e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good afternoon and welcome to your city council meeting before mayor Parker calls a meeting to order we ask that you please silence all electronic devices City Council meetings are conducted for the official business of the city council and to receive input from residents members of the public attending city council meeting shall observe rules of decorum and shall not engage in disorderly conduct that interferes with the ability of others to observe or to participate in the meeting without coruption or fear of intimidation threats or hostility speakers who engage in any conduct or encourage such conduct that interferes with the meeting including loud and prolonged yelling screaming clapping or other noise creating acts which make it difficult for the city council to conduct or continue with the meeting will have their the Muke m m it Muke it's been a long day folks the mic muted and will be removed from the the chamber for those of you who have requested to speak there are two podiums in the chamber each Podium has a countdown clock located to the speaker's right that will indicate how much time is remaining a bell will sound when you have 30 seconds left before you begin your comments please state your name and thank you good evening and welcome to your for city council meeting I'll call us to order and turn it back over to Janette tonight's invocation will be given by Sonia Dicker Nickerson from the day spring Family Church please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of Allegiance Heavenly Father we come before you today with hearts full of gratitude for the many blessings you have bestowed upon us we thank you for the opportunity to gather in this esteemed Council chamber to seek your guidance guidance and wisdom we acknowledge your sovereignty over all things and recognize that without your direction our efforts are in vain Lord we lift up the city of Fort Worth to you a city known for its Rich history and vibrant culture and strong Community Spirit we're grateful for the diversity and strength of its residents and for The Unique contributions each person brings to our community we ask that you pour out your peace upon this city that it may be a beacon of Harmony and unity in a world often divided father we pray for justice to Prevail in all our endeavors grant our city leaders the wisdom to make decisions that are fair and Equitable ensuring that every voice is heard and every person is treated with dignity and respect help us to create policies and practices that uplift the marginalized and provide for the needs of our citizens we ask for your Divine wisdom to rest upon each member of the Fort Worth City Council may they have Clarity of mind and purity of heart as they deliberate and decide on matters that affect our SP our city may they be guided by a spirit of service always putting the well-being of the community above any personal or political gain we pray for Unity among our council members City officials and all the residents of fourth world bind us together with cords of love that cannot be broken as we approach our agenda items tonight may we work collaboratively setting aside differences and focusing on our common goals let the spirit of cooperation and mutual respect permeate our interactions creating a strong and cohesive Community father we also lift up the future of our city and its residents we thank you for continued safe safety and well-being for all who call Fort Worth home protect our children our families and our neighborhoods from harm as we conclude this prayer Lord we humbly ask for your guidance illuminate our path and grant us the discernment to follow your will let your presence be a constant reminder that we do not lead alone but under your my ey May everything we do bring glory to your name and benefit to our beloved City of Fort Worth in the name of Jesus we pray amen United States of America for it stands Nation God indivisible withy andice for all flag to T godible next will be items to be withdrawn from the consent agenda we have one item to be withdrawn from the consent agenda that is mc24 d152 items to be continued or withdrawn by staff and there are no items to be continued or withdrawn by staff mayor that gets us to the consent agenda speakers thanks Janette our first speaker is Bob Willoughby followed by Justin Wells chamber thank you Justin come on down and Bob can come next if he's there waiting no okay thank you uh good evening mayor and council members uh I was just wanting to speak uh it's on the consent agenda I don't think it was actually withdrawn it's a MNC 24-104 I wanted to just describe what the project consisted of and what we're trying to do with the vacations um as you all may know in Taran County there is a deficit it on linear accelerators for radiation oncology and with UT Southwest we aim to um really help alleviate that our plan with the expansion with the building in the proposed garage is to actually cut that deficit by more than half and so with that um with the building configuration we have to extend that through a linear fashion and that then requires this vacation of South Jennings Avenue it's actually two vacations a corner clip and the actual Street itself and uh with that we kindly ask for your support thank you Justin thank you our next speaker on consent agenda will be Chris Wood followed by John Martinez my name is Chris Wood and I am from District nine I oppose replacing existing pipe and Sewer M with polyvinyl chloride material otherwise known as PVC pipe at Rosemont Middle School because there are safer materials available I'm supporting safety over saving money PVC plastic is an affordable choice for water pipes it doesn't corrode it's flexible it's easy to install however PVC can be damaged by exposure to extreme temperatures and certain chemicals this often results in chemicals like Vinyl chloride leaching into drinking water in fact PVC is considered as the most environmentally damaging plastic and one of the most toxic substances on the planet PVC toxins build up in the water in the air and in the food chain they cause severe health problems including cancer immune system damage and endocrine disruption especially in children another problem with PvZ pipes is the lack of regulation on additives specifically additives used in the M manufacturing of PVC pipes varies making it difficult to assess the full range of potential health risks it is important to keep in mind that we all live Downstream there are alternative options to PVC pipes copper pipes they're the most expensive but they're the safest due to their inherent resistance to leeching and their long lifespan also polyethylene P pipes have a higher cost than PVC but they're safer than PVC for drinking water furthermore C PVC chlorinated polyvinyl chloride these pipes are also considered less hazardous than PVC but they come with a higher price tag please do not approve this item as there are safe safer options available than PvZ pipes thank you our next speaker is John Martinez followed by Anette leros good evening my name is John Martinez I'm with the regional Hispanic contractors and I work in councilman Nettles District I'm here in support of experience whether you're talking about experience hiring J Chapa whether you're talking about experience of the Black Chamber or the Hispanic chamber in growing and developing businesses one thing I want everyone to understand when we're talking about small businesses we're talking about the American dream and so many of us don't make it that first go around but what these Chambers organizations and leaders do is make sure that people people have one more opportunity so many of these businesses know the trade they know how to cook in restaurants they know how to run uh Human Services kind of jobs where you talk about haircuts and stuff and in construction they know the trade but they don't know the business they don't know how to do the administration of it and that's what these organizations have been doing so ladies and gentlemen I ask you to please support that because supporting them you're supporting the men and women who live in your districts and who have one more opportunity for that American dream thank you our next speaker is Annette Landeros hello good evening everyone thank you so much for the opportunity to address you all as you all know our Fort Worth Hispanic chamber of commerce and the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce um contract and agreement with the city of Fort Worth is on the consent agenda for today and we just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for your continued support over the years of trying to make sure that we are supporting small businesses and their um education and resources that they have and that they need to be able to continue to do work here in the city of Fort Worth we're really proud of the work that we've accomplished from one-on-one business consultations to helping people get their certifications education courses to helping them create relationships with banking institutions we work hand inand doing that work every day and we're grateful for the commitment and the partnership with that we have for the city with that so thank you so very much thank you Council that's the conclusion of our consent agenda item speaker council member Beck had a few things to say before we move on motion I just want to note on um on this consent agenda we have two um Street vacations and both of those are very important to the city of for worth and so I just want to make sure that we're making note of our partners that are continuing to expand and invest in Fort Worth that being TCU and also UT Southwestern I'm very excited to see the care that UT Southwestern is going to be able to bring to the City of Fort Worth with that street vacation and so with that I move to approve got a motion and a second Council any other discussion if not please vote motion carries our next item will be MNC 24-1 052 entertain a motion Council go ahead council member yes I um I requested to pull this off U mostly to uh celebrate the work that the chambers do um so thank you mayor for the opportunity um you know this is a an initiative that um this Council has been really proud about um and it's really important that we invest in our small businesses in fact this Council took up um um the matter of increasing the investment um in both our Black Chamber and our Hispanic chamber because we know that the city invests nearly a half billion dollar a year in City contracts I mean it's important that we're ensuring that we're providing equal opportunity across Ross the city and building um local homegrown businesses across every community and so um you know I'm really proud of the work that Michelle greenford and my sister and that lettos um um puts forward to this in the entire team I'm just really proud of what um we've accomplished together many blessings a mood to approve got a motion second any other discussion counc yes counc rles yes I want to also um tag in on what Dr Williams said tonight uh I think it's very important that we understand and we stand on our position on minority on small businesses on diversity on equity and inclusion to make sure that the city of Fort work cares for every single person when it comes to small businesses and that not only we care but we will support dollars to them and so I'm proud of this Council that we have continued to support this engagement I look forward to seeing the work that the Hispanic chamber will do as well as the Black Chamber thank you so much got a motion and a second Council please vote motion carries mayor I believe that gets us to the non-consent speakers since we do not have any uh announcements um let's move to do board appointments please Janette if you want to move to item number 24- 4592 yes I believe that one is mine I'd like to request your consideration councel to appoint the following individual to the board below with a term effective December 10th 2024 and ending October 1st 2025 Miss Elizabeth wadell has agreed to fill a partial term on the Park and Recreation Advisory Board very excited about her appointment if you have any questions about her application and resume they're all attached here in the original copy will of course be maintained by the city secretary's office a motion in a second please [Music] vote motion carries next will be 24- 4593 board appointments from District Two council member Flores there go okay now the mic's on thank you mayor mayor and counsil I request your consideration to appoint the following individual with a term beginning December 10th 2024 and ending October 1st 2026 Brian through heal first term zoning commission Fort Worth Alliance Airport zoning commission the respective applications attached and resume if provided uh will be on file at the city secretary's office office second motion a second Council any other discussion please vote motion carries next will be 24- 4785 at large appointments thank you unless anybody else on the Das was planning on making these appointments going once going twice um per guidelines reflected in the Fort Worth administrative regulation nomination of atlarge members for certain boards commissions and committees the following appointment will be made reappointment of Dan Hayes position six Capital Improvements plan advisory committee Wastewater water third term beginning December 10th 2024 and expiring October 1st 2026 respective application and resume will all be provided to the city secretary's office motion a second please vote motion carries next is 24- 4787 which is at large appointments for the Arts commission thank you Janette per the guidelines reflected in the fourth administrative regulation nomination of at large members for certain boards commissions and committees the following appointment Bernardo valerino first term Fort Worth Art commission for position nine art professional um beginning December 10th 2024 and ending on October 1st 2026 respective application resumes will be provided in the city secretary's office motion a second please vote okay motion carries okay may I believe that gets us to the non-consent speakers thank you I appreciate that our first resolution this evening is in a resolution appointing Jesus J choa as city manager for the city of Fort Worth speakers will begin with Dell fizzler followed by Rosa Navar welcome back Dale thank you madam Madame mayor members of the city council uh my name is Dale fistler and I reside at 3726 North 31st Street in Waco Texas which I understand is just outside the current etj of Fort Worth and I'm here in support of the agenda item and was excited to see that you have the opportunity to hire Jay chappa as your next city manager Jay and I started our careers at the city about the same time I felt that I was older and wiser at that time because I had worked at another city I like learned later that I was just older not wiser Jay impressed me immediately because he was not only smart but he had the patience to explain things to me so that I could understand them so a few years later I was able to hire Jay as the assistant director in the water department a few years later Jay got a great offer to work for BNSF and he took it because they made him an offer that was really too good to turn down after he left I realized that Jay had left some unique skills that that we didn't have at the city and we desperately needed I kept up with them and later Charles Boswell and I were able to convince him to come back to the city after a year or two we hired him to run the economic development department and he was great uh Jay has a passion for bringing Economic Development projects to Fort Worth and especially when it benefited the historically underserved areas of the community Jay was really good at finding elegant solutions to complicated and challenging problems and if there is a challenge or a controversy you want Jay on your team what most impressed me about Jay was how he treated people and how he inspired others to do so I tell you all this to say that one thing I have learned in my 20 some odd 30 some odd year career is that if you have the opportunity to hire Jay choa take it uh this is an amazing City and I think he'll be an amazing city manager and thank thank you for what you do as council members and mayor for the city of Fort Worth thank you thank you Dale our next speaker is rosan naar followed by Annette Landeros mayor council members thank you for allowing me to speak uh Rosen abajar I live at 2121 Fountain uh Square Drive uh in district 7 I'm here today to support your vote to appoint Jay Choppa as Fort War's next city manager I have known Jay since he was in the housing Department I have seen Jay's career grow along with the city Jay's experience working in both uh private and public sectors makes him an ideal candidate for city manager Jay has been responsible for various projects which I'm sure you all are aware of all the projects that he's been part of from American Airlines Dicky Arena uh you I can go a list is a mile long I've had the privilege of working with Jay when I was president of the Fort Worth Hispanic chamber along with my partner GJ Innings with the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce we were looking at setting up policies and ordinance to support MW SBE companies he worked with us to make sure that we had strong policies so that those businesses could gain opportunities with the city Jay knows the importance of small business small businesses are the backbone of all our cities and communities Jay has worked with grassroot organizations to major corporations he knows the importance of building a strong business community that leads to building a strong Workforce and the growth of businesses at all levels this improves the quality of life for all residents throughout our city Jay's vast knowledge and relationships at all levels will only help Fort Worth Jay is a respected leader in our community and our city he has earned that respect by demonstrating his commitment to finding Solutions one of Jay's strengths is listening to all voices while we may not always agree finding compromise to move forward is the key to success of any task Jay brings that experience when I first heard of David Cook's retirement my first thought is J choa was the right person for the job we need a city manager who knows Fort Worth and North Texas State Texas State demographer once said Fort Worth will outgrow Dallas we have a land to develop but we need a plan for that growth I know with Jay's experience and and various levels uh in the city he will will create and Lead that plan to make Fort Worth not only the 12th largest city but land Us in the top 10 mayor council members you know of Jay's experience firsthand and know that he is a qualified candidate to become Fort W's next city manager I have heard that the process and transparencies are issues now if these were issues they should have been brought up at the beginning or during the process I believe you all participated in that interview with all the candidates you know I look at this because you don't run business after the fact you don't be reactive you're proactive but to come up with these issues now makes us wonder why or makes me wonder why you have your reasons and we can agree to disagree as adults but I am here to say I support the decision to um appoint J choa as our next city manager thank Ros thank you our next speaker is Anette Landeros followed by Daniel Hernandez hello mayor council once again um on behalf of the Fort Worth B Chamber of Commerce I'm excited to enthusiastically enjoy Endor J choa as our next city manager we released a statement as an organization just yesterday on behalf of our board but also 13 past chairs and three past presidents and CEOs of the Fort Worth Hispanic chamber of commerce so we are very confident in Jay's ability and feel that he is the right choice and I think that we have a room full of people that would agree with that in fact I know several of you did not sign up to speak but if you are here in support of J choa if you could just please stand just because I want to rec recognize that those of folks that are interested there's nothing wrong totally fine using her time her time is still going thank you very much keep going a few of the a few of the a few of the accomplishments that I think are important to acknowledge that Jay helped lead us on was uh rectifying issues with the city and HUD to ensure that we kept our federal funding um that he helped lead with the Facebook data center that Dr billions of dollarss of investment to Fort Worth he helped with the Fort Worth Renaissance development located at MLK freeway in Barry he helped with the development of the Southside Tiff which has been very well done and continues to help with Redevelopment activity there he helped create single family infel programs that led to the construction of dozens of homes in the nearest Southside he was the lead staff person in the Redevelopment of the fort wor Stockyards which we I know that was a sensitive issue but we continue to work on today uh he has also helped negotiate with and retained the American Airlines Headquarters here in Fort Worth and I think for me one of the other things I think is really important to share on a personal note I've sat with Jay at mentorship as a former government employee at mentorship programs for young adults that are in here at city of Fort Worth and I remember hearing him speak and giving his they asked him what's the best piece of advice you can offer us as folks that work here at the city of Fort Worth and his best piece of advice of all the things he could say over the Decades of experience he had was to never assume that any task or project was below you to always bring your best and to show that you can do anything and that you will give your all regardless of what the assignment may be and that if you continue to show up every day that your hard work will be noticed J choppa's hard work has been noticed ladies and gentlemen that's unquestioned and I'm really glad and thankful for the opportunity to highlight that thank you so much you our next speaker is Daniel Hernandez followed by Lydia gardo good evening uh my name is Daniel Hernandez um I have offices downtown and uh live in District nine I've lived in Fortworth since 1977 had been very involved for quite some time and thought I knew this city I've never met anybody who knows the city better than Jay Choppa um 25 years we've been friends and uh he's the guy go to he is the role model of a father a husband and a friend and the utmost professional I have ever met he is uni uniquely qualified he's got the experience um can't think that any other candidate could even come close when you already have the best candidate in front of you why do you look elsewhere if Michael Jordan had shown up in his prime no team's going to interview him they're going to take him I urge this Council to make one of the best decisions for the city of for worth and appoint Jay choa thank you our next speaker is Lydia guajardo Lydia will be followed by Joe Guerrero good afternoon mayor City count and City Council Members thank you for having me here my name is Lydia wardo Rickard and I reside at 42 37 kont in district 7 as a lifetime resident I have seen the evolution and growth of footw worth this is not the same city it was in 1974 when my father moved our tiny family here to begin his city of footw worth career at that time the population was 374,000 residents in the same year the city would partner with its neighbor to the East and open one of today's busiest international airports later in the 70s Fort Worth would vote to reform City Council to all single member districts and since then we have seen Monumental change and growth within our city the advancement of footw worth has not been accidental it has been the result of dedication and Leadership from not just our elected officials but from the community stakeholders and from the people who have made their career working in this very building it is those people who started in the basement and worked their way up to the top floors and higher levels they have sh shown up every day and put in long hours they have missed children's games performances and other family events to remain focused on making our city a better place for all so I'm here this afternoon to advocate for one of those employees who put in the dedication making this a world- class City J choa his he is the type of employee we want at the ground level and at the top as our city CEO he has invested in the place he calls home and today we need to elevate leaders who our children can identify with the demographics of Fort Worth have changed and we need leaders who reflect all of our citizens we need leaders who want to grow with Fort Worth and Jay has fit that bill he has been instrumental in the city's intentional movement forward he has followed in the footsteps of other leaders who taught him to manage and lead with Integrity he speaks up for those who need an advocate and he will fight to make this a better City for everyone as Fort Worth is poised to become one of the 10 largest cities in the nation we need a leader who brings Innovation vision and most of all who brings experience in a time of constant chain we need change we need a proven leader we need a city manager who is ready day one time is of the essence and The Time Is Now for Fort Worth so I ask you where else can we find a leader who exceeds expectations and has heart for Fort Worth Jay has grown and evolved with Fort Worth over the past 25 years years and many of you in this room have seen him grow and possess the necessary experiences skills and Readiness to take the helm without skipping a beat I am urging you to stand in Unity on the right side of History this afternoon think about standing in unity for a better foot worth and stand up for a first in our City's history and make Jay Choppa your next city manager our next speaker is Joe Guerrero followed by Victoria Bargas is Joe here just make sure he's not outside I'm going to move to Victoria Bargas is Victoria in the room thank you Victoria hi there good afternoon mayor City Council my name is Victoria Bargas I reside at 301 East Drew in District 11 regarding the appointment of the next city manager some have asked why the rush I ask why wait it doesn't make sense to go looking for a candidate with all the qualifications you require when you have that person right here in J choa he has demonstrated great leadership during his tenure at the city and and I know he will continue to do the job please do not delay and appoint Jay Choppa city manager thank you our next speaker is Robert Fernandez followed by William gon good afternoon mayor and council members uh my name is Robert Fernandez I reside at 2305 Colonial Parkway um thank you for repaving Colonial Parkway right by University by the way uh I'm here in full support of Jay Chapa as the next city manager of Fort Worth my experience of 40 years serving this city in various nonprofit organizations and including serving uh the city itself in the at the DFW Airport board which is really one of my highest Honors that I was able to serve in in the 1990s I also had the pleasure of serving as a um what we call chair of the gang task force in the 1990s to having to deal with the youth gang violence that we had that was just rampaging through our city um so I've been very involved and very giving in my 40 Years of of of living U and participating here and so I firmly and and and urge you to support the appointment of Jay I was also integrally involved in the formation of an organization that was the predecessor to what's called North Texas lead it was called bold initiative Jay was one of our star recruits and he was quickly picked up by BNSF much did Might in a way surprising disappointment because he was taken from the city of Fort Worth which was not what we had intended to have the organization do but nevertheless it was for his benefit and for being's benefit as well to me Jay demonstrates integrity and vision that we need to lead us forward I believe that the city will benefit from his leadership and he's eminently qualified and I urge you to strongly support the appointment of J Chapa as our next city manager thank you for your time our next speaker is William gon followed by Bob Willoughby good afternoon mayor mayor Parker members of city council and residents of Fort Worth on behalf of AR dear Rosa William hon sorry for 1940 uh North Main Street uh on behalf of Ares dear Rosa the premier Latino cultural art center and Theater Company in Fort Worth we extend our enthusiastic support for the appointment of Jesus J Chapa as the next city manager of the city of Fort Worth as an organization deeply rooted in the community arst dear Rosa is committed to preserving promoting and interpreting the art cultural lives and history of our diverse City we understand that strong inclusive leadership is critical to fostering Equity growth and Innovation J Cha's proven track record of Public Service deep understanding of Fort Worth's needs and dedication of equity economic business and Community Development exemplify the leadership qualities necessary to guide our city into the future J Cha's uh Decades of experience and steadfast commitment to Fort Worth have shown his ability to unite people across neighborhoods and communities address complex challenges through with thoughtful Solutions and uphold the values of transparency and accountability his appointment would Mark a historic M moment as the first Hispanic city manager a milestone a milestone that reflects forward's vibrant diversity and the contributions of its Latino Community representation matters and having a leader like J Chapa at the helm signals a commitment to ensuring all voices in our city are heard and respected we firmly believe that his vision and Leadership will continue to advance Fort Worth's reputation as a city of opportunity inclusivity and progress for its residents we respectfully urge the city council to take this Monumental step forward and appoint Jay Chapa as the next city manager Artis dear Rosa looks forward to collaborating with him and the leadership to enhance the business cultural social and economic well-being Fort Worth of Fort Worth and we stand ready to support him in this historic role thank you our next speaker is Bob Willoughby followed by DaNell Ballard is Bob here do we know is DaNell here Donell either Ballard no Donell Ballard Bishop Kirkland will be next followed by Alan lobal okay here we go again we're playing cheerers while you people busy playing chess on September 24th I stood before you made a request as it relates to the city manager's position I urge you not to play poly Trix with my Village like with Chief with we needed a chief of police we both agreed on Chief notes we went through the process and we hired him my Village asked me Bishop why do you go down there it looks like those who looks like us are fighting for us and that white folk going to do what white folk want to do should I go back and report to them that they're right this time this is an irrational capricious arbitrary decision when the city was about to burn down because of Jackie Craig and at Tatiana jeffson the Negro pastor's ideas and considerations were important and relevant have we lost our Ry you people are the moral police and the fiduciary managers of our city we we have placed a lot of confidence in you this decision does not set well with me it reminds me of wilington North Carolina Mas of 1898 how people got in a hurry to put out their narrative only to manipulate the truth and as a result countless of negroes lost their lives again Black Wall Street told us in 1921 the village of Greenwood was burned down because of Rush false narrative we suffer the most in my Village when you rush your duties I'm a Paul I am appealing to your sense of Consciousness we're asking for a thorough vetted process no backdoor deals no good a boy handshakes on the 13 hole at the country club no seven Street influence no secret society hoodie meetings no Houdini Disappearing Acts or David Copperfield slight hand movements let's have an open righteous due process let's do the right thing perhaps Mr Chopper is the right guy for the job J but let's not rush the decision if it walks like a duck quats like a duck and Wobbles like a duck it must be a duck and a lame one at that don't make this lame Rush decision I'm pleading with each of you I'm not yelling and cussing and fussing Miss B Miss bons I'm asking for delay not deny I appreciate the work Mr Chopper has done here he had the fortitude and the conand to do when no one else would do when he fired F jural and I appreciate that but he cost us $10 million when he did it the only thing I'm saying I don't have a problem with Mr Chopper I have a problem with the process and with that being said without Mr Chopper and Kelly Allen gray that would be countless of bodies laying over stop six without the VIP he has done well those who oppose him would you please stand up those of you who oppose thank you very much for your time our next speaker is Alan lobau followed by Michael Dr Michael Bell thank you Madame mayor council members I'm Alan lobau I reside at 3628 Kimberly Lane in District N9 uh I'm a retired minister with the Christian Church Disciples of Christ and I'm a fond alumnus of leadership Fort Worth where we advocated the Fort Worth way and the Fort Worth way reminded US citizens and elected officials to seek clear communication cooperation consensus building and Community engagement I don't rise to speak against your candidate I Rise to speak against the process I read the your process the Nationwide search 300 candidates the interview with several finalists that you skipped The crucial crucial step of involving community members in the process in effect the very people who will be served by the next city manager were not consulted there's an old joke among ministers that when they're being called to new church the person comes out and says there's good news and there's bad news we voted to uh the good news is we voted to call you the bad news it was 51 to 49 my mentors reminded me if that was ever the case you don't go to that place you build consensus and you find a way through in effect the very people who will be served were not consulted I've lived in Fort Worth for 243 years and I'm a little embarrassed that the 12th largest city in our country has pushed through this resolution without this crucial step so along with my colleagues I wish you would table this do a full vetting with community members because we can do better thank you our next speaker is Michael Bell followed by kala pomarez mayor and councel the Very idea of a subset of City Council of this city council would choose to circumvent established process and hiring a new city manager raises serious questions not only about this specific appointment but also about the future direction of our city and its commitment to democratic principles no the process of hiring a city manager is not a matter of under the table Arrangements political horse trading or backro deals it's an important decision that should involve every facet of our community a city manager isn't simply an administrative city managers influence policy shape City priorities and manage key departments that impact this City's residents lives daily for this Council to double down on musling through a higher this critical to the forward movement of the 12th largest city in this country without transparency and public involvement such a dangerous dangerous precedent when communities that you that put you on the desk are shut out of the decision-making proceedings the very Foundation of our democratic system is undermined we don't elect our city leaders to act in isolation we expect them to be stewards of the Public's trust ensuring that decisions are made with broad input and accountability this city belongs to all of us and it is our right and indeed our responsibility to have a voice in how it is governed and within the and with the pending resignation of Chief Neil no the potential collateral damage of this bad faith decision which will result in an unvented city manager leading the search for a new police chief someone who is responsible for Public Safety and the protection of residents this bad faith decision has the potential to reverberate throughout our city for years to come without transparency we risk placing the future of our Police Department in the hands of someone without a mandate from the community without the trust and input of the very people whose safety is at stake ignore us if it helps you to justify this proposed Mal feance but it will most certainly result in a further erosion of an already threadbear trust between our city government our police force and the people who helped put you on the Des in the first place I urge you to reconsider rubber stamping your proposal and restore the trust of the people you represent by allowing public participation in the appointment of the city manager thank you our next speaker is car Carla PA minus hi Carla followed by Tara Maldonado Wilson hello Council and mayor I'm coming before you today as resident of District 11 as a community member that cares deeply about improving the lives of Fort Worth residents every day we have a lot of problems in Fort Worth we have a housing crisis we have a food desert we have food deserts in a major city we have a lack of Affordable Health Care crisis we have a lack of accountability from our law enforcement our city services have been struggling and while under David and previously Jay as well we must meet our present day needs with tools resources and people that have the interest of our residents at heart that being said I stand before you to disprove this resolution to appoint Jay choa as the city manager of Fort Worth I believe we're going backwards bringing Jay back to City Administration I'm glad David's gone and Jay is just David 2.0 we cannot Overlook the clear conflicts of interests that are present we know he's going to put City dollars in the pockets of his best friends and we cannot Overlook his involvement and lack of accountability when a Tatiana Jefferson was murdered and he failed in his duty to hold the police department accountable we need an independent police oversight committee and Jay will stand in the way of that and as far as the process of finding a new city manager to replace David in these four in these past four months what efforts were made on behalf of any of you sitting up there to involve community and I mean Community stakeholders that don't have the privilege to be sitting here in this chamber I thank Chris and Jared for speaking up and advocating for a more transparent process and delaying the hire until we find someone that has the trust of community members and vision that will be less of the Same Old Fort Worth way and instead provide our growing population uh and provide for our growing population by not forgetting the problems that ALR City people have said why wait all things worth waiting for come in good time and we need to ensure integrity and transparency are fundamental to the process of finding someone who will run this city do the right thing and delay this appointment our next speaker is terara Maldonado Wilson followed by Adrien Smith set my watch here here we go all right so I'm here tonight actually not against Jay's appointment to this position I'm also not in here in solid it with any City Council Members Hollow writing about transparency because we know they do things that are not transparent when it benefits them I think Jay is actually has a great resume and has done without the emotionality involved in injuries that have been have happened to communities in Fort Worth his resume St stands up against all the other candidates in this field and I don't understand how 5 years later in 2019 from 2019 to now that we are still this bad at PR that we are still this bad at engaging our communities I want to say to the Hispanic leaders who have spoken for J I wish that you guys would be a little bit more outspoken when it comes to things that really affect our communities I love and respect you all very much but the cognitive dissonance that this issue has caused Within Me is crazy C I need you to stop talking because you're just as compromised as anybody else in this day is and it's so infuriating I have consistently stood up here at this m when I ran for office and the one thing that I always stood by was that communities are engaged whether we want to hear their opinions or not because these positions demand that they serve the people that vote us into those seats I didn't run for city council three times just to have my name on a placard to talk down at people that come and fill these seeds and I know you're shaking your head at me but don't act like you care about transparency you don't as long as the candidate or the person that's up for the job isn't saying yes to you you're against them so today I would say to you that since this agenda item is still up despite all the fervor on it that the votes are there to push this through Jay I will say that I actually am very proud of you I don't know where you are but I'm proud of you for busting your butt and putting in the time that you did to even be in the running for this consideration and like I said I know that I asked for your firing in 2019 around this same time at this same mic but because the community was being so ignored and so pushed down at the time but I do hope you success in this position and I hope that one we stop the practice of sneaking in agenda items on a city council agenda at last minute let's leave that in the past administration and two that you do work a little bit harder to listen to the smaller voice when they come to this mic Earth especially those that do not have the luxury of coming here thank you for your time Happ happy holidays our next speaker is Adrien Smith followed by Jackie Cox Adrien Smith district 6 I am one with the [Music] people I am one with the people Jesus J Chapel it's not personal it's only about the process do you feel you are the most qualified out of 153 other applicants for the for this position applicants who weren't given favorable considerations considerations such as yourself do you respect the process that was established when we hired our current police chief the process that involved Community input and engagement the same process you are on record as having previously supported forw has named Police Chief finalist here's what some residents want to see and I quote the city plans to form to form interview panels featuring city and police officials as well as residents deputy chief J Chapel said a public form is scheduled for January 14th at the Fort Worth uh Fort Worth Convention Center Fort Worth Star Telegram December 16th 2020 why did you decide to quit your position as Deputy city manager other than being the first Hispanic being considered for the position do you feel it's something that requires praise and support or does does or does it speak to the nature identity and system that Fort Worth has always been a system that serves the interest of certain stakeholders without regard for the greater good of all who call for wor home and I said that Mr chaper is not the outlier considering the other the other 153 applicants who weren't given the same considerations for Worth City Council this what we have before us is what you created division amongst communities abuse of power non-accountability infighting favoritism denial of public rights lack of transparency corruption conflicts of interest a total disregard for the stand practices and procedures that's been fought Worth's identity since its Inception this is what happens when we vote but don't do anything else to ensure our vote is respected every every person we elect into office should be held to the standard in which they offer themselves up for and if they can't if they cannot make good on those on said standards we should vote them out regarding the vote tonight I would like to hear from each of you don't just vote we need to hear from every last one of you as far as 2025 is concerned new city manager new police chief why not a new mayor next speaker is Jackie Cox I haven't seen Miss Cox she coming in can youall check to make sure Mrs Cox isn't outside please thank you I'll move to Reverend keev Tatum next and we'll come back to Miss Cox if she's here Reverend Tatum will be followed by Bruce Miller who I also not seen tonight congratulations mayor you've been able to do something Mayor Bob Balden has not been able to do May Mike monrie nor K Granger nor Betsy price I've disagreed with all of them on many things but one thing you've been able to do is to create a racial divide between the black and brown Community one of the reasons why I say that is because I have spent a lifetime working to build those bridges between black and brown in fact I spend quite a bit of time in the north side cultivating those relationships however when you make a decision to bring in a person who many of us have concerns about I know you talk about his resume but I have experienced him firsthand and I experienced him to be not only a disingenuous individual he's also been a person that has a disdain for the black community he may work with some of them but he doesn't work with all of them and I want you to know mayor your decision to rush this will have incredible impact on our relationships to move forward in this community because it will leave a disdain in the minds and hearts of brown people against black and black people against Brown because you did not have the wherewithal or the wisdom to follow a process that's been in place if you had allowed us an opportunity as the community to speak I would have told you my opposition to Mr cha Chapa is not personal its policy and its practice he killed the police policy Advisory board he killed the 3E plan he was involved with the determination of uh Chief fist Gerald unlawful termination of Chief F jeral and he was also responsible for the situation that has put out 12 million of our tax dollars to people who will no longer work for the city at the same time people are questioning whether or not there's anyone else who's capable or qualified or able to do the job you have a gentleman sitting right there by the name of William Johnson who is a candidate for the city manager in Dallas one of the final candidates but guess what we never got to hear him here in footw worth he never was able to make his presentation before the community so that we could decide what's in our best interest I hope as Romero representative Romero said that we will be able to find some room for reconciliation but as I said 20 years ago when I first came and I say it now you cannot have a one-way relationship that a relationship must be a two two-way two-way street not a one-way Highway God bless you and may he keep you as my prayer our next speaker is Bruce Miller followed by Tina James Mr Miller no Miss James followed by Patrice Jones good afternoon first of all I want to make a statement um to everyone on that on the diet up there uh when it comes the transparency for our community our city officials our residents how do we put this out to our children that there's a process as they grow up and get a good education mayor Parker you actually went to for wor ISD and spoke and against the current superintendent when we already had a superintendent that's been a um the interim back and forth now she's back in there again it's amazing how we go out of different cities and states and look for employees to bring over into our communities and our cities to run a position that we are well capable of doing here in our community I don't have anything against Mr Choppa what I do have against is the transparency and the adequacy of actually allowing the community to be a part that pays y'all's tax dollars pay pays y'all's salaries all of our tax dollars are put in these situations and we don't even have a word or say so as it's being processed I want to thank uh Jared and Chris for actually standing up even though they still have to work with the rest of y'all up there on that diet I'm quite sure there's going to be some repercussions and y'all are going to talk behind their backs and have a problem with them as y'all do with some of us when we speak against things that y'all are doing as well but even with that being said there should be transparency and an accurate position as you apply as he applies for this position as um the Pastor said previously he has been in position and why did he step down then or why was he removed there's so many negativity things that are going on in our community that we not only need you and the rest of y'all to not just be a mayor for the the west side but a mayor for the East Side a mayor for the south side and the stop six area and I speak very highly of that area but at the same time we're going to need Jay Chopper if he is POS put in this position to also be a city manager for the west side as well as the East Side the north side and the South Side stop selecting those who y'all want to provide and protect for and take up for and do things and and special privileges for we are all a human we are all tax players we are all homeowners families with children and education that is needed in our city we need y'all to act accordingly and give the opportunity of everyone of everyone who wants to apply for this position and councilman bavan I am so disappointed in you today I'm really disappointed and and I I still call you a friend but I'm disappointed in your possession as professional so with that being said I just want y'all to understand that as we look at each one of y'all in your faces and tell tell you that we are taxpayers and voters we expect y'all to act toward us accordingly thank you our next speaker is Patrice Jones followed by Lydia Faith this is the first time I've ever addressed y'all as a for worth resident so Elizabeth back I'm now in your District all right um so mayor Parker for Worth City Council and city manager Office on behalf of the for worst underserved communities We the People urge you to prioritize transparency accountability and meaningful Community engagement in the selection process for our next city manager the city manager plays a critical role in shaping the policies and daily operations of our city ensuring Equitable allocation of resources and the bridge and Bridging the Gap between elected officials and the residents they serve this decision must reflect the voices and needs of all Fort Worth residents especially those historically marginalized it is imperative to select a leader who exemplifies diplomacy and partiality and the ability to actively listen to all perspectives while justifying their decisions with Integrity the next city manager must have aen commitment to Equitable governance and the ability to Foster trust between the city law enforcement and the communities impacted by systemic inequities the recent history of strain relation between underserved communities the for Worth Police Department and the tan County Sheriff's Office underscores the urgency for a city manager who can prioritize holistic accountability and drive solutions that build unity in this context we must State clearly that Jay Chopper former deputy city manager does not fully represent the community he has served his tenure reflects a pattern of disengagement from the voices of underserved population and a failure to embody The Voice the values of accountability equity and transparency required for this role our communities have not seen the proactive leadership necessary to address systemic issues or to ensure that City budgets are allocated to support those most in need for worth desperately needs a city manager who will engage authentically with all communities ensuring their voices are heard in decision-making processes manage the city's operations with fairness and efficiency prioritizing underserved communities and resource distri distribution hold law enforcement accountable to rebuild trust and ensure safety for all residents negotiate and meditate and mediate with stakeholders to find balanced Equitable solutions that benefit all for worth residents the decision for forward city manager is a defining moment for our city we call on you to select a leader who will Champion the values of equity transparency and true Community engagement someone who serve who will serve not as just an administrator but as an advocate for every for worth resident I want to thank Jarry and Chris for publicly coming out and speaking uh know and standing firm and US needing more accountability and transparency I'm proud of both of y'all um and I really just hope that you guys take the time and and really make a decision to include the community because I just feels like it's like a broken record just coming back and forth doing the same always talking about transparency Lydia faith is Lydia here Lydia will be followed by Wesley Kirk and I believe Mr Guero came in I'll I'll call on you after these two sckers um I'm here today as a Fort Worth Community member to oppose appointing of the new city manager j choa a city manager acts as a chief executive executive officer of a city a city that is made up of community members community members who did not get a say in this process or who is going to be hired opportunity was made for community to engage in the selection of the chief executive executive um Equity officer Christina Brooks and the same for the selection of the police oversight director but with the selection of the city's chief executive you all chose a secretive exclusionary process that is largely being supported here today by corporate real estate and establishment power Brokers this process is a blatant disrespect to transparency and upholds the Fort Worth way you all are supporting the stat is quote J choppa's Top qualification is that he will bow to the powers that be and give Fort Worth Police immunity from being held accountable as he has done before and did after the murder of attiana Jefferson just as David Cook did for the past 10 years the city manager is supposed to be a key link between elected officials and the community and yet the city council is once again making decisions without any input from the community space was made for Consultants behind closed doors while Community Voices were ignored denied and drowned out we are here advocating for accountability and transparency for a decision that heavily affects our community right now and for generations to come as this person will be leading the hiring of the police chief and developing and implementing the 2015 2050 comprehensive plan for the city how can we trust in a city manager that was selected through a regressive hiring process why is this process being rushed and happening behind closed doors and why is community being denied and ignored and why do we continuously be ignored by this city council in every aspect and in every policy oppose this vote And Delay the higher choose accountability and transparency and for once choose community and actually include us in the process amen our next speaker is Wesley Kirk followed by Joe Guerrero hi uh today I can't speak in support or opposition to J choa as city manager because I don't know him and that's exactly the problem I've been extremely disappointed with the city's entire process of hiring a new city manager since the beginning this is without a doubt the biggest decision that you will make during your time on city council because you are choosing the person who will ultimately Implement all of the decisions you make as a council the city manager is the most powerful unelected person in the entire city someone with that much influence over the lives of every single person in Fort Worth should be someone chosen through a fair and honest process the choice to have the city's overworked and understaffed HR department oversee this hiring despite all other major positions that you've appointed as a councel using a thirdparty firm for the search was deeply flawed from the start after years of David Cook slashing the budgets of every Department except for police the HR department doesn't have the resources to handle the responsibility uh handle responsibility of this magnitude while managing their already overwhelming workload not to make mantion the offensive lack of transparency throughout this whole process one of the biggest things I hear again and again from city employees uh alluding to is that they're scared of the public and it's because the public is angry at the lack of transparency at the lack of community involvement at constantly feeling like their voices don't matter they're angry that so often the Fort Worth way seems to win with those in power making back room deals against the uh with amongst the good old boys club while the rest of us just have to suffer the consequences I can tell you uh I can tell you that the most Surefire way out of this predicament is with transparency don't waste everyone's time and energy with this facade if you've already chosen a finalist from the start and then rush to vote in less than a week instead be honest and upfront about the process give the candidates a fair chance at the job give the public a chance to meet the candidates and for the candidates to meet the public and hear their concerns give the time and resources it takes to make sure this is done properly thank you Chris nles and Jared Williams for speaking up on behalf of the community and for the long-term health of Fort Worth I hope that the rest of you join them I hope that you all restart this process and do it the way that it should have been handled from the start and if not I hope you delay this vote schedule public engagement meetings if Jay Chopper really is the best choice for the job let that decision happen in the light of day with the trust and support of the people of Fort Worth thank you good evening Madame mayor members of the city council my name is Joe gero and I live in District 11 as a retired business businessman and owner and operated business in sundad square for 32 years I saw the first firsthand the tremendous growth and the development of the downtown area in Fort Worth in general understand Mr Joe cha leadership the same leadership that the guid guides our city of Fort Worth the 12th largest in the United States it's important to have a smooth and transation to keep our city moving in the right direction and believe that can be done and achieved with Mr Joe choa J choa sorry thank you very much for your time thank you Mr Guerrero Council that is the conclusion of our speakers on this item um I would like for Dian jono to come up for a minute um our HR director um and then I'll call on Council M Flores and follow by Council M lar dorf um Deion I just wanted to for a second give you a chance to if you wanted to describe just the process that you and your team went through um in the selection of the city manager and then we'll move on to council comments yeah I'm di Jano Human Resources Director for the city of Fort Worth I'll first start with kind of just the after the announcement of David Cook indicating his intent to retire in February of 2025 um the human resources Department met with the mayor and Council to discuss kind of what the recruitment efforts and recruitment process should look like at that point in time in August of 2024 we identified that the human resources department would pursue that search process on behalf of Mayor and counsel the human resources department did an excellent job in reaching out to individuals and treating it like a search firm would and so we identified um qualities and Quant qualities necessary and skill sets necessary for a city manager um to be a candidate for consideration there was a survey that was sent to Mayor and Council to provide information relating to education quality skill sets necessary uh that information then was used to develop a brochure to identify um to potential candidates to put out to the public that brochure was created and advertised in a number of different sites um across the city of Fort Worth we utilized LinkedIn we utilized uh Texas Municipal League icma the national forum for black black public administrators amongst other uh job boards to advertise that role in addition to that um as as just as recruiters do we have actually reached out to passive job Seekers so those are individuals that aren't currently looking for employment we reached out to city um managers and other cities Across the Nation we reached out to Deputy city managers assistant city managers County administrators to solicit at their candidacy for this role we received over 150 applicants of interest in addition to that of the of those 150 120 were passive job Seekers that we connected with of which 38 applied we received candidates from across the country of which the majority came from Texas but uh in addition to that there were candidates that came from 12 other states those candidates were then presented and and actually we were vetted and sced and teered into um categories for consideration for mayor and councel that screening process not only looked at their professional resume it looked at their letter of interest we also had a candidate questionnaire that delved a little bit deeper into the candidates experience um looking at relevant experience for the city of Fort Worth those candidates were then presented to Mar and Council of which they identified semi finalist uh to meet that they met met with and interviewed the um C that we have here today in the resolution was identified by mayor and Council as the loan finalist and so that's what you have um before you to make a decision on thank you di Council Flores I have a question for her go ahead Council nles yeah I have a couple of questions for you thank you di first I want to thank you for the work that you have done in this process um I even alluded to when we uh well when this Council body said that they wanted the HR department to do the the search I had a couple of questions about it number one um that you had the employees there to be able to do a search form a national search firm and continue to do the HR job that you're assigned to do each and every day I also alluded to if we didn't we needed to get you some people so that you can actively do a good search so we didn't do that but you was able to do one so thank you for that I got a question for you uh here in your role as HR or any other HR City have you ever uh conducted an National search for um any appointing position yes okay and in that opportunities is it strange for a community to have input in the process it is not strange for a community to have input thank you but it's all driven by mayor and Council that's my point thank you I'll uh ask questions later um di thank you so much for the work that you did I too similar to council member Nettles was advocating for HR I'm make sure that we had the Staffing capacity and I know that y'all took on this because um y'all are season experts in this and so from the bottom of my heart thank you for um shepherding this we know that yall are being pulled a million ways but you're able to um get us to this point um the one question I had um that I want to highlight um when when we were in closed session um y'all presented us with a binder full of the 154 resumés um how much notice do we have to read those resumés so the resumés that were provided in advance for the tiered candidates were provided prior to meeting with Mar and Council the 154 were provided after and that's just to give you the totality part of our services we're just screen and betet those candidates on your behalf and provide you with a condensed list of individuals so you wouldn't have to go through 154 right that makes sense and I understand why yall were trying to help us out with that um and I um I assured everyone on this dice as well as you that I would um tell the god honest truth um I had heartburn during that meeting because that binder of 150 applicants applications um all the materials that we got that was my first time seen in that meeting before we went to last week's meeting um and so I just wanted to clarify um how much notice we had because it was a really important decision and I wanted um as a working professional of that of two um under two I wanted to be able to give my due diligence to that um and so thank you for I know you were under um very specific constraints but I want to appreciate you for that and I just wanted to honor my commitment that I would share that publicly that's all thank you yeah just one more question di thank you for your presentation and for your due diligence throughout this entire process I've said publicly I think we have the best HR director in the country and we are very thankful that you've chosen to work here in the city of Fort Worth you and your team um is it fair to say that the majority of candidates um whether it had been the five that we narrowed it down to or even the 14 um a majority of them would have wanted their candidacy to be kept confidential because all of them were duly employed in other places um and did not want to jeopardize their current employment yeah as I mentioned I we reached out to passive job Seekers so those are individuals that were currently employed for other cities or other counties and so it was a consideration from the onset in our engagement with them is that their name be kept confidential uh they had lots of questions around when their names would be released um and really it was speaking to first and foremost I wanted to just say the volume of candidates really did express interest in the city of Fort Worth um just because of the uh mayor and counsil and just the unity that you have here but they were also concerned with just representation to their current employers but also their communities and their residents it was also occurring right before election season so there were some local ballot initiatives that were on their local agendas and so there was just consideration about their commitment to their community and their ongoing support thank you di appreciate that Council Mo Flores the floor is yours thank you mayor Parker and thank you di for answering uh some of the questions that I would have asked you right there appreciate that let me start by saying this I bet you can sit if you want to yes go ahead yeah um let me start by saying this yes there is disagreement on this topic on Council that's fine it's part of our Democratic process we agree we disagree and sometimes we compromise not surprising all right so let's get that out of the way but we continue and we should continue to respect one another even if we have those differences of opinion so you've already heard you know what HR staff has done under the direction of city council we had a national search we had plenty of qualified candidates that submitted their applications I want to speak specifically to start with that this this notion or this perception that there was no transparency that they were in the words of some folks backdoor deals horse trading under the table you know type of agreements totally false that is factually inaccurate okay the process had Integrity we had consensus at the start to embark on this process like my two colleagues mentioned we did question Dian to see if she had the necessary skill set within their house to conduct this Nationwide search and she did communicate to council that she did and we embarked on that path okay so I want to also read something that this Council abides by and that's the city Charter and according to the city Charter chapter 5 Section 1 the council shall appoint the city manager who shall be the chief administrative and executive officer of the city he shall be chosen solely on the basis of his executive Administration training experience ability and without regard to a political consideration not going to read you the rest because I think this does necessarily go to the heart of it this is exactly what we did during this process and again let me talk about transparency and let me make it abundantly clear we had to have executive sessions on this topic because certain candidates who wanted to be considered by the city of Fort Worth and were did not want their names divulged during that process and it happens in the private sector I've worked on it long enough I've done corporate recruiting before this is not atypical so again nothing secretive we are a city manager form of government and again it's it's been compared to we function as the board of directors with the mayor the president of our board the city manager the CEO so it is uniquely a responsibility of the the city council to select a city manager again this happens in the private sector and I do respect public input when it comes to decisions but again I ask you to reference the city Charter if there's any doubt has there been consistency in how pass councils has done the city manager search no there hasn't been because certain circumstances during those times required certain Decisions by that Council so keep that in mind please choosing that city manager again uniquely a responsibility of the city council and mayor and I want to touch on another subject and this one pains me to say regrettably some would say that because of the differences of opinion we have there is a racial divide that pains me to hear it does because Fort Worth is better than that Fort Worth has come forward we're not perfect we still have work to do but come on we have come much further than that so between residents of the Hispanic community and African-American community that I have both heard from I have conveyed a similar message we're going to get through this and the way we're going to get through it is by understanding our differences but setting them aside enough to move forward to do what is best for the city that's why we're up here in these seats we do it we're not going to get Universal agreement it's impossible but again we're a representative form of government we are your representatives whether you agree with us on any given topic or not that's our system so following this vote I want you to keep this in mind I implore you to do what fort worthan do best let's collaborate and work together for the good of our city work in conjunction with the city manager if J is chosen and go forward confident in the knowledge that we have selected a uniquely qualified person who is intelligent competent and insightful I say this with my personal confidence having worked with Jay for many years and seeing the good and Creative Solutions that he has brought that has solved a lot of our City's issues and we have to help him right he can't do this alone we'll ask Jay to be our guide coupled with council's leadership we'll get there we'll get to the next great chapter of Fort Worth and as a side note maybe make history as Jay being the first Hispanic to be city manager Jay thank you for sticking with us during this process and again I've explained the facts to you this is our process I understand the concerns about transparency but knowing what we had to do why we had to go in executive session I think we'll illustrate that point hopefully to a lot of folks thank you Council lorf and Council if if you want to speak just hit your button so I don't miss people thank you all right thank you mayor I know we have a long night so I'll make this short um first di to you and your team thank you very much for the work you put into this um I told you from the beginning I trust you I trust your judgment in your process and how you're going to get this done uh the fact that you did bring so many qualified candidates and those final finalists that did come before us um the fact that there weren't four Charlie and one Jay says you did your job and you got some well qualified candidates so thank you for that um that said I heard a lot of things tonight as I listened intently I heard Country Club no I I don't know anything about golf I don't know anything about horse trading either uh but I heard public trust and I heard voice in how the city is governed and I could not agree more in that um that's why I think it's important that you know Community leaders you get involved you get involved with who you vote for and you get involved in your communities and who you vote for I know whenever I go to the the polls it's not just to get a a sticker for Facebook it's because I trusting that person with my vote that they will represent me in whatever capacity that I'm voting uh them in for that includes decisions like this if I wanted to be involved in every single process that every single elected representative made then why are we voting for them why are we even here in the first place so to those Community leaders who feel that they were left out in the process uh who feel like your voice was not heard perhaps look at the person you're voting for perhaps run for that seat yourself um I know looking at the speaker list and the emails uh that I've gotten in the calls District 4 no one there they trusted the process they trusted me to make that decision for them and if it ends up this choice this decision that I make tonight bites me in the butt well guess what they get to voice their dis displeasure by voting uh the next time around so to Carlos's Point absolutely like trust in your elected leaders and if you don't then by all means uh U run against them uh to someone who mentioned repercussions I just want to say absolutely not at the end of this very very long night if any of my colleagues who I disagree with want to go out and have a cold beer I will absolutely welcome their company because sure there will be times we disagree and we can do it cordially and we can do it respectfully the end of the day I I'd still consider them friends even if we disagree uh and that goes for anyone else in the community too we could disagree and still have a beer because I think that's what brings us all together um with that being said it mayor thank you council member Bivens thank you mayor and I want to thank everybody for being here and staying here with us uh through this J ation I remember how excited folk in this town were back when Bob turle became the first African-American city manager everybody was excited but not everybody but they got over it as we began to win awards Bob hired smart people Dale I think the last time I saw you you were introducing Horatio Porter another candidate from North Texas bold I can tell you this with certainty tomorrow morning Fort Worth is going to wake up after hiring the first Hispanic City Manager for this city I'm confident of that but what has bothered me is trying to figure out where the disconnect came from and so I was able to whisper to Jared and get some type of buyin if you will but from the top time this council member came on board the public engagement part was a norm and so I'm just rolling through my my brain to see how did this happen because when we met last Tuesday that would have been the time to ask for and well that's when I first heard people ask for a public engagement that was not the time the process had pretty much gotten out of the shoot but Betsy you'll remember the public engagement component became important because of the problems we had going on George Floyd had been murdered Jacqueline Craig had that encounter and at that time we started seeing the need for greater public engagement and it happened the RAC and culture task force that was a hallway decision between the three of us running around that morning and the mayor current mayor helped architect that and so there would have been a time in the process for the council to say we want to include public engagement but to do that after the people had been interviewed would have been detrimental to the hiring process uh there are people well some of you may have had jobs and decided to move on but you didn't want your boss to know you were looking and so we put people at risk if we had made that shi if you will now I can tell you you that our HR department was fully prepared capable and executed a wonderful recruitment plan and how I know that we did far better than Dallas we had 154 applicants Dallas had about 50 and they paid a search firm but many of their finalists were ours as well that shows we were pretty competitive and for those of you who don't know I do recruiting for a living I can tell you looking at and listening to this going through the process de asked us to name our top two one of my top two was that guy right there J Chopper I won't divulge the other name because that person has a job still but what I don't want is for people to think Fort Worth is Rocky and how we take care of serious business I will tell you in looking at the history of Jay Chopper I knew about Jay before I met him when he saved this city from getting blackballed by Hud after going through some I guess you call it forensic investigations of how we were spending grant money so he has a track record but I'm hoping people will understand why there was a disconnect I'm pretty confident that's where that happened and so when Diana first gave us the the plan on how to proceed that would have been the time to ask the question are you going to invite the public well that didn't but it's only because I I think it was perceived and assumed that that would take place but at the end of the day it's the people on this diet who are going to have to make that higher and I have every bit of confidence that we will be in great hands with J Chopper and so he he will have my support and the good thing about the process we saw some hidden gems within City staff right here giving us a deeper bench and I'm I'm I'm ready to take the vote whenever it takes place but I know I'm not the last one speaking but that's as best I can do to try to help figure out why the disconnect and and I appreciate you for listening council member Beck followed by councilwoman Martinez I want to start by saying um that I agree with some of my colleagues that I was not in favor with every step of the process that we took and I was vocal about wanting to do things differently from the very first time we had that discussion in executive session U while I don't agree with the process that we took that got us to here today I do agree with the outcome uh we govern by trust in um in Us by our PE the people our constituents that send us here to sit on this Di and that's trust something that I take incredibly uh seriously as I make decisions moving uh day-to-day on on how District n is is going to move forward um it's important that people trust the process as well because when they don't trust the process they're not going to trust the product of that process and I think that's what you have here today is J choa is um the victim of people not trusting the process so therefore there is some consternation about the product I want to say that Jay did not craft this process the process that we went through to make this decision was crafted um whether by all members of this Council some members of this Council which is I think the sausage making that you're seeing laid out on the dice here this evening um it's so important of regardless of how you feel about the process that we all have to Rally around and make sure that we support our city manager whether that's David Cook or after today Jay choa because if J choa fails our city fails and I love this city too much to let it fail and so my commitment is to work with J choa to make sure that we build that trust in anyone in the community that feels that your appointment is um is Tainted is a is a product of mistrust so that they can learn and see um what you can do for our city and the ability that you have to to drive us forward and so you have my commitment to make sure that you don't fail as city manager because I don't want to see our city fail as well I look forward to working with you and um I hope that um this is one of only a few very contentious meetings that you have to sit through as as our city manager uh council member Martinez so I won't reiterate everything that um my colleagues have said I do want to say that uh thank you to everybody that showed up uh for providing their remarks whether they were for or against I think it's very important to hear both sides and uh Jay I hope you were taking notes um and so I know you to be a true public servant I know that you have a heart for the community and I know that you will continue to make us proud thank you Council nedles thank you uh thank you for the opportunity glad glad to see all of you guys here today I think this process does not work if we're not coming out to here and be a part of the process uh so I first want to thank you for coming out today I even went outside and got people from the back of the line to make sure they made it in here because I have been very clear and transparent of my position on this Council I have been one of the long council members who always every single time once and demands Community input Community conversation from all of parts of the community not just our neighbors but our business groups our Chambers uh our attorneys this the way we grow as for worth if we all grow together and so I will tell you I will be very Frank today I don't MX my words up I say what I mean I mean what I say and I'm very truthful for what I say you guys are understand how I feel about the process but I'll be very clear it is very clear to me that the first time bringing up Community engagement accountability and transparency this process and this is my opinion I sat in the room I wasn't in the audience I wasn't at home I was sitting at the table I was there for the private meetings I was there from day one during this process and in my discovering of this process this process has been flawed from the very start it was predetermined decisions behind closed doors without meaningful input from the public when we hire our senior leadership in the past and I will articulate those in the minute we always go out to our community we always engage our business people we always engage our faith leaders ERS there are a lot of faith leaders that are here tonight and there are some that have left that when we have had such as the Jaclyn Craig mayor price and that Council went where to the church and they had a community meeting with the faith-based community because they wanted to make sure that before thank you for that mayor before we move forward we hear from our faith-based community we have to continue to hear from our people whether we like it or not I brought up Community engagement accountability transp transparency during the Tatiana era during the oversight vote during the mass vote during the wage debacle I have always ask for public engagement so the notion of folks saying tonight that I have a issue with J Chopper is nasty I believe that J Chopper can do the job on day one I'm just not happy with the process and that's what I'm talking about tonight we talk about we had 150 applicants if you come into a room and the majority of the council have already selected will we think that he is our guy that tells me that they have already decided it takes six votes to get anything passed on this Das and on day one he already had every single six vote the process was flawed we had 150 applicants applied you know what we would have had 200 or 500 or 300 or 250 of people who who wanted to apply but already knew the forward way is that they already had their candidate and they too as di said did not want to put their name in the Hat and disclose who they were in the in the benefit that they may be asked so there are candidates that are out there that might be right for forward that didn't even apply because it was already putting up baked and cooked I've been so disappointed in this process that I've asked the City attorney for an opinion because I think it's important that before we vote on anything we are very clear on what we vote on there are things that could take place in the process of this vote from days to come so I thought it was very important that we ask for attorney opinion did receive attorney opinion doesn't think that there is a conflict of interest as I do I think that we ought to seek an AG opinion to make sure that contract jobs that was done with Mr Chopper and his organization with City leadership with Texas A&M with the Stockyards and others is not a conflict of interest when he comes over and manage over that process that is a fair question because when I vote I want to make sure that I not putting our city in Jeopardy of messing up contracts I want text A&M to come but if you are an elected official you want to run for office and your spouse has a contract with the city of Fort Worth guess what you are not qualified unless your spouse dis that contract with the city of forward these are things that you need to know in our Charter as Carlos alluded to there's other things in our Charter section 16 officers are employees of the city not to have financial interest in any City contracts no officer or employee of the city shall have a financial interest direct or indirect that's a pretty broad statement you cannot make any type of funds being an employee from taxpayer dollars and that is in question it may not be true but it's a question that I have now had we had a fair process had we had an extensive process I could have asked for this stuff in work session in IRS or in private meetings but we had one interview process and in that one interview process six tall were for our candidate today and five tallies were for other candidates normally when you have a split Council like that you back up and say let's come to a consensus I remember on day one mayor Parker says I'm going to be the mayor that's going to make sure that we build consensus we've been here over an hour we would not have been here had we built consensus for over an hour having this conversation and putting an individual in a limelight which something he does not deserve I did on day one say that we need a transparent process I did on day one say we wanted to have Community input let me articulate certain processes when we hired our library director we had an exensive time and it also included what community input when we hired our Police monitor our two finalists met with the community and met with a meeting greet and even employees when we hired the chief of police we had a community engagement Chief transformation officer the forward lab director recruitment process o August the 15th ended November 13th with meet and greet process Transportation public works department recruit process started November the 8th ended February 6th with a meet and greet Community process the property management department recruitment process started July the 5th ended September with a finalist and a Mee and greet process the city secretary we use an outside firm which is one of my major issues sgr it had a meet and Greek process this is the part that I'm having an issue with if we can hire a simple library and we got to come to the community and ask you what you think about who should make sure we got libraries do you not think it fond enough that we should make sure that the CEO of the 12 largest city near a million people we should have a community process and listen thank [Applause] you if you're not willing to stand in front of the community and give us your vision in fear of losing your job and fear of losing your opportunity Where You Are then that is a cost to pay and so I believe that we should have a process now let's talk about the process that we have in my hand this is what I hold is the process that was given to us by our HR department on page three and some you'll receive this handout shortly on page three the timeline is clear September will be a open recruitment for 45 days October with close recruitment candidate screening and uh evaluations November will be presentation of candidates December will be interviews and steak holder meat and greet January will be a selection and no uh negotiation of on boarding process February will be February and March will be the start date so for this Council to say all willly neilly we didn't have a process and late in the game you want to you want to make a new process no ma'am no sir we have a process not only do we have a process but we violated our own process that is not okay with me that's a trust issue I want to make sure that some of you receive this right is right wrong is wrong I'm not here to kiss any rings I'm only 36 years old so I never pick cotton I don't plan to pick cotton and I refuse for somebody to come in meet and tell me who's going to be my next city manager because that's what they want we got to have a fair process Matthew 7 13 through 14 it says enter at the Straight Gate for wide is the gate and Broad is the way he that deled destruction be there in the threat narrow is the way narrow is the path that some of us don't always choose what is narrow narrow is when you have two candid two council members saying we don't care what y'all say we going to believe what what's right we might got to stand alone or we going to stand on the truth broad is the way of Destruction is when you have the majority of the council saying we going to do whatever we want to do any kind of way but that is not the way that is not the right way that is not the right way I will also articulate that there was a letter that was signed by some of these council members up here and I guess mayor will articulate that in a little bit and it doesn't have everybody's signature on it I was asked to sign it at 4:00 to talk about how we agree with the process we want to come up with these letters and have people feel like that it's a majority of council is only two long council members it's not only two council members that disagree with this process it's just two people who really will stand up and be voiceful against this process I'm tired of dried up letters that we're drafting up because somebody articulated that letter that we went to the school board I signed it but so now what do we do next are we going to give money to fund our school uh uh our schools are we going to support our schools are we just going to just politic our way and act like we really care about education get people fired get people to resign from their jobs and never actually put dollars into the bank to support there are other major cities who actually budgeted out money to give to our school district we'll put a pen in that that's not what we're here for but I just want to talk about some of the letters lastly I'mma take you back to that page I just handed out in the brief at the in the middle it says HR will conduct a national search for the city manager position the goal is to identify diverse candidates that can successfully serve as city manager for the 12 largest city in order to source and attract ideal candidates input and being resolved HR will promote and prioritize diversity equity and inclusion in the recruitment strategy process some of you may call that Dei I want to stand although I disagree with the process I want to applaud our Republican mayor and some our Republican councils those who have supported Republican candidates nationally locally who have been very vocal of dismantling Dei this council is excited to hire the first lot the first Hispanic city manager because they support diversity equity and inclusion thank you for doing that thank you for making a stance and telling Greg Abbott the presume Trump that we will standing forward with our diverse Community thank you for that we really appreciate you and for that I still think that we need to go back and have a fair and transparent process I appreciate these are my comments at the moment I may come back later councilor are there any other comments before we entertain a motion on this item got a motion in a second go ahead Jared May um um I love this city with all of my heart grew up here plan to be here a long time and raise my kids and uh there's moments in this work when when it's important to speak up when no one knows what's happening right right and um I've always promised my resident who entrusted me here um that I would hold this seat like it's not mine and I tell them this is in Jared Williams seat this is all of our seat this is in Jared Williams seat this is all of our seat the power and responsibilities that are entrusted in Me by sitting on the seat are not my power and responsibilities in and of themselves but they are ordained by the community and affirmed by the community and so stayed up real late not only because I have two kids under two um but also because this was heavy on my heart because I um all alone this process and especially last week's only interview meeting and um and um several other executive sessions I promised my colleagues who I respect and love dearly um that if we did it this way that I would have no choice but to tell my community the truth because I and even if that cost me my seat the truth tell the truth that's okay the truth and so public participation is a is a is a absolute priority for mine because it's rooted in that value that this isn't my seat and I'm only as effective in this seat as the input that I've received and so the majority of my neighborhood presidents in district 6 have told me to delay and to ensure that they have a say and the reason being is because that's how I've always LED couple of examples zoning alerts were only given to the neighborhood presidents before I took office and I didn't think that was okay we had challenges with poker rooms and game rooms and I promised my residents because I didn't think it was okay that we didn't have a say in the way that we probably should have before all of the zoning commission and Zoning uh City Council meetings happened I said that the community needed a seat at the table and that's part of the reason why I'm standing here and because of us standing up together as a community guess what we now have zoning alerts that individuals wherever you live can sign up by district and get your zoning alerts personally curfew ordinance this di is spent many months at my request and I am respectful of that to continue it because I was concerned that the curfew ordinance would disproportionately and it did disproportionately impact communities of color specifically black boys and Latinos and so I asked for continuances I didn't have the support on this dice but thankfully the state legislature put a bill that PR us from being able to enforce that harmful policy cruising ordinates we didn't all agree on this Das we all had great attentions but I said that the community needed a voice on whether or not a cruising ordinance impa which I believed and had the data to support that which we could get because some of it we didn't collect impacted black and brown communities and I spoke up even when it was unpopular youed gun violence was tearing through our community and when at the national stage and at the state stage people were bickering about whether or not we were going to do something to save lives but about politics and lobbyists this community stood up because of community participation invested millions of dollars and establish an initiative that brought Community together working with police to do the right thing the budget we have multiple meetings in District Six where the city manager comes to the community to present that is important skill of this job and public participation in this process is not just for the sake of getting input it's also to begin to build and to Showcase what the interactions will be with the public on critical decisions such as an annual budget process and I've always stood up for that redistricting redistricting wasn't the Public's job to draw a map but guess what the public Drew maps and I would not rest many long nights until I ensured that we the people got the chance to decide our representation and as a result of it we have a city council that reflects the Beautiful god-given diversity of our beautiful city and y'all did that and I trust y'all to do things like this because we are the people and so I urged my um friends on this Das multiple times um to engage the public and more specifically we all receive this packet we all receive this this packet from HR about what the process would be and I owe you apology and I apologized to J Choppa last Thursday when we spoke one onone that I trusted this body to do what we always did and last week was the only chance for me to observe that this process was going differently than what I agreed to enter into objectively and so I said I'm not participating in anything that's going to compromise my ethics that was my one opportunity to say it when it deviated from the plan that you have tonight and so in in a spirit of collegiality and unity and last week was the second week of Advent um and the the theme of last week's Advent was peace I'm going to present an alternative motion I don't know where it'll land um but it's part of me being able to go to sleep tonight um knowing that I told everything that I knew um and I did everything could to try to bring us back um the spirit of the subst substitute motion is to get us back on track with the process that I thought we would do when I read it from the HR department but we ended up not doing for a number of reasons spilled milk um but um this motion is to postpone um the hiring of the city manager and establish a transparent process with robust public engagement and so my friends on this D um I'm going to pass this because I know this is going to going to be lengthy I'm going to pass handful to y'all and then you already have this in your email but um this is what we've been referencing tonight um my friends mayor and colleague colleagues I move to substitute the current motion with the following that the city coun Jones I'm gon to have to ask you to not speak from the audience thank you that the city council postpone the final decision to hire the city manager and establish a transparent and inclusive process to ensure meaningful public input stakeholder engagement and Trust in the selection process the original recruitment plan shared by our HR department on September 6 2024 outlined a comprehensive strategy for the hiring process including a clear timeline public engagement and stakeholder collaboration since the city council has not complied with those original principles and steps outlined in this plan I propose that we restart this process to ensure it aligns with those best practices and the expectations of our residents this revised process should include the following steps as reflected in the in the um initial plan uh develop a candidate profile uh develop excuse me uh candidate profile development collect input from City Council Members Community stakeholders and staff to define the qualifications competencies and personal attributes needed for the next city manager use this input to develop a candidate profile that reflects the needs and values of foot worth number two public Comon period and engagement hold at least two public forums or hearings where residents can express their views and provide feedback on the qualifications and vision for the next or for the city manager solicit input from Key stakeholders including neighborhood associations business groups Civic organizations to ensure diverse perspectives are conc considered candidat screening and presentation all uh allow all applicants including our current finalist uh the opportunity uh to reapply under this improved process and M add the finalist should remain a finalist um require all applicants to submit a conflict of interest statement and financial disclosure statement to identify any Financial ties or relationships to the city of Fort Worth present a narrow present a narrow to list of semi-finalist candidates to City Council along with the summary of public input gathered through fors and surveys number four stakeholder meet and greet organize a public meet and greet event for all finalists to provide opportunities for residents and stakeholders to engage directly with the candidates collect feedback from attendees through volunteer surveys to inform the council's decision five selection process conduct final interviews with all City Council Members department heads and key City Executives to ensure a collaborative evaluation process incorporate feedback from public fors surveys and stakeholder engagements into the final selection process timeline and transparency develop a clear updated timeline that's made available publicly for this process and communicated publicly to ensure accountability and transparency at every step by restarting the process and in adhering to the principles that we all hold um outlined in the September 6 plan we reaffirm our commitment to a fair transparent and inclusive process that strengthens public trust ensures legitimacy of our decision I urge uh you my friends on this Council um to support this Motion in the best interest of the residents of the city this city that we all love and we all will be here a really long time Jared I am going to second that motion along with a petition that took place that has over 185 signatures asking us to do this today with those community members and fake leaders that are here as well you can raise your hand or stand I'm going to second that motion on behalf of the 185 the members that are here tonight and myself I've got a substitute motion on the floor and a second Council any other discussion if not please vote on The Substitute motion give them a second to it's okay you're [Music] good motion fails Council that'll bring back up our original motion go for it um I know that that was a tough process to try to do at this point so I have a second idea that I want to offer um that's to provide alternative um substitute motion um to delay tonight's vote um until January this month we've canceled meetings and haven't had a number of meetings for public engagement on this process I'm So at the very um least just like we do with um our public hearings which youall will see some those on the agenda tonight I think it's only fair that we at least have one meeting as a community to sit on this and then we'll come back um in the second meeting in January got a motion on the floor being that um we should have went to this in January anyway per the HR uh recommendation Jared I'm going to stand with you and I'm going to give you a second to that and no matter how this go know that you have fought for your community so have I our community leaders have come out and we're going to stand no matter what second got a motion in a second Council please [Music] vote motion fails bring back up our original motion um I believe we had council member Biven Motion in a second from Acy Hill um I'm gonna I have a comment but whenever you're ready no go ahead you go you go first um today I introduced two substitute motions to try to compromise to delay delay the hiring of the city manager and comment to a process that would restore transparency and public participation unfortunately that motion did not pass um I remain deeply concerned about the lack of fairness and openness in this process according to the city's own recruitment plan from September 6 2024 there was supposed to be a stakeholder Mee and greet with fin list in December giving residents an opportunity to engage directly with the candidates and provide feedback through a volunteer survey uh this important step in the process was entirely skipped depriving our community of the chance to participate in this critical decision um when I took my oath to office um it was my it was my dad who um administered that oath and I swore on my late Mother's Bible um that I would always tell the truth and hold up the highest values even when um I didn't always do that Faithfully um and I'm grateful for the grace of God for that the comment was deeply this moment was deeply um important for me it was meaningful um that moment was incredibly um personal and meaningful to me um and it serves as a constant reminder of the Sacred trust I hold with my neighbors um you um and all of our neighbors in for Worth to move forward with the hiring uh with re Hing a new city manager under these circumstances not only undermines that trust but also violates the principles of ethical leadership that I committed to at ping this is not about uh qualifications of any of the candidates and especially our loone finalist who I dearly respect and um have worked with and really appreciate and admire um but this is about ensuring that the process by which we select our City's leadership reflects the values of transparent Arcy integrity and inclusivity decisions like this require public trust and public trust cannot be built behind closed doors for these reasons I cannot in good conscience participate in today's vote my decision my decision is rooted in my responsibility to serve our community with the highest standard of honesty integrity and ethics and to Hope uphold the principles that should gu to every decision we make as Leaders even if it cost me everything including this seat moving forward I will continue to ADV for processes that it strengthen public trust honor the voices of the people we serve and ensure Fort wors leadership reflects the values of our great city um Jay I don't I don't know what's going to happen tonight um but know that um I'm really grateful for the time that we had on Thursday um and I expressed all of what we were going to do without detail but to tell you that this was about the process and this is how I'll continue to work um as a council member and I look forward to um if this is successful vote um moving forward together as a city thank you all many blessings and may God bless V worth yes council member Flores please sorry try again there go Carlos thank you this on Diana could you come up to the uh Podium I want to get a clarification on something could you uh clarify for us the U the email that was referenced from September 6th was that a draft proposal the The Proposal that was sent out on September 6 was a draft proposal it was pending survey feedback and soliciting feedback from mayor and Council to gather information to help develop the hiring process and what response did you get I received four responses okay all right and were they supportive of that not supportive of that just there was no indication of supporter advocating for or against the process that was defined there was no Clarity around that so it was a draft proposal draft proposal all right thank you any other questions for Di Council just for clarity no one else needs to speak correct okay thank you um I'm going to switch gears for a second and talk about J Choppa um yeah [Applause] I see it as your mayor Jay Choppa has been interviewing to be the city manager of this city for 25 years he probably can't count how many hours he spent away from his family and committed to this city um I am so proud that tonight we will appoint Jay as our city manager for a variety of reasons first of all I'm a friend of Jay's and have been for 15 years and I've shared with my colleagues on this dis I'm lucky in that way I know him as a man of integrity a man of honesty and one of the most hardworking people as someone mentioned in their comments I think it was Daniel this is who I call on anything City business by the way of the million people in this city I bet you 500,000 people feel that same way and they all have Jay's number and ask his opinion what his pulse is on the community importantly Jay has presided over some of the most difficult issues in our city and he's done so with Valor and tenacity to do the the right thing no matter what it takes he is not a yes man he is a people man he knows this community in every single Council district and I cannot wait to get to work alongside him every single day the other thing I'd like to address to my Council colleagues um I think my record as your mayor for almost four years now has proven I'm not a mayor of Retribution I'm not a mayor that comes alongside and tries to surprise you I'm always the first person to offer you to sign onto a statement or resolution before we take on tough challenges I think the most recent example yes was the issue pertaining to forth IST but importantly around our budget this last cycle where I asked every single Council colleague to not just sign a letter but to come to consensus building I just think that point is very important and closing I'll say this to all of the individuals that took the time to come here tonight away from your families and away from your workplace thank you um I may not have agreed with every comment tonight but it doesn't mean I didn't hear it fully that I won't commit to you to serve you as mayor just like I have every else that I may have agreed with tonight these are important decisions we are the fastest going large city in the entire country yes we will be a top 10 City very soon I'm very proud of the process that we undertook thank you to di jordano not only conducting an excellent process but also saving taxpayers probably between1 and $150,000 at the same time we are very fortunate that Jay Choppa who's a resolution before you to appoint as yes the first hispan city manager in the history of Fort Worth just so happens to already live right here in our city and oh by the way his public service has been every single day from the basement to the top floors of City Hall to be ready for this moment when he starts in January should this vote happen I promise you everyone on this dis even if they were frustrated with the process or don't like where we are tonight we'll eventually come around to realize that this is the absolute right man for the the job to lead the city of Fort Worth into the future to Jay and your family thank you for being willing to come back into public service you probably need your head examined this is an incredibly difficult decision I realized that but you raised your hand and say I'm willing to even interview for the job to evise and Emy congratulations and getting to watch Jay tonight as you have for the last 25 years thank you all again for coming this evening we do have a motion on the floor in a second please vote just for clarity Jared doesn't want to vote okay motion carries [Applause] [Applause] but wait there's more okay Council we're going to keep moving through our resolutions our next one on the agenda is 24 4584 I'm making sure I don't have speakers on this one uh no speakers mayor thank you very much a motion a second councel please vote motion carries next item is 24- 4596 and there are no speakers entertain a motion Council motion a second please vote motion carries next item is 24- 47 7 six and may I believe we have one speaker thank you she already is a duplicate speaker okay okay what was the confusion Janette uhhuh oh that's fine we'll just yeah that's fine fine crisis averted Carla come on down please just to confirm this is regarding the raises yes hello Council I'm back earlier this year amidst the fiscal year 2025 budgeting process which I and many other community members also attended meetings and work sessions and vocalize was also not transparent accessible and was rushed through there was the opportunity to move forward progress on investing in our city employees who are on the front lines of our city services and meeting the needs of our community members on a daily basis at our community center libraries co-compliance water Waste Services maintenance workers traffic Services city court services janitors park services and so on a raise for employees ultimately decided minimum wage increasing from $545 to $18 an hour and the time frame in which it went into effect February 2025 was only even considered because community members advocated and pushed for our fellow city workers because we know they deserve a livable wage which this increase still doesn't even meet that because of d David and HR they had their way folks would have only gotten about a 50 50 cent raise now seeing this agenda item about providing raises to various appointed positions the new manager included to say that I'm appalled is a gross understatement the HR department and David and many of you up there clutched your pearls at the sight of an increased budget number to help invest in over a thousand employees who were making not livable wages and having a wage in which they could afford to live and thrive in a city that they are employed to but you're going to drop tens of thousands more on an ongoing basis in the bucket last minute for a literal handful of employees without batting an eyelash that's just a load of you know what I'm against this resolution to raise wages for people already making six figures it's as simple as that it's a shame that we have people working in the city who probably can't even pay rent or afford their daily needs for them and their families While others enjoy 20K bonuses and a fat paycheck this is just another example of y'all continuing along as usual right into 2025 so congrats on meeting your New Year's resolution of keeping the Fort Worth way you're a whole month early thank you motion a second com yes I do go ahead thank you uh Carla I really appreciate you coming um up here and stating your concerns I too um agree um with us making sure we get our minimum wage to a certain standard so the a livable wage in this resolution uh is particularly pertaining to our City attorney auditor and City Secretary uh and even outgoing manager um I'm going to support it but I'm also concerned about our minum wage but I do want to support uh this resolution because I do believe uh those who are listed on this have done a fantastic and phenomenal job here at the city of forward and is due and uh for this type of race in in conclusion of that I do believe we still must look at our minimum wage process and I think this Council has agreed to continue those conversations in our next budget so for that those are my uh comments thank you Chris any other discussion Council I would concur with Council Nettles we have an amazing staff that we get to appoint every single year and this tonight's a reflection of that and no lean's not kicking me under the table you too lean we do appreciate everyone um that serves on behalf of the city of Fort Worth please vote motion carries next item is 24- 4777 and may I think we have one speaker potentially thank you yes uh Mike hennefer is Mike here he gave up okay entertain a motion Council got a motion in a second any other discussion please up please vote motion carries next item is 24- 4778 motion a second please vote see try again sorry motion carries next item is 24- 4779 a second Council please [Music] vote motion carries next item is 24- 4780 Motion in a second in there discussion please vote motion carries next item is 24- 4781 motion a second please vote motion carries next item is 24- 4782 entertain a motion Council motion a second please vote I don't know Michael Chris try one more time thank you motion carries next item is 24- 4597 motion in a second please vote motion carries and Janette I'm going to move up when we're n to Ines I'm going to move up uh MNC 24 hyphen 1151 and this is council member Macy Hills district but importantly we have um mayor Betsy price here this evening and we're going to initiate a very important process it's always so great to see you Betsy I'm sure you're really enjoying that seat tonight aren't you yes she is absolutely um I'm gonna allow council member Hill to speak first thank you mayor um now it's a happy topic U Betsy thank you so much for being here this evening this is an honor and a privilege to get to rename the community center um for you and thank you for your years of service the city of Fort Worth would not be in the pos position it is now and as successful as it is now without your leadership um Katherine thank you so much for being here this evening and supporting your mom and Jason Baldwin thank you so much this was your initiative um I appreciate you taking the lead on it um and thank you so much for your leadership at Parks and Recreation yeah and importantly the whole Community will be able to come out I think in March is that right Macy we're hoping to have the signed done and the renaming ceremony and then Katherine you can get your brothers to show up right we're going to make sure that Paul and Phillip knew the favorite Child came tonight you did come absolutely mayor price if You' like to say a few words you'd be welcome at the podium first let me say thank you all each and every one of you for your service nights like tonight try your patience but they are exactly why you put your life out there and subject yourself to this because you are responsible for almost a million people remember this is about public engagement whenn Lose or Draw it's the right thing to do you vote you listen and you vote your heart and your conscience so thank you it's not easy but you do a wonderful job of it and thank you Macy all of you Jason Chelsea all of you on the parks board for this honor it's quite an honor to be have something named for you 10 years is a long time to serve as mayor but it was the Delight of my life and it was all about the service for me my husband always said who's home tonight recovering from eye surgery or he would be here but he always said honey I just have to work a little harder every time you serve which kept him off the streets right but thank you for this honor I will cherish it my family will cherish it my daughter Katherine who she says is the favorite Child she's the oldest and the rest of them truly appreciate it it's a great honor for my grandchildren who will grow up in Fort Worth who are being raised here and hopefully will raise their children in this wonderful City I can't wait until we dedicate it the city is about public engagement I spent 10 years working on the quality of life healthy communities and engaging citizens and what a better place to do it than at a community center so thank you for that honor well said Betsy thank you council with that I can entertain a motion got a motion and a second with enthusiasm I believe yes please go ahead Council Williams I know we have a long night not to blav but I'd be remiss not to say anything um mayor um when my team sent the email forward to me as they always do on a number of items where we need to make approval um I didn't hesitate um to say yes on this um you have um been a blessing to the city in a lot of ways and you have this job is hard and I didn't understand it when I was down there but I understand it better now um and I'm extremely grateful for uh you doing 10 years of uh generous public service to the city and we've sat at dinners um at community events and um I've always admired your approach and so many blessings this is well deserved my mom used to always say give flowers while people are here because tomorrow's not promised and so this is more than flowers this is a whole Community Center and it's welld deserved many blessings that's perfect any other discussion Council go ahead please mayor ptim Betsy I know when you walk out the door you're going to be saying darn I missed this oh I missed good to see you tonight thank you um and Jason thank you for initiating this process it wouldn't have happened without you to think of what a perfect um person to rename the Northwest Community Center after you after Betsy um there's so many things we'll say Betsy at the dedication thank you for being here this evening I thought it was special actually that you were here in this audience because you conducted the last City management search which is hard to believe um how long ago that was for the city of Fort Worth we love you dearly and we are so very proud of you um and we are trying to to keep up with you I have more people ask me how old is Betsy how does she keep doing what she does um the question is you're aging backwards um and you're such an inspiration to this community to live better live healthier lives and that Community Center will just be a reflection of your legacy in the future going forward so thank you so much much love please vote Council motion carries thank you okay Council we're going back to MNC 24-11 143 and we have a report by Robert Sterns Mr Sterns good evening mayor members of council Robert Sterns Economic Development uh the purpose of tonight's public hearing is to receive comment regarding the designation of tax abatement reinvestment Zone number 109 uh legal description of the reinvestment zone is attached to MNC 24-11 43 and a map of the zone is currently being displayed on the monitors can we uh move to the presentation yes we can perfect thank you all right um so before we get started on this I do want to uh recognize a few people I know Robert Allen was here with the for worth Economic Development partnership unfortunately Robert had to leave Lee Spencer Mitchell is still here the VP of economic development for the partnership i' also want to thank my own staff for the countless hours that they spent on working on this project to get us to this point so today we going to discuss a economic development program agreement with bell uh I could probably fo another slide of just where bell has made Investments across Taran County specifically in Fort Worth their headquarters obviously in District 5 the manufacturing and Technology Center in District 4 and this proposed project uh in District 10 but Bell uh American airspace manufacturer uh in December 22 the Army announced a contract award to build to build the future long range assault aircraft or Flora uh this is one of the US Army's largest programs valued to over $7 billion and the proposal that we've been working with them on is an expansion potential expansion to support greater FL demand and other future vertical lift programs uh the proposed site location is the former Stanley black and& dger site at 15100 North Beach Street in Denton County uh and the company is proposing as part of this overall investment is proposing to invest $632 million in capital investment that is broken down between 230 million 232 million of real property improvements with a minimum of 15% of those hard and soft construction costs to business Equity firms and then another 400 million in business personal property uh throughout the term of the agreement be 520 jobs uh as of the final project phase at a minimum average annual salary of $85,000 uh and this project uh as we'll kind of break through down the numbers includes investment for subsequent expansion and anticipation of future contract orders so it's discussed this these Milestone commitments are really broken down into four phases uh the primary project is phases 1 through three again that consists of $110 million of real property improvements uh by 2028 and then an additional 12 million by 2030 uh BPP the business personal property 190 million minimum assessed value by uh January 1st 2029 and then 250 million by January 1st 2032 uh with a minimum of 155 jobs uh by 2028 200 jobs by 2030 and 330 jobs by 2033 the expanded project uh which is phase four uh consists of an additional 110 million in real and real property improvements uh another 400 a total of 400 million of assessed valuation in business paral property and 520 total jobs by December 31st 20 2039 uh and again a minimum of $85,000 of salaries are required for the overall life of the agreement the proposed incentive is a 20-year combined package providing both a tax bement and 3 380 grants totaling 46.7 million uh the prop proposed incentive would be a 10year tax abatement on up to 85% of the incremental avalor taxes both real and business personal property uh the economic development program agreement or 380 would provide a $1 million Grant at the initial project completion and then up to 10 annual chapter 380 grants based on that same 85% uh this will be on the incremental Mino taxes and that would begin after the abatement rolls off uh we are also proposing to nominate this project as an Enterprise project for consideration under the State's Texas Enterprise Zone Program and so just to see how that breaks out you see years 1 through 10 uh estimated value about 18 $8.8 million again that consists of that onetime $1 million Grant following the phase one completion and then the tax abatement for 10 years and then years 11 through 20 uh the economic development program grants kick in uh with that 85% on uh the M rate of real and business personal property and will note that if the phase four project the additional investment is not delivered uh that the 380 term would be reduced by 5 years uh this is just a small breakdown of the fiscal analysis so again 632 millions of capital investment the estimated incentive value over that 20-year term of both the uh grants and the tax batement is just uh under $47 million uh that results in about a 7.4% city participation in the overall project cost and a 13.5 to1 ratio so for every $1 of public investment the company is putting in 13 $13.50 of private investment uh to facilitate the project uh the city would receive a total net gross of about $16.3 million in taxes over the 20 years of the uh projection and then the payback on that gross incentives will be about 10 years uh I will highlight uh this last sentence on this slide and I probably should have put it in red uh but I just wanted to clarify that this is not a done deal so this is a very competitive process that we're still in uh this approval tonight would be the first step and and a number of steps that would uh hopefully uh end in Bell choosing Fort Worth as the selected site but again very competitive and so we want to make sure that we're able to put this first piece of the puzzle together as we continue to work with bell uh on the overall project development and so the recommendation uh staff would be uh to enter into that 10year tax abatement on up to 85% of the incremental re and BPP uh provide the one-time Grant uh and the 10 annual grants based on 85% of the incremental uh M taxes and then nominate the project as an Enterprise project and so if there are no questions we'll move into the formal language as it relates to the public hearing all right to so to facilitate the project with Bell as proposed the city of Fort Worth wishes to enter into a tax batement agreement and economic development program agreement with the company based on back to this uh based on the portion of the incremental value of real and business personal property at the project site today's Council agenda includes the companion tax abatement and edpa agreement which will be considered as a separate action under MNC 24-11 144 subsequent to this public Hearing in accordance with state law notice that this hearing has been published in the Star Telegram a newspaper of Journal circulation within the city of Fort Worth and notice has been given to each of the tax and entities that Levy taxes on this property following public comment comment staff recommends closing the public hearing and approving MNC 24-11 143 which includes the following finding that the improvements are feasible and practical and would be a benefit to the land to be included in tax payment reinvestment Zone number 109 and to the city after expiration of any tax payement agreements and Adoption of an ordinance designating tax abatement reinvestment Zone number 109 thank you Robert it's conclusion of the presentation I believe council member block go ahead Robert thank you very much for the presentation I'm excited that we are moving one step closer in this process I hope that it comes to a very successful conclusion uh with that I move to close the public hearing and act on the MNC coun go ahead something go ahead I was just going to Second it and remind my colleague down there that this is the Army's investment in the city of forward that's all that's right it is got multiple seconds on this one I think yeah um to rate um Council Block's comments we're excited about the potential of this project um really want to commend Robert and your entire team for working so hard on every deal you work but this one especially um and same goes for the EDP and Robert Allen and his team so thank you I've got a motion a second Council any discussion yes may yes Council Bivens just for those who don't know the corporate headquarters remains on the east side of Fort Worth in District 5 we share a lot so thank you my friends thank you motion a second Council please vote motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 144 Robert you're back up uh mayor we've gone through the presentation so it just requires a vote at this point okay thank you go ahead Allan so I move to approve with the following changes under investment in this in the discussion section and two point a change the deadline for taxable business personal property to January 1 2029 in 2B change the installment amount for taxable business personal property to 60 million and the deadline to January 1 2023 and in 2C change the installment amount for taxable business personal property to 150 million and the deadline to January 1st 2037 second motion second Council please vote motion motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 156 Robert thank you mayor and Council I just thought I'd stay up and walk you through this potential uh program as well so again uh we are proposing under this MNC a new economic development program agreement with arot International uh if you'll recall we did a Economic Development agreement with arot back in 2020 to bring their Regional headquarters and uh Distribution Center here uh that was about a $70 million investment uh right now they're sitting at just over 600 jobs with annual salaries about $63,000 as part of that deal uh the new project would be an expansion of that uh Regional headquarters which we had pre previously worked with them on so that is the phase one uh site at 15201 blue down Road uh and then phase two of the project would be uh another large scale Distribution Center at 2501 Eagle Parkway again the proposed company commitments are a minimum of $ 72.6 million in total capital investment uh at uh the U at the site a minimum of 250 total new jobs with a minimum $70,000 average salaries required phase one which will be the expansion of the regional headquarters would have minimum real property investment of 6.9 by December 31st 2027 and then BPP of $2 million by January 2028 and 150 minimum new F full-time jobs as part of that phase one expansion phase two which would be the new Regional Distribution Center would have just under $20 million in Real Property investment by 2027 uh 43.8 million in business personal property by 2028 and 100 minimum new jobs uh as part of that investment and again would have the 15% uh participation uh of construction cost to business Equity firms as part of that uh part of the overall development uh the economic development program agreement would provide performance-based grants subject to the annual compliance reviews we're proposing a one-time $300,000 Grant upon completion of the phase one investment again that would be subject to clawback so if they don't meet those requirements those dollars would come back to the city and then up to five annual grants equal to 70% of the incremental M taxes on phase two and that would consist of the real End Business personal property again a short fiscal analysis 7 just over $72 million of minimum capital investment the estimated value of the incentive is about $1.3 million uh the city participation uh is just under uh 2% with a public private ratio about 56 to1 as it relates to this project the total net taxes will be $3.3 million over a 10year projection uh and the payback is just under uh three years uh as a result result of that overall investment uh so our recommendation would be to enter into that economic development program agreement with arot to support the expansion of its Regional headquarters at 15201 blound Road and the construction and operation of a new Regional Distribution Center at 2501 Eagle Parkway uh again I will as we did with the Bell project it will note that this is still a very active uh competitive process uh and so the final approval of Fort Worth as a selected site will be pending the vote tonight uh and then ongoing negotiations with the company and I'll ask any questions you may have thank you any questions from Mr Sterns Council M Block no questions Robert again thank you for the presentation I look forward to us completing this step and hopefully successful negotiations to drive this to completion thank you so with that I will motion to approve not a motion a second Council any discussion please vote thank you to our friends at arot we're excited about the potential here motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 55 I can entertain a motion on this one Council Motion in a second um we've I will say we have quite a few really great um both open space and Parks items on tonight's agenda Richard you don't get outdone most often but you did tonight we're sorry that we're not really allowing you to shine L um but thank you for your hard work and your staff on this one we appreciate you yes please council member Williams um thank you Richard um and U Mark as well Mark McDaniel um for all the work that you have done in district 6 on Rocket Creek Park um this is a really huge deal um it's going to be a gym um our our fearless leader down at Charlton State University Dr Rachel CA and I talk all the time about just what a gym the Fort Worth Prairie is especially down in Rocky Creek um and to know that amenities like this are so close to amazing institutions like Charleston state for worth is a blessing so um thank youall for all of your hard work and I'm excited to support it today any other discussion Council please vote motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 152 may I believe we have one speaker okay I'll find my list here again sorry about that um yes J Jack Barkley I believe there's only if there's opposition my knowledge there is none Jack says thumbs up okay very well got motion a second um Council please vote motion carries exciting to have our second media production Zone in the city of Fort Worth thank you next item is mnc2 24-11 145 with staff report by Michael H Michael hey Michael good evening mayor and Council my name is Michael henck and I'm here today representing the economic development department the purpose of this hearing is to receive public comment regarding approval of updated and amended project and financing plans of tax increment reinvestment Zone number three commonly referred to as the downtown Tiff the ordinance and the amended plans are attached to MNC 24-11 145 on October 15th the city council adopted an ordinance to extend the term of the downtown Tiff and deferred action on adoption of an amended project and financing plan pending approval by the board of the downtown Tiff that approval having been provided by resolution adopted at the November 6th board meeting of the downtown Tiff staff now desires for the city to adopt the amended plan as approved by the downtown Tiff board in accordance with state law notice of this hearing has been published in the fort wor start telegram at least seven days prior to today's date following any public comments this evening staff recommends close cling the public hearing and adopting MC 24-11 145 and the attached ordinance thereby amending the project and financing plan for tax increment reinvestment Zone number three thank you Michael any questions for Michael if not Council rebec that's conclusion of our presentation my mic on I move to close the public hearing and approve MC 24- 11145 got a motion a second Council please please [Music] vote motion carries next item is IMC 24-11 146 with staff report by Christ H you have hold on just a second we go ahead no please trying to find his motion go ahead Crystal please hi good evening mayor Parker and um members of city council my name is Crystal enosa I serve as manager and the economic development department and the purpose of tonight's hearing is to receive comment from the public regarding the proposed amendment and restatement of the service and assessment plan uh for the Fort Worth Public Improvement District number 17 Rock Creek Ranch as described in the proposed amendment amended and restated service and assessment plan the total previously approved cost of the water and sewer major improvements to be funded through the special assessments levied in the Eastern Improvement area and the Western Improvement area of the district was $14 million the total previously approved cost of the roadway improvements benefiting only the Western Improvement area of the district was 5, 670,000 the action to be taken at this public hearing will not impact the obligations of any assessment payers in the pit the proposed amendments to the service and assessment plan consists of program programming residual proceeds and Associated interest earnings from previously issued major Improvement bonds towards the cost of building the sewer capacity contemplated when the pit was originally created following receipt of any public comment staff recommends closing the public hearing and approving MNC 24- 11146 which adopts the ordinance to formally approve the amended and restated service and assessment plan of the Rock Creek Ranch pit after adoption the ordinance and plan will be filed with the county clerk as required by state law questions thank you Crystal council member Williams um yes thank you Crystal really excited about this I see Travis click here we work um really hand inand so thank you'all for all that y'all do down in Rocky Creek or Rock Creek um I move to close the public hearing and approve MC 24-11 146 Council please vote oh Chris is not here sorry motion carries next item is 24-11 147 with staff report by Monique Hill Monique is this your first presentation since your promotion I thought so it's good to see you good to see you as well good evening mayor and Council this will be really quick um I come before you to do the public hearing for the 2025 standards of care we do this to comply with our uh with the human resources code which is through the Texas legisl it is to allow us to operate program youth programs for children ages 5 to 13 um making us exempt from licensing for child care uh we do have to adopt these standards annually um to notify that we are not a licensed Child Care Facility oops I'm sorry been helpful to have that up for you go to the next one so the standards of care set for us are Staffing Rao ratios qualifications as well as making sure that we comply with any health with health and safety standards as well as making sure that we are enforcing any policy and as well as monitoring our youth in our programs our changes for the standard of care this year is to make sure that we are uh looking at our program leaders qualifications we recently made a change from our age um summer day camp going from ages 12 to 13 and we now will start our team program at age 14 so with that change we are requesting that we put in our Recreation leader program that any child in that program must be aged 13 which will allow them to participate so we are changing it from 5 to 13 to five to 12 years of age and then making sure that we um address our teens from 14 uh to 15 and we will allow children in our team program to go from 13 to 15 instead of 14 we're starting them a little younger uh the next thing that we're addressing is we want to make sure that we align our um our manual our parent manual with our standards of care and notify that if a parent is allowing a child to sign themselves out that we have an age there and so we're a adding the age of 10 and this is if they're signing out to walk home the same is true with pickup and drop off we are making this align with our parent manual and making sure that if a child um walked home that we are changing that and specifying age 10 one of our additions that we are adding and that we're very proud of is that we will make sure that we are um addressing youth that are having suicidal ideation and making sure that staff rece receive appropriate training and making sure that we address that um with our youth with the increase of uh youth suicide and then finally we're just making clarification um on page 14 as it relates to active shooter that at times we didn't want to just say that we all that all staff are there we have times that we have contractors volunteers and so we will make sure that there are staff that are aware of active shooter training um but it's not all the the staff but we do have staff present so we're just making a slight change there for transparency we took this before the park creation Advisory board on November 20th we did not have any objections it was adopted and so staff is making a recommendation that city council received public comment and upon the completion of the public comment that this is closed and that you will take action on this MNC I will now open for questions any questions from Council Members if not I can entertain a motion to close the public hearing move to close a public hearing and approve MNC 24- 11147 please vote come on now Jared and Gina are not present thank you motion carries thank you Monique thank you next item is MNC 24-11 48 with staff report by Beth Knight good evening mayor members of the council the request before you tonight is from Joyce Hill who owns the house of Neville gallery and galling Gatherings at 2409 Neville street she would like to sell alcohol at her facility however this facility is less than 300 ft away from a Fort Worth ISD public school um state law requires a 300t separation between a public school and any place that sells alcohol so a variance is needed from city council for this regard um to sell alcohol sale um at a closer distance um the school has been contacted by the applicant and every property owner within 300 feet of the gallery has received notice of this public hearing um after calling any speakers at the end of this public hearing the appropriate action for Council to take is to um vote on the MNC and I'm available if you have any questions thank you than you Beth Council M Hill any questions for Miss Knight um I do not Joy thanks for hanging in for the Long Haul I appreciate it move to approve motion a second Council any discussion please vote I think Jared's not here thank you motion carries next item is is MNC 24-11 149 please vote motion carries I didn't know she was here if you want to say anything please I didn't realize you were still here I miss thank you mayor and City Council Members I'm honored to be here and honored to accept your um approval tonight I've had the gracious wonderful time of serving Fort Worth for 12 years now as a part-time municipal court judge and I have really enjoyed it so I look forward to serving you as a full-time judge thank you for this opportunity welcome thank you thank you judge appreciate got a motion Council I did we already vote no we didn't sorry okay so have a motion I need a second anyone thank you already voted wow okay keep going apologies yeah there we go yeah okay okay no next item can I read the number first next item is 24 MNC 24-11 5 motion a second Council any other discussion please vote motion carries next item is Emy 24-1 one53 councilor rivens I move that the fort wart city council adopt the resolution authorizing use of the power of imminent domain to acquire zer .0 1.08 acres in permanent sewer facility easement from real property owner owned by Home yourway LLC the property is needed for the Wastewater Department Water and Sewer capital projects fund a public use that will upgrade and repair the permanent sewer line facility the land rights and the subject property are needed for the construction operation maintenance and replacement of the seore facility improvements as necessary the property is located at 4600 Burton Avenue in the Eastwood Terrace Edition block 7 lot 9 Taran County Texas the property interest to be acquired is described by meets and Bounds and depicted by survey exhibits attached to this mayor and Council communication got a motion a second Council please vote god dog H motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 154 got a motion in a second um really special thanks to Mark McDaniel and all the city staff that have been participating and leading on our um open space Acquisitions this is almost 300 acres of open space in the city of for wor so the parks department um thank thank you so much for your hard work I know you're very very excited about this please vote what deserves a round of applause I agree Rick thank you next item is MNC 24-11 157 motion a second Council please vote thank you Joel appreciate you motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 158 motion a second please vote motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 159 motion a second please vote motion carries next item is MNC 24-11 160 council member Flores move to approve Motion in a second please vote motion carries okay Council we're going to take a brief recess probably 5 to 10 minutes to reset and Jared says he needs 10 fair enough it'll probably take at least 10 anyway um to reset the room allow speakers to come in um for those of you that are staying for zoning stay on your in your seat if you'd like to or save it that'd be fine and we'll recess thank you mayor is it okay if we ask to step out so okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay okay oh I gota wait for Council back where'd she go see Elizabeth so we can start the first case she was right there e okay Council I think we're ready to get started e they're coming I'm gon okay I'm G to end recess and start our meeting for zoning thank you so much I know that we're waiting on a few of our speakers to come in on zoning case 24- 090 so as as those individuals come in to speak I'm going to move May PR Bivens to the next case which is zc 23 hyen 202 which is in Council District 5 we have one speaker on this item Mr Travis K good evening um good evening May Council I'm Travis CLE with Westwood Professional Services we're a consultant representing our owner the Reverend who is here uh tonight on this complex um yet uh exciting project in East for worth the site sits on 28 acres in East rosale and it's currently zoned as B2 family and E neighborhood commercial we're proposing a plan development with Community facilities as the base zoning the site will allow for a place of worship Event Center vendor food court parking and for short-term visit or lodging during the events only the living quarters outlined in the PD are not for rent not shortterm rentals and not multif family for the majority of the time the site will be mainly utilized by the monks the nuns and staff that would remain at at the campus but will allow for significant events to take place from time to time the focal point if I can change the screen here I think I know how to do that by now the focal point of the entire complex will be the beautiful area that includes the stupa as seen here on the presentation slide we're requesting for an allowance of 175 ft which is a variance however we're 600 feet from the nearest home which meets the 3 to1 setback requirements we are also requesting variances to the sign ordinance that would allow signs to be larger than the current city code mainly for the ceremonial gate entrances and finally we're requesting the use of the new proposed urban forestry standards that would require greater preservation of significant trees on the property and preservation of the existing Post Oaks while allowing us to remove invasive trees and those trees not on the protected list lastly I'd like to take a moment and thank the city for all the help in this project this Vision has been in process for several years and due to the complexity of the request we've needed significant support from the city the standards and narrative written for this p is C is the culmination of months of hard work by the city the church and partners specifically I'd like to thank Beth Knight Steven Murray Jacqueline Ingram and Leandra Stringfellow and of course mayor B's office or mayor potim B Biven office as they've been tremendous tremendously helpful while we have staff support and unanimous support from the zoning commission we still have a very detailed and tight program ahead of us and we look forward to the continued partnership with the city thank you thank you Travis council member Bivens I am very excited about this project so glad to see the vulnerable here this evening uh we know him as two and from time to time two will just drop by dressed like he is tonight and people will say there's a man at your house with a robe on do you know him but that is just what a part of this community he is and so I want to thank the temple for their leadership during Co and Beyond this Temple contined to feed people and provide supplies that were needed after the covid scare was over and so because of my support for the temple and you working with them yeah I vote wholeheartedly to approve it I hope my Council peers will side with me second got a motion a second Council any other discussion if not please [Music] vote all right thank you one is missing thank you and motion carries okay Council we'll go back to zc 24- 09 Council rebec we have a few speakers on this item the first is Tara Gordon on behalf of a group is Tara here ter come on down and I see the names listed here Tara thank you for that um if you're here um as a part of a group for Tara Gordon you just wave your hand really quickly that's all I need thank you very much Tara the floor is yours you have six minutes good evening council members and mayor Parker my name is Tara Gordon and I'm the housing program manager for the transition resource Action Center known as track track is a nonprofit with over 20 years experience serving Youth and Young adults that have aged out of the foster care system and young adults that are experiencing homelessness in north Texas we carry we operate two transition centers one in Dallas and one in Fort Worth we carry contracts and grants with dfps the Texas Workforce Commission the city of Fort Worth a victims of crime act Grant through the governor's office and multiple Federal contracts through HUD we also are supported by numerous foundations including the Sid Richardson foundation and the AMG Carter Foundation due to the increased need for our services track would like to renovate the 4536 Tima church building as an enhanced drop Center for young adults and include our staff offices a resource room with computers and a gym space for recreation and community events in addition track would like to add a 15-bed transitional housing program on site we currently have 10 young adults house or a transitional housing program between the ages of 18 to 24 right now we rent five apartments in the South Fort Worth Binbrook area we have maintained that partnership for 5 years but for the same amount of money we house six young adults we would house 15 young adults in our new transition Center to be considered for the program the young adults must be between the ages of 18 to 24 referred pre-screened interviewed and selected for a bed there will be background requirements and most importantly the program will be voluntary meaning the young adults will want to be there because they don't have any other options once accepted in the program the young adults will be required to participate in case management obtain employment and are pursue their education the young adults will only be allowed to stay 3 to 6 months and track will help them transition ition to Independent housing we will have two to three young people per room in addition there will be 247 supervision by staff and after our security officer strict curfews and a security system we plan to sign a 10-year lease with Altima Church which means we will house a minimum of 300 young adults over the next 10 years and serve thousands of young people with Case Management Services this expansion is crucial for track to meet the increasing needs for the community but don't just take my word for it I'd like to introduce the members of our speaker team that are here as a testament to our Partnerships and the work we do in this community first I'd like to int introduce Chris Packard tracks interm executive director Lauren King the executive director of partnership home formerly known as the tarant county Homeless Coalition Crystal lsby the vice president of Housing Services for Presbyterian night shelter Chris cage the director of the underground Youth dropin Center within one safe place Kennedy an the house relations manager of the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth Rea Atkins the founder and executive director of Rise who is also the current chair of the tarant County Youth committee Elizabeth Dyke the senior class president at Fort Worth Country Day School representing our long-standing partnership with the school and then our current landlord was unable to make it inside the building tonight um but we have been at the same housing apartment for The Last 5 Years and we're the only housing provider that they agree to work with in Taran County and that they want to continue working with they believe in the work we do so much that they even help Drive our youth to some of their interviews in addition to these Community Partners we have two of our young people with us tonight Trey who is currently housed in our transitional housing program and Justice that successfully completed our transitional housing program and has been housed independently for the last year and a half we are honored for them to stand with us tonight homeless young adults are often called The Invisible population because they look like any other young person walking to school but they are here they are at our Emergency Shelters they are sleeping on our streets sleeping on parked benches sleeping in cars sleeping in tents or Worse are being trafficked or sexually exploited we recognize that housing and additional 15 youth won't solve our housing crisis for our young people but it will make all the difference for those 15 please help track and Altima Church of price fight to and youth hope homelessness in our community and approve our zoning request for CF and I'd like to really thank councilwoman Beck and her team for all their advocacy and our Outreach that we've done during this time thank you all for your time and everything you're doing tonight thank you our next speaker is Emily Hargrave also on behalf of a group if you're here on behalf of that group please raise your hand please thank you and Emily will be followed by Micah Hobbs okay thank you very much I appreciate the time to get to be here I'm here on behalf of uh myself and my house there's a photo actually um if you see above here that's where the um housing unit will be but the house not the one with the pool the other one is mine and my family we moved here in June um to that house in particular and had we known then that they wanted to turn that house into a home we would have been very happy to do it and we're happy to do it now that fence line that covers most of that property line is ours and we are very happy to share with the program that they are wanting to do we are engaged in those kinds of things in the city and we're looking forward to being here in Fort Worth in our minds really the human life and hope and opportunity are kind of what's most important to us and um I think the biggest thing I wanted to convey was just from the moment that I heard that that house would be renovated into this purpose I would was very excited about it and we're very excited to share my family and kids and also our neighbors in that cue saac that could not be here tonight are also pretty excited about that possibility sharing that space with them um thank you very much for your time I really appreciate it and what I just wanted to double thumbs up it from my position thank you thank you Emily our next speaker is Micah Hobbs good evening council members mayor Parker my name is Micah Hobbs I'm the preaching minister at Alto Mesa Church of Christ at 4600 Alesa Boulevard and uh we're here tonight requesting the zoning change um Alto Mesa has a going on an 11year relationship with track operating uh the dropin center on our campus for young adults and so because of that partnership as Tara mentioned we completely trust the good work that they do uh as this slide suggests uh track and Alto Mesa has done we've done our best to be transparent with our neighborhood about the zoning change these efforts culminated on August 28th with a town hall meeting at our church to communicate the plans of the church and track with our neighbors and to do our best to answer their questions uh we also went before the zoning committee on September 11th and um at that meeting um it was decided that we would be in violation of a half mile radius city ordinance um and so obviously we were disappointed with that decision so Alto Mesa and track met with council member Beck's team and City attorneys to discuss uh that decision about the half mile radius ordinance and from this meeting the city attorneys and council member be's team uh have determined that we would not be in violation of the half mile group home like to like ordinance requirement so um we were excited to hear that and track and Al Mesa most recently hosted an open house on December 2nd for the community to come and see the track transition Center it was an exciting night uh lots of people attended and it gave us further Insight that many in our neighborhood are support of our plans to have this transitional group home for young adults on our campus and so we were excited about that finally um we have uh offered an agreement um to the Wedgewood uh South neighborhood association who showed some opposition to what we're trying to do um we offered them an agreement uh that includes that we will agree not to lease um this facility to any other on-site housing program but track and they have communicated back to us that they need some time to review that 60 to 90 days to review that so our commitment is to continue to work with them after this council meeting um on the next slide um our y for this the alamesa church believes in compassionately serving our community to make it better for all in and we believe that trackx programs align with the city's comprehensive plan of working together to build a strong community so we would ask that you approve thank you Mah this zoning request thank you so much our next speaker is John Robinson is John here hi John hand them to the City Secretary first okay good evening I stand here uh because I was voted by the Wedgewood South uh neighborhood association to give you the presentation that we gave to the zoning board back on September 11th um what we have is a is a is a study in density and uh what we're talking about is the CF designation here's the definition of that um I want to show we want to say that track is doing some wonderful things here are the here are the things that have highlighted some stuff that you're going to see that is clearly stated in state law um in city of Fort Worth's own chapter 5110 z uh community homes uh group homes is is the next chapter but it reads the same and uh and that talks about the half mile um rule uh that they need to be separated by a half mile so that's based on Texas Human Resources code title 8 chapter 1 123 about community homes um 123. Z3 talks about zoning restriction discrimination of course you can't discriminate against the group just because it's a community home and the chapter 004123 004 uh talks about qualif qualifications of the community home which Tre does qualify for um the uh the uh the important part about that is how it describes what those mean in chapter 247 which talks about the co scope and purpose and implementation of community homes and in fact group homes but I don't have time to talk about both so I got to pick on this one um Moving On Again chapter 247 defines what is involved in this state law which this city ordinance is based off of so these are the other these are you can see that you compare the two things that track does what the statute says it matches they are doing these amazing things uh 247 continued talks about specifically about the Church of Christ uh we're telling we're we're here to talk about the say that this these uh exemptions are very narrow in scope and that's is something else than what the Altimas Church of Crisis is is suggesting so it doesn't apply um back to chapter 123 we talked about the services required again um that first slide that talked about Tre uh what they serve is right off their website and you can see it matches right with what chapter 123 says these homes are um 123 talks about Z8 talks about the half mile rule um here's a picture of our neighborhood the blue dot in the middle is the Church of Christ and the property um the yellow stars around it are the existing community homes um that meet those definitions here's a half mile distance here's how many are within that half mile we are saturated and we are suggested a a um we got too much density so joh conclusion of your time I apologize council member Beck that's the conclusion of our speakers on this item thank you mayor so a couple things I want to lay out here I appreciate um John you coming and speaking on behalf I'm sorry no I don't have any questions of you thank you though I do appreciate you coming um and speaking on behalf of the Wedgewood South neighborhood association um over the last several months I've worked very closely with track and um the Altimas Church to um to to work through the community on this particular zoning issue uh this community is one that's uh very important to me I actually grew up four blocks away from this particular church and um I can attest to the longstanding community commitment that they have had it started with uh their food pant um that they opened many many many years ago when I was um just a a little girl living in Wedgewood um and they also have a very strong and long-standing commitment with track and I want to talk about track for just a second because that's going to be the entity that's operating this particular um um home uh during the course of this I had the opportunity to meet with uh landlords that currently have tracks um some of tracks recipients and they could not speak highly enough about the the type of individual that they have coming into uh renting um apartments in their apartment complex it's actually right across the street from country day and they have said that they would take um every member of track um that they that they could if if I'm sorry if they could because um these residents are quiet and they don't cause problems they're they're the type of residents that they want living in their um in their communities and that's in no large or no small part because of the work that track does to support these um to not just background check but support these um individuals as they are um moving down their journey to to find uh permanent and stable housing um I will I appreciate so much the work that both track and the church did communicating with neighbors not only did they host two open houses but they actually went door too and made sure that members of the Wedgewood South neighborhood understood what was coming in or what was proposed to come in next door I have uh full faith that um that track will be a good operator and when it comes to um to some of the concerns and I will get to those that Wedgewood South has I think um so often that um is because we've had a bad operator and I don't think that we will have that case here with track I also appreciate the church willing to sign an agreement with the neighborhood restricting um that housing to track as the operator and um I have full faith and confidence that the church and the neighborhood association will reach an agreement um that protects the neighborhood as we move through this process um I do want to address congregant living in Wedgewood because Wedgewood South has a very valid point that there are several Community or congregant homes whether you call them boarding homes ifc's hsc's ABCD efgs they are in your neighborhood um and so you are starting to become inundated with these there is a half mile radius unfortunately because of some state and federal laws um a lot of these facilities are permitted um with reasonable accommodation which means that the city doesn't get to enforce that half mile radius all of that being said it was through this particular zoning case that we uncovered that we weren't doing the best job that we could at the city to make sure that we are enforcing that half mile radius and so that starts with um registration and making sure we have a very clear understanding of where these homes are going so I'm proud to say that I've been working very closely with staff um our legal team and development services is to uh make some changes to our land use table to provide add additional protections to our neighborhoods um and make sure that we have um that we're not held hostage by um by bad operators we're also setting up more direct and open lines of communications with hhsc to make sure that those folks um those contractors that aren't operating these homes in a way that um provide enhancements to the neighborhood um are held accountable um and then also through our boarding home ordinance here at the city um so we have not forgot about you Wedgewood and uh you have my promise to continue to work um with not just my members uh my colleagues on this dis but with state and federal leaders as well um and our our really amazing legal team to try to provide Solutions so that we can protect the Integrity of neighborhoods um we've done that through short-term rentals and um it's time that we make sure that we're paying as much attention to congregate living as well um so with that I am going to move to approve zc 24-9 with the following amended motion um to a PD um slcf so a plan development for all uses in community facilities excluding group home 2 site plan required second Maddie first please yeah so real quick I when I just want to uh voice full support uh council member Beck on her decision I know she did a lot of research into this but from the uh purpose standpoint um I think it's I think all of us on the Das can there's a little bit of relief actually hearing a neighbor uh in support of something as important as this uh typically you know we're we experience the not my backyard type movement I think for something as important as this I think it's great to see a neighbor actually say yes please put it literally in in our backyard so I think that's amazing is a Taran County uh Court appointed special Advocate I deal with children in the system uh my current kid actually just turned 18 and if it weren't for foster parents willing to keep him around he he'd undoubtedly end up on the streets uh so I think facilities like this are going to be absolutely amazing uh so with that I U fully support even thank you motion a second Council any other discussion thank you please [Music] vote Council Williams is a yes motion carries next item name is zc d24 d117 council member Williams we have two speakers on this item the first is Michael Grooms followed by Tyler hinden yeah go ahead so I'm actually Tyler Hing does Michael need to go first so I'm with Brakes Plus or I have to go in a certain order okay uh so I'm Tyler H and I'm with breakes plus I'm the project manager on on this specific facility so I appreciate you guys having us tonight I thought all these folks were here for us but I guess they're not so uh but no so um so we're here seeking a conditional use permit for a development um and I think we've got a PowerPoint slide somewhere but a development along mcferson Boulevard uh so we're a auto use facility uh we do minor auto repair services um we've got roughly between Our Brands 370 uh establishments across the country so we develop all over the country so were a major national brand that would be coming in um and so as we started this process we met with City staff and we ultimately ended up in the cup path because uh City uh City staff expressed some interest in not wanting to do a full rezone and open it up to uh the the all the additional uses that would come in with that so we ultimately settled on the cup and as we've gone through that process um we we met with the HOA even though we're not U within the the neighborhood District that the Chism Trail Ranch that is next to us we felt to be a good neighbor it would be good to meet with them have the discussion and start the dialogue um and we had that meeting and coming out of it um it was very positive um and actually from the breakes plus side there weren't really any comments uh to be made the biggest thing was around exterior facade uh of the building and actually in my opinion um and you'll see it uh at some point but you know we've got a nice Stone facade that's probably a more higher end finish that you'll see with any any auto use facility probably across the country um and so it wasn't until probably the last Planning and Zoning meeting uh where it obviously didn't go well you guys probably know that but um where some folks expressed some concern with maybe us being an auto use facility in a neighborhood commercial or maybe more retail focused area and I guess what I what I will say uh to that is um you know if we were developing a site across mcferson Boulevard we wouldn't even be here uh before you because were're Allowed by right there uh so you know to me in my mind you got to think about the whole Corridor in itself of mcferson Boulevard and whether you're on one side or the other you know I I don't know that it makes a huge differ in my mind it's about getting the right right folks there that are committed to the long-term growth of your city you know as we are um you know the lifespan of our business is if you do some research is much longer than the average retail um business or company that you're going to bring in and so our tax base that we would bring in would probably be a much longer Runway than what you're going to get with a traditional retail brand just because the seasonality or trends that they're subject to that that we're really not everybody's driving cars and probably for a long long time so you know we we anticipate being around for a long time so we look forward to being a part of the growth my my grandfather great-grandfather's from here my grandma's from here so this was the exciting one for me personally to be a part of so U I got a a necklace from the Stockyards when I was six years old so I still have it so uh so it's exciting for me to be here so thank you for your time appreciate it Council Williams I believe that's the last our speakers unless Mr Grooms needed to say anything here he comes he's coming down uh good evening mayor council um I'll keep my comments very brief here um I did just want to highlight one thing and uh really reinforce uh breaks Plus's role in this whole process um you know they're great partners for whichever city they're located in um they're great corporate operators of their facilities keeping them fresh and clean you know making sure they're delivering on the promises that um were made when we brought this in front of the HOA and uh pnz and city council um they they've made a very concerted effort to revise their drawings and revise their plans coming out of our HOA meetings um I would want to thank Haley car with the Chism Trail ran Community she's been again a great partner in this process um helping us understand what are the concerns of the local residents and how can we best address those um and I I wish I could have a compare and contrast between our original plan and our final plan but we have made strides and we have made changes to those plans um in order to further enhance that streetcape um I know Tyler mentioned that one we're not beholden to the chis Trail Ranch standards but we did want to do everything in our part to make it feel like one cohesive development and one cohesive area of the city of Fort Worth um uh again you know driving down that streetcape the benefit of the cup here um where we're not necessarily Allowed by right under the current zoning the cup is giving the HOA members city council um the city as a whole a little bit more input into what that final product looks like and I think that is reflected in our plans thank you thank you Council Williams the conclusion of our speakers yes ma'am thank you mayor um and thank you Michael and Tyler really appreciate um all that you'all have done to engage the community um unfortunately um sometimes with zoning and land use it's like U trying to find the right piece of the puzzle and in this particular case I think the zoning um for this parcel land is actually right and what the neighborhoods want um Haley car um represents many of the neighborhoods of the Chisel Trail Ranch Community has a letter in opposition and other neighbors have concerned that this isn't the right place although the service is certainly needed um and even across the street um where the future Target will be coming and they're currently moving dirt and hopefully the store will be open soon I think the community is much more open to that site um so please I won't be supporting this I won't deny it with prejudice though um because I want yall to engage our office and the community so we can find um where your puzzle piece which is really important to the kinds of services we need in our community best fit along the Chisum Trail Corridor um so with that I move to deny um this Sony case got a motion Council got a motion a second either discussion please vote motion carries next item is zc d24 d118 council member Williams this one is also yours yes these are um sister cases and so similar comments I encourage um you Michael and Tyler to please come back and we'll try to figure out where this best goes It's always a a tough road ahead um when staff makes a recommendation against and so does the zoning commission and we have the letters of opposition so uh with all of that I'm gonna move to deny this case as well thanks Shar I do have a motion on the floor but just for clear I do have Aaron Graves as a speaker did Aaron want to speak he's coming down just a moment Jared I do have a motion on the board no it's my that's my fault go ahead thank you Erin right um here with bowar engineering as the applicant um not much more I can say that to be honest it's unfortunate news you know we enjoyed working with the community in order to enhance this building exceeding City standards and and expectations for what this area requires um obviously we want to be a part of of the community it's its essential use as was discussed um and we look forward to to working with the team is this moves forward so thank you thank you may if I just might uh I completely agree um y'all's designs were excellent and this use makes sense along that Corridor we just need to find the right parcel so you have my commitment as a council member of this area that um we're more than open I'm to engage in the work with yall to try to find the right spot there's still lots of vacant land that um this would be perfect for thank you Jared I've got a motion on the floor Council see a second motion a second please vote motion carries next item is zc- 124-125 we have no speakers on this item council member Flores yes mayor we're going to continue this case for 30 days got a motion to continue motion a second please vote motion carries next item is zc- [Music] 24127 councilman Williams this one's yours okay I just want to make sure there wasn't any public comment um on this item I just want to give youall a clarification on the council um that this church is needing to go through this resoning process so that they can get a digital sign and so uh I'm going to approve this but I do think it's worth us discussing because churches don't have a whole heck of a lot of money to pay for application fees through zoning process and it seems like a simple fix but I am not the expert when it comes to science so I would love for us to talk about this in a future work session about um what this process actually looks like and if there's ways that um we can streamline this so our nonprofits and fake based organizations don't have to do these kinds of things um but with that um I move for approval got a motion a second Council please vote motion carries next item is zc- 124-129 council member Flores we have one speaker on this item Armando Garcia good evening thanks mayor council members um thanks for your time here for considering this case tonight um just going to keep it short and sweet also um we're just requesting a zoning change from a be to family residential to a er neighborhood commercial restricted for Mr prry who's the applicant I'm just here on his behalf um he we're working on a project on on a couple properties to the north of this property directly adjacent and he's basically just wanting to use this this piece of property for like overflow parking that would support the the projects that that we're we're trying to develop on the North side which we're underway with with the city reviewers on we've made a couple submittals uh so we're just trying to cross our te's do our eyes and get to the finish line and um Mr preacher really would um it it would help him a lot just to have that extra space um available to him and I know there was some concern at pnz about um screening um and Mr Petri is is is is aware of that that and is more than willing to to install any sort of uh screening or um fan anything that that that uh pnz would would would want us to add same with landscape we would meet or exceed any all of the requirements um and with that I'm going to think that that's it thank you Mr Garcia any questions Council ples no I don't have any questions uh but uh I do want to note for the record that I have been in community a with Mr Petri and also with Armando in the past and uh do acknowledge and we have this on record uh Steven Murray will know this that uh neighboring property owner Nick Papa John has submitted a letter of support from changing uh from B to ER and also understand that a 30-day U continuance would cause a financial burden through the project and work disruption as far as the uh fence is concerned uh we have an email on file from Mr Petri attesting to his willingness to construct that screening fence and with that I will move for approval second got a motion a second councel any other discussion please vote motion carries next item is zc- 24-13 council member CR we have one speaker on this item only if there's opposition which I believe there is none there is none I have have a motion to make I move to approve zc 24-13 as pde plan development for all uses in E neighborhood commercial excluding bar or Tavern convenience store restaurant and liquor or Package Store site plan waved second motion a second Council please vote motion carries next item is zc d24 d133 we have no speakers on this item Council M Beck motion a second please vote Charlie also there motion carries next item is zc d24 d139 Council morbeck we have one speaker on this item Leo Lozano good evening my name is Leo loano the property address is 14 Chase Court I bought this property about a year and a half ago with the intention of restoring the house and improving the property in general it is estimated that d one has lived in his house for about 60 years the property has been neglected and the house is in very poor condition I have submitted five applications for certificates of appropriateness coas with the store commission all five have been approved one of the applications was to build a garage apartment behind the house again this application has been approved by the historic commission the construction of the garage apartment also requires a permit I submitted all the required documents to the development department my foundation and structural plans were approved so are my mechanical electrical and plumbing plants one obstacle remains before I could begin construction zoning in 2008 the zoning of this property was changed to commercial e as far as I know there's never been a commercial business on this property and if my neighbors had a say there never will be a zoning Des designation of commercial e for the property does not make any sense the property has a residence and it is in a residential area having apartment on the property will give me a place to live year round while I continue the task of restoring the house at 14 Chase Court thank youo council member Beck you are absolutely correct it does not make any sense that that was zoned e commercial other than they went down the length of hemp Hill and everything that was close to that street got reasoned I look forward to seeing the work that you do to bring that grand old house back into back to life so move to approve I'm looking forward to it it's going to be a challenge good luck Motion in a second Council any discussion please vote thank you motion carries next item is zc d24 d149 uh I'll take a motion on this item Council thank you motion and a second Council please vote motion carries next item is sp-24 d013 thank you Janette Council we have about 78 speakers on this item but I have um spoken with both the for and against speakers what we do this evening is what we always do we'll take all the for and all of the against um the caveat here is because I'm going to give each side a full 12 minutes at the top of their speaker list and I've also been contacted um especially by those that are in favor of this particular um site plan change um they'd prefer to speak in groups rather than every individual speaker that is fine because you have all the rules to do that to combine them all um as long as each individual speaker who name I will call at some point during the speaker to make sure they do approve of that and they don't want their want their time this evening um so with that I believe we're going to start with Pastor Heather shot followed by Kyle Fonville each individual will have six minutes on behalf of their applicant and then we'll move through group speakers from there good evening Council uh my name is Heather shot I'm the senior pastor of Mercy culture church and the founder of the Justice Reform the organization that is building the Justice resident the Justice residence will be a restoration home for discipling women rescued out of human trafficking why do we need the Justice residences here are some stats for you Dallas Fort Worth region accounts for 35% of the state's commercial sexual sexual exploitation cases even though we only have 26% of the state's entire uh population 7 out of 10 victims are female and there are 6.3 million enforced commercial sexual exploitation in the US yet there are only 33 live-in programs specifically for human trafficking victims in the entire nation offering a total of 682 beds survivors of human trafficking have an 80% chance of being revictimized if they do not have a safe place to go the lack of safe places for victims of human trafficking um is one of the main reasons why we are losing the battle so badly to ending sex trafficking K the majority of women rescued have no place to go and end up back in bondage being retracked this is about the worst thing that can happen to a human soul because it kills all hope hope for Freedom hope for a real life for a justice system for Humanity they lose hope with no safe place to go in which many stop trying to get free for this reason because they are beaten to a half inch of their life Upon returning back after a failed attempt of Freedom or Worse their child or family member is raped abused or even killed in front of them their reality is being brutally raped multiple times every single day by multiple individuals this is happening all around us right now women are being enslaved for sex this is an injustice yet the greatest Injustice is to do absolutely nothing about it or Worse to oppose solutions to help restore and redeem the most abused individuals in our society when we are already losing the battle those that have opposed us say they are for the rescuing and restoration of victims of human trafficking yet they have spent their time and money fighting against us and not fighting the issue at hand which is human trafficking action not words is what speaks truth I was asked to bring Clarity to these accusations tonight even though I feel that these are opinions and not valid to our case since we can legally build on our property but I do want to help bring Clarity for those that need it I've heard accusation after accusation from the OA of Oakhurst neighborhood that our lies to hurt our character and our efforts in order to feed their desires of having a neighborhood without a restoration home near it I've been accused that we don't know what we're doing yet we have an entire program put together by trained professionals including counselors medical professionals anti-human trafficking experts pastors and survivors we have trained in the last three years 100 Advocates so that every Survivor has their own advocate this has never been done before as and is an incredible achievement I've been accused that we have uh not brought in other professionals and organizations to learn nor hear from them yet we have brought in 12 different organizations including the net 821 treasured vessels Boi's Place Unbound now rescue her traffic 911 Freedom Shield Foundation delivered fund yaku bu's ministri Sarah Lin Morgan with Homeland Security Sheriff wurn and others from the PD that have spoken into our church and organization whom has allowed to us to pray over them and sew financially into many of them I had a picture of all of the events that we had them out to I'm not sure if the slides are working but we have only fought for Unity and to support other organizations in the city many of them are here in the room tonight or submitted letters in support of the Justice residents that could not be here the Justice residents have been accused of causing more traffic my colleagues will be responding to this concern due to time the Justice residence has been accused that it will make our neighborhood unsafe my colleagues will also be responding to this concern the Justice residence has been accused of not being a church related activity my legal council will take a deep dive into this but let me say for centuries this is exactly what the church has done like we heard earlier of another amazing Church in the city and should continue to do for all time the Bible the Living Word of God says in Isaiah 61 verse1 and 8 the Spirit of the Lord God is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor he has sent me to bind up the Brokenhearted to Proclaim Liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners and it says this in verse eight for I the Lord love Justice there's restoration home that will bind up the Brokenhearted be a place of Liberty and freedom for the captives and will'll have a chapel in the center of the building for worship and discipleship this is clearly a church related activity God calls his people to bring Justice because it pleases him that's why this place is called the Justice residence because we are bringing biblical Justice to please Our God out of the 33 places of restoration in our nation many are ran by Christians or churches two of the most successful centers restoring victims of trafficking are right in the city like the Justice residents will be the first one that's been around for a long time is called the LA Dream Center which is a church that oversees a large restoration home serving victims of human trafficking and Ministry for the homeless in downtown LA it was established in 1994 and for 30 years has been transforming lives and serving the city of Los Angeles California the other one is New Life Church in Richmond Virginia that has multiple large restoration homes for men and women in the downtown area surrounded by neighborhoods and was established in 1971 running for almost 54 years and serving Richmond Virginia thank you Pastor shot our next speaker will be Kyle Fonville before Kyle get started is there anybody that's about to come in I just want to make sure we allow them to do that I know that you're kind of filling up here Fire Marshall hasn't given me any okay we're good okay Kyle the floor is yours good evening Council mayor Parker uh my name is Kyle Fonville I'm attorney here in Fort Worth and I represent Mercy culture Church um we're here on a site plan Amendment um and so I want to get a little bit into the legal uh background of this uh first of all the proposed use as you heard uh the the zoned use for this property is church related activities there's no limits on that it's any church related activities the only requirement is a site plan and that's what we're here uh asking for today uh the proposed use fits within the current zoning and we have an agreement with the city staff and City attorneys I want to give a special thanks to Miss Dana berdoff who's who's worked very hard along with the city attorneys with us um we've worked through this issue and uh this this proposed use fits within the the zoning uh the church also consulted with a national uh Law Firm who does this because I don't I don't go in front of the Supreme Court I don't argue these these religious Liberties issues and so we brought them in to give us Counsel on what this is and they wrote a letter everybody should have received a copy of the letter uh and they they reached the same conclusion that there should be no question and this is first Liberty Institute there should be no question that the new structure and Ministry our church Rel ated activities under RPD 586 now here's here's why here's the standard and this comes from the Fort Worth court of appeals it's a 1999 decision and they said Church merely requires that activities are one primarily connected with religious worship which you just heard there's going to be a chapel in the Justice residence but two it says or intended to propagate religious beliefs and what happened in that case is the church looked at a dance hall and they said well a dance hall that's used for dancing for barbecues for fundraising is that a church because it's not connected to the sanctuary it's on Church property but it's not connected to the sanctuary the city of Fort Worth actually said yes that is a church the Fort Worth court of appeals said yes that is a church and just because there were uh social events held does not mean it's not part of a church so that's the standard what religious beliefs are being propagated with this uh with this residence well I can show you one of them and this is is Jesus speaking in Matthew 25 and he says for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink I was a stranger and you invited me in I needed clothes and you clothed me then the scripture goes on and it says the people standing around asked Lord when were you hungry when did you need clothes and he says truly I tell you whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you did for for me on in Matthew 28 this is Jesus again speaking he says therefore go and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit so the religious beliefs that are going to be propagated with this facility is we are going to clothe shelter feed and most importantly disciple the very least of these sisters of Jesus Christ this is absolutely 100% a church related activity and the reason I have to go through this okay um the reason I have to go through this is because the the opposition neighborhood association has hired a Dallas attorney to come in and challenge our religious beliefs she went to zoning and said well what's really a church related activity should it be all Ministries that the church it shouldn't be all Ministries let's say this was literally her argument let's say that it should only be Sunday School uh class classrooms and a fellowship hall that's what she told your zoning commission and that's what partly the zoning commission ruled on I'm here to tell you that the United States Supreme Court said a government cannot act in a manner that passes judgment or presupposes the illegitimacy of religious beliefs what does that mean it means this government cannot tell a church like Mercy culture what a legitimate religious belief is and the great thing about this constitutional PR principle it rings true regardless of the religion regardless of the organization and regardless of the thoughts and feelings and inconveniences inconveniences of the local landowners now I'll tell you you heard the hung Dow Buddhist temple application earlier they want to do things that don't fit within Fort wor zoning they want to build these stupas in the middle of their facility it is not up to me and is not up to the city to tell them that that's not a legitimate religious activity uh Pastor Nettles let's say your congregation wants to expand Purpose Driven Ministries campus to propagate a religious belief that you and your congregation have it is not up to me to tell you what a what a legitimate religious belief is and it's not up to this body respectfully the same laws that protect you to do what you want and the religious use on your property are the same laws that protect Mercy culture church and so we're asking this body to please consider a site plan Amendment not a zoning change and to approve this now very very quickly one of our uh another thing our experts has made clear under the federal case law is you cannot uh if there is a lesser restrictive alternative you the city cannot say no and so I want to propose and I got these directly from an officer at the uh at the in the transportation department Department here's what you do on oer Scenic Drive to stop parking on the shoulder cables rocks bricks in the sidewalk these are less restrictive alternatives to saying no so we ask that you do not say no to this but to exp F these lesser restricted thank you our next group will be Kaye Maro and I believe um marrow had a video to play is that correct okay at the very end I will cue the video of sheriff that'll give them a chance to get it ready city council it's an honor to be before you today my name is kayy Maru I'm the director of the Justice Reform and a pastor at Mercy culture church tonight I present with to you 6,343 signatures signed in this petition for the Justice residents to be built I'll hand them to the secretary right after I'm completing my speech hundreds of emails have been sent in we have letters printed for you tonight to share their why for the Justice residences these letters are filled with doctors Educators professionals from the anti-human trafficking industry parents victims local business owners every race age and background are in this stack asking for the Justice residences to be built 48 of those letters are of support from residents that live in oakar neighborhood I want to present to you the written statements of those who have come out to support this project tonight T these individuals have not only said uh no not in my city to the sex trafficking industry but they're actually doing something to stop this uh Injustice in the city of Fort Worth the Justice residents have has been accused of causing more traffic if you know about those who are being trafficked you know that they own close to nothing to their name nevertheless a car it's interesting that the neighborhood didn't pay a lawyer to stop the 400 units in a giant apartment building off of the main entrance of their neighborhood that has over 400 cars there uh this is not about the traffic because we know that the Justice residence is off a beaten path in the back corner of our property will not cause more traffic the Justice residence has also been accused that it will make the neighborhood unsafe this statement goes to show how naive and uneducated we are about the unjustice of human trafficking what is ATT traing attracting traffickers is anywhere moms and children's are this is happening in targets and schools and parking working lots skating ranks malls the biggest one social media in our in our very own homes it is everywhere we have trafficking happening all around us in our Suburban neighborhoods around Oakhurst neighborhood and I promise doing nothing will not stop this Injustice of human trafficking but building the Justice residents will repel trafficking and crime when we moved into the building in 2020 there was crime all along OIC Drive happening but now because of the traffic the things that are taking place every single day there people the $16 million of investment we've put into the church and the school including security crime has been pushed out and the value of this neighborhood has gone up we have truly invested a lot into this property the city and we should be entrusted to continue to invest into our district and City so no the Justice residents will not attract traffickers and will not put fear into anyone except the fear into our enemies Camp the traffickers put yourself in the trafficker SE they will not be coming to a place where it has 247 security uh and uh they wouldn't be going to where all of our security is taking place if I was a bad guy I would not want to go anywhere near this place the accusations to the saying that the PD does not support us we've had many meetings with all of them and I would love to share a a letter of support from our very own Sheriff wurn uh who is an expert in human trafficking and his video of support greetings and Merry Christmas Madame mayor and city council I appreciate you receiving this communication I'd prefer to be there in person but however I couldn't make that happen today I do want to let you know I'm in full support of Mercy culture and this Center that they're building for human trafficking victims I think it's something that the faith-based communi should be doing and do it better than government can the scourge of the Earth today in our society is human trafficking and I believe that not only Fort Worth but tan counties are lead ERS and not only deterring it and stopping it and holding people accountable and rescuing victims but I think this asset will help us continue to lead the nation in the fight against this modern-day human slavery I think what they're doing is noble and for the last several years every church that I've spoke at which have been many I have encouraged those churches to get off the bench and get in the game in regards to human trafficking and mercy culture just simply stepped up to the plate and they are delivering we have many many fine organizations that are helping out in human trafficking and it is my belief that these organizations will blend together work together for the betterment of victims and be able to bring more people out of that horrific slavery than before it's a great asset and I urge you to absolutely pass it this also reminds me of the early 90s when mental health homes were blending in into neighborhoods and they had these adult mental health homes where several people were there and people were very very anxious about it and concerned about it well that was 30 years ago and they're working out just fine as well as many many Foster group homes have blended into subdivisions all around Taran County and they are good neighbors and I think that will continue here and I think Mercy culture will be good neighbors to that neighborhood appreciate you listening to me thank you and God bless our next our next group is Les Cody if you register to stand with attempts to appease the oakers neighborhood association I invite you to join me now good evening members of the city council Madame mayor my name is Les Cody and I serve as a pastor with Mercy culture church and as a board member of the Justice Reform thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening as I stand in full support of the construction of the Justice residence while I am deeply passionate about this issue I am not here to reargue the need for this facility I'm here to address the ongoing objections of the oakar neighborhood association and to outline our extensive yet unsuccessful effort efforts to address their concerns for nearly two years the Justice Reform has maintained an open line of communication with the O we have worked tirelessly to educate o cursed residents on the merits scope security measures Aesthetics and other details of this project we've employed every available means of Outreach including social media traditional media Outlets emails mailers door hangers iners presentations Q&A sessions and attendance at various neighborhood meetings despite these efforts our attempts to address their concerns and provide answers to their questions have been met with consistent opposition our most recent effort occurred this past Tuesday December 3D in a meeting with city council member Janette Martinez and representatives from City staff the president of the OA their legal council myself and other representatives from the Justice Reform during this hourlong meeting we answered their questions in great detail as I did in our meeting allow me to summarize their objections into three primary concerns number one parking and traffic as has been noted the women residing at the Justice residents will not be allowed to have cars on the property additionally on-site staff at any given moment will be minimal and this is not a comeand go facility the project will not cause additional traffic our par paring issues in fact it will add 18 additional parking spaces to the property number two was light pollution we provided a detailed lighting plan demonstrating an anticipated uh not demonstrating an anticipation of an increase in light pollution parking lot lighting will match the current Church lighting while building lighting will feature a soft residential design the aesthetic Integrity of the property is critical to us reflecting both our commitment to Excellence and our respect for the Dignity of the women who will call the Justice residents home this facility will not uh only be impactful but also a physically beautiful addition to our city when asked if we had sufficiently addressed their concerns on these two topics OA Representatives confirmed that we had and that brings us to their third major concern and the biggest of all and that is of security we have presented expert testimony letters and video of support from high-ranking law enfor enforement officials and comprehensive security plans this plan includes significant financial investment and physical security meas measures professionally designed and monitored systems coordination with the Fort Worth Police Department as well as 24-hour on-site security despite addressing these concerns the OA Representatives could not articulate any unresolved security issues stating only that they believe the project is inherently unsafe as an example of the alleged unsafe nature of the project they have consistently pointed to the number of beds at one point in our meeting I asked them if there was a number of beds at which they would support the project and they had no answer it is clear that no level of compromise would resolve the O anda's objections their opposition is not rooted in specific concerns but rather in the project itself this is consistent with their long-standing resistance to any further development of this property you will undoubtedly hear many particular points of opposition from various members of the community tonight council members please know that if we were to acquest to every single one of their demands it would change nothing if it has a hundred beds or five if we had 18 parking spaces or 118 if we flood the facility with lighting or have none at all the opposition would remain unchanged the facts are this is a neighborhood association that has opposed any further development of this property and attempted to dictate how it is to be used for decades prior to Mercy culture's purchase of the property the previous Church Calvary also faced Relentless opposition from the OA over every proposed development ranging from building expansions to additional signage to minor changes to parking lights this is an incredible project as has been mentioned by our attorney it falls well within the scope of church related activities for which the property is zoned it is well-funded meticulously planned beautifully designed and fulfills a critical need in our community it will be a Beacon of Hope serve as a source of love and be something the citizens of Fort Worth can be proud is representing our great city thank you group our next group is CHR Ina excuse me Erica Christini if I probably butchered her name I apologize you please please correct me okay mayor um I have these that they told me that I could hand out to if you just hand them to City secretary's office we can take them thank you if you signed up to stand with a former abused would you stand mind standing with me thank you good evening mayor and City Council Members my name is Erica and it is an honor to share my testimony and Story 4 and a half years ago today I was homeless and living in a women's shelter a few blocks from the church I was slapped I had chunks of my hair ripped out I had black eyes I had bruises on my neck in shape of handprints from being strangled I was forced to do things that I didn't want to do but I didn't want to die or be beat on May 21st of 2020 the Arlington Police Department rescued me from a hotel where I was being abused then I was taken to a safe house I was hospitalized for many days several weeks later and after a lot of NOS we don't accept women that are in her condition the safe house finally found a place for me I was taken to a women's shelter in Fort wor Texas where I lived for six months during this time I was asked to go to church it was Mercy culture Church my life completely changed I began serving first as an usher then as a greeter and then many other places I was accepted for who I was given a chance at a new start a new life being with the community at Mercy culture helped me to heal I stayed in this abuse because I thought there was nowhere to go the justice residents will give women through will give through exactly what going that I went through exactly what I went through a place to live not just a few days for one to three years I will be there to support encourage and love these women when they come in after training with the Justice Reform for a year I graduated in November of 2022 as a Justice Reform Advocate I am 4 and A2 years clean I am allowed to make my my own decisions I have a job I have my own car and just to say just so you know I didn't have a car for 10 years I somebody that is being abused they don't have cars we can barely afford to eat so that's just something that I did want to add in there um I have a job I have my own car I have a beautiful home I pay all my bills on my own and I am surrounded by people that truly love me and encourage me I want to thank Pastor Landon and Pastor Heather from the bottom of my heart they have spiritually been my mother and father from the very moment I walked into Mercy culture I lost my parents many years ago so having both of them in my life loving and encouraging me has changed my life I love you both so much thank you for everything you have done for me I wouldn't be where I was if it weren't for you Mercy culture and of course Jesus he gets all the [Applause] glory I live in Freedom give other women a chance to live in freedom freedom let the Justice residence be built thank you so much it was an honor [Applause] it's an honor to see her come to life like that it's been a beautiful just for clarity I think there were two minutes and 40 seconds left on that may I ask your name please for the record my name is Evelyn luchano thank you continue yes and I'm from the city of Philadelphia and moved to the great City of Fort Worth six years ago it is such an honor to be in this city I personally have my own story but today I'm focusing on my experience as working as a professional in this field of social to work in criminal justice for 18 years of my life I've worked with children teens and adults who were all victims of some form of violence sexual abuse and Drug addictions I've also worked with their abusers I've heard a lot of concerns that have been shared from years ago with the oakers neighborhood and I want to speak to some of those concerns I've worked in several impatient residences care facilities Within These 18 years of working with them I have been in many different facilities and I want to say out of the 6,570 days I work with them only one crime has been committed in the neighborhood around and it was not located in the homes around it was located at a store down the street I want to say that that fear that has been placed into the community is not accurate and it is there is no evidence around it I want you to know as well that the traffickers will not come to this location as have stated before because they have an assignment and they're not coming to harass the neighbors they have an agenda and there it is not them I I want you to know that I also personally understand the need for safe housing for these victims I've had to stand in front of many women that have needed help and look them in the face and say we do not have a place for you that is the worst thing I've had to do in 18 years of when someone wants help and you have not a location to send them because there is not enough housing I know for a fact that these women when they're told this end up going back into the cycle of abuse this actually is a need that we need we needed years ago and so I stand before you today and I'm pleading with you as a council team to say yes to this residence and also the need for it to be on a church property at just as Erica there are many individuals that have testimonies of coming out of the system that needed a church body and a community to help them walk through and they are living in Freedom we need this Justice residence and we need we need it on the mercy cultural property thank you so much [Applause] our next group will be oh sorry 45 seconds left please thank you I'm Tessa Duke I'm a Survivor of human trafficking it has happened to me three times from age 14 to 30 I felt alone and like I had no one to talk to and nowhere to go after feeling like there was something wrong with me for most of my life I actually learned from the Justice Reform that those who have been trafficked have a higher risk of being trafficked again I never knew that and it helped comfort me and set me free from lies I believe that it was always my fault for years of my life I wanted to die and I had no Community to pull me out of it Jesus changed everything for me today I'm a mom of five with my sixth grandbaby on the way thank you God because of God restoring every area of my life I'm able to help Mentor many women and point them to Jesus He restored everything being a part of person culture changed my life thank you very much for speaking our next group is Emanuel Kata Emanuel the next Group after that will be Jasmine Wheeler's group if you register to stand with Oak Cur residents in support of the Justice residences please join me now before I start mayor Maddie Parker city council we honor you honor is assigning Heaven's value your seat your voice your vote is weighty and it's felt I wholeheartedly believe that the Lord has placed you in this seat for such a time as this my name is Emmanuel Kota Flores I a first generation Hispanic my parents migrated from Mexico to the US years ago living on a Border Town for the in most of my life I have seen the negative effects of what happens when a city does not stand against human trafficking as a residents resident of the Oaker neighborhood it is a 30second drive from my house to Mercy culture church I have never been late to an appointment across the town I've never been stuck in traffic or M tasked never once has my day-today life been affected by the events or Gatherings that Mercy culture holds both as a resident of Oakhurst and a mercy culture member I can clearly see the misinformation that the oak Cur neighborhood has received and now shared on their social Media Group Pages I've seen the fear spread and the lack of context given the Justice residences they're not a halfway house it's stabilization for the healing restoration equipping and reintroducing women as successful citizens it will not attract crime you heard it it will push crime away majority of the women rescued don't have vehicles they can't own it so the Justice residences will not cause any further traffic I want to make it perfectly clear that the Oakhurst neighborhood association does not speak nor represent all of Oakhurst they are not the final say they're they will communicate that there are many members that are not I'm sorry they will communicate that many of their members are not against human trafficking yet they do not support a building that will see victims of human trafficking restored that doesn't make sense I and many others that live in the neighborhood are in full support of the Justice residences being built we want to partner with you mayor Maddie Parker with you council members and the City of Fort Worth to see the end of human trafficking in our city I believe that Fort Worth will be a pioneer of how to push back against human trafficking scripture says a City built on a hill cannot be hidden neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl instead they put it on the stand and it gives light to everyone in the house I believe that Fort Worth can be that City Fort Worth can be the first in a new wave of rescue and restoration across the US for victims of human trafficking I now have a letter here from Dr Kim Higgins she could not be here tonight due to leg surgery and this is what she wrote I live less than one mile away from Mercy culture Church it would be an honor to partner with the Justice Reform to establish a healing Sanctuary for human trafficking victims everyone wants to help but no one wants to no one wants it in their backyard guess what it is in our backyard I am more concerned about the traffic crime noise which is accompanied by 500 Apartments being built down the street than a small amount of traffic that care that is in the care for a 100 victims that it will bring I imagine property value would be more affected by high density housing than a beautiful state-of-the-art facility tucked away in the church's property at the end of the street thank [Applause] you how you doing thank you for having us today thank you for stewarding the uh job the Lord has bestowed on you guys I am a resident of oakers I also work and attend Mercy culture for 20 years I was a New York City police officer the only help I could provide was sending them to City shelters three weeks later you see them back out we started calling at the uh baloney sandwich and coffee cuz it appear That's What New York City did for these ladies the first time I heard about this building it brought me back to my days in New York City and I was like wow why didn't they think about this before you can't help them with a minute you got to have them for a while to work on them because although they being Hur H that's their family if they have nothing else to lean on that's what they go back to I really thank you for your time thank [Applause] you hello my name is Jos Aras and I am asking you for your support in building the Justice residences I was born and raised on the Mexican border and saw firsthand on the effects of the atrocity of human trafficking there are a few things that are more frightening than a family member M or friend that goes missing and knowing that you're more than likely never going to see them again even when they escape the appropriate help is not available and they're not they are likely to go back into their situations or end up dead and it would be foolish for us to not think that we have the same issue in Fort Worth this is an opportunity for all of us to be a forerunner in the fight to save our mothers our daughters our sisters and any child or woman ens slav thank you J our next next group is uh Jasmine wheeler followed by Jaco buan and I apologize if I butchered that also if you're registered to stand with the highlighting of the racial impact of trafficking please join me now hello city council mayor Maddie Parker my name is Jasmine wheeler and I've been a citizen of Fort Worth Texas for six years I currently stand on the North Central Texas HIV planning Council and the justice reform Advisory Board and it's an honor to serve our community any Civic engagement is to be celebrated and honored uh I'm not going to lie I have so much more respect for all of you after seeing how long you've been here today I'm sure you're hungry probably want some Doritos I should have brought you something thank you for serving our city uh but I just want to say any Civic engagement as you are doing is celebrated it's honored uh but I imagine that you embarked on this journey because you've authentically wanted to make a difference in the city of Fort Worth and in our great nation with that being said Texas is currently the number one state for sex trafficking in a two-year review of all suspected human trafficking incidents across the country 94% of sex trafficking victims were female 40% were black and 24% were Latinos according to the Department of Justice there are approximately 40.3 million victims of human trafficking and and of those 24.8 million are minorities every single one of them is a daughter every single one of them has a name every single one of them is deserving of our fight for them despite the racial tension that has swept our nation Fort Worth is thankfully a very diverse City and we all want it to stay that way that means we must fight for the victims of of slavery today and that means that when we fight for these victims we are fighting for every Race's dignity honor and freedom as far as I'm concerned this all boils down to one thing will you be known as a leader in our city who did everything in their power to end sex trafficking or someone who refused to move the needle forward towards the ending of modern day slavery in this generation and in our city I'm here today to declare my support for the Justice residences thank [Applause] you mayor Parker city council my name is Will Ford III I'm Pastor Mercy culture East for worth and I'm a proud foror native and like y'all I love our city that's why we've all been here so long right I grew up here my family has a rich history connected to American slavery we have a 200y old kettle pot that's been pass down from generation to generation in my family it's used by the slaves in my family they used it for cooking they used it for washing clothes but secretly they used to muffle their voices in the prayer meetings that they had for Freedom that CPT has been passed down to me and often reminds me of the courage and commitment not only my forefathers but also everyone who answered cries for Freedom that we enjoy today yet while we celebrate legalized slavery ending in America 1865 today's sex trafficking dilemma begs the question how could those prayers be considered fully answered when Global slave trade is so large and bigger than ever before unfortunately there are prayers today that need to be answered from those trapped in modern-day slavery in our city this is why I'm speaking to you regarding the Justice residence in Fort Worth that is going to be a safe place for victims of sex slavery and human trafficking globally over 27 million people are still trafficked in sex slavery and human trafficking we've already heard that in 2023 the state of Texas has over 300,000 that were trafficed and 35% of those were just in the DFW area alone and according to traffic 911.com black children compris 53% listen 53% of all juvenile prostitution arrest are African-American children more than any other racial group see there's another crowd for Freedom today and the Justice residence is being raised up to become an answer to prayers for freedom and restoration I believe prayers that my ancestors prayed were not just for the ending of slavery in 1865 but for the ending of slavery here today as well will you not only join with their prayers but also take decisive action for Freedom today mayor Parker and the council I believe this is the great opportunity for you to be part of making history and aiding and bringing an end to a prevalent catastrophe that is undermining our progress and destroying our communities that's why I believe the Justice residence is an answer to prayer a wonderful City could be a fort of worth that could house a place of Refuge that could bring restoration and healing to the lives of so many that have been swept up in this hor horrible Injustice will you help with your help we can see the Justice residence become a reality and a safe haven for so many trapped in modern slavery today Winston Churchill said it like this he said history will be kind to me for I intend to write it together let's write history together and be a catalyst for healing and transformation in our city thank [Applause] you I just want to add one thing really quick another argument that's going to come up is that why don't we just put this someplace else that's a fear-based argument because these girls need proximity to schools they need proximity to grocery stores they need proximity to the places that they're going to get care and they're going to receive the help they need as well as to be reintegrated into into society I just want to make that point quick thank [Applause] you our next group our next group will be Joo buin boans he's going to help me out with that one for those who register to stand with me please do stand now uh honorable council members and mayor Parker thank you for your time please pronounce your last name for me boans boans thank you I'm here tonight to serve one purpose to draw lines and delineate between what the Justice residence is and what it is not what qualifies me to speak on this matter is 30 years in comenting child sexual exploitation when I was 18 years old in 1994 as a citizen then of South Africa my sister was trafficked she was 12 years old took us six years to rescue ilanka I know firsthand that it took 18 years to see that life restored three suicide attempts after rescue and the predominant Factor was no place to go they immigrate to the United States the land of the free the home of the brave 3 weeks after 911 I show up where a country is United a country looks at an enemy and says not here not now but we have forgotten we have forgotten that there is an enemy his name is Satan there is an enemy with friends who walk among us today we have a plight called human trafficking with more slaves than ever before in history I'm a proud American citizen I love the city of Fort Worth I'm here tonight because I'm hopeful that for once after 30 years of fighting this fight a city can set a stake in the ground for the world to see how you do this and how you do it right I want to read you a quote from milanka my sister who could not be here tonight as a trafficking Survivor I can personally testify to the profound importance of a faith centered community in the journey towards healing Healing Begins With stability a safe and nurturing environment when broken lives can begin to be rebuilt you cannot heal without the community support the Justice residence is not a drop in Center the Justice residence is not a respit the Justice residence is not an emergency shelter what is an emergency shelter when we rescue victims and We rescued a victim two days ago from your city where do we take her immediately normally it's the hospital most of the victims have some sort of a substance abuse problem they go to facilities this is not the Justice residence the Justice residence is a place of stability it's a home I'm proud to serve on the Justice residence board and I also serve on a National Institute for shelter carees Advisory Board and we did a study of 2,000 cases and in 2,000 cases of human trafficking here's the number 22 to 47% of all trafficking cases in America with Texas being 30% is familial trafficking it's the family trafficking the child who then grows up to become a an adult traffic victim which means that victim has never had a home that victim has never known stability that victim has never had resources to build a residence that is a home not a shelter that has re sources across the parking lot with a church that is on fire pouring into its Community a church that loves this city a church that loves this state I do not know of another residence on Earth and we have seed into 172 of these shelters around the world I do not know of another one on Earth that has the amount of resources and the proximity to create a home so I'm going to go silent for a couple seconds that's the sound of Peace that's the sound a Survivor does not hear they live in Fright or flight they're ret traumatized they don't need a place they need a home the Justice residence is going to be a home when you connect a church to a shelter the success rate Rises by 60% 87% of all success stories in trafficking come from faith-based organizations this one will set a precedent Alicia bush is here tonight from treasured vessels Alicia has taken in survivors that we help rescue with your own PD with your Sheriff I know that Alicia would love more resources I know that Alicia would love a 2,000 3,000 member Church to say can we do art therapy can we speak into the lives of these women can we prophesy over them can we teach them skills can we help them with a GED you've got an army saying we want to help you Fort Worth I'm asking you let them those who oppose this have to ask a serious question what will you say when you stand in front of Jesus and he asks you what did you do with what I gave you because that day is coming thank you very [Applause] much our next group will be Shan Turner followed by Chuck Reyes yako buan is incredibly succinct and Powerful with his words my name is Shan Turner I'm a business owner I'm a a veteran I'm a father uh our business and I'm I'm joined here with many other business owners and many in the Overflow rooms and downstairs as well who are staying with me um our business is incredibly involved here in Fort Worth uh we're in a lot of the the professional associations and we although we're licensed in 45 States we have thousands and thousands of clients here in Fort Worth and so uh I know that many of them when I when I spoke with them today that I was coming they were incredibly moved um and there's just trying to paint a picture that there's support outside this room but the Justice Reform is not here asking for money they're not here asking for anything other than a sight change that's very simple and they're just asking for a place to create here heing hope and restoration to occur so I have two questions for you if not now then when if not here then where if your daughter sister or friend were to find themselves in a situation needing Services of the Justice Reform you would be scouring the country to find a place to help them to what links would you go to make sure that they were cared for loved on and restored by by this point you've heard all sorts of the different accusations and objections uh that have been paraphrased by members of and supporters of the Justice Reform traffic being too high yet there's massive apartment buildings that have been approved and and constructed within half a mile where was the objections then there was none increased crime yet the church that's sponsoring this project Mercy culture has 247 train Security on weekends they have multiple police officers who can attest to the security provided by them in the church the residents of okas have made it clear that they don't want this project in their backyard yet they're the ones touting Love Is Love from signs posted in their yard throughout our city we often hear these messages of inclusivity compassion and the idea that love is love these are the these are ideals that resonate deeply with many but love true love isn't just a slogan or sentiment it's an action it's standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves Mercy culture church has proven their ability to Steward well by revitalizing a deteriorating building pouring millions of dollars in their building in the adjacent School providing millions of meals to Hungry residents of Fort Worth and caring for residents in Need by providing clothes gift cards to single moms during Christmas and many other unnoticed acts of service this restoration home is an opportunity for Fort wor to lead by example a tangible way to demonstrate that this city values Justice compassion and restoration not only does this initiative offer a chance for healing and hope but it also provides a pathway to empowerment through employment I along with many other Business Leaders in this room are committed to extending career opportunities to these survivors in our businesses these women will not graduate to be left on the streets they will graduate from a program to be strong smart and productive citizens you hold the power to make that possible I urge you to think about the Legacy you want to leave as Leaders of this city tonight you have a chance to do something extraordinary to take a stand against human trafficking and the restoration of lives this is not just about a building it's about Hope and trans transformation so I ask again if not now then when if not here then where thank you hi my name is Matt alre own a restaurant business right here in Fort Worth I employ around a 100 people and serve 15,000 guests per week through my restaurant I just share that context because I'm invested in this city more importantly I'm married with my to my wife Michelle and we have five Sons ranging from from 11 to 2 and I've lived in Fort Worth for over 5 years now I love Fort Worth I chose to raise my family in Fort Worth and I'm invested like I said in this city and I want it to thrive I'm here in support of the building of the Justice residences because I believe building these residences is a solution to a problem that has been in our backyard for far too long as a citizen of Fort Worth it would be wrong for me to idly sit by and not share my why we're talking about building of the residence for women being rescued out of sex trafficking women that are sold for sex multiple times a day women that have experienced some of if not the worst abuse neglect and atrocities that our society has outside of the womb this is sick this is pure evil and the Justice Reform is trying to get these women a home so they can be truly rescued from this vicious cycle not just taken off the streets for a few days anyone with an ounce of compassion understands the reality when I shared with my 11-year-old son that I was going to be briefly speaking in front of the city council he quipped back without any other context just tell them to put themselves in the woman's shoes if you found out there was a restoration homecoming and then you found out that the government wouldn't allow it it would be devastating it's that simple put yourself in their shoes again I love Fort Worth let's catch a vision the idea of being able to build the first residence of its kind here in this great city is an honor and a privilege that I want our great City to Champion not waffle on because of some political pressure and certainly not some traffic concerns this resistance this organization has endured because of what can only be seen as politics is unacceptable if you each were elected by citizens of Fort Worth to represent them what are you going to do right or wrong you will be held accountable for your vote we have a chance to do something really special here in Fort Worth and be an example to the whole state nation of our time thank you our next [Applause] speaker our next speaker is Chuck Reyes if you registered to with parents fighting human trafficking uh please join me and come up good evening mayor Maddie Parker and members of city council thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak this evening it's an honor to be here with you and to work together to build this city of Fort Worth my name is Chuck Reyes and I'm a proud resident of Fort Worth standing beside me is my wife my son my beautiful daughter Leah as you know Fort Worth in north Texas has had increases of sex trafficking crimes over the years and this year alone one which I'm specifically reminded of the case of Keith sentore maybe you know who he was he was arrested in charge with child trafficking here in the city of Fort Worth Police interviewed 16 possible victims before finding and rescuing the 16 16-year-old girl as a father of my daughter my baby girl who's standing here beside me I can't imagine what it would be like if my own daughter was that victim I can't imagine her losing her innocence being used being raped and taken advantage of I can't imagine looking into her eyes knowing that I couldn't save her that I couldn't protect her that Dad that Dad couldn't be the one to stand in the Gap city council I want you to imagine that what if this were our children maybe you're a father maybe you're a mother maybe you're a grandparent what if this was your child where would they go where would they turn to and who would help them mayor Maddie Parker and city council this is why we need the Justice residents this isn't for the Justice Reform this isn't for Mercy culture church this isn't for Heather or Landon shot this is for the lives of young women victims and those who have been raped abused and treated as nothing more than sex objects this is not about anything but their lives together and when I say together not Mercy culture church and us you city council and us your faith-based community here in the city us together we can partner to answer the Cry of Injustice we can answer the cry that is in the streets I applaud the efforts of Fort Worth I applaud your efforts city council our community awareness programs and law enforcement initiatives but there does remain a gap Where do they go again if this were your child if that 16-year-old girl or your daughter what would you do would you build a residence or we just pass it over I urge this Council to take action let's fight together for our city together we can help survivors rebuild their future so I thank you sincerely I thank you and I know and trust that we together will make this future better thank you good evening city council my name is Katie I've been in education for 15 years 11 of those in a high school in Fort Worth ISD um I'm coming today one to say mayor Parker I want to celebrate you because because I saw you stand in front of the school board and advocate for the students in Fort Worth ISD to increase their test scores and get rid of the deficit in the reading literacy I appreciate you for doing that I stood with you in that and agree with you in that as an educator in Fort Worth ISD I remember having conversations where we talked about if only the parents would partner with us we think we could solve this if only the parents would do their part then maybe we could really solve the issue that we're having and I believe that as well because partnership with families is excellent but in my experience in Fort Worth ISD with the students that I served and the families that I served there were lots of walls that would block that from happening how can a mom partner with this school to help her kiddo when her kiddo comes home and has to sit in the Breezeway of their apartment complex to wait for their mom to finish working while they were inside turning tricks for money how can a family partner with their kiddo when the kiddo comes home and sees a neighbor's child toddler on the balcony and says I know I have to go help them why do you have to to help them because when their mom's working I watch them when their mom's being prostituted day in and day out my students told me it was normal for them to go to strip clubs on the weekend right in the place where pimps are ready to groom them how can they do their homework when they spend all of their time creating pornographic content to Post online how I understand completely that Oakhurst hasn't issue with the traffic I get it however time I'm sorry it's expired thank you for speaking thank [Applause] you okay I think that's the last of group speakers I'm going to go through this um to make sure any individual that signed up has seated their time to groups I think that they have but if that's going to change anything I just need you to be vocal and if somebody down in the basement area pipe St we'll figure that out um Juan Martinez Veronica McCree Carrie Monroe Allan armandas Brittney tumer Eric Christian Gabrielle Robertson Eric Richardson Dakota Lopez Mark Fulmer Humberto de la roacha Rebecca Williams enena cotton Bosa ADC rosan Richards Capri Sherman William Ford III Destiny Aguila Lindsay Rivero Jed Carlson Maria Bennett Amanda azuna Bon foso riddle Destiny Alvarez Grayson wheeler Lana onstot Haley Gilbert Melinda akasi Infinity Wallace Christopher Kea Heather shot who already spoke Kyle Fonville who did speak Les Cody on behalf of a group Evelyn Luciano Emanuel Kata Christina Kata Austin Reyes Jasmine wheeler who was on here byf of our group William Ford Shan Turner Matt alret Melissa Sanchez Chuck Reyes on behalf of a group Vanessa Reyes Katie Fonville Tia Gonzalez okay is that Tia Gonzalez is there an issue no okay Tia Gonzalez Elicia Bush Carla shelis Kaylee Monroe Tessa Duke Jordan pastelli Erica chanelli who did speak and I think that's all I missed did anybody want to speak that did not yes sir I'm gonna yield my time to to Pastor L can you give your name for the record please Eric Richardson okay Mr Richardson is leading his time let's fine three minutes please thank you and then then I'll move in before Mr shot speaks we're going to move into the next set of speakers and I believe I'm correct in telling you um next up in case anybody's outside well I'll just let the oakr neighborhood whoever's that first six minutes that wants to speak first will be first thank you yes ma'am were you one of the speakers that wanted to speak okay okay I'm gon to invite everybody that wanted to speak that didn't get a chance to and then everybody that is in support of the Justice residents just go ahead and stand with me as I close this out and I'm going to ask you to stand thank you for a moment and then I'm going to have you sit back down so the Fire Marshall doesn't get nervous thank you so much appreciate that we want to keep May MD and the councilmen for being here today we appreciate you all the police officer the fire marshal everybody that's been serving we appreciate you as well uh as you saw all these people standing here and hundreds out there it's a bunch of Good Samaritans that are standing we get that phrase Good Samaritan from Jesus in Luke chap 10 when a lawyer tried to ask him and trick him into a question was what was the greatest commandment he told PE he told that lawyer to love God with everything you have and to love uh your neighbor as yourself he then said who is my neighbor so Jesus gives a parable of a man that was beaten an inch from his life a priest walks by didn't help him then a levite or a political leader walked by and didn't help him and then a Samaritan walked by a Samaritan was the enemy of the Jews so a Man's enemy walks by and he helped him then Jesus said this he said the man that helped him out of all these he said the priest the political leader or the Samaritan who was the neighbor and the lawyer said well it was the good it was the Samaritan and here's what Jesus said he said go and do likewise and that's what I am challenging you today to do is like Jesus Go and show Mercy Where Mercy is required I ask you city leaders will you act like a priest a politician or a Good Samaritan tonight I asked the city council mayor Parker and everyone sitting in this room can we focus on the one thing that this is really about the victims of human trafficking I ask we put aside our religious differences put aside our political differences our offenses towards one another and come into Unity to make history and fight modern-day slavery these are the moments that history is made like our heroes Abraham Lincoln de Dietrich Bon Harford Harriet Tubman Martin Luther King Jr and others that faced injustices it took many compassionate strong people to stand up and make history December 10 2024 in the year of reformation is a day to say yes to be on the right side of history today is a day to take a stand against human trafficking and and sex trafficking today you hold the power in your hand to vote to set them free I ask you would you use your power wisely compassionately and responsibly and with the fear of the Lord earlier tonight councilman nettle said earlier that right is right and wrong is wrong and I agree with the councilmen and I'm asking you to do the right thing tonight we ask you for your vote for our legal right to build the Justice residents to set the captives free thank [Applause] you just for clarity did I miss a speaker over here were your name on the list no ma'am you sure okay our next group speaker will be Ashley Ashmore Alison I'm sorry Allison I was reading the wrong list here Allison will have six minutes and then Allison before you start would you prefer the groups all go first and then we do individual speakers on behalf of Oak Hurst or do you care one way or the other uh yes let's do groups go first and the individual you have six minutes thank you thank you mayor and thank you Council for your time here this evening I'm Allison Ashmore I am the legal councel that was hired by the neighborhood association board to address the legality of this situation and I want to be very clear the site plan Amendment application that was submitted on August 5th 20124 that seeks to add a new structure on 12 acres of property it's seeking approval to build a 45,000 square foot facility a dormatory style house for up to 107 residents on a fulltime basis the zoning commission recommended denial of that the issue is not not whether providing assistance to survivors of human trafficking is a worthy cause and this is not an attack on religious belief or practices this is really not a question of that at all you've heard a argument that this long-term shelter is a church related activity now we disagree that this structure as it is truly intended to be used actually falls under the intended purpose that's permitted for this planned development for PD 586 and as and we submitted a letter explaining why that is and you all have that and I don't need to repeat that for you here tonight in there we say not all possible activities must be permitted we submitted a letter and I'll leave it on that but the most important question before the council isn't even whether this is a church related activity the issue of before the council is whether to approve construction of a 45,000 Square fot residential type building on a 12 acre lot on which there is already existing a church and a school and limited limited parking area and that structure is not compatible with the existing area and the surrounding use of the property now we do believe that Texas local government code chapter 211 does apply to this this is a site plan Amendment which is a type of zoning a plan development is a type of zoning the applicable site plan is essentially the zoning regulation that applies to this property and calling it either a site plan or a zoning regulation amendment is a distinction without a difference it's important to have neighborhood support and this lacks neighborhood support section 2.06 D applies to this vote because there is a written protest there there are hundreds of signatures submitted by the neighborhood association opposed to this application but there's a written protest that's signed by the owners of at least 20% of the area land that's immediately adjoining the property and that's why we believe that section applies now I'm not here as a lawyer to threaten you all with legal action as a city or in your individual capacities you received a letter that did that there was reference made to the letter from Liberty Institute and I know that letter threatened you all but I urge you not to be intimidated by by those arguments and not to be manipulated by emotional arguments the letter did not reference the governmental immunity that you all are entitled to you all were rep were elected by the residents the citizens of Fort Worth to do your job the best you can for the citizens of Fort Worth and there is no place here for threats and I know that you will do your jobs and not be intimidated by them now there are six criteria that must be considered for the approval process in section 4.34 of the code sets those out the neighbors are going to address those six criteria they've also been addressed in a letter to you and I won't repeat them for the sake of time but those are the factors that you need to consider and I urge you to listen to the Ur neighborhood association who are here to speak about that um an opposition to the to the application now the applicant says in their written Communications to you that you have to approve this plan Amendment or your violating two laws Rupa the religious land use and inst institutionalized persons act and Texas riffa the religious freedom restoration act I want you to know that that is 100% not true those two laws prohibit imposing a substantial burden on religious exercise except where justified by a compelling governmental interest using the least restrictive means Rupa prohibits zoning and landmarking laws that treat churches on less than equal terms with non-religious assemblies that doesn't apply here Mercy culture church is not being treated any differently any less better than any non-religious Institution Lupa prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion or denomination uh prohibits laws that totally exclude religious assemblies from a jurisdiction neither of those apply this zoning ordinance is not being uh implemented on the basis of religion Rupa does not provide a blanket exception from local zoning laws and it does and it the church is not immune from religious its religious conduct is not immunize it from governmental regulation in fact Mercy culture cannot just build anything it wants because it is a religious organization if it sought an eight story office building it would still have to follow zoning laws denying the application does not impose a substantial burden on the church there's no evidence of any burden thank you thank you Council our next uh group speaker will be Blaine Brewer Blain Brewer on behalf of a group and the next group would be Sona Lee bar hello Council hello Meritt Parker um I appreciate you having me here um my name is bla Brewer I'm here today to represent and with the the bluebird Avenue uh Street which begins just at the front door of the church across a narrow two-lane road and then runs through the heart of our neighborhood uh my home is located just a couple hundred feet from the front door of the church and a few hundred feet from the structure now before I proceed I want to acknowledge that there are wonderful people on both sides of this argument I know that the shots have done a lot of work um to build and to get this Justice Reform going I know that they that a lot of the families that belong to the church and a lot of the families that belong to our neighborhood I believe that they have these these victims best interests at heart and I don't want to shy away I think it's very important that we support that community Al however I think it's also important to address the concerns of the people people who live in the neighborhood as you've heard before um the oakr neighborhood association when we had a vote unanimously opposed the church over the past several years there's been a growing sense of unease among many of us as we've heard hateful R rhetoric coming from the church the shirts that they're wearing tonight we care more about trafficking than we do about traffic that's kind of the tone that we've received from the church the last couple of years um I know that they're just trying to you know bolster their argument but um I personally have wonderful neighbors um they've called us witches warlocks demons and whatever else um I haven't met a witch or a warlock or a demon um one of my neighbors is kind of unfriendly but she's just grumpy um the people across the street from me are actually Mercy culture members they're very warm people they wave every single time they see me um their kids have played with my kids in the front yard um they're absolutely wonderful people and if the rest of the church is representative of of Representative of the people that live across the street then I know that the church has Wonder wonderful membership we are not enemies this has been a very divisive argument very divisive uh topic but we are not enemies we can exist and we can coexist peacefully the reason that we oppose the proposed building is not because we are devils and demons and we are simply families that care about the safety of our families of our children of our neighbors we feared that this project and the and the church's apparent lack of consideration for potential consequences will put all of that at risk over the last couple of years as zoning commissioner for our neighborhood I've had conversations with many neighbors about their concerns the church has alluded to issues about traffic issues about property values and I can confirm that those are some of the issues that our neighbors have and I think that it's significant some of my neighbors they're living off Social Security the only value they have the only thing of value that they have is their home and they're worried about the equity and their homes falling they the church argued that the prices have gone up ever since the church came in well the prices have gone up everywhere so not just by the church and we not we're not sure how it's going to affect property values but I my argument is that it's going to it's going to negatively impact them others are worried about extra traffic um parking spots I think those are legitimate concerns but it's not what I'm arguing about by far for me the most the most consistent concern I heard from my neighbors and my primary concern is safety safety is my top priority and it's the reason I feel so strongly about posing this uh the councilman from District 4 made a comment earlier about not in my backyard he thinks it's refreshing not to hear that I'm not saying not in my backyard I'm saying not in any backyard I would come in here and I would argue just like this if it was any one of your districts because I don't think that this Center should be adjacent to a neighborhood adjacent to to families this is a very real concern that could have a la lasting impact on our on our neighborhood and on our city by far the most consistent concern I've heard like I said has been about safety there are State programs and agencies and laws in the state of Texas that Pro that protect the locations of these centers to keep them secret there's a reason for that these centers get infiltrated by the traffickers looking for their victims looking for their property and it's something that we need to worry about the church has made an argument that they put up security lighting that they put up a fence those are all great things but that keeps the traffickers out of that church area and in our neighborhood in our front yards and this is something that we need to be concerned about while the church has added the security uh fencing and the lights there is a lack of consideration about the surrounding Community I think that's deeply concerning as a father my number one priority is to protect my children and protect the children in the neighborhoods that or in our neighborhood and the families that live around me but obviously primarily my children I worry every day about whether kids will be safe to play in our front yard as it is we've got people that drive by quickly it's been an issue there's been no Abu abductions in our neighborhood thankfully um but I feel nervous about letting my kids play in the front yard about riding their bike down the street but a center like this all the families that live in our neighborhood are going to be living with constant fear that something is going to happen to their children they won't even allow our kids to be kids in our neighborhood our our community will F be felt be left feeling vulnerable in the very place that they should feel like Sanctuary people no longer feel safe in their own homes knowing that the risks have been pushed from the center with security lighting and fencing into our neighborhood there is one concession that the church can make in order for the neighborhood to support them them and that is location that they argue that they need that location to support the women but I disagree they can do this somewhere else thank you Mr Brewer our next group our next group will be son Lee bar followed by Libby Willis which is also a group hello everyone my name is Sona Le bar and I was a lot less pregnant when I got here today I'm also first generation Latina if that is relevant um I am here speaking on behalf of residents of West Lotus Avenue the closest Street to the proposed facility Fort Worth holds a special place in my heart and I am deeply committed to this city it's a city that welcomes with warmth and authenticity and no neighborhood embodies that Spirit better than o cursed as you can see I'm expecting a baby girl and I canot think of a better place to raise her than oerst a modest community of thoughtful neighbors with an enduring hundred-year history my family hopes to make this neighborhood our home for decades to come but today I stand before you with a deep sense of concern and a plea for your help standing here tonight is not something I take lightly earlier this year I experienced the heartbreaking loss of my only sibling due to the devastating cycle of substance abuse and its far-reaching impacts a tragedy that underscores the importance of creating safe and healing spaces for those in need if the proposed facility were being built in an appropriate location with discretion and without a public marketing campaign that jeopardizes the safety of survivors and neighbors alike it would have my full support none of us are refuting the importance of this cause I've met several of you through my work in commercial construction and development through this work I know firsthand how critical it is to earn the trust and support of the community for a project of this scale and significance despite what you've heard tonight the applicant has chosen not to engage meaningfully with our community I have been very surprised by the statements that they've made because it has not been my experience interacting with them they refuse to acknowledge the glaring location and scale issues that have a very real Public Safety impact on area residents the outcome of tonight's decision extends far beyond our neighborhood it has implications for all single family zoning in Fort Worth moving forward it could set a concerning precedent creating uncertainty about the safety and stability of neighborhoods where families choose to live and grow if the applicant is permitted to build anything on their property without regard for its impact on the surrounding area it undermines the very purpose of zoning regulations OAS residents deserve the right to protect our community and our children we love our neighborhood and cherish the safety and peace we feel as we walk along at historic blocks I imagine the applicants congregation values these same qualities in the neighborhoods they return to after church services the large majority of which are not in oakst or the surrounding areas this is a community that looks out for each other's safety and well-being and that is exactly what we are here to do tonight we deserve to have our voices heard without being bullied into submission I want to share a few points from my neighbors on West Lotus Public Safety the applicant site the high security fence 247 surveillance and flood lighting as key safety features but these requirements implicitly acknowledge the potential for a significant threat Predators seeking to recapture victims is a known issue for safe houses especially when facility details are widely publicized as in this case lack of buffer many of our homes are less than a football Field's distance from the proposed site on the outside of the high security fence how should I feel walking alone in my neighborhood with my baby if this becomes reality property values as alluded to many of our older neighbors have invested their life savings into their homes and are depending on the stable property values for retirement fear uncertainty and safety significantly influence housing market sentiment facility scale the applicant CES no evidence to justify 100 bed facility a size that goes against expert recommendations further jeopardizing residents and neighbors challenges if survivors choose to leave what happens if they decide to leave the applicant's care this is a large facility and if you have any experience with substance abuse you know how powerful the pool can be despite the most well-meaning support and regardless of the possible trauma and suffering Downstream proximity to I35 as a major human trafficking Corridor I35 poses a significant risk to survivors who choose to leave the facility there's limited access to roads the property location forces all traffic to so flow solely through OIC with no alternative routes for Ingress or egress and density church services and events already cause severe traffic congestion on christinck blocking the route and forcing detours this becomes critical in emergencies as emergency vehicles May struggle to access homes the applicant refuses to consider alternate locations they refuse to work with experts and they refuse to listen to legitimate concerns there are so many practical reasons that this facility does not make sense in this location how will this unwillingness manifest in the day-to-day operations of running a facility like this one the applicant has not made a goodfaith effort to listen to our community and respond earnestly again despite what you've heard today and again it has been shocking to hear their interpretation of what has occurred neighbors who previously felt secure are extremely worried for the safety of their children playing outside due to the hateful rhetoric the shots have used against our neighborhood they use their National platform to amplify a dehumanizing message against us and this dis disproportionate response to our sincere safety concerns has been a significant stress on our community if you are driven by faith I ask you to consider what if God has more more to say than what Mercy culture leaders are willing to listen to councilmen and women I hope that you can hear How Deeply We Care while the applicant attempts to paint us as villains the reality is that we are mothers and fathers friends and Advocates we come from all different walks of life but we are rooted together through a community that we love please help us to protect our children our homes and our safety thank you for your time and consideration thank you [Applause] our next group is Libby Willis then the next group would be Maggie Maxon good evening mayor Parker and uh council members as property owners in Oaker since 1987 this is for my husband and me and as a former president of the oakar neighborhood association we oppose SP 2413 we remain in favor of providing Professional Care for formerly sex traffic women we don't know anyone particularly our neighbors in Oakhurst who are not in favor of that however for a variety of reasons the mercy culture Church site immediately adjacent to the Oar neighborhood is not the right location for the project they propose it is not the right location for the victims to be helped by the project and it is not the right location for residents of the Oar neighborhood the long and short of it is that it is a worthy project but it is proposed for the wrong location the organization called refuge for women is the nation's largest recovery program for victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation and its headquarters are right here in North Texas their leaders say this about safety quote safety is our number one priority safety means keeping the location of the program homes confidential unquote Interstate 35 is adjacent to the proposed church project site and according to the Texas Department of Transportation counts of 2020 and you know that these numbers are greater today at least 115,000 people travel on I35 right by the church location in our neighborhood every day that means the site that is proposed for this project is hardly a confidential location that makes me worry for the women because we know their traffickers want them back and will seek to get them back especially if they know where they are the church has said that the women will will not leave the facility for 1 to 3 years there is a difference however between 24-hour security cited by the church and detention the proposed facility is not a place of mandatory supervision only the court system can impose literal Restraint of individuals the church cannot keep the women there against their will if they want to leave they can you can be sure that their former traffickers would be only too glad to entice the women and pick them up in the UR neighborhood these are public safety concerns we also have many concerns about overflow church parking in our neighborhood which we already have even without this project as well as increased traffic on oini Drive the Western border of our neighborhood these concerns are important to our 100-year-old neighborhood listed as the Oakhurst historic district in 2010 on the national register of historic places this is a federal designation for places worthy of preservation in the nation any project with Federal money and that might have an adverse impact on the Oakhurst historic district is subject to the National Historic preservation act of 1966 section 106 which provides that the adverse impact must be mitigated the neighborhood had a seat at the table when Tech doot widened Interstate 35 10 years ago right next to Oakhurst and that's because of the National Historic preservation act section 106 teot made adjustments in that project because Oakhurst is on the national register to my knowledge the proposed project has no federal funds so now the zoning commission and the city council could act as Federal officials would in this case if it did have Federal funds in it the job is to consider the impact of the project on the neighborhood one of the foundational neighborhoods in the city and one of only five in the city listed on the national register the National Historic preservation Act was established to designate and protect historic neighborhoods and other historic places in our nation urin Drive was built in 1937 and it is the westernmost boundary of the historic district the oakar historic district it was built by the works progress administration federal funds were given as a par Drive which was what Oar sen Drive was designed to be and it was built by the county and the City of Fort Worth Park department and maintained as a Park Road by the city it is now an official City of Fort Worth Senate Corridor in the Fort Worth zoning ordinance chapter 6 section 6.42 entitled Senate President preservation areas and corridors under arterial Scenic corridors Ur Scenic Drive deserves protection as well as from adverse uh impacts of the project like traffic and the parking that we continue to see up into the neighborhood if you think about it both the victims to be helped in this project and the neighborhood need protection the women so they can heal and be restored to new healthy lives the neighborhood so it can continue to be stable and continue to thrive for the next 100 years these are both worthy goals the church's project is worthy it simply needs a location different than it has been proposed to be on and also we need the neighborhood to be able to continue its life as we have known it for these 100 years please deny sp sp 2413 thank you very [Applause] much our next group is Maggie Maxton followed by Allison ashmor group no Alison already spoke I'm sorry go with Maggie here hi y'all my name is Maggie Maxton and I'm here to speak on behalf of myself and my neighbors on primrose marold and SMX in opposition to the mercy culture Church's excuse me site plan amendment to build a large housing unit for survivors of sex trafficking as someone who has lived in oakar my entire life we moved there in elementary school and now my husband and I own a house there we love this neighborhood we have a deep appreciation for the sense of community and safety that we have worked so hard to build and maintain over the years let me be clear we fully support helping survivors of sex traff trafficking however this project and specifically its location raises significant concerns the proposed site is on the edge of Oakhurst as you've heard our historic and familyfriendly neighborhood that is surrounded by schools including one on the premises this proximity raises significant safety concerns Mercy culture has heavily advertised the location which is contrary to how this important work is usually done reputable organizations understand that discretion is essential to protect these vulnerable populations from further exploitation publicizing the location may increase the likelihood of loitering by individuals involved in their exploitation while the church has plans to provide security on its own property to mitigate this concern they cannot ensure the safety of the surrounding streets this undermines the sense of safety in our neighborhood a major part of our incredibly friendly neighborhood is that we feel safe enough to hang out outdoors with each other we go walking we Garden we chat on the streets we we go play at the park if the shelter is built and unsafe people start loitering around our neighborhood it will reduce our feelings of safety and likely harm this community that we have built infrastructure concerns the area's infrastructure is ill equipped to handle the additional demands this development would create Mercy culture already struggles with parking issues their congregation frequently exceeds their allotted parking spaces resulting an illegal parking along OIC and onto our streets this creates hazardous conditions particularly on Sunday mornings by impeding visibility it also creates challenges for emergency vehicle access to the church or neighborhood while the church has claimed to add 18 or 20 spots for this housing program this number is clearly inadequate given the existing lack of adequate parking further expansion will only exacerbate these problems making our roads even less safe and less accessible okra Scenic is not intended to be a major thoroughfare for the city rather it is a small Park adjacent and residential adjacent Street increasing traffic and potentially illegal parking is not in the best interests of our community Additionally the proposal could negatively impact adjacent property values the potential for unsafe individuals loitering in the area May under undermine the stability and desirability of our family-friendly neighborhood the potential for increased traffic and safety concerns further compound this risk in addition to infrastructure concerns Mercy culture has a history of being an uncooperative and unfriendly neighbor Beyond parking concerns they have repeatedly disrespected our community by labeling us with derogatory terms such as witches demons and agents of Satan such inflammatory rhetoric is divisive and undermines the trust necessary for productive community relations their actions show a pattern of disregard for the well-being of our neighborhood which raises serious doubts about their ability to manage a program of this magnitude responsibly finally as a registered nurse I am deeply concerned about the absence of ethical safeguards and transpar y Mercy culture has not secured public support from existing nonprofits in the area that have Decades of experience in this field they have not shared plans for oversight and collaboration from reputable organizations they've not shared any plan to ensure qualified individuals will be providing trauma-informed care the medically proven purpose of which is to provide holistic care to mitigate harm to the participants and is of the utmost importance from the information available the program lacks evidence-based practices which will further prevent exploitation of these women in this emotionally vulnerable state in conclusion while the mission to support survivors is commendable the building of this shelter on the edge of a neighborhood near multiple schools is fundamentally flawed we urge the council to uphold the zoning commission's decision and reject this proposal instead Mercy culture could collaborate with existing reputable organizations in the city which have a proven track record of doing this important work together they could develop a program that benefits and houses these vulnerable individuals utilizing trauma-informed care and following best practices and not placed in close proximity to any neighborhood without compromising the safety and well-being of our community thank you for your time and [Applause] consideration request of the ois neighborhood Katherine Bower will be last I'm going to move to her group will be last I'm going to move to individual speakers the F the first a hold on Rick just a second I believe you I'm just tired let me make sure you do Rick you're next and then we'll move the next individual speaker will be Kelly McCormack Rick hearing on behalf of a group thank you thank you I didn't mean to speak out I appreciate it keep me on track but I have I think I have 10 or 11 people and they're welcome to come down and if Eric Jones is here come on down with us Eric um but good evening mayor Parker City Council Members City staff and a special shout out to my own council member Janette Martinez there she is uh Rick Herring from Riverside thanks for having me by the way I want to make it clear so everybody knows Riverside and oakar residents vigorously opposed all the apartments that overtook the most beautiful Bluff above the Trinity River in Fort Worth so to say we did not is completely [Applause] false and I am here to respectfully request that you deny this site plan Amendment request I won't be repeating what others have said and so maybe that'll be a relief to you to hear some new information uh but I do have two main points I'd like to cover at its core this is a land use issue and I know that you all know that and realize that although there are other very legitimate and alarming concerns with this application I'm speaking only to the land use issue and locating a 107 unit multif family building dormatory shelter discipleship Center or whatever you want to call it immediately across the street from a single family neighborhood with no intervening buffer zone of transitional zoning as is usually the case which you also know of course the side under consideration is located immediately adjacent to the beautiful oakers neighborhood that's flourished for the past 100 years uh in zoning issues we always hear buffers buffers buffers transitional zoning transitional zoning from City staff uh and it was the same when I served on the zoning commission for a number of years several years ago and there is almost always a transitional zoning between single family neighborhoods such as Oakhurst and more intensive uses such as what is being proposed here something such as duplexes triplexes Town Homes whatever it may be and in fact as you also know the city of Fort Worth created the urban residential Ur zoning District just for this purpose I.E to provide a transition from highly dense uh housing to single family housing it's just the way it is this cardinal rule of zoning is drummed into our heads and repeated over and over excuse me by the city of Fort Worth staff and the city attorney's office that is my first point in this case there is no transitional buffer zoning between a dense housing facility for 107 persons and a single family neighborhood a stone throw away my second point the case you heard and denied last year zc 23015 at 2201 Annabelle Lane in Rolling Hills you denied this case because it was placing a dense housing facility in a single family neighborhood the intended use was for a wonderful Ministry by Dash Network to assist Refugee families many of you on the DI tonight made statements to the applicant in that case that you fully supported their mission and that it was a wonderful project but but you said this is not the right place repeat you said this is not the right place the dash Network did go on to find the right place with help from some of you I know and the Justice residents can do the same the parallels of the dash Network case to the current case are striking in the extreme one major difference is that the dash Network project offered detached units that would house a far lesser number of residents while the case under current consideration intends to house over a 100 yet Council chose to deny that request as was also expressed in the dash network uh case what may be what may be the unforeseen and unintended consequences if the proposed Ministry at Justice residences is not successful and does not continue in that case Oaker is then forever saddled with an empty multif family facility in their neighborhood and all of the problems that go along with that I simply ask that you consider two items consider the long and wellestablished Zoning concept of transitional zoning districts to provide buffers between incompatible uses single family and more intensive uses and secondly consider what you just did last year when you denied another case that has an almost identical fact pattern and I do realize that this we're talking about a site plan Amendment and not a straightup zoning change and there are some nuances there obviously but the end the end result will be the same if you approve this application I also ask that this Council be bold you are being bullied threatened and intimidated and we understand the intense pressure that you are under to make the right decision but I ask that you be bold like you were bold when council member Martinez led a city initiated zoning change to protect Echo Heights from further industrial encroachment I ask that you be bold like you were when council member lerdorf led a city initiated zoning change to protect children from a motel being built next to next to their school where strangers would be constantly coming and going just as they will in the Justice residences also next to a school this Council has done some pretty bold things to protect neighborhoods I ask you to be bold thank you [Applause] our next speaker our next speaker is Kelly mccormic followed by Mike Richardson followed by Shannon scan scanland if we could just make sure they're in the room if they didn't have a seat already thank you Miss McCormick thank you uh and also my husband Byron kopsa defers his time he had to put our toddler to sleep so only one of us could stay so I believe that the OA zoning argument against the site plan amendment is clear and Powerful here I want to emphasize a joint concern about parking and how it relates to the safety of women and girls at the Justice residences if this facility is built in July 2022 the Fort Worth Weekly interviewed two survivors of SE sex trafficking and one local professional who work with them these women voice serious concerns about exploitation and isolation at Mercy culture Pam the local professional stated that the victims she worked with began displaying unsettling changes just months after attending Mercy culture and this is a direct quote from Pam there was a shift where they withdrew from their former support group we encouraged survivors to have outside support the church leaders isolated them they were cutting everyone off who wasn't part of Mercy culture that's a red flag the mercy culture site plan Amendment shows that these concerns about safety and isolation from 2022 remain in 2024 18 parking spaces is in no way sufficient for the support and staff needed to adequately care for 100 victims of sex trafficking we're talking about health care mental health professionals trauma based care job training the list goes on and on Mercy culture claims that the facility will not exacerbate parking and traffic concerns but they cannot have it both ways they cannot provide adequate care for 100 victims access to crucial resources and outside support without far more than 18 parking spaces so again this location is not suitable for the church's goals I wish them well in finding one where women and girls can in fact be safely housed and properly supported thank you for your time [Applause] Mike Richardson will be followed by Shannon scanland hello I am Mike Richardson I moved to honeysuckle in Oakhurst over 20 years ago two days ago my wife and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary after we got married we knew we needed a bigger home and we knew we wanted to stay in Oakhurst we finally found our quot perfect uh home this past summer over 3 years later and literally just up the hill and with 100 yards from Mercy culture church we can easily see the church from our front porch I'm a physical therapist and have been for 25 years I care about and I help people that's where my heart is I share that I'm a PT because human trafficking prevention training is required for my licensed renewal as well as all health care providers in Texas Millions upon millions of people with over 70% being women and girls are victimized every year by greedy amoral human traffickers this zoning issue has caused caused me to do a lot of self-reflection was this an instance of yes this is a very important issue that Sly needs to be addressed but just not back just not back in my in my backyard mentality basically this is Mercy culture church trying to fit a square peg in a round hole specifically a thre story nearly 45,000 ft 107 bed square peg a facility of this type is simply not a good fit for their proposed location you've heard the many reasons already why this location is not a good idea but ultimately I decided that I needed to oppose this proposed ex expansion because I have grave concerns that these survivors of human trafficking would be unnecessarily placed at increased risk of being exploited again as the church is simply not following better practices regarding the standard of not disclosing housing location of these survivors I shared earlier that I was a physical therapist I did home health for several years and I got to know where a lot of things were in Fort Worth during that time however one type of facility that I never knew the location of were safe houses as this anonymity was best practices to keep these survivors safe sadly Mercy culture church is knowing is showing no such discretion with the location of their human trafficking Resident was simply puts these very vulnerable people and way too many other people unnecessarily in danger and at risk for being further exploited in closing just like my new neighbors across the street Street who are also within 100 yards of this church our neighborhood association and the many neighbors that I've spoken to over the past month and the for worth zoning commission I oppose these proposed changes and humbly ask that you guys all do the same I appreciate you [Applause] listening ganlin if I'm butchering I'm sorry is that you no you is you okay next up would be Jan buck and then Sarah Murphy good evening Council my name is Shannon scanland and I am the past president of the oakar neighborhood association Council I'm here tonight to ask you to vote against the sex trafficking shelter proposed by Mercy C it is pretty clear that the shelter is not compatible and consistent with the current surroundings land use of houses schools and Parks further the atrocious traffic and parking issues brought to this peaceful neighborhood by the church is well documented the few alleged parking spaces added to this plan will do nothing to help the Overflow of parking they often realize there is not enough time for me to detail the ill planning and effects of this shelter including drops in property value vales light pollution poor Ingress and Ingress both into the property and the building what I would like to bring to your attention is um the statistics concerning trafficking shelters of this scope and scale which are bad for the victims they claim to care for the Samaritan women Institute for shelter care composed a study in 2022 which I've offered there with a focus on large capacity shelters what they found in summary is that the average capacity shelter bed is nine beds and 30 Beds which is rare is considered a large scale shelter annual budgets are in the millions to maintain large shelters which there is no indication that the church can achieve those financial requirements and that the victims don't do well in large community it's chaos multiplied you must have people who are gifted at managing that many people and the more girl you have the more drama you have the more fights the more self harm the more bad behaviors Etc Council the applicant often points to the Dream Center in Los Angeles as a model for success but that facility was built as a private Hospital nearly a hundred years ago and the city essentially grew around it it's not a new building that was proposed in the middle of a neighborhood but rather a recycled building in a mixed use area of lowincome apartments and houses further there are homeless camps and rubbish in the streets and lines of people around that building waiting for assistance Council this VI these victims come with an array of physical and emotional problems staff burnout within shelters of any size is real and there appears to be zero plan to protect their own volunteers and staff for the trauma they will suffer in a shelter of this scale further the church has told us that they will not give us one inch last I would like like you to consider this if this facility is safe and in a good fit beside a historic neighborhood parks and a school then why do they need all those High walls and security and lighting and um an alleged partnership with Fort Worth PD thank [Applause] you Jan will be followed by Sarah Murphy good evening my name is Jan buck and I am the moderator of the Riverside Alliance we are the organization of the nine neighborhoods in the Riverside area that meet together and work collaboratively in our area and we the membership voted unanimously to oppose the approval of the site plan 2413 um our primary concern is just the potential interpretation of church related activity to include a residential component of any kind uh much less a facility that is essentially a mental health and substance abuse Treatment Center trying to manage a 100 relatively functional people living in close quarters would be challenging enough but uh a population that will have a myriad of mental health substance abuse and medical issues will be overwhelming for a church to take on and will likely end up drawing on you know City resources but but for us it was even if the facility was going to be a hotel or a dorm or apartment complex we don't think that housing people is a function of the church now certainly there are a lot of faith-based Ministries on a much smaller scale who are having a huge impact and I'm a Believer and I'm a supporter of of of those Ministries but in terms of an actual Church having residential component on on campus we just didn't really see that that's a fit for church related activities and we just this liberal interpretation of church church related activity is kind of opening the door for other religious groups to decide they want to start building housing apartments whatever let's go ahead and start just keeping people on campus and um so we just don't think it's the appropriate use for that zoning and we are asking city council to deny the site plan Amendment thank [Applause] you Sarah Murphy is Sarah here let's just make sure Sarah's not an overflow please uh Denise Bennett is Denise here Denise Bennett Christin Miller should to leave okay Carla pomares hey folks I've been here all day with yall too back again as a taxpaying home-owning community loving resident of the Oakhurst neighborhood and District 11 I am not a member of Mercy culture I'm also not currently a member of our neighborhood association but I do come before Council today to voice my concern in disapproval of the proposed use of land and planning amendment by Mercy culture church for the purpose of building and establishing a discip discipleship Center adjacent to I35 off Oak herck roadway I know you'all have heard all of the reasons why it's not a great idea um I do want to say that I've reviewed the attached plans that were on today's agenda can assure you as a person who lives in the neighborhood and daily uses the roadways that this propose plan would be negatively impactful to our neighborhood this R this zoning request must be denied as per the recommendation of the zoning commission I implore you council member Janette Martinez to please put a motion on the floor to have this denied so we can all go home um and make sure that we put this uh to rest in this final attempt because we're tired we're tired of having this ongoing dispute between the church between the neighborhood um it's really frustrating and it is is very uh stressful just want to say constructing a three-story building probably going to be painted white with concrete fencing and barriers they're just going to continue to add uh very stressing um infrastructure to an area that actually needs some sidewalks and to have some potholes filled uh my husband and I uh walk our dog I know I see Neighbors frequently using this area and yes it is very congested by the by the church traffic uh and it's only going to get worse if we do approve this uh Amendment so I do please ask uh Janette that you put a motion on the floor let's deny this thank you good [Applause] night Jennifer gaco followed by Adam Gonzalez good evening my name is Dr Jennifer gotalo and I live in the Oakhurst neighborhood I want to First address uh the comments that were made regarding the crime um uh since 2 uh 2020 I've had two cars stolen from my driveway and I regularly provide videotape of uh criminal activity in our neighborhood to the Fort Worth Police Department so the church has not really done anything to stop crime in our neighborhood I strongly oppose as P 2413 as an educator with 27 years of experience I fully recognize the need for resources to support survivors of sex trafficking however my training and understanding of the needs of vulnerable populations make it clear that the proposed location is unsuitable for this facility unfortunately mer Mercy culture's highly publicized approach and the facilities proposed central location along I35 a corridor Infamous for trafficking activity stand in direct opposition to established best practice at this point Mercy culture appears more focused on winning a zoning dispute than on genuinely prioritizing the victim's well-being organizations with expertise in this field understand the importance of operating quietly and discreetly to ensure confidentiality and security Mercy cultures promotional campaigns and insistence on this high-profile location demonstrate a concerning dish regard for these principles if their goal was to truly help victims they would reconsider their approach and prioritize a safer more private site this zoning change does do the things that uh would the other community members have raised it is a dangerous precedent for changing the zoning it is a strain on the infrastructure and it does provide increased traffic uh it may impact our property values in a negative manner but mostly based on Mercy culture's action I question their true motives are they genuinely prioritizing victim safety or are they more concerned with public recognition their aggressive promotion of this project and their refusal to consider more discreet secure Alternatives suggest the latter because the Bible warns against such self-serving Behavior as Matthew chap 6 veres 1-3 teaches be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them so when you give to the needy do not announce it with trumpets as the Hypocrites do I urge the council to deny this request and encourage Mercy culture to explore alternative locations ones that align with best practice protect the victims and respect the Integrity of the community thank you [Applause] will be followed by Joseph Neville good evening my name is Adam Gonzalez I'm a resident of urst and I'm speaking against SP 24013 I urge you to uphold the zoning commission's decision to deny the proposed facility zoning regulations exist to benefit the entire city uh and the commission has fulfilled its role in overturning its decision should require a very compelling reason uh interpreting Church related activities broadly leads to absurd outcomes imagine if you will a pastor claiming divine inspiration to open a scrapyard or a game room dedicated to teaching the Holiness of combinat I know you guys really miss game rooms and eight liners so if it was in a church I'm sure you guys would love it um Church related activities therefore must be interpreted narrowly so what would an average person if asked what is a church related activity respond I'll posit a few responses for you things like attending church services praying Bible study singing hymns tithing or donating money volunteering to Church events or community service Sunday School for Children etc etc I think that these are things that if you grabbed an average Fort worthan off the streets they would respond and I think that something like a trafficking facility is is counter to all of these uh very common sense examples so building a center for sex trafficking victims is Noble but demanding requiring extensive resources for residents care security and daily operations proceeding without Community Support is irresponsible a 100 room facility raises safety concerns for residents and neighbors making open communication essential unfortunately the church's fear-driven tactics have damaged Community Trust weakening the ability to serve victims of effectively my fear is that a lack of evidencebased practices uh is that all sex trafficking victims deserve unconditional care regardless of sexual orientation race religion or Creed Rehabilitation should focus on individual recovery requiring submission to a specific religious belief as a condition for help is inherently coercive even if unintended such a structure risks being predatory and in my opin is unacceptable while the church has Pro proposed involving police in security efforts our force is already understaffed additionally such a facility would strain infrastructure such as water sewage and electricity creating real costs for taxpayers the church seeks City approval while shifting substantial burdens onto public services and residents all while claiming that would it would be better if the city just stayed out of the way to the best of my knowledge and offer to compromise is a new development in a multi-month affair in the interim the church has utilized bombastic fearmongering otherization and staunch my way or the highway mentality a late attempt to compromise is not a characterization of previous months thank you Joseph Neville is our next speaker and I think I've been told no one else is an overflow so that be closing with Katherine Bower which is a group thank you Madame mayor just a second I'm sorry interrup yes sir did you were you a speaker what was your name Jared Jared Miller okay I'm sure you're on here somewhere I do have you Jarett we'll have you go after this next thank you thank you Madame mayor members of the city council my name is Joseph Neville I'm a current resident in district 7 a former resident of Oakhurst I am a former educator youth pastor and former leader within Mercy cultures creative initiative called Axel I have witnessed firsthand the shot's pattern of using fear emotional manipulation and misinformation to intimidate its members its staff volunteers and most recently its Ur neighbors one example of that pattern is this after Heather shot publicly criticized and bullied eista for enforcing a temporary mask policy one of her own worship leaders privately confronted her this leader said I don't feel this is right or that it represents Jesus what was Heather shot's response she accused the worship leader of being demonically influenced by a spirit of offense then offered to exercise that Spirit via her own pastoral care this was the final of many manipulations I witnessed that led me to part ways with the church over the past several weeks Landon shot has mobilized tens of thousands of online followers in a national campaign to label their URS neighbors as demonically influenced anti-christian activists this was not because oakst opposed the Justice Center itself but simply its proposed location yesterday I was personally mocked by Landon shot who accused me of not caring about victims of sex trafficking sadly this is consistent with their approach using fear and emotional manipulation as organizational tools now let's talk about those victims just this morning I spoke with someone counseling two trafficked women formerly under the care of Heather shot these women say they felt quote pimped and emotionally manipulated to help raise funds for the Justice Center I'm asking you to consider why there is such staunch opposition to this project this is not about opposing the fight against human trafficking we all want to help those affected by this tragedy especially in our own communities and City the opposition is to its methods its messaging and the location of the project we are not demonically possessed anti-christian activists as the shots would have you and their followers believe we are teachers pastors parents doctors counselors many of whom are also Christians in Christ followers please do not give into the fear of the mob please do not give into bullying we ask that you respect the recommendation made by the zoning commission thank you for your time and for your service to our community thank you [Applause] good evening esteemed mayor and distinguished members of the fortore city council my name is Jared Miller and my wife Evelyn and I live at 1944 Bluebird Avenue in the oakar neighborhood our street discharges on the Oaker Scenic Drive and our home is about 1 half block away from the mercy culture campus we are before you tonight is concerned residents of oakers to speak against the approval of the construction of this facility tonight you will hear or have heard several speakers also argue in opposition to this facility for reasons ranging from the legal perspective increased traffic inadequate parking improper zoning likely loss in property values and numerous other reasons of course these are excellent reasons but tonight I would like to focus on the single issue that should be at the very top of the list for any project that is under consideration by this esteemed body Safety and Security the shelter's location on i35w poses an immediate safety risk highways are busy transient areas and traffickers know how to use such routes to locate and re exploit survivors a shelter placed in such a visible accessible area could be become a target for traffickers trying to find their victims it's easy for traffickers to drive past identify the shelter and potentially attempt to re-enter the lives of the survivors who are trying to escape this increases the risk that traffickers could track down these individuals and in a location that should be a place of Refuge the fact that this facility's location has been highly publicized only adds to the danger with the facility being so well known there's a higher likelihood of harmful individuals targeting the area whether trafficers those with ill intentions or even people looking to disrupt the facility in a report entitled Finding a path to recovery residential facilities for minor victims of domestic sex trafficking published on the US government's HHS website under the heading facil security of facility the very first example cited for securing the facility is undisclosed location survivors are already vulnerable and drawing this kind of attention puts them at at an even greater risk the shelter's location on the same GRS as a grade school is extremely concerning human traffickers are likely to Target this facility putting children attending the school along with their families at risk simply by being in the vicinity of the facility with the grade school so close this creates a higher likelihood of traffickers using the school grounds to locate survivors therefore putting both children and survivors in danger uh we strongly agree that facilities such as this are badly needed in our society but this is not an appropriate location we are relying on you as Leaders of our great City to make a common sense choice that does not put citizens at unnecessary risk for the residents of Oakhurst this is not a hypothetical situation as it is for most of you I'll end with this put yourself in our position if this was your neighborhood and your home how would you vote I think the answer is obvious thank [Applause] you Katherine Bower on behalf of a group mayor Parker council members good evening my name is Katherine Bower and as pres president of the oakar neighborhood association I would like to thank you for the time to express ur's comments concerns and ongoing questions with regard to SP2 4013 I'm joined tonight by dozens of neighbors all wearing green and 384 signatures which we have attained in opposition to this proposal we're asking you to accept the recommendation of your zoning commission and deny this proposal because if approved SP2 4013 would allow for the construction of a facility with an unclear and everchanging intended use but a very foreseeable and multifaceted impact to the surrounding Community including the Oakhurst neighborhood in August of this year I had the distinct honor to accept this Proclamation on behalf of Oakhurst and recognition and celebration of our neighborhood's 100th anniversary as eviden by each of your names affix tier to you stood unanimously with Oak Hurst and its neighbors on that night I take us back to this night not only for the unanimous stand this Council took on Oakhurst behalf but because of the time of acceptance I ask this of each of you to continue to stand with Oakhurst and ensure that it is protected for the next 100 years and Beyond oir ask that you do just that tonight and vote to deny this site plan amendment oir in no way opposes the applicant State a desire to assist victims of human trafficking in fact many Ur neighbors dedicate their own professional careers and personal time to serving and assisting those in need Oaker neighbors are doctors nurses mental health professionals prosecutors peace officers social workers civil servants victim Advocates and regularly volunteer with churches and local nonprofits to help the same or similar populations of the applicant also seeks to assist but based on zoning best practices current issues with parking and traffic congestion and the legitimate safety concerns Oaker has very sincere and objective stance to this from which it has posed the following question is the proposed location and appropriate location for this type of facility this is a question that you city council maintain discretion over in which you can consider in light of six objective factors and overall cohesion with the city's comprehensive plan which should quote unquote facilitate the movement of people and goods and the health and safety and Welfare of the citizens of the city the proposed amendment and corresponding construction does none of these things and will exacerbate or create additional issues what you can expect from oakers tonight is what you've already heard objectivity and sincerity we have asked o curse 384 neighbors who voiced their concerns this evening to take a stand and speak but instead we've taken an organized approach because we value this council's time and because we see the evidence supporting denial is concrete and to the point the neighborhood association has asked we have these six neighborhood neighbors stand on behalf of larger groups along with some individual speakers and tonight we heard um some troubling things but one thing I do want to say is um to Express gratitude for councilwoman Martinez for the um meeting that she brokered between both applicant and Oakhurst last Thursday on the 5th and contrary to what you might have heard tonight that was the first meeting that oakers has had with this neighborhood since the spring of 2022 um that was the first time that the applicant asked Oak curse to meet with them about this project and we have not heard anything from them since that time we have not been asked to sit at a table with them and talk about our concerns until councilman Martinez brokered that deal and um since until they lost at the zoning commission what we did receive was this on some neighbors doors this is an exhibit to our um written position statement and um what you'll find on here is that you can scan a code to contact and voice your support and that's all you can voice is support you can't ask questions you can't pose concerns and you can't ask for engagement with the applicant to perhaps come to a different conclusion and yes it's true that when posed the question of how many beds would be sufficient for Oakhurst I didn't have an answer because that was the first time we were ever asked the question question of would you be willing to come to the table and negotiate so instead I posed the further question to the applicant which was this how many beds would you be willing to concede and they said none and I said okay what about a different location and they said we want to have more of these in other locations and that they don't want to build this in a different location so I think Oaker stands ready and able to uh with a desire to want to work with the applicant if that's something they want to do um the six factors that you can consider tonight are the adequacy of the buffer between the project and oakar the adequacy of access roads parking nuisance control directional lighting impact of The Proposal on property values and as far as the adequacy of the buffer I think ur's response to this would be as you've heard tonight there is no buffer um zoning tradition and best practice calls for some kind of transitional zoning between multif family and single family residential and we don't have that here this creates very real safety and nuisance concerns um and issues that's evidenced by the recent nent abatement lawsuit filed by the Attorney General of Texas against an Austin church for the increase in crime crime drug drug drug use and overall Havoc it shelter brought to an Austin neighborhood and neighborhood school and I would invite you to look into the state of Texas versus Sunshine there's a reason we have zoning standards and prevention of these types of issues is that exact reason um oh course's next concern is density you've heard about the concerns with parking traffic and all of that um but the main concern is safety and future use as that would impact our property values and just our overall ability to utilize our neighborhood fully um we've spoken to Sergeant Johnson Commander Turner NP Bower program coordinator Talent it's not appear that there is any arrangement with Fort Worth PD um in that meeting that applicant brought up we were told that there was a commercial alarm system given um but I think a common theme that you've heard tonight is this um from the neighbors that oakers is not just a neighborhood it's the definition of living in community and it's more than Community it's really family and so we know this Council stands with Fort wor neighborhood supports its communities and loves its families so why would this vote be an different tonight we also know this Council supports and loves the faith-based organizations including what applicant does so please know this a vote in opposition is not a vot against victims it's not a vote against churches it's not even a vote against applicants it is a yes to finding a place for Fort work cine thank you thank you [Applause] Denai mark Martinez that's the conclusion of our speakers um do any of my colleagues have comments they want to make before I make mine sure Council anybody want to speak if you just hit your green light that helps me immensely okay well first I want to thank all who made time to speak on this very contentious case uh tonight um I also want it to be known that I have met with both sides on several occas and as we've heard as recently as last week um regardless of what is said tonight it is my sense that Council votes are influenced by politics and that is truly sad and disappointing it is my belief that the site plan concerns of the community are valid and I therefore move in suit with zoning Council to deny with prejudice sp413 I've got a motion on the floor Council you repeat your motion Janette Council M nles go ahead well who wants to speak first just hit your button it helps me Chris you going first then then Michael okay Michael go perfect Chris you're up go for it go for it you're good and you can if you want a second whatever you want to do after that that's fine I I I'll second your motion Council mcraine yeah thanks mayor um I do have a couple of comments I'd like to make here um it's some most of some of you know that there's sometimes an Unwritten rule that we follow the council members lead without question sometimes these cases rise to a different level Community input and other things make it so and we've done that a few times over the last four years this Council Bo mostly and I've seen it the eight years I've been involved with Council I do want to say that that requires to do some du more due diligence um you have talk with representatives from the oakers neighborhood I've talked with representatives from Mercy culture and i' I'll I'll this to this increased due diligence um visited the site on multiple occasions just to look at in general again I know that doesn't replace Place living there and being there but I wanted to give some some uh some info here Sunday October 27th 11:47 a.m. I know parking has been an issue there were 54 at least empty parking spots and staff admitted that it was a medium intensity day given who was preaching at that time Sunday November 3rd 11:22 a.m. for the 11:30 a.m. service traffic was these are my notes traffic was moderate at the end of one service was the beginning of another service we we departed about 10 minutes before the end of service and noted 100 plus parking spaces out there no parked cars in the neighborhood streets marold or the private drive that was there light amount of cars on Scenic Oakhurst Sunday November 10th at 6:20 p.m. 50 cars in total on all the Lots none on Scenic Oakhurst I've giving you variety of times that we visited just so or I visited so You' know Tuesday November 12th at 10:58 a.m. drove I drove Scenic Oakhurst West Lotus Bluebird there was little traffic parking lot was set up for food distribution which occurs on Wednesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 3: I spoke with Austin who runs the program and they said that he said he get about five or 600 cars through that during that time period also about radoo is that how you say your name former uh New York Police Department who does security I actually woke up this morning in your former home and I'm glad to be back in Fort Worth Texas to put my head in my own bed tonight um but says things run smoothly and I I believe that's the case is is as you're the leadership there Friday November 15th 11:32 a.m. many open parking spaces large truck was parked on o Scenic Oakhurst um doing work for the property right across the street Wednesday November 20th 11:36 a.m. food distribution day Zero cars on uh cenic goers about 20 cars on the par parking lot going through food line very orderly with cones and signage on on scena goers November 23rd 11:28 a.m. 10 cars on Scenic oakers at least 50 plus parking spaces in the lot um that was a service Les Cody you were leading that day um so uh there were cars parked there I think they park there because it's easy and and fast to get in and out um but I know I've talked to um Aldridge and our Police Department about what that looks like to Sunday December 1st 11:40 a.m. 13 cars on Scenic oakers plus 30 plus third spaces in the parking lot uh four people were out in vest directing traffic I went by even today at 2:17 p.m. on my way back from the airport to get to our meeting at 3:30 it was set up for food distribution there were no parking issues on the street at all I think that everybody up here all of my colleagues 100% want to protect our neighborhoods and I'll give a special shout out to council one Martina she's absolutely the proper person to be representing Oakhurst as well as you know her her thoughts and what she does she's thoughtful she's measured um and she I know her heart's in the right place for her for district and for Fort Worth as a whole I'll say that as I've got to look at this a little different perspective I'm the only real estate broker sitting on this dis doesn't make me special any way what I just say is I have to fully everyday balance neighborhoods as well as development I think my previous years of voting will show that too and Allison you said it best where are you Allison you said you've got to remove the emotions from this and I heard a lot of emotional arguments so I I have to deal with facts not feelings and the facts that I heard were really two big buckets parking and traffic that no doubt certain times of the day it is it is the traffic is bad there um but we also have that in other parts of the city traffic generators that exist TCU in in in my district and Council Beck's district U Health Science Center buoy house Stockyards Dickies Christ Chapel for an example um is also something that has uh lots of traffic issues we do have a residential parking permit program I think it would be wise to maybe look at that so it's the traffic and and what the parking that's in the neighborhood that would help and I'm committed to help councilwoman Martinez work with tpw to make sure it doesn't become a bigger issue there the other thing I'll I'll say the also and I would ask the church to regularly make sure that you tell people where they can and cannot park um we have to do that with our own Elementary School my daughter's Elementary School with the synagogues that are around it and people need constant reminding of what where they can in can't park I also heard about safety in in on the site in the neighborhood again I'll give kudos to our Fort Worth Police Department um and the men and women who every day are out there working on our behalf and what I would ask to is that the church work with the neighborhood look at Safety and Security and what that looks like as part of this um here's the Crux of where I stand tonight and it's this isn't about religious use this isn't even about the the use of the property um but we have to give some sort of relevancy or um uh consistency to our devel velopment community and um what I mean is that we have development standards we've been briefed about what a site plan this is not a zoning change it's a site plan Amendment site plan that's been in place for over two decades we had nothing to do with that up here it fits within the rules and if what we can't have a conversation is if those rules need to be changed or addressed that's something we should consider too working with our development Community I'm not sure how this vote's going to go tonight but I do hope that the neighborhood and church will work together civy to make sure that we address the problems the property owners and again I'm happy to work alongside um councilwoman Martinez as you address those needs in the community too and make sure that they get the resources that they need thank you Council Hill um first of all I want to compliment councilwoman Martinez because you have done an excellent job of working with both parties I'm looking at this case and the legality of it um Mercy does have a legal right under the religious land use and institutionalized persons act to build a shelter for human trafficking survivors on their property um I've done the same due diligence and after careful consideration with City staff legal and among my Council colleagues I do believe the applicant should be allowed to build the shelter since the primary use is church related and is not subject to zoning and landmarking laws that substantially burden the religious exercise of the churches while I will vote for it I'm going to reiterate what my Council fellow councilman said you'll have to work together I want to make sure that we're respectful of each other's property um especially the parking situation Public Safety must remain a top priority I've heard that several times tonight but I want to make sure that we all understand that that really is a top priority for every single one of my council members as well every effort should be made to M manage parking and traffic and I trust the applicant will work collaboratively to ensure success benefits both on the mission and the surrounding [Music] Community um I'll say a few things and then make sure get please that's okay all right thank you mayor uh I just wanted to second the motion so we can have the motion on Das I do want to make uh several comments tonight I appreciate well let me speak truthful I don't appreciate everything I heard but I appreciate everyone being here uh there's a couple things I want to articulate and I want to uh second uh the political stance and I I do think a lot of this has been Pol politically driven and I'll be honest with you that there has been a threats made to this Council uh for the far right to be even farther right they have threatened to run candidates against the Republicans that sits on this diets and that is a true fact to see uh sheriff wayborn or way Bay whatever his name is uh are articulate his support even shows the the position and I will tell you this and it is very known within Fort Worth within Texas and with nationally when you set a line you get all the way up to the line and then what they do they move the line a little bit farther and so why I sit here and a couple of speakers pointed at me called my pastoral ship out and X Y and Z bullying tactics to try to Force someone to vote on your side does not make this vote any easier and I will tell you that this Council should support Community when we got on Council one of the first hard hardest decisions that we had to make was the redistricting decision and during the redistricting process the very first neighborhood that came out was Riverside Alliance Oak Hurst it was Riverside United and Riverside Carter Riverside mayor Parker and other was said we must do what the community have asked us to do and put them together they were separate from three different districts we did that because we listened to the community earlier today this meeting supposed to start at 6:00 and it starts at 7:30 because so many people came out to talk about who should be the next city manager we had over 100 84 petition signed from Community aspects saying they wanted the process to be delayed you articulated you had 384 positions signed today from Community leaders I am convinced tonight I'm been convinced prior to that this Council don't give a damn about the community they don't care about the people who live work and pay the tax dollars and I cannot stand for that I care about the Comm Comm my support for this vote tonight is going to be simply because of the one six steps that articulate the uh the site plan this should have been a zoning change but the zoning change was changed or allowed to do a site plan because it was directed by this Council because it'll be an easier vote and it wouldn't be political I call that crap I'mma tell you what it is I'm not going to lie to you that's bull crap you guys have made a very good point tonight about traffic you talked about the six points I believe you I understand you and if one of you guys tonight can that has one of those green signs bring me that green sign please bring me one of those green signs cuz I'm going to let you know that if nobody else on this council is going to stand with o curse councilman Chris nles Wills [Applause] lar dorf yeah all right well thank you mayor um I can certainly appreciate the position council member Martinez is in and I think she has done a great job of speaking with both the applicant and the neighborhood uh and for once my colleague councilman nett is actually correct too and that this has become political which is sad um I don't want to violate any ethics uh and discuss what we discussed during um uh executive sessions but some colleagues made it quite clear that this is political um with their attack on the actual church and their political leanings and made it be known that that was the main reason behind uh their their filling so I agree uh it has been become political um I've received hundreds of emails from both sides I have got the well what what some could perceive as threats from actually both sides in fact one side even told me that uh I was afraid of lawsuits I was afraid of a church or I was afraid of something else well if anyone who knows my background knows I've fought in Iraq and fought in Afghanistan nearly lost my life numerous times and once was on the the wrong end of a grenade I can tell you I am not afraid of a church I am not afraid of any individuals of of a church I'm not afraid of a neighborhood no matter how old they may be nor am I afraid of any attorneys the decision I make at the dis would be for the reasons either whether it's legality reasons or it's the right reason or it's what my uh my uh constituents elected me to to make in in good faith has nothing to do with threats so I just want to make sure that's clear and that's out there so mayor thank you well uh it's been a long night uh before I give the remarks that I prepared personally I I want to First just take a minute to of appreciation um you know this city is almost a million people we are the fastest growing city we talk about that a lot but how fortunate we are to have this many people that are willing to stay at a city council meeting until past 11 o'clock at night because they love their city and I really do think that um there may be a lot of disagreement and and um hurt Hearts tonight in the room but I believe every single individual that has taken the time to stay here loves this community and I have to disagree with council member Nettles I don't agree at all everybody on this dis loves their neighborhoods and they love their community members they would not sacrifice time from their families time from their other professional Endeavors to serve on this dis it just is not worth it if you didn't love Fort Worth with all your heart I have also had the opportunity to meet with both the Oakhurst neighborhood thank you very much for the time both to Allison and Katherine on behalf of your neighborhood I've also had the opportunity um to meet with Mercy culture and their leadership I think it is important to note as a fellow attorney oftentimes we get a bad rap but I think in this situation the attorneys that have represented all sides that includes Allison that includes Kyle that includes Trey and Melinda on the city Side have shined brightly this is a very complicated legal situation that the city finds ourselves in and I quite frankly think we're going to find ourselves in it more often we actually did tonight with two different zoning cases both the Alesa Church of Christ and the Buddhist temple in District 5 maybe not Apples to Apples in some eyes but in my legal mind they're very similar cases Mercy culture has been called to minister and build a place of healing for the victims of human trafficking who have been exploited and terrorized in the most egregious of ways and to the victims tonight that were willing to speak all I can say say is God bless you I'm thankful that they have chosen that Mercy culture has chosen to work on behalf of these vunerable victims and encourage the Justice Reform to work alongside the dozens of other organizations and there are dozens right here in tarant County the other Church communities nonprofits some of which have been mentioned and law enforcement agencies most notably including our own for Worth Police Department to integrate their services into the fabric of work all already occurring in Fort Worth and tarant County most notably is the tarant county five Stones task force a collaboration that has received National recognition for collaborative efforts to end domestic minor sex trafficking in tarant County I mention these things not because I have any legal authority to implore you to do so but because I have firsthand gotten to work with them and know their hearts and their discipline and I do believe they're worth working with to my Oak cursed neighbors and quite frankly my very favorite part to take my children to in the entire city of Fort Worth you are community members who are understandably concerned with the density with parking and overall impact to your beautiful homes and ultimately to your quality of life I know this neighborhood and the residents there to be excellent Neighbors to be men and women of God to be Community leaders to be committed volunteers to making Fort Worth a vibrant and loving Community I know in talking with you I have seen it firsthand you have been incredibly perplexed and offended in tears and concern at the use of language and overall treatment you have received over the last few years even at times we've heard extremes being called devils and warlocks I know you've expressed your concern simply because you love your homes you love your neighborhoods and you ultimately love the city of Fort Worth as a policy matter let me be clear I strongly believe that the religious liberty rights of religious institutions are well established in federal and state law government at any level has no place telling any religious Institution how they are permitted to live out their beliefs especially on their own property they own I might note we mentioned not one question to the temple this evening in District 5 as they built 100 over 100 stupas on their property additionally if this site plan case were to be denied this is my own personal opinion and now I'm not speaking on behalf of the rest of this body I strongly believe it will result in prolonged let particularly related to Rupa and in the end legal precedent demonstrates the law is on the side of Mercy culture and all religious institutions for that matter and the city most likely would lose this case and importantly cost taxpayers potentially millions of dollars in a necessary litigation cost Mercy culture has every legal right to build this facility so I will vote in support of the site plan Amendment scripture commands us to love our neighbor you can shake your head Chris Nettles but I've given you the time tonight don't call me don't call my name out like both Mark and L Mercy culture to seeking to live out this command by caring for victims of of sex trafficking please I implore you to make amends with o curst they are wonderful people and they deserve better than the way things have gone to this state they truly do I believe this commandment truly does apply to our neighbors all of them in the most literal sense if this measure passes and like my colleagues I have no idea where the rest of my colleagues are on this item tonight again I strongly encourage church leaders to love their actual neighbors and take seriously the concerns expressed by Oakhurst working in good faith to find Solutions in these concerns each of my 10 other Council colleagues has gone through through their own decision-making process to determine how they will vote tonight please be respectful of their decision District 11 is led by a woman of incredible Integrity my colleague councilwoman Janette Martinez she has been elected to represent all residents of District 11 and I especially respect her decision and her very thoughtful approach she's made in this particular zoning case and quite frankly in everything she does on this city council and this dis that's the conclusion of my remarks and I'll yield any additional time to council Martinez before we vote thank you Council we have a motion and a second to deny SP 2413 please vote motion to deny fails for legal Clarity is there an alternate motion councel is there an alternate motion councel I'll make the motion approve thank you motion to approve SP 24013 Council Lor do I have a second got a motion in a second from council member vivens please vote motion carries motion passes mayor that concludes all of the action items we are adjourned at 11:30 [Music]