I

now declare that the Plano City Council is convened in open session, that all council members are present.

The

council will now recess into executive session and training room A to hold a closed executive meeting pursuant to the provisions of Vernon's Texas Code's annotated government code, Chapter 551.

The Open Meetings Act, in accordance with the authority contained in Section 551071 to consult with the attorney to receive legal advice and discuss litigation.

And section 551087 to discuss economic development matters.

Thank

you.

Andrew.

So this evening we wanted to first start just with a recap of some of the council objectives as staff interpreted from the last meeting where we had this discussion.

Certainly at the top, uh continuity of service, uh community input, the connectivity inside and outside of Plano, a prioritized schedule, modernized options, and finally education and implementation for an alternative transit solution.

Regardless of ongoing negotiations and where we may end up, it's important that we have something uh stood up and ready to

go.

So with that, um we moved forward uh putting together the structure of the Collin County Connects Committee.

Um initially, you know, staff had suggested an eight-member appointed uh board, should council want to change any of these aspects, it is of course your prerogative.

Um we thought that it'd be important, and we plan to have staff liaisons from across the city with different departments represented in those meetings, um, not to have our finger on the scale, but rather uh just to be a resource.

So if any reports from the committee members need to uh be compiled, research, etc., we can handle that.

Um the committee themselves ideally are looking at to review the vendors uh and possible options that we have for continuity of service and ultimately will provide feedback and recommendations to this body.

So

to talk a little bit about the timeline.

Again, you see up there uh council direction was given on the fifth of this month.

Um we had applications open.

We had nearly a hundred applicants, uh a lot of interest, and we were excited to see that um interest on this issue.

Uh tonight we'll be considering the appointments.

Um tomorrow we will send the appointees a packet with information on uh the roles, uh, the committee goals and objectives, the different vendors, uh, as well as a survey that we hope to receive results back from helping uh the committee get started with a ranking of priorities.

So whether that be cost, safety, equity, whatever those elements are, uh the committee members will be able to have time to look at those and prioritize them.

We have uh suggested that the meetings uh take place for the first two weeks of December and that uh the uh 16th of December at the council meeting be the report outdate.

However, understanding this is a very condensed time frame.

We've built in alternative options should the committee wish to work a little bit longer.

Of course, you know, the longer that we wait, um, the less time we'll have to stand up on option, so we wanted to provide at least a prioritized schedule on the forefront.

Um so you can see there are two different dates for a potential start date for this alternative.

We envision because DART services will maintain uh uninterrupted between now and the election.

We anticipate phasing in this alternative, uh, but having it ready to go uh the next day after the election, regardless of of what those results might be.

Um so you can see there the the timeline uh as we've anticipated

it.

And so uh just once again I wanted to uh remind everyone here of the current DART service area and areas uh in town that are currently unserved.

Uh but with that I just uh am here for any questions.

If you have any thoughts on the the committee structure or appointments, happy to take questions.

All right.

Thank you, Andrew.

Any questions for Andrew?

All right.

The next item is personnel appointments to the Collin County Connects Committee member chair.

And

I think all of you have a Collin County Connects Committee nominee list and and uh what we have here and the recommendation has been eight uh on that committee.

And again, this is helping us in quite frankly, six different uh categories of disability, senior, transit rider, underrepresentative, downtown, business owner.

These categories would be important for us to get the information that we need to be able

to

really make sure we're not uh leaving any gaps on service needs throughout the uh the uh the city of Plano.

So um before we get started, I I just want to make sure everyone is okay with uh the number um because we it again it's it's either eight or you know could be somewhere in the middle, 10 to 12 or or 16, but anything above that, I think we've all had experience with 16 members being very difficult to uh

to

get a whole lot done.

So uh I'm more than happy to go any direction you want to uh go, and I'll I'll be glad to take uh your thoughts.

Uh Mayor Pro Tim.

So I I'm um I am asking that we be allowed to appoint two.

And the reason for that is because we have more than a hundred applicants in in this um, you know, that shows a lot of interest in wanting to participate in planning our new transit um.

And I I think having eight would be really difficult to get this um whatever the committee decides and get that out to um the community as a whole.

But whereas if we have two from each of the categories like disability, senior, business, downtown underrepresented transit riders, and just Plano resident, then they could sort of help each other in trying to communicate or be the liaison to uh to communicate what is being discussed and what is the reason rationale for whatever decision that they make.

So that would that would actually

be