Richardson City Council Work Session April 17th, 2023
OPENING
All councilmembers are present as well as City Manager Don Magner. Crystal Brown is stepping in to fill Secretary Nemer’s absence.
No public speakers are present.
THE COUNSELING PLACE
The first presentation is by Deborah Dobbs, executive director of The Counseling Place. The Counseling Place is a Richardson-based mental health provider that partners with the city to offer services to first responders, victims of crime, juvenile first offenders, and the community at-large. She reveals that first responders will sometimes seek out The Counseling Place in lieu of EAP benefits due to fears that seeking mental health services may affect their careers. Of the 1,500+ referrals they received last year, over 80% were referred by the Richardson Police Department. Cindy Schafer, current development director for The Counseling Place and former CEO of The Network of Community Ministries, continues the presentation. Cindy states that one of their goals this year will be more outreach and services offered to Richardson ISD students. 151 people seeking services were turned away last year, two thirds of which were turned away due to lack of staffing/funding. Two additional full-time staff would be required to cover the people who were turned away last year. They state that it would cost roughly $300,000 to hire them. Mayor Pro Tem DePuy asks if Richardson ISD will be contributing to funding for services offered to them. The director confirms that they will. The mayor pro tem then asks how much of mental health issues in teens can be attributed to social media use. The director states that, while she recognizes social media is not necessarily all bad, teens trying to brand themselves on social media is a major factor. She also states that a lack of parental involvement is a major contributor. Councilman Shamsul asks about the possibility of a 30-minute mental health class being added to the curriculum in schools. The director responds positively that they would love to pursue this. They would also like to move more into the community so their services can reach all who need them. Mayor Voelker states that he would like to expand their influence in collaborating on legislative agendas and funding requests to other county, state, and federal agencies.
INTERNATIONAL CODES UPDATE
Next is a presentation on adopting the 2021 International Codes. Building Official Brent Tignor begins. Notable changes to the building code include inspection requirements for weather-exposed balconies, a new section of codes for “escape room” entertainment venues, a new section for shipping container buildings, and low-frequency fire alarms. Updates to the plumbing code include removing gendered toilet facility requirements and requiring stalls for urinals in such cases. Updates to the fire code include new requirements for fire sprinklers in parking garages and a 4-foot aisle clearance requirement in retail stores. Assistant Fire Chief Wesley Caskey continues the presentation focusing on local fire safety system amendments. Updates to fire sprinkler systems in multi-family developments include requiring sprinkler coverage for balconies and corridors as well as requiring freeze protections to prevent breaks in the water filling sprinkler system. (JN: If you’re an apartment dweller like me, you know how annoying it is to suffer through fire alarms in the middle of a winter storm due to the water in the system freezing. I’m glad this is getting updated.) Another significant update to fire safety systems is allowing schools the ability to override a manual fire alarm activation if it was activated by a malicious actor, such as a school shooter. Local amendments to the residential and building codes now require public hearings before adoption, so these will be scheduled for public hearings at the April 24th city council meeting.
COTTONWOOD ART FEST, BIDS AWARDED, & CLOSING
The final presentation is on the Spring 2023 Cottonwood Art Festival. Community Events Supt. Dianna Lawrence presents. This year, the event will take place May 6-7. This year’s featured artist will be Karina Llergo.
Unusually, there is an action item on tonight’s work session agenda. Though it functions as a consent agenda, it is not referred to as a consent agenda. Three bids are awarded. All are related to the temporary city hall location. The first is $114k to Insight Public Sector for network replacement equipment. The second is $200k to Granite Telecommunications for session initiation protocol phone service. The third is $91k to Spectrum for network services.
Council discusses various events they attended throughout the week, and the meeting adjourns.