Your City Council gets to be at City Hall beginning at 9am on Tuesday morning for a special called meeting on the budget. Here’s the full agenda for the morning meeting. We then reconvene at 1pm for a Work Session and 6:30pm for our Regular Session – click here for the 1pm meeting agenda.
Here are some items of interest…
BUDGET TALKS
We are now several weeks into our annual budget discussions. Click here to get caught up on all the previous presentations on the 2015-2016 Annual Budget. There are many remaining topics for discussion before we finalize the budget ahead of the September 15 meeting where we will vote on it. I look forward to continuing discussions on things like creative downtown parking options, downtown bike racks, space for the Denton Community Market and other community events, a homeless coordinator position, tax reductions, and other important topics. We hope to be near a final budget by the end of our council meeting today.
DCTA BENCHES AND BUS SHELTERS
We have had several citizen presentations advocating for additional benches and shelters at bus stops throughout town. DCTA operates our public transit system and oversees bus shelter installations in consultation with the city. We will hear from the President of DCTA about the latest updates to get more benches and shelters at Denton bus stops.
EMERGENCY HOMELESS SHELTER WOES
The City of Denton recently stepped up to provide space at the old Animal Shelter for the Monsignor King Emergency Homeless Shelter which operates in extreme hot and cold temperatures to provide adequate shelter for our city’s homeless. Due to safety insufficiencies at this location, the city is concerned with keeping this site as a more permanent option. As such, we will be hearing a report on this and possibilities moving forward regarding an emergency shelter in Denton.
DENTON, BLOOMBERG PHILANTHROPIES, AND CITY DATA
When word broke this summer that Bloomberg Philanthropies was putting out a challenge for cities in the form of the What Works Cities initiative, several citizens contacted me volunteering their time to go out for this partnership. That resulted in a quick yet ambitious citizen engagement effort to find citizen-driven projects that the city could pursue to bring open data to bear on city services and efficiency. It worked. The city of Denton was chosen in their first round of cities to partner with What Works Cities to bring resources to Denton to help us tackle big problems by leveraging data and technology. The council will be briefed on this ahead of Friday’s meeting with a team from Johns Hopkins University to begin our work with this initiative.
HIGH TECH COWORKING COMES TO DENTON
The council will have the opportunity to approve an economic development incentive agreement as well as a Commercial Lease Agreement that will result in a full-fledge tech-centered co-working space right next to the downtown train station in one of the most promising new areas for development. There’s been significant movement in this area of economic development since I published this article in 2013 arguing for greater focus on Denton’s high tech assets. This project, in the heart of what many are calling Denton’s Innovation District, will create a physical center of gravity for our growing tech and startup scene.
A HOME FOR ONE OF DENTON’S FINEST
Mandated by state law, the city must aid in the relocation of residents who are impacted by property acquisitions for city projects. Joe, a friend of many, children’s book author, and advocate for persons with disability, resides in a property that will be demolished as a result of a DME substation project. As a result of other city projects, the city also owns a home on Bonnie Brae. It just so happens that renovating this house meets the obligation for the city in helping Joe find a new residence. This is an incredibly creative solution to both solve a city need and help one of our own find suitable housing. I look forward to asking our city staff to highlight this project because I think it deserves it. Here is a great example of government working for its people.