Work Session Notes - December 2, 2024
Close the laundry door, Tiptoe across the floor
Tomorrow’s Work Session brings you the long awaited recommendation of our Bond Study Committee. I encourage you to tune in to hear the discussion of how the committee reached their conclusions and what it means for the future of Garland.
As always, my comments are in bold italics.
Amendments to hours for the Jon Comer Skatepark at Rick Oden Park
Council is requested to consider amending the operating hours of the Jon Comer Skatepark at Rick Oden Park from 5:00 a.m. - 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Unless otherwise directed by Council, this item will be scheduled for formal consideration at the December 10, 2024 Regular Meeting.
Per Section 25.15 of our City Code of Ordinances, standard park hours are 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM. This amendment will bring the Jon Comer Statepark hours in line with other parks in our system.
Revised Parks and Recreation Advisory Board By-Laws
Council is requested to consider approving the revised by-laws for the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Unless otherwise directed by Council, this item will be scheduled for formal consideration at the December 10, 2024 Regular Meeting.
The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is composed of nine members with one each appointed by the Mayor and Councilmembers.
I have a few questions regarding the amended bylaws including the ability of the Board Chairman to appoint members as stated in Section 2.3, and the ability of a Parks Department Director to call a Special Meeting then have to file the notice of the Special Meeting with himself (Section 3.3).
Finally, I will recommend a change to Section 7.0 that the deliberations of the board should “generally” follow Robert’s Rules of Order as how the Council amended its Council Policy document during the last Work Session.
City Council Travel and Related Expenses
Per City Council Policy, Article II, Division 1, Section 6(E), the City Manager will provide a written briefing on City Council travel and related expenses.
Annually, the City Manager is required to report the councilmember’s travel expenses for each of the conferences they attend. This year, nearly $10,000 was spent on traveling and conference expenses. I ask you to consider whether this use of taxpayer money makes them better servants of the community.
Contract with Dillon Morgan Consulting for Process Improvement
City Council will review information regarding contracting with Dillon Morgan Consulting for process improvement services and consider approving the agreement during the December 10, 2024 Regular Meeting.
For sharp-eyed followers of the Council Agendas, this item was initially included as a Consent Agenda item during last week’s meetings. I had this item pulled for additional discussion as I felt that having the Council approve a $1.2 million consulting fee with only a sentence included on what value was being provided to the City was unacceptable.
From the previous agenda which was modified, the scope was
"to expand process enhancements and staff training" and
"DMC to deliver process improvement projects as part of this initiative" and "CoG process champions to deliver up to 12 projects with DMC coach support."
Now this item includes a formal presentation to Council with a discussion of proposed projects. Five projects identified in the packet include those in
Building Inspection
Budget & Research
Fleet
Engineering
Training, Coaching, and Co-leading Improvement Projects with Garland Green Belts
This is well short of “deliver(ing) up to 12 projects with DMC coach support,” but I hope the discussion provides more information on what value is being provided to the City for this large consulting fee.
VERBAL BRIEFINGS
Council may ask for discussion, further information, or give direction to staff on an item posted as a verbal briefing.
2025 Bond Study Committee - Final Recommendations to City Council
The 2025 Bond Study Committee, with the support of staff, will present their final recommendations to the Mayor and City Council.
The Bond Study Committee will finally provide it’s long-awaited results from their months of deliberation for which proposals they recommend taking to the voters for a bond election this coming May 2025.
The Committee’s recommendations revolve around six “charge buckets” totaling $360 million in funding which include:
Land Assembly
Infrastructure
Revitalization
Corridors/Gateways
Neighborhood Vitality
Destinations & Amenities
The Land Assembly bucket includes $25 million for the City to purchase property that will be used to create public-private partnerships for expanded economic development. The money will focus on four catalyst areas: Harbor Point (IH-30 by Lake Ray Hubbard), Downtown, South Garland Avenue (by IH-635), and Forest/Jupiter/Walnut (Medical District).
(A map of government owned property within Garland’s City Limits)
Unlike the 2019 Bond Program which included propositions for streets and drainage projects, this infrastructure bucket is purely for street improvements. The City recently completed its Overall Condition Index (OCI) rating streets throughout the entire city and staff provided a plan for increasing the OCI over the next five years.
This item would provide $210 million for streets composing by far the largest bucket or 58% of the total proposed bond package.
The third bucket is $10 million for the revitalization of commercial shopping center facades and residential home improvements, and the fourth bucket is $20 million for gateway and corridor improvements. The fifth bucket is $7 million to provide more funding for the neighborhood vitality department.
The final bucket is for $88 million for funding improvements in destinations and amenities to support economic development in those areas. The target areas in this bucket are Harbor Point, South Garland, the Medical District and improvements for the Granville Art Center. This is separate from the land assembly bucket as this will add waterfront access and trails or a boardwalk at Harbor Point, provide economic development incentives to attract a new hospital to the Medical District, and the redevelopment of the areas in South Garland around the former Hypermart location.
(An artist's rendering of a future Harbor Point entertainment and visitor attraction)
I appreciate the hours of hard work and discussion the Bond Committee has put into these recommendations, and I look forward to hearing more from the Committee Chairman Joe Thomas on how they arrived at their recommendations during tomorrow’s Work Session.
I would love to hear your thoughts on how you believe any money in a future bond program should be spent. Please post in the comments below or email me at council7@garlandtx.gov.
Development Services Committee Report
Councilmember Dylan Hedrick, Chair of the Development Services Committee, and staff will provide a committee report on the following items: the feasibility of requiring a Specific Use Permit for Laundromats in Community Retail (CR) zoning district, which was requested by Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Lucht at the August 5, 2024 Work Session.
In our final item of the night, I will bring the Development Services Committee’s report and recommendation to require the use of Special Use Permits (SUPs) for laundromats in Community Retail (CR) districts. Currently the use is allowed by right in the CR district.
Committee members Bass and Lucht voted to require an SUP, while I voted no pending receiving additional information regarding the scope of the issue (i.e. how many laundromats are located in CR next to residential areas, and how many laundromats have been approved within the past five years). Staff will present those numbers at the Work Session.
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.
ADJOURN
A twofer tonight since how often do I get to play songs associated with laundry? And neither of them is Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry” — one of the worst songs and most ridiculous refrains ever in my opinion.
The first is the Avett Brothers “Laundry Room” from 2009. It really gets going near the end with great instrumentation.
The second song is “Whenever, Wherever” from Shakira’s 2001 album Laundry Service. The video has some horrible green screen, but some great Shakira dance moves.