picture is almost ready. Okay. Okay, council. I think we're going to get started. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning and welcome to the city council 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 that have requested to speak, when your name is called, please come forward to the center podium. The countdown clock is displayed on the chamber monitor and will indicate how much time is remaining. A bell will sound when you have 30 seconds left. Speakers registered on consent agenda items will
be taken following the announcement of any items being pulled from the consent agenda. Speakers registered on non-consent items other than public hearings and zoning cases will be taken following council announcements. Speakers will be given three minutes to speak on all items within those blocks
that they are registered to speak on. Before you begin your comments, please state your name. Thank you. Thank you and good morning. I have a special guest to my right today. Miss Grace Reveal, who is an amazing student at St. Andrews, is here as on behalf of the city as mayor for a day. Give her a
round of applause, please. And Grace is going to gavvel us in. Go for it, Grace. Yep. Oh, great job. I like it. She did tell me she wants to be a Supreme Court justice one day, so I think she's ready for that. U with that
meeting is um has begun. Thank you. Today's invocation will be provided by Pastor Ben Weiss of Grace Community Church. Please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of allegiance. Father, we thank you for a beautiful day. Thank you for an incredible group
of people who are doing their best to love and serve our city. We thank you for this beautiful city. We ask that you would bless us, that you would give us your wisdom today, that we would not make decisions in our own wisdom, but that we would hear from you, that you would lead us, and you would help us.
Lord, we ask for your protection and that you would uh help us to accomplish all that you would have for us today. In your name we pray, Jesus. Amen. Amen. One nation indivisible and all
honor the Texas flagis mayor and council our first items today are special recognitions the first is recognition honoring former commissioner Roy C Brooks thank you and this one belongs to me I'm going to ask commission Commissioner Roy Brooks and Dr. Jennifer Brooks of course in a
moment to join me here in the in the middle council. Well, I think you'll agree with me there are several people, maybe only a handful, in our city and county's history, that truly do stand out. And I very firmly believe that Commissioner
Roy C. Brooks is absolutely one of those people. My husband and I moved here to Fort Worth almost 20 years ago, and one of the first couples we met was this beautiful couple to my right. They were kind and generous and most importantly had an open door. An open door for all
that was possible. And for that, I am so eternally grateful. But importantly, we also know what it's like to truly serve. And both Dr. Brooks and Commissioner Brooks understand that fully. His career of legacy of of public service is
tremendous. Yes, he just retired as a Tarant County Commissioner for Precinct 1 in December 2024 after 20 years of service. I believe strongly that he served Tarant County with integrity, with vision, and an unwavering
commitment to public health, equity, and community well-being. And for that, we are incredibly grateful. I asked for his beautiful wife, Jennifer, to also stand here, Dr. Brooks, because as we all know, public service is a family affair, and it takes a tremendous tremendous
amount of sacrifice and commitment. And and for that, I'm incredibly thankful for you, Dr. Brooks, as well. Whereas Roy Charles Brooks has devoted over 34 years of distinguished public service in Tarant County as a community volunteer, city- elected official, and commissioner
for precinct 1, representing Southwest Tarant County for two decades, and serving a county population of approximately 2.2 million residents. And whereas guided by the principles of integrity, innovation, and growth, Commissioner Brooks has been a steadfast advocate for health and welfare for all,
the hallmark of a moral compass committed to public service. Whereas under his leadership and vision, the county launched numerous impactful initiatives such as the Tarant County Ex- Offender Re-entry Program, Team Health, reducing disparities in African-American Latino and Asian-American neighborhoods, the Infant
Mortality Council, and the Healthy Lives Matter focused on prostate cancer and Alzheimer's awareness. Whereas, as co-founder of the Nurse Family Partnership Program, Commissioner Brooks strengthened support for low-income mothers and families through prenatal and early childhood care. And whereas he
championed annual prostate cancer screenings and dementia awareness and in recent years has actively advocated for a comprehensive mental health treatment network in Tarant County, amplifying access and breaking the stigma. Whereas his calm demeanor, unwavering commitment
to collaborative governance and ability to bridge diverse communities, earning him the respect of colleagues and constituents alike, leaving a legacy of compassion, civic engagement, and meaningful public policy. And now therefore, I, Mattie Parker, mayor of
the city of Fort Worth, do hereby commend Commissioner Roy Brooks for his decades of exemplary public service, celebrate his legacy of compassionate leadership. And of course, we all wish him the very best in retirement. To Commissioner Brooks, God bless you. We love you very much and congratulations.
I certainly want to thank Mayor Parker and this entire city council, not only for this honor, but for what you do for the city that we
all love. In this proclamation, several words jumped out at me. One was collaborative leadership. That's how we move this community
forward. Not by the tyranny of the majority, not by huing to any political line of thought,
but by working together collaboratively to make this the best community in which to live. That has been the hallmark of my service. That's the way I've tried to
live, tried to lead, tried to serve. I thank you so much for this honor and certainly I could not have done anything that I've done without my
partner in crime, my wife of just over 50 years, uh, Dr. Jennifer Giddings Brooks, who is a leader in her own right. And that young man
is our grandson, August Charles Brooks, who is celebrating his second birthday today along with Councilwoman Deborah
Peoples. They are birthday buddies. He lives in Pasadena in the great county of Los Angeles and uh we just left there last night. So glad to be with y'all this morning and
may I thank you so much for all you do for our community and uh give my regards to David Next is recognition for Vance Martin on his retirement from Lily's Vistro. So at any point, Council Rebecca is
welcome to join me. This this amazing restaurant and importantly chef and entrepreneur in our community just retired and we're all mourning many things, including the Gorgonala fries from Lily's Beastro. Um, but I thought it was important we recognize someone
that was really at the forefront, not just of culinary arts in our city, but truly a pioneer um, in the near southside. Mr. Vance Martin, please come up. Please allow me to read this. It's it's
got words of importance here. Whereas Vance Martin, a beloved and visionary figure in Forest Culinary Landscape, retired in May 2025, marking the closing of Lily's Beastro, one of the cornerstone establishments in the revitalization of West Magnolia Avenue.
And whereas for over 30 years, Vance contributed meaningfully to the growth and character of Fort Worth downtown and near Southside. First with a celebrated cafe panacea and later with Lily's Beastro known for his welcoming spirit always at the front of the restaurant, creative energy and deep community
roots. Whereas under his leadership, Lily's became more than a restaurant, it was a neighborhood institution that helped shape the artistic and culinary identity of the near southside. And whereas Vance's deep commitment to to hospitality, neighborhood development, and culinary creativity, left a lasting
mark, not only on Magnolia Avenue, but also on the many lives he's touched, mentoring young chefs, supporting local artists, and building a space where people felt truly at home. And whereas, though he has stepped away from the food and beverage industry, Vance remains a cherished member of the Fort Worth community, and his influence continues
to shine through the stories, friendships, and shared meals he helped create. Now therefore, I, Mattie Parker, mayor of the city of Fort Worth, extend heartfelt thanks to Vance Martin, a true culinary trailblazer and community champion, and wish to wish him joy and fulfillment in his well-earned
retirement. Vance, congratulations. Say a few things. I'd just like to say uh thank you, Mayor Elizabeth, who's been a great uh friend and customer. Um, I'm a little um, you know, nervous that I had to follow Roy,
you know. Exactly. And I can't ever see you and Jennifer and not think of my girlfriend Dion. So, anyway, great to see you all. Thank you so much. I've I've I'm just honored and humbled and I appreciate everything.
I've I feel like I've given so many thank you speeches in the last uh three weeks of closing. I'm I'm uh feel like I'm running out of things to say, but what a great honor. What a great city. Um very proud to be a part of it. Thank you so much.
Take a picture. And I think Mike Brennan is here. Did Mike walk in? Yeah, there's Mike. Mike's going to come down from near South City. Good morning, everybody. Um, Vance, I I just want to emphasize the importance of um, everything that Mayor Parker read
there as far as the evolution of Magnolia Avenue and the impact that Lily has had on that. We've some of us have been able to see your full arc, the full journey, but there are so many there are thousands of residents that have come in along the way and a lot of them have landed there because of what Magnolia
has become and you played such a pivotal role in making that happen. So, thank you and enjoy the legacy and retirement. Thank you. Next is presentation of the neighborhood history book by the Mistletoe Heights neighborhood.
Good morning. My name is Graham Bzendine. I'm a resident of Mistletoe Heights in District 9. Mayor, council, staff, thank you for this opportunity to present a special piece of Mistletoe Heights history to the city. Mistletoe Heights was founded as a
neighborhood over 100 years ago and is home to dozens of historically designated homes that contribute to the fabric of Forest's history. But beyond the homes, our story is also about the people. Mistletoe Heights has been home to many
prominent citizens from all walks of life, all races, all religions. It was because of this deep history that this book was conceptualized over five years ago. Hundreds, if not thousands of hours
contributed by author Melanie Smith and many, many others were put into the creation of this hardbound book spanning nearly 600 pages. Historic photos from the Star Telegram archives as well as previously unpublished photos and documents from
neighborhood families were incorporated into the pages. The Mistletoe Heights Association was proud to initiate publication of this book late last year. We received the published copy just weeks ago and celebrated with a neighborhood book
signing. In order to give this book the recognition it deserves, not only as a piece of Mistletoe Heights, but as a recording of the history in our great city, we are here to present a copy to Mayor Mattie Parker and Council Person
Elizabeth Beck along with a copy to remain in perpetuity with the District 9 council office. All of which are commemorated with their own plaque recognizing the recipient. Here today to present this book with me are current officers President Brian
Hunt. Um we have some others in the audience back here behind me, but most importantly the author of this book, Melanie Arrington Smith. Please join me in recognition and presentation of these copies of Mistletoe Heights, a Centennial
Neighborhood. Thank you. And I um many of you know Melanie. This isn't her first foray into Fort Worth's history. Um she is the keeper of our pioneers rest cemetery. Um and I can tell you from just the communications our office has, she really works hard to
make sure that that piece of history in Fort Worth is preserved. So thank you for continuing to make sure that our history is preserved. And if you'd like to say a few words, the mic is yours. And I would just like to thank um city councilwoman Elizabeth Beck who is a
stalwart supporter of historic preservation and for really understanding how important the fabric in the history of our city is and also Mayor Maddie Parker and all the other city council people and we appreciate your support. It's it's interesting that
Mistletoe Heights was once thought of as too far out in the country for people to buy a home there. And now, as we know, it's a one of the closest um suburbs to the inner city. So, um if you haven't visited us, please come drive out Forest
Park Boulevard about two minutes um to the south and turn right and you will find our lovely little neighborhood that borders the Trinity River, the clear the Clear Fork. um of the Trinity River. So, thank you so much. We appreciate your support. The recognition for Ashley Leas is going
to be moved to an August meeting. So our next recognition is recognition for next level barber camp. You should be able to hit your blue. All right. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to start out uh with a resolution uh well with a recognition as
they uh come. Uh every year for the last three years um next level uh cosmo uh camp uh for kids was established in 2022. This year they took it to the next level, hence next level cosmo camp and
added barber school uh camp for uh boys. And so I really wanted to uh hound in on uh the recognition uh for the barber camp. And so um CeCe, how many kids do you have here today? Um we have about 30
kids here today. About 30 kids. Yes. And so I'm going to read this uh proclamation and then I'm I'll come down and read it. Okay. Well, that's a shock and a surprise. I didn't know y'all getting problemized. Yes, it is a shock. I want I added it to
hound in to focus on the barber. So, um to this other uh entity that you are creating. And so the city of Fort Worth special recognition presented to next level cosmetology and barber camp for kids in recognition of their commitment to the success of our Fort Worth youth.
The office of council district 8 is proudly honors next level cosmetology and barber camp for kids for its unwavering dedication to empowering youth through skill development. The camp specialized in teaching edge up
perfect uh symmetries essential trades fostering confidence and excellence. Founded on June 13, 2022 in Fort Worth East Side. Next level cosmetology and barber camp for kids brings young people together to learn the fundamentals of
barber and beauty. Their mission is to cultivate their commitment and confidence and purpose as youth grow their skills. With these tools and guidance, they are helping to build future entrepreneurs, leaders, and legends in our great city of Fort Worth.
under the visionary leadership of Crowley newly elected Crowley ISD school board trustee Shakina CC Watkins and her director Ter Tyrone Brown Next Level Cosmetology and Baron Camp for Kids continues to make a positive impact on
our community. Their tiresless dedication to youth empowerment, education, and community enrichment emphasize their commitment to shaping a brighter future for all of our youth here in Fort Worth. presented on this 24th day of June 2025. Councilman Chris
Nettles. Thank you, Councilman. And I think Cece is going to uh have some words. Miss Shikina, and then we have a couple of young people that want to present something. We'll be quick, but we're going to speak. Okay. So,
first of all, Councilman Nettles, thank you. I had no clue that this y'all were going to get this today, but I want to say we are in 20 schools in Fort Worth ISD. We're in the Fort Worth public libraries and we're international in Kuwait. We are not just playing in hair,
okay? We are teaching kids entrepreneurship, mental health awareness, financial literacy, and all the things that make a child a boss. If you want to bring this amazing program to your city, we need you, too. If you have inind donations or whatever it is
that you would like to give, we need it because we don't just look out for the children in Fort Worth. Although those are our babies, we have children come all the way from Mississippi to be a part of our program. I want to real quick again say thank you. Councilman Nettles, Mayor Maddie Parker, thank you
for always showing love and pouring into my students every year that they've come since 2022. Council member Michael Crane, thank you for your love and continued support. Dr. Mia Hall, Janette Martinez, and Councilwoman Elizabeth Beck, we love, adore, and appreciate you
guys. I'mma let my babies come and say something real quick. We going to do our chant and we going to have our seat. All right. It's on you, Somaya. Represent. Good morning, council. My name is Somaya Lewis and I'll be speaking on my behalf of the next level um barber and cosmoy
camp. Cosmo camp was a game changer for me. Before camp, I was pretty reserved, but the activities really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I learned to collaborate effectively, communicate my ideas clearly and even got opportunity to build new bonds and learn more skills that are absolutely essential for any career. I feel as if cosmo would
definitely have a positive effect on my future becoming a cosmetologist and I would recommend anyone who is also pursuing that dream to going Cosmo camp. This is Mr. President. Good morning, Console. My name is Bryce Marx and I'm so blessed to be here
today. Thank you, Miss Cece and Mr. Tyrone, for giving kids this opportunity and encouraging us to be brave and confident. Barber camp has inspired me
to be to build a business and begin my barbering skills. Thank you. Good morning, C. Good morning, Castle. My name My name is Camden Jones and I'm representing the Next Level Barber camp. And just like me, the Next Level Barber
camp is a new addition. I can confidently say that it has a it had an empowerful impact on all of us. The environment here feels just like family. The people are kind, supporting, and uplifting. The boys over here are just
not my friends. They're my brothers. And just like we were taught by Miss Cece and Mr. Tyrone, as brothers, we stand together, support each other, and always have one another's back, no matter what. Mr. Tyrone, would you come up here with
me? We're going to do our chant. Um, Mayor Maddie Parker loves our chant, so we we always got to say it, but we say it everywhere we go. Um, we are almost in every uh district. We're at Treble Techch High School, Dumbbora High School, OD Wide High School, elementary schools, and everything. And I'm very,
very, very proud of it. So, we'll let the boys go first and then the girls are going to go. Yes. We would love you to go first. Y'all ready? Sure. We are. We are. We have
Next level barber camp. stand. Period. All right, let's go, ladies. We got beauty. We got We know business. Next level Cosmo camp. We up and we stay
up. Period. Govern yourselves accordingly. Thank you, Cece. We appreciate you very much. Awesome kids today. Next is recognition of the Lanzer graduates group. Council member Crane,
I touch it. You were lit up. There you go. Try it again. Lit up. Thanks, mayor. Thanks. I wanted to take an opportunity. Y'all come on down. Um, it was Mayor Pro Tim when we bivvens when we first got elected that said if we ever travel to NLC events in DC, if we come back with
one great idea, it was the trip was worth it. And in December 22, um, met with a group from uh, Coffin Foundation who were putting together grants to help small businesses and entrepreneurs and came back here with that idea and partnered with the Hispanic Chamber. Um,
at the time I reached out to Annette. Uh, and then she put me in touch with Za Jasmine. Is Jasmine here? Good. There you are. So, Jasmine uh got with our office uh when she was still at the Hispanic Chamber and worked with Jack Carbalo over there to put help put this program together. And it's a 10-week
program through the Hispanic Chamber to give entrepreneurs business skills. It's taught in English sometimes in Spanish sometimes. This class I think was Spanish. Is that correct? English. Next class is in Spanish. Right. So, I think there's been about 40 graduates. You had 15 this time. I just wanted to recognize
y'all and make sure uh that y'all get the recognition. I know you had a formal graduation. I thank uh council member Flores for attending that and speaking on behalf of the city and rec representing. But um thanks uh for participating the program and I think we're going to have a speaker here too. I know we have Ra Laura who with uh
tools and tax tactics is his business. Nora Vazquez, Brickstone Tile. There's 10 in the class, spring and English class. Uh Katherine Pena, I think you're going to speak and Gilbert Aetta that uh facilitates the program now, right? Great. You facilitate the program, but you're over at program. But yeah, if you'd like to speak, I just want to give
you all a chance to say uh again what you do and thank you for uh continuing on the program. Good morning, council members. My name is Katherine Pena and I was the philos facilitator for the Lancar program. I want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to council member Michael
Crane. You did that introduction and you have changed the way uh we have programming for our small businesses and entrepreneurs in Fort Worth. Lansar means to launch. It has truly lived up to its name. It started as a pilot to
see if we could equip Hispanic entrepreneurs with the tools, support, and confidence to formalize their ideas and to bring their business to life. And today, that has grown into a movement. Since the start of the program, there
have been four cohorts graduating four business owners. In this latest cohort, we had 15 graduates, 12 of whom have created full business plans. Three went on to officially register their business in the city of Fort Worth. And two
businesses by the conclusion of that class went on to close $10,000 worth of business. In fact, three of our recent graduates will be pitching their ideas to the chamber's uh upcoming competition and several are applying to the city of Fort
Worth business plan competition as well. And that's the kind of pipeline is exactly what we need and that what this program is providing. At its core, Lansour is about unleashing potential. is about giving our people who already
have the talent, the vision, the drive a platform to go to the next level. And that's the kind of economic impact we are proud of. Not just activity but action. And then finally, I just wanted to thank
you for helping us launch this journey uh in building something lasting, a culture of business owners who not only grow but who reach back to lift others uh with them. And that's how Fort Worth wins together. Thank you.
I just wanted to quickly mention that it really is a group effort. Uh these entrepreneurs need a lot of support in the community and it's uh tools, resources, and really a lot of wisdom from people around our network. So, thank you so much uh Michael Crane. Thank you so much, Carlos Flores, and the city uh economic development team
who also helped us u obtain the venue at Accelerate Fort Worth. Uh they also came in and provided some of their resources. So, we're just making sure that they have everything that they need once they graduate this program. So, we're really excited to uh keep this going. Thank you. Thank you,
Council Member Nettles. They going to take a picture. I would Thank you, mayor. I just want to take a point of privilege to also acknowledge uh we have purpose camp that's here. Some more youth uh from district 8 that's here. They can wave their hand
that's here to uh see the us in action. As well, I also want to uh acknowledge uh that we have a former senator from Bermuda, which is Miss Carol Basset. if she would stand and wave our hand. She's here from Bermuda uh showing us some
love today. Thank you for being here. Council member Peoples. And so, mayor and council, I would just like to tell you that today is D5 day in city hall. And we have some amazing young people from all across the district in district
5 who came to learn about city government. And I would like to ask them just to stand very quickly because mayor, they've got business to do. They're going to leave us shortly. So, thank you. To all the students that took the time to come here today on a summer day, we
greatly appreciate you and and thank you to Council Nettles and Council Member Peoples for recognizing those students. Next, we will be moving up um agenda item MNC 2500583 on page 22 uh with Sher Gordon being
available for questions. Are there any questions for Miss Gordon at this time? No. With that, council, I can entertain a motion. Council member Bllelock. Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote.
And motion approved. And thank you to the representatives from Westerron that are here and from Sam from Hillwood. I know this was a really important initiative on behalf of the city of Fort Worth. Um, and we are incredibly fortunate that you've chosen to be here investing in Fort Worth and also to our economic development team.
Congratulations. Motion does carry. Next is items to be withdrawn from the consent agenda. Go ahead. Uh the first item to um to be withdrawn by staff is ZC2
078. Uh this is the zoning case for Enclave Enclave at Tavalo Park and it will be continued to the August 12th meeting. Thank you Jay. Before we take consent agenda speakers, I'm going to read into
the record a correction. Consent item MNC25-0558 on page 10 of the agenda. The correct council district is 11 instead of eight. So with that, the next is the consent agenda speakers and we have five. Thank you. Our first is Bob Willoughby
followed by Ben Rafe. Mr. Willoughby present. Is Ben Rafe present? He's good. David Martinez. Mr. Martinez, is he here? Haven't seen him yet. Um,
Mia Shapiro. Miss Shapiro. No. And then Adrien Smith. Is Mr. Smith here? No. Council, that's the conclusion of our consent agenda speakers. At this time, I can entertain a motion.
Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is announcements by city council. Upcoming and recent events recognitions. First up is council member Flores. Don't touch it. There you go. Just There
we go. Go for it. Okay. Great. Thank you, mayor. All right. Uh, first slide. An Eagle Scout earned his wings recently. Riley Michael Ayala Runtton earned his rank of Eagle Scout. Uh we presented him with a special recognition at first at Rockwood Golf Course. So
congratulations Riley and especially well done to his scout troop and his proud parents. Next slide. Our annual Junth celebration of freedom kicked off again with a parade followed by music games, face painting, food, all kinds of uh celebrations at Lincoln Park in
District 2. proud to be a continuing sponsor for that and kudos to Sharon Warren, the far greater North Side Historical Neighborhood Association for organizing uh for forward PD for coming out and all the other supporting groups that made it a wonderful you know get together. Next slide.
I joined the Marine Transport Squadron uh VMR1 along with council members Larsf Macy Hill as well and uh we celebrated their standing up of that squadron. Uh, Congressman VC was also present. So,
kudos to the uh, JRB NAS folks. They do a wonderful job protecting our country and they're proud for doing that. Next slide. Okay. Reliant beat the heat. Uh, had an event over at the North Side Community Center. Uh we heard from uh our mayor Mattie Parker who came out also uh our
fire chief Davis and uh kicked it off and let people know that yes, the Texas heat can be oppressive and there's steps that you can take to make it less so. So appreciate Reliance um cooperation and collaboration with the city. Next slide.
Green Creek Ranch uh will host its annual light up the lake fire show. It's uh very impressive. If you haven't seen it, come out to see it. I know I've seen it. Macy Hill has seen it. Uh they've got a lot of activities, food truck vendors, uh police, fire, they also
participate. So, uh put it on your calendar. It's really an impressive show. They use the same uh fireworks uh organizers uh that the city of Fort Worth does for its own. And then in spirit of Independence Day, we have our North Side uh Independence Day parade.
It's coming July 5th. It's a free community event, so come on out. Feel free to participate. Hope to see you there. And that's all I have. Thank you, Carlos. Council member Crane. There it is. Got a few here. Got a few here. Just uh put on just return. Had had a great time
spending time with Councilwoman Martinez and former council member Williams at our sister city in Bondong, China. Um the mayor of Bon was a was a character I think you'd think wouldn't you say Janette uh who had a great time with us there. We also met with some small
businesses a boot business as well as an aviation business but it was a great exchange. I don't think they'd been to Bond uh sister cities in a number of years. So the interchange was great there. Um next slide.
Hello. Next slide. I think it was up there. The park is up there. There it is. Yeah, it's just a Oh, keep going back. Yeah. Um, in February, the park at Oakmont Park burned down. You can see in the middle of the picture. Go back. There it is. It's at It's um delayed here. Uh, but I
want to thank park staff for really getting on this. Dave Lewis and his team as well as I'm just going to read some names here because they don't often get mentioned. Risk Management, Diana Brily, Pard, Carrie Lawson, Miranda Crane, David Holt, Octavia Espino, Fabian Essimeia, Jose Martinez, Terry Turner,
Austin Gardner, Park Oops staff, James Moore, Keith Johnson, Chance Hansen, uh Josh Kpinsky, Deontay Taylor, Steven Price, Gary Sorrels, Giovani Ortiz, Everett Slade, Marvin May, and Craig Jose from uh fire department. I just
want to say that they told me this would happen be finished in August or September. They got it done in June uh in time for these kids to be able to play in that park. Uh so I'm very uh proud of that and proud of park staff and Dave Lewis for everybody getting on that. Uh next slide. Just came back from
the USS Fort Worth. It was a great visit with the commander there and the team. I want to thank the people in Fort Worth that donated money so we could buy all them caps. So they have new Fort Worth caps they can wear and I even convinced the commander to let them wear that on Fridays. Uh, so it's new uh uh standard
issue Fort Worth caps from Fort Worth locals. Um, if you didn't know this, the ship is probably going to be decommissioned next year. K Granger fought really hard to get that and keep it. So, it's good to get out there and visit those men and women before it is decommissioned. Next slide.
And yesterday did a tour with Tara Perez. Thank you again uh for permanent supportive housing on uh Camp Buouie West. It's 48 new units that are going into effect July August time frame. Uh Presbyterian night shelters uh part of it. They're doing the furniture in it.
Um and so there was a really great tour just to understand how this works. You had your NPOS's out there so they understand any issues that might arise, what happens uh there. But I'm really excited about this coming online. Thank you'all. Council member Larsdorf.
Thank you, Mayor. Uh first I want to recognize uh Tony Hiller. um for anyone in the city of Fort Worth. I think you all know this name. There he is. He's back there. Tony, thanks for joining us. Uh unfortunately, he is about to leave the city after 25 years of service to it. Um but he leaves us in a much better spot
than I think we were 25 years ago. I mean, you can look at some of the stats up there. I mean, he helped save over 30 30,000 animals. Um he's always been for me just someone I can I can trust and whenever I need something or the district needs something, he's always the first one to help out. And we've shared many a beer at um and we could
talk about that now. We shared many a beer at uh truckyard up north talking about family, friends, small business and of course city Fort Worth business and uh he does not mince words. So if you ever want to know what's really going on in the world, talk to Tony Hiller. Want to know what's going on in Fort Worth. He probably knows where all
the bodies are buried. Um but Tony, we wish you the best in retirement. We know that you're going to do great things. Um looking forward to continuing working with you and of course in great Tony fashion. I know you're planning a big shindig all day long tomorrow. uh look forward to joining you out there and then wrapping up the day at Cider Cade uh with you to to have a drink out there
and celebrate your retirement. So, thank you for everything you've done on behalf of this uh not just for District 4, but the entire city of Fort Worth. So, thank you, sir, for your service. Tony, why don't you stand up for a second? I saw a small wave. There's Tony. Thank you, Tony. Much appreciated.
I don't know who's going to take your spot, but there's certainly big shoes to fill, so Oh, well, never mind. He's great. All right, we're probably better hands then. All right, good. Sorry, Ty. I look forward to seeing a truck then. Next slide. Are you Are you done,
Charlie? I apologize. Thank you. Um, and then before Council Member Peoples does her presentation, it is Deborah's birthday today, so we should all properly say happy birthday. It's just what everyone wants to do is sit at a council meeting on your birthday. I know, Deborah, but happy
birthday. Actually, I did want to sit on my birthday, so this is wonderful. But I want to tell you a picture is worth a thousand words. And so I will tell you that it has been an amazing uh month in district 5 and we started it off with
our Opel's walk for freedom. And so I think Opal Lee belongs to all of us. And so I want to thank all of my council members who came out and participated in that. Uh I think uh Councilman uh Nettles and Councilwoman Beck ran away.
They were trying to me I think they were trying to raise people but uh we had met some wonderful people there enjoyed that and we all uh said a prayer for Miss Opel because we wanted her we want her to be much better and she is on the men.
So that was our first thing and then I will tell you next slide please. Uh then we got to go really swansy and so uh Councilwoman Hill uh Councilwoman uh Hall and I attended uh an amazing
uh an amazing uh uh it's a co-work space for women and it's in Councilwoman Beck's district but it is called the Maven. It is a ma it is beautiful. It is for to encourage women entrepreneurs. And if you will look,
Miss Opel's legacy lives on because there she is. She is some of the artwork that is in there. All of the artwork that is in the Maven is done by women. And so I would encourage you to go and see it. It's not only a co-work space, but it's a gallery. Next slide, please.
And then we had a neighborhood cleanup. So, we have over 40 neighborhood groups uh in our district. Uh they do a lot of amazing work and I am grateful to all of them. In Metobrook, we had a neighborhood cleanup because I think
it's very important. We think that the east side is one of the most beautiful areas of the C city. No offense to anybody, but we want to make sure that it's clean and it's a safe place for our children to be. Next slide. And then finally, we were at the
neighborhood uh uh Metobrook neighborhood festival and mayor at I think two meetings ago, we were given hats from the golf course at the Metobrook Golf Course. It is under renovation. It is going to be absolutely a jewel in the east side. So, I got a
chance to visit not only with those that are redoing the golf course, but also our code compliance group was out there. And these folks work really hard for us and I wanted to highlight them and thank them for the work that they do. Next slide. Told you it was a busy weekend.
Then we went to uh MLK Martin Luther King Center that's in another part of the district did their neighborhood Junth celebration. Uh Deputy Chief uh Chris Daniels was there. many of our community leaders were there and uh I
think Commander Antoine Williams and I with the police department met each other at probably five different events on Saturday. But a great thing there and thanks to the city of Fort Worth for all the departments that came out and were there as a resource for our residents.
Our next slide please. And then there was the parade and the parade and the parade. But more importantly, you missed uh Councilman Chris Nettle's double dutching. Okay. I think he'll talk about
that later. And uh Councilwoman Elizabeth Beck, Councilwoman Janette Martinez was there. Uh it was an amazing uh show of solidarity between the community and our police department. Uh, I got to be a judge at the barbecue
cookoff. It was cops versus community and there were some people threw down mayor on the food. It was absolutely fantastic. And I want to thank our police department. Our chief was there along with many of the high ranking
officers in the Fort Worth Police Department and it was a great collaboration between the community and our uh city of Fort Worth Police Department. And so we had a lot of fun. I'm not sure who won the the cook off
contest because the food was so good. I think there was probably a tie. Next slide. And finally, we had the Junth Museum put on an amazing uh celebration this weekend. Uh Ambassador Andrew Young was
there as part of it. They had the orchestra Noah at uh downtown, but they also on Evans Plaza uh did a festival and had many members of the community come out. And so I got an opportunity to go to that. And so I just want to thank
everybody for what you do to make our district flourish. And I think uh I don't think I think that's the end of my slides. Thank you, Council Member Peoples. Thank you. And next up is Dr. Mia Hall.
Sure. You're Do you have a green light on your mic? On your mic though? Is there a green light on that? It is. Okay. Try it one more time. He's coming to fix it. Okay. I feel like there we go. Got it. All right. All right. So, it's hard to
believe that I was just sitting up here um just seven days ago being sworn in. Um so, I don't have a lot to present today, but it is an honor to be here. Um so we started off um first slide with the swearing in last Tuesday. You see a
big proud picture of my only son Xavier Hall and my husband Ebo Hall. So very proud and there with uh Mayor Maddie Parker. I'm very excited for that opportunity. Um and honored to be here to serve. Next slide. Um, so that was Tuesday and then on
Wednesday I spent the day here at city hall and had the honor um of attending um my first uh community meeting which was a crime prevention meeting that was hosted by none other than our uh NPO of the year uh officer Percy Holland and it
happened here in District 6 at our south division office. We had more than 100 uh neighbors attend that event. Next slide. The next day of course was Junth which is pretty epic because Junth started on a Thursday was on a Thursday
this year. We celebrated for about four days and so there was a lot of activity around this city for Junth. So you here see pictured here with my um district director Andrea West who I will recognize um at the end of this presentation and you also see uh trustee
CC Watkins recently elected to CISD who was honored here earlier today with Next Level Cosmo Camp. Um, and you see my other colleagues, Councilman Nettles, uh, commissioners Lisa Simmons and Miles, um, Rodri Miles, and also, uh,
fellow council woman, um, Janette Martinez. Next slide. Um, I can't tell if this was the be I'm going to say that this is the beginning of the walk because no one's melting yet. It was very hot. It was the Texas heat, but it was great to see all of the
young ladies out walking. also Miss Dion there um who was um representing this year because of uh Miss Opel's absence. And then of course there was live music and fun and food afterwards and we were all there to introduce ourselves and rally the crowd where we finished on the
50ard line at Fington Field. Next slide. Um the next day, Friday, I had the pleasure in all of these places. I'm I'm passing my fellow council men and women. So, and the next day we had the second annual Opal Lee empowerment breakfast that was hosted in partnership with a
thousand women strong. It's a national organization that empowers women uh to um activate and exercise their right to vote throughout our communities. Among those who were honored at the breakfast were uh Dee Magcguire from K104 um and
also Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. She wasn't there uh to receive the award, but she did send uh Kendall Lock to receive it on her behalf. And it was a great uh space to be in surrounded by uh strong Fort Worth leaders um who believe in empowering our community and are working every day um to ensure that
voices are heard and represented throughout the city. Next slide. And just a few um events that we have coming up. Um KO Como Fest is coming up on Wednesday, July 3rd. Um if you haven't heard about it, check it out. It's going
to be a great time. It's going to be from 5:00 to 7:00. Um, also following KOMO Fest, the next day is the KOMO parade and it will be held on uh July 4th. We will be hosting our first District 6 town hall of our first opportunity to connect with neighbors since being sworn in and it will be on
Wednesday, July 23rd at the Vivian J. Lincoln Library beginning at 6 p.m. Um, also next slide. I'm also want to mention that we have the McCart Avenue corridor um community survey that's open. Um I encourage you to complete the
survey. It is going to be open I believe um till September 30th. So please take the opportunity to give your feedback and your input. Um your voice is very important and we want to make uh decisions informed decisions um from hearing from our neighbors. And uh can
we next slide? I'm sorry. And this is just the contact information. And I want to take this opportunity to say that um my one of my first promises that I made um to the citizens of district 6 was to make sure that I identified and secured
a competent, respons responsive and visible staff. And so I want to introduce uh Miss Andrea West if she's in the chamber. Miss Andrea, can you stand please? She is one of our district directors in the district 6 office. And we also will have Miss Kennedy Jackson,
a proud North Crowley High School graduate, recent Howard University graduate. She's been working on the Hill for the last couple of years and she'll be joining us in the office on Thursday. And that's the end of my presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Hall. Next up is Council Member Nettles.
Thank you. Uh the first slide, next slide, I guess. Uh, District 8, uh, Fort Worth United Community Kickball game was at Hillside. We had, uh, I'm sorry, did you cheat? I did not cheat. Um, we had, uh, people
from Ko from the east side and the west side coming over to do kickball. Next slide. We play with you before. I'm not sure. Next slide. Um, is career day at West Hanley Elementary speaking to our youth about empowerment. Next slide. District
8 had the grand open for Riverside new location for a center for transforming lives that brought uh $30 million project to District 8 in the old McGomery Wards building. There's our mayor talking about the uh investment made into the district. Uh it's going to be a catalyst that's going to bring um
Riverside and Berry back to life. Next slide is the Opal Lee Walk of Freedom. You see all those slides there. You've seen them already. Next slide is going to be the Junth parade and festival there. Uh that's part of the cookoff and that is actually
a rib that I actually ate. I think the first rib since I've been alive. Next slide, please. Uh District 8 announcement for a communitywide job fair. It's going to be August the 8th from 100 p.m. to 400 p.m. at the William McDonald YMCA. So, we
hope to see you guys there to uh have opportunity to work uh not just in district 8, but in the city of Fort Worth. Thank you. Those are my remarks. Council member Beck. So, first and foremost, um I see fire
chief uh Davis is in the the back today with us and I just really want to um send my um heartfelt deepest gratitude to the Fort Worth Fire Department. If you don't know, um they are they fought
and are still fighting a six alarm fire on Rosedale that displaced um we think about 800 people at this point. Um they fought it all night long at just before 2:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon is when the call came in and they were out there
all night from across the city. I'd also like to thank code compliance because uh they stepped in and were there to help uh reunification efforts with folks who had um lost their pets in the um in the the
process of evacuating the building or um those that weren't there. Um to my knowledge, there's still a couple cats that um have remained unclaimed. I don't know if that's intentional because they're cats. Um but um but they are um
uh thanks to code compliance for showing up on the scene and and being um being a great neighborh. Uh one safe place opened their doors well as long as well as many other businesses in near southside to provide
um a place for people to go um to to rest and to wait to find out um where they where they are and what they're going to be doing. Also, Trinity Metro showed up with buses to u provide cooling for our firefighters and um
MedStar who um I got to to see out there working firsthand um with our fire department and I can tell you that um they already seemed seamless together. So, um that's one positive that we can definitely um pull from the situation. And I'd also like to thank Arlington
Fire Department for covering down um on uh Fort Worth Fire Department stations so that they could um spend that time and effort on putting out that fire. All right, next slide. Uh on the 13th, we celebrated the Army's
250th birthday um right here at city hall with a proclamation, a cake um and a um old uh patterned flag uh exchange. So, thanks to everybody that showed up for that and the um association uh or
the a AUSA uh for being part of that as well. Next slide. Okay. The next uh day we had the Osprey uh Bass Angler Foundation 34th annual youth fishing festival. And so, um that photograph on the left that you see
there, uh the little girl in the red caught all of those fish during that tournament. So, she definitely um was um a premier angler there. And then um you'll see that every year they put one albino fish into the Greenbryer uh pond
and anyone that catches that is the lucky recipient of $100. And so this year um they caught the albino fish and so that uh young gentleman was super excited to receive his $100 prize. Uh next slide. uh got to welcome the
Hungarian delegation on their visit here to Fort Worth where they really focused on how um our uh nonprofit uh organizations and and partners um help support our efforts here in the city and I can tell you that they were incredibly impressed with what they saw. Next
slide. um the Opal's Walk for Freedom. Um you can see uh police chief there in the photograph with us, but what is not pictured is the entire command staff uh Fort with PD's command staff was out there walking with us. Um so big thanks
to them for showing up and the Fort Worth Fire Department as well for sending a team. Next slide. All right. this weekend, June 28th, um at from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. um on South Main Street. Entire South Main Street will be uh closed uh for Trinity Pridefest. So, I
hope that you will um join us out there. Next slide. All right, the fourth is coming up. I um want to remind you fireworks are illegal here in the city of Fort Worth, but if you would like to see some that are legal and really great, head on out to Fort Worth's uh fourth. That'll be at Panther Island
Pavilion. And next slide. All right. At the end of August, August 23rd, um the um Commissioner Rodrik Miles will be having his Alzheimer's education seminar at the TCC Trinity River campus. And that's all I've got. Thank you, Council Member Beck and
Council Member Martinez. Thank you, Mayor. Um I will be quick because I know we have a long council day. I want to start uh my presentation featuring our world environment day. So on June 20 June 5th, we partnered with Frostbank, several city departments, and
Black Coffee to host our second old environment day in district 11. Together, we provided free uh shredding, uh waste disposal, and electronic recycling services to the community. 15 households dropped off items for safe
disposal. 8,000 lbs of paper was shredded. We collected 543 pounds of recycled waste that included paint, solvents, oil, batteries, electronics, and more. I I want to thank everybody who made this event a success. But
special shout out to the different city of Fort Worth departments that were there. That included our environmental services, keep Fort Worth beautiful, water code compliance, community engagement, neighborhood services, and uh Fort Worth PD. They had a great showing at the event. Thank you for your
support. Next slide, please. And so these are just a few of the neighborhood association meetings that myself and my team have been able to um have a presence at. Um from left to right, uh we were at Central Mebrook in June on June 5th, at Village Creek Neighborhood
Association on June also on June 5th. Um I was able to attend the Eastern Hills Neighborhood Association on May 19th and at Bonnie Bray on May 15th. Next slide. uh a few of the community events that myself and our team has uh was able to
attend. Um and so we're still catching up because we haven't had a presentation in a while. So Popsicles with a cup at Lagar Plaza was a great success. Um and so I really want to commend Lagran Plaza for putting together free events for the community to engage with uh different uh
organizations and the city um at their location. and uh Carter Riverside had an open house, the community center, and this was an opportunity for the center to highlight their programs and activities and to also meet their new supervisor, uh Nick. Um he was grilling
up hot dogs for everybody who stopped by the event. So, that was really cool. Um on June 18th and 21st um our office in partnership with district 9, Councilwoman Beck um and had
staff come in and talk about a council initiated resoning that the community asked for. And so thank you to Beth Knight for being there and Lauraai for being there to speak on uh conservation district. Um so that was a successful two successful meetings on June 14th. um
Carter Riverside High School put together an event in partnership with um Family Auto and they gave away a vehicle to a deserving family. So it was a wonderful event and very um uh happy family that was able to receive that
gift. Next slide. So, uh, we talked about Junth and I was able to attend two events, Opal's Walk for Freedom on Junth and the East Side Junth parade and Taste of East Side where I was happy to sponsor that event.
We also, uh, my team also attended the litter cleanup in Metobrook, uh, specifically Normandy Park and the surrounding area. So, thank you to my team for being there. Next slide. A few other events that District 11 was uh present at was the literacy roundup
at Riverside Community Center and that provided screenings for youth and resources for parents and caretakers um at several communic uh community centers uh and that included dyslexia screenings and all this was free to the community.
Uh we were also a part of the Fair Haven Neighborhood Association um meeting where they discussed the neighborhood improvement program and talked about um what uh type of improvements that community would want to see as part of that uh funding. Uh and also at Andrew
Doc Sessions Community Center, my team was able to attend donuts with dad. Next slide. A few community events that are coming up. The Victory Forest is having their back to school bash on August 9th. Um, and also there are uh weekly uh
meetings at um L Grand Placa that talks about how and it's in Spanish how folks uh can download the My Fort Worth app and how they can report different things on that app. And so there is also the civics for citizenship at Riverside Library and those are going to be hosted
every Monday 6:00 to 7:00 until July 1st 21st sorry. Next slide. Worth Heights is having a neighborhood block party on July 19th and so we welcome anybody in that area to come. It's going to be a great event and we're they're going to discuss the
neighborhood improvement program as well. And so I invite everybody in district 11 and in the city of Fort Worth who would like to come to our inaugural community wellness fair. It's going to take place August 2nd at Aean Carter Riverside High School from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. And uh the first
meeting for this stay safe this July 4th at public safety forum happened uh yesterday uh June 23rd, but there is another opportunity to uh join this meeting with Commander uh Williams uh at the Eugene McCrae Community Center on uh
June 30th, so next Monday. And so just information on how to uh celebrate safely in the city of Fort Worth and information on uh legal permits. Um and so also the you know the concerns about celebratory gunfire and and how to
report illegal fireworks within the city of Fort Worth. And those are all my remarks. Thank you council Martinez. Council, that's the conclusion of our um council announcements. Next is nomination and election of Mayor Prom. So, I'm going to bury the lead and
I'm asking my council members um to second my motion to nominate council member Carlos Flores from council district 2 as our new mayor prom. Um I could give a lot of reasons why um but Carlos has served this city and council district 2 since 2017. He of course is
our most tenured city council member, but I know that he's incredibly well respected by this dis for being incredibly thoughtful in every approach and vote that he takes. He works incredibly hard on behalf of not just the council district too, but the entire city. And I believe he puts those
beliefs above himself to make sure that we are all well represented. Carlos is a dear friend and I've really enjoyed getting to know him both in a personal and professional capacity. And with that, council, I make a motion to make council member Carlos Flores, our mayor pro Tim. Got a motion and a second.
Councel, please vote. Motion carries unanimously. Congratulations to Carlos. Go ahead, Carlos. Please. Wow. Thank you, mayor, and my fellow council members, um, for your support, your vote, and your faith and confidence
in me. You know, I've served with, uh, with you all through thick and thin, right? This job doesn't get any easier, but it's certainly challenging and interesting. That's why we all do it. Uh, to my family who couldn't be here today, uh, they are always in mind and
heart. So, as mayor said, as long as serving tenure council member at the moment, I'm grateful to step into this uh new role. You know, accept the position and all that comes with it, the responsibilities and expectations. Uh I look forward to being a resource and
working even closer with each and every one of you and uh further strengthening our ties that way because as a unit we're more effective. So, thank you again and uh I will serve to the best of my abilities. Thank you all. Thank you. Congratulations, Carlos.
Next is speakers on non-consent items and then after that we will do um resolution 25-5257 since that is what all the consent non-consent speakers are speaking on. Thank you. Our first speaker is Kim
Shimato followed by Mindy Tacket. We'll we'll do that after the speakers. We're going to do it and they'll do a presentation as well. Ken, good morning, Mayor Parker. Council members, um I stand in opposition to this measure. I ran into a friend of
mine on the way in here this morning who told me it's a lost cause, but I think it needs to be said anyway. There's a saying where I come from, never write a check with your mouth that you can't cash with your actions. When this city did the work it did back in 2018 with
the race and culture task force, it was to address inequities of longstanding and to build trust between communities of color in the city. Now when one makes a promise, if one's integrity is good, that promise is good
for the future and not for the future until it is fiscally disadvantageous. There are forces in the country that would roll back social progress to the 14th amendment.
This is the moment for this council to swim against that murky tide, to be bold, and to show all the people of Fort Worth that their city is as good as its word. Our next speaker is Mindy Tacket,
followed by Reed Bills. Good morning. I want to start by saying that you're never going to satiate the appetite for cruelty by this administration. Executive Order 14151 is an attempt to
bully cities into abandoning our values. But giving in does not stop it and only encourages more. We've all watched lawmakers in Austin try to appease extremists, hoping to avoid the next
attack, but it never works. Each time they're pushed further to do something more harmful and more inhumane, and that's how extremism functions. It feeds on fear and silence and obedience.
So, what side of history are all of you going to be on? This is another moment to show Fort Worth who you are and what you believe in. We need leaders who will protect the people of this city, not cave to pressure from partisan mandates or
political threats. Just a few weeks ago, Denver's mayor, Mike Johnston, said, "No matter what the threats are, we're not going to be bullied or blackmailed out of our values." We expect the same kind of response from
Porworth. This city's leadership has to reject extremism. The photo ops and proclamations don't mean anything if in the end you cave to policy that was crafted with hate.
This matters. Demanding equity and inclusion isn't a soft woowoo social ideal. It couldn't be more serious. This will impact real people, their jobs, their access to opportunity, and their
ability to provide for their families. And people in diverse communities deserve just as much voice, influence, and doors opening as campaign donors from Westover Hills, Rivercrest, and
Tangle Wood. Creativity can find a path forward and a workaround, even if it's difficult and even if it's imperfect. But y'all have to refuse to participate in this injustice. Giving in to
oppressors is not leadership and it's not the kind of city we want to be. Thank you all. Our next speaker is Reed Bills followed by Charles Bills. Last week I spoke to the council remarking that in the past few years
decision decisions have been increasingly political and regressive and this has been possible because there was a conservative majority on the on the council after the May election. The city council
has a majority of progressive members, which gives you the opportunity to make sound decisions for all of your constituents. Today, you have an opportunity to do just that.
You are voting on a resolution to suspend the city's diversity and inclusion department. The effects of this vote are widespread, especially to our minority communities. I urge you to stand up for your con
constituents who benefit from protections provided by DEI policies and vote no on the proposed resolution. I recognize that the city is being threatened with a loss of federal
funding if you do not eliminate DEI in Fort Worth, but I am asking you to refuse to be bullied into an unacceptable decision and find other sources for the withheld funds. It's the
Fort Worth way and the right thing to do. Our next speaker is Charles Bills. Um, the people that support this bill that want to eliminate the DEI are basically wanting to go back to the Jim
Crow days of privilege, but only for the white people. That they claim that this is unfair that that any black businesses are getting unfair advantage. But from now, if this passes, any black business that actually
has a better uh bid is going to be suspected of being unfairly given a special treatment and is going to get more um attention from the powers that be that
want to do this e. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sabrina Ball followed by EJ Kerrion. I understand you're facing pressure, but I want to be clear. An executive order from the president cannot override the
constitution or the power of congress to appropriate funds. Scotas has ruled that presidents cannot withhold funds already approved by congress. The constitution gives congress, not the white house, the authority to decide where federal
dollars go. So let's not be bullied by threats that aren't legally enforcable. If Trump attempts to punish Fort Worth for maintaining programs that help ensure equal opportunity, we have legal precedent and public support on our
side. This was just recently upheld in the USAD decision. Corporations, conventions, and top talent look for cities that are welcoming and forwardinking. In today's economy, cities that dismantle inclusion programs
are increasingly seen as hostile places to work and do business. Ending equal opportunity sends a signal that Fort Worth is going backwards and risks our competitiveness with other cities that are embracing change. Keeping these
programs is not just about symbolism. It's about compliance, accountability, and fairness. It helps Fort Worth avoid civil rights violations. It protects the city from lawsuits and it signals that every resident matters. Diversity and
inclusion are not partisan. They are constitutional. It is not anti-American. It is deeply American. It flows from the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Equal justice, equal opportunity, and liberty
for all. Abandoning those principles in the name of politics is not leadership. Let Fort Worth be a city that leads, not a city that caves. Our next speaker is EJ Kerrion, followed by Michelle Green Ford.
I wish we all could have taken a trip together to the Kimble Art Museum Museum as there was an exhibit called Modern Art and Politics in Germany 1910 to 1945. The exhibition concluded this weekend, but it explored the political climate of
the time, highlighting art reflected and responded to the shifting polit political landscape from the final years of the German Empire to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the onset of World War II. It showed how oppressive regimes rise not in one bold stroke, but slowly
through silence, through small surreners, making oppression seem normal by the inch. This is what this vote and process feels like. We just allowed the county judge to silence black and brown Fort Worthian's votes in countywide races. And now with the DEI roll back,
we see again our city leadership not being prepared or bold enough to protect the very communities we say we represent. We can't march with Opal Lee in Junth, lead a pride resolution, and honor Commissioner Brooks and then suspend the very programs he spent his
career fighting for. Fort Worth is the 11th largest city in America. We are a majority minority. We have a historic female majority council, the first Hispanic city manager. And this is how we're going to show the next generation
of what diverse leadership looks like. I understand this vote is not easy, which is why I'm here to support at a minimum a continuation to come up with a better plan on how we're going to support marginalized residents, but most importantly, a better communication plan on what our values are and when will we
stand up to those values. We knew this pressure was coming from Austin and Washington. We saw it with universities and the Department of Education. We had the smoking signals to be better prepared to respond. Larger cities responded months ago. I'm an Afro Latino
entrepreneur. I started my company in Fort Worth. Our company was featured on the Inc. 5000 list in 2022 and in 2023. Only 13 Fort Worth companies made the list in those consecutive years. I know what it's like to lose funding funding
and communicate hard things to people we serve. But people don't lose faith when we have faith when we have to compromise. They lose faith when they don't understand where your conviction lies. I feel confident that if we let everyone in Fort Worth have a vote and
that vote was, would you rather stand up against Donald Trump or bow down, we would vote stand up. Our next speaker is Michelle Green Ford, followed by Erica Garza. Good morning
to mayor and council. I want to thank you for this opportunity to really share where the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber stands on these issues. And I want you to know that we are appreciative of having the dialogue and
looking at where we need to move forward. But the leadership of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce finds it unfortunate that this body must even consider abolishing the city's diversity, equity, and inclusion department, which has had
such noble goals and which has made significant achievements in helping to improve our business development opportunities under the umbrella of fairness. The city's MWBE program has undoubtedly
achieved much success for many who had been systemically discriminated against. We definitely understand that the city must comply with federal mandate to end such initiatives or risk losing hundreds
of millions of dollars for other worthy programs in Fort Worth as well as the risk of losing employees. We have great understanding of where you are. We know this decision is not easy or we know
that it will not be made without much thought and consideration. But we urge you, our esteemed elected officials, to be creative and bold. We beseech you to not forget about the small businesses
that are still in need of assistance from their local governments who are still expecting to be treated fairly in these uncertain and hostile times. We are grateful for the city leadership for being proactive and finding
solutions in our conversations already about how do we move forward. We believe that together we have the wisdom with the chambers and with other leaders in the city. We have the wisdom and the fortitude to find creative ways
to continue supporting our local small businesses. Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce stands ready. We're committed to continue to look for solutions to collaborate with the city and to find a
new landscape and what we find ourselves in now. Thank you. Our next speaker is Erica Garza. Good morning, Mayor and Council members. Good morning. My name is Erikica Garza and I serve as the president CEO of Fort
Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I'm here representing our members, businesses, and a broader coalition of community leaders concerned about agenda 25-5257, which includes the suspension of the department that has long supported Fort Worth's business variety and economic
engagement efforts. I want to start by thanking the council for your service and for acknowledging the complexity of this moment. I also want to emphasize that our concern isn't about short-term politics. It's about long long-term impact. When programs that have helped
broaden access to resources and contracts and suddenly get paused or eliminated, it causes confusion and discouragement, especially among our smallest and newest business owners. Through two through 202 business
consultations, we have helped craft 35 new business plans, certified over 20 businesses, and directly supported our members in securing more than three million in contracts. This isn't just an activity. It's an economic impact. These
winds, jobs uh that have been created have have supported families and government wealth in making. These are people who don't have legal teams or lobbyists. They have dreams, grit, and a handful of employees depending on them.
We have received numerous of calls, emails, and texts asking, "What does this mean for my future?" That's why I'm here today. Fort Worth's future economy depends on range. When we bring people together from different sectors, neighbors, and perspectives, we get better decisions, more creativity, and
stronger resilience. A strong economy economy isn't about uniformity. It's about unity and purpose and variety contribution. When we nurture many voices as in our business ecosystem, we reduce blind spots and unlock untapped potential. That's what makes Fort Worth
competitive. We are ready to work with the city to create new approaches, ones that protect our city's federal funding and ensure no one gets left behind. However, we must have a seat at the table. Our members deserve a say in the programs that influence their opportunities. If a department is being
paused, we seek clarity. What concrete programs will replace it? what safeguards will be put in place and ensure our city continues to value our broad participation in economic future. We can all agree that every dedicated business owner deserves a fair shot no
matter their zip code, accent or background. Thank you for your time and for your consideration. Our next speaker is Katrina Carpenter followed by Marsha West. Good morning, mayor and council. My name is Katrina Carpenter. I'm the owner of
Carpenters Cafe and Catering, which many of you have been inside of my restaurant, as well as the founder of a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe, inclusive community spaces. I stand before you today not just as a business owner but as a
product of Fort Worth raised in the Lake community shaped by its resilience and invested in its future. I want to speak from the heart about DEI diversity equity and inclusion and what it's meant for me and so many small businesses so
many small minorityowned businesses in the city. These policies have never been about exclusion or handouts. They have been about access. access to opportunities, to networks, and to the kinds of resources that have historically not reached the communities
equally. When we talk about removing these efforts, we are not talking about removing red tape. We're talking about removing bridges. Bridges that connect small businesses like mine to federal funding opportunities, government
contracts, mentorship programs, and community development initiatives. Without these policies, many of us are pushed back to Martians fighting twice as hard to be seen, heard, and supported. Ending these efforts won't just hurt
businesses in Fort Worth. It'll hurt Fort Worth's economy. It will weaken trust in leadership. It will create gaps and reopen gaps where there was finally some progress being made. And most importantly, it will send a message to
every young black and brown entrepreneur in the city that there is no seat at the table. My business has benefited directly from opportunities that were made visible through DEI efforts. I've been able to grow, hire from within my community, and
give back because someone saw value in inclusion. That ripple effect matters. My staff isn't just black and brown. I have racial inclusion, economic diversity, and equitable opportunity for everyone
that walks through my door, which is what every place in this city should feel like. But the reality is that it doesn't, and we still have a ways to go. This would reverse the incredible progress being made and dismantle efforts that impact a legacy in
progress. Are we willing to find a creative solution to hard problems? I urge you to not just consider the immediate political or financial implications of this vote, but to but to weigh the human costs. I encourage each of you to ask yourself, what initiatives
are going to in going into effect immediately to replace what could possibly be removed and what kind of city are we choosing to be? Thank you for your time. Our next speaker is Marsha West. Miss
West will be followed by Monty Elliot. Good morning. My name is Marca R. West. I live in on Heron Drive in northwest uh part of the city in Councilwoman Hills District. Uh thank you for your call yesterday. Uh, I'm a retired Fort Worth
ISD administrator, former board member, author, and a member of Ridgely Presbyterian Church. I've lived in Fort Worth for over 50 years. I chair a group at Ridgely Presbyterian called the Matthew 25 Action Team. The purpose is
to educate ourselves about issues of race, poverty, and the LGBTQ plus community, and then to take actions to improve those situations as we can. One of the things we've done to educate ourselves is to attend movies that
matter at the modern sponsored by the city's diversity and equity and inclusion department. We understand this program will be among those cut if resolution 255257 passes.
Y'all, this will be a real loss for our community. The movies have brought to light issues many folks have been unaware of. If you were unaware of a problem, you can hardly be expected to do something about it. The movies have also provided hope as we have seen how
some communities deal with their problems. I understand we're talking about a lot of money. An article in the Star Telegram stated that replacing the federal funding would raise a city's tax rate by 13 cents or about $320
for a family. That's a lot of money and that's not a popular action to take. But then we, the people of Fort Worth, would be able to choose through you, our elected leaders, how to use those
dollars to fund uh to fund our work. And I would hope you would decide to use those dollars to fund the city's diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. How can anyone be against those three? Think about it. Diversity, the strength of our country. Equity,
what our constitution promises, all people are created equal. Inclusion, involving everyone in the decision-making process, which makes for a better end result. I would ask you this, when you give in to a bully, what does that where does
that end? What's the next thing you will be asked to stop or to do to prevent money being taken away? I know you have a tough job. I hope you will vote against this resolution and for the wide diversity of our city. I do
thank you for your service on the council and for listening. Our next speaker is Monty Elliot followed by Wesley Kirk. It's Monty here. We'll move to Wesley Kirk.
Wesley will be followed by an Zeta. I understand the difficult situation the city is in with the federal government threatening to withhold 10% of the city's budget just because we dare want to create an equitable city for all. Right now, it feels like we're presented with nothing but bad options and worse
outcomes to choose from. But now is not the time to sacrifice our values and abandon our morals. Now is not the time to forget all the hard-fought battles we've had in this city, the history of victories, all in the name of equity and and fairness. Now is the time to get
creative in how we solve these complex problems. Now is the time to get bold and make a stand against fascism, racism, hatred, and oppression. It may feel like you have to make a decision right here today, but when it comes to a vote, you don't. You can motion for a
continuence and buy the city time to figure out how to navigate this issue. What you do have to decide today though is where do you stand when it comes to prioritizing the rich diversity within our city. You have to decide how much you value equity and writing the wrongs
of the past. You have to decide how much you want Fort Worth to be a welcoming, inclusive city of opportunity and joy for all. You have to decide when enough is enough. Where is the line in the sand in the fight against hatred and ignorance? Just this month, many of you
stood up here with the LGBTQ community as Mattie Parker talked about how this is a city meant for all. Many of you celebrated Junth last week, a day of freedom from oppression. I don't want to believe that any of that was performative. I want to believe that in your heart, you know that Fort Worth is
a greater city when we are thoughtful and purposeful in our actions to create a city for everyone. No matter how you vote, we need to hear from each and every one of you, speaking your thoughts on why this matters to you and what kind of city you want Fort Worth to be. We
need to know where you stand on allowing the federal government to bully us and take away local control. We need to know where you stand on ensuring that Fort Worth is a city for all. Thank you. Our next speaker is an Zeta followed by
Pamela Young. Good morning. In the face of the president's executive order of January 21st, 2025 requiring the city to clarify that it does not operate any programs promoting DEI in violation of the applicable federal law. I encourage you all to ensure that work to address
disparities in our city continue in Fort Worth, Texas. I know that only hard decisions are available to you. We have heard a lot of people today who have been hurt by decisions pushed down by the feds. And I think it's important to recall that Texas sued the federal government for overreach in the past
when the federal government imposed rules restricting the use of federal funds by requiring Texot to implement greenhouse gas measures. Measures that clearly improved the health, safety, and welfare of residents. At that time, our attorney general stated that it was an example of federal administration sidest
stepping the constitution to make sweeping and destructive policies without authorization. So, it's ironic that we find ourselves in this position today with our state leaders not stepping in. Again, it appears that this issue that could not be that issues that should not
be made partisan are being treated in a partisan manner. It's unfortunate that these decisions appear to be rushed due to the upcoming federal grant deadlines. And again, there are only hard decisions before you. However, programs of tremendous value must continue using
statistical data despite the efforts of our current federal administration to remove DEI that focus on people and empower them to be successful. The city is tasked with enacting ordinances based on health, safety, and the welfare of our citizens. This can be done by
focusing on disparities. If this needs to be continued in order to better ensure that these outcomes, I encourage you to do so. And I know that all of you will focus on this and ensure that supporting the residents of Fort Worth to live healthy, safe lives, providing support that enhances all of our welfare
will continue in the city of Fort Worth. Thank you. Our next speaker is Pamela Young followed by Estella Williams. Thank you. Um, actually it was Alexander Montalvo. I missed that name on this list. Apologies. And then Estella is not
here. Is that correct? Hi Estella. Come on down Estella. And then I'll go to Alexander Montalvo. Is Pamela here? She was here. Okay. We'll see if she comes back in before we're done. Morning,
Mayor Parker and council members. I am Estella Williams. I serve as president of the Fort Worth Taran County branch NAACP. I am here to oppose the resolution number 25-5257. Who knows and recognize what's best for
our city than those of you who sit before me and those who are in the community who represent ourselves as city leaders, community leaders. Yours, Mayor Parker, has been a major focus that says community partnerships
and that entails embracing all citizens in the community as well as an inclusiveness of every person of this city. It entailed Fort Worth's economic development and several other areas of
importance that you have spoken about, that you have stood up for, and we appreciate that. To establish this endeavor required a development of trust, communication and commitment. Those are things that we got to see from our
leadership in this city. That also led to an opportunity of express improving the quality of life of every citizen of the Fort Worth Tar County area. With the establishment of the DEI department, these actions became
a reality. It is understood that the desire is to abol is to abolish the DEI department. However, is it worth allowing others to cause a disruption of what it is that we have fought hard for
by destroying progress that each of you were instrumental in making happen. You created that progress along with the citizens of this city. Today, it's about the name. It's about the department.
However, I'd ask that not only the focus be on what it is we've achieved, but the focus be that of community partnerships, the progress, the opportunities, and the trust that has been established, not by the name, but due to the established
work that has been achieved. Let us not turn back, but let's continue to move forward and allow the focus of Fort Worth, where the west and the best has occurred, remain a greater reality by
thinking and working strategically and embracing the progress that has been achieved. Please consider opposing this resolution and develop the approach that would be necessary of the necessary actions to
continue a new approach and progress and establishing a method of continued productive strategies to improve the quality of life for everyone. This is not an easy decision, but there are those of us who are in the community considering ourselves as leaders who
desire to sit at the table with you as you have to employ the thoughts behind what is necessary. Thank you. Next speaker will be Alexander Montalvo and I'll call this young will be next. Is Alexander here?
All right, look at us residents of Fort Worth getting our full three minutes. That's something to celebrate. Now, we've been coming to city council meetings more frequently. You've been seeing a lot more community leaders and members calling for leadership within
our city. and asking to recognize the moment that we're in and whether the majority that has the power to stand up to this extremism and stand up to this discrimination will in fact do that.
being bullied by somebody from the White House who doesn't give a about anybody but himself should require us to stand up to that
type of rhetoric, that type of hate and to push back on this belief and this propaganda that DEI, diversity, equity, inclusion is a bad thing. We know in Fort Worth
that's not to be true because we have fought for this. Now, unfortunately, Fort Worth, our state of Texas, and our country has had a rampant history of systemic racism.
And communities that are black, brown, and diverse have been discriminated against over and over and over. And unfortunately, our city has struggled throughout the years to actually stand up and fight for
these diverse communities. We saw that in 2017 with SB4. We saw that this year with the racial discrimination gerrymandering that was done by the county. And yet, community leaders are coming
here to talk to you, to ask you to live up to the potential you have. There are six city council members that can stand up against this hate, that can stand up against this extremism,
and we are asking you to do your job to protect the people. We have to get creative. When bullies threaten us with things like money and resources, that's no different than what diverse communities have had to do day
in and day out every day of their lives. Y'all have the power to get creative, to solve this, and to bring the community together. Instead, what we've seen is a procrastination to even bring this up, to talk about this publicly. And now
before you go on break, there's potential that this is going to get removed. That's not leadership. We demand more and we are here to continue to hold you accountable and if you fail, we will be here to make sure that folks
are in these seats. Our next speaker is Pamela Young. I'm going to attempt to play back some audio. Whereas unique backgrounds and experiences and contributions of all people and expanding opportunity for every resident are essential for Fort Worth's
continued growth, prosperity, and our vision to be the most livable and best managed city in the country. And whereas our community strength, hear my words, does lie in its diversity and unity, embracing people of all backgrounds,
identities, and experiences to build a more inclusive forth where every person is valued and free from discrimination. Those are your mayor Maddie Parker's words just on June 10th
a couple of weeks ago. What are we doing with those? Are we going to hold truth? Do you really believe that, Mayor Maddie Parker? Or is that just for LGBTQ month and nicities?
Or is it really for all people? All people who are going to be affected negatively by this removal. Jay Chapa, I heard your presentation. You presented it like our backs are up
against the wall. They are not. $40 million in federal grants and federal funding. We have that under our big toe in Fort Worth. We have that lying around in CCPD.
We have that lying around in vacant positions that are not filled, that are hard to fill, that will not be filled anytime soon. But what we also have is black, brown, indigenous people of color, people who
have been historically marginalized and oppressed by this city government. They are here and we have everything we need in this house to fund those programs.
We talk about big government and home rule, city rule, not wanting to be dictated to by the state or the federal government. We don't need their dollars. We can do
it on our own. We have everything we need right here. And you know we do. You actually know we do. Don't gaslight us. So I'm asking everyone, not just six people, but everyone to do the right
thing and say, "No, we don't want your federal funding. you can keep it, but we're going to keep the programming we need here to support our most marginalized residents and then we're going to make up the difference with the
money we have in the house. Thank you. Our next speaker is John Martinez. Good morning. My name is John Martinez with the Regional Hispanic Contractors. We office in Councilman Nettles District.
If you told me a year ago that I would be here supporting this ordinance, I would not believe you. I spent this last year fighting in Austin and Houston similar type of ordinances.
Just a few weeks ago, we celebrated that we worked along with two highly paid lobbyists to fight that DACA students could pay
resident in Texas tuition. And we won. We went to the Austin club. We paid the lobbyists. We bought drinks. And we were so happy. Less than a week later, the Trump administration sued Texas. And guess what? Those DACA students now have
to pay out of state tuition, which means that if they go to Texas&M, that's $400 more an hour. Right? So, as a realist, I'm here today because last year in 2024, the city of
Fort Worth had over 300 million in grants. And while I'm not affected by the DACA students, we paid the lobbyists, we had the drinks at the Austin club, I do know that the enduser, those students are having to suffer and decide, am I going to be able to go&M
and get an education or I'm not. I do know that $300 million went to health services, went to housing, went to sidewalks, and went to streets. That may not affect me and probably won't affect you or many people in this audience.
But the people we'll affect are the people that may not have a voice. And my confidence is not in the MWB department. My confidence is that in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act passed, and yes, it is a law and the law supersedes executive
orders. But what the what happened then is we did not have a female mayor. We did not have a Hispanic city manager. In fact, most of you wouldn't have a voice here in this city hall. We did not have a Councilman Nettles who celebrates
black pride and black business as much as he celebrates Hispanic pride in Hispanic business. We did not have a Councilman Crane who celebrated the election of Carlos Fem. That's what we have now. So, my trust is
not in a department. My trust is the men and women who work at the city of Fort Worth that they're going to make sure that this community is reflected in the business that we do and more importantly in the services that we provide and that the RTA is here to help every step of
the way with our two full-time employees that we have in Fort Worth. Thank you, council. That's the conclusion of our speakers on this item. At this time, I'm gonna ask Dana Burgdoff to walk through a presentation related to this
resolution that I think is helpful to the public. Thank you, Miss Bergdoff. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Dana Bergdoff, assistant city manager. Uh, as we briefed you on last week, uh, the changing federal requirements are affecting federal grants. Recent US
Supreme Court decisions, executive orders, and directives from federal agencies prohibit the use of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, etc. as criteria for participation in programs and services.
Federal grant recipients, including the city, will be required to certify that we do not have such programs uh whether we're using federal funds for those programs or not. The city currently has active federal grants totaling $277 million across 10
different departments. Of that $40 million is in annual grant awards that fund about 120 city employees, including our civil rights staff, emergency management staff, and our neighborhood services staff and programs. Our neighborhood services
programs are mostly funded by HUD and include CDBG home and emergency shelter dollars that benefit thousands of low-income families and individuals in Fort Worth each year. If the city council decides to approve the resolution, then we will suspend our
MWBE programs and implement the small business development program that Jay shared with you. These were based on discussions with the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber and the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber. Our own Christina Brooks will take the lead in standing up the program, working with
the chambers of commerce, economic development, purchasing, and small business stakeholders to create a local small business preference program for city procurement and address the many challenges that small businesses have such as access to capital, bonding
assistance, and insurance. navigating our complex procurement systems and processes and unbundling large contracts to break them down to smaller scopes of work so that small businesses can be more competitive. Uh we will be able of course to luckily
to continue our civil rights enforcement including fair housing, fair employment, ADA and enforcing other disc uh discrim discriminatory behavior or acts within um as outlined within our human relations ordinance.
If the city decides not to approve the resolution, uh then the city would be subject to losing our existing federal funds and our ability to apply for future federal funds. Uh if the city staff were asked to sign federal grant agreements with any of the prohibited programs still in place, then we would
be subject to civil and criminal penalties under the fraudulent claims act and the city would be subject to trouble damages. In the near term, the vote on the resolution will impact our ability to submit our annual action plan to HUD that's due August 15th for our FY26 HUD
grant allocations totaling $13 million and funding 38 positions in our neighborhood services department. I did want to answer a question from Council Member Nettles that we also have on your agenda today an MNC to authorize a grant application to DOT uh for $1.2 2
million to help fund an ADA transition plan related to safe streets. We will be able to apply for that $1.2 million grant um regardless of the vote on the resolution. It's just that if the resolution is not passed, we would not be able to accept those funds.
Um if the vote is delayed, um that will impact our ability to move forward with our annual budget and bond program planning given the interplay between city dollars and and federal funds. So with that, happy to answer questions that I can or defer to our law
department or Jay. Thank you, Dana. Council, are there any questions at this time for for Dana Janette Martinez? Sorry. Okay, there we go. Um Dana, is there a future date that um where we could continue this uh resolution uh
without compromising any funding or you know impacting our deadlines for uh our annual budget? Not that I know of. Your next voting meeting is currently is set for August 12th. So if we have a special meeting in July, you know, just maybe two weeks
out, would that um be possible if we had a quorum? Yeah, certainly it's possible for the city council to call a special meeting. I don't know what that would do, you know, in terms of well to give um,
you know, stakeholders an opportunity to meet with Mrs. Brooks and also include small businesses such as Katrina and EJ that have spoken today to have uh their say in what the program would look like. Yes, we would definitely want to have those meetings. Okay. And I just have
one more question. If the city were to approve the resolution today or at a later date, would uh there still be an opportunity to join litigation against the federal government and and would that put our funding at risk? I'd need to defer to the law department
on any litigation questions. Leanne, so at this time the existing litigation that's out of King County in um California is we cannot join that. So we would need to bring our own lawsuit
here in our hierarchy of courts. But if we passed the resolution, would it impact would it affect the the funding that um would be coming to the city? I'm sorry. If you pass the resolution, then
it would free the city to be able to accept those funds. But I think what you're asking then is would it then prohibit us from joining litigation? I think the answer there would be no. Okay. Any other questions? Council Martinez. No. Council member Flores.
Thank you, Mayor. Uh Dana, one thing that we on council have heard already and I personally have heard from the uh uh black and Hispanic chambers on this point. think we all would like to see, you know, a fully baked plan when it comes
to small business and the development of that in order to build capacity, especially in geographic areas. So, with that said, I know that staff has given u direction to us, I guess, general direction to say yes, we would like to arrive at point, but we're not at that
point yet. So in your estimation, how long would that take to have a fully fleshed out plan with stakeholder input? Council member Flores, I believe Jay is going to answer your question. So, our intent, we we as Councilman uh
has brought up or as Dana mentioned, we've worked with with the Hispanic and Black Chamber to start off with to get their input and we put together a framework identifying those areas that they brought forward to us plus what city staff has in our economic
development department of what are the obstacles that are there, what type of structures are keeping small businesses to from being more successful. both with city contracts and just in generally in the in the community. We put together a framework of those ideas
or those issues that we want to um identify and work on. And what the intent is to move forward with a stakeholder group that would include all three chambers would include groups like John Martinez's group uh that represent small businesses as well as other small
businesses and the economic development department to put together a a more robust program that generally would be focused on small business support and capacity building. And it's not a program that can be put together in a
week or in a month. There's going to be several stakeholders with different ideas, areas that they'd like to address. We have to come together to identify those things. It's going to include departments of the city like the water department and transportation public works that have projects that can
be a hund00 million projects and how do you break those down to smaller potential projects? It's a pretty complicated um process and so the goal would be to have that put together in the next two months or so at least uh to get going on
it. And Jay, do you think it would be feasible to do so before the beginning of the next fiscal year? that that would be the goal would be it be be part of our budget and that we would actually have be able to put the resources behind that to move forward and work with the chambers so that they can potentially
help us be a multiplier and help us have that project and that program go forward. It's it's not a simple we can reach off the shelf. I think it's been brought up to utilize things like the SBA programs. Well, SBA
um designates a $50 million construction company as a small business. From my perspective, that's not a small business. I think the small small businesses in Fort Worth would say that's not a small business. So, we actually have to create a new program
and and actually identify what businesses would be qualified as small businesses by the type of business and then put that framework together. And so, you can't do that overnight. So, it is going to take uh some time. The goal would again no later than having it
ready to go by October 1st and have the council actually approve resources tied to that in our operating budget uh when they vote on that in September. So, that that's that's the intent. Thank you, Jay. Council Flores, any more questions? Not at this time. Thank you.
Council member Hall has got mic issues again. Yes. Do you have my Are you there? Thank you. Um, so I understand that I'm the freshman here and so I have just a couple of questions and I think you've just answered one of them. Um, what I hear my fellow councilman's it seems like we're asking
the same questions. Um, Councilman Martinez askked, "What is the absolute latest date? Should we propose a continuence that we could be afforded without any loss of funds? Do we have a specific date?" And I'm going to speak to that. Council member Hall.
Um, and surveying this council, finding a quorum in July is almost impossible. So, that answers your question. Our next voting meeting that's set on the calendars is August. So, are we not permitted to participate in these proceedings virtually? You can, but the chair has to be in this meeting, but the
date in which you could actually do so is up against a deadline. And there are two grants that we can talk about if that's helpful to you today. One in particular is the FAA grant. We already mentioned um the um HUD grant as well. So in your response, you're not saying you're not precluding us from having a
special meeting. You're just saying it would be difficult. I just am I'm being honest with the constituents that are here and maybe listening online that the likelihood of actually being able to execute a special call meeting within a threshold of time that would actually get to the achievement of the goal that we're trying to avoid losing federal funding is likely almost zero. Okay. So
what I hear is that it would be difficult to have a special meeting, but it is not procluded. And then the deadline that staff is um presenting to have um a way forward, if you will, would be October 1st would be your
hardfast deadline. Try it again. October 1st would be the goal to have the actual small business program in place. As far as as the a deadline for if you delayed the this vote, we are I
am required to bring forward an operating budget to the city council no later than August 15th. We are um we're supposed to get our TAD valuations at the end of July in order
to put this budget together and understand whether it's a yes, we're passing the resolution or a no. and the ramifications of the no side of the resolution and the interplay of federal funds with with local funds. We would
need a couple of three weeks to be able to put that together. So I I would suggest from an I think I sent an email out to the city council yesterday. Operationally, if you go too much past July 10th on a yes or no vote, it's going to be difficult to meet the deadlines to put
together the city's $2.6 6 billion budget and bring it forward to the city council. Um I guess also for clarification, when were we notified or when did we receive knowledge that we would have to make changes or certify
with regards to the response to the executive order? When we when did we first uh receive that notification? Well, I don't know that there's been a a direct notification. There was an executive order that was done in January. The question of whether or not
that executive order would even apply to communities was in question for couple of several months as we went forward. So when did we know that it would impact us? And we then we began to get um information from various departments
that they were going to start uh viewing the the the um uh grant certifications in the manner that they've now we know that they're going to go forward and those started coming in like in early May and so we
actually met with the city council in executive session in May to start having the discussions. Okay. So the runway began, I guess you would say, in May for us to perhaps start to explore or navigate
a path forward, what the options, what options we would have and which policy decision wise the city council would want to to move forward on. And to date, so far, we've been presented with the opportunity to work with the chambers to develop protections for small
businesses, but anything more robust or specific? Well, we don't have a the city does not have a specific small business just general small business program if that's the question. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for Dana, Council Member Peoples, and Council
Beck. So, I guess I'm even more concerned than I was before. Jay, when this first came up in May and Dana, we talked about putting together or looking at other programs and now we're sitting
here on June the 24th saying maybe we can get it done by October the 1st. A goal is that it's simply a goal. It's not a hard and fast deadline. So I am sitting here concerned now that what
happens if October 1st comes and we don't have a program together. I mean that frightens me because you're asking uh us on this council to look at disenfranchising members of the
community we serve and we're here talking about a goal that we may not be able to meet. And I know that when we talked about it in May, I know that we asked that we start looking at programs and appear it appears that nothing has
been done yet. So, so in response, we did look at programs and as I mentioned the programs that we looked at is what is available, what other cities doing. Those programs are wouldn't have an impact on what's
happening. That's why we need to needed to pivot to work forward with the group of the the stakeholders as we move forward to create a program that is specific to Fort Worth. And you can't do that in a matter of week or two weeks or three weeks. You're going to have we're
going to have to involve the the voices of the full community, all the stakeholders that are involved so we can get a a a program that is broader reaching, has an impact in the community. it the the last thing I wanted to do is
put together a cookie cutter program that would have that would do nothing at the end of the day and would not serve the community as an so it has to be well thought out and it has to be done in a manner that um the folks that are that
are most impacted have buy in and so that's our intent and again yes the goal is October 1st we're going to do everything we can my staff and myself to make sure that we have that done as as long as we get the the cooperation of stakeholders to get their input and we
can all work together. That's the intent. Any other questions? Council peoples. Council member Beck. Thank you. Um, I I'll have some remarks, but um before we
get to that, I just um I thought I was clear until we all started throwing out dates and now I'm trying to to sketch out a timeline. Um you threw out an August date. Remind me what that August date is for. Yeah, so
there two things. The one I when I mentioned it, it was with regard to submitting our annual action plan for our FY26 federal HUD funds totaling about 13 million. So that includes CDBG, HOME, ESG, and HOPA dollars. Um, and so that is the deadline is August 15th for
us to submit that annual grant action plan. Okay. And then Jay mentioned August as well uh with regard to our city charter and the requirement that he submit a budget to the city council by August 15th. Okay. And then uh you mentioned the uh FAA grant, correct? I
mentioned a uh DOT, sorry, I mentioned a DOT grant that um um is to apply for $1.2 million through their safe streets for all program to provide an update to our ADA transition plan. Okay, so that's grant application is actually due this
Thursday. Um, we initially thought we might not be able to apply for that grant given some of the assurances that have gone along with other grant applications, but in this case, we believe we can apply. We just wouldn't be able to accept the funds until the resolution is is approved. Okay. Are
there any funds that um we are currently uh waiting to accept for the um passage of this resolution? So, we've got other uh grants through for the environmental services department and the aviation
department that are federal grant funds. Uh in those cases, they're multi-year grants or at least a fiscal year grant. Um one of them, the grant period actually uh started June 1st, but there's some flexibility on when we can sign that grant agreement, but we
intended to do so um very soon, very quickly with the approval of the MNC on on your agenda. What is that flexibility? So, I don't have a good feel for that in terms of in terms of those those dates. Um, typically the federal agencies actually try to work with grantees to
help them, you know, not miss out on the federal funds that have been awarded. Um, at the same time they, you know, we typically respond within 30 days. Okay. So, we started June 1. We haven't signed those asurances on those pots of funds yet. Um, but both of those grants
started June 1st, correct? Well, sorry. I believe it's just one. It's a whole air air quality um monitoring grant. Yeah. Okay. So, we have there's others that then I believe start in August and September. I'm looking at Val. Yeah. Thank you, Val. Okay. And do we have um
flexibility in um in those asurances as well in the same way we have in the the two grants that are uh that we're currently receiving that we haven't signed those asurances for yet? I believe so. Okay. That's the questions I have right
now. I think councilwoman, if I if I can, we've never not signed the grant within the time period, the 30 days. So, we don't know what happens if you don't meet it. And with this administration, again, we don't know, we've never not
met the the requirements of the of the grant when we get the award. So, question is, we don't know. I mean, your question, your question is a great a great question. And it's been hard to answer because we've been getting those questions from council members. They they could choose not to award it
because we didn't sign within the date. Well, they've already awarded it, correct? Because the actual funds, but we haven't signed we haven't certified it, right? But have we received actual dollars yet? No. No. Okay. So, we're waiting for that assurance to receive actual dollars. We have to sign the grant agreement in order to receive the
dollars. Okay. But we have flexibility in the time period in which we can sign that agreement is what I'm hearing. And what just so I'm don't know that there's explicit guidance on that um the EPA or typically we sign it within 30 days has been typically and we the 30 days is
coming up. We may have more time but we don't know what happens if we don't. Okay. Yeah. Just to clarify I know staff was working with TCQ to see if we could get an extension but that's something that's in the works. Why um can I ask why TCEQ for the
extension if it's a state agency and not because this is federal funding? Um we were working through them to receive the federal funding. It's a pass through through them to the city of Fort Worth similar to our DOT funds that flow through TexOT for the aviation grants.
So all those aviation dollars are federal but they flow through Texot and we enter into agreements with Texot. Okay, I think those are all the questions um that I have right now. Council member Crane. Yeah, thank you. Uh Jay, I think there's a little consteration. I can feel it from the
crowd and maybe the dis of talking about small back to small businesses. Um that we're trying to throw a program together very quickly and maybe not. But I want to point out that there's been b work being done for the last three plus years on small businesses, working with the Hispanic chamber, black chamber, etc.
There's still some new parameters. it sounds like it needs to be put around it. I mean, those efforts have sort of languished, but we put resources in economic development and other places. Um, but I do agree that there needs to be a more robust conversation about what that looks like that might help with some of that constrnation. And then I
have a question for you. Um, because I I think there's confusion with this move. If this motion goes forward and passes, will all MWB programs be eliminated at the city of Fort Worth? Suspended. They'd be suspended. Yes. to send it even some federal pieces that
are well the city does receive so the state when we get a state grant the state does require hub so the city would still be um required to do the hub program which is ironic right because we'd have to
suspend ours still has the hub program and then federal funds still require a DBE program which we would also be responsible to carry forward again that's ironic but there There is a current lawsuit between the
attorney general at the national level and the DOT at the national level for one suing the other to remove those under the same uh parameters that we're currently having to deal with now. So the the fact of the matter is that it
probably won't be uh a few months before there won't be those programs at the federal or state level as well. Thanks for the clarification. Any other questions from staff? Council member Flores do have one point of clarification. And I think I know what uh you meant when you responded to
Council Member Crane's question, Jay, but um it was my understanding that, you know, this resolution also uh instructs or recommends that responsibilities for
civil rights enforcement and other functions of diversity and inclusion that are compliant, you know, with federal law. uh would be uh assumed by other departments. Is that correct? Correct. Actually, the same. So, if the
the council passes the resolution, the city would continue to receive grant funds and among those grant funds are grant funds that we use utilize to run a civil rights piece associated with employment and ADA
fair housing and fair housing. So that staff would still be u doing that work to go forward. So though if we if the council chooses not to pass the resolution, those grants would go away and then we would have to decide whether
or not the city council ultimately under policy whether or not funds need should go forward to continue those programs. And that's what I that's what I mean by a decision today as far as putting together the city's budget is we'd have to analyze the interplay between federal
funds and city funds and determine where the city would have to step in or should step in to different areas of all the work the city does overall and determine what gets funded, what doesn't get funded, how does that impact the tax rate, all those kind of things is not
something that you do in in a week. um for the size of our organization. So from a process standpoint, making a decision today does help that can like I said maybe two weeks out would be the
the the most time that we would have in order to do a good job in putting together ultimately the budget to understand whether we are going to accept grant funds or we're not going to accept grant funds. Bare minimum, but I want to put words in your mouth.
two weeks out possibly is what you just said. Right. Right. That that would be what I would say we would need at least that month to be able to uh understand what the impacts are from the ultimate decision. The indecision is what creates
not having a decision is what creates a difficulty there. And to and to punctuate the point further on civil rights because I think it's important. You know, I've tried to take in all the comments said, we're not abandoning civil rights enforcement because I mean that's federal law. We're not doing
that. That's correct. And we have the HRC ordinance. Uh the city's HRC ordinance is still in place. So that does not there's no impact to that. Any other questions? Council Flores, Council Member Peoples. Again, I get more and more concerned. We
just talked about, you talked about ADA and civil rights. So, should we choose this council pass this today, and this is just a statement, there is no guarantee that they're not going to come after ADA and civil rights. And when we
set a precedent that we cave in the first time, then we are vulnerable to everything that the federal government pushes at us. And that's just a comment. Council, are there any other questions for Dana or for Jay? Council Nettles.
All right, let me in. Let me get in here if I have a couple of questions for uh Dana. Um, so what I what I heard today um is that there is really no true deadline on us to vote up or down uh
other than what Jay just initiated which is the two weeks and um we have talked about uh small business um department and one of the issues I have with the small business before I go to the next thing
is when you eliminate a program today and you don't have a program in place today to uh mitigate that then we're doing oursel injustice. Now I have a question because what we haven't talked
about is uh options. You presented a presentation uh last week and you didn't talk about th that that presentation into its entirety. We can fund uh these departments and 120 jobs if we
raise the tax rate 19 cents. Correct. Okay. I don't think nobody is going to muster to raise the tax rate 19 cents. But if we decided to as a council, we can fund every single $200 million in our city budget by raising the tax rate
19 cents. One point of clarification, council, just to be sure though, we were capped at the state level of a three and a half% increase. So, we actually have to go to voters to go to that large of a property tax increase. I just want to make that point of clarification. Yeah, I'm clear on that. But I guess that was for uh the residents. Uh but I'm the
clarification that I'm making is that we have the ability to make up the dollars in another uh facet. I'm not advocating for 19 cents. Uh the other thing I want to ask a question is that not only will
we eliminate able to give money to minorities such as the black chamber and Hispanic chamber, but as it relates to our 15% in our economic development. Can you talk can you uh answer that question? Talk to we will be eliminated the 15% of economic development goes
towards our minority businesses. Yes, you're correct. So if we if the resolution is passed then we would suspend the requirement within our tax abatement policy and our chapter 380 agreement policy with regard to requiring minority and womenowned
business enterprise participation to receive economic development incentives. Uh, I did want to mention that with regard to contracts with the chambers, uh, we are able to still contract with the Fort Worth Metropolitan uh, Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce um, in order to provide uh, programs that benefit small businesses just as long as they're not limited or use criteria that are related to race, ethnicity, gender, and so on. Well, and I don't know,
we won't get into that, but just on its face, Black Chamber. Yeah, I understand. But but the name the name isn't an issue in our mind. But we won't talk about their boss by bylaws, but I can only imagine that it
it specifies to make sure that they have equity and equality that black businesses uh they present to the city of Fort Worth opportunities. Uh I do see our diversity inclusion uh here and I have some questions about our bonding
because this is the other issue um that I've asked the city and the from day one Mia Hall uh when we were presented this in May I asked this question and to today still have not received uh an
answer and so I have a question for Christina Brooks as it relates to uh bonding and insurance Because as Jay alluded to, uh different projects such as the water department um development services have projects over a million
dollars uh that we do RFPs out uh but when we eliminate the 15% uh our small businesses will not have the opportunity to meet that threshold. Can you talk to me about the bonding requirements and the insurance requirements for general contractors to
get work here in Fort Worth? Yes. Um so uh thank you mayor and councel. Uh the bonding requirements are different based on the type of work that's being done and typically those are not uh set by uh set the local level. Those uh are a part
of Texas local government code. Um and so those vary there's no, you know, set amount. It just depends on the work that's being done uh and the applicable uh Texas code. uh usually um identifies
the amount that's required for the work. Um and those bonding requirements are typically in place uh to protect uh city taxpayer dollars uh that are going towards that work to ensure that if something goes wrong, uh taxpayers uh
are covered and that work can um either be uh remediated or uh you can replace a contractor. um and uh the work can be completed. Has it been hard for black and brown
minorities to reach the reach the threshold for the bonding requirements? Um yes. So for those uh small businesses that start out working on small dollar contracts, uh typically uh the way that
you reach high dollar bonding capacity is that you build that over time. uh working on different projects uh with higher levels of cost involved. And um the most successful uh companies that
bond usually stick with a particular agency um where they're working with them one-on-one to help build their bonding capacity by understanding which jobs they uh can make a profit on, which jobs that they should take based on
their own business capacity uh to complete those jobs. And then over time uh those companies that they work with uh bonding and insurance companies help them uh increase their capacity so that they can reach um higher levels of
bonding capacity just based on the work that they've completed. Um what we found is that um sometimes some of our small businesses um don't work with the same insurance or bonding companies. um they uh can shift
based on price. Um and because of that uh they typically lack building the relationships to help them achieve a higher bonding capacity. Uh so that's one of the areas that um we have been working with uh the chambers uh over
time and some of our other um business equity partners uh to help them understand that it's important to kind of stick with uh a company that's going to help you grow your bonding capacity. sit down with you, look over some of the
jobs that you may be uh reviewing um to take on and make sure that there is something that that's going to help you grow. We cannot control um the bunding insurance at the
individual level uh such as companies that want to do economic development. I think that's what you stated. Is that correct? because the state sets that right for for certain requirements that's something that's set at the state level but for our departments and city
local government we can set that it it that varies I'm I'm going to defer to uh some of our um legal uh experts so I don't think uh that um in some cases
based we have ordinance that that says what the bonding levels are for our water department and development services. Is that correct? And those are usually um uh grounded in what is um at
the Texas state level and federal in in some cases. I think Doug just walked in and he can answer some of these questions. There's Doug Black. Come on down, Doug. Chris, if you don't mind repeating your question, he may not have caught the
whole thing. walked in late. So, um, welcome to the den. Thank you. Um, we're talking about bonding and insurance. And so, uh, when we have our economic, uh, incentives programs, we
have 15% that we require those businesses to have uh, diverse DEI or minority opportunities. Uh, we can't set th their goals or their abundant insurance. But my question is for our departments that also do uh services,
can we redetermine those bonding and insurance requirements? So Doug, the question is on if so I think your I think your question is apart from the economic development incentive program, if it's just a regular public works construction project, how do we determine that
bonding requirement in in state law? Right. Doug Black Law Department. The bonds bonding requirement for performance bonds and payment bonds are set by the government code. So if we issue a contract with a value of $25,000
or more, the city by the code requires a contractor to put up a payment bond that protects the city. Which means if a vendor, a subcontractor is not paid or not timely paid, they can make a claim
on that payment bond and instead of us paying off that claim, it would go to the bonding agent, the bonding company, and it would be between the bonding company and the contractor to pay that subcontractor. The value goes up to $100,000
for a performance bond. What that does is protects the city. If the vendor sorry the contractor after execution of the contract fails to perform then we can seek um remediation from the shity
to come in and finish the performance of the contract. So it's a protection for us. Those two bonds are statutory. So it looks like our hands are tied to a certain extent as well. And so that would means that when we take the 15%
away for minority opportunities, um then they will lose dramatically because they won't be able to reach the reach the threshold of being able to uh qualify for the funding and the insurance. And that's what my concern is today and that's why it's so important
that we continue the 15%. Uh my last question uh during this dialogue um is how what is our pay schedule? That was also in my email I sent. Is it 30 days, 90 days, or 120 days that we pay our contractors?
We follow the Texas Prompt payment act in the government code and we're to pay within 30 days. Okay. And I'll to append that a contractor is to pay within 10 days of receiving the payment from us. So to pay their subs, they have an
additional 10 days after they receive the payment from us. Any other questions? Council Nettles. Council Larsdorf. Uh thank you, Mayor. Uh just had a follow- on question um for Miss Brooks or for Miss Burgdoff. Sorry, Miss Brooks. Um
if we were to vote uh to pass this resolution today, is there anything that precludes um there whether it's this new small business development group or anyone else uh in the city from being able to still assist those businesses with those bonding um issues that they're having or would we no longer be
able to help at all? So just want to clarify and I want to clarify related to council member Nettle's comment. So the 15% requirement for our economic development incentive policies, all of those businesses, those business equity businesses, black and brown owned businesses, still had to meet all the
bonding and insurance requirements required under state law. So if that goes away, those same businesses still have to meet those bonding and insurance requirements if they're contracted with whether through the city or not. So I just want to make that clear. No, if I understand what Doug was just
saying, if it's over $100,000, they have to have both a payment bond and a performance bond. That's not what I understood. For for a general contractor. A general contract. That's what Nettles is. Correct. Yeah. For a general contractor, they have If they're not Oh, I see. If you're saying
if they're a sub, not a general, I'm sorry. And that's normally what the 15% does is they come in as a subcontractor because they cannot meet the general contracting bonding and insurance. And that's why the 15% is so important. Thank you. I'm sorry. You're welcome.
So, but back to your question about the um could we if the resolution you're saying it was approved? Correct. If it was approved, could we still assist the small businesses with any issues or hurdles that they're facing? Well, that's the what Jay's proposing is that we that's what I gathered. I just want
to make sure that that is the case that we can still do those things we're doing. It would just be a program that's not based that does not have the the restrictions currently on race, ethnicity, or Right. Okay. And and to to your other point too, the city will still be allowed and still be encouraged
uh to still hire small businesses for those contracts and subcontracts uh whether they're minority owned, womenowned, veteranowned, etc. Correct. That's the that's one of that's the proposal is that we bring forward a local small business preference for our local procurement. That's an ordinance
that the city council passes. Got it. Okay, that's what I thought. So, just make sure. Thank you, Jay. If the council were to amend the resolution that's currently proposed to include a specific date, certain which we need to see a full robust um
participation plan from all the chambers and probably with everybody um say by October 1st in the resolution. Would city staff have opposition to that? No. Thank you. Um my next question is actually for Leanne Guzman or any assist
you would need. Um we haven't spent a lot of time today talking about both the Harvard Supreme Court case that pertains to NBE work um and the subsequent Nazard case that was a Texas case that also impacts NWBE separate and apart from any executive order. Do you mind speaking to that briefly?
Yes. part of Dana's presentation, she mentioned the Supreme Court cases, and that's what that's referencing is the the case that the Supreme Court decided um I believe it was in 2024 uh that related to uh race-based admissions at
Harvard. Uh that was related to that issue. However, we've had a local court that has extended that to government minority contracting programs and so it does cause some concern for those programs uh going forward in terms of
whether or not they would be considered compliant or not. And do you mind also speaking to the Department of Justice memo from the Attorney General Bondi regarding criminal and civil liability for individual staff members? Sure. Yes. So, uh, the DOJ will be standing up a
dedicated, um, attorney in each of their district offices. Our closest one is in Dallas that would cover our area. And an attorney in each one of those offices will be dedicated to examining the jurisdictions in that district to see if they are complying with all of the rules
that we've talked about uh, today. So, um if if they find that there has not been compliance, then uh individuals who signed um any of the grant agreements that um if we did sign those and we did not have what they consider to be
compliance with their requirements, the individuals who signed that would be could potentially be prosecuted under the False Claims Act and that is both criminal and civil penalties for the individual. Um, additionally, the uh the
city itself as an entity could um also be sued and um Dana mentioned that also it could be treble damages for the grants that are at stake. So, we would be looking at triple triple damages.
I appreciate that, Lean. I think that's one point that is unique in this situation that you'd be asking city management staff um to certify grant agreements they'd be criminally or civily liable um based on what's been said today. So I appreciate you pointing that out. Are there any other questions
for Dana at this time? Okay, we're going to take a fivem minute recess so some of us can go to the restroom and then we'll come right back. So five minutes and be right back. He came up here and he goes, "You guys are cops. Okay, we're going to get started.
Council, thank you for the break. That was much needed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, council. I think at this Excuse me. I think at this time, excuse me. I think at this time if there are no
more questions for city staff. Um there of course is a resolution on the floor. Um but at this time I'm happy to take comments or questions, additional questions from council members. Um if you'll just cue when you're ready and I'll call on you. Council Nettles, were
you wanting to go up first? No, I think it was just already on. Okay. Any comments from council? Okay, Council Member Peoples. So, from the very beginning, uh, I have expressed my angst at this whole process. And so
I'm going to start by quoting not a civil rights leader, but I'm going to quote a German Lutheran minister who said, "First they came for the socialist, and I did not speak out
because I was not a socialist. And then they came for the trade unionist, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews. And of course, I did not speak out because I
was not a Jew. And then they came for me. And there was no one left to speak for me. So today, I feel like I have to speak out for those
who cannot speak out. I am not a small business person. I am not a contractor. I don't have applied for any grants with the city, but today I know in my heart,
mayor and council, we cannot fold to an administration determined to eliminate and eradicate the contributions of Americans that I represent. And so I have to tell you that using the facade
of leadership to undermine and dismantle diversity and equity efforts is something I cannot and will not be a part of. Today and starting in May, we have been bombarded with data looking at
financial constraints and criminal liability. It's something called FUD. If you create fear and uncertainty and doubt, you can get people to go along with you. But the reality is the choice
to cut DEI reflects what leadership values least. If we really believe that diversity and equity are the lifeblood of our city,
then we ought not be sitting here voting to capitulate to an administration that is determined to destroy it. We ought to be doing a resolution, finding ways to uphold it. Our city has really great
lawyers. Let's sue the Trump administration to have the executive order declared unconstitutional. Council Mayor Martinez. Thank you, Mayor. So, we all know this is a decision that none of us wants to
make. Um, I do want to say that I am in favor of a continuence if possible to uh provide a more robust presentation that would include feedback from our minority and small businesses uh and additionally our uh chambers of commerce. I believe
that together we can create a new program and expanded program to assist and build up existing and new small businesses. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm passionate about constituent and social services. I cannot with a good conscience vote against a resolution that would impact our most
vulnerable residents. A vote that would eliminate funding that would cut social services that include utility assistance, rental assistance, and emergency assistance to name a few. Vulnerable residents that include lowincome seniors and veterans, a vote
that would impact 120 staff that would gut our neighborhood services department. City employees who I believe are our most valuable asset. And so those are my remarks. Thank you, Council Martinez. Council member Rahal. Try it again. Are you there? Okay. Thank
you, Mayor. Um, so it's it's not a shock. Um, this resolution gives me pause for many reasons. On one hand, I definitely understand the law and the need to ensure that we as a city are always in compliance. However, I think whenever we seek to change a policy, a
city ordinance, restructure or reimagine the way in which we do business as the city of Fort Worth, we must remain vigilant, thoughtful, and ensure that we have crossed all our tees and dotted every eye. I believe that this resolution is flawed um and that we have no clear or detailed plan as to how we
will move forward. And being honest, we haven't done our due diligence, I believe, um here as a city. So, please understand and I want to be clear that this vote, at least for me, is not about non-compliance with the law. It's about how uh we determine how to strategically
move forward in compliance and ensure that nothing falls in the cracks. So for instance, if this vote uh was successful today, if this resolution was to pass, how do we ensure that our internal practices are reflective of our
commitment to embracing all stakeholders? How will we ensure that the important work that's been performed by our city's diversity and inclusion office isn't washed away, but rather embraced in ways to help that will help our city continue
to thrive? While existing tools such as the local preference ordinance and support for historically underutilized and disadvantaged business enterprises have been referenced in the res in this resolution. What is our articulated framework to show how these tools will
function without our current program infrastructure? I am not expecting for staff to address these concerns during this council meeting. However, these questions are reflective of just a small fraction of my many concerns. We cannot afford nor
should we be asked to make decisions blindly. And to be frank, this is exactly what we are doing by considering this resolution today. Compliance and equity are not mutually exclusive and we should not feel compelled as a council
to choose one at the expense of another. Equity is not just a value. It is our responsibility. It is a responsibility as city leaders that we must take seriously. And to be very clear, I do not believe that DI is a political talking point. It's about making sure that those who have historically been
overlooked are given an opportunity to have access and be a part of the process. So with that, I would like to support a continuence to this resolution because I strongly believe that we need to full need a fully articulated plan on
how we will move forward. Moving forward in a way that will benefit all Fort Worth residents, businesses, our staff, and the city as a whole. And before suspending existing initiatives, we must ensure that alternatives are clearly developed, publicly shared, and grounded
in measurable outcomes. Taking this pause or continuence is not a delay. It is a demonstration of our diligence, and it is doing best by those who have elected us to represent them and make informed decisions on their behalf. Those are my remarks.
Council member Beck. Thank you, mayor. Um, I'd first like to start off by thanking all of the staff that has been part of this process from our legal team all the way down to our department directors and those individual staff members that are currently concerned
about the status of their job um pending this vote. Thank you for your um your diligence on this and uh your commitment to the city. Uh thank you, Leanne. I know through um numerous conversations
that the two of us have had um legally I fully understand the corner that we're being backed into and not just us here on council uh but yourself, those department directors that are now um put
in peril for doing their job for signing a document. Um that's unprecedented for us to do that and um I don't take lightly what we do today on this vote either way. Um we
hurt people and um thank you for your work on this. It is um truly appreciated. And for those of y'all that have spoke today, um I hear your frustration, your your consternation. Um
and I'm asking um you to um take my word um that I trust that our city attorney has um really done her due diligence to try to find um a legal way for us to maintain these programs and still be
compliant with the law. Um unfortunately I don't think we were able to get to that to that um position. So now we are left with a horrible horrible horrible decision and that is
to jeopardize millions of dollars in federal funding or jeopardize our moral values. And uh no one should ever be put in that position. not an individual, not a body like this,
and certainly not a community. Um, I want to talk for a minute on why I think W uh MBE is important to our city. Um, I have heard members on this DAS with me say things like, well, they
don't have uh a group for white guys. Why don't they have a program for white guys? The city is 175 years old. We just celebrated our birthday and you heard last week that for the first time in 175
years we have a majority uh female city council. It took 175 years for us to have an equal number of women on this dis as we do in our community. And we still don't have an equal number of minority members on this dis as we do in our community. That's because of
something called disparity. There is disparity in our community. So, why don't we have those lists for white guys? Why don't we have those special programs for white men like we do for our brown and our black communities and
our women? And I'd like to use the Fort Worth Club as an example. As you look on this dis and you look at the members that look like me, almost every one of them is a member of the Fort Worth Club. And any of you that have ever gone to lunch or breakfast at
the Fort Worth Club know that you can't walk into that building without meeting a handful of people who do business with the city. You run into the city manager, you run into the mayor, you run into council members. So much informal business is done in
rooms like that. And until recently, very recently, the majority of this council couldn't be a member of that club because we were women. And you go back not too long further than that and other members on this dis were not able to be members of that club
because they weren't white. For generations we excluded women and minorities from a place that we know business happens. No one on this dis. the members of the
Fort Worth Club on this das didn't create that right and your membership in the Fort Worth club doesn't mean that you necessarily support that you're doing you on behalf of you know you're living your life you're interacting with your networks
but that is such a great living example of why we need programs like this because for disadvantaged businesses they don't have those rooms like the Fort Worth Club They have historically been excluded from rooms like that and
programs like this help equalize that and they give you that opportunity to have that foot in the door when maybe you don't have access to all of those rooms. WMBBE isn't just important because
of economics. It's important because it's who we are as a city. The city of Fort Worth was the first community in Texas to have a human relations ordinance. And that's something that I know we are all so incredibly proud of
because who we are in Fort Worth is a welcoming community where y'all means all. We have to create systems that uplift everyone. If west of 35 is doing fabulous and east of 35 isn't, our city
is failing. And so until we have systems in place where everyone has equal access, it's incumbent upon leaders to make sure that we are doing our part to ensure that everyone in this city has opportunity. And the truth is is that
that opportunity is stacked differently for people. And it's our job to make sure that we remove those barriers. When we took the redistricting vote, we heard the mayor talk about partisanship and how much she heard that on the dis and she was right. She did. This is a
non-partisan body. We are all elected not as members of a political party but as your uh your council representative. But we don't operate on this dis in a vacuum. And the truth is is that this is a partisan
world. And this vote today, more so than any vote that I think we have had the opportunity to take, is partisan. The vote that we are taking today did not happen and will not happen on June 24th
or some date in the future. It happened back in November. We are now being forced to make a decision and that decision is to hurt people or to hurt people and that's a
decision that I cannot um stomach. Right now we have what I believe is concepts of a plan and not a plan. I understand the position that we're in.
It is a hard position, but it is our opportunity to show the world what Fort Worth is made of. And in Fort Worth, we are fighters. And in Fort Worth, we do what is right. And so, while we have
been backed into this corner, that doesn't mean that we acquies. It means we get creative. It means we work hard. And Mr. Chapa, you've asked this DAS to make an incredibly difficult decision.
My ask of you is to ask staff to do some incredibly difficult work because the truth is is that if we're going to get through this as a community, we don't wrestle with it just here at the dis, but our city staff is going to have to put in some e some extra hours and get
creative to make this work. Uh, justice is never given. It's always fought for. And it's our job to fight for justice. Now, it's why I want to support a continuence
because I think right now we have to make sure that we have robust programs in place that meet the letter of the law, but allow us to continue to support
our brown and black communities, to continue to do the work to uplift everybody in this community. This is our opportunity to show that we can evolve and that we can fight for our residents. It's what we do here. We fight for our
neighborhoods. Whether it's zoning changes, fighting concrete batch plants, fighting ISDs that are looking to split. We have a history of fighting and I think it's our time to fight now. And I think we fight for our communities. We do that by making sure um we have
programs in place, ones that we can be proud of to supplement what um what the federal government is attempting to take away from us. Thank you, Council Member Flores.
Thank you, Mayor. I agree, I think, with the uh with everyone here on the DAS. This is not a uh easy decision to weigh in on. Um there are certainly things outside of
the control of us here locally. You know, preeemption does present its challenges. You know, we are required to follow federal law whether we disagree with it on a personal basis or not. However, I don't like it one bit. But
there's more at stake than mere politics. And that's where I think the disagreements occur because all of us are different. All of us come from different perspectives. Um, as a council member who considers what the impacts are to his district and
to the city, we look at these things critically. Staff did provide each of the council members with a impact, a financial impact to each of their districts. Mine is in there. Of course, there is an impact and it's measurable.
uh here on the dis there are others who have greater impacts financial impacts to their districts. I'm going to let them you know shoulder you know those considerations. You know that's our charge. Um I'm hearing a couple of
things here. One I hear that there is maybe a desire to consider a continuence. You know, we've heard two weeks given I think in response to Jay's question about having time to maybe put together a framework, but I want to be clear because I think that maybe there's
some completion going on. A framework for is a framework. It's not a completed plan because there are two things at play. But we've heard later and Jay spoke to it and said he needed until or needed about two months time to fully develop a program that works with our
chambers of commerce so that we can find a different way forward to fund these if not federal money. This is where I agree with a lot of you. We have to plot a new way. What is that way? Right here we don't have that plan and it's going to
take time to create. So, I think that's an important distinction. If we continue it, we're also, and this gets into the administrative parts of this, uh, in July, many of us are going to be traveling. I'm going to be traveling, too. I have two trips, you
know, planned. Um, I'm not sure, you know, what my availability is because I don't know when that continuence would possibly be. I want to emphasize again that and I'm
not a lawyer, but our MWBE program is vulnerable because of Supreme Court decisions made. They basically rule that the administration can add additional requirements, you know, to these
programs. Those are the facts. Whether we like them or not doesn't change the facts. During a work session, Jay Chapa mentioned that he expects there to be minimal impacts to employees if his recommendations are followed. He doesn't
want to expose those employees to legal actions. Councilwoman Beck said the same. We none of us do. Right. That's that's a terrible position to be put in. I don't like it and and it's not it's not right. With nearly $300 million at stake, you
can't turn away from that. There is a price. Who pays for that price? Our residents do. Think about that. Include me in that as well. I have a family budget to balance.
Raising taxes is a terrible idea and it's not feasible. I want to be creative. In my profession, that's what we endeavor to do. Innovation, that's what engineers do. But it takes
time to arrive at those innovative plans. And right now I agree we don't have that plan. At best maybe in two weeks time we might have a framework. But then and I can phrase this as a question where does that get us then?
You know what's the way forward? Um, another thing that I can phrase if if not July, u in these discussions, we've even considered going to August, but that puts in jeopardy more potential federal funding. And we just can't go
looking around different budgets that are specifically allocated for purposes and say we have available money to tap. That's not legal. Can't do it. So, federal grants support projects.
Yes, they do. And they also assist people. At the end of this equation, people are affected. I can't in good conscience consider putting politics above people.
How can we do that just because some may not agree with the current administration? Is that a reason? And that becomes a personal question again whether you agree with me or not. I do agree that our council needs to
have a a better development of that business plan later and that's going to take two months time. Is that correct, Jay? And I agree that our Hispanic black chamber and even our regular chamber need to be involved in this because it's important for them to give us the input
to find a way forward. Two months time to do that and again I'll put it out there in the form of a question because I am still trying to weigh the benefits of possibly continuing to
July. We have an administrative issue. Most of us are not going to be available. I believe I don't know if that's accurate. I haven't pulled each and every council member. I know the mayor said she's not going to be available. There we go. Is that um we can't leave
it nebulous if we were to vote on a continuence. So, the best thing to do would actually be to put a continuance specific to August 5th, which is our first date back that's already on the calendar for the council agenda. So that gives you a specific date to vote on a continuence. I understand. Thank you.
So again, what we need to do is this just however way we vote, we need to put above us people and the impacts to people and not politics. Those are my comments. Thank you, Mayor. So first, uh I do want
to address Councilwoman Beck. I do not have a for um club membership. I'm a small business owner and I cannot afford it. So, just put that on record out there, but I I would love to. They have really good salad. I'm not going to lie, but I simply can't afford it. Um as I
look over at our um our our staff, our city staff, um when I see the the leader of our city or our city manager, Jay Chapa, um the first Hispanic city manager, I look over at assistant city managers, I see diversity. I look over into our departments, I see diversity. Um, I think we're doing the right things
when it comes to diversity and city leadership. Um, I said this at work session. I don't think that we need an ordinance to tell us to I don't think we need an ordinance to tell us to do the right things. I think that we will continue to see the city move forward and still give small business small businesses opportunities they deserve. I think with this new program that that
Jay's going to uh to to to oversee the building of I think they're going to do a great job in ensuring that those businesses that did have hurdles um before that they'll continue to get the help they need to overcome those hurdles. Um, I have faith in our city staff. As I look over there, I don't see 80 old white men that everyone thinks
are going to do all these bad things in our city. I don't see it. Um, maybe I'm more optimistic. Uh, but I see a city staff that will continue to do great things for our city because it's the right thing to do, not because there's an ordinance that says we have to. Um, I also heard a lot of words about bold
decisions, courage, values, um, uh, voices, sound decisions. I heard someone mention writing a check that our actions can't cash. sound great, but they don't pay for the programs that we need in the city that we otherwise could not afford or we'd have to gut other programs to be
able to afford them. I heard Councilman uh Nettles mention, you know, the the residents sound to me like he he assumed the residents would be okay with that additional tax increase, but he wouldn't support it. Well, it sounds to me there's a lot of you want your cake and eat it, too, and you want the taxpayers
to fund it somehow. I heard we had like $40 million under a big toe. I don't know what big toe that is, but every budget cycle it seems like we're always trying to find ways to cut back so we don't have to raise the taxes. Although our city is growing and growing and growing, but yet we still have to pay for those essential city services while
we still have these amazing feel-good programs that we want to continue to fund. And quite honestly, we won't be able to do that without that federal funding. So, we can certainly cut that federal funding and say, "Hey, big uh big f you to the bad orange man in DC." But guess who that's going to hurt? the
very people that these dollars are actually going to help. So unless, you know, if we all vote no on this, I'd love to see a collection plate go around and maybe Councilman Nettles can help us with that and we can all collect the $240 million that we're going to need to help pay for these programs.
No one is going to walk away from here doing cartwheels and high-fives no matter how we vote because this is one of those very difficult decisions that we have to make, especially as a council. And this isn't a decision based on on values or courage or any of the other feel-good words. This to me comes down to fiscal responsibility. And
unless somebody else is willing to cut a check right now to the city of Fort Worth for $240 million or whatever it is, then I don't really see any other way around it. I'm certainly not going to ask any of our city staff who does amazing things to put their their lives on the line and, you know, be subject to criminal and civil penalties. That's
certainly not fair. I' I'd quit in a heartbeat if I were them if we asked them to do that. Um, I certainly don't recommend uh or support kicking the can down the road any further because quite frankly our backs are against the wall on this one. We may not like what the federal government's doing. We may not like the mandates. I know I certainly
don't like when the state tells us what to do. I don't like when the federal government tells us what to do. However, whenever that's whenever they have a $240 million check attached to it, if it's going to help the residents of Fort Worth, I'll swallow my pride and I'll accept that that that help. I again I think our city staff will continue to do
great things for for for our small businesses, all small businesses. Um I think they're going to continue to do great things to make sure that our workforce stays diverse. I don't think they're going to undo it just because of you know any decisions we have to make here today. So you know once again let's be honest the districts that are going
to be proportionately affected by most by this are the very district saying they're not going to support it. So I ask where's that money going to come from? And to say hey staff go figure it out. $240 million I think that's disingenuous. I think it's simply um virtue signaling at its best. And I
don't think that's leadership. I do not think that's leadership. Um I heard about fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Well, you know, I fear that we will not receive that money from the federal government. And I have no doubt that they will not give it if we do not uh confirm these rules in four years. Who
knows? The tides of uh the politics may change. It may undo everything and we can do something else at that point. But until then, I don't think that we have a choice. Council member Peoples. So, can't speak from the audience. Thank you. Those were brave words. And let me
tell you, I've been black 73 years, and if the Lord lets me live, I'm going to be black the rest of my life. I have had to do without and find money when money wasn't available. And so, I know what the impact to my district could be. But
I also know that the people that I represent are sitting out here in this audience today and they want me to fight for them and that's why I'm voting no against uh doing away with DEI and not and so trust me uh I understand
economics. I worked as a vice president for a company for 35 years. I understand budgets, but I also understand that as a person of color and a woman in America, I can't give in to a bully who is determined to scare us to death. Because
if we vote to take it away today, what is he going to ask us to take away tomorrow? Council member Hall, you know, I you know, as I sat here, I know that there were perhaps I'm a hopeless optimist um in the fact that I was hoping that this wasn't going to be
about partisanship because I really do think that this discussion was very centered on doing what's best for um our communities. um the words that you shared uh Councilman um with regards to knowing that our staff and being confident that they would do the right
thing. I guess my question for you would be do you have any data in which to rely upon in your assertions? How much money have we spent as a city with regards to MWBE? Can you can you talk about any trends to ensure that there's a
confidence that you have? Can you support that? Because that would be my question. We're not talking about partisan politics. We're talking about ensuring that we are going to provide solutions and programmings for our forward worthy so they can continue to participate and have access. And so
that's a great speech that you made and I don't typically criticize other people's commentary, but I think that it needs to be based in data and without that data, it's just political fodder. Honestly,
any other council members that have questions or commentary related to the resolution that's currently on the agenda? Council Nettles 1965, President Johnson
set an order to establish diversity inclusion DEI. It has been an issue since then. And I too, you can look at me. I'm not white. I'm not a white man, not a white
woman. I'm black. And everything that I have had uh receive, I had to either fight for it, my ancestors had to die for it, or I had to stand for it. I am a business
owner and I have been a business owner for over 15 years working in this community working in the city of Fort Worth. This vote, as I have said on multiple channels, I'm very outspoken about my
decisions that is bigger than just people. It's about a way of life. And we know that this administration that was elected in November came with a
vindictive mindset and that was to destroy everything that has been built for centuries before. And since day one, we're we're only six months in. And let me remind you, he did
not come in on January 1st. He came in on January 20th. And it's only the 24th. We're barely six months in in four days and we're having to vote to dismantle diversity inclusion.
I don't know why you keep calling my name out, Mr. Charlie. I'm not the president of the United States. I'm not forcing this council to get rid of programs that support my community.
And maybe you should direct your comments to him. We have a lot to lose and we have options. I sent a very thorough uh pointed out email to our city staff
uh about things that I requested. I wanted to know what the bonding insurance requirements for departments for RFP constructions outside work bids and requests. What is the pay scales we received at today? What are the goals
that we can meet our DEI? because I have very hard issues. When you eliminate a program and you just have ideas, this country was just not built off of ideas. It was built off of coming together and working through. And as
Councilman Beg says that this is a hard decision, but we're not in this decision making by ourselves. We have done hard things before. We have been criticized before. And I would like to stand and
say that we would probably had a judge Price instead of a judge O'Hare had not Mayor Price went down to that
march and stood in solidarity with black people when they were standing against being brutally beat down. But they labeled her as a radical left and all of us know in this room that she is not.
But that is the systematical issues that we are dealing with right now. If you don't agree with those who are in charge, then you will be dismantled. You will be criticized. You will be destroyed.
We have saw this county take away redistricting from the people. This council voted down an opportunity to support uh a citizen oversight board.
The diversity inclusion was established under the race and culture task force. And the race and culture task force came after Mayor Price and that council decided that this city needed to do something different instead of throwing Jackie Craig down to the ground and
arrested two of her daughters. That it needed to do something different instead of killing Tatiana Jefferson in her home. The reason why we say Black Lives Matter is because it's the black lives that has been killed and destroyed in
our streets by white folks. The reason why it's important that we have programs like this is because we have not had the equity and the ability to even though we can do the work, but because we don't look like you look or
talk like you talk, then we don't meet your qualifications. And that's what we're standing on today. And I believe that this city council, this city manager can find ways to fund these programs
within the next three years. I believe because if you look at $200 million is only almost 9% of our $2.4 million budget. And you ask the question about getting rid of programs. Well, why in the hell are we supporting one whole
department with federal fundings instead of using those federal dollars to re to be an incentive not to not to fund actual department? I cannot stand here and vote to get rid of jobs. I fight for jobs in in executive
session. I fight for uh our programs. And so I can sit here and raise the tax rate to 19 cents, but what I can stomach is you telling me that we may need to do it two cents. We may need to take our budget that we set every year for hard
to fill jobs. We got a presentation on that. I don't know if we already took that out of our budget, but there was several millions of dollars. There are some things that's been uh given to us to be supported by police and fire. Those can go into our CCPD funding. I
need to see a more robust decision making that is going to support this council longgoing versus just saying I handle time we're not going to do anything else then why are you here if you're not here to be a a a solution maker if you're not
here to to fight against the policies that I don't care what administration it is I saw we lit up uh this building when Trump uh appointed some lady uh to be whatever she is. Mayor Parker lit it up,
but it wasn't lit up for Junth cuz I came down here. I saw the flag, but it wasn't lit up. So, we talk about this is a nonpartisan, but it's very partisan. You have five Republicans on this council and you have six Democrats.
And at some point we are going to have to stand mustered and stand up against this radical Trump that he's doing in the White House. Dr. Martin Luther King
was known for dying for change. Malcolm X was known for standing up for racial policies. Here's another black Republican that just walked in. Rosa Park didn't give up her seat.
She was known for that. President Biden was known for signing in the law of Junth. Trump is known for trying to get rid of diversity inclusion.
My question today is that when you guys leave this DAS at whatever time it is, what will you be known for? Will you be known for eating the crumbs off a Trump table or you be known for standing up to a bully and saying, "Today is the last
day that you're going to pin up us against the wall." I am challenging our manager to present us a more robust plan for the next three years of how we subsidize
these programs that we will lose because at some point the 11th largest city in United States of America has to become self-sufficient and not waiting for Trump to give us what he's going to give us and then putting a pacifier in our mouth when he doesn't want to feed us.
time out for that. So, I will be able to consider a motion for continuence. And I really think that it's really
uh nasty and disrespectful to look at you in your face and say, "I'm busy in July." I don't give a damn if you busy in July or August. If we got something that we need to vote on,
you need to be here. You wasn't busy knocking on those doors telling people to vote for you. You wasn't busy uh sending out your mailers and saying, "I'm this. I'm I'm that." So, you come back in here in July or you come back here in August and put more pressure on
Jay Chopper to do a budget by the 15th. I don't care when you want to come, but you bring your RAS class back in here and give us an opportunity to have a more robust opportunity to vote on this and it shouldn't be today. And those are my remarks, but I'm willing to give a motion.
Um, thank you, Council Nettles. Just for clarification, I believe there's a motion on the floor to continue this item. Um, in consulting with our city attorney's office, needing a date certain, sounds like August 5th would be actually included in the motion um for the continuence um on the
You just did. No. So, what motion would you like? If you want a continuence, we have to have an alternative motion on the floor. Yeah. So, what is the motion? I'm asking you if you have an alternative motion for continuence. So, you said I just gave
the mo. You want do you want me to give a motion? That would be helpful because we have to read that into the record and actually vote on an alternative motion on the floor because right now you would prefer to continue the item. Correct. That is correct. Okay. So, if that's the case, then if you don't mind offering
alternative motion for a continuence, I was just simply stating that August 5th is the date we would use for the continuence to include a date certain in that. If I'm offering an alternative motion, what is the motion on the floor now? I'm asking you that the the the current motion is really, excuse me, the
current resolution is what's on the floor. Okay. And I know that you don't want to vote on that resolution. So, you want me to provide a motion? Sure. Yes, sir. That would beful. I provide a motion to continue this meeting uh to to continue this resolution to August 5th
or through a special call meeting in the month of July. So I think that's fine. I think in consultation with Leanne it's best to just give a date certain for August 5th. I did. Okay. Just but I added
opportunity for July because Carlos is having some concerns about August the 5th. So, I think it's important that we So, let me say this. If I'm not if I'm correct, Lyn, the way we call a special meeting, the mayor has to call a special meeting or three council members can call a special meeting. Is that correct?
I have three council members that will call a special meeting on any day in July. So, I that's my motion is that we're going to move this continuance to August of 5th or if a special meeting is called in the month of July. There any issues with that, Leanne?
Okay. Lean's fine with that. Okay, Council Member Flores, please. Try it one more time. Try that. All right. Okay. I think I understand the motion. U just wanted a clarification. Earlier, I think u wasn't
there a requirement to specify a potential special meeting in July with a specific date? Well, again, before we do that, Chris, uh, you know, my my immediate concern is this. Again, as I mentioned before, I'm
traveling, you know, during July, which makes it unlikely for me to specify a date in July. All right. Now, leave it up to the body to decide the other part, you know, of your motion. You know, if it's August 5th, okay, I guess that I'm
clear on that one, right? But I just wanted legal clarification if that motion is articulated correctly without specifying a date in July. I think it's it there isn't anything legally wrong with the way that he's
doing it. I mean, it would be obviously more certain if we had a date, but I mean it it's okay the way he did it, right? And to be clear for for the audience uh while we have a virtual option to attend chair you know has to
be present in person right no virtual option there. Thank you. Thank you Carlos Council Martinez. So my question is um well first I want to confirm that July 8th is not an option. we wouldn't have quorum because
you or and Councilman Flores are not available, right? Um for the August 5th continuence, would that uh put any of our funding at risk if we wait that
long? Jay, I know there's two grants, ADA, it's it's all a matter of what we don't sign the grants. the date passes, we don't know what whether or not they'll get pulled or redirected. So So that's 30 days past, right? So one started in June
1st, so it's 30 days. Again, we've never not signed within the dates, so we don't know what the leeway is there. It was mentioned earlier that we're trying to work with TCQ to give us an extension, but we haven't received that yet. And so what's that specific grant going
to? I know I know Tex is doing ADA, right? The other one's the uh whole air monitoring program that we monitor the for the EPA. We monitor the air quality in Fort Worth and to determine how things are going, whether or not it's a ozone day, all those kind of
things. And how much is that? It's 380,000. Was there a grant specifically for Mechum Airport, Jay? Yes, there's one for Mechum Airport. Um but that date hasn't come up yet because they haven't they haven't actually sent it to us. So
we don't have that that time moving forward. Thank you, Council Beck. Should work. Try your mic on button at the bottom. Does it Does it say green bottom of your screen? Try click it one more time and
then try it again. Now try that. What about now? Yeah. Okay, we're gonna figure this out today. Um I'm sorry. I just have a a point of clarification. I'm getting on these dates. So, what I
heard Dana say earlier was that um we we can we have a grace period to sign these documents from when the date we're awarded um whatever funding it is. Correct. So, we're talking about June 1st right now. Right. We have one that started the
period June 1st, the $300,000 grant. What I'm hearing from you is that to your knowledge, we have entered into these agreements post agreement period, but never
um longer than 30 days from that award. Is that correct? Typically, like for instance, I saw an actual email from the HUD folks. We asked the question, when do we need to sign the certification? and they said the sooner the better to ensure that you receive the funding, but
there isn't a that typically we do it within 30 days. We haven't gone out past the period to determine what what happens. We haven't gone out past 30 days before. Typically, yeah, we typically as soon as the city council approves the and we receive the award,
we turn it around as fast as possible to ensure that we get the grants. Okay. But we're not we haven't been told we have 30 days from the point of issuance to sign these agreements. Correct. That's just our standard practice.
Right. We haven't been told. We we do have as as Leanne mentioned, the city attorney mentioned that we do have those orders that came in from the DOJ that they would be reviewing whether or not if we're accepting grants without But we
haven't accepted anything yet, right? But we we accept that we haven't signed the actual contract. That's where you certify. Okay. So, we're in legal compliance today. Yes. Okay. And the question was what what could we could lose it by August 5th if they
determine that that we didn't sign fast enough and we they have they ever done that before? Have we ever had a grant? We've never gotten again. We've never waited that period of time to do it. I I hear and it's a different administration. Sure. I what I'm trying to get at is the risk associated with
this. Um because what I've heard is from staff, they'll work with us on on signing that. So that feels um very amorphous in time and date. And what I hear from you is that look, we don't always sign on the date of, but we try
as fast as reasonably possible to get those signed. Um, as far as you know, we haven't gone past the 30 days, but we can't say for certain that there have been grants that we've gone past the 30 days for whatever reason. Correct. That's Yeah, that's correct. The the
difference is that there's a different administration and there created new rules that we understand that. And so um in the past has there been um times where we've received a grant say June
24th and then council's on break for 30 days. Um would that work with the the entities as uh Dana described? Would that be one of the things they worked with us on? Our council's on break for 30 days. Um we're unable to ratify this
decision. Yeah. I don't potentially. I I'll give you an example. We were awarded a environmental grant to work on the Southeast Fort Worth. This new We hadn't received it yet, but we were awarded it. We the new gr uh
administration came in and that grant was pulled. We never received the documents to sign it, but it was grant that grant's pulled. So, we're not receiving that grant. But it wasn't pulled because we didn't sign saying that we didn't. No, it wasn't. I'm just saying that they they they do pull grants based on on the
items. What I'm saying is I can't answer the question definitively. Sure. What what that's what I'm trying to explain is that we don't know definitively what grants might we lose because they're not signed because we don't know exactly the time period that they'll allow us to go.
So it's it's a risk decision that we're making here on council today. Correct. Okay. Council member Nettles, did you have a question? you can answer. Oh, but the grants that may be a pause is not related to jobs. I think that's fair to
say. I think that's fair to say. Yeah, I think that's correct. I think that I'm not putting words in her mouth, but I think that's some of Janette's pause. Council member Martinez. Council Martinez. One more question. Um, if we decide to wait until August 5th
and we are not awarded this TCEQ grant, would that put other grants at risk? Could they say, "Oops, you waited too long?" I think the city would just no longer be doing that whole air monitoring for TCQ. So we could still
receive the other grants that we're applying for if the if the council approves and we we start certifying grants. Yes. Absolutely. Council member Beck. Sorry. Again, I'm just trying to get a feel for risk here.
So really what we're gambling with today is $300,000 because that's the one grant that um we're we've entered into that period. if we take this August 5th continuence, we don't know, right? We go past that 30-day period that we feel comfortable
because that's what I'm hearing is that 30 days is what we generally feel comfortable with. That's kind of our standard practice. You're comfortable telling us within the 30 days, we can do that, but outside of that, I can't guarantee. Sure. My is that I think that's correct. Only I'm going to ask
Roger Benibables to come up. I just want one clarification related to Elizabeth's question related to the FAA meetum grant and then I think we could answer that because I just want to make sure there's no mechum piece that we're missing in this conversation. Uh yes to to answer your question we do have a grant uh it was a previously
awarded grant. One of the things that we're being asked to do is amend that grant to add additional dollars because the bids came in a little higher than what was first anticipated. So, uh, Texas Department of Transportation is, uh, administering the federal funds
related to that project and are adding dollars to the project. So, we're being asked to execute an amendment so they can proceed with construction of the project because they do the oversight. Okay. And how much money is that worth and when is your execution of amendment needed to be completed? So, it's about
an $ 8.3 million project. They're adding about a little over a million dollars additional funds, federal funds to the project. Uh we would need to turn that around expeditiously. Uh it's in fact it's the MNC that was on your agenda
tonight that got approved to amend that grant. Um because the contractor has been selected. So Tex needs to move forward with the notice to proceed. But if we continued until August 5th based on what you've heard today, what
does that do to your process? I think we'll be okay till August 5th. I know that we'd have to have that conversation with Text and say how immediate is it because they've conducted the bid about 60 days ago. They can only hold them for so long. We just want to make sure we don't
jeopardize that. Thank you, Council Member Back. Any other questions for Roger? No, I think that clarified what I needed. Okay. Council member Peoples. So, first, Council Member Nettles, thank you for trying to be the voice of reason and
offer some compromise. However, I want to be sure that by extending this to August 5th, we are not just kicking the can down the road. I the whole purpose of extending it is to give our staff
time to go back and look at alternatives and look at what programs they could put together. But I guess I want a realistic answer from the staff. Do you think that that month gives you time to seriously
look at it or are we going to come back and have the same data points thrown at us for us to vote? Cuz I'm not in favor of extending it if we're just kicking the can down the road. So, if if this was extended to August
5th, we would work toward creating that small business program that I mentioned that we're trying to put together. We would try to do it as fast as possible with the best program that we could put together with our stakeholder partners. So, we could bring back a presentation
for that on August 5th of where we are and what it would look like at that point. The question becomes is not knowing whether or not it's going to be if the resolution is going to be passed or not passed is during that time is also when
we're supposed to present the initial operating budget. And so putting together the operating budget for the city there, I need to present one balanced budget. And I don't know whether or not I need to take into
consideration that federal funds are not going to be part of the mix and what that budget might look like or federal funds will be part of that mix and what the what the operating that's the difficult piece from a delay to August
5th is that there is no certainty on the funding available to move forward. Um that's a difficult piece of it. Does that answer your questions? Council peoples. Okay. Council Larsdorf.
Thank you. So Jay, I think you just answered my question because I don't want to put Christy on the spot. Uh because I know with this whole this is putting a lot of work in their their basket. Um but if we if we de delayed this till August 5th, um how much time
would that realistically give the lab to to create a a comprehensive budget that we could then take out to the community and actually discuss or would it be kind of just more theories at that time? I I would have to make an assumption one way or the other that the either the
resolution is going to pass at that point or is not going to pass and we would move forward with the budget under th that circumstance. Um you can't you can't realistically create two different budgets with for both scenarios.
Um, additionally, as I mentioned before, as as Dana mentioned, the bond program would need to we'd need to put that on hold. Uh, currently there are, I think, I believe five to six large projects that have federal funds tied to them
that we're leveraging through the bond program. And so if if we went forward and the the resolution didn't pass, we'd have to completely rep prioritize uh the bond fund project listing because we would for instance uh there is a
there is a mechum project that that we were funding we were recommending to fund through the through the bond, but we're pulling that out. We pulled that out because we received grants for that. That $28 million got redirected to other projects that got moved into the bond
program. If we were if we were not to be able to then receive those grant funds, we'd have to pull those projects out so that we could put the dollars back to that Meechum project that was one of the higher arterials. So there's a lot of there's a lot of moving pieces. There's
a lot of implications on how city local money interplay with the federal money. So those are the things that are that we have to go through to try to figure out. Okay. Thank you, Council Rebecc. Try it again. Now. Okay. Um I appreciate that the
budget and the timing is a concern and we don't want you to be in violation of our city charter. Um I think you're an incredibly smart man, Mr. Chapa and I think you've heard the uh voices on this dis today and what I certainly have
heard from several me of my colleagues. I understand um that they aren't opposed to to ultimately taking that step of suspending these
programs, but they will only do so with a more concrete plan. And so I would say to you that I understand we don't like uncertainty and we certainly have a lot of uncertainty going into this budget cycle outside of what we're doing here.
Um and we don't want to make it any harder for the city. This is hard for the city, not just staff, but the community. This is going to be hard for all of us. But I think you're smart enough to read what you've heard here on this dis and be able to move forward
with um with a budget plan on that uh based on that August 5th vote. I think the um honestly the biggest factor is you and what um what plan is brought to this council and how hard we work between now and August 5th to meet with
stakeholders to make these members of the dis that are uncomfortable now with a the amorphous plan um more comfortable. And so not to not to shift the but it that August 5th vote really does depend on uh your leadership. And
so I'm looking at you and telling you that I think you can get to that August 5th vote and I think you know where that vote will go based on what we heard today. So I don't think that it's going to be the impact to the budget practically speaking. Yes, it could be.
But I think we've all heard the words on this dis. I think it's simply just a red herring, something to throw off that you want to um take the vote today and and dismantle DEI to hide behind that budget when we've heard so many of our colleagues say that they're comfortable
only with a plan in place. Thank you, Council Member Beck. Um so we have a motion on the floor um that would be an extension to continue this vote until August 5th. Do I have a motion and a second? Council member Hall would like
to second that. Um, and just for clarification, I don't want to um be incorrect. Council member Nettles, your your motion was for August 5th or a special call meeting in July, whichever one the council could agree upon. Correct. Okay, great. Um, so it feels like uh there's some Well, let me back
up. I feel the angst in the room and I know how much emotion is for this vote. I would be remiss if I didn't first say thank you to city staff as Elizabeth did earlier. Um I've never seen a staff work so hard and so diligently in such an unknown territory and for that they
should be commended. And I know that every department head, every ACM was a part of this, the entire legal team. So thank you very much. Um we also know that this was already going to be a tough budget cycle. We're looking at down revenues between 10 and $20 million and that's okay. So um I I'll say this.
I I am I am comfortable um moving this vote until August 5th, but I do want to be on record that I'm not comfortable um voting ultimately against this resolution. The amount of money is too great. $277 million is too much. Um over
200 employees impacted. Now, there is nuance to this and I I that's intellectual honesty is really important. No one on this dis nor city staff is trying to articulate it's always $277 million annually. That doesn't that's not the reality. Um
honestly a lot of these programs are grant or excuse me these are grants that come down for different projects especially in TPW. We've talked about FAA and our airports but we do have specific programs that are fully federally funded that do impact city staff. And so I just want to make sure
that that's clear. I also want to thank our Hispanic and black chamber leadership for very quickly jumping on this and sitting down both with me personally and city management staff. There will be others um that we'll need to sit down with immediately, especially if we try to put put forward a developed
plan in in August. You know, as your mayor, I I sometimes feel this burden and maybe that's just part of the job is I want this dis to have debate that is respectful and we hear each other. I think you've done that today. I hear
your hearts. I know this is really hard and I think we can ultimately hopefully come up with a result um in August on August 5th um and we'll probably end up being just for the constituents that are here today a special called meeting that would be specific for a voting meeting because it's not a voting meeting that
day. It's a work session. So to my colleagues, I appreciate how thoughtful you have been. Um, I frankly I I'm concerned for city staff having sat in their seats before as a staff member trying to develop a budget in the month of July, but as Elizabeth also
articulated, Council Rebeck, we have a great staff and they're they're capable of putting together something. So, at this point, we do have a motion and a second on the floor if you'd like to vote and then we'll see where it lies and we have to vote again. Thank you.
Council Peoples, can we please get that motion corrected? I don't uh is there any way to correct it? It's an extension. I think it's difficult for them to load it into the system, Deborah. But if you'd like, Council Member Lean, you want to read anything specifically into the record that makes Council Peoples feel better? Thank you.
I don't want to hit a button here. And it's the No problem. Yeah. Go ahead. Okay. So, the motion is to continue this resolution to August 5th or a special called meeting in July as agreed to by
council. That sound good, Deborah? All right. Okay, perfect. You can vote, council. Motion carries. So, the motion extended till August 5th. Thank you all for being here for this. Appreciate it. We're going to move on
through our agenda. Okay, we are going to go back to page 19. Um, council proposals CP-334. This is a waiver of fees for Lakecom. Dr. Mia Hall. Yes. Um I would like uh to
make a motion to uh the suspend the council rules of procedure section 5.2.1 to allow this council proposal to be acted upon at this meeting. Got a motion to second. Council, please vote. Motion carries.
Thank you. And um with that approval, I want to thank uh this from thank the support of my my fellow council members. We actually have to vote again. Sorry, Dr. Hall. Yes, I I make a motion for that. Um I want to make a motion to approve um CP 334. Got a motion, a
second. Council, please vote. Terra, try one more time if you don't mind. Thank you. Motion carries. Thank you. Next is item 25-5215. Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote.
motion carries. Next is item 25-5222. Got a motion, a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is item 25-5245. Motion in a second. Council, please vote. Council
motion approved. Next is item 25-5246. Motion a second. Council, please vote. Council Crane was a second if that helps y'all. Motion carries. Next is item 25-5247. Got a motion, a second. Council, please
vote. Motion carries. Next is item 25-5256. Motion a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is item 25-5249 and Joel Malaney is available for questions. Any questions for Joel?
Thank you. Yes, Councilman Dles has a question. Joel. Oh, sorry. Okay. I just want to thank No question. I want to thank staff for working on this. This is one of the parks that when I got elected, uh there was it was just park space. there was nothing on it and we reallocated over $3 million to it. Then
received another 1.5 grant and here is another grant that we're receiving uh 1.5 to go towards the Oak Grove Park uh close to Everman. And so thank you for the work that staff did on that. Uh move to approve motion and a second. Council,
please vote. Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0316 and Steven Murray is available for questions. Council member Crane, are there any questions? Do I need to just close the public hearing and move for approval? Is that Yes. the language?
Yeah. Then I'll move to uh close the public hearing and ask for approval. Second. Got a motion, a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0320 with Steven Murray available for
questions. I'll again move to close the public hearing and ask for approval. Second. Got a motion, a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is the companion zoning KCC24-162. Motion a second. Please vote.
Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0564 and Paul Rodriguez is available for questions. Any questions? Council member Bllelock. No. Uh want to move to close the public hearing and approve.
Motion a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next, we're moving up the companion zoning case on page 25 of the agenda ZC-25-0383. Same. I'm going to move to close the public hearing and approve.
Motion to second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is MNC-0630 and Keith Morris is available for questions. Got a motion, a second. Councel, please vote. Motion carries.
Next is ZC-24-173. And we have one speaker on the item. Our speaker is Bob Willoughby. Is Bob here? No. Okay. Council member Crane, there are no other speakers on this item. Well, that's upsetting. I'm going to
move to uh uh post uh move this uh case to the August 26th council meeting. Got a motion to second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC-25-032 and we have a speaker on this item.
Thank you. Our first is Lacricia Powell followed by Shawn Tate. Good morning, afternoon councelor Dasis. Um, want to be concise and brief, straight to the point. Uh this case I believe is
due for approval one because it does not hinder the quality of life and value of Echo Heights neighborhood residents residing residents.
too because by right the application applicants have land use that can ex exercise without uh any input from the community.
Three, establishing trust and transparency requires fairness and balance on both sides. I've said that numerous times uh as president to the Echo Hikes
Neighborhood Association, the business corridor industry that's there uh souththeast to us
have a right to their businesses and the upgrades that are needed. I am not against quality environmental but I do believe that as I've said
numerous time environmental begins within yourself first family and then extend outwardly in the community. So if we're not effectively
demonstrating healthy environmental first with ourself, how can we demand more outwardly? That is another factor and a reason I do support because it has to be a
collaboration and it has to be um it has to be fairness on both side. this uh particular case what they're requesting it does not affect the environmental health and
wellness of the resident. It does not uh take away from the community and what they're offering is to be a partner with the community and help. You will hear many opposition, but
everyone in the community is not opposing it. And there are some who believe that I've talked to personally want and respect the job opportunity. Is Shawn Tate. Thank you, Miss Powell. Shawn Tate.
Shawn will be followed by Greg Holtzman. You hear me? Yeah. Good afternoon, Mayor Parker and Council. Uh, my name is Sean Tate and I represent FedEx in connection with the conditional use permit application for 4700 Martin Street. Are we able to pull up the uh presentation?
If you want to go to the center podium, there should be a clicker for you to use. Where can I find that clicker? Pause this time for I'll do it. There you go. Thank you. Appreciate that. Of course. It is hot in here. So, thank you again. Good afternoon,
Mayor Parker and council. My name is Sean Tate and I represent FedEx in connection with the conditional use permit application for 4700 Martin Street. Uh before we discuss the application, I I want to acknowledge the concerns and the frustrations that have been shared by community members
throughout this process. Uh this community has a long history of engagement with industrial uses and we know that a request like this one must be met with transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. We're here today to demonstrate our commitment to be a to being a better partner moving forward, not with
promises, but with action. Uh FedEx is a significant local employer uh with this Fort Worth facility alone supporting approximately 580 jobs in North Texas. Further, the broader FedEx ground network has established partnerships with local businesses to provide package
pickup, delivery, and transportation services across the country. While FedEx continues to grow its support in this area, this application does not request any expansion of use or intensity or operations. This application requests certification for a parking lot that has been in use by FedEx employees for
vehicle storage for over 10 years. Our goal is simple. uh to bring the site into full compliance with zoning and landscaping standards and to do so in a way that improves the life for FedEx's neighbors. Uh we're not seeking permission here to do more. FedEx is
seeking to do better. And so here's what that looks like. Um as you can see here, uh we've held regular community engagements. Uh two public meetings on March 6 and April 5th. Uh those are a few of the organizations that were represented there. uh some of those folks are here
today uh that I've you know had the pleasure of getting to know and to figure out kind of what our approach should be for uh addressing community concerns. So at this point uh first we started with a plan and site improvements. We're going to replace the chain link fence uh and replace it with
a uh cedar wood screen fence uh and install new scan landscaping to create a proper uh appealing visual buffer. Um, we've also, uh, updated our truck route protocols, uh, to include new route maps to help keep trucks off residential
streets. Uh, we've implemented a new permit monitoring system to min to minimize future permit lapses. Uh, and we've appointed a senior FedEx operations manager, at this moment, it's Patrick King, uh, to be a direct point of contact for, uh, neighborhood
concerns. Uh and and beyond these internal changes and improvements, uh FedEx is working to become more engaged through uh community benefits such as installing an uh air quality monitor uh in partnership with UT Dallas in the city of Fort Worth. Um we've also worked
with the city's engineering department to install new no truck signs at Martin and Parker Henderson and Parker Henderson in Mansfield. And upon approval, we're going to partner with WM Green as well uh to provide uh uh critical uh school supplies for them. And as of today, we're also implementing
measures to prevent drivers use of the lot for other uses such as vehicle cleaning and routine maintenance activities. Thank you. Our next speaker is Greg Holtzman followed by Christopher Jones. Here we go. Good. Can you go to the middle, please? The podium. Sorry. Thank
you. All right. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Greg Holtzman. I'm a senior project manager with BL Companies. I've been working with FedEx for over a decade through the US and also in Canada. Um, as Sean mentioned, we did have several meetings with the residents. The last meeting was a design
chet which they recommended or we got to hear their thoughts and concerns and in the same time we got to give them feedback on how our operation works and things of that nature. I'd like just to quickly here give a highlevel overview of of the purpose of this lot. So, uh,
historically on a FedEx ground site, there were some tractors that were at the facility. Those tractors, though, that location was a huge inconvenience to the employees. So, a lot of those folks that are in those tractors travel throughout the country multiple days. So, they're taking their luggage, their
goods, they'd have to go through security, they have to go through the yard, and it was a big inconvenience. In addition to that, the tractors in the yard also added to additional circulation. So you had these tractors moving around that were in impacting the
the yard jockeyies moving trailers back and forth to doctors and also employees going to different ways. Lastly with FedEx Ground being in Pennsylvania in 2008 there was the anti anti- idling law that had passed. So one of the things to do here was to help um mitigate the
idling of of tractors. So the thought was that by creating a co-mingle lot which is where we have all the tractors and then allowing the employees to park their cars next to them that would resolve those three issues. So in this
case here there's a coming lot. Typically if the hub hasn't a lot of property or extra space it's there. In this case it's called remote lot. Uh from the entrance exit of the of the site on Martin Street to the hub entrance is less than 700 ft. So what
this does is having that remote lot in a sense with all the vehicles there allows the drivers to be in one central location that is secure and can be monitored by FedEx. The add the other advantage of having this remote lot is it alleviates the drivers from using
their tractors as commuter vehicles. So u historically at the hub some vehicles were there others they would take back and forth to their homes. One of the issues that the residents have brought up there was the uh emissions from tractors through the environment. So having one
concise lot, they have the ability to take their personal vehicles from their house to this lot and then it's a short distance to the hub which is the highest and best use of that tractor to pick up that trailer and then go to their destination. So um in the zoning meeting that we attended, one of the questions
was if this lot would go away, what's the impact? Well, it's actually a reverse of what everyone's looking for here. So, if this lot didn't exist, the drivers would be taking these as commuter vehicles back and forth to their homes, which would be not using them for their highest use, and then you'd have even more emissions from
these diesel trucks, which everyone's trying to minimize. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Christopher Jones, followed by Caleb Roberts. picture for the I've got a picture for
the projector. Yeah, please. Thank you. Wow. All right. Good afternoon, mayor and council members. My name is Chris Jones. I am the vice president of Echo Heights Neighborhood Association. I'm not here to repeat what you've already read in your speaker comment cards or what
you're going to hear from the residents or environmental leaders or neighborhood association members. You already know how each one of us feel in this matter. I'm here to ask you after all of that, if you still approve this, what are you approving and for who? We've documented
violations. You've seen videos. I've got pictures here. Car wash maintenance. another instance of a car wash, FedEx truck parked without a trailer on the on Edgewood, and much more. Every speaker after me is
going to lay out the harm. Pollution, truck violations, community disrespect, ignored outreach. You'll hear it all. But this isn't a deate debate anymore. It's a test. It's a test of whether our our voices matter or if this council is willing to side with a company that
threatened to buy what they want. We were told that FedEx was going to fix things, but they haven't. They've only escalated. If council votes to approve anyway, it puts your names right next to theirs. That's not a zoning decision. That's a credibility decision. The community will remember how this vote
goes. And and we're not alone anymore. We've engaged city departments, neighborhood coalitions, and local environment leaders. You may win this vote today, but we will remember this memory. If the council chooses to choose FedEx over the families, even after
hearing everything that we've shared, then we know exactly where those loyalties lie. And so will the residents, the coalitions, and the next developer who who thinks that they can bypass our our community. So today, after everything that you've seen, the videos, the violations, the unanimous
opposition, the neighborhood voice, if you still vote to approve this CUP, and you let the record show that you weren't misinformed, you were unmoved, that you failed to understand the harm, you didn't fail to understand the harm, you chose to overlook it. And if you think
that that's the standard now, that a corporation like FedEx can threaten a community, cut through school zones, ignore city signage, walk away with the permit, then that vote isn't about the land use anymore. Maybe it's a vote of whose voice matters and whose doesn't.
So Elizabeth be said, and I'm going to wrap up with this one. I don't think I'll leave it at this perfect timing. Justice is never given. Justice is fought for. She said that today. And so that's exactly what we're doing here today. We're fighting every one of us
from a 10:00 a.m. meeting that stayed. Every one of us stayed here today. We took time off of our work schedules to make sure that we could be here. So with that, I'll leave that with for you guys. And I've got other pictures for the other uh staff. Thank you. Our next
speaker is Caleb Roberts. Caleb will be followed by Leticia Wilburn. Uh good afternoon, mayor and council. Uh Caleb Roberts, Downwindters at Risk, me member of FWCC. Uh first, I want to say that this issue isn't just about FedEx. If you know,
Echo Heis has been fighting for land use changes in their community for the past two years. And this is heavy in industry. If you look on the actual uh document, it is heavy industry. that is, you know, uh, not in compliance of what the neighborhood wants already. So, we
already have an issue. Uh, last meeting we had over 20 25 people ready to speak and because this meeting was at 10:00 a.m. we we have less. There's a lot of people who want to speak on this. Not just because we don't believe FedEx uh will be a good partner because it is
heavy in industry, but because we've been fighting for these changes for two years now and we keep have to play whack-a-ole and every time a new zoning case comes up, we have to come out in full force otherwise things will go on as as business as usual. One of the
things is uh um trucks do provide a lot of pollution. semi-truckss diesel pollution is a major source of pollution and I know they said they want to prevent it from going all across the city but right now Echo Heights has to deal with that pollution no one knows the people in Echo Heights have the
semi-truckss coming from the highway into their community that non-source of pollution again on FedEx's site you will see that none of the neighborhood associations or none of the groups that they met with will agree with this plan going forward every every one of those
community organizations will uh push for denial of this CU up. I want to acknowledge that as well as to say that FedEx has said if this doesn't go forward, we will find other means or other lots to do this on, which feels like a threat. Feels like if you don't do what we say now, we're just going to
find another way. That's no way to build community trust and a community vision of what and become a good partner like they said they wanted to. Another thing on the air monitoring as being part of uh success of this, Downwinds at Risk has run one of the more successful
community air monitoring systems all across DFW from Dallas, Richardson, Plano. Um, and we did have a $500,000 grant that was pulled back by the EPA to do it in Echo Height. So, I'm for air monitoring, but that air monitoring should be participatory, not something
that's in exchange for a zoning case to be passed. That's not what we That's not the kind of air monitoring that we do at Don Wonders. That's not what should happen. In fact, you know, we have to make sure that air monitor is open source. Our monitors are open source where you can see dayto-day what's
happening. Is it a 24-hour average or is it a 30-cond average? That's different because uh companies don't operate 24 hours. They operate in very small windows. Those very small flumes of pollution is what cause people to have health concerns. That 24-hour average
doesn't do that. And lastly, even the TCQ monitors that we're putting out, TCQ does not take those into uh account when they do their permits. Only the EPA monitors. Those are major infractions on how you want this air monitor. Leticia Wilburn is our next speaker. Thank you,
Mr. Johnson. Mr. Roberts, Tina James is up next. I want to say um Latita Wilborne. I'm with Echo Heights Neighborhood Association, Echo Heights Stop Six Environmental Coalition and Forward Environmental Coalition of Communities.
I want to say this is the uh this is a zoning case against a billion dollar multi-billion dollar company that's a knucklehead in black and brown community. FedEx has re first off I want
to ask y'all how was they able to operate for five years without proper permits. They operated illegally for five years without proper permits. They are right around the corner from the code compliance department. There's no
oversight in this community. That picture FedEx stood up here. That picture shows them washing trucks on the lot just this past Saturday. If you go out there today, they're probably still washing trucks on a open lot. They parked on the
streets. Cars have to pass around them. They zoom up and down our streets even though the signs say no trucks. We asked FedEx repeatedly, "What are y'all trying to get this conditional use permit for? Is it for trucks?" They said, "No, it's
only to plant trees because the trees planted on that lot keeps dying." Trees keep dying because it's pollution from trucks that's killing them. Why else would they die? You have to look at this lot. Go back to how this started. When
they first got this zone, there was cows on that lot. Cows. How did it go from having cows on the lot to having industrial? Nobody came to the community. Then when they got the conditional use permit, they went ahead and did what they wanted to do. Never
went back for zoning change. Never. But now they want to be rewarded for bad behavior because they got caught. And now here we are right here. They parked trucks on the streets. They break all the rules.
Like uh they said FedEx told us, if we don't get what we want, we'll just buy it and put it there. We are a community where most people work paycheck to paychecks, but you got a billion dollar company here with a history of going
into black and brown communities, polluting those communities. They said they want to give school supplies to the school WM Green Elementary. We have Sheena Poke. She's our community le son's person. She already do school
supplies for WM Green Elementary School. And you got a multi-billion dollar company saying that's all they can do for the community. First, they didn't know it was school there. They didn't know it was a park there. They have never been open with the community. Never been open with us. Never gave us
answers. never sought to meet the people in the communities. They gave us three hours notice before one meeting and a day hours notice before another. Tina James is our next speaker followed by Anita Bryson. Good afternoon. On behalf of the
residents of the Echo Heights and the Stop Six Environmental Coalition, which I am the president, I'm asking y'all to deny the conditional use permit for the FedEx. For too long, our community has born the dis uh disinortion bourbons and I mean situations with the environmental
contamination. You had Mr. Tate who stood up here and made mention about them being good residents uh of the community. FedEx have been in this the Echo Heights area since 1997. And yes, they do provide a lot of jobs. I
actually worked there when I was younger, but I worked inside of the warehouse part of the other on the uh east side of Martin. What they're asking is to put truck new trucks on down into the community. We're talking about different types of pollution. Um, we're
talking about Corbin and also the young lady who spoke a minute ago, Mrs. um Powell, she's not our neighborhood president. She was actually banned from the association with city who actually participated in the meeting of the day that this was held. And so when we're
talking about transparency, transparency as good neighbors that FedEx claimed to be, then how do you fly under the radar, not only through city code, but city officials themselves not having their license and registration,
what has been needed to operate for the 5 years. How do we turn around and give them a reward when they've actually been disrespectful when it comes to following the rules and regulations as it relates? Mr. Tate also made a statement that he was going to give his truck drivers a
stern talking to as it relates to them coming through the community sitting and idling in our areas with there's photos right here showing you where these trucks are sitting here. Mr. Tate doesn't stay in Echo Heights. I bet he doesn't even know how many houses. I bet you I don't even know how many houses
that are sitting in Echo Heights or how many businesses. We saw also created the uh toxic tour where we had the city officials including Mrs. um Martinez who actually came out and took the toxic tour and half of the businesses over there that are not regulated andor labeled correctly didn't even know they
existed. We have 751 houses that sits over in Echo Heights. We na we personally went and knocked on each one of those doors. The association and the coalition went and knocked on each one of those doors. We got petitions. We've been fighting for a long time to prevent them from dumping over in our
communities. We have families that are not for sale. Our health is not for sale. Our safety is not for sale. When these 18 wheelers come down the street, if they're unloaded and it's just a trailer, if it's just a tractor, it's 8,000 pounds. If they happen to be
loaded with a 52 foot trail uh flatbed that and and they're loaded, that could be anywhere from 120,000 lbs even up. Let's stink if they tried to stop as a child ran out in front of the streets or whatever. We're talking about lot lizard and prostitutions that comes with these 18 willlets as they come and park in this community. He made a statement
about them coming over putting their trucks in the and the their cars in the property, but they're also picking up females. I work with human sex trafficking. I seen it. I took pictures and I shared it with Mr. Tate and the other young men. Thank you. Our next speaker is Anita Bryson. Miss Bryson will be followed by
Esmeralda Zuniga. Afternoon. My name is Anita Bryson and I'm the president of Echo Heights uh Neighborhood Association. On May 8th, our memberships our members met and voted unanim unanimously to oppose the continual use permit requested by FedEx
for their facility on Martin. I'm formally authorized to speak on behalf of our association. This property sits right at the edge of the industrial zone, but is also right next to single family homes, parks, and schools.
It's not an isolated industrial site. It's a direct threat to our community's safety and character. We have worked hard to build a safe and welcoming neighborhood, and we deserve to see that work respected.
We've already seen the impacts. FedEx trucks have been cutting through Parker Henderson Road almost nightly, damaging a street rebuilt less than three years ago. The road has bike lanes and is used by children and horseback riders. These
trucks are real a real danger and they are completely out of place in our neighborhood environment. Our families deserve better. We already deal with high asthma asthma rays and pollution. Now diesel idling and exhaust from these trucks are making
it worse. This is about the health of our families and the safety of our children. Even more concerning, FedEx attorney admitted that they've been operating for five years without a required CUP,
relying on outdated permits to keep going. That's not good faith. That's skirting the rules and taking advantage of the system. We're not against development, but we're united and opposing this CUP. We ask you to not to
deny it. And if you won't deny it, then at least limit it to one year with a mandatory review so FedEx has to prove they can be good neighbors. Our community's future is at stake. Please stand with Echo Heights. Thank you.
Our next speaker is Esmeralda Zuniga. Good afternoon, council and mayor. Um, so I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak. So I'm here in support of the Echo Heights Stop 6 community in their opposition to the cup for FedEx. I might not live there, but I
work there. And um, FedEx is not a good neighbor. They operated for 5 years with them and the city, not noticing that they did not have a permit. So,
should there not be a penalty imposed on them for operating illegally for 5 years with no permit and attracting unwanted crime to the area and polluting the people who live there. FedEx's semi-truckss release over 40 cancer
count causing chemicals leading to asthma, various forms of cancer, adverse birth outcomes such as premature birth, and low birth weight. The impacts of FedEx's operations extend beyond Echo Heights. It affects all air quality in Fort Worth.
But make no mistakes, Echo Heights is at the front lines of this fight, and they're fighting for themselves and all of Fort Worth. Air monitoring is not a replacement for de-industrialization.
When you have a fever, you use a thermometer to check your temperature and then you take medicine to bring the fever down. You don't use a thermometer and check 10 minutes later to see if your fever has gone away. And check your temperature again and say, "Oh, I still
have a fever. I'll check my temperature again in 5 minutes." Because air monitors are a tool. They're not a solution to the problem. We are suggesting multiple air monitors in all FedEx facilities in Fort Worth so
that we know how large and how high this fever is. And so every single member of this council will also know how high that fever is. We are also in support of the community's request that the Fort Worth City Council create a resolution to
pause zoning changes in Echo Heights until the completion of the 2050 comprehensive plan. That way, we don't have to play whack-a-ole every time there's a zoning case and you all don't have to see us so often. Finally, it is troubling that when we
came out in numbers two weeks ago, we were pushed to the next date. We understand the need to accommodate the counciloman's schedule, but setting it for a time that the community members are at work and are unable to come and voice their concerns unless they take
off work or register 24 hours ahead of time to see and comment online is very troubling. Thank you for your time and please do not vote against Echo Heights. Our next speaker is Lori Stellis. Thank you. My name is Lorie Stelgis and
I live at Manorwood Trail and I'm part of Michael Crane's district. I'm also a member of the Greater Fort Worth Sierra Club. I am here to ask you to deny the conditional use permit that FedEx seeks in the Echo Heights area. Last month, I
attended a movie called Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, sponsored by the City of Fort Worth DEI department, as part of the Movies That Matter series. The film reported on the death of 789 citizens during a heat wave in Chicago.
These deaths occurred in communities of the city where black and brown residents lived and had the highest the lowest life expectancy, the highest rate of poverty and the highest rate of health related issues. The film portrayed how
inadequate city policies, regulations, and investment impacted and continues to impact the lives of these residents. It takes no stretch of one's imagination to realize that this movie could have taken place here. The people who live in Echo
Heights deserve the same access to clean air as do those of us who live near TCU. My neighbors and I do not face a reduced life expectancy, nor are our rates of cancer and asthma exceptionally high
because of constant exposure to harmful contaminants and emissions. We do not have semi-truckss parked behind our homes that make our backyards virtually uninhabitable. This would never be approved or accepted in my neighborhood, nor in Wover Hills,
Ryan Place, Southside, or Ridgely Hills. So why is it acceptable in the Echo Heights neighborhood? From my opinion, there's been a tepid and slow response to support communities like Echo Heights and North Side as they fight to end the
bombardment of pollution in their neighborhoods. The council has issued a proclamation, y'all means all, for the LGBTQ community, but that same sentiment and support desperately needs to apply to
the residents of Echo Heights. Make it Make it known you hear them. respect them and support them. Imagine being in their shoes. Some of these residents have been fighting with the city regarding pollution for many, many
years. The designation of the industrial area around Echo Heights as a growth center in the comprehensive plan has put these residents in a perpetual lose-lose situation. They are frustrated and they deserve your support. I am asking you to
say enough is enough. Vote for residents health over business. Please deny the cup FedEx. Council Martinez, that's the conclusion of our speakers on this item. I think I see EJ. Is he gone? Oh, hold
on. Well, I've got an ant agenda. I apologize. Just a second. Well, I got him right here. That was from a choke. I think it was Bayana Abdullah. I have several more. It looks like I just they gave me an annotated agenda. They did
not have a complete list of speakers. So, I'm back on the right track here. We're okay. This is not updated. Correct. Yeah, this is old. Nope, it's not. Yep. Thank you. Appreciate that. Sorry, EJ. Go ahead. No worries. Um, my name is
EJ Kion. Uh, I stand with the residents as I live in District 11 and advocate for communities like Echo Heights to have long uh who have long borne the cost of our city's economic growth without reaping the benefits. Just earlier in the agenda, this council voted to push DEI efforts down the road.
Echo Heights is a neighborhood where diversity, equity, and inclusion is not politics, but a matter of systemic environmental racism and public health. FedEx truckyard has polluted the air, damaged the roads, and endangered families without a valid permit for 5
years. Their attorney says it was an oversight because FedEx is such a large entity. But if they couldn't keep up with a simple permit, how can we trust them to maintain an air monitor, install signage, and manage a formal complaint process? Let's be clear. This just this
isn't just about FedEx. This is about us. It's about whether we hold powerful corporations to the highest of standards to protect our residents when incidents like this occur in our communities. Our city cannot pass the blame on to corporations as we enable this behavior.
We must own the process. We must lead. Across the country, big cities our size have worked with FedEx to impose truck route restrictions, anti- idling ordinance, and zero emission requirements to protect vulnerable neighborhoods. FedEx should aspire to equitably serve all communities the same
way they support others outside of Fort Worth. The reason they do not in Fort Worth is because our standards are lower. Fort Worth pro business rhetoric is anti-comm community and we have to do better. I'm not anti- business. I'm a business owner. Leadership means having hard conversations and making
uncomfortable decisions so our people don't have to. Thank you. Our next speaker is uh Bahana Abdullah and hopefully she'll correct me. Miss Abdullah will be followed by Pamela
Young. Good afternoon. My name is Bayana Abdullah. Most people call me Bae. Um one of the things that I hate about city council is every time I have to come up here and remind people that um
you work for us, right? Um, and so I think it's really important that when your constituents are speaking to you that you're looking at us and you're attentive. It really bothers me that somebody like Miss T, who's a pillar of our community and an elder in our community, could come up here and see
people looking down when she's talking about her health and her livelihood. So, um, I live in Miss People's District. Um, I'm a PhD student in biology and I work with the Fort Worth ECC. um citing industrial zoning near black
and brown neighborhoods is a pattern that the city of Fort Worth and the entire country has participated in. Companies like FedEx look at a map. They literally told us this. They pick the industrial zoning and they build. They don't consider who lives there. They
don't consider the impact that that decision might have on residents. And then when residents have the have bite back, they have a problem with it. FedEx is a poller. FedEx broke the law and has been illegally using that parking lot without a permit for five years. They
ignore restricted neighborhood streets and speed limits. They're not transparent about how many trucks will be parked there. They idle their trucks and wash them on their lot, not caring what's in the runoff or where it's going. They drive dangerously close to elementary school children on their way to school. I ask everybody here, would
you want that in your neighborhood? Okay. Period. There are studies on the impacts of exhaust fumes and microplastics from trucking on the lungs. As a biologist, I know that there are thousands of peer-reviewed studies on the way that a pollution affects people. And you've been presented with
that information. You know this because we come and we tell you every single time. At this point, the question is whether or not you want to do anything about it. Make no mistake, to vote yes on a FedEx CUP is a vote against the community of Echo Heights. It's a vote against the
health of Fort Worth residents. And also Trump taking money from environmental studies, although it's true, is not an excuse. You're responsible for the zoning in the city. You decide if industry should be next to black and brown neighborhoods, and you decide what happens from here.
I really want to hone in on the fact that this this choice represents who you're going to invest in. Are you going to invest in FedEx, a multi-billion dollar company, or are you going to invest in the health of your residents? To address the city's intent on placing air monitors at WM Green, we're telling
you that we're being poisoned. At this juncture, an air monitor isn't even a band-aid. It's a slap in the face. We say invest in our communities. You say, "Let's continue to invest in corporations, including when they break the law." We say, "Stop poisoning us." And you say, "Here's an air monitor so you can watch us do it.
Our next speaker is Pamela Young, who will be followed by Lydia Faith. Play this again. grounds and experiences and contributions of all people and expanding opportunity for every resident are essential for Fort Worth's continued growth, prosperity, and our
vision to be the most livable and best managed city in the country. And whereas our community strength, hear my words, does lie in its diversity and unity, embracing people of all backgrounds,
identities, and experiences to build a more inclusive forth. where every person is valued and free from discrimination. We we'll play it however many times we need to and you can say it however many
times you want to, but do you mean it? Do you mean it? And I know you're having a side conversation right now. And I saw a lot of side conversations going on. Chris Nettles, don't fall for the okey dog. I don't know what you and Lisha got going on
with Nate. I don't know. I don't know. I I'm seeing people ride out in cars together. I don't know, Miss Martinez. What's going on? I don't know. But we need for you all, everyone. I
could call each of your names. We need you to put people above industry, above profits. Mr. Lowdorf, you said we don't need uh MWEB or we don't need these uh regulations to have
diversity, equity, and inclusion because we we're already doing a good job. Clearly, we're not. Have you been listening? Clearly, we're not. This doesn't happen through osmosis.
And this country has told us that from its inception, we've got to fight and we got to put it in black and white or else it won't get done. So, I'm asking y'all to deny this cup. I'm asking you not to do any more zoning
changes in Echo Heights or any black and brown neighborhood for that matter until there is environmental justice embedded in the comprehensive plan. so that we're not playing whack-a-ole. Thank you.
Hello, my name is Lydia Faith. I'm a part of Fort Worth Environmental Coalition of Communities. Um, I'm here today to demand you deny this conditional use permit from FedEx. FedEx is poisoning Echo Heights and approving this conditional use permit shows that Fort Worth City Council once again
approves a poisoning residents, particularly black and brown residents. You all have to deny this in any other industrial zoning. It is crucial. These racist policies of pushing industrial companies into Echo Heights, stop six and north side neighborhoods that both
past and present Fort Worth city councils are not only complicit in but have actively encouraged and approved is absolutely disgusting. We come out here several times asking you all to care, to listen to community members, to put people over industrial companies that
are ruining the health of community members, and yet there's been little to no action. Two weeks ago, we had over two uh 20 people show up to speak at the 6 pm meeting. Then five minutes before the start of the city council meeting, Jay Chapa told us that it would be moved to the 24th because Janette Martinez was
in Indonesia. And yet, no heads up or anything. Told five minutes before. Is this the health is the health and well-being of Echo Heights residents a game to y'all? This isn't the first time as you all have been playing games with us over the 2050 comprehensive plan. In
February, we had over 30 commu community members sign up to speak because you all ignored us for over a year. It was at that meeting the city council finally responded by giving us a presentation right before we spoke, saying they were working on it and the public meetings
would happen in April. Well, we're in June and it's been silent. No community meetings, but more industrial zoning cases keep coming up. This is beyond disrespectful. If you all cared, you would be reaching out to community to try to resolve this, but you haven't. You keep choosing money and uh
corruption over the people you supposedly represent. Y'all haven't sat down with Fort Worth ECC to talk about this. So, when will you finally take community members serious? And Janette, you can put on a million World Environmental Days to act like you care, but it's all fake when you keep helping
to poison the same community with industrial polluters. I hope everyone who spoke here today about the importance of diversity and inclusion puts it into practice by denying the CUP from um from FedEx. You all ma must pass a solution to stop zoning changes in
Echo Heights and make the priority to to complete 2015 comprehensive plan. Elizabeth Beg said Fort Worth does what is right. Well, we're about to see if that's true cuz I can say for a fact y'all haven't done it when it comes to communities in Echo Heights stopstakes
and North Side. We need you to stand against these industrial polluters. These industrial companies have been bullying and poisoning Southeast Fort Worth. Why is this not a fight of priority? With all this talk about standing up to the federal government, standing up to corporation like FedEx, shouldn't be a second thought. We need you to stand for the very community who
these supposed Democrats, whatever that means, on this council represent. Our next speaker is Alexander Montalvo. Alexander will be followed by Adrienne Smith. All right, we just spent a couple of hours earlier today talking about budgets and
money and the impact that's going to have on our city and what we can serve when we're not even serving communities like Echo Heights. What is the cost to the city when you neglect a community to this degree? What's the cost to
taxpayers when you do not hold corporations accountable when they don't even have a permit in place for five years and do the damage that they're doing to that community? So, we want to fight about budget line items and needing time to be able to do this, but we're not actually even doing
the job to actually protect the residents in our city from mass pollution and mass harm that's causing cancer and all other kinds of health adverse impacts. So when we talk about diversity, equity,
and inclusion, it is about making sure that we are having policies in place to protect those that we have traditionally and willingly and openly harmed for the sake of a dollar and for the sake of some multi-billion dollar corporation's
dollar. It doesn't have to be that way. We can have economic development. We can be good neighbors amongst residents and corporations, but you actually have to want to hold them accountable. You
actually have to hold them to the standards that means that our residents can live a healthy, viable life within the city of Fort Worth. And so far, what we've been telling those residents is saying, you're going to have to suffer
so that we can be comfortable because it can't be for all of us. because y'all does not mean all in Fort Worth like we like to perpetuate. So, I find it curious that the debate from earlier today, Charles, you had this big speech about I
don't know if this was a postracism kind of thought that you were trying to have, but this is an example for you right now while it's fresh, while you made that speech to see that impacts are being made to diverse communities and
the city is not doing anything to address it and you as a council are not doing anything to address it. So when you are in this fantasy that because there's different color faces on this dasis and because there's different
colored faces in different positions that all of a sudden everyone is doing okay, that's not the truth. And so voting against this added conditional use permit is something that we need every single
person on this council to vote against. And we need environmental justice on the 2050 plan for communities like Echo Heights, Stopick, Stopix, North Side, and the rest of Fort Worth. Thank you. Our next speaker is Adrienne Smith.
Adrienne Smith. I am one with the people. First, I would like to begin by saying deny with prejudice. FedEx is valued at 55 bill190 million. Oh, let me correct myself. 54
bill940 million. That was a 13% uh stock drop since we've been sitting here. What is the value of the lives affected by the continual environmental apartheid?
Thank you, Miss T. Environmental injustice that has consumed so much of their their that has consumed so much of their existence here within our city. I'll tell you what it's worth. dignity, the right to live their lives free of
pollutions, sickness, disease, and premature deaths. I say premature deaths because the Bible reminds us that we all have a appointment to to die. Every man has an appointment to die, but it didn't state prematurely. Four points that I would like to
reference since the gentleman from FedEx had his points. I feel like for one, FedEx doesn't own this property. Is it possible two that the property owner is due for a big bonus? Three, we don't
need another semi-truck graveyard here within our city. And last, four, 580 part-time jobs, not full-time, 580 part-time jobs, depending on the turnover rate. Now, I can't see my time.
Where's my time? So happy. Freestyle it, baby. Freestyle. You have a minute and 20 seconds, Mr. Smith. I didn't see my timeline. Got to be fair with me. So, there's some technical difficulties. He has a minute and 10 seconds. Thank you. Thank you. So, let's speak to the
history of this particular company. The site started being used for outdoor storage of semi-truckss and trailers be between 2003 and 2025. According to historic aerials, the land use began begun without proper zoning approvals
which resulted in code compliance violations in 2006. In order to remedy this situation, the applicant requested a special exception variance, etc., et I don't have to get into all that. Basically, they've been bad neighbors to the community. So,
FedEx, how about this? You are worth so much money. We have so much available property that you can purchase outside of this community that you can purchase and fix it up how you want to and store your trucks there. FedEx, this community does not want this environmental
um disease uh continuing on within our community. So, please do us a favor. Use your money, write a check, buy some land that's readily available for purchase by this city and store your trucks there.
Again, deny with prejudice. I It's the last of our speakers on this item. Council Martinez. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I have a question for zoning. I think I see Stephen over there. Stephen, this property is zoned K
industrial. What are allowed uses? Uh there's manufacturing, warehouse, um any retail uses that they would like to do? Um Kheavy is our most heavy industrial category. So allowed by righte would be
any of the manufacturing warehouse uses any industrial use that is in J or I all industrial uses for the most part. What are some examples of manufacturing? Um I would say like um manufacturing of ball bearings. Um any
automotive type uses and things to that nature. U manufacturing of uh steel manu just all the manufacturing that's allowed in industrial. There's a few that would require like a PD or something to that nature, but for the
most part all industrial uses would be allowed at this location. Would that allow manufacturing of like chemical products or it depends a PD? It depends. It may require a PD like for hazardous
materials and things to that nature. Okay, that was it. I do have a question for the um a few questions for the um for Mr. Holtzman. Mr. Holtzman, what's Can you remind me
what your role with FedEx is? So, I'm a senior project manager BL company. We're a full-ervice uh ASMEP firm, including civil. Okay. So, I think you might be able to answer these questions. So, do you know how many semi-truckss are on the uh site on a day-to-day basis?
On the there's a there's a plan that was provided. I think it's 192 spaces are available for tractors. And on the other site, on the other property across from Village Creek. Oh, I'm sorry. So, on the remote lot that we're
talking about, I think it's 192 spaces. On the hub specifically, I don't think there's any designated tractor spaces currently. Okay. Um, are there any hybrid trucks in your fleet today? So that's outside. What I can say is I know that there are
programs within FedEx that I'm aware of. Um our company is working on uh EV, solar power, also different types of things that are not diesel within the program. I'm not sure if there's anything specifically here at this hub.
Okay. So, but you feel like FedEx is looking um to move towards a more electric or hybrid fleet. Correct. they do have an initiative that's looking into other sources of fuels than diesel. And so I don't know
if you can speak to this, but I know Sean mentioned or at least presented an email for a contact where residents would be able to report violations. Um, is there an expected u timeline for when additional contact details might be
available? for example, a phone number or or some materials that can be shared with the community. There is and we actually have a flyer. Sean, is that something we can share on that screen? So, this is uh again, this is a working document here and then we're going to be working with with the community and also
with the council. Once that document is shared here, it's a basically a mechanism for if there's a trailer, tractor trailer on a prohibited route, this is one of the methods to report that to FedEx. So, there's it's a it's a
three-step process there. Initially, the the first line is just noticing it's a FedEx trailer. I mean, they're highly visible. They're white with either green or red or orange letters. So, on all the trailers on the corners on the tops, they have a serial number. It's a six-digit number. That's the same number
that's on the back of the trailer. So, as a as a as a good measure, just saying, "Hey, I've I've noticed a tractor trailer on this road at this time is is good. If they can provide the serial numbers on the trailer, that's even better. And if they can also
provide the license plate and in addition to everything else, that's the best method to help us correct this issue. Thank you. Um, if I could ask Wendy Turpin to come forward. I know that uh FedEx of course shared that they um are
committed to uh donating financially towards an air monitor that would be of the city's choice. Can you speak to uh what you know, Wendy? So, I have been facilitating an air monitor um donation by FedEx through um
Dr. Li with the University of Texas at Dallas. He has an air sensor program that's called Mintz. And what the air sensor does is it monitors particulate matter um from 1 to 10. It also uh does
multiple different kinds of meteorological data that it also takes care of. And all of this is on the internet. Also, part of his program is to do a shared air program and all of the monitors that he has in the region,
the metroplex area, are all online. Um, and he is hoping to be able to put it um with the assistance of Shantate and FedEx um at WM Green. We do not have that agreed to correct at this moment,
but that is the plan that I'm facilitating um and marrying all of those individuals together so that we can have an open concept of an air sensor monitor that everyone can see what is going on in the area. So, if
this goes as uh planned, then that information would be public information for anybody to access. Yes, absolutely. They have an open website and I know that I mean these this air monitor is pretty impressive but you said it also
reads temperature and bird calls. Is there anything else another feature? So let me put on my glasses and read the list. So it does do particular matter. It does everything from 0.1 um all the way up to 10 parts per million. Oh, excuse me 10
particular matter. Um and it does report the particle size. Um all the meteorological modules, pressure, temperature, um wind speed, humidity, do excuse me, due point, ambient noise levels in the area. It also does CO2,
levels of light, UV, and um one of the cool things that it does for school kids and those of us who watch birds is it does do bird song identification and has a picture of the bird online um as a learning tool that he was able to throw in as a bonus.
Thank you, Wendy. Those are all the questions I have for you. And so I want to go into my remarks. Didn't want to delay this any further. I first want to apologize for the continuing of this continuence of this case. know that I do not consider this or any zoning case lightly. Thank you to all who were able
to attend this morning to speak your stances regardless of what they were. I'm thankful to FedEx for their generous moni generous monetary donation of an air monitor to be placed at WM Green Elementary. This has been an ask of the community for a long time and I'm
excited that it will also be an educational experience for the students at the school. Thank you also for creating a reporting method for offending drivers who are cutting through the neighborhood. I hope that you're able to live up to your words and commitment to being a better neighbor to
the Echo Heights community. I do believe that the permit lapse should have been caught sooner by both parties um you know the city and the and FedEx and ask staff to put in mechanisms to keep this from happening again. Chief Aldridge,
you're I see you're still back here. We need your help to address enforcement in the area of these offending uh commercial vehicles going through the residential areas development services. I would ask that you um
plan for some uh inspections of the property. We did hear that there are violations of you know individuals washing the vehicles or performing uh maintenance on the property. And so in a good faith effort to ensure that this business is holding its drivers
accountable and reducing violations to a minimum, my motion today is to approve ZC25032 for a conditional use permit for parking of semi trucks and trailers in K heavy industrial for maximum of two years.
Ma'am, you can't no point. You can't speak for the audience. Give her the respect, please. Thank you, Council Martinez. to approve ZC2503. Tina James needs to be removed. I'm sorry, Tina. You can't do that for No. No. You can't do You can't do that. You cannot do that. Please go. You cannot
speak from the audience. I've asked you twice. Please, please calm down. Please calm down. Please allow council Martinez to finish speaking to approve ZC25032 for a conditional use permit for parking of semi-truckss and trailers in K heavy
industrial for a maximum of two years with no development standard waiverss. Got a motion on the floor. Council council Nettles Beck seconded. Okay. Council Beck was
second. I had a question um about the cup. Uh is it the zone? Is it Can I ask you? Okay. So, I did hear one of the uh residents that was talking about the CUP and about the lapse uh cuz I'm not having been
following it as well. So, I'm asking uh how did this cup go into lapse on the permit? So in the past there was a thing called a special exception that went to a different body which went to the board of adjustment and the cup process is a relatively new process maybe 3 to 5
years so they went through a different board different process now the cup process is here um that's where the lapse happened I think the lapse happened because it went through a different board and now it goes through zoning commission and
city council cups do as in the past They didn't. They went through the board of adjustment for a special exception process. Knowing that this was an issue, uh we've asked staff to look at the look to verify if there's any special exceptions that are laps in other areas.
And the CUP process is pretty um pretty solid to where if there's we have a list of cups and if there's any cups that are at time we email them uh call them and send a certified letter if they do do
not respond. So I feel like we've tightened up the cup process but we are looking back at the special exceptions to make sure that there there aren't any that have lapsed. The process changed, but CUP was what they had prior to or no? No, they had a
special exception. They had a special exception and so now it's going to a cup. Yes, sir. Okay. Yes, sir. Um this um zoning has how long has this zoning been on this property? Uh it's been a long time. Um I I don't have the
exact date, but it's been Yes, sir. years. Okay. So, this vote today is not adding additional uh bringing additional zoning to K to this location. It's not adding any anything additional than what had already been there for the last 15.
No, sir. The K is in place as of now. The CU just adds that additional use. Okay. And I couldn't hear your motion. Did Did you amend it for a certain time? Reducing it to two years versus five five to two. Okay. Um,
okay. And I I want to uh add to some uh um Janette's uh Councilwoman Martinez. Uh we as a city need to make sure because I when one of the persons spoke today they talked about a penalty because I feel like there should have been some type of penalty uh to go five
years but if if it's incumbent of the city's wrongdoing as well uh we have to really make sure that we um guide that more better and I think this council um none of us and we talk about this every
time we talk about Echo Heights uh allowed all this different warehouses come to Echo Heights. This is something that historically had happened just like it did in historic Southside and other places prior to this council been elected. And so I just want to re um as Martinez just alluded, I don't know if
anybody caught it, there are different things that can happen in this Kind industrial uh place. So if this case is denied and trucks are not parking there, you may be subject to something that may be more of a greater risk to this neighborhood. So I think that's
important to also uh notice and I for one uh have committed not to um agree to add any more pollution because we do know that this has been an issue. Uh but I do want to um uh articulate a few things
that were said. U for one uh thank you. Um, for one, appreciate everyone coming down here and I think that doing our research because there may be things that actually come that asks
provide more uh pollution to this area and but to for certain attacks across from the B and I'm fine. I've signed up for it so it don't affect me as may affect others. Um, but I think that we really should be trying to fight this
together. And so as we're working on the uh the plan, as we move forward with the comprehensive plan, uh I don't know if there is an established committee um of neighbors uh that are here. Uh uh but
there is a way that you can articulate your concerns to this council. And so those are my remarks. That's a conclusion. Please don't speak from the audience. Council member Peoples. Thank you. Well, I just wanted to say I am someone who understands environmental
racism and have fought against environmental racism and have fought to close plants that directly affect the community. But I want to be clear today that while I stand with the community,
Councilwoman Janette Martinez is not your enemy. when I went to her and to talk about it because I'm in district five. This was in district five. I talked to her. She absolutely was willing to work on a solution and I am
grateful to her for taking the time to invest and look at things and I think her amendment today while it is not what you want. One of our speakers did talk about and shortening the time period. And so, Councilwoman Martinez, I want to
thank you for spending the time with me to make me aware of the issue and your amendment today. Please don't speak from the audience. Is that the conclusion of our speakers on council? If so, you can please vote.
Council Laror, try again. Thank you. Motion carries. Ne is zoning case 25-099. We have no speakers on this item. Council member Martinez. Got a motion to second. Council, please
vote. Miss Miss James, please swap speaking from the audience. Thank you. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-021. And there are speakers on this item. We have two speakers on this item, C Martinez. The first is Aaron Buckner,
followed by Rick Herring. Hi, Aaron. Howdy. My name is Aaron Buckner. I'm the owner of Camel Crush Concrete and MAB Excavation in Fort Worth, Texas. Primarily what MAB Excavation does and has done over the past couple of years is we come in and remediate sites um and
get them ready for future development. Notable sites that we have done in the city of Fort Worth is 3700 Angle Avenue, which is where the new police impound is going right now. We've also done the old YMCA. I believe it's at 4450 East Berry
up in Barry Hill. We come in and remediated that site and uh now the Platinum uh Brownstone Platinum Apartments. Can't remember the name. Do a lot of them, but they're new apartments up on Barry. Um we come across a unique opportunity. One of we
found this 12 acre track of land uh behind Steuart Hose on Riverside. It uh had previously been a concrete dump for the old pipe manufacturing place and they buried approximately about a million tons of of pipe. Um our goal is
to come in and crush that pipe down, reclaim the site, and then ultimately put in a a an industrial development. Um, so far to date, we've hauled off almost 3,000 yards of uh demolition trash that was illegally dumped, almost
8,000 tires to the tire recycler. We've cleaned up the property. We've gotten rid of the homelessness, the prostitution, the drug use, the theft. Um, we're here asking for a fivey year c as we downgrade to Jay so that we have
time to clean it up and then ultimately like I said build an industrial subdivision. Uh, I don't need much more time than this. I do have uh the backing of the neighborhood association, all the immediate neighbors around us and uh
yeah, that's basically it. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Buckner. Our next speaker is Rick Herring. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'll be brief. Uh, I'm here today representing Carter Riverside Neighborhood Association and the Riverside Alliance, which is a coalition
of seven neighborhood associations in the Riverside area. And I can assure you that normally we would probably not be supporting a concrete crushing facility in our community, but as you heard from Mr. Buckner, there's a special fact
pattern with this one. It's been a dumping ground for many, many decades, and there's no other way to for reclamation to occur there and use the property for something positive without him crushing the concrete uh concrete in the beginning. Also, he's been very
amanable to work with, very transparent, uh, we believe, and you'll hear more about that from Phyllis Allen, president of United Riverside Neighborhood Association, but he at our request and in the negotiations, he agreed to down
zone from K to Jay, and we felt like that was a win for the community. and his property also is immediately adjacent to the western portion uh and yet to be developed portion of Gateway Park. And he has generously agreed to
donate $25,000 to a specific project in Gateway Park. And uh we're very appreciative of that and thank him for that. So without uh taking up more of your time, uh the groups that I mentioned, we are in support of his
application. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Herring. That's the last of our speakers on this item. Council Martinez, I don't know if her registration was missed, but Phyllis is here. I'm sorry. Was intended to speak. I apologize. I'll get it right. Phyllis Allen. Hi, Phyllis. Please come on down. Thanks,
Rick. Good afternoon. It's been a long day. Um, I want to thank you guys for listening to me. Like Rick said, uh, when I first heard concrete crushing, I was like, "Oh, heck no. We're not doing
that." But um because I live in this neighborhood and I sat on the comprehensive plan that we created in 2019, I knew that we had worked with our
industrial and light industrial uh neighbors because we our neighborhood is unique in that it has grown up with industrial and lighting. industrial neighbors. So when we found out about
the concrete crushing, it's at the end of my street. This is how this is how quietly this has been handled. It's a it's literally at the end of my street. I live at 2707
Inis. He's at 3220 in. And I didn't even know they were down there. I I go out every day. I traveled Riverside Drive. I did not know they were there. What they have done is they found themselves with
a piece of property that had someone else's problems. Problems that were created at a time when the city just really didn't pay that much attention to how businesses did business. And in order for them to go forward and make
this property be of value to them and to the neighborhood, they first have to clean up someone else's mess. So there's no if they don't do it, somebody's going to have to do it. And the city obviously is not going to have enough money to do
it right now. So what we're looking at, what they have done is they have been very good partners because we came to zoning and had talked to them and I was concerned because we had talked to them about downzoning from K to J in five
years after the CUP and I was like they may not even be there. when they went before zoning they asked for a new zoning case so that they could downzone immediately. So they have downzoned from
K to J which protects our which protects the neighborhood to a certain degree but it also impacts the value of the property that they have. So, I'm going to ask you, it's very different than a lot of cases you're going to hear, and
I'm going to ask you to approve their CUP. Um, and I want to say that they're good neighbors, and that's all we ask for. Thank you. That's the conclusion of our speakers. Council Martinez.
Thank you, Mayor. Um, I want to start my remarks by saying thank you to Mr. Buckner for contacting uh the surrounding neighborhood association and alliance early on about your zoning case. It says a lot when Riverside Alliance and United Riverside Neighborhood Association shows up in
support and it really makes a difference when property owners are accessible and responsive. Also want to thank you for the donation to the neighborhood association Junth event and for your very generous donation that Rick mentioned to uh towards Gateway Park Improvements. So I will now motion to
approve ZC25021. Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-055 and we have two speakers. Our first speaker is Leticia Wilburn followed by
Caleb Roberts. I don't see them. I think they left. Councilor Martinez. So, um, I have not heard from this applicant. So, to give the applicant an opportunity to reach out to my office and the surrounding groups, I motion to continue ZC2505 60 days until the August 26th council
meeting. Got a motion, a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-061. And there are no speakers. Peoples, there are no speakers. additional uh single family dwellings as
we need affordable housing in district 5. And so I would like to motion uh that we approve uh ZC25061. A motion a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-065.
Council member Flores, there are no speakers on this item. Motion a second. Please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-068. And we have one speaker. Council member Flores, Ty Thompson, only if there's opposition. To my knowledge, there is
none. Yes. Uh I move to approve this case and also acknowledge the support from Commissioner Ramirez from Taran County Court. A motion a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries.
Next is ZC2-069. We have one speaker on this item. Council member Peoples James Watkins. Mayor Parker, Council, thank you for your time this afternoon. I'm here before you to request a zoning change. Um, I've read the zoning staff's report
that they gave to you all and I feel like they have left um some shaping to be done in there. Uh, in their report to you all, it's making it seem like this property is a newly desired business that needs a zoning change to incur when in actuality, this business has been
open and operating for almost 50 years now. And we have been paying taxes to the city of Fort Worth for almost 50 years now. And due to an unforeseen accidental fire in the business, I'm here before you to ask the ability which
any business that has stood for 50 years would be allotted, which would be the right to rebuild and to continue to operate within the city that we've operated in for almost five decades. The zoning around the entire property are all in light kind with the current
zoning that I'm requesting, which is light industrial. The recommendation from the zoning staff to you all was that because there were restrictions put into other light industrial
on adjacent sides of our property that that deemed someone put thought into why they would agree to not allow a business that's been operating for 50 years and been paying taxes to the city for 50 years in good standing
would not be able to rebuild their business as such. We tried initially to start and rebuild the exact same footprint but due to a non-conforming use that because it was 50 years ago when we were zoned it is zoned
agricultural we are no longer zoned for that. So when we got the licensing to open this business it was allowed to do it. Now that we sit here before you all with the conundrum of being burned down and not able to rebuild during the
current confirmation of what the zoning is and then now the suggested denial to not let us change the zoning in order to rebuild a business that has operated for 50 years almost and again paid taxes for
almost 50 years. And I sit here and I listen about the diversity, the equity, and the inclusion of everything. And I wonder where the equality is. Because take away the business of what we are, and you put in any other business, and you say that business has operated for
50 years, paid taxes duly, and you're going to say that they don't have the right to reopen. How is that equal? How is that equitable? How is everything that you all stood up and said going to fall through the cracks because
you want to pick and choose what you deserve to be equal? That's not how equality works. I ask that you please disregard the zoning commission's request and approve. Thank you. That's the conclusion of our speakers, Councilman Peoples.
Thank you very much for your comments and uh mayor and city council uh I uh would like to look into this further. So I'm going to make a motion to continue this so I can look at future land use
and uh uh neighborhood commercial. And do I need to give a date? Yes. Okay. So um can we continue? I'd like to make a motion to continue to the August 25th meeting. 26th. August 26th. 26. Okay.
Got a motion, a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-071. Motion a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-072
and we have two speakers on this item. Our first is Bill Nuome followed by Steven Halliday. Thank you, mayor. I'm Bill Nuome. I'm the applicant. Um, we have a uh staff report recommending approval and we have
approval from the neighborhood association that we're in, Frisco Heights, and the neighboring neighborhood association, University Place, as well as a letter from TCU. Um, Mr. Halliday is my is my uh architect
and he has left. So, it's just me. Be happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Nuome. Council member Beck, are there any questions? Otherwise, motion a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-075.
And we have one speaker on this item. Motion to approve and a second. Ty Thompson's only if there opposition. Thank you. Motion and a second. Ty's okay with that, too. Got a motion on the floor.
Second, Macy Sphill. Yep. Yep. So, slip that and then Crane second. Yep. Motion carries. Thank you. Next is ZC25-082. Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote.
Carries. Next is ZC25-086. We have one speaker on this item. Council member Hill. Um, Olani Alupo here. Nope. Council Hill. Um, okay. This is
and I've spoken to the land owner already. Um, the intent is for auto sales and repair, which is not appropriate use for this um land. So, I'm going to deny with prejudice. A motion and a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-089.
And we have one speaker, Theo Thompson. Only if there's opposition. Got a motion of second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-090. And we have one speaker. Only if there's opposition. Tim Sansone.
If you'd like to say something, you can, but it's not necessary at this point. I just want to say thank you for everybody. It's very challenging day. I appreciate everything you guys do. Tim, so Tim, I want to thank you for hanging out this long. This uh you're a real trooper here. It's uh been a long day. I
actually want to extend that same thanks to everybody that came and spoke and and and actually hung out for the whole meeting. Uh Tim had a great meeting with staff yesterday in my office and uh we came to a conclusion that we're going to remand this back to zoning and then
we'll see it back here at council in August. Got a motion, a second. Council, please vote. Council, who was the second? It was Crane. Thank you. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-094.
One speaker on this item, Council Martinez. Recaring. Well, I guess the applicant didn't show, but Rick Herring and 1801 Bolton and I'm speaking on behalf of the same groups earlier, Carter Riverside Neighborhood Association and the Riverside Alliance, and we were opposed to this for a number
of reasons. Uh, Councilwoman Martinez, you should have gotten the letters from the Riverside Alliance and the Card Riverside Neighborhood Association. If you didn't, I have them. But this was denied at zoning for we believe all the right reasons. This is directly across from Sennsylvania Park and Riverside
Community Center. We've worked pretty tirelessly over the past 30 years to get rid of car lots on this section of East Bellnap between the Trinity River and the Halum City city limits and those efforts have really paid off. Today there's only one active car lot there
and the intention is not because we hate car lots. We've got plenty in our neighborhood but we were trying to create Bellnap as a more neighborhood friendly commercial corridor and those efforts have paid off for a long time. staff recommended denial. Uh so we're
hoping that the council will also deny this case. Thank you very much. It's a conclusion of our speakers, council Martinez. Thank you, Mayor. So I I will be motioning to uphold the denial and uh to deny with prejudice CC25094.
Got a motion and a second. Council Nettles, please vote. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-097. We have one speaker. Um, Siobhan Shaw. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, council members. Um, my I'm Siobhan Sha. I'm the
applicant and founding member of Workbay. We specialize in small bay industrial warehouse space in Utah, Texas, and Arizona. I had a slide deck. Let's see if that works. Yes, we're pulling it up. Thank you. Uh, yeah, we
basically by the time the deck has been pulled up, we have over 1 and a.5 million square feet of small bay industrial warehouse space in three different states. Um, anywhere from,300 square feet to,500 square f feet. That's our park in Utah. We were called Flex
Shops before, but we changed our name to Workbay. Um these are small clean bay industrial warehouse space for small tenants anywhere from uh Amazon fulfillment to someone needing
u a space and move out from their garage. So we are filling the blank when it comes to small businesses that want to move up from their garage to a smaller space. At Workbay we do everything hands-on. Uh we have a
massive property management team. Uh we have property managers on site and we do leases differently. Uh anywhere from 6 months to 12 months cuz we want to vet our our tenants, our potential tenants. Ever since owning this park in 2022, we
have cleaned up a lot a lot of dirty tenants. Um I am not asking for any changes or anything. All I'm asking for renewal of the the approved cup when we bought it in 2022. Um that's just a picture some pictures
of the site. Um these were taken last week on a Sunday. So that's why it's it's a little cleaner. Uh what's changed since we applied for the cup. The staff has been super awesome to work with and they've mentioned they brought some some stuff to our attention and we were
pretty hands-on and we were able to clean it all up. Uh there were some banners posted on our on our building. We we were able to clean that up. Um we installed an 8ft dumpster uh fence to screen our dumpster. We have spent over
90 grand so far ever since owning this property. Uh that's just a side plan. You know, we've sent we've we've sent a lot of notices to the tenants. We have done everything that we can to make this a clean property. And that's why we're
asking for a five-year renewal. That just shows our commitment to the city. We also have some other uh buildings in this city. And I think I have some pictures there. Um I'm being proactive here. This expires in October, but I'm here early. Um
uh out of the 12 14 units that we have, 10 of them are locally owned businesses and 12 of them are uh minority owned businesses as well. Yeah, we would love your help to get this renewed. Um thank you, Mr. Shaw. Council member Peoples,
Mr. Shaw, thank you very much for your presentation and thank you for being a good neighbor. But I am going to based on the information I have move to approve renewal for one year with no development waiverss. Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote. Who is the
second? Council Hall. Thank you. Motion carries. Next is ZC25-098. And there are no speakers. Member Crane. Thank you, Mayor. I know it's been a long day and I won't belabor this, but I've got some language I have to read in here. This is a council initiated
reszoning and actual upzoning of properties in the Las Vegas Trail area. It's meant to encourage development and neighborhood friendly development. So, with that, I'm going to exclude some uses that are normally allowed by Wright and MU1. Specifically, you'd like to exclude and Stephen, I don't know if who's taking notes here because we
haven't really talked about this, but I we have talked about it, but it's specifics here. Motel, motor ends, ends extended stay. This is excluded. Motel, motor ends, ins hotels, short-term rentals, liquor store or package stores, indoor amusement, tattoo parlors,
massage therapy, cigar or tobacco store, uh vape shops, drive-in businesses, filling station, gasoline sales, and sexually oriented businesses. The purpose behind this is to encourage more neighborhood friendly things like coffee shops, restaurants, dry cleaning, nail
salons, flower shops, daycare centers, and grocery stores. So, with that, I make a a motion. uh to approve. Got a motion and a second by council hall. Please vote. Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0568.
Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is M andC25-0586. Motion and a second. Please vote. Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0631. Motion a second. Please vote.
Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0632. Motion in a second. Please vote. Try it again. Deborah, sorry. Council Poples, get your vote again. Thank you. Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0614. Council Hill.
Motion a second. Please vote. Motion carries. Next items MNC 2550619 and MNC250620 will be taken under one motion. You don't get off so easy because I have to read all this. So I move that the Fort
Worth City Council adopt the resolution authorizing use of imminent domain to acquire the following. 2852 acres in pedestrian access easements and.2407 2407 acres for
temporary construction easements at 152000 Grand River Road in the John Shilddress survey abstract number 268 and the Payton R. explain survey abstract number 1454
and being part of lot 1 R block two of lots 1R and 1R-1 block two River Park in addition to the city of Fort Worth Tarant County Texas
owned by BDFW River Park owners LP and 3058 acres of pedestrian easement AC access easement and 3523 acres for a temporary construction easement at 3,100 High
River Road in the Payton R. Explain survey abstract number 1454 and being part of lot 3R2 block 2 and lots 3 R1 and 3R2 block 2 maker addition to the city of Fort Worth Tarant County, Texas
owned by Comre River Park LLC. The property rights in the improved subject property are required to constru construct a pedestrian access trail needed for the center port trail phase 2
project. A public use that begins at the Centerport TR station phase one trail. It extends further east along the railroad track, turns south along West Trinity Boulevard sidewalk, and ends at
the Fort Worth Grand Prairie City boundary. Site improvements will include a paved shared use path, a pedestrian bridge, retaining walls, and related drainage infrastructure. The property interest to be acquired is described by
meats and bounds and depicted by survey exhibits attached to this mayor and council communication. And this motion indicates that the first record vote applies to all units of property to be condemned and that the minutes shall
reflect the first votes applied to these property to these units. Got a motion and a second. Yeah, that was like a form of hazing. That was not nice. Okay. Okay. Council motion a second. Please vote.
Motion carries. Okay. And the next items, MNC 25621 and MNC 2550622 will also be taken under one motion. Council member Crane. Thank you. Staff is not going to let us get out of here for July without good old imminent domain language here. I move
that the Fort Worth City Council adopt the resolution authorizing use of imminent domain to acquire the following 0.0090 0090 acres and rideway easement at 5701 Camp Buouie Boulevard and the JA Bower survey abstract number 87 lot 39 and 40 block 142 Chamberlain height
Chamberlain Heights first filing city of Fort Worth Tarant County Texas owned by PNC Bank in a 00273 acres and rideway easement 046 acres in permanent utility easement and 2636 acres in temporary construction easement at 5605 Lock
Avenue in the JA Bower survey abst Abstract number 87, part of lot 18 R2, block 143, Chamberlain Heights, first filing, City of Fort Worth, Tarant County, Texas, owned by Store Capital Acquisitions LLC. The land rights and the subject property are needed for the Camp Buy and Horn intersection
improvement project, a public use project that will enhance traffic flow and safety at the road intersection of Camp Buie and Horn Streets. The property interest to be acquired is described by Meets and Bounds and depicted by survey exhibits attached to this mayor and council communication. And this motion indicates that the first record vote
applies to all units of property to be condemned and the minutes shall reflect that the first vote applies to all those units. Got a motion and a second. Council, please vote. Motion carries. Next is MC2-0468. Council member Flores.
Got a motion, a second. Please vote. Motion carries. Next is MNC25-0582. Council member Beck. Um I want to enthusiastically move to approve. I don't want to belabor it because we have been here all day, but I see um some of our team out there. um
thank you for all of the work that you've done on this and I am so excited to see um what you do with this particular area of uh Fort Worth. So move to approve. Motion in a second. Please vote. Congratulations. Motion carries.
And lastly, next is MC25-0618. Council member Bllelock. Move to approve. A motion and a second. Council, please vote. It's loud. Council member Beck, try one more time. And Macy
motion carries. With that, council meeting is adjourned.