Denton City Council Work Session & Regular Meeting - June 2, 2026
Denton City Council Work Session & Regular Meeting - June 2, 2026
The Denton City Council held a combined work session and regular meeting on June 2, 2026, beginning at 2:00 p.m. The work session included detailed staff presentations and public comments on transportation governance, homelessness initiatives, and two council-member pitch sessions. The regular meeting, which convened at 6:30 p.m., covered consent agenda items, a public hearing, and individual consideration items. Key topics included a status report on the lawsuit over the Regional Transportation Council's role as the Metropolitan Planning Organization, an update on the city's homelessness response, a request for a work session on AI data facility applications, and a request regarding the firefighters' pension fund.
Consent Calendar
- Councilmember Villarreal moved approval of the consent agenda (except items F and G, which were pulled and not moving forward). Councilmember Stevens seconded. The motion passed 7–0. Items pulled earlier—L, M, and N (settlement agreements)—were placed back on consent after closed session.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Gary Henderson, President and CEO of United Way of Denton County, thanked the council for clear policy direction and financial support for homelessness initiatives. He highlighted the collaborative spirit among agencies and the positive outcomes of diversion programs that move individuals to communities where they have a higher probability of success.
- Wendy McGee, Executive Director at Our Daily Bread, reported on the shelter's new housing-focused program. She noted a 33% increase in permanent housing placements (January–May 2026 versus January–May 2025), 120 program beds plus 12 diversion beds, and a median shelter stay of 59 days. She cited challenges such as a waiting list, difficulty contacting applicants, and community misinformation that the shelter is closed. She emphasized deeper case management and individualized care.
Discussion Items
- Regional Transportation Council (RTC) vs. North Central Texas Council of Governments (COG) Lawsuit – John Polster of Innovative Transportation Solutions gave a history of the 1974 governor's designation creating a steering committee (later the RTC) as the MPO policy body, and the current lawsuit over COG's attempt to assert MPO authority. He explained that the RTC, composed of 45 elected officials and transit agency representatives, has historically directed transportation policy and funding (about $1 billion annually) without executive board approval. A temporary injunction prohibits COG from usurping RTC policy authority. A triparty agreement signed in March 2025 by TxDOT, RTC as MPO, and COG as fiscal agent would resolve the dispute; it awaits execution. A critical general assembly vote on the COG board slate is scheduled for June 12, 2026, in Hearst, Texas. Councilmember Justice compared the dispute to a fight over which body is the ultimate decision-maker. Polster emphasized the importance of attendance at the June 12 meeting.
- Homelessness Initiatives – Jesse Kidd, Director of Community Services, presented an overview. The 2026 point-in-time (PIT) count showed a 41% decrease from 2025 to 607 individuals in Denton, but this is considered a flawed measure. The housing priority list dropped 40% over the same period (from 580 to 347). Encampments remained stable (109 confirmed this fiscal year). Fire/EMS calls related to homelessness declined 30–40%, while police calls increased (attributed to improved tracking). Staff completed 10 of 19 audit recommendations. The shelter program now includes mandatory case management, volunteer hours, and an individualized housing plan; average length of stay dropped to 107 days (median 59 days). Staff are preparing for a follow‑up audit in 2027 and a new data‑sharing agreement with Child Poverty Action Lab to track eviction‐to‐homelessness pathways. Councilmember Jester praised the data-driven approach and noted a 33% increase in permanent housing placements year‑over‑year. Councilmember Stevens expressed cautious optimism while noting that HMIS data (842 unduplicated individuals at Our Daily Bread year‑to‑date) suggests the unhoused population remains high. Interim Police Chief Tony Salah explained changes in data coding that increase police call counts. The council thanked staff and community partners.
- Council Pitch Sessions – The council considered two work session requests under the two‑minute pitch process:
- AI Data Facility Application Process – Councilmember Stevens proposed a work session to discuss creating an application process and a possible temporary moratorium on new AI data center applications. The discussion would include infrastructure, environmental, and financial impacts. The council rated the priority as medium/low; no consensus for a high priority. No immediate data center applications are pending.
- Firefighters' Pension and 911 Dispatcher Retirement – Councilmember Villarreal requested a work session on two items: a cost‑of‑living adjustment (COLA) for retired firefighters and transferring 911 dispatchers from the fire pension system (FRRF) to TMRS. He noted the city's general fund balance ($42.8M, 23.6% of expenditures) and the 5% pay penalty on dispatchers under FRRF. The council rated this high priority across the board.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda approved (Items F and G pulled, not moving forward).
- Specific Use Permit (S25‑008A) for a 105‑foot cell tower at North Elm Street and Rhiney Road was approved 6–0 (one councilmember absent or not voting).
- Pre‑qualified vendor list for parking lot repairs (up to $17.808M over five years) was approved 6–0.
- SUP extension (S26‑002) for 67 multifamily units at 3301 North Elm Street was approved 5–1. The extension is valid through September 17, 2027. Council asked staff to consider defining "good cause" in the development code after multiple extension requests. An update is requested in six months.
- Closed session was held from 3:28 p.m. to 3:57 p.m. regarding litigation (Jesus Manuel Rodriguez Rivera, Brianna Leanne Nix, State Farm vs. City of Denton). No official action was taken.
- Work session concluded at 3:57 p.m.; regular meeting reconvened at 6:30 p.m. and adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
Concluding Remarks
Councilmember Stevens reminded residents of early voting and acknowledged Pride Month. Councilmember Villarreal echoed voting encouragement and Pride Month wishes. Councilmember McGee condemned recent anti‑LGBTQIA+ attacks and affirmed Denton as a welcoming community. Councilmember Holland promoted voter participation, a cat‑neutering initiative, animal shelter adoptions, and battery recycling. The mayor pro tem announced a parks tour with the parks board and encouraged public input on proposed tree preservation code amendments.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome to this meeting of the Denton City Council. The time is 2 p.m. We have a quorum, so I'll call this meeting to order. First on the agenda is citizen comment for consent agenda items. Do we have any? Seeing none. Moving on to item two requests for clarification of agenda items listed on the agenda for public consideration. Yes, sir. Councilmember Holland. Ma'am, I I pulled three items dealing with our closed session. It wasn't clear to me what the resolution of that would be relative to the order of our meeting today. So I I still want to leave those pulled, but I might unpull them when I get clarification of that. Okay. And we do have closed session items where we could ask questions on those items. Yes, thank you. All right, thank you. Any others? Oh yes. Um it is we have three items on the consent agenda regarding settlement of some lawsuits. Um what are they? They're items. Yes, sorry about that. It's uh L M and N. All right, the three items. All right. Uh moving on to 3A ID 260825, receive a report, hold a discussion, gift staff direction regarding the regional transportation council's role as the policymaking body of the Metropolitan Planning Organization and relationship with the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is John Polster with Innovative Transportation Solutions, and uh I see some new faces, so I'm gonna just up front apologize if I offend because I'm not usually let out in public very much. Uh uh General Act Council person just to ask me to come and give you all a presentation and an update on the status between the lawsuit between Denton County RTC versus council of governments. It's all public record, so there's it's just easy to do it in open form. I'm gonna give you a history lesson real quick because it matters, and then um there'll be a test at the end and you do get continuing education. 1974, uh Governor Briscoe um designated the North Central Texas Council of Governments as the MPO for the North Texas region. Uh, and when you hear the council of governments argue that that makes them the MPO, they leave out a critical part of that designation, and that designation had a caveat or a uh set carve out that said subject to a steering committee of elected officials being set up to um direct policy because the cities that were eligible to be in the MPO at the time did not trust the council of government structure, so they got a special designation in North Texas is the only area that has an MPO that has this special carve out that the steering committee would direct all the policy related to policy issues and the federal funding uh allocations. So you'll hear the cog say we're the MPO because we were designated the COG in 1974, but they leave off the steering committee part in 1978. Um Governor Clemens, at the request of North Central Texas Council of Governments, requested that the steering committee be restructured as the Regional Transportation Council. Same group of people just uh formalized it and adopted a uh set of bylaws that formalized the RTC as the policy committee. It's called the MPO policy committee for the North Central Texas Council of Government's MPO. So then in 1988, you the state before then you had to renew this agreement every year, every year, every every year. Uh they got tired of doing that. In 88, the state said until the designation changes, you're the MPO indefinitely. So you'll also hear the council of government say in 1988, the governor made COG the MPO permanently. Uh, but it was the MPO structured based on the 74, which means the RTC was still in place, and the folks that have been in that role as a COG board this whole time up until the 19th uh not and up until 2025 understood that the RTC was the MPO. Fast forward in 2005, Congress had a lot of people that were confused on what an MPO was nationwide, and so they decided in a new highway bill to define terms. So in that 2005 uh CFR, I don't have it on top of my head. They said that the MPO of the region was the MPO policy committee for that area. So they by federal law said the RTC being the MPO policy committee is now the MPO. And in 2006 to codify that, the uh Text DOT changed the agreement between the state and the MPO in North Texas to have it be a uh four-party agreement. All the others are triparty. You had Techstott, the MPO, and the fiscal agent. In North Texas, they added the RTC as a signatory.
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