Richardson City Council Meeting February 12th, 2024
OPENING
All councilmembers are present as well as City Manager Don Magner and City Secretary Aimee Nemer.
Councilman Hutchenrider leads a Christian prayer and the pledges.
Minutes of previous meetings are approved unanimously.
Typically, public comments would be heard next. Last week, the city cited respecting city plan commissioners’ time as the reason for public comments being heard later. This week, however, there are no commissioners who need to get home. Yet, public comments have been placed on the agenda after both public hearings on zoning files.
PUBLIC HEARINGS ON ZONING FILES
So, the first item is a public hearing on ZF 23-15, a planned development rezoning request to allow Another Time & Place at Abrams/Buckingham to build a patio cover within the 40 ft. setback zone. This was also discussed at the Jan. 16th CPC meeting. In response to questions about amending the request to include applying the 3-ft setback zone to the whole building, staff clarifies that the request can be modified. The applicant confirms their desire to amend the request. One public speaker supports the request. Council unanimously approves the amended request applying the new setback zone to the entire building.
The second public hearing is on ZF 23-17, also discussed at the Jan. 16th CPC meeting. This request is to amend the planned development approved in ZF 22-17 in Jan. 2023 to correct minimum unit sizes to match the existing buildings. Councilman Hutchenrider asks why minimum unit sizes need to be established. City Manager Don Magner answers that it prevents the developer from splitting up units and increasing density. Council unanimously approves the request.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Now, public comments. The first speaker thanks five of the seven councilmembers for their engagement, Mayor Dubey, Councilwoman Justice, Councilman Barrios, Councilman Corcoran, and Councilman Hutchenrider. He hopes that Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul and Councilman Dorian will be willing to engage and discuss community concerns in the future. He invites Council to a community teach-in event to learn more about the community’s perspective on the War in Gaza. The second speaker asks Council to pass a ceasefire resolution on the War in Gaza.
COUNCIL RULES OF PROCEDURE
The next item is an update to the Council Rules of Procedure. City Secretary Aimee Nemer presents. The entire draft Council Rules of Procedure document can be found beginning on page 64 of the agenda packet.
Sec. 1.4 codifies the current practice of the mayor assigning councilmembers to the Audit, Education, and Business committees. This also includes the mayor appointing councilmembers as liaisons to the Library Board and the Animal Services Advisory, Community Inclusion and Engagement, Cultural Arts, and Parks and Rec Commissions. The mayor will also appoint councilmembers to the 501(c)(4) Dallas Regional Mobility Coalition, the 501(c)(3) North Central Texas Council of Governments, and its Regional Mobility Coalition.
Sec. 1.5 regulates how councilmember requests are handled. This is suggested because it is a practice of other local governments. Policy change requests will be brought before the entire Council for consideration. Information requests that ask for written products will be sent to all councilmembers. If a request made to the city manager, city attorney, city secretary, or municipal judge requires extensive work, the request will be brought before Council to approve or deny. Sec. 2.2 requires that a written request for future agenda items be submitted to the mayor by at least three councilmembers to be approved. This was also added because it is a practice in other local cities.
Sec. 2.8 includes the state minimum requirements for recording meetings. Secretary Nemer states that the current practice is above and beyond that since they record all work sessions and meetings held in Council Chambers where they have recording equipment set up. (JN: I wish that were the case. The unrecorded 4 ½ hour Council Goals Session is a glaring exception. If the current practice is to record all meetings held in Council Chambers, why not codify that in this document?)
Councilman Barrios asks about amending Sec. 2.2 to allow councilmembers to make requests for future agenda items at the end of meetings. He states this is something Plano City Council does. Councilman Hutchenrider wants each councilmember to be able to request future agenda items without requiring additional support. Mayor Dubey asks if City Manager Don Magner wants to address the suggestions or if he wants the mayor to move on. Don states that, in consulting with staff from other cities, requiring additional councilmembers to support requests for future agenda items is a check on anyone who might have their own agenda.
Councilwoman Justice wants to keep the requirement for additional councilmember support in suggesting future agenda items. Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul also wants to keep with the requirement. Councilman Corcoran would be fine with both the written request rule and adding an opportunity at the end of a meeting once a month to suggest future agenda items. He wants to make sure it is Texas Open Meetings Act compliant. Mayor Dubey responds by saying future agenda items should achieve Council agreement before being placed on an agenda. He also states that staff needs time to prepare any such items. (JN: Staff needs time to present an item if Council agrees to place it on an agenda, but I don’t see what preparation could be needed for just hearing suggestions or requests.) Councilman Hutchenrider still wants to do away with the additional support requirement. City Manager Don Magner reminds Council that Sec. 1.5 allows councilmembers to make information requests directly to the city manager without needing additional Council support unless it requires extensive work. Secretary Nemer states there could be compliance issues with allowing Council to request future agenda items at the end of meetings. Councilman Barrios responds that it could be a simple motion with no discussion. He states that Plano does this. Staff will check with the city attorney. Councilwoman Justice still supports the draft rules as written.
City Manager Don Magner offers to amend the policy to add an acknowledgement of written requests from councilmembers in the next public meeting, making the written request part of the public record. Council agrees with the suggestion. Councilwoman Justice and Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul reiterate their support for the current draft wording. They still want to require three councilmembers to support the request. Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul reminds Council that the rule need only be used if the city manager denies a request to put something on the agenda. Nothing prevents the city manager from putting a good idea on the agenda.
Councilman Barrios also wants to amend Sec. 2.8 to add that the city will make every effort to record all public meetings. He echoes community concerns about the Council Goals Session not being recorded. He further states that since all of Council supports transparency, it would be good to show intent and effort in supporting transparency. Councilman Corcoran expresses support for recording the Goals Session, but he thinks trying to record every ‘public meeting’ including smaller committees and other meetings that are technically public might not be worth the effort to record. Councilwoman Justice agrees with Councilman Corcoran. Councilman Dorian does not think recording additional meetings should be pursued. He just wants to see more transparency but does not provide any suggestion whatsoever for how do to that.
Mayor Dubey wants to see intent and transparency in the rule. He thinks the city has been overreactive in their efforts to respond to calls for transparency. He calls the Council Chamber, where this meeting is being held and recorded at the very same table as the Council Goals Session, not necessarily functional for recording. He references small group discussions in the Goals Session.
(JN: I was there. These small groups were not efficient. These small groups took up less than 10% of the entire meeting. Four microphones can be placed where the small groups split up and the conversations could be heard very well. But wouldn’t it be better to just keep the entire Council, which is already a small group of seven people, together for the entirety of the discussions? Yes! This very same Richardson City Council agreed and did away with the small group discussions entirely by the end of the meeting. They were seen as unnecessary by this very Council. Mayor Dubey is factually incorrect in his statement and description of the inability to record the Goals Session.)
He just doesn’t want it recorded. He also doesn’t want applicant interviews for committees and boards to be recorded. Councilman Hutchenrider wants to be heard saying he supports transparency, but he dodges the question of recording the Goals Session entirely. Mayor Dubey then says, “OK. Let’s move on.” And, since the mayor controls the meeting and only three councilmembers asked for a change, they are forced to move on without amending the rule. I sincerely appreciate the three councilmembers who asked. Councilwoman Justice, Councilman Barrios, and Councilman Corcoran support transparency and want to see the Goals Session recorded. Mayor Dubey, Councilman Dorian, and Councilman Hutchenrider want to be on the record as supporting transparency, but they do not want to record the Goals Session. Mayor Pro Tem Shamsul did not express his support for transparency on this topic. He didn’t express anything at all. So, I guess he also does not want to record the Goals Session. 4-3, the “transparent” majority wins this one.
Sec. 5.2 and 5.3 introduce something new. Public comments will now be divided into Public Comments on Agenda Items and Visitors Forum. Agenda item comments will be heard before other comments. If the Visitors Forum goes longer than 30 minutes, the rest of the speakers will now be heard at the end of the meeting. Secretary Nemer states that, according to state law, Council doesn’t have to allow comments on anything except agenda action items, but they may allow comments if they choose to do so. Council will vote to adopt these rules on Feb. 26th.
CONSENT AGENDA & CLOSING
The consent agenda is passed unanimously. It includes an ordinance codifying the increase of the 65+/Disabled Persons property tax exemption. It also includes a pair of ordinances codifying the changes to mobile food vendor and pool regulations. It also includes a bid award for $147K to Mountjoy Aquatics to replace a UV system. The final consent agenda item is approving the guaranteed maximum price of $31.4M presented at the last meeting for the library renovation project.
Council discusses a UTD event, the Lunar New Year celebration, the weather, the It’s Time Texas health challenge and a Cultural Arts Commission meeting, and the meeting adjourns.