--------- Sir, how are you? Good. How are you, sir? Good. Haven't seen you. So it's it's it's Oh, bad. Because I went I don't work on Mondays. You come in yesterday? No. No. I didn't come in yesterday. Oh, okay. Just dude, I go on the holiday break. It just takes me a month. So Oh. Yeah. We were hot hot and Oh, I know y'all were. Yeah. Okay, council. I'm gonna call our work session to order. Our 12/02/2025 city council work session is officially called to order, and I will turn it over to Jay Chapa. Good afternoon, and happy December. As far as upcoming and recent events, we don't anything new from the city side,
but there is a big tree lighting downtown this evening. So I wanna remind everybody of that. On organizational updates and employee recognitions, we have a couple. I'm gonna call Jess, Macachern up to the podium, to make a couple announcements. Good afternoon, mayor and council. So I'm joined by Diana Giordano, as you know. So Diana, as you know, was promoted to an assistant city manager a few months ago. But prior to that, she joined our city in June 2021 as our HR director. And I've asked her to join me up here today because she did not share with us, but I happened to run across a post where in early November, she
was recognized as the 2025 HR professional of the year by Fort Worth HR. So Fort Worth HR is a nonprofit that was founded in 1966, and it has over 600 members, all HR professionals in and around Fort Worth. And this is an organization that serves both businesses, nonprofits, governmental agencies, anybody and everybody in our fourth region. And I've known that Diana is very special and an and an incredible HR leader,
since joining the city and getting to work with her on day one. But I think this award is so special because she was not recognized by anybody here in the city of Fort Worth. She was recognized by a lady named Stacy Gillian with CMP, which is a local consulting firm, who Stacy recognized Diana's talents, her knowledge, her contributions to the city, and Stacy submitted the recognition. Diana was selected from a number of nominations for this award, and so it truly is, an honor. And when she attended the awards night, she absolutely had no clue that she was
being that she had been selected to receive this award, so she did not have her husband with her. She was just she was just there to watch and so quite surprised, but absolutely honored. She has done an incredible job for the city of Fort Worth in her last four years here. And even as an assistant city manager, she is still working closely with the HR department. Y'all know she led the recruitment for our new HR director, Kristen Smith, who's been on board now maybe not quite a month or so. But Diana truly values our people, and she says it all the time. Our employees are what make the city a Fort Worth success.
She has really worked to build a culture of service and collaboration both within the HR department, within the HR teams, but also between the HR department and all of the departments here within the city. And so for anybody that's ever worked with HR, you know that cannot always be a very collaborative relationship, but she has truly led that culture of collaboration. So we are incredibly proud of her and honored to have her on our team. And with this, I just, again, wanna recognize her for being the 2025 HR Professional of the Year for Fort Worth HR.
I don't have a lot to say after that other than I'm glad glad to represent the city of Fort Worth and even glad to represent the HR profession. It's just that I think the people are really what make the city great. And I know in Fort Worth, that's no small feat. The people that work here, we attract great talent. We keep great talent, and it's a great place to work. But I don't have to tell you all that because there's great people to hear in the audience and watching that know that, and it speaks for itself. So thank you. This is her award that she got. And, again, not only she did she not tell anybody, she just quietly put this on the table. I mean, it's She's incredibly humble.
Yeah. Very humble. Thank you, Diana. So next up, I'm going to introduce to you Cynthia Serrano with our public events department. Cynthia, many of you may know her. She has been with the city for twenty six years, primarily tucked away at the fourth convention center where she's worked in public events for a long time. But recently, Cynthia was named deputy director of the public events department. She's doing an incredible job there, and she is going to now recognize a team within public events. Thank you, Jessica. Good afternoon, mayor and council. I'd like to recognize members of the public events team on recent accolades in the
PR and communications. Last month, both Will Rogers Memorial Center and the Fort Worth Convention Center took home awards from the greater Fort Worth chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. These awards were judged by PR executives and were awarded points based on quality research, planning, execution, and measurement of results, not to mention creativity. The convention center received a worthy award, the highest honor for a given category for its phase one expansion topping out videos. Many of you attended that topping out ceremony in August 2024, and several videos were
created to document that milestone. They featured interviews with elected officials, tourism leaders, and our joint venture partners. What you didn't know is that weekend, public events department core communications coordinator, Andre Bennett, who's with us, became ill and could not be on-site. Thanks to one city team, communication pros from CPE, library, water, and CMO jumped in to assist with media handling and on-site interviews. The video was beautifully filmed by Blissful Sky Studio who made b roll available within
hours for media. All these contribute contributors are here and deserve recognition as well. Dominique Anderson with Blissful Sky. Thank you. The Will Rogers team received an award of excellence for a robust social media program with no dedicated social media manager position and a 120 acres of daily events to cover. Members of the sales excuse me. An event coordinator team took the reins with the planning and creativity. Content to production increased the venue's followers by 32% in FY twenty five with an
ad budget of only $500 Will Rogers is open twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty four days a year. We are closed for Christmas. So the team uses an elaborate color coded content calendar to assign posts that include every show, multiple arenas, the auditorium, the exhibit hall, know before you go information, parking maps, and trendy behind the scenes features. The team is led by sales and events manager, Christine Henry Gillette, who is not with us, and includes coordinators, Lucy Puente, who is with us, Audrey Hall and Kendra
Elder, sales and events manager, Charlie Petrick, and director of sales, Jordan Stephan, who is also with us. Both venues punch well above their weight when benchmarked against their peer venues on Meta, ranking in the top five in The US in the number of followers and content. So I encourage everyone watching in here in the room to follow us both of our venues at face on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So there's the plug. And keeping up with a 100 events that are produced at our venues and the impressive city teams that keep the facilities not only operational, but safe and welcoming to
millions of guests that visit Fort Worth. Thank you all for your time. Congratulations to y'all. Up next, our informal reports. First is '25 dash zero one two eight, the 2026 affordable housing bond proposition. Casey Thomas is here to answer any questions. Any questions at council member Beck? Before we go into questions, I wanna make a note. I think during our presentations, I'm gonna move the last presentation, number nine, pertaining to possible local ordinance regarding sex offender residency to the top of that. I just wanna give staff an awareness before we get started so that councilor Larsdorf
can go where he needs to be. Thank you. Councilor Beck. Hi. Can you please walk me through the decision, to to put the $5,000,000 in the bond, but also to restrict it only to four purchased single family homes? Sure. Yes. So Casey Thomas, director of the neighborhood services department. Part of the reason for that is the city does currently receive grant funds that we put towards affordable housing. The majority of those funds go towards multifamily affordable housing development.
Only a small percentage has been used on the single family affordable housing side. And so with the bond program, we were focused on the single family housing only because we don't currently use our grant funds for that purpose. And then also too, with this being a new proposition, affordable housing being a new proposition for the bond program, we thought that, focusing on the single family residential, we may be able to generate more support from the community for that. I appreciate that thought process.
I have, some concern about restricting the dollars to a specific type of project. I think what made, our ARPA dollars so innovative and so effective when it came to affordable housing and permanent supportive housing is that we had those pot of dollars to partner with people. And right now, that takes it away. This takes, away our ability. I don't disagree with the idea of having, building on our community land trust and
the ability to purchase homes, affordable homes, not just rental properties, but we know that that we still need those rental properties there. So I'd like to see that restriction taken off. I understand that it is new on the bond, but, other entities, municipalities throughout the state, quite frankly, pass much larger housing bonds by by scales of of tenfold, and they pass. And so I'm I'm not worried about affordable housing passing in Fort Worth, whether it
be for, single family for purchase or, multifamily. I think either way, the voters either gonna choose it or they're not. I also would like to note that based on my, bond meeting and the people that came out to speak, overwhelmingly, they asked for more dollars to be put in the affordable housing portion of, the 2026 bond. A particular note, the distinction was made that the city of Denton, who's much smaller than us, has a $12,000,000 affordable housing bond.
And so we're not even at Denton's level of what we're committing in our bond to affordable housing. I think the plan in in January is to bring back to the city council in a bond meeting, all the feedback that we received across and then to have the council hash out what the final list would be and the amounts that go into that. Mhmm. Get that done by February so you could actually, vote to have the election happen. So we'll be bringing that back in January. And if I may add one more item, you mentioned the permanent supportive housing.
One of the reasons why we didn't include permanent supportive housing as part of the proposal is because of the ongoing cost to provide those services with the bond program. It would only be able to provide the one time capital fund, but we would have to be able to identify external services to pay for those ongoing costs. Wouldn't we do that in the same way we did with through our partnerships, and the ARPA dollars? You know, we we gave money towards the capital, but those partners then provided the operational services of the permanent supportive housing? We could potentially. We would just be need to identify what those funding sources would pay for the,
for example, some of the ones where they partner with the HFC, we've been able to provide HFC funding for permanent supportive housing, but we would just need to identify that funding source. Okay. Thank you, sir Reynolds. Thank you. So I completely agree, with councilman Beck about, not restricting these funds because I think it's, vitally important. For one example, when I approached the housing bond piece, I was considering some of the issues that we had with the Renaissance Columbia, coming up short, and they was
gonna provide housing. And we didn't really have a mechanism to provide those out. Now we squeezed them out through our general funds or through some other dollars that we had. Mhmm. And so I think the funds shouldn't be restricted. But when I asked for this IR, in my bond meeting, they talked about wanting more dollars into the affordable housing. And was speaking with some of the staff. I think that the initial request I'm not sure. I'm not gonna put words in math, but it was 40,000,000 to actually do what
needed to be done. And I wanted to see in the IR what we could do with the 40,000,000 versus what we can do with the 5,000,000. I see what you articulated here, but I don't see the breakdown of what we can do with more dollars. And it's not in this hour. That's what I originally asked for. For additional? Okay. Mhmm. We can provide some, recommendations on how those funds could be used. So to what, to Jay, what you're saying about come back in January, I think, if we're gonna have a true discussion about putting more dollars in in the housing
or not putting more dollars, we need to be able to see if we put 12,000,000, we're able to do x, y, and z. We we that's fine. We can we can provide that information. We should also need to outline what we're gonna take out of the bond to replace Correct. Those dollars through as as part of the process. Anyone else questions for Casey? Thank you, Casey. Appreciate it. Okay. The next IR is 25Dash0129, and that's an amendment to the economic development program policy and tax abatement policy with, three eighty policy and tax abatement policy. Jessica Rogers here is to answer any questions.
No? Rolling. K. The next one's 25Dash0130. It's the economic development quarterly report, and Jessica Rogers is here to answer any questions. Okay. Next one's 25 Dash0131, city council, request for future agenda items and or reports, a write up on, the status of those in the process. Yes. I have a question, ma'am. Councilman Nettles, I think Bethany is here. Thanks, Bethany. If you can kinda give us a overview of the hour you provided, and then one of my specific questions was, do we have a time frame of future agenda
items, such as, if we ask for one today, are we looking at a thirty day, six day, ninety day window of receiving that, feedback in the hour? Sure. Hi, councilman Nettles. Bethany Warner, assistant to the city manager. I'll I'll start with the overview, and then I'll go to that question, which the general overview of this IR is it talks about the section of your, work session agenda where you do the city council requests for future agenda items and or reports and kind of the process it follows when council members make requests at that time. Those requests can take multiple forms depending on the complexity of the information requested.
For example, it might become an IR. It might become a budget response during a budget work session. It might become a presentation. It might be a direct email response from staff. Depends on, what was requested, the time it takes to pull that together, the complexity, and what the council member is hoping to find. It outlines a bit in this IR that process where, you know, the day after, generally, one of these meetings, CMO is going to look at those requests, identify which departments have that information or multiple departments, assign an avenue for what that should look
like to be resolved, whether it be an IR or a different format, and what a tentative timeline for that might look like. And then in the following packet that counsel receives from CSO, Generally, the ones that become IRs are assigned a tentative preliminary date for when we anticipate that to come. But as we know, sometimes that date shifts as we, delve into what it takes to pull that information together from the department. So, to to your question, it it really is dependent on what is requested. I don't think we have a standardized timeline of when a request happens.
There is a specific date that that information needs to be provided because some information can be provided to you right away. If it's a simple question that requires a simple answer, staff can follow-up quite quickly. And some information is bundled together with other ongoing efforts at the city into a more complex, robust response that requires research and potentially multiple departments involved. Alright. Well, some of my concern is, one, council members don't typically set the agenda. The only time we get opportunity to add something to the agenda is through a
IR presentation, IR request, a future agenda item. And so and most of my future agenda items are coming from residents concerns or dealing with staff issues or whatever that may be or how we can broaden the scope or actually put it on the record, put it publicly. So, I don't agree. I well, let me ask you this question. Who determines, whether it is a direct response to the council member or is it gonna be a IR pres or a presentation? Is that the city manager's office or the the department head, a leader?
Okay. Yeah. So, typically, like, Bethany mentioned, tomorrow morning, we'll go through all the requests. And if it's an item very specific to a like, a property in one district, we typically ask the staff member that's gonna be dealing with that department to respond to the council member through an email because it doesn't necessarily pertain to the city. It's not a citywide issue or to all the council members. And then that way, you have a written record of it. And if you'd wanted to send it out to, I mean, to put it in IR just extends the the overall process and the and the presentation when we can
answer the question fairly quickly is the thought process. If you all don't want us to do that and have an IR regardless of what the question is, we can do that. It just adds more work, creates more process. And, the idea behind an email to address a specific issue is is to shorten the timeline, be more efficient. So Let me add maybe a note here, Bethany, in this IRR, towards the end in the tracking process improvements, it sounds like you're you are implementing a new tracking system sort of centralized way of understanding where all these are, which I think has
been maybe part of the problem. I think some council members have been kinda confused who's owning what. Yeah. That's one of the things. Yeah. And so I think to to councilor Nettles' point, it's probably nice for him to know. I can email Bethany, and she can tell me, you know, Jess is working on that right now. We have a general idea of a timeline. Because if you're communicating back to a constituent, maybe that also creates less friction back and forth. Yes. Absolutely. The CMO support team is working with the city secretary's office to create a a better place to look for the status of these different requests so we can better track how it was resolved, when it was resolved, who's leading on it, where it is in the process, so we can follow those trails better for you whenever you're
not sure where a request, ended up and you're looking for a status update. And and part of the process, we we don't have another work session, for instance, till January. And so in some cases, the informal re report or the request for the informal report could be outdated by then. So that sometimes we wanna expedite that process and provide the information to the person that asked the question. So it just all depends. Yeah. Well, I'll be I don't I don't, disagree with direct responses, but I would say
sometimes even if we get a direct response from your office or anyone else's office, the council member should also have the opportunity to say, well, we still want a IR so that it's on public record. Sure. I think that's fine. Thanks, Bethany. The next one is emergency overnight cold weather overflow sheltering, and Tara Perez is here to answer any questions. Like an overview, please. And if Tara, could you give us also stats from the last couple nights if you have them? Tara Perez with CMO. So council member Hill, you asked for a general overview of the process? Yeah. General overview of the process. And, also, if you have stats from the last couple nights, I think that'd be
helpful too. Okay. So the city funds through a contract with a nonprofit, When We Love. So when our regular emergency shelter beds are full, on certain cold weather nights that the city funds extra beds. So we use city facilities, but have a nonprofit when we love that provides the staffing to run this. The goal is just that if anyone is sinking seeking warmth on a cold night, that they're able to find it. If not at a regular shelter, at one of the city shelters.
The stats. So so far this year, we have been on standby. That's when we meet certain weather triggers. We've been on standby three nights, and we have activated one. So the difference is the other two nights, there were beds available, in our existing shelters. So when there's still beds, we don't open. And one night, we did activate because we ran out of women's beds in emergency shelters. Where are we sorry. Where are we, putting these additional beds? Sorry? Where are we putting these additional beds? Are they in different locations across the city? Is it a centralized location?
So we are using some city facilities, community centers. And so we have there are three that have agreed to do this. Last year, we were able to just use one the whole time, but we have backups in case we ever need them. Council member. Yeah. What are those three? The The community centers where they're what that we're using. Okay. The first one is Hanley Meadowbrook, and then the second one is Hawes. That's an athletic facility. And then the third is a backup to Hanley, which is Riverside Community Center.
Council member Flores. Oh, no problem. My mine is related too. I did notice that DRC put out some, cold weather, shelter information as well. Can you tell, us a little bit about that if if you know the details about what they're doing? About DRC? Yes. Okay. To my knowledge, I didn't know. Sometimes they work with when we love. Do you think it was supporting that effort with the city? Doesn't mention that in their post. This was on social media that I found it. Okay. But, you know, they're asking that, the ad information get widely, shared.
It says dial 311 or (817) 392-1234 in our call center, and press 9 for details. Okay. So that may be DRC just helping us get the message out. So that's what that's the information we distribute, to our partners and shelters and, our community organizations that work with people experiencing homelessness, and our outreach teams directly distribute that information to people experiencing homelessness. And so it's just they call the city's 311, and they can press 9, and they'll know if it's activated or not.
Yeah. Because it's not, site specific. It didn't mention those three sites. And what was the third one again, Tara? I'm sorry. I didn't Riverside Community Center. Okay. The reason we don't mention those a lot is because they're not walk up sites. People cannot just walk up and say, I'm here for cold weather shelter, and that's done very purposely, to mitigate any effects on neighborhoods. And so we ask everyone to please report to the regular emergency shelters. If those are full, then they just go across the street to Truworth Place, which is where the intake is.
And then Trinity Metro provides transportation from Truworth Place to the overflow. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions for Tara? Yes. Councilor Nedles. More question. I'm sorry. Thank you, mayor. Is there transportation provided? Like, if you're in a different part of the city, is there a transportation provided to get you to the emergency location? So we have kinda two levels. So, when we are gonna have, like, extreme, extreme weather like ice storms, we also distribute bus passes to police officers, so if they are seeing people. And then we have already distributed bus passes to our outreach workers that are not
in the East Lancaster area so that they can give them the information about the shelter, and they have the bus pass to get to East Lancaster. Thank you. Councilor Nettles. Yes. I have a couple of questions, and it's kind of to one doctor Hall just spoke about. When I'm looking at these, these shelters, you got Hanley Meadowbrook, it's East Side, Hall's is right here downtown, and Riverside is close by downtown. Mhmm. So there is not any that's on the outskirts of the inner city such as Crowley Road or even North Fort Worth.
Okay. So when we looked at those locations and we looked for a few things. One was just city facilities, and so that helps us keep the cost down for our cold weather shelter operations as using city facilities. And then we work very closely with the park department to determine which are the best ones. For example, what we're looking for for overflow sheltering is a large gym. But, also, it needs to be in a place this is, last year was the
first year we had Trinity Metro shuttle people, and so we were relying before that on bus stops. So So we looked at, you know, what facilities are near a bus stop. And then also the setup of the community center. For example, being able to easily block off the community center except for the restrooms and the gym. And so we look at those things. And, again, we we used these three last year, but only Hanley was ever used because it had the most we had there was a 140 people. It was very full then, but it was a 140 people.
And so we don't open all three at the same time. It's just if Hanley gets full, then we would open Hawes. Okay. Two questions and one a one question and two whatever. Have we, opened it up to churches? I know you said to, officers may have bus passes, but I do know somehow homeless people may go to some of our local churches or even call. And the other question is, what is our communication with our other nonprofits around Fort Worth so they can refer people to this 311 or to Hanley or to some
police officers? Okay. I'll take the second question first. So we have, a sign up. There's an email notification list. So we have about a 150 partners that receive that. So whenever, they received it last night for me that says, hey. We're on a cold weather standby tonight. And so that goes to about a 150 different people from, I'm not sure, but probably at least 40 to 50 different organizations in the city, some of our internal city departments to let them know, but a lot of them are, our hospitals and
our nonprofit partners. And so that's how we get the word out there is through email, but then our partners, like Partnership Home and it sounds like DRC, are reposting the city's information to let people know about the cold weather shelter. So that's how they know about that. Some churches do sheltering operations. We don't have a compiled list of who's doing that. Sometimes it's sporadic. So some sometimes people are just driving down. It's very cold, and so they'll get motel rooms for some folks for the night. But it's it it doesn't always have a regular rhythm.
We do work with some nonprofits that do that to make sure they're aware of our cold weather overflow, and they've been really helpful in bringing picking up folks and bringing them to the overflow site. Can people sign up to be part of this 150 list that you have? Yes. Okay. Mhmm. Can you provide that to, the council? Yes. Just that you want me to sign you up for the to to get the email alerts? No. Provide us, information on how people can sign up for this. Okay. Okay. That's just emailing me. It's emailing you?
Oh, okay. Just email me. We keep we keep we keep the list. Alright. Thank you. Tara. Yes. Given the state of construction over there, you know, Hanley Meadowbrook is in my district. And so it's almost impossible to get to now. Have you all looked at that now? That road is is closed literally when you come off 08:20. So, have you looked at that? Are we able to still use that facility? I haven't. When we spoke with Trinity Metro, we do kind of a after action call whenever
we activate shelter. Okay. Trinity Metro didn't mention any problems, about that, but I can follow-up and see if they're having any difficulty. Yeah. If you would follow-up, I was over there the other day, and that road from 08:20, the exit to get on there, you have to go a circuitous route now to get to the center, and I wanna make sure that people are able to get to it and use it. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Tara. Good to see you. Next one is 25Dash0133, this food services program at city hall.
Questions on this one, council? Okay. K. Next one's 25Dash0134, gunshot detection technology update, and, deputy chief, Mark Barton here. Yep. They were all And I would like an update on that because we get lots of complaints about, gunshots in various neighborhoods in D 5. Yes, ma'am. Deputy chief. We'll go back. Okay. No problem. Mark. No. No. You didn't. You're all good. Chris, go ahead, Mark. How are you? I'm good. So is there are there any specific questions y'all are wanting to know that weren't
included in the IR? Maybe start with just an overview and then they can ask questions if that's okay. Sure. Thank you. So, we currently have, the gunshot detection, technology in five areas around the city. Those were selected based on historical, gunshot, statistics. Year to date between January and and November 16, there have been over 6,000 audio alerts. Those include false alarms, those include, gunshots that were detected by multiple devices. So it's not an accurate number of how many shots have have been, actually captured
by the devices. The best breakdown we don't have an a specific way to track each devices as how long it or how many times it alerts, but, the best breakdown we could come up with is our devices that are in South Division have, activated 1,522 times. Our East Division devices have activated 622 times. And then in Northwest, we've had a 186 alerts. We were not able to, gather the statistics for West Division. And and this the one that's for South Division, that's 76104.
So that's Short South, so that's kinda being lumped in with Central Division. So we don't have the statistics for Deep South also. Of those incidents, we haven't issued any citations as a real result of of these detections. If it's if it's an actual gunshot, discharging a firearm is a class a misdemeanor, so we wouldn't issue a citation in that case anyway. But we have had a few instances where these have led to arrest, but in most cases, the gunshot detection actually assist us with follow-up investigations, tracking down leads, and
confirming, information for detectives and their casework. Customer O'Crain? Yeah. Is there a reason you couldn't get the West numbers? It wasn't it wasn't explained to me, but I will find out and get to you. I'd I'd think for accurate picture. Yeah. I'd like this, sir. Thank you. Council member Martinez? Council member Peoples? No. So what I what I mean when I say it's it's not effective for arrest is most of the time, if it's an actual gunshot, where they're where they're picking up a legitimate shooting, that shooting has already called been called into 911, and we
don't have a way to differentiate the two. So it's hard to to sparse out those stats specifically. What we do is we can reach out to the individual detectives and and ask them if if they keep any notes on their shootings. And so it's more anecdotal than than, empirical information. Councilor Martinez. Do we know if all the equipment, gunshot equipment, deducting, is currently working that we have out in the field? Yes. And, yeah, I think we would we would have notifications that that it's not accurately
working. We would send that to Flock or AECOM, whoever owns that particular equipment, and they would come out and replace it. So what was the, reasoning for acquiring this technology, like, in these specific neighborhoods? You said that there was a a lot of gunshot detection. Were there a lot of, you know, people getting shot, or was it just, discharging a firearm? So that that was before my time, but like I said, it was it was based on historical information for, probably all of the above.
Gunshots, reported gunshots, actual shooting victims, and, just general complaints. So I can't speak to what specific call types they looked at when they identified these neighborhoods because I was not involved with that, but it was probably all of them. Okay. You know, like, councilwoman people said, this is, one of the top complaints at community meetings that I've been to. Even students when I go to career day, you know, have concerns about gunshots.
So what's the point of having this equipment if we're not gonna address those discharging firearms? Are there not any, heat maps where we can identify certain areas and do a detail to try to catch these offenders? Oh, sure. And and so I don't want it to sound like we're not doing anything with the information when it comes in. Like I said, with with the gunshot detection, if a shooting actually occurs, more times than not, that call has actually come into 911 beef at the same time or
before we get the gunshot detection alert. Those calls always get investigated regardless. If we have if we get notifications from a council member that they have, concerns that a specific neighborhood is seeing an increase in gun violence, shots fired calls, we will absolutely address that, in multiple ways. Because of the limitations with the technology, we don't move the gunshot detection because it this is way above my, intelligence level, but if they use algorithms and and whatnot to place these sensors so that they can triangulate and and determine where the call
where that shot or where that noise is coming from. And to move these devices would it's it's very labor intensive, and what we can do, I I suppose, to to what you're saying is if we notice that the trends are moving from where these were originally placed, we can certainly go to the vendor and look at at moving them to where the new trends are showing they should be. But for sure if if there are if there's gun violence, we are investigating it and and absolutely pursuing those cases regardless of if it occurs near this equipment or
not. Well, I mean, I tell people to call if you hear gunshots. You know, and and sometimes you see d you see PD drive by or sometimes you're just you call and you go back to bed. But there are certain households that are discharging firearms regularly. Are we not looking at the data of, where those, the area where those gunshots are coming from to try to address that problem property? Oh, yes. Abs absolutely. That all that gets investigated, and then gets addressed by whatever unit if it's a
if it's determined to be a gang problem, our gang detectives and gang officers will do enforcement in those areas. If it's just random gun violence or gunshots where a neighbor just likes to go out in their backyard and and shoot off some rounds, we are absolutely following up on that. Well, it's just the numbers don't really reflect that. Deborah, will you turn your mic on? Thank you. 622, fire shots in the style cut very area on the East Division. What are we doing with that information? Are we using it to, up guide us dying units?
Are we using it to increase patrols? I mean, I'm with her. Do we wanna spend this money to do this if we're not gonna use the data to help control crime? Excellent question. And I will say, you know, with regards to gunshot detection, although obviously new here to Fort Worth and before my time as well, but from the national conversation with gunshot detection, you're a 100% right. We need to figure out exactly if this was if this technology is worth it. The reality of it the the reality of it is it's normally coupled with a crime actually occurring that we respond to.
I've heard in many many different places. I've heard the arguments with regards to, individuals firing gunshots from their homes and this and gunshot detection isn't the panacea, when a gunshot is coming off of someone's backyard, as an example, if it's not coupled with a crime. There's legal aspects of us going into a home to make an arrest just based on gunshot detection and coordinating exactly where it's coming from. Obviously, when officers have the time and there is gunshots that that that ring out, officers certainly can go in that area. Areas that I found incredibly successful has been when we've had chronic areas in certain
neighborhoods going after the fact using utilizing MPOs and possibly going after the fact to make contact with individuals to to to to have some awareness of the issue. But with regards the reality of it in in real time, unless unless we're capturing it with our FLAW cameras, going to the real time crime center, generally speaking, it's more of an awareness. If it's coupled with a crime, absolutely. It is it it it it assists, but it's not the panacea as it pertains to someone shooting out of their backyard and necessarily other things from, doing something at
the moment as opposed to coming in afterwards with MPOs or others for awareness in that neighborhood, if that makes sense. But as a police department, we do need to go back and see if that the money we're spending in this technology is worth it. That's 100% accurate. I would like to see us do that because I know this sounds crazy. I'm looking at this 622 wondering how many of them came on New Year's Eve. Everybody in the world is out there shooting guns on New Year's Eve. And most of them, while it is a crime, they do it because it's a habit.
I mean, how many of these are actually, like, during the peak cry summer and all that? When I would I I would tell you, council member, I don't probably during New Year's time, quite a few. July 4, quite a few. And so I do say, I mean, if we if we sit back realistically and look at if we were to respond to every gunshot during New Year's and the July 4, which are arguably, in my experience, some of the most violent times in a major city, you can see where the rubber meets the road a little bit
with regards that if it's not attached to a crime. So I do understand from, obviously, with our community, and us looking at the technology because there is a frustration that we have a technology. Why aren't we doing something about it when a gunshot goes off? That is a question that we need to ask ourselves. Because to your point, in those heavy times, which also are the heaviest times that we are staffed, if if we can imagine dispatching police officers to every gunshot detection that goes off, that's not equate not not related to a crime, our our men
and women will be running around the city looking for that. So I just want us to do something about those repeat offenders at least. I know it's a misdemeanor. Right? But, you know, if they're shooting every weekend, doesn't that build up the severity of the offense? Well, again, council member, I think it's one of those those issues I know I get particularly in my experience, and we'd have to drill down exactly where they're occurring. But if individuals are shooting from their backyards, as an example, to pinpoint necessarily where that goes, gunshot detection is not the panacea to pinpoint point exactly where it is. And so that's why follow-up, with the community, which is helpful, bringing communities on board
if it is an issue to have community meetings with regards to having the community build strength with regards that we have your back, but we need some pressure from the To say that that this doesn't belong here, how unsafe it is, and also follow-up by our NPOs after the fact when we get those reports is important. But, certainly, the realization and really the having having the the mindset and the understanding with our community understand that the simply having this technology isn't the panacea for every gunshot that's not related to a violent crime. Okay. Well, then you're a data guy, so give us the data.
Let me know where the hot spots are, and I can work with my community to start addressing those problem properties. Yes, council member. Yes. Council member Flores. Another question for you and, you know, maybe deputy chief, he could handle this. This I think this is more of a question for the flock people. Okay? I'm just gonna put it out there. You know, based on what I'm hearing right here, I think that, again, I don't know the details of the sophistication, you know, of of the detection equipment, but, I would think that it should be able to, harvest, certain data. For example, frequency of occurrence over time at certain locations.
And then it uses GIS, to do, triangulation to locate where these may be coming from. Well, does it autolocate automatically locate based on 911 calls? Say, somebody calls and said, hey. I heard a gunshot. Section equipment heard something in the vicinity. Is is the software sophisticated enough to say, hey. Guess what? This is within a certain area, certain distance from one another, associated with it to help police in investigating.
Does it do that? That is a good question for Flock. I can't answer that for them, but I know that we do that manually. Our real time crime center does that. Yeah. And see, there you go. I mean, that could be automated. Yes. So that is something we'll take back to Flock and ask if it's a capability that they currently have. And if so, how do we turn that on? Or if it's that something that they can add in the future to let us test out and see how effective it is. Alright. Thank you. I think we wanted to go back to the food services program. Yes. Thank you. Cancel people's I think the request is we'll we'll just keep rolling.
We'll get to make sure we get to your IR, though. We will Thank you, mayor. No problem. Okay. The next one is 25Dash0135. One second collaborative update. And, assistant chief or dep assistant chief, Since we're talking about crime, we might as well. Might as well. Mayor's capsule. How are you guys doing this afternoon? Good to see you, Rob. Good. Assistant chief Aldridge, former police department. So we have to kinda go in a time capsule to talk about one second collaborative a little bit. We weren't in this building. We had a different chief, had a different city manager. Some of the council members weren't even on council.
So, you know, we go back to September 2022 is whenever we kinda started this adventure with the one second collaborative. Entered into a contract agreement with them from it was December 2022 till May. It was about a little over $4,400,000, and that was, to help with the with the main goal of reducing violent crime in some of our high high violent crime communities, improve capacity of community based organizations, and suppress youth gun violence.
And they did that, with four different strategies or objectives. One was to, of course, get an implement implementation plan. How are we gonna do this? How does it look? How does it look in the city of Fort Worth and and for Tarrant County as a whole? The other was to reduce the incidence of deaths, from our teen violence, by 5%, decrease violent crime, in the city of Fort Worth by 10% over the over twelve months, and have a sustainment project for success beyond this program. So the implementation, we have several members on the steering committee.
Myself, deputy chief Martin from the police department were there. We had members from Fort Worth ISD. We had Crowley ISD. We had council members. Councilman Flores, former council member Jared Williams was on this, panel. We also had advocates from Mothers Against Murdered Angels, Lena Pope Home, Once They Play, Center for Children's Health, VIP Fort Worth, Community Frontline, Communities and Schools, and Strategies to Elevate People of Color. We selected, nine different ZIP codes, and those ZIP codes were based on the crime, the violent crime that we had, whether it was within Tarrant County or Fort Worth.
The vast majority of these were in Fort Worth, obviously, because we occupy most of Tarrant County. And so whenever we started looking at, you know, the what what grants we're gonna give to some of these partner agencies, they had a panel that they put together. They looked at some of these applications, and so they looked for intervention, outreach workers prevention, suppression, and reentry type programs. And so during the first phase around July 2023, they awarded $2,100,000 to some of these partner agencies to help with some of those efforts.
They awarded micro grants back in October 2024 to 12 agencies in the amount of $89,000, and then they also, did continuation grants for 15 other agencies for about $800,000 in January 2025. So the outputs, if you look at it, although we were, looking at nine different ZIP codes because those were our violent crime areas, they serve 63 different ZIP codes, around the community, 52 crime prevention programs, over 18,000 total participants, over 7,000 participants from
the age of 13 to 24. There were 285 community events. We had over 1,600 youth received violence interruption type efforts. We had four over 4,200 families receive affordable housing and assistance, and 1,100, there was reported of 1,100 individuals improved behavior, improved school attendance for 680 three. So, you know, whenever you look at the outcomes, seventy eight percent reported an improve in their attitude, eighty three just, demonstrated positive life changes, and seventy percent avoided behaviors
that could have led to an arrest. So some of the deliver deliverables is that during this time frame, we saw fifty eight percent drop in the youth, fatalities, and we also saw a thirteen percent decrease in our violent crime across the city. And you've seen that we've seen a considerable decrease as the years have gone on. And so, at the conclusion of this, the funding ran out for One Second Collaborative. And so although that that program has ceased, some of those programs have kind have started to apply for grants within CCPD for our partners with the shared mission.
So we're trying to continue some of those moving forward. So with that, I'll answer any questions. Questions, Richie Baldridge? So, chief, I know you said they've started applying for CCPD. Yes. And you don't have to tell me the name of the groups, but are you looking at their success rate under this program? Oh, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. So, I mean, we we wanna have positive outcomes, and that's really part of the partners with the shared mission program is that we have key objectives that we want them to meet and they're evaluated each year. I did fail to mention on the last page, you can see the partner agencies that we, you know, that one second collaborative helped fund, and the amounts that were
funded, you know, throughout this program. Councilor Crane. Alright. Maybe I'm missing it here, but some have stars on it, on SC funded. Those ones that have already received CCPD funds as well? Yes. Correct. Thank you. For the, OSC committee, are they still convening? They are not. No, ma'am. Okay. And then I know I'm a part of the IR. I know there's gonna be some next steps, and I know one of the goals of the initial program was to have a sustainment program. Yes. Is there a timeline or an expectation of when that may manifest or what the
next steps are to create that program? So our goal in our partners with the shared mission is to try and get people to that sustainment area. And so if they start coming into, you know, into the CCD program under partners with the shared mission, that's what I mean, we have that progression, you know, where they get development grants and then we try and get them into sustainment grants and and get them self, proficient as as they move on. I guess one this is more of a, maybe a suggestion, than a question. But as we move forward in this one, I want to applaud the efforts of
the one second collaborative and and and the outcomes that we did get, from this, initiative. I would encourage that there be a systemic approach, perhaps, on what that sustainable programs look like. And I'm really glad that there are these the capacity for some of these organizations were able to grow underneath this initiative, and they're gonna be able to apply through CCPD. But we still have opportunities, I think, with the school districts Yes. To partner along with, you know, law enforcement and other nonprofits and these, organizations that
did have that did, you know, contribute to these outcomes. So I'm just encouraging that we would take this momentum and not let this kinda die. I agree with you, Anthony. Try to do something systemic and and continue to make an impact for our our youth because it's it's a it's a huge deal. A fifty eight percent drop in teen shooting deaths is a is a huge impact in our community, and we need to continue. And that should be a priority. Absolutely. And it takes all of us, not just the police department. It is. Thank you for for your efforts on this. Absolutely. Thank you. Any other questions from counsel?
No? Next is 250136. Update on panhandling enforcement. Monica Martin, deputy chief is here to answer any questions. So, chief, can you brief us on the program? It is a big issue in the, eastern part of my district about panhandlers. They are all 30. Yes. Thank you, councilwoman Peebles. As we all know, the issue with panhandling is very complex. It's very ambiguous. It's definitely ongoing. That's why I felt it was important to create an informal report where you could
see what each of your division representatives, your commanders, were doing with their teams of MPOs as well as our HOPE team. As you can see, it is unique throughout each division. It what one division does doesn't necessarily work for another division. However, I want to emphasize that the people that we come in contact with, they are all not the same. They are some are absolutely struggling with homelessness, with addiction, and maybe even both. But we also are aware that there are others that are that are out here
for opportunities as far as making money. Right? And we're we're not, you know, far removed from recognizing that. However, that is why we have to stay balanced and consistent with the programs that we create, with the the strategies that we come up with, like, understanding what our vehicles and what our drivers are and what are motivating these people because they have different motivations. Some are out here trying to survive to survive and some are making money. Some go home at the end of the day. Some drive nice cars at the end of the day.
But also, panhandling is also part of freedom of speech. So that's why we have to dive into the behaviors. If they're stepping out and blocking traffic, you know, if they're creating, a public safety, for our for our for our community or for themselves. And so that's why we have we work with our council members. We work with our, whole team, which are here today standing behind us. Each and every day, they go out there and they're making these connections, meeting these individuals that may be in need or have a crisis or may not. But the goal is to identify one of the one or the other, in both
situations. And so, collaboration is another key part of the panhandling crisis that we are, experiencing. That's why we work with our council members, especially on environmental solutions. We have reached out to several of you with lighting or cutting down trees or even helping us put up signage to bring that awareness and education component to our community leaders, on in our city, community. Because at the end of the day, with those that are taking advantage of the community, they're doing it because they're getting a profit.
They're playing on people's compassion. Right? So if we can educate our citizens on being more aware that when you give and I've been in a line off of Eastchase where I've seen 10 people stick their hand out and drop money into buckets. Well, do you think the people are gonna leave at that point in time? Absolutely not. They're there for profit. It's the biggest business scheme you can ever see. Right? So we have to stay on top of that education and awareness. When you guys are having your town halls, reach out to us. Invite our hope team. Invite our community leaders and invite our, business owners.
We have to make sure that this awareness component is out here because there are certain parameters that we're gonna always have to navigate and be in as far as law enforcement is concerned That sometimes limits us, with what we can do. However but that collaboration component, although the the it's complex, it's ambiguous, we have to not be afraid of the complexity. We have to learn that complexity, learn from it to to come up with better solutions on how we are addressing the problem.
Councilor Martinez. Chief Martin, you mentioned that, you know, the data looks different for each division, so really inconsistent. Is there any way we can get some numbers for those divisions that, and expanding on on the efforts in those areas where we got very little or, no numbers. You know, you would think that east and south had would have, like, higher enforcement in their area. Well, I mean, maybe because I'm more familiar with south and east. Right. Do you think it's because constituents aren't, reporting panhandling like they do in their other
areas? Part of that is part of the case. Right? That's why I say, like, when you have your town halls, invite us so we can bring the education and awareness because, like, you know, that data tells a story. But if we're not getting the data, we're not gonna allocate resources to a area that's saying that they don't need it. So we have to continue to spread the message that if you are seeing individuals out here that are panhandling, whether they may genuinely need it or not, we have to know about these areas. And the only way we know about those areas is if we're getting the calls.
I know a lot of times you guys receive calls con from the constituents, but they gotta also call us and let us know about it as well. Do you feel like these, it's okay not to give signs that we put up in hot spots are are working, or what are you seeing or hearing? So it's a matter of the heart. Right? If someone has a giving heart, they can see that sign all day and still not be discouraged from giving money if that's what their, you know, their heart is telling them to do. So, again, there's the complexity in that. You can't control someone's heart if it's on their heart to give.
So I I would say that, yes, it may work, but, also, if someone is gonna give, they're gonna give. Council member Hill. I had a couple questions on the special detail. There was a certain I guess, specific time period that those areas it looked like West Division, North Division focused on panhandling specifically. Do you believe that was effective, and is that something that all divisions are going to start doing? I think that anything that we can implement and test and strategize for is always effective. It's about really getting the after action report to see where we need to build
upon, what worked, what didn't worked, work. I'm sorry. I can't see you. What worked or what didn't work. So sorry. 53 right here. But, no, I wouldn't say that that the things that we're doing is not effective. It's it may just be that we have to build upon it and redirect. I guess I'm thinking of some of sorry. Alan, you're gonna have to move your head. I guess I'm specifically thinking of the frequent flyers that go to the same intersections over and over and over again. If they see an increase of police presence, that seems to me that that's a stronger deterrent than just once in a while, someone will report it, and then they'll
get caught. And I guess that's what I'm looking for, especially in, I think D 7, D 3. There's two specific corners that I'm thinking of that it's the same people every single day, and they're not going away. Right. So whatever we can do to, I guess, raise the visibility of the police presence in those areas, I think is helpful for our constituents to see that we're doing something about it. And then two, I mean, I I they probably live in the area. I don't know what you do about that. But being able to spread the word to make sure that people do understand that use the My Fort Worth app to report it is very effective. And even though the the panhandling signs are there, I think to your point, people
are still going to give, but we need to encourage people to also report. Yes. And that's where I lean on on you guys as council members. Again, the education, that awareness component. If you can bring us into your town hall meeting so we can talk to the constituents, our community members, and continue having this conversation. Because a lot of times, we'll have this conversation, and then you go months and months down the Road until someone calls and then it becomes a bigger problem. So, again, we have to stay balanced and we have to stay consistent with this problem just because of the complexities that surround it.
Alright. I guess I would just like to see that special detail happen again, maybe more frequently. Absolutely. Thank you. Do you have a question? Customer peoples. So deputy chief, you you already named the hot spot. You know, East Chase off 530, there's a panhandler on every corner. And I realize there are people in need, but the residents there feel totally beleaguered. And, so I think the signage may help there because it gives some permission people permission not to give. So while I wanna help the homeless, I really do also know that's a major
problem at that intersection. And if we could put up some signage there, I think that would help. And correct me if I'm wrong, I do believe there is a sign that is there that faces north and one on the south end. Okay. Okay. Maybe we need maybe we need some bit more. But I was told that one person, they said, well, I don't have any cash. And the person said, well, I take credit cards. Oh, wow. That wouldn't surprise me. Oh, wow. Okay. So It wouldn't surprise me. But, yes, our plan and our goal is to definitely stay consistent with what we're doing. Here's my Venmo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Yes. Councilor Crane. Thank you. Thanks, chief Martin. Thanks for all the hope guys, men and women back there. Appreciate y'all, what you're doing. Specifically, to follow-up on council member Hill, this may be what this has meant in in the in the West Side. It says Hulan Street, Montgomery Street. Is is that Hulan and 30 and Montgomery and 30? Hulan Street and Montgomery. Yeah. Yes. If if not, that's I would just point that out because it is consistent there, as well as University and Camp Bowie, that traffic circle there. Not traffic circle, but you know what I'm talking about. Consistent there, and we consistently get, text messages from people.
So if we know they're hot spots, I understand that it's it's a little bit of playing whack a mole. They're gonna move from one place to another. But, the more we can do that, I'd appreciate that too. Yes. And what I can also do is make sure that our commanders are staying in constant contact with you guys to let you know that when we are doing these special details and when you are coming in contact or if you're getting community calls, you are aware and can let them know what we're doing as well. Quest really more of a comment. When you read through the report, like, West Division has specific numbers on calls for service, and then the efficacy of those calls, specifically arrests, do you have that data
for each other division? So when we, got the data from each division, we just wanted to foresee what they were doing. Okay. So a lot of them did give information that wasn't consistent, and they may may have been by design so that when we build this out, we can become more consistent with calls for service. Yeah. How many citations have been rendered to individuals and then go on so on and so forth. Okay. So this information was very much preliminary, but moving forward, we would definitely streamline it so that you it can answer the questions that you guys have specifically towards the
data. Well, we can work with Jay and Sana and and the rest of the team and your council members may have some thoughts about this too. But the way we may may, publicize this information on our website and on a more regular basis, I think could be helpful to point to because sometimes people make the assumption you're not doing anything on panhandling and there's that could be further from the truth. And some of this data, I think, really does demonstrate your efforts are working, and and I think we are making inroads. We just maybe have to communicate that a bit better. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Council member Hall. Thank you.
And just to clarify, and I think this is kinda piggyback to what mayor was saying. Are the protocols the same and the expectations the same, at each through each of the divisions? So, like, what might happen if I call about panhandling in South? Would it be the same response in the North or in the East or in the West? I'm gonna say it varies. Obviously, yes. We're gonna answer the call. But, again, panhandling from division to to division, it looks different, based off, one, how we're getting notified, how often we're getting notified.
That helps us on how we're gonna allocate those resources. But, absolutely, if a 911 call comes in, obviously, we're gonna answer that call for service. And we're gonna look at that data to see, okay, if we're at Hulan in Montgomery and for the month of November, we've had over a 100 calls at that location, then, yes, we're gonna create some type of detail and allocate sort resources there to minimize that impact right there at that location. I asked that question just to say, you know, in in the cases where, you know, certainly, you don't wanna criminalize, poverty. Right. But in cases where there may have been, you know, someone that we've helped or
someone that we've made note of, are we keeping a database of those people where there's been intervention? How do we know if it's, habitual, things of that persistent? Just trying to kinda figure out what the system is like in trying to be impactful, I guess, or be effective. Absolutely. And that's where our internal partners and external partners come into play, like our hope initiative. Every January, they go and they do a homeless count in which they can identify panhandlers in that count as well. And even our outside liaison homeless liaison, that's where they play that role with capturing
those numbers, capturing that information so we know who is habitual, who is coming back, and what resources can we provide to them or what enforcement resources we have to provide to them. Well, my last comment would be if if you could provide information on what we should be, telling our residents in our area, like, what the protocol is. If this is an issue, these are the steps you should take. In that way, it I I believe it would convey, our efforts as a city on what we're trying to do if we have some consistency. Absolutely.
To your point, we absolutely do not want to criminalize anyone that is in homeless or in need of any type of help or resource. However, we have to educate, one, on how to make contact with police when you see it becoming a problem. Right? How to call police, how to articulate what's happening at the intersection or surrounding every area. I don't wanna say discourage giving, but route them to resources or nonprofit organizations that
take those donations in and then establish them out to the people that need them, like, they know how to get to these certain individuals versus just dropping money in on the street and you don't know who who it's going to or what it's going to at that point in time. Yeah. You're welcome. Anybody else? Thank you. We appreciate you very much. Thank y'all. Thank you. Next is 25Dash0137, reappointment of substitute hearing officer, and William Rumley with our municipal court is here to answer any questions. Nobody? Okay. 25Dash0138, regulation of special events and EMS standby service.
And Taylor Perris, senior city attorney, is here to answer any questions along with Richard Harrison, our fire marshal. Anybody don't? 2039, and October 2025 report on the release of area up from ETJ by petition of landowner and Lashandra Stringfellow is here to answer any questions. No? Twenty five-one hundred and forty, transportation engineering manual revisions, temporary street closures. Michael Owen, our, from TPW is here to answer any questions.
Questions? Twenty five dash zero one four one, update on the Texas A and M Fort Worth campus project, and Robert Venable Roger Venables is here to answer any questions. I think I think Roger, if you don't mind giving an overview. Thank you, sir. How's it going, Roger? Looks like it's pretty successful so far. It's going great, Mayor. It's going great. Roger Venables, aviation system director. Well, good afternoon. It is going great. We are at the point of the project right now where we finished up the design full design of the building, the RIB, the Research And Innovation Building.
As we began to wrap up the design work and the construction plans and permitting for the project, the university reevaluated, the RILGC's participation in the project and what the university could do to go from this point forward, to not only finance, but head the procurement and construction of the building. And about sixty days ago, we had those conversations with us. It essentially removes the RILGC from participating in the project at this point because the
university can just take it from here through their natural procurement process. The contract revenue bonds that were issued by the RILGC to pay for the design and pre construction services has all been serviced by the university anyway. They are going to retire that bond, so they are completely responsible for any of those costs that the RILGC had committed to the project at this point. There will be going directly back to TIFs three and eight. Again, this is part of the public parking component of the project.
So rather than the RILGC entering into those agreements, reimbursement agreements with the TIFs, It'll just be between the university and the TIFs. I believe we're planning for that maybe to occur next Monday to have that conversation. But, yeah, all good news. We're staying on track again to commence construction next year. At this point, the, university's Board of Regents is moving forward with the construction manager at risk to do their procurement process for the construction contract, and, again, anticipate in their May board meeting of next year to approve construction and move forward with it.
So all good news. And the law department, the lawyers were really happy because it eliminated 13 documents Yeah. From the process. They're in here, and they're joyful. You can say. As joyful as they can be. That's right. True. Thank you. Thank you, Roger. Okay. We're gonna go back to 25Dash0133, the food service program at city hall, and Marilyn Marvin is here to answer any questions. Thank you, Jay. Sorry I missed this when you called earlier. I I did read through, the r the IR. Got a couple of questions.
I see that Fuda, is taking a 20 to 25% commission in order to participate in the program. Yes. Marilyn Marvin, property management director. That is correct. That is in order for a restaurant or, anyone to participate in the program with food, they do a commission of 20 to 25% depending on the type of service they're providing. At a cap of $600 per day?
So no. That $600 per day is how much revenue that we how much that we purchase from that vendor. So if, a barbecue place comes in, we have to buy six we, city employees, have to buy $600 worth of food. If we do not buy $600 worth of food, say we only buy $500, then the city has to pay food a $100 to make the $600 cap.
That $600 doesn't have anything to do with the restaurant. They just paid 20 to 25% off of what they sold. So it'd be the $500. Okay. So that's the part where we have spent the $55,000 to subsidize the program. That is a correct statement. Okay. And most of that happened when city hall was still half full. Okay. I have some concerns about food. I really want us to, reconsider bringing in a different group or even manning this,
ourselves. I don't know we have in our household to do this because I know there are several, smaller entities, restaurants, that are not even able to participate in food because of the percentage that they're taking out that they're not making any money. Correct. And so we are, right now working on a contract to have someone come in and assess the cafeteria. We hope to have that completed by the end of the year, the assessment, so we know what it will take to run the cafeteria, and then we will do
an RFP during the 2026 to see what interest we have and who could come in and actually run a different service outside of FUTA. Okay. Because I I think when when it was first mentioned to us that, we're gonna have different groups come in, but they was gonna have the ability to use what you just described, the full kitchen. Because right now, nobody's using the kitchen. They're coming with premade food. Right. So we have warmers that they use today, but outside of that, you are correct.
No one uses the actual cafeteria kitchen. And we did a RFP to get food of the first time? Yes, sir. Okay. So the idea is so I asked why aren't we using the cafeteria. Back years ago, the old city hall, there was cafeteria. It was a full blown cafeteria before it got downsized. And we did a we would do an RFP for a contract for a local restaurant to come in and provide her to actually run it and provide breakfast and lunch service. Part of it is that the kitchen hasn't been used since 2020. And so as Marilyn said, we're bringing in a group to come and assess the
kitchen to make sure we don't want it to blow up. Right? To make sure it's safe and all those kind of things. And so, they'll find out what needs to happen to make it working order, then we'll put on an RFP and have you know, back in the day, we had John Carter at city hall for, like, three years or three year contracts. Then it would switch over. You put out another RFP, and you'd switch over to another local vendor. But, hopefully, we'll figure that out, put our RFP, and then we could have local businesses compete to actually run this food service out of our cafeteria for. Because we're up to 1,500 people in this building.
That should be plenty to to be able to support a restaurant. So the idea is to have one vendor. Yeah. I don't think you could go multiple vendors because they can't make money because it's not consistent enough. That's that's one of if you did, then you figuring out, you know, when they do it and when they don't do it and their employees and all those kind of things. Okay. Well, I look forward to seeing that come across our Yeah. Me too. Table. Any other questions on these IRs? Okay. If not, we're gonna move into our work session agenda items.
Let me flip back through here. Just a second. Yeah. We'll do first number nine, which is our possible local ordinance regarding sex offender residency. And Jeris Mapes and Eddie Garcia will be up to present those. Good afternoon. Thank you, council and mayor. My name is Jeris Mapes. I'm an assistant city attorney and the police legal adviser. And, with regards to our possible ordinance regarding residency restrictions, we've identified a couple of issues that brought this to the forefront.
One of which is the fact that we've got about, 3,200 registered sex offenders in the city of Fort Worth. About 2,500 of those are offenders who had child victims. That would be under the age of 17. And approximately 877 of that number are on supervised release. And, that is significant if they're on probation or parole because oftentimes they already have a restriction that's been provided by the state.
This leaves though, when you subtract those numbers, this leaves about 1,500 registered sex offenders with child victims who have no residency requirements. Another issue that has come up is with many of our local cities and surrounding area here have started developing these ordinances in their cities. We are concerned that if Fort Worth has nothing that we may be become a an area where people shift over from some of these other more restrictive areas.
So that is another area of concern. So just to be clear for the purpose of this type of ordinance, a sex offender is someone who is, of course, required to, by law to register as an offender, and they must have a, victim that was a child. And also, it's important to note though that we cannot retroactively apply an ordinance such as this, that would go against the constitutional rights of the individuals.
Here are some numbers here to kinda get an idea of what we're looking at. The left column is per one sex offender, we have in the case of Fort Worth, we have 315 residents, just to give you an idea of what we're looking at. So residency restrictions are all based on preventing a, registered sex offender from living within a certain distance of an area where children commonly gather. Also, some of these ordinances will have what they call rental restrictions and that would
prevent the landlord from actually renting to the same individuals in an area such as this. So note, that the landlord would be responsible for identifying, the possible applicants that they have, but that's pretty simple. You know, they already do credit checks and background checks. They have to pay for those and use, you know, restricted access accounts. This is all for free provided by the state, and it's very easy to look anyone up and identify them as a sex offender and what they were charged with.
So they're also an important side of the residency restrictions is preventing those, from where children commonly gather, which is not consistently defined throughout the state. It is dependent upon the ordinance to define that. We've seen some ordinances that identified of course schools, schools are always there, daycare facilities, playgrounds, some youth centers, swimming pools, different facilities that, have come to the attention of
various cities as important to them, to prevent people from living there. So I want to mention that the state legislator did address general law cities. Back in 2017, a lot of general cities have been trying to adopt ordinances, but they were being met with a lot of lawsuits. And so to to overcome that, the legislators did, give permission for general law cities to have these ordinances. They specifically defined a child safety zone, and they did say that they could not
restrict the individuals more than a thousand feet from those areas where children commonly gather. Home world cities were fine. There is no restriction on the ability to issue that. With regards to cases, there have been a lot of cases over the years for various reasons. There is a more recent one though in the city of Louisville where the fifth circuit ended up addressing it. And so it's important to note, I think, that the city of Louisville did have a restriction of 1,500 feet from where children commonly gather.
And this did really limit the percentage that was left remaining in their city. However, the fifth circuit did determine that there were no, constitutional violations and that it was a a legitimate ordinance. So enforcement is any violations of this ordinance would be as always a class c misdemeanor. But it's also important to know that when registered sex offenders, you know, they are required to register in the city that they live. And so there's a process.
And in this case, you know, they go to the police department. They go to register. They would be told, that you cannot register because you're giving us an address that is not legal. And in that case, they would be denied. So that's going to give a motivation for that offender to live where they need to live. And if they don't, then they're gonna be in violation and it would be a felony at that point because they were not registered. A lot of these, from other cities looking at other cities, we can see that a lot of the offenders will self regulate.
They a lot of them are wanting to follow the rules. They don't wanna get into any more trouble. Also, note that when probation and parole first meet with them, they're exiting their their prison term, and they meet with them, and they're saying, yeah, this is where I'm gonna live. Oftentimes, the probation and parole officers will give them information on these ordinances as well. Again, it's another way to self regulate. Specifically, the Fort Worth Police Department, just looking at some of their data, they had, use an example here, did residency, verification checks over, 2,800 times just in the first
part of this year. So, there's a lot of activity going on with that department right now. This is an example of the largest cities in Texas and how they are treating this. Houston has no ordinance. San Antonio has an ordinance of a thousand feet, but theirs is unique. It's the only one I've seen like this where they restrict not from where children commonly gather, but from parks. All parks. And so that was an interesting approach that allowed them to not restrict to just young victims.
That means their victims can be any ages and can be restricted from a park. Dallas does have an ordinance. However, theirs is about remaining at or near certain areas. So theirs works more like a criminal trespass rather than a residency issue. Austin has none and El Paso has a thousand foot ordinance. There's, three slides here of various cities in our area and what they offer. I'll give you, you know, an opportunity. You can read over that. If you have any questions, let me know.
But you'll see a number of these cities are in our immediate area, and, they cover a variety. It seems like the majority of them are using a thousand feet. We do have a few 1,501. Keller got creative and recently changed theirs to 2,000 feet. So maps, that's what we're gonna look at next. And just know that for the purposes of our maps, we use a child safety zone of schools, and we did include charter schools in that, day cares, all the
public parks and playgrounds, pools, community centers, and libraries. That's what we used. So I've got two sets of map. The first set of these maps is an area you'll see here we're using kind of an orangey red color. This is identifying all the restricted areas in the city of Fort Worth based on a thousand foot buffer. And you'll see on the left hand side is a column of each council district and how much area is restricted based on the council district.
We get the same thing, but now with 1,500 feet. I have a question. Okay. Tell me. Yes, ma'am. So go back to that map. So that tells me that only 40% of my district is restricted? That is correct. Yes, ma'am. But keep in mind that that doesn't address things like airports, parks, commercial areas, all the areas that people would not live anyway. This just sticks to land mass, I guess you could say. So that means that 59% is open to sex offenders to move in my district.
Well, the opposite. 59% is restricted. So the opposite would be the case. Now our next set of maps will get a little bit more precise and I'll I'll show you the difference. Okay. Am I understanding this right? Okay. I'm sorry. What what council member people's district talk to me about. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. About 60%. Yes, ma'am. That's correct. So out of all the districts, my all the sex offenders would move from every other district to mine because 60. Okay. It might like, Okay. 61. It might like District 2. Me. We'd be picking up everybody.
Okay. So go to the next one though. Alright. That's about 15 feet. Okay. 1,500 feet now. Same sort of thing. We are looking at just the restricted use, percentages, as you can see, went up. Now you're at 56% now, restricted use. And then we go on up to the 2,000 foot buffer. And, again, you see a lot of of of the red on there. I wanna be like Keller, but we'll talk about that. I'll see for Crane. But, just for clarification purposes, again, if you look at District 3, there's a lot
not developed out. Right? So as it develops out, you get a parks, day cares, other things put in there, which further restricts the property. Absolutely. There that's why this first set of maps, I think, is probably not quite as accurate for what you're wanting to see. The next set, though, we're about to go to specifically looks at what is available residential land use. And that makes a difference because this will take out the commercial use, takes out the airports, lake, whatever, takes out all that property. So now we see, under a thousand feet, the available residential land use for District
5 is 10%. That's a much better number. You must have a lot of commercial in your area. And then we move on to 1,500 feet. Those numbers are going down still. Again, it's green in this this map. Green is what you're seeing is available. Available land use. And, we had been asked before how are we measuring land use. We are using the city's zoning, codes and we are using all potential residential land use codes. So that even includes mixed use.
We're including that in this. And then 2,000 feet again available very very low numbers available. And at the bottom you will see, the overall. Now I will say that staff recommends a thousand feet. And the reason though for that is because that is the standard buffer zone set by the state. That is what the state recommends, and they've required it for general law cities. That's also the standard buffer zone that is set by probation and parole. That is a number that they came up with that said that that seemed to
be most appropriate. And, of course, as an attorney, I'm always gonna say that the least restrictive is going to pose less risk, to the city, with regards to something this kind of an ordinance. Well, that's less risk for the city, but more risk for the residents that live in these districts where we will encourage sex offenders to move. And I believe as a steward for the entire city of Fort Worth, we should be trying to look at that that offers all of our residents the most safety.
So I like the 2,000 feet, and I think we have to get creative and become risk takers because our job is to protect children from sex offenders. Right. Yes, ma'am. And I I do wanna point out though in talking about the risk, the reason why, this perspective is there is because, when it comes to a point that you have nothing left for the these individuals to live, it becomes what had the courts
have referred to as a banishment. There is a difference between restriction and banishment. Banishment is considered a punishment. And so you cannot punish somebody again for something they've already been punished for. But we can be really restrictive, and that's not considered a punishment, if that makes any sense. That's the way the courts have looked at it. So we just wanna keep that in mind when we're looking at all these numbers. And I get that, but I also want don't want to banish residents of certain areas of town. We are working to build up the South Side and the East Side and areas
of the city so that people wanna move there. And when we enable restrictions like that, we're encouraging the wrong people to move there. And people won't wanna live there and to have their children go to school there if we have a large preponderance of a certain type of people. Understood. Thank you. Any questions? Yeah. Other quick actions. Councilor Beck. I have two questions. As it relates to daycares, does this include in home day cares that are registered? If they're registered, yes. Okay. Only if they're registered. We all know there's probably some out there that aren't registered that would not catch
those. But anything registered, yes. So I have a practical concern there in that parks and schools, facilities like that are built. They're not moving. But day cares, can be much more mobile, particularly those in home day cares. So how do we provide some sort of, reliability and consistency for people to to know if I'm in a you know, if a landlord needs to know I'm in his own or not, that could be very dependent on whether or not the person
next to him is operating her his or her at home day care. So how do we provide some level of consistency and Well, the the situation and that kind of thing is, first of all, we cannot be retroactive. Right. And so if I'm living in an area and some lady decides to move in next door who runs a day care, that is not gonna impact me because I'm already living here. Right. But if you move out, the landlord is now required to do this check that they weren't required to do That is correct.
Six months prior. So how do we make sure that we're there's some sort of protection against that seems like a regulatory scheme that is very problematic to enforce, and the last thing that we wanna do is create a standard that we can't enforce. And so my question is when it comes to these these more mobile type, places, what do we have in place?
I I just wanna make sure we have something in place that we've thought that through because you're gonna have landlords hemmed up because they were not required to do something that they're now required to do because a new person moved in across the street and opened an at home business. Right. Right. Exactly. In other cities that have established these ordinances, they, set up a program using the GIS where anybody could go in and type in an address to see if that is restricted or not. And so those updated, list or registrations from the state on day cares would have
to be circulated. I you know, they're not gonna do it daily, clearly. It may be every three months or something like that, and there would be a way to keep track. And course but also keep in mind that you guys, as council members, can decide how you want this ordinance written. You could say that that's where children commonly gather does not include, say, a day care that has less than five children. Something like that. You could establish something that would make it a little less frequent, to happen. But it there is a way with through a program in GIS to have those
addresses identified by people. Okay. And then my second question is, when you go to the Lewisville case, and I haven't read it, but it said, in your summary of it, it said, this ordinance left a limited number of properties available for purchase or rent. You gave us a really nice comparison or the the data that we drove down drove down to, for the city of Fort Worth. But if we were gonna compare, what the city of Lewisville had left available that
the court said was okay, where does the 2,000 foot, the five the 1,500 foot, or the 1,000 foot get us? Because I I get what this case said, and at 15, 100 feet, but you can't put apples to apples. So if they had 20% of their city left and the they said it's okay versus we're leaving 2% of our city. And so that Right. And, you know, unfortunately, the, judges in these cases are not generous enough to give
us actual number numbers. They just say this particular ordinance is fair. And in the case of that Louisville case, it was over 90%, was not available. Right. But they don't say, but if you went to 96, it's it that's not gonna be good. They don't ever identify that for us, unfortunately. Right. But we know in that case that they got to say 91% of the city was not available, and the court said that 91% was okay. Even if they didn't give us a a higher end threshold, we know that 91
or 92% is acceptable. That's correct. Okay. House member Hill and then council member Nettles. Okay. Well, it's true on the legal case. Has Keller had any legal issues with the 2,000 foot buffer? Do we know? They just set that up not too long ago. Okay. And so I'm not surprised that they have not as of yet. It takes a while, number one, for someone to be motivated enough to do that. They have to have standing. They have to be able to say in this case, the Lewisville case, the guy wanted to live in Louisville. I think he already had property there before he got out of prison.
And, he had to move somewhere outside of Louisville. So that was his standing to say why he felt, he was being discriminated against. However, you know, those situations don't come up, especially the smaller the city it is, the more difficult it is for those cases to come up. And, so no, we have not seen that, but, you know, it it it's just hard to say whether that'll come down the road. I'd like to see some other cases, examples of cases that we could review before we start looking at ordinance. And then on page 14, I just need a definition.
Dallas remains at or near. What does that mean? What does that mean? Of saying you cannot live in this zone around a school, this says you cannot remain at or near. So you could potentially go and drop your kids off for school if you go and you leave. But if you're hanging out there, you know, for whatever reason or if you live there, obviously, you would be remaining there. All of those are Dress through criminal trespass, rather than just a straight up, violation of the ordinance.
Okay. There's no distance or time limit. It's just They they would I don't know about time limits. I could go back and look. It's been a while since I've looked at their ordinance. I could go back and see if there's a time limit on it. Okay. Thank you. And with regards to, future case law information, do you wanna stick to just Texas cases, or are you interested in cases in general? Examples in general. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Can you pull up the the map for the thousand? This one? Yeah. And so, when we look at this map, and you said this map is, concentrated
on the zoning that currently exists in the city of Fort Worth. Yes. Okay. And we talked about getting creative. And so when you're looking at, I guess, District 5 and district, Is this the correct amount? Because you you guys are, recommending a thousand staff. Yes. Is what you're recommending? Yes. Is there a way for us to get creative with zoning? We did some creativity when we rezone a lot of killer properties to make sure,
that we, save those properties of rezoning properties within the city of Fort Worth to lower this amount. I've I can't really see that. I mean, you may wanna talk to someone that specializes in zoning rather than me, but the problem with that is is what are you gonna zone it to? I mean, you're gonna zone it to commercial for this purpose, but that would mean someone couldn't live there. You know? So Now the news now the news Well issue. I mean, legally, I'm asking. So if we decided to because that's that's a high that's a high amount.
So if this is the amount that we're looking at, then I I will will link with Deborah Peoples of going to 2,000 because this is a lot of property available for, sex offenders to live. So we're not gonna be if we're not able to be creative and chain zone it, where where it gives a little bit more protection where it's still a thousand feet, but the zoning, are changing where it limits, the amount that can, live in such districts. And maybe not the the entire city of Fort Worth, but some that's highly, populate that's over 10% or 11.
Right. Right. I mean, it's always possible you guys, you know, are able to do certain things with zoning. So technically, it's possible. I've just cautioned that it might end up creating more problems than we're solving. Mayor? Do we do we have an existing, so we don't have no nothing on the record now? That is correct. So they kill you? People that are on probation and parole would have any existing restrictions. So I guess my question because I wanna make sure that I understand. When I look at this map, you're basically saying, 10%, almost 11% of of District
6 can have available residential use, meaning that there's nothing developed there now. Right? That That is how much of it is. Residential possibility. Right. So that puts us on the higher end as compared to some of the other districts on this. And, I don't know. I just you know, honestly, maybe it sounds very selfish, but selfish on the behalf of District 6, I'm already fighting enough issues with regards to, I feel like, a certain level of proliferation of type of development coming into District 6. To me, you throw this layer on top of it, and it just really it's
like ice skating uphill. So I don't know what I'm I mean, when I we first talked about this, I was very bleeding hard on this, and I was really hard on because I don't wanna be punitive to any group of people, and I do believe in rehabilitation and all types of things. But I feel like this does marginalize some of our communities much more or impacts them much more inequitably than it does others. And I just really would like us to really, really think about this deeply, on how we wanna do it. Well, and then, you know, you've also got the 1,500 foot option as well.
Sure. That's real large horse. So, obviously, this is something we talked about a lot in public safety and made it quite clear why I say on this. And I agree with, councilman Peoples is doing 2,000 feet. And, again, we all know if it was me, it'd be 2,000 miles. But to your point, councilman Nettles, I agree. So I don't think we necessarily have to get creative. I'm glad Dave Lewis is in the room, not to put him on the spot. But to me, that says we need more parks in nine, more more parks in 10, more parks in six, more parks in seven. We need more parks. Quite quite frankly, we need more parks. And so if there's parks or other areas where our children can safely, come together
and and play and that just so happens to put a restriction on somebody, again, they made that bed, and they can lie in it. And if there's I I totally I understand your point, and I agree completely. And And that's not something I think anyone wants to do in the city is concentrate a certain amount of undesirables if that's what I call them in a certain area. And so I do think there are ways that we can work with with staff and other ways to not necessarily banish anybody because we don't wanna do that, certainly. But we wanna make sure we keep our residents safe. And although, just to point out to my my colleagues, I know we got this nice little residency restriction in Fort Worth, and why we shouldn't do it.
But just to point out, the author failed to mention that he was convicted of and served time for aggravated sexual assault of a six year old. So forgive me if I don't give a damn what he says about any of this. And trying to use a example from Austin, from a, psych psychiatrist saying that restrictions like this can can trigger an offender into offending again. I certainly don't want staff at any point to look at any restrictions and say, oh, well, we don't wanna trigger an offender into re no. So I appreciate all the work the staff has put in this, especially the maps.
I think this is one that we really needed, in the public safety committee, so I'm I'm glad this is what what came together. And I'm with my colleagues, I'm all for the 2,000 feet rule and then challenging and having enough faith in our city attorneys to, to to fight that. And so but I'm certainly I'm just one of many here. So Customer Crane. Yeah. Thank you. I just wanted to ask another point of clarification on this. This is just property already zoned for residential use. That is correct. So it doesn't include maybe ag right now that might turn into residential.
Does it? Okay. Exactly. So I I think we're getting to some point here where it's gonna be a buffer of sorts. Just wish there was a way. I mean, we can't tell in the future. I get that of what the property is gonna be in the end use of it. But there's, I think, a lot more open property there than we're seeing as as part of this. Meaning, ag, that will probably go residential or it could go industrial. Who knows? But, or other industrial that's switched. But, anyway, I just That's true. Thank you. Make sure you, build a park in that new residential area. Anything else? That's Rinki. Yeah.
I just have a comment I wanna put on the record is that when I'm looking at the map, if we're gonna, implement anything citywide, it needs to, be equal around the city. So as we work to, do our district maps two years ago, we made sure that the percentages, were as close as possible. And so I I think if you're looking at one where it has 4% and the other one has 1%, we'd either get to two and a half or we
don't need to do this at all. Any other questions or comments? Yes, council member Beck. With with Chris on this. I think at the thousand foot, it creates, clear pockets of concentration when you look at the maps. I think at 1,500 feet, it gets better, and at 2,000, it gets better. So I would be comfortable with the 1,500 feet or a 2,000 feet or nothing at all. Any other comments or questions from council? Not really sure how to direct y'all.
Well, I I said we can, you know, research the case law. I think we're gonna come back with that. Yeah. Come back with that. That'd be helpful. And then try to discern all the comments you got today, and maybe And we heard a thousand's out. So I reckon that they will be 15 under 2,000. Yes. Well, there's a lot of the the question about whatever zone to ag is not included in there, a new state law, because we started doing this to change the open commercial can become apartments. That's not being captured in here. So there's a lot of a lot of things that are outliers that you just
can't capture and can't be perfect. So, at the end of the day, if you go to 2 thousand and I'm not saying that's what but you go to 2 thousand, there's gonna be more land available than you're currently seeing here just because of those facts. And it could be useful to to have Teresa and TJ research what bills maybe came up last session around this issue that we may need to prepare for this coming session. Just meaning we don't wanna have this exercise in futility if in the end, the legislature is gonna do something around this. Right? So, and and how far they went along the process.
I truly don't remember following anything last session, but I know they've dealt with it before. So, okay, on to the next. Thank you very much. Okay. Next up is midyear program investments. City manager Jay Chapa. So I'm gonna introduce this. So, basically, what this is is when I started here at the city back at the January, early February, we're already through a portion of the budget preparation. And we were as we look forward, it looked like our budget was going to be tighter than it actually ended up being.
So it didn't really look at any new programs to try to bring forward. And then during that time, especially through the spring, I did a lot of listening to council members, community members on, priorities as we move forward. And so what I'm bringing forward, it wasn't part of the budget process, is that, three different initiatives. Two have, monetary impacts, and the other one's really just pushing forward an initiative that was under underway so we can move forward more quickly. And I don't know who has the clicker. Christiane's going to do the first part.
But basically, the idea is to initiate some new programs that staff believes are are critical for us to become more efficient and to have big impact on the community on on nuisance that is out there. What I've asked the departments is to, as best as possible, is absorb the cost associated with any new cost associated with this, and and really on one of them is capital related, and so it would be actually funded through the capital side, and we wouldn't see it in the general fund. Can you go to the next? So the three things are, the first one is a new group that would be
doing centralized capital coordination and reporting, and Christiane will get into the details on that. But, as we went through the especially putting together the bond program, it was clear to me, that there was too much silo work being done by the individual departments And trying to bring that together in a in a comprehensive and efficient way, just didn't exist. And the idea here is to really, within the lab, have a group that is an ongoing basis working with the departments to do the reporting, to bring things together,
and and allow the city manager's office to have more clarity, when what priority projects look like based on the feedback that we're receiving from this council and from the citizens. And then, the second piece is, like I I mentioned, Christiane will talk about this also. It's an initiative that's already underway. It's around the smart cities program, and she'll explain that, but public facing data dashboards, to provide more data to be more transparent to the public. And so the lab will be working with departments to, bringing those forward, and she'll
provide details. And then the last one, is what we're calling the net force. Mhmm. And that is a pilot program on nuisance properties, and you all are probably really aware of these properties that we're gonna be recommending, where cross departmental teams will be, on an ongoing basis, doing reviews, doing inspections and becoming a nuisance to the nuisance from the city side to hopefully get the owners of the property to either improve
how they run their businesses and how they maintain their properties and or, hopefully, maybe they decide to sell it and get out of that business altogether. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Christy Anne. She'll do the first couple of the details, and then Brian Doherty will come up and talk about Net Force. Alright. Good afternoon, everyone. Christine Simmons with the Fort Worth Lab. Like Jay mentioned, I have two topics for you today. Finance, your favorite topic, and data, which you seem to like more than finance, but we'll see. And then you'll get all Brian's energy to wake you back up.
Alright. So I'm starting with capital coordination and reporting. So you know this just like I know this. As a very large city, we have lots and lots of capital projects going on at any given time. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, funded by billions of dollars in debt from bond programs, PAYGO funding, grants, strategic partnerships, and more. Right? We have lots of funding mechanisms for capital projects. Each department that has capital projects also typically has departmental finance and engineering staff that helps with reporting, tracking, the status of those projects, the funding sources, etcetera.
But what the organization kinda lacks right now that Jay mentioned is a centralized group that's sort of aggregating all of that from the different departments, and then summarizing that and kind of communicating it regularly to the city manager's office, to you as counsel as appropriate, and then by and large to the public. So the city manager's first recommendation today, is to carve out from capital funding a small group of capital finance staff that will live in the Fort Worth Lab alongside the budget team to sort of serve as that centralized group. So these are some of our goals listed here.
First, centralized understanding of status and funding. So really gaining, a transparent sort of frequent understanding of all the things that are happening across the city, a bird's eye view of what's transpiring, what's going well, what's not. And then having a dedicated kind of non departmental or neutral partner, for some of the big multi departmental or strategic planning large capital efforts, having a group dedicated to monitoring and reporting on what we're calling pits, projects in trouble. Not that there's so many of those, but I've been in front of you a few times talking about, you know, how we we have capital shortfalls, capital gaps on
bond funded projects. So doing some more frequent transparent monitoring on those. And then finally, some public facing reporting. If you pay any attention to some of other large cities like dashboards and reports, you can even look at the city of Dallas, as much as it pains me to say. They have a great bond and construction management website where you can see quarterly reporting of how their bonds are being spent down, and they have, like, a public facing project delivery dashboard too. We really like to do some of that. So in order to meet these goals here, some of the services that we propose to provide out of of the Fort Worth Lab in close collaboration with the capital
departments and finance and the city manager's office. So we'd engage in more regular organized capital cleanup and closeouts, as well as regular scanning of the capital projects and reporting on them when they're maybe in trouble from a financial perspective or a delivery perspective. But, also, alternatively, when maybe when we're seeing savings, having a more, like, a higher altitude conversation on how we're prioritizing those savings so that we're really getting the biggest bang for our buck. High impact, not just because maybe one department has capacity to deliver something else, but
sort of scanning all the departments and their different capital projects. For bonds, we'd propose to work more closely with finance on the debt and cash flow planning, and then we do, again, regular monitoring and public dashboarding of some of those projects. You all know that we just completed a a robust round of public engagement on the 2026 bond. Thank you for all of that, engagement that you all did with us. And so some of you in your meetings, you may have heard a question because we got it kinda all over the city, some version of how much have we spent on the 2022 bond, or, like, how many projects have you delivered from 2018 and 2022, sort of where are we?
It was kind of hard to answer that question. You have to do a lot of manual data gathering. So we'd like to to have that, not just in preparation for the next bond program, but more on hand all the time. And then again, we wanna be kind of a neutral helpful stakeholder on special projects that are capital focused. Panther Island is a great example of that. You know, there's a finance subcommittee kind of working on a lot of that. So some of the departments may not have the financial expertise or the the view of all the different funding sources and how they stack and the way they work and their restrictions. We we can kind of play a role at the table in that perspective. And so speaking of bond engagement, some of you, through that process met April Rose
Escamilla. She was the primary lead and presenter at all those bond meetings. She's back there somewhere. Hi, April. She is our current senior capital projects officer in the Forest Lab, so that's her little box there. We hired her midyear last year through repurposing of a vacancy because we were kind of seeing the issues I'm describing at that time. So we thought, well, we'll hire somebody with a vacancy. We kind of created this job description that we'd never had before in the lab, and started having her kind of on demand monitor capital gaps and the use of transportation impact fees, and she started helping with bond project development.
Well, the creation of that role has helped us really see the opportunities that are available if we put some resources toward this. She's just one person. So right now, she's being very reactive, but we'd really like to be more proactive on all these topics. So the proposal, is kinda twofold. The first would be to hire a capital projects manager. This is kind of a small team to work alongside April. So this position would focus a lot on monitoring the actual projects on a monthly basis, and they'd be a skilled partner for the departments in the actual project development, the coordination of the multi departmental efforts, and they could help forecast the different phases
of the projects, which helps with, like, debt and cash flow planning. Part of what's making April Rose so successful in her current role is that she has a background as a professional engineer. And so we'd like to have at least one more person that can help speak that language, kind of speak to the capital delivery teams in their language and help then translate that over to maybe more of the financial or management team. And then the other two positions would have more of the background that we already have in the lab, budget and finance and some project controls. They'd be financial in nature, really helping to focus on the financial controls and sources.
So they do things like regularly scraping the capital projects and their funding sources, kind of just making sure we're not having, you know, cash sitting around, right, when nobody wants idle cash. So we'd like to keep our money moving, making sure we're spending down our most restricted sources first. They'd also focus on the large number of capital m and c's, and you see all of those that appropriate capital funding. Right now, that kinda happens all over the organization, so there's sometimes inconsistencies in the appropriation ordinances or in the way we award contracts. So we'd like to do that at a higher level of efficiency. This is my last slide in this section.
So the objective here is to kinda show that we'd hope to be able to accomplish the goals that, we've outlined without burdening the general fund, like Jay mentioned. So while we'll be focusing first on the general fund department, so think GBW, Parks, a couple of others, our proposal is to fund these three positions out of the capital projects themselves. So as part of a project's allocated soft cost, you can you can do some of that administrative costing. And so out of our $1,800,000,000 in active infrastructure investment across 798 active projects, this would be a very, very small percentage of that.
So we think that's a good return on investment to kind of fill some of those gaps in service. Okay. So that is this section. Any questions on capital reporting and coordination? Anything I missed, Jay, if you wanna add anything? Okay. Yeah. I have a question. Mhmm. So is this new strategy team gonna prevent me from watching a street get torn up to be reconstructed and then watching it get torn up again two years later for a new water pipeline? It will help. Okay. Nothing's guaranteed, but it'll help. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That is that is definitely the goal.
And April Rose has been able to kind of leverage some of her existing relationships from water and transportation and public works to help with that stacking and phasing of projects. So that's certainly a goal. Okay. I'm gonna move on. So public facing dashboards, this is very exciting. So just as a reminder, the city achieved What Works Cities certification last year. And as a reminder, What Works Cities is the first standard of excellence for data driven governance for local, governance for local governments, and it's through Bloomberg Philanthropies. The city had been sort of halfheartedly pursuing it for a while, and then last
year, we got really serious about it and achieved silver certification. There are three levels. And so a number of you actually, a number of you have asked what you can do to kind of help us in our next round, and we really appreciate that. We do want to continue to pursue What Works Cities at at the next level gold in the coming year, so we're working interdepartmentally right now on on some of those criteria that we need to meet. But even outside of that credentialing process, we're also aiming as a city to be more transparent in general and really focus on honing the data that we have in ways that are it's really helpful to the the public. So right now, current resources include an open data portal.
I think it's data at Fort Worth Texas or .fortworthtexas.gov. There are a number of data sources there. Some of them are just, like, individual kind of spreadsheet data dumps that they can you know, people can download and kind of play with, permit locations, crime data, code violations, that kind of thing. Some of them are based on maps and GIS. And then we have other departments who have created other dashboards on their dashboards on their own departmental pages. They're difficult to find in many cases. You kinda have to go a couple of layers down in the website. And then over the last year with data analytics in the Fort Worth Lab, we've also been creating some dashboards for internal use.
So, starting in January, we'd really like to begin publishing several, public facing dashboards. We have many that are in progress or even complete, but we'd we'd like to kind of slow trickle them out so that we can get in a really good rhythm of publishing, maintaining quality control, and kind of taking in two or three at a time so that the public doesn't get, like, overwhelmed with all the dashboards. And we wanna focus on quality control and validation, make sure that we're doing doing a good job. We expect that some of these dashboards will have more interest than others, but I've I've tried to kind of give you a smattering across the city of some of
those that are really near to completion, if not complete now. So we have a budget dashboard. We have a page that's, based on your priorities, which, excuse me, we'll revisit after the council retreat. We have some that are, really close to being done being validated around crime statistics and public safety response times, both police and fire. Homeless strategies is a work in progress that we've mentioned in this room recently. We still have more work to do that, but that will be of high interest, I think. And we have a lot around development services and permitting. So just a sampling of what might be out there, for public interest.
Okay. A quick question. Since you're talking about transparency, is it worth having the conversation of doing the transparent star program through the comptroller's office? I think finance already participates in the transparent star program. Correct? The more you know. Okay. We have three. Yes. Maybe we need to do a better job talking about that. We already yeah. We already have that. Can we publicize that? We should. We'll we're gonna create a headline across the top of the website then. Yeah. The comptroller's office announced the entities in Tarrant County, about, I guess, mid September and recognized both the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant Appraisal District, for their, transparency star
program participation. So is it five stars? I don't know that much about it. I'm just asking. Do we know? Do you know? Six stars. Oh, we have four out of six. Out of six. Economic development. I think that's a good opportunity for an IRL. I'll ask later, but Okay. That'd be helpful. Thank you. Preview a future agenda item. Got it. They got it. Okay. Good. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up. And I think just as a note, as I think as we shift toward transparency and doing more online, some of the questions I get sometimes from departments, not so much from council, is I think we're this is going to create a lot more questions. Like, we're going to have to answer a lot, you know, things because we're pushing
more data out there, and that might be true. But in my research of larger cities, actually, over time, they see PIRs go down when you're pushing more data online because I think it's like a lack of clarity and sharing that maybe creates confusion that leads to a PIR. So I think it's an important shift to make. It's certainly a best practice among large cities to have more data publicly available. So we're excited to advance our own efforts. This one is the topic that Jay mentioned that doesn't have a fiscal impact. The Fort Worth Lab has staff in place to create dashboards. We're the organization's primary creator of dashboards.
We have the staff to help with basic visualizations, automating data and reporting, building pipelines to active data sources, all kinds of things, even more advanced data science and modeling, but that's not really part of our topic today. That's just a plug for the data science team. But there are definitely departments too that have, the capabilities to create their own dashboards, and that is fine. So we just wanna consolidate those into one place and make sure that there's a good, strategy around publicizing those and validating them so that the public does not have to dig for information. So they'll all be hosted on the open data portal, which is maintained by IT.
And with each one, we'll work with CPE to create descriptions of what the dashboard is, where the data lives, how you should use it, etcetera. And Sana and I will work together on appropriate press releases so that we're really telling the story of being a more transparent organization. And then again, we'll have a good schedule for validating and, responding to people's asked questions. Any questions for me on dashboards? Okay. If not, I'm gonna give you to Brian. You can tell me which one of us you like more afterwards. This doesn't work, so you can't use that. I don't think any of that was necessary. How's it going, mayor and council? Everybody have a good July 4?
What? No. You can't nod all on there. See, there's a curve ball. We all know that was Thanksgiving. We all know that was Thanksgiving. Alrighty. I'm pretty excited about this, program. By the way, Brian Dougherty, director of co compliance. One of these, initiatives that that Jay has, proposed to us and we all got behind it and it it's pretty awesome is, nuisance enforcement enforcement task force. And really what this is is this comes down to right now, when I'm telling you about a nuisance in a property, every one of you have something different in your head that you're like, duh, that property. Well, this is what this program is is addressing those properties.
And I say that where it's it's an all out blitz, if you will. So there's gonna you know, it's gonna be a group effort from police, fire, environmental, code, obviously, water. If there's anybody that can play a role in improving the conditions on a property or the the use on a property, that's what this this team plans to to take on. Here's all the departments that are participating. There's quite a lot. The biggest part of this though is that we're gonna be doing joint inspections, and the joint inspections will be code development services, environmental, fire, and police. And to give you a quick breakdown, this isn't simply joint inspections.
These are, from a code aspect, we're gonna get into every single unit. If it's an apartment complex, if that means finding probable cause to get warrants or whatever we need to do, we're gonna catalog and inventory every violation. And I say that where when we do these group inspections, so you have, you know, this sample property, police, fire code, everyone goes out there. Well, everyone's gonna look at every possible thing they can address, and that's what they're gonna call in that group inspection. Well, from that, well, if we see a lot of building standard issues, well, we're gonna pursue all the existing violations, but also it's gonna go to building standards commission.
Just like as fire goes out there and they're like, okay. Well, you know, they have problems with their sprinkler system. Well, they're gonna pursue that. Same thing with police and every other department. So in addition to these group inspections is every single thing that we can address at that property and everyone staying on top of it. The team will be meeting monthly. We're debating if it were bimonthly, and that's where we're gonna come back and go, hey. We, you know, rewrote this many tickets. We're pursuing this. And everybody's in the loop on what's going on, and so we're trying to get as much movement as we can on the property. This is a a tool that, Benjamin Samprat and Leanne and her team proposed.
He's awesome, by the way. I bug him so much with emails, and he doesn't care at all. But, this really beats up, CO revocation. And what this this ordinance that they plan on proposing, I believe, in January is where if they have nuisances at the properties that don't normally fall into anything that allow us to revoke the CO, well, this now gives us that power. And this is I'm so excited for this ordinance. And I say that because once, you know, we've made that determination, they have to have a set of standards they have to uphold, and they have to pay a fee. And if they don't, failure to adhere to the requirements is a CO revocation.
And for those that, you know, are not that are new to this or anything, but if you really wanna stop use at a property, revoking the CO is the is the fastest way to get or not fastest, most effective way to get movement at that property. So this is a a really big tool that, we're all gonna benefit from, and I I really appreciate that that law has taken the effort to draft that up. This is the the process I've described already a couple of times, and that's where we identify target properties. We do the targeted enforcement. And the the one thing, and Jay touched on it briefly, that you guys need to know is there's not really a perfect scenario in these properties.
We want it in compliance. If that means they decide to demolish the property, awesome. If that means, we go through litigation and the receivership takes it over, you know, but then they correct it, that's fine too. If they say, man, this is a lot of money and they're coming after me hard and I wanna sell it, that's fine. We're the whole purpose of this is to be a nuisance to the nuisance properties, to make those property owners go, okay. Whatever I was doing before, I am not gonna be able to do that anymore, and the city is making sure of it. And, I've I've dealt with similar programs like this in in my experience, and you
get their attention. You do. One way or another, we will make them listen to us and get progress on the property. Here's a lot of the, considerations when we were identifying the properties that we're looking at. Obviously, crime, as well as, you know, code violations. And here's one that I really appreciate, and that's the neighborhood impact. We all have been at a town hall or a neighborhood associate meet meeting, and they are complaining that property a is causing all these issues that are in their neighborhood. We've all heard it. We're not they're not lying. We we need to we need to act on that, and that's one of the
criteria that we're using, as well as, you know, ownership efforts. Are they cooperating? Are they not? Because there are problem properties that we've dealt with and we're currently dealing with, and the pro the owner the property owners are a 100% cooperative and trying to do everything they can to correct it. However, this this program is not that. These are the ones where they're out of state owners. They're nonresponsive. They're they're essentially just getting money out of the property but not acting on anything. We have our three pilot properties. A couple of them are ones that we've heard several from citizens, and then, and then the the third one, we did kinda switch up the different property styles.
We have Rocky's one and two, their convenience stores, the EcoMotel, and then Sandy Oaks Apartments. And this sort of varies up each different property type. And that way we can track it, and we can see what's effective and what's not. And, we have a little bit of data on each one. Actually, here's here's all the criteria that we spoke of before, and these are all the properties that that hit on those criteria. And, again, this is this is a pilot, so we're gonna go through and we're gonna we're gonna fine tune it as we go. I do think it'll be successful, and then we can come back in six months and show all the great results and say, look. This is our criteria.
This is how we're going forward, and, it's it's it's gonna turn a frown upside down, essentially. This right here is some police data. Brian, I'm so sorry. Will you go back? Yeah. How far back did you pull data for this? Because I remember Rocky's had a building code citation. It was about I believe we did it two years on most of the data. It's about two years. I think it was around two years that we had the data. January 24. Yeah. You might need to check that box. We'll just talk to development. We would know. Yeah. Oh, and then there's a chance we we may have missed something. I'll I'll definitely look at that. Here's all the the police service data that, as you can see, the blue star
is where the property is and then the surrounding calls for service. And it's sort of a square rectangle argument. You know? Every square is a rectangle. Every rectangle is a square. All these calls for service aren't directly attributed to that property. However, it's very, very likely that that property is increasing the area you know, the the challenges in the area around it. And so that's sort of what the map is displaying is, there is a correlation with the numbers. And there's 478 calls for service, 16 offenses, and four for aggravated assault at Eco Motel. And, a couple of these properties, it's also the surrounding area.
So that's also gonna include the vacant lot, the TL Food Mart in the corner. So it's gonna be in conjunction with that whole area. This is Rocky's one and two, very similar. A lot of calls for service, 16 novices, three aggravated assaults. This one is a little bit different. I only say that because, a fire won't really play a role in Sandy Oaks apartments or apartments in general. They don't do regular inspections out there. Co compliance has a lot of issues as well as police has a lot of issues. I also say that a little bit differently because there's about a 100 units at this. So if you were to do a group inspection at Rocky's or Eco Motel, not
as intensive. If we're doing a 100% inspection out here in a group inspection, that that could take our staff around a week to accomplish because there's simply a lot of units to get into and check. And so, however, this one this is another one where, it's, again, it's a it's a I've heard from several citizens, and I don't wanna you know, that's that's our role here is, you know, they tell us the challenges and it's our job to fix the problems, and that's that's what we're doing this apartment complex. Here's the estimated budget from each department that's going forward. I will stress to you that this is a sort of all hands on deck
number, saying, so hypothetically, if police does a joint inspection and they go out there and, like, oh, we saw a drug activity or they're gonna have narcotics or, you know, how they wanna work prostitution or any number of things. This is if everything is present at all of them all at once. So we're gonna be tracking it as we go, and it it more than likely will be substantially lower than that. And then there's a lot of stuff that like the shared department tools. I'm definitely gonna butcher this, but it's, to Lemmy, we had looked at, as far as this massive massive, database on all public data.
So not just us, but the county, any federal data, all that. And they demoed it for us, and it it's nothing short of incredible. And legal also is a big fan of it. And and I say that where a lot of these properties will have shell corporations or LLC. They even have tools on there that tie all the ownership to those properties with, like, a web pattern, and it's pretty impressive. But it's it's those tools that we need to have the impact because, otherwise, we're doing, you know, the the heavier lift of doing it all manually and tracking everything, and it's we've been doing that, and we're not getting the desired results.
So we're not trying to do the definition of insanity and do the same thing we've been doing because we're not getting the desired result. And so that's that's, all the breakdown for each departments. And then we plan we're already setting up our our first joint inspections for January, and, we have a point of contact on each one. I'm really excited for this program. I I think it will have a a significant impact, and I I know you guys are tired of hearing the same complaints that you hear about these properties. And so, you know, we're gonna get a solution to that. We're gonna work towards it. You guys have any questions?
I was just gonna mention, as I said earlier, the the goal is to see if we can't absorb these costs. And that was a top end cost, so we we don't reach that level. And my goal is that we see benefits and then we see a positive impact is that you can expect to see, you know, decision package coming through for next year's budget as a recommendation to to do this program and maybe expand it and see how it goes forward. But that's I you know, I've been here for twenty five years and twenty six years or started in the mid nineties, and Echo Motel has been an issue since
mid nineties. And the city's done a whole lot of stuff, and somehow, even when it changes ownership, all those kind of things, it comes back, to be what it is now. And so I think it it's it's an opportunity for us to see if we can't, especially with the change in the ordinance, that allows us to pull the COs that that we can actually make a a huge difference in some of these neighborhoods. Councilman Peoples. I I love this. Not because one of my properties is included in here, but I have talked about the need for intense innovation, in in when we look at some of these.
And I think you know I've got a a service station, out of state owner. It's just been a mess because everybody, you know, working separately can't do something about it. So I love this idea of bringing everybody together so we get in and intervene early, and let's get some of these things closed. Yes. Councilor Hill and councilor Leuchttorf. Brian, I just because I'm curious about the correlation and the update in six months, can you also include any animal welfare violations that are at these properties during that time period? Yes. Thank you. Councilor Leuchttorf.
Thank you, mayor. Just two questions. What's gonna be the approach for some of those vacant properties that are just, you know, always a nuisance? Like, for one, for example, in District 4, that's a huge problem, but it's apparently in, foreclosure right now, so no one really knows who owns it. No one's keeping it up. Will there be a similar process to for the city to basically take ownership of that, or is there gonna be a strategy for these vacant properties too, or is this just right now only for occupied? Right now, it's that criteria that we're looking at to meet it. Typically, although vacant properties properties do have a lot of issues, a lot of this
centers around the use of the property and everything else. So it's not it's not the exact same, but there is a there it is something that we can put a more coordinated effort on vacant properties as well. This one, it this property is really not that sort of tool, but it's also something where, I'm not opposed to, using it on, you know, the same approach sort of here and there, but we've these three are what we identified working here. But it's also something where if I'd love to come back in six months, and we say, well, actually, it's now these three properties because we've corrected the issue.
So it's gonna be there's no shortage on the list of what we need to work on. And so but, no, I I can definitely, separately sort of parcel out some other things if you wanted to. And I don't think that we could have a budget big enough to tackle them at the same time. So this is the pilot, see how it goes. If it works, then we'd rotate another three and and request the budget to be able to do that on an ongoing basis. Gotcha. And then the the last thing was just as far as the, like, the clock resetting. Because I know before, one of the biggest issues was if they made any sort of adjustments, then that clock would reset giving them more time to, you know, abate
the nuisance. Does this just give everyone just more teeth? Like, alright. You try it, but just not hard enough, and then take the caution? Or I failed I failed to mention. We're also gonna be collaborating with ACT. Right. And, they're they are interested in in the program and be they'll be able to bring private if they can find somebody that that would stand up as the as the, complainant, and they would be able to bring forward a lawsuit that includes general law or common law, which it makes it that harder to happen.
So the city would use our tools, and then they would partner on the other side with their tools. Yeah. I was gonna say it that's, I believe what you're referencing is a one twenty five lawsuits. That's a part of this process, but it's not all of it. So the litigation side of it, you know, that that may be one of the avenues, but that will not have any bearing on the group inspections, the enforcement, on that aspect. Councilor Nettles? Yeah. I think that's kinda what my question with what we're doing. Is that gonna help us on the legal side? You know? Because Well, I was just gonna say we have, three ordinances that we're working on
that you'll see coming forward after the first of the year. One of which, it does address vacant buildings. That may need to be part of the budget process because it will need a department that owns that process because it will have a registration component. But yes, we're definitely looking. Of course, we have this habitual nuisance ordinance, and then there'll be a third ordinance that we'll bring forward to you guys. Just we are looking at beefing up everything we can that are that's on the books. Yes. I yes. I think that's gonna help out a lot. And I'll be interested in seeing maybe the top 20 properties that may be on that one to three.
And I don't know if your property made it because you always honing about none of your properties on this. Because I have Riverside and Bear that should be in front of yours. So I look at, the 20 properties. You do a good job. You do a good job. Councilor back and councilor removal. So I'd just like clarification real quick. A little over $3,000,000, and that will serve this effort on how many properties? Just three or more? Top end, just the three properties. So a million dollars per property to clean it up. Well, to hopefully make a difference in it.
Yes. And, hopefully, as we go along, we become more effective and efficient on how it's run. This is it's the worst case scenario on that's what we asked staff to put together. And, again, we're gonna try to try to absorb it within the general fund. So as we come along, we may be asking, you know, some months in to say, we'd like to move x money out of non departmental. We're not gonna do this and instead move it to cover this and those kind of things. And, Ellen, if you look at it, then you're talking about 800 calls to police. You gotta dispatch police, all of that.
So, I mean, when you start breaking it down, I think it becomes even less than that. Anyone else have anything else before us? No? That's good. Thank you. Very exciting. Anything else? No? Okay. Moving to possible discussion of charter election in 2026. Gavin is gonna lead us through this. Mayor council, good afternoon. Gavin Midgley, assistant city attorney. Here to discuss a possible charter election for the May 2026 election date. As you're aware, the city is already holding an election on the May, election date
for the bond program and also for the District 10 council vacancy, council, seat vacancy. So adding a charter amendment election wouldn't be a significant cost to the city, because we're already holding election. And so this presentation is to seek council direction on whether or not to move forward withholding a May, 2026, charter amendment election, or consider alternative options. So if you did move forward, some possible charter amendment, charter amendment propositions could include, mayor and council pay, reducing, the quorum from a two third, to simple majority or
60%, shift setting council meetings, scheduling from, to staff, eliminate public hearings for department heads, council appointees, eliminate the restriction against budget adoption at the same hearing, as a budget hearing, and revise, the streets streets privilege requirement in the charter to eliminate an individualized ordinance. Some of these, are continued items that were identified in the 2016 task force, charter task force, and some are results of changes in, law and, practice over time.
Some more possible amendments would be to, remove the requirement for an ordinance to create or abolish or reorganize departments that are not required by the Charter. I think there's seven or so, departments required by the Charter, or remove the Charter requirement to, have departments altogether. Another one would be to remove the requirement for an annual report by public service corporations, and then possible changes to council terms, either increasing, lengths, staggering the terms, or term limits, or all of the above.
And then there's some modernizations, or updates to current laws laws and practices, that the Charter currently is not in compliance with. Mary, can I ask a couple questions? For Hall? Could you you've kinda given us, like, kind of an overview of what some of the possible ones. Could you perhaps give the context of, like, what the motivation is for proposing these changes for the ones that are like, aren't obvious? I mean, does that make sense? So, like like, why are we eliminating public hearings for department heads or council appointees?
What what what barrier or obstacle would that remove? Some of these were recommendations that were continued from the 2016 charter task force where there was citizen, commit, task force assigned to review the charter, and these were recommendations that they made, and some are, at the recommendation of of city staff. Yeah. In council member Just to make things easier for Yeah. Staff in the city. So some of these are goes back to the charter back into the twenties, thirties, forty. Laws have changed. And so, Texas is an at will state.
The, directors and assistant city managers are at will folks. Under HR laws, the charter requires or provides a person if they are being disciplined or they're being terminated. The charter provides that they get to to do a public here or public, presentation to the city council about their situation. But the city council has no no impact. They can't rehire the person. We can't it doesn't really mesh without, you know, the actual the actual state laws
and and how the system works. But it's a carryover from being in the charter for all those years before we became a city manager form of government. Okay. So okay. On that one, so for instance, is that something that happens a lot? What what's happened what is what it it ends up happening with the city with in reality is if a person gets terminated and then hire an attorney and they wanna sue the city, then the attorney makes a case that the they didn't get their day in in front of the city council because they didn't have the, ability
to appeal. But at the end of the day, the appeal doesn't mean anything because the city council Doesn't hire. Can't hire them. And so it kinda just muddles up the whole process and muddles up what's really available and not available to them. Again, because we came as we became a city manager form of government, and this was in the charter since before then. Okay. And then my other question which I have a few, but, I don't I know we've been here in a long time. So, the the part about restriction against budget adoption at the same meeting as budget hearing, what obstacle or barrier do you does that eliminate or preclude?
So there's currently a quirk in the charter where the budget cannot be adopted at the the same meeting as the budget hearing. And so that creates a weird scenario where the city has a separate meeting and then closes that meeting and has another separate meeting. It's not a requirement to do that except for our charter. And so this would be to eliminate that so that it's more seamless, and you can adopt the budget at the same one at the same meeting that you have a budget hearing. Okay. Alright. So looking at the mayor and council pay possible charter amendment, just a brief history. And this this amendment has come up, two times in the recent history.
2016, it failed, and then again in 2022, that failed, by a much narrower margin. Those numbers for the twenty twenty two one, at that time would have been, I think, 99, 99,000 for, half of the average salary of department directors. So $9,999,000 for mayor, 76,000 for council members. And that's the 2022 numbers. I imagine if you'd propose the same, amendment, index to half of the average salary
of department directors and assistant department directors, But those numbers would be, would be increased since 2022, but I don't have those numbers off them. Some other options on council, pay would be to specify some fixed base rate with an adjustment mechanism, index it to an outside, benchmark such as Tarrant County median household income. That 85,350 number is for a household, four four person household, and you could scale that up or down as as you desire, from that figure.
Another option would be to authorize council to set it annually by ordinance, but with a stated cap, similar how Austin does, their council salary. It's set by ordinance, but their count their charter doesn't include a provision in and, regarding council salary. So looking at, mayor and council salary again in terms of what are what has passed in other cities and what has failed, the benchmarking to HUD AMI, has passed in San Antonio recently in November and in El Paso in November 2018.
And those are the reference figures for those. Dallas had a council, charter amendment election, which included mayor and council pay, in November 2024 when they included fixed numbers, and that failed. And then you'll see some of the smaller cities do it by meeting, just for some reference. Not suggesting that for, say, Fort Worth. And then council term limits, this is just a comparison of other big cities, the other big cities in Texas and their current term lengths and term limits. And the, thought process behind potentially including term limits on a charter amendment election would
be it might make the council pay salary more palatable to voters if there's term limits also included. So timing for a May 2026 election, February 13 is the last day to order an election. So if you, wanted to include charter amendment propositions on a May 2026 election, that's the last day in which you need to order an election. And then in election day is 05/02/2026. So, if you do wanna proceed with a May 2026 charter amendment election, we'd bring back another work session to review the specific proposition language that you'd like to include,
on on the ballot, and then we would, bring forth an ordinance to call that special election, or the charter amendment, and those propositions would be added to the ballot along with the bond propositions. But regardless of decision you make, we do recommend, a charter review before, the 2028. So any questions? Thank you, Gavin. Questions or comments from council? Yep. Councilor Nettles. I think it's a good idea to, pursue now, with the fact that it's not gonna cost us any additional dollars, for, putting the charlation along with our bond.
And so I would like to kinda discuss briefly or if there's another work session, what options work best for this council. I I think we all kinda agree with the charter amendments because we already went through those the last two years. So I don't think that's a problem with that. I think it's the issue is whether we want to, put the mayor and council pay on there. And I think everyone around this table does enough work and deserves to and I know some. I think it's a volunteer, and it is volunteer. I don't think you can That amount is not gonna subsidize, what we do.
And so I would think that if you can go back to that maybe slide where you talked about a fixed rate or, putting it towards the house medium. This line? Sure. Yes. So I I'm I think that it should be a rate that we put up there because I think a lot of we heard people don't understand what the amount was gonna be. And I think it'll fail about 1,200 people so I think there has been some numbers done that it possibly can't pass this next go around. Those are some of my just general thoughts.
So for today, Gavin, your your main clarity is a move forward for a work session agenda item again on the sixth. So we just work with back on a on a work session with specific charter proposition language. Okay. That sound okay, counsel? You kinda digesting what they've suggested here today, and we can work on it again in January. Okay. Thank you very much. They have a suggestion on the, mayor council pay. I didn't they just gave options. The suggestion was kinda just on the amendments. Well, I think they're they probably were I'm not gonna speak for legal. They probably were just giving us some insight into what other cities have done successfully,
maybe also comparing that to what has not worked here in Fort Worth. And so, really, it would be up to this body. Or some other mechanism where or some other idea you may have to look at what that would be if there was consensus on council to put it on a charter. Sure. Collection. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Next up, stormwater valley storage regulation recommendations at Ben Thompson, TBW. Hello, mayor and council. So today, I'm here to talk about flood mitigation and specifically as it relates to
valley storage. So I'm gonna talk about what is valley storage. I've talked with several of you already about this, and I really appreciate your time. What are we proposing exactly, and summarize how that's gonna affect our residents and development, and then what the next steps are. So what valley storage is, in the simplest terms, valley storage is the amount of floodwater that fills up in the floodplain between two points. It's just so the floodwater that you see on the right side, that is, some quantity, some volume of water.
And so what research has shown, including case studies, here in the city, is that when we fill in that valley storage over time, we have increased flood risk downstream, with respect to increased flood levels and, erosion. So it can be very tempting to, fill in these empty spaces because they are empty, not full of water most of the time. And so it can be, tempting to develop even if we're developing, you know, up high out of the floodplain.
However, over time, little by little, these add up and increase, the flooding to structures, roadways, and, create, major erosion issues. So here in, the city of Fort Worth right now, we, do allow filling in the flood plain. And so this is one example. This is a big Fossil Creek. So what you see on the left is an aerial 2019. A lot of that floodplain was filled in. And, what you see on the right, the floodplain was remapped.
And now we have one one development by itself that probably had, minimal, impacts, but as the entire watershed is is developed and filled in, that that's when you get problems years down the road. And it's and it's the folks downstream. So this this particular, development did everything by the book, got all the permits, city and FEMA flood plain permitting, and, did everything correctly.
So valley storage in Fort Worth is not a new concept. We we have been regulating valley storage since the mid nineties. And what you see here on this map, the blue is the Trinity River, so it's the West Fork and the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. That's the area that we have been regulating since the nineties. And we got together this is a program called the Corridor Development Certificate. We got together with all the different communities along the Trinity River, and this is a program that is, facilitated by the North Central Texas Council governments.
We get help from the, US Army, Army Corps of Engineers. They help help review things for us, and then we make recommendations on whether someone can, develop. What we would like to do is, we took a look at what other cities are are doing this citywide. So So we would like to expand it. Let me go back one slide. We would like to expand, the regulations beyond the blue into the purple. So citywide regulations. And I'll explain exactly what that means.
But you never like to be the first or the only city doing, something when it comes to regulations that affect development. Right? So we are really the the last major city in, Texas to do this, and we had the advantage of looking at what works well and and what doesn't. So this is not, something we did overnight. We've been doing this for over five years. And, we did case studies so we can quantify what are the actual effects here in Fort Worth. And we did, like I said, benchmarking.
We met with council committees. We met with, DAC a bunch of times. We presented them with red lines of of the, flood plain ordinance and the recommended changes so they could give us a lot of feedback and input. And, we also had our our own specific stakeholder group. So all the feedback that that we were given is that, yes, this is something that we need to do citywide. The the recommendations from the development community is we don't want more permits. We don't want our permits to take longer, and we would like for some exemptions.
So some of those exemptions would be like, utility crossings or roadways where you just can't mitigate or instances where, there's property ownership issues. So what are we recommending? Before I move on to that, we we as I mentioned, we met with the DAC a bunch of times, and we were able to get a letter of recommendation from the DAC in October. They said, yes. You have our support, and this we we believe this meets the, goals of the city. And so that was really big for us to have their support, before we move
forward with, recommendations to council. So what exactly are we recommending? This is a very simple graphic, but all it is is if you put two scoops in the floodplain, you gotta take two scoops out. That's it. We're not saying you cannot develop in the floodplain, we're just saying it's it's a one to one ratio. And to make things simple, the flood plain is mapped throughout the city with the FEMA Flood Plain, so we're gonna use that as the boundary. We we do have some exemptions, exceptions, such as utility work where it's just really difficult to mitigate that and certain city projects that are difficult as well.
So, these regulations, just like other floodplain mitigation, are gonna be, recommended by with an update through the, floodplain ordinance. And so the bottom line is this this really is gonna protect our residents from flooding, mitigate that risk long term. This is a really long vision, look because one scoop in the floodplain is not gonna make a difference, but a million scoops over thirty years is is really gonna add up. So how many how many developments will this impact?
We went and looked back. It's about 75 a year. 75 studies, that are done each year that would have to look at this. That's not to say 75 projects or just dumping a bunch of fill on the floodplain. That's just to say that these are the ones who would need to take a hard look at it and maybe give us some calculations. So we do want to consider that, you know, there are gonna be some grandfathers. So if someone's already submitted one of these studies, we're not gonna make them go back and redo a bunch of stuff and and redo some calculations.
So we were able to meet with, most of you council members, over the last month. Thank you again for your time. We got some good questions and feedback from you. So here we are today, with the council's, work session, and then the hope is we'll be able to notify everybody, all of our stakeholders, the engineers, the developing the development community over the next month, six weeks, month, and then the, February 1, these, regulations would take effect. And, that is all I have unless you have any questions.
Any questions, counsel? No? Discussion? Nope. No questions. But I just wanted to thank your department for such a good explanation. I was able to share that with several of my homeowners associations in Flood Plains, and they were very pleased. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. Appreciate it. Okay. Proposed zoning amendments to alleviate the proliferation of certain business uses. Stephanie Scott Sims, development services. Stephanie. Hello. Good afternoon. For those who I have not yet met, my name is Stephanie Scott Sims, and I am the new planning manager here.
And today, I'm going to be talking about, the alleviation of, the proliferation of certain business uses. So just to give you just a kind of overall summary of what this is about, the purpose of this presentation is really to address council members, concerns regarding the over concentration of certain uses within commercial corridors, including liquor stores, payday lenders, smoke shops, and pawn shops. Again, this is just to, promote the balanced land use, and protect neighborhood vitality.
And staff is recommending, zoning amendments, to address these concerns. I do want to note that, due to these amendments that certain businesses may become nonconforming, and that new ones would be required to meet the requirements, the new requirements. Just some background for you. Last year, in 2024, staff presented IR 20 four-eighteen 67, which reviewed high proliferation business
types, which included liquor and package stores, credit access businesses, retail smoke shops, and pawn shops. Staff further, went back and further reviewed regulations and similar comparison cities, if you will, like Arlington, Dallas, Plano, and Irving, and San Antonio, and Austin to see what they require for these types of uses. And we are recommending the following zoning amendments. This is just a overview of those zoning amendments.
So for liquor and package stores, we are looking to our request or we are suggesting to define what a liquor and package store is, for one. Removing them from the E And M U 1 zoning districts, which are our neighborhood serving commercial areas, and adding a 1,000 foot separation distance between those uses. So that would be, between new and existing uses. For credit access businesses or payday lenders, again we are looking to define that use
in the zoning ordinance. Right now, those uses are regulated under our financial institutions land use, which includes banks, and credit unions. And then we are, suggesting to limit those uses to our G through K zoning districts, which are heavier commercial, and industrial zoning districts. As well as select form based districts, which would be our, form based districts that are non, residential in nature.
We are, also proposing to add a 1,000 foot separation distance between those uses. For retail smoke shops, we are, we are suggesting that we amend the definition. Currently, the definition of retail smoke shop includes a a threshold, so for, smoke shops to be considered a smoke shop, you have to basically, have gross retail sales. 90 I think it's 91% of your gross retail sales have to come from tobacco,
tobacco related products and accessories. And we are recommending that we amend that and lower that standard to 51%. And 51% is because that signifies that the majority, of your sales are from are related to those types of products. We are we are suggesting that we add new sensitive uses, to the list of existing sensitive uses. So right now, retail smoke shops are, required to maintain a 300 foot separation distance
from certain what we call sensitive uses like, schools and universities. So we are looking to add some new sensitive uses to that list and increase that buffer from 300 feet to 500 feet. We're also suggesting, to add a 1,000 foot separation distance between those uses. For pawn shops, we are, proposing to increase the separation distance, so there's already, a separation distance in the zoning ordinance between those, uses, which is 500 feet, and we're
proposing to increase that buffer to 1,000 feet. And lastly, we are adding a definition of bar. The city does not have a definition of a bar, within the zoning ordinance, so, we're looking to add a definition that's consistent with the TABC regulations, and also to revise the definition of restaurant. So I have some general information about liquor and package stores. This is a a, map that shows where all of the liquor and package store
locations are within the city, and the, zoning, I'm sorry, council districts in which they're located. So this is a heat map, which shows you kind of the density of where those, uses are located, throughout the city. Again liquor and packaged stores are not currently defined in the zoning ordinance. They are allowed by right as of right now, in the E neighborhood commercial and MU1 mixed use districts, and they're permitted by right in the F, G, H, I,
J, K, MU and MU2, and certain foreign base code districts. And then section four zero four of the city code prohibits those sales, within 300 feet of some of those sensitive uses like churches, public schools, and public hospitals. And so our proposed amendments include defining liquor and package stores, as an establishment principally for the retail sale of alcoholic beverages as defined by TABC, and removing liquor package
stores as a permitted use, by right in the E neighborhood commercial and M U 1 mixed use districts, which are again are our neighborhood serving commercial districts, establishing a 1,000 foot buffer between liquor package stores. This one thing to note is the measurement and how that would be measured. So we are proposing to measure that in a direct line from the property line to property line, not door to door or like sometimes other uses are measured.
This is our standard measurement. I think I believe there are some uses that we do, measure from door to door because we're required to by state law, but, generally, this is how we measure. And then one item for discussion is whether to add daycares to that list of sensitive uses. For credit access businesses, I have some general information about those. Again, here is a lit, I'm sorry, a map of where these, uses are located
within the city, by, sorry, a council district. And we are proposing, again to establish credit access businesses as a defined zoning use and separating it from banks or financial institutions. We are proposing to limit credit access businesses uses to our heavier commercial and industrial districts, and, all foreign based districts except certain, certain districts that are residential in nature.
And then we're, we're suggesting that we establish a 1,000 foot separation distance between those uses. Retail smoke shops, this is a map showing all of those uses within the city and where they're located, by council district. Again, these uses are defined currently as stores that derive 90% or more of its gross annual sales from the sale of tobacco and related products. We currently have a retail smoke shop sensitive use buffer, that prohibits the sale of
these, or the location of these stores within 300 feet of schools and universities and hospitals. And these, definitions and the buffers, they're also codified within the city's smoking, ordinance, so that would also have to be updated. And again, retail smoke shops, we're proposing to limit or lower that percentage threshold from 90% to 51%, establishing a 1,000 foot separation distance between retail smoke shops and increasing
the sensitive buffer distance to 500 feet from 300 feet, and adding public parks, places of worship, and day care centers to that list of sensitive uses. And lastly, amending the chapter, chapter 29.5 smoking ordinance. Pawn shops. One thing here's a, another map of the pawn shops and where they're located within the city. And one thing I did want to note about pawn shops is that, in 2006, the city council approved a zoning ordinance text amendment that removed these uses from, the
E neighborhood commercial and MU one, mixed use districts. So as a result of that, there were 14 existing pawn shops that were made legal nonconforming by that action. So later on in 2010, council, initiated a rezoning of those 14, legal non conforming pawnshops to a PD to make them conforming uses. So here is a list of those pawnshops, where they're located, And so they would
they would not be, affected by, these changes in the ordinance because they're conforming uses. So that's just one thing to keep in mind unless something happens that makes them nonconforming. For pawn shops, we are proposing to increase the separation distance between them, from 500 feet to 1,000 feet. And then bar and restaurant, again, we're proposing to define the word bar and the
term and amending the term the, definition for restaurant. Bar, means an establishment that basically derives 75% or more of its gross revenue, from the sale of alcoholic beverages as defined by TABC. And then restaurant, we just kind of reconfigured this, we removed some wording and made it much, user friendly for both staff and the public. And that is all that I have, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you. Very thorough. Any questions or comments from counsel? I just wanna say thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. I've been really excited about, this ordinance. It was, something that, District 6 was very passionate about, especially with the proliferation of liquor stores and smoke shops. So thank you for, bringing something. I think that it's reasonable and fair and, I think will be very supportive for our residents and our city overall. So thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? No. Thank you very much. Okay, council.
That's conclusion of our work session agenda items. Are there any future agenda items to provide to CMO? Council member Blaylock, I'll move around the table. So this is not necessarily an IR, but it is, a request if we to understand what it would take to reconfigure this room so that we all have line of sight to the speaker as was highlighted earlier today, whether that's moving to the podium to the center or rearranging so the speaker is not behind us on either
side. Yeah. Good question. And Elizabeth and then to Macy. In a recent, our NLC trip to Salt Lake City, I was able to take a tour of their film industry and what they do to promote it. And one thing I realized is that we don't have a set of best practices here for how we best integrate our film industry with our neighborhoods. So I would like staff to work with, Visit Fort Worth and the film commission to really look nationally at how other cities that are promoting film the way we are, permit and handle that, the interplay between our neighborhoods and our streets.
For example, Salt Lake doesn't allow them to shut down a street for an entire day. They have PD there to support them, and they shut them down for shorter periods of time. So it's things like that that I think we can, get out in front of. You. Councilor Hill? I already mentioned my IR request on the transparency stars. I think that would be helpful. But I did wanna on the MNC log on item number 21, prior to our meeting next week, can we have Midori circulate the it's the plan the annual artwork plan for the fiscal year 2026? I haven't seen that. I'd like to see it beforehand.
Yep. Customer Flores. I had a request, TPW staff and legal department to look at evaluating creation of noise ordinance enforcement signage, you know, for certain areas that, we have repeated violations of that. They could be done in in combination, say, with no cruising. I'm talking specifically about the stockyards, and I'm not necessarily saying let's revisit the no cruising, you know, ordinance matter again. Because at the time, chief Noakes decided to to park that the time being.
But this continues to be a problem, specifically in the stockyards where there is still an existing no cruising ordinance. So what I'm thinking is maybe in combination, we can come up with some appropriate signage to notify people. If you're pulling in there, you wanna have a good time, great. But don't crank, you know, your your radio or have some obnoxiously loud, you know, engine or, you know, muffler system. Any others, counsel? Yeah. Councilor Nevills and then Councilor Peoples. Yeah. I have one. We had developed something when we had the issue with LVT Rise day care about
adding them to list to have police come immediately. I think they, put something at the daycare. Well, I wanted to see how we can do that to add that same thing to the YMCAs or if they're already added. Childcare Associates. Okay. It was like a smart button. Like an hour or just a request that that happened. I'm clarifying. I mean, if if if this is just a simple, request, that's fine. Okay. We'll we'll find out and then we'll get back to Okay. Councilor Peoples. No. I just wanna thank all the staff. Today was probably one of the best work sessions I have been in since I've
been on the council. I thought very thoughtful, well thought out presentations, and so I am appreciative. I know it takes a lot of work for you all to have to come down and present to us, and a lot of time and energy goes into those presentations. And I just wanna tell you, they were well done and well received, and thank you. Thank you, Deborah. I just have one, Jay, and and also is from Midori. Is we've talked about this, I think, at a CMO level several times, but utilizing our libraries, specifically, and then maybe using parks and rec in this conversation to community
centers where there's vacant space or possible space to activate, specifically for our art community. And I know Midori had an interest in that when she first got here. So if she wants to take the lead on what she's already thinking about and present something in January, that would be helpful. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. We're gonna during this meeting, we have CCPD. So there's pizza. So we're gonna take a five minute break at their request because they gotta flip things over for, cable and then come back. Meeting adjourned. Part: 2
Good evening and welcome to the city council public comment meeting. Before Mayor Parker calls the meeting to order, we ask that you please be seated and silence all electronic devices. For those of you who have requested to speak, when your name is called, please come forward to the center podium. A countdown clock is displayed on the left monitor and when indicate how much time is remaining. A bell will sound when you have thirty seconds remaining. Before you begin your comments, please state your name. Thank you. Good evening. I'll call our Fort Worth City Council public comment meeting to order. Council, our first action will be the invocation given by pastor Chris Freeland from Doxology
Bible Church. Please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of allegiance. Would you pray with me? Lord, we come before you in this season of Thanksgiving with so much to be grateful for. It's a gift that we get to live in this great city and, in this great country during this great time. Every day isn't great, but there's still just so much to be thankful for. And even though there's so much work to be done, Lord, we don't ever wanna lose sight of the fact that, your gifts are ours, and we don't wanna take for granted the gift that it is to live in this extraordinary city.
What a blessing that is. We're here, before you, before the beginning of this meeting because we, elected officials and appointed officials, they're members of their team, and us citizens who are gathered today. We we don't wanna be just recipients of your blessings, but conduits of them. We we wanna be a blessing to the city that you've called each of us to serve. And, we know that all of us have, different capacities to serve. All of us have different callings as a part of that. Undoubtedly, we all have different perspectives and opinions about what that could look like, maybe
even what it should look like for, this city to flourish, But we wanna be united in serving the city at least in that. So, Lord, we're we're coming before you because we know that to whom much is given, much is required. And we want to be faithful and wise stewards of your blessings and also humble because we realize that apart from your wisdom and your guidance, none of us could possibly do what you've called us to do. So we come before you to ask for wisdom and for boldness and for courage. Go before us and around us and behind us and above us and below us tonight and long into the future.
We're grateful people and want to live and lead like that. So help us to do that. I ask it because I believe that that's exactly what Jesus would have us do. So we ask it in his name. Amen. Council, our first action item will be consideration of the minutes from the October, November council meetings. Got a motion and a second council. Any other discussion? If not, please vote. Charlie's not present. Thank you. Motion carries. And that concludes all of the action items. Thank you, Jeanette. Our first speaker is a group, under Sarah Reddington.
And just as a note, the council is attempting to get to the Christmas tree lighting, so we're gonna reduce speaking time to the following. Group speakers will be three minutes, and each individual speaker will be a minute and a half. As we get closer to time, I'll probably give some encouragement so we make sure we get through every speaker that did sign up this evening. Thank you. Miss Redington. Good evening, council members and mayor Parker. Thank you for your service to our community and for the opportunity to speak with you this afternoon. My name is Sarah Redington with the Miles Foundation. It's my honor and pleasure to be here on behalf of the Tarrant County Maternal
and Infant Health Coalition, which started three years ago under mayor Parker's leadership, and which I've helped lead alongside Rose Bradshaw at North Texas Community Foundation, Sadie Funk at Best Place for Kids, and Dean Flynn of TCU Medical School. Mayor Parker first convened the coalition in September 2022 to address a critical issue in our community. Tarrant County's public health district has the second highest rate of maternal mortality for black women in our state. With over twenty seven thousand live births each year in Tarrant County, mayor Parker challenged our community to do better on behalf of our local mothers and babies and especially
for those populations most at risk. So together, we called each of our region's biggest health system leaders from Karen Duncan at JPS to Mary Robinson at THR, Charles Williams at Baylor Scott and White, Karen Love at Cook Children's, and Laura Kender at MHMR. Each of these leaders not only answered our call, but agreed to join together to create a different approach for how we care for mothers and babies in Tarrant County. Over the last three years, I'm pleased to report that the coalition has designed a high-tech, high touch approach utilizing existing assets in the community. First, the free Parent Pass app funded by the Miles Foundation and built together with
local families. And second, MHMR's Help Me Grow navigators who provide a full intake and screening with mothers and walk them through every step to connect with the resources they need. Today, Parent Pass serves 20,000 families in Tarrant County. And together with Help Me Grow, we are closing the loop with 9091% of the mothers we serve. In partnership with 100 organizations across DFW, we are excited about our Dallas expansion through the newly established maternal health accelerator led by TCU and CPOW. Hi. I'm Alexandra Morales, the project and partnership coordinator with Parent Pass.
Working in the community, I get to see firsthand the impact of these supports. Help Me Grow recently shared a story with me about a new mother who was receiving free in home nurse supports and education about lactation, blood pressure, and how to recognize the signs and symptoms of blood clots. When mom started to recognize these signs and symptoms in herself, she checked into the hospital where the ER found many blood clots, including one life threatening blood clot in her brain. Her life was saved. And because of this, mom and baby now get to experience toddlerhood together. This story illustrates the power of this work and the impact that will last for
generations to come. Hi there. Rose Bradshaw from the North Texas Community Foundation. I have to say, for thirty five years in the business, I've never seen anything like this. Partners coming together, thanks to mayor Parker's leadership three years ago when you said this was unacceptable for mothers to be dying in Tarrant County. And these partners are united by one thing first, refusing to accept the unacceptable. Together, they've come together to try new things, to use their expertise, their experience, their shoe leather, their relationships to be able to help save mom's lives.
And today, we're here now thanks to the donations from, foundations. Thank you, Rose. You bet. Thanks. For for your support. Our next speaker is Mindy Tackett. Appreciate y'all being here. Miss Tackett will be followed by Peter Irvin. Mayor Parker, you always present yourself as a moderate, believing that standing in the middle makes you fair. However, your actions minimize the struggles of marginalized communities and dismiss those who confront injustice.
This mirrors the history of moderates who who urged patience while others suffered. In 1963, eight white Alabama clergymen criticized civil rights demonstrations claiming they were unwise and untimely. They prioritize civility over justice, urging people to wait as injustice continued. Doctor King identified them as the greater obstacle than outright oppressors, valuing silence over progress. You claim to focus on city operations, yet you spend significant time on image control. If you truly believe 80% of this city supports you, why cut public speaking and
orchestrate a thank you parade with nonprofit leaders and local organizations? Reality is only 2.6% of the city of a million voted for you. You you mirror those clergymen unconcerned and lacking urgency. The white moderate was the problem then, and you are the problem now. Wait is a message of white privilege, sounding reasonable and untimely, meaning never. You want to convince people that your brand of moderation is the best they can do, but it is not. Our city deserves more than managed stagnation. Our next speaker is Peter Irvin.
Peter will be followed by Neli Gympay. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Peter Irvin. I'm a resident of Fort Worth City Council District six. I have been informed that Fort Worth is considering funding various municipal infrastructure upgrades through the 2026 bond program. I urge the city to embrace responsible fiscal conservatism by abandoning city support for the car industry's 100 year old monopoly on transportation and embracing public safety through true equality of movement. Fort Worth is on a Detroit style path to financial ruin if long term low
maintenance transportation infrastructure is not built in our city. These options are described by organizations such as Strong Towns, if you'd like to, see more. As many with the transportation public works department already know, car infrastructure car infrastructure is the most expensive method to move people to their destinations. The, these organizations have laid out the case for exploding deferred maintenance costs in excruciating detail, which we are already beginning to see from the financial breakdown in our bond program. We find residents of Fort Worth will struggle to service the debt bill snowballing our
way if the city does not fully embrace walkable neighborhoods, sensible zoning practices limiting the geographic reach of NIMBY activism and infrastructure projects enabling viable non car movement choices. Thank you. Our next speaker is Chris Wood. Miss Wood will be followed by Nancy Estrada. Chris Wood. Hi, Chris. I'm Chris Wood from District 6. The upcoming May 2026 bond election proposition d, public safety improvements, has my strong support.
It includes funding for a new 911 call center with the primary goal of reducing emergency response times by combining services and improving efficiency. In emergencies, every second can mean the difference between life and death. I know this firsthand. A few years ago, I faced a terrifying situation. In the middle of the night, a man, built like a defensive lineman, was banging on my door, trying to break in. He was a friend of my stalker. I grabbed my phone, took shelter in my bathroom, and called 911.
The time waiting for the police felt like an eternity. When I finally heard sirens and saw the officer at my door, I was overwhelmed with relief. The timely response from the police likely prevented a tragedy. If that man had broken in, one of us probably would have ended up in the hospital and the other in jail. The city and taxpayers will bear the financial burden of crime. The average cost for an emergency room visit after an assault is 3,800. That pales in comparison to the greater expenses such as court fees, jail operations, and
investigations. Thank you. Nancy Estrada followed by Kayla Womack. People in public service or those connected to it should never be allowed to use their position to protect each other from accountability. A person in a position of authority over my children made inappropriate advances towards me. I rejected him, and his demeanor towards me changed. My children paid the ultimate price. They were expelled. His alternate employer, Fort Worth County Day, refused to acknowledge his misconduct and instead treated me as the problem. I became a threat only hours after reporting his behavior to HR department, then was
charged with harassment for exposing him. No detective ever questioned me before signing off a harassment warrant. Until this day, I have not been asked a single question by any public servant. I spent over a day in Tarrant County Jail despite never initiating contact with him. More than $30,000 in taxpayer funds have been spent targeting me. In a time where we're debating whether to cut programs that feed our most vulnerable citizens, how can this kind of spending be justified? How can protecting misconduct be priority over public need? I'd like to I'd like you to consider my case for review and action to
resolve this abuse of the system and the personal retaliation I have faced. Thank you for your consideration. Kayla Womack followed by Shana Starks. Hi. My name is Kayla Womack, and I am a resident at The Nest by Justin's Place. I'm a single mother of two little girls and have lived at or below the poverty line all of my adult life. At the Nest, I have received unwavering support and stability in order to chase my dreams. I will finish my education for cybersecurity in May with a major in information technology, and this past October, I sat for the CompTIA Security Plus exam and passed on
the first go. My education and the certification will allow me to obtain a wage sustaining career and take care of my family in a great way. Justin's place in the NEST have allowed me to be supported while I go after my dreams and goals. Thank you, Mayor Parker and city councilman, for your support of the NEST. It's truly life changing. Thank you. Shania Starks followed by Kim Medford. Good evening. I'm Shana Starks, a Fort Worth ISD parent, and I am here to speak on behalf of Literacy Roundup and the important work that they're doing. It's well known that identifying dyslexia early can make a real difference in a child's
educational journey by connecting them with the resources they need to succeed. My son was recommended for dyslexia testing in third grade because his teacher recognized he was facing challenges in this area that were outside of the norm. But, unfortunately, his dyslexia went undiagnosed. We were told that his signs were not significant enough to qualify him for available resources. He's now in fifth grade and has continued to struggle with reading, spelling, and written expression. Thankfully, Literacy Roundup assessed my son for dyslexia again this summer and concluded that he
was at risk. They shared their concerns and advocated for a retest at the school with which ultimately led to an official diagnosis. This goes to show why organizations like Literacy Roundup matter so much. Navigating the system can be overwhelming, and we didn't know what our options were. They stepped in with their expertise and their genuine belief in my child, and for that, I'm grateful. I also wanna thank the city council for recognizing that literacy extends beyond the classroom. It's a community responsibility, and your leadership in this area demonstrates a commitment to being
part of the solution to literacy. If there are any questions about whether this program should continue, I say with confidence that it should. I have no doubt that many more children will benefit. Thank you. Our next speaker is Kim Medford followed by Alan Lobaugh. Hi. I'm back to talk. I talked a couple, months ago about Noah and my struggles getting him services for dyslexia. I'm proud to say he received his second day of help today at the school. So I wanna thank the city council for backing Literacy Roundup. I wanna thank Literacy Roundup for reaching out to the community.
Thank you for dedicating and footwork on the ground for our community. Thank you for coming to Como Community Center and giving much help and support to my son, Noah. I've had a successful nursing career, but I've not been so successful at getting Noah help for his dyslexia. We know Noah has a long road. It won't be easy, but he will be successful. Honestly, believe without the screening and help of literacy round out, Noah would not have received the help he needed to get further on in his schoolwork. I believe we wouldn't have gotten help till probably next year, which would have been
the seventh grade. The support and help of navigating the system, helping me push for Noah, helping me ask the right questions, it has all been beneficial. Our city pays so much for the kids we don't find to help and teach and to read. City council members, I know you're not doing this for the money. You're doing this to help help and make a change make a change and a difference in the city and for the kids. Thank you so much for your continued support and backing literacy roundup. Noah told me to wrap it up because he's trying to get to the Christmas tree lot.
So Our next speaker is Alan Lobaugh. Alan here? Whitney Wood Juarez followed by Jerry Jerry. Good evening. I'm Whitney. I'm a Fort Worth resident and local realtor. I am aware of the housing affordability crisis. Are you? The draft twenty twenty six six bond allocates only $10,000,000 to affordable housing. That's barely 1% of an 800 plus million dollar package. Meanwhile, Fort Worth's median household income is about $76,000 and the median home price is
over $3.20. That's more than four times the average income. In families I work with every day, teachers, first responders, service workers, and seniors, are being priced out of the city they love and serve. Other cities aren't ignoring this. Dallas committed over $80,000,000 Austin approved $350,000,000 Fort Worth is falling behind. If we continue underfunding housing, we will see increasing displacement of long term residents, workforce shortages, slower economic growth, and increased pressure on social services, As housing instability is one
of the strongest predictors of poverty, crime, and poor health outcomes, I urge you to significantly increase the affordable housing allocation of the bond. Thank you. Next speaker is Jerry Jerry followed by George Charles. Hello. Happy holidays, mayor Parker, council members, and everyone today. My name is Jerry, and recently, I mailed a letter to Mayor Parker, Councilman Nettles, and tax assessor Rick Barnes. I'm a disabled senior veteran, and I live on a fixed income.
I moved back to Fort Worth to care for my mother who had Lewy Body dementia. This changed my life completely. I wasn't able to work, but I went to school full time and I earned a AA degree from TCC, UNT degree or a BAS from UNT, and a master's degree from Texas A and M School of Law. Like many others, my home was damaged during the 2021, storm. And so I applied for a, grant or for help from the, Community Action Partners
Veterans Home Repair, unit with the city. And I was denied because they said that my taxes were, not my my current property taxes were not paid. I'm actually, legally tax deferred via text, Texas tax code 33.06. I wanted more answers, so I I went to the, Texas Public Information Act and requested tax statements. And, there are a lot of discrepancies within the tax statement.
I'm simply asking to you to Gerry, that's the conclusion of your time, but I'm gonna ask one of our assistant city managers to come visit with you and exchange information. Thank you. George Childs will be our next speaker followed by Shay Shaw. My name is George Robert Childs. I live in Fort Worth. So much for the script tonight. Although the subject was extremely predictive, it was on first amendment shrinkflation. I know of no more fitting symbol of what's important to all you people that
were picked to take care of city business, then you would by reduce to what what exercise of a of a constitutional right has been reduced to. So you will all have a quorum, which you have been singularly lacking, for for quite a while when you feel like it. So you can have a photo op at a tree.
It was a pagan symbol. And if you don't believe me, if you don't believe me, ask any person who follows Odin, the true warrior god. It was a pagan symbol a long time before BC suddenly on that fable night became AD. I have no words to express my disgust my disgust. I can't even say it. I'm so mad. Our next speaker is Shay Shaw, and then followed by Jerry Tracy. Hello. I'm reverend Shay Shaw, and I'm a District 7 resident and a certified global citizen.
Let's make sure y'all make it in time for your photo op, okay? Never mind AI and all its dangers. Did you know slave owners just became shareholders? And now systemic oppression is just politics. Tragic. And then do you do you feel the acid of apathy that's running through your veins? It's soaking up all these broken pipeline stains, and it's spitting out every massive warning sign. History already made. We, the people, have chosen representatives who are choosing our fate.
The Earth is now screaming. She's far past pleading for us to be kind. We've built her a casket made of plastic. And the most graphic part of all is, well, good Samaritans are now for building walls, then lending a hand. Money and government must be too good a friend to see that the heart of our world will be barely beating if we don't change dramatically. School book stories that once seemed scary are today's headlines of reality. Our next speaker is Carrie Tracy.
Thank you so much. Tracy will be followed by Rebecca Montgomery. Good evening, mayor Parker and council. I'm Jeri Tracy, and I'm here to speak to you about the Community Arts Center. The Community Arts Center is an outgrowth of the Fort Worth Art Association established in 1938. Prior to becoming the first location of the modern art museum, the center has been both a museum and an art school. Many budding artists were taught their craft right there in that building, and there by
many of the the artists were taught by that prestigious group known as the methodology used to calculate the 20 to 30,000,000 to address deferred maintenance of the center does not follow preservation practice. If landmarked at the city, state, and or national levels, restoration incentives may generate 25% or more of the project's improvement cost. Additionally, unlike construction, these preservation projects may be prioritized, phased in, and addressed over a
long period of time. In closing in Texas, Fort Worth has the second highest number of designated buildings. That's second only to San Antonio. Let's lead on in preservation by landmarking the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. Local artists deserve to continue to utilize this vital building. Thank you. Rebecca Montgomery will be followed by Bart McGough. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. I'm Rebecca Montgomery, and I'm honored to volunteer with the Fort Worth literacy roundup program. On behalf of our entire team, thank you for your continued support of this vital
work. In September, I attended an ARD meeting addressing a child's struggles in our local education system. I was reminded exactly why this work matters so deeply. Five educational professionals explained how this fifth grader's screening scores were in the normal average range, yet everyone at the table acknowledged that his reading, writing, spelling, and handwriting were closer to a second or third grade level. I don't believe any of us here would call that normal for a fifth grader.
Because of you, Literacy Roundup was at the table. We asked the question that needed to be asked. You've heard the parents' concerns. What is the plan? And we stayed until we received the plan. On November 14, his testing was completed. And as you heard from his mother, he was recommended for dyslexia support. He now has a plan, and we're moving forward. This is why your support matters. Larcy Roundup is here to help to provide encouragement, tools, and hope. When a child learns to read, it transforms their future and our community.
Thank you, mayor and council members, for prioritizing our youth and believing in the future of Fort Worth. Art McGaughey followed by Leila Santolin. Hi. My name is Bart. I deliver mail for a living, and that means I'm out in Fort Worth neighborhoods, on foot more than most people. Rain, heat, whatever the day looks like. And when you're on the streets every day, you start to notice things that drivers never see. You notice the worn foot pass in the grass where sidewalk should be. You notice parents pushing strollers in the road because that's the only option. You notice kids walking to school tied against the curb because there's no shoulder, and
you notice cars, how fast they come around certain corners, how often people look nervous just trying to get across their own street. None of this is dramatic. It's not a news story. It's just daily reality for thousands of people in the city. And once you've seen it enough, you can't unsee it. That's what pushed me to speak here tonight. Walkability isn't some abstract idea to me. It's something I witness up close every single day, and the picture is right here in our face. When a city is built only for driving, the people who aren't in cars, even
just for a few minutes, feel it immediately. I'm not asking for anything huge, just that as Fort Worth grows, we pay attention to the small improvements that make a neighborhood safer for people who live in it, the sidewalks that finish the route, sidewalks where people already cross the streets design that considers humans as much as vehicles. Those big things add up. Thank you. Leila will be followed by Andrew Dela Torre. Yeah. Just hand it here to the city secretary's office, and they'll pass it out. Good evening, council.
My name is Leila Santian, and I have the honor of serving as chief operating officer at Fort Worth Education Partnership. Each year, in response to our academic performance report, we hear that student outcomes are simply a function of poverty, that students serving wealthy white students do well, and we shouldn't expect the same from schools serving black and brown students or students experiencing poverty or learning English, that kids in classrooms today must wait for conditions tomorrow to change to get the educational foundation they they deserve. That narrative asks our kids to bear the burden of waiting for an education that
enables a freer life and increased opportunity. Our public schools shoulder society's obligations, and we should acknowledge that and resource them accordingly. But it's equally true that among schools serving the same student populations, we see wide variation in outcomes, including right here in Fort Worth. So the question becomes, what is happening in schools that are proving what's possible for Fort Worth kids? Last month, we released Cultivating Hope, highlighting four bright spot campuses in Fort Worth, Alice De Quinteras Elementary, IDEA Edgecliff College Prep, Cesar Chavez Primary School, and the Leadership Academy
Network at Maude I Logan, all serving 80 to 95% of the economically disadvantaged student populations and delivering exceptional academic growth under extraordinary leaders with more than 53% of all students on grade level at each of those campuses. We ask you to encourage these leaders, thank them for the work they're doing for Fort Worth students. Thank you. Our next speaker is Andrew Tory. Is Andrew available? Hi, Andrew. Our next speaker is Yolanda Smith. Good evening. My name is Andrew Tory, and I'm a resident of council district five.
And I'm here because public comments are not a privilege. They are a right. And before 2022, residents could speak at every regular council meeting. And today, we're down to fewer than twice a month. And now meetings are quietly shifted to hours when working families can't even attend. Fort Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in America. We're a city of a million people. Yet when opportunities to speak at our own government are shrinking, that's backwards. This transparency should grow as the city grows. Chris Tackett had recommended restoring public comments to every meeting because democracy works best when
people are heard, not controlled, not filtered, not scheduled around photo ops. So we demand public comments at every meeting in twenty twenty six. Not 10 times a year, every single meeting. So let the record show that the people of Fort Worth are done being silenced. Thank you. Yolanda Smith. Yolanda will be followed by Chris Shushfire. Yolanda? Okay. I'll come back. Chris Shushfire. Is Chris here? Chris Chris will be followed by EJ Carian. Good evening. Really excited to be here. I bring you greetings from Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas.
We are really excited to be partnered with Crowley Independent School District to work with four middle schools. The reason why we work with four middle schools is that there is power in the middle. Mindsets are built in the middle. Habits are built in the middle. And skills are built in the middle. And so we're excited to partner with Fort Worth for with Crowley Independent School District. We serve 3,500 students of which 65% of them reside in Fort Worth. We are excited to invite both of our council members, Doctor. Hall and also Councilman Nettles, to come and visit us.
We focus on academic excellence, we focus on experiential learning, we focus on industry recognized skills, and we also focus on entrepreneurial thinking because our children need to solve the problems that don't yet exist. And so we're really excited to partner with Crowley ISD. We're excited to be in Fort Worth, and We're also excited to be back in Fort Worth because we have served in Fort Worth before and working in night school and Dunbar High School to help people finish their college degree. And so we're really excited. We invite you all to come visit us. We invite you to we'll come back with updates from time to time.
And we also are really excited just to be here. Thank you. Our next speaker is EJ Carian followed by Martin Maloski. Reduce the amount of public comments, minimize the amount of time we can speak, change it to a time that only working people now can't make it, invite Mercy Culture in, get the establishment to start coming quarter in, with a quarter left in the year, run to your banker, at the Sundance for a tree ceremony. These are all the things we get to see for them to try to minimize
the people. But I wanna talk about one that we don't get to see. Bradford William Davis wrote an article October 31 called, don't be so quick to judge intent behind a casket left at Mayor's House. This talked about the history of caskets being used as a symbol of peaceful protesting, not just in our city, but across the country. I'm here to say that less than thirty days after that article, Bradford is no longer have a job at the Star Telegram. A black journalist, the only op ed black journalist of Star Telegram, no longer has
the jobs. So what you have here today is power, and it's working in three ways. One, the people who have the privilege to come and speak to you. Two, the people who need to pay their bills and make sure their job is being certified by kissing your ring. But three is all the other people who can't come out here because they're afraid that they're the next Bradford. Martin Maloski will be followed by Sabrina Ball. Hi. My name is Martin Maloski. I'm from District 6. In District 6, we don't really have much going on besides a lot of nice homes, some fast food restaurants, and some liquor stores.
There's nothing really for families and the youth to do, and that is why I'm proposing that this would be the only, year round ice rink for the city of Fort Worth, a million people, be built in District 6. There's a lot of land, and youth sports is very important. I played football in high school. I don't anymore, but those lessons that I learned, hard work, perseverance, teamwork, those are lessons that I use every day. My son plays hockey because he likes to go fast. We have to drive 40 to Arlington or Mansfield or an hour to Euless or
North Richland Hills. There's nothing really in the area, but there is an interest. People drive all the way from Weatherford just to go to, like, Arlington or Mansfield. My wife and I get parents who come up to us all the time. Oh, your son plays hockey. My kids keep bugging me about hockey, but I don't know where they can go to play it. So I'm proposing that we, find a way to develop the first year round ice rink in District 6, and that will benefit the entire city of 1,000,000 people.
Thank you. Sabrina Ball will be followed by Shanna Snyder. I wanna commend the mayor for creating the maternal health accelerator. You said we can't just admire the problem. We have to focus on solutions, and that's true. This won't succeed if the policies you support undermine the mothers you want to help. Project twenty twenty five, the agenda shaping conservative policies, calls for slashing SNAP and WIC, the programs that keep pregnant women and babies fed. You cannot champion maternal health while supporting an agenda that takes dinner off their table. It calls for major Medicaid cuts, even though Medicaid pays for half the births in
Texas and is the main insurer for low income moms in Tarrant County. Cutting Medicaid means cutting access to maternal and infant care, and no accelerator can fix that. Project twenty twenty five aims to dismantle public health agencies like health and human services, which supports the interventions we need. Family planning has already been gutted. That's the regime you support. You've heard about our awful maternal mortality here tonight, and our only public hospital, JPS, has had its tax rate cut three years in a row despite delivering twenty percent of babies in this country.
And because of the abortion ban, we face doctors and now nursing shortage shortages because they aren't considered professionals. If you care, stand up and push back. Food assistance is maternal health. Medicaid is maternal health. Education is maternal health. Affordable housing is maternal health. Funding JPS is maternal health. And, yes, abortion is maternal health. Otherwise, this isn't a maternal health accelerator. It's a photo op, and mothers in Tarrant County deserve more than PR. Good evening, Mayor Parker and council members. I'm Shanna Snyder.
I'm our senior director of community investment programs with United Way of Tarrant County, and I oversee our maternal health initiatives. This sounds like a really important topic tonight. So I am very excited to give some updates about some of the work that United Way has been doing along with our programmatic partner, CPAL, in Dallas. They were mentioned earlier, with the maternal health coalition work. Team birth, not teen, team, t e a m, that happens a lot. Team birth is a very simple but powerful model that improves communication and safety during
the birthing process. It brings the birthing person, their support person, and the clinical team together to in regular huddles, use in a shared planning board so that everyone stays aligned and families have a real voice in their care. United Way, along with CPOW, has served as local backbone implementation partner. We got to meet team birth, bring team birth to Tarrant County. Tarrant County has now implemented in seven hospitals, launched one more hospital this year, and is the very first one in all of Texas to implement this really life saving,
program for for our families here. Alongside this work, we're also doing a lot of work with our doula community. We have five doulas on staff providing free care, and and we have trained a 150 doulas in our community. So lots of work going into supporting these families and our mothers. Thank you so much. Is miss Smith here, Yolanda Smith? Did she make it in? Yolanda, if you wanna come down and speak, and then we'll go back to Becky Bass. Thank you. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Yolanda Smith, and I'm a volunteer with the literacy literacy roundup program. And I'm here to tell you about Titan, a fourth grade, boy who had life
has been transformed because of the opportunities that you have helped make possible. This past summer, Tyne's family was able to go to the dyslexic screening, and because of that, his mom was able to get assistance and get him diagnosed. And now, once he was diagnosed, the school acted quickly, and now he receives dyslexia classes every day of the week. He also has, a a one on one aid, and he also has class assistance
for reading and writing. Because of your support, Titan is now a bright young kid who is, sorry, who going to school is not impossible anymore. He looks forward to going to his dyslexic class every day, and he can now encounter anything that comes through through his life. So on behalf of, Tynes family, I'm just here to tell you thank you. Thank you for your commitment, and I'm just here to tell you that you are changing lives. You're not just supporting a program.
Thank you very much. Becky Bass will be followed by Michelle Kennedy. Thank you, mayor Parker and city council for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Becky Bass, and I'm the executive director of the Fort Worth Community Land Trust. And I just wanna thank the city for prioritizing housing as a part of the upcoming 2026 bond and urge city council to support and possibly expand to even more meaningful funding as a part of the upcoming bond initiative. The data is very clear. We are projected to have over 14,000 new households that will make between 60 and
a 120% of area median income in the next ten years. Those are families that are going to struggle to find housing without meaningful production and programs that meet their needs. Just between 2010 and 2024, we've seen a 33% increase in our population here, which beats the state average of 24%. And prices have increased 50% in the last five years alone. The city's own neighborhood conservation plan and affordable housing strategy is clear that housing is necessary to meet our growth, and we need new funding sources to be a key
part of that production. Thank you. Michelle Kennedy? Miss Kennedy, we followed by CJ Johnson. Use the center podium, please, miss Kennedy? The center podium? Oh, yeah. Michelle, thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. My name is Michelle Kennedy, and I'm with Trinity Habitat for Humanity. I just, like Becky wanted to take a moment and say thank you so much for the inclusion of housing as a part of the 2026 bond. In November, I celebrated my twenty eighth anniversary with Habitat for Humanity. And it's the first time during my tenure that I've seen housing considered as a
part of a bond package. And I wanna say thank you. I was recently reading an article that I think you might find interesting, especially since all of the discussion we've had tonight is surrounding education. The article was by, researchers, Haran and Parcel, entitled The Impact of Homeownership on Childhood Outcomes. It was referencing previous research by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies that said a home is foundational in the life of a child. But these researchers found out that children who grew up in a home owned by
their parents do better in school in math and reading, are 11% more likely to graduate high school, and 14% more likely to go to college. Not only tonight, but for the last several months, I've heard you all talk about and I've seen you spoken to about the crisis of education that is perceived in our community. I wanna say tonight thank you for recognizing that a home is foundational to a good start in the life of our children. Thank you. Our next speaker is CJ Johnson followed by Wesley Kirk.
CJ here? No? Wesley Kirk who's a part of the group. My name is Wesley support Wesley Kirk with Support Fort Worth Art, and I'm here to urge the city of Fort Worth to restore the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. The last time we got any real update on the future of the building was 06/04/2024 when assistant city manager Fernando Costa updated the city council that both redevelopment proposals had been rejected because they did not meet the needs of the city nor the needs of the arts community. He said, and I quote, this is not a situation that we can allow to
continue indefinitely. We are seeking a solution that will be broadly acceptable to the community, end quote, and we have been waiting ever since. A major reason why the RFP process to redevelop the building was a failure was because the city did not coordinate with the arts community to learn what the needs were for the building, what would improve it, and what had already made it so successful and what would allow it to thrive even more. The entire arts community has spent over a year dealing with the loss of the community art center.
We have seen art spaces throughout the city struggle to absorb all of the art shows that need a place, all the performances that have ceased to exist without a home. We are experiencing arts atrophy. We are missing out on that creativity, that innovation, that economic activity, all of the things that make Fort Worth such a vibrant city. People are looking for a home for creativity in the heart of the city. They are looking for the community arts center to return. Artists, architects, historians, all of those who care about the building and want to see
Fort Worth thrive are all eager to work with the city and ensure that the restoration of the community arts center is a huge success that Fort Worth can be proud of. The longer the building sits empty, the more expensive it will be to restore. The longer we wait to address it, the harder it will be to fix the damage being done to the arts community without it. We are ready. We are willing. We are able to help the city see this project through. We cannot wait any longer. Now is the time. Let's rebuild the Fort Worth Community Arts Center together.
Thank you. David Martinez is our next speaker. Mister Martinez will be followed by Anzeta. David, are you here? No? Anne Zeta will be followed by he is oh, sorry. You stuck on me. Mister Martinez? Good evening. Sorry. I've been I've been away. I know y'all miss me. I am now, cancer free. God. So I wanna tell everybody about, this last month was Native American Heritage Month, and, a lot of a lot of people, didn't know about it because we didn't see it, much of anything by the city or by the arts community in Fort Worth.
And that I'm I'm not gonna give put the blame on anybody because I should be out there doing it's not that, my community wants to do things. But we had a setback with the, White Sillman Road, name change. It kinda inspired a few of us, to work on a mural that we wanna be able to present for the city, about the history of Fort Worth and how it came about. A lot of people have different things to say, but if you look into the Texas history, documents, it talks about the the the battle that took place that was
pushed by developers who put, our militia to attack the the Native Americans when we had peaceful me places in Fort Worth before we went to battle, and then they sent the military after our people. We weren't conquered. We have a peace treaty, and it's the, supreme law of the land. And I'd like to talk more about it, but God bless. Thank you. And Zaid will be followed by Steven Bryant. I appreciate the opportunity recently at public meetings to voice my support for the 2026
bond to include funding for affordable housing and reiterate that support here tonight. And also after accepting your request to serve on the thirteen hundred Guindy task force addressing the future of the community arts center, a pretty frustrating process, but I believed then and I believe now that the community asset should be restored and fully supported by the city as a citywide asset. For years, it has been said that leadership being in elected office is about having thick skin. People used to say that to me all the time when I served on that side of the dais. You must have thick skin.
Just so that we're clear, I do not have thick skin. But leadership is not measured by how one in endures criticism, but how faithfully one listens to it. When officials dismiss dissent as noise, they do not show strength, they show fear. When the city calls for civility while narrowing the public's right to speak, they do not protect democracy. They weaken it. We are told to admire toughness, but toughness without accountability is tyranny in disguise. And the true measure of leadership is not thick skinned enough to ignore criticism, but ears open enough to hear it and hands willing to act upon it.
The people of Fort Worth in every city deserve leaders who welcome dissent as a compass, not as an inconvenience. We deserve rules written in plain language, meetings open to all, and budgets that reflect equality rather than expediency. Let us demand leaders who measure their worth not by endurance, but by responsiveness. Let us insist that democracy not be a performance, but a practice, a practice that we all participate in. Steven Bryant will be followed by Amy Amy Razor. My name is Steven Bryant. I live in District 4. I think that we can all agree we want our tax dollars going towards solving
issues in our city the most cost effective way possible. After looking at the Fort Worth 26 bond budget tool, I have some ideas that would have our tax dollars working smarter, not harder. I am all for helping animals get the safety, care, and shelter they need. So instead of 58,700,000.0 for a new animal shelter, I propose 35,000,000 go to mobile spay and neuter units to address the root issue of overcrowding in shelters instead of just building a bigger shelter. Use current shelters to provide temporary housing while stitches heal and release after. Fort Worth Animal Care and Control through the clip and snip program already has a mobile trailer coming into the city and doing the surgeries and vaccines for free.
Let's uplift this program by giving it more resources, more times that people can bring their pets, partnering with local animal shelters for temporary housing, and actively promote this program so all current and future pet owners are made aware. We already have designated vehicles and assets, so we could save even more money by allocating more to FWACC rather than having to start from scratch. Depending on how we want to allocate it, we could even use some of that 35,000,000 to add onto or upgrade our current shelters by finding a local contractor to help afford small business, added along with more more mobile trailers out there with the tools to fix the issue of overcrowding and go with this issue from two fronts
while still doing what the city set out to do by adding state of the art equipment. Why? This addresses the heart of the issue in a fiscally conservative way without bloating the budget because we are using the tools at our disposal. Thank you. Amy Razor followed by Mindia Whittier. Good evening. My hearing council. My name is Amy Roeser, and I am a resident of District 7. I am also an art historian, an artist, a former arts business owner, and I am proud to serve at Arts Fort Worth as the director of giving. The arts are not a luxury. They are essential. They strengthen education, health, our economy, and our city's appeal.
Research proves that arts education boosts creativity, critical thinking, achievement in math, reading, and science. Participation in the arts reduces stress, improves recovery, and even helps prevent cognitive decline. The arts make us smarter, healthier, and more resilient. We are also an economic powerhouse. We brought in half $1,000,000,000 every year and 7,500 jobs to this city. Impact only happens when people can access it. Mayor, I've heard you say, let's have an art center for every city council district.
We don't just need one, we need many. So let's work together to make that happen. We would love to participate and and make that, a vibrant city and a world class Fort Worth as a result. Thank you. Miss Whittier will be followed by Derica Patterson. In 2017, community members advocated for Fort Worth to join a law suit challenging the show me your papers law for violating civil rights. During that time, I met with Maddie Parker. As chief of staff for Betsy Price, you were dispatched to diffuse us. At that meeting, you theorized we were really upset about what was happening with politics
at the national level, and we were just taking it out on the local elected officials because that's who we had access to, even though every other large city in the state had already voted to join the legal action, which clearly vindicated the legitimacy of our proposal. I heard the same talking point by you on a recent podcast that the state of polarization lies with the national parties, but you all are the ones getting pummeled due to proximity. You also mentioned reading a book called Performative Outrage. It lets you rationalize that anyone outside of the West Side Gang is an ignorant,
wrong headed radical just seeking fame. I'm here to set the record straight. Those of us advocating for accountability are not here to take out our anger on the from the federal level on you. We're here to not here to score a viral video or build a political following. We are here because we care, because government has the most direct impact on our daily lives at the local level, and because many of you are bought and bossed. This is not performance, it's participation. So here is the book that you really need to read. I brought you your own personal copy, White Fragility. It's the road map to reduce the rhetoric if that's really what you're seeking to
do. And shame on you for reducing public participation for a photo op. Erica Patterson will be followed by Benjamin Lazuna. Miss Patterson? Okay. Good evening, mayor and council. I wanna begin by thanking doctor Mia Hall and the district six office for their responsiveness and intentionality. Their engagement is the reason I stepped into civic participation and began mobilizing my own community. Please, know that we see you. We appreciate you, and we thank you. So before anyone disengages, let me reassure you that I come in peace.
I am not angry. I am informed, invested, and unwilling to pretend everything is fine or accept scraps because it could be worse. These issues may not be the fault of anyone sitting here today, but here we are. Recently, I was told that development is at the mercy of private investors, and they must see an area as worth investing in. If that's true, then we all have work to do. No developer will view our area as worth investing in while deteriorating properties bypass the standards the city should enforce. We have plywood boarded up buildings and retail corridors next to $304,100,000 dollar homes.
Dead overgrown landscaping, filthy buildings that need pressure washing, and signs that are fading. If we want investment, enforce the ordinances we already have, and create new ones. Development follows expectation, and rooftops clearly aren't our issues here. I wanna come and let you know that I am asking this entire council, not just District 6, to partner with us. We may have been quiet before, but we are here, we are awake, and we are engaged and organized, ready to work with you. And, again, I'm not angry. Thank you, miss Patterson. Our next speaker is Benj Benjamin Ledesma followed by Chris Tackett.
Howdy, mayor Parker. Mayor Parker in Fort Worth City Council. I'm here with regards to the redevelopment of the community arts center at 1300 Kindi. I am a board member and musician in the Fort Worth Civic Orchestra. Our organization collects modest dues from roughly 80 members, but we provide free classical programming to the Fort Worth public. I'm not here to provide an official statement from our organization, but rather as a member of the orchestra who happens to have insight into its direction. I will have her express her gratitude for the support our organization receives from Arts Fort Worth. Organization lost its long time performance venue during COVID, and we would now need to
spend about $10,000 for, the same facility. We do spend about $1,000 per concert, 4,000 a year, for a smaller venue, but this does represent a threat to our ability to provide free programming for citizens of Fort Worth. As a result, I'd like to urge the city to consider ways to maintain low rental costs for the use of possible new performance venues like that at 1300 Gendy. While we chose not to consider renting the W. E. Scott Theatre, due to size constraints, the cost of parking to patrons at $10 per car was specifically hostile to our audiences.
We're just one of many organizations that would love to provide centrally located concerts free to the public, but it is really getting difficult. It's very difficult to find a affordable place to, provide those free concerts. I'd also like to caution against proposals that allow private interests to use the arts center in a way that would render the center inaccessible otherwise. Thank you. After Chris Tackett, it's Darlene Cryer. Affordable housing is a real crisis, and cities across the state are taking action to try and do something about it. In 2022, Austin passed an affordable housing bond for $350,000,000.
San Antonio, the same year, passed one for a $150,000,000. In 2024, Dallas, as part of a larger bond, had $82,000,000 set for affordable housing. Even Denton passed a bond for $15,000,000 for affordable housing in 2023. What's in the bond for '26 for Fort Worth? $5,000,000. That's it. Austin, for their bond, is looking at at least 3,500 units built or preserved. San Antonio is looking at over 4,000 units.
What's Fort Worth gonna get for ours? 20 to 25 single family homes. When we have that many households moving to Fort Worth every single day. You know, in New York, they just elected a mayor who ran on a platform of affordability. The billionaires spent a ton of money trying to make sure he didn't get elected. Young, diverse, urban voters, many who don't normally vote, they showed up in that election and said, we're not gonna listen to billionaires anymore. Will Fort Worth wake up? Twenty twenty seven's coming. Thanks. Our next speaker is Darlene Cryer followed by David Rodriguez.
Hi, everybody. Thanks for having me. I am a Fort Worth ISD teacher. I've taught with the district for about eight years, the last four years, a long time ago, and then the last four years. I'm a dyslexia teacher. And, actually, I was Noah's dyslexia teacher, the young man that was here tonight. I'm here to talk about literacy and literacy roundup. They've done some amazing things for our schools and our kids, and being in the community centers is extremely important. Just wanna thank you for your support for that and for to continue funding them and to give them more funding. And, honestly, just to talk about literacy for a second, I have two daughters who
are dyslexic, and I had to fight for them to get help. My oldest daughter is 29, and it was a nightmare twenty years ago. And it still is, unfortunately. So we just need to do a better job of promoting literacy, which I know we're doing with our words, but actually with our actions. And one thing that would really help is to make sure we have enough teachers in our schools. I teach at Monning Middle School. We do not have enough teachers. We have 30 to 35 kids in many of our classes. On a good day, that is not good, and it's not a good day. So we really need to help our teachers, our schools, and our kids because if
we don't teach these kids how to read, they're gonna have major significant problems in their life in the future. I did teach Noah today just for the second day, and, it was great to have him. So thank you for your help, and just please continue to fund literacy. David Rodriguez will be followed by Drew Brown. David Rodriguez? Thank you. And then Drew Brown? Good evening. I'd like to start off by thanking council members Beck, Hall, Nettles, and Peoples for those who voted against reducing public comment.
Because when power is taken away from the people, the people will respond in kind. And I'm sure you've probably noticed that there is organizations that are developing all around Fort Worth. Like, for example, the people's commissioner's court because of the obfuscation that's purposely done by the city to try and make it hard to be able to talk, to make it hard, and to be able to have any kind of agenda. And it's personally insulting to me when I'm speaking out for my community, and I'm
a performer. But whenever you have people with power, money behind closed door meetings, they're just called donors. This is not for a photo op. So, of course, mister Charlie Lauersdorf is not here. So he said there's no solutions. The solutions that you have, fund your schools, feed the children in these schools, pay your teachers, pay your TAs, pay your specialists, Fund the arts. If you want children out of the streets, not engaged in gang violence, we already
know that education, places for them to actually belong is what keeps them from going from the school to prison pipeline. Thank you. Our next speaker is Drew Brown followed by Manuel Motta. I'm, speaking in support of the Arch Community of Fort Worth tonight, specifically in support of the Fort Worth Arts Community Center. The mayor, council, and city staff have failed the citizens of Fort Worth by neglecting to provide the proper facility maintenance required to maintain the arts center.
Lack of preventative maintenance has led us to a point of needing major repairs and renovations, which will cost the citizens of Fort Worth much more than these repairs would have been through a best practices building maintenance program. It's important to note that the current mayor and council have inherited this problem from years of neglect. This issue does not did not arise overnight. Just because the current government did not create all these problems does not excuse you from making a commitment to fix them.
You are not only stewards of our tax dollars, but also stewards of an infrastructure. Fort Worth can no longer claim has been claiming that we haven't had a tax increase in over ten years. That's a false negative. We need a budget that works towards future needs. So I have to cut my time short. So I'm asking you to be bold, be brave, and do the right thing. Manual model will be followed by Donna Van Ness. My name is Manuel Mata, and I live in Carlos' district. And, I'm here to give you an example of two different types of fear.
Fear you run from and fear you run towards. I'm gonna give you example of fear that you run to. I've been afraid to publicly speak all my life, but I learned how with Thomas Torlingasi. I was afraid of changing my life from being nobody to just being a regular person in a world. Right? And also, I learned how to not cuss for three minutes. You heard? And, I say all this because the other definition is fear you run from.
And y'all been running from the fear of public comments for, I don't know, a year. Right? So, yeah, since you've been elected, Maddie, and, fear that you run from eventually puts you in a corner where you don't have nowhere to turn back around and face everyone you ran and hid from. Right? And my only thing is, why did you get that guy fired? Why isn't he working with the Star Telegram no more? And I'm sure you're the one who made it happen because he was supposed to
wait until after your speech. Donovan Ness will be followed by Becky Delaine. Center podium. Thank you. Mayor, council, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I'm Donna Veness with Housing Channel. As you may know, Housing Channel has been a partner with the city for over thirty years to help increase affordable housing for working families. So I wanna thank you for including housing in the bond allocation, and I would like to also request your consideration to expand that allocation.
I see it every day in our work. Residents of Fort Worth, teachers, first responders, seniors on fixed incomes, veterans, young professionals, working families are all being priced out of the very city that they serve and love. Housing costs have risen dramatically while wages have not kept pace. I know there are a lot of priorities in the bond program, but an investment in affordable housing is one of the most effective tools that we have to strengthen neighborhoods, make them safer, healthier, and more economically vibrant.
When we create attainable housing options, we support local businesses, attract employers, and keep our city competitive for years to come. The city already has a detailed affordable strategic housing plan, which demonstrates that a targeted public investment can produce transformative results. So I urge you to please consider prioritizing meaningful funding for affordable housing in the upcoming bond package. Thank you so much. Becky Delaine followed by Jeffrey Burke.
I am Becky Delaun and here to speak for myself on behalf of the growing number of delinquent youth being sent to prisons rather than to juvenile detention centers for rehabilitation that serves them rather than breaks them. I spoke at a meeting of the Tarrant County judges last year to advocate for a proven program for young people serving in juvenile detention. They boasted a 100% of their students graduated either from high school or got their GED. They provided free classes, not only for the kids, but for the parents in parenting
or English or reading or job hunting, whatever they needed, and that was paid for. Neighbors were trained as tutors and mentors, and community activism and participation was encouraged in the community centers. The judge judges voted to withdraw their funding. And today, more young people are going into the detention and overflowing into state prisons than in any other county in Texas. I know you're aware of that, and I assume that you're as ashamed as I am. It's very it's sad. It's heartbreaking.
It's nothing to be proud of. Again, I am here to ask you oh, wait a minute. Wrong page. Children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted in adult prisons than in juvenile detention. Recognizing the heightened risk for youth, the prison Thank you, Becky. I'm sorry your time's expired. I thank you very much for coming. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Thank you. Our our next speaker is Jeffrey Burke, followed by Adrian Smith.
Good evening, honorable council members, citizens of Fort Worth. My name is Jeffrey Burke. I am from District 9 from this Beck's District. Honestly, I think what I'm gonna say is a bit of a bust. It's none of the big stuff. It was just some small stuff I've noticed here since I've been here for about two years. It's a good good to see you again, mayor Parker, by the way. Just a few. I mean, I'm a law student. I hope to be a DA one day, maybe serve as a JAG. And one of the things that I've noticed, I've been to the Criminal Court Building a few times. And I guess I've heard that it needs some renovation. It's probably the most heavily used court building in this in the city.
Unfortunately, there's a near unlimited supply of cases. I hope that, hopefully, in the bond program, it will have some extra funding. It's used heavily. In addition to that, there's a Criminal Court building right next to it that the city can use. The city is growing, and we need to increase our capacity to deal with these cases. So hopefully, people can have their day in court not two years later, but maybe a few months later. And I guess one other small thing is that oh, okay. Oh, I have three more seconds. Never mind. Sorry. And I guess one small other thing is that I was on a walk today, and I noticed a lot of buildings that are not being used.
And I hear a lot of, people here talking about needing for housing, needing other buildings. I feel like the city can do some good by maybe using things like tax abatements, maybe giving incentives so that employers and investors could use those buildings. I saw that with a business called Doctopia, and they did a really good job of that. Thank you for your time, and thank you for the time. Thank you so much. Is is Adrian Smith here? He's in front. Yeah. Thank you. Adrian Smith, I am one with the people. Budgeting public servants when power protects itself.
Silence enables injustice. We need to speak up for those without power while we still have our first amendment rights. Miss Estrada is being punished and harassed for exposing a sexual predator, and Fort Worth District Attorney Phil Soros had the nerve to ask her to apologize to him. This man's name is Hugo Munoz, and he is one of the owners of Silverback Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Fort Worth. Location, 585811 West Creek Drive. And he coaches wrestling at Fort Worth Country Day.
Chief Eddie Garcia. I hope you're listening, sir. To the public servants whose time, salaries, and resources were used to retaliate when sexual misconduct was exposed by missus miss Nancy Estrada. Detective m Sullivan, badge number 4150. Responding officer McDonald, badge number N238. Judge Cynthia f, approving supervisor sergeant Harris, badge number 3098.
Six Fort Worth corrections officers who came to her home with a seal warrant, court employees responsible for repeated rescheduling. God bless you, Maddie Parker. Bless your heart, I mean. Bless your heart. Patrice Jones will be followed by Julie Wendy. Yeah. Sure. Go ahead. Start at 01:30, please. Thank you. Can you record Yeah. They're gonna do it for you. We'll start at 01:30. Thank you. Make sure you have the mic. We're all aware of the ongoing and intentional limit in the public comments that began the moment Maddie was elected and the deep disappointment this community has felt ever since.
And now to keep playing in our faces, you've decided that the lightning of a casket ready Christmas tree is of greater priority than hearing from the people who pay taxes and who keep this city running, even deciding to cut our speaking time in half. What's the point in bragging about having a tree taller than the Rockefeller tree if if it looks half dead? Just like the spirit of too many of our elected officials, that Sundance tree is symbolic of the Fort Worth leadership. Tall, expensive, sold as impressive, yet neglected, anemic, and lackluster.
A far cry from the diversity in real democracy represented represented in New York and their newly elected mayor. What's even more comical is that WFAA spent airtime demanding the return of a stolen ornament but didn't spare a single second to hold mayor Parker accountable for her defamation and blatant lies. Her attempt to play victim instead of leader, the imbalance in priority speaks loud and clear. And Fort Worth's disregard for truthful journalism is is nothing new.
Laying off Bradford Davis, the only black opinion columnist at Star Telegram, after writing two of the strongest pieces that newsroom has produced in years wasn't an accident. It was a message. Don't challenge the people of power, especially not Make It Up, Maddie. Julie Wendy will be followed by Carolina Rodriguez. Hi. I'm Julie Wendy. I'm a working artist here in Fort Worth. I sold two paintings this week. I got my start at the community art center back in the early nineties, actually. And I'm here to support everybody else who showed up.
And I wanna say to each one of the council members here, I wanna ask of you, what can I do? What can I do? Because you all know the problem. We all know that we need to keep the crown jewel of the cultural district, the arts, which overlaps with everything everybody's talking about here. Child literacy, delinquency, education. It's a it's a vital and important thing, and Fort Worth can have its moment again. So I'm just here, and I will yield my time to, whoever's next.
But let's work together. Thank you. And let me help somehow in bringing the community arts center back to prominence, and I thank you. Carolina Rodriguez followed by Anthony Michael Moore. Oh, she's okay. She's working. Anthony Michael Moore. Is mister Moore available? Anthony? No? Haley Green. Haley Green. Thank you. This is, like, a little stressful. Just pointing that out. Good evening. My name is Haley Green, and I'm a resident of Fort Worth Council District seven. Since repeated pleas from arts workers like myself seem to have fallen on deaf ears
as we have begged for the mayor and city council over the last two years to keep the Fort Worth Community Arts Center alive and funded as a vital part of our arts ecosystem in Fort Worth, I'm here today with a different approach, the numbers. Three hundred and forty seven, the number of days since the Fort Worth Community Arts Center has been closed to the public. One hundred and fifty four, the number of days since the arts center has stood empty. $5.00 7,000,000, the dollars arts organizations generated into the Fort Worth economy in 2023. July, the number of days since possible developers made proposed planned presentations.
And what has the city lost since Fort Worth Community Arts Center closed its doors? Again, by the numbers. Nine art galleries, two performing arts centers, 600 square feet of event space, and the home of nine arts organizations. I urge you, mayor Parker and city council, to offer us an update in the new year on the status of the Fort Worth Community Arts Center and commit once again to maintaining it as an arts incubator within our city. Do not let this building fall into even more disrepair or another day pass without recommitting to the city your support of the arts by providing an update on the
future of the community arts center. The arts are as vital to a city's lifeblood as road systems or public transportation or housing authority, and right now it feels that that lifeblood is being drained. Thank you. Jim DeLong will be filed by excuse me. Followed by Giselle Henderson. Good evening. My name is Jim DeLong. United we stand, divided we fall. We can have differences of opinion, but that doesn't mean mean that we have to be divided against one another. Tonight's been a unique night for me.
This is one of the most civil public speaking times. There's been balance on both sides, people having issues, people being thankful, and that's great to see that balance. But one of the things I wanna talk about tonight is the condition of our heart. I can talk like this at you and be accusing to you, and what are you gonna do? You're gonna get defensive. We can have a difference of opinion without being mad and accusing and putting you on the defense. You are our leaders.
And if we put you on the defense, what does that say about how smart we are? So I just wanna make an appeal to all. Let's speak from a heart of gratitude. We can be different, we can be forceful in our difference, but we can say in a tone and in a manner that can bring unity. Thank you. Miss Henderson will be followed by James Smith. Tonight, while you had to get your viral tree lighting picture, a mother is struggling to figure out how to get her family a tree.
A son is desperate to relieve her pain yet uneducated in how he can make some money, so he'll likely go out and rob somebody or score a misdemeanor amount of marijuana. The look in his mother's eyes will gratify him so much that he'll continue to sell drugs because he doesn't know how else to help. He never learned how to live, only how to survive, yet he won't stay in alley by. Eventually, someone will tell on him his bum will be unaffordable, and he'll become a felon along with the overwhelming amount of young people. Tarrant County serves on a plot of the TDC. Historically, black youth from Fort Worth overwhelmed that population. At the rate your current district contain is sentencing, he'll be gone for thirty to
forty years. During that time, his mother will fall sick yet lose all her benefits. His sister will become pregnant and have another child that'll fight the same battle amplified by whatever exponentiated marginalization you begin to foster between now and then. And if any of them wanna talk to you about it, they get 10 times a year right at the height of traffic and when the kids are at home wondering what wondering what they're eating for dinner. I hope that tree tonight is beautiful because this reality isn't. Guess what? I too am a felon and I cannot pursue even precinct chair wearing boots on the ground, not heels on the sidewalk at a tree lighting because I didn't know
a way either. But you know what else I am? I'm a mentor, a coach, a serial entrepreneur, a burgeoning trade school creator, and a woman with ninety seconds to elicit a smile from the people I love comparable to the one that you'll fan in your picture tonight. People growing up in the actual streets of Fort Worth, not the sun downtown where you blossomed in, we need more than thirty seconds, More than three minutes, 10 times a year. Our next speaker is James Smith. James will be followed by Tara Maldonado Wilson. James? Not here. Okay. Tara Maldonado Wilson. Tara here? Okay. Alexander Montalvo.
Well, this night has been interesting. That's for sure. We're gonna talk about it here for a minute and a half. Before I do, I wanna invite everyone to stand up who's in this room, and please give a round of applause to the mayor and the city council for meeting their tree lighting ceremony. We wanna congratulate them for meeting this moment that they worked so hard to get to. Also, I wanna thank police chief Garcia and the police officers in the room, including that special marshal officer standing against the wall for not knowing what de escalation looks
like. Tonight, I had the joy of getting bullied by law enforcement simply because I asked a question, why was someone getting kicked out of the room? And because I asked that question, this marshal against the back wall decided that it was enough to threaten my attendants in this meeting and to get other police officers to force me out of the room, where they put hands to try to push me out of the building. And I simply kept asking the question, what did I do?
I signed up for my minutes. I want my right to speak. And I want this incident on record so that everyone knows what happened. And you will see more footage about what happened. And this was cowardly what happened with law enforcement. And what you are doing, Maddie, is cowardly by being so afraid of the people's voice to try to continue this crusade against public comments. That's the conclusion of our speakers. Meeting is adjourned.