I now declare that the Plano City Council preliminary open meeting is reconvened in open session, that all council members are present. Our first item on the preliminary agenda is consideration and action resulting from executive session. Our next item is. Oh. Sorry. I'd like to. Ask a direct staff to file executive. Preferably that conservation. And small businesses. So. Okay. Okay. So we have a. Two council members requesting that that zoning be sent back to planning. All right. Next item is food code ordinance update. Rachel. Okay. Thank you. I know you have. Really powerful. Yeah. I have my notes. Go ahead. Oh, God. This is really good. Oh, there you go. All right. Okay. All right. Good evening. Mayor and council and staff. I'm Rachel Patterson, director of environmental health and sustainability, and I'm here to give an update on a revision of our food code that we have been working hard on. So just quickly, the purpose of our food code, in their estimated 48 million cases of foodborne illness reported annually in the United States, that results in about 128,000 hospitalizations and 3000 deaths, and can have a huge economic impact on the food service industry. We have 1.4 million food service workers in Texas alone. I wanted to give a little picture of how many permits we have here in Plano. We regulate all food service establishments that would include restaurants, retail, grocery stores, convenience stores schools hospitals anywhere where you're going to buy food or you're going to serve food to the public. We have 1835 permits here in Plano that we inspect on an annual basis. Some get one inspection a year, some get up to four, just depending on the risk that their menu in the in the risk assessment of the establishment. And you can see that in the last year, almost two years, we've added well over 100 permits here. So it's still growing. In Plano. And we have many, many pending permits as well. A little background on how the food code is developed. It's a unique process in that it's very inclusive of a lot of stakeholders. The FDA model Food Code is not one that's developed solely by the federal government or by government agencies. Rather, it's a cross-sector of stakeholders that take part in this process. It starts with the conference for Food Protection. It's a nonprofit organization that was established in the early 70s. They act as a liaison between the government, the food industry academia food research, food science researchers consumer organizations as well. The CFP meets at least every two years to provide a forum for all of these groups involved in the process. These groups could be involved in food production and monitoring. And they discuss developing food technologies, marketing innovations, and research around food science. Actually, they're meeting this week. Down in the Houston area or no, in Denver. I'm sorry. Proposals are made and reviewed by a mixed group of people or a council, and that results in a recommendation for recommendations for changes to the Food Code. Those are then sent to the FDA for consideration. And that is how the FDA Model Food Code is updated. So we try to take part in that process as much as possible. We do have a representative at the conference for food Protection this week. Texas has adopted the FDA Food Code by reference with a with a with amendments. And that is that's called the Texas Food Establishment Rules. And I'm going to refer to that as T for from here on out because that's how we refer to it. So why revise the food Code? Compliance with state regulations were required to not. We cannot be any less restrictive than the state. So the state food code is our minimum standard that we need to meet. And by adopting the TFA and its amendments will continue to provide consistency across jurisdictions, which is really helpful for businesses and food workers that work in multiple jurisdictions. It also gives us an opportunity to review regulations to ensure that they're still significant to the protection of public health. And recently, in the last few years, we've had a few enforcement challenges due to some changes at the state level and the way that they adopted their rules. And I'm going to we're going to address that in this revision. But first, I do want to talk a little bit about that. It's just the when we originally adopted the T for by reference in 2018, that was the last major update of this code. It was its own complete written document. It's its own code. And it was based on the FDA Food code and the current one at the time, between 2018 and now, the state or the Department of State Health Services moved to adopt the FDA Food Code by reference only, with some amendments. So basically, it's just an amendments document. This created kind of a layering of codes where the T for is adopted the FDA code by reference with amendments. And then we adopted the T for by reference with the with an amendment document. And it causes a lot of issues for us and for our regulated entities trying to figure out how to cite that and for our regulated entities, just where to find information on the code. So we're digging through several layers, and they all have unique numbering systems as well, which just adds to the confusion and makes it extremely complex. So the recommendation from our legal department is to codify the Plano Food Code in its entirety. The code would incorporate the minimum requirements of T for, which is based on the FDA code. It would allow for a uniform code numbering system locally, would provide a lot more transparency to our operators as to where to find these regulations, and it would allow our staff to quickly reference regulations when they need to. Also, it would simplify future updates of the code. We have done some public outreach. We began this process back in in late summer, early fall of 2024. We mailed postcards and sent mass emails to all of our permitted establishments to announce the food code changes, as well as some meetings that we were going to hold one virtual and two in person. We also gave the option to go online to review a video presentation of the changes, and to view a summary document of the changes, and we gave them an email where they could submit comments as well as an option. A few weeks ago, we sent another mass email out, kind of as another effort to make sure that everyone was aware of what was going on and gave them the same opportunity to review the proposed changes online and submit comments. So the results, the in-person meetings were not as popular as they were last round. I think people really preferred the online option. We had about 19 people total show up to those meetings. But we did have 223 views of our YouTube video of the presentation changes and 461 views of our change summary document. And we had some direct phone calls to our environmental health manager as well. All of which ended in a in a very positive way. We did meet with the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association with their policy representative. We had really good discussion around some of the changes, provided a lot of clarifications for them, and we really received just neutral feedback. We haven't received anything else from them. And then the Plano Chamber of Commerce, our environmental health manager, went and met with the hospitality group there. Again, all the public and the entity feedback has been very neutral, with no major concerns or alarm. So I'm going to go through some amendments, most of the amendments that we are adopting and I'm not going to cover these are just to meet minimum state requirements. Those have to be adopted. But there are a small number of amendments where we are either adding or revising or clarifying some some regulations at the local level. So those are what I'm going to review right now. The more restrictive changes that I'm going to talk about, those could impact operations, but not in all cases. It depends on the restaurant and their food flows and just the type of operation that they have. The neutral changes, those would not be significant in that it wouldn't change the way an establishment operates. Those might be added or deleted definitions. It could be wording changes. It could be clarifications of existing processes or regulations. And we also looked at fiscal impact as we went through there. And there's one that I'll point out as we go through. So neutral changes. We had some definitions. Several definitions were updated. Fingernail attachments. This is just this is actually in the code. But we're giving the option. They can either remove the attachments that I'm talking about, like stones that are glued onto people's fingernails or that kind of thing. They can wear gloves or they can remove the attachments. Commercial equipment standards. This provides a definition of what constitutes commercial equipment. It's basically it calls out who the Standards Agency is that certifies commercial food equipment. Clarification that display equipment and water heaters also need to be commercial grade. We require this right now, but we do often get proposals for non resident or for residential units. Dish rack storage. Just clarifying that the dish racks need to be stored up above the floor, not on the floor, since they do come into contact with food. Food contact surfaces. Cleaning frequency that establishments need to clean their facility daily specifically and prior to closing. Ideally, mobile food units need to meet the fire code if they cook on board. These inspections are already taking place. Taking place. We work with our our fire department on that. We're just clarifying this in the code. And also we are proposing to remove the farmers market section from the food code, because these rules also exist in state law. And they often change during legislative session, which means that we have to come back and make those changes in this code. We don't have a large inventory of farmers markets here in Plano. But this will streamline these rules. So they're all found in one place. And just make it more transparent for the public and easy for us. And that that that state law also gives us the opportunity to permit and inspect those. So we have the authority under state law. Okay. Moving into the more restrictive changes. The current food code requires a written procedure for cleaning and disinfecting after vomit or diarrhea incidents, but this change would require that the items needed for that cleanup are actually kept on site. That's just not something that is in the code right now, but we want to be sure that they're keeping those those items on site. The fruit and vegetable chemical wash. This is amended to ensure that there's a testing kit on site to make sure that to ensure proper concentration of that chemical wash when they're using it. The date marking section was amended to require the date the food was. The food is prepared or opened, as well as the expiration date time as a public health control. This is a process that is allowed when restaurants want to remove food from from temperature control, basically a refrigerator. Usually it's a refrigerator and kept keep it at room temperature for a specified amount of time, typically no more than four hours. Right now they can do that, but they're required to keep a log of those activities with the time that the food was discarded. We are asking that they provide the time the food was removed from temperature control, as well as the time that it was discarded. So we can verify that it was kept out no more than four hours. This will provide verification for us. And as well as confirmation for their records that they followed proper protocols. Flooring. This removes the option for sealed concrete flooring with a quarter inch sealant and food preparation and storage areas. The current requirement for quarter inch sealant over a concrete floor is very difficult to achieve, and therefore we don't get a lot of proposals around this. It's also extremely difficult to maintain in good repair when you're in a kitchen and there's a high traffic flow. This was an addition in the last major food code revision, but has proven really difficult to achieve and maintain. Under equipment. Ice baths are listed in the Food Code as a method for rapidly cooling hot food, before placing it in a refrigeration unit. This is a clarification that ice baths are not a replacement for mechanical refrigeration. They can be used for short term cold holding when there's proper documentation. Equipment. Capacity. The food Code requires sufficient equipment capacity for hot and cold holding of food. And so during the plan, review and permitting process, we're often looking at their capacity of their equipment. This will clarify what what determines that which will be the type of menu they have, the number of meals that they serve per day, the frequency of deliveries that they get, and so forth. Manufacturer recommendations. This requires an operator to follow manufacturer recommendations for refrigeration units, including ensuring unobstructed fans so that they work properly, and maintaining equipment in a sanitary condition. And then sanitation and security. This is for refrigeration that's located outside of the food preparation area or outside. And we're clarifying that that needs to be those units need to be kept clean, not allow for harborage of pests and be locked and secured. Manual Warewashing. This specifically refers to very large equipment, equipment that's too large to place inside of a dishwasher or inside of a warewashing sink. So in this case, an alternate cleaning and sanitizing procedure is needed. This rule would be amended to require the department review of this process, so we can assist the establishment in ensuring proper cleaning and sanitizing of equipment when they can't use the standard methods. Dump sinks. This. This. This refers specifically to bar areas. Right now we do require a dedicated hand sink. That's you can't use it for anything other than washing hands, but the code does not require dump sinks right now. And bar areas. Use of hand sinks as dump sinks and bars is pretty common, so that the hand sink can't be used there dumping the ice. Or they're putting your utensils into this hand sink, and so then they can't use it for what it's supposed to be used for. This this could have financial impact, but only if they were not in compliance multiple times over a couple year period. We're not going to require this for existing establishments unless we have a compliance issue. It would only be required for new establishments. And one more okay mobility. The current code requires a mobile food establishment to be readily moveable at all times. So we're just clarifying here that mobility means that they need to have a way to move the mobile food unit, like an available driver or something to tow the unit with. Restroom facilities. This would require a mobile food service operator to arrange for restroom facilities for employees when at a location for more than two hours, and then this central preparation facility, which is a commissary log sheet. This would require the permit holder to email the log sheet on a regular basis to us, so that we can verify that they're using their commissary regularly. Typically, they would return to a commissary every night to service their unit, including disposal of waste water, refilling the fresh water tank, disposal of trash, etc. Generators. This would ensure that the mobile food establishment uses their generator while in operation for refrigeration and other equipment, and it requires proper sizing of the generator so that they can operate all of their equipment as needed. And then finally, compliance. This would does not permit a person to allow the operation of a business or activity on property they own, unless the activity has a required permit. So next steps. Our plan is to place these amendments on the next council meetings. Agenda for the April 4th. I guess it would be the April 14th meeting. And with that I will take any questions. Okay. Council member Prince on the. Eye. You didn't like what I had to say. So don't don't touch your screen on the last. Yes. This one. So on the restroom facilities requiring the mobile food operator to arrange for employee restroom, I'm assuming that it would be sufficient for someone to say, hey, I'm parked at a place where, for example, if it's at an event at Haggard Park, they could say there are restrooms at Haggard Park, correct? Absolutely. Okay. Yep. Mayor Pro tem. So I guess I'm going to see if I can pose my question correctly. We are in charge of updating the code, and then once the code is adopted, someone will actually go out there and enforce it. But it's not us. It is us. It is you. So is there some body who is actually going to provide some type of training educational system in which most of these restaurants would be able to understand why these are being imposed? Because, as you know, a lot of the restaurants are not English speakers. So, you know, they have no idea why you put these things in. They'll put it in. But they, you know, obviously don't use it for the correct purpose that we want them to use it for. So I guess what I'm trying to say is it's great to have codes, but somebody's got to teach them how to use it. Right. So. The large majority of the code is in place right now. But typically how we handle this after we first of all, we have a we have a kind of a cure period. We have 60 days. We have to publish this with this at the state Department of Health Services. But typically after we pass a code, we spend a lot more time in the restaurants educating them, especially if any of these new amendments would apply to them. So it's not just we're out there and issuing, you know, notices of violation right away or anything. We spend we actually spend a lot of time doing education in the restaurants. That is extremely it's a it's a huge priority for us because we don't want to move down the enforcement. Pathway. Right. So are there are there being offered. And I mean different segments of the cultural I mean different languages, so that people actually understand what I found. I, you know, I was in a restaurant business for a long time. Many people just don't get it. I mean, they, you know, they'll put in all the requirements because you'll say, oh, well, you know, you need to put in, you know, a hand sink for washing hands, but they, you know, they still dump their alcohol in there or their sodas and, you know, they use the wash their towels. So, but you can't really fault them because they didn't I don't understand it from the beginning. And when I say they don't understand is because, you know, obviously there may be language barriers and the people who actually are using these things are not the managers. The managers get trained and they know exactly what to do. But when the manager is not there, these people have no idea. A couple of things. One, we do have resources in multiple languages. The other thing is we have a lot. We have a number of our staff that speak different languages. That can also help in situations like that, but also every single person who works in a restaurant is required to go through a food handler course, and they can do that in their own language. So they are getting basic education just to start, you know, then they have their manager and then they have us as a resource as well. So do you. Do you have like booklets or training manuals that are currently in different languages so that you can leave with the, you know, the hospitality industry so that they have it to access for. We have access to a lot of resources like that that we can give them. Yes. Council Member Smith thank you, Mayor Richard, just one kind of question. Do we have an idea, on average, what the inspection ratings are kind of as a whole for the city. The reason I ask that because we ate out a lot and I kind of pay attention to them. And I noticed the majority of our establishments have a 90 plus rating, but I know we've, we've had, oh, I don't know, just a few here recently that I think had lower ratings than we actually pull permits. So I'm just curious overall what what kind of rating do you think that we have in the city? I mean, just any idea at all because I think we're doing a good job. But I just would like to hear see if you see that also. I've never done that average. But we have a few minutes to come back Exactly. I know that we have a lot of high performing restaurants and, you know, the pictures that sometimes I show here, those are the exceptions to the rule, typically. Right. But I really couldn't tell you. So the few that get pulled because there is very minimal, it's pretty minimal. And we have some closures. You know, every month we'll have maybe a couple closures, but usually that's due to like they don't have hot water or their refrigeration all went out or you know, something that's pretty extreme and not fixed. Yeah I mean enforcement closures are pretty rare, but we will do them if we have to. Okay, great. Thank you. Okay. Council member. Thank you. Mayor. Just a quick question, and this may be something that was already covered. And so it's not a change, but will we have standards in the Plano Food Code about dealing with insects and, you know, making sure that, you know, I guess food preparation premises are insect free. I ask because I've, I've had two experiences in my life, one one in Austin and one here in Plano, where a dead insect, I think it was a roach, showed up in food. And I assume there are things that prevent that. But I just wanted to I just wanted to ask about our prevention efforts. So thank you. Yes, we have. Okay. Now now we're getting into the fun stuff. But we do have we do have very specific regulations around pest management. And that is something if we walk in and see an active infestation, that is something we would close them for immediately and have them take care of that before they're reopened. Well, thank you. And I think we, you know, even with pest management protocols, I mean, you can you can have the occasional ones. Sure. I figured we had something. I just wanted to make sure it does happen. I mean, even in great restaurants, you know, they might come in on the produce, on a box, in a box or something, and it happens. But we can tell there are things that you can you can tell if it's active. Active. Awesome. Well, thank you for your efforts on all of this. Council member horn. Yes. Thank you. Great presentation. What I really have a question about is practicality. We approved this in as an ordinance in the next meeting or so. What type of timeline are we going to allow for these restaurants to modify their equipment to be compliant with the new restrictive policies? I'm not I'm not totally sure. There's a whole lot of modification that will need to happen. I view it more like there's going to be a lot of more education than that. We have at least there'll be at least 60 days before it can even go into effect. But even then, like I said to Mayor Pro Tem, I think it was that we always go in right after a food code change with, you know, the kind of the education hat on. I don't I don't think that any of the changes that are happening right now would affect modifications as far as equipment or anything like that. The only thing is that that I talked about in the bar area, but that would only be for existing establishments that would only be enforced in situations of noncompliance. And it's like noticed on three different inspections over a period of time. So that's pretty explicit in the code. That's what I was basically getting at the dumb sink and being an old bartender, you know. Yeah. Hand sink. It is what it was. But this is there's restrictions, restrictive spaces there. Yes. Now you got the automatic dishwashers. You got the prep area itself. And that's why I'm saying to add another dedicated hand sink. That could be a challenge for some of these places that have restricted space. But thanks. That was just they'll figure it out. Yeah. All right. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next item is consent and regular agendas. Is there an item a council member would like to remove? Any items for action or future agendas. Okay, we'll move into our regular meeting. I now declare the Plano City Council is reconvened in open session that all members are present. We'll begin tonight's regular meeting with the invocation led by Doctor Craig Curry, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Plano and the Pledge of Allegiance and Texas Pledge, led by Girl Scout troops five, eight, nine, four, and six five, eight four. Would you please rise? Thank you for the opportunity. Would you. Would you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the great city of Plano, Texas, and we thank you for our our mayor and our City Council members. I pray you bless them and guide and lead them as they make decisions as, as as they work together. Pray that you give them clarity and good ideas and unity and we lift up our city. I pray for our first responders that you would that you would take care of them and that they would be safe, but also be able to serve well. And we lift up our schools and pray for our kids. And I pray for, for the schools security. And I just pray that they would be protected and, and I, I just I pray for Plano, that would be a great place to live. And, and that you would, would give peace and prosperity to our city. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. How are you? So I'll stand here right with you. Okay. Here. Come over here. Okay. Do you need. Okay. You ready? Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Alright. The Texas pledge, honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee. Texas. One state under God, one and indivisible. Be seated please. Come here. Everyone. Now, you got to take a picture with me, though, after I give you. Come here. Come, come. Stand right here. Okay. All right. You know. How are you doing? I'm good. Good to see you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Oh, yeah. She's talking to. Me. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you. Okay. All right, so we have a couple of proclamations to do this evening. We prepared a proclamation to recognize March is theater in our schools month in Plano. It's exciting. I'd like to call up Alex Rodriguez, the Plano West director of theater. Marilyn Gonzalez, Plano West tech director. And the students. Any students from Plano Senior High, Plano East and Plano West High School students. There you go. Come on over. Okay. Come on over here. So it's our honor to present this proclamation for theater in our schools. Month, March 2025. Whereas the arts are essential part of a well-rounded education, fostering creativity, collaboration and critical thinking. And whereas theater in our schools provides students with the opportunity to express themselves and develop empathy and gain confidence in their abilities. Whereas March has been designated as theater in our Schools Month to celebrate the importance of theater education and to honor the incredible contributions of teachers students and community members who support the arts. Whereas the City of Plano recognizes the vital role that theater programs play in nurturing the artistic talents of young people, enriching their lives, and contributing to the cultural vibrancy of our community. We applaud all residents educators and students who celebrate the power of theater. Now, therefore, I, John Muns, mayor of the City of Plano, Texas, do hereby proclaim the month of March 2025, which we're almost done with. So we should have done this a little earlier as theater in our schools month in the City of Plano. Encourage all citizens to join me and the Plano City Council in celebrating art and artists of all genres for their invaluable contributions toward a high quality of life in the City of Excellence. Congratulations, guys! Alex. I want to present this to you, but I also want you to say a few words if you live and everybody in Plano ISD Fine Arts thanks you so much, Mayor Muns, for allowing us to kind of here and present and represent all of the theater in Plano ISD. And thank you for acknowledging all the hard work that our students do every year by making March Theater in our schools month. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Yeah. There you go. Everybody. Yeah. Just kind of even it out. Just. There you go. No no, no. Everybody stand tall. Can you see everybody? Okay. Okay. Okay. And we're. Big smiles. Eyes wide open. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, so we have a prepared a proclamation to recognize that. April. Good. We're on top of our calendar. Recognized as the National Volunteer Month in Plano, and recognizes seven amazing student volunteers who will receive a President's Volunteer Service Award certificate for generously giving over 100 hours of their time through service to our community. So I'd like to call forward Karina Sadler, volunteer resource Manager, Morgan Green Griffin, Volunteer resource Coordinator and a group of volunteers. A Didi Shankar Anshul Ghanta. On. Casarotti. Emily. Susan. Jacob. Fay. Sue. Avila. Sheena. Bahama. Rahman and Sophie Menon. All right. Thank you. Look at me, guys. Can y'all stand them right here? Yeah. Y'all stand right in front of the podium. There you go. Do we have them all? Okay. So, National Volunteer Month, April 2025. And whereas Volunteers in Plano engages volunteers representative of the rich diversity in our community, from scouts to older adults and from lifelong residents to new arrivals. All who participate in the service to better to better Plano. Whereas 5994 dedicated volunteers served 82,000 hours within the City of Plano in 2024, it represented a total value of $2.7 million. And Whereas National Volunteer Month takes place each year to celebrate the impact of volunteer service and the power of volunteers to tackle society's great challenges, to build stronger communities and be a force that transforms the world. Now, therefore, I, John Muns, mayor of the City of Plano, do hereby proclaim April 2025 as National Volunteer Month in Plano and I do thereby encourage citizens to join me in the Plano City Council in honoring and thanking all who volunteer, especially in our City of Excellence. Congratulations, guys. Thank. Thank you, Mayor Muns, and the students with us tonight represent a an amazing force of youth volunteers that are engaged in their city. Many of them go to Pisd. They live in Plano. We have some that start at 13 and stay with us until they graduate. So it's really amazing to see their accomplishments throughout those years. And I just wanted to say thank you to all volunteers with the city. From Public Safety animal shelter Live Green in Plano, the libraries. I mean, every department says yes to volunteering. So thank you so much and happy National Volunteer Month in April. You guys stay right where you are. So thank you. Okay, I'm going to squeeze in. Excuse me. Slide down. Go through. Let's look at me. Not them. This slide down. Okay. Okay. Good. Perfect. Are we good? Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Big smiles. Eyes wide open to receive for. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. So finally we have I want to recognize Paul Wageman for his service on the Dart board of directors. And, Paul, I want to bring you down. Paul has been an amazing board member for the city of Plano and worked tirelessly for the city of Plano and for dart. And I've seen a much bigger smile on your face today, and I think, but I can't tell you how much we appreciate you for all you've done for the city of Plano through service, through Dart. So I wanted you to have the certificate, and we appreciate it. And I'll give the mic to you, my friend. Mayor. Thank you. And I'm going to, with the indulgence of the council, make my comments directly to the council and to you, mayor. Thank you, Mayor Muns and members of the City Council, for the opportunity to represent the City of Plano for the past 12 years as its representative on the Dart Board of Directors. I'm grateful for the confidence you've placed in me, and the opportunity to contribute to the betterment of our community. I want you to know I have the highest regard for your staff and the professional manner in which they operate. Our city. Mark, I will especially miss the opportunity to work closely with you, as we've done over the last number of years. I want to thank you for your leadership and for your friendship. Thank you very much. By now, it should be apparent that dart is at an inflection point. The old way of operating will no longer suffice. Dart must treat its 13 cities as true investors and provide them with value commensurate with their respective investments. Plano, along with a number of the other dart cities but particularly Plano, has led the way in seeking a better, more equitable relationship with Dart. Please know that your leadership is critical to creating a new a new business and operating model to reflect the realities faced by the 13 Dart cities and to provide the type and quality of service that our citizens deserve. I urge you to continue your high level of engagement and leadership for the betterment of Plano and Dart. And lastly, I am pleased that Council Member Ricciardelli has agreed to represent the City of Plano on the Dart board. He will be a strong, articulate advocate for our city's interests and I wish him well. Thank you again for acknowledging my service tonight. It's very much appreciated. Okay. Comments of public interest. Comments of public interest. This portion of the meeting is to allow up to three minutes per speaker, with 30 total minutes on items of interest or concern, and not on items that are on the current agenda. The council may not discuss these items, but may respond with factual or policy information. The Council may choose to place the item on a future agenda, and we do have several speakers this evening. Yeah. Let me let me say we have over 15 speakers and we only have a 30 minute time line. So I'm going to ask if all the speakers would we'll we'll just give you two minutes each. So if you would cooperate that way we'll, we'll allow everybody to speak. Okay. The first speaker is Jessica Berner who is on zoom. Oh. Miss Berner, if you're there, we need you to turn on your camera and unmute. Your. Hello? Hi. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. The zoom is weird. I just wanted to voice my support for Dart funding. It is enormously impactful for everyone who lives in Dallas and DFW. DFW is larger than some American states. We are the ninth most populous city in the U.S. Far as I'm aware. And with FIFA coming this year, I question whether we want to give ourselves the international embarrassment of having a subpar transit system through these budget cuts. We should strive to be a global metropolis, and we should not be cutting funds now or any time. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker is Lindsay Scribner. My name is Lindsay Scribner. I want to begin by saying how much I love Plano Fire Rescue. For the last 36 years, I've spent countless holidays and birthdays at the fire department with either my dad or my husband. I grew up running in the halls of central and then got to see it come full circle when my own children did the same. I've been a resident of Plano twice in my lifetime, and have been on the receiving end of the amazing Care of Plano Fire Rescue exhibits multiple times. I bring a unique perspective to the 4896 discussion, not just as a fire wife and former fire daughter, but also as a resident and a patient from every angle and every perspective. The benefits are undeniable. Time and time again, the evidence proves that a 4096 doesn't just improve the well-being of firefighters, it strengthens their families and enhances service to the citizens they protect. My dad served this city for 33 years before retiring. I've watched him endure a triple bypass and 11 stents. The toll of three decades of a 2448 schedule. He's now 74, and I often wonder how much time do I have left with him? How much time do my kids have time with Papa? Knowing that a different schedule could have helped prevent these health issues? I can't help but feel sadness that it wasn't implemented sooner. I want my husband to be able to continue serving this community for many years to come, and when it's time, have enough life left in him to grow old with me. I've attended far too many firefighter funerals for lives that should have had many more years left on this earth, and I firmly believe that a 4896 could have helped prevent those health issues that take far too many of our heroes too soon. As a wife, I support the 4096 schedule, and I urge you to put this item on the agenda for discussion and vote at the next council meeting. Nearly 90% of the firefighters, the top three chiefs and the medical director support the schedule. It comes at no cost or financial risk to the city. We appreciate all that you do for these firefighters. They need your support and they deserve to be heard. It's time for leadership that values facts over pride. Thank you so much for your time. The next speaker is Daniel Rodriguez. Daniel Rodriguez, are you here? Yes. He was just here. Well. Oh. He is. Daniel. Go ahead. Turn on. You're on mute. Daniel, we can't hear you. If you're in the lobby, why don't you come in and speak? Are you in the lobby? We were told we had to speak online. No. Yes. I. See Daniel. Yes. That's me. Yeah. Come right here. And we really think we can hear you a lot better. I thought they weren't. And if anybody else is here that thinks they're supposed to go to the back and do that, we've we've changed everybody's everybody's welcome to come to the podium. All right. Go ahead. All right. Good evening Plano Council. My name is Daniel Rodriguez. I am a commuter from Fort Worth to Plano. And one thing I would say is don't defund dart. The reason I just witnessed today that I took the 308 today to take from downtown Dallas all the way to northwest Plano, park and ride. Surprisingly, from what I see when I boarded, the bus was a full pack bus today. And surprisingly, I see so many new riders that are willing to take the bus and going all the way to skip all that traffic. Not only that, but from the from the Parker Road station as well. There's a lot more riders than how we have in the. That we're from currently. Pretty much. But all I want to say is there's a lot more people that ride in dart than what you guys think. Thank you. Thank you. For the next speaker. Is Mark Palasciano. You said it right. Hi. Mark Palasciano, a resident of Dallas, Texas. I'm here today to tell you about how Collin County, how T-Mobile has weaponized the Collin County Judiciary system to go after T-Mobile whistleblower. And I'm not a whistleblower. I'm a 41 year old lifelong Texan, and I requested to be laid off from my T-Mobile career. After working there for 17 years, I walked away from my $200,000 career so I could expose how T-Mobile uses environmental, social governance and diversity, equity and inclusion practices to destroy America from within. After I requested to be laid off, I turned down my $150,000 severance just so I could keep my free speech about T-Mobile and talk about their nefarious actions. Let me mention some of these unconstitutional actions. T-Mobile censored customer text messages during Covid while Facebook and Google was censoring the same information, but T-Mobile got away with it. T-Mobile has ten groups for diversity equity inclusion. None of them represent your average white Christian male because T-Mobile uses diversity, equity and inclusion to divide America from within. T-Mobile provides unlimited money for transgender surgeries, while they limit benefits for in vitro. So if you're a mother with four children, your children can go get as many gender reassignment surgeries as they want. But if you're a mother and you need help needing help having a child, your benefits are going to be limited and you might have to come cash out of pocket. T-Mobile insiders sold $5.3 billion worth of stock in 2024, and I was the only person to report on it. Not a single news outlet reported on this. T-Mobile created the vaccine passports for the World Health Organization and the European Union, and they also tested the vaccine passport here at the Stonebriar Country Club in December of 2021, at a holiday party that I was not allowed to attend because I was unvaccinated and T-Mobile locked me out of the office for ten months. The reason why I have a false allegation is because a T-Mobile president baited me into a harassment charge. I've been communicating with the district attorney, pleading with them to drop my case. They continue pushing forward. I have everything documented on my web, my Substack website, w-w-w dot com, and I'm on YouTube and I've used every social media I can. T-Mobile censored me because they don't want anyone to know about my story. I appreciate your time and thank you. The next speaker is Raquel Blades. Good evening, Council members. My name is Raquel Blades. I am here tonight as a wife of a Plano fire, a Plano Fire Rescue firefighter. My husband has proudly served the city for the past four years, and during that time, we have welcomed two children into our family. Our youngest was born three months early and is medically complex. At just 15 months old, he has spent much of his life in and out of the hospital. He is under the care of nine specialty physicians and requires multiple therapy sessions and appointments every week. As you can imagine, this has brought many challenges to our family. One of the greatest is the lack of recovery time between my husband's shifts. This prevents him from playing the active role he so desperately wants to play. Due to the current 2448 schedule. My husband misses almost all of our son's medical appointments, therapy sessions, and has only been able to stay overnight in the hospital twice. His 48 hours off are spent recovering from his shift, caring for our toddler and visiting the hospital for the little amount of time that he can, leaving very little time for the daily responsibilities that every family must manage. A 4896 schedule would change that for us. It would allow my husband and firefighters like him the opportunity to show up, not just for the community that they serve, but for their own families. This is more than just a schedule for us. This is a lifestyle change that would positively impact every single firefighter and their family in this community. My husband is proud to serve this city. Every time he leaves for a shift, he knows that he is putting his life on the line. He meets families on the very worst days of their life. Yet under the current schedule, he is often unable to show up for his own. In just the past two years, my husband has worked 36 overtime shifts, meaning he has worked 48 hours on and only 24 hours off 36 times. I am here tonight to express my strong support for the proposed 4896 schedule change, which is backed by not only the fire chief and Doctor Gamboa, the medical director for Plano Fire Rescue. This change comes to no additional cost to the city and is proven to improve firefighters wellness and prevent burnout. Thank you for your time. Thank you. For the next speaker is William Peters. Let's see if we can get that on there. I don't know. Let's see. Okay. No, nothing. That's it I. Think. I. Will now open. I think we can try and wing it without the visual aid. Probably the slides are important, but we can. If it's not working, then we can. We can work without it. There's a light on the power button. Oh, there we go. Sorry about that. It helps if you have it on. There we go. Let's see if there's anything else. Yeah. There we go. Okay. Sorry about that. My name is William Peters. This is Danielle Rotman. We're with the politics for teens club at Plano West Senior High School. You may remember us from last year with Rizwan Khan. We're the same organization just around with some new faces. We wanted to introduce ourselves to you and get on your radar. So our mission, our mission is increasing political participation among the youth. So one important benchmark indicator of that is voter turnout. But that's not the only indicator. So we go to congressional town halls. We try to educate our members about various different issues. Okay. So some voter turnout data. So our Plano population percentage is Quickfacts estimate around 225 to 230,000 people are of age to vote. However, while we totaled Plano County and Collin County and Denton County ballots, and we saw that 20,311 ballots were cast in the 2023 general election, which means a 9% voter turnout. And this isn't very good. So we are trying to implement measures within our organization to increase this turnout. So an example of what we do, this is a slide that we're going to show our members prior to local elections in May. So we have City School District and Collin College. We've got QR codes. All of these information all these resources are out here. So we just have to make it easy for our members to access them. We have QR codes to voting locations, sample ballot searches. We have a map of voting locations. All this information is available and out there. 20s. Thank you. So our goal is just to get this information to them. We wanted to show you how that can link back to the city of Plano. Thank you so much for your time. We'll be sending out emails to all of y'all. If y'all would like to be involved in one of our forums. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think it's fine. Do you want us to turn it off? You're fine, thank you. The next speaker is Renee Floyd. Good evening, Plano Council. My name is Renee Floyd. My spouse has been a firefighter for the city of Plano for 26 years. I'm here tonight in support of the 4896 schedule. I respectfully request the City council place the firefighters proposed schedule change on the next council agenda for open discussion and importantly, allow our firefighters to have a voice in this crucial decision or discussion. They deserve to be heard openly and directly. 4896 is supported by over 87% of Plano firefighters, the top three fire chiefs and the medical director. Your thoughtful consideration is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. The next speaker is Dan McCabe. Good afternoon mayor. Sorry. Good afternoon. Mayor, city council, members of city administration. My name is Dan McCabe and I am speaking as an interested member of the public. I am not speaking in an official capacity or representing my employer in any way. I'm speaking in support of the Plano Firefighters Association request to implement the change from the 2448 schedule to 4896. This schedule is now the premier schedule for firefighter health and optimal service delivery. It is cost neutral. It is supported by 87% of the firefighters by the CFR command staff and the medical director. It is the schedule of nearly 75% of the metroplex departments, approximately 200 fire departments in the state of Texas, and at least 20 departments the size of far larger. That includes Oakland, Orange County, Orange County Fire Authority, and many others. Remaining on the 2448 schedule offers dire consequences for the firefighters and citizens of Plano. Remaining on the 2448 schedule will continue to harm the ability for this department to hire and retain the best staff. We can see from publicly available data that this department needs to offer 3 to 4 entrance exams every year to meet its hiring needs, and it only has about 20 to 30 candidates on that list. If we look at cities around us, you will see that they offer only one hiring exam every year, and they have about 200 to 400 candidates that show up to test. I ask, do the citizens of Plano not deserve to have the best public servants responding to their needs? Do the employees of Plano not deserve to have the best coworkers? If you call 911 at 3 a.m. 20s, do you want somebody showing up? That was the only person that showed up for the test? Or do you want somebody that was the result of a robust hiring environment? I kindly ask that you add the adoption of the 4896 schedule to the next City Council. Public agenda for the debate and discussion and vote of City Council so that the citizens can see where their representatives vote prior to voting themselves in May. Thank you. The next speaker is Pam Floyd. Good evening. I'm here to support dart. I moved here to the DFW region 30 years ago, and I've always lived in Dart member city as an employed yet disabled and transit dependent person. Dart is one reason I'm still in DFW. If you diminish Dart, you threaten my and others livelihoods. You threaten the contribution that I could make to this region for the next 30 years. Every member city had a seat at the table when creating Dart, and should all have a seat at the table now to resolve concerns here, not in Austin. Consider the good that Dart does for all of its patrons in the community. Not listen to the voices of those with an agenda who don't even use dart. I'm thankful that that I will have your representation. And thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it. The next speaker is Sahara Kahn, trying to get them in on zoom. Hi. Can you hear me? Hold on just one second. We're promoting you to a panelist and you'll need to turn your camera on. Okay. I'm trying to turn it on right now. Can y'all see me? No. I'm sorry. I'm not sure why it's not turning on. Okay. When it asks you to accept being promoted to a panelist, please say yes. Okay. Okay, go ahead and turn on your. There we go. We see you. Go ahead. All right. Hi. My name is Sahara Kahn, and I'm a Dallas ISD teacher and a member of Alliance AFT. And I stand with not cutting Dart funding. Now is not the time to cut Dart. In fact it is. If anything, it is the time to expand its funding. I myself was Dart dependent for three years while working and getting a master's degree, and I can tell you that Dart was my absolute lifeline for being able to do any of those those things, as well as continue to be of service in my community. But also I want to highlight stories that are not just mine, but of my students who may not be able to show up to something like this. Many Dallas ISD students rely on Dart for safe and reliable transportation to school, especially if they're going to choice schools, which means they are really going above and beyond what may be expected of them and going to pursue their education and get really serious about their futures. Now, I want to tell you a story about how last year, one of my students, who was a senior in high school, had one of her parents pass away, and she was completely reliant on Dart in order to get to school. That same year, her Dart line was taken away and she dropped out her senior year, which was incredibly devastating because she had plans to go to college. And as far as I know now she is trying to get her GED, but things are not looking good. I know she's not the only one that relies on Dart funding. There are so many, so I want to emphasize that it's not always people that are able to show up here and advocate, and I'm so glad that so many of us have come out. But it's also students and children who rely on this for their futures and to continue their education. So please, now is not the time to cut funding for Dart, but to continue to support our hard working students. Thank you. The next speaker is Ryan McKelvey and Mr. McKelvey. When I promote you to panelists, please accept, not decline. Can you hear me? Yes. Please turn on your camera. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Ryan McKelvey Gonzalez. I am a resident of Dallas, and I'm here also to speak in favor of keeping Dart funded. Dart is the reason why I moved to Dallas. It is an probably one of the best transportation systems in the Southern United States. It provides access to areas that are not always easy to access. I know, especially when traveling into central Dallas, especially during busy times during the fair and things like that. My and my friends rely on Dart to get to where we go, and I've lived in both Dallas and Houston, and the thing that everybody always complains about is traffic. And the best way to reduce traffic is not to add more lanes, not to build more roads. It's to increase public transportation and increase alternate routes. And again, I agree with the previous speaker. Now is not the time to cut Dart funding. It's time to increase it. Thank you. The next speaker is Tyler Wright. How's that? Awesome. Thank you. Good evenin. Mayor, council and city staff. First off, I wanted to thank on behalf of Dallas Area Transit Alliance. Thank you for being so gracious and helpful regarding our press conference just outside this evening, the city staff treated us with nothing but respect and we have deep gratitude for them. I think you can tell why I'm here. We got a lot of people from across the region because of the decisions that really started in this room, affect the entire region, and we are asking you now to reconsider. In fact, could we get a kind of show of hands or stand up? Anybody who supports Dart, even if you didn't come here for it, could you stand up or raise your hand? We're from all around, and we came here tonight to ask you to stop. Okay. These bills may be in the state legislature now, but you have the power. You have the ear of the of these representatives. You can ask them to pull it back and join us and come to the table. None of us have ever said dart is perfect, but it is essential. And what the what these bills are going to do will take away an essential service to hundreds of thousands, if not millions. So please reach out to us on data. Please reconsider. We're going to go up to Austin next week to talk to all the representatives, and we'll hopefully get this thing stopped. We'd love to have you with us. Thank you. The next speaker is David Yacoubian. Hello, I'm David Yacoubian. I'm an alum of Collin College over here at the Spring Creek campus and of UT Dallas. And I remember many of my classmates, including many close to me, who relied on Dart services to get to class. And all this traffic. How are how are these students supposed to get to class? Also, I wasn't aware of the firefighter issue here in Plano. I know you all work hard and I really appreciate. We all appreciate your service and raise your hand if you're a firefighter. All right. Keep your hands up. If you've been to a deadly crash, if you respond to a deadly crash. That's right. Keep your hand up. If it's ugly, it's ugly to see that, right? Right. This is why we need dart. This is why we need dart. Okay? They're tired of seeing mutilated bodies on the road, and they're tired of seeing lives cut short. You're tired of it, right? Raise your hand if you're tired of that. Right. That's right. All right, so we need. We need busses and trains because they're a heck of a lot safer than driving on these streets and highways. My friend, who's an EMT told me plenty of stories, and, I mean, it will make you sick. It really will. Okay, Council members, if you believe in public safety, you need to believe in Dart. Okay? Please stand up again. If you love dart, please. Please. And last thing, as an economist and a local business consultant cutting dart cuts local businesses. Okay, you're pulling the rug out from under them. 20s. Okay. It it cuts work for workers. It makes no economic sense. It's time to turn around before you find out. Guys. Thank you. The next speaker is Brittany Cuba. Good evening. My name is Brittany Cuba, and my spouse is a firefighter for the city of Plano. Today I want to talk about a shift schedule that is becoming the new industry standard in the fire service, the 4896 schedule. This change isn't just about convenience. It's about health, safety, and effectiveness of our firefighters. I respectfully ask that you consider placing this important item up for discussion on the future Council agenda. The 4896 schedule offers significant benefits to our firefighters and the communities they serve. One of the biggest advantages is the extended recovery period. After working two consecutive days, firefighters get four full days of rest to recover and return to work fully recharged. Firefighting is a demanding job physically, mentally and emotionally. Having this extended time off ensures they are well rested and ready to perform at their best when they return. Another critical factor is mental health. Firefighters frequently encounter traumatic situations and without adequate time to process these experiences, stress and fatigue can accumulate, leading to burnout and even PTSD. With the 96 hour recovery period, firefighters have more time to decompress and seek support if needed, and come back to work mentally and emotionally prepared for the next shift. It's also important to note that Plano firefighters are already allowed to work 48 consecutive hours and taking overtime shifts. When that happens, they are only given 24 hours to rest before coming back on duty. If working 48 hours is acceptable for overtime, then it makes sense to implement a schedule that ensures they get a full four day recovery period afterward, rather than just one day before returning. Beyond the personal benefits for firefighters, the schedule also has practical advantages for the community by reducing the number of commutes firefighters have to make, we decrease traffic congestion, cut down on vehicle emissions and reduce the risk of accidents. Fewer trips to and from the station mean a positive impact, not just for firefighters, but for everyone on the road. The 4896 schedule isn't just an idea, it's a proven system that departments across the country are adopting because of its positive impact. Healthier, better rested firefighters mean safer, more effective emergency responses for our community. It's time we recognize the schedule as the industry standard and make it the new norm. I respectfully request that this is placed on the agenda in April. Please. Thank you. The next speaker is Cody Dryden. All right. Well, good evening. My name is Cody Dryden. I'm a firefighter paramedic for the city of Grand Prairie. We are 270 member sworn department across about ten stations. We're a pretty equitable city of Plano. And as of January, we've completed year three of our 4896 schedule. I'm here to tonight to tell you I would take a pay cut to keep that schedule. If my wife were here, she would tell you that the past three years of our 11 year marriage has been the best it's ever been. I'm also the dad to two little boys. I'm able to coach both of their baseball teams to mild levels of success, but I'm able to do all of this and all the things that that we want to as spouses and parents, because of the schedule that we have in Grand Prairie. And I think we've implemented it pretty successfully with limited to zero cost to our city. I'm here tonight in support of my brothers and sisters in Plano, to ask you all to put this on the agenda for future consideration. You all are pretty infamous. The Plano City Council around the metroplex in terms of what you do and how you value your public safety personnel. It's reflected in how much these guys make. And I thank you for that. Rising tide raises all boats right. So thank you. You guys have have year over year budget after budget. Supported them with raises, with training, with supplies, with equipment. And I simply ask that you just for these guys add it to your to your agenda. Thank you, thank you. All right. Thank you all for being here. Thank you for all the speakers. We value our firefighters and we have an internal process to work through personnel requests. At our March 14th executive session meeting, we met with the city manager regarding his duties related to personnel. Per the city charter staff, work schedules are the responsibility of the City Manager and not the City Council. Also, pursuant to the resolution 2023, Dash 12 Dash four, the City Council adopted a policy for future agenda items which requires that six months pass before items can be reconsidered. We trust our City Manager to continue to address this issue with the fire department. Let's move on to the consent agenda. The consent agenda. The consent agenda will be acted upon in one motion and contains items which are routine and typically noncontroversial. Items may be removed from this agenda for individual discussion by a council member, the city manager, or any citizen. The presiding officer will establish time limits based upon the number of speaker requests. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry about motion to approve consent agenda. Mr. Mayor. I'd like to second that. Okay. Thank you. I have a motion, a second to approve the consent agenda. Please vote. Motion passes 8 to 0. Thank you. Next. Next item. Items for individual consideration. Public hearing items. Applicants are limited to 15 minutes presentation time with a five minute rebuttal if needed. Remaining speakers are limited to 30 total minutes of testimony time, with three minutes assigned per speaker. The presiding officer may amend these times as deemed necessary. Non public hearing items. Presiding officer will permit public comment for items on the agenda not posted for a public hearing. Presiding officer will establish time limits based upon the number of speaker requests, length of the agenda and to ensure meeting efficiency, and may have a cumulative time limit. Speakers will be called in the order the requests are received until the cumulative time is exhausted. Public hearing. Item number one. Excuse me. Public hearing and consideration of appeals of the Planning and Zoning Commissions. Denials of Zoning case 2024 Dash 23 and Preliminary Site Plan 2024 Dash 36. A request to rezone 6.6 acres located on the west side of K Avenue, 2240ft south of Spring Creek Parkway, from corridor commercial to single family residence. Attached 49 single family residence. Attached lots on six acres. Located on the west side of K Avenue, 2240ft south of Spring Creek Parkway. Petitioner Shahid Rasool. Good evening, mayor, council and executives. I'm Christina Day, the director of planning. The applicant for this item has requested to table this item to the April 28th council meeting. And that completes my presentation. All right. Thank you. I'll open the public hearing. Any speakers? There are no speakers on this item. I'll close the public hearing and confine the comments to the council. Oh, gosh. I'm sorry I'm slow today, Mr. Mayor. That's okay, Mr. Mayor. I'll make a motion. We approve agenda item one to table that as requested. I'll second that. Thank you. I have a motion and a second to table. Hold on one second. Oh, okay. Technical errors all over the place here. Yeah. Okay. This one was me. Okay. A motion and a second to table agenda item number one. Please vote. Motion passes 8 to 0 to table. Item number one. Thank you. Next item. Item number two. Public hearing and consideration of an ordinance as requested in Zoning Case 2020 5-1 to amend the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance of the City Ordinance Number 2015. Dash five two as heretofore amended, granting Specific Use Permit Number 81 for trade school on 0.1 acre of land located on the south side of Dexter Drive, 710ft east of Preston Road in the city of Plano, Collin County, Texas. Presently zoned planned development 190 for general office, directing a change accordingly in the official zoning map of the city, providing a penalty clause, a repealer clause, a savings clause, a severability clause, a publication clause, and an effective date. All right, this zoning case, 2025 001, is a request for a specific use permit for a trade school. The location is indicated in the map. You can see the notice areas, as well as an aerial of the existing building, that the lease space will be utilized for this purpose if approved. So this is a further detail of this location along Dexter Drive. The site history. It has been zoned with a planned development since 1984, but this is a more recently developed office building just completed in 2019. A trade school will trade individuals to get a license in barbering and cosmetology, consistent with the State of Texas regulations. It will be located within an existing suite and no improvements are expected on the site. Just based on this use. Permission. This item is in conformance with the Comprehensive Plan. It meets the policies for infrastructure and facility, as well as the descriptions of the future Land Use dashboard, where it is in an employment center area. We have had no responses on this item from the public, and the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval by a vote of 8 to 0. I'm available for questions you might have on this item. Thank you. Thank you. Christina. I'll open the public hearing. There are no speakers on this item. I'll close the public hearing. Confine the comments to the council. Motion to approve. And second. Okay, good. I have a motion. And second to approve. Item number two. Please vote. Thank you. Motion passes 8 to 0. Next item. Item number three. Consideration of an ordinance to transfer the sum of $1,200,000 from the Convention and Tourism Fund balance to the Capital Maintenance fund for. Excuse me for fiscal year 20 2425. To replace two generators at the Plano Event Center by amending the budget of the city adopted by Ordinance Number 2024, dash nine five. Specifically, section one, item J, to reflect the actions taken here. In declaring this action to be in the best public interest and providing an effective date. Good evening, Karen Rugs Whitley, budget director for the City of Plano. We are requesting a supplemental appropriation, which basically just increases the ordinance that was passed on the adopted budget back in October of 23. We ordered six generators during that time because we were having supply chain issues. These generators were not supposed to come in until 2526. Okay, so the money is out there. We need to move it into 2425. Because the vendor called, we thought they were going to be on hold and not come until next year. And they called us the other day and they're coming in April. So this is just moving the money over into capital maintenance to increase the actual budget ordinance. Okay. Okay. Any questions for Karen? Can I get a motion? Hold on. There you go. All right. Second. Say it again. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. Thank you. So I have a motion and a second to approve item number three. Please vote. Motion passes 8 to 0. Okay. All right, I'll just. We'll just move on. But. Okay. We'll let Lisa. Lisa introduce item number four. Item number four. Fiscal year 20 2425 status report and five year financial summary. Okay, I wanted to give an update. I'm about to call up new gen strategies and solutions. We have hired them as far as part of the fiscal roadmap process. Normally at this time, I am delivering a three year financial forecast as part of the fiscal roadmap. We have expanded that to a five year financial forecast. They have developed an economic financial forecasting tool for us. So this year we're going to let them do the five year forecast. However, the budget department at the end of this fiscal year will take over the model in next March. You will start seeing the budget department use the model to produce y'all a financial forecast. So that's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about tonight. I also wanted to give you a couple of updates regarding how 2425 is going. As you know, we have redone our cost recovery and fee study policy. We brought it before the City Council a couple of weeks ago. So we have building inspections, planning and engineering undergoing the fee study. We had asked departments to supply us with descriptions of fees that they have not changed in quite a couple of years. And on the initial run through, we have not changed up our ambulance fees. So that was passed earlier in this evening in the consent agenda. That right there will produce a fee increase or a revenue increase of 650,000 for this year and 1.6 million for next year. We do have a couple of other fee increases that we will be proposing during the actual budget. As far as revenues go, we are scheduled to meet with the Collin Central Appraisal District on April 3rd and the Denton Central Appraisal District on April 30th. Right now, within the proposed budget, we have a 3.5% existing increase in property values that we are projecting, in $750 million in new property sales tax is coming along quite well. We're up about $5 million in our three year financial or our three year average for this year was 114 million. It looks like if we stay the course, we'll be collecting about 122 million. Also, some good news on building and development related revenues. Before we had seen them starting to stabilize, we had put in the budget a 15% decrease. And it looks now like we're going to collect the same thing as last year, a $7.2 million. We originally started under the budget contingency plan. You'll remember we had a hiring freeze that went from October to January 1st. We have since lifted that. We went and redid salaries. We had an overall an additional salaries of $2.2 million. Since that time that we unfroze it, we have hired in 160 new staff members our general fund balance on our financial fund policy that was passed the other evening. Now we've got a goal of 60 days. Normally we end about 60 days. Last year, 2324, we ended at 57 days of working capital. Right now, our projection for this current year is to end about 47 days. And of course, we're starting the whole budget process this week. We're going to kick it off to the management team Wednesday morning. And they will start entering their budgets will redo projections. We're going to redo salaries. So we'll start moving through the budget process. At this time. I'm going to get up Matthew Garrett and Steve Dugue. And they are going to go over the financial forecasts for the next five years. And once again, we will take the model over for next year, but they will provide you the highlights for this coming up five years. Thank you. Thank you Karen. Good evening. Mayor. Members of Council Matthew Garrett with Nugent Strategies and Solutions. Again, I like the new space. The library had pizza, but this was beautiful. So well done there. Again, we always appreciate working with your your budget and finance team. Before I get started, my introductory slide got cut. I'm here with Steve. Doug, Steve Doug is a manager in our office. He's running a lot of economic analysis, forecasting, and many of the tools that you see here are developed by him. And I usually provide input along the way. But really the brain trust is next to me. And he'll he'll speak to you a little bit about the property tax forecast. But very generally speaking, as a finance director for some time in missile government now serving municipal governments, Plano is well regarded for many reasons. One is their their financial prudence, your policies, your three year forecasts. So kudos on being there. This engagement wasn't because you were lacking. This engagement is to try to enhance the tool that's already in place, extend it a few years, and maybe make it a little easier for staff to update. So we hope by the end of this, we'll have a great tool that your team can update quickly, can some support some scenarios, and even be used during the budget process to handle some of your decision package alternatives, right? All right, I like this. I've never had a monitor to advance a slide. This is wonderful. Very generally speaking the model is rough. Right now we don't have a fiscal 26. We don't have a number of items. You'll see on the slide that currently as it sits, we use the 25 budget as the base. To that we added a number of inflation factors. We'll talk a little bit about those. I don't want to bore you, but we will pop the hood a little bit for the big ones on the next slide. This does exclude items that will be requested in the budget. This also excludes known items that may be needed in future years. So this is effectively a continuation budget of current services and funding from 25. I may not have said it that figure. If I didn't, it's 2.8%. So just continuing with the service level you're offering today with the inflation factors we'll talk about, it's about 2.8% per annum on average of increase over the next five years. So baked into this are salaries at 3%. Health related benefits are a little bit higher. At four. We have some general inflation pressures. So we'll talk about those and how we develop an assumption around that. We take the water information from your water and wastewater study. So we know that detail. And we have a couple others here that make up minor components in inflation, like the gas and chemical costs within your budget. But by and large it's driven mostly by salaries. And then secondly, you have some transfers out that make up another top spot. So for our general inflation factor, we actually looked at it's the Federal Reserve Bank I guess out of Philadelphia specifically. But they put out these professional forecasters have a survey. And I think there are about 40 data points up there. And what you see in the plot is people's idea 40, 38 or so different people's guess as to the inflation expected in 2025. Right. And they did this for a living. So hopefully it's better than my guess. But what you'll see is we have a few points noted here. First is the median. That's at 2.8% for the year. Secondly, we found the 75th percentile to be perhaps a little more conservative. And if we take a little bit higher assumption, that comes in right at three at the moment. So instead of just applying 3% across the board, if you look at the assumptions from this same group, you'll see that that's actually trending down one random data point in 28 and 29. And for the out years you can see is well above the rest. But by and large this is tracking downward with the medians at 2.6, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.2 in those years. So in this five year forecast we won't assume just 3% across the board, but rather for those factors identified by your budget team. With the help of our team, we would anticipate we'd actually see year over year increases less than the standard three. Now, this could turn on a dime depending on tariffs, dependent on anything else you've seen in the news in the next quarterly forecast. So this is something that your team can review. I believe the last forecast was February. Was it not. Exactly. And so we can pull that data. Your staff can pull that data and update this as frequently as quarterly. But what we like about this, it's informed right. It's not just an assumption. And when that flips and it's actually 4 to 5%, then we'll at least have a forecast that says better than three. So right now we think it's more realistic. And so that's currently baked in for a number of items. Additionally, the transfers out make up another large expenditure. So very generally those are relatively static. One exception to that is the risk management function increasing from 7.6 to 9 million. But otherwise that relatively large pool of expenditures is flat in our model. Again everything here is an input. So this could change with feedback tonight. It could change tomorrow with a quick click of a button in the model. But these are the items that are sort of baked in as we stand. Any questions about the inputs so far? Fair enough. Yes, sir. Yeah I was looking at your general inflation assumptions you attracted over the years and you're progressively going down. But I also noticed that it was tracking. This was based on the first quarter of 2025, which was before the current administration. And really what I'm concerned about as we look out five years down the line, this this number that we're seeing here at the 75% level, at 2.5% inflation. Is this is based again on what that first quarter was before the current administration came on. And we're seeing so much uncertainty now. How good are we feeling about that five years from now? How good are we feeling about it one year from now? I mean, can you explain a little bit about that? Yeah, sure. So the sample is taken from a survey in February. Right. So it was published. Do you know when they gathered the data Steve. No. Okay. So it was published. So you're probably correct. They may have pulled the data earlier than and then it was released in February. But generally this does get updated more frequently. I think you're right. With the change of administration to expect the economic forecast to change, certainly with the policy rushes and change blitz, if you will, of the many things that are changing. And I don't know if that's good or bad, but the same group of people will be polled again here in two months, and we'll have more data from them on what they see with that change. So to the point of frequency, we would suggest this be looked at every quarter as the data becomes available. But certainly this is a data point. This is not sacrosanct. It's not a requirement. It's an input within an Excel model. And so if the team decides that we need to do 100th percentile or 75 percentile plus or you know what, call it 5%, because we're going to be bleak on any given data point. They can make that adjustment as well. But as for crystal balls, mine's hazy as well right now. And so I agree it's a valid question, but we do think this is over long term, probably a little bit better than just guessing with a 30 year average. But thank you for that question. Okay. Very good. Touched on transfers. So overall right your revenues you see this. And Carrie and her team present this every year in your fiscal 25 budget. The property taxes and sales taxes make up 77% of your overall revenue to the general fund. We're going to spend a little time talking about those. I'll hand it over to Steve to talk deep on property tax. But as we get into projections, just know those are heavily dependent on these two revenue streams. That's why we're going to spend a little time talking about it, and why your team has already spent a lot of time talking about the best way to forecast those two critical factors before we move on to property tax, though, we do have some other revenue inflation factors. So very quickly a lot of people are cutting the cord. So we have one factor for revenue that's negative. So cable and telephone franchise fees. Otherwise we have other franchise fees. The transfers in from the water and wastewater are programed in. And then all other transfers are at 3% as an assumption. All right. So as we said, these forecasts are heavily dependent on both property tax and sales tax. The primary variable here of course is property tax. So these two slides are the no new revenue. And the truth in taxation gives you guidance on on two at least data points. One taxes from current properties would be held fixed. That's the no new revenue rate. If we were to hold that constant with a number of other assumptions that go into a tax calculation, we would anticipate an average rate of revenue increase of 2.8%. Strangely, that's just the number I gave you earlier, with the cost on average of your five year need for current services, without the inclusion of a number of other activities, or adding a single personnel to the roster. Additionally, the voter approval rate, this is that rate that achieves 3.5% additional revenue annually. So a pretty easy number to calculate on the revenue basis. So if that were to occur and revenues from property tax increased by 3.5, you would see an overall increase of 4.4% per annum for the five year period. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Steve to talk a little bit about the pieces of property tax and take it away. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. So here we look at some of the key factors that comprise the city of Plano's property tax revenues and its tax base. We begin with market value, which is the appraised value of land improvements and personal property as assessed by the Colon and Denton and Denton Central appraisal districts. And in the current year, excuse me, year of market value of around $81 billion. This is reduced by exemptions. The main exemptions are the household homestead exemptions. This is a 20% reduction in the taxable value for homesteads. Other major exemptions include those for non-profits and places of worship. So together those make up the bulk of those 15 billion in exemptions. The other major reduction, which is reflected in this model, is going to be the 10% homestead cap. The 10% homestead cap limits annual increases in homesteads taxable taxable values to no more than 10% in any given year. So even though the market value may increase quicker or faster, the taxable value can only increase by 10%. We make some adjustments where we reflect some adjustments for appeals and other adjustments, which gets us to the net taxable value as published by the central appraisal districts of just over 62 billion in the current fiscal year. This is further reduced by frozen taxable values. And this is this reflects properties that are eligible for the property tax freeze. This includes senior and disabled people whose property taxes are frozen at their current level. For example, once the oldest member of the household turns 65 years old, Tiff captured values. These reflect taxable values which are allocated to the Tax Increment financing district and do not form part of the property tax base, which is allocated to the General Fund. And after other minor adjustments, we get to the final taxable value of 53, just over 53 billion, which is essentially the tax base for the general fund. So all these variables are reflected in the model that we're providing the city staff. Are there any questions on that before I proceed? Yes, sir. Yeah. Thank you very much. Just a quick question about as we're looking at the frozen taxable values, does the future forecast under both the no new revenue rate and the voter approval rate take into account the aging population of Plano, and that we're likely to see additional frozen values in the years to come? Yes, sir. It does. That's actually addressed in a slide that's coming up okay. I won't jump the gun anymore. So any other questions on that okay. Just for comparison, comparative purposes, we also show the same chart from five years ago, comparing the 2020 fiscal year with the current fiscal year, we saw market values increase by 44%, but the final taxable value only increased 31%. I'll just go back again. Just for comparison. So the final taxable values have been increasing more slowly the market value. And that's mostly because of the increase the proportional the proportionately faster increase in exemptions. The 10% homestead cap and the effects of the property tax freeze. So the main method that we use in the model for projecting forward property tax revenues is going to be projected house price growth. And what we saw, what we've seen historically is a very high correlation between changes in house prices and subsequent changes in market values. So to measure changes in house prices, we use something called the oil transaction. The oil transactions house price index for Dallas, Plano and Irving, which is published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. And what we see here is on this chart on the horizontal horizontal axis, we see the annual change in house prices for the Dallas, Plano, Irving area. And on the vertical axis, we see the change in market values as assessed by the Collin and Denton Central appraisal districts the following July. So ten months later. So what this shows, it shows a high correlation. And we see that every 1% increase in house prices is correlated with an approximately 0.75% increase in market values ten months later. So it's not a 1 to 1 relationship. Exactly. One reason for this is that a lot of the market value for City of Plano is made up by commercial properties, which won't be that correlated with house prices necessarily. And it also includes non-real properties. So personal property and intangibles. But based on this relationship, we think the change in house prices is a good basis for projecting forward the change in market value. Any questions on this? Okay. So without going into too many details on the nuts and bolts of the model, this chart just summarizes some of the main variables that we use. So we start with historical house price growth. And we look at house price. House prices in the Dallas Plano Irving area going back to 2000. And there's been the average annual growth in house prices has been about 5.25%. So we use a statistical model to create a simple statistical model which looks at how house prices change over time and how quickly, historically, they've trended back to this long run average. So using this statistical model, we build this into the Excel formula that we're providing city staff. So it's going to be relatively easy to use. We use this this simple model to project forward house price growth into the future. And just for context, the latest measure was for October. Last year saw house price growth of around 3.9% in the Dallas Plano area. So once we have our projected house price growth, we multiply that by 75% to get projected market value growth. Again, that's based on that correlation that we looked at on the previous slides. We assume exemptions remain a the same percentage of market value as they are now. But we also apply a trend that we've seen over the past ten years where exemptions have been increasing slightly as a percentage of market value. And looking at the right of the of the flow chart again, from our house price growth, we use historical. We look at historical relationships between house price growth and the percentage of taxable value that's been lost in Plano due to the 10% homestead cap. So that's modeled as well. So that's what we use for projecting forward the value of existing properties and improvements in Plano. In addition to this, we also project the value of new improvements. And these are projected at 750 million per year for the next three years, then 500 million per year thereafter. And these are based on estimates provided by City of Plano staff. Any questions? Okay. And finally, in terms of property tax here we look at the property tax freeze issue. So our projections, our projections of the impact of the property tax freeze are to get these. We looked at the taxable value. We looked at the number of properties from the central appraisal district data, where the oldest resident in the household was aged 62, 63 or 64. We can then age these on by one year, two years, three years, and so on to get a projection of the number of properties who will become eligible for the property tax freeze in one year's time, two years time, three years time, and so on. So that's the method that we use to reflect the aging of the of the Plano population. We project between 12 to 1300 new properties becoming eligible for the property tax freeze over the next five years. Each year. This is offset by attrition of 5 to 600 properties, and this is due to people moving out of Plano passing away or moving out of residence into care homes. So that's factored in as well. This chart, it shows the notional tax, the light blue lines, if the taxable value of properties whose property tax is currently frozen had been subject to the full property tax levy of 41.7 $0.06 per $100. So that's a light blue line. And the dark blue line is the property tax they actually paid. So in 2025, city of Plano, the amount of property tax foregone due to the freeze was around 11 million. If property taxes were increased at the voter approval rate of 3.5% per year, then we would project the amount of revenue foregone to increase to 16 million by 2030, which is what's shown in the on the far, far bar on that chart. Any questions? Okay. Hand it back to you Matthew. Yeah. Thank you. All right. So I'll be brief with sales tax. Property tax sort of is the big rock the next biggest rock effectively is your sales tax. We did look at some details Steve went back and you'll see a number of years plotted back to 2013. Pardon me. But as he looked at the correlation we found a very tight correlation after sales tax reporting was in from October through January of any given fiscal year, you'll find it's an even tighter correlation than that of the property tax that he just mentioned, with one exception. An outlier you'll see below the line is at 2020. No surprise there. It didn't bear the same fruit. Right. Because fiscal 2020 had some hiccups. But but that said we're able to model and forecast with, again, a statistical model, a simple statistical model within the model. That said, this can be overridden and it will likely be overridden because you also engage a third party sales tax consultant. To go deeper, probably look at industry codes to look at some other items. So we have our tool. You have your own advice from a third party. And then staff could even override that as they look to budget. Right. So among these tools you'll see for budgeting purposes the model can use our forecast. It can also rely on McLean. I believe Lewis McLean and his forecasting tool at the moment. What you'll see are the past several years plotted here. The actual tax, as mentioned, probably every budget season, the policy of budgeting a three year average sales tax is shown here. That's that blue line right. So this is the three year average. The real expected is that yellow dot in here in 25. That's actually the revised estimate of around 122 or 121 and some change. But then we have that gap each year in the forecast. That's important to point out now, because we have a later forecast, and we'll get to it where we employ some fraction of that delta. So our baseline model would not say there's additional contingent appropriations from this sales tax, but rather just use the budgeted three year average. Should the city outperform the three year average. As may be the case many fiscal years, there is a supplement appropriation of that expected revenue once it's reliable, and we've baked in a 75% of that gap between the blue and the yellow. So just flagging it up here because I'll use it later. But okay. So again, coming back to this, we have total revenues in the blue line on the left. Total appropriations expected or expenditures planned for consistently above. And that's that chart is flipped. Right. We want revenues over the appropriations. You see days working capital decrease substantially. If you'll forgive the number difference between what Karen just presented for 25 and what we show our model may not be informed with the latest greatest year end expectations or even the audited figures. So we're using sort of dated material, but generally we also are employing the 30 day assumption that dotted line will need to move up to the 60 day. If that was recently adopted as a policy of the council. So effectively right now, fund balances must make up any shortfall. If you were to have the no new revenue property tax, you would further deplete fund balances and effectively be in the red. If under all the assumptions we've discussed, the city was to employ the voter approval rate and generate 3.5% more, you'll see that we're still good. We're still under rather in the last couple of years. You're good for the first few years, but at some point the total cost of inflation overcomes that 3.5% and you end up with revenues just balancing out by year five. So we're able to maintain a positive days working capital balance. But we're not able to meet that 60 day again. All else equal, there are a lot of assumptions, thousands of them. Every line that's approved effectively has its own inflation assumption. But again, if the voter approval rate was approved for the next several years, you would find you're still below a working capital balance to continue operations as budgeted today. Okay. That said, I've already pointed to the fact that you use a three year average, right? And so if sales tax were to come in better and we were to conservatively say there is a gap, and instead of assuming we're going to meet all of it, use only 75% of the difference between the three year average and expected actual, you'll see that we actually turn out okay with the voter approval rate. Important to note, this is still assuming the 3.5% increase on the property tax side. But with that and the additional contingent appropriation of the sales tax, we would show that you hold the line for the first few years and you're up to 71 days working capital balance by year five. Any questions on those forecast early days yet? Please note I didn't put draft all over this, but this is not the forecast. It's an early representation of what the model will have. So tonight was really just a status update to you Council. Thank you for your time. We are sort of in this beta testing mode. We've yet to hand it over to staff. We've yet to fully automate the data import functionality with your budget tool, but we are working with staff for additions. We will be looking at debt forecasting that may inform your INS rate potential. You know that's a critical component to maintain and your property tax. But again, looking for any other feedback you may have. And with that I will just say thank you. Councilmember Ricciardelli rigidity. There we go. Thank you, mayor, and thank you all for your excellent work on this. I wanted to ask, looking at the property tax projections, you put a number to something that we've already seen as a trend, which is that as market value for real property in Plano increases, we're harnessing a lower and lower percentage of that as an increase in taxable value, which to me means that we probably need to look at diversifying our revenue sources further, which is something we've done through the cost recovery policy and other things. First of all, would you agree with that assessment that it's getting harder to harness market value increases as taxable value increases, and that that means that we need to diversify our revenue sources further? And if so, how would you recommend further diversifying our revenue sources? Sure. So absolutely. Again, I was under the old regime of truth and taxation. There's always been some hoops to jump through. The hoops are bigger and harder with fire now I think to jump through, to do anything with your tax rate in the state of Texas. So I don't envy your position on the dice. So thank you for the question. I won't say that property taxes are fixed. There are neighbors not too far from you that have raised property taxes, so that is not insurmountable. If that's the city's chosen path forward. I don't assume it is based on the question. And I would say that user fees are critical. We do think you should reexamine if you're rolling two guys in a truck and you're charging 20 bucks, you're losing money. And I've been to so many cities doing user fee studies in this state and other states, and most people are behind the times because they don't look at it and it's just off the grid. So that's one thing. The other is to know the inherent subsidies that you as providing services to residents for community good is another challenge, but you have a really fantastic team. I think you have a revenue manual that's updated with some frequency. So I think that's a great place to start. Perhaps it's where Karen and team already did start looking through all the revenue potential streams that you have, and then if you choose to carry a subsidy and not get full cost recovery, then then that would be the druthers of council. But again, I do cost of service for a living. So I'd like to put a number to anything and any fee. That's my natural tendency, sir. Well and I appreciate that. And I'll tell you, we, we don't know each other, but I think everyone sitting here knows when you said whether raising property taxes or preferred solution, I think everyone knows that that is not my preferred solution and I think not our council's preferred solution. So I appreciate the, you know, the work on putting a number on services and cost recovery. I also just wanted to say that I noted in the materials that you all provided prior to the meeting, it talked about this model being in beta. And this is it seems to me this is kind of cutting edge. And I got the sense this is not something other cities are doing. Would that be accurate? I've supported a few other cities with specific models in your own city. Right. I've helped on the utility side with similar model functionality, but the general fund is one that's been very tightly guarded. And so where I say that you already have a forward forecast, most city staffs don't go on the record with a guess because we're guessing at some point. So I think this is cutting edge. I think your team is wise to look at it. And I think you've had some some groundwork in years prior to hiring New Gen for this, looking at the economic outlook. So we hope it's a cutting edge tool that your staff can use. It's it rides on the infrastructure of Excel. So I don't own that. I can't say I'm licensing anything, but we have brilliant people like Steve to help with this and a great team of your own to kind of put those things together. So we hope it works for many years to come for you in the city. Well, thank you for that. I just wanted to say I got the impression from this that this really is, you know, a tremendously innovative, best in class approach to, you know, medium if not long range financial planning that will prepare Plano very well for the future. So as usual, Plano is leading the way. I just want to thank City Manager Israelsen Director Rhodes Whitley, our whole team, and I want to thank you all for your work on this. I'm just so, so flippin proud of this staff. This is good stuff. So thank you all. Thanks, Lippin. That's good. Yeah. There we go. I like that, Shelby. Yeah. Thank you very much for this gentleman. Looking at the INS rate, we're looking at the upcoming bond election. One of the things I've been advocating, we have a lot of debt already and are looking at more that's used for maintenance. And one of the things I've been advocating for quite a while is overtime, year after year, slowly shifting a lot of the maintenance burden that we use debt for. Right now, over to the no column of our property tax within what's feasible within the voter approval rate. Did you do any analysis so that we can spare the interest expense on the bonds for maintenance? Did your analysis include anything like that? So we've yet to really dig into the INS. We know about the proposition. We know that that's a big consideration. It's also relatively static in that once you've set it and you've issued the debt, it's a known figure against the effective role righ, of the valuations. So we haven't dug into that yet. But you're right in that relationship it's going to have a push pull effect on the portion of your tax rate to make that shift over time. So we'd like for the model to have that functionality. But we've yet to dig into the capital planning. Okay. Yeah. By my back of the envelope calculations, after roughly 8 to 10 years, that could probably account for a savings of 15, maybe $20 million in interest per year. Oh, sure, a PayGo or a fractional PayGo policy could save millions. Absolutely. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you gentlemen. Appreciate that. Thank you, thank you. All right. There are no being. No further business. Meeting is adjourned. Well, we have a break from kids. Let's stand in the shade. Okay? We need some relief. I've been working so hard. Just so you