City Council - workshop

I now declare that the Plano City Council is reconvened into open session, that all council members are present. At this time, we're going to ask if anyone would like to address the council regarding the budget and the CIP. I do think we have three speakers, so let's start with that.

Thank you very much. Any other comments? We'll close the public comments. And I'll ask Mark to present an overview.

All right. I think let's move into the discussions with staff. We're ready for you to go. Okay.

Interest income, I'm sure, is a big one. Okay. Perfect. A bigger one. I love my questions. Council Member Kerr. Sorry.

Yes. Good afternoon. In your model, are you assuming that the property tax cap is still gonna have an impact on us for the next five years? Or we're gonna get pretty close to that?

The projection really is that the tax cap is really no longer having an impact. The taxable value and actual value are going to be pretty close.

Thank you, Mayor. You mentioned the impact of the freeze. and the fact that it would start to decline over time as the demographics change, how far out are you thinking that change is going to be where it doesn't keep going up?

Thank you. Thanks, gentlemen. Thank you, Karen. So we did the overall view of the budget, the expenses, the revenues. Now I want to go back and do the grant funding requests, if you don't mind.

Yeah, thank you. Perfect, thank you. And then we'll finish off with the program. So let's start with the Buffington Community Service Grants. Curtis?

All right. Thank you, Curtis. Any questions for Curtis?

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to actually see it be allocated to the existing organizations who have applied and have been given dollars just as that inflationary mechanism with the expectation that as it continues that it opens the door for maybe additional organizations in the future to apply. And Curtis, I do have a question for you. I did notice two new applicants potentially on the list this year that got funding. Did I read that correctly? Health Services of North Texas?

Well, very well done to the commission for encouraging that and having some new people.

Okay, thank you. Council Member Levine. Thank you, Mayor.

I want to echo what Council Member Downs said. I think that this additional funding going to the existing grant recipients, I think, will be helpful to them, given that we haven't increased these in a long time. And with the caveat that I'm sure that the council has been looking at where the greater needs are and that if we can enhance helping out with where those greater needs are, that would be great. Thank you for that. Yes, sir.

I just have a thought. I mean, we're talking about increasing funding for those who have already been awarded the funds for inflationary reasons. But if we open it up, there's more money available, essentially, 75,000 more. Next year when the applications come through, I just want organizations to be aware that it's possible they will not reach the same amount of funding in the following years. even though there is an inflationary part of it, it may get awarded somewhere else. So please budget accordingly.

Thanks, Curtis. Appreciate it. Our next presentation is the Heritage Commission.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions? Maria.

Yes, I'm not sure whether or not this question is actually for the Heritage, but first of all I want to say I wish I was at Minneapolis with y'all because I was planning on going. I am so proud of the Heritage Commission because of all the things that we are able to be the leaders in almost the entire United States as well as worldwide in doing preservation. So I always want to be gloat in the glory of our preservation. But one question I do have, and I'm not sure whether or not Ashley fits in here, but the former Councilman Grady was talking about the veterans, I guess, tent, and I'm not sure

Okay. All right. I appreciate you. Thank you.

Okay, presentation of Cultural Arts Commission. Diane Goble.

Okay. Thank you, Diane. Any questions for Diane? Maria?

Hi, Diane. Thank you so much for that detailed, I guess, breakdown. And I really appreciate the fact that now that we have a special category for small and not major issues, I guess, events being carved out. But my question is this 35% cap. So my understanding, of course, my math is horrible. You take the total amount of money and then you subtract the small art events out of the funds. Then after you subtract it, then you provide the 35% cap. Right. So why is that? Is there a reason why we don't use the entire amount for the 35% cap?

So if there are more small events coming up, then, forgive my math, but wouldn't the 35%, after you minus all those small events, would actually increase the size of the grant to major events?

Hi, Diane. Thanks very much for all the work that the group does. The amount of effort that goes into this and the thought and everything is much appreciated. We had a speaker earlier today who spoke about a change in the funding. The NTPA. So it looks like the funding is the same this year. Is there going to be a change for next year? Yes.

Okay, I'll hold my question for that. Thank you.

You beat me to it. So I'm going to bring Andrew up about the Arts Subcommittee update.

Thank you, Mayor. Andrew, as you know, we've had a lot of conversations about this. There's a couple of things I wanted to mention. One of the Bits of feedback that the Cultural Arts Commission has received from some organizations is that the application process is a bit onerous for them. This is true of some of the smaller organizations that don't have a lot of volunteer or professional staff. I would just like to make the point that as we apply the new rules for event-based to the forms and such, that we try to make it as reasonable for these smaller organizations that we possibly can. And t

Can you walk through the guidelines of how we spend our hot taxes and the implications of how we're awarding and how we're doing things like that?

Policy visions and a large part of it is actually how many hotel nights there are as opposed to eating in a restaurant Yes, sir Okay Oh Councilmember Thomas

So the hot tax is what we're speaking of. What about the groups who have concerns that they don't bring that to the city? Because I hear that. Our group doesn't bring tourists or anyone to the city. We're more of a local group. So what are we doing about that? Well, and I think...

Yes, ma'am Okay, so I think we just need to give direction to To mark regarding the consultant and moving forward with Policy change. Policy change and the consultant.

Okay. We're going to go back to the operating budget, so all you... So real quick. Division heads.

Well, not just last year, but the year before. Or at least that's what I was hearing, right?

Here's my take. We started out at $36,000 from the initial grant. And then instead of going up with the cost of inflation as well as the cost of goods, this time we're actually cutting everything off to $25,000, which basically is a reduction of the grant. I personally believe that if we are going to consider making sure that all the money goes to the event itself, then we at least need to start at the original basis, which was $36,000. And then perhaps, if we can, add the inflation rate or the increase in cost of goods on top of that 36 as our basis. Instead of just going right back to 25, I

I have a question. First of all, where does the grant money come from?

Okay. And what was the idea around how the funding works? It's like the operational cost at the time of the event, or how does that... determination made?

Of the cost of the event. Okay. And this event is a 10-day event, something like that?

Eight-day event? Okay. And the determination this time for that other value, remind me how we got to 25?

Can you give some clarity on how something like the tent, this seems to be the theme here, the tent was included in the original years, but not this time. How does this look different this time?

The different things that happen over the course of eight days, has that changed over the last eight days and the last few years?

Who's the committee again one more time?

Okay. I want to agree with Deputy Mayor that I'm not a fan of going against the committee. I think they put a lot of time and effort and historical knowledge into that. But I also, I feel like this flags of honor is such a big impact on our city, our citizens, and our neighbors that I'd like to see more than the 25K.

I'd also like to say to the folks at the Flag of Honor, I really appreciate what you do. And I think that the additional things like having the service dogs, et cetera, these are all very good. But I think planning for the future, I think you should not expect the 71,098, whatever those numbers are. Where we are right now is probably more in line of what to expect for the future. So please keep that in mind as you go forward.

I would be more comfortable with that number if you just take the original 100% funded event in the beginning. And then all you have to do is just transfer all the activities and all the things that are funded from that original 100% funded. and then see how the cost of goods have increased, or whatever has increased, and add on top of that. I think you come up with the same 100% funded, and that's where I'm going. It doesn't have to be, you don't have to add all the additional funding that they're requesting, but the original 100% funding, those core items needs to be transferred over to curr

I don't know whether this is actionable or not, but this event is in the shadow of the Red Tail Pavilion, and I'm wondering if moving some of this to the Red Tail Pavilion could cut our costs so that we've got the seating there, we've got the stage, we've got a variety of other accoutrements, bathrooms, etc., and this seems to make a lot of sense to me. Now, I realize that the flags are out in a field, but perhaps there is some other way to bring these two facilities together.

reassess some opportunity ideas around that same area. Is everybody okay with that? Okay. We have our direction. Thank you.

Okay. Karen, we're back to operating budget revenues.

All right. Thank you guys. Abby, tell us about solid waste.

Okay. Thanks, Abby. Next item, cost recovery overview.

Okay. Maria, who do you want to ask a question to?

I do want to. I want to ask Ron. So I had some resident came up and asked, why is it that with golf courses and tennis courts that there is no discount for Plano residents, but it's like charge... you know, flat for everyone. So they're looking for potentially some way of giving the Plano residents a little bit more advantage and or a better fee structure.

Thank you. Ron, question for you too. You mentioned in the, I guess it's one of the last classes, our last slide you had about the classes that you cancel them if you don't get 100%. But do you also have classes where you get more than 100%? I mean, you would think with the instructor being a set cost and the facility being a set cost, you may have classes that are oversubscribed or whatever.

So are you saying that some classes you're not getting 100% and other classes you're getting more than 100%?

All right, we're getting to an end. Community Investment Program. Karen and Mark.

Got it. Any questions for that? Well, I think we understand it.

Let's move on to proposed ad valorem tax.

Okay. With no further business, we're adjourned.