Thursday night's agenda:

Recap of the 2009 Retreat

PD  Staffing (this should be interesting- I'd be interested if they bring up Crime Prevention Districts for raising funds)

Economic Development Policy (very excited by this one)

Online City 'checkbook register' proposed by Councilman Watts

Project Labor Contracts (some federal rules that Watts wants looked at)

2009-  Reviewing the neighborhood revitalization committee- they're about 60% done with their charter and they're looking at ways to boost the quality and rules in our neighborhoods.  This gets into really interesting legal territory.  Their charter is complete in June. 

Naming rights contract is moving forward and in February we'll be looking for corporate naming rights for Railroad Park and other facilities.

Branding campaign is moving forward (the purple martin) and it is slowly being phased in.  Park vending operations now include GLASA for using the vending facilities.  The city has established a 25% set aside for vending profits to go towards scholarship monies.  Collegiate Soccer tourney will be here for 3 years.  looks like we will have a few collegiate tournaments over the next few years.

Park advertising (part of the naming rights program) we control exclusively now.  RR Park alcohol can't be sold except by variance.  There is time and money budgeted for park rangers to patrol the park and we're adding a camera system to help with security.  It will be part of a wireless program at the park and it will be in place by March.  Gorena asks if the wireless will be locked down, staff mentions it will probably be like our library.

Arts center operations budget will have a surplus because we're opening later than planned this year.  Gives us an opportunity to freeze those expenditures to help with this years budget. 

35 E long range plan, the consultants are beginning to review the 35E development plans.  There should be a committee appointed by staff later in the year to steer this process.  The state has approved a toll revenue model to build 35E Pass Through Tolling financing model.  Next will be public hearings in Austin and then approval, so this is progress.  We could have resistance to this when the legislature reconvenes since it could be seen as improper tolling.  Our represenatives and senators on the state level have been met with to review the concept and make sure they understand.  Feedback was positive with no 'red flags'. 

December or January will be the results of the environmental assessment conclusion which then opens the door for purchasing right of way for the expansion.

I-35 corridor committee would possibly be about 15 people for planning of the reworking of I-35.  This committee will be critical for our economic future and helping existing businesses ride out the disruption.

PD remodel first phase is almost finished, the old jail is now a property and evidence facility.  Still on schedule for December 2010 opening.

Cities moved forward with salary increases for their staffs of more than the 1% that we did this past year.  Our staff salaries are continuing to fall behind.  IIRC we were about 3-5% behind comparable cities, which means we're now 4-7% by my back of the envelope.

Animal shelter has 4.5M set aside and council had asked for looking at a 5M budget.  Architects should be coming with plans shortly.  We are facing some budget holes and bringing on a new facility will be tough since we have nothing budget currently for operation of that facility. 

Homestead exemptions are due to be looked at.

Burying of electrical cables, screening walls, median signs and city entry designs, and making our designs match up with 35 E design elements are all things sitting out there. 

Old town will explore burying utilities as part of the new plaza (this makes a huge difference, just drive through LasColinas) but it's not cheap.  Windhaven drive is getting redone and we're adding design engineering as we speak to get that built out.  The city received toll road funding to pay for it.  The middle section might be delayed due to funding and budget issues.

Discussion of having a bond election to raise funds for other projects (power lines and cables, water and sewer relocations) and we're looking at other funding from the council of governments or county.  That funding is limited. 

All of this is just an overview by city manager King of the big issues that council will be addressing over the next few months.

Monument signs are now allowed with electronic signs, as long as the flash interval isn't less than 7 seconds.

Chief Kerbow is up next and is discussing his five year projections for the force.  The city tries to keep our police in the field 60% of the time and in the office 40%.  There's an art to how much street presence reduces crime according to Mr. King.  A big part of this will be Patrol response to calls and there are several 'best practice' models available.  Overall caveat:  these are ideas, the intent isn't that we MUST DO SOMETHING NOW but to look at the long term.  Frankly the current budget won't allow for dramatic increases over the next few years according to Mr. King.  It comes down to what you're willing to live with and fund.

Patrol officers handled 907 calls per officer per year (64 officers).  To keep the 60-40 model we would need 67 officers.  Our attrition rate is about 4% meaning we should have 70 IF YOU GO BY THE MODEL (emphasis Kerbow). 

Over the past 5 years our increase in calls for service are about 4% per year over the past 5 years meaning we'll receive over 90,000 calls for service by 2013-14.  Doing the math you would need to have 107 patrol officers by 2013-14.  If you use the model we're 9 short now for patrol staffing.  For every 5 officers you need an additional car.  Car is about $66K plus all the technology, insurance, liability etc etc... ballpark 85 to 95K in equipment. 

Community Services Bureau (not patrol):  This department looks to be short by about 17 employees (using the model) by 2013-14.  Didn't see how short this department is this year as defined by the model.  All this data is in the supplemental information on the city website.  i'll link it later.

Gorena is now telling the chief how the patrol officers fill out paperwork and a lot of it.

Detectives are in good shape according to the model until about 2013.  Street crimes could add one due to the metrics, criminal investigations could also add 1-2 according to the model.  narcotics isn't calling  for one til next year or a  couple years.

TV station just arrived, can't tell which station.  Big camera.

Jail staffing could use a new supervisor and five additonal staff.  Technical services could use a new call taker and dispatcher, 9 more call takers within 5 years and 4 more dispatchers in 5 years.  According to the staffing formulas.  We could also use an additional property and evidence tech.

I'm making a prediction-  the council won't raise taxes to cover increased police needs over the next 5 years.  Instead they'll put a referendum out for citizens to vote on and we'll have to decide between higher taxes or being 'anti police'.  You heard it here first.

Long and the short... if you use the model we're short by 24 positions going into next years budget.  That's another 1.6M in expenses in a budget that is already 1.5 to 3M short.  That 1.6M is just payroll, not gear, offices, etc...  The long and the short, response times are starting to creep up (7:01 last year 7:35 this year).  Crime stats don't go down but response times do according to general statistics.  There is no data to support that adding people to patrol reduces crime you simply reduce response time.  King also mentions a 2002 study that found more officer in an area MIGHT have some effect but they had to put a guy on every corner of the capital to make a marginal difference.  Interesting stats, worth looking at.  Gorena wants to know how many calls were self initiated (seen by officers) vs called in.  No clear answer available right now. 

King mentions that there are also technologies that help keep the number of officers down (cameras, our license plate scanner systems, etc.).  If we can avoid the fixed costs of employees it's a good thing for the tax rate and lets our police do more with less.  Crime prevention also helps.  Patrol is what you do after a crime happens. 

Fire doesn't have personnel needs at this time until the east side of Lewisville starts to grow.  If that part picks back up ambulance calls will rise and we'll need to add another ambulance and eventually station 8 on Windhaven Dr. which would be another 1M a year to operate.

10 minute break.

Economic Development:  Reviewing Strengths Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)  I'll pull this from the supplemental and add over the weekend.  Very interesting stuff.  The big focus needs to be on redevelopment since we have very little space left for new development.  Our Old Town Incentive policies have sunset and need to be renewed.

ED is proposing a grant and rebate program to work for greenfield and brownfield programs, redevelopment, and broker redevelopment.  Ueckert wonders if we should be developing retail if we're over retailed.  The response is to redevelop retail to increase tax value of our aging retail.  (editor agrees, if we're going to spend any money on development it needs to be on redoing our old retail- the locations are still good, it's the building that is lousy.  We also need to update our ordinances and zoning to raise the bar).  Ms. Reinecke is mentioning that we need to focus on creating 'destinations' where people want to go, not just shop.  We're on the right track with our old town.  Mr. Ueckert does mention the plaza on main that's redeveloped (a plug for the new Fuzzy's Tacos was made- editor applauded).

Watts mentions we should be looking at mixed use and one hurdle we have is the percent of rental vs homeowners.  He'd love to see more ownership options and upscale residential.  Convincing the property owners can be tough.  Now everyone is mentioning town centers and mixed use facilities that look great but are also having issues like Addison Circle.

Lots of digression and blue sky conversation on what would be good for Lewisville.  Ms. Reinecke is mapping out some rules for grants and abatements for redevelopment of shopping centers, brownfields, etc.  (we need to create an aesthetic theme for Lewisville).  She also mentions moving to a Tax Incentives tied to rebates to ensure completion of projects (I like this idea, gotta have a hook).  King mentions that we have a 1/4 cent sales tax we can implement, Municipal Development District (super 4b tax), Crime Prevention District.  These would require an election.

Ueckert is concerned we're leaving that 1/4 cent sales tax out there the state might take it from us.  Gorena wants to know about us vs Flower Mound.  FM has crime control and fire prevention districts and is maxing their sales tax.  Gorena wants to know what's going to happen if we raise our tax.  Staff says we didn't lose anything.  Durham mentions all the cities that are at the max, and we're pretty well surrounded by maxed cities.  King mentions that once you assign this 1/4 cent tax to fund something you're locked in.  1/4 cent would raise about 4M in revenues.  Vibe from council is this is an interesting idea.  I'd want it to go to redevelopment.

Now they're discussing rebating taxes versus abatements, there are problems either way- one they pay up front, the other they pay after the fact.  The dollars are the same but rebates create some budget issues.  The mechanics of a rebate are easier for a developer than an abatement.  No appraisal district issues, no filing or paperwork issues since it's on the city.  Abatements do lower up front costs but are tied to property values and activities. 

Editors summary-  same cash for a developer, different hoops and different hooks.  Good tools all the way around.

Ueckert states that you could give the developer an abatement (which is supposed to be passed through to tenant) and then put a rebate to a tenant.  Interesting idea as long as you don't give away the farm.

Discussing TIF (Tax Increment Financing) in Old Town.  Reworking the old town districts since the original ones have sunset.  Dollars available for facade restoration, historic preservation, rear facade grants on the old town buildings only, interior finishout program, construction rebate program, streamlining the paperwork and aesthetic requirement processes to make this quicker.  New website:  www. ecodevlewisville.com to help developers apply quicker.  I was on this site a few days ago and it's not bad at all, lots of documents available.  It has a comments and community conversation area and even a blog.

I have a feeling we're going past 10PM.  Wife's going to be happy, I think I'm going to have to shell out this Valentine's Day.

Moving on to Councilman Watt's two items:

"City Online Checking Register" to add transparency in City transactions.  Ms. Barron doesn't like the way the comptroller does it since it's raw data with no content.  Ft. Collins, Co. is much more informative- you can see an example on the Ft. Collins website.  People can drill by category and item with context for the expenditures.  I like the latter idea, the comptroller would just say "x dollars to y" with no context on whether the check is payroll, travel, capital expense, goods, services etc...  that would cause some issues.  Staff thinks this should be easy to implement and it also will have an online question and answer tool.  Gorena (who had stepped out) mentions that the state does this, and is told that the comptroller was mentioned a few minutes ago.  Gorena mentions that the state's page is good.  Durham, King, and Barron are mentioning that there will be items that might be tough to detail.  The key is the amount of granularity.  It would be more detailed than the budget, but probably wouldn't show that you purchased 170 pencils.

Nieman has a question that if you put this online could you open up even more open records requests.  Ueckert agrees that it could happen.  Barron states that we need to ask other cities about the impact.  Watts proposes this as just one more tool to help people be informed and educated on what city government does.  He agrees that it might generate more questions, but he thinks the end result is that it's good for the city.  (an informed populace is an engaged populace)-  I like this tool.

The concern also is could you potentially be spending money on a tool that only 1-2 people use when you could put that money to use on things that impact more residents.  This writer thinks that while there is some up front development cost it would all be tied to the existing budgeting software and not be redundant.

Project Labor Agreements-  contract decisions based on affiliations with or without unions are not allowed since Texas is a right to work state.  However, PLA's are being pushed by the President with a policy "encouraging" federal agencies to consider imposing union-only project labor agreements.  Watts mentions there's a movement to repeal Taft-Hartley which would eliminate 'right to work' states.  Watts is recommending adding an ordinance to firewall Lewisville by having something on the books 'just in case'.  Watts states that PLA's are anti competitive.  Watts states that he's not anti union, he just wants to make sure there's an even playing field.  PLA's are sold to cities as a way to ensure quality and there's no confusion who's working and subcontracted to who.  Durham states that if there was a future council predisposed to having PLA's it wouldn't prevent them from overriding this ordinance.  That could be said about any ordinance.

Ueckert wonders how this would impact police and fire hiring and even city staff hiring.  King doesn't see this as a significant issue and it wouldn't antagonize employees since this covers only with the city.

Gorena asks about down sides and King states that there might be a perception that Lewisville is 'anti union' which could create a perception with union groups (fire and police would be potential in years to come).

Neiman mentions that passing ordinances on what 'might happen' is jumping the gun and states why worry about what might happen and instead pass the ordinance if and when it happens.

That's it for the day!  I'll be back on Saturday, and might be able to catch some of tomorrow's.  Thanks for reading!