Now I'd like to call the City Council work session to order. City Council will now go into closed session at 12.48 p.m. on October the 10th, 2017, in accordance with the following sections of VTCA government code chapter 551.071 consultation with attorney 0.072 deliberation regarding real property and 0.087 deliberation regarding economic development negotiations. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Thank you. you you you you you you So I just want to confirm something starting in. I'm sorry. I just want to be You're starting Yes, Bill. Yes. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. Today we're bringing you previews of an item you'll have on your on a future agenda to approve an open data policy and you have a draft in your packet right now but this just as a reminder is part of our effort with the WhatWorks Cities program and we've talked to you about this before but it's a Bloomberg philanthropies effort. We work with consultants which is to help us advance some work mainly around data and data use, both internally and externally with the city. It's a free but competitive process, so we did have to apply to get in. And the consultants we've been working with are the Sunlight Foundation and John Hopkins University. So just as a recap, this is our problem, sort of our project statement right here. It's long, but generally it talks about us beginning to use data as a strategic asset. And it talks about internal sharing, so how we're working between departments sharing data that will help make us more productive and give us some insights, bring some efficiencies internally, and additionally externally, how we're sharing data externally. So that would improve our transparency and also open up some opportunities for collaboration with some private sector partners, folks that might take our data and do something insightful or interesting with it or create businesses out of it. So a little bit of information about what we've done so far. So we've really gotten a lot of input to tell you the truth to this point. We've put the policy that you're dealing with today out there asked for input. We've also done an internal survey asking our departments how we use data. And we've also done some meetings with some external groups who've met with UTA with their research team and President Karpari. And we've also met with a group called Startup Arlington which is a sort of techie entrepreneur group that meets for coffee monthly and we've checked in with them on this. We've also convened an internal data governance group which is an internal committee which will work to guide the city's work on how the data comes together and gets released and put out on the internet. So next steps, the second line there, we're still looking for some additional input from folks. We've got some more groups we want to meet with. We're going to do some surveying in terms of what internal and external groups are interested in, in terms of prioritizing the data for release. What would be of most interest to the different groups we're working with? We're also looking to use the data to enhance some of our performance measurement and our internal data usage. So we'll be as we get our data in with our together and are more aware of what we have. We're going to try to use that in our performance measurement. And then an important part of what we're still looking to do is to formally have council if you all have the opportunity to formally adopt the open data policy. So I want to tell you a little bit more about the stakeholder input that we've gathered. We posted this. We really worked to get this broadly shared in the spirit of transparency. So we posted it on our website through an article as we will typically do and took comments through there. We also posted on a new forum for us, which is an online platform called My Madison. And that allows people to give comments. It's really more like a track change is not just, I like this, I don't like it. Although that is an option, but also on this line in this word, what does it mean? What it's meant here. And so it's a lot more specific in terms of how folks can comment. We also did some direct communication with 160 stakeholders. We looked at folks who were frequently requesting open records from us. We reached out through the chamber and to a number of other groups. So, and we also shared it via social media. And so just to share a little bit about some of the groups that we reached out to, I mentioned the start of Barlington Group. And we really had a great meeting with them. It's a group that meets for coffee over at Sugar Bees and they spoke to us about their entrepreneurs and tech interested people and they actually Matt Taylor is the gentleman who sort of organizes our group and he actually overnight created and we're still working out a few glitches with it but he created an app. It's called Is Today Trash Day and you can go on there and type in an Arlington address that this could be he created an app. It's called Is Today Trash Day. And you can go on there and type in an Arlington address. This could be made into an app. But you type in an Arlington address and you get a yes or a no and it tells you when your trash days are. And so that's just one example of how folks who are super tech savvy can take our data. And I believe it was sort of overnight, he basically created this application that could be used out there. Now he thinks it's silly and I said, I actually think it might be pretty useful for some of our residents. It would be useful for me sometimes. So once we get that ready, we'll put that out there and I think we're sharing that through what works cities and also we can share that through our social media as well. So looking at the stakeholder input that we did receive, although we reached out to the different groups that I talked to about really was the business community that we got the most feedback from. Two big areas of input were really around sort of the city's commitment to the transparency or expressing these values. So they wanted to be sure that we were really all in on that. And that was something that we were dedicated to. And then also there was some questions about monetizing the data. What could be sold? Could it be made money? Would it be profit sharing? And so we did make some changes to the policy after we received this input. And that policy, one was from some internal input, clarified the governance group and some of the work it does around publication standards and data review and how things get released. Then we also clarified that the data is freely available. This is all stuff that people get through open records request and so it's freely available, but we do want it to be attributed to the city. So if someone goes out and makes the next billion or million dollar app out of it, we want to make sure that it's known that the data came from Arlington. So at this point, Elaine Denney from the Community Development and Planning Group is going to come up and talk more about the contents of the policy. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council Elaine Denney, Planning Manager Community Development and Planning. Well Jennifer has taken you through and we call the overview of how we got to where we are in terms of the open data policy. I'm going to be speaking to really a high level review of the policy content itself. As you, I'm sure in my many communications, do you well know that the city generates a lot of data? And that can range from construction permits to tick sticks to golf course usage or crime stats or what have you. And all of those different kinds of data sets have different attributes and things about them that allow them to be shared or due to security or customer confidentiality have to be retained. To be very specific, this policy is only applicable to those data sets that are designated as public and open. The policy in general is really threefold as Jennifer has alluded to. It's really in terms of fostering transparency by the provision of standardized data to continue to share and expand our data assets with our community to encourage creative use the next big app. For example, I personally am a big fan of these at my trash day app because I generally never remember. And possible where we can begin to improve city provision of services and to eliminate duplication of data intensive efforts. If multiple departments have the same data set, only one really needs to be spending the time on it by identifying these data sets through these processes that type of our business should improve and become more efficient. Content itself really, Wellington.com went live in January of this year. It's solidified the standards and processes that we have in place, as well as launching new guidelines and mechanisms to fill it, facilitate both internal and external use. What are the department level responsibilities to making sure their data inventories are completed up to date? How are we going to communicate and decide sharing priorities or release timelines and really beginning to standardize the information that is released with each of our data sets to ensure consistent communication with our users? The intent is, in my opinion, a major step forward in the goal to engage our data under the put technology to work initiative to really provide our citizens with better service, increased transparency, and in doing so, lessen the duplication of effort among departments and really taking the work that they are currently doing and providing it in a more efficient and effective manner. But while we're talking about OpenArlington.com, I know I was very excited in January when I presented this to you, so I'm going to take just one slide here to give you an update of where we are to date. We have had nearly 11,000 unique views of our pages with 1,400 unique users. As you can might imagine, the highest number of folks utilizing and viewing our data come from Dallas Fort Worth and here in Arlington. And I'm going to call them Metroplex Dominates. But the reach of Arlington's data is growing extensively to places like California, New York, Illinois, or even to other countries like Canada, India, and the UK. Most popular data sets, neighborhood networks, dangerous or substandard structures, permits, municipal boundaries zoning, the most downloaded data sets, as you can expect are driven in many ways by our development community, looking at the boundary, the GPS monuments you need to tie to when you're doing surveys, our roads, our land use, and our zoning. And one piece of information that I just learned this morning is that we are averaging 200 views per month on our page. So I'm very excited and open up. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Is open, open, open, and in effect, is going to become our vehicle for providing open data? Yes, sir. Currently, we have data sets published and we'll be adding content as the initiative kicks back in with our work with the what work city initiatives. But there are data sets published and ready to go on openarlington.com. Yes, Dr. Myers. Thank you, Mayor. Just a distinct inquiry. Do I have a little deeper in what you just said? In terms of opening a dialogue with those data users, I know you're uploading data sets. Is there going to be an opportunity for those who may make unique, say, a dissertation student or someone who takes our data and does something different? Will there be an ability to bring that back in? Is that something that you're thinking about doing? In terms of our outreach with UTA, we were actually beginning our conversations to see what sort of data that the researchers or students there would like to see, and that would be part of our prioritization efforts, and we'll also be updating the website as currently structured. So if folks have ideas for content, they can ask those questions directly on the website and it will be routed to the Open Data team. Thank you. Would you kind of give us indication of how the demand has increased over time? Because what was about, how many months ago, I don't know, the open all-in can started, and kind of how has it, the demand for it? The demand has been relatively steady, as I said, at approximately 200 views per month. Anytime we have done a significant social media push or direct content, outreach, for example, with UTA's leadership, after those direct pushes, usage has spiked, but it's generally been very consistent. What about the, especially around the country, but in particular, other countries? Is this something that's relatively new? The inquiries have come from outside the Metroplex or that something has been preferable consistent all along? In terms of when, the international usage was occurring, I haven't really looked to see what the specifics are, but in terms of outreach from other universities and other parts of the country and other cities. Once we have made folks aware that our data is here and available, I think people are, because it's becoming more ubiquitous at a city level, people are just expecting it to be there and utilizing it to the fullest extent possible. Just a general question. Do we have any sense of what other cities are doing relative to put an open data policies in place? Open data and open data policies are the wave of the future. It is a major initiative with the what work city, so any of the cities that are a part of that process have an open data policy in place. But it is also generally a policy trend for those cities making strides in terms of government and process transparency. Ms. Kay. K. Pard. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the presentation. And I think this certainly speaks very much to putting technology to work, and it obviously is also another component with regard to our transparency initiatives, which we've always had at the fore. But the thing that excites me the most about this mayor is that as it becomes known and we're not late to the party but we're not the first to the party, as it becomes known that this data for Arlington is available online, there will be more and more usage you will see typically coming from corporate relocator folks. They come to do that research and then they put it on the list. And we may never know that that's who it is. I mean, they don't necessarily advertise it that way when they log on, obviously. But a lot of them depend upon that kind of information to see where you fit in a potential parkour, corporate really locations and efforts. So I'm really glad that we're out there and we're playing in this field because I think as you say, it's the trend and it's pretty soon that we come expected. Right now, I don't know how common place it is in this region, but I dare say not not the majority of cities have this kind of open data available to them yet. So it's really great for our community as a whole. It particularly applies and is applicable, I think, to economic development. I couldn't agree more on this Cape Harden. In fact, Arlington is recognized as one of the leaders in Texas and smart city improvements. And this is a big part of it here in our open Arlington data. And it's interesting, you know, we say putting technology to work, but Ms. Denny and your presentation, I love how you said we're putting data to work. You know, I think that is so appropriate here, because it does give us so much valuable information. And then in working with other cities through our National League of Cities, our US Conference of Mayors, all of this data can then be used to improve our community and for us to help each other. And it's very, very exciting here as we move forward. And our changing world because technology is going to be changing and it's something that we need to be aware of, that we need to be on top of because so much technology is being developed that is changing our world. Mr. N. Hey, thank you for your passion, for your job to there and what you do, because it is important. It's very important. And you make data fun and appreciate that a lot. I try. Yeah. Mr. Glassby. It's capable. I just thought with the corporate implication of this. So I assume that the timbers pretty inomgly involved and kind of understanding what we have so that as they engage others, they can expose them to kind of what we are in this whole thing. And I guess I'm kind of asking. Yeah, I think that's an area that we can look to improve the communication of the availability of this to external parties like the Chamber of Commerce. Right now we've been kind of getting our house in order. We did have a meeting a month or so ago with all the key university representatives, provost and vice president and president to go through this. So we need to start getting the word out. But part of what we got to do is we got to also kind of really speak to the market with what data we're making available. We want to drive people there because it's of interest. There's things that they're curious about. It's not good just to put it out because you got it, but hopefully it's because people want it and need it and they're trying to consume it and learn more about their community. Okay, thank you, Miss Denne. He appreciate it very much. Miss Whitman, thank you very much. Appreciate your leadership on this. Okay, next we'll move to our informal staff reports, and I'll call upon Mr. Bus Pishker here, Director Water Utilities, there to talk about our Canada Allerdington Utility System collaboration. Afternoon mayor, Council, City Manager. You have before you an informal staff report that kind of outlines some discussions we've been having with the city of Canadale. So I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Well any questions? I just want to say I think it's great our collaboration here with our neighboring cities there and really appreciate that and I've heard great comments here from the Kennedale citizens that have found out about that we're trying to help them. And of course, it helps us. It's a win-win all the way around. So appreciate that. Mr. Glassby. Thank you, Matt. So we are just sort of in the process of defining what kinds of relationship, formal relationships we should enter into and what anticipated times of when we might come to something concrete. opportunity will manifest itself in several ways. And I would tell council that actually we just had another meeting with another community this morning ironically. And I would expect that by the end of 2018, we would have four ongoing water sale relationships with other cities. And in this case, we may actually be operating someone else's water and sewer system. So that's that's kind of the gist of it and we're just working out the details obviously this has to be as as it says it has to be beneficial to both cities and I'm sure it will be but it's a great opportunity for us thank you mr. Piskier appreciate your forward thinking and working on this. Awesome. Okay, next we'll move to 2018 City Council retreat. Miss Whitman. Thank you, Mayor Jennifer Whitman, Director of Management Resources. The informal staff report just details what traditionally your fall and spring retreats have been about. The fall retreat, which is coming up, is typically a time for the council to get some information and to reaffirm your strategic priorities for the coming year. We have the next fall, the fall retreat is scheduled for November 6th, so it is coming up. And within the staff report, there are some suggestions for topics, but we did certainly want to take an opportunity to list additional information from you as to what you'd like to hear about or discuss or have an opportunity to review at that meeting. The items that are listed are the 2018 bond election, trending code compliance issues, transportation, updates on council priorities, and then certainly we could do some of those, none of those, also additional things that you all would suggest certainly. Okay, is anybody have any comments or about that or any questions that Miss Cape Hart? I have a comment and I don't know that it necessarily applies to their retreat but it might. Some time ago, Mr. City Manager, we had a discussion about having a vision exercise, but we've never done it. And so is that still something being put together And it's probably been well over a year that we talked about that. Yeah, we've talked about doing that. And there's some logistical things that are, what you talked about was kind of, I think the LEGO stacking type. That was just an example, but when I was asked, what did I mean by visioning? It was that kind of thing. I do think that's intended in this scenario. What the method of it is is still for us to determine. But to me this is the opportunity to do it. We'd like to talk about the horizon topics or the big ideas, the catalytic ideas. They're less tactical in the sense of we've got a budget to do immediately and those kinds of things. So this is really what are the bold steps for the big ideas that we really need to get on our radar screen so that we are laying the bread crumbs and the future of where we need to go out. So those can be in a lot of different areas based on what council's interests may be, but absolutely the intent here is to kick the door wide open and have a conversation about the future of the city's planning and where we want to go whether that's geographically or operationally or whatever might be on you all's minds So for this retreat we can broach some of that to Mr. Tuller. Yep. Okay. Thank you Shepard Try one of the things that I'd like to see if we could fit in, it fits under the putting technology to work aspect of it. It's been brought up to me in the context of downtown primarily, but I think it probably applies to much of our city and that's the cable slash internet thing we talked about the gigabit or whatever that fancy thing was and and I think in a lot of respect some of the infrastructure has aged to the point now where it needs replacing and there's that chicken and egg issue between forcing people if you will off of cable and or T1 or whatever else into satellite technology, but we've got a gap there and I I don't really know how to bring that up in the context of our of our deal, but I think It's an issue that's going to affect our our develop ability in the context of our deal. But I think it's an issue that's going to affect our our develop ability in the future very directly if we don't get in on it now to figure out what the solution is going to be. So I don't know how to craft that. I couldn't agree more. I think that is one of those big ideas to talk about. You know with that in the out. Dr. Myers. Thank you, Mayor. And maybe this is a way to, I was thinking in terms of chunking this information, because I was, thank you for, Miss Cape Art for asking that question, because I was a little taken back by the topics that were suggested. I was thinking more in terms of the visioning that we had talked about. And I'm thinking in terms of a lot of this technology, wire, fiber, a lot of the things that we're talking about fit under the smart city, sort of sense of what that initiative means in transportation and other areas. So might we take a bigger issue like that and pull some pieces out from something like that or is that not the will of the council? Because I'm just a little concerned that if we do too much specific issues that we won't get to that visioning piece of the bigger next horizon things, that's just a thought. I think that's really, we do wanna be on big ideas and not getting down in the weeds there with it, but yet. These are, that is a big piece of it. So I, yeah, Miss K. Port. And I agree, Miss Myers. In the vision, to the mayor's point, it's not so much down in the weeds is what is the overall bigger vision for the city, things that we need. Like the Smart City Initiative can mean a lot of different things, depending on what the city is in the needs. But I think one of the things that we've certainly heard a great deal about from a potential corporate relocation of light is they were looking for a connected city. And so, and I hear that not just from that source, but I hear it at a local level from a physician who's on call and he doesn't want to have to go into the hospital. He wants to be able to look at the x-rays at home and we're not connected and the speed isn't there. So, and we've talked about that over the years about laying pipe even if you don't have, you know, the wire to put in it yet, and maybe using your pipe to have other utilities use your pipe and maybe, maybe rent space in your pipe, or maybe you just provide it for free. But every time you dig up the street or redo a street, we need to be laying pipe. But then you've also got the wireless system playing into it. But that's that bigger vision that I think we get so bogged down in the day-to-day things that we have to make a decision on whether it's a zoning case or whatever. We don't ever have the time to really look at the broader picture without the restraints of the mundane. So that was the visioning process that we kind of talked about about a year ago. I don't know if we can incorporate that in the retreat, but maybe what we can do is have that as an item for discussion on the retreat to try to put together a visioning process so you guys would have better direction from the council. Any other comments on the retreat? Okay. We'll look forward to that, Miss Wickman. Thank you. Next we have corridor beautification pilot program update. Scott Farman, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Department. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Fairman Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Department. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Scott Fairman Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation included in your packet is an informal staff report and some attachments regarding the progress of the Cordoar beautification project, a couple of sites that we did back last year. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those for you. Hello. Mr. Fairman, I'm very excited about this program because it's basically taking green scape there and covering up some bad fences and bad things that you have and really, I think it's working really well. I know we've only been in it at what a year, year and a half, but so we'll see, but I think we may have found a real answer to beatifying our city and doing it in a very natural means. And so I'd encourage continuing on, but I'd love to hear from other council members. Ms. Walman. Yes, Mayor. I'm really, I think this is a great program. I think we all thought so when it was first brought to us. But I guess my question is, how far are we going to, can we this year, are we going to progress and we're going to other areas of town and how have you got, have you got them prioritized? Because this is really what we need. I mean, it's the only way we're gonna be able to do it. So what is your priority and how much are we gonna get this year? Well, the current projects were funded through ATF. And so there's no funding set aside for any future projects. We need to begin to identify funding for those and sites as well. The sites, let me just follow that I mean the the Tural Foundation grant was a most a pilot we've had the stuff in the ground out a little over a year as what's referenced you've you've kind of got the before and after pictures in front of you so the question really is in a sense you all generally think this might be a solution for that. And if you want to declare that you think this is headed the right direction and you like what you're seeing and you'd like us to start figuring out other ways as we do capital improvements to do the green screen, if you will, of some of the fencing, then we can start to work that. But it's really up for you all to decide, have you seen enough, do you need to give it more time or is that an kind of an okay strategy to address with some of the dilapidated fences that we're having beyond the till but it's all a pilot so I need you to tell me when you think it's not a pilot anymore we'll start to we'll start to sequence future work. I think we're all good. Yeah, we're all I think it's unanimous. And I see everybody thumbs up. That's great. Mr. Glass-P. I sent my statement. Yeah, it's great what's been done. I and maybe I hadn't really before, but something I've kind of noticed is a lot of our corridor islands will begin to be. I think we're all going to be able to see what's going to happen. I, in maybe I hadn't really before, but something I've kind of noticed is a lot of our corridor islands. We'll begin to, to kind of put, put landscaping in place and it really looks nice. I just wanted to pass that along. It's just make me proud riding through all of them. All right, well, Miss Farman, I feel very good about what you've done, appreciate what you've done. I think all of us do, so I think this would be something to pursue and see how we can further the program then. Thank you very much. Next, we have our Transportation Services Update from Miss Alicia Winklebick, Assistant Director of Community Development and Planning. Good afternoon, Alicia Winkleb like Assistant Director, Community Development and Planning. You have information in your packet this afternoon on a proposed demand response ride share service for the city. When the Transportation Advisory Committee came to Council last month and presented their recommendations, you heard them talking about ride share as identified as a proposed option for both a mid and long-term solution for the city. They were interested in this transportation solution because it's scalable, it's flexible, and it utilizes advances in technology. So as a result, the city issued an RFP back in August to procure a consultant or a vendor to come on board and provide the service for the city. We have selected a preferred vendor and we're in the process working with them to develop the parameters of the service and we expect to come back to council in the very near future with more information. Mr. Glass, Thank you, Mayor. Just a question in general. Have there been any of the cities who have implemented similar kinds of a set up in how effective they've been? Yes, sir. There's a range. There are many cities where ride-share services are operating. A handful of those are opportunities where the city has actually partnered with the ride-share provider. Austin has an example. There's some examples in New York, Seattle, Chicago, California. So there's a lot of examples out there. It is a newer transportation solution, but there are examples out there and they're working. And they're all very, very unique to their situation, which is one of the benefits of this type of service because it is so flexible. And it's one, conceptually, one thing that I find attractive about it is, you mentioned scalability, but it also should be adaptable so that as we see needs in other areas we can easily adjust to that. Ms. Winkleberg for our TV audience could you go through and describe what ride share is? Sure. The type of ride share of service that we are talking about uses smaller vehicles so they may see anywhere from four to 14 people depending on the vehicles chosen. And they use, generally they use a smartphone application. So riders can plug into an application and request a ride. They tell, through the system they tell the system where they are and where they'd like to go. The system uses real-time data to provide a very efficient solution, the most efficient solution to get that person from point A to point B. Along the way, the system tells the vehicle where to stop and pick up other riders who are nearby or going to a similar location nearby. So it's a very flexible, efficient solution. There are options for a dial-in rider request or going to a website and booking a request if someone doesn't have a smartphone, but that's kind of the general sense of how it works. New technology and transportation. Here's a great example. And this was the initial recommendation of our Citizens Transportation Committee. And a great opportunity, I think, for our citizens to actually try out new technology here there. and the Transportation Committee. And a great opportunity, I think, for our citizens to actually try out new technology here there. And also, I think a great opportunity for us to be able to replace Max and go to a later technology here as we move forward. Anybody else have any questions or comments? Okay. Just winkle back. Keep looking for new technology. And we'll see what's on the horizon. It's being invented all the time and I appreciate y'all staying on the edge of it because we have the opportunity to actually reduce the cost of our transportation and yet still make it safer for our people. Here's we move forward. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Next we have 2018 City Council priority support quality education Mr. Gilbert for Alice deputy city manager. Mayor members of the council that your places you should have a copy of the latest newsletter and support equality education. One of the articles in the front is on we're sponsors of the Margaret of the King celebration which will we're sponsors of the Martin Luther King Celebration, which will happen in January of this coming year. We're proud to say that we've done a tremendous lot of work with them and have helped the community in large participate and also for the youth to be part of the programs that are provided. There are contests that include art and essay contests, where juniors and seniors participate, and they're eligible to receive scholarships. So this year, if you can attend some of the programs that will be provided. On the inside, we highlight the Mayor's Youth Commission. This commission has been in place for 11 years now and I know the participation is great. I know that through the leadership of the Parks Department they have continued to grow. They get involved in service projects. They also deal with some of the issues that are confronting youth. And because it's made up of just youth and school children, then they can deal and come up with solutions to some of the issues that are confronting them. In the back page, we continue our efforts with the library and some of the problems that they have in adult literacy and also in early literacy. We recognize that in order for us to improve our literacy rates, we have to include the entire family to make a push and move in the right direction. And with that, I'll answer any questions you may have. Any questions? Mr. Prowse, thank you for all your work. And then, too, I want to say a big thank you to our Mayor's Youth Commission. They continue to do great things and in a great group of our committed youth who want to make a difference here in all of the things. Thank you for that. Thank you, sir. Next, we'll move to discussion of committee meetings. Municipal policy, Mr. Glansky. Thank you, Mayor. The Municipal Policy Committee met this morning. We had a quorum and a couple of items that we looked at was one we update on downtown at University Housing and the second was on a short-term rooms. As far as our discussion of downtown in university housing, one of the things that we realized that was some initial projections as to how UT-Arms and Woodgrow and it turns out we are from this was a study done in 2014 and there are thousand students beyond what they anticipated. So it's really continuing to grow. And right now there are about 7,500 students who live in a studio or in and housing both on campus and private. The projections are with construction that's anticipated will have like 10,500 beds by the fall of 2019, which asks the question, begs the question is that sufficient numbers that overcrowded is that under. And right now there, not the projections are that I think it's like 82, 8,500 student beds that would be needed based on where they are now. So it looks as though we may be possibly about 2,000 beds over and over supply, however. That does not take on the consideration of a number of students who are living in areas away from the campus who may want to come in closer. So what will happen, we will have a consultant to come in and do a closer study and help us put together a sort of a master plan so that we can assess what seems to be reasonable. But that's kind of where we are on a downtown in university housing. So if there are any questions or members of the committee like to add any comments. Well, I think that without a doubt, we need to engage UTA because two things. One is we don't want to overextend on student housing, but I think the second thing too is that in the core of our downtown, I think we have enough, I know there's one proposed student housing project coming, but I think also we need a future agenda item on talking about the zoning that we have in the core of our downtown because that isn't a place to be dominated by student housing. And so those are two things that I think are really critical for us. It's kind of interesting, man. We had, did you have it coming? Yeah. It was interesting. We had, as far as the conversation we had too, was downtown, do we have, are we projecting the right kind of balance between students versus permanent housing? And so, hopefully the survey that we're gonna have will help us get a little better feel for which direction we may wanna try to go as a council. Still. Yeah, just one more thing I wanted to add to what Mr. Glass we said so the number of beds that we have available It said that we might have about 2000 higher than what UTA projects that we might need But that's a number of beds that are available to students But that's not to say that those are the only people that those you know in the market for those beds So for example across the street 101 Center, Paris, I think our last number that he said only 30% of that is least by students and the rest of that is just market rate. Great point. Yes, Ms. Wolff. the new executive director for downtown management corporation, his first row will be, it's time to renew that five-year plan for the whole downtown. So I think beyond housing, I think the expansion of the downtown district, perhaps to the east or to Collins, I think there's many issues. But I think overall, it's very incredible information to see the growth of the university and that it looks like we're maybe oversaturated in reality or not and we've got to remember there's lots of students that live in North Arlington apartment so I think this documentation and what's put before us is something for PNZ and this Council to plan in the whole future. And I hope everyone really paid attention to the new outside boundary for UTA is now it comes all the way to Abram. So basically UTA has more acreage than the downtown has. So it's a whole new dynamic to look at. You know, I'm anxious to see the real data there that we have on the demand because the other part of it is that we are in a period now where if we need it in the next 10 years, now is the time to build it because these interest rates are not gonna to stay where they're at. And so it's an important thing but where it's built too is equally important there. Mr. Shepherd. Mayor, that's what I was going to kind of touch on. I think as we move through our examination of this, I'd like staff to kind of look into the possibility of creating for lack of a better word, a university zone or something along that line. I think part of what we struggle with on these purpose-built student housing projects is the fear that at some point in the future, they will become something, they'll become apartment complexes for folks other than student housing. And I know we've explored briefly the possibility of somehow trying to limit you know this zoning to student housing. And I think we've gotten mixed input on that. I'd still like to continue to explore that, but I think if we were to define the halo of the university somehow and begin considering the location of student housing within that area, I think it gives developers a lot more precision on where they need to be looking. Instead of bringing, spending, spending you know sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in developing architectural renderings and things like that only to come down here and ask, you know, we don't think we need student housing. I think it'd be easier for everybody if we had an area where we said, you know, if we're going to have student housing, we've already made a policy decision it should be in this area. So I don't know if that's- I love that. Yeah, I don't know how doable that is. And with the university's expanded footprint, you know, we may have already identified that. I think we work with our partners at the university and then downtown Arlington that we need to figure that out. Because I love that idea. I think that's really smart. Miss Walman. I agree with you totally on that and also the bringing up again that footprint of where they've expanded because that is I mean it goes now from Davis all the way down to the center. Mosqueed and South and so you know if we're going to be doing anything we're going to be doing it right there because it'll be up to them. But we can maybe start planning, we need to start planning around that footprint as to what we're going to do. I don't know. I think some of that is identified as potential future footprint. So I don't think they I think they've I think some of that is identified as potential future footprint. So I don't think they've actually. It's already been done, but what's the. But that's the area that you're talking about. That's the area, but what I understand it, you know, rather than saying, I mean like when I first looked at it, I thought, oh, that's it's done. But they will wait until the property owners is understanding when they're ready to sell. They're not gonna just go in and say we're taking it, but that they will wait until those property owners say, you know, it's something I can't turn down, go ahead and do it. So, but- The one project we have on the agenda tonight that's been continued is within- No, it's- That university's zone. It's on center street. But it's within the zone. It's within it. It's owned by private people. I mean, when we talk about doing something else and planning for downtown, I don't know that you can plan that much for that area. So it's got to be probably east and north. Mayor, I think it's becoming pretty obvious this may be one of those future gentlemen. Yeah, good. Good point, Mr. Glass-Bean. You've got another out of here. Yeah, short-term rental. Short-term rental. I think all of us will be interested in this. Yeah. What we did on short-term loans, we looked again at additional options and categories of what short term rooms could look like. And as we were going through identifying more and more, we came to the conclusion. We need to make sure that we've precisely identified what our goals are, what our ultimate gun. that what our goals are, what our ultimate goal. We've laid out a couple reduced residents, the impact on residents of neighborhoods and also preserve hot revenues. So I guess the real key is we need to make sure that what we are looking at is in the context of those goals. So we hopefully will get a little more refined in our assessment but what the options we should be looking at. Committee members you have any an additional so we're still moving along but hopefully we can begin to tailor what we need to do and come back with some recommendations for council. Okay. All right. Any other questions or comments on that? Okay. Then we'll move to community and neighborhood development, Ms. Wolf. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We had two items today and the first is we reviewed the neighborhood action plan for surewood estates and this will be come before council this evening. You know this will be the eighth neighborhood that has an action plan and for some of our new remembered we may not be aware but the adopted, this becomes a part of the unified development code. And drives all the future planning forward for that neighborhood. And sure would is just another example. I think that we can take great pride. We don't have a cookie cutter neighborhood. This is the neighborhood that, gosh, I don't know. I forgot when it was brought into the city limits but it goes up to the lake. It includes Martin High School and that whole area, a very unique, very rural feel. But they have worked extensively and have put together a really nice plan. And if you have questions, I don't know if this is at everybody's place. Okay, so it's not, okay, so it was in your packet. I guess you can look at it electronically, but anyway, I think it's really important and we'll get a presentation tonight and it is by ordinance and it becomes a part of the unified development code. Awesome, we'll look forward to that tonight. That was the first issue, the second issue, was a little, wouldn't quite that easy, but we got a great, we're still talking about on street parking, and today we had a great presentation by Lieutenant Kelly Veldor and it's interesting because there's a real difference in what public works views, their roads versus how the police who has to address it. So we got lots of information, we had lots of discussion and what we ended up with is we're not ready to move forward yet, but we did boil it down to the two neighborhoods that are most effective as a result of the entertainment district and that's that woodbrook and Maria States. If you can think of Randall Mill and Collins in there. There's absolutely no consensus of the Woodbrook or the Murray Estates residents easily said not everybody wants the same thing. So what we're going to do is recognize what would an ordinance look like if we could come back and address an ordinance for the neighborhood to bring back a special parking ordinance to address neighborhood parking in neighborhoods most directly impacted by those venue operations. So that would be set aside for them. The second issue was just traditional on-street parking, management options, and we all agreed that that issue really needs to be citizen driven, and that we have some current ordinances that the police department decided that we're out of date and we needed to update. So we recommended that they update the current parking ordinance to reflect changes in not only the state law but specifically the state law. The committee also directed staff to reduce the discretionary parking time on city streets from 72 hours to 24 hours because once so a car is parked in any residential neighborhood we tell people I'm sorry, you know it can sit there for 72 hours. Well the state says 24 hours so that way an officer could come back give them notification that they've you know give them notification that they've, you know, certified that it's been there more than 24 hours. Then come back at the end of that period of time, give them a citation and then it will be subject to to towing. So right now basically with our ordinance the way it's read now, it takes about five days for anybody to get basically an abandoned car in front of their house Addressed, whereas if we can change our ordinance to match what state says we can get it done in about three days So this means that the police are in control of all the toe-toeing Actions and we can perhaps start there a little by little and we're gonna look at what ordinances we have but we did direct them to draw up that ordinance for those two pieces. Did you all address the fact that, because I hear this over and I'm sure everybody has, about people who have a business, they don't have their business necessarily there, but they bring all their employees, cars, and park them there during the day. Was there ever any discussion about that? We didn't have that specifically, but I think when you have your, and I think this is a planning probably deal, when you have that home business ordinance, I think it limits how many cars, but I don't know about, if someone's running a plumbing company out of there, and then at five o'clock, they all come pick up of their own personal cars, and then you've got plumbing. I was trying to trust you. Because I've had a couple of issues. If it sits there more than 24 hours, I guess she could bring it up. Yeah, okay. Thank you Yeah, that's my interpretation and I'm seeing a nod from mr. Parachion So anyway, so we're gonna try to address all of them But hey, that's that's too little step forwards that we were able to move forward to you so Thank you. Next, we'll move to the second off. Thank you Mayor. All matters were taken up in executive session today. No appointments this evening there. Thank you very much. Evening agenda items anybody have any? Okay. Issues relative to city and textile projects. Ms. Walman and I attended a meeting in which we at the southeast Terrant Transportation in which they announced that April the 2nd of 2018 the State Highway 360 main lanes would be done and we asked why such a specific date and they said that they're ahead of schedule and there are lots of bonuses paid then and they feel confident they're gonna make April the second 2018 so that will be a great thing. It's great news to hear there on that and then Miss Carmichael is 360 at 30 still going all right everything on schedule there. Okay. See anybody have any? Yes, Ms. Wolfe. If we're on streets, there was a meeting Thursday evening and Keith Brooks made a known to the East Arlington group that the section of New York Avenue between Arkansas and Pioneer Parkway. You know, that has been closed for a long time and then open for only one way traffic. They are predicting that first week of November, that section will be finished. So that's a big, big piece there. Yes. Yes. Ms. Carmichael, do you know did the Park and Ride lot at Park Springs in 20? Did that get resolved? The lights were out and had been out for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. Yes, ma'am. Mindy Carmichael, Director of Public Works and Transportation. The Park and Ride on Park Springs has been repaired. The street lights have been repaired. It was cut by franchise utility. There's some improvement going on down that in that area. It took us a while to get locates and then get a boring company under contract to re-bore for the electrical lines. But it has since been repaired. Okay, so lights are back on. It's a park and ride. Absolutely I'd say back on it's a parking lot. Absolutely. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay, anything else on City or TechStyle projects? Okay, future agenda items. I've got two. One, of course, student housing there and the need for it and then also looking at where and then even exploring the University Zone as Mr. Shepard said I think that's all very important is everybody okay with them for it on that and then also I think we need a informational meeting on Abram Street here with anticipation of that going under construction. I'd love to hear one again the scope of the project and then a little bit about the phasing and so forth there and schedule there for the project. To others have things that they any other future. Mr. Glassby. Thank you, ma'am. Just, have we reflected on kind of the impact rebranding it had on it? It just some good things have been going on in all of it. And to be honest, I was a little hesitant when we were going through that process. And just wondering kind of what's the staff's feel about the impact that rebranded his head on our city. Good point. I think that would be a great agenda, Adam. Y'all agree? Okay. Anything else on future agenda, Adam's? Okay. anything else on future agenda items. Okay, next we've got civil service implementation update, Mr. Yeoverkin. Mayor, we've got a couple of pieces to their presentation this afternoon to update you all on the status of the civil service implementation. You'll of course have a number of actions on your evening agenda item as it relates to implementing the City Council's portion of civil service. I've asked the chief to come up and talk a little bit first about some of the operational readiness type issues that have been talked about a little bit in the community. So I wanted him to lay the foundation of kind of where we are as a department as we're implementing all of this and to clarify some of the confusion or misinformation that's in the public. And fundamentally just to make sure to ask the chief and everybody are we safe or are not the firefighters safe and be able to unequivocally answer that question. Mayor Counsel, I'm Don Krauson, Fire Chief, Director of Emergency Management, and the answer to that question is absolutely yes. So I'll cover some territory that I covered with you before, and then I'll address some specific issues of come up recently. So what do we provide here in Arlington? We provide a lot of services, and you can see the top part of the chart. The white is our basic services we provide the community. And gold is our technical craft specialized services we provide. Blue is even more EOD, while then firefighting natural gas well response. Yellow is our administrative services elements in green. We're just we're in the community solving problems. Now we're a 17th station fire department and our stations are located in such a manner that it provides a good, equal distance coverage for all the members of our community. 17 engines, five trucks, two squad units, two battalion commanders and one shift commander. They are all in service 365 days a year period. Our minimum staffing is 75 our budgeted staffing We budget for about 84 but our staffing ranges are daily staffing ranges somewhere between 75 and 90 per day Depending on the number of people who show up for work And there we are you can see the red units or engines the greener truck companies The blues or squad units and the yellows or the commanders or chiefs in that city. Response times matter more than anything. The organization's focused on the community and the citizen, and getting to citizens quickly when they're in crisis is our number one priority. Because brain cell death happens for six minutes, trauma, drug overdoses, things like that, where you need people in a hurry, we have to get you to you in a hurry, we have to get you to you in a hurry. Our model is built to respond quickly. It's all we do. In fact, if there's a fire, we know that the point of origin will spread to the main body of the structure in about eight to ten minutes. We can get a full alarm assignment to that location with an eight to ten minutes, which is within national standard. There's been a lot of talk about adding a fourth firefighter to Riggs. You've heard that in discussion. Adding a fourth firefighter can do some things, but it doesn't make us faster. And the number one priority of this fire department is to get to our community quickly. What will improve response time is adding additional units. And I've talked to you previously about implementing squad units and rescue units. And we're still doing that. Told you before that 80% of our calls were medical, and it is growing. Growth in senior population, health care law changes, and poverty in Arlington is driving our volume. We have about 100 working structure fires a year. Most of those fires are single alarm fires. Our station locations throughout the city we're very fortunate here in Arlington the way we're situated helps us be quick and because we're quick we stop most structure fires in the room of origin. I told you before I managed the organization 10 years out so I project an experience right now to 2027 and we know our volume is going to grow. And in fact, we also know that our fire volume is going to stay roughly the same. We also know that our EMS call is going to grow dramatically and it's going to affect our response times. Our measures right now are currently very, very good. You can see that our average fire loss per capita is about $11, $11 to $12. It's been consistent. In fact, it's been dropping over the last five years for one experience in 2015. And I'm very proud that we've had very good responses and outcomes on just about everything we do from inspections to our cardiac arrest report to our ability to catch our scientists. We do that because we know Arlington very well and our model is built towards Arlington, not for the Chicago Fire Department but for the Arlington Fire Department and the City of Arlington. We know the demand is, we know where our issues are, and we point our resources to those demands. Safety, we heard a lot about safety. Well, safety in the Fire Department and the Arlington Fire Department, our core is our core principle. We're a training organization. When I became the chief, I stopped live victim training in this department. You'll find in our industry, firefighters die in training accidents. Live victim training accidents. We don't do that here. We have a strong command and control system. We're very serious about our safety protocols. Our own scene safety officers insured. Major incidents are people are safe. You've invested in our department through our radios or MDCs, new airpacks, ballistic vest for far fighters. Which is we've had for a couple of years. The recent incident in Las Vegas brings on the point that we have to protect our people. And we have the best in detection, protection, and rescue equipment mostly funded through grants, but also through the general fund. And we have the best in firefighting gear in our fleet of apparatuses among the youngest in North Texas. It's very, very good. And you can see here through our capital project, station 12 has been renovated. We'll be opening at the end of this month. Station 17 is about 27 percent complete. And we hope to see that opening in May. Lots of talk about risk to firefighters and our firefighters safe. They are absolutely safe here in the Arlington Fire Department. But I want to speak to you specifically about our industry, what goes on in the industry. Firefighter death certificates statistics in 2015, there were 90 deaths of the 90, 32 were career firefighters. That is our industry career. 47 volunteer 11 and wildland of the 90 deaths 54 were heart attacks heart attacks. Number one issue in the fire service heart attacks. We also find that we lose firefighters in roadway instance and we lose them in training accidents. But when it comes to the emergency scene you hear a lot of talk about enough firefighters being able to take care of fire. We have more than enough. We get a full alarm assignment typically within less than nine minutes, which is better than national standard. But the things that causes deaths on emergency scenes are things that in oftentimes we can control. There's one thing we can't control. Act of God, lightning strike, sudden collapse, something that wasn't projected for. But what we've determined through our industry, most of the deaths occur for these reasons. Acts of God, poor decision-making, lack of training, a failure to follow safety protocols. Those three last things are the things that the Arlington Fire Department aggressively pursues. Our commanders make good decisions. They're very well trained. Our team is very well trained and we have a very serious approach to safety protocols. In fact, you've heard the two and two out issue repeatedly. I wrote the department's two and two out policy back in early 2000s when I was special operation chief. It's in response to House Bill 386, which is an alignment with Ocean 1910-134, which is about the safety of firefighters and responders in ideal age situations, immediately dangerous life and health situations, fires. We do that here. We ensure that our firefighters follow the safety protocols. They follow the state law and they are safe. They are trained to do it. They do it. and we, in our commanders, ensure they do it. Now, what do you get in Arlington when you have a fire at your house? You don't get one engine with three firefighters on it. You typically get three engines, two aerial trucks, and a chief, 17 responders. When the national standard says about 14 responders, you get more. And that's when we're at three per unit, okay? When we're fully staffed and we have ample supply of people come to work, you get more. Second alarm, you'll get three more engines, another aerial truck, a shift commander in a medic unit, and so on, so on. And when you have a heart attack in Arlington, you don't get one unit with three people on it. You get two units, okay? Because we wanna save your life and you know how serious we are about saving lives here. You get two units, two fire units and an ambulance. And it's all hands on deck, we're doing all we can to save the victim of cardiac arrest and we're very successful here. So it's not one three person crew of firefighter doing CPR for 40 minutes. No, it's a crew that gets there very quickly and another crew right behind them and it's all there doing all we can to save the lives. And then there's an ambulance gets there with eight minutes, 29 seconds. So we're a very good, strong system is particularly from a cardiac arrest perspective. So I'm going to address the four to the truck issue. I've done it before, I'm gonna do it again just for, because there's a need here. Yes, I'll concede. You put forward a truck. It'll prove some efficiency on fires. But I've told you we have about 100 working fires a year. Most of our calls are medical and our organization is geared towards the community need, which is clearly medical in this community. We provide all the other services very, very, and we do that very, very well. But, uh, uh, for writing for the truck, we'll improve some operational efficiency for some truck functions. What writing for the truck will not do, it will not stop poor emergency-seeing decision-making. It doesn't stop, uh, the lack of training, and it doesn't stop, they are to follow protocols. Command and control procedures do that. Training does that and we do all those things. Adding a fourth person to the truck will not improve response times here. Okay, there's a limited amount of resources and adding more to the existing resources doesn't speed us up. The department is currently not budgeted for firefighters, for firefighters on every unit. In fact, if you gave me more firefighters, I would put those firefighters on lightweight response units to address this community's need, which is medical. It's growing, it's serious, and we need to be focused on what the need is in the community. And we do a very good job managing the budget, which you've heard that before. So when it comes to risk of our own team, I hold our officers, these gentlemen here in white accountable to keep our people safe. They do that very seriously. And then their order is you risk a lot, to save a lot. You risk to save a life when there's not a life involved. Don't risk the life of a firefighter. We don't do that. We follow two in two out. We keep our firefighters safe. And our rescue efforts, our risk efforts must follow a plan. And there must be an escape plan in that plan. That's what these gentlemen are trained to do to ensure those people stay safe and they stay safe. And we don't tolerate period in the Arctic Fire Department unsafe conduct. It's not acceptable. It'll get you disciplined. It'll get you in trouble. It'll get you our attention. We are very, very serious about safety. So let's talk about the department. 17 stations. Historically, these stations have been three person companies historically for 35 years. I'm almost 35 years. I'm almost 35 years, I'll be two or three and seniority pretty soon in this department. And I know what the rules are about they've been here. When we have more resources, some of these dots will go away. When we have less, down to 75, more of these dots will materialize. But all the units are functioning in safe. So what is the minimum of three? And I've told you before 75 has been our minimum currently at a 76 because of station 12. But historically it's been 75 because the definition of minimum is this. The number of firefighters that it takes to keep a unit in service, that number is three. It always has been three, and there's been no real substance change. Over the year, we've had more resources and we've put more on these rigs where we can, but when they're not here, we don't. We are a very responsible group of people managing taxpayer dollars and managing this business model for the city and These firefighters are safe our communities is safe these rigs are always in service. They're already always ready to respond and they do so What happens here if we would on our typical budget and staffing of 84 on our typical budget and staffing of 84, do we get faster? Or if we were all the way staff before on every unit to 97 on a daily staffing, would we get faster? The answer is no, because we don't have more response units. The only way to get faster is to have more response units to distribute your resources more effectively to address the need. And adding more to units does not guarantee safety. It's the command and control and adherence to safety protocols and training that ensures safety in our department. So you've heard me talk about the rescue units. We'll be implementing these in the fall. We have five more units to come to the street when we have the resources available, which will add 21% capacity to the department from a response perspective. That will make a difference in response times. Our demand is growing. We are adjusting our capacity and our resources to meet the community's needs and that's what we're doing. So that's how we look now. That's how we'll look when the rescue units get here. One will be serving each sector of the city, five sectors, and we'll expect great things to come from these units. Our current staffing assumptions are this, and you've heard a lot about staffing. Our current model is about 102 assigned per shift. 102 to get 84 on duty, allowing for 12 scheduled time off vacation, and then we count for an average of six people being sick. So I'm going to assume we're fully staffed at 102. We'll expect an average of six people based on our model. Six people will be sick. Our staffing model does not accommodate spikes. It'll generate additional cost. Our staffing model must, however, accommodate attrition, which is a natural process of an organization as it turns over from old to new. It's just to how things work. And currently we're in the tail end of the baby boomer generation attrition issue. What's changed? This is what's changed. This has been our dramatic change. Historically, if you notice, our average is about six. We're now about 13 with spikes on the weekends at 16, et cetera. This became noticeable after the civil service discussions, and it has affected our staffing model. However, it has not affected our ability to keep all the units in service. We're doing that. Sometimes we drop to 75, 78, 79. It's because our unscheduled leave is growing and that's why we're adjusting. However, it has not stopped us from keeping all the units in service, all ready for any emergency as they come up in the city. I want to talk a little bit about retirement because there's been a lot of talk about retirements and I'm going to give you the full picture of what's been going on in the organization since 2011. 2011 we had 11 firefighters retire, 12 we had 13, 2013, we had 14. 2014, we had 23. And then in 15, there were three. Now if you take 2014, the 23 people in 2014, and the three in 2015, and average put those together, it's 26, divide those by two, about 13 per year, which is consistent with our average. That's what we typically lose. That is normal attrition. The only real difference is the spike here has been the 18. And the 18 is the byproduct of civil service issue. And those are representative of the notice to retire letters that we've received. And of those, five of those are actually in the fiscal 17 year, 13 are actually in the fiscal 18 year, 13 or the actually in the fiscal 18 year. But these are calendar years. The reality is I have 10 individuals that we're contacting now that we need verification that they are actually going to retire because we don't have verification yet. So Monday we added 15 new firefighters because of part of our normal nutrition process. We're always replacing people and today and yesterday we're fully staffed. We're fully staffed today. The organization is in fact not in 102 on this shift. We're at 104. The only difference today though instead of our normal expected averages six of being unscheduled we've experienced 15 today. 15 unscheduled today, which means we're 78 staff today in the field, which is a byproduct of the unscheduled leave occurrence. So we're fully staffed and we're okay. And we're keeping our, we're at minimum or above and staffing so the city is safe, fire fighters are safe, and that's just the reality. What about these individuals who are leaving? I wanted to show you just a quick little shot here of the average years of service of the individuals who are leaving. Most of these individuals have over 30 years or more, which is typical retirement age for a firefighter. So some of the individuals that are leaving here in the short term would be people we would be expecting to leave and retire anyway. Maybe leaving a little bit early for them. However, they are within our normal expected years of service that we build into our model as we count for attrition and manage the organization. So our reality is this. Our government, and we know this for a fact, and we represent this to you, should be managed effectively and efficiently. We're very cognizant about the dollars we spend. We know we're in good fiscal position as a department and in our support to the overall city government. We manage the Arlington Fire Department based on the Arlington experience. Our model is based for Arlington, not Chicago, not San Francisco, not New York, Arlington. In fact, that's what 1710 tells you to do, to do analytical studies for your community and build your model with your finite resources to serve your community. That's what we do. But like other cities, we are too struggling with attrition as the boob and bubble moves through. Struggle with overtime and other issues associated with pension issues. So I want to say this to the citizens. First and foremost, you are safe. There's no doubt about it. Our response times are consistent. What they've always been. Our firefighters are safe. They's no doubt about it. Our response times are consistent with what they've always been. Our firefighters are safe, they're well trained, they're very well equipped. Our commanders are great decision makers and we follow our safety procedures and protocols very closely. Nothing has changed. We're going through a transition in the organization, but our core is still stable and very effective. And of course, as a leader of the organization and team, we are fiscally accountable managers and we pay attention to the dollars and they should be spent effectively not half-azardly. So overall, I've shown you this before, but that's what a chief does. We compare very well to our peers in satisfaction regarding fire services and we do even better in EMS, which is predominantly part of our service. So with that, I'm trying to answer as many questions I can in a short presentation. I know your time is short today, but I'll open up a questions, Mayor. Any questions for Mr. Crowson? Mr. Glassby. Thank you, Mayor. Just questions for Mr. Crowson? Mr. Glassby? Thank you, Mayor. Just for verification sake, on the retirement, you say that the length of service of those who are retiring this year, consistent with the length of service in the past. Yes, sir. In fact, I'll tell you a few years ago, our average ten year was about 28 years. And you can see these individuals are in the 30s or a little plus. Very good link of service, very good employees. This would be the expected retirement for their years of service and the model is built for that. Miss Walman. Thank you chief. I really do appreciate your presentation. I think it's really been good that you did emphasize the safety factor for our citizens in Arlington. I've had some comments that maybe they didn't feel so safe for a while, but I think all of your facts prove that we are staffed, we are ready, we are trained, and I think our citizens can really feel confident in our fire department. So I just really want to thank you for your presentation. I appreciate that Ms. Wallman. One point I'd like to make with the 18 expected retirements, we currently have seven in school right now, and we have a hiring process in in place which is part of our normal attrition planning process so we'll replace the individuals who retire in short order in fact we have some in school already seven already accounting for a portion of the 18 so we're doing a fine job in that area too. Okay Mr. Miss Thalman did you okay mr. Glassby? did We as you indicated you are bringing in new Fireman firefighters should I say From the standpoint of experience and ability to deal with it. How would you rate the capacity? Now versus in the past? I'll tell you, this is my experience, and I touched because the important thing to me is the intake of quality people. And we take firefighters and other departments also. You've heard some discussion about some of our firefighters wanting to go to another department, Will. That issue may be a little bit overstated. Okay. Because our understanding of this is about a couple of people are looking at another department. But historically we take firefighters and other departments, okay? Because we're a very attractive agency with lots of things happening in Arlington and we don't have any problems with recruitment and our recruits are coming in typically better educated, more college educated individuals and military and firefighters and other departments. So I would say that the span and the knowledge and depth of our recruits are very good. Thank you Chief Croson. Appreciate it. Mayor, members of the council, I want to follow up the foundation, if you will, of the civil service discussion for us to talk a little bit about what's on your agenda tonight. And all of these discussions kind of are holistic. And so it's always important that we make decisions with the big picture in mind and not necessarily any particular isolation. So that's why I felt like chief needed to kind of make sure everybody understood the current state of affairs in the department. But as you all know, on your agenda tonight, there are four ordinances that are part of the governing body's role in responsibility as it relates to implementing chapter 143. These four areas are parts of the chapter that the city council has been given discretion to implement the things that they see appropriate as are relatives is relative to implementing this particular statute. So we'll talk here for a couple of minutes about sick vacation assignment paying classifications. You'll have an opportunity tonight to consider voting on a first reading of these items and then next week second reading. You know the civil service process has been underway now for some time and you know I hear a lot of conversation about what did the voters vote for and the answer to that question really is they had voted to adopt the state's civil service system for the Arlington Fire Department. That was the question on the ballot, whether or not to adopt the state of Texas's civil service system for the Arlington Fire Department. Which means all the local rules, or as we like to say all the home rules that we've defined here in our existing budget and our existing personnel policies and such have now been preempted to a certain extent by the base core rules of what the state offers. So we build on that foundation now. It's the new minimum and then to the degree that we elect through rulemaking and budgeting, we add to those particular elements. And as you can expect, there's a lot of devil in the details when you're talking about personnel, policies, rules, regulations, operating procedures, et cetera. There's reams of paper that is being developed. It's not just as simple as, let's vote for fire civil service and it's all good. There's a lot of details, some of which are good, some of which are challenging, and we have to address them. As you all know during this process there's various roles some are done administratively through the staff, some are done through the newly created civil service commission. They have roles and responsibilities to carry out and the city council has roles to carry out. You've already done some of those in previous meetings, and now we're kind of to the point where I think these are some of the latter actions that you all would need to take to implement the statute. And as I alluded, as we've made progress, this has really gone on. I guess since the vote was taken on May the 6th, and we've had a lot of internal debate about questions from the fire association about when dates are effective and such. And after a lot of wrangling, I guess the simple answer is, is that when the voters authorized this particular statute to be applied, we became a civil service city with a six month time clock to implement it. So since May 6th to October 30th, we've been making incremental changes to put that together. And of course, we respond to that voter call, but we also do it with another filter on, which is that's of the taxpayer and making sure that what we're putting together in place is effective, cost effective, and within some of the financial discresions that are voters and taxpayers provide us. And so it's a complex topic and we have been making good progress. The laws you see on this board, has a number of chapters. And we don't implement part of it. We implement all of it. And so where we're at is a couple of tracks. The commission is working on their rules as it relates to some of the disciplinary actions hiring promotion. We are at the point where we need to talk a little bit about compensation and leave. And so we're making progress towards this May or October 30th date. So let me hit a couple of things. In the sick area, I think this has been out now for a month or so at least, where we talk about sick pay as it currently exists in the city of Arlington as the new statute provides for and then as we relate to kind of legacy issues that we deal with there's some open questions and those generally deal with what are the payouts what are the balances and then what are the surplus or crueils as you go forward and we have over the balances and what are the surplus or cruels as you go forward. And we have over the weeks and last couple of months talked about some of these variety of things that could happen because the council as the governing body has discretion to do so. And we've talked a little bit about things that are what I would call the floor, meaning the minimum statutory requirements and things that I would call the ceiling, which are really kind of the way it currently is. All of current pay and benefits that exist in the city. And then we've been working a little bit through meet and confer opportunity a couple of weeks ago where we were trying to find some some middle ground on kind of all of this and we were just not able to make progress in that particular area. So what I had hoped to bring to you were things that we would have had mutual discretion, mutual agreement about, but instead what we've got is something that we're trying to find that is kind of a middle ground, if you will, based on kind of just our historical knowledge of what employees value and think are important. It's not as good as what a kind of a mutual arrangement would be, but we think we've done this thoughtfully for employees as well as keeping not only the voters decision in mind, but through a filter of what taxpayers are tolerable of in our city. And so on the sick leave, there's a couple of things that we need to think about, and this is what the draft of your agenda has in it. So we have to take all of these elements kind of in a retrospective look and in a forward look. So as we look forward to what we would call chapter 143 implementation, effective October 30th. What we've suggested for you to consider is that the personnel that are signed to fire prevention fire suppression start with an allocation of sick leave of 180 hours and then they also immediately begin per pay period occurring another 6.92 hours per period. So it provides a you know about a six six seven week balance for incidental sicknesses that occur in the meantime and it also begins immediate accrual for future. We also per the law it's a requirement there is no discretion in this area. Going forward, sick leave is unlimited. Currently in Arlington, we would limit the sick leave at 1800 hours. But the statute says it has to be unlimited, so it will be unlimited. That's not discretionary in our policy. And then in the payout, also not discretionary in our going forward policy is that the payout to firefighters separating from the city, if they have accrued up to one thousand and eighty hours or ninety days, for any reason, they are eligible for that payout based on their total rate of pay, which is base pay, plus special pay, plus overtime. It's a little bit of about, I don't know, 20% markup if you will, of base plus the optionals. So we have to do that calculation and that's what the count what it's for. So to a crew, 1,000, 80 hours takes about six years. If you're a new recruit, young, vibrant, healthy, if you don't take any sick time for six years, you will accrue a thousand, eighty hours. And then based on this new statute where we don't have discretion, you can exit the organization and be compensated for that accrued time regardless of the reason. In the past in Arlington, it has been you get a portion of that if you retire from the city after thirty plus years of service like the chart you saw earlier. But this is a new change and this is an increase in our financial liabilities. Long term there's more people that will get more sick time payout than what we currently provide for and it's part of why we have to continue to refine the dials as it relates to managing the cost on behalf of taxpayers. So going forward, it's very much per the statute as it relates to a cruel and maximum payouts, the part that's kind of locally determined is what's the starting spot. We've suggested 180 hours and then started crewing from there. So then that leaves the question, what do you do with surplus balances? How do you adjust for that? And so what we've suggested to you is that people not lose any of their hours, but that we take any of the hours they have excess of 180. That is. I guess we need to leave. Do we not need to exit? So we're in compliance. We're in compliance. the the the I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. We'll take five minutes break here and come back here in about five minutes. Should have it all. Take a break. We've been here a while. Let's take five minute break. you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Okay, we're going to call the work session back to order and it is in order. It's quiet. We're safe. And so we'll resume the discussion here, Mr. Yeoverton, on civil service. I'm Mayor Justz, everybody knows what I'm informed by Deputy Chief French is that the contractor working on the library and council chambers was doing some things to the fire system in the new first floor bathroom areas. And so that's what caused the alarm to be set off. So contractors working on our new facilities and just caused an issue there that set the alarm off. So it did what it was supposed to do. And we've had folks go check on it and everything's good. So I'm going to go ahead and take just a step back a slider to just to kind of reset the conversation that we are having relative to sick pay. And so as we've moved forward on giving you the items to consider what we've considered is kind of our current policy what's required by the statute and then based on what those choices are certain consequences that we might have to deal with for payout, balances, and surplus accrual. So on your evening agenda for tonight under this sick leave policy is for your consideration that on the number of hours provided that that number be 180 hours as of October 30th with also a 6.92 hours per pay period of cruel which would begin immediately. So we start that at number there and then we start building off of it. That's part that we have discretion over of what we can change. What we can't change though based on the statute is the a cruel is now unlimited currently. In Arlington, you can accrue 1,800 hours. This now will be unlimited as a result. You can imagine that these things create additional liabilities for the city with unlimited sick time, as well as younger people who can accrue 100 or 1,080 hours who are able to separate it for any reason at that amount. So someone who's only been with us six years, instead of a career service person who's been with us 30 plus years like what you saw earlier, six years you can accrue that amount if you're healthy and you are paid at a total rate of pay then per the statute. So unlimited for everybody, a cruise up to 1080 is what's then saturated required. So that leaves us something to deal with that is kind of what we call this implementation adjustment. What will we deal with as far as what was pre-scivil service implementation. So I alluded earlier that as we sit here now instead of 1,080 hours, the Arlington lets you accrue 1,800 hours. And we'll ask you sell some of that back up to 1,440 hours if you stay with us through retirement. That's been the historic practice. But we would suggest as we make the adjustment to the new system and the transition is that we take any of the amount of hours that anybody has over that thousand eighty that we take it and set it aside and freeze it so that it is available for people who need it for an FMLA qualifying event if they or them their family members need to be off and need to be paid sick time while they're off this policy would do that. And so it provides and that what it does not provide for is the ability as a retiree to sell back in excess of 10, 10,000, 1080 hours. And it also, let's say, does not allow you what we'll ask you to do as we move forward, is to use your new sick hours first before you go to the old sick hours. And that is a cost driver. I know doubt about it. The newer time is more valuable than the older time. So while we're leaving the hours there for utilization and access, we do want to draw down the more expensive time first and then have the available hours there for everyone. So everyone's sick time is there for people who are sick. They will get paid time off. No doubt. What we have limited is the cost of that time and the ability to be paid for it upon retirement that is currently the 1440 numbers. It will now be the statutorily defined going forward 1080, assuming you've accrued new 1080 in time. That's what we've asked for you to consider as it relates to sick pay. In the vacation pay, kind of a similar situation, but yet a little different. So we have our current policy defined as well as the new requirements per the statute that firefighters sought to get implemented. And then it creates issues as it relates to payout options, balance options, and surplus accrual options. And so what we've provided on your agenda tonight, similarly, we have to look forward after the chapter is implemented fully and look backwards as far as what we do ask you to consider is that based on going forward, the effective date, the deadline, if you will, of civil service October 30th, that depending on your hour assignment, if you're an eight hour assignment or a 24 hour assignment, and then based on your tenure, there's a range that you would be provided. So if you are a 20 year plus 24 hour employee, that would be 240 hours. If you're a 20 year plus 24 hour employee that would be 240 hours. If you're five year employee it's going to be 180 hours. So it's scalable based on the tenure and then based on the job situation. Per the statute does not allow or the statute allows no carryover or indicates that and then there is no separation payout. It's a use it or lose it approach as it relates to vacation time. So with that kind of going forward, it creates an issue of adjustments going backwards. And so today someone might have accumulated a maximum of 480 hours of vacation time. And so you can quickly do the math of 480 versus 180 and that lakeshues ask questions about what happens to 300 hours of vacation time. And what we've suggested to you to consider is that we take that amount, freeze it, set it aside, and it is available there for when the employee separates as terminal pay. It's based on today's value. So since the person can only go with one year of kind of vacation user lose it the scheduling of the of the fire department is you're not going to be able to schedule you know six eight ten weeks. You're going to be able to schedule the hours that are there. And it lets us provide all the hour value to the employees. If you had 480 hours in value before, you're going to have 480 hours in value after. It's all about how it shuffled and stacked. It will save the money a little bit because it will be based on a base rate calculation of today instead of a kind of an inflationary projection of tomorrow, as well as not having the upcharge of having to go total compensation calculations. So there is some benefit there, but 480 hours of value still equals 480 hours of value for vacation time. Then in the area of optional pays, we've talked a lot about this. On the right hand side, these were the items that we talked about during the budget. They have been adopted as part of the budget and they have started to become being implemented as part of the budget. So a lot of the changes that have been approved here are in process and being changed. On the left hand side, these were the optional pays that are also in the budget and are authorized, but we had had some discussion about whether or not the council wanted to continue their authorization based upon the minimums required by the civil service statute. And so what we had recommended for you to consider is that all of these items stay in the budget and stay authorized to be put forward. There is a little bit of a difference. I think I pointed this out and created some confusion at the last meeting that these top two are areas that I would describe as us being positively out of market. We are better than what you would see. You won't find very many cities that offer a 401k match. You won't find very many cities if any that offer a longevity stability program that is above the statutory requirements of $4 per month per year. So those items are, I think, very favorable for our employees and those were areas that, from just a market assessment, you have flexibility there to still be competitive. If you want to stay the same, which is what we've recommended, I just point those out for kind of action for us to store away in our minds. The other items as we go down here are all really what I would call Again market competition these things are based on a good competitive assessment of the 14 or 15 jurisdictions We compare ourselves to every year you will find many of the departments offer these very similarly They're not all exactly the same, but very comparable So in your in your ordinance, what you have is that we maintain the existing pay categories for those to be for those receiving those specific assignments by the fire chief. It depends on which assignment you are. Not everybody gets dive pay. You have to be on the dive team and assign to that. So it depends on that assignment. And that those personnel that are affected, it does clarify that there are no vested rights. Say, clarify it really kind of states what the historical and what the law is. And it also provides the flexibility of the city manager as what currently exists, that if we need to discontinue or suspend any of these payments based on any type of financial exigencies or something along those lines, if we have budgetary conditions because of a bad economy, et cetera, that it gives us the ability to make adjustments. We're not locking these in. We've never locked them in. We've never locked them in for any employee. So if the economy really tricks a turn next six months, like we had to deal with back in 2008 and non, and we were talking about laying people off and other significant budget cuts, this still provides us the flexibility to make adjustments based on exigencies that might exist. And then we've separated because on my list, I've put all those down as optional pays, but the attorneys have told me that these two that are 401K and stability pay are really not of the same ilk as the rest. So they are not specifically listed in the ordinance that is there, but they are covered in the existing budget authority. So for all practical purposes, those two items, the lanes will merge. Stability pay and 401k is authorized in the budget. These existing pays are authorized in the budget and authorized in the ordinance and they will be managed in the same way. So we will continue to have those in place, but yet maintain the authority of the city manager to make adjustments that might need to be made depending on what's the situation may be as cost or being addressed or financial conditions in the city change based on economy or whatever else might be going on. So those are the three of the areas. The fourth area that I don't have a particular slide on is the classification plan. And it's essentially what you saw in the budget. You've already kind of authorized it in the position listing. It tells you how many firefighters there are, how many apparatus operators there are, how many lieutenants, how many captains, how many deputy chiefs, battalion chiefs, etc. And so those have to be adopted because what they do is kind of lock in the process of how we work going forward. So the law will require, for example, that if we have to some promotions to make, they have to be done within 90 days. Whereas today, if they were needed to be delayed for some reason, we'd just be able to do that, kind of just be in some local policy. But the statute would require that to be turned, they'd be filled within 90 days. And so that defines all the positions that will be filled and that are authorized, and we will work to that number. So those four items are on your agenda, sick pay, vacation pay, optional pays or special pays, as well as the classification of the authorized positions for us to move forward and trying to complete what I think is one of the last roles, if not the last set of roles for the City Council, for their piece of implementing chapter 143. And I'll take whatever questions or discussion you would like to have about these items. Any questions or comments? Okay. All right, great presentation there. Very thorough. Appreciate that and seeing no other business on the agenda. Give me anything else, Mr. Overton. Okay, then we'll stand adjourned and come back at 630 tonight. Thank you very much.