August 5, 2024 Work Session Notes
I can't drive...25?
A short but important agenda for today’s Work Session. The FY 2024-2025 budget will officially be presented for the first time and a new health care option may be coming to Garland.
My comments for each item are in bold italics. Please share my Substack with a friend!
PUBLIC COMMENTS ON WORK SESSION ITEMS
CONSIDER THE CONSENT AGENDA
WRITTEN BRIEFINGS
1. Annual Performance Update on the City of Garland Housing Agency's 2020-2024 Five Year Plan and Administrative Plan Approval
Written staff presentation and recommendation to City Council recommending approval of the Garland Housing Agency's Annual Performance Update and the Administrative Plan revisions. This approval is necessary for the City of Garland to continue to receive funding and to provide rental assistance to low- income families from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This item will be brought back for consideration at the August 06, 2024 City Council Regular Meeting.
Every five years the Garland Housing Agency submits a plan to the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) detailing the administration of its Section 8 housing voucher program. The last five-year plan was approved July 21, 2020, and this is the annual progress report as required by HUD.
VERBAL BRIEFINGS
Council may ask for discussion, further information, or give direction to staff on an item posted as a verbal briefing.
2. Telehealth Partnership with Parkland Hospital
Staff will give an update on a partnership program with Parkland Hospital to expand access to telehealth services in Garland.
Ever since COVID-19, telehealth has become a larger part of our national healthcare process. Parkland Hospital has a grant program that can provide “telehealth pods” to provide virtual healthcare visits to Parkland physicians, and apps on existing technologies such as the laptops which can be reserved at library branches to also access healthcare consultations and information.
(A video visit booth. Image from: https://www.irvingweekly.com/s/6972/Parkland-Health-Introduces-Telehealth-Pod-to-Address-Health-Disparities.php)
After the Baylor Scott & White hospital left Garland, access to healthcare facilities has been a big concern of the City Council. I fully support doing whatever we can as a Council to bring healthcare to those who have connectivity, mobility or financial issues. I believe the future of medicine will continue to move towards virtual options to expand access and reduce costs and time, especially all those wasted hours spent sitting in doctor’s waiting rooms.
This is a wonderful service Parkland is able to provide to our residents. Preventative medicine is much less expensive in the end than the cost of using emergency rooms as primary care. I am happy to see that an analysis has also been done to determine to place these access points in the areas of most need.
(An overlay of public health condition and health insurance.)
(Possible virtual healthcare connectivity sites.)
3. Presentation of the FY 2024-25 Proposed Budget
The City Manager will present the FY 2024-25 Proposed Budget document to City Council. Following, staff will provide a brief overview of the City Manager's Proposed Budget.
Continuing on our budget discussions from last month’s work session, City Manager Jud Rex will officially present the City Budget to City Council for consideration. I urge you to read it and provide your input at one of several public hearings.
The first will be Saturday, August 17, 2024, at 8:30 A.M. during our Saturday budget work session. The second public hearing will be on Tuesday, August 20, 2024, at 7:00 P.M. during our regular council meeting and the final will be again at our regular council meeting Tuesday, September 3, 2024, at 7:00 P.M. The budget is scheduled for adoption on September 3, 2024.
4. Administrative Services Committee Report
Administrative Services Committee Chairperson Lucht, assisted by City staff, will deliver a report from the committee.
For our final agenda item, Chairwoman Lucht will provide a Administrative Services Committee report on three items concerning murals and public art.
Funding options for Public Art Programs (Lucht/Williams)
Staff drafted program for encouraging Art on private developments (Lucht/Williams)
Ordinances governing murals and public Art (Lucht/Williams)
Regarding item #3, many First Amendment concerns surround the regulation of murals. “Art” itself is hard to define, and in the context of our sign ordinance, the line between the two is even finer. For example, will a mural that contains text advertising a product, service or business be considered a sign even if it is done “artfully”? Is there a percentage of a mural that contains advertising that makes it a regulated sign and no longer a mural? These are all items we will be discussing tonight.
ANNOUNCE FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
A Councilmember, with a second by another member or the Mayor alone, may ask that an item be placed on a future agenda of the City Council or of a committee of the City Council. No substantive discussion of that item will take place at this time.
I plan on asking the Transportation, Infrastructure and Mobility Committee to consider reducing the speed limit in neighborhood streets to 25 miles per hour. The current limit in neighborhoods is 30 mph, but as a parent who has small kids who like playing in the front yard, rarely does the 30 mph limit prevent speeders. Also, speed bumps are not always and option as it takes a majority of residents along a street to support the installation.
The 25 mph is something that the Dallas City Council is currently considering and is something to that New York, Boston, Seattle, and Tacoma have already enacted. Per the local Fox news affiliate’s report, over 1,000 people have died in crashes on Dallas neighborhood streets within the last decade. Lowering neighborhood speed limits will make our streets safer for our pedestrians, drivers and local residents.
This has affected my family personally as my wife’s cousin Ryne Erickson was killed in September 2016 while walking across a residential street in Dumas, Texas. I would love to make our local streets safer to prevent another tragedy like this.
ADJOURN
Talking about speed limits, I just had to play Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive 55.”
I think the telehealth booth should be placed where the Good Samaritans would be located at. The area where Edgewood Drive is located is quite impoverished. They equally deserve access to preventative healthcare as anyone else. It's walkable for people who live along South Barnes or along Edgewood which makes it good if they don't have a car to get there.
I agree we should lower the speed limit from 30 to 25 or lower. But, I think everyone should teach kids not to go into the streets without stopping to look both ways. Or peek out from the cars slowly to look both ways before going into the streets. Also, drivers like me should drive slowly and be on the lookout for kids nearby. We can never predict what will happen next so, driving slower at neighborhood roads should be a reasonable action.
My condolences to your wife's cousin and the pain it caused to your family. Ryne would have been a great educator and role model to many students in the future if not for such a tragedy. I do hope the initiative to lower speeding limits in neighborhood roads succeeds for the greater good of safety for all.