remaining a bell will sound when you have 30 seconds left and when your time has ended the Bell will sound again and you should complete your comments before you begin your comments please state your name thank you good evening and welcome to your fort city council meeting I'll call us to order tonight's on vacation will be by priest morally Krishna from the Hindu temple temple of greater Fort Worth please rise and remain standing for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of Allegiance um [Music] [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] um may we all be protected may we all be nourished may we work together with great Energy may our intellect be sharpened let there be no animosity amongst us om peace in me peace in nature peace in Divine forces [Music] foreign [Music] from ignorance lead me to truth from Darkness lead me to light from Death lead me to immortality Om Shanti Shanti Shanti thank you honor to exercise our first item of business will be consideration from the February 10th 14th and 21st Council meetings gonna Motion in a second in discussion Council please vote motion carries mayor that concludes all of the action items thank you our first Public Presentation this evening is Bob Willoughby followed by Adrian Smith well this is a criminal no trespassing thing as of now until the rest of my life I am banned from going to a community center Handler Community Center I can't go there anymore there's my life you know there's two things on this ticket they don't put a date for exploration some people say it's good for a year well that's hogwash how do you know it's got to be written on here put a year on average a year of what it is the second thing you don't have here is try to call somebody if you want to appeal because it's given to you bogusly it was a political thing that got me this by council member Gina bibbons put on a phone number and a contact because I've called everybody how do you appeal it right now I've called five times to DA's office he won't turn the car police say go the D.A did he says police well I tried to police Chief our police chief Newton Oaks he runs out the building I chase him with a camera he won't talk to me about this I want this off of my head you got it here's another reason you'll find out you can't file a salt charge against a police officer I want to file a salt charge we can clear this out better I know it looks better than that somehow or another look I'm trying to block it out anyway these two officers are guilty of salt when you call the police department they say call Internal Affairs Internal Affairs won't turn a phone call how can you even make a report where they won't return a phone call and the chief of police runs out the door city manager highest paid employee in the state of Texas I'd chase him around the building a camera too he won't return a call that's embarrassing you are an embarrassment believe me we need some real people down here to run this city Fort Worth is a 1.7 billion dollar business and it's run by these people anyway the assault charge happened in District five three people are running that race Gina bibbons and two other candidates are running this one's heating up good one of the candidates got removed from a public building by police use they used the police and movement because they didn't want the candidate and the public building at the public meeting that should be against the law the other candidate a pastor his house got 30 rounds of gunshot into it shot up 30 times tried to scare her mother Rose that's District Five the only one that's not suffering District Five is Gina Pippins you watch how they do things okay thank you that looks better three minutes not enough time especially when you're overweight like me okay how can anybody vote for someone that would take away your right to speak here we don't speak at Council meetings anymore you know our next speaker is Adrian Smith followed by Jim Delong I didn't hear the bill did y'all hear a bell I didn't hear one Adrian Smith did they Bob thank you very much adriam you're up next Jim Delong will be followed by Adrian Smith or Adrian's first not even a bail Adrian Adrian Smith let the words of my mouth and the meditation on my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer so uh social media platforms have means by which they are governed when it pertains to content content shared on them if anyone takes issue with something shared by another individual then that individual must use what's available by the particular platform for addressing for addressing said issue no one in a position of power should use their position for means to threat to threaten the livelihood of anyone Council know that we are watching as well as listening and when I make that statement I'm I'm speaking regarding while we share our time here in council chambers or read this in work session or rather you are out doing your council do this we are watching and we are listening so I'm not naming names but please look interested if you're not interested don't please put up put on a face like you're interested in what's going on because we are watching and we are listening and like I said I won't say names uh councilman crane rr23-050 sir please it's no time for putting your cape on or sticking your chest out the Las Vegas Trail Corridor where people are still suffering and having issues it requires more than this said development that's going to happen Okay it it takes it takes more sir so please put your cape up and stick put your chest back in uh ir23-049 councilman Nettles thank you I understand what direction you were trying you were going in regarding this matter I truly think that scales are possible I don't use marijuana but scale is all possible I've seen miniature scale so their recommendation with you proposed today it could be done ccpd funding makes it possible they had the money let's get it done um Fort Worth PD that's been our niece oh I'll come back to Mr Flores another time Chief notes we are not interested in your proposed police oversight the same diversity you spoke of in your most recent interview with WFAA WFAA 8 scoop Jefferson regarding your proposal we already had what the re we already had what the record we already had recommendations from our racing culture task force pertaining to police oversight so your proposals sir we do not want in closing you spoke to video video editing we know that video editing only serves to protect law enforcement in this city so again sir we do not care for your proposal thank you our next speaker is Jim Delong followed by Alessandra Huggins good evening I'm Jim Delong it's nice to be back in our country I spent a couple of weeks in India and a great nation but you know there's no place like home I'm coming here tonight to speak as a concerned citizen one who loves this city I want to build Bridges I want to help create Unity and in today's environment that voice is not heard much I want to tell you a story there was a turtle and a scorpion they both needed to get across a river so the turtle was heading towards the river and they moved kind of slow the Scorpion came up to the river said I really need to get over there the turtle said yeah button you're a Scorpio and I'm afraid no I won't do anything I promise just help me get across so the turtle said yes and they got to the other side and the Scorpion stung him and the Eternal turned to the Scorpion and said why did you do that and the Scorpion replied it's just who I am there's an agent proverb that says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks if you want to Peg someone and understand where they're coming from listen to what they say and the tone and the attitude that they have when they say it that will show you the condition of their heart if people speak hate division Anarchy schism you know what's in their heart they've spoken it out no one has to try to determine who they are they have allowed they have shown everyone who they are and so as the council I encourage you listen to the people that want to build up and not tear down listen to those who want to give a helping hand not those who complain and yell and uh and try to demoralize people and anger people you don't you're not obligated to listen to any of them because they're not going to help this city be the bright and Shining Light that we all want this city to be I love this city I'm thankful for this city and I'm glad I have 24 seconds left so please please listen let the determine what these Hearts the hearts are the people that are speaking and make decisions to lift up this city and not tear it down thank you our next speaker is lashondra Huggins by phone followed by Geralyn Cox Miss Huggins hello am I going hello yes my name is Luke Wonder Huggins and I love this city too hello city next door I don't know how many of you are on the Nextdoor app but uh yes I love that app I I like I said I won't go into how it got started but it is a free app for the city the city the neighborhood I I don't know if it started out as my neighborhood I don't know why we were having problems in my neighborhood and my neighborhood right now is my parents house which is my parental house uh they said we don't say it anymore so I really don't like to say my neighborhood because it's not my house it is my parents house and but anybody that knows me that knows I live and I used to work right at the Y down the street so it was never a problem for me to tell people who I was where I lived and what I do and really you know my father was in the Air Force so at any given time that if I'm a kid and I'm out off and you know this oversight Committee of a police you don't call the police or me you call the air base that my parent is at or you're calling a hospital that my mother is at because she was also a nurse or my school or somebody else is supposed to call them to come get me like what is going on with this child so like I said um unfortunately I think I've only met Council member bibbons I've stood by a few other um I said I think I said by amdeta and uh yeah unfortunately I met jungus Jordan when he just about ran over me with his wheelchair but uh yeah but conceivably uh I'm pretty excited I just got some Donald Trump gold bars in the mail but you know the president could come and get me for a statement and for me the president's speaking this month is a lot of problem that's going on with our neighborhoods and the construction and Money In America which is where it is going which is one story you know my story right now is uh Fort Worth Mitsubishi and a foreign apartment complex located in Leonardo firestones mainly because you know any altercation things are going to arbitration so I'm not sure like with the Jacqueline Craig anybody else that's been up there speaking I spoke on this before the problem with these police these oversight committees and whatever have you and not is the right to sue the city the right to go to your this Council District an attorney is sometimes it's being taken away from people and it's going to a format thank you Miss Huggins our next speaker is Miss Geralyn Cox or Jackie Cox I'm at C Miss Cox is she here no she walks in we'll have her come up um Marlena Tillman is followed by Mary Goodman Miss Parks this is the second time I'm meeting you my name is pronounced Maria Elena Tillman thank you very much um today I was going to speak on behalf of the Waterview tenants Association but I think we need to go in a different direction today um last month Abbott told agencies to stop considering diversity and hiring I'm going to tell you that's a bad idea for Fort Worth in April of last year or actually in 2021 I was assaulted by a Neo-Nazi in my workplace I was then fired by my employer for reacting after de-escalating the situation using techniques that were taught to me by my therapist I filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC and then I called every lawyer that was listed on that Referral List every single discrimination lawyer on that list told me they could not take my case and I was lucky that one lawyer picked up the phone and said let me tell you why no one's going to take your case in the DFW metroplex most of the judges are Republican if you take a racial discrimination case up to that docket or to the court they're going to throw it out uh he then proceeded to tell me a story about a gentleman who was a blue-collar worker and uh I guess his um co-workers drew a picture of a noose and put it on his desk this was 20 years ago and he took that case to court and the judge threw it right on out and said that's fine it's not a big deal um I am sure that everyone in here when you're looking at me you probably all have a different perspective of who I am but make no mistake about it I am equal parts black Vietnamese and Swedish Jew and if you think that these Target groups are not studying the subject of their their hate I think you need to reassess the citizens and the residents of Fort Worth um we really just need our council members to reinforce policies that are already existing we don't need new policies we need to make sure that the workplace is fair that you guys are taking into consideration the racial tension that's not only in Texas but in Fort Worth Fort Worth needs to set the standard and while I'm on the subject before I get off of here I hope that in the future we're going to discuss how we're going to preserve Berry Street and River Riverside and Berry Street while they're in the process of gentrifying it also one more thing District nine the domestic violence shelters in Fort Worth are littered with active duty military spouses I advise that you pay them a visit our next speaker actually I'll have Miss Cox come up Jackie if you would like to come up followed by Mary Goodman you're welcome thank you I'm Jackie Cox I live in George Wilson's Williams District sometimes the city of Fort Worth seems quite racist and fairly charged with environmental racism if you were to go look at the website for the equal protection Administration EPA you would find a map that shows where the worst pollution is in Fort Worth and then you would find correlations between the worst pollution and the concentrations of minority populations and sometimes this hits quite close to home because not so long ago I and others from the Sierra Club appeared here saying please do not rezone as Industrial a lot in Echo Heights or near Echo Heights where there's a school or near a school and where there's a population of people who suffer a lot from respiratory problems early termination is a pregnancy loss of babies cancer these are serious illnesses that are caused by pollution in their neighborhood economic decisions about where you're going to put pla businesses and where you're going to concentrate your industrial use has human term Harms so we're asking that you change your plan for next year your community plan so that Echo Heights is no longer in an industrial use area you have the opportunity to keep people from dying early and suffering while they live please redo your community plan and take Echo Heights out of an industrial use area thank you thank you Miss Cox our next speaker is Spencer Dickinson I know Mary Goodman I'm sorry Mary my apologies followed by Spencer Dickinson my name is Mary Goodman and I am in Chris Nettles District I spoke here before and I'm following Jackie and we are all members of the Sierra Club but I do once again want to reiterate what she is saying that we need to protect our East Side communities from additional industrial pollution by revising the 2023 draft comprehensive plan industrial zoning is concentrated in majority minority communities specifically Echo Heights and stop six are already overburdened with air water in land pollution dangerous heavy traffic truck traffic and Noise the city's industrial growth Center is located adjacent to the echo Heights community and the draft plan calls for expanding it it also calls for expanding industrial land uses around w m Green Elementary School and other areas adjacent to residential areas so the Sierra Club is going to be focusing on this number one I request the city plan commission go back to the drawing board and remove any newly designated industrial uses decrease the industrial growth Center boundary and designate the AG zoned area around w m Green Elementary School as public park recreation and open space in addition to revising the comprehensive plan I ask and recommend the city purchase the AG zoned land just north and south of Green Elementary and then finally a request to delay The Proposal the proposed March 21st 2003 23 City Council vote that is being scheduled to adopt the plan the residents of East Fort Worth and others need more time to brought to provide input and offer revisions to this plan historically industrial zoning was concentrated near low-income majority minority communities we need to correct the environmental Injustice that plagues the east side of Fort Worth the Sierra Club is committed to finding a way to provide environmental justice to correct the wrongs of the past and I asked the city council to please look into correct thank you Miss Goodman thank you our next speaker is Spencer Dickinson followed by James Smith thank you council members mayor Parker my name is Spencer Dickinson I am a resident of Tarrant County I work in Fort Worth and I am also a concerned Citizen and a member of the Sierra Club so I will uh not speak for very long just a couple of points to add to my my esteemed and well-spoken colleagues so applaud the council for the overall planning effort and focus on the future for for the city the plan calls for building strong neighborhoods and as my colleagues in the Sierra Club have said there is there are some issues when it comes to the environmental mental impact of the industrial growth on communities that aren't being addressed I've marked through quite a bit but the uh the data points that I'd like to add is that of the 81 elementary schools in the Fort Worth ISD nine are either zoned industrially or adjacent to industrially zoned land that should not be an excuse to add to the problem but a reason to create more green space and as Jackie mentioned I believe this this Council and your Infinite Wisdom made that decision on Echo Heights last year we would ask I would add my voice to ask that you honor that decision thank you thank you Mr Dickinson our next speaker is James Smith followed by Carolyn Rodriguez reviews good afternoon Council my name is James Smith I live in District 8. on February 9th I was preparing to go which I did go to Amber car's awake and a funeral the next day on February 9th I believe it was February 9th Manuel motto was on my block about a block from my house and he was arrested I watched a video of his arrest and I was appalled because I didn't see anything that he did wrong in this city we say if you see something say something well I've seen a lot so now I'm going to speak on it Manuel motto has been arrested more times in the city of Fort Worth than need be because each arrest as you well know wasn't supposed to be that's not good police you want us to trust the police you want to build a bridge with a community and the police and then you have incidences like that yeah it's not it's not going to work it doesn't jail to watch five or more police officers arrive on a scene of filming the police is in Despicable if you had a knife or a gun or he was threatening somebody I could see you calling in five or seven extra offices to deal with the situation he was on the public sidewalk doing what is illegal but yet he was arrested that's that's not acceptable recently you've voted on a motion to have three or more council members sign off on what you add to your agenda I think that was a mute motion simply because if only one of you were able to put something on this on the agenda excuse me it would take the nine of you to decide if whatever you put on the agenda got passed or not so to do that was what was mute and offensive in my in my in my humble opinion Saturday March the 11th we're gonna honor our Tatiana Jefferson but the neighborhood is going to honor Tatiana Jefferson with an unveiling of the new Hillside Recreation Center name uh months ago I was told that the city and clergy we're going to do something in honor of our Tatiana I've yet to see I heard what that would entail so I want to take this opportunity to invite those of you who can to attend the unveiling and like I've said before this building or Tatiana's death is going to be a catalyst of change on South side thank you Mr Smith next speaker is Carolyn Rodriguez followed by Manuel Mata kind of here Carolina um thank you for your speech but um one thing he that he didn't ask was why do we film the police does anybody know why we filmed the police we found the police because we have to and we have to film them because the report that the officer writes doesn't always match what the body camera footage or the video shows so when there's no body cam footage or if there's not any kind of video the police officers always believed over the citizen um it seems like the if there is any kind of controversy the body cam footage would just disappear but we can film the police we're allowed to we have case all that says that we can one of the one of the case laws is called Turner versus driver which started right here in Fort Worth it occurred right here in Fort Worth and it established the fact that we are allowed to film police in our public duties we also have another case law called Houston versus Hill which says that we're allowed to speak how we want to to the police and of course we have the First Amendment which gives us free speech um but they don't want us to film them and I don't understand why if they're just if they if they're saying how awesome they are and that they they're the best police force ever what are they hiding when they try to not let us film why do they arrest us when we're filming and when and if I was a police officer I'd want somebody to come and fill me and see how great I'm doing look at me I'm doing good look what I'm doing but they're always trying to hide some of the Shady stuff they're doing and with Manuel Mata he's not the only one that's been arrested from filming we have several of us that have been arrested for filming and they're using um a law called a statute 38.15 against us Texas Penal Code 38.15 they're always arresting us for um interference with public duties and the statute reads and it's in black and white it's either it's called it says a person commits an offense if that person with criminal negligence interrupts disrupts or impedes police in their public duties that last video of Manuel Mata I didn't see him doing any of that the one before that I didn't see him doing any of that and then the one before that either I also written right into the penal code it says it is a defense to prosecution under this section that the interruption disruption impediment or the interference consisted of speech alone so if we're just talking or yakking at them they're not supposed to be able to arrest us for that the other thing I wanted to touch on was what Bob was talking about as far as trespassing goes um that's another tactic they're using they're trespassing us out of public buildings as far as that as far as that goes is that he was talking about how he can't seem to find out how to how to fix it we've tried that already we can't figure out how to fix it either we've been to the district attorney we've talked to lawyers nobody seems to understand it so you can be trespassed from a public building but when you're trespassed from a public building you have to be committing a crime you have to be disorderly in some way or committing some sort of crime but they're just letting they're just kicking us out of buildings just because and that's a violation of your 14th Amendment or and also your first amendment because if you're going to just kick us out just because you might as well put in the Blackwater fountains and the white water fountains again that's it thank you our next speaker is Manuel Mata hello my name is Manuel Martin and I live in District 9. and I normally come up here to talk about the gun violence in our and and my youth my um the kids in my neighborhood I'm trying to help them but it seems like no one's understanding this whole thing with the police so I'm gonna try to make it clear okay I've tried Internal Affairs I have about 25 complaints that were sustained by Internal Affairs but it didn't stop them I went to oversight police monitors I have about six with them it was the same way they agreed with the internal affairs they still didn't stop right their only argument with me is how I talk to them that because I raised my voice and to me that's trying to get them out of their little trip they're on right because in their own policies they State when they approach a suspect they have to gain control compliance and one of the key things that they always say we're allowed to use Force to gain compliance so whether it be assertive we're allowed to punch them we're allowed to pepper spray them we're allowed to tase them to gain compliance what's happening is here is they're getting mad because of the way I talk to them when I'm explaining to them what is the penal code that I am violating by standing right here filming your so I've asked for help that y'all provided that y'all keep getting reports that say y'all need something different because it's not working so those that want a a community oversight it's needed because what y'all have is a police chief that'll come down here and try to explain that he's involved in the community he is not I'm the biggest person that understands this problem because my focus is since Central Division B and a and the South I can tell you all by the story about the South Division where they can't even understand what they found in an officer's Locker I am getting arrested I've been arrested eight times for filming in a public space and the only thing that they're mad about is because I raise my voice I'm assertive and I tried to explain to him what Turner versus driver and the actual Penal Code which I have I have everything I even have your 97 page report your own policies I studied everything but why am I the bad guy because I'm pointing out a problem that no one wants to talk about and y'all have two years to figure it out and I can go further back if y'all need me to I stick with facts black and white where it's simple thank you Mr Mata Council that's the last of our speakers this evening meeting is adjourned thank you