If you read the newspaper, you get the impression that a city budget is all about who can make the most cuts. During a recent city council meeting, one citizen tweeted that he couldn’t figure out what I opposed, as if good governance is measured in what one is against.
It’s easy to oppose things. To be against things. The local online newspaper commenters will love you for it.
A city budget, however, is the single most important policy statement the city council makes all year long. It is where our vision for the city of Denton finds financial backing. Far from recommending cuts, the true impact a council member can have is advocating for an idea, a vision, a policy, or a perspective so effectively to the point that it becomes the long-term policy direction of the city and finds funding within the city budget.
There’s much to be proud of in the 2015-2016 proposed City Budget that will be voted on tonight. Here are just some of the values that are being expressed by this year’s budget:
BUSINESS INNOVATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Whether you have an idea and only $20 to your name or you are looking to relocate your Corporate Headquarters. We have a vision that is looking beyond the square, on the East side of Bell, in an underutilized industrial part of town at the gateway of beautiful Southeast Denton: Denton’s Innovation District is emerging.
- Denton’s growing tech and startup scene will soon have a geographical center of gravity at the new Railyard project just East of the Downtown Transit Center where the city is set to launch a tech coworking space and startup incubator.
- Just a block away we’ll see the relocation of Denton’s small business pop-up shop culture: the Denton Community Market. A place for entrepreneurs to test business concepts and scale promising ideas.
- We are also starting a new economic development fund with $150,000 of seed money meant to be used to help land significant projects in the city.
- Finally, we are significantly investing in our Planning Department to get more help to help new projects and businesses get out the door and make doing business in Denton a bit easier.
PEDESTRIAN AND BIKE ACCOMODATIONS
- Voters approved $2 million in funding for connecting the dots on the city’s sidewalks. This budget year will see the first round of projects dedicated to this.
- We’ve also invested in a city-wide sidewalk assessment to help put data on our sidewalk needs and help us prioritize projects.
- No more playing Frogger on McKinney Street between downtown and Quakertown Park – funding for a mid-block McKinney Street crossing is included in the budget to help facilitate pedestrian/biking to and from downtown as well as open up underutilized city lots for more downtown parking.
- $20,000 will be approved for additional bike and pedestrian education programs.
- Those artistic Little d bike racks will be funded and placed throughout the downtown area to deal with our other big parking problem – bike parking.
INVESTING IN OUR YOUTH
Our commitment to our youngest of citizens is evident by the development of two innovative programs aimed at working collaboratively with other community partners including the United Way of Denton County, Denton ISD, Communities in Schools North Texas, and our two universities.
- Mentor Denton, a collective impact initiative that aims to match 10,000 of our Denton kids with an adult mentor, will now have a coordinator position to help scale its efforts in a joint partnership between the city, United Way, and Denton ISD.
- The Mayor’s Summer Youth Jobs Program will be funded after a successful first year pilot in which high school students were matched with employers for a summer of work, job training, and mentorship.
HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION
Here’s another example of the city partnering with other community entities to help tackle a big issue for our city. The Mayor’s Homelessness Task Force has recommended the creation of a Homelessness Coordinator position to help coordinate community efforts around homelessness and we’ll devote $40,000 to the cause.
STREETS
The city will be spending $11,115,423 in 2015-2016 out of our Street Improvement Fund. Total operating funding for street maintenance has increased from $4.36 million to $11.2 million in the last 7 years. This council has also agreed to have a more comprehensive policy and funding discussion on street funding following the results of our latest OCI study in order to determine clear goals, metrics, and needed funding levels in order to map out a long-term solution to our city’s street and transportation needs.
A SMART, TECH-SAVVY, and TRANSPARENT CITY
- The city will soon embark on a $200,000 overhaul to the digital front door of City Hall – our website. Google and Amazon have reared us to expect quick and easy access to all of our questions and customer service needs and we expect no less from our city government. Part of our discussion has included ways to use this website rebuild as a way to begin implementation of a 311 system, build upon our Open Data policy and program, and connect more of the city’s data to our citizens.
- We also plan on investing in a new software program that will make making, accessing, and tracking Public Information Requests much more user-friendly for citizens.