​Esther interviews . Carson Underwood. He is running for Plano City Council Place 2. All the candidates were invited by email to come on our show individually to answer questions and have a discussion about Plano issues. Carson Underwoods opponents did not respond to our emails. 

​Esther and Ruth talk about new food regulations coming to Plano, a good bill of the week, and City Council Candidates interviews.

Epi 40  Transcript 
(The following is a transcript of the above episode that was created by software. It is not perfect, but it is a good summation of what was said.)
  Hello, listeners, welcome to Plano's political podcast. I am Esther and I'm Ruth, [Esther] and today we have some Plano items, a good bill of the week and a Texas legislator update. First up, an update from the Texas Legislature.
[Esther]Well, folks, the House passed a budget and I am not talking about the Federal Congress. I am talking about the state. Yes, we have a budget. Some highlights, 51 billion for property tax relief. That is an increase of 11.2 billion, 63 billion to fully fund school enrollment, plus an additional 7.7 billion in new targeted K through 12. Now, if we cannot educate our kids on that much money, we have a problem. We have money to secure the border, money for new roads projects, water infrastructure, mental health, women's health and maternal safety, and a billion for wildfires response and emergency readiness. And those are just some highlights. Obviously, I'm not going to read the entire budget to you. You would cure your insomnia.
 So let's move on to a good bill of the week. And it is from our very own Candy Noble of Collin County. And this good bill of the week is HB22. It's always good if it's a lower number it means it's a high priority for the Governor. So this is relating to an exemption from ad valorem taxation of intangible property. So basically it removes the section on taxing intangible personal property. And basically it says intangible personal property is not taxable. [Ruth]Can you give an example of that. [Esther]So if let's say you create a software program you can't actually touch that. So that would be non-taxable. Texas kind of has a way of taxing businesses without having an income tax on them. So property taxes for business, if you're renting, obviously you're paying property taxes through your rent, but the business owns computers, furniture, software. If you're a medical business, you know all the equipment you need there. While it's a depreciating asset, meaning over time the cost of that would go down, it's still taxable. And that's your property, and you would have a tax. You would be taxed on that property. So this is only on the stuff that you can't physically hold with your hands. I personally think a business should not be taxed on a depreciating asset. Seems kind of silly because over time you're going to get less and less for that asset. [Ruth]Any drop they want. Any drop. [Esther]Yeah. They will squeeze blood out of a stone if they can. But this at least will not tax the stuff you can't physically hold in your hands. So it's a step forward. Right. But then we have some steps backwards. Which brings us to Plano.
So in the last Plano City Council meeting on March 24th, 2025, we had the staff come in and want to update the Food Code ordinances. So in Plano alone, we have 1,835 current permits for restaurants and anybody dealing with food in Plano alone. Now Texas has adapted the FDA model to the Texas food establishment rules. So obviously Plano has to revise to keep on pace with Texas, because they can't have different standards that would drive everyone bananas, but they can make some additional revisions to their own code and have some things that are different. So obviously this would include the FDA Food Code, the Texas Food Code amendments, and then they have some other suggestions. Ready. Here we go. [Ruth] I'm ready. So some things that they call neutral changes won't cause any additional impact on the businesses. The businesses may beg to differ. So if let's say you have fingernail attachments. Maybe like jewels or beads on your fingernails, they're requiring that you must wear gloves. Now, I would hope that whether or not you have long fingernails with all kinds of glitter and beads and whatever attached to them, that the person handling my food wears gloves. I just think that should be a given. [Ruth] Actually, fun fact, gloves in the food industry is actually less hygienic than if they weren't to wear gloves, because when they don't wear gloves they don’t wash their hands a lot, then when they are wearing gloves, gloves protect the wearer. They don't protect anyone else because you don't change your gloves that often. That's interesting. I did not know that. You won't change your glove as often as you will wash your hands. [Esther] Yeah, but you could, get very dry if you were constantly washing your hands. [Ruth] I mean, we're not talking about that. We're talking about hygiene. [Esther] I'm talking about hygiene, but if your hands are red and peeling, that wouldn't be good. You wouldn't want dead skin in your food. [Ruth] But don't overdo it, okay? [Esther] All right. Commercial equipment standards. Obviously, they want to give, definitions to these. Requiring commercial grade equipment for displays and water heaters. Apparently, these are neutral, and maybe they already have these things. I don't know why they're calling these neutral. These doesn't sound neutral to me. Also, consolidates existing codes to one section for one completed cooking procedures. Dish rack storage cannot be on the floor. That seems like how that should have been there to begin with. I don't see how anyone would put dishes on the floor and obviously kitchens must clean daily and prior to closing, which I would think all businesses do this. You know, businesses don't want to poison their customers. Mobile food units like food trucks must meet fire codes, and they want to remove the farmers market section because it's already in state law. So they're just repeating themselves. I am all for that. Reducing anything, cutting anything. No problem.
So some more restrictive changes. They want to add supplies for cleaning up vomit and diarrhea be on site. Right now they just say they have to have these supplies. It doesn't say on site. It doesn't make sense that you wouldn't have these readily available.
Chemical produce wash if using must have a concentration and testing kit on site.  Date marketing requires both date food was made and the expiration dates. Got news for you City of Plano this already exists. Okay, I don't know if they've ever been to a grocery store.  I'm going to assume that they're talking about stuff that is packaged in store, like meat and certain things of that nature and fish.  It says the date it was packed and the date to sell, by which you could take as the expiration date. They give you about 1 or 2 days usually to cook it. But me personally, I don't usually go past the sell by date. [Ruth] Because you're paranoid. [Esther] Yes. I'm paranoid. This next one I had a slight problem with. They want to require a log be kept of when the food was removed from the temperature control and the time it was discarded. [Ruth] Are they just trying to annoy people to death? [Esther] Yes. Right. There is just a rule that says food can be removed from temperature control from the refrigerator, and it can basically sit out for four hours, but there's no requirement of keeping track of that. So you know how if you're cooking something, you gotta take it out of the fridge, right. Well sometimes you'll have it out to prepare it. Well what they're saying is there's only a limit of four hours that it can be out of the refrigerator.  But apparently right now there's no log to keep track of when it came out of the refrigerator and when it was used and if it goes back in the refrigerator. I get it. Also they want to remove the option for concrete floor sealant with a fourth of an inch of sealant. I don't even know how you measure that. [Ruth] Why do we need all these added rules? Has there been problems with this? [Esther] That's my question. And that was, I think, what Rick Smith wanted to know. Has there been issues with reports of food poisoning in establishments? I don't think they answered that question. [Ruth] Are we just adding rule just to add rules? I mean, government loves doing that. So government will always want to grow. They want to feel needed. [Esther] Yeah.
This next one is going to cost money. So they want to add dump sinks. [Ruth] For what purpose does a grocery store need a dump sink? I'm sorry. Let me go back. Dumb sinks required for bar areas only and only for new bars. So why do you need a dump sink? Okay, so we have separate sinks for washing your hands. There is literally a sink that is only designated for washing hands. I've seen this in a in our temples kitchen. You can only wash hands in the sink. It makes no sense to me. Well, a lot of times bars will dump ice out. They need a place to put that. So apparently they want a separate sink to wash your hands. A separate sink to wash dishes. [Ruth] This one is for hand germs, this one is for customer germs and now a separate dump sink. [Esther] Three sinks and it's only for new bars. Apparently the older bars are going to be grandfathered in, and apparently those germs are okay if there's germs. It's ice.
 So this is for food trucks. They want to clarify what readily movable means. Isn't that kind of obvious? Readily movable? [Ruth] Yeah. It's ready to be moved. I guess so. I don't know. It's always mobile. I don't know. [Esther] So some more restrictive things that are going to cost people a lot of money. They want to require mobile food operators to arrange for employee restrooms when parked more than two hours at a location. She's looking at me like, what does that mean, folks? Okay, you are a food truck operator, maybe it's you and one employee, and you're going to be parked right outside a park. They want to make sure that your employees have a spot to use the restroom. If you're going to be there for more than two hours.  Now, this could have some ramifications. Like now the owner has to basically know which parks have restrooms. What spot has restrooms. If he can use a restroom let's say like it's outside a mall or something. I don't know. If there's a food truck park. Does the food truck park have restrooms that are available if they're going to be there in one location for more than two hours? [Ruth] Just go before you leave. [Esther] That's what would make sense to me. [Ruth] Or go in the bushes. [Esther] I don't think they want that, and I think that's the point. I see the following example happening in the future. The food truck is only going to be here for two hours. Then it will move to another location. Then I'll be there for two hours, then move to another location, and be there for two hours and I'll move again. Not one of them has a bathroom. [Ruth] I guess that's why they want to make the rule. [Esther] I guess so, but see, it only says for more than two hours. Is there a rule in here that says that you have to give your employees a bathroom break every so often? Because in my scenario, if you're moving every two hours, you don't have to.
 Mobile food establishments requiring generators while in operation, and proper sizing based on equipment. This is also expensive. I want to know if the generators are very large, how are they going to fit a generator in a food truck? A food truck has very limited space inside it. Where are they going to put these generators? [Ruth] Was it talking about a food truck? It's a food establishment. [Esther] Mobile food establishment. [Ruth] Oh, that's food trucks. I missed the mobile part. [Esther] Yeah, that's food trucks. I mean, these {generators} are not small things. And if you have a refrigerator or a stove in there, you need a certain size generator. The food trucks are basically powered by the engines of the trucks. Well, if the engine of the truck fails and turns off, then what happens to the refrigerated stuff that's in the refrigerator? Now, obviously no food truck operator wants their inventory to be wasted like that. So I would think they would have a backup plan. But generators are not cheap, and you need a certain amount of power to power a refrigerator. Those are energy suckers.  
{Lastly the code} doesn't allow operation of businesses on property one owns without a required permit. That should already be in there. And these will be placed on the April 4th meeting agenda.  [Ruth] That already happened. [Esther] I didn't see it on the April 4th agenda. I wonder if these were in the consent agenda. Mm. I will have to go back and see. So. Tu asked a question that I have to admit I would not have asked. “Will somebody be teaching operators how to do these things and the new codes?” And of course the answer was yes. We educating them. And then she asked, “Do they have translators?” She's concerned with folks who are operating restaurants whose employees don't speak English. Now, in order to be in the food industry of any kind, you have to take a test. You have to be licensed. If they don't speak English that means that they're taking this test in their native tongue. I would honestly rather, instead of paying for translators, I would actually want to pay for an English class. It's very important that if you come here, you speak the language. [Ruth] That would be more expensive. [Esther] That would be more expensive than having a translator for every single solitary language we have in the city of Plano? [Ruth] Most of it's going to be Spanish. [Esther] Well, I think Maria Tu was worried about Mandarin. She's blinking at me rapidly, folks. [Ruth] Most of it's going to be Spanish.  [Esther] We've got a very international base here. Yeah, we have some Spanish, but we've got a large Asian population and they have multiple languages. We have an Indian population. We've got the Muslim population and they have all kinds of different languages in there. So you would have to pay for a translator for each language. [Ruth] How long do you think it takes to learn English especially when you're an adult? Also, that's kind of insulting. [Esther] At least some basic things. I mean, look, you can go down in Brooklyn and you could literally walk down the street and you've got the Russian neighborhood, you've got the Korean neighborhood, you got the Spanish neighborhood. It is literally an international walk, and that's just one avenue.  We know having relatives who came  from another country, that it's very isolating for the adults who don't speak the language. They only stay in their little bubble. Yes, the kids grow up and they can speak English, but it's very isolating to the adults. You'll never get out of that little bubble. I would want to help them to get out of their bubble, to expand more and be able to prosper more. And the way you do that is by learning the language of the country you live in. Is more humane and more empathetic than getting translators and keeping folks in their little bubble. [Ruth] It's also a lot harder, and it's more expensive because you know how many classes that's going to take. It's not easy to learn a language when you're an adult. [Esther] I know,  I'm lucky I can speak English. You know, languages are not my thing, but then you're keeping people within your their little bubble. [Ruth] There's a lot of options out there to learn English. There's literally free apps out there. You don't have to pay money. Okay.
Rick Smith asked the average performance of restaurants. We have like a 90% rating for our restaurants. We're very high. Rick Horne asked about a timeline. Anthony asked, do we have regulations preventing insects in food? And of course the answer was yes to that.
So I will take a look. I will go back and see if that was on the consent agenda for the April 4th meeting. Let's see what happened. This is why I don't like the consent agenda, because it's so easy to miss something.
Before I get to our  Very Important Dog, I want to let our listeners know that we are working on setting up interviews by phone with the candidates running for City Council. We have reached out to all the candidates by email, asking them to come on the podcast and answer some questions and have a discussion on the issues. So far, four of the candidates have gotten back to us, and one has already recorded an interview with us and a discussion. All candidates will get a minimum of an hour with us. If it goes longer, it's fine. We'll just let it go longer. So these episodes are going to be at least an hour.  All of the recordings will come out on the same day. That way, no one knows what the opponent said beforehand or the questions that were asked. We have made arrangements for an interview with Gary Carey, Cody Weaver, Carson Underwood, and we are still working on setting a date with Hayden Pageant. The rest have not gotten back to us. All the candidates are welcome on our show, and we hope to get at least a response from everyone.
Now to our very important dog. Spot is still up for adoption, folks. Spot is such a good boy. He's very obedient and so smart. Spot knows the command sit, stay, and down. He rides well in the car and loves to look out the window on the drive. Spot went on a group dog walk and got along with all the other dogs. He's very friendly and likes head rubs. Spots showed no prey drive on the walk when encountering squirrels and birds. He was interested in all the passing bikers and walkers. Spot is about four years of age and likes belly rubs. So please go look up spot. You can go to our website planospolilitcalpitbull.com. Click on the link Pit bulls for adoption.
 That is going to be it for us today folks. Hope you enjoyed the show. Please remember to like, share and subscribe. This is Esther and this is Ruth for Plano's Political Pit bull signing off. 

​Today Esther talks about who is running for Plano City Council place 5. She also fills you in on another economic development agreement, and gives a TX Legislative update.

Esther and Ruth update you on zoning bills in the TX Legislature and find a Bond Education Guide that is misleading. ​

Esther and Ruth discuss a deal Plano Made with Sally Beauty. We have another Bad Bill from our very TX House Rep from District 70, and the Frys building is saved. ​