City Council - Regular Meeting

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I now declare the Plano City Council is convened in an open session that all council members are present. The council will now recess into executive session in training room A to hold a closed executive meeting pursuant to the provisions of Vernon's Texas Codes, annotated Government Code Chapter 551. The open meetings act in accordance with the authority contained in Section 551-071, to consult with the attorney to receive legal advice and discuss litigation. Section 551-087, to discuss economic development matters. And Section 551-074, to discuss personnel matters. Thank you.

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I now declare the Plano City Council preliminary open meeting is reconvened into open session, that all council members are present. Our first item on the preliminary agenda is consideration and action resulting from the executive session. Our next item, which was personnel, so I'd like to go ahead and do the appointments and reappointments, and I'll start with Board of Adjustment.

Mr. Mayor, I move to reappoint Michael Pirik, Jan True, promote Harish Neha to a permanent position, a regular position, Stacey Weaver as a regular position, and also Ray Say as a regular position. We have three, leaving three openings.

Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Sorry. I'll leave you all up. So I have a motion and a second to approve the changes on the Board of Adjustment. All in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you. Motion passes eight to zero. Next item is Building Standards Commission.

Mr. Mayor, I move to reappoint Lawrence Chan. Which leaves three regular positions that are open and one alternate. I second.

Thank you. Let me keep you all up.

I second.

Thank you. I have a motion and a second to approve the changes for the Building Standards Commission. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes. Next item is the Heritage Commission. Okay. Was that you? Yes, Mayor Muntz. Yes.

I move to reappoint Nayer L.A. Russell, Carol Graysdorf, and Tim Bob, leaving zero vacancies.

I second.

Okay, thank you. So I have a motion and a second to approve the, that was Heritage Commission, right?

Yes.

Okay, the Heritage Commission. All in favor, please raise your hand. Motion passes eight to zero. And the last is Planning and Zoning Commission.

Mr. Mayor, I move that we postpone the appointments until the July 27th meeting.

Mayor, I'll second.

Okay, so I have a motion and a second to table any changes on the Planning and Zoning Commission until July 27th. All in favor, please raise your hand. Okay, thank you. All right. Next item is personnel reappointments. So we will start with Animal Shelter Advisory Committee.

Mr. Mayor. Yes. I move to reappoint Tammy Chow Hayes, Brenda Beard, Jamie Cantrell, and Greg Kamstra to the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee, leaving zero openings.

All right.

Mayor, I'll second.

Thank you. So I have a motion and a second to approve the reappointments of the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee. All in favor, raise your hand. Okay, motion passes, eight to zero. The next item is Civil Service Commission.

Mayor and Council, I recommend that the Council sign reappoint Penny Roeb as chair of the Civil Service Commission?

I move for approval. Can I get a second?

Second.

Thank you. So I have a motion and a second for the reappointment of the Civil Service Commission. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes eight to zero. Uh, Community Relations Commission.

Mayor, I move to re-appoint Jenna Davis, Kayed Ishaq, and Mitzi Jackson-Miller, and leaving one vacancy.

Second.

Thank you. So I have a motion and a second to approve the reappointments of the Community Relations Commission. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes eight to zero. The next item is Cultural Arts Commission.

I move to reappoint Toby Todd and Johnny Zai, leaving one opening.

I second the motion. Thank you. So I have a motion and a second for the reappointments to the Cultural Arts Commission. All in favor, raise your hand. Thank you. Motion passes eight to zero. Next item is Library Advisory Board.

Mayor Mons?

Yes.

I move to reappoint Abby Alter and Jayashree Prasad Sinha, leaving two vacancies.

I second it. Thank you. So I have a motion and a second to approve the reappointments to the advisory board. All in favor, raise your hand. Thank you. Motion passes 8-0. Next item, Parks and Recreation Planning Board.

Mayor, I move that we reappoint Brett Cooper, leaving three openings.

Second.

All right. So I have a motion and a second to reappointment of the Parks and Recreation Planning Board. All in favor, raise your hand. Thank you. Motion passes 8-0. Next item is the Plano Housing Authority.

Mr. Mayor, I move to reappoint Erica Dotris, leaving one opening on Plano Housing Authority.

Second. Thank you. So I have a motion and a second for the reappointment of the Plano Housing Authority. All in favor, raise your hand. Thank you. Motion passes eight to zero. The next item is Retirement Security Plan Committee.

Mr. Mayor, I recommend to reappoint Chief Chris Biggerstaff, Mike Mendenhall, Susan Omen, and Director Rachel Patterson.

I'll make a motion to approve. Second.

So I have a motion and a second to approve the Retirement Security Plan Committee reappointments. All in favor, please raise your hand. Motion passes eight to zero. The next item is Senior Advisory Board.

Mayor Muntz, I move to reappoint Debra Arango, Efren Gierdalt, and Dudley Volskeneck with leaving two vacancies.

Who's senior?

Second. Okay, I got a motion and a second. For the reappointments of the Senior Advisory Board, all in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes eight to zero. And tax increment financing reinvestment zone number four.

Mr. Mayor, I move to reappoint Camille Abuhartith, Nadia Christian, John Donovan, Jonathan Hetzel, Chris O'Brien, and Douglas Reese leaving two openings.

I second.

So I have a motion and a second to approve the reappointments of the tax increment financing reinvestment zone number four. All in favor, raise your hand. Motion passes eight to zero. Thank you. Okay, we all good? All right, next item is Department Overview, Communications and Community Engagement. Shawna, welcome.

Council, City Executives, I'm Shawna Haley, Director of Communications and Community Outreach, and it's my honor tonight to present an overview of our department's services to the city. First, let me start by introducing you to our team. We're a proud team of 15, including myself, and along with us in this photo is a person you'll be hearing from shortly, Amanda McNew, the Director of Media Relations. We are close collaborators between our two departments. As a department, our job can be summarized by saying we are responsible for helping our residents understand their city governments, stay informed about programs and services, and engage with us. So these are all the things that make Plano the city of excellence. There are 28 departments and divisions within the city that we support. Now, we have a strategic plan that guides our work. It ladders up to the council's strategic vision and the pillars of service. Our five core initiatives are tagged around external communications, internal communications, public outreach, special projects, and improving communication processes within the city. Our services, they cover the gamut. Anything that you would imagine that touches a resident from advertising and graphic design, including logos on water towers and what colors those are, to newsletters, TV production, and photography. And in this photo, you see our executive producer, Evan Reitzel. He is responsible for the broadcast that happens of these meetings and planning and zoning. And he also is responsible for all of that excellent drone footage that you've enjoyed that show the work of the city from the air. Little snapshot of our business. We do quite a bit. There are 43 social media channels across eight different platforms that we manage, as well as managing the city's website, Plano.gov. We produce 16 newsletters out of our department. One of those is internal facing, the rest are all external, based on different interests of our residents. Public-facing videos, a huge handful. We do another big assortment of videos internally just for Team Plano staff. Broadcast public meetings and special events, a variety of public outreach from Citizens Academy and Government University to special events including State of the City. We are an award-winning team and I'm proud to say that because it reflects the work that's done on behalf of our residents and that includes being named the best in-house team by the Public Relations Society of America Dallas chapter. Now you may be wondering why there's a spicy kitty on the screen and it's not because I wanted to make Jamie Cantrell happy but this is a photo that just won a state award as part of a series of photographs highlighting the collaborative work of Plano Animal Services and Plano Fire Rescue to rescue that kitten that had fallen down a 25-foot construction shaft. So we're proud of that award. I wanna highlight four key projects that we've been involved with that might be of interest to council. First is the capital projects communication initiative. Residents clearly have been telling us that they want to know more about construction that's happening in the city because there is quite a bit of it. So we worked for several months with public works, parks and recreation, special projects, and engineering. The outcomes of that, we created a special section of the website that's focused purely on construction. There's a short link to get there, plano.gov slash construction, as well as a series of pieces that go out to the community. We have a digital newsletter that goes out monthly. quarterly digital report that summarizes the work that's happened over the past quarter as well as answering frequently asked questions and then for residents who prefer to receive printed communication we have a quarterly report that goes into Plano community impact Plano now we can see that this work is actually having real impact for our public sentiment which we do track regarding construction in the city it has increased from 41% for the first six months of 2025 so 41% positive sentiment to the same time period This year, it's now sitting at 73% positive sentiment. So that's a nice little swing. Engagement with those communication pieces is also trending nicely. The last newsletter that we sent out in June had an 81% open rate, which means more than 5,000 people specifically chose to open and read that newsletter. And our last quarterly report, more than 700 people opened that on the web or in our newsletter. Now, other departments in the city are responsible for managing and operating the Plano Rides program, but our department has come alongside to make sure that residents understand what it is, that they're aware of it, and that they know how to access and use it. So what you're seeing on screen are some samples of communication pieces that regularly go out to the community, but what I really think has had more impact in the adoption of that service are the photos you see on the side of those face-to-face, in-person sessions. We've been in community centers, we've been in senior living facilities, we've been at Sam Johnson Recreation Center. If we're invited, we go and spend time explaining the service and even sitting down with residents and helping them download and install the app. To date, there are almost 2,500 people who have installed the app since it was started on May 4th. Some of you are very familiar with Citizens Government Academy and are even graduates of the program and thank you very much for that. It continues to be one of our most popular programs that we offer to our residents out of our department. We have sessions twice yearly with 40 residents going through and we consistently have higher demand than we have capacity. So you may be interested in knowing that we started a secondary program that's digital only called Government University, and residents can subscribe to that. They get an email every week, and they work their way through a digital version of that same content. Applications for Citizens Academy open July 7th, so it's coming soon for the fall class. That QR code will take residents who are watching to a sign-up sheet where they can sign up for the program. And finally, several of you have attended our community leadership meeting. I wanted to highlight this because this was a relaunched program. For many years, the city offered neighborhood leadership meetings where we met with neighborhood leadership to share information. City manager asked us to rethink and transform that program, and so it was relaunched. as a broader community program bringing together nonprofits, multicultural organizations, neighborhoods, business organizations, and some advocacy groups to really talk about different programs, services, problems, issues, items of note. Attendance of these programs now has increased 67% since we changed the type of program, and we regularly have individuals from 30 to 40 different groups attending. So that's been very successful in building relationships and discussing shared items of interest, and it's led to interesting outcomes as well. With that, I'm available for any questions that you might have.

Thank you, Shauna. Any questions? Maria.

So I do have a question. I think we do a really good program in informing our residents and getting them actively involved in city government. I just wanted to know whether or not it's ever been compared with other cities, like how are they doing, or is there something that they're doing that's more creative than we are? I mean, is there any type of research in that area?

Well, we haven't researched as much as we do continually compare, and I would say we are collaborators across our region and across our state. I have the great pleasure of serving as the president of the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers. And that's where we are able to share best practices, lessons learned with one another. And as I've found in life, there are many things that are not original ideas. They're merely improved upon ideas and lessons learned and adapted. And we do that pretty frequently throughout the state.

Well, I was just hoping that you would say that Plano is the best.

Well, we are the city of excellence. Our awards this year would say we're doing pretty well. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you, Shauna.

Thank you.

All right. I'm Amanda McNew, the Director of Media Relations. A lot of what I do goes hand in hand with Shauna's team. We do a lot of collaboration. In communication, my part is more on the media side. That's news media, communication strategy, and crisis communications, which doesn't sound fun, but to me it's all interesting and fun. My goals are maintaining public trust, strengthening relationships with news media, and then also ensuring that we communicate effectively both every day and during a crisis. So those are the three things I want to talk about today. So building trust, we do weekly newscasts that goes out on Fridays through email. We have a podcast called Inside Plano. Video production, a lot of this is done in collaboration with Shawna's team. So this will go out on social media, whether it's YouTube, the Plano TV channel, or something else. And then news releases and story pitches. All of these are tools to explain city projects, highlight employee accomplishments, answer resident questions, and just share information in ways that people already consume news. So when I talk about communication strategy, it's not just sharing information. It's really about how we engage and educate residents. It's about how we listen to our residents and make informed decisions based on what we're hearing from them as well. We've had a lot of big projects this year alone. These are some of the highlights of what we've been doing. When we're looking at Dallas stars the will have been district This is an ongoing communication strategy and a lot of that is what does our community understand about what's happening? How do we need to educate them going forward? That's going to be a lot of economic development. Does our community know what a TERS is? How can we better explain that? So the strategy is more about understanding so we could be as transparent as possible so that our community can be informed So, how do we get our news it's this I Odds are you're all going to get some kind of news, probably on your phone before the council meeting is done. Some kind of news app. We no longer wait for the 6 and 10 p.m. news to hear what's happening today. It's all 24-7. Reporters are pushing stories all the time. 86% of us get our news digitally. 38% admit to getting their news through Facebook, and 20% of that is TikTok or Instagram. My 16-year-old gets her news from TikTok. It's horrifying to me, but it is a reality. Most of our reporters, the expectation is that they report their stories on these platforms as well. So that increases the turnaround time. So they're not only reporting for a newscast or for a newspaper, but they're also doing these digital stories. We are the fourth largest media market in the country. Because of that, we do get a lot of attention, both locally and regionally and nationally. Last year, the Media Relations Office answered 450 different news inquiries. That does not include police at all, so they're excluded from this. This year, we're half a year in. We're already at about 300 of those inquiries. We've put out 37 different news releases, and it's really because of all of that economic development, the severe weather we had earlier this year, and some just big projects that are happening. It's an exciting place to be, and it's an exciting time. So the goals are just collaborating with reporters. The goal is not to work against them. We all have the same goal, and that's informing our public. So they're a great tool for us to use. We help each other out when we tell news stories. it's really protecting the public. When we have a winter storm, they can help us get the message across what roads are safe, what's not. Are our rec centers open, are they not? They can help us spread that message. And then also being unified. So while Shawna was talking about working with all of the different departments, it's the same for my department, that a lot of the department's messages, if media has a question about parks and recreation, they're going to come through the media relations office to get that information. If they have a question about environmental health, that'll come through the media relations department first. The exceptions to that will be police and fire. They have their own spokespersons, and they can handle that themselves. I have a picture up here of the tanker crash, and this is a good example of unified messaging. So if you remember Windhaven Parkway, I guess it was in May, you had public works, environmental health, police, and fire on scene at the same time. And police, fire, and I were all getting calls from media at the same time asking questions. The good thing is we were all able to answer the same ways, so there was no confusion in messaging. And that's because we know how to be unified as a city. By the end of the night, we had one news release that went out. And what's very unique about that is that it included a police traffic report with the crash information. That just does not happen with a city. Police always do their own thing. But because we are so unified as a city, we're able to do that. And it's pretty incredible. I give police a lot of credit for how collaborative they are. So that brings me to crisis communication. The whole point of crisis is using the right channels to give the message at the right time. By channels, I mean do we need to put something out through social media or is it through TV? Do we need to put door hangers somewhere? Do we need to actually knock on doors to talk to the people who need to hear things? It's figuring that out and then when do we give that message? If it's weather, do we need to prepare people before a storm or is it telling them after the fact that their trash service is late? So it's just finding out the right time for everything. A crisis communication plan is something that is a written document that we have. We update it as needed. In all sincerity, what it really means is who's accountable for communicating if something bad happens and that we can answer two questions. Are people safe and what do they need to do? That's what it boils down to. And can we make sure that people are responsible to answer those questions? To do that, what I started to do when we started here is cross-training departments together. So this picture I blew up because it's really important to me. This is the first time that I know of in Plano history that you have members of Shawna's team, my department, police, and fire all training together for crisis communication. In most cities, police PIOs train together, fire PIOs train together, and city PIOs train together. The words can be different. Some may use nims or fema terms and others may not so when something happens they all work separately so i wanted to make sure that everyone works together trains together gets to know each other so if something does happen in plano everyone can work together no matter who's in charge we've done that twice already this year at our emergency operations center and just it's really great how well people can work together and that tanker crash was a good example of how everyone can collaborate very quickly I'm also chair of the North Texas PIO group. That is a working group of about 150 PIOs throughout DFW. The point is best practices, working with media, training, and making sure that we also know our neighbors. So if something happens regionally, we know who to call. You're not looking for numbers last minute. So we know who our neighbors are, and we can help when needed. And then finally, it's victim-centered messaging. This is a passion of mine. It's using trauma-informed words. I think the words that we use matter. If something does happen, I believe that when you put the victim and the family first, it builds your community and makes them stronger and more resilient to build people back up. I do train on this nationally. This year, I'm training at two national conferences. One is actually in Plano next month. It is the Female Survivors of Violence Conference. So I'll be there, and then International Association of Chiefs of Police in October. And then it's fun stuff this summer. So we've got a big media mixer with locals. We invite news organizations to come and hang out on a casual basis, talk to PIOs. We're getting ready for the fourth and then lots of plans for the Willow Bend District. So I'd like to answer any questions if you have them.

Thank you, Amanda. Any questions? We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Okay, next item is Community Relations Commission Grant Recommendations, our annual action plan for 26-27. Curtis.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Curtis Howard, Assistant City Manager, and Director of Neighborhood Services. So, hey, tonight I'm going to discuss several issues with you. And kind of the format of this is this is going to be your opportunity to see what, talk about what the grant process is, see what the grant recommendations are. And also I'm going to bring to you a proposal for a substantial amendment for some work we are proposing to do in the Douglas community. And so at the end of this, like I said, this will be a chance for you just to get this information, and I will be back for a final decision on July 27th. So let's begin. So one of the things I'd like to talk to you about is just generally our grant process. As you are aware of, we have two HUD, Housing and Urban Development, grants that we get, and then also the Buffington grant that we use for social service programs here in Plano. And we'll talk about the process that we give to, that we use to distribute those grants, as some of you are very familiar with. And then also, like I said, we've got a proposal for a public improvement project there in Douglas. So just an overview of our funding. So we have two grants that we get from HUD. We continue to get from HUD so far. And one is the Community Development Block Grant. And that is going to be for those projects that kind of hammer and nail project and also social services project. Of the two grants, it is a more flexible grant program that we can use that money for. And then the second one is going to be our home investment partnership or our home grant. That is also going to be more specific, kind of hammer and nail type projects or making sure that people are in housing. And both of these programs require 80% or below of AMI, which right now, just as an example, is about $96,900 for a family of four in Plano. And then the third grant is the City of Plano Grant, which is social service oriented. Of course, that's really flexible because that comes from the council here. And that's based on $2 per capita, and that was started back in 1998. So just a little bit as to what we got this year. So with the political uncertainty that we have, we don't always know what was going to happen with our HUD funding, with our federal funding. But as you can see, our CDBG grant, we got a little over $1.6 million, which was more than last year. So that was positive. Our home funding was just under $600,000. Again, another positive figure. Amount and then BCSG is our buffington grant was was very close to just a little bit more based upon our population So CDBG and the way that we use this sort of funding, we've got three buckets of money that we can pull from. That 20% is administrative, and I'll talk about that in just a moment. 15% of that amount can be used for social services. And then 65% are going to be for eligible services that include things like rehab, public facility constructions, site improvements, infrastructure improvements, more. you know, again, loosely hammer and nail type projects. And then our home funding. We've got 75% of that bucket of money can be used for, again, those home type projects, hammer and nail, or making sure that people are in housing. 15% go to our community housing development or our CHOTO organizations. And then 10% of that can be used for our administrative expenses. And then our administrative expenses, you know, that 10% for home or 20% for CDBG, you're looking at stuff like advertising or legal paperwork, and we use some of that funding for some of the staff members that go through and help out in these processes. So that's where we get our money from. The process for HUD funding starts out with a five-year consolidated plan. This plan was approved by council last year. And so what happens is every five years, we have to come up with our con plan or consolidated plan. And then every year, we come up with an action plan. And as you can see, we are finishing up. We are on year one right now. And what we will be doing is we will be coming to you in July to approve our year two action plan. And that will include the recommendations that we'll discuss here in just a moment. And so we know what kind of funding we have. We know the process we have to go through. And so the goals that HUD provides, there are three goals. The two that we really focus on are going to be decent housing and a suitable living environment. And so those are the two that our plan will discuss. And then how do we distribute that money? And so the way we distribute that is we have a process in place. We have an application process that goes from the beginning of January to the end of February or to March 1st. And so what we do is we encourage nonprofits to come in and apply for this money. We provide some training for them, and they can take advantage of that to make sure that they put together a grant proposal that will be acceptable to the Community Relations Commission. In April is grant month, and so the CRC is working Tuesday and Thursday nights. They're listening to proposals from nonprofits here who are requesting money, and then at the end of April, they come up and they meet together in an open meeting and make a determination of how they are going to fund are nonprofits here in the city of Plano. And then the last part here in June, where it says CRC recommendations, that is tonight's presentation. And in July, like I said, on July 27th, I will be back for the final presentation, and then you will make the final decision on that. And then for CDBG and home funding. And then in August, as part of the Buffingham grant program, Since that comes from the budget process, you'll make your decision at that time. And here's an overview of our Buffington Grant recommendations that the CRC has come up with for this year. And as you can see, what the amounts are. And then moving on to both CDBG and our home funding. And these are the recommendations for CDBG and home funding for this coming year. And then with that, so moving on to kind of the third item here, we'll talk about a substantial amendment. What that is, is as I said, we have a consolidated plan, that five-year consolidated plan, and then every year we have to have an action plan. If we change and we want to do something differently, we have to do what's called a substantial amendment. So this is our proposal at this time. We have the opportunity to use some of that funding, that kind of hammer and nail type funding that sometimes is difficult for us to to use here in the city of Plano just because it's hard to get those sorts of projects because of the way that the economics work out or the fact that we can't find property, that sort of thing. But in this case, we have the ability to use some of that funding to go into the Douglas community in conjunction with some of the other projects we're doing down there which includes sidewalks and replacing water lines, and clean up some of those lines that hang over. And not all of the electrical lines and that sort of thing, but it's going to be frontier and spectrum lines, those cable lines that we have. And so what we're looking at doing is working with those two companies to remove those lines and for spectrum to bury the lines that they have and uh... and with that uh... that looks like that'll probably cost uh... probably just shy of fifty thousand dollars that's what we're we're going to be requesting and uh... and this is going to be kind of a uh... a pilot program for uh... uh... three streets there in in the douglas community uh... and it's going to be good since we haven't used it for this kind of public infrastructure program before This will be kind of a learning experience for us, but that's what we want to start out at doing in an effort, again, to try and clean up that area. And you can kind of see this is one of the – we had a study coming in, an engineering study, to kind of look at how much that would cost and what it would do. And just some of those lines in those areas would be cleaned up and either removed because they're no longer viable – or buried because those that are viable will be buried to make it look better. And so the next steps here, like I said, on July 27th, we'll be back for a public hearing and get final approval through council. The city council budget work session will be in August. We have to meet our deadline, which means our action plan, that one year proposal for what we wanna do is due to HUD on August 14th. And then of course, in September, you will approve the budget. And so with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Curtis. I think we do have a couple. Mayor Pro Tem.

Thank you, Curtis. Great presentation. Look forward to seeing how we move this forward into the July meeting. I do have a question with regards to the infrastructure development or infrastructure in the Douglas community. We're talking about the telecom lines, basically. Did we have any consideration while we have the trench open to bury some of those electrical lines at the same time?

We looked at that. The amount of money that it would cost is going to be substantial, and that was the problem with burying the electrical lines too.

When they looked at that cost, did they consider we already would have an open trench for those buried lines?

I believe when engineering did the study, that was part of the decision, so I'm not sure I can speak to the specifics of that, but I can certainly get that for you.

Well, it just seems to me that if we're going to be just burying those communication lines, which are important because we want to stay in communications, and that is a critical infrastructure component, I thought since we already had a trench for these buried lines, it would be a simple matter of placing those power lines at the same, I know it's It wouldn't mean bringing in Encore, but that's kind of what my thinking was.

Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you. Thank you for being here today. It is my opinion that community engagement is important, especially when there will be work done within a specific community. Is there a plan as to how you will educate the members of the Douglas community as to what is to come from this plan?

So far, our Best Neighborhoods team has already gone out there. They were out there this weekend talking about it, and we'll continue that outreach with the Douglas community on this. So, yes, ma'am. We're very involved with that.

Thank you for your time.

Yes, ma'am.

Council Member 2.

So, Curtis, can you put this thing back to where you're making recommendations for who is going to get what grant? Yes. Buffington or home and or CDBG So my question is after these division of all the grants and funds for these Major players. Is there anything else left for maybe potentially some of the newer? newer programs or newer developments in the city and

When you say newer.

Well, like, for example, I guess, I don't know. I mean, some of the newer nonprofits are just starting out.

So, Councilwoman Tu, we, as you'll remember from the council retreat, the council did come back and increase the allocation for the Buffington Service Grants by a quarter percent. So, instead of $2, it's going to be $2.25. we have not allocated those funds for the additional amount that's going to be proposed as part of your budget funding. We will be bringing that back as part of your budget grants workshop to get direction from council. So you will have a small pool of money that you could discuss.

So there is a buffer, and there is potentially something for somebody that's not our usual suspects, right?

That's correct. So you just have to pass it as part of your budget and allocate it as part of your grant workshop.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Any other questions for Curtis? All right. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. Our next item is consent and regular agendas. Any item a council member would like to remove? I know we have a speaker for which ones? for G, M, and W. So G, M, and W we'll have a speaker for. All right. And lastly, council items for discussion, action for future agendas. I actually have one. I'd like to have a discussion with council, and staff and obviously our police regarding electric bikes and not bicycles, electric motorcycles that are being driven by youth that are way under legal age. And that can include electric vehicles too, like a go-kart or a... a golf cart, and things like that. We're seeing too many of these vehicles on public streets, and we need to have a discussion about how to curtail some of this. So, hopefully, council's okay with having this discussion in the future.

I have a related item, particularly on the on the trails, sometimes we see scooters that are going pretty fast. And I know we have a speed limit for that, but perhaps we should re-examine any sort of device that is not human powered on the trails.

Yeah, I don't want to just include public streets, but also our park trails, because I know that's an issue too. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

Got it. Great idea, Bob. We already have an ordinance in place about banning motorized vehicles on our trails, correct? I think that is not affirmative for our director of Parks and Rec. I think at this particular point, if we could tie that in and tie some enforcement action into this, that'll help with the safeguard of those that are walking the trails.

It's...

But that's a future agenda item.

Future agenda item. And obviously this will include our communications and public relations because I think this is probably an issue that a lot of people aren't aware of. So if we can...

I'll second that.

Thank you. So if we can have that discussion here in our future... meetings after the break, I would appreciate it. We'll be happy to bring that back. Other than that, we will take a recess and return at 7 o'clock.

Thank you. Bye. We'll be right back. So, so so so so so so . . you Thank you. you Thank you. So, you Thank you. you

I now declare that the Plano City Council is reconvened into open session, that all council members are present, We'll begin tonight's regular meeting with our invocation and our pledges led by Councilmember Bob Kerr. Would you please rise? Dear Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for this community. We ask that you bless this community and keep them safe. We ask that you take care of our first responders, keep them safe. And thank you for their work in keeping our community safe. Tonight we ask that you help all of this council make decisions on behalf of all of our community. We pray that we make these decisions for the betterment of our community and thank you so much for all that you do for all of us. It's in your name we pray, amen. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Thank you. Be seated.

So tonight, the

We have one proclamation to present. July is National Parks and Recreation Month, where we recognize past and present leaders and staff for their work to ensure we have a top-ranked park system. So I'd like to introduce Ron Smith, Parks and Rec Director, Hannah Rushing, Interim Assistant Director of Parks, Greg Gagnon, Assistant Director of Recreation, Chris Golke, Business Manager, Katie Dunham, Park Planning Manager, and Patricia Johnson, Park and Recreation Planning Board Chair. So it's my honor to present this proclamation. And whereas since 1985, July has been recognized as National Parks and Recreation Month, with the US House of Representatives passing an official resolution in 2009 in recognition of the vital role parks and recreation play in building strong, healthy, and vibrant communities. Whereas the city of Plano is proud that Plano Parks and Recreation was ranked number one in the great state of Texas and 13th in the United States in the 2026 Trust for Public Land Park Score Index, reflecting the city's continued commitment to providing exceptional parks, trails, open spaces, and recreational opportunities for residents and visitors alike. Whereas parks and recreation enhances the quality of life for all Plano residents by promoting physical health, mental wellness, environmental stewardship, economic vitality, community engagement, and access to safe and welcoming public spaces. Plano's extensive park services brings neighbors together, fosters civic pride, encourages healthy lifestyles, and strengthens the sense of community that has helped make Plano the city of excellence. Now, therefore, I, John Munns, Mayor of the City of Plano, Texas, do hereby proclaim the month of July, 2026, as Parks and Recreation Month in Plano, and I do encourage all citizens to join me and the Plano City Council in commending the Parks Recreation Department for creating and maintaining the highest ranking system in the great state of Texas. where our residents and visitors alike enjoy all the city of excellence has to offer. Congratulations.

Thank you. You want to say a few words?

I just would like to say thank you to our city council and of course the residents of Plano Benefit from these assets that we have we're happy to maintain them. We love your support Thank you and to the many Parks and Recreation employees that maintain these assets every day. Thank them as well Thank You mayor Here you want to take a picture

Hi, how are you?

Good. We need to break it up. Break it up. There we go. Yes, we'll be. Okay, here we are.

Thank you, John. Thank you, John.

You made it easy. Thank you.

Okay, let's move on to the consent agenda.

The consent agenda. The consent agenda will be acted upon in one motion and contains items which are routine and typically non-controversial. Items may be removed from this agenda for individual discussion by a council member, the city manager, or any citizen. The presiding officer will establish time limits based upon the number of speaker requests.

Mayor, I move we accept the consent agenda as presented with the exceptions of items G, M, and W. I second the motion.

Thank you. I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda with the exception of G, M, and W. Please vote. Thank you. Motion passes eight to zero. Item G.

Item G, to approve the purchase of the Oak Point Recreation Center athletic reprogram requirements in the estimated amount of $49,098 from Clayton Contracting Incorporated, $76,051 from Ponder Company Incorporated, $40,724 from CFG Contracting. $3,157 from DNA building services and $10,859 from sports imports in the total amount of $179,889 through existing contracts and authorizing the city manager to execute all necessary documents.

Good evening. Caleb Thornhill here to answer any questions you may have.

Stay close by, Caleb. If we do afterwards, we do have one speaker.

Bill Lyle.

good evening council this my comments tonight really have more to do with the space that these pickleball courts are going into this has long been the space used by the aerobats gymnastics program that was in Plano for 50 some odd years not in this exact location but this is where it's been for the last several years I'm not here to argue for or against pickleball reasonable people can disagree about the best use of the facility I'm here just asking for transparency last fall I'm sure you all will remember that there was a the air bats program got canceled with very short notice and there was a little bit of an uproar and then it got reinstated and Now we hear it's it's really all about pickleball My question is simple why what was the rush if declining enrollment staffing challenges and financial concerns had been developing for years Why weren't families informed earlier? Why wasn't the public discussion? before announcing the end of the program that had served Plano residents for half a century. If pickleball courts or other future uses of the facility were already being discussed, when did those discussions begin, and why wasn't the information shared with the public at that time? Why weren't the employees that were running Arabats offered the same deal that the guy at the golf course gets?

This is about the purchase of this property, not anything about Arabats.

I mean, it's what's replacing aerobats.

No. Yes. No, this is about the purchase of this.

The public facility that is where this is going.

I'm not arguing with you. I'm telling you. I'm telling you it's about the purchase, and you have to stay on topic.

Okay, well, a lot of my comments have had to do with pickleball courts. That's what they started out with. Can I get my time back? Go. I guess the point to summarize that is just that we could have done better with the communication here. Thank you.

Ron Smith, Parks and Recreation Director. The council was provided a memorandum about this issue. We did announce to the participants of Aerobats several months ago that we were going to sunset this program. We received some feedback from participants and from council, so we provided a longer off-ramp. we've communicated with all the participants of the program they've if they were interested they found a new home for their gymnastic needs and we feel that we did communicate well with all the participants with our coaches and given everyone ample time to find a new home if that's what they're interested in doing. We are looking forward to renovating this space that did house the gymnastics to meet the intense need of indoor court spaces, including pickleball, table tennis, badminton, and those types of sports.

Okay. Any questions for staff?

Ron, is there any controversy that we're talking about? I mean, it sounds like What we're doing, we're purchasing this portion of the program in order to meet a new demand? Is that what I'm understanding?

What we're doing is we're renovating one of the areas at the existing Oak Point Recreation Center. It used to house the gymnastic aerobats program. The enrollment there declined over years. We sunset that program. Now we're going to use this money, this $179,000, to renovate that space to allow for up to three pickleball courts, several badminton, three badminton courts, depending on how we want to program it, freeing up space to meet the growing demand for those indoor sports.

Yeah, I seem to remember, I think it was a year or a couple years back, there was some type of discussion with regard to the gymnastic team. So were they finally relocated, or was there some sort of solution to their issues?

Yeah, we just informed the patrons that that program was no longer going to be offered by Parks and Recreation, and those that wanted to find a new gymnasium have already done so.

Got it. Okay, so basically running that program was not beneficial for the use of space, is that right? That's right.

Okay, thank you.

I move to approve, your honor, judge, mayor, judge, whatever.

Second that. So I have a motion to second to approve item G. Please vote. Motion passes eight to zero.

Item M. Item M, to approve an expenditure for architectural services for the Pecan Hollow Gulf Maintenance Building renovations in the amount of 125,000 from PGAL Incorporated for the Engineering Facilities Division and authorizing the city manager to execute all necessary documents.

Again, Caleb Thornhill, Director of Engineering, here to answer any questions you have. All right.

Caleb, who owns the building on the golf course? City of Plano. So City of Plano is responsible for maintaining and making sure it's workable and still usable, correct? That's correct. Thank you.

Okay. We have a speaker. Caleb. All right.

Bill Lyle.

Good evening, council. My comments on this topic really have to do with the funding source. You all will recall two meetings ago, Ron Smith made these comments. He said zero, and this is the transcript from the meeting. He said zero of the city's general fund or taxpayer dollars go to maintain Pecan Hollow. So the beautiful course that people play is maintained 100% at the cost of the golfers themselves. No taxpayer that is disinterested in golf pays anything to maintain Pecan Hollow. The operation is run by the vendor. He bears all overhead. He bears all risk. And he receives 90% of the revenue for those operations. And the city gets 5%. I think he meant 95% there. That operation cut was just over 100,000. So 100% of the maintenance of that beautiful course paid by the golfers, zero tax dollars from the residents that don't play golf. So tonight, what's before you is a renovation of the maintenance facility that maintains the equipment that maintains the golf course. And the funding source on this is listed as the capital maintenance fund and so my question is does the golf fund the enterprise fund that ron told us about two meetings ago does that go into the capital maintenance fund or is this actually tax dollars that goes to support the facility that supports the maintenance on the golf course?

thank you. thank you.

The golf fund that is collected when golfers pay the green fee pays for all of the employees that maintain the course, their salaries, their benefits, and it pays for all the equipment, the fuel, and everything that they use to maintain the course. The building itself that houses that equipment is city-owned. It's a capital improvement. It's a capital project. So the renovation of that would likely and rightfully come out of a capital funding. In this case, the capital maintenance fund.

Thank you. Any questions for Ron?

So for clarification, the golf fund pays for the superintendents of the course itself. Maintenance, mowing, irrigation, water, all the fertilizer, all that. But the building itself, the clubhouse, the upstairs dining area, Maintenance facility those are owned by the city. So any repairs or maintenance would be from the capital improvement.

That's right They fall under the facilities division of the engineering department just like any other city facility does but you're correct that the the cost to maintain the course Paid for exclusively by the golf fund.

Okay. Thank you Mayor move to approve

Did I get you? Sorry. Sorry, Mayor. I do have an additional question. Okay. So it says $125,000 for architectural services, but does this include the entire project, or is it just the designing?

This is just the design of the renovation.

Do we have an estimated amount of the overall project?

Caleb, would you be able to answer that question? Facilities, it's usually 10% to 20%.

I would say that's probably a fair estimate, somewhere between 10% and 20%.

Okay, so then if we approve this today, are you going to come forward next time to ask for funds for the entire project? There will be a construction project in the future, correct. Why wouldn't we do it together?

What's that?

Why wouldn't we do it together?

Because we don't have the design complete, so we don't know. We won't have to bid out the construction. So we're bidding first? Correct. Thank you.

So I have a motion and a second. Councilmember Kerr and Maria Tu was a second. To approve item M, please vote. Motion passes eight to zero.

Item W. Item W, to act in response to a petition for recognition received on May 26th, 2026 on behalf of the Plano Police Association FOP Lodge 777 to be the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for the Plano Police Department police officers in accordance with the provisions of the meet and confer statute as set forth in Texas Local Government Code Chapter 142 and granting recognition of the association as requested in the petition and determining that the City of Plano may and shall meet and confer with said association without conducting an election by the voters and providing an effective date.

I believe we have a speaker for this too.

We do. Mr. Lyle.

section 2-109 of the plano code of ordinances establishes a campaign contribution recusal requirement for the members of the city council under that ordinance a council member who has received campaign contributions exceeding one thousand dollars from a person or entity with substantial business interest in a matter before the council may be subject to recusal The ordinance defines campaign contribution broadly. It includes not only monetary donations, but also loans, offsets to expenditures, and in-kind contributions. During recent election cycles, the Plano Police Association appears to have expended funds in the amount of about $19,000 to produce and distribute campaign materials supporting certain candidates in amounts exceeding $1,000 threshold. Those expenditures were made for the direct political benefit of the endorsed candidates. When those candidates then promoted, publicized, and relied on those endorsements through websites, signage, Facebook posts, and other campaign communications, they accepted and benefited from that support. Section 2 109 is clear It shall be the responsibility of the campaign contributor and not the City Council member to identify their substantial business interest impacted by this section That language places the disclosure burden squarely on the contributor in this case That means that the PPA had the responsibility to identify any substantial business interest implicated by this matter The question then is straightforward should an organization representing law enforcement officers be expected to follow the law the rule of law cannot be selective applied only when convenient or when it serves a preferred outcome if this measure does not pass today the issue proceeds to the voters that is not a failure of process that is the process submitting this matter to the electric electorate would preserve public confidence and recognize an important fact. Support for this request is not unanimous within the police department itself. Approximately 28% of Plano police officers have chosen not to sign this request. Sending the matter to the voters presents the council from choosing a single association requesting their exclusive right to speak for all. It is also my understanding... standing that the financial burden of such an election would fall to the ppa if the ppa chooses not to bear that cost that decision does not prevent the city from continuing to negotiate with the ppa in good faith nor does it prevent the city from engaging with the other 28 of officers who choose not to be represented by the ppa the council should not be placed in the position of rewarding political support overlooking potential conflicts or bypassing the voters simply because an interested party would prefer a more convenient outcome. The cleaner course, the legally sound course, and the course most consistent with public trust is to let the voters decide. In addition, I would just remind Maria, you were never supported by the PPA. Vidal, Hayden Padgett was supported in lieu of you. And I think that was because of Hayden Padgett's political consultant. And so, you know, at the very least, I would just wrap up going back to the point where it's the political organization's responsibility to tell you all, hey, you've got to recuse yourself. I think it's important that we either get rid of that law or follow it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor and Council, if you have questions we're happy to provide.

Let me try to understand what Mr. Lyle is saying versus what we are trying to do today. So basically, we are asking, I mean, the Plano Police Association is asking to speak to city council regarding certain issues. Is that right?

It is actually speaking to management.

management, not really to city council regarding any issues that's in front of city council.

So right now, we don't know quite what the Point of Police Association is going to be asking for. So it's very preliminary right now. So this would recognize them as the negotiating agent and allow the city management to meet with the association representing those officers. to actually engage in discussions and potentially negotiations to see what the issues are. But at this point, there's nothing to bring forward to council other than recognition that they are a negotiating agent for officers.

They're asking to talk to somebody in the city.

That's correct.

All right. Right now, we understand there are issues. We just don't know what issues we're talking about. And since council are not really talking to the Plano Association, we need somebody who's representing the city to do so. Is that a good summary?

That would be me and a group of management here, as well as some consulting attorneys.

Okay. So this, currently, this on the agenda basically only give a consent to to allow city manager and team to talk to them. Not to make any decisions about anything, but just to talk to see whether or not this needs to go to a different avenue or it needs to come back to council or it needs to go to other consultant or potentially whatever. Is that my understanding?

Any result will have to come back to the city council.

Okay. So at this point, this is very, very, very preliminary.

Correct.

Okay, with that in mind, I move to approve.

All right, I'd also like to bring up a point here in that we're right at the very beginning stages of the budgets for this season. And part of that budget cycle is addressing public safety. And I can attest for everyone on this board, public safety is the most important critical item that we are faced with as council members. And we're looking at the safeguard of all our citizens. So this being a preliminary discussion between the Plano Police Association and our management team to find out if there may be any cost impacts that may come out of that is real critical, I think.

We don't know that, right? We don't know that. We don't know if it's money, we don't know if it's regarding potential public safety or whatever.

We don't know, but if it has any type of monetary impact, we need to know that before we step into the system. I see. Okay, and that's what I was getting at, all right? So with that being said, I'll second the motion.

So I have a motion and a second to approve item W. Please vote. Motion passes eight to zero. Next item is individual, items for individual consideration.

Items for individual consideration. Public hearing items. Applicants are limited to 15 minutes presentation time with a five minute rebuttal if needed. Remaining speakers are limited to 30 total minutes of testimony time with three minutes assigned per speaker. The presiding officer may amend these times as deemed necessary. Non-public hearing items. The presiding officer will permit public comment for items on the agenda not posted for a public hearing. The presiding officer will establish time limits based upon the number of speaker requests, length of the agenda, and to ensure meeting efficiency, and may include a cumulative time limit. Speakers will be called in the order the requests are received until the cumulative time is exhausted. Item number one. public hearing and consideration of an ordinance to approve the terms and conditions of an interlocal agreement and memorandum of understanding by and between the city of Plano, the city of McKinney, the city of Frisco, and the Collin County Sheriff's Department for the disbursement of the 2025 Edward Byrne Justice Assistant Grant funds, authorizing its execution by the city manager or his designee and providing an effective date.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. The Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, or JAG Grant as we call it, is what's called a formula grant. They use our primary data, our population, to come up with this grant amount. This year, the amount is roughly $64,000. Our share, our Plano share of that is 24. We have to split that grant amount with other cities in our county, with Allen, Frisco, and McKinney. As I said, our share is about, and also the Sheriff's Office gets a share of that too. The reason I'm briefing you on this is because it's required to have a public hearing on the on accepting this grant and what project we're going to use it for the project that we're going to use our portion of the grant for is to uh we're going to swap out our side arms we've been carrying those for about 10 years now uh and guns we could we could go past the 10-year mark our issue is though is we're moving to a point to where firearms are changing The new standard is going to become having an optic, a colored optic, a red or a green dot optic on that. Some of our officers carry that on their own that they purchase, but we need to move towards purchasing those weapons for our officers if they want that. That's going to be a lot more than what we get out of this 24,000, so we're going to buy about 20 of those guns for our new recruits coming in. We're looking at a Glock 17. It'll have the optic optic. We'll come with it, so it's going to be a good value for us instead of buying them separately. But before we go and purchase 400 or 500 of those, we're going to purchase about 20, make sure that they are integrated, that they're working, we don't have any training issues. And then later this year, early next year, calendar year, we will complete that purchase of about 400 or 500 other guns. So that's the grant. That's why I'm briefing you on it, and that's what we plan on doing with the money.

Thank you, Chief. Any questions for Chief? Okay, thank you. I'll open the public hearing. Do you have any speakers?

There are no speakers on this item.

All right. Close the public hearing, confine the comments to the council.

Mayor, I move to approve.

Mayor, I second. I'd like to make a comment as well. I think this is one of the wonderful things about North Texas is that we can share and work together with other communities to make sure we're just better and stronger here. So I think this is really a good thing to move forward on.

All right, so we have a motion and a second to approve item number one. Please vote. Motion passes 8-0. Moving on to comments of public interest.

Comments of public interest. This portion of the meeting is to allow to three minutes per speaker with 30 total minutes on items of interest or concern and not on items that are on the current agenda. The council may not discuss these items but may respond with factual or policy information. The council may choose to place the item on future agenda. And we do have several speakers this evening.

Yeah, we have over 30 minutes of speakers, so if we left it at three minutes per speaker. So I'm going to bring it down to two minutes per speaker. And we can start with the first one.

The first speaker is NCBW Dallas Chapter.

Good evening, um, mayor and city council constituents. I am Dr. Katrina Pullum and I am the president of the national coalition of 100 black women of the Dallas metropolitan chapter. And so just for a minute or so, I want to shine a light on, um, maternal health, black maternal health. Um, when a mother suffers poor health outcomes, the impact extends beyond individuals. and families are affected, children are impacted, and our communities lose vital contributors and leaders. And so black maternal health is simply not a healthcare issue, but it is a community issue. It is an economic issue and a quality of life issue. And so to advance this work, we would like to encourage the Plano City Council to issue an annual proclamation recognizing Black Maternal Health Week, April 11th through April 17th of each year. We would also like to encourage you to partner with us so we can increase the community awareness of maternal and infant health issues. And our third request is we would like to establish or for you to consider establishing a Plano Black Maternal Health Task Force or advisory committee composed of healthcare professionals, public health leaders, community organizations, faith leaders, and residents to identify local black maternal health priorities and recommend community-based solutions and strengthen collaborations across the sectors. And so what we're asking is that we would love to follow up with each city council representative here to talk about how we can collaborate and work together in the community. Thank you.

Thank you so much, and we appreciate all that you do and your advocacy for this, and we look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you. Thank you.

The next speaker is Kyle McGeehan, and he will be followed by Shirley Lawson.

Good evening. My name is Kyle McGeehan. I'm a member of DSA North Texas and Revolutionary Front DFW. It's been almost two months since I last spoke to this council about Plano's data center dilemma. I would have touched base with you all sooner, but you limited our ability to deliver comments of public interest recently, so what was I supposed to do? On that evening, I was the sole attendee concerned about this topic. Tonight, I am not alone. That's what happens when you ignore a problem, council members. It doesn't go away. It just gets bigger. In fact, the statewide backlash against data center development has grown so colossal that Greg Abbott, a man so corrupt that his first word as a child was bribe, even Greg Abbott is campaigning on a promise to repeal the tax incentives that sparked this big tech takeover in the first place. Nobody should believe him, of course, but he can tell where the political winds are blowing, and they rightfully terrify him. Consider this question, council members. Do you really want Greg Abbott of all creatures to leave you guys in the dust? If not, then you have a couple of options. First, you can start the process of exploring a data center moratorium. Second, you can add a special zoning category for data centers to the unified development code the city's been working on. Dr. Thomas, when you filled out Ballotpedia's Connection Survey last year, you listed zoning reform as something you're passionate about. This would be an excellent opportunity to flex that muscle and show your colleagues how it's done. To conclude, I'd like to outline the true significance of the fight against data centers. This battle is a microcosm of the fundamental divide in our country, the struggle between the owning class and the working class. Who gets to control the future, the people or the profiteers? I know which side I'm on, council members. Which side are you on?

Shirley Lawson. Shirley will be followed by Connor Boykin and Sanjay Sai.

Hello. Hi, everybody. My name is Shirley Lawson. I'm here with my friend Kyle and my friends from Democratic Socialists of America. My only goal here tonight is to let you know that Actually is to put you all on notice. I've noticed that at least four of you will be up for reelection next year in 2027 I don't have a job. I'm a full-time do-whatever-I-feel-like person and if Our needs aren't met, and the item agendas that he has suggested don't get on here. That's what I'm going to spend all my time doing. I cannot vote here, unfortunately, because I'm not actually from Plano, which wouldn't be a concern if you guys built a dome over Plano that would contain all the pollution and the additional heat that is going to come from these AI data center monstrosities. So I have plenty of time. I can recruit people. I can call people, I can block walk for these people, and I've already got two of them in mind. So with that in mind, that's all I have. Have a nice night.

Connor Boykin.

Good evening. My name is Connor Boykin. I'm a member of Revolutionary Front DFW and DSA North Texas. As a Plano resident, it's appalling to see millions of dollars being spent on projects we don't need, don't want, and didn't ask for, while concerns about public services and infrastructure are quietly ignored. We'll start with AI data centers, of course. CoreWeave might sound familiar. It's an AI cloud computing behemoth that joined the NASDAQ 100 earlier today. And Plano City Council unanimously approved huge tax rebates for Coral Reefs Data Center right off Court Road. But they're not alone. On the 23rd of February, councils unanimously approved the largest incentives package in Plano's history for AT&T, including a $20 million grant and tax breaks totaling out to potentially $100 million. Don't you think that those tax dollars could be better spent addressing the community's needs directly? Because I can assure you there are neighborhoods in this city that have been neglected. Take the Douglas community. It's a historically African-American neighborhood of deep cultural and historical significance to Plano. I've had the pleasure of meeting a lot of Douglas' residents over the past year, and I've had the chance to hear some of their thoughts about what could improve their community. For starters, the recreational center. It's summer vacation and the rec center's only open two hours a day from Monday through Friday, four hours on Saturday, and it isn't open at all on Sundays. Other comments pointed out issues with the water fountains and park lights at Stimson and Drake Park, a dead street light that we saw on 13th Street, cars speeding down I Avenue as they pass through the neighborhood. And these are just a few of the comments that we heard. But the good news is it does not take a massive tax break to solve these problems.

20 seconds.

Ask the people of Plano what they need and want instead of deciding for them, because Douglas is just one of these neighborhoods. There are many others with the same concerns, I assure you. We need more public involvement in decision making. Uplifting communities like Douglas is more important than giving tax rebates to multi-billion dollar corporations. The people's needs must come first. Put our tax dollars back into communities like Douglas and not into building more data centers.

Thank you.

Sanjay Sai, followed by Nathan Tan.

Good evening, City Council. So my name is Sanjay, and I'm here to argue in favor of a moratorium on data centers. And before you say anything about me, I'm actually, I'm not against AI or innovation. I'm actually an AI engineer myself. And it's precisely because I'm an AI engineer, I wanted to give you all a quick technical lesson If you were to download Ollama, it's an open source AI model, on your computers and run it, you can actually disconnect the internet there. What happens is you can just say hi, like you say hi to ChatGPT, your computer is going to heat up and it's not gonna work, it's gonna hang up. Because that's how much memory and power AI requires, generative AI specifically. So even a simple model, a bare bones model, you run it on your computer and it's going to burn. Computer's going to get hot, it's going to get frozen. Now let's apply that to scale. These corporations are going to release these models out to the public and people are going to use like They're going to create random videos. They're going to create AI fruit videos or something. And imagine if your local computer burns or heats up because of a simple high prompt. Imagine what would happen when thousands of people are using that data center at scale. Well, it's going to release a lot of heat. And to cool that down, you need an excess amount of water, a ridiculous amount of water. And you also need a ridiculous amount of electricity to do these computations. for that AI model to work. And so what happens is we've seen in counties in Georgia and counties in Arizona, The water pressure in the area actually decreases to the point you turn on the shower and it actually comes out pretty slow. Their electricity bills have gone up. Their water bills have gone up. And do you really want that for the 300,000 residents of Plano here? So again, like I'm saying, I'm not against innovation. In fact, if you were to impose restrictions on data centers here, put a moratorium, it would actually incentivize some of these companies to find alternative ways to reduce the amount of electricity and water required. Right now, They're just using all the land they can. But if you put a more determined data centers, you won't be stifling innovation. You'll actually be supporting it because you'll be encouraging them to find new ways to save water and electricity on people. So thank you.

Thank you.

Nathan Tan.

Good evening, mayors and members of the council. My name is Nathan Tan. I'm 17 and a rising high school senior at St. Mark's School of Texas, and I live here in Plano. I founded the Shared Skies Initiative, a youth-led nonprofit, after a seven-year-old I tutor looked at the hazy sky and asked me why it looked the way it did. And he could feel that something was wrong, but he had no way to measure it, and so I learned how. And I've spent the last year studying the exact pollutants that make air dangerous to breathe. And that is why I am worried about what is coming to Plano. Data centers run on enormous around-the-clock electricity. And to guarantee that power, they install diesel backup generators that are tested 50 to 150 hours every year. And a growing number now build gas turbines on site to run full time. Both release fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, the pollution that triggers asthma attacks and sends kids to the emergency room. Nationwide, researchers already tie this industry to about 1,300 premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma cases, and close to $20 billion in health costs every year. And now it is landing in our backyard. Texas leads this entire country with 142 data centers under construction right now. And a national review found that nearly half of these facilities are built in neighborhoods that already carry above average pollution, disproportionately communities of color and lower income families who can least afford that burden. I'm 17, I can't vote yet, but I will be breathing Plano's air long after tonight, and so will every kid in this city. I'm asking you to pass a moratorium on new data centers and take the time to look honestly at the air, the water, and the bills, and invest in the people of Plano first. Thank you.

The next speaker is August McFarland. August? Then we will move on to Pega Movahit.

Sorry.

Good afternoon. First off, Sean Thomas, you got so many people coming out to vote for you. I am so excited that you won your election. So congratulations. I am here today to ask for a moratorium on data centers. I wanted to share a couple of statistics for you guys. There have been over 4,000 data centers in operation in Virginia, Texas, and California, just those states. There are 3,000 more planned. This triples the amount of water that's going to be used from 4.4% to 12% in the nation. And I can provide all the statistics as well. Someone already mentioned that whenever you use AI, you need to have a ton of water just to cool it off. We already have a problem with water. And our costs right now for electricity have already skyrocketed. I am asking you guys to put people over profit over whatever you are getting out of these big businesses. And also remember that... you guys still breathe the same air. You're gonna drink the same water. And what would happen if the power goes out again, like it did a few years ago? I know for me, my power was out for five days and I have a special needs daughter. So that was a very big challenge. And what would we do then? Just, I really would... encourage you all to think about the consequences. Because it doesn't matter how much money you have, this will impact every single person here. And yeah, I'm sorry. I really just want you guys to really stop and put people first. People. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Shyam Ganeshram. Chayim? Crystal Curry?

Good evening council members. I have been fighting an intense complex battle regarding the unauthorized use of my personal cognitive data. It's been over a year and I've consistently shown up here to voice my concerns. I've reviewed solutions and I continue coming standing before you every month asking the council to use its collective voice to push and bridge the gap to the federal level because I need Senator Ted Cruz and our congressional representatives to take action that they already know is required. My focus has been on to address a legislation that surrounds this as because there is no precedent of the integration of biotechnology with artificial intelligence. IT professionals have confirmed and verified these facts. And if I were a betting person, I wouldn't bet against them. I spent 30 years in that profession and they themselves are concerned. Due to the lack of clear legal direction, I am in an extremely vulnerable position with people believing that they have actual rights to my very person. It's inexplicable. There are times when we need to speak up and make a difference, and I believe this is one of those times. It's not time to sit back because, again, it's going to affect not only me. In a couple of weeks or a week or so, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. We just celebrated Juneteenth, and we're venturing into a dangerous era if we as a country lose the rights to claim ourselves and our minds as our own. So tonight, let me appeal to you in a way that you can relate to. I am embarking on a business venture that involves many people that make up the business community to provide services to launch this business. What about the privacy of our contracts? What about us establishing NDAs? That's almost impossible from the position that I'm in. So I just wanted to bring that to your consideration. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Chime.

Good evening. My name is and I am a resident of Frisco, Postal Code 75035. I'm here today to state that none of us want AA data centers for a couple of reasons. First, our utility bills would increase. Second, even with equipment to reduce noise and vibrations from these data centers, they still cause noise-proof windows to vibrate and still make enormous amounts of noise pollution, as we've seen in Loudoun County, Virginia. Lastly, approval for AI data centers are very low. 63% of Republicans are against AI data centers. Independents are 74% against AI data centers, and Democrats are 75% against AI data centers, showing that this is becoming less and less of a bipartisan issue. Meanwhile, only 27% of Americans favor AI data centers, with only 7% of those being strongly in favor. That's a low amount of people, and the same might happen with your approval ratings if you continue to support and allow AA data centers to be built here. So for the good of yourself and your residents, please oppose these. And by the way, my source for this information is Gallup. Thank you. I yield my time.

Brian Stanlin.

Good evening, everyone. Thanks for letting me speak. That was a crazy storm we had last week. Usually storms don't wake me up, but that one did. I live a stone's throw away from George Bush Tollway, and I was wondering if my power would go out with the intensity of the storm. Thankfully, it didn't. But in the future, this could be a different story for me and my Plano neighbors right across the tollway. How? Data centers. They put a strain on our already weak energy grid. They're appearing everywhere, especially here in Plano, and there are more coming. The everyday Plano resident is subsidizing the creation of the data centers that are being built around this city. How? Water and electricity bills have gone up. Statistically, they go up much more when data centers go up in the area, especially in hot climates, which I'm sure we all know it's very hot here. We'll continue to see these prices increase due to the data centers that are spreading like a disease across our community. They're also subsidizing these data centers with tax dollars that this very council, minus Shun, were whining about spending on DART. And they're using that tax money to lure in these billionaire companies to construct these data centers. Plano residents are literally paying for these data centers. And how many jobs? A couple of engineers and some security? Please start a data center moratorium, please. the people could really use a break to stop and evaluate what's going on and how this is impacting the community. And if y'all pass a moratorium, heck, I'll even pop a champagne bottle with y'all, kind of like y'all did with the data center people. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Michael Tahirna.

Hello, good evening, Mayor and Council Members. My name is Michael Tijerina. I am a Plano resident. I'm here tonight asking to adopt a temporary moratorium on new data centers approvals while the city studies the long-term impact and develop clear policies with public input. This isn't about being against technology. Plano has always been a leader in innovation. It's about making sure growth happens responsibly and with community input at the table. Many residents were surprised to learn at a new data center that was approved without meaningful public discussion. Whether someone supports or opposes the process, we should all agree that developments with significant community impact deserves transparency and public engagement. Across the country, cities and counties are slowing down to study projects before approval. Even here in Texas, communities such as Harlington have adopted temporary moratoriums to evaluate impact of infrastructure, water, electricity, and neighborhoods. Other local governments have required additional review and public notification rather than allowing projects to move forward without clear standards. Their concerns are real. Modern AI data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity, placing additional demands on our electric grid. They can also generate constant mechanical noise from the cooling equipment, requiring significant Utility infrastructure and other provide relatively few permanent, sorry, equipment requiring significant utility and often provide relatively few permanent jobs once construction is complete. As AI continues to expand, these facilities are becoming dramatically larger than the day centers that we were previously familiar with. Plano City is known for exceptional neighborhoods, parks, and schools. Before approving additional projects and scales, we just would ask that you have some basic questions. What are the impacts of nearby neighborhoods? How will they affect the electric infrastructure? What standards should exist for noise, setbacks, landscaping, and public notification? And how do these projects fit into Plano's long-term vision? Let's make sure Plano remains a city that values both economic opportunity and the people who call it home. I respectfully ask that you begin the process of CREATING A MORATORIUM ON DATA CENTERS.

THANK YOU.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. part three of my story about being removed from the Planning and Zoning Commission. At the end of last meeting, or the end of the last of part two, you got a copy of this email. I'm just gonna highlight something here. Bill spent a considerable time putting together significant amount of detailed information. I've committed, this is Mark speaking, to looking into the issues further and getting back with Bill, as well as setting up a meeting with staff. The next meeting, was just less than a month later. But before we go there, let me try to highlight some of the significance of this. This right here was a letter that I got in my mailbox when I was done having that second meeting with Mark. This is a warrant, a notice from the Plano Police Department that there was a warrant out for my arrest. Why? Because there was a site plan violation, okay? $626 bond was due at that time. So y'all should take this serious. The police do. The city of Plano does, at least when it has to do with my violations. So we went from Mark's email that he wrote to council where he talks about the significant amount of detailed information that he's going to look into. And this, the email that you have, the last piece of paper you have in your packet tonight, if we look at the last sentence, I intended to have a higher level outcome focused discussion on enforcement and relationships as I believe that that is the main issue. Notice he didn't want to deal with any of the details anymore, the details that he told council he was going to look into. He also says in that email, he says that he owes me and staff an apology. The second meeting was really unproductive is the way that I would describe it. It was a failure.

Twenty seconds.

And with only two minutes, it's really hard to go through all this. But I'll get back to part three next time we have public comments. Thank you all.

So regarding the speakers and specifically to data centers, we with the city understand the concerns regarding the growth of data centers. As projects are proposed, the city carefully reviews them for compliance with our standards. So in Texas, electric generation transmission reliability are regulated at the state level through the PUC and the ERCOT. Texas legislature is also reviewing the impacts of data centers and is expected to address these issues at the upcoming legislative session. While Plano does have data centers, the city is unlikely to attract larger future projects because of the significant land requirements for the development. So residents with concerns about broader impacts of data centers on Texas' resources should reach out to their state representatives or the PUC Commission directly. By the way, the House Committee on Natural Resources meets tomorrow morning to discuss interim changes specific to data centers. That being said, there's no further business. We are adjourned.

Although a pedestrian is ultimately responsible for their own safety by paying attention, it is our responsibility