Tuesday’s City Council meeting will begin with a Work Session at 4pm, followed by the Regular Session at 6:30pm, all at our main City Hall at 215 E. McKinney Street. The full agenda and backup materials can be found here on the city website. Here are some items of interest…
THE FUTURE OF EUREKA PLAYGROUND
If you have kids or are one yourself, you have no doubt spent considerable time playing on the magical, castle-like structure of Eureka Playground at Southlakes Park. This park was designed, created, and funded by a group of volunteers 20 years ago. At the time of its creation, it was known that this sort of park would have an approximate lifespan of 20 years. Because maintenance issues continue to grow and the Denton Parks Foundation has indicated an interest in fundraising for a new playground, it is time to begin thinking about its future. We will be discussing options moving forward. If this interests you, please chime in!
Or perhaps you’ve noticed an increase in very enthusiastic teenage boys using this wooden structure to display their sweet Parkour skills. Perhaps we should learn something from these guys when we are deliberating the future of Eureka – SAVE PARKOUR N D PARK!!
HOTEL CONVENTION CENTER UPDATE
This will be our last update prior to a scheduled vote on the proposed agreement between the city, UNT, and O’Reilly Hospitality Management whereby the city will agree to fund a Convention Center connected to new (not city funded) Embassy Suites Hotel on the campus of UNT where the old Radisson Hotel used to stand. I gave a more significant update on its progress in my last council update along with a link to the Power Point Presentation given to council outlining many aspects of the proposed agreement. We are scheduled to vote on this agreement at the December 10 council meeting – a week from now.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN CONVENTION CENTER?
Some may be wondering whether or not it is a conflict of interest for me to be participating in Convention Center discussions and ultimately voting on the matter, given my employment status with the University of North Texas. Isn’t this a conflict of interest? As we started these conversations well over a year ago, I consulted our legal team’s advice on this very question. To be sure, as we are approaching a vote, I sought advice once more on my status. There exists a Texas Attorney General opinion from 1988 responding to a similar issue in San Marcos where a matter between the city and Texas State University called for city action and the majority of council members were employees of the university. You can read that opinion here. In it, the Attorney General argued that a public university (and other similar governmental entities) does not qualify as a “business entity” identified in the laws defining legal conflicts of interest. On my own initiative I’ve sought ought legal advice on this issue twice, I’ve received advice that there was no conflict, and I intend to fulfill my council duty by continuing to participate in this discussion and voting when the time comes. As much fun it is to speculate about backroom deals, secret handshakes, and kickbacks, I’m pretty sure my modest salary in my very mid-level administrative job at UNT will remain very modest and very mid-level even after this vote.
AMENDMENTS TO THE GAS WELL ORDINANCE
On October 29, we amended a section of the Fire Code to clarify the proper ordering of permits leading to the full permitting of a gas well drilling permit. We’ll be officially changing the Denton Development Code related to this. Doing so requires a process whereby the amendments go first to the Planning and Zoning Commission and then to City Council. This will help clarify that the Planning Department, not the Fire Marshall’s office, has the final authority in permitting gas drilling in the city.
A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL PROTEST AT CITY HALL
I’ve discovered that meetings that begin with civil protests are better than meetings that do not. As many of you know, the fracking issue continues to be a difficult issue in our community. Some local activists will apparently be on hand to express their opinion, according to this Facebook Event.
As always, let me know your questions or comments on any of these issues.