e for e and welcome to the city council public comment meeting before mayor Parker calls the meeting to order we ask that you please silence all electronic devices for those of you who have requested to speak there are two podiums in the chamber the podium in the back is for individuals with Mobility concerns we ask all other speakers to step forward to the front Podium each Podium has a countdown clock located to the speaker's right that will indicate how much time is remaining when you have 30 seconds left a bell will sound when your time has ended the Bell will sound again indicating your time has ended before before you begin your comments please state your name thank you thank you and welcome to your Fort Worth City Council public comment meeting I'll call the meeting to order and I believe we needed to ask council member Nettles to pray because our pastor is not here yet is that correct okay sorry well next time please rise for the invocation and remain standing for the pledges of Allegiance all right let us pray most Eternal God we thank you for this opportunity life liberty and a Pursuit of Happiness we thank you for allowing us to be here at this council meeting we ask you for understanding we ask you for guidance and as we conduct this meeting we ask that your presence be here bless the city of for worth and all of our residents in Jesus name we pray amen our first item is consideration of the minutes from the May 7th and May 14th council meeting that a motion a second Council any discussion please vote motion carries next will be the public comments our first speaker is Bob Willoughby followed by Leslie Sykes yeah go ahead and play the video an audience the only reason our two callers are by phone is they decided it would be appropriate to curse a 12-year-old Little League team while they were here crating their win so we just kind of put a stop to that for a few months hopefully they can come back in the spring and be a little better behaved especially WR children the problem with people that lie Maddie is that you never know when they are telling the truth um and importantly we do meet I have met with Mr Willoughby in my office um and spent 30 minutes with him despite him threatening to cut my head off that is another lie Bob said cut the head of a snake off and the body will fall Maddie Parker do you consider yourself a snake fingers to always look for ways to join hands I will attack problems not people our next speaker is Adrien Smith Adrien you're not speaking tonight we can't address the audience next speaker we can move on the cons I'll take a motion you're done Adrian thank CCP plch you're done I'm sorry Bob thank you very much please get to it okay I'm just trying to not be scolded or be harassed or bullied by members and power har no one's harassed we're David and you are Del we're done that's next item go ahead I want to address this item no you're done you're done turn up just a little bit more I don't know how I don't District 9 council member Elizabeth Beck left the council meeting before it was over in a conspired effort with council member crane council member Williams and mayor Manny Parker to break the Quorum final speaker this evening is Bob Willoughby it appears we have lost quum I'll ask the city turning to address that I believe we've lost quum we have we only have five people we can't continue the meeting without six Elizabeth just walked out of here and they did this on purpose so they could play my video this is crooked beside the lies you told the worst thing that you did to the citizens was removing free speech from City Council meetings no true American would have ever done that yeah well when you say pleas Alle to the flag up there you say one thing but your your actions mean another we don't have free speech here okay and when you put us back on the agenda in October it comes up again and for all y'all that vote against our free right to speak here on council meeting see we only got one tonight we don't have anymore but anyway this what you should be pled Le you to our next speaker is Leslie syes I think counc member Beck wanted to clarify something um just to clarify the record uh Mr Willoughby I didn't conspire with anybody but I absolutely did intentionally leave and break Quorum so that your Nazi video wasn't showed on Council and it wasn't aired on our cable television where young viewers often watch for um school projects next speaker is Leslie Sykes followed by latera Hall Leslie Sykes okay uhhuh you can start sir are you ready yes okay uh we support our police and I do understand the shortage of police what we don't understand is no tickets are being given When Calls for loud music and I'm talking loud music I'm talking live bands it's gotten so bad that I've had to call the Sant and three different sergeants have come out three different times to these people and warn them to keep the music down and it worked for a while but after a while you know month or so they just started right back up and what I'm saying is nobody's getting tickets for this and so they're thinking it's okay we can just get by with it and I'm not talking about music on rosale or something like that you know I overlook that CU there's nothing you can do about that but I'm talking about next door a lot ban until 1 and two in the morning and we can't talk we can't hardly watch TV we're forced to sit and just listen to this music against our own will and I've talked with the neighborhood officer I can't get her to return my calls I can't get her to work with me and I've called I've even called while the music was going and held it up where she could hear it so that she would know that I'm Not Crying Wolf here uh there's been times when they had parties and played music and it wasn't so loud and I just I didn't do anything but I'm just saying I've went to the court went to court with this and the judge didn't even look at me or speak at me and I was told on the way out unless I take a photograph a video of them playing it that they can't do anything about it and this has been going on for six or seven years two of my trucks were shot with pelet guns the passenger and driver's side two of my trucks there's a bullet hole in my house I have at least 26 or more incident numbers wrote down for every time I've had the call and they tell me the music is at the bottom of the list well what I'm saying here the music is what leads to drinking it leads to drugs gunshots drunk driving the music is is is is part of that and if you stop the music from being so loud maybe you can stop some of that but anyway here's how important it is to me what if my wife and I were sick and had to take chemo and were fighting for our life and we needed breath would music loud music be important then and I I just feel like the police are mad at me which I'm scared uh you know we can't afford to move we're prisoner in our own house here I wish that we had a neighborhood thank you Mr Sykes we'll make sure someone from The Command Staff is going to reach out this evening or tomorrow morning about this issue our next speaker is Lara Hall followed by Daniel Hayes yes ma'am welcome hello everyone I am come really close to the microphone so we can hear you there you go thank you I am lar Hall a resident of District 5 for worth I started a nonprofit to help Feed the Homeless in the for Worth area and the surrounding areas right now it is a million and a half homeless hungry people in for worth one out of every five children goes to bed hungry I'm scared y you're doing great no no sced let me calm down okay one out of every five children goes to be hungry I have a six-year-old I can imagine my six-year-old going to be hungry I come before the counsel today to ask if you guys can give me a donation to help Feed the Homeless and the hungry so we can minimize the hunger situation we have in for worth in a surrounding areas so Miss Hall we we probably won't respond directly tonight but someone from our neighborhood services department will contact you directly to talk about your nonprofit work and what Grant programs we do have available to us usually through Federal program dollars okay you have a few more minutes if you'd like to keep speaking um yes if it's okay with you guys can I um give all yeah please just provide it here to Ron and he'll make sure we get the paperwork okay thank you Miss Hall thank you thank you our next speaker is Daniel Hayes our next speaker is Daniel Hayes followed by Rita Ramon good evening my name is Dan Hayes and I live in District 11 as you may be aware an avid bicyclist was killed about 3 weeks ago near Gateway Park's north entrance while riding in a bike lane I did not know Dan Frost but from his obituary in the news coverage I'm sure he has left a huge hole in the lives of family and friends Beach Street is likely the longest city Street in Fort War stretching from the Polytechnic area all the way North to Keller Parkway surely its epicenter must must be the section between 121 Airport Freeway and I30 where Gateway Park is located the stretch of beach is virtually unchanged in at least 50 years while the traffic load surely has tripled and that includes a lot of big trucks meanwhile walking running and biking for recreation have sord and popularity especially near Parks this convergence of fast moving heavy traffic and people out for exercise was likely a contributor to Dan Frost death as reported by Richard Zavala in a recent work session Gateway Park currently sees 600,000 visits per year projected to rise to 2.6 million in the years ahead on the portion of Beach Street near Gateway Park there is no traffic signal for a full mile um there are no bike Lanes or sidewalks there's no left turn lane even there though there are five places to turn left there's no Treeline median or other traffic calming features just four lanes uh acting as a Raceway and adding the new park entrance to the portion of the park west of Beach Street will surely create the need for a traffic signal at that four-way intersection East first is also going to add additional traffic to Beach Street when a 343,000 sq ft refrigerated Warehouse shown in blue is completed in the next 18 months it could have up to 300 employees in addition to big trucks that will no doubt travel West to Beach Street along Gateway Park's Northern Edge and then they will turn left or right headed for I30 or Airport Freeway Lauren prier has indicated her department will see what can be done in the way of traffic calming and will get crash data from the Fort Worth PD it's imperative that we address these needed traffic improvements soon putting this section of Beach Street and the 20126 bond election is critical I've gotten General agreement on that from Lauren prier but I wanted all of you to know this concern too there are always things left on The Cutting Room floor when fashioning a a bond package the tragic death of Mr uh Frost spotlights the need for Beach Street to be on that final list thank you our next speaker is Rita Ramon followed by Bryce Jones read a remote it's bad enough that I have to live with my disability every day and the government makes it worse on me to have my disability by ripping me off my basic needs to be met in 2016 I was Co to give up my son for adoption by adoption agency here in Fort wor Texas that same year I was awarded 20 uh $64,000 and only received 27,000 on my payback check from the SSA office that means the SSA office owes me a pretty penny $ 37,2 6144 to be exact as this isn't bad enough in 2018 I was attacked by police officer and forcefully admitted to a mental hospital at JPS 10th floor because adoption agency and a judge made a false police report on me at a mediation meeting I was having for my open adoption that was promised to me by the open by the adoption agency if I sign over my rights I spent six years without my open adoption that was promised to me when I was forced his son over my rights and and it turns out that open adoptions are not enforcable here in the state of Texas of course the adoption agency did not mention this to me when they forced me to sign over my rights to my son this past November I was illegally evicted from my apartment that I lived in for seven years I was being discriminated against by the apartment manager because of my disability I turned in my complaint to human relations commission I was denied the H I needed for the Discrimination that happened to me in my own home waren properties has been sued for denying reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities on April 29 2009 in Mobile Alabama the government has taken my son my money and my home from me and that only gives me $1,100 to live on and $250 in food stamps and I'm sick and tired of the government ripping me off my basic needs and I'm ashamed to call myself a Texan so is the government done ripping me off my basic needs because I'm sick and tired of the government using and abusing me because I'm disabled thank you our next speaker is Bryce Jones followed by George Charles Bryce Jones um I'm a member of the uh North Texas chapter of the Nazi party so for any of you that aren't familiar with the Nazi party our beliefs are that the white race is supreme and blacks Jews and gays they need to be eliminated or sent away to a camp somewhere yeah we were meeting at torches tacos the other day last summer until some uh people decided to shut us down uh we would have gotten away with it it weren't for them medling kids no just seriously seriously uh we want to thank the city of for worth for stepping up because we realize your policies have changed and now the NY party will be able to to meet on public property instead of trying to scratch around trying to find some private property like we've been doing for for years now if any of this kind of scares anybody better not it should it better not it should scare you because that's what is going on right now because uh the city of Fort Worth shouldn't be letting people like that rent their space but they are they are I will quote the city of Fort wors Community Center shall not be permitted to sir just allow him to speak please no comments from the audience use of community centers shall not be permitted to groups who practice profess or have as their policy official or unofficial discrimination against persons on the basis of sex race religion sexual orientation color or national origin nor shall access be permitted to groups affiliated with those organizations so now let's get to what the Fort Worth fire station Community Center is going to be hosting on June 8th at 10: a.m. a group by the name of Luca that's Latinos United for conservative action also in attendance will be parents rights Advocate with Jeff younger also intendance Texas Coalition for kids with Kelly Neer also in attendance as mass resistance Texas with Tracy Shannon Mass resistance according to the Wikipedia page is an American organization that promotes anti-lgbtq and socially conservative positions the group is designated as an anti-lgbtq hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center so the city of for worth has been made aware multiple times and has abided by their own rules for allowing hate groups to be in their community cers but somehow that has changed and now I want to say thank you as a member of the Nazi party that you've opened the floodgates for people like who I pretend to be thank you Mr Jones if you haven't already I think Jess mcran is here Mr Jones who I'd like you to speak with Mr Jones no okay um George tries is our next speaker followed by Reed bills my name is George R Charles H for worth I recently viewed the Daily Mail video of the arrest of Miss Craig by William Martin for the first time I also read a press release by POA president Manny Manny Ramirez in which he stated that he would quote do everything in my power and any position I hold to keep our community safe unquote well I can State beyond peradventure that one thing that POA president reris will never keep Community safe from while in his current position is the situation that resulted in the arrest of Miss Craig a taxpayer financed ego trip by an alleged protector and server that then caused a taxpayers another $150,000 because for him to do that would be as a yish phrase trans relates to a kosher pig's feet a glaring impossibility for what police unions always do is attempt to minimize the consequences to their membership both as individuals and as a group from their actions are failure to act these efforts include influencing legislation opposing any independent oversight whatsoever and consistently equating Union goals with Public Safety these same tactics are used pursuant to the second function of police unions which is to counteract any action or failure to act by a police chief elected representative of the public or members of the public thought to be adverse to what the union wants these objectives are of course far from being mutually exclusive and the set of equally applicable tactics used to reach them are aply set out in the titles of two books written for police union leaders quot power politics and confrontation unquote and in this case the book can most certainly be told by its cover power power power power gained and continued by political use of Confrontation equally informative if not more so is what does not appear in those titles there is not any mention of the public this is because the role of the public and the view of police unions is to pay taxes except without question that what is good for the union is always good for them and vote for anyone displaying a police Union endorsement F the last function is especially important in cities such as Fort Worth where many if not most union members can't vote in City elections because they don't live there this is this is part of what I think when I see a police Union endorsement sign more will follow our next speaker is Reed bills followed by Jim dong my name is Reed bills and I live in district 6 I am speaking in opposition to the anti-lgbtq event scheduled to be held at the city-owned fire station community center on June 8th as a former member of the human relations commission I am familiar with the anti-discrimination ordinance which states the Fort Worth human relation ordinance protects people from discrimination in places of public accommodation based on their sexual orientation transgender status gender identity and or gender expression I object to the city of Fort Worth allowing Prejudice disinformation proposed for dissemination at the protect kids event scheduled for June 8th at the fire station Community Center in violation of its city ordinance this event being hosted by hate groups Luca Texas Coalition for kids and young Republicans of America is an egregious effort to instill fear and spread inaccurate and dangerous information about the transgender Community the event to be allowed by Fort Worth puts the lives of transgender residents in constant risk of IM harassment abuse and danger I urge you to cancel the unconscionable contract immediately and stop the presentation of this hate-filled panel discussion in a building owned by the taxpayers of the city of Fort Worth long followed by David Martinez understand good evening I found out uh too late that there was a song I wanted to play that because of copyright laws were not able to play and it's a Marvin Gay song called what's going on and that's what I like to talk about tonight what's going on there we have choices we can hate or we can like we can try to build Bridges or we can try to tear down so I'll just read the lyrics of the song I won't try to sing and you'll all be thankful for that mother mother there's too many of you crying brother brother brother there's far too many of you dying you know we've got to find a way to bring some loving here today Father father we don't need to escalate you see war is not the answer for only love can conquer hate you know we've got to find a way to bring some love in here today pick at lines and pick it signs don't punish me with brutality talk to me so you can see oh what's going on what's going on what's going on what's going on mother mother everybody thinks we're wrong oh but we are who are they to judge us simply because our hair is long oh you know we've got to find a way to bring some understanding here today Pick It lines and pick it signs don't punish me with brutality come talk to me so you can see what's going on what's going on tell me what's going on I'll tell you what's going on we have choices to make and we hear people here making great choices we hear people here making choices of anger and Malice what's going on what's going on is David Martinez followed by Angie def filipo good evening everybody um I was going to say something but uh I think we had enough well maybe I've had enough of negativity so I'm going to talk about the positive uh last week uh I was at a fourth ISD meeting and we were able to save the schools uh I understand that there was a plan there's a reason why there was a plan to close some of the schools and they're using the term consolidation but a lot of parents were not they didn't know what the reasons for or they didn't think the reasons were good enough to close the schools but you know I um I believe that we shouldn't close schools especially with the libraries and all that stuff but I was I consider that a win and if we need to work with the financing of the schools then we need to work on that with the bond election coming up and we need people to start voting um so but one of the things I wanted to bring up was is is that um like we had this meeting at the uh for the zoning a lot of people didn't show up but there were some it was good crowd and I I gained some information thanks to uh councilman flers and and for the forward Hispanic chairman Commerce Anda uh they had a good it was a good presentation and I I learned some things I'm going to go back and take it to my community because we're going to start working on the zoning to stop these uh six Defender um uh Community or group homes in Southside and so um that's one of the things that we W work on and maybe get some zoning changes and things like that to prevent that from ever happening in Southside again um and so uh that is what I want oh I had something else to I say but I want to that put that out there and let everybody know that's something we could work toward for everybody I hope um and also I wanted to take this time also to apologize to councilwoman be councilwoman be I am very I I apologize for my attitude and things I put on the Facebook and and uh Instagram I do apologize I was I was Gass by the same people who had got 500 S and B and they they went around telling people things and I and at first I believed them so I apologize I I was I I was wrong and I hope you uh forgive me for some of the things I posted um they were out of anger and I I should have controlled myself and and got the more information and now that I'm more um knowledgeable and been more involved with community and things the how things work I understand now that it wasn't racism and it wasn't all the things they said it was and it was for the betterment for the community thank you thank you Mr Martinez our next speaker is ang D fipo Angie will be followed by Payton Abrams good evening I am Angie defo political director for the tarant county AFL CIO representing over 40 local unions and about 36,000 members sorry um so I'm here to today to speak on the upcoming budget that's not you I don't know why it's doing that keep going you're okay and the minimum wage for city employees So currently the rate we've seen is 1545 which Falls far below the living wage for Fort Worth that Carell and MIT have calculated at 2210 per hour I hate being in front of people sorry you're doing great um so what does this mean it means that our own city employees can't afford to live in the city of Fort Worth our average rental cost for a single bedroom is over $1,100 a month cost for food gas other necessities have skyrocketed this is even worse if you add children into the mix the cost goes up to over $30 per hour um we can look at the the city of Dallas they've raised their minimum wage to $18 back in 2023 not that far back but still it was the big jump years ago right we look at City of Austin and Travis County they raised their minimum wage to 20 back in 2022 so we ask that this Council approve a minimum of $20 per hour for city workers now instead of kicking that can further down the road that you show respect to these essential workers and pay them a wage that will move them closer to thriving than poverty thank [Applause] you Payton Abrams followed by Gerald Banks senior good evening mayor and council members my name is Payton Abrams I'm a member of excuse me the frog in my throat a member of SEIU Texas we stand in solidar ity with the city workers employees of Fort Worth Fort Worth's cost of living has sharply risen over time making it difficult for city employees to afford basic necessities under current minimum wage of $15 some cannot afford to live in Fort Worth with this current wage without having to work multiple jobs and we all know one job should be enough raising the minimum wage helps align employees earnings with the current realities of affordability in the city the current living wage calculated by MIT for the city of Fort Worth is $22.10 an hour to cover basic necessities this breaks down to about 46,5 67 a year the city of Fort Worth must raise the minimum wage to at Le at least $20 an hour to combat the growing poverty rates and I repeat that poverty rates by raising the minimum wage for city employees Fort Worth can set an example for other Employers in the community to follow prompting higher wages and improving overall standards of living Fort Worth has an opportunity to be an example to other employers around the area when the city rais standards other organizations and cooperations will follow suit please raise our minimum wage to at least $20 now thank you for your time speaker is Gerald Banks Senor followed by Danielle Tucker Geral Bank senior forward to Ste has a big problem and loved ones tend to keep their blinders on as if it doesn't exist I've been speaking at the council meeting for years now and find myself saying the same thing to the citizens to understand that the higher ups the real people running this city does doesn't want citizens to bring forth the problems of the city and speak on it someone said that the possible reason some citizens don't want to speak is because of a few bad apples causing trouble I've said in the past that some speakers have been brought off given jobs positions in government with the city on it or it would be a conflict of interest to speak speak against the city's uh venues all purpose I have been saying for years that the mayor and council members have their minds made up how to vote after they leave that Workshop so why would they want to hear what a c citizens has to say standing here at this Podium cut out public speaking all together unless it's about money gross profit control or power in their favor citizens I urge you to petition to attend the and speak at the workshop your opinion should matter there as well as even though I know it's not going to happen William Martin Aaron Dean and a host of other bad people and employees by the police department and sheriff department has left a stain on this City with debt that won't wash off as well as other wrongful acts and we continue to remember but some people don't want to speak on it the black and white and brown Community should come together safety is a factor $2 million to keep Chief fish J out of this city is a waste of taxpayers money and ccpd funds is a joke murder on the street still clim climbing at a high rate with our youth think positive Mr Banks Senor I just did by saying being back bring back Pro uh programs that actually work I appreciate you [Applause] listening is Danielle Tucker followed by Homer blocker III greetings mayor council and staff my name is Danielle Tucker I'm here tonight as the community liazon for the hillside historic Southside neighborhood associations and moer Valley but I'm here tonight for Hillside and other areas and other areas in footw worth we need your help because Hillside has been the Forefront of advocacy and change but some have yet to uphold the promises you pledge and we need your help and keeping Fort Worth beautiful along with the neighborhoods where we work play and try to find places to eat and jobs to provide for our families and pay these limited circuit breaker tax increases imposed the median at Beach Street and lanc and Lancaster Avenue overpass as you enter into the historic poly neighborhood and from I30 has been damaged for a long time the trash at Rosell and 35 South ramps have not been cleaned in months the pan handling signs need to be on every intersection in this city because we barely have grocery stores to feed ourselves and finding good paying job jobs safe walkability and and equity in general make that make sense the problem with the homelessness and 1900 Evans for the last year with many complaints and they are still there we have homelessness and alleys abandoned houses structures bacon Lots we have it all over we need our alleys maintained we need our streets swept we need our potholes repaired we have problems with trash not being picked up whether it's bulk or regular trash people selling property they do not own and our communities are just not maintained like they should and our community needs to be included and not excluded when it comes to improvements whether it's infrastructure such as Internet access or economic opportunities providing housing for our Central workers we need to set the standards that we have minority businesses in the area and not to exclude them with good faith efforts and please do not send your C- compliance am minions to harass and attack black owned businesses and certain black people and ban them and that is not a law or an ordinance do your research whether it's zoning land use or who owns the property some of us have been working in this community when most of you were too young to remember or had no interest in what you want to do to help your community or what you wanted to do as an adult and these plans and ideas that we do in the community we spend our time attending meetings with staff and they're not being done you're wasting wasting our time you're wasting taxpayer time you're wasting staff time and you're wasting our valuable time in the community and if you ask me about your budget and about your comprehensive 2050 plan I say finish thank [Applause] you III followed by Alanda Massie oh Gina bons well anyway I'm good friends her brother too now everybody should know me I hope well I'm back now in the phone h a blocker the third like you said my daddy used to work for the city of for work my mama was a school teacher now I'm going to make this fast and quick and it's a freestyle thing trust me I don't need no paperwork I don't need none of that it's all up here by me now check this out the little incident with the police off that got shot whatever I thought it was Nash trust me big Nash you got big and you got bigger now that's my boy okay even Marshall Woods he can tell you about me even Ferguson okay a lot of people you know major white all of them now even though I've been to the penitentiary a couple of times first time fell down there was in Ferg now listen listen clar I'm here I'm back District 5 Tina bigin I'mma to pull up to her house and talk to her because she wanted to talk to me when it came to that Park I used to go out there cuz I stayed on the corner of Burton I picked up trash all through the neighborhood see now I used to work for the city of Dallas sanitation but they fired me you know why cuz I clocked in so anyway on that note they they it's coming they getting ass they getting else yeah trust me City Hall down there know me very well again I say even though I talked to him you know told him what he need to doing what should be done but let see I got a little time left now even though I got testimony after testimony and I'm here to help my town this this is my town trust me believe that Billy Ray maox could have told you but he passed away the douglases could tell you but most of them done passed away I'm here trust me my daddy he passed away mama was a school teacher here for 30 some odd years guess what they built this and I'm here to help all y'all trust everybody in here I'm here to help I'm ain't here to hurt trust me all these guns on the streets people breaking in goddamn houses stealing guns and stuff want to bring them down there where I want to kick it and you know parking lot pimp that what we call it parking lot pimp I feel real scared but I'm not I'm spooked they don't want me to Muscle Up trust me they don't want me cuz I am 55 I'm 5500 block Suicide Squad trust me y'all might not know what that mean but you going to find out trust me I got plenty pull here and I'm going to take care my town and then I'm going to start in dtown then I'm going go to Houston Chicago all over trust me I'm back y'all going to see me believe [Music] that our next speaker is Alanda Massie good evening I live in uh district 6 and I own property in District 8 and I'm here um as the president of the hillside neighborhood association I am asking on behalf of the hillside community and the neighborhood association if the city of forward would support or provide your support in having an outdoor canopy or shade structure installed over the playground at Hillside Park as you know the heat in Texas is nothing to play with neither is extremely hot playground equipment installation of a canopy over the playground supports child safety on multiple levels to include one it will reduce exposure to heat and Sun both of which can cause heat exhaustion dehydration and even worse a heat stroke and two cooler equipment can prevent or reduce the chances of a child getting burned structures at the playground are made up mostly of plastic but also some metal and they both get too hot for children to play on please keep in mind a canopy will help extend the life of the equipment as well limited exposure to the Sun and UV rays will slow the progression of cracks warping and color fading uh with normal use by age appropriate children the city should not have to replace the equipment as often if it is protected from the Sun please keep this Association in the Lo as the city staff Works through determining whether or not this request can be met my contact information is on the community engagement page under the association's name I want to say too real quick that I spoke with Joel from the parks department and we kind of touched based on that so he's going to attend our next meeting our next um association meeting and we will'll point out some things with to him I also spoke to Isaiah and I told him that I would be sending you something Chris so if you can't come maybe you can send somebody to our next association meeting we only meet four times a year so if somebody can come out then I don't need to come up here and ask you know if the city can support that's some information that you can take back or the parks and W Department thank you all for your [Applause] service our next speaker is Andrew teer followed by Jer Williams all right hello uh I'm Andrew terer uh used to live in District 9 former teacher 4th ISD uh I had a roommate disaster quit paying so I had to leave and I know how hard it is to pay rent you know what I mean I was facing eviction but uh former teacher now I'm an apprentice in ibw local 20 so I'm here on behalf of the raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour and as far as I know that's for all city employees and all subcontractors that also do work with bids with the city so I'm U I'm pretty excited to come down here for a good reason you know just talk about a good program that I really hope passes uh so I know a little bit of how subcontractors work and and you if you want quality work done then you want quality contractors that are getting the jobs the ones that are there to cut corners and exploit their own employees as low like a race to the bottom they're not going to be doing these bids when they know City of Fort wor doesn't play around so these are going to be good jobs here and like I said about not being able to pay rent like I know that raising somebody's wage for $5 they have the statistics on real living wages but raising somebody's rent for $5 an hour can really change someone's life seriously when I started being an apprentice I took a pay cut I went down to $16 an hour and I just had to like get debt for a couple years until I got back up so it's all about good jobs uh I would love if Fort Worth could help everybody you know this is her chance to like raise everybody's quality of life and be a standard like somebody else said to be a standard for other companies and things to raise their wages too so we get good paying jobs here in our community [Applause] thanks Mr A Williams followed by Carla Polaris it's Jerry I know I don't I always do you spell I'm just do you spell it j h e r r e I just always mess it up okay I'll get it right next time go ahead please it's really jald but you know you come uhuh you come into the neighborhood and ask for her nobody knows who she is I got it okay okay I am the secretary to the historic Southside neighborhood association and I just want I I just have one thing I want to put out there I know like I said every everybody knows the people that know me in the neighborhood and out and stuff everybody knows who I am there should be no reason that we have to find out about something that's going on in our neighborhood in our neighborhood the historic Southside from somebody that doesn't live in our neighborhood we just had a meeting on last week where at it was like the day before we found out about it and one of the uh people in membership uh for historic Southside sent out an email to everybody that was the only reason that we did get a chance to come to the meeting my name if nobody else answers to anything that's sent out I do that's why my name is at the community engagement office I'm not going to say but I I'm just going to ask please don't you know like hey it's too much stuff going on we're doing too much and we have no representation from our council person I had to say that because we don't um I mean it's hard to get in touch with somebody in the office it's hard to get in touch with him we just need somebody that's going to be accountable for us and to us so that we can get some things done thank you our next speaker is Cara palares hello Council uh my name is Carla uh palomares I'm in city council District 11 so uh just going to read some statistics that have already been kind of shared with you'all uh but I am here speaking on behalf of the budgeting process that's going to be underway so the current living wage calculated by MIT for the city of Fort Worth is 22.10 an hour to cover cost of living and expenses uh over the years that have increased and also uh including inflation this breaks down to 46595 per year City of Fort Worth must raise minimum wage to at least $20 an hour that is $41,600 annually to combat growing poverty rates the current wage for the city of Fort Worth not con not including contracted employment and businesses that can get away with paying employees whatever they'd like is $15.45 an hour $32 $2,136 annually this does not meet the working family's needs the median house cost uh to buy a new home is $389,000 and some change medium rent rate is $1,300 a month average healthc care costs are about $4 some change of month City of Fort Worth is already falling behind other major cities in Texas as previously mentioned in 2022 city of ausen increased their minimum wage to $20 an hour 2023 city of Dallas raised it to $18.24 an hour through an ordinance um and also through the um per the analysis provided by the MIT living wage calculator Travis County also raised their minimum wage from $15 to $20 an hour why would the city of Fort Worth move to less than $20 an hour in 2025 If It Wants To Be A Champion for working people we constantly celebrate how fast we are growing and claim we're full of opportunities opportunities for what opportunities for low paying jobs opportunities for unaffordable housing opportunities for unaffordable Health Care opportunities for unaffordable education opportunities for unaffordable food and services to care for our families opportunities for debt with the budget process underway I want to voice my concern and frustration as a Fort Worth resident with the lack of opportunity for a more transparent and thorough approach that engages Community participation what y'all are doing to educate and inform and gather communities to participate is not even the bare minimum you can do more I only have 19 seconds left but I just want to say that we need to do better we cannot allow for this budget to be proposed and processed with $16 an hour that is going to do nothing for our Community for our residents of Fort Worth we're only advocating for poverty if we do [Applause] that is James Barker Murphy followed by David Christie is James here no next speaker is David Christie is David here hi David and I'll as David's about to speak I'll just mention to several people that have spoken about minimum wage at the city we're actually doing a workshop for the budget I think it's June 18th and this is one of the items included which is well before the budgets developed that's a work session in the other area um I don't remember what time at starch probably 10: a. 10: a.m. and you can watch there's not a public comment portion but for those that are interested in that topic that might be helpful and obviously your council's heard you tonight but council member Williams is not here he'll he will make sure he's aware he may not be present because he's just had a or his wife just had a baby but just wanted to make that clarification go ahead floor is yours thank you Madame mayor council members uh my name is David Christie I'm here to speak in opposition to the proposed routing of the north side 3 uh 54 inch water main through Eagle Ranch on April 9th of this year there was a house fire On Wayward Wind Drive in Talon Hills which is the neighborhood next to Eagle Ranch fire apparatus drove through the streets of Eagle Ranch to get to the fire I requested uh the official report for the incident and the first two Fort Worth fire trucks arrived on scene very quickly and start an offensive fire attack the firefighters did a phenomenal job limiting this wind driven fire to just one house and preventing other homes from Catching Fire unfortunately despite the heroic efforts of the firefighters the home and the contents were a total loss but luckily no one was killed or injured um according to the NFPA the standard response time for the deployment of the alarm of fire apparatus to a house fir is 9 minutes and 20 seconds the Wayward Wind Fire it took 17 minutes for all the first alarm apparatus to arrive and in fact one minute after the initial alarm arrived a second alarm was called which meant that even more firefighters and trucks were needed to assist those already on scene now every fire is different I'm not standing here telling you that even if the full alarm had arrived on time that the outcome in Wayward Wind would have been any different but my point is that there was no road construction going on at the time of this fire um to delay fire apparatus uh kimley horn and the water department want to tear up about 23s of a mile of residential streets in Fort Worth to install this large water M and to do that they've got to First relocate existing Water and Sewer lines the work will impact Eagle Ranch residents on the affected streets and all the uh cross streets for a long time so if it took almost twice the NFPA response time for the apparatus on the Wayward Wind Fire to arrive with no road construction ruction then how much longer is it going to take for fire apparatus to arrive at a future fire when the streets are torn up to install the water M and it doesn't even have to be a fire I'm also concerned about the disruption and the effect it'll have on the response time of police and ambulance Crews um is the city willing to put the lives and property of its citizens at risk for this water main project so before I I go I'd like to make two requests I would like somebody outside the water department to review the route of the water main um I don't think Public Safety is a consideration for kimley horn and the water department I think they're really just looking at the cheapest route uh when they talked at our annual meeting they implied the project would be a minor inconvenience and then two weeks after that we had the fire and then finally I'd like the city to build more fire stations to help our fire department our fire department is rightfully Proud to be an ISO one class Department a wayward win the response time fell short of the national standards I think that the city should consider building more fire stations to better serve the citizens already living in Northwest Fort Worth instead of installing water Ms in our residential streets for future developments thank you our next speaker is Charles bills followed by Adrien Smith hello I live in district 6 I am calling um speaking in opposition to the uh Luke event at the uh City uh fire station uh community center this they may not be a fringe group people that think that transgender is a social contagion which was actually printed on their advertising flyer in Granbury in South Lake in Keller but here in Fort Worth they certainly are and when a group like that is allowed to use a Fort Worth facility that seems makes it seem that Fort Worth is implicitly supporting their cause and I really don't think that that is I'm not sure about you mayor you might be you might be anti gay but you have the power to cancel this and save face because it is pretty much it's appalling thank you next speaker is Adrien Smith followed by Robert Van is Adrien here Robert van thank you mayor and Council uh I'm Robert Van I live in District 3 and uh you've had several folks now talking tonight about um the uh event that is scheduled at the fire station Community Center and that's what I want to talk about uh a number of Crystal fascist hate groups in Texas who cloak themselves in false Christian religious Doctrine and assertions that they protect Freedom have been promoting their dangerous discriminatory violent anti-freedom agenda via public platforms two of the more rabid of these groups Luca Latinos United for conservative action and Texas Coalition for kids are apparently attempting to schedule or have already scheduled the fire station Community Center in Fort Worth one of their hate fests uh it's already been gone over what the what the policy is for groups to use community centers and so I know you're all aware of that so let me mention here uh from the website of the Texas Coalition for kids [Music] um they want to ban all forms of pediatric gender transitioning classified pediat P pediatric gender transitioning both social both social and medical and for for Pediatrics it's only social as child abuse within the law they want to prohibit children and minors from changing their biological sex on their birth certificate uh they want to prohibit any instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity critical race Theory which of course critical race theory is only taught at a graduate level in college what they mean is history basically that's a term that the rightwing likes to use for history of racial relations in this country uh so these are the things that these people are for and they certainly come across to me as as a very extremist group or extremist groups and should not be permitted to use City facilities to spread their hate I would appreciate it if you could revoke the the permission and make these people find their own private venues to do this stuff thank you Council that's the last of our speakers this evening and tonight we close the meeting in honor of Mr Ben forson who passed away peacefully on May 19th 2024 after a short illness Ben forson was a for worth Legend whose impact will be a significant part of the for story for generations to come his many accomplishments included too many to list but none were more notable than the Kimble a true for wor treasure in one of the United States most treasured cultural sites Ben was a generous leader who valued Integrity above all else be it in the oil and gas industry or in the Arts been been LED with kindness and humility his generosity and support of his employees and those around him encourage many to believe in themselves and achieve more Fort Worth is incredibly fortunate for the time talent and vision Ben shared with this community throughout his throughout his life Ben leaves behind a legacy through his wife of 67 years K Carter forson his four children 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren my prayers all of our prayers are with his family and loved ones as they remember and celebrate his life with that council meeting is adjourned