On Wednesday night, Denton’s Special Citizens Bond Advisory Committee took back control of the meetings from the city manager-appointed consultant who had regulated it to a strict schedule that had some claiming they felt like they were in a “chokehold.”
The “chokehold” related to their limited ability to ask questions of city staff in an open forum to better understand why now is a good time to pass a multimillion-dollar bond, the largest in Denton’s history, after the $1.4 billion Denton ISD bond in May and the county’s $650 million road bond in November.
By early July, they must determine what, if anything, to include in the November 2023 city bond package that will raise taxes again if passed.
Former council member Jesse Davis led the charge at the June 1 meeting when he moved to adopt a standing rule that committee members could ask questions during an open forum moderated by Chair Kevin Roden, another former council member.
The majority agreed and passed the motion. With that vote, consultant Dr. Lizzy Johnson from TransCend4 will no longer be participating as the facilitator of the meetings.
“At the conclusion of the meeting, the City’s consultant communicated she was resigning from performing onsite facilitation during the committee meetings due to the process change,” read a June 7 statement from the city administration to the Record-Chronicle. “The consultant will continue to be a resource available for staff throughout the duration of the process.”
That resource was initially going to cost taxpayers an amount not to exceed $68,500, according to information provided by city staff.
“We are currently in the process of updating the contract based on the changes in her role,” said Ryan Adams, the chief of staff for the city.
Johnson couldn’t be reached for comment by Thursday afternoon.
At the May 23 meeting, City Manager Sara Hensley explained why they had decided to hire a consultant, which hadn’t been done with previous city bond committees. Hensley offered two reasons for doing so: The 2019 bond election “tasked the staff out” with only a 19-member committee and now they’re shorthanded in the finance department and facing a 40-member committee.
The second reason was the one that Hensley had given the Denton Record-Chronicle late last month: openness and transparency.
“With a consultant who leads this, the staff is only going to give you factual information,” Hensley told committee members.
“It’s very important to me that we have a very open and transparent process and that you as committee members make the recommendations based on your votes and it moves forward, whatever moves forward. The staff will only be here to answer questions.”
And yet, Johnson decided not to include one of the most transparent processes of a committee meeting for staff to do so: the open forum where committee members ask staff questions about the bond package proposal presentation.
“At 8 p.m. we will be walking to our cars, and the way we do that is we don’t have open forum questions because that will keep us sometimes until 10 p.m. or 11.” Johnson told the committee members. “Y’all know what I’m talking about because you sat in meetings like that.”
Johnson separated committee members into small groups at tables with a table facilitator. They weren’t allowed to ask staff questions during or after the presentation. Instead, they had to discuss their questions with their group members, then pick one question for the table facilitator who wasn’t a committee member to ask staff.
“At the end of the night, any unanswered question or concerns will be placed on the ‘parking lot’ to be answered via email or website,” Johnson said.
But the open forum is an integral part of a City Council work session and why council members are able to make decisions in the same evening at the council meeting. It follows every staff presentation. Sometimes it may be only one question from a council member. Other times it may be several questions.
And yes, oftentimes when too many questions are asked, that portion of the work session will last longer than Mayor Gerard Hudspeth, who chairs the sessions, likes, in part due to the packed schedule they have to cover and still have time to eat the catered food they receive before the council meeting that follows.
As a former council member, Davis said he understood why it was important for the committee meetings to have an open forum for people to ask questions, and he pointed this out at the June 1 meeting after the consultant agreed to add an open forum but after the meeting ended at 8 p.m. and only until 8:30 p.m.
Not all of the committee members were required to stay.
Davis reminded the other members that he was on the council when they voted to create the committee and that they didn’t dictate exactly how the meetings should unfold.
“The city has hired a very able facilitator to conduct the meetings,” Davis said. “But these are our meetings. This is our committee. It’s not the City Council’s. They created it. … We produce the guidance that will help them next. But it’s our committee and it’s not, respectfully, Dr. Johnson’s committee.”
Davis continued explaining that it was important for committee members to hear all of the questions from their peers so they could make an informed decision. He explained that waiting until after 8 p.m. doesn’t provide those answers for him.
“The discussion afterward is not what we are here to do,” Davis told committee members. “We are here to get into this. We can’t do that in the way that Denton expects us to do that in table groups, submitting one question at a time. As good as our facilitators are — and no offense to you all — that’s not going to get the job done.
“I’m sorry if that doesn’t get us out by 8 p.m. That’s not why I’m on the committee. I hope that’s not why you’re on the committee.”
The majority agreed.
“My proposed change was really very minor — just one standing rule for open Q&A,” Davis said. “But with that vote the committee members made clear that they needed open dialogue and some ownership of the process. That came to fruition last night when we adopted Mr. Roden’s proposed hybrid process, and then put it to good use.”
Davis called the June 7 meeting under the new process “excellent” and praised city staff’s presentations and the insightful questions and perspectives from committee members, calling them “a diverse, experienced and engaged group of Dentonites.”
Roden reiterated what Davis had said and said that he was proud of the entire committee for finding a path forward, which he mentioned at the meeting in late May can be difficult in today’s political climate.
“I’m a firm believer that the city is really where we learn how to do democracy,” Roden said. “That’s why it is important that this committee stew as long as needed to hammer out a process that they feel taps into the expertise, passion and diverse ideas among the group.
“At the end of the day, we are there to serve as a microcosm of the city, advising the City Council on what can make Denton great and what our citizens can get behind.”
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