Richardson City Council Meeting January 9th, 2023

All councilmembers are present as well as City Manager Don Magner and City Secretary Aimee Nemer.

Councilwoman Justice leads a prayer and the pledges of allegiance.

Minutes of December meetings are approved unanimously.

One public speaker offers a christian prayer. He prays for churches, government, and schools to be connected. He also prays for TCU to win the national college football championship. (JN: They lost 65-7.)

City Manager Don Magner gives a presentation on the annual ACCESS+INCLUSION Event. This year’s event will focus on raising awareness and opening a dialog about mental health issues. More specifically, the city’s focus is how these issues impact residents and the City of Richardson as an organization. Ally Haynes-Hablen, Executive Director of the Eisemann Center, continues the presentation. The week will consist of workshops led by mental health centers, religious organizations, schools, and city staff. The week will culminate with a performance by a magician. The magician then continues the presentation. He cites several peer-reviewed studies that he has published showing the efficacy of magic performances in rehabilitation settings. He also cites his work for the state department travelling to embassies to perform magic for people who have experienced trauma. He concludes by describing his social media influence. The Eisemann Center Director then continues the presentation. She presents the future plans for this annual event. She explains that the arts will always remain at the core of this work. Through this, the city will focus on improving the health of the community. Potential subject areas for future events include mental wellness, brain injuries, deafness & blindness, mobility issues, and neurodiversity. She emphasizes that this is about arts, primarily. This is a week to highlight how arts can branch out beyond just the entertainment sector. The magician is then asked to share a heartfelt story involving his impact on one particular autistic child. He tells the story and describes showing this child a magic trick. He then recalls the child asking to be shown how to do the trick himself. This caused the child to communicate verbally in a way no one else had witnessed him do. The magician emphasizes something very important. It wasn’t that this child suddenly learned how to use language. He had language all along. It was what caused him to feel comfortable using that language that made the difference. (JN: As an autistic person myself, I feel strongly about this. We need a lot less “fixing” and a lot more acceptance.) The magician then shows everyone a magic trick and the presentation concludes.

Bob Clymire, Budget Officer for the City of Richardson, gives the FY 21-22 end of year financial report. Conservative budgeting due to the pandemic has caused a surplus of approximately $16 million in the General Fund. Vacancies across various city departments have also contributed to the surplus. $10 million of the surplus will be used for the City Hall project. (Richardson’s City Hall had a significant fire last year and hasn’t been used since.) $4 million will be used to install generators at various city facilities. $2 million will be set aside to supplement the 2021 bond program. The Water & Sewer Fund also experienced a surplus of approximately $10 million. $9 million will be used for the Northside Pump Station Project. $1 million will be reserved for future needs. Approximately $1 million of surplus in the Solid Waste Services Fund will be reserved for the updated Master Plan. Approximately $500,000 in surplus of the Golf Fund will be used to replace restrooms at the city-owned golf course. No surplus was reported in the Hotel/Motel fund, with both revenues and expenditures finishing over budget. Councilwoman DePuy asks about future expectations regarding the vacancies across various departments. City Manager Magner explains that some of the strategies to increase wages, bonuses, benefits, etc. have had a positive impact, implying that this would be a good strategy to continue in future planning. Councilman Dubey asks if mandatory overtime policies might help make up for vacancies. City Manager Magner advises it is not a strategy that would be beneficial long term. Councilwoman DePuy then brings up the State of Texas’ budget surplus and asks if residents should expect any impact. Mayor Voelker answers that they may focus on public education with this surplus, but whatever the state decides to do will be noteworthy. (JN: Ideal, but doubtful. Since recapture is one of the major contributors to the surplus, the state certainly should use that money to properly fund public education. I’m willing to bet, though, that we’ll see some pretty stupid ideas presented by republican state legislators such as border projects or private religious school funding. This 88^th legislative session will be a doozy. It might be a good idea for all our ISD teams to ask their school boards to request these funds be used for public education, if it’s not already on their legislative agenda.)

City Secretary Aimee Nemer presents the 2023 City Council Election Calendar. The City of Richardson currently conducts elections at-large. All citizens get to vote on all city council places. Places 1-4 have a geographical residency requirement. Places 5, 6, and 7 (Mayor) have no such requirement. The filing period for this election will be Jan 18^th – Feb 17^th. Early voting for this election will be from Apr 24^th – May 2^nd, with Election Day occurring on May 6^th. Later in the week, Mayor Voelker announced that he would not be seeking re-election. If one of the current councilmembers decides to run for Mayor, we could see a potential race to “flip” the city council. (JN: Ranked-choice or single-member district voting would be ideal eventually. Especially considering the major lawsuit that forced Richardson ISD to move away from at-large voting. They cover a lot of the same geographical area.)

The consent agenda includes purchase order authorizations for traffic signal video detection systems, golf course maintenance equipment, golf carts, and ammunition for RPD. This passes unanimously.

City council highlights the various events they attended during the holiday season. Councilman Shamsul noted Councilman Dubey’s attendance at a Lunar New Year festival. He also mentioned that the mayor typically attends this event and he “hopes to see everyone attend next year”. (JN: Foreshadowing? Will Councilman Dubey make a bid for mayor this year?) Mayor Voelker thanks Congressman Allred for allocating funding towards public transit projects. He mentions this is a result of the federal omnibus package that recently passed.

City council then moves into closed session to decide with the city attorney how to move forward with the city hall fire claim.

The footage after returning from executive session is strangely sped up and a little difficult to understand. Councilman Corcoran appears to make a motion authorizing the City Manager to negotiate and execute a lease for temporary facilities for the city hall and library, including any amendments or instruments related thereto. This passes unanimously and the meeting adjourns.