e e for e fourth city council would you be so kind to come to your seat so that we can affirm we have a quorum I hear we do but I don't know it until I see it good afternoon members of the city council thank you two or trying to escape Jared you have so many thank you for being so accommodating and with that I am calling to order the city council work session meeting for October 24th a quorum is established and the first thing on our agenda is to get a report and I might say a very important report from our city manager David Cook I will not put you on a time limit but I do expect you to be timely oh I'll be timely today thank you very much good afternoon everybody first thing I'm going to do is turn it over to our assistant city manager Dana bergd off to recognize one of our department heads who recently got an award oh wow no accidents over there Dana all right thank you mayor proam and members of council and thank you David So a couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to attend the annual greater Fort Worth Builders Association awards night also want to recognize council member lowor who was there with us as well and I think had received perhaps a member of the month or something award it was yeah it was very special but even more special uh was that we had our uh very own DJ harell honored with the spirit of cooperation award for 2023 and he was also honored alongside former mayor Betsy price uh with a Lifetime Achievement Award and so Fort Worth was very well represented and uh David was also able to appear we were nominated as a finalist uh for the municipal award as well so anyway great great uh Kudos and and awards for for Fort Worth and want to thank DJ and and his team for their excellent work and continuing to improve our development process for Builders and and all of our customers congratul than [Applause] all right and then thank you we're going to call now on DJ to give his acceptance speech and to introduce some new staff that he has good afternoon mayor Pro Tim Council city manager cook I stand before you today to introduce some new employees in development services department first I'd like to introduce Evan Roberts Evan began his career as a plans examiner with us in 2012 uh and since then has worked uh you know either as a city employee or a consultant in Fort Worth uh in our building code Evan has a u bachelor's degree in architecture from UTA he's also in our City's cohort program to get his uh MPA at UTA now he's a master code professional and he's a certified building official he we serving as the city's building official going [Applause] forward the second employee that I'd like to introduce is a new another new assistant director her name is leand Stringfellow L's worked uh in north Texas uh in the planning in planning industry for about 20 years now she served as a director in two other cities where they've all won um three awards from American American Planning Association she's a certified uh member of uh American planning assistant uh American Planning Association she has an aicp she will be serving as our zoning administrator over all of our current planning and our land use thank you thank you DJ and thanks for keeping that acceptance speech short next I'm going to call on Renee Tais to introduce two new employees in his area afternoon mayor and Council so um today I'd like to introduce newest members of the communication and public engagement team uh we have um for the first time in more than 20 years um in the city a full-time translator interpreter um and she is Vanessa FAS um she was born and raised in Mexico City she graduated from University um univers de de Mexico where she earned a bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology she's nationally certified by the commission for healthcare interpreters and is working on becoming internationally certified um previously Vanessa translated an entire ISD website into Spanish bring Bridging the Gap in communication between an English and Spanish speaking families and she came to the city of Fort Worth after being a full-time medical interpreter for the JPS healthc Care Network so Vanessa we're glad you're here I'm so excited for those um that saw the video that we were using at our budget um Town Halls that the city manager used to kick off the budget meetings with that was actually a product of Cameron's application process he made a video for us and the manager was so impressed with with that he um used it to help explain our budget priorities so safe so so clean so green and um he is a graduate of Texas A&M University Kingsville he comes to us from Corpus Tristy where he moved just a few weeks ago where he led their Municipal Channel he's a self-proclaimed South Texas boy minus the country music and he is a movie buff um new to the area hoping to attend all types of sport and events as well as see what the region has to offer before going into multimedia Communications he wanted to be a sports reporter and he'll be helping us up our video game both in short form and longer form social media and um Fort Worth TV and we had a little write up in the Roundup and in the city news about each of these and incidentally it was the most clicked on story last week for both the Roundup and city news so we welcome you both awesome thank you for that next we have informal reports this might be the shortest informal report list in some time so the first one is the monthly development activity report and DJ harell is available the award-winning DJ harell is available if you have any questions yes have a question all right DJ I just wanted to hear feedback on um what folks were saying what the difficulty they were having navigating the website yeah so um are you talking about the customer service survey results there yes yes so so mainly um we you know when we get the survey results every month we we uh have staff call the individual respondents to get that feedback and basically they're just saying that one um although we put videos online of you know step-by-step navigation of our application process you know through our permitting system um you know it's it's it's it's a little bit more difficult than the average user would like to go through also navigating to the specific resources that we do have have posted on the website so part of it is uh you know it's a challenge it's it's a fine line between sharing enough information and then making it too complicated to find anything and so that's kind of the feedback we've received uh you know over the last few months and just one correction in the September large commercial projects is that for this year yes yes oh the Clifton Riverside Apartments is in 11 and not8 just I just noticed that oh thank you I'm sorry we still haven't figured out that out thank you DJ the second informal report is on management diversity review and Di Jordon is available if there are any questions all right moving on our third in third and final informal report is on the Trinity River water wheel and Valerie Washington is available if there are any questions I I have questions Valerie or Cody either one or Cody so good afternoon mayor protim and Council Cody wenberg inter Environmental Services director happy to be with you to talk about this important project wanted to go through a couple of quick slides maybe and then we can to dive in through some questions if that's okay that's fine so this is a picture of what a water will looks like this one's actually located in Baltimore we go and if you just from an architectural rendering standpoint this is just sort of a graphic representation of what this looks like you can see that the flow of water is moving through the water will machine once it's installed those buoys direct everything to the rack system and that conveyor belt takes it up into a dumpster where we're able to dispose of that appropriately so with this project we're looking to locate this near the future city hall it's just Southwest of the Henderson Street Bridge along the trails so we can engage with residents who are enjoying the Trails also to promote environmental stewardship while we're working to promote a clean River and just some high concepts of course you see those those buoys again you see that the system conveyor belt moves through it and then it moves into a floatable dumpster that dumpster is replaceable as it gets filled up over time and just to give you a couple of reference points we're not the first ones to to have proof of concept of this project this particular version is in on the Juan Diaz River in Panama this was built last year and constructed with completion and then here is one of the original there are currently four now in the Baltimore Harbor they started in 2014 and in 2017 18 and 22 they added three more for proof of concept is ours going to have a big googly eyes like theirs so you know where I think we're going to be working to try to develop some some opportunities for public input on what it looks like in the end googly eyes for sure googly eyes Okay Cody I just had a couple questions on the funding source so each water wheel is $2.5 million so in the original Concept in 2021 we were we were in an idea or conceptual phase and we considered one for both the westfork and the Clear Fork whenever we wanted to determine a pilot project we decided to start with just one and experience what that feels like and if for the initial World reel to be 1.2 million total back in 21 we got Council authority to receive up to 2.5 but we're going to start with the 1.2 okay and then we're splitting that with trwd and then additional private dollars coming in absolutely so we've received about 600,000 in private donations received or committed and we've split the remaining costs between trwd and the City of Fort Worth equally at 350,000 each okay and who is doing the fundraising is it streams and valleys so it's been a collaboration between TRD streams and valleys and the City of Fort Worth and we've all worked together for those that want to still donate we are still receiving donations and you can donate that directly through the city or if you prefer you can go through streams and valleys as a 501 C3 and then we can receive that funding through that for through that nonprofit okay is the city of Fort Worth responsible for maintaining the water wheel so in the end trwd will be responsible for the maintenance they've committed to that what we're going to cost share at a 50-50 cost split between the city and trwd okay and last question what's the lifespan of the water wheel sure so lifespan is estimated by the engineers to be over 20 years and so we'll be moving forward with that with that plan of course we may have to maintain over time it is a along a river so there may be challenges from time to time but we be working through those quickly okay thank you thank you Carlos thanks for the presentation Cody uh a question I know that in the IR it says you know the water wheel is expected to be you know an attraction and will not inhibit uh River Recreation enjoyment in terms of safety all right say if I'm a kid and I have a lot of idle time say hey what's in there are there any provisions for safety if someone decides to get too close to the water wheel absolutely so we're hoping it's very difficult to actually access the water wheel it would and and as long as you're obeying normal safety precautions there should not be an issue we're also working with our site Engineers to evaluate safety evaluate educational signage and try to make it a a welldeveloped site that allows for you to get close but not too close Okay so maybe the requisite EOP you know Electro sensors to say hey if something of a certain size gets on there automatic shut off absolutely and and even the system itself will have some some safety precautions we'll work through those with the engineer okay and then one final question uh which Council Office in the new city hall will this be in view of so I believe it's in Council District 9 okay it's yours okay absolutely those are my questions thanks Cody absolutely thank you guys thank you Cody mayor Pam that concludes my report okay moving right along next on the agenda uh are there any questions regarding changes in membership on boards and commissions for October 31st hearing none moving right along questions regarding city council MNC log for October 31st wow you guys are easy y'all sure okay uh oh now I know why you're so quiet we're going to get an update on the future city hall from Tenon with the Athenian group we good to go on [Music] the all right good afternoon everyone appreciate youall having me here today uh before I start um um with the the employee introductions that are just made I just want to give a couple Kudos real quick to some of those folks that are really new to their roles that have been ingal to what we're doing on this project so uh Vanessa in the translations that you're going to see forthcoming um on our signage for multilangual signage in future city hall which is net new was all done by Vanessa brand new so kudos to her I think she turned it around on day two so I'm looking forward to see what day three employment looks like and then Evan Roberts in his new role as building official you know we've done this project with a number of municipalities across the country and he's one of the bests I've ever worked with at finding ways to say yes right he doesn't lead with no which is extremely rare in Municipal development so um support him all you can he's great so with that all right moving forward uh so our update today is our typical quarterly update uh we have a couple key things we're going to cover as well as kind of progress overall I can't click for sorry oh I can do that that's fine I'm good with this all right so we'll cover some project updates we're going to talk about the upcoming management Forum a brief overview of security uh infrastructure in the building stacking and ready for use schedule and then questions and final thoughts obviously all can jump in wherever you know as usual i' like to go through um our uh goals of the project I know that many of you have now seen these multiple times some of you I think this will be your your second presentation with the goals but you ultimately we are driving inclusive and engaging public space maintaining the class A looking feel uh being efficient Equitable and flexible with our workspaces uh creating a sustainable and cost efficient building um driving the transformational delivery of city services obviously namely being development services and those supporting functions and then creating the vision for the next 50 years of this city hall so um a little bit of an update so when I came to y'all in August on the left was uh the 20th floor mayor and Council update the top uh picture there is uh the future mayor's office and the bottom left picture is the future work Cafe as you can see since then a lot of great progress we have the lighting and ceilings in um I was actually in there today on the mayor's office and the mill work is going in uh making great progress there on that front all LED all energy efficient and then the work Cafe as you can see the milw work has gone in making great progress I see that as a great place for Council Members District staff and otherwise to uh be able to work and collaborate together in a bit of an informal space and kind of create some of those uh bump in interactions that I know that you know David and the city staff are really looking forward to so making great progress there I'm excited about getting youall over there and really what we're driving on that front um moving forward yeah that's fine I'm good with the this S no problem all right so the council chambers uh so obviously we got our federal permit granted um on July 25th uh we are now uh substantially complete with our peers which is a big milestone 120 peers for our facility so those are all complete as of this morning I was hoping I was going to be able to tell you that the final grade beam which is this component over here was poured but uh with the weather this week that's probably going to get pushed out a couple days but the peers are all complete which is great news especially um given just the remarkable amount of hurdles that we've had to get across to get to that point um including drilling through uh pretty much the entire church that was there previously that was just demoed and left on the site so we drilled through bricks and steel girds and all kinds of fun stuff from that um the super structure will start in coming weeks the heavy Timber delivery in January and like I said tracking towards um the first chamber meeting the winter of 2425 so I have a quick update video if you want to jump to that for me of kind of where we're at this was taken uh yesterday evening so you can see the site's a little a little muddy this was end of day but just to kind of show the progress here so we have uh moved forward as I mentioned with all the peer drillings are complete there we're just working on the final um pouring of the gray Beam on the right side of the image here um you can see that we've also uh have our trailers and everything on site starting to work through those components making great progress there for those of you that have been over the tower lately you know that the reticulating Hammer has been quite loud and we're almost done with that which is fantastic um but you know kudos to the team for navigating a bunch of really tough site circumstances and and making really great progress so um that obviously is the start of not only the council chamber facility but U meeting our compliance with trwd and the core of engineers when it comes to waterproofing and Grading and otherwise um you know not an easy task but uh making really great strides there so I'm excited for that to continue to move along and I will feel much much better once our last grade beam is poured and we're out of the ground and starting to move forward so awesome progress there thank you all right cool we can jump back to the slide deck yeah the Drone videos are really cool it's a it's been a really great enhancement for us to have those especially with progress all right so um business Equity spend tracking as always I try to um you know give updates on that quarterly I continue to be proud of the work that the um diversity inclusion business Equity Group from the city along with our partners at lindbeck have done um to really bring as many contractors to the table as possible across different uh categories so at this point in time um you know our A&E contract is heading towards a close where it's really just construction Administration they're tracking just a little below uh their their business Equity goal but we actually have them our models finishing about 275% so we're in a good spot there uh lindbeck is now kind of in the meat and potatoes of their project with the council chamber and many floors under construction at the same time uh they're tracking actually ahead as well and we've been uh really lucky to have great participation on all of our bid contracts in the tower and then obviously AR Indian team continues to chug forward some recently awarded contracts I know last time I was here there was some ass from the group just to get a flavor of kind of what's been awarded to different groups so uh floor painting we've broken up before between a couple different groups but Vel Brothers won a recent set of floors 100% mwbe structured cabling uh through able Communications also 100% mwbe um the chamber Interiors as you can see was split up into multiple packages as we promis to try and make them smaller and more digestible for different groups a little bit more coordination on our front but um allows all those groups to come in above 25% many of those 100 um as well and then the roofing for the Chambers coming in at 45% so these are all really good news stories I can tell you in working a number of these projects um especially the structured cabling and some of the it contracts are historically really difficult to award to mwbe vendors and so I've been really proud of the work that the group's done there so as always if you have groups that you want uh you know to get involved and make sure you have the bid list that's listed on the future city hall website um we're happy to work with them to get them registered with the city and and be able to bid on contracts all right um security and access control so I'm going to give a bit of an update just kind of on our overall infrastructure some of the operational components will come later but um for the future city hall um you know a multi-layered security approach is what's being designed so we'll have Marshall and security team presence Advanced camera systems uh you know with a control center that's viewable both inhouse and remote uh Access Control Systems to make sure that you know folks can get where they need to but they don't get lost in the facility um I know that's something we hear today from from citizens and residents when they come in a city hall you know they sometimes just wander around so we're going to help them with that was signage and access control uh destination driven elevator systems to make sure people get to the right floor and then weapons detection systems at the chambers and exploring for the facility um through a multitude of deterr these measures aim to create a secure environment that's also welcoming inviting and mitigates safety issues from an operational perspective um you know the city subcommittee on um security and and safety is still working through the final Staffing and support plans uh weapons detection and supporting programs for the building and then um staff and public entrance finalizations so we're looking to have an update to you probably in our quarter one briefing at that point in time but making good progress there we appreciate your support and work on that from building signage and wayf finding perspective you know this is when it starts to become real right as you start to change the signage over from Pier One and some of the signages there to uh City Hall and so uh what you're seeing here is the locations of the current um you know building signs that exist on the site um with the type fours being kind of your typical um Monument or or type signs and then your one two and three being kind of special or welcoming signs so we will be replacing all of those with the new signage to meet City Hall and meet the downtown design review board guidelines and otherwise we met with um DRC this morning on those topics and so those will all be replaced we'll also have um vehicular and pedestrian signage we'll have some multimodal um signage kind of throughout the site as well and then in key places for key functions with Vanessa's help uh we will have Spanish and English signage for some of those functions as well it's pretty exciting I want to give you a little flavor of kind of what we're talking about so this is the existing sign that's there today um you know obviously a little outdated not super welcoming not super inviting also really blocks the view of the Tower and what we're trying to do there and so this is what we're looking at here so you'll have City Hall um you'll have kind of directions to parking um some Greenery uh this will be the Limestone that kind of runs throughout the whole site so common theme great view of the building um we'll also have Monument signs throughout that have um different locations kind of going away from this metal pedestal to uh more integrated to what we're looking at these will all be back lit so they can be seen at night for council chambers and otherwise but direct people to different um locations on the site including the council chambers the parking garage and then the Great Lawn right so the green space that we've created on the back side of the facility and then at the front door and the front door to the council chambers so on the left side you can see kind of the two main doors to the building today um we're going to be adding kind of City Hall U Monument signs the left here and then uh having the Fort Worth logo and boss kind of in the ground in front of it just welcoming people to the um to the facility and then by the council chamber here um you know we're creating these really great grand steps that lead up to this facility and there'll be a cool photo op uh for folks to come and take there that's one thing that I heard from all of you is being able to create memorable places for folks when they come to City Hall so we wanted to make sure we brought that to live so excited about that um from a parking perspective so we've done a lot of work over the last um really two years uh looking at parking and we know that parking is a very hot topic both on um how it's built what it looks like how the program works Etc and so after you know exhaust exhaustive amount of research and modeling otherwise we're going to be um expanding vertically on the parking garage um there are several advantages to this uh number one obviously we'll provide sufficient parking for staff and visitors but we get to retain this um great surface lot that's back here couple advantages to that number one it creates it creates for great uh quick in and out for visitors to Council meetings services and otherwise for the city um it also uh just candidly doesn't create an eyesore of a parking garage right off Forest Park right great creates a great area for that and then ultimately for some of the larger City vehicles that may come from time to time to visit the building creates a great place for those to park so that's awesome for us um the expansion also reduces the garage downtime so the construction time on that is about four to 5 months uh the garage itself will only be closing its entirety for about 30 days and we're trying to do that um in the January time period um just to shore up the building before it expands we don't anticipate any parking shortages throughout the entirety of the program uh the plan will include uh some screening as you're seeing on the garage here and here we've worked really closely with um for worth PD the mayor's detail and the marshals to make sure that we have screening to protect the council chambers and otherwise and then obviously um some uh gate updates to the parking gates to make sure folks can get in and out safely including parking for council members and elected officials and then our estimated completion is probably late Q2 early Q3 um and like I said with no major closure time we should be on Pace to make sure there's no parking shortage during that but um obviously some work to be done here but I think making good progress there and ties in very nicely to the facility as a whole without you know creating a a very large and uh very expensive garage kind of just adjacent to the facility um this week is our management forums that we talked about in August um this is a huge milestone for the project I want to give a kudos to um Dian and Kayla and several others from the HR team for working to pull this together this is not easy to bring together all of these supervisors managers and above from across the city you if you figure there's about 7,000 city employees you can do the math on how many managers and supervisors there are but um it's great to get everyone together we'll have those at Rockwood Golf Course um Thursday and Friday uh The Forum is going to cover uh kind of a mix of things right number one focusing on the change and change enablement process before moving to future city hall but also briefing people on the questions that they have right as many of you know one of the biggest barriers to key change is eliminating the fear of the unknown and so what we'll walk through is kind of all of the key operational components in the facility parking workspace standards Safety and Security technology the amenities and then kind of accommodation planning for the facility we'll talk through the organizational change component and then have some breakout sessions with departments so in our prep sessions in September we task department heads 8s and supporting staff with coming up with ideas of how they want to work differently things they want to explore and we'll have some great time to work through that with our um Team during those sessions so um it'll be great to have that we're excited to bring everyone together and kind of kick off that process as well um as a reminder for folks uh the stacking plan for the tower currently looks like this right so mayor and Council on 20 and then kind of cascading down as you're seeing here um the couple things I want to point out now our wave one of moves right so we have a couple waves of move but wave one really starts uh with ready for use floors right so when departments move and otherwise we worked out with them individually for their functional need but the floors will be ready for use uh the data center obviously going first uh next month ready to bring in the infrastructure in the tower um 20th floor will be ready for use uh just after the Christmas holiday floors 12 and 7 will be up next which will be late February early March um 14 and 19 will be ready kind of in that April time period and then um you know five and six will be in the May June time period so that's kind of wave one there are a few other floors that we're looking to tuck in into that schedule that are light finish which would be floors 10 11 and 15 um and then really kind of the remainder of the floors will slot out just after that so making good progress there I can tell you uh you know knock on wood we're currently tracking ahead on all of the uh floors in the tower which is great news so as those come up we'll definitely brief folks on but making good progress there at this point in time the other thing I do want to point out out is that the new security system uh will be brought live in the November time period so all the cameras access controls and otherwise will be ready obviously prior to folks moving in the facility so very important point there as we move forward so some key upcoming dates I know I covered a lot of information on pause in just a second but management forums later this week uh new security infrastructure as I mentioned is being commissioned you know this week and then kind of the first part of November um the 20th floor being complete obviously a lot of planning a lot of work but um I appreciate everyone's support to this point so questions for me the first question is from council member Flores then council member Charlie okay you're doing a great job I like this well you know they just get crazy sometimes I know I notic T thank you for the presentation you answered one of my questions during um uh your talk but uh you said you had to go vertical more so on the parking garage how many more spaces you can add so there'll be about 265 net additional spaces bases so our total parking will be U above the necessary threshold for daily operations even on Council Tuesdays so we run models on that and otherwise we originally um when we first look at the parking model really in kind of May of 2021 um we were looking at total folks to and from the facility on the day uh We've since collected data on what's actually happening with remote work and sick and City occupancy and vacancies and all those things and been able to kind of right sizee where we're at to be as efficient with taxpayers possible okay thank you yep Charlie so mine is just about the the business Equity goals are a lot of those uh is that just the city goals or is that the self-imposed um goals yeah so those are all the agreed upon goals that we've worked with the business Equity groups on I can tell you um that the individual contracts are targeting Higher Goals which is why you're hearing some of the numbers that I mentioned as far as where they're tracking towards but um yeah there are some self-imposed goals that we've worked between the project teams but they're contractually obligated to what's been listed there okay is there any way we can um or maybe just a some if we could um look at veter know small businesses and service disabled veter ownown small businesses as part of some of those goals too sure um you know a lot of those I know a lot of companies in Fort Worth that actually already have their Hub certification their historically underutilized business certification through the federal government so they qualify for federal government projects based on that and so that' just be one thing that I would it'd be great to see if for some of those upcoming projects uh I know quite a few veteran owned small businesses that would you know love to get their hands in on on some of that that already have some of those certifications that you may be looking for yeah that's that sounds fantastic let's make sure we set up some time with your office and with Gwen Wilson from the business Equity Group to talk through kind of what contracts have been awarded to what groups and then where we can you know have some Outreach support there that' be fantastic thank I was going to suggest you get with gwy they are bulldogs when it comes to finding those companies a council member uh sure thanks for bringing up that business Equity thing totally support veteran owned businesses um it was a big push as David knows for the reason for creating that additional position was try to help that but I want to make sure that by including those that were not using that to um there's a difference between historically underutilized businesses and disadvantaged businesses and I don't want those two things to get crossed I want to make sure that we're keeping those separate so that we don't hinder our dbe goal that's important um Parks so what um I appreciate the presentation um there's so much Green Space around there and I know we're going to have a little walking trail and we're going to do some lights uh but what are we doing is that going to be an official park space um what are we doing to activate that particular all of that green space to make it to make sure that we're communicating that the building itself isn't the only Community Asset but um around it too we want to to make it inviting and signal that people are welcome sure no great question so at this point in time it is not slated to be an official Park and some of the components that come with that now we do have plans obviously for the walking trails uh we have a number of native plantings and creative areas that are a partnership between what we were planning to do and meeting the trwd green stormw guidelines so we have that um and some of those components if there are things that we want to explore further I'm happy to discuss but at this point in time we're planning have signage to point people to the Great Lawn and otherwise um but that's kind of where we end thank you I think I would like to further that discussion so um if we could maybe set something up with my office and uh parks to to see what we're doing to make sure we're utilizing that appreciate it any other questions thank you for a fantastic and thorough report cool thank you very much guys appreciate it next on our agenda we have presentation on zoning notifications policy and proced procedure from DJ harell the award-winning DJ harell good afternoon again uh DJ Harel development services here with Stephen muray who is our manager of zoning uh this presentation is a followup from uh an IR we did recently to talk to you guys about the way we notify folks on our zoning cases we've added some additional information and examples to walk you guys through what that looks like for our residents um so the outline of this presentation is basically who we notify and how uh we notify folks through email we notify some folks through um the website some folks through mail notifications and also signs on the property and newsletter I'm I'm sorry newspaper postings so by mail that we notify all Property Owners within 300 feet uh per the tax Roll by email email we notify all um um neighborhood associations within a half mile um in addition we started a new practice of notifying Folks by District when they sign up for a subscription they'll get all email not all email notifications within for zoning changes within their particular District that they've requested uh then on the website um we notify all upcoming board and commission U meetings as well and then a sign is placed on the property and then the newspaper publishing uh this is what the mail notification looks like it's a postcard it's um U it's mailed again to you know all the folks within 300 feet of the subject property it's mailed 10 days prior to the zoning meeting and it's printed in English and Spanish the QR code here uh is a u QR code that takes you to additional information on the um you know site specific information uh emails to Neighborhood organiz ations within a half mile they're also printed in uh English and Spanish they contain a site plan and application for some background information and they're also emailed 10 days prior to the zoning commission hearing the new practice of uh you know sending it by Z by Council District it looks similar to uh what we've sent to Neighborhood associations but it also has District specific information on uh you know other districts it's also printed in English and Spanish on our website we also um you know post all the cases on our website we include an interactive map so uh uh residents can go through different zoning cases to to learn more about them they also include site plan information if applicable so we also uh you know through our partners in tpw post signs on the subject sites um and uh the signs are placed prior to the zoning case going to the zoning Commission uh and then signs are also um you know what what the staff does they take photos of those signs and place them places them in the Asel record the permitting record so that we can be sure that we've posted signs on all of the zoning change properties and these signs are removed uh after the council final action lastly uh the newspaper so the uh zoning notifications are posted uh 15 days prior to the zoning um I'm sorry to to the city council hearing uh there's a new initiative that council's asked staff to explore uh our it folks and our City Secretary folks are working really diligently to produce um the ability for us to map locations of the speakers of our zoning cases um the main focus is the the to identify the distance between the speakers residence and the the site that is in question this will enable a council to get a better understanding of where the speaker lives in proximity so with that they've noticed a couple limitations that I wanted to share with you guys really quick uh one is we won't be able to validate the accuracy of the contact information because they'll be self-reporting this address uh also uh you know um uh interested parties that give PO boxes or if they transpose numbers in any way they won't be able to be mapped and produced for the council hearing and then lastly uh any speaker regardless of where they live uh must be allowed to speak at the council hearing as well uh to sum it up this again is Stephen Murray he's our zoning manager this is his staff Britt Magnum Alandra uh Bel Trey and Shad rotten are the senior planers in zoning they're the ones that produce the zoning reports that you guys see every month Stephen and are available if there's any questions uh council member Charlie um just one well I guess two on the zoning sign is there any way like in the future we can incorporate the QR codes on those instead instead of just the just the phone numbers that is a goal that is a goal we U we're trying to identify how much it'll cost to change all of our signs because they're all you know we've been using them for years um so we're working with tbw and the folks in the design shop to to identify how we do that because we want to we want to have that QR code lead them directly to the case report on the website so that they can get all the additional information and not have to call staff and you know get in the queue to get that answer yeah yeah because I think that'd be great um because then we can also track analytics too on our end for because we have neighborhoods they show up the last minut and like well you've had how many how long have you had to actually like get information too I really like the speaker addressing on the cards I know it's self-reported but you know from time to time we have some folks that show up that sign up to speak on a topic that they have no idea what they're speaking about nor do they even live anywhere near it so I think that just kind of helps us have an idea and it it'll help us direct residents if they think they have a valid concern too like oh actually you live in Ulus like go check you know with the folks just just to help them out because a lot of times you just might not know it's a not a fort worthdale so I like that so I know it's a Time suck but just no I certainly appreciate it Charlie that was my request and what I interpreted is they're not able to do it no no ma'am uh able I think is Kevin here I think they're they're really close Okay what my concern was what you stated too many people speaking on zoning issues who live nowhere near here and we need to be able to give priority to the people who live within that 300 ft to a half a mile so what's it going to look like yeah and we have a mockup here uh on the speaker cards it'll show you what you'll see uh We've blacked out the content information uh but you know we're going to show a a a map with the pinpoint uh of the address if it's mappable okay uh and then we're also the the the biggest issue that we're having trouble with right now now and and look for a res resolution quickly is mapping the distance from the zoning case or or whatever is being considered to that address and there's uh several different reasons why uh that's a challenge for us but we we're going to get that solve here pretty Qui so you just showed child so I really should be happy is that what I'm being told okay thank you yeah we're going to be rolling this functionality out in the very near future as soon as we get that technical issue figured out I council member Beck uh thanks for bringing up the QR code we will still include the phone numbers correct yes yes ma'am um and that's just my one concern with when we go all digital like that is that a lot of a lot of folks that really pay attention to zoning are actually our analog um residents and so I don't want to discourage or keep them out of the process I know I I hate those so just like you've seen on the other slides we want to reach them whatever way they communicate so we want to provide the QR code for the folks that just want to to selfs serve and get the own answers and then those that need to call and then those that need to come down right we want to be open for however they want to interact with us great um thank you for doing this because I know we had some issues in District 9 that led to folks not uh feeling like they received proper notice and this certainly helps us know that when we make a decision those that have wanted to be engaged in the process have had ample opportunity to do so so thank you very much so DJ my idea to make developers pay for the sign you guys too friendly for that no no ma'am not exactly so the last time we brought it to council and uh you know we met in interde departmental team that included Transportation Public Works and development services you know part of the concern was if the sign blows away the first day or you know because you can see how sturdy right uh you know Transportation Public Works they put it on on an existing poll when they can or sometimes they'll insert a poll to make sure that the sign stays there and uh you know because in the past we' had a lot of applicants you know complain about signs not being there and so we wanted to you know continue to ensure that we were offering as much notice to the surrounding properties as possible by making sure that the sign stays there but if you know if it's a desire you know Council will go back and and open that back up and explore it again I'll just be gauging the effectiveness I do want to commend you for your working with another department to ensure we have proper notice because you have no authority over tpw but the working relationship is to be commended any other questions all right I guess you were just perfect so thank you go out and conquer the rest of the day the next item on the agenda we're going to get an update on global Fort Worth assistant city manager Val and Carlo you guys are going to do a tag team than thank you mayor protim I'm just going to provide a couple of remarks and then turn it over to Carlo to walk through the goal Fort Worth presentation um just to provide some context we've provided a couple of informal reports to Mayor and Council over the past two years um talking about our work in the arena of global Fort Worth um and it really started I'd say probably 5 10 years ago um various entities in the city of Fort Worth including sister cities the chambers have all grappled with where we're fitting in international culture and Commerce in working with David Cook and as we were getting some of the requests and starting to dabble in the idea um we wanted to bring together all the stakeholders who would be interested in making sure that we had a strong International um potential Global Affairs group um we were all talking because we thought there was a lack of a coordinated Center for international Commerce trade and protocol that we knew there were groups that were doing a little bit in the international front but we weren't really sure who was coordinating all of those efforts and if there was even coordination between all of those groups as we started uh the conversation we brought uh sister cities the chamber Fort Worth chamber the Hispanic chamber the Black Chamber American Airlines DFW local colleges and universities um and the economic development partnership together to start working through where there may be potential gaps in international um relations and economic development our partner group has been meeting again for about a year and a half been continue worth if we do need one where would it be situated um and then third who would be the partners Council to help run that group so today Carlo is going to walk through the presentation and the work that has gotten us here to date um and a potential recommendation that we have for mayor and counsel Carlo thank you Val for the setup mayor protm council Carlo capio chief of strategy and Innovation for the city of Fort Worth you know whenever we look at a new Dynamic program initiative uh we always ask we try to ask one question is what is the specific problem that we're trying to solve and the idea of global Fort wor this initiative doesn't just solve one but three the first problem that it soles is if you are a business in Fort Worth which many of all of you have businesses in your council districts and you want to take your business abroad who do you call right now there really is no mechanism and do you call the Chamber do you call the EDP do you call the city do you call sister cities none of the organizations it's a challenge for them because it's such a heavy lift that there's nobody that really owns that space and then the converse is true what if you're a business abroad that wants to maybe relocate or up on an office somewhere in the US or in Fort Worth there's really no mechanism there's no phone number to call there's no email uh to give and so number the third uh uh problem that this solves is if you're involved in our multi-ethnic community in Fort Worth and you have an issue maybe there's a language barrier or a problem or you need help or support uh who who in the city do you call how do you know that so we think that uh these are three main problems and institutional voids This Global Fort Worth idea uh will solve these are the organizational values of course that this uh Global Fort Worth would epitomize and help reinforce and uh you know I'm sure you've seen this before these are your your M mayor and Council strategic Vision priorities uh if you go left to right economic development of course bringing new companies here and taking our our local companies abroad uh second Community safety you know we gain 53 people a day here in Fort Worth it's important for us to know where people are coming from so we know how to best support them and then the third with responsible growth uh with with the number of um uh language interpretation I'm glad we hired our first translator interpreter that's really important but what else do does our multiethnic community need here in the city of Fort Worth so really to be quite Frank this is an economic development strategy we've worked closely with Robert cerns and actually in the economic development vision statement this is what it says you can see it talks about uh International putting Fort Worth on the international stage and a hub for Global businesses so we feel like this fits just like a hand in the glove and David Man David Cook our city manager his work plan specifically talks about Economic Development and customer service and those are two things that this really Hits on now I have to be honest it causes me great pain to show you this next slide because of the top 13 cities largest cities in the country the city of Fort Worth is the largest without a proper office of international protocol or Global Affairs and even some cities that are smaller uh like Columbus Charlotte San Francisco Indianapolis all have some kind of formal mechanism you can see it visually here on the screen I find this remarkable you know it's a high concentration in in California and on the coast and in Texas and so this begs the question if you're an international company that wants to open up an office in the US you're likely to go to The Usual Suspects New York La Chicago maybe you'll come to Texas because we are the state that does the most business of any state in the country now you get to Texas and we're number five after Houston St Antonio Austin and Dallas so how can we Elevate to make sure that we are up at the top of that list and in terms of population you already know that we're an increasingly diverse City uh but did you know that in the city of Fort Worth one out of every six residents was born in another country and onethird of all households speak a language other than English and it's important to point out that this is a very teachable moment because the more that you can learn about other cultures other languages other religions that is like uh we call it an antidote to ignorance and xenophobia and discrimination and racism it's a clear path way and it you know when we see kids that go abroad for the first time and come back they see the world through a different lens so can we create that that opportunity for our our other folks that here that maybe haven't had a chance to go abroad but here's the beauty of what we have in Fort Worth and the Texas brand is that anywhere you go around the world Cowboys are cool whether you're a young man from Uganda or two young ladies from Lithuania this is a picture that we took last year we we go to we go to uh the smart cities conference in Barcelona we set up a big backdrop with the herd we were passing out cowboy hats and these three folks immediately came up to me they had never heard of Fort Worth but they recognized the cowboy and they came right up to us took selfies they put them on their social media so all their friends in their Network knew there's this place called Fort Worth and here's the the Clincher is that the two ladies on the right from lith they work at the US Embassy in Lithuania so we brought them in we told them all about why Fort Worth is a great place to do business so now whenever they have a major company in Lithuania who wants to come to the US well they might consider New York or LA or Chicago but they've guaranteed us that Fort Worth will now be on that short list which is pretty cool imagine if we can replicate that in other embassies and other countries in the world we we'd have a ton of Champions and apostles vouching for our city so here's our recommendation we have gone through a very competitive process and we've chosen we were recommending that we choose tip strategies they have done a lot of work already with our Economic Development Department they helped with the Strategic plan um Robert and the economic development department knows them really really well and so here are the four steps that they recommend number one the feasibility of the program this is important because we've had two previous iterations of an International Center in Fort wor starting back dating back maybe 25 years ago and neither one of them has failed so how can we set this up to where it's sustainable far into the future we look at the inventory and what we're missing the gaps um look at Best Practices from peer cities like San Antonio they have an outstanding Global Affairs uh group and uh then the partners Council that Val mentioned this is in important because the city is not going at this alone we have a number of stakeholders in the city and the county here's a list of them that have all pledged to support this initiative Global Fort Worth and so we're trying to um solicit some support financially to help fund tip strategies as we look at hiring uh the consultant so in summary the next steps for them is on the 31st of uh October next Tuesday you should see an MNC coming to you to recommend hiring tip strategies and funding the amount uh it would take them about 9 months to do their full study and then staff will come back and uh give an update and so I'll close in the words of perhaps the greatest salesman in the history for the city of Fort Worth and that was Aman Carter he said a man cannot live off of his community he must live with it and I find it so appropo that here we are almost a century later using the same quote from Aon Carter talking about Economic Development and uh and customer service and those are the two core tenants of how he built his Empire and he loved uh Fort Worth tried and true so in closing if we want to make Fort Worth a world-class City we have to make sure the world knows who we are and why it's such a great place to do business all while supporting people that live here in our city so I'm happy to open it up to any comments or questions you might have our first question from council member Hill Carlo thank you for the presentation I thought it was really interesting um I had a couple questions one uh first I guess response is it seems very duplicative of why um we split off and did the CH the chamber and the economic development partnership um so I want to to better understand your relationship with um Robert Allen and his team and how that would work um the partners you listed that they're going to be financially responsible to contribute to Global Fort Worth I mean as I understand they're also all contributing to raising money to the economic development partnership to do something similar so can you just kind of walk me through how that relationship would work and how you will separate responsibilities sure so I'm not sure I think some of them are contributing to the EDP not all of them but i' we've talked to Robert Allen at EDP and we said hey are you interested in recruiting internationally bringing companies he said that is such a heavy lift we just don't we're not going to have the bandwidth for that so there's a void there somewhere that that it needs to happen and we feel like Fort Worth the that creating its own initiative here in the city may be helpful Val I know you've spoken with him agree I think that his role he's working to figure out how we work together on this um he attended our kickoff meeting to start coming up with strategies I think um Economic Development partnership feels that there may be a gap that Global um Global Fort Worth could fill but I think he's he's open to exploring and seeing what that is um and definitely finding out what the assessment reveals once tip comes in and does interviews with um Robert specifically and the other stakeholders to determine where there may be Gap app s and how would this relationship also work with Robert Sterns and for worth economic I mean our Economic Development um very closely we had wanted um and I had asked Robert kind of on the Fly um to help with presenting but and so he can come up here and speak for himself but I mean Economic Development has been at the table um and is supportive of this um they've really been the tip of the spear as we've been having these conversations okay I think my main concern was mission creep I where where does Fort Worth Economic Development partnership take over since their job is really to go out and recruit companies and bring them to Fort Worth and then you know I know the city's role in this too I just want to make sure that we're all clear on what the the end goal is because I think you have really three great goals outlined they just seem very broad to be put under one tenant yeah and I think we're we're hoping tip will also help as they're interviewing us and the other stakeholders to again determine how those relationships work and how we can work better together so we're not duplicating efforts and again I do want to reiterate that everyone does have to pay to play um I know that's come up before but just on the front end of this project every partner that's at the table is willing to commit financially to the assessment this probably is not a fair question sorry I'll my last one um is there a budget outlined or that will be a result coming from tip on how much we'll spend on international travel recruitment do you have any idea I mean the contract is not to exceed $100,000 I believe Department oh no we don't we don't have any um preliminary indications yet of what that department would look like or what it would cost to run it okay next council member Charlie followed by council member Carlos so I just have a question on the the the funding aspect of it the pay to play which I understand but we already give the city of forth the taxpayers give money to quite a few of these different organizations and they're going to turn right back around and give that money right back to us good question so I'm just kind of confused on how that's gonna that's going to work because essentially it is kind of what's happening in some way because some of these organizations do receive money from Fort Worth and from other sources um but we're asking all of the stakeholders to go back and work with their boards and other um interested parties to try to find that funding um I I do think there are instances right where we're paying money to the chamber and then we're asking them to pay us back so we'll need to work closely with Robert and his team to make sure the money they are paying for those efforts that are tied to a contract um with economic development are fully funded um we haven't gotten to where we're looking at people's books to see the transactions and and how they make that happen um but I think we're aware of that um and want to make sure none of those promised services are are degraded through this process thank you Council now I think Robert may be able to jump in and help with that as well I'll just touch on quickly just to clarify some comments so right now the city does not fund the fort wor chamber we do fund the Fort Worth Hispanic chamber and the for worth Metropolitan Black Chamber those are two separate contracts that are actually handled through our diversity and Equity department so Christina Brooks over oversees those but those are strictly focused on building mwbe capacity so that's really what they're doing it's Small Business Development and nbe capacity so any dollars that they would uot to support this initiative would have to come from a separate Source no normally they're normal fundraising activities so no swapping money okay no no there there would definitely be a separation of funds council member Carlos then Allen all right uh I may have missed this if you included it apologies but uh for the tip assessment outcomes what timeline would you ascribe to them yeah I think it was it was a 9mon they would do this uh feasibility study look at inventory Gap apps and then come back with a full recommendation about six to n month process to really do it up well and then staff would come to you all with the recommendations formally okay thank you Allan so thank you for the presentation I appreciate it uh couple of quick questions the first one is uh for the $100,000 for the study how much of that's funded through the partners there are they not actually funding at this point we're looking we've got about a fourth to a third covered by the partners and then the city will make up the difference okay and the second question kind of piggybacks on a question earlier where it was asked how much would we be looking for you know potentially moving forward based on the recommendations uh we don't know and I get that um can we get an idea of what the 12 cities ahead of us are spending that should be a public record that's yes that's part of the um you know in the breakdown uh and setting this up is looking at peer cities specifically San Antonio is is widely heralded as one of the best global offices in the world so not Reinventing the wheel just looking to see what works best from them and then localizing it here to Fort Worth okay but we don't have any idea how much they spend currently not yet no because they they do a lot of foreign direct investment it's kind of a mix and what we're doing is or kind of three specific things and this will likely morph into something else a little larger and more robust but those are the the three lowest hanging fruits if you will okay appreciate the answers council member Hill one more question and I'm going to follow your question um if we can figure out how much they're spending I mean do we need to spend $100,000 on a study to duplicate what another city has done or we have relationships where we can work with them and see before we start going down this road to spend more money on another study um to understand how they're doing it what they're doing it and how they work with their Economic Development if they have a partnership or their chamber I'd love to know that and tip is I mean they are the the tip top no pun intended but they're they're they do this globally um and so it's hard to take one model from another city and just plug it into Fort Worth they've worked all around the country and the world and they know Fort Worth already so I think they'd be able to give us guidance on how to set it up remember we we've tried this twice we've had an international centers two times they probably all started with good intentions and maybe they weren't well enough funded I'm not sure but I think putting money in on the front end to make sure that we've got the experts looking at this to setting it up to be a sustainable model is the is the right way to go and Carlo don't forget our budgets like ours are public information so that should be pretty easy and I think we have a question from council member Beck I just have a short question I appreciate you engaging um universities because I think um they want to be engaged with what we're doing other than Tarlton did you uh speak with UTA orm or uh un heal Science Center TCU I saw we've got and I'll go back to the slide we've got Tarlton TCC uh UNL Science Center we're working on TCU so if you're watching TCU I'm calling soon and the UTA as well but yeah Regional Partners to try and Texas Wesley and Texas Wesley and yes of course Texas A&M yeah and Tex and they're part of Charlton so they I think they may be I need to find out charlton's part of them charlton's part of them sorry sticky stick I I think part of where I know that other efforts haven't been successful in the past we think this one hopefully in bringing together all Partners who are willing to come to the table and work in the intern National Space from universities to Chambers um to businesses we're hoping to make sure we have the right people at the table to really understand what the needs are and where the gaps exist so we can try to mitigate those okay thank you so much before we go into the last presentation um our City attorney has a very important announcement to make yes we will not have Quorum for our 6m meeting tonight so it will be cancelled everybody get that we will not be here at 6 for for the listening audience there is no meeting and now it's time for future agenda items I'll go around the table oh okay Carlos any future agenda items I have none Charlie Jared good okay where Macy I have a list um I'd like to request an IR for the process in which the city site selects and contracts with landfills and the second one is I'd like to know the um for the past fiscal year and this fiscal year to date the amount spent the names of the companies and the projects worked on for any external audits or external Consultants um hired by the city of Fort Worth and I think it'd be helpful just to have um as a presentation have the for economic development partnership come and do a presentation with the chamber so we can all get together in one room and understand how everybody's working together instead of getting peac mail presentations I'm going around the table Janette Allan Elizabeth um I'm going to request that um we have our partners at the Taran County Homeless Coalition um along with Tera Perez come give us an update on the state of homelessness here in uh Fort Worth and what we've done and what we've been doing particularly since we have allocated a significant number of arpa funds and then um to staff I'd also like a potentially a quarterly update to our neighborhood and equality revitalization committee so that we can keep uh our eye on that ball because I think it's running away from us the only item I have involves the school districts you know that we touch in terms of looking forward to some type of meeting with school leaders and councel so I don't know how you all figure that out I think we touched 14 districts so we we really do need to communicate uh any other business is there a motion to adjourn do I need a motion okay there a second all in favor okay none opposed and with that the meeting is over go about your day