:38] The Green Grabber crews have worked long hours to get it done.

[2:22:42] Now some piles in city parks have yet to be collected.

[2:22:45] They will soon be gathered as well.

[2:22:47] If you have any questions about bulk and or brush collection in your neighborhood, you

[2:22:52] can call 972-919-2613.

[2:22:56] Are you curious about city projects?

[2:23:00] Well, we have a new interactive city projects dashboard on our website with the latest improvements

[2:23:05] in the city.

[2:23:06] It's interactive with details including the project's budget scope and department context and I believe we have an image of it now

[2:23:14] We can there it is. So this is an idea of what you'll see it is interactive

[2:23:18] You can move the map around and pick and choose which details you want to focus on just look for city projects on our website

[2:23:27] That's farmers branch tx.gov

[2:23:30] Have you considered serving the city on a board or commission?

[2:23:33] Well, if not, why not?

[2:23:36] Each board or commission plays a critical role in public policy development and review.

[2:23:41] The city specifically right now needs volunteers on the parks, the library, sustainability,

[2:23:48] and our zoning boards.

[2:23:49] Please consider for more information or to apply visit fbboards.com or you can call us at 9-7-2-9-19-25-15.

[2:24:01] Also, Christmas Tea is a longstanding holiday tradition here in the Farmer's Branch Historical

[2:24:05] Park, and those tickets are about to go on sale beginning Monday, August 12th.

[2:24:11] They are very popular.

[2:24:13] Each tea service features live music, delicious treats, Christmas decor, and, of course, tea.

[2:24:19] This year they will be December 7th and 14th with sittings at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. reservations

[2:24:26] locations can be made by calling 972-406-0184.

[2:24:32] The Barney Wood Dog Park will remain closed through Monday, August 12th to allow our

[2:24:37] park staff to re-sod the area.

[2:24:40] We apologize for the delay, but that sod will need time to take root.

[2:24:45] Also as many residents know, a West Nile virus has been detected in another mosquito trap

[2:24:51] here in Farmer's Branch, so the city will initiate spraying for two nights this week in area

[2:24:57] four and that's the Pebble Beach area.

[2:25:00] And those nights will be Wednesday and Thursday nights after 10 p.m. And by the way, we also have

[2:25:07] mosquito repellent and larvicide dunks available right here at City Hall. Does the green

[2:25:12] space behind your backyard or fence look like a jungle? Well, if so, we need your help.

[2:25:18] That grassy, unpaved lane or area is called an easement. And it should be maintained just

[2:25:25] like a front or back yard. Grass, weeds and brush must be trimmed. There are many reasons

[2:25:30] including reducing or improving drainage and reducing mosquito populations. For more

[2:25:35] information, you can call the city at 9-7-2-919-3131. Actually, I think that should be 9-7-2-2-4-7-3131.

[2:25:45] Yeah, that's correct. So that's 9-7-2-2-4-7-3131 or use the FPTX Connect app. The overlook

[2:25:54] Look at the John F. Burke Nature Preserve is closed right now for repair due to some erosion caused by the recent heavy rains.

[2:26:01] All other areas of our wonderful nature preserve are still open, however visitors should be mindful of the river's edge.

[2:26:08] And as always, you can sign up for city e-news at farmersbranchtx.gov.

[2:26:14] Mayor.

[2:26:15] Thank you, Mr. Ray.

[2:26:18] I am going to dispense with a report on study session item since we are nowhere near finish

[2:26:29] with that. We will be resuming study session after we finish our regular council meeting

[2:26:33] this evening. So next up will be citizen comments. Please note there is a three minute time limit

[2:26:40] For each person to speak, anyone wishing to speak shall be courteous and cordial, no disparaging or inflammatory remarks directed at any member of city staff, a border permission or city council.

[2:26:55] When you come up to the podium, please state your name and address.

[2:27:00] Again, you will have three minutes when the light turns red and you hear the tone that is the time to stop.

[2:27:07] our first speaker this evening is Nancy Holland.

[2:27:19] Good evening, City Council.

[2:27:20] My name is Nancy Holland.

[2:27:22] I reside at 131 Kerr Trail.

[2:27:25] This is my first time coming to a City Council meeting.

[2:27:27] I've usually watched them from home

[2:27:29] or I think I actually came to the city session last week.

[2:27:32] So thank you for having us.

[2:27:37] Basically, I'm just here to explain that as a mom

[2:27:41] of a little girl, she's about seven or eight.

[2:27:43] I got to be eight in fall.

[2:27:45] I'm very interested in the things that she's able to do.

[2:27:48] And so when I was listening to some of the things

[2:27:50] that were talked about in the study sessions,

[2:27:51] I was concerned about getting rid of events,

[2:27:54] or getting rid of pool hours, or just hours in general.

[2:27:58] And I guess I just wanted to voice my support, first of all,

[2:28:02] for the park's facilities and for those events.

[2:28:05] My daughter's gone to the daddy daughter dance twice now.

[2:28:07] She loves it.

[2:28:08] She has a ball at something that I am very happy

[2:28:12] that she gets to do through the city.

[2:28:15] So I hope we can continue to do that.

[2:28:16] I know it, I think it's not on the chopping block this year,

[2:28:19] but I hope we can continue to voice our support for those things

[2:28:21] in future years as well.

[2:28:27] I also just wanted to, I guess I've noticed that we've kind of

[2:28:32] tried to cut events or kind of combined events.

[2:28:34] And I'd like to see, you know, we're so focused on cutting things.

[2:28:38] I'd like to consider maybe adjusting something,

[2:28:41] maybe that something's not working.

[2:28:42] And instead of just cutting it all together,

[2:28:43] maybe we just find a new way to do it for a little bit less money.

[2:28:47] I think we're doing some of that, but just, I wanted to voice my support for that.

[2:28:52] And then just in general, I would hope that we would focus on maybe cost savings in general

[2:28:58] and not focus on a tencent.

[2:29:00] I think we talked about that for a second, but even the three-saint goal of saving property tax.

[2:29:05] I think that was a little aggressive and some of the ways that we were trying to just cut things

[2:29:08] to meet that number. I would rather pay a little bit more money in my property taxes than have

[2:29:13] some of those services go away, and then in general I would also support the trash fee.

[2:29:19] I think when we talked about that, that seemed like a very common sense thing to do.

[2:29:24] I think it was $5, I guess, on a bill for, I think we said five years and then it would go up.

[2:29:29] So anyway, that seems like a pretty common sense thing to do.

[2:29:32] That's all I have, thank you.

[2:29:33] Thank you so much.

[2:29:36] Our next speaker is Price Trosen,

[2:29:48] good evening neighbors.

[2:29:52] My name is Price Trosen and I live at 2711 Mount View Lane, Farmer's Grand Checks of 752347.

[2:30:00] I am on the sustainability committee, so the issue of the Citizens Collection Center is a big deal to me. I put the numbers down. Over the past fiscal year, the Citizens Collection Center has collected 668 tons of trash bulk to go to the landfill. But they have also collected 40 tons of material in the various

[2:30:29] different materials, recycling, electronics, et cetera, that have been diverted for landfill.

[2:30:34] 6% doesn't seem like a lot, but it adds up over time.

[2:30:38] Also, there's been one ton of food waste diverted to the composting program,

[2:30:42] which is also saving the lifespan of the landfill, of which we know that it is finite resource.

[2:30:54] So it will not go on, eventually it will come time to close it.

[2:30:58] And anything that we can do to lengthen the timeline of the landfill is very important.

[2:31:03] I want to make sure that everybody knows that we want to be known as forward thinking.

[2:31:08] We want to preserve what we have echoing my neighbor's previous to me, her thoughts.

[2:31:16] It is once you cut something, it's gone.

[2:31:18] We know it's really tough to get something back once it's cut.

[2:31:21] So a lot of some of the services, some of the pool, the rec center, the citizens collection center, especially for me, that's very important, just keeping, just keep an eye on the future and not look to the short term for solutions.

[2:31:41] We should consider our kids, we should consider what's good for our kids and maybe their kids.

[2:31:47] I'm only looking one generation down, but I think it's very important to keep things such as the dark funding to help our neighbors and other parts of the DFW area to keep our existence collection center open and also our services parks and some very popular programs in the city of Farmer's Branch.

[2:32:08] I moved here nine years ago, I am not from Texas, but I do love living in farmers branch, and I want to continue to be a place where people can be proud to live.

[2:32:19] That's all.

[2:32:20] Thank you so much.

[2:32:23] Next up is William Kirby.

[2:32:32] William Kirby, 3411, Ridge Oak Way.

[2:32:35] This is with regards to the Valley View Road Reconfiguration.

[2:32:39] It's very easy to say no.

[2:32:41] So, no keeps us out of status quo and is a safe answer where yes, may invite change.

[2:32:46] Whether it's road diets, apartments, or anything during budget season, I'm sure that you hear lots and lots of knows.

[2:32:52] But when we push through the easy know and invite people, tell us what they really do want.

[2:32:56] You get some thoughtful and insightful and productive answers.

[2:32:59] To that end, our reference input from the thorough and involved comprehensive plan process.

[2:33:04] Phase one station, one of the surveys.

[2:33:07] There's a desire among residents for the city to have a more exciting front porch and to offer innovation opportunities

[2:33:13] Within lockable streets connected to accessible parks phase one station two

[2:33:18] This is your love more or less exercise residents the farmers branch went more sit down restaurant options more coffee shops more retail

[2:33:24] Opportunities residents on the west side of I-35 would like better access to not only restaurants and coffee shops

[2:33:30] But also grocery store many residents would like more beautiful gateways to the city as well as a focus on safety with more law enforcement

[2:33:36] and present and traffic control. Phase one, station three, in the right of a way, residents

[2:33:41] will like more trees, bike lanes, wider and interconnected sidewalks, and enhanced public

[2:33:45] spaces and facilities. These comments were specific to the central area,

[2:33:50] improved the safety of streets and sidewalks for walking and biking,

[2:33:53] coordinate the school district for safe routes to schools,

[2:33:56] signals should prioritize non-car traffic for public safety,

[2:33:59] trees and planting buffers between sidewalks and roadways, and a desire to improve

[2:34:03] group, Josie Webb, Chapel and Valley View. You're likely sensing a pattern here, it's

[2:34:07] a bit repetitive. But these comments are many and they are consistent through phase

[2:34:11] one, two and three, the pop-up surveys at SLOR in the international plaza, the technical

[2:34:17] advisory committee, the walk studies and the online surveys. Some comments even go so

[2:34:22] far as to explicitly call for the removal of one travel lane from Valley View specifically.

[2:34:27] I didn't say that, but I agree with it. The road needs to be resurfaced anyway. The sidewalks

[2:34:32] need to be improved anyway, the intersection at value in B Street needs to be redone anyway.

[2:34:38] This project benefits all of those outcomes, and somebody else is offering to pay for most of it.

[2:34:44] In the interest of giving the citizens of farmers branch, what they do want is a pretty straightforward conversation.

[2:34:51] And in this case, the answer is yes.

[2:34:53] Thank you.

[2:34:54] Thank you.

[2:34:56] Next up is Jason Ennis.

[2:35:06] Hello, Jason and us, one, two, five, two, three, Royal Oaks Lane. I'm also here to speak in favor of the Valley View Road Diet. I moved to Farmer's Branch a few years ago, and I've been surprised by the number of times I've told people I've moved to Farmer's Branch, and they don't know where I'm talking about. I think they think I've lived in some Oklahoma suburb. And it's understandable because until recently, there wasn't much here in Farmer's Branch.

[2:35:38] Thankfully, your work is beginning to change that, and that's why it's important to keep the good work of making farmers branch a better place to live and play,

[2:35:46] rather than just to drive through by following through on the Valley View Road Diet.

[2:35:51] People in or near our new downtown or just visiting should be able to park once and cross the street without fear for their safety.

[2:35:59] could, kids should be able to walk to the park or a little league and a

[2:36:04] grandparent should be able to walk to see their kid or the Firehouse Theatre or

[2:36:09] the new restaurant Mustang station without having to play a game of

[2:36:13] Frogger crossing Valley View Lane. If for some reason you really need to

[2:36:17] floor it through Farmers Branch or East West where we have LBJ, the Bush, even

[2:36:23] belt line to do that.

[2:36:25] Every morning, I drive north on 35, I cross over Valley View when I'm crossing north

[2:36:32] at 5060, even rush hour-ish.

[2:36:36] I have three lanes of travel going north on I-35.

[2:36:40] I find it hard to believe that Valley View, not an interstate highway, also needs three lanes

[2:36:46] of traffic.

[2:36:48] I know we're expanding I-35, but I'm zoom in and I have three lanes.

[2:36:52] Loona was recently reduced to two and even one lane of traffic for construction and there

[2:36:59] was no major chaos or traffic problem. I live right there, maybe I had to wait for a

[2:37:06] couple of extra cars, there was no problems. So a slight slowdown for a road diet of 0.3

[2:37:12] miles or just 1,584 feet is not a big issue. I think school zones are often as long.

[2:37:22] And if a road diet does affect the speed of traffic on Valley view that much, let's just be honest.

[2:37:30] The overall effect might be that it slows down people to the actual posted speed limit.

[2:37:37] So no one moves or vacations somewhere for the highways, the streets, and

[2:37:42] speeding traffic through neighborhoods.

[2:37:43] You don't go to New York, in Chicago, Charleston and say, yeah, getting a walk around the shops,

[2:37:48] shops, parks, and sites was okay, but the roads, high winds, terrified pedestrians, that's the real attraction.

[2:37:57] You have a chance to keep building farmers branch for

[2:38:00] the people who live here and not just for the cars speeding through.

[2:38:04] I urge you to do so, thank you.

[2:38:06] Thank you.

[2:38:08] Next speaker is Lynn Chaffin.

[2:38:17] Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Councilman, city manager, thank you for the opportunity.

[2:38:21] My name is Lynn Chaffin.

[2:38:23] I am a resident of 1735 Whittington in Farmer's branch.

[2:38:27] I'm a Mercer Crossing resident.

[2:38:29] And I've listened with interest on the gentleman that has spoken in favor of the

[2:38:34] value reconstruction.

[2:38:37] I come from the other side of it.

[2:38:39] I'm concerned about the very fact that it is so small, a distance, so short a distance

[2:38:46] is going to have people weaving in and out, cutting people off.

[2:38:51] I think it's going to be really a potential for more traffic accidents.

[2:38:57] And I think you're going to have a problem for bikers.

[2:39:01] And that concerns me, I am not in favor of the reconstruction on value,

[2:39:06] though it desperately needs better sidewalks.

[2:39:10] We do know that in order to be more walkable.

[2:39:13] I would like also to speak about some of the things that are being considered on budget

[2:39:18] cuts.

[2:39:19] As you look at woven, as you look at the city clinic, as you look at mosquito testing

[2:39:26] and spraying, mosquitoes have a more elongated cycle now as the climate warms and they're bringing

[2:39:33] us all kinds of even better things like Zika and West Nile and we'll see what's next.

[2:39:40] But I would encourage you to keep that testing and that spraying in the budget.

[2:39:46] Also, as we look at woven, I think you had a very positive response to that presentation.

[2:39:53] I'm sorry I wasn't here for the study session.

[2:39:57] But I think you had a positive feeling.

[2:40:00] Following there, also the city clinic, and some of the funding for the libraries, although

[2:40:06] Farmer's Branch has a relative, the census from 2020 had less than 9% poverty rate in

[2:40:15] Farmer's Branch, and that's not bad at all, actually. But if you look at elementary,

[2:40:21] and that was pre-pandemic, but if you look at our elementary schools, the elementary school

[2:40:26] in Farmer's Branch, that is DISD, has a 98% lower socioeconomic population.

[2:40:33] Carrollton Farmer's Branch schools, they have five elementary schools that have Farmer's Branch addresses.

[2:40:40] One of those has 98 to 88% is for four of them and one of them is 60%.

[2:40:48] I would encourage you to keep those services that help the most vulnerable of our population.

[2:40:56] So, thank you very much for your service, for your consideration.

[2:40:59] I know this is a hard, hard job.

[2:41:02] So thank you all very much, and thank you for the opportunity.

[2:41:05] Thank you.

[2:41:06] Next up is Terry Anderson.

[2:41:15] Terry Anderson, 26, 44, amount to you.

[2:41:19] And this is going to be a little different, but it'll take a minute.

[2:41:24] Mayor and City Council, I am a heterosexual.

[2:41:27] I am one that is naturally inclined toward reproductive pairing.

[2:41:31] I am not proud of it because I had nothing to do with it.

[2:41:35] I was born that way.

[2:41:36] I did not achieve my sexuality.

[2:41:39] Pride without achievement is conceit.

[2:41:41] I would never want my to be known as conceited.

[2:41:44] I would not want my city to create special recognition for people like me.

[2:41:49] My brother is left-handed.

[2:41:51] I understand that he's in a 10% minority.

[2:41:54] He did not achieve left-handedness.

[2:41:56] He was born that way.

[2:41:57] He takes no pride in this somewhat unique trait because that would be conceded.

[2:42:03] He would not want his city to declare special recognition for people like him.

[2:42:09] The alternative sexuality groups have always insisted that sexual status is private and

[2:42:15] should not be subject to the scrutiny of others.

[2:42:18] Let's grant the wish in Farmer's branch and keep sexuality private and never again celebrate

[2:42:25] yet another artificial division of humanity led us from now on, restrict special recognition

[2:42:33] for the individual achievement only.

[2:42:36] Thank you very much.

[2:42:38] Next up is Candace Adams.

[2:42:52] Candace Adams, 3521 Pebble Beach Drive, and I have a few things that I would like to

[2:42:58] talk about.

[2:42:59] First of all, I'd like to personally thank Council Member Baird for his service.

[2:43:06] It is absolutely amazing, and I know it's been difficult, especially with the climate

[2:43:14] and stuff that had been going on, so I really appreciate personally to say thank you

[2:43:18] for your service.

[2:43:20] The other thing that I'd like to talk about is that would it be in spring and summer here,

[2:43:26] people are going out more and they're with their pets and staff, and a lot of people are

[2:43:31] letting their pets off leash, okay?

[2:43:34] And I know personally that two or three of my friends have been attacked.

[2:43:38] One of them was attacked at the city park, the dog park, and had severe injuries.

[2:43:45] The other friends pets were killed because people let their dogs off leash.

[2:43:54] I know specifically that there are a couple of people that do it on a daily basis.

[2:43:59] that some of the parks are all hide park over here, they let their dogs off leash and they're aggressive, and they sit back and laugh, or they let their dogs off at the school and let them run and play, but they're aggressive and they can't control them.

[2:44:17] The thing that I would like for us to do is to have our animal control people get with the code enforcement people.

[2:44:27] And there are a lot of dogs, there's a lot of dogs and I see on the next door they get out a lot and some of these are repeat offenders.

[2:44:41] So I would like for the animal control to get with the code enforcement and find out why these pets are getting out.

[2:44:50] Is it something that we could do as the city and maybe have a team building event for the city of farmers branch and go to these that may be

[2:45:00] The elderly widows, what have you lower income, not able to repair the fence and let us go and do what we can do to eliminate that situation. And it would be a great team building event for our city. It would also have intermingling with departments since the parks and wrecks may not have a lot of interaction with the executive parts of our city.

[2:45:29] and maybe this team building event would help, and it would also encourage our citizens to report the issues that they need help with.

[2:45:40] Our church has a public, I mean, a day that we go out into the city, and we take care of people's yards.

[2:45:49] We paint inside their house, we fix their porch up, and it would be fun to be able to do that.

[2:45:56] Thank you.

[2:45:58] Next speaker is Rick Johnson.

[2:46:09] Council members, Mayor Rick Johnson,

[2:46:11] Carly Drug, Farmer's Branch, Texas.

[2:46:14] There are many times that rumors get started

[2:46:18] and things happen.

[2:46:20] And they're detrimental, especially to the people

[2:46:23] who sit on the council.

[2:46:24] There's many times that Mr. Lynn,

[2:46:26] I've stuck up for him and his family

[2:46:28] because people were spread and lies in rumors.

[2:46:31] This seems like it's becoming a regular thing, you know?

[2:46:34] know, at the time the cutbacks came out, there were things that weren't touched, and then

[2:46:42] there were things, oh, we're going to close the library, we're going to do this, we're

[2:46:45] going to do that.

[2:46:46] We've outsourced so much stuff, we've had so much money saved, there's a problem with

[2:46:52] the spending and how the money's handled, that's where it's at, and to turn around and put

[2:46:57] that rumor out there, and to bring that forth, basically, you made all this political.

[2:47:03] and that's wrong. That should have never been done.

[2:47:07] With that being said, there's some of you that are now going around telling people,

[2:47:12] well, there's certain council members now that it's their fault.

[2:47:17] Even though Mr. Rogers or Neil Rogers, excuse me, stood up and said, no,

[2:47:22] that's not what it was about or anything. Even after that, it's happening.

[2:47:27] I want to sit here and I want to apologize to Neil,

[2:47:30] Martin Baird, Omar Roman, because they've been the butt of this.

[2:47:35] And shame on you guys for doing that.

[2:47:38] You need to get your act together.

[2:47:40] You need to learn how to budget money.

[2:47:42] You don't need to overspend if there was a previous council and city manager that put us

[2:47:48] in this position.

[2:47:49] You need to come forward and tell the city that, the citizens because we need full disclosure.

[2:47:55] That's transparency.

[2:47:56] which I believe many of you ran on, but it doesn't seem to equate.

[2:48:01] With that being said, we don't need to take out any roads.

[2:48:05] We've tried skin-in roads before.

[2:48:08] Look at golf and green between Brookhaven and Brookhaven Club.

[2:48:12] What happened there?

[2:48:13] Well, you know what?

[2:48:14] We spent basically what ended up being about $200,000

[2:48:18] after we had to tear it out because it was a horrible idea.

[2:48:21] This is a much more bigger thing.

[2:48:23] We don't want to be uptown. You don't need to sit there. What you need to do is make it easier for people to get through the city and out because they're going to come whether you do that or not.

[2:48:33] The apartments and stuff that you want to build. You want to know what you built all that stuff on the west side.

[2:48:39] We don't have hardly knew anything. We don't have a grocery store. It's quality, not quantity.

[2:48:45] We don't, we like our city being a hometown. You shouldn't cut anything.

[2:48:50] you know maybe you need to search deep inside and if we don't have somebody that

[2:48:55] can make that happen maybe we need to get somebody you know just like the

[2:49:00] room oh well if we don't do this then all these employees are gonna leave well

[2:49:05] we did that and guess what they all left anyways so the scare tacky ticks that are

[2:49:10] Our youth are wrong and shame on you.

[2:49:14] Thank you.

[2:49:16] Next step is,

[2:49:19] Shyam Sundar,

[2:49:24] and I couldn't read your last name.

[2:49:29] Thank you, Council for letting me be here.

[2:49:31] Good evening.

[2:49:32] My name is Shyam Sundar Ganeshram, and I live at 1-1-6-4 Gansal's drive, Frisco, Texas.

[2:49:37] I'm against the dark budget cuts as I have friends and family who take dark often.

[2:49:41] Some who are elderly family members who have no alternative to taking dark.

[2:49:45] However, many of them are unable to afford privately owned transportation, specifically meant for wheelchair use.

[2:49:52] I believe that cutting the funds would negatively affect the service, causing people to struggle with getting to where they need.

[2:49:57] This past week, I have surveyed people riding dirt and

[2:50:00] Farmer's branch, and found out that almost all the people who are surveyed, who are surveyed, rely on DART, as their only method of transportation, and we're shocked to hear that the budgets might be cut down for DART. DART needs to go forward, especially in the city, with many people who rely on DART, as their only method of transportation. Thank you. Thank you.

[2:50:23] And next up is Adair Kanta.

[2:50:38] Hello. My name is Abair Aranda. I am at 2946.

[2:50:42] South Sunbeck Circle, to 6-3, I echo a lot of what some of the people here, specifically

[2:50:49] on the Dart Funding Cuts.

[2:50:54] So this is a huge gamble as are a lot of public policy decisions.

[2:50:59] And in public policy, there is a lot of qualitative data that you cannot get from spreadsheets, right?

[2:51:07] All I ask is for you guys to use the dark outside of the fair, outside of game days, use the bus, use this go zone, use dark before making a decision because it is on track of doing very, very great things.

[2:51:26] and if you're gambling with cutting some of these services,

[2:51:30] then you are affecting the quality of life of people

[2:51:35] as this gentleman before me said,

[2:51:38] sometimes it's the only way of getting around.

[2:51:42] It's our only mode of transportation.

[2:51:45] And I also want to just say about the Valley View Lane road diet.

[2:51:50] Amazing.

[2:51:51] I advocate for anything that slows cars down.

[2:51:55] that means it's safe, I personally don't drive a car but any time I walk near

[2:52:02] sidewalk specifically that stretch of value view it is horrifying. So anything

[2:52:07] to slow the traffic down in that stretch would be great. Thank you. Thank you.

[2:52:13] Sorry from his pronouncing your name.

[2:52:17] That is all the folks that I had signed up

[2:52:18] to speak this evening so we'll move on to our next item which is our consent

[2:52:42] May I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented?

[2:52:47] Thank you.

[2:52:52] Thank you, Councilman Reed.

[2:52:55] We have motion in a second.

[2:52:56] If you would please indicate your vote.

[2:53:13] Motion passes unanimously.

[2:53:15] Thank you very much.

[2:53:16] Next up is public hearing.

[2:53:18] Item L1, Conductive Public Hearing, and consider adopting ordinance number 3869 for an industrial development.

[2:53:27] Approximately 7.36 acres located at 1751 Valley View Lane within the Plan Development District, number 77, and take appropriate action.

[2:53:41] Good evening, Mayor and Council, Lily Sutton, planner.

[2:53:43] And tonight we're going to be discussing a potential industrial development at 1751 Valley View Lane.

[2:53:49] This property is within PD77.

[2:53:53] PD77 does allow for manufacturing, where housing and distribution, as well as office uses.

[2:54:00] However, PD77 was approved with a conceptual site plan for a parking lot.

[2:54:07] So in order to replace the conceptual site plan, or I'm sorry, this amendment would replace that conceptual site plan.

[2:54:15] So get rid of the parking lot site plan and then the warehouse and distribution as well as office space.

[2:54:25] So the proposed improvements do meet the current standards.

[2:54:30] There are a few special exceptions that the applicant is requesting.

[2:54:34] One is in relation to the parking ratios.

[2:54:38] They are continuing with the PD77 parking ratio requirement.

[2:54:42] However, they are requesting a parking ratio for warehouse and distribution of one parking space per 2,000 square foot.

[2:54:51] This is consistent with our comprehensive zoning ordinance, our CZO.

[2:54:55] And in terms of the landscaping, they comply with both the square footage as well as the-

[2:55:12] So,

[2:55:16] this designation in our comprehensive plan does call for the preservation of industrial uses. And this is consistent with our comprehensive plan. And on June 10th, the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended approval of this request.

[2:55:32] And with that, I will open up to any questions.

[2:55:35] Thank you very much.

[2:55:36] Council, any questions?

[2:55:38] Council in the room.

[2:55:41] Is there going to be any storage of any types of vehicles at this location?

[2:55:49] On the site plan, they are proposing a potential future parking space for trailer storage.

[2:55:59] That would have to go through a special use permit or specific use permit, so that would come back for Council approval.

[2:56:07] So it's listed on the site plan, but it would still have to come back.

[2:56:10] Okay, that's it for me.

[2:56:13] Anybody else?

[2:56:17] Okay. Well, this item is marked for action.

[2:56:22] May I make a motion?

[2:56:23] Excuse me, wait a minute.

[2:56:24] Wait, I'm sorry.

[2:56:25] I'm sorry.

[2:56:26] I'm out of state.

[2:56:27] This is the public hearing.

[2:56:28] I do not have anybody signed up to speak to this.

[2:56:30] Any comments?

[2:56:34] Seeing none.

[2:56:35] Mayor, make a motion to close the public hearing and approve ordinance number 3869 as presented.

[2:56:44] A second.

[2:56:46] Thank you.

[2:56:47] Motion and second.

[2:56:48] If you would please indicate your vote.

[2:56:55] Motion passes.

[2:56:56] You're not asleep.

[2:56:57] Thank you very much.

[2:56:58] Thank you.

[2:57:01] Next up is item L2, conduct a public hearing, and consider adopting ordinance number 3873 to amend the

[2:57:07] comprehensive zoning ordinance related to residential garage conversions and take appropriate action.

[2:57:16] Good evening, Mayor and Council, Sarah Bergman, Deputy Director of Planning.

[2:57:23] So residential garage conversions is a topic that's been discussed by Council a few times over the last year and a half.

[2:57:31] But just to recap, the comprehensive zoning ordinance currently requires that an enclosed garage be provided for all single family homes.

[2:57:41] Conversion of this garage into living space is not permitted unless a new garage is constructed on the property to replace those spaces.

[2:57:50] As we're all aware, there are a number of homes in Farmers Branch that do have converted garages already.

[2:57:56] And many of these do not have that additional garage on the property.

[2:58:00] In fact, a city-wide survey completed in 2023.

[2:58:06] did identify over 1,000 garage conversions that do not have permitting records with the city.

[2:58:13] And so this greats an issue, especially when a homeowner is coming in to pull a permit for the remodel or repair of their home.

[2:58:22] And then staff identifies that a garage conversion has occurred without permits and that permit cannot be processed because of that.

[2:58:30] And so the option for homeowners at that point is to either reconvert the garage back into

[2:58:35] vehicle storage space or to construct another garage on the property.

[2:58:40] And those options are often not financially feasible for homeowners.

[2:58:47] As a result, the council has discussed a possible amnesty program to allow homeowners in those

[2:58:52] situations to apply it to legalize the layout of their home with the converted garage without

[2:58:58] constructing another additional garage on the property.

[2:59:01] So, the program being proposed this evening would involve in permit application with the

[2:59:07] community services department, a $100 fee, and an inspection by the city just to determine

[2:59:13] that there are no life and safety violations within the garage.

[2:59:17] If any issues are identified during the inspection, the applicant would be required to correct

[2:59:24] the issues prior to receiving an amnesty permit.

[2:59:26] And the proposed length for this program is 18 months to allow time for staff to notify residents of this opportunity and for applications to be processed.

[2:59:39] So the Planning and Zoning Commission did consider this request on June 10th and they recommended approval with a few changes.

[2:59:46] One of those was that the re-application and extension for

[2:59:51] Amnesty program permits be aligned with our building permit process, which allows the building official some flexibility in terms of

[3:00:00] Timeline for repairs and for re-application. And then, the ANZ also requested some clarification regarding the re-inspection fees, so that information is provided in your packet.

[3:00:13] So with that, I would be happy to answer any questions. And I do want to clarify that although this is an amendment to the zoning ordinance, the Amnesty program is really being proposed and administered by our community services department. So Danielle Summers is here as well to answer questions.

[3:00:29] Very good. Thank you. Council, any questions or comments? I'll start my right. Councilman.

[3:00:37] Yeah, I've just, you know, a couple of quick questions. How was it that we did, that came

[3:00:44] to land on 18 months as opposed to 12 or 24 or anything else? Sure. That was after, I believe

[3:00:52] it was the second study session meeting with City Council. Staff had originally proposed

[3:00:56] It was closed six, and the feeling was that that was too limited to address all, hopefully 1,000 unpermitted conversions.

[3:01:05] So 18 months is what's being proposed by staff now, but that is up for discussion and could be modified by council.

[3:01:12] So as you believe that at least 1,000 people will be applying for the Samnesty, and that's why you need 18 months.

[3:01:17] We are going to do our best to notify the community at large, and also specifically these 1,000 people.

[3:01:24] the city cannot require them to apply for any honesty permit but we want to

[3:01:28] advertise the benefits of doing so. And that notification program is via the

[3:01:33] survey that was completed. The notification. So we there was a survey done and

[3:01:40] they discovered 1,300 homes or something that was converted. Are we gonna use

[3:01:46] that list of 1,300 addresses whatever for the notification of the prop to the

[3:01:50] property owner specifically or to the.

[3:01:56] Good evening, Mayor and Council, Daniel Summer, Director of Community Services.

[3:02:00] About a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, code enforcement did a property survey

[3:02:07] where they had a company that drove around all the neighborhoods and they marked general compliance

[3:02:12] issues or whatever, but they also marked if they had a garage or if they didn't have a garage.

[3:02:17] So we have a spreadsheet that we created from that, that we're going to go off of.

[3:02:22] So we did the research to find out if they had any permits on record and then we mark on the spreadsheet if they did or if they didn't and we're going to use that spreadsheet to try to get out as much information as we can to what we figure about a thousand people without us from the street.

[3:02:40] So it's possible that there's a lot more because some people don't have garages facing the street or whatever.

[3:02:44] or so?

[3:02:47] Okay.

[3:02:49] Are we

[3:02:53] opening ourselves for any sort of liability if the property on our cells are property

[3:03:00] with somewhat illegal conversion and they did not notify the buyer or we involved in

[3:03:11] that aspect anyway?

[3:03:12] That's a good issue between the buyer and the seller and that between us and them.

[3:03:16] So, the city doesn't have a liability, although there is a pending case right now, where I think we're trying to enforce our existing regulations and an individual's as particular to our judgment and not for damages.

[3:03:29] But in a standard transaction, no, we've got no response.

[3:03:32] Okay. So, it's up to the new buyer, purchaser, to do their due diligence to determine that that property is up to code with respect to any city ordinances.

[3:03:44] Is that correct generally that's one of the things that the public companies are supposed to be doing okay

[3:03:52] That's all I have thank you.

[3:03:56] Thank you Danielle. Thank you, Sarah

[3:04:01] I may have seen some of these pictures and some of these garage conversions

[3:04:06] Do not look good and so I'm anticipating we're gonna have a lot of residents are gonna need

[3:04:12] repairs so that

[3:04:14] their structures are safe.

[3:04:16] We're not in this program asking them to get rid

[3:04:19] of their garage conversion.

[3:04:20] It's an ease of the inspected for safety, correct?

[3:04:25] Correct.

[3:04:26] We're going to go inspect, before we issue the permit,

[3:04:30] we're going to go inspect the property.

[3:04:32] We are only going to inspect that garage conversion area,

[3:04:35] not the whole house, just that area.

[3:04:37] We're going to look for any life and safety issues.

[3:04:41] Exposed electrical.

[3:04:44] sacking ceilings or something like that that poses a life safety issue that we're going

[3:04:48] to try to work with them to get it up to saved.

[3:04:54] Some of these older ones would be really

[3:04:55] hard to get up to current code compliance but we're going to try to work with them to

[3:04:59] at least get it.

[3:05:01] And as far as the exterior goes, it's going to be kind of the same thing if it's considered not safe or whatever. We don't really have.

[3:05:14] We're not going to make them. I think we had this discussion in the past presentations that we're not going to make them change their exterior through this program. We're just trying to get them. A legal means to where when they want to do a remodel or something like that.

[3:05:29] that they have that permit and they can move forward

[3:05:32] with upgrading their home or something like that.

[3:05:35] Right.

[3:05:36] So many of these situations, we probably have homeowner

[3:05:41] that bought the home with the garage conversion.

[3:05:44] And at that time there was a certificate of occupancy issued

[3:05:48] when they moved into their home.

[3:05:50] And so they probably think everything's good.

[3:05:53] Correct.

[3:05:53] Right.

[3:05:54] But an inspection under this program may reveal

[3:05:58] that everything's not good, perhaps there's electrical issue or plumbing issue or structural

[3:06:05] issue that they need to address now that maybe existed or not back when they purchased

[3:06:11] their home. So how is the city preparing to deal with the human side of that news with

[3:06:20] their residents? And you may not have an answer. I throw it out there because I think it

[3:06:27] needs to be considered because this is going to come as a shock to some families that may

[3:06:32] not have the resources to bring their home into compliance. It may not realize that

[3:06:38] they're living actually in a very unsafe situation. There may be power lines or something

[3:06:45] or gas lines that are causing an unsafe environment for them that they're learning about for the

[3:06:50] first time and they may not have the funds to rectify that.

[3:06:54] So, I just ask the city, you know, think about, you know, that news and how to handle some of those situations.

[3:07:09] Flexibility, I think, is going to be important, perhaps, with timeline, and also think, perhaps, inspection fees.

[3:07:17] I think I said in here that reinspection fees will be required separate permits for modifications will be required.

[3:07:31] The whole point of this program is to make sure that our residents are safe and that their homes are within components of the code.

[3:07:38] It's not about revenue from fees and such.

[3:07:42] And so maybe there's some consideration on the fees.

[3:07:44] I know we have $100 fee, is that a reduced fee, or is that the normal fee?

[3:07:51] That's the fee that we decided upon for this program.

[3:07:56] So it's a new fee, re-inspection fees, those are on case-by-case basis.

[3:08:01] We don't automatically charge people that it depends on the situation because we always try

[3:08:06] to be flexible and work with our residents.

[3:08:08] Okay, all right, very good.

[3:08:10] Well, like I said, I'm supportive of cleaning this area up

[3:08:16] simply for the safety of our residents and, you know,

[3:08:20] for many of them that may have no idea the conditions

[3:08:23] in which they're living, but I think a lot of flexibility

[3:08:27] and compassion is gonna have to be exercised.

[3:08:31] And I know you guys do a great job of that.

[3:08:33] Thank you.

[3:08:34] Thank you.

[3:08:35] Thank you.

[3:08:37] Council Member Lee?

[3:08:38] Yeah.

[3:08:39] Just so I understand this clearly, this only comes into play if the homeowner is looking

[3:08:44] to get a permit to do some work and some other renovations, and then the permit would

[3:08:55] not be granted until the inspection is done on the conversion, or are we going to actively

[3:09:00] We go out to these thousand homes and seek an inspection.

[3:09:07] We are going to actively go out to these thousand homes and work with them to get them permitted.

[3:09:13] So they're going to have to apply for a permit first and provide a floor plan so we can

[3:09:19] get an idea of their layout and then we will do an inspection.

[3:09:24] So we will work with them through this process to get them so that their garage conversion

[3:09:29] is permitted, which will help them or future buyers.

[3:09:32] Okay, so it's gonna be an active process

[3:09:34] where we go up to them,

[3:09:36] say this is what you need to do

[3:09:37] to bring home under proper permitting standards.

[3:09:42] Yes, we're gonna try to get out as much information

[3:09:44] as many possible ways that we can.

[3:09:46] We're gonna do the whole city,

[3:09:48] but we're also going to do,

[3:09:50] we're gonna focus on those thousand,

[3:09:52] are the thousand, approximately thousand people

[3:09:54] that we know has a garage conversion

[3:10:00] So we're going to focus on them, but we're going to try to get information out city-wide, because like I said, there are homes out there that have been converted, that maybe have a rear-entry garage or something that we can't really tell or not. So we're trying to get it out to as many people as possible to allow them to apply for this program. Okay. And if it's a home that's been identified and they don't want to do anything, what's the fact that they're going to be in the same situation they are right now.

[3:10:28] So if they apply for a permit and they haven't received their garage conversion permit and the

[3:10:34] programs over with that might be something we have to discuss in the future but it would

[3:10:39] be like it is now if they apply for a renovation permit and we find that they have a garage

[3:10:44] conversion then they either have to we approach them with I'm sorry you have to either convert

[3:10:50] it back to a garage as our ordinance or we let them leave it as it is you know you either

[3:10:55] have to leave your house as it is, or you have to build another garage is the options

[3:11:00] that they have so they would be still have to comply with those standards if they don't

[3:11:05] apply for this program.

[3:11:06] Okay.

[3:11:07] So if they don't go through the Amnesty program, nothing is really done until they go for

[3:11:13] a permit further down the road.

[3:11:15] Correct.

[3:11:16] Okay.

[3:11:17] And is there any, I know from a taxation standpoint, decad, living space as a component

[3:11:25] of figuring out property taxes.

[3:11:27] Is there any component to that in regards to this?

[3:11:32] So since they've changed the garage,

[3:11:34] which is not living space, into living space,

[3:11:39] approximately 400 square feet,

[3:11:41] given a standard two car garage,

[3:11:45] do we do anything in conjunction with decad

[3:11:48] in regards to doing an adjustment

[3:11:51] to the living space for the property?

[3:11:52] So, decad gets a, I guess you'll call it download of all our permits.

[3:11:59] I don't know exactly how often it is.

[3:12:01] I don't know if it's once a month or every six months or whatever, but they get a download

[3:12:05] of all of our permits so that they can adjust their records.

[3:12:08] I also know that they do their own surveying and stuff like that.

[3:12:12] Sometimes we do research on decad to discover that some of these ones that we think might

[3:12:17] have a conversion and then we can look at decad and verify it sometimes.

[3:12:21] But they do get our permits so they can adjust as they see.

[3:12:25] Okay, so if it is recognized as a conversion, they go through the permitting, it'll get into the system somehow.

[3:12:30] Correct.

[3:12:31] Okay, that's all I have.

[3:12:33] Councillor Rillman?

[3:12:37] I think one of the reasons we're in the situation is there were just a lot of illegal conversions that had happened over some time.

[3:12:46] And

[3:12:49] for whatever reason it happened and now it's creating issues in your department because you have to tell no to a lot of people.

[3:12:55] and I know it's created some backlog as well in the ZBA when they try and rectify these

[3:13:01] cases and the answers usually know.

[3:13:04] I think what's important other than moving forward with this is that we look at how we

[3:13:10] can better identify and find individuals who might be in the process and maybe they're

[3:13:16] doing it because they don't want to apply for a permit, maybe they're doing it because they

[3:13:20] don't know.

[3:13:21] But for whatever reason it might be, I think we need to work together with our code enforcement team to make sure that we identify

[3:13:28] when it's happening, so that we don't put the council 20 years from now or 30 years from now in the same position,

[3:13:35] and then we have to spend a lot of resources to fix it.

[3:13:38] I think we need to be more proactive at identifying the issue when it's happening.

[3:13:42] Right, and I think is the information that we're trying to put out about this program will include something in there that gives them

[3:13:49] And this is our current code requirement.

[3:13:51] This is your honesty period that you have to get your current situation under compliance,

[3:13:57] but these are our rules.

[3:13:58] And after this today, anything that we find is converted after, if this is approved today,

[3:14:04] then you're still subject to the current code and you would have to convert your garage bill or build another garage.

[3:14:11] So it gives us a starting point to hopefully better find and watch for those kind of converges.

[3:14:19] That's it. That's it. Thank you.

[3:14:21] Councillor Baird?

[3:14:23] Okay. I'd sort of like to just follow up on what Councillor

[3:14:28] Monroe was saying. So we've got 1,35 homes that have converted

[3:14:32] garages. And you made the comment a moment ago that we discuss this now, but if they

[3:14:43] don't come forward to take advantage of the EAM to see program, then we'll have to

[3:14:47] address that at some point.

[3:14:51] I'd rather have this loop closed now.

[3:14:54] I don't think it's a good policy for us to say.

[3:14:56] We want to do one thing, but if people don't comply,

[3:15:00] Then what? We need to decide what that is and build that in to the program. Now, so when we get to the end of the amnesty period, we're prepared to address issues. And so I'm a big stick alarm reporting things to decad. These thousand and 35 homes that have converted space to living space.

[3:15:30] This should all be reported to D-CAT.

[3:15:36] It may take some time to go through and do that, but we should be doing that.

[3:15:41] Because if it's true living space and they're cheating the city on their taxes, and we just need everybody doing the right thing.

[3:15:52] Okay. Number two is if they don't, well, again, if somebody elects not to take advantage

[3:16:04] of the Amnesty program, then what is our next step?

[3:16:09] So I think we need to have that defined.

[3:16:12] Are we going to go after them?

[3:16:14] Do we send them a letter and say you are now, your property is now not in conformance with

[3:16:19] city ordinance and here's what's going to happen. You have to come in, you have to make

[3:16:27] an application, blah, blah, blah, you're subject to whatever fees that might be. I just

[3:16:35] believe that needs to be stated up front so we know what we're headed for because no doubt

[3:16:43] out of 1,000 there's going to be some who just don't do anything. They'll never catch

[3:16:47] me, you know, I'll just ride this thing out. Well, that's not necessarily safe because

[3:16:54] we've already said we're concerned about safety. And it's just not the right thing to

[3:17:00] do. So making sure that people are compliant. That's what we do every day. We want neat

[3:17:09] and clean neighborhoods. And that's why we have code enforcement. Well, we want to make

[3:17:15] that we have quality building structures in farmer's branch and that's why we

[3:17:20] have the building inspection team. So it may take quite a while to get around to

[3:17:27] all these places but you know knock on the door from building inspection to

[3:17:31] say you have a converted garage we're here to inspect it you know that's going

[3:17:38] to get somebody's attention. Now I'm owner made aside I'm not letting you in our

[3:17:44] property. That breeds another level of discussion at that point. I think that we

[3:17:55] need to think through this a little bit further and I'd rather see us prepared

[3:18:01] for these variables upfront so we're not coming back here and sort of second

[3:18:07] guessing our own policy or trying to create it on the fly when we've got ten

[3:18:11] people coming before us that all have problems. You came and inspected my house. Well, yes,

[3:18:19] we did because you have something that was done that wasn't approved by the city. Now,

[3:18:25] we're willing to let you have that. It needs to be inspected or the option is you convert

[3:18:31] it back.

[3:18:34] I don't know. Council may feel other ways about that, but I was just going to add

[3:18:39] real quick mayor and council a couple things you know there's a question about

[3:18:43] affording their repairs later on during the continued study session you as

[3:18:46] the council will look at the minor home repair program and it would be applicable

[3:18:49] in this case for any life safety things we found the reason for the amnesty

[3:18:53] discussion was there's so many and so it's how do we fix this moving forward after

[3:18:57] the amnesty program we would treat it just like any other code violation or

[3:19:00] zoning violation would give a notice of violation and move forward with it

[3:19:04] hopefully we can convey that through our messaging but we would be expected to

[3:19:07] enforce the ordinances of the City of Armour's Branch, which code enforcement would notice,

[3:19:12] then they'd get a timeframe to either challenge it and go through legal processes or bring it into compliance.

[3:19:16] Our goal is to bring people into compliance the easy way, which is the amnesty program.

[3:19:20] And with 18 months, it'll give us time to close those loops and hopefully bring the majority of these properties into compliance,

[3:19:26] validate that it's been done safely and correctly, and move us past this.

[3:19:29] Because this has been a really tough roadblock, especially for new residents coming into the City of Armour's Branch.

[3:19:34] I realize this has been problematic for a lot of people and I've gone on records since

[3:19:40] day one when we've had our first trash bin saying, you know, I don't want to find people

[3:19:45] out of living in farmers' range.

[3:19:46] I don't, but we want compliance.

[3:19:49] And so how can we achieve that?

[3:19:52] And so sometimes you have to resort to some type of penalty.

[3:19:58] and I'm okay with-

[3:20:00] But I think giving this amnesty period, and with a reasonable application fee, $100, seem very reasonable, we've given them time, we've given them financial consideration, and we just, we need their buy-in to do this the right way. So, but if they don't, I'd just like to know, and I think it would be best business practice for us to have

[3:20:29] have that determined ahead of time is to, okay, what are the next steps?

[3:20:35] Because right now we don't know what the next steps are, right?

[3:20:42] Good evening, Mayor and Council.

[3:20:43] My name is Christina Raimhelt, I'm the code enforcement manager, and kind of reiterating what Ben said.

[3:20:48] That would be our next steps.

[3:20:49] We would work with community services and planning, and we have been working with them through this process.

[3:20:53] Once that amnesty period is completed, then we will move forward and

[3:20:57] treat it exactly as Ben said, just like a code enforcement case.

[3:21:00] We will go out there, we will give them the proper notification.

[3:21:02] And we will ensure that it is brought into compliance because we do want to make sure that these homeowners are safe and that these building structures are safe.

[3:21:09] So we would move forward at that point just as we would normally with our code enforcement cases.

[3:21:15] Okay, very good.

[3:21:19] I agree, I'm all for this program, and I agree with what you were saying.

[3:21:24] And I think we might want to table this for some more clarification because as I understand it, I may be wrong here.

[3:21:31] but on the thousand or so that the city believes have been built in and you're going to put a door hanger at, right?

[3:21:40] We have, yes, she put this slide up here.

[3:21:44] We have several ways we're going to try to reach out between several different departments with the door hangers,

[3:21:51] putting an insert in the water bill.

[3:21:53] My point is, are you going to go up and knock and say, we think you have a built-in garage?

[3:22:01] That might be an approach that we're going to take after we get all this information out kind of see what kind of response we get and then staff as we as we can and we have the availability to go out and the people that aren't responding maybe knock on their door and just try to talk to them and explain to them what this means to them and how it can help them.

[3:22:21] I guess my point mayor is that the city code enforcement has to be standing on public property.

[3:22:29] And they can look, and it's obvious some grudges have been built in.

[3:22:32] It's got a window and a flower bed in front, whatever.

[3:22:35] But we still don't know that it's built in.

[3:22:38] Convert it.

[3:22:39] Convert it.

[3:22:40] And so, the reason why I think we might want to discuss this further is to clarify some of the things that you brought up.

[3:22:46] Because if our goal really is, and it is, safety mainly, then I think that we might get some pushbacker or less uptake.

[3:22:58] on the program, if people think, well, if I let them in to look, but then I don't want

[3:23:03] to go through with it, then they're going to, after the period is over, the city's going

[3:23:08] to come back after me.

[3:23:11] And again, so the city can go in and look at the garage, unless they're given permission,

[3:23:21] help me out here Mr. Attorney, if I'm saying anything incorrectly, unless they're given permission

[3:23:26] by the homeowner or the resident I guess it could be a renter and so I'm just

[3:23:32] wanting to make sure I guess that we do this in such a way that we're going to

[3:23:36] get the most possible residents to buy in to it and I think the things that you

[3:23:42] brought out are good points and I'm not sure we can figure the two or three things

[3:23:47] you were talking about here in these few minutes but maybe we can't I don't know.

[3:23:52] So, we're not under a time deadline at this point to get this done, are we?

[3:24:03] Councilman Jackson.

[3:24:04] Mayor, I think the right to inspect is done because the resident applies for permit, right?

[3:24:10] They've received a door hanger, they got a letter in the mail, they know they have a converted garage.

[3:24:17] They're being given an opportunity, as I understand, amnesty programs in general.

[3:24:21] You're given an opportunity to make things right, right, and there's usually some flexibility

[3:24:29] and leniency associated with an amnesty program, like speeding tickets or warrant and that

[3:24:35] kind of thing, not that I've ever had to participate in an amnesty program for that reason, but

[3:24:41] that's my understanding.

[3:24:43] And so, while you may not have your communication plan perfected yet, I think it's sufficient

[3:24:51] that we're letting these, you know, thousand or so residents know, door hanger, a letter

[3:24:57] in the mail. Periodic updates, if we have not.

[3:25:00] I heard from them that you have an opportunity to come in, get a permit, let us come take a look. It may end right there. Everything may be fine. Gas lines are good. Electric's good. Everything's good. It may end right there. But I'm not the lawyer, but it seems to me in reading through the ordinance that if they do not reveal this during an amnesty program, we go back to enforcement.

[3:25:28] and that's already set in our current code enforcement ordinances.

[3:25:34] It's not a, and maybe this wasn't articulated well earlier,

[3:25:38] it's not a, well, we wait until something happens or nothing happens.

[3:25:42] We go back to enforcement, affirmative enforcement because it is about

[3:25:46] resident safety, and I would suggest that if the city suspected

[3:25:52] or knew that there was some kind of unsafe condition in a garage conversion

[3:25:57] next door to my house and that thing catches on fire and it burns my house down and I have proof

[3:26:03] the city knows I'm coming to the city because it didn't enforce the codes or ordinances on the books

[3:26:11] with that homeowner. So I'm prepared to pass this and get moving because I don't really feel like

[3:26:17] there's a whole lot of time to waste here albeit we're not under the constraint.

[3:26:23] I agree with you, Councilman Jackson, I guess the tweak I was thinking of is that once somebody

[3:26:28] agrees for the city to come in and look at the place, they know that they're either, they

[3:26:34] know they're going to have to fix it.

[3:26:36] The problem becomes if people see it and think, well, I don't know, maybe they'll find other

[3:26:42] things or maybe you know, and that there might be a, we don't know who's going to react

[3:26:48] which way but there may be a fairly large number of residents or homeowners that decide not to do it because they're just a little skittish about it.

[3:26:57] That's all I was saying.

[3:26:59] I just totally understand that once they say it's okay to come in, we're good to go.

[3:27:04] That I totally understand that.

[3:27:05] I understood and if that's the case, if a homeowner gets the notice and they want to try to skirt the thing, that's their problem and it is a problem.

[3:27:13] So I would assume that the permitting process is also quite explanatory about here's what's

[3:27:19] going to happen.

[3:27:20] We're going to come and inspect your property.

[3:27:22] Here's the rules, the codes, yada, yada, yada, everything's going to be real transparent

[3:27:26] clearly on what needs to be done, what their role is, what our role is, right?

[3:27:30] Correct.

[3:27:31] I think that the key to this program is going to be communication because there are going

[3:27:35] to be a lot of residents out there that are going to worry about what I'm going to let

[3:27:38] these people in my house, what are they going to do, and what are they going to find.

[3:27:41] And so the key is going to be to get out the information that this is how the program is going to work.

[3:27:48] This is the benefit to you, and then keep getting it out there.

[3:27:52] Whether it needs to be, please come talk to us, we'll help you through this program.

[3:27:57] And because we really want to help our residents, we don't want to continue them having this problem and

[3:28:02] us having to be the bad people at the city.

[3:28:04] And so the plan is to just get out as much transparent communication as possible with how it's going to work and what the benefit is going to be.

[3:28:15] And then put it out in different ways throughout that 18 months so that we can cover and pull in as many people as we can.

[3:28:22] And if that means that we have to go knock out as inspectors and me have to go knock on some doors and say, hey understand you might be worried about this, but let me help you.

[3:28:31] And see if we can get as many of these people in as possible.

[3:28:35] It's possible in this situation you might have renters in the house that maybe have been trying to rectify an unsafe situation in their home with the owner for a long time in the owner's decline.

[3:28:47] So in that case the city is actually advocating for the resident and they're saying there's also a situation where there might be a situation so dangerous that that family needs to vacate that house immediately.

[3:28:58] Right?

[3:28:59] Those are possible scenarios, and so I just raised that as something to consider.

[3:29:10] I do want to make sure that we, when we're communicating with our residents about this, that we use plain English and communicating exactly what's going on, because sometimes the codes can be a bit intimidating or they can gloss over them because it's legal ease.

[3:29:26] And also I want to be mindful when we're communicating or if we have to communicate in person or

[3:29:31] or over the phone that we take into consideration,

[3:29:34] the demographic that resident lives in

[3:29:37] to ensure that we've got translation services available.

[3:29:40] Yes, we plan to put everything out

[3:29:42] in both English and Spanish.

[3:29:45] Go ahead.

[3:29:47] I've got one last thing.

[3:29:49] Because kicking, if you do kick the can down the road a bit,

[3:29:52] you're gonna have to run into issues where someone buys a home

[3:29:56] that has a converted garage, where it hasn't been.

[3:30:01] Is there any way that we can extend the amnesty program to that and roll in it?

[3:30:09] So if we end up putting a hold on this, to bring it back at a later time, if that's to do more researcher, whatever your direction is, we'll change our dates. Because we're going to make this effective, whatever date, the city council approves it, and then we'll have 18 months from that date. Right. But what I'm saying is, let's say in two years, someone buys a home.

[3:30:31] So that has a converted garage, it hasn't gone through the permitting process, all right?

[3:30:37] And then that new homeowner, who was not responsible for the original conversion, wants to redo their kitchen.

[3:30:44] And now it's found out that they have a converted garage and they have to go through this whole process.

[3:30:51] Is there any way to extend or create an amnesty situation for a new homeowner?

[3:30:59] so that they're not, you know, they still have to go through the, you know, if they want to get the permit, they still have to go through everything but make sure that they get, you know, some sort of protection.

[3:31:10] So our hope is to capture all of these that we can from today going backwards to where future homeowners won't run into this problem.

[3:31:19] We can't totally predict that.

[3:31:22] We haven't really explored the idea of doing an additional program or extending it for

[3:31:28] just new home buyers, we haven't really explored that.

[3:31:31] And I think maybe to that point, then it brings into question if we're creating specific circumstances of

[3:31:39] abnistee for individuals, then at that point, is the question that I'm now posed with

[3:31:48] is the ordinance relevant? Do we need to continue with it? You know, because if we want

[3:31:57] to,

[3:32:03] that's just what comes into mind. It's the best way I can explain it. It's like, do

[3:32:06] we want to continue enforcing this ordinance after the abnistee program?

[3:32:11] One of the reasons for the 18 month program period is to set a deadline and to discourage

[3:32:17] someone from converting their garage in the future and then claiming that it was done

[3:32:22] previously in coming in for amnesty. The zoning ordinance requires that separate garage,

[3:32:27] that requirement is staying. So after the 18 month period, if someone's not coming into compliance

[3:32:33] through the amnesty program and it were to move into a code enforcement action, the response

[3:32:38] is that the garage would have to be reconverted or constructed, which is a significant cost.

[3:32:45] I was just going to say, I like Councilman Reed's idea, what we could have an 18-month

[3:32:51] program, but we could have an ongoing program that only applies to new home owners,

[3:32:56] and we'd have to verify the title and transfer to something.

[3:33:00] Well, I was just thinking about that.

[3:33:01] So let's just say you've identified one of these homes, and our Amnesty period starts

[3:33:09] September, okay, 18 months from September, then they run out of Amnesty, but 17 months

[3:33:17] from now, that person who owned that house that was not in compliance decides they want

[3:33:23] to sell their house.

[3:33:24] They sell their house, and a new person moves in, buys their house, it's not going to be

[3:33:30] recorded with a title company or anything, so you don't know as a buyer that you have

[3:33:36] potential liability if you will on your property and I bought the house, I'm in there a month

[3:33:45] and I'll sudden somebody from the city shows up and says, oh, you're not in compliance.

[3:33:52] But I think it's easy enough to get around that by saying, hey, here I just bought the house,

[3:33:59] here's my paperwork, show them a closing date, nobody disclosed this to me.

[3:34:03] So, maybe at that point, you've got a new reset, a new clock on that particular property.

[3:34:15] Just something to consider.

[3:34:17] And I will add something.

[3:34:19] This is something that we do see pretty frequently in code enforcement and kind of like David was saying.

[3:34:25] It's a title company that will capture these things.

[3:34:27] And we do have that a lot where somebody will purchase a property and it does have code violations from the previous homeowner.

[3:34:34] So it is something that we do frequently see, we do still enforce it because it is something that still needs to be taken care of to be.

[3:34:40] And if it wasn't captured in title because it wasn't run or whatever the case may be, it is still something that needs to be required.

[3:34:46] So with the MNC program extending, it will be a permanent program at that point because we will consistently have new homeowners.

[3:34:52] but I think that our goal here is by the 18-month mark we will have a code case on the rest of these that have not applied for a permit.

[3:35:00] We should hopefully not run into that and we should be able to continue with the enforcement and address them before it transfers hands. But obviously we might still miss a few of them, but it is something frequent that we do see in code enforcement. I think as long as you're raised well in how you move forward and fair with residents, that's all we can ask for.

[3:35:21] I was just going to reiterate what I had posed the question to the attorney that it's upon the buyer to count on the disclosures from the seller.

[3:35:31] I've made that point earlier so I don't know that we need a special circumstance

[3:35:41] for that purchaser. They should do their diligence in following through with

[3:35:50] either an independent inspection like many new homeowners do for their property

[3:35:55] and ensure that disclosures are made by the seller.

[3:36:02] Well the thing is you can't

[3:36:03] ensure that the disclosure is made by the seller, you know, and a home inspection with you

[3:36:10] by a property, one of the inspectors is just going to go in and check it, you know,

[3:36:14] make sure everything works properly and all that.

[3:36:17] They're not going to comment on permitting or anything in regards to the home.

[3:36:25] They're just going to expect it for functionality, safety, security, all that stuff.

[3:36:30] I guess you could almost say it's a somewhat qualifies a latent defect if somebody buys a house

[3:36:39] seller did not disclose that the garage was not in compliance and that code enforcement

[3:36:44] or that they had received a letter from the city or code enforcement and they neglect

[3:36:50] to report that to the buyer, buyer then obviously has some means for going after it.

[3:36:57] It's just not fair to the buyer.

[3:37:00] It's just not fair to them, but so good.

[3:37:03] Yeah, I mean, I agree.

[3:37:04] I think the way it's structured now is great.

[3:37:06] And I think we'll figure out what the results of all

[3:37:10] of this effort is at the end of the 18 month period.

[3:37:14] And at that point, if we have, I mean,

[3:37:16] maybe we do get over 90% compliance, and we're all happy.

[3:37:20] Maybe it's not there.

[3:37:21] And then we revisit it and see if one, if we even want to

[3:37:25] still enforce, you know, where people have a garage or two, we extend it even further

[3:37:30] or we create special circumstances, but maybe we just move forward with it the way it

[3:37:35] is now, see how it goes. It's a new program that we've not done before. So there's probably

[3:37:40] a lot of things that we'll learn along the way, but I think we have sufficient time to figure

[3:37:45] that out. And then we're not bound by anything to not do this again if we wanted to.

[3:37:51] Yeah.

[3:37:53] Correct.

[3:37:53] And when the program is over, we will bring you information on how the program worked and

[3:37:58] how many compliance people promise we issued and we'll bring all that back to you.

[3:38:04] Do you have any, have y'all thought through what the percentages will be for uptake and then

[3:38:11] also for how many you might be able to go in with code that don't take, keep up on the offer?

[3:38:19] I mean, it's really hard to predict that because you have quite a variety throughout the city of different kinds of conversions and stuff, so it's just, I don't know how we would predict that.

[3:38:35] I would agree with Council and Roman that we move forward with the program as it's, or this ordinance as it's presented.

[3:38:44] I just like to make sure that the planning and zoning comments regarding the re-application and extensions

[3:38:51] questions come in line with other standard building permits and such.

[3:38:58] But I'd like maybe once this program starts, we could come back after say 12 months of the 18 month and see kind of where we are and what issues we might need to clean up or adjust.

[3:39:12] Okay, any other comments from council?

[3:39:14] This is a public hearing, I do not have anybody assigned up to speak to it.

[3:39:19] So, entertain motion to close public hearing and move on item L2.

[3:39:27] May I may make a motion to close the public hearing and approve ordinance number 3873 as presented?

[3:39:34] Very good.

[3:39:35] Thank you.

[3:39:41] I'll second.

[3:39:42] Okay.

[3:39:43] You have comments?

[3:39:44] Yes.

[3:39:45] I'd like to ensure the ordinance includes the recommendations by PNZ regarding bringing it

[3:39:50] in alignment with the other building from it,

[3:39:53] and the extensions, et cetera.

[3:39:55] Those changes have been incorporated

[3:39:57] into the ordinance in front of you.

[3:39:58] Okay, thank you.

[3:40:00] Okay. We do have a motion with a second, so if you would please indicate your vote accordingly.

[3:40:08] Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Next up is item M1. Consider accepting the Resonation of Council Member Mark Baird District 2 and adopting ordinance number 3877, calling a special election to be held on November 5, 2024, to fill the unexpired remaining term of office and take appropriate action.

[3:40:51] Good evening, Mayor and Council. With the resignation of Council Member Baird,

[3:40:54] that is going to create a vacancy for District 2.

[3:40:58] There is approximately 22 months left on his term.

[3:41:04] So our city charter states that if there's more than 12 months on a vacancy,

[3:41:09] that we are required to hold a special election within 120 days.

[3:41:13] So a part of this item, there's also an ordinance requesting your approval.

[3:41:19] That's calling a special election that will utilize the upcoming uniform election

[3:41:23] date of November 5th, and also Councilmember Baird will continue to serve through the election,

[3:41:31] so that his district continues to have representation. And I'm happy to answer any questions you

[3:41:37] might have. Thank you. So you're welcome. Questions, comments?

[3:41:43] I'll say just in general, I'm very sorry

[3:41:48] I'm sorry to see Councilman Baird go, I understand why and I mean you're moving, you're

[3:41:55] moving, but the city's going to miss you, the city council's going to miss you and been

[3:42:03] a pleasure to serve with you, so thank you.

[3:42:10] This item is Mark Fraction,

[3:42:14] okay, so I'll reluctantly put forth the motion that moved

[3:42:19] to approve ordinance number 3877 as presented.

[3:42:23] I'll second.

[3:42:24] We have motion in a second.

[3:42:26] That doesn't really feel right.

[3:42:28] You shouldn't be seconding, Pat.

[3:42:30] But okay.

[3:42:33] Should I vote no?

[3:42:36] I might.

[3:42:38] If you would please mark your ballot accordingly.

[3:42:48] The extension is, yes, motion passes unanimously.

[3:42:52] Thank you.

[3:42:55] Next step is item M2, consider proving resolution 2024-116 to support capping the sales and

[3:43:02] used tax revenues paid by the City of Farmer Springs to the Dallisary Rapid Transit Authority and take appropriate action.

[3:43:10] Good evening, Mayor of Council, Joaria Thoreen, Deputy City Manager, the resolution that you have in front of you tonight, resolution number 2024-116.

[3:43:18] It calls for supporting, capping, the sales and use tax revenue paid by the City of Farms Branch to the Dallas, area rapid transit authority.

[3:43:29] We are one of the 13 service member cities to darkboard.

[3:43:35] We are not the only city who are bringing this resolution forward.

[3:43:38] We just have Plano, Roulette, Irwin, and Carolton just approved the same resolution.

[3:43:44] The purpose of this resolution is not to cut the funding today, or now it is just to be in alignment with all other cities.

[3:43:52] Dart receives half of our sales tax, which is equal to 1 cent per year from his range contributes around 22 to 23 million.

[3:44:01] When, according to one report, only in FY 2024, Dart's estimated revenue was around 870 million.

[3:44:08] The concern which are also shared by multiple other cities is the reliability and quality of the services.

[3:44:13] the cleanliness and safety, which is also shared by our residents.

[3:44:17] With the contribution that we make to Dart, is this what our taxpayers deserve?

[3:44:22] Or a question we are also asking, is are we subsidizing for the services that are being

[3:44:26] provided to other cities?

[3:44:28] The action I'm requesting tonight is passing the resolution, which supports the

[3:44:33] contribution from existing one cent to the three-quarter of the cent.

[3:44:37] We will join other city for 2025 legislative session next year.

[3:44:41] With the reduction, our voters will have the ability to allocate one quarter of a cent,

[3:44:48] which is equal to five to six million annual that we can use to our different projects.

[3:44:53] This is all the information I have for you to discuss and give us guidance.

[3:44:57] Thank you.

[3:44:58] Thank you.

[3:45:00] Thank you. I think it's really important at this point, just to clarify for anybody listening or here tonight, the City of Farmers Branch is not dropping out of dark. We are not eliminating dark service. So I want to make sure that everybody understands that. We are not eliminating dark service. There's been an effort by many of the member cities to reduce their 1 cent

[3:45:29] sales tax contribution to DART, which has been in place since day one.

[3:45:37] And I've sat in a lot of meetings, I've had discussions with Gary Slagel, Chairman of the Board of DART,

[3:45:46] regarding this, and this is just an indication of what we would like to do.

[3:46:00] moving forward, but they were still be getting the one cent from our city.

[3:46:16] I've

[3:46:17] choose to look at this as more as a realignment of participation. There's parts

[3:46:26] of the service area that Dart serves that certainly utilized our much, much more than our city.

[3:46:37] And there's Dart services that seem to work better for our city versus other services that they offer.

[3:46:45] So we need to take a good hard look at this.

[3:46:50] we need to evaluate this contribution that we've been making over the past 40 years.

[3:46:59] We were an original member city and there are probably other cities that would join Dart.

[3:47:08] They've expressed interest in joining Dart but they don't want to pay the full cent.

[3:47:14] many people, many dark representatives or city representatives say well that's

[3:47:24] not fair because we paid the one cent for 40 years and now why should somebody

[3:47:31] come in and pay less?

[3:47:35] I've sat in these meetings and I'm of the mindset that we

[3:47:39] need to realign our contribution to dark and do it in such a way that it

[3:47:48] It enables DARP to also go after new member cities to expand their network.

[3:47:57] The Regional Transportation Commission is going to be coming out with a report later in the year.

[3:48:05] Trying to project the future of DARP, Ernest and Young, is doing a study for DARP right now.

[3:48:14] And so this is not anything new.

[3:48:17] And

[3:48:20] we are not alone in taking action.

[3:48:22] In fact, Hamilton just voted this evening to do this very action.

[3:48:29] So again,

[3:48:33] we're in it with 12 other cities.

[3:48:38] And the majority of the cities are looking to realign what they are providing dark.

[3:48:48] So Councils, they may have any questions regarding this

[3:48:55] information in the packet, but

[3:49:04] questions, comments?

[3:49:07] I just have a comment. Thank you very much to worry. I don't know just reiterate for those that are here. Can you all hear me out there?

[3:49:15] I've been hearing people can't hear me.

[3:49:18] We're talking about a potential saving to our city of 22 to 23 million every year by moving forward. Is that correct?

[3:49:28] That's not correct, about five.

[3:49:30] Five or six minutes.

[3:49:31] Okay, it's a total of 22 to 23.

[3:49:33] Yeah, five or six minutes per saving.

[3:49:35] Regardless, that's, which was pretty significant.

[3:49:37] That's a pretty significant, you know, there.

[3:49:40] So, then again, just to reiterate what the mayor said,

[3:49:45] we're not cutting any service here.

[3:49:47] No plans to do that at this time,

[3:49:49] but the concerns and issues being raised by many

[3:49:54] are the cleanliness, the safety issues surrounding dark.

[3:50:00] There's lots of discussion regarding ridership, ridership is up, ridership is down. I don't know how much the ridership is here, specifically a farmer's branch, but I'm sure it's less than some of these other participating cities. So I just wanted to reiterate that's a five or six million dollar savings. So the residents are clear on that potential savings by moving forward with this.

[3:50:26] Now, I was just made aware of this evening.

[3:50:31] of something that Dart put out, I sort of take exception to this, but it was delivered

[3:50:44] I guess to Carrollton and Farmer's branch and it said this is from Dart, your city

[3:50:54] is going to cut Dart funding by 25%. This means transit will be less safe and have less

[3:51:00] frequent service. I'm not sure about that.

[3:51:07] Dart has blown the curve on what they pay for police officers.

[3:51:17] In fact,

[3:51:31] they have over 400 full-time employees in their police department.

[3:51:39] I think if anything,

[3:51:41] Dart needs to take a look at how they're managing themselves because it's our money. They're using

[3:51:47] our money to compete against our own police department hiring efforts.

[3:51:57] When they come out and say they're going to start everybody $100,000,

[3:52:01] makes it really, really hard for local departments to compete with that.

[3:52:07] It's really an unsustainable model.

[3:52:13] So I can go on and on, I got lots of facts and figures.

[3:52:17] But you all had most of the same information that I had, I think this is why it's really important for us to have regular attendance at the RTC meetings every month, at the Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition meetings every month.

[3:52:39] to be networking with our counterparts or other mayors and city council representatives

[3:52:45] and other cities that are part of Dart because we're

[3:52:54] all we're all fighting to try to save

[3:52:56] tax dollars and with some of the state imposed limitations, budget limitations that we have

[3:53:03] it's really important that we try to bring some of our dollars back to our city because

[3:53:07] I think we know how to spend our money better than another organization, so go ahead.

[3:53:16] Mayor, I'm also aware that we've received a letter tonight, or the afternoon from the CEO of Dart asking us to defer action tonight.

[3:53:24] I'm not supportive of deferring the action.

[3:53:26] I'm supportive of taking the action tonight to support the quarter-cent reduction pursuing that.

[3:53:32] that, regardless of my personal experiences, riding dirt.

[3:53:40] The impact I've seen on our city from dirt is vagrancy, trash, crime, threatening the safety

[3:53:50] of our neighborhoods that were trying to build a Mustang station.

[3:53:54] It's rather convenient for my life not to jump on a train, run downtown for a concert and

[3:53:59] come back on the train.

[3:54:01] The two times we've done that, both times coming back late at night.

[3:54:05] there have been some unsafe situations so I'll echo your comments mayor to tell

[3:54:14] us that will this cut will result in you know less policing or more unsafe

[3:54:21] for reduced services. I find offensive. First it has been paying half of its

[3:54:27] sales tax for 40 years is it? 40 years and they can't seem to police this

[3:54:33] parking lot out here. We've got residents in pretty high dollar town homes right

[3:54:40] here in front of beautiful little Rose Garden area and there's nothing but a

[3:54:44] chain link fence between them and all the trash that comes up here on their

[3:54:48] trains.

[3:54:51] So I do take exception to the threat that that can get worse if we cut our

[3:54:57] funding. I just looked at the dark executive.

[3:55:00] Our staff team looks like there's not count of 25-26 executives at DART. I don't know what it takes to run a transportation system, but that seems a bit exorbitant to me.

[3:55:14] Our city, staff and council, every budget season spends an inordinate amount of time scrutinizing expenses and revenue. And we look at that through a lens of trying to save the resident tax dollars while maintaining high quality amenities throughout our city.

[3:55:32] We're doing it right now.

[3:55:34] I'd like to see what Darts doing to make sure that they're making the best use of half

[3:55:39] of our sales tax.

[3:55:43] So I'd like to call the DART one of these 25, two dozen DART executives to come to

[3:55:51] Farmers Branch and explain how they're being fiscally responsible with our sales tax.

[3:56:01] Thank you.

[3:56:02] Councillor Romney.

[3:56:06] We'll provide it. There's no other comment. I was hoping we could move to a motion.

[3:56:13] Okay. Mayor, I move to a resolution number 2024-116 as presented.

[3:56:20] I'll second.

[3:56:21] Thank you. We have motion.

[3:56:22] Second.

[3:56:24] If you would please indicate your vote accordingly.

[3:56:32] Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much.

[3:56:34] Thank you.

[3:56:35] Next up is item M3. Consider approving resolution 2024-117 authorizing an interlocal agreement with

[3:56:42] the Dallas County for grant funding under the American Rescue Plan Act for the redevelopment of residential homes in the Valid Park neighborhood and take appropriate action.

[3:56:53] Good evening, Pearlett Rivera, Director of Economic Development, tourism and planning.

[3:56:57] This was brought to you in study session items, so this is now bringing in a local agreement and a resolution to go.

[3:57:03] So this is the Dallas County Housing Replacement Program for the Val Wood and Jason areas.

[3:57:07] As here's an overall breakdown in regards to the program, as far as the county demolishes substantially low moderate income owned homes and repair it with a new home.

[3:57:17] Of course, individuals have to apply, they have to have fully paid mortgage, income 80% or below area medium.

[3:57:24] As mentioned, the Valwood area, and the funding source for this is ARPA money through Dallas County and we would be the pass-through.

[3:57:31] So we are getting 2.5 million from Dallas County, ARPA for total up to 10 homes.

[3:57:36] The compliance will be a 15-year lien on that home.

[3:57:40] And here's a couple more information as far as who's going to administer the program.

[3:57:44] It would be our City of Farmers Branch staff to verify the income and build the homes.

[3:57:49] The homes would be under 1600 square foot, an RFP would go in regards to who's going to build the homes.

[3:57:57] And then as I mentioned 2.5 million for the housing program and as soon as if you guys if this does get proved today

[3:58:03] We can start the program and start looking for any of information as far as any residents that would qualify

[3:58:08] So we do have Lewis to my own here with Del's County and I am available if you have any questions

[3:58:15] Council

[3:58:16] You have questions in regards to the program

[3:58:20] Then through it for one quick question. I was looking through the

[3:58:29] Another lengthy 264 page document.

[3:58:33] You looked at all of it, me too.

[3:58:34] And I happened to notice that several of the exhibits,

[3:58:38] specifically the Statement of Work and Deliverables

[3:58:41] under Exhibit E. They're just blank.

[3:58:43] There's nothing there.

[3:58:45] How was it?

[3:58:46] I don't quite understand why they're blank

[3:58:48] or maybe I was looking in the wrong way.

[3:58:51] There's lots of references to Exhibit E

[3:58:53] there as to Statement of Work and the Deliverables.

[3:58:56] And I didn't see, maybe that comes later in the process.

[3:58:58] I'm not sure.

[3:58:58] I'll have to verify that.

[3:58:59] I apologize for that, Roger.

[3:59:01] I believe the statement of that was just all the ARPA requirements because it is ARPA

[3:59:04] funding.

[3:59:05] So I think I stopped looking after page 200, but I'll definitely verify it.

[3:59:09] I'm quite in favor of this program.

[3:59:11] I'm just trying to make sure we cross the T's and dot the I so speak.

[3:59:15] Absolutely.

[3:59:24] Questions, comments, or a motion?

[3:59:27] May I move to approve resolution 2024-117 is presented.

[3:59:32] I'll second.

[3:59:34] Thank you.

[3:59:34] We have motion in a second.

[3:59:35] If you would, please indicate you're very recording me.

[3:59:40] And I just want to make sure we do get to the answer

[3:59:42] that Mr. Niel was looking for.

[3:59:44] I'll get that to you as soon as I get back into my computer.

[3:59:49] Motion passes unanimously.

[3:59:50] Thank you very much.

[3:59:51] Thank you.

[3:59:56] So.

[4:00:06] So that concludes our regular city council meeting. We're going to go back to excuse me. We're going to take about a 15-minute break. We'll go back to study session. And then we still have an executive session after that. We'll at least get study session in down here. We'll be down here. So please take about 15 minutes or so. And so you're right back here. Thank you.

[4:00:45] Thank you.

[4:00:45] So welcome back to the City of Farmers Branch, to the Council meeting for Tuesday, July 16th.

[4:00:52] We are now going to go back to our study session and resume with item C4, which is discussed and

[4:00:59] gives staff direction regarding firehouse theaters to seal the use agreement updates.

[4:01:04] Excuse me.

[4:01:06] Good afternoon, good evening, Mayor and Council.

[4:01:10] Jennifer Eni, assistant to the city manager.

[4:01:13] Staff are presented a report during the March 5th study session at the request of Council

[4:01:18] member Jackson and the Council determined to form an ad hoc committee for the discussion

[4:01:23] of the Farmers Branch Community Theater, also known as Firehouse Theater.

[4:01:27] So for those of you new to Council wanted to share some of that background and what that

[4:01:32] existing facility use agreement has, so that existing facility use agreement has a term

[4:01:36] that goes August to July. It has a couple of different termination bullet points there

[4:01:43] on reasons or areas that we could terminate that agreement. There are also some specifics

[4:01:50] in there that the city currently provides maintenance and repairs. The city is currently paying

[4:01:55] for utilities and the city is responsible for waste disposal recycling, fire alarm, monitoring

[4:02:00] during janitorial services.

[4:02:03] So previous council direction, we received quite a bit of council direction.

[4:02:06] We met, I believe it was in March and in twice in April, received some council direction.

[4:02:11] So that previous council direction is all summarized here, where all utilities were to be paid by

[4:02:17] paid to the city by firehouse theater.

[4:02:19] And then the city was going to pay for pest control and a portion of a telephone linked

[4:02:23] to the fire alarm monitoring because that was required through two phone lines required

[4:02:26] for that fire alarm monitoring.

[4:02:29] Firehouse Theater was also supposed to, the direction was to provide annual report, including attendance, performance engagement, and

[4:02:35] salary programs, and then to provide updates to council upon request.

[4:02:39] The facility value was quantified at that 61,000 to 73,000 per year, and

[4:02:43] then allowing the city to use that facility when not impacting their production schedule.

[4:02:47] And then facility use years, other dates were going to be modified to align with more that fiscal year.

[4:02:53] Just so it's a little bit more similar to the rest of our agreements.

[4:02:57] They also recommended a council liaison position and then cooperation with the city and then

[4:03:03] Carrollton Farmers Branch ISD for educational training and rec programming.

[4:03:08] So Firehouse Theatre proposed revisions to that.

[4:03:10] They were provided all of those and then they provided red lines back to us.

[4:03:14] Those red lines have been shared with you and if you don't mind, I'll get through this and we'll go through those red lines together.

[4:03:19] So we're not flipping back and forth between slides.

[4:03:21] So, there was a significant number, I think it was total of 18 red lines that were provided on various articles within that agreement.

[4:03:30] In the budgetary impacts of facility use agreements, since we are in that budget cycle right now,

[4:03:35] I wanted to provide that total. The council proposed average annual cost for Firehouse Theatre.

[4:03:40] That electric was just an average based off of the usage, I believe it was 2019 and on.

[4:03:45] previous to 2019, we had a little bit different rate systems so the electric rates were a lot higher.

[4:03:50] So try to pull more recent average there, similar with water, gas, and then that phone, internet, and Wi-Fi.

[4:03:56] Minus those two lines for fire monitoring.

[4:03:58] I believe the two lines are about $30 to $35 a piece, so subtracting that total of $70 monthly.

[4:04:06] Solid waste is a newer contract, so we had that total.

[4:04:09] I believe it was $199 per week for twice-weekly monitoring, or I'm sorry, twice-weekly pickup.

[4:04:18] And then janitorial was contracted at 4882 per cleaning at roughly 120 shows.

[4:04:23] So that's where that average comes in at.

[4:04:25] That's a great rate for janitorial.

[4:04:27] So in firehouse, when they've proposed their revisions to that contract,

[4:04:32] those red lines that they've proposed, those red lines include capping those utilities.

[4:04:37] So you'll see that bottom number there in the blue.

[4:04:38] they've requested utility annual cap at $13,100.

[4:04:43] So it's just a little bit off, it looks like it's about $500

[4:04:45] off from that average of electric water and gas for the past few years.

[4:04:49] And then they've also requested that they no longer be,

[4:04:53] they no longer pay for phone internet or Wi-Fi.

[4:04:56] They're not currently paying for that, but they did redline that out of that contract.

[4:05:09] So, if you're agreeable to it, I'd like to just go ahead and pull up that red line document. So, we're all looking at the same pages together. We can go through them one by one, instead of flipping back and forth between the different pages.

[4:05:24] I do have a quick question. In the event that we do have legal questions for our attorney regarding this contract, would it be okay to go to executive

[4:05:33] executive session and address those, or do we address those in open session?

[4:05:39] I kind of want to see how the conversation goes, but if we are going to be talking about

[4:05:43] renegotiating the terms of this agreement, it's really probably ought to be done in

[4:05:46] a closed session.

[4:05:48] If we're simply going to, as a wholesale matter, reject all of them and say, take it back

[4:05:53] to them and take it to leave the basis that we're done, but if we want to talk about renegotiating

[4:05:58] specific terms or asking questions about them, you're right, executive session would be appropriate.

[4:06:02] Yeah, I have some some legal questions, and maybe I'll reserve my questions until then if that's okay.

[4:06:10] All right,

[4:06:13] so let me ask if anybody has any other, any general questions at this point regarding this, I will say that I have a number of questions regarding notations that were made in the contract.

[4:06:29] And could you go back to the, yes?

[4:06:40] So, I want to make sure I'm absolutely clear on what is being presented here.

[4:06:48] The Firehouse Theatre is looking for a cap on what they pay for utilities of $13,100.

[4:06:58] Among other things, yes.

[4:06:59] Among other things.

[4:07:00] Which all the, any cost above that that are incurred for utilities, gas, water, electric,

[4:07:09] what not, would be borne by the city.

[4:07:12] Correct.

[4:07:13] Okay, and

[4:07:18] was there a reason given why they don't want to pay for the solid waste?

[4:07:23] They're the ones making their own refuse.

[4:07:27] No, there was not a reason outside of what was provided in that red line.

[4:07:33] Okay, then I'll hold the rest of my questions for executive session.

[4:07:38] Councilman Jackson.

[4:07:39] Thank you Mayor, thank you Jennifer.

[4:07:43] Solid waste is what I think solid waste is here, right?

[4:07:46] We're sending a pump over to the firehouse and we're pumping out the sewer system.

[4:07:51] Is that what that is?

[4:07:52] What is that?

[4:07:53] Trash.

[4:07:54] Trash.

[4:07:55] Okay, just trash.

[4:07:56] We pick up of $1199.

[4:07:59] Sorry, I just want to make sure I understood that.

[4:08:03] Is the electric water and gas at that facility is it metered, or is there some kind of averaging or estimating it's metered?

[4:08:13] It isn't for sure.

[4:08:14] Okay, it is metered.

[4:08:17] The janitorial and the solid waste services are part of the bigger city negotiated contract.

[4:08:26] So, if they were to go out and get their own contract in all likelihood, they're going to pay more because they don't have the power of economies as we do here with the city, correct?

[4:08:39] Correct.

[4:08:40] Okay.

[4:08:47] There's a question.

[4:08:48] Let me look.

[4:08:59] That's all I have for now.

[4:09:02] Thank you.

[4:09:05] Anybody else have anything at this time?

[4:09:07] Okay, then we will continue the rest of this discussion in the executive session, so we'll just add it on to the other items.

[4:09:23] Moving on, it will be item C5, discuss the Animal Adoption Centers capacity and future needs.

[4:09:30] All right, that is also partially me.

[4:09:35] Again, Jennifer Annie, assistant to the City Manager, however, I would like to introduce our new animal services manager.

[4:09:40] I don't know that many of you have formally met him, but Tyler Winkler joins us.

[4:09:44] He just joined us in May after a long recruiting and process trying to get him over here.

[4:09:49] We are really eager to have him in our staff now.

[4:09:53] He brings with him a wealth of animal services field operations, as well as operations in shelters and

[4:10:00] The Humane Society of the United States is spoken nationally at Nationwide Conferences and traveled the United States to share information and education to animal shelters across the United States. So I will let him take the reins on most of this for the animal services update. Good afternoon or good evening mayor and council. I'm very, very happy to be here. It's nice to meet all of you. So at the request of Council Member Jackson, we are going to provide an update on our animal shelter capacity.

[4:10:28] and so what we have before you is the initial drawings of our building and it's important to remember as we kind of look at this is our building has undergone some renovations over the past 15 years or so that it's been open.

[4:10:44] So this might look a little bit confusing but we've tried to identify the areas by color coding so we have 25 total dog kennels so you can see there are eight dog hold kennels, 10 dog adoption kennels.

[4:10:57] And again, it can be confusing to delineate between those two.

[4:11:02] But those are our general housing area that we have for

[4:11:07] animals that come into our care.

[4:11:10] You can see in the top of that, there are four dog kennels that has marked ISO.

[4:11:16] So those are our isolation kennels.

[4:11:17] We'll utilize those animals that come in that we suspect of being sick,

[4:11:22] injured in some way that need more advanced medical care.

[4:11:24] It gives us a way to isolate those animals from our general population to keep them healthy.

[4:11:29] You can see on the right there the top two purple rooms are marked as flexible housing rooms.

[4:11:35] So it's important to note when our building was initially designed, it was designed with flexibility in mind.

[4:11:40] So we intentionally flex the use of these spaces and so we're able to utilize those in a myriad of different ways.

[4:11:47] Currently, as of this morning, when I left the shelter to come here, we were housing roughly 20 kittens

[4:11:53] in shoreline kennels, to his kitten season, currently we have a large influx of kittens coming into our care.

[4:11:59] So you've been able to flex one of these multi-use rooms and put in stainless steel kennels like you would see at your veterinary office.

[4:12:07] And we're utilizing one of those rooms for that.

[4:12:09] And then we also have a larger influx of puppies, it's summer, it's a very, very busy time for shelters.

[4:12:17] So those are those two flex rooms.

[4:12:19] If you come later on in the year, it might be used to co-housing one or two dogs at a time.

[4:12:24] But in the current utilization, it's intended to be flexible to fit our specific needs.

[4:12:29] Those other two rooms that are in green, those are our adult cat co-housing areas.

[4:12:35] So we're very fortunate and that we do have co-housing areas for our feline friends.

[4:12:40] Those are for adult cats that come in that have been from a home environment.

[4:12:44] And it gives them a place to unwind and be in a more normal environment than, you know, stuck in a cage.

[4:12:51] So those are those two rooms.

[4:12:53] Everything on the right, those two purple rooms, two green rooms, and then that first 10 dog adoption hallway.

[4:13:01] That's the only area of our facility that is currently open to the public.

[4:13:06] So those 10 dog adoption rooms, if you've been to our shelter, it's super, super nice.

[4:13:13] But it does pose an issue that currently we do house dogs in the back.

[4:13:18] So right now staff is escorting visitors to the back area where animals are being held in that eight dog hold room.

[4:13:26] And then everything past that is a medical isolation area.

[4:13:29] So sometimes we'll hold animals undergoing cats undergoing trap new to return.

[4:13:36] So folks are able to trap feral cats in our community, bring them to us.

[4:13:39] We provide sterilization services vaccinations.

[4:13:42] We hold them in an area until they're recovered and then we release those animals.

[4:13:47] Areas in red are designated as quarantine areas.

[4:13:50] We are mandated by the state.

[4:13:52] We are the local rabies control authority for the state of arms branch.

[4:13:56] So we're required to maintain quarantine facilities for rabies cases.

[4:14:00] We have three dog quarantine facilities and then we also have two cat quarantine facilities as well.

[4:14:07] And then you see another red box there that is in our surgical suite.

[4:14:10] So we do not utilize that area for general animal housing because it is inside of a sterile medical area

[4:14:16] So that is only utilized for surgery days

[4:14:18] So this is just a broad overview of our current shelter layout

[4:14:23] Again, we have 25 total cat kennels two cat rooms two flex rooms

[4:14:27] We've identified identified our capacity at 70 animals and again as we go through the presentation

[4:14:34] It's important to keep in mind that we do have flexibility in our housing areas and our facilities

[4:14:40] So, you know, right now we have roughly 70 animals in our care as of about an hour ago when

[4:14:47] I checked, but we're able to make it work and flex these areas as we need.

[4:14:55] So here is our, there's a lot of qualifiers on this, but this is the daily shelter popular

[4:15:01] So what we did is we went back and looked at our historical data from 2014, and we calculated the average population in our shelter per day. And it's important to know that these numbers are seasonal. So right now at the height of, you know, kitten puppy season, you know, our numbers tend to be a little bit higher. So I do have the 2024 projections on there as well. Right now, I believe our average is right at 72 animals.

[4:15:29] per day for 2024. Now it's important to note that during the winter months, that number

[4:15:37] statistically will be a little bit lower so that average may come down a bit. But you

[4:15:41] can see the early trend, but generally speaking for the last three years, they've had between

[4:15:47] 60 and 70 animals in custody every single day.

[4:15:53] And then here are our, again, that kind

[4:15:56] of that same information, but this is just looking at our intakes. So this is our intake

[4:16:01] compared to our population.

[4:16:03] So we went back, got the historical data.

[4:16:06] We looked at the number of animals that we were taking into our shelter.

[4:16:10] We compared that to the population, for farmers branch during that time.

[4:16:15] And so you can see the trends there.

[4:16:16] So 2015, our population was a little bit lower.

[4:16:21] We were taking in around 1100 animals and extrapolating that out to 2024.

[4:16:27] For our current intake, this two date is right at 700 animals, 698 to be exact.

[4:16:36] So, 2024 is not on there, but you can see the dip year.

[4:16:39] So, those numbers, kind of in that valley, those represent the COVID year.

[4:16:45] So, animal shelters across the country experienced really, really low animal intake.

[4:16:50] Fiscal year or 2022, those numbers skyrocketed and intake has increased.

[4:16:55] And this is not something you need to our city.

[4:16:57] This is something that has represented by animal shelters all across the country.

[4:17:01] So that's what that dip is there that those are the COVID years.

[4:17:05] And then so we took a daily, or we took that average.

[4:17:09] We calculated it to 3.236.

[4:17:11] So we found that we were taking in a compared to our population size.

[4:17:16] About 3.236 percent of that was our animal intake.

[4:17:21] We took that and extrapolated it out to our 2030 and 2045 projection so you'll see a moderate

[4:17:27] increase of about 150 to 200 animals from our current shelter intake out to 2045.

[4:17:33] And again, that's just our best estimate.

[4:17:35] There's not a super great model to predict these trends in animal shelters, but this is

[4:17:41] the current best method to do that.

[4:17:42] So again, we analyzed all that historical data and extrapolated it out.

[4:17:49] Any questions?

[4:17:53] So no, I have a question.

[4:17:55] So with all these extra animals, where do you go put them?

[4:17:58] That is a good question.

[4:17:59] So what we've done, we have really leaned into our foster community.

[4:18:03] We have a great community that really wants to support our shelter.

[4:18:07] And we just need to provide them the opportunity to help us.

[4:18:10] So since early May, we've been able to get 75 animals into foster program.

[4:18:16] Right now we've got around 36 animals in foster home.

[4:18:19] So, and I can, I'll print it out this morning, but we have a total of 39 animals in foster care currently with 107 animals under our care.

[4:18:34] So 39 of those animals are in foster homes and in our community and surrounding communities.

[4:18:39] Folks have graciously opened their doors and I'll end up taking those animals in.

[4:18:43] It's important to note that we are still responsible for providing care, medical care, food,

[4:18:48] All of the normal things that we would provide in our shelter, we are still providing those at home.

[4:18:54] Most of those folks have decided to take in medical cases and it's helped ease some of our current population issues that we've experienced.

[4:19:03] So it's been helpful to get animals into foster care.

[4:19:06] So what is your schedule look like for adoption events?

[4:19:11] So that's something that I'm actively working on.

[4:19:14] We have partnerships or we're working on partnerships with some local apartment complexes where they are will it had inclusive housing is extremely difficult to find right now in our current market.

[4:19:25] So we've been able to work with a couple of apartment complexes and we're getting those details finalized.

[4:19:30] I'm also looking at opportunities for us to it's very, very hot right now, but in the future maybe in the fall to say we have Hoyap Park, which is we have a great captive audience there.

[4:19:40] We've been working with our parks department to get some signage up in our well-attended parks to let people know that our animal shelter

[4:19:47] Is there and then we're also looking at utilizing our adoption trailer that we have and actually bringing the trailer out to those parts

[4:19:53] Who do adoption events there? So it's something that we're looking at just takes a similar just fixing coordinating

[4:20:00] Last question, I know you've got one board member who wants to expand the annual shelter. Well, we don't have money for that. So, is it possible for the annual shelter? Maybe that's a question for you to have their own capital campaign?

[4:20:21] Let me, Jennifer, explain some of the what we're doing right now, and we can go from there, but they do have the donation, which they're working on with the annual shelter, and she has a little bit more on that. And that would use our donation that we received this past year.

[4:20:33] pre-utilizing that donation, it was 1.5 million, there's not a significant increase

[4:20:37] is using 2045 projection data on, we do have the capacity in act this January when I first

[4:20:45] started here, I've walked through the hallway and that first hallway there, let's see,

[4:20:49] that first home, and then a few dogs on that left side. So there's just a seasonal demand

[4:20:53] for a room that flex capacity that allows that with 11 kittens. So really kind of,

[4:20:58] But it's hardest rooms because they provide us so much flexibility on what we can do in the time they have any questions.

[4:21:05] Thank you, Jennifer.

[4:21:06] Tyler, welcome, Doug.

[4:21:09] I'm going to come in from all different places and all different conditions and be difficult in kind of that as well.

[4:21:17] So Dr. Sarah, she talked about cities.

[4:21:19] We know they're coming from Dallas.

[4:21:22] Have you looked at that?

[4:21:23] How's that tracking?

[4:21:24] Maybe to explain, you know, a cat or a dog is a Dallas cat or a dog and they've come to Farmer's branch now and

[4:21:31] Sure that maybe Dallas has handled Farmer's branches problems. Yeah, I have to add our shelter watching learning our processes how we were in some changes in that

[4:21:41] We were finding it's very easy to lie on a form, right? If you're presented a form that says where did you find this work?

[4:21:47] Has the city of Farmer's branch? It's pretty obvious action there. So we've moved to more show where those animals came from.

[4:21:53] Most people are also developing relationships.

[4:21:57] So the city of Addison comes to mind most daily

[4:22:00] that come in from the Vitruvian's logical that folks

[4:22:02] would think that we are their animal shelter.

[4:22:05] So we're working with the city of Addison

[4:22:07] and I think that there would be some opportunities for us,

[4:22:10] especially in our apartment communities,

[4:22:12] maybe not in Farmer's Branch,

[4:22:13] but very close Vitruvian way coming to mind,

[4:22:16] to work with them as well to educate residents.

[4:22:18] But more of a conversational based approach

[4:22:21] as opposed to just filling out a form, because most people just lie on the form.

[4:22:26] They understand what we're getting at, so again, we haven't taken that form

[4:22:32] necessarily away, but we have moved to more of a conversational method.

[4:25:00] Much of our shelter is used for animals that are brought in by people that found an animal

[4:25:06] or they're giving it up versus those animals that we've had to go out and get because they're

[4:25:12] not on a leash. You were probably here earlier when resident residents, Adams talked about,

[4:25:19] we seem to have a chronic issue of residents and unleashed dogs and cats, though I'm not sure

[4:25:27] how you lead your cat, but what's the utility in our shelter today for those giving up animals

[4:25:35] or finding animals versus those we have to go out and bring them to.

[4:25:39] So, you know, as the city's municipal shelter, we are required to take in animals from our jurisdiction,

[4:25:45] be it on our surrender or street animals that are found, we have a duty to take those animals in.

[4:25:50] So, if an animal is found free of restraint, loose, stray in our city, those animals are

[4:25:55] We're impounded by our animal control officers.

[4:25:58] We are working on, because we are at capacity, we've been at capacity for the last month or so, with our dogs.

[4:26:06] We are working with officers to be able to return those animals to home in the field instead of having to come back into the shelter.

[4:26:14] We are providing follow-up resources or micro-tripping those animals to make it easier in the future should those animals get loose.

[4:26:20] We're spending less resources trying to track and owner down.

[4:26:23] Microchips are generally pretty inexpensive to implant and it saves us a lot of time on the back ends are working with pet owners to reduce that as well.

[4:26:32] I can give you our intake numbers, so I did prepare those.

[4:26:37] So 178 animals and this is year two day or year two yesterday afternoon at 1159.

[4:26:45] So owner guardian surrenders were 178, animals returned to our custody, so adopted and returned were 11.

[4:26:55] Animals that we seized be from animal cruelty, bite cases, or other is nine.

[4:27:01] Animals that have been, or cat, barrel cats that have been TNR'd,

[4:27:06] so that are coming in for that sterilization surgery to be released is 92.

[4:27:10] Straight animals accounts for our largest percentage.

[4:27:13] So, year to date, we've picked up 390 stray animals in Farmer's Branch.

[4:27:21] And do you know, do you have a number of how many of those strays are returned, or is

[4:27:25] a stray not returned, what do I do?

[4:27:29] Sorry, I printed out a lot.

[4:27:31] That's okay.

[4:27:32] Let me flip through.

[4:27:35] So our return to owner guardian numbers, so this is all animals, cats, dogs, pocket pets,

[4:27:40] we get rabbits occasionally, anything that comes into our shelter, animals return to

[4:27:46] their owners is 105, so we've returned 105 of those animals to their owners.

[4:27:53] My concern is I want to make sure that we're equipped to address the strays and the

[4:28:03] repetitive offender, repeated offenders that let their dogs off leash.

[4:28:09] I seem to recall we do have some type of a fine assessed when somebody is not leash in

[4:28:15] in their pet or their repetitive current?

[4:28:18] Yeah, so what we've been doing, obviously me coming in

[4:28:23] two months and still trying to figure out our enforcement model.

[4:28:27] I am trying to empower our staff to provide services

[4:28:31] to residents specifically microchipping and education.

[4:28:34] Some people just, it's crazy,

[4:28:36] that sounds just simply don't know

[4:28:37] that they can't have their animals off of each other park.

[4:28:40] So an ounce prevention is worth a pound of cure

[4:28:42] in my opinion, implanting those animals with a microchip is a really, really easy way

[4:28:47] for us to pick them up and return them to home. If it's a repeat offender, an animal

[4:28:52] has come into us multiple times that the animal is required to be sterilized under city

[4:28:56] ordinance and they are returned to the owner and they will be issued citations at the discretion

[4:29:01] of our animal control officers.

[4:29:03] Okay. All right. Very good. Just trying to get an idea of the traffic flows. You know,

[4:29:09] The chart, if you'll go back, go forward a couple of slides to that projection.

[4:29:16] Not a huge change from today and the next six years.

[4:29:21] But then on out it starts to climb and that we're just guessing at that point.

[4:29:25] We are, so we're taking, we analyze the last ten years of data.

[4:29:30] The Humane Society of the United States, what am I used to work for?

[4:29:35] Their general role of thumb, and again, it depends on a lot of factors socioeconomic and

[4:29:40] and other communities, but their general rule of thumb

[4:29:42] is that per the population size, about 3% of that

[4:29:45] is gonna be your animal shelter intake.

[4:29:48] And as you can see, our data trends pretty closely

[4:29:50] with that for the last 10 years.

[4:29:52] So while we don't expect there to be a huge increase,

[4:29:58] it's pretty difficult to tell.

[4:30:00] I'll pet inclusive housing is becoming more and more elusive defined. And this morning at our shelter, we had somebody come in who was having to move apartments. They can no longer afford their rent, but cannot find somewhere to go with. They had a pit bull type dog. So again, it's vecker is getting more unaffordable for most people. So as that increases, I can imagine a trend where these numbers go up further than our projections. Okay, very good. Thank you.

[4:30:29] thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Questions, comments?

[4:30:35] The question for Ben.

[4:30:39] I heard there's a letter of a donation or something that was made

[4:30:43] to us over a million dollars. Could you help me get a copy of that? Or share that with

[4:30:49] me? Yes, we will. All right, thanks.

[4:30:54] Okay. Seeing nothing else. I thank you so much. Thank you, Council.

[4:30:58] Next

[4:31:05] up is item C6 presentation on the Emergency Disaster Plan related to alerts for impending weather and provide updates on the communication plan.

[4:31:15] All

[4:31:24] right, Mayor Counsel, thank you very much.

[4:31:27] So I just wanted to kind of present to you on how our emergency alerts work, and as well as our outdoor room sirens and kind of our plan moving forward for helping promote this program, get more, some more people send up.

[4:31:40] So Council Member Neal asked us to come and just kind of talk about this.

[4:31:46] Yeah.

[4:31:48] So emergency alerting.

[4:31:50] So it kind of breaks out into a couple different areas.

[4:31:52] So first off, we have our branch alert system, which if y'all don't know about our branch

[4:31:57] alert system, it's our mass notification system.

[4:32:01] And it allows us to communicate directly with residents, businesses, really anyone who wants

[4:32:07] to get alerts whenever something bad is happening.

[4:32:12] So the branch alert program, we use a program called Everbridge.

[4:32:17] We just like to brand it as a branch alert because it sounds a lot cooler.

[4:32:21] And it is an opt-in program.

[4:32:23] So with this program, the residents or whoever could be somebody from outside the city that

[4:32:28] works here, they can opt into it and elect to receive notification for any kind of severe

[4:32:34] whether our police department also has access to this system, they continue alerts if there's

[4:32:39] any kind of road closures, anything like that.

[4:32:43] These alerts, they are, so when I say opt in, it is opt in, so we cannot force anyone to

[4:32:52] receive these alerts, they have to elect to sign up for them.

[4:32:58] So when they do sign up for alerts, they can choose if they want to receive anything about

[4:33:04] severe weather, and then they can choose what kind of severe weather alerts that they receive.

[4:33:08] I think there's 178 different hazards that they can receive a learning on that is crazy.

[4:33:16] Most of those are not going to apply to us, like tsunami warnings.

[4:33:21] If we have a tsunami hit us up here in Farms Branch, it's a really bad day.

[4:33:25] Branch leaders aren't really going to help us at that point, or coastal flooding,

[4:33:28] stuff like that. So some of them aren't going to apply to us. They can still pick to receive those

[4:33:33] These alerts, they'll never get them, but yeah, so like I said, they can also like to receive alerts on road closures, city updates, anything like that they want to receive.

[4:33:49] These alerts, they are going to go out automatically, so if they like to, let's say, severe thunderstorm warning.

[4:33:55] The second of the National Weather Service issues that warning, it's automatically going to go to Everbridge, and

[4:34:01] And then they're going to send that alert out through branch alert to anyone that signed

[4:34:05] up to receive those.

[4:34:08] So it's not reliant on me manually sitting there and typing it out at three in the morning

[4:34:12] potentially to send those out to our residents, it's going to go out automatically.

[4:34:18] The exception is that obviously it's PD.

[4:34:20] So if they are sending out a road closure alert or amber alert, missing child, missing person,

[4:34:27] those they're going to manually send those.

[4:34:28] And there are certain officers and people in administration that have access to the system.

[4:34:37] So kind of the reason I wanted to talk to you all today about this is if you all can

[4:34:42] believe it, it's almost been two months since the Memorial Day storms.

[4:34:47] But after those storms, we did identify a few issues that we had with the system.

[4:34:52] I was very limited. I think I only found three or four reports of people not

[4:35:00] Not receiving alerts when they were in fact signed up for them. So when we did that investigation,

[4:35:05] we found a known issue with the Everbridge system. The Everbridge is aware of, and they're

[4:35:11] working to fix it, where it wasn't plotting their address correctly, so it was actually

[4:35:16] plotting them, I think, up in Illinois, even though it was a farmer's ranch address. I know

[4:35:21] it is, but it just thought that they were up in a different state than they actually were.

[4:35:25] So, I found all of those, and I was able to make corrections to it, and correct all of

[4:35:32] those bad addresses for those residents that said that they didn't receive them.

[4:35:37] In addition to that, I downloaded all of our contacts that are signed up to receive

[4:35:41] branch alerts, went through them, audited all of them, I think I only found a few others

[4:35:45] that had issues with their address.

[4:35:50] So moving forward, we shouldn't have that issue anymore.

[4:35:53] Everbridge is aware of it and they are working to try and remedy that problem.

[4:35:59] A few improvements that we made with the system, it is now linked to the Fire Department

[4:36:06] Facebook page.

[4:36:07] So anytime I severe thunderstorm warning, tornado warning, flash flood warning, whatever it

[4:36:13] is gets issued that automatically get posted to the Fire Department Facebook page.

[4:36:19] So, again, it takes another step out for me having to do it manually, it's just another

[4:36:24] automatic way to do that.

[4:36:27] And then these will also be shared on the Police Department and the City Hall Facebook

[4:36:31] pages as well to reach as many people as possible.

[4:36:37] So, moving on to outdoor warning sirens.

[4:36:40] Kind of, I wanted to get into the purpose of the sirens.

[4:36:43] A lot of people, there's some confusion with sirens.

[4:36:46] Alright, we live in Texas, everyone calls them tornado sirens.

[4:36:51] They are used for tornadoes, they are used for a lot more than that.

[4:36:55] So basically the purpose of these sirens is to alert anyone that is outdoors, that they

[4:37:01] need to go inside and get more information, and then they can take action based on that.

[4:37:07] So we live in North Texas, likely we're out of storm season for now.

[4:37:12] But if you hear those sirens going off, and it looks really mean outside, the sky looks

[4:37:17] really mean, that means go inside, there's danger outside, sorry, go inside, there's danger

[4:37:22] outside, and get more information based on what's happening in the new intake action.

[4:37:27] If you hear the sirens, you go inside, oh there's a tornado warning, go to your shelter location

[4:37:32] take shelter.

[4:37:34] So I say they're outdoor warning sirens, they can be used for quite a few number of things.

[4:37:40] So severe weather obviously is one of them.

[4:37:43] That means either tornado warning is issued,

[4:37:45] severe thunderstorm warning is issued

[4:37:47] and they're indicating 70 mile an hour winds are greater,

[4:37:51] or inch and a half hail are greater.

[4:37:54] Really easy way to tell is if there's a,

[4:37:56] they started doing this recently,

[4:37:58] tag on the severe thunderstorm warning

[4:38:00] if it's catastrophic or destructive.

[4:38:03] The sirens are going to get activated for that.

[4:38:06] But it could also be for a national emergency, so if there's some kind of civil unrest or a foreign nation is packing us or aliens are invading, we can activate them for that as well.

[4:38:20] Or for hazards and material release, so if on 35 tanker truck overturns and they release some kind of really bad thing and we need to alert our residents that they need to go indoors and get more information, we can activate them for that as well.

[4:38:34] So we can also activate them for anything else where we want some people that are outdoors

[4:38:40] to go inside and get more information.

[4:38:43] I think you can catch it under the trend here just when you hear them go inside and get

[4:38:47] more information.

[4:38:49] So some limitations on the sirens.

[4:38:52] So they are only designed to be heard if you are outdoors.

[4:38:58] So you may not hear them if you are in your house.

[4:39:00] If you are in a storm, obviously there is really strong wind.

[4:39:03] It's a lot of noise, and so you might not hear them while you're inside.

[4:39:06] Blue, yes sir.

[4:39:08] Please repeat that because the number of people who contacted me saying, I never heard the sirens.

[4:39:16] Please repeat what you just said and say it really loud in the microphone.

[4:39:21] Sirens are only designed to be heard outdoors.

[4:39:24] Thank you.

[4:39:24] So if you are in your house and you don't hear them, they're not defective.

[4:39:30] If they're not necessarily designed to be heard in your house or in your place of business

[4:39:33] wherever you are.

[4:39:35] And also strong wind can affect the propagation.

[4:39:39] So if you all remember with the May 28th storm, we had a strong wind coming straight out

[4:39:42] of the north.

[4:39:43] I think peak wind speeds near us was 83 miles an hour.

[4:39:47] So really strong wind that's blowing the sound kind of away from the north.

[4:39:53] So it's kind of blowing the sound south.

[4:39:55] And also wind is loud so it's going to kind of drone out the siren sound.

[4:40:01] So, kind of some limitations with the sirens there. So, social media, again, we're going to be

[4:40:07] activating, or we're going to be posting on social media anytime there's a branch alert.

[4:40:12] Does it automatically? So, I don't have to sit there and type it out. But if the sirens

[4:40:17] ever do get activated for whatever reason, then we're going to be posting on there that they

[4:40:23] got activated and why they got activated. So, residents are just left wondering, you know,

[4:40:29] are aliens in fact invading or is it tornado or whatever it is.

[4:40:36] And then just posting on whatever other sources we have available.

[4:40:39] So post it on Facebook and if there's any other alerts that come out,

[4:40:45] then we can also post those on social media.

[4:40:50] Sometimes severe thunderstorm warning polygons don't aren't impacting the city yet.

[4:40:57] They might be at some point, so we want to make sure that we're letting

[4:41:00] in our residents know before they get to us what could be happening.

[4:41:05] So all of this kind of leads into my goal with the sirens or not with sirens with branchalers

[4:41:14] specifically is to increase the amount of people that are signed up for it.

[4:41:19] Right now we only have 2,300 people registered for branchalers.

[4:41:24] That could be residents, people who work here, people from outside of the city that are just

[4:41:28] curious what's happening to the City of Farmer's Branch.

[4:41:32] And actually between May 28th and today, we had 109 people sign up for branch alerts,

[4:41:38] which is great, 109 people in two months, less than two months.

[4:41:42] So I want to keep that train going, get more people to sign up for these alerts.

[4:41:49] Hopefully everyone here has signed up for them.

[4:41:51] If you're not, then shameless plug and go to farmer's branch tx.gov slash alerts.

[4:41:57] and you can sign up for the branch alerts.

[4:42:00] But now I'll have Jeff Brady come up and he can kind of talk about how we're going to increase the sign-ups.

[4:42:05] Thank you.

[4:42:06] Thank you, Luke.

[4:42:06] That was a great summary.

[4:42:08] And that does bear repeating also, farmersbranchtx.gov-alerts-alerts.

[4:42:14] So anyone watching, we highly encourage the sign-ups.

[4:42:17] And don't want to belabor the point.

[4:42:19] Luke has already done a great job of summarizing the program itself.

[4:42:22] But how do we get more people to sign up?

[4:42:24] So there's two problems here.

[4:42:25] One, it's not a new program.

[4:42:26] People tend to lean in and pay more attention

[4:42:29] if it's a new technology we're deploying,

[4:42:30] which it is not in all fairness.

[4:42:33] And two, it's like insurance.

[4:42:34] You don't need it until you need it.

[4:42:36] So God willing, 99% of the time,

[4:42:39] none of us need the branch alert.

[4:42:41] So it becomes kind of invisible,

[4:42:43] easy to neglect or forget about.

[4:42:45] But we do need to ramp up.

[4:42:47] And so what Luke and I came up with

[4:42:49] is maybe a long-term campaign,

[4:42:52] maybe a seasonal campaign,

[4:42:53] Maybe every year, we have a sign-up campaign that lasts up to three months long.

[4:42:59] Maybe it's just one month, but we have multiple ways we can reach people.

[4:43:02] Of course, the branch bulletin, the e-newsletter, has a high open rate,

[4:43:06] social media that Luke has already mentioned.

[4:43:08] We have digital monitors that have a slide that says please sign up for a branch alert.

[4:43:14] Here's how to do it.

[4:43:15] And it's in a continual rotation.

[4:43:17] So it's up there all the time for anyone who is in a city building.

[4:43:21] And, of course, the branch review printed newsletter goes out monthly.

[4:43:26] We can deploy that during this seasonal sign-up campaign, and the FB forecast is a weekly

[4:43:32] video that we produce and distribute on Instagram and Facebook.

[4:43:36] So there are a lot of means that we can use to deploy people, but the main thing is it's

[4:43:41] not just a one-and-done thing.

[4:43:43] We really feel like this should perhaps be something we do annually, maybe before severe

[4:43:49] weather season whenever that is I mean we have a lot of them right so hail or ice or tornadoes so

[4:43:54] but the point is maybe we pick a month and we emphasize now's the time remember don't forget

[4:43:59] this is the season to sign up for branch alerts and we hope to raise that number so

[4:44:05] and that's all we have but do any of you have questions about the program or how we intend to

[4:44:11] increase enrollment

[4:44:15] questions comments yeah thank you for this presentation

[4:44:22] I think it's very much needed and I think we do need to re-emphasize this to our residents.

[4:44:29] I too was receiving many calls about the sirens, not their inability to hear their sirens.

[4:44:36] And just a quick note on the sirens.

[4:44:39] Are the sirens periodically tested if so, how often when, just for the residents to understand when they do hear this?

[4:44:48] Yes, so I clarify that for the residents.

[4:44:50] Yeah, absolutely.

[4:44:51] We test the sirens every month on the first Wednesday of every month at 1 p.m.

[4:44:56] Weather permitting, obviously if it looks like it's about to rain.

[4:45:00] No, it is raining. We're not going to test them because that might be misinterpreted as severe weather or something else happening. But yes, we do test them once a month. So the first Wednesday of every month at 1 p.m. Yes, sir. Whether permitting or whatever to test the valid that. And just to follow on with that is there a similar type of testing validation with the Everbridge program.

[4:45:28] that you noticed, you had encountered a few issues here recently,

[4:45:31] is there any kind of regularly scheduled testing evaluation

[4:45:34] of that to make sure?

[4:45:37] At this time, no, we don't have any kind of regular testing.

[4:45:40] They do go out fairly regularly, especially during the spring.

[4:45:45] So they do get tested very well during that time.

[4:45:48] But right now, we don't have any regular testing that we do.

[4:45:51] OK, and another thing I was wanted to inquire about

[4:45:56] How was the ease of which a resident could participate in the alerts?

[4:46:02] Understand that there are some cities around us, other jurisdictions where you can just text your phone number to some place and you're automatically added to the list for the alerts.

[4:46:14] Is that something we could do here or look into doing without having to create an account with all these details?

[4:46:24] Just so it's easier and similarly to opt out if you want to get out of it as well.

[4:46:28] Is it something we can do or not with our current system?

[4:46:31] So with Everbridge, I checked with them.

[4:46:34] There is not a way to do that with our current system in that kind of owes to the customized customization that you can do with it.

[4:46:47] So you can pick which alerts you receive, where the alerts go, whether it's text,

[4:46:52] text, phone call, email, and you can put in multiple numbers and emails so that you get

[4:46:58] better.

[4:46:58] So that's just, it's not an option at all with them or is it like an add-on type of

[4:47:03] fee that we'd have to pay for or something?

[4:47:05] No.

[4:47:05] It's not available.

[4:47:06] Yeah.

[4:47:06] With Everbridge, you have to create the account.

[4:47:10] Is there another program that we could utilize that could then interface with Everbridge in

[4:47:16] a sense we could just sign up easily with a text message and that information is also shared

[4:47:19] would ever bridge and be engaged in the program?

[4:47:22] It is helpful to be able to customize.

[4:47:24] So if you just texted a number then you wouldn't be able to customize exactly what kind of alerts you'd be receiving.

[4:47:30] So it seems like this is, it's a pretty helpful program in that you can dial in exactly what sort of alerts you want to receive.

[4:47:39] So if I wanted all alerts, I would have to do extra signups or.

[4:47:46] No, you just click all this checkbox use checkbox check the one that you want to receive

[4:47:52] It's all the questions I have but thank you very much appreciate the presentation. Oh one last thing. I'm sorry just escaped me

[4:48:04] Is there a

[4:48:07] process or procedure

[4:48:09] for

[4:48:12] Council mayor

[4:48:14] Department heads to be notified when there's an issue going on in the city

[4:48:19] I'm thinking of like an old school call tree.

[4:48:23] We have a list of phone numbers.

[4:48:24] We have this event.

[4:48:25] We get on this list of phone numbers.

[4:48:26] We call people.

[4:48:27] Hey, this is going on in the event

[4:48:29] that maybe Everbridge is not functioning

[4:48:32] or email systems are down or textings.

[4:48:36] I don't know is it?

[4:48:36] Is there anything like a call tree

[4:48:38] here in the city for notifying?

[4:48:41] So there, there may be a system through Entech

[4:48:45] using some kind of reverse 911 system.

[4:48:47] and there's not one that I'm aware of right now.

[4:48:50] We can figure that out and get back to you.

[4:48:53] Okay.

[4:48:54] Okay, thanks.

[4:48:55] Ben will call you.

[4:48:59] So Ben, put me on the list.

[4:49:01] Give me a call please.

[4:49:03] You're on the list.

[4:49:04] Luke, thank you.

[4:49:05] I want to say thank you again because I'd sent an email

[4:49:08] to Ben and he forwarded to you about a couple of residents

[4:49:12] that said that they didn't receive alerts.

[4:49:14] And the way in which you handled that and the level of detail that you were able to then provide back to me and to the residents was a very strong indication that you take your job very seriously and that resident safety is extremely important to you.

[4:49:31] So first I want to say a big thank you to you for taking that request very seriously.

[4:49:40] The other thing too, it's quite enlightening. I thought when the sirens went off, I was supposed to go outside, live on Facebook, and show everybody the tornadoes.

[4:49:49] That's what tree Texans always say.

[4:49:51] Right, right. But I've heard the same thing, folks. I'm in my house. I can't hear it. Well, there's not design for that.

[4:50:00] A few suggestions are just thoughts because I'd love a 2300 registered users on the Everbridge systems. That's great, but we have a long way to go there. It is, you know, maybe you've done this and I've just missed it, but have a sign up table and encourage people at different events, city events. We have didn't drive a lot of going on. I'm assuming if people are coming from Carrollton,

[4:50:28] Does Carlton subscribe to Everbridge?

[4:50:30] We can help other people in other cities sign up on their phones.

[4:50:35] So half folks available to help assist people.

[4:50:39] Because I signed up for Branch Alert as well recently.

[4:50:45] And I kind of felt like the sign-up process was not the greatest user experience,

[4:50:51] but I understand that I don't want tsunami warnings

[4:50:55] and a lot of your relevant stuff and I want text or I want phone call or that kind of thing so

[4:51:03] it does make sense albeit it takes a little bit more work some folks could use some help in

[4:51:11] that process and some folks may be avoiding it just because they went there and like I don't

[4:51:17] that abandoned.

[4:51:22] Train the folks at the Rec Center, you know. So when people come in, you

[4:51:27] know, hey, you signed up to get branch alerts in case of bad weather or emergencies, you

[4:51:32] know, and they have a dialogue. Folks here at the service desk, you know, make that a part

[4:51:39] of their normal dialogue when they encounter residents, you know, before they say goodbye,

[4:51:45] have a good day, you know, have you signed up for branch alerts and promote that there branch

[4:51:55] connection when that reopens library. There's a ton of opportunity to interact and we don't have

[4:52:03] to have you or our fire department or police doing it. We can train staff and multiply very quickly

[4:52:14] the registrations and I think that we'll get us a lot, a lot of knowledge.

[4:52:22] Yeah, and I will say the other four cities, I guess the other three cities, I'll use average system too.

[4:52:29] So Cappell, Carlton and Madison, all through Intek, our agreement is all through Intek, so all four cities.

[4:52:36] Okay, good, yeah, so we all use the same system.

[4:52:40] But yeah, definitely getting some other people trained to get people signed up and yeah, I'm always pushing to get more people on the system.

[4:52:50] Yeah, I mean, I think if we just maybe then we have some kind of contest, you know, a staff or something.

[4:52:57] Sign people up.

[4:52:58] I signed up two friends.

[4:52:59] They signed up two friends.

[4:53:00] and they've seen everybody's got a subscription to it,

[4:53:05] but it could be something fun and it could really,

[4:53:09] really promote in a fun way.

[4:53:13] That's all I have.

[4:53:15] Thank you very much for the update.

[4:53:16] Yes sir, thank you.

[4:53:17] Anybody?

[4:53:18] Yes sir.

[4:53:20] I just want to echo what Councilman Jackson said.

[4:53:25] The interactions that we've had with you

[4:53:29] and has been phenomenal, so I really appreciate that.

[4:53:33] It's a great service.

[4:53:34] I use it myself, so that shows it can't be that difficult

[4:53:38] to sign up for if I can do it.

[4:53:41] One of the things I was thinking, you know,

[4:53:43] people are always looking for free stuff, right?

[4:53:46] It's true.

[4:53:47] So maybe have a monthly drawing, you know,

[4:53:52] $20 gift cards, something like that.

[4:53:54] The only way you get into it by signing up,

[4:53:58] And then you can actually possibly send the winter notification through the system.

[4:54:05] Yeah, you know, this month's winter is Dave Reed, a $20 crore card or something.

[4:54:11] Yeah, you know, it's a way to entice people.

[4:54:14] Absolutely, sir.

[4:54:16] Thank you.

[4:54:18] Anything?

[4:54:20] Okay.

[4:54:21] Thank you very much.

[4:54:22] Sir, thank you.

[4:54:23] Appreciate it.

[4:54:24] Next up is C7, receiving update regarding economic development programs.

[4:54:41] Hello again, Parliamentary Director of Economic Development, Tourism and Planning.

[4:54:45] What I wanted to do is to be in a new director, I wanted to bring over all the programs we have.

[4:54:49] So this month you get economic development programs, next month you get tourism,

[4:54:53] but I do want to stress this is not just what economic development does.

[4:54:57] This is just the programs we have.

[4:54:59] We do much more.

[4:55:00] So these are the programs that we currently have in place, and then we'll go over each program. So we currently have the Texas PACE program, neighborhood partnership program, commercial facade, demo rebuilt, and the Renaissance. Texas PACE program was established back in 2017. This is a state funded, state organized. This was more for informational purposes and an ordinance that was required by the city, but we don't manage this one, but we do have it as an advertiser.

[4:55:29] on our website. The Neighborhood Partnership Program was approved by Council on February

[4:55:34] 2020. Program did expire last year in March. This is an economic incentive for Neighborhood

[4:55:41] Groups to perform projects to enhance the property. Applications are due October and April,

[4:55:47] and then of course we bring them to Council. We had a total of three participants. There

[4:55:51] is one participant that applied, but as I stated, the program expired, so that did not go

[4:55:56] forward. I do plan on bringing a resolution next month to see if this is the

[4:56:00] program you guys want to continue so that applicant can re-apply. Commercial

[4:56:05] foot saw revitalization. This was approved in council 2012. There's no

[4:56:09] expiration of this program currently. This is somewhat like the neighborhood

[4:56:13] partnership but more for commercial programs and funding up to 50,000 with a

[4:56:17] minimum project of two. We had 25 total commercial business participants and one

[4:56:22] currently that submitted application, which I will bring again next month.

[4:56:27] Demo rebuild program, this was approved by Council in 2009.

[4:56:32] It was also amended in 2009 to include builders and developers.

[4:56:36] This was more of a residential single family home program.

[4:56:40] This is a cash and tax rebate incentive to demolish old homes and build new homes up to

[4:56:46] $30,000 in a cash rebate or seven years of property tax.

[4:56:50] We had a total of 134 participants and three currently that are having to go through the application process.

[4:56:58] Renaissance program is the last program we're going to go over.

[4:57:00] This was formally going through all the documents on this was pretty fun.

[4:57:05] So this was formally back in 1998 and it was considered the dangerous structure fund prior to the 2006 resolution.

[4:57:13] This is where the city would purchase the properties, demolish them,

[4:57:17] and then sell the land to, it was usually sold to the developers, and this was a total of 76 total properties.

[4:57:25] And so that was just the programs and a quick brief, but if you guys have any questions regarding any of these program specifics, I'm here to answer them.

[4:57:32] Council.

[4:57:34] Council on any questions?

[4:57:41] I seem to recall from my predecessor there was some discussion about re-evaluation on the demo rebuild program with the structuring of the fees.

[4:57:53] Am I missing something here? What's that already taken care of?

[4:58:00] It had been talked about, but it's more perlose looking for what direction this council and its current form is that something we still want to bring back and look at.

[4:58:06] that just where are we going with some of these topics.

[4:58:09] And so that hasn't been changed in recent years.

[4:58:12] I know that cost of building is going up, and I didn't know if we need adjustments in that area, that's all.

[4:58:20] I believe all these programs that value our city, I'm in favor of continuing on all of them, so.

[4:58:29] Thank you.

[4:58:30] All right.

[4:58:30] Thank you.

[4:58:34] Next up is CA.

[4:58:36] Receive a report and discuss updates to the minor home repair program.

[4:58:54] Any air and council, Jennifer, any assistance to the city manager?

[4:58:58] So at the request of council member, I'm sorry mayor pro Tim Roman, I'm presenting an update to the minor home repair program.

[4:59:06] So this was presented back in February, I believe it was.

[4:59:10] It was quick and new to my role and learned quite a bit, especially over the past, the past Memorial Day storms.

[4:59:16] That was a really big impact for our community.

[4:59:18] Luke and Jeff have shared significant information about that.

[4:59:21] And we've received quite a few calls about this minor home repair program.

[4:59:25] Over the past seven months since I've been in my position, I've also received a few phone calls about this position.

[4:59:31] Often those have been from realtors, so they're seeking a program to help their future buyers or sellers upgrade their home to get rid of it.

[4:59:41] So in those situations, it wouldn't necessarily qualify for this, but we'll jump into this first.

[4:59:45] So the program objectives would remain the same.

[4:59:47] The program or objectives as is is to bring a single family owner occupied residents into compliance with the city's residential property maintenance standards and or protect the health and safety of residents and

[5:00:00] And the neighborhood provide for accessibility modifications, improve the livability of a property and or the neighborhood. And then when an owner occupant lacks sufficient financial resources of their own to repair that need.

[5:00:15] So, as I've had a few months of operating this program and seeing those types of calls that we received, I've looked over some of our peer communities and what they're doing, especially in situations where they don't have CDBG funds so they're lower population size. They don't have that CDB chat.

[5:00:32] the CDBG funding that is typically resource through their community services or the neighborhood services department.

[5:00:38] So our current program was a 12-month pilot program and it was budgeted with $75,000 from the general fund.

[5:00:45] It was a cost matching program so it was received as a 50% grant.

[5:00:49] So if the project was $75, $7,500, the resident would be required to pay off and we would pay the other half.

[5:00:57] We also used eligibility in the current program, utilizing the high low income limits.

[5:01:03] So that's at 80% median family income or below.

[5:01:07] That comes into play in a couple of those phone conversations that I've had with residents where they just are over that.

[5:01:12] They're 100 or 200 or $300 per month over that eligibility window.

[5:01:20] So the residents provide bank statements, pay steps, tax returns, copy of their deed when they're applying for that.

[5:01:25] And then the following their eligibility approval, the city would then bid that, quote, that, and the repair was completed.

[5:01:33] It was secured via a first or second lien for up to seven years, and that was based on the total value of the project.

[5:01:42] And we had one project that was funded, we did have some, as I said, some community interest in other projects.

[5:01:49] And they oftentimes in those discussions, the residents either self-discollify them, so

[5:01:54] they would disqualify themselves, or it was a realtor who was seeking to improve a

[5:01:58] listing prior to it listing.

[5:02:02] And so in that situation, this program wouldn't be for that.

[5:02:05] It's intent is for owner-occupied residences in that they would remain there.

[5:02:12] So provided quite a few proposed updates should Council seek to continue this program.

[5:02:19] providing that we would transition from that cost matching grant to a just a

[5:02:24] straight grant up to $5,000.

[5:02:26] So in many of those situations when the residents are facing an income restricted,

[5:02:32] they're income restricted already, but they're facing a situation where a catastrophe happens

[5:02:36] like the Memorial Day storms, they are maybe paycheck to paycheck in those situations

[5:02:41] and don't have the ability to do that cost match.

[5:02:45] So if the repair to their home is $2,000 and they simply don't have $2,000 in our current program that cost match would require that they pay $1,000.

[5:02:57] And one situation a resident was going back and forth on whether or not to apply or apply to some partnership programs with MetroCross Services.

[5:03:05] And her situation was, do I pay my mortgage and stay up to date on my mortgage so that I don't go in default there.

[5:03:13] or do I pay for a home repair so that I can continue to live here?

[5:03:18] So in this recommendation, we've recommended that grant be up to $5,000 with no project

[5:03:25] total cap on that.

[5:03:27] So that would remove that cost matching restriction.

[5:03:30] Similarly, we would recommend updating that eligibility via market home value and home

[5:03:34] study exemption as verified by decad data.

[5:03:37] So in the situations post memorial day storms, there's a lot of panic and chaos and maybe

[5:03:42] be a tree that's smashed down in somebody's yard, and they just don't have the capacity

[5:03:45] to go and get that tree removed.

[5:03:49] So they're panicked about those things, they're concerned about their safety, they're concerned

[5:03:53] about their home and their property, and then we're asking them, please provide us all of

[5:03:57] this document.

[5:03:58] So hopefully just to make some efficiencies there, we're seeking a proposed shift to switch

[5:04:03] that from eligibility with all of this documentation, to eligibility via market home value and a

[5:04:08] homestead exemption, that's easy to verify, it's easy for staff to verify as well, and

[5:04:14] hopefully make that process a lot smoother.

[5:04:17] Similar, we'd still do the three quotes reviewed by a city contractor.

[5:04:20] It did propose that we utilize a city selected general contractor for review.

[5:04:25] So, whether the resident receives those quotes, we get those quotes.

[5:04:29] However, those quotes are received, that we review those for accuracy and

[5:04:34] to go and visit that site and assure that that's correct service that's needed,

[5:04:37] that a contractor isn't over inflating.

[5:04:40] I know if you told me my roof was going to be repaired and it was going to cost $10,000

[5:04:44] or it was going to cost $3,000, I don't know the difference.

[5:04:47] I'm not a subject matter expert on roof repair and many of our residents aren't either.

[5:04:51] And so we want to make sure that we have a general contractor that can review that for

[5:04:54] applicability and then also for selection.

[5:04:57] So the city would pay up to $5,000 for that.

[5:05:00] Selected, quote, and the resident would be responsible for any additional cost. We are going to run, I do anticipate running into situations where the resident wouldn't be able to afford those additional costs. That's just one of those situations. Look, a limited budget for this program. That would be a unique situation but an unfortunate situation. On this, the city contractor would also regularly visit during the project after it had been approved. So we do recommend that the resident does not start work on this project until it's

[5:05:29] been approved because it would no longer be eligible. So it couldn't be something that they

[5:05:33] started already, that they began working on, and it couldn't be something that they started

[5:05:37] work without a permit specifically. We want to make sure they're still following all of the

[5:05:40] other expectations that we have as a city. So that city contractor would go and regularly visit,

[5:05:45] this would be that general contractor, would go and take pictures of the progress,

[5:05:48] ensure that the construction is being done, and then also do a final inspection of that.

[5:05:54] And then reducing that lean on the property.

[5:05:58] So the resident, we would seek that they agree to remain an owner occupant for three

[5:06:03] years via their application process.

[5:06:05] But many of them had concerns about the lean.

[5:06:08] Putting a seven year lean on somebody's property is overwhelming, especially when it's a resident

[5:06:15] who is paycheck to paycheck in those situations.

[5:06:18] There was some conflict or some tension in those conversations on what the program currently has.

[5:06:29] So the proposed program phases would be that homeowner inquiry.

[5:06:33] So following those memorial days, storms, the homeowner would submit an application,

[5:06:38] that documentation, and description or photos of damage that they need.

[5:06:42] The application would be reviewed for city staff for eligibility.

[5:06:44] We check their decad information to ensure that their property is below that

[5:06:49] that median property value, I believe that was roughly $380,000 or so, I'll double check that number.

[5:06:56] And then we would go out and do that initial inspection.

[5:06:58] That's where that contractor would go out, review and inspect onsite to verify the project needs.

[5:07:03] That contractor hasn't given them a quote for the repair of their fence, but

[5:07:08] also the repair of things that maybe don't qualify for that program.

[5:07:12] And then we would review those three quotes for applicability.

[5:07:15] Following that, the homeowner would then be notified that they had received approval or denial by city staff.

[5:07:21] And then that selected quote, contractor would also be notified.

[5:07:25] We'd want to make sure that they are both notified before the work begins.

[5:07:29] They would commence work, they would still have to go through the typical permitting process.

[5:07:33] Our community services department handles that and so we're not trying to sidestep that.

[5:07:37] They would still be required to handle that through their contractor and then that project oversight.

[5:07:43] So our review contractor, that general contractor, would go out regularly to visit, to evaluate, take progress, and to update staff.

[5:07:51] That was, we would combine or compile all of that information, and then we'll complete that final inspection to verify the project has been completed along with photo documentation.

[5:08:00] And then finally, a project closed out.

[5:08:05] That's what I've got.

[5:08:06] Thank you very much, questions, delta.

[5:08:14] Thank you, Jennifer.

[5:08:15] This is a pretty cool program, is this common in other cities, do you know?

[5:08:21] There were a few smaller cities that do have it, a smaller being under that 50,000 CDBG.

[5:08:26] Some of our neighbors in other areas, I believe I pulled a Wilmer or something like this,

[5:08:31] something a little bit further.

[5:08:33] But I did find some smaller cities are just starting to build these type of programs.

[5:08:38] We actually had a peer community just north of us who copied much of what our original program was and has just presented that within the past year to their counsel for creation.

[5:08:49] Okay, and maybe you said this and I may have missed it, but the current program, how much have we spent thus far?

[5:08:58] Oh, it was below $10,000. I don't want to-

[5:09:01] Less than 10,000.

[5:09:02] Less than 10,000 only one project funded.

[5:09:04] So how do people know that this program exists?

[5:09:07] That's a great question.

[5:09:08] So there hasn't been a significant amount of marketing on this.

[5:09:12] It is limited in supply, so significant marketing would create high demand for low supply.

[5:09:19] Maybe some areas of discontent.

[5:09:21] However, if we were to move forward with this based off the recommendations provided in whatever council direction,

[5:09:27] I would expect and I would hope that our CSRs, our customer support representatives are

[5:09:34] educated first, also our code enforcement officers.

[5:09:37] I believe that they are out in the community, the most, they're interacting with our residents.

[5:09:40] They're the ones knocking on doors, helping people.

[5:09:42] I know you've received the compliments of the team who's been moving the tires or

[5:09:46] moving the tree limbs to assist residents.

[5:09:48] So a lot of times it's word of mouth to provide that.

[5:09:51] But again, making sure that we have correct and updated information on our website,

[5:09:56] correct enough updated flyers and handouts so that when they're out in the

[5:10:00] If they see a situation, or they encounter a resident who says, I just can't afford it, I know there was a discussion about the dogs,

[5:10:06] if there's a fence, that's in disrepair, and the individual simply can't afford to fix their fence.

[5:10:13] This is a situation where both are code enforcement officers or animal services officer, animal service officers could provide that flyer and information.

[5:10:20] Yeah, I would think code enforcement would be one point of discovery.

[5:10:28] Maybe Metricrest services, make them aware of this program if we haven't, but they serve

[5:10:35] a lot of our, the number of former branch families that are in need.

[5:10:43] When we have the initial inspection and there's a contractor that reviews three quotes for

[5:10:50] work. Is this contractor creating any kind of a liability situation for our city and saying,

[5:11:00] hey, this contractor has a best service or quality or whatever, is that an opportunity

[5:11:12] for liability? What if that particular contractor actually doesn't do a good job or something

[5:11:18] Anything else happens? Is there any recourse against the city in that regard?

[5:11:23] No, it's possible that we're going to get sued for something if something goes wrong.

[5:11:28] We can build protections into the system and into the process.

[5:11:31] My understanding is that we would be using rather than in-house staff and

[5:11:37] outside professional that would supervise the monitor.

[5:11:41] Correct. Through that professional services agreement, we can do that.

[5:11:47] and things like performance bonds and things like that.

[5:11:51] Definitely want to make sure that we build in some protections.

[5:11:53] The last thing I want to do is try to do something good here

[5:11:57] and it turns around and bites us, right?

[5:12:01] You know, I don't know that I would favor going out

[5:12:05] and promoting the program necessarily.

[5:12:07] I think that those people that really, really need it

[5:12:11] would probably find it in-

[5:12:13] We're aware of many of that, yeah.

[5:12:15] Right, exactly.

[5:12:16] And just to speak to the Metricress Services, we do have a little bit of a program overlap.

[5:12:20] So they do provide some accessibility features and assistance.

[5:12:25] So there are some situations where in one of the situations I was speaking with a resident,

[5:12:30] they were behind on their bills, behind on some of their payments because they had paid for

[5:12:35] a modification for their house.

[5:12:36] They were able to see services through Metricress Services to get them caught up.

[5:12:40] So there are some unique qualifiers there that there's a little bit of overlap,

[5:12:46] But it's just making sure they get to the right person right now. So I seem to recall we had a senior resident that had some plumbing

[5:12:53] failure

[5:12:55] In their house and they were just living with it because he couldn't afford to fix it

[5:12:59] And so those are the kinds of scenarios. I think that this program is designed to address and I think it's a wonderful thing

[5:13:08] Very low utilization

[5:13:10] For this first year. So I think that proposed

[5:13:16] You know, the refinement and the proposal makes some sense.

[5:13:20] Thank you.

[5:13:22] Thank you.

[5:13:23] Thank you.

[5:13:24] Anybody over here at Councilor Henry?

[5:13:27] Is this applicable to insurance deductibles?

[5:13:32] Great question, so I outlined that specifically in much of my research.

[5:13:35] I didn't see that insurance deductibles are a unique situation.

[5:13:41] If they apply, they would still need to go ahead and go forward with their insurance.

[5:13:47] I believe, let me double check, so repairs covered by insurance, we outline that, as homeowners must file that insurance claim for the repair of their real property first and submit all documentation there.

[5:13:57] This is on page five of the program updates.

[5:14:01] And then deductibles alone are not eligible for reimbursement through the program, but it's within the city's sole description to approve or deny assistance.

[5:14:08] So if there are situations that are exceeding deductible plus something,

[5:14:13] there are some eligibility, some room for us to make those decisions.

[5:14:18] Excellent.

[5:14:19] And what if it's an emergency situation, you know, roof needs to be replaced, and

[5:14:25] it's, you know, Memorial Day is the one type of thing where going through

[5:14:30] the process could, taking time could create more damage to the home.

[5:14:38] Absolutely, and that was the whole intent in kind of updating this to make it a little

[5:14:42] bit smoother.

[5:14:43] If you know anything about me, one of my favorite things as efficiency, from the place

[5:14:48] that you've got your coffee maker in your home so that you can make it more efficient

[5:14:51] in your life, but this was a situation where I was like, I just don't feel that we're hitting

[5:14:56] that mark.

[5:14:57] And so there's some of those proposed changes so that

[5:15:00] We are not requiring them with their roof, with a huge hole over it to provide us all of this documentation on that front side. We can simply do a quick check on decad data to ensure they fall below that median property value. And then we're good to go on many of those items.

[5:15:20] Anything else?

[5:15:24] So is this a reimbursement program? No, so the proposed, the current program is, it's a cost matching. The proposed program would just be the 5,000 up to

[5:15:35] $25,000 so we could pay the contractor in that situation

[5:15:40] up to that $5,000 anything else the resident would be responsible for.

[5:15:44] So it would be a payment up front.

[5:15:45] It wouldn't be a reimbursement where the resident would have to incur the cost and the city would reimburse them.

[5:15:49] Correct.

[5:15:50] Many of those frustrations and in many of those comments with residents just wasn't hitting the mark because they're already paycheck to paycheck.

[5:15:57] Okay, and then how do you, how do you mitigate it against somebody turning around and

[5:16:04] in selling their home, taking advantage of the program

[5:16:06] in an appropriate manner, that would other ways

[5:16:08] have disqualified them.

[5:16:10] How do you deal with that?

[5:16:11] That's a difficult situation.

[5:16:13] If we go back towards that lean situation,

[5:16:16] that was kind of that clause or that barrier there

[5:16:17] to hold them responsible, without that,

[5:16:20] if we're just asking that they certify

[5:16:23] in their application process, that they are not

[5:16:25] seeking to sell their home, and that they maintain,

[5:16:27] they would maintain owner occupancy for the next three years.

[5:16:31] Okay,

[5:16:34] and that's it for me, and obviously,

[5:16:36] I'm in favor of the program and in the way that you presented it, I think we've come

[5:16:41] a long way and we're at first started and learned a few things and I'm pleased to see

[5:16:48] where it's at now.

[5:16:49] Thank you.

[5:16:53] Yes, okay.

[5:16:54] So I guess the one biggest point that stood out to me was fact that there's no longer required

[5:17:02] match, which means that the homeowner could get funds from the city with no equity participation into the program.

[5:17:15] Then I do have a question regarding the city selected review contractor who pays for that.

[5:17:22] That's a great question, so that would come out of this budget and that $75,000 budget that it currently has.

[5:17:28] In the drafted professional services agreement, we've reviewed roughly $100

[5:17:33] per hour for that individual, it's a low rate for the overall time that they would be spending.

[5:17:40] They may only spend one hour on site reviewing those contracts at the beginning, and then maybe one at the end.

[5:17:46] As you know, if you've received a roof repair over the past few months,

[5:17:51] it doesn't typically take weeks and weeks and weeks to replace that.

[5:17:55] They're pretty efficient, so it may not require multiple visits in many of these lower modifications.

[5:18:03] Okay, well, I don't have any major objection to the program, but I would hope that if we're going to do this, that we need to make sure that some of these people might be the same individuals who are needing health services from woven clinic, for example, so we need to make sure that we have proper health services available to them to keep them healthy so they can afford to live in their homes.

[5:18:28] So, Council, I guess you need to indicate a preference of whether you support this program or not.

[5:18:39] I have a question.

[5:18:41] I have a question.

[5:18:42] I have a question regarding your proposed eligibility.

[5:18:47] Could you help me understand the market home value and the homestead exemption verification that that whole,

[5:18:56] What's your thought process behind this?

[5:18:58] Absolutely, so we're looking for a way that requires less documentation,

[5:19:02] providing that documentation, but that really hits at our residents who are income limited.

[5:19:08] I don't want to say income deprived or lower income, but income limited.

[5:19:11] So those paycheck to paycheck or below utilizing that HUD information,

[5:19:16] the current program has maximum income levels for a single person,

[5:19:22] and then one individual, for them to qualify,

[5:19:25] they would need to make below that $54,549.

[5:19:30] That's a close, I mean, we had many individuals

[5:19:34] who were just above that, but their single individual,

[5:19:38] they own their own home, they're making their paychecks,

[5:19:42] they're making their paychecks work,

[5:19:43] but they're just kind of scraping by.

[5:19:46] And so if we shift over to that decad data,

[5:19:48] we're able to verify that their home

[5:19:49] was below that value for the previous year

[5:19:52] and also that they have a homestead exemption.

[5:19:54] So we're kind of checking that box that we know,

[5:19:56] they live there.

[5:20:00] Is there any consideration for senior five, because a lot of them are on home for 30, 40, 50 year, much higher? Are you of their home is 400 or 500,000 now? That's a great question. I know birth, both Perlin, I discussed it. I'll use lower. This one felt like it was the most inclusive, again, median, so anything that's some access for those seniors as well in property value.

[5:20:26] Yeah.

[5:20:27] Okay.

[5:20:27] Actually, we also, we also preclude it from being a second home to residents versus rental

[5:20:36] property, something like that.

[5:20:42] So, in favor of the program, but I'm not so glued, residents, that might be unfixed in

[5:20:49] of home. Indication of favor to the favoring moving forward with the program.

[5:20:57] And I can think of a few people, specifically in that instance, they may have access to

[5:21:06] home equity lines of credit. Some other, I mean, if they're in a home that's valued above

[5:21:14] median value and they're in a situation where they can't afford to make the

[5:21:20] repairs.

[5:21:24] I think unfortunately that's a scenario where they really need to

[5:21:26] consider. I know they've lived in a house maybe for 40 or 50 years but they

[5:21:30] need to consider the cost of living there and that's just a fact of life for

[5:21:36] them. Well, sure, sure, but the, you know, there's, there may be access to the equity in

[5:21:47] their home to address their need.

[5:21:52] I'm just thinking out loud here about that. We've talked,

[5:21:57] this particular program has talked about what, there's an income verification, right? There's

[5:22:04] there's a certain level of income they can't exceed.

[5:22:06] It currently is.

[5:22:07] We get bank statements, we review,

[5:22:09] we review their financial situation.

[5:22:13] In that conversation, I guess,

[5:22:16] when somebody may be on the brink of being declined

[5:22:19] because of one aspect of their financial picture or another,

[5:22:24] that there's probably a little bit of financial counseling

[5:22:27] that might be going on there, right?

[5:22:29] Sorry, you can't.

[5:22:31] You don't call off after the program

[5:22:32] because you've got a ton of cash in the bank or something like that, right?

[5:22:38] While I am not equipped to provide financial counsels.

[5:22:40] I understand, but yes, there are those, if we continued with the current program as is there are those conversations of oh I just don't qualify and make too much or my home is.

[5:22:52] Yeah, those disqualifiers are probably fairly obvious in some of those situations.

[5:22:55] And that's one of the reasons we have not received significant number of applications because just that phone call alone is, oh I'm over that.

[5:23:01] Right. Right. Understood. Okay. I still believe that there's a general consensus

[5:23:11] to move on forward properly. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. There you go. Thank you.

[5:25:00] So just a quick overview of the landfill for a couple of other new. It's located in the Westfield. If you haven't been up there, it's probably worth a tour. Let us know. We'll get you a trip up there so you can see the site. I personally need to go up there myself. It's operated by Kim out landfill TXLP. It's a wholly owned subsidiary of Republic services. They operate the landfill. They build the cells, they purchase the equipment. The higher the employees, they find a business that come into the landfill. They do the environmental sampling and monitoring and reporting.

[5:25:29] any permit mods, so they basically run the show up there.

[5:25:33] The city's responsibility for the landfill is oversight of the permit or the permitee, so all the permits are held by the city and not by the operator.

[5:25:42] We will handle the closure of post closure and corrective action costs.

[5:25:46] And so one of those is the landfill gas collection system and that's something that the upper have throughout the life of landfill and through the post closure period.

[5:25:52] So we view that as a post closure expense, so we pay for the design and the installation of the landfill gas collection system.

[5:26:00] We currently have a bid out right now for expansion to that system.

[5:26:03] So in the next couple months, we bring you a contract award for

[5:26:07] the next installation of more wells out there.

[5:26:14] One of the things that's required when you operate a landfill is to do financial assurance.

[5:26:18] Let's say tomorrow you decided we don't want to have a landfill with our name on it.

[5:26:21] We're done with the landfill business.

[5:26:23] That's what the financial assurance is for.

[5:26:25] So the state to come in the next day, take over operation, a landfill, shut it down.

[5:26:29] go through the closure, the post closure, and the corrective action.

[5:26:33] You do a lot through third party, but every year, Tammy submits a financial insurance document to the state demonstrating we have the funds to pay for those things.

[5:26:47] One of the things we've used up fund for again, our landfill gas collection systems, and we did use it during the landfill expansion, that 10 year time of my life, interesting times.

[5:26:57] In 2018 we got the expansion approval, the new capacity for the site is 53.2 million cubic

[5:27:04] yards, the old one just for reference is 24.5, so we added quite a bit of cubic yards

[5:27:10] to the permit.

[5:27:12] Now the financial assurance, in 2018 we got the permit was about 30 million in those past

[5:27:16] years at 40 million.

[5:27:18] So financial assurance varies from year to year based on inflation, so the high inflation

[5:27:22] factor we had over the past year really helped elevate that.

[5:27:25] But as the site continues to grow, again, after assurances for to come in and close the site down,

[5:27:32] it's based on how much you've already built to date.

[5:27:35] So as it grows, this number is going to continue to grow on a yearly basis.

[5:27:41] So there's just a brief background.

[5:27:43] Some of the comments we had last time, we talked about a garbage fee and then closure, post closure.

[5:27:49] Talking to collection companies, I said collection, I mean garbage collection.

[5:27:53] Typically, the collection costs itself for your garbage fee for

[5:27:56] other cities because here in Promise Branch you do not pay a garbage fee, you're assessed as zero.

[5:28:02] But for those of us who live in other cities such as Dallas, Carrilton, the Capell,

[5:28:05] those are running us about 70%, 75% that bill is the collection cost.

[5:28:10] About a quarter of that is the actual disposal cost, there's two components to it.

[5:28:15] When I did this presentation for the fee back in September last year,

[5:28:19] the ranges for the neighboring cities and over from 1324 to 2225.

[5:28:25] I'm curious to see where things go up to this next year.

[5:28:27] I suspect there'll be some increases.

[5:28:30] If you're resident of farmer's branch,

[5:28:32] you pay zero for garbage service at this point in time.

[5:28:35] And with our contractor's republic,

[5:28:36] our Camelot Landfill TXLP, we negotiate that we pay zero

[5:28:39] for the tipping fee as well.

[5:28:41] So when we do our RFP's for garbage collection,

[5:28:44] we always have to specify what our tipping fee is

[5:28:45] and that there's no tipping fee cost to that.

[5:28:48] So for our cost for access,

[5:28:50] that is based just for the collection portion.

[5:28:54] So the landfill revenue, we are contract set up with Kim out landfill TXLP is every year we don't take a one pound of trash out there

[5:29:01] We get a million dollars to use each fee. We'll mean it up front

[5:29:05] for every

[5:29:08] Month they do operations we get 16% of the gross revenue

[5:29:12] In addition with our contract they pay us 250,000 per year for host fee support

[5:29:17] So when we went through the landfill expansion we had a settlement agreement with the city of Louisville and one with Carolton and because we're in Louisville

[5:29:23] and they'd had host fees from the other two landfills that went through the expansion.

[5:29:26] We also have to pay a host fee to them.

[5:29:28] So the basis of the city of Louisville gets a $1.20 for every time we take in.

[5:29:32] We also have to pay what's called an equalization fee to the city of Louisville.

[5:29:37] With that, the revenue goes from those things that goes into the general fund.

[5:29:41] Not the closure post, post closure fund.

[5:29:44] Closure post closure fund is separate.

[5:29:46] And as we discussed earlier, on an annual basis, or

[5:29:49] So, any other other year process, we expand the gas collection system out there.

[5:29:54] When I first started, it was kind of more voluntary.

[5:29:58] But now, once again, it's permanent amendment because

[5:30:00] This is the size of our landfill. There's a regulatory threshold. Trash has been buried for more than five years. You need to put wells into that. You need to start capturing that gas. So when I come to the landfill gas collection system projects now, it's because they are required. It's not even nice to have.

[5:30:17] Currently, we have about $6.1 million balance for the closure post closure fund.

[5:30:28] So the challenge is, every year we do what's called an annual report. And we project based on the number of tons we took that past year and how good of a job it did in terms of

[5:30:36] to compacting. So, a compaction is, how much trash can I cram into a cubic yard? That's

[5:30:41] what we measure. It's pounds per cubic yard or tons per cubic yard. Pick your unit you

[5:30:45] want to use. And so, we send that to the state. There's a lot more to go into. That's the

[5:30:49] snapshot. So, every year. So, if you think a bunch of mattresses in one year, your compaction

[5:30:54] is going to be bad. Just because mattresses just don't compact. Whereas if you take a bunch

[5:30:58] of soil, soil is already pretty dense. Also, your compaction looks great. So, the type of

[5:31:08] So you can see the variation in terms of the life estimate of a landfill, very quite a bit from year to year, just based on the amount of material take and how good you can compact it.

[5:31:18] So based on our last similar for closure post closure or the financial assurance, we're at $40.4 million is what we need for the financial assurance document for closure post closure.

[5:31:28] And as I said, we have a $6.1 million balance at this point in time.

[5:31:33] So the thought was, we'd implement a solid waste fee, the goal is that it's going to be designated to go into the closure post closure to start working on getting money ready for when the bill comes due for the closure, which would be the first thing we have to pay for.

[5:31:47] We recently changed the service frequency for the west side from once a week to twice a week, so the new fee for everybody or for non seniors is going to be $5 a month.

[5:31:57] seniors pay half of that to be $2.50 per month.

[5:32:01] The plan was to begin assessing that in October 2024 had the fee to utility bill and periodically increase the fee.

[5:32:11] So when I gave this presentation before, the number was not as high, I had to correct it so we could get to that $40 million number.

[5:32:17] So it's already gone just from one year, the pricing increase has gone from about five years to four years.

[5:32:24] I think the last one ended at $25, we're already up to $30, so try and get that $40 million number.

[5:32:30] Over the time period, we believe we have left.

[5:32:35] So again, as soon as you close the landfill, we say you're going to be closed.

[5:32:38] You have to start closure within a set number of days by regulations.

[5:32:41] This is your largest expense as a closure.

[5:32:45] So I give you the kind of dates there, those are two general dates.

[5:32:48] There are some other things you have to do in addition to that.

[5:32:49] it. Any up 30 years of monitoring, you look for erosion, you've got a quarterly basis sample

[5:32:55] for gas and gas probes and monitor the groundwater, monitor your stormwater. But just general

[5:33:01] side up, look at the fences and we've tried to break in, so we've tried to repair the fence

[5:33:04] and not try to repair the fence. And then corrective action. You have corrective action because the

[5:33:11] oldest portion of landfill is a clay liner, clay liner only. That met regulations at the time.

[5:33:16] Now, your liner forgot there is clay compacted, but there's also flexible membrane liners

[5:33:21] welded together.

[5:33:22] So, you've got two layers of protection, but with that clay liner, as you see it like

[5:33:26] last summer, and this summer, the way we're going, if you look at your backyard, you start

[5:33:31] seeing these cracks in your yard if you don't water it often enough.

[5:33:33] Same thing happens in the landfill.

[5:33:35] Clay liner over time, if it stays dry, a part that will crack, it's on that gas escapes

[5:33:39] and gets into the ground water, and that's what the corrective action is for.

[5:33:43] So it's not that we did anything wrong, it's just when you use a soil liner, high in clay, dry seasons, the cracks, pores are created until it rains again, or saturates the ground.

[5:33:54] So that's what the corrective action for our landfill is related to.

[5:34:01] Am I doing the next one?

[5:34:08] I'm going to look for a little help from our friend on this particular slide.

[5:34:23] So we included this slide as we were having those discussions that our budget retreat.

[5:34:30] Where we're showing what a penny on average home value we showed different home values

[5:34:36] of 380,000 which is from decad the $500,000 value and $800,000 value.

[5:34:42] So I think it was asked on what would the trash fee correlate to as far as a property tax savings.

[5:34:53] So, as you can see, a $5 fee, so for 12 months, you've got to

[5:35:00] $60 per year fee. So, if you choose a $500,000 home, and again, that's going to differ on the home values. That's about a penny and a half. For seniors, where it's $250 a month, for the trash fee, that would equal our home value of $500,000 one penny on the senior. So, that's what we kind of wanted to show you in correlation to our whole discussion on the trash.

[5:35:30] and our tax rate.

[5:35:40] So at this point in time, I'm doing the two of us,

[5:35:42] which I'd answer your questions you may have for us,

[5:35:44] or let's tell our conversation.

[5:35:47] Council and the questions, Council and the room.

[5:35:51] Mayor, Council and the read.

[5:35:54] Yeah, we're talking about single family homes.

[5:35:56] How does multi-families and commercial properties

[5:36:03] like that come into play?

[5:36:04] Good question.

[5:36:05] So in Farmer's branch, we have an open market system.

[5:36:08] So if you own a business, you get to negotiate with whoever vendor you want,

[5:36:12] whatever service level you want, service frequency, that is up to you to make that determination.

[5:36:17] The city by ordinance gets, I think it's 10%, I think it's 10 other grocery revenue for

[5:36:24] anything collected in Farmer's branch.

[5:36:26] But it's an open market system, we are not involved with it.

[5:36:30] other than, unless you're making a mess and code enforcement would come out or I'd go out and

[5:36:33] try to get it cleaned up, if you can't do that, then I'm giving you the citation.

[5:36:38] But our only role is just to be enforcement from the litter standpoint.

[5:36:41] Okay, so those proceeds are that revenue.

[5:36:45] Does that go into the general fund or does it go?

[5:36:48] Yes, sir.

[5:36:52] So currently all of our refuse fees form Republic and is it waste management?

[5:37:00] They go into our general fund revenues, and that goes to support, then we have our solid waste division also in the general fund, which pays for the salaries, for the assets, for all of our supplies related to that.

[5:37:15] But none of that goes towards closure, post closure.

[5:37:19] So then we have been in the past transferring from general fund to the landfill closure, post closure restricted fund.

[5:37:27] And that's where you've got the balance now close to 6.1 million.

[5:37:33] Okay.

[5:37:33] Now is there a formalized process for that, like a specific percentage dollar amount, anything like that?

[5:37:43] No.

[5:37:44] And in fact, we've, in the past, we've transferred a million, this year we've budgeted 2 million to transfer.

[5:37:55] So it's been a function of the budgeting process.

[5:37:59] So basically availability of the funds.

[5:38:04] Okay.

[5:38:06] Goswaneel.

[5:38:09] Yep.

[5:38:11] How many?

[5:38:15] So roughly how much do we take in revenue from them,

[5:38:21] roughly every year, for the past seven to ten years, roughly?

[5:38:25] Would you say that goes for seven to ten years?

[5:38:28] I can tell you how much we have budgeted for.

[5:38:32] Let's say we have about 6.8 million I believe yeah, he said we have 6.81 million in there now

[5:38:38] I'm just trying to understand how much we're taken in every year over the past so many years. So that's going to vary

[5:38:44] A few years ago. We built a new scale house

[5:38:47] So if you've never been up to our landfill

[5:38:49] You need to go up there when you before we hear the building down need to see what the old scale house look like

[5:38:55] It is one scale. We had maybe

[5:38:58] 50 to 70 yards before we get on the street

[5:39:02] So that one scale is a huge bottleneck operation.

[5:39:05] We could really only handle about 1,800, I realize this number, I might not mean anything to y'all.

[5:39:10] But 1,800 tons per day is about all we could handle because that bottleneck at the skill house was a deterrent from our waste coming in.

[5:39:18] So once we got the new skill house in place and the DFW landfill, which would have been a competitor of ours directly across the river from us, started shutting down.

[5:39:25] We started to see an influx of increased tonnage coming in.

[5:39:29] So it's going to be a ramp up in terms of how much we brought in.

[5:39:34] We can certainly get you the numbers, go back and look at what came in.

[5:39:37] I saw them on the top of my head where we started about seven years ago to where we are today.

[5:39:41] Yeah, and I understand there's expenditures too.

[5:39:43] I'm just trying to get a feel for what we've been taking in and follow that up with where the expenditure is going out.

[5:39:52] The big expenditures for us, once we got past the expansion, are the gas collection system.

[5:39:57] Like the bid we got out right now. I'm expecting that to come into 900,000

[5:40:00] $1,000 or so. So it's close to $1,000 every time we do a gas collection system expansion. Just because how tall it is, how deep we have to go, the size of the headers, we have to install now to pull the gas.

[5:40:13] Do we have to file any forms or paperwork with the state or any other agency regarding our fund balance for closure? The financial assurance document I referred to earlier that she submits every year, has to show how you get those funds. So we have to demonstrate that financial assurance to the state.

[5:40:34] How many years have we been filing that?

[5:40:36] You have to do that every year by law.

[5:40:43] And so if I want to get copies of that, is that available online somewhere?

[5:40:46] Yes.

[5:40:47] Okay.

[5:40:47] Well, we could provide it.

[5:40:50] Yes.

[5:40:51] I'd like to review that.

[5:40:53] We can definitely get that for you.

[5:40:55] How many years back would you like?

[5:40:59] At least maybe five or six years, along with that sort of income as well, if you don't mind.

[5:41:04] And

[5:41:13] is there some reason this goes directly to the general fund, is it?

[5:41:19] Could we not just put this to landfill fund overall and just all funds, the

[5:41:25] monies that we need to spend in and out for the, I mean, it sound like a dumb

[5:41:29] question. I even noticed people laughing, but I'm just trying to make this much

[5:41:34] simpler process to try to understand, then, you know, general fund in here, transfer

[5:41:39] in, transfer out, close your fund, I mean just, your head starts to spin after a while.

[5:41:46] So it did start out in the general fund, so you can see different entities will put

[5:41:53] them into a proprietary fund or an enterprise fund like a water and sewer.

[5:41:59] So the way that it has been structured in the past and the way that we continue to do it

[5:42:05] As the revenues come in to the general fund, expenses related to solid waste come out of the general fund.

[5:42:13] And then we put money towards the landfill restricted fund, so two funds from the general fund.

[5:42:22] So excess goes over to the landfill closure plus closure.

[5:42:25] So the money that comes in from the operation over landfill goes into the general fund.

[5:42:29] Are those funds restricted in any way or limited for the use strictly for

[5:42:34] land fill operations or utility?

[5:42:36] So it goes towards pain for our solid waste.

[5:42:39] We have our bulk collection, we have the trucks, the green grabber.

[5:42:46] The CWD contract, but is there a true restriction?

[5:42:50] It's in the general fund.

[5:42:52] It's like a lot of things that the land fill typically have an enterprise fund,

[5:42:54] or she describes all that money you'd take in from solid waste collection,

[5:42:58] and from the tipping fee to land fill, we go into that fund.

[5:43:00] So the answer is no, it's not restricted.

[5:43:02] that it's just in the general fund, although you primarily use it for that.

[5:43:05] There's no hard restriction that it could use it for something else if so approved.

[5:43:11] Okay, I'm good, thanks.

[5:43:20] So the landfill revenue that goes into the general fund first

[5:43:27] really simply offers us some flexibility to handle expenses

[5:43:32] is for the landfill that might be weren't planned, or larger than we thought, or other expenses that we want to handle from the general fund.

[5:43:43] It also, I'm assuming going into the general fund, adds to that 90 day balance, right?

[5:43:52] It helps us keep that balance up, otherwise if we dedicate that money directly to closure, post closure.

[5:44:00] Now we need to make that up in order to maintain our 90 day.

[5:44:04] So it's a little difficult to untangle it once it's already been set up and going into the general fund.

[5:44:11] So if we had started out at the very beginning as a separate enterprise fund, this would be a little bit maybe easier.

[5:44:18] Sure, yeah, money from the landfill comes in, goes to the landfill bucket.

[5:44:23] Correct.

[5:44:24] Just like that, yeah, okay, and

[5:44:31] it's difficult to change that to that now.

[5:44:35] A little bit difficult, yes.

[5:44:37] Okay.

[5:44:39] I'm going to ask you to help me understand why.

[5:44:43] Make it real simple.

[5:44:45] It's late.

[5:44:46] There's a lot here.

[5:44:48] So, simple is good.

[5:44:50] So, if you recall with our water and our sewer funds,

[5:44:54] those are specifically restricted and we the general

[5:45:00] Local fund is that general donor. So it can loan to other funds, it can do other things where restricted with our enterprise funds and just sticking to those functions. So it can be unwound but it will take a lot of effort and work to do and it would require some additional cost with our audit and our account.

[5:45:31] system. So much easier, much more efficient, more cost effective to simply say hey this year we're

[5:45:40] going to take 2 million from our general fund and put it over here. And we had structured where

[5:45:46] that trash fee would go directly into the landfill closure, which is restricted, yes. Okay.

[5:46:08] So I did

[5:46:09] received, I'll call it several, more than a few, but I wouldn't call it a lot. Several

[5:46:16] emails from residents. And the resounding theme was a small fee from each resident makes

[5:46:30] the most sense to get us to where we need to be. It's real simple. I know that there's

[5:46:36] There's a concept of, well, why don't we just leave it in the tax rate, pull it from

[5:46:45] general fund and not have a fee and it makes it more transparent or maybe there are other

[5:46:49] reasons that I'm not recalling.

[5:46:53] But it makes sense to me that if there's a $5 trash fee that is set up to go directly to

[5:47:03] the landfill closure, post-closure fund, we're leveraging all the residents in a very

[5:47:13] small fee that then incrementally increases over 24 years, to only $30. I know those numbers

[5:47:26] can change over time, inflation costs, etc. But the residents, I'll just quote a few other

[5:47:35] ones that it's our civic duty to do it this way. It's more transparent. It's very clear

[5:47:41] in the water bill, five bucks trash fee. Got it.

[5:47:47] It's physically responsible as another quote.

[5:47:51] So, I mean, I like the idea of maintaining that trash fee the way that we agreed last year to do it, and to keep the schedule in place and to devote that to the closure post-closure fund.

[5:48:08] That's all we're thinking.

[5:48:10] Thank you.

[5:48:10] Okay, so I want to try to put this in real simple terms.

[5:48:13] And I talk loud because I'm having a hard time hearing you all.

[5:48:17] So, please speak a little bit louder.

[5:48:21] Basically, we need $40 million, $40.4 million, that's what you said on the report today.

[5:48:27] We have $6.1, which leaves a difference of $34.3 million.

[5:48:32] Simple math if you divide the $34 million by 22 years, assuming a 22-year-older life, that's

[5:48:40] $1.56 million a year that needs to go into the fund.

[5:48:44] closure fund. Okay.

[5:48:50] Yes, funds collected from the landfill go into the general fund.

[5:48:56] The city has been budgeting to put money into the closure side of things. And correct

[5:49:06] Let me, if I'm wrong, what is accrued in the closure account are restricted funds.

[5:49:16] That's correct.

[5:49:18] Okay.

[5:49:19] So I just want everybody to know that the money that we have set aside that's in the closure

[5:49:26] account is restricted to use of the landfill.

[5:49:30] We can't take that and go build a road or anything else.

[5:49:32] So, that's real important.

[5:49:37] This fee that we're talking about implementing that was approved once, and we're still having

[5:49:43] discussion about it, is accelerating the collection of revenue to be added to the landfill closure

[5:49:54] in order to assure that we are reaching that $40 million mark.

[5:50:00] Okay. And in addition, it also, I think if you follow a logic, it conditions or prepares

[5:50:10] our residents for the inevitable time when they are going to have to pay the full cost

[5:50:19] of collection service, okay, because when the landfill closes, then our contractor,

[5:50:30] whoever the city hires at that time, will be hauling our trash to some other site.

[5:50:39] Perhaps in South Dallas could be Irving, who knows, but and there will be a cost for that.

[5:50:45] And that is what we're having to look at paying for.

[5:50:49] The $40 million isn't going to pay for that.

[5:50:52] That's taking care of the landfill for the next 30 years after closing that we have to monitor it.

[5:50:59] It's we're building up and conditioning our residents to the real fact that they are going to have to be paying for

[5:51:11] residential trash service. And hopefully that will include collection of brush also.

[5:51:19] So, but again, you know, all of these things, all of those costs are subject to a

[5:51:25] little bit of change, and that's going to be a whole other set of negotiation with

[5:51:30] providers at that time. So I'm just curious, and I'd like to just take a

[5:51:38] I'm going to draw a poll at this moment to know whether you are still on board with the implementation of this fee.

[5:51:46] And I'm looking to my left,

[5:51:50] I'll repeat.

[5:51:51] I'm just curious to know whether you all are still on board with the implementation of this fee.

[5:52:01] And I'm taking my own straw poll right now, that's what I said.

[5:52:04] That girl, my mind has not changed.

[5:52:08] I didn't.

[5:52:08] I couldn't hear.

[5:52:10] I'm good.

[5:52:11] My mind has not changed to thank you.

[5:52:13] Which is what?

[5:52:14] Yes or no?

[5:52:16] What I've said before.

[5:52:18] Please repeat.

[5:52:19] Yes.

[5:52:20] Okay.

[5:52:21] Just want to make sure.

[5:52:23] Councillor Baird.

[5:52:25] It still seems weird to me with the tax.

[5:52:31] I'm not talking about the tax rate.

[5:52:33] I'm just talking about this.

[5:52:37] So are we still looking to move forward with this?

[5:52:47] Are you subscribing to the logic of it?

[5:52:51] I understand we have to get $40 million.

[5:52:55] Can I ask a quick question on the slide that's up to get to that $40 million?

[5:53:02] That's that column.

[5:53:03] But that column is not adding any interest that will be bearing over those years.

[5:53:08] We'll be earning over those years.

[5:53:11] Right, but that's also the 40 million calculation as of today.

[5:53:17] So the 40 million is not with inflating.

[5:53:21] It has inflation that's calculated into that.

[5:53:25] But there could be changes.

[5:53:28] Sure.

[5:53:30] So each year, the state gives you an inflationary factor you have to use to make this new calculation.

[5:53:36] So you look at how many more acres did you build that year?

[5:53:39] What are the costs of that?

[5:53:41] We have models of very large spread sheets that have the closure, post closure, and the corrective action.

[5:53:46] But then you apply that new inflationary factor to whatever your new numbers are for that next upcoming year.

[5:53:52] This does not factor in, this is just the numbers we have for financial assurance.

[5:53:56] Along the way, we have these gas collection system costs.

[5:53:59] So at 6.1 is critical to help keeping those projects going along as well.

[5:54:04] So there'll be some expenditures coming out of that closure post closure all along the way.

[5:54:08] Pay for gas collection.

[5:54:10] Okay, thank you.

[5:54:11] I guess my answer is, for the next five years, I'd rather find half a million dollars in the cost and

[5:54:17] expense savings than fee the residents.

[5:54:25] I

[5:54:28] had originally thought of all the incorporating it into the property tax, but it seems pretty convoluted, especially when it goes into the general fund, I think it's a simpler process to go with the $5 fee, increasing it per this schedule.

[5:54:53] I think it's much more understandable, much more explainable, or more easily explainable.

[5:55:04] And then we don't have to worry about the tax aspect of it, so that's where I stand. Thank you very good. Again, I'm taking my own straw poll here, so I'm just wanting now. Mr. Mayor, I support the $5 fee schedule, the way this pro form of schedule is laid out. I think the aspect that you mentioned, the behavioral aspect in preparing residents.

[5:55:31] over a long term for the eventual fact they're going to have to pay for trash.

[5:55:35] So if they're not going to pay $5 a day, then in five years they're going to pay $10.

[5:55:41] Or in 20 years they're going to pay $20.

[5:55:44] At some point they're going to have to pay a trash fee.

[5:55:49] This takes the $5 and puts it into a restricted fund.

[5:55:53] Any other way, and we leave it to the council, future councils, to use their discretion

[5:56:01] with the general fund, okay?

[5:56:05] We're just kicking the can down the road.

[5:56:07] So I think implementing the $5 fee and dedicating that to the post-cozure fund is a prudent thing

[5:56:22] I'm just using the money for other means.

[5:56:25] Thank you.

[5:56:26] Councillor Neill.

[5:56:30] I recognize we need to get the $40 million somehow.

[5:56:33] I'm just not quite clear on how we're going to get there.

[5:56:36] I sent a rather extensive detailed email to Ben earlier today about this issue and he responded

[5:56:42] as quickly as he could.

[5:56:43] I've not had a chance to digest that.

[5:56:46] My questions tonight also sort of require some further information that Tammy's going to

[5:56:56] We get back to me on and I just like to have that information clarified for me.

[5:57:05] Well, again, I'll try to make this real simple.

[5:57:11] The $5 fee generates $498,000, we need to just simple math.

[5:57:19] Simple math dictates that we need to be putting $1.56 million into the closure fund every year.

[5:57:26] Now,

[5:57:29] that will change a little bit, because as the revenue from the garbage fee increases,

[5:57:37] it will be a little bit different number, but that's where we are dependent upon this council and

[5:57:47] future councils to be contributing probably somewhere around a million dollars from the general fund

[5:57:55] towards this liability, and, you know, I'll quote a phrase that was used earlier

[5:58:07] when somebody said they used the financial model to figure future assurances for their clients.

[5:58:21] That's being responsible, and I think that's what we need to do.

[5:58:25] We need to, this is a basic financial model here that's going to get us to where we need to be and help position us for managing not only the closure of the landfill, but also prepare our residents for the inevitable fact.

[5:58:50] inevitable fact that they will be paying for trash service in full come today that that

[5:58:59] landfill closes. So I don't see how you argue your way around it. I don't see how you

[5:59:06] delay your way around it. This is something that we have to do as financial stewards or custodians

[5:59:18] of the city.

[5:59:22] And I will get back with you on those revenues and expenditures.

[5:59:26] I'm pretty sure that our landfill revenue, I believe we've got budgeted 7.3, our expenditures

[5:59:34] are right there along with it as far as the Solid Waste Division.

[5:59:40] We have a lot of expenditures related to all the facilities, the salaries and the fixed assets

[5:59:47] that go with our brush and our reties.

[5:59:51] You and I know in the past, Shane, you made annual presentations to the Council when I was on Council

[5:59:57] to let us know the status.

[6:00:00] There were a lot of funds and for example, when we had to add the Flair system and all that, there was expense involved, there was expense involved when we had to, when we had the permit, the expansion permit. And so you gave very thorough and adequate reports to the council as to what our financial condition was every year regarding that.

[6:00:26] So, you know, this isn't something that we're just taking action today and then we're going to lose sight of.

[6:00:33] I expect to hear every year what we're looking at because this is a huge number.

[6:00:42] It's huge.

[6:00:45] Yes, sir.

[6:00:46] I have one more question, came in on, I had this discussion last week and I just recalled it.

[6:00:50] But if we rely on general fund, right, that's tax revenue, basic goods tax revenue

[6:01:00] that we're going to rely on, to then each year make some discretionary movement of money

[6:01:07] from general fund to close repose closure without, if we don't do this pro form of fee schedule, right?

[6:01:13] Right?

[6:01:17] Our ability to continue to keep a tax rate or raise a tax rate in future years is beginning to dwindle. Am I right?

[6:01:30] We're limited in how much we can increase our tax revenue.

[6:01:34] Correct. We have the Senate Bill 2 cap for 3.5% growth.

[6:01:40] Okay, so if we rely on general fund, which are tax dollars, which are limited because of SB 2,

[6:01:50] and we're not properly funding this fund, we could find ourselves in a situation where we can't

[6:02:00] recoup the, we can't make that move to this closure post-closure fund.

[6:02:06] If your revenues are equaling your expenses every year with the landfill, you don't have much access to support your landfill closure post closure.

[6:02:16] Right. Okay. Thank you. You said it much better than I was trying to say it, but that's what I'm concerned about is with the decreasing ability to pull this from tax revenue and our ability to increase tax revenue for expenses like this.

[6:02:35] This makes a whole lot of sense to tack it to the tractor, to the water bill, and

[6:02:42] send it straight to a post-cozure fund.

[6:02:45] Thank you.

[6:02:46] All right.

[6:02:47] So I believe-

[6:02:48] One point if I may?

[6:02:49] Yes, sir.

[6:02:51] And the other thing to consider, too, is if we're relying totally on revenue, exceeding expense,

[6:02:59] just take a look at what happened on Memorial Day, and all the additional expenses unplanned

[6:03:06] expenses we had picking up rush and all that disposal, running the trucks, the crews, all that, that's not baked into the system.

[6:03:16] So that's increasing expenses and taking, you know, cutting that delta down even more if there is one.

[6:03:26] Who knows whether that's going to happen again.

[6:03:29] And so relying upon that to make up for the shortfall just doesn't make sense,

[6:03:38] isn't it?

[6:03:41] Yes, sir.

[6:03:42] So Mayor and Council, basically what I'll do with this case is we build the budget for

[6:03:46] you for my understanding is we'll put the fee in.

[6:03:48] We'll also be very cognizant that even though there's a tax rate reduction, we want to make

[6:03:52] sure we're clarified how that's interacting with the fee increase and show a true representation

[6:03:57] to the residents on what that delta is.

[6:04:00] So it's not just, hey, there's a tax rate decrease.

[6:04:02] We're going to incorporate the D burden into that calculation,

[6:04:05] show that as well to make sure we meet the transparency

[6:04:07] all of asking about what that relationship.

[6:04:09] So it's not just replaced with one.

[6:04:11] So we'll work on that as well.

[6:04:12] So the proposed budget that you all will receive

[6:04:14] in about two weeks will have that information in there.

[6:04:18] Okay, thank you very much.

[6:04:20] Anything else on this topic?

[6:04:21] Council member?

[6:04:23] Okay.

[6:04:24] Mike was on, so, okay.

[6:04:26] Good, good.

[6:04:27] Very good.

[6:04:28] Thank you.

[6:04:29] Okay.

[6:04:30] Next up is C-11, receiving an update from the Mayor and City Council Members regarding

[6:04:34] board liaison information from outside organizations and other meetings attended.

[6:04:42] In the interest of time, I'm just, I'm going to dispense with that and I'll give my report

[6:04:46] at the next meeting.

[6:04:48] Anybody?

[6:04:50] That's your question?

[6:04:53] Okay.

[6:04:54] Good.

[6:04:55] Good.

[6:04:55] Okay.

[6:04:55] Okay. That's the C-12 discussion.

[6:05:00] Future agenda items, may they have anything for future? Very good. We did not do C1, which was to discuss regular agenda items, but we've already had our regular agenda. So we will dispense with that. I am going to read us into executive session because we still have to do that.

[6:05:24] So, please bear with me. City shall convene into a closed executive session,

[6:05:30] and pursuant to the Texas government code section 551.

[6:05:33] 072 real property section 551.073 proposed donation

[6:05:40] and section 551.071 consultation with attorney

[6:05:44] to discuss and deliberate and to receive legal advice

[6:05:48] from the city attorney regarding a proposed redevelopment

[6:05:51] and possible land exchange relating

[6:05:52] to farmers from ancient lunch school and Cox Park.

[6:05:56] In addition, city will convene into closed executive session

[6:06:00] in person to Texas government code, section 551.071.

[6:06:04] Consultation with city attorney received legal advice

[6:06:06] regarding the renewal of a warehouse lease agreement.

[6:06:09] In addition, city will convene into closed executive session

[6:06:14] pursuant to section 551.074, Texas government code personnel

[6:06:19] to deliberate the appointment, employment, reassignment

[6:06:23] and duties of the communications department.

[6:06:26] and the city will convene into a closed executive session percent to

[6:06:32] Texagham Code, section 551.074, personnel discussion delivery on proposals for the city attorney legal services, and finally this city council will convene into closed executive session pursuant to section 551.071, I believe.

[6:06:50] We leave consultation with City Attorney to discuss and deliberate firehouse theater.

[6:07:32] Welcome back, 1233.

[6:07:36] There was no action to be taken as a result of executive session.

[6:07:40] So that will conclude our meeting for this evening and we will adjourn at 1233.

[6:07:47] Thank you very much.

City Council on 2024-07-16 6:00 PM

Agenda

Transcript