Hey oh. Oh, heat. Oh, oh wo. All right. Test test test. Bond book's bond book.
>> Hold on to it whenever I like. >> Good morning everyone. We're going to go ahead and get started. if >> you can please make your way to the seating area and we'll go ahead and get started. >> All right. So, if we haven't if you haven't had a chance yet, we do have
some QR codes located here up on the screen as it relates to the bond detail, the bond book, as well as the charter details. Um, if you don't have your phone, that is all right. Uh, we also have the website located right over here, for Texas.gov/2026bond. Um, as you walked in, you should have
received a bond book, but if you did not, please feel free to raise your hand and we'll go and walk one over to you. Uh, we will be referencing plenty of details that are located in the bond book as it relates to projects, project scope, where they're located, as well as the dollar amounts, um, even just like
the bond information. Uh, it'll be all located in here, as well as voter information. So, this is a a hot little item uh that we definitely encourage you to to use as some reading material before you go to bed tonight. All right, so to get started, let me set this up.
There we go. Uh we're here to really speak on the 2026 bond and charter election. My name is April Rose Esamia. Background is in civil engineering, so love talking about infrastructure. And I'll be taking on the 2026 bond portion of today's presentation. Uh joining me today will also be Gavin Midgley um who
will be uh speaking on the charter election. Uh the we'll run through the purpose of today's presentation, the 2026 bond program as it relates to the development, the program summary, the sample ballot, bond propositions, charter amendments, as well as the
schedule with what's coming up next and also offer some time for question and answer. Uh this particular presentation is being streamed live today on YouTube. Um, so at any point if you happen to have questions, we will we'll kindly ask that you use your uh that you use a
microphone so that folks uh listening in can go ahead and also listen to that question. So to begin, today's purpose is really to provide information as it relates to the 2026 bond and charter amendments. This is really your opportunity to ask questions and we highly encourage you to if you want to
get really deep into anything that's crossing your mind, uh feel free to to throw them this way, right? Because election is coming up on May 2nd. um as well as uh early voting beginning on April 20th. So, it will also provide further opportunities for public education. Um sort of as I mentioned
before, this is on YouTube and we do post these videos uh right after and you can always listen in again if you would like to hear it a third time or second time through. Um so again, the QR code and with that we'll go and get started with a short little video.
Every four years, the city prepares a bond program. One way of funding large capital projects such as roads, parks, libraries, and public facilities that are appropriate for long-term financing. During this election, you might notice language on the ballot that says this is a tax increase. This is new language
mandated statewide for all bond elections. However, here in Fort Worth, we've structured the bond package so that we don't anticipate a tax increase. The city of Fort Worth's 2026 bond program totaling 845 million is organized into several propositions.
Each proposition outlines a set of projects that could be funded through bonds pending voter authorization. Proposition A proposes $511 million for streets and mobility infrastructure projects. It represents the largest portion of the 26 bond package and is
intended to fund long-term transportation projects. The proposal includes funds for 12 major roadways. The largest amount of money in Proposition A. Roughly 328 million will go towards rehabilitating our streets. Other funds will go towards intersections, bridges, traffic signals,
street lights, adding sidewalks, and improving safety for street crossings around our schools. Proposition B includes $185 million for parks, recreation, and open spaces, including land acquisition, facility improvements, and trail enhancements.
Park improvements may include renovations to existing community park areas, as well as development of new outdoor park amenities. Some projects in the proposition include a new outdoor pool, renovations and expansion of some athletic complexes, provide more open space areas throughout the city, and
replacement of an aging community center. Proposition C allocates $14 million for public library projects. This will include remodeling three of our existing locations. Proposition D provides $10 million for
affordable housing initiatives across the city. This proposition would provide funding aimed at creating new affordable home ownership and rental housing opportunities specifically for households earning up to 120% of the city's area median income. Activities
under this proposition may include land acquisition and site preparation, construction of affordable housing, construction of infrastructure to support affordable housing, home repair programs, and loans and grants for affordable housing.
Proposition E proposes 64 million for police, fire, and emergency communications facilities, including new construction and renovations to existing buildings. These improvements support long-term operational projects for the public safety departments.
Proposition F allocates 59.8 million for a new upgraded facility for our residents and animals, which would replace the Chuck and Brenda Silcox animal care and adoption center. This proposition would fund the construction of an upgraded shelter with expanded veterary facilities, also including new modern kennels with natural light and
upgraded playard for animal. The blonde election is scheduled for Saturday, May 2nd, 2026 with early voting available between Monday, April 20th and the following Tuesday, April 28th. For facts and resources, visit forworth texas.gov/2026
bond. All right, we have Miss Christristianne here was part of the video, so yay for her. Um, all right. So, uh, if you've been part of the first, uh, bond, um, phase with the 226 bond program development, uh,
this may look very familiar to you, but, uh, if you are new, we'd like to kind of walk through how we arrived here with the final 2026 bond program. So, beginning as far back as March 4th, 2025, uh, the city first proposed a bond list to city council. Now that bond list
was as a result of a larger infrastructure need in the amount ranging greater than $2 billion at that time. We had to fit that into a specific you know capacity for the bond program in which the bond program was at $840 million and that developed the the
proposed bond list that city council approved on August 5th for community engagement. Um, so then beginning on October 20th through November 17th, uh, we held citywide bond meetings in which we received continuous public feedback. We closed the public feedback on
December 31st so that we can really aggregate all of that data. Um, then we can propose back to council as far as, you know, what was the input from all of the city residents as well as proposing that final project list. Um, such that on February 10th, council was able to
meet and order the bond election. So, what were some of those numbers in that first phase? Well, we had 18,220 website views across a series of various web web pages that the city had in relation to the 2026 bond. We had 260
residents that attended in person across 11 council districts. Uh we had 1,19 YouTube views as well as 177 balancing act submissions. That was sort of our way to be able to really gauge and and dive into some specifics about the
propositions, the projects. Individuals were were able to type in uh specific comments as it related to the propositions such that we had a total of 329 submitted comments of which 141 came from in person through that engagement
as well as email and 188 came from that balancing act. So, this is the final 2026 bond program that council ordered um again back in February 10th. And you'll notice that the propositions are lettered. So, here's a fun fact. At a municipal letter
uh at a municipal level, we will often refer to propositions that are lettered, whereas at the state level, they're numbered. So, we will refer today, for example, Proposition A as streets and mobility infrastructure. And um we'll go and walk through just a couple amounts. This short this does break down each one
of these propositions. So for example, Proposition A at 511,480,700 um as well as Proposition C for example, public library improvements at 14,586,000. Now we do provide sort of how the ratios in this 2026 bond program compares to
previous bond cycles if you've been a part of um the previous uh bond in 2018 and 2022. Um but all this to say is that the total bond program is set at 845 million. If you were part of the first phase, uh the bond program was at 840
million. Um and so during that time, we did receive some feedback uh from uh various residents. But uh the key and we'll go and touch base on this just a little bit is as it relates to debt capacity, the city was able to pay off
some debt such that there was capacity that was available and therefore were able to utilize that 5 million of capacity to be able to put back into the bond program. And after discussing with city council, um the decision was to add
that 5 million to Proposition D affordable housing. So, previously at 5 million and now at 10 million as part of the bond program, there's also a public art funding component and this does tie back to the city council uh ordinate or
approved ordinance um such that each proposition includes funding that can be used for public art specifically related to one or more of the projects in that proposition. In other words, proposition A, as a street as the uh public art
ordinance uh states, street mobility infrastructure, up to 1% of the projects um of the amount can be utilized towards public art funding for propositions B, C, E, and F up to 2%. And proposition D
is new to the city of Fort Worth. This is a new proposition. Uh so currently uh it's proposed uh to set this at 0%. Now I say proposed because city council would have to take action to amend the existing public art ordinance to set
that proposition again proposition D affordable housing at 0%. Such that this is the the estimated total amount that would go towards public art funding. You may ask well April why is this set at 0%. Well, that kind of ties back to this
being a citywide proposition and in bold letters about how it relates to one or more projects in that specific proposition. Well, with affordable housing to be able to state one specific project in general, that'd be a little little nuanced, right? Um so given the
capacity and given the movement of trying to really implement and sort of jigsaw all these dollars together, um it's currently set at 0%. So again, that will go towards city council. um you know for their consideration later this month. So how does bond funding work? Well,
this ties back to if you've been part of our fiscal year process, the budget process, 67 cents is per $100 valuation is the city property tax rate. Now that city property tax rate is broken up into two buckets. I like to think of this as
the day-to-day activity which is operation and maintenance and that is set at 52.25. So 52.25 of that 67 cents goes back to day-to-day operations. So I April Rose Essamia I am funded through the general fund
day-to-day we are here at a community center also funded through uh the operation and maintenance. Now there are some there's another bucket right and that is tied to the interest and syncing rate that is a very fancy word for
saying our debt service to be able to pay off and pay towards debt. So that is set at 14.75. So those two so in other words like one penny from debt service cannot be moved over to operation maintenance. So they kind of just stay separated given a
couple of various assumptions. Now, in your bond book on page six, for example, uh we do kind of break down a lot of these assumptions as it ties back to that debt service. And I'm going to walk through three particular uh bullets
here, bullet points. So, the first is a bond election is a way for the community to vote on measures that allows the city to borrow funding for large capital projects. Again, these are major and again that ties to that 14.75 cents such
that that is set aside to pay for bond programs and other city debt. Fort Worth has historically and in this 2026 bond program structured um its bond to work within the city property tax rate such that the bonds
are planned to be fully repaid without increasing the city property tax rate associated with debt. Now, what are some of those assumptions that go into that? whenever we make that statement. Well, again on page six under the property tax impact um and this would actually apply
to each one of the propositions uh we do list that if approved uh this would impose an estimated maximum annual income increase of $0 in the amount on a resident homestead in the city with an appraised value of the amount. Now it
also provides additional city financial assumptions as far as the future projected you know very conservative growth such that we even say imagine 0%. in a time thereafter after 2042. Um and
all this to say is we structure it so that bond programs can come online, right? So bond program if approved can come online and over time we pay that bond off on average about it's about 20
years. So that 14.75 cents is utilized to pay towards paying off that bond. Now, this isn't the first bond, right, with the city of Fort Worth that's being presented to the to the residents. So, imagine over time this residents have
approved a bond, it comes online, a couple years later, another one comes online, couple years later, another one comes online. And that after a couple of iterations, there is a series of payoffs of paying down the bond that is included that is covered by that 14.75.
So as we're paying off bonds, they roll off that capacity to still cover that amount still exists and that is how we structure and that is why the background and when we say that is a zero a zero dollar impact assuming all of those
assumptions in place. Um the city of Fort Worth using that debt service also has a couple of other mechanisms that could be used but like tax notes or certificates of obligation. Those are generally in a shorter time frame and with a higher interest rate. So whenever
we consider bonds that is why we utilize this as a bond program to go and present to the residents so that we can be able to cover those major infrastructures that typically have a higher dollar value associated with them. All right, with that being said, this is
a sample ballot. So, if you so choose to go vote um on April 20th through April 28th for early voting or May 2nd for the actual voting day, you'll be presented to with this. The city of Fort Worth, Texas special election. It will inform you of what
proposition you are voting on. In this case, it's Proposition A. You will be asked whether to vote for or against. And in all capital letters, this is the very first sentence that you will see. You will read this is a tax increase. This is statemandated. We cannot
supplement nor can we change this particular uh ballot as shown. So this has to say this is a tax increase. It will also inform the voter on the amount. So in this case, proposition A at $511,480,700
and it will relate to that particular proposition. Proposition A, streets and mobility. Now each proposition will be voted on individually. So you'll find Proposition B for for um parks, recreation, open space, Proposition C
for public library improvements will also have its own including the charter amendments. And next, because I'm a big fan of being able to repeat things twice or even three times, we're going to go and dive in just one more time on each one of these uh bond propositions. So, the
first for proposition A, streets and mobility, $511,480, 700 that can go towards a series of improvements that is actually detailed in your bond book. So, you'll find major roadways that are listed as well as
neighborhood streets. Each one of these um major roadways, the streets can go towards construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation. And we also inform you as far as what limits um that we would be planning to make those improvements on. In addition to that, we also have
these um you know, we also have bucket categories and those bucket categories would cover the additional such as shown as pedestrian ways, bicycle infrastructure, streetscapes, signals, traffic control, railroad crossings and so forth. in your bond book as well as in this
room and on this slide you'll see this exhibit shown here in which uh each one of these propositions we'll we'll go ahead and detail where some of these projects would be occurring. Um so feel free to if you have it on a digital like media with your phone zoom in on that or if not walk on over to any one of our
proposition um related tables to have a you know detailed insight on that. So for proposition B for park recreation open space acquisition improvements that is set at 185 million 140,000 to cover aquatic facilities athletic complex
botanic garden infrastructure of community parks community centers as where is what we're in now golf courses gateway parks as well as open space. If you've been part of previous bond cycle or the 2022 bond program, open space was
a standalone proposition. In the 2026 bond program, it is included in proposition B. That is a citywide type of improvement and also as it was in the 2022 bond program and as proposed uh for the 2026 that would also have a 0%
towards public art funding as it relates to open space. for Proposition C. This is public library improvements and in the amount of 14,586,000, this would go towards the relocation of the Fort Worth History Center. The
renovation of the Southwest Regional Library, the renovation of the Diamond Hill Jarvis Library for Proposition D, and this is affordable housing. Uh, this would go in the this is in the amount of $10 million. Now each one of these dollars as proposed would be used to
leverage for a v for various reasons as shown here for the purpose. Now there's a lot of words but really the big highlights is that this funding is proposed to be used if approved by the voters uh towards land acquisition construction of housing and neighborhood infrastructure to support affordable
housing funding affordable housing and home repair programs as well as funding loans and grants for affordable housing purposes. There is there are two there are two asterisks on this slide and that is really just to show as permitted by law. This is a new proposition to the
city of Fort Worth and so we actually have our neighborhood services representatives to be able to help and assist uh with any questions that you may have regarding this proposition but we'll also invite them up here if you want to dive in. All right. So next is proposition E in for police, fire and
emergency communication facilities in the amount of $63,919,300 towards the new fire station 46 in southwest Fort Worth. The new emergency communication center that is proposed for the zipper building located in downtown. So you can drive by that to see that zer the zipper mural. Um as
well as the rebuild of the fire station 40 near northwest Fort Worth. And Proposition F is for animal care and shelter improvements in the amount of 59,874,000. And that would go towards the construction and equipping of a entirely
new animal control uh center facility to replace our existing uh facility. And we do have um our representatives uh to be able to go ahead and come up here and speak on this project as well. So with that, I'm going to hand this off to Gavin to speak on charter amendments.
Thanks, April Rose. Uh, good morning. I'm Gavin Mijley. I'm one of the assistant city attorneys in the city attorney's office, and I'm here to explain the charter amendment propositions. Uh, first I want to explain just briefly what a charter is. Essentially, it's the city's uh organizational and foundational
document. Think of it as a constitution similar to the state constitution, the US constitution. and it governs how our how our local government, how our city government is structured, the limitations placed on council, etc. And so, because that was approved by the voters back in 1924 or so, and it uh has
been amended a number of times over over the years, if you if the city wants to amend its charter, it needs to ask the voters. Hence why you'll see charter amendments on the uh ballot if you vote. So with that, uh, I'll I'll briefly describe each proposition, explain the
effect of it. If it works, it'll be approved. Uh, starting with Proposition G. Proposition G is the proposition for mayor and council pay. Currently in the charter, mayor and council pay is set at 25,000 for council and 29,000 for mayor.
If Proposition G was approved, mayor pay would go to 60,000 and council pay would go to 50,000. that would start at the beginning of the city's next fiscal year if it was approved, which is October 1st of 2026. So, it' give uh city finance time to plan and budget for the uh
increase in salary, which you'll see there. Last last time uh mayor and council pay was approved was actually in 2006. So, this is 20 years after that. Um and at that time, it was increased to those numbers you see currently, 29,000
and 25,000. Proposition H would remove department director hearing requirements from the charter currently in the charter if a department director who reports to the city manager ultimately reports to the city manager is dismissed the city manager decides you're not doing a good
job I'm getting rid of you if they so choose they can force council to have a hearing uh regarding their dismissal from that position. Now part of the charter also says that the council cannot interfere with the appointments of the city manager. Uh Fort Worth is a council manager form of government and
so council sets the policy and the city manager essentially carries out the day-to-day operations and manages the city and that includes hiring and firing of his appointees or department directors. So council actually at that hearing cannot change the city manager's decision. They can't rehire the
department director. They can't say, "Yeah, we agree with you, city manager." They just sit there and hear it. um and they're actually prohibited by by another charter provision from doing anything. Uh so if this was approved that that section would be uh eliminated or that provision would be eliminated
and terminated department directors would not be able to force a public hearing before council regarding their dismissal. Proposition I would remove redundant hearing requirements for council appointees. So few positions within the city, city manager, city attorney, city
auditor, city secretary and municipal court judges are appointed directly by council. Council directly hires them. Um and so council can directly fire them unlike the department directors in the previous slide. Uh for a number of these, city manager, city attorney, and city auditor, there's a an additional
hearing requirement. So, if council is is going to terminate a city manager, city attorney or city auditor, they actually have uh in the charter the ability to request an additional public hearing on their dismissal. Uh so, in order for council to dismiss them, they
already have to take action at a public hearing, which would come at a public meeting with a hearing, which would come with a hearing. So, this is an addition to that. Uh so, it's sort of akin to council decides city attorney or city manager is not doing a good job. they want to remove them from the position.
Uh they have a hearing to dismiss them and they have another hearing to confirm that dismissal just to make absolutely sure they're getting rid of the employee. Uh if this proposition were were approved, uh it would just remove
it would just stay at one or it would go to one hearing uh at the public meeting at which council takes action on hiring or firing them or in this case firing them. Proposition J would remove a separate budget hearing requirement uh currently
in the charter uh with regard to the adopting the budget. It says that the budget cannot be adopted at the same meeting as a budget hearing. State law already provides for a number of budget transparency requirements. Uh the charter also has uh a date by which the
budget has to be on file with the city secretary's office. state law requires at least 10 days additional notice uh on before you have a budget hearing. Um and so this is sort of a city self-imposed uh stumbling block. Uh it's a procedural
requirement and an already complex process for budgeting. Um and if this were approved then the budget could be adopted at the same meeting that the budget hearing is. Now that not that's not the only hearing or public meeting in which the budget is discussed. There's a number of budget workshop
meetings uh prior to that. Um and and there's an additional meeting before that when the budget's filed. So this wouldn't remove any transparency. And in practice, the city because of timelines and when the budget has to be adopted actually usually ends up calling this
meeting the meeting to adopt the budget 15 minutes after the meeting on the budget hearing. So uh in essence, it's removing that self-imposed stumbling block. Proposition K uh would remove public service corporation annual reporting
requirements. There's a provision in the charter that requires public service corporations to submit an annual report to the city. Uh historically public ser service corporations have been regulated by the city. These are going to be your natural gas companies, your util electric utility providers, water utility providers, telecommunication
providers, etc. So the charter is requiring them to submit an annual report. Over time though, the state has taken a lot of that regulatory authority and transferred it to state agencies where these uh public service corporations file their reports. Uh those reports are available on those
state agency websites. Uh many of the many of the public service corporations actually don't follow this charter provision and so this would remove that charter provision to require them uh to file their reports with the city uh and instead rely on the state agency
websites where they file their reports. Uh Proposition L would remove an ordinance requirement for the granting of a privilege. So granting of a privilege is essentially a franchise to use city streets. Uh this is going to be your solid waste haulers, uh recyclers,
etc. So any anytime any one of those organizations wants to operate within the city, they have to secure a grant of privilege uh from council. And currently the charter requires that council adopt an ordinance for each individual business. The city council has already adopted in its code of ordinances a set
of criteria for grant of privilege applications to comply with. So in order to get a grant of privilege, they have to comply with that applica those application requirements in the city code and then council has to adopt an individual ordinance for each one of those businesses. Uh if this proposition
were approved, uh count or staff could administratively approve uh grants of privilege on the basis that council has set in their in their ordinance. Um and it wouldn't have to adopt an individual ordinance for each business requesting a granting a grant of privilege.
Proposition M would remove the ordinance requirement for city department reorganization. Um so currently in the city charter, there's a number of departments that are required by charter. That's going to be like police, fire, public works, water, finance, etc. Um, and then it also
requires that any or any any department created by the city must be created by ordinance, which really uh would require council to adopt an ordinance if they needed to create a department, eliminate a department, or combine a department. Um, and if this was approved, then the
city manager could create a department or eliminate a department, as long as that department wasn't already acquired by charter or an existing city ordinance. So any of the departments that have been created by ordinance, those would need to be removed, combined, eliminated, etc. by ordinance.
But if for example in the future uh let's say the council wanted to create a new department um rather than adopting an ordinance they could just direct the city manager to create that department. Proposition N would align vacancy timelines with the election code. So
currently in our charter with regard to vacancies that occur on the council uh there's a timeline that does not comply with state law. If this proposition were approved, essentially our charter would just line up with state law and then the process for filling vacancies near the
end of a term uh would be in accordance with existing charter provisions uh related to filling those vacancies. So, I've got a timeline here. I've been told it's confusing. If you have any questions on it, come see me after. Um but essentially at the bottom there,
you've got all of the uniform election dates. Uh those are the dates the state has said cities you can only have elections on this date unless the governor has authorized an emergency election which rarely happens happens a couple happens a couple times or hap sorry excuse me happened a couple times
for co it's happened a couple times for small cities where they can't meet quorum so they can't take any any official action but essentially if you want to have an election you have to have an election on a uniform election date which are going to be the first Saturday in May or the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November. Um, council has two-year terms in Fort Worth. And so, if there's a vacancy after uh the last date to order an election, because there's a timeline in which you have to order an election to have it on that date. Uh, you can't just
order an election November 1st and have the election November 4th. If that's the election date, that's not enough time for uh the county clerk or the county elections administrator to upload the proposition or upload the the ballot information uh into their systems. So,
you've got to order it 78 days before that election. So anytime if there's a vacancy after that last date to order an election on the November election prior to the general election, uh essentially our next opportunity to have an election is the general election date, which really doesn't make sense to order a
special election to fill a vacancy on the same date you're going to have a general election. So this would just align that with uh state law and move that timeline back. I'm sure I probably confused people, but again, I'm I'm there if you need if you
need any questions answered. All right. Proposition O would modernize language requirements for documentation required to pay claims. Currently in the charter, there's a specific provision uh that requires uh the payment of claims be supported by a purchase order.
Specifically says purchase order. A lot of claims that the city pays are not supported by a purchase order. They're legitimate claims. the city actually owes them. Um, but they're just not called a purchase order. So, this is just a language cleanup. It's a modernization. It changes purchase order
to appropriate written documentation. And that's just to encompass all of the various forms of debt that the city owes. All right. And that's that this is our last uh bond and charter election meeting. With that, I'll turn it back
over to April Rose. Thank you, Gavin. All right, so um we're here, as Gavin mentioned, today is uh this is the last education meeting, but does not mean that it's the final one, right? You can always go online on YouTube if you want to dive in again. Um
but early voting does begin April 20th through April 28th. If you're curious about what voting locations or any additional information, the very last page of your bond book uh does list and does provide links to all the various county uh websites when it comes to
voting. And so you can hop on there, find out times as well as a reminder that again early voting dates as well as the election day occurring on May 2nd. With that, we will go and open this up for questions. Uh please raise your hand if you have a question and we'll bring a
mic over to you. Hi. >> Hi. In the last um bond meeting last Thursday, as you know, I asked the um city manager how many bids he had for the um animal shelter, for example, and
he said none. So, I think we need the Fort Worth man. They just came up with this multi-million dollar random amount. So before you ask us to fit the bill, why
don't you you need to be transparent and do your due diligence, put notices out to every builder, construction, etc. in Fort Worth for bids on all the projects. Um, the bids should be based on price,
turnaround time, and historical proof of craftsmanship, sustainability of their work, the finished product, and um to let us know of any lawsuits that each of these companies have had against them.
Then come back to the the people you want to pay for these and show a line by line broken down expense report of what they're saying we need. So that we can say for example on a um uh the animal
shelter. If there's a line item in there for expensive artwork on the wall or a um art in the ground or whatever on the fence, that doesn't help the animals. They don't know. Um we need to know line
by line so that we can see um you know because as you know we want absolute cost needed. We don't want to pay for extra um anything that we don't need and
and we need uh transparency. Um and this should have been already done before we were asked for multi-million dollar um uh receipts. Um the city manager makes almost a half a million dollars a year
plus a $600 car expense. Um, if you were to build a house and someone said it's going to talk take uh 10 million. Would you say okay or would you say whoa wait break down show me what are do you have a golden uh restroom? What's going on?
And that's what we need. >> All right. Thank you for your comment. Um I'm going to go and speak on the high level as far as some of the propositions and project development and then I'll go and invite Brian to speak specifically on um the proposition as it relates to the shelter improvements. Um so I work
with the capital infrastructure strategy team as part of the for lab and each one of the proposition teams are tasked to develop project scopes as well as something that is known as an opinion of probable construction cost that is typically provided um by a design
engineer or it's provided by architects that is really tied back to uh historical bid items and called bid tabs that the city has collected over time and city staff uh works in terms of developing all those projects that $2 billion need. The reason why we're able
to even know that $2 billion need is because when a project is identified and if whenever a project is being scoped even at a high level there's a series of iterations of that OPCC. So that very first one is tied to preliminary understandings. preliminary
understandings from a roadway, from the limits, or in this case a facility, and that could be uh the animal care and control center or even the emergency uh operation uh center as well. That ties back to historical cost. We don't look too far back because we want to keep the
numbers somewhat relevant. Now, on top of that, we also take into account each one of those bid item lists, again, preliminary. And we also like to add something known as inflation or escalation. And so we have, you know, the numbers that we're that we've seen even historically precoid, after COVID,
and sort of what we're seeing now. And we do tie that back to escalation factors because of course the bond doesn't really start, you know, day one. We have to be able to utilize those dollars to be able to project out through a series of years so that when a
facility or a roadway uh infrastructure is goes out for construction that particular dollar amount is escalated and inflated for that specific year. So I'm just going to I'm going to bring it and tie it back to uh capital for roadway real quick. So we start off
right now in the in the bond program development. we get the preliminary, you know, scope. Then, should the bond be approved or passed, that then goes into the the next phase, uh, in which we're able to bring on a design engineer and we're able to work with them to create
an engineering design contract and that sort of sets the design phase. Now, that design engineer that we bring on board develops a 30, a 60, a 90, and a final OPCC. And each one of those is tied to, you know, they we bring them on board
because they are the designer of record and they also have historical no like no known of what's occurring within North Texas as it ties back to bid item list. And then from there that the city staff works with the engineer to put that out
for bid. And during that time, the city of Fort Worth has a program called Bonfire. And that goes and we actually solicit all of our projects on there for everybody to see. Each one of those projects goes out to all of the contractors so that they have the opportunity to prepare for that
particular project as well as to bid on the project in a competitive basis. Then after that we you know based off of how the contract the contract is set up. Sometimes it's called Semar, sometimes it's design bid build, other times it could be you know competitive sealed
bidding. There are so many different contract ways in which we get that dollar so that we can get the best bang for the dollar amount and then from there finally it goes to construction and then it gets delivered. Um so that was just a background that's probably a little too much wording for myself from
an engineer standpoint but I'm going to hand this off to Brian to kind of talk about the animal care and control center. >> How you doing? Brian Doerty, co-compliance director. Um I completely understand uh what you're saying here ma'am. um without a breakdown and then hearing you didn't get quotes, it sounds
as if we just threw a number at a dart board and said, "Hey, give us this to have it built." Um what he meant with that was we we haven't gone out to get bids for actual quotes because we can't really do that when we haven't got the bond approved because that's part of the process to which we go. So, we're not
going to be spending dollars and resourc I'm I'll get there. And so, that's what he meant by that. But no, two years ago, we hired a consultant and they did a full analysis of all the shelters in the metroplex as well as nationwide as well as within the state. Um, and then they
pulled recent ones that had been built. Uh, Grapevine had been built in the last couple of years. They also looked at nonprofits. We looked at Operation Kindness. There's a lot of facilities that have been built and came up with a construction, you know, cost per square foot. And so, no, I can give you a
breakdown of that $58 million. Um, I'll gladly email you what we have and it is very very detailed. It goes down to as far as space for kennels, space for enrichment, our veterary areas. It it breaks it down very extensively, but to the extent we haven't gone to contractor
A, B, C, D, and have their quotes, we'll know that that's part of the process if the bond gets approved. But there was copious amounts of research and working back and forth. And then once we got that consultants uh profile and everything on the assessment, we still met with our own property management
groups and like she said with engineers and everything within the city um because it is a very big deal. Uh these bonds are not taken lightly. We started prepping for this over two years ago and so we do turn over every stone. We look at every possible scenario um because I
believe there was around $2 billion worth of things that were needed for this. So that already got paired down to the 845 million that I believe we're looking at here. But I promise you there was a lot of extensive research looked into this and a lot of that went into the actual square foot of the facility because while this is not going to raise
capacity replacing Silox, it's actually going to have the space needed for these animals so they're the most adoptable and they're in the best care they can get for the public. Um, while we're still and and it's one thing when you look at it where you're like, "Okay, well that's, you know, that's 50 or $60
million for an animal shelter. Well, it is also serving the public to the extent that we are out getting stray dogs. You know, if you have a dog chasing, you call us. We're going to respond and get out there. This is also going to support those services as well as for our staff. Um, I highly encourage you uh to go visit Chuck and Brenda Silcox Center
before you vote. That that that that's the one thing. And I I'm not saying to vote for or against it. That's not what we're here for. I just want everyone to vote. But if you want any sort of background other than what we have over here, you can definitely stop by and visit it. But no, a lot of research went into uh to get to that number. It was
not something that we just we just came up with. >> Hey, and Brian, I just want to add in too, and just to finalize this, we're f we're following uh state procurement processes. It would have been really it we wouldn't have been allowed by law to go out and seek bids for a project that
we don't even have funding identified for yet. And I do suggest if you want to follow up on the state procurement processes, that's a state issue. Follow up with your state legislator if you want to talk about those processes. But the city team here are following uh
procurement processes. Um and the way they walked through the timeline is the appropriate way to um approach funding these big projects. It's also unusual because uh when you uh
any company uh looks forward and says, "Hey, we need an to build an extra room," they go out for bids. >> Yeah. And we will, like you said, once if if a bond passes and the funding is
identified, we will follow and go out for bids. And as April mentioned, the Bonfire um software that allows bids to be um notifications to be spread wide and so there's a wide variety of vendors that will be able that will be aware
that this is out there and available um and will be able to participate in that bid process. >> Great question. I I love diving into all those specifics. So um does anyone have any additional questions or comments? Oh, all are you. You sure? One more
time. Okay. Well, then that's it. Thank you all so much for being part of the process of the 2026 bond program. Uh if you happen to have any questions, we do have Council Member Crane um here today. Would you like to say anything or add anything? All right. Yes.
>> Yeah. All right. Well, thank you all again for taking time out of your day. Thank you.